PASSAGE 10

Primitive man was probably more concerned with fire as a source of warmth and as a means of cooking food than as a source of light. Before he discovered less laborious ways of making fire, he had to preserve it, and whenever he went on a journey he carried a firebrand with him. His discovery that the firebrand, from which the torch may very well have developed, could be used for illumination was probably incidental to the primary purpose of preserving a flame.

Lamps too, probably developed by accident. Early man may have had his first conception of a lamp while watching a twig or fibre burning in the molten fat dropped from a roasting carcass. All he had to do was to fashion a vessel to contain fat and float a lighted reed in it. Such lamps, which were made of hollowed stones or sea shells, have persisted in identical form up to quite recent times.

1. Primitive man’s most important use for fire was
A) to provide warmth
B) to cook food
C) to provide light
D) both ‘A’ and ‘B’

2. The firebrand was used to
A) prevent accidents B) provide light
C) scare animals D) save labour

3. By ‘primary’ the author means
A) primitive B) fundamental
C) elemental D) essential

4. Lamps probably developed through mere
A) hazard B) fate
C) chance D) planning

5. Early lamps were made by
A) using a reed as a wick in the fat
B) letting a reed soak the fat
C) putting the fat in a shell and lighting it
D) floating a reed in the sea-shell

Answer Key

Solution with explanation

2. Option ‘B’ (provide light). The last sentence of the second paragraph is making it clear that the fireband was used to provide light. FIREBRAND = a piece of burning wood

5. Option ‘A’ (using a reed as a wick in the fat). REED = (the hollow stem of) any of various types of tall, stiff plants like grasses growing together in groups near water (सरकंडा). WICK = बत्ती

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