Extracts of Journey to the End of the Earth | Chapter 3 | Class XII |

Extracts of Journey to the End of the Earth | Chapter 3 | Class XII |

Extract 1

Early this year, I found myself aboard a Russian research vessel the Akademik Shokalskiy heading towards the coldest, driest, windiest continent in the world: Antarctica. My journey began 13.09 degrees north of the Equator in Madras, and involved crossing nine time zones, six checkpoints, three bodies of water, and at least as many ecospheres.

a) Name the chapter.
1) Evans Tries an O Level
2) Memories of Childhood
3) The Tiger King
4) Journey to the End of the Earth

b) Who is ‘I’ in the above lines?
1) Tishani Doshi
2) Kalki
3) Pearl S Buck
4) William Saroyan

c) What was Akademik Shokalskiy ?
1) A Boat
2) A Canoe
3) A Watercraft
4) All of these

d) Where was the narrator travelling to?
1) Amsterdam
2) Antarctica
3) Australia
4) America

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Extract 2

By the time I actually set foot on the Antarctic continent I had been travelling over 100 hours in combination of a car, an aeroplane and a ship; so, my first emotion on facing Antarctica’s expansive white landscape and uninterrupted blue horizon was relief, followed up with an immediate and profound wonder. Wonder at its immensity, its isolation, but mainly at how there could ever have been a time when India and Antarctica were part of the same landmass.

a) What is horizon?
1) The line where sky and earth appears to meet
2) The line where sky and earth appears to get apart
3) The line where sky and water appears to meet
4) None of these

b) How long did the narrator have to travel to reach Anrarctica?
1) 100 Hours
2) 150 Hours
3) 200 Hours
4) 250 Hours

c) How did the narrator feel after setting foot on Antarctica ?
1) Stressed
2) Distressed
3) Relieved
4) Baffled

d) Find out the synonym of the word ‘Immense’ from the following?
1) Tiny
2) Monstrous
3) Lagged
4) None of these

You may also read : The Third Level by Jack Finney, The Tiger King by Kalki, The Enemy by Pearl S Buck, Should Wizard Hit Mommy by John Updike, On the Face of It by Susan Hill, Evans Tries an O Level, Memories of Childhood by Zitkala-Sa & Bama for better understanding of the chapters.

Extract 3

Six hundred and fifty million years ago, a giant amalgamated southern supercontinent Gondwana did indeed exist, centred roughly around the present-day Antarctica. Things were quite different then: humans hadn’t arrived on the global scene, and the climate was much warmer, hosting a huge variety of flora and fauna. For 500 million years Gondwana thrived, but around the time when the dinosaurs were wiped out and the age of the mammals got under way, the landmass was forced to separate into countries, shaping the globe much as we know it today.

a) For how long did Gondwana thrive?
1) 600 Million years
2) 500 Million years  
3) 400 Million years
4) 300 Million years

b) How was Gondwana different from today’s world?
1) It was cooler
2) It was warmer
3) It was hotter
4) Both 2 and 3

c) What does the phrasal verb ‘Wipe out’ mean?
1) Cleaned
2) Disappeared
3) Removed
4) All of these

d)Name the chapter.
1) Evans Tries an O Level
2) Memories of Childhood
3) The Tiger King
4) Journey to the End of the Earth

Related

Extract 4

For a sun-worshipping South Indian like myself, two weeks in a place where 90 per cent of the Earth’s total ice volumes are stored is a chilling prospect (not just for circulatory and metabolic functions, but also for the imagination). It’s like walking into a giant ping-pong ball devoid of any human markers – no trees, billboards, buildings. You lose all earthly sense of perspective and time here. The visual scale ranges from the microscopic to the mighty: midges and mites to blue whales and icebergs as big as countries (the largest recorded was the size of Belgium). Days go on and on and on in surreal 24-hour austral summer light, and a ubiquitous silence, interrupted only by the occasional avalanche or calving ice sheet, consecrates the place. It’s an immersion that will force you to place yourself in the context of the earth’s geological history. And for humans, the prognosis isn’t good.

a) How many day did the narrator spend in and around Antarctica?
1) 14 Days
2) 16 Days
3) 18 Days
4) 12 Days

b) Which literary device has been used in ‘It’s like walking into a giant ping-pong ball’?
1) Transferred Epithet
2) Metaphor
3) Alliteration
4) Simile

c) Find out the synonym of ‘Ubiquitous’ from the following?
1) Present Everywhere
2) Omnipresent
3) That is everywhere present
4) All of these

d) What is avalanche?
1) Slide of sun and mud down the mountain
2) Muddy Storm
3) Tornedo
4) All of these

Extract 5

Human civilisations have been around for a paltry 12,000 years barely a few seconds on the geological clock. In that short amount of time, we’ve managed to create quite a ruckus, etching our dominance over Nature with our villages, towns, cities, megacities. The rapid increase of human populations has left us battling with other species for limited resources, and the unmitigated burning of fossil fuels has now created a blanket of carbon dioxide around the world, which is slowly but surely increasing the average global temperature.

a) What is responsible for all the ruckus according to the narrator?
1) Human Population
2) Building up of cities
3) Deterioration of Nature
4) All of these

b) What does the word ‘Unmitigated’ mean?
1) Complete
2) Incomplete
3) Partial
4) None of these

c) How can global warming be curbed?
1) By controlling the population
2) By visiting places like Antarctica
3) By begetting more and more children
4) None of these

d) How long have humans been living on this planet?
1) For 12000 Months
2) For 12000 Years
3) For 12000 Decades
4) None of these

Extract 6

Students on Ice, the programme I was working with on the Shokalskiy, aims to do exactly this by taking high school students to the ends of the world and providing them with inspiring educational opportunities which will help them foster a new understanding and respect for our planet. It’s been in operation for six years now, headed by Canadian Geoff Green, who got tired of carting celebrities and retired, rich, curiosity-seekers who could only ‘give’ back in a limited way. With Students on Ice, he offers the future generation of policy-makers a life-changing experience at an age when they’re ready to absorb, learn, and most importantly, act.

a) What was the aim of ‘Students on Ice’?
1) To take high school students abroad for fun
2) To take high school students to the end of the world for better understanding of the planet
3) To take high school students 
4) To take high school students abroad for fun

b) Who is ‘I’ in the above lines?
1) Tishani Doshi
2) Kalki
3) Pearl S Buck
4) William Saroyan

c) What was Akademik Shokalskiy ?
1) A Boat
2) A Canoe
3) A Watercraft
4) All of these

d) Where was the narrator travelling to?
1) Amsterdam
2) Antarctica
3) Australia
4) America

Extract 7

The reason the programme has been so successful is because it’s impossible to go anywhere near the South Pole and not be affected by it. It’s easy to be blasé about polar ice-caps melting while sitting in the comfort zone of our respective latitude and longitude, but when you can visibly see glaciers retreating and ice shelves collapsing, you begin to realise that the threat of global warming is very real.

a) What was the name of the programme?
1) Students on Ice
2) Students on Water
3) Students on Ocean
4) Students on Fire

b) What did the narrator notice about glaciers?
1) They were retreating
2) They were growing
3) They were increasing
4) None of these

c) Whom does the narrator find responsible for global warming?
1) Phytoplanktons
2) Humans
3) Dianosaurs
4) Rhinos

d)Who is the speaker of these lines?
1) Tishani Doshi
2) J B Priestley
3) Alphonse Daudet
4) Zitkala Sa

Extract 8

The Shokalskiy had managed to wedge herself into a thick white stretch of ice between the peninsula and Tadpole Island which was preventing us from going any further. The Captain decided we were going to turn around and head back north, but before we did, we were all instructed to climb down the gangplank and walk on the ocean. So there we were, all 52 of us, kitted out in Gore-Tex and glares, walking on a stark whiteness that seemed to spread out forever. Underneath our feet was a metre-thick ice pack, and underneath that, 180 metres of living, breathing, salt water.

a) How many students were the part of ‘Students on Ice’ Programme?
1) 52
2) 54
3) 56
4) 58

b) What did the captain instruct to do?
1) To go and swim
2) To collect the water
3) To climb down the gangplank
4) To walk on the water

c) What is Gore-tex?
1) Tax paid to government
2) A Teflon Fabric
3) Fabric that makes the skin fairer
4) All of these

d) What was the complete name of Shokalskiy?
1) Akademik Shokalskiy
2) Academik Shokalskiy
3) Akademic Shokalskiy
4) None of these

Extract 9

Nine time zones, six checkpoints, three bodies of water and many ecospheres later, I was still wondering about the beauty of balance in play on our planet. How would it be if Antarctica were to become the warm place that it once used to be? Will we be around to see it, or would we have gone the way of the dinosaurs, mammoths and woolly rhinos? Who’s to say? But after spending two weeks with a bunch of teenagers who still have the idealism to save the world, all I can say is that a lot can happen in a million years, but what a difference a day makes!

a) Find out the synonym of ‘Mammoth’ from the following?
1) Huge
2) Gigantic
3) Massive
4) All of these

b) How many time zones did the narrator cross?
1) 9
2) 10
3) 11
4) 12

c) What kind of place was Antarctica earlier?
1) Cooler
2) Warmer
3) Balanced
4) None of these

d) Name the chapter.
1) Evans Tries an O Level
2) Memories of Childhood
3) The Tiger King
4) Journey to the End of the Earth

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