Journey to the End of the Earth — Class 12 English PYQs

Read the following extract and answer the questions :

The rapid increase of human populations has left us battling with other species for limited resources, and the unmitigated burning of the fossil fuels has now created a blanket of carbon dioxide around the world, which is slowly but surely increasing the average global temperature.

Climate change is one of the most hotly contested environmental debates of our time. Will the west Antarctic ice sheet melt entirely ? Will the Gulf stream ocean current be disrupted ? Will be the end of the world as we know it ?

(i) List one way in which the increasing human population is affecting other species.

(ii) Choose the correct option that best reflects the tone of the writer in the last line of the extract.

'Students on Ice Programme' proves Geoff Green's farsightedness. Explain with reference to the text of 'Journey to the End of the Earth'.

The reason the programme has been so successful is because it's impossible to be in Antarctica and not be affected by it. It's a world that is still pristine, largely untouched by man. The landscape is breath-taking. You lose all earthly perspective. All these billions of years that it took for the earth to evolve suddenly become real, and you realise that a lot can happen in a million years. You understand the significance of Cordilleran folds and pre-Cambrian granite shields; the fact that the continent has been there from the time Gondwana existed, making you wonder about the age of the earth, and that small changes on the planet can have big repercussions.

The 'Students on Ice' programme is successful because

What does the author mean by 'you lose all earthly perspective'?

Complete the following sentence appropriately.
The geological features like Cordilleran folds and pre-Cambrian granite shields help students understand _________.

The phrase 'small changes on the planet can have big repercussions' implies

Human civilisations have been around for a paltry 12,000 years — a mere blip on the geological clock. In that short span, we've managed to create a ruckus, etching our dominance over nature with our villages, towns, cities, megacities. We've dug up the earth, stripped it of its green cover, poured wondrous chemicals into its water, and fouled its air. 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.

The author describes human civilisation as 'a paltry 12,000 years' to suggest

List two ways in which humans have damaged the environment as stated in the extract.