Questions 1 - 8 (Completing notes with ONE WORD ONLY)
1: timber for houses and the making of ______
2. stems provide sap, used as a drink or a source of _________
3. used for __________ etc.
4. a source of ________
5. (when halved) for _________
6. a source of _______ for other plants.
7. oil and milk for cooking and ________
8. glycerine (an ingredient in ________ )
Answers for 1 - 8
1. Furniture
Explanation: The coconut palm has a smooth, slender, grey trunk, up to 30 metres tall. This is an important source of timber for building houses and is increasingly being used as a replacement for endangered hardwoods in the furniture construction industry. (Sentences 1-3, Paragraph 2).
The lines say coconut tree trunks are used to make furniture and house timber.
2. Sugar
Explanation: Immature coconut flowers are tightly clustered among the leaves at the top of the trunk. The flower stems may be tapped for their sap to produce a drink, and the sap can also be reduced by boiling to produce a type of sugar used for cooking. (Sentences 5-6, Paragraph 2)
The lines say coconut flower sap can be used as sugar.
3. Ropes
Explanation: The thick fibrous middle layer produces coconut fibre, ‘coir’, which has numerous uses and is particularly important in manufacturing ropes. (Sentence 3, Paragraph 3)
The thick fibre of the coconut palm produces ‘coir,’ which is used to make ropes.
4. Charcoal
Explanation: The woody innermost layer, the shell, with its three prominent ‘eyes’, surrounds the seed. An important product obtained from the shell
is charcoal, widely used in various industries and the home as a cooking fuel.(Sentences 4-5, Paragraph 3)
The lines state that charcoal is produced from coconut shells.
5. Bowls
Explanation: When broken in half, the shells are also used as bowls in many parts of Asia.(Sentence 6, Paragraph 3)
The author mentions that the shells are used as bowls when broken in half, particularly in many parts of Asia.
6. Hormones
Explanation: Initially, the endosperm is a sweetish liquid, coconut water, enjoyed as a drink but also provides the hormones that encourage other plants to grow more rapidly and produce higher yields. (Sentence 2, Paragraph 4)
The line states that coconut water is consumed as a beverage, and other plants also use its hormones to promote rapid growth.
7. Cosmetics
Explanation: Dried coconut flesh, ‘copra’, is made into coconut oil and coconut milk, which are widely used in cooking in different parts of the world and in cosmetics. (Sentence 4, Paragraph 4)
The line states that coconut flesh is used in cosmetics and cooking.
8. Dynamite
Explanation: A derivative of coconut fat, glycerine, acquired strategic importance in a quite different sphere, as Alfred Nobel introduced the world to this nitroglycerine-based invention: dynamite. (Sentence 5, Paragraph 4)
The line states that Dynamite’s primary explosive component is glycerine.
Questions 9 -13 (TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN)
9. Coconut seeds need shade in order to germinate.
10. Coconuts were probably transported to Asia from America in the 16th century.
11. Coconuts found on the west coast of America were a different type from those found on the east coast.
12. All the coconuts found in Asia are cultivated varieties.
13. Coconuts are cultivated in different ways in America and the Pacific.
Answers with explanation (9 - 13)
9. False
Explanation: Cast onto desert island shores, with little more than sand to grow in and exposed to the full glare of the tropical sun, coconut seeds can germinate and root. (Sentence 3, Paragraph 5)
Contrary to the statement, coconut seeds germinate without shade.
10. False
Explanation: There were no coconut palms in West Africa, in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. 16th-century trade and human migration patterns reveal that Arab traders and European sailors will likely have moved coconuts from South and Southeast Asia to Africa and then across the Atlantic to America’s east coast. (Sentences 1-2, Paragraph 6)
These lines state that the route for transporting coconuts in the 16th century was not directly from Asia to America but from Asia to Africa and then to America.
11. Not Given
Explanation: The paragraph does not compare local coconut varieties.
12. True
Explanation: In Asia, there is much coconut diversity and evidence of millennia of human use – but no relatives are growing in the wild. (Sentence 7, paragraph 6)
These lines suggest that Asia had no wild varieties, only cultivated ones.
13. Not Given
Explanation: The passage does not mention how coconuts are grown.
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