One of the sources of water in our country are the rivers. Rivers are everywhere in our life, literature, economy and culture. But are the rivers in good shape? Unfortunately, they are not. A few are already dead and several are going through the pangs of death. The river Buriganga is an example of a dying river. A report published in the Daily Sun describes what has happened to the river Buriganga and why. Its water is polluted and a perpetual stench fills the air around it. But that is not what it was like before. The report says that the river had a glorious past. Once it was a tributary of the mighty Ganges and flowed into the Bay of Bengal through the river Dhaleshwari. Gradually, it lost its link with the Ganges and got the name Buriganga. The Mughals marveled at the tide level of the Buriganga and founded their capital Jahangirnagar on its banks in 1610. The river supplied drinking water and supported trade and commerce. Jahangirnagar was renamed Dhaka which grew into a heavily populated city with a chronic shortage of space.
The city paid back the bounty of the river by sucking life out of it! According to newspaper reports, the Buriganga is dying because of pollution. Huge quantities of toxic chemicals and wastes from mills and factories, hospitals and clinics and households and other establishments are dumped into the river every day. The city of Dhaka discharges about 4500 tons of solid waste every day and most of it is directly released into the Buriganga. According to the Department of the Environment (DoE), 20,000 tons of tannery waste, including some highly toxic materials, are released into the river every day. Experts identified nine industrial areas in and around the capital city as the primary sources of river pollution: Tongi, Tejgaon, Hazaribagh, Tarabo, Narayanganj, Savar, Gazipur, Dhaka Export Processing Zone and Ghorashal.
Choose the best answer from alternatives.
(a) The word 'perpetual' mentioned in the passage means —.
(i) continuous (ii) temporary (iii) entire (iv) stable
(b) The water of the Buriganga fills the air with —.
(i) aroma (ii) fragrance (iii) stink (iv) scent
(c) The word 'marveled' mentioned in the passage means —.
(i) offended (ii) slighted (iii) amazed (iv) hurt
(d) The Buriganga is on deathbed due to —.
(i) water vehicles (ii) the mighty Ganges (iii) pollution (iv) the expansion of trade and commerce
(e) The word 'bounty' mentioned in the passage could be best replaced by —.
(i) generosity (ii) brutality (iii) happiness (iv) miserliness
(a) (i) continuous
(b) (iii) stink
(c) (iii) amazed
(d) (iii) pollution
(e) (i) generosity