The Treasure Within - Reading Comprehension
AP/ NCERT Board-Based Reading Comprehension Grade 8 Supplementary Reader It So Happened
Chapter 4 The Treasure Within
Reading Comprehension 1
Hafeez Contractor: In the first and second year I was a good student. After I reached the third standard, I simply lost interest and I never studied.
I used to be interested in games, running around, playing jokes and pranks on others. I would copy in class during exam times. I would try to get hold of the examination paper that had been prepared and study it, as I could not remember things that had been taught to me in class.
However, later, one sentence spoken to me by my Principal changed my life.
When I approached my eleventh standard, the Principal called me and said, “Look here, Son, I have been seeing you from day one. You are a good student, but you never studied. I have taken care of you till today. Now, I can no longer take care of you so you do it yourself.”
He talked to me for five minutes, “You don’t have your father, your mother has worked so hard to bring you up and paid all your fees all these years but you have only played games. Now you should rise to the occasion and study.”
I used to be a very good sportsman. I had been the senior champion for so many years and I also was the cricket captain. I used to play every game, but that year I did not step out onto the field.
I would go for prayers and all I would do was eat and study. I normally used to copy and pass, but I realised that once I was in SSC, I could not do that.
When I got a second class, 50 per cent, in my SSC my Principal said, “Son, consider yourself as having got a distinction!” This is my memory of my school days.
I did lots of other things. See, as far as my things are concerned, I can’t remember. I forget things very easily. To remember, I have to see things as a photograph. I read a book and I can remember the matter as a photograph but not through my mind. That is how it works.
1. In which years was Hafeez Contractor a good student according to the passage?
a) First and third year
b) First and second year
c) Second and fourth year
d) Second and fifth year
2. What did Hafeez Contractor do during his school days when he lost interest in studying?
a) Focused on sports and games
b) Started teaching others
c) Became a class monitor
d) Joined a study group
3. What did Hafeez used to do during exam times in school, according to the passage?
a) He would study hard and prepare thoroughly.
b) He would copy from others.
c) He would ask the teacher for help.
d) He would refuse to take exams.
4. What message did Hafeez Contractor receive from his Principal in the eleventh standard?
a) The Principal told him to continue playing games.
b) The Principal asked him to take care of his health.
c) The Principal urged him to focus on his studies.
d) The Principal advised him to join a sports team.
5. What was Hafeez Contractor's academic achievement in his SSC (Secondary School Certificate) exam?
a) First class
b) Distinction
c) Second class (50%)
d) Fail
Reading Comprehension 2
Reading Comprehension 3
Reading Comprehension 4
Reading Comprehension 5
Reading Comprehension 6
Bela Raja: That is because the personality and skills were there. You were able to find expression in a manner you were comfortable with and you defied every rule so that nobody would stop you from doing what you needed to do.
Hafeez Contractor: I was more interested in other things. If, for example, while in class, it started raining outside, I would think of the flowing water and how to build a dam to block it. I would be thinking about the flow of water within the dam and how much of water the dam would be able to hold. That was my interest for the day.
When students lost a button while playing or fighting, they would come running to me and I would cut a button for them from chalk, using a blade. Discipline in the school was very important and no student could afford to have a button missing. The student would get past dinner with a full neat uniform and after that it did not matter.
Bela Raja: Coming to the present, how do you decide as to what kind of structure you want to give a client?
Hafeez Contractor: I look at the client’s face, his clothes, the way he talks and pronounces, the way he eats and I would know what his taste would be like. I can relate to people in a way that would be comfortable. I sketch very spontaneously on a paper on the spot. That paper, I give to my people in the office.
Bela Raja: You do it instinctively?
Hafeez Contractor: Call it instinct, call it arithmetic, whatever. Now it comes to me like mathematics. Putting design, construction, psychology and sociology together and making a sketch from all that is ‘mathematics’.
Here we almost come to a full circle where Mr Contractor has derived his own interpretation of Mathematics — taking it from a subject he hated to a subject he now loves dealing with!
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