Comprehensions

The symbol for Indian Rupee

          The symbol has been created to recognise the increasing economic linkages between India and the world. The symbol reflects and captures Indian ethos and culture. It distinguishes the Indian currency from those countries whose currencies are also designated as rupee or rupiah, such as Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

          The symbol was chosen from a public competition announced in March 5, 2009 and after several rounds of selection of those symbols the cabinet finalised 5 symbols. The selection was based on the decision of a jury headed by Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Usha Thorat. The Symbol which finally chosen on 15 July 2010, was the creation of IIT post-graduate D Udaya Kumar.

Time

Time can be measured in various ways. You can tell the time roughly by looking at the length of shadows. But the need for accurate time became important, in general, when railways spread around the world in the mid-1800s and train timetables were developed. Now time can be measured even more precisely with atomic clocks, using the vibration of atoms.

Night and day

People on opposite sides of the world have day and night at different times. As the Earth spins round, half the world is in day light and the other half, facing away from the sun, has night. When it is 11 o’clock in the morning in London, UK, the time in Sydney, Australia is 9 o’clock at night.

First calendars 

Calendars help to keep track of days, weeks, months and years. The Mayan people of Central America made calendars on the ground, in the shape of the Sun. Signs for the days were carved around the periphery. Time was tracked by the Sun’s movement.

Towns For Termites

Some insects live together in huge groups called colonies, which are like insect cities. There are four main types of insects which form colonies. One is the termites. The other three are all in the same insect subgroup and are bees, wasps and ants.

Some kinds of termites make their nests inside a huge pile of mud and earth called a termite mound. The termites build the mound from wet mud which goes hard in the hot sun. The main part of the nest is below ground level. It has hundreds of tunnels and chambers where the termites live, feed and breed.

Inside the termite city there are various groups of termites, with different kinds of work to do. Some make tunnel into the soil and collect food such as tiny bits of plants. Others guard the entrance to the nest and bite any animals which try to enter. Some look after the eggs and young forms, or larvae.

Refer the given composition to answer the following questions: