Exam practice

The picture shows the four main components of the environment. The atmosphere is the air round the Earth: it gives us oxygen, keeps us warm and brings rain. The hydrosphere is all the water: oceans, rivers like the Koshi and the Karnali, lakes like Rara, glaciers and the water under the ground. The lithosphere is the land: rocks, soil and mountains like the Himalaya. The biosphere is the part of the Earth where life exists, from tiny bacteria to tigers and people. They overlap and depend on one another: trees take water from the soil and carbon dioxide from the air, and give back oxygen and shade. If one of them is harmed, for example if the air is polluted or a forest is cut, the others suffer too.

• a.Before winter, we take out our woolen sweaters, jackets, caps and quilts, and air them in the sun. We fix the gaps in the windows, store firewood or buy gas for the heater, and ferment and dry mustard greens and radish to make gundruk and sinki for the months when fresh vegetables are few. My grandmother makes sure there is ghee, sesame and chaku in the kitchen for Maghe Sankranti.
• b.Many birds fly to warmer places. Animals with fur grow a thicker coat, and many store food or eat a lot to build up fat. Some sleep through the winter in holes and burrows, and others huddle together to share their warmth.

a. grocery b. Arctic c. tunnel d. navigate e. sailor f. adapt g. moss h. huddle

A – Migration to New Places
B – Adaptation to New Weather
C – Living in Underground Holes (shelter in holes, under rocks and underground, and tunnels)
D – Going into a Deep Sleep (hibernation)
E – Other Ways to Survive (cold-blooded animals becoming dormant, and using water as a shelter)

• a.False (people wear coats; animals grow thicker fur)
• b.False (birds fly in flocks for safety, because the trip is dangerous)
• c.False (some fly very far: the Arctic tern goes from the Arctic to Antarctica)
• d.True (squirrels, mice and beavers store food)
• e.False (they are normally active in winter)
• f.False (cold water holds more oxygen, so frogs and turtles can breathe through their skin)

Some answer keys give True for f. Read the last two sentences of paragraph E again: cold water holds more oxygen than warm water, and that is what lets frogs and turtles breathe through their skin. Cold water makes breathing easier for them, so the statement is false.

Because the trip is dangerous: in a large flock, birds are safer than alone. (Flying in a V also saves energy, since each bird rides on the air lifted by the wings of the bird ahead.)

It is controlled by changes in the amount of daylight and in the weather.

They seem to navigate like sailors once did, using the Sun, Moon and stars for direction, and they also seem to have a compass in the brain that senses the Earth’s magnetic field.

To keep warm. Each body gives off heat, and when they press together they share it, and less of each body is open to the cold air, so they lose less heat than they would alone.

In the autumn they eat extra food and store it in their bodies as fat; while they hibernate they live on that fat. Their bodies also use very little energy (the temperature drops and the heartbeat and breathing slow down), and some keep a store of nuts or acorns to eat later in the winter.

They move to the bottom of lakes and ponds, where the water doesn’t freeze, and hide under rocks, logs or fallen leaves, or bury themselves in the mud. There they become dormant. Frogs and turtles take in oxygen from the cold water through their skin.

We do many of the same things as animals. Like a fox growing thicker fur, we wear layers of warm clothes: a woolen cap, a sweater, socks and a quilted jacket, since layers trap warm air between them. Like squirrels storing food, families make gundruk and keep ghee, sesame and chaku, which give a lot of energy. On cold mornings we sit in the sun and drink hot tea or soup, and at night the family huddles round a fire or heater, just like mice in a nest. Some people even migrate: in winter, many families from high villages such as those of Upper Mustang move down to Pokhara or Kathmandu until spring.
One warning: never sleep in a closed room with a charcoal stove or a gas heater burning. They give off carbon monoxide, a gas you can’t see or smell, and every winter people in Nepal die from it in their sleep. Keep a window a little open.

I. A shopkeeper offers to help (Can I help you?); the customer declines: No thanks, I’m just having a look (only looking, not ready to buy).
II. A waiter offers tea (Would you like…?); the guest declines: No thanks.
III. An aunt offers more cake; the uncle accepts: Yes please, that would be nice.
IV. Sanjay offers to help Ramila with her maths problem (Shall I…?); she accepts warmly: That would be very nice of you.
V. A sister offers to do the washing (I’ll…, if you like); her brother declines: It’s OK, I can do it.
VI. John offers hot cakes (Can I offer you…?); Jack accepts: Thanks a lot. That would be great.
So three offers are accepted (III, IV, VI) and three declined (I, II, V). Act each one with the right tone: a smile and thanks, whether you say yes or no.

• a.A: Nice camera! Shall I show you how to use it? I have the same one at home. B: Yes, please. I can’t even turn it on!
• b.A: Forgot your money again? Let me buy you some samosas. B: That’s very kind of you. I’ll pay you back tomorrow.
• c.A: Are you stuck on conditionals? Would you like me to explain them after class? B: Would you? That would be a great help.
• d.A: You look pale. Shall I take you to the school nurse? B: Thanks, but I think I just need some fresh air.
• e.A: You look thirsty. Would you like some water? I’ve got an extra bottle. B: Oh, yes, please! I forgot mine.
• f.A: Oh no, your pencil’s broken. Can I lend you mine? B: It’s OK, thanks. I’ve got a sharpener.

• a.A: Would you like a chocolate? B: Yes, please. I love these!
• b.A: Please, take my seat. B: That’s kind of you, but I’m getting off at the next stop.
• c.A: That bag looks heavy. Shall I carry it for you? B: Thanks, that would be great.
• d.A: It’s late. I’ll drive you back home, if you like. B: Oh, thank you! That would be a big help.
• e.A: Do you need some money for the bus? I can lend you some. B: Thanks, but I’ve got enough.
• f.A (a shopkeeper): Since you are buying three, I can give you a ten percent discount. B: That’s very kind of you. Thank you!

• a.zero: a fact (present, present)
• b.first: a possible future (will get)
• c.first, with a negative condition (don’t hurry … will miss)
• d.first, as a question: will in the result, the if-clause second (no comma)
• e.first, with the modal may (perhaps) in the result, the if-clause second
• f.first, with an imperative in the result (show): advice or an instruction
• g.zero: a scientific fact, with a passive verb (is heated)

• a.will come (’ll come)
• b.don’t leave (do not leave: the if-clause, present)
• c.will notice
• d.will tell
• e.will be
• f.invite (the if-clause)
• g.work (the if-clause, even in a question)
• h.will steal
• i.will lend (’ll lend)
• j.won’t improve (will not improve)
• k.want (the if-clause; the result has must)

The topic sentence is the first sentence: The most important problem in our city is its poor public transportation system. It is stated at the beginning of the paragraph.

• Thousands of residents depend on the city’s buses and taxis to get round a large city, but the daily schedules are totally unreliable.
• An example: a bus that should arrive at 6:30 a.m. may come at 7:00 or later.
• Drivers often pass by groups of people waiting at the stop, to make up for the lost time.
• The result: people often arrive late for work or miss important appointments.

The conclusion is the last sentence: In order to help people get to their destinations on time, people must allow for waiting time at the bus stops. It says what people should do because of the problem.

A title such as Poor Public Transportation in Our City (or Our Unreliable City Buses). The paragraph is about the poor public transportation system of the city.

Begin with a topic sentence that states your main idea. Give three or four supporting details (causes, effects, an example from Nepal, a number you are sure of). End with a concluding sentence that sums up or says what should be done. Keep every sentence on the topic.

a. Deforestation
Deforestation, the cutting down of forests on a large scale, is one of the most serious threats to Nepal’s environment. Trees are cut for farmland, timber, firewood, roads and new settlements. Without roots to hold it, the soil on the slopes washes away in the monsoon, causing landslides in the hills and floods in the Tarai, as in the Chure range. Animals lose their homes, and the land holds less rainwater, so springs dry up. Fewer trees also mean more carbon dioxide left in the air. Nepal’s community forests show that forests can grow back when people protect them, so we must plant trees and cut them only with care.

b. Endangered Animals
Many of Nepal’s animals are endangered, which means they are in danger of disappearing for ever. The red panda, the pangolin, the gharial crocodile and the Asian elephant are among them. Their forests and rivers are being destroyed, and poachers kill them for their skins, scales and bones, which are sold illegally. When one species disappears, the whole food chain is affected. Yet Nepal has shown that protection works: the number of tigers rose from about 121 in 2009 to 355 in 2022, thanks to national parks and strict laws against poaching. If we protect their homes, endangered animals can survive.

• a.He is spraying a pesticide (or another chemical) on his rice crop, from a sprayer carried on his back.
• b.To kill the insects and other pests that eat the crop, so that he gets a bigger harvest. (Sadly, he isn’t wearing a mask or gloves, so the spray can harm him too.)

a. combat b. plague c. an avalanche d. nasty e. predator f. resistant g. despair

• a.munch: to chew something steadily, often with a crunching noise (munching chiura and peanuts).
• b.nibble: to eat something in small, quick bites (a mouse nibbling a grain of rice).
• c.gobble: to eat something very fast and greedily, in big mouthfuls (He gobbled his lunch in two minutes.).
• d.gnaw: to keep biting something hard, wearing it away (a dog gnawing a bone; rats gnaw through wires).
• e.swallow: to make food or drink go from the mouth down the throat into the stomach (Chew your food well before you swallow it.).

• a.True (they then needed poisons to combat the problems caused by the first pesticides)
• b.False (the farmers were only too willing to buy them; the shopkeepers only made them available)
• c.True (he says the chemicals were applied indiscriminately, in the wrong way and at the wrong time, though he adds that it wasn’t the farmers’ fault)
• d.False (they killed the pests’ predators too, and the farmers feel the land has lost its creative potential)
• e.True (he is changing his methods in the hope that the moths will go away)

Because the moths have become so many and so strong that nothing kills them: they are eating all his potatoes, his only main crop. Without a harvest, his family will have nothing to eat or sell, so he feels the insects will destroy him and the other farmers. It is an exaggeration that shows his anger and fear.

They hoped the pesticides would kill the insects in their fields and soon make them rich, and that they would be free of the whims of nature at last.

In spite of all the powerful chemicals, a few moths survived, and they multiplied at a terrifying rate, eating all the potatoes they could find. The chemicals had killed their natural predators too, so the moths had the crop to themselves, and new resistant strains appeared that no pesticide could kill.

• The pesticide: poisons, pesticides, chemicals, the mixture of powerful chemicals, the dose.
• The moth: pests, insects, a strange new plague of moths, the new moth, a new and tougher strain, the evil moth.

Yes. The pesticides failed again and again, so spraying more could only waste his money, poison his soil and water, and breed even tougher moths. Leaving some land fallow breaks the moths’ life cycle, because they find no potatoes to feed and breed on, and changing the irrigation can make the field less suited to them. Natural methods are slower, but they let the moths’ predators come back and restore the natural balance. He would be wiser still to rotate his crops and get advice on IPM, so that he doesn’t depend on one crop and one chemical.

Pesticides are poisons, and they don’t stop at the pests. Farmers who spray without masks and gloves breathe them in or absorb them through the skin, which can cause headaches, skin and breathing problems, and worse over many years. Traces stay on vegetables and fruit, so they reach the people who eat them. In the environment, they kill bees and other insects that pollinate crops, and the birds, frogs and spiders that eat pests; rain washes them into rivers, where they harm fish. And, as the moths show, pests become resistant, so farmers spray more and more.
Good alternatives are integrated pest management (spraying only when it is really needed), crop rotation and leaving land fallow, planting resistant varieties, using traps and natural predators, and botanical pesticides made from plants such as neem. Washing vegetables well and buying from farmers who use fewer chemicals also protect our families.

• a.I see a huge tropical rainforest: a big river with many bends and side channels flowing through an unbroken carpet of trees, and the misty canopy (the roof of leaves) of a forest so thick that the ground can’t be seen.
• b.The three biggest tropical rainforests are the Amazon rainforest in South America, by far the largest; the Congo rainforest in Central Africa; and the rainforest of New Guinea, the great island north of Australia.

According to the Forest Research and Training Centre’s study of 2022 (published in 2024), forest covers about 43 percent of Nepal, and forest and other wooded land (shrubland) together about 46 percent. Some books give 44 percent: that was the 2015 survey’s figure for forest and other wooded land together. Either way, it is much more than a few decades ago, thanks largely to community forests: Nepal has over twenty thousand community forest user groups, which protect and use their local forests.
To save our forests, we can plant native trees and look after the saplings until they grow; join or support our community forest group; use less firewood by cooking with improved stoves, biogas or electricity; prevent forest fires, which burn huge areas every dry season, by never leaving a fire or a cigarette burning; avoid buying illegal timber; and raise awareness in our schools and villages that forests give us water, soil, medicine and clean air.

a. will get b. increases c. will get d. will go e. will believe f. doesn’t wake (does not wake) g. is h. drive i. calls j. will succeed
In b and i, the verb after unless is positive and present.

• a.If you are hungry, have some of my roti (or you can eat my apple).
• b.If he runs fast, he will catch the bus.
• c.They will win the match if they play as a team.
• d.If you phone him, he will tell you the news.
• e.If Mira fails the exam, she will have to take it again.
• f.Manashi will be promoted to grade ten if she passes the final exam.

Other endings are right too, if the forms match: after an if + present, use will, a modal (can, may, must) or an imperative; in c and f, the ending after if is in the present.

• Sender’s address: Vyas-6, Tanahun, at the top.
• Date: 21 May 2021, under the address.
• Salutation/greetings: Dear Sir/Madam, after the editor’s address and the subject.
• Body: the three paragraphs. The first says road accidents happen almost every day on the Prithvi Highway, mostly because of reckless driving. The second gives an example: last week the writer saw a young biker and his wife killed by a speeding truck. The third says reckless driving endangers children, pedestrians, animals, other vehicles and property, and requests the newspaper to highlight the problem so that action is taken.
• Subscription and signature: Yours faithfully, Sumina Aryal, at the end.

The letter also has two parts the exercise doesn’t ask about: the editor’s address (The Editor, The Rising Nepal, Dharmapath, Kathmandu) and the subject (Increase of road accidents on the Prithvi Highway).

Paragraph 1: why you are writing. Paragraph 2: Nepal’s natural resources and why they matter (water, forests, soil, minerals, biodiversity). Paragraph 3: how they are being harmed. Paragraph 4: what can be done, by the government, communities and each of us. End with a request.

Dhulikhel-7, Kavrepalanchok
15 March 2026

The Editor
The Kavre Weekly
Dhulikhel, Kavrepalanchok

Subject: Let us protect our natural resources

Dear Sir/Madam,

Through your newspaper, I would like to remind your readers how much our lives depend on Nepal’s natural resources, and how carelessly we are using them.

Nepal is rich in nature. Its rivers carry water to our fields and turn the turbines of our hydropower plants. Its forests give us firewood, timber, fodder and medicinal herbs, and they hold the soil on our steep slopes. Its fertile land feeds most of our people, and its mountains and wildlife bring tourists from all over the world.

However, these resources are under threat. Forests are cut for roads and settlements, sand and stones are dug from riverbeds without limit, and our rivers are filled with plastic and sewage. Overused land loses its fertility, and when the forests go, landslides and floods follow.

We can still save them. The government must stop illegal mining of riverbeds and support community forests. Municipalities should manage waste properly, so that rivers stay clean. Each of us can plant trees, save water and electricity, and use less plastic. Schools can teach students to value and protect nature.

If we protect our natural resources today, they will serve our children tomorrow. I hope your newspaper will help spread this message.

Yours faithfully,
Prakriti Shrestha

• a.True
• b.False (its heartbeat and breathing slow down)
• c.True
• d.True
• e.False (he has gone back to more natural methods)

• a.plant (a general truth, the zero conditional)
• b.start (the if-clause: present, not will)
• c.waters (unless + a positive present)
• d.will die (the result of a first conditional)
• e.need (the if-clause; the result is an imperative, just call me)

• a.Unless you water the plants, they will dry up.
• b.If the moths don’t find potatoes, they cannot breed.
• c.If you heat ice, it melts.
• d.We will cancel the picnic if it rains tomorrow. (no comma, since the if-clause comes second)
• e.No, thanks. I’ve just had one. (or That’s kind of you, but I’m fine, thanks.)

The Himalayan Marmot in Winter
The Himalayan marmot survives the long mountain winter by sleeping through it. This large, furry rodent lives in the high grasslands of the Himalaya, between about 3,000 and 5,000 meters. All summer it eats grass and flowers and grows fat. In autumn, the whole family goes down into a deep burrow and closes the entrance. There the marmots hibernate for about six months: their bodies cool, and their hearts and breathing slow down, so they use very little of their stored fat. In spring they wake up thin and hungry, just as the snow melts and new grass appears. Their deep sleep is a perfect answer to a hard winter.

Nuwakot-5, Bidur
2 December 2026

The Editor
The Rising Nepal
Dharmapath, Kathmandu

Subject: Our spring is drying up

Dear Sir/Madam,

Through your esteemed newspaper, I would like to draw the attention of the concerned authorities to a problem facing our village and many others in the hills: our springs are drying up.

For generations, the spring at the edge of our village gave clean water all year round. Two years ago, much of the forest on the slope above it was cut for timber and a new road. Since then, the spring flows only during the monsoon. In the dry season, women and children walk for over an hour to fetch water from the river, and students are often late for school.

Without trees, rainwater runs straight down the slope instead of soaking into the ground, so the underground water that feeds the spring is not refilled.

I request the municipality and the forest office to replant the slope with native trees, protect it from grazing, and dig small ponds to catch rainwater. If we act now, our spring can flow again.

Yours faithfully,
Bimala Tamang