CBSE Unseen passage for Class 9 English is available here to help students in their exam preparation. These unseen comprehension passages are created by the subject experts after a thorough research on the exam pattern and question paper pattern.
Students must practise these CBSE Class 9 English Comprehension Passages to gain a strong command over the reading section.
CBSE Unseen Passage for Class 9 English
Before going into the Class 9 unseen comprehension, students can look at the marks weightage of the unseen passage as prescribed in the CBSE Class 9 English Syllabus.
CBSE Class 9 English Unseen Passage: Reading Section
The unseen passage is asked under the reading section of the Class 9 English Language and Literature paper. A total of two unseen passages are asked in the exam comprising 10 marks each. One is a discursive passage and the other is a case based factual passage, as mentioned below. The total length of the two passages is around 600-700 words.
1) Discursive passage: Multiple Choice Questions based on a Discursive passage of 400-450 words are asked to test students’ inference, evaluation and vocabulary. They have to answer ten out of twelve questions in the exam. (10×1=10)
2) Case-based factual passage: It consists of a 200-250 words passage (with visual input statistical data, chart, etc.) with multiple choice questions to test students’ analysis and interpretation skills. They have to answer ten out of twelve questions. (10×1=10)
The CBSE Class 9 reading comprehension consists of 25% of the marks weightage of the English paper, which comes up to be 20 marks out of total 80 marks. Hence, students should put their effort into the reading section to increase their marks in the English exam.
CBSE Class 9 English Unseen Passage: Reading Comprehension
The questions in the CBSE Class 9 English Unseen passages are asked to test the conceptual understanding, decoding, analyzing, inferring, interpreting and vocabulary skills of students. So, to give practice to such kinds of questions, we have provided short English Unseen Passages for Class 9 students.
CBSE Class 9 English Passage 1
Q1) Read the passage given below and write the option that you consider the most appropriate in your answer sheet: (5 marks)
The beginning of this fun-filled season with the sun hidden behind the grey clouds brings cheer to many of us waiting eagerly to splash in the rains. Of course not everything about rain is glamorous .Especially when you think about endless traffic jams, the bad roads dotted with potholes, uncleared garbage and the spate of water borne diseases. Also viral infections like cold and cough make their presence felt.
Most infectious diseases prevalent in the rainy season can be prevented by simply washing our hands regularly. Scrubbing hands regularly with water and soap can prevent us from contacting respiratory and diarrheal diseases.
Kids have a lower level of immunity and hence hand washing becomes a crucial part of their lifestyle. When playing especially during monsoon season kids come into contact with germs and can unknowingly become infected simply by touching their nose, eyes or mouth .The Food and Drug Administration states that the human influenza virus can survive on surfaces for up to eight hours, making people susceptible to catching it each time they touch the infected surface. Hence repeated hand washing is required.
To make the best of the rainy season we should follow some simple guidelines .First of all if we decide to get wet in rains we should change into a dry set of clothes at the earliest. Also we should keep raw food items at bay and wash vegetables and fruits thoroughly before use. Moreover, strict kitchen hygiene should be maintained in order to enjoy one of the most beautiful seasons of the year. Also, in order to have a trouble free rainy season home made fresh food should be given preference over the fast food sold in the market.
Q (i). People wait for the rains since they can__________in it.
(a) splash
(b) have potholed roads
(c) spate of water borne diseases
(d) endless traffic jams
Q (ii). After getting wet in rains we should put on dry clothes____________
(a) as late as possible
(b) whenever we like to
(c) as early as possible
(d) when we fall sick
Q (iii). Besides maintaining kitchen hygiene we should_________________ so as to keep us disease free in the rainy season.
(a) avoid raw fruits
(b) enjoy raw fruits
(c) avoid vegetables
(d) consume more fruits and vegetables
Q (iv). The passage suggests that small children should wash their hands_____________ ____________in the rainy season since they have lower immunity.
(a)Frequently
(b) rarely
(c) after every meal
(d) before every meal
Q (v). The word in the passage which means the same as’ prone and vulnerable ‘is _______.
(a) dotted
(b) hygiene
(c) susceptible
(d) influenza
CBSE Class 9 English Unseen Passage 2
Q 2. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow. (5 marks)
What exercise is to the body, reading is to the mind. There are different purposes of reading. One of them is deriving pleasure. Children reading for their pleasure rarely stop to ask about the words. They want to get on with the story. If the word is important, they can usually make a good guess about what it is. “He drew an arrow from his quiver”. Easy to see that a quiver is some sort of gadget to put arrows in. More complicated words they figure out by meeting them in different contexts. People learn to read well and get good vocabulary, from books, not work books or dictionaries. As a kid I read years ahead of my age, but I never looked up words in dictionaries, and didn’t even have a dictionary. In my lifetime I don’t believe I have looked even as many as fifty words – neither have most good readers. Most people don’t know how dictionaries are made. Each new dictionary starts from scratch. The company making the dictionary employs thousands of ‘editors’, to each of whom they give a list of words. The job of the editor is to collect as many examples as possible of the ways in which these words are actually used. They look for the words in books, newspapers, and so forth and every time they find one, they cut out or copy that particular example. Then after reading these examples they decide ‘from the context’ what the writer in each case had meant by the words. From these they make definitions. A dictionary in other words, is a collection of people’s opinions about what words mean as other people use them.
Q (i). How do children find out meanings when they are reading for pleasure?
Q (ii). Does the passage suggest that a dictionary is essential for a good vocabulary? Why or why not?
Q (iii). Write any one step in the process of making a dictionary.
Q (iv). Define a dictionary in your own words.
Q (v). Find the phrase in the passage which means ‘calculate/think about until one understands.’
Students can also practise the unseen passages questions by solving the CBSE Class 9 English Sample Papers.
CBSE Class 9 English Passage 3
Q3) Read the passage given below and write the option that you consider the most appropriate in your answer sheet: (5 marks)
Time is running out and the parents are worried. With just 10 days left for the schools to reopen after homework .Since the children have enjoyed through their vacations it is their parents who are surfing the internet, painting the charts, writing essays and preparing science models .Some busy parents who are well off but cannot spare time are compelled to send their wards to the “holiday homework special” classes.
Sumedha, who holds classes for completing the children’s homework, says that she charges anything between Rs.1000 and 5000per child depending on the class and volume of homework. Many schools give away prizes for the best homework or add the marks in internal assessment. This makes it almost imperative for parents to get the best quality. Majority of the parents’ complain that the level of the homework is so high that their children are clueless about how to do it. Also many of them fret that the quantum of holiday homework is so much that children fail to complete it within the stipulated holidays.
In spite of all the troubles all parents agree that holiday homework is essential for the children. Some of them opined that homework helps establish and strengthen bonds between them and their children as it brings them close to each other .Some others think that holiday homework keeps the children in touch with their studies when they are not going to school.
Q (i). The two objections raised by parents regarding holiday homework are____________
(a) children playing through the holidays and amount of homework
(b) high level of homework and amount of homework
(c) too much time and high level of homework
(d) lack of ideas among children and level of homework
Q (ii). Holiday homework special ‘classes are conducted for________________
(a) busy parents
(b) children of busy parents
(c) for all well off children
(d) teachers
Q (iii). That _________________makes it necessary that quality homework is done.
(a) Schools assign difficult homework
(b) parents are doing the homework
(c) schools add marks of the homework to internal assessment
(d) parents are paying a heavy price for the homework.
Q (iv). Besides keeping the children in touch with their studies homework ____________between parents and children.
(a) sets up bonds
(b) builds bonds
(c) weakens bonds
(d) sets up and builds bonds
Q (v). The word/phrase ______________in the passage means the same as “expressed opinion”.
(a) running out
(b) spare
(c) imperative
(d) opined
CBSE Class 9 English Comprehension Passage 4
Q4) Read the given passage carefully and choose the best answer from the given alternatives: (5 Marks)
Nepal lies between India and Tibet, among the Himalayan Mountains. The tallest mountain in the world, Mount Everest, is in Nepal, and there are several mountains nearly as high. When mountaineers try to climb Mount Everest, they take the help of the Sherpas, the strong and hardy people who live in these mountains, to carry heavy loads and to act as guides.
A long time ago, the Sherpas crossed over the mountains from Tibet and made their homes along the southern slopes of the Himalayas in Nepal.
Some Sherpa families have three houses, one house in the lower hills, one a little higher, and one further up. The houses are in small village groups of about forty or fifty. Round each group of houses there are cultivated fields, usually built in the shape of terraces right up the hillsides. In the highest fields the Sherpas grow potatoes; In the lower fields they grow barley; and turnips, garlic and other vegetables in the lower ones. They also graze their yaks on the higher mountain slopes in the summer and on the lower slopes in the winter. Yaks are very hardy, large cattle with thick, hairy blackish-brown coats and long horns. The Sherpas use them for almost everything they need. They ride them, plough with them, and use them to carry their goods. The hairy wool of these animals is made into cloth and their skins into leather boots and tents. The yaks also provide milk, fat and meat. Their dung is dried and used as fuel instead of wood or coal.
Answer the questions by choosing the best alternatives:
Q (i). What is the situation in Nepal ?
(a) between Mount Everest and Tibet
(b) between Tibet and India
(c) between Tibet and Himalaya
(d) between Tibet and Mount Everest
Q (ii). Sherpas are not known for :
(a) their strength and hardness
(b) for cunningness
(c) their carrying heavy loads
(d) acting as guides.
Q (iii). Where do the Sherpas have their houses ?
(a) on the lower hills
(b) on a little higher
(c) another a little higher up
(d) all the three above.
Q (iv). These things Sherpas do not grow on the lower fields :
(a) potatoes
(b) turnip and garlic
(c) other vegetables
(d) barley.
Q (v). What are the things for which yaks are not used ?
(a) for sports
(b) wool of these animals is made into cloth
(c) their skins into leather boots and tents
(d) to carry their goods.
CBSE Class 9 English Comprehension Passage 5
Q5. Read the following passage carefully: (5 Marks)
Children’s social and cultural environments will affect the extent and use of their oral language. A large number of children come from homes in which English is not the primary language spoken. The most significant variation among children, however, will be in the amount and quality of their previous literacy experiences. Some children will have read regularly and will be familiar with many books and stories. Their homes are literate environments in which reading and writing occur daily and are frequently modeled, as they observe their parents and others reading newspapers, magazines, and books and writing letters, notes and lists. Such children are likely to emulate these behaviours. In contrast, other children will come to preschool or kindergarten with very different experiences. They have seen print in the environment (on street signs and food containers, for example) and on television. However, their parents have not read to them, and they have not seen reading and writing modeled functionally by adults. Effective early literacy programmes acknowledge and extend children’s previous experiences, whatever they are, and relate them to the world of print.
On the basis of your reading of the above passage, answer the following questions:
Q (i). What affects the oral language of children?
Q (ii). ______________ causes ‘variation’ among children.
Q (iii). ‘Such children are likely to emulate’______________ Who are ‘such children’?
Q (iv). ‘They have seen print ______________ ‘They’ means?
Q (v). The word ‘containers’ means.
CBSE Unseen Passage for Class 9 must have helped students to boost their reading section of the English paper. To access more study material related to CBSE Class 9, keep visiting CoolGyan’S. Also, download the CoolGyan’S App for interactive study videos.
