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Reading Comprehension Class 12 Board 2025

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Reading Comprehension Class 12 Board 2025 – Reading Comprehension is a crucial section in the CBSE Class 12 English exam, testing students’ ability to understand and analyze unseen passages. To score well in this section, students must develop strong reading skills, including identifying key ideas, understanding vocabulary in context, and making logical inferences.

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In this blog post, we provide practice exercises with answers to help you master Reading Comprehension for the CBSE Class 12 Board Exams 2024-25. Additionally, you can download a free PDF containing high-quality passages with solutions for effective revision.

Whether you’re aiming to improve your speed, accuracy, or overall comprehension skills, these exercises will enhance your performance in the exam. Let’s dive into the best Reading Comprehension practice sets designed as per the latest CBSE syllabus! 🚀📖

Reading Comprehension Class 12 Board 2025

SECTION-A (READING)

Exercise-1 – Reading Comprehension Class 12 Board 2025

1. Read the passage given below.

(1) Classical dance evolved from Tamil Nadu’s temples across centuries. The revived and reformed Bharatanatyam keeps the art born of these ancient temples alive even to this day. Once sustained and nurtured in temples as part of a rich and vibrant temple tradition, classical dance in South India has remained over centuries a dynamic, living tradition that is continuously renewed.

(2) Even 2000 years ago, dance in India was a highly evolved and complex art. It was an integral part of ancient Indian theatre as established by the Natya Shastra, the oldest and exhaustive treatise on theatre and dramaturgy. Dance dramas were performed in temple precincts. Dance movements were crystallised in stone as karanas in temple sculpture. Following the Bhakti movement in the 6th century, dance and music became powerful vehicles of veneration. The deity was treated like a much-loved king, praised and royally entertained with music and dance, as part of the daily sacred rituals of worship. Gifted, highly educated temple dancers or devadasis were supported by the temples that were richly endowed by the rulers. Some 400 temple dancers were dedicated to and maintained by the Brihadeeswarar Temple in Thanjavur. Dance evolved as a composite art in temples as dancers, nattuvanars (dance gurus), musicians, poets, composers, architects, sculptors and painters shared a holistic approach to all the arts.

(3) The evolution of Bharatanatyam derives from the invaluable contribution of The Tanjore Quartet. The four Pillai brothers – Chinnayya, Ponnayya, Sivanandam and Vadivelu – served as court musicians at the kingdom of Maratha king, Serfoji II in the early 19th century. Their legacy to Bharatanatyam has been their restructuring of the dance repertoire into the margam format and their vast and diverse music compositions set specifically for dance. Some of their descendants like Guru Meenakshisundaram Pillai evolved the famous Pandanallur bani (style) and trained many eminent dancers.

(4) From the temples, dance made its way into the courts of kings and dancers were not just devadasis, but also rajanartakis. By the early 17th century dance forms like sadir or chinna melam, precursors to Bharatanatyam as we know it today had become popular in the courts of the Maratha rulers in Thanjavur. However, in the 19th century, colonial propaganda perceived such dance as vulgar and immoral. It led to the Anti-Nautch Movement and legislation against temple dance and dancers. Divested of all patronage and temple support, devadasis were thrown into dire straits. In the early 20th century, thanks to enlightened visionaries like EV Krishna Iyer and later, Rukmini Devi Arundale, and the dedication of a handful of devadasis and nattuvanars, classical dance was resuscitated and revived as bharatanatyam. Today, apart from a few cultural festivals in some temples, dance has left the temple for the proscenium stage.

On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer any eight of the given questions. (1 × 8 = 8)
(i) What kept Bharatnatyam alive even to the present day, according to the passage?
(ii) How did Natya Shastra help in evolvement of dance?
(iii) Rewrite the given sentence by replacing the underlined word with another one.
Their legacy to Bharatnatyam has been their restructuring of the dance repertoire into the morgam format…
(iv) How was the deity treated in 6th Century?
(v) … dance has left the temple for the proscenium stage. The phrase proscenium stage means __________.
(vi) Who were part of Tanjore Quartet?
(vii) Who can be credited for evolving the famous style ‘Pandanallur bani’?
(viii) What led to Anti-Nautch Movement?
(ix) ‘Today, apart from a few cultural festivals in some temples, dance has left the temple for the proscenium stage’. What does the given line indicate?

Answer & Explanation of Unseen Passage -1

1. (i) Bharatanatyam’s revived and reformed form keeps it alive even to this day.
(ii) Natya Shastra established dance in India as an integral part of ancient Indian theatre. It was the oldest and exhaustive treatise on theatre and dramaturgy.
(iii) Their legacy to Bharatnatyam has been their restructuring of the dance collection in the morgan format…
(iv) The deity was treated like the king, being receiver of praise and royally entertained with music and dance, as part of everyday holy rituals of worship.
(v) The front of stage.
(vi) Chinnaya, Ponnaya, Sivanandam and Vadivelu the four pillai brothers who served as court musicians
at the kingdom of Maratha King Serfoji II were part of Tanjore Quartet.
(vii) Descendants of Pillai brothers – Guru Meenakshisundaram evolved this style of dancing and also trained many reknown dancers.
(viii) Considering dance vulgar and immoral during the 19th century under the colonial propaganda led to Anti Nautch Movement.

Exercise-2 – Reading Comprehension Class 12 Board 2025

2. Read the passage given below.

(1) That large animals require luxuriant vegetation has been a general assumption which has passed from one work to another; but I do not hesitate to say that it is completely false, and that it has vitiated the reasoning of geologists on some points of great interest in the ancient history of the world. The prejudice has probably been derived from India, and the Indian islands, where troops of elephants, noble forests, and impenetrable jungles, are associated together in everyone’s mind. If, however, we refer to any work of travels through the southern parts of Africa, we shall find allusions in almost every page either to the desert character of the country, or to the numbers of large animals inhabiting it. The same thing is rendered evident by the many engravings which have been published of various parts of the interior.

(2) Dr. Andrew Smith, who has lately succeeded in passing the Tropic of Capricorn, informs me that, taking into consideration the whole of the southern part of Africa, there can be no doubt of its being a sterile country. On the southern coasts there are some fine forests, but with these exceptions, the traveler may pass for days together through open plains, covered by a poor and scanty vegetation. Now, if we look at the animals inhabiting these wide plains, we shall find their numbers extraordinarily great, and their bulk immense.

(3) It may be supposed that although the species are numerous, the individuals of each kind are few. By the kindness of Dr. Smith, I am enabled to show that the case is very different. He informs me, that in lat. 24’, in one day’s march with the bullock-wagons, he saw, without wandering to any great distance on either side, between one hundred and one hundred and fifty rhinoceroses – the same day he saw several herds of giraffes, amounting together to nearly a hundred.

(4) At the distance of a little more than one hour’s march from their place of encampment on the previous night, his party actually killed at one spot eight hippopotamuses, and saw many more. In this same river there were likewise crocodiles. Of course it was a case quite extraordinary, to see so many great animals crowded together, but it evidently proves that they must exist in great numbers. Dr. Smith describes the country passed through that day, as ‘being thinly covered with grass, and bushes about four feet high, and still more thinly with mimosa-trees.’

(5) Besides these large animals, anyone the least acquainted with the natural history of the Cape has read of the herds of antelopes, which can be compared only with the flocks of migratory birds. The numbers indeed of the lion, panther, and hyena, and the multitude of birds of prey, plainly speak of the abundance of the smaller quadrupeds: one evening seven lions were counted at the same time prowling round Dr. Smith’s
encampment. As this able naturalist remarked to me, the carnage each day in Southern Africa must indeed be terrific! I confess it is truly surprising how such a number of animals can find support in a country producing so little food.

(6) The larger quadrupeds no doubt roam over wide tracts in search of it; and their food chiefly consists of underwood, which probably contains much nutriment in a small bulk. Dr. Smith also informs me that the vegetation has a rapid growth; no sooner is a part consumed, than its place is supplied by a fresh stock. There can be no doubt, however, that our ideas respecting the apparent amount of food necessary for the support of large quadrupeds are much exaggerated. The belief that where large quadrupeds exist, the vegetation must necessarily be luxuriant, is more remarkable, because the converse is far from true.

(7) Mr. Burchell observed to me that when entering Brazil, nothing struck him more forcibly than the splendour of the South American vegetation contrasted with that of South Africa, together with the absence of all large quadrupeds. In his travels, he has suggested that the comparison of the respective weights (if there were sufficient data) of an equal number of the largest herbivorous quadrupeds of each country would be extremely curious. If we take on the one side, the elephants, hippopotamus, giraffe, bos caffer, elan, five species of rhinoceros; and on the American side, two tapirs, the guanaco, three deer, the vicuna, peccary, capybara (after which we must choose from the monkeys to complete the number), and then place these two groups alongside each other it is not easy to conceive ranks more disproportionate in size.

(8) After the above facts, we are compelled to conclude, against anterior probability that among the mammalia there exists no close relation between the bulk of the species, and the quantity of the vegetation, in the countries which they inhabit.

On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer any six questions. (1 × 6 = 6)
(i) What is the primary concern of the author?
(ii) What does the flock of migratory birds suggest?
(iii) Why does Darwin quote Burchell?
(iv) What is significant about the southern part of Africa?
(v) Which country initiated the prejudice that large animals require luxuriant vegetation?
(vi) What was Mr. Burchell’s reaction upon reaching South America?
(vii) What according to you is the final outcome or conclusion of the given passage?

Answer & Explanation of Unseen Passage -2

2. (i) The author is primarily concerned with discussing the relationship between the size of mammals and the nature of vegetation in their habitats.
(ii) It suggests the size of antelope herds.
(iii) Darwin quotes Burchell to prove a hypothesis.
(iv) Apart from some fine forests on the southern part of Africa, the country is sterile. There are wide stretches of plains, covered by poor and scanty vegetation.
(v) India
(vi) Mr. Burchell was awestruck by the splendour of the country vegetation.
(vii) It can be concluded that a country’s vegetation and its bulk of species had no relation between them.