Fleas are perfectly designed by
nature to feast on anything containing blood. Like a shark in the water or a
wolf in the woods, fleas are ideally equipped to do what they do, making them
very difficult to defeat. The bodies of these tiny parasites are extremely
hardy and well-suited for their job.
A flea has a very hard exoskeleton,
which means the body is covered by a tough, tile-like plate called a sclerite.
Because of these plates, fleas are almost impossible to squish. The
exoskeletons of fleas are also waterproof of fleas are also waterproof and shock
resistant, and therefore fleas are highly resistant to the sprays and chemicals
used to kill them.
Little spines are attached to his
plate. The spine the flea scurries through an animal’s fur in – search of
grooming pet tries to pull a flea off through the hair coat, these spines will
extend and stick to the fur like Velcro.
Fleas are some of the best jumpers
in the natural world. A flea can jump seven inches, or 150 times its own
length, either vertically or horizontally. An equivalent jump for a person
would be 555 feet, the height of the Washington Monument. Fleas can jump 30,000
times in a row without stopping, and they are able to accelerate through the
air at an incredibly high rate – a rate which is over ten times what humans can
withstand in an airplane.
Fleas have very long rear legs with
huge thigh muscles and multiple joints. When they get ready to jump. They fold their
long legs up and crouch like a runner on a staring block. Several of their
joints contain a protein called resilin, which helps catapult fleas into the
air as they jump, similar to the way a rubber band provides momentum to a
slingshot. Outward facing claws on the bottom of their legs grip anything they
touch when they land.
The adult female flea mates after
her first blood meal and begins producing eggs in just 1 to 2 days. One flea
can lay up to 50 eggs in one day and over 2,000 in her lifetime. Flea eggs can
be seen with the naked eye, but they are about the size of a grain of salt. Shortly
after being laid, the eggs begin to transform into cocoons. In the cocoon
state, fleas are fully developed adults, and will hatch immediately if
conditions are favorable. Fleas can detect warmth, movement, and carbon dioxide
in exhaled breath, and these three factors stimulate them to emerge as new
adults. If the flea does not detect appropriate conditions, it can remain
dormant in the cocoon state for extended periods. Under ideal conditions, the
entire life cycle may only take 3 weeks, so in no time at all, pets and homes
can become infested.
Because of these characteristics,
fleas are intimidating opponents. The best way to control fleas, therefore, is
to take steps to prevent an infestation from ever occurring.
Using the information in the passage
as a guide, it can be concluded that
At the time Jane Austen’s novels
were published – between 1811 and 1818 – English literature was not part of any
academic curriculum. In addition, fiction was under strenuous attack. Certain
religious and political groups felt novels had the power to make so-called
immoral characters so interesting that young readers would identify with them;
these groups also considered novels to be of little practical use. Even
Coleridge, certainly no literary reactionary, spoke for many when the asserted
that “novel-reading occasions the destruction of the mind’s powers.”
These attitudes towards novels help
explain why Austen received little attention from early nineteenth-century
literary cities. (In any case a novelist published anonymously, as Austen was,
would not be likely to receive much critical attention.) The literary response
that was accorded to her, however, was often as incisive as twentieth-century
criticism. In his attack in 1816 on novelistic portrayals “outside of ordinary experience,”
for example. Scott made an insightful remark about the merits of Austen’s
fiction.
Her novels, wrote Scott, “present to
the reader an accurate and exact picture of ordinary everyday people and
places, reminiscent of seventeenth-century Flemish painting.” Scott did not use
the word ‘realism’, but he undoubtedly used a standard of realistic probability
in judging novels. The critic Whately did not use the word ‘realism’, either,
but he expressed agreement with Scott’s evaluation, and went on to suggest the possibilities
for moral instruction in what we have called Austen’s ‘realistic method’ her
characters, wrote Whately, are persuasive agents for moral truth since they are
ordinary persons “so clearly evoked that we feel an interest in their fate as
if it were our own.” Moral instruction, explained Whately, is more likely to be
effective when conveyed through recongnizably human and interesting characters
than when imparted by a sermonizing narrator. Whitely especially praised Austen’s
ability to create character who “mingle goodness and villainy, weakness and
virtue, as in life they are always mingled. “Whitely concluded his remarks by
comparing Austen’s art of characterization to Dickens’, starting his preference
for Austen’s.
Yet, the response of
nineteenth-century literary critics to Austen was not always so laudatory, and
often anticipated the reservations of twentieth-century literary critics. An
example of such a response was Lewes complaint in 1859 that Austen’s range of
subject and characters was too narrow. Praising her verisimilitude, Lewes added
that, nonetheless her focus was too often only upon the unlofty and the
commonplace. (Twentieth-century Marxists, on the other hand, were to complain
about what they saw as her exclusive emphasis on a lofty upper middle class.)
In any case having being rescued by literary critics from neglect and indeed
gradually lionized by them, Austen steadily reached, by the mid-nineteenth
century, the enviable pinnacle of being considered controversial.
It can be inferred from the passage
that Whately found Dickens’ characters to be
Although cynics may like to see he government’s policy for
women in terms of the party’s internal power struggles, it will nevertheless be
churlish to deny that it represents a pioneering effect aimed at bringing about
sweeping social reforms. In its language, scope and strategies, the policy documents
displays a degree of understanding of women’s needs that is uncommon in
government pronouncements. This is due in large part to the participatory
process that marked its formulation, seeking the active involvement right from
the start of women’s groups, academic institutions and non-government
organizations with grass roots experience. The result is not just a lofty
declaration of principles but a blueprint for a practical program of action.
The policy delineates a series of concrete measures to accord women a
decision-making role in the political domain and greater control over their
economic status. Of especially far-reaching impart are the devolution of
control of economic infrastructure to women, notably at the gram panchayat
level, and the amendment proposed in the Act of 1956 to give women comparcenary
rights.
And enlightened aspect of the policy is its recognition that
actual change in the status of women cannot be brought about by the mere enactment
of socially progressive legislation. Accordingly, it focuses on reorienting
development programs and sensitizing administrations to address specific
situations as, for instance, the growing number of households headed by women,
which is a consequence of rural-urban migration. The proposal to create an
equal-opportunity police force and give women greater control of police
stations is an acknowledgement of the biases and callousness displayed by the
generally all-male law-enforcement authorities in case of dowery and domestic
violence. While the mere enunciation of such a policy has the salutary effect
of sensitizing the administration as a whole, it does not make the task of its
implementation any easier. This is because the changes it envisages in the
political and economic status of woman strike at the root of power structures
in society and the basis of man-woman relationship. There is also the danger
that reservation for women in public life, while necessary for their greater
visibility, could lapse into tokenism or become a tool in the hands of vote
seeking politicians. Much will depend on the dissemination of the policy and
the ability of elected representatives and government agencies to reorder their
priorities.
Which of the following
words is the most opposite in meaning to 'sweeping' as used in the passage?
.I am writing in response to response
to the article “Protecting our public spaces” in issue 14, published this
spring in it, the author claims that “all graffiti is public spaces.” I would
like to point out that many people believe that graffiti is an art from that
can benefit our public spaces just as much as sculpture, fountains, or other,
more accepted art forms.
People who object to graffiti
usually do so more because of where it is, not what it is. They argue, as your
author does, that posting graffiti in public places constitutes an illegal act
of property damage. But the location of such graffiti should not prevent the
images themselves from being considered genuine art.
I would argue that graffiti is the
ultimate public art form. Spray paint is a medium unlike any other. Though
graffiti, the entire world has become a canvas. No one has to pay admission or
travel to a museum to see this kind of art. The artists usually do not receive
payment for their efforts. These works of art dotting the urban landscape are
available, free of charge, to everyone who passes by.
To be clear, I do not consider
random words or names sprayed on stop signs to be art. Plenty of graffiti is
just vandalism, pure and simple. However, there is also graffiti that is
breathtaking in its intricate detail, its realism, or its creativity. It takes
great talent to create such involved designs with spray paint.
Are these creators not artists
just because they use a can of spray paint instead of a paintbrush, or because they
cover the side of a building rather than a canvas?
To declare that all graffiti is
vandalism, and nothing more, is an overly simplistic statement that I find out
of place in such a thoughtful publication as your magazine. Furthermore,
graffiti is not going anywhere, so might as well find a way to live with it and
enjoy its benefits. One option could be to make a percentage of public space,
such as walls or benches in parks, open to graffiti artists. By doing this, the
public might feel like part owners of these works of art, rather than just the
victims of a crime.
According to the writer, random
words sprayed on stop sings are not
Sport shall be mentioned next. I have had a
liking for more than one form of sport, but an actual passion for salmon and
trout fishing. Salmon fishing, as I have enjoyed it, fishing not from a boat
but from one’s feet, either on the bank or wading deep in the stream, is a
glorious and sustained exercise for the whole body, as well as being an
exciting-sport; but many of my friends do not care for it. To them, I say, as
one who was fond of George Meredith’s Novels once said to be man who complained
that he should not read them, ‘why should you?’ if you do not care for fishing,
do not fish. Why should you? But if we are to be one equal term and you are be
one the same happy level as I hav3e been, then find something for yourself
which you like as much as I like fishing.
Salmon fishing is:
Recent advances in science and technology have made it
possible for geneticists to find out abnormalities in the unborn foetus and
take remedial action to rectify some defects which would otherwise prove to be
fatal to the child. Though genetic engineering is still at its infancy,
scientists can now predict with greater accuracy a genetic disorder. It is not
yet an exact science since they are not in a position to predict when exactly a
genetic disorder will set in. While they have not yet been able to change the
genetic order of the gene in germs, they are optimistic and are holding out
that in the near future they might be successful in achieving this feat. They
have, however, acquired the ability in manipulating tissue cells. However,
genetic mis-information can sometimes be damaging for it may adversely affect
people psychologically. Genetic information may lead to a tendency to brand
some people as inferiors. Genetic information can therefore be abused and its
application in deciding the sex of the foetus and its subsequent abortion is
now hotly debated on ethical lines. But on this issue geneticists cannot be
squarely blamed though this charge has often been leveled at them. It is mainly
a societal problem. At present genetic engineering is a costly process of
detecting disorders but scientists hope to reduce the costs when technology
becomes more advanced. This is why much progress in this area has been possible
in scientifically advanced and rich countries like the U.S.A., U.K. and Japan.
It remains to be seen if in the future this science will lead to the
development of a race of supermen or will be able to obliterate disease from
this world.
Which of the following is the same in meaning as the word ‘squarely’
as used in the passage?
