question_answer

Direction: Read the following passage and answer the questions.

Where is this going?' That is the question at the heart of River of Life, River of Death, as author Victor Mallet travels the length of the Ganges. Beginning at its ice cave source in the Himalayan foothills, he follows the water through the holy confluence at Allahabad, the spindly banks of Varanasi city and onwards to the delta in Bangladesh, where 4n its parting gift to the land, the river spews millions of tons of fertile silt on to the rice fields of Bengal and the mangroves of the Sundarbans.'

It is the same question he asks about the treatment of the Ganges, both good and bad. The river leads a double life being the most worshipped waterway in the world and also one of the most polluted. The Ganges and its tributaries are now subject to sewage pollution that is 'half a million times over the Indian recommended limit for bathing in places, not to mention the unchecked runoff from heavy metals. fertilizers, carcinogens and the occasional corpse.

As Mallet observes the danger of contamination does not put off the millions of revellers at Kumbh Mela. It is a Hindu pilgrimage 'thought to be the largest gathering of people anywhere', described to him as 'a spiritual expo... where you will be talking one moment to a visiting Mumbai businessman and the next to a Marijuana-stoned Yogi'. He suggests the pollution might never deter them. He is told by one bather: 'we do believe that anyone who takes in this water, he becomes pure also, because it is always pure.' There is a collective sense that the spirit of the Ganges is so sacred that she can never be spoiled.

He informs the reader in the preface 'almost everyone knows the problems are real'. His journey down the Ganges is one of investigation rather than discovery. Mallet investigates the potential of the river to become a cradle for antibiotic-resistant infections - or 'superbugs' - that could be exported to other regions by global travel. He points out that some 450 million people depend on the Ganges water basin for survival, and many more for its religious and cultural importance. The Ganges is a goddess and a mother to everyone from the politician in the north, to the humblest Hindu living in the far south or running a motel in the United States.

There is hope. Mallet draws some parallels to clean-ups of the Rhine and the Thames. He points to the design feat of Kumbh Mela, which as 'a pop-up megacity' for two million pilgrims has better infrastructure and waste treatment than many Indian cities. 'In the minds of both Indians and foreigners, this raises important questions... if the authorities can build infrastructure so efficiently for this short but very large festival, why can they not do the same for permanent villages and towns?'

Which ONE of the options fills in the blank and completes the statement below correctly?

The Ganges is a mother to the devout Hindu; however, it is to the non-Hindu Indian ___ and ____.

A) a spectacle; locus for the Khumb Melas

B) a source of water; a garbage bin

C) an interesting tourist spot; a zone for adventure sports

D) a cultural icon; provider of life