Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.

(1) For most of human history, darkness was simply a fact of life. When the sun set, work stopped, families gathered, and the sky above every village blazed with thousands of stars. Today, for the majorit

Question

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.

(1) For most of human history, darkness was simply a fact of life. When the sun set, work stopped, families gathered, and the sky above every village blazed with thousands of stars. Today, for the majority of people living in towns and cities, that starry sky has quietly vanished. The culprit is a form of pollution we rarely name: light pollution. It is the excessive, misdirected or wasteful artificial light that brightens the night sky and washes the stars from view.

(2) Light pollution is not merely an aesthetic loss for astronomers. Its effects ripple through the living world. Many animals depend on the natural rhythm of day and night. Sea turtle hatchlings, for instance, find the ocean by moving toward the brightest horizon; on a developed coast, they crawl instead toward streetlights and perish. Migratory birds, navigating by the stars, grow confused over glowing cities and collide with brightly lit buildings in their thousands. Even insects, the base of countless food chains, gather and die around lamps.

(3) Human health is not spared. Our bodies evolved to produce a hormone called melatonin in darkness, which regulates sleep. Bright artificial light at night suppresses it, disturbing sleep patterns and, some studies suggest, contributing to long-term health problems. A child who has never seen the Milky Way also loses something harder to measure: a sense of wonder and of our small place in a vast universe.

(4) Fortunately, light pollution is among the easiest environmental problems to fix. Unlike carbon dioxide, light leaves no lasting trace; switch off a wasteful lamp and the damage stops that very night. Shielding streetlights so they point downward, using warmer and dimmer bulbs, and simply turning off unnecessary lights can return the stars to our cities. In a world of stubborn ecological crises, here at least is one where the remedy is quite literally at our fingertips.

Answer the following questions:
(a) What does the writer mean by 'light pollution'? (2 marks)
(b) How does light pollution harm sea turtles and migratory birds? (2 marks)
(c) State any one effect of artificial light on human health. (1 mark)
(d) Why does the writer call light pollution one of the 'easiest environmental problems to fix'? (2 marks)
(e) Find a word in paragraph 2 that means 'to die' or 'be killed'. (1 mark)
(f) What is the tone of the last paragraph: pessimistic, hopeful or neutral? (1 mark)
(g) Suggest a suitable title for the passage. (1 mark)

Accepted Answer

> [!TLDR]
> The passage is a discursive piece arguing that light pollution harms wildlife and human health but is uniquely easy to reverse. Approach it by skimming for that overall argument, then scanning paragraph by paragraph for each answer, rephrasing in your own words.

**Model answers, with how each is derived:**

**(a)** Light pollution is the excessive, misdirected or wasteful artificial light that brightens the night sky and hides the stars from view. *(Derived from paragraph 1, where the writer defines the term directly; rephrased slightly rather than copied.)*

**(b)** Sea turtle hatchlings, which normally head toward the brightest horizon to reach the sea, are misled by streetlights and crawl the wrong way and die; migratory birds that navigate by the stars become confused over glowing cities and crash into brightly lit buildings. *(Scanned from paragraph 2, which gives both examples; both parts of the question are answered.)*

**(c)** Bright artificial light at night suppresses the hormone melatonin, which disturbs our sleep patterns. *(Paragraph 3; any one effect — disturbed sleep or possible long-term health problems — earns the mark.)*

**(d)** Because light, unlike carbon dioxide, leaves no lasting trace: the moment a wasteful lamp is switched off, the harm stops that very night, so the remedy is immediate and simple. *(Inference supported by paragraph 4 — the answer must point to the 'leaves no lasting trace' reasoning, not outside knowledge.)*

**(e)** 'perish' (it means to die). *(Vocabulary-in-context: found in paragraph 2, 'they crawl instead toward streetlights and perish'; context of hatchlings going the wrong way confirms the meaning.)*

**(f)** Hopeful. *(Tone question answered from the cue word 'Fortunately' and the closing image of the remedy being 'at our fingertips'.)*

**(g)** 'The Vanishing Stars' or 'Light Pollution: A Problem We Can Fix'. *(A good title names the central theme in a short phrase.)*

> [!ANSWER]
> (a) Excessive, misdi

Q.Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.

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