NIOS Class 12 English: Chapter 22 Summary- ‘READING with UNDERSTANDING’

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Section 22.1 Summary of Seen or Unseen Passage- ‘Banyan Tree’

A variety of fig tree is also well known as the Banyan Tree, Banyan name was given by Europeans in the Persian Gulf to the tree under which Hindu members of the merchant class (Baniyas) used to assemble for 21 worship or business, and then most parts of India and Asia have adopted this name too.
Many poets and writers of India have sung and written about the Banyan Tree form centuries.
The Banyan trees are mostly found at the sub-Himalayan forests and the slopes of the hill ranges in Peninsular India.
You will also find Banyans trees planted along many of the roads of India, near temples and shrines, and on open grounds near villages.
In Indian village the Banyan tree is used as the rallying point or club-house where much of the social life and business of the community is done, and much of the gossip exchanged.
Banyan tree offers such cool shades which gives relief from the burning sun in the hotter parts of the country.
Banyan is huge tree with average height of 70 to 100 feet, its branches become roots as it goes down to ground, so extending the growth of the tree indefinitely.
These roots are firstly slim like cotton threads, but once attached to the ground; they become strong pillars and become support for the heaviest branches.
The leaves of Banyan tree are in shape of oval, they are smooth in texture and shining.
You will mostly find the Banyan Tree at street side and roadside where as in village you will find them mostly in the open places where it can reaches its full glory.
When the tree grows more, more number of branches converted in to roots and the get spread bigger until a whole battalion can shelter under the shade of some of the older trees.

Some of the famous Banyan Trees in India:

The Royal Botanic Garden Sibpur Calcutta, for example, which is 3.6 metres around the trunk and the crown of roof of which covers 416 m.
An even larger one in Satara Maharashtra, is 483 m. in circumference.

Section 22.2 Summary of Seen or Unseen Passage- ‘Types of Birds’

World՚s all vertebrate or back-boned animal life is divided into two classes:

The warm-blooded animals
The cold-blooded.

An animal whose blood keeps a constant temperature and is little affected by the temperature of the surrounding air were included in groups previously.

Then after fishes, frogs and reptiles whose blood temperature changes with the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere were also included in the groups.

The warm-blooded animals also divide in subparts including Mammals (including human beings) which are covered with hair, bear live young and suckle them, and Birds, which are covered with feathers, lay eggs and as a rule make them hatch with the heat of their bodies.

Birds are the only creature in the world that has feathers.

In first impression all the birds look same as they all fly, build nests and lay eggs.

But if you go deeper, you will find that birds life includes many forms which are very different from one another and which sometimes seem to allow very little relationship to one another after all. Let՚s us find out different types of birds:

The tiny humming bird which is smaller than a man՚s thumb and the ostrich whose height is bigger than pony.
Birds which can fly thousands of miles, and others who can՚t rise higher just like penguins.
Birds which weave elaborate nests like the weaver birds, and other which lay their eggs straight on the ground without any preparation.
Birds that need particular type of foods, like vultures which will only eat dead animals, and crows which can eat anything except metal.
Birds like the domestic hen whose chicks start running and scratching by their own as soon as they born and others like parakeets and eagles whose chicks cannot leave their nests for several weeks.
Last but not the least, Birds which live around the man, and others who do not prefer to live near human being areas.