37th BCS English Written

Sub code: 003

Time: 4 hours; Full Marks: 200

Part-A

Read the following passage and answer questions Nos. 1-7:

Hides and skins are the raw material of the leather manufacturer or tanner. When man first used animal skins is not known. Skins, even when preserved by tanning, do not last as long as stone, pottery, metals and bones, and our knowledge about the early use of skins in vague. However, the numerous flint scrappers and bone or ivory sewing needless in our museums show that tens of thousands of years ago, in the early Stone Age, skins were prepared and used long before textiles.Now-a-days, hides and skins are essential raw materials and important articles of commerce. 

Any animal skin can be made into leather, but the skin chiefly used come from cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and horses. To a lesser extent the skins from dogs, deer, retiles, marine animals, fish and birds are also used. Snakes, lizards, seals, whales and sharks all contribute to the leather manufacture.

 'Hide' is the trade word for the skins of the larger animals such as full grown cattle and horses; and 'skin' for the smaller animals and immature larger animals, such as ponies and calves. Some skin are made into leather after the hair or wool has been removed; but the skins of the fur-bearing animals and sometimes of sheep, lambs and ponies are processed, of 'dressed', with the hair or wool still in place.

Most cattle hides come from South America, the U.S.A and from Australia with smaller quantities from East and West Africa, Central America and the Sudan. Sheepskins come from Australia and New Zealand, and the best goat skins comes from India, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria.

There is usually a long interval between the flaying of stripping, of the skin from the animals and putting it into tannery for processing. If the flayed skins were left wet, they would go bad, just like meat; they must therefore be preserved in some way. The commonest method is salting. This involves sprinkling the skins with salt on their inner side; or immersing the skins completely in strong salt solution for some hours, after which they are drained and sprinkled with solid salt. 

Another method in drying is to stretch the skins out on the grounds, of on frames and to dry them in the sun, of even better in the shade. Beetles and other insects eat skins and must be kept away by the use of some chemical such as D.D.T. The dried skin are called 'crust' leather and sent in this farm to the tanneries for the very complicated process of tanning, After tanning, only the middle layer of the skin is left to provide leather owes its virtues of flexibility, strength and elasticity, its resistance to rubbing and its unique power of allowing water vapour air to pass throught it while resisting penetration by liquid water itself.

 1. Answer the questions below. Do not copy any sentence from the passage above. Write the
     answer in your own sentences having your own wordings and phrasing:                                      -30

     a. What is the passage about?
     b. How could we come to know that animal skins were prepared and used long before textiles?
     c.  Which animal's skins can mainly, and which animal  skins can to a lesser extent be used and
          made into lather?
     d. What is the difference between 'hide' and 'skin?
     e. What happens to flayed skin If left wet, and what is the commonest method of preserving flayed
         skins?
     f. What is D.D.T? And why is it used on the skins?
     g. What is 'crust' leather') Why is it sent to tannery?
     h. What virtues does middle layer of the skins, known as leather, owe?
     i. What knowledge have you had from this passage?
     j. Give a suitable title of the passage

2. Guess the meaning of the following words/expressions contextual clues: (The wort are underlined
    in the passage):                                                                                                                                   -5

    a. raw
    b. pottery
    c. vague
    d. tannery
    e. penetration

3. Fill in the table by putting words in the empty cells according to their parts of speech:                  -5

Noun	Verb	Adjective
a. Srength		×
	b. resist
c. Penetration
		d. essential
e. Preservation

4. Join the sets of sentences into one sentence:                                                                                   -10

    (a) Skins do not lost as long as pottery. Our knowledge about the early use of skin is vague.

    (b) Hides arc essential raw materials. Important article of commerce.

    (c) This Involves sprinkling the skins. Salt on their inner side.

    (d) Most cattle hides come from South America. The best goal skins come from India.

    (e) Vapour and air to pass through it. Resisting penetration by liquid water itself.

5. Write a sentence with each of the following words/expressions. Copying of any sentence from the

    passage must be avoided.                                                                                                                 -10

    (a) Immature                                       (b) interval;

    (c) flexibility                                       (d) elasticity;

    (e) unique                                            (f) wet;

    (g) stretch out                                     (h) salt solution

     (i) dry                                                (u) immersion

6. Summarize the passage in own words in 100 words.                                                                      -20

7. Write a feature to the editor of a renowned English Dally on “The role and importance of tannery

    in making hides and skins into leather."