Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
Nobody thought to count the house sparrow while it was everywhere, and that is the first difficulty in explaining where it went. Through the 1990s and 2000s, people in many Indian cities noticed that the small brown bird that once hopped across every veranda was now hard to find. Birdwatchers’ records suggest the loss has been sharpest in the big cities, while villages and small towns have kept more of their flocks.
Why it happened is still argued over, and no single cause has been proven. The likely suspects, though, have something in common. An old house, with its tiled roof, wooden beams and cracks under the eaves, offered a sparrow endless places to nest; a block of glass and concrete offers almost none. The parents live largely on seeds, but their chicks need soft insects in their first days, and a neighbourhood of paved yards and clipped lawns of foreign grass breeds few insects. Grain that once spilled outside the corner shop now comes in sealed packets. Hedges and kitchen gardens have given way to parking. Radiation from mobile towers is often blamed too, but that popular claim remains unproven. The sparrow, in a sense, was a casualty of tidiness.
The return, where it is happening, is modest. Every 20 March is now marked as World Sparrow Day, and Delhi has made the house sparrow its state bird. Residents in several cities fix nest boxes under their balconies, and some pairs do move in. Yet a box is only half an answer. The pair inside needs insects for its young close by, so the more practical volunteers now plant native shrubs beside the boxes and leave one corner of the garden untrimmed.
Which of the following statements are true according to the passage?
(A) The sparrow has declined most sharply in villages and small towns.
(B) Young sparrows depend on a different food from the one their parents mainly eat.
(C) Studies have shown that radiation from mobile towers drove sparrows out of cities.
(D) Delhi has given the house sparrow an official place as its state bird.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → (B) and (D) only
Each statement is checked against the passage.
(A) The sparrow has declined most sharply in villages and small towns. — Incorrect.
- The loss “has been sharpest in the big cities”.
- Villages and small towns “have kept more of their flocks”.
(B) Young sparrows depend on a different food from the one their parents mainly eat. — Correct.
- “The parents live largely on seeds, but their chicks need soft insects in their first days.”
(C) Studies have shown that radiation from mobile towers drove sparrows out of cities. — Incorrect.
- Radiation is “often blamed”, but the passage says “that popular claim remains unproven”.
(D) Delhi has given the house sparrow an official place as its state bird. — Correct.
- “Delhi has made the house sparrow its state bird.”