Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
A boatman on the Ganga will tell you that you hear the river dolphin before you see it. It comes up for air with a short puff, and that sound is why people along the river call it the susu. Then it slips back into water the colour of milky tea.
In water that muddy, eyes are of little use, and this dolphin has almost given up on them. Its eyes are tiny and have no lens. They can tell light from dark, and not much more. The animal finds its way by sound instead. It sends out a stream of clicks and listens for the echoes that bounce back from rocks, banks, fish and the river bottom. From these echoes it builds a picture of the water around it. Scientists call this echolocation. It also has an odd habit: it often swims on its side.
This way of living served it well for a very long time, in the Ganga, the Brahmaputra and the rivers that feed them. The trouble is that the river has grown loud. Motorboats and ferries fill the water with the hum of engines, and the echoes the dolphin depends on come back muffled. Dams and barrages cut the river into pieces. Nets put out for fish trap dolphins too.
In 2009 India named the Ganga river dolphin its national aquatic animal. It is still listed as endangered. On a busy morning near a ferry ghat, the clicks of a susu and the drone of a diesel engine travel through the same brown water.
Which of the following statements are NOT true according to the passage?
(A) People along the river named the dolphin after the sound it makes when it comes up for air.
(B) The dolphin’s eyes are small, but they have a lens that works well in muddy water.
(C) The dolphin often swims on its side.
(D) The dolphin is no longer endangered now that it is India’s national aquatic animal.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → (B) and (D) only
The question asks for the statements that are NOT true.
(A) People along the river named the dolphin after the sound it makes when it comes up for air. — True.
- The passage says its short puff is “why people along the river call it the susu”.
(B) The dolphin’s eyes are small, but they have a lens that works well in muddy water. — Not true.
- The passage says its eyes are tiny and “have no lens”.
(C) The dolphin often swims on its side. — True.
- The passage says, “it often swims on its side.”
(D) The dolphin is no longer endangered now that it is India’s national aquatic animal. — Not true.
- The passage says it “is still listed as endangered”.