In Chennai, Fisherfolk Face an Uncertain Struggle With the Sea

Study the questions and tasks

Work through the material below, or start the interactive practice above to complete an attempt. Try the exercises before opening any answer or transcript sections, then use them to review your work.

Practice level

C1. Try this level if you can follow the instructions and understand most of the language; choose an earlier level if you need more support.

Question formats

Single choice

How to approach this practice

Read the passage for its main idea, then return to the relevant sentence or paragraph for each question. Base answers on the passage.

1. Question 1 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   What is the article’s central purpose?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. To describe Chennai’s commercial expansion
   2. To interpret a market’s social and environmental significance
   3. To evaluate NPR’s photographic techniques
   4. To compare several coastal economies
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   To interpret a market’s social and environmental significance

   It interprets the market as part of a broader struggle for survival.

   Rather than presenting the market as merely a site of commercial activity, the coverage places it within a wider struggle for survival.

2. Question 2 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   What can readers infer from the phrase “never sleeps”?

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   1. The market operates without any workers
   2. The market remains continuously active and demanding
   3. The market opens only during nighttime
   4. The market has abandoned traditional practices
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   The market remains continuously active and demanding

   The phrase conveys sustained activity and pressure rather than literal sleeplessness.

   The description of the market as one that “never sleeps” conveys its constant movement and pressure.

3. Question 3 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   What does “it” refer to in the second paragraph’s final sentence?

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   1. The market
   2. The coverage
   3. The sea
   4. The landscape
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   The sea

   The pronoun refers to the sea as an environmental force.

   For those living in disadvantaged communities, the sea is not simply part of the surrounding landscape; it is connected to the conditions that determine whether they can endure.

4. Question 4 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   How does the third paragraph qualify its portrayal of residents?

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   1. By rejecting the relevance of poverty
   2. By emphasizing personal success stories
   3. By noting limited detail but clear emphasis on insecurity
   4. By claiming the residents have achieved stable livelihoods
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   By noting limited detail but clear emphasis on insecurity

   It acknowledges limited detail while identifying a clear thematic emphasis.

   The available coverage does not provide a detailed account of individual circumstances, but it clearly emphasizes precarity: residents from the poorest neighborhoods are portrayed as waging a continuing battle with the sea.

5. Question 5 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   Why does the article mention poverty, work, and the environment together?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. To reduce the story to environmental damage
   2. To show interconnected pressures without oversimplifying people
   3. To argue that markets cause poverty
   4. To distinguish Chennai from every coastal city
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   To show interconnected pressures without oversimplifying people

   Their relationship explains the story’s significance beyond the immediate market.

   It draws attention to the relationship between poverty, work, and the environment without reducing the people involved to a single hardship.

6. Question 6 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   What contrast structures the article’s final sentence?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. Tradition versus modernization
   2. Urban life versus rural life
   3. Environmental necessity versus environmental harshness
   4. Photography versus written journalism
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   Environmental necessity versus environmental harshness

   The sea is presented as necessary for survival yet harsh and unreliable.

   In Chennai, that connection reveals how survival can depend on an environment that is at once essential and unforgiving.

7. Question 7 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   Which sequence best describes the article’s organization?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. Setting, interpretation, qualification, significance, synthesis
   2. Biography, chronology, statistics, criticism, prediction
   3. Conflict, resolution, investigation, comparison, conclusion
   4. Definition, instructions, examples, rebuttal, recommendation
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   Setting, interpretation, qualification, significance, synthesis

   It moves from setting to framing, limitation, significance, and broader implication.

   Through photographs, NPR documents this tension in visual form.

What to review next

Find the words that support each answer. For a mistake, compare the question with the evidence and identify the detail or inference you missed.

A focused practice result shows how you did on these tasks. Use several activities across skills to decide what to study next; one practice score does not certify an overall CEFR level.

Before you practise: a worked example

Look for evidence in the text. Separate what the writer says from what you already know about the topic.

The library normally closes at six, but on Fridays it stays open until eight. When does it close on Friday?

The answer is eight. But introduces an exception to the normal closing time, so the first time mentioned is not the answer.

This teaching example is separate from the scored questions. After your test, compare any mistakes with the explanation and revisit the topic before trying again.