Practice — Reading Comprehension (English) — Unseen Prose, Drama & Poetry

Passage: 'On the outskirts of many Indian villages, hanging from the outermost branches of a babool or palm tree, you can spot a strange bundle that sways in every breeze without ever falling. This is the nest of the baya weaver, a small brown-and-yellow bird that is, by instinct, one of the most careful builders in the animal world. The male weaver begins alone, stripping long fibres from palm or grass leaves with its beak and knotting them, one at a time, around a swaying twig. Over several days he weaves a hollow chamber shaped like an upside-down flask, complete with a narrow tunnel entrance that hangs downward — a design that keeps snakes and tree-climbing predators from reaching the eggs inside. Only when the outer structure is finished does a female inspect his work. If the knots are loose or the chamber is poorly shaped, she may reject the nest entirely, leaving the male to start again on a fresh twig nearby. Naturalists who have studied these colonies note that a single skilled male may build and abandon several incomplete nests in one season before one finally meets a mate's approval.' According to the passage, what happens if the female weaver bird finds the nest's knots loose or its chamber poorly shaped? (a) She may reject the nest entirely, forcing the male to start again (b) She repairs the knots herself before accepting the nest (c) She abandons the tree altogether and searches for a mate elsewhere (d) She reports the flawed nest to a group of other females