37. Reading Skills Comprehension: Culture

Culture

Read the following passage carefully-                                                                                

India has evolved, through its classical and folk traditions, a type of dance and drama that is a form of total theatre. The actor dances out the story through a complex language of gestures. This form cuts across the language barriers of the subcontinent. Some of the classical dance-drama forms enact well-known stories originating from Hindu mythology.

     The chief source of classical dance is Bharata Muni’s Natya Shastra a treatise on the origin and function of Natya. The actor is equipped with a complicated repertoire of gestures. Movements are land down for every part of the body, the eyes and hands being the most important.T here are 24 single-handed gestures and 13 involving both hands. One gesture may mean more than 30 different things quite unrelated to each other. The pataka gesture of the hand, for example, in which all the fingers are extended and held close together with the thumb bent, can represent heat, rain, a crowd of men, the night, a forest, a horse, or a flight of birds.

  The artistic pleasure of Hindu dance and theatre is determined by how successful the artist is in expressing a particular emotion and evoking the rasa. Literally, rasa means ‘taste’, or ‘flavour’, and is that exalted sentiment or mood which the spectator experiences after witnessing a performance.

Read the questions given below and write the option you consider the most appropriate answer-

1. In a dance – drama the actor tells the story through                                                                             

(a) A rhythm of dance                       (b) language of gestures

(c) Vocal music                                (d) song and dance

2. Some of the classical dance-drama forms are based on                                                      

(a) Agro-based culture                              (b) Religious ceremonies of many religions

(c) Stories from Hindu mythology           (d) Customs and traditions

3. The chief source of classical dance is                                                                                               

(a)Bharat Natyam                                        (b)Kathakali

(c)Natya Shastra                                           (d)not yet known

4. The artistic pleasure of Hindu dance and theatre is determined by the artist’s expression

(a)emotion                                                       (b)taste                                                                               

(c)emotion and taste                                     (d)face

5. The word exalted in paragraph  means                                                                                                         

(a)expressive                                                  (b)impressive

(c)expensive                                                   (d)extremely happy

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