Comprehension-17

Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow :

1.         Abraham Lincoln was born on Feb. 12, 1809, in a log cabin near Hodgenville, Kentucky, U.S.A. In 1816, his family moved to Indiana. Abraham received hardly any formal education but loved reading when he could get hold of a book.

2.         In 1830, Lincoln's father, Thomas Lincoln, took the family to Illinois. Abraham himself moved out of the family home and settled briefly in the Illinois village of New Salem. Lincoln won election as a Whig politician in 1834. He served four successive two-year terms in the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly.

3.         In 1834, a lawyer called John Stuart urged Lincoln to study law. Lincoln borrowed law books from Stuart and studied them. He sometimes walked the 32 kilometres from New Salem to Stuart's office for books.

4.         In 1836, Lincoln embarked on a highly successful career as a lawyer based in the Illinois state capital of Springfield. He eventually founded his own firm in 1846. Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd in 1842.

5.         In 1846, Lincoln was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, but failed to make his mark. In 1849, he failed to get an appointment as Commissioner of the General Land Office. President Zachary Taylor, a fellow Whig, offered him other political offices, but he refused them.

QUESTIONS :

1. How do you know that Abraham Lincoln was born in a very poor family?

2. Give an example from the passage that Lincoln took great interest in his studies though he didn't have any formal education?

3. What was the post that Lincoln refused in 1849?

4. In which year did Lincoln marry and to whom?

5. Write the important events that took place in the following years as far as Lincoln's life is concerned :

Year	Event
1.      1809 2.      1830 3.      1834 4.      1849

6. Write the meanings of the underlined words/phrases from the passage :

(a) .......................................    (b) .......................................

Answers : 

1. Abraham Lincoln was born in a very poor family, we can know this fact from his birth in a log cabin and that he did not receive any formal education.

2. Abraham Lincoln took great interest in studies because he read any book he could get.

3. Abraham Lincoln was offered political offices, but he refused them.

4. Lincoln married Mary Todd in 1842.

5. 1809 : Lincoln was born this year. 1830 : His father took the family to Illinois. 1834 : John Stuart urged Lincoln to study law. 1849 :  Lincoln failed to get an appointment as Commissioner of the General Land Office.

6. (a) one after another, (b) started.