H.S.C English Passage with Synonyms

                                       Unit-13, Lesson

 Ayesha Begum has three sons and two daughters. Her husband was a landless (dispossessed, evicted ,outsed ) farmer who used to work on other people's land. With great effort (exertion  ,sweat) they married their daughters off by the time they reached teenage (adolescent, juvenile ). The sons also started working with their father as day laborers when they were old enough (ample) to help. By the time they were about seventeen years old, all of them had left to work in nearby(nigh, adjoining, adjacent ) towns to earn money. At first, they used to send money to their parents occasionally( sporadically , seldom) but after getting married they barely had enough to support their own families. Ayesha Begum and her husband are now old and feeble(shabby, meagre , shaky ). Years of malnutrition ( starvation ) and deprivation( scarcity , deficit ) have made them look older than their years. All they are left with now is their broken little thatched house. Out of desperation Ayesha Begum has started begging in the village to feed her old, invalid husband and herself. She does not know what ails him neither does she has the means to find out. She is too busy collecting food for survival.

                                        Unit-13, Lesson-6

Approximately (Circa , nearly ) 100000 children who do not hold German citizenship( residency, nationality ) are born in the Federal Republic of Germany every year. This situation will change on 1st  January 2000, when a new citizenship law comes into force (vigor, dynamism ). From that day on, children born in Germany to non-German parents will receive German citizenship at birth. The citizenship reform consists of the following points. The children of non-German parents will receive German citizenship at birth in Germany if the father or mother has been legally (lawfully , legitimately ) resident in Germany for eight years. The parent must hold a permanent (perpetual, constant ) residence certificate or have held an unlimited residence permit for three years. If these children also acquire the citizenship of another country at birth they must choose between their German and non-German citizenship within a period of five years following their eighteenth birthday. If they wish to keep their German passport, they must prove that they have given up or withdrawn the citizenship of another country. If they do not do so, their German citizenship will be taken away. Foreigners(aliens , strangers, outsiders) will thus be able to apply for naturalization after only eight years rather than the present period of fifteen years. Those seeking naturalization must be able to support (sustenance ,upkeep) themselves and their families without the help of social security (haven, sanctuary ) payments, must not have committed crimes and must also prove to possess adequate knowledge of German. The federal Government considers the reform an important contribution towards the integration ( amalgamation )of the foreign population. The acquisition of German citizenship entails not only rights, but also duties, for example the obligation (compulsion, onus  ) to do military service for a short period, which is compulsory in Germany.