Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow.
Anna Pavlovna’s drawing room was gradually filling. The highest Petersburg society was assembled there: people differing widely in age and character but alike in the social circle to which they belonged.
Prince Vasili’s daughter, the beautiful Helene, wore a ball dress and her badge as maid of honor. The youthful little Princess Bolkénskaya, known as the most fascinating woman in Petersburg was also there. Vasili’s son, Hippolyte, Mortemart and many others had also come.
To each new arrival Anna Pavlovna said, “You have not yet seen my aunt,” or “You do not know my aunt?” and very gravely conducted him or her to a little old lady, wearing large bows of ribbon in her cap, who had come sailing in from another room as soon as the guests began to arrive; and slowly turning her eyes from the visitor to her aunt, Anna Pavlovna mentioned each one’s name and then left them.
Each visitor performed the ceremony of greeting this old aunt whom not one of them knew, not one of them wanted to know, and not one of them cared about; Anna Pavlovna observed these greetings with mournful and solemn interest and silent approval. The aunt spoke to each of them in the same words, about their health and her own.
And each visitor, though politeness prevented his showing impatience, left the old woman with a sense of relief at having performed a vexatious duty and did not return to her the whole evening.
Match words from the passage with their meanings
Word Meaning
1. solemn a. captivating
2. fascinating b. annoying
3. vexatious c. grave
“The guests left the old woman with a sense of relief at having performed a vexatious
duty”. The duty is described as vexatious because:
Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
If you pay close attention to soap advertisements, you may hear of its pH value being claimed perfect for human skin. But is there really such a thing? Let’s start at the beginning. pH (potential Hydrogen) is defined as the concentration of hydrogen ions in a solution. pH value ranges between 0 and 14. 7 is the neutral point, 0 being the most acidic and 14 being the most alkaline. More importantly, your skin isn’t exactly pH 5.5; it falls in a range between 4.0 and 7.0, depending on diverse factors like the body part, age, genetics, ethnicity, and environment conditions.
So, are products formulated at pH 5.5 perfect for skin? The short answer: not really! First, parameters like texture and other ingredients indicate a cleanser’s quality, much better than pH alone. Second, though the skin pH rises slightly immediately after cleaning even with plain water, it reverts to its mild acidic pH in an hour. Healthy skin quickly rebalances the ‘acid mantle’ — a protective layer over the skin — and is unaffected in the long term by the cleanser’s pH. Skin modulates pH, making skin products function optimally. So, why market pH 5.5 products as “perfect”? Well, for certain skin types (e.g., oily skin) and certain skin conditions (like acne), an increase in pH can aggravate these skin situations. This might lead to an interpretation that a skin care product needs to be at a 5.5 pH for optimum cleansing. Hence, skincare experts have expressed reservations about pH being the sole criterion of product safety and ‘acid mantle’ preservation when factors including plain water may contribute to the same. Thus, an ideal product is almost impossible to define. So, look well beyond pH alone.
