Focus on Comprehension

Summary of Silas Marner: Unit 2

Silas, the weaver, kept toddler Eppie fastened with a linen strip when he worked at the loom.
Eppie developed a capacity for mischief and somehow managed to cut the strip with scissors
without him noticing. She sneaked away and ran away into a neighboring field. Silas tried to find
her in a frenzied confusion and when he did, he could not bear to punish her. However, only to
make Eppie realize her mistake, he tried shutting her in the coal hole. Eppie found the coal hole
as much fun as the fields, and Silas dropped all idea of punishing her in future. The child caused
love to grow within Silas. He felt that the world had changed. However, the world was still the
same, and it was he who had changed. Eppie was a treasure precious than gold. He changed from
a selfish to a selfless person because of Eppie. (150 words)

Summary of Dial F for Fear: Unit 3

Humans are surrounded with fear of their own inventions. They are becoming obsessed with
trivial matters. The electromagnetic waves of hairdryers, pesticides in food, and personal safety
are haunting people. The heavy bills of mobile phones haunted people. Now they are worried
about their radiation which can cause cancer or memory loss. However, animal studies suggest
that mobile phone waves are harmless. The science has confirmed and refuted its own claims.
Science keeps people conjecturing about definite answers as health is a primary concern for
everyone over everything. This is probably due to the financial gains linked to some studies. The
studies focused on hyped trivial concerns, are able to win over heavy funding and investment and
have more worth as compared to the ones addressing true health concerns. With every decade,
health concerns of people have been steered from major to trivial for monetary gains. (146
words)
Summary of Kaspar Hauser: Unit 4
On March 6th, 1828, Shwolishay Regiment Captain received a boy with a letter from a drunk man
stating that the boy had not left his house for 16 years. Kaspar walked like an infant which,
according to a doctor, was due to abnormal knee bone structure. His eating habits were queer, his
speech was jumbled, and he was heedless to sounds. He reported a lack of sense of time and he
was always fed on water and bread. His language was extremely underdeveloped. When he was
sent to live with Daumer’s family in 1829, his linguistic skills improved significantly which
resulted in him writing his memoirs. However, after an unsuccessful assassination attempt on
him by someone, the endeavor was never completed. His existence was rumored to be an
obstacle in the way of someone’s mayorship to the Baden state and Kaspar eventually died in
second assassination attempt in 1833. (149 words)

Summary of Sweet dreams made by machine: Unit 4

A machine, Yumemi Kobo, has been invented to help people have wishful dreams free of
nightmares. Its Japanese creator, Takara, has added numerous features to it which work
concurrently by arousing sense of smell and sound to evoke dreams. The machine follows
various steps before creating a dream. It is created to detect and adjust to owner’s REM sleep
pattern without disrupting it. The waking up process is also subtle. However, the machine has
some cons according to the director. It cannot identify individual REM and has the possibility to
disrupt natural body cycles. The psychologists have not fully agreed to its use. Takara conducted
the tests on a limited number of volunteers but a larger general population has not used it yet.
Nevertheless, the machine showed favorable results initially and is expected to show more
promising results in future. (140 words)
Summary of The Extinction Crisis: Unit 5
The equilibrium of nature exists due to biodiversity. However, the human population explosion
is resulting in over exploitation of available resources thus threatening the existence of other
species on Earth. The speed of disappearing species is faster than the past and can lead to their
imminent extinction. Previously, natural calamities caused species extinction which resulted in
new evolutionary species. Presently, however, the human exploitation of natural environment
would hamper the process of evolution. The resources exploitation will also affect human species
as it is dependent on its habitat for survival in various ways. Greater number of species
contribute to greater environmental stability. Some species of flora and fauna are part and parcel
of ecosystem and their disappearance caused an imbalance in it. A majority agrees on stopping
species’ extinction but the methods of aversion are still debatable as commercial benefits are also
attached to some species of animals. (148 words)