AECC-02 c-ENG

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Odisha State Op e n university,'
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ABILITY ENHANCEMENT A
COMPULSARY COURSE (AECC-3'

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AECC-02: MIL A L T E R N A T ~ EENGLISH
AECC- 02/OSOU
CONTENTS
BLOCK 1- ENGLISH SHORT STORIES
BLOCK 2- ENGLISH PROSE
BLOCK 3- COMPREHENSION PASSAGE AND TEST OF

VOCABULARY USAGE AND GRAMMA- I
BLOCK 4- COMPREHENSION PASSAGE AND TEST

OF VOCABULARY USAGE AND GRAMMAR- II
AECC- 02/OSOU
DETAILED CONTENTS
BLOCK BLOCK UNIT UNIT

NO. NO.
1 The Fight between Leopards

1 ENGLISH SHORT 2 The Bicycle
STORIES
3 George- V High School
4 The Man who knew too much
5 Uneasy Homecoming

NO. NO.
5 The way to equal distribution

2 ENGLISH PROSE 6 A call to Youth
7 Water- The Elixir of Life
8 An Educated Person
9 No Learning without Feeling

NO. NO.
10 Teaching Reading Comprehension

COMPREHENSION Strategies Structure
3
PASSAGE AND 11 Precis Writing
TEST OF
12 Language Exercises – Test Of
VOCABULARY
Vocabulary
USAGE AND
GRAMMA- I 13 Language Exercises - Usage and
Grammar
AECC- 02/OSOU

NO. NO.
14 Exercise-1
4 COMPREHENSION 15 Exercise- 2
PASSAGE AND
TEST OF 16 Exercise- 3
VOCABULARY
17 Exercise- 4
USAGE AND
GRAMMA- II
ODISHA STATE OPEN UNIVERSITY, SAMBALPUR
Programme Name: ABILITY ENHANCEMENT COMPULSARY COURSE
Programme Code: AECC Course Name: MIL ALTERNATIVE ENGLISH
Course Code: AECC-02 Semester: II
Credit: 4 Block No.1 to 4 Unit No.1 to16 Pages:-168
This study material has been developed by Odisha State Open University as per the
State Model Syllabus for Under Graduate Course in English (Bachelor of Arts
Examinations) under Choice Based Credit System (CBCS).
COURSE WRITER
Ananya Sabath
Academic Consultant in English
Odisha State Open University
OER
Source Link:
For the preparation of this SLM covering the Unit-1 and Unit-2 of AECC-2 in accordance
with the Model Syllabus, we have borrowed the content from the book “THE WIDENING
ARC”, edited by Dr. Asima Ranjan Parhi, Dr. S. Deepika and Mr Pulastya Jani, printed at
‘Kitab Bhavan, Bhubaneswar’. Odisha State Open University acknowledges the authors,
editors and the publishers with heartfelt thanks for extending their support. The rest two
blocks are taken from different grammar books and English workbooks and formatted into
our official format. The whole block has been designed and developed by the Department of
English, Odisha State Open University.
COURSE EDITOR
Subhra Souranshu Pujahari

Academic Consultant in English
Odisha State Open University
Printed and Published by
Registrar
Odisha State Open University, Sambalpur
(cc) OSOU, 2022. MIL ALTERNATIVE ENGLISH is made available
under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
http://creativecommons.org/licences/by-sa/4.0
Printer:
AECC- 02/OSOU
UNIT WISE CONTENTS
BLOCKS/UNITS PAGE NO.
Block- 1: English Short Stories 1- 44
Unit- 1: The Fight between Leopards: Introduction to the writer; ‘Jim Corbett’,
Introduction to the story ‘The Man-eating leopard of Rudraprayag and ‘The fight between the
Leopards’, Glossary of difficult terms
Unit- 2: The Bicycle: Introduction to the writer; ‘Dash Benhur’, ‘The Bicycle (Text),
Summary of the text, Glossary of difficult terms
Unit- 3: George- V High School: About the writer; ‘Dinanath Pathy’, The Text ‘George- V
High School, Glossary of Difficult Terms
Unit- 4: The Man who knew too much: Introduction to the text, Introduction to the writer;
‘Alexander Baron’, Summary of the text; ‘The Man who knew too much’, Glossary of
difficult terms
Unit- 5: Uneasy Homecoming: Introduction to the text, Introduction to the writer; Will. F.
Jenkins, Summary of the text; ‘Uneasy Homecoming’, Glossary of difficult terms
Block- 2: English Prose 45-77
Unit- 5: The way to equal distribution: Introduction to the text, Introduction to the writer;
M.K. Gandhi, The text; ‘The way to equal distribution’, Summary of the text, Glossary of
difficult terms
Unit- 6: A call to Youth: Introduction to the text, Introduction to the writer; S.

Radhakrishnan, The text; ‘A call to youth, Summary of the text, Glossary of difficult terms
Unit- 7: Water- The Elixir of Life: Introduction to the text, Introduction to the writer; ‘C.V.
Raman’, The text; ‘Water- The Elixir of life’, Summary of the text, Glossary of difficult
terms
Unit- 8: An Educated Person: Introduction to the text, Introduction to the writer; ‘Harold
Nicolson’, The text: ‘An Educated Person’, Summary of the text, Glossary of difficult terms
Unit- 9: No Learning without Feeling: Introduction to the text, Introduction to the writer;
‘Claire Needell Hollander’, The text; ‘No Learning without feeling’, Summary of the text,
Glossary of difficult terms
Block- 3: Comprehension Passage and Test Vocabulary usage and Grammar- I 78-119
AECC- 02/OSOU
Unit- 9: Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies Structure: Reading fluency

through oral reading, ZIP close method, Group oral reading, Drawing inferences, Trade off
method of questioning, DKTA method of questioning and Opinion eliciting questions
Unit 10: Precis Writing: What is Precis? How to write a precis? How to answer questions in
a passage? Reading comprehension, Characteristics of a good precis, Problems in writing a
precis and some illustrations
Unit 11: Language Exercises – Test of Vocabulary: What is Grammar? Use of Grammar,
Why study Grammar? And what is grammatical?
Unit- 12: Language Exercises -- Usage and Grammar: Approaches to teaching grammar,
Current trends in Grammar and Grammar exercises
Block- 4: Comprehension Passage and Test Vocabulary usage and Grammar- II 120-169
Unit- 13: Exercise- 1: Comprehensive Passage
Unit- 14: Exercise- 2: Exercises on Grammar
Unit- 15: Exercise- 3: Exercises on Language usage
Unit- 16: Exercise- 4: Glossary and Check your progress

BLOCK-1
SHORT STORIES
UNIT 1 THE FIGHT BETWEEN LEOPARDS
UNIT 2 THE BICYCLE
UNIT 3 GEORGE V HIGH SCHOOL
UNIT 4 THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
UNIT 5 UNEASY HOMECOMING
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UNIT 1: THE FIGHT BETWEEN LEOPARDS
Structure
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 About the writer: Jim Corbett
1.3 Introduction to the story
1.4 The Man-eating tiger of Rudraprayag
1.5 Interpretation of the text: The fight between Leopards
1.6 Glossary of difficult terms
1.7 Check your progress
1.8 Let us sum up
1.0 OBJECTIVES
After studying this unit, you be able to:
• Learn about the various stories that are still unheard of and learn about new
characters and know about their lives and works.
• Examine the stories and develop reading and writing skills by attempting the
related exercises and questions.
• Enhance your knowledge in reading and writing.
1.1 INTRODUCTION
The following unit has a short story written by Jim Corbett in a pastoral Indian
backdrop. Through this short story, you may get to know about the Indian tales that
may be unknown to most of the common masses. This will help you to develop reading
skills since the CBCS undergraduate syllabus has a ‘skilling’ component (English
Communication) under its Ability Enhancement Compulsory Course, this course also
focusses to deliver a liberal arts (areas of study that are intended to give you general
knowledge rather than to develop specific skills needed for a profession) exposure to
you. The following story is about the horrendous fight between two man-eating
leopards that the narrator had witnessed during his stay in one of the villages of
Rudraprayag and Kumaon. The extreme power play to stay in one’s territorial reign is
vividly portrayed by the narrator.
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1.2 ABOUT THE WRITER: JIM CORBETT
James Edward Corbett or Jim Corbett was born in the year 1855 and died in 1955. He
was Colonel in the British Indian Army, the government of the United Provinces,
mostly called upon Corbett and his army to hunt and kill man-eating leopards that were
killing and devouring the villagers from the nearby villages of Garhwal and Kumaon
regions. Jim Corbett was a curious photographer and also a conservationist who
gradually turned out to be an author after his retirement. Corbett has authored many
books out of which “Man-Eaters of Kumaon” and “The man-eating leopard of
Rudraprayag” have become classic jungle tales. The following tale “The Fight
between Leopards” is an extraction from ‘The Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag’.
During his life Corbett tracked and shot a number of leopards and tigers; about a dozen
were well documented man-eaters. Corbett provided estimates of human casualties in
his books, including Man-Eaters of Kumaon, The Man-Eating Leopard of
Rudraprayag, and The Temple Tiger, and More Man-Eaters of
Kumaon. Calculating the totals from these accounts, these big cats had killed more
than 1,200 men, women, and children, according to Corbett. There are some
discrepancies in the official human death tolls that the British and Indian governments
have on record and Corbett's estimates.
The first designated man-eating tiger he killed, the Champawat Tiger, was responsible
for 436 documented deaths. Though most of his kills were tigers, Corbett successfully
killed at least two man-eating leopards. The first was the Panar Leopard in 1910, which
allegedly killed 400 people. The second was the maneating Leopard of Rudraprayag
in 1926, which terrorized the pilgrims on the holy Hindu shrines Kedarnath and
Badrinath for more than eight years, and was said to be responsible for more than 126
deaths.
Other notable man-eaters he killed were the Talla-Des man-eater, the Mohan maneater,
the Thak man-eater, the Muktesar man-eater and the Chowgarh tigress.
Analysis of carcasses, skulls, and preserved remains show that most of the maneaters
were suffering from disease or wounds, such as porcupine quills embedded deep in the
skin or gunshot wounds that had not healed, like that of the Muktesar Man-Eater. The
Thak man-eating tigress, when skinned by Corbett, revealed two old gunshot wounds;
one in her shoulder had become septic, and could have been the reason for the tigress's
having turned man-eater, Corbett suggested. In the foreword of Man Eaters of
Kumaon, Corbett writes:
The wound that has caused a particular tiger to take to man-eating might be the result
of a carelessly fired shot and failure to follow up and recover the wounded animal, or
be the result of the tiger having lost his temper while killing a porcupine
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Corbett preferred to hunt alone and on foot when pursuing dangerous game. He often
hunted with Robin, a small dog he wrote about in Man-Eaters of Kumaon.
(http://en.turkcewiki.org/wiki/Jim Corbett)
1.3 INTRODUCTION TO THE STORY: THE MAN EATING

LEOPARD OF RUDRAPRAYAG
Jim Corbett had an excellent narrating skill that went hand in hand with his hunting
expertise. His books mostly elaborate the jaw dropping episodes of his hunting and
tracking of the dangerous man-eating leopards in the Himalayas. This story gives us a
well-informed account of an accidental yet lethal fight that happened to take place
between a local leopard and a savage man-eating leopard that had spread terror and
fright in the hills of Rudraprayag since eight long years. Corbett witnessed one of the
most terrible and fiercest animal fights and puts light on how ferocious can leopards
be when they fight to protect their territories. This might make us inquisitive to know
who finally met victory and what finally happens to Corbett’s mission? This story shall
help us get the answers to all our questions.
1.4 THE MAN-EATING LEOPARD OF RUDRAPRAYAG
'The man-eating leopard of Rudraprayag' is a classic example of Corbett's natural

writing. The writer amalgams his out-standing knowledge in hunting with his jaw
dropping experiences with wild animals and comes out with such notable texts like
‘The man-eating leopard of Rudraprayag’. When we read this work of Corbett, we not
only know about the dreadful fight that appears to take place between two savage
carnivores but it also gives us a clear view of the British Raj and transports us to those
remote jungles of Norther India during the British Rule. This book portrays a vivid
image of the simplistic and natural life of the villagers of Rudraprayag who are far
away from the temptations of the materialistic world, they lead a happy life with their
families and loved ones, there is no villain in their lives until there is this one savage
leopard who ruins all their happiness by hunting and destroying the families of the
villagers in Rudrprayag. The dreadful leopard reportedly took 420 lives and had
terrorized a huge region of that area. Corbett bags the responsibility to kill this old yet
terrifying leopard and this takes place in the second half of 1920. The old leopard
happens to be a man-eater after the lethal influenza (commonly known as the flu, is an
infectious disease caused by an influenza virus) outbreak of 1918 and Corbett
relentlessly hunts for this predator for over two years. Corbett literally had to put his
life at stake in order to fight out this predator. There are times when Corbett goes back
to the village with a defeated spirit and there are also times when the leopard snatches
a goat right under Corbett’s nose but Corbett still misses a chance to catch. The author
further elaborates the sheer helplessness of man when he/she is attacked by a brutal
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carnivorous predator. Finally Corbett is able to kill the maneater. In true Corbett
fashion by that time he has developed a soft corner for the old dead leopard, which
gave him such a sporty fight. At that time there were no high security fences, no guns
or any kind of technology to track the leopard. Yet the people had to enter the forest
to earn their daily bread. There is an unforgettable chapter in the book titled 'Terror'
which narrates very vividly about the village nightlife. This is one of the books, which
shows that for writing adventure one don't need weapons or FBI investigations. Any
writer with a big heart who loves what he is doing and knows what he is talking about
can give the impression of a forest or any place to its readers.
1.5 THE TEXT: THE FIGHT BETWEEN LEOPARDS
The text opens with the wailing of a woman who mourned the death of her child.
Unfortunately the child became the victim in the claws of a cruel leopard and was
already torn into pieces when the narrator entered the village. The narrator however
was not used to such sights and apparently didn’t know how to react to this painful
situation. The woman blamed the men of the villages in utter pain and dissatisfaction
that they were not able to chase behind the leopard when he took her child as she
thought her husband (the child’s father) might have done, had he been alive, she still
dwelled upon the thought that her son would’ve been alive and breathing if the village
men would have gathered the courage to chase the leopard. The narrator tried to explain
her the fact that it was not practically possible as nobody can dare to mess with such a
horrifying beast unarmed, added to it when the leopard (or any such carnivorous
beasts) hold their prey by the throat, they dislocate the head from the neck, resulting in
immediate death of the victim, therefore, the poor boy was dead much before the
leopard clasped him and took him across the courtyard.
The narrator continually brooded over the fact that how such a giant beast can go
unnoticed from the eyes of the people and can sneak down the courtyard in broad
daylight or how even the dog in the village didn’t get a hint about the leopard’s arrival?
The narrator followed the blood-drag marks across the yam field to examiner how the
leopard would’ve jumped off the eight foot wall carrying the boy and dragged him
down the yam field and again crossed a wall that was 12 feet high. The narrator found
a thick hedge of rambler roses that was four feet high and that was the spot where the
leopard released his hold from the boy’s throat after searching for an opening in the
hedge and not being to find one. The leopard must’ve gone a short distance after when
the alarm was raised in the village, this prevented the leopard from getting back his
kill, hence, he glided down the hill after hearing the sounds of beating drums and firing
of guns that went all night in the village. The narrator wanted to carry the dead boy
back to the place where the leopard had left it and wait there for the leopard to come
and take his prey but he didn’t find a place suitable for him to. The nearest tree was a
leaflet walnut tree that roughly 300 yards away, but it didn’t seem appropriate for the
narrator to sit under it and added to it, the narrator did not want to sit on the ground as
according to him he did not have the courage to sit on the ground. He (the narrator)
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finally arrived the village by sunset still hovering upon the thought that how could he
possibly catch hold of the leopard. He basically had to return with a heavy heart as it
was already dark and moreover he (the narrator) did not get a safe place in the fields
where he could take shelter. He then analysed what would’ve happened if he would’ve
sat there in the fields and concluded that it would’ve made the leopard’s catch easy and
he would have got no chance to use the one weapon that he had bought with him, the
rifle, as it is almost impossible to use fire-arms when one comes in close contact with
an unwounded carnivore and that too a leopard or a tiger.
When the narrator returned to the courtyard after inspecting the area, he asked the
headman for a crowbar, a stout wooden peg, a hammer and a dog chain. He forced one
of the flagstones in the middle of the courtyard, driving the peg firmly into the ground
and finally fastened one end of the chain to it. Then he carried the body of the boy to
the peg with the help of the headman and chained the body there.
The narrator asked the mother and daughter to be removed to a room at the end of the
row of buildings, after all this, he (narrator) asked for a bundle of straw that he laid on
the veranda in front of the door of the house vacated by the mother. The narrator then
asked the crowd to be silent that night as the entire village was covered with pitch
darkness. He then sent the villagers to their respective homes and took his position in
the veranda having a clear view of the kill/victim/dead boy without the chances of
being seen. The narrator had a gut feeling that the leopard would definitely return
despite of all the noises and chaos that took place the previous night because after not
being able to find his kill in the place where he left him, the leopard would definitely
suspect the village again in order to find his kill or may be try to grab another victim.
The ease with which the leopard secured his first victim made the narrator curious and
raised his hopes really high to greet the leopard.
Meanwhile heavy clouds gathered in the sky at 8 p.m. and all the sounds in the village
were hushed except the wailing of women, a flash of lightening followed by a distant
roll of thunder heralded an approaching storm. There occurred an enraging storm along
with the lightening, so bright and brilliant that a rat could have been seen venturing
into the courtyard and the narrator could have probably been able to shoot it. The rain
stopped eventually, but the sky remained over-shadowed with heavy clouds reducing
visibility to a few inches. This was the apt time for the leopard to start from his shelter
and hunt for his victim. The woman (the mother of the boy who was killed by the
leopard) had stopped wailing by now and there was drop-dead silence covering every
nook and every corner of the village. The narrator was now ready to meet the leopard
and was all set to listen to the sound of the arrival of the leopard.
The straw that had been provided for the narrator was as dry as tinder and the narrator’s
ears strained into the black darkness and to his attention, the narrator first heard a
creeping sound, it sounded like the creature is stealthily creeping on which the narrator
was lying. The narrator was wearing a pair of shorts that had left the narrator’s knees
bare. The narrator could feel a hairy coat of an animal brushing against his bare knees
and it took no time for the narrator that it was none other than the man-eater creeping
5
up until he could lean over and get a steady grip of the narrator’s throat. The narrator
could now feel a little pressure on his left shoulder and then, just as the narrator was
about to press the trigger of the rifle, a small animal jumped down in between his arms
and his chest, the animal wasn’t a leopard but a tiny little kitten who was soaking wet
and was caught out in the storm. He came to the narrator to take shelter finding every
door shut.
Little did the narrator and the little kitten had made themselves comfortable and just
as the narrator was about to overcome his fright when he heard a low growling that
perpetually grew louder. Gradually the slow growling turned into the most horrendous
fight that the narrator had ever witnessed in his life. The narrator could evidently trace
that the man-eater had returned to the spot where the previous night he had left his kill,
and while he was searching for it, another male leopard who looked upon “that
particular area as his hunting ground, had accidentally come across him and set on him
(the previous leopard). This fight of nature happened to be one of the most unusual
that the narrator could ever witness, for the carnivorous breed invariably keep to their
own areas, and if by any case they are challenged by another of the same creed, they
size up each other’s capabilities at a glance and the weaker gives way to the stronger.
The man-eater, though old was a huge and powerful male and in the 500 square miles,
he ranged, there possibly wasn’t any other capable male who could disrupt his rule.
But here, he had to fight for his life and fight frantically because his competitor was
much younger and stronger. The narrator was disheartened because his dream of taking
a shot of the leopard could no longer be accomplished for even the man-eater himself
was unable to defeat his attacker. It seemed that his injuries would probably prevent
him from taking any interest in kills for some time to come. In fact the fight was so
ghastly that there were even chances of fatal injuries to be seen in the body of the man-
eater and that could possibly be an end to the rule of the man-eater. This fight would
do what the Government couldn’t do since years, it would perhaps bring the 8 year
rule of the man-eater come to a forever end.
The first round of the dreadful fight was fought with a great valour and barbarity and
hence couldn’t be concluded easily, but at the end bot the beasts were heard screaming
and growling. The fight was resumed after a gap of nearly 10-15 minutes, but it was
at a distance of two three yards from where it had originally initiated. The local beast
seemed better in fighting away the intruder out of the ring. The third round was
comparatively shorter than the previous two rounds but the amount of hideousness
wasn’t lessened even a bit. There was a long period of silence then, after which it
receded to the shoulder of the hill and after a few minutes it died out of hearing.
There was still some 6 hours of darkness pertaining. The narrator knew the fact well
that his mission to Bhainswara has failed and hoped that the fight would have ended
up in killing the man-eater and his threat forever.
1.6 GLOSSARY OF DIFFICULT TERMS
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• UNARMED: not equipped with or without carrying weapons.
• CARNIVOROUS: (of an animal) feeding on other animals/ Depending on
other animal’s flesh for their food.
• BROOD: think deeply about something that makes one unhappy, angry, or
worried.
• WAILING: A loud cry.
• CROWBAR: An iron bar flattened at one end to dig earth and make holes.
• FRANTICALLY: In a distraught manner, giving way to fear, anxiety, or other
fragile emotions.
• ENRAGING: Very angry or furious.
• YAM: Yam is the common name for some plant species in the genus Dioscorea
(family Dioscoreaceae) that form edible tubers.
• DREADFUL: causing or involving great suffering, fear, or unhappiness;
extremely bad or serious.
• HIDEOUSNESS: horrible or frightful to the senses; repulsive; very ugly.
BARBARITY: extreme cruelty or brutality.
1.7 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
1. How does the text open? Why was the woman wailing?
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2. What blame did the wailing woman put on the villagers?
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3. What was the prime goal of the narrator? Did he succeed in fulfilling his goal?
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4. Where and how did the leopard keep his kill?
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5. How did the narrator plan to catch hold of the leopard?
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6. What did the narrator feel and what did he think while he was sleeping? What
was it actually?
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7. What did the narrator finally witness? How was it?
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8. How many rounds were there in the fight of the leopards? Whom do you think
won the fight at last?
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9. Why was the narrator disheartened?

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10. What happened after the long silence that took place in between the fight of the
leopards?
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1.9 LET US SUM UP
The above unit is about a fight that took place between two ferocious leopards in one
of the villages of Rudraprayag. The narrator, Jim Corbett is not only a writer but he
was also a great hunter and this is one of his memories where he witnesses a terrible
fight between two full-grown and furious leopards, one who already ruled the area and
the second wanted to rule his territory. There is a continuous play of suspense and thrill
as the story proceeds. The Leopard who already ruled the territory was a big matter of
terror for the villagers because he used to prey small children. In fact, the day when
the narrator reached the village, the leopard had already killed a small boy and had
witnessed his mother crying and wailing for her deceased child. The narrator somehow
aimed on catching hold of the leopard so that it can be killed, but before he could
anticipate the presence of the leopard, he witnessed these two leopards ruining each
other’s face to rule their desired territories.
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UNIT 2 : THE BICYCLE
Structure
2.0
Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 About the Author, Dash Benhur
2.3 The Text, The Bicycle
2.4 Glossary of Difficult terms
2.5 Check your Progress
2.6 Let us Sum up
2.0 OBJECTIVE

• Learn about Dash Benhur and his efficiency in writing.
• Analyse the proficiency of Odia writers and their writings.
2.1 INTRODCUTION
For most of us, a bicycle has been the most reliable of friends that takes us from one
place to another, does it ask anything in return? Of course not, that’s the reason why
inanimate objects, especially the ones that have been with us since years, occupy such
a special place in our hearts and in our lives. Though the fact that bicycles are losing
their demand and there will be a time, when we won’t find a single bicycle on the
streets. It is believed that, “a cycle is a poor man’s transport, a rich man’s hobby and
a medical activity for the old. Read this fascinating story about a man’s deep
attachment towards his old bicycle and also his unwillingness to let the bicycle go
despite not having ridden it for quite a long period of time.
11
2.2 ABOUT THE AUTHOR, DASH BENHUR
Dash Benhur is the penname of Jitendra Narayan Dash, a well-known writer of

children’s stories in Odia. He is the author of more than 100 books, including 15
collection of short-stories. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the
‘Kendra Sahitya Akademi Awards’, ‘Odisha Sahitya Akademi Awards’ and ‘Odisha
Bigyan Akademi Awards’. He retired as the Principal of Samanta .
2.3 THE TEXT, THE BICYCLE
Tana said, “Grandfather, your poetry is just like your old bicycle.”
Sudhir Babu looked at his grandson. He was in the seventh class and in his thirteenth
year, but his critical sense was remarkable. Sudhir Babu said, just to annoy the lad
“Why, do you hear my poetry creaking? Or its bell tinkling?”
The grandson was not to be put off. “No Grandfather, I don’t hear any such sounds.”
But your poems are as old-fashioned as your bicycle. Write poetry by all means if you
have to, but must you go on repeating “bicycle, bicycle” all the time? “The bicycle is
my friend”, “The bicycle is my life”, “The bicycle is my body,” and so on. A lot of
rubbish, if you ask me! It’s high time you got rid of that bicycle. It’s nothing but
garbage, littering up the house!”
Having said this, the boy flung the magazine on the bed and walked off.
Sudhir Babu was speechless for a minute. “Old fashioned garbage”, he says! He
muttered.
For the last two years, that bicycle had been the theme of all his poems. They had been
published in various magazines and readers had written letters praising them. A
publisher had even offered to put them together in a collection. But his grandson
declared it was rubbish!
Well, well—what can the child know of poetry? Can symbolism mean anything to
him? Then why take his criticism to heart? At first, Sudhir Babu had treated the affair
lightly, but that evening, when he picked up his pen to write yet another poem on the
same theme, his hand jerked to a stop. The old bicycle suddenly seemed to confront
him—thickly coated with dust, paint peeling off the rusted frame, mudguards bent and
battered, and the seat pointing backwards. The object that had inspired a hundred
poems stood before him accusing him.
He hadn’t ridden the bicycle for at least five years. But that did not mean that he had
distanced himself from it. They might have been separated physically, but it still filled
every fragment of his consciousness.
He felt he had to get up and take a look at the bicycle at once.
12
It had been standing in the same position, leaning against the wall in a corner of the
front verandah, for the last five years. He opened the front door and stepped out into
the verandah. The bicycle was almost hidden behind a shroud of dust, grime and
cobwebs. The tyres were deflated, robbed of their life-breath; the seat was about to fall
off; the mudguards were dented in a thousand places. All traces of paint had vanished
long ago. He gazed and gazed.
Yes, it was true. He hadn’t touched the bicycle once during the two years which he
had spent writing poetry dedicated to it. Not one loving touch, not one whisper of
commiseration. Well, he might not have ridden it, but shouldn’t he have taken some
care of it?
What would it have said to him if it could speak? What a burden of hurt feelings it
must be carrying!
Memories returned. The bicycle had entered his life forty years ago, at the same time
as Rajani. She was a new bride then and it had been a brand new, green “Made in
England” Humber with twin forks. With a German bell on the handle-bar, the sound
of which could be heard across the neighbourhood. It has a Lucas dynamo whose
majestic hum filled the air whenever he pedalled along a lonely road. The powerful
beam from the lamp lit up the night.
Once, several of his friends and he had gone on a picnic. Everything was loaded onto
five bicycles, carrying eight grown men between them. The picnic spot was seven to
eight kilometres away from the village. They had taken a petromax for light. Food was
cooked; the fun and frolic came to an end. They sat down to eat in the purple glow of
the sunset. It soon grew darker, but when they tried to light the petromax, it only
spluttered and coughed. What were they to do? They were in the middle of a forest; it
was necessary to get back soon.
Then someone had a brainwave. “I say, Sudhir’s bicycle has a dynamo, doesn’t it?
It’s more powerful than any petromax.” The cycle was put on its stand and they took
turns to turn the crank, making the rear wheel go round, while the rest sat down to eat.
When it was time to return, Sudhir Babu’s bicycle led the way. No other bicycle had
a dynamo. So it was that the bicycle came to the rescue.
It had borne the burden of Sudhir Babu, his son, daughter and countless friends
patiently through the years. Innumerable bags filled with vegetables had been slung
from its handle-bars, sometimes meat. Goods ordered by Rajani had been carried home
on it from the market. She never visited the market—it wasn’t done in her family, she
said. So, on Rajo, Savitri amavasya, Holi or other festivals, Sudhir Babu had to fetch
eight or ten different sarees for her approval from a known shopkeeper and she would
select one, the others had returned. It was the bicycle that had to do all the fetching
and returning. True, Sudhir Babu pedalled, but apparently, it was the bicycle’s labour;
wasn’t it?
Sudhir Babu often felt the bicycle was alive to all that was going on. That was why,
on his way to the college, he frequently entered into a conversation with it. “You know,
13
friend,” he would begin “Rajani has become Rather irritable these days.” I don’t like
it all. She has sat on your front rod a couple of times, hasn’t she? How shy she used to
be! And now she gets upset so easily! I wonder what’s wrong. You remember those
days in Sundargarh, don’t you? Our son was about to be born. He was expected on the
twenty-eighth but the labour pains began on the twelfth. How she suffered! It was night
and there was not a rickshaw to be found. The hospital didn’t have an ambulance. You
seemed to be telling me something in gestures. So I spread out a bed-sheet across your
front rod and lifted Rajani onto it. Remember that freezing winter night? And those
two nurses—they were the Mother incarnate! God knows what they did, but the child
was born almost immediately.
“That son has married and become a father now. That rascal of a grandson is in the
seventh class, and a new bicycle, equipped with shock absorbers, has been bought for
him. Bright red in colour. Why should he even glance at you? Old-fashioned garbage,
he calls you.”
He was turning over page after page from the scrapbook of memories. In all these
episodes, he had been a participant—but the real hero was the bicycle.
In an emotional moment he had given it name—Veersen, raja Prithviraj Chauhan’s

horse was called Chetak and Alexander the Great had named his horse Bucephalus.
Then why shouldn’t the “Made in England” green Humner have a name? Sometimes,
when he had to clean and oil the machine, he would call out to his wife “Do you hear?
Bring me some coconut oil mixed with a little kerosene. I have to attend to Veersen.”
He taught English in a college. His entire professional life had been spent in
Veersen’s company. Even after retirement, Sudhir Babu could be seen engaged in
various odd jobs around the city, mounted on Veersen. His visits to the Government
Treasury, library and literary meetings were all performed with Veersen’s help. His
friends teased him: Veersen was the elixir that helped preserve his health.
Five years ago, Sudhir Babu had hidden Veersen to a friend’s home on a visit. The 40-
year old bicycle and its 63- year old rider usually made a safe pair; but God knows
what happened that day—Sudhir Babu ran headlong into a telephone pole and had to
be carried to the hospital. When he returned, three days later, Veersen had been
consigned to the position on the front verandah which it has occupied to this day.
“No more bicycle rides for you!” his son had announced. “You were lucky to get off
so lightly.”
Then Sudhir Babu remembered: his vision had suddenly blurred as he cycled along
and his head reeled. But he could not recall how he had collided with the telephone
pole.
From that day, Veersen lay neglected.
14
His sin did not attempt to sell off the old bicycle or otherwise get rid of it, out of regard
for his father, but neither did he try to get it repaired. And now the grandson says
“Throw it out; it’s garbage!”
Sudhir Babu picked up a rag and wiped away some of the dust. Then he tried to take
the bicycle off the verandah, onto the road outside.
His son had gone to the office and his daughter-in-law was busy in the kitchen. His
grandson was studying. Rajani was in the backyard, doing something. The coast was
clear, Sudhir Babu walked ahead, dragging the bicycle with one hand. “Brother
Veersen,” he said, “you have suffered unpardonable neglect. I may not be able to ride
you again, but that doesn’t mean you will be left uncared for. My body has been in
flames ever since that grandson of mine called you garbage! Come, I’m going to get
you refurbished—whatever the cost.”
Sudhir Babu felt tired after he had dragged the old bicycle for some distance. Finally,
he arrived at Banamali’s Bicycle Repair Shop. Banamali was renowned for his magic
touch with old bicycles. Getting the bicycle to lean against a wall, Sudhir Babu said
“Banamali, I’m leaving my bicycle here. Repair it; do whatever is necessary—but I
want it to look new! Can you do it?” Banamali said he would need a week.
When Sudhir Babu returned seven days later, the old bicycle had been transformed. It
was once again Veersen, the battle-horse! Banamali handed over the slip of paper on
which he had totalled up the costs. Sudhir Babu paid up without wasting a word. Had
it been something else, he would surely have bargained—but not where Veersen was
involved.
Veersen came home again.
His son, shocked and incredulous, stared by turns at his father and the bicycle. Rajani
came out and had a look. Suhdir Babu sat down in his arm-chair and regarded the
bicycle with supreme satisfaction. Just then, his grandson appeared. “Grandfather, is
this your old bicycle?” he asked. “That’s wonderful! I’ll have two bicycles now. I’ve
outgrown the other one—it’s too short for me.” He laughed happily.
He did not wait to hear what his grandfather would have to say. Trundling the bicycle
down from the verandah, he rode off in a flash.
Sudhir Babu’s mind grew bright, as though he had been revived by a breath of fresh
air. He went into his room, picked up a pen and paper and began to write.
A new poem was burgeoning, like the tender shoot of a plant. Sudhir Babu was sure
that Tana would like this poem, for like the bicycle.
• LITTERING: make (a place or area) untidy with rubbish or a large number of

objects left lying about.
15
• MUTTERED: say something in a low or barely audible voice, especially in
dissatisfaction or irritation.
• BATTERED: injured by repeated blows or punishment.
• SHROUD: a length of cloth or an enveloping garment in which a dead person
is wrapped for burial.
• COBWEBS: a spider's web, especially when old and dusty.
• SYMBOLISM: the use of symbols to express or represent ideas or qualities in
literature and in arts.
• GRIME: Dirt that covers a surface; accumulated dirtiness and disorder.
• DEFLATED: To release air or gas from something.
• GAZED: to look at someone or something in a steady way and usually for a
longer period of time.
• HUMBER: an English brand of bicycle manufactured by a British engineer
called Thomas Humber.
• UNPARDONABLE: unforgivable.
• BEEN IN FLAMES: to be very angry with someone.
• TURDLING: to roll on wheels slowly but noisily.
• ELIXIR: a magical liquid that can cure illness or extend life.
• PETROMAX: brand name for a type of kerosene lamp.
• BRAINWAVE: a sudden, clear idea.
• DENTED: a hollow mark in the surface of something, caused by pressure or
by being hit by something heavy.
• BURGEONING: to grow or to develop quickly.
• INCREDULOUS: not able to believe.
• REFURBISHED: to repair and make improvements to something
1. What was the theme of Sudhir Babu’s poems for the last two years?
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2. Why was Tana annoyed with his grandfather’s poetry?
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3. How was Tana’s bicycle different from that of Sudhir Babu’s bicycle?
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4. What was Sudhir Babu’s profession?
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5. Why was Tana annoyed with his grandfather’s poetry?
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6. What kind of a bicycle did Sudhir Babu have? By what name did he address
his bicycle?
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7. What other incidents does Sudhir Babu recall where Veersen had emerged as
the real hero?
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8. How did Sudhir Babu breathe a new lease of life into his old bicycle?
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9. Why was Veersen consigned to a lonely position on the front verandah? Why
did Sudhir Babu’s family bar him from riding the bicycle?
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10. How did the bicycle come to the rescue of Sudhir Babu and his friends when
they found themselves stranded in a forest?
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2.6 LET US SUM UP
Inanimate objects are just not objects, they’re not lifeless either. Through human
interaction they come to life, at times even assume of having a soul. When someone
spends a quite considerable time of their life with them, those objects become a part
18
of their thoughts and memories. This story was about one such theme. It is a story
about such a relationship between Sudhir Babu and his old bicycle and how it affects
his equation with his grandson due to the cycle.
UNIT 3 : GEORGE V HIGH SCHOOL
Structure
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Introduction
3.2 About the writer, Dinanath Pathy
3.3 The text, George V High School

3.6 Let us sum up
3.0 OBJECTIVES

• Learn about one of the famous writers who was born and bought up in Odisha
Enhance your knowledge in reading and writing.
• Learn about Dinanath Pathy and evaluate his excellence in writing
3.1 INTRODUCTION
‘George V High School’ is a charming and ironic account of a familiar old school in
the interiors of Odisha. This essay recounts the author’s impression of the various
teachers who taught in that school. The narrator relates his experience in a detached
manner. The writing comes alive through vivid descriptions of the teachers he came
in contact with, in the school.
3.2 ABOUT THE WRITER, DINANATH PATHY
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Dinanath Pathy (1942 till date) is a noted painter, sculptor and pioneer of Odia art and
craft. He can be justly described as Odisha’s cultural ambassador to the world. He has
worked in the capacity of Director, Alice Boner Institute, Varanasi; Secretary,
National Academy of Art New Delhi and curator of Arts and crafts, Odisha State
Museum. This essay is a chapter from his book ‘Drawing Master of Digapahandi’, that
offers a portrait of a drawing master in a remote village of South Odisha. It is translated
by a noted poet, critic and academician Niranjan Mohanty.
3.3 THE TEXT, GEORGE V HIGH SCHOOL
George V High School- the name might sound foreign. But this school was dear to us
in spite of its alien name. This tile-roofed school stood at the southern end of the village
in the same street which housed Chai master’s school. A stone wall ran around the
school. Beneath the tiled roof there was a wide verandah and thick round twin-pillars.
It had five to six rooms wherein students from class VIII to XI studied. Within the
boundary wall there were two more tile-roofed blocks. One of them housed the office
of the headmaster, Sri Ramanarayan Padhi, and the other block had the office of the
head clerk, Kama sir, science rooms, teachers’ common room, art room in it. Later on,
four thatched semi-open halls were added to the southern boundary of the school.
Students of class IV to class VII were taught there. Our prayers were conducted in the
open field that lay between the thatched halls and the teachers’ common room. The
theatre stage lay adjacent to the western boundary wall beyond which lay the
playground. One end of the playground touched the banks of the huge pond and the on
the two ends got lost in the vast expanse of rice fields. Just beyond the main gate of
the school was the office of the sub-registrar. On the right side of this office, stood the
King’s old cutcherry, which has now been converted into Khemandi College. To the
north of the sub registrar’s offie was situated the hostel of the High School, opposite
the hostel was Sripad master’s tuition centre.
I had studied in this school from class IV till XI. Over the years a remarkable change
in the appearance of the school has taken place. Many new buildings have come up
now and its name has been changed to Badakhemandi High School. Yet, whenever I
remember my school days, the image of the tile-roofed house comes to my mind, and
the memory of Sri Ramanarayan Padhi, the head master. He almost enjoyed the powers
of a District Collector. A powerful personality indeed! Students held him in mortal
fears as though he were a tiger. He was tall, fair and had curly hair and sported an
impressive moustache and had slightly blue eyes. He was as strict as he was
affectionate, loving and hard-working. He taught us English: ‘Down, down, down
went Alice into the rabbit hole: When he said, ‘down, down, down,’ he almost sank
into the chair he sat on. He had the ability to identify the naughty, mischievous and the
foolish students in the very first class. No mischief could escape his notice.
20
He would promptly say: ‘Agadhu, get me the canes.’ Agadhu, his peon, who had an
extra roll of fat round his neck, chest and belly, would bring a bundle of canes to him.
Then the headmaster would begin beating the students till they bled. Of course, such
corporeal punishment is not possible anywhere other than police stations. One cannot
imagine this being done in schools these days. There was’ no one to raise his voice
against Sri Ramanarayan Padhi. Ramanarayan Padhi, the village karji Shyam Sundar
Padhi and Balaji Raju kept the education, culture and politics of the village firmly
under their control.
Ramnarayan Padhi’s manner of going to the toilet was notable and could be mentioned
comfortably in the Gunnies Book of World Records. He would light one cigarette
when he started from the house. He would cover almost three to four kilometres to
reach the field which lay near the guesthouse and would light one cigarette after the
other on his way. One can call it chain-smoking. He would walk this distance without
caring for winter or rain, smoke emanating from his mouth as if from a rail engine.
The intoxicating stench of cigarette smoke would spread through the village early in
the morning.
When we were in the school, it owned two busses. The school was run with the money
earned from the bus service. Whenever the driver fell ill or was absent, the headmaster
would drive the bus. Parking the bus at the junction, he would come to the school and
after teaching English for an hour, he would go back to the junction to drive the bus-
passing effectlessly from studies to the steering wheel.
I received free scholarship throughout my school days due to Ramnarayan Padhi’s

compassion. Almost on all occasions such as school dramas. Ganesh puja, Saraswati
puja and Independence Day, I would be wanted by the headmaster. This doubled the
respect of other students for me. I received medals for my paintings for three
consecutive years from Keshav Maharana’s Drawing Master’s Association. So the
headmaster loved me dearly. Till he was appointed Joint Secretary of the Board of
Secondary Education, Orissa, he kept reminding me of those awards whenever we met.
Sanatan Pujari, the Assistant Headmaster, taught us science, geography and English
non-detailed texts. He used illustrated charts and maps for every chapter in geography.
He asked me to prepare these charts. Sanatan Pujari had a gift for drawing. It would
have been better if he had been our drawing teacher. I haven’t seen any other teacher
preparing such excellent charts so far. I always secured very good marks in geography.
I stood first in the class. Geography has now become one of the units of social science-
no wonder therefore that when you ask the students to show the Himalayan range thy
point towards Kerala.
Headmaster Ramanarayan Padhi was a strict disciplinarian. Sanatan Pujari, on the
other hand was a tender hearted man and a devotee of Swami Nigamananda. He played
the violin well. He was a sentimental and withdrawn person. If he reached the school
late, he would tender his casual leave leave application to Agadhu at the gate and go
away. If a cat chased a chameleon, he would restrain the cat from committing such an
act of violence. Whenever Sanatan sir was the Headmaster in-charge in the absence of
21
Ramanarayan sir, it would be a day of fun for all of us. Two groups of boys would
approach the Headmaster in charge and request him to let them organise a volleyball
or football match. After remaining silent for a while he would say, ‘One ball and two
groups of boys’. Just wait for some time, let me consult gurudev (Nigamananda) about
this matter. He would run off to his room and come out a little later. ‘Gurudev refused
to let you play today,’ he would announce. I have not yet forgotten two of his unjust
actions. The first one was determining the gender of the skeleton and the second one
concerning my handwritten non-detailed note-book.
One day Sanatan sir was teaching science. Showing a skeleton, he was explaining the
anatomy of human body. Bimasen patra of our street and a friend of mine stood up and
asked whether the skeleton belonged to a male or a female. Sanatan sir flared up at the
question. Bhima had to pocket a lot of abuses in English and was drivem out of the
class. But, there was nothing irrelevant or unscientific about Bhima’s question.
The second occasion was when he was unjust to me when I had copied out the entire
non-detailed text-book myself in my copy. I had neatly written down the entire book
titled ‘Letters from a father to his daughter’ using Indian ink, taking the utmost care.
The book had a nice look. I should have been congratulated for this magnificent piece
of work. But what happened was just the opposite. At the time of reading, sir somehow
found out that my book was not a printed one. He snatched the book from me, had a
look at it, and then threw it away. The incident wounded me deeply. I felt slighted, but
I had no courage then to ask why he did so.
Long after the incident, in 1973, I had been to Boirani (Kavi Surya Nagar) to take
permission from the S.D.O’s office at that time. I thought of meeting him. He was very
happy to see me. He took me to his room. Many old incidents of my school days crept
into our discussion. I reminded him of the throwing of my non-detailed book. Sir
admitted his mistake and expressed his deep regret. But I had no intentions of giving
him pain.
Natabar Patnaik was a pillar of strength at George V High School. He was the senior
most teacher there and he was also hardworking, disciplined and a man of principles.
He was tall with a sword-like sharp nose, bony face and shrunken eyes. He would
come to the school tucking an umbrella under his arm. He taught us up to class VII.
He had an eye for details. While teaching, if any need for sending someone to the
house arose, he would call a boy and tell to him, ‘Go straight from the school to the
bazaar. Then take the left lane; you would arrive in front of the Dadhivaman temple of
Sanadanda. Then go straight to the east. After crossing half the distance, you would
see a house with a high verandah.The house has stone steps and is surrounded by tagar
plants. Go up the verandah; knock at the door with the help of the iron chain attached
to it with your right hand. My uncle will open the door. Tell him that I have sent you,
on the tin box kept in the bedroom, you’ll find my notebook having a blue cover. On
the notebook, I have left the dark-coloured cover of my glasses. Get it and come soon:
Most of the students in the school were from Digapahandi. Who would face any
difficulty doing this after such a description? But Natabar sir would like to know from
the student the next moment what exactly he said to him and how much of it did the
22
student remember. The student would be left with no other option but to repeat the
description. If by any case, he missed out any detail such as the flower plants or the
stone steps, Natabar sir would start the narration from the very beginning. Students
were mortally afraid of Natabar sir. If any drama was to be staged in school, the
headmaster Ramnarayan Padhi would give the charge of the green room to Natabar
sir. My elder brother and I would remain in charge of makeup. “Forgetting comes
naturally to artists”. Whenever they are engaged in some assignment, they would do it
with all their heart and soul but once the work is completed, they would misplace the
brush and the colours. Natabar sir would not spare anyone. If he ever gave a needle to
anyone, he would remind the person time and again until the person returned it.
Whenever I had to sew a dress, I would misplace the needle which I had borrowed
from him. This would never escape
Natabar sir’s attention. He would warn me, saying, ‘Dinanath, take the needle this
time’. But if you don’t return it, you won’t get it again: But he was very affectionate
and did not have any qualms about violating the rules he framed when needed.
Pundit Durgamadhab or the junior Pundit was always busy collecting straw, starch and
chaff for his cows. He would talk about all these even while teaching. He would remind
someone in the middle of the class, ‘Chitta,’ what happened to those bundles of straw?
Tell your father to send a cartload of straw to my backyard.’ I have never heard him
discuss literature.
I was very close to Natabar sir.I helped him a lot with painting the doors and windows
of the school, painting the blackboard etc. I also helped him to prepare charts and
maps, drawing the image of Lord Ganesh and Goddess Saraswati, decorating the
school rooms, arranging exhibitions during the visit of a minister or an officer. I used
to assist him with building arches to welcome important guests. I helped him in almost
all kinds of activities. I had free access to Natabar sir’s art room.
I did not have white shorts and vests. I faced difficulties in the game period every
Saturday for this reason. Neither the teachers nor the students had any objection
against me participating in the game as I fared well in my studies. I would wound a
coarse cotton towel around my chest occasionally, giving it the shape of a vest. I often
withdrew myself voluntarily instead of demanding anything. After the rains, when the
field filled with water, a group of reckless boys including me would go there to play
football. My friend Durgamadhab Das, who is now an O.A.S. officer, played football
well. But even he was afraid of playing with us in the rain-washed field as we engaged
ourselves in kicking the mud instead of the ball. Honestly speaking, I wasn’t a great
player. My friends often selected me as the referee in volleyball matches as I could
shout at the top of my voice. There was no difficulty on the part of the referee to
conduct the game even putting on a coarse cotton towel. I therefore discharged my
duties well.
Our country attained independence when we were in class IV and V. hence, we took
great care in decorating the classrooms on the Independence Day on the 15th of August.
We would worship the framed photographs of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru,
23
Subhash Chandra Bose. Students who decorated their class rooms better than others
received prizes. A great change is observed in the Independence Day celebrations now.
• CUTCHERRY: the modern court in English

• MISCHIEVOUS: deceitful
• EMANATING: coming come/ extracted from
• STENCH: a bad or pungent smell
• RESTRAIN: to control or to resist
• FLARE UP: to infuriate or to get angry
• TUCK: to put inside
1. How do you explain the term Master?

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2. What would you do if you are appointed as a teacher in a village school? What
novelty would you bring to the school?
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3. What is the difference between the village school and a city school in terms of
quality of teaching and learning?
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4. What is the place that the narrator has described in the essay? What is the
impression that you get from the description?
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5. What is the funniest aspect of the headmaster of the school?
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3.6 LET US SUM UP
This essay is an intimate account of a time and place that is fast disappearing or it is in
the verge of perishing. Today, the city-bred adolescent student is hardly aware of the
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life of a student/teacher in a village school. It is important to acquaint them with this
relic from the past.
UNIT 4: THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
Structure
4.0 Objectives
4.1 Introduction
4.2 About the Writer: Alexander Baron
4.3 The text
4.4 Glossary of Difficult Terms
4.6 Let us sum up
4.0 OBJECTIVES

• Learn about Alexander Baron and his efficiency in writing.
4.1 INTRODUCTION
‘Pride comes before a fall’, this one phrase is portrayed in this narration by veteran
writer Alexander Baron. During the 1930s, with his friend Ted Willis, Baron was a
leading activist and organiser of the Labour League of Youth (at that time largely under
the influence of the Communist Party of Great Britain). He helped establish what the
League’s monthly paper, Advance became. He campaigned against the fascists in the
streets of the East End and edited the Young Communist League (UK) magazine
Challenge. Baron became increasingly disillusioned with hard left politics as he spoke
to International Brigade fighters returning from the Spanish Civil War. He was for a
while a full-time Communist Party worker and according to his unpublished memoir
had been chosen to go underground in the event that the Party was proscribed during
26
the Second World War, which it initially denounced the conflict as 'an imperialist war'.
He finally broke with the communists shortly after the war.
Baron served in the Pioneer Corps of the British Army during World War II, and was
among the first Allied troops to be landed in Sicily, Italy and on D-Day. Between 1943
and late 1944, he experienced fierce fighting in the Italian campaign, Normandy and
in Northern France and Belgium. In 1945 he was transferred as an Instructor to a
British Army training camp in Northern Ireland, where he received a serious head
injury and was hospitalised for over six months.[2] Other themes of his novels were
London life, politics, class, relations between men and women, and the relationship
between the individual and society. While he continued to write novels, in the 1950s
Baron wrote screenplays for
Hollywood, and by the 1960s he had become a regular writer on BBC's Play for Today.
He wrote several episodes of the A Family at War series: 'The Breach in the Dyke'
(1970), 'Brothers in War' (1970), 'A Lesson in War' (1970), 'Believed Killed' (1971),
'The Lost Ones' (1971), and 'Two Fathers' (1972).[3] Later he became well known for
drama serials like Poldark and A Horseman Riding By, and in the 1980s for BBC
classic literary adaptions including Ivanhoe, Sense and Sensibility (1981), Jane Eyre
(1983), Goodbye, Mr Chips (1984), Oliver Twist (1985), and Vanity Fair (1987). He
also scripted the pilot episode, "A Scandal in Bohemia," for Granada Television's The
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1984– 1985).[4][5]
In 1991, Baron was elected an Honorary Fellow of Queen Mary, University of London,
in recognition of his contribution to the historical and social understanding of East
London.[6]
Baron's personal papers are held in the archives of the University of Reading. His
wartime letters and unpublished memoirs (Chapters of Accidents) were used by the
historian Sean Longden for his book To the Victor the Spoils, a social history of the
British Army between D-Day and VE Day.[7] Baron has also been the subject of
essays by Iain Sinclair and Ken Worpole.
Since Baron died in December 1999 his novels have been republished several times,
testifying to a strong resurgence of interest in his work among the reading public as
well as among critics and academics. These include Baron's first book, the war novel
From the City, From the Plough (Black Spring Press, 2010; Imperial War
Museum, 2019); his cult novel about the London underworld of the early 1960s, The
Lowlife (Harvill, 2001; Black Spring Press, 2010; translated into Spanish as Jugador,
La Bestia Equilátera, 2012), which was cited in Jon Savage’s England’s Dreaming as
a literary antecedent of punk; King Dido (Five Leaves, 2009, re-issued 2019), a story
of the violent rise and fall of an East End London tough in Edwardian England; Rosie
Hogarth (Five Leaves, 2010, re-issued 2019); and his second war novel There's No
Home, the story of a love affair between a British soldier and Sicilian woman during
a lull in the fierce fighting of the Italian campaign (Sort Of Books, 2011; Chinese
edition published by Hunan Art and Literature Publishing House, 2013). Baron's third
27
work based on his wartime experiences, The Human Kind, was republished by Black
Spring Press in Autumn 2011. His novel about a Jewish RAF officer's return to post-
war London, With Hope Farewell (1952), was re-issued by Five Leaves in 2019, and
his semi-autobiographical account of a young man's political coming of age, The In-
Between Time (1971) is also scheduled for re-issue in the near future.
In 2019 Five Leaves also published, for the first time, Baron's Spanish Civil War novel
The War Baby, described by critic David Herman in a long review in the Times
Literary Supplement as 'his best account, and one of the best accounts by any
British writer, of disillusionment with the left.' [8] In 2019 also, the Imperial War
Museum issued its own edition of From the City, From the Plough as one of its IWM
Wartime Classics. [9]
In 2019 the first full-length study of Baron's life and work was published by Five
Leaves: So We Live: the novels of Alexander Baron, edited by Susie Thomas, Andrew
Whitehead and Ken Worpole. [10] In addition to essays by the three editors, other
essayists include novelist Anthony Cartwright, military historian Sean Longden, and
historian Nadia Valman. The study also includes interviews with Baron as well as key
articles by him on Jewishness and literature, together with
archive photographs, and a walking guide to Stoke Newington highlighting key
locations mentioned in his novels.
(http://www.gpedia.com/en/m/gpedia/Alexander_Baron)
4.2 ABOUT THE WRITER: ALEXANDER BARON
Alexander Baron (1917-99) was a British author and screen writer. He worked as the
assistant editor of the socialist magazine Tribune, which he quit to enlist in the army
when the Second World War broke out. After the war, he became the editor of New
Theatre of magazine. He drew on his wartime experiences to produce three bestselling
war novels, the most highly acclaimed of them being ‘From the City’, ‘From the
Plough’. In addition to writing novels, Baron wrote screenplays for Hollywood during
the 1950s, and by the 1960s, he had become a regular writer on the BBC’s drama
series, ‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. ‘He is best known for his highly
acclaimed novel about D-Day, From the City, from The Plough (1948), and his London
novel The Lowlife (1963). Baron served in the Pioneer Corps of the British Army
during World War II, and was among the first Allied troops to be landed in Sicily, Italy
and on D-Day. Between 1943 and late 1944, he experienced fierce fighting in the
Italian campaign, Normandy and in Northern France and Belgium. In 1945 he was
transferred as an Instructor to a British Army training camp in Northern Ireland, where
he received a serious head injury and was hospitalised for over six months. Other
themes of his novels were London life, politics, class, relations between men and
women, and the relationship between the individual and society.
28
There has been a revival of interest in Baron’s work since his death. His personal
papers were used for a book on the social history of the British army during the World
War II and many of his novels are now being re-published.
4.3 THE TEXT, THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
The first time I met Quelch at the training depot. A man is liable to acquire in his first
week of army life--- together with his uniform, rifle and equipment--- a nickname.
Anyone who saw Private Quelch, lanky, stooping, frowning through hornrimmed
spectacles, understood why he was known as ‘the Professor’. Those who had any
doubts on the subject lost them after a five minutes conversation with him.
I remember the first lesson we has in musketry. Westwood in an attentive circle. The
sergeant, a man as dark and sun-dried as raisins was describing the mechanism of a
service rifle. “The muzzle velocity or speed at which the bullet leaves the rifle.” He
told us, ‘is well over two thousand feet per second.” A voice interrupted. ‘Two
thousand, four hundred and forty feet per second.’ It was the professor. ‘That’s right,’
the sergeant said without enthusiasm and went on lecturing. When he had finished he
put questions to us. Perhaps in the hope or revenge, he turned with his questions again
and again to the Professor. The only result was to enhance the
Professor’s glory. Technical definitions, the parts of the rifle, its use and care, he had
them all by heart.
The sergeant asked, ‘You had any training before?’
The Professor answered with a phrase that was to become familiar to all of us. ‘No,
Sergeant. It’s all a matter of intelligent reading.’
That was our introduction to him. We soon learned more about him. He saw to that.
He meant to get on, he told us. He had brains. He was sure to get a commission, before
long. As a first step, he meant to get a stripe.
In pursuit of his ambition Private Quelch worked hard. We had to give him credit for
that. He borrowed training manuals and stayed up late at nights reading them. He
badgered the instructor with questions. He drilled with enthusiasm. On route marches
he was not only miraculously tireless but infuriated us all with his horrible heatiness.
‘What about a song, chaps?’ is not greeted politely at the end of thirty miles. His salute
at the pay table was a model to behold. When officers were in sight he would swing
his skinny arms and march to the canteen like a Guardsman. And day in and day out,
he lectured to us on every aspect of human knowledge. At first we had a certain respect
for him, but soon we lived in terror of his approach. We tried to hit back at him with
clumsy sarcasms and practical jokes. The Professor scarcely noticed; he was too busy
working for his stripe. Each time one of us made a mistake the Professor would
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publicly correct him. Whenever one of us shone, the professor outshone him. After a
hard morning’s work cleaning out our hut, we would listen in silence to the Orderly
Officer’s praise. Then the professor would break out with a ringing. ‘Thank you, sir!’
And how superior, how condescending he was! He would always say, ‘Let me show
you, fellow,’ or, ‘No, you’ll ruin your rifle that way, old man.’
We used to pride ourselves on aircraft recognition. Once out for a walk, we heard the
drone of a plane flying high overhead. None of us could even see it in the glare of the
sun. Without even a glance upward the Professor announced, ‘That, of course, is a
North American Harvard Trainer’. It can be unmistakably identified by the harsh
engine note, due to the high tip speed of the airscrew.’ What could a gang of louts like
us do with a man like that?
None of us will ever forget the drowsy summer afternoon which was such a turning
point in the professor’s life. We were sprawling contentedly on the warm grass while
Corporal Turnbull was taking a lesson on the hand grenade.
Corporal Turnbull was a young man, but he was not a man to be trifled with. He had
come back from Dunkirk with all his equipment correct. He was our hero, and we used
to tell each other that he was so tough that you could hammer nails into him without
his noticing it. ‘The outside of a grenade, as you can see,’ Corporal Turnbull was
saying, ‘is divided up into a large number of fragments to assist segmentation.’ ‘Forty-
four’ ‘What’s that?’ The Corporal looked over his shoulder. ‘Forty-four segments.’
The Professor beamed at him. The Corporal said nothing, but his brow tightened. He
opened his mouth to resume. ‘And by the way, Corporal.’ We were all thunderstruck.
The Professor was speaking again. ‘Shouldn’t you have started off with the five
characteristics of the grenade? Our instructor at the other camp always used to, you
know.’
In the silence that followed, the Corporal’s face turned dark. ‘Here,’ he said at last,
‘you give this lecture!’ As if afraid to say anymore, he tossed the grenade to the
Professor. Quite unabashed, Private Quelch climbed to his feet. With the air of a man
coming into his birth right he gave us an unexceptionable lecture on the grenade.
The squad listened in a horrified kind of silence. Corporal Turnbull stood and watched.
When the lecture was finished he said, ‘Thank you, Private Quelch. Fall in with the
others now. ‘He did not speak again until we had fallen in and were waiting to be
dismissed. Then he addressed us. ‘As some of you may have heard,’ he began
deliberately, ’the platoon officer has asked me to nominate one of you…’ He paused
and looked up and don the ranks as if seeking final confirmation of a decision.
So this was the great moment! Most of us could not help glancing at Private Quelch,
who stood rigidly to attention and started straight in front of him with an expression
of self-conscious innocence.’…for permanent cookhouse duties. I’ve decided that
Private Quelch is just the man for the job.’ Of course, it was a joke for days afterwards;
a joke and joy to all of us. I remember, though….. My friend Trower and I were talking
about it a few days later. We were returning from the canteen in our own hut.
30
Through the open door, we could see the three cooks standing against the wall as if at
bay and from within came the monotonous beat of a familiar voice. ‘Really, I must
protest against this abominably unscientific and unhygienic method of peeling
potatoes. I need only draw your attention to the sheer waste of vitamin values. We fled.
• PRIVATE: An ordinary soldier.

• AIRCRAFT RECOGNITION: Identifying an aircraft.
• HARVARD TRAINER: a kind of aircraft used for training.
• DUNKIRK: a town in Northern France.
• BADGER: to pester, worry, annoy
• COMMISSION: a high rank in the armed forces DEPOT: (here) a place
where new recruits are trained.
• LOUT: an awkward fellow.
• MUSKETRY: the art of using guns. (musket: an old name for gun)
ORDERLY OFFICER: officer on duty for the day.
• PLATOON: a sub division of a company of soldiers.
• REPRIMAND: to express a strong disapproval.
• SERGEANT: a military officer just above a corporal.
• TRAINING MANUAL: a handbook dealing with training.
• UNABASHED: without any feeling of embarrassment or shame.
1. What made Private Quelch stand out from amongst his peers in the army?
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2. How does his nick name show that he does not fir into the army ethos?
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3. How is his character trait suggested by his physical appearance?

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4. We are told that Private Quelch worked hard to display his knowledge to get
a promotion; but his enthusiasm and his unconquerable spirit seems to tell a
different story. What is it?
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5. What does private Quelch attribute his awesome knowledge to? What was his
pet expression or statement?
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6. What is the turning point in this story?

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7. How is the corporal’s hardness suggested? How is this a function of army
life?
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8. How did the corporal get his revenge?

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4.6 LET US SUM UP
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Knowledge without humility can be self-defeating. One does not have to advertise
one’s knowledge in order to grab public attention and respect. The story ‘The Man
Who Knew Too Much’ directs our attention to such characters in our society who
desperately seek recognition and can go to any extent to achieve it. Private Quelch, the
hero of the story is one such character.
UNIT 5 : UNEASY HOMECOMING
Structure
5.0
Objective
5.1 Introduction
5.2 About the writer, Will. F. Jenkins
5.3 The text, Uneasy Homecoming
5.6 Let us Sum up
5.0 OBJECTIVE
• Learn about a veteran writer Will. F. Jenkins and his writing skills.
5.1 INTRODUCTION
Uneasy Homecoming is the story of Connie and what she discovers when she returns
home after a two-week holiday. A sense of dread and uneasiness is made apparent
from the first sentence which eventually spins itself into an atmosphere of mystery and
terror that keeps the readers hooked throughout the story. Jenkins skilfully brings
together the themes of isolation and crime in order to build up suspense and tension.
When Connie arrives home, she is hit by a sudden feeling of anxiety and apprehension
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to which she is unable to assign any possible reason or explanation. At first, she
dismisses her fears as vague, but they turn out to be justified when she finds out that
her house has been used as a hiding place by a “dangerous man” or a burglar. Although
Connie recognises the intruder, his identity is withheld from the readers to further
heighten the tension in the story. Who is the intruder? What ultimately happens to
Connie? Let’s find out
5.2 ABOUT THE WRITER, WILL. F. JENKINS
William Fitzgerald Jenkins (1896-1975) was one of the most prolific science fiction
writers of the twentieth century. He was born in Norfolk, England and he received his
education there. He wrote under numerous pennames, including Murray Leinster,
William Fitzgerald, Louisa Carter Lee and Farquar. His stories mostly include mad
scientists and criminal masterminds who go about terrorizing people with dangerous
scientific inventions or unlawful activities.
5.3 THE TEXT, UNEASY HOMECOMING
Connie began to have the feeling of dread and uneasiness in the taxi but told herself it
was not reasonable. She dismissed it decisively when she reached the part of the town
in which all her friends lived. She could stop and spend the evening with someone
until Tome got home. But she didn’t. She thrust away the feeling as the taxi rolled out
across the neck of land beyond most of the houses. The red, dying sun cast long
shadows across the road.
So far, their house was the only one that had been built on the other side of the bay.
But she could see plenty of other houses as the taxi drew up before the door. Those
other houses were across the bay, to be sure, but there was no reason to be upset. She
was firm with herself. The taxi stopped and the last thin line of red sun went down
below the world’s edge. Dusk was already here. But everything looked perfectly
normal. The house looked neat and welcoming, and it was good to be back. She paid
the taxi driver and he kindly put her suitcases inside her door. The uneasy feeling grew
stronger as he left. But she tried not to heed it.
It continued while she heard the taxi moving away and driving down the road. But it
remained essentially the same- a sort of vague restlessness and fear- until she went
into the kitchen. Then the feeling changed.
She was in the kitchen, with the close smell of a shut-up house about her, when she
noticed the change. Her suitcases still laid in the hall where the taxi driver had piled
them. The front door was still open to let in some fresh air, and quite suddenly, she
had an urgent conviction that there was something here that she should notice.
Something quite inconspicuous. But this sensation was just as absurd as the feeling
she’d had in the taxi.
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There was a great silence outside the house. This was dusk, and the bird and insect
noises were growing fainter. There were no neighbours near to make other sound.
She turned on the refrigerator, and it began to make a friendly humming sound. She
turned on the water, and it poured out of the tap. But there her queer sensation took a
new form. It seemed that every movement produced a noise which advertised her
presence, and she felt that there was some reason to be utterly still and that really was
nonsense too.
She glanced around the dining room. She regarded her luggage still piled in the hall
near the open front door. Everything looked exactly as everything should look when
one returns from a two week’s holiday and one’s husband has been away on business
at the same time. Tom would get home about midnight. She had spoken to him over
the telephone yesterday. He would positively get back in a few hours. So it would be
absurd not to stay here to greet him. The feeling she had, she decided firmly, was
simply a normal dislike of being alone and she would not be silly.
She glanced around the kitchen, afterwards she remembered that she had looked
straight at the back door without seeing what was there to be seen. She went firmly
down the hall. Then she went out of the doors to look at her flowers.
The garden looked only a little neglected. The west was a fading, already dim glory of
red and gold. She could not see too many details, but the garden was sweet smelling
and appealing in the dusk. She saw the garage locked and empty, of course, since
tomorrow had the car-and it felt a minor urge to go over to it, but she did not.
Afterwards the memory of that minor urge made her feel faint. But it was only an idea
that she dismissed.
She smelled the comfortable, weary smells of the last summer evening, which would
presently give way to the sharper, fresher scents of night. There was the tiny darting
shadow of a bat-overhead, black against the dark blue of the sky. It was the time when,
for a little space, peace seems to embrace all the world. But the nagging uneasiness
persisted even out there.
There was a movement by the garage, but it failed to catch her eye. If she had looks-
even if she failed to see the movement, she might still have seen the motor-cycle. It
did not belong here, but it was leaning against the garage wall as if its owner had ridden
it here and leaned it confidently where it would be hidden from anyone locking across
the bay. But Connie noticed nothing, she simply felt uneasy.
She found herself going nervously back towards the house. The sunset colours faded
and presently it was all dark outside. She heard her footsteps on the ground. The dry
leaves brushed against her feet occasionally. It seemed to her that she hurried which
was totally absurd. So she forced to walk naturally and resisted an impulse to look
about.
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That was why she failed to notice the pantry window. She came, to the front of the
house. Her heels made clicking sounds on the steps, she felt a need to be very quiet
and to hide herself.
Yet she had no reason to fear about anything that she had actually noticed. She hadn’t
seen anything strange about the back door or the pantry window and she hadn’t noticed
the motor-cycle or the movement by the garage. The logical explanation for the feeling
of terror was simply that it was dark and she was alone. She repeated that explanation
as she forced herself to enter the dark, front doorway.
She wanted to gasp with relief as she felt for the switch and the lights came on. The
dark rooms remaining were more terrifying then that of the night outside. So she went
all over the ground floor, turning on the lights and tried not to think of going upstairs.
There was no one within call and no one but even the taxi driver knew that she was
here and also that anything could happen.
But she did not know of anything to cause her danger. Connie had felt and fought
occasional fear before, to bring her nameless frights into the light and to scorn them.
She had talked lightly in the past of the imaginary things towards which women feel
such terror. The things which nervous believe are following them; the things imagined
to be hiding in cupboards and behind dark trees in the lonely streets. But her past scorn
failed to drive her terror away now, she tried to be angry with herself because she was
being as silly as the neurotic female who cannot sleep unless she looks under her bed
at night. But still, Connie could not drive herself to go upstairs or to look under her
own bed right now.
It was an unfortunate omission.
In the lighted living-room, she had the feeling of someone staring at her from the dark.
It was unbearable. She went to the telephone, absolutely certain about the fact that
there was nothing wrong. But if in case she talked to someone, she called Mrs Winston.
It was not a perfect choice. Mrs Winston was not nearly of Connie’s own age, but
Connie felt so sorry for the older woman that when she needed comfort she often
instinctively called her. Talking to someone else who needed comforting always
seemed to make one’s own troubles go away.
Mrs Winston’s voice was bright and cheerful over the phone, “My dear Connie! How
nice it is that you’re back with us!”
Connie felt better instantly. She felt her tension leaving her, she heard voice explaining
that she’d had a lovely holiday and that Tom was coming back tonight and Mrs
Winston said anxiously, ‘I do hope your house is all right, Connie, is it? It’s been
dreadful here! Did you hear?
‘Not a word since I left’, Said Connie. ‘What’s happened?’

She expected to hear about someone having been unkind to Charles, who was Mrs
Winston’s only son. He gave Connie the creeps, but she could feel very sorry for his
mother. He had a talent for getting into trouble. There’d been trouble with a girl when
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he was only sixteen, he had been caught stealing in school when there was no excuse
for it, and he’d been expelled from college and nowadays wore an apologetic air. Mrs
Winston tried to believe that he was already twenty, and at twenty a large, awkward
young man with an apologetic air and a look of always thinking of something else-
well, one could sympathize with his mother and still feel uncomfortable about him.
Mrs Winston’s voice went on explaining and the feeling of terror came back upon
Connie with a blow.
There had been a series of burglaries in the town. The Hamilton’s’ House had been
robbed while they were out for an evening card game. The Blair’s house was looted
while they were away. The Smithson’s, The Tourney’s and the Saddler’s shop was
robbed and the burglars seemed to know exactly where Mr. Saddler kept his day’s
receipts and tool them and the tray of watches and fountain pens and the cameras and
the poor Mr. Field.
Mr. Field was the ancient cashier at Saddler’s. He had interrupted the burglars and they
had been beaten him horribly, leaving him to die all alone. He had never regained
consciousness and it was not believed now at the hospital that he ever would.
Connie said from a dry throat, ‘I wish you hadn’t told me that tonight, I’m all alone.
Tom won’t be back until midnight. ‘But my dear,’ Mrs Winston exclaimed, ‘you
mustn’t’. I’ll find Charles and get him to come for you right away! You can spend the
evening here, and he can take you back then. Connie shook her head at the telephone.
‘Oh no! That would be silly!’
She heard her voice refusing and her mind protested against the refusal. But Charles
made her flesh crawl. She could not bear to think of him driving her through the
darkness. Terror without foundation was bad enough, she thought, without actual
dislike besides.
‘I’m quite all right!’ she insisted. ‘Quite! I do hope Mr. Field gets better, but I’m
alright...’ When she hung up the phone she was aware that she felt sick. But it was
startling to discover that her knees were physically weal when she started to move
from the instrument. She could telephone someone else, and they would come for her.
But Mrs Winston would be offended and take it as an insult and Connie was still sure
that her fear was quite unreasonable, it was just a feeling.
She moved aimlessly away from the telephone, found herself at the foot of the stairs.
Then she looked up at the dark above and wanted to cry. But a saving fury came to
her, she would not yield to groundless fears, she was in terror of, but actually it was of
them, the unknown men and women are taught to fear as dangerous. ‘Absurd!’ Connie
told to herself.
She got a suitcase and started for the stairs. It was deep at night now. If she looked out
at the garage, she would see nothing. She climbed the stairs into the darkness, nothing
happened. She pressed a switch and the passage sprang into light, she breathed again
and went into Tom and her bedroom. There was dust on the dressing table, there was
38
also an ash-tray. She put down the suitcase and was conscious of her bravery because
she was angry.
The she saw cigarette ends on the rug. Someone had definitely sat on it and had smoked
leisurely. A corner from the bedclothes was pulled aside, ‘What was under the bed?’
she thought. She backed up from it to a chair that fell down, the noise literally made
her freeze.
But, nothing happened, there was no change in the friendly hum of the refrigerator
downstairs. No reaction to the sound of the fallen chair was actually seen. If the things
that she was afraid of, had hidden themselves under the bed, they would’ve come out
at the terrible noise of the fallen chair.
At present, her breathing was loud enough for her own ears. Connie bent and looked
under the bed, she had to, though there was no one under her bed. But there was an
object that seemed strange to her eyes. After thinking for a long while, Connie dragged
it out, it was a bag with bulges in it. Her hands shook horribly, but she emptied its
contents on the floor. There were cameras. ‘Silver Sally Hamilton’s necklaces and
rings’. There were watches and fountain pens. This must be what the burglars had
taken from the Hamilton’s house and the Blair’s and the Smithson’s and the Tourney’s.
The cameras and pens and watches came from Saddler’s shop, where Mr Field had
come upon the burglars and they had almost beaten him to death.
Connie went to the bedroom doors. Her knees were moist, her house had been used as
a hiding place for the loot of the burglaries that had taken place in her absence. But
now, if they ever found out that she was back, without much reasoning, she could
easily guess why Mr Field had nearly been killed. He must have recognized the
burglars and now they could look across the bay and see that Connie was finally home.
Wouldn’t they know instantly that she would soon find their loot? And that she then
would telephone for the police to come?
Unless they came and stopped her, quickly shivering, Connie turned out the light in
her bedroom and in the hall upstairs. Downstairs, she turned out the light in the living-
room, went quickly to the front door and locked it. She was leaving it when she thought
to feel her way across the dark room and make sure that the window was locked. If the
lights had been seen across the bay… she hastened desperately to turn out the rest of
the lights, like the dining-room’s light, the windows were locked, the pantry was dark.
She was moaning with fright to enter. She flashed on the light to make sure of the
window.
The window was broken, a neat section of glass was missing. It had been cracked and
removed so that someone could easily reach in by simply unlocking it. Connie turned
off the light quickly, fled into the kitchen and made it dark, but as the bulb dimmed,
she realised what she had seen in the very act of pressing the light switch. The back
door was not fully closed, the key was missing, further there was mud on the floor
where someone had come in more than once. It seemed like the burglars must have
mad frequent use of the house.
39
She stood panting for breath in the dark. There was a continuous croaking of the frogs
that came from the outdoors. There was a sudden knock and her heart stood still until
she realised that a night-flying insect had bumped against the window.
It was by chance that it had done so just then, of course, but it was shocking, in fact
the most sensible of all would be going to the telephone now. She could not see to dial
any number but somehow she must otherwise things might take an ugly shape.
She felt her way blindly on to the instrument, her fingers on the wall made whispering
sounds that guided her and she became aware of the loud beating of her heart. Just as
she reached the telephone, there was a faint noise which might have been a footstep in
the garden.
She waited, with a feeling of clasping fear, so much that her body did not seem to exist
and she had no physical sensation at all. But a part of her brain definitely saw infinite
despair that if the burglars had been near the house at sunset, intending to enter it as
soon as darkness fell, they would have seen the taxi deliver her. They would have
known that sooner or later she would discover the proof of their presence and what she
just did told them of her discovery. The light in the bedroom where their loot was
hidden turned out… They would know she had darkened the house to hide in it, to use
the telephone.
There was a soft sound at the back door, it squeaked and Connie went stiff. The sound
of the telephone dial would tell everything, she would not possible summon help.
There was a soft whisper of a foot on the kitchen floor. Connie’s hands closed
convulsively, the one thought that came to her now was that she must breathe quietly.
There was a grey glow somewhere. The figure in the kitchen was throwing a torch
beam on the floor, then it halted, waiting…. He knew that she was hiding somewhere
in the house. He almost went soundlessly into the living-room. She saw the glow of
light there, back into the kitchen. She could hear her moving quietly and listening
towards the door through which she head come only a few seconds before to use the
telephone.
He came through that door, within three feet of her, but when he was fully through the
doorway, she was behind him, he again flashed the light downwards. But he did not
think to look behind him, she was hence, saved for the moment due to this.
In the grey-light reflection that reflected from the floor, she could recognize him. He
went into the dining-room, he moved very quietly, but he bumped ever so slightly
against a chair. The noise made her want to shriek. He was hunting for her, and he
knew that she was in the house and also that he had to kill her, he had to get his loot
and get away and she must not be able to tell anything about him to anyone.
He was back in the kitchen again, he stood there, listening and Connie was aware of a
new and added emotion which came of her recognition of him. She felt that she would
lie down at any moment and scream because she obviously knew him. He came
towards the door again, but he went upstairs, the stairs creaked under his weight. He
40
must have reasoned cunningly that she would want to hide, because she was afraid. So
he would go into the bedroom and look under the bed.
Connie slipped her feet out of her slippers, he had not reached the top of the stairs
before she stood in her stocking feet in the blackness below. The front door was
impossible as it was locked, she would have to unlock it and that would again end up
in making a noise. She crept out of it, with the utmost care that almost vanished when
she was in that blessed night. There were stars, she remembered that she must not step
on the small stones on which her feet might make a noise, so she stepped on to the
grass and she manage to flee.
There were sounds inside the house. He was opening cupboards deliberately in order
to make sounds and to fill her with panic as he hunted her down, though he hadn’t yet
anticipated that she was outside. There were bushes by the garage, so she slowed her
flight to avoid them and then she came upon the motorcycle, she smelled it, it was oil,
petrol and rubber, it was useless to her. She had no idea how to operate it but suddenly
a wild escape occurred to her- the motorcycle wasn’t entirely useless.
Connie ran her hands over the machine, she turned a little tap. The smell of petrol grew
stronger, there was a crash inside the house, but outside, the night was full of stars and
the air was cool and sweet except that the smell of petrol was growing stronger in it.
Connie had a box of matches in her pocket, she quickly got it out and in one motion,
he struck a match and dropped it and ran away into the dark, with the strange feeling
of grass under her feet.
The petrol blazed fiercely, she hid herself in the shadows and watched sobs trying to
form in her throat. The fire would be seen across the bay. It would plainly be at
Connie’s house. People would come quickly- a lot of them rather and also fire engines.
As the flames grew higher, she saw the figure plunge from the house, running furiously
towards the fire, trying to beat it out, but alas! It was impossible.
He knew it, even his twisted mind would tell him that nothing could hide his identity
now. The motorcycle would be an identification enough and there was already a lot of
loot in the house. Connie found herself weeping, it was partly a relief but it was also
the frightening realisation that the fears she had about them, the men who prey on
others, were not baseless.
The lights of the cars began to focus towards the house along the road from the
mainland. The bells of fire engines started ringing and grew louder eventually and in
the leaping flames surrounding the motor-cycle, a large, awkward, desperate figure
threw useless handfuls of earth upon the machine. Was he, Connie wondered, trying
to create the hopeless pretence that he was the first to help?
Even so, she was quite safe now, Connie knew this as a matter of fact. She began to
cry in reaction from her terror, but also swept as if her heart would break for poor Mrs.
Winston, she, could have been murdered. She could have been the victim of one of
those twisted men who prey on their fellow beings. But she wept for Mrs Winston.
41
She, Connie would not now be one of those women they had killed but Mrs Winston
was the mother of one of them for sure.
• DREAD: To fear something that will might or might not happen.

• UNEASINESS: Causing physical or mental discomfort or anxiety.
• DECISIVELY: Able to make choices quickly and comfortably.
• THE NECK OF LAND: A narrow stretch of land.
• INCONSPICUOUS: Not very easy to see or to notice.
• PANTRY: Small store-room for storing food.
• NEUROTIC: to be abnormally nervous and sensitive.
• BURGLARY: The act of illegally entering a building in order to steal things.
• FLESH CRAWL: An expression of extreme fear.
• SQUEAKED: to make a short, high-pitched noise.
1. Where was Connie’s house located? Would you call it a lonely house?
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2. The first sentence of the story tells us about Connie’s unease. What factors
contribute to her sense of dread?
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3. When she arrives home, what is that Connie feels as she looks around?
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4. What were the things that Connie failed to notice when she went round the
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5. What is the first thing that Connie does? How does she react to the noises?
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6. What dreadful news does Mrs. Winston convey Connie?
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7. What does Connie discover in her bedroom?
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8. How was the motorcycle useful for Connie? What did the burglar do when he
saw the motorcycle in flames?
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5.6 LET US SUM UP
The above unit is about a heart-wrenching story about Connie and her encounter with
a burglar. The title ‘Uneasy Homecoming’ suggests that the narrative might be a bit
tensed or uncomfortable. The first sentence of the text reveals the eerie feeling that the
narrative gives later when it says, “Connie began to have the feeling of dread and
uneasiness in the taxi but herself that it was not reasonable”. It clearly indicates that
Connie already has an idea that there might be something wrong, the moment she
reaches her house. As we unfold the layers of suspense we find out that the fear that
Connie had was not unreasonable, rather it had a really strong reason and meaning as
well.
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BLOCK-2 ENGLISH PROSE
UNIT 1 THE WAY TO EQUAL DISTRIBUTION
UNIT 2 A CALL TO YOUTH
UNIT 3 WATER- THE ELIXIR OF LIFE
UNIT 4 AN EDUCATED PERSON
UNIT 5 NO LEARNING WITHOUT FEELING
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UNIT 1: THE WAY TO EQUAL DISTRIBUTION
Structure
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 About the author
1.3 The text, The way to Equal Distribution
1.5 Check your Progress
1.6 Let us Sum up
1.0 OBJECTIVE
After going through this unit, you’ll be able to:
• Know about the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

• Analyse the necessity of equal distribution in this country.
• Have a knowledge of community feeling.
• Analyse what it takes to create a harmonious society.
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Gandhi visualizes an India free from poverty. For him the key to eradication of poverty
is equal distribution of people’s wealth. He does not however, approve of the socialist
method of abolition of personal property. He was wise enough to advocate for
trusteeship. This can be achieved by honest trustees who are wealthy and interested to
share their wealth for the nation and its deprived multitude through respectable means.
He puts equal emphasis on the means of achieving social justice, which is non-
violence. The world has since woken up to the sublime significance of non-violence.
1.2 ABOUT THE AUTHOR, M.K. GANDHI
Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948), known as the father of the nation was
the pioneer of our freedom movement. His courageous leadership and selfless acts
transformed the people of India and unified the country even though it was undergoing
serious communal strife during the time of independence. Rabindranath Tagore fondly
called him ‘Mahatma’. To say in brief, Mahatma Gandhi brought Indian independence
46
through his patented methods of non-violence and Satyagraha. His My Experiments
with Truth is considered to be a moral and spiritual guide book by many till date. In
this text, he has put light on the idea of Community Feeling and how does the society
function in a peaceful manner. He also focusses on the necessity of equal distribution
amongst all the citizen.
Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, Gujarat, India.[3] Several members
of his family worked for the government of the state. When Gandhi was 18 years old,
he went to study law in England.[4] After he became a lawyer, he went to the British
colony of South Africa where he experienced laws that said people with dark skin had
fewer rights than people with light skin. In 1897, Gandhi was attacked by a group of
people in Durban Harbour, South Africa when he was going to work. He went to South
Africa because he could not find work in India. When traveling through South Africa,
Gandhi was also kicked out of a first class train because of his skin colour. Then
Gandhi started protesting against segregation. He decided then to become a political
activist, so he could help change these unfair laws. He created a powerful, non-violent
movement. During Gandhi's life, India was a colony of the United Kingdom, but
wanted independence. He was a huge leader during that era and his thoughts helped
catalyse the Indian independence movement.
In 1915, when Gandhi returned to India, he decided to again lead a march against a
law called the Rowlatt Act. But then the protest turned violent and people started to
kill the protesters.[6]
In 1930, Gandhi led the Salt March.

When he returned to India, he helped cause India's independence from British rule,
inspiring other colonial people to work for their own independence, break up the
British Empire, and replace it with the Commonwealth.
People of many different religions and ethnic groups lived in British India. Many
people thought that the country should break into separate countries so that different
groups could have their own countries. In particular, many people thought that Hindus
and Muslims should have separate countries. Gandhi was a Hindu, but he liked ideas
from many religions including Islam, Judaism and Christianity, and he thought that
people of all religions should have the same rights, and could live together peacefully
in the same country.
In 1938, Gandhi resigned from Congress. He said that he was no longer able to work
through Congress to unite the divisions in caste and religion. He also felt that he had
little to offer to the political process.[7]
In 1947, British Indian Empire became independent, breaking India in two, India and
Pakistan. Gandhi wanted independence, but did not want to split into two different
countries. Instead of celebrating on Independence Day, he was crying over the division
of India.
Gandhi's principle of satyagraha, often translated as "way of truth" or "pursuit of
truth", has inspired other democratic and anti-racist activists like Martin Luther King,
47
Jr. and Nelson Mandela. Gandhi often said that his values were simple, based upon
traditional Hindu beliefs: truth (satya), and non-violence (ahimsa).
1.3 THE TEXT, THE WAY TO EQUAL DISTRIBUTION
The real implication of equal distribution is that each man shall have the wherewithal
to’ supply all his natural needs and no more. For example, if one man has a weak
digestion and requires only a quarter of a pound of flour for his bread and another
needs a pound, both should be in a position to satisfy their wants. To bring this ideal
into being the entire social order has got to be reconstructed. A society based on
nonviolence cannot nurture any other ideal. We may not perhaps be able to realize the
goal, but we must bear it in mind and work unceasingly to near it. To the same’ extent
as we progress towards our goal we shall find contentment and happiness, and to that
extent too shall we have contributed towards the bringing into being of a nonviolent
society.
It is perfectly possible for an individual to adopt this way of life without having to wait
for others to do so. And if an individual can observe a certain rule of conduct, it follows
that a group of individuals can do likewise. It is necessary for me to emphasize the fact
that no one need wait for anyone else in order to adopt a right course. Men generally
hesitate to make a beginning if they feel that the objective cannot be had in its entirety.
Such an attitude of mind is in reality a bar to progress.
Now let us consider how equal distribution can be brought about through nonviolence.
The first step towards it is for him who has made this ideal part of his personal life.
He would reduce his wants to a minimum, bearing in mind the poverty of India. His
earnings would be free of dishonesty. The desire for speculation would be renounced.
His habitation would be in keeping with the new mode of life. When he has done all
that is possible in his own life, then only will he be in a position to preach this ideal
among his associates and neighbours.
Indeed at the root of this doctrine of equal distribution must lie that of the trusteeship
of the wealthy for the superfluous wealth possessed by them; for according to the
doctrine they may not possess a rupee more than their neighbours. How is this to be
brought about? Non-violently? Or should the wealthy be dispossessed of their
possessions? To do this we would naturally have to resort to violence. This violent
action cannot benefit society. Society will be the poorer, for it will lose the gifts of a
man who knows how to accumulate wealth. Therefore the non-violent way is evidently
superior. The rich man will be left in possession of his wealth, of which he will use
what he reasonably requires for his personal needs and will act as trustee for the
remainder to be used for the society. In this argument honesty on the part of the trustee
is assumed.
As soon as a man looks upon himself as a servant of society, earns for its sake, spends
for its benefit, then purity enters into his earnings and there is ahimsa in his venture.
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Moreover, if men’s minds turns towards this way of life, there will come about a
peaceful revolution in society, and that without any bitterness.
It may be asked whether history at any time records such a change in human nature.
Such changes have certainly taken place in individuals. One may not perhaps be able
to point to them in a whole society. But this only means that up till now there has never
been an experiment on a large scale in non-violence. Somehow or other the wrong
belief has taken possession ‘of us that ahimsa is pre-eminently a weapon for
individuals and its use should, therefore, be limited to that sphere. In fact this is not
the case. Ahimsa is definitely an attribute of society. To convince people of this truth
is at once my effort and my experiment. In this age of wonders no one will say that a
thing or idea is worthless because it is new. To say it is impossible because it is difficult
is again not in consonance with the spirit of the age. Things undreamt of are daily
being seen, the impossible because is ever becoming possible. We are constantly being
astonished these days at the amazing discoveries in the field of violence. But I maintain
that far more undreamt seemingly impossible discoveries will be made in the field of
non-violence. The history of religion is full of such examples. To try to root out
religion itself from the society is a wild goose chase. And were such an attempt to
succeed, it would mean the destruction of society. Superstition, evil customs and other
imperfections creep in from age to age and mar religion for the time being. They come
and go. But religion itself remains, because the existence of the world in a broad sense
depends on religion. The ultimate definition of religion may be said to be obedience
to the law of God. God and His law are synonymous terms. Therefore God signifies
an unchanging and living law. No one has really found Him. But avatars and prophets
have, by means of their tapasya, given to mankind a faint glimpse of the eternal law.
If, however, in spite of the utmost effort, the rich do not become guardians of the poor
in the true sense of the term and the latter are more crushed and die of hunger, what is
to be? In trying to find the solution to this riddle I have lighted non-violent non-
cooperation and civil disobedience as the right and infallible means. The rich cannot
accumulate wealth without the co-operation of the poor in society. Man has been
conversant with violence from the beginning, for he has inherited this strength from
the animal in his nature. It was only when he rose from the state of a quadruped
(animal) to that of a biped (man) that the knowledge has grown within him slowly but
surely. If this knowledge were to penetrate to and spread amongst the poor, they would
become strong and would learn hoe free themselves by means of non-violence from
the crushing inequalities which have brought them to the verge of starvation.
• Wherewithal: Ways.
• Renounce: To leave out, to part from a desirable material gain.
• Trusteeship: a method in which wealthy people constitute a group, put their
wealth for the use of the poor and the deprived.
• Pre-eminent: Highest or the most important.
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• Resort to: To follow or to apply.
• Infallible: Without any faults/faultless.
• Wild-goose chase: an unsuccessful chase.
• Mar: to destroy.
1. What do you know about non-violence?

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2. How can we apply Gandhian ideals in today’s world? Write with suitable
examples.
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3. Does non-violence serve any positive goal? Give appropriate reasons and
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4. What is your opinion on Gandhi’s idea of Satyagraha?
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5. Write a short-note on non-violence. How does it help a nation grow politically and
economically?
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6. Respond to Gandhi’s idea of the integral nature of religion in a multi-lingual and
multi-cultural nation.
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1.6 LET US SUM UP
Who doesn’t know about the father of the nation? Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the
first name that crosses our mind when we think about the independence of the then
British reigned India. The second thing that Gandhiji wanted to change in this country
was the disparity between the rich and the poor or the haves and the have nots. Gandhiji
always believed in the idea of an ‘inclusive India’, an India where there won’t be any
discrepancy between the rich and the poor. The disparity between the rich and the poor
is still a persisting threat in the nation. This essay makes us aware of the demerits of
accumulation of health without check and balance.
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UNIT 2 : A CALL TO YOUTH
Structure
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 About the author, S.Radhakrishnan
2.3 The text, ‘A call to Youth’
2.6 Let Us Sum up
2.0 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you will be able to:
• Know about the second President of this country, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.

Analyse the message that the author wants to convey through this narrative.
• Know the basic responsibilities that one should know being a responsible
youth citizen of this nation.
• Know how the affiliation of the youth to political parties can any way
contribute towards nation building.
2.1 INTRODUCTION
‘A Call to Youth’ is S. Radhakrishnan’s convocation address to Karnataka University

on 26th October 1953. His address emphasizes the need to build a strong character that
can nourish the health of a nation and its citizens. He sketches a vision of India where
the youth by their hard work, integrity of character and positive thinking can bring and
contribute to a prosperous and developed the society. This ceremonial address was
meant to inspire the youth generation and the generations to come because the youth
generation is the potential resource of energy for the country.
2.2 ABOUT THE AUTHOR, S.RADHAKRISHNAN
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Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888-1975) was our second President and lifelong teacher,
he was not only an erudite scholar, philosopher and educationist but was the prime
instrument in shaping the course of higher education in this country. Being a visionary
scholar, he converted the Rashtrapati Niwas (summer capital of the British in Shimla
before Indian Indolence) to the Indian Institute of Advance Study known for advanced
research in humanities. His major works are Indian Philosophy, An Ideal View of Life,
Eastern Religion and Western Thought, Freedom and Culture and so on…
One of India's most distinguished twentieth-century scholars of comparative religion
and philosophy, after completing his education at Madras Christian
College in 1911, he became Assistant Professor and later Professor of Philosophy at
Madras Presidency College then subsequently Professor of Philosophy at the
University of Mysore (1918-1921); the King George V Chair of Mental and Moral
Science at the University of Calcutta (1921–1932) and Spalding Professor of Eastern
Religion and Ethics at University of Oxford (1936–1952) by which he became the first
Indian to hold a professorial chair at the University of Oxford. He was Upton Lecturer
at Manchester College, Oxford in 1926, 1929, and 1930. In 1930 he was appointed
Haskell lecturer in Comparative Religion at the University of Chicago.
His philosophy was grounded in Advaita Vedanta, reinterpreting this tradition for a
contemporary understanding. He defended Hinduism against what he called
"uninformed Western criticism", contributing to the formation of contemporary Hindu
identity. He has been influential in shaping the understanding of Hinduism, in both
India and the west, and earned a reputation as a bridge-builder between India and the
West.
Radhakrishnan was awarded several high awards during his life, including a
knighthood in 1931, the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in India, in 1954, and
honorary membership of the British Royal Order of Merit in 1963. He was also one of
the founders of Help age India, a non-profit organisation for elderly underprivileged
in India. Radhakrishnan believed that "teachers should be the best minds in the
country". Since 1962, his birthday has been celebrated in India as Teachers' Day on 5
September every year.
2.3 THE TEXT, A CALL TO YOUTH
My first duty is to congratulate those who by hard and disciplined effort obtained their
degrees today. I should like to tell them that the very same qualities which they
exhibited during their University careers must continue in future and I hope that they
will continue.
I will be unfair to myself and to you if I should promise you glittering prizes or
comfortable positions. The times ahead of us are’ of a very difficult character. The
movements which took place in other countries during a span of centuries have all
occurred here more or less simultaneously. What answer to the Renaissance, the
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Reformation, the Industrial Revolution or the Political Revolution-all these things
have been telescoped so to say in these few years in our country. We have won political
independence. But it is not to be regarded as giving us complete freedom. There are
ever so many other things which require to be fulfilled if this first step is to be’
regarded as a preparation for the liberation of this great land. If we wish to follow up
political revolution by a social and economic one, our universities must send out
batches of scientists, technicians, engineers, agriculturalists etc. These are essential for
changing the face of our country, the economic character of our society.
But we should not believe that science and technology alone are enough. There are
other countries, much advanced countries in the world, which have achieved
marvellous progress in the scientific and technological side, yet they are torn by strife
and they are unable to bring about peace, safety and security of their own people. It
only shows that other qualities are also necessary besides those developed by science
and technology.
Just now a student was introduced for his Degree and he was called Doctor of
Philosophy in Science. In other words science is also regarded as a branch of
philosophy. The function of the universities is not merely to send out technically
skilled and professionally competent men, but it is their duty to produce in them the
quality of compassion, the quality which enables the individuals to treat one another
in a truly democratic spirit. Our religions have proclaimed from the very beginning
that each human individual is to be regarded as a spark of the Divine. Tat tvam asi,
that art thou, is the teaching of the Upanishads. The Buddhists declare that each
individual has in him a spark of the Divine and could become a Bodhisattva. These
proclamations by themselves are not enough. So long as these’ principles are merely
clauses in the Constitution, and not functioning realities in the daily life of the people,
we are far from the ideals which we have set before ourselves. Minds and hearts of the
people require to be altered. We must strive to become democratic not merely in the
political sense of the term but also in the social and economic sense. It is essential to
bring about this democratic change, this democratic temper, this kind of outlook by
proper study of the humanities including philosophy and religion. There is a great
verse which says that in this poison tree of samsara are two fruits of incomparable
value. They are the enjoyment of great books and the company of good souls. If you
want to absorb the fruits of great literature, well, you must read them not as we do
cricket stories but read them with concentration. Our generation in its rapid travel has
lost the habit of being influenced by the great classics of our country. If these principles
of democracy in our Constitution are to become habits of mind and patterns of
behaviour, principles which change the very character of the individual and the nature
of the society, it can be done only by the study of great literature, of philosophy and
religion. That is why even though our country needs great scientists, great
technologies, great engineers, we should not neglect to make them humanists. While
we retain science and technology we must remember that science and technology are
not all. We must note the famous statement that merely by becoming literate without
the development of compassion we become demoniac. So no university can regard
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itself as a true university unless it sends out young men and women who are not only
learned but whose hearts are full of compassion for suffering humanity. Useless that
is there, the university education must be regarded as incomplete.
I have been a teacher for nearly all my adult life, for over forty years, I have lived with
students and it hurts me very deeply when I find that the precious years during which
a student has to live in the university are wasted by some of them. I do not say by all
of them. Teachers and students form a family and in a family you cannot have the
spirit of the trade union. Such thing should be inconceivable in a university. University
life is a co-operative enterprise between teachers and students and I do hope that the
students will not do a disservice to themselves by resorting to activities which are anti-
social in character.
Character is destiny. Character is that on which the destiny of a nation is built. One
cannot have a great nation with men of small character. We must have young men and
women who look upon others as the living images of themselves as our Shastras have
so often declared. But whether in public life or student life, we cannot reach great
heights if we are lacking in character. We cannot climb the mountain when the very
ground at our feet is crumbling. When the very basis of our existence is shaky, how
can we reach the heights which we have set before ourselves? We must all have
humility. Here is a country which we are interested in building up. For whatever
service we take up, we should not care for what we receive. We should know how
much we can put into that service. That should be the principle which should animate
our young men and women. Ours is a great country. We have had for centuries a great
history. The whole of the East reflects our culture. We have to represent what India
taught right from the time of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. Whether in domestic affairs
or in international affairs we must adhere to certain standards. My advice to the young
men and women who are graduating today through this University is: Mother India
expects of you that your lives should be clean, noble and dedicated to selfless work.
• RENAISSANCE: Revival of classical learning, knowledge, books and

concepts in modern day Europe that resulted in translation of books, largescale
cultural resurgence through painting, sculptures. It started in Italy.
• REFORMATION: A change in religious and political order of the day in 15th
century Europe initiated by Martin Luther of Germany. The movement is
known for negating the supremacy of the church of governance.
• HUMANITIES: Arts subjects that deals with literature, painting and other
disciplines concerning human values and human nature.
• CRUMBLE: to break or to fall apart.
• INDUSTIAL REVOLUTION: A 19th Century phenomenon that resulted in
the spread of industry and ample production of goods.
• SAMSARA: The whole world.
• TAT TVAM ASI: That art thou (you share the divine spark).
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1. What is democracy? What is or what should be the spirit of Democracy?

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2. What are the major responsibilities of the youth of the country?
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3. Why does the author feel that educational institutions should not be treated as
trade unions?
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4. Do you think there is any need of student election in our college and university
campuses?
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5. What is or what should be prime responsibility of a student in an institution?
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6. How do you think integrity of a character in a student can contribute towards the
betterment of the institution?
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2.6 LET US SUM UP
This essay underscores the need for human bonding and empathy at a time when we
witness a sharp decline in these qualities, among the youth, especially the student
population. Radhakrishnan’s lucid prose style is an effective vehicle for delivering the
urgency of his moral concerns to his readers. In this world where nobody has time to
empathise with their fellow beings, this text takes the credibility to inculcate it in the
minds and hearts of Human beings.
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UNIT 3 : WATER- THE ELIXIR OF LIFE
Structure
3.0 Objective
3.1 Introduction
3.2 About the author, C.V. Raman
3.3 The text, Water- The elixir of life
3.6 Let us Sum up
3.0 OBJECTIVE
• Understand the importance of water and water bodies.

• Know about C.V. Raman and his take on social and environmental issues.
• Analyse the different reasons in which water bodies/water resources are
exploited leading to shortage of water.
• Analyse the problems that occurs due to water shortage and also find its
solutions.
3.1 INTRODUCTION
This essay redirects our attention to the supreme value of a very basic and fundamental
natural resource namely ‘water’. C.V. Raman has highlighted the benefits that the
human civilization has received from the water bodies, there are myriad of such
benefits. He has at the same time warned us of the dangers we will face in the event
of their exhaustion. His thoughtful essay ponders over the means to protect our rivers
in order to save our civilization. It comprehensively explains how the river flows from
its primary source and how on the way its silt and sand form a whole bed of fertile
ground fit for agriculture and even for industry. He cites river Nile as the source of the
Egyptian (Mesopotamian) civilization and goes on to show how every small source of
water is a treasured and cherished piece of bliss of blue gold and it should be preserved
at all possible cost.
3.2 ABOUT THE AUTHOR, C.V. RAMAN
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Chandrasekhar Venkata Raman (1888-1970) is memorable for his phenomenal
scientific research in the field of Physics. As a matter of fact, we all know that he was
awarded with the Nobel Prize in 1930 He was educated in Madras and served as a
Professor at Calcutta University. The molecular scattering of light he discovered has
now become famous as ‘Raman effect’. He has delivered a number of talks on ‘All
India Radio’ with the aim of raising awareness of our immediate neutral environment
emphasizing the need of its conservation.
In 1907 after passing a civil service competitive examination, he became the Deputy
Accountant General in Calcutta. In 1915, he met Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee, the
Secretary of the Indian Science Association. Raman joined this Association as a
member, and started his research work. In the year 1917, he resigned from his post and
became the Professor of Physics at Calcutta University.
During a sea voyage to Europe in 1921, he observed with wonder, the brilliant blue
colour of the Mediterranean, and later the blue colour of glaciers. After returning to
India, he experimented on the diffusion of sunlight during its passage through water,
transparent blocks of ice and other materials. He then explained the reason for the blue
colour of the ocean. His studies on scattering of light led him to the discovery of
‘Raman Effect’ in 1928. ‘Rama Effect’ describes the change in the frequency of light
passing through transparent mediums. He used monochromatic light from a mercury
arc and the spectroscope to study the nature of diffused radiations emerging from the
material under examination. For this discovery, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in
1930.
In 1933, he became the Director of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He held
this post for 10 years. In 1934, he sponsored the foundation of the Indian Academy of
Sciences, of which he became President. In 1943, the Raman Research Institute was
set up by him. Then he conducted research work for the rest of his life. He died on 21st
November, 1970 at Bangalore.
3.3 THE TEXT, WATER- THE ELIXIR OF LIFE
Man has through the ages sought in vain for an imaginary elixir of life, the divine
Amrita. A draught of which was thought to confer immortality. But the true elixir of
life lies near to our hands. For it is the commonest of all liquids, plain water! I
remember one day standing on the line which separates the Libyan Desert from the
Valley of the Nile in Egypt. On one side was visible a sea of billowing sand without a
speck of green or a single living thing anywhere on the earth, teeming with life and
vegetation. What made this wonderful difference? Why, it is the water of the River
Nile flowing down to the Mediterranean from its sources a couple of thousands of
miles away. Geologists tell us that the entire soil of the Nile valley is the creation of
the river itself, brought pawn as the finest silt in its flood waters, from the highlands
of Abyssinia and from remote Central Africa, and laid down through the ages in the
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trough through which the Nile flows into the sea. Egypt, in fact, was made by its river.
Its ancient civilization was created and is sustained by the life-giving waters which
come down year after year with unfailing regularity.
I give this example and could give many others to emphasize that this common
substance which we take for granted in our everyday life is the most potent and the
most wonderful thing on the face of our earth. It has played a role of vast significance
in shaping the course of the earth’s history, and continue to play the leading role in the
drama of life on the surface of our planet.
There is nothing which adds so much to the beauty of the countryside as water, be it
just a little stream trickling over the rocks or a little pond by the wayside where the
cattle quench their thirst of an evening. The rain fed tanks that are so common in South
India alas often so sadly neglected in their maintenance are a cheering sight when they
are full. They are, of course shallow but this is less evident since the water is silt-laden
and throws the light back, and the bottom does not therefore show up. These tanks
play a vital role in South Indian Agriculture. In Mysore, for example, much of the rice
grown under them. Some of these tanks are surprisingly large and it is a beautiful sight
to see the sun rise or set over one of them. Water in a large landscape may be compared
to the eyes in a human face. It reflects the mood of the hour, being bright and gay when
the sun shines, turning to dark and gloomy when the sky is overcast.
One of the most remarkable facts about water is its power to carry silt or finely divided
soil in suspension. This is the origin of the characteristic colour of the water in rain
fed tanks. This colour varies with the nature of the earth in the catchment area and is
most vivid immediately after a fresh inflow following rain. Swiftly flowing water van
carry fairly large and heavy particles. The finest particles, however remain floating
within the liquid in spite of their greater density and are carried to great distances.
Such particles are, of course, extremely small, but their number is also great, and
incredibly large amounts of solid matter can be transported in this way. When silt-
laden water mixes with the salt water of the sea, there is a rapid precipitation of the
suspended matter. This can be readily seen when one travels by steamer down a great
river to the deep sea. The colour of the water changes successively from the muddy
red or brown silt through varying shades of yellow and green finally to the deep sea.
That great tracts of land have been formed by silt thus deposited is evident on an
examination of the soil on alluvial areas. Such land, consisting as it does of finely
divided matter, is usually very fertile.
The flow of water has undoubtedly played a great part and a beneficent one ill the
geological processes by which the soil on the earth’s surface has been formed from
the rocks of its crust. The same agency however, under appropriate conditions, can
also play a destructive part and wash away the soil which is the foundation of all
agriculture, and if allowed to proceed unchecked can have the most disastrous effects
on the life of the country. The problem of soil erosion is one of serious import in
various countries and especially in many parts of India. The conditions under which it
occurs and the measures by which it can be checked are deserving of the closest study.
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Soil erosion occurs in successive steps, the earliest of which may easily pass unnoticed.
In the later stages, the cutting up and washing away of earth is only too painfully
apparent in the formation of deep gullies and ravines which make all agriculture
impossible. Sudden bursts of excessively heavy rain resulting in a large run-off surplus
water are the principal factors in causing soil erosion, Contributory causes are the slope
of the land, removal of the natural protective coat of vegetation, the existence of ruts
along which the water can flow with, rapidly gathering momentum, and the absence
of any checks to such flow. Incredibly large quantities of precious soil can be washed
away if such conditions exist, as is unhappily too often the case.
The menace which soil erosion presents to the continuance of successful agriculture is
an alarming one in many parts of India, calling urgently for attention and preventive
action. The terracing of the land, the construction of bunds to check the flow of water,
the practice of contour cultivation and the plating of appropriate types of vegetation
are amongst the measures that have been suggested. It is obvious that the aim should
be to check the flow of water at the earliest possible stage before it has acquired any
appreciable momentum and correspondingly large destructive power.
Water is the basis of all life. Every animal and every plant contains a substantial
proportion of free or combined water in its body, and no kind of physiological activity
is possible in which the fluid does not play and essential part. Water is, of course
necessary for animal life, while moisture in the soil is equally imperative for the life
and growth of plants and trees, though the quantity necessary varies enormously with
species. The conservation and utilisation of water is thus fundamental for human
welfare. Apart from artesian water the ultimate source in all cases is rain or snowfall.
Much of Indian agriculture depends on seasonal rainfall and is therefore very sensitive
to any failure or irregularity of the same. The problems of soil erosion and of
inadequate or irregular rainfall are closely connected with each other. It is clear that
the adoption of techniques preventing soil erosion would also help to conserve and
keep the water where it is wanted, in other words, on and in the soil, and such
techniques therefore serve a double purpose thus lost to the country. The harnessing
of our rivers, the waters of which now mostly run to waste, is a great national problem
which must be considered and dealt with on national lines. Vast areas of land which
at present are mere scrub jungle could be turned into fertile and prosperous country by
courageous and well-planned action.
Closely connected with the conservation of water supplies is the problem of
afforestation. The systematic planting of suitable trees in every possible or even in
impossible areas, and the development of what one can call civilized forests, as
distinguished from wild and untamed jungle, is one of the most urgent needs of India.
Such plantation would directly and indirectly prove a source of untold wealth to the
country. They would check soil erosion and conserve the rainfall of the country from
flowing away to waste, and would provide the necessary supplies of cheap fuel, and
thus render unnecessary the wasteful conversion of farmyard manure into a form of
fuel.
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The measures necessary to control the movement of water and conserve the supplies
of it can also serve subsidiary purposes of value to the life of the countryside. By far
the cheapest for of internal transport in a country is by boats and barges through canals
and rivers. We hear much about programmes of rails and road construction, but far too
little about the development of internal waterways in India. Then, again the harnessing
of water supplies usually also makes possible the development of hydro-electric
power. The availability of electric power would make a tremendous difference to the
life of the country-side and enable underground water to be tapped to a greater extent
that at present, and thus help to overcome the difficulties arising from irregularity or
inadequacy of other sources of supply.
In one sense, water is the commonest of liquids. In another sense, it is the most
uncommon of liquids with amazing properties which are responsible for its unique
power of maintaining animal and plant life. The investigation of the nature and
properties of water is. Therefore, of the highest scientific interest and is far from an
exhausted field of research.
• ELIXIR: An imaginary substance of immortality.

• AMRITA: Sanskrit word, known as God’s Holy drink (referred to water).
IMMORTAL: The one who cannot die. NILE: The longest river of Africa.
• GEOLOGICAL: The study of the earth’s surface and beneath the rocks, fossils
etc.
• ARTESIAN WATER: Dug well water.
1. State the different functions of water that makes it the most precious liquid on
earth.
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2. What are the ancient civilizations that develop along the banks of rivers? Write
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4. Do you think reckless expansion of cities affects the health of a civilization? Write
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5. What steps can be taken to preserve the water bodies of the country in order to
save humanity from the ravages of floods, droughts and earthquakes?
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3.6 LET US SUM UP
The most pertinent issue that has spread like wildfire in every nook and corner of this
world is the magnanimous reduction of water bodies and water resources. ‘Global
Warming’ comes forward as the root cause for this devastating scenario. We don’t see
a lot of positive change in the scenario even now. Though very few of us are now
aware of the scenario, there are still a lot of people who are still unaware of the dire
consequences that may result due to shortage of water on the surface of the earth.
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UNIT 4 : AN EDUCATED PERSON
Structure
4.0 Objectives
4.1 Introduction
4.2 About the author, Harold Nicolson
4.3 The text, ‘An Educated Person’
4.5 Check Your Progress
4.6 Let us Sum up
4.0 OBJECTIVES
• Analyse who was Harold Nicolson and know about his writings.
• Know what education is and what its true and justified meaning is.
• Analyse how education is being commercialised in this present scenario and
how the quality of education is dismantled and broken.
• Analyse the difference between Education and Common Sense and evaluate
whether the present day education inculcates values enough to make an
individual sensible?
4.1 INTRODUCTION
This essay is notable for its attempt to give an unconventional definition to education,
providing accurate information about the disciplines of knowledge and striking the
right note on what education is or what an educated person actually needs to know. It
chips away all the usual notions that link education with classes, degrees and mere
book learning. Nicolson explains how education also dwindles between class and
status. True education, as the essay suggest, is not simply compartmentalized,
scholarly, specialized knowledge but is a perpetual stream of fresh ideas. Education is
a continuous process, a lifelong eagerness to know and explore. It reveals itself in the
flexibility of the mind in inviting new information and an ever widening interest in the
quality and beauty of life.
4.2 ABOUT THE AUTHOR, HAROLD NICOLSON
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Harold Nicolson (1886-1968), a British Government Diplomat and scholar, who wrote
several pieces in the British magazine ‘The Spectator’. He is the author of biographies
of the English poet Alfred Tennyson and Viceroy Lord Curzon. His famous work is
‘Diplomacy (1939)’.
He was born in Iran while his father, the famous diplomat Arthur Nicolson , held the
position of ambassador. After studying at Wellington College and at the University of
Oxford , Harold decided in 1909 to follow in his father's diplomatic footsteps,
representing the British Crown during the 1919 Paris Peace Conference .
In the work dedicated to his father, published in 1930 , he offered a documented
panorama of diplomacy in the period before the First World War . In 1952 he was
commissioned to write the official biography of King George V , whom he had
personally known.
Nationalist but politically deployed on the left, in the ( 1931 ) Nicolson joined initially
to the New Party of Oswald Mosley , but when the movement was renamed British
Union of Fascists , he preferred to go to the party Nazional Labor , born of a split from
the Labour , with which he was a member of parliament from 1935 to 1945 for the
college of Leicester West . During the Second World War he collaborated with the
national coalition government led by Winston Churchill becoming secretary of the
Ministry of Information, but in the national elections of 1945 the re-election in the
House of Commons failed . In 1948 he ran again with the Labour Party, but lost and
retired permanently from politics.
4.3 THE TEXT, AN EDUCATED PERSON
I received this week a postcard from some reader of the Spectator, suggesting that I
should devote my next essay on this page to defining what exactly I meant by “an
educated person”. I was pleased by this communication, partly because it is a warm
surprise to receive an anonymous postcard which is amicably intended, and partly
because I thought this suggestion was an excellent idea. What could be easier or more
interesting that to set down on paper the many definitions, both varied and precise,
which I had either heard applied to education by other people or which, in the course
of prolonged concern with the subject, I had evolved myself? Yet when I drew my pad
towards me and began to note down the several headings under which any such
definition should be grouped, I came to the conclusion that when I spoke or wrote of
“an educated person” I had in fact no clear idea at all of what sort of a person I had in
mind. I recognized in the first place that the phrase, in certain contexts and
circumstances, was now often used, not to designate any degree of erudition or
schooling, but as a synonym for what used to be called “a person of quality”. We have
all today become so extremely class-conscious that we hesitate to employ such
expressions as “upper-class”, “middle-class” or “lower-class” and take refuge in
elegant euphemism such as “person belonging to the lower income group”. Since I
happen to dislike verbal elegance and to detest euphemism, I may have slipped into
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the compromise of saying “an educated person” when I really meant a person who
appertains to the now vestigial (and shortly to be extinct) species which was once
known as “the rich”. This assuredly is a lamentable confession and one which, as I
write it, brings an ingenuous blush to my cheek. But even Mr. Bernard Shaw who
possesses such undaunted verbal probity, would not when fighting an election in any
interest, dare to use upon his platform the fine old English phrase “lower-classes”. To
indicate that income group or its opposite one may often be inclined to use a less
precise, ans as such a less provocative, term.
Yet, although there may have been occasions when my tact or my timidity has induced
me to use the expression “an educated person” as a definition of those who belong to
the upper and upper-middle classes, there must have been many other occasions on
which I employed the phrase to imply a certain level of education. And although my
anonymous mentor did not quote the context in which the words had attracted his
attention, and possibly his disapproval, it was evidently in his mind that I should
explain what level of education I thought a person should have reached before he could
be justly described as ‘educated’. Such a proposal throws open to me the whole range
of learning from alphabets to Aristotle and obliges me therefore exclude from my
inquiry all the lower levels of schooling and shall not consider those persons who are
able to read and write English, who can do simple sums in arithmetic, and who possess
an average School Certificate knowledge of history and geography. I shall also exclude
the specialists, the lepidopterists, the conchologists and all those whose knowledge,
although formidable within its own range, is confined, within the limits of any
particular or technical branch of learning. I shall further leave aside those persons
whose education is due to purely fortuitous circumstances, or who are able to convey
the impression of erudition owing to the chance that they had a Russian mother or
worked in Alinari’s from the age of ten.
The expression ‘an educated person’ might be taken to apply to an individual who,
being possessed of average intelligence, application and memory, has devoted several
years of his or her life to the acquisition of general knowledge. It would not be within
such, narrow confines that I should use the expression, since a moment’s examination
of this definition proves it to be wholly unsatisfactory. What, for instance, is meant by
‘several years’? Does it mean the years between the ages of five and fourteen, or the
years between the ages of five and twenty-one? Assuredly it means nothing of the sort,
since a person who ceases to educate himself at any age is not, in my sense of the
world, an educated person. Only those can lay claim to that resounding title who
continue to learn and learn until they are nailed in their coffins. What, again, is meant
by “general knowledge”? The pendants have assured us that the aim of all higher
education is to know something about everything and everything about something.
Much as I envy and admire those rare people who are in fact capable of these extremes
of erudition, I should regard them, not so much as persons of exceptional education
but rather as sports or freaks, akin to lightning calculators, who have been endowed
by nature with extraordinary minds. No normal person can possibly know something
about everything, and even those who know everything about something become
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incapable of elastic thought and are contorted into unnatural shapes which recall the
masterpieces of the topiarist’s art. The normal human being who aspires to be educated
should concentrate upon those areas of learning which are attuned to his individual
capacities, and should enlarge those areas by becoming acquainted with the wider
areas, which surround his own nucleus of knowledge.
It would be absurd and wasteful, for instance, for a man who by temperament is fitted
to understand music, to force himself to study engineering. Yet if such a man were
strictly to confine his education to music alone, he would fail to qualify as an inspiring
musical critic. His aim should be to extend the range of his sensibilities by learning
about things which are cognate to his own special capacities; he should study the
plastic arts, spend much time in reading the biographies of musicians and the history
of their times, and endeavour to acquire an area of thought, feeling and experience
wider that that possessed by the musicians whom he studies. The person again who is
endowed with literary tastes, but who does not possess the creative energy which
enables him to write books, should seek to equip himself by studying, not literature
merely, but also the arts, history and language so literary man can call himself educated
unless he has a sound knowledge of at least one literature other than his own. It will
be said that, in giving these instances, I disclose that I am not really thinking about
education, but only about culture. It is, I admit, an unfortunate circumstance that the
poverty of our native tongue has not provided us with a word less offensive than,
‘culture’ to describe the level of learning which is reached by those who have forgotten
most of what they have been taught. Yet I do think that it is so disgraceful to admit
that when I speak of ‘an educated person’ I do not merely mean someone who has
passed his exams, but a person who has ‘acquired a trained, elastic and cultivated
mind. The value of a liberal education, the value of a liberal education, the value above
all of the humanities, is that it enables those who have been so fortunate as to enjoy
these graceful benefits to apply the machinery of their mind to areas beyond the
confines of their own schooling.
• ANONYMOUS: Without identity/someone who is unknown.

• EVOLVED: Grow in terms of quality.
• EUPHEMISM: The device by which crude term is replaced by a more
respectable one.
• SPECTATOR: Viewers (‘The Spectator’- a weekly English magazine).
• TOPIARIST: The one who works in a garden in clipping plants.
• PROBITY: Insights or Integrity.
• LEPIDOTERIST: The one who scientifically studies butterflies.
• CONCOLOGIST: The one who studies mollusc shells. ALINARY: Of
museums and archives.
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• ANALPHABETS: A person who can’t read.
• TOPIARIST: One who works in a garden in clipping plants.
• FORTUITOUS: Chancy or Unanticipated.
• ERUDITION: Scholarly exercise.
• COGANTE: Of equal nature.
• PEDANTS: Mechanical scholars stressing on detailed book learning.
• INTERSET: Accurate detection of a threat or so.
• FREAK: Abnormal or unusual.
• AMICABLE: Friendly or sociable.
1. What means and methods do you think one has to adopt in order to be educated
truly?
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2. How does Nicolson explain the idea of liberal education, general knowledge and
the notion of literary men?
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3. What according to you is the difference between quantity and quality? Give
suitable examples.
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4. Do you think that the traditional education system was more effective that the
present one? Elaborate your reasons.
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5. What contribution does ‘Humanities’ as a discipline serves the society?
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4.6 LET US SUM UP
The current trend of commercialisation of educational institutions calls for a serious

review and questions the nature and aim of education. The habit of equipping youths
only with skills and excluding the inculcation of values has resulted in a mechanization
of the society. Nicolson’s essay is a grim reminder of this naked truth. Education has
merely become a mode of business/money making for more of the socalled educational
institutions to such an extent that sometimes even a vendor on the streets, a worker in
a factory and a peasant in the fields appear to be more sensible and knowledgeable.
There is no second in the fact that education in the modern era definitely includes skills
and abilities that is needed to get instant job, no single individual with a minimum
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degree shall remain unemployed, but is that enough? Can a job help us in being a
sensible and responsible individual?
UNIT 5 : NO LEARNING WITHOUT FEELING
Structure
5.0 Objectives
5.1 Introduction
5.2 About the writer, Claire Needell Hollander
5.3 The text, No Learning without feeling
5.5 Check Your Progress
5.0 OBJECTIVES
After reading this unit, you’ll be able to:
• Analyse the writer, Claire Needell Hollander, his works and his perception of
education.
• Learn the new terms attached with education (especially English) in the
present day scenario.
• Analyse the slogan ‘Skilling India or Odisha’ and get a zest of this phrase.
• Analyse and perhaps challenge the change in the ‘skilling approach’ of
skillbased education in the country and also in the state.
5.1 INTRODUCTION
This essay is about the pivotal importance of feeling as the gateway to learning. As
such it presents a passionate argument for a literature –based curriculum in schools.
Both these things should be home truths, but the emphasis is being lost or eclipsed in
today’s world which is promoting learning language skills and critical thinking skills
in the absence of reading matter which moves the students emotionally by speaking to
their deepest concerns.
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Hollander targets a particular curricular development in the United States of America
that has recently been much in news and has been adopted in as many as 45 of its
states. This goes by the name of Common Core State Standards. The aim of this
comprehensive set or series of recommendations is to stress only hard subjects and to
discourage any subjectivity in the learning process. That is how the balance is tipped
in favour of skills that are measurable and quantifiable and away from feelings,
emotions and thoughts which are non-measurable and hence unusable.
The negative outcome of this, as Hollander argues is that, content-rich and
emotiondrenched material of the kind we find in literature is edged out in favour of a
set of technical and formal language drills. The Common Core actually discourages
the reading of literary texts and recommends its replacement by neutral or what
Hollander calls ‘agnostic texts’. The latter are supposed to serve only as occasions for
doing language exercises. The more emotionally dried up they are, the better their
suitability for a skill-based learning is.
For Hollander, this is a severe limitation of the Common Core philosophy of education,
which if unthinkingly applied, will result in the ‘dumbing down’ of the minds. She
therefore, calls or the emotionally charged literary texts to oust the ‘agnostic’ texts.
Literature, she says, will be far from being a barrier in the path of the development of
critical thinking skills.
5.2 ABOUT THE WRITER, CLAIRE NEEDELL HOLLANDER
Claire Needell Hollander is an English teacher in a public middle school at Manhattan,

New York. It will be nearer to the mark to describe her, as she does herself as a
‘reading enrichment teacher’. She is a spirited crusader for the arts in a world that is
dominated by what is called the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering
and Mathematics). She writes in the opened pages of New York Times newspaper
against the ‘culture of dumbing down’ where the rewards for switching off the
intelligence are many. This essay was published in New York Times on 9th
June 2013. Hollander is also the author of the young adult novel ‘Something Right
behind her’.
5.3 THE TEXT, NO LEARNING WITHOUT FEELING
‘It’s sad,’ the kid at the far table told me, ‘but it’s my favourite poem we worked on.’
He was talking about ‘The Weary Blues.’ By Langston Hughes, and although his
emotional language was rudimentary, his response was authentic. ‘So we should read
literature that makes us sad?’ I asked. ‘Well, sadness, Ms, Hollander, is something
people pretty much feel every day.’ He looked up at me and smiled incredulously. The
connection was obvious to him.
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I like it when my students cry, when they read with solemnity and purpose, when the
project of making meaning becomes personal. My middle school students turn again
and again to highly charged young adult novels. The poems and stories they receive
enthusiastically are the ones that pack the most emotional punch. Just as teens like to
take physical risks, they are driven to take emotional risks. For teachers, emotion is
our stone.
Put another way, emotion is the English teacher’s entry point for literary exploration
and for the development of the high-level skills outlined in the Common Core State
Standards, which have been not particularly interested in emotional risk taking rather
in the avoidance of political risk taking but rather in the avoidance of political risk. It
is a rather bloodless effort.
Agreement on the skills American school children need to learn to read and write is
much easier to arrive at than agreement on what they should read and write. For this
reason, the Common Core’s list of text exemplars for English at each grade level is
slender, a few lines in an appendix, and centres on safe choices, like ‘Little Women,’
a novel dismissed as ‘moral pap’ by its author more than a century ago. The authors
of the Common Core standards have, however, exhaustively itemized skills required
for reading and writing at each grade level. There is so much fine print that even the
young teachers I know now need reading glasses.
I spend hours with my teacher-geek colleagues poring over distinctions between
Common Core grade-level skills that have little practical import in the classroom. As
one of my colleagues pointed out, it is more of a challenge to avoid teaching the skills
enumerated in the standards than it is to be certain you are covering them all.
Language skills as we define them are useful fictions. Many types of knowledge and
cognitive functioning are embedded in every skill area, and many, if not all, of the
standards merely translate the obvious requirements of English work into wordy
abstractions. What does it really mean to ‘analyse the impact of the author’s choices’?
What else is there? A real checklist of all that is involved in the act of reading would
border on the absurd.
The truth is that high-stakes standardized tests, in combination with the skills-based
orientation of the Common Core State Standards, are de-emphasizing literature in the
English classroom in favour of “agnostic texts” of the sort familiar from test
preparation materials. These are neutral texts created to be “agnostic” with regard to
student interest so that outside variables won’t interfere when teachers assess and
analyse data related to verbal ability. In other words, they are texts no child would
choose to read on her own.
There are already hundreds of for-profit and non-profit providers of “agnostic texts”
sorted by grade level being used in English classrooms across the country. There is
also a lot of discussion among teachers over whether lessons align well with the new
standards, but far less discussion regarding which texts are being chosen for students
to read and why. In a sense the students, with their curiosity, sadness, confusion and
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knowledge deficits, are left out of the equation. They are on the receiving end of
lessons planned for a language-skills learning abstraction.
The writers of the Common Core had no intention of killing literature in the classroom.
But the convenient fiction that yearly language learning can be precisely measured by
various “metrics” is supplanting the importance of literary experience. The Common
Core remains neutral on the question of whether my students should read Shakespeare,
Salinger or a Ford owner’s manual, so long as the text remains “complex”.
New teachers may feel so overwhelmed by the itemization of skills in the Common
Core that they will depend on prepared materials to ensure their students are getting
the proper allotment of practice in answering “common core-aligned” questions like
“analyse hoe drama’s or poem’s form or structure … contributes to its meaning.” Does
good literary analysis even answer such questions or does it pose them? Does it matter
whether a question like this is tackled while reading an actual play, or will a short
excerpt do the trick so long as the “skill” is practiced?
Language may compose who we are as much as we compose it. Language teaching,
therefore, is unlike other content areas. Text selection is the most critical component
of any English curriculum, but our educational leaders have avoided the discussion of
what works of literature a national canon might include in favour of a curriculum that
treats the study of literature as though it were a communication system unrelated to
who we are as people.
My fear is that we cannot reckon with the difficult truths of real works of art, that the
disturbance we feel when reading Alice Walker’s “Colour Purple” is rated too
disruptive to the analysis of student yearly progress to be read for a test. My suspicion
is that the Common Core enumerates skills and not books because as a country we still
feel that real work of art are too divisive. It is more comfortable to remain agnostic, to
permit our teens to remain an education-product consumer group, fed skills-building
exercises that help adults to avoid the hard truths our children have no choice but to
face.
There are no agnostic texts on college campuses, but texts dense with philosophical,
psychological and moral meaning. There are no state tests for college students. It is
time to align our education system with college demands by opening a real discussion
about what teens should read in middle school and high school. Tests given to
adolescents need to be based on books students read in school.
Put this way it sounds obvious, but it isn’t what we’re doing. Skills-based standards
ignore the basic fact that language learning must occur in a meaningful context. The
basis for higher-level learning---for philosophy, psychology, literature, even political
science---is the emotions and impulses people feel every day. If we leave them out of
the picture, reading is bled of much of its purpose.
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• RUDIMENTARY: Fairly basic or at a starting stage.
• AUTHENTIC: Genuine/true/original.
• LANGSTON HUGHES: (Full name: James Mercer Langston Hughes), was
an African American poet, social activist, columnist, song writer and
playwright. He was well known for his most acclaimed play ‘Raisin in the
Sun’.
• INCREDULOUS: Someone who is quick to believe what he/she is told and
runs the risk of being cheated. Such a person can also be termed as ‘Gullible’.
• LITTLE WOMAN: A novel by the 19th century American writer Louisa May
Alcott (1832-1888) published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869. She was from
Concord Massachusetts.
• MORAL PAP: Worthless or trivial reading matter.
• TEEN MIND IS OUR STONE: A figurative way of saying that just as a
sculptor works on stone and makes it elastic enough to give expression to a
form or a shape, a teacher treats the teen ager’s mind as a raw material to carve
a shape out of it.
• PACK OF THE MOST EMOTIONAL PUNCH: An idiomatic way to say
that something conveys a strong emotion or that something is emotionally
powerful or compelling.
• AGNOSTIC TEXTS: In a literal manner ‘Agnostic’ refers to a person who
is indifferent to the idea of the existence of God, although he/she is not an
atheist who denies the existence of God. An agnostic text, therefore, is a text
which doesn’t affect a reader at a personal level. It has also been prescribed as
a neutral act.
• ALICE WALKER: A 20th century African American writer whose novel
‘Color Purple’ portrayed race relations existing in the American Society and
showed women as the worst victims of a racist and male-dominated society.
1. What according to Hollander should determine an English teacher’s choice of

suitable reading for adolescents?
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2. How does Hollander argue the value of a literary education for the young?
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3. How does Hollander describe the fate of reading which is divorced from our
personal lives and concerns?
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4. What is the difference between teaching language through literature and teaching
language as an abstract medium of communication?
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5. Why does Hollander want the English curriculum in school to follow the college
English Curriculum?
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6. Why does Hollander see de-emphasising literature in the school curriculum as a
problem?
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7. What are the uses of having emotion or feeling as an entry point into teaching
literature?
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5.6 LET US SUM UP
What Hollander says about the pitfalls of the Common Core’s standardizing approach
rings true of the communication skill-cantered approach being emphasized in the
Indian context at the moment. Literature is de-emphasized to an even greater degree
in the English curriculum of the technical and professional colleges, leading to that
emotional poverty and illiteracy that Hollander has sharply criticised. There can indeed
be no learning without feeling and that implies for all the countries of the world, be it
America or India. This established the topicality and the relevance of Hollander’s
essay.
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BLOCK-3
COMPREHENSION PASSAGE AND TEST OF
VOCABULARY USAGE AND GRAMMAR
UNIT 1 TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION

STRATEGIES STRUCTURE
UNIT 2 PRECIS WRITING

UNIT 3 LANGUAGE EXERCISES – TEST OF VOCABULARY
UNIT 4 LANGUAGE EXERCISES – USAGE AND GRAMMAR
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UNIT 1: TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION
STRATEGIES STRUCTURE
Structure
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Teaching Reading Comprehension

1.3 Contexts for Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies
1.4 Reading Fluency through Oral Reading

1.5 Language Experience Story Dictation
1.6 Group Oral Reading

1.7 Constructing Meaning through Prediction
1.8 ZIP Cloze Method

1.9 Maze Cloze Procedure
1.10 Synonym Cloze Procedure
1.11 Structure Word Cloze Procedure

1.12 Strategies for Constructing Meaning
1.13 Sentence Paraphrase Exercise

1.14 Drawing Inferences
1.15 Using Divergent Questions
1.16 Opinion Eliciting Questions
1.17 DKTA Method of Questioning

1.18 Trade-Off Method of Questioning
1.19 Preview Method

1.20 Let Us Sum Up
1.0 OBJECTIVES
In this unit, we continue our discussion of how to teach reading comprehension to the
students. After an attentive study of this unit you will be able to teach your students
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word identification, reading and constructing meaning through prediction as well as
drawing inferences, The systematic strategies outlined, will enable you to improve
your teaching skills and help your students to become fluent and competent readers.
1.2 INTRODUCTION
The young reader learns to read by reading and it is our duty to provide them the
opportunities to read interesting materials independently. Every time children are
engaged in reading they are searching for meaning - whether they are reading aloud,
silently, listening to someone else read or respond to what they have heard or read.
Children can become fluent readers only when they learn to acquire meaning from a
text and to do this successfully they have to learn to use a variety of strategies for
constructing, reconstructing and reflecting on text meaning.
1.3 TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION
Reading comprehension strategies are organised sequences of purposeful actions

undertaken by young readers to acquire meaning from a text. To use these strategies
effectively, the young reader must actively search for meaning. The child must learn
right from the beginning to consciously choose alternative ways to use meaning cues
in order to construct or reconstruct meaning. This is not really difficult to do. Because
we have not thought about it seriously it seems difficult and even makes us wonder
whether we follow such a procedure while reading. We certainly do; only we have not
been conscious about it. It would be wrong to imagine that is natural and there is no
need to teach it in a methodical way. Only with practice and opportunity to read
meaningful material, can comprehension strategies become spontaneous. The teacher
can help children to develop comprehension strategies by
1. teaching important cues to test meaning;
2. modelling strategies for organizing and integrating meaning cues during
reading,
3. modelling ways of responding to text following reading and
4. Devising practice activities which reinforce the identification of cues and refine
the execution of strategies.
It is true that children acquire some experience of what a test is, through various
informal language experiences in their daily routine and realise how comprehension
has to be worked out. But this cannot be taken for granted. The young readers need to
be trained in using comprehension strategies. The children should actively use the
knowledge that what is read must sound like language and must make sense. So that
they regulate line by-line reading themselves. They should also grasp the strategies for
reading sentences fluently in phrase groups, such as prediction and grouping words as
well as organize semantic meaning within and between sentences, such as relating
pronouns to noun referents. Furthermore, they should, even from the early stages use
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strategies for drawing inferences and reflecting upon levels of meaning in a test during
or after reading, such as responding to questions. These strategies probe children
control over their acquisition of literal meaning and the linking of their prior
knowledge with the meaning conveyed in the text.
Contexts for Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies

The material used for comprehension instruction must be meaningful and interesting
if it is to be understood by the young readers and engage their knowledge and thought.
Meaningful material includes information presented in a cohesive and ordered manner.
It must be of good length to provide the reader with syntactic and semantic redundancy.
The material offered to beginners must be short to help readers who cannot
automatically identify a wide range of words. As their sight word knowledge expands,
they can manage longer texts, and can spend longer periods of time reading print on
their own as well as under the guidance of the teacher. During this stage. Reading to
children, allowing them to read along with the teacher and choral reading of repetitive
material, can facilitate word identification and also enable them to attend to meaning.
Besides. Pictures in the first stage books and early reading materials offer an additional
meaning context when the text on each page is limited to one or a few sentences.
Reading new material aloud to children several times as they follow along is a good
method of making many words familiar to them. Selecting stories from text books that
have already been introduced and read aloud is another way to provide meaningful
contexts for teaching comprehension strategies. When children practise reading a piece
of text echoically with the teacher and then use it to independently practise word
grouping, prediction, reconstruction or inference strategies, comprehension is
strengthened. These contexts prepare Kindergarten and early primary class children to
make use of comprehension strategies. Let us now look at some of the methods which
can be used with any type of primary reading programme and with a wide variety of
printed material. It is important that we do not just stop with teaching cues to find out
the meaning in a text, but also how to use them. Only then will children transfer what
they learn to their own independent reading. The guiding principle is to build on the
individual readers own strengths, and to introduce strategies which will lead to more
efficient ways of making sense out of a text. Children must understand clearly that
printed material is organised by syntactic rules which order speech so that it makes
sense. They must learn this on their own through hearing and reading a text. They have
to use their syntactic knowledge and get the meaning of a text. They should realise that
only this activity counts as reading. Without it they may come to believe that the goal
of reading is just saying words, not getting meaning from them. We should teach
children that what is read should sound like language and make sense. Echoic Reading
is a special manner of guiding oral reading in order to teach children that what is read
aloud, and silently, should sound like language. When does reading sound like
language? Reading that sounds like language obeys the grammar of the native language
and involves grouping words and giving some groups more stress than others. Echoic
reading offers a simple way of demonstrating these principles, The teacher says, I am
going to read some sentences, now. You follow along with your eyes and just a little
whisper. I will read a sentence twice, then I want you to read it out loud just like I read
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it. Teacher may allow the children to use a marker to show that they are on the correct
line. In this process the children learn something that cannot be just told to them. They
experience language in a highly individualistic manner. They learn how printed
language should sound when it is read, and that they can make it sound that way. This
does not happen easily. It may take many weeks before they learn to synchronise what
they hear with the word groups they see on the printed page, They need plenty of
practice in learning how to group words by allowing children to reread materials which
they have read several times before. As the children begin to reach an automatic sight
vocabulary of about 20 to 50 words, echoic reading begins to have a noticeable effect
on them. Echoic reading can be done in several ways. The teacher can read a line twice
and then call on a child to read it in the same way. This is done until the story passage
is completed. Then the teacher asks the children to volunteer to read the lines they
would like to read and then choose someone to read it just like they did. This allows
everyone to participate at a rather low risk level. Another way is that the teacher read
the story echoic ally and has all or half the class read together in the same way. This
procedure works well when a half page is reread which has already been read line by
line echoically. This is somewhat close to choral reading, but it is done for a different
purpose. It allows the teacher to find out the children who are having problems. These
children will be slightly behind the others, they will stop in the middle, or they will
sound different. Through echoic reading, children are taught how to apply their native
knowledge of syntax to organise words in groups as they read. It also trains them to
self-correction on the basis of whether what is read sounds like language. It reinforces
the idea that a text is teaching reading
Comprehension Strategies Reading

Comprehension not read word by word but in groups. When a child consistently reads
in phrase groups, echoic reading is no longer useful. For some children it occurs before
or by the end of the First Standard, but for others it takes two or three years. "Making
sense" as applied to an oral reading can be taught through listening, reading and
listening or reading aloud. The basic purpose is to show children that what they read
ought to make sense. If it doesn't, then something is wrong. The teacher tries to set up
a warning signal inside their head which makes them remember that reading is more
than just saying words. There are two kinds of sensibility. The teacher should
demonstrate how both these work, because children vary considerably on which kind
of cue they will rely on. One way to help children to realise what they read makes
sense is to ask the child who has just read aloud "Does that make sense?" If he or she
says yes, and it didn't, then read it the way the child read and repeat the question.
Normally, the child will immediately see why it didn't make sense. Then the teacher
reads it and then repeats the question or gives the child the choice to try it again or ask
another child to read it so that it makes sense. In doing this, the teacher should not
spend too much time on one student in trying to get to correct response, but keep the
lesson moving at a fast pace. This exercise in making sense will have to be a daily
routine because the sense of meaning can be acquired only through practice. When a
child says that something doesn't make sense and it is so, reward the child verbally.
The teacher's job is not to merely point out that something has been read wrongly and
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to correct it or 'keep looking for other information which might be helpful in correcting
the miscue. Another way to train children to make sense is to read to them a story in
which some words have been deleted and the children have to supply these words.
Delete enough words to give everyone a chance, but no3 too many to destroy the
continuity of the story. Choose words for which enough cues exist in the sentence.
After $1, you want them to make correct guesses, not wrong ones. Read the story and
then stop at the chosen word until someone predicts a word that would make sense at
that point. Their response doesn't have to be the exact word in the text, just a word that
makes sense. Acknowledge the response with either "Yes, that makes sense", or "No,
that doesn't make sense" and read on. No explanations are needed. Write down each
sensible word on a 3" x 5" card and continue reading. When the story is finished let
the children read it aloud. This can be done on the same day or during the next class.
When a child read a line in which a word was substituted, reread the sentence with the
word given by the children. They can now compare the two versions. Write down the
original word on the back of the card with the child's word and then give it to the child
who said it correctly during your first reading. This is imply a reward for making sense.
Sometimes it may be useful to discuss another word that might also make sense. These
discussion are more appropriate with second and third standard students. In
considering responses from children do not always expect logical explanations, but do
take notice of the marvellous ways in which the little minds work. In these exercises
the main objective is to make the children aware that what one reads should make
sense. By doing this children will learn to become sensitive to the primacy of meaning.
Equally important will be their tendency to ask the question "Does it make sense?"
quite regularly to check their comprehension as they read independently.
Check Your Progress

We have so far considered several ways to make children realise that what they read
should sound like language as well as make sense. Let us see how well you have
understood this section. Answer the following questions:
1. Why is it said that the activity of reading comprehension is a voluntary action?

2. What are the assumptions made by the teacher who reads a text and gives the
simplified version of it to the students?
3. Why should we pay much attention to the instructional contexts while teaching
reading comprehension strategies?
4. How do exercises involving echoic reading and making sense differ
procedurally? In what ways do these supplement each other?
5. How do Reading Comprehension strategies differ from word identification
strategies?
1.4 READING FLUENCY THROUGH ORAL READING
Children are supposed to read fluently when they can read quite rapidly words in
groups in such a manner that the syntax, stress, juncture and punctuation of sentences
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are preserved. On the other hand, children who are not able to co-ordinate grapheme
phoneme, syntactic and semantic cues during the reading of sentences in a text
continuously will falter and hesitate in their performance. There are many factors
which prevent fluent Reading Comprehension reading either orally or silently.
First, the readers may pay attention to the grapheme phoneme correspondence in each
word so much that they are unable to coordinate simultaneously the grapheme syntactic
and semantic information.
Second, they may misinterpret the cues within a word, phrase, and sentence or
between sentences and this may cause confusion to the readers. So they will read the
words, change the incoming information to fit the miscues already made, leave out
some words and skip ahead to a new line, attempt word by word reading or completely
stop reading. Third, they may read sentences together or ignore punctuation within
sentences and thereby distort the intended meaning of the author. Fourth, they may get
the grapheme-phoneme correspondences and the syntactic information correctly, but
still read slowly because the prior knowledge they bring to the text may be inadequate
to make sense of the text being read, thus causing too many information gaps which
may dish fluent reading. Therefore, children can read fluently when they begin to get
out of slow word-by-word reading, and make use of the available syntactic and
semantic cues to derive meaning from a text. This usually happens when readers are
repeatedly exposed to reading or hear and read the same material over and over again.
Such repeated reading of the same material helps children to shift their attention from
grapheme-phoneme cues to syntactic and semantic cues. First of all, students must be
fully aware that there is another way of reading other than word-by-word. They should
be given plenty of opportunities to read silently and aloud as well as indulge in
prediction of syntactic forms and semantic information in the text that they are reading.
Once they realise that reading is an active, not a passive search for meaning, then they
will give up word-by-word reading and feel the necessity for grouping words as well
as making use of all available sources of information to make sense out of what is read.
Let us now look at some specific activities and teaching methods that can be used to
help children to become fluent readers.
1.5 LANGUAGE EXPERIENCE STORY DICTATION
Before considering this exercise specifically, it will be helpful to know about the
general principles involved in the Language Experience Programme in the teaching of
reading. This programme is based on the idea that the child’s cognitive development
and language development through listening, speaking, reading and writing activities
which arise out of the children daily interests and experiences. The children are
encouraged to speak and their speech is converted into printed text as the teacher writes
their story and later they reconstruct that printed text immediately back into speech as
they read along with the teacher. The motivation for reading is very high in such an
exercise because children see their own words in print which have implicit experiential
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meaning for them. Since the language experience story is generated from the child’s
language, its semantic context is simple, familiar and meaningful. The syntactic
patterns are the most frequently used by children. These two factors make such stories
easier for the reader to predict what will come next when reading the printed version
of the story. As a story is dictated by the teacher, there is a good chance for the child
to reread each line of the story. Once the complete story is generated, the teacher reads
it as the children follow along silently. Again rereading occurs. Next the teacher and
the children simultaneously read the text together, or the children read each line
immediately after the teacher has read it aloud. By this time at least five readings of
the story have occurred. Many children would have memorized short dictation
passages by this time. Finally any follow-up using it for word identification in the text
class, writing using words or related ideas from the dictation passage & repeated
reading that helps internalization of the syntactic and semantic cues in the original
dictation passage.
1.6 GROUP ORAL READING
In order that group reading should benefit the children, the teacher should read the
entire story aloud as the children simultaneously listen and follow along. The next
thing to do is to provide a number of alternatives for the children to reread the story on
their own or along with the teacher until it begins to sound like language for most of
them. Some of them are:
1. Use echoic reading
2. Pair children, who take turns reading sewed lines at a time. They should not
untempt the other child except for helping with an unfamiliar word.
3. Allow each child to read the entire story aloud using a marker. Now go around and
work briefly with each child who rereads one or more lines already read until it
sounds like language. Use the echoic techniques to show how the line should be
read.
4. Read the story page by page with the children. First read several lines, half a page
or several pages aloud while the children follow along silently. Then read it again
l and the children read it at the same time. Finally, the children as a group read the
same material aloud. The pace should be quite fast so that the entire story is read
at least one or two times without interruptions.
5. Children may be put in pairs and allowed to read one page, until it sounds like
language. Then each pair reads the page allotted to it and in this manner reconstruct
the entire story. The development of reading fluency is a major step in the child’s
ability to comprehend written material. By the end of standard one the child should
be able to coordinate grapheme phoneme, syntactic and semantic cues fairly well
in order to go beyond word by word reading. If this cannot be done then that child
will have comprehension problems. At times, the published reading programmes
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for the primary level and the manner in which they are implemented can cause
much harm by making children view reading as merely saying words. It is a pity
that even children reading as merely saying words. It is a pity that even children
whose word identification level is very high, do not go beyond word-by-word
reading. Both these problems can be solved by providing adequate opportunity for
practice and rereading of texts. It must also be remembered that helping children
to read fluently only leads to but does not guarantee further progress in getting
meaning, during reading. Strengthening the learners capacity for inference, and
increased knowledge of the structure of the text, will he!? The reader in
comprehending written material.
Check Your Progress

Let us recapitulate what we have discussed regarding fluent oral reading.
Answer the following questions:
1. How does the thought of the writer get misunderstood by readers?

2. What is the advantage of reading repeatedly the same material?
3. Why is prediction considered to be an essential step in the acquisition of reading
skills?
1.7 CONSTRUCTING MEANING THROUGH

PREDICTION
If a child begins to group words consistently, without resorting to word-by-word

reading, then that child is already beginning to use prediction. Now, the teacher should
emphasize the accuracy of first predictions based on syntactic and semantic cues rather
than on combining word identification and context cues. They should be, given longer
texts now, so that they can pay attention to sentence level meaning. In the following
exercises, entire words will be deleted from each sentence in a passage or longer
selection in order to encourage children to gain confidence in predicting many words
without depending upon graph phoneme information. Besides drawing the attention of
the children to see that what they produce sounds like relating semantic cues in such a
manner as to preserve the general sense of the passage. The teacher’s role in these
exercises is to demonstrate how to predict, to help children to predict and discuss the
outcomes and to monitor the progress of the children
Individually.
1.8 ZIP CLOZE METHOD
The ZIP Cloze method was developed by Blachowic and field tested with second
standard students. Blachowic reported that young children frequently experience a
complete loss of context somewhere in the middle of standard cloze passages which
delete every fifth or tenth word in a selection. These readers get frustrated and stop
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reading, rather than reread previous sentences or go ahead to get further cues to the
meaning. This problem during silent reading occurs even in reading passages where
all the words are printed and among older readers too. Even good readers in the
second and third standards are usually reluctant to correct their oral reading errors
based on the cues which occur after the point of error. It is a common tendency
among young first standard students to use the context only up to the point of error.
The ZIP Cloze method supplies feedback in the construction of meaning to young
readers while introducing them to the process of prediction during silent reading. The
teacher take a story passage and makes an overhead transparency of it. The text lines
should be an inch apart to enable students to read the lines easily. Content and
structure words which are easily predicted are deleted by covering each word with
strips of masking tape. The lesson is projected on the screen and the teacher ask the
children to read the entire passage quickly to get a general idea of what is said in the
passage. This is briefly discussed. Then the children are directed as groups to reread
orally or silently the passage and predict each deletion one at a time. After the
possibilities for each deletion are predicted and discussed, the tape is pulled off
(zipped) by the teacher to give an immediate feedback from the text. In the
beginning, only a few words which are highly predictable are deleted. Later, every
fifth or eighth word can be deleted. In the ZIP procedure children get more and more
opportunities to look for features of redundancy which can help in their predictions.
Once a lesson is finished, the same transparencies can be used again with different
words covered with tape. In fact this Teaching Rear petition is desirable because
children get to understand the text better and the predict. Comprehension Strategies
become increasingly accurate. The final step is to give written copies of the text to
children in pairs or small groups who will prepare their own cloze texts for other
pairs or b groups to work out.
Content Word Maze and Synonym Cloze Methods

In these two methods children are introduced to predicting content words and
selfcorrecting them using syntactic and semantic cues. The teacher should take care to
make the semantic context rich enough to the enable children to predict deleted content
words.
1.9 MAZE CLOZE PROCEDURE
In this exercise only nouns and verbs are deleted. Instead of just leaving a blank, three
choices are provided for each deletion. One choice is the right word, the second is
syntactically correct but semantically incorrect and the third is both syntactically and
semantically incorrect. This exercise is appropriate for the second standard. The
teacher should devise their own maze exercises based on the one given below: The rich
man's house had more than ten rooms the child circles or underlines the correct word.
It is important to note that only every tenth content word is deleted to reduce the
difficulty of prediction.
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1.10 SYNONYM CLOZE PROCEDURE
In this exercise each deletion is provided a synonymous word or phrase as in the little
girl looked for her ( ) before going ( ) to play. It used to follow her outdoors The words
kitten and outside have been deleted and shown by brackets. The children cover the
synonym given below the bracket as they read each line and predict. The synonym is
then used to verify the first prediction. The process of prediction here is similar to
independent reading where a child may correct it by substituting a synonym for a
content word that is difficult to be pronounced, because it sounds right and makes sense
with the entire sentence. This exercise can be used with the second and third standard
students.
1.11 STRUCTURE WORD CLOZE PROCEDURE
This exercise is appropriate in second and third standards. It deals with prediction of
all forms of structure words. In this exercise only every tenth structure word should be
deleted. No deletions are made in the first sentence. Begin with the second or third
sentence by deleting a structure word, If the next tenth word is not a structure word,
then delete the next available structure word. Leaving ten words between each
structure word, ensures that sufficient context is available to the young reader to make
the necessary prediction. It also provides for reading more than one sentence before
encountering a structure word. It encourages the children to make use of the sentence
surrounding the deleted word to find out what the omitted word might be. Each choice
should be discussed in the class. In this way the teacher can prompt children to explore
when it is desirable to reread or to go ahead for a few sentences before reaching closure
on deleted word. Individual practice can be arranged by giving students to work on
familiar passages stories in which every tenth structure word is deleted. From 'time to
time these passaged stories should be those which the students have not seen before,
in order to create challenges to the readers. The tenth structure word cloze exercise
might look like this: In far off India the mountains are high and cool. Down below
them stretches the hot, dry plain. Here .................................... sun shines down with all
its force. Few creatures come out
.................................... the shrubs, trees and bushes on the plain.
But................................... One of those days when the bright sun was
.................................... hot.as it could be, a tiger carelessly walked
.................................... a trap. This exercise may be made easier by listing the correct
structure words below the passage. It should be noted that the first and last sentence of
a passage should not have any deletion. This may be made easier by listing the correct
structure words below the passage. It should be noted that the first and last sentence of
a passage should not have any deletion. This exercise can be made a little more difficult
(but certainly suitable to Standard Three pupils) by deleting every fifth structure word.
The difference between this exercise and the every tenth structure word cloze exercise
87
is that noun or verbs are deleted. This results in twice as many deletions as in the
previous exercise. Therefore it requires a higher level of manipulation of strategies to
complete an exercise successfully. It can be generally noticed that the deletion of the
fifth word coincides with the point at which a new phrase or clause begins. So children
who read consistently in phrases should not have any difficulty in doing this exercise.
In other words, this exercises focuses the attention of the children on the need to group
words at the phrase level. In all these exercises, the most useful aspect is to have the
children discuss reasons for their responses. This would enable the teacher to find out
how children process contextual cues within and between sentences. So far we have
discussed strategies for constructing the meaning of a sentence and a passage through
prediction. If these exercises are to be useful both to the teacher and thc learner the
underlying principles governing the exercises should be understood clearly. Otherwise,
there is a tendency to perform them perfunctorily, being satisfied with the fulfilment
of the outward structure of the exercises.
Check Your Progress

Let us try to clarify to ourselves what these exercises do in developing the reading
efficiency of the learners. Now answer these questions:
1. Ordinarily reading is understood as matter being given to us by someone else. In
such a case, where is the need for the reader’s prediction to be used as an
important strategy in reading?
.......................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................
2. What is the structure of a cloze exercise? What is the significance of the deletions?
....................................................................................................................................
....................................................................................................................................
....................................................................................................................................
3. What can you learn from analysing the results of a cloze exercise?
.......................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................
1.12 STRATEGIES FOR RECONSTRUCTING MEANING
Quite often learners in the primary classes produce misreading which change the
author's intended meaning or disturb the smooth process of deriving and predicting
meaning. It is also likely that young readers lose the thread of meaning for other
reasons. Sometimes the syntax of the sentence is complicated and readers have to
transform it to an equivalent way of saying the same thing. On other occasions they
lose are confused whether the pronouns in a sentence refer to the actor or action in the
same sentence or some other sentence. During such moments the young readers must
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have strategies to reconstruct the confusing information so that it makes sense in the
total context. The following activities will help the younger reader to become familiar
with how to reconstruct meaning within a sentence as well as in a passage.
1.13 SENTENCE PARAPHRASE EXERCISE
When a reader paraphrases what has been read, then he or she says what the author has
said using different words. The ability to paraphrase is the ability to see the equivalence
of two statements. When a child makes judgement regarding whether two sentences
are equivalent or not, then the child demonstrates his or her ability to paraphrase.
Paraphrasing does not require prediction, but only a transformation of the linguistic
and semantic units. To help children in Standard Three become familiar with the forms
of syntactically equivalent statements, exercises such as the following could be given:
Read the underlined sentence. Circle the sentence below it which has the same
meaning. (1) Vijaya bought a bag a) A bag was bought by Vijaya b) Vijaya was bought
by a bag c) A bag bought Vijaya
(2) In order to catch the bus. Raghu ran fast a) Raghu ran fast, He just caught the bus.
b) Before he ran fast, Raghu caught the bus. c) Raghu ran fast but caught the bus. In
this exercises, the meaning of the phrase "in order" is tested.
Reading Comprehension
(3) Rajini washed the glass before pouring in milk into it a) Rajini poured milk
into the glass and then washed it. b) Rajini washed the glass and poured the milk. c)
After pouring the milk, Rajini washed the glass. Here the time denoted by "before" is
tested.
(4) Hamsa put the book on the table. a) Hamsa put the book by the table. b) Hamsa
put the book upon the table. c) While on the table Hamsa put the book down. Here the
directionality indicated by "on" is tested.
(5) This is a cloze exercise which deletes only pronouns because much of the
referential redundancy in any passage is carried by pronouns. The day was windy. It
blew and blew. The man selling kites knew it was good for flying them. The children
also knew would fly very high on days like this one. So, bought two kites. Each took
turns flying m. By Standard Two, children should learn to accurately interpret the
referential function of a pronoun and predict the referents in the passage. This type of
Referential Cloze exercise can be presented in two ways. First, words for the referents
may be listed in a random manner and numbered at the end of the passage. Children
are asked to write the number below each pronoun for the word, it refers to. The second
method is to list two choices for the underlined pronoun directly below it. In using the
multiple choice format for the Referential Cloze exercise, the teacher should read
aloud the sentence and the choices. Then both teacher and children select the best
referent for each pronoun together. When the children become accustomed to the
format, then they can work in pairs without teacher direction. Self scoring answer keys
89
for immediate feedback should be provided to the children. The day was windy it blew
and blew (the kites, the wind). The man selling the kites knew was good for (the man,
the day) flying them. The children also know it was perfect (the children, the kites) for
flying them. (The kites, the man) The paraphrase exercises help children to transform
an author’s statement into their own language, to confirm an author's intended meaning
or to know what the author meant. Referential Cloze exercises introduce children to
the functions of amphora. Anaphora is the use of a word as a regular grammatical
substitute for a preceding word or group of words. The guidance given in working out
anaphoric references helps children during their silent reading in reconstructing who
is doing what, what is happening or what things are being referred to. These exercises
should be based on material in which the children can read almost all the words. Stories
which have already been read and language experience stories serve this - purpose
very well.
Check Your Progress

In this section we have seen how we can make young readers active participants in
getting meaning from a text. Let us see how a reader is benefitted through these
exercise:
1. What are the cognitive and linguistic activities performed by the children when
they are asked to work out the multiple choices in paraphrasing sentences?
2. How does keeping track of the anaphoric references help the reader to understand
the meaning of the passage correctly and quickly?
3. How these activities prove that reading a text is not just a physical activity of
sounding out the words but; the process of working out the meaning conveyed
by the passage?
1.14 DRAWING INFERENCES
Comprehension Strategies
The ability to recall and to draw inferences is the distinguishing feature of the human
beings. While the preceding exercises prepared the children to use "Context" while
they are reading, these exercises will prepare them to become familiar with formal
thinking operations such as to compare, contrast and infer. If we could help children
to combine their knowledge of the everyday world with the specific content and events
stated in the text, then we would be giving them a strategy to organize and infer
meaning from a text. The children should be taught when to make use of their
knowledge of the world and then to rely solely on the information given in the text in
order to draw inferences in p. inspiring questions about a story. Let us consider an
example Rafiq had a brown little lamb as his pet. He called him Dusty. Dusty was a
clever lamb. Dusty learned to obey Rafiq’s commands. Rafiq had taught Dusty a few
tricks too. Dusty followed Rafiq wherever he went. One day Rafiq went to Modem
Stores to buy some chocolates. Dusty was by his side. Mr. Ranjith, the owner of the
stores was not happy to see Dusty enter the store. "Buy your chocolates and take that
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troublemaker out of here quickly" said Mr. Ranjith. Dusty was very quiet. It was
difficult for Rafiq to choose the chocolates. All the chocolates looked wonderful. -
Then it happened. A train whistled as it went past the town. Dusty began to run all
around the store. He butted into pans and pails hanging on one side of the store. He
knocked down jars and boxes. He countered and knocked the groceries all over the
floor. Mr. Ranjith something had to be done. He picked up a broom and tried to chase
Dusty out of the store. Just then Raliq's uncle Abdullah came into the store. He saw at
once what was happening. As Dust leapt over the counter uncle Abdullah caught him.
The wild chase was over. On this story the following questions - inferential can be
asked. 1. What did Rafiq buy?
(LQ) 2. Why did Dusty begin to run wildly?
(TQ) 3. Why did Mr. Ranjith decide something should be done?
(IQ) 4. What did Mr. Ranjith pick up?

(LQ) 5. Why did unclc Abdullah conie into the store?
But the two literal inferential questions really don't help the children to answer the
three inferential questions. You should avoid asking literal questions unless they lead
to information needed to answer inferential questions. This caution is very important.
The questions you ask the students to answer, following the reading of a story,
represent the method of how to interact with and react to stories. Linking literal
questions together so that the answers can be used to draw inferences will help children
to develop interesting ways of thinking about what they read. But asking a number of
unrelated literal questions as an end in themselves can give the wrong signal to the
children that understanding stories means just remembering a set of facts .Now for a
quick task. Using the criterion given in the above paragraph. find out why questions 1
and 4 (literal questions) arc not helpful in answering the other inferential questions?
Next, what is the knowledge required to answer the inferential questions? Of the three
inferential questions why does question 5 was vague and difficult? Having examined
and evaluated the questions given, rewrite the exercise with literal questions useful in
answering the inferential questions appropriate to the story.
1.15 USING DIVERGENT QUESTIONS
Divergent questions require the children to imagine, using the information given in the
text, to predict what might happen or reconstruct how something might have happened.
To do this the children will have to make use of their knowledge of own experience.
For example we can change the questions "Why did uncle Abdullah come into the
store?" into a divergent question by saying "Supposing you were Rafiq's uncle and had
left Rafiq and his lamb at the store to go next door to buy a magazine, what would you
have thought was going on in the store? In this question the readers are given an'
additional text to be processed with their prior knowledge of how an uncle might be
prompted to enter a store under the specified circumstances. Usually a "Why" question
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is confusing and does not indicate the requirements for a correct response. For example
the question "Why did uncle Abdullah enter the store?" can start off a number of
possibilities such as "Does the answer require knowledge of information stated in this
story?" or Is there more than one acceptable answer? or is the reader to give his or her
opinion? Although most common form of questioning is through the "Why" question,
this does not help children to know about what kind of thinking or response is expected
from them. Teaching Reading comprehension Strategies We should consider this
activity a little more seriously. Since we are always using the question form in our
communication with others, we do not pay much attention to the way questions caught
to be framed. A well formed question will specify the response requirements for
answering the question. Quite often young readers do not understand the language of
the questions. Therefore, the teacher will have to help them to understand the
questions. It is true that even young children have a good deal of world knowledge,
know a lot about how things happen in the world and can imagine various situations
within the limits of their experience. But they will not readily do these things if the
teacher does not tell them the difference between the requirements of a literal question
and those of divergent questions. To do this, the teacher will have to form questions
specifically and link them up to draw out the desired responses. Young children can
profit from being trained to realise that, understanding literal questions requires them
to use the information in the story; to arrive at the correct response, inferential and
divergent questions require them to use their personal knowledge of the world along
with information given in the story and that divergent questions and those requiring an
opinion have no one right answer. Young readers should not be subjected to answering
an endless string or literal questions. They should be frequently asked to imagine new
situations as well as give their opinions. These tasks will give great satisfaction to
young children who are naturally inclined and quite open in their preferences. Lack of
opportunities for using their knowledge and experience of the world in analysing
situations given in the passage, will ignore the possibilities of meaning and attend only
to the literal meaning or wail for the teacher to work out the answer.
1.16 OPINION ELICITING QUESTIONS
Questions which require children to give their opinion tell them that their point of view
is important and worth consideration. These also indicate how children are using their
knowledge or the world. At the same time such questions indicate how the points of
view by others are also important to listen to and to understand. Opinions cannot be
judged to be right or wrong. They can be judged as more or less relevant to the situation
being discussed. Opinion eliciting questions are different from divergent questions.
While eliciting questions require world knowledge that is relevant to the 'topic,
children to reconstruct how a character might feel by imagining themselves to be that
character. These divergent questions challenge children to predict will happen in the
story. All these responses reveal the inferences drawn by the child) using the
information and his or her knowledge of the world.
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1.17 DRTA METHOD OF QUESTIONING
In 1969 Russell Stauffer developed a method of questioning which can be used to teach
I young children strategies for combining script and literal knowledge. This method is
known as a directed reading-thinking activity (DRTA). By using this method of
questioning the children will be trained to predict and reconstruct the relationships
between the setting, the story episodes and the goals or actions of the main characters.
It will also help them to predict what a story will be about, predict what will happen
after each episode, learn to select important information needed to revise or reject
previous predictions and develop sufficient knowledge of how stories are commonly
structured. The teacher’s role is to act mainly as a facilitator for thinking about a story
rather than as a controller who decided on specific questions to direct the children’s
thinking. This role of the facilitator can best be carried out by asking such questions as
: Reading Comprehension
1. What do you think a story like this might be about?
2. What do you think now? What makes you think that?

3. What do you think will happen next?
At the, elementary level the DRTA method can be adopted by first allowing the
students to ken to a story rather than read it silently. The advantages of this procedure
are:
1. it allows children to concentrate on the meaning of the story than on decoding
words;
2. it removes the slow rate at which. The lesson would have to progress, because
of the variations in reading within a group;
3. it enables teachers to select interesting stories and not be bound by the
selections in prescribed texts. The story selected should be short and should be easily
divided into two or three natural divisions. By being exposed to several such stories
the children would learn the function of a story setting and plot. Children need not
have to be told about these functions, but are allowed to discover them from their
experience of processing these stories and in turn they become familiar with the
strategies for reconstructing or re-enacting the story with puppets. The teacher begins
the lesson by distributing to the children 3" x 10" strips of Paper or Cardboard on
which the little of the story has been written. Then the teacher says, "I am going to
read the title again. Now close your eyes and listen to the title as I read it. Think of
all the things that come to your mind as you listen to the words in the title.'' The
teacher reads the title with the appropriate expression and then quickly calls on the
children to say the words they associate with the title. This is a spontaneous
brainstorming of free associations with the title from all children. The teacher reviews
everything mentioned by the children. The second step is to show the book cover of
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first with a picture on it and then asks the children to guess what the story might be,
based on the picture and the title. Teacher appreciates all the suggestions made by
children.
PASSAGE
Read the beginning and see if our guesses were correct or whether it is about something
else. The third step is to read the final part of the story that describes the setting,
introduces the main characters, states or implies the main problem of the story.
Generally children's stories do not involve a problem but specify the topic around
which the story is built (during winter, what one does when sick, going to another
region and so on). After reading the section the teacher repeats the guesses made by
the children and says, "Is this story about what we thought it might by about?" This
question just requires a "Yes or No" answer. If the answer is "No", then the teacher
asks, "What do you now think the story is about?" On the other hand, if the answer is
"Yes", the teacher reinforces the good guesses and explains why the guesses were
correct. The fourth step is to say, "What do you think will happen next in the story?"
If the story has just one part, the teacher reads the story and then invites the children
to explain what was different about what happened when compared to what they
thought would happen. If the story has two parts then the teacher reads the first part
and asks "What do you think will happen now?" In a story with just two parts, the
children will have to depend mainly on their world knowledge to predict the ending.
But when the story has more than two parts, they have a chance to combine the clues
from the story with their prior knowledge of the world from their experience and other
stories they have read or heard. So, before reading the third part the teacher asks the
children either to explain their predictions or react to each Teaching Reading other's
predictions. That is done by asking children who have given reasonable prediction -
Comprehension Sections to explain why they think so. The teacher also tells the
children who have gone off the mark in their prediction. "Rajini what do you think
about what Priya said?" It is during this part of the method that children come to realise
that they should have reasons for their predictions and that the best reasons for their
predictions combine information in the story and knowledge from one's own
experiences. This is learned naturally. There is no need for the teacher to explain that
they should have reasons. The children learn about this from each other and from what
happens in the story. In the second and third standards the same DRTA method is used,
but the better students arc allowed to read the story silently for themselves. While
allowing silent reading, the teacher tells the children what pages to read as they move
to the section of the text which has been divided by the teacher, Teachers ought to be
very careful in their selection of materials for using DRTA method. The passages have
to be interesting and should involve the readers personally. In the third standard the
teacher can increase the time allotted for discussions of predictions about the events in
the story. But the teacher should not force predictions or explanations from children.
1.18 TRADE-OFF METHOD OF QUESTIONING
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Another method for helping children to use the literal information is called the Trade-
off I method. This is used with second and third standard children. They are asked to
generate literal questions on a story, to be answered by the teacher. The emphasis here
is to train how to write literal questions and to organize such questions to generate
inferences, opinions and divergent thinking. First, the children are asked to read a
story silently and then to write questions which when answered by the teacher will deal
with the setting of the story, the major characters I and the most important events. The
children can work in pairs using a question sheet labelled "Setting". ''Major
Characters". "Important Events". Each pair can write say, four questions. Then they
bring them to the reading group and the teacher writes each question on the Blackboard
as it is asked and answers it to the satisfaction of the team. After each pair has had a
turn, the teachers does a trade-off i.e., the teacher asks a divergent I question, a
comparison or contrast question, an opinion question which can be answered on the
basis of the answers to the children questions. In this case, the teacher may or may not
ask the children to react to each other’s responses.
This method involves the children in selectively choosing literal information and then
seeing how it can be used. It makes the children aware of the Literal information which
can be used in divergent thinking. It teaches them to realise that some literal
information is much more important than others. It sets the scene for a fruitful and
stimulating I discussion of the story. The children can be taught the information of
literal questions by showing how these begin with who, what, when, where , which
and sometimes why. But most importantly they have to be told that literal questions
are to be answered solely on the basis of the information provided in the story. This
can be done by considering the "wh" questions which can or cannot be answered from
the information on a single page of a story.
1.19 PREVIEW METHOD
Teachers can use previewing questions to help students to activate and use their
knowledge of the world through personal experiences so that they can draw inferences
as they read. Through preview discussions of the major topics or events to be read, the
teacher helps to establish what is already known with a view to using it with what is
new in the text. These questions are aimed a1 changing the quality of cognitive activity
which children use spontaneously during reading or after reading.
Reading Comprehension
First, the teacher selects three main topics, events or episodes central to understanding
the story to be read. The teacher prepares a question about each main aspect of the
story which may be related to the experiences of the children. Next, each main aspect
of the story is introduced. The children are required to imagine an experience similar
to their own that might happen in the story. If there is a story in which a little girl gets
lost in the woods, then torch teacher might ask : "In the story we are going to read
about a little girl who gets lost. Have you ever been somewhere, for at least a short
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period, where you felt lost?" The children respond orally and then write down their
experiences .Now the teacher asks them to predict what might happen to the little girl
based on their own experiences. Various predictions are discussed and later written
down. After treating each of the three major aspects of the story in this way, the
children are allowed to read the story for themselves. The follow-up discussion should
focus attention on what was predicted and what really happens in the story.
Check Your Progress

Let us find out how we have grasped the underlying principles in this description by
answering these questions.
1. How do these exercises differ for others?

2. What does the student learn when he/she has to frame questions?
3. Compare the teacher as a director of children's thinking with the teacher as a
facilitator of children thinking?
1.20 LET US SUM UP
In this unit we have discussed the different aspects of teaching reading comprehension
to primary school students. We have suggested the kind of materials that must be
selected so as to make the reading exercise interesting and meaningful for our students.
We have also outlined how the echoic method can be a useful strategy in teaching
reading. In addition, we have seen how oral reading exercises promote fluency. We
have also suggested some exercises using the Cloze Method to help you to develop the
prediction skills of your students. Prediction. as we know, is a valuable skill in
constructing meaning and finally, we detailed some strategies for reconstructing
meaning. This unit then, is a useful resource for you which you may like to adopt and
adapt according to the specific needs of our students.
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UNIT 2: PRECIS WRITING
Structure
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 What is a Precis?
2.3 Why Precis?
2.4 Characteristics of a Good Precis
2.5 Method of Writing a Precis
2.6 Problems in Writing a Précis
2.7 Some illustrations
2.8 Let Us Sum Up
2.0 OBJECTIVES
After studying this unit, you should be able to: explain the meaning of the term 'précis'
outline the characteristics of a good précis identify the problems in writing a précis
describe the method of writing a précis write a précis for a given passage.
2.1 INTRODUCTION
In this unit you will

• learn about another important secretarial function, précis writing, which
involves an exercise
• in comprehension and condensation of an article, speech or correspondence.
2.2 WHAT IS A PRECIS?
'Précis' is a French word derived from "the Latin word 'Praecissus', past participle of
'Praecidert:' which means to cut off, to be 'brief, and is connected with the English
word 'Precis'.
A precis is a summary or the gist of the main ideas of written matter. Thus, precis
writing means summarising. It is an exercise in concentration, comprehension and
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condensation. In order to make a summary of an article, a speech or a story, one has to
read it carefully and grasp its meaning. Precis-writing forces one to concentrate on the
material which is to be sumarised.
In summarising a passage, though the length of the summary is not fixed, it is generally
expected that the summary would be one third the length of the passage. The summary
is known as precises and precis writing means summarising. It involves preparing a
statement concisely so as to convey the essential Ideas contained in a longer passage
or article. In other words, precis is the gist or substance of a lengthy passage. A precis
is not a paraphrase. At the same time, the essential points of the main passage must be
presented in the precies in such a manner that the reader may easily grasp the main
ideas of the passage.
2.3 WHY PRECIS?
The primary object of precis writing is to present facts and information to spend time
reading unnecessary details. The necessity of speedily reading documents mainly
arises in business firms and government departments besides other fields of activity.
Lawyers, journalists, students, and secretaries of business executives need to apply the
art of précis writing regularly in their day to day activities. Lawyers have to summarise
the main points of their cases, editors and reporters have to summarise news and
speeches; students have to make notes from lectures and text-books. The importance
of précis writing in business lies in the economical way of recording and presenting
lengthy documents in compressed form.
Busy executives and managers in large organisations can get in the précis all the
essential points and thus can avoid the time-consuming process of going through long
correspondence, reports, etc. An important duty of the secretary of every organisation
is to prepare the précis of business documents including letters, reports and minutes of
meetings.
2.4 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD PRECIS
The characteristics of a good précis may be outlined as follows:
1) A good précis is not merely a list of the main ideas of a passage. The ideas are
to be organised and expressed in a logical sequence so that the précis reads like
an original piece of composition.
2) A good précis should contain all the essential ideas in the original passage,
omitting non-essential detail, examples, etc. The ideas should be, as far as
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possible, in the same order as in the original. We should remember that in a
précis one should not add anything that the original passage does not contain.
There is no need to comment on the original matter either.
3) The language of précis should be clear, brief and précis, maintaining at the
same time the style and spirit of the original.
4) A précis should be written in indirect speech.
5) A good précis should, as far as possible, be in the writer's own words.
6) It should not exceed or fall short of the length prescribed by too large a margin.
Usually, the limit set for a précis is one third in length of the original.
Check Your Progress
1) Define the term 'Précis'?

2) Write the importance of writing a précis?
3) List four characteristics of a good précis writing?
2.5 METHOD OF WRITING A PRECIS
To write a good précis of a passage one needs to practice a lot. The major steps to be
followed while writing a précis are:
1) First of all, one should read the passage two or three times carefully to
understand its general theme. In short, comprehension of the passage is the first step
in précis writing.
2) Secondly, it is necessary to write down the main points of the passage by

picking out the essential ideas and leaving out the unimportant details. At this stage,
compression or condensation of the passage takes place. Repetitions, illustrations md
examples can be eliminated. Sentences and clauses may also be compressed into
shorter by using, for instance, a word for a phrase, a phrase for a clause and so on. In
compressing a passage, selection, rejection and generalisation are often useful. The
words and sentences of the original passage should be avoided to the extent possible.
But one has to make sure that the sentences are linked up properly to show the
interrelationship of the ideas in the passage. While being a summary of the original,
the précis should be a piece of self-contained readable and continuous whole.
3) Next, write down a preliminary or a rough draft, keeping mind the length of
the précis.
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4) If it is necessary to provide a title to the summary, a short title may he given
which will express the ideas in the passage.
5) While making the final draft, one should make sure that all the main points are
included in the précis. One should also check whether the précis reads well and is
within the length prescribed. Give it a suitable heading.
If one is able to write a good précis, it is an indication of his or her ability to think
clearly and to distinguish what is important and what is not.
2.6 PROBLEMS IN WRITING A PRECIS
In writing a précis, one usually faces the following problems.
Accuracy: The first problem in writing a précis is to get the facts straight. One should
not make any statement without the support of facts. It is important to go through the
précis carefully to make sure that whatever is stated is factually correct.
Using Own Words: The second problem is the difficulty using one's own words in the
précis to convey ideas given in the original passage. The best way to overcome the
problem is to read the passage carefully at least three to four times, and then writing
the précis without looking at the original. In this way, one may be able to use one's
own words, without the temptation of borrowing directly from the original. However.
If some words and phrases have been used from the original from source, the same
may be underlined. At the time of revision, own words may be used in place of the
underlined words. If it is impossible to change some words, one may retain them from
the passage.
Selecting Details: The third problem is deciding on the details to be included from
pieces. One should try to pick out only those details that are important. For example
two people may go to a restaurant and order many dishes and engage in lengthy
conversation. The précis covering the above sentence, you do not need to mention each
item of food and drink. lf one of the character gets drunk, however it may he noted
that the person were under the influence of liquor. Similarly, one need not report the
entire conversation; only the relevant part and important points need to be recorded.
Certain things are more important than others, and one must choose details according
to the scale of importance.
Avoiding Conclusions: Since a précis is a factual summary of a passage, one should

avoid drawing conclusions based on one's own interpretation of the facts. Personal
opinion has no place in a précis, so it is better to stick to derails.
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Avoiding Short Sentences: Although one may concentrate on essentials in the précis,
short and choppy sentences should be avoided. Here is an example: Mary is beginning
to walk to the Church. She is old but cheerful. She walks with a cane. She has walked
this way many times. Here there are four sentences, all very short and beginning with
the subject followed Immediately by the verb. Sentences like these are jerky in style.
A revision of such a Passage should reduce the number of sentences but keep the same
details as in the following:
Mary begins her familiar walk from her home to the Church. She is an old woman Who
needs a cane for support, but she is cheerful.
Check Your Progress
1) Write three problems faced in writing a précis?
2) State whether the following statements are True or False.

i. A précis is an exercise in concentration, comprehension and condensation.
ii. Comprehension of the passage of the original are to be retained in the
précis. iii. The words and sentences of the original are to be retained in the
précis. iv. A précis need not contain all the essential ideas in the original.
v. A précis should be written in direct speech.
vi. The title of the précis should be short and express the theme of the subject.
vii. You cannot write a good précis unless you have carefully studied and
understood the material you want to summarise.
2.7 SOME ILLUSTRATIONS
In earlier sections of this unit, you have learnt the meaning of précis its characteristic,
the problems involved in writing a précis and the method of writing a précis. Now you
are in a position to write a précis of any given passage. Let us do some exercises.
Exercise 1
The passage given below describes the Industrial Revolution of Europe and the
improved conditions of the working class. It consists of 292 words. Let us write a
précis of about 100 words and suggest a title: First, read the passage carefully.
PASSAGE-1
In early civilisations, most communities were sharply divided into two classes, Précis
Writing those who laboured and those who did not. The small number of rulers - kings,
priests, military leaders - lived in great comfort, and did very little work. The vast
majority of the population enjoyed very few comforts, did lot of work, and had scarcely
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any political power. In some societies, there was an even more wretched class, the
slaves, who had no rights at all.
The Industrial Revolution of Europe led to the production of vast quantities of goods,
and workers began to be dissatisfied with their poverty. The factory owners needed
skilled workers, and gradually they realised that they must show goodwill to their
workforce, in order to stay in business. As in many other reforms, some enlightened
slowly spread that workers were entitled to some consideration. Since men were free
to work for any master they chose, good master soon had the pick of the workers and
old-fashioned employers found themselves with a factory full of lower-grade
workforce. Such a situation soon led to an all-round improvement in standards, and
good employers tried to raise working conditions still higher. These improvements
were speeded up by the increased organisation of workers in Trade Union movements,
particularly in low-standard factories, where the owner often had to deal with strike
action by dissatisfied workers.
Now that the working classes are getting better and better working conditions, the need
to strike has lessened considerably; and employers and workers alike have come to
realise that they depend on each other for their livelihood. (292 words) As discussed
earlier, you are now required to read the passage two or three times carefully.
After reading the passage, the main points are to be listed. Will you now you to note
down them in points of the passage in the space given below?
We think that the points you develop would be similar to the following points.
Compare the points you listed with the points given below.
Main Points
1. Working classes enjoy better living conditions in the present century.

2. In earlier civilisations there was a big gap between the conditions of kings, etc.
and those of the masses.
3. The effect of the industrial Revolution on the lot of the working classes is
significant.
4. The starting of the Trade Unions.
With the help of the points given below, can attempt the rough draft of the précis. An
important feature of this century is the improvement in the living conditions of the
working classes, in the form of more power, wealth, leisure and security. At one time,
kings, leaders, priests, etc., lived in comfort doing little or no work while the majority
did all the work and enjoyed few comforts and rights. In some countries there were
slaves who had no rights at all. During the Industrial Revolution of Europe, production
increased and workers started feeling dissatisfied.
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Employers were induced to improve working conditions so as to improve production.
Some even felt workers had a right to better conditions. Reports and Précis Writing
Employers selected the best workers. This led to competition and improvement of
working conditions. Soon Trade Unions were organised to fight for 'rights' of workers
or even to start strikes. Now employers and employees have come to, realise their
mutual dependence and strikes are disappearing. (148 words)
There are 148 words in the passage above. It is necessary for us to reduce the number
to about 100 words so that it would be one third of the original passage. We shall,
therefore, reduce the passage further to make it a précis of about 100 words. Read the
passage given below and note how we have condensed almost all the sentences to make
it a good precis -within 100 words.
Final Draft.
An important feature of this century is the improvement of the lot of the workers. In
earlier civilisations, kings, priests, etc., lived comfortably doing little, while the
majority worked hard with few comforts and rights. Some societies had slaves too.
During the Industrial Revolution, production increased and workers started feeling
dissatisfied. Clever employers attracted the best workers by offering better conditions
and thus led to improvement in production. Some employers thought that workers had
a right to better conditions. Soon Trade unions were organised to fight for workers
rights with strikes, if necessary. Now, there is increasing realisation of the mutual
dependence of employers and their workers. (107 words)
The title we may suggest is: Industrial Revolution and The Working
Class
Exercise 2
Let us take up another passage and attempt writing a précis in about 85 words and also
Suggest a title. This passage is on advertising. Let us read the passage.
The chief object of the repetitive form of advertisement is to help people to remember
the product. The general principle is similar to that followed by Bajaj Automotive Ltd:
"You just can't beat a Bajaj". The repetition of a phrase, the inclusion of a trade name
or a trade mark in every advertisement; is intended to impress upon the mind of the
reader, listener that name or phase or picture. The response sought by the advertiser is
achieved when a customer enters a shop for, say, toothpaste. To the shop-keeper's
question, of particular brand, please?, the customer gives the reply that is in his mind,
not necessarily because he has arrived at a decision by any process of reasoning, nor
because some strong feeling has been aroused for some particular brand, but simply
because he has repeatedly seen the name, it is associated in his mind with the idea of
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a good toothpaste. Some trade names become so common that they displace the true
name of the commodity itself, such as 'Vaseline', the well-known trade name for
'petroleum jelly'. Advertisements which have relied on repetition have, in the past,
proved very powerful, but with the increased variety of proprietary articles and
products intended for the same purpose, this kind of advertising is losing some ok its
value because of the confusion of names that arise in a customer's mind when he wishes
to buy, say, cigarettes, tobacco, soap, chocolates, tea and other goods which are widely
used. (248 words)
Now prepare a brief outline of the main points as we have done in the earlier exercise.
Main Points
1) Simplest form of advertising is repetition; it helps people to remember.

2) A phrase or made name or made mark is used repeatedly to make an impression.
3) Customer asks for product, name of which is impressed on her/his mind.
4) Repetition advertising is becoming less effective now.
You can now make an attempt to write the final version of the precis and compare the
same with the one given below.
The use of repetition is the simplest form of advertising. In advertisements, repeated

use of a particular phrase or trade-mark aims to make such an impression on the
customer that he will tend to buy that product. Indeed, some trade-names, 'Vaseline'
for example, have become so well known that they are used instead of the real name
of the products. Owing to the large number of consumer articles and products now in
the market, advertising by repetition is less effective than it was the past. (87 words)
The title may be suggested as below: Advertising By Repetition
PASSAGE
Write a précis of the following passage in not more than 160 words and suggest a title
for it. Before writing the final version of the précis, note down the main points of the
passage.
In the last half of the nineteenth century 'capital' and 'labour' were enlarging and
perfecting their rival organisations on modern lines. Many an old family was replaced
by a limited liability company with salaries managers. The change met the
technological requirements of the new age by engaging a large professional element;
and prevented the decline in efficiency that marred the fortunes of family firms in the
second and third generation after the energetic founder. It was, moreover, a step away
from individual initiative, towards collectivism and municipal and stagemanaged
business. The railway companies. though still private concerns managed for the benefit
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of shareholders, were very unlike old .I family businesses. They existed by reasons of
Acts of Parliament, that conferred on them power and privileges in return for state
control. At the same time the great municipalities went into business to supply lighting,
trams and other services to the rate payers. The growth of the Limited Liability
Company and municipal trading had important consequences. Such large, impersonal
manipulation of capital and industry greatly increased the number and importance
shareholders as a class, an element in the national life representing irresponsible wealth
detached from the land and the duties of the land-owner; and almost equally detached
from the responsible management of business. All through the nineteenth century,
America, Africa, India, Australia and parts of Europe were thus being developed
largely by British capital, and British shareholders were thus being enriched by the
world's movement towards industrial is done. Towns like Bournemouth and
Eastbourne sprang up to house large 'comfortable' classes who had retired on their
incomes, and who had no relation to the rest of the community except that of drawing
dividends and occasionally attending a shareholders' meeting to bully the management.
On the other hand, "shareholding" meant leisure and freedom which was used by many
of the Victorians for the highest purposes of a great civilisation.
The "shareholder" as such had no knowledge of the lives, thoughts or needs of the
workmen employed by the company in which he held shares, and his influence on the
relations of capital and labour was not good: he paid manager acting for the company
was in more direct relation with the men and their demands, but even he had seldom
that familiar personal knowledge of the workmen which the employer had often had
under the more patriarchal system of the old family business. Indeed the mere size of
operations and the numbers of workmen involved rendered such personal relations
impossible. Fortunately, however, the increasing power and organisation of the trade
unions, at least all skilled trades, enabled the workmen to meet on more equal terms
with the managers of the companies who employed them. The harsh discipline of the
strike and lockout taught the two parties to respect each other's strength and understand
the value of fair negotiation (478 Précis Writing words).
KEY TERMS
Cohesion: A piece of text in which idea fit well together to form a unified whole.
Comprehension: An exercise in language teaching to find out how well you
understand a piece of spoken and written language.
Condensation: To make something shorter.
Diffuse: A text that is vague and difficult to understand or explain.
Gist: The general meaning or the most important points of a long piece of writing.
The main points of the passage are:
1) In the second half of the 19th century, industry in Britain was reorganised on a
larger and more impersonal basis:
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- family became limited liability companies; and
-municipalities went into business
2) The class of shareholders

- became numerous and more important; and
- Investment without having any responsibility.
3) Labour relations declined because of the:
- the shareholder's irresponsibility;
- The shareholder's ignorance of the conditions of the working class; and - title
impersonality of large companies.
-The developing status of the trade unions enabled work people to resist
management.
-The resulting disputes led to mutual respect and a desire for fair negotiation.
4) Industrial relations took on a new pattern.
The following is an acceptable version of the précis:
Between 1850 and 1900 British industry became organised on a larger scale and so
became impersonal. Old family gave place to limited liability companies, and
municipalities became large-scale employers to provide services for the ratepayers.
These developments led to a growth in the number-and significance of shareholders,
who with little effort, gained great wealth from Britain's world-wide trade and
investment and had little or no responsibility for the way that the wealth was gained
The shareholders irresponsibility, their ignorance of how the poor lived, and the size
of the companies which inhibited relations, led to ill-feeling between capital and
labour. However, the growing influence and discipline of the trade unions enabled the
work people to resist unfair management. Strikes and lockouts taught the two sides to
respect each other and to negotiate on a fair basis. In this way industrial relations
moved from the paternalism of the family business to the organisational pattern of
today. (1 55 words)
The title we may suggest is: New Pattern of Industrial Relations
TERMINAL QUESTIONS-
1) State the characteristics of a good précis?
2) Discuss the various steps in writing a précis.
3) What are the problems you face in writing a précis?
The following passage in about 115 words. Your version should avoid as far as possible
the words and phrases of the original. State the number of words you have used and
suggest a title.
106
PASSAGE-1
For centuries scientists have viewed the Earth and its environmental systems as a sort
of mechanical machine, driven by physical forces like volcanoes, rock weathering and
the water cycle. It was clear that organic activities played an important role in some
environmental systems, such as the biogeochemical cycles. However, until quite
recently biological factors were seen as secondary to physical and chemical ones.
A revolutionary new theory was put forward by James Lovelock in 1970s. He called it
the Gaia hypothesis, after the Greek Earth goddess. The theory was revolutionary
because it treated the Earth as a single living organism, in which the biological,
chemical and physical factors played important roles. Lovelock argued that the Earth‘s
living and non-living systems form an inseparable whole, regulated and kept adapted
for life by living organisms themselves. He sees Gaia as a complex entity involving
the Earth‘s biosphere, atmosphere, oceans and soil and constituting a feedback system
which seeks an optimal physical and chemical environment for life on this planet.
However, Lovelock regarded the biosphere as a ―single organism‖ (called a super
organism by some scientists).
Looking closely at plants and animals in the biosphere, naturalists observed groups of
plants and animals in the biosphere arranged in an orderly manner. Two concepts
emerged from their observations which led to the use of the term “ecosystem” to
describe the complex interactions between living organisms and their non-living
surroundings.
The first concept was that plants and animals formed a natural association, each with
distinctive members. Just like morphological data allowed systematics to assign
species to a hierarchy of taxonomic groups, detailed studies of the ecological
distributions of plants led to the classification of biological communities.
The second concept was the realization that organisms are linked, both directly and
indirectly by means of their feeding relationships. Arising from these, the concept of
the ecosystem was formulated. A system is a collection of interdependent parts that
function as a unit and involve inputs and outputs. An ecosystem represents the sum of
all natural organisms and the non-living life supporting substances within an area. It
was considered as an open system with a series of major inputs and outputs and these
effectively ―drive the internal dynamics of the system.
The ability to recognize distinctive ecosystems in the biosphere gave ecologists a
convenient scale with which to consider plants and animals and their interaction. This
is because it is more localized and thus more specific than the whole biosphere.
1) What is Gaia hypothesis?

2) Why Earth and its environmental systems treated as a sort of mechanical
machine?
3) Why species assigned a hierarchy of taxonomic groups?
4) Where interdependent parts that function as a unit and involve inputs and
outputs found?
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PASSAGE-2
Regionalism is not significant merely as a disintegrating force. Regionalism is not
opposed to national integration. Both can exist together in a creative partnership. Both
are in favour of development. Regionalism stresses the development of a region and
national integration for the development of the nation as a whole. If we want to
reconcile the competing claims of regionalism and national integration the political
system of the country should remain federal and democratic.
Regionalism is not disruptive of national solidarity. The important condition for
national solidarity is that nationalism should be able to hold the different types of
regional sub-nationalities together. In other words, there should be healthy
reconciliation between regionalism and nationalism.
Regionalism can make federalism a greater success. In this aspect the accentuation of
regional identities should not-become problematic. It is quite natural that regional
communities, who are conscious of their distinctive culture, should interact with
federal government on the basis of more equal partnership. It will reduce the
centralising tendencies in a nation and power will shift from the centre to the states.
Conceived in any form, regionalism and sub-regionalism are unavoidable in a country
as vast and diverse as India. Their existence is not only an important condition for the
expression of genuine national sentiment, but it is logically generated because of the
establishment of the nation state. Nothing is, therefore, more basic to the concept of
federalism than regionalism and sub-regionalism.
1) Compare and contrast Regionalism and national integration?

2) What is nation state?
3) What is federalism?
2.9 LET US SUM UP
A précis is a summary of the whole passage. Précis writing is an exercise in

concentration, comprehension and condensation. One has to read the passage carefully
and grasp its meaning before writing a précis. The art of writing a good précis is very
useful to people like lawyers, journalists, students, secretaries and business managers.
Before one starts writing the précis of a passage, one should read the whole passage at
least twice, slowly carefully and with concentration. This will help him to get a general
idea of what the passage is about and what the author is trying to say. A précis should
be written in indirect speech. Further one must ensure that each idea follows logically
from the one before, so that the précis has a logical flow and cohesion. In addition to
unity, one must also ensure that the précis is factually correct and it does not contain
108
ideas or opinions which are not in the original passage. One should not add own ideas
or comments or any extra information not contained in the passage.
SOME USEFUL BOOKS
Ghosh, & Ghosh; Handbook of Secretarial Practice & Office Procedure; Vidyodaya
Library Private Ltd; 72, Mahaana Gandhi Road, Calcutta.
Rajendra Pal and J.S. Korlahalli; Essentials of Business Communication, Sultan Chand
& Sons; New Delhi.
Y .P. Singh & B. Singh; Oftice Management & Secretarial Practice; Giw. Establishing
House, Delhi.
109
UNIT 3: LANGUAGE EXERCISES – TEST OF
VOCABULARY, USAGE AND GRAMMAR
Structure
3.0 Objective
3.1 Introduction
3.2 What Is Grammar

3.3 Why Study Grammar
3.4 Approaches Of Teaching Grammar

3.5 Current Trends In Teaching Grammar
3.6 Let Us Sum Up
3.0 OBJECTIVE
After going through this unit, you should be able to:
• Understand the place of grammar in the teaching of a language

• Understand the different meanings of the word 'Grammar' as used in different
contexts.
3.1 INTRODUCTION
What is grammar? Is there only one grammar? Is it compulsory that we should teach
grammar? If so, how should we go about it? If not, why not? What is the role of
grammar in language teaching? These are some of the questions that worry every
English teacher.
The ultimate aim of every language learner is to acquire the ability to speak and write
the language correctly. In order to do this, requires knowledge of grammar in some
form or the other. Hence any course in language teaching assigns an important role to
grammar. As teachers of English we need to know: a) What is grammar?
b) How should we teach grammar?
There are a handful of people who are fascinated by the magic of grammar, But most
of us generally feel 'bored' with it; nor do we have any pleasant recollections of our
110
grammar classes - either as teachers or as learners. We would rather teach 'poetry' than
'grammar'.
This unit will help you to examine some of the prevailing misconceptions in grammar
teaching and enable you to make your grammar classes livelier and more interesting.
We do hope, that at the end of this unit, you would have developed a balanced attitude
to grammar.
Check Your Progress

1. Think of a grammar class you taught recently or a class where you were taught
grammar. What feelings do you associate with it? What caused those feelings?
2. Would you attribute this to the teacher, the learner or the subject? Why?
3.2 WHAT IS GRAMMAR
The LONGMAN DICTIONARY OF CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH defines

grammar as 'the study and practice of the rules by which words change their forms and
are combined into sentences.' There are two basic elements in this definition: the rules
of grammar; and the study and practice of the rules. Here grammar constitutes a subset
of rules relating to word formation (morphology) and sentence formation (syntax).
According to modern linguistics, grammar is a device that specifies the infinite set of
well-formed sentences and assigns to each of them one or more structural descriptions.
In other words, grammar tells us what the possible sentences of a language are and
provides a description of them.
1. All of us are able to speak our mother tongue correctly. We do not make any
grammatical mistakes. If someone else speaks our mother tongue incorrectly, we
are able to identify the mistakes and correct them. Even an illiterate native speaker
is able to do this in spite of the fact he/she has not learnt grammar formally at
school. S/he knows the grammar of her/his mother tongue instinctively. Grammar,
in this sense refers to the total mechanism of the language, which enables its users
to communicate with each other. Let us call this Grammar 1, or GI.
2. Consider the following sentence:
He going to school every day.
Even an illiterate English speaker knows that this sentence is wrong. She is even able
to correct it for you as "He is going to school every day". However, if you ask himher
why it is wrong, she is not able to tell you. On the other hand, an educated native
speaker or a grammarian would say: This sentence is wrong because the 'ing' form of
the verb is used without the auxiliary 'be'. The progressive verb phrase in English
always takes the form: be + ing. Such an ability to think about language consciously
and attempt a formal analysis and description of what one knows intuitively (GI) is
111
also referred to as grammar. We can distinguish this from G1 by referring to this as
Grammar 2 or G2.
3. Grammar' also refers to the rules for correct use of language, which may be
prescribed for its users; for example words beginning with a vowel sound are
preceded by 'an' whereas words beginning with a consonant sound are preceded by
'a'. Text books on grammar written by Wren and Martin, or Nesfield consist of such
rules, which prescribe what learners should/should not do. Hence they are also
referred to as prescriptive grammars. In contrast to this, Grammars of the G2 type
merely 'describe' the facts of the language.
Hence they are known as descriptive grammars. Let us call this third type Grammar 3
or G3.
4. According to modern linguistics there is a fourth meaning for the term 'grammar' -
'Grammar' is regarded as the innate capacity which all human beings possess; it
allows them to acquire language. In this sense grammar is a property of the human
brain, rather than that of any language. This may be termed Grammar 4 or G4.
What is Grammatical?
Consider the following dialogues:
a) i) Who’s there?
ii) Its me!
b) i) Would you
like some
coffee?
ii) No, coffee has been drunk by me.
Traditional grammar teachers, brought up on the Wren and Martin tradition would say
that It's me is wrong; the correct is It's I. With regard to (b) they would happily accept
Coffee has been drunk by me as correct, being the passive transformation of I have
drunk coffee. However we notice that almost every native speaker uses It's me and
hardly any native speaker used Coffee has been drunk by me. Does this mean that
native speakers are often ungrammatical? Not at all. In fact, grammar is described as
the set of conventions used by native speakers. Hence we add another dimension to
language - that of appropriately - a (ii) is appropriate but b(ii) is inappropriate even
though ii is grammatically correct. To cite another example, traditional grammarians
approve of Whom did you see? This shows that one cannot be too rigid regarding
grammatical correctness, since language keeps changing.
Check Your Progress

1. Summarise the four meanings of Grammar in the table below:
Type Meaning
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……………………………………………………………………………………
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……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………................................................................................
2. To which type of grammar would you attribute the following statement:
i. Every human child acquires a language but no animal does

so.
ii. In English, a sentence should not end with a preposition. iii.
There are no articles in Tamil.
iv. I know that it is wrong to say I didn 't went there. I'm sorry I can't
v. explain why it is wrong
3. Discuss whether the following sentences are grammatical and appropriate:
i) Everyone gave their share.

ii) Grammar is the most wonderful subject on earth
iii) Where you are going?
iv) We gave no one nothing.
v) Did you visit the Taj?
Yes, the Taj has been visited by me.
3.3 WHY STUDY GRAMMAR
Traditional teachers of English considered grammar as an integral part of the language

curriculum. They felt that it was not possible for a learner to speak or write English
correctly if she did not know the grammar of English. Hence students were taught all
about articles, prepositions, conditional clauses, etc.
In the early years of the Communicative Approach it was felt that a knowledge of
grammar may not be necessary for one to communicate in a language. As evidence,
they cite the example of a child acquiring its first language. The child is able to speak
the language grammatically by the age of five, even though no one has taught him/her
the grammar of the language. So they argue that a second language learner can also
acquire a language without learning grammar.
The other arguments they gave against the teaching of grammar were:
• Much input produces little output. What is learnt is not applied.

• Grammatical analysis breaks up the unity of thought by its focus on detail and
fails to relate the details to the whole.
113
• Grammatical rules may be thoroughly understood and learned and yet not
applied in practice.
• The best way of imparting even grammatical competence is through use and
not usage.
In recent years there has been a re-thinking about grammar teaching. While as a
reaction to the Structural Approach, the learners in a communicative classroom were
expected not 'puzzle their heads with grammar', it is being increasingly accepted that
"language learning is essentially learning how grammar functions in the achievement
of meaning.'' (Widdowson: 1990:97). But instead of isolated sentences which were
mostly used for drill and practice in the Structural Approach, the emphasis is now on
providing suitable contexts to make the "learners realize the communicative value of
grammar in the very achievement of meaning."
In other words, the focus has moved away from the teachers covering grammar to the
learners discovering grammar. Learners are first exposed to a new language in a
comprehensible context, so that they are able to understand its function and meaning.
Only then is their attention turned to examining the grammatical forms that have been
used to convey that meaning. The discussion of grammar is explicit, but it is the
learners who do most of the discussing or working out of rules, with guidance from
the teacher.
What should English teachers do then? Should they teach grammar or not? We feel,
that grammar has an important place in the English curriculum and it has to be taught,
for the following reasons:
• 'Because it is there. We are constantly curious about the world we live in,
and wish to understand it and master it. Grammar is no different from any
other domain of knowledge, in this respect. It is the fundamental organising
Teaching principle of language.
• We encounter ambiguity, imprecision, unintelligible speech or writing. To

deal with these problems, we need grammar to work out what went wrong.
• After studying grammar, we are more alert to the strength, flexibility and
variety of our language and thus are in a better position to use it and to
evaluate other's use of it.
• An intelligent study of grammar reveals surprising and interesting things

about the orderliness of what the child has learned in a disorderly way. Thus
there is an intellectual appeal, aside from practical benefits.
Check Your Progress

1. Trace the history of grammar teaching from the structuralism to the post
communicative approach.
114
………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………
3.4 APPROACHES OF TEACHING GRAMMAR
Language learning is a complex phenomenon, it would be foolish to reduce it to

simplistic terms and say that "this is the best way to teach grammar". What works for,
one context may not work for another. As teachers of English, it is necessary for us to
be familiar with various approaches to teaching grammar. Let us look at some of these
approaches:
a) Formal explanation of grammatical rules.
b) Practice of common grammatical patterns.
c) Providing opportunities for students to use English in realistic situations.
d) Discovery method.
Let us look at each of them in detail,

a) Formal presentations of grammatical rules : Traditional teachers of English
followed this approach to grammar teaching. There are several grammar books which
present the rules of English grammar, e.g. Wren and Martin, Nesfield, etc. These rules
are prescriptive; while they have their own value, we should be careful not to
exaggerate their importance. Some of these rules are no longer valid; if we continue
to follow them, our English would sound quite funny.
The mastery of the rules of grammar will surely make our learners veterans in
grammar; they will be able to answer the questions on grammar well and secure full
marks in the grammar section of the paper. But when they speak or write they are
likely to forget the rules they have learned and commit numerous mistakes. Hence
they will not be able to communicate effectively in English, outside the classroom.
b) Practice of common grammatical patterns : In this approach students are not
taught the rules of grammar; they are merely asked to practice the structures of
language. They are given substitution tables which drill them in the correct use of
structures. It is thus impossible for them to come out with an ungrammatical sentence.
(e.g.)
Look at the substitution table given below. How many sentences can a learner
generate from this table?
115
My friend wants a new camera.
Rajesh has an exercising cycle .
Pushpa needs a large basket.
Such drilling helps students to become familiar with the basic sentence patterns in
English. However, it does not tell them when to use these patterns. There is also the
danger that they may mechanically repeat the sentences without understanding the
grammatical rules involved.
c) Providing opportunities to use English in realistic situations: In this

approach, the teacher is not concerned with teaching grammar - either in the form of
rules or drills. His/her major objective is to create opportunities for the learners to
communicate in English. It is believed that by engaging in the process of
communication, the students will implicitly master the rules of grammar. Hence, the
more opportunities learners get for communication, the better their proficiency.
The difference between the first and third approaches could be represented as follows;
a new camera an exercising cycle a large basket
Approach (a): Grammar -------------------------Communication
We learn grammar rules now so that we will be able to communicate later
Approach (c): Communication-------------------------- Communication

Implicit understanding of grammar. Learners are given opportunities to engage in the
process of communication; this will enable them to acquire the proficiency to
communicate (which includes grammatical competence as well).
These two approaches represent two extremes - the one focusing totally on grammar
and the other completely on communication, to the exclusion of grammar.
d) Discovery Techniques : There is yet another approach which makes use of
discovery techniques. Here the students are given examples of language and told to
find out how they works- to discover the grammar rules rather than be told about
them. Students can be asked to look at some sentences and say how the meaning is
expressed and what the differences are between the sentences. As the students puzzle
through the information and solve the problem in front of them, they find out how
grammar is 'used in the text and are actually acquiring a grammar rule. The
advantages of this approach are clear.
By involving the students' reasoning processes in the task of grammar acquisition, we
make sure that they are concentrating fully, using their cognitive powers. We are also
ensuring that our approach is more student-centered: it's not just the teacher telling
the students what the grammar is. They are actually discovering information for
themselves.
116
3.5 CURRENT TRENDS IN TEACHING GRAMMAR
The teaching of grammar has undergone a sea-change in recent times. If a grammar

teacher in the year 1900 happens to visit a grammar class today, she may not recognize
that it is a grammar class. We shall briefly outline the basic principles followed today:
a) Teach grammar for communication - not grammar for its own sake Our aim in
teaching is to help learners to communicate effectively. We are not interested in
producing grammarians. As we pointed out earlier, students may be very good in
grammar when they do isolated exercises on grammar; but they often fumble and
commit mistakes when they attempt to speak or write independently.
We want our learners to acquire knowledge of language and not knowledge about
language. It is not necessary for them to know what a noun or a verb is; they can still
communicate without such knowledge. Hence let us not frighten our learners with
excessive use of grammatical labels. An analogy might help you to understand this
better. If you want to learn driving, it is not necessary for you to know everything
about each part of the car. That is a mechanic's duty. You can still drive a car without
knowing, for example, what the different parts of the engine are. Similarly you can
still speak/write a language without an explicit knowledge about grammar.
b) Teach grammar as discourse - not isolated sentences The traditional grammar

books present numerous exercises, which consist of isolated sentences, unconnected
with each other. This is artificial and unrealistic. In real life we always speak/write in
continuous stretches of language (known as discourse). If our language classes should
help our learners to communicate effectively in real life, then we should also give
them practice in the use of continuous discourse.
c) Teach grammar in context - Most of our time-tables allocate a separate period

for grammar. We select a particular area of grammar and teach the various aspects.
Most often students feel bored with this, because they do not understand its relevance
to real life contexts. They are often puzzled and confused. After all, what is the
difference between saying "I ate a mango" and "A mango was eaten by me", when
they both mean the same thing? A little more planning will make the class more
interesting, For example, passives may be taught through the context of laboratory
reports or newspaper reports where the agent is not important. The present continuous
tense may be presented in the context of running commentaries for cricket, tennis,
etc.
d) Make grammar learning fun Interactive games for grammar are very popular
now. They motivate learners and help them to shed inhibitions. Games also help
learners to practice the relevant structures without even being conscious of the fact
that they are learning grammar. We shall give you many ideas on grammar games in
the next unit.
117
e) Focus on fluency first and accuracy later - We, English teachers, on the whole,
feel very possessive about English grammar. If anyone makes a grammatical mistake
(whoever it may be), we have to point it out immediately, otherwise our conscience
troubles us! But we should think of the effect of such correction on our learners who
are just beginning to struggle to communicate. The moment we point out a mistake,
they feel humiliated and inhibited. They feel it is better not to speak, rather than speak
ungrammatically. Hence it is advisable to pretend to ignore their mistakes in the early
stages of learning or point it out as a whole class activity. After they gain some
fluency and confidence, we could slowly begin to emphasize the need for accuracy.
Check your progress

1. Think of another analogy to bring out the difference between knowledge of and
knowledge about something.
…………………………………………………………………………………………
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…………………............................................................................................................
2. Write dialogue which you could use as a starting point for teaching 'if clauses.
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3. Choose any four areas of grammar. Now identify the contexts where they are likely
to be used frequently.
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………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………....................................................................
4. Discuss the concept of fluency vs. accuracy with your learners and colleagues. Do
you find any difference in their views?
………………………………………………………………………………………
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………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………...................................................................
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3.6 LET US SUM UP
In this unit we addressed the following concepts about grammar:
i. Grammar is a theory of language. It consists of a set of rules which

combine words and sentences.
ii. The words 'grammar' is understood in four different ways:
a. GI the total mechanism of the language, which enables its users to communicate
with each other.
b. G2 a formal analysis and description of what a native speaker Grammar knows
intuitively.
c. G3 prescriptive rules for correct use of language.

d. G4 the capacity that all human beings possess, which enable them to acquire
language.
It is not enough if sentences are grammatical; they should also be appropriate. There
are four major approaches to teaching grammar: a. Formal explanation of grammatical
rules.
b. Practice of common grammatical patterns.

c. Providing opportunities for students to use English in realistic situations.
d. Using discovery methods which help students frame their own rules.
e The four parts of a grammar lesson are: Presentation; Focused Practice;
Communicative Practice; Teacher feedback and Correction. Recent trends in
grammar teaching are:
Don't teach grammar far its own sake; Instead,

a. Teach grammar for communication.
b. Teach grammar as discourse - not isolated sentences.
c. Teach grammar in context.
d. Make grammar fun.
e. Focus on fluency first, accuracy later.
f. Let children discover the rules of grammar for themselves.
119
BLOCK-4
COMPREHENSION PASSAGE AND
TEST OF VOCABULARY USAGE AND
GRAMMAR; PRACTICE BOOK
119
Exercise II Exercise III
1.0 OBJECTIVE
The motive behind formulation of separate exercise book for learners is to:
 Provide them a practice book.
 Applicability of rules and strategies learnt earlier.
 Prepare them for competitive exam.
1.2 PASSAGES
PASSAGE- 01
At the dawn of history India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries
which are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her success and her failures.
Through good and ill fortune alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten
the ideals which gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortune and India
discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening
of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave
enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the
future? Freedom and power bring responsibility. The responsibility rests upon this
assembly, a sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India. Before the
birth of freedom we have endured all the pains of labour and our hearts are heavy
with the memory of this sorrow. Some of those pains continue even now.
Nevertheless, the past is over and it is the future that beckons to us now. That future
is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we may fulfil the pledges
we have so often taken and the one we shall take today. The service of India means
the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance
and disease and inequality of opportunity
Q/A
i) Freedom and power bring responsibility. Justify
.......................................................................................................................
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.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
ii) What does service of India means?
120
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.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
iii) How will India discovers herself again?
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
.
......................................................................................................................
.
......................................................................................................................
.
......................................................................................................................
.
iv) Write a précis of 60 words?

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Key Terms
i) Quest.............................................................................................................
ii) Incessant.......................................................................................................
iii) Sovereign......................................................................................................
121
PASSAGE-2
Ethics, as given in Oxford Dictionary, is the moral principles that govern a person's
behaviour or how an activity is conducted‘. The word is derived from the Greek word
ethos ‘meaning 'habit, custom. Ethics is a field of study that is concerned with
distinguishing right from wrong, and good from bad. It analyses the morality of human
behaviours, policies, laws and social structures. Ethicists attempt to justify their moral
judgments by reference to ethical principles of theories that attempt to capture our
moral intuitions about what is right and wrong. Ethical principles often inform
legislation, but it is recognized in ethics that legislation cannot function as a substitute
for morality. It is for this reason that individuals and corporations are always required
to consider not only the legality but also the morality of their actions. Ethical analysis
of security and privacy issues in information technology primarily takes place in
computer ethics which emerged in the 1980s as afield. Computer ethics analyzes moral
responsibilities of computer professionals and computer users and ethical issues in
public policy for information technology development and use.
Q/A
i) Can Ethics be substituted with morality? Discuss.
.............................................................................................................................
.............................................................................................................................
.............................................................................................................................
.............................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................
. ............................................................................................................................ ii)
What is the origin of the term “Ethics”?
.............................................................................................................................
.............................................................................................................................
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iii) How is ethics related to different stream?

.............................................................................................................................
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.............................................................................................................................
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iv) What is the difference between legality and morality?

.............................................................................................................................
122
.............................................................................................................................
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Key Terms
i) Legislation..........................................................................................................
ii) Intuitions.............................................................................................................
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PASSAGE-3
Privacy is a value in modern societies that corresponds with the ideal of the
autonomous individual who is free to act and decide his own destiny. Yet, modern
societies are also characterized by surveillance, a practice that tends to undermine
privacy. Surveillance is the systematic observation of (groups of) people for specific
purposes, usually with the aim of exerting some form of influence over them.
Sociologist David Lyon has argued that surveillance has always been an important part
of modern societies. The state engages in surveillance to protect national security and
to fight crime, and the modern corporation engages in surveillance in the workplace to
retain control over the workforce. Computerization from the 1960s onward has
intensified surveillance by increasing its scale, ease and speed. Surveillance is partially
delegated to computers that help in collecting, processing and exchanging data.
Computers have not only changed the scale and speed of surveillance, they have also
made a new kind of surveillance possible: data surveillance, which is the large-scale,
computerized collection and processing of personal data in order to monitor people‘s
actions and communications.
Q/A
i) How is Privacy related with “ideal of the autonomous individual”?
.............................................................................................................................
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.............................................................................................................................
.............................................................................................................................
.............................................................................................................................
ii) Why is the aim of surveillance?

.............................................................................................................................
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.............................................................................................................................
.............................................................................................................................
iii) How Surveillance is is partially delegated to computers?

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iv) What is the viewpoint of the sociologist David Lyon on surveillance?
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Key Terms
i) Surveillance.........................................................................................................
ii) Autonomous........................................................................................................
125
PASSAGE-4
The Information Technology Act, 2000 defines digital as authentication of any
electronic record by means of electronic method or procedure as per the procedure laid
down in Section 3 and according to Section 3(2) of the Act, says about the use of
asymmetric crypto system and the use of Public Key Infrastructure and hash function
etc. The information Technology Act introduced the concept of electronic signature.
The Concept of Electronic Signature is broader than that of digital signature. The Term
digital signature has been replaced in almost all provision in the Act. Though the
reference still continues to be made to digital signature, it is considered as one type of
electronic signature. Other types of electronic signature can be biometric signatures,
passwords, PINs, encryption applications etc. The Act defines Electronic signatures as
the authentication of an electronic record using the authentication techniques specified
in the 2nd Schedule to the Act, subject to reliability as per the Act.
Q/A
i) What is electronic signature?
.......................................................................................................................
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.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
ii) What does The Information Technology Act, 2000 speaks on?
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iii) What does Section 3(2) of the Act state?

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iv) What does 2nd Schedule to the Act state?

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126
......................................................................................................................
.
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.
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.
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.
Key Terms
i) Authentication...............................................................................................
ii) Encryption.....................................................................................................
127
PASSAGE-5
Governance or e-governance, in simple words, is the use of information technology by
the Government Agencies to deliver government services and information to public.
The Government uses Information & Communication Technology in its operation to
improve service delivery, information exchange and governance process. The
Information Technology Act, 2000 facilitates electronic filing of documents with the
Government agencies and delivery of Government services by means of reliable
electronic records. Chapter III of the Act discusses provisions related to electronic
governance issues and procedures. Some of the important provisions that paves way
for e-Governance are: Legal Recognition of Electronic Record: Electronic Records
gets legal recognition by Section 3 of the Act. Electronic Records as long as they are
made available in electronic form and are accessible so as to be usable for a subsequent
reference, as treated at part with Paper based documents. Section 5 of the Act
recognises electronic signature as valid form of authentication and same as physical
signature. Authentication of electronic signature affixed in such manner as prescribed
by the Central Government. Section 6 of the Act adds validity to online filing of any
form, documents or application with with governmental organisations, licenses,
permissions, approvals or sanction by Government Authorities, and receipt or payment
of money.
Q/A
i) What is e-governance?
.......................................................................................................................
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.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
ii) How is authentication of electronic signature verified?

.......................................................................................................................
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.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
iii) What does Section 6 of the Act does?

.......................................................................................................................
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128
.......................................................................................................................
Key Terms
i) Authentication..............................................................................................
ii) Accessible.....................................................................................................
iii) Reliable.........................................................................................................
129
PASSAGE-6
A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes
the source of the goods of one party from those of others. In layman‘s language is a
visual symbol, used by one entity, on goods or services or other articles of commerce
to distinguish it from other similar goods or services originating from others. It also
refers to brand or logo. For example when we see the word ‘Amul’ written in in the
style and format as given in picture, we easily identify this as a product marketed by
Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. It also distinguished it from
other milk or similar products available in the market. The
Trade Marks Act, 1999, which received assent of the President of India in December
1999 defines Trade mark as ―a mark capable of being represented graphically and
which is capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one person from those of
others and may include shape of goods, their packaging and combination of colours."
It can include a device, brand, heading, label, ticket, name, signature, word, letter, and
numeral, shape of goods, packaging or combination of colors or any such
combinations.
Q/A
i) What is a trademark?
.......................................................................................................................
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.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
ii) What is the importance of trademark?

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.......................................................................................................................
iii) What does the Trade Marks Act, 1999 state?

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130
iv) What all goods or services comes under trademark?
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131
PASSAGE-7
Privacy is important because it is an essential component of autonomy and
individuality. It assists in acquiring other values like personal autonomy, individuality,
respect and dignity. It allows individuals to make their own decision free from
unwanted influences. Explaining importance of Privacy, in a TED Talk says that
―there's a reason why privacy is so craved universally and instinctively. It isn't just a
reflexive movement like breathing air or drinking water. The reason is that when we're
in a state where we can be monitored, where we can be watched, our behaviour changes
dramatically. The range of behavioural options that we consider when we think we're
being watched severely reduce. This is just a fact of human nature that has been
recognized in social science and in literature and in religion and in virtually every field
of discipline.
Q/A
i) What is the importance of privacy?
.......................................................................................................................
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.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
ii) What was spoken on TED Talk about privacy?

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iii) How privacy does gives free play to self-development?

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PASSAGE-8
Social media has emerged as an important platform for communication in today‘s
societies. It has changed the way people were communicating. With social media,
people have become both producer and consumer of information at the same time.
Since social media has become an important part of the society, it also requires ethical
practices for social good. While using social media users share huge information,
including message, photo, video etc. All personal and public information is processed
through third party, which owns social media platform. There are also spammers,
hackers and other online criminals who are in search of suitable opportunity to get
access to user's private information. Threats like Online stalking and cyberbullying
have become easier with social media. So Social Media can also pose various privacy
risks.
Q/A
i) How people are both producer and consumer of information at the same
time?
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.......................................................................................................................
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ii) How can Social Media pose privacy risks?

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PASSAGE-9
Most of the news organizations stress on truth and accuracy in their social media
policies/guidelines. The Guidelines for Social Media and Blogging by Radio
Television Digital News Association says, "Information gleaned online should be
confirmed just as you must confirm scanner traffic or phone tips before reporting
them.” If you cannot independently confirm critical information, reveal your sources;
tell the public how you know what you know and what you cannot confirm. Don‘t stop
133
there. Keep seeking confirmation. This guideline is the same for covering breaking
news on station websites as on the air. You should not leave the public ―hanging.
Lead the public to completeness and understanding. ―It can be difficult to verify the
identity of sources found on social networks. Sources discovered there should be vetted
in the same way as those found by any other means, as per the Social Media Guidelines
for Associated Press Employees.
Q/A
i) Information gleaned online should be confirmed just as you must confirm
scanner traffic or phone tips before reporting them. Justify
.............................................................................................................................
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ii) What does Social Media Guidelines for Associated Press Employees states?
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Key Terms
i) Accuracy………………………………………………………………… ii)
Critical…………………………………………………………………….
PASSAGE-10
When the United States became a superpower after World War II, American social
scientists were called upon to study the problems of ―Third World development. This
started the modernization school, which dominated the field of development in the
1950s and Rogers rightly called it the dominant paradigm of development as it
exercised a dominant influence in the field of development. This model emphasizes
productivity, economic growth, industrialization, urbanization, centralized planning
134
and endogenous factors of development, and development to be measured by gross
national product (GNP). Daniel Lerner and Wilbur Schramm are among the influential
advocates who made significant contributions in identifying the role of communication
for technological development. Heavily influenced by the evolutionary theory,
American social scientists conceptualized modernization as a phased, irreversible,
progressive, lengthy process that moved in the direction of the
American model. Strongly influenced by Parson‘s functionalist theory, they looked
upon modernity as incompatible with tradition. Subsequently the American social
scientists proposed that Third World countries should copy American values, rely on
US loans and aid, and transform their traditional institutions.
Q/A
i) What is dominant paradigm of development?
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.......................................................................................................................
ii) What are the contribution of Daniel Lerner and Wilbur Schramm in
technological development?
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iii) What does Parson‘s functionalist theory state?

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.
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.
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.
135
Key Terms
i) Endogenous…………………………………………………………….
ii) Incompatible…………………………………………………………
PASSAGE-11
The notion that the news media shapes the ―picture in our heads was put to an
empirical test in 1972. Dr Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw along with G.Ray
Funkhouser prepared a mass media theory known as Agenda setting theory in 1968.
A study, named Chapel Hill study‘, was conducted in North Carolina, to test the notion
that mass media influences public perception about the important issues of the day
through their daily selection and display of the news. The basic purpose of the
McCombs and Shaw‘s study was to investigate a link between the news agenda and
the public agenda. Secondly, it wanted to know the media effects on people. The theory
was scientific in its approach; it explained why people prioritize certain issues.
The results were published in 1972 in Public Opinion Quarterly. The study correlated
what people thought and media showed as the most important issue in the election.
Throughout this study, the researchers found out that there was a relationship between
the media agenda and the public agenda.
Q/A
i) What is Agenda setting theory?
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.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
ii) What does Chapel Hill study?

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.
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.
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.
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.
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136
iii) What is the relationship between the media agenda and the public agenda?
......................................................................................................................
.
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.
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......................................................................................................................
.
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.
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.
Key Terms
i) Notion……………………………………………………………………..
ii) Empirical…………………………………………………………………..
iii) Investigate……………………………………………………………………..
137
PASSAGE-12
Neumann‘s ―Spiral of Silence was an attempt to understand public opinion and how
it was formed. She wondered why the Germans supported the wrong political party
that led to the nation‘s downfall, defeat, humiliation, and ruin in the 1930s-1940s. The
term spiral of silence refers to how people tend to remain silent when they feel that
their views are in the minority. It was marked by a fear of separation or isolation from
the people those around them. People tend to conceal their views to themselves when
they think they are in the minority group. This process is called ―Spiral of Silence.
Nobel peace prize winner, Mother Teresa affirmed Noelle-Neumann‘s analysis: ―The
worst sickness is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but the feeling of being respected by no
one, of being unloved, deserted by everyone.
The model is an explanation of how perceived public opinion can influence individual
opinions and actions and why people often feel the need to mask their
views/opinions/preferences. It‘s based on three premises:
1. People have a ―quasi-statistical organ (a sixth sense), sensing the climate of

opinion. Science has fixed five bodily receptors through which people can sense their
environment: eye (sight), ear (sound), tongue (taste), nose (smell), skin (touch). It is
the quasi-statistical organ-a sixth sense that tallies information about the society in
general thinking and feeling. It is like people equipped with an antennae.
2. The fear of isolation and knowing what behaviour will increase their likelihood
of being socially segregated that leads to a spiral of silence. In order to avoid being
isolated and for the fear of losing popularity and esteem, people constantly observe
their environment very closely. They try to find out which opinions and modes of
behaviour are prevalent, and which opinions and modes of behaviour are less popular.
They behave and express themselves according to the environment and public opinion.
3. People are restrained to express their minority views, mainly because of the
fear of rejection and the fear of being negatively evaluated by others. People are afraid
of being rejected, or isolated, from the society or environment.
Q/A
i) What does the term spiral of silence meant?
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ii) How can this context be related to Nobel peace prize winner, Mother Teresa?
138
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. ...........................................................................................................
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iii) What is quasi-statistical organ?

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. ...........................................................................................................
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iv) What is the consequence of belonging to minority view?

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. ...........................................................................................................
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Key Terms
i) Wondered………………………………………………………………
ii) Segregated……………………………………………………………
iii) Perceived…………………………………………………………….
PASSAGE-13
We must strive to become democratic not merely in the political sense of the term but
also in the social and economic sense. It is essential to bring about this democratic
change, this democratic temper, this kind of outlook by proper study of the humanities
including philosophy and religion. There is a great verse which says that in this poison
tree of samsara are two fruits of incomparable value. They are the enjoyment of great
books and the company of good souls. If you want to absorb the fruits of great
139
literature, well, you must read them not as we do cricket stories but read them with
concentration. Our generation in its rapid travel has lost the habit of being influenced
by the great classics of our country. If these principles of democracy in our
Constitution are to become habits of mind and patterns of behaviour, principles which
change the very character of the individual and the nature of the society, it can be done
only by the study of great literature, of philosophy and religion. That is why even
though our country needs great scientists, great technologies, great engineers, we
should not neglect to make them humanists. While we retain science and technology
we must remember that science and technology are not all. We must note the famous
statement that merely by becoming literate without the development of compassion we
become demoniac. So no university can regard itself as a true university unless it sends
out young men and women who are not only learned but whose hearts are full of
compassion for suffering humanity. Useless that is there, the university education must
be regarded as incomplete.
Q/A
i) What does Democracy mean?
.............................................................................................................................
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. ...........................................................................................................
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ii) What are two fruits of incomparable value?

.............................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................
. ...........................................................................................................
.............................................................................................................................
.............................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................
iii) Elucidate “merely by becoming literate without the development of

compassion we become demoniac.”
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. ...........................................................................................................
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140
Key Terms
i) Democratic…………………………………………………………………
................................................................................................
ii) Samsara-…………………………………………………………………
iii) Demoniac-……………………………………………………………..
141
PASSAGE-14
Character is destiny. Character is that on which the destiny of a nation is built. One
cannot have a great nation with men of small character. We must have young men and
women who look upon others as the living images of themselves as our Shastras have
so often declared. But whether in public life or student life, we cannot reach great
heights if we are lacking in character. We cannot climb the mountain when the very
ground at our feet is crumbling. When the very basis of our existence is shaky, how
can we reach the heights which we have set before ourselves? We must all have
humility. Here is a country which we are interested in building up. For whatever
service we take up, we should not care for what we receive. We should know how
much we can put into that service. That should be the principle which should animate
our young men and women. Ours is a great country. We have had for centuries a great
history. The whole of the East reflects our culture. We have to represent what India
taught right from the time of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. Whether in domestic affairs
or in international affairs we must adhere to certain standards. My advice to the young
men and women who are graduating today through this University is: Mother India
expects of you that your lives should be clean, noble and dedicated to selfless work.
Q/A
i) What does it mean “Character is destiny”?
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ii) What is the teaching of Shastras?

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iii) What is the expectation of Mother India?

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142
Key Terms
i) Humility……………………………………………………………
ii) Destiny……………………………………………………………
iii) Adhere ………………………………..............................................
iv) Animate…………………………………………………………
143
PASSAGE-15
Water is the basis of all life. Every animal and every plant contains a substantial
proportion of free or combined water in its body, and no kind of physiological activity
is possible in which the fluid does not play and essential part. Water is, of course
necessary for animal life, while moisture in the soil is equally imperative for the life
and growth of plants and trees, though the quantity necessary varies enormously with
species. The conservation and utilisation of water is thus fundamental for human
welfare. Apart from artesian water the ultimate source in all cases is rain or snowfall.
Much of Indian agriculture depends on seasonal rainfall and is therefore very sensitive
to any failure or irregularity of the same. The problems of soil erosion and of
inadequate or irregular rainfall are closely connected with each other. It is clear that
the adoption of techniques preventing soil erosion would also help to conserve and
keep the water where it is wanted, in other words, on and in the soil, and such
techniques therefore serve a double purpose thus lost to the country.
The harnessing of our rivers, the waters of which now mostly run to waste, is a great
national problem which must be considered and dealt with on national lines. Vast areas
of land which at present are mere scrub jungle could be turned into fertile and
prosperous country by courageous and well-planned action.
Q/A
i) Water is indispensable resource. Elucidate?
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. ...........................................................................................................
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ii) What are the ways of conservation and utilisation of water?

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iii) What are the techniques of preventing soil erosion?

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. ...........................................................................................................
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Key Words
i) Substantial……………………………………………………………………. ii)
Imperative……………………………………………………………………. iii)
Harnessing…………………………………………………………………… iv)
Prosperous…………………………………………………………………….
145
PASSAGE-16
The people in a small place can have no interest in the exact, or in completeness, for
that would demand a careful weighing, careful consideration, careful judging, careful
questioning. It would demand the invention of a silence, inside of which these things
could be done. It would demand a reconsideration, an adjustment, in the way they
understand the existence of Time. To the people in a small place, the division of Time
into the Past, the Present, and the Future does not exist. An event that occurred one
hundred years ago might be as vivid to them as if it were happening at this very
moment. And then, an event that is occurring at this very moment might pass before
them with such dimness that it is as if it had happened one hundred years ago. No
action in the present is an action planned with a view of its effect on the future. When
the future, bearing its own events, arrives, its ancestry is then traced in a trancelike
retrospect, at the end of which, their mouths and eyes wide with their astonishment,
the people in a small place reveal themselves to be like children being shown the
secrets of a magic trick.
Q/A
i) What is the division of Time?
.......................................................................................................................
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.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
ii) What does it mean that small place can have no interest in the exact, or in
completeness?
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.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
iii) How an Event is discussed?

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Key Words
i) Vivid…………………………………………………………………
ii) Dimness………………………………………………………………
iii) Ancestry……………………………………………………………
iv) Reconsideration………………………………………………………
147
PASSAGE-17
For centuries scientists have viewed the Earth and its environmental systems as a sort
of mechanical machine, driven by physical forces like volcanoes, rock weathering and
the water cycle. It was clear that organic activities played an important role in some
environmental systems, such as the biogeochemical cycles. However, until quite
recently biological factors were seen as secondary to physical and chemical ones.
A revolutionary new theory was put forward by James Lovelock in 1970s. He called it
the Gaia hypothesis, after the Greek Earth goddess. The theory was revolutionary
because it treated the Earth as a single living organism, in which the biological,
chemical and physical factors played important roles. Lovelock argued that the Earth‘s
living and non-living systems form an inseparable whole, regulated and kept adapted
for life by living organisms themselves. He sees Gaia as a complex entity involving
the Earth‘s biosphere, atmosphere, oceans and soil and constituting a feedback system
which seeks an optimal physical and chemical environment for life on this planet.
However, Lovelock regarded the biosphere as a ―single organism (called a super
organism by some scientists).
Looking closely at plants and animals in the biosphere, naturalists observed groups of
plants and animals in the biosphere arranged in an orderly manner. Two concepts
emerged from their observations which led to the use of the term “ecosystem” to
describe the complex interactions between living organisms and their non-living
surroundings.
The first concept was that plants and animals formed a natural association, each with
distinctive members. Just like morphological data allowed systematics to assign
species to a hierarchy of taxonomic groups, detailed studies of the ecological
distributions of plants led to the classification of biological communities.
The second concept was the realization that organisms are linked, both directly and
indirectly by means of their feeding relationships. Arising from these, the concept of
the ecosystem was formulated. A system is a collection of interdependent parts that
function as a unit and involve inputs and outputs. An ecosystem represents the sum of
all natural organisms and the non-living life supporting substances within an area. It
was considered as an open system with a series of major inputs and outputs and these
effectively ―drive the internal dynamics of the system.
The ability to recognize distinctive ecosystems in the biosphere gave ecologists a

convenient scale with which to consider plants and animals and their interaction. This
is because it is more localized and thus more specific than the whole biosphere.
1) What is Gaia hypothesis?

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148
.............................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................
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...........................................................................................................
2) Why Earth and its environmental systems treated as a sort of mechanical

machine?
.............................................................................................................................
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. ...........................................................................................................
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3) Why species assigned a hierarchy of taxonomic groups?

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. ...........................................................................................................
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4) Where interdependent parts that function as a unit and involve inputs and
outputs found?
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............................................................................................................................
. ...........................................................................................................
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.............................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................
PASSAGE-18
Regionalism is not significant merely as a disintegrating force. Regionalism is not
opposed to national integration. Both can exist together in a creative partnership. Both
are in favour of development. Regionalism stresses the development of a region and
national integration for the development of the nation as a whole. If we want to
reconcile the competing claims of regionalism and national integration the political
system of the country should remain federal and democratic.
149
Regionalism is not disruptive of national solidarity. The important condition for
national solidarity is that nationalism should be able to hold the different types of
regional sub-nationalities together. In other words, there should be healthy
reconciliation between regionalism and nationalism.
Regionalism can make federalism a greater success. In this aspect the accentuation of
regional identities should not-become problematic. It is quite natural that regional
communities, who are conscious of their distinctive culture, should interact with
federal government on the basis of more equal partnership. It will reduce the
centralising tendencies in a nation and power will shift from the centre to the states.
Conceived in any form, regionalism and sub-regionalism are unavoidable in a country

as vast and diverse as India. Their existence is not only an important condition for the
expression of genuine national sentiment, but it is logically generated because of the
establishment of the nation state. Nothing is, therefore, more basic to the concept of
federalism than regionalism and sub-regionalism.
1) Compare and contrast Regionalism and national integration?

……………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………..
2) What is nation state?

……………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………..
3) What is federalism?
……………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………….……………
……………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………….
150
PASSAGE – 19
The term plutocracy is generally used to describe these two distinct concepts: one of a
historical nature and one of a modern political nature. The former indicates the political
control of the state by an oligarchy of the wealthy. Examples of such plutocracies
include the Roman Republic, some city-states in Ancient Greece, the civilization of
Carthage, the Italian city-states/merchant republics of Venice,
Florence, Genoa, and pre-WWII Empire of Japan zaibatsus.
Before the equal voting rights movement managed to end it in the early 20th century,
many countries used a system where rich persons had more votes than poor. A factory
owner may for instance have had 2000 votes while a worker had one or if they were
very poor no right to vote at all. Even artificial persons such as companies had-voting-
rights.
One modern, perhaps unique, formalized example of a plutocracy is the City of

London. The City (not the whole of modern London but the area of the ancient city,
which now mainly comprises the financial district) has a unique electoral system. Most
of its voters are representatives of businesses and other bodies that occupy premises in
the City. Its ancient wards have very unequal numbers of voters. The principal
justification for the non-resident vote is that about 450,000 non-residents constitute the
city's day-time population and use most of its services, far outnumbering the City's
residents, who are fewer than 10,000.
The second usage of plutocracy is a reference to a disproportionate influence the

wealthy have on political process in contemporary society: for example Kevin Phillips,
author and political strategist to U.S. President Richard Nixon, argues that the United
States is a plutocracy in which there is a "fusion of money and government."[The
wealthy minority exerts influence over the political arena via many methods. Most
western democracies permit partisan organizations to raise funds for politicians, and
political parties frequently accept significant donations from various individuals
(either directly or through corporations or advocacy groups). These donations may be
part of a cronyist or patronage system, in which major contributors and fund-raisers
are rewarded with high-ranking government appointments. While campaign donations
need not directly affect the legislative decisions of elected representatives, politicians
have a personal interest in serving the needs of their campaign contributors: if they fail
to do so, those contributors will likely give their money to candidates who do support
their interests in the future. Unless a quid pro quo agreement exists, it is generally legal
for politicians to advocate policies favorable to their contributors, or grant appointed
government positions to them. In some instances, extremely wealthy individuals have
financed their own political campaigns. Many corporations and business interest
groups pay lobbyists to maintain constant contact with elected officials, and press them
for favourable-legislation.
151
1. What does the word ‘partisan’ mean?
a) A person close to the political party.
b) Showing too much support to a particular person or a group.
c) An organization being run by the son of party president.
d) An organization that gives funds to the party.
2. Which of the following is true in context of the above passage?

a) Politicians support their contributors by giving them high positions in the party.
b) Donations received in campaigns bound the politicians to accept all the demands
of the contributors.
c) Plutocracy means the rule by some industrialist.
d) Prior to 20th century many countries used a system where rich had more votes
than poor.
3. Which of the following is the best modern day

example of plutocracy?
a) Venice
b) The Vatican
c) City of London
d) Greece
PASSAGE-20
TRIPs agreement provides a comprehensive set of global trade rules for the protection
of copyright patents, trademarks, industrial designs, trade secrets, semiconductor
layout designs and geographical indications that apply to all the member countries
irrespective of their levels of development, natural and human endowments and
history. Every member country has been asked by the WTO to amend its national
patent law to conform to that universal globalized format for legislation relating to
pharmaceutical, agrochemical, food, alloys etc. Under article 65, the developed
countries have been asked to change their laws within another five years and the less
developed countries within an additional five years. The least developed countries have
been asked to make those changes by 2005.
This attempt at global standardization and uniformity by way of TRIPs agreement is

in conflict with the main thrust of the Rio Earth Summit of 1992 that set out the
conditions for sustainable development. These two reveal two contrasting types of
international approaches and norms. While the 1992 Earth Summit and the 1993
Convention on Bio-Diversity (CBD) focused on ‘diversity’ as being fundamental to
sustain life an development, TRIPs and WTO are pushing for ‘Conformity’ to
International standardized norms on patents, services, labour, investment and what not
irrespective of their history, ecology, level of economic development, etc. But despite
their diametrically opposed viewpoints, 170 countries signed CBD upholding the need
152
for diversity, and 50 countries signed the TRIPs agreement in 1994 claiming the
urgency of uniformity; with a very large element of common names (130) in both.
1. Which of the following statements is/are correct according to the passage?

I. TRIPs agreement doesn’t recommend sustainable development.
II. Underdeveloped countries who are TRIPs members endorse biodiversity over
compliance.
III. Both TRIPs and CBD pose two completely different types of protocols. a) Only
I
b) Only II
c) Only III
d) I, II and III
2. Which of the following statements is/are incorrect according to the passage?

I. TRIPs agreement is not a set of International trade rules.
II. Underdeveloped countries are asked to make the new changes in
patent law by 2005.
III. Defending the need for conformity, 170 countries signed CBD.
a) Only I
b) Only II
c) Only III
d) I and III
3. What are the differences between the CBD and TRIPs norms, according to
the page?
a) TRIPs and CBD are applicable to different sectors altogether.
b) TRIPs and CBD are two different forms of the same protocols of WTO
c) As CBD recommends ‘diversity’ for sustainable development, TRIPs want
countries to stick to international norms without considering diversity.
d) Only a few clauses of TRIPs and CBD differ, otherwise the same.
153
1.3 EXERCISES
I. Complete the following passage by filling in the blanks with an appropriate

word or phrase.
i) Proper prioritization is essential for effective time management. ………………

(Who / What / Whoever) you are, there are only twenty four hours in a day.
You need to sleep, eat, (bath / bathe / bathing) and perform a number of other
activities. There will always be more things ………………. (That / what / so)
you would like to do ………………. (Than / then / more) there is time to do
them. If you ………………. (Don’t / didn’t / hadn’t) prioritize tasks, you will
simply change from one task to another without rhyme or reason. This would
not only affect your efficiency, but it could also result
………………. (In /at / on) essential tasks being left incomplete. It is therefore
important that one must learn to differentiate ………………. (Between / from /
with) the important and the optional.
ii) Imagine what it ……………… (is / was /might) be like if you ……………..
(Are /were / had been) in your bedroom during an earthquake. Your bed
……………….. (shake / shook / shakes). Books and stuffed animals tumble
……………………. (of / in / from) shelves. Your computer monitor skitters
……………… (on / across / over) your desk and crashes to the floor. The walls
creak and groan as they flex. In a very big earthquake, your whole house could
……………………. (collapse / collapsed / collapsing). To get a better idea of
what might happen …………………. (for / with / to) an ordinary house during
an earthquake, engineers ……………….. (do / did / had) an experiment—a big
one. In one corner of a lot the size of an airplane hangar, they ………………….
(build / built / have built) a townhouse. Then, they shook the house
…………………….. (on / at / with) the force of a large earthquake.
This wooden townhouse, which is similar …………………… (of / to / with)
many homes in California, was specially built to see how it would survive the
sort of shaking ………………………. (that / what) it could suffer in an
earthquake.
II. Fill in the blanks given in the passage with correct form of the verb given in
the brackets:
i) The open drains are _____1_____ (breed) grounds of mosquitoes and flies.
They ____2____ (overflow) as they are not _____3_____ (clean) regularly.
The residents __4_____ (ask) not to throw domestic refuse on the streets. The
garbage bins cannot contain all the refuse that is_____5__(dispose) into them.
The roads _____6_____ (be) narrow. The local municipality ____7____(try)
to tackle the problem.
We _____8_____ (decide) to lend a helping hand.
154
ii) Two carpenters _______ (1) (work) on Mr. Sharma's roof. When they
_________ (2) (stop) work at 6 p.m., they ________ (3) (leave) their ladder
__________ (4) (lean) against the house. At 7 p.m., Raju, a thief passed by the
house and _______ (5) (see) the ladder. The house ___________ (6) (be) now
empty as Mr. and Mrs. Sharma _________ (7) (go) to the market. Raju
________ (8) (climb) up the ladder ___________ (9) (get) in through a
firstfloor window, and _______ (10) (go) straight to the main bed room where
he stole all of Mrs. Sharma's jewellery.
iii) I ____________ (1) (realize) that I ___________ (2) (know) one of the two
men by sight, and I _________ (3) (spend) a few seconds thinking why he
_________ (4)
(seek) me out on a Sunday afternoon.
During this pause, three small boys __________ (5) (walk) up the passage from
the house behind me, _________ (6) (thread) a way around me and the two
men outside, and silently ________ (7) (climb) like cats up into a tree in the
middle of the lawn outside. There, the three figures ________ (8) (rest),
_________ (9) (become) immobile, ________ (10) (lie) on their stomachs,
deep in a secret game.
III. Directions: In the passage given below there are 6 blanks, each followed by a
word/phrase given in bold. Each blank has four alternative words/phrases
given in options A, B, C and D. You have to tell which word will best suit
the respective blank. Mark E as your answer if the word given in bold after
the blank is your answer i.e. “No change required.”
1) The thrust of the Law Commission’s report is __A__ on the idea that “the mere
existence of difference does not imply discrimination, but is __B of a robust
democracy.” Changes have been mooted to give equal __C__ to children and parents
of any gender in guardianship and adoption matters. The juvenile law principle that
the child’s best interest is the ‘paramount consideration’ has also been put forward for
__D__ application. While calling for a wider public debate on its views, the Law
Commission has __E__ the issue in the most reasonable way possible when it says it
has “dealt with laws that are discriminatory rather than providing a uniform civil code
which is neither necessary nor desirable at this stage.” In a strict and narrow reading,
this goes __F__ the Directive Principles of State Policy that favor a uniform civil code;
also, some court judgments have questioned why such a code was not yet in place.
A. a) faced
b) founded
c) Graded
d) Traded
e) No Change required
B. a) Indicative
b) Intuitional
155
c) United
d) Estimated
e) No change required
C. a) Treasure
b) Wealth
c) Tracing
d) Fragrance
D .a) Referral
b) Restrictive
c) Fragments
d) Judgmental
E .a) Created
b) Tempted
c) Enticed
d) Framed
2) With the decades-old minimum support price (MSP) system __________ A

__________ the crisis at the farm gate, the three schemes that are a part of AASHA –
the Price Support Scheme (PSS) itself, the Price Deficiency Payment Scheme (PDPS)
and the Pilot of Private Procurement and Stockist Scheme (PPPS) – point to an
innovative, MSP-plus approach to the problem of non-remunerative prices. Under the
PDPS, the Centre __________ B __________ to pay oilseed farmers the difference
between the MSP and market price. The advantage of this scheme is that the Centre
can keep the farmer satisfied without having to go through the hassle of physical
procurement, storage and disposal. Freed of these logistical hassles, the geographical
reach and coverage of PDPS is likely __________ C __________. The PSS, or
expanded MSP, will allow the FCI to procure pulses, oilseeds and copra from States
that display interest. The PPPS is a new idea. __________ D __________, the Centre
will persuade States to bring in private players to procure at MSP. It promises a
maximum of 15 per cent of MSP as a service charge to the private player to compensate
for the loss. In all these schemes however, the key will be the implementation; failure
to create a system of checks and balances can derail them. For instance, the experience
of Madhya Pradesh which implemented the PDPS under the Bhavantar Bhugtan
Yojana last year, shows that it __________ E __________. Ground level checks reveal
that traders connive with each other and depress prices at mandis. They force farmers
to sell at lower prices and pocket the compensation from the government. Many small
and marginal farmers __________ F __________ to sell their produce under the
Bhavantar scheme, face a double whammy of lowered price and no compensation. The
PSS would be easier to implement, with nodal agencies doing the procurement.
However, the Centre __________ G __________to provide funds. With the additional
Rs.16,550 crore guarantee for raising working capital from banks now being made
156
available, the total credit guarantee given to institutions under PSS is already
Rs.45,550 crore. But if all States apply to NAFED/FCI for procurement of oilseeds or
pulses, the agencies will fall short of funds.
A. a) Fragmentation of yield
b) Failing to address
c) Understanding to ratify
d) Interested in developing
e) None of the above
B. a) Makes a promise
b) Decides a way-out
c) Announces a weather –based yield scheme
d) Determines to ensure that
C. a) To remain constant
b) To attend the farmers very carefully
c) To be superior
d) To guide the farmers to increase in income
e) To utilise the sources of the irrigation.
D. a) Regarding this scheme

b) Through this scheme
c) On account of this scheme
d) Against this scheme
E. a) Is very useful for the farmers

b) Is not careful for the farmers
c) Can be easily manipulated
d) Could not be understood
157
3) M.K. Stalin is (A) elected president of the DMK at the party’s general council on
Tuesday, it will signal his rise to the top exactly 50 years after he launched the
Gopalapuram Youth DMK, a precursor to the DMK Youth Wing. He will be only the
third supreme leader of the DMK, launched by C.N. Annadurai in 1949. The
Gopalapuram Youth Wing was inaugurated by party general secretary K. Anbazhagan
in M. Karunanidhi’s presence in 1968. “He along with his friends (B) the idea in a
barber shop and invited Annadurai for the inauguration. But Anna could not attend as
he was indisposed. Stalin’s (C) skills made him comment: ‘You are as adamant as your
father’,” recalled Govi Lenin, a long-time DMK observer. Originally named
Ayyadurai, after Periyar E.V. Ramasamy (Ayya) and Annadurai, Karunanidhi changed
his name to Stalin in honor of Russian leader Stalin, who died four days after his birth.
Though Mr. Stalin was active, enacting plays and (D) screening of movies to raise
funds, besides taking out rallies in support of autonomy for the State, his detention
under the Maintenance of Internal Security during the Emergency earned him
recognition. In 1980, the DMK’s Youth Wing was launched. Two years later, he got
to head the Youth Wing, which had by then (E) up into a well-oiled party machine. In
1984, he unsuccessfully contested from the
Thousand Lights Assembly constituency but subsequently became a legislator in 1989.
He has been an MLA since 1996. Mr. Stalin’s growth agitated Vaiko, then a rising star
in the DMK. When some DMK district secretaries walked away with Vaiko in 1994,
Mr. Stalin proved his (F) as an organizational man by ensuring a large turnout of youth
at the DMK’s Tirunelveli conference.
A. a) Ceremoniously
b) Reluctantly
c) Tantalizingly
d) Practicality
e) No replacement required
B. a) Consoled
b) Conceived
c) Contested
d) Concocted
C. a) Preservation
b) Precipitation
c) Practice
d) Persuasion
D. a) Attributing
b) Yielding
c) Organising
d) Determining
E. a) Shaped
158
b) Studied
c) Staked
d) Stood
159
4) The blockade of the national highways leading to the Manipur valley, called by the
United Naga Council (UNC), has been in place since November 1. This has severely
affected life in the State, with shortages and ___ A ___ costs of essential supplies such
as fuel and food, even as demonetisation has ___ B ___ problems. Blockades like this
are not new to Manipur. In 2011, there was initially a hundredday-plus blockade
enforced by Kuki-led groups, and countered later by Naga groups, which together had
a ___ C ___ effect on life in Manipur. This time the blockade is in place to oppose the
creation of new districts by the Okram Ibobi Singh government. On December 9 it
issued a ___ D ___ notification for the creation of seven new districts by bifurcating
seven (of a total of nine) districts. This decision had as much to do with long-pending
demands — in particular, for a new Kukimajority district to be carved out of the larger
Senapati hill district — as with easing administrative access to ___ E ___ areas from
the district headquarters.
A. a) Escalating
b) Upfront
c) Diminishing
d) Varying
e) Considerable
B. a) exceed
b) Pacified
c) Exacerbated
d) vindicated
e) exemplified
C. a) asting
b) counter
c) mounting
d) befitting
e) debilitating
D. a) special
b) live
c) gazette
d) detail
e) retentive
E. a) offshore
b) far-flung
c) outskirts
d) remotely
e) secluded
5) Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan’s note of caution on the next financial crisis
that could be building up needs to be taken in all ___A___ . In his note to
160
Parliament’s Estimates Committee on bank non-performing assets (NPAs), Mr. Rajan
has ___B___ three major sources of potential trouble: Mudra credit, which is basically
small-ticket loans granted to micro and small enterprises; ___C___ to farmers through
Kisan Credit Cards; and contingent liabilities under the Credit Guarantee Scheme for
MSMEs, run by the Small Industries Development Bank of India. The disbursement
under Mudra loans alone is ?6.37 lakh crore, which is over 7% of the total outstanding
bank credit. These loans have been ___D___ under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana,
which aims to ‘fund the unfunded’, and is a ___E___ scheme of the NDA government.
Given that these are small loans up to Rs10 lakh each, with the borrowers mostly from
the informal sector, banks have to monitor them very closely. It is ___F___ whether
banks have the resources and manpower to do this when they are chasing the bigger
borrowers for business and, increasingly these days, recoveries. The ___G___ is that
these small-ticket loans will drop under the radar and build into a large credit issue in
course of time. The same
___H___ holds true for crop loans made through Kisan Credit Cards. Mr. Rajan’s
advice on loan waivers has been made by him and others in the past. But the political
class has chosen to turn a ___I___ ear to this advice, vitiating the credit culture and
creating a moral hazard where farmer-borrowers assume that their loans will ___J___
be waived off. The former RBI Governor has strongly defended the RBI against
criticism, often unfair, over its policies on NPA recognition and resolution.
A. a) Constitution
b) Yield
c) Seriousness
d) Stability
B. a) Utilised
b) Determined
c) Flagged
d) Guessed
C. a) Borrowing
b) Lending
c) Helping
d) Assisting
D. a) Processed
161
b) Given
c) Distributed
d) Disturbed
E. a) Promising
b) Loyal
c) Trademark
d) Capable
6) Agriculture in States like Punjab is typically a ___ A ___ of wheat and paddy.
When input costs associated with fertilizers, crop-protection chemicals and seeds rose,
along with fixed costs associated with agricultural equipment such as tractors and
submersible pumps, agriculture became economically ___ B ___. Prices have risen —
of Arhar seeds and staple crops like paddy and sugarcane, of fertilizers and plain
barley. The old days of farmers handing seeds as family ___ C ___ to their sons are
long gone. Hiring labourers and animals is expensive. With an increase in application
of crop-protection chemicals, Soya bean has seen a massive jump in ___ D ___ cost.
Given a jump in input costs, cultivation costs have gone up in multiples.
The total cost of cultivation for wheat rose three times from 2004-05 to 2012-13.
While traditionally the blame is cast on the ___ E ___ local moneylender, NCRB data
highlight that 2,474 of the 3,000 farmers who were reported to have committed suicide
in 2015 had loans from local banks, while those who had loans from moneylenders
were just 9.8 per cent of the total. Maharashtra reported 1,293 such suicides for ___ F
___, while Karnataka had 946. Meanwhile, farmers in Punjab are ___ G ___ to have
an outstanding debt of ?69,355 crore. Somehow, the traditional moneylender is
seemingly more “___ H ___” than local banks.1
A.
a) custom
b) monoculture
c) trade
d) business
e) cultivate B.
a) vibrant
b) equal
c) feasible
d) unviable
162
e) conservative C.
a) traditions
b) heirlooms
c) convention
d) values
e) vendetta
D.
a) distribution
b) pesticide
c) marginal
d) maintenance
e) storage
E.
a) ambiguous
b) guileless
c) devious
d) usurious
e) autonomous
163
7) On the morning of 22 April, somewhere between the villages of Boria and
Kasansur in the Bhamaragad tehsil of Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra, a group of
Maoists had camped, some of them having breakfast while others were just resting.
Apparently___ A ___about their presence, a much larger group of Central Reserve
Police Force and C-60 commandos, some of them equipped with under barrel grenade
launchers, surrounded the Maoists and fired___ B ___, killing all of them. The police,
claiming that they had killed 16 Maoists in an encounter, took a select group of
journalists to the site who faithfully reported the official narrative. The following day,
the police claimed they had killed another six Maoists in an encounter, this time at
Rajaram Khandla in the Jimalgatta forests. Then, on 24 April, the police declared that
they recovered 15 bodies from the Indravati river, and that these were of other Maoists
who had been killed in the 22 April encounter. Subsequently three more bodies were
found in the river. So, a total of 40 “Maoists” had been killed in the two encounters.
Awards and promotions were in store for the “encounter specialists,” and the occasion
called for ___ C ___ celebrations!
The counter-insurgency deliberately ___ D ___ the distinction between combatants

and non-combatants. The Maoists say that only 22 of the dead were their cadres.
Moreover, later, when some parents filed missing reports, it subsequently came to light
that on the night of 21 April, as eight young men and women were on their way from
a village called Gattepalli to attend a wedding in Kasansur, they were picked up and
killed by the police. It is believed that their bodies were then ___ E ___ together with
those of the dead Maoists, and shown as having being killed in the 22 April encounter.
A.
a) Tipped off
b) Notified
c) Alerted
d) Convey
e) All are appropriate
B
a) Indiscriminately
b) Selectively
c) Unhesitatingly
d) Uncritically
e) All are appropriate3
C.
a) Noisy
b) Raurcous
c) Repentant
d) Boisterous
164
D.
a) Blurs
b) Removed
c) Smudging
d) Clouded
E.
a) Allied
b) Banded
c) Put
d) Clubbed
165
8) It is clear that the GST reform will lead to significant ___ A ___ in the economy
in the short term. How short is the short term depends on how well the transition is
planned, and how fast the economic agents will adjust to the new normal. The
disruptions caused by demonetization continue to ___ B___ large parts of the
unorganised economy even as the economy had been substantially remonetised. It is
very difficult to predict the impact of such disruptions and the ___ C ___ they create.
The power loom sector has considerably suffered on account of one disruption, and
with different tax rates proposed to be levied on yarn, fabrics and readymade garments,
Tamil Nadu manufacturers are at war. Transporters will soon find that the tax paid on
fuel cannot be credited against the GST payable on the transportation services ___ D
___ by them. There are concerns about the rates of tax, mandated compliances and
glitches in transition, and investment activity is virtually at a standstill, with everyone
waiting to see how the reform pans.
A.
a) Boost
b) Change
c) Disruption
d) Growth
e) Revolution
B.
a) shamble
b) exist
c) covet
d) haunt
e) shackle
C.
a) discontent
b) power
c) environment
d) confidence
e) animosity
D.
a) imported
b) promised
c) rendered
d) offered
e) complied
166
9) This year, the world’s largest democracy, India, and the biggest country by ___
A ___, Russia, are celebrating the 70th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic
relations between them. Russia continues to be among India’s major
politicodiplomatic and defence partner nations. While India has ___ B ___ separate
strategic partnership pacts with more than two dozen countries, the Indian and Russian
governments in December 2010 ___ C ___ their bilateral ‘Strategic Partnership’ to
what they termed a “Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership.”
The New Delhi-based ___ D ___ ‘Foundation for National Security Research’, which
did a comparative assessment of India’s strategic partnerships — meaning, ‘political-
diplomatic, defence and economic cooperation’ (during the 10-year period prior to
November 2011), had said, “Russia emerges as the most important strategic partner of
India (followed by the U.S., France, the U.K., Germany and Japan in that order).” The
November 2011 report had found that Russia had provided strong political and
diplomatic support to India and helped enormously in building India’s defence
capability. However, it warned that the “economic content of the (IndiaRussia)
partnership is extremely weak,” and recommended that “urgent and ___ E ___ steps
need to be taken to improve economic relations if this (India-Russia) partnership is to
be sustained and made durable.”
A.
a) Population
b) Density
c) Area
d) Democracy
e) Economy
B.
a) Inked
b) Considered
c) Contemplated
d) Refuted
e) Revoked
C.
a) Called
b) Elevated
c) Refreshed
d) Nullified
e) Revived
167
D.
a) NGO
b) Startup
c) Personnel
d) Think tank
e) Avenue
E.
a) Various
b) Precarious
c) Vigorous
d) Minuscule
e) Exhilarating
168

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r SEMES

COMPULSARY COURSE (AECC-3'

BLOCK 1- ENGLISH SHORT STORIES

BLOCK 2- ENGLISH PROSE

BLOCK 3- COMPREHENSION PASSAGE AND TEST OF

BLOCK 4- COMPREHENSION PASSAGE AND TEST

BLOCK BLOCK UNIT UNIT

1 The Fight between Leopards

BLOCK BLOCK UNIT UNIT

5 The way to equal distribution

BLOCK BLOCK UNIT UNIT

10 Teaching Reading Comprehension

BLOCK BLOCK UNIT UNIT

Programme Name: ABILITY ENHANCEMENT COMPULSARY COURSE

Programme Code: AECC Course Name: MIL ALTERNATIVE ENGLISH

Course Code: AECC-02 Semester: II

Credit: 4 Block No.1 to 4 Unit No.1 to16 Pages:-168

Subhra Souranshu Pujahari

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UNIT WISE CONTENTS

BLOCKS/UNITS PAGE NO.

Block- 1: English Short Stories 1- 44

Block- 2: English Prose 45-77

Unit- 6: A call to Youth: Introduction to the text, Introduction to the writer; S.

Unit- 9: Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies Structure: Reading fluency

Unit- 13: Exercise- 1: Comprehensive Passage

Unit- 14: Exercise- 2: Exercises on Grammar

Unit- 15: Exercise- 3: Exercises on Language usage

Unit- 16: Exercise- 4: Glossary and Check your progress

UNIT 2 THE BICYCLE

UNIT 3 GEORGE V HIGH SCHOOL

UNIT 4 THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH

UNIT 5 UNEASY HOMECOMING

After studying this unit, you be able to:

1.3 INTRODUCTION TO THE STORY: THE MAN EATING

1.4 THE MAN-EATING LEOPARD OF RUDRAPRAYAG

'The man-eating leopard of Rudraprayag' is a classic example of Corbett's natural

1.5 THE TEXT: THE FIGHT BETWEEN LEOPARDS

1.6 GLOSSARY OF DIFFICULT TERMS

1.7 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

9. Why was the narrator disheartened?

2.2 About the Author, Dash Benhur

2.3 The Text, The Bicycle

2.4 Glossary of Difficult terms

2.5 Check your Progress

2.6 Let us Sum up

After studying this unit, you be able to:

Dash Benhur is the penname of Jitendra Narayan Dash, a well-known writer of

2.3 THE TEXT, THE BICYCLE

In an emotional moment he had given it name—Veersen, raja Prithviraj Chauhan’s

2.4 GLOSSARY OF DIFFICULT TERMS

• LITTERING: make (a place or area) untidy with rubbish or a large number of

2.5 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

2.6 LET US SUM UP

UNIT 3 : GEORGE V HIGH SCHOOL

3.2 About the writer, Dinanath Pathy

3.3 The text, George V High School

3.4 Glossary of Difficult terms

3.6 Let us sum up

After studying this unit, you be able to:

3.2 ABOUT THE WRITER, DINANATH PATHY

3.3 THE TEXT, GEORGE V HIGH SCHOOL

I received free scholarship throughout my school days due to Ramnarayan Padhi’s