Approaches to English Book 1 PDF - Odisha

APPROACHES TO ENGLISH BOOK - 1 (Prose, Grammar & Usage and Writing) Approved by The Council of Higher Secondary Education, Odisha, Bhubaneswar for +2 Examination 2015 and onwards...

APPROACHES TO ENGLISH BOOK - 1 (Prose, Grammar & Usage and Writing) Approved by The Council of Higher Secondary Education, Odisha, Bhubaneswar for +2 Examination 2015 and onwards Editors Dr. Bijoy Kumar Bal Prof. Sridhar Mohapatra Reviewer Prof. Prafulla Chandra Mohanty PUBLISHED BY : ODISHA STATE BUREAU OF TEXTBOOK PREPARATION AND PRODUCTION PUSTAK BHAVAN, BHUBANESWAR B ili m To ok. co m  Members, Editorial Board in Alternative English Prof. Prafulla C. Mohanty Dr. Bijoy Kumar Bal Prof. Sridhar Mohapatra Dr. Amulya Kumar Purohit Dr. Suman Mahapatra Published by : The Odisha State Bureau of Textbook Preparation and Production, Pustak Bhawan, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. First Edition : 2003/5000 copies Reprint:2014/4000 copies Reprint: 2016 / 5000 copies Publication No. 33 ISBN : 81-8005-061-0 © Revised by the The Odisha State Bureau of Textbook Preparation and Production, Pustak Bhawan, Bhubaneswar, No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed at: M/s. Devi Graphics, Cuttack Price : Rs. 47.00 B ili m To ok. co m  FOREWORD The syllabus in +2 Alternative English for Arts, Science and Commerce streams has been thoroughly revised in line with the syllabus for Compulsory English. Accordingly, new textbooks have been prepared by experts selected by the Council of Higher Secondary Education, Orissa. It is hoped that these books will be immensely useful to the advance-level students of English who offer English as an alternative to a Modern Indian language. I take this opportunity to thank the Council of Higher Secondary Education for cooperation in the preparation and production of these books. I extend my gratefulness to the authors and publishers whose textual materials are used in these books. My thanks are due to the members of the Board of Editors for their invaluable help to the Bureau. Lastly, I extend my thanks to the officers and staff of the Bureau for their whole-hearted effort in bringing out these books. Comments and suggestions for further improvement of these books are welcome. Director Sri Gundicha ODISHA STATE BUREAU OF TEXTBOOK 01.07.2003 PREPARATION AND PRODUCTION B ili m To ok. co m  PREFACE This is a course-book in intensive reading prescribed for the Alternative English course at the Higher Secondary level in Orissa. The aim of this book is to provide an interesting new approach to reading more effectively and thus to build on the skills being developed in the learners in their General English course and to develop certain advanced skills of reading not included in the Higher Secondary General English course. There are eight units in this book. The first four units meant for use by First Year students present four reading passages each, and the last four units meant for use in the second year have three reading passages each. ’The reading passages in each unit are related by a common topic, as can be seen in the 'Contents' page. The passages are examples of contempprary English taken from a variety of sources, such as books, newspapers, magazines and advertising materials. Each unit is divided into 3 or 4 sections, each of which presents a reading passage and a set of Activities which are designed to present or develop one or more of the following sub-skills of reading: 1. Extracting main ideas The Activities in the category encourage the learner to read for the general sense rather than for details and help him or her to distinguish between important and unimportant information. 2. Reading for specific information If you are looking for information which is needed to serve a specific purpose, it may not be necessary to read the whole passage. You have only to locate the places in the text which contain the required information. Some of the Activities in this Reader are meant to give the learners practice in reading for specific information. 3. Dealing with unfamiliar words If the learner doesn't know the meaning of a word or expression he can often guess its general sense by looking for clues in the context. Some of the Activities in this course-book are designed to improve the learner's skill in making reasoned guesses about the meaning of new vocabulary. 4. Predicting Before reading a passage, we can ask ourselves what we know about the subject of the passage and guess from its title what the writer may have said about the topic in general. And as we complete reading a paragraph, we can guess what would come next. This ensures that the learner's curiosity is stimulated and as (s)he reads, (s)he is not overloaded with too much information. There are some Activities designed to develop the predictive skills of the learners both before and while reading. Inferring Some facts in a reading passage are suggested indirectly rather than stated directly. It is for the reader to infer this information. A few of the Activities aim at giving practice in the inferring skill. CT Evaluating the text An effective reading of a text includes an understanding of the writer' f purpose and attitude and of the distinction between a statement of fact and B ili m To ok. co m  an expression of the writer's opinion. Evaluation of a text is the focus of some of the Activities in this course-book. 7. Understanding text-organization Proficiency in reading at an advanced level implies the ability to see how a passage is organized. Certain Activities give practice in understanding how sentences are related in a paragraph and how paragraphs are related in a text in respect of the ideas presented, so that they instantiate a cause-and-effect relationship, a descriptive or narrative sequence, or an argumentative structure. 8. Understanding the function of cohesive devices Various cohesive devices such as Pronoun Reference and link-words are used to tie sentences together to create a cohesive text. The learner's understanding of a text remains incomplete without a grasp of the function of different cohesive devices in the text. A few Activities have therefore been included in this course-book to give the learners practice in appreciating the function pf cohesive devices in the accompanying texts. 9. Reacting to the text The Activities requiring the learner to react to the text are aimed at developing the learner's thinking and imagination in relation to a text, which leads up to 'parallel writing'. 10. Writing summaries, brochures, pamphlets and dialogues Some of the Activities incorporated in this course-book give practice in what is strictly speaking a productive skill. Writing Activities include making summaries of paragraphs in a text, designing brochures and writing pamphlets and dialogues, which form a part of the writing component of the Higher Secondary Alternative English Course. Although the units are designed to provide self-learning material in general, the English teacher's role is perceived as crucial to the translating of the aims of this Reading Course into the actual acquisition of skills by the students of Alternative English. It is the English teacher who would play a catalyst's role to motivate the learners to go to the texts and do the Activities as a matter of pleasure. It is (s)he who must stand aside without interfering as the learners engage themselves with texts and Activities, but who must stand ready all this while to come to their help and guide them whenever they need his/her help and guidance. Moreover, the organization of group discussion, group work, pair work and role-play in the classroom is the sole responsibility of the teacher. It may be a little disorienting in the beginning to take a counsellor's role instead of a 'lecturer's role'. But that is the way the skills can be imparted; lecturing and explaining of the text to the learners trying to acquire the reading skills simply defeat the purpose. We hope, the students and the teachers of the Higher Secondary classes in Orissa find this modest attempt of ours useful, and come forward to offer their suggestions for improvement of this course- book. Reviewer : Prof. Prafulla Chandra Mohanty Authors Dr. Bijoy Kumar Bal Prof. Sridhar Mohapatra B ili m To ok. co m  ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The editors and publishers of this textbook arc grateful to the authors and publishers and other copyright holders in anticipation of the permission for the use of copyright material identified in the text. It has not been possible to identify the source of all the material used, and in such cases the publishers would welcome information from copyright - holders. We have requested permission of: i. Harcourt Brace Javanovich and Sonia Bownell Orwell c 1980 for Memories of Crossgates School by George Orwell; Norman Lewis c 1978 for Make me a child again, Just for tonight; E; p: Newsweek Inc. c 1976 for Confessions of a misspent youth; iv. Thinker’s Publications Ltd. c/o Harrap Ltd., 19-23, Ludgate Hill, London, EC4M 7PD 1987 for J time- to think: v. R.J.Dixon Associates, c/o Prentice Hall of India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi c 1987 for Portrait of a teacher; vi. Cambridge L'niversity Press c 1986 for Lucy Rowan s Mother vii. J. M. Dent & Sons, London for The Jam Sahib of Nawanagar; viii. Harper & Row Publishers Inc. & John Brooks c 1976 for Telephone The first hundred years; ix. William Marrow & Co. and Margaret Mead c 1966 for New superstitions for old; x. Newsweek c 1978 and Suzanne Britt for That lean, hungry look; xL Field Enterprises Inc. c 1975 for The case against man; xii. Norman Lewis c 1978 for "Cures"for the common cold ; xiii. Grolicr, Inc. for The Life Stream; xiv. The Mc.Graw Hill Inc. and Cunningham, WP and B.W. Saigo (1999) for Environmental Science : Global Concern; xv. Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India, Science Reporter and Arvind Gupta for Impact of Global Warming; xvi. Publication Division, Govt of India for Human Environment; xv. Helps, A. for On the Education of A man of Business; xvi. Exxon Corporation (1981) for The year 2050 - Reflections of a Futurist. xvii. To filer, Alvin and I Icidi (1991) for Power shift; xviii. Orient Longman and Amalcndu Bandyopadhyay for The Mushroom of Death. B ili m To ok.co m  CONTENTS PREFACE UNIT TOPIC Page No. I THE ADVENTURE OF LEARNING ,1 TEXT A: Memories of Crossgates School (George Orwell) TEXT B : Make me a child again, Just for tonight. (Milton R.Stern) TEXT C : Confessions of a Misspent Youth (Mara Wolynski) TEXT D : A Time to Think (Edward de Bono) II MEN AND WOMEN 21 TEXT A: Portrait of a Teacher (Edmondo d’Amicis) TEXT B : My Mother [Excerpts] (Nirad C.Chaudhauri) TEXT C : Lucy Rowan’s Mother (Linda Blandford) TEXT D : The Jam Sahib of Newanagar (A.G.Gardiner) III MODERN LIVING 40 TEXT A: The Telephone (John Brooks) TEXT B : Saturday Morning Violence (Norman Provizor) TEXT C: New Superstitions for Old (Margaret Mead) TEXT D : Burnout (anonymous Newspaper Article) IV FOOD FOR THOUGHT 58 TEXT A: That Lean, Hungry Look (Suzanne Britt) TEXTB: What is Art ? (Leo Tolstoy) TEXT C : Psychobabble (John Collee) TEXT D: The Case against Man (Isaac Asimov) B ili m To ok. co m UNIT TOPIC Page No. > THE WONDER WORLD OF SCIENCE 77 TEXT A: ‘Cures' for the Common Cold (Harold S.Diehl) TEXT B : Typing your own Blood (Scott Blackman) TEXT C : Some Differences (An extract from an anonymous newspaper article) VI OUR ENVIRONMENT 86 TEXT A: Our Environment (W.P.Cunningham and B.W.Saigo) TEXT B : Impact of Global Warming (Arvind Gupta) TEXT C : Human Environment (Indira Gandhi) VII THE WORLD OF BUSINESS 102 TEXT A: How to Write a Winning 'Resume' (Dick Irish) TEXT B : Some Samples of Advertisement TEXT C : On the Education of a Man of Business (Sir Arthur Helps) -1 VIII THE CHANGING WORLD 115 TEXT A: The Year 2050-Reflections of a Futurist (Theodore J.Gordon) TEXT B : Powershift [Excerpts] (Alvin Toffler) TEXT C : The Mushroom of Death [Amalendu Bandopadhyay] APPENDIX The syllabus for the Alternative English Course for Higher Secondary Examination, 2005 and onwards. B ili m To ok. co m  UNIT I THE ADVENTURE OF LEARNING What does this unit contain ? This unit , like the next three, has four sections. These four sections (sections A-D) present four reading passages on the common topic of education as follows. Text A: Memories of Crossgates School (George Orwell) Text B: “Make Me a Child Again, Just for Tonight" (Milton R.Stem) Text C: Confessions of a Misspent Youth (Mara Wolynski) Text D: A Time to Think (Edward de Bono) It is expected that working through the activities on the reading texts of this unit will enable you (apart from other things) (i) to identify the central idea as well as the main points of text ; (li) to understand relations between the parts of a reading text ; (iii) to deduce the meaning of unfamiliar lexical items in a given context ; (iv) to scan the text for specific information ;and (v) to make predictions about a prose text before reading it. A glossary of a few crucial words follows the reading text, where deemed necessary, for facilitating comprehension without looking up a dictionary. The glossed words are italicised in the reading text. It will be your pleasure, we hope, to work through the subskills mentioned above. Some of these activities will deal with points for classroom discussion leading to short compositions. Apart from the activities for developing and reinforcing certain subskills of reading and practice in composition in each section, there will be some activities for practice in English Grammar and /or Usage based on the reading text. The Activities have been numbered serially in a unit across the sections. Remember, in a reading text the numbers in the left margin are paragraph numbers, and those in the right margin are line numbers. SECTION A Pre reading Activity : Before reading the following passage which presents George Orwell’s recol­ lection of his school days, write three main things which you remember about your school days. (I) Now read Text A below quickly to see what Orwell remembers about his school days. B ili m To ok. co m «% 2 TEXT A MEMORIES OF CROSSGATES SCHOOL 1 have good memories of Crossgates, among a horde of bad ones. Sometimes on summer afternoons there were wonderful expeditions across the Downs, or to Beachy Head, where one bathed dangerously among the chalk boulders and came home covered with cuts. And there were still more wonderful midsummer evenings when, as special treat, we were not driven off to bed as usual but allowed to wander about cd the grounds in the long twilight, ending up with a plunge into the swimming bath at about nine o’clock, lliere was the joy of waking early on summer mornings and getting in an hour’s undisturbed reading (Ian Hay, Thackeray, Kipling and H.G Wells were the favourite authors of my boyhood) in the sunlit, sleeping dormitory. There was also cricket, which 1 was no good at but with which 1 conducted a sort of hopeless love affair up to the age of about eighteen. And there was the pleasure of keeping caterpillars — the silky green and purple puss-moth, the ghostly green poplar-hawk, the privet hawk, large as one’s third finger, specimens of which could be illicitly purchased for sixpence at a shop in the town — and, when one could escape long enough from the master who was “taking the walk” there was the excitement of dredging the dew-ponds on the Downs for enormous newts with orange — coloured bellies. This business of being out for a walk, coming across something of fascinating interest and then being dragged away from it by a yell from the master, like a dog jerked onwards by the leash, is an important feature of school life, and helps to build up the conviction, so strong in many children, that the things you most want to do are always unattainable. George Orwell Glossary [The numbers indicate the line in which the words/exprcssions occur.] the Downs - stretch of grass land - dredging - dragging a bag-net along the bottom to collect biological specimens dew-ponds_- small natural ponds newt - a small animal with a moist skin, short legs, and a long tail Activity 1 (Comprehension) Look at the passage again and put a tick mark (✓) against the correct alternative : (a) The writer describes the pleasure of school life enjoyed during (i) winter (ii) summer (lii) summer and winter. (b) The phrase ‘taking the walk’ in line 15 is given within quotation marks to indicate (i) that the writer does not approve of the master’s taking a walk. (ii) that the master was actually keeping watch over the boys on the pretext of taking the walk. (iii) that the master had gone on a visit to the town on the pretext of taking a walk B ili m To ok. co m  3 Activity 2 (Comprehension) Answer the following questions as briefly as you can. (a) At what time of the day did the writer bathe in the sea ? (b) Did he enjoy swimming among the chalk boulders or have a sense of suffering for it ? Which words in the text tell you the answer ? What was the boy’s ‘special treat' in midsummer evenings ? Who were Orwell’s favourite authors in his boyhood ? What are the different kinds of caterpillars that Orwell mentions in the passage ? What does Orwell say about his ‘hopeless love affair’? What does Orwell learn from his experiences at Crossgates school ? Activity 3 (Writing) \ Write , in points, the six pleasures of school life that the writer mentions in the passage. 1. Now your notebook a paragraph on ‘Your School Days’ keeping Orwell’s ‘Memories’ in mind. Activity 4 (Grammar) Subject- Verb Agreement in 'There’-constructions Will you please give Text A another look to find out how many ‘there sentences are CL c& tZ p by the author ? Notice that sentence 2 in the text — Sometimes on summer afternoons there were wonderful Expeditions across the Downs...» is a ‘there sentence. Write the sentence number as well as the ‘there...’ sentences you find in the text. Sentence number Sentence............................................................................................................................................... I i B ili m To ok. co m 4 You can very well notice that the verb in the above ‘there’ - sentences is either was or were. As you know , the verb in an English sentence agrees with the subject in number and person. Examples : (1) He was tall. (3) I am a student of the Higher Secondary class. (2) They were tall. (4) She is doing well on the course. The subject ‘he’ in (1) is singular in number and therefore , a singular verb 'was' has been used. The sentence would be wrong if a ‘plural’ verb, such as were, was used. Also notice that verb were in (2) agrees with the subject ‘they’ in respect of plurality. The verbs in (3) and (4) do not differ in number ( both have singular subjects), but they do differ in person. / is a first person pronoun, while she is a third person pronoun. Hence the difference in the verbs that go with them. In sentences 1 - 4 the subject comes before the verb. In there - sentences , however, ‘there’ comes in the subject position, while the real subject ( which is also known as the postponed subject ) occurs after the verb. You can now look back at your list of there -sentences above and notice that the verb after ‘there’ is was qt were according to whether the postponed subject is singular or plural. Thus, in sentence (2) of the text - Sometimes on summer afternoons there were wonderful expeditions... - the verb were is plural because the postponed subject - wonderful expeditions - is plural. In sentence (4) of the text - There was the joy of walking early - the singular verb - was - agrees with the singular postponed subject the joy of walking early. Now fill in each blank in the following letter with an appropriate verb from the following list: is required is take do not object are attract is wanted Dated the 11th of June, 2001 To The Chairperson Bhimpur Municipality, Bhimpur. Madam, I would like to express my concern at the growing number of so-called lottery centres in our town. There ------ several reasons why I object to these places. Firstly, the operators, under the false promise of an easy fortune,-------quite substantial amounts of money away from the poor people who are least able to afford it. Secondly , while I--------to gambling in principle, I feel that this particular kind, where no skill------ on the part of the betting person, is especially offensive and deadening to the intellect. Thirdly, these establishments often undesirable individuals into the neighbourhood. Lastly, the physical appearance of these places is most unattractive, and there---------- almost always a lol of noise around. I hope that the Municipal Council will consider very carefully whether this mindless kind of gambling is whatin this traditionally peaceful town. Yours faithfully. Smita Samantaray B ili m To ok. co m  5 SECTION B Pre - reading Activity The text you are going to read in this section has the title “Make Me a Child Again. Just for Tonight”. Almost every one of us has fond memories of childhood , and therefore wants to become a child again. Can you write below three possible reasons why people want to become children again ? (1) (2) (3) Pre - reading Tips In this section, you will read a passage on Learning. Your primary aim here is to grasp the central meaning of the passage. To do this rapidly and accurately , you have to adopt aggressive reading. In other words , you must get into the habit of speeding through words and you must try to focus on the broad structure of the passage while reading. Try to recognize the author’s pattern of thinking and to realize how the details serve to highlight the main ideas , but don’t let those details slow you down. Skim or skip whenever you feel you can safely do so , that is , when you are reasonably sure that you know what the next sentence or paragraph will contain. In order to detect the author’s pattern of thinking and to grasp what , in essence , the author is trying to say, you don’t have to read every single word or every single sentence.By thinking alongwith the author’s pattern of thinking, you can predict what is likely to come next , and whether it is important, less important, or completely unimportant to the central meaning of the text. Now cruise through Text B with conscious pressure on your speed, with an awareness that you must go fast. An average learner on the Alternative English course needs 4 to 6 minutes to complete a quick reading of the passage with the aim of grasping the central idea of the piece. TEXT B Record the TIME now : MAKE ME A CHILD AGAIN JLS I FOR TONIGHT by Milton R. Stern “Backward turn backward , O Time , in your flight Make me a child again just for tonight (1) The lines above are from a poem called “Kock Me To sleep, Mother,” by Elizabeth Akers Allen, who was bom in 1832 and died in 1911. By modern standards this quotation is inexcusably sentimental and inaccurate. We modems know bettor than to think of childhood as happy and carefree. We have gone to another, perhaps over- solemn extreme. We hold that childhood is such a difficult time of life that we have child guidance associations and child study clinics and child psychologists and “child - centered” homes and a host of similar institutions in order to make childhood endurable for the infants who have to live through it. B ili m To ok. co m o (2) But every age has its own kind of sentimentality, and we who have created the soap opera can scarcely afford to throw stones at the late Victorians. (3) Sentimental as it may be , the quotation from Miss Alien’s poem is worth a moment of study by people in evening classes for what it suggests about the learning process - in children and in grown-ups. If we mature adults who are studying in evening classes could be children again - just for that time we spend in class — we might be considerably surprised at how much faster and more easily we would learn. (4) And if we cannot actually be children again, perhaps we can pick up a few helpful hints by turning backward ourselves, “just for tonight”, and noticing some of the differences between the way children learn and the way grown-ups leam. (5) Whatever the subject matter - whether it is the date of English kings or how to pick pockets, like Oliver Twist - when it comes to learning something new, children usually leam faster than adults. A child in an unhappy situation may quickly acquire the habit of lying as a defense mechanism. But his luckier contemporaries thirstily drink in useful information of all kinds. First - and second - graders delight in the discovery of new words, new ideas, or new places on the map, African animals or the Museum of Natural History. They keep their teachers wedded to the profession by their enthusiastic curiosity, and they give their parents enormous pleasure by their sudden, unexpected grasp of things. (6) Adults on the other hand, are by and large cautious learners. They are more timid than youngsters about asking questions. Adults have scar tissue- they are often afraid to ask questions for fear of seeming ridiculous. There are other ways in which grown-ups are handicapped as learners. They have many more demands on their time tha%children. They have more responsibilities - and these responsibilities cannot usually be lightly shrugged off. (7) Furthermore, adults have often gotten more or less unconsciously into bad habits. Some adults have almost a compulsion to be “experts” on practically every subject that comes up, and others have drifted unaware into the habit of accepting whatever the “experts” say. Adults also are handicapped as students by the fact that they have largely got out of the habit of listening. And where first-graders are wholehearted scholars, warmly enibracing the teacher as a learner, too, but equipped with more answers, the grown­ ups have largely forgotten how to use their teachers, even as the bounce board of skeptical questioning. (8) Evening college administrators say that adult experience is a priceless commodity in the class room - for both teacher and students. And so it is. But experience is not enough. Attitude is equally important, and mature men and women need something of the enthusiasm and unsclf-cons,ciousness of the child if they are to capitalize fully in the classroom on their life experience. But can grown people reacquire these qualities ? Make-mc-a-child-again-just- for tonight is all very well, but is it really possible for the mature student to recapture some of the spontaneity of the six-or-sevcn-year-old? B ili m To ok. co m  7 (9) I think it is. (10) Perhaps a key idea to keep in mind is that of purpose-what educators (and the Navy) call motivation in learning. With children, motivation is easy to understand. Children literally thirst after knowledge, because they must. They have a long way to grow, and a major part of growth is the development of that subtle instrument, the mind. Actually, children have a natural or built-in motivation. They want to communicate and to be communicated with. They want to be in touch. They want mastery and power. They want to understand and to be understood. (11) And children have sanction and approval for this almost instinctual drive. The whole society is organized to further it. Not only does the truant officer come after them if they stay away from school, but it is a rare parent who does not praise and take pride in the child’s expanding knowledge. (12) But with the adult student in evening classes, purpose does not operate in such an automatic and instinctive fashion. Nor does the adult student always come in for such complete approval and sanction in his efforts. Children, in their world,cannot afford not to know. It makes them too helpless and powerless. But adults, in their world, too often persuade themselves they can afford to be ignorant. How easy it is to find a rationalization to avoid trying to understand anything difficult. We all know how little time there is, how difficult it is to win mastery over any subject, and the omnipresent “experts” are all too eager to give us escape through the cliche of “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing” or “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” There is, too, the reality of an anti-intellectual climate of opinion. Indeed, it seems sometimes that if an adult knows enough to come in out of the rain, he may run into a certain amount of silent or open mockery when he aspires to anything further (13) Only when the purpose of evening study is very, very obvious can the adult student feel sure of social approval. If he does not speak English well and goes to an evening college to overcome this handicap or if he needs more education to get into a better paying job, then he may feel fairly sure that nobody will try to dissuade him from studying in the afterschool years of life. But if his goal is not going to pay off immediately in some highly visible way, like more money or higher social prestige, then he not only has to go to school, he has to defend himself for going. Let him ! He can do so boldly. (14) “Does he propose to understand literature, music, art ?” (15) “Yes. Is there a better use of a man’s time ?” (16) “Does he aspire to be an ‘egghead’, then ? (17) Let him answer, “Yes, enthusiastically. “ There are thousands of us.” (18) But whatever we study, and whether we seek to overcome an obvious handicap of communication or information or technical skill, or whether we arc sparked by curiosity about physiology or chemistry, we will find such study most enjoyable and fruitful if it B ili m To ok. co m 8 is approached in the way first-and second-graders approach the birth of rabbits or the circumstances that r-o-u-g-h is not pronounced the same as b-o-u-g-h (19) Make me a child again just for tonight? Each of us in the classroom or out, quizzing a teacher or reading a book, can be as active a learner as we were when we were six years old. We can take conscious account of our adult purpose and make them give us pleasure in learning in the same way as did our early, less conscious drives. There is the child in each of us. We have but to be aware of the fact and have the sense and courage to acknowledge it. Record the time now :---------------------------- Time spent for the first reading------------------ GLOSSARY (The numbers in brackets indicate the paragraph numbers ) soap opera (2) a television drama serial about the happenings in the lives of a group of people late Victorians (2) English people living towards the end of Queen Victoria’s reign (that is, in the last quarter of the 19th. century who had strict moral attitudes as well as sentimentality. Oliver Twist (5) the main character (an orphan boy) in Charles Dickens’s novel by the same name unself-consciousness (8) not worried about what other people think of oneself, cliche (12) an expression used too often egghead (16) a person who is very intelligent and is interested only in theories and books. Activity 5 (Getting the Main Idea) Complete the following sentence in your own words to state the central idea of the above selection : Adults would leam------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- if they and if they B ili m To ok. co m  9 Activity 6 (Understanding the title) Go back to the text and answer the following questions. (a) Why does the author want to become a child again ? Answer : (b) And why ‘just for tonight’ ? Answer : (c) What, according to Stem, are the points of contrast between the learning of children and that of adults ?. Children Adults 1. 1. 2. 2. 3. 3. Activity 7 (Usage) (a) Study how the following expressions have been used in Text B and guess their meanings. The number of the paragraph in which each of these expressions occurs is given against each within square brackets. (i) afford to (ii) be wedded to (iii) on the other hand (iv) by and large (v) be equipped with (vi) take pride in (vii) not only... but... (b)In the conversation between Meera and Sonali below, fill in the blanks with appropriate forms of the suitable expressions from the above list : Meera: Hi, Sonali, how arc you ? Sonali: Hi, I am fine, how are you ? Meera: Fine, Sonali. Are you coming to the Bollywood Concert tonight? Sonali: I am sorry, I cannot buy a ticket for the concert. I haven’t got money enough to pay my mess bills for this month. B ili m To ok. co m 10 Meera: Would you mind sharing my complimentary pass ? It will admit meyou too. Sonali: Thank you very much for this friendly gesture. Do you know who will conduct the orchestra ? Meera: Oh, yes. Haven’t you heard of Pandit Ravi Shankar ? The whole country this great Indian musician’s accomplishments. Sonali: Oh, it would be wonderful then. Will it be a botheration for you to pick me up on your way to the concert ? Meera: Not at allit’ll be a pleasure. See you then. Sonali: Good bye, Meera. Discussion of Text B Read Text B once again this time slowly, and notice the pattern Mr Stem has followed in presenting his central idea which may be stated as follows : “Adults would learn faster and more easily if they reacted the way children do, and if they had the same purpose and drive that motivated their own learning when they were children.” You can use the glossary following Activity 6 while reading the text slowly to understand how its parts are related. Before proceeding further, you must go through Text B. If you have finished your second reading of Text B, you can read the following discussion of its structure. An Over-view of the Structure of Text B Paragraphs 1 and 2 : Two lines from a poem lead to a discussion of childhood and function as a springboard to the central idea. Paragraph 3 : One part of the central idea is explicitly stated - “adults in evening classes would learn faster and more easily if they reacted the way children do.” Paragraph 4 : A transition has been effected through an invitation to the reader to notice the differences between the way children learn and the way adults learn. Paragraph 5-8 : First part of the elaboration of the central theme - contrast between children and adults in respect of attitudes and habits. Paragraph 9 : The last sentence of paragraph 8, in the form of a question, and the answer to that question in paragraph 9 serve as transition to paragraph 10. Paragraph 10-17 : Second part of the elaboration of the central idea - “adults, if they wish to learn as effectively as the children do, should have the same purposiveness and drive that motivated their learning in childhood.” Paragraph 18 and 19 : The central idea is restated in terms of the two parts of its development, namely (1) attitudes, and (2) purposes and drives. We can thus read a text to pick out its central idea and then to notice the pattern the author is using in presenting his or her thinking. Learning to grasp the structure of a text as you read it is not easy. But with every text you practise on. you will become a little surer, a little better. You can test your ability to grasp the central idea of a text and to understand the relationship between its parts when you come to Text C in the next section. SECTION C Pre-reading Activity Text C, whjch follows, is by Mara Wolynski, a free-lance writer who attended a small private school in New York city. In ‘Confessions of a Misspent. Youth', an article published in Newsweek magazine in 1976, she contrasts her progressive education with the basic education of traditional schools. Let us now read Text C to see which of these two kinds of education she favours in her article. B ili m To ok. co m  11 Text C CONFESSIONS OF A MISSPENT YOUTH Mara Wolynski (1) The idea of permissive education appealed to my mother in 1956 when she was a Bohemian and I was four. In Greenwich village, she found a small private school whose beliefs were hers and happily enrolled me. I know it was an act of motherly love but it might have been the worst thing she ever did to me. This school — I will call it Sand and Sea - attracted other such parents, upper-middle­ class professionals who were detennined not to have their children pressured the way they had been. Sand and Sea was the school without pain. And it was the kind of school that the back-to-basics people rightly fear most. At Sand and Sea, I soon became an exemplar of educational freedom- the freedom not to learn. (2) Sand and Sea was run by fifteen women and one man who taught “science.” They were decent people, some old, some young, and all devoted to cultivating the innate creativity they were convinced we had. There was a tremendous emphasis on the arts. We weren’t taught techniques, however, because any kind of organization stunted creativity. HAPPINESS AND HIEROGLYPHICS (3) We had certain hours allotted to various subjects but we were free to dismiss anything that bored us. In fact, it was school policy that we were forbidden to be bored or miserable or made to compete with one another. There were no tests and no hard times. When I was bored with math, I was excused and allowed to write short stories in the library. The way we learned history was by trying to re-create its least important elements. One year, we pounded com, made tepees, ate buffalo meat and learned two Indian words. That was early American history. Another year we made elaborate costumes, clay pots, and papier-mache gods. That was Greek culture. Another year we were all maidens and knights in armour because it was time to learn about the Middle Ages. We drank our orange juice from tin-foil goblets but never found out what the Middle Ages were. They were just “The Middle Ages.” (4) I knew that the I luns pegged their horses and-drank a quart of blood before going to war but no one ever told us who the Huns were or why we should know who they were. And one year, the year of ancient Egypt, when we were building our pyramids, I did a thirty-foot-long mural for which I laboriously copied hieroglyphics on to the sheet of brown paper. But no one ever told me what they stood for. They were just there and beautiful. IGNORANCE IS NOT BLISS , (5) We spent great amount of time being creative because we had been told by our incurably optimistic mentors that the way to be happy in life was to create. Thus, B ili m To ok. co m 12 we didn’t learn to read until we were in the third grade because early reading was thought to discourage creative spontaneity. The one thing they taught us very well was to hate intellectuality and anything connected with it. Accordingly, we were forced to be creative for nine years. And yet Sand and Sea has failed to turn out a good artist. What we did do was to continually form and refonn interpersonal relationships and that’s what we thought learning was all about and we were happy. At ten, for example, most of us were functionally illiterate but we could tell that Raymond was “acting out” when, in the middle of what passed for English, he did the twist on top of his desk. Or that Nina was “introverted” because she always cowered in the comer. (6) When we finally were graduated from Canaan, however, all the happy little children fell down the hill. We felt a profound sense of abandonment. So did our parents. After all that tuition money, let alone the loving freedom, their children faced high school with all the glorious prospects of the poorest slum-school kids. And so it came to be. No matter what school we went to, we were the underachievers and the culturally disadvantaged. (7) For some of us, real life was too much — one of my oldest friends from Sand and Sea killed himself two years ago after flunking out of the worst high school in New York at twenty. Various others have put in time in mental institutions where they were free, once again, to create during occupational therapy. (8) During my own liigh-school years, the school psychologist was baffled by my lack of substantive knowledge. He suggested to my mother that I be given a battery of psychological tests to find out why 1 was blocking out information. The thing was, I wasn’t blocking because I had no information to block. Most of my Sand and Sea classmates were also enduring the same kinds of hardships that accompany severe handicaps. My own reading comprehension was in the lowest eighth percentile, not surprisingly. I was often asked by teachers how I had gotten into high school. However, I did manage to stumble nor only through high school but also through college (first junior college - rejected by all four-year colleges­ and then New York University), hating it all the way as I had been taught to. I am still amazed that I have a B. A. TIIE LURE OF LEARNING (9) The parents of my former classmates can’t figure out what went wrong. ITiey had sent in bright curious children and gotten back, nine years later, helpless adolescents. Some might say that those of us who freaked out would have freaked out anywhere, but when you see the same bizarre behaviour pattern in succeeding graduating classes, you can draw certain terrifying conclusions. (10) Now I see my twclvc-year-old brother (who is in a traditional school) doing B ili m To ok. co m  13 college-level math and*l know that he knows more about many other things besides math than I do. And I also see traditional education working in the case of my fiftcen-ycar-old brother (who was summarily yanked from Sand and Sea, by my reformed mother, when he was eight so that he wouldn’t become like me.) Now, after seven years of real education, he is making impressive film documentaries for a project on the Bicentennial. A better learning experience than playing Pilgrim for four and a half months, and Indian for four and a half months, which is how I imagine they spent this year at Sand and Sea. (11) And now 1 have come to see that the real job of a school is to entice the student into the web of knowledge and then, if he is not enticed, to drag him in. I wish I had been. Glossary (The number in brackets to the left of the lexical item indicates the number of the paragraph in which it occurs.) (3) tepees - round tents used by Red Indians in America (4) the Huns - medieval invaders from Central Asia (4) hieroglyphics - system of writing that uses pictures to represent words (6) sense of abandonment - a feeling of being left completely alone (7) occupational therapy - treatment for helping people to get back their health by giving them special work (9) freaked out - became upset or frightened (10) Yanked (American) - taken away suddenly (11) Bicentennial - celebration of completion of 200 years after the American declaration of independence Activity 8 u State the central idea of the text. Activity 9 (Understanding the sequence of Presentation) Rearrange the following sentences so that they reflect the sequence in which Wolynski presents her ideas. You can begin with sentence (d) which is the first sentence in this sequence. (a) The students were free not to learn anything that bored them, and there were no tests. (b) One of the students of Sand and Sea committed suicide out of frustration although the writer was fortunate to continue her education and pass her B.A. (c) Their reading lessons were postponed till the third grade as early reading was considered harmful to creative spontaneity. B ili m To ok. co m 14 (d) The writer was enrolled in a small private school in Greenwich village. (e) As a result, the students of Sand and Sea came to hate intellectuality. They learned history by recreating its least important elements but without gaining any knowledge or insight. (g) In this school there was a tremendous emphasis on art and educational freedom. (h) The writer’s mother came to realize her folly and sent her son to a traditional school. (0 They came to discover that their early education had gone waste only when they came to the high school. Activity 10 ( Comprehension) Answer the following questions briefly. (a) What is Wolynski’s major criticism of Sand and Sea’s emphasis on creativity ? (b) Wolynski says that she was an example of‘educational freedom- freedom not to learn.’ What does she mean ? (c) What is the basis of contrast between the two types of education ? (d) Does Wolynski explicitly state the points of contrast between the two types of education ?. If your answer is Yes, indicate the paragraph (s) and quote the words which explicitly state these differences. If your answer is No, say why the author does not explicitly state her points of contrast. (e) In paragraph 9 Wolynski admits that she could be accused of overstating her case. How effectively does she refute this charge ? Briefly comment on the effectiveness of Wolynski’s conclusion. Does it accurately sum up her essay, or should she have written a different conclusion ? Activity 11 (Understanding the Structure of the Text) Now, keeping the above sequence in mind, notice the pattern the author has used in presenting her thoughts and give an account of the structure of the text on the model presented under Discussion of Text B. Paragraph No (s) Idea in points 1 2 3 and 4 5 through 7 8 9 and 10 11 B ili m To ok. co m  15 Activity 12 (Grammar) Go back to Text C and notice the following sentence in paragraph 1. And it was the kind of school that the back-to-basics people feared most. The italicized part is called a Relative Clause A clause, as you know, is a sentence within a sentence and a Relative clause modifies a noun phrase. Thus, in (1) the Relative Clause modifies the noun phrase, the kind of school. In (1) the relative clause begins with that which stands for the noun phrase, the kind of school; ‘that’ is called a relative pronoun. The relative pronouns that begin Relative Clauses arc : who, whom, which, that and whose. Examples: (i) The girl who loved dancing... (ii) The clown whom everyone liked... (iii) The jewels which belonged to the Queen... (iv) The boy whose father is a teacher... Below you have a few phrases. Put them in their appropriate places in the paragraph after adding, who/ whom/which/that/whose in front of the phrase. The first one has been done for you. was part of a long holiday was again very warm and sunny was both a bathroom and laundry was in the hills the children poured over themselves mothers were carrying large bundles of clothes they had brought with them We decided to spend the weekend, which was part of a long holiday, in a small hotel where it would be cooler. We arrived late on Friday evening and went straight to bed. On the Saturday morningwe went to a nearby pool. It was surrounded by rocks and seemed to be very private. Soon after we arrived, a lot of children came. They were followed by their mothers. The children quickly jumped into the pool. Then their mothers threw them some large bottles. The bottles contained some soapy waterThen the mothers undid the bundles of clothesand started to wash them and scrub them on the rocks nearby. From being a place for a quiet swim, the pool became a placeThe children were very happy, and laughed and shouted as they washed each other. The mothers sang in chorus as they washed their clothes. We sat quietly at the edge of the pool. We didn't know what to do. Activity 13 A (Writing) (a) Write a short essay of about 300 words, comparing your school education with that of Mara Wolynski’s. (b) Write a comparison-and-contrast essay about your school life and your life in the college. Try to limit your essay to 300 words. B ili m To ok. co m 16 SECTION D Pre-reading Tips In this section you will have the chance to read an excerpt from Letters to Thinkers, a book written by Edward de Bono. Edward de Bono, who now owns and lives on a private island in Venice, is a leading authority in the field of creative thinking and is the originator of the term lateral thinking. He has written more than forty books in the field of creativity and thinking including the international bestsellers such as Lateral Thinking, Six Thinking Hats and Serious Creativity. Lateral thinking is the core idea in al) his writings. In de Bono’s view, the sequence of experiences in our life sets up certain familiar patterns of perception, certain typical ways of looking at things. And it is very difficult, if not impossible, to get out of these familiar patterns of thinking and to think in new ways and be creative. De Bono says that we can get out of our familiar thought patterns by moving sideways across the acquired patterns (hence lateral thinking) and by imposing a new pattern of perception on the relevant bits of information. Lateral thinking thus refers to moving sideways across the familiar patterns instead Lateral thinking of moving along them as in normal thinking, and thus facilitating generation of new patterns of perception and new thoughts. The diagram represents lateral thinking vis-a-vis normal thinking. With this background information at our disposal, we can start reading de Bono’s ‘A Time to Think’. But let's quickly finish a small pre-reading Activity before going to the text. Pre-reading Activity Match each word in column A with its meaning in column B. You can look up a dictionary, if you find the Activity difficult to complete. A B 1. agenda (para 8) (i) a piece of writing in a newspaper or magazine 2. ambivalent (para 3) (ii) not sure whether you want or like something 3. feature (para 1) (iii) a plan to do something 4. prevarication (para 4) (iv) an effort to hide the truth by not answering the questions directly B ili m To ok. co m 18 We could probably identify three sorts of thinking (in very general terms). Figure 1. PURPOSE \ / 2. IMPROVEMENT o 3. ROUND AND ABOUT i Thinking to achieve a purpose. Classically this is problem solving, whether of the open or closed variety. There is an end point. The thinker is trying to reach some destination. Thinking for improvement. A solution has already been reached. An answer is available. Things are going well. The thinker simply wants to do better. B:. Thinking around and about.This is musing, freewheeling, preparing the field, setting the context, exploring the situation. Just as an intending purchaser might prowl around a house he is to buy so the thinker prowls around the situation. There is no ‘definite’ point of focus. It is not normal practice to go on thinking after an adequate solution has been found. There are many very practical reasons for this. The problem that has just been solved may be only of a whole string of problems. The thinker is anxious to move on to the next problem. If we do not accept the first solution as being adequate why should we accept the second ? This could mean that we go on thinking with no point of satisfaction. Sir Robert Watson Watt of radar fame had a saying: ‘You get one idea today, a better idea tomorrow and the best idea... never.’ Clearly there has to be a cut-off: there has to be a freezing of the design so that the action people (production, etc.) can get to work. If we suspect that there may be a better solution then how can we have full confidence in the one we have just found ? If we do not have the full confidence how can we inspire such confidence in those people we arc encouraging to carry out the solution ? We also suspect that a great deal of thinking effort may produce another solution but one that is only slightly better than the first one. Finally, wc may genuinely believe that there can be no better solution. B ili m To ok. co m  17 TEXT D A TIME TO THINK Edward de Bono The 20 December 1982 issue of Forbes (USA) carried a feature about me and lateral thinking. Since I know that subject reasonably well, what was of more interest to me was the second part of the feature in which several leading businessmen were asked about their attitudes to thinking. Amongst other things they were asked when they did their thinking. George Ball (chief executive officer, Prudential-Bache Securities) said that he set aside 10-15 minutes twice a day. Philip Knight (chairman, Nike Inc.) tried to put in one hour a day three or four days a week. Robet O. Anderson (chairman, Atlantic Richfield) did not set aside any regular time but found that travelling alone in his private air craft provided a great deal of thinking time. There were several other comments, and it was interesting to see that many of these senior executives felt able to pin-point times that were specifically devoted to thinking. It would have been very easy to have said that no specific time was allocated to thinking since a great deal of thinking was taking place at every instant (while looking at a set of figures, whilst listening to someone, whilst communicating and so on). to It may be that interviewer had framed the question in such a way that those replying knew the they were being asked about specific ‘thinking only’ time. Or, it may be that there was a natural distinction between the thinking that was called for by events and which occurred as a reaction to the surroundings, and that which required either a deliberate effort of will or the maintenance of a habit. Since all habits require an effort of will in the initial stages and further efforts of will along the way, the distinction may not be that important. m We have curiously ambivalent attitude towards thinking. Thinking is a good thing. To be able to think is a good thing. Yet the actual employment of thinking seems sometimes to be a sign of weakness. To have to think about something implies a lack of decisiveness. A teacher would rather a pupil came straight out with the answer instead of pausing to think about it. A politician who made an obvious pause to think about something would be accused of not knowing his own policy on the matter. There are times when we have less regard for a man who thinks than for a man who appears to know all the answers. After all, if he thinks he might get it wrong. There arc other times when a man who does not think can (or should) terrify us. 4. The statement ‘1 need to think about that’ is too often regarded as a sign of weakness or prevarication. Perhaps we should alter it to : I do not need to think about that - but I want to, and I am going to’. This leads on to the notion of thinking that is continued even after the ‘solution’ has been found. B ili m To ok. co m 18 We could probably identify three sorts of thinking (in very general terms). Figure 1. PURPOSE X / 2. IMPROVEMENT o 3. ROUND AND ABOUT Thinking to achieve a purpose. Classically this is problem solving, whether of the open or closed variety. There is an end point. The thinker is trying to reach some destination. Thinking for improvement. A solution has already been reached. An answer is available. Things are going well. The thinker simply wants to do better. iii. Thinking around and about.This is musing, freewheeling, preparing the field, setting the context, exploring the situation. Just as an intending purchaser might prowl around a house he is to buy so the thinker prowls around the situation. There is no ‘definite’ point of focus. It is not normal practice to go on thinking after an adequate solution has been found. ITiere are many very practical reasons for this, 'rhe problem that has just been solved may be only of a whole string of problems. The thinker is anxious to move on to the next problem. If we do not accept the first solution as being adequate why should we accept the second ? This could mean that we go on thinking with no point of satisfaction. Sir Robert Watson Watt of radar fame had a saying: ‘You get one idea today, a better idea tomorrow and the best idea... never.’ Clearly there has to be a cut-off: there has to be a freezing of the design so that the action people (production, etc.) can get to work. If we suspect that there may be a better solution then how can we have full confidence in the one we have just found ? If we do not have the full confidence how can we inspire such confidence in those people we arc encouraging to carry out the solution ? We also suspect that a great deal of thinking effort may produce another solution but one that is only slightly better than the first one. Finally, wc may genuinely believe that there can be no better solution. B ili m To ok *. co m  19 All these reasons for not thinking beyond the first solution are practical and realistic. Nevertheless, there is no reason whatsoever for supposing that the first solution we come to must be the best. Thinking to solve a problem (the first type mentioned earlier in this piece) does not require special effort of will since the problem is there as an ache, pain or need and we are naturally to do something about it. Thinking beyond the first adequate solution does require an effort of will for it is no longer natural behaviour. The simplest way to make that effort of will is to have established a habit'of some specific thinking time. Once such a thinking time has been established as a habit then the agenda for that thinking time follows. It is on this agenda that thinking beyond an apparently satisfactory solution can find its place. After all, the thinking time is there to be used. The other major use of specified thinking time is the third type of thinking : thinking around and about a situation or subject. In fact, this is what most people would understand by ‘thinking time’ because problem solving of the ordinary type would be regarded as an on-going part of normal work. Time for musing is when the thinker stands back from what is taking place in order to view it from different angles or in a broader perspective. Time spent in this fashion is regarded as an investment. From this time there may arise an important new insight or a specific idea. Or, there may be no more than a general preparation of the background, which may not seem significant at the time but which will pay dividends later when more focused thinking is being applied to the matter. Even at the least productive level, the time is still an investment. Nothing useful at all may have happened on this occasion - except for the maintenance of the thinking habit. But the maintenance of that habit and the exercise of thinking may give a valuable yield on future occasions. 10. Do we really ever waste time in thinking ? We may pride ourselves on thinking quickly, and therefore slow thinking must seem to be a waste of time. But slow thinking is often much more valuable since it avoids the obvious cliches that can accompany fast thinking. What we really fear is not the waste of time but a number of other things : the unwillingness to make a decision that needs to be made; that thinking becomes an excuse for inaction; that further thinking may cloud the nice certainty of our first reactions. There is validity in all these fears, and to acknowledge this validity is largely to avoid these fears, and to acknowledge this validity is largely to avoid these dangers. I am not at all against our being harsh, demanding and intensely practical in what we require from our thinking. Thinking is a tool and we need two levels of skill : skill that resides in the tool itself (the actual processes and techniques of thinking) and skill that is concerned with how and where we use the tool. It is this last type of skill that 1 am writing about in this piece. To set aside definite time for thinking is part of this skill. B ili m To ok. co m 20 Activity 14 (Comprehension) Decide whether the following statements are True(T), False (F), or whether you can't be sure from the above text (N): (a) One can think for improvement even after the solution to a problem at hand has been found. (b) Robert O Anderson (chairman of Atlantic Richfield) said that he set aside 10-15 minutes twice a day for thinking. (c) Slow thinking is always a waste of time. (d) ‘You get one idea today, a better idea tomorrow, and the best idea... never.’ This was a favourite saying of Sir Robert Watson - Watt. (e) ‘Thinking time’ is helpful more for problem -solving than for improvement thinking or for thinking around and about a situation. Activity 15 (Understanding Diagrams in a text) Look at the three diagrams given in para 5 representing three kinds of thinking, and briefly explain whether, and if so, how the different elements in each diagram clarify description of the corresponding type of thinking given below the diagram, Activity 16 (Usage) Study the use of these expressions in the text and then use them in suitable form in appropriate blanks in the following passage : (>) to take place (para 1) (ii) to call for (para 2) (in) to be regarded as (para 4) (iv) to be inclined to (para 6) (v) in fact (para 8) The day the coronation the prince - the best sovereign to occupy the throne of Kapchi. During the first year of his reign, however, it became obvious that hesit over problems that immediate action,cven before the first anniversary of his coronation the new king had proved that he was not equal to the task of governing his kingdom. Activity 17 (Understanding text organisation) Extract the central idea of Text D. and write a brief essay of about 300 words on how the other ideas in the text are related to the central idea. _ A_ B ili m To ok. co m  UNIT II MEN AND WOMEN What docs this unit contain? In Unit I you have practised, among other things, the skills of guessing the content of a text, and getting the main idea and the relations among the parts of a text. In this unit, you will get a good chance to practise the following subskills of Reading : (i) Predicting what comes next while reading a text; (ii) identifying the structure of a text in respect of chronological sequence and understanding text organisation; (iii) comparing two texts on a similar theme; and (iv) distinguishing between facts and opinions in reading a text. This unit, like /lie previous one, has four texts for reading practice. Text A : Portrait of a Teacher (Edmondo d’Amicis) Text B : My Mother [excerpts] ( Nirod C. Choudhuri) Text C : Lucy Rowan's Mother (Linda Blandford) Text D : The Jam Sahih of Nawanagar (A.G. Gardiner) We hope, you will find these texts interesting and make use of the Activities on these texts to acquire the subskills of Reading mentioned above, to practise composition skills, and to revise some points of English grammar and usage. SECTION A Pre- reading Activity The following text has the title ‘Portrait of a Teacher.’ (a) Can you say what a portrait means ? Answer : If you have doubts about the meaning you have guessed, you may look up the word in a dictionary) (b) What qualities did you value in your favourite teacher at school ? Now read the passage to form a general idea of the teacher described. B ili m To ok. co m 22 TEXT A PORTRAIT OF A TEACHER PART ONE The night before last, just before dinner, while my father was looking through the evening paper, he suddenly let out a cry of surprise. Later he explained. “I thought that he had died at least twenty years ago. But can you believe that my first teacher, Mr. Crossett, is still living ? He is eighty four years old and yesterday the government gave him a medal for having completed sixty years of teaching. Sixty years ! Can you imagine it ? He gave up teaching only two. years ago. He lives in Deleville, which is only about an hour’s ride from here. Tomorrow is Saturday. Let’s drive over there in the afternoon and say hello to him.” During the evening my father spoke of little else. The very name of Mr. Crossett seemed to bring up a thousand memories of when he was a boy, of his friends, and of his mother, now dead. “I can still see Crossett the first day I entered school. I had been sick for some time and had had lessons at home. Thus I began in the third grade, which was the grade he always taught. I had never been separated from my mother for a single day previously, and for both her and for me it was a new and dreadful experience. But Crossett seemed to understand the situation perfectly. He smiled at us and patted me on the head, and immediately all my fears disappeared. He must have been at least forty years old then. He was a man of broad shoulders and thick, wide hands. He had come from the country and had educated himself by hard work and study. I can still see him as he entered the classroom each day; he would put his cane in the comer and hang up his coat with exactly the same movements. Every day he also came with the same good humour, the same interest and enthusiasm as though it were his first day of teaching”. Thus it happened that the next afternoon my father and I drove over to Deleville to see Mr. Crossett. Everyone in the town knew him, so we had no trouble in finding his house. When he came to the door, my father recognized him at once although, of course, he was now a very old man. “Mr. Crossett,” said my father. “Will you permit an old pupil to shake hands with you ?” Mr. Crossett looked at us curiously. “An old pupil? I’m sorry but.... your name ?” My father told him his name, Albert Borden. He also told him the year in which he had studied and the name of the school. The old man dropped his head and began to murmur to himself my father’s name. Suddenly he looked up. “Albert Borden ? Your father was an engineer, and you lived very near the school.” B ili m To ok. co m  23 “Exactly right,” said my father , shaking the old man’s hand. I began to understand my father’s enthusiasm for his old teacher. Imagine ! This man had not seen my father for more than forty years, and yet he knew him after only a few moments of struggle with his fading memory. I hoped that I would have an equally good memory when I reached his age. I did not know this man, but I admired him already. Activity 1 (Global comprehension) (1) What is the relationship between the narrator and Mr. Crossett ? Answer: (2) Have only good things or both good and bad things been written about the teacher so far ? Answer: Activity 2 (Local comprehension) Answer the following questions as briefly as you can. £a) What is the significance of each of these lengths df time as mentioned in the text? (7) twenty years ago (ii) eighty four years old (Hi) sixty years (iv) two years ago (v) forty years old (b) Did the narrator develop admiration for his father’s teacher ? If so why ? Activity 3 (Predicting) Xow read the last paragraph of ‘Portrait of a Teacher’ Part One, which ends with but I admired him already.” Look at the following sentences, each of which begins a paragraph in ‘Portrait of a Teacher’ (Part Two). Then decide which of these sentences would begin the first paragraph of the text in Part Two. (a) At this moment the bell rang announcing the end of the class. (b) We all sat quietly for a few minutes after my father finished the story. (c) Later my father and Mr. Crossett talked for half-hour about persons and things they remembered of the school. (d) Once again, my father referred to his first day in Mr. Crossett’s classroom. Your answer : (a)/(b)/(c)/(d) Discuss with your partner whether and why your answer is right. It's time now to go through ‘Portrait of a Teacher’ (Part Two) to check your answer in Activity 4 and to see what happens next. B ili m To ok. co m  PORTRAIT OF A TEACHER PART TWO Later my father and Mr. Crossett talked for a half-hour about persons and things they remembered of the school. The old man’s hands shook constantly, and he explained to my father how this shaking had begun two years ago and how, only on account of this, he had been forced to give up his teaching. Otherwise he would still be working because his heart and soul were still in the school room with his various students. Once again, my father referred to his first day in Mr. Crossett’s classroom. He told of an incident that he had never forgotten. All were sitting quietly waiting for a class to begin. Gap-1 Later the class began, and, in the course of the lesson, he noticed that one of the students looked sick and feverish. He walked to the student’s desk and put his hand on the child’s head. Gap-2 Mr. Crossett turned rapidly and glared at the student. Gap-3 After a while he put down his book, looked at us in silence for several minutes, then said, “My friends, we have to spend this year together, and we must try to spend it together happily. Please study and try to be good students. I have no family; you are my family. Last year I had my mother; but she has died, and I am alone. You are the only thing I have in this world, and you occupy all my thoughts, and you have all my affection. I consider you as my children. I hope that I will, therefore, not have to punish you, but you must prove to me that you appreciate my interest and my attention. I do not want you simply to promise me with words that you will be good, but I want you to show me with your hearts that here we are all part of one big family. 1 want to be proud of you.” At this moment the bell rang announcing the end of class. Gap-4 Mr. Crossett patted him affectionately on the head and said, “Do not think any more about it, my son. Here we are all good friends.” We all sat quietly for a few moments after my father finished the story. Then Mr. Crossett rose and did something which left me entirely speechless. He went to a kind of closet and after a moment brought out a package, properly marked and catalogued by name and date. Gap-5. My father read the exercise, and tears came to his eyes because on the paper was also the handwriting of his mother, exactly in the manner in which she used to help him at first with his exercises. B ili m To ok. co m  25 Activity 4 (Understanding the structure of the text) There are five gaps in the above text, as you must have already noticed. The missing parts are given below, but not in the right sequence. Decide which pan (A,B,C,D or E) will fill which gap in the passage. A. One by one we got up from our seats and left the room quietly. The boy who had gotten up on his seat and made faces, however, went up to Mr. Crossetts’ desk and with his voice trembling said, “I’m sorry, sir.” B. While his back was turned, another student in the class got up, stood upon his desk and began to make faces just in order to make the other students laugh. C. Out of the package he drew a paper and gave it to my father. It was marked with my father’s name and with the month and the year, and it was one of my father’s own copybook exercise. Mr. Crossett thus kept a record of all his old students. D. Occasionally one of the students of the previous year would put his head in the door to say hello to Mr. Crossett. They all spoke to him in such a manner as to suggest that they were very fond of him. Others came in and shok his hand. He remained very serious. “Don’t do that again,” he said at last, quietly but firmly. Then he went back to his desk and went on with the lesson. Now discuss with your group-mates what prompted you to match the parts with the gaps the way you have done it, and find out whether your matchings are correct. Activity 5 (Understanding the chronological sequence) Rearrange the following sentences so that they describe the events in the chronological sequence (= sequence in time) m which they happen in the true story presented in ‘Portrait of a Teacher’ (Parts One and Two). (a) Mr. Crossett did not recognize his old student, although the narrator’s father recognized him instantly. (b) The whole evening he went on talking about his old teacher and having fond remembrances of him. (c) The narrator was full of admiration for this eighty-four-year old teacher of his father. (d) He decided to visit Mr. Crossett, who was living in Delville, only an hour's ride from his place. Mr. 'Crossett then rose and brought out a package. One evening the narrator’s father while looking through the newspaper gave a cry of surprise. (g) When the narrator’s father told him his name Albert Borden, Mr. Crossett thought for a while and remembered all about him. (h) The next afternoon the narrator and his father drove to Delville and knocked on Mr. Crossett’s door. (i) He had read a news item about Mr.Crossett who was his first teacher in the elementary school. Mr. Crossett and his old student then shared many memories of school. O. (k) Out of the package he drew a paper and gave it to Mr. Borden. B ili m To ok. co m  26 (l) Mr Borden remembered an incident, which showed how loving and paternal his old teacher had been at school. (m) He was deeply moved and tears came to his eyes. (n) It was one of his homeworks which also bore the handwriting of his mother. Activity 6 (For Group work & Writing practice) (a) Do you remember your first day at school ? What incidents of that day do you remember ? (b) Which teacher made the strongest impression on you at school ? And why ? Activity 7 (Usage) In Text A you have the following expressions. Insert them in appropriate places in the following paragraph : (as though, in the course of make faces, on account of left them speechless, glared at) There was nothing special about this class. The boys were naughty as expected, and they loved to at each other whenever the teacher was not theretheir routine exercise, the older boys the newly admitted ones. All this while the new teacher behaved he was a stranger and had come to the school some business with the principal. Then suddenly he turned around and asked them to be quiet which SECTION B Pre - reading Activity Mother is the fondest image impressed on our minds. In the following passage, Xirad C. Choudhuri, who is regarded as a great Indian writer in English and who lived most of his life in England, gives an account of his mother. If you arc asked to write about your mother, which important aspects of her personality would you write about ? : 12.................................................................................................................................... 3...................................................................................... 4........................................................................... Text B. Now read Text B to find out which traits of a mother’s personality arc described. MY MOTHER Nirad C. Chaudhuri My lather and mother were bound to each other by certain common principles and standards of conduct, but otherwise, in appearance, temperament, and outlook, they were the reverse or, if one chooses to say the same thing in a different way, the complement of each other. My mother was as slight and fragile as my father was robust, while her face was as responsive as my father’s was impassive. It rippled to emotions as waters to the  60 like “get a grip on yourself/’ “cigarettes kill,” “cholesterol clogs,” “fit as a fiddle,” “ducks in a row,” “organize” and “sound fiscal management.” Phrases like that. They think these 2,000 point plans lead to happiness. Fat people know happiness is elusive at best and even if they could get the kind thin people talk about, they wouldn’t want it. Wisely, fat people see that such programmes are too dull, too hard, too off the mark. They are never better than a whole cheesecake. Fat people know all about the mystery of life. They are the ones acquainted with the night, with luck, with fate, with playing it by ear. One thin person I know once suggested that we arranged all the parts of a jigsaw puzzle into groups according to size, shape and color. He figured this would cut the time needed to complete the puzzle by at least 50 percent. I said I wouldn’t do it. One, I like to muddle through. Two, what good would it do to finish early ? Three, the jigsaw puzzle isn’t the important thing. The important tiling is the fun of four people (one thin person included) sitting around a card table, working a jigsaw puzzle. My thin friend had no use for my list. Instead of joining us, he went outside and mulched the boxwoods. The three remaining fat people finished the puzzle and made chocolate, double-fudged brownies to celebrate. 10. The main problem with thin people is they oppress. Their good intentions, bony torsos, tight ships, neat comers, cerebral machinations and pat solutions loom like dark clouds over the loose, comfortable, spread-out, soft world of the fat. Long after fat people have removed their coats and shoes and put their feet up on the coffee table, thin people are still sitting on the edge of the sofa, looking neat as a pin, discussing rutabagas. Fat people are heavily into fits of laughter, slapping their thighs and whooping it up, while thin people are still politely waiting for the punch line. 11. Thin people are downers. They like math and morality and reasoned evaluation of the limitations of human beings. They have their skinny little acts together. They expound, prognose, probe and prick. 12. Fat people are convivial. They will like you even if you are irregular and have acne. They will come up with a good reason why you never wrote the great American novel. Fat people will gab, giggle, guffaw, gyrate and gossip. They are generous, giving and gallant. They are gluttonous and goodly and great. What you want when you are down is soft and jiggly, not muscled and stable. Fat people know this. Fat people have plenty of room. Fat people will take you in. Suzanne Britt GLOSSARY (The numbers refer to the paragraphs in which the words occur.) rj rn to goof off to make a silly mistake to hustle to move around quickly B ili m To ok. co m  sluggish moving or reacting more slowly than normal chortling laughing out of amusement. u wizened small and thin and wrinkled shrivelled dried up and small gooey sticky, soft and sweet hot-fudge sundae a hot and soft creamy light brown sweet dish made from the ice cream, fruits and nuts. crunchy firm and fresh nebulous not clear or exact doughnuts small round cakes O OC L/i elusive difficult to a achieve mulched covered the ground with decaying leaves to improve its quality. double-fudged with two layers of chocolate or cream dressing, 10 cerebral machination secret and clever plans made by the brain rutabagas a kind of roots punch line the last few words of a joke or story 11 downers a person who stops your feeling cheerful or happy 12 convivial friendly and cheerful gab talk continuously guffaw laugh loudly gyrate turn around fast in circles Jiggly moving from side to side with quick short movements Activity 1 (Understanding the writer 9s purpose and attitude, and the text - type) (a) Which of the following describes the writer’s attitude to thin people ? i. impressed ii. complimentary iii. disapproving iv. condemning v. approving vi. non-committal (b) Which of the following phrases best expresses the writer’s purpose ? i. to present objective information ii. to present both sides of a controversial issue iii. to