BFEG-11S

FOUNDATION IN ENGLISH-I
(Literature and Grammar)

(For the First Year Semester in UG Programmes)

Tamil Nadu Open University

School of Humanities
Chennai -600 015

June 2021
 BFEG-11S
FOUNDATION IN ENGLISH-I (Literature and Grammar)
Revised Edition: 2021
© Tamil Nadu Open University

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Contents

BLOCK 1 - BRIEF HISTORY OF ENGLAND

Unit 1: 15th to 17th Century

Overview 1
Learning Objectives 2

1.1 Tudor England 2

1.1.1 The Renaissance 12
1.1.2 Reformation in England 13
1.2 Stuart England 19
1.2.1 Age of Puritanism 20
1.2.2 Colonial Expansion 21
1.3 Restoration England 31
1.3.1 Effects of the Restoration on Society 32
1.3.2 Calamities 36
1.4 Revolutions 38
1.4.1 Agrarian revolution 39
1.4.2 Industrial revolution 39
1.4.3 French revolution 41

Summary 42

Unit 2: 18th To 20th Century

Overview 43
Learning Objectives 43

2.1 Eighteenth Century 44

2.1.1 Methodist movement 44
2.1.2 Humanitarian movements 45
2.1.3 Victorian Age 46
2.2 Nineteenth Century Education 51
2.3 Twentieth Century 53
2.3.1 Life in the 1960s 57
2.2.2 Life in the 1970s 57
2.3.3 Life in the 1980s 57

Summary 64

Reference 64

Web Resources 64
Video Links 65

BLOCK 2 – LITERATURE

Unit 3: An Astrologer’s Day

Overview 66
Learning Objectives 66

3.1 R.K. Narayan: A Short Biography 67

3.2 R.K. Narayan As Short-Story Writer 70
3.3 An Astrologer’s Day: The Text 77
3.4 An Astrologer’s : Summary: 86

3.5 Exercises 89
Summary 91

Unit 4: Bangle Sellers

Overview 92
Learning Objectives 92
4.1 Life and Works of Sarojini Naidu 92

4.2 Bangle Sellers: Poem 97

4.2.1 Analysis 99

Summary 102
Unit 5: Grammar Exercise

Overview 103
Learning Objectives 103

5.1 Test Your Vocabulary 103

5.1.1 Pronunciation 106

5.1.2 Grammar 108

Summary 111

Reference 111
Web Resources 111
Video Links 112

BLOCK 3 – READING COMPREHENSION

Unit 6: Reading for Understanding

Overview 113

Learning Objectives 113

6.1 Meaning of Reading 114

6.1.1 Definition 114

6.1.2 Reading Comprehension 115

6.1.3 Why Reading Comprehension Is Important 116

6.1.4 Levels of Reading Comprehension 117

6.1.5 Three Types of Questions 120

Summary 124

Unit 7: Reading Comprehension Practice

Overview 125

Learning Objectives 125

7.1 Reading Passages 126

7.1.1 Passage 1 126

7.1.2 Passage 2 128

7.1.3 Passage 3 129

7.1.4 Passage 4 130

7.1.5 Passage 5 131

7.1.6 Passage 6 132

7.1.7 Passage 7 133

7.1.8 Passage 8 134

7.1.9 Passage 9 135

7.1.10 Passage 10 136

7.1.11 Passage 11 137

7.1.12 Passage 12 138

7.1.13 Passage 13 138

7.1.14 Passage 14 139

Summary 141

Reference 141
Web Resources 141
Video Links 142

BLOCK 4 – FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR

Unit 8: Grammars

Overview 143
Learning Objectives 144

8.1 Parts of Speech 144

8.1.1 Pronouns 145

 8.1.2 Verbs 148
8.2 Tenses 150

8.2.1 Simple present Vs present continuous 150

8.2.2 Present prefect Vs simple past 153
8.2.3 Future tense 155

8.3 Articles 157

8.3.1 The indefinite articles 158

8.3.2 The definite article 159

8.4 Prepositions and Linkers 162

8.4.1 Preposition of time 163

8.4.2 Preposition of place 165
8.4.3 Linkers or Connectors 167

Summary 170

Unit 9: General Rules

Overview 171
Learning Objectives 171

9.1 Punctuation 171

9.2 Common Mistakes 181
9.3 Conversational English 190

9.4 Affixes 195

Summary 202
Reference 202

Web Resources 203

Video Links 203

 BLOCK 5 – LANGUAGE SKILLS

Unit 10: Reading Skills

Overview 204
Learning Objectives 204

10.1 Reading Skills: SQ3R Technique 205

10.1.1 Surveying 206

10.1.2 Questioning 207

10.1.3 Reading 208

10.1.4 Recalling 213
10.1.5 Reviewing 214

Summary 215

Unit 11: Writing Skills

Overview 216

Learning Objectives 216

11.1 Writing Skills 216
11.1.1 Note making: some technique 217

11.1.2 Mechanics of note making 221

Summary 225

Unit 12: Dictionary Use

Overview 226
Learning Objectives 226
12.1 Dictionary Use 226

Summary 232
Reference 232

Web Resources 232

Video Links 233

Model Spot Assignment Question Paper 234

Model Term End Examination Question Paper 236

Plagiarism Check Certificate 239
BLOCK 1 BRIEF HISTORY OF ENGLAND

UNIT – 1 15th to 17th CENTURY

STRUCTURE

Overview

Learning Objectives

1.1 Tudor England

1.1.1 The Renaissance
1.1.2 Reformation in England

1.2 Stuart England

1.2.1 Age of Puritanism
1.2.2 Colonial Expansion
1.3 Restoration England

1.3.1 Effects of the Restoration on Society

1.3.2 Calamities

1.4 Revolutions
1.4.1 Agrarian revolution
1.4.2 Industrial revolution

1.4.3 French revolution

Summary

OVERVIEW

In this first Unit, we are going to the socio-cultural background of the

English language in four sub-sections. This will give us an appropriate
context for the study of the English language and literature.
We will begin the Unit with a discussion on the early history of England
including the Renaissance and its influence on the European
Reformation. We will then discuss the English society under the Stuart
rulers and explain the rise and spread of Puritanism under various reigns
and the significance of the Civil War. We will also explain Restoration
and give an account of the two major calamities that affected the
Restoration England, i.e., the Plague and the Fire of London.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After completing this Unit, you should be able to:

● outline the early history of England, and explain the terms
‘Renaissance’ and ‘Reformation’;

● explain Puritanism and the causes for and significance of the

Civil War;
● describe ‘Restoration’;

● discuss the English society during the Age of Queen Anne;

● discuss Agrarian, Industrial and French Revolutions;

1.1 TUDOR ENGLAND

The Tudor Kings and Queens of England

The early history of Britain is essentially the history of its invaders. The
Celts, Romans, Anglo Saxons and the Normans were a few of the more

2
important conquerors of England. Each, in its own unique manner, left
an indelible mark on English language and culture. The tapestry of
modern English society and culture is woven with the fine threads of its
various early invaders. It is astonishing when we compare England's
early history with its more recent history. From being a weak country
under constant foreign invasion, it grew into a super power, which had
its colonies all over the world.

Today English, the language of the people of Great Britain, has become
a global language. People all over the world-speak, think and write
English constantly. How did such a small country manage to emerge
from the shadow of its conquerors? How did it extend its political
influence over more than half the world? The answers to these
questions form the incredible history of Great Britain. Let us touch upon
this below:

● The earliest invaders: Around 600 B.C., there arrived streams of

invaders known as ‘Celts’. The name 'Britain' is taken from one
branch of the Celts. The Celts were fierce fighters but lacked political
skill. The Celtic language was spoken all over the country. It is the
origin of modern Welsh. Gaelic was another dialect of the Celts,
which was spoken in Scotland. The Iron Age began after the Celts
settled down in Britain.

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 The Celts of England

● The Romans: Even as the Celtic tribes kept arriving on English

shores, the Roman Empire was flourishing. It had extended its
influence over Italy, Spain, Greece and Asia Minor. In 55 B.C., Julius
Caesar made his first expedition to Britain and learnt that the land
was fertile and the people weak. He was, however, more interested
in the conquest of Gaul, and Britain was left to itself for nearly a
hundred years. In 43 A.D., the real Roman conquest began and they
stayed on for nearly three hundred years. The Romans built many
roads and built up the trade and agriculture of the island. Towns
were developed with well-built houses. Excavations show that those
houses had better heating systems than most modern English
houses. Christianity was introduced for the first time. The Britons
were civilised into an orderly community. But the Romans had to
withdraw from Britain in order to protect themselves from their
invaders. The Britons were forced to fend for themselves. They
discovered that they did not have the power to standalone against
the fierce invaders.

4
 The Romans in Britain

● The Anglo-Saxons: There was invasion from Ireland and Scotland

and even as the Britons were struggling against them, a new danger
appeared in the form of the Anglo-Saxon sea rovers. For about one
and a half centuries, i.e., from 450 A.D. to 600 A.D. Britain was
under the Anglo-Saxons. They were barbarians when compared to
the highly civilised Romans. They worshipped the Gods of Norse
mythology and were great warriors. They formed seven kingdoms
known as the heptarchy. The Anglo Saxons had a greater influence
on the Britons than the Romans. English is derived from the Anglo-
Saxon language and not Latin. The Anglo-Saxon names have
survived to this day-"stead" (a dwelling), "ham" (a farm), "cot" (a
cottage) often form the endings of place names. Another Anglo-
Saxon feature in place names is "- ing", which occurs with "- tun" and
"- ham" as in Wokingham.

The Anglo-Saxons were fond of stories and often gathered around

the fire to listen to tales of battle. The most famous of these is
"Beowulf". Beowulf gives us a very accurate picture of the
courageous Anglo-Saxons. The first known English poet was
Caedmon, who lived during the 600's. Another poet of the Anglo-
Saxon times was Cynewulf. Sometime during the 500s, Christianity
was reintroduced to England for the second time. Saint Augustine
travelled from France to England and converted Ethelbert, king of the

5
 Jutes, to Christianity. He built a monastery at Canterbury and
preached Christianity in different parts of England. The Celts
remained unaffected by the Anglo-Saxon religion and were
Christians.

The Anglo-Saxon culture

● Danish invaders: During the 800s, the Danes (or Vikings), a

seafaring people attacked England and easily conquered the Anglo-
Saxon kingdoms. Alfred the Great, the Anglo-Saxon king of Wessex,
resisted the Danish attacks. As long as he continued to rule, the
Danes could not extend their Dane law in Wessex. After King Alfred
died in 1899, Wessex became weak and, gradually, the Anglo-
Saxons were crushed. The last great Saxon king was Edward the
Confessor who ruled till 1066.

The Danish invasions of England

6
● The Normans: In 1066, Norman invaders from France conquered
England. William, Duke of Normandy, became known as William the
Conqueror and was crowned king of England. He was responsible
for establishing a strong central government. He appointed Norman
lords in the Advisory Council and forced most Anglo-Saxons to
become serfs. The development of feudalism in England is
associated with the Norman Conquest. The king was the supreme
lord and he owned all their land. Those barons and knights who paid
their rents directly to the king were known as tenants-in-chief. The
lesser barons and knights held land from the tenants-in-chief. These
tenants and subtenants had to render military service as well as to
pay feudal taxes. Below them were the peasants and villeins. They
had to work for the lords in return for food and shelter. They were not
free to choose their work. Apart from them, were the freemen, who
had certain rights to buy and sell land.

The Normans introduced the strip system as well. The land was
divided into one-acre strips and the peasants’ strips were
intermingled with the lord's. The land was ploughed in common and
sown with the same crop. William conducted a survey to determine
the details of the land in England. He used the information from the
survey to fix the taxes and to divide the large estates among his
followers. This record of William's survey is known as the Doomsday
Book.

For a long time, the Normans treated the Anglo-Saxons as the

conquered people and kept themselves aloof. But as the years
passed, the two races intermingled and blended into one. At first the
Normans spoke French, but later the Norman French blended with
the Germanic tongue of the Anglo-Saxons and became English.
After the death of William the Conqueror, his son William Rufus
ascended the throne as William II and was followed by his brother,
Henry I. When Henry I died, his grandson (his daughter Matilda's
son) Henry II was only two years old. Stephen, nephew of Henry I
became King next. Following his death, Henry II, son of Matilda and
Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, became the first king of the Plantagenet
family.

7
 The Norman Conquest of England

● The Plantagenet family: Henry II brought order among the

rebellious barons and strengthened kingship. He next wanted to
control the Church of England. This led to the bitter and well-known
conflict between Henry II and Thomas Becket, Archbishop of
Canterbury. Richard I, Henry II's successor is remembered as
Richard the Lion Hearted. He spent most of his time in the holy land
fighting in the Third Crusade. After he died, his brother John ruled
over England. He was a bad king and had several enemies. He
fought with the barons and Pope Innocent III. In order to reduce
John's power, the barons along with the leaders of the church drew
up a document known as Magna Carta (the Great Charter). This was
the first attempt made by the English people to safeguard their
liberty.

8
The beginnings of Parliament

It was during the reign of Edward I that the Parliament began to develop.
Edward I used to call meetings of nobles, churchmen, knights and a few
representatives of towns. Historians refer to one such meeting he called
in 1295 as the Model Parliament, and this set the pattern for later
Parliaments.

The “Model Parliament of 1925”

During the reign of Edward I, Wales was brought under English control.
In 1301, he gave the title ‘Prince of Wales’ to his son, who was born in
Wales. Ever since, it has become the tradition to refer to all male heirs to
the throne by that title.

The hundred years' war (1337-1453)

9
 The hundred years' war

Edward III, the son of Edward II and Isabella (daughter of the French
King Philip IV), claimed the throne of France. This led to the Hundred
Years' War, which began when Edward landed an army in Normandy.
England enjoyed a few victories, but the war dragged on. The English
people were tired of the long war and Parliament refused to approve the
high taxes that were necessary to support it. The greatest writer of the
Middle English period, Geoffrey Chaucer, lived during Edward III's reign.
His famous masterpiece, ‘The Canterbury Tales’, accurately captures
the life and habits of the people of his day. Other poets of that period
were John Gover and William Langland. Langland's ‘Piers Plowman’,
like ‘The Canterbury Tales’, also gives us a fascinating glimpse of
English life during the fourteenth century.

The hundred years' war continued during the reign of Richard II. There
was a rebellion of the people led by Wat Tyler, which was put down.
After the rebellion, Richard tried to rule without Parliament. He became
very unpopular and the country turned against him. He was forced to
abdicate and the Duke of Lancaster was crowned as Henry IV.

Henry IV did not pay much attention to the war with France, as he was
busy fighting small wars with the English nobles. But his son, Henry V,
revived the Hundred Year's War. He won a great victory at Agincourt in
1415 and forced the French King to accept him as Regent, and heir to
the French throne. Soon after Henry V died, the French refused to
recognize England's claim to their throne. The war began once again
and the English forces were winning several victories by 1428.
Suddenly, in a dramatic turn of events, the French forces led by a
peasant girl, Joan of Arc, defeated the English at Orleans. With that

10
battle, the French successes continued. The War came to an end in
1453, with the English holding only the city of Calais.

The wars of the roses

Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI belonged to the House of Lancaster

and ruled from 1399 to 1461. After 1461, the House of York occupied
the throne till 1485. The Yorkist kings were Edward IV, Edward V and
Richard III. During Henry VII's reign the Duke of York, a descendant of
Edward III, claimed the English throne. This led to a Civil War between
the two Houses – York and Lancaster, known as the War of the Roses.
The name was derived from the symbols, the White Rose of the Yorkists
and the Red Rose of the Lancastrians.

The Wars lasted from 1455 to 1485 and ended with the defeat of Henry
VI by Edward IV. After Edward died, his cruel brother Richard
imprisoned the minor sons of Edward and proclaimed himself King
Richard III.

Soon after Richard became the king, Henry Tudor began to make his
claims for the throne. Henry Tudor was the heir to the House of
Lancaster. He defeated Richard and became England's ruler as Henry
VII. The Wars of the Roses was brought to an end when Henry VII
married Edward IV's daughter Elizabeth. Through this marriage the
Houses of York and Lancaster were finally united. The Tudors ruled very
successfully over England from 1485 to 1603. They established
monarchy and gave England internal order and peace.

11
1.1.1 The Renaissance

During the period of Tudor sovereignty, England passed from the

medieval to early modern times. It was a remarkable period when
English life and thought were stirred by the Renaissance and the
Reformation. The five Tudor rulers gave to England the much longed for
peace after the tumultuous War of the Roses. England emerged as the
Queen of the Seas under the encouragement of the Tudors. All these
events mark off the age of the Tudors from the medieval age.

The word Renaissance is derived from the Latin word 'Rinascere' which
means the act of being reborn. It is an appropriate name to the
movement since many European scholars and artists of that period
turned to ancient Greek and Roman cultures. By studying the cultures of
Greece and Rome, which are known as "classical antiquity", they wished
to revive them in their own times. The renaissance represented a rebirth
of these cultures.

The Renaissance is an important landmark in the history of the world

since it marked the end of the Middle Ages. Many of the concepts and
ideas of the Middle Ages were abandoned, by the leaders of the
Renaissance. For example, medieval thinkers believed that the most
important responsibility of the people was to pray to God and to aim at
saving their souls. Society was believed to be full of evil temptations.
Renaissance thinkers on the contrary believed sincerely that the people
owed a responsibility to the society in which they lived. Society was not
seen as an evil temptation but as a civilizing factor. The study of
theology which was an important subject in the Middle Ages was
replaced by the study of humanity. The Renaissance thinkers spent their
time studying the achievements of different cultures. They were
particularly interested in the cultures of Ancient Greece and Rome. In

12
the field of art also, there was a revolution. Medieval artists painted
human figures that looked stiff and artificial. Renaissance artists focused
upon the beauty of the human body. Their paintings and sculptures were
lifelike.

The Renaissance marked the beginning of the modern age – an age of

progress – and humanity has not looked back ever since.

Influence of Renaissance on European reformation

The religious movement of the 1500s that led to Protestantism is known

as the Reformation. The Reformation brought about great changes in
the social, political and economic life of the people of Europe. This
revolution, which tore the Church of Rome apart, has shaped the course
of English history from that day to the present times.

1.1.2 Reformation in England

Though Lutheranism had spread in Germany, no powerful state had put

Luther's views into practice by rejecting the authority of the Pope. It was
England, which first took this momentous step. As a result, the English
Reformation is seen as an event of paramount importance all over
Europe. English scholars were as enthusiastic as the Germans in
seeking the New learning. Yet they could make little progress in the real
task of reform by themselves. Only Henry VIII or Cardinal Wolsey could
start the action in England. But Henry VIII had no quarrel with the Pope.

13
On the other hand he heartily condemned Luther and even wrote a book
against him. For this Pope Leo X gave Henry the title of "Defender of the
Faith". However it was Henry VIII who was responsible for the English
Reformation. The immediate cause of the quarrel with the Pope was
Henry's desire to divorce his wife Catherine of Aragon.

Henry VIII was very eager to divorce Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn
with whom he had fallen in love. But Pope Clement VII refused to annul
the marriage. The most the Pope would do was to order the case to be
tried before a Court, which included Cardinal Wolsey as the Pope's
representative in England. The court adjourned without coming to a
decision. An enraged Henry directed his wrath on Wolsey and dismissed
him. Next, the King summoned a Parliament known as the Reformation
Parliament. It proceeded at once to carry out the King's policy towards
the Church. A number of decisions were taken to curb the Pope's power
over the English Church. Henry then decided to proceed without the
Pope and got secretly married to Anne Boleyn in 1533.It must be known
that in all his attacks on the Church, Henry was only aiming at destroying
Papal power in England. He never attacked Roman Catholic doctrine.
On the other hand he insisted on his subjects observing it.

Some of the important Acts passed by the Reformation Parliament were

the Act of Succession and the Act of Supremacy. The Act of Supremacy
declared that the King was the supreme head of the Church of England.
According to the Act of Succession, the children born to Henry and Anne
Boleyn were Heirs to the throne. Sir Thomas More and Bishop Fisher,
who refused to recognise these Acts were charged with high treason
and executed.

The Reformation Parliament further ordered the closure of the smaller

monasteries. The monasteries were in decay in the early sixteenth
century. One by one all the monasteries were dissolved and their
property was taken over by the Crown.

With the dissolution of the monasteries an important form of religious life

ceased to exist. Monks and nuns disappeared from the English scene.
Their absence made the transition to Protestantism easier during
Edward VI's time, for the monks were the chief representatives of the

14
Catholic Church. Thomas Cromwell, a new Minister, who gained power
during this period, aided Henry to plunder the monasteries.

The Reformation in England at this juncture was only a political one

where the King became the Supreme head of the Church. As David
Harris Wilson put it, "The Church in England was becoming the Church
of England ". The dogma and the ritual of the church remained virtually
unchanged. But the church could not continue in this condition without
the intrusion of Protestant doctrine for long.

It was during the reign of Edward VI that the Church of England became
definitely Protestant. Henry's break with Rome was the first step towards
Protestantism, but during his time he prevented the introduction of
Protestant doctrine. Alterations in religion came rapidly in Edward VI's
reign. This was due to a number of reasons: the restraints imposed by
Henry were removed, the introduction of an English Bible which paved
the way for individual interpretation, variations of Continental Protestant
thought brought by continental reformers and finally the political
advantages of England adopting Protestantism.

The Catholic form of worship was strictly banned in England. The

Parliament met and the first Act of Uniformity was passed. By this Act a
Common Prayer Book in English was introduced and made compulsory.
Priests were permitted to marry. The Bible was accepted as the sole
repository of religious truth. The Church of England became more
radically Protestant than at any other time in its history.

When Mary ascended the throne there was a swing back to the Catholic
religion. This sudden change of direction checked the rush towards
headlong Protestantism. She revoked the Act of Uniformity and
reintroduced Catholicism with a vengeance. This implanted in her people
a deep-rooted suspicion of Rome, which was to last for centuries. All this
prepared the way for the religious compromise of the reign of Queen
Elizabeth.

Religion was a vital question when Queen Elizabeth ascended the

throne. Within a short span of hardly thirty years, the country had
experienced three religious settlements: the Anglo- Catholicism of

15
Henry, the radical Protestantism of Edward; the return to Catholicism
under Mary. Elizabeth chose to be Protestant. She restored the Acts of
Supremacy and Uniformity but with alterations. The Queen now called
herself the Supreme Governor of the Church and not the Supreme head.
This change of title was a concession to Catholics.

The Act of Uniformity introduced a modified Prayer Book all over the
nation. The Queen made the transition to Protestantism with utmost
ease. The national religion of England, which is Anglicanism dates back
to the time of Queen Elizabeth.

A sect called Puritans attacked Elizabeth's Church. They were English

Protestants who had fled England during Queen Mary's reign. Living on
the Continent, they were strongly influenced by John Calvin and
returned to England as radicals during Elizabeth's reign. The Puritans
disapproved of the compromise in Elizabeth's Church. Elizabeth was
highly irritated by the Puritans and appointed John Whit gift as the
archbishop. He hated the Puritans and managed to silence them through
imprisonment and execution. The Reformation was complete in the reign
of Queen Elizabeth in the sense that the Church broke off from Rome
and became Protestant. It was known henceforth as the Anglican
Church. Under the able guidance of Elizabeth, there was peace and
prosperity in England.

Counter reformation

The Counter Reformation is the name generally given to the sustained

and intense effort by the Catholic Church to set right the lapses in their
religion. Its chief aim was to arrest the spread of Protestantism and to
revive the Catholic Church that had earned so much disrepute during the
Reformation movement.

Dissolution of monasteries

Monasteries were communities of men called monks, who gave up

worldly pleasures to serve God through prayer and work. They were

16
centres of learning in the early Middle Ages and had a great influence in
Europe. The monks kept alive the tradition of reading and writing Latin.
They preserved many valuable manuscripts. The monasteries were also
responsible for setting up most of the schools in Europe.

Various causes lead to the dissolution of monasteries, including the

following:

(i) In England, during Henry VIII’s time, the monasteries owned one
quarter of the land and their annual income was greater than the
royal revenue. The untold wealth of the monasteries was a
temptation to the King.

(ii) When Henry VIII passed various anti-Papal Acts through the
Reformation Parliament, there was opposition from certain sections
of the population, the chief among whom were the monks. The
King therefore wished to punish them for continuing their loyalty to
the Pope.

(iii) Apart from these reasons, the monasteries were gradually

declining. The monks were no longer dedicated to the cause of
learning. They were also becoming corrupt and worldly.

The closure of the monasteries greatly reduced the power of the Pope in
England and made the Reformation movement strong.

Printing press

17
William Caxton (1422-1491) introduced printing into England. It was
Jahannes Gutenberg of Germany who invented the type-mould, which
made printing from movable metallic type. With movable type, a printer
could quickly make several copies of a book. Before the introduction of
type-mould, everything that people read had to be copied by hand or
printed from wood blocks that were carved by hand. After the printing
press was invented, printing became the first means of mass
communication. The spread of the ‘new’ knowledge was helped greatly
by the invention of printing. It helped to satisfy the growing demand for
books from well-to-do people. Printing also helped to standardize
spoken language.

Caxton also helped in the uniformation of the English language. He used

only the dialect spoken in London and the Court for his books. He
published several old, popular tales including those of Chaucer and the
King Arthur legends. The first book to be printed in England was the
Sayings of the Philosophers (1477). During his career, he published
nearly a hundred books.

18
 LEARNING ACTIVITY 1.1
Write a short note on the hundred year ‘s war.
Note:
a) Write your answer in the space given below.

1.2 STUART ENGLAND

19
Under the stable rule of the Tudors the people learnt that loyalty to the
Crown was the greatest of virtues and disloyalty the blackest of crimes.
Yet, ironically, a mere forty years after Queen Elizabeth died, there was
a bloody Civil War in England in which the people executed their King.
What were the causes of this dramatic reversal of events? On the one
hand the Stuarts were inept rulers and on the other hand Elizabeth
bequeathed to them a whole lot of problems along with the throne. Her
religious settlement left the Catholics and Puritans dissatisfied.
Parliament had become more aggressive and difficult to manage. Public
finance was also in an unstable condition.

The Stuart reigns include James I (1603-1625), Charles I (1625 – 1645),

The Commonwealth (1649 – 1653), The Protectorate (1653 – 1659),
Charles II (1660 – 1685) and James II (1685 – 1688).

1.2.1 Age of Puritanism

The Puritan Age

The age of Puritanism may be roughly defined as the century following

Reformation. It extended from the reign of Queen Elizabeth to
1660.Puritanism was a religious movement that began in England in the
1500's and 1600's and spread to America. After the Reformation, some
extreme Protestants were not satisfied with the changes brought about
during the reigns of King Henry VIII, Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth.
They were called Puritans by other Protestants because of their
proposals to "purify" the church.

During the 1600s, the Puritans opposed the political and religious
policies of the Stuart rulers. King Charles had several problems with the

20
Parliament regarding finance and religion, when John Pym was the
leader of the Commons. By 1641, the situation became very dangerous
with the Queen and the Cavaliers on one side and Pym and the Puritans
on the other. In 1642, Civil war finally broke out. During the course of the
war, Oliver Cromwell, a Puritan rose to eminence. With the New Model
Army the Parliamentary forces won a complete victory in 1646.

The Civil War was the culmination of the cold war that was going on
between the King and the Parliament for nearly four decades starting
from 1603, the year in which the Stuart King James I ascended the
throne of England.

1.2.2 Colonial Expansion

Inspired by the Renaissance, adventurous Europeans sailed across the

oceans in search of wealth or liberty. England too joined the race and
soon became the "Queen of the Seas". She was so successful in her
attempts at Colonial Expansion that within a century or two The British
Empire became vast and almost infallible.

Voyages of commercial expansion

Voyages of commercial expansion became very popular. There was an

expedition to Russia by Willoughby and Chancellor. They established
trade between Russia and England, which continued to flourish for many
years. This was followed by a search to establish a trade route to Persia.

21
 Anthony Jenkinson

Anthony Jenkinson opened a new trade route through the Volga river
down to the Caspian Sea and established trade relations with Persia.
England was eager to establish trade links with India.

The Jenkinson Map

Two Englishmen, George Raymond and James Lancaster sailed for the
East in 1591. Raymond's ship sank in a storm but Lancaster reached
East Indies. This paved the way for the eastern project.

22
The famous East India Company was formed in 1600 and Lancaster
sailed again for the East in the following year. This venture was a great
success and he returned with plenty of pepper and spices from Java.
The East India Company had begun its glorious career.

The East India Company

Whatever the causes might have been, the Colonial Expansion of the
Sixteenth and the Seventeenth centuries made England emerge as the
Super Power for the next two hundred years.

23
The East India Company, for example, lasted for two hundred and fifty-
eight years. Started in 1600 for trade purposes it ended in 1858, having
built up a vast empire in India. The first Englishman to come to India is
believed to have been Father Thomas Stevens, who became head of
the Jesuit College in Goa in 1579. His letters to his father aroused in
England a desire to have trade with India. But the first important step
towards England’s commercial enterprise was taken in 1600 when
Queen Elizabeth granted a Royal charter to the East India Company.
Even then it took eight years for the English traders to establish their first
trading centre at Surat.

The East India Company had a very humble beginning. It had only 125
shareholders with a capital of £ 70,000. A fleet of ships was fitted out,
members of the Company contributed whatever they could, and when
the fleet returned the profits were divided among the shareholders. In
the beginning, the company was able to make enormous profit but not
later on, as it had to compete with many rival companies, both European
and English. So the East India Company had its ups and downs. In
certain years it was able to declare a high dividend of even 50%, but in
certain other years it could make no profit at all. However, it can safely
be said that on an average it was in a position to give the shareholders a
dividend of 6% per annum.

The East India Company outlived all other rival companies. Having
made steady progress in trade, its next effort was to establish important
trade centres in India. In 1640 some land to the north of San Thome, the
Portuguese settlement, was obtained for rent from the Raja of
Chandragiri. Here the far-sighted Francis Day erected a number of
buildings and a fort, which was named Fort St. George, after the patron
saint of England. This was the beginning of the Presidency of Madras.
The name “Madras” is derived from Portuguese “Madre de Dios”, which
meant “Mother of God”.

24
Bombay was a marshy place, which belonged to the Portuguese. In
1661, it was given to Charles II of England as part of the dowry when he
married Catherine of Braganza. Its value was so little that the King
parted with the place to the East India Company for an annual rent of
just ten pounds. Because of efforts of the first Governor Gerald Aungier,
the place was converted into a beautiful and well-fortified town with a
natural harbour. The trading factories at Surat were soon shifted to
Bombay. This was the nucleus of what was later called the Presidency
of Bombay.

Towards the end of the seventeenth Century, in 1690, the famous British
agent Job Charnock built at Kalikata (later known as Calcutta) a fort,
which he named Fort William in honour of King William III. Several other
factories were opened in Bengal and placed under a President and
Council with their headquarters in Fort William. Thus was started the
Presidency of Bengal.

Prosperity in trade enhanced the ambition of the English adventurists.

The Mughal Empire was disintegrating and there was no single power to
dominate the political scene. The British authorities made use of the
opportunity to interfere in the internal affairs of the Indian princes. The
French were their only rival in the Country. The early part of the
eighteenth century was a period of struggle for power between the
French and the English. The great French leader in India at that time
was Dupleix and his English counterpart was Robert Clive. They took
opposite sides in the disputes, which arose about the succession to the
offices of Nizam of Hyderabad and Nawab of Karnataka. The three
Carnatic wars had the ultimate effect of establishing the British
supremacy in South India.

25
After defeating the French in the South, Clive interfered in the affairs of
Bengal. He defeated the Nawab of Bengal in the Battle of Plassey in
June 1757. For the conspicuous part he played in establishing British
power in India he was made the first Governor of Bengal and sometime
later Lord Clive of Plassey, when he returned to England for good in
1767 he was badly attacked in the House of Commons, chiefly for
corruption and aggression. He committed suicide in 1774 when he was
only fifty years old. In keeping with the colonial spirit of the Stuart period
the East India Company had acquired large territories in India.

Report after report reached England of serious scandals and

irregularities and the home government thought it necessary to control
the activities of the Company. In the light of the report submitted by a
committee of enquiry (appointed for the purpose) the British Parliament
passed the Regulating Act in 1773. According to this Act the Governor of
Bengal was made the Governor-General with Supervisory powers over
the Presidencies of Bombay and Madras. He was to be assisted by a
council of four members. A Supreme Court consisting of a Chief Justice
and three other judges was appointed to deal with all kinds of crime. The
Directors of the company were expected to place before Parliament
copies of their correspondences.

The purpose of this Act was to provide proper administrative machinery

for the Company’s territory, but it failed to achieve its purpose and so the
Home Government was obliged to do something more effective. The
result was the passing of Pitt’s India Act of 1784. According to this new
measure all Indian affairs had to be managed by a committee of three
senior Directors, supervised by a board of Control appointed by the
Crown, but in actual practice the President of the Board of Control
exercised all the power.

In the next few decades the company authorities adopted a variety of

ways to acquire territories in India. They had a hectic time waging wars,
transacting treaties, making subsidiary alliances with native rulers and
annexing states on some pretext or other. In addition to all this, they also
had to fight with the frontier countries, like Afghanistan, Burma and
Nepal. In their attempt to establish British Supremacy in India the
authorities were forced to wage wars with some of the most powerful

26
Indian adventurists, like Haider Ali and his son Tipu Sultan. It was only
after fighting three Maratha wars that they succeeded in disbanding the
formidable Maratha confederacy.

The Company signed a treaty with the powerful Sikh leader Ranjit Singh,
popularly known as “Lion of the Punjab”, and the confusion which
followed his death in the State was an excuse for the Company
authorities to annex the Sikh States to extend the British territorial
possession.

By making subsidiary alliances with native rulers, like the Raja of

Mysore, the Nizam of Hyderabad, the Nawab of Oudh and many others,
Lord Wellesley was able to establish British power over a good part of
India. According to the subsidiary System, an Indian ruler had to pay a
certain amount of money to the British Government and in return he was
assured of external defence and internal security.

Starting from Robert Clive, a galaxy of eminent Englishmen presided

over the British activities in India, the most famous of them being Warren
Hastings, Lord Cornwallis, Arthur Wellesley, Lord Hastings, William
Bentinck and Lord Dalhousie. Guilty as some of them were of
exploitation and many other crimes, many of them did much good to the
Country. Indians will always cherish a loving memory of William
Bentinck, who ruled from 1828 to 1835. The Keynote of his
administration was the grand principle that “English greatness is founded
on Indian happiness”. A friend and benefactor of India, he introduced a
number of social reforms.

One of the earliest and most salutary of these reforms was the
prohibition of sati. In 1828 it was declared that the practice of sati, the
burning alive of Hindu widows, was illegal and punishable. No doubt in
implementing this long needed social reform he was supported by
enlightened Indians, like Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Bentinck was also
responsible for the framing of Indian Penal Code. He appointed a Law
Commission with Thomas Babington Macaulay, an eminent jurist and
historian, as its President. The Penal Code drafted by him in 1837 was
adopted in 1860.

27
But the most momentous reform introduced by Bentick was the one by
which English was made the medium of higher education in India. The
Directors of Public Instructions were divided in their opinion on the
matter; some of them wanted to confine education to the study of
Sanskrit and Arabic, but the others were in flavour of western education
through the medium of English. Macaulay in his famous Minute
presented on 2nd February 1835 (with his characteristic persuasiveness)
pleaded the cause of English and that set the question at rest once and
forever. On 7th March 1835, William Bentick announced “the great object
of the British Government ought to be the promotion of European
literature and Science among the natives of India”.

This decision served as an incentive for the missionaries, like Dr. Duff in
Calcutta, Dr. Wilson in Bombay, and Dr. Miller who became the first
Principal of Madras Christian College, to take active interest in the
University education of these three metropolitan cities. Thanks to their
pioneering work, the Universities of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, all
modelled on the University of London, were established in the same
year, 1857.

Lord Dalhousie was another Governor-General, who introduced some

useful social reforms. In 1853 the first railway, twenty miles long, from
Bombay to Thana, was opened. Another was constructed from Calcutta
to Raniganj coalfields. The line connecting Madras and Arakonam was
constructed later. He organised the Public Works Department and
opened an Engineering College in Roorkee. A network of roads with
bridges coverings a distance of 2,000 miles was constructed by the
Public Works Department. The Grand Ganges Canal, the largest canal
in the world, was also made in Dalhousie’s time. India owes much to him
for introducing the means of communication in the country.

By the middle of the nineteenth century the nation as a whole was

awakening to the fact that they were being exploited. There was the
growing spirit of nationalism too. The Hindus, the Mohammedans, and
the princely fraternity were all very much distributed by the British
Empire. To add fuel to the fire some of the activities of the British
wounded the religious feelings of the people. It was in such
circumstances that the famous Mutiny broke out at Meerut on 10 th May

28
1857. There were scenes of violence at Delhi, Cawnpore, Lucknow and
in Central India which caused the death of many Englishmen.

The violence was put down with an iron hand, but it was evident to the
authorities that they could no longer go on with the antiquated and
cumbrous system of administration. At last the British Parliament
decided to abolish the powers of the company and transfer the
Government of India directly to the Crown. Queen Victoria’s
proclamation to that effect was read out by Lord Canning, then
Governor-General, at Allahabad on 1 st May 1858. That was the end of
the East India Company.

The East India Company had its impact on English society. It was
instrumental in popularising Indian goods, like fine cotton calico cloth,
silk and tea for which there was great demand were the spices,
especially pepper. It was used for preserving meat for the winter,
flavouring food and drink, and for medicinal purposes. Into the fabric of
English society was added a new but unwelcome element. There were
numerous Englishmen who benefited by the exploitation, which followed
Clive’s conquest in India.

Most of these men who came to India as employees of the Company,

especially in its initial stage, with the exception of a very few, were
drawn from the lower strata of English society. They came seeking a
meagre livelihood but returned home with immense wealth, acquired in
most cases through foul means.

Robert Clive, for instance, joined the Company as a clerk, drawing a

nominal salary of ten pounds a year, but when he returned home he was
reported to have become the King’s wealthiest subject. This class of
wealthy people with their opulence and outlandish ways were nicknamed
“Nabobs”. The old and established aristocratic society was not eager to
own them as members of their fraternity.

29
The Company also provided ample opportunities for intellectual
commerce, which gave far greater dividends. Thus, many English
scholars took keen interest in the study of Indian religions and literature.
Bhagavat Gita, which is ranked among the greatest treatises on
philosophy, was translated Sakuntala, the immortal drama, by the
greatest Indian poet Kalidasa. A good number of Indian scholars like
Raja Ram Mohan Roy though they did not change their religion became
familiar with Christianity.

The publication in 1820 of the famous book “The Precepts of Jesus” by

Ram Mohan Roy is an eloquent testimony to the author’s deep
knowledge of the Bible. Mention may also be made of the linguistic
influences. Many words of Indian origin, like banian, bungalow, jungle,
Swaraj, to mention only a few, have found their way into the English
vocabulary. The influence of English on Indian languages, especially

30
South Indian languages, has been such that many Indians find it difficult
to convey their ideas in their own mother tongues without using English
words occasionally.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 1.2

Describe ‘Puritanism.’
Note:
a) Write your answer in the space given below.

1.3 RESTORATION ENGLAND

31
The Restoration of 1660 was a return to the ancient form of government
by King, Lords and Commons. The English, fed up with the constitutional
experiments of the Puritans, welcomed Charles II back to the throne. He
was extremely popular because of his good looks, wit and good humour.
The Restoration brought about many changes in the powers of the
Crown and the Parliament. The King lost many of his old powers and
was entirely dependant on the Parliament for money.

The term "Restoration" refers not only to the restoration of Monarchy,

but also to the restoration of the Church of England and the old social
hierarchy and customs. Extreme reaction could be witnessed against the
strict morality of the Puritans. The Restoration Age coming as it did after
eleven years of enforced morality became synonymous with
licentiousness and loose living. The Court of Charles II was the centre of
gaiety and colour, where wit and cleverness were valued more than
wisdom and integrity.

There was evidence of the Restoration in three areas, i.e., Restoration in

politics, Restoration in religion and Restoration in society. Politically, it
restored the King and Parliament and Law in place of military
dictatorship. Ecclesiastically, it restored the Bishop, Prayer Book and the
Anglican Church in place of Puritanism. Socially, it restored the nobles
and the gentry to their hereditary place as the acknowledged leaders of
the local and national life.

1.3.1 Effects of the Restoration on Society

During the Restoration period Anglicanism became the acknowledged

religion of upper class people. In general, the parish church was
patronised by the local squire. Of course, there were cases of cold war
between the parson and the squire. Addison, in one of his Spectator
essays “Sir Roger at Church”, refers to this, “The parson and the squire
live in a perpetual state of war. The parson is always preaching at the
squire and the squire to be revenged on the parson, never comes to
Church.” The Non-Conformists and particularly the Quakers suffered
religious persecution under the “Clarendon Code.” The Roman Catholics
were shut out from all participation in local and national Government.

32
An event of great political magnitude that took place during the
Restoration period was the formation of political parties. The upper class
was divided politically into Whigs and Tories.

Experimental science was spreading fast in England. For the first time in
the history of humankind, it was discovered that science could be used
for the development of agriculture, industry, navigation, medicine and
engineering. The Royal Society of Science was founded in 1662 under
the patronage of King Charles and of his cousin Prince Rupert, himself a
scientist. It was not yet time for conflict between science and religion.
The great scientists of the time, Robert Boyle the chemist, Issac Newton
the physicist were religious men who repudiated the skeptical doctrines
of the time. The importance of science was so much acknowledged that
the first history of the Royal Society was written by no less a person than
Rev. Sprat, who afterwards became Bishop of Rochester.

Coat of arms of the Royal Society

With the spread of scientific inquiry most of the superstitions lost grip on
the people. They began to realize that plagues and fires and floods were
not necessarily the divine punishment for sin. Belief in witches and
witchcraft became less widespread even though it continued to have
some hold on the rustics. However, it has to be admitted that the new
scientific spirit to some extent at least undermined the character of
religious faith.

The theatres, which remained closed during the Puritan regime, once
again started functioning, but, of course, with certain changes. The

33
whole playhouse was roofed in and the stage was artificially lighted with
candles. There were drop curtains and painted scenery. More than that,
the women’s roles were no longer taken by well-trained boys. Instead,
women’s parts were acted by women actresses themselves. Men came
to see the actresses as much as the play. Not all actresses were
talented enough.

Neil Gwynne’s personal vigour and charm counted more perhaps than
her professional skill. The drama was localised in London, and even
there it appealed not to the ordinary citizens but to the court and the
fashionable people of the town.

Unfortunately it was enough for their vitiated tastes and interests that the
drama of the early Restoration period catered. The Restoration plays
noted for their vulgarity created a hostile attitude to the drama in the
minds of decent people, with the result that till the late nineteenth
century well-brought-up young people were not allowed to visit the
theatre. One of the most popular dramas of the early Restoration period
was Wycherley’s Country Wife, one of the most vulgar plays ever
produced in English. However, things changed for the better in the next
few years.

With Restoration all the lands confiscated by the Commonwealth

Government were returned to their previous owners. These landowners
were therefore loyal to the Anglican Church. They formed the upper
class and were socially united by the Church of England. The ladies and
gentlemen were the patrons of the parish church. Addison's "Sir Roger
in Church" gives us an accurate picture of the social side of rural
worship.

During the Restoration period, extreme reaction set in against the strict
morality of the Puritans. The Englishmen turned with relief to all outdoor
activities that were forbidden earlier. Hunting, trapping, snaring and
shooting were revived with a vengeance. Gambling and other sports
were the rage of the age. In general, a holiday mood gripped the
country, which paved the way for the licentious nature that was
characteristic of the Restoration period. Drunkenness and public brawls
were very common.

34
The theatres that had remained closed under the Puritans were thrown
open. These theatres depended upon the patronage of the royal court.
The plays therefore reflected the degenerate taste of Charles's court.
Heroic tragedies, melodramas and comedies of manners were popular
with the Restoration audience. Wit and polish were the two cherished
qualities of writers. The technique of the theatre improved. Stage setting
and drop curtains were introduced. Female parts were performed by
women and not by boys as in Elizabethan theatre.

It was in the Seventeenth century that the scientific spirit first touched
the English people. In Mathematics, Newton introduced Infinitesimal
Calculus. He also contributed to other branches of science, especially
Physics. His Laws of Motion and Gravitation occupy an important place
even today. Robert Boyle gave us Boyle's Law. Halley did a lot of
research on the movement of comets and calculated the periodicity of
the famous Halley's Comet. In the area of Human Anatomy, Harvey
discovered the circulation of the blood.

Another feature of the Restoration period was its strict censorship. The
Cavalier Parliament passed the Licensing Act to prevent Puritan
writings. This act was revoked after the Glorious Revolution.

Coat of arms of the Cavalier Parliament

Private libraries were very fashionable. Many fine country houses owned
excellent libraries. Novel reading was also considered to be fashionable
among the ladies. Writing in diaries was another favourite pastime and
we have valuable records of daily life in the diaries of Evelyn and Pepys.

35
The violin was introduced into England in the reign of Charles II. In
architecture we have the outstanding figure of Sir Christopher Wren. The
Restoration affected every sphere of English life- political, religious,
social and literary.

1.3.2 Calamities

Two great calamities struck England during the Restoration age, which
changed the lives and the landscapes of the English people
considerably, and these are:

● The Plague: The Plague or the Black Death appeared in England

suddenly in 1348. Its germs were carried by fleas on black rats that
came into the country on ships, from abroad. The first time it
attacked the people it was very severe as the people had no
immunity against it. Between 1348 and 1377, there were three
visitations of the Plague and there was a sharp drop in the
population. It wiped out the monks in some monasteries, and whole
villages were deserted.

The immediate effect of the Black Death was that there was a
scarcity of labour. Right through the reigns of the Lancastrians and
the Tudors, the Plague continued to harass the people. In the spring
of 1665, the Plague appeared in London, destroying about 68,000
persons before it subsided in 1666. Many left London, several
houses were closed or had a red cross painted on the door to
indicate that the Plague was within. This was the last visitation of the
bubonic plague.

36
● The Fire: The summer of 1666 had been very dry. The Great Fire
raged for five days from 2 nd to 7th September. In those five days
almost half of London was destroyed. Four hundred streets and
thirteen thousand two hundred houses were destroyed. The people
had to rebuild the city again brick by brick. The Fire, however, proved
a blessing in disguise as it wiped out the terrible Plague forever from
London. It also gave the people an excellent opportunity to rebuild
London.

The Great Fire of London, 1666

The eighteenth century began with the reign of Queen Anne. It was a
prosperous period, which turned its back firmly on the religious favour
and political violence of the previous century. In literature, it is often
compared to the glorious period of Augustus in ancient Rome and is
known as the Augustan Age. Socially, the age was very interesting as a
number of new fashions were introduced.

37
 LEARNING ACTIVITY 1.3
What is meant by ‘Restoration?’
Note:
a) Write your answer in the space given below.

1.4 REVOLUTIONS

Three important revolutions changed the world for ever – Agrarian,

Industrial and French revolutions. The great development in farming that
resulted from a series of discoveries and inventions during the 1700s is
known as the Agrarian Revolution. This Revolution changed not only the
landscapes of England but also the lifestyle of its people. Following this
revolution, during the late eighteenth century and the early nineteenth
century several changes took place in England and a few other
countries. These important changes may be classified under the heading
of the Industrial Revolution.

The term is used to describe both the changes that took place and the
period itself. And, the French Revolution brought about great changes in
the social and political framework of France. This revolution which lasted
from 1789 to 1799 altered and affected the rest of Europe also. People
everywhere were inspired with democratic ideals, and the power of the
king and the aristocrats came crumbling down. Nowhere in Europe could

38
royalty and nobility ever again take their powers for granted after the
uprising of the peasants in France.

1.4.1 Agrarian revolution

It is generally acknowledged that England’s social structure was

fundamentally altered after 1066 in a way that made it different from its
counterparts in Europe, because every piece of land in the country had
come under the control of the king. William the Conqueror was the
supreme lord, and the country was parcelled out by him to roughly
fifteen hundred tenants-in-chief, who in turn made it into smaller sections
and gave them to eight thousand or so sub-lords.

In terms of class struggle, the peasants would attempt to keep as much

of their production as possible and to maintain access to common lands,
while their “superiors” would try to obtain a large part of the surplus,
leaving the peasants with enough to reproduce themselves but little
more. English society, then, was organized in a pyramid form with a
monarch and a landed-elite at the top and a mass of people at the
bottom, with funds flowing from the latter up to the former.

1.4.2 Industrial revolution

39
In fact, in our modern world, we make daily use of the products of an
industrialised era. These products include a wide variety of goods
manufactured for our consumption. It has not always been like this.
There was a time when almost all products were hand-made and the
factory system did not exist. The transition from a world of artisan
manufacture to a factory system, and all its attendant benefits with which
we are familiar, is known as the Industrial Revolution. It began in Britain
in the early years of the 18th century.

As a result of industrialisation, there was an enormous increase in the

production of goods. England became a prosperous country, which
changed from being a land of farmers. In a little over a century, Britain
went from a largely rural, agrarian population to a country of
industrialised towns, factories, mines and workshops. Britain was, in
fact, already beginning to develop a manufacturing industry during the
early years of the early 18th century, but it was from the 1730s that its
growth accelerated. As well as a revolution in industry, this period saw
many changes and improvements in agricultural practice. So much so, it
can be said that there was a parallel Agricultural Revolution.

During the second half of the 18 th century and the first half of the 19 th
century, British industry underwent great changes. These changes were
so remarkable that the term ‘Industrial Revolution’ has been applied to
them. The word Revolution has the connotation of suddenness and
violence. But the term Revolution also implies fundamental change. It is
in this second sense that the term is applicable to the English industries
because there was a fundamental and drastic change in the industrial
methods of England. Before the Industrial Revolution, goods were

40
produced in limited quantities by human hand in the houses of the
workers; but after the Revolution goods were produced in large
quantities by machines in factories.

1.4.3 French revolution

The causes for the French Revolution can be categorized as under:

● Socio-economic causes: A rigid class distinction

compartmentalised society into three main divisions.

● Political causes: The court of Louis XVI was known for its
extravagance and pomp. The king believed in the Divine Right theory
and ruled in an arbitrary manner. The people had no share in the
government and the States-General (a sort of a Parliament) had not
met since 1614. Queen Marie Antoinette was unpopular and
arrogant and irritated the already frustrated people further. There
was confusion in every department of administration. There was an
urgent need for reform and the king was incapable of it.

● Influence of writers: The French writers like Voltaire and Rousseau

had a profound effect on the middle class. Voltaire pointed an
accusing finger at several lapses in the French law which doled out
harsh punishments for small offences. His writings helped to awaken

41
 a public conscience in France. In his famous book "The Social
Contract", Rousseau explained that the king governed a state owing
to a contract with his subjects. He established the fact that the
people had every right to question the ruler, if he failed in his duty
towards them. This reasoning inspired many thinkers of the day and
they joined the revolution. Motivated by Rousseau, they were ready
to destroy the old system of government altogether.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 1.4

Write a short note on Industrial Revolution.
Note:
a) Write your answer in the space given below.

SUMMARY
To conclude, in the first section, we have discussed the emergence of
England during the Kingdom of Tudor and the renaissance and
reformation taken place in that period. In the second section, we have
also analysed the Stuart England and the expansion of colonisation.

42
 UNIT - 2 18th to 20th CENTURY

STRUCTURE

Overview

Learning Objectives

2.1 Eighteenth Century

2.1.1 Methodist movement
2.1.2 Humanitarian movements

2.1.3 Victorian Age

2.2 Nineteenth Century Education
2.3 Twentieth Century

2.3.1 Life in the 1960s

2.3.2 Life in the 1970s

2.3.3 Life in the 1980s

Summary

OVERVIEW

In this second Unit, let’s us deal with the history of England during 18 th –
20th Century. This Unit is divided into three sub-sections. While the first
sub-section explains the various movements and the details of Victorian
Age briefly, the second sub-section gives you the status of education in
the 19th Century. The final section describes the inventions and the
social status of the people in the early 20 th Century.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After completing this Unit, you should be able to:

43
 ● explain the Methodist movement

● discuss the reform bills

● analyse the 19th Century education

● enumerate the scientific inventions of 20 th century

● discuss the English society during the Age of Queen Anne;

2.1 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

Queen Victoria ruled from 1837 to 1901 and became one of the most
famous rulers in English history. Great Britain reached the height of its
power during this period. It built a great colonial empire and the British
proudly claimed that the sun never set upon it. It was an eventful period
with changes taking place in every sphere of life. In several ways, it was
the harbinger of the twentieth century.

With its long list of inventions, life in England was becoming modern and
comfortable. Industrially, England was at the vanguard, since it was
there that the Industrial Revolution began. Politically, the last traces of
the ancient hierarchical system came crumbling down and England
emerged as a democracy where every citizen had the right to vote. As
far as religion was concerned, for the first time, doubt and skepticism
crept into the minds of the people in the nineteenth century.

2.1.1 Methodist movement

44
During the eighteenth century, the condition of the society in England
was deplorable. Due to the revolutions in the spheres of industry and
agriculture, there was a mass migration of the poor to the cities.
Desperate for work, these people were prepared to take up whatever
was offered. Working conditions were terrible and they were forced to
live in slums that were unsanitary and crowded. The moral condition of
such people was as wretched as their physical state. Drinking and
gambling were the two vices that were rampant. They were very fond of
brutal sports like cock-fighting and bear-baiting.

Football matches played on the streets ended in bloody brawls. Boxing

matches between women attracted large crowds. People indulged in
smuggling and "wrecking". This was a dangerous practice of wrecking
unwary ships on the western shores of England and looting their goods.

The poor had no protection against unemployment. Under the system of

apprenticeship, where the parents of a boy paid the master for teaching
the trade, a lot of exploitation existed. The taverns became the focal
point of these poor and helpless people. Taverns like the Blue Lion, the
Bull and Pond, the Shepherd and Shepherdess, the Temple of Flora and
the Dog and Duck became notorious for riot and debauchery.

As a result of drinking and gambling, the poor often landed in the

debtors' prison. Conditions in these prisons were terrible. Church going
became irregular. Thousands of slum dwellers in the cities did not go to
church at all and were ignorant heathens. This was the condition of
English society when the Wesley brothers appeared on the scene.

2.1.2 Humanitarian movements

45
The Methodist movement triggered off several humanitarian movements
in the eighteenth century. A systematic attempt was made to help the
people of the lower classes. There was a great gulf between the rich and
poor. Inspired by the teachings of the Wesley brothers many benevolent
people came forward to help the downtrodden.

Many Sunday Schools and Charity Schools were established in order to

impart knowledge to the bulk of the working people. The Grammar
Schools that were already there existed only for a few selected clever
boys who belonged to the lower classes. Women like Hannah More
worked tremendously for the upliftment of the agricultural poor of
England. She focused on educating the poor in religion and good
manners. The spirit of mercy led to prison reform, the abolition of the
slave trade, medical care for the poor and to the reform of the legal
system. Aspects of these include the following:

● Health and sanitation

● Prison reform

● Law and order

● Anti-slavery propaganda

● Workers and working conditions

● Utilitarianism

2.1.3 Victorian age

46
Victoria (1837-1901) succeeded her uncle, William IV, in 1837, when
she was eighteen. Her reign would dominate the rest of the century and
she would go on to be the longest reigning British monarch. In 1840,
Victoria married her first cousin, Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha and for
the next twenty years, they instituted several constitutional and social
changes.

Reform bills

Since the Tudor times, there was no major change in the representative
system of England and Wales. Each borough and county could send two
representatives to Parliament. After the Agrarian and Industrial
revolution, most of the people living in the boroughs migrated to the
cities. Some boroughs even disappeared completely. Yet they enjoyed
the benefit of sending two representatives to Parliament. Ironically, the
big industrial towns did not have any representation. The workers
resented this as they had no scope for expressing their grievances to the
government. This led to the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832.

Transport and communications

The Victorian era witnessed great strides being taken in the fields of
transport and communications. With the introduction of steamships,
railways, Penny posts, telegraph and cables the entire society
underwent a dramatic change. Life was never the same again. The slow
pace of the stage coach disappeared and the Age of speed had arrived.

47
The first efficient steam engine was made by James Watt in 1769.These
engines which were stationary were used at first to pump water out of
mines or to operate the power-loom in factories. It was only later that
these engines were used in vehicles. The steamboats were used for
short sea journeys.1819 is an important year in the history of the
steamship because the Atlantic Ocean was crossed for the first time by
the "Savannah" which was fitted with steam engines. The ship called the
"Great Western" designed by Brunel made regular voyages across the
Atlantic. Next came the huge ocean liners, which carried both
passengers and mail from England to all parts of the world. Today, we
have the magnificent cruise liners that cruise like floating palaces all
over the world.

The story of the railways is even more exciting. It brought about a

complete revolution in the way of life and the landscape of the country.
Richard Trevithick was the pioneer of the locomotives. In 1804, his
steam-carriage transported a carload of passengers for the first time.
George Stephenson produced an engine which was used chiefly to carry
coal. From this, he got the idea of attaching carriages to engines. The
idea was put into action and the first two railways lines in the world were
built- one between Stockton and Darlington and another between
Liverpool and Manchester. With this England entered the Railway era.
To England goes the proud privilege of introducing railways to the world.
The speed of the first train was thirty miles per hour.

The stage coach was the standard means of transport and the people
did not expect the trains to replace them. Eventually the trains began to
pick up speed and forced the stage coaches into oblivion. In the
beginning, the railway carriages were not very comfortable but gradually
improvements were made. The 1840s was the decade when the
railways became very popular.

The effects of the railways upon society were tremendous. Distribution

of goods was made easy. Highly perishable items like milk and fish
could be transported to every corner of the kingdom. Postal
communication also received a boost due to the railways. Travelling
became a passion with the people. The idea of going to the countryside
for a holiday became popular with all classes of society. There were a
few disadvantages also. In the process of laying the railway the railway

48
tracks and building bridges and tunnels, a lot of irreparable damage was
done to the beautiful English countryside. This was the price modern
man had to pay for the luxuries that he wished to enjoy.

Innovations were made in the area of communications in the nineteenth

century. Posts had been a Government monopoly in England since the
reign of James 1.There was a tax on letters but it was very difficult to
impose it strictly since private travellers smuggled letters. During the
reign of Queen Victoria, Rowland Hill introduced the Penny Post for all
letters within the Kingdom. In 1840,the black penny stamp with Queen
Victoria's head was issued. Britain was the first country in the world to
use stamps for letters and soon other countries copied the example.

The transport of mails has undergone dramatic changes since 1600. Till
1750, mail used to be transported through pack horses. Later, from 1750
to 1840 the mail coaches were used and since 1850 the railways played
a major role in this field. Airmail service was introduced in 1919.

Telegraphs

Another major breakthrough in the field of communication was the

introduction of the electric telegraph. The telegraph was the product of
several inventors. Sir C. Wheatstone made the earliest workable
telegraph in England. Soon telegraph wires were seen crisscrossing the
country along with the railways. Reuter's News Agency was begun in
London and the telegraph helped in conveying news very rapidly. The
year 1868 is an important year in the history of telegraph since then
cables have been laid connecting all the countries of the world and
speed was brought into communication. England had come a long way
from the days of the pack horse.

49
The Press

There was a revolution in the press. The newspapers of the Mid

Victorians had been very serious and dignified. The presentation of the
news was very dull and boring. They appealed only to the intellectual
readers. Towards the end of the century, cheap and sensational
newspapers replaced the stuffy papers of the earlier age. News was
presented in the form of a story. Sentences and paragraphs were
deliberately kept short. The style was informal and casual and therefore
appealed to a wider section of society. The primary aim of such
newspapers was not to inform, but to amuse. This change was brought
about by Alfred Harmsworth and Lord Northcliffe. Lord Northcliffe
founded the "Daily Mail", which became extremely popular, in 1896.

The telephone which is the most popular and easiest means of

communication was invented by Alexander Graham Bell. The first
telephone exchange was opened in London in 1879 with just seven or
eight subscribers. Today the telephone has become so common that
people have almost forgotten the art of letter-writing

50
 LEARNING ACTIVITY 2.1
Briefly write down the value of the Methodist Movement
Note:
a) Write your answer in the space given below .

2.2 NINETEENTH CENTURY EDUCATION

Ever since the existence of human beings, the teaching and learning
process has been an integral part of human experience. Even the Homo
Habilis of the Stone Age had to learn to make rudimentary weapons to

51
defend themselves and to hunt for food. They had to learn how to use
the skins of the animals to make basic protective clothing. The
transmission of knowledge and skills (education) allowed them to
survive. We are the living proof that they did survive; we have built upon
their knowledge.
During the Middle Ages, formal education was already taking shape in
Britain. Schools ranged from those organised by the local parish to those
connected to Cathedrals, chantries and monasteries. These gave a very
elementary education. Pupils were given religious instruction and were
taught to read. After the passing of the Reforms Bills of 1832 and 1867,
the middle classes and the working classes were given the franchise.
The authorities felt that without a proper education, these people would
not be able to exercise their franchise properly. Hence educational
reforms became necessary in order to enlighten the masses.

The first steps taken in this direction were the establishment of a grant of
twenty thousand pounds a year to help private agencies in the field of
education. An educational committee was set up to look into the running
of schools. Matthew Arnold was one such inspector and like his father,
contributed to the field of education abundantly. Training colleges for
teachers were set up in order to improve teaching methods.

 LEARNING ACTIVITY 2.2

Define educational reforms.

Note:
a) Write your answer in the space given below.

52
2.3 TWENTIETH CENTURY

In 1901, Marconi made his first transatlantic airwave transmission of a

message in Morse code, and the subsequent development of radio led
to the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) being established in 1922.
This became a corporation in 1927 and was given a Royal Charter
requiring news programmes to be impartial.

Guglielmo Marconi

Television was developed by the EMI-Marconi Corporation and by John

Logie Baird, with the first continuous television service started by the
BBC from London in 1936. Cinema remained a popular form of
entertainment as well during this period, offering newsreels as well as
films and cartoons.

53
In medicine, one of the major advances of this period was penicillin,
discovered to kill bacteria by Alexander Fleming in 1928 and isolated for
clinical use during World War II. With other antibiotics it continues to
treat a variety of diseases. During the period, physicists such as Ernest
Rutherford explored the structure of the atom. Work in this area led to
the first atom bombs being built in the US during World War II, and to the
development of nuclear energy afterwards.

After World War I, air transport routes began to be set up, first from
London to Paris and then around the world, with Imperial Airways
offering services to Singapore and the Cape (though this took thirty-
three staged 'hops' in 1932). World War II brought accelerated air
technology, benefiting from the invention of radar in 1935, and
commercial services grew rapidly afterwards, with the Comet, the first
civilian jet plane, built in 1949.

After a century of almost unchallenged political security, Britain

perceived the aggressive militarisation of the new German state and
empire as a threat.

In 1903, the campaign for women's suffrage was intensified by the

founding of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). After a
General Election victory in 1906, the Liberals began a series of
ambitious social reforms such as medical examinations for school
children, free meals for the poorest students and a programme for slum
clearance. Other reforms involved the setting up of Labour exchanges
and the introduction of a basic old age pension scheme.

54
Collapse of the Empire

After World War II came to an end, the several colonies of the British
Empire began to increase their demands for independence. In 1947,
India and Pakistan were given independence, followed by Ceylon and
Burma in 1948. The Republic of Ireland and South Africa declared
independent nations, respectively in 1949 and 1961. Britain adopted a
policy of liberalism towards her colonies and gradually and quietly, the
Empire was vastly reduced. Since the year 1947, the usage of the word
‘Dominion’ was dropped. Instead, a new term ‘Commonwealth’ was used
to describe the British territories, whatever their status. The
Commonwealth countries include many parts of Asia, Africa and Europe.

55
The end of the World War marked the beginning of another kind of war-
the Cold War. This refers to the mutual distrust between the Eastern
Bloc and the Western Bloc. Almost the entire world was engulfed by the
Cold War and Britain was also involved in it. Britain was a part of the
Western bloc which stood for democracy. It was Churchill who gave to
the world the famous phrase the "Iron Curtain" in a speech he made in
1946.It became a very popular phrase to describe the Soviet barriers
against the West.

Literature and entertainment

Some of the writers like Greene and Auden continued to write after the
2nd World War ended. Some of the important post- war writers were
George Orwell, J.D. Salinger, Hemingway and Golding. During the
fifties, a group of writers expressed their dissatisfaction with traditional
English politics, education and literature. These writers were known as
the "Angry Young Men". They included the dramatist, John Osborne and
the novelist John Braine. Osborne's play "Look Back in Anger "(1956)
describes the resentment of a young working class man about the British
class system.

Other writers, whose works reflect the changes in English society

included Sir C.P. Snow and Anthony Powell. In America there was a
spurt of dramatists who became popular in England. Arthur Miller,
Tennessee Williams and Eugene O'Neill were some of the dramatists
whose plays were welcomed by the people. Cinema attendance reached
a peak in 1946.Alfred Hitchcock's films and David Lean's classic "The
Bridge on the River Kwai" were the favourites. Cinema continued to
remain popular till a slow decline began to set in the early fifties due to

56
the advent of television. Football was another favourite leisure activity in
the 1950s.

2.3.1 Life in the 1960s

The 1960s was a decade of tremendous change in international, social

and cultural affairs. It was a decade in which man walked on the moon
and the first ever human heart transplant was carried out. Human life
seemed to reach the very pinnacle of civilisation.

After a long time, England emerged into a period of remarkable stability

and prosperity. The two World Wars had caused havoc in Great Britain.
The forties and fifties witnessed a crippled country slowly limping back to
health. After facing so many trials, the people of Britain were finding life
easier in the 1960s.

British society was quite static and conservative till the late 1950s. Its
main concern was reconstruction and stabilisation. As the 1950s came
to an end, there were many changes in living standards, lifestyles and
attitudes. The society of the late 1960s was relatively freewheeling and
differed remarkably from the strait laced and traditionalist society of the
1940s and 1950s.

2.3.2 Life in the 1970s

After the dynamic optimism of the sixties, the seventies proved to be a

decade of disillusionment. The idealistic belief of millions of young
people that they could change the world crumbled into cynicism and
bitterness. From their bitter disillusionment arose a wave of terrorism.
The seventies ushered in a mood of weary disenchantment. The
seventies was essentially a decade of disillusionment.

2.3.3 Life in the 1980s

Thatcher strongly opposed the socialist policies of the labour party. In
the late Seventies and the early Eighties, the main political problem was
the increasing power of the Trade Unions. The credit for curbing this

57
trend goes to Thatcher. A series of four legislative Acts completely
altered the position of the trade unions. Inflation and unemployment
further weakened the once-powerful unions. Gradually, during the early
1980s, culminating in the crushing of the Miners' Strike in 1984-85, the
power of the trade unions was restrained.

The Miner’s Strike

At present, the trade union issue has almost disappeared from the
political scene. Trade union leaders are no longer feared. The powerful
leader Jack Jones was replaced by the weak leaders Moss Evans and
Ron Todd. The decline of the trade unions clearly revealed Britain's
swing back to the right.

Another major policy of the Thatcher government was privatisation. This

had a tremendous impact upon the British economy of the Eighties.
There was a dramatic shift from the public to the private sectors. Two-
thirds of the state-owned commercial sector of 1979 was in private
hands by the 1991-92 election.

The Thatcher government also encouraged property ownership. The

common man was encouraged to buy flats and houses. By 1988, the
number of people owning their own homes had risen by nearly three
million compared with 1979. Several systems of loan were made
available to enable the salaried class to buy themselves a home.

58
Thatcherism has had a profound effect on the quality of British society.
Thatcher claimed that her government's chief objective was to fight
inflation. Although she had succeeded in achieving a new prosperity,
she has often been criticised for producing a sharp division between the
haves and the have-nots.

The Falklands War

An important event of the 1980s was the Falklands War. The Falkland
Islands lie about 350 miles east of Argentina and are a part of the British
Empire. In 1982, Argentina invaded the Islands. Britain responded by
sending troops, ships and planes to the Falklands. After severe fighting
in the air. On sea and the land, and many casualties, England emerged
victorious. There was a lot of negative response to this war as the
number of people killed on both sides outnumbered the total population
of the Falkland Islands.

Simultaneously, Mrs. Thatcher won a lot of admiration for her brave

stand. She proclaimed to a jubilant House of Commons, "Let every
nation know that where there is British sovereign territory, it will be well
and truly defended."

Society

The biggest social event of the decade was the wedding of Prince
Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. An estimated 750 million people
worldwide watched the event on television. July 29th, the wedding day,
was declared a public holiday in Great Britain.

59
 Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer

On the negative side, there was a marked increase in crime and

violence. Compared to the previous decade, the crime figures were
much higher. Even after increasing the number of policemen and making
the punishments more severe, there was no let-up in the incidence of
violence. Sociologists began to investigate the reason for this violence.
Mrs. Thatcher's government blamed the permissiveness of the Sixties.
They felt that there was a breakdown of standards, discipline and
respect for authority.
The opposition found fault with Mrs. Thatcher and her values. They felt
that the new values of the Eighties were responsible for the spreading of
crime. Importance was being given to the individual over wider social
responsibilities. Thatcherism also created a more materialistic attitude.
The new generation had a lot of money and very little discipline. They
were the children of the youth of the 1960s.

Environment

60
Environment and its preservation became vital topics in the political
agenda. The world's worst nuclear catastrophe-- the Chernobyl disaster
left much of Europe reeling under the impact of radioactivity. The
disaster was caused in 1986 by a fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power
station in the Ukraine province of the U.S.S.R. It showed the world that
the environmental crisis was no longer restricted by national borders.
Concern for the environment was further intensified by the discovery that
untold damage had occurred to the earth's ozone layer due to the
commercial use of ozone-depleting chemicals. Due to this, there was
evidence of an increase in cases of skin cancer. This was the result of
the depletion of the ozone layer which acts as a screen to the sun's
harmful ultraviolet rays.

A pressing need to preserve the tropical rain forests of the world was
also recognised. The destruction of these forests was responsible for
creating the "greenhouse effect". In the 1980s, environment thus
became a major concern not only of the politicians but also of the man
on the street.

Foreign affairs

Margaret Thatcher

61
In the U.S.A., Ronald Reagan was elected President. Margaret Thatcher
had a very special relationship with the American President. In fact,
through her influence, she was able to reduce the tension between the
U.S.A and the U.S.S.R. A remarkable change in international politics
was caused by the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev to the leadership of the
U.S.S.R in 1985. He introduced new words to international political
vocabulary when he used "glasnost" and "perestroika". The immediate
result of Gorbachev's policies was an improvement in the East-West
relations. The intensity of the cold war was considerably reduced. In
India, Mrs. Indira Gandhi's assassination by her own bodyguards
shocked people all over the world. Her son Rajiv Gandhi became the
new Prime Minister.

HIV/AIDS

Humankind was faced with a major threat - the killer disease HIV/AIDS
(Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome). The very mention of the word AIDS symbolised fear and
death. People began to feel that it was a judgement on the decadence of
modern civilisation. It became a burning issue and called for urgent
action by all governments to control the spread of the disease, which is
supposed to spread through infected blood and other body fluids. The
United States reported the largest number of cases after Africa.

Arts

Some of the outstanding novels of the decade were Golding's "Rites of

Passage", Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children" and "The Satanic
Verses". Novelists like Philip Roth and Kurt Vonnegut continued to write.
Memorable films of the Eighties include Richard Attenborough's
"Gandhi", Steven Spielberg's "ET" and David Lean's "Passage to India".

62
In the 20th century Education became a sensitive social, economic and
political issue in most European countries. England was no exception. In
the history of English education the most important piece of legislation of
the twentieth century was the Education Act of 1944, also known as the
"Butler Act". It replaced all previous legislation. It became increasingly
clear that education was of vital importance to the nation and to the
individual and the legislation passed necessarily reflected this
conviction. It also reflected political tendencies, as well as the social and
economic needs of the nation.

Education of the individual is the foundation of the education of the

community. The individual's needs are not merely academic and neither
are those of the community. This comes out quite clearly in the 1944
Education Act.

63
 LEARNING ACTIVITY 2.3
Describe 20th Century England.
Note:
a) Write your answer in the space given below.
b) Check your answer with the one given at the end of this Unit.

SUMMARY

In this Unit, we studied the various developments of England during 18 th

-20th Century England. We also discussed the education and scientific
discoveries of that period.

Reference:
Xavier A.G. An Introduction to the Social History of England.
Viswanathan S. Printers, Chennai. 2009.
Wrightson, Keith. A Social History of England, 1500-1750. Cambridge
University Press, 2017

Web Resources:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/education/Western-education-in-the-
19th-century

64
Video links for references:
History of English language and literature
https://www.digimat.in/nptel/courses/video/109106124/L01.html

Tudor England

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvy-Dy3D8Fc
Renaissance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHs7gR8eWKY

Reformation in England
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxYzLCvPyfs

industrial revolution

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QKIts2_yJ0
Agrarian revolution

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pvm7N1XC4Q
French revolution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTTvKwCylFY

65
BLOCK 2 LITERATURE

UNIT – 3 AN ASTROLOGER’S DAY

STRUCTURE

Overview

Learning Objectives

3.1 R.K. Narayan: A Short Biography

3.2 R.K. Narayan As Short-Story Writer

3.3 An Astrologer’s Day: The Text
3.4 An Astrologer’s : Summary:

3.5 Exercises

Summary

OVERVIEW

In the Block-1, we have discussed the history of England. In this Block,

we are going to study a short story and a poem written by two eminent
Indian writers in English, respectively. In this Unit, we will discuss the
brief biography of R.K. Narayan along with his literary career. Then, we
will deal with the major short story collections that ensure R.K. Narayan
was an able Short Story Writer. Moreover, the text of An Astrologer Day
is also given along with a summary. Finally we will work out some
vocabulary and grammar exercises.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After completing this Unit, you should be able to:

● name the literary works of R. K. Narayan

● describe the awards and honours received by R. K. Narayan

● analyse the critical feature of An Astrologer’s Day

66
 ● explain the meaning of a words used by the writer

3.1 R. K. NARAYAN: A SHORT BIOGRAPHY

R.K. Narayan was born on 10 th October, 1906 and died on 13 th May,

2001. He is one of the most famous of Indian novelists in English and a
product of the South Indian middle class family. He remained aloof from
contemporary socio-political issues and explored the South Indian
middle class milieu in his fiction. He is a writer with full commitment to
Hindu ideas. He created an imaginary small town named Malgudi and
depicted middle class life in that town in almost all his works.
Before independence Narayan produced Swami and Friends (1935),
The Bachelor of Arts(1937), The Dark Room(1938) and The English
Teacher(1946). His fictional art seems to reach maturity in his novels
which appeared after independence: The Financial Expert(1952), The
Guide(1958) and The Man Eater of Malgudi(1962). His other novels
include Waiting for Mahatma (1955), dealing with the Gandhian freedom
struggle, The Vendor of Sweets (1967), and The Painter of Signs (1976).

67
In his nineties Narayan added four more novels to his corpus with A
Tiger for Malgudi (1983), Talkative Man(1983), The World of Nagraj
(1990) and Grandmother’s Tale(1992). Narayan succeeded in
universalizing his Malgudi, though a local town, as Hardy universalized
his Wessex. The inhabitants of Malgudi -although they may have their
local identity -are essentially human beings having kinship with all
humanity. In his novels we meet college boys, teachers, guides, tourists,
municipal members, and taxi drivers of Malgudi, but through the
provincial themes he forges a universal vision. He “peoples his novels
with caricatures rather than characters.”

In a career that spanned over sixty years Narayan received many

awards and honours including the AC Benson Medal from the Royal
Society of Literature, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan,
India's second and third highest civilian awards, and in 1994 the Sahitya
Akademi Fellowship, the highest honour of India's national academy of
letters. He also served as nominated member in the Rajya Sabha, the
Council of States of the Indian Parliament between 1986 and 1992.

68
On 8 November 2019, his book Swami and Friends was chosen as one
of BBC's 100 Novels That Shaped Our World.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 3.1

Name any five novels of R.K. Narayan.
Note:
a) Write your answer in the space given below.

69
3.2 R.K. NARAYAN AS SHORT-STORY WRITER

R. K. Narayan said that he found English the most rewarding medium to

employ for his writing because it came to him very easily: “English is a
very adaptable language. And it’s so transparent it can take on the tint of
any country.” Critics frequently praise the unaffected standard English
with which Narayan captures the Indian sensibility, particularly the South
Indian ambiance. His unpretentious style, his deliberate avoidance of
convoluted expressions and complicated grammatical constructions, his
gentle and subtle humor—all this gives his writing an elegant, unforced
simplicity that is perfectly suited to the portrayal of ordinary life, of all
classes and segments of Indian society—household servants,
herdsmen, saints, crooks, merchants, beggars, thieves, hapless
students.
Narayan was essentially an old-fashioned storyteller. With Addisonian
wit, Twainian humor, and Chekhovian irony, he depicted everyday
occurrences, moments of insight; while some of his stories are
essentially sketches, quite undramatic, others feature the ironic
reversals associated with O. Henry. Although Narayan’s characters are
imbued with distinctively Indian values, their dilemmas are universal.
Malgudi Days

Among the nineteen stories in Narayan’s first collection, Malgudi Days,

there are two stories, “Old Bones” and “Neighbours’ Help,” that are laced
with supernatural elements. This volume includes such memorable
stories as “The Gold Belt,” “The White Flower,” “An End of Trouble,” and
“Under the Banyan Tree.” Some of the stories may be viewed as social
criticism; Narayan looks with a satiric eye on various aspects of
traditional South Indian society, particularly the dowry system and the
powerful role of astrology and other forms of superstition.
One of the finest stories in the collection, “The Mute Companions,”
centers on the ubiquitous Indian monkey, a source of meager income for

70
poor people and a source of delight for children. Adopting the omniscient
point of view yet without moralizing or judging, Narayan portrays the life
of Sami the dumb beggar, whose “very existence depended on the
behavior of the monkey.” Having taught the monkey several tricks, Sami
is able for a time to subsist on the earnings of the clever creature, who is
his “only companion.” This brief story is an excellent specimen of
Narayan’s art, revealing his ability to portray a segment of society that
typically goes unnoticed. The story emphasizes the passiveness
characteristic of the poor Indian, his acceptance of his Karma, or fate.
Narayan’s gentle social criticism, too, emerges: “Usually [Sami] avoided
those big places where people were haughty, aloof, and inaccessible,
and kept formidable dogs and servants.” As in many of his stories,
Narayan in “The Mute Companions” blends humor and sadness.
Malgudi Days, it should be noted, is also the title of a later collection,
published in the United States in 1982. Eight of the thirty-two stories in
this collection—“Naga,” “Selvi,” “Second Opinion,” “Cat Within,” “The
Edge,” “God and the Cobbler,” “Hungry Child,” and “Emden”— were
previously uncollected; the remaining stories were selected from
Narayan’s two earlier volumes, An Astrologer’s Day and Lawley Road.

Dodu, and Other Stories

In his second collection, Dodu, and Other Stories, Narayan focused on

themes related to motherly love, South Indian marriages, the financial
and economic frustrations of the middle class, and childhood. Among the
outstanding pieces in this volume of seventeen stories are “Dodu,”
“Gandhi’s Appeal,” “Ranga,” “A Change,” “Forty-five a Month,” and “The
One-Armed Giant.” (Originally published in The Hindu, as most of his
stories have been, “The One- Armed Giant” was the first story that
Narayan wrote.) The title story, “Dodu,” satirically focuses on adult
attitudes toward children. “Dodu was eight years old and wanted money
badly. Since he was only eight, nobody took his financial worries
seriously. . . . Dodu had no illusions about the generosity of his elders.
They were notoriously deaf to requests.” One of the significant
contributions of Narayan is his uncanny ability to portray children—their
dreams, their mischief, their psychology. “Ranga,” an early tale, is a
moving story of a motherless child developing into a disillusioned youth.
“Forty-five a Month” is a simple and tender story of the relationship of a
father and his family—his wife and their young daughter. The conflict
between economic security and the little pleasures of life is evocatively
and movingly delineated; indeed, this depiction of a white-collar worker

71
eking out his dreary existence reflects the experience of an entire
generation in modern India.

Lawley Road

In Lawley Road, as in most of his fiction, Narayan is concerned more

with character than with plot. He notes that he discovers “a story when a
personality passes through a crisis of spirit or circumstances,” but some
stories present flashes of significant moments in characters’ lives without
any dramatic circumstances; others simply show “a pattern of existence
brought to view.” Many of the pieces in this collection have a reportorial
quality—there are sketches and vignettes, character studies and
anecdotes. Of the twenty-eight stories gathered here, fourteen are
reprinted from previous collections. The title story is delightful. Named
after a typical thoroughfare in the fictitious city of Malgudi, the story
recounts how Kabir Lane is renamed as Lawley Road. The narrator is
one of Narayan’s most engaging recurring characters, whom the people
of Malgudi have nicknamed the “Talkative Man,” or TM for short, who
lends distance and historicity to the story. In another strong story, “The
Martyr’s Corner,” the focus is on a humble seller of bondas, dosais
(South Indian snacks), and chappatis (wheat-flour pancakes) rather than
on the violent action. It is the character of the vendor—his dreary and
drab life and his attitude toward existence— that holds the interest of the
reader.

72
A Horse and Two Goats, and Other Stories

A Horse and Two Goats, and Other Stories comprises five stories with
illustrations by Narayan’s brother R. K. Laxman. The title story deals with
Muni, a village peasant, and his meeting with a “red man” from the
United States. The language barrier is responsible for confusion about a
statue and a pair of goats, with hilarious results. The second story,
“Uncle,” is a masterpiece; it slowly unfolds the mystery that teases a
growing boy about his benevolent but inexplicably sinister “uncle.”
“Annamalai” and “A Breath of Lucifer” deal with two simple, hardworking,
faithful servants. Annamalai is an eccentric gardener who attaches
himself to a reluctant master. Sam in “A Breath of Lucifer,” with an
autobiographical preface, is a Christian male nurse. In the end, both
Annamalai and Sam, governed by their own impulses, unceremoniously
leave their masters. “Seventh House,” perhaps a continuation of “The
White Flower” in Lawley Road, dealing in astrology and superstitions,
touchingly explores a husband’s tender devotion to his sick wife. Each of
the five stories is a character study; all the stories are embellished with
picturesque native customs. The dominant tone throughout the collection
is casual, understated.

73
Under the Banyan Tree, and Other Stories

Under the Banyan Tree, and Other Stories is a superb retrospective

collection of twenty-eight tales, published specifically for American
readers; almost all the stories are drawn from earlier volumes. When the
collection appeared on the American scene, several glowing reviews
were published in the leading weeklies and periodicals. This collection
further confirms Malgudi’s place as a great imaginary landscape. The
title story, fittingly taken from Narayan’s first collection, reaffirms
storytelling as a central human activity. The villagers of Somal “lived in a
kind of perpetual enchantment. The enchanter was Nambi the
storyteller.” Yet, having regaled his audience for several years with his
tales, Nambi spends the rest of his life in “great consummate silence.”

74
The Grandmother’s Tale and Selected Stories

The Grandmother’s Tale and Selected Stories (titled The Grandmother’s

Tale, and Other Stories in the paperback edition) was the first collection
of Narayan’s fiction that attempted to give a comprehensive overview of
his more than fifty years of productivity. Many of the stories, including “A
Horse and Two Goats” and “Lawley Road,” have been widely
anthologized for many years. Others, including “Salt and Sawdust” and
the title story, make their first North American appearance in this
collection. Many of the stories are based on humble but complex
characters engaged in daily life in India. As a collection, they
demonstrate the richness of Indian life, which blends ancient tradition
with Western technological modernity, but Narayan’s stories do not call
attention to the setting. Rather, they focus on the characters, showing
with gentle humor the wonderful absurdity that makes one human and
the ironic twists that shape one’s life.

In “Salt and Sawdust,” for example, Narayan presents a childless

housewife who cannot cook—her sense of taste is so bad that she
cannot tell the difference between salt and sawdust. Her poor husband
is forced to take over the cooking, while his wife occupies herself with
writing a novel. However, when the novel is finally completed, the
publisher advises the wife to turn it into a cookbook. Narayan was a
master of the small details that make domestic scenes seem true and
important. Although the wife is made fun of in “Salt and Sawdust,” she is

75
a fully rounded character. The humor is good-natured, and Narayan’s
respect for humans with all their flaws never wavers.

“The Grandmother’s Tale” is adapted from a tale Narayan’s mother told

him about his own great-grandmother. The story is narrated in a winding
fashion by a young boy who is sent to live with his strict grandmother.
Although he resents his new situation at first, he gradually comes under
the spell of the story she tells him, in bits and pieces, about her own
grandmother’s life. The grandmother’s story is set firmly in India. The
heroine is married in a traditional ceremony at the age of seven, but her
husband abandons her to take a new wife. The landscape she crosses
to reclaim her husband is clearly the Indian subcontinent. Ironically,
regaining her husband costs her her independence. “The Grandmother’s
Tale” is unlike many of Narayan’s stories in having a strong and
admirable central female character. The framing device of the boy
narrator reinforces the timelessness and universality of the
grandmother’s story, which is equally powerful to a young Indian boy in a
small village and to adult readers around the world.

As an old-fashioned storyteller, Narayan sought to convey the vitality of

his native India, a land that is full of humanity, oddity, poverty, tradition,
“inherited culture,” picturesqueness. Narayan realized that the short
story is the best medium for utilizing the wealth of subjects available. A
novel is a different proposition altogether, centralized as it is on a major
theme, leaving out, necessarily, a great deal of the available material on
the periphery. Short stories, on the other hand, can cover a wider field
by presenting concentrated miniatures of human experience in all its
opulence.

Narayan’s concern was the heroic in the ordinary Indian. John Updike
affirms that “all people are complex, surprising, and deserving of a
break: this seems to me Narayan’s moral, and one hard to improve
upon. His social range and his successful attempt to convey, in sum, an
entire population shame most American authors, who also, it might be
charged, ‘ignore too much of what could be seen.’” With dignified
simplicity, honesty, and sincerity, Narayan infused his stories with charm
and spontaneous humor; his narrative voice guides the reader through
his comic and ironic world with an unobtrusive wit.

76
 LEARNING ACTIVITY 3.2
Discuss R.K. Narayan as short story writer.
Note:
a) Write your answer in the space given below.

3.3 AN ASTROLOGER’S DAY : THE TEXT

In what follows, we will give you the text of An Astrologer’s Day. Note
that we have numbered the paragraphs for easy reference.

77
(1) Punctually at midday he opened his bag and spread out his
professional equipment, which consisted of a dozen cowrie shells, a
square piece of cloth with obscure mystic charts on it, and a bundle of
palmyra writing. His forehead was resplendent with sacred ash and
vermilion, and his eyes sparkled with a sharp abnormal gleam which
was really an outcome of a continual searching look for customers, but
which his simple clients took to be prophetic light and felt comforted.
The power of his eyes was considerably enhanced by their position
placed as they were between the painted forehead and the dark
whiskers which streamed down his cheeks: even a half-wit's eyes would
sparkle in such a setting. To crown the effect he wound a saffron-
coloured turban around his head. This colour scheme never failed.
People were attracted to him as bees are attracted to cosmos or dahlia
stalks. He sat under the boughs of a spreading tamarind tree which
flanked a path running through the Town Hall Park. It was a remarkable
place in many ways: A surging crowd was always moving up and down
this narrow road morning till night. A variety of traders and occupations
was represented all along its way: medicine sellers, sellers of stolen
hardware and junk, magicians and above all, an auctioneer, of cheap
cloth, who created enough din all day to attract the whole town. Next to
him in vociferousness came a vendor of fried groundnut, who gave his
ware a fancy name each day, calling it 'Bombay Ice-cream' one day,
and on the next 'Delhi Almond' and on the third 'Raja's Delicacy', and so
on and so forth, and people flocked to him. A considerable portion of
this crowd dallied before the astrologer too. The astrologer transacted
his business by the light of a flare which crackled and smoked up above
the groundnut heap near by. Half the enchantment of the place was due
to the fact that it did not have the benefit of municipal lighting. The place
was lit up by old cycle lamps, and one or two, like the astrologer,
managed without lights of their own. It was a bewildering crisscross of
light rays and moving shadows. This suited the astrologer very well, for
the simple reason that he had not the least intended to be an astrologer
when he began life; and he knew no more of what was going to happen
to himself next minute. He was as much a stranger to the stars as were
his innocent customers. Yet he said things which pleased and
astonished everyone; that was more a matter of study, practice, and
shrewd guess work. All the same, it was as much an honest man's
labour as any other, and he deserved the wages he carried home at the
end of a day.

78
(2) He had left his village without previous thought or plan. If he had
continued there he would have carried on the work of his forefather –
namely, tilling the land, living, marrying, and ripening in his cornfield and
ancestral home. But that was not to be. He had to leave home without
telling anyone, and he could not rest till he left it behind a couple of
hundred miles. To a villager it is a great deal, as if an ocean flowed
between.

(3) He had a working analysis of mankind's troubles: marriage, money,

and the tangles of human ties. Long practice had sharpened his
perception. Within five minutes he understood what was wrong. He
charged three pies per question, never opened his mouth till the other
had spoken for at least ten minutes, which provided him enough stuff for
a dozen answers and advices. When he told the person before him,
gazing at his palm, 'In many ways you are not getting the fullest results
for your efforts', nine out of ten were disposed to agree with him. Or he
questioned: 'Is there any woman in your family, may be even a distant
relative, who is not well disposed towards you?'

Or he had an analysis of character: 'Most of your troubles are due to

your nature. How can you be otherwise with Saturn where he is? You
have an impetuous nature and a rough exterior'. This endeared him to
their hearts immediately, for even the mildest of us loves to think that he
has a forbidding exterior.

(4) The nuts vendor blew out his flare and rose to go home. This was a
signal for the astrologer to bundle up too, since it left him in a darkness
except for a little shaft of green light which strayed in from somewhere
and touched the ground before him. He sensed a possible client and

79
said: 'You look careworn. It will do you good to sit down for a while and
chat with me'. The other grumbled some reply vaguely.

The astrologer pressed his invitation; whereupon the other thrust his
palm under his nose saying: 'You call yourself an astrologer?" The
astrologer felt challenged and said, tilting the other's palm towards the
green shaft of light: 'Yours is a nature….."Oh, stop”.

Our friend felt piqued. I charge only three pies per question, and what
you get ought to be good enough for your money'. At this the other
withdrew his arm, took out an anna, and flung it out to him, ping; I have
some questions to ask. If I prove you are bluffing, you must return that
anna to me with interest'.

If you find my answers satisfactory, will you give me five rupees?'

No',
Or will you give me eight annas?'
'All right provided you give me twice as much if you are wrong, 'said the
stranger.

This pact was accepted after a little further argument. The astrologer
sent up a prayer to heaven as the other lit a cheroot. The astrologer
caught a glimpse of his face by the babble of the crowd agitated the
crowd agitated the semi-darkness of the park. The other sat down,
sucking his cheroot, 'puffing out sat there ruthlessly. The astrologer felt
very comfortable. ‘Here, take your anna back. I am not used to such
challenges. It is late for me today… made preparations to bundle up.
The other held his wrist and said; 'You can't get out of it now. You
engaged me in while I was passing'.

The astrologer shivered in his grip and his voice shook and became int,
'Leave me today. I will speak to you tomorrow'. The other thrust his
palm and said 'Challenge is challenge. Go on', The astrologer
proceeded with his throat drying up. There is a woman…

80
'Stop,' said the other. ‘I don’t want all that. Shall I succeed in my
present search or not?

‘I will not let you go till you disgorge all your coins'. The astrologer
muttered an incantation and replied: 'All right. I will speak. But will you
give me a rupee if what I say is convincing? Otherwise I will not open
my mouth, and you may do what you like'. After a good deal of haggling
the other agreed. The astrologer said:

'You were left for dead. Am I right"

'Ah, tell me more'.

'A knife was passed through you once?' said the astrologer.

'Good fellow!' He bared his chest to show the scar, 'what else?'
'And then you were pushed into a well nearby in the field. You were left
for dead'. I should have been dead if some passer-by had not chanced
to peep into the well,' exclaimed the other, overwhelmed by enthusiasm.
'When shall I get at him?' he asked clenching his fist. 'In the next world,'
answered the astrologer. 'He died four months ago in a far-off town. You
will ever see any more of him'. The other groaned on hearing it. The
astrologer proceeded:

'Guru Nayak…….'

'You know my name?' the other said, taken aback.

'As I know all other things. Guru Nayak, listen carefully to what I have to
say. Your village is two day's journey due north of this town. Take the
next train and be gone. I see once again great danger to 'your life if you
go home. 'He took out a pinch of sacred ash and held it to him. 'Rub it
on your forehead and go home. Never travel south ward again, and you
will live to be a hundred'.

'Why should I leave home again?' the other said reflectively. 'I was only
going away now and then to look for him and to choke out his life if I met
him'. He shook his head regretfully. 'He has escaped my hands. I hope
at least he died as he deserved'. 'Yes, 'said the astrologer. 'He was
crushed under a lorry' the other looked gratified to hear it.

81
(9) The place was deserted by the time the astrologer picked up his
articles and put them into his bag. The green shaft was also gone,
leaving the place in darkness and silence. The stranger had gone off into
the night, after giving the astrologer a handful of coins.

(10) It was nearly midnight when the astrologer reached home. His wife
was waiting for him at the door and demanded an explanation.

He flung the coins at her and said: 'Count them. One man gave all that'.
'Twelve and a half annas', she said, counting. She was overjoyed. 'I
can buy some jaggery and coconut tomorrow. The child has been
asking for sweets for so many days now. I will prepare some nice stuff
for her'.

'The swine has cheated me! He promised me a rupee', said the

astrologer. She looked up at him. 'You look worried. What is wrong?'

'Nothing'.

(11) After dinner, sitting on the pyol, he told her: 'Do you know a great
load is gone from me today? I thought I had the blood of a man on my
hands all these years. That was the reason why I ran away from home,
settled down here, and married you. He is alive'.

She gasped. 'You tried to kill!'

'Yes, in our village, when I was a silly youngster. We drank, gambled,

and quarreled badly one day-why think of it now? 'Time to sleep,' he said
yawning, and stretched himself on the pyol.

Do you think the story is interesting? The element of suspense in the

story makes it interesting. Wasn’t it? That is, while reading the story,
we cannot easily guess the end of the story. Or, were you able to guess
the end even while you were half-way through?

82
Glossary
Some of the words used in the text may be new to you. We have listed
below the meanings of some of the words for your benefit:

● cowrie shells a kind of shell

● obscure hard to understand, not clear,

● mystic concerning magic, not easily understood

● resplendent bright, shining

● abnormal different (usually in a bad sense) from what
is ordinary or expected, peculiar

● gleam brightness, (of a feeling) to be expressed with

a sudden light (in the eyes)
● client (here) the customer, one who comes to sek
to advice.

● enhanced increased
● stream down flow down
● half-wit a person of weak mind.
● wound (past tense of wind) placed around (the head)
several times.
● cosmos a type of garden plant with show pink, white or
red flowers.
● dablia any of several type of brightly-coloured big
garden flowers.
● stalk a long narrow part of a plant supporting one or
more leaves, flowers, fruits.

● flanked be placed beside, passed by

● surging moving (forward)

● hardware goods for the home and garden such as pans,
tools etc.

● junk old useless things

● auctioneer one who conducts a public sale of goods to
the person who offers the most money

83
● din a loud, continuous, confused and unpleasant
noise.

● vociferousness (something) expressed noisily or by shouting

● vendor seller of small articles that can be carried about
or pushed on a cart.

● fried roasted,
● was (here) things for food

● flocked together or move in large number

● dally loiter, spend time idly or waste time.

● flare (here) fire

● cracked gave slight sharp sudden repeated sound

● enchantment delightful influence, that which fills one with
delight

● shrewd well- reasoned, clever in judgment

● tangle confused state

● tie bond, relationship, something that unites
● perception keen natural understanding
● disposal to likely to
● Saturn the planet (6th in order from the Sun)
● impetuous acting suddenly without giving a thought

● exterior the outer appearance

● forbidding having a fierce, unfriendly look

● shaft a beam of light coming through an opening

● paraphernalia a number of small articles of various kinds
● blot out to cover, hide

● sense to have a feeling, without being told directly

● careworn showing the effect of worry, anxiety or grief

● pique to make angry by hurting the pride

● bluff to deceive by pretending to be sure of the truth

● pact an agreement
● babble (here) confused sound of many people taking

84
● cheroot cigar

● ruthlessly cruelly

● shiver tremble from fear

● disgorge (here) to give back to the owner

● incantation (the saying of) words used in magic.

● haggle to argue over something, (especially over fixing
a price)

● clench to close tightly

● reflectively thoughtfully
● choke out stop breath of

● regretfully feeling sorry about

● swine (old use) pig, (here) a disliked unpleasant
person.
● gasp catch the breath suddenly and in a way that can
be heard because of surprise or shock

LEARNING ACTIVITY 3.3

Who are the major characters in the story?
Note:
a) Write your answer in the space given below.

85
3.4 AN ASTROLOGER’S DAY: SUMMARY

"The Astrologer's Day" is a short story which deals with a day in the life
of an ordinary but fake astrologer. The setting of the story is atown,
Malgudi which is located in South India, near to Madras. It is not a story
of contemporary times but pre - independence times.

The story opens at the midday. This is the time when the astrologer
opens his business. The writer describes how he begins his business.
He removes all his professional equipment like cowries shells, charts,
Palmyra writing etc. He is also dressed typically like an astrologer to
attract customers. His forehead is bright with sacred ashand vermilion.
His eyes are assumed to have a prophetic light by his customers. He
wears a saffron turban. Thus the astrologer presented himself so
perfectly that he was consequently a point of attraction forall the people.

The writer describes the path along the Town Hall Park where the
astrologer sits to lure his prospective customers. He carried on his
business under a tamarind tree on the Town Hall road. The path was the
right place to carry on his business as it was amply crowded with
different trades and traders like medicine sellers, hardware and junk,
magicians, cloth - sellers etc. Next to him sat a fried groundnut vendor
whose gas light enabled him to carry on his business even after sunset.
The astrologer was a shrewd person who hardly had any knowledge of
astrology. He just made a guess work when people approached him. He
had to work hard to earn his wages. He had absconded from his native
village since he didn't want to continue the traditional occupation of his
forefathers i.e. farming. He never had any plans to return to his native
village.He was a mastermind at analyzing human mind and psychology.
His strong perception made him diagnose the exact problem of his
customers. His customers would finally leave satisfied.

86
He closed his shop for the day when his neighbor, a groundnut vendor
blew out his light. On the day under description in the story, the
groundnut vendor left and the astrologer was packing up his wares when
he located a man standing before him. He perceived him to be his
prospective customer. When the astrologer invited him, he posed a
challenge before him and his astrological science. They have a deal
between them. The man gave him an anna and asked the astrologer to
answer his questions and if he doesn't answer satisfactorily he will have
to return the anna with interest. At the same time if the astrologer is able
to answer the questions satisfactorily he would give him eight annas. But
if the astrologer fails, he would pay double amount i.e.,sixteen annas to
the man. Thus the deal was finalized between them. The astrologer
prayed to the heaven. Then suddenly the astrologer denied the
challenge and requested the man to let him go. The man said that he will
not let him give in. He holds him in his grip there by making the
astrologer shiver. Finally, the astrologer realized that he is trapped and
has no chance of moving out. The man turned out to be a criminal by
profession.

The astrologer shivered and unwillingly accepted the challenge.He

started telling about some woman but the man was not satisfied and
stopped him. He had a single question that whether he would get what
he was searching for. The man promised the astrologer that if he is
satisfied with his answers, he would pay him a rupee. The astrologer
prayed a few incantations before replying. The astrologer began with his
prophecies by saying to the man that you were left for dead in the past
and a knife has passed once on your chest. The man was excited at this
information since he had really faced it. After he got wounded, he was
thrown into a well nearby to die. A passerby saw him and rescued him
and that is how he was saved from dying. The man was waiting to
revenge the culprit who had attacked him and was in search of the

87
culprit who had tried to kill him. The only thing which the man wanted to
know from the astrologer was if he can find his killer.

The astrologer instantly replied that the culprit had died four months ago
in a far - off town. The man was disappointed to hear this. The astrologer
identified the name of the man before him as Guru Nayak. He told the
man that his village was a two days' journey to north and warned him to
go back home and never to travel south again. He asked him to return to
his home town immediately as his life was in danger if he left his home
town again. The man replied that he left home just to search the culprit
who had tried to kill him and was interested in knowing if he had died in
a worst way. The astrologer satisfied him by informing that the culprit
was crushed under a lorry. The man left after giving the astrologer a
handful of coins. The astrologer too winded up his belongings and went
home.

The astrologer's wife was waiting for him worriedly since he was
unusually late that day. The astrologer flung the coins at his wife to
count. They were twelve and a half annas in all. She was extremely
happy to encounter that big amount. She planned to buy jaggery and
coconut for their child, who was demanding for sweets from a longtime.
However, the astrologer looked worried and was not happy like his wife.
He was angry at Guru Nayak as he had cheated him. He promised to
give a rupee and actually gave only twelve and a halfannas. After dinner,
he shared the secret of his life with his wife. He said that a great burden
of his life was gone that day. He always felt that he had killed Guru
Nayak. So the astrologer had run away from his native village due to the
fear of being accused as a murderer. He settled in Malgudi and married
and decided that he would never return back to his native village.
Actually the man who tried to kill Guru Nayak was the astrologer himself.
So he was able to make accurate predictions about him though he
hardly knew astrology. The astrologer confessed to his wife that in his
youth he was into bad company with Guru Nayak. He drank, gambled
and quarreled badly one day and had a fight and had almost killed Guru
Nayak.

88
This is how life with its unpredictable twists and turns had created an
astrologer out of a vagabond

LEARNING ACTIVITY 3.4

Write a short note on Guru Nayak.
Note:
a) Write your answer in the space given below.

3.5 EXERCISES

(A) Having read the story second time, can you say whether the
following statements are true or false:

i) The astrologer had killed a man in his youth.

ii) His wife knew about the crime he had committed.

89
 iii) The man had come in order to expose the dishonesty of the
astrologer.

iv) The astrologer immediately recognized the man.

v) The astrologer and the man belonged to the same village.

vi) Guru Nayak was the astrologer's name.

vii) Guru Nayak's enemy had been crushed under a lorry.

viii) When the astrologer went home, he immediately told his wife the
truth about himself and Guru Nayak.
ix) The astrologer escaped from dangerous situation without making
use of his astrological powers.

Now, look at the correct answers given below:

(i) False (ii) False (iii) False (iv) False (v) True (vi) False (vii) False
(viii) False (ix) True

(B) In case we read the story carefully now, we will feel slightly
differently about the suspense element. Why? Not just because we
know the end now, but because we will realize that the author actually
prepares us for the end. In other words, the author has given ("planted",
if we may say so) some hints here and there in the story and we are
expected to take these hints.
You may now read the story again and try to find answers to the
following questions:

i) Is there anything in paragraph (2), which should prepare us for

the end?

ii) At what point exactly does the astrologer recognize the man?
Give the exact paragraph and the opening and closing words of
the sentence(s).

iii) Did the astrologer send out a shocked cry on looking at the
man's face? If he did, why was the cry not heard?

90
 iv) Why does the man not recognize the astrologer? There are a
number of reasons. State all of them.

v) By the time the man came, the nuts vendor had already closed
the shop and gone. But suppose he had been there, would the
story have taken a different turn? Read paragraphs (1) and (4)
carefully before you answer the question.

vi) Why does the astrologer suddenly say, "Here, take your anna
back …” etc?

vii) At what stage does the astrologer remain composed (i.e., calm)
and in fact even becomes defiant?

viii) Why does not astrologer say the man's name even at the
beginning, i.e., immediately after recognizing him? Wouldn't that
have impressed the man and proved the astrologer's skill?

ix) Why does the astrologer say that the man's enemy was killed in
a far-off town?

x) Why does the astrologer say that Guru Nayak's enemy was
"crushed under a lorry"? Why does he not say, for example, that
he "died of fever"?

SUMMARY

In this unit, we have discussed the life and literary career of R.K.
Narayan and his role as Short Story writer. Then, we have read the text
of ‘An Astrologer's Day’ .There after, we have dealt with some exercises.

91
 UNIT 4 - BANGLE SELLERS

STRUCTURE
Overview
Learning Objectives

4.1 Life and Works of Sarojini Naidu

4.1.2 Life

4.1.2 Writings

4.2 Bangle Sellers: Poem

4.2.1 Analysis
Summary

OVERVIEW

In this Unit, we will be discussing the life and works a well acclaimed
poetess Sarojini Naidu. Then, we will study her major poem Bangle
Sellers. Then, we will analyse the poem stanza by stanza for deep
understanding.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After completing this Unit, you should be able to:

● describe the life and works of Sarojini Naidu

● examine the patriotism of the poetess
● discuss the movements for women rights
● analyse the theme of Bangle Sellers

4.1 LIFE AND WORKS OF SAROJINI NAIDU

Life

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Sarojini Naidu was born on 13 February, 1879 in Hyderabad. Her father,
Dr Aghorenath Chattopadhya, was an educationist and a leading
scientist. Her mother, though not as well known as her father, was
something of a poet and is said to have had a strong influence on
Sarojini.

Kings College, London

After matriculating from Hyderabad, Sarojini went to England, studying

at Kings College, London and Girton, Cambridge. However, she fell ill
and had to return to India in 1898, the year in which she also married.
She became a nationalist and supporter of women's rights early in life,
working with the Congress, the Muslim League, and the Indian Social
Conference. Among the various campaigns to redress the lot of women
that she was involved in were campaigns for widow remarriages and
women's education and suffrage, i.e., their right to vote.

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In 1914, she volunteered to work with Gandhi. She describes her
meeting with him in London in August of that year. Unable to meet his
ship, she went hunting for his lodgings in Kensington in London. When
she finally found the place she described the scene thus.

Mr. Gandhi and the Poetess

She saw an open door framing a living picture of a little man with a
shaven head, seated on the floor on a black prison blanket and eating a
messy meal of squashed tomatoes and olive oil out of a wooden prison
bowl. Around him were ranged some battered tins of parched ground
nuts and tasteless biscuits of dried plantain flour. I burst instinctively into
happy laughter at this amusing and unexpected vision of a famous
leader whose name had already become a household word in our
country. He lifted his eyes and laughed back at me saying, "Ah, you
must be Mrs. Naidu! Who else would dare to be so irreverent?"
That was the beginning of a long and lasting friendship. In 1917, Sarojini
Naidu led the delegation to meet Montague for women's suffrage; in
1918 she was instrumental in having a resolution passed supporting
women's franchise at the Special Congress Session in Bombay; and in
1919 she went to England as a member of the Home Rule League
deputation to give evidence before the Joint Parliamentary Committee

94
where she put forward the case for women's suffrage. In 1919 she
became a campaigner for women's Satyagraha, travelling all over India
to propagate the cause. She appealed in particular to women to agitate
against the Rowlatt Act.

In 1920 Sarojini Naidu was asked at a conference in Geneva why she

took to politics. Her answer was: 'I think it is inevitable that one should
become interested in politics if one is a true Indian. The importance of
Hindu Muslim unity appealed to me. I lived in a Mohammedan city, and
you see, I had so many Mohammedan friends…. I have taken part in all
their political and educational movements. I have presided over their
meetings and spoken at mosques. That is the thing, which counts most
among men and women, especially men. The first political speech I
made was at the meeting of the Muslim League.'

In 1920 she joined the Non-Co-operation Movement. During the 1921

riots in Bombay following the protest against the visit of the Prince of
Wales to the city, Sarojini Naidu visited the riot-torn areas to persuade
people of the need for Hindu-Muslim unity.

Similarly, she went to Moplah during the rebellion to quieten the

situation, criticising government action during it. In the 1920s she
supported the Akalis, joining their marches to protest the ban against
them. In 1924 she went to South Africa, presided at a session of the
East African Congress, and criticised the Anti-Historic Bill. In 1925 she
was elected President of the Indian National Congress, being the first
Indian woman to become so. In 1928 she went to the United States and
lectured on Katherine Mayo's Mother India, trying to counter the wide
impact of that book.

Bhabani Bhattacharya, writing about her, remarks: 'On one occasion,

speaking at a meeting of the World Alliances of Peace, when the flags of
70 countries bedecked the banquet room she said sharply to the
audience: "Where is the flag of India?"'

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Writings

As a child, Sarojini was a very bright student. She was proficient in 5

languages; Hindi, English, Persian, Urdu, Telugu and Bengali. She
began writing fiction at the age of 12. Her father, after she aced her
matriculation exams from the Madras University, wanted her to be a
mathematician but Sarojini expressed her desire to be a poet. She wrote
a poem that was 1300 lines long called “Lady Of The Lake” which
impressed her father, who went on to encourage her work. Her Persian
play “Maher Muneer” was well received by the Nawab of Hyderabad,
Nizam who subsequently granted her a scholarship to study overseas.

In 1905, her first collection of poems was published under the title “The
Golden Threshold”. Later, her poem collections “The Bird Of Time” and
“The Broken Wings” were published. Both of these attracted a wide
readership in India and England. She also wrote essays and articles
about her political views and women’s rights issues in India. In 1961, her
daughter Padmaja helped in editing and publishing of her poem
collection “The Feather Of The Dawn” posthumously.
Sarojini Naidu is one of the most celebrated poets of India known for the
lyrical and musical nature of her writings, using many rhymes and
meters filled with rich imagery. This earned her the title “Nightingale of
India” from Mahatma Gandhi for her beautiful poetry. Her birthday is
celebrated as National Women’s Day in India.
She died on March 2nd , 1949 and until her death, she served her role as
the governor of united provinces in Agra and Oudh. Sarojini will live on
as the major contributors in India’s freedom movement as well as the
women’s rights movement.

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 LEARNING ACTIVITY 4.1
Describe Sarojini Naidu’s political life.
Note:
a) Write your answer in the space given below.

4.2 BANGLE SELLERS: THE POEM

In this Section, we will look at one of the interesting poems of Sarojini

Naidu,. Bangle Sellers

Bangle sellers are we who bear

Our shining loads to the temple fair...

Who will buy these delicate, bright

Rainbow-tinted circles of light?

Lustrous tokens of radiant lives,

For happy daughters and happy wives.

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 Some are meet for a maiden's wrist,

Silver and blue as the mountain mist,

Some are flushed like the buds that dream

On the tranquil brow of a woodland stream,

Some are aglow with the bloom that cleaves

To the limpid glory of new born leaves

Some are like fields of sunlit corn,

Meet for a bride on her bridal morn,

Some, like the flame of her marriage fire,

Or, rich with the hue of her heart's desire,

Tinkling, luminous, tender, and clear,
Like her bridal laughter and bridal tear.

Some are purple and gold flecked grey

For she who has journeyed through life midway,
Whose hands have cherished, whose love has blest,
And cradled fair sons on her faithful breast,

And serves her household in fruitful pride,

And worships the gods at her husband's side.

Glossary

● bangle sellers people selling bangles

● meet right, correct, appropriate
● flushed coloured (red in colour)

● tranquil quite, peaceful

● aglow glowing with light

● cleaves separates, cuts

● limpid clean

● luminous bright, shiny

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 ● flecks small, speck or dots

● cherished loved

● bear carry
● lustrous shiny

● stream a tiny river

● sunlit bright with sunlight

● hue colour

● pride satisfaction

4.2.1 ANALYSIS

The Bangle Sellers’ is a poem exploring the life of Indian women, the
Indian culture and traditions revolving around women. In most of her
poems, Sarojini Naidu writes on the theme of Indian culture and people.
Her poems are focused on Indian settings and this poem makes no
exception. In its Indianness, the poem resembles another poem of hers,
In the Bazaars of Hyderabad.
The poem revolves around bangles, which is an important ornament for
’embellishment’ of women in Indian Society. In the poem, the bangle
sellers are at the temple fair and they shout out to the people passing by
to have a look at their bangles. They urge them to buy bangles for their
daughters and wives.
The entire poem has a structure where each stanza focuses on a
particular theme. The first stanza depicts the merchants touting at the
temple fair to attract the attention of the people passing by. The
consequent stanzas focus on bangles of various colours the seller have
for women of all different ages.
The poem The Bangle Sellers has a simple rhyme scheme of aabbcc for
each stanza. With mostly octosyllabic lines the poem has no distinctive
metre, but one has an apprehension of the same due to the use of easy
language and a general fluidity of words. Use of clever similes has made
it a beauty.
The poem begins with the speakers introducing themselves as bangle
sellers who sell their articles at the temple fair. They call out to the
people to buy their bangles. These hawkers describe their bangles as

99
delicate, bright, rainbow-tinted circles of light. They advertise by
questioning who will buy these bangles for their daughters and wives.
It is important to note here that though the speakers of the poem are
several, it appears as if there is a single speaker. This is due to the fact
that they all have the same purpose and are thus seen singularly as a
‘class essence’. Also, the Bangles here are called ‘lustrous tokens of
radiant lives‘. It shows us the Indianness of the poem, where bangles
are bought on special occasions and are associated with happiness and
prosperity.
The second stanza onward, the speakers talk of the kinds of bangles
they have. Some of these bangles are suited for a maiden’s, that is, a
young unmarried woman’s wrist. They are Silver and Blue in colour like
the mountain mist. Some of them are ‘flushed’, that is pink and light red
in colour like flower buds growing beside a woodland stream. Still others
are green and glowing like the transparent beauty of new born leaves.
In Indian society, bangles have an important cultural and religious place.
Different coloured bangles are worn by women in different stages of life.
Blue, Silver, and Green are generally worn by young maidens. It is
interesting to note that the poet here uses the words ‘flushed like the
buds that dream.’ The word ‘buds’ here is suggestive of chastity. ‘Buds
that dreams‘ present before us an image of young girls dreaming of
marriage. In this stanza, the poet presents the stage of youth in a
woman’s life.
In the third stanza, the bangle sellers say that some of their bangles are
yellow like ‘fields of sunlit corn‘. Bangles of this colour are perfect for a
bride on her bridal morn. Some of the bangles they have are bright red.
They represent the flame of a newly turned bride’s marriage fire, that is,
the passion of her newly made relation. The red bangles also stand for
her heart’s desire. The bangles are ‘tinkling, luminous, tender and clear’.
They express both her joy of starting a new life with her husband and the
sorrow of leaving her parents behind.

What we find striking is the use of the words ‘bridal laughter and bridal
tears.’ These words convey the whole of a woman’s transition in life from
a maiden to a wife and all the emotions attached with it in a single
line. This stanza marks the transition of life from a maiden to a wife.
In the final stanza of the poem The Bangle Sellers, the speakers
continue to advertise their bangles. They shout that some of their
bangles are purple and gold flecked grey. These are suited for a middle-
aged woman who has ‘journeyed through life’. They are for her who has

100
raised her children well, and has remained faithful to her husband and
family. These bangles are, they say, perfect for she who has maintained
her household with pride and “worships the gods at her husband’s side“.
In this stanza, the poet writes down what she perceives as the qualities
of a good wife. Such a woman is truly deserving of the purple and gold
flecked grey bangles in her eyes. Here we should pay attention to the
word ‘sons’ used to mean offspring. While it could be a happy
coincidence, it could also suggest the ingrained attitude of male
preference in the society of Sarojini Naidu’s times.
The poem, ‘The bangle Sellers’ is a celebration of the female life. It
shows us the various stages of a woman’s life and attempts to represent
the Indian culture and the role of bangle sellers in the traditional set up.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 4.2

Who is the speaker in the poem? What picture do you get from reading the
whole poem?
Note:
a) Write your answer in the space given below.

101
SUMMARY

In this Unit, we have discussed the life, education, political and literary
career of Sarojini Naidu. And then we have learned why she was called
as the Nightingale of India. Further, we have read her poem Bangle
Sellers and also analysed the poem.

102
 UNIT – 5 GRAMMAR EXERCISE
STRUCTURE

Overview
Learning Objectives

5.1 Test Your Vocabulary

5.1.1 Pronunciation
5.1.2 Grammar

Summary

OVERVIEW
In this fifth Unit, let's deal with a few grammatical components of English
language with the support of the short story and the poem that we have
studied in the Units 4 and 5. Vocabulary is a power of a speaker and a
writer so that learning vocabulary is important. Similarly, correct
pronunciation is helpful for appropriate communication. We are also
going to study how pause is needed while speaking. Then, we will
discuss the use of interrogative pronouns in sentences.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After completing this Unit, you should be able to:

● explain the importance of vocabulary skill

● practice to read a sentence with pause
● write a sentence using the interrogative pronouns

5.1 TEST YOUR VOCABULARY

103
Let us now fill in the blanks in the following sentences with suitable
words chosen from An Astrologer's Day (the paragraph numbers where
you can find the words are given in brackets):

i) The people who go to a lawyer or astrologer are called his

…………… (paragraph 1)
ii) If you walk through Sultan Bazaar you will see and hear traders
announcing their ………….. (paragraph 1)
iii) The beggar's hair was all in a ……………. (paragraph 3)
iv) A man's ……………. does not necessarily reveal his real nature
(paragraph 3)
v) A soldier always feels ………………… when someone doubts his
courage (paragraph 4)
vi) Whenever I do any shopping, I pay the price that the shopkeeper
demands; I never engage in……… (paragraph 7).
vii) There was a bandh in Vijayawada last Monday; even the railway
station, usually, a very busy place, was quite …………… (
paragraph 9)
viii) The speech was so boring that everyone was ……………
(paragraph 11).

Check your answers with the correct ones given below:

(i) clients (ii) wave (iii) tangle (iv) exterior (v) challenged (vi)
haggling (vii) deserted (viii) yawning

Now, find single words or phrases from the text which have the following
meanings (the relevant paragraph numbers are given in brackets):

104
 i) a disgusting person (10)

ii) utter in a breathless, surprised way (11)

iii) noisy; yelling (1)

iv) person who sells goods to the highest bidder (1)

v) agreement (6)
vi) troubled by anxiety (4)

vii) deceive (somebody) (5)

viii) words used as a spell or prayer (7)

ix) ready or willing (3)

x) violent and swift (3)

The correct answers are given below:

(i) swine (ii) gasped (iii) vociferous (iv) auctioneer (v) pact (vi)
careworn (vii) bluff (viii) incantation (ix)disposed (x) impetuous

Let us now take up a spelling test. Correct the spelling mistakes, if any,
in the following words:

(i) innosent (ii) forbiding (iii) resplendant (iv) auctioner (v) vocipherous
(vi) parafernalia (vii) vender (viii) shreud (ix) babble (x) chellange

Now, look at the correct spellings given below:

(i) innocent (ii) forbidding (iii) resplendent (iv) auctioneer (v)

vociferous (vi) paraphernalia (vii) vendor (viii) shrewd (ix) correct
(x) challenge

105
5.1.1 Pronunciation

Sentences may be short or long. A short sentence is usually taken as

one group and said without any pause. Consider the examples given
below:

● This is a good colour scheme.

● The temple was brightly lit up.

● Our friends felt bored.

However, it is possible that even a short sentence sometimes has two

groups as shown in the example given below:

● Unfortunately, he was late.

In the sentence above, there are two groups: the first word, by itself,
constitutes one group, while the rest of the words make up the second.

Note that while saying long sentences, we pause at certain places. For
this purpose, we divide a long sentence into two or more groups. Let us
consider an example of a long sentence, taken from the passage, below:

106
 Punctually at midday/he opened his bag and spread out his
professional equipment/which consisted of a dozen cowrie
shells/a square piece of cloth with obscure mystic charts on
it./and a bundle of palmyra writing.

He charged three pies per question/never opened his mouth

till the other had spoken for at least ten minutes/which
provided him enough stuff for a dozen answers.

Generally, punctuation marks give us a clue. For example, commas

indicate the end of one group and the beginning of another. Keeping the
discussion in mind, let us now divide each of the following sentences
into groups and, where possible, indicate stress:

i) All the same, it was as much an honest man's labour as any

other, and he deserved the wages he carried home at the end of
a day.

ii) To a villager it is a great deal, as if an ocean flowed between.

iii) "In the next world”, answered the astrologer.

iv) The green shaft was also gone, leaving the place in darkness
and silence.

v) To crown the effect he wound a saffron-coloured turban around

his head.

vi) One or two had hissing gaslights, some had naked flares struck
on poles, some were lit up by old cycle lamps, and one or two,
like the astrologer's managed without lights of their own.

vii) He picked up his cowrie shells, and paraphernalia and was

putting them back into his bag when the green shaft of light was
blotted out.

107
viii) His wife was waiting for him at the door and demanded an
explanation.

Look at the answers below:

i) All the same/it was as much an honest man's labour as any
other,/ and he deserved the wages he carried home at the end of
a day.
ii) To a villager it is a great deal, /as if an ocean flowed between.

iii) "In the next world" /answered the astrologer.

iv) The green shaft was also gone/leaving the place in darkness and
silence.

v) To crown the effect/he wound a saffron-coloured turban around

his head.
vi) One or two had hissing gaslights,/some had naked flares stuck
on poles,/ some were lit up by old cycle lamps,/and one or
two,/like the astrologer's managed without lights of their own.
vii) He picked up his cowrie shells,/ and paraphernalia and was
putting them back into his bag/when the green shaft of light was
blotted out.
viii) His wife was waiting for him at the door/and demanded an
explanation.

5.1.2 Grammar

Look at the following sentences:

i) Next to him in vociferousness came a vendor of fried groundnuts

who gave his ware a fancy name every day.

ii) Yet he said things which pleased and astonished everyone.

108
The underlined parts in the two sentences are known as adjective or
relative clauses. They function as adjectives, qualifying a noun, in the
main clause, and hence the name. The noun in the sentence is vendor
in sentence (i) and things in sentence (ii). But, though both are relative
clauses, they are different in kind from each other. The relative clause in
sentence (i) is a non-restrictive relative clause (also called a non-
defining relative clause), while the relative clause in sentence (ii) is a
restrictive relative clause (also called a defining relative clause).

What is the difference between the two?

A restrictive (defining) relative clause, as the name suggests, defines,
specifies and narrows down the meaning denoted by the noun, which it
qualifies. Thus in sentence (ii) above, the restrictive relative clause used
makes it clear that the vendor said those things, and only those things,
which pleased and astonished everyone. On the other hand, the non-
restrictive relative clause used in sentence (i) merely provides additional
information about the vendor.

To understand the distinction better, let us take another pair of

sentences:

(a) My sister, who is in New Delhi, has got a baby.

(b) My sister who is in New Delhi has got a baby.
Sentence (a) has a non-restrictive relative clause. The relative clause
merely provides additional information about ‘my sister’ and that
information is not essential for identifying the noun, i.e., my sister. The
sentence means: ‘My sister is in New Delhi and she has got a baby’. The
inference is that ‘I have only one sister who is in New Delhi, not the
sister who is in Bombay.)

Let us look at yet another pair:

(c) The children, who were in the basement, escaped alive.

(d) The children who were in the basement escaped alive.

The sentence (c) has a non-restrictive relative clause and it means ‘all
the children were in the basement and all of them escaped alive and
there were no children in other parts of the building’. Sentence (d) has a
restrictive relative clause and the sentence means ‘only those children
who were in the basement escaped alive’. The inference here is that

109
there were children in other parts of the building and those children were
killed.
Note that a restrictive relative clause is written without commas and a
non-restrictive relative clause is written with commas.

Given below are pairs of sentences. Convert the second sentence of

each pair into a relative clause and combine it with the first sentence to
form a complex sentence.

(1) The PC costs Rs.35000/- I bought the PC last month.

(2) Mohan is a hen-pecked husband. Mohan is shorter than his wife.

(3) This is the gentleman. I spoke to you about the gentleman.

(4) This book was given to me by Mr. Anand. The book has
attractive pictures.
(5) This is the book. I took all my quotations from this book.

(6) Mr. Gopal is an assistant in the Corporation. Mr. Gopal has two
children.
Look at the answers now.

(1) The PC, which I bought last month, costs Rs.35000/-

(2) Mohan, who is shorter than his wife, is a hen-pecked husband.

(3) This is the gentleman (that) I spoke to you about.

(4) This book, which has attractive pictures, was given to me by Mr.
Anand.

(5) This is the book from which I took all my quotations.

(6) Mr. Gopal, who has two children, is an assistant in the
Corporation

110
 LEARNING ACTIVITY 5.1
Give two examples of relative clause.

Note:
a) Write your answer in the space given below.

SUMMARY
In this Unit, we have discussed the substitute words,
pronunciations and relative clauses that are helpful for good
speaking and writing in English.

Reference
Sethi J . A Handbook of Pronunciation of English Words. India: Prentice
Hall India Learning Private Limited, 1993.

Web Resources:

https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/Malgudi_Days/weBwBtm1TTkC?
hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Narayan+R.K.+Short+Story+Collections&printsec=fr
ontcover

111
https://allpoetry.com/The-Bangle-Sellers
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/

https://literariness.org/2019/11/23/analysis-of-r-k-narayans-stories/

Video links:

Short stories
https://www.digimat.in/nptel/courses/video/109106138/L46.html

An Astrologer’s Day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjAo91rKyRg
Bangle Sellers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcNZRQYk3kk

112
BLOCK 3 READING COMPREHENSION

UNIT – 6 READING FOR UNDERSTANDING

Overview

Learning Objectives
6.1 Meaning of Reading
6.1.1 Definition

6.1.2 Reading Comprehension

6.1.3 Why Reading Comprehension Is Important

6.1.4 Levels of Reading Comprehension

6.1.5 Three Types of Questions

Summary

OVERVIEW
Reading is one of the four fundamental language skills, namely,
listening, speaking, reading and writing. Generally, listening and reading
skills are considered ‘passive’, while speaking and writing skills are
considered ‘active’. But this is observed as a wrong perception. Reading
is as much an active skill as writing in that while reading we actively
interact with the writer through the text to get his or her message. As
distance learners, most of the time during our studies we spend our time
in reading, and therefore it is important for us to come to grips with
reading comprehension.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After completing this Unit, you should be able to:

● describe ‘reading comprehension’;

● illustrate the levels of reading

● explain the strategies of reading

113
6.1 MEANING OF READING

6.1.1 Definition
The word comprehension is derived from the verb to comprehend, which
means to understand. Comprehension, then, means understanding
something. When we apply the word comprehension to our studies, it
means a proper and thorough understanding of an article, an essay, a
poem, a play, a passage or a text. That is to say, we must comprehend
its content through the language, i.e., vocabulary, usages, idioms,
phrases, syntax and grammar.
Reading comprehension is the mental process the reader goes through
in an effort to understand the content of a reading text. OECD, as cited
by Kendeou (2014), states that “reading comprehension is a process to
understand, use, reflect on, and engage written texts, in order to achieve
one's goals, to develop one’s knowledge and potential, and to participate
in society”. Otto (1979, p. 147) explains that in comprehension of a
reading, the reader not only pronounces written symbols, but also seeks
to understand and interpret the information contained in the text. Tinker
(1975, p. 7) reveals that the ability to read is basically the ability to
understand the information conveyed by the author in the reading text.
further, Smith and Robinson (1980, p. 205) describe reading as a
process of interaction, involving a reader engaging with the information
submitted by the author through the text.

Through this process, the reader seeks to understand, evaluate, and

utilize the information and ideas being presented.

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In reading comprehension, to understand the text, the reader needs to
apply a comprehension strategy appropriate to the text they read (Smith
and Robinson, 1980, p. 205). These strategies include selecting,
predicting, confirming, and validating the results of the understanding.
The use of these strategies has an effect on the reader’s success in
comprehending the content of the text (Cohen, 1986, p. 133). This
means that the use of the right strategy can optimize the results of
comprehension while the use of inappropriate strategies can be a barrier
to the success of comprehension.

6.1.2 Reading Comprehension

The reading comprehension is a portion of such standardized tests like

SAT, ACT, CLEP, College Placement Test, ACCUPLACER, GRE,
MCAT, LSAT, or GMAT.
In today's world it is more important than ever to understand how to draw
meaning from what you read. Students and employees are actually
required to read more than they ever have in the past--how-to books,
technical manuals, and on-line reading resources. In order to position
yourself at the top of your organization or the top of your class, learning
to read with greater comprehension is a skill that will set you apart
from the competition.

Whether you already like to read and simply want to sharpen your skills,
or you find that you struggle with reading comprehension and speed, this
Unit has something for everyone. It has been said that reading one book
a month every month for five years on a particular topic will position you
in the marketplace as an expert. What if you were able to accelerate

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that speed by reading two books a month for two and a half years, or
four books a month for 1.25 years?
Reading is power. Learning to read faster, more accurately, and with
greater comprehension is a skill that you need in today's competitive
world.
Reading Comprehension is essential for all walks of life. Most people
need to read today.

Whether it is for college to pass a class, for an entrance exam for

college or graduate school, or for their profession, reading is the single
most important skill you will ever develop. Reading is considered to be
a critical skill. But even more important than learning to read
is understanding what is read.
6.1.3 Why Reading Comprehension Is Important

Reading is a skill by which we can learn just about anything. The better
you read and understand what you read, the better you will do in college,
in your job, and ultimately in your life.

What if you're not that skilled? Then you're in the right place. You're not
alone. Many people actually relate better to numbers, or when practically
applying their knowledge, than they do by reading and understanding
what they read.
The problem is that no other skill is used more often in life than
reading. It is used for education, recreation, and for improving your
position at work.
The good news is that reading and its subsequent comprehension is a
skill that can be learned, improved, and assimilated, no matter why you
need it.
Reading ability is a main vehicle for the development of learning
experiences and improved learning success. Hazzard (2016) states that
reading makes a significant contribution to the success of the learner in
completing their studies. Through the reading process, the learner can
obtain the information required to fulfill the needs of their study
assignments. In fact, the ability to read is crucial, thus the process of
learning to read well plays an important role in achieving success in both
study and in life.

People who read a lot can gain considerable useful information and
knowledge in their lives. Anderson, Hiebert, Scott, and Wilkinson (1985)
explain that reading is an activity needed by a person to gain useful
knowledge in their life, both in school and outside school. In reality, we

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can see that people who read more are able to solve problems more
easily than those who do not. The differences are seen more clearly in
the learning activities, namely, those students who read more have
different academic behaviors than those of students who rarely read.
From these conditions, it can be said that interest in reading significantly
influences the score of students' reading ability (Gambrell, 2011).

6.1.4 Levels of Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a

text/message. This understanding comes from the interaction between
the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the
text/message. The author communicates ideas and a reader interprets
the author’s message. The understanding of a text or oral speech is
always an interactive act, not a unidirectional act in which a transmitter
communicates something that should be understood by other. To have a
true understanding, the text should be interpreted at different levels:
literal, inferential and critical-evaluative. Understanding a text in the
three levels mentioned needs a process.
a. Comprehension at Literal Level
First of all, understanding a text at the literal level is to
understand everything that the author explicitly communicated
through this. That is, to understand all the words in it (or at least
the words that are essential to understand the meaning of the
text), understanding all the sentences that are written in it and
understand each paragraph to get a complete picture of what the
author has written.To understand a text at the literal level, the
reader uses all the vocabulary that has acquired since he was
born. He also relies on the different meanings a word can have in
the colloquial or everyday use, in certain regions, or in certain
contexts. Literal understanding draws on in-tuitive or academic
knowledge to know how your native language works, how
sentences and paragraphs are structured, what certain terms
mean in a culture or in a language in particular and also relies on
common sense to identify how certain relations are set between
ideas.

b. Comprehension at Inferential level

When a reader is able to give an account of what the author
wanted to communicate that is a comprehension at inferential
level. This does not mean it is a linear process in which first a

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person understands what the author says and then interprets
what he meant. The reader is always moving between different
levels of understanding in a process. The reader, thanks to its
competence and linguistic knowledge reads fluently and with no
need to stop to think about what the author says.
In addition, only when faced with a difficulty to understand what
the author says, the reader is forced to concentrate on the literal
level of understanding. At that time the reader consciously uses
some strategy to understand a word or a sentence. When the
reader encounters a word that he does not understand,
consciously works some of the strategies to extract its meaning
(literal level). Once approaching the meaning of that word, he
comes again to read and get an overall understanding of the text,
making inferences and evaluating what the text says. If the
reader encounters a sentence that does not understand the first
time he reads it, so consciously focuses on using some strategy
to understand that sentence (literal level) and when he is able to
express the idea of the author in a clear way, returns to the level
of interpretation of the text. “Understanding a text at an inferential
level means to interpret everything that the author wants to
communicate, but that sometimes he does not explicitly say or
write.” (Ecuadorian Ministry of Education, 2006).

On this regard, the reader can understand why the author wants
to communicate. This means that the author gives clues about
certain ideas that are not explicit in the text. The author
communicates these ideas indirectly. The reader takes the items
that appear explicit in the text, establish relationships between
them and finally infers and extracts those ideas that the author
explicitly embodied, but that he wanted to communicate. To
perform this kind of understanding, the reader uses a lot of
knowledge he possesses as efficient user of his tongue. Such
knowledge is of some elements and operating rules of his
language such as how sentences are constructed, what certain
expressions mean in his culture, the way of expressing in his
culture, the use of particular types of text and its structure. That
is, the reader must draw on his knowledge and experience to
interpret what the author does not explicitly say.

As already mentioned, the understanding of a text is not a linear

process, in which literal comprehension is understood first and
then the inferential and finally the critical- evaluative. It is rather a

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 process in which one level interacts with another one. What is
important to note is that the levels of comprehension inferential
and critical-evaluative are possible unless there is a literal
understanding of the text.

c. Comprehension at Critical-evaluative Level

Understanding a text at critical-evaluative level means to va-lue,
project and judge both the content of what one author states in
his writing as well as the inferences or relationships that can be
established from what appears in the text produced by an author.
These judgments, evaluations and projections should have a
support, argument or rationale. To understand a text at this level,
the reader must use his common sense, his ability to establish
logical relationships, his knowledge of the text or on the subject
of the text, his life experience as a reader, his scale of values, his
personal criteria on what the text deals with. The reader uses all
these elements to make a stand in front of what the author says
or expresses in the text and so make predictions about what
might involve or happen.

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6.1.5 Three Types of Questions

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Questions on the content of the passage can be of three types, and
these are:
i) The questions may require us to answer, in our own words, what
we have understood. We may be asked to answer each question
in two or three sentences. We may also be asked to explain a
sentence, an idea or a phrase.
ii) The questions may be of multiple-choice in nature. A multiple-
choice question suggests three or four alternate answers. What
we have to do is to choose the most appropriate or correct
answer from the choice given.

iii) The questions may be of the ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ type requiring us to say
whether the answer is ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a given question.
The questions on the language may require us to:

(i) make your own sentences using the given words or phrases;
(ii) form nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs from the given
words;

(iii) add suffixes and or prefixes to words to make new words;

(iv) write antonyms or opposites of some words.
Note that the questions on language may also be of the multiple-choice
type.
Though there is no one single way to attempt comprehension
exercises, let us suggest the following steps, which you may like to
remember when you write answers to the questions on a passage:
● Read the passage carefully and mark difficult words. Some
words or phrases or sentences may be crucial to the
understanding of the passage, and therefore note them down.
● Cultivate the habit of consulting a dictionary. Whenever you
come across a difficult word, make a mental note of it, and if
possible, write it down. Now, look up the meaning of the word
that suits the context in the dictionary. Sometimes in a dictionary
you see three or four, even more, meanings of a word. In such a
situation you must take the most suitable meaning in the context
of the passage. While looking up the dictionary for meaning of
the words, you must also note their usage, what parts of speech
they are, how they have been used by the writer, etc.
● Read the passage again to ascertain whether you have fully and
properly understood it. If you think, you have not, read it again

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 and again till you have understood it. Once you are sure of the
gist of the passage, you can begin attempting the questions.
● When you answer a question you must be precise and to the
point. Write only what the question requires and do not comment
on it, unless required.

As an exercise, let us read the very short passage given below and
answer the questions that follow:

Alexander Fleming was born in Scotland in the year 1881.

He did very well at school and was awarded a scholarship to
continue his studies in London. There he joined the medical
school at St. Mary’s Hospital. He was so fall of curiosity for
scientific matters and had such on appetite for knowledge
that he learnt very fast and was able to pass all his
examinations with honours.

(i) When was Alexander Fleming born?

(ii) Choose the correct answer from the alternatives given below:
(a) Fleming was an average/a mediocre/a brilliant student at
school
(b) Fleming was awarded a freeship/a scholarship/a fellow ship
to continue his studies in London.
(iii) Was Fleming born in London?
(iv) What traits in him helped him to pass his examinations with
distinctions?

(v) Make nouns from the words, ‘continue’ and ‘scientific’.

(vi) Make adjectives from the words ‘studies’, ‘curiosity’, ‘appetite’
and ‘honour’.

Let us now analyse this exercise.

The first question is easy. You have to give the year of Fleming’s birth.
(Do not write about the place of his birth, his parents or his early life. The
correct and to-the-point answer thus is: Alexander Fleming was born in
1881. You could answer the question (i) as ‘In 1881’. However, this may
be considered wrong because it is not a complete sentence. In other

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words, remember, you must write a complete sentence – unless
otherwise advised.
The second question on the passage is a multiple-choice question. The
answers to multiple-choice questions need not necessarily be in
complete sentences. However, there is no harm in writing complete
sentences. The answer could be (ii) (a) a brilliant student and (ii) (b) a
scholarship. It could also be: (ii) (a) Fleming was a brilliant student at
school and (ii) (b) Fleming was awarded a scholarship to continue his
studies in London.
Question (iii) requires you to answer either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. ‘Yes’ or ‘No’
answer is permissible in conversation, but when you are writing an
answer, it is good to write in complete sentences as shown here: ‘No,
Fleming was not born in London. He was born in Scotland.’

You must note that the form of an answer depends on the form of the
question. If the question, for example, is in the past tense, your answer
should be in the past tense, and similarly, if it is in the present tense, the
answer has to be in the present tense. In case, if the question is in the
active voice, the answer should be in the active voice. For example, in
question (iv), i.e., ‘What traits in him helped him pass his examinations
with distinction?’, the verb ‘help’ is in past tense and the question is in
active voice. The answer for this question therefore could be: The two
traits that helped him to pass his examinations with distinction were his
curiosity for scientific matters and his appetite for knowledge.
The answer to question (v) is: ‘continuity’ and ‘science’/’scientist’. And,
the answer to question (vi) is: ‘studious’, ‘curious’, ‘appetizing’ and
‘honourable’.
In the upcoming Unit, we will give you a number of passages for
purposes of reading comprehension exercise. Read the passages
carefully and attempt the questions. More such practices will make you
comfortable with reading comprehension passages during examination.
Note that you need not have to send the answers to the questions based
on the passages given in this Unit.

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 LEARNING ACTIVITY 6.1
Define ‘comprehension.’
Note:
a) Write your answer in the space given below.

SUMMARY

To summarise, we have studied the definition of comprehension in this

Unit. Then, we have analysed various uses and levels of reading.
Besides, the strategies, we have discussed the art of questions while
reading a passage.

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 UNIT 7 - READING COMPREHENSION PRACTICE
STRUCTURE

Overview
Learning Objectives

7.1 Reading Passages

7.1.1 Passage 1
7.1.2 Passage 2
7.1.3 Passage 3
7.1.4 Passage 4
7.1.5 Passage 5

7.1.6 Passage 6
7.1.7 Passage 7
7.1.8 Passage 8

7.1.9 Passage 9

7.1.10 Passage 10
7.1.11 Passage 11

7.1.12 Passage 12

7.1.13 Passage 13
7.1.14 Passage 14
Summary

Overview

In the foregoing Unit, we have discussed the definition and methods of

reading, besides, levels. Now, we are going to apply them in the
exercises. In this Unit, there are fourteen passages for practice and
strengthening our reading skills.

Learning Objectives

After completing this Unit, you should be able to:

● read the passage speedily

● analyse passages in order to get the messages in them.

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7.1 READING PASSAGES

In this Section, we will give you a number of passages for reading

comprehension exercises. Recall the general rules of reading
comprehension, which we mentioned in Section 3.1. After reading the
passages, answer the questions given at the end of each passage. After
you answer the questions, check up whether or not they are correct with
the help of the solutions given for the first few passages. Do not be
tempted to see the solutions, before answering the questions yourself.

7.1.1 Passage 1

While Ram was walking along the road the other day he
found a brown leather purse lying on the pavement. He
picked it up and opened it to see if he could find the owner’s
name. There was nothing inside it except some small
change and an old photograph – a picture of a woman and a
young girl about twelve years old who looked like the
women’s daughter. Ram put the photograph back and took
the purse to the police station where he handed it over to the
officer-in-charge.

That evening Ram went to have dinner with his uncle and aunt.
Ram saw a young woman in the party. Her face looked familiar
but he could not remember where he had seen it. In the course
of conversation the young woman said that she had lost her
purse that afternoon. Ram at once remembered where he had

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 seen her face. She was the young girl in the photograph
although she was now much older. She was very surprised when
Ram was able to describe her purse to her. His uncle insisted on
going round to the police station immediately to claim the purse.
The officer remarked that it was an unusual coincidence that
Ram had found not only the purse but also the person who had
lost it.

Now answer the following questions, based on the passage:

1) What did Ram find in the purse?

2) Where did he meet the owner of the purse?

3) How did he recognise her?

4) Who was the young woman?
5) What was the reaction of the young woman when Ram described
her purse?
6) Make nouns from the following words: familiar, remember,
describe and walking.
7) Make adjectives from the following words: leather, photograph,
conversation, immediately and person.

After having written your answers, check with the ones given below:

1) Ram found an old photograph of a woman and a young girl of

twelve years in the purse.
2) He met the owner of the purse at the dinner at his uncle’s place.

3) When the young woman remarked that she had lost her purse
that afternoon, Ram at once recognized her.
4) The young woman was the young girl in the photograph, though
now she was older.
5) The young woman was surprised when Ram described her purse
to her.
6) Nouns: familiarity, remembrance, description and walk.
7) Adjective: leathery, photographic, conversational, immediate and
personal.

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7.1.2 Passage 2

What happens when a film company decides to ‘shoot a film’?

There must of course be a story. This may be based on a novel
or a play or it may be specially written for the film. From the
story, whatever it is, shooting script has to be prepared, which
shows all the scenes, the order in which they are to be
photographed or ‘shot’, the way the actors are to speak and
move, the position of the camera for each scene and so on.
Then a producer and a director are appointed.
The producer engages the actors and actresses, decides which
scenes are to be taken in the studio and which outside or ‘on
location’ and makes all the preliminary preparations. The director
is the person who tells the actors what to do and shows them
how to act each scene. It is his or her job to interpret the script
and translate the author’s words and instructions into a series of
living scenes.
Now answer the following questions, based on the passage:

i) What is the first requirement of a film?

ii) What is prepared from the story?

iii) What is a shooting script?
iv) What does the director do?
v) Make nouns from the words: decides, prepared, speak, move,
engages, interpret and translate.

After having written your answers, check with the ones given below:

i) The first requirement of a film is a story.

ii) A shooting script is prepared from the story.

iii) A shooting script is a series of scenes to be photographed.

iv) The director tells the actors what to do and how to act each
scene.
v) Nouns: decision, preparation, speech, movement,
engagement, interpretation and translation.

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7.1.3 Passage 3

Student Volunteers Needed!

On Sunday, March 28th, from 10 am to 4 pm, Tamil Nadu Open

University will be holding a music festival in the Thiruvalluvar Mini
Auditorium. The special event will feature a variety of professional
musicians and singers.

Task Time Date

1 pm–4
Make posters March 5th
pm

11 am–4
Set up gym March 11th
pm

9 am–4
Help performers March 12th
pm

10 am–2
Welcome guests March 12th
pm

4 pm–7
Clean up gym March 12th
pm

Interested learners should speak with Ms. M.S Yazhini, the music
teacher. Those who would like to help at the festival must have written
permission from a parent or guardian.

Now answer the following questions, based on the passage:

1. What time will the festival begin?

A. 10 A.M.

B. 11 A.M.
C. 1 P.M.
D. 2 P.M.
2. In line 3, the word feature is closest in meaning to _______.

A. look
B. keep

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 C. include

D. entertain

3. What job will be done the day before the festival begins?
A. Making posters

B. Setting up the gym

C. Cleaning up the gym

D. Helping the performers

4. Who is told to talk to Ms. M.S. Yazhini?

A. Parents
B. Students

C. Teachers
D. Performers
After having written your answers, check with the ones given below:

1.
2.
3.
4.

7.1.4 Passage 4

A year or two ago, some workers in America and in England started

enquiring into the smoking habits of a large number of people suffering
from cancer of the lung and a large number of other people were
suffering from something else. The analysis of both the American and
the English workers led to the same results. They found that a history of
heavy smoking – twenty or more cigarettes a day over twenty years –
was much common in the group suffering from cancer of the lung than in
the group suffering from other illnesses.

This does not prove that heavy smoking is the cause, or even a cause of
cancer of the lung, but it increases the suspicion that it has something to
do with it, and suggests rather strongly that if you go on smoking say

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twenty cigarettes or more a day for twenty years or so, you do increase
your chances of dying of this disease.

Now answer the following questions, based on the passage:

i) What did the American and English workers find?

ii) Is heavy smoking the cause of cancer of the lung?

iii) What is the warning given to the cigarette smokers?

iv) Make adjectives from words: habit, nearly, exactly, respect,
history and suspicion.

After having written your answers, check with the ones given below:

i) The American and the English workers found a history of heavy

smoking was more common in people suffering from cancer of
the lung than in the people suffering from other kinds of
diseases.
ii) No, heavy smoking is not always the cause of cancer of the
lung.

iii) The warning to the heavy smoker is that he or she should

reduce the number of cigarettes, as heavy smoking increases
his or her chances of having cancer of the lung.

iv) Adjectives: habitual, near, exact, respectable, historical and

suspicious.

7.1.5 Passage 5

How does boredom affect one physically? The University of

California study showed that, as boredom becomes more acute,
the eyelids droop and the face assumes a frown expression.
There is a gradual loss of ability to coordinate movements, a
hand tremor becomes noticeable and the individual finally
becomes incapable totally of fine muscular movement. These
symptoms are accompanied by a marked mental depression and
a slowing down of the thought processes. Thus, a bored
stenographer, will make many more errors, the bored driver of a
car will be much more likely to have an accident than the one
who is not bored, and so forth.

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 Can boredom cause mental breakdown? Boredom alone, even
when extremely acute, is seldom sufficient to cause mental
breakdown in a well-balanced person. Psychologists have found,
however, that the mind of a neurotic individual breaks down most
quickly under conditions of monotony. Moreover, boredom
breeds introspection, and a mind turned inward is one of the
greatest causes of neurosis.

Now answer the following questions, based on the passage:

i) What are the physical symptoms of boredom?

ii) Does boredom affect mind also?

iii) Can it cause mental breakdown?

iv) Is introspection an outcome of boredom? Does it lead to
neurosis?
v) Write the meaning of acute, tremor, depression, monotony and
introspection, and use them in your own sentences.

7.1.6 Passage 6

If, instead of grumbling about new novels, people grumbled about

new motor cars, there would be some sense in the complaint. Cars
are useless unless they are running up and down the public
thoroughfares, and the more cars there are, the more crowded and
dangerous, smelly and uncomfortable, noisy and obscene, the roads
become. Very soon it will be impossible to move about in London
and equally impossible to get out of London, simply because so
many new cars are ‘published’ every month.
One motor cycle can make a bigger nuisance of itself than ten
thousand bad books. A novel, even a very bad one, comes into the
world quietly, allows itself to be put on a shelf or thrown into a
dustbin, and never makes a sound. It does not snarl at you and try to
crush your leg. The house next door may have been invaded by a
hundred new novels, and radio-sets and gramophones do.
And men do not stand outside bookshops trying to entice you into
buying new novels. No hawkers pester you at the door with them.
You have only to keep away from lending libraries, the interiors of
book shops, publishers’ offices, and the advertisement pages of the

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 literary weeklies, to be completely oblivious of the fact that these
novels are arriving in the world at all.

Now answer the following questions, based on the passage:

i) Should we grumble about new novels?

ii) What things are more troublesome than novels?

iii) How are cars and motor cycles a public nuisance?

iv) How can you keep away from new novels?

v) What exactly does the word ‘published’ mean here?

7.1.7 Passage 7

Philosophy of Education is a label applied to the study of the purpose,

process, nature and ideals of education. It can be considered a branch
of both philosophy and education. Education can be defined as the
teaching and learning of specific skills, and the imparting of knowledge,
judgment and wisdom, and is something broader than the societal
institution of education we often speak of.
Many educationalists consider it a weak and woolly field, too far
removed from the practical applications of the real world to be useful.
But philosophers dating back to Plato and the Ancient Greeks have
given the area much thought and emphasis, and there is little doubt that
their work has helped shape the practice of education over the millennia.
Plato is the earliest important educational thinker, and education is an
essential element in "The Republic" (his most important work on
philosophy and political theory, written around 360 B.C.). In it, he
advocates some rather extreme methods: removing children from their
mothers' care and raising them as wards of the state, and differentiating
children suitable to the various castes, the highest receiving the most
education, so that they could act as guardians of the city and care for the
less able. He believed that education should be holistic, including facts,
skills, physical discipline, music and art. Plato believed that talent and
intelligence is not distributed genetically and thus is be found in children
born to all classes, although his proposed system of selective public
education for an educated minority of the population does not really
follow a democratic model.
Aristotle considered human nature, habit and reason to be equally
important forces to be cultivated in education, the ultimate aim of which

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should be to produce good and virtuous citizens. He proposed that
teachers lead their students systematically, and that repetition be used
as a key tool to develop good habits, unlike Socrates' emphasis on
questioning his listeners to bring out their own ideas. He emphasized the
balancing of the theoretical and practical aspects of subjects taught,
among which he explicitly mentions reading, writing, mathematics,
music, physical education, literature, history, and a wide range of
sciences, as well as play, which he also considered important.
During the Medieval period, the idea of Perennialism was first formulated
by St. Thomas Aquinas in his work "De Magistro". Perennialism holds
that one should teach those things deemed to be of everlasting
importance to all people everywhere, namely principles and reasoning,
not just facts (which are apt to change over time), and that one should
teach first about people, not machines or techniques. It was originally
religious in nature, and it was only much later that a theory of secular
perennialism developed.

During the Renaissance, the French skeptic Michel de Montaigne (1533

- 1592) was one of the first to critically look at education. Unusually for
his time, Montaigne was willing to question the conventional wisdom of
the period, calling into question the whole edifice of the educational
system, and the implicit assumption that university-educated
philosophers were necessarily wiser than uneducated farm workers, for
example.
Now answer the following questions, based on the passage:
i) What is the difference between the approaches of Socrates
and Aristotle?
ii) Why do educationists consider philosophy a ‘weak and woolly’
field?

iii) What do you understand by the term ‘Perennialism’, in the

context of the given comprehension passage?
iv) Were Plato’s beliefs about education democratic?

v) Why did Aquinas propose a model of education which did not

lay much emphasis on facts?

7.1.8 Passage 8

Hi! I’m Venba and I’ve decided to start this blog to document my Life
in Lockdown. We’ve been in lockdown now for a week in India. That

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 means we have to stay at home almost all of the time. We’re allowed
out once a day to exercise and we can go to the supermarket to buy
essentials. You have to try and stay two metres away from other
people when you go out. I’m starting to get used to the situation now
but it still feels like a dream sometimes. It’s pretty surreal when I look
outside and there’s no one around. My mum is a nurse, so she is
classed as a key worker and is still going to work every day. The
company where my dad works has had to close its stores and
furlough all of their employees – that means my dad is still employed
but he is not allowed to go to work until his company say he can
return. I went to school before and I was studying for exams, so my
life has changed quite a lot. I found the situation a bit overwhelming
at first. The hardest part has been social distancing. I really miss
seeing my friends in person but we chat every day online. I also have
to study a lot by myself now and I find that really challenging. My little
brother sometimes distracts me when I’m trying to study because he
always wants to play. However, one of the positives of the lockdown
has been spending more time with my family. I try to stick to a
routine each day that also includes time for exercise, some online
socializing and something fun or creative like playing a board game
with my family.

Now answer the following questions, based on the passage, by ticking

the correct statements:
i) Give a suitable title for the passage.
ii) What is Venba’s mother?

iii) What does social distancing mean?

iv) What is the positive of lockdown?

v) How does his brother distract her?

7.1.9 Passage 9

Men might be graded according to how long they are willing to wait for
their rewards. A few are like the trained seal which expects a fish after
each act it performs. At the other extreme are those more like the monks
who spend 70 or 80 years leading a prosaic life because he hopes to be
well rewarded in the life to come. The man who never lets go of a dollar

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until he is certain of getting it with interest before Saturday night is like
the trained seal. So is the fellow who sticks to an inferior job with its
small but certain wages rather than take the risk involved in getting into
something better.

There are even men who will work harder if paid at the end of a day than
if they have to wait until the end of the week or the end of the month.
The shrewd real estate man, who buys property which he expects to sell
at a big profit ten or fifteen years hence, has more of the viewpoint of the
monk. We all rank somewhere between the monk and the trained seal.
Now answer the following questions, based on the passage:

i) What is the difference between a seal and a monk?

ii) What does the man who sticks to an inferior job with its small
but certain wages resemble?
iii) Which of the following statements best summarizes the
passage?

(a) People work hard if they are paid wages daily.

(b) The longer you are willing to wait the greater your
rewards.
(c) Some men desire immediate rewards; others are willing to
wait.

7.1.10 Passage 10
There are many ways of enjoying ourselves, and one of the pleasantest
is to meet interesting people. The world is full of remarkable men and
women, but even if we had time to go all over the world to visit them and
carried a suitcase stuffed with letters of introduction we should still not
be able to encounter more than a small fraction of the people we admire.
Soldiers, statesmen, writers, scientists, inventors, actors, painters –
most of them we shall never meet. But there is one easy way to get to
know them all, and that is reading the biographies that are written about
them.
A biography is the life story of a real person. If it is a good biography
it brings its hero as vividly to life as if he were standing in the same
room. If you meet him in person you would probably not get more
than a polite handshake and a “How do you do?”, but in a biography
you can find out all about him – what he did when he was a small

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boy, the way he went about his work, the friends he made, even his
taste in neckties. It is not surprising that so many people like to read
biographies, for they are a kind of window into a man’s life; the
better the biography the larger and clearer the window.

Moreover, anyone who reads biography meets not only the people
who are alive today but also those who lived in all the past
centuries. The men and women whose lives are worth remembering
stretch over the whole of history, like a great lighted procession and
we could never make their acquaintance if it were not for
biographies.

Now answer the following questions, based on the passage

i) Which is the best way of getting to know the people we

admire?
ii) In what way is reading a biography superior to personally
meeting a celebrity?
iii) Which of the following statements best summarizes the
passage?
(a) Biographies help you to become thoroughly acquainted with
the lives of great men of past and present.
(b) One of the pleasantest ways of enjoying ourselves is to
meet interesting people.
(c) If you meet a great man in person you would probably not
get more than a polite handshake and a “How do you do?”

7.1.11 Passage 11

Our country has still many problems. There is great poverty among the
people. The vast majority of them are illiterate. There is not enough food
for all the people. There are not enough jobs for all of them. We must try
to solve these problems. You are the future citizens of this country.
While at school you should give all your attention to your studies and
acquire knowledge as well as skills. Then you can face these problems
and try to solve them. You should love your country. You should love
every part of India, every state, every village, every community, because
you are sons and daughters of India and not just citizens of your own
state, city or village. Remember this and the whole country will proper.

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Now answer the following questions, based on the passage:

i) Mention the various problems which our country has?

ii) What are the students expected to do at school?

iii) What should the students remember?

iv) Use in your own sentences the words: poverty, majority,
acquire, skill and proper.

7.1.12 Passage 12

More than 1.5 billion students and youth across the planet are or have
been affected by school and university closures due to the COVID-19
pandemic.
The Global Education Coalition launched by UNESCO , is a platform for
collaboration and exchange to protect the right to education during this
unprecedented disruption and beyond. It brings together more than 140
members from the UN family, civil society, academia and the private
sector to ensure that #LearningNeverStops.
Coalition members rally around three flagships, namely connectivity,
teachers and gender, as well as support specific causes including
the educational recovery following the deadly explosion in Beirut.
All Coalition members are encouraged to pledge for the protection of
learners’ personal information, privacy and security.

Now answer the following questions, based on the passage:

i) How many students affected?
ii) What is the reason behind the closure of schools and
universities?
iii) Mention the plan of UNESCO for resumption of education.

iv) What are the three flagships?

7.1.13 Passage 13

From time immemorial people have lived with trees. Trees have
provided the people with shelter, wood for fuel, implements of peace or
war, fruit, seed, and sometimes even clothing – the Banyan and the

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Pipal, the Neem and the Babul, the Tamarind and the Mango. Under
them the village folk gather on rest. Many roads in the country side are
lined with trees that provide a welcome shade against the hot summer
sun. Our country people living near forests or in the hills are fortunate
because they live amidst sylvan surroundings abounding in a variety of
trees and wild life.
Modern and sophisticated though we city folk are, we still love trees and
often like to plant them in our home yards for fruit, foliage or for their
beautiful flowers. In towns and cities trees are often in gardens and
along avenues for shade and for ornamentation. But for them, many city
streets would look barren and devoid of a touch of nature.
Now answer the following questions, based on the passage:

i) How have the trees been useful to humankind from time

immemorial?
ii) Which trees are often planted by our village folks and why do
they plant them?

iii) Do the city folk love trees and plants? How do they show their
feelings for them?
iv) Make sentences with the verbs: provide, shelter, gather and
plant.

7.1.14 Passage 14

Man’s first attempt to catch fish was simple and crude. Probably he tried
to catch them by hand or hit them with sticks or stones. Catching these
slippery creatures was certainly difficult. It was much more difficult than
cornering and killing a wild animal. From crude beginnings he began to
try newer and better methods to catch more and more fish. Even stone-
age men were skilled fishermen.

There is evidence to show that they used such fishing implements as

hook, lines, sinkers, floats and traps. These devices with modifications
are used even today for catching fish. Some of the modern equipment
and devices for fishing are very complicated, and better types of gear
are being tried and perfected.
In the seas, the fish have to be found before they can be caught.
The business of finding fish is not easy. Until recently finding fish
was dependent on the skill and experience of the fisherman. In fact
it was a question of luck. Fish in the seas move about usually in

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large groups called shoals like the herds of cattle that roam on
grasslands.
Now answer the following questions, based on the passage:

(i) How did the early man catch fish?

(ii) What fishing implements did the stone-age man use to catch
fish?
(iii) Why was it not easy to catch fish until recently?

(iv) Describe shoals in a sentence or two.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 7.1

Read the passage given below and answer the questions based on the
passage:

The Trojan War is one of the most famous wars in history. It is well
known for the 10-year duration, for the heroism of a number of legendary
characters, and for the Trojan horse. What may not be familiar, however,
is the story of how the war began.
According to Greek myth, the strife between the Trojans and the Greeks
started at the wedding of Peleus, King of Thessaly, and Thetis, a sea
nymph. All of the gods and goddesses had been invited to the wedding
celebration in Troy except Eris, goddess of discord. She had been
omitted from the guest list because her presence always embroiled
mortals and immortals alike in conflict.
To take revenge on those who had slighted her, Eris decided to cause a
skirmish. Into the middle of the banquet hall, she threw a golden apple
marked “for the most beautiful.” All of the goddesses began to haggle
over who should possess it. The gods and goddesses reached a
stalemate when the choice was narrowed to Hera, Athena, and
Aphrodite. Someone was needed to settle the controversy by picking a
winner. The job eventually fell to Paris, son of King Priam of Troy, who
was said to be a good judge of beauty. Paris did not have an easy job.
Each goddess, eager to win the golden apple, tried aggressively to bribe
him.

“I’ll grant you vast kingdoms to rule,” promised Hera. “Vast kingdoms are
nothing in comparison with my gift,” contradicted Athena. “Choose me

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 and I’ll see that you win victory and fame in war.” Aphrodite outdid her
adversaries, however. She won the golden apple by offering Helen,
daughter of Zeus and the most beautiful mortal in the land, to Paris.
Paris, anxious to claim Helen, set off for Sparta in Greece.

Although Paris learned that Helen was married, he nevertheless

accepted the hospitality of her husband, King Menelaus of Sparta.
Therefore, Menelaus was outraged for a number of reasons when Paris
departed, taking Helen and much of the king’s wealth back to Troy.
Menelaus collected his loyal forces and set sail for Troy to begin the war
to reclaim Helen.
Answer the following questions, based on the passage.

1. Eris was known for _________ both mortals and immortals.

2. Each goddess tried ______ to bribe Paris.
3. Athena _________ Hera, promising Paris victory and fame in war.

SUMMARY

In this Unit, we introduced you to reading comprehension. In this

connection, we analyzed a number of reading passages.

Reference:

Sinha C.A. Reading Comprehension. Prabhat Prakashan. 2017

P. David Pearson. Reading Comprehension. United States, Wisconsin
Department of Public Instruction, 1978.

Web Resources:

https://byjus.com/govt-exams/reading-comprehension-practice-
questions-answers/
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1162686.pdf

file:///C:/Users/tnou/AppData/Local/Temp/288-
Texto%20del%20art%C3%ADculo-1099-1-10-20180706.pdf
https://www.testprepreview.com/modules/reading1.htm
https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse/globalcoalition

141
Video links:

Comprehension

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0QfoQjNVEk
Effective Reading

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JWblHNgCMc

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BLOCK 4 FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR

UNIT – 8 GRAMMAR

STRUCTURE

Overview
Learning Objectives

8.1 Parts of Speech

8.1.1 Pronouns
8.1.2 Verbs

8.2 Tenses

8.2.1 Simple present Vs present continuous

8.2.2 Present prefect Vs simple past

8.2.3 Future tense

8.3 Articles
8.3.1 The indefinite articles
8.3.2 The definite article
8.4 Prepositions and Linkers
8.4.1 Preposition of time

8.4.2 Preposition of place

8.4.3 Linkers or Connectors

Summary

OVERVIEW

In this Unit, our focus is on some essential functional grammar. Years of

experience in dealing with the English language has shown that the
study of grammar and its use are not the same. Many of us study the

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grammar for the examination and find it difficult to use it for
communication. In recent years, the trend is to focus more on
communication than on grammar with the belief that we learn
incidentally.

Keeping this in view, in this Unit, we will study some functional grammar
items. We will begin the Unit by identifying the types of pronouns and
verbs. We will then discuss the tenses with particular reference to the
use of the simple present tense and present continuous tense, simple
past tense and present perfect tense and the simple present, present
continuous and future tense. We will also study the use of the definite
and indefinite articles, followed by some prepositions and linkers or
connectors. We will also simulate a few situations to identify some
dialogue forms.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After completing this Unit, you should be able to:

● identify the subject, object, possessive and demonstrative

pronouns, and the forms of verbs;
● use the tenses, i.e., simple present tense and present continuous
tense, the past tense and present perfect tense and the simple
tense, present continuous tense and future tense appropriately;
● use the articles (indefinite and definite) appropriately;
● use the prepositions and linkers appropriately;
● carry out simple dialogues with others;

8.1 PARTS OF SPEECH

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Before you read this Section, you must note that our intention in this Unit
is not to give you an exhaustive discussion of the various aspects of
English grammar. All that we have done here is to select a few aspects
which we generally use and touch upon them. For example, we will not
discuss all the parts of speech in this Section. However, we will consider
those parts of speech that are essential for our purpose.

8.1.1 Pronouns

There are four types of pronouns, and these are:

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 i) Subject pronouns: Pronouns, ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘it’, ‘we’,
‘you’ and ‘they’ function as the subject of a sentence. Consider
the examples given below:

● I live in Chennai.

● Do you like playing Cricket?

● He doesn't want to visit us this evening.

● She works in Singapore.

● It won't be difficult.
● We are studying pronouns in this Section.

● You went to Dubai last year, didn't you?

● They bought a new Iphone last month.

ii) Object pronouns: Pronouns, ‘me’, ‘you’, ‘him’, ‘her’, ‘it’, ‘us’,
‘you’ and ‘them’ serve as the object of a verb. Consider the
examples given below:

● Give me the pen.

● He asked you to come tonight.
● She requested him to help.
● They visited her when they came to Bihar.
● She bought it at the Super Market.

● He picked us up at the airport.

● The teacher asked you to finish your exercises.

● I invited her to a party.

iii) Possessive pronouns: Pronouns, ‘mine’, ‘yours’, ‘his’, ‘hers’,

‘its’, ‘ours’, ‘yours’ and ‘theirs’ show that something belongs to
someone. Note that the possessive pronouns are similar to
possessive adjectives (e.g., ‘my’, ‘his’, ‘her’). The difference is
that the object follows the possessive adjective but does not
follow the possessive pronoun. For example, ‘That pen is mine’
is a possessive pronoun, while ‘That is my pen’ is possessive

146
 adjective. Now, consider the examples given below:

● That car is mine.

● This is yours.

● I'm sorry, that's his.

● Those flowers are hers.

● Those tickets are ours.

● Look over there, those seats are yours.

● Theirs will be grey.

Before we proceed further, note that possessive adjectives, ‘my’, ‘your’,

‘his’, ‘her’, ‘its’, ‘our’, ‘your’ and ‘their’ are often confused with possessive
pronouns. The possessive adjective modifies the noun following it in
order to show possession. Consider the examples given below in this
context:

● I'll get my cards.

● Is that your cycle over there?
● That is his teacher, Mr. Ram.
● I want to go to her shop.
● Its colour is blue.
● Can we bring our parents?

● You are welcome to invite your children.

● They bought their parenets a lot of presents.

iv) Demonstrative pronouns: Pronouns, ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘these’ and

‘those’ refer to things. 'This' and 'that' refer to something that is
near. 'That' and 'those' refer to things that are farther away.
Consider the examples given below:

● This is my house.

● That is our car over there.

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 ● These are my colleagues in this room.

● Those are beautiful flowers in the next field.

8.1.2 Verbs

Generally, grammar books introduce ‘verbs as those words that denote

‘actions'. This description fits well in many cases. However, there
indeed are exceptions in that some verbs do not denote actions. For
example, forms of verbs ‘be’ (i.e., is, am, are, was, were) and ‘have’ (i.e.,
has, had) are not action verbs as demonstrated in the following
sentences:

● Jo is tall.

● Mariam is a doctor.
● Mani has a million dollars.

● John Travolta has measles.

These sentences do not describe actions. Note, however, that ‘be’ and
‘have’ can also be used as auxiliary verbs (or, helping verbs) as in the
following:

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 ● Mariam is riding a bicycle.

● Jo has written a letter.

These sentences do describe actions. But, this is because, ‘be’ or ‘have’

is only a helping verb here. The main verb, ‘riding’ or ‘written’, denotes
an action.

Other verbs which do not denote actions include ‘know’, ‘believe’, ‘want’
and ‘wish’. Consider the following examples in this context:

● Makesh knows English.

● Nattramil believes that Delhi is in China.

● I want a new car.

● Elyhil Nancy wants to go to China.

● I wish to go home.
Verbs, ‘know’, ‘believe’, ‘want’ and ‘wish’ denote 'mental states' and they
do not denote actions.

Verbs, ‘love’, ‘hate’, ‘like’ and ‘dislike’ denote a 'feeling' or attitude

towards someone or something and they do not denote actions.
Consider the following examples in this context:

● Pozhilan Gaaya loves his grandmother.

● Yazhini hates rainy weather.

● I like ice-cream.

● We dislike mathematics.

Note that you must keep in mind the distinction between 'action verbs’
and ‘non-action verbs', because it helps you decide when you can use or
cannot use the ‘be’ v + ing form, e.g., Nathan is riding a bicycle.

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 LEARNING ACTIVITY 8.1
What is difference between Possessive Pronoun and Possessive adjective?
Note:
a) Write your answer in the space given below.

8.2 TENSES

You might have already learned the main tense forms of English in your
school. However, for purposes of a quick revision, we will touch upon a
few tense forms in this Section.

8.2.1 Simple present vs. present continuous

Many of us make mistakes in using continuous tense. One reason for

this perhaps is our own mother tongue influence. However, in order for
us to be intelligible to the native speakers of English, we must take care
how we use the tenses.

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Let us now have a quick look at the following four tense forms which we
commonly use in this context:

i) Simple present tense: Examples of simple present tense are

‘I love India’, ‘We eat at 8.00 am’, etc. Note that in these
sentences, only the main verb is used, and the verb is in the
'base' form. But, if the subject is 3rd singular (e.g., he, she and
it), there is an agreement marker‘s’. For example, ‘She loves
the Chinese’.

The simple present tense is used to talk about universal, or

general truths. Consider the examples given below:

● The sun rises in the east.

● The earth goes round the sun.
● Birds build nests.

● This disinfectant kills germs.

It is also used to talk about habitual actions. Consider the

examples given below:

● We eat at 8.30 pm every evening.

● Semmalar goes to bed early.

● I go to school by cycle.

ii) Present continuous (or present progressive) tense: An

example of this tense is ‘Martin is riding a bicycle’. Here, the
helping verb ‘be’ comes before the main verb; and the main
verb is in the ‘- ing’ form.

We use the present continuous tense to describe an action

which is going on at the time of speaking. For example:

● Look! Mary is riding a bicycle.

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 ● Look! The thief is running away! Catch him!

● Can you see the snake is swallowing a frog? Part of the

frog is already inside its mouth!

iii) Simple past tense: Examples of this tense are ‘The prince
loved the frog’, ‘We ate at 7.00 pm yesterday’, etc. Here, only
the main verb is used; but it is in its past tense form.

We use the past continuous tense to describe an action which

was going on at the time of another event. For example:

● Margaret was riding a bicycle, when a car came along.

● When the police arrived, the thief was running away.

● The snake was swallowing an egg, when the boy

attacked it.

iv) Past continuous (or past progressive) tense: An example of

this tense is ‘Martin was riding a bicycle, when a train came
along’. This is like the present continuous tense, but the verb
‘be’ is in its past tense form.

Now, naturally, only an action-verb can be used in the present (or past)
continuous tense. We cannot use non-action verbs such as ‘be’, ‘have’,
‘know’ or ‘love’ in the continuous tense. These verbs don't denote an
action at all! However, a very common mistake we make is the 'over-use’
of the continuous tense. Sentences or utterances such as the following,
for example, are not uncommon:

● I am having a pain in my right eye. (An incorrect

expression)
● I have a pain in my right eye. (An acceptable expression)

● I am looking at a picture. (An incorrect expression)

● I look at a picture. (An acceptable expression)

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You should guard against such misuse of the continuous tense.

8.2.2 Present perfect vs. simple past

You are aware that the English verb has three forms, i.e., the present
tense form, the past tense form and the past participle form. These
forms are often irregular in the case of verbs of one syllable, as shown in
the examples below:

Present Tense Past Tense Past Participle

eat ate eaten

sing sang sung

buy bought bought

talk talked talked

Unfortunately, however, these verbs are also the most common verbs!
In other words, there is no other way excepting to learn their forms by
heart.

In the case of 'longer' verbs, i.e., verbs of two or more syllables, the past
tense and past participle forms are formed by a general rule, which is
adding ‘-ed’ to the base form as indicated in the examples below:

Present Tense Past Tense Past Participle

connect connected connected

abandon abandoned abandoned

disqualify disqualified disqualified

Recall our earlier discussion about the present participle form, the rule of
which is to add ‘-ing’ to the base form of the verbs as indicated in the
examples below:

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 Present Tense Past Participle

eat eating

buy buying
connect connecting

write writing

cut cutting

Let us now look at the present perfect tense.

In the present perfect tense, we have an auxiliary verb ‘have’, followed

by a verb in the past participle form as in the following sentences:

● The children have eaten the apples. (So, the plate is empty.)

● Akhila has eaten all the mangoes. (She now suffers from
stomach ache.)

We use the present perfect tense, when a past action has a result in the
present. Thus, Akila's eating the mangoes is a past action (i.e., it is
completed or finished). But, it has a result in the present, i.e., she he has
a stomach-ache!

What this means is that the present perfect always implies a result. In
other words, we can, if we want, add 'So.…’ after the sentence. Consider
the following sentences in this context:

● Do you want to come to the circus?

No, I have seen it already. (So I don't want to see it again.)

● Do you like to have a drink?

No, thanks! I have taken my lunch. (So I am not hungry)

● Where’s my bag? Some body has removed it! (So it is not

there.)

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Along this line, in the past perfect tense, the first verb is had; and the
second verb is a past participle, e.g., He had done the homework.

8.2.3 Future tense

The modal verbs ‘will’ and ‘shall’ express the future tense. Consider the
examples given below:

● I shall go tomorrow.

● Tharoor will come tomorrow.

With a first person subject, i.e., 'I' or 'we', the modal verb ‘shall’ is
generally used; although ‘will’ is also not uncommon in Modern English.
With a second or third person subject, i.e., 'you', ‘he’, 'they', etc., the
verb ‘will’ is used for simple futurity. If ‘shall’ is used, the sentence
expresses the speaker's will or intention, and therefore, it has the
meaning of a promise, a threat, or an order.

A few examples are given below to make this concept clear:

● You shall report to the Vice-Chancellor’s office immediately!

(Note this expresses an order)

● You shall be hanged! (This expresses an order or a threat)

● If you work well, you shall receive higher wages. (This expresses
a promise)

Now fill in the blanks with ‘will’ or ‘shall’, as appropriate. Don’t be

tempted to look at the answers given without attempting the answers
yourself.

i) Sunder says he ----- meet you at the airport.

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 ii) I ------ meet you at the station; it is a promise!

iii) We are going our different ways! ------ we ever met again?!
iv) The King turned angrily to the messenger, and said, “You -----
die!”

v) All the lights ------ be out in the hostel at 10 o'clock.

vi) After dinner, they --------- go and visit their parents.

Now, look at the answers:

(i) will (ii) shall (iii) will (iv) shall (v) shall (v) will

Note that the meaning of the future tense can however be expressed by
other means as shown in the examples given below:

● He is going to take her exam next week.

● I am going to resign!
● Doctor, is he going to be alive?
These sentences indicate that the ‘be going to’ form gives the meaning
of the future tense here.
The English language also has other ways of describing a future event
which is part of a plan, or a schedule. Consider the examples below:

i) Present tense: Consider the examples given below:

● Our Head Master retires early next year. (This sentence

means that the Head Master is scheduled to retire early
next year.)

● The wedding party leaves at 6.30 from the bride's house.

● The Minister arrives at the Guest House, rests for some
time and then attends the meeting.
ii) Present continuous tense: Consider the examples given
below:

● Our Head Master is retiring early next year.

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 ● We are leaving at 6.30 pm sharp!

● The Minister is arriving at the Guest House.

iii) Future continuous form – will be + verb + ing: Consider the
examples given below:

● We'll be seeing you again!

● Our Head Master will be retiring early next year.

● We shall be seeing you at Mala’s wedding.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 8.2

Fill in the blanks in the sentences below, using the appropriate tense forms
(simple past, or past perfect) of the verb, using the hints given within
brackets:

Note:
a) Write your answer in the space given below.

8.3 ARTICLES

As you know, the English language has two types of articles, and these
are the indefinite articles (i.e., ‘a’ and ‘an’) and the definite article (‘the’).

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We will not get into the details of these articles in this Section. However,
we will highlight the places where the articles can be used appropriately.

8.3.1 The indefinite articles

The indefinite article ‘a’ or ‘an’ is used in different contexts. For example,

● We use it before singular countable nouns.

● We use ‘a’ before singular countable nouns that begin with
consonant sounds, e.g., a dog, a man, a book, a uniform, a
horse, etc.
● We use ‘an’ before singular countable nouns that begin with
vowel sounds, i.e., an egg, an umbrella, an ox, an hour, etc.
● When a noun has an adjective, or an adjective and an adverb
before it, we place the article before them as indicated here: ‘She
was wearing a green uniform’. ‘He is a very active man’. ‘I bought
an old umbrella’.

We do not use ‘a’ or ’an’ before plural countable nouns, e.g.,

● He is fond of reading books.

● She is afraid of dogs.

We do not use ‘a’ or ‘an’ before uncountable nouns:

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 ● She drinks milk without sugar.

● Wood floats on water.

Now, fill in the blanks with ‘a’ or ‘an’, where applicable.

● ........... apple a day keeps the doctor away.

● Once there lived .................. King who was ............. very

handsome.
● He didn’t move .............. inch.

● I drink .................. orange juice every morning.

● ....................... chair is made of ............... fibre.

● I have waited for ............... hour.

● ............... sheep were grazing in the field.

● There is ............... big clock on the wall.
● Please put ............. salt in my buttermilk.
● My brother was wearing ............ red shirt.

● The children were playing ................ volley ball.

● Raji has .......... uncle and ............ aunt, who live in............ Africa.
● I like ..................... tea. My daughter likes ............ coffee.
● Moorthy bought .................. PC .......... and ..........labtop from
......... shop.

8.3.2 The definite article

The definite article ‘the’ is used in different contexts. For example,

i) We use ‘the’ before nouns which refer to persons, events, things,

etc., which have been already mentioned, e.g., ‘Once there lived
a king and a queen. The queen gave birth to a baby girl. The
queen called the baby girl Snow-White’.

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 ii) We use ‘the’ before a noun when the listener and the speaker
know which thing or person they are talking about, e.g., ‘Please
switch on the fan’. ‘Will you open the door’.
iii) We use ‘the’ with the superlative degree of adjectives, e.g.,
‘Which is the tallest building in the world?’ ‘She is the most
brilliant girl in the class’.
iv) We normally use the before the names of rivers (e.g., the
Ganges, the Kaveri, the Narmada, etc.), oceans (e.g., the Indian
ocean, the pacific ocean, etc.), seas (e.g., the Arbian sea, the
North sea, the Caribbean sea, etc.), mountain ranges (e.g., the
Himlayas, the Nicobar Isalands, the Maldives, etc.), cinemas and
theatres (e.g., the Regal, the Roxy, etc.), museums (e.g., the
Natural History Museum, The Dolls Museum, etc.) and Hotels
(e.g., The Taj, Park Sheraton Hotel, etc.)

As an exercise, let us now fill in the blanks with appropriate articles,

where applicable:

i) .................oil is sold by ................... litre.

ii) ................. wounded were taken to ................. hospital.
iii) ................. Himalayas protect ............... plains of India from
............. cold winds of .................. North.
iv) Ganges falls into .................Bay of Bengal.
v) Sham is ........................ smallest boy in ................. class.
vi) He drinks .................. tea with .................... salt and ...............
lime.
vii) This is ................. school for .................... blind ................... deaf
and ....... dumb
viii) He drank all ...................... milk.

ix) .................... girl whom I met yesterday is ................. old friend.

x) Patna is .................... capital of Bihar.

xi) ............ Pacific Ocean is ..........largest and ..........deepest ocean

in ........... world.
xii) ................... elephant is ..................... largest of all land animals.
xiii) ............... mangoes of Saharanpur are very sweet.

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 xiv) Have pity on .................... poor.

xv) Suresh is ................. innocent boy.

xvi) ................. Panchatantra is .................... book of fables.

xvii) They stayed at ................... Hotel Kanishka.

xviii) .................. Bank of India has ..................... branch in ...............

Nehru palace.
xix) ..................... Asia is .................... most thickly populated
continent.

xx) ................... Shahnama was written by Firdausi.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 8.3

Fill in the blanks the questions given below with ‘a’ or ‘an’, where applicable.
Note:
a) Write your answer in the space given below.

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(1) ......... tiger was caught in (2) ......... storm-he had wandered into the
fields lookingfor something to eat. He huddled close to the wall of
Naini’s hut for shelter. Naini was(3) ................. ill-tempered old woman
who lived on the outskirt of the village. She wasfeeling especially ill-
tempered that day, because her roof leaked badly. “This drip-drip!”she
muttered, pushing her tin trunks and bed from place to keep them dry.
“Is there noescape?” She slammed the bed against (4) .............. trunk,
picked up (5) ...................small wooden box and shoved it against the
wall. The tiger felt the wall shake andheard Naini shout, “It’s killing me,
this drip-drip!” The tiger was puzzled and frightened.“What could this
drip-drip be? It makes such (6) ............. terrible noise. It must
be(7)........ dreadful creature!” Just then Nath, the potter, passed by. He
was in (8) .......bad mood, too. His donkey had run away. He suddenly
saw (9) ............... animalhuddled against the wall of (10) ............. hut.
“There he is!” he shouted and running tothe tiger kicked it. Then he
pulled the tiger’s ears. “Move, or I’ll break your bones!” Thetiger was
really frightened. “This must be that terrible Drip-Drip,” he thought,
without(11) ............ growl, he followed the potter home. When they
reached Nath’s hut, thepotter tied the tiger outside with (12) ......... study
rope. “You can stay out in the rain!”he shouted.

8.4 PREPOSITIONS AND LINKERS

In this Section, we will look at some of the commonly used prepositions

in English.

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8.4.1 Preposition of time

The prepositions of time include ‘in’, ‘on’, ‘at’, ‘from’ and ‘to’.

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 ● We use the preposition ‘in’ with years, months, seasons, hours,
minutes, etc. Examples include in 2020, in Summer, in about two
hours, etc.
● We use the preposition ‘on’ with days. Examples include on
Tuesday, on the Christmas Day, on the Deepavali Day, on the
Republic Day, etc.
● We use the preposition ‘at’ with exact point of time, noon,
midnight, night. Examples include at 6 a.m., at five o' clock, at
dawn, at midnight, at Christmas, at lunch time, etc.
● We use the preposition ‘from’ to indicate the time at which
something starts. Examples include from 4 a.m., from Monday,
from September, from 1960, etc.
● We use the preposition ‘to’ to indicate the time at which
something ends. Examples include from Tuesday to Saturday,
from 1985 to 1990, from sunrise to sunset, etc.

Now, fill in the blanks with the prepositions of time:

i) I will meet you there................. six o' clock sharp.

ii) It always gets cool here ................... the evening.

iii) People buy new clothes...................... Diwali.

iv) I have to attend a marriage..................... Thursday.
v) He lived in Bombay.................... 1970 ................... 1975.

vi) The rain stopped................. 3 p.m.

vii) If you can wait, he should be here ................ a short time.

viii) My birthday comes..................... July.

ix) I should be home ........................ 2 o' clock.

x) He was born ..................... 1978.

xi) He is always at home........................ Saturdays.

xii) The train will start ................... 10 o' clock.

xiii) He will return ..................... half an hour.

xiv) He goes to meet his friends........................ Saturdays.

xv) I am at school ................... 8 a.m.................. 2 p.m.

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8.4.2 Preposition of place

The prepositions of place include ‘in’, ‘at’, ‘from’, ‘to’, ‘into’, ‘under’ and
‘over’.
● We use ‘in’ to indicate position inside a country, city, town,
building, container, etc. Examples: in India, in Bombay, in a
school, in the box, in the room, etc.
● We use ‘on’ to indicate that something is lying upon a surface, or
in contact with a surface. Examples: on the table, on the wall, on
the ceiling, on the road, on page 10, on the grass, etc.

● We use ‘at’ to indicate a place. Examples: at the platform, at the

station, at home, at school, at the bus stop, at the cinema, etc.
● We use ‘from’ to indicate the place from which something starts.
Examples: from Delhi, from School, from the market, from the
post office, etc.
● We use ‘to’ to indicate the place to which something moves.
Examples: to Bombay, to the market, to the office, etc.
● We use ‘into’, to indicate motion from outside to inside of
something. Examples: into the room, into the river, into the sky,
etc.
● We use ‘under’ to indicate position directly below. Examples:
under the table, under the bridge, under the seat, etc.

● We use ‘over’ to indicate position directly above but not touching.

Examples: over the head, over the table, over the river, etc.

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As an exercise, let us now, fill in the blanks with correct prepositions of
place.

i) Many people were waiting ................... the lounge.

ii) The birds are flying .................. the sky.

iii) There is a plenty of fish .................... the river.

iv) He works .............. a shop .................. Broadway.

v) He sat ................... the air conditioner.

vi) He put the pen .............. the table.

vii) My brother who lives ..................... Bangalore is coming
.................. Hyderabad today.

viii) They were throwing pebbles ................... the water.

ix) They travelled................... Thanjavur ................. Chennai by
bus.

x) The child ran ...................... the house.

xi) As she was going ....................... the cinema she met an old
friend.
xii) The aeroplane flew ................... our heads.
xiii) The mechanic is lying ........................ the car.
xiv) The book shelf is .................. the calendar.

xv) She held the cap ............. his head.

xvi) He lives .................... 11/9 New York.

xvii) He carried the baby ...................... her shoulder.

xviii) The boy jumped ..................... the river.

xix) He is putting his papers ...................... his bag.

xx) Tears rolled ................. her checks.

Fill in the blanks in the following sentences:

1) The children are ___ home.

2) I feel sick today. I think I'll stay ___ bed all day.
3) The police arrested the thief and put him ___ jail.

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4) Susan is ___ work right now.

5) Where will you be at 11:00?

I'll be ___ class at that time.

6) Where will you be at 2:00?

I'll be ___ home then.

7) Why is Sara ___ bed? It's still early.

She doesn't feel well.

8) Where is your sister?

She's ___school. She should be home soon.

9) And where is your brother?

He's ___hostel. He won't be home for another month.

8.4.3 Linkers or connectors

Linkers are words used to connect words, phrases and clauses in a

sentence. Some of the linkers in English are ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘although’, ‘or’,
‘because’, ‘since’, ‘as’, ‘if’, etc.

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 ● We use ‘and’ to connect words, phrases, etc. Examples: black
and white, Rani and Vani, bread and butter, in the morning and
evening, apples, oranges and bananas.
● We use ‘but’ and ‘although’ to express contrast. Examples: She
is poor but honest; Although he ran fast, he missed the bus, etc.
● We use ‘or’ to express alternative choice. Examples: Is it green
or blue? Is the baby a boy or a girl?, etc.

● We use ‘because’ ‘as’ and ‘since’ to give the reason for

something. Examples: We lost because we didn’t play well; She
didn’t come since it was raining; As you are busy, I shall disturb
you, etc.
● We use ‘if’ to express a condition. Examples: If it rains, we won’t
go out; If I won the race, I would be very happy, etc.
Let us now fill in the blanks with correct linkers

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 i) Shivaji sang ..................... Padmini danced.

ii) You will catch the train ..................... you go now.

iii) We played well, ......................... we lost the match.

iv) I cannot lift the box ....................... it is very heavy.

v) I could not come to school .................... I was sick.

vi) ...................... he worked hard, he failed.

vii) We'll have fish first, ..................... then roast chicken.

viii) Jack .................... Jill went up the hill.

ix) I put it in the cupboard ........................ somewhere.

x) .................... we have no money, we cannot buy it.

We shall do another exercise on linkers.

Join the following pairs of sentences using links given in the brackets:

1. We could not go out. There was a storm (because)

..............................................................................................................
.................................
2. He wants to get well. He must take rest (if)
..............................................................................................................
.................................
3. He tried hard. He could not win the match (although)
..............................................................................................................
.................................

4. He will not attend the party. He is going to Cochin (as)

..............................................................................................................
.................................
5. I rang the bell. No one answered (but)
..............................................................................................................
.................................
6. She is rich. She is miser (although)
..............................................................................................................
.................................
7. They want to win the match. They must play as a team (if)

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 ..............................................................................................................
.................................

8. He is a hard working boy. He is not very intelligent (but)

..............................................................................................................
.................................

9. I did it. You asked me to do it (because)

..............................................................................................................
.................................
10. He ran after the thief. He caught him (and)
..............................................................................................................
.................................

SUMMARY

In this Unit, we studied some functional grammar items. We began the

Unit by identifying the types of pronouns and verbs. We then discussed
the tenses with particular reference to the use of the simple present
tense and present continuous tense, simple past tense and present
perfect tense and the simple present, present continuous and future
tense. Subsequently, we also studied the use of the definite and
indefinite articles, followed by some prepositions and linkers or
connectors. We also simulated a few situations to identify

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 UNIT – 9 GENERAL RULES
STRUCTURE

Overview
Learning Objectives

9.1 Punctuation
9.2 Common Mistakes
9.3 Conversational English
9.4 Affixes

Summary

OVERVIEW

In this Unit, we will then touch upon the affixes and punctuation marks,
and close the Unit by listing some common mistakes we make in terms
of spelling, pronunciation, etc.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After completing this Unit, you should be able to:
● use prefixes and suffixes appropriately;
● discuss the use of punctuation marks.

9.1 PUNCTUATION

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In this Section, we will touch upon some of the punctuation marks, which
are vital for easy reading and better understanding of written documents.
‘Punctuation’ is a set of conventions to make it easier to read written
English.

It is important to note that the so-called 'rules' of punctuation are simply

conventions, i.e., agreed ways of separating a text into sections that the
reader's eye and brain can assimilate. Like any other set of conventions
such as table manners, for example, punctuation changes over time and
as a result the 'rules' or ‘conventions’ of using punctuation also change.

Some areas of punctuation are clear-cut and straightforward. For

example, no one would disagree that a sentence should begin with a
capital letter. Other points are much more a matter of opinion and style:
commas and semicolons, for example. So, punctuating well is a
combination of knowing a number of fixed 'rules', and applying a series
of rather loose conventions to our own writing style.

No two people, however experienced they may be as writers, will

punctuate in exactly the same way. All this guide to punctuation can do
is to set out the principles and leave you to choose how heavily or lightly
you wish to punctuate your own writing with the following:

● Exclamation mark

● Full stop
● Question mark

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 ● Colon

● Semicolon

● Comma
● Apostrophe

● Inverted commas

● Capital letter
● Hyphen

● Dash

Let us now touch upon some of these here.

i) Exclamation mark (!) : The exclamation mark is very similar to

the question mark, except that, as its name suggests, it marks
exclamations rather than questions.
● It indicates that a sentence is exclamatory as in ‘Get out of
my way!' she screamed.
● It does the same thing in minor verbless sentences:
Danger! Keep out!
● We can also place an exclamation mark in brackets after a
word or phrase in a sentence that seems to be amusing,
ridiculous, or otherwise causes us to exclaim, e.g., She said
she was absolutely delighted (!) that you were coming for
Deepavali.

ii) Full stop (.): These are the strongest punctuation marks, used
to divide clauses into separate sentences. If we do not want to
go as far as this in separating elements, we can use a colon or
a semicolon. These two punctuation marks do similar but
distinct jobs.

iii) Colon (:) : The colon has a small number of related and clearly
defined functions such as the following:

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 ● It introduces a list, e.g., ‘When the secret door was opened,
it revealed an amazing treasure trove of unlikely items: old
clothing, broken picture frames, tarnished silver cutlery, a
stuffed elephant's foot and dozens of old football-match
programmes.’
● It introduces a piece of speech, e.g., At last, the old
explorer spoke: 'This is the most unhappy day of my life'.

● It introduces another section of text that the preceding

words have led up to: ‘If I have learned one thing in life, it's
this: never trust someone who says, 'I must be honest with
you'.

iv) Semicolon (;) : The semicolon is midway between a full stop

and a comma in strength. This can be used to:

● separate two clauses that are related, e.g., ‘Sometimes it is

right to forgive; sometimes it is wrong to forget.’ If these two
clauses were separated into independent sentences by the
use of a full stop, the relationship between them would be
weakened, e.g., ‘Sometimes it is right to forgive.
Sometimes it is wrong to forget.’
● separate a clause and a related phrase: ‘To err is human;
to forgive divine.’
● separate items in a list, when these are either clauses or
extended phrases as in (a) Young people today lack all
reverence for the old; they live only in the present; they do
not expect to reach old age themselves. (b) There were
several important reasons why the initiative was a failure: a
serious lack of funds; the unwillingness of many groups to
participate; and a general lack of confidence in the
leadership.

v) Question mark (?) : A question mark ends a sentence, as a

full stop does, and is used to indicate that the sentence is a
question. The sentence often takes the correct grammatical
from for a question, e.g., ‘Have you seen the latest Tennis
match?’ If a statement sentence is intended as a question, this
is indicated by a question mark, e.g., 'You've seen the latest

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 Tennis match?' she asked. Some sentences end with what is
called a tag question: 'You've seen the latest Tennis match,
have you?' she said. If the tag question is really asking a
question, then it should be followed by a question mark. In
many cases, however, the speaker is just requesting
confirmation, and then there is no need for a question mark:
'You've seen the latest Pinter play, haven't you,' she said.

If you are not sure whether you need a question mark, do a

simple test. Read the sentence aloud. If your voice falls at the
end of the tag question, then it doesn't need a question mark. If
it rises, then it does. You can also place a question mark in
brackets after a word or phrase in a sentence that seems to
you questionable: He said he was absolutely delighted (?) that
you were coming for Deepavail.

vi) Apostrophe (‘) : The apostrophe is the more abused than

used punctuation mark in English. It is not surprising that many
children, and adults too, have just given up! What makes it
worse is the fact that, if we abandoned it completely and never
used another apostrophe, it would cause almost no problems
of confusion in our writing. But for the moment at least, we are
stuck with it. Apostrophes have two purposes.

It shows one or more letters have been left out. This happens
most often with commonly contracted forms such as ‘it is’ (it's),
‘did not’ (didn't), ‘can not’ (can't), etc. Note that in these
contractions, we use only one apostrophe, between the ‘n’ and
the ‘t’, even when letters are omitted in more than one place.
So, ‘shall not’ becomes ‘shan't’ and not ‘sha'n't’

It also shows possession. The rule is as follows:

● For singular nouns, add 's: ‘Harry's hat the budgie's cage’

● For plurals that end in ‘s’, just add the apostrophe: ‘Her
parents' advice’
● For plurals that do not end with ‘s’, add 's: Children's games

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 The only problem area is proper nouns that end in ‘s’, e.g.,
James, Moses, etc. Should it be James' or James's? Either is
correct. It is also worth pointing out that possessive pronouns,
has no apostrophe, e.g., The cat hurt its paw.

Note also that apostrophe -s should never be used to indicate a

plural.

vii) Inverted commas (’’): Inverted commas are used for various
reasons. It is used to mark off the words spoken in a passage
of direct speech, e.g., ‘There's no need to look at me like that!'
she snarled. It is also used to show that the words enclosed
are a quotation, e.g., ‘It is not clear what is meant when the
contract refers to 'other authorized persons'. Furthermore,
inverted commas are used to indicate a book or a title, e.g.,
‘Games People Play’

In printed matter, however, it is the convention to miss out the

inverted commas and set such book, film, play, radio, and TV
titles in italics. It is also necessary to decide whether to use
single or double inverted commas. This is partly a matter of
individual style (although single inverted commas are now
widely used), but it is important to note that some writers would
use a comma instead of the second semicolon.

It is worth observing that when the semicolon separates two

balanced or related clauses it can be replaced by a full stop.
When it separates the items in a list it can be replaced by a
comma.

viii) Comma (,) : The comma is the most difficult punctuation mark
to use well. Commas are essential for clear writing, but there
are few hard-and-fast rules. It has been said that the person
who has learned how to use commas has learned how to write.
The traditional advice used to be that you should read a text
aloud and where it was necessary to make a short pause, there

176
 you should put a comma. While there is some truth in this, it
does not always work. It is important to remember that most
reading is silent, and the comma is as much an instruction to
the eye as to the voice. It helps the reader see speedily which
items in a sentence are linked and which are separated.
We use commas to separate items in a list, e.g., ‘In her diary
she itemized all the foods she most disliked: popcorn, canned
fish and potato chips, avacado, white bread and margarine.
It is sometimes argued that you should not place a comma
before and in a list. We use a comma to indicate a break
between clauses, where this increases clarity and helps the
reader: Although I don't like coffee, milk shakes are one of my
favourite drinks. Remove the comma, and the reader cannot
easily see how the sentence works. The eye passes over the
grammatical break, to read: Although I don't like coffee milk
shakes…and then slows down, as the reader realizes that it is
not clear whether the writer is referring to one kind of drink or
two.

Commas also serve to enclose sections of a sentence. This

often indicates that the enclosed section adds extra
information, but is not essential to the structure and meaning of
the main sentence: Lord Perry, who used to be our man in
Havana, is now on the board of several tobacco companies.
Note that the phrase ‘who used to be our man in Havana’ could
be omitted and the sentence would still work effectively.

ix) Dash (_____) : The dash is like a long hyphen. It has two
main purposes. It indicates a sharp break in the flow of thought
in a sentence, e.g., ‘It was an unfortunate event – in fact, I'd
say it was the worst thing that's ever happened to me.’ It is
also used in pairs to enclose a section of a sentence, in a
similar way to commas or brackets, e.g., ‘Mr. Hindley came
home to the funeral; and – a thing that amazed us, and set the
neighbours gossiping right and left – he brought a wife with
him.’ Note that the words enclosed by the two dashes could be
omitted without destroying the grammar of the sentence.

177
 It is, however, very easy to overuse the dash and to give your
writing a broken, breathless feel. In other words, it should be
used with caution.

x) Single or double inverted commas: It is sometimes

necessary to quote what someone has said or written, word for
word. To do this, we use a combination of inverted commas
and other punctuation marks and conventions. As is often the
case, there is no one 'correct' way of doing this. What follows
is a description of the commonest method. It assumes
throughout that it is spoken words that are being quoted, but
the same approach applies to the quotation of written texts.
The actual words spoken are enclosed in single or double
inverted commas. The words spoken follow the normal rules
of punctuation for sentences – within the inverted commas. In
other words, each sentence begins with a capital letter and ends
with a full stop, question mark, or exclamation mark; all other
punctuation marks are used as normal: ‘He said, 'I don't believe a
word of it. Do you?'

xi) Capital letter: Capital letters are used for the first letters of
people's names, in other proper names. (A proper name is
usually the name of a place or institution, or the title of a
person, play, book, film, or other work of art.) The convention is
that all the main words are capitalized, while the less important
words are not. So, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs
should have initial capital letters. If the proper name begins
with an article, then that too should have a capital letter, but
only if it is an essential part, e.g., ‘Have you ever been to The
Hague?’ But, I have never visited the United States of America.
In abbreviations, where the capital is the first letter of the word
abbreviated and stands for the whole word, e.g., BBC, OUP,
etc.

xii) Hyphen: Hyphens have various purposes. One of the

purposes is to show that a word has been split across a line
break. If the last word on a line of text is too long to fit on the
line, then part is printed at the end of that line, followed by a
hyphen, and the rest appears at the beginning of the next line.

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 There are conventions for this and medium-sized dictionaries
often show how words can be split. Word-processing and page
layout programs usually contain hyphenation dictionaries that
do this automatically.

A hyphen is also used to join two or more words together and

show the reader that they belong together as a grammatical
unit, e.g., medium-sized dictionaries, an eight-year-old, etc.
Sometimes, it is not clear whether two words should be printed
as separate words, linked by hyphens, or printed as a single
word. For example, is it ‘paper knife’, or ‘paper-knife’? Is it
‘semi-colon’ or ‘semicolon’? When in doubt, it is better we
check up in a good dictionary.

If an abbreviation forms an acronym, that is to say, a common

name by which an organization is known, composed of initial
letters, then full stops are not required, e.g., British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). If the abbreviation consists of
the first part of a word, then it should end with a full stop, e.g.,
August (Aug.). If an abbreviation begins with the first letter of a
word and ends with its last letter, then a full stop is not
required, e.g., Monsignor (Mgr)

Guidelines
In using the punctuation, always remember the following:

● The primary purpose of punctuation is to aid the reader.

● Too many punctuation marks make a text confusing; too few
make it ambiguous and difficult to follow.

● A number of punctuation marks have fairly clearly defined rules

for their use, about which there is little disagreement. For
example, every sentence has to begin with a capital letter and
end with a full stop, a question mark, or an exclamation mark.
Problems only occur if you are not sure whether what you have
written is a complete sentence or not. The rules for using
apostrophes are not difficult and can be learned. The same
applies to colons and hyphens. The punctuation of direct speech
and other quoted matter, using inverted commas and other

179
 punctuation marks, is also largely defined by a number of simple
rules which can be learned.
● Other punctuation marks and situations are more complicated
and depend on experience and judgment.

● The use semicolons and commas is complex and needs thought.

● Essentially they serve to separate items that need to be kept
apart or to enclose sections of text-often because these contain
additional, nonessential information.
● Abbreviations can also cause problems, but a simple rule is that
if you are in any doubt it is better to omit a full stop than insert
one.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 9.1

What do we use punctuations?
Note:
a) Write your answer in the space given below.

180
9.2 COMMON MISTAKES

Some words cause problems which cannot be solved by learning rules.

The only thing to do then is to learn them by heart. Let us list some of
the problem words in this Section.

Words with one pair of double letters are given in the table below:

abbreviate accelerate accident accomplish

accurate allergy appropriate approximate

assist beginning brilliant caterpillar

collapse collect commemorate commit

corridor desiccated disappear disappoint

Dissatisfied discuss exaggerate excellent

Gorilla happen(ed) harass hallelujah

Illustrate immediate millenary millionaire

Necessary occasion occur paraffin

Parallel proceed procession professional

Questionnaire scissors sheriff succeed

Sufficient terrible tomorrow tranquility

Words with two pairs of double letters are given in the following table:

Accommodation accidentally address commission

Committed embarrass guerrilla happiness

Mattress millennium possess successful

Unnecessary woolen

181
Words, which are sometimes confused

● accept/except – I accept everything you say except your claim

that you are telling the truth.
● access/excess – I could not gain access to the building
because of an excess of security precautions.

● accessory/accessory – The accused, who wore a green dress

with matching accessories, was found guilty of being an
accessory the crime of murder.

● affect/effect – As nouns, affect is a relatively uncommon word

and means 'mood, mental state, emotion', while effect means
'the result of an action', or 'belonging' as in personal effects. As
verbs, affect means 'to alter the state of something, to have an
effect on it', while effect means 'to bring something about', as in
effect a change.
● all ready/already – 'Now are we all ready?' she asked, already
beginning to get flustered.
● all together/altogether – If you put his mistakes all together, his
reputation looks altogether different.

● amend/emend – Both words have a similar meaning of

'changing something', but amend carries a meaning of 'make
improvements to', while emend tends to mean 'correct a
mistake in'.
● amoral/immoral – Before they reach the age of reason babies
are amoral; their behaviour shows no knowledge of right and
wrong. Those who mistreat them are immoral.
● aplary/aviary – Both are containers for creatures: an apiary for
bees, and an aviary for birds.
● appraise/apprise – After appraising my work, the inspector
apprised me of his opinion.

● ascent/assent – After John's ascent of the Matterhorn, Mary

gave her assent to his proposal and they were married.
● assay/essay – as nouns assay means the process of testing
something out and more technically the process of assaying
precious metals, while essay is the most commonly used term

182
 to mean an extended piece of formal writing. As verbs, assay
means to put something to the proof, or to test metals
chemically to determine their purity, while essay means to
attempt something.
● auger/augur – The student's inability to use a simple auger to
bore a hole did not augur well for his career as a boat-builder.

● aural/oral – In the French examination, we had to do a

dictation, which tested our aural ability, and also give a five-
minute talk to demonstrate our oral skills.
● awhile/a while – While awhile is an adverb; a while is a noun
phrase, e.g., Let's rest awhile, she said after a while.
● bail/bale – After being let out of prison on bail he went on a
parachuting course and learned to bale out of an aircraft. On
his first descent, he broke his leg landing on a bale of straw.
● base/bass – In some operas, the bass singer plays a villain or
other base character.

● biannual/biennial – If you're lucky, you get biannual holidays

(every six months); if you're unlucky they are biennial (every
two years).
● born/borne – The couple's problems seemed too great to be
borne, especially after their sixth child was born.
● buy/by/bye – While by is a preposition with a range of meaning;
bye is a noun with meanings in cricket and other games; either
spelling can be used in by the by(e) and by (e)-law
● calendar/colander – I must put a note on the calendar in the
kitchen to remind me to buy a new colander for the vegetables.
● callous/callus – ‘Is that a wart on your finger or just a callus?'
she asked callously.

● cannon/canon – The cathedral canon wanted to fire a small

cannon from the tower to scare the pigeons but he was told it
was against the canons of the church.

● canvas/canvass – When he went round the area to canvass

votes, he carried his election literature in a canvas hold-all.
● censer/censor/censure – A censer is a container in which
incense is burned. A censor is someone who controls the
content of books, newspapers, films, and other media. If you
censure someone, you criticize or condemn them.

183
● cereal/serial – As he ate his breakfast cereal he read the
comic-strip serial in his daily paper.
● complement/compliment – A compliment is paid to someone
you admire. The complement is what completes something:
The ship's complement is its crew, without which it would be
incomplete.
● complaisant/complacent – Someone who is complaisant is
accommodating and wishes to please others. A complacent
person is certainly easily pleased and probably pleased with
himself.

● confidant(e)/confident – As with all words, ending with ‘ant’ or

‘ent’, the former is a noun and the latter an adjective. He was
so confident, he did not need a confidant in whom to confide
his fears.
● contagious/contiguous – A contagious disease is one that can
be passed on by physical contact. Two things that are
contiguous are next to each other and may actually be
touching.
● council/counsel – At the meeting of the royal council, the king
asked his senior ministers for their counsel about what he
should do.
● credible/credulous – Although the story was so far-fetched as
to be hardly credible, my friend was so credulous he believed
every word of it.
● crevasse/crevice – From a great height the huge crevasses in
the ice looked like tiny crevices in a sheet of crumpled paper.
● curb/kerb – A curb is something that restrains someone or
something (or curbs them). A kerb is the edge of a pavement.

● fatal/fateful – On that fateful day, just as the soothsayer had

predicted, Caesar received a fatal injury.
● faze/phase – I was completely fazed by her behaviour, which
seemed to mark a new phase in our relationship.
● flaunt/flout – The streaker flouted all the conventions of
cricketing society by flaunting his body in front of the Test
Match crowd.
● foreword/forward – In her foreword to the book she put forward
some new arguments.

184
● gild/guild/gilt/guilt – At the courses run by the Guild of cake-
decorators, you can learn how to put gold icing, or gilt, on a
cake; they call the lesson Gilding the gingerbread'. The slogan
'Naughty but nice' suggests that if you eat cream cakes you
should feel a pleasurable guilt.
● grill/grille – A grill is something you cook on. A grille is a barred
opening in a wall.
● human/humane – Most human beings who eat meat expect the
treatment of the animals they consume to be humane; they do
not want them to suffer.
● impractical/impracticable – An impractical person, who does
not have much idea of how things should be done, is likely to
suggest impracticable (unworkable) solutions to problems.
● inapt/inept – An inapt solution is one which is not suitable for
that particular problem. It may well be suggested by someone
who isn't very good at such things, who is, in fact, inept.

● index/indexes/indices – In everyday usage the plural of index is

indexes. Indices is reserved for the mathematical sense of
index. (As in the minister referred to a number of different
indices to show how prices were moving.)
● ingenious/ingenuous – ingenuous means honourably
straightforward; open, frank, candid and ingenious means
clever. (Disingenuous means deviously clever but pretending to
be honourably straightforward, etc.)
● interment/internment – Interment means burial and internment
means imprisonment.
● junction/juncture – The transport minister said that at this
juncture (point in time) there was nothing to be done about the
dangerous road junction.

● lightening/lightning – During a long and very dull lecture about

the effects of thunder and lightning on pregnant moles, the
only thing that was lightening my boredom was the thought that
it could not go on for ever.
● currant/current – A currant is a piece of dried fruit. A current is
a moving stream of water in the sea. Current also means
'happening now'.

185
● debar/disbar – The lawyer was disbarred; this meant among
other things that he was debarred from participating in criminal
trials.
● defuse/diffuse – If you defuse something, you literally remove
its fuse, so more generally it means ‘neutralize, remove the
danger from'. If you diffuse something you spread it around.
● dependant/dependent – His father was not dependent on the
state, although he had nineteen dependants.
● deprecate/depreciate – The cricket authorities deprecated the
batsman's bad behaviour, arguing that it would only cause the
reputation of cricket as a sport to depreciate.

● desert/dessert – The arrogant explorer refused to take any

advice so when he perished in the desert he got his just
desserts.
● detract/distract – When politicians seek to detract from the
merits of their opponents it is usually to distract attention from
their own shortcomings.
● disassemble/dissemble – The clever nine-year-old said, 'Father
I will not dissemble. It was I disassembled your computer'.

● dinghy/dingy – A dirty little sailing boat could be described as a

dingy dinghy.
● emigrate/immigrate – As a rule, those who immigrate into one
country must first have emigrated from another.

● eminent/immanent/imminent – Things or people that are

eminent stand out in some way. If something is imminent it is
just about to happen. Some philosophers have believed that
God is immanent (all-pervading) in the universe.
● ensure/insure – Before they went on holiday he ensured that
the house and contents were fully insured.
● exalt/exult – If you exalt something you raise it up, literally or
figuratively. If you exult, you rejoice.

● extant/extent – I do not know to what extent belief in miracles is

still extant in our society.

● factious/fractious – The prime minister's nights were broken by

the crying of her fraction infant son, so during the day she was
not in the mood to deal with the divisions of her factious party.

186
● liqueur/liquor – A liqueur is a strong and usually sweet liquor
(alcoholic drink) such as Cointreau or Benedictine. A liquor
can also be a more general term for a liquid.
● loathe/loath/loth – If you loathe something, you hate it and are
loath (unwilling) to have anything to do with it. Loth is an
alternative spelling for loath.
● lose/loose – You might lose a pet dog if you left it loose rather
than tied up.
● meter/metre – A meter is used to measure things. A metre is a
distance and also the regular pattern of strong and weak
syllables in metrical poetry.
● militate/mitigate – To mitigate is to lessen the harmful effects of
something or someone. To militate is to conflict with or work
against someone or something.
● miner/minor – A miner digs underground. A minor is under-age.
● moral/morale – The moral of the story was that when an army's
morale is low it loses battles.
● naval/navel – Naval means concerning the navy. A navel is a
belly button, or a kind of orange.
● palate/palette/pallet – The palate is part of the mouth. A palette
is the range of colours used by an artist or the small tray they
are placed on. A pallet is a wooden platform on which goods
are stacked for storage or carriage. It is also a straw bed or
mattress.
● passed/past – Passed is the past tense and past participle of
the verb to pass. I have passed my exam; all the students in
our year passed. Past is an adjective or a preposition. I have
passed all my examinations so the time for worrying is past. He
walked past the house.
● peninsula/peninsular – Peninsula is a noun, e.g., Devon and
Cornwall form a peninsula, while peninsular is the adjective
derived from it. The peninsular war was fought in Spain against
the French.
● precede/proceed – As the procession proceeded along the
Mall, the royal carriage preceded that of the prime minister.
● prescribe/proscribe – Prescribe means recommend or advise
and proscribe means ban or forbid.

187
● principle/principal – Principle is a noun and means what is
central to something, a fundamental truth. (‘Whenever, we
argued, he always insisted on taking things back to first
principles’.) Principal can be either an adjective or a noun. As
an adjective it means 'main, or chief; as a noun it means 'the
head or leader of a group or organisation'. The principal rule, or
principle, on which the college was run, was that the principal
was always right.
● resister/resistor – A resister is someone who resists. A resistor
is an electronic device, which reduces the flow of an electric
current.
● sceptic/septic – He was always a sceptic, so he did not believe
me when I told him that the wound had gone septic.

● sensual/sensuous – Sensual refers to pleasures experienced

through the body, often sexual and sensuous refers to
pleasures experienced through the mind, often artistic.

● sight/site/cite - He argued that tourism was bad for the

Developing World and cited one example where a popular site
had become an eyesore rather than a sight for sore eyes.

● stationary/stationery – Stationary is an adjective and means not

moving. Stationery is usually a noun referring to paper and
other office consumable, but it can be a modifier, as in the
stationery shop.
● systematic/systemic – A person who does things in an orderly
way can be described as systematic. A disease that invades
the bloodstream or other systems of the body is said to be
systemic.
● taught/taut – Subjects are taught in schools. Taut is the
opposite of loose or slack.
● ton/tonne – A ton is 2240 pounds (UK) or 2000 pounds (USA).
A tonne is a metric ton, 1000 kilograms.

● urban/urbane – Urban means relating to a city or cities in

general. Urbane means cultured and smooth-mannered.
● vicious/viscous – Vicious means nasty, aggressive, or cruel. A
viscous liquid is one that is thick and slow-flowing.

188
 ● waiver waver – She never wavered in her determination to get
the bank to renounce their legal right to repossess her house.
In the end she got the waiver she was requesting.

Points to note

Consider the following points regarding English spelling:

● It is important to realise that because of the complexity of

English the number of people who have no problems with
spelling is tiny.
● So, most people need to develop strategies for dealing with
spelling problems – strategies that work for them.

● Always look for patterns and remember that spelling is a visual

matter.
● Learn difficult spellings by the look-cover-write-check method.

● Test doubtful spellings by writing down possible versions and

seeing which one looks right.
● Try to place problem spellings in a group of similar spellings
which also includes words you can spell.
● A lot spelling mistakes are actually the confusion of two words
with slightly different spellings but very different meanings.
These have to be learned.

● Use a good dictionary.

189
 LEARNING ACTIVITY 9.2
Write in separate sentences using “son” and “sun”.
Note:
a) Write your answer in the space given below.

9.3 CONVERSATIONAL ENGLISH

Learning the rules of English is one thing, using the language for
communication is quite another. Keeping this in view, in this Section, we
will examine some samples of conversational English based on certain
situations.

Consider the short conversations indicating different types greetings,

getting familiar, etc., given below:

190
● Hello. My name's Siva. What's your name?

Vasi.
Where are you from Vasi?
I'm from Mysore. Where are you from?

I'm from Chennai.

Do you speak Tamil?
Yes, I do. Do you speak Hindi?

Oh, Yes.

● Hello

Hello, Pete. How are you?

Fine, thanks. How are you?

I'm fine, thank you.

Goodbye
Goodbye, Jo. See you tomorrow!

Bye bye, Pete. Have a nice evening.

Thanks, you too!

Thanks.

● Hello... How are you?

I'm fine, - OK, - well, thank you
Goodbye, - bye bye

191
 See you tomorrow

Have a nice evening!

Now, consider another set of conversations asking for an information.

● What time is it?

Excuse me. Can you tell me the time, please?

Yes, of course. It's seven o'clock.

Thank you.

No problem.

● What time is it?

It's half past three.
Thanks.

You're welcome.

● Excuse me.
Can you tell me the time, please?

What time is it?

It's half past...
It's quarter past...
It's ten to...
It's quarter to...

o'clock

A typical conversation one may encounter in a shop is given below:

Can I help you?

Yes, I'm looking for a sweater.

What size are you?

I'm an extra large.

192
 How about this one?

Yes, that's nice. Can I try it on?

Certainly, there's the changing room over there.

Thank you.

How does it fit?

It's too tight. Do you have a large?

Yes, here you are.

Thank you. I'll have it, please.

OK, how would you like to pay?

Do you take credit cards?

Yes, we do. Visa, Master Card and American Express.

OK, here's my Visa.
Thank you. Have a nice day!

Thank you, goodbye.

Examples of conversations between people, one asking the other for

directions is given below:

● Excuse me. Is there a bank near here?

Yes. There's a bank on the corner.
Thank you.
You're welcome.

● Excuse me. Is there a supermarket near here?

Yes. There's one near here.

How do I get there?

At the traffic lights, take the first left and go straight on. It's on
the left.

Is it far?

Not really.
Thank you.

193
 Don't mention it.
Consider a typical conversation, while ordering a meal, given
below:

Fine, thank you. Can I see a menu, please?

Certainly, here you are.

Thank you. What's today's special?

Grilled tuna and cheese on rye.

That sounds good. I'll have that.

Would you like something to drink?

Yes, I'd like a coke.

Thank you. (Returning with the food) Here you are. Enjoy your
meal!
Thank you.
(After the meal) Can I get you anything else?

No thanks. I'd like the bill, please.

Here it is.
Here you are. Keep the change!

Thank you! Have a good day!

Bye.

194
 LEARNING ACTIVITY 9.3
Write a dialogue between a mobile service centre employee
and you?

Note:
a) Write your answer in the space given below.

9.4 AFFIXES

Affixes refer to the prefixes and suffixes we add to base English words.
For example, we add such prefixes as ir -, il-, im-, in- , etc.

Look at the following pairs of words:

195
A B

rational irrational
legal illegal

modest immodest

possible impossible
balance imbalance
consistent inconsistent

elegant inelegant
attentive inattentive
distinct indistinct

Note that when ir-, il-, im- and in- are added to certain words, they take
on negative meanings. By studying the spellings of the words listed
above, can you say when we use the prefixes ir-,il-,im-,and in-? (Are
there any rules about the spellings?)

In many cases, words are given a negative meaning by using the prefix
‘un-‘. Consider the examples given below in this context:

A B
happy unhappy
breakable unbreakable

196
mixed unmixed

employed unemployed

Add suitable prefixes to the following words to form words with negative
meanings (use a dictionary, if necessary):

audible applicable
faithful grateful

identified literate

responsible practical
mature permanent

employed active

logical balanced

Use the new words (i.e., prefixed words) to fill in the blanks in the
sentences below:
i) The income-tax rules are…………….to foreigners visiting India
for a few months only.
ii) I am sorry to find that you are so………….in your thinking,
though you are a grown-up person.
iii) The dying man said something in an……………whisper.
iv) Some of my friends are working as teachers, but most of them
are still……………

v) I had given him an important task to do, but he says he forgot.

I am sorry to find that he is so………..
vi) You are trying to tell me that the less one works the more
successful one can become. How can you be so………………?
vii) Last year the students organised a number of picnics, debates,
and musical Programmes. This year, however, they seem to
be completely……………………
viii) Everyone in the hostel suddenly became sick last night. The
reason is still…………although we think the vegetables we ate
may have caused the trouble.
Choose the correct word from the alternatives given and fill in the blanks
in the sentences given below:

197
● Are there ______ apples in the kitchen?

a) much b) any c) some

● That is _____ interesting book.

a) the b) a c) an

● I went ______ church last Sunday.

a) at b) in c) to
● What _____ he like? - He is very friendly.

a) does b) did c) is

● I ________ a new car last month.

a) bought b) have bought c) buyed

● How ________ money do you have in your pocket?

a) many b) few c) much
● He came ______ home late last night.

a) in b) at c) to
● Jack is a nice boy, and I like _____.
a) it b) him c) his

● I get up ______ seven o'clock every day

a) in b) on c) at
● I like __________ music.
a) listen b) listen to c) listening to
● What __________ in your free time?

a) you do b) do you do c) are you doing

● My father _______ in a bank.
a) works b) work c) is working

● Would you like _______ coffee?

a) any b) an c) some
● I _____ drive a car.

a) can't to b) can c) want

● He likes watching TV ______ evening.

198
 a) in the b) at c) during

● It ________ rain tomorrow.

a) is going to b) will c) is
● I drove my car _____ the garage.

a) in b) at c) into

● _________. Is there a post office near here?

a) Please b) Excuse me c) Pardon

● I live in ______.

a) Italy b) Italy c) Italian

● The shop is at the end of this street _____ the right.

a) at b) in c) on

● The bank is _______ the post office.

a) near of b) next to c) next

● There are ______ books on the table.
a) any b) an c) some
● I would like _____ rice.

a) a b) one c) some
● I went to Paris three years _____.
a) last b) ago c) time past
● Do you like ______ Chinese food?
a) a b) an c) some

● He speaks English _____

a) good b) well c) gooder
● He is a very _________ driver.

a) carefully b) careful c) care

● He ___________ visit his brother next week.

a) is going to b) will c) is

● I'm going to Seattle ______ English.

a) for learning b) to learn c) for to learn

199
 ● What __________________! Look at that mess!

a) do you do b) is you do c) are you doing

● He enjoys __________ football.

a) to play b) play c) playing

● Paris is _______________ city I have ever visited.

a) the beautifullest b) the most beautiful c) most beautiful

● Today is __________ than yesterday.

a) hoter b) more hot c) hotter

● Jack is a ________ tennis player than Peter.

a) gooder b) better c) badder

● I'm going home ______ it's late.
a) why b) that c) because

● _________ 'The Sting'?

a) Did you ever see b) Have you ever seen c) Have you ever see

Now, consider the following and fill in the blanks with correct form:

i) Sarah's house is (large) ____ than Shannon's house.

a. large
b. more larger
c. larger

d. more large

ii) Today I was (sad) ____ than I was yesterday.

a) sad

b) sadder
c) more sad

d) more sadder

200
 iii) Germany is an (old) ____ country than the United States.

a) more older

b) more old
c) old

d) older

iv) Jack is much (tall) _____ than his sister, Jennifer.

a) tall

b) taller
c) more tall

d) more taller

v) The grass is (wet) _____ than the sidewalk.

a) more wetter
b) more wet
c) wetter
d) wet

vi) Jason is (smart) ____ in math than his brother.

a) smarter
b) more smart
c) more smarter

d) smart

vii) I think kittens are (cute) ____ than puppies.

a) more cuter

b) more cute
c) cute

d) cuter

201
 viii) My sister Elaine is (young) ____ than my brother Fred.

a) more younger

b) more young
c) younger

d) young

ix) 8) Monkeys and chimpanzees are (big) _____ than birds.

a) biger

b) bigger
c) more big

d) more bigger

x) 10) My cat Neko is (soft) _____ than my other cat, Sebastian.

a) soft
b) softer
c) more soft
d) more softer

SUMMARY

In this Unit, we have discussed the importance of punctuations in writing.

Then we have studied the homonyms and hyponyms. Following this, we
have discussed the affixes for creating new words, besides dialogues.

Reference:

Jayaseelan, K.A et al (ed.) Functional Grammar, Hyderabad.

CIEFL/OUP

Khanna, A.L and T.C. Ghai (1997): A Practical Book of English for
Undergraduates, New Delhi. Pragati Publications

202
Murphy, Raymond. Essential English Grammar. Cambridge University
Press; Second edition, 2000
Hewings, Martin. Advanced Grammar in Use. Cambridge University
Press, · 2013

Web Resources:

https://www.englishgrammar101.com

Video links:

Effective Writing
https://nptel.ac.in/courses/109/107/109107172/
Parts of Speech

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WVnd07KCKY
Articles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iKjfjNvbJw

Prepositions and Linkers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk5L6ny8fEU

Punctuation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBCmEDnWiso
Polite Expression

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kCTDhW9rqQ
Affixes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYSnf6qy4WA

203
Block 5 LANGUAGE SKILLS

UNIT – 10 READING SKILLS

STRUCTURE

Overview
Learning Objectives

10.1 Reading Skills: SQ3R Technique

10.1.1 Surveying
10.1.2 Questioning

10.1.3 Reading
10.1.4 Recalling

10.1.5 Reviewing

Summary

OVERVIEW
In this Unit, we will discuss the skills and sub-skills of reading. As
distance students, this skill is very essential for us to study better. The
other two language skills, listening and speaking are no less important.

We will begin the Unit by discussing one of the powerful tools or

techniques of reading, i.e., SQ3R, which stands for the five steps,
survey, question, read, recall and review, involved in better reading and
comprehension.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After completing this Unit, you should be able to:

204
 ● apply the SQ3R technique for faster reading and better
comprehension;

● make and keep notes while listening to lectures/reading;

● use dictionaries and thesaurus appropriately.

10.1 READING SKILLS: SQ3R TECHNIQUE

Providing a lengthy reading list to the students, of late, has become a

convention. But how many of us really have time to go through all the
books/articles, etc. suggested in the reading list? We cannot afford to
spend a great deal of time in studying everything presented in the
books/articles, etc. But then, to successfully complete a Course, we are
to spend adequate time on reading them. What should we do in this
scenario?

Different texts require different approaches depending on what we are

expected to get from them. For example, we may need to read some
books in parts, some wholly but not necessarily carefully, and a few
diligently and with attention. What this means is that our strategy should
be flexible in dealing with materials. One strategy for effective reading
that has been in use is the SQ3R technique, which we will discuss, next.

SQ3R stands for the initial letter of the five steps in reading a text. The
five steps are:

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 i) Survey

ii) Question

iii) Read
iv) Recall

v) Review

We shall discuss each one of these steps in Subsections 10.1.1 to

10.1.5.

10.1.1 Surveying

This refers to a quick glance through the title page, preface, chapter
headings, index, etc., of a text. Surveying of a text helps us grasp the
central topic/theme of the text. For example, a glance at the title page
may give us in the following information:

● the general subject area;

● the level of approach;
● the author’s name;

● the date and place of publication, etc.

Generally, a glance at the preface will give us the essential details
regarding the author’s message in the text. The preface may also help
us decide whether or not the text deserves our attention. A contents
survey also gives us similar support. An index-survey can tell us
instantly whether or not the text contains what we need. It also helps us
save time and efforts by directing us straight to the most relevant pages.
Surveying a chapter

Before you begin each new chapter in a book, for example, we must
survey it carefully. We must pay special attention to:
● first and last paragraphs. An author may use them to give,
respectively, an overview of what is to come and a summary of
what has been said.
● Summaries/signposts as these may appear at intervals as well
as at the end of a text.
● Headings. Authors generally divide the information into several
sections, sub-sections, etc., for easy reference and better

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 comprehension. Many of us, however, tend to ignore these
features and thereby lose track of the vital clues contained in
them. Obviously, headings tell us what topic is dealt with in each
section or sub-section. Besides, the relative letter sizes or
prominence of the headings suggest to us how they go together,
what goes with what, etc. At times, the author’s use of numbering
the items also gives us similar suggestions.

10.1.2 Questioning

Our survey of the text will raise in us some questions, general ones
though. For example, glancing at the title page, preface and content, we
can ask such questions as the following:

● How far do I depend on this book?

● Will the book be helpful to me as its preface suggests?
● Why should or should not the author devote a whole chapter to
such-and-such a topic?

Even these general questions are of some help to us in deciding how we

might treat the text. When we turn from surveying the book as a whole to
a specific chapter/topic, naturally, our questions will also become
specific. At times, the author himself or herself will pose questions at the
beginning or end of a chapter. Since questions are generally more
helpful if asked at the beginning of a chapter, it is always better to take
note of the end of the chapter questions too during our survey. At any
cost, we should not overlook the author’s questions, lest us should by
pass a very helpful guide to effective studying.

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10.1.3 Reading

Reading a text demands a critical mind. In other ways, when we read a

text we apply our mind with all its critical skills. Unless, we read actively,
the questions which have been formulated can never be answered
satisfactorily.

At this stage in the SQ3R technique, we need not:

● make notes. We may tend to note down the author’s
opinion/words rather than our own. This is no help at all to
understanding and learning.

● underline words or phrases. If we underlined the words, phrases,

etc., in our first reading itself, it is likely that we will find in our
second reading, that the words or phrases which have been
underlined are not crucial for our purpose.
The suggestion is that we can look for the main ideas and the supporting
details at the first reading.

Main ideas can be found at every level of a text. The text as a whole will
have, perhaps, one very general main idea. The main idea of each
chapter/unit will be rather less general. And each section within a
chapter will have a more specific main idea, and the main idea of each
paragraph will be the most specific of all. Ideally, our job is to pick out
the main idea at each level.

Reading faster and better

Very often we find ourselves reading magazines, telephone directories,
text books, menu cards and so on. But, the process of reading and

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concentration differ depending on the information we want to cull out
from the text.
As learners we spend a great deal of time working on books and other
printed materials. We would be able to use this more effectively, if we
could read faster and change our speed of reading depending on the
content requirement. For example, if we read a textbook intending to
make notes we read slowly and if we are looking for a number in a
telephone directory, we usually scan through the pages quickly to locate
the number.
We should be able to vary our reading speed, according to the
complexity of the material and purpose for which we are reading. If we
are first trying to get the overall gist of a piece of writing, we should be
able to read two or three times as fast as when we are trying to see
through the detailed development of an argument. But even when the
material is difficult we may benefit from scanning it through quickly first
before we get down to reading it more intensively.
Generally, we expect every piece of the text we look at to show up its full
meaning at the first instance itself. This surely is not the right attitude. In
other words, we may have to go through it several times before we get
the right message of the author. Several rapid readings will probably
give us greater understanding and take less time than a single,
painstaking effort to assimilate all the points made in the text.

Slow readers, however, tend to read one word at a time, often mouthing
the words as they do so. They also tend to take frequent glances back at
words they have seen already. Some read so slowly that by the time
they go to the end of a paragraph, or even a sentence, they may have
forgotten how it began!
Here are a few suggestions for you.

● Stop talking to yourself while reading, i.e. make sure you don’t
mouth words or utter them aloud as you read.
● Stay alert, read with a sense of purpose, anticipate what you are
about to read and aim to get your eyes along that line of print as
far as possible.
● Try to read in “thought-units” (two or three words at a time), i.e.,
stop reading word by word and look for the way words group
themselves within each sentence. So that our eye stops only
three or four times in a line of print instead of at every word.

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 ● Build up your vocabulary. Generally, a faster reader has a large
repertoire of words and so he or she reads not only with greater
comprehension but also faster.
● Practice reading faster, i.e., time your reading of magazines,
articles of known length and test your recall of the contents, read
all your study materials, even if you have to read them more than
once.

We said that a large repertoire of words help us read faster. We shall

see here the major means to build up our vocabulary.

Vocabulary building
The following are some of the oft-repeated ways which help us build up
our vocabulary:

i) We should not restrict ourselves to our own subject

texts. In other words, we should inculcate the habit of
reading widely.

ii) Wherever we come across new words, it is good

practice that we write them down in a note book.
iii) Get the dictionary habit. That is to say, we must look up
and note the meaning of each new word as soon as we
come across it.
iv) Use our new words in our writing and speech at the first
opportunity.
v) Make our own glossary for technical words and phrases
that occur in what we read.

vi) Because reading has no subject matter of its own,

whatever we read is reading – whether reading a
newspaper, a menu, a journal, a mad map or a
textbook.

The efficiency of your reading depends greatly upon:

● our basic reading skills;
● our background of experiences in the area in which we are
reading;
● the difficulty level of the material;

● our interest in the material;

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 ● our purpose(s) of reading.

For reading better, we should be able to do the following efficiently:

● Finding the main/central idea.

● Drawing inference (i.e., reading between the lines).

● Distinguishing between fact and opinion.

● Creative reading.

We shall talk about each one of these in the given order:

● Finding the main/central idea: To find the main idea of a
paragraph, we must find what common elements the sentences
share. Some writers place the main idea as the topic sentence
and some put the title of the topic in bold print. However, in
literature, this is not the common practice – the main idea may
not be stated directly but implied. In such a situation, the reader
has to find it from the clues provided by the writer. There is no
foolproof method of finding the main idea. However, the oft-
repeated suggestion is that we should first determine the topic of
the paragraph and then find out what the author is trying to say
about the topic that is special or unique. Once we do that, we
must be able to locate the main idea.
We generally use the term central idea rather than main idea,
when we refer to group of paragraphs, a story, etc. To find out
the central idea, the introductory paragraph is usually helpful
because it either contains or anticipates what the central idea is
and how it will be developed.
Now, consider the following paragraph:
I keep wishing you were alive, so we could start over. I tell
myself that I would do it differently, be patient with you, try to
understand – when I guess I would just act the same way.
There aren’t many chances in life. You grow up and become
what you are without realizing it. I plan to be a better person
and find myself repeating all the old patterns, being selfish, not
seeing people for what they are. And I do not know how to
change them. There are times when I feel beautiful, sexless,
light wanting nothing – but then I crash to earth again and
want everything. Myself, most of all.

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 Shall we analyse the topic, the speciality about and the main idea
of the topic?

The topic is about the writer’s pattern of life. The speciality about
the topic is the writer’s pattern of life is difficult to change, and the
main idea is the writer feels that it is difficult to change one’s
pattern of life.

● Drawing inference: You would have come across writings which

do not directly state what they mean but present idea in an
indirect, roundabout way. That is the reason why, the act of
drawing inference is called reading between the lines. Mystery
writers find inferences essential to maintain suspense in their
stories. For example, Sherlock Holmes and Perry Mason
mysteries are based essentially on the ability of the characters to
uncover evidence in the form of clues that are not obvious to
others around them. (Recall R.K. Narayan’s An Astrologer’s Day,
which we considered in Block 2).
However, text book writers normally present information in a more
straight forward manner than fiction writers do. Nevertheless,
even text materials include implied meaning that we must deduce
or infer. For example, when we read about the actions and
decisions of some characters in a novel we can deduce
something about their personality. When we read about North
Pole, for example, we can infer the kind of clothes one needs to
be there. Good readers, while reading, try to gather clues to draw
inferences about what they read – oddly, they are not usually
aware of it.

To read effectively and in a better way, we should imbibe the

habit of raising key questions about the material we are reading.
This will help us draw inference from what we are reading and
supply date to substitute our inferences.
● Distinguishing between fact and opinion: The ability to
differentiate between facts and opinions is a very important skill
of critical reading that we need to develop for effective reading.
We should know that everything we need may not necessarily be
completely true or correct. Accordingly, we should be able to
react to the message in the text.

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 ● Creative reading: Good readers are able to look beyond the
obvious and come up with new or alternative solutions. In short, it
involves divergent thinking. Do not let your thinking be
unidirectional, i.e., you should try to solve problems in many
different ways and be intelligent risk takers.
Does the discussion sound serious? Perhaps, it is meant to be so. Yes,
as studying is serious, unless we make some serious efforts to study
effectively, we cannot perhaps succeed in our pursuits.

Before we proceed further, let us work out the following exercise.

Now we shall look at the fourth stage in the SQ3R technique.

10.1.4 Recalling

What is read need to be recalled for retention. Even if the material we

read is perfectly straightforward, we need to recall what has been read
for long-term memory. Regular attempts to recall will help us improve
our learning in the following three ways:

i) better concentration;

ii) chance to remedy misinterpretation;

iii) reactive reading.

We should write down the key point we remember and make brief notes
of the main ideas and details we think are important. (We shall talk more
about note-making later in this Unit).

How often to recall?

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This is a pertinent question, though ‘how often’ depends primarily on
how good a reader you are.

10.1.5 Reviewing

The purpose of reviewing is to check the validity of our recall. The best
way to do this is to have a quick survey of the materials. This will help us
review whether or not we have understood the context rightly.

Having talked about the SQ3R technique, we should be able to say

whether or not we should strictly follow the logical order in which SQ3R
is presented if we adopt this technique.

Although the steps of SQ3R are in a logical and natural order, there may
be overlaps and repetitions between them. For instance, even while the
emphasis is on ‘survey’ or ‘read’ we may still find ourselves asking
questions or we may want to interrupt the third stage (i.e. read) for the
purpose of recalling and reviewing or even for the purpose of repeating
‘survey’. Nevertheless, there is no harm in adopting SQ3R in the same
order.
The SQ3R technique need not necessarily be confined only to printed
materials. With suitable modification in the stages, we can apply this
technique to electronic media too. The stage we may have to change is
the third one i.e. read. This may be replaced by either ‘listen to’ or
‘watch’ depending on whether we are dealing with an audio or a video
programme.

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 LEARNING ACTIVITY 10.1
Give a few characteristics of a good reader.
Note:
a) Write your answer in the space given below.

SUMMARY

We began this Unit by discussing one of the techniques of reading, i.e.,

SQ3R, which stands for the five steps, survey, question, read, recall and
review. In discussing this technique, we also pointed out about
inferencing or reading between lines.

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 UNIT 11 - WRITING SKILLS
STRUCTURE

Overview
Learning Objectives

11.1 Writing Skills

11.1.1 Note making: some technique
11.1.2 Mechanics of note making

Summary

Overview

In the previous Unit, we have dealt with the reading skills. Now, we are
going to discuss the writing skills that are an important component in
language learning. In this regard, we will also study the techniques of
note making that is useful for writing.

Learning Objectives

After completing this Unit, you should be able to:

● define writing skills
● explain note-making
● use techniques in your wrting

11.1 WRITING SKILLS

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A distance learner spends much of his or her time either in reading the
course materials or writing responses to the assignments based on the
course materials. Thus, writing skills are essential for a distance learner.
In the following Sub-sections, we will talk about some of the techniques
involved in note-making.

11.1.1 Note-making: some techniques

Very rarely do we make notes. And, this is one of the common causes of
our failure in academic pursuits. Note-making help us mainly in the
following two ways:

i) It keeps us active while we are learning (and thus aiding our

concentration)

ii) It helps us have a record of what we have studied (irrespective

of the media.
If we really want to have a grip on what we have read, heard (for
example, through audio) or watched (on a video), it is always helpful to
put a few words on paper than to have a headful of hazy memories. The
memories may drift away in the course of time, unless you nail them
down with words. And you can keep your written record as a permanent
reminder.

Note-keeping
There are many ways of keeping our notes. Generally, we follow one of
the following:

∙ notes on loose sheets of paper of uniform size;

∙ notes on odd scraps of paper;

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∙ notes in a thick hardbound notebooks;

∙ notes on note cards.

Which of the four would you prefer?

Ideally, we should be able to arrange our notes in order, so that the

notes on a given topic are kept together – whether we collect them from
reading books, listening to lectures or watching video programmes or
whether we made them recently or last year. In such a situation, bound
note books are of little help because we will be forced to store our notes
in the order we wrote them. With a loose-leaf binder, on the other hand,
we can re-arrange our sheets of papers, at times remove some, re-write
some or add a few new materials, etc.
Very often, we find ourselves in a dilemma as to whether or not to put in
some information. We get relatively more time to make up our mind
regarding the points to be noted when we are working on print materials
than when we listen to lectures or when we watch a TV or video
programme.
In the main, our notes should contain enough of the author’s/lecturer’s
line of argument to bring it all clearly back to the mind at a later stage in
time. In making notes, you should be clear as to what should be included
and what should be left out. By implication, you should not end up with
putting together a mini-text.
If you are making notes on note-cards, you may wish to follow a few
guidelines. In making notes on note cards, you should keep in mind the
following;
● If you are quoting an author’s exact words make sure you put
them in question marks try to summarise what you have read or
heard but take care that you are stating facts, not opinions.
● If you are giving your or someone else’s opinion, make sure you
record this on the card so that you will not confuse the opinion
with fact.

● Try not to make notes on matters of common knowledge.

● Do not make notes on the same information twice.

Now, we shall talk about the ways of making notes. There are mainly
two ways of making notes, and these are summarizing and outlining. We
will touch upon both, below:

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 i) Summarising: Summary is a condensed version of the original
written in continuous prose. A good summary ought to be brief
and ought to include only essential information. The main idea
of the paragraph or the central idea of an article and the
important facts should be stated not necessarily in the
sequence presented in the passage. (The sequence must be
followed in the summary only if it is essential). In a summary,
we need to include only the information stated in the paragraph
or article and not our opinion or what we think should have
been included.

ii) Outlining: Generally, we present the essential points in an

almost diagrammatic fashion. This is called outlining. Where
possible, we must try to outline rather than summarise what we
read or listen to. In an outline, we can list even minute details
which may not be possible in a summary.
Guidelines for outlining

Here are a few guidelines for outlining whatever we read or listen to:
● Get a skeleton for your outline from the author’s headings.
Expand each heading into a meaningful sentence containing the
main idea of the section or sub-section it belongs to.
● If the headings are only a few, you need to look at the topic
sentence of each paragraph in the section. It probably carries a
main idea that you will need to put in your notes to help develop
the argument. In case, you want to include important details, you
can present them in parenthesis.
● Once you pick out the main ideas, you should indent them from
the margin, according to their relative importance. For example,
you can start the main items at the margin, indent second-order
items by, say, half an inch; third order items can go in by another
half inch and so on. An illustration of this is given below.

Main item
Second-order item

Third-order item

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You should not, however, indent too little or too much. If indentation is
too little, the relationships won’t be clear and in the latter you may not
have room for your notes. It should not be construed that an outline
could be made only by indentation. You can always use letters and
numbers to outline a given topic. Generally, the following norm is
observed for outlining:

● Roman numerals (I, II, etc.) for the main topics, putting a period
after each Roman numeral.
● Capital letters (A, B, etc.) for sub-topics, with a period after each
capital letter.
● Ordinary Arabic numerals (1, 2, etc.) for details under sub-topics
and small letters under the details for less important points. A
period after each number and letter.
● Roman numbers, capital letters, ordinary numbers, and small
letters in straight vertical lines.

● Each topic begins with a capital letter, whether it is a main topic,

a sub-topic or a detail. Unless it is a sentence, a period after a
topic is not essential.

● Topics are usually phrases, but sometimes, they could be

sentences. They should not be mixed.
A note
Remember essay writing is an important skill that all of us need to
develop/learn. Most of us, during our academic pursuits, spend much of
our time either in reading texts or writing that has been already read, etc.
Learning from outlines or writing a precise from a long essay is also a
skill. We must therefore develop this skill.
Now, have a look at the Unit Structure of this Course. A quick survey of
this page will give you an outline of the content presented in the Unit.
Apart from the ways suggested for outlining, we can use the kind of
numbering system followed in the Structure page for purposes of
outlining.

Now, let us look at the mechanics involved in note-making.

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11.1.2 Mechanics of note-making

Reading someone else’s note and deducing meaning from it is difficult.

At times, reading from our own notes poses problems, if our handwriting
is illegible.
You should not try to make notes in full sentences. We may not get
sufficient time to do so. For example, if we are attending a lecture,
seminar, etc., the ideal thing would be to use abbreviations.
Abbreviations like the following are widely used in note-making:
● e.g., (for example)

● i.e., (that is)

● c.f. (compare in this context)

● N.B. (Note Below)
● = (is equal to)

● # (is not equal to)

● > (is greater than)
● < (is smaller than)
Proper attention should be paid to present the materials in a logical way.
The more logical the presentation of our notes looks on the page, the
easier for us to recall the points.

Guide for note-taking during a lecture

There is no single note-taking technique that is best for every one. Yet,
there are a few basic principles that do apply for most of us. Some of
them may sound naïve. Nevertheless, they need to be mentioned.
Consider the following in this context:

● Go to lecture with a positive attitude.

● Sit in a seat where you can see as well as hear the speaker.
(The speaker’s facial gestures and body movements help give
meaning to what he or she is saying.) Try to sit as close to the
front as possible. Make sure that you can see the chalkboard or if
an overhead projector/PowerPoint (PP) is used, the
transparencies/PP slides are clearly seen. Avoid sitting near a
door or window. (There may be an element or two which will
divert your attention).

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● Go prepared with note papers and pencils or pens. As
mentioned earlier, a loose-leaf note book is better than a
notepad because the pages are usually larger. You can easily
make notes and recorder them or insert other materials. (When
you take a page out of a notepad, all the other pages may fall
apartI!)
● Listen carefully. The speaker will usually give you a number of
helpful clues. Here are some items to listen to and/or look for
during a lecture.
(a) emphasis announced with the words “this is a key
point”: ‘this is very important”; “this is vital information’
and so on. Write these points down and underline
them.

(b) emphasis implied by time spent on a subject.

Obviously the speaker feels something is important if
he or she dwells on its for a considerable period of
time. Underline or box you notes on the topic
explained at length. This will help you distinguish the
important items from the rest.

(c) announcements suggesting that the topic is a

digression, a sideline of discussion, etc.
(d) outlines of the lecture written up on the chalkboard or
displayed on an overhead projector. Copy this and
leave enough room to insert additional points that
arise in the lecture.

(e) guides in the form of main ideas listed.

(f) hand-outs containing points to be covered in the
lecture.

● Ask questions, where possible. This is essential in helping you

to understand something better. Don’t hesitate to ask questions
if you have not understood a point. For example, if you attend a
seminar, symposium and the like, you can ask questions. If you
are listening to an audio or watching a video, perhaps, you
can’t put a question to the lecturer directly. In such a situation;
you can put questions to yourself and try to solve them, failing
which you can always write to the person concerned for
clarification, if you have access to him or her and, of course

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 patience. You can even talk to your friends or colleagues to
sort out the problems.
● Before a lecture, review your notes from the previous lecture (if
any) or consult your text (if the lecture deals with a particular
topic in your text) to get the right perspective of the topic. You
should, however, remember that you learn more from recall
than from just rereading your notes.

The notes you take during a lecture should make sense to you when
you read them at a later stage. And so, they should be organised,
properly. While taking notes during a lecture:

● use ‘buzz’ words (words that sound a buzzer in the mind, i.e.
keywords) or ‘telegraphic writing’ (it involves the use of one or
two words to recall a complete message). Economy of writing is
important in taking notes, but the notes should not be so bare-
boned that you have difficulty remembering what you wrote.
● concentrate on making generalisations, i.e., statements or
conclusions, based on accumulation of specific data.
● indent important details under your generalisations. You can
leave some space under each idea in case the lecturer returns
to an idea to emphasise or embellish it – you can add material
to the particular item.
● divide your page into two halves. Put your generalisations and
supporting details on the right-hand side (or the left-hand,
whichever is convenient to you) and put the buzz words,
comments, dates and questions (to ask, when you can) on the
other – as closely paralleled as you can with the
generalisations they refer to.

After a lecture, go over your notes to see if they make sense to you. It is
a good idea to date your notes. If you go over them and find that some
are not clear, it is helpful to have a reference point for these notes.

A word of caution
As implied throughout our discussion, what has been presented might as
well be applied to electronic media. For example, supposing you watch
an educational programme on the TV, won’t it be possible for you to
make notes?

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Generally, someone else’s notes won’t be of much help to you, if you
don’t attend the lecture. Despite the practical difficulties of the lecture
situation, your aim should be to produce easily-read outlines of the kind
you would make from your reading.

How relevant is it to use SQ3R technique in a lecture situation?

Use of SQ3R technique in lecture context

Surveying a lecture in advance is something you can’t easily do, but you
should be alert for any remarks from the lecturer that indicate what has
been and what has yet to be covered.

Questioning, however, may not be so difficult. Presumably, you know

what was said last time (if there was a previous lecture) or you may have
done some reading and perhaps you have some expectations about
what is to come. Approach the lecture in a critical state of mind and keep
framing questions (even if you do not ask them) throughout.
We cannot, of course, read a lecture, unless a print version of it is given
to us. Instead of ‘reading’ a lecture, perhaps, you would be listening to a
lecture. And this step, i.e. listening, involves you in a complex task.
Simultaneously, you must hear, analyse, select and record. Not only
must you pick out the lecturer’s main ideas as he or she speaks, and
grasp the overall structure of his or her argument but also, and at the
same time, you must string together a set of readable notes that will
bring it all back to mind. Your note taking tactics will have to be flexible
enough to cope with quite a variety of individual lecturing styles.
Never be content with your notes as they stand at the end of a lecture.
By comparison with reading notes, lecture notes will, generally, be
incomplete and somewhat disorganized. With your notes in front of you,
therefore, try to re-construct the lecture in your memory. This will help
you retain the information for a reasonable period of time. Unfortunately,
you can’t review or re-hear the actual words spoken – unless the lecture
is tape-recorded. Generally, for purposes of reviewing the lecture, you
can either talk to the lecturer, if accessible, or consult your colleagues
who attended the lecture with you. This will give you an idea whether or
not you need to improve your notes.

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 LEARNING ACTIVITY 11.1
Can we use the SQ3R technique in the context of electronic media?
Note:
a) Write your answer in the space given below.

SUMMARY

In this Unit, we have studied the note making techniques and importance
of writings.

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 UNIT 12 - DICTIONARY USE

STRUCTURE
Overview

Learning Objectives

12.1 Dictionary Use

Summary

Overview
Now, we are going to discuss the importance of dictionary for improving
our vocabulary skill and types of lexicons.

Learning Objectives
After completing this Unit, you should be able to:
● describe lexicon

● locate words in dictionary

12.1 DICTIONARY USE

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We should understand that, today, it is impossible for any one of us to
know everything, because of the vast amount of knowledge that already
exists and the avalanche of new knowledge that is being created almost
everyday. However, it is possible for a person to learn about any
particular area or field if he or she knows what source books to go to for
help. For example, the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature will help
one to find magazine articles written or almost any subject of interest.
There are reference books on language and usage, such as Roger’s
Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases, which would help us in
finding synonyms and less trite words to use in writing. There are also
reference books available that can supply information about a famous
writer, football player, scientist, celebrity and so forth.
The key factor is to know which reference book to go to for the needed
information.
In the present scenario, given the pervasiveness of the Internet, one
could get a whole world of information on almost any topic under the sun
with the click of a mouse. For example, if you use a search-engine like
Google (www.google.com) or Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com), you could get
information on many topics of your interest. In fact, with the help of the
computer, nowadays, we could not only spell-check our essays, but also
use appropriate words!
But, the good old dictionary is probably the most used of all reference
sources. Since all of us are familiar with the dictionary, a discussion on
this may sound naïve. But, how many of us really use the dictionary in
such a way as to derive the maximum benefit out of it?

We should start with a list of the various uses of the dictionary under the
following two broad heading:
i) Information concerning a word, e.g., spelling, definitions,
correct usage, pronunciation, syllabication, antonyms, parts
of speech, synonyms, idiomatic phrases, etymology (history of
the word), semantics (analysis of the word’s meanings), etc.

ii) Other useful information, e.g., biographical entries, list of

foreign countries, provinces, cities with population estimates,
etc., chart of other geographical data, air distances between
principal cities, list of foreign words and phrases, list of
abbreviations in common use, table of weights and measures,
signs and symbols, forms of address, etc.

However, it is not necessary that all the dictionaries should give all the
information listed above. And, the items presented in (ii) above may be

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presented either at the beginning or at the end of the dictionaries.
Generally, the first few pages of the dictionary will give us sufficient
clues for effectively using it. Many of us, nevertheless, tend to overlook
these very pages.

The guide to the dictionary normally contains the following:

● An explanatory chart showing how an ‘entry’ in the dictionary is

divided into various sections.
● The order in which entries are made

● The types of words used (i.e., the words show in the dictionary
are described according to their use in grammar whether they
are nouns, adjectives, verbs/determiners, or prefaces etc. Each
type is given a particular sign for easy comprehension. For
example, the symbol “V” stands for verb; “V adv” for verb +
adverb, i.e., a phrasal verb made up of a verb and an adverb,
etc.)
● Syllable division showing how a word is divided into syllables.
For example, the word ‘syllable’ has 3 syllables, and it will be
shown by means of dots-syl. la. ble. (Of course, different
dictionaries do it in different ways.) This kind of syllabication will
help lessen the difficulty in reading long words. The ‘syllable dots’
have yet another use. They show you where a word may be
broken up, if you do not have enough room at the end of a line.
However, breaking of a letter from the beginning or at end of a
word is not allowed. (For example, the word ‘alone’ and ‘prism’
have two syllables, i.e., ’a.lone’ and ‘pris.m’ respectively. But, the
first and second syllables, respectively, should not be broken, if

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 they occur at the end of a line.) Note that you should not
construe that the end of line division mentioned above is the only
acceptable way. You will often find words broken up differently.
● Different spellings acceptable for a word will be given
immediately after that word. For example, the word ‘caftan’ will
be presented as Caftan……., kaftan……This kind of
presentation will show us that ‘caftan’ is the common spelling, but
‘kaftan’ can also be used. In case of long words, only that part of
the word which is spelt differently will be given, e.g.,
Gen..e..rali..ize, -- ise… If it is a pair of two adjectives, the less
common will follow the commonly used one, i.e., Iron..ic….also
i..ron..i.cal…. This means that ‘ironic’ and ‘Ironical’ have the
same meaning, but that the former is the more commonly used.

● Levels of formality of words and differences in British and

American English are also presented in dictionaries.
● Pronunciation of words is presented by means of phonetic
symbols and stress marks (‘). For example, the word ‘excel’ is to
be pronounced as /IK’ sel/ i.e., the slant lines show that the word
is phonetically transcribed and the symbol (‘) shows that the
stress is on the second syllable.
● Inflection of words, i.e., a change occurred in the form of a word
according to its particular use in a sentence will also be present
in dictionaries.
Some of the abbreviations normally used in dictionaries are put in the
parenthesis below:
● obsolete (obs.)

● euphemistic (euph.)
● technical (tech.)

● humorous (humor,)
● formal (fml.)
● pompons (pomp)

● informal (infml.)
● nonstandard (nonstandard)
● slang (sl.)

● trademark (tdmk.)

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 ● French (fr.)

● Latin (Lat.)

● derogatory (derog.)
● German (Ger.)

● appreciative (apprec.)

Short forms and signs used in a dictionary are usually given at the
opening page itself. By overlooking them we lose a valuable tool to
understand a word better. We tend to ignore them just because our
concentration is solely on the meaning(s) of a word/phrase. If you come
across an unfamiliar symbol, abbreviations, etc, it is always good to look
the first or last few pages of a dictionary.
Normally, details regarding the use of symbols, abbreviations, etc, are
given in these pages. We should accept that no amount of saying how
you should use a dictionary will help you much, unless you really
practice using it.

Using the Thesaurus

A thesaurus is a collection of words put together into groups according

to likenesses in their meaning. You turn to a dictionary when you have a
word but are not sure enough what it means, how it has been used and
what it may be expected to do. But, on the other hand, you turn to the
thesaurus, when you have your meaning already but don’t yet have the
word. It may be on the tip of your tongue, or in the back of your mind, yet
you don’t know what it is, or fail to recall it.

Let us see here how the Thesaurus should be used.

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Note that the collection of words presented in the Thesaurus is not
arranged alphabetically. And so, you can’t just flip through the pages
and try to locate the word to get its meaning. Instead the words are
given in the index of the Thesaurus. Ideally, therefore, you should turn to
the Index page and find the particular word or any term of kindred
meaning then refer to the category indicated.
The category to which a particular word belongs to is numbered and
given in bold print at the top outer corner of each page. (A word of
caution is required here. You should not take these ‘category numbers’
for the page numbers). There in its proper grouping, the indexed word
will be found, together with a wide selection of related terms. Synonyms
and antonyms are mostly placed in adjoining positions.
For example, suppose a synonym is required for the word ‘cold’ in the
sense of ‘indifferent’, you should turn to the Index page, where the
reference of the kind given below will be found:
Cold adj

Frigid BAR (Here the letters stand for category numbers)

Insensible BMN ( “ “ )
Indifferent NBI ( “ “ )

The words in ordinary typeface give the general sense of the synonyms
in the respective categories. The bold faced figure denotes that the
indexed word itself is the key word or the head word of a distinct group.
Thus, in the example given above under BAR (which stand for category
numbers), you will find a list of adjectives, grouped under the word “cold”
in the literal sense of the term. Turning to ‘NBI’ (the sense required) we
read through a varied list of synonyms and select the most appropriate
expression.

To find appropriate words or new ideas on any subject, turn up the

subject or any branch of it. The ‘Index’ itself will frequently suggest
various lines of thought, while reference to the indicated groups will
provide many words any phrases that should prove helpful.

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 LEARNING ACTIVITY 12.1
 What is thesaurus?
Note:
a) Write your answer in the space given below.

SUMMARY

In this lesson, we have briefly analysed the use of dictionary in language

learning.

Reference:
Koul, B.N and K. Murugan (1998): How to study, New Delhi. IGNOU

Web Resources:

https://wou.edu/sep/files/2016/03/SQ3R_000.pdf
https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/sat/new-sat-tips-planning/sat-
reading-test-strategies/a/sat-active-reading-strategies-part-1-sq3r

https://student.unsw.edu.au/notetaking-tips
https://www.wikihow.com/Use-a-Dictionary

https://www.scholastic.com/content/dam/teachers/lesson-
plans/migrated-featured-files/dictionary-teaching-guide.pdf

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Video links:
Reading

https://www.coursera.org/lecture/multimodal-literacies/9-2-learning-to-
read-reading-for-meaning-HdG3O
SQ3R Technique

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p75ecq7NJp8
note making

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKKi0UlrHsk
Dictionary Use

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo2cSioY6wI

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 MODEL SPOT ASSIGNMENT QUESTION PAPER

Note: A learner has to submit three assignments for BFEG-11. Each

assignment has 15

Marks. The average of three assignments will be taken into account of

the final result.

ASSIGNMENT – 1
Max.: 15 Marks
Answer any one of the question not exceeding 1000 words.

1) Highlight the political life of England.

2) Explain the uses of Adverb with examples.

3) Explain the advancements of 20 th Century.

ASSIGNMENT – 2

Max.: 15 Marks

Answer any one of the question not exceeding 1000 words.

1) Write a Precise of the following passage with suitable title:

One of our most difficult problems is what we call discipline

and it is really very complex – you see, society feels that it
must control or discipline the citizen, shape his mind
according to certain religious, social, moral and economic
patterns most of us feel, especially white we are young, that
there should be no discipline, that we should be allowed to do
whatever we like and we think that is freedom. But merely to
say that we should be free and so on has very little meaning
without understanding the whole problem of discipline. An
athlete’s joy is in playing games and the very necessity to
keep fit makes him go to bed early, refrain from smoking, eat
the right food and generally observe the rules of good health.

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 His discipline and punctuality is not an imposition but a
natural outcome of his enjoyment of athletics.

2) Explain the uses of adjectives with examples.

3) Write about the constitutional development of England.

ASSIGNMENT – 3
Max.: 15 Marks

Answer any one of the question not exceeding 1000 words.

1) Bring out the humour and irony in ‘An Astrologer’s Day’.

2) Read the following passage and answer the questions given
below :
It is difficult to imagine the extraordinary number of controls on
Indian industry before 1991. Entrepreneurs needed permission to
invest and could be penalized for exceeding production capacity.
Even with the given investment capacity they had, entering
certain areas was prohibited as these were reserved for the
public sector. If they had to import anything, they required
licenses. To get these licenses was tough. They had to
persuade a bureaucrat that the item was required but even so
permission was unavailable. If somebody was already producing
it in India’s case it began to show the reforms was not
instantaneously and permanently wonderful.

(a) Why were entrepreneurs penalized?

(b) What is the year mentioned in the passage?

(c) What is difficult to imagine?

(d) Why did the entrepreneurs need license?

3) Define Nouns and explain the different kinds of Nouns.

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 MODEL TERM END EXAMINATION QUESTION PAPER

Time: 3 Hours Maximum Marks: 70

Part – A (3X3=9 Marks)

Answer any Three questions out of Five questions in 100 words

All questions carry equal marks

1. "I hope at least he died as he deserved."
"Yes," said the astrologer. "He was crushed under a lorry."

2. Lustrous tokens of radiant lives,

For happy daughters and happy wives.
3. Tinkling, luminous, tender, and clear,
Like her bridal laughter and bridal tear.

4. Brief out the Renaissance era in England.

5. Analyse the character of the Astrologer in “An Astrologer’s Day.”

Part – B (3X7=21 Marks)

Answer any Three questions out of Five questions in 200 words
All questions carry equal marks

6. Describe the various stages of woman’s life portrayed in Sarojini

Naidu’s
“Bangle Sellers.”

7. What are the four types of Present Tenses? Explain it with relevant
examples.
8. Define Definite Article with examples.

9. How is the social life of England picturized? Explain.

10. Write an essay on RK. Narayan’s An Astrologer’s day.

Part – C (4X10=40 Marks)

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Answer any Four questions out of Seven questions in 500 words

All questions carry equal marks

11. A landslide is the rapid sliding of large masses of bed rocks or

regoliths. Whenever mountain slopes are steep, there is a possibility
of large disastrous landslides. Landslides are often triggered by
earthquakes. Natural removal of soil and rock from slopes is known as
mass wasting. In the Himalayas, the Western Ghats, and the river
valleys, landslides are a common feature. A major cause which triggers
the landslide is the weight of the overlying material and the presence of
a lubricating material like water and this is known as solifluction. Other
causes of the landslides are volcanoes and earthquakes.

(a)A landslide is the rapid sliding of__________________________.

(b) Landslides are often triggered by __________________________.

(c ) What does ‘mass wasting’ mean?

____________________________________________________.
(d)In the Himalayas, the Western Ghats, and the river valleys ,
________________ are a common feature.

12. Answer the following as directed.

(a) Fill in the blanks with correct tense formsgiven in bracket.
(i)The bank ___________(open)at 8 a.m. tomorrow.

(ii)Ravi __________(meet) your father yesterday.

(iii) Meena _________(go) for a walk every day.

13. Fill in the blanks with suitable articles.(3 × 2 = 6)

(i)______apple a day keeps the doctor away.

(ii)Plutarch was ____ Greek philosopher.

(iii)______ink in my pen is red.

14. Fill in the blanks with suitable prepositions.

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 (i) Priya worked _________ midnight.

(ii) The book is ______ the table.

(iii) The baby sits ________the tree.

(iv) Sudha lives ______ Chennai.

15. Write a precis of the following passage.

Teaching is the noblest of profession. A teacher has a sacred
duty to perform. It is he on whom rests the responsibility of
moulding the character of young children. Apart from developing
their intellect, he can inculcate in them qualities of good
citizenship, remaining neat and clean, talking decently and sitting
properly. These virtues are not easy to be imbibed. Only he who
himself leads a life of simplicity, purity and rigid discipline can
successfully cultivate these habits in his pupils.Besides a teacher
always remain young. He may grow old in age, but not in spite.
Perpetual contact with budding youths keeps him happy and
cheerful. There are moments when domestic worries weigh
heavily on his mind, but the delightful company of innocent
children makes him overcome his transient moods of despair.

16. Fill in the blanks with suitable prepositions.

(i) T.Nagar is ————— Chennai.
(ii) The books are ————— the table.
(iii) Mala is fond ————— fruits.
(iv) Madhan lives in London ————— 1996.

17. Write down the importance of reading skills.

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