Plus Two English Lesson SUMMARIES

1Santhigiri Vidyabhavan HSS

A Nice Citi zen Abraham Lincoln, Former President of USA

In the poem, writt en in the form of a lett er, Lincoln is telling his son’s teacher how to make his son a nice citi zen. As Lincoln himself says, it is a big order but the teacher should do what he can. Through this poem, Lincoln talks about the importance of a teacher in the character-formati on of a student.

His son has to learn that all men are not good and honest. The teacher has to teach him that life is a mixture of good and bad things. There are scoundrels and heroes; there are selfi sh politi cians and dedicated leaders; and there are enemies and true friends.

The teacher should keep the boy away from envy and teach him the secret of quiet laughter. His son should learn that bullies are the easiest to defeat. The teacher should teach him the wonder of books. He should give him quiet ti me to think about the mys-teries and wonders of nature--the birds in the sky, the bees in the sun and the fl owers on a green hillside.

The teacher should teach him that it is more honourable to fail than cheat. He should have faith in his own ideas, even if all the people tell him that his ideas are wrong. The teacher should teach him to be gentle with gentle people and tough with tough peo-ple. He should be taught to listen to all men, but he should learn to diff erenti ate truth from falsehood. He should learn to treat sadness and happiness equally.

Teach him to sell his physical and mental abiliti es at the highest price. But he should never sell his heart and soul. He should be treated gently, but he should not be pam-pered too much because, like steel becomes strong only when it is put in fi re, a man becomes strong only when he faces diffi culti es.

Lincoln says that he knows that he has given the teacher a big task. But the teacher should do what he can do. Lincoln says his son is a fi ne fellow and he hopes he will turn to be a nice citi zen with the learning he is going to receive.

Middle Age Kamala Das

Kamala Das’s ‘Middle Age’ is a touching poem about the agonies of a middle-aged mother. It is writt en in a sad and nostalgic tone. It reveals how deeply painful it can be when you are neglected by your own children when they grow up.

The speaker of the poem is a middle-aged mother. She thinks about her adolescent son who has come out of the protecti on of her care and love. Like a butt erfl y, he wants to fl y out into the open world. Now he doesn’t want her except for serving him tea and pressing his clothes. He has also begun to be very rude and serious.

She remembers the nice games they used to play when he was younger. She used to write in golden ink, a squirrel’s invitati on to the jungle feast and give it to him. Now the son has no ti me for games like that. But the mother sti ll needs him badly. When left alone she touches his books and weeps secretly. She hopes that the happy days will

2 Santhigiri Vidyabhavan HSS

come back. But the son shatt ers all her hopes. He turns round in disgust saying, “You have lived in a dreamworld all your life. It is ti me to wake up, mother.”

The poem conveys all the loneliness, pain and agony of middle age. It also sheds some light into the lack of love in human relati onships. In this selfi sh world she is not just one depressed mother, but a representati ve of all mothers.

The Patriot Robert Browning

Robert Browning’s ‘The Patriot’ is a brilliant piece of dramati c verse. It deals with the meaninglessness of public opinion and hero-worship. It reminds us that the same peo-ple who lift us up to the skies will also pull us down into the ditch.

The speaker of the poem is a patriot. He thinks of his glorious past. A year ago he was given a grand welcome on his arrival at the town. People had thrown roses and myrtle in his path. The church-spires were decorated with bright fl ags. The house-roofs were full of people who wanted to have a look at him. Bells rang to announce the patriot’s arrival. The celebrati on and madness exceeded all limits. People were even ready to catch the sun for him.

But everything has changed now. He is being treated like a traitor. The patriot is be-ing taken to the scaff old for all his ‘misdeeds’. But what wrong he did, nobody knows. There is nobody on the house-tops now. Everyone knows that today, the best of the sights is at the foot of the scaff old. He is going in the rain with his wrists ti ed behind. People are throwing stones at him and his forehead is bleeding. What an ill fate to a man who spent all his life for his countrymen!

Even in the midst of tragedy, the poem ends quite opti misti cally. Death is not the end of everything. The patriot hopes that since he did not receive his reward in this world, he will be rewarded in the other world. He feels safe in the hands of God. Thus the poem also becomes an expression of Browning’s opti misti c philosophy of life. “God is in His heaven and all is well with the world.”

Oh Public PerformanceRichard Wright

On the fi rst day of school, I became the laughing stock of my class. The teacher told me to write my name on the blackboard. I knew how to write my name. But when I stood in front of the class, I froze and I couldn’t write a single lett er. The teacher prompted (helped) again. One of the students giggled(laughed). I couldn’t even lift my hand. The teacher came near me and asked my name. I told my name. She smiled at me and placed her hand on my shoulder with love. She told me to spell my name. I spelled my name correctly. But when I tried to write my name on the blackboard, I felt nervous again. The students started laughing together. I became sad and depressed. I returned to my seat and sat there.

Why did my classmates laugh at me? Was it because of the color of my skin? Was it because I’m an Afro-American? I don’t know. All I know is that I felt a paralysing fear


when I stood in front of the class.

Let’s Respond to India’s CallDr. APJ Abdul Kalam, Former President of India

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam has three visions for India - Freedom, Development and Self Esteem.

India got its freedom through several centuries of struggle with many foreign coun-tries. Many countries have att acked India. But India has not att acked a single nati on. So we must protect our freedom.

We Indians consider our country a developing nati on. We must look at ourselves as a developed nati on. Our nati on has made many achievements to make us proud. India is one of the top fi ve countries of the world in terms of GDP. We have to understand our real potenti al and work on them to realize our dream of making India a developed nati on.

Dr. Kalam’s third vision of India is that India must stand up to the world with self-esteem. We must become strong as a nati on in terms of military power and economic power.

We don’t recognize our own strengths. We have made excellent achievements in a number of fi elds like space research and agriculture. But sti ll, our media is only inter-ested in negati ve stories of death, crime, terrorism and sickness.

Once a 14 year old girl told Dr Kalam that she dreamed of living in a developed India. It is our duty to build a developed India for children like her. For that, we must stop fi nd-ing fault with others and start working together to make India developed. We simply expect that the government will take care of all developmental acti viti es. But in fact, if the government has to change, our own atti tude has to change. We must start clean-ing up this garbage ourselves. There is no point in locking up in our homes expecti ng someone else to do the cleaning. Like Abraham Lincoln said, we must not ‘ask what our country has done for us, but ask what we can do for our country’

Goldmine of Indian Health Traditi onsIndia has several medical systems like Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha. There are also folk-streams of medicines practi sed by tribals and certain familes. Some tribal communi-ti es of India have knowledge about the medicinal properti es of 9000 species of plants. These systems should be validated through advanced scienti fi c methods.

Ayurveda is in fact based on rati onal and scienti fi c principles. It follows highly devel-oped methodologies and concepts on health and ill health. But due to the infl uence of modern medicine and the eff ects of globalisati on and commercialisati on, our old medical systems like Ayurveda and Siddha have been forgott en. We must take these health traditi ons of the people and give them back to the people. We must not let for-eign companies patent our herbs like neem and turmeric, which we have been using for centuries as medicine.


We must also standardize the Ayurvedic and Siddha medicines. If each company makes the medicines in their own ways, it would lead to confusion. We must also stop people who try to make money by selling fake ‘herbal remedies’. Someti mes, we must also modify the traditi onal medical systems to suit modern lifestyle. If we can popularize systems like Ayurveda, Siddha and Yunani among today’s young generati on, we can save those systems from being forgott en.

Dreams of a GirlKalpana Chawla was born on July 1, 1961 in a middle class family in Haryana. Her fam-ily migrated from Pakistan and sett led in Haryana. Through hard work, intelligence and self-confi dence, she became the fi rst Indian woman to travel to space.

When Kalpana decided to join the Punjab Engineering College to study Aerospace En-gineering, her father and the college offi cials tried to discourage her because she was a woman. At college, she was the only girl to learn Aeronauti cal Engineering. She had great will power. She asked herself, “If the girls can do it, why can’t I?”.

Aft er completi ng her course, she wanted to go to America for higher studies. To make money, she decided to work as a lecturer in her college. When her family realized that her decision was strong, they gave her permission to go to America. There, she got a doctoral degree in Aerospace Engineering and became an aeronaut or space traveller. Her fi rst fl ight to space was on space shutt le Columbia in 1997. She was killed in 2003 in a tragic accident, when her shutt le exploded in mid-air. She was returning from space aft er her second space-fl ight. But her achievements, her great mental strength and will power conti nue to inspire thousands of women across the world.

An Irish Roseby A J Cronin

The narrator of the story went to Ireland to work there as a doctor. There, at Loughran Street in Dublin, she met a poor girl, Rose Donegan. She was a 14-year-old girl with deep blue eyes. Though she was quite young and poor, she looked very serious and brave. Her mother had died 8 months before and her father, Danny, was a drunkard. She had to take care of her 9-month-old brother Michael and the other three litt le chil-dren. At home, she did all the cooking and cleaning and made sure that the children got enough food.

The narrator felt pity for Rose and brought her a new pair of dress. But she pawned it to buy milk for litt le Michael. Then the narrator went to Father Walsh and made ar-rangements to send Rose away to a farm owned by the Carrols. Living there, she could regain her health. But she agreed to go only when they let her take Michael also.

Rose lived happily at the farmhouse and oft en wrote lett ers to the narrator. The Car-rols liked litt le Michael and wanted to adopt him. Their father Danny readily agreed because he thought the Carrols would look aft er Michael very well. As Rose had no other choice, she too agreed. She went home and tried to forget the pain of separa-ti on. When the narrator visited her one day, he saw her crying. She comforted herself


saying, ‘Well, it’s for his own good’.

One morning, a lett er arrived at Rose’s home saying Michael was down with pneumo-nia. She rushed at once to the Carrols’ farm and took care of Michael. Under her love and care, Michael soon recovered from the disease. But Rose caught the disease and fi nally died.

The World Renowned NoseVaikom Muhammed Basheer

An ordinary kitchen worker’s life became extraordinary when his nose started growing in length. Before that, he was an unknown kitchen worker and he only wanted to eat, sleep and inhale a lot of snuff . His nose grew longer, and reached the level of his navel. Sti ll, he did not care about it because he could sti ll inhale snuff without any diffi culty. But he was dismissed from his job at the kitchen. No one, no politi cal party came for-ward questi oning this injusti ce.

The long-nosed one soon became a celebrity. Photographers and news reporters came to see him. Some of his ‘fans’ even stole things from his house. Soon he had no money to even buy snuff . His mother started driving people away from his hut. Then they tried to bribe the mother to let them see the long nose. His income grew day by day and he became a millionaire in six years.

He became a celebrity. He acted in three fi lms including ‘The Human Submarine’. Poets wrote epic poes about him. Whenever something important happened, the newspa-pers published his comments. He started commenti ng about everything in the world. The government awarded him the ti tle, ‘Chief among the Long-nosed Ones’. Diff erent politi cal parti es wanted him to join their parti es.

He appointed two att racti ve women as secretaries. Both of them loved him. Both of them wanted him to join her own party. When he said nothing, one of them made a comment that ‘the long-nosed one has cheated the people’ and that ‘the long nose is made of rubber’. A big controversy followed. The people blamed the goverment and the President. The politi cal parti es demanded that the ministry must resign. Protests and strikes broke out. At last the President arrested the long-nosed one and took him into custody.

The people were sti ll not happy. They burned police stati ons and destroyed govern-ment buildings. There were communal riots and many people died. The President in-vited expert doctors from 48 countries to the Presidenti al palace. They surrounded the long-nosed one. One of the doctors took a needle and punctured the ti p of his nose. A drop of blood appeared. Thus the controversy was sett led. They announced that the long nose was indeed real and not made of rubber. Now the people were happy. One of the secretaries came up to him and kissed him on the nose. People shouted slogans praising him and his party.

The President nominated the long-nosed one as a Member of the Parliament. The other politi cal parti es formed a United Front to protest against this. The controversies and agitati ons over the silly long nose conti nued forever.


The story is a sati re on the tendency of the public to create big controversies out of unimportant things. The politi cal parti es take advantage of this only to catch the at-tenti on of the people. Even the President gives awards and ti tles to the long-nosed one to make the people happy and to be in the news. Through the story, Basheer is making fun of this atti tude of the people and those in power.

The Open WindowSaki

Framton Nutt el is a young man who is recovering from a nervous breakdown. He went to stay in the countryside to cure his depression. His sister had given him some lett ers of introducti on to a few people in the village. One of them was Mrs Sappleton.

Framton visited Mrs Sappleton with the lett er. Vera, the niece of Mrs Sappleton, came down and talked with Framton. She told Framton that Mrs Sappleton was a widow. Three years ago, her husband went hunti ng with her two brothers and a dog. They never returned. They were drowned in a bog and their bodies were never recovered. She told that her aunt sti ll believed that they would return some day. So she always kept the French window of the drawing room open for them to enter.

Looking at the open window, Framton felt a litt le scared. Soon, Mrs Sappleton came down and started talking with him. She told Framton that her husband and two broth-ers will return from hunti ng any moment. She conti nued talking about hunti ng. Fram-ton was so scared that he wanted to change the subject. Aft er some ti me, he saw three men and a dog walking from a distance towards the house. He was horrifi ed. He was sure that it was the ghosts of the dead husband and brothers, returning with guns and the dog.

He grabbed his hat and sti ck and ran out of the house. He almost collided with a cyclist on the road. Mr Sappleton walked into the house and asked his wife about the man who ran out of the house. She said she had no idea what was wrong with him. Vera said that their dog might have been scared him. She was playing a trick on poor Fram-ton Nutt el. Mr Sappleton had not died and had indeed gone for hunti ng that morning. She lied to Framton to make a fool out of him. Such adventures were her speciality.

The King who LimpedMonica Thorne

This one-act play is a sati re on the sycophancy shown by the offi cials of a King’s palace. Sycophants try to win the favour of infl uenti al people through sweet talk.

In the play, a new King is about to come to the royal court for the fi rst ti me. The Prime Minister, Chancellor, Courti er and two Ladies-in-waiti ng are waiti ng for the King. They are anxious to know what kind of a person the new King is.

At last the King comes wearing a funny bowler hat and walks with a pronounced limp. He brought with him, two quarelling neighbours and a dog. The Prime Minister and


the Chancellor asked the king why he had brought the two neighbours. The king said that they were fi ghti ng and he brought them to the court to solve their problem. They asked the king why he was wearing a funny hat. He answered that it was to protect him from the sun.

Everybody in the court, except the First Lady and the Courti er, started to imitate the King. The Prime Minister and the Chancellor wore bowler hats and started walking with a limp. The Second Lady also seemed to have a limp. Only the First Lady and the Courti er behaved normally.

The King asked the Prime Minister and the Chancellor to solve the dispute between the neighbours. They said that both of them must be put to prison for quarelling. The Courti er said that he would listen to what they had to say. The King agreed and asked them why they were quarelling. Both of them claimed that the dog was his.

The Courti er suggested that the King should keep the dog. The First Lady asked the King to divide the dog into two halves and give one part to each of them. The King asked the two neighbours whether they were willing to cut the dog into two. The fi rst neighbour readily agreed and the second neighbour disagreed.

Now the King realized that the second neighbour, who did not want to kill the dog, was the real owner of the dog. The fi rst neighbour was sent to prison and the second was sent away with the dog. The Chancellor commented that the old King would have punished both the neighbours and the dog for creati ng nuisance.

The new King became very serious. He got up from the throne and threw away his bowler hat. He walked normally towards the Chancellor, without limping. He scolded the Prime Minister and the Chancellor for lying to him and for behaving like syco-phants. The Courti er was made the new Prime Minister and the First Lady was made the new Chief- Lady in Waiti ng.

On Viewing the TelevisionDavid Considine

Points: Television and video can be used to develop a new kind of literacy - visual literacy. Television is a unique medium. It has a language of its own. But what we see need not be the reality. Visuals are created with an interest behind them. So, when we watch a TV programme, we must learn to:

1) Understand the internal content of the programme.

2) Understand why certain structural elements like visual styles, camera angles or shots were used.

3) Recognize what external factors shaped the programme. Think about who owns the media and who controls it.

4) Compare what you see with the reality. Think about whether they are showing you the truth.

5) Think about the impact of the programme and respond to what you see.


Interview: Adoor GopalakrishnanPoints: I reached the Pune fi lm insti tute by accident. Aft er completi ng the course, I wanted to become a fi lmmaker. I went to fi lm festi vals and watched a lot of movies. I had no money to make movies in the beginning. I had to wait for 7 years to make ‘Swayamvaram’. During those days, I launched a fi lm society movement.

In ‘Elipathayam’, I cast Janardhanan Nair, my friend, for the role of Unni because we had worked together in theatre and because he had big bulging eyes. In the beginning, I gave him only liquid food and starved him to make him look like Unni.

Film making is a process of self-discovery, you learn more about life as you make more movies. There are certain autobiographical elements in all my movies. The hero of the movie ‘Anantharam’ is both an extrovert and an introvert, just like me. I take some-thing from my life and make it universal, so that everyone can understand it.

Someti mes people don’t watch my movies because I try to communicate with them on my own terms. I believe in their intelligence; so I believe they can follow what I show on screen. I don’t use symbols in my movies. Using symbols to represent something is too direct. I try to make people experience something through visuals and sounds.

Adverti sements and television has changed people’s expectati ons. Everything is fast and smooth in TV and ads. It reduces the att enti on span of viewers. But I make movies in my own style.

I never show violence on screen. I hate violence. I’m too soft even to watch bloodshed on the screen.

The Making of a fi lmSatyajit Ray (Director of Pather Panchali)

Points: There are three phases in fi lm-making:

1) The fi rst phase is writi ng the scenario (screen play). The scenario is the basic struc-ture of a fi lm. The director, actors and other arti sts depend on it to make a fi lm come alive. Even if a screenplay is good, poor directi on can ruin the fi lm. 2) The second phase is selecti ng the shooti ng locati on, casti ng appropriate actors, building the set and shooti ng the whole movie. From this stage we depend on ma-chines and technicians to record images and sound.3) In the third phase all the shots are taken and pieced together in the correct or-der. This is called Editi ng. Background music and sound is added at this stage and the movie is complete. A movie is made up of many scenes and shots joined together. Diff erent angles and viewpoints are used in each shot. These choices defi ne the language of cinema. This system of breaking up a scene into shots is unique to cinema. The director decides how to shoot a scene based on his style and arti sti c purpose. The same scene in a story will appear diff erent on screen if shot by diff erent directors. (Refer the text for the screenplay of Pather Panchali and the excerpt from the novel.)

The story of Satyajit Ray’s movie Pather Panchali was taken from a novel writt en by the


Bengali novelist Bibuthibhusan. There is a scene towards the end of the story, when the father Harihar learns about Durga’s death. Harihar returns from town with toys for Apu and a saree for Durga. He does not know that Durga has died. So he wonders why his wife Sarbajaya is silent. He calls out to Durga. She does not come out. Sarbajaya tells Harihar that Durga is no more. In Satyajit Ray’s screenplay, Sarbajaya does not speak at all. She lies crying on the fl oor and shakes her head. Harihar grasps the situati on through her reacti on. Shehnai is played in the background to bring out the emoti on. Satyajit Ray has treated the situa-ti on in a diff erent way.

Making of the KidCharlie ChaplinCharlie Chaplin was going through a diffi cult phase of his career aft er his marriage. He used to visit the Orpheum to pass his ti me. Aft er a dance show, a litt le 4-year-old boy came onto the stage and performed a few numbers. The audience enjoyed it. The litt le boy’s name was Jackie Coogan. A week later, someone told Chaplin that the boy was signed up for acti ng in a movie by Roscole Arbuckle. Suddenly a fl ood of ideas fi lled Chaplin’s mind. He could have used Jackie Coogan! Luckily, he found out that it was not Jackie Coogan, but his father who had been cast in the movie. Thus, the story of the movie ‘The Kid’ formed in Chaplin’s mind with Jackie Coogan playing the role of the orphan. The boy had an engaging personality that could win anyone’s heart. He could apply emoti on to his acti ons and give acti ons to emoti ons. It came to him naturally, and could repeat it without losing the spontaneity. There is a scene in the movie where he is about to throw a stone at a window. When a police-man sees this, he throws the stone away playfully and runs off . Chaplin explained the acti ons of this scene. Jackie understood the emoti ons and acted it out perfectly.In another scene, Chaplin wanted to make Jackie cry when the offi cials in the movie take the litt le kid to the workhouse. Chaplin tried narrati ng horror stories. It did not work. Jackie was sti ll in a very happy mood. In the end, Jackie’s father told him that he would really take him away to the workhouse. Jackie immediately started yelling and the scene was shot. The greatest achievement of the movie was that it mixed slapsti ck comedy with senti -ments. But the movie sti ll worked well with the audience. It proved Chaplin’s belief that if the arti st truly believed in the characters and situati ons he created, the audi-ence too would believe it.

The Lott ery Ticket Anton Chekhov

Ivan Dmitritch is a middle class man who lives with his family. He is happy with his life as he sits on the sofa reading the paper. His wife is clearing the dishes. She asks her husband to check the lott ery numbers. He asks her what is her number. She tells him that the ti cket number is 9499 and the series is 26.


Ivan noti ces that the fi rst number is indeed 9499. He drops the paper and it falls on his knees. He begins daydreaming about winning the seventy-fi ve thousand. He and his wife both begin daydreaming about what they would do with the money.

They spend the next few minutes dreaming about a new house and traveling to France or India. Both the husband and wife begin making plans for spending the money.

Both the husband and wife are so excited at the thought of winning all the money. Then Ivan begins thinking about the possibility of his wife traveling with him. He real-izes that she would be a nuisance and she wouldn’t let him spend the money as he liked. Aft er all, the lott ery ti cket was hers, not his. He begins to hate the idea that she actually owns all the money.

Likewise, the wife begins to think that her husband will ask for her money. She begins to hate him for desiring all her money.

Ivan Dmitritch thinks about all their relati ves who would come begging for their money. Even before the couple knows whether they have won the money, they lose their peace of mind, thinking about how to spend it.

Finally, the husband looks to see if the number is 26. It is not. It is 46. The couple did not win. Immediately, the husband and wife begin to come back down to earth:

“Hatred and hope both disappeared at once, and it began immediately to seem to Ivan Dmitritch and his wife that their rooms were dark and small and low-pitched, that the supper they had been eati ng was not doing them good, but lying heavy on their stomachs, that the evenings were long and wearisome...”

The Dear DepartedStanley HoughtonMrs. Amelia Slater is dressed in black and demands her husband Henry and her daugh-ter Victoria to be in black dresses as a symbol of mourning. Mrs. Slater thinks that her father Abel Merryweather is dead. She immediately starts dividing the properti es of her father before her sister and husband, Elizabeth Jordan and Ben Jordan, comes.

Mrs. Slater takes her father’s slippers and asks her husband Henry to wear it. Then she shift s the clock in his room to the ground fl oor. Then they bring down Abel’s bureau to the drawing room. Aft er all arrangement and shift ing, her sister Mrs. Jordan and her husband Ben Jordan arrive there for Mr. Abel’s mourning.

They sit down to drink tea before seeing their father’s dead body and they start to dis-cuss the division of their father’s property. Mrs. Jordan asks her sister about the new bureau and clock. Mrs. Slater tells her that it was gift ed to her before his death. Then they quarrel about who will get his golden watch. They also wonder whether he paid his insurance premium before dying.

They plan to check the bureau for the insurance receipt, so Victoria goes to take the bureau’s key from Grandfather’s room. She comes back telling that he is alive and that he is coming down. So, Abel was not dead and was only sleeping.

He comes down and asks them about their black dress and the shift ed things. Mrs.


Jordan explains to him all what happened. Then Abel realizes that his daughters were only interested in his money. He announces that he is going to marry a woman who will take care him up to the end.

He then says that he has decided to give all his property to his new wife and to go to St. Philip’s church to marry Mrs John Shorrocks who keeps the Ring O’Bells. He thanks Mrs. Slater for shift ing the bureau down because it will be easy for him to carry it to Ring-O-Bells, his new home.

Sample answers1. Prepare a write up on the ‘Infl uence of Media in the Modern Society.

Media plays the role of an eye-opener in our society. In a democrati c country, various media like newspapers, television, radio and numerous web sites on the internet play a vital role in creati ng, moulding and refl ecti ng public opinion. It touches almost every aspect of our public life. Media plays a very important role in enlightening and educati ng people. It plays a major role in awakening people against many evils in the society. Media can create scienti fi c temperament among the students. It has exposed a number of corrupt practi ces and hidden deals thereby putti ng a check on the corrupti on in the society. It serves as a bridge between the government and the people. The media has a major role in promoti ng communal harmony. It can also inculcate patroti sm, nati onalism and love for the country. Media infl uences the society in a negati ve way also. The vulgarity displayed in the adverti sements, serials and music vidoes should be checked. This infl uences the young generati on a lot. There is an increasing tendency to project trivial things and fashions of the rich and adverti se a consumeristi c life style beyond the reach of the majority. One may conclude that media plays a great role in nati on building. The owners and managers must realise their responsibility towards the society and aim to provide informati on that is clean and reliable. The media should act as the watch dog of a free society.

2. Imagine that you are a teacher. Communicate Lincoln’s views to your students in the form a speech.

Dear students, Recently I read a lett er writt en by Abraham Lincoln. I would like to share the content of the lett er with you. Lincoln is asking his son’s teacher to do certain things which will make his son a nice citi zen. His son should be able to understand that he is living in a society which is a mixture of good and bad people. He can see around him dedicated leaders and also selfi sh politi cians. As a boy he should culti vate reading habit but at the same ti me he should be able to spend ti me to enjoy the beauty of nature. He should know that it is far more honourable to fail than to att ain success in a foul way. He should have his own views about life and he should not be just an imitator of the crowd. Let him be a good listener. He should be able to fi lter what is good. He should learn to be an opti mist and should not be envious of others’ success. He should know that there is nothing wrong in shedding tears. Allow him to use his intellectual and physical abiliti es to its maximum so that he can be wealthy. But he should never sell his conscience. Let him face problems from his childhood onwards because by facing bitt er exeriences one can att ain success in life. This lett er by Abraham Lincoln is really a praiseworthy one. As students, if you follow his words, you can also be very nice citi zens.


Thank you3) Imagine that the local Grama Panchayat has decided to cut down the trees in your school campus. You are the Secretary of your school nature club and you want to protest against the felling of the trees. Write a lett er to the Editor of a prominent daily expressing your views in about 80 words.

Lett er to the Editor

Sir, Sub: To highlight the felling of the trees in my school compound.

This lett er is to focus your att enti on on a matt er of great importance. The local Grama Panchayat has decided to cut down the trees in my school campus. As you know, my school is situated in the middle of the town. The trees are the green lungs which give fresh air to the students of my school. Most of the students and teachers are against the decision to cut down the trees. We have peti ti oned many authoriti es to stall the decision of the Grama Panchayat. We haven’t heard from any of them ti ll now. I suspect that many vested interests are involved in the decision to cut down the trees. Only pressure from the highest quarters will force them to rethink their decision. So I request your kind self to highlight these facts in your newspaper.

Yours Faithfully,Secretary Nature Club

4) ‘The news struck me like fork lightning’. ‘My God” Why didn’t I think of that ? Of course, he would be marvellous in fi lms’. Imagine that Charlie Chaplin wrote his di-ary that night. What would be his feelings ? Write the diary entry.

4 January, 2014

Oh ! How unfortunate I am! The news is really shocking. Why didn’t I think of that before? I could have done wonders by making the litt le boy Jackie Coogan act in my fi lms. It’s really unbelievable that I missed the chance. Arbuckle is so fortunate. Jack will be his lucky star. I am sure that his fi lms will be blockbusters. No use in weeping over a lost cause. Arbuckle has signed him up and probably has ideas similar to mine. I should plan something else and be more careful in future. How can I forget Jackie’s sweet face. He is a marvellous boy.

5) Given below are some of the points raised by a group to support the topic ‘Reality Show- A Boon or Bane’. Write four points against the topic. For 1. Develops self confi dence 2. Removes stage fear 3. Improves talents 4. Develops competi ti ve spirit

Ans. Against 1. A waste of ti me 2. Creates stress and tension in contestants 3. Creates unhealthy competi ti on among the contestants 4. A waste of money 5. Younsters try to imitate what they see on the screen

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