English Grammar: Aptitude Appraisal

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English Grammar: Aptitude Appraisal
Question 1
Fill in the blanks with correct form of the words given in brackets:                                        
Example: 0  = doing
There is a joke...……0…….. (do)  the round on social media circles about a young monk ...……1…….. (ask)  a senior monk if he can use email. “Yes,” replies the senior monk adding “as long as there ...……2…….. (be)  no attachments”.
In life, we ...……3…….. (develop) attachments right from the moment we are born. Our first attachment is towards our mothers who feed, clothe, nourish and nurture us and offer security, love and warmth.
Then, as babies, we get...……4…….. (attach)   to a security blanket or a ...……5……..(stuff) toy or even a thumb. Young children develop a fondness for a particular teacher or a play mate. If that person or thing ...……6…….. (be)not present, it leaves them ...……7…….(feel)  rudderless and unsafe. As we grow ...……8……..(old), we develop attachments towards others in our circle — spouse, children, grandparents, employees, professionals etc.
1. …………….
2. …………….
3. ……………
4. …………….
5. …………….
6. …………….
7. …………….
8.…………….

Question 2                                                                                                                             
Join each of the following pairs of sentences without using and or but:                                
1.     He insisted on going for the film several times. I refused.
2.     Gerome didn’t tell the truth. He was sheepish.
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An Approach to ICSE English Gopakumar Menon Sunday, 19 May 2013
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Poetry Study Aid: The Ballad of Father Gilligan William Butler Yeats

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The Ballad of Father Gilligan

William Butler Yeats

Ballad
A ballad is a narrative poem consisting of simple stanzas and usually having a refrain. Ballads have their origin in the folk tradition and are meant to be sung.
The prominent features of a ballad are the following:
narrative ( tells a story)
folksy (simple and pertaining to the oral  folk tradition)
musical
dramatic (full of dialogues and action)
usually has a sudden and unexpected beginning
Structure
The poem The Ballad of Father Gilligan by William Butler Yeats is a ballad.
The poem stanzaic in structure with twelve stanzas of four lines each (quatrain). In each stanza, the first and the third lines do not rhyme but the second line rhymes with the fourth line.
Theme
God is mercy, pity and love. The poem is an affirmation of a loving, kind God Who showers his beneficence to all his creations.
Summary
The Ballad of Father Gilligan is a touching narrative that illustrates God’s everlasting benevolence and how He intervenes in the life of an earnest priest at a time of immense need. Father Peter Gilligan was extremely concurred in the redemption of the souls of his destitute parishioners
Father Gilligan was fagged out in carrying out his priestly obligations day and night during an epidemic in the Irish countryside. He had to not only give the last communion to his poor folks who were dying in large numbers but also conduct funeral services for them.
One evening, completely exhausted by the strain of extensive duties, Father Gilligan had dozed. Suddenly he was jolted from his sleep by the urging call of another dying parishioner. In despair, Father Gilligan started to grumble and complaint that his life was without rest, joyless and always troubled.
For a man religious vocation, the outburst was tantamount to a grievous sin and a questioning of God. Realising his mistake, Father Gilligan sought God's forgiveness for his irresponsible utterance and knelt down by the side of his chair and began to pray:
He tries to justify his words by saying that it was his exhausted body not his spirit that complained of the state of his life.
While he was praying, the wearied priest fell asleep by the side of his chair. Next morning, at dawn he woke up and realised his mistake. Shocked at his failure to perform his duty, he rode recklessly to the house of the dying man. He was received by the dead man's widow.
The widow was surprised to see the priest again and asked him why he had come again. When the priest asked her whether the sick man was dead, she told him that the sick man died happily after the priest’s departure.  
The priest was humbled at this and knelt and prayed. He realised that God the Divine had compassionately sent an angel to minister the last ritual to the dying man so that both the sick man as well as the priest were saved from damnation.
The priest wondered at the benevolence of The omniscient omnipotent omnipresent God who had the whole universe as His Parish yet extended His Helping Hand to the humble priest in his hour of need.
Questions and Answers

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An Approach to ICSE English Gopakumar Menon Wednesday, 13 March 2013
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ICSE 2013 Pre-final Examination English 1

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English Paper I
(Two hours)
Answer to this Paper must be written on the paper provided separately.
You will not be allowed to write during the first 15 minutes.
This time is to be spent in reading the question paper.
The time given at the head of this Paper is the time allowed for writing the answers.
Attempt all four questions
The intended marks for the questions or parts of questions are given in bracket [ ].
You are advised to spend not more than 35 minutes in answering Question 1
and 20 minutes in answering Question 2[Gm1] 
Question 1
(Do not spend more than 35 minutes on this question)                                                        
Write a composition of [350-400 words] on any ONE of the following:                                                 [25]
a.      Recently you have visited a Village Fair. Describe the scenes that caught your attention and your feelings and emotions during the visit.
b.     The popularity of the newspapers has not diminished despite the advent of television and internet. Discuss.
c.      Examinations cannot assess the true calibre of a student. They are not important in the present scenario. Argue for or against the statement.
d.     Write a short story in which an orphan, a camera and a famous dacoit are the main characters.
e.      Study the picture below and write a composition taking suggestions from it. There should be a clear connection between the picture and your composition.

 

Question 2

Select any one of the following                                                                                                 
Select one of the following. (Do not spend more than 20 minutes on this question)                                   [10]
a)     One of your friends had a narrow escape from a road accident. Write a letter to him/her expressing your shock and concern and wishing the friend a speedy recovery from the injuries.                                                                                                                            
OR
b)     You are the secretary of the Sports club of your school. Your class teacher has planned to take you to an important Sports and games event in the city by bus.  Write a letter to the Manager of a Tourist Service Agency requesting him to provide a bus for the purpose. Give all the relevant details and also enquire about the procedure you have to follow for the purpose.
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An Approach to ICSE English Gopakumar Menon Saturday, 23 February 2013
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ICSE 2013 Prefinal Practice Paper English Paper II

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English Paper II
Literature in English
(Two hours)
Answer to this Paper must be written on the paper provided separately.
You will not be allowed to write during the first 15 minutes.
This time is to be spent in reading the question paper.
The time given at the head of this Paper is the time allowed for writing the answers
Attempt one question each from Section A, B and C and any other two questions.
You should answer five questions in all. All the questions carry equal marks.

Section A: Drama
As You Like It; William Shakespeare

Question 1
Read the extract give below and answer the questions that follow:
Oliver: Neither call the giddiness of it in question,
            The poverty of her, the small acquaintance, my sudden
Wooing, nor her sudden consenting; but say with me,
I love Aliena; say with her, that she loves me; consent
with both, that we way enjoy each other;: It shall be to
your  good; for my father’s house, and all the revenue
that was old Sir Rowland’s, will I estate upon you, and
here live and die a shepherd.
a)  Who is being discussed in the extract? When did Oliver meet her?                            b)  Why was Orlando surprised about Oliver’s sudden falling in love with celia?       
c)  What help does Orlando offer to his brother for the latter’s marriage?                          
d)  What decision had Oliver taken relating is father’s property and his future life?  
e)  Compare Oliver’s present attitude with his earlier attitude towards Orlando.    What caused this change in the attitude?                                                                                
Question 2
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
Rosalind: then there is no true lover in the forest;
                 else sighing every minute, and groaning every
                 hour, would detect the lazy foot of time as
                well as a clock.
Orlando: And why not the swift foot of time?
    had not that been as proper
Rosalind:By no means, sir. Time travels in divers paces
    with divers persons. I’ll tell you who Time ambles
    withal, who Time trots withal, and who he stands
   still withal.
a) Why does Rosalind say that there is no true lover in the forest?                               
b) With whom does time amble and with whom does it trot? 
c)  How does time move with a thief to the gallows? Why?                                             
d)  In the Forest of Arden, what is Rosalind’s predicament with regard to her love towards Orlando?                                                                                                              
e) Bring forth Rosalind’s sense of humour, as revealed in the extract.             
Section B: Poetry
The Golden Lyre
Question 3
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
He said:
The river has water enough
to be poetic
about only once a year.
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An Approach to ICSE English Gopakumar Menon Tuesday, 19 February 2013
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The GIft of The Magi O. Henry:Summary

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The Gift of the Magi
 O Henry

The story The Gift of the Magi by O Henry narrates the tale of a poor, young couple who regards their love for one another the ultimate concern in their lives and when the key moment arrives they do not falter to sacrifice their most precious assets to obtain a gift for Christmas for each other. The affectionate home they together create contrasts with the bleakness of their poverty and the jaded world outside.

Della and James Dillingham was a young couple who loved each other very much. Their love has no limits. Though the couple were poor, they were immensely proud of two of their possessions-Jim’s ancestral gold watch and Della’s beautiful long brown hair. Della had been painstakingly saving each and every penny for months to buy a Christmas present for James. Yet she was terribly depressed and dismayed she fails to acquire enough money to buy a fond gift for Jim.

When Della saw her cascading hair in the mirror, an idea occurred to her. She rushed to Madame Sofronie’s shop, sold her hair and with the twenty dollars that she got; she bought a platinum fob chain for Jim’s gold watch.
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An Approach to ICSE English Gopakumar Menon Monday, 11 February 2013
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Poetry Study Aid: A River: A.K.Ramanujan

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A River 
 A.K. Ramanujan
The poem A River by A.K. Ramanujan is a tour de force of impressive potency and insightful philosophy and yet a poem characterised by its graceful lucidity and finely honed criticism. Through the poem A River, the poet raises the question of an artist’s commitment to the society.
In this poem, the poet has compared and contrasted the mind-set of the old poets and those of the new poets to human misery. Both the poets are apathetic to human sorrow and suffering. Their poetry does not mirror the miseries of the human beings; on the other hand they are concerned with the themes that are far away from the stark reality before them. They write about the beauty of the river in full flood completely ignoring the devastation and human tragedy wreaked by this beastly force.
In this poem, the poet refers to the river Vaikai which flows through the city of Madurai. Madurai, reputed for its rich cultural and spiritual heritage, is a well known city in Tamil Nadu. In the poem A River the poet presents two strikingly contrasting pictures of the river: a vivid picture of the river in the summer season and the river in its full flow when the floods arrive with devastating fury.
In the summer, the river is almost barren and arid. Only a very thin stream of water flows revealing the sand ribs on the bed of the river. There is also the picture of the river in the monsoon season, flooded and with its immense destructive power yet startlingly beautiful in its majestic flow.
Both the old and the new poets have celebrated the beauty of the flooded river but they were not alive to or sympathetic with human suffering caused by the monstrous flood.
The poet-visitor, a modern poet probably Ramanujan himself, visits Madurai when the Vaikai is in flood. He was extremely shaken by the dismal scene of utter destruction caused by the river to life and property all around. He is even more stunned by the insensitive attitude and the complete unconcern of the city poets, both old and new, towards this tragic situation of human suffering and fatality. He was distraught that they ‘sang only of the floods’ when they should have rather tried to alleviate the people of their miserable state. Being a realist himself, he takes a dig at these city poets for dodging reality and attempting to flee into a made-up world of fantasy and fancy.
The poem A River illustrates many significant features of Ramanujan’s poetry, such as his adept linking of the past and the present so as to introduce the idea of continuity, his effortless depiction of the typical Indian surroundings. The use of wit, irony and humour, and dramatic imagery is distinctive of his style.

Question 1
In Madurai,
city of temples and poets,
who sang of cities and temples,
every summer
a river dries to a trickle
in the sand,
baring the sand ribs,
straw and women's hair
clogging the watergates
at the rusty bars
under the bridges with patches
of repair all over them
1.     Which river is mentioned in the extract? What is Madurai reputed for? What was the subject of the poets of Madurai?
The river Vaikai which flows through the ancient city of Madurai in Tamil Nadu is mentioned in the extract. Madurai is famous for its spiritual, literary and cultural heritage; its magnificent city with its numerous impressive temples built by the kings that ruled Madurai in the past.
The poets of Madurai, its minstrels, wrote and sang eulogies of its marvelous temples and its magnificent cites. In a way these eulogies can be deemed as eulogies of the kings who built these temples and cities and patronized the literati. 
2.     What do the images of the river drying to a trickle and the sand ribs suggest?
The river drying to a trickle conveys the scorching heat of summer that dries up everything and makes life unbearably miserable with the accompanying famine and starvation.
The dried river exposes the sand dunes at the bottom of the river and they bring to our mind the skeletal rib cages of a starved human being.
Both the images bring out the ugly aspect of the dried up river that brings drought, which in turn causes gruesome misery and starvation.  Human suffering caused by the drought is suggested by the river drying to a trickle exposing the bone-dry expanse of the sand dunes.
3.     What do the straw and women's hair do? What do they signify?
The straw and women's hair choke or block the watergates under the bridges which have patches of repair all over them.
The three images -of the straw and women's hair and the bridges in disrepair -together create a scenario of filth and wretchedness which the flowing river has masked. However, the dry river bares and exposes the ugliness that lies underneath.
The poet may be suggesting the attempt of the poets to hide or callously ignore the stark and harsh social reality by writing poems of cities and temples.
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An Approach to ICSE English Gopakumar Menon Saturday, 9 February 2013
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Short Stories Summary Dusk Saki

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Dusk 
Saki
Norman Gortsby considered dusk somewhat differently from others. To him dusk was a time when losers in life, ashamed to face the world during daytime, come out from concealment. These losers at dusk appear blurry and in all probability will not be recognised by snoops.
Sitting on a bench in Hyde Park on a March evening, Norman Gortsby was looking at thwarted people walk here and there with tattered dresses and stooped shoulders. Near him sat an old man with a feeble insolent air. Shortly, the old man left and his place was taken by a young man.
The young man was seemingly in an awful sulk, and Gortsby asked him the reason for his terrible temper. The young man said that his regular hotel had been razed to make place for a cinema. Hence, he had to stay at an unfamiliar hotel. As he did not like the soap provided by the hotel, he went around the city searching for a store to buy soap.
He bought the soap and to his dismay he found that he had forgotten the name and the address of his new hotel. Fortunately he had earlier written to his people the address of the hotel and he was waiting to hear from them. He could get the address of the hotel from them but his letter would reach them only the next day. Since he left the hotel with only the money to buy some soap and a drink, he was forced to spend the night in the outdoors, as he had no associates in London.
Gortsby realised that the young man had told his strange story to make him to loan him some money. When Gortsby asked about the soap he had bought, the young man could not show him the soap and said that he might have lost it. The young man had to leave without getting any money from Gortsby. Left alone again, Gortsby deliberated the young man's sob story. He thought that the purchase of soap was the crucial detail to make the young man’s story plausible.
After a while, when Gortsby was about to leave, he found a newly bought package of soap on the ground. He reasoned that it might have come out of the young man’s pocket as he sat down on the bench.
He hurried to find the young man. When he found the young man he apologised for doubting him and gave him the soap as well as a small amount of money. Gortsby also gave him his card and his address so that the young man could return the money later.
While Gortsby was returning home, he passed the bench he had been sitting. He saw the old man who had earlier sat with him searching for something. When Gortsby asked the old man what he was looking for, he told Gortsby that he had lost a cake of soap and he was searching for it.
An Approach to ICSE English Gopakumar Menon Friday, 8 February 2013
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