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प्रश्न
From the library or Internet, read the story ‘How much land does a man need?’ by Leo Tolstoy and write a review of the same, covering the following points.
- Background of the story
- Characters
- Plot/Theme
- Climax
- Message/Moral
| If necessary, the students can read the same story two or three times to understand all the points. |
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उत्तर
Background of the story:
Leo Tolstoy wrote "How much land does a man need?" against the backdrop of massive changes in the 19th century in Russia. Until the emancipation of Russian serfs by Czar Alexander II, the peasants were virtual slaves of landowners and aristocrats, Tolstoy wrote this story after the Serfs had already got their freedom for 25 years. They now had rights and their own land. There was progress among the peasants but Tolstoy was apprehensive about whether the peasants' progress brought changes they would regret. This story brings a harsh warning of unchecked materialism which is clearly established through the fate of Pahom, the protagonist of the story, and his sad, untimely death.
Characters - Pahom (the protagonist), his wife, his sister-in-law, the Bashkirs, and the Devil.
Plot/Theme - Pehom, a Russian peasant, overhears his wife and her sister having an argument over whether it is better to live in the country or the city. This lands Pahom to make the dangerous declaration that if he had just enough land, he would not even fear the Devil. The Devil hears this boast and decides to put this to the test and exploits the greed of Pahom. The story relates to Pahom's success in buying land, yet also his dissatisfaction.
Climax - Pahom comes to know about the Bashkir region where very fertile land can be purchased very cheaply. The Bashkirs agree to sell him for 1000 roubles, as much land as he can pace off in a day as long as he returns before the end of the day to the starting point. Pahom walks far, trying to get as much as land as possible, but when he sees more fertile land ahead of him, greed overtakes his senses and he keeps walking further and further away without realizing it would be difficult for him to return to the starting point. In his rush to get back to the starting point. In his rush to get back to the starting point which he succeeds in, he collapses and dies. When he dies the Baskhins ask Pahoms servant to bury him on the same land and he ends up with six feet of land, enough to bury him instead of all the land that he had acquired.
Message/Moral:
The story tells us about the destructive consequences of human ambition & greed. The message is clear, a warning against biting off more than you can chew. The story shows us how human nature pushes us to want more and more. We are never content, no matter how well off we may be. While trying to improve our standard of living, we put ourselves in danger of ending up with nothing, It gives us the message, how greed and excessive desire for earthly desires can destroy a person.
APPEARS IN
संबंधित प्रश्न
(A) Read the following extract and answer the questions given below :
Oil is one of the world's major sources of energy. We depend on it as fuel for heating, transport, and generation of power.
For centuries, animal and vegetable oils have been used for cooking and as a source of artificial light. But it is mineral oil which meets most of the world's needs today.
Crude mineral oil comes out of the earth as a thick brown or black liquid with a strong smell. It is a complex mixture of many different substances, each with its own individual qualities. Most of them are combinations of hydrogen and carbon in varying proportions. Such hydrocarbons are also found in other forms such as bitumen, asphalt and natural gas. Mineral oil originates from the carcasses of tiny animals and from plants that live in the sea. Over millions of years, these dead creatures form large deposits under the sea bed and ocean currents cover them with a blanket of sand and silt. As this material hardens, it becomes sedimentary rock and effectively shuts out the oxygen so preventing the complete decomposition of the marine deposits underneath. The layers of sedimentary rock become thicker and heavier. Their pressure produces heat, which transforms the tiny carcasses into crude oil in a process that is still going on today.
The earth's crust is split into a few hu·ge continental plates which move continuously rather like rafts on a sluggish tide. Geologists call this rnoven1ent as 'continental drift'.
(1) What does the extract ·tell us about?
(2) In which form does crude mineral oil come out of the earth and from what does it originate?
(3) How is 'continental drift' formed?
(4) According to you, how can we stop the excessive use of energy?
(5) Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed :
(i) Oil is one of the world's major sources of energy.
(Rewrite it as a negative sentence without changing its meaning.)
(ii) As this material hardens, it becomes sedimentary rock.
(Make it a compound sentence.)
(iii) Geologists call this movement 'con·tinental drift'.
(Frame a 'Wh-question' to get the underlined part as an answer.)
(6) Give the antonyms from the extract for :
(i) artificial
(ii) lighter
(B) Write·a brief summary of the above extract with the help of the points given below and suggest a suitable title.
Oil as a source of energy - our dependence - types of oil -mineral oil origin of crude oil formation of crude oil-farming of sedimentary rocks - continental drift
Use of noun in apposition:
Apposition is a grammatical construction in which two elements, normally noun phrases, are placed side by side, with one element serving to identify the other in a different way; the two elements are said to be in apposition.
Apposition can be used to make compound sentences short and simple.
Neha is their eldest child and she is very intelligent.
- Neha, their eldest child, is very intelligent. [Here, Neha and their eldest child are the same person.] Provide two such examples of apposition.
Transforming Complex to Simple: By using phrases like ‘too...to’ or using noun phrase instead of a clause:
Nagpur is the city where oranges grow.
- Oranges grow in Nagpur
The old man is so weak that he cannot walk.
- The old man is too weak to walk.
Change the following sentence into simple:
Mr Rohit is the member and he is also the director.
Transforming Complex to Simple: By using phrases like ‘too...to’ or using noun phrase instead of a clause:
Nagpur is the city where oranges grow.
- Oranges grow in Nagpur
The old man is so weak that he cannot walk.
- The old man is too weak to walk.
Change the following sentence into simple:
The room is so small that it cannot accommodate many people.
Read the following incident.
Lokesh had always been a class-topper in tests and examinations. However, invariably, he used foul means during exams to gain those high marks.
Once, on the day of History examination, Lokesh realized that his classmate and friend Farhan came all prepared for Maths instead of History. Farhan had become desperate. So Lokesh offered to let him copy from his answer-sheet since Farhan sat just behind him.
Farhan refused. He said, ‘‘It’s all right even if I get a zero, but I can call it my own zero. I do not want to score a single mark, unearned. Cheating in exams is for cowards. Not me!’’
These words were a turning point in Lokesh’s life. He gave up cheating for ever. He worked hard for what he desired and never, ever used false measures to acquire anything.
Summarize the incident in 6 to 8 lines making Lokesh, the narrator:
Begin with: ‘I was always a class topper.
Read the passage and write a summary of it in a paragraph. Suggest a suitable title.
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Fireflies are beetles and go through several life stages, starting out as an egg, then hatching into larvae. At the juvenile stage, they turn into pupae and then, finally adults. Fireflies spend most of their lives in a larval stage, hidden away. There are 2000 different species of fireflies. But they all go through a long juvenile stage and a short adult life, which is mainly about courtship, mating and reproduction. The juveniles living underground or underwater, are very different though-they're hunters, they eat snails and soft-bodied insects and they have very different habitats. Conserving them is essential for human life as fireflies are a key part of the food web. They are predators of agricultural pests. In turn, they are prey for spiders and other insects. They are completely enmeshed in the web of life. In addition, about 70 years ago, scientists unravelled the mystery of fireflies' light-producing talents. Since then, the bio-chemical reactions that fireflies experience have been used in detecting bacterial contamination in foods, testing drugs against cancer, developing drought-resistant crops. They have been used in space exploration. So fireflies give us beauty and inventions. Fireflies carry oxygen, calcium, magnesium and a natural chemical called luciferin. These react together to produce the photons. This is how the fireflies glow. Firefly tourism is growing across the world. In Maharashtra, for example, a particular species monsoon fireflies, emerge before the rains. They're beautiful and a festival is held in Purushwadi, encouraging firefly tourism. Its wonderful that people around the world go to see fireflies in their natural habitat. We need to be cautious. Too many people can disturb adult and larval habitats. Fireflies need darkness to communicate with each other and we need fireflies because they are harbingers of hope. |
Read the passage and write a summary of it in a paragraph. Suggest a suitable title.
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November 4, 1851. Dear, Brother John Honston, When I came into Charleston day before yesterday, I learnt that you were anxious to sell the land where you live, and move to Missouri. I have been thinking of this ever since, and cannot but say such an idea is quite foolish. What can you do in Missouri better than here? Is the land any richer? Can you, there, any more than here, raise com and wheat without work? Will anybody there, any more than here, do your work for you? If you intend to go to work, there is no better place than right where you are; if you do not intend to work, you cannot get along anywhere. Crawling about from place to place can do you no good. You have raised no crop this year. What you really want is to sell the land, get the money and spend it. Part with the land you have and my life upon it-never after will you own a spot big enough to bury you. Half of what you will get for the land, you will spend in moving to Missouri, and the other hall you will eat, drink, wear out and no foot of land will be brought. Now I feel it my duty to have no hand in such a piece of foolery. Now do not misunderstand this letter. I do not write it in any unkindness. I write it in order, if possible, to get you to face the truth which truth is, you are poor and needy because you have idled away your time. Your thousand excuses for not getting along better are all nonsense. They deceive nobody but yourself. To go to work is the only cure for your case. Affectionately, |
Write the summary of the following extract with a suitable title, with the help of the given points/hints.
| It is a matter of general agreement that the war has had a chilling effect upon those little everyday civilities of behaviour that sweeten the general air. We must get those civilities back if we are to make life kindly and tolerable for each other. We cannot get them back by invoking the law. The policeman is a necessary symbol and the law is a necessary institution for a society that is still some-what lower than the angels. But the law can only protect us against material attack. Nor will the lift-man's way of meeting moral affront by physical violence help us to restore civilities. I suggest to him, that he would have had more subtle and effective revenge if he had treated the gentleman who would not say "Please" with elaborate politeness. He would have had the victory, not only over the boor, but over himself, and that is the victory that counts. The polite man may lose the material advantage, but he always has the spiritual victory. I commend to the lift-man a story of Chesterfield. In his time the London streets were without the pavements of today, and the man who "took the wall" had the driest footing. "I never give the wall to a scoundrel;' said a man who met Chesterfield one day in the street. "I always do;· said Chesterfield stepping with a bow into the road. I hope the lift-man will agree that his revenge was much more sweet than if he had flung the fellow into the mud. |
toys going electronic - development of the child - vital skills - advantages gained - encourage imagination and creativity - approach of psychologists.
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Love is a great force in Private life; it is indeed the greatest of all things, but love in public affairs does not work. It has been tried again and again; by the people of the Middle Ages, and also by the French Revolution, a secular movement which reasserted the Brotherhood of Man, And it has always failed. The idea that nations should love one another, or that business concerns or marketing boards should love one another or that a man in Portugal should love a man in Peru of whom he has never heard — it is absurd, unreal, dangerous. ‘Love is what is needed,” we chant, and then sit back and the world goes on as before. The fact is we can only love what we know personally. And we cannot know much. In public affairs, in the rebuilding of civilization, something much less dramatic and emotional is needed, namely tolerance. Tolerance is a very dull virtue. It is boring. It is negative. It merely means putting up with people, being able to stand things. No one has ever written an ode to tolerance, or raised a statute to her. Yet this is the quality which will be most needed after the war. This is the sound state of mind which we are looking for. This is the only force which will enable different races and classes and interests to settle down together to the work of reconstruction. The world is very full of people— appallingly full; it has never been so full before and they are all tumbling over each other. Most of these people one doesn’t know and some of them dosen't like. Well, what is one to do? If you don't like people, put up with them as well as you can. Don't try to love them; you can't. But try to tolerate them. On the basis of that tolerance a civilized future may be built. Certainly I can see no other foundation for the post-war world. |
Write a 'summary' of the above extract by using the following points.
(Love as a force - its limitations - tolerance - need of tolerance)
Read the following passage and write a summary of it. Suggest a suitable title for the summary.
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A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, in full Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, (born October 15, 1931, Rameshwaram, India - died July 27, 2015, Shillong), Indian scientist who played a leading role in the development of India's missile and nuclear weapons programmes. He was President of India from 2002 to 2007. Kalam earned a degree in aeronautical engineering from the Madras Institute of Technology and in 1958 joined the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). In 1969, he moved to the Indian Space Research Organisation, where he was project director of the SLV-III, the first satellite launch vehicle that was both designed and produced in India. Rejoining DRDO in 1982, Kalam planned the programme that produced a number of successful missiles, which helped earn him the nickname “Missile Man”. Among those successes was Agni, India's first intermediate-range ballistic missile, which incorporated aspects of the SLVIII and was launched in 1989. Kalam remained committed using science and technology to transform India into a developed country and served as lecturer at several universities. Kalam wrote several books, including an autobiography, Wings of Fire (1999). He received the Padma Bhushan (1981), Padma Vibhushan (1990), Indira Gandhi award for National Integration (1997) and the India's highest civilian award Bharat Ratna (1997). |
