Advertisements
Advertisements
प्रश्न
Why has sleep been called a wonder?
Advertisements
उत्तर
Sleep has been called a wonder for the following reasons:
- It overpowers us.
- Nobody knows exactly, what brings about sleep.
- It is a common experience but nobody knows its secrets and depths.
- It transports us to a strange land. It is the sweetest thing in the world. It makes us alert and active.
- It makes us forgetful of even our dearest persons and objects.
APPEARS IN
संबंधित प्रश्न
After you have made a choice do you always think about what might have been, or do you accept the reality?
The poem you have just read is originally in the Tamil. Do you know any such poems in your language?
Read this article about the great Indian Rhinoceros. [You will find the information useful for your group discussion in 5.]
The Indian Rhinoceros or the Great One-Horned Rhinoceros or the Asian Onehorned Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicomis) is a large mammal primarily found in north-eastern India, Nepal and parts of Bhutan. It is confined to the tall grasslands and forests in the foothills of the Himalayas.
The Indian Rhinoceros once ranged throughout the entire stretch of the Indo Gangetic Plain but excessive hunting reduced their natural habitat drastically.
Today, about 3,000 Indian Rhinos live in the wild, 1,800 of which are found in Assam alone. In 2008, more than 400 Indian Rhinos were sighted in Nepal's Chitwan National Park.
In size it is equal to that of the White Rhino in Africa; together they are the largest of all rhino species. The Great One-Horned Rhinoceros has a single horn; this is present in both males and females, but not on newborn young. In most adults, the horn reachee a length of about 25 centimetres, but has been recorded up to 57 .2 centimetres in length. The nasal hom curves backwards from the nose. The horn is naturally black.
This prehistoric-looking rhinoceros bas thick, silver-brown skin which becomes pinkish near the large skin folds that cover its body. The male develops thick neckfolds. It has very little body hair aside from eyelashes, ear-fringes and tail-brush.
These rhinos live in tall grasslands and riverine forests, but due to the loss of habitat, they have been forced towards cultivated land. They are mostly solitary creatures, with the exception of mothers and calves and breeding pairs, although they sometimes, congregate at bathing areas.
The Indian Rhinoceros makes a wide variety of vocalizations. At least ten distinct vocalizations have been identified: snorting, honking, bleating, roaring, squeak panting, moo-grunting, shrieking, groaning, rumbling and humphing. In addition to noises, the rhino also uses olfactory communication.
In aggregation, Indian Rhinos are often friendly. They will often greet each other by waving or bobbing their heads, mounting flanks, nuzzling noses, or licking. Rhinos will playfully spar, run around, and play with twigs in their mouth. Adult males are the primary instigators of fights. Fights between dominant males are the most common cause of rhino mortality. Indian rhinos have few natural enemies, except for tigers. Tigers sometimes kill unguarded calves, but adult rhinos are less vulnerable due to their size. Humans are the only other animal threat, hunting the rhinoceros primarily for sport or for the use of its horn. Indian Rhinos have been somewhat tamed and trained in circuses, but they remain dangerous and unpredictable animals.
In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the Indian Rhinoceros was hunted relentlessly. Reports from the middle of the nineteenth century claim that some military officers in Assam individually shot more than 200 rhinos. In the early 1900s, officials became concerned at the rhinos' plummeting numbers. By 1908 in Kaziranga, one of the Rhinos' main ranges, the population had fallen to around 12 individuals. In 1910, all rhino hunting in India became prohibited.
The rhino has been a major success in conservation. Only 100 remained in the early 1900s; a century later, their population has increased to about 2500 again, but even so, the species is still endangered. The Indian rhino is illegally poached for its horn. Some cultures in East Asia believe that the hair has healing and potency powers and therefore is used for traditional Chinese medicine and other Oriental medicines.
The Indian and Nepalese Governments have taken major steps towards Indian Rhinoceros conservation with the help of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The Kaziranga National Park and Manas National Park in Assam, Pobitora Reserve Forest in Assam {having the highest Indian rhino density in the world), Orang National Park of Assam, Laokhowa Reserve Forest of Assam (having a very small population) and Royal Chitwan National Park in Nepal are homes to this endangered animal.
The most important thing we've learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set-----
Or better still, just don't install
The Idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we've been,
we've watched them gaping at the screen
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone's place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they're hypnotised by it,
Until they're absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Read the lines given above and answer the question given below.
Explain with reference to context.
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good , what can it be?
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr.Tod,the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin,Pigling Bland,
And Mrs.Tiggy-Winkle and-
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There's Mr.Rat and Mr. Mole-
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
Read the lines given above and answer the question given below.
Explain with reference to context.
He flungs himself down in a corner to recoup from the fatigue of his visit to the shop. His wife said, “You are getting no sauce today, nor anything else. I can’t find anything to give you to eat. Fast till the evening, it’ll do you good. Take the goats and be gone now,” she cried and added, “Don’t come back before the sun is down.”
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Where had Muni gone and why?
I was in for a surprise. When the time came for the broad-jump trials, I was startled to see a tall boy hitting the pit at almost 26 feet on his practice leaps! He turned out to be a German named Luz Long. 1 was told that Hitler hoped to win the jump with him. I guessed that if Long won, it would add some new support to the Nazis’ “master race” (Aryan superiority) theory. After all, I am a Negro. Angr about Hitler’s ways, 1 determined to go out there and really show Der Fuhrer and his master race who was superior and who wasn’t. An angry athlete is an athlete who will make mistakes, as any coach will tell you. I was no exception. On the first of my three qualifying jumps, I leaped from several inches beyond the takeoff board for a foul. On the second jump, I fouled even worse. “Did I come 3,000 miles for this?” I thought bitterly. “To foul out of the trials and make a fool of myself ?” Walking a few yards from the pit, 1 kicked disgustedly at the dirt.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
“Did I come all the way from America for this?” I thought bitterly. “To foul out of the trials and make a fool of myself?” What does this show?
De Levis: Social Blackmail?
H'm ' Canynge: Not at all - simple warning. If you consider it necessary in your interests to start this scandal-no matter how we shall consider it necessary in ours to dissociate ourselves completely from one who so recklessly disregards the unwritten code.
(i) Where are the speakers at present? What is referred to as Social Black-mail?
What does Canynge do soon after and what does he find? What was his reaction? What does the discovery; prove?
Write ‘True’ or ‘False’ against each of the following statements.
(i) Timothy and Grandfather went to Lucknow in a special compartment.
(ii) The compartment in which Grandfather and Timothy travelled had no other passenger.
(iii) Timothy and Grandfather travelled in a first-class compartment.
(vi) All passengers in the compartment thought that Timothy was a well-fed and civilized tiger.
“He liked to tease and play”. Who is teasing whom? How?
What all facts Maya collected about Mr Nath?
How did the crocodile plan to please his wife? How did the monkey use his wits and save his life?
Was the old woman’s gift to Vijay Singh eccentric? Why?
What does a garden snake eat?
Why does Maya think Mr Nath is a crook? Who does she say the Sunday visitor is?
The word ‘tip’ has only three letters but many meanings.
Match the word with its meanings below.
- finger tips – be about to say something
- the tip of your nose – make the boat overturn
- tip the water out of the bucket – the ends of one’s fingers
- have something on the tip of your tongue – give a rupee to him, to thank him
- tip the boat over-empty a bucket by tilting it
- tip him a rupee-the pointed end of your nose
- the tip of the bat – if you take this advice
- the police were tipped off – the bat lightly touched the ball
- if you take my tip – the end of the bat
- the bat tipped the ball – the police were told or warned
Read the lines given below and answer the following question:
| Iris: Of her society Be not afraid. I met her deity Cutting the clouds towards Paphos, and her son Dove-drawn with her. |
Whom does Iris refer to as ‘her’?
Read the following extract from William Wordsworth's poem, 'Daffodils' and answer the questions that follow:
|
When all at once I saw a crowd |
- Wordsworth uses the words, 'wondered' and 'lonely' to describe himself in the opening lines of the poem.
What mood do these words convey?
What let to a change in his mood? [3] - How does Wordsworth describe the sight that met his eyes?
Give a brief description of what the poet saw. [3] - To what does the poet compare this sight?
How is this comparison appropriate? [3] - What does the poet mean when he says, 'Ten thousand saw I at a glance'?
Find two other words in the given extract that create the impression of large numbers. [3] - What immediate effect did this sight have on Wordsworth?
How did it affect him in the long-term?
What does this poem tell us about Wordsworth's attitude to Nature? [4]
Read the following extract from Stephen Leacock’s short story, ‘With the Photographer’ and answer the questions that follow:
|
“The photographer beckoned me in. I thought he seemed quieter and graver than before. I think, too, there was a certain pride in his manner. He unfolded the proof of a large photograph, and we both looked at it in silence. ‘Is it me?’ I asked. “Yes,” he said quietly, ‘it is you,” and we went on looking at it.” |
- Where was the narrator?
Why had he gone there?
Why do you think that there was a certain pride in the photographer's manner? [3] - What does the word "proof” mean in this context?
Why did the narrator ask, “Is it me?”? [3] - Which of the narrator's facial features had the photographer altered? [3]
- What was the only part of the narrator's face that seemed original in the photograph?
How did the photographer plan to ‘fix’ this? [3] - At the end of the story, the narrator flies into a rage.
What makes him angry?
How would you justify the narrator's angry outburst? [4]
