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प्रश्न
Referring closely to the essay Unbirthday and Other Presents, discuss why E V Lucas feels that `unbirthday‘ gifts are better than the regular gifts people give.
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उत्तर
E.V Lucas’s The Unbirthday Gift is an essay written in the lighter vein. It tells us humorously how the unity and cooperation of animals helped the rabbits to scoot away from the hunter. The essay opens quite dramatically with a hunter’s description of his failed attempt at hunting rabbits. The unbirthday present demands the nicest of care…It is the only kind to which the golden rule of present-giving imperatively applies – the golden rule which insists that you must never give to another that which you would not rather keep for yourself, nothing that does not cost you a pang to part from. There are several qualities we can learn from this lesson. To speak in animal terms, the essay swoops down on the reader and captures his mind with the power of a fable. In fact, the essay looks like a story. But the rabbit’s comment ‘four feet are thicker than two,’ which is a parody of the popular saying ‘blood is thicker than water,’ leads the reader to some revealing questions on the attitude of human beings. Have human beings become a curse to this earth? Is he a protector or a destroyer? There is no room for doubt because the other animals’ motive for saving the rabbits was not devotion to the rabbits, but a dislike for human beings.
Do we have any unity among human beings? What has happened to our trade unions? Can we say that two feet are thicker, stronger and more united than four feet? What would happen if some human beings were in the place of the rabbits?
And most prominently, what may happen if the dream of Old Major in Orwell’s Animal Farm ever comes true? What if the animals rise up in revolt against human beings? If it is a matter of voting, rightfully they have the majority. Now we need to think on this.
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संबंधित प्रश्न
Greenland is the largest island in the world.
(Rewrite: Using ‘larger’.)
Read the passage given below and answer the questions (a), (b) and (c) that follow :
(1) At the Literary Society’s meeting, Isola read out the letters written to her Granny Pheen, when she was but a little girl. They were from a very kind man – a complete stranger. Isola told us how these letters came to be written.
(2) When Granny Pheen was nine years old, her cat died. Heartbroken, sitting in the middle of the road, she was sobbing her heart out.
(3) A carriage, driving far too fast, came within a whisker of running her down. A very big man in a dark coat with a fur collar, jumped out, leaned over Pheen, and asked if he could help her. Granny Pheen said she was beyond help. Muffin, her cat, was dead.
(4) The man said, ‘Of course, Muffin’s not dead. You do know cats have nine lives, don’t you?’ When Pheen said yes, the man said, ‘Well, I happen to know your Muffin was only on her third life, so she has six lives left.’ Pheen asked how he knew. He said he always knew - cats would often appear in his mind and chat with him. Well, not in words, of course, but in pictures.
(5) He sat down on the road beside her and told her to keep still – very still. He would see if Muffin wanted to visit him. They sat in silence for several minutes, when suddenly the man grabbed Pheen’s hand.
(6) ‘Ah – yes! There she is! She’s being born this minute! In a mansion – in France. There’s a little boy petting her, he’s going to call her Solange. This Solange has great spirit, great verve – I can tell already! She is going to have a long, venturesome life.’
(7) Granny Pheen was so rapt by Muffin’s new fate that she stopped crying. The man said he would visit Solange every so often and find out how she was faring.
(8) He asked for Granny Pheen’s name and the name of the farm where she lived, got back into the carriage, and left.
(9) Absurd as all this sounds, Granny Pheen did receive eight long letters. Isola then read them out. They were all about Muffin’s life as the French cat − Solange. She was, apparently, something of a feline musketeer. She was no idle cat, lolling about on cushions, lapping up cream – she lived through one wild adventure after another – the only cat ever to be awarded the red rosette of the Legion of Honour.
(10) What a story this man had made up for Pheen – lively, witty, full of drama and suspense. We were enchanted, speechless at the reading. When it was over (and much applauded), I asked Isola if I could see the letters, and she handed them to me.
(11) The writer had signed his letters with a grand flourish :
VERY TRULY YOURS,
O.F. O’F. W.W.
It was highly possible that Isola had inherited eight letters written by Oscar Wilde, for who else could have had such a preposterous name as Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Willis Wilde.
Adapted from : The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society – By Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
(a) (i) Given below are four words and phrases. Find the words which have a similar meaning in the passage :[4]
(1) adventurous
(2) cat-like
(3) appreciated
(4) received something on someone’s death
(ii) For each of the words given below, write a sentence of at least ten words using the same word unchanged in form, but with a different meaning from that which it carries in the passage :[4]
(1) kind (line 2)
(2) mind (line 13)
(3) still (line 15)
(4) sounds (line 26)
(b) Answer the following questions in your own words as briefly as possible:
(i) Where did Isola get the letters from to read at the Literary Society’s meeting?[2]
(ii) Who consoled Granny Pheen when she was heart-broken? What did he say about Muffin’s lives?[2]
(iii) What did the man say when Granny Pheen asked him how he knew about cats’ lives?[2]
(iv) According to the man, what was Muffin’s new fate?[3]
(c) In not more than 100 words, summarise why the eight letters were a treasure to Granny Pheen. (Paragraphs 2 to 10). Failure to keep within the word limit will be penalised. You will be required to write the summary in the form of a connected passage in about 100 words.[8]
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Fie, fie, they are not to be nam'd my lord, not to speak of, There is not chastity enough in language Without offence to utter them. Thus, pretty lady, I am sorry for thy much misgovernment.
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(iv) What are the immediate reactions of Leonato and Hero to Claudio's words?
(v) What impressions do we form about Leonato in this scene?
(vi) Give the meanings of the following words as they are used in the context of the passage: misgovernment; impiety; conjecture
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| (ii) | (ii) |
| (iii) | (iii) |
| (iv) | (iv) |
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| Name | |
| Father’s Name & Occupation | |
| Mother’s Name & Occupation | |
| Born on | |
| Nationality | |
| State | |
| City | |
| Education |
School : |
| College: | |
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| Siblings | |
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| Awards | |
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