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Question
Helen's struggle has become a source of inspiration for all less fortunate. Comment.
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Solution
A serious illness during infancy had damaged Helen’s hearing and sight. She suffered a great deal of misery and frustration in trying to communicate with others till the age of six. She felt trapped and became impatient and impulsive. She used anger to vent out her frustration. Helen’s life completely changed when Anne Sullivan was appointed as her teacher. With her teacher’s help and her own determination, Helen not only learnt to read and write, but also acquired the skill of speaking. .
When Helen joined Radcliffe College in 1896 she had to face a different set of difficulties. Her preliminary examination went on for sixteen hours. At Radcliffe, nobody read her papers once they were written. She had no opportunities to correct her errors unless she finished her papers before time. Even if she did, she could only correct the mistakes that she recalled making in the last few minutes.
Despite all the difficulties, she graduated from Radcliffe at the age of twenty-four, becoming the first deaf blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. She travelled to many countries with Miss Sullivan and strongly advocated people with disabilities. She is a source of inspiration for all the less fortunate who struggle to overcome extreme hardships in life and want to evolve their miseries into motivation.
RELATED QUESTIONS
How does Anne criticize the attitude of the grown-ups in her diary?
Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
1. Air pollution is an issue which concerns us all alike. One can willingly choose or reject a food, a drink or a life comfort, but unfortunately there is little choice for the air we breathe. All, what is there in the air is inhaled by one and all living in those surroundings.
2. Air pollutant is defined as a substance which is present while normally it is not there or present in an amount exceeding the normal concentrations. It could either be gaseous or a particulate matter. The important and harmful polluting gases are carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, ozone and oxides of sulphur and nitrogen. The common particulate pollutants are the dusts of various inorganic or organic origins. Although we often talk of the outdoor air pollutions caused by industrial and vehicular exhausts, the indoor pollution may prove to be as or a more important cause of health problems.
3. Recognition of air pollution is relatively recent. It is not uncommon to experience a feeling of 'suffocation' in a closed environment. It is often ascribed to the lack of oxygen. Fortunately, however, the composition of air is remarkably constant all over the world. There is about 79 per cent nitrogen and 21 per cent oxygen in the air − the other gases forming a very small fraction. It is true that carbon dioxide exhaled out of lungs may accumulate in a closed and over-crowded place. But such an increase is usually small and temporary unless the room is really air-tight. Exposure to poisonous gases such as carbon monoxide may occur in a closed room, heated by burning coal inside. This may also prove to be fatal.
4. What is more common in a poorly ventilated home is a vague constellation of symptoms described as the sick-building syndrome. It is characterized by a general feeling of malaise, head-ache, dizziness and irritation of mucous membranes. It may also be accompanied by nausea, itching, aches, pains and depression. Sick building syndrome is getting commoner in big cities with the small houses, which are generally over-furnished. Some of the important pollutants whose indoor concentrations exceed those of the outdoors include gases such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, oxides of nitrogen and organic substances like spores, formaldehydes, hydrocarbon aerosols and allergens. The sources are attributed to a variety of construction materials, insulations, furnishings, adhesives, cosmetics, house dusts, fungi and other indoor products.
5. By-products of fuel combustion are important in houses with indoor kitchens. It is not only the brining of dried dung and fuelwood which is responsible, but also kerosene and liquid petroleum gas. Oxides of both nitrogen and sulphur are released from their combustion.
6. Smoking of tobacco in the closed environment is an important source of indoor pollution. It may not be high quantitatively, but significantly hazardous for health. It is because of the fact that there are over 3000 chemical constituents in tobacco smoke, which have been identified. These are harmful for human health.
7. Micro-organisms and allergens are of special significance in the causation and spread of diseases. Most of the infective illnesses may involve more persons of a family living in common indoor environment. These include viral and bacterial diseases like tuberculosis.
8. Besides infections, allergic and hypersensitivity disorders are spreading fast. Although asthma is the most common form of respiratory allergic disorders, pneumonias are not uncommon, but more persistent and serious. These are attributed to exposures to allergens from various fungi, molds, hay and other organic materials. Indoor air ventilation systems, coolers, air-conditioners, dampness, decay, pet animals, production or handling of the causative items are responsible for these hypersensitivity − diseases.
9. Obviously, the spectrum of pollution is very wide and our options are limited. Indoor pollution may be handled relatively easily by an individual. Moreover, the good work must start from one’s own house
(Extracted from the Tribune)
(a) (i) What is an air pollutant? (1)
(ii) In what forms are the air pollutants present? (2)
(iii) Why do we feel suffocated in a closed environment? (1)
(iv) What is sick building syndrome? How is it increasing? (2)
(v) How is indoor smoking very hazardous? (1)
(vi) How can one overcome the dangers of indoor air pollution? (2)
(b) Find the words from the above passage which mean the same as the following: (3)
(i) giddiness (para 4)
(ii) constant (para 8)
(iii) humidity (para 8)
Find proof from the poem for the following.
The poet’s minute observations of the steady growth of the cherry tree.
Have you ever given up on something good? Share your story with your friend.
Find the meaning of the following word.
starlets
Look at the following situations the writer was in. He could have avoided the situation and saved himself. Glance through the write up again and comment on what the writer should have done in the following situations.
- Gilson asked the writer to bring a tie.
- On the day of arrival, the writer had no time to think about the tie.
- The writer remembered about the tie when the bus was leaving for the airport.
- The writer walked down in search of the shop.
- The writer rushed out with the tie in a paper bag.
Ridleys come to lay their eggs in the month of January.
What does ‘charges along like troops in a battle’ mean?
Where was the old man sleeping?
Robinson named the boy______.
