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Question
How has Prashant, a teenager, been able to help the people of his village?
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Solution
Prashant helped the people of his village by first getting a grip over himself because he was initially shocked on witnessing the after effects of the cyclone. He decided to step in as the leader of his village. He organized a group of youths and elders to jointly pressurize the merchant to given rice for the people living in the shelter. He was successful in this task. His next task was to organize a team of youth volunteers to clean the shelter and to tend to the wounds of the people who had been injured because of the cyclone.
Prashant also brought a number of orphaned children together and constructed a polythene shelter for them. While women were mobilized to look after them, the men secured food and other essentials for the shelter. When he realised that the women were becoming too grief-stricken, he persuaded them to start working in the food-for-work programme, which was initiated by an NGO. He also organized sports events for children.
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RELATED QUESTIONS
Read the following and share your feelings with the class.
INTROSPECT: Realise Your Potential.
Sixteen year old Shreya, a student of XI, angrily outbursts at her parents and says, "No one likes me".
She has not been able to develop an interest in any activity, be it painting, swimming, games or studying. She is not sure what types of relationships give her comfort.
She has never had a good friend. She is not clear about her choice of career.
Shreya is good-looking, as well as physically healthy. During the interview, she was preoccupied with what others think about her.
When asked to talk about her positive qualities, she thought for a long time but could not list any. Nor was she able to mention her negative aspects.
Self Awareness
Knowing your strengths and weaknesses will help you succeed.
Knowing our helps us in acknowledging our success as well as appreciating our capacity to do something with or without support from others.
This givee us a sense of well being and we are able to learn new skills and develop assets , thereby developing our confidence. Confident people attract friends and other stable relationships.
In due course , we are ready to accept various challenges with the right kind of Investment of energy towarde task completion.
Knowing our weaknesses helps us In accepting our limitations, and developing a willingness to take help when offered and enabling us to overcome our deficits.
This paves way to expansion of skills and qualities, which prove useful ln the long run. It is worthwhile to Introspect and reflect so as to realise our potential . This help to bring about a change in us and we are able to meet challenges .
lf Shreya had introspected or had been helped by her parents or teachers to reflect on herself, she would have understood her positive and negative qualities , her likes , dislike , strengths , weakness , feelings , emotions , outlooks , choices , values and attitude towards life.
self awareness paves the way to pregress with respect to relationships , academic success , professional and personal fulfillment .
Adapted from "The Quest",
The Hindu
Avik, a correspondent for his school magazine, interviews Grandmaster Koneru Bumpy. Let us read :
INTERVIEW WITH KONERU BUMPY
Avik : Good morning, Ma'am! Congratulations on your achievements in the World Grand Prix Women's Chess Championship in Istanbul recently!

Koneru Humpy : Thank you! This is my biggest win in the women's circuit. This is very significant, considering that it has come in an event which had three former world champions.
Avik : Indeed! Please tell us something about yourself, Ma' am!
Koneru Humpy : I was born in Gudivada, near Vijaywada, in Andhra Pradesh on March 31, 1987. I was originally named 'Humpi' {which means champion) by my father Mr Koneru Ashok, who later changed the spelling to Humpy, to give the nrune a Russian flavour. I write my family name , Koneru, before my given name, as is the convention with the Telugu speaking people. I started playing chess when I was 5 years old.
Avik : Who introduced you to the game?
Koneru Humpy : My father acquainted me with the game. He is also my first coach. I first showed interest at the age of 6 years, when I watched him play a game and suggested a move. Indeed it was the move that actually got me into the game.
Avik : Your father left his teaching profession to make you a champion !
Koneru Bumpy : Yes, when I took the 4th place in the Indian Under 8 Championship in 1995, he decided to leave his career and dedicate his time to me.
Avik : And you had won four World Championship at a very early stage.
Koneru Bumpy : Yes, the World Girl Under 10, the World Girls Under 12, the World Girls Under 14 and World Girls Junior Chrunpionships. I acquired my IM title in 1999 and in May 2002, I achieved my 3rd GM Norms in Elekes Memorial Grandmaster Tournrunent in Budapest.
Avik : You held the record from 2002 to 2008 for the youngest woman ever to become a grandmaster!
Koneru Bumpy : Yes, I achieved it at the age of 15 years, 1 month, 27 days, beating Judit Polgar's previous record by 3 months; which was later lost in the Women's World Chess Championship in 2008 to Hou Yifan. I won the World Junior Girls Chess Championship in 2001 and won the edition or North Urals Cup, the Women's Super Tournrunent held in Krasnoturinsk. In 2006, I participated in the Women's World Chess Chrunpionship, but my crunpaign had to end early in the second round. I played in the first board of Monte Carlo Chess Club and won the last two editions of the European Club Cup.
Avik : You have got some awards also !
Koneru Humpy : Yes, Arjuna Award in 2003, Padmashri Award in 2007 and Raja-Lakshmi Award in 2008.

Avik : In India, many young chess players are ready to take a break in education and are fully focussed on chess preparations. What are your views?
Koneru Humpy : I don't think that taking up chess as a career and completely neglecting studies will be necessary at an earlier stage. After getting to a certain level in the game, they themselves should decide their preferences i.e. whether to play seriously or not.
Avik : What advice would you offer to parents of enthusiastic and talented chess children?
Koneru Humpy : Parents should not compel children to play chess. If children are genuinely interested in the game, they should encourage them. But they shouldn't hurry to get results.

Avik : How often do you exercise? Do you think daily physical exercise can help a chess player to cope with the pressure and increase the brain's ability to concentrate?

Koneru Humpy : I spend around one hour per day on physical exercise. Exercise is a must for every chess player. As the proverb says, 'a sound mind in a sound body'. Exercise shows a lot of impact on the brain.
Avik : Thank you for talking to me and giving valuable advice.
Koneru Humpy : Thank you.
"They say it was a shocking sight
After the field was won;
For many thousand bodies here
Lay rotting in the sun;
But things like that, you know, must be
After a famous victory.
"Great praise the Duke of Marlbro'won,
And our good Prince Eugene."
"Why,'twas a very wicked thing!"
Said little Wilhelmine.
"Nay...nay...my little girl,"quoth he,
"It was a famous victory.
"And everybody praised the Duke
Who this great fight did win."
"But what good came of it at last?"
Quoth little Peterkin.
"Why that I cannot tell,"said he,
"But 'twas a famous victory."
Read the lines given above and answer the question that follow.
How do the skulls symbolize the theme in “The Battle of Blenheim”?
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
Read the lines given above and answer the question that follow.
What does he mean by the ‘inward eye’?
Of the seven hundred villages dotting the map of India, in which the majority of India’s five hundred million live, flourish and die, Kritam was probably the tiniest, indicated on the district survey map by a microscopic dot, the map being meant more for the revenue official out to collect tax than for the guidance of the motorist, who in any case could not hope to reach it since it sprawled far from the highway at the end of a rough track furrowed up by the iron-hooped wheels of bullock carts. But its size did not prevent its giving itself the grandiose name Kritam, which meant in Tamil coronet or crown on the brow of the subcontinent. The village consisted of fewer than thirty houses, only one of them built from brick and cement and painted a brilliant yellow and blue all over with
gorgeous carvings of gods and gargoyles on its balustrade, it was known as the Big House. The other houses, distributed in four streets, were generally of bamboo thatch, straw, mud and other unspecified material. Muni’s was the last house in the fourth street, beyond which stretched the fields. In his prosperous days Muni had owned a flock of sheep and goats and sallied forth every morning driving the flock to the highway a couple of miles away.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
What did the Big House look like?
Margot stood alone. She was a very frail girl who looked as if she had been lost in the rain for years and the rain had washed out the blue from her eyes and the red from her mouth and the yellow from her hair. She was an old photograph dusted from an album, whitened away, and if she spoke at all her voice would be a ghost. Now she stood, separate, staring at the rain and the loud wet world beyond the huge glass. “What’re you looking at ?” said William. Margot said nothing. “Speak when you’re spoken to.” He gave her a shove. But she did not move; rather she let herself be moved only by him and nothing else. They edged away from her, they would not look at her. She felt them go away. And this was because she would play no games with them in the echoing tunnels of the underground city. If they tagged her and ran, she stood blinking after them and did not follow. When the class sang songs about happiness and life and games her lips barely moved. Only when they sang about the sun and the summer did her lips move as she watched the drenched windows.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Why was Margot sad?
Discuss the following topic in groups.
Retell an episode in the story which is a good example of irony in a situation.
Complete the following sentence by adding the appropriate part of the sentence given below.
The king washed and dressed the bearded man’s wound,___________________.
The following sentence has two blanks. Fill in the blanks with appropriate forms of the word given in brackets.
It isn’t__________ that_________ should always be the mother of invention. (necessary)
Walking towards the kitchen with Mridu and Meena, RukkuManni began to laugh. What made her laugh?
What did Maya think about Mr Nath’s visitor?
How did the author said to encourage his friend to fix the gear-case?
The author didn’t go for the bicycle ride he had planned with his friend why?
Which phrase in the poem expresses Dad’s self-confidence best?
Describe the tone in which the narrator’s father dismissed his wife’s warnings every single time.
Read the newspaper report to find the following facts about Columbia’s ill-fated voyage.
Number of astronauts on board: ____________
Answer the following question.
How do mongooses kill snakes?
Why do rebels always contradict the others?
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
| Portia: | ... Lorenzo, I commit into your hands The husbandry and manage of my house Until my lord's return: for mine own part, I have toward heaven breathed a secret vow To live in prayer and contemplation, Only attended by Nerissa here, Until her husband and my lord's return. |
- Who does Portia refer to as 'my lord'?
Where is her lord?
Why had he left in such haste? [3] - What does Portia ask Lorenzo to do? Why does she make this request? [3]
- Explain, in your own words, the ‘secret vow’ that Portia speaks of. [3]
- What instruction does Portia give to her servant, a little later in the scene? [3]
- What do we learn about Portia’s real intention from her conversation with Nerissa?
Which Portia do you prefer- the modest Portia of the Casket scene or the businesslike Portia we meet in this scene?
Give one reason for your response. [4]
Complete the following sentence by providing a reason.
In the short story, Indigo, Aniruddha asked Sukhanram if there were ghosts in the bungalow because ______.
