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Read the Extract Given Below and Answer the Questions that Follow: - English 2 (Literature in English)

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Question

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:

Lady Adela:  Oh! Charlie, he did look so exactly as if he’d sold me a carpet when I was paying him.
Winsor:   [changing into slippers] His father did sell carpets, wholesale, in the City.
Lady Adela:  Really? And you say I haven’t intuition! [With a finger on her lips] Morison’s in there.
Winsor:  [Motioning towards the door, which she shuts] Ronny Dancy took a tenner off him, anyway, before dinner.

(i) How did Dancy take a ‘tenner’ from De Levis?
How does De Levis later connect this trick with the theft? 

(ii) Why, according to Lady Adela, did Dancy leave the army? Why does she call him reckless? 

(iii) Where had De Levis kept the money which was stolen? Where had he gone after keeping the money? How much did he lose? 

(iv) Why is Winsor outraged when De Levis says he had locked his door? What was the height of the room from the ground? How do they know that the thief did not use a ladder to climb up to De Levis’ room? 

(v) How does General Canynge react when De Levis first accuses Dancy of committing the theft? What is your opinion of De Levis?
Give one reason to justify your answer. 

Answer in Brief
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Solution

(i) Dancy took a ‘tenner’ from De Levis by jumping on to a bookcase four feet high and took ten pounds from De Levis who sneered at him for making money by parlor tricks.
Later when De Levis’ money is stolen, he openly accuses Dancy by saying that the rail of his balcony and the rail of the next (which was of Dancy’s) were seven feet apart. So if a man could take a standing jump on to a narrow bookcase four feet high he could easily jump his balcony to the one of De Levis.

(ii) According to Lady Adela, Dancy always hankered for excitement and thrill and left the army saying that it was too dull, and at that time there was no fighting. He got married at a later age and did unexpected things so she calls him a reckless person.

(iii) He kept the money under his pillow. Then he went to take a bath. He lost around nine hundred and seventy pounds.

(iv) According to Winsor, his house was a decent one and no one was supposed to be a thief there. And so there was no need to lock a door.
The height of the room from the ground was twenty-three feet. Ladders were not used because there was only one ladder within three hundred yards and was kept in the stables. Also, it was very heavy. When Canynge instructed him, Treasure went and inspected the ladder in the stables and found it was untouched.

(v) Canynge reacts outrageously by saying that Dancy was a soldier and a gentleman, and that was an extraordinary insinuation. De Levis was not at fault when he wanted his money back. But everyone supported Dancy as he was a Christian and cornered De Levis as he was a Jew. He was blackballed from the London Club. People tolerated him only because he had money and attacked him like a pack of hounds. His generosity can be seen when be announces to give one f thousand pounds in charity.

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2014-2015 (March)

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Listen to this extract from Shakespeare's play As You Like It. As you listen, read
the poem aloud; you can do this more than once.

All the world's a stage
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,


 His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,


 Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier.
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation.


 Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;

 

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
 Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes


 And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

About the Poet
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was born in Stratford-upon-Avon. He is
considered by many to be the greatest dramatist of all time. He wrote 154 sonnets, two
long narrative poems and about three dozen plays. Shakespeare used poetic and
dramatic means to create unified aesthetic effects. In verse, he perfected the dramatic
blank verse.


Now it is your turn. Write and produce your own radio programme. You will need to select your own content. The following are some ideas. You are free, of course, to add your own ideas. Remember, the programme must be in English. 

• News stories: about people in your class, about school, about sports (school and local), about the local community 
Comedy: jokes, short plays 
Interviews: with teachers, with exstudents of your school, with a Class IX student who has recently done something very interesting 
Games: general knowledge quiz, panel game, word game 
Advertisements: for shops/ industries in the local community, things 'for sale' and 'wanted' by students 
Local sites: monuments / sites of historical importance and of tourist interest 
Special reports: e.g. safety at school, examination results, school uniform, school assemblies 
Interesting people: role-play interviews with film stars, sports personalities, TV personalities, etc. 
Entertainment reviews: music, films, videos, books, etc. 
Plays 
Songs with lyrics 
Speeches on important personalities 
Tele conference with students, teachers, experts. 


The Mystery of Bermuda Triangle. 

The potential of nature, of discovered and undiscovered elements in our world, persuades us to probe into some of her mysteries and what they may tell us. Prepare yourself then for a true odyssey of the Earth around us. 

Air France Plane Misalng Near Bermuda Triangle 
June 1, 2009 An Air France plane is missing. The Agence France-Presse reported that an Air France Airbus A330-200 wide-body jet carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew members disappeared from the radar screens on Monday somewhere off Brazil's Atlantic coast. 
Flight AF 447 out of Rio de Janeiro was headed for Paris. According to the Mirror, Air France reported that the plane had radioed in, that they were going through turbulence. They also reported that a message, signalling electrical circuit malfunction, was received before it disappeared. 
A search for the missing plane was conducted by the Brazilian Air Force. The French were also involved in the search. 
Another well known case of 1962 vividly brings home the need for careful behind -the-scenes probing. Once again, it involved an aircraft. 

The date was January 8, 1962. A huge 4 engine KB50 aerial tanker was enroute from the east coast to Lajes in the Azores. The captain, Major Bob Tawney, reported in at the expected time. All was normal, routine. But he, his crew and the big tanker, never made it to the Azores. Apparently, the last word from the flight had been the usual routine report, which had placed them a few hundred miles off the East Coast. 
FLASH! the media broadcasted, fed by a sincere Coast Guard, that a large oil slick was sighted 300 miles off Norfolk, Virginia, in the plane's proposed route. The mystery could be breaking ... 
But that was the only clue ever found. Although never proved, it was from the plane, publicly the suspicions were obvious: the tanker and its qualified crew met a horrid and sudden death by crashing headlong into the sea. 
However, the report, which was finished months later, confirmed no such thing. Tawney had been clearly overheard by a Navy transport hours after his last message. This placed him north of Bermuda, hundreds of miles past the spot of the oil slick. There is no evidence, therefore, that the plane and its crew ever met any known fate. 

                   The Sea of Lost Ships 

The ships below represent samples of the many vessels that have mysterioualy vanished in the Bermuda Triangle . 

Many US warships are listed missing by the US Navy between 1780 and 1824 , including the general Gates , Hornet , Insurgent , Pickering , wasp , wildcat and Expervier .

The Rosalle was built in 1838 of 222 tons of wood . In 1840 , she was found deserted but in ship shape near the Bahamas .

Ellen Austin's Encounter disappeared in 1881 in the Triangle

Bermuda Triangle Theories 
The Bermuda triangle is a stretch over the Atlantic Ocean, measuring less than a thousand miles on any one side. The name 'Bermuda Triangle' remained a colloquial expression throughout the 1950s. By the early 1960s, it acquired the name 'The Devil's Triangle.' Bordered by Florida, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico, the location became famous on account of the strange disappearance of ships, as well as aircrafts in the area. A number of supernatural explanations have been put forward with regard to the mysterious disappearances. 
However, many probable logical explanations for the missing vessels include hurricanes, earthquakes, as well as magnetic fields, which render navigation devices worthless. However, most people do not like to accept such boring explanations and instead opt for more interesting options like alien abduction, giant squids, or getting sucked into another dimension. 

Supernatural theories 

Death Rays from Atlantis. 
Rays from the magic crystals, left from the time of Atlantis, deep down in the sea are responsible for the strange sinking of ships. However, several underwater expeditions have revealed places under the ocean that look man-made, but no such crystals have been found. In fact no real proof that Atlantis existed, has been ever found. 
Sea monsters. 
The presence of sea monsters was the most widely believed explanation especially in the earlier times, when their existence was believed to be true. 

Presence of a time warp. 

People claim to be lost in the time warp while going through the region. 

Alien abductions. 
The Bermuda Triangle is a collecting station from where aliens take our people, ships, planes and other objects back to their planet to study. 

Scientific Explanations 
Magnetic Compass 
According to the scientists in the US Navy, this area is one of the only two in the world, where a magnetic compass points to true north rather than magnetic north. This probably caused some navigators to go off course, which is very dangerous because many of the islands in 'The Triangle' have large areas of shallow water where vessels can run aground. They can also sink a long way down as some of the ocean's deepest trenches, from 19 ,000 to over 27 ,000 feet below sea level, are found here. 

Unpredictable weather 
Since the island is situated in the Atlantic Ocean, the weather is influenced by several factors and can change instantly. That means that at one moment the weather is stable, and at another it becomes extremely turbulent accompanied by strong currents of wind along with the hurricanes. 
Formation of methane in the sea. 
Methane can lower the density of water, leading to the sinking of ships. Similarly, methane can cut out an aircraft engine leading to crashes. 
Bermuda Triangle Survivors 
These witnesses constitute a long list of pilots, sailors and fishermen. 

1. It is interesting to note that Christopher Columbus was one such witness. He wrote in his memoir on how his compass acted strangely while sailing through the Bermuda Triangle. He along with another shipmate witnessed a glowing globe of light that seemed to hover over the sea. 
2. It is said that when clouds or fog enter the Bermuda Triangle, strange things start happening. Such a phenomenon has been witnessed with the Philadelphia Experiment in which the USS Eldridge vanished and reappeared later miles away, with some of the crew men warped into the hull of the ship. 
3. In 1901, Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain stepped into a mist and claimed to arrive at a time period before the French Revolution. It is said, that the mist and the ominous clouds might be the key to time travel or entering into other dimensions. 
4. Even a great pilot like Charles Lindbergh witnessed unusual events while flying in the reaches of the Bermuda Triangle. It is said that when he was making a nonstop flight from Havana to St. Louis, his magnetic compass started rotating. His Earthinductor-compass needle jumped back and forth erratically. This has now all been revealed in his autobiography. 

5. Another eyewitness account is that of Bruce Gernon, who flew his plane, a BonanzaA36, into the Bermuda Triangle and encountered a non-threatening mile and a half long cloud. As he neared, the cloud seemed to come alive. It became huge and engulfed his plane. However, a tunnel opened up in the cloud and he went through this tunnel. It had cloud trails swirling around his plane. He also reported that while going into this tunnel, he experienced zero gravity and the only thing that kept him in the cockpit was his seatbelt. 
Whatever be the actual reason, there is an involvement of more than one fact.or behind the disappearances of ships and aircrafts in the Bermuda triangle region. 
The Bermuda triangle continues to evoke a lot of interest. Most people like to read about it. In fact., in the last few decades, island of Bermuda has emerged as a major tourist destination as well; mainly, due to its close proximity with the Bermuda Triangle. 


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'Tell me not in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.'
(A Psalm of Life-H. W. Longfellow) 

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(ii) What is the beating of the heart compared to? How is the heart described? IV/wt does the beating of the heart remind us of?

(iii) What does the poet mean when lie compares the world to a battlefield? What should our role be in this battle? 

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Answer the following question.

What did the bear eat? There were two things he was not allowed to do. What were they?


Answer the following questions.

Why is it not good to be a rebel oneself?


How does the child finally decide to observe his teacher’s activities at home?


Referring closely to the poem, Birches, discuss what differentiates the swinging of birches in the poet's adulthood from that in his childhood. 


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