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Question
Welcome guests to win everyone’s _____ in life’s race.
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Solution
Welcome guests to win everyone’s hearts in life’s race.
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Now, read the following biographical extract on Sujatha Rangarajan, a Sciencefiction writer, and answer the questions that follow.
- Sujatha is the allonym of the Tamil author S. Rangarajan and it is this name that is recognised at once by the Tamil SciFi reading community. You might have seen the Tamil movie ‘Endiran’ where the robot Chitti exhibits extraordinary talents in an incredible manner. The robot could excel a human being in any act, beyond one’s imagination. Jeeno, a robotic dog which appeared in Sujatha’s science fiction novel “En Iniya Iyandhira” (My Dear Robot) formed the basis of Chitti’s character. Like Chitti, Jeeno was an allrounder who could cook, clean and fight. High-tech computer technology terms are used in the story. Jeeno, a pet robot, plays an important role throughout the story. As the story proceeds, it behaves and starts to think on its own like a human and instructs Nila, a human being, on how to proceed further in her crises.
- In the preface of ‘En Iniya Iyandhira’, the writer states the reason for his attraction to the genre: “Science gives us the wonderful freedom to analyse thousands and thousands of alternative possibilities. While using it, and while playing with its new games, a writer needs to be cautious only about one thing. The story should draw some parallels or association from the emotions and desires of the present humankind. Only then it becomes interesting. Jeeno, the robot dog, was intelligent. But the character became popular only because of the robot’s frequently displayed human tendencies.” It is no wonder that all his works echo these words and will remain etched in the minds of the readers who enjoy reading his novels to have a wonderful lifetime experience.
- It was Sujatha, who set the trend for sci-fi stories. He had tracked the origin from Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein to his short stories. He has written 50 sci-fi short stories and these were published in various Tamil magazines. His stories have inspired many readers to extend their reading to English sci-fi writers like Isaac Asimov. The themes were bold, even if there was a dependence on a very well-established characterization of English fiction. Sujatha opened up a new world to us with his writings on holograms, computers and works like ‘En Iniya Iyanthira’ inspire many to study computer science.
- He has been one of the greatest writers for more than four decades. He combined reasoning and science in his writings. Being a multifaceted hi-fi and sci-fi humanistic author, he expressed his views distinctively. He was the one who took Tamil novels to the next level. As an MIT alumnus and an engineer at BHEL, he was very good at technology. He could narrate sci-fi stories impressively. His readers always enjoyed reading all his detective and sci-fi novels which featured the most famous duo ‘Ganesh’ and ‘Vasanth’.
- Sujatha has played a crucial role as a playwright for various Tamil movies which have fascinated movie lovers. Hence, it is fathomable that the writer’s perspective of future India enthuses every reader and paves a new way to reading sci-fi stories in English.
A. Answer the following questions in a sentence or two.
- How was Jeeno different from other robots?
- What precaution should one take while writing Science fiction stories?
- What inspired Sujatha’s themes?
- Why were Sujatha’s sci-fi stories impressive?
B. Find words from the passage which mean the same as the following.
- difficult to believe (para 1)
- a style or category of art, music or literature (para 2)
- having many sides (para 4)
- capable of being understood (para 5)
Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow
Humans have long been fascinated by fiction. We experience excitement in assigning supernatural power to imaginary characters in fictional stories – and so we have Spider man, Batman, He–man, Titans and many more. The ‘Cyborg’ was an offshoot of such wild imagination of humans to invest our species with superhuman powers. Today, the Cyborg is no more an imaginary organism. We are living in a world where a sizeable population of humans have merged their bodies with technological implants. The term ‘Cyborg’, short for ‘cybernetic organism’, was coined to describe a man, whose body is implanted with technological devices to supplement and substitute body functions.
Cyborgs include people with cardiac pacemakers, contact lenses, bionic ears and eyes, prosthetics and so on. In other words, a cyborg is partly human and partly machine. The technological innovations in the field of medicine and healthcare augment humans with machines, producing a beta version of the human body. The advent of brain machine interfaces is certain to blur the boundary between humans and machines. Scientists are working hard to find a technique for age reversal too. People do not want to die, so mankind is striving to get to the final frontier, which is development of machines and devices that would accord man immortality.
The needs of humans are not limited. As time passes, food habits change, thinking patterns change, and even appearances change. We are about to travel by driverless, fully automated vehicles. Computers and smart phones have become our masters. The more we depend and merge with technological advancements, the more the humanness in us slowly erodes. Intelligence is sought to be infused into machines and robotics are designed in such a way to give man a virtual human companion. The field of artificial intelligence is overtaking the human brain and many fear that it could even harm the human race. Despite certain limitations and potential threats, many believe that cyborgs will be the next step in the evolution of mankind. The amalgamation of man and machine is sure to add a new dimension to the life of mankind and this will prove to be the ‘biggest evolution in Biology’ since the emergence of life, four billion years ago.
Questions:
a) Account for the popularity of characters with supernatural powers.
b) Who is referred to as a ‘Cyborg’?
c) What is expected to happen with the advent of the brain machine interface?
d) The needs of humans are not limited. How is this statement elaborated in the passage?
e) How can a machine turn into a virtual companion for humans?
f) Explain the flipside of the rapid technological advancement.
g) Identify the word in para 1 which means ‘everlasting life’.
h) Which of the following words is synonymous with ‘amalgamation’?
- recreation
- integration
- exploration
- proposition
i) Which of the following options is the antonym of the word ‘advent’?
- drawback
- dispute
- departure
- danger
j) Find out the word which is the antonym of ‘natural’ in para 3.
