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Question
What does the bird in the poem announce? How is this related to the title, ‘Coming’?
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Solution
The poem 'Coming' by Philip Larkin is a celebration of the advent of the spring. To express the happiness the poet sets the plot of house fronts clothed in chilly and yellow light. Amidst all this, a thrush sings a welcoming song. It seems the whole nature is dancing with joy at the arrival of the new season. The thrush, sitting in a garden shrub, laurel”, in the deep bare garden, is humming repeatedly in” its fresh-peeled voice “that” it will be spring soon”. This joy-full singing of the thrush imparts an “astonishing” effect on the brickwork of the houses. The poet feels happy as well to see the beauty that nature encompasses. In fact, it is through the voice of the thrush that the poet has tried to express how overwhelmed he is on the “coming” of the spring.
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RELATED QUESTIONS
A1. Order
Arrange the following sentences in the chronological order as they appear in the passage:
(i) On celebrations, parents can invest Rs. 200 and plant a sapling of a tree representing the child’s birth star.
(ii) He wants to create Brihat Panchvati.
(iii) He has been able to increase the areas of the Pavitra VanaVana.
(iv) Plans are afoot to create a Saptaswara forest.
Today, Reddy is one of the most well - known environment specialists in India. With his influence, he has been able to increase the areas of the Pavitra Vana and has plans to bring about awareness of Puranic trees and flowers for the knowledge of the Indian citizen.
He wants to create near the Pavitra Vana, a Brihat Panchavati so that parents can show their children the forest where Shakuntala lived or Sita spent her final days. There will also be a hillock where people can meditate. Plans are also afoot create a Saptaswara forest, pertaining to different ragas in music. Scientists have found that certain plants react in a particular way to different ragas. So in such a forest, when a musician performs certain ragas, the plants will reach in such a manner that it will benefit the audience, the musician and the whole environment. The other idea is an ecopark for children. On celebrations, like birthdays, parents can invest Rs. 200 and plant a sapling of a tree representing the child's birth star. The plant will also carry the child's name. The Pavitra Vana also houses a garden of Prophet Mohammed, which has some plants mentioned in the Holy Quran. There is the date plant - sacred to Islam - and the Mimosops elengi, the latter a highly fragrant variety. There is also the garden of Eden for housing plants sacred to Christianity, but the Pavitra Vana authorities have to procure most of them in the new sections.
A2. Find specialities
Write down the specialities of the following:
(i) Brihat Panchavati: ........................ ..... . .
(ii) Saptaswara Forest: ..................... ..... .............. . .
(iii) Eco-park: ..................................... . .
(iv) A garden of Prophet Mohammed:
A3. Antonyms Find antonyms for the following words from the passage:
(i) same
(ii) decrease
(iii) destroy
(iv) lost
A4. Language study
(i) He wants to create near the Pavitra Vana, a Brihat Panchavati. [Pick out an infinitive from the given line and use it in your own sentence]
(ii) Reddy is one of the most well-known environment specialists in India. [Begin with: Very few ………]
A5. Personal Response
Do you think one person alone can create an awareness towards environment conservation ? Support, your answer with appropriate reasons.
How does Anne criticize the attitude of the grown-ups in her diary?
Read the extract and do the activities that follow:
The duke senior and his follower were sitting down to a meal one day when Orlando rushed out from among the trees, his sword in his hand. ‘Stop, and cat no more!’ he cried. The Duke and his friends asked him what he wanted.
‘Food,’ said Orlando. ‘I am almost dying of hunger’. They asked him to sit down and eat, but he would not do so. He told them that his old servant was in the woods, dying of hunger. ‘I will not eat a bite until he has been fed,’ Orlando said.
So the good Duke and his followers helped him to bring Adam to their hiding-place, and Orlando and the old man were fed and taken care of. When the Duke learned that Orlando was a son of his old friend sir Rowland de Boys, he welcomed him gladly to his forest court.
Orlando lived happily with the Duke and his friends, but he had not forgotten the lovely Rosalind. She was always in his thoughts andevery day he wrote poetry about her pinning it on the trees in the forest. ‘These trees shall be my books,’ he said, ‘so that everyone who looks in the forest will be able to read how sweet and good Rosalind is’.
Rosalind and Celia found some of these poems pinned on the trees. At first they were puzzled, wondering who could have written them; but one day Celia came in from a walk with the news that she had seen Orlando sleeping under a tree, and she and Rosalind guessed that he must be the poet. Rosalind was happy to think that Orlando had not forggoten her, because she loved him as much as he loved her.
A1. Complete - (2)
Complete the following sentences:
(i) Rosalind was happy to think _______
(ii) The Duke and his followers helped Orlando to bring _________
(iii) Orlando pinned the poems written about Rosalind on ______
(iv) When the Duke cam to know that Orlando was a son of his old friend, he _________
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| Time of the day | Location | Poet’s Activity | Hawker’s Activities | Gardener’s Activities | Watchman’s Activities |
| Morning | __________ | __________ | __________ | __________ | __________ |
| Afternoon | __________ | __________ | __________ | __________ | __________ |
| Night | __________ | __________ | __________ | __________ | __________ |
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The Ear was appointed as a judge.
Read the poem and complete the web about the activities the planners do.
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Discuss in groups and think about it.
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abused
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Read the incident again and answer the following question.
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Read the following line from the poem and answer the question given below.
Let us learn to walk with a smile and a song,
No matter if things do sometimes go wrong;
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An Anagram is a word or a phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once.
Now try to solve these anagrams
| 1. | ELBOW | |
| 2. | SECTION | |
| 3. | VIEWER | |
| 4. | RIPPLES | |
| 5. | NEEDLESS |
Read the data below and answer the following question.
Choose the correct answer.
What is the data about?
What did Suresh ask Usha? Why?
The wind hurried and passed through the ______
What kind of learning brings joy to you?
Who inhabited the jungles that the train passed through?
Sea turtles come to rest on land.
Read the lines and answer the question given below.
Each a glimpse and gone forever;
a. What is ‘each’ over here? Why is it gone forever?
What sight made the farmer thankful?
What happened to Dr. Karmugilan in the story?
Kaliyan worked in a ______.
_______ is our culture.
The pigeon flew away for dry twigs.
______always stays to the last in our needs.
Name the character or speaker.
"Did someone scold you?"
What was the reason behind Nandhini’s dullness?
Where do the moles save their food?
Why did Tenzin cry every day?
Why did Jana chase the squirrel?
Read the passage three times and colour a dustbin each time.
|
I am Mani. I had to take a bus to nearby city. I crossed the road to reach the bus stand. I got the bus, sat down, and read a book. Before I started to read, I just looked at the people around me. The two men sitting next to me were talking loudly. Some were listening to music on their phone. I was unable to focus on reading. The men were talking about cleaning the city. As they were talking, they opened a pack of biscuits to eat. After some time I dozed off. When I opened my eyes, the bus had reached the city. The two men were not there but pieces of the biscuits and wrappers were there. I cleaned the wrappers and put them in the dustbin.
|
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- What did Mani find on the seat when he woke up?
- If you were Mani, what would you do?
Name the animal and sound it makes.
Write the word with same meaning.
Sink
He got an admission to study at Stanford University ______.
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What is the best time to water the plants?
Read the passage carefully and complete the activities:
1. Complete the following sentences. (2)
- Female sparrows lay ____________
- Sparrows build their nest out of __________.
- The eggs are ________.
- In cities, sparrows build their nest in ______
|
A sparrow is a small bird which is found throughout the world. There are many different species of sparrows. Sparrows are only about four to six inches in length. Many people appreciate their beautiful songs. Sparrows prefer to build their nests in low places-usually on the ground clumps of grass low trees and low bushes. In cities, they build their nests in building nooks or holes. They rarely build their nests in high places. They build their nests out of twigs grasses and plant fibers. Their nests are usually small and well-built structures. Female sparrows lay four to six eggs at a time. The eggs are white with reddish-brown spots. They hatch within eleven to fourteen days. Both the male and female parents care for the young. Insects are fed to the young after hatching. The large feet of the sparrows are used for scratching seeds. Adult sparrows mainly eat seeds. Sparrows can be found almost everywhere where there are humans. Many people throughout the world enjoy these delightful birds. The sparrows are some of the few birds that engage in dust bathing. Sparrows will first scratch a hole in the ground with their feet then lie in it and fling dirt or sand over their bodies with flicks of their wings. They will also bathe in water or in dry or melting snow. Water bathing is similar to dust bathing with the sparrow standing in shallow water and flicking water over its back with its wings also ducking its head under the water. Both activities are social with up to a hundred birds participating at once and are followed by preening and sometimes group singing. |
2. How do sparrows take bathe? (2)
3. Find out adjectives for the following nouns from the passage. (2)
- ________ Song
- ________ Water
- ________ Bird
- ________ species
4. Do as directed. (2)
- A sparrow is a small bird which is found throughout the world.
(Underline the subordinate clause) - Female sparrows lay four to six eggs at a time.
(Frame a ‘wh’ type question to get the underlined part as an answer.)
5. ‘We have to save the birds.’ Do you agree with this statement? Why? (2)
The passage given below is on Kabbadi. Read the passage and complete the activities that follow.
Kabbadi (கபடி - in Tamil) is a contact team sport that originated in Tamil Nadu, India. It is the national sport of Bangladesh. It is also popular in South Asia and is the state game of the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, and Telangana.
Kabbadi is played between two teams of seven players: the objective of the game is for a single player on offence referred to as a 'raider', to run in to the opposing teams half of a court, tag out as many of their defenders as possible, and return to their own half of the court–all without being tackled by the defenders. Points are scored for each player tagged by the raider, while the opposing team earns a point for stopping the raider. Players are taken out of the game if they are tagged or tackled, but can be 'revived' for each point scored by their team from a tag or tackle. The raider should hold his breath and utter the words like 'kabbadi kabbadi, hututu hututu, chadu kudu' etc. while the opponents try to catch him. If he stops uttering these words, he is considered out.
The game is known by its regional names in different parts of the subcontinent, such as Kabbadi or Chedugudu in Andhra Pradesh, Kabbadi in Kerala and Telangana, Hadudu in Bangladesh, Bhavatik in Maldives, Kauddi or Kabbadi in the Punjab Region, Hu-Tu-Tu in Western India and Hu-Do-Do in Eastern India and Chadakudu in South India. The highest governing body of Kabbadi is the International Kabbadi Federation.
Given below is the visual presentation of the first paragraph.
i) Represent the other paragraphs in a visual form of your choice(flow chart, mind-map, pie-chart, etc.).
ii) Choose the correct option.
1. A contact sport usually involves a ______contact between players.
- violent
- gentle
- physical
2. Kabbadi is a game played between ______.
- seven teams of two players
- two teams of seven players
- four teams of seven players
3. A single ______.
- player on offence is referred to as a raider
- offence is referred to as a raider
- raider is an offence by the player
iii) Answer the following.
- How does a raider score points for his team?
- When does a raider concede a point to the opponent team?
- Can a player be revived when he/she is out of the game? Explain your answer.
- Kabbadi is called by different names in different parts of India. Do you know how Pallankuzhi is called in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala?
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.
