Commerce (English Medium) Class 12 - CBSE Question Bank Solutions

Why does the author consider the novel superior to philosophy, science, or even poetry?

What does the author mean by ‘tremulations on ether’ and ‘the novel as a tremulation’?

What are the arguments presented in the essay against the denial of the body by spiritual thinkers?

Discuss in pairs

The interest in a novel springs from the reactions of characters to circumstances. It is more important for characters to be true to themselves (integrity) than to what is expected of them (consistency). (A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds—Emerson.)

Discuss in pairs

‘The novel is the one bright book of life'‘Books are not life’. Discuss the distinction between the two statements. Recall Ruskin’s definition of ‘What is a Good Book?’ in Woven Words Class XI.

Certain catchphrases are recurrently used as pegs to hang the author’s thoughts throughout the essay. List these and discuss how they serve to achieve the argumentative force of the essay.

The language of the argument is intense and succeeds in convincing the reader through rhetorical devices. Identify the devices used by the author to achieve this force.

There are a few non-English expressions in the essay. Identify them and mention the language they belong to. Can you guess the meaning of the expressions from the context?

Given below are a few roots from Latin. Make a list of the words that can be derived from them

mens (mind) corpus (body) sanare (to heal)

A sentence consists of a noun phrase and a verb phrase. The verb phrase is built around a verb. There are different kinds of verbs. Some take only a subject. They are intransitive verbs. Look at these examples from the text in this unit (1a) The grass withers.

(1b) The chameleon creeps from a brown rock onto a green leaf.

Notice that an intransitive verb can be followed by prepositional phrases that have an adverbial function, as in (1b). Such phrases that follow an intransitive verb are called its complements.

A kind of intransitive verb that links its subject to a complement is called a ‘linking verb’ or a copula. The most common copulas in English are, become, and seem.

The copula occurs very often in the text in this unit. Its complement may be a noun phrase or an adjective phrase. Here are a few examples

• My hand is alive. (be+adjective)
• The novel is supremely important. (be+adjective phrase)
• You’re a novelist. (be+noun phrase)
• The novel is the book of life. (be+noun phrase) Other examples of copulas from the text are given below
• It seems important.
• The Word becomes more and more boring.

Can you say what the category of the complement is, in the examples above?

Identify the intransitive verbs and the copulas in the examples below, from the text in this unit. Say what the category of the complement is. You can work in pairs or groups and discuss the reasons for your analysis.

• I am a thief and a murderer.
• Right and wrong is an instinct.
• The flower fades.
• I am a very curious assembly of incongruous parts.
• The bud opens.
• The Word shall stand forever.
• It is a funny sort of superstition.
• You’re a philosopher.
• Nothing is important.
• The whole is greater than the part.
• I am a man, and alive.
• I am greater than anything that is merely a part of me.
• The novel is the book of life.

Identify other sentences from the text with intransitive verbs and copulas.

Sen quotes Eliot’s lines: ‘Not farewell/But fare forward voyagers’. Distinguish between ‘faring forward’ (Krishna’s position in the Gita) and ‘faring well’ (the position that Sen advocates).

Sen draws a parallel between the moral dilemma in the Krishna-Arjuna dialogue and J. R. Oppenheimer’s response to the nuclear explosion in 1945. What is the basis for this?

Maitreyi’s remark—‘what should I do with that by which I do not become immortal’—is a rhetorical question cited to illustrate both the nature of the human predicament and the limitations of the material world. What is the connection that Sen draws between this and his concept of economic development?

It is important to see that the Indian argumentative tradition has frequently crossed the barriers of gender, caste, class, and community. List the examples cited by Sen to highlight this.

What is Sen’s interpretation of the positions taken by Krishna and Arjuna in the debate between them?

[Note Sen’s comment: ‘Arjuna’s contrary arguments are not really vanquished... There remains a powerful case for ‘faring well’ and not just ‘faring forward’.]

What are the three major issues Sen discusses here in relation to India’s dialogic tradition?

Sen has sought here to dispel some misconceptions about democracy in India. What are these misconceptions?

How, according to Sen, has the tradition of public discussion and interactive reasoning helped the success of democracy in India?