Writing skill development — Paraphrasing news items

Paraphrase the following news item (Source: CNN Meanwhile, Middle East edition)   After Turkey’s catastrophic quake, this could have been Erdogan’s last election. Instead, he’s poised to win    Paraphrased heading .. Erdogan braces for another term as he senses victory despite Turky’s calamitous quake  … Read more

Writing skill building .. Paraphrasing Exercise

 Paraphrase the paragraphs .. What’s Next for Imran Khan? (We thankfully acknowledge the source. Foreign Policy magazine.) A week after his arrest on corruption charges, former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan faces an escalating confrontation with the country’s political establishment. Recent developments suggest Pakistan’s military … Read more

Writing skill development -Sentence joining

Join the following sentences in such a way that the single sentence formed starts with the word indicated. ———————————————————.——————————- Example …Miss Nivedita Swain married Mr. Harihar Sahu. She changed her official name to Mrs. Nivedita Sahu. Possible answers .. Consequent on her marriage to Mr. … Read more

Bilingual English Translation – 61 – English Skill Building

Translation Exercise – 61 English Skill Building – 166 Translate the Odia, Hindi sentences to English ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବାକ୍ୟ ୧. ୧୦ ବର୍ଷ ପୂର୍ବରେ ମୁମ୍ବାଇ ନଗରୀ ସାମ୍ପ୍ରଦାୟିକ ଦଙ୍ଗାରେ ଛିନ୍ ଭିନ୍ ହୋଇଯାଇଥିଲା। ୨. ଏହି ନରସଂହାରରେ ବହୁତ୍ ଛୋଟ ପିଲା ତାଙ୍କ ବାପା କି ମାଆ କି ଉଭୟଙ୍କୁ ହରାଇଥିଲେ। ୩. ଏହି ମାରକାଟରେ … Read more

Virtually True by Paul Stewart

Virtually True by Paul Stewart

1. The newspaper headline screamed ‘Sebastian Shultz’. It was an unusual name to make the headline.
2. The person reading the newspaper was a woman whose face behind the paper. She was an elderly woman who apparently breathed with a little difficulty.
3. The newspaper story was about Shultz, the 14-year-old London school lad, who had come out of his coma the day before. His miraculous turn around had baffled the doctors, who had assumed the near-dead medical condition to drag on and on indefinitely.
4. I was curious because I had met a boy of this name before. I leaned forward to read the story in the newspaper in the woman’s hands.
5. A motor accident six weeks ago had nearly killed Shultz. From the accident site, he was carried to the General Hospital battling for his life. The doctors did their best to revive the boy, but he defied all their efforts. As he lay unconscious in the hospital bed, the doctors had no way but to inform Shultz’s parents that their boy had slipped to coma.
6. In the press conference, Mrs. Shultz, the mother profusely appreciated the untiring efforts of the doctors to resuscitate her son, but, at the same time, she admitted that his condition could only revive through a miracle.
7. It now appeared that the miracle had happened. …..
8. As the woman’s hand moved to clear the view, I could see from the photo that the boy was none other than Sebastian. I was soon lost in thought trying to figure out how such a tragedy had come to pass.
9. I pondered the travails of Sebastian Shultz in the hospital bed where he had remained immobile for days clinging to the last thread of life. His struggle made me anguished.
10. I stared out of the train window and began to imagine the sequence of events that had led to the tragedy.
11. A month ago, I had spent nearly the whole of a Saturday afternoon going round the Computer Fair.
12. My father is a computer enthusiast. He has a Pentium computer that can paint, play music, create displays, and even help me in my homework.
13. The most exciting features it has are the games – Tornado, Mebabash, Black Belt, Kyerene’s Kastle etc. When I played, it made me feel I was in the midst of the real action.
14. My father had a strong fascination towards the many new ideas, products and gadgets the fast-changing world of computers was churning out in quick succession. To have a first-hand feel of all these, we had been to the Computer Fair. We bought an array of gadgets with mind-boggling capabilities. Among them were the virtual reality visor, gloves, and some inter-active psycho-drive games. The visor and the glove offered very astonishing visual effect besides manipulating our mental faculties.
15. We later realized some of them were ‘used’ items.
16. But, that didn’t dampen my enthusiasm. No sooner had we got home, than I began to explore my high-tech toys. The first game I played was named, ‘Wildwest’.

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NCERT English … Ozymandias  

Ozymandias   by Percy Bysshe Shelley.. Introduction …The celebrated English poet P. B. Shelley once met an intrepid traveler who had gone around ancient Egypt. The traveler recounted his seeing two extra-ordinarily large trunkless legs made of stone which were, obviously, the remnants of a … Read more

Macavity – The Mystery Cat by T S Eliot

The poem Macavity – The Mystery Cat
by T S Eliot

Introduction … This poem is best known of T.S. Eliot’s ‘Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats’. This is the only book Eliot wrote for younger audience.
Macavity is, in all likelihood, a notorious, but extremely wily and villainous human being given to committing daring crimes. The most efficient detective agencies fail to apprehend him, although they are sure the crime is committed by Macavity.
Poem … 1st stanza …
Macavity’s a Mystery Cat: he’s called the Hidden Paw–
For he’s the master criminal who can defy the Law.
He’s the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad’s despair:
For when they reach the scene of crime–Macavity’s not there!
Explanation … Macavity is agile, cunning, and a master of deceit. Soon after a crime is reported, the Scotland Yard and the Flying Squad swing into action to catch him, but he succeeds in throwing them off his trail.
Poem … 2nd stanza ….
Macavity, Macavity, there’s no on like Macavity,
He’s broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity.
His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare,
And when you reach the scene of crime–Macavity’s not there!
You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air–
But I tell you once and once again, Macavity’s not there!
Explanation … Macavity breaks laws with virtual impunity, because he manages to evade arrest by the anti-crime establishment. He is gifted with the power to defy the forces of gravity. He uses this asset to accomplish his hideous plans. He flees the spot of the crime with alarming ease and speed, outsmarting the police. In all cases, his lightening speed of escape frustrates the police.

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