ARTICLE WRITING

Write an article in about 100-120 words on ‘The Two Sides of Technology’.

The Two Sides of Technology

By Vibha Salvi

Technology has penetrated deep into our everyday lives. We start the day by checking 

messages on our phones and by updating our social media profiles with our latest details. 

We rely on a wide array of electronic items in our everyday lives. The electronic revolution 

has made our lives easier. Today, it is difficult to imagine stepping out without a 

smartphone in our pocket. Communication has been enhanced thanks to e-mails and 

cellular technology. Household appliances like the vacuum cleaner, the microwave ovens 

and the washing machine have made chores easier. They are time-saving and more efficient 

than manual labour. However, there are many disadvantages of technology. Automation 

removes the need for human intervention. A lot of jobs are thus lost to robots. A machine 

may be accurate, but it can never replace the ingenuity of the human mind. Technology has 

made slaves out of us since we are too dependent on it. It leads to the stagnancy of our 

intellectual capabilities making drones out of us. Pollution is also on the rise and the fears 

of a nuclear holocaust are always lurking in our minds. We become too slothful when we 

rely on technology. If we do not wean ourselves off electronics, our natural faculties may 

cease to work. For example, depending too much on the calculator will cause our 

mathematical skills to stagnate and eventually not work. For its every merit, there is an 

equally appalling demerit. One should strike a fine balance by exploiting the benefits of 

technology without becoming dependent on it.

FOR ANNE GREGORY -W.B YEATS

Q1.Who is the speaker here and who is being spoken to? What does the speaker say to her?
Ans – The speaker here is the poet. He speaks to his beloved Anne Gregory. They can be the two parts of a human being body and soul.

Q.2 what are the two things of the woman which make the young man not to love her?
Ans – The two things of the woman that make the young man not to love her are her honey colored ramparts of her ear. The second thing is her yellow hair.

Q3. What can a woman do to make young men love her? What does it speak about the young men at large?
Ans – The woman says that she would colour her hair brown, black or carroty with different hair dyes. This means that the young men give more importance to the physical appearance than spiritual beauty.

Q4.What are the important things for love for God?
Ans – The woman says that an old religious man found a text .It proves that for God colors do not matter for love.God loves all the human beings for themselves alone and not their physical sides.

Q5. What message does the poem give out?
Ans – The poem states that physical beauty may be important for young men or the human beings.He loves the human beings without their colour or physical aspects.       

text book questions & answers

Q1.What does the young man mean by great honey colored/Ramparts at your ear? Why does he say that young men are thrown into despair by them?
Ans – By great honey coloured /Ramparts of your ear the poet means golden outer parts of ears of the young woman. He says that young men are thrown into despair by them because they look ugly.

Q2.What colour is the young woman’s hair ?What does she say she can change it to ?Why would she want to do so ?
Ans – The colour of the young woman hair is white as she can colour it brown, black or carrots. She can change it to brown, black or carrot. She wanted to do so to look attractive.

Q3. Objects have qualities which make them desirable to others .Can you think of some objects and say what qualities make one object more desirable than another?
Ans – These objects can be Shoes, ornaments, hair dyes, hair styles etc.Walking wearing costly ornaments, behaving in an affected manner etc. Can make one more desirable than another but these are momentary because they emphasize the physical aspect of beauty

A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal

A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal By William Wordsworth

1.Why does he not mourn at her death?

Ans He does not mourn over the death of her because he knows, she has entered the world of eternity. death is an eternal process from where nobody can come back to life ever again. The speaker thinks death is a beautiful relief from earthly troubles.

2.The poet had written the first stanza in which tense

Ans The first stanza of A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal is in the simple past tense while the second stanza is in the simple present.

3.“She seemed a thing that could not feel”.why the poet refers her beloved as a “thing”

Ans The speaker officially introduces a lady for the first time. ‘She seemed a thing’ means she is no more because we call ‘a thing’ to inanimate objects. Hence, ‘thing’ can be taken as the corpse of the woman who recently passed away.

4.why she has  “No motion has she now, no force”

Ans The poet  states that she can no longer move because she does not have any energy. Moreover, she has also lost the senses of hearing and seeing because probably his beloved, is dead.

5.Find the rhyme scheme of the poem.

Ans The rhyme scheme of this poem is abab cdcd which gives a musical sense to the poem.

6.What does “The touch of earthly years.”signify(mean)

Ans “The touch of earthly years.” In this context, ‘earthly years’ refers to the process of aging, and the deceased lady has stopped feeling this process.

7.What are the human fears?

Ans He argues that he had no ‘human fears’ which means the fear of death. The speaker is literally asleep in the first line because he begins the first line as the following “A slumber did my spirit seal.”

8.“Rolled around in earth’s diurnal course,/ With rocks, and stones, and trees”what does it signify

Ans  It means  she has been buried and has become a part of the earth. The speaker is not sad at all at the loss because he understands that she has become nature which lasts till eternity. Rocks, stones, and trees all are parts of nature and the dead lady has mixed into them now.

9. illustrate the underlying themes in the poem

Ans  According to our understanding, it carries the themes of death as a natural process, a celebration of eternity, romanticism, etc. Death is a part of a natural process Hence, the speaker does not mourn the death of his supposedly beloved.

Eternity is another important theme of the given poem. Like nature, death is an eternal process from where nobody can come back to life ever again. So, the speaker thinks that death is a beautiful relief from earthly troubles.

Romanticism is also a powerful theme .We get this idea only at the end of the poem where the speaker names some gifts of nature i.e. trees, rocks, and stones. He does not mourn over the death of ‘She’ because he knows, she has entered the world of eternity.

10.What does the word “diurnal”suggest?

Ans  Just as the girl’s lack of motion mirrors the speaker’s gentle ‘slumber’ in the first stanza, suggesting that death is but a peaceful sleep, so the world ‘diurnal’ implies that the girl is now back amongst the world of nature, and has become a part of something greater.

11.Which genre of poem is it?

Ans ‘A slumber did my spirit seal’ is a fine lyric and an elegy that is haunting in its simplicity.

12.which word means the same as “earth’s daily rotation”?

Ans The world ‘diurnal’ implies same as “earth’s daily rotation”.

13.which literary device is used in the following lines

“She seemed a thing that could not feel

The touch of earthly years.”

“Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course

With rocks and stones and trees.”

Ans Enjambment - when a sentence continues into two or more lines ending without any punctuation marks, it is called Enjambment.

14.What is the mood of the speaker?

Ans The mood of the speaker is elegic. He is lamenting his beloved’s death. He had taken life for granted and had never thought that one day death would take her away from him. When she was taken away, he could not bear the loss.

15.What has sealed the poets spirit?

Ans The poet admits that he was in a sort of a deep sleep because he did not fear the harsh reality of life. The sleep had sealed his consciousness.The poet’s soul had drifted into deep sleep as he did not have any realization of the truth.

THE HAPPY PRINCE -OSCAR WILDE

Q. Why does the Happy Prince send a ruby for the seamstress? What does the swallow do in the seamstress’ house?

Ans. The prince wanted the swallow to pick out the ruby from his sword-hilt and take it to the poor seamstress because he saw that the poor woman’s son was seriously sick. He was crying on his bed. The boy was asking for oranges. But the woman could not afford. Therefore, the Happy Prince sent a ruby for her. The swallow put the ruby on a table and fanned the boy’s forehead with its wings.

Q. For whom does the Prince send the sapphires and why?

Ans. The prince sends one sapphire for a playwright and the other to a poor match girl.

The Happy Prince saw a young playwright leaning over a desk covered with papers. His hair was brown ,crisp and his lips were red. He was trying to finish a play for the theatre. Cold, abscence of  firewood and hunger had made him faint. So, he could not finish the play.

The Happy Prince also noticed a poor match girl weeping after she accidentally threw her matches into a drain. She was afraid that her parents would beat her.

The Happy Prince helped both the playwright and the poor girl by sending them the sapphires.

Q. What does the swallow see when it flies over the city? 

Ans. When the swallow flies over the city, it sees the rich enjoying in their houses while the beggers begging at their gates. The swallow even sees two little-wretched boys lying in each other’s arms to keep themselves warm. In this way, the swallow sees the stark contrast between prosperity and poverty.

Q. Why did the swallow not leave the prince and go to Egypt?

Ans. The Happy Prince had become totally blind. The swallow was impressed with his charity and kindness. He had sacrificed everything for the good cause of helping the poor and downtrodden in their needs.

The unusual traits of the Happy Prince had a deep impact on the heart of swallow. The swallow loved the prince now much that he could not leave him in that state. He decided not to go to Egypt. He remained there till his last breath.

Q.Why is the statue of the Prince described as looking like a beggar and being no longer useful? 

Ans. The statue of the prince had lost all that had made it great and resplendent. It had lost all it gold, sapphires and the ruby. It looked worn out like a beggar.

Q.What proclamation (order)does the mayor make about the death of the birds?

Ans. The proclamation made by the Mayor was that no birds should be allowed to die in the city

Q.What impression do you gather of his personality form this?

Ans. From the Mayor’s remarks, we gather that he was an irrational and censorious person. Instead of thinking about the disappearance of the prince assets . Instead of thinking, what has made the statue so shabby and how has the bird died, he makes proclamations without any rationale. He just looks at the external appearance of things instead of thinking about the essence of things.

Q. What were the two precious things the angel brought to God? In what way were they precious?

The two most precious things mentioned in the story are the leaden heart of the happy prince and the dead swallow. The happy prince had sacrificed these to serve the suffering humanity. The swallow fulfilled the wishes of the happy prince. He sacrificed his self-interest in going to Egypt. He carried gold and jewels to the suffering people. He remained with the prince in the bad weather also. He died at the prince’s feet. So, the angel was right when it took the leaden heart of the prince and the dead swallow to Heaven.

Q. What happened to the prince ’s heart? What feelings does the end of the story arouse in you? 

Ans. The prince’s heart broke into two halves when the bird fell dead at its feet. When the leaden heart was put into the furnace, it does not melt. So, it was thrown away. Therefore, the dead bird and the leaden heart met even after death. The end the story arouses in us deep sympathy for the two. The angels considered the leaden heart the most precious thing in the city. They took it to heaven.

Q.What is the conclusion of ‘The Happy Prince?

The story concludes that mortal life is meant to decay and death and good deeds make one immortal. Goodness is everlasting and ever- rewarding. The Happy Prince He gave his eyes, gold and jewellery to the needy. His heart was divided into two halves when the swallow died at his feet. The Happy Prince’s statue was not useful anymore. It was dull and useless. The heart of the statue did not melt in a furnace as goodness could never be destroyed. 

At the end both the happy prince and the swallow were rewarded for their good deeds by God. They found a permanent place in heaven. The swallow will sing forever in the garden of paradise and the happy prince will live in the city of gold. Thus the story teaches us to live a meaningful life by helping those who are in need.

Q. The story presents a shocking contrast between external appearance and the essence of things. How?

Yes the story presents a shocking contrast between external appearance and the essence of things This is a strange world. Nothing succeeds like success here. So long we are powerful and strong we are respected and obeyed. In this dazzling world of wealth and riches, human feelings have no relevance. The statue of the Happy Prince was installed at the highest column in the most important square of the city. It was gilded all over with fine gold. His eyes had two bright sapphires and a large red ruby glowed on his sword hilt. He was a symbol of power, beauty and grandeur. The moment he lost his gold, sapphires and the grand ruby, he became very ordinary, ugly and useless. He was to be pulled down and melted in a furnace. The Mayor and the Town Counsellors were cruel and selfish.

Q. What is the moral lesson of “The Happy Prince”?

Ans. The moral lesson of “The Happy Prince” is that the worst aspects of modern society can be overcome by righteousness .Righteousness always plays an important role in bringing prosperity. The case might be of a person, a family, a country or a nation. Of course, wealth and power can provide luxury and comfort. But mental satisfaction and spiritual peace cannot be brought. Every spiritual and religious leader recommend that people take the right path and avoid the way of vice. It is possible to take care of the old, weak and downtrodden sections of society when you are virtuous. When we go the right way, the nation rises to great heights. Righteousness blesses a man with great satisfaction and happiness. In the story, the Happy Prince reached the highest level with his fellow swallows through righteousness.

CHAPTER-PACKING JEROME K. JEROME

Question 8: Why did Jerome have to reopen the packed bag?

Answer: After packing the bag Jerome realized that he packed his tobacco pouch inside, so he had to reopen it once again.

Question 9: What did George and Harris offer to pack and why?

Answer: George and Harris offered to pack the bag which would contain edible items. They also wanted to show off their packing skills.

Question 10: Do you find this story funny? What are the humorous elements in it?

Answer: This is a really funny story but at the same time it can be related to many people’s real life. To start with the language itself is humorous while depicting as mundane an activity as packing. Discovery of toothbrush inside a boot is funny. George stepping on butter is funny incident. The list can go on and on, like Harris sitting on butter, packing of jam over tomato, packing of heavier thing over lighter things. The disturbance by the dog brings its own amount of fun in the story. Even in the end their argument about exact wakeup time is also full of humour