POEM

The Grandmother
The Lamentations of the Old Pensioner
Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies
God’s Grandeur
Traveling Through the Dark

SHORT STORY

About Love
A Story
The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship
The Tell-Tale Heart
Hansel and Gretel
The Gingerbread House
The Little Brother and the Little Sister
The Boarding House

ESSAY

Two Long-Term problems: Too Many People, Too Few Trees
Hurried Trip to Avoid a Bad Star
I Have a Dream
Women’s Business
The Children Who Wait
A Child is Born
Gretel
Hansel and Gretel, Jack Zipes
Hansel and Gretel, Bruno Bettelheim

DRAMA

Purgatory

Grandmother

Writer : Ray young Bear

Summary

“Grandmother” is written in nostalgic tone. In the poem, the poet has tried to manifest his intimate relation with his grandmother. The love and affection that she showed towards him in his childhood (it is obvious she is no more with the poet), is still imprinted on his mind and heart. To depict the closeness of their relation the poet has successfully utilized two new tools in the poem –

a) conditional sentences, and

b) sensuous images.

The poet boasts that he was so intimate to his grandmother that if he got even a glimpse of her from miles away, his sense of sight would immediately recognize that it was his grandmother by observing her purple scarf and the plastic shopping bag. He was so familiar with her that he could also distinguish that the “warm and damp” hands that were put on his head were of nobody else but of his grandmother. It was not that he could only use his sense of sight or sense of touch to identify his grandmother. His sense of smell and sense of hearing were also equally capable of recognizing her. He could recognize his grandmother from “the smell of roots” that her hands gave off.

Most importantly, the words of his grandmother were a source of inspiration for him. When he used to hear her words, it used to flow inside his body and revive his lost strength and vigour. He has compared its effect with stirring the ashes of sleeping fire to regenerate fire. Fire is the source of energy, light and clarity. Similarly, when the poet used to hear her words it used to fill him with new energy, hope, and erase all his confusions. In other words, her advises were a source of motivation for him.

हजुरआमा”अमेरिकी- भारतीय कवि रे यङ बियर द्वारा लेखिएको कविताले आफ्नो दादीको लागि अज्ञात प्रेमको कविताको सम्झना राख्दछ। कवि उनको हजुरआमाको चित्रको चित्रण गर्दछ – सबै मायालु, सबै प्रेरणादायक चित्रहरू।

एक पोतेको रूपमा, कविको हृदय उनको दादीको नजिक छ। यस कविताले कवितालाई उनको मृत्यु पछि समेत आफ्नो दादीलाई सहभागिता र निकटताको गहिरो भाव प्रस्तुत गर्दछ। उसले उसलाई बिर्सन सक्दैन। उनको छविहरू पहिलेको जस्तो ताजा मनमा आउँछ। उनले स्वाद को बाहेक सबै इंद्रद्वारा पहिचान गर्न सक्थे। यदि कविले तिनलाई लामो दूरीबाट हेर्दा, उसले सजिलै उनको पहिचान गर्न सक्छ। उनको तातो र नम हातले उनको टाउकोमा जराको गन्धको साथ उसलाई अनुमान लगाउँथ्यो कि ती उनका सट्टा हातहरू थिए। भित्ताबाट बाहिर आएको आवाज पनि तिनको वरिपरि निद्राको आगोबाट निस्कियो। उनको शब्दहरूले तिनलाई प्रेरणा दिन्छन् र उहाँको आत्मालाई प्रस्ट पार्छ।

।

IMPORTANT QUESTION

QUESTIONS

Q. 1. What images do you find in this poem written by a member of the Sauk and Fox (Mesquaki) Indian tribe of North America? To what senses do these images appeal?

Ans.:

There are various images used in the poem, for example, ‘purple scarf’, ‘plastic shopping bag’, ‘warm and damp hands with the smell of roots’, ‘voice coming from the rock’ and ‘a sleeping fire at night’. All these images are closely related to the activities and life styles of Mesquaki tribal people. Most of tribal people do not have the opportunity to enjoy a fairly rich and luxurious life. They buy ordinary stuff in a small amount. As they have to survive on natural plants, it is natural that their hands smell roots which they use as food. Similarly rocks and night flies are also inseparatable parts of tribal life. All these images used in the poem are very much appealing because they provide rural and rustic setting to the poem. These images give the realistic impression and make the poem very much life-like.

Q.2. How does the speaker has feel towards his grandmother ? In what words or lines does he make his feeling clear?

Ans: The speaker has an affectionate and respectful feeling towards his grandmother. He describes his grandmother in such a way that she becomes the source of love and inspiration to him. He expresses his warm and intimate feeling to her through the words like feeling her ‘warm and damp hands’ and ‘her words would flow inside me like the light’. Here, the grandmother’s words are compared with the light of sleeping night fire which lightens the darkness when it is recovered by removing the ashes. This means that her words lighten the darkness of his life and show the right path to truth, love and goodness.

Q.3.What is the main idea of the poem? [063-3]
⇨Nostalgia is the main theme of the poem Grandmother. In this poem the poet remembers his dead.grandmother and writes about her. He draws a picture of his grandmother- all loving and inspiring. This
poem presents the poets deep sense of intimacy and closeness to his grandmother even after her death.He can not forget her. He could recognize her by all senses except taste. The poet uses different images to draw the picture of his grandmother. ‘Purple scarf ‘ and ‘plastic shopping bag’ is related to eyes, while
the touch of ‘warm and damp’ hands appeals to skin or touch. A ‘voice coming from a rock’ is related tothe sense of hearing; and her hands lik e that of ‘roots’ appeal to the sense of s mell.

Q.4.What impression of grandmother do es the speaker give in the poem ‘Grandmother’?
➭The speaker gives the all-loving and all-inspiring impression of his grandmother in this poem. He
feels as if her memory is flowing inside him. He feels as if her memory gives sparkles like the ashes give
at night. He remembers her purple scarf and her plastic shopping bag. He remembers her warm and
damp hand with the smell of roots. The poet presents the deep sense of intimacy and closeness to his

grandmother even after her death. He c an not forget her.

Travelling Through The Dark

Writer : William Stafford

SUMMARY

The poem, “Travelling through the Dark”, depicts the internal conflict between the mind, a sense of responsibility, and heart, the compassion, of the narrator. At the same time, through the symbolic “Dark” of the title the poet is able to portray that the growing affinity of human with machine is tempting them to collide with the nature, a collision which will be threatening for all the living species on the planet, not only a doe.

On a dark night, the narrator was driving his car on Wilson River road. At the edge of the river he found a dead deer. His common sense told him to roll that deer into the gorge because the road was narrow and a slight carelessness might call for more accidents. He stopped his car and went near to it. It was a doe and had been dead. But when he dragged it he found that it was pregnant.

When he observed its belly closely, he sensed that the fawn inside it must be alive. But he also knew that it could not be born. The tragic fate of the fawn made him emotional. It was difficult for him to throw the body into the gorge because it would kill the baby instantly.

His dilemma and inactness blocked the street. He listened the people getting restless as everybody was in hurry to go. They immediately wanted the road to be opened. The narrator thought very deeply and concluded that it wasn’t practical to leave the dead body of the doe on the street. It could make more accidents. Therefore, he threw it into the gorge and chose to perform his duty.

IMPORTANT QUESTION

1. Explain the title of the poem. Who are all those travelling through the dark ?

ANS: By the title we know the speaker is driving a motor in the dark. He travels through the heights and along the jungle. He is nature lover. They are all nature lovers and naturalists who travel through the dark. “That road is narrow” indicates that the speaker is in the jungle by the side of the river, not in the highway.

2. Show how the action develops stanza by stanza.

ANS: The poem has five stanzas and each stanza is interrelated. In the first stanza, the speaker finds a dead deer on the way and pulls it to the side. In the second stanza, he gets down the car and sees a deer killed immediately. It is stiff and cold. He pulls it off. In the third stanza, the speaker doesn’t act but thinks seriously about the living fawn inside the belly of the deer. In the fourth stanza, he explains the sounds of machine in the car in the isolated place. And in the last stanza, he pushes the deer into the river.

3.At what point does the physical action cease, to be replaced by another kind?

ANS: In the third stanza, the physical action ceases and mental actions begins. The speaker feels the warm belly of the dead doe and seriously thinks about the future of the fawn and imagines different things about it.

4.How do the last two lines complete both types of action ?

ANS: The last two lines complete both physical and mental activities. The first line of the last stanza shows mental activity and the speaker thinks about the living creatures and nature. But the last two line describes the physical activity of the speaker and he pulls the doe into the river. Both activities end.

5.What is the meaning of the last two lines of the poem ? Does the poem moralize?

ANS: The last two lines in the poem means there is a problem in the environment and problem of life. The life problem can’t be corrected because the doe is already killed which is bitter reality. The dead body can pollute the environment and the speaker has morality to last duality of life and to keep environment clean so he completes his duty.

6. Do you think the reference to the alive but never-to-be-born fawn sentimental ?

ANS: Yes, of course, the poet tries to make the poem sentimental and he opens the reality of the life of the fawn. They are made but dead without birth in the earth. It is bitter reality.

7.Explain the meaning of the word “swerve” in line 4 and line 17. Does the speaker “swerve” ?

ANS: In line four of the word “swerve” means to change the direction of the car and in line seventeen the word “swerve” means to change the idea. In line four, the speaker doesn’t move or change the direction of his car because it makes the condition of deer worse and in line seventeen he changes his mind and pushes the deer into the river instead of thinking about the fawn’s fate.

8.Stanza 4 is the break in the narrative. How do you explain it’s significance in the poem ?

ANS: From first stanza to third stanza the speaker describes the condition if deer and it’s fawn’s fate but immediately in the fourth stanza, the writer changes the subject and describes his situation. It is important because there is a part of life that they should continue their journey. The break occurs because the poem moves from physical description to the mental state of the poet. He changes his mind and decides to push the dead deer into the river.

9. What is the tone of the poem: ironical, sympathetic, and indifferent?

ANS: The tone of the poem is ironical. At first, the poet shows sympathy on the fawns but at last he ends the life of the fawn. The poet seems nature lover but kills the doe and it’s unborn kid. The reader shows love to the fawn but not to the doe. So, in conclusion, the poem has ironical tone although there is sympathy on fawn.

The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner

Writer : W. B. Yeats

SUMMARY

W. B. Yeats, the greatest English poet of 20th century, presents the reminiscences of his eventful young age and contrasts them with his present pathetic old life in the poem, “The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner.”

The title suggests that the poet is a Pensioner. It means he must be very old and is living a retired life. He says whenever he is caught in rain he takes shelter under a broken tree. The broken tree can not protect him from the rain. Here, one must note the point that in England it rains during winter. It means he is deprived of a reliable shelter, when he needs it most. But it was not always the case with him. When he was young, he used to sit nearest to the fire, which warmed and comforted him. You can’t light fire in rain outside. It means he had reliable place to live in when he was young. Not only that, the cosy parlour of the poet always used to be full with the livelier company of his friends who talked about love and politics. But today, he misses them as “Time” has taken away all his friends leaving him old and isolated.

He sees some mischievous boys making weapons for some conspiracy. These ‘rascals’ are sure to create chaos in the society through some barbarous activities. But the poet is not concerned about the possible anarchy in the society. He is sad as the time has transfigured him.

The poet laments that the time has made him ugly like a broken tree and therefore, no woman shows interest in him. However, the poet consoles himself that “the beauties that he loved” are still fresh in his memory. He holds the “Time” a culprit, who has taken away his shelter, friends, youth, energy, and charm and wants to spit on its face in disgust for his metamorphosis.

IMPORTANT QUESTION

. Write a brief essay on “Art and Life” or “Life and Art”.

Ans. The skill of creation is called Art. People in possession (having) of this creative skill are known as artist. Art may be different by its form,style and time. Although it is different by its form and style, art always influences human beings. Art always remains as an effective and important motivational factor for human beings. In order to live a happy and satisfied life, art is an inevitable aspect of life. An art in its supreme form is able to provide us the deepest inner freshness which in turn inspires us to make ourselves happy and amiable. To get rid of difficulties of life, it is immensely important for us to appreciate. By appreciating art, we can keep ourselves happy by forgetting the problems of life.Human life is very transient (short) and when we die our life is finished. But despite this appearance of physical existence, an artist can live an immortal life. Life is sure to come to an end but art remains forever. Laxmi Prasad Devkota is remaining immortal among Nepali people for his fine piece of art in, literature in the form of “Muna Madan”. Other great artist’s of different artistic fields are still immortal

because of their great works of art. When we enjoy art we findamiability within ourselves thereby inspiring us to appreciate art.

It is indeed true that all works of art provide us the deepest experience and higher value of our life.

Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies

Writer : William Shakespeare

SUMMARY

The poem “Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies” is a song sung by the Spirit Ariel in Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest”. The Spirit sings this song to Ferdinand, the prince of Naples, who mistakenly thinks that his father is drowned.

The speaker of this poem is Ariel who is very powerful spirit of wind who flies lightly and invisibly playing music and singing songs. Here he sings the song about the death of Ferdinand’s father. According to him, Ferdinand’s father lies thirty feet below the surface of the sea. Ferdinand is very worried about the death of his father. Giving him sympathy Ariel says that his father has got quite meaningful death. His body is not decayed. Every part of his body has been changed into something beautiful, valuable and strange. His eyes are transformed into pearls and bones are’ changed into coral. The sea nymphs welcome his death by ringing the death bell “Ding-dong” every hour.

In this poem, the spirit Ariel has presented very artful and melodious description about the death of Ferdinand’s father. The prince of Naples is worried thinking that his father is drowned. He is very sad about the meaningless death of his father. However, Ariel gives him sympathy by making the death meaningful through his powerful and magical description. He says that nothing of the dead body has decayed or rotten wastefully. Everything of the dead body is changed into meaningful and precious objects at the bottom of the sea. Ariel finally requests Ferdinand to listen to the death-bell rung by the sea nymphs to welcome his father’s beautiful and meaningful death.

Important Questions and Answers:

Define the poetic devices used in the poem with examples.
Ans: The following are the poetic devices used in this poem.
a. Alliteration: It is the repetition of the initial sound of word many times in a sentence. Example: Full Fathom Five thy Father lies. Here, the ‘F’ sound is repeated four times in the sentence.
b. Onomatopoeia: It is a way of expressing on object by imitating its sound instead of naming the object. Example: Ding-dong-bell Mew-cat
c. Assonance: It’s the process of making a vowel sound long and nasal to create special effect and to maintain the poetic matter. Example: d-i-ng, d-o-ng

God’s Grandeur

Writer : Gerard Manley Hopkins

Summary:

In his sonnet “God’s Grandeur” the poet G.M Hopkins praises the magnificence and glory of God. He describes the majestic deeds of God. He claims that God is omnipresent and omnipotent. The good deeds on earth are also the results of these qualities of God. Though human beings continuously destroy nature, it is never spent.

The world is full of the greatness of God. Due to His greatness, the world shines like ‘a shook foil’. It gathers to greatness, as it is full of resources. Despite this fact, human beings act adversely. They don’t follow the commands of God; rather they function to destroy the world. Earlier generations destroyed the earth and so is the case with the present generation. People are more interested in materialist gain and possessions than in celebrating the glory of a loving, merciful, heavenly Father. They act as if they are not rational creatures. As a result of their deed, the earth has become dry; it has the smell of human beings instead of its natural smell. Indeed the earth has reached to the verge of destruction. Nevertheless, the world is not completely destroyed. Because of the freshness that is inside things, nature keeps on regenerating. The sun sets in the evening only to reappear in the morning. These all happenings are the results of the god’s protection. He protects the earth just like a bird broods over the eggs.

Though the world is infused with the glory of God and Christ offered His body to be crucified, mankind does not live in awe of God, but imposes darkness on itself by running endlessly. Even so, despite humanity’s shortcomings, God is most capable of perfect love and embraces the world anyway. The poet is of the opinion that human beings acts are always directed towards destruction: knowingly or unknowingly. But God loves all the creatures of the world, so he works for the benefit of the creatures without any hope of benefit or profit. The poet inspires people to grow faith in God.

About love

Summary

“About Love” is a famous Russian story written by a famous story-writer, Anton Chekhov. In the story, Chekhov presents the difference between three love stories and tries to prove that “Love” like that is not bound by conjugal relations. He views that love is true and spiritual. Happiness, unhappiness, morality, sin, virtue, social status, class, prestige etc. have nothing to do with love. Alyohin is the narrator in this story. He had been living as a poor farmer at Sofyino since he graduated from the university. The story begins when the narrator and his two guests-Bufkin and Ivan were having breakfast in a country house. Alyohin told about the violent love affair between his two servants Nikanor and Pelageya. According to the narrator, pelageya didn’t want to marry Nikanor but she was ready to live with him just so. On the other hand, Nikanor couldn’t stay with her before marriage for religious reasons. Alyohin says that love is a hindrance and a source of dissatisfaction and irritation. To justify his statement, he began his own story.

Alyohin had to work hard at Sofyino to pay off his debt as his father had spent a lot of money on his education by mortgaging the land. Though he was a landowner, Alyohin had to work hard in the farm with his servants. Many years before, he had been elected honorary justice for peace and sometimes he had to go to the town to participate in the court session. Unexpectedly, one of his friends, Luganovich invited him for dinner. There, he was very much attracted by the young and beautiful Ana Alexeyevna, the wife of Luganovich. In the later days, he frequently visited her and they spent much time together flaking for hours and going to the theatre. Though they couldn’t miss the company of each other, they didn’t express their desires, love and feedings. They hid feelings fearing that it would ruin both of their lives.

At last, as a result of unexpressed feelings, Anna had got mental sickness and she had to go to Crimea for treatment. Many people gathered at the railway station to say goodbye to Anna. When the train started to move, Alyohin ran to Anna with her basket which she had forgotten. Their emotional eyes met together and their spiritual strength couldn’t stop them falling in each other’s arms. They kissed each other and expressed their deep love. However, they parted forever and Alyohin returned to his farm land (village) being sad and he would never meet her again in his life. The true love of Alyohin is the means of living. The moment of her memory often relieved Alyohin in his life.

Important question:

1.The second paragraph of “About Love” is a brief account of a violent love affair between two servants’. Is it significant that Aloyohin is the source of this anecdote?

⇰ In the second paragraph of the story, Alyohin tells the story of the violent love affair between Nikanor and Pelageya. It is important that Alyohin is the source of this story because in the story Alyohin is not only a character but also the narrator. The whole sotry revolves around him and his story telling except slight intervention in the first and last paragraph of the story. As he is the narrator, whatever he tells about other and about himself should be believed without any question. The contrast between the love affair of Nikanor-Pelageya and Alyohin-Anna is clear. In the first love story, hero and heroine belong to socially inferior class whereas in the second love story, they belong to socially superior and cultivated class of people. And moreover, the love between first couple is an ordinary and usual love between a man and women to be materialized by marriage but love between Anna and Alyohin is of higher level, an unusual love which goes beyond the social limitation and matrimonial bonds .

2. How does an account of the occasion and of the setting in which the narrative occurs affect our understanding of Alyohin?

⇒ First two paragraphs of the story provide an appropriate setting to the story. The story starts with an occasion where few friends including Alyohin are having a leisurely time perhaps celebrating their holiday. What they all are doing is eating, drinking and talking. As the time goes on, Alyohin starts talking about the love affair between Nikanor and Pelageya and nature of their behavior. Their conversation turns to the subject of love which leads to the telling of Alyohin’s own love story. Alyohin’s statement about love is very much influenced by his own experience. By telling his own love story, he wants to free love from marital bonds. So, the setting does affect our understanding of Alyohin.

3.An atmosphere of inertia is established in the opening paragraphs of the story. Cite some specific details which help to create this atmosphere. Is this air of indecisive leisure suggested again at the end of the story? What is the connection between this atmosphere and Alyohin’s behabiour with the women he loves, and the outcome of their relationship?

ANS: The story begins with an occasion where few friends are having leisurely time. They are eating, drinking and talking about anything they like. They have already had their breakfast and the cook again comes to ask what they would like for dinner. This occasion helps to create the atmosphere of inertia in the sense that they have nothing special to do except eating, drinking and talking. The same air of leisure is suggested again at the end of the story. As Alyohin is telling the story, the rain stops, the sun comedn

s out and two friends Burkin and Iva go out on the balcony and enjoy a fine view of garden. The atmosphere was a close connection with Alyohin’s behavior with the women he loves. Alyohin seems to be lovely fellow and he is always disturbed by the memory of his beloved Anna. Whenever he has any free time, he can’t help telling his love story to others. This also suggests that he has got life long grief and misery as the outcome if his relationship with Anna.

4. Alyohin is said to rush around like a squirrel in a cage and this judgement is echoed in the final paragraph of the story. What is the significance of this repetition?

ANS: Alyohinis said to rush around like a squirrel in a cage and this judgement is repeated in the final paragraph. This repetation is very much significant. Alyohin is not a common man. He is an educated man with the knowledge of language and intellectual sensibilities. But instead of involving in scholary activities, he is living a life of a simple farmer which limit the scope of his life. In this sense the first judgement is made by Luganovich family that he is rushing around like a squirrel in a cage. The same judgement is repeted by his friend when he finishes telling his love story. Alyohin tells his love story so skillfully and beautifully that his friends are greatly impressed by his intelligence and skill. Such a person who can tell stories with such a candor, with kindness and intelligence is living a life of an ordinary farmer. So, his friends are sorry for him and make this judgement. The implication is that he should have been an artist, or writer, not an ordinary farmer.

5. Why do you think Chekhov chose to write about and ordinary man instead of a hero or a scholar or actor? Does Chekhov imply anything about Alyohin’s assumption that “Celebrated” people lead more fulfilled lives than the rest of us? Do you agree with Alyohin’s assumption?

ANS: Chekhov chose to write about an ordinary man instead of a hero, or a scholar or an actor in order to present general human nature and possible events that may happen to a man. Even a hero or a scholar or an actor is a man at first, then only comes what he does. And moreover, natural human feelings of love, hatred, anger, emotion, happiness and grief do not make any difference between celebrated personality and common and ordinary man. These feelings are common to all. The only thing is that well educated people may perceive things differently and may better handle in a different way. So, I do not agree with Alyhin’s assumption that only the celebrated people lead more fulfilled lives. Each human attempt kindled with virtue and goodness is heroic in it’s own way. Chekov also doesn’t imply anything about Alyohin’s assumption because Chekhov has presented the plight of common ordinary man as opposed to Alyohin’s assumption. Alyohin does not know that he is the hero of the story of his won life.

A story

Summary:

The boy, with his uncle, was sitting in their room when the boy’s uncle’s friends came there. Their coming had the aim of deciding date for outing. They said that they had collected fund and liquor forouting. Afterwards the uncle’s friends returned back t o their home. The next da y they came with the list of names for uncle’s acceptance. He read the whole list and accepted all the names. Then there was his wife with china dog. She threatened him that she would go her mother’s house if he did not cancel the program. In anger she asked him to choose either her or outing. The uncle said that he preferred outing.On Saturday morning the uncle’s wife left house. She had written a note to her husband in which she hadasked him to put off shoes befor e going to bed. At about eight the uncle ’s friend came t o his house with a charabanc. They became ready to go for outing. As they drove off, the women of the village peeped out from windows and boys bid them good-bye. No sooner had they crossed the village then reached to a

public house. The uncle asked the boy to look after the charra whereas they went inside. A little later a man came and asked for the way to pub. The boy took the man there. Inside the pub he saw his uncle and his friends drinking, breaking the glasses and talking nonsense. The boy did not remain there. He was afraid of the situation. Afterwards the uncle and his friends came out and got into the charra. Then they reached to a river where they all got down and played with water. From that time onwards, they forget the idea of Porthcrawl. By the evening they reached to place called Hermit’s nest. There they decided to rest and enjoy drinking. They drank so much rum that they could not control their sense. They later made decision to return back. On the way home, they rested in a field and sat in a circle. They continued drinking there too.

♡ Q.1.Description of the boy’s uncle and his wife.

➭The boy’s uncle was tall, big and red-hairy. He used to occupy every inch of his room. He was just like a buffalo squeezed into an airy cupboard. His voice was hoarse. He used to drop food and drink on his waistcoat. His waistcoat looked like a picnic spot recently left by picnic-goers . Another childish behavior of his was to carry whistle under his neck. Whenever he was happy, he blew whistle. His wife however was lean and thin. She did not make noise while walking or working. She was hot-tempered. On every weekend, her anger used to be very high. As she became angry, her husband would lift her and keep her on the table. She in turn used t o hit him with china dog.

Q.2. The plan was t o go to Porthcawl for the outing. Did the y ever reach there? Why?

➭The plan of the narrator’s uncle and his friends was to reach to Porthcawl for the outing. But they couldnot reach to their destination because of their habit of drinking. But it does not mean that it was the only one cause for it; there are many. The first cause was their late departure. It was only at eight o’clock they started their outing. Another cause of it was the late arrival of one of their partners. Because everyone was worried about himself, they moved without counting all heads. But when they knew that one was missing, they could not continue their journey. They returned to receive him. The third and the greatest of the causes as already said is their nature of drinking a lot. When they reached the mountain sheep, they drank a lot. They did not think of their destination. It was only after the owner informed them of the closing time. They came out though it was already late to reach to Porthcawl. No one worried about even after they came out. They thought of playing with water when they reached to river. Hence, they could not reach.

Q.3.Describe the r elation between Thom as (the boy’s uncle) and his wife.

➭Though the narr ator thinks that the r elationship between Thomas and his wif e is bad, actually they loved each other very much. When his wife was angry he used to lift her under his arm in the chair. She used to playfully beat him on his head with the china dog. Thomas was a heavy man who often drank alcohol. His wife did not like it. So, she often went to her mother’s house. But at that time also she used to arrange some eggs for him and ask him to put off his boots while going to bed.

Q.4.What is the r eason for which Will Se ntry always followed Mr. Franklyn?

➭In this story, Will Sentry is always followed Mr. Franklin that is because he thought that he could do

any mistake about money. It means Franklyn had kept all money about their journey. They didn’t believe to each other about money.

The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship

Writer : G. G. Marquez

SUMMARY

This story is written by applying stream of consciousness technique. It explains how a boy deepens his observation and grows from an ordinary boy to an assertive young man.When the story starts we find the boy is already grown into assertive man, when he asserts, “Now they are going to see who I am.” But in the very next line we are made familiar about the past events through retrospective technique.

Four years ago in March, the boy saw a huge ship, which lost its way, crushed to a rock and sank. There were no lights on the ship. Neither had it appeared in the light of the lighthouse. He could only see the ship in extreme darkness. Our common sense tells that we can see an object only if it is luminous or it is illuminated. Thus, it is clear that it was just an imagination of the boy. He was himself not sure about that vision for the first time and didn’t tell anybody about that.In the following March, he saw a similar ship again. This time he told his mother about it. His mother didn’t believe him. Rather, she thought the boy became lunatic and lamented for three weeks. However, she assured him that she would go and look at the ship if it came again. But before the arrival of the ship, she died.When the ship appeared in March again, the boy called the villagers to see that ship. But as there wasn’t any ship and they beat the boy for telling lie. After that the boy decided if the ship came next time he would show everybody how big the ship was.

The ship appeared in the fourth March too. This time the boy led the ship with a stolen lamp in a small boat. The light of the lamp helped the ship to correct it way and it followed the boy. The boy brought the ship to the village. The gigantic ship was 97 times longer than the village and 20 times taller than the church. The boy imagined that its loud siren had woken the whole village and they were looking at the ship in disbelieve. This would help him to prove his worth and who he was.Actually it is the story about the powerful imagination of the boy. Sometimes a person’s creative power becomes so sharp that he can see his vision in concrete form. A normal mind with limited power of creativity hardly sees such picture.

Q. Why did the bo y have to prove who he was? (The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship)
⇨This amazing story shows the steady development of a boy into adulthood. In course of his development, he encounters with the ghost ship many times. The more he visualizes the ship the more mature he becomes. Many years ago, when he saw the ship for the first time he was a boy. The ship was amazingly large and heading to the land without any lights and sound. It would disappear if there came the light from the lighthouse. So, the boy thought it was a fantastic dream. As he saw the ship next year he told his mother about it and insisted her to see it. But she said that her son had gone down crazy. So, she promised him to see it next year and went to the town to buy a chair asking a boatman to watch her son. As she died, the villagers accused the boy of fetching misfortune into the village. With the evil chair.so, he preferred stealing fish from the boat rather to live on charity. They mercilessly beat him as he
asked them to watch the ship. Eventually, the hatred, rage and the isolation made the boy quite resolute,
strong and fearless. He was neither confused by emotion nor frightened by the miracle. It is a sign of his
maturity. So, the boy when saw the ship suddenly realized that he could control its movement by using
the lantern. He took control over the ship and made it follow him to the village church. He felt that all the
disbelievers watched all this, being stunned. Thus, he proved his manhood.

THE TELL -TALE HEART

Summary:

The narrator claims that he is not mad as he could hear things in the heaven, earth and hell. To

justify himself saint, he confesses dangerous crime he has committed. The narrator and the old man

used to reside together; they had very good relationship. The man used to love the old man very much.

The old man also used to treat him well. The only thing that irritated the narrator was the eyes of him

which were pale and vulture like. To end the consequences, he went to the old man’s room continuously

for seven days. But returned, as he could not see the eyes of the man. In the morning he spoke politely

and behaved as if nothing had happened. On the eighth nights, he as usual went there with torchlight. He

did every thing stealthy and cautiously. Despite it, he happened to touch tin fastening, which dropped and

disturbed the sleep of the man. In desperation, he asked who it was. The narrator remained speechless

and motionless. A little later his sense brought him the reason that the old man was asleep again, he

aimed the beam towards the old man’s eyes. As he saw them, he grew angry. He then, jumped towards

the man, dragged the man and pressed his neck with bed. At last, he dismembered the old man’s dead

body and put it under the plank. After it, he cleaned the place spotlessly clean. It was already four when

he finished the task. At four, the three policemen came because someone had heard a shriek and

informed them to investigate. The narrator lied them that the shriek was his own in dream and the old

man was absent for some days. He welcomed them, brought them to his room and took to every nook

and corner of his house. The policemen didn’t suspect any wrong there. The narrator took them to the

spot where he had hidden the corpse of the old man. He cordiallyasked them to sit on the chair, which he

had kept there. He sat there just over the plank whereas policeman continued talking with smiling face.

The narrator, at the mean time, heard tick-tick sound of a watch coming from beneath. He mistook it as

the heart-beat of the old man. He desir ed to reduce the loudness of the sound. F or this purpose, he spoke

louder; though it didn’t do any good. He felt the sound growing; he felt the policemen’s smile as the smile

of mockery. It became unbearable for him to keep the reality secret. He thought it better to confess than

to hide. Eventually he conf essed the crime.

Q.Was the narrator mad?

⇨ I think the narrator is mad because a sane person wouldn’t kill somebody like that just because he

doesn’t like his eyes. It wouldn’t be any logical cause to kill a person. Again, he wanted to kill the old man

when his eyes are opened. He didn’t kill him while his eyes were open. He killed the old man but thought

his heart was beating and he himself r evealed his crime without any compulsion.

Though sanity and insanity is a matter of debate, there are various indications in the story that suggest

his madness. The narrator killed an old and innocent man with out any concrete reason. He did not

hesitate to cut the body of the old man into pieces. Though the man loved him, he did not understand the

value of love. Rather he mercilessly killed him. Even after killing and dismembering the body of the old

man, he suspected that the old man’s heart was beating. He had no idea that after a man is killed his

heart stops beating. The narrator has revealed himself that he is suffering from a disease which causes

over-acuteness of the senses’. Over-acuteness of senses is also one sign of madness. He was overcome

by homicidal mania. Madmen never repent their wrong doing. In this story also instead of repenting for

Hansel and Gretel

About this story:

A poor woodcutter once lived near a forest. His children and Gretel were cruelly treated by the stepmother. Once there was a famine and the wife advised her husband to leave the children in the forest forever. The husband was unwilling because he loved his children. Having heard the stepmother’s plan, Hansel collected shiny pebbles at night. He dropped those pebbles when they were leaving for forest. In the forest, when their parents deserted them, they returned back home following the shiny pebbles in the moon light. Next time also their parents deserted them in the forest. This time they couldnot return home. After three days of searching their home, they found a house made of cake, sugar and bread. A witch came and trapped them. She put Hansel in a cage in order to eat him. But by the intelligence of Hansel, they were freed. Hansel even killed the witch with her clever trick. After collecting lots of jewels fr om the witch’s house, they returned home and united with their father .

Summery:
Once there was a famine in a country, which compelled the step mother to think of leaving the children to the forest. The father yielded to the wish of wife, as she was pigheaded. In the morning, the step mother asked them to get ready to go to the forest. Hansel had collected pebbles as he had heard.the conversation of parents the earlier night. As they left their home, the boy dropped pebbles on the way.After walking for some duration, they reached to a spot where the step mother asked the children to wait till they return back. But it was only a trick to leave the children in the forest. At midnight, when they got up, the boy thought of returning to house. He could return successfully with the assistance of pebbles he had dropped. At home they were welcomed by the father though the mother was indifferent. There was another famine in the country, which forced the mother to bring the previous idea back again. The father
accepted despite his unwillingness. The boy, unlike previous time, was unable to collect pebbles as the mother had locked the door from outside. Early in the morning, the children were woken up and given bread. The boy dropped the bread on the way making it crumbs. Unlike before, the parents took them
deep into the forest. The children were left there. They wished that their parents would come which didn’t
happen as they had thought. The children couldn’t return back to their house as the breads crumbs had been eaten by birds. They, at last reached to a house made of bread and cakes. As they nibbled from the house, a voice sweetly spoke them to continue. It was a witch, who used to eat children whoever came handy. The witch, on the next day imprisoned the brother and compelled the sister to do laborious deeds.Everyday the witch went there and checked how fat he had become. The boy could deceive her with the help of a bone. As she realized that the lad would never become sedentary, she decided to end the consequence. Early in the morning, she ordered Gretel to fetch water. She had prepared oven to end the brother and sister. As Gretel arrived there, she asked her to be in. Gretel showed ignorance to the way of entering and asked her to demonstrate. No sooner had the witch tried to enter her head, she pushed her into oven and closed it. She then released her brother. They went inside the house and collected treasures. On the way back home, they arrived by a river, which was full of water. The boy asked a duck to help him across the river. As they reached their house after long walk, they saw their father, who welcomed them happily . Their step mother had alr eady died.

Q.1. What do the bird and the expense of water symbolizes in the fairy tale?
➭ The white bird is the symbol of bridge which guides the children up to home safely and then water is the symbol of tr ansition and beginnin g of happiness.

The Ginger bread House

Summery:
Robert Coover’s story “The Gingerbread House” consists of forty-two numbered paragraphs which shows the parts of the story and it is an adoption of “Hansel and Gretel”. In the mid afternoon, an old man leads two children to the pine forest. The boy is dropping thepieces of bread and the girl is singing nursery songs and carrying a basket of flowers. The old man seems poor and miserable who wears the torn clothes is very poor, weak and thin. The children are also wearing torn clothes and walking with bare feet. The eyes of the old man are blue and his face is wrinkled. He is looking for the chance to leave the children in the thick forest. He feels guilty. Though he loves his children, he has no food to feed them. As they are walking, they encounter terrible witch who has worn black clothes. Her face is pale, her body is thin and twisted and her eyes are like burning coals. She cries madly and stretches her hand in the empty space. She catches a white do ve and tears its r ed heart out.When they are on their way to their journey, they reach into the “Gingerbread House”. The house can be reached walking on the biscuits through the garden of sugared fruits. The house is made of
sweets, chocolates and sugar. There is sticky I garden of sweets. The door of the house is heart shaped and red. It is shining like a ruby. The door is half-open. The place is sunny and beautiful. The air is fresh.There is river of honey and lollipops gr ow like daisies. The bo y looks back and finds that the br eadcrumbs that he drops are eaten up by the white birds. He is sad as his plan to return back home fails. The old man and the children spend the night in the forest. The next day, the old man tries to return back home.silently but the children see and follow him. He pushes the girl and strikes the boy. The children weep but the old man returns home lea ving the childr en in the dense forest.There are several obstacles in the story that are faced by the children. Numerous problems and difficulties in the forest are common for them. However, they don’t lose their heart. They come to the gingerbread house. They fall on the sticky garden of sweets. They lick each other clean and are happy.The boy climbs up the roof of chocolate. They enjoy eating bread and sweets. Beyond the door of the
house, there is the terrible sound of the witch flapping her black rags.

The boarding house

Summary
James Joyce in the story The Boarding House recollects his own days of youth in Dublin by drawing the characters of Mr. Doran and Mrs. Mooney. Mrs. Mooney was a butcher’s daughter who married to the foreman of his father’s meat shop. After the death of her father, her husband started drinking alcohol and spending monkey from the shop. He started quarrelling with Mrs. Mooney in the presence of customers and soon ruined the business by selling bad meat. Once her husband chased her with large knife in order to kill her and she had to protect herself by hiding in neighbours house. After that incident, Mrs. Mooney left her husband, sold the meat shop and started a boarding house. Most of the people staying in her boarding house were the workers from the city. Mr. Doran, an employee of an office used to live in the same house. Mrs. Mooney
had a 19 years old daughter called Polly Mooney who helped her mother in doing the household work and running the boarding house. Mr. Doran was having a love affair with Polly Mooney. Mrs.Mooney was aware about the love affair but she kept pretending to be unknown about the affair, there by allowing them to proceed ahead in their affair Mrs. Mooney actually wanted Mr. Doran to marry her daughter. Finally, Mrs. Mooney asked about the affair to her daughter and Polly Mooney revealed everything about their love affair to her mother. Mrs. Mooney was happy but the love affair as Mr. Doran would have to marry her. If he didn’t agree to marry her, he would probably lose his job as the love affair was known to everyone in the city. Analyzing all the aspects of the situation, Mrs. Mooney called Mr. Doran in order to convince him to marry her daughter. Although, he was reluctant to marry miss Polly Mooney because of her education and family background. He was under pressure to accept the proposal because of the prevailing situation as the affair was already known to everybody. When Mrs. Mooney was trying to persuade Mr. Doran, Ms. Polly Mooney was making a future plan of life with Mr. Doran being very happy.

Q. Sketch the character of Mrs. Mooney.
⇨ Mrs. Mooney, the main character of the story The Boarding House possessed a civilized and conscious character or behaviour. She had a daughter called Polly once fell in love with a boy called Mr. Doran. Gradually, people came to know about their relationship and started to gossip. Finally, Mrs. Mooney came to know the fact. Due to her civilized manner, she didn’t get angry but planned to make a perfect inquiry to find out the fact. If Doran had no bad intention, she would allow them to get married. If not she would take action against him to pay as a compensation . Later on, it is understood that she settled the problems between them and allowed them to go ahead. Before this event, she had started a shop to sell meat. She had two children. She got separated from her husband after he became useless to business. She followed legal process to get separated. She started a business of boarding house where many people stayed from short to long time. From such kind of ideas and schemes of Mrs. Mooney, we can say that she was bold, decisive, responsible, civilized and a perfect woman. On the other hand, she gave responsibility to her daughter and son. Miss Polly had to be responsible to look after the boarding house. It means Mrs. Mooney was conscious to make them independent. So, regarding her character,

Mrs. Mooney is courageous, business skilled, and deser ving all types of qualities fit in modern time.

Q. How do you think Mrs Mooney settled with Mr. Doran about Polly? Did Mr. Doran marry Polly or pay out compensation? [059-3]

⇨Mrs. Mooney was in search of a good husband for her daughter Polly. When she knew that Mr. Doran and

Polly had developed a relationship, she thought of plan to blackmail him. In my view, she forced Mr.Doran to marry her daughter because Mr. Doran was rich man. Though he was 35 years old, he was soft-mouthed and abo ve her social status.I think that Mr. Doran married Polly because he was trapped by Mrs. Mooney. Mrs. Mooney was rich but her social status was not so good. So, Mrs. Moone y forced him to marry her daughter.

ⓛⓘⓣⓣⓛⓔ ⓑⓡⓞⓣⓗⓔⓡ ⓐⓝⓓ ⓢⓘⓢⓣⓔⓡ

Writer : Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

SUMMARY

It is transformation fairy tale written by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s. “The Little Brother and the Little Sister” are all about the account of “Hansel and Gretel” in a different way. The children are not identified by their names but by their relation. So, the title is not “Hansel and Gretel” but “The Little Brother and The Little Sister”. In this fairy tale, a poor woodcutter lives by a great forest. He lives very difficult life with his second-wife and two children. Once, there is a famine (food shortage) and the family has no bread to eat. The step-mother is very cruel who forces her husband to leave the children in the forest. The children know the plan of their parents. The brother goes out of the house at night in the moonlight and fills his pocket with the shining pebbles. The next morning, the little brother and his sister are taken to the forest. On the way, the brother keeps on dropping the shining stones one by one. In the forest, the parents make a great fire and ask the children to wait until they come back. However, the parents don’t come back. The children are worried and they wait for the moon. When the moon shines at night, they came back home following the shining pebbles. The father who loves them very much becomes happy but the cruel step mother becomes angry.

In the meantime, there is the scarcity of food. The step mother again compels the father to get rid of the children. They again take the children to the forest. This time the little brother drops the pieces of bread on the ways. The parents again make a great fire and come back home leaving the children in the forest. The little sister and her brother wait until the moon shines at night. However they don’t find the pieces of bread as they are eaten up by the birds. Then they are lost in the dense forest. They walk on and on for three days and finally they reach a house made of bread. The Window is made of sugar. When they begin to eat, an old witch comes and takes them inside the house she provides them with good food and nice bed. The next day, she imprisons the boy in the stable and makes the little sister work hard.After making Hansel fat, she wants to kill the brother and roast the little sister. One day the witch asks the sister to go into the oven to see if it is hot or not for the cakes. The clever sister says that she doesn’t know how to go into the oven. When the witch shows how to go in, the little girl pushes the witch inside the oven and closes the door of the oven. The witch burns to death. The little sister frees her little brother and they return home with a lot of jewels. The step mother is already dead. The father becomes happy and rich.

ⓗⓐⓝⓢⓔⓛⓛ ⓐⓝⓓ ⓖⓡⓔⓣⓔⓛ

Writer : Jacob and Wilhelm GrimmSUMMARY

Once in a time, nearby the large forest, a poor woodcutter lived with his wife and two children. The son’s name was called Hansel and the daughter was Gretel. The children were always neglected by their step-mother. She didn’t love them and wanted to get rid of them and felt burden because of their presence at the house. There was the scarcity of food and famine in the region, so their father was unable to give food to the children. The step-mother was cruel and unkind to the children. That is why the stepmother made a plan to leave the children in the forest and for that reason she compelled her husband to leave the children in the forest. The children also understood the plan of their parents but didn’t do anything and accepted the bitter reality. They were suffering from hunger. The boy Hansel was very clever and he had gone out at night, filled his pocket with pebbles so as to scatter in the way of their trip to the forests.

One day in the morning, the poor family had begun their trip to forest with the intention to leave the innocent children. Hansel threw the pebbles on the road one by one. When they reached the forest, their father and mother left them were sleeping nearby the fireside. As the children woke up at night, found them alone and their parents had not there, so they waited until the moon rose and followed the road where the pebbles shone like silver pieces. They were able to come in to their house because of the pebbles. Their step-mother was restless to see them but the father was happy. The parents made another plan to leave them into more dense forest and the children had overhead the conversation of their parents but they couldn’t do anything as they were trapped in the room and given some breadcrumbs by the stepmother for the next day and went to a thick forest. But this time Hansel threw the pieces of bread on the road. When the father and mother came back home like before leaving the children in the forest in their deep sleep, the children woke up at night, followed the road but the pieces of bread were not there They missed the road, were tired and fell asleep under a tree. They followed a singing bird when they woke up. They reached a house. The roof of the house was made up of bread and the windows of sugar. The hungry children began to eat the house. An old woman came out from the house. She took them inside the house. They felt that it was heaven. The woman was wicked witch. She wanted to kill and eat them. So she imprisoned Hansel in the stable, gave good food to fatten him. But once, Gretel pushed the woman into the oven and bolted the door of oven and the woman burnt to death. Then Gretel being very happy freed her brother.

The children were extremely excited when they found a lot of pearls and jewels in that house. They put it into their pockets and headed towards the home. But in their way there was a huge body of the water and began singing a son. Then the duck came and rescued them to the side of the river. When they walked a bit more, they knew that the river was familiar and while walking far they had seen their father’s home. They ran and found their father in the home but their step-mother was died. They gave the precious stone, jewels and pearls to their father and lived happily afterwards.

Purgatory

William Butter Yeats

ⓢⓤⓜⓜⓔⓡⓨ:

In this supernatural play, W. B. yeast has expressed his faith on the existence of any supernatural power and life after death. Purgatory is a mythical place the soul of a dead man is puriﬁed from his sin to send towards heaven. In Roman Catholic Christianity, when a man dies he goes either to heaven or to hell according to his deeds. If he has done neither good nor bad work, his soul goes to purgatory. It remains as a ghost there until it wouldn’t be puriﬁed after punishment. The soul remains in the purgatory until the cycle of crime wouldn’t be stopped in the family.

The boy and his father walk on the moonlight night; they are near a ruined house. Pointing towards the house, the old man describes the past of it. The house used to be occupied by his mother and her husband. The mother of the old man had married with the groom of the stable as soon as she met him. The man later turned out to be a drunkard and gambler. Due to drinking and gambling he emptied everything she had. The mother died during giving birth to him. The father continued his misdeed, which at last resulted into the complete destruction of house. Because of fear-the fear of his son becoming greater than him, he didn’t send him to school. When he was sixteen, his father burnt down the house. This situation creates anger in the boy. As a result the old man got killed with a knife. The boy then became a peddler. The old man tells his bastard son that the night is the anniversary of mother’s wedding. As he ﬁnishes telling his son about the past, a shadow appears to which the man can only see. A little later her husband also appears, and they both proceed towards room. The old man objects to the way they go inside. After the incident is over the boy talks about property he has acquired. The bastard son demands for his share in property of his father, which is denied by him. I arises anger in him. As a result he takes moneybag from his father. A quarrel starts between them; the boy gets killed at last with the knife of the old man. The old man, after it, addresses his mother and claims that he has ended the consequences. He hopes that the soul of m⇨other would be puriﬁed.

Q.①. What is the central idea of the play?

⇨In this supernatural play, W. B. yeast has expressed his faith on the existence of any supernatural power and life after death. Purgatory is a mythical place the soul of a dead man is puriﬁed from his sin to send towards heaven. In Roman Catholic Christianity, when a man dies he goes either to heaven or to hell according to his deeds. If he has done neither good nor bad work, his soul goes to purgatory. It remains as a ghost there until it wouldn’t be puriﬁed after punishment. The soul remains in the purgatory until the cycle of crime wouldn’t be stopped in the family.

Q.②. Why does the old man killed his son? / Why is the old man’s motive in murdering the boy?

⇨ The old man killed his son to stop the cycle of crime. If he wouldn’t kill his son the cycle of crime wouldn’t be stopped. The boy would surely kill the old man and the cycle of crime would be continued. The boy had threatened him that he would kill the old man because he didn’t have given him property and education. The boy’s son would kill him later and the ghosts of his parents would not get salvation. His soul would remain in purgatory as the ghost of his parents. So to stop the cycle of crime, the old man killed his son.

Q.③. “We are always punished for our sins.” Elaborate this statement.

⇨The statement ‘We are always punished for our sins” extracted from Purgatory by W. B. Yeats expresses that any person will be ultimately punished for his/her bad and criminal activities. It means all sinners must be punished and punishment is necessary for all defaulters. Yeats makes the speaker say this so to strengthen his idea about punishment and sinners. It is obviously a spiritual and religious expression towards the bad or sinful works and punishment from god. The speaker accepts the reality that every sinner deserves to be punished. God is not blind to punish everybody randomly. He punished only those who commit sins. It gives also idea that no one should make sins or mistakes. God discriminately punishes the sinners. No sinner is excused in his/her life. That’s why, every spiritual factor of religious belief inspires people to remain sacred and mistake less. And every sinner must be ready to accept any kind of punishment.

Two Long term Problems: Too Many People, Too Few Trees

-Moti Nissani

Moti Nissani says that the two long term problems are the problems of and deforestation. At the present time these problems have become the great challenge to the whole humanity. Now, the population of the world is increasing rapidly due to the nutrition, modern medicine, lower death rate, modernization and sanitation. Every year, in fact, the world’s population grows by more than 80 million people. In every one hour 10,000 people are added to our total population. More people will need more food. To produce more food, we have to cut down the trees. Both town and villages will be over crowed and the quality of life will fall down. The land, water and air will be polluted. The environment will be polluted. At the present time, due to the over population humans have been facing different kinds of diseases like cancer, asthma, hearing loss problem, contract epidemics and so many others. On the other hand, due to deforestation the world is loosing creatures such as salamanders, species of frogs, penguins, dodo etc. Similarly, the deforestation will bring the frightening problems as desertiﬁcation, depletion of nonrenewable resources (eg: petrol, natural gas, helium), acid rain, loss of wild species and plant, ozone layer depletion and green house effects.

Moti Nissani brings the issue of 1500 world’s scientists’ World’s Scientists Warning to Humanity and the joint statement of U.S. National Academy and Royal Society of London regarding the condition of the present world. They are worried about the present condition of the world. According to the essay, Moti Nissani says that growth rate of population of Nepal is 2.5% because the average Nepali women gives birth to 5 children. In 1951 the population of Nepal was 9 million but less than a half century later the population rose to 21 millions. If this rate is not checked, the total population of Nepal will be doubled in just 28 years. With the overpopulation, Nepal has to face all kinds of problems. Therefore, the future of Nepal seems to be very dark if the population is not controlled in time.

However, there are many remedies to solve these long term problems. We can save our forests by controlling the population and our appetite. Each person should be conscious about the environmental and ecological change. The people should be given education on deforestation and overpopulation. The government should invests lot of money for effective family planning to control the over population. There should be media campaigns to create awareness about the effects of overpopulation and deforestation. The conserver should be awarded. There should be greater efﬁciency in the use of wood – products and recycling. Reforestation and massive tree plantation can be done in the bare lands. People should smokeless Chulo that needs less ﬁre woods. Moreover, Nissani states that we have to be conscious ourselves. He says that we know how and why to control overpopulation and deforestation but still we are lacking this knowledge to convert in to the reality.

Q.①.Is there anything you can do to help save Nepal’s remaining forest?

⇨ Yes, we can do many things to save remaining forest of Nepal. At ﬁrst people should be aware about the problems of deforestation and overpopulations. We should educate them about the importance of forest. Government should bring such program for the people. We should prevent over timber factories and control over paper factories. We can use hydro-electricity as fuel instead of ﬁrewood. We can start reforestation on the bare hills and where the trees have been cut down. People should smokeless Chulo that needs less ﬁre woods. Moreover, Nissani states that we have to be conscious ourselves. He says that we know how and why to control overpopulation and deforestation buⓣ still we are lacking this knowledge to convert in to the reality.

Q.②.What main problems does the writer discuss in his essay? Or What remedial measures does the writer suggest to overcome them?

⇨The writer discusses about overpopulation and deforestation with their severe consequences in the essay, Two Long Term Problems: Too Many People, Too Few Trees. The writer suggested overcoming them. However the situation could be in improving controlling population and pollution, many factors such as modernization, effective family planning measures equal economic, educational and legal opportunities to woman will help to control the rapid population growth. In order to set this world for our future generation, we must save forest by reducing population pressure on it through effective family planning measures and educating people. We may also save the forest by making effective and strict laws with a provision to impose high tax on wood product and provision of incentive for pressuring forest. There should be a provision in the law to punish severely for destroying forest. Massive reforestation, another effective step will beneﬁt the world in conserving biodiversity, pristine wildness and to minimize desertiﬁcation, ﬂood and weather extremes. By controlling population and saving forest, we may solve this planet for our future generation utilizing our knowledge to convert our wisdom, courage and passion into practice to turn this world into a heaven.

Q.3.What is wrong in Nissani’s view with treeless in Nepal?Or According to the writer, what’s wrong with treeless in Nepal?

⇨The writer expresses his concern about deforestation crisis in Nepal. Showing devastating effecting of deforestation in Nepal, the writer makes us conscious about the importance of preservation of forest. According to him, destruction of forest in Nepal will cause soil erosion in every rainfall. The eroded soil will be deposited in the rivers making them shallow and gradually causing siltation of rivers and dams. After the deforestation, every heavy rainfall is likely to cause devastating ﬂood in plains of Nepal, India and Bangladesh. The destruction of forest in turn contributes to greenhouse effect irresponsible (that can’t be repair) loss of many thousands species of animals and plants, landslides, draught and weather extremes. Therefore, besides causing serious ﬂood in Nepal, India and Bangladesh deforestation in Nepal in the long run will also damage the quality of life and the ability of Biosphere to sustain life.

Hurried trip to avoid a Bad star

➢M. Lilla and C. Bishop Barry

summery:

This essay is written by two American geographer lilla and Barry bishop. After staying in Jumla for 15 months they were going to Nepalgunj to study how the roadless Karnali zone is economically linked to low land terai or nepalgunj.The people of Karnali zone depend economically upon the lowland regions to the south, especially Nepalgunj. Most of the people are farmers. But their farm product is not sufﬁcient to them because it can’t support them. So they have to sell and buy things for their day to day livelihood. According to the writers, the people of Karnali carry different local products such as herbs, sweaters, baskets, blankets and so on to Nepalgunj to sell them there. Some people take Silajit with them and sell it Nepalgunj. After selling their products, they return with cotton cloths, jewelry, pots, and spice and distillery equipment to Karnali. Some people go to the lowland regions to get government and private jobs. However, mostly people are uneducated and superstitious. People of Karnali, moreover, combine their farming with trading. They have been struggling for their livelihood.

People of Karnali are conservative and they follow the good star when they leave their homes. Similarly, they are not aware of ecological and environmental degradation. The skeletal looking SAL trees indicate about the exploitation of nature. It shows that they are indifferently cutting down the trees and they are not worried about the jungle and their own future. They are only solving the present problem. It seems that they are not conscious of their future. They don’t know the fatal consequences of the degradation of nature. Actually they are hopeless because they must solve their present problem.

Q.1.How is Karnali linked economically with the low land regions to the south?

➭ Geographically, Karnali lies to the northern part of our kingdom. As it is made up of very sloppy hills, there are many problems. People do not have transportation and other facilities for their better survival. There is no sufﬁcient cultivable land. So, they have to depend on the lowland regions to the south.

People of karnali cannot sell their products in their localities. To sell their items like medicinal herbs, silajit, hashish, hand-knit sweaters and blankets, they have to go to Nepalgunj. Similarly, they cannot buy goods in their places. For this purpose also, they have to depend upon lowland regions. People of Karnali have to depend upon lowland region for their jobs also. Being undeveloped part, it does not have factories. To earn livelihood, young people have no better options than leaving their places and working in the lowland region.

Q.2. What did the two writers learn about the life and culture of the people of the Karnali region during their journey on foot?

⇨‘Hurried Trip to Avoid a Bad Star” is written by American geographers M. Lilla and C. Bishop Barry. Their essay presents social, economic and educational aspects of Karnali region. To present these aspects, they have brought four events in the text- their meeting with a chhetri woman and the people processing silajit, and their encounter cutting down trees and the people of Karnali buying and selling things. The two writers learnt that the people of Karnali are innocent, simple, laborious and uneducated. Their world is narrow and limited. The Chhetri woman asks the travelers to ﬁnd her husband and send him to the village. They live in geographically difﬁcult part completely depending on their own or animal strength. They are ignorant about soil erosion and deforestation. Not only that, alcohol consumption in Karnali region is high because one of the porters buys distillery equipments in the bazaar of Nepalgunj. He hopes that he would sell liqueur and earn enough money to buy goods in Karnali.

Q.3.Give a short account of the life of the people of Karnali.

Life of the People of Karnali

Karnali zone is the remotest part of Nepal. Some districts of the zone are still roadless or they are not linked by the motorway. Even the Surkhet-Jumla highway is not permanent for all seasons. The airway is too expensive but there are not airports in every district. So the people of Karnali are compelled to carry things on their back and they are compelled to use sheep, mules and yaks as the means of transportation. They carry to sell their herbal medicine to Nepalgunj and other part of Nepal. They bring to sell hashes, hand-knit sweaters, blankets, silajit, ysrshajumba etc to Nepalgunj. They carry back the things of their daily needs like cotton clothes, metal pot, match box, spices, shoes. Their life is full of struggles and difﬁculties.

The people of Karnali are very innocent. They are less educated and they still believe on good and bad star time. They believe on their tradition and they don’t have the facilities of health and education. The land is not fertile there. So they depend on terai for food. They keep their sheep and goats with them as their business. Some people come to terai and some of them go to Kalapahad for work. They are not aware about the environmental destruction. But they are very helpful and kind people. The have harder life there to stay.

I Have a Dream

➢Martin Luther King.Jr

ⓢⓤⓜⓜⓔⓡⓨ :

“I have a dream” is a political speech made by Martin Luther king. jr. after the independence of black people. Martin Luther forwards the history of America, the problems faced by black people, suggestions to his followers, warning to the government and his wishes. He describes apartheid (discrimination on the basis of color) as the extreme point of human cruelty, and demands for its end.

America was the colony of Great Britain before 1776. When it was declared independent, both black and white people had expected for their freedom and happiness. As expected, white people got access over then whereas black people didn’t. They were discriminated and pushed to slums. They were not allowed to travel by any vehicle. Indeed, they had to spend the life of great difﬁculty. This condition created dissatisfaction among the blacks and they wanted to get civil rights. Martin Luther’s speech also represents this sentiment and problems faced by black people.

The Blacks, like the whites, had expected that their situation would change after independence of America. But it did not happen. Even after the independence, the hope of black people was not materialized, they got neither freedom nor happiness. “The cheque” given to black people was not cashed; it was returned back with the mark insufﬁcient fund, so their condition remained the same. They were not allowed to travel by public vehicle; they were not allowed shelter in any motels; indeed they were not given any rights.

The blacks, likes the whites had expected that their situation would change after independence of American. But it did not happen even after the independence. The hope of black people was not materialized. They got neither freedom nor happiness. “The cheque” given to black people was not cashed; it was returned black with the mark insufﬁcient fund so their condition remained the same they were not allowed to travel by any public vehicle; they were not allowed shelter in any motels; indeed they were not given any right.

The present time, according to Martin Luther is the time to rise from the path of segr egation to the path of racial justice. As it is the demand of time, no one should try to block the revolt of the blacks for their rights. The revolt would continue unless and until the demands are fulﬁlled. However, he advises that any means of violence should not be applied. He advised his followers to follow the path of non- violence. He further advised them to use their strength in creative works.

He aThe present time, according to Martin Luther is the time to rise from the path of segr egation to the path of racial justice. As it is the demand of time, no one should try to block the revolt of the blacks for their rights. The revolt would continue unless and until the demands are fulﬁlled. However, he advises that any means of violence should not be applied. He advised his followers to follow the path of non- violence. He further advised them to use their strength in creative works. Warning to the government and his wishes

He advises his followers to follow on the path of peace. At the same time, he warns the government that there would not be peace if laws are not practiced accordingly, their movement would shake the foundation of the nation; he wishes for the end of apartheid. He desires for the oasis of freedom in place of bondage. He dreams that the children would not be judged on the basis of their color rather they would be judged on the basis of their intelligence. More over, he wishes for the prosperity of both black and white for the prosperity of nation.

Some of the dreams made by Jr. Martin Luther King in his speech “I HAVE A DREAM”:

➩He had a dream that one day his nation will rise up and live out with the true meaning of its creed holding the equality of all people living in U.S.

➭ He had a dream that one day on the hills of Georgia the sons of farmer, slaves(Blacks) and the sons of former slave owners (Whites) will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.

⇨ He had a dream that any children of any color will not be judged on the basis of their color of their skin but by their content or the caliber.

⇨He had a dream that every individual will get equal voting rights including their citizenship rights equally in every States.

➭He had a dream that none of the Americans will be judged just by staying in the Ghettos or skyscrapers.

➭ He had a dream that any state of U.S will be beyond injustice and oppression but will be transformed into an Oasis of freedom and justice.

⇨He had dream that all above situations will be favorable and realistic where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and work together as sister and brothers.

Q.1.What is the real dream of Martin Luther King about the future of America?

⇨In this speech, M. L. King has the vision of equality and justice. He wants a new America in its social makeup, establish symphony of brotherhood among blacks and whites, and eradicate the discriminatory treatment of black Americans. His dream is deeply rooted in the American dream of ‘life, liberty and pursuit of happiness’. He dreams that one day blacks and whites will stay in the USA as like brother and sister, For the development of America the must be united.

Q.2 What is Martin Luther complaining about?

⇨ In this Speech M.L. King is complaining about the exploitation and discrimination over blacks in the USA. He complains that though the constitution of the USA has given equal rights for both races bur the blacks were not free in society. Freedom was only on the pages of constitutions but not on practice. The police were torturing the blacks without reasons. The hotels had the boards only for whites. Blacks were taken not as man but as animals. So he is complaining for real freedom in the USA.

Q.3. What is the dream Martin Luther King, Jr. has? How is he going to achieve it?

⇨Martin Luther King, a black civil right campaigner, delivered an unforgettable speech ” I Have a Dream” on August 28, 1963 commemorating the centennial of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. In this speech he presses for equal treatment and improved circumstances for blacks, and stresses on the necessity of eradicating institutional racial inequalities. King expresses sharp dissatisfaction over segregation and racial discrimination. He demands a fast end to racial discrimination, pledging his followers to a ﬁght to the ﬁnish to wipe out all forms of segregation and to achieve equality and integration. However, he is in favour of creative and disciplined protest without physical violence. In his speech he even appeals the Whites to join hands with Blacks in order to revolt against discriminatory

Q.4.What is the real dream of Martin Luther King about the future of America?

Q.5. What is Martin Luther complaining about?

Q.6. What is the dream Martin Luther King, Jr. has? How is he going to achieve it?

➭Martin Luther King, a black civil right campaigner, delivered an unforgettable speech ” I Have a Dream” on August 28, 1963 commemorating the centennial of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. In this speech he presses for equal treatment and improved circumstances for blacks, and stresses on the necessity of eradicating institutional racial inequalities. King expresses sharp dissatisfaction over segregation and racial discrimination. He demands a fast end to racial discrimination, pledging his followers to a ﬁght to the ﬁnish to wipe out all forms of segregation and to achieve equality and integration. However, he is in favour of creative and disciplined protest without physical violence. In his speech he even appeals the Whites to join hands with Blacks in order to revolt against discriminatory.practices against Blacks. He does not show hatred against Whites, he is against color discrimination and racial prejudice.

He is a dreamer with the vision of equality and justice. He wants a new America in its social makeup, establish symphony of brotherhood among blacks and whites, and eradicate the discriminatory treatment of black Americans. His dream is deeply rooted in the American dream of ‘life, liberty and pursuit of happiness’.He voices that even after hundred years of passing of Emancipation Proclamation by Lincoln, America stands as the hell to the blacks. Blacks are exiled in their own country and live in poverty in the vast ocean of material prosperity.He also mentions the words of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence which guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. But these magniﬁcent words were not applied into practice in case of colored citizens. He demands the riches of freedom, security of justice, and citizenship rights to the blacks. He argues that the policy of gradualism in the matter of justice will raise discontent among blacks.

Class 12 summers of heritage of words

Travelling Through The Dark

The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner

Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies

Writer : William Shakespeare

SUMMARY

Important Questions and Answers:

God’s Grandeur

Writer : Gerard Manley Hopkins

Summary:

The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship

THE TELL -TALE HEART

One thought on “Class 12 summers of heritage of words”

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Travelling Through The Dark

The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner

Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies

Writer : William Shakespeare

SUMMARY

Important Questions and Answers:

God’s Grandeur

Writer : Gerard Manley Hopkins

Summary:

The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship

THE TELL -TALE HEART

Share this:

Related

One thought on “Class 12 summers of heritage of words”

Leave a comment Cancel reply