The Queen's Language

  PRACTICE PAPER  ENGLISH  (1) Suspense was over when my high school results finally came out. But I was upset. I hadn’t done as well as I had expected. My father tried to console me. “Why are you worried ? You have done very well my dear.” “No, I haven’t, Baba,” I protested, controlling my tears, and wondering if I had disappointed him. “It doesn’t really matter,” he assured me. “Do you know what I got when I finished high school ?” I looked into Baba’s face and waited for the answer to his own question. “You know,” he told me. “I’ve never told you this. I got just a third division. But, look at me, I’ve done quite well.” Baba got a third division ! I was almost in shock, but the thought of my having done a lot better than that made me realize that I had no reason to complain. I certainly felt better ! “Everything is under control !” said Baba, smiling. That was his favourite phrase. Posted in Kolkata, my father was then a senior official in the Indian Railway Service, a...

TEST PAPER  1 1. Fill in the blanks with suitable words.  My greatest fear was not (a)  _ sharks, or the tankers on autopilot, (b) _  the ocean itself. I had learnt during my years(c) _ offshore sailing that (d) _ few hours can transform (e)_ calm, oily swell into (f) _ voracious killing machine. A storm can last (e) _ weeks, leaving the sailor in (f) ......weak and exhausted state. 2. The following passages has not been edited. There is an error in each line. Write the incorrect word and the correction                       Incorrect Correct  After circle the boat, the shark disappeared  (eg) circle       circling we waited uneasy. Rohan pulled out the         (a) ............... ...............  video camera determined to get the beast       (b) ............... ...............  on film. Moments later he gasp and        ...

  1. Read the passage given below : 1. A fisherman, enfeebled with age, could no longer go out to sea so he began fishing in the river. Every morning he would go down to the river and sit there fishing the whole day long. In the evening he would sell whatever he had caught, buy food for himself and go home. It was a hard life for an old man. One hot afternoon while he was trying to keep awake and bemoaning his fate, a large bird with silvery feathers alighted on a rock near him. It was Kaha, the heavenly bird. “Have you no one to care for you, grandpa ?” asked the bird. “Not a soul.” “You should not be doing such work at your age, ” said the bird. “From now on I will bring you a big fish every evening. You can sell it and live in comfort.” True to her word, the bird began to drop a large fish at his doorstep every evening. All that the fisherman had to do was take it to the market and sell it. As big fish were in great demand, he was soon rolling in money. He bought a cottage near ...

                                                          My Dad My parents made a wonderful pair, dad was in the army, and mom the most beautiful poet with a melodious voice stayed at home.  They both belonged to Pakistan. Before the partition riots, they just locked their houses in Lahore and  Sargodha and came to Jalandhar because some trusted friends had told them about the impending danger. They left all their belongings, houses, and friends and they were planning to return when things were peaceful again. My dad's elder brother was called Iqbal'.so Tayaji in that situation had a tough time convincing the people that he was a Mohyal Brahmin. After two or three years of struggle, Dad settled and married Mom but the pain of partition was always there. He always told us all about his childhood, the rivers, the streams, the fields, a...

  Work is worship and unless we treat it as such, neither we nor our country will progress. There is nothing to be ashamed of doing work. Some people feel that it is below their dignity to do certain jobs. It is said that a foreign diplomat once visited Abraham Lincoln when he was president of America. As the visitor went in, he found the great president polishing his shoes. Shocked at what he saw, the diplomat asked him whether he himself polished his shoes. President Lincoln asked, "why, who, polishes yours"? The great Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar carried the Luggage of a snobbish young man when the latter was looking around for a porter to carry the light luggage he had. Mahatma Gandhi too teaches us about dignity of work. Let us follow the examples of great people and realise that labour is dignifying and should be equated with worship     Question a. According to the passage whose example should we follow ? (i)  our own  (ii)  others (iii) great...

 I am his pet It was the month of August we were in a pet shop looking for a pet. We had decided to take a Labrador.  Just six inches long a black lab caught our attention.  The  shopkeeper  kept  him  on my  palm  and  the children said,  'Breezy..look  at  your  mom !'  He  wagged  his tail  and   appeared   to  say  'Mom let's  go home !' Breezy and his mom have been the busiest people in the home..He has chewed socks..shoes...wires..his own mats..and has grown up to be a sensible pet. His mom was a working mother so in the morning after giving food ..leaving food in one bowl and water in another, say a hurried bye and would go. His dad and his friends would also go off only to return after two.  Breezy had resigned to his fate, he had to sit alone till someone or the other returned.   Breezy has always been very expressive. Diwali is always a ha...

 William Shakespeare beautifully describes the seven stages of life and all the teachers explain it with their wit and wisdom with enthusiasm, picking out different literary devices and in-depth meaning which would amaze Shakespeare too, had he got the privilege of attending an English class here.  But now the things are changing at a great speed with technological revolution the stages have intermingled, at times beyond recognition, the lines distinguishing the various stages are getting blurred and are almost fading away. The innocence of that whining schoolboy is vanishing and so is the pard of the Bard getting disillusioned. The grown-ups are so busy with social media that their saw sayings have literally changed into something else. Children are so busy in the virtual world that they are losing touch with reality. A few years back when a child in some foreign land was asked,' What are Uncle chips made from?' The child knew that they were made by some uncle but did not kno...