Holiday homework!!!

Children, I'm sure you will enjoy reading book. So, during the winter break, let's read any book written by .........and write its review in the given format.

Happy holidays Children!!!

Modals

Check this link
http://www.gingersoftware.com/content/grammar-rules/verbs/modal-verbs/

Leisure

Reading comprehension

A. Answer these questions
1. “Full of care” denotes all the worries in life.
2. According to the poet, because we are rushed , we miss out on times of leisure and we miss out on the beauty of nature around us.
3. According to the poet, the sheep and cows, who have the time to stare, are better at enjoying life than us.
4. The streams are full of stars as the ripples in the stream reflect the light of the big star, the sun, thus
giving the impression of a stream full of stars.

B. Think and Answer

1. In today’s world, everyone is busy running after money. Those who have money are busy trying to
make more and those who do not are busy trying to make enough to make ends meet. The worries
and tensions that accompany this rat race are the cares that do not let us stand and stare.
2. The poet wants us to have some free time, because if we lead a life full of cares, it will be a poor life, not enriched.
3. The streams are presented as full of stars like the sky on a starry night. The significance of the words “broad daylight” signifies that man chooses not to see the beauty around him as he is blinded by his cares.
4. It is important to have leisure in life, because without leisure we become mere machines oblivious of the beauty that surrounds us. Thus our lives take on a very dull hue and become meaningless and poor in quality.
5. While the first and last stanzas emphasise that life without leisure is not fulfilling, all the other stanzasbegin with the words “No time to” and list out all the good things in life that man has no time for – no time to stand beneath trees and look out into the open; no time to see the squirrels preparing for hibernation in the woods; no time to enjoy the tranquility of the glimmering streams; no time to watch beauty dancing all around; no time to notice the small pleasures of life .

C. Answer these questions with reference to context.

1. a. Here beauty is likened to a woman, a graceful dancer, nimble on her feet. Yet man does not find
the time to even turn and take a glimpse. The word “Beauty” is spelt with a capital B because it is
likened to a person.
b. The beauty of nature is likened to a graceful dancer’s and the beautiful steps her nimble feet
perform.
2. a. “Her” in these lines is nature.
b. This is a continuation of the previous couplet where even the smile of the beauty that starts from
the eyes and swiftly reaches the mouth go unnoticed. This metamorphically refers to the various
small but beautiful aspects of nature that go unnoticed because of the busy way of our modern life.
3. a. The poet is trying to tell us that if we have no time to stand and stare, our life is incomplete and not enriched. By the use of the word “poor”, the poet is trying to convey that our lives will be devoid of beauty and full of cares.
b. Yes the last stanza can be read as a reply to the question posed in the first stanza. In the first stanza
we are asked what life we lead if it is a life of cares. In the last stanza we get the reply that it is a
poor life, if full of cares.

Poem Appreciation

C. The similes used in this poem are: streams full of stars like skies at night; no time to turn at Beauty’s glance
and watch her feet, how they can dance; her mouth can enrich that smile her eyes began
Nature is personified as a graceful dancer called Beauty.
D. The entire poem makes use of imagery. As we read each stanza

Leisure summary

Leisure 

 - William Davies

 William Davies an American poet and singer by the means of his poem explains the biggest problem of today’s life. Each and every individual is so occupied and busy with their day to day work, to achieve the larger objectives in life that they forget to notice the smaller things in life and the happiness they can derive out of these smaller things.

The beauty of nature for example is essential to be noticed. But today nobody has the time to stop for a minute also and observe the extraordinary pleasure in ordinary things such as standing under the trees and witnessing its beauty just like the cows and sheep do. When we get up in the morning, we fail to notice that a new beautiful day is waiting for us. All we are interested in is conducting our daily jobs and work.

Human beings in fact today are similar to a machine. They get up at a fixed alarm time, reach their schools, colleges and offices on time, have their lunch, breakfast and dinner on time and today people also have separate time allotted only for their family. Can you call such an individual a human? No you cannot. That individual is obviously a machine programmed to carry out work on the allotted time

Davies strongly believes that life must be lived in a casual and leisurely manner. It is extremely essential to enjoy our free time and the little breaks we get from our work to enjoy the beauty of nature. It is essential to understand the love nature has bestowed upon us. If we are passing through the woods or trees we must notice the squirrels who are trying to hide their nuts.

We should also notice the shimmering and glittering light that is reflected in the streams at night. We should take time to notice the beautiful glance of a maiden and admire her dancing skills and the smile of her lips. If we admire the minute details and beauty of nature, we can fill our lives with joy and happiness. As a result, we will also get rid of the emptiness that has essentially become a part of our lives as a result of our fast lives.

The poet is very disheartened by the fact that today human beings are deprived of the common pleasures which are accessible to all. As a matter of fact, God has bestowed all of us with the blessing of enjoying the serene beauty of nature. We run for the whole of our lives to gain material pleasure but we should remember that we need to stop for a few moments every now and then to enjoy these material pleasures we have earned for ourselves.

Lines 1 – 2:

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

In these lines, the poet poses a rhetorical question to his readers. That is, the poet asks a question to which he does not expect anyone to reply since the answer to it is very obvious. He asks whether life has any value if man cannot find the time to take a break from his hectic schedule and stare at nature.

Lines 3 – 4:

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows.

In these lines, the poet starts to enumerate the aspects of nature that should capture man’s gaze while he’s taking a break from the humdrum routine he follows every single day. The poet says that man should stand beneath the shade of trees and stare at his surroundings in the same manner and for the same amount of time that farm animals like the sheep or the cow stare at theirs. In saying so, he implies that man generally has no regard for his surroundings, and does not notice it on a day to day basis.

Lines 5 – 6:

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

In these lines, the poet shows how different man is from the other creatures that god has put on the face of the earth. He says that man has no time to locate the various places in the grassy lands where squirrels hide the nuts that they like to eat at intervals while man is walking by the forests inhabited by these squirrels.

Lines 7 – 8:

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

In these lines, the poet mentions some other things that man does not have the time to indulge in. In the process of doing so, the poet remarks on how the night and the day are equally beautiful in this world. He says that the way the sunlight shines on the surface of the waves of water is similar to the way in which the stars light up the sky in the night time. However, man does not have the time to observe, either of these times.

Lines 9 – 10:

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

In these lines, the poet imagines the figure of a woman and sees her as the Beauty. However, even when this woman glances at man for a split second, man does not have the time to return the gaze. Therefore, he misses out on the opportunity to watch the woman’s feet move gracefully as she dances.

Lines 11 – 12:

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

In these lines, the poet continues to describe all the things that the woman mentioned in the previous couplet does that man does not have the leisure to look at. He says that man can at the most catch a hint of a smile as it begins to appear at the corners of her mouth. However, one is reminded at this time of a popular saying that the sincere smile is one that spreads upwards from the mouth and reaches the eyes in order to light them up. Even this momentary process is too long for man to have the patience to watch in full. Hence, he does not stop to see the smile on the woman’s lips reaching her eyes and thereby enhancing the intensity of it.

Lines 13 – 14:

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

In these lines, the pet echoes the opening couplet of the poem. He says that life is rather diminished in its quality if man cannot afford to devote some of his valuable time in simply standing still and staring at the wondrous sights of nature

The Mascots of the Olympics

                                                    The Mascots of the Olympics
Reading comprehension
A. Answer these questions
1. The Grenoble Olympic Games of 1968, had a little man in skis, called Schuss, as their mascot.
Although Schuss was not official, that was the first mascot and from the next Olympic Games held in
Munich in 1972 onwards, there has officially been an Olympic mascot for each edition of the Games.
Thus the Olympic mascot came into being.
2. The mascots are called ambassadors in Olympic Games because they signify the Olympic spirit, show case the values highlighted at each edition of the Games and promote the culture and history of the host city, besides giving the event a festive aura and welcoming the athletes and visitors from the world over.
3. The beaver, called Amik, was the mascot of the Montreal Games in 1976. The beaver appears on
several Canadian stamps and on the reverse of the Canadian five cents coin, apart from on the coat of
arms of Montreal and Kingston which hosted the sailing competitions of the Games. Therefore, the
beaver was an ideal choice for Canada.
4. The Sydney Olympics had three mascots – Syd the duck billed platypus representing water, Olly the kookaburra representing the air and Millie the spiny anteater representing earth. These mascots were examples of Australian fauna and bore the colours of the Olympic Games. The former two mascots are the official emblems of the Australian state of New South Wales, whose capital is Sydney.
5. The 2004 Olympic Games in Athens had the sister brother duo Phevos and Athena, who represented the pleasure of sports and the values of the Olympic Games, as their mascots. Phevos, another name for Apollo, the God of light and music, wore a blue tunic, being a colour of the Olympic emblem. Athena, the Goddess of wisdom and the protector of Athens, wore orange to evoke the sun.
6. Wenlock, the mascot for the London Olympics was different from the others as he was made from the last drops of steel used to build the Olympic stadium in London. His eye was the lens of a camera that filmed everything he saw and the three points on his head represented the three places on the podium for the medalists. He was employed during the Olympics to guide tourists during the Games. There were 84 sculptures of Wenlock and Mandeville the Paralympic mascot, all along the streets, parks and tube station entrances for this purpose.

B. Answer these questions with reference to the context.

1. a. Misha was the cuddly bear, the mascot of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games.
b. Misha bade farewell to the spectators at the end of the Olympic Games by disappearing into the
air. He was lifted up by balloons.
2. a. These five mascots were chosen because they corresponded to the five natural elements and four of them symbolized the animals found in China. Each of the mascots represented one colour of the
Olympic rings and also bore a wish.
b. Beibel, the blue fish, symbolized the water and bore the wish of prosperity. Jingiing , the black
giant panda represented the forest and his wish was happiness. Yingying, the yellow Tibetan
antelope represented earth and his wish was good health. Nini the green swallow represented the
sky and her wish was good luck. Huanhuan, was red and symbolized fire and the olympic spirit.
3. a. Cobi, the humanized Pyrenean mountain dog was the mascot of the 1990 Barcelona Olympic
Games.
b. He was represented as a cartoon “Cobi and his Troupe” to promote the Games.

C. Think and answer
1. The mascots are important because they are ambassadors in Olympic Games; they signify the Olympicspirit, show case the values highlighted at each edition of the Games and promote the culture and history of the host city, besides giving the event a festive aura and welcoming the athletes and visitors from the world over.
2. Although unofficial, Schuss, was the first mascot at the Olympic Games in 1968. Since then each
mascot has become more representative of the host country and is also getting more interactive with
the idea of helping the participants and spreading comradeship amongst them. Wenlock, the mascot
of the 2012 London Olympics Games could see with his eye which was the lens of a camera. Vinicius, the mascot for the upcoming 2016 Rio Games can imitate the sound of any animal and run faster and jump higher than any of them. Thus with the advance of science and technology, the mascots have also evolved to become more human like.

The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement

The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement

Reading comprehension
A. Answer these questions
1. Rosa Parks did not have happy memories of her childhood. Rosa was a small, sickly child. She was also subject to racial taunts by white children in her neighbourhood and she reacted to them physically.
2. Rosa married Raymond Parks who was a member of the NAACP. She soon became active in the Civil Rights Movement herself and was elected secretary of the Montgomery Chapter of the NACCP.
3. Following the Montgomery bus incident, Rosa was arrested but bailed out by friends. The incident
made her an icon of the Civil Rights Movement. She however lost her job as also her husband and they were forced to move in with her mother, brother and sister in law, who lived in Detroit. The civil rights activists used this to their advantage by starting a bus boycott. The boycott lasted all of 381 days before their demands for hire of blacks as bus drivers and seating on a first come first served basis were met.
4. In Detroit, schools were segregated. Services in the black neighbourhoods did not meet a minimum
standard of their white counterparts. Rosa worked to solve issues of education, discrimination in jobs,
welfare and affordable housing.
5. After marriage, prodded by her husband, Rosa completed her high school education. Later while
working as a housekeeper and seamstress for a white couple, with the help of their sponsorship, she
studied at the Highlander Folk School, an education centre for activism in worker’s rights and racial
equality.
B. Think and Answer
1. The experiences Rosa had in her childhood definitely built up to culminate in the Montgomery bus
incident. As said in the passage, “She was tired of giving in every time right from her childhood, it was
now time for action, she thought.”
2. Yes, Rosa Parks did get recognition for her work, both during her life time and after. She received
the NACCP’s highest award and the prestigious Martin Luther King Jr Award. In 1996, she received
the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 199, she was listed in Time magazine’s list of the twenty most
influential people of the twentieth century. On the day of her funeral, all the front seats in the city
buses of Detroit and Montgomery were reserved with black ribbons in her honour. Eight years later,
on her 100th birthday, the US Postal Service released a commemorative stamp called the Rosa Parks
Forever stamp.
C. Answer these questions with reference to the context.
1. a. The “that” being referred to is the fact that the bus took the white children to their school while the black children had to walk to theirs.
b. Rosa said that they had no choice because the bus carried only the white children to their school
and the black children studied in a different school.
c. Rosa realized that the white children had a separate world with their schools and their school buses
while the black children had a separate world with their schools and no buses.
2. a. Rosa said these words because there was no racial segregation at Maxwell Air Force Base and while working there she rode on an integrated trolley and realized that there is an integrated world and there did not necessarily have to be a segregation into black and white worlds.
b. Maxwell was the federal property, Maxwell Air Force Base.
c. Rosa had hitherto only seen two segregated words, one for the whites and the other for the blacks
and had believed that was the way of life. Life here was different in that everything was integrated.
She even got to ride on an integrated trolley with the whites. Thus her eyes were opened to an
integrated world.

E-mail Writing

Cage Bird by Maya Angelou's (summary)

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Analysis

First Stanza

A free bird leaps on the back

Of the wind and floats downstream

Till the current ends and dips his wing

In the orange suns rays

And dares to claim the sky.

She refers to nature. She describes the way “a free bird leaps on the back of the wind”. She describes the bird’s flight against the orange sky. The free bird has the right “to claim the sky”. The way she describes the “orange sun rays” gives the reader an appreciation for the natural beauty of the sky, and her description of the way the bird “dips his wing” helps the reader to appreciate the bird in his natural habitat, enjoying his freedom.

Second Stanza

But a BIRD that stalks down his narrow cage

Can seldom see through his bars of rage

His wings are clipped and his feet are tied

So he opens his throat to sing.

This stanza is in stark contrast with the first. By using the word “but” to begin this stanza, the speaker prepares the reader for this contrast. Then she describes the “bird that stalks his narrow cage”. The tone is immediately and drastically changed from peaceful, satisfied, and joyful to one that is dark, unnerving, and even frustrating. She describes that this caged first “can seldom see through his bars of rage”. While the free bird gets to enjoy the full sky, the caged bird rarely even gets a glimpse of the sky. She claims that “his wings are clipped and his feet are tied”. Text from her autobiography reveals that Angelou often felt this way in life. She felt restricted from enjoying the freedom that should have been her right as a human being. The speaker then reveals that these are the very reasons that the bird “opens his throat to sing”.

The author felt this way in her own life. She wrote and sang and danced because it was her way of expressing her longing for freedom.

Third Stanza

The free bird thinks of another breeze

And the trade winds soft through

The sighing trees

And the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright

Lawn and he names the sky his own.

The third stanza reverts back to the free bird, further cementing the difference between the free bird and the caged bird in the minds of the readers. She writes that a “free bird thinks of another breeze” that he can enjoy the “sighing trees” and be free to find his own food. The tone with which she writes the first and third stanzas so sharply contrasts with the second stanza, that readers can feel the difference. The first and third stanzas give the reader a sense of ecstasy and thrill, which serve to make the second stanza seem all the more droll and even oppressive.

Fourth Stanza

But a caged BIRD stands on the grave of dreams

His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream

His wings are clipped and his feet are tied

So he opens his throat to sing.

The fourth stanza continues the parallel between the free bird and the caged bird. The first line serves to starkly contrast the last line in the third stanza. It is dark and daunting. The reality of the life of the caged bird is revealed in this line. That bird, “stands on the grave of dreams”. This reveals the author’s feelings about her own dreams. She has so many dreams that have died because she was never given the freedom to achieve all that her white counterparts were able to achieve. Discrimination and Racism made up her cage, and although she sang, she felt her voice was not heard in the wide world, but only by those nearest her cage. The second line of this stanza in not only dark, but even frightening. The speaker describes the bird’s cries as “shouts on a nightmare scream”. At this point, the caged bird is so despondent in his life of captivity that his screams are like that of someone having a nightmare. The author then repeats these lines:

His wings are clipped and his feet are tied

So he opens his throat to sing.

Reaffirming the idea that the bird opens his mouth to sing because his desire for freedom and his desire to express himself cannot be contained.

Fifth Stanza

The caged bird sings with

A fearful trill of things unknown

But longed for still and his

Tune is heard on the distant hill

For the caged bird sings of freedom.

This last stanza focuses on the caged bird yet again. The author implies that even though the caged bird may have never experienced true freedom, deep down that bird still knows that it was created to be free. Although freedom, to the caged bird, is “fearful” because it is “unknown”, he still sings “a fearful trill” because he still longed for freedom. Here, the speaker reveals that his cry for freedom is “heard on the distant hill”. This parallels to the author and her cry for freedom in the form of equality. She feels that her cries are heard, but only as a soft background noise. She still feels that she is caged and that although she sings, her cries are heard only as a distant noise.

The last line states, “For the caged bird sings of freedom”. With this, the speaker implies that although the caged bird may never have experienced freedom, he still sings of it because he was created for freedom. This is paralleled to the African American struggle in Maya Angelou’s time. She feels that black Americans wrote and sang and danced and cried out for the freedom they deserved, but they were only heard as a distant voice. Yet, this would not stop them from crying out for freedom and equality because they knew they were made for freedom, and they would not relent until they were given their rights as human beings to enjoy the freedom they were created to enjoy.

Exercise for complex preposition

Test your English preposition prowess by filling in the gaps in the following sentences with an appropriate word:

1. With respect ____ your order of 03/05/06, we regret to inform you that this book is no longer in print.

2. _____ reference to the question of overtime, the board of directors have decided that they cannot change their decision.

3. The company make a record profit last year thanks ____ increased exports to China.

4. I am going to tell him what I think of him regardless _____ the consequences.

5. Prior ____ their merger, we never had any problems with that supplier.

6. There will be restrictions on the water supply owing ____ the prolonged drought.

7. I’m afraid that Ms. Simms is _____ of the office at the moment.

8. On _____ of the pollution problem it is also almost impossible to find somewhere to park.

9. May I thank you on _________ of the entire committee? We are really grateful for your hard work.

10. Who’s this standing ______ to your sister in this photo?

11. Could I have a cup of tea instead _____ the coffee?

12. ____ terms of the weather, you couldn’t choose a better resort.

13. We loved our holiday in Cork in _______ of the rain.

14. What’s the boss’s opinion in relation ____ the cutbacks?

15. In regard ____ your letter of the 15^th, congratulations!

16. The company’s results are in ______ with the stock markets expectations.

17. Jenny, you stand in front ____ your father and Bobby, you go on the left.

18. They’re organizing a concert in _____ of the Somali drought victims.

19. In ___________ with his wishes, his ashes were sprinkled into the Irish Sea.

20. Every member of my old class came, except _____ Eric.

21. My train arrived three quarters of an hour late due ____ ‘leaves on the line’.

22. I was reluctant to go but _________ to my expectations, the concert was rather good.

23. He told an anecdote about the first time he met Ian by ____ of an introduction to Ian’s speech.

24. She explained my dietary needs by ______ of sign language and mime.

25. Her head hurt ________ of the smoke and the noise.

26. The boss was asking for you while you were _______ from your desk.

27. As regards _____ your chances of promotion, I wouldn’t get your hopes up.

28. Apart _____ the insipid food, the hotel was very good.

29. As ____ Jackie, she’s now working in a travel agency.

30. According ____ Philip, Desmond and Denise are getting married in the summer.

Complex Preposition

A complex preposition is a word group (such as "along with" or "on account of") that functions like an ordinary one-word preposition.

Complex prepositions can be divided into two groups:

• two-word units (a word + a simple preposition), such as apart from (also known as compound prepositions)
• three-word units (a simple preposition + a noun + a simple preposition), such as by means of (also known as phrasal prepositions).

• Examples of Complex Prepositions in English

  according to
  ahead of
  along with
  apart from
  as for
  as well as
  aside from
  away from
  because of
  but for
  by means of
  by virtue of
  by way of
  close to
  contrary to
  due to
  except for
  far from
  for lack of
  in accordance with
  in addition to
  in back of
  in between
  in (the) case of
  in charge of
  in exchange for
  in front of
  in light of
  in line with
  in place of
  in (the) process of
  in regard to
  inside of
  in spite of
  instead of
  in view of
  near to
  next to
  on account of
  on behalf of
  on top of
  out of
  outside of
  owing to
  prior to
  subsequent to
  such as
  thanks to
  together with
  up against
  up to
  up until
  with respect to

Tenses chart

Chart for tenses and their types with examples.

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