INDIA THROUGHT EYES OF A FOREIGNER
C.) Listening, Speaking and Writing
Take turns with your partner to ask or answer these questions. Explain to him or her why you think your answer is correct. Quote from the text if necessary. Write down your answers.
1.) Mark Tully thought he would be closely connected with others in many activities in India. (True/Not True)
Answer: True
2.) Mark was not able to make friends in India. (True/ Not True)
Answer: Not true.
3.) “That, of course, is only part of the truth,” he says. What is the “part of the truth”?
Answer: In the sentence “part of the truth,” means the friends that foreigner made in India. One of the reason and partial truth that the foreigner staying in India is his friends he made in India while travelling all over India.
4.) He watched the sunset in two places. What was the difference?
Answer: He watched the sunset in Great Himalayan National Park and In Kerala over the Arabian sea.
5.) He says he liked the early summer smells of India. What are they? Why do they evoke nostalgia in him?
Answer: The foreigner says that the early summer smells like dry scents in Delhi like blue Jacarandas, the scarlet Gulmohar and other flower, the sweet smell of the queen of the night and the foreigner smells the freshness of the first of pine trees in the foothills of the Himalayas. All these makes the foreigner feel nostalgic.
6.) Why was the smell of pines particularly refreshing for him?
Answer: The foreigner has gone through the foothills of the Himalayas and after a long, hot and dusty drive he found pine trees hence the smell is refreshing for him.
8.) Mark tells us about these things-the great works of our literature, our folk art, ways of worship, our monuments and the Indian food. Give examples of these things in your own words.
Answer: The great love poetry and epics are found in India. There is a Pradhan trbe in Central India known for painting. There are many festivals in India. There is solemn dignity of the courtyards of the great Mosques which filled with worshipper’s lines who bowing their heads in prayer. There are Pujaris performing the evening rites. There are Sikh scriptures with sacred tank of water in Golden temple. There is Taj Mahal and other monuments like the forts of Rajasthan. There are many types of dishes like Parathas for breakfast and different types of open-air restaurants and Dhabas.
9.) Mark says he is perhaps the only foreigner who believes India and Indians are very special. (True/Not True)
Answer: Not True.
10.) Why do you think we Indians accept Mark, a foreigner, as one of us?
Answer: Because of the diversity in India, this diversity shows that Indians are open to live and learn from each other. Hence, I think we Indians can accept Mark as one of us.
Exercise 1 :
Answer these questions using the present participle and say how it is used.
a.) What is the peacock doing?
Answer: The peacock is dancing.
b.) What was the bird doing?
Answer: The bird was singing.
c.) What will you be doing this evening?
Answer: I will be playing this evening.
d.) What is mother cooking all morning?
Answer: Mother cooking breakfast all morning.
Exercise 2 :
Respond to the given sentences using the present participle.
Example: Some birds don’t fly. Some birds are not flying birds.
a) The peacock dances. a. The peacock is dancing
b) Is that book good? b. Yes, that is good book for reading.
c) There are no buses today.How did you come? c.Yes, there are no buses today, I came by cycling.
d) Why did you open the door? d. I heard doorbell ringing.
e) Writing
Working with your partner, supply the missing words in the passage below:
A long time ago an old man lived in London. His name was Benjamin Lewis Rice. One morning he went to a book Exhibition to see some books. He wentonto a stall and looked at some titles. Then he went up to the guide in the stall, greeted him, and introduced himself. After talking to the man pleasantly about things in general he burst out :
“Ayya, Kannadadalli mathanadonave? Muddada Kannada kiviya mele biddu thumba dinagaladavu.” (“Ayya, shall we speak in Kannada? It is many days since I heard that sweet language!”)
Born in Bengaluru in 1837, this scholarly type of English man had also held high administrative positions in the old Mysuru State in Mysore. He was Director of Public Instruction, Secretary for Education and the Mysuru Archaeological Department’s first Director. What is more, he was a scholar. He had mastered Kannada and translated into English almost 9000 inscriptions from Karnataka. His most notable works are the Epigraphia Carnatica and the Gazetteers.
(Source: Smt. Meera Iyer’s article “My Love for Mysore is Unending” in Deccan Herald, December 14, 2010.Historian A. Sundar has written about the incident in the bookstall)
Use these phrases and make a sentence :
Mahabaleshwar / If you are game / is the place for you / farm-fresh strawberry munching / located close to the bustling city of Mumbai / not to mention spectacular views / and monkey-watching afternoons / for wonderful walks and treks (Courtesy Hemavijay, Deccan Herald, 29-09-2013)
Answer: If you are game for wonderful walks and treksMahabaleshwaris the place for you. located close to the bustling city of Mumbainot to mention spectacular views. farm-fresh strawberry munchingand monkey-watching afternoons.
A Puzzle: In the olden days people used two devices to know the time of the day. One device had only one moving part. The other had thousands of moving particles. What were the two devices?
The answer is hidden in these jumbled phrases. Reorder them to find out the answer.
i.) made narrow in the middle / can run slowly / An “hour glass” / from the top half to the bottom / like a figure 8 / is a glass container / taking just one hour / so that the sand inside
Answer:An “hour glass”is a glass containermade narrow in the middlelike a figure 8so that the sand insidecan run slowlyfrom the top half to the bottomtaking just one hour.
ii.) used especially in former times / on a scaled dial/ which shows the time / is an apparatus / by the shadow of a rod. / A sundial
Answer: A sundialis an apparatusused especially in former timeswhich shows the timeon a scaled dialby the shadow of a rod.
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