THE TOWN BY THE SEA
– Amitav Ghosh
C.) Reading, Speaking and Writing.
Work with your partner, sitting next to you, and do this exercise. If your answer is “Not true”, say what is true. Substantiate all the answers by reading to him/ her the relevant sentences in the passage. Write down your answers.
1.) The director woke up with the feeling that the building
a.) would be flooded,
b.) would be burnt down,
c.) would collapse. (Underline the phrase that completes the sentence)
Answer: The director woke up with the feeling that the buildingwould collapse.
2.) The director cut off his wife’s call because he wanted to save himself first. (True/ Not True)
Answer: True.
3.) The director lost the chance of hearing his wife’s last words. (True/Not True)
Answer: True.
4.) Car Nicobar Islands stand the highest among Nicobar Islands. (True/Not True)
Answer: True.
5.) Port Blair was hit by the rising sea before Car Nicobar Islands. (True/ Not True)
Answer: True.
6.) The director heard from Malacca that his family had survived. (True/ Not True)
Answer: Not true.
7.) The director’s heart broke when he felt his son’s misery. (True/ Not True)
Answer: True.
8.) The poor thirteen-year-old’s misery was that he had not been able to save his mother and sister. (True/ Not True)
Answer: True.
9.) When did the director become really anxious?
Answer: Firstly, his wife was not answering his calls. Then he saw that the water level in is increasing and the anchored ship is swirling and then they went to higher ground with others. Nicobar islands are low-lying islands and some like Car Nicobar islands stand no more than a few meters above the sea level at their highest point and it made the director anxious.
10.) What did the director’s son tell him?
Answer: Director’s son told him that his family was in bedroom when the earthquake started. It was a terrifying sound from the sea and they came into the drawing-room but the boy had kept running when the wave hit, the house dissolved into splinters and the boy was carried away as if on a wind. He somehow managed to hold something and reach to the shore. When director asked that where is his mother and sister then the boy started crying and said that they just disappeared.
11.) The mother and the sister had died. The boyfeels he is to be blamed. This shows his sense of responsibility. Explain this point.
Answer: When the director asked his son about his mother and sister he started to cry. The boy was feeling guilty and thought director will scold him for leaving them alone. But the son was merely thirteen years old and he was frightened so he ran for his life. But when he realize that he left his mother and sister then he started crying and it shows the sense of responsibility.
12.) The director wanted to mourn alone quietly. (True/ Not True)
Answer: True.
13.) Why did the director choose his slides and not anything else?
Answer: Director choose his slides not anything else because it was his wife’s and daughter’s slides and if he took it with him then it might remind him about them which could be painful for director.
14.) “Words seem futile,” says the author. Explain what he means.
Answer: Many times, we lose someone so important that it is tough to explain in words that how empty this world without couple of people in life, specially, people from family. Director also lost his family members and he has no words so he wants to mourn alone. He also knows that the sympathy from other will increase his pain by reminding them again and again so he wanted to be alone and don’t want sympathy from others. Hence the author says, “Words seem futile”
15.) How did the author himself intervene and act in the course of the events?
Answer: The author imagining himself as a director and going through the situations in his imagination and then he thinks that for himself the words are not useful. Thinking, reflecting and writing about it is like wasteful cause different people react in same situation differently so the director had mounted the most singular and the most powerful defence of it that author ever witnessed.
D.) Word Formation
Write the names of five countries and then make words from them using the suffix “-an”.
Example : America – American (person/language).
Add a noun to each word you have made to make a noun phrase.
Example : American scientist.
Europe – European (person/language/countries)
Italy – Italian (person/language).
Africa – African (person/language/countries).
Austria – Austrian (person/language).
Australia – Australian (person/language).
E.) Grammar: The Suffix
Suffixes help words to do different functions of grammar.
Example:
surprise (n); surprise (v); surprised, surprising (adj) surprisedly, surprisingly (adv)
Exercise:
Fill in the blanks to supply the correct forms of the word “surprise” :
1.) surprised at finding the lone, hungry cub grandfather brought it home.
2.) A tiger on the leash surprised people on the street.
3.) It was a surprise for them to see a man with a tiger.
4.) “Don’t be surprised if he eats up Mahamoud,” said Grandmother.
5.) Surprisingly, the tiger didn’t harm the man.
6.) Surprisedly, they all watched the man petting the tiger.
7) Fortunately, we got the bus.
8) Unfortunately, it start raining.
0 Comments