1

ELECTIVE COURSE IN ENGLISH

Assignment (Based on Blocks 1-7)
Course Code: EEG/01
Assignment Code: EEG/01/2011-2012
Maximum Marks: 100

I. Show your understanding of literary and non-literary prose by citing
examples and discussing them. 450 words (You may give the source)

2
II. Fill in the blank in the following passage with suitable prepositions:
The man was playing cards with some other people. He tried to cheat the others by
using an extra card. Unfortunately, he was caught in the act and was subsequently
shot to death.
3. Make four words using the prefix 'un' as 'unusual'
un +aided unaided
un +able unable
un +usable unusable
un +acceptable unacceptable
un +accompanied unaccompanied
un +achievable unachievable

4. Explain the word in the italics as to who they refer to:
Saurav is a diligent employee. He does not leave any paper unattended on his
table.

In this sentence 'he" refers to Saurav who is a diligent employee.

You are not aware of IGNOU website said Shyam to Rangan, otherwise you
would not have asked admission related issues. Rangan agreed that he did not
know.
In this sentence "you" refers to Rangan and "he" refers to Rangan.

5. Give the meanings of the phrasal verbs used in the following sentences:
(i) Why should anyone blow his or her own trumpet? If someone blows their own trumpet, they
boast about their talents and achievements.
(ii) No break through has been made so far in the
murder case.
Break through - Informal
(iii) I have called off the meeting. called off past simple
(iv) I can read between the lines. between the - informal
(v) You can see a sea change in her behaviour. sea change informal

3
6. Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:

The tree crickets were a band of willing artists who would start singing at almost any
time of the day. At the height of the monsoon, the banyan tree was like an orchestra
with the musicians constantly tuning up. A small flute in my hand, I would add my
shrill piping to that of the crickets and cicadas. But they must have thought poorly of
my piping because whenever I played, the insects fell silent!


Who are being talked about in the passage?
AN ISLAND OF TREES is a unique collection of nature stories and poems. There is
not a word or a sentence that is difficult to understand in the stories of Ruskin Bond.
And, his stories flow so smoothly that before you know it, you have finished reading
an entire book and you want some more. This story is taken from An island Of Trees.
This is in form of dialogue between Koki and her grandmother. They are sitting on a
string cot in the shade of an old jackfruit tree and Grandmother talks about her father
and his great love for trees and flowers. She tells Koki that she was convinced that
plants and trees loved her father with as much tenderness as he loved them. She
recalls how sometimes when she sat alone beneath a tree. She would feel a little
lonely or lost. But as soon as her father joined her, the garden would become a happy
place, the tree itself more friendly.

This passage talks about the Banyan tree during monsoon. It describes how insects i.e.
crickets and cicadas made musical sounds described as orchestra.

Describe the passage in your own words?
Koki's great - grandfather had such a passion for planting trees that during the
monsoons he would walk into the scrubland and beyond the river bed , armed with
cutting and saplings, and he would plant them out there, hoping to create a forest. And
he told his daughter that he was not planting the forests for people to see. He was
planting it for the eart and for the birds and animals who live on it and need more food
and shelter. He also told that why mankind, and not only wild creatures, need trees-
for preventing the banks of rivers from being washed away. But everywhere people
are cutting down trees without planting new ones.
At end of the story Grandmother narrates an experience, which reveals the deep bond
that grows between humans and non-humans if only there is love and compassion.
After twenty years or more she returned to her parental house and one day walked
over to the island where her father had once planted all kinds of trees. While a small
spotted deer scampered away to hide in a thicket and a wild pheasant challenged her
with a mellow "Who are you?" the trees seemed to know her and beckoned her nearer.
She ran her hands over their barks and it was like touching the hands of old friends.
She noticed that many small trees and wild plants and grasses had sprung up under the
protection of those whom she and her father had planted years ago. The trees had
multiplied. The forest was on the move. Her father' dream was coming true - the trees
were walking again, by multiplying, by spreading their shade and benign influence.

4
Make sentences with 'orchestra' and 'tuning up'?
a. The orchestra makes discordant noises when tuning up.
b. The moment you sit down, that wonderful sound of the symphony
orchestra tuning up.
What does 'I would add my shrill piping to that of the crickets and cicadas"
mean?
This means acute, piercing sound made by grandmother on the flute that she used to
play.
What does 'band of willing artists' mean in the passage?
Band of willing artists means crickets and cicadas that were more than willing to give
a soothing musical sound during monsoons.

5
7. Write a passage using rhetorical devices on a person, idea or ideology in about 300
words. (20)

6
8. Read the following poem and answer questions that follow:
I can smell violence in the air
like the lash of coming rain
mass hatreds drifting grey across the moon
It hovers brooding, posed like a cobra
as I go prodding rat-holes
and sounding caverns
looking for a fang that darts
a hood that sways
and eyes that squirt a reptile hate.

Point out similies and metaphors in the poem.
Similies:
like the lash of coming rain
posed like a cobra
as I go prodding rat-holes

Metaphors:
looking for a fang that darts
mass hatreds drifting grey across the moon
and eyes that squirt a reptile hate.

Discuss the tone of the poem.
A poem's tone is the attitude that its style implies. Most of the poems of Daruwalla
borders on violence. Violence not only finds expression in his works but also it works
at deeper levels in his poems. Violence is one of the dominant features in the poems
of Daruwalla.
Ruminations is a study of communal tension resulting in violence and suffering.
The poet has an apprehension of the outbreak of violence, caused by mutual hatred
and wants of tolerance and understanding between two communal groups in the
future. The poet then speaks about the mortuary where the persons killed in violence
would be taken and kept for post-mortem or for identification by the relatives who
would naturally like to take away those dead bodies in order to bury them or cremate

7
them as the case might be. If kept in a mortuary even for a few days, a dead body
begins to stink because of the decomposition which takes place. Not even the sweet
smelling substances like rose-water and flowers can drown that foul smell. There is,
in the mortuary, the dead body of a woman whose husband had cut off her nose on a
suspicion of her having adulterous relations with another man. After having cut off
her nose he had even stabbed her in her breast, thus puncturing her lungs.
Man, says the poet, can adjust himself to difference conditions. For instance,
a dead man, if buried in the earth, remains there firmly. If the same man were to be
cremated, he would allow the fire to consume him quickly. If the dead body were
thrown to the birds (like the vultures and the kites), he would let his flesh be eaten up
without any delay.
When the rain comes, it transforms everything, giving a fresh look to the trees,
plants, and the hedge, and washing away all the dust which lay upon them. The poet
too waits to be freshened by the rain. He waits for a feeling that he too has been
cleansed. However, he waits for that feeling in vain because it never comes to him.
It seems that this feeling used to come to him only in the past, and that it would never
come to him again.
Cite any five images that strike you.
This poem describes a situation in which a drowning man is rescued by a
fisher-girl. There are times when the current of a river is very brisk and swift; and
there are times when the flow of the water is so slow that one cannot even judge in
which direction the river is flowing. But whatever the season, a river has always to be
crossed. Sometimes a man may cross a river on foot because the water is hardly
waist-deep or because the surface of the water is almost in contact with the mud at the

8
bottom. Sometimes the current of water is so tranquil that it hardly seems to be
moving and you have to ask the boatman which way the current of water is going.
Critically comment on the poem.
In one of the pieces in Ruminations, the poet can smell violence in the air like the
lash of coming rain; and this feeling seems to the poet to be poised like a cobra.
These are original similes; and these are followed by a series of metaphors based on
serpent-behaviour. These are only a few of the examples. Actually Daruwallas poetry
contains an abundance of similes and metaphors.