A Narrow Escape

Leela Majumdar
She wanted to spread joyousness and stir a spirit of wonder in
her readers. Her efforts were successful to make children see the
world around them as something magical and beautiful.

Born :26 February 1908, Calcutta, Bengal, British India

Died :5 April 2007 (aged 99), Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Genre :Children's books
Books : The Burmese Box, Two Novellas, The Yellow Bird etc
Movies : Heerer Prajapati

Holde Pakhir Palok won the state award for children's literature,
Bak Badh Pala the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award,
Aar Konokhane Rabindra Puraskar.

‘Paakdandi’ – is her Autobiography

 A Narrow Escape
cock-and-bull story - a story that is obviously not true, especially one
given as an excuse
Noxious - harmful, poisonous, or very unpleasant.
Score. a group or set of twenty; Scores of people - lots of people
Recce – (reki) - visit that place in order to become familiar with it
Kurseong Darjeeling West Bengal India
lugging - carry or drag (a heavy or bulky object) with great effort.
Serpentine - winding and twisting like a snake.
Picturesque - visually attractive
Creaked open - to make a prolonged squeaking sound often as a
result of being worn-out
Locale - a place or locality
raining cats and dogs - something that you say when it is raining heavily
pounding on door - to strike repeatedly with great force
Rickety - likely to fall or collapse;
shaky:
Drenched - wet thoroughly; soaked
Incessantly - without interruption;
constantly.
teeth chatter - yhey knock together
repeatedly because you are very cold
or frightened
Host: a person who receives or
entertains other people as guests.
Affable - friendly, good-natured, or easy to talk to.
wee bit - o a very small degree
Punctuation
Punctuation allows the authors writing to be easy to read and
understandable for the reader.
Period
Rule: Use at the end of a complete sentence.
Example: I went to the store for groceries.
Rule: Use at the end of an indirect question.
Example: He asked where the milk was.
Question Mark
Rule: Use a question mark only after a direct
question.
Example: Will you come over after school?
Exclamation
Rule: Use the exclamation point to show emphasis
or excitement.
Summer is in three months!
Comma
Rule: Use a comma to separate words or items in a list.
Example: She has two dogs, three cats, one bird, and five fish in her
house.
Rule: Use a comma to separate a city from its state.
Example: I am from East Lansing, Michigan.
Rule: Use a comma to separate the day of the month from the year.
Example: He was born on August 4th, 1990.
Rule: Use a comma to separate two adjectives (describing words)
when the word and can be inserted between them. Example: She
was a young, beautiful dog.
Quotations
Rule: Use quotation marks to set off a direct quotation.
Example:“What is your favorite color?” she asked.
Rule: Periods and commas always go inside quotation
marks. Example: “I don’t want to go to school today,”
Alan said.
Colon
Rule: Use the colon after a complete sentence to
introduce a list of items.
Example: On my trip I will bring: clothes, a pillow, a
sleeping bag, a toothbrush, and my teddy bear.
Rule: Use the colon after the greeting of the person’s
name in a business letter.
Example: Dear Mr. Smith:
Parenthesis
Rule: Use parenthesis to enclose words or figures that
clarify or are used as an aside.
Example: He received one hundred and fifty points (150)on
his math project.
Apostrophe
Rule: Use the apostrophe when combining two words. It is
always placed in the spot where the letter(s) have been
removed.
Example: She’s (she is) only allowed candy on Friday.
Rule: Use the apostrophe to show possession. Place the
apostrophe before the s.
Example: They found Ms. Connor’s gloves.
Parts of Speech -Words are generally divided into eight classes or Parts
of speech according to the work they do in a sentence.
01. Noun - a word which names any person or thing. Examples: Man, Book, Gold etc.
02. Pronoun -a word used for a noun or a clause. Examples: Mike is not here; he is ill.
03. Adjective - a word which adds something to the meaning of a noun. Examples: A good boy.
04. Verb - a word which states something about a person or a thing. Examples: He walks. I go.

05. Adverb - a word which generally adds something to the meaning of a verb, an adjective or
another adverb. Examples: He walks fast.
06. Preposition - a word placed before a noun or a noun equivalent to show its relation to some
other words in the sentence. Examples: The book is on the table.
07. Conjunction - a word which joins words, phrases or clauses. Example: He said this to
Mike and Selena.

08. Interjection - a word which expresses some sudden feeling or emotion. Example: Alas! He is no
more!
Careful with Words Used as Noun and Verb
English has numerous word pairs that are spelled alike, but
pronounced differently according to whether the word is being used as
a noun or as a verb.
Example - Celery and tomatoes are fresh próduce. These
factories prodúce the finest widgets.

Some noun/verb pairs shift in pronunciation and in spelling. These are

the ones writers need to be aware of. Here are a few that I’ve seen
misused

Example - It’s cold enough to see our breath. Don’t breathe the
chemical fumes.
How do you find the verb and noun in a sentence?
Locate the main verb in the sentence to identify the connected noun.
A verb is an action word that usually describes the act of doing. Grabbing, singing, and playing are all
verbs. More often than not, the verb in the sentence is directly linked to the subject of the sentence.
Identify who or what is completing the action in the sentence
In the sentence “She lifts weights,” “lifts” is the verb, and “she” is the noun.
In “The dog ran away,” “ran” is the verb, so “dog” is the noun.

Find words that are capitalized as a clue that they might be nouns.
Words that are capitalized in a sentence are almost always proper nouns, since they are usually the
names of people, places, or things. Look for any words in the middle of a sentence that are capitalized
and see if they could be a noun.
In the sentence “Agatha Christie wrote a lot of books,” “Agatha Christie” is the noun since it is a name.
In the sentence “Do you think the Red Sox will win?” “Red Sox” is the noun, since it is the name of a team.
See if the word follows “a,” “and,” or “the.”
These words are called articles. If a word follows an article, it is almost certainly a noun. Try to
identify any articles in your sentence and see if there is a noun that follows directly after it.
In the sentence “The dance was held on Saturday,” “dance” is the noun since it follows “the.”

See if the word follows “some,” “a lot,” or a specific number.

Words that describe quantities almost always precede a noun. If the sentence has a quantity
word in it, look at the word that is directly after it to see if it could be a noun.
In “Some computers in here are broken,” “computers” is the noun since it follows “some.”

Determine if the word has a descriptor in front of it.

Descriptive words, or adjectives, almost always are describing a noun. If you are questioning
whether a word is a noun or not, see if there is an adjective in front of it. If there is, chances are
the word is a noun.
For example, in the sentence “The stinky socks were gross,” “stinky” is the adjective, and “socks”
is the noun.
(Homophones) - each of the words having the same
pronunciation but different meanings, origins, or spelling.
1. (a) heel (noun) : a part of the foot
(b) heal (verb) : to recover

2. (a) rays (noun) : light or heat from the sun

(b) raise (verb) : to lift

3. (a) brake (noun) : a part of a vehicle

(b) break (verb) : to damage something or separate it into pieces
 HOW TO USE "IE" AND "EI"
When the main vowel sounds like AY, use ‘ei’ as in freight, neighbor, sleigh, weigh,
weight, vein.
• except after C. When the e sound comes after an S sound, use ‘cei’ as in ceiling,
conceive, deceive, receipt, receive, conceited

When the sound is e [/ē/], write ‘ie’ belief, believe, brief, chief

Of course, as with most English spelling and grammar rules, there are exceptions!
Here are some weird uses of ei and ie.
Examples: ancient, caffeine, friend, height, leisure, seize, species

So remember, “I before E, except after C, or when sounding like A as in neighbor

or weigh.”
 NOUNS ENDING IN -ER, -OR, AND -AR
er - This ending is the most common. It's usually added to verbs to make nouns with the meaning ‘a person or thing
that does something’, for example: builder, farmer, sprinkler, or beeper.
The -er ending can also be used to form nouns meaning:
• a person or thing that has a particular quality or form’,
• for example: double-decker, two-wheeler, skyscraper
• a person belonging to a particular place or group’,
• e.g. foreigner, prisoner
• a person concerned with a particular thing’,
• e.g. jeweller, lawyer, treasurer, mariner

or - Like -er, the ending -or is added to verbs to make nouns meaning ‘a person or thing that does something’, e.g.
investigator, decorator, escalator, ventilator.
ar - This ending is used in a few well-known words to mean ‘a person who does something’. Some of these nouns
are related to verbs (e.g.beggar, burglar, liar) but others are not (e.g. vicar, bursar, scholar).

There are no hard and fast rules as to when these nouns have an –or ending and when they are written –er or ar
Make your birthday party invitations