Improve Your English – 203 [Archives:2003/672/Education]
Dr. Ramakanta Sahu
I. What to Say
Situations and Expressions (55):
Expressing emotions (XII)
A well-made poem is a powerful expression of emotion. That is why poetry is as charming to our ears as to our hearts. “The poet is a man speaking to men: a man, it is true, endowed with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness… a man pleased with his own passions and who rejoices more than other men in the spirit of life that is in him…” (Wordsworth). Let's feel as in the following extracts the elegance, the felicity, and the golden cadence of emotion as felt and expressed by some celebrated visionaries.
– I feel the gales that from ye blow
A momentary bliss bestow
As waving fresh their gladsome wing
My weary soul they seem to soothe
And, redolent of joy and youth,
To breathe a second spring
– T. Gray: Ode
– I am monarch of all I survey;
My right there is none to dispute;
From the centre all round to the sea
I am lord of the fowl and the brute.
O Solitude! Where are the charms
That sages have seen in thy face?
Better dwell in the midst of alarms
Than reign in this horrible place.
. . . . .
Society, Friendship, and Love
Divinely bestow'd upon man,
O had I wings of a dove
How soon would I taste you again!
)W. Cowper: The Solitude of Alexander Selkirk
– All thoughts, all passions, all delights,
Whatever stirs this mortal frame,
Are all but ministers of Love,
And feed his sacred flame.
)S.T. Coleridge: Love
– O lift me from the grass!
I die, I faint, I fail!
Let thy love in kisses rain
On my lips and eyelids pale.
)P. B. Shelley: Lines to an Indian Air
– Thus Nature spoke ) The work was done )
How soon my Lucy's race was run!
She died, and left to me
This heath, this calm and quiet scene;
The memory of what has been
And never more will be.
) W. Wordsworth
– A slumber did my spirit seal
I had no human fears:
She seem'ed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.
)W. Wordswoth
– How delicious is the winning
Of a kiss at love's beginning,
When two mutual hearts are sighing
For the knot there's no untying!
)T. Campbell: Freedom and Love
II. How to Say it Correctly
Correct errors, if any, in the following sentences
1. I bought an English book to read it.
2. Although the question was easy, a few boys were able to answer it.
3. His room's window is open.
4. He was seeing out of his window.
5. He has been ill from last Friday.
Suggested answers to last week's questions
1. Time is precious, don't let it go to waste.
2. He talks as if he knew everything.
3. Young men dream of glory and riches.
4. What is the cause of an eclipse?
Note: A 'Cause' produces an effect or results. A 'reason' justifies or explains a result.
5. All the streets are full of people.
Note: We use 'people', not men, for referring to human beings in general.
III. Increase your Word Power
(A) How to express it in one word
1. Show no fear of nor respect for and resist openly.
2. To worship as a god.
3. A person who is considered guilty of serious sexual misbehavior.
4. To remove all water or moisture from.
5. Behavior that is not in accordance with accepted social standards.
Suggested answers to last week's questions
1. To provide for the payment of: defray (vt)
2. To cause to become unfrozen: defrost (vt)
3. Quick, clever and effortlessly skillful: deft (adj)
4. Law which has finished the course of life: defunct (adj)
5. To make something less dangerous: defuse (vt)
(B) Words and Phrases of Foreign Origin
Give the sources of origin and meanings of the following:
1. mythopoeia 2. natya 3. nemesis
4. neologism 5. nom de plume
Suggested answers to last week's questions
1. monograph (Gk. 'single writing'): An essay or a treatise on a particular subject.
2. morpheme (Gk. 'form'): A minimal meaningful linguistic unit, like dis- as a negative prefix.
3. mot (Fr. 'word'): Example: 'bon mot' meaning a patently witty remark.
4. motto (Lat. 'muttum' meaning 'murmur'): A short sentence or a few words taken as the guiding principle of a person.
5. mycterism (Gk. 'turning up of the nose'): A subtle form of derision, sarcasm or irony.
(C) Words Commonly Confused
Bring out differences in meaning of the following pairs/groups of words:
1. marry, marry off 2. sift, shift
3. socialize, socialite 4. knotty, naughty
5. very, much, many
Suggested answers to last week's questions
1. hard (adv) (with great energy): Work hard if you want to come out with flying colours.
hardly (adv) (not quite): I hardly see him these days.
2. most (adv) (forming the superlative degree of nearly all adjectives and adverbs of more than one syllable): Yemen has some of the most ancient monuments of the world.
mostly (adv) (mainly): He comes home mostly during long holidays.
3. scarcely (adv) (barely, not quite, almost not): There were scarcely twenty students present in the class.
fairly (adv. Of degree): This is a fairly easy question.
4. late (adv) (after the usual, right, fixed, or expected time as contrasted with 'early'): He married late in life.
lately (adv) (recently, usually it is used in negative and interrogative sentences): We haven't visited an opera house lately.
5. fairly (adv) (quite): She sings fairly well.
rather (adv) (by preference or choice): I would rather have the small one than the large one.
D) Phrases and Idioms
Use the following phrases in sentences.
1. amenable to 2. ambivalent about
3. get along 4. all along 5. let alone
Suggested answers to last week's questions
1. annals of (a history or record of events): Shakespeare is the greatest dramatist in the annals of the history of English literature.
2. animosity against (powerful hatred): The general Indian public have no animosity against their counterparts in Pakistan.
3. run amok (to run wild): People ran amok when some unknown assailants opened fire on them.
4. take something amiss (to be angry at something due to misunderstanding): Please don't take my words of advice amiss.
5. to make amends (something done to repair the damage): You should make amends to her for being so harsh.
IV. Grammar and Composition
(A) Grammar
Rewrite each pair of sentences below to make one 'unreal' conditional sentence, showing both cause and result.
1. I got married. I left home.
2. She had a baby. She gave up her job.
3. He lost his job. He came back home.
4. My husband got a job in Yemen. We went to Yemen
5. We saved some money. We were able to buy a car.
Suggested answers to last week's questions
1. Fatima is studying medicine at university because she is going to be a doctor.
2. Unless you are very strong and healthy, it is not advisable to run extremely long distances or lift heavy objects.
3. He needed an operation to remove the bullet from his leg.
4. Nowadays many diseases can be cured if they are diagnosed and treated early enough.
5. I was seriously ill during the week-end and had to go to hospital.
(B) Composition: Paragraph Writing
Expand the idea contained in the saying
37: Example is better than precept
Last week's topic:
36: A FRIEND IN NEED IS A FRIEND INDEED
It is easy to find friends when one is in prosperity. Most of the fair weather friends crowd round the wealthy person with an intent to take advantage of his money or position. They are more interested for their self-gratification and enjoyment than their friend's wellfare. But when the person loses his material means and falls on evil days, the so-called friends leave their friend in misfortune. However, a true friend is he or she who is genuinely interested in the well-being of their friend. They never desert their friend in distress unlike the fair weather friends. On the other hand, they stand by their friend, provide psychological support and guidance and bail him/her out from the pool of suffering. It is true that such true friends in need are very few. In fact, bad days prove who is a sincere and honest friend and who is not.
V. Pearls from the Holy Quran
“So believe in Allah
And His messengers
And if ye believe
And do right,
Ye have a great reward
Without measure.”
S3 : A179
VI. Words of Wisdom
“Love isn't something you experience;
It's something you remember.”
)Oscar Levant
——
[archive-e:672-v:13-y:2003-d:2003-09-29-p:education]
