Improve Your English – 226 [Archives:2004/718/Education]

Dr. Ramakanta Sahu
I. What to Say
Situations and expressions (63):
Good wishes on the engagement

Engagement or betrothal is a happy occasion when two young, expectant hearts commit themselves to be partners on the highway of life. On this occasion hope springs eternal in their breasts. Their joy is enhanced manifold by a bouquet of good wishes coming from well wishers who wish them luck in their conjugal life.

– Engagement greetings. May love and contentment and dreams coming true, fill along, happy life time with joy for you two!
– May memories of this special time be a treasured souvenir and may life bring you happiness through all the coming years. Congratulations and best wishes on your engagement!
– On Your engagement with love. The very best wishes for you who deserve every happiness and special joy, too. Here's wishing that, also, together you'll see that being engaged is a fine thing to be. Congratulations!
– On your engagement wishing you the goodness of love! You're such a lovely couple and everyone knows that you'll both be happy, as your love together grows. You've made a big decision to become husband and wife; so this comes to wish you lots of luck, for a happy and peaceful life. Congratulations!
– Thinking of you on this day as you both share a special relationship which starts from the heart. Thinking of you as you are an example of togetherness which makes a bond stronger than ever. Wishing happiness forever in life. Congratulations!
– This comes to bring the warmest of wishes for every good thing! May love and contentment and dreams coming true, fill a long, happy life time with joy for you two! Best wishes on your engagement.

II. How to say it correctly
Correct errors, if any, in the following sentences
1. The number of marks carried by each question is indicated in the end of the question.
2. Translate this passage from Arabic to English.
3. Mahatma Gandhi is one of the best human beings that has ever lived.
4. I had no chance of getting a job, if you had not backed me.
5. College life is charming and school life is dull.

Suggested answers to last week's questions
1. I intended having met you at the airport.
2. You cannot depend on him because his character and conduct has not been good.
3. Akbar, the Great, worked for the welfare of not only the Muslims but also the Hindus.
4. The English have left our country bag and baggage.
5. High and low, rich and poor, wise and foolish all must die.

III. Increase Your Word Power
(A) How to express it in one word
1. The doctrine that sensual pleasure is the highest good.
2. The art of garden cultivation.
3. One who breaks images.
4. A person who has most uncompromising attitude, specially in politics.
5. A single pillar construction.

Suggested answers to last week's questions
1. Animals of a particular region or epoch: fauna (n.)
2. One who is generally interested in the emancipation of women: feminist (n.)
3. The tendency to grow downwards: geotropism (n.)
4. The scientific study of old age and its diseases: gerontology (n.)
5. Of animals which live in groups: gregarious (adj.)

(B) Foreign words and expressions
Give sources of origins and meaning of the following
1. encomium 2. encyclopedia
3. epigraphy 4. epitaph
5. epitome

Suggested answers to last week's questions
1. diatribe (Gk ' rubbing through'): A violent attack on a person or work, couched in vitriolic language.
2. dictionary (Lat. 'dictionarius'): A book containing the words of a language arranged alphabetically.
3. didactic (Gk ' that which teaches'): Any work of literature which sets out to instruct.
4. ellipsis (Gk ' leaving out'): A rhetorical figure in which one or more words are omitted.
5. encyclopedia (Gk. 'enkyklios' meaning ' circular' or 'general' and 'paideia' meaning 'discipline' or 'instruction): A book or set of books dealing with every branch of knowledge.

(C) Bring out differences in meaning of the following pairs of words
1. air, wind 2. discreet, discrete
3. corporal, corporeal 4. affect, effect
5. miner. minor

Suggested answers to last week's questions
1. temper (n.) (state or condition of the mind): The boss is in a bad temper since this morning.
temperament (n.) (person's disposition or nature): She is a girl with nervous temperament.
2. hart (n.) (male of dear): The hunter shot at a hart.
heart (n.) (the organ inside the chest which controls the flow of blood): He had a heart attack.
3. bridal (adj.) (of the bride or the marriage ceremony): She looks ravishing in her bridal dress
bridle (n.) (leather bands put on a horse's head for controlling its movements): He put the bridle on the horse and started the journey.
4. corps (n.) (one of the technical branches of an army): The Royal Army Medical corps has been honored for its distinguished services.
corpse (n.) (dead body): The corpse has been decomposed
crops (n.) (year's, Season's produce of grain): A good monsoon this year has yielded a rich harvest of crops.
5. differ (vi.) (be unlike): Tastes differ from person to person.
defer (vt.) (put off to a later time; postpone): The meeting has been deferred till next week

(D) Idioms and phrases
Bring out the meaning of the following in sentences
1. black ox. 2. to be at the zenith of.
3. all and sundry. 4. at death's door.
5. donkey's years.

Suggested answers to last week's questions
1. pen and ink (in writing): He gave his statement in pen and ink.
2. without fear or favour (impartially): Go on performing your duty without fear or favour.
3. Judas Kiss (false love): Where is pure love these days? It's all a Judas Kiss
4. on the knees of gods (yet uncertain): He is sincerely making efforts; the final outcome is on the knees of gods.
5. neck and crop (completely): The American attack on Baghdad has left a trail of devastation neck and crop.

IV. Grammar and Composition
(A) Grammar
Complete the sentences below with an appropriate form of the word in brackets
1. Learning to speak a language is often much (easy) _____ than learning to write it.
2. This hotel must be (expensive) _______ than the small one next door.
3. An orange is (large) __ than a plum.
4. He is certainly the (Unusual) _______ person I have ever met.
5. Bringing up children is one of the (hard) ___jobs in the world.
6. What is the (difficult) ______thing you have ever done?
7. Losing your health is (bad) ________ than losing your money.
8. This is the (fast) ______ car we produce.

Suggested answers to last week's questions
1. Managers have to decide how best to allocate the human, physical and capital resources available to them.
2. Managers have to make sure that the jobs and tasks given to their subordinates are manageable.
3. There is no point in setting objectives if you don't communicate them to your staff.
4. Managers have to supervise their subordinates, and to measure and try to improve, their performance.
5. Managers have to check whether objectives and targets are being achieved.
6. A top manager whose performance is unsatisfactory can be dismissed by the company's board of directors.
7. Top managers are responsible for the innovations that will allow a company to adapt to a changing world.

(B) Composition: Paragraph writing
Expand the idea contained in the proverb
57. Every dog has his day

Last week's topic
56. Distance lends
enchantment to view
When an object or a person is seen from a distance, it looks more charming than it really is. On coming closer and examining it in greater depth and detail, it is found that the appearance was rather deceptive. In reality, the apparently sweet and beautiful object has many defects or shortcomings which didn't meet our eyes when we first saw it from a distance, Seen from a distance, the moon looks so enchantingly beautiful; but when man set his foot on the moon, he found on it many craters which were hidden to our view. A person in the first meeting may seem sweet and attractive, but a closer contact with him may reveal many follies and foibles behind the sweet aroma of his magnetic personality which escaped our attention the first time. A mountain at a distance seems to radiate an inexplicable charm which is irresistible. But when we go near it we discover how horrific it is. These examples show that the distant view of something has a strange magic that can camouflage its innate ugliness which becomes clearer on closer scrutiny.

V. Pearls from the holy Quran
“Then fight in Allah's cause)
Thou art held responsible
Only for thyself )
And rouse the Believers.
It may be that Allah
Will restrain the fury
Of the unbelievers;
For Allah is the strongest
In might and in punishment.”
S. 4:A. 84

VI. Words of wisdom
“There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” )Albert Einstein
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