2011

English

Subject Code: 1164

(Advance Reading and Writing)

Time: 4 hours                                                                                                            Full marks: 100

Part A – Reading

Go through the following text to reorganize it with a topic sentence and supportive sentences.  10

Add transitional words and combine sentences to develop the text into a coherent one:

My life has been a very satisfying one so far. I’ve faced many challenges and attained some of the goals I’ve set. I am one of five children. I have two elder sisters and two younger brothers. My father was a successful cheif.

He had a college degree in electrical engineering, but chose to study cooking instead. He travelled in Europe and worked with many different cheifs. He had great influence on all of our lives He showed me what determination and hard work could do for a person. My mother was a good mother. She guided me in a very practical way. I was able to learn and grow under their supervision. At times, it’s hard to attain confidence in some situations, but I think of my parents and continue on. I enjoy knitting and making things for others and I also love to cook. Preparing economical meals is a constant challenge. I like to read a lot. I also enjoy watching my son grow up.

 

2. Read the essay below and answer the questions that follow:                                            2x5=10

Culture shock can be an excellent lesson in relative values and in understanding human differences. The reason culture shock occurs is that we are not prepared for these differences. Because the way we are taught our culture, we are all ethnocentric. This terms comes from the Greek root ethnos, meaning a people or group. Thus it refers to the fact that our outlook or world view is centred on our own way of life. Ethnocentrism is the belief that one’s own patterns of behaviour are the best, the most natural beautiful right or important. Therefore, other people to the extent that they live differently, live by standard that are inhuman, irrational, unnatural or wrong.

Ethnocentrism is the view that one’s own culture is better than all others; it is the way all people feel about themselves as compared to outsides. There is no one in ' our society who is not ethnocentric to some degree, no matter how liberal and open minded he or she is. People always find some aspect of another culture distasteful. But we should not be ashamed of it, because it is a natural outcome of growing up in any society. Ethnocentrism can be found in many aspects of culture-myths, folktales, proverbs and even language. For example, in language the English term barbarian was used to refer to tribes that lived around the edge of ancient Greek society. So originally it is a Greek Word. The Greeks reffered to these people as barbars because they could not understand their speech. Bar-bar was the Greek word for the sound a dog makes, The Greeks in 3 classic example of ethnocentrism, considered those whose speech they could not understand to be on the same level as dogs which also could not be understood.

(a) What is culture shock?

(b) How does culture shock happen?

(c) Give a brief definition of ethnocentrism.

(d) Where can ethnocentrism be seen?

(e) What does the word barbarian mean in Greek?

 

3. Read the poem critically and answer the question that follows:                                               10

Crabbed Age and Youth
Cannot live together:
Youth is full of pleasance,
Age is full of care;
Youth like summer morn,
Age like winter weather;
Youth like summer brave,
Age like winter bare:

Youth is full of sports,
Age's breath is short,
Youth is nimble, Age is lame:
Youth is hot and bold,
Age is weak and cold,
Youth is wild, and Age is tame:-

Age, I do abhor thee;
Youth, I do adore thee;
O! my Love, my Love is young!
Age, I do defy thee-
O sweet shepherd, hie thee,
For methinks thou stay'st too long.

(a) How does the writer compare ‘Youth’ and ‘Age’ in the poem?

(b) Why does the poet say---“Youth, I do adore thee”?

 

4. Read the following passage carefully and answer the following questions:-                            10

Modem ideas are beginning to influence the Eskimos but not enough to make such difference to their way of life. They still spend their winters in igloos, the round huts that are built of snow frozen hard. They still travell on sledges that are pulled by dogs“. The winter is too cold for hunting, so during the season they live on the stores of the seal meat that they have killed in the summer. But seal meat is not the only food they eat. In summer they hunt reindeers and bears. They also fish all the year round. The Eskimos who are hunters in summer are fishermen in winter. Eskimos live in very difficult situations. There is not enough wood to make furniture and there is no metal for tools. Only adaptable workmen can live in these conditions.

 

(i) Are the following statements true or false? Correct the false ones:

(a) Modern ideas have no influence on the Eskimos.

(b) The seal meat is the only food for the Eskimos.

(c) The Eskimos use a lot of wooden furniture.

(ii) Fill In the blanks: -

(a) Igloos are made of -------snow.

(b) The life of the Eskimos is ------.

(c) Their living ---------- are difficult.

(iii) Give the antonyms of the following words & make sentence with them :-

(a) difference

(b) beginning

(c) influence

(d) adaptable

 

5. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions below:                           2x5=10

There had been a clear moon. Now the night was dark. Dogo glanced up at the sky. He saw scudding block clouds had observed the moon. He cleared his throat. “Rain tonight” he observed to his companion.

Sule, his companion, did not reply immediately. He was a tall, powerfully-built man. His face, as well as his companion’s was a stupid mask of ignorance. He lived by thieving as did Dogo, and just now walked with an unaccustomed limp. ‘It is wrong to say that, he said after a while fingering the long, curved sheath-knife he always wore on his upper left arm when, in his own words, he was ‘on duty’. A similar cruel-looking object adorned the arm of his comrade. ‘How can you be sure?’

‘Sure?’ said Dogo annoyance and impatience in his voice. Dogo is the local word for ‘tall’. This man was thick set, short and squat anything but tall. He pointed one hand up at the scurrying clouds ‘You only want to look up there. A lot of rain has fallen 1n my life; those up there are rain clouds!’

They walked on in silence for a while. The dull red lights of the big town glowed in crooked lines behind them. Few people were abroad, for it was already past midnight. About half a mile ahead of them the native town, their destination, sprawled in the night. Not a single electric light bulb glowed on its crooked streets. This regrettable fact suited the books of the two men perfectly. ‘You are no Allah,’ said Sule at last,‘you may not assert.’

(a) What tells you that Sule and Dogo were not honest persons?

(b) What was it that annoyed Dogo?

(c) Where were Sule and Dogo coming from-the big town or the native town?

(d) What was the main difference between the big town and the native town at that time?

(e) In what principal way were the two men dissimilar in appearance?

 

Part B---Writing

(Answer any five questions)

6. Discuss how subject, purpose and audience determine form, style and the author’s voice in writing.                                                                                                                                           10

What farm, voice and style will you use when you write-

(a) On the following topics:

(i) The status 'of women in your society.

(ii) A happy moment in your life.

(iii) Your future dream.

(b) To the following audience:

(i) Your friend

(ii) Scholarly readers

(iii) General readers who have some ideas about your topic.

(c) With the following purpose

(i) To inform your audience about something.

(ii) To entertain your audience.

(iii) To persuade your audience about your point of View.

(iv) To expose something to your audience.

 

7. Amplify the idea contained in the following statement: Every cloud has a silver lining.         10

8. Write a letter to your mother about your future plan.                                                                10

9. Write an essay on anyone of the following-                                                                              10

(i) Trial of War Criminals;

(ii) A Moon-lit Night;

(iii) Humayun Ahmed as a Writer.

10. Prepare a report, for a newspaper on recurring road accidents,                                               10

11. Write a paragraph on anyone of the following                                                                        10

(a) Facebook;

(b) The Book you like best.

(c) Students and social service.