Bachelor's Degree Programme
(BDP)
ASSIGNMENTS
July, 2005 – June, 2006
Elective Course in English-01
School of Humanities
Indira Gandhi National Open University
Maidan Garhi, New Delhi-110068
ELECTIVE COURSE IN ENGLISH-01 (EEG-01)
Assignment 1-3
Programme: BDP
Course Code: EEG-01
Dear student,
You will have three assignments for the Elective Course in English-01. All three assignments are Tutor Marked Assignments (TMAs) and carry 100 marks each. The block-wise distribution of assignments is as follows:
AssignmentCoverage
1Blocks 1-4
2Blocks 5-7
3Blocks 1-7
Aims:The TMAs are concerned mainly with assessing your application and your understanding of the course material. You are not required to reproduce chunks of information from the course material but to use the skills of critical appreciation that you may acquire during the course of your study. These assignments aim to assess your performance as well as to teach.
Instructions: Before attempting the assignment please read the following instructions carefully:
1)Read the detailed instructions about the assignments given in the Programme Guide for the Elective Courses.
2)Write your Roll Number, Name, Full Address and Date on the top right corner of the first page of your response sheet(s).
3)Write the Course Title, Assignment Number and the Name of the Study Centre you are attached to in the centre of the first page of your response sheet(s).
4)Do not plan to take the terminal examination for the course if you have not done the assignments set for it first. You will not be permitted to do so. The submission dates for the assignments is 31st of March (for June Term End Exam) and 30th September (for December Term End Exam).
The top of the first page of your response sheet should look like this:
Roll No. ………………………….
Name ………………………….
Address ………………………….
Course Title ………………………….
Assignment No. ………………………..
Study Centre …………………………Date ……………………………
5)Use only foolscap size paper for your response and tag all the pages carefully.
6)Write the relevant question number with each answer.
7)You should write in your own handwriting.
8)Submission: the completed assignment should be sent to the Coordinator of the Study Centre allotted to you by 31st March 2006. Please read the instructions given in your Programme Guide.
Elective Course in English-01 (EEG-01)
Assignment 1
(Based on Blocks 1-4)
Course Code: EEG01
Assignment Code: EEG01/TMA-1/2005-06
Maximum Marks: 100
1.(a) Use the following words in sentences as verbs and as nouns:
leave; want; cry; move; find
10
(b)Point out the difference in usage/meaning between the words in each of the following pairs.
Write sentences to illustrate the differences.
i)refuse, decline
ii)repel, repulse
iii)certainly, surely
iv)famous, well known
v)distrust, mistrust
10
2.Correct the following sentences:
i)I was seeing all this happen infront of my house.
ii)I shall inform the date of the meeting to you.
iii)Please teach me driving.
iv)He is elder than me.
v)He loves to pull my legs.
5
3.Read the following passage and answer the questions given below:
No two people pronounce exactly alike. The differences arise from a variety of causes, such as locality, early influences and social surroundings. There are also individual peculiarities for which it is difficult or impossible to account.
It is thought by many that there ought to exist a standard, and one can see from several points of view that a standard speech would have its uses. Ability to speak in a standard way might be considered advantageous by some of those whose home language is a districtly local form of speech; if their vocations require them to work in districts remote from their home locality, they would not be hampered by speaking in a manner differing considerably from the speech of those around them:
i)Why do different people speak a language in different ways?
5
ii)What is the advantage of speaking in a standard way?
5
iii)Explain the meanings of the following words:
Account (verb); standard (noun); vocations; hampered; considerably.
5
4.(a) Fill in the blanks in the following sentences with suitable auxiliary verbs:
i)______you been to his house before?
ii)I ______not find the other door.
iii)We ______be more on our toes if we ______not know what is in store for us.
iv)The fan belt ______have snapped and fallen off.
5
(b) Fill in the blanks in the following sentences with suitable linking words:
i)Work is necessary to keep the world going, ____without it we should all very quickly die.
ii)Many men work on the land. They are cultivators ______gardeners ______shepherds.
iii)There are always improvements to be made,______it is a law of life that everything must either change ______perish.
5
(c)Insert suitable articles in the following sentences wherever necessary:
i)Prakash is good painter.
ii)He likes colour and cut of shirt
iii)He has bought new car and big house.
6
(d)Fill in the blanks in the following sentences with suitable prepositions:
i)He was tired ______the long walk ______the jungle.
ii)There was still some light ______the sky.
iii)Most people are afraid ______snakes.
4
5.(a) Using the appropriate suffix, change the following words into words of the category noted against each.
i)flat > verb
ii)usual > adverb
iii)run > noun
iv)clap > noun
v)victory > adjective.
5
(b) Show how the following words are built up from their roots with the addition of affixes: Indicate the order in which the affixes are added
i)athletics
ii)uncomfortable
iii)disturbance
iv)historian
v)examination
5
6.(a) Explain the meanings of the phrasal verbs in the following sentences:
i)We have nearly used up all our savings.
ii)I’ve found you out at last, you cheat.
iii)This small matter has been blown up in order to cause difficulty between the two nations.
iv)I’m trying to fight off a cold.
v)This afternoon’s meeting will have to be put off.
5
(b) Use the following phrasal verbs in sentences of your own:
make up; hold back; run across; take after; set up
5
7. Turn the following into negative sentences:
i)His sacrifice changed the world overnight.
ii)The ministry will be sworn in on Saturday.
iii)You must decide now.
iv)Can you come this evening?
v)Please let him go.
5
8. Read the following poem and answer the questions given below:
The year’s at the spring,
And day’s at the morn;
Mornings at seven;
The hill-sides’ dew-pearl’d;
The lark’s on the wing;
The snail’s on the thorn;
God’s in his heaven-
All’s right with the world!
(Browning)
i)What does ‘ ’s’ indicate in these lives? Why has the shortened form been used?
2
ii)Make a list of prepositional phrases used in the poem.
3
iii)Rewrite lines 1-3 in your own words, with appropriate prepositions as in ordinary speech.
2
iv)Explain the meanings of ‘on the wing’, and ‘on the thorn’, bringing out the difference clearly.
2
v)Explain ‘dew-pearl’d’. What figure of speech is it?
2
vi)Describe the scene in your own words.
4
Elective Course in English-01 (EEG-01)
Assignment 2
(Based on Blocks 5-7)
Course Code: EEG01
Assignment Code: EEG01/TMA-1/2005-06
Maximum Marks: 100
- Read the following passage and answer the questions given below:
“O bury me not in the deep, deep sea.”
These words came slowly, mournfully
From the pallid lips of a youth who lay
On his cabin couch at the close of day.
He’d wasted and pined till over his brow
Death’s shadow had slowly passed, and now
As the land and his mother’s home drew nigh,
They had gathered around to see him die.
i)Which words would normally be stressed in line 1?
2
ii)What is the rhyming pattern in the passage?
2
iii)Give examples of alliteration in the passage.
2
iv)Explain the words:
Pallid; cabin, couch, pined; brow; nigh.
6
v) What is meant by
‘Death’s shadow had slowly passed over his brow?
3
2. Read the following passage and answer the questions given below:
What makes school life irksome until you get used to it, and easy when you do get used to it, is that it is a routine. You have to get up at a fixed hour, wash and dress, take your meals, and do your work all at fixed hours. Now the worst of a routine is that, though it is supposed to suit everybody, it really suits nobody. Sixth-form scholars are like other people, they are all different. Each of you is what is called an individual case, needing individual attention. But you cannot have it at school. Nobody has time enough nor money enough to provide each of you with a separate teacher and a special routine carefully fitted to your individual personality, like your clothes and your boots.
i)Explain the words:
Irksome; routine; form; scholars; individual (adjective); personality
6
ii) Comment on the author’s literary style.
4
iii) Write a summary of the passage in about 50 words.
5
3. Point out the literary and rhetorical devices used in the following passage:
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones,
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious.
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answered it.
Here, under leave of Brutus, and the rest,
For Brutus is an honourable man,
So are they all; all honourable men,
Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral.
10
4. Point out the communicative function of the following sentences:
i)Can I borrow your pen?
ii)Shall I mend your bag?
iii)How about going to Calcutta on the 15th?
iv)Would you make a hotel booking for me?
v)Cant you do as you’re told?
5
5. Read the following passage and answer the questions given below:
By the holy waters of the Jumna, near New Delhi, almost a million people waited in the sun for the funeral procession to reach the cremation grounds. White predominated – the white of women’s cotton saris and of men’s clothes, Caps and bulbous turbans.
i)What does the author describe here?
2
ii)What is the significance of the following statements?
‘A million people waited in the sun for the funeral procession’.
‘The white colour predominated.’
4
iii)Explain the words:
predominated; bulbous; holy waters; million.
4
6. Read the following passage and answer the questions given below:
Now if we are to find the essential social function of poetry we must look first at its more obvious functions, those which it must perform if it is to perform any. The first, I think, that we can be sure about is that poetry has to give pleasure. If you ask what kind of pleasure then I can only answer, the kind of pleasure that poetry gives, simply because any other answer would take us far a field into aesthetics, and the general question of the nature of art.
i)What is the most obvious function of poetry?
2
ii)Why is it difficult to describe the kind of pleasure that poetry gives?
3
iii)Explain the words:
essential; function; obvious; a field; aesthetics.
5
7. Read the following poem and answer the questions given below:
Beyond the East the sunrise, beyond the West the sea,
And East and West the wander-thirst that will not let me be;
It works in me like madness, dear, to bid me say good bye;
For the seas call and the stars call, and oh! the call of the sky,
I know not where the white road runs nor what the blue hills are,
But a man can have the sun for friend, and for his guide a star;
And there’s no end of voyaging when once the voice is heard,
For the rivers call and the roads call and oh! the call of a bird’!
i)The verbs are missing in line 1.
How will you say it in ordinary speech?
1
ii) The word ‘call’ occurs three times in line 4. What is its grammatical function in each case?
2
iii) Explain line 6.
2
iv) Explain ‘wander-thirst’.
What does line 2 mean?
2
v) What are the calls which the poet cannot resist?
5
vi) Which line expresses the idea that although the poet is drawn into the unknown all the time, he is neither alone nor lost?
1
vii)‘and oh! the call of the sky’.
‘and oh! the call of a bird’!’
Does this parallel construction
Suggest anything to you?
2
8. Read the following passage and answer the questions given below:
Left-handed persons can do certain things better than those who are right-handed. They generally find it more difficult to learn languages and mathematics, but have an advantage when it comes to music or sports – Recent research shows that the reason for left or right-handedness, and the qualities that go with each of these, may lie in differences in the construction of the brain.
The human brain is spherical (like a ball). It is divided into two halves, called the two hemispheres. The right hemisphere controls the working of the left side of the body, while the left hemisphere controls the right side. Furthermore, each hemisphere controls certain kinds of mental activity. In most people, reasoning or logical thinking and the learning of mathematics and languages are controlled by the left hemisphere, while abilities in the arts and crafts and in music, dance and sports are controlled by the right hemisphere.
i) Explain the following words:
left-handed; advantage; construction; reasoning; logical thinking.
5
ii) What are the things that left handed persons may find easier to do?
5
iii) What are the functions of the two halves of the brain?
7
iv) What is the effect of the following words used in the passage?
generally; may; most
3
Elective Course in English-01 (EEG-01)
Assignment 3
(Based on Blocks 1-7)
Course Code: EEG01
Assignment Code: EEG01/TMA-1/2005-06
Maximum Marks: 100
1.(a) Use each of the following words in sentences in two different meanings:
club (noun); application (noun); staff (noun); report (noun); current (noun).
10
(b) Correct the following sentences:
i)I enjoy to play tennis.
ii)You must always think me as your friend.
iii)Every bread in the box got spoiled.
iv)The equipments used in this workshop are of excellent quality.
v)The main reason for my leaving the hostel was that I was not liking the food.
5
(c) Add tag questions to the following sentences:
i)It’s too early.
ii)She walks with a limp.
iii)That’s got you.
iv)They’re not exactly in the luxury class.
v)You haven’t been selling your products through retailers.
5
2.(a) Fill in the correct forms of the verbs given in brackets in the following sentence:
The government is (try) to (evolve) a system whereby non-resident Indians can (enjoy) the benefits of dual citizenship without (be) (accord) this status formally.
5
(b) Fill in the blanks in the following sentence with correct auxiliary verbs:
A dying heart ______pumped to life; a woman who ______beaten up ______put on intravenous fluids; a person with a broken joint ___ sent for the x-ray.
7
(c) Explain the meanings of the phrasal verbs in the following sentences:
(i)If you are not specially trained for the job, you will be turned down by the committee.
(ii)He was brought up on theories which are now out of date.
(iii)I went to the tailor to have the suit tried on.
(iv)I was held up at the meeting.
(v)She put on her old brown jacket.
5
(d)Describe the structure of each of the following words, indicating the root and the affixes, and if there is more than one affix, the order in which the affixes are added
exclusive
services
information
3
3.Read the following passage and answer the questions given below:
When mankind learnt to preserve language through the written word, the area of contact between minds was extended. Spoken words do not go far. They get lost in course of time, and often become distorted as they pass from mouth to mouth. But the written word crosses oceans and mountains and is still unchanged. Every man may thus gain the thinking of countless others.
That is not all. The written word goes beyond uniting the minds of living men alone; it removes the barriers between the minds of today and the minds of those who belonged to a remote past. This great contact between thoughts has created what is called civilization.
Explain the words:
i)preserve; contact; extended; distorted; civilization
5
ii)Form nouns from the following words:
preserve; extend; speak; lose; distort.
5
iii)How did writing influence the life of mankind?
5
iv)writing has certain advantages over speech. What are they?
5
4.Read the following passage and answer the questions given below:
Martin was tired after the long walk through the thick Brazilian jungle. As night fell he came to a swampy place near a lake, where he decided to camp. He spread a blanket on the ground and stretched himself out on it. But the place was so full of mosquitoes that he found it impossible to sleep. At last, in despair, he sprang into the branches of a nearby tree and climbed to the top. Here, to his satisfaction, he found that there were hardly any mosquitoes. The breeze was delightfully cool at this height and he made up his mind to spend the night in the tree. He made a kind of rough couch for himself by tying several branches together, on which he lay down, using his coat as a pillow.