Read, Think and Discuss by Liberal Party

Read Think and

Discuss

Edited by

Oranee |ansz ConsultantEnglish University Grants Commission

Published by the

Sabaragamuwa Univ ersitY Press

of l't s.

English (Jnit, (Jniversity Grants Commission General English Language Training (GELT) Readers

3rd Edition, tggg (This edition includes a variation in the speech course, to allow Chief Ediror :

for pair work too)

Rajive Wijesinha, Coordinator English Univgrs.ityGrants Commission

This book should not be repwduced in any form without written permission fun t*e publis\ers' The uGC is.grateful'to the English Association of sri Lankafor permission to reprint material from publications ln its Student Reader Series. Inquiries about saeh rnterial should be addressedto the Engtish Association.

/SBN 955 - 583_ 034 -7

F or Sabaragarnuwa lJnive rsity p ress Editorial Board '

Chairman

Prof, J. D. Somasundara Nirmali Hettiarachchi M Y M Sideek Ralf Starkloff Prof RaJtvaWijesinha

"\ n,

Toble of Contents Page No. v

PREFNCE

.ol

A Speech Couroe

Fables and Folk

Llves and*Mcmorles

Hletorlcsl

A Course ln Readln$ and Thlntlng

Modern Fablcs

Modern

$I "l i

,}:

gketeheg

Stor{ee

Tales Lakdasa DissanaYake Matratttra Gandhl Mark TWaitr

14 16 18

The Renalssance The Arabs ln SPaln The Conquest of South Arneriea South Atnerican IndePendence

2l 25 29 33

Nonchi l.lona and KotlYa the Cat The Competition 'the Nightingale and ttre Rose The Butterfly that StamPed The Mudallyar's Wife The Htding Place Ttre [.ost One Counterparts '. Miss Brill

38 50 56 65 70 76 BO 83 89 96

PREFACE This booh consisls of a rgnge of texts, beginning witlt uery sitnple ones, tlrat are nreant to help and encou.ra.ge students to read witlt con{idenceand pleasure. Manty of the texts haue been elrcsenfront boaks that haue proued populdr before, wltile a few additional passageshaae been irtcluded to widen tlrc range of the material. Apart ft'ont the information in sorne sections, informatidtt that should be part of the generat knowledge of all h.igh leuel students, the thentes and su|jects of the stories too are about issuesof general as well o.spersonal interest, suclr,th.at students should thinh about them heenly. The texts are followed by a range of exercisestftat lnue been designed to fulfit a nu.mber of purposes. Firstly of course the exercisesare designed to develop language ability, and it should be stressed'that this is of uarious hinds. In adQitiott to actual reading comprehensiott,the exercisesshould be used to prontote utrbal conrmunication too. Many of thent d.entaid, graup work, but euen with. regard to the others discussiort amongst students should be encouraged.Eqiatty intportantly, students should get accustontedto writittg. It will be most helpful for them if, after d.iscussion,ilrey write down answers to most if not all questions.It goes witltout sayirtg th,at such unswers ntust be carefully rnarhed' Renrcmberthat written worla that is not gone tlrou.gh. carefully seiueslittle purpose" Irl' doing the exercisesso as to bestfulfit tlrcir intellectual and, irnaginatiue potential, students ^ -in should be encouraged to use tlrc. uarious techniques introduced in the Courrn, Speech and in Reading and Thinking tlmt fornt the first and fifth, sectionsof th.is book respectiuely.Tlrcse cou,rses, deuelopedcarefully to plug serious deficienciesin our seconclaryed.ucatiol systenz,are the btachboneof this book, and they should be gone through alottgside tlrc uarious texts. Note too that the sectionsneed not be gohe tllrouglt' consecutiuely:students sltould shift from one area to anotherfreely, so long as .tlrcy feel contfortable with the language leuel of a Jtarticular text. Within sectiorts,i.t ntay be obseiued., tlrc texts are progressiuely ntore difficult with regard to the language and. the structur-esused,. Many of tlrc texts at'e also accompanied.by questionsaimed at familiarizing stud.ents with the ntost basic af the su'b-ski.Ilsof rea,ding, nanrcly th.e abit,;,tyto identi.fy r:elati.onshi.p{u;ithin a sentence. Such exercisesare based otr the Handbooh of English Granunani that has beeit speci/i.callyprepared. for deueloping granrmatical awareness in old,er students who haue not had, iu"i, opportu-rritin" preuiously. The new edition refers to exercisesbased on this booh, and tlrcse shoutcl be gine tlrouglt systematically. Teachersshould also rernemberthat most such,grarnmatical exercisescan be done with any leuel of text, and they should be prepared to adapt accordingly, and, make up sintilar. questionsof tlrcir own for tlrc ntatet'ial that is rnostsuitable for tlteir stud.entiit particular stagesin th.iir progress. R^etnentber th'at written answerEto questionstnust be carefully morkid., because unless tltis is clone students will not get accustontedto the basicprincip,les that ntust be obseruecli.f lan.guageis to be nteaningfiil. Oth'er exercises giuen lwe are irdenrled.to d,euelopanotlter sub-skill tlnt is oftert igrtored, ttarnely, the ability to infer,tlze nrcan'ingof new words fi-otn.tieir context,ie. tlrcir positioitin tlrc setfienceand. t-he mednings of the other word's tlnt go with, tlrcnt. Rernemberthat the best way to deuelop uocabul-ary ls not by writin.g down lists of iord.s witlt. their nteanings in. Sinh.ala or iantil, but rather by ?:i"s willing to guess and tltrougih reali.zing that you can under-sland,the rneanin.gof a sentenceeuen if you do not know the nteaning of all tlrc iord.s i.rt.it, just as you cdt also und,er-standtlte nteaning of a paragraph euen if you do not und.erstand,euery sbntenceiiz it precisely.In the processyou usill understan'd tlrc general sense both of the unfantiliai words as well is the uir"l"o, ,nritnr"ur, ind thtts deuelopyour uocabulary practically rather than mechanically.

Apart front such questions,'exercises thut require conrnt.utticatiue acti,sity anrl euen dtantatic involuenrcnt haue been includ.ed. T'lrcse are nteant'to stintulate interest etJen a.ntottgst stud,ents irtitially diffident about the language, and to help tlrcnt throu.gh actiue participati.oit anJ prabtice'to deuelip th.e confidence they require. Tlrcse exercises,'it sltould be noted, also encoiragi ind..ependent an'd intaginatiue tlrcugltt for i,t is througlt. such opportunities for self-erpressiort tltat stuilents will be willing to engage actiuely with tlrc language" The exercisesgiuett are of course only a satrtple of wlwt cottld be d,one, artd teaclters slrculd. tlirth of similar ones witlt. regard to ali tlrc articles, In. partiutlar, once students haue nrastered simple sentences, a great deal of practice slrculd be giuen in u.nderstah.dhry and producirtg comltlex sentences of the sort used in tlre uarious sectiotts of this booh. t, -

Except for tltoseprepared by Mrs. Jansz, tlrc writers of tlrc uariotrs texts used itt tltis' booh are "ngted iy ,llry separate sectiorts.Many of tlrcse uere preuiously publislrcd in the low-cost read.ersproduced' by'tlt'e English .Associqtion of Sri Lanha, and. our tlnnhs are due to the Associa.tionas well as tlte writers for pernissiort to reprint tlrcnt. Oranee Jansz

Rajiva Wijeslnha

Part 1 A Speech Course INTRODUCTION Our observationof classroomsrevealsthat there is little opportunityfor students to actually speak in English. Even though we have repeatedlyrequestedteachers to divide the classroom into small interactinggroups,we did not see this happeningwheneverwe visited classes.What we did observe was the teacherdominatingthe classroomwith the studentspassivelylistening.The teacherhappilypraclises the languagewhile the studentlooks on, quile mute! This guide is meait for the teacherio un"ourage studentsto talk, while refrainingstrictlya guicleor facilitator, not a dictator This speechcourse shouldaccompanythe readingand gi-anrmar courseswhich have been prescribed, Studentsshould be made aware from the start of the grammarsyllabus,and this will enable studentsto correct themselvesas the course proceeds.Tlie first tasks laid down do not involve true speech, they are contrivedand admittedlyartificial,but this is for the purposeof buildingcorrect habits of language use and teachersare requestedto adhere strictly to the given procedure. The course is specificallydesignedfor mixed ability:groupsand has been divided into two.parts. Part I consists of 30 tasks of which at least 20 must be canied out before proceeding part to ll" There is no time limit in which Part I must be completed,but each task shouldbe done quite tlroroughtywith atl students before proceeclingto the next task. lf weaker studentsare holding back the better ones, peer pressureshould be used to encouragethe weaker studentsto work faster. When dividingthe class into groups,pleasemake sure that there is an even mix of abiliriesin each group' ie' there shouldbe at least one very good and one very weak studentin each small group.This is to enable the better student to act as a peer tutor in the group, so that correctionof dialogues can be -.-"-. undertakenby studentsilremselves, beforeyou do the finaliorrections ' Part ll of rhe course consists of units which carry exercisesin promoting speech. However these exercises are also based on techniquesdevised for t'he promotionof "laterai thinking;'wf,icfr could be described as a way of loosening up rigid patterns of thinking and bringing about a greater d;;;;;; flexibilityin looking at a problem.-lntheJe exercises,such thin[ing is oeti;eratelyevoked and both teachers and studentswill get familiarwith this type ol thinkingas they-pr,oceed tfrrough1;;;;; A time period must be set aside every w"ek lor these latter exercisestoo, after 20 tasks in part I " have been completed. To reduce the rigidityof the individualspeech tasks, teachersshould encourage.studentsto think and talk in English outside lho classroorn.Since it is not possible for rnost students to talk in English ou t s i de ,th e fo|l owingsuggestionsarema d e t o e n c o u ra g e t h e p ro c e s s .

Ask students when they are at home_ to think in English about all the objects around them. Ask them to talk to themselvessilentlyin Englishabout eierything they see. Ask them to talk to themselves about the things they see when they travel to ancl from tho class. ln this way, studentswill not only be encouragedto think in English but also to practise talking in English.This will reduce their fear of coming before a class and ipeaking aloud.

When the first part of the GELT Readingcourse is done studentswill become familiarwith the use of adjectives.Encourage studentsto use adjectiveswhen they talk to themselvesabout the objects and scenes around them. This silent speechwith oneselfhas proved amazinglyeffectivein promoting speech and languagelearning. Part ll of this course is based on techniques developed by Edward de Bono (Lateral Thlnking, Uses of Lateral Thinking, etc. Penguin Books)

PART I TASK I Myself Procedure Ask studentsto write a shortdescriptionof themselvesgivingpersonalinformation Then correctthesewritings,Handback the correctedcopies,requestingstudentsto rewrite.The only studentsexemptedfrom rewriting wouldof coursebe thosewho don't have a slnglemistake. Ask studentsto learn by heart the correctedversion.They must then come before the class and speakaboutthemselvescorrectly. Mistakesshould not be allowed.lf two or three mistakesare made,the studentshouldbe stopped and asked to study the writtenscriptbeforespeakingagain. TASK 2 My Family.The same procedureas in Task I must be followed. TASK 3 ----r-

ItrSVillage/ Town.

Prodedure Divide the class into pairs of students.Ask them to build up a dialogueon the topic concerned, usingquestionsand answersso that both studehtsgive and get information aboutthe subject.The teacher Willcorrectthe writtendialogueand studentswill learn the correctedform and then performthe dialogue in front of the class. TASK 4 Pair Work

- My School.FollowTask 3 procedure.

TASK 5 The daughterof the familywantsto introduceher boy friendto her family. Procedure Dividethe class into smallergroups,each group not exceedingsix students,who must sit in a circle.Ask them to discussthe situationgivenabove. The studentswill now have to assign roles to the differentmembersof the group, to act out the situation.Each membermust have a role. They will write out the dialogues,which they must correct bqforeshowing them to you. You must do the flnal correctionsand ask the studentsto learn thelr parts' well.They must then act out the situationin frontof the class.

lf more than two mistakes are made you will interruptimmediatelyand ask thd students to learn their lines again. TASK 6 Group Work - The boy of the family wants to tell his family about hls girl friend. Follow the same procedureas in Task 5. TASK 7 Group Work - A student has failed a term test. He/ She talks about it with friends,and then ask a lecturerwhy heishe failed. Followthe same procedureas in Task 5.

decidesto

TASK 8 Group Work - A worm has been discoveredin the hostel food. What do the students do? Follow Task 5 procedure. TASK 9 Group Work - The bus in which a student travels to GELT breaks down. What does he/she do? FollowTask 5 procedure. l

TASK 10 Group Work - The students want to go on a trip (from the GELT class). What do they talk about? FollowTask 5 procedure" T ASK 1 1 Group Work - Studentswant to organizea film festivalto collectfunds for a charilv How do they go about doing.this? FollowTask 5 procedure. T ASK 12 Group Work - Studentshave been asked to conductan assembly. How will they do it? Follow Task 5 procedure. TASK 13 Pair work

- My favourite song. Follow Task 3 procedure.

TASK 14 Individualwork - My favouritefilm. FollowTask 1 procedure" TASK 15 Pair work

- My favouritetelevisionprogramme.FollowTask 3 procedure.

TASK 16 |n div id u a l w o r k - Myfa vo u ri te si n g e r.F ol|owTask1pr ocedur e. ffi

}

3 procedure" - My favouritefilm story.Follow.Task I

TASK1 8 Groupwork TASK 19 Gioup work

I - Studentshavebeentold to organizea WesakDan Sala. How do they go aboutdoing it? FollowTask 5 procedure. Studentswant to organizea no,smokingcampaign. How do they.go about doing it? FollowTask 5 procedure.\-

l" IB

TASK20 Groupwork ' TASK21 Groupwork TASK 22 Fair work

students.whnt to orga.nize a TV Pro$ramme on an environmental problemin the "'-"'-'v'vv'|s"'| How do theygo aboutdoingit? FotowTasks pro"eoure. '|' r' area. studentswant to undertake a shramadana at the -"- cancer Hospital. How do theydo jt? FollowTask5 proc'edure- --."-"' ' My favouritelessonin my favouritesubject.FoilowTask procedure. 3

TASK 23 Individual work - An interesting articleI readin the newspaper. FollowTask 1 procedure. , TASK 24 fndividual work - My mostunforgettable character. FollowTask i procedure. TASK 25 Pairwork

My most unforgettableday. FollowTask 3 procedure.

TASK 26 Individual work - A true but funnystoryfrom my life.FollowTask 1 procedure. TASK 27 Groupwork TASK28 Groupwork '

studentsare askedto makeup a ghoststoryand act it out. FollowTask 5 procedure. studentsmeetthe Ministerof HigherEducation to discusschangesin the education system.How do they go aboutdoingthis?FollowTaski procedure.

TASK 29 ContinueTask 28. Groupwork The meeting with the Ministeris adjourned. what happenswhenthey meetagain? Followsameprocedure as above. TASK 30 Groupwork '

studentswantto meetuniversity studentcouncilrepresentatives to discussUniversity malters,particularly ragging.How do they do this?Followtast s procedure.

PART II In this sectionof fhe speech programmestudentswhile speakingwill also be trained in lateral tlrinking. A regular time period must be set aside every day for these activitieswhich must be repeatedover and over again, with differentpicturesand other materialthat the exercisesrequire" UNITI Generationof alternatives You will need a picture or a photograph, depictinga story or situationwhich could have several explanations. You can use picturesfrom old magazinesor newspapers.You will have to build up a bank of such :: pictures.They can be used in two ways: 1) 2')

Describewhat you think is happeningin that picture. Give six differerrtinterpretations of that picture.

Method I Use an ambiguouspicture,ie. one which does not depict the obvious,but which could have several explanations.Ask each studentto make his or her own interpretation. Variationsbetweenindividualinterpretationsshow alternativeways of lookingat the picture.Be careful not to iudge wlrich way is best or why one way is unreasonable.Do not reveal what the picture'wai actuallyabout. ln fact it would be better if you forget it altogether. Melhod 2. Ask the students to form groups of 4 - 6 members. They must sit in a circle. Then ask them to generate a quota of different interpretationsof a picture, ie. ask each group to make six different interpretations.lf studentsare blocked by the most obvious interpretation,loosen them up by throwing in some outlandishsuggestionsof your own, so that studentsget an idea of possiblealternatives" Altered Pictures With pictures very often the obvious interpretationis dominant,So it becomes difficultto find other ways of looking at them. To avoid this difficulty,you can alter picturesby covering up parts or cutting up the picture into parts. lt inrmediatelybecornesfar more difficultto tell wtrat tne picture is about and the generationof alternativepossibilitiesbecomeseasy. You can use photographsfrom old newspapersor magazines. Get the students to give their own interpretationof the incompletepicture. This can be done by individualstudentssome days and groups of stu(ents on some days. Once the picture is put fogetherby you, the stuclentswill realize how easy it is to come to wrong conclusions when all the data is unavailableto a person. This would train them to be less harsh in ju-dginga situation.

Written Material stories may be obtainedfrom riewspapersor magazinesor the students' curriculurn.story here does not mean a tale, but any written account. Stories may be treated as follows (a)

Generatethe differentpoints of view of the people involved.

(b)

Change what is a favourabledesdrip.tion to an unfavourableone, not by changingthe materialbut by changingthe emphaiisand lookingat it in *"y. "notf'"r Extract a point of view differentfrom that of the writer.

Newspaper'sJoryof a boy who has been mauled by a zoo lion for using the :lion,scage to ease himselfof an attackof diarrhoea.The boy claimsthe lion cured his diarrhoea. Alternatives Get students to tell ttris story from 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6)

the boy's point of view the newspaperreporter,spoint of view lhe lion's point of view the onlooker'spoint of view the boy's mother'spoint of view a philosopher'spoint of view

ln this type of exercise every student could attempt to generate the"different points of view or differentstudentscould be assignedto generatethe differentpoints of view. The exerciseis not to try to guess what other peopfeare thinkingbut to show how the same situation can be seen in differentways. U N I T2 ChallengingAssumptions Th e 'wh y? 'technique. .This is a game'which providesopportunitiesto challenggSsgumptions.Usually the question ,why?,, is asked when you don't know the answer. ln this gamJ'whv?', is asked *rr";i V.u know the answer. "u"n Example Why are books printedon white paper? This QUâ&#x201A;Źsrior"t i'r'+L:lrj generatean answer which must be challenged with 'why,?,and the ques. -'i v - again tionergoes on till tr:,. .:lbjectis exhausted. ln this type of ..isea studentmust be appointedto answerthe questions.Different studentsshould t a k e u p thisp o sitiol..jifferenttopics.S ugg e s t e d s u b je c t s 6

Why ar:ecuPsround? Wny Oochairshavelegs? Why are most booksrectangular? Wny Oowomenand not m9n havebabies? Wny OopeoPlehavetwo eYes? questions' to supplysubjectswith appropriate Studentsshouldbe encouraged ln this explanalion. The usualpurposeof 'why?'is to obtainintorirationand be comfortedwith an an with By refusingto be satisfied discomfortwith any explanation. methodthe purposeis to "r"ite at ilrings-ina ditferent.wayand increasethe possibilityol restructuring you tiy to look explanation patterns. U NI T3 Redesignexercises mu.stdiscussthe project,makedrawingsand This sectionshouldbe done in groups.students. to explainthJnew designto the ilass. then appointa representative The followingredesignprojectsare suggested' Redesign A bed A classroom An aeroplane Apen i

Studentscouldsuggesttheirown redesignprojects' of doingsomething' The purposeof this sectionis to showthat therecan be differentways UNIT4 Dominantideasand crucialfactors sittratiol-I clqgialfactor is A dominant idea is organizinga themethrougha way of lopkingat,a you look at the situation' includld, no matterhow some elementof the situationwhich rr"i "f*"ys O--e !tr-t*-:t=-"----"-:'-rrrq^"o "-"""viilt-!The crucial factor ties down tne oomll]allt'{ue'l 'llru lactor is an Very olten a crucial to them. examine is to l".tors The purposeof separating "ru.i"l you challenge the neel for it' dncu the factoris identified assurqption. Exercise eitherchoosestudents Two studentsare.askedto debatea subjectin frontof the class.You can to debate ,#ft"ve oppositeviews on a particularsubjector you,could ask the students *no i""i"; ol the class listensto the from oppogitepoints of view whether1r,Ly r]oro.thos6.views or noi. The rest They can check the debateand notes down the dominantidla and crucialfactorsin the discussion'challengethe crucial then validityof the notedpointsby questioningthe debaters.The studentsshould factors. toPicsfor debate Suggested

Ragging Ethnic problernin Sri Larrka(Sinlrala,Tamil poirrtsof view) Western vs AyurvedicMedicine Modern Scierrcevs ArrcientWisdom Capitalismvs Socialism Studentscan suggest topics rrf their own for debate. UNIT 5 Brainstorming Brainstorming provides a formal setting for using lateral thinking. lt is a gio{rp activify which is higtdf structured.lts featuresare : 1) cross stimulation

2) 3)

judgement suspended formalityof setting.

In lateralthinkingwe encouragestudentsto rearrangeinformation throughprovocation. In brainstorming provocation the is providedby the ideasof olhers. Sincethese come frornoutsideone's own nrindthey stimulateone's ideas. Even if one misunderstands an idea it can still be a useful stimulus.ln i brainstormingsessionyou stimulatethe ideas of others and their ideas stiflrulaleyours. Brainstorrning piovidesa formalopportunityfor people to make statementsthey would otherwisenot make for,fedr oJ being laughedat. The 'structureof brainstorming is such that evaluation,criticisrnor judgmentof statementsmade by the participantsis not allowed.ln brains{orming anythinggoes. Even the most ridiculous or outrageousidea is allowed. Brainstorming has a formalsetting.A groupof not less than six and not more than fifteenshould part take in a session.This settingrequiresa Chairrnanwho sees that ideas keep flowingand also stops the participantsfrom criticisingor evaluatingideas.Anotherimportantfigure in a brainstormingsessionis the notetaker,who recordsall ideas genoratedh tb session.A sessionshould last only 30 minutes, aiter which the Chairmanmust stop the session.Sbffi tle notetakermust do a lot of work'recording,the Chairmanhas to help him by asking the notetraker flffi tirne to time whether everythirrghas been recorded. Sometimeshe may have to stop the flovud ideaslo ensurethat everythinghas been recorded. He may even have to summarizean idea, in consultdionwith the personwho generatedit, lor the notetakerto writeit down.The notetakerand Chairmanhave to be electedby the grouponce the latteris formed. The Session Once a groupof the right size (minimumsix, maximum15) has been formed and the Chairman and notetakerelected,a warnrup problemis given,The warm up sessionlaststen minutes.Then the groupgoes on directlyinto the main brainstorming session.The warm up is intendedto show botfrlhe type of ideas'thatmay be generatedand alsothat evaluation is excluded.A warm up sessionrJealswith very sirnpleproblems suchas designing a new umbrella, a bus ticket,a milkbottle,a clrairetc. The nrainsessiohshouldnot list longerthanthirtyminutes. . Evaluation, criticism or judgingof ideasis not allowedduringthe session.The Chairmanmust see thatcomments suchus :

"Thatis notrttew,lhat has alreadybeen triedout. "What'soriginalaboutthal?" "Thatis very silly." "No one wouldacceptlhat." are avoided. of The Chairrnancan suggestdifferentwaysol tacklingthe problemsuchas the dif{erenltechniques too can do this.The Chairmanmust also see that the sessiondoesn't lateralthinking.Otherparticipants moveout of the centralproblemancJmust keeppullingthe groupback to it wheneverthe discussionstrays. Formulating a probleln session,but its formulationcan make a differAny probtemcan be the subjectof a brainstornring :-'6it^-ce problem neither too wide nor too narrowin scope. should be to the oulcome.The -,

mightbe Possiblesubjectsfor brainstorming The needfor examinations full employment Generating How to stop wars Designol a better/ quicker Universityadmission/A' Levelcourseetc.

Note - All problemsdealtwith in studentproiec{sshould be subjectto brainstorming. Evaluation The evaluationsessionshouldnot be held on ihe sanreday as the brainstorming sessionand shor.dd be held in front ol the wholeclass. \ ldeascan be classiliedaccordingto the following Directlyuseful Interestingapproach For furtherexamination Discard.

An alternativeto this would be to wrile the brainstorm lists on the blackboard( a {ew ilems at a time) and get studenlsto evaluatethem with votes.Tlre diflerentevaluationscaRbe judg€d by lhe nurflher of voleseacfrgets. It must be rememberedthat oulrageousldeaeand ideas peoplewouldnot otherwisevocalizeare an lmpodantaspectol a brainslormingsession.Duringths evaluationsuch ideas must nol be thrown out as they can lead to new ways of looking. at and solvingproblems.Even the rnost ridiculousidea may have some imporlantprinciplebehindit, that couldbringnew insightsto solvingthe problem

Part 2 Fables and Folk Tales by Geetho Premoroine THE CROW AND THE KAVUN

Once a young 6iow saw a woman carryinga basket of fresh hot kavuns on hel head. The crow.was good at siealin! things.So she hovered over the basketand snatchedthe biggestone of tlre kavuns" Then she flew to her favouritethambilitree and sat ott one of its branches. A fox who was passing by got the kavun smell and found the tree on which the crow was sitting. When he saw the big kavun, oily and puffy and fried crisp round the edge, he decided to ha,re it for himself.So the fox went under the tree and, pretendingnot to see the kavun, said to the crow, "Ayubowan, Podi Menike, how elegant you look in black. I alnpst took you for an ebony carving." At this the crow pricked up her ears and began to listen carefully.The fox, observingthe effect his words hacl on the crow, went on, "Oh your starry eyes! How bewitching they are. And your gracefulbeak shines as if made out of crystal." The crow bent forward to take a better look at this unexpectedadmirer, Then slte heard lhe fox sigh and say almost in a whispe', "lf only I could listen to her voice! Her song would linger in my heart for.ever." Nobody had ever praised the crow like this in all her life. So it made her both happy and proud, so much so, that her mouth opened involuntarily and a loud caw came out. That was the end of her deliciouskavun. And that was the end of her admirer too. For she saw the fox running into the woods with a big grin on his face, carryingthe kavun in his foamingmouth.

THE MALA GIRAWA AND THE CLAY POT One hot clay in the month of April, a Mala,Girawawas flying here and there looking for a drop o[ water to drink. Tlie land was parched. All the little streamsand water-holeshad dried up. And there had been no rain in the jungles for months. Suddenly,the Mala Girawa saw bcfore him a little abandoned gediya shelter at the far end oi a chena. And just outside the shelter there was a big clay pot - a kala that village women use to fetch water fiom the well. Withe ray of hope kindled in his heart, the Mala justcir"*" i:woopeodown'and sat on the rim of the clay pot. But to his dismay,he saw that there was little a litle bit of water left at the.bottom of the pot. And it was impossiblefor him to reach it with his hisstory a remembered he fortunately, curved beak. So he was about to fly away in deiec'tion.Tlren, thirst.hgOr' of was dying mother had told him about a clever crow. Accordingto the story the crow who bottom of it. The crow had dropped pebbles come across a piicher which had a little bit of water a- the ta of into the pitcher until the water.at the bottom rose up .o convenientlevel. The crow ltad then drunk the water to his heart'scontent.

The Mala Girawa cast a few doubtfullooks at the big clay pot on which he was sitting.Ttre pot was so big and tall. Ancl the water glistened at tlre very bottornof it. However,the Mala Girawa did not lose courage.He walked among the stubblein the chena lookingfor little pebbles.After some time he fetched a beaklul of pebbles and started droppingthem in llre pot one by one. He thought the water moved a little. But lre was not sure. lt cou:ldbe only his imagination.He carried beaklul after beakful of pebbles and dropped tlrem all in the pot. lt was a slow.painful process. The Mala Girawa was afraid that the water would lizzle out with the heat of the pebbles.He was also afraid that a pebble would make a hole in the pot and drain the water out. And more than anythingalse, he was afraid that he would faint lrom exhaustlon on his trips to and from the clay pot. He had not much respectnow for the clever crow in his motlrer'sstory. Just then he happenedto see a papaw tree at one end of the chena and this gave him an ideaHe flew up to the tree and broke a papaw stem. With his beak he crumpledaway the dry shrivelledup leaf till the stem was clean at both ends. Then he put one encl of the stem into the pot and sucked in all the water that was at the bottom.When the cool water had soothedhis dry tongue and throat, he flew away feeling happy and proud at his own cleverness.

LAID EGGS HOWTHE MINISTERS The Ministersat the Royal palace were bristlingwith anger. They always got caught to Andare's' tricks. And Andare always had the last laugh. And rvhat was more, Andare won tlre respect of the king eaclr time and was fast becominghis favourite. So one day, the Ministers put their freads together. "We must trick A.ndaresoon and prove our wits to the king," said the Chief Minister."Aren'twe the most learnedmen in the land?" 'What should we do?" questionedone of the young Ministers. "Let us make Andare look a fool in front of llre king," replieda Senior Minister.'"Letus all go to the royal pond tomorrowwitlr eggs hidden in our robes.Then let us challenge Andare to bring an egg out of' the water il he's clever." Everybodythoughtthis was a marvellousplan' So the next nrornipgthey went witlr the king for a walk in the royal park, They invited Andare to join tlrem and Andare readilyagreed.

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It was a beautifulmorning.The king and the Ministerswalked in tlre park admiringthe rare flowers and planls. Alter some time, thb king walked towardsthe royal pond as he always did on such visits. The Ministerswho 6ad beerr waiting for tlris moment crowded reund the pond. Suddenly,the Chief Minister said, ,'Who can jump into the witer and come out with an egg? | pronounce tlrat whoever can do this is a wise man."

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Witlr this the Chief Ministerjumped into the pond and came out with the egg which he had hidden in his robes. And so dicJall the other Ministers.They all stood round tlre king displayingtlre eggs in their hands. Th e ki ng was greally amused. He lo o k e d f ro m o n e Min is t e r t o t h e o t lt e r, T lre n h e s l r o t a mischievoussmile at Andare.

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Andare guessedwhat had happened.The Ministershad planned a trick on hirii arrd had brought their eggs from home ll

After a minute And then lre jumped into the water withoutbatting an eye-lid. Andare thought qr,rickly. big rock near ilre .pond, flapped his arms several tre came out clrippingwith water. Then lrg stooclon a I am tt''e only cock here. All the others are hens' times like a giant biri and cried, "cock a doodle doo. Cock a doodledoo..Cocka doodledoo'" Andare with many valuablegifts' T5e Ministersslurnkaway in slrame.And the king showererl I{OW ANDARE ATE CURD AT-THE PALACE mid-daymeal at home. He had eaten one afternmn Andarereturnedto the palacea{ter lravinghis hardly able to breatlre' a mountainof red rice witlr his favouritekadju maluwaand was The king was delightedto see when Anclarearrivediilre king was in the middle of his royal lunch. palace that noon. so he asked for a Andare because twenty five pots of {resh curd had come to the place to be set at tlre table for Andare' and saic, "Your Maiesty' Andare regretfully lookeclat the array of dishes spread on the.king's table What a shamel I have I had a good meal today, becausemy wife had nrade my favouritekadj,umaluwa' was botlr surprised and no room in my belly for arrytlringeise, not even a piece of aluwa." The king tlre king said, " Well, for curcl, This was not iit e Anoare. But knowingAndare's{ondness disappointed. come'on then. Have some curd that we got just a while ago"" table in front of a big Now curclwas one thing that Anclarecoulclnot resist.so he sat down at the ra lun of Andare' so nrake to pot of curd. Tlre king was overjoyecl.He ilroughttlris was good opportunity at the one who said he he said in a voice loud enough for everybodyto lrear, "Hey, toox at him! Look my biggest pot of cu.rd'" har1n,troom in his belly even for a piece of aluwa. See how he is gulping down funny sight to see Andare And so saying ilre king laughedtill Hrc tears rolleddown his face. lt sure was a sittingwith a pot of cutd as big as the full moon' special' And all But Andare was not offended. He said quietlV,"Your Majesty, curd is sometlring specialthings{inclroom for themselves.Let me show you what I mean'" room in the palace' Then When lunclr was over, Andare removedall the furniturefrom the smallest boys into the room' Then he started filting the room with peopb. First lre sent the cooks and the kitchen singers. Next the royal visitors' he sent in the sweepers and the cleaners.Tlren the musiciansand the packed like a private bus during the And finally, the pundits and tlre Ministers.l{ow the room was fully little finger' morning rush rime. Arrd there was no room inside,not even for Andare's palace hall. The drums beat' Then Andare beckonedto the king who was waitingimpatientlyin the The trumpets sounded.And in walkedthe king in all his splendour' on the royal visitors' The AncJa miracle happened.The pundits and the Ministerspressed hard on the .sweepersand the visitors on tlre musiciansand the-ringuir. The m'usiciansand the singers boys - until there.was a narrow cleaners.The sweepers and the cleanerson the cooks and the kitchen stood in the middle passage running like a ribbon from the left to the right wall of the room. And the king of this bancluntouclredby people' But at himself'Then he The king frowned and then burst out laughing. This time not at Andare. r ewa r d e d "A ndaregenerous|yforhis wit a n d g o o d h u mo u r.

Exercises Sentence Structure 1.

ReaclHow the Ministers Laid Eggs. ldentifythe nouns in it under the followingheadings Proper Nouns - CommorrNouns (LivingBeings)- Other CommonNouns.

Find the verbs in this story and divide lhern ihto those that expressactions,and those that expressthoughts or feelings.

Read The Crow and the Kavun. Give the pluralsof all the nouns in it.

Think of suitableadjectivesnot in the storiesto describethe peopleand the animalsrnentionedin them.

ReaclThe Mala Girawa and the Clay Pot. Rewriteit as though it were told by the g{'nw*a.

RewriteTlre Crow and the Kavun in the presenttense as though it were told by the crow. Begin 'l can see..,.."

ldentifyllre verbs in Hsw Andare Ate Curd and slate whetherthey are transitiveor inlransitive.

ldentify10 complementsin the Andare stories.Which are adiectivesand whiclt are nouns?

Write a sentenceeach, using the 'be' verb but not repeatingany descriptiongivett in lhe stories, about the in the storiesmentionedabove. clraracters/animals

10.

Pick'10 sentencesfrom the storiesyou have read, and rewritethem adding suitable'adverbs.

11.

ldentify20 prepositionalphrasesfrom the storiesabove and state whetherthey are adiectivalor adverbial.

12.

in these slories. Tlrink of acljectivalprepositionalphrasesto describethe characlers/animals

13.

Think of adverbialprepositionalphrasesto add to sorne of the actionsdone by them.

14.Writedownthepresenttenseofa||theverbsinHowAndareAteCurd' 15.

in the storiesyou have read would like to own, and write them down in Think of things the characters/animals a way that Slrofvspossession.

to tt.|or"in boldlettersin the wordsfronrthe tist betowthatyou thinkconveysimitarmeanings

fffie

'Fables and FolP.Tales' - dare, unwillingly,tiredness,shakirrg,sadly, flew, smart, atlractive, shone, crept, evaporate,dry, angry, surprisingthing, ntisery 2.

Find words in the 'Fablesand Folk Tales' lhat mean the same as the following- very tasty, empty, uncertain, liking,wonder{ul,with spit pouringout, stay, showing,shook, suitable,much-loved,chance.

Comoosition 1. .' '

;

Write letterstrom :

a. Anciareto his wife about tlre curd story b. Tlre fox to a friend about ltow lre trickedlhe crow c. A young Ministerto his father about how Andaretrickedthe Ministers d.Themalagirawaiohismotheraboutlrowlredrankwater Rewriteany fable you know in your own words.

Dramatisation 1. 2.'

Act out in groups either of the Andarestoriesgiven here' Write out the dialoguefor a fable and act if out in giroups' 13

Part 3 Lives and Memories GRE/\T LIVES Have you ever wonderedwhat ntakessome peoplegreat?Think of some peopleyou considergreat and think about lheir qualities.Do you think that tlrey have largelythe same qualities?What are these qualities? Beforeyou read any furtlrer, first discussthis in your groups and reportto your class. Then write down your views in one clear paragraph. A psychologistcalled AbraharnMaslow rnade a lifelongstuclyof great people, much lovecl,respectecl and admiredpeople,both from historyand from his own tirne. He cliscoverecl that all these people had lhe same or similarqualitiesor clraracteristics. So Maslowput forwarclthe lheory that suclr peoplewere motivated by higher needs,such as tlre need for Truth, Beauty,Gooc.lness, Justiceand so on and that they remainedloyal to these values" One outstandingfeaturethat Maslow noticedabout these people was that they had devotecltSeir livesto some cause outsidetltemselves, and tlrat their activitieswere devotedto pursuingvalues.Maslow calledthe motivationof such peopleMetamotivation. Keepingthis idea in nrind,reacltlre two biographies that follow.

D R . LAKDASADISSANAYAKE (Thisbiography of Dr. Dissanayake wds writtenby his motherMrs.PhyllisDissanayake.) 'Lakdasa Dissanayakewas contparativelyunknownin his lifetimeof less than forty four years, but he suddenlyemergedinlo tlre limelightamid the glow of tributesthat followedhis untimelydeath. He was drownedon January14th 1990 when he attemptedto save the lives of two children.his friend'sand his own. . Lakdasa,wlro was born on 19th February1946, never soughtpublicity.In fact lre even shunnedit. He just wanted to be left alone to get on with his job - of caring for the sick who cOuld nol afford the luxury of private consultationand clrannelledspecialists.This way he did not clash lvilr 5is colleagues in private practice nor did lte come to tlre notice of those who thronged the corridorsof channel practice centres. He chose to work for the tlrousanc1s who so patientlystooclin silent queues, described their ailmentsas best they could, asked no irrelevant( as he called tfreml questions,and acceptedhis treatmentgratefully,with no thoughtof comparingit with that given to friendswho lhought they suffered from tlte same ailmentsbut lrad been prescribeddifferentmedioation.He saw with thiniy veiled disdain through the situationsin which even his so-calledfriendsbroughttheir domesticaides and even their pets to him, for free treatment,while they preferredto have themselvestreated in private consultatio_n chambers. i To him the extbnt of suffering. was the sole criterionof privilegespermitted.No patientwas given special p-rivilegesirr his warcJson the grounds of friendship,kinshif or the potentialfor pulling political strings'Only the graitityof illnessor ttre'inabilityof a pooi family io providethe patient with his needs countedwith him. Fcil a seriouslyill patienthe would himselfsit throughthe night by the bedside, asking his wife to bring coffee and sandwiches,for him and also for all -his staff who sat with him, till an operationcase no longer requiredhis personalcare. To give a dying patientthe Sappiness of seeing l4

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the wherehis loved ones in his last hours, Lak often delved into his own pocket to send the family no one gestures which his of withal to cc,me to Maharagama.Patientsand staff bore,.witnessto these talked about in his lifetimebut which they tear{ullyrecalledwhen he was no more. an Lak on his motorbikewas a figure lew could reconcilewith his image as ConsultantSurgeon' private Nursing Home once FRCS-of both London and Edinburghand an MS of Sri Lanka. A nurse in a presumablybecause he father, a friend's on operate to refused to admit him into the operatingtheatre arrivedon his motorbike. He quietly told lrei',"l am operating3n him, so you'll have to let me in"' was his hallmark.He was an academicallybrilliantstudent,while From his schooldaysself-effacement his prowess on the rugger-fieldalso lives on alter him. A school prefect at Floyal,he missed becoming him Head prefect becaus",-u* relaled by the then Principal Dudley de Silva, when he was informed by I cannot good friend' my and of the honour to be offered,he replied,"Sir, Asthka'Botejuis my senior accept the Head prefectshipover him. I will be honouredto serve under him." And so it happened. he passed all his examinationswiih distinction,and went on to win the At the Medical College -primary FRCS. He won a Commonwealthscholarshipto Edinburgh,where he coveteclHallet prize at the passed his Fellowshipas well. He returnedto Sri Lanka and was later awarded scholarshipsto Japan and to London, and a year before he died he won a scholarshipto qualify in Plastic Surgery at Yale University.At the Cancei HospitalMaharagamahe was still addictedto learning, and refusedto be tempted by an ofier to go on "No-pay"leave and work in the MiddleEast. He said that Dr. Gabriel,his seniorat Maharagama,was due to retire soon and he still had much to learn from him that rnoney could not buy. Keen student that he was he gave as freely as he receivedto the younger generationof doctors, many of whom rememberwith gratitudethe classeshe organisedfor them at Maharagama,at his home ovei Sunday lunches and weekday dinners,at Wijerama Ho.useand at the Instituteof Postgraduate Medicine.These doctors arg his best memorials.He taught them to use th'eir leisure, not for their own profit but for the spread of knowledgefor the benefitof their countryand humanity. Lak was always orienr€dtowards the servicesfor ire was born to a family of policemen.His father was lGp, and his maternalgrandfatherand lwo uncles were superintendentsof police. He longed to don a uniform.During the 1g71 lnsurgencyhe urged his mother to start a Brojectto help the forces by to the men on duty all over Colomboand distributingthese first organisingthe distiibutionof refreshments Oy nimsett on his motorbike.l-ater this developedinto a counlrywidecollection'of foodstuffs,chocolates, toilet requisitesand tinned and packeted food, distributedby road, rail and helicopter at the instance of his father, then Secretaql of National Security. In 1971 he also joined the Navy as a Volunteer Sub-Lieutenant.He rose to be a Captainand was posthumouslypromotedCommodore' He was perhaps the only non-Army man to have become an Honorary Commando, having undergonethe iigorous training required.While in England on a training assignmenthe qualified in paracliutejumpinf and won his wings. He was one of a gallantquartetof volunteersurgeonswho served at Vadamarachchi,palaly and other battlefieldswhere he saved the lives of many wounded fighting men. He thus served all three services,who joined together to honour him with a tri-servicefuneral with full honours. Lak was a truly Christiangentleman,who did not publicizeh{g religionor his devotionto his church. He lived his religion.lt was indeed a rare treat to hear him sing in the choir of the Cathedralof Christ the Living Saviour,where he was one of the leaders.He was also a member of the Lylie GodridgeSingers. As a singer he was always the life and soul of every medicalconcert,every gatheringof Old Royalists and at every such party to which he went. \ Itr

Into tre relativelyshort span of life he lived, he telescopeda lifetirnedf achievernent.Perhaps hls was one crowded hour of gloriouslife. Questions 1.

Look at the wordsbelow.Fromthe contextin whichthey appearyou shouldbe able to work out what similarideasthat alsofit the senseof the passasethey mean.Thinkof otherwordsthat.convey *disdain, hallmark, delve, wherewithal,reconcile,self-effacerflent, shunned,lhronged,thinly veiled, posthumously, rigorous don,

keptawayfromprivatepractice? Why do you thinkDr. Dissanayake

lo lhe class. in yourgroups.You mustreportthe resultsof yourdiscussion Do the followingdiscussions A) Do you thinkall doctorsshouldfollowthe exampleset by Dr. Dissanayake? you mostaboutthe life of thisdoctor? B) Whatimpressed on the life of Dr. Dissanayake. C) Carryout a PMI (Plus- Minus- Interesting)'analysis D) Why doesthe authorsay,"Hiswas one crowdedhourof gloriouslife"?

lhey are Writesentencesaboutthe followingwhichmakesclearwhaVwhere Cathedral, PlasticSurgery,Commonwealth, Commando, channelled Yale University, FRCS,MS, Edinburgh, specialists, IGP

IIITAHATMAGANDHI Mohandas KarmachandGandhi was born towards the end of the last ctintury and lived almost half of the present century. He was born in India in the State of Gujarat and lived some years in England where he studied and in South Africa where he practisedas a lawyer. ln mid-lifehe returnedto lndia to join her Freedom Movement.Nehru, the first Prime Ministerof lndia, called:himthe greatestson of lndia after Gauthamathe Buddha.Einsteinreflectingon his lile said that people would one day wonder whether a person like Gandhi actually walked the earth. Winston Churchill,the Prime'Ministerof Bri{ain,called him the Naked Fakir. Who was this man who aroqsedso much admirationand also anger? Gandhi was one of those people who from an early age felt deeply about life and questionedits values. He had to know and experiencelife deeply. As he went through life; a pattern developedand he was constantlysearclringfor answers to his questions"He called the story of his life "My Experimentswith Truth". In fact his whole life was centred airrund a search for the truth and how to put it into actlon in one's daily living He began his working life as a laWyerin Soufh Africa, where he came' across racial preiudicefor the first time. One day he had to take a trai,njourney.Ap he was not a white person he was not allowed to travel in the same compartmentas the whites. But Gandhi refused to accept this and insisted on travellingin the compartmenthe had paid for. He was arrestedfor his defiancebut this was the incident that started him olf on his search for justice. He reflectedon how people could meet injusticewithout using violence to overcome it. lt was in South Africa that Gandhi first developedthe idea of Ahimsa or and,he taught the lndianslivingin South Africa how to use Ahimsa to overcomethe many non-violence, injusticesthey suffered. His method was also called passive resistanceor. non-cooperationwith the your opponentwould finally realize person who did the injustice.Gandhi believedthat by non-cooperation his mistakeand correctthe injustice. Gandhi was successfulin many of the campaignshe carriedout in South ilfrica. However,the time from BritishRule was in progress. came for him to returnto India where a vast movementfor independence join of a fnee India. final objective the movementand contribute.tothe He felt it was his du{y to l6

And rnost importantlyhe taught his lndian followersthe principlesof Ahimsa and how to use them in the freedom struggle. As the movement progressedGandhi himselfcontinuedwith his search for Truth and formulateda strategy to rneet the enemy. He called it Satyagrahaor Truth Force. Gandhi believedthat the power of your own truth and sufferingwould change the heart of the enemy. Satyagrahawas used extensivelyin the freedom struggle and it was very effective.A point came in this struggle when the British could no longer hold out against lhe masses of people who stood up to them, non-violenllydemandingfreedom. However Gandhi was a firm believer in training and every'campaignwas led by people wlto were personallytrained by him in the methods'of Satyagraha,and it was this disciplineand training too that contributedto the success of the struggle. Gandhi lived to see India gain her independencefrom the British but his life was greatly saddened by the divisionbetween Muslirnsand Hindus and all the massacresthat took place when Muslim leaders demandeda separatestate for the Muslims.Becauseof his unshakablebelief in the brotherhoodof man, he resistedthe idea of separationfor a long time but finally gave in and lndia was divided into a Muslim state (in two parts, East {nd West) called Pakistanand lndia which was predominantlyHindu. The last years of Gandhi'slife were filled with sorrow becausehis idea of Satyagrahacould not prevent the hatred at a mass rally by of Hindusagainst.Muslims and the divisionof India.ln 1948 Gandhiwas assassinated a Hindu fanaticwhO coul{ not agree with the idea of the brotherhoodof man advocatedby Gandhi" Questions 1. .

Guess lhe meaningsof the followingwords, using clues from the reading.Give reasonsfor your answers. Fakir,con$tantly,racial,prejudice,defiance,strategy,holdout, massacres,resisted,fanatic, assassinated

lmaginethat you were one of the peopldtrainedin Satyagrahaby Gandhi.Write an accountof your trainingcourse. i

Gandhiwas very concerfiedaboutTruth.Discussin ymrr grgupswhethera concernwith lruth is important for onels life. Fleportto'yourclass.

Ffom whal you have read'in the lessonand from what you alreadyknow aboutGandhi,carry out a PMI (Flus- Minus- Inlerestihg) analysison his life"

Groupprojects g'.

Find out aboutat ledsttwo of the followingand theirwork for freedomin their countries.Write a brief .biographical noteaboutthoseyou selected. NelsonMandela,AungSan Suu Kyi,Ho Chi Minh,Sukarno,CoryAquino

What elsb do you know about a) Ein$tein b) WinstonChurchill?

What has happenedto the two partsof Pakistanmentionedin this passage?When and how did this happen?

-[wairt,is, not a biography. The followingpassage,by one of America'smostfamouswriters,Mark But in lookingback on a differentaspectof the liveswe lead,lt shouldmake us thinkof the very differin theirlives. ent ways in whichpeoplecan seeksatisfaction

THE BOYS'AMBITION When I was a boy, there was but one permanentambitionamong my comrades in our village on the west bank of the MississippiRiver.That was, to be a steamboatman.We had transientambitionsof other sorts, but they were only'transient,When a circus came and went, it left us all'burning to become of clowns; the first Negro minstrelshow that ever came to our section left us all sufferingto try that kind pirates. permit be us to life; now and then we had a hope that, if we lived and were good, God would remained. always steamboatman a to be These ambitionsfaded gut, each in its turn; but the ambition Once a day a cheap, gaudy packet arrived upward from St. Louis, and another downward from Keokuk. Before these events, the day was glorious with expectancy;after tliem, the day was a dead and empty thing.Not only the boys, but ihe wfrotevillage,felt this. After all these years I can picture that old time io myielf now, just as ii was then: the white town drowsingin the sunshineof a summer's morning; the streets empty, or pretty nearly so; one or two clerks sitting in front of the Water street stores, with their splint-bottomedchairs tilted back againstthe walls, chins on breasts,trats slouchedover their faces' asleep, a sow and a litter of pigs loafingalong the sidewalk,doing a good btlsinessin water-melonrinds and seecls; two or three lonely littlefreight piles scatteredabout the "levee";a pile of "skids"on the slope of the stone-pavedwharf, and the fragrant town drunkard asleep in the shaddw of them; two or three wood flats at the head of the Whad, but nobody to listen to the peacefullapping of the wavelets against rollin$ its mile-widetide along, them; the geat Mississippi,the majestic,the magnificenttr/ississippi, shining in the sun; the dense forest way on the other side; the "point" above the town, and the "point" below, boundingthe river-glimpseand turning it into a sort of sea, and Withald very still and brilliantand "points";instantlya negro lonely one. preiently a film of dark smoke appearsabove one of those rBmoto *[i-t-e-a-m-boat a-comin'!"and drayman,tamous tor fris quick eye, and prodigiousvoice, lifts up the crf, the sceng changes!The town drunkardstirs, lhe clerks wake up, a furious clatter of drays follows, every 'the dead town..is alive and house and store pours out a human contribution.and all in a twinkling moving. Drays, carts, men, boys, all go hurrying from many quarters to a common centre, tlre wharf. Assemiled t'he,re,the people fasten thlir eyes upon the coming boat hs upon a wonder they are seing for the first time. And the boat is rather a handsomesight, too. She is tong and sharp and trim and pretty; she has tl,vo tall, fancy-toppedchimneys, with a gilded device of some kind swung between them; a padiancifulpilot-house,all glass and "gingeibread"perched on top bf the "texas" deck behind thern; the dle-boxesare gorgeous with a piCtureor with gilded rays above the bsat's name; tlre boiler deck, the hurricanedeck, and the texas deck are fenced and ornamentedwith clean white railiri'gs;there is a flag gallantlyflying from the jack-staff;the furnacedoors are open and the fires glaringbravely;the upper decks great Ire blaek-wiih pass"ng"rr; the captain stands by the big bell, calm, imposing,the envy of all; volumesof the blackesismoke rollingand rumblingout of the chimneys- a husbandedgrandeurcreated with a bit of pitch pine just before airiving at a town; the crew are grouped on the forecastle;the broad enviecldeck-hanclstands picturesquelyat the end of it with stage is run far oui ouei the port bow, und "n a coit of rope in 5is hand; the pent sleam is screamingthroughthe gauge-cocks;the captain lifts his hand, a bell rings,the wheels stop; then they.turnback, churningthe water to foam, and tlre steameris at rest. Then such a scrambleas there is to jet aboard, and to get ashore, and to take in freight and to it dischargefreight,all at one and the same time; and such a yellingand cursingas the mates facilitate alll Ten minuGs later the steamer is under way again, with no flag on the jack-staffalrd no black smoko asleep issuingfronr the chimneys.After ten more minutesthe town is dead again, and the lown drunkard by the skids once more. IB

. pi-,;

My fattrer was a justice of the peace, and I supposed lre possessedthe. power of. life and death over ali men, and could hang anybody that .offendedhim. This was distinctionenough for me as a. general tlring; but the clesireto be a steamboatmankept intruding,nevertheless. I first wanted to be a where iabin-boy, so lrat I could come out with a white apron on and shake a table-clothover the side, on the all my o|d comrades could see me. Later I thought I would rather be the deck-harldwho stood But end of the stage-plankwith the coil of rope in his hand, because he was particularlyconspicuous. possibilities.By and by these were only day-dreams- they were too heavenlyto be contemplatedas real up as apprentice turned one of our boys wbnt away. He was not heard of for a long time. At last he engineeror ',striker"on a steamboat.This thing shook the bottom out of all my Sunday-schoolteachings. and Thit boy had been notoriouslyworldly,and I just the reverse;yet he was exalted to this eminence, would He greatness. I left in obscurityand misery. There was'nothing generousabout this fellow in his would sit on the always manage to have a rusty bolt to scrub while his boat tarried at our town, and he whenever his And him. insidl guard and scrub it, where we all could see him and envy him and loathe clothes, boat was laid up he wouildcome honre and swell around the town in his blackesta.nd..greasiest all sorts of steamso that nobody could help rememberingthat he was. a steamboatman;and he used people could not boat technicalitiesin his talk, as if he were so used til thern that he forgot common way that would understandthem. He would speak of the "labboard"sicle of a horse in an easy, natural he would citizen; make one wish he was dead. And he was always talking about "St. Looy" like an old was "passing by the refer casually to occasionswhen he was "coming down Fourth street,"or when he old Big Missouri"; "the of planter,sHouse,,,or when there was a fire and lre took a turn on the brakes down there that and then he would go on and lie about how many towns the size of ours were burned they had been day. Two or three of the boys had long been personsof considerationamong us because was over glory to St. Louis once and had a vague generalknowledgeof its wonders.But the day of their "cub"-engineer now. They lapseclinto a humble silence,ancl learned to disappearwhen the ruthless showy brass a approaclred.Tlris fellow had money, too, and hair-oil.Also an ignorant silver watch and admired and watch-chain.He wore a leather belt and used no suspenders.lf ever a youth was cordially boy in the every "cut out" lrated by his comrades,this one was. Nd girl could withstandhis charms. He had not we village.when his boat blew up at last, it oittuseoa tranquilcontentmentamong us such as in church all known for months. But when he came home the next week, alive, renowned,and appeared to us that seemed it batteredand bandaged,a shining hero, stared at and wonderedover by everybody, to criticism' irre partiarityof providencefor an undeservingreptilehad reacheda point where it was open boy This creature's career could produce but one result, and it speedily followed. Boy after postmaster's managed to get on the river. The minister'sson became an engineer.The doctor'sand the four sons of a'boat; on barkeeper sons became,,mudclerks";the wholesaleliquordealer'sson becamea positionof grandest the chief merchant,and two sons of the countryjudge, became pilots. Pilot was tlre to two all. The pilot, even in those days of trivial wages, had a princelysalary - from a hundred and fifty preach' pay a would hr,rndredancl fifty dollars a month, and no board to pay. Two months of his wages er's salary for a year, Now some of us were left disconsolate.We could not get on the river - at least our parentswould not let us. So, by and by, I ran away. I saiclI would never come home again till I was a pilot ancl could come in glory. But somehow I could not manage it. I went meekly abroad a few of the boats that lay packed togetherlike sardinesat the long St. Louis wharf,and humblyinquiredfor the pilots,but got only a cold shoulderand short words from mates and clerks. I had to make the best of tlris sort of treatmentfor the time being, but I had comfortingclay-dreamsof a future when I should be a great ancl honoured pilot, with plenty of money, and could kill some of these mates and clerks.

Questions 1.

gaudy,drowsing,remote,prodig'rous, Guessthe meaningsof the followingwordsfromthe context- transient, discharge, distinction, conspicuous, drays,gilded,gorgeous,en'Vy,grandeur, exalted,eminence, consideration, princely, glory,ruthless, disconsolate. showy,partiality, special/ attractive? Dividetheminlo nounsand adjectives. Whichof thesewordssuggestsomething

ldentify the technicalter.ms in this passagethat refer to a ship or its pans. ls it necessalylo understand theirmeaningsgxactly?

Find the followingwords/ phrasesand notewhat'isodd aboutlhe wordsthey are usedwith - doinga good business, fragrant,ignorant.

his village Studythe way in whichTwaindescribes (a) before (b) aftei the steamboalis seen.

Writeaccountsof your villqge/ town b) duringan excitingevent. a) on an ordinaryday Includedescriptions of whal peopledo in youraccounts"

Vt'hatwas the permanentainbilionof the wrilerand his friendsduringtheir boyhood?

Whatwerelheirtransientarlibitions?

B. L

the imagethat has {onnedin your mindaboutthe writer'svillage. Why was the 'cub''engineeiadpriredand hatedby his comrades?

,; I

10. What elfectdid the news'oflfie'cub'engineer'sboat blowingup kve on the villageboys?Flowdid thFB& feelingschangea littlefate{;{:J,*lwhy? 1 1 . What did the writer'Jinally dr:!',WaShe succ.essful? 12. Writeaboutyour own chitdho.<x1 arnbitions, describingthe background in vrn{chthey arose. 1 3 , Youngchildrenare often impressedby lhe accomplishments of slightlyo.lderboys or girls. lf you re,meruE$r admiringsome olderbqy oi girl Whâ&#x201A;Źnyou wereyoung,writeaboutit. 14.

Pretend'you are a childseAihga trainfor the lirstlime,and writea descriplion d this.

15.

The writer appearsto be !r vel! ordinarypersonrecallinga childhoodcommonto most people,even thoUgfr laler on he becameone of America'sbest writers.What qualitiesin his early years do you ltrinksugge$,hfs lalerdevelopment?

1 S . Writea briefaccountof yofurlife as seen by an observeron your 70th birthday.

?o t t.

.Jr;

Part 4 ri !

HistoricalSketches

- ,,i

by ;no

Gootboi Gunqsekqrq ,1 THE RENAISSANCE By the Sth century A.D. the great Roman Empire in the west had â&#x201A;Źnded. Law and order had been graduallybreaking down and little by little learning also died away. There were no proper schools. Books were found mainly in monasteries,and since they had to be written bf hirnd they cost a lot. In those days the cost of a book was equal to the cost of a piece of land. Th'erefore,most pe'ople could not afford to learn to .read.Even great kings like Charlemagneof France coUlddo little more than sign their hames. The old culture (1) of Greece and Rome was forgottenin Europe.This era (2) was rightly called "The Dark Age". In the eastern part of the Roman Empire things were different.Thi$ Christian Empire lasted until 1453 when Constantinoplewas captured (3) by the Ottoman Turks. ln Constantinoplelearning went on; learnedmen and teacherswent on living and workingthere. A few of themtegan to get frightenedof the Seljuk Turks who had won the great battle of Manzikertand so around the end of the 11th and 12th centuries (4) A.D. they ran away to Europe. Little by little more and more learned men came to ltaly. They carriedwith them many old papers and books of ancientknowledge. When therycame to ltaly studentsbegan to read these old papers which had so much knowledge.A new interest in searchingfor knowlddgebegan. This new cultural morement that now swept Europe has been called the Renaissance. The word "Renaissance"means "Re-awakening"or "Re-birth".In History it is used to describe the re-awakeningof men's minds. Men began to study Classical (Greek ar,rdRoman) art, literatureand scjence.People star.tedto copy Classicalstyles of architecture (5). Great thinkerslike Plato and Aristotle were read again. The Dark Age was coming to an end. All this took plaee between the 11th and 15th centuries. The Renaissancefirst began in four states of ltaly namely Florence,Venlce, Milan and Bgme. These states had powerfulrulers who helped writersand artistsof that time by paying them salariesout of their own money. Dukes like the Medici of Florence,the Viscontiof Milan and even the Pope in Rome set out to make their own gities places of beauty. lf you visit Florenceyou will see hundredsof examplesof Renaissanceart and architecturethat make it one of the most interestingcities of the world today. ih" R"n"issance soon spread a{l over Europe but it was in ltaly that it was best seen. Studies changed. Universiiiescame up everywhere.The universityof Salernowas the oldest. The one in Bologna was well known for its studies of Law. The universityof Paris and the universityof t)xford were begun in the 12th and 13th centuries.There were over a h.undreduniversitiesin Europe alter the 14th century.But for this new learning to spread one invention (6) was necessary. lt could never have spread so fast without it. This inventionwas the printingp.,rpss. 2l

P r i n ti ng Tlre Chineseknew the art of printingvery early. Europeanslearnedthe art of makingpaper from t5e Arabs.They also found out how to print by using woodenblockswhich had been carved with letters. They would then press the block onto an ink pad and then place it on the paper.Tlris methodwas long and slow. Then in 1439 the German Johann Guteqbergwas said to be working on a secret machine.He and the age of printingbegan. By the year 1500 found out the art of using movablemetal letters.....,. presses printing all over Europe.There were 73 in ltaly. There got were there out and secret had A.D. the William Caxtonproducedthe first book to be printed in Spain. 24 were 51 in Germany,39 in France and in England.The name "Caxton"has since then been found on millionsof books printedby this company. Thanks to the inventionof the printingpress the Renaissancewas able to have an e{fect on all forms of thought. To make it easy we lrave divided this developmentinto five groups namely Art, Architecture, Sculpture (7), Literature(8) and Science. Art Renaissanceartists are thought to be amongst the best in the world. Tlteir works can be seen in is museums (9) in Europeand America.The work of an artist like Leonardoda Vinci or Michaelangelo priceless. Most of the art in Europe,upto this time, had been religious (10). The new artistsbegan to paint very lifelike figures. They studied the human body thoroughly.They looked at muscles and bones. Everythingwas lifelike Michaelangelo Some of the best artistswere Leonardod.aVinci (1452 -1519),Raphael(1483-1520), (1475 - 1564)and Titian(1477.,-1576)"Therewere hundredsof others;too nnanyto be mentionedhere. Da Vinci paintedthe famous "Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper".In the last paintinghe used his own face as a model (11) for one of Jesus'followers.ln the Vaticanin Rome you can see Michaelangelo's beautifulpaintingson the ceilings (12) of the SistineCtrapel.Raphael,who was a very handsonreman, is best known for his painting"The Entombment".Titian was famous for the bright colours he used; especiallyfor his red-hairedwomen. Architecture Architecturefollowedclassicalstyfes,that is Greek and Roman styles. Michaelangelowas as great an architectas he was a sculptor.He beautifiedRome through his buildingstoo. Sairrt Peter's Calltedral in Rome was built by both Michaelangelo and Raphael.The dome (13) of Saint Peter'sis by Michaelangelo alone. Sculpture Some of the best sculpturesand carvingsof the Renaissanceperiod are found in churches..Statues were made of either bronze (14) or Carrarq marble (15). They were also very big. For example Michaelangelo's statue of "David"is over 1'4feet tall. As in art everythingwas lifelike.When Michaelangelo finishedhis "Moses"it looked exactlylike a living man. He is supposedto have hit the statue crying, "Why don't you speak?"The nrarkmade by him can still be seen.

Tlre great bronzecarvingof Johrrthe Baptist'shead being givento Salomeby King Herodwas done by anotherfamoussculptor,Donatello.Niccoloand his son GiovanniPissanoare often said to be the first Renaissancesctrlptors.

seten_qe Peoplewere not allowedto study scienceduringthe Dark Ages. The church did not look kindlyon men like Galileowho said that it was the earth that moved aroundthe sun and not the sun arori'ridthe earth. But with the new freedomof thoughtmen became braver.They began to see that unreasonable fears were foolish, and that everythinghad a natural cause. Copernicus(1473-1543)from Poland said that the sun and not the earth was the centre of the whole universe (16). Vessalius(1516-1564)from Hollandwrote a book called "A Descriptionof The Human Body" and gave drawingsin it of the body. This was unusualbecausedissection (17) was not allowed.Both men were found fault with at that time. But they both lrelpedin ,the"rebirth"of knowledge.

Uteralure Due to the inventionof printingwriterswere able to get their work publishedin book form. They began to write on all sorts oJ subjects.Dantewrote his well known "DivineComedy".Boccaciomade'the short story famous in his book "The Decameron".A man named Machiavelli, who was a high officialin llre government,wrote a book called "The Prince"which told rulers how tlrey should rule a kingdom to benefitthemselvesfrorn it. One of the most learrtedmen of this time was Erasmuswho wrote " ln Praise of Folly"and rnanyother works. All over Europelearnedtnen and writerswere beginningto write in tlreirown language.Beforbthey Itad writtenmostlyin Latin.Tlre printingpress turnedout many copiesand learningspread to all people. Bookswere no longercostlybut could be boughtcheaply. General Comments You will noticethat men like Da Vinci and Michaelangelo were good at many things, This was an idea that came from Greecein the Sth centuryB.C. Becomingvery good at just one thing is a new idea. The Renaissanceman was a personwlro was an 'all-rounder' so to speak. Muc.hof the work of the Renaissanceis there to this day. A trip througlr Europe will give you an idea of how much of it there was. Happilyfilms and TV shows are.able to bring the world into our houses and llrose wlro cannot travelcan still see the wondersof that time. The one thing common to the whole Renaissancewas the great love of beauty.The best exampleof a Renaissanceman is Leonardoda Vinci.

GLOSSARY (1)

C u l tu re

a way,of life which includesdevelopmentthrougheducation

(2)

Era

a period of time

(3)

Captured

seizedand took ownershipof

(4)

Centuries

tirne periodsof hundredyears

(5)

Architecture Architect

clesignof a builcling a personwho designsbuildings ZJ

.ll

{6}

lnvetttion

the makingof a new thing

'(7) i -_.,, (B)-

Sculpture SculPtor

a shape made from clay or m'eta{' a person wlro makes things out of clay and metal

Literature

all writingsof a partibularlanguage,period,people, subjectetc.

rttiJ

Museums

places in which works from earlier ages are shown

{1O) Religious

concernedwith religiotl

Jl,t)

Model

a person or thing that serves as a subjectfor an artist

(t?)

Ceilings

the liningsthat are at the top of a room

{*3)

Dome

a curved roof

(td)

Bronze

a brown colouredmetal mainly of copper and tin

$$)

Marble

a white'colouredtype of stone used a lot in sculptureand architecture

(,i6)

Universe

the planets,tlre stars and everythingelse throughoutspace

(17)

Dissection

scientificallycuttingup the body

Questions 1.

What was called " The Dark Age"? Why do you think it was called that ?

What was the beginningol the Renaissanceand lrow was it broughtabout?

In what way do you think the inventionof printinghelpedthe Renaissance?

What was specialabout the Art of the Renaissanceperiod ?

might have had after he had completedhis statue Write down in the first personthe feelingsthat Michaelangelo of Moses,

What was a featureof the Renaissanceman Z'Wtratcan we learn today irom him?

'Form irrto groups and discusshow you rnay bring about a Renaissancein our ow.nsociely.Write your ideas down and iead tltent to the class"

Write clownin one paragraphof not more than 250 words the main points matle about the Renaissance'

Write a brief account of what was trappeningin Sri Lanka round about the 1Sth century.You should mention developmentsin architectureand literatureas well as history.

10.

Group Projects a) Find picturesof tlre places or items mentionedin tlre chapterand make a scrapbookwith them. b) Find out about one of the following,and write a brief reporton its ltistory. iii. The Vatican ii. Constantinople i. The Roman Empire and write a brief biographicalnote about him. c) Find out about ffie of the foltrowing, iv. Charlemagne iii. David ii. Copornbus i. Galileo 24

v. Aristotle

2 THE A B AB S A S RUL E RS O F S P A I N ln the year 711 A.D. the Arabs ettteredSpain. By 717 they had conqueredmost of it. They made Cordobatheir capitaland it containednearlyhalf a millionpeople.This was a great nunrberof peoplefor any city of that era (1) to have. Althoughlhere was no caste systemamcng the Arabs there were certainclass divisions.At the top of societyin Spain were the Emirs - the Muslimlandowners,rich merchantsand high army officials.As they had a culture.tlrat was higher than that of the people they ruled over, the Arabs could sometimes be proud. Tlre Christiansformed the lower class since they were under the Arabs. They were called 'Mozarabs' ( mad eAr aL .'s) becausethey took on A rabicc u s t o ms (2 ), la n g u a g ea n d d re s s " We m u st take special rtote of some t h rn gv e : ' i' Q f c J wh ic h t h e A ra b s d id . A s ru le r s t h e y w e r e tolerant (3). They ruled their people fairly.They did not ill-ireatanyone because he was of a dilferent religionto tlreirs.This kind of belraviourwas very unusualat that time. Very few nationsshowed such ki"Cnessto peoplethey had conquered. :-' ::'-'e SpaniardsdicJchangeover to lslanr.But they were not trusted (4) by eitherthe Arabs : ' " : -â&#x201A;Ź S::- . - = --:,'were called'rene g a d o s ' me a n in g ' p e rs o wh n s o h a d ru n a wa y ' .T h e t o l e r a n ta t t i I : : :''- : l- ,- ! =::--'i-em to stay in Sp a irrf o rn e a rly5 O 0y e a rs . B e ne fi ts i:':'=- =-= Th e Ar a b s drd a lcl':. S E : - : -::1. --: --- -=' -' : : j' : ' -s , . , ' -t ' ' , , e Ct h e re .Ma n y f a m i l i e ss t a y e d on and had little contactwith the Arahs .' ',?na,..a,,: a:?s rxe S_v.:a and Palestine.But the Arabs of North Africa were always coming and going. There was a i*t cf c:niact with the Arabs of Morocco,Tunisia, Algeriaand so on. Here are some of the ways in wlrichSpain benefitedfrom Arab rule. (1)

The Arabs irnproveclthe agricultureof Spain. They introducednew crops and new plants. The orange was one such plant and to this day orangeSof the Sevillearea are famous.

(2)

They irrigated (6) the land. They tauglttthe peasantsnew ways of buildingcanals.

(3)

They made Cordobathe centreof learning.The best teachersof Mathematicsand Astronomywere to be found trere.

(4)

Tlrey built beautifulpalaces(like the Alhambra).They beautifiedcities.

(5)

The Arabs were great map makers.The maps they made later helped Marco Polo, Vasco da Gama and Columbus.

(6)

They taught the Spaniardshow to use the gitta. This became the Spqpish guitar which is now almost a nationalinstrument.

(7)

They gave the Spaniardsa higher.slandardof life. Flousesbegarr to have beautiful gardens with fountains playing in their courtyardg,Fwn'ishingsbegan to be rich and comfortable.Carpets.were used. 25

on their cultureto Spairt.But ifie ertd of Arab In tSeseancl irr rnanyother ways tlre Arabs*passed rule had to come. Tlre Arabs did not becomepart of Spain.They remainedthe rulingclass and lhe two They were friendlyto each other:but soon tlte Christiansin Spain b'eganto nationsrarely internrarried. think of breakingfree frorn Muslimrule. '* , In Castileand Aragorrstrong rulers came up. A famous hero called El Cid was supposedto have done many brave deeds. His real nanle was Rodrigo di Vivar and lte tried to unite Spain. Probably his bihve deeds did rrot actuallytake place. Litle by little Spain began to be laken back by Christiankings and the Arabs were beginningto be pushed soutlrwards. In

1118

ln . In In ln

1236 1238 1241 1243

Sargossawas capturedby the Spaniards. Later in the year Cataloniawas taken. BeautifulCordobafell. Valenciawas caPtured. Sevillebecame tlre next to go. Mttrciafell.

By the 14th centurythe Arabs only ruled Granadain the South. Most of the Arabs returnedto Sierrasand was not easy to other Muslinrcountries.But Granadawas protected (7) by the ArrCalusian capture. * Granadawas full of farratical(B) Muslirns.lt was close tc ttorth Africa and could easily get help frpm the Arabs who lived there. But the Arabs lost Granada.The lovely clly tlrey lraC ruled so well and for so long was takett from them at last.

"Reconquista"(Tlte Reconquestof Spain) ln 1469 lsabella of Castile married Ferdinandof Aragon. This marriage united two very strong Spanish States. Ferdinandwas young and full of energy and lsabellawas a strong Catholic.They were determinedto conquerand rule tlre wlroleof Spain. First of all Queen lsabella sent a rude letter to the King of Granada asking him to pay taxes lo her. Very angry at such a request (9) the king replied that he would do no such thing. So in 1483 Ferdinandand lsabella sent an army to Malaga to try and capture that town, which was owned by the King of Grarrada.The Spaniardswere soundlybeaten by the Muslims.

It is possible that the conquestof Granada might have been put off for a long time if not for treason (tb) among the Muslirnsthemselves.A Princeof Granada (nicknarnedBoabdilthe Unlucky) wa s cap iu red by Ferdinarrd.Ferdin a n d g a v e h im f re e d o t n in e x c h a n g e f o r a p r o m i s e t o h e l p i n he kept his promiseto Ferdinand. conqueringGranada.Boabdilfoolishlyagreed,and surprisingly, He helped Ferdinarrdto captureRonda in 1484 and Malagain 1487.After tlre captureof these two towns FerdinandcJidnot behave too well. Many Muslimswere forced to pay large sums of money to hinr. Otherswere sent into exile (11). Many becameslaves. -

FinallyBoabdil'sfaiher died and lre becanteKing of Granada.He sudclenlyrealisedwhat a fool lre 'had been. He decicledto defenclGranada.But it was too late. In 1491 Ferdinatrdwas at his gates with an army of 40,000men. lt tool<hitn one year to captureGranada. 26

Ferdinandentered the city in tfirmrph (12). With tears in his e1resBoabdilsaid farewellto the beautiful city in which he had grown up and which he ttad lost, thanks to his own foolishness.The re-conquest Spain had a spanish Kkrg and Queen again. lt was a Christian country of spain was now "oinplete. once nlore. They Summarising Arab rule in Spain, we see that the Arabs benefited the cqJfitTy in every way. to. behavedwit6 toleranceand generosity (13). As rulersthey are.to be lmked up GLOSSARY (1 )

Era

a period of time

(2i

Customs

set ways of doing things

(3)

Tobrant

be,ng patient and fair towards those whose i6as and practices differ from one's own

(4)

Tn&d

had laith in

(5)

Bensfits

good thirqs

(6) ' lrigffad

to suppfy $and) with water bv megl'bl

(7)

Protected

kept safe

(B)

Fanatical

keen being unreasonablY

(9)

Re$lest

ask {s sotrething

etfeams passing through it

(1O) Treascn

'.r'orkffr$against one's cotrltry or gove$Fnent

(11) Erib

away from one's country

(12) Triumph

having overcome one's enemies

(13) Gfferosity

open hearte&tess

Exercises 1.

Use the words in tfue Glossary in sentences c* your own that brtng out their nâ&#x201A;Źanlrrg. How many of them could you have guessedthe meaningof from tlre conlext ?

Who were the Emirs ?

Who were fu,czarabs?

ln what ways did Arab rule benefitSpain ?

Why do you think the authorsays "the end of Arab rule hacJto come"?

How did the Spaniardsget backtheircountryfrom the Arabs?

.ln paragraph2 the autntr says the Arabshad "a culturehigfrerthan that of tfrâ&#x201A;Ź peoplethey ruledover'" Do you think a culturecan said to be higheror lowerthan another?How do you decidewhetherone cultureis "higher"lhan another?Once you have thougtrtthis oul, discussin your group and reportto the class.

We learn that the Arabsdid muchfor Spain.Why then do you think they were drivenout of Spain by the end of the 15thceqtury?You may discussthis in your groupand reportto the class.

What is the dominantidea in this adicle?What is the crucialfactorthat pins down the dominantidea?

10.

Writean accountof Arab rule in Spaintrom the pointof view of a Mozarab.

:11

11. Writethe letterthat Queenlsabellamight havewrittento the kingof Granada. 12. Workingin your groupswrite a dialoguethat ndghthave taken place betweenFerdinandand lsabella afterFerdinand's enlryintoGranada. 13.

GroupProjects

a. Find out about the'Arabs in the periodbeforethey enteredSpain.Write a brief accountof their conquests. b. Find out aboutone of the following,and wrile a briefaccountof hls prirrcipalachievenrents i. Marco Polo ii. Vasco da Gama iii. Columbus. c.

14.

Find out in your groups what was happenlng in (q) lrdia (b) Ghlna during the period in which tte Arabs ruled Spain. Write a brief outline.of the histories of these countries during this period.

Write a brief account of what was happening in Sri Lmka during the period the Arabs ruled Spain. You should mention details bf the type g{ven in the paragraph about how Arab rule benefited Spain.

3 THE CONQUEST OF SOUTH AMERICA

In the 15th centriryEuropeansbegan to undertakeVoyages (1) of Discovery (2), They wantedto find a way to get to the East by ship. The reasonthey were forced to do this was becausethe Turks had closedall the land roadsin 1453.SinceGonstantinopfe was now in the handsof the Muslimsthe Christiankingsof Europesent sailorsand shipsto lookfor new sea passages. Therewere manygre'atdiscoverers. This is a list of someof the mostfamous. 1.

Christopher Columbuswas sent by King Ferdinand and Queenlsabellaof Spainto find a new way to go to lndia.He disoveredAmericainstead,by accident.

Balboawas the first European.to see the PacilicOcean.

AmerigoVespucci,an ltalianexptorer (3), gave his name to the New Wortd ( the two American Continents,North and South ).

BartholemewDiaz sailed around the Cape of Good Hope"

Vasco da Gama sailed around the Cape and was the first to come to India. He landed on the.Malabar Coast on May 26th, 1498.

Cabot, an Englishman,discoveredCape Breton lslandsnear North America.

Henry iludson exploredNorth Americaand gave his name to the Hudson River.

Ferdinand Magellan was the first man to try to sail around the world. He died halfway but his ship complete.dthe voyage

Captain Cook discoveredNew Zealandand exploredparts of Australia'scoasiline (4).

Thanks to these brave men Europeansnow went to the East and to the West. Since it was a Spanish King and Queen who took owhershipof the land that Columbusdiscovered,many Spaniardsnow went to South America to search fbr riches. (Because the Spanish language comes from the old Roman languale, Latin, GouthAmericancountriesare also called UaiinAmericanc6untries).Some of them were soldiers. They were called Conquistadores.They were often cruel and greedy. We especially remembertwo names. They were HernandoCortes and FranciscoPizarro.These two mgn destroyedt5e two great empires of south America,those of the Aztecs and the Incas. Early History We.know veff little about the historyof the South AmericanEmpiresbecausethey left no recordsin writing.We can only make some sort of guess (5) afler examiningthe great ruins (g) ihey left behind. One such empire was that of the Aztecs in Mexico.The Aztecs believedin an old story which said that their 9cd, Quetzacoatl,would return one.day and lead them to glory. He would be very fiir and wear silverclothes.

Just at this tirne Cortescame with a small numberof tnen.Tlp Spaniar{shad fair skins and wore silver arrnour (7). The Aztecs tlroughttheir story had come true. So tlrey didl'ltot chase them away but treatedthem like gods. The Spaniardssaw tlre great wealth of the Aztecs. The Aztecs did not know the value of gold and silver.Tlrey useclit for every day living.The Spaniardsdecidedthey would conquer (B) Mexico.By the time tlre Aztecs realizedthe Spaniardswere not gods it was too late. It was easy for a few Spaniardsto conquerthe huge Aztec lands. The Aztecs had never seen guns or horses. A few guns could easily kill lrundredsof unarmed men. Mexico was td<en. l(ing Montezuma was killed. Tlre capital city of Tenochtitlanwas burned to the ground and rebuiltas modern Mexico City. It took Pizarrojust one day to conquerPeru"and lhe Incas.The lnca King, Atalrualpa,was killed and Peru also became part of the SpanislrErnpire.Gold and silver were melted down into bars and taken by ship to Spain. Spain now became one of the richestcountriesin Europe. But the poor Aztecs,the Incas and all the other native (9) people of South Americawere treatedwith little care and even outright cruelty.The Spaniardswere not good colonial {10) masters. Spanish Rule In South America \A/hatwas Spanish rule like? lt has been called one of "peacefulcorruption {11)".The whole of South America graduallycame under the rule of Spain and Portugal(which ruled Brazil).The Continent of New Granada,Peru, La Plata was dividedinto four SpanishViceroyalties. They were the Viceroyalties were ruled by four and New Spairr.The Viceroyaltyof Brazilwas Portuguese.The SpanishViceroyalties i)errinsulars who were tlre Governorsof the four divisions.The army \A/ascontrolledby CaptainGenerals while twelveAudiennas(bodiesof law) carriedout justice. The Peninsularsand other Spanistrofficers made a lot of money in trading. There was a great deal of smuggling (12), bribery (13) and other corruptpractices" The white men were calledCreoles" Feople of mixed white ancl native blood were called Mestizos" Nativeswere called Indians(althoughthey had nothingto do with India), Peopleof mixed Negro and white bloodwere calledPardos. lndianand Negro mixtureswere the Zambos. The Spaniardsbroughtin Negroesas slavesto do plantationwork. Tlre Creoles had huge estates,They also owned the mines (14). They made the others do all tho work while lhog remainedrich and lazy. Under Spanish nrle only the white men benefited (15). The poor Peons (peashittn)remainedpoor and unhappy. .

Education Some gf-th,A first ur,iversitiesin tlre American'Continentwere built in the South. The Universityof Salamancawas*one.The Universityof Mexicowas foundedin 1551. But the Collegeswere only for the rich. The pag"r peopE were educateclby the CatholicChurch where the priests trieclto help clever boys who were ts posr to go'to the Creole schools. They formedthe upper classes. More aftd rnore Spaniardscame from Spain to live in the Viceroyalties. was spoken only in Brazil" everywhere. Portuguese urhich was spoken Spanish becqffâ&#x201A;Ź the language Rich Creoles went to Spain and Europe to complete their education.But they always returned to Latin America.They now felt tlrat it was their home. 30

ln this readingyou came to know of how the Spanishdestroyedthecivilizatlonsof tfie Aztecsand lncas.Here is a poem writtenby an Aztec Poet. BROKENSPEARS Brokenspearslie in the roads.We havetorn our hair:in grief. The housesare rooflesshow and the walls Are red with blood We have poundedour handsin despair Againstthe adobewalls. our city,is lost and dead Our inheritance, The shiefdsof our warriorswere its defence But they couldnot save it. Here is anotheraccountof the SpanishConquests,writtenby a SpanishPriest. THE LASTJUDGEMENT All the wars calledconquestswere and are unjustand cruel.We have takenall the kingdomsand lordshipsof the Indiesby forceand heldthemwithoutany legalright. Evenour king,wittrall the powerGod gavehim, cannotjustifythe warsand robberiesagainstthese people. Almostall the goldand silver,pearlsand richesbroughtto Spainfromthe Indiesare stolen. The nativesof all those conqueredlands have the right to wage just war againstus and erase us from the face of the earth,and this right will last untilthe Dav of Judgment. GLOSSARY Use these words in sentencesof your own to bring out their meaning. What words connected to these do you know? ie. discovery(noun) discoveired(verb)

(1) Voyages

journeysto distantplaces

(2J Discovery

to find something

(3) Explorer

a person who travels,overland, sea etc. to find new things or places.

. (4) Coastline

the line of the sea-shore

(5) Guess

to form an opinionwithoutbeing sure of it

(6) Ruins

buildingswhich have broken down or been partly destroyed

(7) Armour

any coveringworn as a protectionduring war

(B) Conquer

to take ownershipof by force 3l

(9) Native

bornin a particular country

(10) Colonial

a counlrythat rulesanother

(11) Corruption

madebad

(12) Smuggling

to importor exportgoodsin a secretunlawfulway

(13) Bribery

givinggiftsor moneyto makepeoplein officesdo something which'theywouldnot usuallydo

(14) Mines

placeswhichhavebeendug up for coal,preciousstohesetc.

(15) Benefited

got somegoodout of a thing

EXerciSes 1.

Drawa "mindmapnof the greatdiscoveries madeas a resultof the Voyagesof Digcovery. (A mind map is a diagramthat showsconnnections betweenthe variousideasit dealswith), Namesomeof thosewho undertookvoyagesof discovery.What placesdid they discover?

Why does the authorsay the Spaniardswere not good colonialmasters?

For whomwas university education in SouthAmericaunderSpanishruld ? available

Whomdid the CatholicChurchteach?

Wr iteyour|ee|ingsandthoug h rs a s } , o u re a d t h e A z t e c p o e t . s p o e m' B ro k e n S $ e a r s

Wouldyou agreewith the SpanishPliestwhen he says "all the wars called conquestswere and are unjustand cruel"? Give reasonsfor yotir answer.

lmagine that you are one of the Aztecsremainingafterthe Spanishconquestol your nationand write a letterto the Kingof Spaintellinghim whatyou think.

Gioup Projects a)

In additionto the Incas and lhe Aztecs,there had also been peopleknown as thb Mayaswho had a greatcivilizationin SouthAmericabeforeits discoveryby Europggns.Find out aboutthem. In what countriesnow can you find remainsof the Mayanempire?

Find picturesof someof the artislicand architeclural achievements of the nativâ&#x201A;ŹSouthAmerican empires, and r,\dth make scrapbooks them.. _

Find out what was happening in NorthAmericaduringthe 16th and 17thcenturiesand writea brief accountof this.

Find out aboutone of the followingand writea briefintroduction atloLrthim. i. 'ii. iii. iv,

Atahualpa Cortes Magellani" CaptainCook

32 'T I

;11- t,

SOUTH AMERICANINDEPENDENCE Demand For FreedomFrom Spain Litue by littleeven the Creoles in SouthAmericabeganto want freedomto managetheir own affairs.They greyv tired of sendingso much wealthto Spainin taxes.They beganto be unhappy.There were manyreasonsfor this. 1.

They saw the exampleof NorthAmerica.The thirteenBritishcolonieshad gainedindependence(l) from Englandin 1776.

A few years later the FrenctrRevolution(2) took placein 1789.The Creolesof Spainsaw that it was possibleeven to gdt rid of a king.

The educatedCreolesbeganto read Frenchphilosophers(3) like Voltaireand Rousseauwho wrote of the Rightsof Man. aboutthe freedom to governoneself.Theyalso readthe Declaration

Boththe Creolesand the peonswere not happywith the inefficient (4) Spanishgovernment.

timeto get anythingdone. fong But The Churchwas very power{uland most of the priestsdid not want to separatefrom Spain. some of the villagePriestsdid.-

$painwas too far awayso

'nttoqk 3

RevolutionsIn $outh Amerioa2 were born becauseof revolutions.There were many revolutions Modern-southAnerican couh,tries ghort accountof some of these revolutionaryleaders and the Here is a and many revolutionaries. bountriesthey helPedto form. from spain actuallytook placein an island (5) near south The rirst revolutionfor ,ilrtepetndence Be's*lines killedalmostall the white men and led the nativesto freeAnerica. A ;il;rreU dorn.He formedthe stab of Flaitiin 1804.However,withoutthe white planters (6) the economy went down ,( : not A, Thd father of SourhAraeticah r"uolrtion, was a man called freihbiscoMiranda.Hb was . successfulbut he gave o*rerdideas.Most of his attemptsat revolutionwere failures.

S,.

the stateof 'ln 1g13Jose Francialed u$isingsin the Viceroyalty He established of La Plata,.' Paraguay. r,' was Jose San Marino.He was a rich Creole.He was determinedto A famous revolutionary crush Spanishpower-inSouth America.He foughthard from 1812 onwards.ln 1816 he He then continuedthe defeatedthe Spanisharmiesin Chileand Chilegainedindependence. gainedindependence also Peru Peru. peru. of ln 1g21 he enteredLima,the capltal war into from Spain We now come to of|e o{ Bg6nAmerica'sbest lovedmen, SimonBolivar,who was responsible :i

dg3

fl'

for the freeingof Venezuela,Cofumbiaand Ecuador.He was a romantic (7) figure.Hehad "softhands.andbeautifulblackeyes,"said the ladies.Womenlovedhim and he love.dwomen! gainedindependence thanksto him. Ecuadorfollowedin 1822.Boiivarthen In 181BVenezuela defeatedthe Sparrishin the areaof Charcas.The peoplewere so gratefulthey namedtheir new country afterhim. lt becamemodernBolivia. Brazil and Mexico but establishedtwo kingdoms.ln Brazilthe Viceroyalty Thesetwo countriesgainedindependence was ruledby Portugal.WhenNapoleonhad chasedthe Kingof Portugaloff his thronehe came and lived This king,Joao Vl, returned to Portuin Brazilfor sometime.He was quite popularwith the Brazilians. gal'only after Napoleon's defeat.He did not go back to Lisbonuntil 1820.But his son, Dom Pedro,refused to leave Brazil."Fico (l stay)",he said,declaringhis decisionto remain.He helpbdBrazilto gain independence from Portugaland he becameKingof Brazilin 1822.He calledhimselfDom Pedrol. He In Mexico,a revolutionary namedlturbidewas able to get muchpowerafterdeclaringindependence. calledhimselfa king and gave himselflhe name of EmperorAugustinel. Mexicogainedindependence from Spainin 1821. C.omments Most of the Latin Americancountriesgainedtheir freedombetweenthe years of 1804 and 1822, Spain could not fight in so many placesat one time. She did not have enoughmen to do so. The Creolesand the Peonsknew the land well. So the Spaniardsleft. But their languageand religion' becamethe main languageand religionof SouthAmerica.This is so even today.Both Braziland Mexico did not keep kingsfor long.Todaylhereare no kingsin SouthAmerica. Problems It is not difficultto starta revolution. With popularsupportit is not even too difficultto win one. But it is very difficultto settle down afterwardsand try to governthe countryproperly.The Latin American countriesnoWfaced greatproblems. 1.

Firstly,the countrywas very uneven.The high Andes mountainsmade it hard to travel in those areas.Controlof distantvillageswas not easy.

The secondproblemwas that only the Creoleswere educated.So only the Creolesknew how to carryon a government. But they had had no experience. The Spanishtook away manygovernment civilservantswhenthey left.Therewas no one to taketheirplace.Workin government departments graduallysloweddown.

Therewas also a problemof classdivision.The upperclasseslike the Creolesdid not communlcate (B) with the Peons.The Peonsand peasdntsdid not see any changein their itandard of living..Theyremainedpoor and downtrodden(9). Onlythe government had changed; nothinghad changedfor them'.Insteadof one bad masterthey got anotherbad master.

Anotherproblemwas that most of the LatinAmericanswere illiterate.That is, they could neither read nor write.Suchpeoplecannotmakevery goodcitizens.

And finally,the revolutionaries themselvesbeganto quarr,el. Their quarrelsweakenedthe governmentsof LatinAmerica.

Comments About twentynew stateswere formedafter the Spanishwere sent away. None of these did very well economically. Therewas still much poverty (10).Freedomfrom Spaindid not bring much change for the poor man.Democracy was not possible.lt was just a dream. By 1829Bolivarwas fed up. "lt wouldbe betterfor SouthAmericato adoptthe Koranratherthan followthe UnitedStatesformof government ........eventhough the latteris the beston earth,"he wrote. All theselittle quarrelsmadehim realisethat his peoplecouldnot governthemselves efficiently. These twentystatescontinuedto fight over boundarylines too. They foughtover unimportant details.They even went to war over land that had no value to eitherside. Bolivarwas fed up. "We havegot independence gt the expenseof everything else",he said. ModernLatin America The probtemsol the 19th centurywere carriedover into the 20th.The four greatViceroyalties had becomeabouttwentymodernstates.Big, moderncitiesbeganto springup..The capitals of countries like Argentina,Brazil,Venezuela,Mexico,etc. are some of the most beautifulin the world.Unlortunately povertycontinues to be a curse (11)in LatinAmerica.Thisis not necessary. LatinAmericahas rich natural wealth.But it is not wellused. Problemsof the ModernStatesof South America Most new stateshaveproblems.LatinAmericaseemsto be unableto settledowneven now. 1.

The first problemcame in the shapeof foreigncapital.The Britishwere the first to see that the SouthAmericancountrieswouldneedrailwaysand roads.They immediately beganto contract (12) for thent.A lot of foreigncapitalbeganto flow in and out of the countrybut it was the Britishwho benefitedfrom it.

Foreignersbegan to exploit (13) the naturalwealth of South America.

Many of the states dependedon just one or two main exports.For example : Bolivia Chile Venezuela Brazil Paraguay

tin nitrate oil coffee banana

lf the world price for these articlesdroppedthe countriessuffered.The economy was thereforevery unstable. 4,

A further problem of modern Latin America began when the people of the big cities and ports (the portenos)began to quarrelwith the people of the provlnces (14). Cities like Buenos Aires controlfed exports. They began to control the national income. The provincesfelt that not much money was comingto them.

Povertycontinuedto be great. The Industrial Revoiution (15) took a iong time to reach these countries. Though South America had begun to industrialiseher people were still slow.

loreigneTâ&#x201A;Źdid not keep Many of their industrieswere startedfor thernby foreigners.Naturally_the theii profitsin SouthAmerica.They took ihe moneyout of the country.CertainLatin Arnericanstates But theydid not do at all betterby thetnselves. nationalised(16 )some industries.

largeareasof land fell into the handdof the Church.The Churchis At the time of independence very powerful.Leadelslike Percjnof Argentinatried to reducethe powerof the Church.They failed.

Relationswith the UnitedStatescf America

ri 'i

LatinAmericancountrieshavea strongand powerfulneighbour (17) ln the itlptth- the UnitedStates .of America.Their relationship At no time has the USA tried to take away any land from the is strange.. the SouthAmericanStates!sovereignty. South.She has respeCted ; SouthAmericais protectedby the MonroeDoctrine.This Dootrinepromisedthat the USA would not allordrany other Europeancountryto invade (18) or td interferewith LatinAmerica. often feel that the this protectionbecamea nuisance.The Latin Americancoyntries Unfortunately, .the Colossus (19) of the USA is meddlingin their affairsand they do not like it. They call the USA North (a bully)."

"l . . The Spanish language is now one of the most important languages of the world. ln the United Nations it is regarded as "World Language Number Two" (rrext to English). A Latin American culture has

gfown up whichvariesfrom countryto counky. Certainlywe can say that the continentof SouthAmericdhas flld a variedhistoryfrom the tkm the Conquistadores first landedin the empireof the,Aztecs. GLOSSARY

(1) Independence

beir{g freâ&#x201A;Ź from foreign rule= \

(2) Revolution

\ risingup againstauthoritY j

(3) PhilosophOrs

thinkers

(4) Inefficient

not ableto handlethingsproPerlY

(5) lsland

land that is surroundedby water.FOrexample,Sri Lankais an island. ''

(6) Planters

. people who manage.estatesor plantatlonslil.<etea, rubber and coconut

(71 Romantic

. havingfanciful,sentimentalideas i

(8) Communicate

tdlk or exchangeideaswith

(9) Downtrodden

trampledupon

(10) Poverty

the state of beingpoor

( 1 1 ) C urse

an evil that cannotbe got rid of "'"

(12) to contract

to do something to enterinto an agreement

(13) Exploit

to makeunfairuse of

(14) Provinces

the partsof a countryoutsideof the capitalor largestcities

(15) Industrial Revolution

communities the periodin which agricultural century nineteenth the in changedto industry,roughly

(16) Nationalised

control takenundergovernment

(17) Neighbour

livingor situatednextto another i

(18) Invade

to enter-asif to take Possession

(19) Colossus

:the nameof a hugegiantcomingclownfrom Greekmythology

Exercises 1. 2. 3.

4. 5. 6. 7. L 9.

from Spain? How did the FrenchRevolutionngtpthe Creblesin theirdemandlor freeiom fromSpaintakeplace? Who led that struggle? for independence Wheredid the firstrevolution whose efforts the namesof revolutionaries startingwith the fatherof south AmericanRevolutions,.give task look home a As broughtfreedomfrom Spain.Girlealsolhe namesof the.countriesthey,freed' ,p"'* " po|S outhA mericaand. |p c a t e t h e s e c o u n t rie s . from Spain' facedaft?: \v:nnilqindependence Drawa mind map of the problemsthat the revolutionaries Why is lhe economyof modernLatinAmericaunstable? summarizerhe problemsof the modernsouthAmericanstates.

by'Lqtln,Americancountries? what is the MonroeDoctrineand why isitconsidereda nuisarrce of SimonBolivarfrom the pointof view of Writea desqription ',,. a) a womanwho lovedhim b) a politicianwho hatedhim' modern South Wdte the observqtionsthat a descendant of the Aztecs Or IncaqiTtnn, make.about 'Ameriba.

10. I

lrdm colonialpowers,and write thls Find out how the followingcountriesgot their independence down in Point form. ' i. The UnitedStatesof 'America ii. Canada iii. The Philippines, How can thgse Findroul what trdde linksexistat presentbetweens/i Lanltaand1gouthAmerica. be developed?

: t,

.") d)

td 6rj Lanka' Find out lrom whefe,how and when rubberwas inlrqduc,ed famousfor" The followingare namesof townsin Brazil.Find whal bapn one of them is ii. ,Manaos t i. Rio de Janeiro iv. lguacu iii. Byasilia 2,7

t1" rri

Part 5 A COURSEIN ANDTHINKING READING INTRODUCTION This reading course was specially prepared for students following the General English Language Teaching (GELT) programmeconductedby the UniversityGrants Commission.There was a great need for the iompilation oi a Course such as this as refle-ctedin the requests of past pupils, teachers and others acquaintedwith the GELT Programme.We are very happy to have finally been able to meet this need in our programme.The lessons in this Reader follow a general pattern where most of the material is in the form of dialoguesbetweenstudentsand the teacher. We have introducedfor the first time in these lessonssome thinkingtechniqueswhich are very simple to apply but help people to look at problemsin a detachedand balancedmanner.These techniquesare an extensionto the lateral thinking exercisescovered in the Speech Course for GELT students.We hope ilrat studentsand teacherswill use this ReadingCourse not only to improvereadingskjlls but also the thinkingskillsthat are desirableto make what they say have a greaterelfect. 1 ln this lesson,.youwill come to know somethingabout the studentswho will be studyingEnglish and sharingtheir lives,thoughtsand feelingswith you duringthis course" : Nalika - She has been selectedto follow an Arts course at the Universityof Peradeniya.She is from a quiet titttevillage in the hills of Kandy. the tl a q.uietgirl herselt,a little shy, but when you get to know her she is not s"hyat all and is a realiy friendlygiri, alwiayswilling.to help and go ?lol.g with,the others.Nalikahas long stiaightblack hair and dark brown eyes. She is neithertall nor short.She is darK in complexionand has a lovelysmile.She likes to read books and listento the radio. padmalal - He has been selectedto the Faculty'ofManagementStudiesat the Universityof Managementbecausehe feels he can conHe wants to do a degree.in.Marketing Sri Jayewardenepura. h9 would gain. His villagg is poor and knowledge the tribute"to the developmentof his villagethiough in He feels that with a.knowledgeof marketit. lot oiresources a ard eveh thoughthere unUJr-Oeveloped his villagq.Padmalal.istall, dark and condition of th.e improve to day one be"able f"r" will ing:*un"dni*t it;ong. His strengthcomes trom the wolk he does to help his father with his farming. other than farming work, he likes readingand swimming' Suresh - He is from Chunnakkamin Jalfna. He has been selectedto the Faculty-of Ag,ric.ul' ,Univeisiiy-ot .laffna, in Kilinochchi.His father is a farmer and Suresh is proud,of the famous lertile ture, yields rich harvestsof vegetables,chillies,potatoesand tobacco.All his life reO'soitof Chirnnatlim r,,'itrictr he has lived with iaiming and'that is why he wants to-study Ag.ricultureat Univergily.H9 hopgs.that.h.e Can give back to tfre tarFrersof his villagjethe knowledgeh"ew-illgain from his studies. Suresh is a tall, lookingboy. lean,-serious Matini - She is from Galle. She has been selectedto the Faculty of Medicine in Karapitiya, Galle" She lives in the Galle Fort which was built by the Dutch in the 17th Century. Because the Fort is so small, houses in ii don't f,ave gaidens.But she'loves her home which is very.-old.butcool and dark inside. She often walks on the rariparts which is the place most people go to. relax-4rrllg., the evening. Fiorn here you g"i i wonderfulview of the Galle harb6ueand the sun'sets-arebeautiful.Malini is a studi' ous giri-wh6lov6s to help her fellows.She would like to.be a good, kind, caring doctor one day.

the RatnapuraDislrict.He has been seRev. l(. Dhammanalda.- He is from Kalawanairr un ArtsDegree.His dreamis'to do a specialdegreein Budro rorrow of Kelaniya lecteclto tlre urriveGity his parentsrefusedto allow wi-'errliu *ui i tittr"ug.vrl.uran away-{ronrrromebecause dhistphirosoprry. ordainedas a samanera was consentecl and he iis pa.reirts him to be orctained';;';erjlhisi Moni<.-Fihatty of it makeltim strong discipline and the order is oitticutt whenhe was 1+ v"*, JJ. ru"n rhoughi.rGiit" He is very.popularamon! lrisfellowstudents' anclpowerful. at town.He has beenselectedto tlre Facultyof Engineering Molraned - He is from Batticaloa he distance far ihe rniddreof a_groveof cadjutrees.In the UniversitffM;M;";[''lrJ;;-iil; Moratuwa boy, interestedin all Mihamed iir.,ging-fislr. :to is a talkative can see the Batticiloalagoonwith"its"t""unilr Engineering coniputer in specialize He wanti sorts of thingsbut lre is quite qazy-anquicompriter!. otte day. of Colomboto follow a degree in Biologi' Nishantha - He 5as been selected!o-ilre U.niversity Negombo" u"tweenwattala-and

Mrir-rur"d;;i;;'!"*u*t.,etu cal science.He is fronra vigagein ilre"rie-aii"Jr onlyby scrubjungle'You mite'ot*iste land,covered upon placewiur'niire is a strange Muthurajawela 3ee-the tall buildingsol can away.you far

person.eventhough can travelfor rnileswittroutseeinga single with village-lt is"a small s'etilementof well-builthomes trti""niltha's rpon you conre 'ui*"Giroensl, colonrbo..suddenly peoand Trlre ii a very old church in this village preserved coconut groves an'd fouttry {arms i" ti..'" *is rruirta long tims aqo but it is well church r-.'"i"to nrake"vl*J-th1i ple from at over Leader Youih a is sunolys. tttitT*"illu of village life. people gather.hereto *lr*rli[. "" and is rhe cenrre"o,i" Nishantha Fellowship' church develqpr"ni *Jtk-through the in his clrurclr ancJtlrey do a lot of comm-unity He wanrs to become an environtjiJ ;ni yorng..arik"e. tn"".Jrpl'i,.;l rikes to be with propr6and enjoys uniqueness' its Oiy fielp to preserveMuthurajawelaand mental scierrtist "*to'-," close to Matara' she hae been selectedto sriyani - slre is from weligama which is a town beautifulweligama o"gr#"ii" Fnvriirji 5"'[n"" Her home overlooksthe Ruhuna Universityto folow and she can't Mathernatics is " *itr, ritt1"'qi""n i.tunii. s.yani;J passion watersdotted Bav, wirh its emeralc1 one day' Mathematics in Professor wantsG b"6or" i understandrvlry so many studentsrair in it. She S;iy;;,i l; iatt ahcJslirn with straightblack hair' Notes and Exercises this of the students anb their ltouses &Ytdvillages irr Notice carefuly the words used to describe each * , lesson.Such words are called adjectives' Eg: "

She is a quiet girl, allltle-qhJ' She is from a qUiet little village' Slre is npl ghy at all and is a reaflyfriendlygi'rl'

adjectives' Notice also tlre use of a (the indefinitearticle)before Slre is a quiqt girl. She is from d quiet littlevillage' She is a reallYfriendlYgirl' when we uss a troun after the adiective'Flemem' Notice ilrat we use tlre indefinitearticrein this ma.nner not wiirt uai""tives bf-iiGnrselves. Qne of lhe articles ber that the articles a and lhe go *iili n"uni and noun' mirst usuallybe used with ani singularcommon i She is a quiet gt!. She is a reallYfriendlYg[[' But look at the followingsentences: She is quiet She is reallYfriendlY. 39

(A)

Look at all the sentencesdescribingthe studentsin this lesson and turn sentencessuch as She is a quiet girl into sentenceslike She is quiet.

(B)

Turn sentenceslike Padmalal(He) is dark, tall and i;trong ' into sentenceslike Padmalalis a dark, tall, strong boy.

In this lesson you read about other studentslike yourself.Now write a description of yourself using sentenceslike I am Sunil and I am from Polonnaruwa.I am not tall and not short. I am fair and strong. Here is a group activity.Form into groups of six, and sit in circles. In thls fesson you.read'about studentslike yourselvesand you wrote about your own selves. In all these descriptionsyou find kind and so on. W" call these .positivequalitieslike itrong, friendly,'hard-working, plus points, but rrue all have. negative or minus floints to6. After oiscuiiing ttris in y*i gdtj see if you can write down the.plus,and minus pojnts of each of the studentsyou real about. Write down also some interestingpoints about them. lf the i-eadingdoesn'tgive such poinrt JireJty yo, can guess them. 2 ln this lesson some of the studentsyou read about earliertalk with their teacher. Teacher :-

By now I think you all know about each other, don't you? Today, I want to talk abcut some'thing that is extremelyimp6rtant,that is thinking.

Rev. Dhamlnflrianda:-Thinking?But Sir, we all think. There is nothingspecialabout that. Teacher:-'

Exactly.We all feel that thinkingis not specialbecausewe do it all the time. But the point is that we don't really think. WJ gather facts and increaseour knowledgebut we don,t pay ' much attentionto thinkingitself. All this time it was believedthat by i,io"".ing knowledge we could improve our thinking skills. But we find that when it comes to solving the most difficLtltproblemsof life, knowledgegained from educationproves to be of not rnuch use. In your speech course you will practisesome lateralthinking.Tkrisis training in thinkingskills. It helps you to see differentpoints of view, and how other people may be thinkingLnd so on. Edward de Bono, who inventedthe word lateralthinking;has n6w introducedus to even broader ways of thinking than lateral thinking.He lras developedvarious deliberateinstruments or methodswhich help peopleto think better.

Suresh:.

Sir, I would like to know what those methodsare"

Sriyani:-

Yes" we would all like to know them.

Teacher:-

The methodsare reallyquite simple.All of them have abbreviations. So after some time you use the abbreviation only and you becomequiteused to carryingout the operationjqst like you woulddo for solvinga mathematical equalion.

Sriyani :-

Sir. Pleasetell us the methodsquickly. l'm gettingmore and more interested,

Teacher :

and lcan understandyour impatience.I'll tell you lss, Qri,'3ni.I know you like mathematics lt ab:-:::e lirst and simplestoperation. is called PMI - P stands for Plus, M stands for r.l r.us and I stands for Interesting.Now what all this means is that when you are given a s,tuationor problemyou considerall the plus points in it first, then you considerall the minus points and finallyyou considerall the interestingpoints.

\A;,hgrr€d

That sounds very easy. Can you give us a problemplease?

Teacfier :-

Not so fast, Mohamed.Let me tell you about a few more of the operationsbefore we stail thinking.There is OPV, which means Other People's Viewpoints.You will do some exercises similarto OPV in your speech course.Then there is APC - which means Alternatives, Possibilities,Choices.You are given a problematicsitudtionand asked to carry out an APC - so what you have to do is consider alternativesto the situation,possibilitieswhich can arise and choices you can make. You will understandthis better when we actually consider problemsituationsin later lessons.

Nishantha:

Are there more operations,Sir?

Teacher:-

Yes, there are. There is ADI which means Agreements, Disagreementsand lrrelevancies. Here when you are given a situation you consider all the points on which you agree, then the ones on which you disagree and finally you have to consider the points which you think ,6re not relevantor necessary.Then there is EBS which means Examine Both Sides. This would naiurallyapply to a two-sidedsituationand you are requiredto examine.both sides carefully.I think that's enough for to-day.

Malini :-

Sir, we would like to practise using some of these thir*irg operations. Could you please give us some examPles?

"Teacher :-

Certainly. I have found some situationswhere you can apply these thinlsng techniques.They come from a series of books that were writlen for GELT sttrdents some years ago. In fact you should try to read some of these books if you get the chance, The situationI'm going io give you liist comes from the book Economics in Our Lives by Wilfred Jayasuriya.Here is the passageon which I would like you to apply a PMI: Adam Smith showed that there shoutd be trade between countries fucause each country could produce cerlain goods better than other couhtries. At that time Britain could produce industrial gods better and France could produce agricultural goods better. If they could ex' change tiese two types of goods, both woutd benefit..The'peofle of these countries would be abte to get moie goods at cheaper prices. This was called the Theory of Comparative Costs. The nupber oi peopte who began to believe in this theory was so great that Britain stopped the piotection.it had for agriculture (the Corn Laws) and allaved free impori of food. ln ieturn she'waited to be freety allowed to export her industrial products to other coun' tries. Thus the weatth of the nations was made more by removiS ffns sorf of control over the economy.

Padmalal:-

Now Sir, tell us what we have to do with this'

Teacher :

Right'Y outnustfirstof a ||{ o rmin t o a g ro u p b y s it t irry } n a c irc le . want'you !o do is to carry out a PtJl s"- :^e Now read the paragraphover again' What I producingand exchangingthese good fl idea of two countriesproducinggoods they are all the ph.rspoints and then the minus two types of goods; that means you must'discusi i'Then you must present your points points and laslly tfre interestingpoints of this situatlron. to the class.

Note

[n this lesson we will lock at ln Lesson 1, we locused on adjectives,which descrhe'rpttns. ways of describingverbs' of these in this lesson are realiy' words ttrat describeverbs are called adverbs.Exarnples adverbs to describe adiectives,ie' extremely' quite)' now, quickly (note that we also use

phrases, ie. groups of werrjs A npre cotllmon way of describingverbs however is through (these aFe words that show a contype of adverbiarptrrase is riade with prepositions The most passagE "o**on a noun ancl the rest of tlre sentence).Examplesof adverbialpltrases frorn the nection between course - abouteach other,by increasingknowledge'ln \'3u'sDeech are underlined) are (the prepositions . ] . : . n e j a -] : : : . A dverbiaiphrasescan b e u s e d t o c e s c : |l€ lt -. g : 2 c e

Econon*:s in our Lives' |\lote thal ldentify all the adverbialphrases rn the Dassag€f'crn the main ideas,$lrbject- verb - (otrjecl)'if you are als? \rrflenyou are reading,it is easierto understarrd abb qlickty to identiiythe phrasesthat describethese' 3 .

technique' ln ilris lesson ttre teachercliscussesan interestingthinking

Teacher :-

the thinking activ'ityi,Fg,did ir i,m very happy about the way you all participated in Lesson2.

we really enjoyedthat activity' Nishantha,Sriyaniand Mohamed(together):- But Sir, Teacher :-

we do in this course' what I want tt well, that,s good. I hope you will enioy all the lessons you migrhtfind a little surprising at first Bu clo to-clay is to introcJuc€you to an activity that I think you'llfind it very usefulas we go along'

Mohamed:' Tell us Please' Teacher:-

for later is calledRandomstimulationand is one of the methods'ttsed mean well, tlre techniclue stimulation and purpose plan, patternor ilrirrking.RandommearF not lravinga definite understandtlris better when I tell you ttt will You activity. to excite to a greaterlevel of problem{irst.Then you select a word rar actual teclinique.what you do is think of some the word you selected'Then you try t dornlyfrom a dictionaryLncl find all the.meaningsof meaningsof the word selectedby yot establisha connectionbetweenthe prbblemunJ th"

Padmalal:-

Will that lrelp to solve the problem'Sir?

Teacher:-

you force your rnindto think of a wide ran rt may or may not. The importantthing is that of solutions'

Sriyani:-

How does the method actuallywork?

Teacher:

The method works because of the way our brains process information.lf we call incoming informationinputs,any twb inputs(ie. two unconnected piecesof information) cannot remaii separate.The nature of the brain is to establisha connectionbetweon inputs if they are held long enoughin attention Normallyif there were lwo unconnectedinputsone of them would be ignoredand the other would be attended to. But if both are deliberatelyheld in attentionthln a connectionwill form betweenthem in the end.

Suresh:-

But I can't still understandhow unconnectedinputs can help to solve problems.

Teacher:

It is becausethere ar-eestablishedpatternson our memorysurface.These patternsare altered by the sudden inclusionof new information. When you introducea random input you bring a new entry point lo the problemunderccnsideration. At lhis new entry point the mind establishesa new connection,different{rom the earlier establishedpath. in'this way you may see a way to solve your problem. It may not work the first time but if you keep on adding new inputs you will establishmore connectionsand one of them may show you a solutiOnto the problom under consideration.

Sriyani:-

Now I think I can understand,sir. could you give us a problemplease?

Teacher:

Yes, I could,but I must add that you shoulclconsiderthe problemover a periodof only five minutes'The problemis "The HousingShorta.le".Now turn to any page in your dictionary and choosea word m that page randomly.Look at all the differentmeaningsof that word and see if vou can connectthem with the Drrltfem.Remember,you are aliowedonly five m r n u tesi

Note This ex6rciseis excellentfor buildingvocabulary.The teaci .r Lranuse it many times in the week both for vocabularybuilding and problem solving. Here are some n:ore problems that can be consideredduring the course :(1) (2) (3) (4)

How to spend less time learninga subject Design for a better school How.to solve the EthnicProblemin Sri Lant<a Students'ownproblems.

Each lesson should considerone problem and one random lvcrrl at a time but you can come back to th6 same probfonnwith differentrandom inputs in rater ressorrs. 4 In this lesson the studentsare going to use another thinkingoperation(ApC - See Lesson 2) in additionto PMl. a Teacher:-

ln Lesson 2 you practisedPMI and you all did very well. To-day I'm going to give you another situationwhere I want you to use pMl as weli as ApC. Can someonetell me what APC is? 43

Mohamed:- lknow-|tmeansA |ternat iv e s , P o s s ib ilit ie s , Ch o ic e s . Teacher :-

I chose for you from a GELT reader called Very good, Mohamed.Now lrer9.is..asituation where you can apply both thinking operations' Staying Healthy by-Ot Sanjiva Wiiesinha, :tris is taken from the chapteron High Blood Pressure Becausepeopte do n.ot know the need to How does one know if one has blood pressure? orf Hypertension (high blood pres' get their pressure checkedregularly, often the first sign "sure) is when a person gets a stroke or heart attack' get their pressure checked once a year by A safeplan for all those over thirty five is to and takes only a few is-itain'less,does nlot need any iniections tlteir doctor.tt is i iiiin^t minutes! carry out a PMI on the situationin Now what I want you to clo is form a group and then on it, that is, considerwhat alter' the second paragraph.Then you must Jarry out an APC do the alternawhat possibilities nativesthere are to the suggestiongiven in the paragraph, tives offer and linallywhat choicesyou can make'

Class:-

Yes, let's try. But it seemsdifficult'

Teacher:-

you you will find it difficultat first. But I know you will enjoy it and see how easy it is as get used to the group discussion' 5

ln this lessonthe teacher of Lesson4 was a short one but the studentshad to do a lot work. introducesanothersituationto practisePMI and APC once again' Teacher :-

You did quite well in lesson 4, didn't you?

Malini:-

I think, Sir, we should practiseAPC a little more'

Sriyani:-

Not a little rnore.We should practisea lot more'

Teacher :-

but for the expressionsyou both Thank you, Malini and sriyani, not only for the suggestion used.

Malini:-

What exPressions,Sir ?

Teacher :-

Padmalal:Teacher;-

"a lot more"' You both Said Malini you said, "a little more" and sriyani.. Y!U. . Slid 'little'or 'lot', and that is wrong' I that correctly.Many people forget or diop the 'a' belore adjectives'little'and 'lot'' hope you will all rememberto uie 'a' before the two Sir, I have seen 'little'used withoutan 'a' before it'

you can say for instance,"l havrelittle monef' Very good, Padmalal.I was coming to that. Yes it means that you don't have or ,,1have little knowledgeof this subject".In both ]hes.g"it"s if you say "l'have a little money" or "l very much money, even no money oi lno*teOge. But you. haue some money and some have a little knowtedge of this subject" it means knowledge. 44

Nishantha:- lt's interestingisn't il, how a little letterlike a simple'a'can'make such a big differencein meaning. Teacher :.

yes, English.is like that. That is why you mustn't ignore the little words when you read and write and speak. Never forget to use 'a' and 'the' when you need them, especiallybefore ordinarysingularnouns. Now to come to our main task. To practise more APC, I have chosen another paragraph from Economics in our Lives. Here it isAdant Smith pointed out that just as each country was especially good at producing a dif; ferent thing, ihe idea of special jobs for special groups found in the caste system in louthAsian Countrielsmay have had this thought at tbe back of it. This is called the division of labour. Division of labour in a farm or factory means that each person'is given one particu' lar thing to do. This is now uery common. Now what you must do is lo consider the idea of caste and carry out an APC on it. After of labour in a factory and carry out an APC on thatthat consider the divisi<-rn

:- This I like very much.Let'sstart. Rev.Dhammananda

Tdacher:-

you must give the resultsof your discussionto the wholeclass. Flemember

Students:-

Sure,we will.

Teacher :-

you all did very well in the last lesson. Today l'm going to take up anorher thinking oFrhtion and you will have to practise it today.

Rev. Dhammananda:- What is the name, Sir ? Teacher :-

lt is catled EBS. Can you rememberwhat it stands for?

Sriyani :

I remember.lsn't it ExamineBoth Sides?

Teacher :-

Very good, Srlyanl. As the name says, you have to have a two sided situation to carry out an Eds on it. i have selected a paisage from andther reader called Ou+ Llulng World by Janaki Galappatti.Here it is, slightlymodified' 'rice developed at tRRl (lnternational Rice Research Institute) New higtt yielding varieties of gtre so much more grain than tlte older varieties that their widespread cultivation and suciGreen Revolution". ln Sri Lanka now, much of the rice grown is devel' Less was catted the oped from the high-yielding tR varieties prodqced at lRRl. These new varieties need large atmountsof fertilizeri to increase yietds and other chemicals to stop diseases.'So they are expensive to grow. lJowever, the yields are so good that most farmers have planted these new varieties. Now I want you to carry out an EBS on the use of high yielding rice varieties.You must do this as a group task and tell the class the results of your application.I think this EBS is very easy ior you, so when you finish it here is a very short passagefor further practice. This is from Economics in Our Lives.

My friend and I have Rs. 30/- to spend next saturday. we needtwo lunch packets which cosf Fs' 6'50 each and we would like to eat two ice-creamswhich cosf Fs. 4/- each. We have Rs' 9/- left. Shouldwe have anotherice-creamor seea film with this?

t want you to carryout an EBs on whetheryou wantto see a film or eat an ice creamand tell me your conclusion. You can then readthe bookto see what is likelyto happenin economicterms. .

Nishantha, Malini& sriyani:-

Hm, that souncisinteresting. Let'ssee whatwe comeup with. 7

Teacher:-

You are all gettingvery goodat thesethinkingoperations, don,tyou think?

Rev.Dhammananda and suresh:- Not very good,'sir,but

we thinkwe are managing.

Teacher:-

padmalal,whatdo you think?.

Padmalaf;-

| think,sir, with morepracticewe'ilget better.

Mohamed:- Yes, pleasegive us more practice. Teacher:-

All right. Flemember you 'wantedit. what would you like to practisetoday?pMt, Apc or

Nishantha:- I'm not very sure of Apc yet. could we praclise that todayplease? Teacher:-

Yes, you could.I havea very shortextractfrom Economicsin our Lives. Hereit is. For example sri La.n.k1 is .go9d at producing tea and lraq is good at producingoit. tn this case lt could be said that both countrieswoid be betterotf if producedonty what they are best at producing' Thus sri Lankawould produce only They tea and gbt oit -.' from lraq while lraq wouldspecializein producingoit and import her tei fiom sri.Lar"*i.' I passageis difficultto do $nqw this .an.APCanalysison, but you must try. what I want yotr do is considerthe alternatives to this situation, 'lo what othei possibilities whpt choicesSri Lankaand lmq couldmakein the lightof the possibilities. thereare artd

Malini :-

| don't think I can do it, Sir.

Teacher :-

Now Malini, you must not start like that. Togetherin a group you can all do it, l,m sure of that.

Surdshr

Yes Malinl,let'stry and see how we fare.

Teacher:-

That'sthe spiritsuresh.Nowpleaseall of you get intoyour groups and startthis acrivity.

Teacher:-

I'm going to give you anotherpassagefor you to apply a thinkingoperationwe haven't done before.

Student:-

What is it, Sir?

Teacher:-

It's called a C and S. C stands for consequencesand S for sequels. Do you know what those words mean?

Rev.Dhammananda :- Consequence meansthe resultof an action. Teacher:-

Very good,and whatdoessequelmean?

Students:-

We don'tknow,Sir.

Teacher:'

Actuallysequelis similarto consequence. One of its meaningsis that. lt also -meansa laterdevelopment or courseof eventsor happenings. You will understand all this moreclearly when we actuallyapplya C and S to a situation.This situationiS taken from the GELT readercalledAbout Our Past by GoolbaiGunasekara. This passageis very short.Here it is. A man named Machiavelli,who was a high officialin the Governntent,wrote a book called The Prince, which told rulers how they should rule a kingdom mainly so that they could tltemselvesbenefit from their position. What I want you to do is considerthis passagecarefully.Considerwhat Machiavelli told you rulers to do. Now I want to apply the thinking operationC and S to what Machiavelli . advocated. That meansthinkof all the consequences or resultsthat couldarise lrom such actionsand all the followup or sequelsto such results.You must do this in y0ur groups and tell the classthe resultsof yourdiscussion.

Rev.Dhammananda :- | thinkI'm goingto enjoythis. Malini:-

It seems very difficultSir, but We'lltry.

Teacher:-

Yes, thafs the spirit. Now please.getinto your groupband start the activity. I

Students:-

Let's do somethingdifferentto-day,Sir.

Teacher:-

I'm glad you want that becausewe're going to talk about books and writers to-day.

Nishantha:- I saw some old Englishl-essons that my sister had done long ago at University.In one.of them I read about a book called For Wlrom the Bell Totts.

Teacher:-

Do you rememberwho wrote it ?

Nishantha:- I think it was Ernest Hemingway Teacher:-

Yes, that's right.What else can you tell us about that book Nishantha?: 47

Nishantha:- | read tlrat in that story some peoplewere figlttingtlte Fascistsitr Spain. They.were very brave and foughtwith couragebut tlrey were'defeated.lrr that lessontlrerewas a beautiful passage about the last thoughtsof one of ttre fighters,but I can't rememberthe words ndw. Teacher :-

Yes, that passage is sometimescalled "Sordo'sStand". Do you want me to read it out to you?

Students:-

Yes Sir, please.

Teacher:-

Well lrere it is: Dying was nothing and he had no picture of it nor fear of it in lils rnind. But living was a field of grain blowing in the wind on the side of a hill. Living was a hawk in lhe sky. Living was an earthen jar of water in the dust of the threslting witlt tlrc grain {lailed out and the chaff btowing. Living was a horse between your legs and a carbine under one leg and a hil ' and a vatley and a stream witlt trees along it and the far side of the valley and the hills beyond.

Mohamed :- That is so beautiful.I can alnrostsee the picturesthat passed tlrroughthat man's mincl. Malini :-

That means in his dying momentshe rememberedonly the pleasantscenes of his life and he was not afrhid to die.

Rev. Dhammananda:- Thatls the way it is. I have heard that before Padmalal:-

A lot of that passage reminds me of my own life, about the field of grain, the threshing floor and the chaff blowing.

Nalika:-

lt remindsme of my villagein the hills and the fieldson the hill side.

Teacher :-

I'm so happy to hear you talk, Nalika.This is the first time you did, well done!

Sriyaniand Sureslr :- But Sir, Nalika talks with us in our group. Teacher :-

I know, I have se.enher. But now she is not shy to speak up. Well, what I want all of yorJ to do now is write poems of your own, startingevery line with "Livingis ..........."

Rev. Dhammananda:- | like that. I'm going to start right now. Teacher :-

That's the spirit. Now come on you others. Pleasestart writing.In later lessonsyou must all bring me passagesfrom books you have read and liked and we will read tlrem together.

Note Studentsshould bring books they like to cliss and they may read and discuss them as an extension of this keading Course. 10 Here studentsare given tllree more passagesfrom GELT readersfor practisingPMI and C and S. 1)

From Economics in Our Lives.

ln law, firms are thought to have a life just like people. That is, they have a separate life from the people who make up the firm. For example if Mr. Perera and Mrs. Rajeswary are directors of a company called P & R Ltd., this firm will have to pay taxes separately. The Law sees what belongs to Mr. Perera and Mrs. Rajeswary as being separate from what belongs to the company which ts also a firm. Thus 48

Mr. Perera can have a car in his nanle, Mrs. Rajeswarycan lnve a car in her nante and P & R Ltd. can have a car in its name. By having this clever idea of a separate life for a firm, Britislt law made it possi' bte for private Susrnesses to go on forever. "George Steuart and Co." wlticlt was started in the 1870s is the oldest tea firm in Sri Lanka. lt does many other things besrdes sellittgtea now and the ownership has changed. However, the finn has gone on for more than a hundred years' Students must form into groups and carry out a PMI on the idea of a firm havingja separate life. The resultsof their discussionmust be presentedto the class. (2') This passageis again from Economics in Our Lives. Firnts ntake profits because tlteir sltareholdersdo not want to losemoney. Shareholdersdo not want to lose money becauseit is valuable to thent. lt stands for what they lnve eanrcd or got and is used by them in their own lives. tf a firm does not lnve to give nroney to its shareholders, why should it make profits? State firms are also thought of as personsby the law. They are found all over the world. ln ntost Western and some Third Wortd coutntriesthey tive side by side with private firnts. ln Sacialist Countries, they cover lhe econonty almost completely Students must form into groups and carry out a PMI first on private firms and then on state firms. The resultsof their discussionmust be presentedto the class. (g)

This is taken from Science in our Daily Life edited by Janaki Galappatti'

Computers however are much betterat sonte kinds of informationprocessing than humans. A Com' puter is able to processor order a large amountof data (facts) and do very compticatedcalculationsmuch faster l.tan a huntan can. A huntan brain would need many days to do calculationsthat some computers could do in a few seconds Students must form into groups and carry out a C and S (Conse(uencesand Sequels) on the followingtwo situations:' (a)

lf there were no computersat all and the humanbrain had to do everything.

(b)

lf the human brain stops thinkingand computershad to do everything.Students must present the resultsof their discussionto the class.

Part 6 MODERNFABLES hv

Chitra Fernando 1 NONCHTNONA AND KOTIYATHE CAT There was once an old woman who lived alone. Her name was Nonchi Nona. She was thin and tall and had only one good eye. He.r teeth were brown because she chewed betel. Her hair was grey. She had only two cloths.One cloth had big orange flowerson it; the other had little, purple flowers. Nonchi Nona lived in a hut near the forest. There were no other people living near her; they all lived further up in the village. Nonchi Nona lived near the forest because she was a firewood seller. She sold lirewood in the town two miles away from'the village. Every day Nonchi Nona went into the forest, picked up the dry sticks on the ground,tied the sticks into bundles,placed them on her head and walked to the town. She walked througtrthe town calling out, "Firewood!Firewood!"The people in the houses heard her. Sometimesa housewifeclapped her hands and shouted,"Hoi! Nonchi Nona! | want a bundle of firewood today." Then Nonchi Nona put down her firewoodon the verandah ol the house and the housewifechose one or two bundles.SometimesNonchi Nona stayed on for a chat. The lrousewife talked about her childrenor about her neighbours" "Our Leela has a bad cold. I gave her some corianderwater yesterdaybut she isn't belter." "Add some ginger to the corianderwater. Ginger is good for colds,"said Nonchi Nona. "Simon Appu's daughteris going to marry Martin Appu's son! Have you heard the news? She has a crooked nose and he has'a hump on his back. What a pair!" "The fishmongerlold me about it. ls SimonAppu pleased?What'sthe dowry? "Three bags of rice and a bull without a tail. Simon Appu isn't a rich man and he has another daughter.That daughter has one leg shorter than the other. How can he give Crooked Nose a bigger dowry?" "Yes, yes. Life is always hard." said Nonchi Nona. She got up, placed her bundles of firewood on her head and lett. Nonchi l.lona trad no husbandand no children.She was alone in the world. When Nonchi Nona had sold all her firewood,she went to the market-place.She met the vegetable woman, the fishnrongerand the butcherthere. "Ah! Nonchi Nona!.What can we give you today?"they asked her. Nonchi Nona never bought any meat. She did not eat meat. She believedthat eatingmeat was sinful.But she ate fish.'Sometimes she bought a quarter kilo of little sprats or a piece of dried fish. Sometimesshe did not buy any fish. She bought only some cabbage leaves or a piece of pumpkin. Fish was expensiveand Nonchi None was a poor woman. When she got home in the evening,NonchiNona cooked herselfa pot of rice. Then she left the pot of rice by the fire and cleaned the fish. Next she washed and cut up the cabbage or she cut up the pumpkin.While the fish and the vegetablescooked, she sat by the fire 4nd blew on it now and then.

The sparks flew up, the smoke curled upwardsand Nonchi Nona's eyes watered. when the fish and the vegetableswere cooked, she served herself some rice and tirese cuiries onlo a tin plate. Then she ate. She made the rice into little balls with her fingersand popped rhem one by one into her mouth. She never left even one grain of rice on her plate. She did not iike waste. After she had eaten, she sat by the fire and watchedthe glowing red embers. Sometimesshe thought to hereself,,,1 wish I had someone to talk to." She thought of tlre other people in the village.They did-not live alone. They had brothersand ' sisters or fathers and mothers or children,But Nonchi Nona was alone. So she sat looking into the fire. Now and tlren she could hear a jackal howling in the forest. The .cricketsoutside chirped noisity.-nrtei some time, her head rolledfrom side_toside. She yawnedand rubbedher eyes. Nonchi Nona was rl""p'. She spread out lter mat and slept. She slept till the villageheadman'sred-gold cock crowed loudlyand his cows mooed. Nonchi Nona sat up and rubbed her eyes. Then she rollecl up her mat and got ready for the new day. She washecJherself,ate one or two slices of bread with some coconutsambol and drank some hot tea' She lrad no cup. She drank the tea out of a coconut shell and always burnt her fingers. After this morningmeal, she wenl into the forest.She pickedup the dry sticks on the ground.Sometimesshe broke off the dead brancheson the trees. when she had collectei enougtr sticks, sle came back to her hut, tied the sticks into bunclles,placed them on her head and walkeo t6 tne town. She walked through the little town callingout. ,,Firewood!Firewood!" One day Nonchi Nona was at the market place. She had sold all her firewood and had five rupee.sand fifty cents in her purse. She was happy. "Today I'm going to buy mvserra ni"" ji""" of fish,,, she thought'The lishmongersaicl,"How ut" you today, Nonchi Noia? I have some nice sprats today. Look at them. Fresh.Fat. Stilljumping.Shall I give you a quarterkilo of sprats? NonchiNona said, "Nb. Today l'll have a quarlerkilo of llrorafish.,, "Thora fish! Thora fishl Have I heard you right, Nonchi Nona? Thora fish is expensive.lt,ll cost you five rupees for a quarterkilo. Five rupeesl Have y6u *on a lotteryi you.are rich today.,, "l'm not rich. I haven't won a lottery.Can't a poor woman eat thora fish sometimes?I like eating well' I haven't eaten thora fish for a long time. I've forgotten the taste of thora fish. So I thought, 'Today l'll buy myself some ilrora fish arrd eat \,iell'." "l.kno1, lknow, Nonchi Nona. We all like eating well, don't we? l'll give you a really good . piece of thora fish." The fishmongerchose a Eood p.ieceof thora fish for Nonchi Nona. He wrapped it up carefully in an old newspaper'Suddenly they heard a little voice. lt said, "Miaow! Miaow! l,m very, very hungry. Give me somethingto eat. Give me some fish." Nonchi Nona looked down' The fishmongerlookeddown too. They saw a little grey kitten in front of them. "Miaow!Miaow!"said the kittensadly.,,1'mso hungry",, Nonchi Nona lookedat the kitten.The kittenlookedat her. NonchiNona felt sorry for the kitten' She said, "l'll take this kitten home. No one wants it. lt's hungry. l'll take it home and live it food. -...e.1-"' Will you come with me, kiliva?', "Miaow!Miaow!"said the kitten."Yes, l'll come with you. I am alone. I have no father or mother, no brothersor sisters.l'll come with you. will you feed me?,, 5l

"Yes, l'll feed you. I am alone too. I have no father or mother, no brothers or sisters. I have no husbandand no children.We will live together.". So the kitten went home with Nonchi Nona. When they reached her hut, he jumped out of Nonchi Nona's arms. He ran inside and sniffedevery corner of the kitchen.He liked the kitchen.He was happy. He sat iti the ashes in the fireplaceand purred. "Krrr! Krrr! Krrr!" Nonchi Nona cooked a pot of rice ancJsorne cabbage.Then she cleanedthe fish. But before she cooked it, she cul off two pieces. She cut up the two pieces into little bits, mixed them with some rice and gave the rice and the fish to the kitten who gobbled it up. He ate every grain. Then he curled himself into a little, round ball and slept by the fire. Wlren the headman'scock crowed the next morning,Nonchi Nona awoke. She sat up and rubbed lrer eyes. Tlren she rolled up her mat and began to get ready for the new day. But she was not alone. The kitten was witli her. She gave him some bread and coconut sambol r,vhichhe gobbled up for he was lrungry.Then Nonchi Nona went into the forest.The kitten followedher. While Nonchi Nona was picking up sticks, he climbed up the trees.and chased the squirrels.He frightenedthe birds. He ran after butterflies.He was very fierce.Nochi Nona said, "You'revery fierce. I'll call you Kotiya,which means leopard." Now, Kotiya was not like a leopard.He'had no spots on his body, he had stripes like a tiger. But Nonclri Nona had never seen either a tiger or a leopard.So she called the kitten Kotiya. Wltile Nonchi Nona was in town, Kotiya slept in the sun. When he awoke, he was lonely. He had no friends.So he sat in front of the hut and waited for NorrchiNona to come back. When she came back, he was very happy. He ran to her, rubbed himselfon lrer legs and purred. "Krrr! Krrr! Krrr!" Nonchi Nona was happy too, for there was someonewaitingfor her at home now. After tlreir eveningmeal, NonchiNona and Kotiyasat by the fire. Nonchi Nona talked to Kotiya. She told him all about her day in town. "Today Simon Appu boughtall my firewood.They are cookingthe weddinglunch. Simon Appu's dauglrteris going to marry Martin Appu's son. The bride and bridegroomare both ugly. But that doesn't matter,does it? There'll be a grand wedding lunclr at Simon Appu's house tomorrow.People will eat and drink till their bellies ache! There'll be good, red country rice arrd polishedwhite rice. There'll be fish and meat and many vegetablecurries.There'llbe curd and honey." Kotiya listened.His golden eyes grew bigger arrd bigger.They shone. He loved to hear stories about food. Then he slept. But Nonchi Nona talked on and on. She told Kotiya about the price of fish. She told him about the people in the town. She had a friend now. Slre wds trot alone. 'One afternoonKotiya sat waitingby fhe doorstepfor Nonchi Nona. Three childrencame along, two girls and a boy. They were the headman'ssister'schildren.They lived in a big town many miles away and ltad come to their uncle's village lor the holidays.They saw Kotiya. He was not a kitten now. Hâ&#x201A;Ź was a big cat. His coat was smooth and shiny. His whiskerswere long,ar.rdhis eyes trig arrd golderr.He was a very beautifulcat. Tlre childrerrliked cats. They came up to Kotiya arrd strokeclhim. He was glad to see lh-.n. He was often lonely. Few people came to that part of the village. Kotiya purred, "Krrr! Krrr! Krrr! l(rrr!" Then he lay on his back with lris paws in the air. The childr.entickled his belly. f-le liked that very much. t-le purred again. NonctriNona talked to him every day but she did not stroke hinr. And she never tickled his belly. The next day the clrildrencame again. When they went back to tlreir uncle's house, Kotiya followedthem. He walked right into the headman'shouse. lt was a grand house. The roof hacl tiles on it.

"'he wails were whitewaslrsr:.There were chairs, tabies, cupboardsand beds in the rooms inside. There was a mirror on a wall in itre hall and brass vases ch the tables. They shone like gold. Kotiya walked round,sniffingin all the corners.He looked round,sniffingin all the corners.He liked the headman'shouse better than Nonchi Nona's hut. Tlre heaclman'shouse was big. lt had a lot of furniturein it. Kotiya jumped onto a chair. He had never sat on a chair before. He liked the chair with its soft cushion. Kixiya purred. "Krrr! Krrr! Krrr!" He slept and he snored softly. He spent the morningat the headman'shouse. When he awoke the children gave him some milk in a saucer. Kotiya drank the milk greedily..{e had never drunk' milk before. He liked the cold sweet milk. ln the afternoonhe went back. Nonchi Nona came back ltome in the evening.She did not know of Ko.iya'svisit tc the headman's lrouse.She thoughtthat he had stayed at home all day. "Look! I've brought some thora fish today! lt was cheap. The {ishmo;:gersolcl it to me for lwo I rupees. can have a good 'meal tonight." _We Kotiya rubbed hinrselfagainst Nonchi Nona's legs. :ie purrecl."l(rrrl l(rrr! l(rrr!" (-le liked fish. rlcr,chi Nona'cooked the fish and a pot of rice. She gave Kotiyalsome rice ancJfislr. l(otiya ate tlre fish out not the rice. He was not hungr,y.He had drunk a lot of milk at tlre heacJrnan's lrouse. Nonchi Nona was worried. "Are you ill?" she asked. Kotiya sat by the fire and shut his eyes. lJe clid not want to answer. He did not want to tell Nonchi Nona aboUthis visit.

said.

"Tomorrow,l'll get'you a specialherb fronr lhe forest.lt's a cat rnedicine.lt'll cure Vou,"she

The next day Kotiya went to the headman'slrouse again. He werrt every day. The,children called him Tiger because he had stripes on his back. The clrilclrenloved their Tiger. They strokeclhim. They -ic.rledhis belly. They chased him round and round llre garden. He ran up the mango tree and down the mango tree, He chased the white and yellow butterfliesand frightenedlhe bircls.He glared at the earthwormsand the ants with his big, golden eyes. He was very fierce.When he ',vastirecJ,he jurnpecl onto a chair. He slept and he snored softly.'.1-iir-' is good,"thought Kotiya. \ One day the childrensaid, "The holidaysare over. We are going home tornorrow.Will you come with us, Tiger?" Kotiya thouglttfor a while. He liked the children.He liked milk ancJhe liked sleepingon soft cusl ions. "Yes," he said, "l'll come with you." "Then stay the night with us. Don't go away. We are going to leave very early in lhe morning tomorrow.Uncle is going to send us to the station in the buggy cart. We are going to travel by train to Galle." . Kotiya was very excited. He was going to the station in a buggy cart! fle was going to lravel by train to Galle! He almost forgot Nonchi Nona. He rememberedhe: in the night. lJe was lying on a chair in the hall. He felt a little sad. "NonchiNona will miss me. She'll be sad," he thought."l rnust go and see her beforeI leave.But I can't go now. lt's dark. The doors are slrut. I can't get out. l'll go tomorrow. I'll go e rrly in the morning. I'll tell her, 'Nonchi Nona, ! was happy with you. You were kind to me. You gove ffw food. But I am happier with the children.They play with me, they give nre milk. So I am going away with them'." Then Kotiya slept and snored softly" Wlren NorrchiNona came home that evening,Kotiya was not in the hut. She lookeclfor hirn in 53

all the corners of the hut. She looked for him in the garden. She called out, "Kotiya! Kotiya!" Kotiya did not come. She went into the forest.She calledout, "Ko-ti-yaaa!Ko-ti-yaaa!Ko{i-yaaa!"Kotiyadid not come. NonchiNona went back to her hut. She did not eat. She sat staringat the wall. "He is lost,"she thought. Then she thought,"No, someone has stolen him. He is a beautifulcat." Then she thought againl "No, he is dead. The jackals in the forest have eaten him up." After a long time, she got up. She spread out her mat and slept. But she did not sleep well. She had dreams. ln her dreams she saw a big brown jackal with wicked, red eyes and a bushy tail. The jackal chased Kotiya and she chased the jackal with a big dtick. And they all fell into a deep, black hole in the forest! Nonchi Nona woke up. She shivered.She was alone in her hut. The headman's red-gold cock crowed thrice,"Kuku kuku kuuuu! Kuku kuku kuuuu! Kuku kuku kuuuu!"Nonchi Nona jumped up. "l must find.Kotiya,"she said. It was cold. Nonchi Nona threw an old cloth over her head and shoulders.She looked like a ghost as she went through the village calling out, "Ko-ti-yaaa!Ko-ti-yaaa!"She walked to the end of the village till she came to the headman'shouse. The house was lit but the doors were shut. The headman's buggy cart was on the road. His big, black bulf snortedand stampedbetweenlthe shafts. The bells round his neck jingled.Jingilyjingily jingily."KotiyalKotiya!Kotiya!"Nonchi'Nonashouted hoarsely.Kotiya heard her. He was inside the headman'shouse. He said, "Miaow!Mialow!"loudly. "lfs Kotiya,"said Nonchi Nona joyfully."Hes inside the headman'shouse." She went up and . knobkedon the door. The headmanopened'thedoor. -"NonchiNona!" he said in surprise.Why have you come here so early in the morning?" "l've come becausemy cat is in your house, Sir." "Your.cat! ls this your cat?" "Yes, Sir, this is my Kotiya." The childrenheard voices.They ran out. "This is Nonchi Nona's cat," said their uncle, the headman. "He is our cat," said the children."He's coming with us. He wants to come with us." Then Kotiya said, "Nonchi Nona, lwas happy with'you. You were kind to me. You gave me food. But I am happier with the children.They give me milk every day. They play with me, they stroke rne. And I like my new name. I am Tiger. lt's an Englishname. I like you but I like the children better. I want to live with them.." '

am a poor woman. I must sell firewood in the town every day. I am busy every morning and every day. I am.not young. I can't play with you. And I don't know English.I am a poor woman." The headman said. "Here is ten. rupees, Nonchi Nona. Give the chiidren the cat. They want him. He wants to go. I know you are poor. So here is ten rupees." He put the ten rupees into Nonchi Nona's hands. lt was a lot of money. But Nonchi Nona did not seem to notice that. She went out slowly and stood on the road. The headman'scarter jumped onto the seat. The big, black bull snorted and stamped and his bells iingled noisily. Jingily jingily jingily jingily. The childrenjumped in. Kotiya sat on tne littte girl's lap

and looked at Nonchi Nona with his big golden eyes. The carter poked the black bull with his stick and Kalua." Away went the black bull. Away went the children and away went shoute!, ".Jak_mAk,iA_k_mAk, Kotiya.' Nonchi Non4 Wentback to her hut- And shd was alone again' .

Exercises Vocabularyand SentenceStructure 1.

Drawpicturesto illuslratethe followingwords vases,cushion,slripes,bushy verandah,hump,sparks,embeis,whiskers,

Makenoisesor actionsto illustratethe followingwords' howling,chirped,ru6bed,sniffed,curted,fierce,stroked,tickled,belly,snored,greedily,snofted

Thinkof abslractnounsthat will give you the qualitiesof the charactersin this story.

Use verbalnounsla rnakesenlencesaboutactivitiesthe variouscharactersin the stor! wouldlike ddng.

Speech 1.

Discussin your Eroupsthe ailitudevilla$ersin this storyseemto havetowardsdeformitiessuch as ii crooked nose. Do you th'inktnis is the actualattitudeol our villagersto deformities?Give real eramplestq support your answer. -

writing

(nfiva as ae she chp rhinks n few rew dals dats afte after he left her. of it a thinksof pretendingthat you are NdnchiNona,tell the storyof Kotiya words. in Kotiya's story same the Db nqt use monethan 200 words.Now tell

lrnagireyou are NonchiNonaand writean accountcalled.'I)nqDay in My Life."

a brief accountof what the kittenmay have.thoughtto himselfwhen he firsl saw NonchiNona. V!fd!e.

givingdetailsof the food you ate. Writeab$uta weddiqi lunchyou aftended,.

Wlfte fu end bf this storygivingthe thoughtsthat may havepassedthroughNonchiNona'smind.

{t is gfftdfdlty assumedthat when cats get used to a place, they very rarely leave it for erdther. TAkingthis as truo, write a dilferentendingto thjs story.

2 THE COMPETITION

* by ChitraFernando Jayasena Appu was stretchedout in his armchair'onthe yerandah.His day's work was over. How comfortablehis sarong and banian felt! He had just lit a cigar when his wife Sopie, their daughter Bhadra, and son Sinha, came in. He looked at them eagerly:"Well, so how was the visit? What has Nimal Piyasenasent from Dubai? Did PiyasenaBaas show you?' "Yes, yes, he'showed us everything.Everything.Amme! Ffow my head is aching!" Sopie Jayasenasat down heavilyin the chair next to JayasenaAppu. "Rani was wearing a beautifulnew frock and Raja a new suit. Nimal had sent them the cloth frortr Dubai. And he'd also sent an electric iron. No more charcoal irons for them! How lucky some people are!' Bhadra blew her nose, almost crying. 'Did you see the TV and the fridg!" asked JayasenaAppu tuggingat his moustache. 'The TV was on when we went. A colour TV," Josie PiyasenasaU. 'Sopie Akke, you know how much my children love me, especiallyNimal. He said he wanted to send me a TV. I said, no, no, I'm aR,old woman - whal TVs for me! I don't want anything.But it won't be at all gobd if Martin Mudalall gets a TV before we do. His son is also in Dubai.So then Nimal sent this TV and all these things'.That's what Josie said. I had to listen to her chatterin silence.Amme! How my head is aching!" "Just you wait and sde! Jeeva will send us a TV, a fridge, a fan and an iron. Then we will show those Piyasenas our worth-" ' "But Jeeva has still sent us nothing!"said Sopie tearfully. "That boy has only bden in Doha for two weeks! Wait a lew lnonths. Be patient.Jeeva won't disappointus." 'later, Jeeva did not disappointhis family. Six months one sunny nrorning,the Jayasena hotrseholdwas full ol joy and wild excitement.JayasenaAppu and Sopie were expectedback froni Colombo any minute, Bhadra kept runningto the road every now and again. Sinha Was on the mango tree. From up there, he goutd spot the van the minute it came into sight. Would it never come? Bhadra and Sinha were almost crying with impatience.Suddenly,Sinha shouted, "lt's coming! I can see Martin Mudalali's van." The van stopped in front of the house. JayasenaAppu and Sopie got down with broad smiles on their faces. Two men carried three big crates on to the verandah.Sinha danced round them like a m a d mansin g in g . "Our TV, our TV Now we'll see, now vle'llsee Who is better, Raja, Raja, You or me, you or me?" 56

"l am going to PiyasenaBaas's house to ask them to come over this bvening.We must show them all our new things - everything.Three crates!Oooh! Nimal sent only two. Brit we have three. Oooh!' Bhadralaughedand clappedher hands. When Bhadra returnedfrom the Piyasenas',all the crates were open. Sopie Jayasena was telling the workmenwhere to place the fridge. "Not there, Qando.What's the use of a fridge if no one can see it? Put it here. That's right. Near the armchair.Now people can see our new fridge even from the road." "Sinha, where are those bottles of Lanka Lime? Put them in the fridge. We must have cool drinksfor the Piyasenas." "Yes,Thathe." "Thathe,aren't you going to offer PiyasenaBaas any arrack?That's what he likes,"said Bhadra. "Daughter,use your brains.We have just got a fridgeall the way from Doha. Our visitorsmust feel the prescenceof this fridge in our house. I've never heard of iced arrack! From this day on, Piyasena Baas will drink only Lanka Lime in this house." "Amma, shall I have the iron on the sideboard?" "Yes, Bhadra.After the Piyasenashave geen it, take it lo your bedroom." "What about the cooker?"asked JayasenaAppu. "We can't put it in the kitchen,can we? lt might get dirty." "Leave it on the dining-roomiable,"said Sopie."lt's only a small cooker.\Mry didn't Jeeva eend us a biggerone?" "Where can we eat then? And where will I sit to read my horoscopes?"asked Jayasena Appu, "We can eat in the kitchenand you can read horoscopeson the verandah.We must give our cooker an honourableplace in our home. We must treat it well." "Yes, Thathe, Amma is right. Let the cooker have the table. We'll eat in the kitchen, said Bhadra. When the Piyasenas'camethat evening,the treasuresfrom Doha were all in their proper places: the TV on the centre table, the fan by the door, the iron on the sideboard,the fridge beside the armchair and the cooker on the dining table. All the Jayasenaswere dressed as usual; the Piyasenas were not. Piyasena Baas wore a new cloth and coat and a large, new watch on his wrist. His bald lread shone rnore brightlythan usual. Josi6 Piyasenawore a new silk sari and a heavy gold chain. Rani Piyasenaalso wore a new silk sari; her face was well powdered,her lips reddened.Raja Piyasena'sbrown shorts,brown silk shirt, brown and gold tie and large wrist watch were all new and shiny. His new brown shoes creakedas he walked. The Piyasenashow of finery may have been in honour of the new Doha treasuresfrom Jeeva Jayasenaor it may have been in honourof the older Dubai treasuresfrom Nimal Piyasena.The Jayasenas did not know. What they did know was that all the Piyasenaslooked very grand in their fine new clothes, 57

And all the Jayasenaswere very sorrythat they weren'tbetterdressed.Then tirey lookedaroundat the treasuresfrom Dphaand cheeredup. Theysmiled,they heldtheirheadshigh. "Ah, eome in, come in. Sit, sit," calledout JayasenaAppu from the dining room. "Not on the verandah,not there. Come inside. Bhadra,turn on the fan" Ah, that's right. Sit near the fan. Feel the cool -l-he Piyasenassomehourmanaged not to see the fridge, the cooker and the iron.'But they could hardly not see the TV. Tlrere it was right in front of them.on the centre table. '

PivasenaBaasclearedhis throat."Hm,that TV there- daughter,Rani,don'tyou thinkours is a little bigger?"he asked. ,!

"No, no, PiyasenaUncle,ours is bigger.Ours is bigger.You'renot wearingyour $asses.So you can't see properly,"said Badhrd. "As I see it, lioth are the same size," $aid Jayasena Appu. "Ah, now don't be angry, We mustn't forget that we are old friend$, but t knaw ours is bigger. And don't forget, friend, that we were the first in Kudagama to own a TV." Piyasena Baas looked around proudly. "And it was Nimal.Piyasenawho sent it," said Raja Pi;'asenaiockingsrnuglyat Sinha Jayasena. '1 ..

"Jeeva Jetyasenasent this TV and it's bigg6r,"shoutedSinha. "No, it's not," yelled Raja.

; "Sinha,oorderedhis motfrer,Sopie,"go and get the biscuits.Bhadra,put this iron:back on the sideboard.' "Ah," said Rani Piyasenataking the iron from Sinha, "is ttris the iron Jeeva sent from O6nag It's much lighterthan ours. lsn't that so, Amma?" She passed the iron to Josie Piyasenawho held lt for a moment,then pronounced,"Ours is heavier.'" Bhadra took the iron from her. "You'rewrong. This iron is very mrch heavier than yours. Look at rny blouse. Not a single crease or wrinkle.Now look at your blouses.See thg difference?" "There'snothingwrong with our blouses.They'reas good as yoursl' said Rani Piyasenaangrily. "Bhadra,"said'Jayasena Appu, "bring that Lanka Lime from the fridgo- Our trlends must be thirsty.PiyasenaBaas, you'll have $ome Lanka Lime, wo6t'tyou?" "Ah ,hm-that'stosay-I.usually -y o u -y e s -h m-y e s , y e s , L a n k a L ime . " P iy a s e n a B a a s looked longinglyat the bottle of arracli on the sideboard.JayasenaAppu ignored this look and gave his frienda full glass of Lanka Lime. "How is the drink, my frlend? Nice and cold?" "Yes, yes, very nice and cold. Very nice,very cold,"said PiyasenaBaas, lookingunhappilyai the arrack. 58

The Piyasenasdrank their Lanka Lime but, offereda secondglass,they refused. "Don't you think, frien<J, that all tltese things - these fridgesand thirrgs,can make us change our.way of life - our food, our drink? What do you think?"asked PiyasenaBaas, sadly gazing at the bottleof arracl<. "Yes, yes, they most certainlycan. And why not? That's progress.We must sacrificefor progress- sacrificeeven our lives,no? l..u* u progressiveman." PiyssenaBaas looked uncertainbut said nothing.After a few moments,he got up from his clrair" il tr

"C cr r i e,cirliciren, come"ilaia, R a n i - it ' s g e t t in gla t e . We mu s t b e g o in g .We ' ll g o a n d c o m e " " Th e Piya se r r ais:!t

Th e Jayasenasancithe P iyasen a sCir r: i ' , rs : ie a : ir c irie rf r-: sr e v e ra lv y e e k sa f t e rt h a t . B u t t h e Jayasenashad other visitorswho kelrt tlrenr busy. The nrcst resrectecJof these visitcrswas Emmalin Hamine,JayasenaAppu'selCersister,She livedin anothervillageaooutthirtymilesfrom Kudagama.Unlike tlreir olher visitors,she ditln't corne to look at the Doha treasures.To visit Jayasena Appu frorn lirne to iirne was lrer habit. q iali l.:'car: .,':trt'ian. she alr,ravscame carryingtulo large straw bags. Her clotheswere in one hag; tl:e otlter' ',";?: i,rii cf kal'-.r.-t_pcii.jXll_â&#x201A;ŹlAi--llula_gu-Ll and irieEJcJe!chips. She also brouglrt a farge umbrelia- iri clse it raine'-]. Ei:rr-rr.?iin i-j?:i.ine ai,i'a;'s toicJ lhe Jayasenasexactlywhat she was thinking ':iar;k p a : o ui.* fte n . ti - :eseti'l,l,.lnts''ria.lelhelr i3? ' u l: : n irlt a L . ls . On ihe day of EmmalinHamine'sarrival,JayasenaAppu said to his wife, Sopie, "l arn sure Akka wiil like all cur new thingsfrom Doha.Wlrat do you think?" "V/lryslrouldn'tshe like thern?" "Akka'sideas aren'tairvayslike our own."JayasenaAppu soundecl,anxious" EmrnalinHaminecame in the afternoon" "Come.Come, sit, sit, Akke,"said Sopie l-lamine."Sit near the fan. Bhadra,get Nenda a glass of Lanka Lime from the fridge," "Hah!"saiciEmmalinl-{arnine, puttingdown her bags and her umbrellaon the floor and sitting down. "Fan! Fridge!Where did these thingscome frorn?" "JeevaAiva sent tlremfrom Doha."said Bhadra. "!Ve have a TV too," added Sinha proudly."Look,there it is on the centre table."He pointed proudlyto the TV. "Fan, fridge,TV. What nextl"said EmmalinHamine.She lookedat the centre table. Suddenly she asked in a loud voice,"Whereis our father'sphctograph,JayagenaMalli?lt was alwayson this table" Now there is tlris TV. Wt,ereis the photograph?" "Aney.Akke, don't gietso excited!The photographis on the sideboard.Tlrere it is."'

ErnmalinHamine looked at the sideboard."Hm. And what is that?" She had noticedthe cooker. 'lAh, thut is - rhat is Akke - that's lhe cooker Jeeva sent. That also is from Doha." Jayasena Appu tugged nervouslyat his mouslache.Sopie Hamine began dusting the sideboard,though it wasn't at all dusty.Her lips tightened. "Why is this cooker on the dining table? Does it eal?", 'Ah - ahem - that is - you know, no, Akke, the kitchen is full of smoke and soot. We don't want to dirty this beautifulcooker.We want to keep it bright and clean.tillJeeva comes. When hb comes, we'll build a new kitchen." 'Man, why don't you.keepit on your head till Jeeva comes?" Jayasena Appu laughed nervouslyand almost tugged his moustacheoff. "Progress,Akke, orogress.We can't always be the same, can we?" l'ls it progressto make a cooker head of the household,hm?" Jarasena Appu took out his handkerchiefand wiped the sweat off his face. EmmalinHaminesaw the Lanka Lime on the table."Bringme a nice hot cup of tea. And take this cold thing away." In the evening, Emmalin Hamine said, "Bhadra,Sinha, go get ready. I want to see Martin Mudalaliand his wife. Go, get ready." "Ane,y,Nenda, don't be angry, Nende, I want to watch - to watch TV. There's a nice film on at seven o'clock,'said Bhadra.She looked pleadinglyat EmmalinHamine.

"l want to watchTV too. I don't want to go to MartinMudalali'shouse.They haVeho TV,' said Sinha.

"All right.You don't want to come.You want to watch this TV thing. Don't bome. l'll go by myself."

stammered, shiltinguncomfortably "Ah - hah - Akke-l - W- We - Hamine......."JayasenaAppu ' from one foot to another. "No," said Emmalin Hamine firmly. "l will go by myself. No one in this house need come with me." And taking up her umbrella,in case it rained,she marchedout of the house. Tirc rrextevening,EmmalinHaminewent out again. This time it was to the temple. The temple courtyardwas cool and quiet. The great Bo tree had little flags, red, blue, white and yellow hanging from its branches.The oil lamps on tlreir tiered standsflickeredagainstthe white of the vihara. EmmalinHamine was happy fot the first tirne since her arrival.Usually,she enjoyed her visits to her brothei. Stre spent a lot of time gossipingand laughingwith Sopie and Bhadra. ln the evening they visited their friends, eating biscuits and drinking tea at dvery house they went to. In the night, Emmalin Haririne told Bhadra and Sinha ol her girlhoodwhen people often travelledby bullockcart becausethere were few buses and fewer cars. But on this visit no one had time for EmmalinHamine.Everybodywatched TV till late into the night and she went early to bed. Thinkingof the changein JayasenaAppu's household,EmmalinHaminesighed. "Anicca.anicca. anicca,"she said to herself.But she spoke more loudly than she had wished to, Some'

one heard her: Roslin Hamine,Martin Mudalali'swife' "Anjeca,yes, anicca! We can't escape change. When I climbed Sri Pada, we went by foot. Now they're even going by helicopter!That is not the way to go on a pilgrimage,no?" "No, certainlynot! But tell me, Roslin Akke, why have you no TV in your house? lsn't your son in Dubai? What has he sent ba;k?" "My son sends only money. We need it to send our younger boy to university.Martin M.rdalali isn't interestedin TVs and such things."He is in his shop from morning till night. That's his way. So for how long are you stayingin Kudagama,Hamine? "l'll be leaving tomorrow.The TV has charmed my brother and everybodyelse in that house. They are like childrenwith a new toy." . EmnraiinHamine left the next morning,bags, umbrellaand all. She didn't visit the Jayasenas again for a long time. But the Jayasenashardly noticed her long absence.They were too busy watching TV. Six months went by in this way. Then they trad exciting news: Jeeva Jayasena was going to return from Doha in a few weeks' time. But not alone. He was returningwith a car. A new car. The Jayasenas went across to the Piyasenas.This was news that had to be told at once. "We have come to tell you son'legood news becauseyou are our dearest friends,"said Sopie Jayasena. Jayasena Appu took over from his wife. "Jeeva is returningfrorn Doha with.a car. lf you want to go anywhere- Colombo,Kataragama,Kandy - we'll give you a lift. But we can take only one person only if there's room. Bad to overloadcars, no!" "No need to give us lifts,"said Josie Piyasena."Nimal is also returningfrom Dubai with a car." "ls that so? Good, goodl" JayasenaAppu gave a weak laugh. "lt's so good when our friends prospert My heart fills and overllowswith joy when I hear news like this. But we have work to do. We must go now." The Jayasenasleft. The Jayasena house was like a wedding house the day Jeeva drove up from Colombo to Kudagama in his new car. There was a gokkola pandal at the entranceto the Jayasenas'garden, Pun were invitedto a grand lunch. Kalas at the door and flowers in all the vases. Severalneighbours. "Jeeva has brought honour to his family and to Kudagama.We must receivehim in the proper way," said JayasenaAppu. . The Piyasenashad been invitedbut they could not come: Nimal Piyasenawas also driving up to Kudagamaon tlre very same day in his new car. Jeeva Jayasenadrove into his father'sgarden and parked his car in front of the house. As he got out, Bhadra came forward with an araliya mal garland which she placed on her brother's neck; the assembledneighboursclapped" "So, so tell us, Jeeva, how was Doha? You must have worked like a buffalo to have brought all these things!"said one of their neighbours. Jeeva smiled airily and sat down. Sinha took around a tray laden with drinks. Afterwards, 6l

everybodyate and drank again till they were ready to burst;white rice and yellow 'i;e, thora fish, devilled potatoes,seeni sambol,brinjal,arrack,toddy ancJLar.kaLime" The piyasenashad a similar feast in their truusâ&#x201A;Ź' Everythingdone in those two householcJs that day was almost exactryalike exceptingin 1re matter of Nimal Piyasena'sgariandwhich was made of picca mai. And now that our heroei fi'om Doh- and Dubai were back at home, what did they do? They drove down the narrow rogds of Ktrcagamain their new cars as fast as they.could. Up and down, round and round they went' The dogs sleeping peacefullyin the middle of the road jumped out of their way; fowls squawkedand ran; even the slow buifaloesmoveo lurribdly to the side of the road when these two ca{s roared past' The peace and quiet of Kudagamawere no more. At first, the villagers said nothing. But after two weeks of noise and danger on thelr quie.troads, they began to cornplain.Jeeva Jayasena nearly ran over Martin Mudalali'sgrand-daughterand Nimal Piyasenaiu'n ouu, his dog. Martin Mudalali,s wife, RoslinHamine,wept. "our Karuawas like a dear friend.And he never harmedanyone",, Nimal laughedat her. "why didn't you keep your dog indoors? -! r ---' -' v ; why let rrrrrr him sleep D rE cP on the. road? ' Y rrJ rst

We l i v g in an age. o f p ro g re s s ."

when Martin MudalaliscoldedJeeva Jayasenafor nearly killinghis grancl-daughter, Jeeva said carelessly,"But I didn't kill her, did l?" After three we9kg, nearly everybodyin Kudagamabegan to wish that the heroes of Doha and Dubai had never returned' No one was really qorry when one day the Doha hero crashed into the Dubai hero'.A crowd gathered on the road. Two ril"n plrr"J out one hero and then the orher from out of the smashedcars. "How can we get these boys to hospital?"asked JayasenaAppu, almost weeping. "How can we get a car?" asked piyasenaBaas, armostweepingtoo.

chin in

,"I,"?,il';:t

,"'

our car to take thesetwo to the hospitat," said MartinMudatali,strokinghis

"Yourcar, Mudarari! we didn'tevenknowyou had one!,, "My son camehomelast.week.He broughta car from ' aroundthe village?why rousethe evireye and the Jvir,orlhz,i Dubai.why go drummingthesethings rninute.,,

"Aiyo'Mudalali,ask your son to drivehere quickly.Quickly,quicklyl rhese boys may die any

NeitherNimalor Jeevadied.But Nimallost all his frontteeth and Jeevalimped.The accident cost the Jayasenasand the Piyasenasa"lot of money.Neither r"rniiv-*"r rich.Therewas only one way to gef the moneyfor the doctor'sbillsand the hospitainitt.' to seil the treasuresfrom Dohaand Dubai. ' MartinMudalali said he wouldbuy whateverthey.wantedto sell. These things- thesefridges, fans' cookersand rVs - had their uses but they were not his legs or front teeth.He knew their proper value' He wouldpay them so much,but not one cent more.No, not a cent more.They couldtake his offeror leaveit' As they neededthe moneyquickly,they took the TV, the fridge,the fan and the cookerleavetheirhouse if. Bhadraand sinha wept when they saw in MartinMudalali,s van. 62

"And we nevereven once used the cooker,"said SopieJayasenawipingher eyes. Only the iron was left. "At least,we lrave one thing left from Doha. AncJJeeva is alive. Let's be thankfulfor that,"said JayasenaAppu. When EmmalinHaminecame again, every.hingwas as it had been before the arrivalof the Dolta treasures:tlreirfather'sphotographwas back again on the centertable;wlren PiyasenaBaas visited his good friend,JayasenaApplr,he lrad lris usual gl- ss df arrack;and in the evening,the Jayasenassat together,talkingand laughingas before. Sometimes,MartinMudalaliinvitedthe Jayasenasand the Piyasenasto watch TV at his house. When they came, he oftensaid in greeting:"l like progress.Ebpeciallywhen the fruitsof progressfall into my hands like ripe mangoes.I know how to handlethese thingsproperly.Properly.. Not like some people." Martin Mudalalisaid this and smiled.Then, Bhadra and Rani almost cried; Sinha and Raja scowled;ancl the two men and tlreir wives sighed deeply.They knew that MartirrMudalalispoke truly. And there was nothing,nothingthey could say in reply. Exercises Vocabularyand SentenceStrucl 'e '1.

Findwordsthatcan be usedin placeof tlrefollowing pronounced, gazing,sacrifice, proper,creaked,finery,grand,sideboard, longingly, dissappoint, crates,directing, progress,habit,uncorllfortable, tugged,shifting,tiered,flickered,gossiping, anxious,excited,nervously, assembled

ldentify or indefinite. the articlesin paras11-30and explainwhytheyare definite

Write10 sentences nrakingcomparisons betweenthe oeoplein this story.

ldentifythe pronounsin the-first10 paragraphs of the storyand stateto whomor whattlreyrefer.

Writea letterfrom EmalinHamineto a irienclin her villagedescribing the first nightwhen she visitedher brother.Use at least5 sentences in the r;edecttenseas approprate.

Questions 't.

Why did SopieJayasena's headache?

What accordingto Mrs. Jayasenawas the use of a fridge?

, Why was the cooker kept on the dining table?

Why do you think "The Piyasenassomehowmanagednot to see the fridge,the cooker and tlre iron"?

Why was PiyasenaBaas unhappyabout his cold drink?

6. -

Why did EmmalinHamineas{:whetherlhe cooker ate?

Why didn't Martin Mudalalihmre a TV even though his son too was in Dubai?

Why did everybodyin Kudagamawislr that the heroesfrom Doha and Dubai had never returned?

What happeneOtoall the thirrgsJeeva and Nimal broughtfrom tlre Middle East and why?

Why did MarlinMudalalisay "l know how to handlethesethingsproperly.Not like some people."?

11.

Why did Emmalinl-laminesay "Anicca,Anicca."?

12.

Carryout a PMI analysison owning a) aTV b) a fridge c)

an electriciron

13.

What is the dorninantidea and the crucial factor in this story? You may discuss irr your groups before you write tlre answer.

14.

Do you think this story shows some trulh about our society?Give reasonsfor your answer.

15.

Why do you fhinkthis story is called"The Competition"?

16.

Write out anclact a dlaloguethat took place 2 years laterbetweenJosie and Sopie about the incidentsdescribed in tlte competition.

3 T H E N IGHTINGALEAND THE ROSE by O s c a r Wild e

"Slte said lhat she would dance with me if I broughther red roses,"cried the young Student, "but in all my gardenthere is no red rose." From her nest in the holrn oak tree tlre Niglrtengale heard him, and she lool<edout through the leavesand worrdered. : \ .,.l ,,r "No red rose irr all rny garden!"lte cried,and his beautifuleyes filleclwith tears. "Atr, on what littletltingsdoes happinessdepettd!| ltave read all that tlre wise men have written,and all the secietsof philosophyare ntine,yet for want of a red rose is rny life made wretcftecJ." "[-{ereat last is a true lover,"said tlre Nightingale, "Nightafter night have I sung of him, thotrgh I knew ftinr rrot:night after night have I told his story to the slars and now I see [inr. His hair is c.larkas tlte hyacirrtlt-blossotlt, attd his lips are red as tlte rose of lris clesire:but passionhas maclehis face like pale ivory,and sorrowhas set her seal uporrlris brow"" "The Princegives a ball to-morrownight,"murmuredthe young student,"and my love will be of tlte company.lf I bring lter a red rose she will dance witlr me till dawn. lf I biing her a red rose, I s h a l l ho ld h e r i tt,.ty anns, attd slre will lea n lre r lre a du p o n my s h o u ld e r,a n 6 h e r lra n dwill be c l a s p e ciln mine. But there is no red rose in my garderrso I shall sit lonely,arrcJshe will pass me by. Slre will have no heed of me, and nry heartwill break." "l-lt}re,indeed,is the true lover,"said the Nightingale" "What I sing of, he suffers:wtrat is joy to me, lo ltirr is pain. Surely love is a wonderfulthing. lt is more preciousthan emeralds,and dearer lhait fine opals, and pomegranatescannot buy it, nor is it set forth in the market-place.lt may not be purchasedof the mercltants,nor can it be weightedout in the balancefor gold." "The tnusicianswill sit in their gallery,"said the young Student,"anclplay upon their stringed instrumetrts, and rny love will dance to ttre soundof the harp anclthe violin.She will dance so lightlythat her feet will rrot touch tlte floor,and the courtiersirr their gay dresseswill tlrrongarour1cl her. But witl me she will ttot dance, lor I have tro red rose to give her"; and he flung lrimselidowrr op the grass, and buriedlris face irr lris lrarrds,and wept" "Wlty is he weeping?"aslteda littleGreen Lizard,as he ran past hirn witlr his tail in lhe air. "Why, incJeecl?" saicJa Butterfly,who was {lutteringabout after a sunbeam, "why, indeed?"whispereda Daisyto his neighbour,in a soft, low voice. -'[Jeis weepingfor a recJrose,"said the Nightingale "For a recJrose?"they criecl,"l-1owvery ridicr,rlours!" and the littlelizard,who was somethingof a cyhic,laughedoutright.

Butttlte Nightingaleunderstoodlhe secret of the Student'ssorrow,and slte sat silent in the oak tree, and thoughtabout the mysteryof love. Suddenlyshe spreaclher brown wings for flight,and soared into the air. She passed through the grove like a shadowand like a shadowshe sailedacrossthe garden" ln the centre of the grass-plotwas standinga beautifuiRose-tree,and when she saw it she flew over to it, and lit upon a spray. "Give nre a red rose,"she cried, "and I will sing you rny sweetestsong." But the Tree shook its head. "My roses are wlrite,"it answered;"as white as the foam of the sea, and wlriter than the snow upon the mountain.But go to"my brotherwho grows rouncJthe old sun-dial,and per5aps he will give you what you want." So the Nightingaleflew over to the Rose-treethat was growing round the old sun-dial. "Give me a red rose""she cried,"and I will sing you my sweetestsong." But the Tree shook its head" "My roses are yellow,"it answered;"as yellowas the hair of lhe mermaidenwho sits upon an amber throne, and yellower than the daffodil that blooms in the meadow before the mower comes wiilr tris scythe. But go to my brother who grows beneaththe Student'swincJow,and perhaps he will give you w h a tyo u wa n t." ..\ - .t ! So the Nightingaleflew ovJ to rhe Rose-treethat was growingbeneaththe Student'swindow. "Give me a red rose,"she cried,"and I will sing you my sweetestsong"" t

But {h^eTree shook its head. / r ^- 2

'u9 ]oS"t a?e red," it answered,"as red as the feet of the dove, and redder than the great ' fans of coral that wave and wave in the ocean-cavern.But the winter has chilled my veins, and thejrost has nipped my buds, and the storm has broken my branches,and I shall have no ror"r at all this year." "One red rose is all I want," cried the Nightingale,"Ohly one recJrosel ls there no way by which I can get it?" "There is a way," answeredthe Tree; "but it is so terriblethat I darerr'ttell it to you." "Tell it to me," said the Nightingale, "l am not afraid.' "lf you want a red rose,"saiclthe Tree, "you must build it out of music by moonlight,and stain it with your own hearl's-blood.You must sing to rne with your breast against a thorn. All night long you must sing to me, and the thorn must pierceyour heart,and your life-bloocJ must flow into my veins, ind becomemine." "Death is a great price to pay for a recJrose," cried the Nightengale,"and Life is very dear to 66

all. lt is pleasantto sit in the green wood, and to walclt tlre sun in lris chariotof gold, and tlre Moon in her chariot of pearl. Sweet is the scent of the hawtlrorn,and sweet are the' bluebellsthat lride in the valley,and the lreatherthat blows on tlre lrill.Yet Love is betterlltan Life, and wlrat is ttre lreartof a bird comparedto the heart of a nlan?" So slre spreacllrer brown vuingsfor flight,and soarerJinto tlre air. She swept over the garden slre sailedtltrouglrthe grove. like a shadow,and like a shacJow The young Studerrtwas still lying on lhe grass,wlrere she hacl left ltitr, and the lears were yet not dry in his beautifuleyes. "be lrappy;you shall have your red rose. I will build it out "Be happy,"cried tlre Nightingale, All that I ask of you in returnis that you and stain it with my owtr lreart's-blood. of music by rnoorrliglrt, tltoughhe is wise, and rnightierthan Power,thougl-l will be a true lover,for fove is widerthan Philosophy, like flame his body. His lips are sweet as ltoney, are his wings,and color-ired he is mighty.Flanre-coloured and his breathis like frankincense." The Stuclentlookeclup iro* the grass, and listened,but he could not understanclwhat the Nightingalewas sayingto him, lor he only knew lhe thirrgsthat are writtendown in books. who ancl felt sad, for he was very fond of the little Nightingale, But the Oak-treeunderstoocl, had built lrer nest in liis branches. "Si ngme one last song,"he whis p e re d ." l s h a llf e e l lo n e lywh e n y o u a re g o n e . " sang lo lhe Oak-tree,ancl her voice was likd water bubblingfronr a silver So tlre lilightingale jar. U/hen she ttad finisheclher song, the Studentgot up, and pulleda notebookand a lead-pencil pocket. out of his away throughthe grove."tlratcannot be denied "She has form,"he said to himself,as he walkecJ is like most artists;she is all style witltout got not. In fact, she | arn afraid feeling? to her; but has she merelyof music,and everybodyknows herself for others. She thinks any sincerity. She would not sacrifice that the arts are selfish.Still,it must be adrnittedthat she has some beautifulnotes in her voice.What a pity it is that they do not nrean anything,or do any practicalgood."And he went into lris room, and lay down on his littlepallet-bed,and begarrto think of his love: after a time, he fell asleep. And when lhe moon shone in the heavensthe Nighlingaleflew to the Rose-tree,and set lter breast againstthe thorn. All night long she sang, with her breast againstthe thorn, and the cold crysral Moon leaneddown and listened.All night long she sang, and the thorn went deeperand deeper into her breast,and her life-bloodebbed away from her. She sang first of lhe birth of love in the heart of a boy and a girl. And on the topmostspray rose, petal followingpetal, as song followedsong. Pale of the Rose-treelhere blossomeda marvelloLrs was it, at first, as the mist that hangs over lhe river - pale as the feet of the morning,and silver as the wings of dawn. As the shadowof a rose in a water-pool,so was tlre rose that blossontedon lhe topntost spray of the Tree. But the Tree cried to the Nightingaleto press closer against the thortr."Press closer, liltle Nightingale," cried the Tree, "or the Day will come beforethe rose is finished."

So tlte Nightingalepressedcloser againstthe thorn, ancJloucJergrew her song, for s5e sang of the birth of passionin the soul of a man arrcJa maid. Arrd a delicateflush of pitlk came into the leavesof the rose, like the fluslr in the face of the bridegroomwhen he kisses the lips of' the bride. But the thorn lracj not yet reachedJrer heart, so the rose'slteart remainedwhite,for only a Nightingale's heart's-blood can crimsont5e heart of a rose. Arrd the Tree criecJto tlre Nigtrtingale to press closer against the thorn. "Press closer, litle Nightingale," cried the Tree, "or thr) Day will come beforethe rose is finisftecl. So the Nightingalepressedcloser againstthe thorn, and the thorn touchecJher heart, and a fierce pang of pain shot throughher. Bitter,bitterwas the pain, and wilcleranclwilclergrew fier song, for she sang of the Love that is perfectedby Death,of tlre Love that dies not in the tomb. Ancl fhe marvellousrose becamecrimson,Iike the rose of the easterrrskv. Crirnsonwas ilre girdleof petals,and crimsonas a ruby was the heart. But the Nightingale's voice grew fainter,ancl her little wings began to beat, ancl a film came over her eyes. Fainterand faintergrew her song,and she felt somethingchokinglrer in lrer throat. Ttten she gave one last burst of tnusic.The white Moon heard it and she forgot the dawn, and lingeredon in the sky. The red rose heard it, and it trembledall over with ecstasy,ancl opened its petalsto tlte cold morningair. Echo bore it to her purplecavernin the hills,and woke the sleepingshepherds from tlreir dreams. lt floated throughthe reeds of the river, and they carried its message to the sea. "Look, look!"cried the Tree, "the rose is finishednow", but the lrlightingale made no answer, for slre was lying dead in the lorrggrass,with the thorn in lrer heart. .} And at noon the Studentopenedhis windowand lookedout. "Why, what a wonderfulpiece of luck!"Jrecried. "Here is a red rose; I have never seen any rose like it in all tny life. lt is so beautifulthat I am sure it has a long Latirrname."Ancthe leaned down a n d p lu cke dit" Then he put on his hat, and ran up to the Professor'shousewitlr a rose in his hand. The daughterof the Professorwas sittingin the doorwaywindingblue silk on a reel, and her l i t t l ed og wa s l yi ngat lrer feet. "You said that you would dance with me if I broughtyou a red rose,"cried the Stuclerrt. "lJere is the reddestrose in all the world. You will wear it tonightnext your heart,and as we dance togetherit will tell you how I love you." But the girl frowned" "l am afraidit will not go with my dress,"she answered;"and besides,the Chantberlain's nephew has sent me some real jewels,and everybodyknowsthat jewelscost far more tlran florn/ers." "Well,upon my word, you are very ungrateful," said the Studentangrily;ancl he threw tlre rose into the street,where it fell irrtothe gutter,and a cart-wlreelwent over it. "Ungrateful!" said the girl. "l tell you what, you are very rude;and, after all, who are you? Only a Student.Why, I don't believeyou ltave even got silvqr bucklesto your slroes as tlre Clrarnberlairr's 6B

nephew lras"; ancl slre got t-tpft'om lter cltair atld went into the llouse. "Wlat a silly tlring Love is!" saicl tlre Student as lte walked away. "lt is not half as useful as Logic, for it does not prove arrything,ancl it is always telling one of things that are rrot going to ltappen, ancl making one believe things tlrat are not true, In fact, it is qLriteunpractical and, as in this age to be practical is everytlring,I sftall go back to Plrilosophyand Metaphysics'" So he returned to his roorn ancl pulled out a great dusty book, and began to read.

Exercises Vocabularyand SetrtetrceSlructure 1.

thal referto plants' Pick all tlte nounsand'adiectives

pick out all the nouns anrJacljectives that refer lo preciousthings that are used for comparisons'

Pick out the abstractnouns.Use tltem in sentencesof your own.

Wlrat effect is createdby the writer'suse of capitallelterswltere they are not ordinatilyused?

clauses,togetherwitlt tlreirverbs, in the first four oaragaplrsof tlris story' lclentifyilre cJitferent

words useclto join tlre ldentifythe conrplexsentencesin the next 10 baragraohsol the story. Wlrat are tlte diffe+entclauses,and what do the, -o?

Write 5 sentencesusing relativepronounsabout each of the followingLove, Tlte The Nighiingale , the musicians,Ttre red Rose Tree, The student's hair, The courtiers, Trre stucJerrt, nest Nightingale's

words in this story in sentencesof your own to bring out their rneaning. Use the higlrlightecl

Questions 1.

say of the young Student,"Hereat last is a true lover"? Whv did the Niglrtingale

Why oo you tlrinkthe littleLizardlauglted?

the Student'ssorrow? .,, wha. n1 Co you thinktlre Niglrtingale understood

List lhe attemptsltte Niglrtingalemade irt vain to get a re<Jrose for the Student'

tlrat Love was bel' what are the ilrirrgsilrat riake up Life for ilre Nightingale?why do you think she thought ter tlran Life?

Describetlre way the Rose-treeprotJucedtlre beautiltrlred rose lor the Student' What clicJthe Niglrtingalewant in returnfor lter sacrifice,and did she get it?

B. q

Do you think the Nightingale'ssacrificewas worth it? Give all your reasons' Write the story of the Nightingaleas though it were told by lhe red Rose Tree' hoped that your daughter lmagineyou were 1re professoranclthat you tlroughtvery.highlyof the student,and tlre ball' before woulclperhaps rnarryliinr. Write out a diaiogueyou woulc!ltave witlt your daughter 69

4 THE BUTTERFLYTHAT STAMPED by R u d y a rd K ip lin g This,OmyB estB elove'rcl,isas t o ry -a n e wa n d a wo n d e rf u l s t o ry -a s t o ry c lif f e re n t f r o m t h e other stories- a story about The Most Wise SovereignSuleiman-bin-Daoud - Solomonthe Son of David. There are tltree ltuncJrecl arrd fifty-fivestoriesabout Suleiman-bin-Daoud; but this is not one of them. lt is not the story of the Lapwirrgwho found the Water;or the Hoopoewho shaded Suleiman-binDaoud from the heat. lt is not the story of the Glass Pavement,or the Ruby with the CrookedHole, or the GolclBars of Balkis. lt is the story of the Butterflythat stamped. '

Now attenclall over again and listerr!

Suleiman-bin-Daoud was wise. He understoodwlrat the beastssai.d,and wlrat the insectssaid. He understoodwhat the rocks said deep under the earth when they bowed in towardseach other and groaned;and lre understoodwhat llre trees said when they rustled in the micldleof the morning. He unc[erstood everything,from the bishop on the bench to the hyssop on the wall, anrj Balkis, his Head Queen,the Most BeautifulQueen Balkis,was nearryas wise as he w"s. Suleiman-bin-Daoucl was slrong.Upon the third fingerof the right hanclhe wore a rin!. When he turnedit once, Afrits and Djinns came out of the earth to do what"u"i h" told them. When he turned it twice, Fairiescame cJownfrorn tlre sky to clo whateverhe tolclthem; and when 5e turneclit three times, the very great angel Azrael of the Sword came dresseclas a water-carrier,and told him ilre news of lhe three worlds - Above - Below- ancjHere. And yet Suleirnan-bin-Daoud was not proud.Fle very selcJom showedoff, and when he did he was sorry for it. Once he tried to feed all the animalsin all the worlc]in one day, but wSen the food was ready an Anintalcame out of the deep sea and ate it up in three mouthfr.rls. Suleiman-bin-Daoud was very surprisec{ and said, "O Animal,who are you?" And the Animalsaid, "O King, live for ever! | anr the smallestof tlrirtytltousandbrotlters,and our lrome is at the bottomof the sea. We hearcJthat you were going to feed all tfre animalsin all the worlcl,and my brotherssent me to ask when dinner would be ready'"Suleirnan-bin-Daoud was more surprisecJ tharrever'and said, "O Animal,you irave eaten all t5e dinnerthat I made ready for all the animalsin the world."Arrd the Anirnalsaid, "O King, live for ever,.but glo yoLtreally call that a dintrer?Where I come from we each eat twice as much as that between meals.,, Then Suleiman-bin-Daolrci fell flat on his face and said, "O Animal! | gave that dinner to show what a great and riclt kirtg I was, ancl not becauseI really wanted to be kind to the animals.Now I am aslramecl, and it serves rne rigltt."Suleirnan-bin-Daoud was a reallytruly wise man, Best Beloved.After that he never forgotthat it was silly to slrow off; and now the real part of my story begins. He marriedever so many wives. l-le marriednine hundredand ninety-ninewives besidesilre rnost BeautifulBalkis;and they all lived in a great golden palace in the midcJleof a lovely garden .with fountains.He didn't reallywant nine huncJred an<lnirrety-nine wives, but in llrose days everybodynrarried ever so many wives, and of course the King had to nrarrynrore just to show ilrat he was tne rcirig. Some of the wives were nice, but some were simply horricl,ancJ6e lrorrid ones quarrelled witlt the nice ones and made them horrid too, ancl theri they woulcJall qurrel wi6 Suleirnan-bin-Daoud, and that was horridfor him. But Balkisthe Most Beautifulnever quarrellecl wiilr Suleiman_bin_Daoud. She 70

H:ti,",l,f.:?:rtTTr:he

sat in lrer roomsin the GolderrFalace,or warked in the paracesarden,and

of courseif he had cltosento turtt n', n,nq.-:T his fingerand call up ilre Djinnsand Afritsilrey would have magicked all those nine huncireo anJ n'inety-nine q"urilior" wives into i,vhitemures desertor greyhoundsor pomegranateseecls; of the but suleiman-bin-DaouJ'ilrouglrt that would be showingoff. so' when they quarrelledtoo much, he only walkeJLy himserfi; ;;;p;n of rhe beautifurparace garcrens and wished l"iehad never been born. one day, when they has quarrelledfor three weeks - all nine hundredand ninety-nine together- suleiman-bin-Daoud wives went ouj for peace and quiet ,rrui;' and among the orange trees he rnet Balkisthe Most Beautiful,very sorrbwtut'necause ", suieiman-bin-oaouo was so worried.And she said to him' "o my Lord and Light of my Eyes, turn ir.'e ring upon t;lJ;g"r and show these eueens of Egypt and Mesopotamiaand Persiaand chinu that you,are the great a'd terrible King.,,Bui suleimanbin-Daoud

shookhis headand'said'"9,*y luJy oi ri lil," r*r"rber theAnirnar outof the seaand mademe ashamed rhatcame "no'oetight beiore r'" animllsin ali theworldbecausel s'owedoff.Now, "il

ffi;;,""',iou"",se ,l,J,'ilil:i they ffl,i:T:"J:::":ffT*'jtJ#ll"iflirut*t.i,"i."",i And Balkis the Most Beautifulsaid, "o my Lord and rreasure of my soul, what will you do?,, And sufeiman-bin-Daoud said, "9 ty Lady and content of my Heart, I shall continueto endure . rny fate at the hands of these nine hundred and ninety-nineeueens'who vex me,with their continual quarrelling. so he went on betweenthe liliesand the loquats and the roses and the cannas scented ginger-plantsthat grew in the garden, and the heavytit he came to the great camphor-tree that was cared the camphor Tree of suleimanlbin-DaouJ'Erie;rkjr iriilrong the tail irises and the spotted the red lilies behind the camphor-tree'so bamboos and as to be near her own true love, suleiman-bin-Daoud. Fresenilytwo Butterfriesfrew under the tree, quarreiling. suleiman-bin-Daoudheard one say to the other, "l wonder at your presumption this to me' Don't you know that if I stamped in talking like with my foot all suleiman-bin-Daoud,s palace and his garden here would immediatelyvanish in a clap'of thunder?, Then suleiman-bin-Daoud forget.his nine and nienty-ninebothersomewives, and faughed' tifl the camphor-treeshook, lylol"g at tf,e gufierfry'sboast, And he helo out his finger and said, ,,Little man, come here." The Butterflywas dreadfullyfrightened,but he Daoud and clung there' fanning rrimseti, 13nao9d to fly up to the hand of suleiman-binsrireiman-Lin-oaouo benl his r,eat a1o whisperedvery sofry, "Littrâ&#x201A;Ź; man' you know that all your stampingwouldn't o"nJone v' brade urcrLrci grr;s. whut made you te, that awful ur or grass' 's fib to your wife? - for doubtlessshe iJ youryitu.; The Butterfly looked at suleiman-bin-Daoud gtarson a frostynisht,bnd'hepicked r,11.;il"gJ 3.nd.saw the most wise King,s eyes twinkle like i

y helF m y wit e,ritp put his andsai d ,..o Kin g ,| i v eforev er..S ; a nboth d y owings: u k n o il* whhe a t wiv e s ahead r e | ikon.one e .,, side suleiman-bin:Daoud smiredin his beardand said,,,yes,I k,now,rittre brother.,, 71

,,one must keep them in order somehow,"said the Butterfly,"and she has been quarrelling with me all the morning.I said that to quiet her"' saicJ,"May it quiet her. Go back to your wife, little brother, and let And Suleiman-bin-Daoud me hear what You saY." leaf, and she said, "He Back flew the Butterflyto his wife, who was all of a twitter behind a himsell heard you!" heard you! Suleiman-bin-Daoud ,,Heardm"r" said the Butterfly."Of course he did. I meant him to hear me." "And what did he say? Oh, what did he say?" you and me, my dear - of ,,V,e11,,, said the Butterfly,lanning himselfmost importantly,"Between p"alacemust have cost a great deal and the oranges are just course I don,t blame him, because his ripening- he asked me not to stamp, and I promisedI wouldn't." laughed till tlte tears ran ,,Gracious!,, said his wife, and sat quite quiet; but suleiman-bin-Daoud down his face at tlre impudence of the bad little Butterfly. and smiled to hersell, Balkis the Most Beautifulstood up behind the tree among the red lilies my Lord from the persecutigls for she had heard all this talk. she thought,"lf I am wise I can yet save softly to-the.Butterfly'swife, of tlese quarrelsomeeueens," and she-held out her linger and whispered ,,Litilewoman, come here.,,Up flew the Butterfly'swife, very frightened,and cluirg to Balkis'swhite hand' you believe what your Balkis bent her beautifulheacl down and whispered,"Little woman, do husbandhas just said?" eyes shining like The Butterfly,sWife looked at Balkis, and saw tlre most beautifulQueen's both wings and said, "o Queen, deep pools with starlighton them, and she picked up her couarge with be lovely lor ever. You know what men-folkare like'" lips to hide a smile and And the eueen Balkis,the Wise Balkis of Sheba, put her hand to her said, "Littlesister, I know." ,,Theyget angry,"said the Butterfly'sWife, fanning herself quickly,"over nothing at all, but we it pleasesmy husbandto believethat I must humour them, o eueen. They neve, *""n half they say. lf Palace disappearby stampinghis foot, I'm sure I don't care' believe he can make Suleiman-bin-Daoud's He'll forget all about it tomorrow." ,,Littlesister,,,said Balkis, "you are quite right; but next time he begins to boast, take him at men-folk are like, don't we? He'll his word. Ask lrim to stamp, and see what will happen.we know what be very much ashamed." were quarrellingworse Away flew the Butterfty'swife to her husband,and in five minutes they than ever. "Rernemberwhat I can do if I stamp my foot"; "Remember!'said the ButterJly. ,,1don,t believe you one little bit," said the Butterfly'sWife. "l should very muclr like to see it

done.Supposeyou stamPnow." 72

"l promisedSuleiman-bin-Daoud that I wouldn't,,, said the Butterfly,,,andI don,twanl to break my promise." "lt wouldn'tmatterif you did," said his wife. "You couldnrtbend a vr grass wi6r your - blade -r5vv of stamping.I dareyou to do it," she said,"stamp!stamp!stamp!" Suleiman-bin-Daoud, sittingunderthe camphor-tree, heardeveryword of this,and he laughed as he had neverlaugheclin his life bbfore.He forgotall abouthis eueens;he forgotall aboutthe Animat that came out of the sea; he forgotaboutshowini off. He just laughedwith joy, and Balkis,on th'eother side ol the tree,smiledbecausther own true love-wasso joyful. j

Pre.sently the Butterfly,ve! hot a.ndpufry,.cjl.mewhirlingbackunderthe shadowof the camphortree and said to suleiman,"she wa.ntsme to stamp!she wantsi-o,"" what will happen, o suleiman-binDaoud!You know I can'tdo it, and now she'llneverbelievea word I say. she,ll laughat me to the end of my days!" "No, littlebrolher,"said Suleiman-bin-Daoud, "shewill neverlaughat /ou again,,, and he turned the ring on his finger- just for the little Butterfly's sake, not for the sake of showingoff - and, lo and behold,four huge Djinr.scameout of the earth! "Slaves,"said Suleiman-bin-Daoud, "whenthis gentlemanon my finger,,(6at was where the impudentButterflywas sitting)"stampshis le{tfrontforefooiyou witi mare my palaceand thesegarclens disappearirt a clap of thunder.when he stampsagainyo, *i[ 6ring in"r backcarefully.,, "Now,littlebrother,"he said,"go backto your wife and stampall you:ve a mindto.,, Away flew the Butterflyto-his wife, who was crying,"l dare you to do it! | dare you to do itl Stamplstamp now!"Balkissaw ihe.fourvast Djinnsstoopdown to the four cornersof the gardenswirh the Palacein the middle,and she clappeclher handssofilyanclsaid "At last suleiman-bin-Daoud will do for the sake of a Butterflywhat he oughtto have oone roig ;g"-f"; his own sake,and the quarrelsome Queenswill be frightened!" Then the Butterflystamped-The Djinnsjerkedthe Pataceand the gardens a thousandmiles into the air: there was a most awful thunder-clap, and everythinjgrew inky-black.The,Butterfly,s wife flutteredaboutin the dark,crying,"oh, l'll be good!l'm so rorry i only bringthe gardens back, #ore. my dear darlinghusband,and r'il nevercontradict again.,' The Butterflywas nearlyas frightenedas his wife,and suleiman-bin-Daoud laughedso much that it was severalminutesbeforehe foundbreathenoughto whisperlo the rrlv svrle"'v' Butterfly,,,stamp ur again,lilile

brother.Give me back my palace, nlost great fnagician."

gYes,. give .h.imback his Paface,"said the Butterfly'sWife, still flying about in the dark like a moth. 'Give him back his Palace,and don'l let's have any more horrid magic.,,

"v/ell, my dear," said the Butterflyas bravelyas he could, "you see what your nagging 5as led to' of course it.doesn't make any differenc-eto me - i'm used to this'kind of thing - but as a favour to vou and to suleiman-bin-Daoud I don't mind puttingthings right." So he stampeclonce more, and that instant the Djinns let down the palace and the gardens, without ey'en a bump. The sun shone on the dark-greenorange leaves; the fountains played among the pink Egyptainlilies;the birds went on singing,and t[e Butterfly;s wife lay on her side under the camphortree wagglingher wings and panting,"Oh; l,ll be goodl |,ll be good!,, 73

coulcltrardlyspeak lor laughing.l-le leanedback all weak and hiccoughy, sr_rleiman-bin-Daoud "o great wizarcl,what is the sense of returningto me my and shook lris finger at the Butter{lyand said. Falaceif at the sanretime you slay rne with mirtlr!" Queens ran out of the Then came a terriblenoise,for all the nine hundredand ninety-nine clownthe great marblesteps bepalaceshriekirrgarrclshoutingar,clcallingfor their babies.They hurried forwardto meet them and said' went Balkis low ttre fountairr,one hundredabreast,ind the Most wise "What is your trouble,O Queens?'1 "What is our trouble?We They stood on the rnarblesleps one hundredabreastand shouted, clisappeared' in our golderr1:alaie,as is our custonr,when upon a sttddenthe Palace were livingpeacefr-rlly moved Afrits ancl Djinnsand anclwe vrere left sittirrgirr a thick-an,j ncisomedarkness;and it tlrundered, Queen,and we are most extremelytroubledon account Tlrat is o,.irtrouirle,o l-{ea.J aboutin the ciarknessi trouble,unlikeanv troublelve have known"" of that trouble,for it urasa troublesorne Very Best Beloved- oueen tlrat -[hen Balkistlre ivlostBeautifuleueen - Strleiman-bin-Daoud's Desertof Zinn to ttte Tou/ers was of slreba and sabie anrj the Riversof ilre Golclof the south from the hirnself,said' "lt is nothing, of Zinrbabwe- Balkis,almosi as wise as the Most \,ViseSuleiman-bin-Daouo" lvitlr hirl and it lias quatrelie'-J becauser.ite complaintagainstfris r,niife o eueens! A Birtterilylras r-nacle for that is arrCirunlbleness, ic reacll i:ei' a iesscn ir !oi','-si:eaking pleasecour Llrcl Sr-:ieinran-!:ii-,-Daor-r,J thc uri"'esci tlre t ' lrt le r: ' ' : s c o un teda Vir tuealNollr-l she said' "out' -['lrenup ancl spoke an EgyptianQueen - the daughterof a pharaoh "lg palace cannot be pluckeciup by the-ioots like a leek for the-sake of a little insect. l'Jol Suleiman-bin' and darkeningat ttre rlegrs'" Daoud must be cleacl,anclwhat we heard and saw was tlte earth thurrrjering and to the othThen Balkisbeckonecltlrat bolcjeueen withoutlookingat her, and said to her ers, "Come and see." still t hey came down lre nrarblesteps, one hundredabreast,and beneathhis camphor-tree, Buttedly a with forth rockingback anci they saw the Most Wise King Suleiman-bin-Daoud weak with lar_rghing, air, remenrberafter this, to please in the my brother of "o w'iie say, 1"1byheard hinr on eitlrer lraricl,ui'.,.1 that he is irr all things,lest he be provoked to stanip his foot yet again;for lre lras said your Susbarrcl away the very Palaceof used to this rnagic,anclhe is most emirentlya great magician- one who steals wings, and they tlew the on himself.Go in peace, tifltefolkl" ano ne kissed thetn suleiman-bin-Daoucl /\/ay. wlto stood apart Then all the eueens exceptBalkis- the Most Beautifuland splendid Balkis,. Butterflyis displeasedwith smiling- fell flat on their faces,{or they saicl,"lf theselhings are done when a arrd open quarrelling his wiie, wliat strallbe ilone to us who have vexed or-rrKing with or-rrloud-speaking ilrrouglrntany davs'/" "l'henthey put their veils ovcr their"treads,and they put their hanclsover their mouths, and back to tlre Palacentost ttrousy-rlttict' tlrey tiptoec.l tliroughtlre red litiesinto Then Balkis- ilre Most Beautifuiand ExcellentBalkis- went forwarcJ shbulderand said, "O my ancl laiclher hand upon Suleiman-bin-Daoud's the shade of tlre carnphor-tree and Abyssinia Lord and rreasure of my soul, rejoicefor we have tauglrttlre Queens of Egypt and Ettriopia teaching." anclPersiaancJIndia anclchina with a great arrda memorable still lookingafter the Butterflies,wlrere they played in tlre sunlight, Ancl Suleirnan-bin-Daoud, jestingwith a Butterily said, ,,o my Lorcland Jewel of nry Felicity,wtrenoiOthis happen?For I have been ever since I came into the garden."Anclhe told Balkiswhat he had done' 7A

Balkis - the Tender and Most Lovely Balkis said, "O my Lord and Regent of my Existence,I hid behind the camphor-treeand saw it all. lt was I who told the Butterfly'sWife to ask the Butterfly to s_tampbecause I hoped that for the sake of the jegl Lord would make great some magic and that the Iy Queens would see it and be frightened."And she iold hih what the Queens had said and se"enanO tnought. Then Suleiman-bin-Daoud rose-up,from his seat under the camphor-tree,and stretchedhis arms andrejoiced and sa!d,."9 jny.Lady and Sweetenerof my Days, know thdt if I had made a:magic against my Queens for the sake bf pride or anger, as I made that feast for all the animals,I shoud ceriainfy"have been p-utto shame. by. means of your wisdom I made the magic forrthe sat'e and ior the -But sake of a little Butterfly, and - behold - it has also deliveredme from"the vexationsof"imy "-l"ri vexatious wives! --" Tell me, therefore,O my La.dyanC Heart of my Heart, how did you come to be so wisei" And Balkis the Queen, beautifuland lall, looked.up_into Suleiman-bin-Daoud's eyes and put her head a little on one side, just like the Butterfly,and said, ';First,o my t-ord, beca;;; I ld"" you; dnO .secondly,O my Lord, because I know what women-folkare." Then they went up to the Palace and lived happilyever afterwards. But wasn't it clever of Balkis? There was never a Queen like Balkis, From here to the wide world's end; But Balkis talked to a butterfly As you would talk to a friend. There was never a king like Solomon, Not since the world began; But Solomon talked to a butterfly As a man would talk to a man. She was Queen of Sabaea And he was Asia's Lord But they both of 'em talked to butterflies When they took their walks abroad! Exercises 1.

Note down the nounsyou have not come acrossbefore.How manyof theseare used only lo add to descriptionswithoutcontributing to the actionof the story?

Note down the verbsyou have not comeacrossbefore.Of how manyof thesecan you guessthe meaning?

Pick20 adjectives you thinksoundexpressive and use themin sentences of

ldentify3 nounphrasesin the first9 paragraphs of this story. Whichof thenrincludeadjectives commonlyusedwith nouns?

ldentify3 phrasalverbsin the story,Whichcouldyou replacewith a singleverb?

Describethe differenlways in which the propernounsin the first 2 paragraphsaie described. Why are the wordsAbove- Below- and Herein capitalletters?

Thinkof lour adjectives eachto describethe four maincharacters in this storyand writeaboutthem in senlences.

a) Writea letterfrom Balkisto lter parenlsdescribing her life in the palaceof Sulaiman-Bin-Daoud beforelhe incidentdescribedin "TheButtedlythat Stamped."

own. ,your

b) Writeout and act a cJialogue betweenthe Butterfly's wife and a friend,in whichthe formerdescribesthat incident. 75

Part 7 ModernStories 't T HE MUDALIYAR' SW IFE by Nirma li He t t ia ra c h c h i The Muclaliyarbecarnea very rich man. He used tris money carefullyand made many wise invest' ments and in next to no time he was the biggest land-ownerin the village. Then it was time lor the Mudaliyarto 6ink of taking a wile. Motherswitti young daughtersbggan .beingvery nice to him, once it was known that he was ldoking for a wife. Marriage-biokersvisited him daily but he was a long time in making up 5is mind. In fact, tie village got a miid shock when he did. They had expectg9 to be told Suddenly,one day, he began gettingre3{V for his wedding.The Mudaliyar beforeharrd. about-his'marriage and had had chosena wife from a far-offvillage.He lrad met her-duringone of his famous "jungle-trips" brought were Cooks put pandal her. welcome to up a fallen in love with her at once. Anyway the villagers prepared. in front the neighbouringtowns and a great'feastwas The bride lookedlovelyas she enteredthe villageon the arm of the Mudaliyar.No one could fail to notice how young she was. She was fair and slim. She smiled with everyoneand her eyes seemed to promisemany lovelythings. Although she came from a poor family, she seemed to know what was expected of her as a wite. She won ..re hearts of the villagefolk and no one said anythingagainst her. She never Mudaliyar's. did anything that was not quite eorrect; and never let it show that the difference in age between the Mudaliyarand herselfmade her unhappyin any way. 'fhis would be a And then there was talk of the Mudaliyarbeing appointedto the governingbody. great honour. lt wor.rldalso rnean that the Mudaliyarwould have to travel to Colombo a lot and go to ilany big {unctions.There were times when his wife would have to go wilh him. Then he would have to enteitainothers too. Pelhaps he would throw a party at a big hotel" The Mudatiyartold his wife about his grand plans and she was just as excited as he. He told her the people in Colombb would think her very beautiful.There wdren't many women in Colombo as pretty as she was. She was very happy to hear this. And then'the Mudaliyarsaw that there was d slight problem.His wife knew no English.Now he himself could speak Englislrafter a {ashion.His bosses understoodwhat he said so he was all right. The betweeh the Engtishhe spoke and the English the White Genllemen spoke. Mudaliyarsaw no differ-ence a worc of it. All she had learnt was to sign her name in English and this too not speak could But hid wife sign on the backs of tlre cheques given to them as wedding presents. could that she marriage so after about this. The little woman was perfect in every other way. be done have to Sbmethingilould . The Mudaliyardecided to get a teacher for his wife. A young school-masterhad just come to the village school. People.said he knew Englislrvery well. He would be the right man for the job. When the Mudaliyarsaw the school-master,he had second thoughts.He wgs very young and gogd looking.The Muclaliyargot him to lower the fees so much that it was not worth lris while to teach for that amount. He then *arne! him that in a few months his wife's English must be as good as his own. Tlre young man smiledbut said nothing. 76

Tlte Mudaliyarasked in the villageabout the school-masterand got to know that lre was an ,,adopted child".He had grown up irr an orphanageand had no 'relationsof his.own. He dicJnot seem to have many friendseither.The Mudaliyardid not like such people.But this could not be helped. , The Mudaliyar'swife was afraid that people would hear her mistakesso the class was taken in ilre "Office-room"- the room next to their bedroom. The Mudaliyarwas out of the house a lot now. He would come back late in t5e night arrd often he , slept in the spare room so as not to disturb his wife. Sometimeshe would be away for-6 few days and come back in the afterhoonand ask if his wife was upstairs.The servantswoulcltell hinr slre had a Seaclache and was asleep. Even on the few eveningshe spent at home, his wife would go to becJea.rlywitlr a headdrche.The Mudaliyarwas worried about his wife and told her he would take her to the best doctors in Colombo'But she told hinr it was nolltingto worry about. He even said she s6ould stop her English classes as they could be the cause of her tieadachei but this made her cry. He was touched when she' said slre wantecllrer Engh'shto be so good that he would be proud of lrer. The Mudaliyarnoticed that in spite of her headacheshis wife was growing lovelier daily. He was very annoyed that she had headachesso often. He did not like it at all when lre ient ttre Ayali up io her room to tell her he would like to see her and she sent him word back that she was not well and did not want to be disturbed. One dfternoon the Mudaliyarthought he would go up to lhe bedroom himself. As he climbed the stairs he thought he heard voices. He thought it was his wife chattingwith the Ayah. He heard her laugh and was happy. lf she laughed it meant she was feelingwell. But when he enlered the roonr he saw her alone. Her face was pink and her eyes looked excited" "Whom were you speakingwith?" he asked. "1......! Why, I wasn'tspeakinglo anyone.I'm all alone here." There was somethingdifferentaboui trer smite. lt was not quite right. / "How nice lo see you ltome so early. Would you like some lea?" lt was a long time since she had asked him if he would like arrything.The Mudaliyar'wasjust about to put his arm round her ancl lead her into the bedroomwhen he lreard a noise comirg from the huge antiquecupboard. He started."Whal's that?" "Nothing.What are you talkingabout? | didn't hear anything.', "l heard a noise coming from the cupboarcl.There must be somethingin there.'i "How can anytlrirrgget in there?The cupboanJltasn'tbeen openedfor monlhs.You're,hearing6ings." Slre laughed a little too loudly. "All the same l'cl better lrave a look.,, The Mudaliyarwalked upto the cupobard.He heard heavy breathingfrdm inside. He was about to pull open the door when she caught hold of his arm. "l tell you there's nothing in there. I've been here all day. Don't you believe me?" Now the Mudaliyarwas angiy.

"Whatdoes it matterif I have a look? | iust want to see for myself." "lf you look in there,it meansyou don'tbelieveme and if you can'tbelievewhat I say abouta little thing like that what can I expectof you about biggerthings?lf you open that door everythingis over betweenus.' She lookedvery seriousas she said this. He lookedinto her eyes but they lookedsteadily back into his. "Do you swearthereis nothinginsidethe cupboard?" "Yes,I swearit." "Verywell then."His handdroppedfrom the door."Let'shavetea upstairs." eyes.He rangfor tea. When tea was broughthe gave Therewas a strangelook in the Mudaliyar's get him to a masonfrom.the villageat once. to and asked the Appu a list of things buy The Mudaliyarspentthe wholeevening*i,n ni. wife tellingher all about what had happened in Colombo.He did not seemto noticethat his wife lookedquiteill. The qason came with his bricksand sand.The man himselfwas surprisedat what he was asked wiferan cryinginto the bedroomwhenshe heard. to do. The Mudaliyar's "My dear,I thoughtI heardyou sweartherewas nothinginsidethe cupboard.Do you still say so?" "!es I do - but it;ssucha wasteto wall up suchan old cupboarcl." "suddenlyI don'tlike it at all. I want it walledup with no spaceleft in betweenat all." He lockedthe door of lhe cupboardand took the key out. The mason started work. The Mudaliyarordered dinner to be brought'up. His wife could not eat anything but he enjoyed his dinner. He begged her to eat somethingbut she lay silent and still on the bed. The mason had to work the whole night. As he went on groans and taps were heard from inside the cupboard.Each time a noise was heard the,Mudaliyar'swife,wouldsob loudly and the Mudaliyarwould tap her hand and remind her that she was thc one who had sworn there was nobody inside the cupboard. .The mason finished his job and left. In the morning the Mudaljyartold his wife he was going to Colombo and left. As soon as she heard him go down the stairs,she rushed to the wall and began trying to pull the bricks cut. "My dear, don't tire louself. You will fall ill trying to carry those heavy bricks. Besides,you told me you're sure there's no one there. So why worry?" He had come up silently. She fell down in a faint. He carried her to the bed. The next day she got high fever. She became very ill. The Mudaliyargot dofrn the best doctorSfrom Colombobut tfrey UiOnot haue much hope for her. They thought she had lost her mind because she kept pointingto the wall and begging of someone to pull it down. She died within a few days. Her funeralwas so grand the village talked about it for years. Nobody knew what on earth happenedto the school-master. 78

Ir I

Questions Vocabularyand SentenceSlructure 1.

From the contextwork out the meaningof the followingwords investnrent,ntild, slim, functions,annoyed,disturbed,antique,steadily,groans

Rewritethe first paragraphof the story in the futuretense.

Using the presentcontinuousiense where it is appropriatedescribewhat happensfrom the Mudaliyar'spoint of view while the mason is wallingup..thecupboard.

Put the last six paragraphsof this story in the passivevoice. Only change sentencesthat it is appropriateto change and do not includethe agent unless it is necessary"

lndividual/PairWork 1.

Fteadthe first 10 paragraphsof tlre story and write a letter from the Muclaliyar'swife to a friend describinE what lras happened.

Read the rest of the story. Write out a dialoguebetween a policemenquestioningthe Mudaliyarabout what had happened,and the Mudaliyardenyingthat he had done anythingwrong. Act it out in pairs"

Write out a dialoguebetweenthe Mudaliyar'swife's rnotherand the Mudaliyar,in which he explairtsto her the need for his wife to know English,whileshe arguesagainstthis idea.

Pretendyou are the Mudaliyar'swife and write a letterto your Englishtutor.

Relate the story of how the wall was built as if you were the mason who built it.

Using no more than 200 words, tell the story of the Mudaliyar'swife as though you were the Mudaliyar.

In groups 1.

Dramatisea trial scene where the Mudaliyaris being tried for the murderof his wife's lover.

Dramatisea scene where the Mudaliyarand his wife attenda villagefair"

Dramatisea scene in which the Mudaliyarattendsa big functionin the city withoutlris wife.

2 THE HI DI NG P L A CE by Nirmali Hettiarachchi "What is Yourname?" "Where do You come from?" "What were you doing there at that time of night?" "How do You know Banda?" "What was he doing with You?" "Why were You hicling?'r "lf you were not a spy, wlty were you hicling?" "Where are tlte otlters?" I coulcl,wonderingall the time if the others They kept on asking and I kept on answeringas best channa. lf he was caught,our cause was lost' had managedto get away. wonderingmost of allLbout All our work would have been in vain" when they lrad shouted"Halt!" I had Banda and I had been unlucky.we lrad been a littletoo slow. running,it wourd have been better to have been stopped without thinking.Now I wishecrr had kept on knew tirese guys did not shoot to kill at once' shot in the back than to be caught like this. Bui I also so that you ctid not clie but lay howling in the They shot at your legs or at the lower part of your stomach lcould not stancJthe bulbs being flashedin my face' My jungle.But now I felt-l was sufferinguribearably. me be. I was so tired I gave differentanswers to body longecJto fall asleep and yet they woulcl"notlet to Bancla.At last one of thenr hit me and they the same questions.I did not know what had happened draggeclme out and threw me into a room' I hearclBanda'svoice. I opened nty eyes and Either I fell asleepor I faintecl.when I came rouncl, he seemed to be wearing a mask. His nose was baw a man tlrat shourd have lookecJrike Banda onry painted in rect.His eyes were covered over. He could not twice its size. His lips looked very thick and face' see through them, "iJanda?"I reachedtowardstris me'" "Don't touch man, they've clonea thoroughiob on l cou ld n 'tbe arto|ookatlrim.Theytrad n ' t b e e n s o ro u g lrwit h n t e . "What will they do to us?" I asked him' go' ,,Theworst is over now. Now they're trying to make up their minds about killing us or letting us All they wanted was to get something out of us' I we,re too small for them to worry too mucn a"bout. hope you didn'ttell them anything"' ,,No.They didn,t ask me anythingabout our_work. They didn't seem to think I was really one of us' I said I just happenedto be with you at the time"" "Good lacJ.Did they ask you about Channa?" 80

"No!TheYdidn'tthinkI knewhim'"

. , G o o d . P |a yi tth a tw a y.|tmi g h tb eyour ticl:etoutgfher e.' ' i 'Banda,supposingit gets very rough,what do I do? I mean,they mightwork on me till I tell them I know.I don'thavemy capsulewith me'" everything "Me neither.Anywaytry tellingtlrem the thingswe agreedon. You rememberChannamentioned certainplaceswe were neverto hide hl""'" The door oPened. ,,Channaeh? Well, yourig man, so you're quite a guy aren't you? Who would have thought it looking at you? Playingit dumb etrZ wow we'll see what you're really made of'"

bugs. The cell had been so small and dirty we hadn't thoughtol checkingit for at him. The guard one of ,them kicked me. I screamedbefore I could stop myself. Banda sprang fell; Banda's hands were at his throat. I heard a shot and Banda lay still. I saw Death and a terriblefear came upon me' the same thing to happen The other guard laughedat me. "Look at your brave friend. Do you want we say. to you? come, yor're a clever lad. I'm sure you'll do what I did not care for them and They led me away. I wanted to hit thenr, to spit at therll; to sltow thenr too. why didn't I do these things? that I was not afraid. I wanted to attack them so ihey would kill_me why did I just allow them to lead me down tlre long' dirty corridor? time they came straight to the I felt goose-pimplesall over me as they ted me into the room. This point. 'Where is he?" '

rl don't know." They hit me" (Where is he?'Come on now. You saw what happens to people who don't do as we say' Besides done for you?" what 6uu" Vt, to gain by nbt tellingus? What has Channa -for him? He was not a kind leader' He what indeed did he do for me that I should give'my life wonders and laughed in o.ur faces when we never lroughialtui our problems. He expected uito do us in our fight for the cause' lf I betrayed hirn' I could not. But, good or bad, he *". our leader. He led with my life? To die was to lie still in a pool betrayedthe cause. And yet, what was the cause compared blood like Banda, even shout any more. I knew I couldn't They hit me and I fell. Now they were.kickingme. I couldn't was and they would stop. I kept opening last much longer. All I had to do was tell them wlrere channa it. lmay.not.have.beenbrave enough to die rfry mouth uuitne words would not come out. lcouldn't say ' which I would not go' but I couldn'tbetray a fellow.There was a poini beyond 81

l. was surprisedI was able to think.clea.rly. only I could tell them somethingto make 6em stop. . .lf I wonderedwhere Channawas. He iouldn't hide in any of the "safe"places now. Tirey must have searchdd all those by now. lf I knew where he was I could misleadtlrem by iellingthem a lie. And then, suddenly, it came to nre. Clranna had told us never to hide in a cemetery.He sliO it was the first place anyorie would look in. lt was like a trap. Once inside anyone could spof you - the tombstoneswere too low to hide behirrd.He would never hide in a cemetery;not after warning-us. lt was the safest thing to say. "The cemetery,"I sltouted. "Channa'shidingin the cemetery." Everythingstopped.I thoughtI heard someonelaugh.Then they draggedme away anclleft me. ' The next day they came for me. They pushedme out. "Get out!" At first I didn't understand" "out! You'refree to go. You'vebeen of great help to us. so scram!" I was.limpingout as fast as I could when I saw him. They were taking him into the room t had been taken to. "Channa!My God! How did they get you?" Hd OiOnot look at me. The guards laughed. "The cemeterymy lad, the cemetery.lt was so easy to find him." Exercises Vocabularyand SentenceStructure 1.

Fromthe contexlworkout the meaningof the following words- howling,unbearably, flashed,longed,dragged, mask,capsule,goose-pimples, mislead,tombstones, limpinE

Usingparticipial phrasescombinesomeof the sentences in this storyto format leastfive new sentences,

Usingthe infinitiveas the object,writefive sentences aboutwhat the charactersin this story were trying to do.

Rewritethe two paragraphs afterlhe openingdialoguein the presenttense.Changethe tenseof verbsflrat referto previousevenlsas appropriate.

Put the conversation betweenBandaand the narratorin indirectspeech,as thoughyou were the narrator reportingwhat lrad beensaid.

Individually - . 1. lmagineyou are Channaand writeout or givea speechoutliningyourcause. 2. Describewhathappenedip 'The HidingPlace'lrom the pointof viewof one ol ilre guards. 3.

Writea letterfromone of the prisoners to his family. In groups1' 2' 3.

Dramatise a scenein a streetwherea groupof peoplehavejust caughta youngman robbinga slrop. Dramatisea trial scenewherethe tablesare now turnedand the jailersare beingtrieclfor torturing their prisoners. Dramatise a sceneof a r:voluiionwhererebelsenterthe ruler'soffice. 82

TI-IELOST ONE by NirrnaliHettiarachchi I had seen him often,standingor sittingon his side of the gate, handsomeand majestic,proud and aware of himself.Sometimes,if he werc,sittingwhen I passed lrim, he would stand up ancl look at me inquiringly. There would be no suspicionin his look - he knew I was one of his neighbours- only curiosity at what I might be doing.SometimesI would walk past in the heat of the noon, laden with groceries in each hand and he would keep looking.I wonderedwhat he thoughtof me. I certainlyenr.,iedhim his easy life. I envied lhe care lavishedon him, his beautyand his sense of total securitv.He dicl not sow. neitherdid he reap and yet his masterprovidedhim with all his worldlyneeds. ln retuin all he had to do was be himself.He walked round his master'sgarden.Sometimeshe barked to announcehis presence. Mr Doreswamy'schildrenplayedwith him and pettedlrim and cared for him. I had often heard hirn beinq called for a bath or for brushing. His house was by far the best down the lane. lt stood up tall, dwarfingits neighbours.lts walls were never allowedto discolour.Mr Doreswamyhad them paintedonce a year, The high wall concealeda beautifultylaid out garden.I had seen the gardenergo in twice a week. They said Mr. Doreswamycultivated exolic orchids,begoniasand paltns.The rest of us down the lane would olten excharrgecuftingswhen pruningour gardetrsbut Mr. Doreswamyhad neverofferecJ any to anyoneand certairrlyno one would ask him. He kept h securityguard at his gate both day and night.We knew his times oi arrivaland departure becausehis huge gate would slide noisilyon its hingeseach lirne it was opened or closed.And always his arrivalwas greetedwith loud barks of welcome Althoughthe big German Shepherdhad never been known to bite anybodyhe wasiu"n to growl and bark threateninglyat strangerswho came to the house and everybody who livecl down the lane believed him to be very fierce. As soon as he had grown to his full size, Mr Doreswamyhad put up a bbard saying "Bewareof the dog." Most of nry neighbourshated him. I could never bring myself io hate a dog but I would certainlythink twice before encroachingon his territory.I would have loved to have hacl him for rny own, to have had lrim on my side. Loyalty preventedtne from comparingmy own little pie with lrim. We had woken up one morning to the sound of Sandy whimperingon our doorstep.She had only been a few weeks old then and, moved by pity, I had taken her in. Her temperament was as variedas her.ancestors. Sometimesshe would romp and play, then suddenly,she would displaya savage suspicionevolvedfronr generationsof misuse.Sandy consideredprotectingus her vocation in life but unlike her neighbourshe had to make a great performance before anyone took her seriously.Her looks did not inspireawe and fear. She had to growl from the depths of her littlebeing and chargemadly,her body tense and her hair on end, before an intruderrealised that she meant business.Sandy had nippedthe arrklesof marryan unsuspecting visitorand yet had been unsuccessulin earningfor herselfa reputationof ferocity.She was not discriminatirrg. To her everyone other than the membersof the household, was an enemy and she kept constantvigil at our gate, Peoplepassingcould hardlyfail to contrastthe majesticstanceof the princelydog behinithe tall eotnic wrought-irongate and the squat mongrelbehind the ricketygate with the rusty chain. ln fact it was Sandy'sshrill insistentbarkingthat woke us up that night.We awoke to an untimely sunrise at the dead of night. The sky was paintedin rosy hues muted by clouds of smoke. We could not fathomthis sudden,unnaturalbeauty. Then the telephonebegan to ring."They"reburningshops in Borella."

"l say, did you hear? Siva's house has been burnt down. I don't know what has happenedto th-en-l. "They are settingfire to all the passingcars." "The roads are impassable. "They'restoningcars near Kanatte." , "They'veorganisedthemselvesinto gangs and are attackingdifferentparts of the city. Everythingis out of control.We cannot reach anyone.Violencehas brqken out everywhereat once." "They've robbed the gold shops down Sea Street and then set fire to them." "They have noted down certain houses and are coming to destorythem." Everyonehad expectedsomethingto happen soon. lt was the suddennessand intensityof this vio' lence that shocked us. We could not go back to sleep. Tissa 'phoned some of his friends. One or two "This is going to be worse than '58 or were angry at being woken up and called him a rumour-monge.r. '71 chum." Rohan the pundit predicted. The children did not go to school the next morning,but I had to go to market. Whether underestimating the situationor out of slreer laziness,Tissa let me go out alone. I was horrifiedat the sight that met my eyes. Many shops had been burnt and were still smoking.The glass,windowsof a large radio shop had been smashed and people were walkingoff with the radios,TV sets and video recordersinside it. A nearby goid shop had been broken into. I saw a nian collecta handfulof gold chains and stuff them into the pouch of his sarong.A woman was admiringa pair of earringsshe was walking away with. There was a huge pile of burning cloth in the rniddleof the road. Those who'were bold enough to walk on the road seemed to be in a festive mood. There was nobody to stop the arson and looting. The next day they starled enteringthe houses.They took what they could and set fire td the rest. Flohan'phoned lo say his neighbour'shouse had been razed to the ground. "l'm hiding the family in my house. Hell of a thing -five extra people to feed and it's impossibleto get anything." My own mqrketingexpedilionof the previousday had been unsuccbssful.Nothing'had been avail' able at the supermarket.I thought this was a temporarylapse and that new stocks would arrive the following day. I was mistaken. When I reached the junction a strange sight met my eyes. There were long queues of housewives outside the stores. I was amused lo see Mrs. Ellawalacarryinga basket, her liveriedchauffeurmissing.lt took me a second to realisehe was a Tamil. I stood behind her. "There seems to be an awful mess. Why a1lthese queues?"' "Nothing is available.I tried everywhere.I heard there are some tins of lish and some rice here. I've been standinghere for some time now." My heart sank. There was hardly anything to eat at home. What woutd I give my ever-hungrybrood? We moved inside the shop. I saw it was depleted.I heard Mrs. Ellawalaask for ten kilos of rice and six tins of fish. "Last six, madam,"the boy said. "Please let me have two of them!" I asked in desperation.She grabbed the tins and scowled at me and, saying nothing, paid for her purchasesand stalked away. I couldn't believe it. Mrs. Ellawala was always so generous. She always sent us a tray of food after one of her grand parties. ln fact, I could not imaginecanned sardinesat her table. BA

I was forced to stanclin three queues before I could get anything to eat. one litfle shop had a large stock of canned foocJ- probably looteclfronr other srropJ whicir hai been burnt. They were selling at almost double the nortnal price tjut I was forceclto buy irom them. ilitt *u would have go easy on our ! consumplion.I felt panic risirrgwithinme. "Tissa for GocJ'ssake go and fill up llre car." I shouted, as I entereclthe house. His face was grey. I sat down beside him; quiet wiilr fear.

tt' '1

"Tiru is dead," lre said quietly."They stopped his car on lhe road and set fire to it while he was in it'" Tissa and riru had been at university-togeiher. our childrenplayecltoge1rer.T6is was a harcl blow. ! pictured myself in Maltal's place - a young widow, burrrirrgwiirr a-hatred as intense as the fire which consurnedlter husband' up to now the clestructionhad nol toucheclus personally.Now we had lost a friend.

We were silting riown to a frugal dinner when we heard the -' fierce shouts. ,,That,sthe one.,,,,Burnit down." "Don't let the clog escape." They carne,about a lrunclredthugs with their sarongstucked up ancl clubs and stones in their hands. we watcheclthern cotning,terrified.Tiisa bolted rhe doors and switchedoff the fights. I drew the curtains and peeped through a chink.

,: '

They stoppedat Mr' Doreswamy'sgate. I heard the.dog barkingferociouslyat thern.They were shouting orders lo each olher now.-"Killthe -bastards!" "Breakopen the gate!,,one of rhem lit a torch. I saw that they had g:trol cans with tlrem.They broke open Mr. oor"r*"my"t g}e ano entered.The dog cSarged at them hut orre of tlrem threw a lightedtorch at him..I saw lrirn sifp, ?rrronted,puzzled. He had always 'urututity beerr ablE to chase away intrudersbefcre. Their numbers and their intimidatedhim. He leapt at them again. And then I hearcla howl of pain. someone must have burnt him. I saw him dash out, his tail between his less. l{e ran he knew not wirere,away fronr i;; r;11"";j;;;r", or his home. Then we heard the children screarning.,:Appa!",,Ampta!,, ,,Appa, Appa, no, no!,, The mob emitted angry howls' There were soun'Jsof crockeryand furniture being ctasireoon the floor. First the curtainswere ablazeand the furniture.Then the house was one red glow. Thick black smoke mountedfrom it. We felt trappeclin our own home. We were forcedto'witness rhis horribleclrama,unable to do anyting about it, hypnotisedby the horror.Ye^t_t!9re was a tiny spot inside me that was not sorry. Mr. Doreswamy had once boasted that he paicl Rs. 60,000/-for an oinate antique couch. The couctrgnd its companions were now paying dearly for their ostentation The hysteria of the mob increasecl.They lost interest in the frouse once it was .completelyablaze and marched further down the lane' I hearcl "Find the other devils, burn them down!,,and again of "ries and again variationsof ,,Fillhybastards!" we crouclrecJbehind our curtain wonderingif by some aberrationof fate they would burn us too. - Anything seemed possible' Then like a storm governe.t by unknown forces they turned round. we saw tltem pile into trucks ancl lori'ieswhich *"ru pu-rk"dat the top of tre rane. Th;'*;;;; fJt un"orraged thent, handingthem stout sticks and black to"i.ion"r. ft,"i, heroes were going to conquer and plunder. The next morningthe view from my bedroomwindow was unusual.Insteadof the magnificent5ouse there was a charreclruin. I went out in rny.dressing-gown. There was no lock now at $ie gare. I was greeted by a low growl' The dog was seated amorj the rernainsof hL home. I lroze as I saw him but

he put his ears backanclturnedawayfrom my gaze.He couldlook no one in the eye. The guilt of st' Peterhad descencJed on him. He.had run away from his masterin his hour of need.Who was I to condemnhim? HoweverI was not goingto riskan encounter. I turneostowlyand walkeclback home. lrrs. Pererawas standingat her gate in her dressing-gown too. "My chilcl!Did you see what happened? lt was so terrible.I nearly fainted_.with fright. l,m stilt shiveringwith the thoughtof it. Theysay all richpeople'shouseshave been;;ilti.'lir".l) "! know,Mrs. Perera;The awfulthingis that we were so helpless. Tissaand I were too scaredto move." "Whatcouldyou do, child?Don'tworry,I heardthey escapedto a refugeecamp.They have set up refugeecampsin someof the big schools." I sighedinwardlywith relief.I wishedI couldtell the dog that his family was safe.

. "l'in going to market,"Mrs. Pererashoutbdto me from half way down her gateway.,,Haveto go early to get a good place in the queue.Do you have food in the house?"I shook my head.,,Thehyou bettercomeearlytoo' This is not gttingto enctsoonand unlesswe stock sometooJ *6'ri rr"u" to starve.n

she walkedback purposefully up to me. "You knowthat man?"she said,pointingto Doreswamy,s ruin' "He treatedus like dirt; he was so purse-proud. This is God'sAoing.you markmy wordt.,, e she was basicallya kind-hearted woman.Tryingto hide the '- expression on my face -"r'-t wavei, indicatingI had to rush,and ran indoors p-arkedmy car and resignedmyselfto a placein the queue. Mrs. perea had walkedand she arriveda littleafterrne,panting. "l hâ&#x201A;Źaf terriblethingsare happening. can't talk herechild,we mustbe very careful.,, I was reassuredby her profoundwisdomand nodded. our littlestore-keeper ltad had a fielclnight.The storenext to his had been set fire to and he had spentthe nightshiftingall thosegoodsover to his own store.He now beamedat us, his face still sooty. suddenlythe queuebroke.we were all grabbingas muchas we could.I saw some tins on a shelfand reachedout for them' "Aney,two for me also."Mrs. Perera.behind me shouted.I found myselfelbowing awayfrom her as fast.asl.cot-tld, ignoringher pleas.At last lhad got.sometning to feed my brood.ldid not turn roundto see the shockand hurtln her'eyes. I drainedthe oil off the tinnedfish and mixedit with sandy's rice. Thank heavenshe was nor a fussydog' I placedher bowl in its usualplaceunderthe mango tree and as I lookedup I started.At first I thoughtthe sun had affectedme. But no, he was there, standingin frontof my gate.I walkedup to him and he lookedat me in dumbappeal.His fur was matled.His parched tonguemovedaboutin his mouth as he swallowedslowly'My face must have registered pity for his expressionchanged.He still believed he couldtrust humansfor liis needs.He waggei rrisiair ano startedpanting - the pant of a thirsty 1 realisedhe had not had evena clropof waterfor hours.ltuy rhylhmically 9os' r,"no was on the gate.--" "Whatthe devildo you thinkyou are doing?,, "Tissa,he's starving! .l can'tbearto lookat hirn.,,

,'Woman,are you nrad?He's a man-eater." Tissacameup to me. The dog stoodstill,watchingus. to eat." "Tissa,he won'tbite anyonenow.All he wantsis something ,,yes,and afterhe's had it? You give him to eat onceand he'llbe in the ltouse.Lookat his size! pet Do you thinkSancly'llstanda chanceagainsthim?What aboutVinraland Shamara?They'llwant to him and then?He boesn'tknowthem.I'm not riskinga {ull growndog attackingthem.Do not startsomethingif you don'tknowwhereit is goingto ertd'" I sighedand took my handawayfrom the gate.He saw the gesture "Shoo!Out!Get out dog!Get....'..!" ' Somethingof his old majestyreturned.He jerkedhis headand stalkedaway' I saw lrim foragingin the garbagebins downthe lane.But here he had to contendwith the regular customers- the striy fogr wh6 regirdedthesebins as theirterritory.I hearda huge rumpus.Indignant' were no matchfor hinr. He collectedhis food and ;',fi:;ii;;o siiii"ts and deep r"u"!" growts..Thgy took it to the privacyof his ruinednJmeihis pridehurtthat he had to messwith such riff-raff.But he had suruivedaccordingio the rulesol the jungle.The dogswatchedhim from outside.Not one daredto enter his territory.But.riyheartbled as tre wotGOdowntlre piecesof stalebread.He even ate a plantainskin. It rainedin the eveningand l saw him lappingup waterfrom the puddles.He drankfast,baringhis teethand spittingout the mud and dirt in the water" of the nightbefore.I could not The uneasystillnessthat nightwas worsethan the pan-demonium sleep.I foundno warmthin humin contact.The nightwas full of darkness.My littlehouse,no longera placeof security,was stifling.I walkedout intothe moonlight. This time he let me walk in. His spiritwas broken.What was therefor him to guard?Whom could pity.We stood.there silently,inhe trust?Fcouldnot meet his eyes.He had no use for my unproductive of a third.Part of eachof creaturesof two difierentkindswlro had watctredthe destruction the moonlight; survivewith to admit. we refused ways, own us too had be;endestroyedbut, each in our lt. He.jouqhtto passive dignlty His reality. incomprehensible reject the to fought his instinctsbut his faithwas gone.My soul I went home. was embarrassing; We were gettingused to a new kind of life - curfews,food shortages,distantgunshots,ominous confidingcautiously. silences,rurnouisand morerumours.We choseour friendscarefully, out of his gate.They were That noonthe packof strayswas readyfor him as he walkedunsteadlly on him beforehe could reachtfre first bin. Their shrieksgrew louderand more triumphant.After a few tail betweenhls legs,emittingshortwhinsecondsI couldnot hear his growls. -[-.'im. Then he was running,hisHis degradation mine.My inactivityadded His shamewas my shame. ing noises.I couldnot watch a new dimensionto the conceptof helplessness"

He was too weak to run fast for long and they caughtup with hirn at the top of the lane. Now he ,ivasfightingfor his life.They tore him, theirgloating. hysteriamounting.I did not realiseI was sereaming have run out if he had not held me. would l. mouth. gentle over my hand till I leTttissa's I saw him breakaway and run, draggingone of his hind paws.And still they chasedhim. Pariahs, houndinga produc[of centuriesof carefulcultivation. scavengers, I do not knowwhy he decidedto take his last standin the ruinsof his old home.Was it to make amendsfor runningawdythe first time?Was it the last vestigeof his senseof security?Somevain hope instinct?Or did he iust give up? Was it merelyhis territorial that they wouldUJintimiOated? 87

Exercises Vocabulary and SentetrceSlructure 1.

lclentify'10acljectivesthat you lrave not come across belore.What impressionare they used to convey?

Pick out 20 verbs which can be replacedby othersthat mean somethingsimilar.

in senlencestlrat bring out lheir meaning- aberration,ltysteria,brutality,consumption, Use t5e followingi,'uords pandemonium,temperamenl rumpus,degradation,dimension,instin-ct,

Read the first 4 paragraphsof the story. ldentify10 mass nouns in thenr. For how many of them can you find correspottdingadjectives?

Read the next 20 paragraplrsof the story. Note down questionspeoplewould ask each other irr suclt a situation. Give answersto your questions.

Read llre next 2b paragraphsof the story. Using model verbs write 10 sentenceslo indicatewhat people could or shoulcldo lo tninimizesufferingin such a situation.

Read lhe rest of the story. V/hich sentencescan yoLtjoin with 'and' or 'bul'? Wltich sentencesjoined with 'and' or 'but' can you divide into two? Do they need anotherword to make clear tlte conttections?

Farse the senlencesin the two paragraphsnear the end ol the story that begin 'lt rainedin tlte evening........'.,''

Write a synopsisof ttris story itr ttot rnorethin a) 500 b) 1000 words

10.

of the storv. Farse llre sentencesin the last 4 oaragraplts

Analysis 1.

Write out a dialoguein which one person persuadesanolher to participatein attacksagainst members of an' other racial group. Now rewrite the dialoguein a way that inclicatesan assumptiontl.ratsuclr an attack will have the support of those in authority.

Discuss in your groLtpsttre feelingsthat would lrave gone throughTiru's childrenafter tlre incidentsdescribed in 'The Lost One'. Write out a dialoguethat might ltave taken pldce betweentwo of them.

Describethe main publicevents in this story from the point of view of the store-keeperwho is mentioned.

COUNTERPARTS by James Joyce Ttre bett rang fr.nirxlslyand, when Miss Parker went to the tube, a furious voice called out in a piercing N0fth of lreland accent:'Send Farringtonhere!' Hiss Farker retumed to her machine,saying to a man who was writingat a desk: 'Mr. Alleyne wants

ggu upstairs.'

The man muttered'Blasthim!' underhis breathand pushedback his chair to stand up. When he $bod up he was tall and of great bulk.He had a hangingface, dark wine-coloured, with fair eyebrows aFd moustache:his eyesbufgedfonruards slightlyand the whitesof themwere dirty.He-liftedup the counter Ond,passingby the clients,wentout of the office.witha heavystep" He went heavilyupstairsuntilhe cameto the secondlanding,wherea door bore a brassplatewith the inscriptionAfr Alleyne.Here he halted,puffingwith labourand vexation,and knocked.The shriHvoice cried:'Comein!' \ The man entered Mr Alfeyne'sroom. Simultaneously,Mr Alleyne,a little man wearing gold-rimmed ghsses on a clean-shavenface, shot his head up over a pile of documents. The head itsel'fwas so pink ald hairless it seerned like a large egg reposing on the paperS.Mr Alleyne did not lose a moment: Tarrington? What is lhe meaning of this? Why have I always to complain oi you? May I ask you w6y yoni haren't ma& a Copy of'that cohtract between Bodley and Kirway? ltold you it must be ready ny iour ddock.' 'But Mr Shelteysaid, sir.... ffi Snercy E*ld, sfr... Kindly attend to what I say and not to what Mr Sdley says, sir.you have &A}? some excuse or another for shirking work. Let me tell you that if the contract is not co6FJ before tS wtdng l'ff lay'the rnatter before Mr crosbie....Do you heai me now? ^fts sir.' yur lroal lhe now?... Ay and another little matter. I might as well be tatking to the wall as taik. '0o - tb yw. tlnderstahd onse for all that you get a half an hour for your lunch and nol an hour and a halt. fng Hgtd tnsry coursâ&#x201A;Źs dd you want, I'd like to know .....Do you mind me now?' \fi9s, sir.' Hr Alleyne bent-his head again upon his pile of papers.The man stared fixedly at the polibhedskull whish directed the affairs of Crosbie & Alleyne, gauging its fragility.A spasm of rige gripped his throat for a few moments and then passed, leaving attei it u oi thirst. The nnaniecognizedthe "t"l"rpThe "u-ns"tion eensationand felt that he must have a good night'sdrinking. middle of the month was passed and, if he could get the copy done in time, Mr Alleyne might give him an order on the cashier. He stood still, gazing fixedly at the .head upon the pile of papers. Suddenly Mr Alleyne began to upset all the p"p"r., searchingfor something.Then, as if he had been unaware of the manrs presence till that moment, he shot up his head again, saying: 'Eh? Are you going to stand there all day? Upon my word, Farrington,

):.

you take things easy!' 'l was waitingto see...' 'Very good, you needn'twait to see. Go downstairsand do your work.' The man walked heavily towards the door and, as he went out of the room, he heard Mr Alleyne cry after him that if the contractwas not copied by evening Mr Crosbiewould hear of the matter. He returned to his desk in the lower office and counted the sheets v.,hichremained to be copied. He took up his pen and dipped it in the ink, but he continuedto stare stupidlyat the last worclstr6 traO written: ln no case shall the said Bernard Bodley be... The evening was falling and in a few minutes they would be lightingthe gas: then he could write. He felt that he must slake the thirst in his throat. He stood up from his desk and, lifting the counter as before, passed out of the office. As he was passing out the chief clerk looked at him inquiringly. 'lt's all right. Mr Shelley,'said the man, pointingwith his finger to indicatethe objectiveof his journey. The chief clerk glancedat the hat-rackbut, seeing the row complete,offered no remark.As soon as he was on the landing the man pulled a shepherd'splaid cap out of his pocket, put it on his head and ran quickly down the rickety stairs. From the slreet door he walked on furtivelyon lhe inner side of the path towards the corner and all at once dived into a doorway. He was now safe in the dark snug of O'Neill'sshop and, filling up the little window that looked into the bar with his inflamedface, the colour of '' dark wine or dark meat, he called out: 'Here, Pat, give us a g.p., like a good fellow.' The curate brought him a glass oi plain porter.The mair drank lt u gulp and asked for'a caraway "t for it in the gloom, retreatedout seed. He put his penny on the counterand, leavingthe curate to grope of the snug as furtivelyas he had entered it. Darkness,accompaniedby a thick fog, was gaining upon the dusk of February and the lamps in Eustace Street had been lit. The man went up by the houses until he reached the door of the office, wondering whether he could finish his copy in ti,rhe.On the stairs a moist pungent odour of perfumes saluted his nose: evidentlyMiss Delacourhad come while he was out in O'Neill's.He crammed his cap back again into his pocket and re-enleredthe office,assumingan air of absent-mindedness. .

'Mr Alleynehas been callingfor you,' said the chief clerk severely.'Wherewere you?'

The man glanced at the two clients who were standing at the counter as if to intimate that their presencepreventedhim from answering.As the clients were both inale the chief clerk allowed himself a taugh. 'l know that game,'he said,'Five timeslin one day is a little bit....Well, you better look sharp and get a. copy of our correspondencein the Delqcourcase for Mr Alleyne,' This address in the presenceof the public, his run upstairsand the porter he had gulped down so hastily confused the man and, as he sat down at his desk to get what was required,he realized how hopelesswas the task of finishinghis copy of ithe contractbefore half-pastfive. The dark damp night was coming and he longed to spend it in the bars, drinking with his friends amid the glare of gas and the clatter'of glasses. He got out thd Delacour'correspondence and passed out of the office. He lroped Mr Alleyne would not discovertlrat the last two le.tterswere missing.

The moist pungentperfumelay all the way up to Mr Alleyne'sroom. Miss Delacourwas a middleMr Alleynewas saiclto be sweet on her or on her money.She came aged woman of JewLh appearance" to tne office often ancl stayed a long time when stre came. She was sitting beside his desk now in an aroma of perfumes,smoothingthe handleof her umbrellaand noddingthe great black featherin her hat. Mr Aileyne had swivelledhis chair round to face her and thrown his right foot jauntily upon his left knee. but neitherMr Alleyne nor Miss on the desk and bowed respectfully, The mjn put the correspondence and then flicked Delacourtook any noticeof his bow. Mr Alleynetappecla fingeron the correspondence it towards him as if to say: That's all rigltt, you can go. The man returne<lto the lower office ancl sat down again at his desk. He stared intently at the incompletephrase: ln no case shall the said BernardBodley be......and thought how strange it was that the last three words began with the same leler" The chief clerk began to hurry Miss Parker, saying she would never have the le-tterstyped in time for post. The man listenedto the clickingof the machine for a few minutes anr1then set to work to finish his copy. But his head was not clear and his mind wandered away to the glare ancl ratile of the public-house.lt was a night for hot punches.He struggledon with his in copi, but when the clock struck live he had still lourteenpages to write. Blast it! He couldn'tfinish it that enraged so He was violently. time. He longedto execratealoud,to bring his fist down on something he wrote Bernard Bernardinsteadof Bentard Bodleyand had to begin again on a clean sheet' His body ached to do sometlting, He felt strong enough to clear out the wlrole office single-lranded. the cashier to rush out and revel in violence.All the indignitiesof his life enragedhim..."Could he ask privatelyfor an advance? No, the cashier was no goocl,no danrn good: he wouldn't give an advance"' of his He knew where he would meet the boys: Leonardano o'Halloran arrd Nosey Flynn.The barometer emotionalnature was set for a spell of riot. His imaginationhad so abstraitedhim that his name was calledtwice beforehe answered.Mr Alleyne and Miss Delacourwere standingoutsidethe counterand all the clerks had turned round irr anticipation up from his desk. Mr Alleyne began a tirade of abuse, saying that two letters of something.The man got -answered that he knew nothing about them, that he had made a faithful copy' were missing. rhe man Tlre tirade conlinued:it was so bitter and violent that the man could hardly restrainhis {ist from descendstuing upon the head of the manikinbefore him: 'l know nothingabout any other two letters,'he said pidly. glancing 'Yott - know - nothing.Of course you know nolhing,'said Mr Alleyne. 'Tell me,' he added, first for approvalto the lad! beside hirn, 'do you take me for a fool? Do you think me an tttter fool?' The man glanced from the lady's face to the little egg-shapedhead and back again: and, almost 'that before he was aware of it, his tongue had found a felicitousmoment: 'l don't think, sir,' lrq said, that's a fair questionto put to me,' There was a pause in the very breathingof the clerks. Everyonewas astounded(the author of the witticismno less than his neighboursJand Miss Delacour,who was a stout amiableperson,began to smile broadly.Mr Alleyne flushed to tf'e hue of a wilcl rose ancl his moutlt twitchedwith a dwarf's passion. He shook his fist in the man's face till it seemed to vibrate like the knob of some electric machine: 'You impertinmentruffian!You impertinentruffian!I'll make shortwork of you! Wait till you see! You'll apologize to me for your impertinenceor you'll quit the office instanter!You'll quit this, I'm tellingyou, or you'll apolo' gize to me!' He stood in a doorway oppositethe office,watchingto see if the cashierwould come out alone' All the clerks passed out and finally the cashier came out with the cNef clerk. lt was no use trying to say a word to him when he was with the chief clerk. The man felt that his positionwas bad enough. He had been obliged to offer an abject apology to Mr Alleyne for his impertinence,but he knew what a hornet's 9l

Questions 1. Whatdoeslhe word'counterpart' rnean? 2' WriteMr.Alleyne's account, as hetoldit to hiswifewhenhewenthomethatevening, ol hisencounterwith Mr.Farrington. 3. WriteMissDelacour's accountof whatshesawof theencounter. 4. Writea synopsisof what Faningtion did betweenworkandgoinghome(a)fromyourpointof view(b)fromFarrington's. 5. Writeandactouta dialogue between twoof Farrington's children abouttheirfather. 6. Whatdo youthinkarethemainobligations of parentstowardschildren? 3

MISSBRILL by Katherine Marrsfie!d Although it was so brilliantlyfine_with gold and great spots of light like !h" blue sky p_owderecl white wine splashed over the Jardins Publiques - Miss Brill was glad tiat slre had decided on her fur. The air was motionlesg,but when you opened your mouth there vias just a faint chill, like a chill from a glass of iced water before you sip, and now and again a leaf came driiting- from nowhere,from the sky. Miss Brill put up her hand and touchedher fur. 6ear little thingl lf ;;;'nice to feel it again. She had taken it out of its box that afternoon,shaken out the moth-powde-r, given it a good brush, and rubbed the life back into the dim little eyes. 'What has been happeningto mi?' said the sad litle eyes. Oh, how sweet it was to see them snap at her again from the red -eiderdown! ..... But the nose, which was of s9T9 black composition,wasn'i at all firm. lt must have had a knock, somehow"Never mind - a liile clab of black sealing-waxwhen the time came - when it was absolutely necessary...... Little rogue!y6s, she really felt like that about it- Little rogue biting its tail just by her leit ear. She coujd have taken it off and laid it on her lap and strokedit. She felt a lingling in trer hands and arms, but that came from walking, she supposed.And when she breathed,someihingtight and sad - ro, not sad, exactly- sonibthing gentleseemedto move in her bosom. There were aJlumber of peopleout this afternoon,far more than last sunday. And the band sounded louder and gayer"That was becausethe season had begun. For althoughthe band played all the year round on sundays,out of seasonit was neverthe same. lt was like somJoneplayingwith only the fdmily to listen; it didn't care how it played if there weren't any strang"r, pr"."nt. wasnit tile conductorwâ&#x201A;Źaring a new coat, too? she was sure it was new. He scrapedwith his foot ancl ttappedh;.-#r like a rooster about to crow, and the bandsmen sitting in the green rotuncjablew out their cheeks and glared at the nrusic' Now there a little 'flutey'bii- very iretty I - a little chain of bright drops. she was sure it "came would be repeated. lt was; she riftedher head and smired Only two people lter.'special'seat: a fine old man in a velvetcoat, lris hands claspedover " .shared a huge carved walking-stick, and a big old woman, sitting upright,*itr.r u i"ir embroidered apron' They did not speak. This was disappointing,foiNaiss"giitt "L"iiil;il; always-looked forward to the conversation' she had becomereallyquite expert,she thorlght,at listening as tirough she didn,tlisten,at sittingin ! on other people's lives just for a minute while they talked round hLr. she glanced, sideways,at the old couple" Perhaps-they would go soon. Last sunday, too, hadn,t been as interestingas usual.An Englishmanand his wife, hL wearini a-dreadfulpanama hat and shs button shoes. And she'd gone on the whofe time about how she ought"to wear spectacles;she knew she 'needed them; but that it was no good gettingany; tlrey'd be sure to break and they,d never keep on. And he'd been so patient. He'd suggestedeverything_ gold rims, the kind that curved round your ears, littlepads insidethe bridge.No, nothingwould pleaseher. 'They'll always - .'-.r- -be slidingdown my nosel,Miss Brill lrad wantedto shake her. The old peoplesat on the bench,still as statues.Never mind, there was alwaysthe crowd to watch. To and fro, in front of the flower-bedsand the band rotunda,t'" anu g;Jd; p'ui"J"u, stopped to talk, to greet, to buy a handfulof flower$from the old begger who "orpr"s had his tray fixed to the railings.Little childrenran among them, swoopingand\,laughing; little girts,tittteFrenchdolls, dressedup in velvet and. lace' And sometim6sa tiny suooenlyrockinginto the open from under the trees, stopped, "t"g;"tZi.arne stared,as suddenlysat down 'flop',until i{s small high-stepping mother,like a young hen, rushedscolding

to its rescue'otlter peoplesat on the..benches and green chairs,but ilrey were nearly always the same, sunday after suncJay,ancl - Miss Brill hacJoften noiiced - ttreie was somethingfunny about nearty ali of thern' They were odd, silent, nearly all olcJ,anci fronr the.way rrreyslreo ilrey lookeclas thougn just come from crarkritileroornsor *,ey,o even - even cupboards! Behind tlte rotundathe slendertrees with yellow leaves c]owndroooin$,ancl lhrough *rern just a line of sea, ancrbeyo'd the brr-re sky with gord-veined croucJs. Tunt-lum-tunl ticldle-um! ticlcJle-urnl tum ticJdley-um tunr ta! blew the barrd. . r*o.young girls irr red carne.bv.and two young solcjiersin blue rnet them, ancl lhey laughedand paired and went off arm-in-arm.Two pleasant*or"n i"ith trnny straw hats passecl,gravely,leaclingbeau'beautifui tiful smoke-colouredcJonkeys.A cold, pale nr,,'rhurried by. A woman carne along and dropped Iter bunclt of violels, and a little boy ran after to hand il,'"ri t" rrlrl ;;i she took ilrenr ancJ t'ern away as if theyld been poisoned'Dear me! Miss Brill didn't know whetherto adrnirethat or'rrew not ! And now! And rlow an ermine toque and a gentlemanirr grey met just in front of her. He was tall, stiff,dignified' and slte was wearingthe erminetoque slre'd boJgtitwtren rrer haii was yellow.Now everythi'g, hair' her face' even her eyes, was lhe same colour as the shabbyermine,ancJher lrancJ, in its cleansed 'er glove' lilted to dab her lips,was a tiny yellowishpaw. oh, she was * fr""r",r to see hir', delig6ted!she ratlterthouglrtthey were going to meet that afiernoon. she describedwhere she,d been - everyw.ere, lrere' lhere, along by the sea. Tlte day was so charming'-;i;.i;; Ancrwourdn,the, perhaps?...... ili But he sltook his lteacf,lighteda cigarette,slowly breathed a great"cfeeppuff irrto ler face, ancl even while she was still talkingand laughing,flickedtlie match uuuuyi uno *urk"cl on. The errnineroque was alone;she smiled nrorebrightlythan ever. But even the band seernedto'know wlrat she was feeling and played more softly' Played tenclerly,ancl the drum beat, 'The Brute! The Brute!,over and over. what t'vouldshe do? what was going to happen now? But as Miss Brill wonderedthe ermine toque lurned, raisedher hand as lhough she'd seen sonteoneelse, much rricerjust over ilrere,arrclpatteredaway. And the band cfrangecfagain and playe! quickly,more gaily got up and marcheclaway, .more and such a funny old man with long whiskershobblecl along in' rime to th-ernusfcand was nearly knocked over by four girls walkingabreast. oh' how fascinatingit was! How slte enjoyeditl How she lovecjsittinghere, watching.it all! lt was like a play' lt was exactlv a play' who couli believethe sky at the Lact wasn,tpainted? lite But it wasn,t till a little 'lheatre'dog, a tittleoog itrat hacjbeen drugged, ran on that Miss Brill discoveredwhat it was that made it so exciting.They were all on ilre stage" fi"], weren,torrlythe audience,not orrlylookingon; they were acting' Evetl she llac{a part a1d .o,nu"uu"ry sunday. No doubt sornebodywoulcJSave noticecJ if she ltadn'tbee' tltere;slte was part of the perforrnance a{tei ail. i-iowstrangeshe,clnever thouglrtof it like that beforelArrd yet it explairlecl why slre nradesuch a poirrtof startingfronr lrome just at rle sarne time eaclt week - so as not to be late for lhe performance and it also explained why she.had quite a queer' slty feeling at tellinglrer Englishpupils how she spent her sunday afternoon.No wonder! Miss Brillnearlylaughecl out louc-|. she wis o' tne stage.she tirougrrt of rtre Jrii"""i,u"';";il;;" to whor.rr she read tlte newspaperfour afternoonsa weel<while he.slept in ilre garden.she had got quite used to the frail head on the cotton pillow. The hollowed eyes, the open moirilr-and the high pinched nose. lf he'd been dead she rnightn'thave noticedfor weelis; she wouictn,thave minded.But sudclenlyhe knew he was havingthe paper reacjto hinr by an actress! 'An actress!'The olci head liftecl;two points of light quiveredirr the old eyes' 'An actressare ye?' AncJMiss Brill snrooitreotne newspaper as ,rough it were the nranuscript of lter part anclsaiclgenily:'Yes, I have been an actressfor a long tinre., The barrdhaclbeerrhavingn ,"$;, Now tltey startecJ again.Arrcrwhat they playeclwas warr, sunny, yet tltere was just a lairtt clrill-i sonrethingwhai was it? , not sadness- no, not sadness- a some'ring that rlade you want to sing' Tlre tune lift;cl,liftecl, the light shone; it seemecjto Miss Brill in anothermomentall of thenr,all lhe wtrolecompany, *;il;;;;;';dil.'tn""n,t younn ones, lhe raughing 'rat 97

oneswho were movingtogether,theywouldbegin,and the men'svoices,very resoluteand brave,would join them.And then she too, she too, and the otherson the benches- they wouldcome in with a kind of accompaniment - somethinglow,that scarcelyroseor fell,something so beautiful- moving......... And Miss Brill'seyes filledwith tears and she lookedsmilingat all the othei membersof the .oi.,p"ny. yes, we understand, we understand, she thought- thougfrwhat they understood she didn,tknow. Just at that momenta boy and a girl came and sat down where the old couplehad been. They were beautifully dressed;they were In love.The heroand heroine,of course,just arrivedfrom his father,s yacht.And still soundlessly singing,stillwith that tremblingsmile,MissBrillpieparedto listen. ,'No,not now,'said the girl.'Not here,I can,t.' 'But why? Becausgof-that stupidold thingat the end there?'askedthe boy. ,Whydoes she come hereat all - who wantsher?why doesn'tshe keepher sillyotd mug at home?,

'lt's her fu-furwhichis so funny,'giggledthe girl.'lt's exactlylike a friedwhiting., 'Ah, be off with you!'said the boy in an angrywhisper.Then:'Tellme, ma petitechere: 'No not here,'said the girl. 'Not yef," On her way homeshe usuallyboughta sliceof honey-cake at the bake/s.lt was her Sundaytreat. ^ Sometimes therewas an almondin her slice,sometimesnot. lt madea greatdifference. lf therewas an almondit was like carryinghome a tiny present,a surprise- somethinritt'"t rigr,l ;;t well not have been there.She hurriedon the almondSundaysand struckthe matchior the feile in quite a dashing way. But today she passedthe baker'sby, climbedthe stairs,went into the litfle dark room her room like a cupboard- and sat down on the red eiderdown.She sat therefor a long time. The box that the fur cameout of was on the bed. the unclaspedthe neckletquickly,withoutlooking,laid it inside. But when she put the lid in she thougrht she heardsomething crying. Quesllons 1'

ldenfifysomeof the phrasesandclausesthatprovidedetailsaboutthe varior.rs peopleMissBrillsees.What impression doesthe writererbatethroughtheseaboul a) thesepeopleb) MissBrill?

Writedown as manyunfamiliar wordsas youcanfindthatnameor describe typesof clothing. Try to guess theirmeaning fromthecontexl.

Thinkof adjectives phrasesnot.inthetextto describe andadieotf,*al the peopleMissBrillsees.

Whatis the effectof the last2 paragraphs of the story?

C.a1you-imagjnea maRldrg is fiheMissBrillin his attitude/approach to life?Writea description/character skelchof sucha personin no{rnorethan800words. I

GeneralExercises Vocabularyand sentencestructure 1.

phrasesto describe10 of the characters Makeup participial in the storiesyou haveread.

Usingmodelverbsmakefive sentences to indicateany lessonsyou feel are important in the storiesyou have read.

Write 10 complexsentencesabout the sloriesyou have read, using 'so' to indicate or inten"onr"qu"*es tions.

Usingverbsas complemenls or in apposition to objects,wrile 10 sentencqsaboul charactersin the stories you haveread. Makeup five conditional senlences of eachsod aboutthe storiesyou haveread.

Analysis L

The storiesby NirmaliHettiarachchi includedhere are very differentin subjectmatterand in style.Which of theseadjectives wouldyou applyto eachof them? realislic, political, dramatic, mythical, educational, sad,informative, thought-provoking, urbelievable, amusing Someadjectives may applyto morethanone story,somemayapply.to-n:n".

Do you think any of thesestoriesis slmilarin any way (subject,theme,character$, sgb) to any of the other storiesin the book? Many of the storiesin this book deal with love, in variousaspects.Which of the fcilfowingad,actfueswould you associatewith any of the characterswhc displaylove in the stories? possessive, jealous,ronrantic, protective, idealistic, foolish,selfish,sad Which of these qualitieswould you most a) look lor b) avoid . in decidingto get nranied?Would your viewsbe differentif you belongedto the othersex?

Contrastthe presentationo{ a) love b) marriage lhis book.

What ideasabouta) love b) marriageare theseare realisticor not.

Whatsort of advicedo you thinkparentsshouidgivetheirchildrenaboutlove?Whatdo tl.reyusuallysay?

as presentedby any two ol the wrilers representedIn

suggestedby a) teledramasb) advertieenrents? Dscusswhether

7. . Of the storiesyou read,whichdid you lind the mostinteresting? Why? B'

Do you thinkstoriesshouldhave lessonsaboutlife? Debatethis in your groups,makingsure you look at both pointsof view.