A Thing of Beauty explanation

by Admin on September 30, 2012 in English

Thing of Beauty is a poem written by the famous

romantic poet, John Keats. The poem tells about how
nature and its wonder mesmerize us and take away all the
sorrow that surrounds us from time to time. The following
explanation might aid you in understanding this
exceptional piece of work in poetry.
A

Explanation
A beautiful thing is a source of eternal joy, its
attractiveness grows with the passage of time and its
impact never fades away. It is as pleasant as a cool quiet
bower or sound sleep with sweet dreams; or robust health
and mental peace. It provides the beholder with a haven of
tranquility and solace.
It is the beauty of nature that keeps us attached to this
earth. Every morning we collect fresh lovely flowers and
prepare garlands. The fascination for flowers is our
bonding with the earth. It helps us steer clear of
despondency and disappointments. We forget all our
despair, of acute shortage of noble souls, of misfortunes
that overtake us to test our forbearance. Life is full of trials
and tribulations and we often find ourselves in the midst of
gloom. It is at such depressing moments that a sight full of
beauty dispels the pall of sadness from our spirits making
room for hope and optimism.

The objects of beauty are countless. These include

heavenly bodies like the sun and the moon, the old and
young trees that provide cool shelter to sleep, the daffodil
flowers encased in green leaves, the streams that flow
through a shady passage which they make themselves
with plants, and the bushes that bear fragrant flowers.
These simple and even commonplace things lift the
human spirit filling it with joy and delight. In addition to
these objects of nature, there are wonderful tales of our
legendary heroes, who lived and died heroically, which
inspire us with their matchless beauty. These beautiful
things are metaphorically an endless source of nectar that
pours down to us from heaven bringing eternal joy for the
souls grandeur. They are like an elixir of life, a never
diminishing source of pleasure and delight, an endless
fountain of joy that seems to be a precious gift from
Heaven.

Aunt Jennifers Tigers Poem Summary

by Admin on November 11, 2012 in English

Aunt Jennifers tigers is a poem by Adrienne Rich illustrating her feminist

concerns. In the male dominant world, a women of her time was only supposed
to be a dutiful homemaker. This poem through the world of Aunty Jennifer, tells
us about her inner desire to free herself from the clutches of abusive marriage
and patriarchal society.

Poem Summary
The first stanza opens with Aunt Jennifers visual tapestry of tigers who are
fearless of their environment. "Bright topaz[1] denizens[2] of a world of green"
evoke an image that these regal tigers are unafraid of other beings in the jungle.

Bright here signifies their powerful and radiant persona. There is a sense of
certainty and confidence in the way these tigers move as can be seen in the line
"They pace in sleek chivalric certainty".
In the second stanza, the reality of Aunt Jennifer is revealed as she is feeble,
weak and enslaved, very much the opposite of the tigers she was knitting. Her
physical and mental trauma is depicted in the line "find even the ivory needle
hard to pull". Even though a wedding ring doesnt weigh much, "the massive
weight of uncles wedding band, sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifers hand" signifies
the amount of dominance her husband exercised over her. This also means that
her inner free spirit has been jailed by the patriarchal society[4].
The last stanza starts on a creepy note about Aunt Jennifers death. Even her
death couldnt free her from the ordeals she went through which can be seen in
"When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie still ringed with ordeals she was
mastered by". But her art work which was her escape route or in a way, her inner
sense of freedom, will stay forever, proud and unafraid.
[3]

Difficult words and their meanings

Prance To move ahead like a spirited horse
Topaz a golden coloured gem
Sleek elegant
Denizen an animal or a person found in a particular place
Chivalry courageous and courteous behaviour, especially towards women
Patriarchal society A society where men hold the positions of power and
prestige, typically involved in decision making.

How to tackle english board examinations

by Admin on February 11, 2013 in English

In this article, I am going to tell you about how to plan your moves to tackle the
English examination.
By now, I am sure many of you mightve already devised a game plan of yours
where you know which section to target first and the correct order to proceed. But

just in case, you couldnt allocate much time to the subject and are nervous on
how to go about it in the examination, this article will bail you out.
As soon as you get the question paper, DONT jump over it but calmly skim
through the paper. Skimming means see what all is present. First, check
the LITERATURE section and see what all questions you know and mark them
up.
Then check the WRITING section, mark questions which you feel can be
managed easily and proceed to the READING section. Now, skim through the
articles given just like a newspaper. Dont start writing answers but just read it.
Now youve an overview of the paper settled in your mind. Weigh between
Reading section or Literature. If you fear, youll forget some points you mugged
for literature, do it first otherwise if you ask me, I would prefer READING section
as its the easiest of the lot and marks here are sure shot unless you go totally
wrong with the article plus you do save alot of time here.
If youve started with READING section, read the questions related to the
paragraph first. This will make your mind alert when a related sentence strikes up
in the paragraph. Now go back to the paragraph and mark your answers.
Heres a word of caution for you. Always write GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT
SENTENCES as your answers. Never write one word or incomplete sentences
lifted off from the paragraph given.
After this, youll probably need to write notes for another paragraph. For this, you
may refer to our previously published posts like Note making The CBSE
Way, Quick help on Note making and speeches and Learn Note-making.
Using the same notes, make an 80-word summary. All you need to do here is to
complete the sentences from the Notes you made taking care of grammar.
With this reading section is done. And if all goes well, this is usually over in 45
minutes time at the maximum.
Start with the WRITING section now. Never leave WRITING part for last as
sometimes due to less time in hand, you may get tensed and start scribbling fast,
this leads to a lot of errors and presentation becomes a problem leading to
shabby looking answer scripts.

Carefully, go slow at a snail pace here making sure your presentation is topnotch. Dont forget boxes wherever necessary with a pencil.
Even if you go slowly, this being less on content but more on formats,
presentation, etc can easily be tackled in 40-45mins.
Lastly, attack the marked questions in literature. By now, if everything were well
on track as above, you would be left with around 90 minutes of time for literature
and revision. For revision 10 minutes is more than sufficient, so a total of 80
minutes for literature.
Make sure you highlight the keywords in each answer by underlining neatly with
a pencil. Also, try not to strike shabbily, if there is a correction, simply put a single
strike on the incorrect word.
The order I stated above might be unappealing to some students since Literature
carries the highest marks and doing it in the last means leaving a lot to be
missed for no reason. But, if you carefully see, In reading section, content that
needs to be written isnt much except for note making. This means you can be
sure of completing it quickly.
Then, Writing section needs presentation and this also has very little content to
be put on paper. So marks + time saved here again. Now when you have so
much time left for literature, you can easily write answers without worrying about
left-over bits here and there.
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Learn Note-making
by Admin on September 30, 2012 in English

Note making is an advanced writing skill which is acquiring increasing importance

due to knowledge explosion. There is a need to remember at least the main
points of any given subject. Making notes is a complex activity which combines
several skills.

We also published a post Notemaking The CBSE way earlier in which we

summarised the main points in note making. Here you go with the detailed
verison.

How to make notes

Read the passage carefully.

Heading
What is the main idea of the passage? Frame a heading based on the central
idea and write it in the middle of the page.

Subheadings
How has the main idea been presented and developed? Are there two or three
subordinate/associated ideas? You can frame subheadings based on these.

Points
Are there further details or points of the subtitles that you wish to keep in these
notes? Indent, i.e., suitably space and number.
All subheadings should be written at a uniform distance from the margin.

Indenting
All points should also maintain the same distance away from the margin.
Note: Do not write full sentences. And use abbreviations wherever necessary.
Read below for more help on abbreviations.

Help with abbreviations

1.
1.
2.
3.
4.

1.

Use standard abbreviations and symbols as far as possible:

Capitalized first letters of words
e.g. U.P.,U.S.A.,U.K.,U.S.S.R.,etc.
Common abbreviations
Sc. (for science), Mr., Mrs., Dr., Govt., etc
Common symbols
e.g., : \, , +ve, -ve, (leading to), (rising), (falling), =, etc.
Measurements and Figures
e.g., : 100, 100, 100 kg, 1000 mm, 100ml, etc.
2.
Making your own abbreviations:
Keep the main sounds of the word. For example, edn. (education),
progm. (programme)

2.

Retain the suffix so that later when you are going over the notes you
may recall the full form of the word e.g., ednal (educational), progve
(progressive).
3.
Caution
1.
Do not get over-enthusiastic about abbreviations. You should
not abbreviate every word. One abbreviation in point is enough.
2. As a general rule, the heading should not be abbreviated. You may
use abbreviations in subheadings.
Your notes should look like this
Notice that indenting, i.e., shifting from the margin has been used to clearly
indicate subheadings, points and sub points. Subheadings, though separated by
points occur below one another. Points and sub points too come below one
another, similarly. Such use of indenting gives your notes a visual character. At a
glance you can see the main idea and its aspects.
Here is a solved example:
Click over the icon to access and download the file

Learn Note-making
by Admin on September 30, 2012 in English

Note making is an advanced writing skill which is acquiring increasing importance

due to knowledge explosion. There is a need to remember at least the main
points of any given subject. Making notes is a complex activity which combines
several skills.
We also published a post Notemaking The CBSE way earlier in which we
summarised the main points in note making. Here you go with the detailed
verison.

How to make notes

Read the passage carefully.

Heading
What is the main idea of the passage? Frame a heading based on the central
idea and write it in the middle of the page.

Subheadings
How has the main idea been presented and developed? Are there two or three
subordinate/associated ideas? You can frame subheadings based on these.

Points
Are there further details or points of the subtitles that you wish to keep in these
notes? Indent, i.e., suitably space and number.
All subheadings should be written at a uniform distance from the margin.

Indenting
All points should also maintain the same distance away from the margin.
Note: Do not write full sentences. And use abbreviations wherever necessary.
Read below for more help on abbreviations.

Help with abbreviations

1.

2.
3.
4.

1.
2.

1.

2.

Use standard abbreviations and symbols as far as possible:

1. Capitalized first letters of words
e.g. U.P.,U.S.A.,U.K.,U.S.S.R.,etc.
Common abbreviations
Sc. (for science), Mr., Mrs., Dr., Govt., etc
Common symbols
e.g., : \, , +ve, -ve, (leading to), (rising), (falling), =, etc.
Measurements and Figures
e.g., : 100, 100, 100 kg, 1000 mm, 100ml, etc.
2.
Making your own abbreviations:
Keep the main sounds of the word. For example, edn. (education),
progm. (programme)
Retain the suffix so that later when you are going over the notes you
may recall the full form of the word e.g., ednal (educational), progve
(progressive).
3.
Caution
Do not get over-enthusiastic about abbreviations. You should
not abbreviate every word. One abbreviation in point is enough.
As a general rule, the heading should not be abbreviated. You may
use abbreviations in subheadings.
Your notes should look like this

Notice that indenting, i.e., shifting from the margin has been used to clearly
indicate subheadings, points and sub points. Subheadings, though separated by
points occur below one another. Points and sub points too come below one
another, similarly. Such use of indenting gives your notes a visual character. At a
glance you can see the main idea and its aspects.
Here is a solved example:
Click over the icon to access and download the file