English Notes

1. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow: 1. Food, clothing and shelter are the basic human needs. However, there are many who barely manage to acquire the first two necessities but the third remains beyond their reach. A large section of the population therefore lives and sleeps at public places, like roads, pavements and streets under unhygienic conditions and is categorized as the ‘homeless population’. 2. Homelessness is a growing phenomenon worldwide and is a major challenge faced by India today. People from rural areas are moving to the cities and towns to find employment, or to escape calamities like floods, famine and drought. 3. Rural poverty is the most fundamental reason for the great migration to the city. The poor people are not in a position to pay for housing, food, child care, health care, and education. The vast majority of these men and women are farmers and farm labourers who in their villages lack resources and opportun...

Summary An advocate, Sergei, encounters a ragged beggar, who claims to be a teacher fired unjustly from his job. Sergei, however, remembers that he saw the same man the other day, when he claimed to be an impoverished student. The beggar, Lushkoff breaks down and admits that he is a simply a drunk without work. Segei offers him a job chopping wood, which he reluctantly accepts. Olga, the cook, takes Lushkoff and shows him the wood stack. After that, Luskoff returns frequently to do odd jobs, and eventually Sergei sets him up with a clerical position. Two years later, Sergei sees the Lushkoff at the theatre. He prides himself for having saved Lushkoff from a life of drunkenness, but Luskoff reveals that it was Olga who saved him. Comprehension Questions 1. How did Sergei recognise the beggar? Sergei looked at the beggar. His face appeared familiar to him. He tried to recollect where he had seen him. Suddenly, his eyes fell on the beggar’s shoes. One shoe was high a...

Summary It is a poem about the death of a loved one of the poet. The poet says that his soul has been sealed by the deep sleep of a person whom he loved very much. But when he thinks that she has become a part and parcel of nature, this gives him some relief and peace. Explanation In this poem, the poet seems to be immortalizing her death by saying that she had no human fears. Now earthly years were no longer a matter of concern for her because they cannot make her older now. In the second stanza he is describing her dead body. She is not able to perform any of the physical movement or activity now. In the last two lines the poet describes that she is now under the surface of the earth revolving along with it on its path. He tells us that like other stones, rocks and trees, she also revolves with the earth now. Comprehension Questions 1. What does ‘a slumber’ refer to? A slumber refers to the deep sleep. 2. What did the slumber do to the poet’s spirit? The slu...