Flamingo - NCERT Solutions - GeniusJnr

Read this sentence.

M. Hamel had said that he would question us on participles. 

In the sentence above, the verb form “had said” in the first part is used to indicate an “earlier past.” The whole story is narrated in the past. M. Hamel’s “saying” happened earlier than the events in this story. This form of the verb is called the past perfect.

Pick out five sentences from the story with this form of verb and say why this form has been used.

Combine the following sets of ideas to show the contrast between them.

(i) European art tries to achieve a perfect, illusionistic likeness.

(ii)Asian art tries to capture the essence of inner life and spirit.

English is a language that contains words from many other languages. This inclusiveness is one of the reasons it is now a world language, for example:

petite – French

kindergarten – German

capital – Latin

democracy – Greek

bazaar – Hindi

Find out the origin of the following words.

Tycoon, tulip, logo, bandicoot, barbecue, veranda, robot, zero, ski, trek

The following common words are used in more than one sense.

panel	studio	brush
essence	material

Examine the following sets of sentences to find out what the words, ‘panel’ and ‘essence’ mean in different contexts.

1. (i) The masks from Bawa village in Mali look like long panels of decorated wood.

(ii) Judge H. Hobart Grooms told the jury panel he had heard the reports.

(iii)The panel is laying the groundwork for an international treaty.

(iv)The glass panels of the window were broken.

(v) Through the many round tables, workshops and panel discussions, a consensus was reached.

(vi)The sink in the hinged panel above the bunk drains into the head.

2. (i) Their repetitive structure must have taught the people around the great composer the essence of music.

(ii) Part of the answer is in the proposition; but the essence is in the meaning.

(iii)The implications of these schools of thought are of practical essence for the teacher.

(iv) They had added vanilla essence to the pudding.

1. He made them himself at odd moments.

2. He raised himself.

3. He had let himself be fooled by a bait and had been caught.

4. … a day may come when you yourself may want to get a big piece of pork.

Notice the way in which these reflexive pronouns have been used (pronoun + self)

In 1 and 4 the reflexive pronouns “himself” and “yourself” are used to convey emphasis.

In 2 and 3 the reflexive pronoun is used in place of personal pronoun to signal that it refers to the same subject in the sentence.

Pick out other examples of the use of reflexive pronouns from the story and notice how they are used.

Combine the following sets of ideas to show the contrast between them.

(i)The Emperor commissions a painting and appreciates its outer appearance.

(ii)The artist reveals to him the true meaning of his work.

Notice the underlined words in these sentences and tick the option that best explains their meanings.

(a) “What a thunderclap these words were to me!”

      The words were ___________________

(i)   loud and clear.

(ii) startling and unexpected.

(iii) pleasant and welcome.

(b) “When a people are enslaved, as long as they hold fast to their language it is as if they had the key to their prison.”

      It is as if they have the key to the prison as long as they _______________

(i)   do not lose their language.

(ii) are attached to their language.

(iii) quickly learn the conqueror’s language.

(c) Don’t go so fast, you will get to your school in plenty of time.

      You will get to your school _______________

(i)   very late.

(ii)  too early.

(iii) early enough.

(d) I never saw him look so tall.

      M. Hamel _____________________

(a) had grown physically taller.

(b) seemed very confident.

(c) stood on the chair.

Tick the item that is closest in meaning to the following phrases.

1. to take issue with

(i) to accept

(ii) to discuss

(iii) to disagree

(iv) to add

2. to give vent to

(i) to express

(ii) to emphasise

(iii) to suppress

(iv) to dismiss

3. to stand on one's feet

(i) to be physically strong

(ii) to be independent

(iii) to stand erect

(iv) to be successful

4. to be wound up

(i) to become active

(ii) to stop operating

(iii) to be transformed

(iv) to be destroyed

5. to meet one's match

(i) to meet a partner who has similar tastes

(ii) to meet an opponent

(iii) to meet someone who is equally able as oneself

(iv) to meet defeat

Notice the highlighted words in the following sentences.

1. “When I leave,’ Sophie said, coming home from school, “I’m going to have a boutique.”

2. Jansie, linking arms with her along the street, looked doubtful.

3. “I’ll find it,” Sophie said, staring far down the street.

4. Jansie, knowing they were both earmarked for the biscuit factory, became melancholy.

5. And she turned in through the open street door leaving Jansie standing in the rain.

– When we add “ing” to a verb we get the present participle form. The present participle form is generally used along with forms of “be’,   (is, was, are, were, am) to indicate the continuous tense as in “Sophie was coming home from school.”

– We can use the present participle by itself without the helping verb, when we wish to indicate that an action is happening at the same time as another.

– In example 1, Sophie “said” something. “Said”, here, is the main action.

– What Sophie was doing while she was “saying” is indicated by “coming home from school”. So we get the information of two actions happening at the same time. We convey the information in one sentence instead of two.

I. Analyse the other examples in the same way.

II. Pick out five other sentences from the story in which present participles are used in this sense.

Combine the following sets of ideas to show the contrast between them.

(i) The Emperor may rule over the territory he has conquered.

(ii) The artist knows the way within.

The man selling rattraps is referred to by many terms such as “peddler, stranger” etc. Pick out all such references to him. What does each of these labels indicate of the context or the attitude of the people around him?

The narrative has many phrases to describe the scenic beauty of the mountainside like: 

A flawless half-moon floated in a perfect blue sky.

Scan the text to locate other such picturesque phrases.