EXERCISES for today

 1. Influence of mobile communication....

2. Voting for your favorite TEAM video (on a Movie)

3. Video Presentation of the English Course

ANECDOTES

1

maneesha m

Today our class teacher took us to a zoo. I was quite excited about the trip because I love animals. However, it turned out to be one of the saddest experiences of my life.

We saw many birds and animals in the zoo. Alas! They didn’t look happy in their cages. There were colorful parrots and lovebirds. They looked sad in their small enclosures. I am sure they miss the blue skies. The plight of the lion, tiger and leopard was not much better either. They were kept inside tiny cages. They are well-fed and they also receive medical attention whenever they show signs of illness. Yet, they looked tired and unhealthy. I guess that is a result of their sedentary life. They get absolutely no opportunities to walk or run. They pace their small cages up and down looking restive and angry.

I am not saying that zoos are bad. They do protect many endangered species. Still it hurts me to see wild animals caged for our entertainment. I know I can’t do anything for them but I can’t help feeling bad for them. I don’t think I will visit a zoo again.

2

deemol davis 

What an  memorable  day was today! I wake up early in the morning and went for a walk.

While I was passing through my village road, i saw a little girl floating in the river. I rescued her. I still can’t believe that I did it. How could I do this? Where did it I get the courage from? I don’t know. I was going to the temple when I heard a child yelling for help from the riverbank. I rushed there and saw a boy shouting for help. His sister had fallen into the river and he couldn’t swim. Neither could she. I saw her flapping with her arms. I also cried for help hoping that someone would come but when I saw nobody anywhere near the river I gathered the courage and jumped into the water. By then, the girl was beginning to sink. I swam with all my strength and managed to get hold of her hair. While it is true that I can swim holding her head above water while swimming back to the shore was quite a challenge for me. Luckily, by the time we reached the shore people had gathered and someone gave her emergency medical aid and rushed her to hospital. Everyone praised me for saving the life of a child putting my own life at risk. I felt both happy and proud.

3

RAHUL PB

Dear Diary,

Life is full of surprises. I couldn’t sleep the previous night. The next morning the results of the Board were to be announced. Then suddenly at 9 am, we heard a telephone ring. I ran to receive it. My Principal was on the line. “Congratulations my boy! You have topped the list of successful candidates in the place Zone. We are proud of you!” He also congratulated my parents.Then started the non-stop congratulatory messages from my teachers, class fellows, friends and relatives. My parents were busy in distributing ‘laddoos’. I felt like a celebrity. And a celebrity I was. Two correspondents of leading news channels came to interview me. I only felt that nothing succeeds like success and thanked my stars.

DIARY ENTRIES

1

Melda Johnson

Sunday

07-03-2021 

Dear Minni, 

I have been dying to tell you what happened today. I suppose this is the best day of my life so far. 

I started my day by waking up at 5 am. I rushed to guest room for correcting the answer sheets of model exam after making the black coffee. By 6.30 am I completed my work. Afterwards the busy schedule of my life started. Made dosa and chutney for breakfast. Sambar, beans curry and egg roast for lunch. I ran to bathroom and take a quick bath. By 9.00 am my hus dropped me at school. 

After signing in teacher's attendance register, I went to 10 A class with biology answer sheets. Then I distributed answer sheets to students and I am so happy that all of them got very high marks. As a teacher that was a proud moment. 

I reached back home by 4.30 pm. After having my evening tea I spent my time in garden. After watering the plants I went to bathroom and take a bath.

By 7.00 pm I gave remedial class to backward students those who are preparing for their SSLC examination through Google meet. After an hour session l spent time with my family. Then after having dinner and prayer, I went to sleep.

2

Blessy Wilson

It was another beautiful day in my life..As usual , I woke up at 5 AM ,had my morning routines that include watching the morning prayer and the news on the television.. Today I had to make the breakfast a little faster as it was Sunday and we all had to go to the church at 8 AM..So, began the day freshly by going to the church. I came back at 10:15 AM..The next thing that had to be done was to make the lunch and till 12 noon I  was busy with that.. At 1:15 PM I had my lunch with my family.. After that we all were busy with arranging our home for a meeting that had to be conducted in our home at 3PM with the neighbours...It began at 3 PM and ended up at 4 PM. We then set back our home to the normal manner..Then I went to my vegetable garden and spent almost one and a half hours over there.. Since I spent there more time , all my evening routines got a bit late to be finished. So , quickly I bathed up my little boy , then I had my bath and by 8 PM everything was set for the dinner. As I had to take rest for a while , I watched the television with my family for a few minutes..Then we had the evening prayer which was followed by the dinner. Before ending up the day ,I watched the news channel for a while as usual..And now , by 10:30 PM I am going to my bed to get rid of all the tiredness of today as well as to begin well a new day...

Thank you Lord for this day.

3

Arathi M 

Dear diary,                                                               

Today I woke up at 5:00 AM in the morning , did all my household chores and went to the hospital. I reached the hospital at 8:00AM sharp and went to the changing room to get changed for my duty. Today I had corona duty , so I had to wear the PPE kit.  Walking through the isolation ward is really hard. Moreover it makes you  really sweaty and uncomfortable. But being a nurse you have to risk your life and your pleasure to help others relieve their pain and sufferings.There was a  patient in the ward who had corona , we tried our best to save him but we couldn't.  The sad  truth of losing someone beloved is devastating. I know the pain his family will be going through but the only thing we could do is pray for his soul. Before leaving the hospital I had to do some  works at my department. After that I left the hospital at 5:00 PM and got home at 6:00 PM in the evening. Being a nurse isn't an easy task , it's really hard but when you see someone's face lit up by the care you gave them that's the best feeling you will ever get. Iam really exhausted by the work at the hospital but Iam happy that I made the right decision  to be a nurse. Every nurse is drawn to nursing because of the desire to care, to serve and help others. Nursing is an art of helping others and making their  lives a better one by giving them all the love and affection one can offer. Iam proud to be a nurse.      

4

MERLIN 

A Day In My Life

 I woke up at 4:45 a.m as usual,and got refreshed after having done my daily morning activities. After having my bed coffee, I began to study at 5:00 a.m. I feel that this time is a bit darker than it was,during the months of of January and February. Today was the second day of my model exams. I was a bit nervous as I was having my maths and Chemistry exams today. Even though I was nervous, there was no changes in my habit of falling asleep during my studies. I was feeling dizzy and my mother woke me up during each 15 minutes.

                 By 6 o'clock, I went to get the newspaper and got updated about the latest news. I resumed my studies by 6:30, and I felt refreshed after going through the newspaper. Those were the last hours of preparation for my exams and I was careful not to miss even a single second. I spend an extra 30 minutes for my studies today and was in a rush since I got up from my studies only at 8:30. I was in a hurry and thus asked my brother to help me  iron my uniform meanwhile I had my breakfast and went to take a bath. My mother had prepared my lunch box and water bottle when I returned. I quickly put up my uniform and got ready by 9 o'clock and waited for my friend to arrive. He arrived by 9:05 and we had our usual ride to the school and reached there bye 9:10.

                I had my final preparations along with my friends and entered to the exam hall by 9:30. By noon,we finished our first exam and got out to have lunch. We had promised not to discuss about the exam as it would only increase our anxiety. By 2 o'clock,we got in for our second exam after having small preparations for about 15 minutes. It was easier than the first one and we got out by 4:00.

                We hang out with our friends for a while and took our ride back to home. It was 4:30 when I got back home. I took a bath and put my dresses to wash and had the tea and snacks my mother had prepared. I spent a few minutes on my phone and sat to study by 6:15 and continued upto 8:00. I was not completely concentrated during these hours,as I got up in between, to share about my day with my family members,and lso as I got distracted by my phone.

                By 8 o'clock, all my family members assembled to have our prayers which lasts for half an hour. After that,we had our dinner and spent some time talking about our day. Usually, I go to sleep after all these by 9:30. But,these are my exam days and I had to prepare better for them. Therefore, I continued my studies while my family members went to their beds. I sat alone, for two more hours and put up my efforts to my studies,after which I got up, brushed my teeth,had a small prayer,and went to bed.

                                         

What is READING ?

What do you do when you are reading? 

You are either scanning(looking for an information) or skimming (trying to understand something). 

How should we read?

We should not read word by word but phrase by phrase. A word is say "a" and a phrase is "a table". So a phrase is a more meaningful piece of information than a word.

How should we use our vision while reading?

While reading try to stretch your eye span ie., you should try to see a word phrase rather than just a word so that you can take in more information while reading thus multiplying your reading speed.

Why should we try to keep increasing our reading speed?

Many a time, to understand a text we may have to read it many times (re-reading). So we would be at a disadvantage in such situations if we take a longer time to read the full text because then we would hardly get time to read it more than once. This might happen in exams like IELTS etc. where the text given for reading may not be easy to comprehend when read only once. So our reading score may become lower than those who read faster or who are speed readers.

What are the other skills of good readers?

Good readers have a vast vocabulary making them familiar with most of the words commonly used by writers and they also have a verbal reasoning power ie., guessing the meaning of a word from the context.

What are the habits of good readers?

To become good readers one needs to read a wide variety of reading materials from different fields like articles and essays, fiction and non-fiction, literary and scientific etc. Confining our reading to a particular kind of content or becoming a follower of a particular style of information limits our reading potential.

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Passage for Reading 6

While talking about their dreams most of the participants spoke about becoming college lecturers, govt. employees, working abroad etc. A simple logic to be followed here while following your dreams is to keep your focus on your efforts that you are taking now or going to take, thinking of that dream. Achieving the dream is not that important. More important is focusing on your present moments and being in love with what you are doing now for the realization of that goal. For eg., if a person wants to become a singer in life, if that's what is her goal, then her dream  instead of becoming a singer can be to keep improving her abilities and skills as a singer, to be a more versatile singer, to look for opportunities to participate and assess her qualities vis-a-vis other participants etc. Having a goal is important but focusing on the efforts in that direction is more important. More than thinking about your dream one should be enthusiastic about the actions required for realizing the dream.

One can even dare to say that "I don't want to be a singer...who cares whether I become a singer or not...But nothing can stop me from being in love with singing. For me it's all about experiencing the pure joy, the moment of self realization, the happiness of reaching out and uniting with the universe and touching the heights of excellence within me by finding the real me. The journey is all inside, not outside. 

Here you are defining your dream, you are in control, you have the power and responsibility, you are in driver's seat. And above all you live every moment, with happiness.

Passage for Reading 5

Human beings have been gifted with the power to smile and laugh but not everybody can laugh at themselves. Laughing at our own failures, weaknesses, follies, mistakes, drawbacks, shortcomings, defects, limitations is a gift which only a few have. And those who have it are happy and de-stressed because they don't have to appear confident, self-assured, wise and smart always. They can relax, try new things, explore new ways of doing something, think of new possibilities as they don't carry the burden of invincibility upon their shoulders.

Shakespeare says about the human life through the eponymous character of Macbeth :

"Life's nothing but a walking shadow, a poor player strutting and fretting his hour upon the stage. And then is heard no more. It's a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing."

Passage for Reading 4

Which sentence given below is the most powerful in terms of belief?

If I get a job in an International company, I will go places.

If I started a business, I would earn a lot of money.

If I had got a job in government service I would have become very happy.

Now in these sentence types using the three IFs, the first sentence is spoken by a very confident person having a very strong belief, the second by a not very confident person having a weak belief and the third by somebody who is living in the past.
So by changing the IF pattern in a sentence, can we enhance our confidence and belief in a particular outcome?  The answer is clear from the above example.