Essay on "Spoken English and Broken English"

Introduction

                George Bernard Shaw is a well known writer. He prepared and spoke on the topic ‘Spoken English and Broken English’ on a gramophone recording for the Linguaphone institute. In his speech the provocative ideas are couched in a simple but sparkling rhetorical style.

Advantages in learning to speak well

                Bernard Shaw says that when we travel in the British Commonwealth or in America or when we meet a native of these countries, we have to speak English well for enough understanding. If we speak in a provincial or cockney  dialect it may prevents us from obtaining some employment which is open to those only speak what is ‘correct English’.

No such thing ideally correct English

                No two British subjects speak exactly alike. Even educated persons, the Poet Laureate and trained speakers do not pronounce of some of the simplest commonest words in the English language exactly alike. Members of the committee who are selected as models of correct speech speak differently. They differ according to the country in which they were born.

Confession of Bernard Shaw  

                Bernard Shaw confesses that he himself does not speak English in the same way. When he speaks to audience, he speaks carefully. If he were to speak carefully to his wife at home, she would think he was going mad. As a public speaker he has to take care that every word he says is heard distinctly at far end of large halls containing thousands of people. At home he speaks to his wife like mumbling. His wife also a little careless and so he sometimes has to say “What?”

Advice to foreign students of English

                 Do not try to speak English perfectly because native speakers of English won’t understand. In London nine hundred and ninety nine out of thousand people not only speak bad English but speak even that very badly. No foreigner can ever stress the syllables and make the voice rise and fall in questions and answer, assertion and denial, in refusal and consent, in enquiry or information, exactly as a native does. Therefore the first thing they have to do is to speak with a strong foreign accent, and speak broken English.

Conclusion

                Bernard Shaw criticizes that it is an insult to the native speaker of English who cannot understand his own language when it is too well spoken.

Summary of "The Post Master" by 'Rabindranath Tagore'

           In the small village of Ulapur, an Englishman who owns an indigo factory near it manages to get a post office established. A postmaster from Calcutta gets separated from his family and transferred to this village. From the noise of the city, he comes to a deserted village with just scattered glimpses of people.
          Tagore, a lover of nature, uses it to describe the surroundings. The postmaster's office has a green, slimy pond, surrounded by dense vegetation. The way he describes this shows that postmaster is not in a position to appreciate his closeness to nature. There are three central themes to this story.
Firstly, the story revolves around 'longing and separation'; starting and ending with this. The postmaster is taken away from his family and brought to a remote village. He was in a village, where its busy people were no company, and he was left with not much work to do. He tries to pacify his longing emotions by writing poetry. However, the fact that he tries to write something external to him, like nature, makes it an impossible venture. 

           An orphan girl of the village, Ratan, helps him with his daily chores. He speaks to her about his mother and sister in the evenings, and would keep enquiring about her family. He would speak with sadness of all those "memories which were always haunting him".
Secondly, 'companionship', and thirdly 'dependency' can be seen through how the relationship between the postmaster and Ratan grows through the course of this story. Ratan did not have many memories of her family to be recalled. There were only fragments, like pictures, of her father coming home in the evening, and her little brother whom she played with, fishing on the edge of the pond.
            Once she met the postmaster, 'Dada', she spent her days with him. She would sit outside his shed, being only a call away from him, and doing all the small chores. Dada would share his meals with her. Then in the evenings, she would listen to him talking about his relatives and in imagination make them her own.
             Tagore translates the longing ringing in Dada's heart to nature, when he says, "A persistent bird repeated all the afternoon the burden of its one complaint in Nature's audience chamber." A man, who initially failed his attempt at verse, thinks of this as parallel to his emotions. Poetry is something that comes from the inner overflow of emotions. He hopes for the presence of a loving human being he could hold close to his heart.
            The postmaster can't stand the quietude of Ulapur. He longs for the noises of traffic and life in Calcutta. One evening, he tells Ratan that he is going to teach her to read. She grows closer to him. She sees him as her only relative. She grows dependent.
But, as the season's rain seemed like it would never end, like the constant patter on the roof, Dada was troubled by his heart's exile. He falls sick in his solitude. Ratan takes care of him, and he recovers just taking her presence for granted. But, he then decides that he has to leave this village. He writes an application of transfer, based on the unhealthiness of the village. The transfer is rejected.
           He tells Ratan that he has resigned and will be leaving the village. She asks him to take her with him. He thinks of it as an absurd idea and she is haunted by his reaction. Next morning, she fills a bucket of water for him. He bathes and waits for the next postmaster to arrive.
           He consoles Ratan saying that he would inform the postmaster about her. He even offers her some money to keep. She refuses both and expresses that she doesn't want to stay there any more.
Ratan has lived a life of loneliness. Dada was her only companion, and the only one who seemed to understand her. She is broken, when he has to leave without her.
           He leaves as soon, as the new postmaster arrives. He hesitates for a moment as the boat leaves, but it is too late for him to take her with him. Tagore illustrates the two ways a human mind works. The postmaster uses the element of philosophy to console himself. He tells himself that meeting, attachment, and departing are all part of life. It will all settle with the passage of time. The wind that fills the sails of the boat indicates the reason the postmaster fills his heart with, as he separates himself from the village.
          However, Ratan stands outside the office "with tears streaming from her eyes." She has succumbed to a common human folly, as Tagore expresses, of hope. She has been separated from her only bond and now longs for it to return. Tagore ends by saying that humans often fall into hope than seeing the reason, and long before we realize, disappointment becomes too hard to handle.  

Summary of 'THE CONJURER’S REVENGE'

                               THE CONJURER’S REVENGE by Stephen Leacock

The conjurer called the attention of the people and showed an empty cloth. He said, ‘Presto!’ He took out a bowl of goldfish. All around the hall people wondered that how he did it. But the Quick Man on the front seat said in a big whisper to the people that he had it up his sleeve. Then everybody whispered round the hall that he had it up his sleeve. Then everybody whispered round the hall that he had it up his sleeve. The conjurer said that his next trick was the famous Hindostanee rings. He showed that the rings were separate. At a blow they all joined. The Quick Man whispered that he had another lot up his sleeve. Again everybody nodded and whispered that the rings were up his sleeve.

The conjurer worried a lot but he continued his tricks. The conjurer got a hat from the audience and he extracted seventeen eggs in thirty five seconds. The audience began to think that he was wonderful. Then the Quick Man whispered along the front bench that he had a hen up his sleeve and so all the people whispered it on that he had a lot of hens up his sleeve. The egg trick was ruined. It went on like that all through. Whatever the tricks he did, he got the same response. It seemed that the conjurer must have concealed his sleeve. The reputation of the conjurer was rapidly sinking below zero.

He rallied for a final effort. He said that he would present to them the famous Japanese trick recently invented by the natives of Tipperary. He turned toward the Quick Man and requested him to give his gold watch. It was passed to him. The conjurer asked the Quick Man if he had his permission to put it into that mortar and pound it to pieces. The Quick Man nodded and smiled. The conjurer threw the watch into the mortar and grasped a sledge hammer from the table and smashed it. The Quick Man whispered that he had slipped it up his sleeve. The conjurer asked him whether he would allow him to take his handkerchief and punch holes in it. He made visible holes in it. The real mystery of the thing fascinated the Quick Man.

Then the conjurer asked for the Quick Man’s permission to dance on his silk hat. The conjurer passed on the hat with his feet and crushed his it. Then he got his celluloid collar and burnt it with his permission. Then he got his spectacles and smashed it with hammer. The Quick Man puzzled and he whispered that he didn’t see through it a bit. The conjurer concluded that he had broken his watch, burnt his collar, smashed his spectacles and danced on his hat with his permission. The audience dispersed with a acceptance that there were some tricks that were not done up the conjurer’s sleeve.   

Summary of “Two Tramps in Mud Time” by 'Robert Frost'

On the surface, “Two Tramps in Mud Time” seems to display Robert Frost’s narrow individualism.  The poem, upon first reading it, seems incongruent, with some of the stanzas having no apparent connection to the whole poem.  The poem as a whole also does not appear to have a single definable theme.  At one point, the narrator seems wholly narcissistic, and then turns to the power and beauty of nature.  It is, however, in the final third of the poem where the narrator reveals his true thoughts to the reader, bringing resolution to the poem as a single entity, not merely a disharmonious collection of words.
At the outset of the poem, the narrator gives a very superficial view of himself, almost seeming angered when one of the tramps interferes with his wood chopping: “one of them put me off my aim”. This statement, along with many others, seems to focus on “me” or “my”, indicating the apparent selfishness and arrogance of the narrator: “The blows that a life of self-control/Spares to strike for the common good/That day, giving a loose to my soul,/I spent on the unimportant wood.”  The narrator refers to releasing his suppressed anger not upon evils that threaten “the common good”, but upon the “unimportant wood”.  The apparent arrogance of the narrator is revealed as well by his reference to himself as a Herculean figure standing not alongside nature, but over it: “The grip on earth of outspread feet,/The life of muscles rocking soft/And smooth and moist in vernal heat.”  Unexpectedly, the narrator then turns toward nature, apparently abandoning his initial train of thought. He reveals the unpredictability of nature, saying that even in the middle of spring, it can be “two months back in the middle of March.” Even the fauna of the land is involved with this chicanery; the arrival of the bluebird would to most indicate the arrival of spring, yet “he wouldn’t advise a thing to blossom.”
The narrator points to the conclusion that, while on the surface, things appear to be one thing, there is always something hidden below, much like “The lurking frost in the earth beneath…”  In the final three stanzas of the poem, the “frost” within the narrator comes to the surface.  The humility of the narrator comes to light, with the narrator saying that the tramps’ right to chop wood for a living “was the better right–agreed.”  The narrator also says, “Except as a fellow handled an ax,/They had no way of knowing a fool,” insomuch as admitting to his foolishness. On the surface, the poem seems to be two poems with diverging themes. However, Robert Frost guides there two apparently unrelated thoughts into one idea from the heart: “My object in living is to unite/My avocation and my vocation/As my two eyes make one in sight.”  Perhaps the narrator is the true Frost coming to the surface.

Summary of the short story ‘THE KING AND THE DOCTORS’ by George Bernard Shaw

                    Summary of the short story ‘THE KING AND THE DOCTORS’ by George Bernard Shaw

Bernard Shaw’s ‘The King and the Doctors’ is a fine satire on doctors who belong to different schools and faiths in the profession of medicine. It criticizes their professional rivalries which often hinder rather than help patients improve their health.

In the country of the Half Mad the King fell ill. As he had established very kindly relations with his subjects, his illness caused a great affection for him and for his family. The king had twelve doctors to attend him but there was no sign of his being cured. People became anxious. They said a single doctor was generally sufficient to kill one of them, so how the king could survive twelve doctors.

The Prince asked the chief physician whether it was not possible to cure the King. The physician replied that everything was being done that could properly done. The physician asked if he had no confidence in their knowledge and devotion. The prince said that their devotion was all right but their knowledge was bunk. The chief physician was highly scandalized. He requested the Prince to suggest any measure they had omitted.

They discussed on giving drugs. The Prince questioned whether drugs were bunk or not. The physician said that undoubtedly drugs are bunk from a purely secular point of view. The Prince said that there was a way of giving drugs in infinitesimal quantities to which all the latest discoveries and scientific speculations point as the right way. The physician replied that infinitesimals were used only by homeopaths. He said that they were ignorant of the nature of disease and they merely treat its symptoms. If a Chinese patient had been brought to a homeopath he would have been treated for yellow fever.

The Prince asked physician whether he knew the nature of the disease. The physician said that certainly he knew. He said that he had passed an examination in pathology and written books about it. The prince asked what the nature of his father’s complained was. The physician said that it was pleurisy. The prince said that he knew its symptoms and asked again what its nature was. The physician replied that if he had knew that he could have cured it. The Prince said that then pathology was bunk. The prince said that let them call in a homeopath. The physician said that there was only one successful homeopath in London and added that if he had discussed the case with him he should have been excommunicated.

 The Prince said that he heard that a lot of came from spinal displacement. Then he asked about the King’s spinal. The physician said it looked all right. But the Prince said that there were trained chaps to feel it is all right. There was a machine that will register on a galvanometer displacement that nobody can feel. The physician said that he had never heard of it. He assured that those people who feel spines’ were almost ignorant Americans who had spent two years in mere manual training. If he had been seen speaking to one he should have been excommunicated. The Prince asked the physician to do it himself. The physician said that he had not had the two years training and said that it was not part of our official surgery. The Prince said that official surgery was washed out.

Then the Prince asked about testing his father’s blood for radiations. And said that it could be done by a rheostat and there was some method of neutralizing the rays that sometimes cures.  The physician said that it was discovered by an American. He was not only American but a Jew. But the Prince persisted that he understood he was a proper doctor. The physician said that the treatment would involve attaching the King to the electric switch and the public opinion would never tolerate that. The Prince said he did not want to lose his father because people were fools. He said he could use a private battery. The physician said it was recognized their Vatican and it had not been proved by at least fifty years of experience in curing disease. The Prince asked whether the patients recovered under the logical appropriate treatments which were being taught by in their medical college. The physician said that it was true and the recuperative power of the human organism was marvelous.  The Prince said that he was not satisfied and it seemed to him that his father just because he was a king, was cut off from the benefit of all the new discoveries and treatments that are available for his subjects.

The physician requested the Prince to be patient and said that his father was in the hands of God. The prince said he should like to call in Pope for a consultation. But the physician said that he was qualified more than half a century ago and might not be quite up to date. The Prince said that then the pope was another wash out. The Prince asked what the most up-to-date scientific treatment for his father was. The physician said he had already ordered it. The Prince asked what the treatment was. The physician said that was seaside. The Prince said that that was not the latest treatment and it was what his grandmother recommended.

The physician said the benefits arose from change of air. The Prince asked what it arose from. The physician requested the prince not to reveal their professional secret. The Prince promised not to reveal the secret. The physician whispered that it would get him away from doctors. Shortly afterward, the King recovered.  

Moral: Too much of anything is good for nothing.

XII Std English- Paper I March 2013 answers

XII Std English- Paper I  March 2013  answers

            SECTION -A 

1.A.Synonyms

01.  b. He was awarded for his brave act.

02.  b. Mandela fought for the cause of south Africa.

03.  c. The tourist were marooned on the island.

04.  a. I stood immobile with fear when I heard a gun shot suddenly.

05.  c. The train speeded up before I got in.

B.  Antonyms

06. c. democrat

07. a. ordinary

08. d. inhabited

09. a. love

10. d. lit

C. Answer any ten of the following:

11. Indices – index   or datum – data

12. Idiom: to be on cloud nine = extremely happy

13. CPU- Central Processing Unit.

14. Peace, piece

15. Helicopter + airport= heliport

16. Syllabification : in-tro-duc-tion, fan-tas-tic, con-tact, fa-ci-li-tate

17. Noun: Look at your file.

       Verb: She filed her papers.

18. Movie- film

19. I bought a washing machine

20. Prefix ‘im..’  -  immobile   or   suffix ‘…ness’    -   happiness

21. a) Noun+ Noun  = School+ boy = schoolboy

22. Cut off = stop  , cut short =  make shorter

23.  Advertisement – ad

       Telephone  - phone

      

           SECTION –B

II.A. Fill in the blanks:

24.  used to

25. goes

26. should/ must

27. will pass

28. who

29. impersonal passive voice

30. SVCA – He is a teacher in Chennai.

31. despite/ in spite of/ after/ before/ in/during

32. though/ although

33. demanded