Today's Items

1. Moby Dick - while explaining the word 'volition' - we also watched a clip from Gregory Peck Movie.                
2. Sea-Fever
3. We also looked into the first paragraph of Chapter 2 of Village by the Sea. There is a sentence beginning with "It was quite a cheap cotton sari ...", which has 60 words in it. Students should not attempt anything longer than 25-27 words in their longest sentences.
4. We will have MOCK on coming Friday - 4th November. Please bring the following
1. Stressbook
2. John Seely - Oxford Secondary English Book
3. Pen and 2 Pencils of 2B Grade. 
4. You MAY also bring Color Pencils / Pastel.
5. Duration 3 Hours
6. Full Marks: NONE
7. You will be Graded: A / C / D
8. You will be marked HOLISTICALLY

History in TIMELINE

Find an excellent link here. Use this to refresh your memory and make corrections to your concept of history.

http://www.fsmitha.com/t-index.html

Essay Topic from 2011 Edexcel Paper

All these 3 topics are pretty easy to handle.

1. Describe your favourite place - Real or Imaginary [Should be based on Sylvia Plath's poem Wuthering Heights]
2. Write a story - real or imaginary - titled "The Visit" [Based on the short story The Landlady]
3. "Travel broadens the mind" - to what extent do you agree with the view. [Must also include reference to Emily Dickinson poem There is no Frigate like a book]

The first essay is Descriptive, the second one Narrative, and the third one Argumentative.

Descriptive and Narrative essays - Guidelines

Descriptive Writing:

1. Use a magnifying glass for detailed description
2. Use careful assortment of Adjectives
3. Impressionistic writing - [page 32 of New English Course - extract from To the Lighthouse]

Narrative Writing: [We read an extract from Huck Finn]

1. A little of Dialogue - little of Description - little of Planning
2. Use Dialogue to establish a character
3. Description - 2 types - Description of action and of objects
4. Never write a story that gives SOLUTION in the end.
5. Never write an story in a strictly chronological order - [Bad Example: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen]
6. Try to include overlapping TIME / Parallel Time in your story-line. 
7. Learn to use Flash-back technique.

In BOTH cases: 

1. Perfect Graphology
2. Variation of Punctuation [Use Semicolon, Colon, Dash, Hyphen carefully] 
3.  Sentence Variation
4. Too many LONG and too many SHORT sentences MUST be avoided.
5. Try to write minimum 650 words in ONE hour.

Best place for learning to Write Articles and Stories

The place can be found here:

http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-magazine-archive-2.htm

We read and LISTENED to an article titled Vice, Investment and Seven Deadly Sins. There is also an interesting article on Wormholes and Time -travel.

You are also advised to go to MIT website and read the following article.

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/graphene-thermoelectric-1007.html


Please also check this very interesting video!!!

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2HMImL/www.youtube.com/watch%253Fv%253Dfc1X8VJBfDA

Reading Report from Yasin

Sir I have read two more stories of Chekhov.

"In The Graveyard"

The story describes a graveyard where a man who is almost at the end of his life comes to the graveyard for the last time to forgive  the person who was his biggest enemy who now is dead and lies beneath the depth of the grave. One of the line in the story I have loved the most and that is - 

". . . forgotten friend Mushkin . . .".

Time had erased the never, and corrected the falsehood of man.

"The Album"- This is another story that reflects the true colour of the human nature.Its about a General who, after a long duty of ten years, retires. Its a sorrowful moment for him and his sub-ordinates that a man serving his country for long years will now retire.The sub-ordinates presented him with an album containing picture of themselves. But as the General returned home all the sorrow moments disappeared and his true colour was revealed when he gave the album away to his children - he tore the pictures into pieces.