Summary of the lesson 'Vanka'

 

Vanka (Anton Chekhov)   Vanka- a nine year old orphan boy, was apprenticed to the shoemaker Alyakhin. It was only three months since he reached the shoemaker’s house in Moscow. The master Alyakhin, the mistress and other senior apprentices treated him cruelly. Vanka wanted his grandfather Konstantin Makarich to come and save him from the cruel master.   He decided to write a letter secretly to his grandpa explaining his miseries and requesting him to come and save him. Without going to bed on the Christmas eve, Vanka waited till the master and others had gone to church.  Then he took from the cupboard a bottle of ink, a pen with a rusty nib and a crumpled sheet of paper to write a letter. He was very much afraid and looked many times anxiously at the door and window before started to write the letter to make sure that no one was watching him. Vanka’s grandfather Konstantin Makarich was a night watchman at Zhivarev’s estate.   He was  a small, lean, old man about sixty-five years, and made company with cooks and kitchen maids.  He had two dogs named Kashtanka  and Eel. He sent Vanka to Moscow after Vanka’s mother Pelageya’s death to teach him shoemaking. But his life in Moscow at the shoemaker’s house was worse than a dog’s. He didn’t get enough food or time to sleep. Once the master beat Vanka with a stirrup-strap because by mistake he slept while he was rocking their baby. The mistress once rubbed the head of a herring on his face. The other apprentices made fun of him, sent him to tavern to buy vodka and forced him to steal the master’s cucumber.   Moscow was a big town, Vanka saw children selling fishing hooks there, shops selling all sorts of guns and butcheries selling meat of hunted birds and animals. While writing Vanka thought about cutting and decorating the Christmas tree and other celebrations in his village. He remembered the happy days when he was with his mother and his favourite Olga Ignatyevna, who taught him to read, write, count to a hundred and to dance the quadrille.   Vanka begged his grandpa to come and save him from the miseries; he offered to help him and pray for him. He finished writing the letter and wrote the address ‘To Konstantin Makarich’ ‘Grandfather in the Village’ and dropped it in the letter box. He slept in the rosy hopes of his grandpa coming and taking him back home to the village. He dreamed of his grandpa reading the letter to the cooks, sitting on a stove-ledge.

Summary of the lesson 'The Never-Never Nest'

 

The Never-Never Nest (Cedric Mount) The Never Never Nest is a one-act play by Cedric Mount. The main characters are: Jack and Jill (a couple), Aunt Jane and a Nurse.  Jack and his wife Jill lead a comfortable and luxurious life in their beautiful villa at New Hampstead.   One day Aunt Jane came to visit their house. Jack and Jill showed her their house, furniture and all other household things with much pride.  They had good furniture, a car, a refrigerator, a piano and a radiogram in addition to their beautiful house.  Aunt Jane was much impressed by the facilities in the house. She thought that they had to pay a huge amount as rent, and she asked how much it was.  Jack and Jill said that they did not have to pay rent; they owned all the things including the villa as theirs. Aunt Jane could not believe this. She doubted whether she wrote by mistake two thousand pounds instead of two hundred in the cheque which she had given them as a wedding gift. But when Aunt Jane asked seriously whether they really owned all the things, they said that they bought all those things on instalment system. She asked them how much they had to pay as instalments and how much Jack earned weekly. Jack replied that he earned six pounds weekly and they had to pay seven pounds eight and eight pence a week as instalment. They would take loan from certain finance corporations to pay the extra amount, and that also they would pay off in instalments.   Aunt Jane was against the instalment system and her motto was cash down payment. she disapproved Jack and Jill’s way of life. She refused to sit on the furniture there as they did not belong to Jack and Jill fully, and she hastened to leave their house. Jack offered to take her to the station in his car, but she refused to travel in a car of which he owned only the steering wheel, one of the tyres and two of the cylinders.   Before leaving, she gave Jill a cheque for ten pounds to pay at least one of their bills. Jill decided to pay the doctor’s bill with it so that they could at least own their baby as theirs. She put the cheque in an envelope, addressed it to Dr Martin and sent the nurse to post it. When Jack asked Jill why she sent the money to the doctor, she told him crying that with that one instalment, at least, THE BABY WAS REALLY THEIRS!

Summary of the lesson 'The Scholarship Jacket'

The Scholarship Jacket (Marta Salinas)   The small Texas School that Martha went to had a tradition of awarding a scholarship jacket to the class valedictorian every year at the eighth grade graduation. The scholarship jacket was a beautiful gold and green jacket with a big gold ‘S’ on the left front side. The name of the winner would be printed in golden letters on the pocket. Martha’s sister Rosie had won it before, and Martha expected to win it this year as she had been a straight ‘A’ level student since her first grade.   Martha was a very thin girl so that her friends called her ‘string bean’ and ‘bean pole’. She was the daughter of a poor Mexican farm labourer. She was living with her grandparents due to the poverty in her own family. One day while going for the PE period, on the way she remembered that she hadn’t taken the PE shorts. She walked back to the classroom to take it. At the classroom door she overheard a heated argument between her history teacher Mr. Schmidt and math teacher Mr. Boone.  They were arguing about the scholarship jacket. Mr. Boone did not want to give the award to Marhta because she was a Mexican-American girl.  He wanted to favour Joann who was an American and the daughter of the school board member.  But Mr. Schmidt strongly opposed this suggestion as he believed that it was a racial discrimination, and more than that Joan’s grades were nowhere near Martha’s.  Upon hearing this conversation, Martha became totally upset and disappointed.   The following day, the principal told Martha that the policy of the scholarship had changed. The principal warned her that she had to pay 15 dollars for the award, otherwise it would be given to the other student. Martha went home all the way crying, and explained everything to her grandpa. Martha’s grandfather was somewhat a rich farmer. Though he was uneducated, he was a man of strong determination.  He believed that the scholarship jacket was the fruit of his granddaughter’s hard work. He refused to pay the money and told Martha to inform the principal that ‘if she paid, it wouldn’t be an award’.   Next day Martha informed the principal about her grandpa’s decision, which made him change his mind. The principal told Martha that he would recommend the management to give her an exemption, and she   would get the jacket free of cost.  Martha became extremely happy and rushed homeward crying – but this time it was a cry of joy and excitement.

 

Summary of the lesson 'The Danger of a Single Story'

The Danger of a Single Story (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)   The Nigerian writer and orator, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie introduces herself to be a story teller, and she wants to tell a few personal stories about what she likes to call “The Danger of a Single Story”. She was born and brought up in a Nigerian middle class family. Her father was a professor and mother was an administrator.   She started reading books at an early age of four and started writing stories with crayon illustrations at the age of seven. She read mostly American and British children’s books, which created a single story in her mind about books. She believed that books by their nature should have foreign characters in them and the books should deal with subject matters with which the writer should not have a personal relation. But she realised the mistake when she could read books by African writers like Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye.  When she read African books, she realized that girls like her with kinky hair and chocolate coloured skin could also be characters in books.    She had a single story about Fide, their house boy. She believed that he and his family had only poverty in life and did not have any other abilities. Once she visited his house and found beautifully patterned baskets of dyed raffia made by his brother. Then she realised that her single story about Fide and his family was wrong. When she was 19, she went to America to continue her university studies. Her American roommate had a single story about Africa.  She believed Africa was only a land of beautiful landscape and all Africans were poor and uneducated tribal people.  The roommate did not know English was Nigeria’s official language, and she was shocked to hear Adichie’s excellent English.     Adichie’s American professor also had a single story about Africa. He believed that Adichie’s characters were not authentically African. In his single story, African authors’ characters should be uneducated and starving; they should not be educated and rich enough to drive cars.  Though Adichie had a happy childhood in a close-knit family, she had also some painful life experiences.  Her grandfathers died in refugee camps. Her cousin Polle died due to lack of enough medical care. Her closest friend Okoloma died in a plane crash.     Finally Adichie says in her speech that single stories create stereotypes, and the stereotypes are not untrue, but they are incomplete. They make a single story the only story.

 

Summary of the lesson 'My Sister's Shoes'

 

My Sister’s Shoes (This is an extract from the script of Majid Majidi’s film ‘Children of Heaven’) Ali receives his sister Zahra’s pink shoes from the cobbler after repairing them. Then he enters a bakery and collects some baked nan, stacks them on a piece of cloth and ties the cloth into a bundle.  After that Ali goes into a vegetable shop, keeps the bundle  of nan on top of a vegetable box, and places the bag of shoes in a gap between two boxes. He collects potatoes; the shop owner Akbar warns Ali that their credit is over the limit. He tells Ali to inform his parents that they should pay some money otherwise they will not get any more vegetable on credit.  Meanwhile a junk collector comes and takes Ali’s bag of shoes thinking that it is junk.  Ali comes out and searches for the bag of shoes, but it is missing. He becomes upset and afraid and searches everywhere frantically. He tumbles vegetable boxes and Akbar gets angry, and he shouts at Ali. Ali runs away, scared.   Ali’s mother is bed-ridden due to a disk fracture.  Ali’s father is a worker on daily wages, but now he does not have work and wages. The family is in poverty.  The mother wants to get recovery from her disk fracture and tells the father about undergoing a surgery. But the father discourages her by saying that the surgery will cripple her. (He talks against the surgery because he does not have money to spend for it.) Ali and Zahra are aware of the bad financial problems of their parents, and they don’t want to give them extra burden of buying a new pair of shoes.  They are afraid that if their parents know about the loss of shoes, they will get punishment. While Ali and Zahra are doing their homework, they write messages in their notebooks and exchange between them. Zahra asks Ali what she will wear to school.  Ali first suggests that she should wear her slippers. Zahra gets angry, and she threatens him that she will tell the father about the missing of shoes. Ali replies that if she tells, their father will beat both of them.  Finally they find a solution that Zahra will wear Ali’s sneakers when he is back from school.

 

SSLC English Exam 2021: Worksheet on Phrasal Verbs

Q1: Match the phrasal verbs in column A with their meanings given in column B.

A		B
1.	make up one’s mind	a.	meet or find by chance
2.	make out	b.	escape
3.	set out	c.	appear; show up; arrive
4.	turn up	d.	abandon; stop making an effort
5.	Put up with	e.	understand
6.	get away	f.	tolerate
7.	give up	g.	make a decision, decide
8.	put across	h.	take care of; protect
9.	look after	i.	explain an idea; convey something
10.	come across	j.	postpone
11.	put on	k.	be shocked or astonished
12.	go on	l.	surrender, yield
13.	be taken aback	m.	remove clothe, etc. (bird, aircraft) begin to fly
14.	give in	n.	continue
15.	take off	o.	wear
16.	put off	p.	decline
17.	let off	q.	recover from, overcome
18.	turn down	r.	release, forgive
19.	get over	s.	arrange something; establish or build
20.	set up	t.	begin a journey; start an activity
21.	put up	u.	Succeed in an exam, competition etc
22.	get through	v.	rise from bed after sleeping
23.	get up	w.	display a notice etc.; construct
24.	get along	x.	to be in a place or situation
25.	end up	y.	make a friendly relation; manage a situation

Phrasal Verb questions from previous SSLC English examinations

Q2: Choose the appropriate phrasal verbs from the ones given and complete the passage given below: (2015, March)

Mother rejected (a) the children’s plea for going out and play.  Finally they were allowed to play within the compound.  They started (b) to play hide and seek.  Ravi hid in a shed and could not understand (c) what was happening outside.  When he came out, other children had abandoned (d) hide and seek and started another game.

Give up

Set out

Turn down

Put on

Make up

Make out

Q 3: Fill in the blanks with the suitable forms of the phrasal verbs from those given below: (2016, March)

The results of the annual exam have been……………(a) on the notice board of the school. Mira reached home and ………….( b) her uniform and ………..(c) to school. She checked the results and informed her classmate Ravi that he had………(d) the exam.

Set off

Get through

Put up

Put on

Put up with

Q 4:  Complete the following passage choosing appropriate phrasal verbs given in the box: (2017, March)

Amal has never been able to ………(a) early from bed. Though his mother set the alarm clock, he simply turned it off and went back to sleep.  Every morning he would…………(b) late to school.   So he…………(c) the class late every day.  Amal knew well that his class teacher would not ……………(d) the situation.

Put up with

Get up

Give up

Put out

Set out

Get into

Q5:  Complete the passage using appropriate phrasal verbs given below (2018, March)

Adolf created some problems in our home.  Our mother couldn’t …………(a) it.  One day Adolf ……………..(b) the curtain-rod with a smash.   We …………(c) our hope to tame him.  Finally we decided to send him away to the wild woods.

Put up with

Gave up

Pulled down

Take off

5. Complete the following passage using the appropriate phrasal verbs from the ones given below: (2019, March)

Vanka tried his level best to………….(a) the torture his master had inflicted on him.  But it was unbearable for him.   He tried to……….(b) this to other apprentices.  But they made fun of him. Then he decided to write a letter to his grandfather hoping he would………(c) the letter and ………(d) the troubles Vanka was facing.

Go through

Put up with

Make out

Put across

6. Complete the following passage using appropriate phrasal verbs from the ones give below. (2020, March)

Aunt Jane thought Jack and Jill were working hard to ….a…..very well in their life.  But she could not ……b……the idea of instalment plans.  She gave them a check and asked them to……c…..one of their bills.  She reminded them that if they didn’t pay their bills, they would………d…..in the streets.

put up with

pay off

end up

get along

taken aback

Answers

A		B
1.	make up one’s mind	a.	make a decision, decide
2.	make out	b.	understand
3.	set out	c.	begin a journey; start an activity
4.	turn up	d.	appear; show up; arrive
5.	Put up with	e.	tolerate
6.	get away	f.	escape
7.	give up	g.	abandon; stop making an effort
8.	put across	h.	explain an idea; convey something
9.	look after	i.	take care of; protect
10.	come across	j.	meet or find by chance
11.	put on	k.	wear
12.	go on	l.	continue
13.	be taken aback	m.	be shocked or astonished
14.	give in	n.	surrender, yield
15.	take off	o.	remove clothe, etc. (bird, aircraft) begin to fly
16.	put off	p.	postpone
17.	let off	q.	release, forgive
18.	turn down	r.	decline; reject
19.	get over	s.	recover from, overcome
20.	set up	t.	arrange something; establish or build
21.	put up	u.	display a notice etc.; construct
22.	get through	v.	Succeed in an exam, competition etc
23.	get up	w.	rise from bed after sleeping
24.	get along	x.	make a friendly relation; manage a situation
25.	end up	y.	to be in a place or situation

Q2: a. turned down  b. set out  c. make out  d. given up

Q3: a. put up  b. put on  c. set out  d. got through

Q4: a. get up  b. set out  c. get into  d. put up with

Q5: a. put up with  b. put across  c. go through  d. make out

Q6: a. get along  b. put up with  c. pay off  d. end up

*********************************