MOCK TEST- MATHS FEEDBACK

THREE MEN IN A BOAT 1

MAJOR TOPICS

River represents life. It is the central theme of the novel. The entire series of events in the novel either takes place on the river or revolve around it. The three men decide to take up a boating holiday up the river Thames considering that they would have “fresh air, exercise and quiet”.

Human life flows like a river, going through various beautiful as well as vile stages. Similarly, their trip up the river serves as a frame for the novel that calls for numerous anecdotes, funny incidents and misadventures. The river holds and binds all these together providing unity to the novel.

HISTORY

 The book was initially intended to be a serious travel guide; and, the numerous references to the places of historical importance indicate the same. The narrator also makes tongue-in-cheek comments with reference to Queen Elizabeth, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.

The narrator muses on the chivalrous days of the knights and the maidens. He speculates over the numerous historical figures associated with the towns and villages that they pass through. He comments on the history of Kingston and Marlow, considers Caesar to be a respectable man and ridicules the public behaviour of Queen Elizabeth. The author even brings in the context of the famous Hampton Court which became the palace of the Tudors and the Stuarts. Long passages have been devoted to the descriptions of King John. He speaks of the town of Staines where barons assembled before they met King John at Runningmede in 1215.

Thus, the novel becomes a form of historical guide that builds up in the course of the three friends sailing through the Thames.

NATURE

The narrator is fond of natural beauty. There are a number of philosophic and sentimental passages where J muses on the beauty of nature. The novel gives long descriptions of the scenic beauty of Kingston. The scenes of Kingston are described in a picturesque manner as “so bright but calm, so full of life and yet so peaceful.”

He considers sailing a task that makes one a part of Nature. He says, “Your spirit is at one with hers; your limbs grow light! The voices of the air are singing to you.”

In a very arresting tone, he praises the natural beauty of the night that one could feel while camping out. He finds solace in the calm of the night as “Night’s heart is full of pity for us.”

HUMOUR

With the turning of the most casual and ordinary instances of life into funny incidences, humour becomes the essence of the novel. The human weaknesses have been ridiculed in a very light hearted and amusing way.

The jokes seem still as fresh, amusing and topical as they were in the Victorian age. They manage to raise a laugh because of their universal appeal to the readers. In fact, the novel was meant to be a serious travel guide; however, its humorous element turned it into a well-written comic novel.

The added incidents, comic set-pieces, experiences and anecdotes from the three friends make the reader laugh louder. The agony of putting up a tent in bad weather conditions, the craving for mustard, uncle Podger’s episode, description of the unreliability of the barometers, the story of the two drunken men sliding into the same bed in the dark, the making of the Irish stew, the story about the trout etc are things that the common man can easily relate to. All the misadventures that they go through are depicted in an extremely funny manner.

FRIENDSHIP

The book is all about the three friends. The three men totally differ in their approaches, attitudes and opinion. Still, they manage to make the best of the trip. The book depicts a solid rapport between the three even though, at most of the times, they disagree with each other. Unity in diversity is also hinted throughout the novel as the three go through their journey on the river representing that of life.

THREE MEN IN A BOAT 2

                                                                   

                                                                      Character Sketches

J, the narrator, represents a simple middle-class Englishman who is hypochondriac. He believes that he is suffering from innumerable diseases and ailments caused by ‘overwork’.

He is a man of decent dressing sense with an inclination towards ‘taste in colours.’ J has a fondness for water and water-related activities like boating, rafting and rowing. He narrates numerous anecdotes, comic set-pieces and funny incidents from his memory that add to the humour in the novel. He finds humour even in the most ordinary and casual things of life.

He has a great love for history and nature which is reflected in his descriptions of the scenic beauty and historical significance of the places that they pass through. He is fond of liveliness and dislikes the ‘dim and chilly’ churchyards and tombs. He is critical towards what is considered a piece of art. According to him, the frivolous scraps of today become the antique pieces of tomorrow. He contemplates on human nature by ridiculing man’s weaknesses. He says “Each person has what he doesn’t want, and other people have what he does want.”

J possesses a very funny idea of work. He is a workaholic, as work ‘fascinates’ him. He loves to accumulate work and this has become a passion for him. He prides himself on his art of preservation of work. Yet, he is fair to himself and does not ask for more than his proper share.

                                                            Harris

Harris’s character is based on author’s real life friend, Carl Hentschel. Harris is a carefree man who has a fondness for drinking. He behaves in a weird manner after drinking too much but has no clue about it the next day.

Harris is a man who is overconfident about almost everything.  However, he eventually turns out to be a failure with the things he considers himself to be expert at. Harris’ account of his visit to the Hampton court maze serves as one of the most humorous one in the book. He claims to be a very good cook but eventually messes up the dish and even burns himself. Harris loves music and believes that he is very good at singing comic songs. But the fact is that he messes them up as he forgets the lyrics and confuses the pianist. However, in their discussions on whether to camp out or not, it is Harris who makes a sensible point by counting the difficulties one would face while camping on rainy and stormy nights. According to him, one faces several difficulties as the things that one carries get damp.

Like J, Harris too has an unusual attitude towards work. He has the tendency of taking the burden of the work on his shoulders and then passing the buck to other people. Unlike J, Harris takes delight in graves, tombs and monumental inscriptions. He goes mad to see the Mrs. Thomas’s tomb. He even mentions that he has come for the trip so that he could get to see Mrs. Thomas’ tomb.

                                                       George

                                                             The character of George is based on the author’s real life friend, George Wingrave. George works at a bank. It is he who comes up with the idea of a boating trip after dismissing the options provided by the other two of taking up a sea-trip and staying at countryside.

George joins the other two men on the trip later, up-river at Weybridge. He brings along a banjo and expresses his desire to learn to play it. Later, when George plays the instrument and starts, the three get mournful and the dog howls. George could never get to learn to play a banjo as he was discouraged by his landlady and his neighbourhood. He was even barred from playing it for six months.

George is quite practical in his approach. At every crucial moment, he comes up with a pragmatic solution. He comes forth as a sensible person as he suggests not carrying unnecessary items on the boat as it only overloads the boat. Also, he recommends not taking cheese along. But, he is considered to be quite lazy by Harris. According to Harris, George fools about all day and wastes time sitting ‘behind a bit of glass’ in the bank. 

Later in the novel, when the weather conditions become worse, George does not consider it to be wise to stay back in the boat and offers a sensible solution of boarding a train from Pangbourne.

                                                    Montmorency

Unlike the three human characters that are taken from real life, Montmorency is entirely fictional. He represents ‘inner consciousnesses’. According to J, he is an angel too good for this world but is somehow kept back from the mankind.

Montmorency is J’s pet dog. He is of a fox-terrier breed and this makes it nearly impossible to train him to be gentler. He is generally of violent nature and is fond of noise and action. He does not take delight in ‘romantic solitude’. It is only he who is not happy with the idea of the boating trip. He feels that there is nothing to do for him on a boat trip as he neither cares for scenery nor smoking. He believes the idea of boating to be a ‘bally foolishness.’

Montmorency is keen on being a ‘perfect nuisance’ and to make people go mad at him. His ambition in life is to be ‘sworn at’ and be cursed. He feels proud after achieving such ambitions. He spoils the task of packing as he creates mess by putting his leg into the jam, worrying teaspoons and playing with the lemons.

His encounter with the cat named Tom is one of the most amusing episodes in the novel. He could not act violently and surrendered to the gentleness of the cat. Another amusing incident is related to the kettle about which has been curious throughout the trip. But on burning his nose, he regarded it with a mixture of awe, suspicion, and hate.

                                                                 Mrs. Poppets

   Mrs. Poppets is J’s housekeeper. George, Harris and the narrator decide to wake up at half-past six in the morning to get ready for the trip. But nobody is able to wake up on time. It is Mrs. Poppets who wakes them up at 9.00 a.m. without which they would have got late in leaving for Waterloo.

                                                                          Uncle Podger

A funny character carved out by the author, Uncle Podger is J’s uncle. J believes that the habits of Harris and his uncle are quite similar.

Uncle Podger is a messy and forgetful being. Like Harris, Uncle Podger too takes charge of a task only to delegate it to people around him and later blame its failure on them. Uncle Podger engages everyone present in the house to get him things he required to hang a picture on the wall. He asks them to hold the chair, lift the picture, search for his coat etc. Though everybody runs from one corner to the other and follow his instructions, he still taunts them and shouts at them. Even for nailing a nail in the wall, he would take hours and still mess things up. Thus, his account in the book is highly amusing and one of the most memorable one. The description of commotion that he creates in the house in order to get a trivial task done is really funny.

GAP FILLING (SOLVED)

                                         GAP FILLING (SOLVED)

Q. The woods here (a)_______________ lovely, dark and deep, and the greenery is enchanting. It is the picturesque Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park, which (b)_______________ over 153 acres of land. Founded (c)_______________ 1969 on 34 acres of land, it (d)_______________ initially a botanical garden and home to an exciting variety of trees, herbs and shrubs. 

a) i) are                   ii)      were         iii)      was                 iv) has been 

b) i) is extending     ii) extends          iii) have extended      iv) has extended

c) i) from                 ii) since              iii) in                         iv) on

d) i) is                     ii) had been        iii) were                    iv) was

HOW TO SOLVE:

If we try to solve the blank (a) first, we can notice that the sentence can be divided in two parts, joined with the connector ‘and’. The first part talks about the ‘woods’ while the second part talks about ‘greenery’. Since, the verb in second part of the sentence is in the present tense, the verb in the first part of the sentence should also be in the present tense. Hence, options (ii) and (iii) cannot be correct. Moreover, the tense here should be present simple. So, option (iv) becomes incorrect. As we have eliminated all the other three options, we must be left with only the correct option, i.e., option (i).

For blank (b), we can notice that the sentence is in present indefinite tense. Thus, the answer should be a verb form in the same tense. Now, it is easy to note that option (i), (iii) and (iv) are either in present continuous or present perfect form. So, they cannot be the correct replacement for the blank. Therefore, the correct answer is given by option (ii), which is the simple present form of the verb ‘extend’, used here with the singular subject 'It'.

The last sentence indicates an action that talks about the past. As the preposition ‘in’ is used to show the year or month in which the action was completed, option (iii) gives the correct preposition for blank (c).

The last sentence reveals something about the past. Therefore, the answer has to be a verb in its past-tense form. Since option (i) is in the present tense, it cannot be the correct answer. The verb given in option (iii) is incorrect as doesn't agree with the singular subject 'it'. Although the verbs in both option (ii) and option (iv) are in their past forms, the former is in its past perfect form. Since the past perfect tense is used when a relative condition of the past is described, option (ii) cannot be the correct answer. Hence, the correct answer is the one given by option (iv). 

Answer:

(a) i      (b) ii      (c) iii      (d) iv

SENTENCE TRANSFORMATION/DIALOGUE CONVERSION (SOLVED) Q1. Read the conversation given below. Complete the report that follows on the basis of the conversation. Father: Are you going somewhere? Son: I am going to buy a gift for my friend. It is his birthday tomorrow. Father: Okay. What have you decided to buy for him? Son: I saw him upset over his broken cricket bat. So, I think a cricket bat would be the best gift for him. Father asked his son (a)_________________________. The son answered that (b)_________________________ as it (c)_________________________. On being asked what he had decided to buy for his friend, he replied that (d)_________________________ and so he thought a cricket bat would be the best gift for him. HOW TO SOLVE: This question primarily tests the knowledge of the rules of conversion from direct to indirect (or reported) speech. In reported speech, a verb in present continuous tense changes to its past continuous form. So, blanks (a) and (b) will have to be filled with past continuous tense. Since, the pronouns also change according to the subject of the sentence, the pronouns ‘you’ and ‘I’ will change to ‘he’. Thus, 'if he was going somewhere' fits blank (a) while 'he was going to buy a gift for his friend' fits blank (b). In reported speech, present tense changes to past tense. So, for blank (c) ‘is’ will change to ‘was’. As the expressions of time also undergo a change in reported speech, ‘tomorrow’ will change to ‘the next day’. Thus, 'was his birthday the next day' fits the third blank. A verb in its past simple form changes to its past perfect form in reported speech. So, ‘saw’ will change to ‘had seen’. Since the pronouns also change according to the subject of the sentence, the pronouns ‘I’ will change to ‘he’. Thus, 'he had seen him upset over his broken cricket bat' fills the last blank appropriately. Answer: (a) if he was going somewhere (b) he was going to buy a gift for his friend (c) was his birthday the next day (d) he had seen him upset over his broken cricket bat Q2. On the basis of the public messages and newspaper headlines given below, complete the sentences that follow. a) NO SMOKING Smoking inside the airport premises _________________________. b) PLEASE FILL UP THE FORM You _________________________ fill up the form to register for the course. c) RAINFALL PREDICTED India Meteorological Department (IMD) _________________________a 14mm rainfall over the weekend in Delhi. d) HUNDREDS KILLED IN PLANE CRASH More than three hundred people _________________________ when a passenger plane _________________________ on the runway in Mangalore airport. HOW TO SOLVE: a) The sentence has to be in present tense as it is a public notice. Hence, the verb form of ‘to be’ has to be added. As the subject ‘smoking’ is in singular form, the verb also has to be singular. Thus, the verb ‘is’ will be used. Now, we need to think of an appropriate verb. Thus, we can use either 'is prohibited' or 'is not allowed' to fill the blank. b) The sentence has to be in the present tense as it is an instruction where time is not indicated. Hence, the verb form of ‘to be’ will be used. The pronoun ‘you’ takes the plural form of the verb ‘to be’. Thus, ‘are’ will be used here. Since, the message is in the form of a request (as indicated by the word 'please'), the word ‘requested’ along with the preposition ‘to’ will be added. Thus, a phrase that replaces the blank appropriately can be 'are requested to'. c) The newspaper headline suggests that a prediction has been made about rainfall in Delhi. In this blank, the verb will take its present perfect form. Thus, the answer will be ‘has predicted’. d) Since the headline reports an incident of the past, the blanks will take the past forms of the verbs used. Thus, the first blank will either be filled with ‘were killed’ or ‘died’ and the subsequent blank will be filled with the verb ‘crashed’. Answer: a) is not permissible b) are requested to c) has predicted d) were killed/died, crashed

                        SENTENCE TRANSFORMATION/DIALOGUE CONVERSION

                                                      (SOLVED)

        Q1. Read the conversation given below. Complete the report that follows on the basis of the conversation.

Father: Are you going somewhere?
Son: I am going to buy a gift for my friend. It is his birthday tomorrow.
Father: Okay. What have you decided to buy for him?
Son: I saw him upset over his broken cricket bat. So, I think a cricket bat would be the best gift for him.

Father asked his son (a)_________________________. The son answered that (b)_________________________ as it (c)_________________________. On being asked what he had decided to buy for his friend, he replied that (d)_________________________ and so he thought a cricket bat would be the best gift for him.

HOW TO SOLVE:

This question primarily tests the knowledge of the rules of conversion from direct to indirect (or reported) speech. 

In reported speech, a verb in present continuous tense changes to its past continuous form. So, blanks (a) and (b) will have to be filled with past continuous tense. Since, the pronouns also change according to the subject of the sentence, the pronouns ‘you’ and ‘I’ will change to ‘he’. 

Thus, 'if he was going somewhere' fits blank (a) while 'he was going to buy a gift for his friend' fits blank (b). 

In reported speech, present tense changes to past tense. So, for blank (c) ‘is’ will change to ‘was’. As the expressions of time also undergo a change in reported speech, ‘tomorrow’ will change to ‘the next day’. Thus, 'was his birthday the next day' fits the third blank.

A verb in its past simple form changes to its past perfect form in reported speech. So, ‘saw’ will change to ‘had seen’. Since the pronouns also change according to the subject of the sentence, the pronouns ‘I’ will change to ‘he’. Thus, 'he had seen him upset over his broken cricket bat' fills the last blank appropriately.

Answer: 

(a)    if he was going somewhere
(b) he was going to buy a gift for his friend
(c) was his birthday the next day
(d) he had seen him upset over his broken cricket bat

 Q2. On the basis of the public messages and newspaper headlines given below, complete the sentences that follow. 

a) NO SMOKING

Smoking inside the airport premises _________________________.

b) PLEASE FILL UP THE FORM

You _________________________ fill up the form to register for the course.

c) RAINFALL PREDICTED

India Meteorological Department (IMD) _________________________a 14mm rainfall over the weekend in Delhi.

d) HUNDREDS KILLED IN PLANE CRASH

More than three hundred people _________________________ when a passenger plane _________________________ on the runway in Mangalore airport.

HOW TO SOLVE:

a) The sentence has to be in present tense as it is a public notice. Hence, the verb form of ‘to be’ has to be added. As the subject ‘smoking’ is in singular form, the verb also has to be singular. Thus, the verb ‘is’ will be used. Now, we need to think of an appropriate verb. Thus, we can use either 'is prohibited' or 'is not allowed' to fill the blank.

b) The sentence has to be in the present tense as it is an instruction where time is not indicated. Hence, the verb form of ‘to be’ will be used. The pronoun ‘you’ takes the plural form of the verb ‘to be’. Thus, ‘are’ will be used here. Since, the message is in the form of a request (as indicated by the word 'please'), the word ‘requested’ along with the preposition ‘to’ will be added. Thus, a phrase that replaces the blank appropriately can be 'are requested to'.

c) The newspaper headline suggests that a prediction has been made about rainfall in Delhi. In this blank, the verb will take its present perfect form. Thus, the answer will be ‘has predicted’.

d) Since the headline reports an incident of the past, the blanks will take the past forms of the verbs used. Thus, the first blank will either be filled with ‘were killed’ or ‘died’ and the subsequent blank will be filled with the verb ‘crashed’.
 

Answer: 

a) is not permissible
b) are requested to
c) has predicted
d) were killed/died, crashed

FEEDBACK OF MOCK SA2 ENGLISH

                                                                    

                                                                          

                                                                    

                                        General Feed back for further preparation

Writing Section

(A)   Notice Writing- 1. Don’t forget to write name of the place after institution’s name. (if name of the place is not mentioned in the question, write XYZ city)

2.       Write the notice writer’s name first and designation below.

3.       Notice should be written neatly on a FRESH/NEW page without any cuttings or overwriting. Pl. draw a box to write the notice.

4.       All important information should be written as bullet points.

(B)Formal Letter/Letter to editor-    1.Sender’s address (‘FROM’ ADD.) to be written first and Receiver’s Add to be written below that.

2. If Addresses are not given in the question, you will have to create appropriate Addresses.

IMPORTANT NOTE :      Please prepare all the FORMATS thoroughly from the master note book or the blog.

Grammar Section

Practice transformation question(dialogue conversion) more from sample exercises.

Literature Section    Read all your lessons thoroughly.

OTBA    Divide your answers into 3 paragraphs. PARA 1: Introduction   PARA2: Explanation, expansion of ideas with examples, Analysis of data, Comparison   PARA 3:  Conclusion, Message

HINDI SA-2 SYLLABUS