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  Photo: Pixabay Reading A Story of My Childhood Working with words A. Match the words in column ‘A’ with their meanings in column ‘B’. Column 'A'                     Column 'B' a. expectantly   i. clothes, especially fine or formal ones b. beckon             ii. the way food or drink tastes or feels in your mouth c. grapple           iii. the science of the forces involved in movement d. texture        iv. thin and easily torn e. cobbled      v. to try hard to find a solution to a problem f. flimsy        vi. in a way that shows you are hoping for something,                             especially something good or exciting g. attire        vii. having a surface that is made of small round  stones h. m...

  Photo: Investopedia Working with words A. Choose the correct words from the box to complete the following sentences. freight, levitation, gridlock, pneumatic, predecessor, envisioned, equivalent, subsonic, turbulence, deceleration a. I think that covering up the facts is ……………………to lying really. b. If there is not a substantial move to public transport, we will have …………………… and the whole regeneration will not work. c. Each new leader would blame his …………… for all the evils of the past. d. We have, in fact, ………………a better world and have made it happen. e. The main linear actuators of the……………………systems are cylinders. f. The barrel was short and the bullet emerged at……………………speed. g. The city is said to receive two-fifths of the total……………………delivered in the country. h. It would still take four hours to get down, in a spiral of……………………. i. Apparently, the magician will be doing some …………………… on the stage tomorrow. j. We might be experiencing some …………………… on this flight due to an ...

  Photo: nytimes.com Working with words A. Many English words are from other languages, such as redemption in the news above comes from the Latin word redimere, a combination of re(d)-, meaning “back,” and emere, meaning “buy.” Now, find out the origin and the meaning of the following words from the text. Penalty - Latin poenalis "pertaining to punishment" Major - " from Latin maior (earlier *magios), irregular comparative of magnus "large, great"  Stadium - the Latin form of the Greek word "stadion", a measure of length equalling the length of 600 human feet. Trophy - the Greek word tropē, meaning "a turning, defeat of the enemy." Defender - Anglo-French from Old French defendeor, agent noun from defendre (one who protects from injury a champion) Anthem - Old English ontemn, antefn, "a composition (in prose or verse) sung in alternate parts," from Late Latin antefana, from Greek antiphona "verse response" Dejection - dej...

  Photo: Volunteer International Working with words A. Find the words from the text and solve the puzzle. Clues are given below. ACROSS 1. the custom of having more than one wife at the same time 5. to find an acceptable way of dealing with opposing ideas, needs etc. 6. the process in which towns, streets, etc. are built where there was once countryside 7. the process by which somebody learns to behave in an acceptable way in their society DOWN 1. ruled or controlled by men 2. the act of taking over a position 3. done in a way without caring if people are shocked 4. single-parent Answer Key ACROSS 1. Polygamy 2. Conflict 3. Urbanization 4. Socialization   DOWN 1. patriarchy 2. takeover 3. Surprise 4. lone-parent B. Find the meanings of the following family-related words and use them in  your own sentences. 1. Nuclear family - a family group that consists only of parents and children. Sentence: I live in a nuclear family in Kath...

  Photo: Lisa Baruch Know Thyself A. Find the words from the text that match with the following meanings. a. Shuffle ... walking by dragging one's feet along or without lifting them fully from the ground b. Doodle ... drawing pictures or patterns while thinking about something else c. Plaque ... a piece of flat metal with writing on it d. Percepts … a general rule intended to regulate behaviour or thought e. Sneaky ... move or go in a furtive or stealthy way B. Consult your teacher and define the following thinking skills. a. convergent thinking  Convergent Thinking seeks only one correct answer to a problem or a specific situation. It does not need creativity to be able to find solutions, instead, logic and reflection are necessary to find answers to the resolution of conflicts that a person has. In Convergent Thinking, there are no possibilities and different options. Reflecting and carrying out a single answer is what is important b. divergent thinking Divergent think...

A prolific poet, playwright, and critic, Abhi Subedi (1945) has remained one of the eminent personalities in the field of literature in Nepal. Born in Sabla village of Terhathum district, Subedi has written several plays including Dreams of Peach Blossoms (2001) and Fire in the Monastery (2003). Subedi, who taught at the Central Department of English, Tribhuvan University, for around 40 years, has poetry collections like Manas (1974) and Chasing Dreams: Kathmandu Odyssey (1996) and Shabdara Chot (1997) to his credit. In the present poem entitled “Soft Storm,” Subedi, with a touch of compassion, contemplates the absurdities of tumultuous times. I became soft I became soft after I heard the tumult and crashed on the eerie stillness; I inherited the soft when the sky grew like crocuses over stones and became five inches taller that very night when moon skidded down your walls speaking in the language of posters and politics rituals and reasons. I became soft as the softness rose like a ga...

Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872–1970) was a British philosopher, logician, essayist and social critic best known for his work in mathematical logic and analytic philosophy. His most influential contributions include his championing of logicism (the view that mathematics is in some important sense reducible to logic), his refining of Gottlob Frege’s predicate calculus (which still forms the basis of most contemporary systems of logic), his defense of neutral monism (the view that the world consists of just one type of substance which is neither exclusively mental nor exclusively physical), and his theories of definite descriptions, logical atomism and logical types. In this essay, Russell differentiates between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge and wisdom are different things. According to him, knowledge is defined as the acquisition of data and information, while wisdom is defined as the practical application and use of the knowledge to create value. Wisdom is gained through learni...

  About Poet A winner of Man Booker prize for his novel The Famished Road, the Nigerian poet, fiction writer, and essayist Ben Okri (1949-) spent his early childhood in London. Informed by folk tales and dream logic, Okri’s writing also treats his family’s experience of the Nigerian civil war. In an interview for The National, Okri stated, “I grew up in a tradition where there are simply more dimensions to reality: legends and myths and ancestors and spirits and death. You can't use Jane Austen to speak about African reality. Which brings the question: what is reality? Everyone's reality is different. For different perceptions of reality we need a different language.”  A prolific poet and storyteller, Okri, like in his other works, portrays the hardships of the African people in “The Awakening Age”. In addition, he makes a call for unity, peace and solidarity among human beings from different parts of the world. The Poem O ye who travel the meridian line, May the vision of a n...

Born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, Julia de Burgos (1914-1953) moved to New York, where she worked as a journalist, and then Cuba, where she pursued further studies at the University of Havana. Returning to New York after two years in Cuba, de Burgos, a freedom fighter, served as the art and culture editor for the progressive newspaper Pueblos Hispanos. Predating the Nuyorican poetry movement, de Burgos’ poems deal with themes of women’s liberation and social justice. A precursor to the contemporary Latina/o writers, de Burgos, in her poem “I was my Own Route,” depicts how the women are burdened with the patriarchal ideologies from the past. Therefore, de Burgos urges the women to detach themselves from the past so as to locate their identity within. The Poem I wanted to be like men wanted me to be: an attempt at life; a game of hide and seek with my being. But I was made of nows, and my feet level on the promissory earth would not accept walking backwards and went forward, forward, mockin...

  Prof. Yuval Noah Harari is a historian, philosopher, and the bestselling author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, and Sapiens: A Graphic History. He is a Co-founder of Sapienship, a multidisciplinary organization advocating for global responsibility whose mission is to clarify the public conversation, support the quest for solutions and focus attention on the most important challenges facing the world today. He is now a lecturer in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  Harari exemplifies the virtue of humility in that he debunks humanity’s illusions of superiority and mastery. He claims morality, art, spirituality, and creativity are universal human abilities embedded in our DNA.

  About Author Samuel Moyn is Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Professor of Law and Professor of History at Harvard University. In 2010, he published The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History and his most recent book is Christian Human Rights. His areas of interest in legal scholarship include international law, human rights, the law of war, and legal thought, in both historical and current perspectives. In intellectual history, he has worked on a diverse range of subjects, especially twentieth-century European moral and political theory. He has written several books in his fields of European intellectual history and human rights history. His book Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World (2018) is the most recent work. He is currently working on a new book on the origins and significance of the humane war for Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Over the years he has written in venues such as Boston Review, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Dissent, The Nation, The New Republic, the New York Times, ...

Bhimnidhi Tiwari (1911-1973) is a well-known poet, story writer, and dramatist from Nepal. An ardent social reformer, Tiwari established Nepal Natak Sangh (Nepal Drama Society) in 1949. Through this organization, he promoted the Nepali plays by staging plays and encouraging the Nepali writers to write plays. In order to sustain this organization, he also wrote plays like Matoko Maya, Shilanyas, and Sahansheela Sushila, among others. Tiwari won Madan Puraskar for literature in 1970. Characters Ranabahadur Shah - The king, 23 years Laxminarayan Dahal (Jaisi) - Subedar with Samarjug Company, bichari of the Ita Chapali court, and bull doctor, around 40 years Jitman - Cowherd Gore - Cowherd Setting Place - Yard Time - Dawn Month - Ashwin (V.S. 1854) The Play It was the late eighteenth century. Ranabahadur Shah, the grandson of Prithvi Narayan Shah, was the king of Nepal. Ranabahadur Shah was fond of bulls. In his one-act play “The Bull,” Bhimnidhi Tiwari dramatizes an incident related to Ra...

  Johan August Strindberg (1849–1912) was a Swedish writer, playwright, and painter. Ranked among Sweden's most important authors, his works fall into two major literary movements, Naturalism and Expressionism. His theater tries to create a perfect illusion of reality through detailed sets, an unpoetic literary style that reflects the way real people speak, and a style of acting that tries to recreate reality. Miss Julie (1888), Facing Death (1892), A Dream Play (1902), and The Ghost Sonata (1907) are some of his notable plays. In Facing Death, Strindberg dramatizes a heroic sacrifice made by a bankrupt man for the sake of his daughters.

Widely regarded as Hungary’s most celebrated and controversial playwright, Ferenc Molnár’s (1878–1952) primary aim was to entertain people by transforming his personal experiences into literary works of art. Out of his many plays, The Devil (1907), Lilion (1909), The Guardsman (1910), The Swan (1920), and The Play’s the Thing (1926) endure as classics. He immigrated to the United States to escape the persecution of Hungarian Jews during World War II and later adopted American citizenship. Molnár’s plays continue to be relevant and are performed all over the world. Published in 1923, A Matter of Husband sheds light on the basic function of actors: to make the audience believe in the illusion. Characters FAMOUS ACTRESS (who is having an affair with the man who is a lawyer of her manager) EARNEST YOUNG WOMAN (She goes to the famous actress demanding her husband back) EARNEST YOUNG WOMAN'S HUSBAND (short role but he is the central issue in the play) Setting  Place The scene is a dra...

  About Poet Born in Swansea, Wales, Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) is famous for his acutely lyrical and emotional poetry. Thomas can be seen as an extension into the 20th century of the general movement called Romanticism, that flourished in the nineteenth century Englnad, particularly in its emphasis on imagination, emotion, intuition, spontaneity, and organic form. Considered to be one of the greatest Welsh poets of all time, Thomas is largely known for his imaginative use of language and vivid imagery in his poems. He started working for BBC in 1945. Under Milk Wood (1953), a radio play, was written over a long period of time during the last months of his life. It is set in a small Welsh town called Llareggub and covers one day in the lives of its provincial characters. Poem “Every Morning I Wake” is an extract from Under the Milk Wood. In this poem, Thomas prays to the magnificent God to have mercy on ordinary inhabitants living under the Milk Wood. Every morning when I wake, Dear ...

 About Poet One of the most eminent American poets from the nineteenth century, Emily Dickinson’s (1830-1886) poetry was heavily influenced by the Metaphysical poets of seventeenth-century England, as well as her reading of the Book of Revelation and her upbringing in a Puritan New England town. These upbringings inculcated in her Calvinist, orthodox, and conservative approach to Christianity. Dickinson and Walt Whitman are considered the founders of a uniquely American poetic voice. While Dickinson was extremely prolific as a poet her regularly enclosed poems in letters to friends she was not publicly recognized during her lifetime. However, she has been steadily gaining popularity through her posthumously published poems. Poem In her poem “A Day”, Dickinson, through the use of brilliant imageries and symbols, describes a beautiful day that leads the children from innocence to experience.  ‘A Day’ by Emily Dickinson is a lyrical poem describing sunrise and sunset. In a metaph...

Photo: Nepal Kameleon Holidays ( www.nepalkameleonholidays.com ) About Author Shankar Lamichhane (1928-1975) was born in Kathmandu but lived in Banaras with his uncle at a young age. After receiving college education at Tri-Chandra College in Kathmandu, he took his first job at the age of twenty-two and worked for a number of governmental and cultural institutions in the capital. In his later years, he became the manager of a handicrafts store. Lamichhane was an admirer of modern American fiction and frequently mixed with foreign visitors to Nepal. His stories are heavy with symbolism, often lacking a conventional plot and more closely resembling essays, but his prose is rich and poetic. This story is taken from Himalayan Voices: An Introduction to Nepali Literature, translated and edited by Michael Hutt. About Story The story deals with the monologues of two characters a tourist guide in Kathmandu valley and a foreign tourist. The story is different from conventional stories and, inst...

  Image: The Guardian About Author Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927-2014) was a Colombian-born Spanish American journalist, novelist, and short-story writer. He is regarded as the literary volcano of the nineteen sixties and an exponent of a new narrative style known as magical realism. His novel One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) is taken as a classical example of magical realism. Marquez is one of the best novelists of world literature and perhaps the best in Spanish literature. For many readers, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and magical realism as synonymous with each other. Magical Realism is a mode of narrative in which real and fantastic, natural and supernatural, are coherently represented in a state of equivalence. Marquez’s other best-known novels are No One Writes to the Colonel (1961), Love in the Time of Cholera (1985), and Memories of my Melancholy Whores (2004). The story ‘A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings’ was first published in 1955. About Story ‘A Very Old Man with Enormou...

About Author Lu Xun (1881-1936) is the pen name of the writer born Zhou Shuren. He was born to a family with a strong Confucian background. His grandfather served as a high official in Beijing, and his father was also a scholar. Lu Xun has been considered China's greatest writer in the 20th century. He was a short story writer, essayist, and translator who is commonly considered the ‘father of modern Chinese literature.’ Known for his satirical observations of early 20th-century Chinese society, he is celebrated as a pioneer of modern vernacular Chinese literature and was one of the most important thinkers of his time. His popular novels and short story collections include A Madman's Diary (1918), Kong Yiji (1918), Medicine (1919), Tomorrow (1920), An Incident (1920), The Story of Hair (1920), A Storm in a Teacup (1920), Hometown (1921). The story ‘My Old Home’ is taken from the short story collection Hometown. About Story Lu Xun- a young master and the narrator, who went out ...