Bihar Board Class 12th English Important Questions English 50 Marks Long Answer Type Prose Section are the best resource for students which helps in revision.
Bihar Board Class 12th English 50 Marks Important Long Answer Questions Prose Section
Question 1.
Discuss the essay that deal with practical affairs of life,
Answer:
In our anthology, there are three essay that deal specifically with practical affairs of life. They are Good Manners, On Letter Writing, and ‘os-getting. Good Manners is a very valuable essay. It is in the young age that the foundation of life is laid down. And when we go through the essay we understand why politeness, courteous behavior, gentle tale and etiquette should be observed.
J.C. Hill, the author of the piece, gives many examples from real life to show how personal weakness of weakness and discomfort taught one to be respectful to older people and be caring about them. For instance, there was a robust young man who became weak after an attack of influenza.
He found it painful to see young men sitting comfortably when he and a few elderly persons remained standing. When he got back his strength he used to vacate his seat for and old person because he could bear a little discomfort. In buses and trains one should always be extra caring about older people.
On Letter Writing is another valuable piece. In our own age letters have become obsolete. But writing letters to superiors of friends gives a person not only an opportunity to express oneself but also teaches him what should be communicated, what should not be and what should be the inoffensive mode of communication. There are many people who just cannot think of what to write about.
For them A.G. Gardiner has a simple advise-letter writing has a personal note. You must write to your mother sister or a friend about your present state of affairs as if you were really talking to them. Forgetting;s als0 full of practical things about memory. Generally, people are worried about their habit of forgetting; they are amazed at the powerful memory of others.
But forgetting, A.G Gradiner tells us forgetting is very natural. One cannot and should not force one’s mind to remember all. It is quite natural for a person to forget where he put away his cap, spectacles or umbrella. Absentmindedness is a virtue which enables us to remember only the most important facts and details. To remember all is to become a machine.
Question 2.
How, according to CEM Joad, is a modem civilization different from old ones?
Answer:
In his thought-provoking essay, Our own civilization, C.E.M. Joad has presented a nice analysis of the modem civilization which is quite different from old one.
The first point of difference between the modem civilization and the old ones is in the use of such gadgets and machines that have made our domestic and outdoor lives quite comfortable. For instance, a man simply has to switch on a system be which water for his bath can be heated or a safety razor can be made to shave.
Water for tea can also be heated in an electric Kettle. This power supply has led to use to a number of machines with the help of which domestic chores can be performed without much effort. Everything takes place in an easy manner and can be monitored well. This puts a working man woman in a frame of mind in which he can ready himself quite in a pleasant manner.
Information of the nation and the world comes in the form of newspapers to which communication has been sent by telephone or teleprinter. Printing is also easier because of powerful machines that can print copies in large number.
In office also more work can be done because of the help provided by new gadgets.
The instructions of the boss of a company are put down in shorthand, typed, corrected and sent to all important places with the help of teleprinters.
Means of travelling have sufficiently multiplied to offer men a number of choices. One can travel by train or air and can cover long distance in a short time. In this way, the modem civilization has provided men with such tools that have increased their efficiency and reach.
Question 3.
How is order and safety vital for the survival of modern civilization? ‘
Answer:
After noting down the positive features of the modem civilization, C.E.M. Joad refers to an important factor that has contributed to its growth. He says that maintenance of order and safety has played a large role in the building up of the modem civilization.
Since thing are to be manufactured in large quantity and on a large scale, it is needed that the manufactures and suppliers operate in an atmosphere of safety. A scientist must work in a safe location where he can concentrate on work without fear of burglars or robbers.
All this has been possible because of better maintenance of law and order. Every government in the world sees to it that its citizens and professionals live and more about in a state of safety.
This safety extends to patients also. Surgery is done with the help of an aesthesia, the drugs that temporarily dull a part of body or make a person unconscious for a short duration. Without such a disappearance of pain that takes place in such a condition, it would have been impossible to save the lives of men and women who suffer serious injuries.
C.E.M. Joad therefore gives credit to the political movements in the early years of the twentieth century that led to a revolution in the world of law-making. All important areas of civic life have been brought under the purview . of law. Man has been provided guaranteess of life and provided that enable him to devote his energies towards constructive work and research.
Question 4.
Summarize the experiences that Stephen Leacock had with the photographer.
Answer:
This essay was written by Stephen Leacock when photography was in its infancy and very crude methods were adopted for all its stages-taking the photograph, developing it and making it more attractive.
The writer begins with his entry into a studio. A Thin, weak person, who was the photographer, made him wait in the reception room where the atmosphere was quite dull. To pass his time the Writer turned his attention to glossy magazines lying on the table. There were many of them. The writer – passed an hour in this without getting a call from the photographer.
At last the photographer signalled to his to came inside. The interior was a dark room. He made the writer sit on a stool. He then tried to look at him through the lens of the camera. He then remembered that he had not opened the windows.
After allowing a little light to enter into the room he again busied himself, this time, in so adjusting the angle of the writer’s face that it could make better impression. But he hurt the writer physically and mentally by making long remarks on his features-mouth, ear, eyes, everything that matters in a photography.
The worst scene occurred when the writer went for the delivery of the photograph. He found that the phtograph virtually bore nor resemblance to his face. Every featured had been attered or retouched in the name of giving a finished look. The essay in actually a catologuing of the mannerism and whims of the old-school photographers. They pretended that they were providing a better look to men and women by their camera.
Question 5.
What is the importance of good manners in life ?
Answer:
A very important fact of life is that no man is entirely alone. He is at home, at school or college, in office, in a bus or a train. Since he is interacting with people at all times he needs to adjust his behaviour with others. The value of good manners is herein this sphere of man’s interaction with others.
A man must show politeness and courtesy towards other and follow etiquette. If he does not do this he may annoy other, hurt their feelings and may be himself treated badly.
The author says that speaking truth blantly can also hurt others. For instance, if somebody asks your whether you will be taking a route to post office he does not expect to hear your walking plans. He is actually requesting you to a post a letter. In the same ways no body can say that the weather is not good in response to ‘Good morning.’
Our polite behaviour to our elders restores their self-respect. We do not realize that our teachers and parents have, to sacrifice a lot to make our life pleasant and comfortable. It is our duty, therefore; to be sensitive to their needs and even their moods. In case they are corrs with us, it would not do not retaliate with them.
Good manners create an environment in which we can work pleasantly anywhere. Therefore we must not simply cultivate good skills, we must be careful in learning all that makes good manners at different places. Manners will vary at home and in office, in a bus or in a cinema hall. And we must learn the nuances that characterize good manners in different situations.
Question 6.
What factors produce good manners?
Answer:
According to J.C. Hill, the writer good manners come from having sympathy with others and from understanding of our own limitations. Of the two sources that he has cited one is moral and the other is philosophical. We fell sympathy for others on the basis of imagination. A man is in trouble.
On seeing we have sympathy for him because our mind induces in us the feeling that we can be similar trouble. As we would expect kindness and good behaviour from others, it is necessary that we should show the same towards other. Sympathy is thus a chief sources of good manners. We cannot be rude to others once we realize that we would not like to be treated in as rude manner by anyone.
The second source is the understanding of our limitations. A man of true understanding know that he is not perfect. He may have certain good things and qualities but this does not entitle him to underestimate the goodness of other. Once we are conscious that the person we are with at a given moment has the propensities and expectations that we have we cannot be in civil to h im. This is a philosophical view of the world.
Instead of finding defects and weaknesses in others we should see our image in them-an image that has a number of deficiencies. This understanding inclimes us to adopt a human approach towards the others of which good manners are a necessary part. Good manners are thus not born of memorizing a set of rules but of a view of life that has an ethical and philosophical aspect.
Question 7.
What, according to the author, are the commonest forms of forgetfulness? Why does the author say absent-mindedness may be a virtue?
Answer:
In all personal essays there is more of a humorous account of situations than a objective study of it. Robert Lynd also take his readers to a humorous account of the results of forgetting. His purpose is not to present a psychological study of the phenomenon.
Forgetting is a common lapse of memory, connected with persons, immediate happenings, it can be very personal. That is a person’s mind will be selective in its memory as well as in its lapse-a man is prone to forget certain spellings, certain words, certain numbers, certain faces and so on in all such situation he is likely to expose himself to all sorts of embarrassment to himself and others.
Robert Lynd gives certain personal examples to underline this embarrassment. The anecdotes he has selected are all highly enjoyable, narrated is a style in which every word or turn of phrase contributes to the humorous effect. Incidentally it should be brone in mind that this humour and it is true not merely of Roberts Lynd but of all personal essayists-tries no to make us laugh but to chuckle. The intention is actually to view human situation and nature satirically. Again, this satire is not critical. It is only a comic view of things, so to speak.
Shorn of all serious purpose the short essay makes a delightful reading. At moments it appears that the writer virtually enjoys this lapse of memory as it j enables him to respond to various social affairs-particularly those which are V hot to his taste and temperament-in a way that lessens his pain.
Narrated in a series of anecdotes, sometimes quite unrelated, it is a very careful efforts to put chaos into some order. Robert Lynd holds a distinguished place among writers write effortlessly. The simple diction sustains the interest of the reader, makes the ideas intelligible and creates a flavor of relaxation and enjoyment.
In a world that is getting so dreary and painful there is great importance of such writing that enables as to relish the odd sides of our day- to-day life. The writer’s wish is quite noble her -instead of sermonizing, he ^ chooses the stand of an observer to whom our trivialities are perfectly visible.
There is no purpose of reform, nor of Sermonising. The aim of the essayists is to merely let us share with him a scene in its comic details.
The total effect of the essay is to present the act of forgetting from a comic angle so that we could take it easily and continue to indulge in it to presence the normally of our mind.
Question 8.
Why do some people have difficulty in writing letters?
Answer:
Although the age of letter writing is actually over in this age of mobile phones and short message services, it is interesting to read A.G. Gardiner’s account of the history of the letter-writing – its glorious phase as well as its decline.
He begins with a scene of leave-taking of two brothers, both of whom admit to experience difficulty in writing letters. This leads the writer to comment on the causes that lead to difficulty. Generally, people thick that a letter must have a serous content. But it is a wrong notion. Letters should be full of intimate personal details that we ordinarily share with our brothers, friends, mother and sometimes even with our authoritative father.
If only a person could describe the atmosphere and the mood at his writing time he could finish off with a nice letter through a letter we don’t wish to reflect on serious political simple intention in to acquaint our friends or relative with our present condition.
Rightly does Gardiner say that Bill could not describe the retreat from Mons but he could have told about the blister he got on his heel, how he hungered for smoke, how he marched and marched until he fell asleep. There is an illustration from Carlyle.
There is nothing his letter which gives hint of his literary background. The letter talks of the good old mother struggling with composition, the darkness of the Saturday night, and the activities of Jenny and children. If a letter-writer follow this model of connecting himself with these seeming trivialities he can overcome the mental block and write a good letter.
Question 9.
How did Robin help Jim Corbett in looting and killing the leopard?
Answer:
One evening Jim Corbett, along with Robin, was out in the jungle. He always kept a rifle with him on such outings. Suddenly, from inside the bushes on the side, a full-grown male leopard confronted him. Quickly, Jim Corbett aimed at him but he missed his heart. The leopard’s right shoulder was injured and he jumped off in pain. As Corbett has to take care of his sister at home and as it was getting dark he returned.
The next morning both Jim Corbett and Robin, the trained dog, came out to locate the wounded leopard. They walked carefully in the direction the animal had taken. After a short distance, Corbett noticed that Robin had stopped. It was sign of the presence of the leopard.
Following Robin’s gaze, Corbett only saw the tip of the leopard’s raised tail. Before Corbett could take a decision the leopard sprang at him and Robin. By a sheer reflex action Corbett touched the trigger of his. 275 rifle whose bullet passed under the leopard’s belly. The leopard in pain ran beyond the bushes.
They followed the leopard who managed to conceal himself under bushes that rose quite high. Jim Corbett had again to give up to trial.On the third day Corbett spotted the leopard, after a tiring chase, hidden inside thick bushes. This time the leopard and expressed its anger at the sight of Corbett and Robin.
Again it was not possible to predict what he would do. But as Corbett swung to the side the leopard sprang at him, which made him fire several rounds instantly. As a result of its the leopard fell dead at a distance, Robin meanwhile slipped away and would have lost its way but for the close scrutiny of Jim Corbett. Robin licked Corbett”s face to appreciate that he had hurt himself in any way in this exploit.