Warming Up!
Chit-Chat
1. Form groups of 3 to 4 and share the following with your groups.
- Your favourite book
- Type of book (short stories/biography/thriller etc.)
- Author/Writer
- Main Character
- Background (Time and Place)
- Problem/dilemma
- Any special message
Answer:
- Your favourite book – The Magic of the Lost Temple
- Type of book (short stories/biography/thriller etc.) – Children’s Literature Fantasy
- Author/Writer – Sudha Murty
- Main Character – Nooni
- Background (Time and Place) – A village in Karnataka
- Problem/dilemma – Young Nooni finds a mysterious stepwell in the middle of the forest and must explore further. She is a city girl who has been sent to stay with her grandmother in village.
- Any special message – Curious minds of young children and relationship between grandmother and granddaughter is depicted beautifully.
2. You have recently read a short story/novel/drama/science fiction/ghost-story. White in short 3 of its strong points that made you like the book and 2 or 3 drawbacks it has. Fill them up in the tree diagram given.
Name of the book (Author/Writer)
Name: The Magic of the Lost Temple
Author: Sudha Murty
Strengths:
– Simple language – easy to understand.
– Nice and interesting adventure.
– Shows relationship between granddaughter and grandmother beautifully.
Weaknesses:
– Straightforward – not much twists and turns.
– Short book
Rating (1 to 5): 4
3. Determiners are words that modify a noun or noun phrase and occur before them in a sentence. Determiners provide a context to the noun they precede. They may be:
Articles: a, an, the
Demonstratives: this, that, these, those, which etc.
Possessives: my, your, our, their, his, her etc. my friend’s, her mother’s etc.
Quantifiers: few, many, much, more, every, each, some etc.
Numerals: one, four, hundred, first, fourth, hundredth
4. Underline only Determiners in the following.
- My brother bought a few magazines.
- What is your friend’s name?
- Which writer was also the President of our country?
- These are some toys.
- These toys are new.
- That doctor is an expert dentist and he has many patients.
From the main chapter pages.
1. Find out what are spoilers.
A: A spoiler is something that reveals a key element of the plot of a book, movie or story. Spoilers reveal aspects of a story that ruins the surprise element for the reader or viewer.
2. What is the most striking quality of 10 year old Swami?
A: The most striking quality of 10 year old Swami is that he is mischievous.
3. What does the review say about R.K. Narayan’s style and language?
A: According to the review, R.K. Narayan’s style and language is both plain simple without any troubling words for kids. The use of simple and short sentences adds to the simplicity of the book written by R.K. Narayan.
4. What are the two advantages of reading this book?
A: The two advantages of reading this book are:
1) It has good literary value so you can learn while also enjoying the book and connecting with the character of Swami.
2) You can improve your English skills by reading this book.
English Workshop
1. Refer to the story ‘The Boy who Broke the Bank’ (Lesson 2.2) by Ruskin Bond.
Read it carefully and write a Review of the same, keeping the following points in mind.
(a) Name of Story and Writer / Author
(b) Type of story
(c) Background and setting (Time and Place)
(d) Main characters
(e) Problem faced
(f) Language used
(g) What you liked about the story
(h) What you did not like about it
(i) Your general opinion of the story
Answer:
The Boy who Broke the Bank is a short story written by renowned and award winning author Ruskin Bond. The story is set in the fictional town of Pipalnagar, in rural India.
The main story of The Boy who Broke the Bank revolves around the fact that rumours can spread like wildfire through a town. If unchecked, these rumours can create havoc in people’s lives. Unfortunately the human tendency to gossip leads to people exaggerating circumstances and issues while conveying to others. This leads to false news spreading quickly from people to people.
The story begins with the character of Nathu who is unhappy due to his wages getting delayed by the Pipalnagar Bank. When he mentions about this to his friend Sitaram, things take a turn as the news spreads from one person to the other, each exaggerating slightly. The end result is that people in the town think the Pipalnagar bank is shutting down due to bankruptcy and they are worried about their money.
The story has several characters such as Nathu, Sitaram, Mrs. Srivastava, Mrs. Bhushan, Seth Govind Ram who is the owner of the bank etc.
Overall the story is highly engaging and is amusing as well. The writer has used nice and simple language so that everyone can understand the story well. While The Boy who Broke the Bank is an entertaining story, it did feel a bit rushed in the end.
I personally like the way people’s tendency to gossip was conveyed in the story. Couple of the characters were quite funny in the way they acted. There are some strong words used such as sons of donkeys that could have been avoided considering this story is aimed at children as well.
Overall I would highly recommend The Boy who Broke the Bank to everyone. It is an engaging, entertaining story with a very important message of the harm rumours can cause in our society.
2. Look inside your thinking hat.
Read the evidence/sentences given below and offer a possible explanation of what happened in this house ? Make up some questions to gather more information.
Now collect all your evidences and write a story in your notebook. Give a suitable title.
Answer:
Title: Mischievous Cookie Thief
“There were children’s footprints in the kitchen.”
a) May be they were playing in the kitchen.
b) May be they were trying to steal some cookies.
The Children were planning:
a) To steal some cookies from the cookie jar.
b) Eat them all before their mother found out.
Mother found empty jars of:
a) Cookies
b) Biscuits and chocolates
The kitchen was messy with:
a) Cookie pieces fallen all over.
b) Footprints of the children.
Story:
One day some mischievous kids wanted to steal all the cookies in the house. However, they could not alert their mother or else they would get caught and not get cookies for a long time. So they waited for their mother to take a nap in the afternoon and quietly went in the kitchen. They looked all over the place for the cookies. Finally, they not only found cookies but other biscuits and chocolates as well. They ate them all and left everything just like that. When their mother woke up and went to the kitchen, she found the children’s footprints and jars of empty cookies on the kitchen counter. She immediately came to know what happened and from then on, she did not keep cookies in the kitchen where children could find it easily.
What comes to mind when you hear the word ‘mischievous”?
a) Naughty
b) Play pranks
c) Trouble others
d) Quietly doing things without others coming to know.
3. Identify the new words and phrases which seem to be important, in the review.
Try to guess their meaning from the context. You can use a dictionary to confirm it. Fill up the table.
1)
Word: Mischievous
Meaning conveyed: naughty but innocent
One Synonym: naughty, troublesome
One Antonym: good and well behaved
Word Class: Adjective
Other forms: mischief, mischievously
2)
Word: nightmare
Meaning conveyed: very frightening experience, scary dream
One Synonym: Agony, hell, horror
One Antonym: Dream, Fantasy
Word Class: Noun
Other forms: nightmarish
3)
Word: exquisite
Meaning conveyed: in a pleasing manner, beautiful
One Synonym: elegant, delicate
One Antonym: ugly, inelegant
Word Class: Adjective
Other forms: exquisitely
4)
Word: perspective
Meaning conveyed: point of view
One Synonym: angle, outlook
One Antonym: perspectiveless, hopeless
Word Class: Noun
Other forms: perspectively
5)
Word: encompass
Meaning conveyed: circles around, surround
One Synonym: circle, enclose
One Antonym: release, let go, exclude
Word Class: Verb
Other forms: encompasses, encompassing
4. (A) Find from the lesson the Noun forms of:
(a) happen – happenings
(b) true – truth
(c) simple – simplicity
(d) conclude – conclusion
(B) Find Verb forms of:
(a) hatred – hate
(b) thought – think
(c) meaning – mean
(d) improvement – improve
(e) description – describe
(f) attribution – attribute
(C) Find Adjective forms of:
(a) talk – talkative
(b) interest – interesting
(c) purity – pure
(d) technique – technical
(e) literature – literary
Tips For Reading, For A Review (Guidelines)
Skimming – (While you read for a review you should know –
(a) What is the title/text/content ?
(b) What exactly is to be read ? (Selectivity)
(c) What support/related resources/references/help is to be generated or found ?
(d) What will you search to get complete details/associated ideas ?
(e) Use technology if required (web, e-books, gazettes) to correlate the content that is read.
Scanning – We might use scanning to –
(a) Look up for meanings of related words/phrases/novel ideas.
(b) Find exact associations or inter – relationship of words.
(c) Check perfection in the start and finish time, while reading.
(d) Identify the exact sequence of ideas and occurrence of events.
(e) Use technology if required (web, e-books, gazettes) to correlate the content that is read.
Project – (A Book Review)
Write a complete review on any book that you have read recently. Use the following points for your Book Review.
(a) Introduction
(b) Selectivity of contents
(c) Subject/Title Appropriacy
(d) Sequence of Contents
(e) Language Appropriacy / Type
(f) Good Points/Novelty in the book.
(g) Advantages/Scope of the book. (if any)
(h) Demerits/Shortcomings (if any)
(i) Message/Opinion/Views (Personal)
(j) Conclusion (in short)
Answer:
The Magic of the Lost Temple is another children’s literature book by beloved author Sudha Murty. It is about a young girl named Nooni who is sent to live at her grandmother’s village for a while. Being a city girl, Nooni is surpised at the pace of life in the village and keeps herself busy doing many odd jobs that are available. When she finds a mysterious stepwell in the middle of the forest, things take a turn and a new exciting adventure begins.
The book has the most appropriate title as readers will be lost in the magic of the ancient temple and its mysteries. Nooni being a curious girl is able to go on this fun adventure and discover ancient secrets. While the book begins with Nooni going to live with her grandmother in the village, soon she starts to explore not just the village but the surrounding forests as well. It is here deep in the forest that she finds the stepwell leading to an ancient temple. The book beautifully captures the emotions of a young girl, the curiousness inside of her and also about village life. The relation between Nooni and her grandmother is also depicted wonderfully.
The language used in the book is simple yet young readers get to learn a lot. Easy to understand English is used throughout the book and the wordings flow very well ensuring continuity.
While there are no real weaknesses of the book, some readers may find it quite straightforward and could wish for more twists and turns. The mystery of the lost temple could have been explored further.
Overall I highly recommend this book to everyone. It has a wonderful message of the curiousness in young minds and how they should explore their surroundings. Special relationship between grandmother and granddaughter is also one of the highlights of this book.
It is a very good
.
Thanks