St. Joseph’s College of Commerce (Autonomous)
End Semester Examination – SEPT / OCT. 2014
B.Com –I Semester
General English
Duration: 3 Hours Max. Marks: 100
Note: Read the questions carefully and answer.
Do not exceed the paragraph limit.
Each paragraph should contain at least four sentences.
SECTION – A
- Answer ANY TWO in about three paragraphs each. (2 x 15 = 30)
- Look at the story ‘A Flowering Tree’ from the perspective of the woman who turns into a flowering tree and try to describe the kind of society in which she lived.
- Narrate one experience of how reading a magazine article has helped you in understanding an issue or an idea better. You can use classroom readings or an independent reading that you have done in your response.
- You have read three short stories as part of your course: ‘The Last Leaf’, ‘The Stone Women’ and ‘A Flowering Tree’. Think of new titles for each story and give appropriate reasons for the choice of the new titles.
- Answer ANY ONE question in about four paragraphs. (1 x 20 = 20)
- The narrator in the story ‘The Stone Women’ is in a constant state of confusion regarding her behaviour and opinions. She does not know whether to agree with her husband or not. At the end of the story it seems that she has finally found the courage to defy her husband, yet we do not know what she does with the tune that comes to the tip of her tongue.
What may be the reasons for her constant state of confusion? How do you look at the ending of the story: as one filled with hope for the narrator or as a hopeless situation where she is permanently tied to the wishes of her husband?
- An estimated 7,000 languages are being spoken around the world. But that number is expected to shrink rapidly in the coming decades. What is lost when a language dies? As globalisation sweeps around the world, it is perhaps natural that small communities come out of their isolation and seek interaction with the wider world. The number of languages may be an unhappy casualty, but why fight the tide?
What we lose is essentially an enormous cultural heritage, the way of expressing the relationship with nature, with the world, between themselves in the framework of their families, their kin people. Languages are living, breathing organisms holding the connections and associations that define a culture. When a language becomes extinct, the culture in which it lived is lost too.
What is the understanding of ‘Language’ that you have acquired through the readings done as part of your course? Also comment on the relationship between language and culture. Use your experiences and observations in your response.
SECTION – B
Read the folk stories below and answer the questions.
Story One
How many Ramayanas! Three hundred? Three thousand? At the end of some Ramayanas, a question is sometimes asked: How many Ramayanas have there been? And there are stories that answer the question. Here is one.
One day when Rama was sitting on his throne, his ring fell off. When it touched the earth, it made a hole in the ground and disappeared into it. It was gone. His trusty henchman, Hanuman, was at his feet. Rama said to Hanuman, ‘Look, my ring is lost. Find it for me.’
Now Hanuman can enter any hole, no matter how tiny. He had the power to become the smallest of the small and larger than the largest thing. So he took on a tiny form and went down the hole. He went and went and went and suddenly fell into the netherworld. There were women down there. ‘Look, a tiny monkey! It’s fallen from above!’ Then they caught him and placed him on a platter (thali). The King of Spirits (bhut), who lives in the netherworld, likes to eat animals. So Hanuman was sent to him as part of his dinner, along with his vegetables. Hanuman sat on the platter, wondering what to do. While this was going on in the netherworld. Rama sat on his throne on the earth above. The sage Vasistha and the god Brahma came to see him. They said to Rama, ‘We want to talk privately with you. We don’t want anyone to hear what we say or interrupt it. Do we agree?’
‘All right,’ said Rama, ‘we’ll talk.’
Then they said. ‘Lay down a rule. If anyone comes in as we are talking, his head should be cut off.’
‘It will be done,’ said Rama.
Who would be the most trustworthy person to guard the door? Hanuman had gone down to fetch the ring. Rama trusted no one more than Laksmana, so he asked Laksmana to stand by the door. ‘Don’t allow anyone to enter,’ he ordered. Laksmana was standing at the door when the sage Visvamitra appeared and said, ‘I need to see Rama at once. It’s urgent. Tell me, where is Rama?’ Laksmana said, ‘Don’t go in now. He is talking to some people. It’s important.’ ‘What is there that Rama would hide from me?’ said Visvamitra. ‘I must go in, right now.’
Laksmana said, ‘I’ll have to ask his permission before I can let you in.’ ‘Go in and ask then.’ ‘I can’t go in till Rama comes out. You’ll have to wait.’
‘If you don’t go in and announce my presence, I’ll burn the entire kingdom of Ayodhya with a curse,’ said Visvamitra. Laksmana thought, ‘If I go in now, I’ll die. But if I don’t go, this hotheaded man will burn down the kingdom. All the subjects, all things living in it, will die. It’s better that I alone should die.’
So he went right in. Rama asked him, ‘What’s the matter?’ ‘Visvamitra is here.’ ‘Send him in.’
So Visvamitra went in. The private talk had already come to an end. Brahma and Vasistha had come to see Rama and say to him, ‘Your work in the world of human beings is over. Your incarnation as Rama must now be given up. Leave this body, come up, and rejoin the gods.’ That’s all they wanted to say.
Laksmana said to Rama, ‘Brother, you should cut off my head.’ Rama said, ‘Why? We had nothing more to say. Nothing was left. So why should I cut off your head?’
Laksmana said, ‘You can’t do that. You can’t let me off because I’m your brother. There’ll be a blot on Rama’s name. You didn’t spare your wife. You sent her to the jungle. I must be punished. I will leave.’ Laksmana was an avatar of Sesa, the serpent on whom Visnu sleeps. His time was up too. He went directly to the river Sarayu and disappeared in the flowing waters.
When Laksmana relinquished his body. Rama summoned all his followers, Vibhisana, Sugriva, and others, and arranged for the coronation of his twin sons, Lava and Kusa. Then Rama too entered the river Sarayu. All this while, Hanuman was in the netherworld. When he was finally taken to the King of Spirits, he kept repeating the name of Rama. ‘Rama Rama Rama
Then the King of Spirits asked, ‘Who are you?’ ‘Hanuman.’ ‘Hanuman? Why have you come here?’ ‘Rama’s ring fell into a hole. I’ve come to fetch it.’
The king looked around and showed him a platter. On it were thousands of rings. They were all Rama’s rings. The king brought the platter to Hanuman, set it down, and said, ‘Pick out your Rama’s ring and take it.’ They were all exactly the same. ‘I don’t know which one it is,’ said Hanuman, shaking his head. The King of Spirits said, ‘There have been as many Ramas as there are rings on this platter. When you return to earth, you will not find Rama. This incarnation of Rama is now over. Whenever an incarnation of Rama is about to be over, his ring falls down. I collect them and keep them. Now you can go.’ So Hanuman left.
Story Two
The Golden Key (Collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm)
Once in the wintertime when the snow was very deep, a poor boy had to go out and fetch wood on a sled. After he had gathered it together and loaded it, he did not want to go straight home, because he was so frozen, but instead to make a fire and warm himself a little first. So he scraped the snow away, and while he was thus clearing the ground he found a small golden key. Now he believed that where there was a key, there must also be a lock, so he dug in the ground and found a little iron chest. “If only the key fits!” he thought. “Certainly there are valuable things in the chest.” He looked, but there was no keyhole. Finally he found one, but so small that it could scarcely be seen. He tried the key, and fortunately it fitted. Then he turned it once, and now we must wait until he has finished unlocking it and has opened the lid. Then we shall find out what kind of wonderful things there were in the little chest.
Story Three
A Storyteller of Messer Azzolino (Italy)
Messer Azzolino had a storyteller whom he made tell him tales during the long nights of winter. It happened that one night the storyteller had a great desire to sleep, while Azzolino urged him to tell tales.
The storyteller began a tale of a countryman who had a hundred byzantines [ancient coins] of his own which he took with him to the market to buy sheep at the price of two per byzantine. Returning with his sheep he came to a river he had passed before much swollen with the rains which had recently fallen. Standing on the bank, he saw a poor fisherman with a boat, but of so small a size that there was only room for the countryman and one sheep at a time. Then the countryman began to cross over with one sheep, and he began to row. The river was wide. He rowed and passed over.
And here the storyteller ceased his tale.
Azzolino said, “Go on!”
And the storyteller replied, “Let the sheep cross over, and then I will tell you the tale.”
Since the sheep would not have crossed in a year, he could meanwhile sleep at his ease.
- Answer the following in about two paragraphs each (2 x 10 = 20)
- In story one Lakshmana was instructed not to allow anyone inside while Rama was talking to sage Vasistha and the god Brahma. What made Lakshmana break the rule and permit Vismamitra to enter the palace? Comment on Lakshmana’s actions: do you think what he did was right?
- Story one begins with ‘How many Ramayanas! Three hundred? Three thousand? At the end of some Ramayanas, a question is sometimes asked: How many Ramayanas have there been? And there are stories that answer the question. Here is one.’
Does the story provide an answer to the question about the number of Ramayanas that exist? If so what is that answer and do you agree with it?
- Answer ANY TWO questions in about three paragraphs (2 x 15 = 30)
- Story two ‘The Golden Key’ ends abruptly without telling us what’s inside the chest. What may be the reasons for such an abrupt ending? Try to recollect other stories/movies which have such an abrupt ending. In case you fail to recollect any write about an ending that has impressed you well.
- Read story three and tell whether this story also has an abrupt ending. Compare story two and story three and comment on the similarities and differences between both the stories.
- How have the stories that you read or heard in your childhood influenced you? Narrate at least one experience to supplement your response.
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