Advertisements
Advertisements
Question
Walter Scott appears sympathetic to Isaac's troubles. How does Scott highlight the treatment given to Jews through the character of Isaac?
Solution
The portrait of Isaac the Jew in Ivanhoe is generally an unfavorable one, indeed an unflattering stereotype derived from The Merchant of Venice and Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta of the Jew as a contemptible or comic miser. Scott introduces Isaac in chapter five which bears the well-known words from The Merchant of Venice as its motto, “Hath not a Jew's eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is?” Scott introduces Isaac with a few deft strokes but adds important explanatory notes, “Introduced with little ceremony, and advancing with fear and hesitation, and many a bow of deep humility, a tall & thin old man. Scott here picks out two classes of persecutors of Jews, “the credulous and prejudiced vulgar,” and “the greedy and rapacious nobility,” to which he, a little later in the novel, adds a third class, the religious bigot. If the Jew has a mean and unamiable look it is because of the role he has been forced into by years of persecution. Scott seems acutely aware of the plight of the Jews in 12th Century England, “His [Isaac’s] doubts might have been indeed pardoned; for, except perhaps the flying fish, there was no race existing on the earth, in the air, or the waters, who were the object of such an unintermitting, general, and relentless persecution as the Jews of this period. In spite of every kind of discouragement, and even of the special court of taxations already mentioned, called the Jews' Exchequer, erected for the very purpose of despoiling and distressing them, the Jews increased, multiplied, and accumulated huge sums, which they transferred from one band to another by means of bills of exchange — an invention for which commerce is said to be indebted to them, and which enabled them to transfer their wealth from land to land, that when threatened with oppression in one country, their treasure might be secured in another.
APPEARS IN
RELATED QUESTIONS
It is easy to advise others not to worry, but difficult for oneself to follow the same. Narrate an experience which made you realise the truth of this statement.
Fill in the blank with the suitable word.
The burglars broke _____________ the house when the family was away.
Read the passage given below and answer the questions (a), (b) and (c) that follow :
(1) At the Literary Society’s meeting, Isola read out the letters written to her Granny Pheen, when she was but a little girl. They were from a very kind man – a complete stranger. Isola told us how these letters came to be written.
(2) When Granny Pheen was nine years old, her cat died. Heartbroken, sitting in the middle of the road, she was sobbing her heart out.
(3) A carriage, driving far too fast, came within a whisker of running her down. A very big man in a dark coat with a fur collar, jumped out, leaned over Pheen, and asked if he could help her. Granny Pheen said she was beyond help. Muffin, her cat, was dead.
(4) The man said, ‘Of course, Muffin’s not dead. You do know cats have nine lives, don’t you?’ When Pheen said yes, the man said, ‘Well, I happen to know your Muffin was only on her third life, so she has six lives left.’ Pheen asked how he knew. He said he always knew - cats would often appear in his mind and chat with him. Well, not in words, of course, but in pictures.
(5) He sat down on the road beside her and told her to keep still – very still. He would see if Muffin wanted to visit him. They sat in silence for several minutes, when suddenly the man grabbed Pheen’s hand.
(6) ‘Ah – yes! There she is! She’s being born this minute! In a mansion – in France. There’s a little boy petting her, he’s going to call her Solange. This Solange has great spirit, great verve – I can tell already! She is going to have a long, venturesome life.’
(7) Granny Pheen was so rapt by Muffin’s new fate that she stopped crying. The man said he would visit Solange every so often and find out how she was faring.
(8) He asked for Granny Pheen’s name and the name of the farm where she lived, got back into the carriage, and left.
(9) Absurd as all this sounds, Granny Pheen did receive eight long letters. Isola then read them out. They were all about Muffin’s life as the French cat − Solange. She was, apparently, something of a feline musketeer. She was no idle cat, lolling about on cushions, lapping up cream – she lived through one wild adventure after another – the only cat ever to be awarded the red rosette of the Legion of Honour.
(10) What a story this man had made up for Pheen – lively, witty, full of drama and suspense. We were enchanted, speechless at the reading. When it was over (and much applauded), I asked Isola if I could see the letters, and she handed them to me.
(11) The writer had signed his letters with a grand flourish :
VERY TRULY YOURS,
O.F. O’F. W.W.
It was highly possible that Isola had inherited eight letters written by Oscar Wilde, for who else could have had such a preposterous name as Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Willis Wilde.
Adapted from : The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society – By Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
(a) (i) Given below are four words and phrases. Find the words which have a similar meaning in the passage :[4]
(1) adventurous
(2) cat-like
(3) appreciated
(4) received something on someone’s death
(ii) For each of the words given below, write a sentence of at least ten words using the same word unchanged in form, but with a different meaning from that which it carries in the passage :[4]
(1) kind (line 2)
(2) mind (line 13)
(3) still (line 15)
(4) sounds (line 26)
(b) Answer the following questions in your own words as briefly as possible:
(i) Where did Isola get the letters from to read at the Literary Society’s meeting?[2]
(ii) Who consoled Granny Pheen when she was heart-broken? What did he say about Muffin’s lives?[2]
(iii) What did the man say when Granny Pheen asked him how he knew about cats’ lives?[2]
(iv) According to the man, what was Muffin’s new fate?[3]
(c) In not more than 100 words, summarise why the eight letters were a treasure to Granny Pheen. (Paragraphs 2 to 10). Failure to keep within the word limit will be penalised. You will be required to write the summary in the form of a connected passage in about 100 words.[8]
What is the tone of the poem?
What docs the line “and his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream” mean?
But a caged BIRD stands on the grave of dreams
His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.
Read the above lines and answer the question that follow.
Explain with reference to the context.
Can the poem The Patriot be considered a dramatic monologue? Justify.
Who is reminded of his past? Why?
What do you think of the mentality of the crowd?
How did the last event turn out to be special?
The book was so interesting that I could not put in down.
(Begin : The book was too ……………… )
Find out different career opportunities in the field of social work.
The story of Kalpana Chawla has become an inspiration for millions of young Indians. How? What message did she send from the space shuttle to students of her college?
Match the following.
| Sr. No | A | B |
|
| 1. | Constitution | a. | It is the freedom to go where you want, do what you want, etc. |
| 2. | Liberty | b. | It is the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, or opportunities. |
| 3. | Equality | c. | It is a sense of common brotherhood. |
| 4. | Fraternity | d. | It is an aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization, or other types of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. |
Choose the correct alternative for the given line. Focus on the inference of the poet.
‘Earth has not anything to show more fair:’
The line means - _________________.
Identify the incorrect statements from the following and correct them.
Create a Personal Particular for your class with support from your teacher and collect personal and educational information.
Write a report of the following event in about 100-120 words.
You are the School Pupil Leader. You have been asked to write a report on the Inaugural Ceremony of English Literary Association of your school which was held recently. Write a report on the same in not more than 120 words.
Have a conversation with your partner based on the picture below. You can start as -
| Hunter 1 | “Look at the footprints in the mud!” |
| Hunter 2 | |
| Hunter 1 | |
| Hunter 2 |
Correct the use of the describing word in the following sentence.
The flood became badder as the rain increased.
Work in groups of four. See the picture of a shipwreck at the bottom of the ocean.
Suppose you went deep-sea diving. What would you find? Think of all the words that come to your mind, then build a paragraph. Share your story with other groups.
Find one word from the story that means
move fast s ______.
As young Khushwant Singh, write a letter to your parents describing your daily routine expressing your thoughts and feelings about staying in the village.
How did Mary Kom manage to get financial support for her trip to the USA?
Write conversation on the following situation.
Between two friends about the uses of the internet
Why had Miss Meadows chosen 'A Lament' as the lesson that particular day?
Summarizing is to briefly sum up the various points from the notes made from the below passage.
The Sherpas were nomadic people who first migrated from Tibet approximately 600 years ago, through the Nangpa La pass and settled in the Solukhumbu District, Nepal. These nomadic people then gradually moved westward along salt trade routes. During 14th century, Sherpa ancestors migrated from Kham. The group of people from the Kham region, east of Tibet, was called “Shyar Khamba”. The inhabitants of Shyar Khamba, were called Sherpa. Sherpa migrants travelled through Ü and Tsang, before crossing the Himalayas. According to Sherpa oral history, four groups migrated out of Solukhumbu at different times, giving rise to the four fundamental Sherpa clans: Minyagpa, Thimmi, Sertawa and Chawa. These four groups have since split into the more than 20 different clans that exist today.
Sherpas had little contact with the world beyond the mountains and they spoke their own language. AngDawa, a 76-year-old former mountaineer recalled “My first expedition was to Makalu [the world’s fifth highest mountain] with Sir Edmund Hillary’’. We were not allowed to go to the top. We wore leather boots that got really heavy when wet, and we only got a little salary, but we danced the Sherpa dance, and we were able to buy firewood and make campfires, and we spent a lot of the time dancing and singing and drinking. Today Sherpas get good pay and good equipment, but they don’t have good entertainment. My one regret is that I never got to the top of Everest. I got to the South Summit, but I never got a chance to go for the top.
The transformation began when the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and the New Zealander Edmund Hillary scaled Everest in 1953. Edmund Hillary took efforts to build schools and health clinics to raise the living standards of the Sherpas. Thus life in Khumbu improved due to the efforts taken by Edmund Hillary and hence he was known as ‘Sherpa King’.
Sherpas working on the Everest generally tend to perish one by one, casualties of crevasse falls, avalanches, and altitude sickness. Some have simply disappeared on the mountain, never to be seen again. Apart from the bad seasons in 1922, 1970 and 2014 they do not die en masse. Sherpas carry the heaviest loads and pay the highest prices on the world’s tallest mountain. In some ways, Sherpas have benefited from the commercialization of the Everest more than any group, earning income from thousands of climbers and trekkers drawn to the mountain. While interest in climbing Everest grew gradually over the decades after the first ascent, it wasn’t until the 1990s that the economic motives of commercial guiding on Everest began. This leads to eclipse the amateur impetus of traditional mountaineering. Climbers looked after each other for the love of adventure and “the brotherhood of the rope” now are tending to mountain businesses. Sherpas have taken up jobs as guides to look after clients for a salary. Commercial guiding agencies promised any reasonably fit person a shot at Everest.
Read the following passage and write a summary of it. Suggest a suitable title to the summary.
|
According to some experts, a staggering 93 percent of our daily communication is non-verbal. Facial expressions are easy to decipher. One can readily detect happiness, sadness, anger. Physicians can tell a patient is doing well (or not) by looking at his/her face. Eye contact is another type of non-verbal communication, which can tell a lot about the other person. The eyes convey a range of emotions-happiness, sadness, boredom, surprise, confidence ..... even emotional interest. Staring at someone's forehead may intimidate the recipient, staring at the mouth is sometimes interpretated as a sign of emotional interest. In fact staring into someone's eyes is a sign of lying, and so is looking away. In certain cultures, lack of eye contact is taken as a sign of respect. If body language is to be defined, it is a combination of facial expression, gestures, eye contact, body movements and posture and voice. Frequent blinking is a sign of the person feeling distressed or uncomfortable. If the pupils are dilated, it often indicates interest, even emotional interest. The lips also reflect our body language, and lip biting indicates worry and/or anxiety; tightening of the lips may be an indication of disapproval. Slightly turned-up lips indicate happiness and slightly turned-down lips indicate sadness. |
Write letter to your father asking permission to go on a educational tour.
Write a composition (in approximately 400 – 450 words) on the following subject.
You had to go on a train journey with your family. On reaching the railway station, you discovered that your train was delayed by two hours. Describe how you spent those two hours, detailing what you saw, the sounds you heard, and the interactions you had with the people around you. Express your feelings when you saw the train finally approaching the station.
