Spoken English and Broken English - George Bernard Shaw: Guide notes| Calcutta University

Summary:-

'Spoken English and Broken English' is an essay by George Bernard Shaw which is a transcript of a radio talk recorded in 1927. Thus essay gives some instructions regarding how to speak English to a foreign student of English when they travel in the British Commonwealth or in America or when they meet a native. It even says that the native may even speak in a provincial or cockney dialect of which he is a little ashamed and this may even prevent him from obtaining some employment which is open only to those speaking correct English.
The essay he's been divided into three sections. The first part rightly stresses on the fact that there is no single model of correct speech in English. The first thing everyone (native or foreigner) must remember is that there lies no ideally correct English. Shaw discusses that the notion of "correct English", which is the proper way in which English should be spoken. According to him, no two British subjects speak exactly alike. Though they all speak differently, they all speak presentably which makes them understandable and thus acceptable as a person of good social standing. The second part talks about how everyone irrespective of whether they are educated or uneducated , speaks differently in public and in private. A person's speech in public needs to be a careful one, measuring each word before he speaks, to create an impact and make it understandable. But in private a man is less bothered about the speech, the grammar, articulation,etc .. This section is particularly the most amusing and Shaw presents himself as a guinea pig.
Now in the last section Shaw advises foreigners on how to speak while traveling in English speaking country and here he gives another warning of quite a different kind. The first thing that a person who is a foreigner should do is to speak with strong foreign stress and use broken English without grammar. Then every native to whom he speaks would understand he is a foreigner and would try to understand and be ready to help him. He shouldn't expect everyone to be polite and use elaborate grammatical phrases. But now this advice is flawed as it is outdated for now that many people not only visit many English speaking countries but also reside in countries like America and Britain.
With globalization taking its hold on the world and the need of learning multiple global languages out of which English stands at the very helm, has led people to seek out the 'correct' form of the English language.

A Passing Glimpse - Robert Frost: Summary | CBSE

The 'Passing glimpses' is a typical of Robert Frost's poetry, in various ways. The poet Robert Frost in his poem 'A Passing glimpse' has shown us very tactfully that in everyday mechanical,  monotonous, modern life of our , we often don't get time to look at the beautiful nature around us.
  The poem 'A passing glimpse' opens with the speaker refering to the passing glimpse of  flowers seen from the rapidly moving car of a train . The flowers symbolises the delicate beauty of nature which is timeless and eternal while in comparison, life is bounded by the borders of time and is destined we to perish. In our daily rat race we often fail to pay heed to the happenings around us and move on without even noticing them. The tracks of life are long and lay farther than what can be perceived through our eyes
   The poet, through the moving train gets glimpses of many flower beside the track. He tries to guess the names of these flowers and on doing so understands that his guesses will prove to be wrong. He wants to get out of the train to spot those flowers but unfortunately he cannot manage to . He then doubts whether they were his imagination which brushed across his mind.
In all of it we can identify well that it is this mechanical life that imprisons us and thus in this time bound life we hardly get time to stop by and appreciate the nature around us and it's timeless beauty. Although we desire to look back, barely we get a chance. But even after telling us the various lacks of a monotonous materialistic life he ends the poem with quite a promising , optimistic, couplet which tells that a glimpse of heaven can only be perceived by those who do not get the chance "to look too close" . Thus, beauty multiplies when we step back and look at it from a distance, rather than examining it critically and closely.

The Enemy- Pearl.S.Buck: Guide notes|CBSE Class 12

Q1)  Describe the reaction and resistance faced by Hana and Dr. Sadao from the different servers?

Answer:- The servers in Dr. Sadao's house were not in favour of harbouring an American war prisoner in the house. They didn't even wanted Sadao's to save his life. The maid servent Tumi defied the order of Hana to clean the wounded dirty American prisoner on finding him to be a white man. She became stubborn as she had never washed a white man. When Hana cried at her sternly, she had a fierce look of resistance on her round face, thus ultimately forcing Hana to clean the man on her own. 
   On the other hand, the gardener being a superstitious man said that the white man ought to die. First he was shot. Then the sea caught him in her waves and wounded him with her rocks . It showed the man was fated to die and they had no business to save him , as was his prediction which Dr.Sadaoproved to be wrong with his surgical skills. Beside all these the Hoki couple faced open resistance from the other servent who left the house together in the morning on the seventh day with their belongings in large square cotton kerchief which the Hoki couple understood was the result of their belonging to the poor working class of the society, who were superstitious and lacked refinement.

Q2) "Nowadays newspapers are bombard with the news of war among countries showing increased hatred and enemity among the nation and Humana's a whole". Discuss with special reference to "The Enemy".

Answer:- The world today has become a place where hatred and war originates like 'germ'. Enemity now flows through the bien of human. But among all this humanity is alive even today which the author Peaul. S.Buck.through her story 'Enemy' has tried to high light .
    Even though Dr. Sadao Hoki knew that the wounded man was an American war prisoner , he decided to treat the white man with utmost sincerity. They harboured an enemy country's Citizen in spite of knowing that there is a threat to gather arrested as a traitoras Japan was at war with America. But on the other hand, the General Yakima, on being informed about the situation by Dr. Sadao assured that he will send his private assassin to kill him in sleep. The serventa in Sadao's house also showed resistance towards the harbouring an American whom they considered to be an enemy and the gardener even said that Sadao had no business saving him. Everyone outside the Hoki family was against the act of saving life of the white man ,Tom .
        At the end,  Sadao came out of these narrow prejudice and we see that he tactfully made an escape plan to safeguard Tom's life and enabled him to run away from Japan safely to his country American.