Saturday, July 19, 2008

CRITICALLY YOURS..

Hi Everybody,
The air is buzzing with exam preparation, the CAT and IIFT forms are out and all of you must be busy filling them up. Come 16th November, the exam harvests starts.
So, from now on, I'll definitely get a little bit exam oriented.I mean Questions, Words, Frameworks and above all Critical Reasoning.
Critical Reasoning and Logical Thinking is the denominator for all the numerators, RC's, Coherent Paragraphs, Sentence Correction and so on.
You must be taking AIMCAT's on Saturdays and Sundays and I am sure that on Sunday nights, you must be burning the midnight oil, analyzing AIMCAT's.
Remember, reading is the key. In my previous postings, I have told you how to read. I reiterate that when you read a passage, try to recognize the coherence of sentences, the restatement of words and phrases, thought connects and so on.
This will ensure that you have mapped the passage perfectly. Then start answering the questions. While you are reading, recognize grammatical constructions, figures of speech, idiomatic usage and so on.
This can be called cognitivism. I will be putting small passages, thought processes, philosophical ramblings and so on and put some questions after that.
Answer those questions and check them out after a couple of days when i answer them.
While marking the options, it is very important that for every option you have negated out a reason for negation, or, frame a question that can be answered by that option.
So here is a small poem with a couple of questions

The time is after dinner
Cigarettes glow on the lawn
Glasses begin to tinkle
T.V. sets have been turned on
Like a glass of beer
The moon is brimming above the town
Love keeps her appointments
Cinderella puts on her shoes
A pale stranger
Lying on a furnished bed in a furnished room
Looking at the crack in the ceilings
Watching the paper roses
guessing when will they bloom.

Q1) The poem presents the "pale stranger" as
a) Unloved
b) Perturbed
c) Alienated
d) Isolated

Q2) The figure of speech in the first four lines is
a) Simile
b) Antithesis
c) Personification
d) Metaphor
e) Onomatopoeia

Q3) The paper roses symbolize
a) The gregarious but superficial atmosphere outside the furnished room
b) The hopes and aspirations which the stranger desperately clings to
c) The combined beauty of the night, of the moon and of love.
d) The need for the stranger to make things grow in his life.

Enough for today. I'll be back again with word power, grammasage (grammar+usage) and more critical reasoning.
Remember, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar is not a historical proper noun but, "Vidyasagarism" is an abstract noun which you can imbibe.
Adios Amigo!

9 comments:

Kanishka said...

Hello Sir,
In reference to CRITICALLY YOURS that you have posted,the answers to the questions are-
(1) I thought the answer should be all of them.Explanation-(1)Unloved-As the reference to "Cinderella" in the preceding lines is to bring about the eminent absence of love in his life.(2)Perturbed-"crack" symbolizes a blemish in his life,so things are obviously not smooth in his life.(3)Alienated-He is in a "furnished room" rather than in the garden where the party is on.(4)Isolated-He is alone in the room without any company.

2.Ans-(e)Onomatopoeia-"Glasses begin to tinkle" as this figure of speech technically refers to words containing sounds similar to noises they describe.Like the 'tinkling of bells'.
3.Ans-(b) as the pale stranger is "guessing" when the "paper roses" will bloom reflects his desperation as paper roses are artificial and are never expected to bloom.
please post the answers soon and explain them so we can analyse our mistakes.
awaiting your reply,SRITAMA

Anonymous said...

here i have a complain regarding our course but dont know how to tell rahul sir so i am going to write here plz tell him. sir i have started coaching in january n till now 50% of topics of maths have not yet completed so i am very very very much frusted about it bcoz from last three aimcats more questions r coming from such topics which r not yet completed like pnc, progressions etc. sir i can't compete with my counterparts. n its a high time if course will be completed just before exams then how we will be able to revise and moreover we r nor able to check our strength in aimcats bcoz most of the topics r not completed in maths. wats the benefit of joining time early, the guys who have joined recently they also have completed their course as much as we so their is no advantage we r supposed to enjoy. n in our batch (cpd804) topics have been started 1 or 2 months ago n left without completing (geometry and quadratic equations) sir this way we r not able to coordinate well between topics. sir i request u plz make sure that our course get completed within 1 month so we can revise well

Sachin said...

Hi sir,
I think the answers are
1)c. alienated or/and d. isolated

As the love keeps her appointment stranger can't be unloved.
I couldn't find anything which shows he is perturbed.
As he is called as stranger it means he is not accepted in the society so alienated.
As he is in the room isolated from the outer party so isolated.

2)b.antithesis

Since the first four lines represents party which contradicts the last couple of lines representing lonliness.
As there is only one word tinkle which is onomatopoeia.
The next two lines are simile.

3)b.
As the stranger is expecting the artificial roses to be bloomed.


We expect the answers will be out soon and will be able to satisfy our curiousity.

My Realm said...

Sir,
First of all this passage in many ways reminds me of T.S ELIOT's PRELUDES!:)

I think the answer to the first Q of 'Critically Yours' is 3)Alienated.I feel the stranger with the pale face has already lived the stages of being unloved,perturbed&isolated....He is in the stage of a complete alienation from the monotony & repetitiveness of the life around him...Alienation has made him isolated, as he feels like a stranger in the sameness of life....

The answer to the second Q is ONOMATOPOEIA....for the effect of sound in the word "tinkle".

The third answer would be both the first option as well as the second.The second option leads to the first & hence the irony, that prevails through out......
-Somdatta(CSD-805)

Unknown said...

Gudmorning sir,
i think the 1st answer is isolated,the second 1 is onomatopoeia coz of th twinklng sound.The 3rd one,i am a bit confused it may be either 'b'/'d'...
thank you-pina.

Sinchan said...

1)a
2)e
3)b

gyanesh said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
gyanesh said...

SIR I KNOW THAT THIS IS NOT A RIGHT PLATFORM FOR IT BUT I WANT SUMTHING FROM U. THATS WHY I HAVE WRITTING IT HERE. SIR I AM REALLY DISTURBED BY THE ISUES OF REGINALISM AND OTHER THAT IS GOING ON. AND I WANT TO TAKE STEPS THAT I CAN . BUT WAT SHULD I DO I DONT KNOW.SIR RIGHT NOW I HAVE CREATED A COMMUNITY IN ORKUT NAMED 'UNITED WE STAND' . SIR I WANT THAT U PLZ BE A PART OF THAT AND SIR PLZ POST VALUABLE POSTS THEIR TOO.
I WILL BE THANKFUL TO THAT FOR THAT..
THANK YOU SIR...

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