APPRECIATING THE TEXT

UNIT 1 VISITORS AT DULIATAL

Little Tinku looks forward to a great time with

her two visiting aunts, Moni mashi and Nutu

pishi. Both are teachers; one is good at telling

stories and the other is good at photography. Her

mother hopes it will not rain while they have

guests but Tinku feels it could add to the fun.

It rains heavily the day they arrive and the aunts

are upset with the inconvenience it causes. They

have to walk down a narrow ledge of a pathway to

the house laden as they are with raincoats, shawls

and umbrellas. All they do is grumble about the

weather and get into bed with hot-water bottles

as it gets cold as well. They think it is a wasted

holiday though Tinku tries to cheer them up.

The next day surprises them with bright weather.

The aunts enjoy the breath-taking view of

colourful flowers in the garden and the snowcapped mountains in the distance. Thanks to

the rain they can see water trickling down to the

Tinku is happy that all of them will have a good

time together as she expected.

Appreciation: This is a typical childrens story

developed in the three stages of an all well not

well all well again pattern:

1. Tinku is excited that her aunts are

visiting.

2. The aunts are upset that the rain will spoil

their holiday.

3. The three are happy when the weather

The story is built up through contrasts:

1. Tinkus earlier hatred with the rain is

contrasted with her present fondness for it.

to Vesuvius spewing smoke and ash. They

thought the gods were angry again and carried

on with whatever they were doing. The old man

connected the present situation with an earlier

earthquake. He rushed home to his wife and

urged her to go away with him to a safer place.

Most of the other people took shelter in their

homes as they always did whenever the volcano

spewed ash. They did not realize that this time

the earthquake would bury them sixty feet

under the ground.

Analysis: The narrative moves between

contrasting pictures. It contrasts the way the

people of Pompeii respond to the active volcano

with the way an old man responds to it.

1. The people behave as usual:

a. The people do not take note of the day

being hotter than usual or the sun being

covered by a haze from the volcano.

b. The sellers set up their wares in the

marketplace and call out to buyers around

ten oclock.

c. The buyers go about shopping.

d. They do not think there is anything to

worry about the rumbles on the volcanic

Mt. Vesuvius. They think the gods are

displaying their anger.

e. They go indoors when it spews smoke

and ash without realising the seriousness

of the situation.

2. The old man behaves in an unusual manner:

a. He notices that the day is hotter than

usual and that there is a haze covering

the sun.

b. He panics when he hears the mountain

rumbling connecting the present situation

with a previous earthquake.

c. He goes home and gets his wife to a

safer place.

d. He warns a neighbour against staying

indoors. She does not heed his warning.

nephews wife, Mrs David Copperfield who is

a young pregnant widow.

The Situation: Mrs Copperfield is due to

have her first baby. She sees Miss Betsey

walking up the garden path and peeping

through the window. She is nervous to see

her husbands aunt for the first time. She

stands behind her chair.

2. The Middle develops the plot with 5 short

Episode 1: Miss Betsey orders Mrs Copperfield

to let her in and introduces herself. She asks

her to remove her cap and is astonished to see

how young she is. Mrs Copperfield weeps in

Episode 2: Miss Betsey asks about the maid,

Peggotty, and comments on her name. She

asks Peggotty to hurry up and get her mistress

a cup of tea as she is not well.

Episode 3: Miss Betsy tells Mrs Copperfield

that she wants to be the babys godmother

and provide for her. She insists the baby will

be a girl and wants her to be called Betsey

Trotwood Copperfield. She also asks about the

weepy young widows financial situation and

how good she is at managing her affairs.

Episode 4: Peggotty brings the tea and sees

how ill her mistress looks and sends for the

doctor. She and the doctor, Mr Cillip, help Mrs

Copperfield to her room upstairs. Miss Betsey

waits in the living room as Mrs Copperfield

goes into labour.

Episode 5: The doctor returns to the living

room and tells Miss Betsey the mother was

doing well and she would soon be able to

see her. She asks how the baby girl is.

Dr Cillip tells her the baby is a boy.

Miss Betsey does not speak a word. She puts

on her bonnet and walks out of the house

never to return.

2. Imagine you are the narrator and write

how you feel about your mother on the

day you were born.

3. Is it better to depend on wealthy relatives

or on our own abilities? Give reasons for

your answer.

UNIT 4 JEANNIES AMBER BEADS

Summary: Jeannie is a Scottish girl living

among the Highlands. Her father is a shepherd.

She and her mother spin and weave cloth.

She has an amber necklace left to her by her

grandmother. She loves the yellowish orange

shades of beads and their fragrance. She loves to

note the insects and pine needles trapped in the

beads. She has heard that her grandfather had

found a lump of amber while looking through

the wreck of the Goshawk near his home. He

had carved out beads from the lump, taking

care to preserve the insects and bits of fern and

leaf trapped inside. He had gifted the beads to

his bride. She had worn it until she left it for

her granddaughter. So the necklace is doubly

precious to Jeannie. She looks up a book to find

out how amber is formed. She learns that, ages

ago, the Scottish Highlands had been covered

with forests. Among the trees was a kind of

pine that produced a yellowish resin. This gum

attracted insects with its fragrance and taste

and they got stuck to it. The wind blew pine

needles, acorns and leaves that stuck to the

resin. Eventually, the lumps of resin hardened to

become amber. Over time, the forests sank to the

depths of the sea and surfaced again only during

great storms. During one such storm, Jeannies

grandfather found the chunk of amber that he

carved into beads for his bride. He did not know

he was gifting his wife a phase of the evolution

in nature on his land.

Analysis: The narrative is in two parts, the

imaginative and the factual.

Theme: Nature has a way of giving us a sense of

belonging to a timeless past.

1. Why is Jeannie special? Is it because

she treasures her amber necklace or is it

because she learns about amber? Give

your reasons.

2. What do you think of the character of the

grandfather in the story?

3. Name any one item that you treasure and

write how you would learn to know more

about it.