CLZ4N

Foundation English
(II Year IV Semester)

Unit No. : 1-4

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Unit 1: Six One-Act Plays

1. Five at ―The George‖ Stuart Ready
2. The Bishop‘s Candlesticks Norman McKinnell
3. Wurzel-Flummery A.A. Milne
4. Hewers of Coal Joe Corrie
5. Old Man River Dorothy Deming
6. The Two Corporals Val Gielgud

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The Bishop‘s Candlesticks

– Norman McKinnell
 The play is about acts of kindness
towards fellow human beings.

The story revolves around a Bishop

who believes helping his congregation
is superior to all material wealth.

The Bishop analyses the root of

poverty and pain which leads to
negativity in people.
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The convict who enters the

Bishop‘s house is touched by the
Bishop‘s selfless kindness.

For the first time in many years,

he opens his heart and shares his
emotions with the Holy Man.

However, he steals the Bishop‘s

silver candlesticks in a struggle
between good versus evil.

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 The play teaches us that

―Kindness has the Power to Change Hearts‖
It creates a better future.

Norman McKinnel (1870-1932) was an actor

and playwright.
This play is an adaptation of Victor Hugo‘s Les
Miserables

Bishop‘s Candlesticks

Bishop‘s Candlesticks – A One-Act Play

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The Two Corporals – Val Gielgud

 In The Two Corporals, the
curtain rises on Napoleon‘s
Tomb at Les Invalides.

 It was in the evening of a

day in the first week of June
1940 - Flags of the Grand
Army.

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 It has the two tyrants belonging to different

periods of history.
 It is assumed that they both meet and talk of
their goals in life.

 It gives us a picture of two different dictators with

different traits in their characters.
 Napoleon Bonaparte has learnt the bitter truth of
reality while Adolf Hitler has to learn his lesson.

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Val Henry Gielgud (1900–1981) was an

English actor, writer, director and broadcaster.
He was a pioneer of radio drama for the BBC.

Adolf Hitler – Life and Secrets

Napoleon Bonaparte

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Wurzel-Flummery – A.A. Milne

 Would a man give up his name, his
identity, for money and for love?
 This is the issue handled in Wurzel-
Flummery.
Two MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT are
given the option to change their names to
Wurzel-Flummery in exchange for a huge
inheritance.
 The play is a mild political satire and
attacks politicians for their love for money.

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 Wurzel, in German, means ‗cause‘ or

‗source‘ and Flummery, in Welsh, means
‗silliness‘ and ‗humbug‘.
At the time of the play, England was facing
serious political problems and changes in
cabinet.

A.A.Milne makes fun of the theatre by

describing characters and reading letters aloud
using an unnatural intonation and vocabulary.

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 Alan Alexander Milne (1882-1956), also

known as A.A. Milne, was a British author.

 He was a humorist for Punch, then a

playwright and screenwriter.
 He is best known for his books about the
teddy bear, Winnie-the-Pooh.

Wurzel-Flummery
Wurzel-Flummery – Audio Book

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Old Man River – Dorothy Deming

 The author pictures life in
times of crisis.

The play has a singularity of

purpose and deals with the
central idea of security.

The play deals with floods and

the fear of the characters.

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 A group of children find themselves

alone at home during heavy rains and
flooding of the river.

The play focuses on the importance of

acting during a crisis and First-Aid
awareness.

The children help one another and stay

calm till help arrives.

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 The significant role played by Red Cross is

also highlighted in this play.
Dorothy Deming

A Flooded House

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Hewers of Coal – Joe Corrie

 Four men and a boy are trapped at
the coal face in a 1930s mining
disaster.

The play shows human nature both at

its best and worst.

The play elucidates that coworkers

and supervisors should be empathetic
towards their own problems.

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 The characters are a perfect

cross-section of what one would
find in a mine:
Dick, understanding, sympathetic
and full of kindness
 Billie, young innocent kid forced
to work for this suffering family
 Peter, a handyman doing odd
jobs, selfish and uncooperative
 Bob, the gaffer, bossy and hard-
hearted and unfriendly
 Joe, hungry, exhausted and
desperate
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Joe Corrie (1894-1968) was a

Scottish miner, poet and
playwright best known for his
radical, working class plays.

Joe Corrie himself was working

in the coal mines.
Hence, he was well attuned to
the problems faced by miners.
Dangers in Mining Coal
Thus, the play depicts perfectly
Hewers of Coal – Ewan MacColl Song
a time of crisis in the depths of
coal mines.

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Five at ―The George‖ - Stuart Ready

 A murder mystery revolving around
five friends. The George

The play realms on guilt and justice.

With no conclusive evidence on who

murdered Colonel Foster, it is for the
murderer to accept his guilt.

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Crewsworth, Sussex
 The story is set in Crewsworth, Sussex.

All five friends become suspects as the

probable reason for the crime is analysed.

Human emotions such as jealousy, greed

and love are addressed.

―What would push a man to murder his

friend‖ is the question to be answered.

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Unit 2: Short Stories

1. Comrades Nadine Gordimer
2. Games at Twilight Anita Desai
3. The Gateman‘s Gift R.K. Narayan
4. The Open Window H.H. Munro (Saki)
5. Some Words with a Mummy Edgar Allan Poe
6. The Ant and the Grasshopper W. Somerset Maugham

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Comrades – Nadine Gordimer

In the story, a white liberal
woman befriends a group of
black protestors and provides
them with food.
 It was unusual to have this
kind of friendship during the
Apartheid System where the
whites and the Coloureds were
segregated.

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The title ''Comrades'' is ironical as the friendship between those two races,
Europeans and Africans, was forbidden during the Apartheid system.
The friendship is uneasy at first as they try to break out of their stereotypical
thinking.
Protesters

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The contrast between the

European and African cultural
backgrounds through the use of
contrasting language and diction is
presented.
The blacks lack basic
commodities in contrast to the Affluent House of the Whites
woman's wealthy house.
Black Ghetto Childhood Denied
Essentials such as education is
also denied to the Blacks.
―They are children…for whom
school is a battleground‖.

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Nadine Gordimer (1923-2014) was a South

African writer, political activist and recipient of
the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Gordimer's writing dealt with moral and racial
issues, particularly apartheid in South Africa.

Nadine Gordimer
Nadine Gordimer on Racism

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Games at Twilight – Anita Desai

The story deals with an afternoon
of the summer when few Indian
children play ‗Hide and seek‘.
Ravi, one of the youngest children
of the story, decides to find the
‗perfect‘ hiding spot.
Finding it in a shed, he hides
throughout the game until all the
others have been caught.

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 Ravi finally revealed himself to

the others reaching ‗Den‘ after the
game had finished.

However, the other children did

not care, they had forgotten him.

The story concludes when Ravi

finally realizes how insignificant he
is.

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Through this simple concept of kids at play, the author delves into the
psychology of children‘s world.

Anita Desai (1937-) is an Indian novelist

and the Emerita Professor of Humanities
at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.
As a writer she has been shortlisted for
the Booker Prize three times.

Games at Twilight
Games at Twilight – A Reading

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The Gateman‘s Gift – R.K. Narayan

In Gateman‘s Gift by R.K. Narayan
we have the theme of fear, paralysis,
insecurity, suffering, social opinion,
pride and identity.
The protagonist, Govind Singh,
worked for twenty-five years of good
and clean service as the gateman (a
door keeper).
Singh is proud of his job as a
Gateman. He is happy to have some
responsibility and to get paid for it too.
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After retirement, Govind Singh enjoys

making clay models for children and friends.

He soon makes it a practice of taking his

models to the people at office when he
goes to get his pension.
One day he gathers up all his courage
and gifts his model to his ex-employer.

In a few weeks for the first time in his life, he

gets a certified letter. He is afraid to open it.

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So crippling is Singh‘s fear that he

believes himself to be going mad.

The end of the story despite the

praises of his boss, Singh gives up
making clay models.

This loss of interest highlights just how

overpowering the fear is for Singh.

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 R.K. Narayan (1906-2001) was
TM

an Indian writer known for his

works set in the fictional South
Indian town of Malgudi.

He has been compared

to William Faulkner who also
created a similar fictional town.

 Narayan's short stories have

been compared with those of Guy
de Maupassant because of his The Gateman‘s Gift
ability to compress a narrative. Malgudi Days in English – R.K. Narayan
R.K.Narayan - Biography
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The Open Window – H.H.Munro (Saki)

Eccentric hypochondriac Mr. Nuttel
visits the country at the urging of his
doctor.

He meets Vera when he arrives at the

home of his new hosts, the Sappletons.

Vera is an imaginative and articulate

girl of 15, who loves to spin yarns.

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She frightens Mr. Nuttel with a lie

about her uncle and his two brothers-in-
law drowning in a bog.

She goes on to say that ever since,

her aunt has been mentally disturbed
waiting for them to return.

When the men walk toward the house,

Mr. Nuttel thinks they're ghosts and
flees the house immediately.

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Vera lies about his reasons for leaving,

claiming that he was once attacked by dogs in
India and is afraid of the Sappletons' spaniel
because of it.

The Open Window

 The Open Window – Audio

Hector Hugh Munro (1870-

1916) was a witty British author
who published under the pen
name SAKI or H.H. Munro.

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Some Words With A Mummy

– Edgar Allan Poe
This story is a satire of two
things.
First, the popular interest
in Egyptology and mummies during
the time that this story was written.
Second, the prevailing thought
that in the West humanity had
reached the height of civilization
and knowledge due to the scientific
and industrial revolutions.

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In the story a group of men gather together in

the middle of the night to examine a mummy for
the sake of "scientific discovery".
During their examination they act like a group
of children that just got a new toy.

In their discussion with Allamistakeo, the men

attempt to exalt their time as one of
unprecedented knowledge and technology.
Again and again, Allamistakeo is able to prove
that the technology in his time was not inferior,
and often superior, to the modern equivalents.
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Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an

American writer, editor, and literary critic.

Poe is best known for his poetry and short

stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the
macabre.

Some Words with a Mummy – Audio

A Stage Performance

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Ant and the Grasshopper

– Somerset Maugham
La Fontaine‘s story tells of a
hardworking ant that works his whole
life in order to save for his old age.
The grasshopper, an easy-going
creature, spends his life, laid-back,
with a philosophy that life is what it is.
At the end of the story, the ant has
resources saved that help him in his
old age, while the grasshopper ends
up miserable and lonely.

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Somerset Maugham, in his short

story, presents a philosophical
alternative to the fairytale.
Man does not always get his just
reward. Those who stand and wait
may never reach the front of the
line.
Good and evil, reward and
punishment, are not connected
logically or fairly.

Hardworking man loses money

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William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)

was a British playwright, novelist and short
story writer.
He was among the most popular writers of his
era.

The Ant and the Grasshopper – The Fable

The Ant and the Grasshopper by Somerset Maugham – Audiobook
Interview with Somerset Maugham

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 Unit – III
Scenes from Shakespeare:
1. Merchant of Venice - Quality of Mercy
2. Julius Caesar - Antony's Funeral
Oration
3. Macbeth – Murder Scene

Prose:
1. Little Girls are Wiser than Men - Leo
Tolstoy
2. The Last Clock - James Thurber
3. How far is the River – Ruskin Bond

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 Merchant of Venice - Lines
TM

on Quality of Mercy
 Portia demands Shylock
be merciful.

 ―The quality of mercy is

not strain‘d, It droppeth as
the gentle rain from
heaven/Upon the place
beneath‖
 Portia makes an appeal to
Shylock to leave Antonio‘s
life. PORTIA

 As we all pray and plead to God for mercy, to be merciful and kind towards
us.

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 Portia insists on convincing him to be
TM

merciful as God is merciful toward us.

 Seeking justice without showing mercy,

Shylock could face damnation, because by
doing this he would disobey the law of God.

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 The Merchant of Venice, dir. Michael
TM

Radford (2004): The Quality of Mercy

 Laura Carmichael as Portia: 'The

quality of mercy' | Shakespeare Solos

 The Merchant of Venice, dir. Jonathan

Miller (1973): The quality of mercy

 Merchant of VENICE-【Full Movie】

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Julius Caesar - Antony's

Funeral Oration
 The speech could serve as a thematic
synopsis to Julius Caesar.

 His speech continually praises Brutus as "an

honourable man" who has killed Caesar for
being ambitious yet also describes Caesar as
the most honourable and generous of men.

 In this way, Antony appears to praise his

friend while respecting the men who
murdered him, when in fact, Antony is inciting
the crowd against Brutus, Cassius and the
conspirators.

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 He shows them the stab wounds and names

the conspirators who gave Caesar the
wounds.

 The crowd starts to surge away in anarchy,

crying, "Revenge! About! Seek! Burn!

 Charlton Heston Mark Antony speech

"Julius Caesar" (1970)

 Marc Antony funeral oration from "Julius

Caesar"

 Julius Caesar. HD Full Movie#1

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 Macbeth – Murder Scene TM

 Lady Macbeth suffers none of her

husband's uncertainty and wishes
him to murder Duncan in order to
obtain kingship.

 She successfully persuades him to

kill the king that very night.

 Macbeth and Lady Macbeth plan to

get Duncan's two chamberlains
drunk so that they will black out; the
next morning they will blame the
chamberlains for the murder. They
will be defenceless as they will
remember nothing.

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 Macbeth - Act 1, Scene 7

Summary

 Macbeth • Act 1 Scene 7 •

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth

 MACBETH // FULL MOVIE

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 LITTLE GIRLS ARE WISER
TM

THAN MEN
- Leo Tolstoy
 “Wisdom of Children", translated as Little
Girls Wiser than Men, is a short story by
Russian author Leo Tolstoy first published in
1885.

 Leo Tolstoy was a great writer. Tolstoy was

a man of peace. He wrote many good
stories. Each story has a valuable moral.

 It takes the form of a parable about

forgiveness.

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―Grownups learn from

children‖
 Both Malasha and Akoulya forgot about their
quarrel. They became friends again. They
moved away from the fighting crowd.

 They started floating paper boats in the

running water.

 Children forget and forgive very easily. The

elders learnt this lesson from the little girls.

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 Little Girls Wiser Than Men by Leo Tolstoy

 Little girls Wiser Than Men -Audiobook

―Children are wiser‖

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The Last Clock –

James Thurber
 James Grover Thurber,
American cartoonist, author,
journalist, playwright and celebrated
wit.

 One of the most

popular humorists of his time,
Thurber celebrated the comic
frustrations and eccentricities of
ordinary people.

 Thurber is unique among major

literary figures for his drawings,
cartoons, short-stories and fables.

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  An Ogre eats all the clocks and watches.
TM

 The whole community that depends on

clocks getting paralyzed.

 The story is a mild satire relating to the follies

of our civilization.

 How we helplessly depend on mechanical,

digital gadgets and devices.

Ogre

OGRE & OGRESS

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 He critiques modern man‘s Time-driven life.
TM

Time or the clock rules are lives- take it away

and our lives will fall to pieces- we might
even become extinct!

 Contemporary man is obsessed with

technology. We are always wanting to
research and create new branches of
knowledge. To describe this new knowledge,
we require new terminology. Thurber helps
us laugh at our own verbal creativity.

 The last clock: a fable for the time (Prose)

 James Thurber Interview

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How Far is the River

-Ruskin Bond
 Ruskin Bond is an award winning Indian
author of British descent.

 Renowned for his role in promoting

children‘s literature in India. A prolific writer,
he has written over 500 short stories, essays
and novels.

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 One day the boy got the rare chance to fulfil
TM

his desire as his parents were away

 He packed his food, locked the doors and

set off towards the river.

 Finally, after the ordeal, the boy turned a

sharp bend and the silence broke into sound.
It was the sound of the rushing roaring river.
The river has been said to ‗tumble over
rocks, fast and frenzied, far down in the
valley’.

The Boy‘s Desire

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 The first thing that we learn is ‗never give up‘.
TM

The boy was so determined that he did not

falter

 The path was silent, and at one point he

became discouraged. Since he had already
come half-way and he had waited so long to
see and touch the river, he didn‘t give up.

Never give up
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 The stories by the villagers who had been to
TM

the river were the key reinforcement of the

‗will‘ to go and see the river himself.

 The stories helped the boy picture the river in

his mind and he was able to imagine a
beautiful river which led him to make the
journey and see his imagination come true

 How far is the river by Ruskin Bond

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Frequently Asked Questions

 Do you agree with the author that girls are

wiser than men ? Elaborate.
 How did the absence of clocks impact the
town?
 What happened during the Council meeting
about the crisis in ―The Last Clock‖?
 Narrate the experiences of the boy in search
of the river.

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Unit IV: Writing Exercise

1. Letter Writing (Formal & Informal)

2. Précis Writing

3. Paraphrasing

4. Comprehension

5. Report Writing

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 Letter Writing
TM

(Formal & Informal)

 Letter writing is an essential skill. Despite
the prevalence of emails and text messages,
everyone has to write letters at some point.

 Letters of complaint, job applications, thank

you letters, letters requesting changes or
making suggestions.

 Encouraging children to write letters from an

early age will improve their communication,
social and handwriting skills,

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Formal Letter

Structure:
 The senders address is put at the top right
hand side.
 The address of the person receiving the letter
goes on the left hand side below the sender's
address, the date.
 Greeting — Dear Sir or Madam. You can use
the titles Miss, Mrs. or Mr. if you know the name
of the person to whom you are writing, the
message.
 Complimentary close — Yours faithfully or
Yours sincerely.
 Signature: Write name in block letters.

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 Informal Letter
TM

 These are letters to friends and relations,

or people you know well.

Structure:
 The sender's address should always
appear on the top right hand corner of the
page.
 Include telephone number and email if
available.
 Greeting — There are several variations
that can be used depending on how well
you know the person: Dear Mary, Hi Mary,
Greetings.
 Complimentary close — short comment,
for example Love, Lots of love, With
thanks, See you soon.

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 Writing Letters: formal & informal English

 Formal Letter Writing | CBSE writing Official

Letters | Writing Applications | Sample Letters

 English- How to Easily Write a Letter (Writing

Skills #1 )

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Précis Writing
 A précis is a summary, it is the gist of a
passage expressed in as few words as
possible.

 A précis should give all essential points so

that anyone reading it will be able to
understand the idea expressed in the original
passage.

 Précis writing is different from paraphrasing.

In a paraphrase you should give all the
details: you should not leave out any details.

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Rules for Précis Writing

 To write an effective précis, read the passage
several times for a full understanding. Note
key points. It may, in fact, be helpful to
underline these words.

 Do not use abbreviations or contractions.

When writing about history, use the past
tense.

 Finally, check your précis against the original

to be sure that it is exact and retains the
order, proportions, and relationships of the
original.

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Don'ts in a Précis:
 Do not express your own opinion, wish,
remark or criticism.
 Do not insert any question in your précis. Its  Précis Writing

significance, if essential, may be expressed  Précis writing skill

by a statement. part-1

 Do not use abbreviations or contractions.

 Do not be jerky. This suggests that most
probably, you have not understood the sense
of the passage properly.

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PARAPHRASING

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 Paraphrasing: The Basic Steps

 How to Paraphrase

 Paraphrasing Techniques

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Comprehension
 It tests the ability of the student to understand the contents of the passage
and to inter information from it.
 The aim of comprehension is to measure and improve student's ability to
read and understand.
 Therefore, it is essential that student should be able to express his ideas
clearly, precisely and in good language.

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Some useful tips:

 First read the contents of the passage quickly to get a fairly

good idea and then slowly to grasp the meaning of the
passage.

 Understand the question. Read the relevant part of the

content in the passage and then write it in your own
language.

 The answer to the question should be brief and to the point.

 You can also answer using an expression taken from the

passage, but it is always preferable to write answer in your
own words, which should be precise and neat.

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 Do not ever copy from the passage without understanding.

 Refer to the dictionary wherever you have misconnects

about the meanings of terms, which may lead to wrong
interpretations.

 Bites of English : Reading Comprehension

 Reading Comprehension in English

 4 Strategies to Master Reading Comprehension

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 Report Writing
TM

 A report is written for a clear purpose and to

a particular audience. Specific information
and evidence are presented.

 The information is presented in a clearly

structured format making use of sections and
headings.

 Aim for a writing style that is direct and

precise.

 Avoid waffle and make your points clearly

and concisely.

 Chapters, sections and even individual

paragraphs should be written with a clear
structure.

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 The structure is described below:
TM

 Introduce the main idea of the

chapter/section/paragraph

 Explain and expand the idea, defining any

key terms.

 Present relevant evidence to support your

point(s).

 Comment on each piece of evidence

showing how it relates to your point(s).

 Conclude your chapter / section / paragraph

by either showing its
significance to the report as a whole or
making a link to the next chapter / section /
paragraph.

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 TM

content: font size 20

 Report Writing

 English Lesson: Learn Report Writing

 Report Writing Structure

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