Reading Comprehension and answering the questions || Comprehension & Developing Communication Skills in English || Bsc Agriculture

 10  Reading Comprehension and answering the

questions  

1.                      What according to Shaw are the advantages in learning to speak well?

2.                     a) What is meant by a provincial or cockney dialect?

b) Can you name some important native diale cts of English?

3.                      a) Is there such a thing as ideally correct English?

b)   Do all British speakers speak exactly alike?

c)  What are the examples cited by Shaw to prove his statement?

4.                     What are the two simplest and commonest words in English?

5.                      When can we say that somebody’s speech is acceptable?

6.                     Does Shaw offer himself as a model? What does he say about his own speech?

7.                     Does Shaw speak  to  his  wife  as  carefully  as  he  would speak to a queen?

8.                     If he were to speak tho his wife at home as carefully  as  a public

speaker  speaking  to a large audience,  what would she                                                                                             think?

9.                     When he says ‘What?’ two or three times to his wife at

breakfa

st what does she suspect?

10.                 Does Shaw advocate listening through the keyhole? Why not?

11.                   Why are home manners different from company manners?

12.                  “What o’ clock is it?” – How does his wife hear it?

13.                  Why should we adjust our speech style to the occasion? Do you do it in your own language?

 

 

14.                 a)   Why    does    Shaw  urge   foreigners   not to try to speak English perfectly?

b)      Do you think it is sound  advice?  Is  he  speaking  with  his

tongu

e in his cheek?

c)     Can you mention a play that  Shaw  wrote  to  prove  his point                                                                          of

view?

15.                  a) “In London nine  hundred  and  ninety  nine  out  of every thousand people not only speak bad English but speak even that very badly.”

- Can you explain  what  it

means?

b) “Even among English  people, to  speak  well  is  a pedantic affectation. “_ What does it mean? Why?

 

Guess the intended meaning

Write out the sentence under each statement that correctly explains the meaning of the italicized expression or expressions.

1.                     “I am afraid you must put up with me.” (Paragraph 1)

                           Shaw is frightened and he is taking you to stay with him.

                           He politely says that you must tolerate his way of speaking.

2.                   “That is good enough of her.” (Para 7)

                             That is all that is necessary or

                               needed. She deserves only

that.

3.                   “He will suspect you of being a beggar or a confidence trickster.” (para 8)

 

 

4.                   _____________ In a foreigner it is something worse than an affection.

                                It is something worse than a kindly feeling.

                                  It is something worse than being unnatural or pretending to be genuine

.

 

The responses in the following conversation are those of a person whose knowledge of  English  is  very  elementary.  Do  you  think  Shaw  will approve of the responses? Rewrite the responses in good English.

 

A: Where were you born? B: I born on ship.

A: What was the name of the ship?

B: I not know.

A: What nationality was your mother? B: She French.

A: Where is your mother now? B: She die.

A: Who is your father? B: I not know him.

A: Did your mother tell you about him? B: He English. A seaman I never see.

A: W hen did your mother die?

B: Excuse _ I not know.

A: Do you know how old your were when your

mother died? B: I six year old.

44                                                    

A: Afterwards, who looked after you? B: I take care myself.

A: Can you read and write? B: I write name.

 

(From Arthur Hailey’s ‘In High Places)

 

 

In the following  sentences  the  meaning   intended  is  not  clear.  Can you rewrite the sentences so that the meaning intended is made clear?

(Some clues are given to help you.)

1.                                  He killed the man with a stick. (How? Who?)

2.                                I went to my villa ge to sell and land  along  with  my  wife.  (What was to                                                                                        be

sold?)

3.                              The committee’s appointment was not satisfactory. (What was not satisfactory?)

4.                                Do not go other shops to be disappointed, but come to us. (For What?)

5.                                Would you like to try on that dress in the window? (Where? What?)

6.                                He loves his dog more than his wife. (Who loves who?)

 

7.                                    I have smoked one of your cigarettes,  and  shall  in future  smoke no

others. (gave up smoking)

8.                               The college may refuse admission to anyone they think proper. (Who                                                                                               may

be effused admission?)

9.                                     The report that the students were reading annoyed the warden.

(What

were they reading?)

10.                                Jim curse the day he was born. (When? What?)

 

The following expressions are used in the Indian variety of English. Can you put them in Standard British English?

1.                                  The meeting was pre-poned.

2.                               The matter will be referred to the concerned ministry.

3.                               Why you came late to the class?

4.                               They are having three cars.

5.                                Look at the alphabets of English.

6.                               Go and enjoy.

7.                                In find it difficult to make by both ends meet.

8.                              You may be knowing that officer.

9.                               We are living here since 1970.

10.                       Newspaper advertisement: “Wanted a Non-vegetarian Cooker 45 years old

 

Shaw was outraged by the irrational spelling of English. He said,  “My surname has two sounds; but  I  have  to  spell  it  with  four letters: another 100 percent loss of time, labour, ink, and paper. The Russians can spell it with tow letters, as they have an alphabet of

35 letters. In the  race  of  civilization,  what  chance  has  a  power  that cannot spell so simple a sound as Shaw against a  rival  that can?”

1.   Can you suggest simpler ways of writing the following words?

a)   enough                b) queue       c) should      d) love e)

f) finally                  g) quality     h) photo       i) all right

 

2.       Indian  English  as  it  is  spoken  is  highly  influenced  by  the   spelling. There are people who pronounce the following  words  as they are written. Can you say how they are to be pronounced? Psychology, summer, plumber, subtle, bottle,  bomb,  colonel, drought.

 

3.       Think of your first language (i.e your mother  tongue).  Do you think all those who speak it speak exactly alike? Are there  variations  among individuals? Are there variations between two speakers of your first language? Are the speech habits identical? Similar?  Can you point out some variations in accent, in the use of words, etc., between individuals, regions, and social classes?

 

4.       Think of your first language. Do you adjust  your speech style  to  the occasion?

Can you give some examples?

 

Notes

 

 

This lesson is a Gramphone recording for the Linguaphone  Institute given by

George Bernard Shaw, a well known personality in the history of world literature.

 

Shaw here emphasis the point that there is no such thing as ideally corre ct English and no two Britishers speak English exactly in  the  same  manner.  He says that because of his rich experience as a public speaker and also as a play  wright he was appointed by  the British  Broadcasting  Corporation  as  a member of a committee whose main aim was to develop a model of correct English speech for the British Islands. The Committee was chaired by a poet Laureate who was also an artist and his materials are the sounds  of  Spoken English,  and  a specialist in pronunciation Johnston Forebes Robertson, a well  known  actor known for the beauty of speech was also  a  member  of  this  committee  which  was hetrogenous blend of Krish, Scottish, Welsh, Oxford  and  American  members. All theses members could be recognized by their difference in speech and hence we can’t conclude that they spoke English correctly. They, of course Spoken English presentably which is easy  to  comprehend.  Imitating  them  would make us persons of good social standing.  It  is also  astonishing  to note  that this committee sometimes did not agree to the usage and pronunciation of most of the simple and common words of English.

Shaw says that the two commonest words  in English  are ‘Yes’  and ‘No’.  But no two members of the committee pronounce them exactly alike.  Yet there  are  some  people who find   delight  in  avoiding  them.  Shaw  points  out   that good  effort  is  needed  to  comprehend  or  to  follow   words,   syllable   by  syllable. He says that he is speaking carefully to an audience of thousands of gramphonists. But if he  speaks  carelessly  as  he  speaks  to  his  wife,  the  audience can’t  make  out,  and  at  the  same  time  if   he   speaks  carefully  at  home, his wife thinks that he has gone mad.

 

The usage of English differs from  situation  to  situation.  One  would indeed  be  labeled mad  or  insane  if  one  talks  to   his   wife   in   the   same manner as he does at  a Gramphone  recoding  and  vice  - versa.  Shaw,  in a  lighter sense, asks us to be careful even while speaking to wife and the conversation between a husband and wife should be like a conversation  between  a King and a Queen. Unfortunately that doesn’t happen with all of us.

 

Shaw classifies manners into two types namely Company Manners and Home Manners which also vary according to the situation. Family

members do

 

not speak among themselves in the manner as they do on  ordinary  occasions when they are in the presence of an outsider. Shaw further adds by citing an example of ‘key hole moral’ the listener gets surprised to note the difference between two situations. The difference is greater  in  speech  than  in  anything else.

 

Foreigners need not speak English perfectly if they want  to  travel  in  England and if they are wise  to be understood  these.  Even  if they  do so, they  will not be understood since a vast majority in London speaks bad English. If a foreigner speaks perfect  Englis h, he/she  will be suspected  of being  a beggar  or a confidence trickster. Speaking  English  too  well  is  in  fact  a  pedantic affectation. George Bernard Shaw further mentions  that  the  stranger,  hears  every syllable distinctly when he asks him  what  O’  Clock  is  it?  But  his  wife  hears it as “Cloxst”, because it is good enough for her but not to the listener.

Shaw emphasizes that there is no such thing as perfectly correct English  and there is presentable English which we  call  “Good  English”.  In  London, Shaw points out that Nine hundred ninety nine out of  every  thousand  people don’t only speak bad English but speak  even  that  very  badly.  They  neither  speak it correctly nor be understood when it is well spoken. He suggests the foreigners, to speak with a foreign accent, and speak broken English, that is English without grammar. Then, the native understands the foreigner and try to understand and gets ready to help.

 

The native  never  expects  the  foreigner  to  be  polite  and  to  use  elaborate grammatical phrases. Shaw cites an example ie.,

“Will you have the goodness sir, to direct me to the railway terminus at charing cross”

 

But if the foreigner shouts

“Please! Charing Cross! Which way!”

the stranger would have no difficulty, responding to it half a dozen people will immediately over whelm to help.

 

If any foreigner requests the native, pronouncing all the vowels and consonants  beautifully,   how   will   not   understand,   and   would   suspect   him to be a beggar or a confidence trickster.

 

Finally, G.B. Shaw suggests us that  one  must  not  speak  too  well  even with cultivated people, during private inter course  also.  While  dispelling  the fears of foreigners with regard to the language G.B. Shaw says that little

 

knowledge is adequate to travel England, and adds that to speak too well is a pedantic affectation, even among English people.  G.B.  Shaw  says  that  is  an  insult to the native who can’t understand his own language when it is too well spoken.

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