English 9 Unit 12 Three Days to See

UNIT 12

THREE DAYS TO SEE

TEXT

1. Sometimes, I have thought that it would be an excellent rule to live each day as if we should die tomorrow. Such an attitude would emphasize sharply the values of life. We should live each day with gentleness, vigour, and a keenness of appreciation which is often lost when time stretches before us in the constant panorama of more days and months and years to come. There are those, of course, who would adopt the epicurean motto of "eat, drink, and be merry" but most people would be chastened by the certainty of impending death.

2. In stories, the doomed hero is usually saved at the last minute by some stroke of fortune, but almost always his sense of values is changed. He becomes more appreciative of the meaning of life and its permanent spiritual values. It has often been noted that those who live, or have lived, in the shadow of death bring a mellow sweetness to everything they do.

3. Perhaps I can best illustrate by imagining what I should most like to see if I was  given the use of my eyes, say for just three days.

4. On the first day, I should want to see the people whose kindness, gentleness and companionship have made my life worth living.

5. The next day - the second day of sight -1 should arise with the dawn and see the thrilling miracle by which night is transformed into day. I should behold with awe the magnificent panorama of life with which the sun awakens the sleeping earth.

6. This day I should devote to a hasty glimpse of the world, past and present. I should want to see the pageant of man's progress, the kaleidoscopic of the ages. How can so much be compressed into one day? Through the museums, of course?

7. The following morning I should greet the dawn, anxious to discover, new delights, for I am sure that, for those who have eyes which really see, the dawn of each day must be perfectly new revelation of beauty. This according to the terms of my miracle is to be my third and last day of sight.

8. I shall have no time to waste in regret for longing; there is so much to see. The first day I devoted to my friends, animate and inanimate. The second revealed to me the history of man and nature. Today I shall spend in the workaday world of the present, amid the haunts of men going about the business of life. And where can one find so many activities and conditions of men as in New York? So the city becomes my destination.

9. Now and then I have tested my seeing friends to discover what they see. Recently, I was visited by a very good friend who had just returned from a long walk in the woods, I asked her what she had observed. "Nothing in particular," she replied. I might have been incredulous had I not been accustomed to such responses, for long ago I became convinced that the seeing see little.

10. How was it possible, I asked myself, to walk for an hour in the woods and see nothing worthy of note? I who cannot see can find hundreds of things to interest me through mere touch. I feel the delicate symmetry of a leaf. I pass my hands lovingly about the smooth skin of a silver birch, or the rough shaggy bark of a pine. In spring, I touch the branches of trees hopefully in search of a bud, the first sign of awakening Nature after her winter's sleep. I feel the delightful, velvety texture of a flower, and discover its remarkable convolutions; and something of the miracle of Nature is revealed to me. Occasionally, if I am fortunate, I place my hand gently on a small tree and feel

A. Answer the following:

1. Who was Helen Keller?

2. Describe the thought expressed by the author in the first paragraph.

3. What makes you feel that the author is sad and depressed?

4. How do you get an impression that Hellen Keller was a great admirer of Nature?

5. People who are deprived of sight not devoid of imagination. Discuss, referring to the text.

6. "To me the pageant of seasons is an unending drama", Comment.

B. Encircle the option that relates to the text.

i) apparently means

a) obviously         b) as it appears      c) clearly

ii) manifold means

a) different types  b) many layers       c) an object

iii) quiver means

a) to demonstrate b) to shake slightly c) to act amusingly

A. Complete the following conditionals.

1. If I were the education minister 

2. If you had a degree  

3. you would get first position

4. If he stopped smoking 

5. We could win the match

C. Match the halves to make complete sentences.

If you had not drunk water from that well your teeth would go bad.

If you eat sweets all the time you might hit somebody's head.

If you don't use a mosquito net you may fa II off.

If you don't keep food in the fridge you may catch malaria.

If you cycle with things in your hand it will go bad in hot weather.

If you wave the stick in the air you wouldn't have fallen in.

E. Identify and write the simple, compound and complex sentence in the given column.

He came to see me, but I was not present at home.

She wrote an article in the newspaper.

We shall die one day or the other for we are immortal.

They finished the work in time.

My mother always prays for my success.

They serve God well who serve His creatures.

I called him but he gave me no answer.

A guest who stays a long time is not welcomed.

I soon returned home because I was upset.

F. Identify hyphens and dashes in the following sentences and mark in the relevant box.

1. The injured woman is thirty-five years old.

2. You are the friend - the only friend - who offered to help me.

3. This is very important-are you listening to me?

4. Samina ate three-quarters of a large size pizza.

5. Mr. Aziz is a well-known person in town.

6. We went to USA- and met a very old friend there.

7. My neighbour wanted us - my daughter, my son and me - to meet her

guests.

8. My great-grandfather owned a big house in his home town.