BEGLA-137 Language through Literature Solved Assignment 2022-2023

BEGLA-137 Language through Literature Solved Assignment 2022-2023

BEGLA-137: Language through Literature
Assignment July, 2022 & January, 2023 Sessions
(Based on Blocks 1 – 4)
Max. Marks: 100

Answer all questions.
1. Discuss the relationship between Language and Literature. Also comment on how
the literary language is different from ordinary language. (20)
2. Read the whole of the poem Baby Running Barefoot by D.H. Lawrence given below and
try to answer the questions given at the end. (10)
When the white feet of the baby beat across the grass
The little white feet nod like white flowers in a wind,
They poise and run like puffs of wind that pass
Over water where the weeds are thinned.
And the sight of their white playing in the grass
Is winsome as a robin’s song, so fluttering;
Or like two butterflies that settle on a glass
Cup for a moment, soft little wing-beats uttering.
And I wish that the baby would tack across here to me
Like a wind-shadow running on a pond, so she could
stand With two little bare white feet upon my knee
And I could feel her feet in either hand.
Cool as syringa buds in morning hours,
Or firm and silken as young peony flowers.
(a) What is the picture that comes to your mind when you read the poem?
(b) Make a list of the similes used by the poet.
(c) How do the similes make the description more vivid to us?
3. Insert appropriate modal auxiliaries in the blanks. The required meanings are given in
brackets: (10)
i) You …………… do as you are told. (strong obligation: tone of command)
ii) Children ……………be very noisy. (theoretical possibility)
iii) As a child, I. …………… recite the whole of Gita. (general ability in the past)
iv) He ………….. be very annoyed with me to write a letter like that. (a necessary
conclusion from evidence)
v) He was so weak he …………. n’t even raise his hand. (general ability in the past)
vi) You …………….. consult a specialist if you want to. (permission)
vii) He …………… smoke heavily. (habit in the past)
–3–
viii) He …………….. come tomorrow. (weak possibility)
ix) ‘ ……….. I order a coffee for you?’ (offer)
x) ‘…………. you mind opening the door?’ (polite request)
4. Make five words using each prefix ‘pre’ and ‘non’. (10)
5. Make five words using each suffix ‘ism’ and ‘ship’. (10)
6. Put the bracketed verb in the correct form in the following sentences and identify the verb
phrase type: (10)
i) He is (sing). __________________
ii) Arun may be (expel). _____________________________________
iii) He has (accept) his mistake. ________________________________
iv) You ought (accept) your mistake. ____________________________
v) Arun has been (watch) the game for two hours. ________________
vi) This song has already been (sing) twice._____________________
vii) As a young man, I used (walk) seven miles a day. _________________
viii) He should have been (punish) for his carelessness. _________________
ix) I was (lead) to believe that the matter had (be) settled.____________________
x) This programme is (be) watched by millions of people all over the
country._____________________________
7. Read this passage from the story The Lost Child by Mulk Raj Anand and answer the
questions given at the end. (5 x 6 = 30)
It was the festival of Spring. From the wintry shades of narrow lanes and alleys emerged
a gaily clad humanity, thick as a crowd of bright-coloured rabbits issuing from a warren,
and entering the flooded sea of sparkling silver sunshine outside the city gates, sped
towards the fair. Some walked, some rode on horses, others sat, being carried in bamboo
and bullock-carts. One little boy ran between his parent’s legs, brimming over with life
and laughter, as the joyous, smiling morning, with its open greetings and unashamed
invitations to come away into the fields, full of flowers and songs.
“Come, child, come,” called his parents, as he lagged behind, arrested by the toys in the
shops that lined the way.
He hurried towards his parents, his feet obedient to their call, his eyes still lingering on
the receding toys. As he came to where they had stopped to wait for him, he could not
suppress the desire of his heart, even though he well knew the old, cold stare of refusal in
their eyes.
“I want that toy,” he pleaded.
His father looked at him red-eyed in his familiar tyrant’s way. His mother, melted by the
free spirit of the day, was tender, and giving him her finger to catch, said;
“Look, child, what is before you.”
–4–
The faint disgust of the child’s unfulfilled desire had hardly been quelled in the heavy,
pouting sob of a breath, “M—o—th—e-r”, when the pleasure of what was before him
filled him eager eyes. They had left the dusty road on which they had walked so far to
wend its weary way circuitously to the north, and had entered a footpath in a field.
It was a flowering mustard-field, pale, pale, like melting gold, as it swept across miles
and miles of even land, a river of yellow light, ebbing and falling with each fresh eddy of
wild wind, and straying at places into broad, rich tributary streams, yet running in a
constant sunny sweep towards the distant mirage of an ocean of silver light. Where it
ended, on a side stood a dense group of low, mudwalled houses put into relief both by the
lower forms of a denser crowd of yellow-robed men and women and by high-pitched
sequence of whistling, creaking, squeaking, roaring, humming noises that rose from it,
across the groves, to the blue-throated sky like the weird, strange sound of Siva’s mad
laughter.
(a) What words and phrases in the opening paragraph suggest the festive mood of the
crowd?
(b) In the first paragraph, what is the crowd of people compared to? What figure of
speech is it?
(c) Give the meanings of the following expressions:
i) a gaily clad humanity
ii) lagged behind
iii) receding toys
iv) red-eyed
v) circuitously
vi) put into relief
(d) The mustard field is compared to a river of yellow light. Write the comparison in
your own words.
(e) The whistling, creaking, squeaking, roaring, humming noises’ are likened to ‘Siva’s
mad laughter. What does this comparison suggest?
(f) What literary device has the writer adopted in the use of words such as ‘whistling’,
‘creaking’, ‘squeaking’, ‘roaring’ and ‘humming’?

BEGLA-137, BEGLA 137, BEGLA137