text book preparation for third semester

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KERALA ENGLISH
READER
STANDARD VIII
LAKSHMI S
Third Semester B.Ed
English Optional
Candidate Code: 16520983006
KUCTE, Nedumangad

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PLEDGE
India is my country. All Indians are my brothers and sisters. I
love my country, and I am proud of its rich and varied heritage.
I shall always strive to be worthy of it. I shall give my parents,
teachers and elders respect, and treat everyone with courtesy.
To my country and my people, I give my devotion. In their
well-being and prosperity alone lies my happiness.
THE NATIONAL ANTHEM
Jana-gana-mana-adhinayaka, jaya he
Bharata-bhagya-vidhata.
Punjab-Sindh-Gujarat-Maratha
Dravida-Utkala-Banga
Vindhya-Himachala-Yamuna-Ganga
Uchchala-Jaladhi-taranga.
Tava shubha name jage
Tava shubha asisa mage,
Gahe tava jaya gatha,
Jana-gana-mangala- dayaka jaya he
Bharata- bhagya-vidhata.
Jaya he, jaya he, jaya he,
Jaya jaya jaya, jaya he!

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CONSTITUTION OF INDIA
Part IV A
FUNDAMENTAL DUTIES OF CITIZENS
ARTICLE 51 A
Fundamental Duties- It shall be the duty of every citizen of India:
(a) to abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions,
the National Flag and the National Anthem;
(b) to cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle
for freedom;
(c) to uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India;
(d) to defend the country and render national service when called upon to do so;
(e) to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the
people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional
diversities; to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women;
(f) to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture;
(g) to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes,
rivers,
wild life and to have compassion for living creatures;
(h) to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and
reform;
(i) to safeguard public property and to abjure violence;
(j) to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective
activity
so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and
achievements;
(k) who is a parent or guardian to provide opportunities for education to his
child or, as the case may be, ward between age of six and fourteen years.

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UNIT 1
Mother nature

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Unit at a glance
Mother Nature
Prose
Little Nino and My Secret Beard
Poem
Warned
Learning Outcomes
▪ By leaning this unit, the learner will be able to:
▪ Read and understand a prose text.
▪ Enrich vocabulary by identifying the meaning of words
from context.
▪ Refer to dictionary or glossary to find out the meaning of
unfmilair words .
▪ Read, enjoy and appreciate poems.
▪ Communicate effectively in simple English.
▪ Enhance creatuve and critical thinking.
▪ Gather ideas on poetic craft and poetic ideas.
▪ Express opinions and share feelings with other learners

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Little Nino and My Secret
Beard
Read this autobiographical extract where Aabid Surti, a well-known water warrior
from Mumbai, plans to talk to his grandson about water conservation.
Nino is barely six, that is, if you go by his birth certificate. If
you take into account his intelligence, he is beyond most young adults and many
adults too, myself included I am 83 and he calls me DJ.
The first time I heard it, I kept wondering why he used this acronym of “Disc
Jockey”. I am an author, a painter and a cartoonist too, but I have nothing to do
with music .
So, one day I asked him, ‘Why do you call me
DJ?’
He chuckled, ‘Because you are my grandpa-
my Dada ji.’
But ‘Why not use such a Hindi word?’
To make my grandpa the DJ of 21st
century.
Ask Nino about any of his favourite subjects and his replies will amaze you for
sure. Ask him about the electronic devices in a pilot’s cabin, and he will tell you
about the airspeed indicator and the altimeter. His favourite subjects are not
only airplanes but also elevators, vehicles, computers and India n trains.
During the previous winter vacation, when the family was travelling to Delhi,
he insisted on going by the Rajdhani Express. When we got to the station the
train had already arrived at the platform. The motorman was chatting near the
engine with the guard of the train. Nino wanted to peep inside the motorman’s
cabin. We kept our luggage under our seats and I took him there.
Watching Nino keenly peeping into the interior, the
motorman was impressed and took Nino inside for a
closer look. Not only that, he explained the workings
of the controls. Then Nino asked him, ‘Is this
Rajdhani engine a WAP 5 pr WAP 7?’.
The motorman was amazed. However he was
shocked when Nino quizzed him, ‘Which engine is
used in the Duronto?’.
Why was DJ so called?
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What were Nino’s favourite
subjects?
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TO be honest, I too gawked at him in surprise. What
is the secret of Nino’s curious mind? From where
does he collect so many facts and figures? From
books, of course. Encouraged by his parents, he has
cultivated the habit of reading. Besides, Nino, at his
age, is quite familiar with the Internet. Google is his
favourite source for all the queries that arise in his
little mind. When we fail to answer him, he finds the answer via the search
engine. But his real secret is-ENQUIRY. He will never accept any answer
unless he is fully satisfied.
What interested me was this; how to motivate little Nino to save water. It hadn’t
rained much lately. A water crisis, not only in India but globally, loomed large.
Birds searching for water were dropping dead. Cows and other animals were
waiting to die in barren fields. Villagers had begun migrating towards big cities
for food and water.
I felt that, once Nino was convinced, he could inspire his school friends. I am
aware that children need to carry forward this message because they are the
future. I am also aware that this moment I open my mouth, I should be ready for
the innocent and unpredictable questions that arise in the minds of today’s
children. I would have to be fully prepared.
I decided to plan the probable questions that Nino would ask and prepare my
answers. I felt butterflies in my stomach. At this super-mature age, I felt like a
student, who, before going for his final examinations, tries to work out possible
questions.
Now, how to begin? Suppose I take him to a relaxed environment like the
nearby park and start the conversation dramatically-‘Nino, do you know, this
year a city in Africa called Cape Town has water left for only 3 months?’ He
will certainly shoot back‘So?’ I tried to foresee how thus conversation would
proceed.
‘Just imagine, Nino, for a few seconds. If we find out
there will be no water in our lakes in three months,
what will happen to the millions of Mumbaikars?’
‘Nothing.’
‘What! Nothing?’
‘Yes, nothing. We will get bottled water to drink.’
What, according to his
grandfather was Nino’s real
secret?
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Why did DJ want to convince Nino
to save water?
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‘But all citizens cannot afford it. Besides, we need water for bathing, washing
clothes, cooking, gardening…’
‘But why worry now? When we came to know that a few months of water is left
in our lakes, we will find a way out. Right now we are getting water 24 hours a
day.’
I finally decided to approach this issue during our walk around the garden. I
imagined our conversation.
‘ My dear Nino, water scarcity is such a complicated
problem that you have to be ready much in advance.
Haven’t you heard your grandmother say, “when the
house is on fire, it’s futile to begin digging a well”?
‘You mean we should start digging a well in our
compound today itself?’
‘In many villages NGOs have already started digging lakes, cleaning rivers and
making check dams to capture rainwater that flows away to the sea.’
‘But DJ, we live in Mumbai, a big city with tall towers…’
‘You are absolutely right Sonny, we live in a tall tower and we cannot dig wells.
We can, instead, create space for water harvesting. For your information, the
secretary and the committee members of our housing society have already
started working on it.’
Once he was with me so far, I could give him some
idea about water harvesting. It simply means
collecting rainwater and keeping it for later use. I
would then come down to the very basics: how an
individual can save a few drops of water and make
a big difference.
Nino’s school bus dropped him in the evening at its usual time. From the
balcony of our apartment on the seventh floor, I saw him enter the main gate of
our building and dash for the lift. Soon he was in the drawing room. He kept his
schoolbag on the side-table and came to me looking pleased with himself.
‘Guess DJ,’ he said, sitting on the sofa to untie his shoelaces. ‘Why I’m soooo
happy today?’
‘Did you win the three-legged race?’
‘Oh no. Today was not Sports Day.’

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‘Then…one of your drawings was displayed in your classroom?’
‘You are nearly correct,’ he said, getting up to keep his shoes on the shoe rack.
Then he announced proudly, ‘The essay I wrote in the class got a Gold Star. Not
only that, I was asked by our teacher to read it aloud to the whole class.’
Naturally I got curious, so I asked, ‘What was the topic you wrote on?’
‘Water’.
‘Water!’ I echoed, forgetting my plan to take him to the garden. ‘What had you
written?’
‘How kids can save water’.
Now I was more intrigued. ‘How?’
‘Very simple. We cannot save big rivers but certainly we can save a few drops.’
‘But how?’
‘First, if you see a tap left dripping by some forgetful person, just close it. If you
make it a habit, you will be surprised to know that in just a year, you have saved
hundreds of litres of water from going down the drain. Second, we take water-
bottles to school. When we leave school, we throw away the remaining water in
the bottle. Instead we can save some drying plant or, a tree in the school
compound. Third, at home I have decided to use only one bucket of water for
my bath instead of using the shower because that wastes five buckets of water.
Fourth, if a kid can save five buckets of water daily, a grown-up like you can
too.’
I laughed. ‘Don’t you know little one, I am a water warrior? I don’t take shower
baths. I always use buckets.’
‘What I mean s that you shave every morning, you keep the faucet open and that
wastes more than five buckets.’
‘So?’ I shot back in Nino’s blunt style.
Instead of requesting me to use water sparingly, he answered flatly, ‘Keep a
beard.’ Since that day little Nino has been using only one bucket of water for his
baths and believe me, I look quite handsome in my beard!
--Aabid Surti

11. 11
Aabid Surti is a well-known, playwright and cartoonist who lives in
Mumbai. He is also an environmentalist and works passionately to
conserve water. He was distributed by the fact that a lot of water was
wasted daily due to leakages. So, he decided to offer door-to-door repair
services in his locality along with a volunteer plumber. This was the beginning of his NGO,
‘Drop Dead’. The prize money which he received from the Sahitya Sansthan for his
contribution to Hindi Literature helped him set up this NGO.
By 2013, Aabid Surti’s ‘Drop Dead’ had saved as much as 5.5 million litres of water. He has
since received many accolades for his incredible work but humility drives him and he
continues to do what he does best-help people save water.
Let’s revisit
ACTIVITY 1
Values and Life skills
The Earth has limited amounts of natural resources which are fast disappearing
due to the increasing demands of humans. In groups, discuss:
1. How is modern living affecting the Earth’s resources?
2. what steps can you take to lessen the demands on our natural
resources?
ACTIVITY 2
Vocabulary
An idiom is a group of words whose meaning is different from its individual
words. Idioms make language interesting and meaningful.

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ACTIVITY 3
A. Match the idioms with their meanings. You may use the Internet
to find the meanings.
Idiom meaning
1. in hot water a) Discouraging or negative about
something
2. Pour cold water over something b) Not correct or true
3. Water under the bridge c) In trouble
4. Doesn’t hold water d) In an unsuitable situation
5. Fish out of water e) Events in the past that are no longer
considered important
B.Complete these sentences with the idioms in A
• When Reena joined the new school everything was so unfamiliar
that she felt like a _____________
• Manu is________________ again. It’s the third time this week that
she’s been sent to the Principal’s office.
• Shalu and Diksha argued a lot last term but that’s all
_____________and they are good friends now.
• Hari insulted Abir, but none of it affected him. It was
like___________.
• Shella said, “ The administration explained the new policy to us.
Unfortunately, it ___________.
• Varun is excited about his new project. He will not anyone
_____________on the idea.
For example,
Get cold feet: to be nervous
All ears: to give absolute attention to someone.
Break the ice: to make someone feel comfortable
See eye to eye: to agree with someone.

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ACTIVITY 4
Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verbs in the brackets.
1. Nobody ________(want) to take responsibility for the failure of the
project.
2. The staff at the hospital _______(eat) at the canteen on the ground
floor.
3. ‘I do not know where my baggage______(be)!’ shrieked Shreya.
4. The boy, along with his family _________(be) going to the picnic
tomorrow.
5. Thirty kilometres ________(be) a long distance!.
ACTIVITY 4
Observe how water is wasted in your home, your neighbourhood and
your school.
How would you persuade your parents, neighbours and school
authorities to change their habit about using and not wasting water?
Share your ideas and mention why you think they would be effective.
Here are some phrases that you may use
• Water supplies are running out…..
• I would request you to understand…..
• Please assess the consequences and…
• If we work together, then…..
ACTIVTY 4
The municipality taps in your locality are not closed at any time of the
day and a lot of water is therefore wasted. Write a letter to the local
municipality explaining the problem and why they should take
corrective measures.

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Follow this process:
The process What should you do?
Brainstorming
and outlining
Write down the main points
Drafting and
revising
Write the first draft- here the focus should be on
the content and not the form. Revise the draft by
modifying ideas
Final draft Write the final draft now.
Here is a sample for you to follow:
34 Outer Ring Road
Moti Bagh
New Delhi-110045
15 February 2019
The Principal
St Mary’s School
New Delhi
Sub: Request for leave
Dear Ma’am,
I, Rani Sharma, a student of class VIII of your school, would request
you to grant me leave for five days from 12 March 2019 to 16 March
2019. I shall be travelling to Rajasthan with my family to attend a
function.
I shall be greatly obliged if you kindly approve my lave.
Yours sincerely
Rani Sharma

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WARNED
In this poem, the poet talks about how humans are
slowly destroying nature and its resources and why we
must wake up before late.
The sands of time have rendered fear
Blue skies on high no longer clear
Stars were bright whence they came
Now dimmed, obscured, pollution’s haze
Crystal clear our waters gleamed
Fish abundant, rivers streamed
Ocean floors sandy white
Now littered, brown, pollution’s plight
Trees towered high above
Trunks baring professed love
Birds chirping from sites unseen
Gone, paper joined pollution’s team
One can’t blame pollution alone
As they say, you reap what you’ve sown
So let us plant a better seed
Tear out old roots, cultivate, weed
Protect what has been given for free
Our waters, skies, wildlife and trees
For once they’ve gone, don’t you say
Consider yourself warned of that fatal day
- -Sylvia Stults

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Sylvia Stults(1917-2000) lived in Michigan and her poems echo her
sentiments about nature and the pollution caused by different human
activities.
1. What does the poet mean by the ‘sands of time’?
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
2. Where would the birds chirp from?
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
3. What does the poet ask us to plant?
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
4. Name two things that the poet fears.
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
5. What happened to the crystal clear waters of the ocean?
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
6. What action should we take up now?
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
Rendered : ______________________________________________________
Whence : _______________________________________________________
Obscured : ______________________________________________________
Littered : ________________________________________________________
Fatal : __________________________________________________________

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ACTIVITY- 1
A. Trees towered high above
Trunks baring professed love
Birds chirping from sites unseen
Gone, paper joined pollution’s team
a. What does the poet mean by trees ‘baring professed love’?
b. What do you understand by the last two lines of the extract?
c. What picture comes to your mind on reading these lines?
B. Protect what has been given for free
Our waters, skies, wildlife and trees
For once they’re gone, don’t you say
Consider yourself warned of that fatal day
a. What is free?
b. What does the poet mean by the fatal day?
c. Do you think that the poet is being unnecessarily anxious? Why why
not?
ACTIVITY- 2
Rhyming words are words which have the same end sound. Rhyme scheme is
the order in which rhyming words are placed at the end of the lines in a poem.
Here is an example of rhyme scheme.
I was angry with my friend; (a)
I told my wrath, my wrath did end. (a)
I was angry with my foe; (b)
I told it not, my wrath did grow. (b)
-‘A Poison Tree’, William Blake
The rhyme scheme here is aabb.

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Read the poem, “Warned” and write down the rhyme scheme, if any.
ACTIVITY- 3
Prepare a poster on environment conservation.
Here is a sample poster that shows how our Mother Earth is being exploited.

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GLOSSARY
altimeter – an instrument to measure the height of the
aircraft above sealevel.
fatal – deadly.
gawked – stared fixedly.
littered – made dirty.
loomed- appeared as a threat.
obscured – hidden.
whence – from where .

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