Question
A1.Simple Simple l Factual Activities:
Choose the correct alternatives from the given statements:
(i) How can academic brilliance be diminished?
(a) by disturbance and frustration
(b) by going offtrack
(c) by a coating of dust
(d) by losing focus and seriousness
(ii) Who had directly influenced Dr Kalam's beliefs?
(a) Professor Satish Dhawan (b) Srijan
(c) God (d) countless great minds
A few years later, in the early 1980s, Professor Satish Dhawan, the Director of ISRO, under whom Dr Kalam had made his first unsuccessful launch in 1970 and then a successful one in 1980, had provided him with more soul-shaping wisdom.
One day in 2012, we were discussing the number of Ph.Ds Dr Kalam had received. He said to me, ‘Srijan, Professor Dhawan had so many master’s degrees- all from the best institutions, no less-so I asked him how one can become so academically accomplished.He responded saying that academic brilliance is no different from the brilliance of a mirror, which can be diminished by a coating of dust. Only when the dust is removed, does the mirror shine and the reflection becomes clear. We can remove the impurities obscuring our souls by living pure and ethical lives, and by serving humanity. And then God will shine through us.’ These words took me back to my meeting with Dr Kalam after my graduation from IIMA, in 2009. At the time, he had advised me to use my degree and gold medal to transform the society I lived in. Back in the present moment, it suddenly struck me that Dr Kalam’s advice had, in fact, directly resonated from Professor Dhawan’s beliefs. The more I lived and worked with Dr Kalam, the more I realized that through his words of wisdom I was getting to learn from countless great
minds.
A2. Complex Factual Activity:
(i) 1970
(ii) 1980
(iii) 2009
(iv) 2012
A3. Activities based on Vocabulary:
Match the words in column 'A' with their their opposites in column 'B':
Choose the correct alternatives from the given statements:
(i) How can academic brilliance be diminished?
(a) by disturbance and frustration
(b) by going offtrack
(c) by a coating of dust
(d) by losing focus and seriousness
(ii) Who had directly influenced Dr Kalam's beliefs?
(a) Professor Satish Dhawan (b) Srijan
(c) God (d) countless great minds
A few years later, in the early 1980s, Professor Satish Dhawan, the Director of ISRO, under whom Dr Kalam had made his first unsuccessful launch in 1970 and then a successful one in 1980, had provided him with more soul-shaping wisdom.
One day in 2012, we were discussing the number of Ph.Ds Dr Kalam had received. He said to me, ‘Srijan, Professor Dhawan had so many master’s degrees- all from the best institutions, no less-so I asked him how one can become so academically accomplished.He responded saying that academic brilliance is no different from the brilliance of a mirror, which can be diminished by a coating of dust. Only when the dust is removed, does the mirror shine and the reflection becomes clear. We can remove the impurities obscuring our souls by living pure and ethical lives, and by serving humanity. And then God will shine through us.’ These words took me back to my meeting with Dr Kalam after my graduation from IIMA, in 2009. At the time, he had advised me to use my degree and gold medal to transform the society I lived in. Back in the present moment, it suddenly struck me that Dr Kalam’s advice had, in fact, directly resonated from Professor Dhawan’s beliefs. The more I lived and worked with Dr Kalam, the more I realized that through his words of wisdom I was getting to learn from countless great
minds.
A2. Complex Factual Activity:
(i) 1970
(ii) 1980
(iii) 2009
(iv) 2012
A3. Activities based on Vocabulary:
Match the words in column 'A' with their their opposites in column 'B':
| 'A' | 'B' |
| (i) asked | (a) increased |
| (ii) obscure | (b) impure |
| (iii) diminished | (c) clear |
| (iv) pure | (d) responded |
A4. Activities based on Contextual Grammar:
(i) Academic brilliance is no different from the brilliance of a mirror. (Rewrite without 'no'.)
(ii) God will shine through us. (Add a question tag.)
A5. Personal Response:
Write in your own words what the following expressions convey in the context they occur in the text.
(i) Only when the dust is removed, does the mirror shine and the reflection becomes clear.