ANUSHKA FUKE

2019 033
SECTION A
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Answer the following questions based on the reading of ‘Everything is Alive’:

1. Give an example of Indian generic product.

I think if we are taking about Indian generic product, then it has to be Frooti. We all
have grown up drinking frooti in our lives at some point. Frooti happens to be the
largest selling mango flavoured drink in India. And also it is a point to consider that,
how much we Indians love mangoes. When we try to draw some parallels between the
generic product used in the text „Everything is Alive’ the Louis, Can of Cola and
Mango Frooti, we can very easily understand how the taste of beverages differ from
place to place.

2. Why do you think does the first episode of the podcast „Everything is Alive’ take
up a generic product as its protagonist?
The message portrayed via „Everything is Alive’ is something new to the rationale
world. This level of imagination with almost a human touch to it makes it more
palpable. I believe, by taking up a Can of Cola as a protagonist would be because
everyone knows what a Can of Cola is or how it tastes but no one would imagine
there could be such a meaning to its survival. By bring so much of human emotion to
an ordinary Cola Can, the author is making a simple attempt to convey its story to all
the age groups as Cola is everybody‟s favourite.

3. From your reading of the text, would you say things/objects are also repositories
of our emotions?
No, I don‟t think so. Reading a text like „Everything is Alive’ might be a good
fantasy and one can enjoy the human touch given to it, but actually imagining it
to be true is something too vague and impossible I suppose. While reading the
text a thought came into my mind, what inspired the creators to come up with this
concept. While listening to the podcast, I applaud the creativity and the efforts
portrayed in the narration. It all takes away my heart, but to able to feel it in
reality is probably something to difficult. That‟s why I feel objects are objects,
and they are not the repositories of any emotions whatsoever in real life.

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MID SEMESTER EXAM IN THE SUBJECT OF ENGLISH-II 1
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4. We classify the world of objects around us based on various parameters. Could

you give two such instances?
If we go by the dictionary meaning of objects, it is stated that „a thing that can be seen
and toughed is called an object‟. Keeping this definition in mind, an object majorly
can be classified into living objects and non-living objects. All the living objects need
food, water and air for their survival whereas non-living objects do not require these
things. Examples for living objects could be dog, hydrilla or me :) and for non-living
objects would be wood, metal, glass or plastic. Another parameter for classifying
objects are the attributes like colour, shape, weight etc. Attributes may, for example
be blue, cube or heavy etc.

5. Is there a difference between an object and a thing? Please explain.

Yes there‟s a difference between an object and a thing. An object is something which
has a physical existence, which is tangible per se. On the other hand a thing could be
anything, it could be a feeling, an object itself or a quality etc. It could be tangible or
intangible anything. Rather I feel, „object‟ is a subset of „thing‟. When we talk about
an object in general, it could be said that, „a skirt is an object‟. When we talk about
thing in general, it might be, „Today I have a lot of things to do‟. That‟s all I can
interpret.

6. Would you classify a software/algorithm as an object or a thing? Provide three

reasons in support of your answer.
I clearly feel a software/algorithm is a thing for the reasons being so that-
a. Algorithms and software are intangible. For a clear reason that, an object is
something which has a physical existence. Clearly, software/algorithm is
something you cannot see but feel its operations and its accesbility.
b. It's more of a concept than a physical object. Like the definition of a thing that
revolves around the intangible aspect as well, so it is a thing.
c. Since it is not physical, it can't be an object. Anything which is not an object,
becomes a thing. And also “all objects are things, but all things are not necessarily
objects” thus, „an object‟ is a subset of „a thing‟.

Therefore a software/algorithm is a thing.

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MID SEMESTER EXAM IN THE SUBJECT OF ENGLISH-II 2