M.A.

TESL/ELT

English for Academic Purposes

End Semester Test March 2021

Max. Marks -60

Deadline for submission: 19 March 2021

1. Read each of the following texts and mark Academic (A) or Non-Academic (N.A) for each.
(2X5=10 marks)

a. The thin line dividing fact and fiction is not often distinct in this connection of ten short stories.
The central theme of each piece is what is experienced in day-to-day life and the writer brings out
sharply the stark reality of social and economic injustice and inequalities.

b. The advanced nations face no population problem since they are steadily settling down to the
zero growth rate in population. Zero growth means that population will keep steady through
generations more. Advanced countries, by and large, have remained surplus in that have the dual
problems, heavy shortages in vital articles of food and galloping figures; as a result, the standard of
living is very low.

c. As a student, I once took part in a debate which had a gold medal. The topic of the debate was on
nutrition and I had 30 minutes to prepare for it. Thanks to my gift of grab I ended up winning the
gold medal. Lifelong that gold medal became a talking point in all my job interviews. It shaped my
career and I ended up specializing in nutrition.

d. Sealed tenders are invited by Dredging Cooperation of india., Vishakhapatnam, from Towage
Contractors for “Towage of DR XVII from Mazagaon Dock, Mumbai to Marmagoa Port.” The tender
document can be had from office of the General Manager, Dredging Corporation of India Ltd, Port
Area, Vishakhapatnam-530035 within a month from date.

e. In the interactive mode, language needs to be generated by the user. It is used to get things done
through a variety of forms: statements, commands, questions and so on. The same content in the
textbook can serve as the stimulus for the task. Thus both content (language) and communication
patterns are acquired. Tasks provide opportunities for authentic communication.

2. Summarize the following passage. (10 marks).

As children grow older, they become increasingly involved with their peer group, a group whose
members are about the same age and have similar interests. The peer group- along with the
family and the school- is one of the three main socializing agents. However, the peer group is very
different from the family and the school.
 The adolescent peer group teaches its members several important things. First, it teaches
them to be independent from adult authorities. Sometimes this can mean that a peer group can
teach its members to go against authorities and adults- to ignore home and school rules and
even to break the law. Most teenagers, though, rebel only making fun of older people in a
harmless way (Elkin and Handel 1988; Corsaro and Eder 1990). Second, it teaches social skills-how
to get along with other people. Third, the peer group teaches its members the values of
friendship among equals.

Peer groups often develop distinctive subcultures with their own values, language, music,
dress, and heroes. Adolescents, in particular, tend to believe in the same things as their friends,
talk the same way, dress the same way, listen to the same music, and like and dislike the same TV
stars and other celebrities. There may be a considerable difference between these interest,
behaviours, and values and those of their parents and teachers.

Adolescent peer groups frequently differ from parents and teachers in what they value.
Whereas parents and teachers tend to place great importance on school achievement, peer
groups are likely to think that popularity, social leadership, and athletic achievement are more
important ( Corsaro and Rizzo 1988). These differences do not necessarily mean that parents and
teachers will fight and argue. In fact, most youngsters are friendly with their mothers and fathers.
They simply engage in different types of activities—work and task activities with parents but play
and recreation with peers. They are inclined to seek advice from parents on financial, educational,
career, and other serious matters. With their peers they are more likely to discuss social activities
such as which boy or girl to date and what clubs to join (Sebald 1986).

Peer group members look to each other for approval instead of relying on their own
personal beliefs. Doing what everyone else is doing is more important than being independent
and individual. Early adolescents are more willing to accept this conformity and so they are most
deeply involved with peer groups. As young people grow into middle and late adolescence, their
involvement with peers gradually declines because of their growing independence. When they
reach the final year of high school, they tend more to adopt adult values, such as wanting to get
good grades and good jobs (Steinberg 1994; Larson 1994).

3. Rewrite the following set of sentences as a unified paragraph, combining them where necessary
and inserting suitable linkers. ( 10 marks).

Mr. Lewis is my neighbor

Mr. Lewis was having a party last night.

Mr. Lewis and I have been neighbours for two years.

This was the first time Mr. Lewis had had asked me over.

It was eight o’clock.

I could see a few people through the window.

I could not hear what the people were saying.

The people seemed to be enjoying themselves.

4. Make a tabular format to represent the following passage.( 10 marks)

Macbeth and Lear, Othello and Hamlet, are usually reckoned Shakespeare’s four principal tragedies.
Lear stands first for the profound intensity of the passion; Macbeth for wildness of imagination and
the rapidity of action; Othello for the progressive interest and powerful alterations of feeling; Hamlet
for the refined development of thought and sentiment. If the force of genius shown in search of
these works is astonishing, their variety is not less so. They are like different creations of the same
mind, not one of which has the slightest reference to the rest. This distinctness and originality is
indeed the necessary consequence of truth and nature.

5. Make notes from the following passage.( 20 marks).

Rebelling against the romantic exuberance and naturalism of the Elizabethan Age and the fantastic
verse of the Puritan Age, the writers demanded that poetry should follow exact rules. Influenced by
French writers, they tried to revive the classicism of ancient Greece and Rome.

The Classicists tried to make English literature conform to rules established by the great writers of
other nations. The general tendency of literature was look at life critically, to emphasize intellect
rather than imagination, the form rather than the content. Repression of all emotion and
enthusiasm and use of only precise and elegant methods of expression was emphasized. Classicism
of this age refers to the critical, intellectual spirit of many writers, to the fine polish of their
heroic couplets or the elegance of their prose, and not to any resemblance of the classicism of
Greek and Roman drama. Writing by rule soon developed a kind of elegant formalism, in true with
the elaborate social code of the time.

There was a reaction against this by the writers who followed –writers who brought back
romanticism into writing. While the classicists thought of the world and poetry as having a rigid and
stern structure, the romanticists thought of the world as a place to express their ideas and beliefs
and poetry freed from rules of versification. The times had also changed and the French Revolution
freed thinking from creative spirit which was reflected both in the form and content of the writing
of the age. While the classicists went by tradition, the Romanticists chose to innovate.

Classicists and Romanticists differed in their views of nature. Classicism was based on the idea that
nature and human nature could be understood by reason and thought. In contrast, Romanticists
viewed nature as mysterious and never changing and depended more on intuition, insight and
imagination. Poe’s poetry confined itself to observation and description of what he saw around ;
Coleridge went beyond the immediate field of perception to the supernatural.

-End-