English Literature Made Easy for Students

‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Chapter One Importance of the title of the first scene or the opening scene of the first chapter. Ans. The title ‘Sherlock Holmes’ given to the first chapter of the novel is quite appropriate. After  reading it, we come to know that Sherlock Holmes is going to play a pivotal (important) role in the novel. This chapter also introduces us with another character whose name is Dr. Watson,  who is an assistant to Sherlock Holmes. This character has been introduced here to highlight the outstanding qualities of the main character, Sherlock Holmes. The situation is that a person,  whose name they come to know in the later part of this chapter, visits their office in their  absence. His stick is found in the office. Now they are to reveal the mystery of that stick. They forward inferences according to their understanding. Dr. watson’s observations prove to  be erroneous and Sherlock Holmes studies the cas...

<a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?button_hashtag=Chauhanshish&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" class="twitter-hashtag-button" data-show-count="false">Tweet #Chauhanshish</a><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

https://youtu.be/ppw5OBHf-YA

                  The Merchant of Venice: Detailed Summary   Act I Dear students I am going to discuss the detailed summary of Shakespeare’s play, ‘The Merchant of Venice’. Let’s begin Act I Scene (i). The scene opens in a street of Venice where Salarino, is talking to Antonio, one of the main characters of the play. We also find another character Solanio standing there. Antonio is unable to understand as to why he is sad on that day. Solarino tells Antonio that the reasons behind his sadness might be the ships which were in the sea full of loads of spices and other material. Solanio also supports Solarino’s view. Then Solarino speaks about the dangers of sea in the context of ships’ owners, who invest a lot of money on their ships. He quotes examples to prove as to how the investors feel worried. But Antonio rejects all these speculations on the reasons behind his sadness. Rather he is confident that God is there to sa...

Q1. Why is rebelliousness common in young people? Ans. The first reason is that the young boys and the girls try to find out their true identity. They do not like the old and obsolete ideas of their parents. They want to do something different. Q2. How is the rebellious nature of the young boys and girls not negative? Ans. The young boys and girls are not clear about their thoughts and feelings. Their reasoning faculty is under process. Their rebellious nature helps them give up comforts and security provided to them by their parents so as to achieve independence. So it is positive in nature. They try to judge the problems of life in their own way. Q3.What is a generation gap according to the writer? Ans. The young boys and girls want to live their lives in their own way. They try to take their own decisions. They do not like their parents’ old views which have become impracticable in the present time. The parents think their sons and daughters rebels. It causes a generati...

Wounded Plants by Jagadish Chandra Bose: Questions & Answers 

Playing the English Gentleman by M. K. Gandhi Short-Answer-Type Qs Q1. Gandhiji decided to take lessons in various fields to make himself a perfect English gentleman. What were those fields? Ans. Gandhiji had a strong desire to make himself a perfect English gentleman. So he started taking lessons in dancing, learning French and elocution (pronunciation/diction). He also tried to learn how to play upon violin. He paid money for those lessons. But he gave up all those efforts. Q2.How did Gandhiji’s faith in vegetarianism grow? Ans. Gandhiji was a strict vegetarian. He read several books on vegetarianism. He learnt that all philosophers and prophets from Pythagoras and Jesus and even in the present age were vegetarians. Religion also played important role in Gandhiji’s faith in vegetarianism. Long Answer-type Qs Q1. Describe relationship that Gandhiji shared with his friend? Ans. Gandhiji’s Shared a cordial relationship with his friend. He was very much worried about ...

Comprehension Exercises: Are Dams…. Short Answer-type Qs. (Word-limit: 25-30) Q1. Which speech of Jawahar Lal Nehru is referred to in this essay? Ans. After independence, Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru delivered a speech. He appreciated dams in it. He called them ‘the temples of modern India’. But, later on, he understood the disadvantages of building dams. So he felt regret on his statement. Q2. Why did Nehru regret his statement about dams later on in his life? Ans. The same as above in the first question. Q3. How did the Government compensate for the loss caused by the dam building? Ans. The government built more dams to compensate the loss caused by the building of dams. But building dams caused a great loss to the common people. It could not be compensated by building more and more dams. Q4. Why have dams become obsolete? Ans. [In the beginning, building of dams attracted people across the country. Tourists went to see the dams. Poets used to visit them for the beautif...

Choosing Our Universe: Question & Answers Exercise 2; Short Answer-type Qs (20-30 words) Q1. What idea does the chapter discuss? Ans. The chapter throws light on logical approach to understand the origin of the universe. The laws of physics make us better understand the mystery about the universe. Q2. Who was Bumba? Ans. The people living in Central Africa were called Boshongo. They believed that, the god Bumba created the universe. There was nothing except darkness, water and Bumba in the beginning. Q3.What is the joke that the authors make regarding ethanol? Ans. The Mayans of Mexico believed that God created human beings   with the help of the white and yellow corn. Here the authors maker a joke that the scientists make ethanol from corn. But they are not able to make human beings from corn. Q4. Why do the authors consider humans to be of recent origin? Ans. Human race has existed for only a fraction of cosmic history. The authors believe that human rac...

When You Are Old by W B Yeats About the Poet William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin in 1865 and died in 1939. He was a great Irish poet. He is considered one of the great modern poets also. He began writing poetry at his early age and he was much influenced by Spenser, Shelley and a few Pre-Raphaelite poets also. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1923. About the Poem When You Are Old’ is W B Yeats’ memorable poem which deals with the theme of ‘love’ that is expressed by the poet in a very unique manner. It is said that the great Irish poet, W. B. Yeats, had immense love for Maud Gonne, who was equally active in native politics. Several times the poet expressed his love for her, but he always met with rejection. It seems that, while writing this poem, the poet writes this poem keeping in view his beloved Maud Gonne, whom he continuously loved and his love indeed met with a failure. In the present poem the poet tries to convince his beloved that he was the ...