IGNOU BEGLA-138
- Reading And Speaking Skills,
Latest Solved Assignment
(July 2024 - January 2025)

Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.

To view environmental protection through an ideological or political lens will only spell its doom. Environmental issues are currently at the centre of a heated debate. It may be politically convenient - but not presenting the complete picture - to express shock at India being ranked at "177 out of 180countries" in the Environmental Performance Index Report. Besides, in the June 2020 EPI, India's rank stands improved at 168, not 177which is the 2018 rank. The Environmental Performance Index has been developed by two U.S. universities (Yale and Columbia) in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and European Commission and available ranking shows India at 118 in2006, 123 in 2010, 155 in 2014 and 177 in 2018,sought to be conveyed, regarding our standing. Also, the experts in the two universities conclude: " *........ the 2008 ranking suggests that wealth is a major determinant of environmental success."
Any balance between the environment and development needs to best ruck within India and based on our priorities. struck within India and based on our priorities, and not some international index. Deforestation ought to be a primary concern of any right-thinking government. Forest clearances for mining and industries, while major, are not the only causes of deforestation. Population pressure due to which the slash-and-burn has reduced in forest areas from 17-to 20 years to two to three years giving no time for forest regeneration, and creeping conversion of forest to cultivated land are both major drivers of deforestation; there is also the increasing use of timber for house hold and industry purposes. However, while diversion of forests for mining and industry is regulated by law and challenged in courts, the other major drivers are not even discussed. Nirmal Ganga' can be achieved by zero discharge of effluents and domestic sewerage, but 'Aviral Ganga' can only be achieved by constant balancing between irrigation needs of agriculture and potable water for cities on the one hand and the environmental flow of the river on the other. The balance of imperatives between theenvironment and poverty eradication, and the critical need to harmonise the workings of the political affiliation. (Source:https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/the-environment-is-anational-ssue/article32491199.ece)

Questions:

(a) How do you categorize this article by Jayanthi Natarajan based on the knowledge of different types of texts? Justify your response.
b) What methods and strategies are being used by the author in this article? How are the intended goals achieved?
(c) What, according to you, is the author's objective or purpose in structuring her article in this
particular manner?
(d) What are the major environmental concerns for the Indian government globally as well as
domestically?
(e) What according to you might be the reason for India's dismal performance on the Environmental Performance Index (EPI)and the factors contributing to it?
(f) How does ideology or political affiliation create an effect on one's understanding of the environment?
(g) Suggest an alternative title along with its proper justification.

SECTION B

2. Differentiate and explain the following in detail:
(a) Rhythm and stress
(b) Falling and rising intonation

3. Explain the strategies for efficient study reading and the steps to remember while summarizing a paragraph/chapter. 10

4. What are the five key elements of a story? Explain.

5. What are the 7 c’s of communication? Discuss:

6. What do you understand by the Communication cycle?

7. Rohan and Sonu are two best friends who have not been able to meet each other due to the pandemic. Both of them are going to meet each other today evening at Sonu's house with a plan to watch a movie of their choice. Create an informal conversation on behalf of Rohan persuading Sonu to step out of the house so that both of them can enjoy an evening stroll.

8. Explain in detail the difference between the different types of Text.

9. What are the barriers that influence communication?

1. Nearly nine years ago, on a warm autumn evening in 1945, I was driving over the mountains of Southern Japan to the city of Nagasaki. I thought I was still in open country when all at once I realized that I was already crossing what had been the city. The shadows which flickered past me in the dusk were not rocks and trees: they were crushed buildings; the bare and skewed ribs of factories, and two crumpled gasometers.
The scale of the damage of Nagasaki drained the blood from my heart then, and does so now when I speak of it. For three miles my road lay through a desert which man had made in a second. Now, nine years later, the hydrogen bomb is ready to dwarf this scale, and to turn each mile of destruction into ten miles. And citizens and scientists share at one another and ask: ‘How did we blunder into this nightmare?
I put this first as a question of history, because the history of this is known to few people. The fission of uranium was discovered by two German scientists a year before the war. Within a few months, it was reported that Germany had forbidden the export of uranium from the mines of Czechoslovakia which she had just annexed. Scientists on the Continent, in England and America, asked themselves whether the secret weapon on which the Germans were said to be working was an atomic bomb. If the fission of uranium could be used explosively (and this already seemed possible in 1939) it might in theory make an explosion a million times larger than hitherto. The monopoly of such an atomic bomb would give Hitler instant victory, and make him master of Europe and the world. The scientists knew the scale of what they feared very well: they feared first desolation and then slavery. With heavy hearts, they told Albert Einstein what they knew of atomic fission. Einstein had been a pacifist all his life, and he did not easily put his conscience on one side. But it seemed clear to him that no scientist was free to keep this knowledge to himself. He felt that no one could decide whether a nation should or should not use atomic bombs, except the nation itself; the choice must be offered to the nation, and made by those whom the nation has elected to act for it. On August 2, 1939, a month before Hitler invaded Poland, Einstein wrote to President Roosevelt to tell him that he thought an atomic bomb might be made, and he feared that the Germans were trying to make one.
This is how it came about that, later in the war, scientists worked together in England, in Canada and America, to make the atomic bomb. They hated war no less than the layman does- no less than the soldier does; they, too, had wrestled with their consciences; and they had decided that their duty was to let the nation use their skill, just as it uses the skill of the solider or the expert in camouflage. The atomic scientists believed that they were in a race against Germany whose outcome might decide, the war even in its last weeks. We know now that the race was almost a walk-over. The Germans were indeed trying to make an atomic explosion, and they thought that they were ahead of the allies. But by our standards, what they had done was pitiful; they had not made a pile that worked, and they believed that the fast chain reaction of an atomic bomb was impossible. The Nazis had made fundamental science a poor relation, and put it under second rate party men with splendid titles. And more deeply, the Nazis had sapped the pith and power of research, the quizzical eye and questioning mind, the urge to find the facts for oneself. There were not enough unconventional ideas in the German atomic projects, and when the younger men did put up some, their leaders always knew better.
Answer the following questions based on your reading of the passage
1. What had drained the blood from the heart of the author?
2. Describe the circumstances leading to the making of atom bomb.
3. When was the Hydrogen bomb ready for use?
4. What, according to the author, was the main reason of the failure of the German scientists?
5. What do you learn from the passage about Albert Einstein?

2. Read the following excerpt on the topic Smoking Kills. These lines are written in Persuasive style.
Smoking is injurious to health. It not only kills you but destroys the lives of your loved ones as well. Increase in the number of deaths due to lung cancer which is a result of smoking habit; has taken away so many people away from the ones who love them. It leaves a child fatherless and a partner without a support in this life.
Now, attempt to write an argumentative paragraph on the same topic.

3a. How is communication disrupted when we choose an inferior medium? Exemplify with an instance from your own life.
3b. How can we ensure the conciseness of our messages while communicating? Explain with at least two examples.

4a. What is information overload? How does it affect communication?
4b. Consider the following domains:
Playground, College canteen, College auditorium, Metro station Lecture hall, Father’s office, Multiplex, Police station, Hospital, Kitchen, Court room, Principal’s office.
Classify them into formal and informal categories.

5a. Consider the following sentences;
i. The plan to evacuate the area won’t work out as there aren’t enough vehicles to drop everyone off at the safe zone.
ii. Rohit went ballistic after his brother cocked up his plan to attend the long-awaited event.
iii. I want this cleaned immediately.
iv. I penalized some of the employees for being always late.
Which of the above can be used in a formal conversation? Revise the ones which you feel cannot be used in a formal conversation.

5b. With respect to language and delivery in a formal conversation, what are the blunders that we need to avoid as speakers?

6. Pair up with your best friend in your batch or in your locality. Let your friend assume the role of the Senior Manager of an esteemed bank in which you are an employee. You have been recently promoted to a managerial position due to your consistent performance. You are happy yet anxious about the new responsibility. Engage in a formal conversation in English with your friend, who as a Senior Manager is trying to reassure you that you will be doing well in the new role. Prepare a series of formal conversation between your friend and you.

7 a. Explain how social context influences interpretation with at least two clear examples of informal use of English.
7 b. Explain how linguistic context influences interpretation with at least two clear examples of informal use of English.

8. Pair up with a good friend in your batch or in your locality. Imagine a situation in which your mother has given you the responsibility to go to the grocery store. You are busy with an incomplete assignment. Engage in an informal conversation in English with your friend, telling him or her to do the necessary on your behalf.