IGNOU FEG-01/BEGF-101
- Foundation Course in English-I,
Latest Solved Assignment
(July 2024 - January 2025)

1) Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:

The Artist co-operates with God in making increasingly larger numbers of people see the beauty of the world which these people could never see for themselves, The world is, of course, God's artistic masterpiece; but it is the artist who lends people eyes to see it with. Browning's Fra Lippo has the last word on the subject:-
For, don't you mark, we're made so that we love
First when we see them painted, things we have passed
Perhaps a hundred times nor cared to see?
In this sense, Oscar Wilde's paradox is perfectly true: that Nature imitates Art; for the majority of men see in Nature what Art has taught them to see in Nature. The fogs of London, said Wilde, were the invention of Whistler. To love beauty therefore becomes to the artist, as an artist, his first duty. To love beauty, that is, to see it for himself first, and then to communicate it to others; for love implies at once vision and reproduction. It must be the first article in an artist's creed, as an artist, that beauty is the best interpreter of God to man; that; when he has got hold of beauty, he has got hold of the surest key to the knowledge of God. Keats has said that Beauty is Truth. Now, this is not true. But to us here, Beauty is, as Plato said, the splendour of Truth. The artist, as an artist, must be content with the splendour and, through this splendour strive to convey the truth. Tie has no business with truth as such as the philosopher, for instance, has. He has no concern with conduct as such, as the moralist, for instance, has. It is not his function to exhort men to good works, or to prove things; but merely to exhibit then. Plato thought a picture, for instance, was just a copy of an object - a copy of the idea. It was Aristotle, Plato's pupil, who pointed out that, though a picture was in one sense certainly a copy and therefore something less than the object, in another sense it was something more than the object. It was, briefly, the idea of the object made visible to the eye. Art, therefore, does not consist merely in line and colour, sound and image, but primarily in ideas. Beauty may not be useful. Beauty may not improve our minds. But beauty must please. Indeed, such is the inherent delightfulness of beauty that, by its magic touch, not only the ugly becomes pleasurable, but even sorrow becomes a joy. That is the explanation of the pleasure we feel in tragedy. What would shock us in actual life gives us pleasure in a tragedy. For tragedy makes experience significant; and by making it significant, it makes it beautiful; and by making it beautiful, it makes it pleasant. And yet, it does not aim at pleasing; it only aims at exhibiting. Pleasure is not its aim; it is its effect.
- Armando Menezes
1a What does the artist do for most of us?
1b Why does the artist “lend” his eyes to people?
1c Explain: "Nature imitates Art."
1d What is the artist's first duty? Why?
1e What is the surest key to the knowledge of God? Why?
1f Give a suitable title to the passage.
1g Find words from the passage which mean the same as the following:
i. Deity ii. persons iii. Great work
iv. gives v. fondness vi. The natural world
vii. Pass on viii. portrayer ix. noticeable
x. Important

2) Choose the correct form of the verb from within the brackets so as to make it agree with the subject.

1. The plane --- at 3.30. (arrives, will arrive)
2. I will phone you when he --- back, (comes, will come)
3. When I get home, my dog --- at the gate waiting for me. (sits, will be sitting)
4. I --- the Joshis this evening, (visit, am visiting)
5. Look at those black clouds. It ---, (will rain, is going to rain)
6. The train --- before we reach the station, (arrives, will have arrived)
7. Perhaps we --- Mahabaleshwar next month, (visit, will visit)
8. Unless we --- now we can't be on time, (start, will start)
9. I --- into town later on. Do you want a lift? (drive, will be driving)
10. The next term --- on 16th November, (begins, is beginning)

3) Put the verbs given in brackets in the most appropriate tense:

1. The earth --- round the sun. (move)
2. My friends --- the Prime Minister yesterday, (see)
3. I --- him only one letter up to now. (send)
4. She --- worried about something, (look)
5. It started to rain while we --- tennis, (play).
6. He --- fast when the accident happened, (drive)
7. He --- asleep while he was driving, (fall)
8. I'm sure I --- him at the party last night, (see).
9. He --- a mill in this town, (have)
10. He --- here for the last five years, (work).

4) In the following sentences change the Voice:

1. We elected Balu captain.
2. I saw him opening the box.
3. We must listen to his words.
4. Shall I ever forget those happy days?
5. By whom was this jug broken?

5) Fill in the blanks using a or an or the as may be suitable

1. Copper is --- useful metal.
2. He is not --- honourable man.
3. --- able man has not always a distinguished look.
4. --- reindeer is a native of Norway.
5. Honest men speak --- truth.

6) Fill in the blanks with appropriate Prepositions

1. No doubt he has achieved much, but I cannot give him credit --- all that he boasts ---.
2. The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance --- human achievement.
3. He is indebted --- his friend --- a large sum.
4. What Dr. Arnold mainly aimed ---, was to promote the self-development of the young minds committed --- his charge.
5. He was so much enamoured --- her that he forgot his duties --- his children.
6. It is difficult to agree --- those critics who ascribe the work of Shakespeare

7) Write a about 300 words on any one of the following topics:

i Life after Covid 19
ii The Digital World: Bane or Boon?

8) In about 200 words, write a conversation between:

i. You and elder sister where you are asking her suggestions regarding what subject you should go for after completing 10+2.
OR
ii. You and a cricketer where you are asking him ten questions and he is answering those ten questions.