The House on Elm Street - Nadia Bush

 The House on Elm Street By Nadia Bush

 (source TN Textbook)

 It sat alone.

What happened there is still today unknown.

It is a very mysterious place,

And inside you can tell it has a ton of space,

But at the same time it is bare to the bone.

 

At night the house seems to be alive,

Lights flicker on and off.

I am often tempted to go to the house,

To just take a look and see what it is really about,

But fear takes over me.

 

I drive past the house almost every day.

The house seems to be a bit brighter

On this warm summer day in May.

It plays with your mind.

To me I say, it is one of a kind.

 

Beside the house sits a tree.

It never grows leaves,

Not in the winter, spring, summer or fall.

It just sits there, never getting small or ever growing tall,

How could this be?

 

Rumors are constantly being made,

And each day the house just begins to fade.

What happened inside that house?

I really don't know.

I guess it will always be a mystery.

No Men Are Foreign - James Falconer Kirkup

 

No Men Are Foreign By James Falconer Kirkup

 (sources TN Textbook)

Remember, no men are strange, no countries foreign

Beneath all uniforms, a single body breathes

Like ours: the land our brothers walk upon

Is earth like this, in which we all shall lie.

They, too, aware of sun and air and water,

Are fed by peaceful harvests, by war’s long winter starv’d.

Their hands are ours, and in their lines we read

A labour not different from our own.

Remember they have eyes like ours that wake

Or sleep, and strength that can be won

By love. In every land is common life

That all can recognise and understand.

Let us remember, whenever we are told

To hate our brothers, it is ourselves

That we shall dispossess, betray, condemn.

Remember, we who take arms against each other

It is the human earth that we defile.

Our hells of fire and dust outrage the innocence

Of air that is everywhere our own,

Remember, no men are foreign, and no countries strange.

 

The Ant and The Cricket - Adapted from Aesop’s fables

 

The Ant and The Cricket By Adapted from Aesop’s fables (source TN Text book)

 

A silly young cricket, accustomed to sing

Through the warm, sunny months of gay summer and spring,

Began to complain when he found that, at home,

His cupboard was empty, and winter was come.

 

Not a crumb to be found

On the snow-covered ground;

Not a flower could he see,

Not a leaf on a tree.

 

“Oh! what will become,” says cricket, “of me?”

At last by starvation and famine made bold,

All dripping with wet, and all trembling with cold,

Away he set off to a miserly ant,

To see if, to keep him alive, he would grant

 

Him shelter from rain.

And a mouthful of grain.

He wished only to borrow;

He’d repay it tomorrow;

 

If not, he must die of starvation and sorrow.

 Says the ant to the

cricket, “I’m your servant

and friend,

 But we ants never

borrow; we ants never

lend.

 

But tell me, dear cricket,

Did you lay anything by

When the weather was

warm?” Quoth the cricket,

“Not I!”

 

My heart was so light

That I sang day and night,

For all nature looked gay.”

“For all nature looked gay”.

“ You sang, Sir, you say?

 

Go then”, says the ant, “and dance the winter away”.

Thus ending, he hastily lifted the wicket,

And out of the door turned the poor little cricket.

Folks call this a fable. I‘ll warrant it true:

Some crickets have four legs, and some have two.

 

The Secret Of The Machines - Rudyard Kipling

 

The Secret Of The Machines By Rudyard Kipling

(source TN Text book)

 

We were taken from the ore-bed and the mine,

We were melted in the furnace and the pit

We were cast and wrought and hammered to design,

We were cut and filed and tooled and gauged to fit.

 

Some water, coal, and oil is all we ask,

And a thousandth of an inch to give us play:

And now, if you will set us to our task,

We will serve you four and twenty hours a day!

 

We can pull and haul and push and lift and drive,

We can print and plough and weave and heat and light,

We can run and race and swim and fly and dive,

We can see and hear and count and read and write!

 

But remember, please, the Law by which we live,

We are not built to comprehend a lie,

We can neither love nor pity nor forgive,

If you make a slip in handling us you die!

 

Though our smoke may hide the Heavens from your eyes,

It will vanish and the stars will shine again,

Because, for all our power and weight and size,

We are nothing more than children of your brain!

 

I am Every Woman - Rakhi Nariani Shirke

 . I am Every Woman  By Rakhi Nariani Shirke (source TN text book)

A woman is beauty innate,

A symbol of power and strength.

She puts her life at stake,

She's real, she's not fake!

The summer of life she's ready to see in spring.

She says, "Spring will come again, my dear.

Let me care for the ones who're near.”

She's The Woman – she has no fear!

Strong is she in her faith and beliefs.

"Persistence is the key to everything,"

says she. Despite the sighs and groans and moans,

She's strong in her faith, firm in her belief!

She's a lioness; don't mess with her.

She'll not spare you if you're a prankster.

Don't ever try to saw her pride, her self-respect.

She knows how to thaw you, saw you – so beware!

She's today's woman. Today's woman, dear.

Love her, respect her, keep her near...

Life - Henry Van Dyke

 Life by Henry Van Dyke( source TN text book)

Let me but live my life from year to year,

With forward face and unreluctant soul;

Not hurrying to, nor turning from the goal;

Not mourning for the things that disappear

In the dim past, nor holding back in fear

From what the future veils; but with a whole

And happy heart, that pays its toll

To Youth and Age, and travels on with cheer.

So let the way wind up the hill or down,

O'er rough or smooth, the journey will be joy:

Still seeking what I sought when but a boy,

New friendship, high adventure, and a crown,

My heart will keep the courage of the quest,

And hope the road's last turn will be the best.

TNPSC English New Syllabus

 

  SYLLABUS-GENERAL ENGLISH

           

       SSLC Standard (Objective Type Examination)

 

Part-A

            Grammar

 

1. Match the following words and phrases given in Column A with their meanings in Column B.

2. Choose the correct ‘Synonym’ for the underlined word from the options given.

3. Choose the correct ‘Antonym’ for the underlined word from the options given.

4. Select the correct word (Prefix, Suffix).

5. Fill in the blanks with suitable Article.

6. Fill in the blanks with suitable Preposition.

7. Select the correct Question Tag.

8. Select the correct Tense.

9. Select the correct Voice.

10. Fill in the blanks (Infinitive, Gerund, and Participle).

11. Identify the sentence pattern of the following sentence (Subject, Verb, Object...).

12. Fill in the blanks with correct Homophones.

13. Find out the Error (Articles, Preposition, Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb).

14. Select the correct sentence.

15. Find out the odd words (Verb, Noun, Adjective, Adverb).

16. Select the correct Plural forms.

17. Identify the sentence (Simple, Compound, Complex Sentence).

18. Identify the correct Degree.

19. Form a new word by blending the words.

20. Form compound words (eg: Noun+Verb, Gerund+Noun).

21. British English – American English.

 

Part-B

           Poetry

 

(a) Figures of Speech

(Alliteration – Simile – Metaphor – Personification – Onomatopoeia – Anaphora– Rhyme Scheme – Rhyming Words – Repetition, etc.)

(b) Poetry Appreciation

(c) Important Lines

 

 

LIST OF POEMS

 

1. Life - Henry Van Dyke

2. I am Every Woman - Rakhi Nariani Shirke

3. The Secret of the Machines - Rudyard Kipling

4. The Ant and The Cricket - Adapted from Aesop’s fables

5. No Men are Foreign - James Falconer Kirkup

6. The House on Elm Street - Nadia Bush

7. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening - Robert Frost

8. A Poison Tree - William Blake

9. On Killing a Tree - Gieve Patel

10. The Spider and the Fly - Mary Botham Howitt

11. The River - Caroline Ann Bowles

12. The Comet - Norman Littleford

13. The Stick-together Families - Edgar Albert Guest

14. Special Hero - Christina M. Kerschen

15. Making Life Worth While - George Elliot

16. A Thing of Beauty - John Keats

17. Lessons in Life - Brigette Bryant & Daniel Ho

18. My Computer Needs a Break - Shanthini Govindan

19. Your Space - David Bates

20. Sea Fever - John Masefield

21. Courage - Edgar Albert Guest

22. Team Work - Edgar Albert Guest

23. From a Railway Carriage - Robert Louis Stevenson

24. Indian Seasons - Nisha Dyrene

25. A Tragic Story - William Makepeace Thackeray

 

Part-C

           Literary Works

 

I. LIST OF PROSE

 

1. His First Flight - Liam O’Flaherty

2. The Tempest - Tales From Shakespeare

3. The Last Lesson - Alphonse Daudet

4. The Little Hero of Holland - Mary Mapes Dodge

5. The Dying Detective - Arthur Conan Doyle

6. Learning the Game (Book Extract) - Sachin Tendulkar

7. The Cat and the Painkiller (An Extract from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer)– Mark Twain

8. Water – The Elixir of Life - Sir C.V.Raman

9. The Story of a Grizzly Cub - William Temple Hornaday

10. Sir Isaac Newton - Nathaniel Hawthorne

11. My Reminiscence - Rabindranath Tagore

12. The Woman on Platform 8 - Ruskin Bond

13. The Nose Jewel - C.Rajagopalachari

14. A Birthday Letter - Jawaharlal Nehru

 

II. Biographies of -

 

Mahatma Gandhi - Jawaharlal Nehru - Subash Chandra Bose - Helen Keller -

Kalpana Chawala - Dr.Salim Ali - Rani of Jhansi - Nelson Mandela – Abraham

Lincoln

 

III. General Comprehension