Explore topic-wise InterviewSolutions in Current Affairs.

The boy gazed at the teacher for a moment and started crying.

The phrase “Talk of graves of worms and epitaphs” suggest that King Richard was sorrowful.

The teacher asks the boy not to tell the incident to his mother because the mother would get angry and dismiss him from work.

The boy tried to fool the teacher by repeating his mistake because he did not want to continue with his studies. He was interested in playing and not studying.

The teacher slapped the boy hard on his cheek when he repeated the mistake several times.

Chandragupta Maurya / Rajputs and Nelson Mandela

They built him a nursery, bought him expensive toys, fitted up miniature furniture sets, gave him a small pedal motor car to move about in the garden. His cupboard was filled with chocolates and biscuits which he could eat as he wanted.

The excerpt shows that the parents were too indulgent towards their son. They are not right in the method of bringing up their child.

A child brought up that way is unable to cope with adverse circumstances. When they have to face a little physical or mental discomfort, they completely lose their mental balance. It is such children that often commit suicide. 

We hear so many stories of children killing themselves. One hangs himself because he failed in the exam. Another jumps into the river and kills himself because a teacher shouted at him. A third jumps from the 4^th floor because he was asked by the Principal to bring his parents as he was playing truant. Many children become depressed when faced with even small problems. I think children should be trained to face problems of life boldly. 

Problems are bound to come in life. So we need children who can stand up and say “Come what may. I’ll see what I can do!” By giving their abundant love and ample money and filling his cupboard with all types of delicacies for him to eat at will is definitely pampering him too much and they are making him unfit to face the challenges of the modern world.

The parents consider the boy a little angel. He was their only child and they gave him a lot of love.

The parents gave the boy intensive coaching in Mathematics because they wanted him to score 50 in Mathematics and thus get a double promotion to the first form.

a) I think the title “Crime and Punishment” by R.K. Narayan is an apt one for the story. There is crime and then there is punishment. The boy does the crime of repeating the same mistake wilfully and he gets slapped as punishment. Slapping is the crime by the teacher and he gets punishment from the boy. That is why he has to act as a station mater and tell him so many stories ad run after him, all against his will. In fact there is a world famous novel by the same name by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Narayan must have copied the title. But in Dostoyevsky’s novel, the crime is murder and not the small mishiefs in R.K. Narayan’s story.

b) The Plight of a Poor Teacher/The Mischievous Imp and the Poor Teacher.

World War I, Indo-Pak War. Battle of Panipet War of Roses.

Teacher: You know, today something very funny happened in the nursery. I am teaching a devil  of boy there. The only reason I teach him is the Rs.30 his parents pay me every month. For 30 bucks I have to suffer for 3 hours every evening. First, his parents lecture me on child psychology. The boy’s father had written a thesis in infant psychology for his M.A. The mother had studied a good deal of it for her B.A. So, both of them tell me almost the same things day after day. They want me to treat their son as if he is made of very thin glass. What the boy needs is beating and not cajoling. He is not a boy but a gorilla. My God! You have never seen such a rascal.

Today I asked him the result of 16 multiplied by 3.1 had taught him the multiplication of 16 up to 10. I am sure he knew the right answer. But he said 24.1 corrected him and asked him again for the correct answer. With a grin, the gorilla says 24. I lost my temper. I slapped him on his cheek, leaving a red mark there. He then wanted me to stop teaching and play with him, pretending as a station master while he drove his train. I refused. He threatened and said he would run to his parents and show the mark on his cheek. That would be the end of my 30 bucks which I heed badly. So reluctantly I played with him. Fortunately the train stopped. And then the devil wanted me to tell stories. I went on saying the usual stories – the bison and the tiger, AN Baba and the 40 Thieves. He wanted me to repeat the bison-tiger story again. When I said no, he ran home.

I ran behind him. When the parents asked why we were running I told them that I was trying to keep the spirits of the boy up by doing this exercise after his strenuous learning. Then the father asked me about the test. When the boy heard the word test, he went and stood behind his father indicating to me I should support him. I said he was doing well, and I was sure that boy will not tell his parents about the slapping I gave him. My extra income is safe for the moment.

Need for Relaxation and Recreation in Academics There is a well-known Latin saying, “mens sana in corpora sano” which means “a healthy mind in a healthy body.” “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Students should have relaxation and recreation in their academics. There should be playgrounds and material for various games and sports. Then only they can build healthy bodies. This is especially the case with students who are very young. In young children the attention span is very short. You can’t drill into their minds facts, figures and formulae for a long time. Soon they get bored and nothing will enter their brain. 

There are many ways to keep the spirits of the students up. One of the ways is making the children sing in the class. Another way is telling stories. Quizzes and Puzzles can be used for entertainment and relaxation. Things like Antakshari can help. Word building is useful. Asking for synonyms and antonyms is a good pastime. Board games are an excellent way of relaxation. Taking the children out for small walks helps. Short films can be shown to make the children relaxed. Innovative teachers can think of many more ways to give relaxation and recreation to students.

The teacher in the story “Crime and Punishment” by R.K. Narayan is a hardworking man. He teaches 6 hours in the school and then he comes to teach the small boy in the nursery for just 30 rupees a month. He has to work for three hours in the nursery teaching a gorilla of a child. This shows the teacher is very poor. Otherwise he would not come to teach such a mischievous imp after his normal school hours.

The teacher suffered at the hands of the parents also. Every day he had to listen to the lectures of the parents on child psychology for half an hour. The father had written a thesis on infant psychology for his M.A. The mother had studied a good deal of it for her B.A. So, both lectured to him on the same lines. It seemed that the parents of the boy thought he was made of thin glass. They pampered him a lot and they wanted the teacher also to be very kind to the boy and not to annoy him in any way.

The teacher found it hard to manage the boy. The boy had a lot of love and money. His parents built the nursery for him. They bought him expensive toys. They even gave him a small pedal motor to move about in the garden. His cupboard was filled with chocolates and biscuits which he could eat whenever he wanted. He was a highly pampered, spoilt child. The teacher could lose his temper when tempted too much. He slaps the boy because the boy persisted in making the same mistake in spite of the corrections so many times. The hard slapping made a red mark on the cheek of the boy. The boy used that mark to blackmail the teacher.

He teacher had to play with the boy acting as a station master. Then the train stops running and the boy wants him to repair it. But the teacher is not at all mechanical minded and he can’t do that. Then the boy makes him tell stories. He tells the story of the tiger and the bison and the story of AN Baba and 40 thieves. The boy wants to hear the story of the tiger and bison again. When the teacher refuses the boy runs home, the teacher in hot pursuit. 

The teacher has good presence of mind. When the father asks why they are running about, the teacher says they are just playing about to keep up their spirits. The teacher can lie if there is a need! Poor teacher! He has to suffer so much for getting an extra amount of Rs.30 per month! I think he represents many teachers in our society who do not get a decent salary and have to nd others ways of making both ends meet.

The boy becomes so annoyed and slinks behind his parents when his father asked the teacher how the boy was preparing for the test in arithmetic. 

Rulers are greedy. They want to expand their kingdoms. So, they wage wars and battles.

Monarch’s crown symbolizes “empty power” because real power is vested with death

The first impact of the slap was that the boy burst into tears. He is not used to getting such slaps as he is a much pampered boy at home. When teacher tries to make him stop crying and behave like a soldier, the boy retorts saying that a soldier would shoot with a gun if he was hit. The next impact is that the boy becomes stubborn and he wants to blackmail the teacher. 

He wants the teacher to stop teaching and play with him with a toy train. The teacher would be the station master. First the teacher refuses and then the boy threatens him by saying he would report the slapping to his parents. The teacher has no way but to please the boy. Soon the train breaks down. And then boy wants to teacher to tell him stories. He tells the stories of the tiger and the bison and the story of Ali Baba and 40 Thieves. The boy wants to the story of the tiger and the bison repeated.

When teacher refuses the boy again threatens him and runs home. The teacher runs behind to catch him. It is obvious that the slapping has no positive effect on the boy. It has only made him more stubborn.

The teacher was wrong in slapping the boy on the cheek. It was a hard slap making the boy’s cheek red. Instead of slapping the boy, he could have asked him a different question or said some interesting things to bring the boy back into the study-mood. Corporal punishment to children is strictly prohibited in many countries. By giving corporal punishment you make the students hate their studies. Studies are done better when the students have a desire to study. I think the best way to teach is to tickle the curiosity in children and motivate them. Let them learn things because they want to learn them and not because they are forced or punished.

Children Are Not Load-Carrying Mules. Vijayan is 10 year old boy studying in Class V. He has been complaining of severe back pain. He was taken to the hospital. A scan showed that his backbone was bent badly. How won’t it bend? He is carrying 15 kg of books, tin carrier loaded with lunch, water and umbrella in his backpack every day, walking to and from school, one kilometre away. A Surgery had to be carried out. The doctor told his parents not to let him carry such weights on his back again!

Why do small children carry so much of weight in their backpacks? I remember my granddad telling me that when he was a primary school student he had only a slate, a couple of text books and notebooks to carry apart from his tin carrier. He drank water from the school well. Thus he carried less than one kg to school.

Today when we see school children going to school in the morning, we are reminded of caravans in which we see camels or mules loaded with heavy things on their backs. There is no logical reason why small children should be made into mules. Can’t some of the books be left in the school locker? Can’t they get drinking water in the school itself? I think it is high time we thought of methods of reducing the weight of the bag carried by small children.

Somebody jocularly remarked that today’s children carried knowledge on their backs, whereas the children of the earlier generations carried knowledge in their brains. There is a lot of truth in the statement. Parents should ensure that they don’t let their children carry heavy loads on their backs. In the long run these children will become sick with many problems affecting their vertebral column. Let’s all join hands to make the burden of the school children lighter!

Death mocks the ruler’s power and pomp.

Today something bad happened. You had told me that your son should get 50 marks in the class test forgetting a double promotion. I was trying hard to improve his arithmetic. I taught him the table of 16 up to 10.1 was checking if he remembered it. I asked him what is 16 x 3. He said 24.1 corrected him and made him say 48. Again I asked him and again he said 24. I thought he was trying to make me a fool by deliberately giving me the wrong answer each time I asked him. I don’t know what came over me. 

I suddenly lost my temper and I slapped him on the cheek. I remember your advice to me to treat your son as if he is made of thin glass. I forgot all that for a moment. I am sorry. But what I did was for the better future of your son and to make your dream about him come true. Now it is up to you to decide what to do with me.

Compounds containing carbon and hydrogen is known as Hydrocarbons.

Photolysis: The decomposition of a compound with light is called photolysis.

Electrolysis: The decomposition of a substance by passing electric current through it is called electrolysis.

Iron and steel (alloy of iron) are most easily protected by paint which provides a barrier between the metal and air/water. Moving parts on machines can be protected by a water repellent oil or grease layer. Covering the surface with enamel and lacquers is another method.

Sacrificial Protection 

 'Rusting' can be prevented by connecting iron to a more reactive metal (e.g., zinc or magnesium). This is referred to as sacrificial protection or sacrificial corrosion, because the more reactive protecting metal is preferentially oxidized away, leaving the protected metal intact.

Alloying

 Iron or steel along with other metals can also be protected by 'alloying' or mixing with other metals (e.g., chromium) to make non-rusting alloys. Stainless steel is an example of a nonrusting alloy of iron and carbon. Brass, an alloy containing copper is another metal alloy which is less expensive and non-reactive.

Galvanizing 

Coating iron or steel with a thin zinc layer is called 'galvanizing'. This layer is produced by electrolytic deposition. Dipping the iron/steel object in molten zinc and using it as the negative cathode zinc is coated on it. Zinc preferentially corrodes or oxidizes to form a zinc oxide layer that does not flake off like iron oxide rust. Also, if the surface is scratched, the exposed zinc again corrodes before the iron and continues to protect it. 

Electroplating 

Coating the surface with metals like tin, chromium, nickel etc. by electroplating is also utilized to prevent corrosion. Steel cans are protected by relatively un-reacted tin and works well as long as the thin tin layer is complete.

1. iv 

2. i 

3. ii 

4. iii

A covalent bond is defined 'as the force of attraction arising due to mutual sharing of electrons between the two nonmetallic atoms'. The combining atoms may share one, two or three pairs of electrons. The covalent bond is formed between two similar or dissimilar atoms of nonmetals by a mutual sharing of electrons, which are counted towards the stability of both the participating atoms. 

When the two atoms combine by mutual sharing of electrons, then each of the atoms acquires a stable configuration of the nearest noble gas. The compounds formed due to covalent bonding are called covalent compounds. The shared pair of electrons are called Bond Pairs.

1. Marco Polo 

2. Ananda Rangam 

3. Cochin, Coromandal 

4. Dodwell 

5. Reserve Bank of India 

6. King George VI 

7. St. Davids 

8. Bartholomew Diaz 

9. Mozambique 

10. Salsette 

11. Bedera 

12. Geldriaj

The tendency of an atom to take part in chemical combination is determined by the number of valence electrons (electrons in the outermost shell of an atom). The atoms acquire the stable noble gas configuration of having eight electrons in the outermost shell (called octet rule) during chemical combination. 

The combination of atoms occurs in two ways: either by electrovalent bonding or covalent bonding. In all chemical reactions, it is the electrons from the outermost shell of an atom that are involved in interacting with other atoms, either by their transfer or by sharing.

Decomposition reactions: are opposite to combination reactions. In a decomposition reaction a compound breaks down into two or more simple substances by the application of heat or electricity.

When a substance decomposes due to heat it is called thermal decomposition, while decomposition due to electricity, is called electrolytic decomposition.

The Dutch was completely wiped out by the year 1795

Have you ever tasted or smelt the fat/oil containing food materials left for a long time? This unpleasant change in the flavor and odour of a food is called rancidity. The most important cause of rancidity is the deterioration in fats and fatty foods because of oxidation process. When an oxygen atom replaces hydrogen atom in the fatty acid molecule it destabilizes the molecule. Factors which accelerate fat oxidation include, salt, light, water, bacteria, moulds trace metals (iron, zinc, etc.).

Usually substances which retard fat oxidation or rancidity are called antioxidants (such as BHT, BHA, vitamin E, and vitamin C, and spices such as sage and rosemary). These are added to foods containing fats and oil to prevent such spoiling. Keeping food in air tight containers or air tight wrapping also helps to slow down oxidation. 

Some high fat foods such as potato chips are packaged in materials that protect them from light and oxygen and the containers are flooded with nitrogen to further exclude oxygen. At times, to avoid the presence of oxygen altogether, vacuum packaging is used in some processed foodstuff.

Decomposition reactions: are opposite to combination reactions. In a decomposition reaction a compound breaks down into two or more simple substances by the application of heat or electricity.

When a substance decomposes due to heat it is called thermal decomposition, while decomposition due to electricity, is called electrolytic decomposition.

Many metals are chemically active elements and get easily affected by substances like moisture, air, acids, etc. One must have observed iron articles that are shiny when new, but get coated with a reddish brown powder when left for some time. This process is commonly known as rusting of iron. The problem with iron (as well as many other metals) is that oxidation takes place and the oxide formed does not firmly adhere to the surface of the metal causing it to flake off easily. This eventually causes structural weakness and disintegration of the metal.

Hence metal is attacked by substances around it, it is said to corrode and this process is called corrosion. Corrosion causes deterioration of essential properties in a material.

What happens to copper vessels or artifacts when exposed to air and water? They slowly get tarnished by acquiring a thin green oxide layer. Similarly, silver quickly acquires a thin black oxide coating in moist air. The heaviest metal lead also tarnishes in moist weather. The black coating on silver and the green coating on copper are examples of corrosion in which the oxides formed strongly bond to the surface of the metal, preventing the surface from further exposure to oxygen and consequently slowing down corrosion.

Precipitation reactions produce insoluble salts.

In all the above reactions a white substance, which is insoluble in water, is formed. This insoluble substance formed is known as a precipitate. A reaction that produces a precipitate is called a precipitation reaction.

Oxidation: The process of addition of electronegative element or radical or removal of electropositive element or radical.

Reduction: The process of addition of electropositive element or radical or removal of electronegative element or radical.

Kinds of Sources of Mordem India.

Artifacts from Archeological sites coins, monuments, inscriptions, travelogues and autobiographies are primary sources of information for modem history, it also includes government reports, letter, photographs map diaries, news papers and films.

1. The sources for the history of modem India help us to know the political, socio – economic and cultural developments in the country. 

2. The Portuguese, the Dutch, the French, the Danes, and the English recorded their official transactions in India on state papers. 

3. History can be written with the help of written sources and material sources. 

4. Written Sources: After the advent of the printing press, book were published in different languages people began to acquire knowledge easily in the fields like art, literature, history and science.

5. Written sources include Literatures, Travel Accounts, Diaries, Auto Biographies, Pamphlets, Government Documents and Manuscripts. 

6. Archives: It has main source of information for understanding past administrative machinery as well as a guide to the present and future generations related to all matters. 

7. Material Sources: Paintings and statues are the main sources of modem Indian history which provide information about national leaders and historical personalities and their achievements. 

8. Historical buildings and museums preserve and promote our cultural heritage,

9. Coins are a good source to know about administrative history.

(c) Nagapattinam

1. iv 

2. iii 

3. ii 

4. i.

1. True

2. True

3. False

Correct statement: Ananda Rangam was a translator served under French.

4. True

The Dutch followed the Portuguese into India.

(c) Alfonso de Albuquerque

After their arrival in India, the Dutch founded their first factory in Masulipatnam, (Andhra Pradesh) in 1605. The other important factories in India were Pulicat, Surat, Chinsura, Kasim bazaar, Patna, Nagapatnam, Balasore and Cochin

Prince Henry of Portugal, who is commonly known as the “Navigator” , encouraged his countrymen to take up the adventurous life of exploring the unknown regions of the world.

(d)  i, ii & iv are correct

Coins are a good source to know about administrative history. As compared to the literary sources the chances of manipulation is very less in the case of coins. Thus they are an authentic archaelogical source.