Karnataka II PUC English (KSEAB) flashcards

33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Inference question strategy

Find the sentence the question points to, then select the option that follows logically from it without adding outside facts. Answers restate; inferences conclude.

Vocabulary in context

Substitute each option into the original sentence and keep the one that preserves the sentence's meaning and grammar; the dictionary's first sense is often wrong here.

Pronoun reference resolution

For 'it', 'this' or 'they', scan backwards to the nearest noun phrase matching the pronoun in number and sense; discard candidates that make the sentence illogical.

Tone words for passages

Standard options include critical, sympathetic, ironic, objective, nostalgic, satirical, optimistic and pessimistic. Match tone to the writer's attitude, not to the topic's mood.

Subject-verb agreement rule

'One of + plural noun' takes a singular verb; each, every, either, neither and nobody are singular; a phrase between subject and verb does not change the verb.

Reported speech tense shift

Present simple becomes past simple, present continuous becomes past continuous, 'will' becomes 'would', 'can' becomes 'could'; time words shift: today to that day.

Third conditional form

If + past perfect in the if-clause, would have + past participle in the main clause, as in 'If she had studied, she would have passed'.

Question tag polarity

A positive statement takes a negative tag and vice versa; the tag repeats the statement's auxiliary, or uses do/does/did when there is none.

Articles before vowel sounds

Use 'an' before vowel sounds, not vowel letters: an hour, an honest man, but a university, a European. Use no article for uncountable nouns used generally.

Prepositions of time

Use 'in' for months, years and parts of day; 'on' for days and dates; 'at' for clock times, night and noon; 'since' for a point of time, 'for' for duration.

The Road Not Taken

Frost's speaker chooses the road 'less travelled by' and imagines telling the tale 'ages and ages hence', turning an arbitrary choice into a life-defining one.

Ozymandias irony

Shelley's ruined statue bears the boast 'Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'; the surrounding 'lone and level sands' expose the gap between pride and time.

The Solitary Reaper comparisons

Wordsworth compares the reaper's song to the nightingale, which delights travellers in Arabian sands, and to the cuckoo, whose voice breaks the silence of the Hebrides.

La Belle Dame sans Merci

Keats's knight is left 'alone and palely loitering' after loving a fairy woman; a dream shows pale kings and warriors warning him of her earlier victims.

Death Be Not Proud argument

Donne addresses death directly and argues it is neither mighty nor dreadful, since it is a slave to fate, kings and desperate men, and 'death shall be no more'.

Poetic device definitions

Simile uses like or as; metaphor identifies one thing with another; personification gives human qualities to non-human things; alliteration repeats initial consonant sounds.

Gentlemen of the Jungle

Kenyatta's fable has animals take a man's hut through a staged legal verdict; the man finally burns the hut, satirising how colonial 'justice' legitimises dispossession.

The School for Sympathy

E.V. Lucas describes Miss Beam's school, where children take turns at being blind, deaf or lame so that they learn sympathy by experiencing disability.

The Gold Frame mishap

In the story, the frame-maker damages the customer's portrait and conceals the damage; the comedy turns on the gap between reputation and the hidden repair.

The Man Who Knew Too Much

The narrator in a railway compartment displays knowledge of every stranger's profession and destination, and is thrown out; the target is unearned omniscience.

The Guide plot outline

Narayan's Raju moves from tourist guide to Rosie's manager to prisoner, then becomes the holy man Velan serves; the ending leaves his death and the rain unresolved.

The Vendor of Sweets conflict

Jagan, a Gandhian sweet-seller, is estranged from his son Mali, who returns from America with Grace and plans a novel-writing machine; tradition meets modernity.

Swami and Friends characters

Swami, Rajam and Mani form a schoolboy trio; incidents include the school strike, Swami's friendship with a coachman, and Rajam's departure for Trichinopoly.

The Financial Expert theme

Narayan traces Margayya's rise from clerk to moneylender and his fall, with his son Balu's ruin exposing the fragility of wealth built on speculation.

Précis rules

Reduce to about one-third of the original, keep the third person and the original tense, use your own words, and omit quotations, examples and personal comment.

Report writing format

Begin with a headline, then a byline naming the reporter, a dateline giving place and date, and a past-tense account of the event, its cause and consequence.

Formal letter conventions

Sender's address, date, receiver's designation and address, 'Dear Sir/Madam', a subject line, the body, 'Yours faithfully' and the signature. No contractions.

Essay paragraph structure

State the thesis in the introduction, give one point with one example per body paragraph, and close by restating the position in fresh wording without new arguments.

Idiom: bolt from the blue

A sudden and wholly unexpected shock or event, as in 'The dismissal came as a bolt from the blue'. It has nothing to do with weather.

Idiom: beat about the bush

To avoid coming to the point and talk around the matter instead of stating it directly; the opposite is 'come straight to the point'.

Idiom: at the eleventh hour

At the very last possible moment, just before a deadline or too late for comfort, as in 'The agreement was signed at the eleventh hour'.

Phrasal verbs with give

Give up means surrender or quit; give in means yield; give away means distribute or betray; give off means emit. The particle fixes the meaning.

One-word substitution examples

A philanthropist loves mankind; a misanthrope hates mankind; an epitaph is inscribed on a tomb; an autobiography is a life written by the subject.