📖 Fantasy
📝 Working with Words
A. Match the following words with their definitions.
| Words | Definitions |
|---|---|
| a. snappy | irritable and inclined to speak sharply |
| b. discretion | the ability to behave without causing embarrassment or attracting too much attention |
| c. radiant | showing great happiness, love or health |
| d. irresolute | not able to decide what to do |
| e. brusque | using very few words and sounding rude |
| f. fitful | happening only for short periods |
| g. harlequin | a humorous character in some traditional plays |
| h. lull | a quiet period between times of activity |
| i. janitress | a lady whose job is to take care of a building such as a school or a block of flats |
| j. speck | a very small spot |
B. Consult a dictionary or search over the internet and write definitions of the following terminologies used in the stock market.
| Terminology | Definition |
|---|---|
| a. Liquidity | the availability of liquid assets (cash) to a market or company. |
| b. IPO | the process of offering shares of a private corporation to the public in a new stock issuance. |
| c. NEPSE | the only stock exchange of Nepal which stands for Nepal Stock Exchange. |
| d. Index | measurement of the value of a section of the stock market. |
| e. Portfolio | collection of financial investments like stocks, bonds, commodities, cash, and cash equivalents, including mutual funds and ETFs. |
| f. Dividend | a payment to shareholders that is made in shares rather than as cash. |
| g. Turn over | a measure of stock liquidity. |
| h. Margin | the amount of equity an investor has in their brokerage account. |
📚 Comprehension
A. Write ‘T’ for true statements, ‘F’ for false ones or ‘NG’ if the information is not given in the text.
| Statements | Answers |
|---|---|
| a. Harvey Maxwell was a stock broker. | T |
| b. He was not happy with his clerk, Pitcher. | NG |
| c. Miss Leslie had been married to Maxell for a year. | F |
| d. Maxwell had hired a machine to work in his office. | NG |
| e. He had instructed Pitcher to get a new stenographer. | T |
| f. Miss Leslie was amazed by Maxwell’s proposal. | T |
| g. She thought that he had probably gone mad. | F |
| h. She realized that he had been absent-minded due to his business. | T |
B. Answer the following questions.
a. How did Maxwell enter his office?
=> Answer: Maxwell made his entrance into the office in a lively and hurried fashion. The young lady stenographer was with him when he arrived. He then greeted Pitcher in an ordinary, friendly manner by saying “Good Morning”.
b. Describe the physical appearance of the young lady.
=> Answer: The young lady was exceptionally attractive, though her appearance was far from the conventional image of a stenographer. She avoided the elaborate pompadour hairstyle often associated with fashionable women and wore no chains, bracelets, or lockets. Nothing about her suggested that she was dressed for a luncheon engagement. Her grey dress was simple, yet its careful fitting gave her a graceful and refined appearance. She wore a tidy black turban decorated with the gold-green wing of a macaw. On that particular morning, she looked quietly delighted and somewhat shy. Her eyes were bright with a dreamy quality, her cheeks had the natural appearance of peach, and her face displayed a cheerful expression touched by pleasant remembrance.
c. What changes did Pitcher notice in the young lady?
=> Answer: Pitcher realized that the young lady's behaviour was different from what he normally observed. Instead of immediately going into the neighbouring room and sitting at her desk, she remained in the outer office for a while. She appeared hesitant and unsure. Later, she moved toward Maxwell’s desk and stood close enough that Maxwell could clearly notice her.
d. What was Pitcher’s reply to the young lady concerning a new stenographer?
=> Answer: In response, Pitcher explained that Maxwell had already given him the responsibility of finding another stenographer. He had contacted an agency one day earlier and arranged for several candidates to be sent to the office that morning. Despite this arrangement, she was the only applicant who had arrived at that time.
e. What proposal did Maxwell make with Miss Leslie?
=> Answer: Maxwell asked Miss Leslie to marry him.
f. How did she react to his proposal?
=> Answer: Maxwell’s words came as a great shock to Miss Leslie. She first stood amazed, unable to hide her strong emotion, and tears filled her eyes. Her surprise gradually gave way to happiness, and she smiled brightly through her tears. She finally responded with affection by tenderly putting one arm around Maxwell’s neck.
📘 Grammar
A. Study the following sentences and underline the relative clauses.
a. I snatched a minute when things had slackened a minute.
=> Answer: when things had slackened a minute
b. Instead of going straight into the adjoining room, where her desk was, she lingered, slightly irresolute, in the outer office.
=> Answer: where her desk was
c. She was beautiful in a way that was decidedly stenographic.
=> Answer: that was decidedly stenographic
B. Fill in the blanks with suitable relative pronouns: who, which, that, whom, whose, where, why, how, what or when.
| No. | Completed sentence |
|---|---|
| a. | There is a lady whose wallet has been stolen. |
| b. | Do you know the man who sold these glasses? |
| c. | The knife which you cut the bread with is very sharp. |
| d. | Why do you blame him for everything that goes wrong? |
| e. | A cemetery is a place where dead bodies are buried. |
| f. | This school is for those children whose mother tongue is not Nepali. |
| g. | I don’t know the name of the person whom I spoke over the telephone. |
| h. | I came to Kathmandu on the day when the devastating earthquake took place. |
| i. | In the application form she wrote when she needed a good payment. |
| j. | The pilot explained why he made force landing on the road. |
C. Join the following pairs of sentences using who, which, that, whose, whom, where, when or what.
a. The building was destroyed in the fire. It has now been rebuilt.
=> Answer: The building which was destroyed in the fire, has now been rebuilt.
b. A new cricket stadium is being made in Chitwan. It can accommodate one hundred thousand people.
=> Answer: A new cricket stadium which is being made in Chitwan, can accommodate one hundred thousand people.
c. Shanghai is the most populated city in the world. I stayed there for five years.
=> Answer: Shanghai, where I stayed there for five years, is the most populated city in the world.
d. This is the man. I gave some money to him this morning.
=> Answer: This is the man whom I gave some money this morning.
e. Do know the man? His son was awarded in the school yesterday.
=> Answer: Do you know the man whose son was awarded in the school yesterday?
f. His step-mother was not very kind to him. He had been staying with her.
=> Answer: His step-mother, with whom he had been staying, was not very kind to him.
g. He can never forget Nakkhu Jail. He had spent 14 years there.
=> Answer: He can never forget Nakkhu Jail where he had spent 14 years.
h. He showed me his new tab. He had paid a hundred thousand rupees for it.
=> Answer: He showed me his new tab for which he had paid a hundred thousand rupees.
i. Nelson Mandela joined ANC in 1930s. He was a student then.
=> Answer: Nelson Mandela joined ANC in 1930s when he was a student.
j. She forgot to buy the things. Her mother had told to buy them.
=> Answer: She forgot to buy the things which her mother had told her to buy.