Dreams have fascinated philosophers (My name is Amerigo)
- Model Test-05
- HSC/ALIM
- English First Paper
- Subject Code:238
Part A-Reading Marks-30
Read the passage below and answer the following questions:Dreams have fascinated philosophers for thousands of years, but only recently have dreams been subjected to empirical research and scientific study. Chances are that you've often found yourself puzzling over the content of a dream, or perhaps you've wondered why you dream at all."
First, let's start by answering a basic question: What is a dream? A dream can include any of the images, thoughts and emotions that are experienced during sleep. Dreams can be extraordinarily vivid or very vague; filled with joyful emotions or frightening images; focused and understandable or unclear and confusing.
Why do we dream? What purpose do dreams serve? While many theories have been proposed, no consensus has emerged. Considering the time we spend in a dreaming state, the fact that researchers do not yet understand the purpose of dreams may seem baffling. However, it is important to consider that science is still unraveling the exact purpose and function of sleep itself. Some researchers suggest that dreams serve no real purpose, while others believe that dreaming is essential to mental, emotional and physical well-being.
Next, let's learn more about some of the most prominent dream theories. Consistent with the psychoanalytic perspective, Sigmund Freud's theory of dreams suggests that dreams are a representation of unconscious desires, thoughts and motivations. According to Freud, people are driven by aggressive and sexual instincts that are repressed from conscious awareness. While these thoughts are not consciously expressed, they find their way into our awareness via dreams.
In his famous book The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud wrote that dreams are "... disguised fulfillments of repressed wishes." Freud's theory contributed to the popularity of dream interpretation. Following his paths many theorists came up with their own ideas about dreams. The following are just a few of them.
Some researchers suggest that dreams are a subjective interpretation of signals generated by the brain during sleep. Dreams are not meaningless. Instead, during dreams the cognitive elements in our brain produce new ideas.
One theory suggests that dreams are the result of our brains trying to interpret external stimuli during sleep. For example, the sound of the radiomay be incorporated into the content of a dream. Another theory uses a computer metaphor to account for dreams.
According to this theory, dreams serve to 'clean up' clutter from the mind, much like clean-up operations in a computer, refreshing the mind to prepare for the next day. Yet another model proposes that dreams function as a form of psychotherapy. In this theory, the dreamer is able to make connections between different thoughts and emotions in a safe environment.
1. Choose the best answer from the alternatives
(a) The word 'aggressive' can be replaced by
(i) demonstrative
(ii) benign
(iiii) affable
(iv) violent
(i) suppressed
(ii) supplementary
(iii) pessimistic
(iv) stirred
(i) Bertrand Russell
(ii) Sigmund Freud
(iii) D.H. Lawrence
(iv) Martin Luther King Jr.
(iii) segregate
(iv) prohibit
(i) comprise
(ii) split
(e) According to Freud, people are driven by------
(i) cynical instincts
(ii) compromising instincts
(iii) apprehensive instincts
(iv) forceful instincts
(f) What is the meaning of fascinate"?
(i) wonder
(ii) attract
(iii) direct
(iv) refer
(i) obtain
(ii) experience
(iii) acquire
(iv) see
(h) What does the word 'empirical' mean?
(i) experimental
(ii) theoretical
(iii) puzzling
(iv) fascinating
(i) Confusing
(ii) uncertain
(iii) surprizing
(iv) all the above
(i) experimenting
(ii) hiding
(iii) resolving
(iv) focusing
Read the passage carefully and answer the following questions (2 & 3):
My name is Amerigo. I am 13 years old and I live on the street, alone. My mother, who is separated from my father, doesn't want me. She told me to go away.......... Now she is married to another man. My father lives very far away. I want to go to him but he won't take me either. I begged him to send me some money so that I could buy a bus ticket. I am still waiting. He hasn't answered.
The streets are now my home. Sometimes I find work. I used to collect trash and sell it to a vendor. I stopped doing that after I had a serious infection and a doctor told me to stay away from the trash dump. Once I worked for an ice cream shop owner and sold ice cream on the beach. But I got no money in return. The owner of the shop gave me something to eat, and let me sleep in his hut at night.
The work was difficult and painful. The ice cream box is quite heavy when it is full. I had to walk for hours, offering my ice cream to whoever wanted to buy. There were days when I could not even sell one ice cream. In a way, I am lucky because I am alive. My friends who work sorting rubbish in dumps often suffer from serious diseases. One of them was recently killed after he fell into a hole that opened up in the pile of trash.
Many of us work for 10 to 12 hours, and get so little in return that we can't even buy food. Shoe-shining is very popular among the street kids. A few of my friends also work in factories and workshops. A boy I know lost one of his eyes after a piece of hot glass flew into his eye at the glass factory where he worked. The owner refused to pay for medical help and fired him.
For me, like all other children on the street, it is very hard. I am always hungry, and I don't know where I will sleep the next night. I would like to live in my own home and sleep there in peace. The nights are very cold in the winter. You can die of cold in the street.
2. Answer the following questions:
(a) Who is Amerigo?
(b) What was Amerigo's first job? What made him stop doing that job?
(c) Why did Amerigo say, "I am lucky because I am alive"?
(d) How does Amerigo evaluate his life now? Does he have any option to change it?
(b) collect (antonym);
(c) vender (synonym);
(d) serious (antonym);
(e) trash (synonym);
(f) difficult (antonym);
(g) lucky (synonym);
(h) pile (synonym);
(i) refuse (antonym);
(j) hungry (synonym).
4. Fill in the blanks with appropriate words.
The (b)---------- on higher education of every branch of (c)---------- are written in English. If we really (d)---------- to earn vast knowledge along with higher (e)---------- in any particular subject, we are to (f)---------- the help from those important books. All (g)---------- is the best in European and American (h)---------- is available through English. If this reliable (i)---------- is dried up, we all shall go (j)----------
5. Re-arrange the following sentences to make a coherent order:
(a) Sometimes it was difficult to satisfy him with answer.
(b) His father got angry for this kind of activity.
(c) Because he always asked "Why, why, why"?
(d) The boy often undertook some risky adventures.
(e) But there was only one person who did never feel annoyed with the boy.
(f) For example, once the boy set his father's barn on fire only to see how it could burn.
(g) And that person was his loving mother.
(h) A young boy of six or seven became the subject of talk in a village.
Part B-Writing (Marks-20)
6. Write a paragraph on 'Importance of Reading Newspaper' in about 200 words based on the answers to the questions:
(b) Why do you think it is necessary to read newspaper?
(c) What kind of newspaper do you read?
(d) Does reading newspaper enrich your knowledge? How?
7. The following is the beginning of a story. Complete it in your own words. Give a title to it:
Once there lived a poor farmer. He had a goose. It used to lay a golden egg every day. He sold the golden egg in the market. He was very greedy----------------------------------------------.
8. Write the summary of the following text.
Shilpi was only 15 years old when she married Rashid in 2008. Marrying off daughters at an early age is a standard practice for many families living in rural Bangladesh. After her wedding, Shilpi joined a local empowerment group that provides adolescent girls with the tools needed to gradually change cultural practices, particularly those pertaining to early marriage and pregnancy.
The group's activities include discussions on how to most effectively change behaviour related to reproductive health as well as one-on-one counselling. It also offers peer-to-peer support and life skills training that help adolescents say 'no' to early marriage. The empowerment group is one of more than 10,000 groups supported by some local "Non Government Organizations (NGOs) working all over Bangladesh.
These NGOs work through Canada's Adolescent Reproductive Health Project which also aims to increase access to quality health services for adolescents. During one of the group sessions, Shilpi came to understand the potentially harmful effects of early marriage and pregnancy.
While maternal mortality in Bangladesh has declined by nearly 40 percent since 2001, the rate remains high with 194 maternal deaths ner 100,000, live births in 2010-dropping from 322 in 2001 with a projected decrease to 143 by 2015. Girls who get pregnant are at risk of serious health complications.
These include dangerous hemorrhage and fistula, a painful internal injury caused by obstructed childbirth that commonly leads to serious maternal morbidities and social exclusion.
