Activity 2 On Saying'Please'

Prose section

On Saying Please
Extract No 02
Activities with Expected answers

Page no. 15   [ Lines, “This does not………..moods and manners”]

Read the first activity, read the extract and do all the activities that follow:

A1. True or False :                
i) It is more painful if someone hurts our self-respect. (T)

ii) Bad manners can cause much damage which irreparable. (T)

iii) Law can control our private manners. (F)

iv) Court could control our social manners and moods. (F)

This does not mean that the damages are negligible. It is probable that the lift-man was much more acutely hurt by what he regarded as a slur upon his social standing than he would have been if he had a kick on the shins, for which he could have got a legal redress. The pain of a kick on the shins soon passes away but the pain of a wound to our self-respect or our vanity may poison a whole day. I can imagine that lift-man, denied the relief of throwing the author  of his wound out of the lift, brooding over the insult by the hour, and visiting it on his wife in the evening as the only way of restoring his equilibrium. For there are few things more catching than bad temper and bad manners. When Sir Anthony Absolute bullied Captain Absolute, the latter went out and bullied his man, Fag, whereupon Fag went out downstairs and kicked the page-boy. Probably the man who said ‘Top’ to the lift man was really only getting back on his employer who had not said ‘Good morning’ to him because he himself had been henpecked at breakfast by his wife, to whom the cook had been insolent because the housemaid had ‘answered her back’. We infect the world with our ill humours. Bad manners probably do more to poison the stream of the general life than all the crimes in the calendar. For one wife who gets a black eye from an otherwise good natured husband there are a hundred who live a life of martyrdom under the shadow of a morose temper. But all the same the law cannot become the guardian of our private manners. No Decalogue could cover the vast area of offences and no court could administer a law which governed our social civilities, our speech, the tilt of our eyebrows and all our moods and manners.

A2. Explain :                
The pain of a kick on the shins soon passes away but the pain of a wound to our self-respect or our vanity may poison a whole day.
The statement is self-explanatory. The writer wants to convey that physical assault can heal with Passage of time but an injury to our self-respect cannot be healed easily. It may poison our day or Life because it is an insult or humiliation.

A3. Give Reasons :              
it is not possible for the law to become the guardian of our private manners ……….
Law is reasonable and clear. It can guide us in our daily life. Discourtesy is not a legal offence.
Social mannerisms, etiquettes, politeness are expected nobilities and courtesies. We  cannot compel somebody to say Thank you and please every now and then.

A4. Personal Response :
       
“Courtesy costs nothing but pays everything,” Do you agree with this saying. Justify your  answer with suitable examples.

A5. Language study :
           
i) We infect the world with our ill-humours.
(Rewrite the sentence beginning with,” The world…….”)
The world is infected by us with our ill-humours.

ii) The law cannot become the guardian of our private manners.
(Frame a Rhetorical question)
Can the law become the guardian of our private manners?

iii) No Decalogue could cover the vast area.  (Make it affirmative)
Decalogue could not cover the vast area.

A6. Vocabulary :
             
Find out words from the extract which mean.
a) Remedy = Redress
b) to support a decision publicly= Endorse
c) Bad name or Reputation = Black eye
d) A man who is controlled by his wife=henpecked.

Note: All activities carry 2 marks.

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