Activity 4. Unit 1.2 On Saying'Please'

Prose Section
On saying please
Extract No. 04
Activities with expected answers

Page no. 16/17   [ Lines, “It is ……………given me.”]

Read the first activity, read the extract and do all the activities that follow:
A1. Rearrange :                          
Following sentences are jumbled up rearrange them as per their occurrence in the extract.
a) The account was settled by the narrator
b) The narrator found a shilling in the corner of his pocket.
c) The narrator had left home without money.
d) The narrator told the conductor honestly that he did not have a penny
(Correct order is ....... c),  d),  b),  a) )

It is not, therefore, with any feeling of unfriendliness to conductors as a class that I pay a tribute to a particular member of that class. I first became conscious of his existence one day when I jumped on to a bus and found that I had left home without any money in my pocket. Everyone has had the experience and knows the feeling, the mixed feeling, which the discovery arouses. You are annoyed because you look like a fool at the best and like a knave at the worst. You would not be at all surprised if the conductor eyed you coldly as much as to say, ‘Yes I know that stale old trick. Now then, off you get.’ And even if the conductor is a good fellow and lets you down easily, you are faced with the necessity of going back and the inconvenience, perhaps, of missing your train or your engagement.
Having searched my pockets in vain for stray coppers, and having found I was utterly penniless, I told the conductor with as honest a face as I could assume that I couldn’t pay the fare, and must go back for money. ‘Oh, you needn’t get off: that’s all right’, said he. ‘All right’, said I, ‘but I haven’t a copper on me.’ ‘Oh I’ll book you through, he replied. ‘Where d’ye want to go ?’ and he handled his bundle of tickets with the air of a man who was prepared to give me a ticket for anywhere from the Bank to Hong Kong. I said it was very kind of him, and told him where I wanted to go, and as he gave me the ticket I said, ‘But where shall I send the fare?’ ‘Oh, you’ll see me some day all right’, he said cheerfully, as he turned to go. And then, luckily, my fingers, still wandering in the corners of my pockets lighted on a shilling and the account was squared. But that fact did not lessen the glow of pleasure which so good-natured an action had given me.

A2. Describe :                  
Describe the feelings of the narrator when he realised that he was travelling without money.
There was a mixed and awkward feeling. The writer felt angry as he looked like a fool. He thought
The conductor would humiliate him by saying that it was an old trick of the ticketless passenger.

A3. Find out and give reasons 
“I pay tribute to a particular member of that class. Find out which particular member of class the writer is talking about with reasons.
The writer is talking about the conductor of the bus. Despite of the fact that the writer was travelling without money the conductor did not shout at him and didn’t twll the writer to get down from the bus. He was very polite with the writer and handled the situation very calmly and quietly.

A4. Personal Response :          
Do you have similar kind of experience like the narrator had as mentioned in the extract.

A5. Language study :               
i) I pay tribute to a particular member of that class.
(Rewrite using,” Present perfect continuous Tense”)
I have been paying tribute to a particular member of that class.

ii) I couldn’t pay the fare.  ( Use, “be able to”)
I was not able to pay the fare. OR I was unable to pay the fare.

iii) It was very kind of him.  (Make it Exclamatory)
How kind it was of him!

iv) He gave me the ticket.
( Frame a ,'wh'- question” to get the underlined part as an answer)
What did he give me?

v) I said,” But where shall I send the fare?” (Rewrite in Reported speech)
I asked/inquired but where I would send the fare.

A6. Vocabulary :                                    
Find Antonyms of the following words from the extract.
a) Friendly x Unfriendly
b) unconscious   x conscious
c) Convenience x Inconvenience
d) unlucky x lucky