Reading

Identity Crisis in Immigrants

Ways with Words

A. Find the words from the text to solve the crossword puzzle below. The meanings of the words are given in the clues.

Across

2. as is certain to happen   =   inevitable
4. famous and respected   =   eminent
6. a temporary stay   =   sojourn
7. knowing everything   =   omiscient

Down

1. the state of being preoccupied   =   preoccupation  
3. anxious or fearful that something bad will happen   =   apprehensive
5. a person of mixed white and black ancestry   =   mulatto

 

B. Find the meanings of the following words in a dictionary as they are used in the text.

melancholy  =  a feeling of pensive sadness
elusive  =  catch
motif  =  a central idea in an artistic work
disdain  =  the feeling that someone or something is worthless
fabricate  =  invent
intoxicate  =  to lose behavior
resentment  = feeling of bitterness about something unfair

 

D. Choose the right word to fill in the blanks.

a. Can you bury the box in the back garden? 

b. Alex could not break the branch off the tree. 

c. Whose pencil is on the floor? 

d. We have got very few tasks left.

e. Some tribes worship their gods before they prey.  

f. Damn it. Everything is messed up.

g. What a wonderful lesson the professor presented. 

Comprehension

Answer these questions.

a. How is Willie Chandran different from the rest of his family?
Ans: Willie Chandran is different from the rest of his family as he is insecure about himself and his own identity. 

 

b. Who is the main character of Half A Life? How is he described?
Ans: Willie Chandran is the main character in the book. He was born in India to a Brahmin father and a poor mother.

 

c. Why does Willie leave India?
Ans: Willie was born from high cast father and low cast mother. Willie feel there is no identifying in India. He is hateful to his father. Who married to a low caste woman out of whom he got birth, he is bitterly unhappy in India and by managing scholarship in London, he leave India.

 

d. What is the revelation that Willie begin to feel in college and in London?
Ans: Willie being feels that he was secure in London and free from India where caste discrimination plays a vital role in India. There he could write his own revelation himself. 

 

e. Why does Willie accompany Ana?
Ans: Willie writes stories in London and managed to publish a little book of stories which is ignored universally expect Ana is mixed African girls because of her word and behavior. Willie like her and decided to go back home to her Portuguese African country where he can find a complete acceptance.

 

f. What is the central issue Naipal has raised in the novel?
Ans: In the novel Naipal has raised the issue of cultural and racial identity. 

Grammar

Change the following into indirect speech.

a. She said, “While I was having dinner, the phone rang.”
Ans: She said that while she was having dinner, the phone rang.

 

b. My friend said, “Where are they staying?”
Ans: My friend asked where they were staying.

 

c. Jamila said, “I travel a lot in my job.”
Ans: Jamila said that she travelled a lot in her job.

 

d. She said to me, “We lived in China for five years.”
Ans: She told me that they had lived in China for five years.

 

e. He said to me, “Do you like ice-cream?”
Ans: He told me if I had liked ice-cream.

 

f. They said, “Hurray! We’ve won the match.”
Ans: They exclaimed with delight that they had won the match. 

 

g. He said, “I’d tried everything without success, but this new medicine is great.”
Ans: He said that he’d tried everything without success, but this new medicine was great.

 

h. Sony said, “I go to the gym next to your house.”
Ans: Sony said that she went to the gym next to my house.

 

i. He said, “Be quiet after 10 o’clock.”
Ans: He told me to be quiet after 10o’ clock.

 

j. He said, “I don’t want to go to the party unless he invites me.”
Ans: He said that he didn’t want to go to the party unless he invited him.

 

k. He said to me, “I will see you tomorrow if you meet me.”
Ans: He told me that he would see me the following day if I met him.

 

l. She said, “If I were you, I would give up the work.”
Ans: She said that if she were me, she would give up the work.