Reading

The Romance of a Busy Broker

Working with Words

A. Match the following words with their definitions.

a. snappy  –  ii. irritable and inclined to speak sharply

b. discretion  –  vi. the ability to behave without causing embarrassment or attracting too much attention

c. radiant  –  vii. showing great happiness, love or health

d. irresolute  –  viii. not able to decide what to do

e. brusque  –  x. using very few words and sounding mode

f. fitful  –  v. a quiet period between times of activity

g. harlequin  –  ix. a humorous character in some traditional plays

h. lull  –  ii. happening only for short periods

i. janitress  –  a lady whose job is to take care of a building such as school or a block of flats

j. speck  –  iv. 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.

a. Liquidity :  The availability of liquid assets to a market or company is known as liquidity.

b. IPO :  IPO short for initial public offering means that a company’s ownership is transitioning from private ownership to public ownership in a new stock offering.

c. NEPSE :  NEPSE is the only stock exchange of Nepal.

d. index :  Index measures the price performance of a basket of securities using a standardized metric and methodology.

e. portfolio :  A portfolio is a collection of financial investments like stocks, bonds, commodities, cash, and cash equivalents as well as their fund counterparts.

f. dividend :  Dividend refers to a reward, cash or otherwise, that a company gives to its shareholders.

g. turn over :  Turn over is the measure of sales performance, usually the higher the stock turnover rate, the better your stock is performing.

h. margin :  Margin refers to the practice  of using borrowed funds from a broker to trade a financial asset, which forms the collateral for the loan from the broker.

C. Based on the pronunciation, find the odd word from the following groups.

a. sell, cell, see, set
Ans: see

b. stopped, laughed, saved, booked
Ans: saved

c. hare, mere, beer, here
Ans: hare

d. so, sew, sow, saw
Ans: saw

e. book, food, pool, tool
Ans: book

f. fan, jam, past, van
Ans: past

g. sell, cell, sale, said
Ans: sale

h. howl, bowl, fowl, growl
Ans: bowl

i. learn, verb, turn, torn
Ans: torn

j. poor, sure, door, dog
Ans: sure

Comprehension

A. Write ‘T‘ for true statements, ‘F’ for false ones or ‘NG’ if the information is not given in the text.

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?
Ans: Maxwell entered his office in a active manner and quick and said “Good-morning, Pitcher”.

b. Describe the physical appearance of the young lady.
Ans: The young lady was beautiful with rolled up hairstyle.. She looks gray and is dressed in plain clothes with a soft and shiny look, imaginary eyes, real peach cheeks, happy mood swings and memories.

c. What changes did Pitcher notice in the young lady?
Ans: Pitcher noticed that she stayed in the outer office rather than going immediately to her desk in the next room and she proceeded from the Maxwell’s desk to let him to know about her presence.

d. What was Pitcher’s reply to the young lady concerning a new stenographer?
Ans: Pitcher’s reply to the young lady concerning a new stenographer was Maxwell advised to change and hire another stenographer and then he notified the agency yesterday afternoon to send some of the samples and no candidates other than her by that time arrived.

e. What proposal did Maxwell make with Miss Leslie?
Ans: Maxwell made marriage proposal with Miss Leslie.

f. How did she react to his proposal?
Ans: She was amazed and surprise by the marriage proposal of Maxwell and then tears came from her eyes due to confusion and finally she smiled and put her arms around his neck with love.

Critical Thinking

a. What message does the writer want to give by presenting Maxwell as an extremely absent-minded person?
Ans: In the story “The Romance of a Busy Broker”, the writer characterized Maxwell as the absent-minded person. In this story, Maxwell is the person who is passionate in his works and official tasks. He is far from this family responsibility and relationships. He is always very keen to do his works and didn’t care for his family and others. He doesn’t have time to pay attention to others.

From the story, the writer wants to tell us that we shouldn’t be very intense in our works. We should take care of our family. We should know the responsibility towards our family and society. We should not forget our responsibility. We should take our personal life and official life equally otherwise it will hampers our life.

b. Imagine you are Miss Leslie, Write how you were troubles emotionally when your own husband came to you and made a marriage proposal.
Ans: Hello, I am Miss Leslie, wife of Maxwell. My husband is a workaholic. He is passionate in his works. He doesn’t know his duty towards his family. One day, when we were working in a office, he came near to me and proposed to marry me. I was shocked while listening to him because our marriage was evening before. As we were married already, I looked at him and burst into tears and ultimately smiled and placed my arms around his neck and told him that we had married the evening before. Therefore, I was surprised and shocked that my freshly husband proposed me and I feel sad for his absent-mindedness due to his habits.

Writing

Study the following text and and write summary.

Key points

• • Miss Leslie was the office colleague of Maxwell.
  • Maxwell proposed to marry Leslie.
  • She was shocked to hear and was seemed to be overcome with amazement and then tears flowed from her eyes.
  •  She reminded that they were married last evening at 8 PM in Church.

Grammar

A. Study the following sentences and underline the relative clauses.

a. I snatched a minute 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.
c. She was beautiful in a way that was decidedly stenographic.

B. Fill in the blanks with suitable relative pronouns:  who, which, that , whom, whose, why, how, what or when.

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.
Ans: 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.
Ans: A new cricket stadium which can accommodate one hundred thousand people is being made in Chitwan.

c. Shanghai is the most populated city in the world. I stayed there for five years.
Ans: Shanghai, where I stayed for five years, is the most populated city in the world.

d. This is the man. I gave some money to him this morning.
Ans: This is the man whom I gave some money to this morning.

e. Do you know the man? His son was awarded in the school yesterday.
Ans: 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.
Ans: His step-mother, whom he had been staying with, was not very kind with him.

g. He can never forget Nakkhu Jail. He had spent 14 years there.
Ans: 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.
Ans: He showed me his new tab which he had paid a hundred thousand rupees for.

i. Nelson Mandela joined ANC in 1930s. He was a student then.
Ans: Nelson Mandela joined the ANC in the 1930s when he was a student.

j. She forgot to buy the things. Her mother had told to buy them.
Ans: She forgot to buy the things which her mother had told to buy.