Indira Gandhi National Open University

BACHELOR OF COMPUTER APPLICATIONS

(BCA)

ASSIGNMENT
ON
FOUNDATION COURSE IN ENGLISH FOR COMPUTING

Course Code: CS-610

Course Title: Foundation Course in English for Computing
Semester: First
Assignment Number: BCA(1)-610/Assign/09

Submitted By: Submitted To:

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There are four questions in this assignment, Answer all questions.

Q1: Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:

We have been brought up to fear insects. We regard them as unnecessary creatures that
do more harm than good. Man continually wages war on them, for they contaminate his
food, carry disease, or devour his crops. They sting or bite without provocation; they fly
uninvited into our room on summer nights, or beat against the lighted windows. We live
in dread, not only of unpleasant insects like spider or wasps, but of quite harmless ones
like moths. Reading about them increases our understanding without dispelling our fears.
Knowing that the industrious ant lives in a highly organized society does nothing to
prevent us from being filled with revulsion when we find hordes of them crawling over a
carefully prepared picnic lunch.

No matter how much we like honey, or how much we have read about the uncanny sense
if direction which bees possess we have a horror of being stung. Most of our fears are
unreasonable, but they are difficult to erase. At the same time however, insects are
strangely fascinating; we enjoy reading about them, especially when we find that like the
praying mantis, they lead perfectly normal lives. We enjoy staring at them entranced as
they go about their business, unaware (we hope) of our presence. Who has not stood in
awe at the sight of a spider pouncing on a fly, or a column of ants triumphantly bearing
home an enormous dead beetle?

Last summer, I spent days in the garden watching thousands of ants crawling up the trunk
of my prized peach tree. The tree has grown against a warm wall on a sheltered side of
the house. I am especially proud of it, not only because it has survived several sever
winters, but because it occasionally produces luscious peaches. During the summer I
noticed that the leaves of the tree were beginning to wither. Clusters of tiny insects called
aphis were to be found on the underside of the leaves. They were visited by a large
colony of ants which obtained a sort of honey from them. I immediately embarked on an
experiment which, even though it failed to get rid of ants, kept me fascinated for twenty

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 four hours. I bound the base of the tree with a sticky tape, making it impossible for ants to
reach the aphis. The tape was so sticky that they did not dare to cross it. For a long time, I
watched them scurrying around the base of the tree in bewilderment. I even went out at
midnight with a torch and noted with satisfaction (and surprise) that the ants were still
swarming around the sticky tape without being able to do anything about it. I got up early
next morning hopping to find that the ants had given up in despair. Instead I saw that they
had discovered a new route. They were climbing up the walls of the house and then on
the leaves of the tree. I realized sadly that I had been completely defeated by their
ingenuity. The ants had been quick to find an answer to my thoroughly unscientific
method!

Answer the following questions in your own words as far as possible:

Use one or two sentences only for each answer:

(a) What is our attitude to insects? (1 marks)

Answer: Our attitude towards insects is quit hostile and repulsive.

(b) Why do human beings try to exterminate insects? (1 marks)

Answer: Human beings try to exterminate insects because they are harmful for them in
many ways. For instance, insects contaminate his food, carry disease, or demolish his
crops and sting or bite.

(c) Why does the writer say that knowing about the insects does not help human beings to
change their attitude to insects? (1 marks)

Answer: Knowing about the insects and their society which is much more organized than
human beings’ does not help them to change their attitude to insects because it is not
helpful for human beings; their lives, their society and the way it is organized holds no
importance for humans.

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 (d) Do you think that the attitude of human beings to insect as described in this passage is
right? Why, why not? Give two reasons in support of your thinking. (1 marks)

Answer: Yes, I am agreeing with the writer, as insects bite and spread different types of
diseases among humans.

(e) What do you think the writer wanted to prove by the experiment he conducted on ant?
Quote words/expressions to support your answers. (1 marks)

Answer: I think the writer wanted to prove that even insects are genuine; they are not as
different from us as we think because the writer himself wrote “they lead perfectly
normal lives”.

Q2: Choose the correct form of the verbs from those which have been underlined.

The conference was very successful. The seminars and talks (1) were/had been extremely
interesting and it was obvious that all the speakers (2) had prepared/prepared their
material very thoroughly. Everyone agreed that this should become an annual event.

There was however a number of administrative problems. When we (3) arrived/had

arrived, we (4) discovered/had discovered that the hotel manager (5) reserved/had
reserved the wrong room for us and therefore we (6) did not have/had not had enough
space. Unfortunately, he could not let us have the larger room because he (7) gave/had
given it to another group, even bigger than ours.

He (8) also misunderstood/had also misunderstood the letter explaining what food we (9)
required/had required. In fact, we (10) suspected/had suspected that he had lost the letter.
We do not recommend using this hotel again. (5 marks)

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 Answer: The conference was very successful. The seminars and talks (1) were extremely
interesting and it was obvious that all the speakers (2) had prepared their material very
thoroughly. Everyone agreed that this should become an annual event.

There was however a number of administrative problems. When we (3) arrived, we (4)
discovered that the hotel manager (5) had reserved the wrong room for us and therefore
we (6) had not had enough space. Unfortunately, he could not let us have the larger room
because he (7) had given it to another group, even bigger than ours.

He (8) also misunderstood the letter explaining what food we (9) had required. In fact, we
(10) suspected that he had lost the letter. We do not recommend using this hotel again.

Q3: Carefully read the following passage. Then using your own words as far as possible
summarize it to one third the length. Give a title to the passage.

‘Sleep is a behaviour and like all behaviours, it varies greatly among people,’
explains Dr. Carol Landis, sleep researcher and associate professor in biobehavioural
nursing and health systems at the University of Washington, school of nursing. The
greatest difference occurs in the timing of sleep and the amount of sleep and the factors
which are most important in determining whether you will wake up feeling rested.

Research has found that people sleep better at different times during the daily
cycles. For example some people function better if they go to sleep early, while others
feel more rested if they stay up late and sleep in. “Many people don’t pay attention to the
timing of their sleep,” Landis notes. “Yet delaying or altering the time you go to sleep can
have a major impact on how you feel when you wake up.”

The amount of sleep the average adult needs each night also varies. Some people
may be fine with six hours sleep, but other need up to nine hours per night. Landis points
out that those who follow a regular sleep schedule are more up to function better on fewer
hours, but she adds that most adults need at least six hours of sleep each night.

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 “A person’s sleeping patterns aren’t set in concrete,” Landis stresses. Gradually
altering the timing of sleep can help change sleep patterns. An “evening person” who
needs to get to work early in the morning can try upping the time they go bed by 30
minutes every few days. Within a few weeks, this slow adjustment will help ‘reset’ the
internal body clock.

In addition to maintaining a regular daily sleep schedule, Landis offers the

following tips on practicing good sleep hygiene.

Avoid stimulants including cigarettes, caffeinated beverages and food such as

chocolate in the late afternoon and evening. Avoid alcohol in the evening. This can have
a rebounding effect, causing a person to wake up a few hours into sleep and disturb sleep
patterns. Finish exercising at least two hours before going to sleep. Exercise increases
body temperature and have an arousing effect, making it more difficult to easily fall
asleep. Don’t sleep in a warm environment. A drop in a person’s body temperature is
important at the onset of deep sleep. (5 marks)

Answer:
What is Sleep? Researcher Finds Out
According to Dr. Carol Landis, a sleep researcher, sleep is a behaviour and varies greatly
among people but the greatest difference occurs in the timing and the amount of sleep.
People sleep better at different times during the daily cycles. However, changing the time
you go to sleep can have a major impact. Although the amount of sleep also differs, most
adults need minimum six hours of sleep each night but those who follow a regular sleep
schedule may feel satisfied on fewer hours. Gradually altering the timing of sleep can
help change sleep patterns. Landis suggests avoiding stimulants in the late afternoon and
evening, alcohol in the evening, work out at least two hours before going to sleep and
sleep in a warm environment, for good sleep hygiene.

Q4: Write a composition in about 300 words on one of the topics given below:

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 i. If there were one thing you could change in the country, what would it be?
ii. By the end of the twenty-first century, mankind will be close to extinction.
iii. How do you think world peace can be achieved?
iv. A world without internet. (10 marks)

Answer:
A world without internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks enabling them to
share information. It has brought a transformation in many aspects of life. It is one of the
biggest contributors in making the world into a global village.

Use of internet has grown tremendously since it was introduced. It is mostly because of
its flexibility. We have become obsessed to some extent with the speed in which it lets us
live our lives. We rarely expect to get letters from friends, family or businesses – email is
there, ready, waiting and fast. We can visit just about any virtual shop in the world, buy
more than we could physically carry and arrange to have it delivered, and all this can be
done in just an hour of surfing without even getting out of a chair.

But what would happen if for some reason the whole Internet suddenly ceased to work?
A world without internet will be quite different. A vast number of daily business
communications is conducted via email, the loss of which would severely disrupt and
significantly slow down the companies who rely totally on this media to send and receive
information where speed is of the essence. Around 73% internet users who seek jobs
online will no longer be able to receive job related information on international level.
Online gaming has become a trend among kids and elders as well, according to recent
survey 54% internet users play online games but in the absence of internet they will have
to revert back to the old way of playing games and visit a real play ground. A huge
number of teenagers are member of social websites which are specially created for online
dating & friendship; they will surely miss that joy of chatting with their near and dear
ones in their life.

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To be off-line would feel like some sort of isolation from the world. It's not something
internet dependents would want to happen, and whilst I am sure that although we would
undoubtedly cope without the Internet if we had to, the question is - would we want to?

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