Where to use the definite article 'the'?

 

  

Introduction to Accommodation Theory - Second Language Acquisition

1.  Accommodation theory developed by Howard Giles shares certain assumptions with Schuman's Acculturation model (1978).
2. It draws attention to the roles of socio-psychological attitudes, motivation, formal instruction, and larger community or environment in L2 learning.
3. Giles (1973) describes how people adjust their language and communication patterns to those of other people.
4. The theory has been used in the fields of social psychology and sociolinguistics.
5. It identifies the relationship between in-group (learner's social group) and out-group (target language community).
6. Such relationships are responsible for the success in learning L2.
7. For Giles and Bryne (1982), the relationship between in-group and out-group is dynamic and constantly changing.
8. It does not explain the internal mechanisms of how a child acquires a second language.
9. It is essentially a socio-psychological model rather than a cognitive processing model.
10. It takes into account the ethnic identity in language learning.

Preservation and Promotion of an Indigenous Language through Translation by Bal Ram Adhikari

Introduction to the author:

1.     Bal Ram Adhikari was born on July 19, 1960 in Kaski.

2.     He teaches translation studies at Mahendra Ratna Campus, Tahachal, and Tribhuvan University and so on.

3.     He has written numerous sorts of articles and books on the different topics and he has given the significant contribution in the development of literary field.

4.     He is the son of Rudra Nath and Saraswati Adhikari.

 

Summary of the text:

1.     The present paper draws on Bal Ram Adhikari's own experience of working on "A Trilingual Dictionary of the Magar Language: Magar, Nepali and English."

2.     He enters on the project on the assumption that the source text lends itself to the interpretation.

3.     For the writer, Karna Bahadur Budha Magar has interpregted the Magar words.

4.     The second assumption is that what has been interpreted lends itself to rewriting in any language.

5.     This text focuses on the three broad areas of observation: how preservation through lexical codification creates a prestige-based hierarchy, how preservation and promotion of a language through translation leads to a cultural distortion and fragmentation and how translators can employ different strategies to ensure better cultural representation in the face of distortion and fragmentation.

6.     The Magar language is mostly in the oral form.

7.     The Magars constitute the majority of indigenous population of Nepal.

8.     Two-thirds of the Magars have lost their mother tongue.

9.     Magar settlements that lie east and west to the River Ridi are called Bahra Magarat and Athara Magarat region respectively.

10.  Diversity in religion and cultural practices has a bearing on the language the speak, especially its lexicon for it is mainly the lexicon that codifies and represents such diversity.

11.  Codification includes compiling dictionaries and writing grammar books.

12.  Each language awaits codification for it is the process that ensures its sustainability, elaboration and proliferation.

13.  Translation and culture seem incompatible: making the things globalized to share the ideas from one to another.

14.  Reading/interpretation of another culture is influenced and even shaped by the reader's own cultural world.

15.  Taken the various examples of Magar words and state that hundreds of Magar words overlap partially with those of Nepali.

16.  The writer focuses gradually on the Magar language which is losing its speakers.

17.  So, he has stated the joint efforts for the preservation and promotion by the given listed points.

18.  Preservation of indigenous words and promotion of all the Magar linguistic varieties.

19.  Ensuring higher accuracy in interpretation of cultural words and their translation in the target language.

20.  Syntactic fragmentation and preservation of meanings through:

·       paraphrasing-cum-borrowing

·       paraphrasing-cum-pictures

·       literal translation-cum-pictures

·       addition of cultural information

21.  Translation was for the preservation, for growth and for representation of the Magar language and its culture.

22.  Thus, the writer conclude his ideas by giving more emphasis on the promotion of Magar languages which is going to be extinct especially through codification as well as elaboration.

Source: Tapan Chhetri from Itahari 

Face to Face with Bismillah Khan by Shekhar Gupta

 

About the author

1.     Shekhar Gupta was a famous Indian journalist and editor-in-chief of the Indian Express.

2.     He wrote several famous books including ‘Anticipating India: the Best of National Interest (2014) and Reader’s Digest (2005).

3.     He was awarded Padma Bhusan by Indian Government in 2009.

About Bismillah Khan

1.     Bismillah Khan was one of the pioneers of 20^th century Hindustani music.

2.     He developed single-handed folk and classical music ‘Shehnai’ which he used to play in weddings, temples and processions.

3.     He was born on 21^st March 1916 in Bihar and died on 21^st August 2006 in Varanasi, India.

4.     He was a typical Shehnai musician and composer of songs who became leading classical musical artist of India.

5.     He used to accompany his uncle to play Shehnai in Hindu temples across India.

6.     He was considered as a symbol of religious harmony and communal harmony.

7.     Though he was a Muslim by religion, he used to play Shehnai at various ceremonies of Hindu deities as well as weddings of the Hindu people.

8.     He used to perform playing Shehnai on TV every independence day of India.

9.     Shehnai is a classical musical instrument developed by Ustad Bismillah Khan.

10.  Even in Nepal, Shehnai is one of the instruments included in Panchai Baaaja.

11.  Bismillah Khan was awarded with the greatest and highest India’s civilian honor “the Bharat Ratna” in 2001.

12.  Moreover, he was awarded with Padma Bhusan in 1968, Padma Shri in 1996 and Padma Vibhushan too.

13.  He ran Shehnai concert a number of times in All India Musical Conference.

14.  Shehnai can be taken as a synonym of Bismillah Khan.

15.  He was a secular person who respected all the religions equally.

16.  Bismillah was the third greatest musician after M.S. Subhulakshmi and Ravi Shankar.

17.  He spread the vision of peace and love through music.

18.  He has honorary doctorate from Baranas Hindu University.

 
Main ideas from the text:

1.     Shekhar Gupta interviewed Ustad Bismillah Khan regarding his career, life style and his musical instrument Shehnai.

2.     Bismillah told him that music is the means to reach out to God, Allah.

3.     He is the lover of music and it is everything for his life.

4.     He used music as a means to serve people and God but not as a means to earn the money.

5.     He said that Lata Mangeshkar congratulated him for awarding Bharat Ratna and he also congratulated her for awarding the same medal by Indian government.

6.     For Bismillah Khan, the music is his communion, the great wealth of the world and a means for pleasure as well as the way of forgetting all the troubles and difficulties by music.

7.     Bismillah Khan can be considered as a famous Shehnai player from India.

8.     He is the third greatest musician of India.

9.     Although he is a Muslim, he was a secular man who respected every caste and religions.

10.  He used the Shehnai to bring the close relationship and communal harmony between the two countries India Pakistan.

11.  This dialogue presented in the text with Shekhar Gupta and Bismillah Khan shows what music really is and how it is connected to the life of people, importance of music and life of Bismillah Khan.

12.  Bismillah Khan is giving the message of friendship, peace, love and harmony between the people and countries.

13.  He said that we should dedicate ourselves to something such as a music or poetry from which we will lose all fear from us.

14.  All the religions are equal and there should be no division or discrimination among the people in the name of caste, religion and so on.

15.  One should be remaining faithful towards the country.

Source: Tapan Chhetri from Itahari

 

Everest: The West Ridge Phakding March by Jon Krakauer

Introduction to the writer:

1.     Jon Krakauer is an Americal writer and mountaineer primarily known for his writings about the outdoors, especially mountain climbing.

2.     He is the author of best-selling non-fiction boosk “Into the Wild”, “Into Thin Air”, “Under the Banner of Heaven” and “Where Men With Glory” as well as numerous magazine articles.

3.     He was a member of an ill-fated expedition to summit Mount Everest in 1996, is known as the 1996 Mount Everest Disaster, one of the deadliest disasters in the history of climbing Everest.

Summary of the text:

1.     Krakauer has covered the first days and nights of the trek in this chapter.

2.     They spent their first night at Phakding, a place close enough to the ground to sustain some homes and lodges.

3.     As they keep walking, they encountered Namche Bazaar, which is described as “Sherpa Society” by the writer.

4.     The chapter explains and deconstructs the stereotypes associated with Sherpas.

5.     Krakauer explains that not all Nepalese are Sherpas.

6.     In fact, only 20,000 Sherpas inhabit Nepal.

7.     They are a Buddhist mountain society who migrated from Tibet hundreds of years ago.

8.     Their villages are rugged and tough, and for the most part, they don’t use cars, bikes or any wheeled transportation.

 

 

9.     Yaks are used for transportation, food, milk and other staples.

10.  Sherpas were first used as climbing guides in 1921, and ever since the economy of the villages is directly related to the Everest’s climbing season.

11.  The culture has also been affected by the fact that about one third of the people who have died on Everest were Sherpas.

12.  Sherpas compete for spots on expeditions, and tea houses and lodges compete for the travelers’ business.

13.  The influx of money has improved schools, medical facilities, bridges, energy supplies and other aspects of life.

 

 

14.  As the climbers make their way to base camp, they begin the process of acclimatization because they have just arrived from sea level, it takes longer and there ar some days when the climbers don’t go anywhere at all.

15.  They arrive at Tengboche, the most important Buddhist monastery in the village.

16.  Krakauer meets the head lama of Nepal there.

17.  The lama speaks  to them, blesses them and offers a token intended to please god and ward of  harm.

18.  The lama shows krakauer a photo album of a recent trip to America.

19.  There were pictures in Washington, at the Lincoln Memorial and Space Museum, and in California.

20.  The lama shows his two favorite pictures: one of him with Richard Gere and another of him with Steven Seagal.

21.  Krakauer finds himself spending most of his time with Doug Hansen and Andy Harris. Harris and his significant other, Fiona McPherson, had just begun building a house together, but he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to climb the mountain.

22.  Harris and his girlfriend had both climbed in the Himalayas and even helped run a medical clinic to treat the altitude related sickness.

23.  Hall’s girlfriend, Jan Arnold, had worked alongside McPherson during Hall’s first climb up Everest.

24.  Arnold and Hall both summated Everest together in 1933 and during the Krakauer’s trek Arnold was seven months pregnant with their first child.

25.  That night during dinner, Hall and Harris have a conversation about the inevitability of a disaster on Everest, especially given the lack of experience of some of the climbers that hire guides.

26.  No one realizes just how prophetic conversation is.

 

 

27.  They spend the next night at Lobuje, a village with a filthy climber’s lodge.

28.  Base camp is only one day away, but a heavy snowfall is keeping many travelers at Lobuje.

29.  The lodge is disgusting – people defecate outside, fleas and live inhabit the bunks and the heat is supplied by burning the yak dung.

30.  While there, Hall learns of a Sherpa, Tenzing who has fallen into a crevasse higher up on the mountain.

31.  Although he has been pulled out, he has a broken femur.

32.  Hall leaves the group at Lobuje and goes to help the rescue of fort.

33.  They later find out that Tenzing fell because he was climbing without a rope.

34.  Krakauer describes a number of events that befell young Sherpas whose guides did not impress upon them the importance of adhering to the safety rules.

35.  The most gruesome of these stories had actually been witnessed by one of Krakauer’s teammate, Frank,

36.  A young Sherpa who neglected to clip his rope fell from a distance of nearly 2000 feet.

Source: Tapan Karki from Sunsari, Itahari 

Affirmative, Negative and Interrogative Sentences in 12 Tenses: Present, Past and Future