Reading Comprehension Practice

Dear Students
Here is the link to the website that can give you practice for reading comprehension. http://college.cengage.com/devenglish/resources/reading_ace/students/index.html It has got 20 reading exercises each having two short passages and seven Multiple Choice Questions. The website checks your answers there and then and provides the correct answers too.
Please visit it to practise for your English exam. I promise it will greatly help you. :)
Enjoy your life!
Love
Ms. Zainab

An Action-Packed Day

Sahir Noor Ali E-1

I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there’s gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, not good, very bad day.

I woke up later so didn’t have enough time brush my teeth, take the breakfast and polish my shoes. So I changed into my uniform in a jiffy and quickly ran to check whether the school van had already left me or was about to arriev. I took a sigh of relief as I saw the van coming towards me. I climbed into the van with a hope that the upcoming hours of this day would be much better than the beginning.

At last, I arrived at school at exact time along with my friends. I proceeded towards my sweet classroom. We all settled ourselves and prepared ourselves to get ready for seven-hour rapidfire studies. After three and a half hours, we got a break as usual. We all gathered up in the canteen for filling our tummies with a rich meal. We were tucking in our meals and in the meantime, our friend was having a verbal fight with one of the juniors.

We all, being his friends, marched towards the action scene. We all tried to cool down the matter but the junior wasn’t listening to us. The talk took a lot of effort and after all, as expected, it converted into a small fist-fight. Our friend was getting beat up from another group of students. At that instance we all friends looked at each other and rushed with full power into the fight. It was just getting better and better as the opponents were receiving massive hits from our side.  At last, the fight was stopped by the prefects and teachers who were on duty.

We all were sent to the principal’s office to receive punishment. We somehow managed to solve the case by putting the blame on the other students. One hour was wasted in all the things we went through. Finally, we attended our final classes and after the last bell, we went to our respective vans and without wasting time, travelled back to our homes hiding in our vans.

It was really an awesome fight, a worst beginning of the day converted into an action packed adventure which really proved amazing for all of my friends and me.

                                           ---------------------------------------

Yusra, thank you for editing this essay. :)

Sarah Salahuddin E-1

“Madam! You have seven appointments today, all from very important people. Mr. John Richardson will be just coming.” My secretary informed me from her desk. I, being one of the most renowned psychiatrists, always had a busy day. It surprised me that people today facing many problems, were emotionally disturbed, frustrated and tensed. The increasing use of television, computer was stimulating all the frustration but Mr. Richardson was an exception.

He was one of the most opulent businessmen of the country. He came from a wealthy family and had it all. I wondered what problem he could be facing. My train of thoughts was broken by Mr. Richardson himself. He was a young, handsome man dressed in a black tuxedo. I greeted him and motioned him to sit down.

“Mr. Richardson! Please introduce yourself!”

“I, um, belong to the Richardson’s family, one of the most opulent in the country. I have it all, I have plenty of money but I still feel like there’s something missing in my life.”

I nodded and told him to continue.

“I meet many people, everyday... but I realize that they only see a wealthy man dressed in an expensive suit but they aren’t really interested in me at all. They just meet me in order to get their work done. They are oblivious to my interests... all they see is a living bag of money... not a human...”

John sighed as he finished. I analyzed his situation and replied, “Mr. Richardson! I know that people today are selfish but not all of them are the same. You have to realize that everyone cannot be sincere or loyal. There are only a few so always treasure those who care about you. You must be having a tight schedule?”

“Yes! In fact I don’t even have time to talk to my friends.”

“There! The point is that you have to balance your life. Of course your job holds an important position in your life but your first priority should be your family and friends. No matter how busy you are, love and show care for your loved ones. Treasure them. You will, in turn feel loved and cherished. As for others, they will mostly be selfish and only a few will care about you. That’s why it’s always advised to wisely choose your friends. That’s all I have to say!”

As John thanked me, I saw relief and calm settling on his face.

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Thank you, Yusra, for editing this story :)

Descriptive Writing

Hello Students!
Please post your descriptive paragraphs here.
Ms Zainab

THINGS...CAN ONLY GET BETTER

Here is a short-story by Umama of M2. Hope you will enjoy reading it :)

I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and then there was gum in my hair and when I got out of bed that morning I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

My school start at 8:15, and I was already late. With such occurrences taking place, I knew I had got up on the wrong side of the bed and would definitely be late for the last day of my school. It takes me twenty minutes to reach school and I wasn’t even ready yet. The horror of being late today haunted me every single second while I was getting ready. I had a lot of thoughts clogging up my mind, first and foremost: the terror of missing the bus, then the school, the teachers...how would this last day for me in school go...all this with the certainty of getting late, strangled me. As I got out of my house, no bus was to be seen; and this meant that I had to walk...all the way to school. Poor me! I started walking briskly, just hoping to reach school soon; I wished superman would have been for real at that time. It took me half an hour to reach the gates of the school. My feet were aching and I was out of breath. I quickly reached the lockers, just to find my friend waiting for me with a stern look. And I knew what that meant, as it was my last day in school, no one would expect me to be late.

“I am so sorry, but you never know what is going to hit you on the head when you wake up.” I explained.
“Well, then you should be more punctilious rather than being yourself even on your last day!”remarked my friend, with utmost sarcasm.”And I suppose you have forgotten about the final history presentations which happen to be.....TODAY!”

I was horrified by the atrocious reminder, reacting to which I started running in the corridors with my friend following in the same way. Running hastily, I tripped and fell, the reason being the improperly tied laces, thanks to the unpleasant episodes of that morning.

This was again a chance my friend would not miss at any cost to prove me careless.
“There you go again!”She frowned.
“The morning accounts for this and you can give me a hand instead of just standing there.” I snapped.
“Ouch”, great, now I couldn’t even walk properly. I had to limp to the class---The History Class. Our history teacher gave me shivers, and being late in her lessons was one thing I would not want to do....ironically, I just did. She seemed to have some kind of grudge against me, resulting in me hating history!

“So early in class today?? Surprising?? Why so??” our teacher asked in her usual caustic manner.
And before we could say anything..
“Straight to the principal’s office or detention after school for a WEEK!!” she stated.
I told you I wouldn’t want to be late in her class!

Almost nearly quarter of my last day was spent in the principal’s office, trust me, it was better than attending the history class. Our principal was too busy to give us a punctuality lecture, so we kind of were lucky there. But not for long. We attended normal classes after spending some time in the air- conditioned office.

Getting out in the open air at recess, we both let out a sigh of peace and decided to have some lunch. On entering the cafeteria, I was deliberately stepped on the same foot I was limping on, by none other than “Miss. I-am-so-Popular”.

“Oh did I hurt you there? I am so...NOT sorry for that. It serves you right, nobody!” she remarked passing by along with her fiendish gang. I hated her so much and literally would have started a fight with her but was stopped by my friend.

“Let bygones be bygones! She stays the same, forget her.” she comforted.

Just to make things worse and to add to my ‘misery list’ of that day, I was pushed by someone and dropped my drink on my clothes.

“Noooo! Not Again...! WHY does it only happen to me??All the bad stuff...Just me??Oh God! Help me!” I cried.

I was totally disgusted and exhausted by that time and the limit had been crossed. I went to the restroom to clean up the mess. The recess was over and we had to attend a science exhibition prepared by the juniors. I hoped nothing would go wrong in there. The exhibition was very well-organized and pretty informative as well. It lasted for the rest of the day at school.

At dismissal time, I had mixed feelings, I knew it was my last day in school; a flashback of memories swept through my mind. I wished I would never have to leave this school, but fate had something else in mind for me. I was aware of the fact that leaving this school would no doubt be a difficult task. Plus the whole day of miseries was reviewed in my mind, making me think on just how all the unfortunate events can happen to me on the same day!

My thoughts were broken when my friend grasped my hand and made me follow her. Curious to her behaviour, I inquired about what had happened and got no reply. She directed me to our old classroom, in which we had the best of memories built up. I smiled at her to show me such a thing on this day. When I opened the door I was taken aback by my group of friends [old and new] jumping up from behind the desks and shouting “SURPRIZE”. They all pointed towards a huge cake kept in the middle of the table with “FAREWELL” written beautifully on it. It was not surprising when tears boiled under my eyelids and fell on the floor. I was then hugged by everyone, presented with gifts and was wished the best for my future. I was certain that I had friends who are precious, valuable diamonds which are to be loved, treasured and cherished forever. And I also knew that I was going to miss them immensely.

With such an ending of a day full of discomfort and downcast, I title it being one of the most memorable and lovely days I have ever lived through..as it goes “All is well that ends well.”

Welcome!

For my new first year students!
I welcome you all to this blog. This will be a platform for you to publish and read lots of creative articles, essays, poems, and stories written by your friends and class fellows. Believe me you all will be excited and also surprised to see how creative your generation is. But for this you will have to become active on this blog and write scores of works to publish them here.
Hope to read some new works soon.
Take care!

A Gladiator Never Fails

How do you feel when you have let yourself down? When you have done a blunder, a mess which is impossible to clean? When the loss is so big that you can't salvage anything out of it? When you let those people down who lived by your successes, those people who relished in your triumph, who had managed to keep their heads up proud through your accomplishments? When the rest of the world looks down at you with malice and contempt, and you feel like a Gladiator who had lost his battle?

When you are an achiever, a winner, people start putting up expectations. They expect you to take positions every time you give an exam, to win the competition every time you participate. They make you look like a God, like some unnatural extraterrestrial being which cannot make errors. They say they 'know' that you are going to win, that you will wipe the floor off with your left hand with your eyes closed. They boast around relating you to them. Suddenly you realize that you are no longer living your own life, rather you are fighting and competing with everybody at everything to put up your self to their expectations so that you can keep on hearing their praises. You are now too scared to veer off the path you created yourself in the beginning. The expectation-induced battles are feeble.They make you vulnerable as you really cannot put yourself to fight for something you don't stand for. This causes your portfolio to drop, your position starts to stagger. You put more efforts in it. Its useless. Your mind doesn't agrees to spend the resources. Your tries are futile, your struggle a waste of time. Things get worse as you wipe sweat of your forehead looking at your empire tumble to heaps, ash cloud of tension and urgency obscures your mind. You double and triple your efforts but it doesn't changes anything. Soon enough you are on the brink of failure. Next moment is the catastrophic one. You finally do it. You lose it. Your series of victories is over. A break has been created. The Gladiator is lying down, face in the ruins of your, finally beaten. He cannot meet the eyes of the spectators, his head weighs a ton now.

The Gladiator beats himself, rams his head against the majestic columns, puts dirt in his hairs, screams, screams and screams till his voice box can't emit another sound. He goes in solitary. He separates himself from the wide world, so that he can punish himself for his loss. He sits for hours, mourning. He surrenders to himself.

You have surrendered to your self. Now your thoughts take a new turn. You want to know what caused it. You ponder for hours, trying to find out which step was misplaced. You perform a self analysis. You discover the error point. You vow to return, to gain back the glory, the position you had. You promise yourself that you will win what was rightfully yours. Full of bright intentions and strong determinations, its a new day now.

The Gladiator returns to the city. He has practiced hard, day and night, in desserts, on ice. He feels his strength return back to his body. His head is no longer bowed, its held proudly, high in the enticing air. He follows the familiar paths to the arena, his arena. His feet leaves deep imprints in the brown grey sand. The atmosphere is inviting, his mind is clear. He enters the enclosure, his heart hammering against his ribs. The crowd cheers for his return. Soon everybody will remember how his blade tasted like. The world is his for taking and the Gladiator is back where he belongs.

"He'll bring them death and they will love him for it"-Gracchus, from the movie Gladiator

Thirteenth Floor

Students, here is a piece written by Rija Z Ghazanfar of M2. Enjoy reading it! And don't forget to give her your comments.

The number 13 an omen, a bad luck, a curse! Bah, what rubbish right? Some say the world will end on Friday the thirteenth. Funny that is. All these are superstitions which evolved from nowhere but the human psyche. At least that is what I though until the day I got married.

It was an ancient treat to the yes which rose meters and meters high above our heads in the Spanish air. Yes, I am talking about the Plaza Venezia where my wedding took place on its most charming thirteenth floor, the floor beautifully clad in violet and black. It seemed as if nothing could go wrong.

Holding my father’s arm, walking up that aisle in a gown, which could put the queen’s gown to shame, was just the best thing ever. The view which the thirteenth floor offered was magnificent and the fast moving wind gave the entire scene a fairy tale like aura.

The ceremony was sealed with a kiss and the party began. Everyone sang and danced delirious to the music. The sound of laughter and unperturbed fun was only pierced suddenly by a shrill scream of terror as my thirteen year-old niece fell plummeting to the ground several feet below. Whereas, all of us could only hover over the terrace of the thirteenth floor and stare in silence as the bad luck laughed at us in triumph. What as I supposed to think of all that I laughed at? The thirteen year-old niece and the thirteenth floor, a curse or a coincidence?

Rija Z Ghazanfar M2

April 2011

Boys don’t cry!

Read this short story by Urooj Alnoor of E1 and give her your comments.

It was the same routine again and I was heading back home with these words echoing in my head: “boys don’t cry”. After covering a mile or two I felt a tear roll down my cheek. I realized that I was actually missing her for the first time in my life.

My sister Christa was born when I was nine years old. After her birth she was diagnosed with cancer. ‘Cancer’. As a nine year old, I didn’t know what the word meant but the thing I knew was that cancer was the reason of my hatred towards Christa. Christa wasn’t the kind of sister I wanted, she was ugly, bald and had a lot of abnormalities that were due to the side effects of the chemotherapy she went through every month.

I hated walking with her to school, I felt ashamed when she came to me in the break time to tell that she had scored the highest in her class. The reason I avoided her so much was that children used to tease me for having an ugly sister like Christa.

I still remember the day when my mom told me to take Christa to school as she was insisting to go with me. When we had walked a half mile I heard my friends passing comments on me walking with an ugly girl. At first I ignored them but when it got on my nerves I scolded Christa for coming with me and left her alone on the road. Still she never complained. That night she came to me and gave me a good night kiss when I was asleep.

I did not know that that was my last good night kiss from her. The next morning she was found lifeless in her room. Now that she was gone I realized how cruel I had been to her, how I ignored her each time she came to me, how I used to scold her for things that were not her fault. I felt so foolish for not realizing all this when I had my sister alive. I wanted to say sorry to her but my words stuck in my throat. Suddenly, felt someone hold my hand. The feeling told me it was Christa, she was with me and she had forgiven me for my mistakes. I felt a sense of satisfaction. I wiped my tears and headed towards home.     

Urooj Alnoor

E1

Bet – the Best Entertainment Trick!

Here is an interesting narrative written by Mohammed Haris bin Yousuf of E1. This essay is very simple yet amazing. Please read it and post encouraging comments. Happy Reading!

Bet – the Best Entertainment Trick!

I always had a craze for making bets with my friends – winning and getting all their money. Though it is wrong, it meant a lot of fun to me.

One morning, I was walking with my friends to the cricket ground for a match. We all were hungry as none of us had had our breakfast. Therefore, we decided to move towards the food court first. Now the problem was who would pay for the breakfast! There was a giant sized building beside the food court and one of my friends challenged me to climb to its thirteenth floor in three minutes. If I managed to do so, he would pay and if not then I must pay for all. He also put this condition forward that I must not use the elevator or I would lose the bet. Both of us submitted our wallets to another friend. Then it was time for me to head towards the building.

 I had faced many challenges before but this one seemed like a white elephant. On my way to the building I could smell the aroma of delicious breakfast that I might get free of cost. I started running so fast towards the top that I was out of breath. Soon as I reached the twelfth floor I realized that the staircase ended there! There was no thirteenth floor in that building! I could do nothing but smile at my own silliness.

That day the biggest hunter had got trapped in his own trap!

Mohammed Haris bin Yousuf
E1

Some of the best essays

Dear Students
I hope your preparations for the final exams are going awesome (as our E1 would put it)! Well, some of you might remember the promise I had made to publish on our blog some interesting and creative essays written by you all in the preliminary examinations.
Three essays have been shortlisted to be published on Potpourri. Please read them and post encouraging comments!
Regards
Ms. Zainab

Cambridge Online Dictionary

Dear Students
I hope you are giving your best in the preliminary examinations. Well, I just found out about this Cambridge Dictionaries Online Blog. It is very rich in content and will assist you in building up your vocabulary. Do visit it. Here is the URL http://dictionaryblog.cambridge.org/
Regards

Get your pens moving

Dear Students
Since you have become a member of the blog-Your Blog, I would like you to become active and publish your writings. Haya has published her two very excellent pieces (very well done, Haya!). Please read them and comment, and write something of your own too. Remember it can be a poetry as well as an essay or article.
So hurry up and get your pens moving! :)
Hoping to read something new soon.
Regards
Your Teacher
PS. I know you must be preparing for your bi-monthly exams. Therefore, it is perfectly fine if you publish some old piece.