News that made an impact
Sunday, 30 November 2025
Saturday, 29 November 2025
Friday, 28 November 2025
Thursday, 27 November 2025
A short discussion on Goal Setting – Unit 1
Clarity – Clearly define your goal
Example: “Improve my English skills” → “Learn 20 new words every week.”
Purpose – Understand why the goal is important. – Be aware/ Mindful of the future
Action Plan – Break the goal into small, manageable tasks. – Sub Tasks
Timeline – Set a target date (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly). – Days and Months
Measurability – Track your progress effectively - Streaks in Duolingo
What is the goal/purpose of 100-day challenges?
https://www.premjithmathew.co.in/search/label/100%20Day
To learn about the content
To be active in content generation
To be a lifelong learner
To create a habit
To archive/store information in the blog
To increase visibility
To be confident and positive
Wednesday, 26 November 2025
Answer Key for 200L3Z - Third Semester - English Question paper - Madras University - November 2025
My analysis and suggested answers for the Madras University English Question paper 200L3Z - November 2025, This is not the official key.
Section A – 5 marks – Words and their meaning
- Grove – Orchard
- Unfold – Open
- Undermine – Weaken
- Plead – appeal
- Beneath – under
- Copius – plentiful
- Frugal – thrifty
- Generosity – big-heartedness
- Stubborn – obstinate
- Solititude – loneliness
- Barren – infertile
Read the following paragraph, identify the errors, and correct them.
My brother Mani was trying to learnt how to drive a car yesterday. Suddenly, I hears a loud noise and rushed to see what happened. I saw that he was sitting in the car, which was now on the tree. I quickly runs and help him out of the car. He was shaking but not hurt. I quickly gets the first aid kit, just in case. After checking him, I saw that he was fine. To calm him down, I takes him to the nearby cafe and buys him a large ice cream. Seeing his favourite ice cream, he immediately stop shaking. Within a few hour, he was back to his normal self, laughing and joking again.
My brother (,) Mani was trying to learn how to drive a car yesterday. Suddenly, I heard a loud noise and rushed to see what happened. I saw that he was sitting in the car, which was now on the tree. I quickly ran and helped him out of the car. He was shaking but not hurt. I quickly got the first aid kit, just in case. After checking him, I saw that he was fine. To calm him down, I took him to the nearby cafe and bought him a large ice cream. Seeing his favourite ice cream, he immediately stopped shaking. Within a few hours, he was back to his normal self, laughing and joking again.
Phrasal Verbs
Call on – It has three meanings.
To formally ask someone to speak or answer.
To visit someone
To request or appeal to someone to do something
Example sentences
The teacher called on Deepa to explain the poem.
I will call on my aunt this evening on my way home.
Leaders across the world called on countries to reduce carbon emissions.
Break Down - It has five meanings
To stop working
My car broke down on the way to work
To lose control emotionally
She broke down when she heard the sad news
To divide something into smaller parts
Let’s break down the topic into easy steps
To collapse physically or structurally
The old house broke down during the storm
To fall or collapse
The plan broke down because of a lack of funding.
Idiomatic expressions or Idioms
Blessing in Disguise – Something that is bad at first but will turn out to be good or useful later
Losing that job was a blessing in disguise because it pushed me to start my own business.
Rank and File – Ordinary members of an organization, group, or workforce – not the leaders or officials.
The success of any projects depends on the support of the rank and file.
Auxiliary Verb
My father reads newspaper every day
Participles
Realizing his mistake, he decided to mend his behaviour.
The girl sitting in the middle is my cousin.
Combine sentences using infinitive
He performed well to get qualified
He went to the market to buy things
He sold his property to settle his debts.
Mapping My Reading Journey
Reading was a good way to beat my childhood blues. I cherish the memories of the lone walks to the local library, a book clutched in my hand, sharing it with my childhood friend Subi. The reading was mainly done without any agenda. It was spontaneous and gave me a chance to escape from home every evening for a stroll. Reading was very much part of my life as I used to read even while eating my meals. In those days, grocery items were packed in newspapers, and even that became reading material for me. My parents always encouraged me in whatever way they could. Mom used to get books from the school library. Father used to buy me comics and the abridged versions of classics published by Jaico.
It is when I chose a B.A. with English as my degree subject that my reading evolved into something profound and goal-oriented. Reading, which was once a pleasurable activity, became an academic activity. Short stories, Shakespearean plays, poetry, novels and essays – my world of reading was changing. Some of the literary pieces which I still enjoy are – the short story, The Lotus Eater by Somerset Maugham, Othello and Antony & Cleopatra by Shakespeare, The Grand Babylon Hotel by Arnold Bennett, Critical essays by A.C. Bradley and Matthew Arnold and the poems of William Wordsworth. With this, I added one more strand to my reading pursuits – Reading for pleasure and academic reading. Later, when I joined the M.A. program at Loyola College, Chennai, my reading became more focused and refined. Apart from the college library, my parents were kind enough to get me memberships at the British Council and the American Library. The college's location enabled me to take long walks to both these sites of learning. There was a competitive spirit to mine exclusive content for exams from British and American authors. Thanks to Prof. Joseph Chandra, who used to enthral us with his remarkable collection of quotes.
As an English teacher, I used various reading techniques in the classroom, such as skimming and scanning. Most of these were aimed at undergraduate students and often involved poems and excerpts from novels and essays. I share the concerns raised by Prof. H. Kalpana Rao, a former Professor of English at Pondicherry University. In an article titled ‘How to rekindle the passion for reading in Literature classes’ which appeared in the Hindu on August 04, 2025, she talks about the proclivity of the B.A. English students to substitute the reading of original textbooks with notes from seniors and cheap guidebooks. She says that this is not because of a lack of reading skills among students but ‘an inertia towards reading itself’.
Refernce:
Tuesday, 25 November 2025
Monday, 24 November 2025
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