Name Essays (2334 words) - Aviation, Transport, Aeronautics

Name: Date: Graded Assignment Interim Checkpoint 3, Part 2 Total score: ____ of 15 points (Score for Question 1: ___ of 5 points) Read the passage. Then answer the question. excerpt from "Living or Dead?" by Rabindranath Tagore (This excerpt from "Living or Dead?" contains authentic references to cultural and historical practices of the past, so it is authentic to the time period and the place, India. Many of these practices would be considered archaic or inappropriate by today's standards, but they serve as an important lesson to help readers imagine what life was like in other times and places, so they are better able to understand and appreciate the evolution of societies over time.) The widow in the house of Saradasankar, the Ranihat zemindar, had no kinsmen of her father's family. One after another all had died. Nor had she in her husband's family any one she could call her own, neither husband nor son. The child of her brother-in-law Saradasankar was her darling. For a long time after his birth, his mother had been very ill, and the widow, his aunt Kadambini, had fostered him. If a woman fosters another's child, her love for him is all the stronger because she has no claim upon himno claim of kinship, that is, but simply the claim of love. Love cannot prove its claim by any document which society accepts, and does not wish to prove it; it merely worships with double passion its life's uncertain treasure. Thus all the widow's thwarted love went out towards this little child. One night in Sraban, Kadambini died suddenly. For some reason her heart stopped beating. Everywhere else the world held on its course; only in this gentle little breast, suffering with love , the watch of time stood still forever. Lest they should be harassed by the poike, four of the zemindar's Brahmin servants took away the body, without ceremony, to be burned. The burning-ground of Ranihat was very far from the village. There was a hut beside a tank, a huge banian near it, and nothing more. Formerly, a river, now completely dried up, ran through the ground, and part of the watercourse had been dug out to make a tank for the performance of funeral rites. The people considered the tank as part of the river and reverenced it as such. Taking the body into the hut, the four men sat down to wait for the wood. The time seemed so long that two of the four grew restless and went to see why it did not come. Nitai and Gurucharan being gone, Bidhu and Banamali remained to watch over the body. It was a dark night of Sraban. Heavy clouds hung in a starless sky. The two men sat silent in the dark room. Their matches and lamp were useless. The matches were damp, and would not light, for all their efforts, and the lantern went out. After a long silence, one said: "Brother, it would be good if we had a bowl of tobacco. In our hurry we brought none." The other answered: "I can run and bring all we want." Understanding why Banarnali wanted to go (from fear of ghosts, the burning-ground being considered haunted), Bidhu said: "I daresay! Meanwhile, I suppose I am to sit here alone!" Conversation ceased again. Five minutes seemed like an hour. In their minds they cursed the two, who had gone to fetch the wood, and they began to suspect that they sat gossiping in some pleasant nook. There was no sound anywhere, except the incessant noise of frogs and crickets from the tank. Then suddenly they fancied that the bed shook slightly, as if the dead body had turned on its side. Bidhu and Banamali trembled and began muttering: "Ram, Ram." A deep sigh was heard in the room. In a moment the watchers leapt out of the hut and raced for the village. After running about three miles, they met their colleagues coming back with a lantern. As a matter of fact, they had gone to smoke and knew nothing about the wood. But they declared that a tree had been cut down and that, when it was split up, it would be brought along at once. Then