Exam practice

Jhamak Ghimire, a Nepali writer, with her autobiography Jivan Kanda Ki Phul.

She is famous as a writer who overcame severe disability. Born with cerebral palsy, she cannot speak or use her hands, and she writes with her left foot. Her autobiography Jivan Kanda Ki Phul (Is Life a Thorn or a Flower?) won the Madan Puraskar in 2010; she has also written poems and newspaper columns.

a. insipid b. inscribed c. tangled d. suffocating e. perspective f. offspring g. misfortune

a. restless b. passed away c. invisible d. desire (from these desires were ones that would never be fulfilled; longing is close too) e. soiling

Because she was born unable to speak, walk or use her hands; she could not even get out of bed. People blamed her and treated her with anger instead of sympathy, her family was poor, and she could not express any of her pain. Life felt like a heavy weight that hurt her and was hard to bear.

According to the folk belief, fortune writes a baby’s line of fate on the night of the sixth day after its birth.

People saw her as someone cursed by the gods for sins in a former life. They looked at her with displeasure and anger, without sympathy or love. She was not happy: she felt it was wrong to treat an innocent child like that, and she asked how she could be to blame.

She compares herself with Homer, Nikolai Ostrovsky and Helen Keller, who were also weak in body. What made them different was that they were born in a different world and geography, where they could achieve great things and leave the world a new perspective before they died, while she lived in poverty in a society that saw her as cursed.

Yes. Once she became aware, she understood all she was missing: she had no voice to talk, no strength to walk or to pick flowers, though she longed to run on the hills and talk with others. Knowing these wishes could never come true hurt her more.

The family was very poor: it was hard to manage two meals a day, and her parents often went hungry so that the children could eat. Her grandmother too went without food to feed her, and wrapped her in a torn petticoat in a bamboo basket.

Jhamak Ghimire was born in 1980 in Kachide, a village in Dhankuta. She had cerebral palsy, so she could not speak, walk or use her hands. On the sixth night after her birth, her mother put a pen and a book under her pillow, hoping fate would write her a good future, but her childhood was full of pain. Her village believed she was cursed for sins of a past life, and people looked at her with anger instead of love. Her family was so poor that they often could not find two meals a day. Only her grandmother cared for her completely: she fed her, slept beside her and kept her clean in a bamboo basket. Jhamak felt like a prisoner in her own body, but she never stopped asking what disability really means. Later she taught herself to write with her foot, and she became one of Nepal’s best-known writers. Her autobiography won the Madan Puraskar in 2010.

My grandfather is about seventy-five, but he still walks every morning to the temple. He is short and thin, a little bent, and he walks slowly with a bamboo stick. He has a long face with a white mustache and kind, small eyes behind round glasses. His hair is short and white, and he always wears a Dhaka topi. At home he wears a daura suruwal and a brown waistcoat, and a woolen shawl in winter. When he laughs, his whole face crinkles.

My town, Dhulikhel, is a small hill town east of Kathmandu. From the hill above it, on a clear morning, you can see a long line of white mountains along the northern sky. The old part of the town has narrow streets of brick houses with carved windows, and a pond with a temple in the middle. Around the town, terraced fields climb the slopes like giant steps, green with rice in the monsoon and yellow with mustard in winter. In the evenings it is cool and quiet, and you can hear the bells of the temple from far away.

• who plays the piano
• who won the singing competition last year
• who has long brown hair

All three are defining clauses with who: each tells you which girl.

a. whose b. which (or that) c. which (it refers to the whole idea: not telling her teacher was her mistake) d. who e. whom (or who, that) f. whose g. where h. which i. that (in It was … that…, the sentence that picks out one part. Some answer keys give when, which is heard in speech, but after in 2015 the correct word is that) j. whom (or who, that)

• a.The letter which my friend sent from abroad reached me this morning.
• b.This is the palace which (or that) Bhimsen built.
• c.The judge sent the boy who committed cybercrime to jail. (Or: The boy who committed cybercrime was sent to jail by the judge.)
• d.He is a liar whom you should not believe.
• e.I know an artist who moves with an artificial leg.
• f.Bring me the file which is about our new project.
• g.We met a girl who had lost her way.
• h.I saw a soldier whose bravery impressed everyone.
• i.Once upon a time there lived a giant in a forest where nobody dared to go.
• j.The dog took away the ball which the kids were playing with. (Or: the ball with which the kids were playing.)

In each, the word the relative replaces (it, him, there) is dropped.

A biography is in the third person and the past tense (present for a living person’s life now). Order: birth and childhood, education, work and writing, honors, why the person matters.

Bairagi Kainla
Til Bikram Nembang Limbu, known to readers as Bairagi Kainla, is a Nepali poet and a scholar of Limbu culture. He was born on 9 August 1939 in Panchthar, in the hills of eastern Nepal.
As a boy, he learned his letters at home from local teachers. He went on to study further and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree.
In the early 1960s, with his fellow writers Ishwor Ballav and Indra Bahadur Rai, he started the Tesro Aayam (Third Dimension) movement, which wanted Nepali poetry to look at life in new and deeper ways. His collection Bairagi Kainlaka Kavitaharu is one of the best-known books of that movement. He also spent many years collecting and publishing the Mundhum, the sacred oral literature of the Limbu people, in books such as Sappok-Chomen: Limbu Jatima Kokh-Puja and Nawacoit Mundhum, so that knowledge passed down by word of mouth would not be lost.
He served as the Chancellor of the Nepal Academy, the country’s highest body for language, literature and the arts.
For his work he has received many honors, among them the Sajha Puraskar (2031 BS), the Vishist Srasta Samman (2066 BS) and the Jagadamba Shree Puraskar (2076 BS), one of Nepal’s highest awards for literature.
Bairagi Kainla is remembered both as a poet who changed modern Nepali poetry and as a scholar who saved a people’s heritage.

A person rock climbing up a steep, bare rock face, held by a rope.

Yes. Climbers hang high above the ground on steep rock, finding small holds for their hands and feet. It takes strength, skill and courage, and every climb is a challenge to your body and your nerves, although ropes and good training make it much safer than it looks.

a – vi, b – v, c – vii, d – viii, e – ii, f – i, g – iii, h – iv

a. annoyed (how they felt) b. interested c. surprising (the result caused surprise) d. boring (she makes others bored) e. excited (how they felt) f. terrified g. interesting

A – iv Rock Climbing; B – i Neighboring Mountains; C – v Hollywood Star; D – iii Guanabara Bay; E – ii Awesome Cable Car Ride

In Rio de Janeiro, in south-eastern Brazil, at the entrance to Guanabara Bay, on a peninsula that reaches into the Atlantic Ocean.

From its shape: a tall cone with a rounded top, like the traditional cone-shaped blocks of refined sugar (sugarloaves) in which sugar used to be sold.

Yes. It is one of the largest urban rock-climbing places in the world, with 270 different routes, so many climbers can climb at the same time on different routes.

Morro da Urca (Urca’s mountain), because it has a play area for children, and a restaurant with delicious food; on the way they can also ride the glass cable car.

Now, Voyager (1942), with Bette Davis.

In the 16th century the colonial government built several fortifications around it to defend it against attack.

Ride the cable cars to the summit of Sugarloaf (or climb it): from high above you can see the whole bay and its more than 130 islands.

Yes. The glass cable cars give breathtaking views that open up as you rise: the busy city, the calm bay with its islands and the sparkling ocean all at once. The writer says the journey is as enjoyable as the summit, and it is the easiest way up for visitors who can’t climb.

The fact that interested me most is the 270 rock-climbing routes. I had thought of rock climbing as something done far from towns, in the mountains, but on Sugarloaf people climb right above a city of millions, with the ocean below them. It shows that adventure can be close to home. Nepal has many rocky hills near its towns too; perhaps one day climbing walls like Sugarloaf’s could bring visitors to them.

• a.Her eyes are brown, and she is smiling with them.
• b.Her face is oval.
• c.Her hair is long, dark brown and wavy, falling over her shoulders.

a. his friend b. thin (she is thin and tall) c. long pink curly d. a yellow dress (and white sporty shoes) e. smile f. across the street

My friend Bikash is fifteen and tall for his age. He is slim but strong, because he plays football every evening. He has a round face, short black hair and a small scar above his right eyebrow. His eyes are dark brown, and he smiles a lot, showing a gap between his front teeth. He usually wears a blue tracksuit and old white sneakers.

a. by b. in c. in, across d. as far as or up to (both mean to that point and no further) e. of (from is also correct for an injury), after f. in, for g. to h. with i. at j. On k. by l. for

a. in b. to c. of d. by e. from f. at g. on h. in i. in j. on k. from l. to m. to (or through, around)

It is a personal letter: friendly, with contractions if you like. Start with a greeting and a line about your friend; then the place in two or three paragraphs (where, what to see and do, the best time); then the invitation, and a warm close.

To: emily.carter@example.com

Subject: Come and see Lumbini!

Dear Emily,

Thanks for your last email and the photos of your school trip to Edinburgh. The castle on the rock looked amazing! Now it’s my turn to tell you about a place in Nepal that I think you’d love: Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha.

Lumbini is in the Terai, in the south-west of Nepal, close to the border with India. Here, more than 2,500 years ago, Queen Mayadevi gave birth to Prince Siddhartha, who became the Buddha. The spot is now marked by the Mayadevi Temple, and beside it is the pond where she is said to have bathed. Nearby stands a stone pillar put up by the Indian emperor Ashoka in 249 BC, with words carved on it saying that the Buddha was born here.

Around the temple is a huge garden, with monasteries built by Buddhist countries from all over the world: China, Thailand, Germany, Japan and many more, each in its own style. We rented bicycles to go from one to the next. The whole place is peaceful; even the birds seem quiet.

The best time to visit is from October to March, when the weather is warm but not too hot. You can fly to Bhairahawa’s airport, only about 20 km away.

Why don’t you come during your next winter holidays? You could stay with us in Butwal, and I’d be happy to be your guide. My mother has promised to make you her famous momos!

Write back soon and tell me what you think.

With love,
Priya

a. In addition (or Moreover, Furthermore) b. therefore (or so after a comma: …heights, so they take…) c. However (or Nevertheless) d. To sum up (or In short, On the whole)

d, b, e, a, c

• a.Lukla has a famous airport, where trekkers start their walk to Everest. (Or: Lukla, where trekkers start their walk to Everest, has a famous airport.)
• b.I met a guide whose father had climbed Everest.
• c.Bhupi Sherchan, who was born in Mustang, wrote this poem.
• d.2010 was the year when Jhamak Ghimire won the Madan Puraskar.
• e.The cable car which takes visitors to the summit has glass walls.

a. at b. on c. in d. by e. in (within two hours) f. with g. at h. since

• a.Because he was born on the night of Laxmi Puja, so he was named after the goddess of wealth.
• b.In Kathmandu and Patna.
• c.It is about a man who leaves his wife to earn money in Lhasa.
• d.Mahakavi, the great poet.
• e.which is why he was named after the goddess of wealth, or who leaves his wife to earn money in Lhasa.

(A practice passage written for this page.)

Parijat
Parijat, whose real name was Bishnu Kumari Waiba, was one of the most important Nepali novelists and poets of the twentieth century. She was born on 16 September 1937 in Darjeeling.
At the age of 26 she became paralyzed, and for most of her life she was cared for by her sister. Her illness did not stop her writing. In 1964 she published the novel Shirishko Phool (The Blue Mimosa), which won the Madan Puraskar, Nepal’s highest literary prize, in 1965, and made her famous.
In her novels, stories and poems she wrote about the lives and struggles of ordinary people, especially women and the poor, and she spoke up for them in public life too.
Parijat died in Kathmandu on 4 December 1993. She is remembered as a writer who, in spite of great pain, gave a voice to those who had none.