English: The global lingua franca of the 21st century

In the information technology age of the 21st century, English language has proved to be an epochal lingua franca among the people across the world. It has been recognized as the third-most spoken native language after Mandarin, Chinese and Spanish. English has also been reckoned as the touchstone of the successes in the myriad domains of life. Besides, English language amazingly embellishes the personality and paves the way for the promising and prosperous life. Let us enrich ourselves with the knowledge of English.

Choose the closest meaning of the words given in the capital letters

1. IMPLORE

(A) to request earnestly (B) to attempt (C) to elucidate

2. ABHOR

(A) to eliminate (B) to hate (C) to inform

3. IMMERSE

(A) to plunge, to submerge (B) to identify (C) to succeed

4. AUGUR

(A) to foretell, to divine (B) to provoke (C) to conceal

5. GRUMBLE

(A) to reveal (B) to grouse, to complain (C) to refuse

6. ENSCONCE

(A) to conceal, to settle (B) to inspire (C) to react

7. AGGRANDIZE

(A) to confide (B) to exaggerate (C) to persist

8. OBFUSCATE

(A) to confuse (B) to

defend (C) to direct

9. MACERATE

(A) to watch (B) to emaciate, to soften (C) to choose

10. EMEND

(A) to resist (B) to intensify (C) to correct

Answers 1.A 2.B 3.A 4.A 5.B 6.A 7.B 8.A 9.B 10.C

Let Us Know These Phrasal Verbs

To whip up – to cause someone or something to have strong and intensified emotions (The court has accused the politicians of whipping up the anti-communal sentiments to win the elections.)

To break into – to get into a building by force (The thieves broke into the biggest jewellery shop in the city and stole five crore worth of ornaments.)

To break out of something – to escape from somewhere (Several prisoners have broken out of the central jail of the city this evening.)

To walk off with – to steal something (Four persons walked off with several confidential files from the office in broad daylight. The thieves walked off with a few antique gold statues from the museum.)

To go through

(A) to read something very carefully (I went through the essay of the famous economist but failed to find any reason of the economic deprivation of the country during the British period. The committee stated that it would come to any conclusion only after going through the report.)

(B) to experience a difficult phase of life (After losing her job, she has been going through the worst phase of her life these days.)

To take someone through something – to explain something to someone to know them how something functions (When my wife joined the company the manager told her that his personal assistant will take her through the job before leaving her on her own for accomplishing the responsibilities.)

To burst into tears – to suddenly start crying (She narrated the story of how she struggled hard to brave the hardships in her life and burst into tears. She burst into tears and said no one cared for her.)

Word Of The Week

PALLID – adjective, lacking liveliness enthusiasm, dull, pale and unhealthy (She seemed to be very pallid. The book had pallid description of the poverty of the country.)

(The author is a

principal at

PM Shri School Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya,

Garhbanaili, Bihar)