Few important and confusing LOGIES....

1.Kinesiology = STUDY OF MECHANICS OF BODY MOVEMENTS
2.Poxology= STUDY OF FORMULATED PRAISE TO GOD
3.Oology= STUDY OF COLLECTING OF BIRDS EGGS
4.Carpology= “ FRIUTS AND SEEDS
5.Cetology= “WHALES
6.Cartography=” MAPS
7.Carniology=”SKULLS
8.Cryptology=” CODES
9.Dactylology=” FINGER PRINTS
10.Genealogy=” ANCESTRY
11.Herpetology=”REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS
12.Horology=”TIME
13.Hypnology=”SLEEP
14.Lexicology=”WRITING OF DICTIONARY
15.Oenology=” WINES
16.Ontology=” NATURE OF EXISTENCE
17.Ophiology=” SNAKES
18.Orology=” MOUNTAINS
19.Osteology=” BONES
20.Otology=”YEARS
21.Palaeontology=” FOSSILES
22.Pedagogy=” TEACHING
23.Seismology=” EARTHQUACKES
24.Potamology=” RIVERS

Good books for Interview skills

Are you looking out for a job? Want good books to read about the questions HR might ask you? go through these two books .

1. Winning Resumes by Robin Ryan
2. 60 seconds and you are hired by Robin Ryan

Cambridge Press India Publication

Want good books on English Grammar? Then this publication is for you! Click on the title of the blog to know more about it!

I will keep posting good English Books by Cambridge Press.

Some more food for thought!



In these questions, choose the word from the five alternatives 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 that is most nearly opposite in meaning to the word given in capital letters.

1. COMPASSIONATE
1)INDECISIVE 2)UNSYMPATHETIC 3)UNLAWFUL 4)UNTRUSTWORTHY 5)NONE

2.RESTIVE
1)BUOYANT 2)PLACID 3)RESISTANT 4)INSOLENT 5)NONE

3.GRADUAL
1)ENERGETIC 2)DYNAMIC 3)RAPID 4)ENTHUSIASTIC 5)NONE

4.RUDIMENTARY
1)DEVELOPED 2)POLITE 3)PALE 4)WEAK 5)NONE

5.SALVAGE
1)BURN 2)REMOVE 3)CONFUSE 4)LOSE 5)NONE

6.SEDENTARY
1)VIVID 2)AFRAID 3)INDOLENT 4)ACTIVE 5)NONE

ANS:- 2, 2, 3, 1, 1, 4.

PGCET ENGLISH 2010

Part I
SECTION 'A'
Test of proficiency in English Language



DIRECTION : For each of the question from 1 to 3, choose the Word or Phrase that is similar in meaning to the numbered word.

1. HECTIC
(a) Organised (b) Clumsy (c) Frantic (d) Thrilling

2. DETER
(a) Distract (b) Suppress (c) Discourage (d) Contaminate

3. JETTISON
(a) Control (b) Emit (c) Stir (d) Discard


DIRECTION : For each of the question from 4 to 6, choose the Word or Phrase that opposite in meaning to the numbered word.

4. ABOMINATE
(a) Loathe (b) Despise (c) Adore (d) Abhor

5. INVECTIVE
(a) Normality (b) Restoration (c) Fertility (d) Praise

6. UNTOWARD
(a) Experienced (b) Inevitable (c) Industrious (d) Proper


DIRECTION : Relate the Ologies & Ographies in the following numbered questions from 7 to 9.

7. ICHTHYOLOGY
(a) Study of hair (b) study of insects (c) Study of fishes (d) Study of dates

8. NEPHROLOGY
(a) Study of kidney (b) study of clouds
(c) Study of snakes (d) Study of liver

9. PHILOLOGY
(a) Study of historical language (b) study of people
(c) Study of supernatural beings (d) Study of rocks


DIRECTION : An idiom and four and four possible meanings are given in questions from 10 to 12. Identify the closest meaning of the idiom from among the answer choices.

10. Child's play
(a) To handle a situation calmly (b) To dispute over petty points
(c) Any easy task (d) To treat lightly

11. Cut no ice
(a) Unable to perform (b) Make no impression
(c) Come to nothing (d) To fail

12. Head to toe
(a) Thoroughly (b) Continuously (c) Nothing (d) Completely


DIRECTION : Each question from 13 to 15 gives a sentence with a part of sentence underlined that may contain an error. Four alternatives substitutes are given for the underlined portion. Identify the choice that replaces the underlined part to form a logical and grammatically correct statement.

13. He would not have failed if he had enough money
(a) if he had enough money (b) if he would have enough money
(c) if he would have had enough money (d) if he had had enough money

14. The professor asked her when will you submit her thesis.
(a) when will you submit her thesis
(b) when she would have submit her thesis
(c) When you will have submitted your thesis
(d) when she would submit her thesis

15. He tried his best to be punctual, but he was occasionally behind time.
(a) he was always lagging behind (b) he was seldom on time
(c) he was late on some occasions (d) he would be punctual


DIRECTION : In each of the following question 16 & 17, a capitalised pair of words is given, followed by four numbered pairs of words. Three of the numbered pairs exhibit the same relationship between the words as the capitalised pair of words. Identify the numbered pair which does not exhibit the same relationship as the capitalised pair.

16. MISTAKE : PRACTICE
(a) draught : rain (b) anger : resentment (c) extinct : protect (d) error : diligence

17. SKETCH : DIAGRAM
(a) design : plan (b) draw : picture (c) print : book (d) paint : portrait


DIRECTIONS : A sentence is written in four different formats in questions 18 & 19. Only one of them is grammatically correct. Mark the correct choices as your answer.

18. (a) I will meet you if you will come tommorrow.
(b) I will meet you if you have come tommorrow.
(c) I shall meet you if you come tommorrow.
(d) I shall meet you if you may come tommorrow.

19. (a) Harsher punishment will not reduce the number of crime.
(b) Harsher punishment will not reduce the number of crimes.
(c) Harsher punishment will not increase the number of crime.
(d) Harsher punishment will increase the crime number.


DIRECTIONS : Fill in the blanks in the given sentence so as to make it logically and grammatically correct by chosing the correct word from the choices given, in questions 20 & 21.

20. ___________ about nine months ago, john was in excellent health.
(a) Until (b) In (c) At (d) As

21. Mental talents if buries and not used, ___________ to deteriorate.
(a) lead (b) get (c) tend (d) matter


DIRECTION : Each question 22 & 23 below gives a sentence followed by four answer choices. From the choices provided, identify the one that best restates the given sentence and mark its choice as your answer.

22. It might be truly said of him that he never sought nonour.
(a) It is true that he never sought nonour.
(b) The truth of him is that he never sought honour.
(c) Honour was not truly sought by him.
(d) He never truly sought honour.

23. I am afraid I did not make myself understood.
(a) I am afraid of not making myself undertood.
(b) I am afaraid I have not made myself understood.
(c) I am afraid I did not make myself undertsood.
(d) I am afaraid of not having made myself understood.


DIRECTION : A word and four jumbled choices are given in questions 24 & 25. One of the choices, when properly arranged gives the word. Identify the correct choice.

24. DEFEAT
(a) UQAVNHSI (b) CETAH (c) COTUH (d) TACSRCH

25. FANTASTIC
(a) TIAIRLSIC (b) BDCINREILE (c) ALCER (d) YNIMIAGAR


P.S. These questions are for those students who want to give PGCET- KARNATAKA, TAN CET, MHCET, GCET etc.

Top 9 Websites to Learn English Online for Free

There are many ways for you to learn and improve your English, such as to hire a teacher, to go to school, to take an online course, and so on. And among those ways, the cheapest and still efficient way is to learn English online for free. It sounds cool, right? Among those websites, below 9 are certainly worthy of your attention:

1. Elllo Elllo focuses on your English listening skill. You can listen to speakers from all over the world for different topics, such as sports, travels, games, and so on. There is related text script under the audio player. You can also listen to some nice English songs or watch some videos.

2. Fun Easy English Fun Easy English mainly focuses on the basic English knowledge and teaching tips, its courses include pronunciation, grammar, idioms, slang, writing, tests and much more. Most of those courses are launched in Video format, in addition with text scripts and pictures.

3. Go4English.com Go4English.com is owned by British Council, which is the UK’s international cultural relations body. The website offers English learning information and tests for teachers, students and kids. You can learn English online while you are taking a test, listening to a song, or even playing a game.

4. Lang-8 focuses on writing in a foreign language. You write in the language that you are learning, then native speakers will correct your writing, and you can also help others learn your native language by correcting their writing.

5. Busuu For every language you choose to learn, Busuu provides a few courses, including writing exercises, vocabulary training, reading comprehension, and so on. Besides courses, you can also learn English online by joining the community and chatting with other members.

6.Livemocha The Livemocha website focuses on learning a foreign language by courses and communications. To learn English online, you can pick up an English course, submit your answers, or chat with the members whose native language is English. And you can help other members by checking their submissions.

7.VocabSushi VocabSushi is for you to learn vocabulary with real-world, contextual examples found in the daily news. You pick up a vocab word, understand its means, read the sentence samples, listen to the speakers, then you can take a test and check if you have learned that word.

8. BBC Learning English On the BBC Learning English website, you can learn grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and so on, you can take a test, you can also learn how to teach others English. The most interesting course is 6 Minute English, in which you can listen to a short audio record, which can be downloaded both in MP3 and PDF format.

9. Exam English As the name, the website Exam English is for you to take exams, including TOEFL, CPE, KET, and nearly all the other famous international ESL/EFL exams. You can test your English level by reading, listening, grammar, vocabulary, or writing separately.

Among the above 9 websites, some (such as elllo) focus on listening, some (such as Lang-8) focus on writing, some (such as VocabSushi) focus on vocabulary, and some focus on other English skills or knowledge, you can check them out and choose your favorite. If you have any other websites to learn English online, welcome to share with us by adding a comment.

KARAN BAJAJ

The upcoming Indian author Karan Bajaj who has written two best selling novels keep of the grass and john gone down is telling you about his reading recommendations in his own words.


Reading Recommendations
Early readers of the website asked me for reading recommendations so here I list a few of my favorites. Certain classics - The Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, Lord of the Flies - endure of-course, but with a few notable exceptions, my top picks are closer to home; perhaps because books that touch a chord are usually ones that trigger memories of similar experiences.


1. English August by Upamanyu Chatterjee

Upamanyu Chatterjee’s delightful slacker novel with its wickedly funny portrayal of timeless themes- the angst of suddenly being thrust into adulthood, feeling hopelessly out of place in one’s surroundings, and being unable to shake off the uncomfortable feeling that “life just isn’t meant to be this”- easily rises to the top of my favorites. Agastya Sen, the novel’s cynical, lost protagonist is my favorite character in Indian literature, and you can’t help but like him despite (or perhaps because of) his spending all his time smoking marijuana, inventing new excuses to shirk his duties as an IAS officer, lying dementedly, sneering at everyone, and reflecting on the futility of everything. I also really dig the various philosophical nuggets from the Gita, Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, and his own beliefs that the author has liberally sprinkled through the novel.

Upamanyu Chatterjee has written a few more novels after that which I religiously picked up. I admire his wry, caustic writing which seems to be quite reflective of his own self (e.g. the dedication in his third novel, The Last Burden reads: To my wife, Anne- while the going is good.) Wow, is that a dedication or a doomsday prophecy? However his last novel, Weight Loss is avoidable and so twisted that it is almost sad in a way. In English August you get the sense that the young Agastya Sen is teetering on the edge of a cliff, and you desperately hope for his redemption. If Upamanyu Chatterjee is anything like Agastya, it seems that he couldn’t help himself from falling off by the time Weight Loss was released almost twenty-five years later—in 2007, I think.


2. Moth Smoke and The Reluctant Fundamentalist- both by Mohsin Hamid

Moth Smoke, Mohsin Hamid’s first novel, is the story of the wasted life of Daaru, a young Pakistani banker, who slowly, almost deliberately, destroys himself and those around him with his heroin addiction. I tend to enjoy writing with self destructive, wasted youth themes (please resist the impulse to play my shrink!), and Mohsin Hamid seems to be a resident expert on the subject. Highly recommended if you dig that kind of stuff.


The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid’s second novel, chronicles the impact of 9/11 on Changez, a young Pakistani management consultant in New York—but not in the usual sense. Rather than dwell on the reactions of the U.S to immigrants and assorted clichés, the narrative instead focuses on the contradictory, sometimes eerie response of Changez to the attacks and the unexpected decisions he takes as a result. The novel is innovatively written in the form of a single monologue but never slackens pace; and the rich descriptions of both Lahore and Manhattan had a lingering impact even on someone like me, who usually glazes past overdone, lyrical writing.


3. Ruskin Bond (everything by him)

One of India’s best-loved novelists (and an undiscovered one internationally, I think), Ruskin Bond seems to capture a lifetime of ache, hope, and longing in a few measured words (e.g. ‘Its not time that is passing by; its you and I). I really dig all his poems, short stories and novellas—he seems to be a man who has lived within the boundaries of society, but always on its edges- someone who fitted in, but didn’t want to fit in; alone, but never lonely; busy but never lacking the idleness of solitude; a nicer Holden Caulfield, a less confused Agastya Sen.

He was so much of a role model for me in college (before IIM corrupted me with dreams of power and glory) that I went to meet him once unannounced at his house in Mussourie. But that is another story for which you will have to read Keep off the Grass where the meeting has been fictionalized. For now, I quote one of his verses that I really liked:

“As I walked home last night
I saw a lone fox dancing
In the cold moonlight.
I stood and watched.
Then took the low road, knowing
The night was his by right.
Sometimes, when words ring true,
I'm like a lone fox dancing
In the morning dew”


Sometimes (a very few times) when I was writing Keep off the Grass and Johnny Gone Down and the words seemed to flow, I felt like the lone fox by the midnight lamp as well.

4. Forrest Gump by Winston Groom

Forrest Gump is probably my single greatest writing influence, though I can’t claim to hold a candle to Winston Groom yet. I’ve read the novel multiple times since I first chanced upon it as kid, and though the movie version was quite brilliant as well, the novel takes Forrest to even more interesting places—a NASA sponsored space shuttle to Mars, a tropical jungle full of cannibals and a Hollywood blockbuster starring Raquel Welch, for instance. I’ve always been attracted to “unlikely hero”/ “ordinary men in extraordinary situations” stories and this is a near perfect example of that genre. The novel has everything I think makes for great fiction: an uplifting, life affirming message presented in a tight, dramatic, almost bizarre story which stretches the boundaries of believability but doesn’t completely break it and arouses deep emotions in readers without resorting to clichés.

I aspire to write a Forrest Gump one day and take heart from the fact that Winston Groom was almost fifty years old when he wrote this masterpiece. Until then, I hope to live enough to gather the bizarre experiences that are required to write a novel like this one.


5. The Bangkok Series (Bangkok 8, Bangkok Tattoo and Bangkok Haunts) by John Burdett

I hadn’t read murder mysteries and detective novels in years until I chanced upon John Burdett’s Bangkok 8, which turned out to be a gem. I’m an armchair spiritual seeker and have dabbled unsuccessfully with many religious philosophies, meditation practices and spiritual discourses over the years, none of which have provided the answers I seek. Instead, they’ve added more questions to the list! In that, I found myself relating very closely to the Buddhist detective protagonist, Sonchai Jitpleecheep, of John Burdett’s Bangkok novels who is unsuccessful in his quest for spiritual enlightenment and Nirvana, but remarkably successful in solving some of Thailand’s most surreal, morbid crimes.

I’m eagerly awaiting his next novel, The Godfather of Kathmandu as he changes scene from the underbelly of Bangkok to that of Kathmandu, a city I really dig, but sticks with his spiritually confused crime-solver, Sonchai Jitpleecheep, my most favorite fictional detective of all time.

P.S. If you want to visit his website please click on the title of this blog.