ENG 101

Lesson -12
Dr.Surriya Shaffi Mir

Consider two incidents. Write down on a piece of paper what you might infer if you saw
the following two occurrences.
i) A high school has policemen walking up and down its main hall.
What would you infer? _______________
ii) A dog shrinks or cringes when you try to pat him.
What would you infer? _______________
Look at the following two pictures on your screen and put a tick mark against the
inference(s) most logically supported by the information given in the picture.
Picture 1:

The old woman is asking for something.

The old woman couldn’t see because of the smoke.
The old woman was pointing to a no-smoking sign.
Picture 2.

The man has a problem with his vision.

The boy is doing his home work.
The man watches a lot of TV.
The father cannot read.
Read the sentences given on your screen and put a tick mark by the inference
most logically based on the information in the sentence.
Sohail always sits in the last row of the classroom.
a. Sohail dislikes his college courses.
b. Sohail is unprepared for his class.
c. Sohail feels uncomfortable sitting in the front row.
d. Sohail is farsighted.
Now you will have some more practice in drawing inferences. Read the given
sentences and put a tick mark by the inference, most logically supported by the
information given in the sentence.
1. The Arabic language contains numerous words describing different types of camels.
a. There is really only one kind of camel.
b. The Arabic language clearly has many times more words than the English language.
c. The Arabic language probably also has numerous words for different types of dates.
d. The exact nature of camels is important to the desert way of life.
2. A man enters his office building, marches past a group of fellow employees without
returning there greetings and goes into his office, slamming the door.
a. The man has just lost his job
b. The man has quarreled with his boss.
c. The man is in a bad mood.
d. The man is angry with his wife.
Read the passage & then check the four statements which are most
logically supported by the information given.
The elimination of jobs because of super-automation is not limited to industrial factories
– offices are increasingly electronic. Engineers and architects now draw three
dimensional designs, update them, test them, and store them almost instantaneously in
a computer. Agriculture employs robot fruit pickers and sheepshearers, computerized
irrigation systems that use sensors to calculate water and fertilizer needs in different
parts of a field, and automated chicken houses.
Retail stores, banks, and brokerage houses use on-line transaction processing to obtain
instant information and to conduct transactions. Laser scanning and bar codes are
transforming the physical handling of codes by retailers and wholesale distributors. A
final example of technological change affecting jobs is the widespread use of televisions,
telephones, and personal computers for the purposes of home banking and shopping.
1. Computers will soon replace engineers and architects.
2. There will be more jobs for people who run and repair electronic devices.
3. One function of superautomation is the handling and storage of information.
4. Restaurants can’t benefit from superautomation.
5. Machines can help company employees accomplish more.
6. Superautomation requires few adjustments form society.
7. Superautomation has advantages and disadvantages.
8. Laser technology is limited to the business world.
1 a) You might like to ask why the Sun is able to supply its own light, heat, and energy,
whereas the Earth and the other planets only shine feebly with the aid of borrowed light.
Strange as it may seem, it is best to start this problem by Strange as it may seem, it is
best to start this problem by considering the interior of the Earth.
b) The morrow brought a very sober-looking morning, the sun making only a few
efforts to appear; and Catherine augured from it everything most favourable to her
wishes. A bright morning so early in the year, she allowed, would generally turn to rain;
but a cloudy one foretold improvement as the day advanced.
c) Your mother and I were so happy then. It seemed as though we had everything we
could ever want. I think the last day the sun shone was when that dirty little train
steamed out of that crowded, suffocating Indian station, and the battalion band playing
for all it was worth. I knew in my heart it was all over then. Everything.
“Sixty – Eight Birthday”
As life runs on, the road grows strange
With faces new, and near the end
The milestones into headstones change,
‘Neath every one a friend.
J. R. Lowell
Milestone: a slab of stone set up in the ground to show the distance in miles on a
road.
Headstone: a stone which marks the top end of a grave, usually having the buried
person’s name on it
Fog
The fog comes
On little cat feet.
It sits looking one’s harbor and city
 On silent haunches
reports of observations. )
Some more points about fact and opinion.
When separating fact form opinion keep in mind that:
i) A statement of fact may be found to be un- true.
Sometimes, evidence may show a fact is not really true.
ii) Opinions may be masked as facts.
People sometimes present their opinions as facts. e.g.
a) The economy, in fact, is in the worst shape it’s been in for years.
b) In point of fact, neither candidate for the Nazim’s office is well qualified.
c) The truth of the matter is that frozen meat tastes as good as fresh meat.
At the first glance, the above statements appear as statements of fact but a closer
examination will show that they are statements of opinion.
iii) Value-words often represent opinions.
Value-words are generally subjective, not objective and they express judgment while
factual statements report on observed reality while subjective statements interpret reality
for instance.
Some Value-Words

good bad great

best worst terrible
better lovely wonder
worse disgusting

Facts Versus Opinion

Read the following statements and decide whether they are facts or opinions :
1. Edgar Allan Poe is the greatest writer of horror stories in the
world._________________
2. Poe had to leave the University of Virginia because he couldn’t pay his
debts.__________
3. Edgar Allan Poe should not have drunk so much.___________________
4. Lovecraft has often been compared to Edgar Allah Poe.___________________
5. When Lovecraft died, he was practically unknown.___________________
6. Lovecraft died in conditions of shameful neglect.________________
7. Lovecraft’s stories are far more horrible than those of Edgar Allan
Poe.______________
8. Edgar Allan Poe’s stories reflect his powerful imagination and his love for
analysis.________
9. Baudelaire wrote that Edgar Poe ‘pursued imagination and subjected it to the most
stringent analysis’.____________________
10.It is because of Baudelaire that Edgar Allan Poe became famous in
France__________________

Grellet, Francoise Developing Reading

Skills,CUP,1981,page239
1 a) You might like to ask why the Sun is able to supply its own light, heat, and energy,
whereas the Earth and the other planets only shine feebly with the aid of borrowed light.
Strange as it may seem, it is best to start this problem by Strange as it may seem, it is
best to start this problem by considering the interior of the Earth.
b)The morrow brought a very sober-looking morning, the sun making only a few efforts
to appear; and Catherine augured from it everything most favourable to her wishes. A
bright morning so early in the year, she allowed, would generally turn to rain; but a
cloudy one foretold improvement as the day advanced.
c)Your mother and I were so happy then. It seemed as though we had everything we
could ever want. I think the last day the sun shone was when that dirty little train
steamed out of that crowded, suffocating Indian station, and the battalion band playing
for all it was worth. I knew in my heart it was all over then. Everything.
Table 2
Simultaneous with given time-reference, i.e. during
TIME RELATERS

Adjectives Contemporary Simultaneous

Adverbials at present meaning

at this point meanwhile
now in the meantime
today when
for the time being at the same time
at the moment

Subsequent to time-reference, i.e. after

TIME RELATERS

Adjectives following later next

Adverbials afterwards since by the end
after that since then soon
eventually by the time next

Sample Paragraph
Computers, as we know them today, haven’t been around for a long time. It wasn’t until
the mid-1940s that the first working digital computer was completed. But since then,
computers have evolved tremendously. Vacuum tubes were used in the first-generation
computers at the beginning of the 1960s. By the end of the 1960s transistors were
replaced by tiny integrated circuit boards and, consequently, a new generation of
computers was on the market. Fourth-generation computers are now produced with
circuits that are much smaller than before and fit on a single chip. Soon fifth-generation
computers will be produced, and these will no doubt be better than their predecessors.
Exercise
Read the following paragraph and as you read, underline the time relaters.
There are some who say that computers have a very short history but, because they are
machines that manipulate numbers, others disagree. More than 5000 years ago, a need
to count was recognized, and somebody had the idea of using first his fingers, then
pebbles to keep track of the count.
History is not clear as to whether the need was recognized before or after the idea
occurred. Since that time, the abacus was invented and some form of it was used well
into the 16th century. During the 17th and 18th centuries many easy ways of calculating
were devised. Logarithm tables, calculus and the basis for the modern slide rule were
born out of that period of time. It was not until the early 1800s that the first calculating
machine appeared and not too long after, Charles Babbage designed a machine which
became the basis for building today’s computers.
A hundred years later the first analog computer was built, but the first digital computer
was not complete until 1944. Since then computers have gone through four generations
from digital computers using vacuum tubes in the 1950s, transistors in the early 1960s,
integrated in the mid-60s, and a single chip in the 190s. At the rate computer technology
is growing now, we can expect more changes in this field by the end of this deca