Expository Text

UNIT 2 DESCRIPTIVE TEXT

Structure
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Features of Descriptive Texts
2.2.1 To Show or to Tell
2.2.2 Figurative Language
2.2.3 Strong Verbs
2.3 Types of Descriptive Writing
2.4 Descriptive Text Sample
2.4.1 Sample
2.4.2 Understanding structure and explanation
2.4.3 Probable questions
2.5 Reading Strategies
2.6 Practice Texts
2.6.1 Excerpt from “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood
2.6.2 Nagasaki
2.6.3 A Descriptive Story
2.7 Let Us Sum Up
2.8 Suggested Readings
2.9 Answers

2.0 OBJECTIVES
The need for comprehension is essential to the very act of reading. When you
read without comprehension, the act is rendered redundant. The aim of this Unit
is to make you proficient in skills of reading, by walking you through the reading
strategies and help you practice.

You will be able to read with precision and technical expertise. This Unit will
also aid you in categorizing the basis of ‘Descriptive’ writing. Specific features
of Descriptive texts would be analyzed and understood. You will be able to monitor
your own growth in the act of comprehension.

2.1 INTRODUCTION
Comprehension simply means understanding. It is the end goal of the act of
reading. Comprehension then can also be called as the reason for reading. If the
act of reading occurs without an understanding of what is being read then the
whole act becomes obsolete and redundant. If you don’t understand then there is
no point to reading. The process of understanding is also complex. It employs a
number of strategies and meticulous practices.

To tackle the comprehension of a descriptive text, you need to first understand

the basic aspects of such a categorical form of writing. The word descriptive,
derived from the verb ‘describe’ is enough to serve the purpose of explaining
what kind of writing it would be. A piece of writing concerned with describing
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Reading Comprehension: anything is descriptive writing. You can write to give a detailed description of a
Types of Texts
place, person or a thing. What makes this kind of writing different from others is
that it enables a picture being formed in the mind of the reader of the thing being
described. Reading descriptive text should then enable you to picture the thing
being described. Capturing anything so to create a picture in the mind of a reader
would entail paying close attention to details by heeding to all the five sensory
organs of the body.

This form of writing should not be confused with other forms of detailed writing
styles like expository or narrative writing form. Even though all of these three
forms (Expository, Narrative and Descriptive) employ the act of explanations,
they do it differently. It is hence important for you to understand how explanations
are projected in the “descriptive” form of writing.

Janeen Lewis in an article titled “Types of Descriptive Writing” writes,

“Descriptive writing describes a person, place or thing in such a way that the
reader feels she is experiencing what is being described. The details in the writing
vividly come alive in the reader’s mind. Descriptive writing is found in all genres
of writing, from the setting of a historical fiction novel to the details of a recipe.
There are many types of descriptive writing that place the reader in the middle of
the plot, scene, essay or article.”

2.2 FEATURES OF DESCRIPTIVE TEXTS

Descriptive writing has a number of indicators which can be categorized as its
features and if understood, be used by its readers to identify the type.

2.2.1 To Show or to Tell

Sensory organs play an important role in receiving information from the world.
They are meant to feel, smell, see, taste and hear from the world and be the first
contacts of the person, his thoughts with the world. Descriptive writing is heavily
dependent on this notion. It relies on appealing to your sensory system and hence
is concerned with making you experience the writing through senses instead of
direct thoughts. This aspect of making you understand than telling you directly
what you need to think is the process of ‘showing’ instead of ‘telling’. You are
more concerned with giving enough vivid a picture through which there would
cease a need to out rightly tell the reader what they should be thinking about.
The picture created through the process of writing should be enough to make the
reader think certain thoughts. It is an indirect method of telling something yet
doing it without telling but showing.

“Sensory details are details of smell, taste, texture, and sound as well as sight. If
you choose “showing” words, those that supply vivid sensory details appropriate
to your subject and purpose, you will succeed in showing rather than telling.
“Telling” words are usually vague or ambiguous; they can be interpreted in a
variety of ways.”

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Consider the following examples Descriptive Text

a) Telling: “The room was empty and smelled exceptionally stale. There was
no furniture or any kind of living presence. The windows had no curtains
because no one had bothered for a long time.”

b) Showing: “The apartment smelled of stale food, cabbage, wet waste; mixed
with old sweaty socks. My sneakers kept squeaking on the cracked wood
floors. Dust strewn everywhere, I could see a bit around the room due to
the sunlight seeping in from a broken curtainless window.”

You can see here how the first example is also giving you directions to think in a
certain way about the room while in the second one, detailed picture of the room
is painted which prompt you to think in a certain way to perceive this room.

As a reader of Descriptive writing, it is your job to look for these images or

indicative descriptive words that prompts you into forming a picture in your
mind. In looking for these images, you will be able to compile them and get a
gist of what they are trying to convey through descriptions.

2.2.2 Figurative Language

Figurative Language is used extensively in Descriptive writing. Figurative
Language refers to language that consists of a number of figure of speech and
allusions. These forms of ornamental writing are used to create images in the
mind of the reader. It does not allude to the literal meaning of words in order for
the reader to infer meaning out of them and ignite a creative thought process
which comes from the process ‘showing’ and not ‘telling’. Literary devices like
similes, metaphors and personification are included in this kind of writing.

Descriptive writing employs figurative language heavily in order to give a detailed

and vivid picture of the thing it is describing. For you as a reader, it is crucial to
specifically understand these figures of speech. You should be able to identify
the similes (a figure of speech comparing two unlike things that is often introduced
by like or as), metaphors (comparing two things by using one kind of object or
using in place of another to suggest the likeness between them), personifications
(giving something human qualities) and many more such expressions. Knowing
the specifics of each one of these would help you comprehend the passage better.

2.2.3 Strong Verbs

Using verbs in their active form, for example action verbs like ‘dance’, ‘play’,
‘chat’, ‘cheat’, ‘race’, create a more compelling effect in the mind for the specific
process of creating a picture. As descriptive writing is concerned with various
and best ways of description, a proficient way of writing is also to use less amount
of words to convey the most. As a result, the writing should be crisp and to the
point. In order to do so, you should avoid using linking verbs like ‘was’, ‘is’, and
‘are’. Active verbs make it possible to write and describe in a more precise manner.
Instead of writing “She ran very fast”, if it is written as “She raced past us”, it
provides a stronger impact and a consequent image.

As a reader, it is important to be able to look for these verbs and understand the
inferences to be derived from them. Just like it was a case in figurative language,
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Reading Comprehension: it is important to draw correct inferences from the given language as that would
Types of Texts
enable you to have a better idea of the text you are reading.

2.3 TYPES OF DESCRIPTIVE WRITING

Many things can be described in detail. What is the difference between description
and descriptive essays? While a description is just a short passage about anything,
a descriptive essay has the same structural system as any other essay. It would
not be a description just for the sake of it. It will have a narrative and a thesis
statement. It will need you to imagine a certain something the essay is trying to
attempt; an attempt to not only make a picture in your mind but to also convey
something through that picture. This is the thesis statement of a descriptive essay.
Just like traditional format, this essay will have an introduction, body and
conclusion which will run on the lines of the thesis statement.

The prominent types of Descriptive writings involve:

a) Writing about a person
b) Writing about an object
c) Writing about a place
d) Writing about oneself
e) Writing about others
f) Writing poems
g) Writing about traveling, memory or experience
h) Writing about nature, etc.

2.4 DESCRIPTIVE TEXT SAMPLE

After having understood the basic features that can help you distinguish and
understand a descriptive essay or a passage, it is time you look at a sample. The
following passage is an excellent example of a Descriptive text. Let us take a
look:

2.4.1 Sample
Vampires? Hags? Harry’s head was swimming. Hagrid, meanwhile, was
counting bricks in the wall above the dustbin.
“Three up... two across...” he muttered. “Right, stand back, Harry.”
He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella.
The brick he had touched quivered—it wriggled—in the middle, a small hole
appeared—it grew wider and wider—a second later they were facing an
archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway on to a cobbled street
which twisted and turned out of sight.
“Welcome,” said Hagrid, “ to Diagon Alley.”
He grinned at Harry’s amazement. They stepped through the archway. Harry
looked quickly over his shoulder and saw the archway shrink instantly back
into solid wall.
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 Descriptive Text
The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop.
Cauldrons—All sizes—Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver—Self Stirring—
Collapsible said a sign hanging over them.
“Yeah, you’ll be needin’ one,” said Hagrid, “ but we gotta get yer money
first.”
Harry wished he had about eight more eyes. He turned his head in every
direction as they walked up the street, trying to look at everything at once: the
shops, the things outside them, the people doing their shopping. A plump woman
outside an apothecary was shaking her head as they passed, saying, “Dragon
liver, sixteen sickles an ounce, they’re mad ...”

A low, soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying Eeylops Owl
Emporium—Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown and Snowy. Several boys of about
Harry’s age had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it.
“Look,” Harry heard one of them say, “ the new Nimbus Two Thousand—
fastest ever,” There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and
strange silver instruments Harry had never seen before, windows stacked with
barrels of bat spleens and eels’ eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills and
rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon...
“Gringotts,” said Hagrid.
They had reached a snowy-white building which towered over the other little
shops.”
(Source:Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K Rowling)

2.4.2 Understanding structure and explanation

This is a descriptive essay of a place. It is an excerpt from “Harry Potter and the
Philosopher’s Stone” as the source suggests. It is concerned with conveying the
grandeur of this new place that Harry visits called ‘Diagon Alley’. Let us find
out through a deep analysis how each of these lines suggests the essay to be part
of descriptive writing.

We enter the place through these lines “He tapped the wall three times with the
point of his umbrella.

The brick he had touched quivered—it wriggled—in the middle, a small hole
appeared—it grew wider and wider—a second later they were facing an archway
large enough even for Hagrid, an archway on to a cobbled street which twisted
and turned out of sight.”

These lines immediately point to a narrative which wants to convey an element

of magic or the supernatural. Diagon alley is clearly magical. This is not being
told to us as you can see. This is being shown to us. By these very lines mentioned
above, it is to be inferred that any place which opens its doors on three taps of an
umbrella is not the normal and it would in turn be beyond normal either initiated
through science or the supernatural.

Let us look at the next few lines “The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons
outside the nearest shop. Cauldrons—All sizes—Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver—
Self Stirring—Collapsible said a sign hanging over them.” This indicates that
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Reading Comprehension: the place has shops that sell cauldrons, further establishing the strangeness of
Types of Texts
the market. There were cauldrons of all sizes some of which were self-stirring!
These lines point at its difference from the normal and further the narrative into
the realm of the discovery of a magical world.

The next lines read as “Harry wished he had about eight more eyes. He turned
his head in every direction as they walked up the street, trying to look at everything
at once: the shops, the things outside them, the people doing their shopping. A
plump woman outside an apothecary was shaking her head as they passed, saying,
“Dragon liver, sixteen sickles an ounce, they’re mad ...”” By showing us Harry’s
bafflement at having reached at this place, you as a reader are immediately placed
in his shoes who will now decode this new world from Harry’s eyes. Through
his eyes, you can sense the excitement and wonder at viewing brand new scenes.

“A low, soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying Eeylops Owl
Emporium—Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown and Snowy. Several boys of about
Harry’s age had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it.
“Look,” Harry heard one of them say, “ the new Nimbus Two Thousand—fastest
ever,” There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver
instruments Harry had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat
spleens and eels’ eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills and rolls of parchment,
potion bottles, globes of the moon..” This passage fits the features of a descriptive
passage perfectly. These details of a number of shops selling items showcase a
busy and bustling street. There are constant images being made to form in the
minds of the reader with the excitement that people seem to feel towards a mere
broomstick, to animal parts being displayed in window sills of the shops to the
book shop selling not pens but quills, not ordinary books but spell books and so
much more. All of these vivid details are used to create a feeling of busyness and
the normalcy with which strangeness is proceeding. It opens the window to a
world following certain rules of your regular world but strangely different.

If looking for a thesis statement, this whole passage then could be attributed to
proving the normalness of the magical market place of “Diagon Alley”. The
introduction holds an entry point into this world of wonder and then we move to
the body which begins by elaborating the contents of the world. There isn’t a
definite conclusion in this passage as it as an excerpt. But the chapter ends with
Harry’s initiation into this new world and somewhat normalizing his presence in
the strange world.

2.4.3 Probable Questions

There are six kinds of fixed questions which are asked when trying to test the
comprehension skills of the student.

a) Vocabulary based questions: where the meanings of particular words in

the text, their antonyms, and synonyms are asked.

b) Direct questions: where the question requires an answer given directly as

it is in the text.

c) Interpretative and analytic questions: where inferences need to be drawn

from the given text.

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d) Main idea: where the reader’s ability to comprehend the overall idea of the Descriptive Text
text is questioned.

e) Supporting ideas: where the detailed information supporting the main idea
is asked.

f) Narrative structure, style and tone: where specific structural technicalities

like the thesis statement, introduction, body and conclusion are looked at.

Sample questions

a) 1) From the above passage, explain the meaning of the word “tottering”.

b) 2) How many eyes did Harry wish he had while looking around the new
market place?

c) 3) Why has the writer named this strange place Diagon Alley? Discuss.

d) 4) What is the passage reflecting on when listing down the shops of Diagon
Alley?

e) 5) Why are there people excited about a broomstick in Diagon Alley?

f) 6) What kind of writing genre would you categorize this passage in and
why?

Let us look at the answers:

a) 1) From the above passage it can be deciphered that there is a busy and
chaotic market place where many items are in display including the
‘tottering books’. From the aspect of chaos that is to be sensed from
the whole passage, the nature of chaos can also be attributed to the
books. The books are piled up and are ‘tottering’ which is a verb. The
answer would then be “unbalanced or threatening to dismantle”

b) 2) The answer to this question is available directly within the lines of the
passage. “Harry wished he had about eight more eyes.”

c) 3) Diagon Alley is strange, much different than the socially accepted

normal. To be Diagonal is also to not be straight or the normal. In a
system of lines, the diagonal line is the one which deflects from the
perfect 90-degree angle and creates a schism in perfection. In a similar
manner the Diagon alley is present somewhere in the middle of the
perfect human world but is extremely different from it in its contents.

d) 4) Each of these shops resembles normal shops but is strewn with unlikely
and uncommon merchandise. There is a craze for a broomstick which
just like Harry, the reader is not able to decipher. There are cauldrons
that stir themselves, animal parts displayed on window sills and quills
and spell books being sold. All these aspects help create a sense of
otherness of Diagon Alley.

e) 5) The world of Harry Potter is a magical world. Diagon Alley is his first
initiation into this world. As he goes past the shops, everything he sees
is unfamiliar to him yet the shops are displaying their merchandise and
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Reading Comprehension: how there is a craze in the market for the best items is quite familiar to
Types of Texts
him. As he goes past the broom shop and sees people gushing over a
broomstick called “Nimbus 2000” he is amazed at the craze, but just
like everything else, the reader can fathom that this broom doesn’t hold
the same function of value that it would have in our normal world. And
this helps in adding to the point of differentness of Diagon Alley.

f) 6) The above passage can be categorized under the genre of “descriptive”

passage as one can find vivid details of a new place to establish its
quality of strangeness.

2.5 READING STRATEGIES

Let us take a look at the following lines.
What do good readers do as they read?
One way that researchers have studied what good readers do, has been to ask
them to think aloud as they read. From these studies, researchers have
determined that the seemingly effortless activity described as “good reading”
is made up of a set of highly complex, well-developed, and well-practiced
skills and abilities.

Particularly impressive is the way in which good readers actively and

consciously coordinate these skills and strategies before, during, and after
reading a text.

Before reading, good readers tend to set goals for their reading. They note
the structure, or organization of the text, and often create a mental overview
or outline of the text to help them decide whether it is relevant to their goals.

During reading, good readers read words accurately and quickly, and
simultaneously deal with the meanings of those words — as well as the
meanings of the phrases and sentences into which the words are grouped.
Good readers connect the meaning of one sentence to the meaning of
another. If something is confusing to them, they use their background
knowledge to try to clarify the meanings of words and phrases. Sometimes
good readers interact with the text by asking themselves questions about its
content and reflecting on its ideas.

They are adept at using their background knowledge to make predictions about
what might happen next and to understand ideas as they encounter them. Good
readers continuously evaluate their predictions and revise them as needed.

Good readers are selective as they read. They are likely to focus more of their
attention on the parts of the text that are most closely tied to their reading
goals. They may decide to skip some parts of a text because they already
understand the content or because they do not think the parts are important to
what they need (or want) to learn from the text. They may decide, after reading
several pages, to skip the rest of a chapter because they recently read something
similar.

On the other hand, they may decide — either because they do not clearly
understand the content or because they find the topic interesting — to reread
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 Descriptive Text
a passage or chapter before going on. They also may summarize the content
of a passage as they read it. In doing so, they may consciously determine
what is important, what is supportive, and what is less important.

As they read, good readers often make inferences. They may draw on their
background knowledge or look for clues in the text to supply information
about characters or events that the author has not provided directly. Some
good readers may also create mental images, or visualize a setting, event, or
character to help them understand a passage in a text.

Good readers monitor their comprehension as they read. When they realize
that they do not understand what they are reading, they apply procedures to
“repair” or “fix-up” their lack of understanding. For example, they may ask
themselves questions about the meaning of what they are reading, they may
rephrase a passage in their own words, they may look up the meanings of
difficult words, or they may outline the content of the text.

After reading, good readers often think about, or reflect on what they read.
They may mentally summarize major points or events in the text, or even go
to other sources to find additional information about the topic of the reading.

In short, good readers are most often strategic readers. That is, they use a
number of comprehension strategies to get meaning from text. Comprehension
strategies are conscious plans or procedures that are under the control of a
reader, who makes decisions about which strategies to use and when to use
them.

In addition, good readers engage in metacognition as they read. Cognition

refers to mental functions such as remembering, focusing attention, and
processing information. Metacognition refers to people’s awareness of their
cognition; that is, their thoughts about their own thinking. From an array of
possibilities, for example, readers with metacognitive awareness are able
consciously and automatically to select the appropriate comprehension
strategies for use with a particular text.

(Source:[Link]
comprehension-and-comprehension-instruction)

Let us look at the keywords highlighted in the above passage to understand what
the act of reading entails.

Think aloud: When you read any piece of an essay or article, the first step
should be to try and understand (as the word comprehension itself entails)
what your eyes are taking in. Once you read the text having understood it,
you can then explain it back to yourself. Thinking out loudly to yourself
what the passage might mean has its benefits in enabling you to understand
better.

Set goals before reading: At any point, before beginning to read, it is

important to understand the purpose of reading. Are you reading to get a
gist of the passage? To answer particular questions? For research? Or for
pleasure? Specifically, for the purpose of answering questions, you should
be aware of the things which need to be looked for within the text. It is a
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Reading Comprehension: good move to find out what is being asked and keeping the points in mind
Types of Texts
you can start reading the passage with said objective.

Structure: Finding out the kind of writing or essay it can be categorized in

is always beneficial in the process of prompting an understanding of the
text. If you are able to identify the type of essay, you will be able to then
predict what you might find in the essay.

Mental overview: This can be done by using the techniques of skimming

when attempting comprehension passages. When you start reading, you
begin to make mental notes of certain keywords and lines that give you an
overall gist of the passage.

Connection between sentences: It is important when reading, to create a

sense of understanding that is able to connect a sentence with the next. If
you read sentences as unrelated to each other, it will hamper your sense of
understanding of the passage.

Predict and Revise: This allows you to read faster. If you have understood
what the passage is about, you recognize what it might be saying (maybe
from the introduction), then keep a mindset with the background knowledge
you have about that topic. This will allow you to predict what to expect
and hence prove a quick way to understand the passage.

Be Selective: When skimming and scanning through a passage, you cannot

always retain everything you read. It is hence important that you are able
to decide and select the things which you believe are important. Some
suggestions would be to identify the thesis statement and then proceed to
find the supporting notes to it. Other times, when attempting a
comprehension passage in exams, you can look at the questions and attempt
to identify the important keywords and topics.

Summarize: Another strategy to reading comprehension exercises is to

make a summary of each paragraph in about two to three lines. In trying to
make the summaries, you will be engaging in the act of comprehending.
This enhances your understanding of the passage.

Visualize: This is not only important but a key feature of practice of reading.
Just like the other approaches mentioned above, use your mind to visualize
what you read. This comes in handy especially when you do Descriptive
passages. The very aim of writing descriptive essays is to provide you
with ample fodder to visualize what you read and, in the process,
comprehend the written passage.

Meta cognition: “Metacognition refers to “thinking about thinking” and

was introduced as a concept by John Flavell, who is typically seen as a
founding scholar of the field. Flavell said that metacognition is the
knowledge you have of your own cognitive processes (your thinking)
(Flavell, 1979). It is your ability to control your thinking processes through
various strategies, such as organizing, monitoring, and adapting.
Additionally, it is your ability to reflect upon the tasks or processes you
undertake and to select and utilize the appropriate strategies necessary in
your intercultural interactions.” It employs the process of self-regulation
32 and self-policing. It makes you assess your own strengths and weaknesses.
Using these modes or techniques, you can attempt to master the art of Descriptive Text
comprehension. As a good reader you need to engage in so many of these activities
to be able to complete the process or the very act of ‘reading’. Reading is a
complex activity which when done with precision and technique can help you
with your skills of ‘picking up ideas from texts’.

Readence, Bean, and Baldwin (2004) suggest a simple procedure to help students
recognize, identify, and utilize text structure as a way to better comprehend and
recall reading from expository text. Looking at the above passage, you must
now attempt to work on key strategies to attempt comprehension passages once
you have identified the type of essay it is, and its thesis statement.

2.6 PRACTICE TEXTS

2.6.1 Excerpt from “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret
Atwood
“The lawns are tidy, the facades are gracious, in good repair; they’re like
the beautiful pictures they used to print in the magazines about homes and
gardens and interior decoration. There is the same absence of people, the
same air of being asleep. The street is almost like a museum, or a street in
a model town constructed to show the way people used to live. As in those
pictures, those museums, those model towns, there are no children.

This is the heart of Gilead, where the war cannot intrude except on television.
Where the edges are we aren’t sure, they vary, according to the attacks and
counterattacks; but this is the center, where nothing moves. The Republic of
Gilead, said Aunt Lydia, knows no bounds.
Gilead is within you.
Doctors lived here once, lawyers, university professors. There are no lawyers
anymore, and the university is closed.

Luke and I used to walk together, sometimes, along these streets. We used to
talk about buying a house like one of these, an old big house, fixing it up. We
would have a garden swing for the Children. We would have children.
Although we knew it wasn’t too likely we could ever afford it, it was
something to talk about, a game for Sundays.
Such freedom now seems almost weightless.
We turn the corner onto a main street, where there’s more traffic.
Cars go by, black most of them, some gray and brown. There are other women
with baskets, some in red, some in the dull green of the Marthas, some in the
striped dresses, red and blue and green and cheap and skimpy, that mark the
women of the poorer men.

Econowives, they’re called. These women are not divided into functions.
They have to do everything; if they can. Sometimes there is a woman all in
black, a widow. There used to be more of them, but they seem to be
diminishing. You don’t see the Commanders’ Wives on the sidewalks. Only
in cars.
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Reading Comprehension:
Types of Texts The sidewalks here are cement. Like a child, I avoid stepping on the cracks.
I’m remembering my feet on these sidewalks, in the time before, and what I
used to wear on them. Sometimes it was shoes for running, with cushioned
soles and breathing holes, and stars of fluorescent fabric that reflected light
in the darkness. Though I never ran at night; and in the daytime, only beside
well-frequented roads.
Women were not protected then.
I remember the rules, rules that were never spelled out but that every woman
knew: Don’t open your door to a stranger, even if he says he is the police.
Make him slide his ID under the door. Don’t stop on the road to help a
motorist pretending to be in trouble. Keep the locks on and keep going. If
anyone whistles, don’t turn to look. Don’t go into a laundromat, by yourself,
at night.

I think about laundromats. What I wore to them: shorts, jeans, jogging pants.
What I put into them: my own clothes, my own soap, my own money, money
I had earned myself. I think about having such control.

Now we walk along the same street, in red pairs, and no man shouts
obscenities at us, speaks to us, touches us. No one whistles.

There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and
freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being
given freedom from. Don’t underrate it.

In front of us, to the right, is the store where we order dresses. Sonic people
call them habits, a good word for them. Habits are hard to break. The store
has a huge wooden sign outside it, in the shape of a golden lily; Lilies of the
Field, it’s called. You can see the place, under the lily, where the lettering
was painted out, when they decided that even the names of shops were too
much temptation for us. Now places are known by their signs alone.

Lilies used to be a movie theater, before. Students went there a lot; every
spring they had a Humphrey Bogart festival, with Lauren Bacall or Katharine
Hepburn, women on their own, making up their minds.

They wore blouses with buttons down the front that suggested the possibilities
of the word undone. These women could be undone; or not. They seemed to
be able to choose. We seemed to be able to choose, then. We were a society
dying, said Aunt Lydia, of too much choice.
I don’t know when they stopped having the festival. I must have been grown
up. So I didn’t notice.
We don’t go into Lilies, but across the road and along a side street.”

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Check Your Progress 1 Descriptive Text

Answer the following questions based on your reading of the passage in 2.6.1.

1) What type of writing would the above passage fit in and why?
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2) What is the picture of Gilead being formed in the given passage?

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3) What festival does the writer recall?

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4) “There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and
freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are
being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it.” What do these lines mean?
Discuss.
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5) Who are the Econowives?

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Reading Comprehension:
Types of Texts 2.6.2 Nagasaki
Nearly nine years ago, on a warm autumn evening in 1945, I was driving over
the mountains of Southern Japan to the city of Nagasaki. I thought I was still
in open country when all at once I realized that I was already crossing what
had been the city. The shadows which flickered past me in the dusk were not
rocks and trees: they were crushed buildings; the bare and skewed ribs of
factories, and two crumpled gasometers.

The scale of the damage of Nagasaki drained the blood from my heart then,
and does so now when I speak of it. For three miles my road lay through a
desert which man had made in a second. Now, nine years later, the hydrogen
bomb is ready to dwarf this scale, and to turn each mile of destruction into ten
miles. And citizens and scientists share at one another and ask: ‘How did we
blunder into this nightmare?

I put this first as a question of history, because the history of this is known to
few people. The fission of uranium was discovered by two German scientists
a year before the war. Within a few months, it was reported that Germany had
forbidden the export of uranium from the mines of Czechoslovakia which she
had just annexed. Scientists on the Continent, in England and America, asked
themselves whether the secret weapon on which the Germans were said to be
working was an atomic bomb. If the fission of uranium could be used
explosively (and this already seemed possible in 1939) it might in theory make
an explosion a million times larger than hitherto. The monopoly of such an
atomic bomb would give Hitler instant victory, and make him master of Europe
and the world. The scientists knew the scale of what they feared very well:
they feared first desolation and then slavery. With heavy hearts, they told Albert
Einstein what they knew of atomic fission. Einstein had been a pacifist all his
life, and he did not easily put his conscience on one side. But it seemed clear
to him that no scientist was free to keep this knowledge to himself. He felt that
no one could decide whether a nation should or should not use atomic bombs,
except the nation itself; the choice must be offered to the nation, and made by
those whom the nation has elected to act for it. On August 2, 1939, a month
before Hitler invaded Poland, Einstein wrote to President Roosevelt to tell
him that he thought an atomic bomb might be made, and he feared that the
Germans were trying to make one.

This is how it came about that, later in the war, scientists worked together in
England, in Canada and America, to make the atomic bomb. They hated war
no less than the layman does- no less than the soldier does; they, too, had
wrestled with their consciences; and they had decided that their duty was to
let the nation use their skill, just as it uses the skill of the solider or the expert
in camouflage. The atomic scientists believed that they were in a race against
Germany whose outcome might decide, the war even in its last weeks. We
know now that the race was almost a walk-over. The Germans were indeed
trying to make an atomic explosion, and they thought that they were ahead of
the allies. But by our standards, what they had done was pitiful; they had not
made a pile that worked, and they believed that the fast chain reaction of an
atomic bomb was impossible. The Nazis had made fundamental science a
poor relation, and put it under second rate party men with splendid titles. And
more deeply, the Nazis had sapped the pith and power of research, the quizzical
36
 Descriptive Text
eye and questioning mind, the urge to find the facts for oneself. There were
not enough unconventional ideas in the German atomic projects, and when
the younger men did put up some, their leaders always knew better.
Source: UPSC CPF Assistant Commandant Examination 2007 Paper II
(BSF/CRPF/ITBP/CISF/SSB)

Check Your Progress 2

Answer the following questions based on your reading of the passage in 2.6.2.

1) What had drained the blood from the heart of the author?
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2) Describe the circumstances leading to the making of atom bomb.

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3) When was the Hydrogen bomb ready for use?

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4) What, according to the author, was the main reason of the failure of the
German scientists?
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Reading Comprehension: 5) What do you learn from the passage about Albert Einstein?
Types of Texts
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2.6.3 A Descriptive Story

Mike and Morris lived in the same village. While Morris owned the largest
jewelry shop in the village, Mike was a poor farmer. Both had large families
with many sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren. One fine day, Mike,
tired of not being able to feed his family, decided to leave the village and
move to the city where he was certain to earn enough to feed everyone.
Along with his family, he left the village for the city. At night, they stopped
under a large tree. There was a stream running nearby where they could
freshen up themselves. He told his sons to clear the area below the tree, he
told his wife to fetch water and he instructed his daughters-in-law to make
up the fire and started cutting wood from the tree himself. They didn’t know
that in the branches of the tree, there was a thief hiding. He watched as
Mike’s family worked together and also noticed that they had nothing to
cook. Mike’s wife also thought the same and asked her husband,”Everything
is ready but what shall we eat?”. Mike raised his hands to heaven and said
“Don’t worry. He is watching all of this from above. He will help us.”

The thief got worried as he had seen that the family was large and worked
well together. Taking advantage of the fact that they did not know he was
hiding in the branches, he decided to make a quick escape. He climbed down
safely when they were not looking and ran for his life. But, he left behind the
bundle of stolen jewels and money which dropped into Mike’s lap. Mike
opened it and jumped with joy when he saw the contents. The family gathered
all their belongings and returned to the village. There was great excitement
when they told everyone how they got rich.

Morris thought that the tree was miraculous and this was a nice and quick
way to earn some money. He ordered his family to pack some clothes and
they set off as if on a journey. They also stopped under the same tree and
Morris started commanding everyone as Mike had done. But no one in his
family was willing to obey his orders. Being a rich family, they were used to
having servants all around. So, the one who went to the river to fetch water
enjoyed a nice bath. The one who went to get wood for fire went off to sleep.
Morris’s wife said “Everything is ready but what shall we eat?” Morris raised
his hands and said, “Don’t worry. He is watching all of this from above. He
will help us.”

As soon as he finished saying, the thief jumped down from the tree with a
knife in hand. Seeing him, everyone started running around to save their
lives. The thief stole everything they had and Morris and his family had to
return to the village empty handed, having lost all their valuables that they
had taken with them.
(Source:[Link]
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Check Your Progress 3 Descriptive Text

Answer the following questions based on your reading of the passage in 2.6.3.

1) Why did Mike and his family decide to rest under the thief’s tree?
a) Being a large family, they knew that they could easily defeat the thief
b) It was a convenient spot for taking a halt at night
c) There was a stream nearby and wood enough to build a house
d) That was the only large tree that could shelter their large family
2) Which of the following best describes Morris?
a) He was a rich businessman
b) He bullied his wife
c) He paid his servants well
d) He was greedy and imitated Mike
3) What did Mike mean when he said “He is watching all this from above”?
a) He had spotted the thief and wanted to scare him
b) He was telling his wife to have faith in god
c) It was just a warning for his family members to stick together
d) He was begging the thief to help his family
4) Why did the thief return to the tree?
a) To wait for Mike to return
b) To set up a trap
c) To wait for Morris’s family
d) Not mentioned in the passage
5) How did the fellow villagers react to Mike getting rich overnight?
a) They were jealous of him
b) They were very excited
c) They followed his example
d) They envied him

2.7 LET US SUM UP

Descriptive essays are concerned with creating a picture through vivid language
used. Your job is to identify these details and infer the correct picture which
might originally have been interpreted by the writer. If you are able to correctly
assess this picture being created by the author, you will be able to analyze it
further, taking into account the various choices of the images being created through
this form of writing, as well as how and why those choices have been made.

It is important to pick up on all the information which is provided in the text.

Make a comprehensive list of ideas found in the text that pertain to the senses
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Reading Comprehension: and in doing so you will be able to absorb as many kinds of sensory information
Types of Texts
as possible, thus providing holistic understanding of the text.

By thinking aloud, setting goals before reading, understanding the structure,

creating a mental overview, understanding the connection between each paragraph
and thereafter each sentence, picking up information which holds significance,
and then summarizing your thoughts into comprehensive written form of the
answer, you will be attempting the reading of descriptive text correctly. Using
the skimming and scanning processes through the introduction, body and
conclusion of the text, you will be able to answer the questions with precision.

2.8 SUGGESTED READINGS

If you would like to learn more about Descriptive Texts, you may consult:

Beverly Derewianka, Exploring how texts work (New Hampshire: Heinemann

Educational Books, 1990)

Cleanth Brooks & Robert Penn Warren, Modern Rhetoric 3rd Edition (New York:
Harcourt, 1970)

2.9 ANSWERS
Check Your Progress 1
1) The above passage is a descriptive narration of a place called Gilead as
one can find detailed description of the roads, shops and the person’s
memory attached with it.

2) Gilead seems to be an extremely disciplined place with strict laws and a

lack of freedom for all. It seems to be divided into factions where especially
women would wear clothes which are color coded according to their faction.
When looking at the writer’s memories, it can also be judged that things
were not often the same and after a war had taken place, the country had
converted into the one we see in these passages.

3) Every year before Gilead, they would hold the Humphrey Bogart Festival
in a movie theatre where they would celebrate independent women through
their movies.

4) These lines are the writer’s memory about the same place where she now
walks. She says they are now free from all the harassment those women
would face in the earlier days because they were told they were spoiled
with the freedom of choices. Now as she walks there, she has no such
choice and there is no harassment by men either. In this case then, these
women were told to appreciate a scenario where no harassment was tolerated
and they had freedom from it all.

5) These are the wives of the low-class men who have not been yet divided
into a faction and hence have to resort to doing every kind of work and not
just one. They also hence did not have a dress code to adhere to.

40
Check Your Progress 2 Descriptive Text

1) The scale of damage that the author saw when he went to Nagasaki drained
his blood. He was not able to believe the massive destruction the war had
resulted in. He speaks of the damage caused by the use of Atomic Bombs.

2) The writer discusses how Germany was predicted to be conspiring and

making bombs in World War II and that they were trying to work the
technology in order to create Atomic Bombs. It was a terrible thought yet
the scientists of other countries like England and America including Albert
Einstein felt duty bound to their nation just like soldiers to create the same
technology lest Hitler wins the war due to the Atomic Bombs. As a result,
the other side also made the atomic bomb and they made it much quicker
than Germany. This was because Germany was unable to encourage out of
the box ideas having been boxed down by the strict regime and law.
3) It came to be used 9 years later of the Nagasaki bombings.
4) “The Nazis had made fundamental science a poor relation, and put it under
second rate party men with splendid titles. And more deeply, the Nazis
had sapped the pith and power of research, the quizzical eye and questioning
mind, the urge to find the facts for oneself. There were not enough
unconventional ideas in the German atomic projects, and when the younger
men did put up some, their leaders always knew better.”

5) It is to be understood that he was a pacifist. He was not too keen on making

the bomb yet after a point was duty bound as a national scientist to do so.
Check Your Progress 3
1) b) It was a convenient spot for taking a halt at night
2) d) He was greedy and imitated Mike
3) b) He was telling his wife to have faith in God
4) d) Not mentioned in the passage
5) b) They were very excited

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