World Photography Day

To mark the occasion of World Photography day (19th August), the students of class V A and VI A of CBSEi presented photographs clicked and captioned by them on the theme of nature. The following students participated in the activity.

Class V-A

Aaradhaya

Delisha

Bhavik

Sophie

Prakhar

Yugal

Raghav

Kashvi

Mehul

Riddhi

Arjun

Siddhi

Class VI A

Arpita

Yash

Pranav

Nandini

Kashish

The following students were highly appreciated for their works by Mrs. Bindu Popli, PGT Art of our school. 

Arjun V A

Arpita VI A
Sophie V A
Kashvi V A

Subject verb agreement

Basic Rule. A singular subject (she, Bill, car) takes a singular verb (is, goes, shines), whereas a plural subject takes a plural verb.

Example: The list of items is/are on the desk.
If you know that list is the subject, then you will choose is for the verb.

Rule 1. A subject will come before a phrase beginning with of. This is a key rule for understanding subjects. The word of is the culprit in many, perhaps most, subject-verb mistakes.

Hasty writers, speakers, readers, and listeners might miss the all-too-common mistake in the following sentence:

Incorrect: A bouquet of yellow roses lend color and fragrance to the room.

Correct: A bouquet of yellow roses lends . . . (bouquet lends, not roses lend)

Rule 2. Two singular subjects connected by or, either/or, or neither/nor require a singular verb.

Examples:
My aunt or my uncle is arriving by train today.
Neither Juan nor Carmen is available.
Either Kiana or Casey is helping today with stage decorations.

Rule 3. The verb in an or, either/or, or neither/nor sentence agrees with the noun or pronoun closest to it.

Examples:
Neither the plates nor the serving bowl goes on that shelf.
Neither the serving bowl nor the plates go on that shelf.

This rule can lead to bumps in the road. For example, if I is one of two (or more) subjects, it could lead to this odd sentence:

Awkward: Neither she, my friends, nor I am going to the festival.

If possible, it's best to reword such grammatically correct but awkward sentences.

Better:
Neither she, I, nor my friends are going to the festival.
OR
She, my friends, and I are not going to the festival.

Rule 4. As a general rule, use a plural verb with two or more subjects when they are connected by and.

Example: A car and a bike are my means of transportation.

But note these exceptions:

Exceptions:
Breaking and entering is against the law.
The BED AND BREAKFAST was charming.

In those sentences, breaking and entering and BED AND BREAKFAST are compound nouns.

Rule 5. Sometimes the subject is separated from the verb by such words as along with, as well as, besides, not, etc. These words and phrases are not part of the subject. Ignore them and use a singular verb when the subject is singular.

Examples:
The politician, along with the newsmen, is expected shortly.
Excitement, as well as nervousness, is the cause of her shaking.

Rule 6. With words that indicate portions—a lot, a majority, some, all, etc.—Rule 1 given earlier is reversed, and we are guided by the noun after of. If the noun after of is singular, use a singular verb. If it is plural, use a plural verb.

Examples:
A lot of the pie has disappeared.
A lot of the pies have disappeared.
A third of the city is unemployed.
A third of the people are unemployed.
All of the pie is gone.
All of the pies are gone.
Some of the pie is missing.
Some of the pies are missing.

NOTE

In recent years, the SAT testing service has considered none to be strictly singular. However, according to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage: "Clearly none has been both singular and plural since Old English and still is. The notion that it is singular only is a myth of unknown origin that appears to have arisen in the 19th century. If in context it seems like a singular to you, use a singular verb; if it seems like a plural, use a plural verb. Both are acceptable beyond serious criticism." When none is clearly intended to mean "not one," it is followed by a singular verb.

Rule 7. In sentences beginning with here or there, the true subject follows the verb.

Examples:
There are four hurdles to jump.
There is a high hurdle to jump.
Here are the keys.

NOTE:

The word there's, a contraction of there is, leads to bad habits in informal sentences like There's a lot of people here today, because it's easier to say "there's" than "there are." Take care never to use there's with a plural subject.

Rule 8. Use a singular verb with distances, periods of time, sums of MONEY, etc., when considered as a unit.

Examples:
Three miles is too far to walk.
Five years is the maximum sentence for that offense.
Ten dollars is a high price to pay.
BUT
Ten dollars (i.e., dollar bills) were scattered on the floor.

Rule 9. Some collective nouns, such as family, couple, staff, audience, etc., may take either a singular or a plural verb, depending on their use in the sentence.

Examples:
The staff is in a meeting.
Staff is acting as a unit.
The couple disagree about disciplining their child.
The couple refers to two people who are acting as individuals.

NOTE

Anyone who uses a plural verb with a collective noun must take care to be accurate—and also consistent. It must not be done carelessly. The following is the sort of flawed sentence one sees and hears a lot these days:

The staff is deciding how they want to vote.
Careful speakers and writers would avoid assigning the singular is and the plural they to staff in the same sentence.

Consistent: The staff are deciding how they want to vote.

Rewriting such sentences is recommended whenever possible. The preceding sentence would read even better as:

The staff members are deciding how they want to vote.

here are some exercises for you

http://www.grammarbook.com/interactive_quizzes_exercises.asp
http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar_quiz/subject_verb_agreement_1.asp
http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar_quiz/subject_verb_agreement_2.asp

Enjoy i hope you learned something new

Book Review

1) Start with a couple of sentences describing what the book is about

But without giving any spoilers or revealing plot twists. As a general rule, try to avoid writing in detail about anything that happens from about the middle of the book onwards. If the book is part of a series, it can be useful to mention this, and whether you think you'd need to have read other books in the series to enjoy this one.

2) Discuss what you particularly liked about the book

 Focus on your thoughts and feelings about the story and the way it was told. You could try answering a couple of the following questions:

• Who was your favourite character, and why?
• Did the characters feel real to you?
• Did the story keep you guessing?
• What was your favourite part of the book, and why?
• Were certain types of scene written particularly well - for example sad scenes, tense scenes, mysterious ones…?
• Did the book make you laugh or cry?
• Did the story grip you and keep you turning the pages?

3) Mention anything you disliked about the book

Talk about why you think it didn't work for you. For example:

• Did you wish the ending hadn't been a cliffhanger because you found it frustrating?
• Did you find it difficult to care about a main character, and could you work out why?
• Was the story too scary for your liking, or focused on a theme you didn't find interesting?

4) Round up your review

Summarise some of your thoughts on the book by suggesting the type of reader you'd recommend the book to. For example: younger readers, older readers, fans of relationship drama/mystery stories/comedy. Are there any books or series you would compare it to?

5) You can give the book a rating, for example a mark out of five or ten, if you like

The CBSEi family

Here are the pictures of class V A of CBSEi and their teachers

Explore the space

Explore the space and the mysteries of universe with planetarium

education

Enroll your child to start his journey to the beyond 

Biographies

The 20 best biographies and autobiographies of all time

Fascinating lives captured impeccably: these are the best biographies and autobiographies of all time

Lives of the Caesars

Suetonius (c121AD)

Suetonius was private secretary to the emperor Hadrian and although this group biography of the  lives of the 12 Caesars might need an occasional pinch of strict historical salt, it is full of decadence and colourful detail it.

Martin Amis (2000)

Easily Martin Amis’s best book, in which he leaves behind the struggle for effect, stops trying to say anything serious, and in doing so creates something effective and serious about his early life, his relations with his father, the death of his cousin, his various artistic rivalries, and, of course, those teeth.

A Moveable Feast

Ernest Hemingway (posthumously 1964)

 

Published three years after his death, this is part road trip, part love letter to Paris, part study of his friendship with characters such as F Scott Fitzgerald, and wholly wonderful.

The Life of Samuel Johnson

James Boswell (1791)

Less a biography and more an act of homage, this volume not only provides a close-up of the great lexicographer, in all his terrific wit and travels, it also brings to life an entire era. Often hugely funny – and Boswell omits no details.

Eminent Victorians

Lytton Strachey (1918)

Written throughout the Great War – and some think thematically influenced by this cataclysm – this pioneering and witty group biography of major Victorians was the first to dissolve the popular image of that era’s morality and thought.

Goodbye to All That

Robert Graves (1929)

Although Graves recounts the days of his childhood and the early years of his marriage, it is his chronicle of the First World War and his unflinching depiction of life in the trenches – the deadening banality of that horror – that gives this book its enduring force. His comrade Siegfried Sassoon was not happy about some of the descriptions.

The Moon's a Balloon

David Niven (1972)

These only semi-credible memoirs come from a seemingly happier, simpler time, and deal with the first half of the actor’s life as he made his way from Sandhurst to Hollywood. Packed with great stories, they are irresistibly charming.

The Rings of Saturn

W G Sebald (1995)

Ostensibly a memoir of Sebald’s walking tour around Suffolk, this extraordinary and profoundly haunting work is also about the echoes in landscape, the long shadows of history and the inescapability of the past – from sea-submerged villages to air force bases from which bombers flew in the war.

The Diaries of Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys (1660-69)

Probably as close as we can get to a time machine, Pepys famously witnesses the Great Fire of London; but more gripping throughout these hypnotically copious journals is the texture of life and love in 17th-century London

De Profundis

Oscar Wilde (1897)

The Latin title translates as “from the depths”, and this 50,000-word letter addressed to Lord Alfred Douglas was written while Wilde was in jail. It examines their time together and details Wilde’s spiritual development during his incarceration.

Alan Clark: Diaries (Vol I)

Alan Clark (1993)

Far exceeding anything he might ever have achieved in office, the late Tory MP’s diaries remain a classic of outspoken invective, political plotting, vividly unpleasant character portraits and a relish-filled panorama of the snakepit that is Parliament.

The Autobiography of Alice B Tokias

Gertrude Stein (1933)

About as modernist as one can get, this is actually art collector Gertrude Stein’s biography, written in the voice of her lover, Alice B Toklas. Stein was close friends with Picasso – he painted her in the manner of a stone idol – and was right at the centre of the Parisian art and literary vortex.

Seven Pillars of Wisdom

T E Lawrence (1922)

An account of Lawrence’s experiences during the Arab Revolt of 1917 when he fought the Ottomans with Emir Faisal, capturing Aqaba and winning the Battle of Tafileh. The romanticism of the imagery captured in photographs – Lawrence in full Bedouin dress out in the desert – made him a sensation back in Britain.

Testament of Youth

Vera Brittain (1933)

In the Great War, Brittain was a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse. She lost her fiancé on the Western Front, then her brother and then her two closest male friends. She vowed to write their stories, and about her war experiences, as a form of a memorial.

My Family and Other Animals

Gerald Durrell (1956)

This account of naturalist Durrell’s childhood years in Corfu is an unforgettable blend of wonderful human comedy – the foibles of older relatives and family associates as seen through a child’s eyes – plus those same eyes looking in wonder at the abundance and variety of wildlife in the world around.

Homage to Catalonia

George Orwell (1938)

A memoir of a searingly intense time: Orwell’s months in Spain during the Civil War, when he fought the fascists alongside mountain peasants. Among many unforgettable images – the terror in Barcelona, the moment he was shot in the neck – was the pervasiveness of the lice, and their fondness for trousers.

The Diary of a Young Girl

Anne Frank (1947)

The story is so well rehearsed and yet the details still astound; not merely the fear and the claustrophobia, but the different shades of human behaviour and endurance. The nightmarish circumstances of her deportation and death in Bergen-Belsen mean that no matter how familiar her story may feel, no one should ever overlook it.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Maya Angelou (1969)

The poet’s hugely influential biography (this was the first volume, dwelling on her early years) was on the US bestseller lists for two years. The story of her childhood is harrowing – the racism of the deep south but it is also to do with the freedom that literacy and poetry brings.

Wild Swans

Jung Chang (1991)

Following the lives of three generations of the Chang family through the turmoil of 20th-century China, this biography is a personal account that casts incandescent light on the lives and experiences of ordinary Chinese people in extraordinary and often evil times.

Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects

Giorgio Vasari (1550)

The biographical work that laid the foundations for Renaissance art history,Vasari made the reputations of many of the “Old Masters” but he also peppers his “lives” with vivid detail – including allegations that Andrea del Castagno murdered Domenico Veneziano, a claim that is still controversial today.

Here are some more to read about

Walden Henry -David Thoreau (1854)

The Life of Charlotte Brontë- Elizabeth Gaskell (1857)

Out of Africa-Karen Blixen (1937)

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men-James Agee and Walker Evans (1941)

Churchill: A life-Martin Gilbert (1969)

The Double Helix-James Watson (1968)

The Year of Magical Thinking-Joan Didion (2005)

Peter the Great: His Life and World-Robert K Massie (1981)

Maus-Art Spiegelman (1991)

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius-Dave Eggers (2000)

Steve Jobs-Walter Isaacson (2011)

Persepolis-Marjane Satrapi (2000)

Anthony Blunt: His Lives-Miranda Carter (2001)

Giving up the Ghost-Hilary Mantel (2003)

The Hare with the Amber Eyes-Edmund de Waal (2010)

Here is brief description for you on how to write  Biographies

http://sanjukta.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Biographical-Sketch.pdf

Ignited Pagents

Dear parent Each day we aspire, explore, innovate and excel and on the day of the exhibition ' Ignited Pageant' (1stAug, 2015), we tried to justfy it to the fullest. Students from all the classes ,  I to VI Cbse i had put up  experiments based  on 'Everyday Science'. It is with great delight and exuberance, we inform that out of 16 rooms ranging from IT, Hindi, English, Science,Maths, Commerce , the Cbse i Room has been ranked as the best room sharing the space with the exhibits on Hindi. A complete list of result has been uploaded. We express our gratitude and great regard for your whole hearted participation and certainly look forward to the same zeal , enthusiasm and involvement for all our future endeavours. Thanking you! Regards