Compulsory English Question Paper 2082 BP (Old Question)

The Voice of the Rain

And who art thou? said I to the soft-falling shower,

Which, strange to tell, gave me an answer, as here translated:

I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain,

Eternal I rise impalpable out of the land and the bottomless sea,

Upward to heaven, whence, vaguely form'd, altogether changed, and

yet the same,

I descend to lave the droughts, atomies, dust-layers of the globe,

And all that in them without me were seeds only, latent, unborn;

And forever, by day and night, I give back life to my own origin,

and make pure and beautify it;

(For song, issuing from its birth-place, after fulfilment, wandering,

Reck'd or unreck'd, duly with love returns.)

— Walt Whitman

Blessed nature! You gave birth to me to endure the cruel behaviour of human beings and you awoke the meaning of being me. When I was restless with suffering, you became my mother and wiped the tears that seeped from my eyes. The mother who bore me also gave birth to me, even though it was to suffer pain, she fostered me for nine or ten months in her womb and gave birth to me. In this neither she nor I was at fault. It was the fault of fate. Is the definition of disability merely to be born with bodily incapacity? If so, why do they not consider Homer incomplete? Why did the world never consider the Nikolai Otrovskys, the Helen Kellers incomplete? These people were weak in body, just like me. But they wrote history before they departed, they left us a different perspective, they set down the meaning of being human before they passed away.

But me? I was born in a world very different from theirs, born in a different geography. For this reason, I lived a life that was so unequal and low grade that may be only an animal could have lived such a life before. When I achieved awareness, the shoots of consciousness had begun to sprout in me, I think. But even achieving awareness became like a curse. I did not have a voice with which to speak, nor any strength in my legs to walk. Nor was there strength in my hands that I could fill a basket with godavari, makhmali and sunakhari flowers. No, I had nothing of this at all. I was a helpless girl bereft of all these things, whose mind was filled with a longing to run on the hills, but whose feet did not have the strength to support her body. I longed to walk with others, but I had no voice! Because these desires were ones that would never be fulfilled, they fell upon me, wounded.

Hi Jan,

So nice to hear from you! How are you doing?

It would be great to meet and celebrate with our friends from college. How about meeting in London sometime next month? We could meet in a pub, have dinner, and then go to a club, like in the old days?

I think that Saturday 20 th would work best for everyone: I know that Ruth is on holiday next weekend, and I will be away the following one (on a business trip to Japan, I will tell you more about it when we meet!). If I remember well, you are busy the weekend of the 27 th , as you are attending your sister-in-law's wedding, aren't you? Taking all that into account, Saturday 20 th looks like the best option. We would have to ask Sean, Mary and Alex if they are available, though.

If you want, I could send an email to everyone, to check that we are all free on Saturday 20 th , and suggest that we meet in London. I'll tell them about my idea of going to a pub and then to club, but maybe someone will come up with a better suggestion (Mary always has great ideas!). Then we can talk about hotel bookings, as most of us will have to stay the night, I guess.

I am really looking forward to it, thanks a lot for suggesting it!

See you soon,

Camille

The deadliest virus in modern history, perhaps of all time, was the 1918 Spanish flu. It killed about 20 to 50 million people worldwide, perhaps more. The total death toll is unknown because medical records were not kept in many areas.

The pandemic hit during the World War I and devastated military troops. In the United States, for instance, more servicemen were killed from the flu than from the war itself. The Spanish flu was fatal to a higher proportion of young adults than most flu viruses.

The pandemic started mildly, in the spring of 1918, but was followed by a much more severe wave in the fall of 1918. The war likely contributed to the devastating mortality numbers, as large outbreaks occurred in military forces living in close quarters. Poor nutrition and the unsanitary conditions of war camps had an effect.

A third wave occurred in the winter and spring of 1919, and a fourth, smaller wave occurred in a few areas in spring 1920. Initial symptoms of the flu were typical: sore throat, headache, and fever. The flu often progressed rapidly to cause severe pneumonia and sometimes hemorrhage in the lungs and mucus membranes. A characteristic feature of severe cases of the Spanish Flu was heliotrope cyanosis, where the patient's face turned blue from lack of oxygen in the cells. Death usually followed within hours or days. Modern medicine such as vaccines, antivirals, and antibiotics for secondary infections were not available at that time, so medical personnel couldn't do much more than try to relieve symptoms.

The flu ended when it had infected enough people that those who were susceptible had either died or developed immunity.