Hobby Turns into a Successful Career | Prose Unit 2 | 8th English Listening

Hobby Turns into a Successful Career

8th English | Unit 2: Prose | Listening Comprehension

Listening Passage: Gardening is an art

Gardening is a delightful pastime. One can grow vegetables, fruits and flowers in one’s own garden. If you do not have open spaces near your home for maintaining a garden you can set up a garden on your roof! All you need are a few old buckets or tubs, some mud and seeds to plant.

Did you know? The horticulture society of Tamil Nadu gives soil bags with seeds to promote gardening in our houses! Stamp collection is nothing but collecting stamps from envelops that come by mail. This hobby is known as philately. We learn about different leaders, important days on seeing the stamps! We can also exchange rare stamps with our friends.

Many people are fascinated to collect coins from different countries. Sometime relatives who visit or work in other countries bring and give the coins of the foreign country to us! This hobby is known as numismatics. Some others take interest to collect seashells. It is said that there are more than 1,00,000 shell species found in the sea shores. The rarest, the most valuable, and the most beautiful shells are found in the Indo- Pacific, Caribbean, and Mediterranean regions.

Cooking is one of the oldest hobbies. It is now even considered a life-skill to know how to cook. We all should try and learn to cook! Painting can help unleash your creative side. Painting allows you to tap into the thoughts, desires, and feelings in your head and translate them into something beautiful.

Painting relaxes our mind and helps focus better, so go ahead and pick up a paintbrush. Teaching is a fun and useful hobby. Teaching helps us understand what we have learned better. It also helps us to help other children. If we are good at teaching then, one day we can even become a good teacher! Web-browsing helps us collect information about the latest medical invention, the new technology for phones and news about our society and country. It is an amazing hobby where we can learn about things that are thousands of kilometres away with just a few clicks! We can also share all the wonderful information with our friends.

Questions on Passage

1. What is Philately?

Stamp collecting hobby is known as philately.

2. What is Numismatics?

The hobby of collecting coins from different countries is known as numismatics.

3. Do you know where the rarest and the most beautiful shells are found?

The rarest and the most beautiful shells are found in the Indo-Pacific, Caribbean and Mediterranean regions.

4. Painting can help unleash your creative side. How?

Painting allows you to tap into the thoughts, desires and feelings in your head and translate them into something beautiful. It relaxes our mind and helps us to focus better.

5. What is your friend’s hobby? How does it differ from yours? Discuss and write

My friend’s hobby is web-browsing. It is different from my hobby of gardening. His hobby is an amazing hobby. We can learn about things that are thousands of kilometres away with just a few clicks. We can also share all the wonderful information with our friends.

Hobby Turns into a Successful Career: Section II | 8th English Unit 2 Prose

Hobby Turns into a Successful Career: Section II

Chapter: 8th English : Unit 2 : Prose : Hobby Turns into a Successful Career

Section –II

Reading

Take turns and read this section aloud.

Ajay Kumar Garg, is a very talented young artist. He lives in Jaipur, India. His childhood was going on well, until he suffered an injury at the age of three. Ajay was treated, but that treatment left him permanently deaf. His parents tried several hospitals to cure his impairment, but it didn't cure him. His father, once bought him a paint set to play. Ajay started to paint happily. He painted on the walls, floors etc. He looked happy, while using the paint set that was gifted to him. Soon, Ajay’s father realised that Ajay was talented in painting. When Ajay was five years old, a court artist of Dholpur (Rajasthan), Shri Sua Lal saw his painting and was very impressed with his work. He then took Ajay and started training him.

After completing his education, Ajay tried tailoring but, that didn’t make him happy so he went back to painting. He became an apprentice of Asha Devi. She taught Ajay the old and dying technique of 'Traditional Indian Miniature Painting'. He mastered the technique of preparing colors and brushes and gained knowledge of the paintings. Soon he became an accomplished artist in the miniature style. He uses a magnifying glass and a single- haired brush for miniature paintings that depict Indian culture. Ajay is gifted in the practice of creating images on a grain of rice.

Ajay exhibited his work and sold 144 out of the 150 paintings displayed. He continued to show his work throughout India, the United States and the United Kingdom. In 2004, Ajay was awarded a national award of accomplishment from the Indian President, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

Apart from painting, Ajay is also very actively involved in the welfare of people with hearing impairment in India and has been the executive member of the 'Deaf & Dumb Association' in Rajasthan. He also gives free training to hearing impaired children in Jaipur as well as children in an orphanage in Gandhi Nagar, Jaipur. One of Ajay’s current goals is to revitalise the dying art of traditional miniature Indian paintings.

Ajay’s life shows us that we can turn our hobby or passion into a successful career, if we are ready to learn and develop our skills.

Glossary

impairment (n)

– disability

miniature (adj)

– very small of its kind

accomplished (adj)

– fulfiled

magnifying (adj)

– enhanceing

exhibited (v)

– show or reveal

revitalise (v)

– re-energise

Hobby Turns into a Successful Career | Section I Q&A | 8th English Unit 2 Prose

Hobby Turns into a Successful Career

8th English | Unit 2: Prose | Section I: Questions & Answers

Read and Understand

A. Say true or false.

1. Mani's hobby is playing cricket.

[Answer: False]

2. Hobbies are unique to people.

[Answer: True]

3. People have hobbies only to pass time.

[Answer: False]

B. Choose the correct answer.

1. Mani imagined a world with ______.

• a) music and musicians
• b) building and sculptures
• c) magic and magicians

[Answer: (c) magic and magicians]

2. When Mani started writing things, he was unable to ______.

• a) describe them accurately
• b) describe them fluently
• c) describe them imaginatively

[Answer: (a) describe them accurately]

3. Mani feels writing is like __________.

• a) painting the voice
• b) engraving the voice
• c) designing the voice

[Answer: (a) painting the voice]

End of Section I Questions and Answers.

Hobby Turns into a Successful Career: Section I | 8th English Unit 2 Prose

Hobby Turns into a Successful Career: Section I

8th English : Unit 2 : Prose : Hobby Turns into a Successful Career

Section –I: Reading

Listen to the teacher and read this section.

Once there was a boy named Mani. He was studying at the school in his village. He found it difficult to read and write. His grandfather noticed it and helped him by reading bedtime stories. Gradually, he started reading on his own. Now, he not only enjoyed reading but also has started writing his own stories. Let us read an essay written by Mani.

Hobbies are the activities that we do in our spare time. Hobbies are unique to people. Some like gardening, a few like photography, many have book reading as their hobby. While other hobbies are swimming, collecting stamps, playing video games, and many more.

People have hobbies not only to pass their free time but also to do something useful. Hobbies help people learn new things, relax after a day of tiring work and to energise their body and mind. Same is the case with me. I love writing, so it is my hobby.

“Whatever you like to do, make it a hobby.”

-Warren Buffet

Writing is a unique hobby because most people don't want to exhaust themselves in their spare time. Many feel that writing is tough, but I do not think so. I feel writing is like painting our voice. When I get free time, I pick a pen and a notebook and start painting my ideas in words. I write stories, poems and sometimes, about my feelings. My mind relaxes when I pour my thoughts as words. So, writing energises me.

When I write things, my imagination is at its best. I imagine a world with magic and magicians, where I can fly, and birds can talk. Writing helps me completely immerse myself into that world! Sometimes, I sit with small children and entertain them with these stories of mine. The happiness of their faces makes me to write more and better.

Although writing is just a hobby for me, yet it is very beneficial. It opens my mind to think beyond the little things with a broader mind. It makes me more passionate about my life. It makes me learn new things and enjoy every moment of my life.

“Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.”

-Mark Twain

My hobby helped me in school too. When I started writing things, I was unable to describe them accurately. With time, my experiences helped me think of new ideas and this made me a good writer.

Now, I look out for things, which I was not able to see before. Hence, I can describe things better in my stories. I feel no problem with writing English essays or stories as it is my hobby. To become a better writer, I spend time on learning how to write in different forms like fiction and non-fiction. It is important to always learn and improve our hobbies. Who knows? One day I could be a writer like R.K. Narayan!

DO YOU KNOW:

The former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Mr C.N. Annadurai, had the hobbies of reading and writing. He wrote many books, stories, plays, thought-provoking articles and cine dialogues which have contributed to reformation of society as we know it today!

Glossary

• unique (adj) – distinctive / uncommon
• exhaust (v) – tire out
• energises (v) – give energy
• passionate (adj) – intense/ heartfelt
• accurately (adv) – exactly
• fiction (n) – imaginative writing
• spare (adj) – extra

Hobby Turns into a Successful Career: Warm Up Exercise for 8th English Unit 2 Prose

Hobby Turns into a Successful Career

Unit 2: Prose - 8th English

Warm up

Look at the pictures. Discuss in pairs and share your answers with your friends.

1. What is the girl doing?

Painting

2. What is the man doing?

Cooking.

3. Will you like doing it? Why?

Yes. I like cooking. I can prepare for my taste and so i like.

4. Do you like gardening? Why?

Yes. It is a good hobby done during our spare time.

5. What are the benefits of listening to music?

Cycling is mainly an aerobic activity. Our heart, blood vessels and lungs all get a workout. Regular cycling increases the strength of our muscles and bones. It keeps you fit always.