Author: Mahmood Ahmad

  • Lesson 13: Sir Alexander Fleming

    Alexander Fleming is best known for his discovery of penicillin. Fleming was born on a farm near Darvel, in Ayrshire, on August 6, 1881. His father died when he was seven years old. At ten, he went to Darvel School from the village school and stayed there till he was twelve. At fourteen, he went…

  • Lesson 12: Hitch-Hiking Across the Sahara

    When Christopher was a child, every time he was naughty, his foster mother threatened to send him to Timbuktu. Instead of alarming him, the idea aroused in him a keen desire to see distant places.

  • Lesson 11: First Year at Harrow

    Sir Winston S. Churchill Q. The writer says that the examiners ask questions which students cannot answer and not those that they can answer. Is the complaint just? A. The complaint is fairly just. The examiners try to expose the ignorance of students rather than knowing their knowledge. Q. What sort of questions are asked…

  • Lesson 10: The Jewel of the World

    Philip K. Hitti Q. Give an account of the early career of Abd-al-Rahman I, his dramatic escape and his adventures in Africa. A. Abd-al-Rahman I belonged to the Umayyad family. When the Abbasids came to power, he and his younger brother escaped to the Euphrates River. The two dashed into the river. The younger brother…

  • Lesson 9: Hunger and Population Explosion

    Anna McKenzie Q. What does hunger mean on a large scale as viewed by the author?A. Hunger does not mean missing one meal or even meals for a whole day only. It also means a situation in which you are always wondering where the next meal is coming from or even if there will be…

  • Lesson 8: China’s Way to Progress

    Galeazzo Santini Q. Why has the world changed its attitude towards China? A. Because of the significant progress China has made, the world has to change its attitude towards it. Q. Discuss the Chinese agricultural system.  A. Chinese agriculture runs through the system of communes with subdivisions into production brigades and teams. Still, the greater…

  • Lesson 7: My financial career

    Stephen Leacock Q. What light do the following expressions throw on Leacock’s state of mind when he entered the bank: ‘looked timidly round,’ ‘shambled in’? A. These expressions imply that the writer was hesitating and behaved in a silly manner in confusion. Q. Why did the manager come to think that Leacock had an awful…

  • Lesson 6: The man who was a hospital

    On reading various symptoms from a liver pill circular, Jerome found that his liver was out of order. He fancied suffering from hay fever. While reading its premonitory symptoms, he learned that he had fairly got it. He started reading the book indolently and found that he had also been suffering from typhoid fever, St.…

  • Lesson 3: Why boys fail in college

    By Herbert E. Hawkes Q. According to the author there are some boys who fail because they do not try. Who are they? Can we help them? A. Some boys spend much time in the presence of an open book but their attention is diverted all the time to other things. Such students are those…

  • Lesson 5: On destroying books

    By J. C. Squire Q. What sort of books were presented by the British public to soldiers? A. Most of the books presented by the public to the troops were quite ordinary and suitable. However, there were also odd things like magazines twenty years old, guides to the Lake District, and back numbers of Whitaker’s…