Teach Yourself

Author: Mahmood Ahmad

  • 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.…

    Written by

    Mahmood Ahmad

  • 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…

    Written by

    Mahmood Ahmad

  • 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…

    Written by

    Mahmood Ahmad

  • Lesson 4: End of term

    By David Daiches Q. What was the Daiches’ attitude towards the weekend as a schoolboy? Why did he long for it? A. As a schoolboy, Daiches felt happy at the arrival of the weekend. He longed for it for two solid holidays with no classes and freedom from going to school for the whole day.…

    Written by

    Mahmood Ahmad

  • Lesson 2: Using the scientific method

    By Darrel Barnard & Lon Edwards Q. How has the scientific method helped us in our fight against disease? A. The scientific method was crucial in fighting disease. It solved problems like understanding the causes of diseases and ways to prevent them. Diseases like smallpox, measles, whooping cough, scarlet fever, diphtheria, yellow fever, malaria, typhus,…

    Written by

    Mahmood Ahmad

  • Lesson 1: The dying sun

    By Sir James Jeans Q. How is it that a star seldom finds another star near it? A. A star mostly makes its voyage in total loneliness. The average distance between stars is over a million miles. For these reasons, a star rarely finds another one near it and collides with it. Q. What happened…

    Written by

    Mahmood Ahmad

  • Story writing

    Table of contents Elements of a story Tips for story writing in an exam 1. A clever crow 2. The dog and his reflection 3. The hungry fox and grapes 4. The hungry fox and food 5. A spider and a fly 6. The hare and the tortoise 7. A foolish stag 8. The lion…

    Written by

    Mahmood Ahmad

  • Use of ‘get’

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    You get anything when someone gives it to you, you obtain it by your own efforts, someone brings it to you or you buy it. Why not use get instead of take, obtain, bring or buy? It sounds nicer, let’s try:I got a gift from her this morning. (Instead of She gave me a gift…

    Written by

    Mahmood Ahmad

  • Changing the active voice to the passive voice

    Table of contentsUnderstanding verbsRecognizing the agent and the patientTransitive and intransitive verbsRecognizing the subject and the objectChanging active sentences to passive sentencesChange 1: Changing the form of the verbChange 2: Switching the agent and the patientChange 3: Adding ‘by’Change 4: Adding ‘be’Adding ‘be’ to simple sentencesAdding ‘be’ to progressive sentencesAdding ‘be’ to sentences in perfect…

    Written by

    Mahmood Ahmad

  • The future perfect progressive tense

    امید ہے کہ perfect progressive tenses کی خصوصیات آپ کو اچھی طرح یاد ہوں گی اور سمجھ میں آ گئی ہوں گی۔ اگر ضرورت ہو تو متعلقہ صفحے سے انہیں دوبارہ پڑھیں۔ اس کے ساتھ ساتھ ہمارے خیال میں point/duration of time کا تصور اور ان کے اظہار کے لیے since/for کا استعمال بھی اب تک آپ کو…

    Written by

    Mahmood Ahmad