Page 147 - English Grammar - 7

My Hobby

Hobbies are activities that a person takes up out of interest. These could be anything done
in your free time―like painting and embroidering or collecting things like coins, shells,
stamps, etc. They are a matter of choice not something that one is forced to do.
Even as a crawling baby, I had a hobby. My mother says I would try to catch the ants
scurrying across the floor. Naturally, I would cry when I could not catch them. As I grew
up, I learnt to pick them up gently with a postcard and place them in a box where I could
observe them. Every morning, I got up to see the box empty. However, for quite sometime
their disappearance puzzled me.
This childhood passion for insects grew into a serious interest, and soon I was looking for,
observing and studying the insects that I could lay my hands on. I was lucky that my father
was in the railways, and we lived in a huge bungalow in the outskirts of the city. Whenever
I could escape the regimentation of studies and daily routine, I escaped into my world of
insects.

I am not ashamed to say that I often made up conversations between various insects; battles
between red and black ants; a tiny spider spinning a deathtrap around a lizard that was
about to swallow it, and many more such impossible exchanges.
Today, not only does my hobby give me a break from routine monotony, but it also teaches
me a lot through insect-behaviour patterns. I have learnt not only about the local insects,
but also about many others found in different regions. I have even decided that I shall make
a career of my interest and grow up to be a scientist who studies insects―an entomologist.

Write essays on the following topics in your notebook.
1. A person who’s had an influence on you and describe that influence.

2. A game that meant a lot to you in your childhood.
3. Corruption in India.

4. Value of Newspapers.

Letter Writing

Letter writing is an art, and a good letter is always a pleasure to read. To write to your friends
or family members, we write informal letters and for official purposes, we write formal
letters. No matter what type of letter we write, all of them have the following features.

Writer’s contact information
O
Date
O
In case of formal letters: Writing Skills
O
• the recipient’s designation and contact information
• subject : the matter about which you are writing

Salutation: this depends upon the type of the letter that is being written.
O
Body of letter: This is where you write the main content.
O
Closing or subscription: This is the polite way of ending your letter, written at the
O
bottom left-hand corner.

Your signature
O
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