Articles

I, who cannot see, find hundreds of things to interest me through mere touch. I feel the delicate symmetry of a leaf. I pass my hands lovingly about the smooth skin of a silver birch, or the rough, shaggy bark of a pine.

King Bruce of Scotland flung himself down
In a lonely mood to think;
‘Tis true he was monarch, and wore a crown,
But his heart was beginning to sink.

A big bright tear splashed down her nose. And another. A kingfisher swept down, its wings an arrow of blue in the sunlight. And a green lizard slithered down to the river’s edge to bask in the sun.

National War Memorial, New Delhi was established in February 2019. It is a national monument built by the Government of India in honour of our brave soldiers.

When you enter a tiny room in Moti Vavdi village, Bhavnagar, Gujarat, you will see lots of bright colours. There are many lovely things like cushions, bedcovers, pillows, and more, with beautiful designs.

Up in the air
See the kites fly,
Like coloured birds
In the wind-whipped sky.

Bharat has been known worldwide as a land of wise and heroic individuals. Its rich and diverse culture has attracted numerous travellers since ancient times. The people here live in unison, presenting to the world unity in diversity.

Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual practice that originated in ancient India. The word ‘Yoga’ comes from the Sanskrit root ‘yuj’, which means ‘to join’ or ‘to unite’. This symbolises the unity of mind and body; thought and action; harmony between human and nature. It is a holistic approach to health and well-being.

Evenings, we play ball next to the creek in our neighbour’s field.

Prabhat always wanted to win. His parents, teachers, and friends said that he did not know how to accept defeat. The fact was that he could not bear losing, not even at marbles.

I lived first in a little house,
And lived there very well,
I thought the world was small and round,
And made of pale, blue shell.

Amber returned from school and sat down in the shade of the neem tree in her courtyard. She felt that the tree was whispering to her. She looked at the tree and spoke to the tree.

The use of transport and communication depends upon our need to move things from place of their availability to the place of their use.

India is endowed with a rich variety of mineral resources due to its varied geological structure. Bulk of the valuable minerals are products of pre-palaezoic age and are mainly associated with metamorphic and igneous rocks of the peninsular India.

India accounts for about 2.45 per cent of the world’s surface area, 4 per cent of the world’s water resources and about 16 per cent of the world’s population. The total water available from precipitation in the country in a year is about 4,000 cubic km.

Some land is occupied by rivers, some may have trees and on some parts roads and buildings have been built. Different types of lands are suited to different uses. Human beings use land as a resource for production as well as residence and recreation.

There are many professionals who provide their services against payment of their fee. Thus, all types of services are special skills provided in exchange of payments. Health, education, law, governance and recreation etc. require professional skills.

All economic activities namely primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary, revolve around obtaining and utilising resources necessary for survival.

Human activities which generate income are known as economic activities. Economic activities are broadly grouped into primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary activities.

The people of a country are its real wealth. It is they, who are the actual resources and make use of the country’s other resources and decide its policies. Ultimately a country is known by its people.

The Last Lesson is set in the days of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) in which France was defeated by Prussia led by Bismarck. Prussia then consisted of what now are the nations of Germany, Poland and parts of Austria. In this story the French districts of Alsace and Lorraine have passed into Prussian hands.

The amount of carbon present in the earth’s crust and in the atmosphere is quite meagre. The earth’s crust has only 0.02% carbon in the form of minerals (like carbonates, hydrogen-carbonates, coal and petroleum) and the atmosphere has 0.03% of carbon dioxide. In spite of this small amount of carbon available in nature, the importance of carbon seems to be immense.

Elements can be classified as metals or non-metals on the basis of their properties.

All organisms such as plants, animals, microorganisms and human beings as well as the physical surroundings interact with each other and maintain a balance in nature.

An electric current-carrying wire behaves like a magnet. Electricity and magnetism are linked to each other.

Electricity has an important place in modern society. It is a controllable and convenient form of energy for a variety of uses in homes, schools, hospitals, industries and so on.

The human eye uses light and enables us to see objects around us. It has a lens in its structure.

An object reflects light that falls on it. This reflected light, when received by the eyes, enables to see things.

Reproductive processes give rise to new individuals that are similar, but subtly different. Some amount of variation is produced even during asexual reproduction. The number of successful variations are maximised by the process of sexual reproduction.

Organisms look similar because their body designs are similar. If body designs are to be similar, the blueprints for these designs should be similar. Thus, reproduction at its most basic level will involve making copies of the blueprints of body design.

In animals, control and coordination are provided by nervous and muscular tissues.

The biological process involved in the removal of these harmful metabolic wastes from the body is called excretion. Different organisms use varied strategies to do this.

Blood transports food, oxygen and waste materials in our bodies. Blood consists of a fluid medium called plasma in which the cells are suspended. Plasma transports food, carbon dioxide and nitrogenous wastes in dissolved form.

The food material taken in during the process of nutrition is used in cells to provide energy for various life processes. Diverse organisms do this in different ways - some use oxygen to break-down glucose completely into carbon dioxide and water, some use other pathways that do not involve oxygen.

When we walk or ride a bicycle, we are using up energy. Even when we are not doing any apparent activity, energy is needed to maintain a state of order in our body.

The maintenance functions of living organisms must go on even when they are not doing anything particular. Even when we are just sitting or even if we are just asleep, this maintenance job has to go on. The processes which together perform this maintenance job are life processes.

Acids are sour in taste and change the colour of blue litmus to red, whereas, bases are bitter and change the colour of the red litmus to blue.

Whenever a chemical change occurs, a chemical reaction has taken place.

Sound is a form of energy which produces a sensation of hearing in our ears.

Two conditions need to be satisfied for work to be done: (i) a force should act on an object (ii) the object must be displaced. If any one of the above conditions does not exist, work is not done.

A force is needed to change the speed or the direction of motion of an object. An object dropped from a height falls towards the earth. All the planets go around the Sun. The moon goes around the earth.

A force can be used to change the magnitude of velocity of an object (to make the object move faster or slower) or to change its direction of motion. A force can change the shape and size of objects.

Life begins when a single cell divides itself several times to give rise to a large number of cells. These cells gradually form the skin (protection), muscles (movement), bones (support), nerves (control and coordination), and all other organs.

Atoms and molecules are the fundamental building blocks of matter. The existence of different kinds of matter is due to different atoms constituting them.

Ancient Greek philosophers, Democritus and Leucippus suggested that if we go on dividing matter, a stage will come when particles obtained cannot be divided further. Democritus called these indivisible particles atoms.

All living organisms need food. Food supplies proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals. Both plants and animals are major sources of food. We obtain most of this food from agriculture and animal husbandry.

Mixtures are constituted by more than one kind of pure form of matter. Dissolved sodium chloride can be separated from water by the physical process of evaporation. However, sodium chloride is itself a pure substance and cannot be separated by physical process into its chemical constituents.

Matter is made up of small particles. The matter exists in three states - solid, liquid and gas. The forces of attraction between the particles are maximum in solids, intermediate in liquids and minimum in gases.

While there are billions of planets in the universe, Earth is the only one where life, as we know today, exists and thrives in all its forms.

The living beings are termed as the biotic components and non-living things as the abiotic components of a habitat.