I am back with some more inspirations from Greek and Roman Mythology.This time i have got a phrase that i assume many of us have heard befoer...it's called "The Gordian Knot" which means a very difficult or impossible task or problem.Legend has it that King Gordius tied a very complicated knot and said whoever undid it would become the ruler of Asia.Alexander the great cut though the knot and the rest is history.
Well as always I could not help but connect it to the Swayamwara ceremony of Sita in which Rama broke the Bow which no one else could and went on to marry the princess.
Somehow all this proves that somewhere the mythology from different parts of the world confluences to a particular point.
Well let's get more inspired and improve our vocabulary!
Vocabulary
OOPS I DID IT AGAIN
Hi guys I am back again with your regular dose of vocabulary vitamins. Well this time we will be dealing with a little different genre of words "common confusables". In fact CAT-2007 laid particular emphasis on these words and as usual life became a little complicated. Like they say "better be safe than sorry" we will be prepared well in advance this time. Here is a list of word pairs ,often confused.
1. (a)Complaisance(n): Inclination to comply willingly with the wishes of others ;amiability.
(b) complacence(n):calm or secure satisfaction with oneself.
2(a) peruse(v): read carefully
(b) pursue(v): follow someone or something diligently.
3(a) Apathy(n): lacking emotions or feelings.
(b) Antipathy(n): Dislike.
4(a) Obtuse(adj): someone who is dull or slow.
(b) Abstruse(adj): something which is diffcult to understand.
5(a) wretch(n): miserable, unfortunate, unhappy person.
(b) Retch(v): react as if you are vomiting.
Well I will definitely keep you guys posted with more number of words, so keep watching this space to avoid confusions and embarassing mistakes
Why does the Divisibility Rule of 11 work?
I am sure you all know the Divisibility Rule of 11. Let me put it down here, just in case you forgot:
If you have a 10-digit number like abcdefghij (or 8346834623, for instance), then you add the alternate digits. So, you get (a+c+e+g+i) and (b+d+f+h+j) as two different sums. In our example number, these sums would be 8+4+8+4+2=26, and 3+6+3+6+3=21. Next, you find out the difference of the two sums, that is, 26-21=5.
If this difference is divisible by 11, or is zero, the complete number is divisible by 11 too.
Now, this was only a refresher. But the BIG question is: why does this rule work?
Lets expand the number abcdef (lets take a 6-digit number this time) as:
a x 10^5 + b x 10^4 + c x 10^3 + d x 10^2 + e x 10 + f x 1
When you divide each of the multipliers by 11, you would get 10, 1, 10, 1, 10 and 1 alternately. Now, we know that when you divide "A" and "B" separately by 11, to get the two remainders as "a" and "b" respectively, then you would get a remainder of "axb" when you divide "AxB" by 11. The same hold true for "A+B" too!
Also, a remainder of 10 can be written as -1 (Divisor-Remainder). So the remainder sequence can be re-written as -1,+1,-1,+1,-1 and +1.
So, the remainder of "abcdef" divided by 11 (lets call it abcdefR11) can also be written as:
aR11 x (-1) + bR11 x (+1) + cR11 x (-1) + dR11 x (+1) + eR11 x (-1) + fR11 x (+1)
= (b+d+f)R11 +(-1)x(a+c+e)R11
= [(b+d+f)-(a+c+e)] R11
This is how the Divisibility Rule of 11 is "derived"! You should be able to "explain" the Divisibility Rules of 3 and 9 in a similar manner now! Lets see how many of you can explain them, and earn some coffee with me :-)
Cheers!
Phonetics of "Ch"
English has always borne the brunt of ire of lot many as far as the pronunciation goes.The simplest and most cliched instance is the difference between TO,DO and GO.It's very interesting to find the contrasting phonetics of the alpahabets "C" and "K".For instance "CHARLATAN" is pronounced as "SHAR luh tun" which means a fraud or a conman and "CHAGRIN" which means humiliation or disappointment whereas "CHASM" is pronounced as "KAZ um" which means a large gaping hole or gorge.Another interesting pair is "CHICANERY".......pronounced as "SHI kuh nery" which means trickery and again there is another word starting with "CH" but pronounced differently and that is "CHARISMA"...pronounced as "KUH riz muh" which define
s magical and attracting ability of someone.
So that is the reason English has received the high brow from one and many for not being everyone's ballgame.But if you try to learn words the fun way and find these fine nuances then i am sure English becomes far more interesting.
Will keep you posted on other phonetics as well!
IN CONUNDRUM EVEN AFTER ENGINEERING?
Once upon a time, the parents of a certain family were very worried about their only son’s future. Their son was almost on the verge of completing his engineering and they were paranoid about what lay ahead. The boy on the other hand was crumbling under the gargantuan expectations of his parents. The trouble wasn’t as simple as it appeared. The father wanted his son to study further and then get a job with a fat salary package,. The million dollar question was what course would actually satisfy the aforementioned conditions.
The mother being a superstitious lady called the family priest (read palmist/ fortune teller) .Fortunately the priest wasn’t a British era man, he was in fact aware of all the alternate career options, which could get the boy achieve a two storied bungalow and a shiny car in a jiffy. The priest suggested MBA- as a career option.
“Why MBA?” the ignorant mother asked. The priest then told her all about “THE MOST LUCRATIVE CAREER”.
Then the old routine of a family’s round table conference begins.........
Agenda of the meeting: To convince everyone around that MBA is the ultimate career option.
With that the meeting starts. WHY MBA? The presenter in the meeting believed in objectivity...
MBA is the quickest way to gain a remarkable status in the society.
One doesn’t need 20 years of experience to reach the top managerial level of an organization, 10 times less which is only 2 years of MBA and one can be one of the top managers.
When any topper engineer gets a good campus placement and goes to work in a good company, he could come across most of his bosses (the top guys of the company) have the most coveted degree- no prizes for guessing the right answer this time, it’s an MBA degree.
The mother almost had convinced the boy because he anyways was quite bored of all the technicalities pertaining to engineering and had been dreaming for a shift for quite a long time.
Resuming the meeting, the mother continued, “my son could be a CEO of a
Company in no time, if he does his MBA from a good B-school.”
The good part is MBA is so much in vogue. And you need not be the brain of the
Class to get through CAT (common admission test), the test which if one cracks would be definitely on his way to a good B-school. Only two skills are mandatory which with practice and perseverance can easily master.
(a) You got to make speed your slave.
(b) Logic should be your element.
If our son does MBA, sky would be his limit. He might even get a job abroad and
we could proudly say that “ hamara beta ab NRI ban gaya.”, says the mother. This was enough to convince the father.
Now the heavy mist of paranoia is cleared at least for the case of one family, and off goes the son of this certain family to get an MBA degree and to bring the world at his feet.
CET 2008 Activity schedule
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