Certain words ‘go together’. Such ‘word friends’ are called collocations. The collocation of a word is ‘the company it keeps’. For example, look at the paired sentences and phrases below. Which is a common collocation, and which one is odd?
Strike out the odd sentence or phrase.
(a) • ‘How old are you?’              (b) • a pleasant person
      • ‘How young are you?’               • a pleasant pillow

Read the following passages carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Our elders are often heard reminiscing nostalgically about those good old Portuguese days, the Portuguese and their famous loaves of bread.

1. What are the elders in Goa nostalgic about?
2. How do they remember it?
3. Find a word in the passage that means opposite to ‘seldom’.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
During our childhood in Goa, the baker used to be our friend, companion and guide. He used to come at least twice a day.

1. How do the children look upon the baker?
2. Who enjoys an important place in the lives of Goan people?
3. Find out the word in the passage that means ‘two times’.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
The jingling thud of his bamboo woke us up from sleep and we ran to meet and greet him. Why was it so? Was it for the love of the loaf? Not at all.

1. What announced the arrival of the baker?
2. What was the effect of the jingling thud of the baker’s bamboo?
3. Find the word in the passage that means ‘to welcome and wish someone’.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
But we would not give up. We would climb a bench or the parapet and peep into the basket, somehow. I can still recall the typical fragrance of those loaves. Loaves for the elders and the bangles for the children.

1. When would the children give up?
2. What does the narrator remember even after many years?
3. Find the world in the passage that means ‘to accept defeat’.

Read the following passages carefully and answer the questions that follow.
Then we did not even care to brush our teeth or wash our mouths properly. And why should we? Who would take the trouble of plucking the mango-leaf for the toothbrush? And why was it necessary at all? The tiger never brushed his teeth.

1. Who does ‘We’ here stand for?
2. Why didn’t they care much about brushing and cleaning teeth and mouths?
3. Find the word in the passage that means ‘to pick out or remove’.

Read the following passages carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Marriage gifts are meaningless without the sweet bread known as the bol, just as a party or a feast loses its charm without bread. Not enough can be said to show how important a baker can be for a village.

1. What was the role of bread in the life of the Goans?
2. Why is a baker important to the people of the village?
3. Find the word in the passage that means opposite to ‘significant’.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
The baker and his family never starved. He, his family and his servants always looked happy and prosperous. Their plump physique was an open testimony to this.

1. What does the phrase: “The baker and his family never starved” mean?
2. What proves the baker’s prosperity?
3. Find out a word in the passage that is opposite to ‘thin or slender’.

How do the Goan people react to their colonial past?

Is bread-making still popular in Goa? How do you know?

Why would the baker come everyday? What announced his arrival?