PARAGRAPH,WORDS AND MEANINGS

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Topic Of The Day:-“Growth of access”

Layers of disillusionment have sedimented. For the BHU Vice-Chancellor to attribute the recent turmoil to ‘an incident of eve-teasing’ is an insult to students. They belong to a new provincial ethos, subtly transformed by radical increase in access to school education over the last 25 years. It has changed the social composition of the campus population, imparting it far greater plurality than what prevails in the teaching faculty. Recruitment of teachers now provides reservation for the lower and middle castes, but the dominance of upper castes and competition among them continues to shape the campus ethos. In this matter, BHU and Allahabad, despite their very different origins, have become identical. The same applies to male-centric ethos and policies. Young women are tired of homilies by university officials and political leaders who talk like grandparents. Equally tiring to the current generation of female students is the supervised freedom offered to them as a favour. Their public fight is currently directed against gender discrimination. There is plenty of it to fuel their struggle. It is there in hostels, in admission procedures, in classrooms and laboratories, and in life outside the campus. But their anger is also about the role of caste in the selection of faculty and positions carrying public responsibility. Both Allahabad and BHU are festering pools of caste politics. The colonial roots of the former have proved just as weak to withstand caste pressures in everyday functioning as the idealistic roots of BHU have. As new arrivals in the arena of higher learning, BHU girls are noticing a stench that boys do not, accustomed as they are to the many advantages that upbringing in a patriarchal ethos offers. The city itself is steeped in caste-centric rituals; even the language of daily use, including its abusive variety, carries caste messages. The young women of BHU have studied courses on gender and its association with caste. Some of them cannot resist applying this knowledge to their personal lives and their supervised campus lives. Having been sent back home after facing a lathi charge, they will no doubt receive sobering counsel from their elders, many of whom may not have been to college. When they return after the semester break, they will notice how many more CCTVs have been installed to make them feel safer.

MEANINGS AND WORDS

1) Precise

Meaning: Marked by exactness and accuracy of expression or detail.

Example: Precise directions.

Synonyms: Exact, Accurate

Antonyms: Imprecise, Inaccurate

2) Pedagogic

Meaning: Relating to teaching.

Example: They show great pedagogic skills.

3) Veneer

Meaning: An attractive appearance that covers or disguises someone or something’s true nature or feelings.

Example: Her veneer of composure cracked a little.

Synonyms: Façade, Front

4) Barring

Meaning: Except for; if not for.

Example: Barring accidents, we should win.

Synonyms: Excepting, excluding

5) Descent

Meaning: An act of moving downwards, dropping, or falling.

Example: The plane had gone into a steep descent.

Synonyms: Drop, Dive

Antonyms: Ascent, Climb

6) Brutally

Meaning: In a savagely violent way.

Example: He was imprisoned and brutally tortured.

7) Wherewithal

Meaning: The money or other means needed for a particular purpose.

Example: They lacked the wherewithal to pay.

Synonyms: Money, Ready

8) Gauge

Meaning: A means of estimating something.

Example: Emigration is perhaps the best gauge of public unease.

Synonyms: Measure, Indicator

9) Heartland

Meaning: The central or most important part of a country, area, or field of activity.

Example: Wildlife sites in the heartland of Russia.

10) Colonial

Meaning: Relating to or characteristic of a colony or colonies.

Example: British colonial rule.

11) Unitary

Meaning: Forming a single or uniform entity.

Example: A sort of unitary wholeness.

12) Heritage

Meaning: Property that is or may be inherited; an inheritance.

Example: They had stolen his grandfather’s heritage.

Synonyms: Inheritance, Birthright

13) Affiliating

Meaning: Officially attach or connect (a subsidiary group or a person) to an organization.

Example: They are national associations affiliated to larger organizations.

14) Bureaucratic

Meaning: Relating to a system of government in which most of the important decisions are taken by state officials rather than by elected representatives.

Example: Well-established bureaucratic procedures.

Synonyms: Administrative, Official

Antonyms: Simple, Relaxed

15) Legitimacy

Meaning: Conformity to the law or to rules.

Example: Refusal to recognize the legitimacy of both governments.

16) Mooted

Meaning: Raise (a question or topic) for discussion; suggest (an idea or possibility).

Example: The scheme was first mooted last October.

Synonyms: Raise, Broach

17) Intellectual

Meaning: Possessing a highly developed intellect.

Example: You are an intellectual girl, like your mother.

Synonyms: Intelligent, Clever

Antonyms: Stupid, Illiterate

18) Subjugation

Meaning: The action of bringing someone or something under domination or control.

Example: The colonial subjugation of a country by means of brute military force.

19) Pedagogic

Meaning: Relating to teaching.

Example: They show great pedagogic skills.

20) Ethos

Meaning: The characteristic spirit of a culture, era, or community as manifested in its attitudes and aspirations.

Example: A challenge to the ethos of the 1960s.

Synonyms: Spirit, Character

21) Processions

Meaning: A number of people or vehicles moving forward in an orderly fashion, especially as part of a ceremony.

Example: A funeral procession.

Synonyms: Parade, March

22) Sit-ins

Meaning: To be present in a meeting or class, watching it but not taking part in it.

Example: There will be a school inspector sitting in on your class this morning.

23) Provincial

Meaning: Of or concerning a province of a country or empire.

Example: Provincial elections.

Synonyms: Small-town, Rural

24) Calibre

Meaning: The quality of someone’s character or the level of their ability.

Example: They could ill afford to lose a man of his calibre.

Synonyms: Quality, Merit

25) Disillusionment

Meaning: A feeling of disappointment resulting from the discovery that something is not as good as one believed it to be.

Example: The high abstention rate at the election reflected the voters’ growing disillusionment with politics

26) Cynicism

Meaning: An inclination to believe that people are motivated purely by self-interest; scepticism.

Example: Public cynicism about politics.

Synonyms: Scepticism, Doubt

Antonyms: Optimism