What everyone see is just a round, not round exactly but a GEOID shaped ball. Seeing the Earth as a ball and imagining it in the size of football which we all see in our science lab.

This is the 0% we know about our planet Earth. There is more to this than people just know. It’s like the rainbow flavored cake. when you see the outer part of the cake you tend to see the decoration and the whipping cream. but, when you cut it you the see the colorful layers of the cake. Earth is also the same. When you deep dig it you get to see different concentric layers which we call them as:

• Crust
• Mantle
• Core – inner core, outer core

Like all terrestrial planets, the Earth’s interior is differentiated. This means that its internal structure consists of layers, arranged like the skin of an onion. Peel back one, and you find another, distinguished from the last by its chemical and geological properties, as well as vast differences in temperature and pressure.

Most of the ancient theories about Earth tended towards the “Flat-Earth” view of our planet’s physical form. This was the view in Mesopotamian culture, where the world was portrayed as a flat disk afloat in an ocean. To the Mayans, the world was flat, and at it corners, four jaguars held up the sky. The ancient Persians speculated that the Earth was a seven-layered ziggurat (or cosmic mountain), while the Chinese viewed it as a four-side cube.

By the 6th century BCE, Greek philosophers began to speculate that the Earth was in fact round, and by the 3rd century BCE, the idea of a spherical Earth began to become articulated as a scientific matter.

1. CORE :

• The inner core:- radius of 1,220 kilometers (758 miles), or about three-quarters that of the moon.
• located some 6,400 to 5,180 kilometers (4,000 to 3,220 miles) beneath Earth’s surface
• Made of Iron and Nickel(solid form). Intensely hot and the Temperature sizzles at 5,400° Celsius (9,800° Fahrenheit).
• The outer core:- radius stands at about 5,180 to 2,880 kilometers (3,220 to 1,790 miles) below the surface.
•  Heated largely by the radioactive decay of the elements like uranium and thorium.
• The outer core is not under enough pressure to be solid, so it is liquid even though it has a composition similar to the inner core.

2. MANTLE

• Upper mantle: It is the Earths thickest layer. Spreads across  84% of Earth’s volume
• The upper mantle, which starts at the “Mohorovicic Discontinuity”- the base of the crust extends from a depth of 7 to 35 km downwards to a depth of 410 km.
• lower Mantle: The lower mantle lies between 660-2,891 km 
• Very little is known about the lower mantle apart from that it appears to be relatively seismically homogeneous.

3. CRUST

•  The crust is made of relatively light elements, especially silica, aluminum and oxygen. 
• Earth’s crust is like the shell of a hard-boiled egg. It is extremely thin, cold and brittle compared to what lies below it
• The thickness of the crust varies in the range of range of 5-30 km in case of the oceanic crust and as 50-70 km in case of the continental crust.
• Along with the upper zone of the mantle, the crust is broken into big pieces, like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle. These are known as tectonic plates. These move slowly — at just 3 to 5 centimeters (1.2 to 2 inches) per year.
• The continents are composed of lighter silicates — silica + aluminium (also called sial) while the oceans have the heavier silicates — silica + magnesium (also called sima)

During the entire period of before Independence, India was either ruled by kings or else by the Britishers. There will definitely be some questions regarding the ruling of kings like, when? who? how? why?

In ancient India, one animal was treated as both god and weapon, for one king these beasts were the shock troops of an army and is organized as before or since. Riding a juggernaut these soldiers carved out one of the largest empires in history.

“THE MAURYANS”- The warriors of Elephant

In the war for India a great army of soldiers and Elephants has proven unstoppable. But in the year 260BC they faced their worst enemy. no matter what, Victory lies first in reaching the battlefield intact a battle all its own. The outcome will decide the fate of a kingdom.

The Mauryan Empire was a geographically extensive Iron age Historical power based in Magadha, Ancient India. It was founded in 322BCE by its king ChandraGupta Maurya. This empire was the largest to have ever existed in the Indian subcontinent expanding over 5million square kilometers at its zenith under Ashoka- The great

The capital of Mauryan Empire was Pataliputra which is recent times is called as Patna

History of Mauryan Empire

The foundation of Mauryan empire is ruled for 137years, and was a unique incident in Indian history, given the fact that it was founded shortly after the death of Alexander- The great who led many victorious campaigns in North-West India during 327BC- 325BC

The founding of the Dynasty

Was founded by ChandraGupta Maurya with the advice of his counsellor Chanakya by over throwing the Nanda Dynasty and built one of the largest empires ever on the aindian Subcontinent.

Conquest of Magadha: Historians believed that it was Chanakya or popularly known as Kautilya who provoked ChandraGupta to take over Magadha throne.

Apart from all the controversies that it was the Chanakyas doing out of grudge against nanda dynasty, it was Mauryan empire and ChandraGupta Maurya as the main person to create one of the worlds largest empires in the World and in Indian subcontinent.

ChandraGupta Maurya (321-297 BC)

• The classical greek writers described Chandragupta as a man of humble origin
• he was born orphaned and abandoned and is raised as a son by another Pastoral family was recognized and taught by Chanakya- The author of Arthashastra
• ChandraGupta left everything and became a Jain monk
• His reign was well recognized as “Economic prosperity”, reforms and expansion of Infrastructure like irrigation, roads and mines.
• Religions like Buddhism, Jainism and Ajivika gained prominence along with Brahmanism

Bindhusara(297-272BC)

• He was 22years old when his father ChandraGupta Maurya stepped out of the throne.
• He extended the empire which he inherited from his father to South India which is now known as Karnataka
• He maintained friendly relations with the Hellenic west and brought 16new states under Mauryan empire
• He, almost conquered the entire Indian peninsula and is populary known as the king who conquered the Land between 2 seas.
• His reign lasted for 28years and he died in 270BCE.

Ashoka- The great(268-232BC)

• The throne was succeeded by Bindusara son- Ashoka-The great.
• As a young prince Ashoka was a magnificent commander who crushed revolts in Ujjainand Thakshasila and was given charges of the viceroyship of Ujjain.
• He was aggressive and ambitious monarch who re-asserted the empires superiority in southern and western parts of India
• the pivotal event of his life came when he conquered Kalinga in 261BCE and this became a part of Mauryan empire.
• He died in 232BCE. His death divided the empire into western and eastern halves and 50years of succession of weaker kings

Ashoka’s first son- Mahendra went on to spread Buddhism across the world. His other son Kunal Maurya was blind and didn’t get a chance to ascend the throne.

slowly, the mauryans started loosing their territories and in 180BCE, the last kind Brihadratha was killed by his general Pushyamitra shunga in a military parade, which gave rise or birth to Shunga empire.

Psychology has become one of the most popular and important subjects nowadays. It is the study of the mind and behavior, according to the American Psychological Association. The discipline of psychology is broadly divisible into two parts: a large profession of practitioners and a smaller but growing science of mind, brain, and social behavior. The […]

PSYCHOLOGY — Site Title

Recently, when we look back and check once, we can see many countries delegates like Prime Minister, President, one or the other is visiting India. Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of United Kingdom also planned to visit, but due to pandemic the plan was cancelled. The point here is them not visiting us. The point is why they are visiting us? And why such Global powers are showing Interest on us.

Also, recently India and Us held a 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue, which shows the importance of India for US.

Every country, it maybe USA, Japan, Russia, France, Asia-European Union are trying to be or maintain relationship with India. It can be friendship or enmity, showing interest have any reason behind.

when we look back, India’s prestige is increasing world wide, It’s not that it is popular in ancient times, the growth and popularity of India started long back from Indus Valley Civilization itself. The IVC people used to have trade relationship with Mesopotamia and Egypt.

Its like the International relation that India have with other countries started long back but increased during the 16th century when European countries started to reach India.

In post Independent India, the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru linked Indian foreign policy with principles of Panchsheel and Non-alignment.

In late 1940’s India supported Indonesian colonial war to end the Dutch rule. This is why India manages to make a different place on world stage.

one of the major positive that’s attracting the other countries is

• India’s demographic advantage
• India’s strategic location
• Economic factor
• close cultural and religious ties.
• Indian Philosophies

India’s demographic advantage. we have higher number of youth population. Around 62.5%of Indian population belong to the working age group of 15- 59years.

India’s strategic location. As India is covered with water on 3 sides. one side is Pacific ocean, Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean- can have a route from Mediterranean sea. there is a logic behind this. More than 80% of total maritime oil trade takes place through the 3 narrow passages located in Indian Ocean.

As it’s role as a peace provider. India’s increased defense capabilities helped India in launching the SAGAR i.e., Security and Growth For All.

Economic factor. In an estimate by world economic league, India with 6.8trillion USD will become the 3rd largest economy by 2031.

Also, India is providing development assistance to countries like Nepal, Bhutan, SriLanka, Latin America and Africa. apart from this, India was there when the countries need a help during the time of pandemic, natural disasters etc.

This is the reason why every country is having that respect towards India, as its maintaining friendly cordial relationships with the fellow countries.

COMPREHENSION OF GIVEN PASSAGES

Word ‘comprehension’ means the ability to understand what you listen to or what you read.
The most essential requirement for understanding the passage is to know the meaning of the words used in it.

Types of comprehensive passage

• Factual passage: A factual passage contains 300 to 350 words. It is a detailed description in which some information is added along with a detailed description of physical attributes. A good factual passage describes the reader to compare or contrast the relevant information regarding facts, data, etc.

• Discursive passage: A discursive passage contains a text which is either argumentative or interpretative or persuasive in nature. They may also include opinions or feedback.

Requisite skills of Comprehensive passage

To develop a better level of comprehension one requires certain skills:

• Logical ability
• The ability to infer
• Analytical ability
• Reasoning ability
• Ability to understand the main motive or the idea of the author.
• Reading speed
• Vocabulary power
• Remembering some important information from the paragraph otherwise, we need to refer the paragraph again and again which will consume more time.

PRECISE WRITING

Precis Writing is a summary. It is an exercise of compression. A precis writing is a gist of any passage in as few words as possible.

Guidelines for precise writing

• Closely read the passage, and identify the central idea of the passage. It is vital to identify the general idea of the passage and incorporate it in one’s précis.
• Look-out for the total number of words. If the number is not provided, quickly calculate the number using approximations.
• In order to understand the passage clearly, make sure that you read the passage closely, and give it a couple of reads before you start writing the précis.
• Highlight the most important points in the passage, and make notes. Leave out all non-essential information from the précis.
• Provide an apt heading to your précis.
• Note making is an essential task for writing précis. You should try to arrange the points in most logical order, and ensure the order of thought is the same as the original.
• The three grammatical rules you need to follow while writing a précis are: write it in third person, indirect form and appropriate past tense.
• It is advisable to provide designations of officials rather than names and titles. In case the official designation is not provided, you can use the personal name. Kindly be consistent with the pattern you adopt.
• Make sure you review your rough draft, remove the chinks and ensure that you have made no language related errors.
• Before writing your précis, make sure you have a glance over the original to make sure you have not missed anything.
• Finally, a wise policy would be to count the words of your precis and put them down in a bracket at the end.

QUALITIES OF GOOD PRECIS

• Objectivity:
   Objectivity means how you are presenting your facts and views without it being biasing your feelings or personal opinions. In stricter terms, precis writing should be a summary of the passage or text given to you. It should not include your personal idea or opinions.
• Clarity:
  A precis is the crisp formation of the passage and it should be as crisp and clear as possible. Clarity is essentially getting your ideas loud and clear without writing it in depth. It should convey what the writer is trying to say. 
• Coherence:
  It clearly means that ideas and views that you have presented should be logical and the interconnection of the ideas should be proper. 
• Correctness:
  There are many mistakes that you should avoid while writing a precis. Many such mistakes include mistakes in figures and dates, the spelling of words, punctuation mistakes, structure and grammar mistakes, and many more. 
• Conciseness:
  Conciseness means that the precis should contain all the information required while not mentioning it in depth. It should not be too long either too short and both of these should not have any impact while writing a precis.
• Completeness:
   It should include as many things as possible and more importantly the facts. In fact, a good one should be able to produce all the facts while being short. A short precis does not mean avoiding important facts. Also, the important thing that you should remember is it should be a summary and not a short description of the passage.
  

Points to Avoid for Precis Writing

• Do not elaborate a lot on a single point.
• Do not use your own interpretation, criticism,  or assumption about the text.
• Do not copy sentences from the original text or use abbreviations.
• Do not break the flow of events and keep the text well connected.

USAGE AND VOCABULARY

Usage is the act of using something. Vocabulary is all about words — the words in a language or a special set of words you are trying to learn.

SHORT ESSAYS

An essay is typically a short, non-fiction piece of writing.

Guidelines for short essays

• Each short essay should be a short essay of approximately 500 words, about 2 typewritten double-spaced pages in length. 
• You must write in full sentences and use proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling. 
• Your essay should answer the assigned question, drawing on the relevant reading assignment. 
• It is very important to deal with what the author says about the question, not simply with what you think.  (However, you may contrast your own opinion with the author’s, offer a critique of her argument, etc.  But this requires that you start by setting out the author’s position.)
• Even though you are dealing with the author’s view about the question, you need to express it in your own words. 
• Extended quotations of the text are inappropriate in an assignment of this length, and even short quotations require your analysis (e.g., you will need to explain what the sentence you have quoted means, how it bears on the question, etc.).
• Misrepresenting the words or ideas of others as your own is plagiarism. 
• You will not receive credit for any essays that contain plagiarism,.
• Moreover, it is course policy that plagiarism will result in a failing grade for the course and the possibility of further administrative sanctions. 
• If you are completely unsure of what the author is claiming or how it bears on the question you have been asked to answer, you should write a brief essay on what the author seems to be claiming, why it does not make sense to you, and what two questions you might ask the author to help you understand his view.
• Short essays are due at the beginning of lecture. 
•  No late reading responses will be accepted.  Of the 4 reading responses assigned, your lowest grade will be dropped from the average.