Passage 1.

Since its invention a little over 130 years ago, the interview has become a common place of journalism. Today,
almost everybody who is literate will have read an interview at some point in their lives, while from the other
point of view, several thousand celebrities have been interviewed over the years, some of them repeatedly. So
it is hardly surprising that opinions of the interview of its functions, methods and merits vary considerably.
Some might make quite extravagant claims for it as being, in its highest form, a source of truth, and, in its
practice, an art. Others, usually celebrities who see themselves as its victims, might despise the interview as an
unwarranted intrusion into their lives, or feel that it somehow diminishes them, just as in some primitive
cultures it is believed that if one takes a photographic portrait of somebody then one is stealing that person's
soul.
Questions:
1. When was the interview invented?
2. What is ‘hardly surprising'?
3. What seem to be the merits of interviews?
4. What is the belief in some primitive cultures?
5. Find the word from the passage which means “frequently'.
6. Find the word from the passage which is opposite to “justified'.

Passage 2.
V. S. Naipaul 'feels that some people are wounded by interviews and lose a part of themselves,' Lewis Carroll,
the creator of Alice in Wonderland, was said to have had 'a just horror of the interviewer' and he never
consented to be interviewed.
It was his horror of being lionized which made him thus repel would be acquaintances, interviewers, and the
persistent petitioners for his autograph and he would afterwards relate the stories of his success in silencing all
such people with much satisfaction and amusement. Rudyard Kipling expressed an even more condemnatory
attitude towards the interviewer.
His wife, Caroline, writes in her diary for 14 October 1892 that their day was 'wrecked by two reporters from
Boston'. She reports her husband as saying to the reporters, “Why do I refuse to be interviewed?
Because it is immoral! It is a crime, just as much of a crime as an offence against my person, as an assault, and
just as much merits punishment. It is cowardly and vile. No respectable man would ask it, much less give it,"
Yet Kipling had himself perpetrated such an 'assault' on Mark Twain only a few years before.
Questions:
1. What does V. S. Naipaul feel?
2. Who is the creator of ‘Alice in Wonderland?
3. What did Rudyard Kipling's wife wrote in her diary for 14 October 1892?
4. What does Rudyard Kipling consider interview as?
5. Find the word from the passage which means “permitted'.
6. Find the word from the passage which is opposite to ‘moral.

Passage 3.
H. G. Wells in an interview in 1894 referred to 'the interviewing ordeal', but was a fairly frequent interviewee
and forty years later found himself interviewing Joseph Stalin . Saul Bellow, who has consented to be
interviewed on several occasions, nevertheless once described interviews as being like thumbprints on his
windpipe.
Yet despite the drawbacks of the interview, it is a supremely serviceable medium of communication. “These
days, more than at any other time, our most vivid impressions of our contemporaries are through interviews,”
Denis Brian has written. “Almost everything of moment reaches us through one man asking questions of
another. Because of this, the interviewer holds a position of unprecedented power and influence.”
Questions:
1. Who was a fairly frequent interviewee? Whom did he interview forty years later?
2. How did Saul Bellow once describe interviews?
3. Despite its drawbacks, what is the merit of the interview?
4. “These days, more than at any other time, our most vivid impressions of our contemporaries are through
interviews..." Who has made this statement?
5. Find the word from the passage which means 'faults'.
6. Find the word from the passage which is opposite to ‘dull'.

Passage 4.
Muhund: The English novelist and academic David Lodge once remarked. I can’t understand how one man can
do all the things he [Eco] does.”
Umberto Eco: Maybe I give the impression of doing many things. But in the end. I am convinced I am always
doing the same thing.
Mukund: Which is?
Umberto Eco: Aah, now that is more difficult to explain. I have some philosophical interests and I pursue thorn
through my academic work and my novels, Even my books for children are about, nonviolence and peace...you
see, the same bunch of ethical, philosophical interests. And then I have a secret. Did you know what will
happen if you eliminate the empty spaces from the universo, eliminate the empty spaces in all the atoms? The
universe will become o big as my fist.
Similarly, we have a lot of empty spaces in our lives. I call them interstices. Say you are coating over toniy
place. You are in an elevator and while you are coming up. I am waiting for you. This Is an interstice, an empty
space. I work in empty spaces. While waiting for your elevator to come up from the first to the third floor, I
have already written an article! Laugh).
Questions:
1. Who is David Lodge?
2. What type of interests does Umberto have?
3. How does Umberto pursue those interests?
4 What is an interstice?
5. Find the word from the passage which means ‘accord’.
6. Find the word from the passage which opposite to ‘full’.

Passage 5.
Mukund: Not everyone can do that of course. Your non-fictional writing, your scholarly work a certain playful
and personal quality about it. It is a marked departure from a regular academic style - which is invariably
depersonalised and often dry and boring. Have you consciously adopted an informal approach or is it
something that just came naturally to you,
Umberto Eco: When I presented my first Doctoral dissertation in Italy. one of the Professors said, “Scholars
learn a lot of a certain subject, then they make a lot of false hypotheses, then they correct them and at the
end, they put the conclusions. You, on the contrary, told the story of your research. Even including your trials
and errors.”
At the same time, he recognised I was right and went on to publish my dissertation as a book, which meant he
appreciated it. At that point, at the age of 22, I understood scholarly books should be written the way I had
done - by telling the story of the research. This is why my ‘essays always have a narrative aspect. And this is
why probably I started writing narratives (novelal so late - at the age of 50, more or less.
Questions:
1. State the quality of Umberto’s non-fictional writing and his scholarly work.
2. What had Umberto Eco presented in Italy’
3. What did one of the professors say about scholars?
4. How was Umberto Eco different from the scholars?
5. Find the word from the passage which means 'adverse'.
6. Find the word from the passage which is opposite to 'true'.

Passage 6.
Mukund: Talking about novels, from being a famous academic you went on to becoming spectacularly famous
after the publication of The Name of the Rose. You've written five novels against many more scholarly works of
non-fiction, at least more than 20 of them...
Umberto Eco: Over 40.
Mukund: Over 40! Among them a seminal piece of work on semiotics. But ask most people about Umberto Eco
and they will say, “Oh, he's the novelist.” Does that bother you?
Umberto Eco: Yes. Because I consider myself a university professor who writes novels on Sundays. It's not a
joke. I participate in academic conferences and not meetings of Pen Clubs and writers. I identify myself with
the academic community.
Questions:
1. When did Umberto become particularly famous?
2. How many novels has he written?
3. What do most people recognize Umberto as?
4. What does Umberto not participate in?
5. Find the word from the passage which means 'scholarly'.
6. Find the word from the passage which is opposite to “fiction'.
Passage 7.

Mukund: Which brings me to my next question. The Name of the Rose is a very serious novel. It's a detective
yarn at one level but it also delves into metaphysics, theology, and medieval history. Yet it enjoyed a huge
mass audience. Were you puzzled at all by this?

Umberto Eco: No. Journalists are puzzled. And sometimes publishers. And this is because journalists and
publishers believe that people like trash and don't like difficult reading experiences. Consider there are six
billion people on this planet.
The Name of the Rose sold between 10 and 15 million copies. So in a way I reached only a small percentage of
readers. But it is exactly these kinds of readers who don't want easy experiences. Or at least don't always want
this. I myself, at 9 pm after dinner, watch television and want to see either ‘Miami Vice or ‘Emergency Room'. I
enjoy it and I need it. But not all day.
Questions:
1. What is the nature of 'The Name of the Rose'?
2. What other things does this novel delve into?
3. What do journalists and publishers believe?
4. How many copies of 'The Name of the Rose' had sold?
5. Find the word from the passage which means “public'.
6. Find the word from the passage which is opposite to 'boughť.
Passage-8
Mukund: Could the huge success of the novel have anything to do with the fact that it dealt with a period of
medieval history that....

Umberto Eco: That's possible. But let me tell you another story, because I often tell sicriss like a Chinese wise
man. My American publisher said while she loved my book, she didn't expect to sell more than 3,000 copies in
a country where nobody has seen a cathedral or studies Latin. So I was given an advance for 3,000 copies, but
in the end it sold two or three million in the U.S.

A lot of books have been written about the medieval past far before mine. I think the success of the book is a
mystery. Nobody can predict it. I think if I had written The Name of the Rose ten years earlier or ten years
later, it wouldn't have been the same. Why it worked at that time is a mystery.
Questions:
1. Who often tells stores like a Chinese wise man?
2. How many copies did the American publisher expect to sell?
3. How many copies were actually sold in the U.S.?
4. What is a mystery which cannot be predicted?
5. Find the word from the passage which is means 'modern'.
6. Find the word from the passage which is opposite to ‘known'.