DISEASES RELATED TERMINOLOGIES

A disease is a disorder with a specific cause and recognizable signs and symptoms; any bodily abnormality or failure to function properly; except that resulting directly from physical injury.

Infection: It refers to the invasion of body by pathogen and their development and multiplication inside the body.

Infestation: It refers to the presence of pathogens on the skin or inside the body.

Contamination: It is used for inanimate objects, which do not respond pathogen in a way that a living organism does. It refers to the presence of disease causing agent in non-living materials.

Contagious: It refers to the disease transmitted only by direct physical contact.

Communicable diseases: It refers to any disease that can be transmitted form an infected individual to a healthy person.

---- All cancers except cancer of cervix are non-communicable.

---- All contagious diseases are communicable but all communicable diseases are not contagious.

Epidemiology: It is the branch of science dealing with occurrence, distribution and control of diseases.

Endemic: An endemic is a disease which occurs in a particular geographical region continuously for a long time in smaller number without importation from outside.

Epidemic: It is a disease or a group of illness of similar nature in a particular geographical region in a larger number that is greater than normal expectation.

Sporadic: It refers to a disease that occurs only occasionally or in a few isolated places.

Pandemic: Pandemic is an epidemic so widely spread that vast numbers of people in different countries are affected.

---- The Black Death, the epidemic plague that ravaged Europe in the fourteenth century and killed over one third of the population, was a classical pandemic.

---- AIDS is currently considered to be a pandemic.

Ecdemic: A disease not occurring normally in the population of a country. It is applied sometimes to unusual diseases brought in from abroad by immigrants or travelers.

Systemic: A disease which affects the body as a whole, rather than individual parts and organs is a systemic disease. 

Acute: describing a disease of rapid onset, severe symptoms and brief duration.

Chronic: describing a disease of long duration involving very slow changes. Such disease if often of gradual onset. The term doesn't imply anything about the severity of the disease.

Class-12 English Notes for HSEB, Nepal

Grandmother 
Poet - Ray Young Bear

An appreciation of the poem "Grandmother"

"Grandmother" is a beautiful poem composed by Ray Young Bear. This poem can be appreciated from two viewpoints: literally and metaphorically. Literally, the poet draws a realistic picture of his all-loving and all-inspiring grandmother. Metaphorically, the poem is written against the suppression of the white Americans on the Native Americans, especially the people of Mesquaki tribe.

In this poem, the poet traces a picture of his grandmother who is no longer with him. The poet talks about her nature, love and the inspiration that she has imparted to him. According to the poet, even from a distance away, he could easily recognize his grandmother because of the purple scarf that she wears round her head and the plastic shopping bag that she usually carries. If his grandmother puts her hands on his head, then he could easily know that they were her hands because of their warmth that would give him a feeling of proximity with her. And her words would flow inside his heart like someone stirring the ashes from a fire.

In this poem, the poet reminisces his childhood and his grandmother who has already passed away. Whenever we feel cold, we stir the fire so that warmth could penetrate us. Similar feeling used to be felt by the poet because of is grandmother who did inspire him a lot. But now, since she has gone, the poet only has her nostalgia. This nostalgia of his grandmother inspires him even today to become industrious and ensue the path towards the acme of success.

Ray Young Bear's grandmother used to be a respected person of the native American Mesquaki Tribe. Due to the domination and the suppression of the white Americans, this tribe was once on the verge of extinction. The poet has wonderfully crafted this poem with a view to acquire a distinct identity for himself and for the Mesquaki tribe. Thus, we can also get a voice against the tyrannies of those white Americans in this poem.

In a nutshell, poet Ray Young Bear presents a sweet remembrance of his late grandmother and simultaneously, searches a distinct identity to the Mesquaki tribe in this poem. This is where the appreciation statement of the poem lies.   

About Love
-Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

"About Love" is a famous Russian story written by famous story writer, Anton Chekhov. In the story, Chekhov presents the differences between two love stories and tries to prove that "Love" like that is not bound by conjugal relations. He views that love is true and spiritual. Happiness, unhappiness, mortality, sin, virtue, social status, class, prestige, etc. have nothing to do with love.

The love affair between Nikanor and Pelageya, as presented in the story, was not very mutual because of the fact that Nikanor usually drank and had a bad temper, who would, at times, even beat "the beautiful Pelageya". The source of this story was Alyohin and this fact holds a great significance. It is because this same anecdote inspires Alyohin to reminisce his unconditional and unexpressed love affair with Anna Alexeyevna whom he had met while living at Sofyino. The anecdote has also forced Alyohin to ponder over such matters as to what extent personal happiness counts in love or if it is a good thing to needle the beautiful fabric of love with such questions that would embellish the love with dissatisfaction and irritation.

In the course of conversation, Alyohin discloses his love affair with Alexeyevna which is quite different from that of the two servants. The love affair between Nikanor and Pelageya was not unconditional in the sense that Pelageya wanted to live with Nikanor just so but his religious convictions did not let him do so. As a matter of fact, there was not any love between them but only repugnance. On the other hand, Alyohin truly loved Alexeyevna. Their love could not mature only because Alexeyevna was married. However, this did not bar them from loving each other. It has shown that love is not always a matter of achievement but sometimes even the loss of one or both sides makes the love truly beautiful and immortal.

Alyohin
Alyohin was a University Graduate and so, naturally, his education did not fit him for rough work. However, when he discovered hat the estate of Sofyino was heavily mortgaged and his father had gone into debt, Alyohin was compelled to work in the fields and in the farm. Despite being a qualified scholar, he could not do a job that suited his qualification. Thus, Alyohin was commented to have rushed around like a squirrel in a cage.

Alyohin was much desperate and compelled. He himself plowed and sowed and reaped and yet he was like a village cat driven by hunger to eat cucumbers in the kitchen garden. At night, because of pain in the body, he couldn't drag himself to bed at all. Alyohin, an educated man with a knowledge of languages, lived in the country, worked hard and yet always remained penniless.

The repetition of this judgement can also be viewed from the perspective of his love towards Anna Alexeyevna. Despite many attempts, Alyohin couldn't disclose his love to her and suppressed his feelings inside his heart. He became a squirrel in a cage who frantically tried to find a way out but all in vain.    

Youth and Age

One of the exciting lives is that of Humans, where one can enjoy different experiences and live the moments of joy, happiness and glory. With the passing time and the process of becoming old, a person sees the different colours of nature, people with various personalities, lifestyles and imaginations. From the time a person sets foot on this world till the moment he is consigned to the tomb, a person passes different stages in live. Youth and Age are those stages that strictly define his life and make it meaningful.

Youth is that period of life when a person is able to strike with hammer exactly where the blow is ought to be placed and give it precisely the required force. That means, in youth, a person is able to accomplish his tasks successfully with his enthusiasm, strength and vigour. The diligence and versatility, which in one way or another besets every human being particularly resides on the youth. Because of these reasons, youths are considered to be the pillars of success of a nation. The failure or success of a nation mostly depends on the activity and zeal of its youth.

Youth is that period of life when one has the courage and determination to accomplish seemingly impossible tasks. Notwithstanding this fact, however willing a youth is to learn, some powerful force solicits him or satiety creeps in. We have seen and faced in our daily life, youths not being able to concentrate on their destination, rather indulging themselves in unproductive and unrealistic factors. They dream to achieve high but cannot focus on their tasks. Age is that factor that demarcates between ineptness and maturity.

A person becomes physically weak in his old age. He cannot do his works on his own and has to rely on others. However, age gives us a sober confidence in our decision making process at times and that is what makes the difference. Figuratively saying, a person's joints become more completely strung and his bones are more sinewy and new with age.

With youth comes age; so, these are two inevitable parts of human life. If one wants to make his age pleasant and happier, then he should leave no stone unturned to make his youth meaningful and successful.            

Importance of Conserving Ecology

Environment is the common home to all inhabitants of the earth. For many centuries, environment has helped to sustain the human lives by providing daily necessities as air, water and food. Life would have been impossible had there been no environment. However, the ecology around us is degrading today because of our folly and idiosyncratic indifference to this sine-qua-non factor. Unsystematic and unplanned activities of humans such as urbanization and deforestation are causing some catastrophic and potentially irreversible conditions such as global warming, ozone layer depletion, green house effect and acid rain. These are the man-made apparitions which have the capacity to erase the trace of mankind from the face of the earth. These are only the effects that have surfaced over the years and nobody knows the ulterior hazards. Therefore, it has become our foremost priority to conserve the ecology around us for the betterment of ourselves and future generations. Everyone should realize that we have no right to interfere with the environment merely for personal gains, nor should we commit our future generations to unprecedented and apocalyptic environmental perturbations. 

Steps to Achieve Success

Achieving success means accomplishing those tasks which were left undone by other people. It means winning the war against failures. To get success is difficult but not impossible. Impossible itself says “I M POSSIBLE”. Success is not an accident but the consequence of our perseverance, positive attitude and hard work.

Somebody once said, “If you really want to succeed, form the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do.” There are so many other ways to achieve success. Firstly, we should have the right attitude. Only a positive attitude can do the right work at the right time. A negative attitude always indulges in catastrophic thoughts, which leads to nothing. Similarly, one should have patience. It is the ability to bear with or wait for something. It is said that only a patient with patience can get well soon. Moreover, there should be a strong desire in every person to succeed. A burning desire is the initiation of accomplishments. If we have ego or jealousy inside our heart, it creates enmity. So there should be healthy competition among the competitors to receive the real fruit of hard work.

There are many people in this world who achieved success even after they faced heart-breaking setbacks. Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi were some of them. We must get inspiration from them to bounce back even if we fail. Hard work is inevitable if we want to win the war against failures. It is the most important factor which determines success or failure. Furthermore, we should be committed to our works to reach our destination. There should be no fear or hesitation because they hold us back from the path to success.

We cannot get success by ignoring the failures since failures are the pillars of success. Learning from past mistakes helps us to succeed. If we follow the abovementioned steps, we don’t have to knock at the door of success because it will come to us.

Don’t say “I’m a failure”

The definition of ‘failure’ is different for all of us. We think that we’re failures when our parents give up on us, or when we make the same mistake repeatedly, or when we are not confident of doing good jobs despite several efforts, or when we aren’t financially sound.

Actually, we aren’t failures in the above circumstances. Those are just a series of setbacks. We aren’t failures until we allow our mistakes to define what kinds of persons we are. A failed person is one who gives up completely, loses all hopes, and allows the setbacks to become a way of life for him/her. Failure is when, after much persistence and hoping, things don’t go the way we wanted them to.

In reality, defeat and setbacks are priceless stepping stones to becoming better or successful individuals. We must learn to accept our mistakes. If we decide to use those mistakes to our advantage, we will not be failures. We may fail several times but should keep moving on as success depends on our ability to bounce back from defeat.

Impacts of Unplanned Urbanization and Settlements on Environment

Urbanization is the physical growth of rural or natural land into urban areas because of population immigration to an existing urban area. Urbanization is defined by the United Nations as “a movement of people from rural to urban areas with population growth equating to urban migration.” It incorporates changes in density and administrative services along with physical facilities, technology, society, settlements and other facets.

Unplanned urbanization and settlements are the conditions resulted by the improper planning, which leaves adverse effects on the health, sanitation, security, housing and other such aspects of life, marked with uncontrolled migration. While planned urbanization invites positive change in the multidimensional society, unplanned urbanization is rightly viewed as a negative trend that brings about dire consequences affecting every face of the society.

Before going through the impacts of unplanned urbanization and settlements, it is imperative to discuss the causes of urbanization or in a simple dialect, movement of people from rural to urban areas. People move into cities chiefly to seek economic opportunities. Cities are known to be the places where money, services and wealth are centralized. Cities are where fortunes are made and where social mobility is possible. In addition, businesses, which generate jobs and capital, are usually located in urban areas. Hence, people living in a small farm in countryside wish to take their chance moving to the city and try to make enough money to send back home to their struggling families. Moreover, there are better basic services as well as other specialist services that are not found in rural areas. Health is another major factor: there are doctors and hospitals with improved services that can cater for people’s health needs. Similarly, other factors include a greater variety of entertainment (restaurants, movie theatres, parks, etc.) and a better quality of education.

Nobody can refute the benefits provided by urbanization to the commoners in this 21st century. In fact, a country’s development largely depends on the rate of urbanization in that particular country. However, unplanned urbanization and unsystematic settlements in urban areas brings about a heap of problems. Various areas such as environment, economy, health and social aspect are severely impacted by unplanned urbanization. The following part of the essay discusses on detail on the impacts brought about by it on environment.

Urban sprawl creates a number of negative environmental outcomes that are strongly related to global change issues. For more than 100 years, it has been known that two adjacent cities are generally warmer than surrounding areas 91 to 6°C). This region of city warmth, known as urban hear island, can influence the concentration of air pollution. This results into reduces soil moisture and intensification of carbon dioxide emission. Similarly, the number of vehicles and industries increase owing to the rapid unplanned urbanization. On the one hand, they cause air pollution with the emission of toxic chemicals and harmful gases and accelerate the use of non-renewable resources like petrol, coal, etc. on the other hand. Moreover, sulphur and nitrogen oxides emitted from burning of fossil fuels in power plants, and from exhausts of motor vehicles, when oxidized into and acids and dissolved into atmospheric water, causes acid rain. This phenomenon severely affects the natural vegetation in the environment.

The rapid growth of cities strains their capacity to provide services such as energy, education, health care, transportation, sanitation and physical security. Consequently, unhealthy settlement is created. It acts as a complement, and deteriorates the purity of various factors of environment such as air, water and land.

The growing population and advancing civilization in towns and cities force human beings to clear large tracts of natural vegetation to develop agricultural lands, residential areas and industrial establishments. As a result, the agricultural soil inevitable loses it fertility over a period. Similarly, deforestation is another formidable threat to the people’s quality of life and the natural environment created by unplanned urbanization and settlements. Due to over population in city areas, requirement of timber, fuel, paper, wood, etc. increases. People clear large areas of forests for agriculture, housing, factories, roads and railway tracks. Its aftermath will be uncertain rainfall pattern and loss of biodiversity due to the fragmentation of the habitats of wild plants and animals resulting into disturbed environmental balance and the possible occurrences of natural fiascos in the long term.

Another impact of unplanned urbanization and settlements is seen on water, a vital necessity for the sustenance of human life. A rapid increase in population and expansion in agriculture and industry in city areas increase the demand for water manifold. To meet the requirements of huge population, surface water is over drawn, resulting in drying up of nearby wet lands. A crystal clear example of it is the water shortage the Kathmanduties are facing as a result of unplanned urbanizations and unhealthy settlements. Besides, unsystematically urbanized and industrialized centers are the areas of acute water pollution. Sewage and industrial effluents are discharged into nearby water sources in enormous quantities causing water pollution.

Moreover, industrialized urban life and congestion even leads to noise pollution whose further impacts are deafness or loss in hearing capacity to some extent. And the main reason for the cities becoming areas of massive sprawl and serious environmental problems due to unmanaged urbanization and settlements as afore-mentioned is because governments have less revenue to spend on the basic upkeep of cities and the provision of services contrary to the rapid increase in urbanization. Also, because the rural areas lack basic amenities or do not have them properly developed, people there prefer migrating to cities. Their actions not only fulfill their whims but also invite unplanned urbanization and settlements, a curse for the modern world.

A proper planning for urbanization is a useful tool for the solution of the problems emerged from the unmanaged urbanization and settlements. The principal way to mitigate the impacts of urbanization on environment it the formulation of a proportionate development plan with a view to develop each region of the country. This approach will utilize the available resources to the optimum level in each region. Furthermore, rural areas should be facilitated with basic amenities such as roads, electricity, communication, health services and education to discourage mass migration. Business, industry, construction works and sector services should be developed in remote areas to generate employment opportunities. However, the basic part is that people themselves should realize their responsibilities, carry out urbanization and industrialization systematically, and carry out urbanization and industrialization systematically based on pre-plans and without breaching official rules and regulations.

Lets stop just for a moment and take stock of the present state of affairs. Do our actions make a conservational use of the environment, the base for our survival, or our own actions leading to the extinction of human race from the face of the earth? In this Environment day, lets vow to stop unplanned urbanization and settlements and contribute from our side for the protection of environment for ourselves and