1 For many women, being in good health means” Being able to cope”, being well enough to fulfil all
the demands made on them in the never - ending cycle of caring for home and family. Unlike a
man’s work, which traditionally begins and ends at set times, women feel, rightly or wrongly, that
they are on call 24hours a day. They find it difficult to set aside time for themselves, cultivate their
own interests ,needs and desires .Yet these are as many aspects of positive health as exercise and
eating nourishing food. More and more women are recognising this now and reaching out for more
than just a ‘coping’ concept of health.
2. Positive health involves becoming aware of and paying attention to every aspect of our lives and
in fulfilling the potential within each one of us. It also means being able to adapt. Remaining healthy
and in harmony with our constantly changing environment depends on our ability to change and
adapt to new situations and people, new economic, political and social values. Unwillingness to
change creates tension, insecurity and anxiety-the starting points of illness. So health is not
something that resides in the individual alone. Our interdependence on our environment and on
other people is experienced most when things either go very wrong as in serious illness, or are very
right, when the harmony we feel in our surroundings and our relationships give us an inner peace.
3. Positive health means being able to alter our environment, just as we can learn to change our
inner world through understanding and awareness. This means developing a sense of one’s
individuality, of taking responsibility for oneself and one’s needs, making decisions and choices. It
also means developing the capacity to understand and share with others- to know, for instance,
when it is right to be responsible for someone else, a young daughter perhaps, and to know when to
let the child take charge of herself. Or, with another adult, to know when to let go and let him or her
take care of you for a while- the development of mutual responsibility
4. To aim for positive health rather than an absence of ill health involves learning to listen to our
bodies’ language, to the finely tuned rhythms within us which can tell us about ourselves and our
state of health. This growing awareness can sometimes be painful. You may become conscious of
the needs or feelings you have suppressed and of ways in which you hold yourself back from living
fully the fears and anxieties which keep you tied. But awareness brings with it a greater joy too.
Pleasures can be felt more keenly, opportunities grasped more confidently, choices made more
clearly. Positive health is the full creative potential of each one of us; it is a state of being, a
continuous changing flow, and adventure in which we seek a richer and more satisfying way of life.
8.1 Make notes on the passage in any suitable format using recognisable abbreviations (minimum
four) wherever necessary. Give a title to your notes. (5)
8.2 Write a summary of the passage in 80 words based on your notes.
Answers
Answer:
Yonder sky that has wept tears of compassion upon my people for centuries untold, and which to us appears changeless and eternal, may change. Today is fair. Tomorrow it may be overcast with clouds. My words are like the stars that never change. Whatever Seattle says, the great chief at Washington can rely upon with as much certainty as he can upon the return of the sun or the seasons. The white chief says that Big Chief at Washington sends us greetings of friendship and goodwill. This is kind of him for we know he has little need of our friendship in return. His people are many. They are like the grass that covers vast prairies. My people are few. They resemble the scattering trees of a storm-swept plain. The great, and I presume — good, White Chief sends us word that he wishes to buy our land but is willing to allow us enough to live comfortably. This indeed appears just, even generous, for the Red Man no longer has rights that he need respect, and the offer may be wise, also, as we are no longer in need of an extensive country.