The narrator and his wife plan a voyage around the world just like famous Captain James Cook. They have been preparing and perfecting their seafaring skills for the past 16 years. They get a ship which is 23 meters long and weighs 30 tons wooden-hulled, named Wave Walker. They test it in the rough weather for months.

In July 1976, they all start their journey from Plymouth, England. They sail from Africa to Cape Town which was quite a pleasant journey. Before heading East, the narrator hired two crewmen, Larry Vigil, and Herb Seigler, to help them tackle one of the roughest sea – the Southern Indian Ocean.
They encounter strong and alarming waves during the second day. By December 25, they all manage to reach 35,000 kilometers east of Cape Town. The family, somehow, manages to surpass the bad weather and celebrates Christmas together.

The weather changes for the worse and on January 2, the big waves hit them. They try to slow the ship down by dropping storm jib and hit a heavy mooring rope in a loop across a stern but it doesn’t help much. They carry their life-raft drill, attach lifelines, don life jackets and oilskins.

Later, in the evening, a vertical and huge wave strikes the ship and the narrator is thrown off from the ship. He accepts his ‘approaching death’ and starts losing consciousness. When the ship is about to overturn, a huge wave hit again and turns it right back. He suffers injuries in ribs and mouth. He grabs the guard rail and sails into the ship’s main boom.

He instructs his wife Mary to guard the wheel as he realizes that the ship has water in the lower parts. His crewman starts pumping out the water. The narrator goes to his children’s cabin and checks on them. His daughter, Sue, informs him about a bump on her head which he ignores because his major concern is to save the ship.

The narrator does water-proofing on the gaping holes. This makes water to deviate on the right side. The hand pump gets blocked due to debris and electric-pump gets short-circuited. However, he later finds a spare electric pump and connects it to drain the water. They all keep pumping the water all night long. Their Mayday calls are not answered as they are in the remotest corner of the world.

Sue, on the other hand, has now a swollen black eye and a deep cut in her arm. On being asked by her father about her injuries, she tells him she didn’t want him to worry as he was trying to save them. After 15 hours the situation gets under control. The narrator decides to work in rotation and rests. The water levels are controlled but the leaks were still there, below the waterline.

The ship is in bad shape now. It is not in a condition to reach Australia, and so, they decide to reach the nearest island, lle Amsterdam, a French Scientific base. As their supporting engines were also damaged, the chances of the ship to reach the destination are low.

After pumping the water out continuously for 36 hours, they took a sigh of relief. Only a few centimeters of water was left to be pumped out of the boat. They hoisted the storm jib as the main mast was destroyed. They ate their first meal in two days, some corned beef and crackers. The weather soon started changing and again the black clouds took over by the morning of January 5. His son, Jonathan, told him that he didn’t fear death as long as they were all together. This filled him with determination to fight the sea.

The struggle continued and the narrator tried his best to protect the weakened starboard side. The same evening, the narrator and his wife sat together holding hands, thinking that their end was near. His children continuously supported him which gave him moral support to keep going.

The Wavewalker sailed through the storm and made it. The narrator then calculated their exact position by working on the wind speed. While he was brainstorming, Sue, gave him a card that she had made expressing her love and gratitude towards the family.

He instructed Larry to steer the course to 185 degrees. He said that if they were lucky, they could hope to find an island by 5 pm. He dozed off and suddenly got up around 6 pm. He believed that they didn’t make it and was disappointed. His son came and informed him about how they reached the lle Amsterdam Island and he called him ‘best daddy’ and ‘best captain’.

They reached the island with little struggle and with the help of inhabitants. The whole team, the family and two crew members, never stopped trying. Their struggle and hard work finally saved them.

Communication : Post and Telecom Services : Communication is an important service that helps in establishing links between business men, organisations, suppliers, customers etc. Communication service provides the means of transmission of ideas and information between individuals and institutions.

We are living in the era of advanced communication which has reduced the whole world to a "global village". Through the facilities of quick exchange of information with the help of electronic media. Various communication services such as telephone, telegraph, radio, television, satellite communication, fax, e-mail etc, have transformed the modern society and have made our life quite comfortable.

For any organisation, both internal and external communication are essential. Internal communication includes messenger service, intercom, closed circuit television, internal telephone network etc. External communication systems include postal service, telegraphic service, telephone network, fax, e-mail, video conferencing etc.

We may classify the modes of communication as follows :

(i) Postal communication
(ii) Telecom or Telecommunication
(iii) Electronic communication : Fax, Internet, E-mail, Voice mail.

The seven major plates include the African, Antarctic, Eurasian, North American, South American, India-Australian, and the Pacific plates. Some of the minor plates include the Arabian, Caribbean, Nazca, and Scotia plates.

1. Business Letters: Inquiries and Replies:

Question 1.
Your are Raj/Rani, living at 3, K.B. Road Delhi. You read an advertisement about an online Course in Accountancy. Through Computers, being run by Accounts Experts Institute, Patel Road, Delhi. Write a letter to the advertiser seeking all the relevent information about the course, [NCT 2018]

Answer:
3, K.B. Road
Delhi 1100XX
The Director
Accounts Experts Institute,
Patel Road,
Delhi 1100XX
Dear Sir
Subject: Course in Accountancy

This is with reference to your advertisement on line about the short term course in Accountancy offered by your institute.

Kindly let me know if your institute is recognised by any university. Further, what is the duration and the fee of this course? Please let me know if hard copies of the study material will be available along with the on line subject matter. Also, if there is a contract programme and if so, of what duration.

I shall be extremely thankful for an early response by email or by post.

With best wishes

Yours faithfully
Raj

Q

Anthropologists feel that the information about hunter gatherer societies can be used to understand past societies because they believe that human beings in past societies used to live in the same way as human beings in hunter gatherer societies in present times.

Mr Frank is a good teacher who understands his students. He is very popular among his students. He has an easy attitude that puts the students at ease. But he encourages the students to talk ill of other teachers and to disobey him which is unethical.

Weighted Mean is an average computed by giving different weights to some of the individual values. If all the weights are equal, then the weighted mean is the same as the arithmetic mean.

It represents the average of a given data. The Weighted mean is similar to the arithmetic mean or sample mean. The Weighted mean is calculated when data is given in a different way compared to the arithmetic mean or sample mean.

Weighted means generally behave in a similar approach to arithmetic means, they do have a few counter-instinctive properties. Data elements with a high weight contribute more to the weighted mean than the elements with a low weight.

The weights cannot be negative. Some may be zero, but not all of them; since division by zero is not allowed. Weighted means play an important role in the systems of data analysis, weighted differential and integral calculus.

 Nek Chand was made the Director of his creation—'The Rock Gardens'. He was honoured by the Swiss Commission of UNESCO by way of a European exposition of his works. There were interactive shows ‘Realm of Nek Chand’ held at leading museums in Switzerland, Belgium, France and Italy.

Nek Chand was an untrained artist, renowned for his masterpiece sculpted work with stone and recycled material—the Rock Garden of Chandigarh. He was an exponent of raw art which received worldwide recognition.

White space represents the Middle Void where the interaction of Yang and Yin takes place. Man has an important role here. He becomes the conduct of communication between both poles of the universe.

‘Yang’ represents the mountain or the vertical element which is stable, warm, dry and masculine. ‘Yin’ represents the water or the horizontal element that is fluid, moist, cool and feminine. The interaction of Yang and Yin is the fundamental notion of Daoism.

Flemish artist did not draw the dragon’s eye for fear it would come alive; so lifelike was the dragon. Quinten Metsys painted a fly on artists’ canvas — artist swatted it thinking it was a real fly.

'Outsiders art' refers to those art who have no right to be artists as they have received no formal training yet show talent and artistic insight. 'Art brut' or 'raw art' are the works of art in their raw state as regards cultural and artistic influence.

The ‘Middle Void’ is the empty space between ‘Yang’ and ‘Yin’. Their interaction takes place here. It is represented by white unpainted space in Chinese paintings.

An 80-year-old creator-director, Nek Chand from India was the "untutored genius who created a paradise". He made a garden known to the world today as the 'Rock Garden' at Chandigarh. He contributed to outsider art, sculpted stones and used recycled materials.  

Shanshui literally means 'mountain water' that represents 'landscape'. Mountain is Yang, that is stable, warm, dry and reaches vertically towards the heaven. While the water is that is fluid, moist, cool and horizontally resting on earth. Yang is masculine and  Yin is the feminine aspect of universal energy, reflecting the fundamental notion of Daoism.  

The Chinese and the European arts are in direct contrast to each other and represent two contrarian views of art. Western figurative paintings depict scenes exactly as they are, whereas Eastern painters depict inner space—spiritual and conceptual. The European painter wants the viewer to understand his art exactly as he sees it, whereas Chinese painter wants the viewer to use his prudence, enjoy the art and come out with his inference.

Quinten was a blacksmith who wanted to marry a painter’s daughter. The painter did not think he was a suitable match, as he was not an artist. Quinten painted a fly on one of the painter’s canvases. It looked so real that the painter tried to kill it. When he realised that Quinten had painted it, he allowed him to marry his daughter.

The chlorine to oxygen bond distance in ClO4​− is 1.44A∘. From this, we can conclude that there must be a considerable double bond character in the bonds.

Ans

From its resonating structure, it can be seen that it have considerable double bond character in the bonds.

Hence, the statement is correct.

1 watt hour is the unit of energy which is equivalent to 1 watt (W) of power used continuously for 1 hour of time.

 It is not the SI unit of energy.

 The SI unit of energy is Joule (J).

  To convert energy from W h to J, we change the units as:

Energy = 1 watt hour

⇒ E = 1 × J/s × 60 × 60 × s

⇒ E = 3600 J

- So the equivalent of 1 watt hour in SI unit is 3600 J.

Sulfur hexafluoride is a common example of an octahedral molecule. The central sulfur atom is bonded to six fluoride atoms. In molybdenum hexacarbonyl, a central molybdenum atom is bonded to six carbonyl groups.