The Making of the Earth
[Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) was a prolific
writer. He was an original thinker and had great insight. His famous books are
‘Glimpses of World History’ and ‘Discovery of India’ This small piece is an extract
from Nehru’s ‘Letters from a Father to His Daughter which he wrote to his
daughter Indira in the summer of 1928 when she was at Mussoorie. This bunch of
30 letters contains essential facts of evolution of man beginning from the
making of the earth to the great age of The Ramayana and The Mahabharata. In
this letter Nehru begins by defining the solar system to which our earth belongs.
He goes on to differentiate between a planet and a star. He later talks of the breaking
away of the earth from the sun, the breaking away of the moon from the earth,
the gradual cooling of the earth and the moon, the condensation of vapours on
the surface of the earth and the formation of the great oceans.]
You know that the earth goes round the sun
and the moon goes round the earth. You know also perhaps that there are several
other bodies which like the earth go round the sun. All these, including our
earth, are called planets of the sun. The moon is called a satellite of the
earth because it hangs on to it. The other planets have also got their
satellites. The sun and the planets with their satellites form a happy family.
This is called the solar system. Solar means belonging to the sun, and the sun
being the father of all the planets, the whole group is called the Solar System.
At night you see thousands of stars in the sky. Only a few of these are the
planets and these are really not called stars at all. Can you distinguish
between a planet and a star? The planets are really quite tiny, like our earth,
compared to the stars but they look bigger in the sky because they are much
nearer to us. Just as the moon which is, in reality quite a baby, looks so big
because it is quite near to us. But the real way to distinguish the stars from
the planets is to see if they twinkle or not. Stars twinkle, planets do not.
That is because the planets only shine because they get the light of our sun.
It is only the sunshine on the planets or the moon that we see. The real stars are
like our sun. They shine of themselves because they are very hot and burning.
In reality our sun itself is a star, only it looks bigger as it is nearer and
we see it as a great ball of fire. So that our earth belongs to the family of
the sun – the solar system. We think the earth is very big and it is big compared
to our tiny selves. It takes weeks and months to go from one part of it to
another even in a fast train or steamer. But although it seems so big to us it is
just like a speck of dust hanging in the air. The sun is millions of miles away
and the other stars are even further away. Astronomers, those people who study
the stars, tell us that long-long ago the earth and all the planets were part
of the sun. The sun was then as it is now a mass of flaming matter, terribly hot.
Somehow little bits of the sun got loose and they shot out into the air. But
they could not wholly get rid of their father, the sun. It was as if a rope was
tied to them and they kept whirling round the sun. This strange force, which I
have compared to a rope, is something which attracts little things to great. It
is the force which makes things fall by their weight. The earth being the
biggest thing near us, attracts everything we have. In this way our earth also
shot out from the sun. It must have been very hot, with terrible hot gases and
air all around it, but as it was very much smaller than the sun, it started to
cool. The sun also is getting less hot but it will take millions of years to
cool down. The earth took much less time to cool. When it was hot, of course,
nothing could live on it – no man or animal or plant or tree.
Everything would have been burnt up then. Just
as a bit of the sun shot out and became the earth, so also a bit of the earth
shot out and became the moon. Many people think that the moon came out of the
great hollow which is now the Pacific Ocean, between America and Japan. So the
earth started to cool. It took a long time over it.
Gradually the surface of the earth became
cooler although the interior remained very hot. Even now if you go down a coal
mine it becomes hotter and hotter as you go down. Probably if you could go down
deep enough inside the earth you would find it red hot. The moon also started
to cool and because it was much smaller than even the earth it cooled more
quickly than the earth. It looks delightfully cool, does it not? It is called
the “cold moon”. Perhaps it is full of glaciers and ice fields. When the earth
cooled all the water vapour in the air condensed into water and probably came
down as rain. It must have rained a tremendous lot then. All this water filled
the great hollows in the earth and so the great oceans and seas were formed. As
the earth became cooler and the oceans also became cooler, it became possible
for living things to exist on the earth’s surface or in the sea ….
JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU
Glossary:
planet: (n) a heavenly body that rotates round the
sun, e.g. Mercury, Venus, Earth, etc. Earth is a planet. Jupiter is the biggest planet in the solar system.
satellite: (n) an electronic device that is sent into
the space and that moves round the earth ; a natural object
that moves around a larger object in space. Moon is a natural satellite of the earth.
speck : (n) a small piece A speck of dust irritated her
eye.
astronomer : (n) a scientist who
studies sun, moon, stars etc. An astronomer uses a telescope to see the heavenly bodies.
hollow : (adj) having a hole or empty space inside. The
tree trunk was hollow inside.
condense : (v) become thicker Water condensed into snow with the fall
in temperature.
tremendous: (adj) huge and
remarkable A tremendous amount of hard work is required to finish this project.
LANGUAGE EXERCISES
A. Comprehension Questions
I. (i) Answer the following questions:
1. What are planets?
Ans. Planets are heavenly
bodies that move round the sun.
2. Define solar system
Ans. Solar means belonging to the sun. The earth and other
planets belong to the sun. They were once parts of the sun. The sun, its planets
and their satellites are known as the solar system.
3. How can you distinguish between planets
and stars?
Ans. The real way to distinguish planets from the stars is to see if they twinkle
or not. Stars twinkle at night, planets do not.
4. Why do the stars twinkle?
Ans. The stars are very hot and
burning. They are balls of fire. They are millions of miles away from us. So
they twinkle and not shine like the moon.
1.
How was earth formed?
Ans. The planets
earth was once a part of the sun. It broke away from the sun. It was as hot and
burning as the sun at that time. After millions of years, the earth cooled down
and life appeared on its surface and in the sea.
6. How were oceans and seas formed?
Ans. When the earth cooled down, water vapours appeared on it. They rose in
the sky and came down in the shape of heavy rain. This filled hollows on the
earth. These hollows became seas and oceans.
(ii) Answer in 50-60 words:
1. Write a short note of about
100 words on the making of the earth.
Ans. Millions
of years ago, the earth was a part of the hot and burning sun. Somehow, this
part separated from the sun and become its planet. At that time, the earth was
as hot as the sun. But gradually, it cooled down. Water vapours appeared on it.
They changed into rain. The rain filled hollows of the earth. These hollows
became seas and oceans. Then different forms of life appeared on the planet
earth.
2. Write a few words on the happy family of
the sun.
Ans. There was a time when earth and other planets were parts
of the sun. Somehow, these parts broke away from the sun begun to move round it
like planets. Then small parts of different planets broke away from them and
became satellites. The Satellite began to move round planets. The sun, its
planets and their satellites from a happy family. They are called the solar
system.
B. Vocabulary Exercises
(i) Look at the following sentences:
The moon is called the satellite of the earth
because it hangs on to it. In this way our earth also shot out from the sun. The italicized verbs followed
by prepositions are called phrasal verbs.
Now fill in the blanks with the given prepositions making
appropriate phrasal verbs:
Into off out on down
a. He lived on milk
for two months.
b. Please turn off the lights before you
sleep.
c. The thieves broke out of the
prison.
d. The thieves tried to break into the house to steal.
e. She fell down and broke her leg.
(ii) Fill in the blanks selecting suitable words from the given
list:
fraction centre beginning
extends comprehension calculation
including advancement entire
exists
Everything exists in
space. But what exactly is space is something beyond human imagination
and comprehension. It
is also beyond mathematical calculation. We do not know for sure how far space
extends. It does not have a beginning. And it does not have
an end. It was earlier believed that the earth was the centre,
of the universe and that all heavenly bodies, including the
sun, revolved around it. With the advancements of science and technology, it was
known that the sun was the centre of the solar system and that the entire solar
system occupies just a tiny fraction of space in the entire universe.
C. Grammar Exercises
(i) Fill in the blanks using the correct infinitive or participle:
1. Do you regret failing your exams? (to
fail/failing/to failing)
2. Would you like to go to the theatre with me? (to go/going/to going)
3. Would you mind going to the theatre with me? (to go/going/to going)
4. The soldiers get used to living in the jungle.(to live/ to living / living)
5. He used to live in the jungle. (to live / to living / living)
6. Do you mind waiting until I have finished my work? (to wait / waiting /
to waiting)
7. Do you want to visit the new shopping mall?
(to visit / visiting / to visiting)
(ii) Fill in the blanks with suitable articles:
So the earth
started to cool. It took a long time over it. Gradually the surface
of the
earth become cooler although the interior remained very hot. Even now if
you go down a
coal mine it becomes hotter and hotter as you go down. Probably if you could go
down deep enough inside the earth you would find it red hot.
D. Pronunciation Practice
The past morpheme – ed is pronounced in three
ways
a. / d /
b. /
I d /
c. / t /
Read the following words now with the correct
sound at the final position.
a.
Bagged b. wanted c. pushed
played headed laughed
tried heated passed
clubbed waded hushed
breathed waited booked
E. Creative Writing and Extended Reading
1. Read Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru’s ‘Letters
from a Father to a Daughter’. How do you find it ?
2. Read the biography of Pandit Jawahar Lal
Nehru and describe Pt. Nehru (i) as a political leader (ii) as a scholar and (iii) as a humanist.
3. Name all the planets of the Solar System.
4. Write a paragraph on: An Imaginary Trip to
the Moon.
Just a little
fun: There once was a
girl of New York, Whose body was
lighter than cork; She had to be fed For six weeks
upon lead, Before she went
out for a walk.
