Lesson 8: Sri Lanka: The Resplendent Land

• Sri Lanka, a tropical island, was formerly identified on the map of Asia as Ceylon
• Sri Lanka


  • Paradise on earth with splendid coasts, glittering beaches, and mist-capped highlands
  • In Sanskrit language, known as Ratnadvipa, the "Island of Gems" with precious stones like rubies, sapphires, topazes, amethysts, garnets, zircons, tourmalines, and moonstones
  • Literary tradition and culture greatly influenced by Buddhism
  • Western influence, particularly from the Victorian Age of English literature, discernible since the nineteenth century
  • Development of lyrical dramas and novels, with Martin Wickremasinghe as a leading novelist
  • Marcelline Jayekody, OMI, received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts in 1983
• The Dhammapada is a collection of the sayings of Buddha
• The Kandukaree was a 28-foot wooden fishing boat that sailed from the coast of Dondra Head on the southern tip of Sri Lanka on January 4, 1980
• The Kandukaree drifted in the Indian Ocean for almost four months after its motor conked out
• The Incredible Voyage of the Kandukaree is a true story with characteristic features and structural elements of a short story as a form of fiction
• The non-fiction adventure story has a plot, characterization, and setting similar to its fiction counterpart
• The parts of the plot in a story are: complication, crisis, suspense, climax, and resolution
• The complication in a story introduces the unexpected, the element of conflict or struggle or problem
• Suspense in a story engages the reader's interest by generating an intense feeling of uncertainty
• The crisis in a story marks the turning point in the progressive unfolding of events
• The resolution in a story follows the crisis and includes the climax, which is the final point or ultimate event
• Robert Paul Jordan: 'The Sri Lankan Mystique (Excerpt from Sri Lanka: Time of Testing for an Ancient Land)'
• Unfolding of events


  1. Closely interlocked with the crisis is the resolution

  2. An important part of the resolution is the climax

  3. This is the final point, the ultimate event, after which interest wanes
• The literary selection about Sri Lanka by Robert Paul Jordan is an account of his personal impressions and experiences on the island in 1983
• A feature article or news feature is a magazine or newspaper article on a special subject, usually written in an informal style, consisting of a background or analysis of facts
• Types of news features

  • Entertaining features
  • Informative features
• Entertaining features


  • Human interest sketches about interesting persons
• Informative features


  • Travel sketches
  • News features that inform and interpret the background and deep phases of social, economic, or political problems
• Using idiomatic expressions


  Makes language more colorful and interesting
• Notes on the passive voice
• Forming the passive voice

  1. Subject in active voice becomes object of preposition by in passive voice

  2. Direct object in active voice becomes subject in passive voice

  3. Verb in passive voice is formed by a form of the be- verb and the past participle
• Examples of passive voice in different tenses
• Conditions for using the passive voice
• Voice


  Quality of a verb showing whether the subject is the doer or the receiver of the action
• Active voice


  Shows that the subject of the sentence is the doer of the action
• Passive voice


  Shows that the subject is the receiver of the action
• Use active voice for simplicity and clarity whenever possible