What is the difference between story and plot? What is the difference between plot summary and plot interpretation? How do you analyze the relationship between the main plot and a subplot? What are the purposes of literary elements and literary techniques? What are the writer’s literary devices and reader’s literary devices? How do you recognize and appreciate ways in which writer use language, structure and style to achieve his intended effects on the reader? How do you shift from mere appreciation of a literary text to critical literary appreciation? How do you engage in literary analysis & what is the purpose? What is the difference between topic and theme and how do you arrive at the theme? How do you compare the theme and the moral message? How do you develop an interpretation of a work of literature (drama, poetry and prose) and what is the purpose? How do you present critical appreciations or your individual responses to literary texts composed in different forms and in different periods and cultures? How do you know your individual response is valid? What are the differences between Critical Literary Appreciation, Literary Criticism, and Literary Theory? Why should there be a Literary theory at all?
Essay-type interpretative questions with answers for the Pearson Edexcel IGCSE OL examination written in the PEEL format (Point, Evidence, Explanation, Link), calls for answers ranging between 300-500 words:Essay-type interpretative questions
Read moreInferential questions on Romeo and Juliet are specially composed to extend a helping hand to the students sitting for Edexcel OL English Literature in 2025/2026 by bunPeiris of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
Content: Inferential questions from Act1 and 2 of Romeo and Juliet with a guide to composing answers in PEEL (Point, Evidence, Explanation, Link) format from Romeo and Juliet Acts 1 and 2.
Objective: to train students in answering inferential comprehension questions as part of the process of coaching them to compose interpretative responses for essay-type examination questions in Edexcel, OL English Literature 2025-2026
Becoming Bun: Benevolence Stand Out Amidst The Literary Elite To Save Our Nation. written by bunpeiris We, The People, Must Become Bun: Cultured, Literate & Armed Today Sri Lanka being under the hammer of western powers and Sinhalese being one of the endangered species of the world, as bun, among many others profess that is, it is high time for the […]
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The Great Sinhalese Novel, or The Digital Divine Diary of God Vishnu by bunpeiris Chapter 1 “Sri Lanka’s King Sihabahu’s son, Vijaya from Lal country has reached Lanka, together with seven hundred followers. Lord of gods, my Faith will be established in Lanka. Therefore, protect him along with his followers & also Sri Lanka diligently” My lord Sakka, the lord of the […]
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Becoming Krishna by bunpeiris Let noble thoughts come to us from every side. Rigveda 1-89-I [1] “There are more things in heaven and and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy”: Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Shakespeare “She had always wanted words, she loved them, grew up on them. Words gave her clarity, brought reason, shape. Whereas I thought […]
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Sinhalese Epigraphica Zeylanica The University of Cambridge, England has 274 volumes of ‘Epigraphica Zeylanica’ with over 3000 inscriptions from Ceylon (that is more inscriptions than the whole of mainland China has, even though Sri Lanka is only 1/2 the size of the state of New York), including one dating back to 6th century BC. Over 2000 of these have been […]
Read moreASOKAMALA OF LANKA Isurumuniya Rock temple, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka In the loveliest part of old Anuradhapura, in a group of black granite boulders, there nestles the Isurumuniya Rock temple. The temple built in the 3rd century B.C., was the first repository of the Sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha. The […]
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Reading & Enjoying Shakespeare, the supreme center of the Western Canon Compiled by bunpeiris Of all the images of Shakespeare, I like this most: the image with a ring in the ear. Of course, Shakespeare had no pretensions. An interesting idea by some punk [eh!] painter. I love that ring, a glorious diamond in the ear like that of […]
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The very ordinary getting cloaked in Radicalism “First, we destroyed the small statue. It was a woman. Then we blew up her husband.” Taliban Leader Mullah Mohammad Omar during a press conference March 2001. The radicals blasted a treasure of their ancient heritage; the moderates defended the radicals. The Taliban were assisted by Saudi/Pakistani engineers in the destruction of the […]
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The Sinhalese of Sri Lanka, the People Of the Lion Sinhalese, the endangered nation of Sri Lanka has been under threat of being swept off the planet earth for its 2559 years glorious history: since the ancient times of recurrent invasions by the marauding Dravidian forces hell bent on plunder and pillage, slaughter and sack, ruin and rampage, murder and mayhem; […]
Read moreNew Vistas On the Early History of Sri Lanka by Wijaya DissanayakeAccording to the prevailing myths and legends, as recorded in the chronicles of ancient Sri Lanka and India, Sri Lanka was not an abode where human beings lived before the arrival of North Indian settlers around 500 BCE [1], represented by their leader Vijaya. The indigenous inhabitants of the […]
Read moreBreath your voice to those nightingales Breath your voice to those nightingales, so they may sing sweeter Offer your cheeks to the pink lotus overwhelming the pond, so they look still more rosier Let the jewels hold the sparkle of your eyes tight, so those may shine brighter share your vermilion lips with the tender leaf of Ironweed, so those […]
Read moreOpium: Bombay (Mumbai) to Canton (Guangzhou)Following text is a gleaning from River of Smoke by Amitav GhoshLater there would be much discussion on whether the Anahita was struck by the same storm that had hit the Ibis. Such information as was available then made it impossible to come to any reliable determination on this: what was certain was that the […]
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Colonialists in British Ceylon; Robert Knox & The Bible; Joseph Stalin & The American church I IMAGE: Warrior King Rajasinghe the Second, (1629 – 1687), the third king of the kingdom of Kandy, Sri Lanka, who held a melange of Europeans captive (open air -closed kingdom prisoners) within the natural fortress of Kandy surrounded by hills and looped by River Mahawel Ganga; no way out. I have never […]
Read moreCITY & GUILDS ENGLISH, England ON YOUR ACCENT Which of these opinions about good pronunciation is closest to yours? (a) Good pronunciation must be free of any local or regional accent. (b) A slight regional accent is acceptable but a foreign accent is not. (c) An accent, regional or foreign, doesn’t matter as long as the speaker’s pronunciation is easy to […]
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