Introduction
In 1914, a young Indian mathematician with no formal qualifications came to England. Some thought his scribbled theorems were a pastiche of half-understood fragments, or even that he was a fraud, but others sensed they were gazing into the depths of one of the most mysterious mathematical minds they had known.
SUCH was Srinivasa Ramanujan’s passion for numbers that at eleven, two college maths students who lodged with his family in Kumbakonam, near Madras, could no longer satisfy his burning curiosity. At sixteen, he borrowed a book with thousands of problems in Algebra, Trigonometry, Geometry and Calculus, and worked out solutions for them all.*
It was Srinivasa’s genius to work his own way, but the price was high. He lost his scholarship at Government Arts College, Kumbakonam, in 1904, by scoring just 3% in English. At Pachaiyappa’s College in Madras, he paid such scant attention that he failed his Finals in 1907, disqualifying himself from the University career his natural talent deserved.
In 1911, Ramanujan, whose father was a draper’s clerk, sought something similar in the Madras tax office, but Deputy Collector Ramaswamy Aiyer, a mathematician himself, passed him on to the less hectic Madras Port Trust, knowing that chief accountant Narayana Iyer and Chairman Sir Francis Spring were anxious to foster Ramanujan’s academic career.*
The book was ‘A Synopsis Of Elementary Results In Pure Mathematics (1886)’, by George Shoobridge Carr. Few of the examples had solutions, and it was a characteristic of Ramanujan that he himself rarely provided proofs for his own conjectures.
Edgar Middlemast, Professor of Mathematics at the Presidency College, Madras, wrote a strong letter of recommendation in support of Ramanujan. One of the heartwarming features of Ramanujan’s lifestory was the number of people, Indian and British, who made every effort to help a stranger who had failed most of his exams.
Précis
Srinivasa Ramanujan was a maths prodigy from a village near Madras. In 1907, he disqualified himself from a career in University research by focusing on his own interests to the neglect of the set curriculum, and failing his exams. However, highly-placed British and Indian friends found him time for research while employed as a clerk. (55 / 60 words)
Srinivasa Ramanujan was a maths prodigy from a village near Madras. In 1907, he disqualified himself from a career in University research by focusing on his own interests to the neglect of the set curriculum, and failing his exams. However, highly-placed British and Indian friends found him time for research while employed as a clerk.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, if, may, must, or, since, unless, whether.
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
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