Vocabulary Test 52

[passage-header]Read the passage and choose the correct answer which follow the question.[/passage-header]The word 'request' in Indian English is generally used in the sense of 'pray' and seldom in the sense of 'ask'-the usual meaning of the term in the Queen's English. If while addressing a vice-chancellor, a student writes: I ask you to grant me leave", or "Could I ask you to grant me leave, "instead of the usual form "I request you to grant me leave", he will be considered rude, and would even invite disciplinary action. Then there is an additional factor, the status which determines the syntactical structure in which the word is going to figure. A subordinate addressing his boss in an office in India writes, "I request you to look into the case", while the boss writing to a subordinate will normally write the passive, "You are requested to look into the case". If the latter form is used by a subordinate it may mean an insult. If bureaucratic usages in other forms of English are also found to be in favor of the passive one can safely endure a generalization that "the more secure in his position (and in his inferior's esteem) the senior person is, the more he can afford to relax his style".