Form 3 English Language

Chapter 5: Test 1

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5.1. Introduction
5.2. Listening/Observing
5.3. Speaking/Signing
5.4. Composition work
5.5. Paper 2: Comprehension, summary and supporting language structures
5.6. Summary
5.7. Expected/Possible answers

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5.1. Introduction

So far you have covered substantial ground in composition and comprehension writing. The last four chapters took you through a successful journey in the three types of composition writing, that is, narrative, descriptive and exposition. Do you still remember these? In the previous chapters, you learnt about the characteristics of a good paragraph. It should have an introduction, developing sentences and a concluding sentence. The concluding sentence is sometimes called a terminator. This should be evident in the paragraphs you are going to write in your compositions. You are expected to express your thoughts, views and insights in your compositions.

This chapter will also assess your listening and speaking skills. This is important as it will help you go through your mock examination.

Objectives

After going through this chapter, you should be able to

• Listening
  • listen with concentration.
  • answer recall, interpretative and evaluative questions based on what they have listened to.
• Speaking
  • speak eloquently about sounds from the natural environment and other phenomena.
  • discuss and debate confidently on topical and cross-cutting issues.
  • use appropriate tone, intonation and gestures to emphasize a point.
  • use appropriate register depending on social situation, audience, subject matter or area being discussed.
• Writing
  • use different supporting language structures in context.
  • construct a variety of sentence structures.
  • use a wide range of vocabulary and idioms appropriate to the subject matter.
  • organize their work satisfactorily into paragraphs.
  • use discourse markers correctly to show a sense of cohesion and coherence within paragraphs.
• Reading comprehension
  • follow the development of an argument or discussion.
  • distinguish main propositions from exemplifying or qualifying details.
  • infer information that is indirectly stated.
  • work out the contextual meanings of words and phrases.
  • identify the tone and mood of a text.
  • summarise specific aspects of a text.

Key terms

Atmosphere – Mood or feeling created by the use of particular diction.
Diction – Appropriate words used to portray particular meaning.
Terminator – A sentence that ends an idea in a paragraph.

Time

Each section of the mock examination is divided into timed segments. You are recommended to follow these times as they are a guideline to actual examination times.

At this stage it is important to note that the actual scope of the english language assessment involves 30% of continuous assessment work. This work includes your portfolio projects in listening, speaking, reading and writing. 70% will be summative assessment, that is, the examination.

Study skills

Make use of the following skills for this chapter.

• Scanning – Quickly go through the passage identifying the main points.
• Silent reading - Read silently to be able to concentrate and understand what you are reading about.
• Skimming - Look for information which is necessary only and discard the rest.

5.2. Listening/Observing

Once, there was a mother who stopped her child from singing. The girl child obliged. However, the child complained that she was always hearing music around her. She heard it from her mother’s mortar and pestle. She heard it as her mother fetched water from the deep well. She heard it in the trees. She heard it in the wind .She heard it everywhere. That was the power of listening. Nobody could stop her from listening.

Now you must also venture deeper into the world of listening. Go outside your room. Listen attentively. What do you hear? You have heard a lot of things. Our friend Pardon could not move out anywhere to hear sounds. Why? This is because he is in a bus travelling from the capital city to his home in Nharira. He, however, hears something and quickly write down the following sounds. Let us examine entries from his note book.

Now you can prepare to note down the sounds you hear. But first of all, let us prepare for our work.

Exercise 5.1. Advance Organisation

1. What to do first
   • Prepare a double sheet of paper and divide it as illustrated below. Write down the headings as indicated.
   • Sound Words Current Account
   • Date of Deposit: .......... (write the actual date you are doing this work).

   Example 5.1

   Time	Place	Sounds
   Early morning	Outside my room	twittering birds stuttering engine moaning wind whimpering puppy growling dog
   Mid-morning	At school
   Afternoon
   Evening
   Midnight

   
   
2. Enter the time, place and the sounds you hear. An example has been done for you.
3. Complete the table accordingly. Write what you hear only.
4. Attach it in your Debate portfolio.

Note: Do some more research. You can use the Thesaurus as a reference tool to find more words and synonyms to describe the sounds you hear. This process is called diction building. You can use the words to speak and write. You can only use them because you deposited them into your Sound Words Account. Had you not deposited them, you would not be using them because there would be nothing in your Sound Words Account.

5.3. Speaking/Signing

Now that you have built some diction to describe sounds, team up with your friend and write down descriptions of events that happen either in the morning, afternoon, evening or middle of the night. I hope you are discovering that it is now easier to talk about these events because you can describe the sounds and you have the diction which you deposited in your Sound Words Account.

You will also realise that sound words help build atmosphere in a speech or writing. Did you check the meaning of the word atmosphere from the key words? I hope you did.

Atmosphere, in speaking or writing, refers to a typical mood created by the use of certain words. Sound words are an example of such words.

Words can create a scary atmosphere, a jovial atmosphere or a gloomy atmosphere. Did you also check the word jovial? Here are some of the synonyms of the word jovial
-very happy, ecstatic, exhilarated, jocund

Exercise 5.2.

Take turns with your friend to describe the sounds of the scenes you chose.

Remember, this exercise will help you as you write you assessment work in composition.

5.4. Composition work

Now it is time to use the information and detail you learnt in the previous four chapters in writing a composition. You are supposed to write in sequential paragraphs that show cohesion and coherence.

Note: A paragraph has essentially only one function. This is to expand or discuss or expose a single idea. The main point is stated in a single sentence, the Topic Sentence. Normally, but not always, it is the first sentence. All the other sentences that follow develop or expand or explain or tell us more about the idea in the topic sentence. This is why they are called developers. Therefore, it is essential that as you write your composition, bear in mind that each paragraph will have one idea.

Your paragraphs should be linked together to become one unit. This means that your composition should have unity. This is achieved partly by linking or joining the paragraphs together using connectives. Connectives are sometimes called discourse markers. Examples are in addition to, however, furthermore. Can you think of more examples?

Careful planning is of paramount importance in writing a composition. Something well planned is half done! You also learnt that to narrate is to tell an event. Your ability to tell what happened in detail will also be assessed. You will show how adverbs and adjectives are used to add detail to narrations and descriptions.

Exercise 5.3. Paper 1

5.5. Paper 2: Comprehension, summary and supporting language structures

You have so far covered a number of skills in comprehension. Do you still remember some? They include simple recall, context skills, reasoning, inference, deduction, evaluation and synthesis. In this section you will be expected to show your understanding of these skills by answering a given set of questions. You are also to use the study skills of scanning and skimming through the passage for salient detail.

Exercise 5.4.

Read the passage carefully and answer all the questions that follow. You are recommended to answer them in the order set. Mistakes in spelling, punctuation and grammar may be penalised in any part of the paper.

The New Education Framework for Zimbabwe

(By Honourable Dr. L. D. K. Dokora adapted from the Curriculum Framework for Primary and Secondary Education 2015-2022.)

From paragraph 1

1. 1. 1. What does the statement “Education is fundamental” tell you about the value the speaker puts on education?   [1]
      2. Mention two reasons why education is considered “fundamental” Give your answers separately as reason 1 and reason 2.   [2]
   2. “This will subsequently contribute to...”. What does “this” refer to?   [1]
   
   

   From paragraph 3 and 4

   3. Find a phrase from paragraph 4 that is closest in meaning to “phenomenal growth” in paragraph 3.   [1]
   4. Name any two stakeholders which collaborated with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.   [2]
   
   

   From paragraph 6 and 7

   5. In your own words, explain:
      “...to make learners make their hands dirty...”
      “...ambitious but entirely achievable...”
      
      Give your answers separately as explanation 1 for the first case and explanation 2 for the second case.   [2]
      [Total 9]



From paragraph 8

2. 1. 1. “The Curriculum Framework provides for an education that gives learners an appreciation of our unique identity as Zimbabweans at the same time establishing a strong scientific bias...”
         
         What does this statement tell us about the author’s attitude towards education in Zimbabwe?   [2]
      2. What are the two benefits Zimbabweans will get from the Curriculum Framework? State your answers as benefit 1 and benefit 2.   [2]
   
   

   From paragraph 8

   2. What was the main basis for The Curriculum Framework?   [1]
   
   

   From paragraph 11

   3. “The arduous process has forged a team spirit with a single word: implementation,implementation, and implementation”
      
      Suggest a reason why you think the author uses this word consecutively.   [1]
   
   

   From the whole passage

   4. Choose five of the following words. For each of them, give one word or short phrase (of not more than seven words) which has the same meaning that the word has in the passage.
      1. myriad (line 1)
      2. subsequently (line 6)
      3. significant (line 21)
      4. appreciation (line 36)
      5. expose (line 26)
      6. critical (51)
      7. key (48)
      8. extensive (line 60) {5}
      
      [Total 11]

Exercise 5.5.

The passage discusses what The Curriculum Framework developed by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education seeks to achieve.

Write a summary of why the Curriculum Frame work was developed and what it will do for the learners. Use only material from paragraph 5 to paragraph 10.

Your summary which should be in continuous writing (not note form) must not be longer than 150 words including the ten given below.

Begin your summary as follows:

The Curriculum Framework that was developed by the Ministry will...   [20]

5.5 Section B: Supporting Language Structures

1. There is however, increasing recognition that content knowledge mastery is not adequate as an exit attribute.
   
   Rewrite the above sentence changing the underlined words into one word by using a prefix.   [1]
2. The new Curriculum Framework places emphasis (on/in) skills and competencies rather than (on/in) rote learning.
   
   Rewrite the sentence and underline the correct prepositions.   [2]
3. The last two years of secondary school education (prepares/prepare) learners for entry into university education.   [1]
4. All the junior learners (has/have) been allowed to go to the launch of the New Curriculum Framework.   [1]
   
   Re write the above sentence and underline the correct answer.
Change the following sentences from Direct Speech to Indirect Speech.

5. “The arduous process has forged a team spirit,” indicated Dr. Dokora   [1]
6. 6. “Emphasis will now be given to providing improved access and quality education,” reiterated Dr. Lovemore.   [1]
7. 7. “Our education system has provided today’s generation with Ubuntu and we should all be proud of this,” stated Mrs. Musakana.   [2]
8. 8. Rewrite the following sentence correcting the wrongly spelt word. Chipo hates arguments about the new curriculum.   [1]

[Total 10]

5.6. Summary

To ensure that you write good compositions, this chapter has repeated essential elements of a good composition. These are paragraph unity, cohesion and coherence. You have also learnt of the importance of planning your composition.

We also unpacked the importance of the concept of depositing sound words in your Sound Words Current Account. These accounts should have regular deposits to help you when you are word-broke. The interrelatedness of the listening, speaking and writing skills has been highlighted and enhanced. The sounds that we hear are the sounds that we will talk about orally and write manually. This greatly improves the quality of compositions as appropriate diction is used to create atmosphere.

This chapter has also exposed you to examination type questions in free composition and reading comprehension. Supporting language structures based largely on the comprehension passage were assessed as well.

5.7. Expected/Possible answers

Exercise 5.4.

1. 1. 1. important value/great value/much value   [1]
      2. Reason 1: Provides many life opportunities.   [1]
         Reason 2: Underpins the development of a highly skilled and innovative workforce.   [1]
   2. providing improved access and quality education to every learner.   [1]
   3. rapid growth   [1]
   4. UNICEF, UNESCO, Rural District councils, Urban Municipalities, parents, line ministries
      Any 2 will score   [2]
   5. Explanation 1: to learn by doing /practical work/ hands on/practical work   [1]
      Explanation 2: huge plans/expectations that can still be realised/reached   [1]
      [Total 9]
2. 1. 1. That it is lagging behind scientifically/that he would like to see Zimbabwean Education System that is home grown and scientifically compliant.   [2]
      2. Benefit 1: Zimbabwe prepares learners for the 21st century.   [1]
         Benefit 2: developing higher order thinking skills and competencies.   [1]
   2. The findings of the recommendation of the Narrative Report 2014-2015.   [1]
   3. To emphasise the need to act/work/implement/to move from theory to practical.   [1]

   4. myriad	countless/many/innumerable
      subsequently	resultantly/as a result/consequently/then after
      significant	important/major/noteworthy/considerable
      appreciation	understanding/admiration/approval/strong liking
      expose	unveil/bring out
      critical	important/vital/very significant/essential
      key	main/chief/major/decisive
      extensive	widespread/wide ranging/wide

      
      

Exercise 5.5. Summary points

The summary must be written in continuous writing.

The Curriculum Framework that was developed by the Ministry will...

• provide a comprehensive plan for a rapid and sustainable transformation of the education system.
• require learners to make their hands dirty/learners to be hands on.
• lay strong foundation for vocational skills.
• empower learners to develop enterprises.
• contribute to the socio-economic transformation of the country.
• expose every learner to disciplines of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and heritage studies.
• expose learners to life and work learning contexts through the life skills orientation programme.
• improve quality of education from infant to secondary.
• improve access to education from infant to secondary.
• provide an education system that gives learners an appreciation of their unique identity as Zimbabweans.
• establish strong scientific and technological bias within the curriculum.
• closely relate the school to the productive sectors of the economy.
• develop skilled human capital base that ensures sustainable development.
• promote unity in diversity of cultures by developing the 16 officially recognised languages as identified in the constitution of Zimbabwe.
• mould learners who cherish and practice the Zimbabwean philosophical orientation of Unhu/Ubuntu/Vumunhu.
• prepare Zimbabwean learners for the needs of the 21st century.
• develop higher order thinking skills and competencies.

17 points

Each point will be awarded 1 mark. The other 5 marks are based on the number of errors you make where every grammar and spelling error will attract a half mark penalty.