ENGLISH SSS ONE

MONDAY

REVISION

S. S. S. ONE

ORAL ENGLISH

1.             English language has _______________ sounds.

2.             The sounds of English language can be broken into ____________ vowels and ____________ consonants.

3.             Identify the following sounds and say if they are vowels or consonants. The sounds are: /i:/, /j/, /p/, /e/, /æ/, //, /∫/, /:/, /d/, /i/, /z/, /ei/, /f/, /ai/, /r/, /ɔi/, /k/, /ə/, //, /g/.

Example:

/s/:          Consonant sound

4.             Write short notes on each of the following parts of speech:

i.               Nouns

ii.             Verbs

iii.           Pronouns

iv.           Adverbs

v.             Adjectives

vi.           Prepositions

vii.         Conjunctions

viii.       Interjections

TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY

COMPREHENSION

What is Comprehension?

Comprehension is the ability to read and understand a passage or any written expression. In comprehension, reading the passage is not enough but understanding what you have read. At the end of each passage, questions that test various skills are asked.

1.      Some of the questions test the students’ understanding of the context of the passage, that is, what the passage entails.

2.      Some assess students’ mastery of the vocabulary, that is, some words would be underlined in the passage and students would be asked to give words nearest in meaning to them. The meanings are contextual meanings, that is, their meanings according to how those words are used in the passage. You must not make use of a dictionary here.

3.      Some seek to find students’ ability to interpret figurative expressions. Examples:

i.                    Israel had his heart in his mouth when he heard a strange knock at his door last night. What is the meaning of the underlined group of words?

ii.                  The picture in that magazine screamed for attention. What figure of speech is this?

4.      Others assess students’ ability to identify the grammatical names and functions of phrases and clauses.

HOW TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ON COMPRHENSION PASSAGES

1.             Read the passage at least twice before attempting the questions. The ability to read fast is an invaluable asset to the students because it enables him or her to cover a wider ground than a slower reader can do. A fast reader has the opportunity of reading through the passage twice or thrice before answering the questions that follow.

2.             While reading the passage, you should identify the “TOPIC SENTENCE” which is usually associated with the subject matter or theme of the passage. The TOPIC SENTENCE can be located in either the first paragraph of the passage or at the end of it. But it’s usually embedded in the first sentence of the comprehension passage, that is, the very noun in the TOPIC SENTENCE.

3.             Lifting from the passage is allowed. In fact, it is advisable you use expressions from the passage.

4.             You must give your answers in sentences and not in phrases.

5.             Do not start your answers with subordinating conjunctions e.g. ‘because’, although’, ‘if’, etc.

6.             Spellings: wrong spellings are a serious crime.

7.             Do not give two answers when you are not sure whether one is correct.

8.             List out the words or phrases to be replaced before replacing them.

9.             Use dash (-) to replace words or phrases. For instance ‘pigheaded’ – stubborn.

10.         Do not use colons (:), semi colons (;) or equation sign (=). Also, do not put the words in a tabular form.

11.         Use same tense. For instance: “deviated” – “digressed” not digress.

12.         Your answers must be based on the context of the passage. In the examination, you will be asked to find another word nearest in meaning to the underlined as used in the passage. So you must respond in that manner. For instance, let us consider the word “pigheaded”. As used in the passage, it might mean “stubborn”, “determined”, “persistent”, etc. It does not mean having “a pig’s head” or “like a pig’s head”.

THURSDAY

SOUNDS OF ENGLISH

VOWEL SOUNDS

The sounds of English are different from its alphabets. There are two (2) major classes into which sound segments in English language are divided. The two classes are:

(i)            The vowel sounds

(ii)          The consonant sounds

What are Vowel Sounds?

Vowel sounds are the speech sounds produced with no obstruction as the air stream flows from the lungs to the mouth. In other words, in producing the vowel sounds, there is no constriction in the vocal tract. That is, no organ articulates with another organ thereby causing obstruction to the air passage from the lung to the mouth.

The tongue moves and the shape of the lips change according to the kind of vowel being produced. All English vowels are always produced with a degree of vocal cords vibration. Hence, all vowel sounds are voiced.

TYPES OF VOWEL SOUNDS

The vowel sounds of English language are classified into two. They are:

(i)            Monothongs or Single vowels

(ii)          Diphthongs

Questions:

(i)            How many vowel sounds are there in English language?

(ii)          Monothongs are also called ________________.

(iii)        Diphthongs are also called _________________.

FRIDAY

CONTINUOUS WRITING

INFORMAL LETTER

WHAT IS WRITING?

Writing has to do with communicating our ideas, thoughts, feelings and emotions in written form. Writing could be in form of essay or letter.

Letters on the other hand are written messages, requests, accounts of events, etc, sent by one person to another. By this, we can communicate with people who are either far away from us or busy with some other business. Consequently, all the different literary aspects of a composition must be considered when writing a letter: content, organisation, expression and mechanical accuracy.

TYPES OF LETTERS

Letters are normally classified into three broad categories. They are:

(i)            Informal letter

(ii)          Semi – formal letter

(iii)        Formal letter

INFORMAL LETTER

This is also referred to as personal or friendly letter. Under this category would come: Letter to friends (pen friends or pen pals), letter to parents (father and mother), letter to relations (aunt, uncle, cousin, nephew, sister, brother etc).

In brief, informal letters are usually written to people who are closely related or familiar with us.

Features of Informal Letter

1.              The address of the writer and date must be written at the top right hand corner of the page.

2.              Your name should never be written at the top of our address at all. But it should come at the end of the entire letters.

3.              Use a comma (,) at the end of each line of address and at the end of the whole address a full – stop (.).

4.              The last line of the address should contain the date which must be followed by a full – stop (.).

5.              Use block style or slant pattern for the address. A letter to be sent outside the country must include state and country of the sender.

6.              Capitalize the first letter of the lexical words in the address. The lexical words are: nouns, lexical verbs, adjectives and adverbs. For instance, name of your school, post office, state, etc. Don’t write out your address in capital letter.

7.              Write your date like this: 9th September, 2014.

8.              Greetings / Salutation: Write Dear or My dear + the first name of the recipient. You can also write Dear Uncle alone or Dear uncle + the first name to show respect. Do not write Dear or My dear + the name of your father or mother rather you write Dear Daddy / Mummy, My Dear father or mother. Don’t use capital or block letter ‘A’ and ‘U’ in aunty and uncle respectively when you mention the name. Still, if you don’t mention name, make use of block letter ‘A’ and ‘U’ for aunty and uncle respectively. Salutation is followed shortly by a comma (,).

9.              The Introductory Paragraph: This is the opening of the letter. Here, candidates may be requested to write a letter to any of his relatives or friends. The opening paragraph must contain exchange of pleasantry and not the purpose of writing the letter. Example:

i.                    Since I promised you a letter as soon as the new term began and we have been two weeks into this term, I think it’s high time that I kept my promise. So, how are you and how is school? I hope fine and I also hope you have been enjoying this cool weather we have been having his past weeks.

ii.                  Your interesting letter was received just yesterday. Normally, I am very lazy at letter-writing. But each time I received your letter, I am always eager to write back as soon as possible. May be your letters have some secret charms which drive away my laziness. You laugh?

10.         The Body of the letter: The main reason(s) for writing must of course take a lion share of the letter.

11.         The concluding paragraph: It may be or may not be long depending on the writer’s discretion e.g. Everybody is doing fine at home and they send their greetings. Please, extend my love to sister Folake and brother Dayo. Tell them that everything is well with me here.

12.         The ending: End your informal letter with “Yours sincerely” OR “Yours affectionately” and write your first name under it. E.g.

Yours sincerely,

David.

OR

Yours affectionately,

David.