English AS Level 2008

Death Penalty

2009-02-02T10:57:00.001+08:00

The Death Penalty
The death penalty, also known as capital punishment, is the lawful imposition of death as punishment for a crime. In 2004 four (China, Iran, Vietnam and the US) accounted for 97 percent of all global executions. On average, every 9-10 days a government in the United States executes a prisoner. Blacks are executed at a rate significantly disproportionate to their share of overall population.
Based on 2000 data, Texas ranked 13th in the country in violent crime and 17th in murders per 100,000 citizens. However, Texas leads the nation in death penalty convictions and executions.
Since the 1976 Supreme Court decision that re-instated the death penalty in the United States, the governments of the United States had executed 1,136, as of December 2008. The 1,000th execution, North Carolina's Kenneth Boyd, occurred in December 2005. There were 42 executions in 2007.
More than 3,300 prisoners were serving death-row sentences in the US in December 2008. Nationwide, juries are delivering fewer death sentences: since the late 1990s, they have dropped 50 percent. The violent crime rate has also dropped dramatically since the mid-90s, reaching the lowest level ever recorded in 2005.
Although most Americans support capital punishment under some circumstances, according to Gallup support for capital punishment has dropped dramatically from a high of 80 percent in 1994 to about 60 percent today.
It is Eighth Amendment, the constitutional clause that prohibits "cruel and unusual" punishment, that is at the center of the debate about capital punishment in America.
Latest Developments
In 2007, the Death Penalty Information Center released a report, “A Crisis of Confidence: Americans’ Doubts About the Death Penalty.”
The Supreme Court has ruled that the death penalty should reflect the "conscience of the community," and that its application should be measured against society's "evolving standards of decency. This latest report suggests that 60 percent of Americans do not believe that the death penalty is a deterrent to murder. Moreover, almost 40 percent believe that their moral beliefs would disqualify them from serving on a capital case.
And when asked whether they prefer the death penalty or life in prison without parole as punishment for murder, the respondents were split: 47 percent death penalty, 43 percent prison, 10 percent unsure. Interestingly, 75 percent believe that a "higher degree of proof" is required in a capital case than in a "prison as punishment" case. (poll margin of error +/- ~3%)
In addition, since 1973 more than 120 people have had their death row convictions overturned. DNA testing has resulted in 200 non-capital cases to be overturned since 1989. Mistakes like these shake public confidence in the capital punishment system. Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that almost 60 percent of those polled -- including almost 60 percent of the southerners -- in this study believe that the United States should impose a moratorium on the death penalty.
An ad hoc moratorium is almost in place. After the 1,000th execution in December 2005, there were almost no executions in 2006 or the first five months of 2007.
History
Executions as a form of punishment date to at least the 18th century BC. In America, Captain George Kendall was executed in 1608 in the Jamestown Colony of Virginia; he was accused of being a spy for Spain. In 1612, Virginia death penalty violations included what modern citizens would consider minor violations: stealing grapes, killing chickens and trading with Indians.
In the 1800s, abolitionists took up the cause of capital punishment, relying in part on Cesare Beccaria's 1767 essay, On Crimes and Punishment.
From the 1920s-1940s, criminologists argued that the death penalty was a necessary and preventative social measure. The 1930s, also marked by the Depression, saw more executions than any other decade in our history.
From the 1950s-1960s, public sentiment turned against capital punishment, and the number executed plummeted. In 1958, the Supreme Court ruled in Trop v. Dulles that the Eighth Amendment contained an "evolving standard of decency that marked the progress of a maturing society." And according to Gallup, public support reached an all-time low of 42 percent in 1966.
Two 1968 cases caused the nation to rethink its capital punishment law. In U.S. v. Jackson, the Supreme Court ruled that requiring that the death penalty be imposed only upon recommendation of a jury was unconstitutional because it encouraged defendants to plead guilty to avoid trial. In Witherspoon v. Illinois, the Court ruled on juror selection; having a "reservation" was insufficient cause for dismissal in a capital case.
In June 1972, the Supreme Court (5-4) effectively voided death penalty statutes in 40 states and commuted the sentences of 629 death row inmates. In Furman v. Georgia, the Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment with sentencing discretion was "cruel and unusual" and thus violated the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
In 1976, the Court ruled that capital punishment itself was constitutional while holding that new death penalty laws in Florida, Georgia and Texas -- which included sentencing guidelines, bifurcated trials, and automatic appellate review -- were constitutional.
A ten-year moratorium on executions that had begun with the Jackson and Witherspoon ended on 17 January 1977 with the execution of Gary Gilmore by firing squad in Utah
Theory of Deterrence-Pro/Con
There are two common arguments in support of capital punishment: that of deterrence and that of retribution.
According to Gallup, most Americans believe that the death penalty is a deterrent to homicide, which helps them justify their support for capital punishment. Other Gallup research suggests that most Americans would not support capital punishment if it did not deter murder.

Does capital punishment deter violent crimes? In other words, will a potential murderer consider the possibility that they might be convicted and face the death penalty before committing a murder?
The answer appears to be "no."
Social scientists have mined empirical data searching for the definitive answer on deterrence since the early 20th century. And "most deterrence research has found that the death penalty has virtually the same effect as long imprisonment on homicide rates." Studies suggesting otherwise (notably writings of Isaac Ehrlich from the 1970s) have been, in general, criticized for methodological errors. Ehrlich's work was also criticized by the National Academy of Sciences - but it is still cited as a rationale for deterrence.
A 1995 survey of police chiefs and country sheriffs found that most ranked the death penalty last in a list of six options that might deter violent crime. Their top two picks? Reducing drug abuse and fostering an economy that provides more jobs.
Data on murder rates seem to discredit the deterrence theory as well. The region of the county with the greatest number of executions -- the South -- is the region with the largest murder rates. For 2007, the average murder rate in states with the death penalty was 5.5; the average murder rate of the 14 states without the death penalty was 3.1
Thus deterrence, which is offered as a reason to support capital punishment ("pro"), doesn't wash.
Theory of Retribution-Pro/Con
In Gregg v Georgia, the Supreme Court wrote that "[t]he instinct for retribution is part of the nature of man..."
The theory of retribution rests, in part, on the Old Testament and its call for "an eye for an eye." Proponents of retribution argue that "the punishment must fit the crime." According to The New American: "Punishment -- sometimes called retribution -- is the main reason for imposing the death penalty."
Opponents of retribution theory believe in the sanctity of life and often argue that it is just as wrong for society to kill as it is for an individual to kill.
Others argue that what drives American support for capital punishment is the "impermanent emotion of outrage." Certainly, emotion not reason seems to be the key behind support for capital punishment.
What About Costs?
Some supporters of the death penalty also contend it is less expensive than a life sentence. Nevertheless, at least 47 states do have life sentences without the possibility of parole. Of those, at least 18 have no possibility of parole. And according to the ACLU:
The most comprehensive death penalty study in the country found that the death penalty costs North Carolina $2.16 million more per execution than a non-death penalty murder case with a sentence of life imprisonment (Duke University, May 1993). In its review of death penalty expenses, the State of Kansas concluded that capital cases are 70% more expensive than comparable non-death penalty cases.
Where it Stands
More than 1000 religious leaders have written an open letter to America and its leaders:
We join with many Americans in questioning the need for the death penalty in our modern society and in challenging the effectiveness of this punishment, which has consistently been shown to be ineffective, unfair, and inaccurate....
With the prosecution of even a single capital case costing millions of dollars, the cost of executing 1,000 people has easily risen to billions of dollars. In light of the serious economic challenges that our country faces today, the valuable resources that are expended to carry out death sentences would be better spent investing in programs that work to prevent crime, such as improving education, providing services to those with mental illness, and putting more law enforcement officers on our streets. We should make sure that money is spent to improve life, not destroy it....

Drugs Essay Blocks 1 and 5

2009-01-24T10:54:00.002+08:00

A few links you might find interesting for the essay.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/conditions/mental_health/drugs_use.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/switch/surgery/advice/drink_drugs/

http://www.acde.org/educate/Research.htm

http://www.drugscope.org.uk/druginfo/drugsearch/home2.asp

Blk 1: Model (Section B -Lifesyle Question)

2008-11-05T04:14:00.005+08:00

Life and how to survive it:

A Speech by Adrian Tan given at a convocation dinner at National University of Singapore

http://jinshinn.blogspot.com/2008/09/life-and-how-to-survive-it.html

Blk 1 DESCRIPTIVE WRITING

2008-11-05T04:00:00.003+08:00

Past Examination questions (Paper 2 Section A)

1. You are in paradise. What is it like? (June 08). (also imaginative )

2. Write a descriptive piece called ‘The Storm’. In your writing you should try to bring out an increasing sense of the power and force of extreme weather. ( June 08)

3. Think of a piece of music you know well. Describe the memories and feelings it brings. (Nov 07)

4. Write the opening to a story called ‘The Dream’. In your writing you should try to bring out an atmosphere built on the use of colour and sound. (Nov 07) (also imaginative; storyline is of secondary importance since this is an opening chapter)

5. Write the short opening chapter of a novel called Dark Star. In your writing you should try to bring out a sense of a futuristic and mysterious world. (June 07) (also imaginative; you should keep the plot very simple because the emphasis is on describing a futuristic and mysterious atmosphere)

6. Write the opening to a story in which things begin to happen in slow motion. (Nov 06) (you should keep the plot simple because the emphasis is on the description of slow motion)

7. Think of a particular sound. Describe the memories and feelings which it brings to mind.(Nov 06)

8. Write two contrasting pieces (between 300– 450 words each) describing the same character when he/she is young and then old. In your writing you should try to bring out differences in the character’s appearance and outlook on life. (June 06)

9. Write the opening chapter of a novel called The Underworld. In your writing you should try to bring out a sense of mystery and suspense. ( June 06) (also imaginative; storyline is of secondary importance since this is an opening chapter )

10. Think of a taste or smell. Describe the personal experiences and emotions which it brings to mind.(Nov 05)

11. Write two contrasting descriptive pieces [around 300–450 words each] which portray the scene before a party or a festival and the scene after it. In your writing you should bring out differences in mood and atmosphere. (June 05)

5 POINTERS for writing descriptive essays

1. Describe the place, person, scene from different angles/aspects. Eg:
a. a Storm (Question 2) - How the storm affects the vegetation, the people, the roads & vehicles, buildings, animals, geographical features (coastline, rivers, mountains)

b. character (Question 8) – appearance ( facial features, body shape, how he walks, talks, dresses, mannerisms etc) ; outlook (of money, friends, career, marriage, raising children, death etc)

c. A party or festival (Question 11) - decorations, music, food, lighting, entertainers, performances, floats, hosts and guests, VIP’s, etc

2. Consider the 5 SENSES - describe sounds (made by humans, machinery, animals, natural elements) smells, colours, shapes or forms of things, movements, how something feels to the touch, temperature (cold/hot), how something feels to your tastebuds. (Questions 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11)

3. Think DETAIL, DETAIL, DETAIL (applies to all questions)

Eg Consider this description of Count Dracula:
His face was a strong -- a very strong -- aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth; these protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale and at the tops extremely pointed; the chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor..
Hitherto I had noticed the backs of his hands as they lay on his knees in the firelight, and they had seemed rather white and fine; but seeing them now close to me, I could not but notice that they were rather coarse -- broad, with squat fingers. Strange to say, there were hairs in the centre of the palm. The nails were long and fine, and cut to a sharp point. As the Count learned over me and his hands touched me, I could not repress a shudder. It may have been that his breath was rank, but a horrible feeling of nausea came over me, which, do what I would, I could not conceal…
Dracula, Bram Stoker (2000)

4. Think PERSONAL (thoughts, feelings, memories, likes and dislikes, impressions that are YOURS and yours ONLY.) (Questions 1, 3, 4, 7 and 10). Original ideas are always refreshing and sometimes give new understanding to a topic or subject.

5. The storyline or plot is of secondary or minor importance ( Plot is important for questions which specifically ask you write a short story or drama script).

Blk 1: Essays written by teens

2008-10-31T15:35:00.005+08:00

You should read the previous post (Paper 2, Section 2, Types of questions) BEFORE reading the articles here.

A list of the most popular argumentative or 'opinion type' essays written by teens in the magazine TEENINK
http://teenink.com/Opinion/?sort=popularity&dir=desc

To read articles for youth magazines, browse these links:

Youth magazines which promote social, political and environmental change
Wiretap: http://www.wiretapmag.org/
Wired : http://www.wired.com/wired/
Tearaway: http://www.tearaway.co.nz/

To read articles in teenage girls' magazine, browse Teenvoice: http://www.teenvoices.com/AboutTV/index.shtml

Blk 1 PAPER 2 SECTION B: TYPES OF QUESTIONS

2008-10-30T16:18:00.004+08:00

TYPES OF QUESTIONS IN PAPER 2 SECTION B

A. Questions related to GENRE (magazine article, review, speech/talk, letter to a magazine or newspaper, entry for a competition, newspaper article)

1. A media website which displays reviews has invited contributions from its users about a particular book, film or television programme. Write two users’ contrasting reviews (between 300–450 words each) about the same title, bringing out clear reasons for their different opinions. (June 08)

2. You have been invited to write a brief article for a teenage magazine in which you offer advice to its readers on dealing with stress and adopting a healthy lifestyle. Write the article. (June 08)

3. You have been invited by your community to speak about the ways in which the local area and its facilities could be made more attractive for residents and tourists. Write your speech, offering clear reasons for your ideas. (Nov 07)

4. You have been invited to contribute to a radio programme in which participants will describe their least favourite cultural experiences. You will have to talk about two of the following, offering reasons for your opinions: the worst book you have read; the owrst film or television programme you have watched; the worst piece of art you have seen. Write your talk. (Nov 07)

5. You have just read an article in a teenage magazine which argues that young peoples' increased access to the media and new technology is beneficial for a number of reasons. You feel very strongly about this and write to the magazine disagreeing with the ideas in the article. write this letter. (June 07)

6. You have been invited to reply to an article which appeared recently in your local newspaper. In the article the writer urged that women's rights have been taken too far and that men feel that they have lost their status and identity. Write your reply. (June 07)

7. You have been asked to write a magazine article called ‘Coping with Kids’. The article is aimed atparents and offers positive and constructive advice on how they should deal with teenagers in the family. Write the opening of the article. (Nov 06)

8. You have entered a competition in which you have to make a speech naming three things you would rid the world of and explaining why. Write the speech. (Nov 06)

9. You have been asked to write a magazine feature called ‘My Role Model’. In it, you should explain why a particular person (alive or dead) inspires you, and try to persuade readers that they should share your enthusiasm. (Nov 05)

10. Write a magazine feature for older readers called ‘Brave New World’. The feature should persuade the reader that current and future technology is not simply aimed at young people but that it can benefit older people too. The article should be written in a lively and interesting way. (June 04)

11. A major television company is running a competition to find a presenter for its new youyj music and entertainment show. Entrants are required to write in, outlining their personal qualities, what they could bring to the show and how they could present it. Write your entry.(June 04)

B. ARGUMENTATIVE/OPINION-TYPE ESSAYS

1. Does history teach us anything? (June 08)

2. ‘The punishment should fit the crime.’ Do you agree? (June 08)

3. 'Charity concerts do more harm than good'. What is your view? (Nov 07)

4. 'East is East and West is West....and never shall they meet.' Can the world live in harmony? (June 07)

5. ‘Fast food is bad for you and bad for the world.’ Do you agree? ( Nov 06)

6. Can it ever be right for one nation to interfere in the affairs of another? (Nov 05)

7. The United Nations is running an international competition called ‘What My Country and Culture Can Offer Others’. To enter, write an essay explaining what people around the world could learn from your country’s traditions and ways of life. (Nov 05)

8. ‘There is too much power in the hands of too few people today’. Do you agree? (June 04)

9. ‘Genetic research and experiments are doing more harm than good’. What do you think? (June 04)

C. Questions related to LIFESTYLE (how should we live? What values,beliefs,etc should we have?)

1. If you were able to create a new country, what kind of society and laws would you wish to see in the place - and why?

2. If you had unlimited wealth, what would you do with it and why? (June 07)

3. ‘You should think about the future.’
‘Live for the moment.’
Which of these views would you agree with more – and why? (Nov 06)

4. You are to be left alone on a desert island, from which you cannot escape, for a month. You have basic survival rations, but you are also allowed three luxury items. Explain which luxury items you would take with you and why. (June 05)

5. ‘Turn the other cheek’.
‘An eye for an eye’.
Which view are you in closer agreement with and why? (2004)

6. How far do you agree that life is all about having fun? (PTEB Mock Exams 2006)

Blk 1 Review of model commentaries

2008-10-24T17:55:00.004+08:00

Below are 5 model commentaries from older posts in the blog.

For commentaries 1 and 2 the parts of the passage that are in italics illustrate how you may comment on the effect of language features . The words in bold refer to the various language features or the use of words by the writer.

1. Commentary on the text taken from George Orwell’s “The Road to Wigan Pier”

This text from George Orwell’s “The Road to Wigan Pier” is in the genre of a report or a social commentary/critique. His purpose is to bring to light or expose the conditions suffered by the working people in the North of England. The audience is likely to be the general public, but more specifically the government. Its tone therefore is critical, descriptive and provocative.

The first paragraph characterizes the South, East and Midlands of England as comfortably bland and uniform, through the use of such lexical items as “accustomed to”, “not much difference”, “not unlike” and “indistinguishable”. He then provides a stark contrast to this with his description of the towns of the North. The repetition of words such as “ugliness” and the use of adjectives like “frightful” and “arresting” heightens the terrible contrast between these comfortable pleasant towns of the rest of England, and those of the North.

The second paragraph consists of a description of Wigan. He uses a myriad of adjectives to describe the terrible scene he witnesses, such as “hideous, planless, functionless, frightful, evil.” All of these combine to create an image of a horrific environment. In the first line he uses the contradictory term “at best” along with the word "hideous" to show that the word is not enough to describe the scene of the slag-heap. That is indeed the best thing which can be said about it.

The simile “like the emptying of a giant’s dustbin” gives us an image of the huge size of the slag-heap. Adjectives such as “jagged” convey a harsh, sharp image of the scene. He then creates an image of hell with the use of the alliterative metaphor “red rivulets of fire, winding this way and that.” The never-ending nature of this horror is emphasized through the description of the “blue flames of sulphur, which always seem on the point of expiring and always spring out again.” There is no relief, no respite from the misery. These slag-heaps will also still be visible “centuries hence”. In the phrase “evil brown grass” he uses personification to show that even natural elements such as grass have this horrible characteristic. The fact that slag-heaps are used as playgrounds seems incongruous, almost ironic. These slag-heaps are compared with the use of a simile to the sharp peaks of “a choppy sea, suddenly frozen” or a metaphor with his depiction of an uncomfortable lumpy “flock mattress”.

In the third paragraph he recalls one particular winter afternoon in Wigan. he uses the alliterative metaphor “lunar landscape” to give the image of a barren, almost alien environment. There is no vegetation, just “cinders” and “frozen mud”. This environment is “criss-crossed by the imprint of innumerable clogs“ the alliteration generating the image of many people suffering under these harsh conditions. The “flashes – pools of stagnant water” intensify the image of this horrific place, as they were covered with “ice, the colour of raw umber”. You might, under normal conditions expect ice to clear or white, but not in this environment. There is an example of personification where the “lock gates wore beards of ice” emphasizing the image of this cold, barren land, from which “vegetation had been banished.”

However, all of this pales in comparison to Sheffield, as evidenced by the use of the intensifier “even”. It is “the ugliest town in the Old World”, with very few decent buildings, even compared to the average East Anglian village of only 500 inhabitants. Ironically, the inhabitants seem to be almost proud of this accolade. The exclamation mark after “…stench!” intensifies the already strong meaning of the word. There is some irony in the fact that even when the sulphur smell is not present, you smell gas. There is no respite, no relief from the unrelenting misery. “The shallow river…is usually bright yellow” and one might normally expect something yellow to be bright, primary and natural, however here, the yellow comes from “some chemical or other”. Throughout the text, Orwell uses colour imagery, “grey mountains…red rivulets…blue flames…brown grass…raw umber…bright yellow…dark red…blackened…blackish… red and yellow brick…rosy…redlit boys” to heighten the vivid effect of his imagery. Even the primary colours are indicative of something horrible.

The description of the thirty-three chimneys is heightened by the fact that it was only the smoke which hindered his view of many more. Further use of lexis such as “frightful…squalor…littered…gaunt” further increase the impression of impoverishment. His ironic use of the word “vista” to describe the ugly panorama is intensified by the repetition of “chimneys, chimney beyond chimney”.

The last paragraph gives us an image of Sheffield at night, a hideous place where there is nothing but “blackness” and the oxymoronic “sinister magnificence.“ The “serrated flames, like circular saws” reprises (repeats) the “jagged” image from the description of Wigan. Orwell personifies the smoke and flames which “squeeze themselves”, as if they were alive. The vision of hell is once again highlighted with “fiery serpents” and “redlit boys”, and further intensified with the onomatopoeic “whiz, thump…scream.”

Orwell, through his cumulative use of imagery created by a variety of lexis(vocabulary) , paints a picture of unmitigated horror. It is clear that his writing was intended to have a very strong effect on his audience.

2. Model for “Travellers’ check”

The genre of this text is an article from an in-flight magazine. Its tone therefore is likely to be persuasive, as it is in effect an advert for the airlines services, as they only write about places they go to, and only ever in a positive light. It cannot be seen as an impartial opinion.
The purpose is to inform the readers about the North Borneo Railway, in an effort to persuade them to use it, and to use Malaysia Airlines to get there.
There is also a light-heartedness to the tone, which the author establishes early, with the pun in the title, between a possible means of paying for the journey and an introduction to the information to follow about the railway.

The attraction of train travel is outlined in the opening paragraph.: the metaphor “opened up the countryside” makes train travel attractive by suggesting new discoveries or the revelation of something concealed until now. “Head-off” is light-hearted and gives the idea that travel is relaxing and freedom-giving. The mention of Thomas Cook in the second paragraph gives historical accuracy and therefore credibility to train travel as something tried and tested.

The idiomatic usage of “puffin’ billy” is informal which gives the passage an easy feel to it. Train travel is for everyone. The metaphor “paradise” to describe the railway in north Borneo makes the countryside which it passes through seem idyllic., the most beautiful place on earth, or even a beauty which transcends the earth. The structure of the rest of the paragraph makes it easy to follow the rest of the passage because the writer outlines two options for travel on the railway, which then makes it possible to devote a paragraph to one of them.
The idiom “trainheads” must mean those who love train travel, again the informal tone makes train travel seem accessible to ordinary people, and the newness of the idiom makes train travel seem modern and possibly an attraction for the young, who are the people who might invent this new slang.

In the fourth paragraph the vocabulary item “narrow rickety” is used to describe the train. Normally these adjectives would not enhance an overall description, but in this case they serve to make the train appear attractively old-fashioned. As if the privilege of having such a historical experience makes it worthwhile to suffer this discomfort. . The “lunatic fringe, fanatical steam train devotees” raises train travel to an almost religious level which is clearly hyperbole. 'Lunatic fringe' is humorous because it suggests that those who like train travel are in some way mentally deranged.

Contrast is established when the writer goes on to describe the other, completely different type of travelers (those with only a passing interest) therefore it can be seen that train travel is for all, and so every reader is included as a possible traveller, adding to the persuasive tone of the passage. The vocabulary captures the history and therefore the credibility of train travel in words such as “nostalgia” and “oblivion” with their connotations of long time scales. A simile describing the train as being “like a time capsule’ makes the train seem old-fashioned, by suggesting a trip on it is not only through this part of Malaysia but back through history to a time pre-dating our own modern trains. The metaphor “lifeline” comes from the literal idea of throwing a drowning person a rope with which to be pulled ashore: thus the vital importance of the railway to people’s way of life is underpinned.

In conclusion the writer seeks to persuade people to use these trains through an appeal to their sense of nostalgia.

3. Shanghai Childhood

The genre of this text is from a novel which has been written from an autobiographical viewpoint. The tone is very much one of nostalgia and gentle humour. The writer’s purpose is to look back on childhood in a nostalgic, sometimes rather comical way.

It is incongruous to describe a “mound” as having a “summit”. This shows that to small children a slight incline in the garden seems like a mountain. The writer concedes that his memory is exaggerated in the phrases “even at the time” and “hardly matched”: he acknowledges the “splendour“of the houses round the corner, which are described as “residences” rather than merely houses.

A comical picture of little boys is created. Their game is only running about in the garden and yet they are “worn…out” and are “panting”, in need of a rest. The gap between childhood and adulthood for the writer is shown in the words “around six years old”; he does not have an exact memory because it was a long time ago. Nostalgia is created in his closing his eyes “to bring back that picture”, consciously trying to evoke the past. His parents’ nostalgia for the England they have left behind is shown in their weak attempt to recreate an “English” lawn: the inverted commas show their attempt is not entirely unsuccessful in the climate of Shanghai. It is also important to note that tense shift from past to present which further highlights the nostalgic element in the text.

4. Sample Commentary – Toads and Dancing Monkeys

Durrell’s autobiographical account of his travels in West Africa during the early 1950s is humorous His intention is to transport the reader from her English sitting room through the brilliantly colourful jungle which teems with life and is full of exotic sights and sounds. Everything here is alive, from the ancient lorry to the sounds of the birds. Everything has a mind of its own, from the sentinel trees and ferns to the willful components of the truck. By bringing the scene so vividly to life, Durrell’s writing serves as a metaphor for the exuberance of life in the jungle. We can see that he considers the jungle to be a single living entity in his image of the forest, a thick pelt of green undulating into the distance. This then is his purpose, to make the scene come bursting alive, and the language which he uses achieves this aim wonderfully well.

In the first paragraph we are cleverly introduced to the pitiful clapped out jalopy of a truck. The negatively expressed and understated 'not in what one would call the first flush of youth' leads us to expect a means of transport perhaps verging on cantankerous and unreliable middle age. However, the antique vehicle which arrives is personified as a geriatric human struggling for breath, and the alliterative 'wheels wheezing' and onomatopoeic 'gasping' bring to vivid life its asthmatic condition, especially when it cannot cope even with the gentlest of slopes. Its component parts are also alive and possess minds of their own and thus Durrell has to take control of them like a strict schoolmaster watching over unruly pupils with his stern eye. One pupil, the handbrake, is surly, while the other, the clutch, is playful. Here we find the strange simile 'seized every chance to leap out of its socket with a noise like a strangling leopard'. The noise of the clutch is surely a matter for the imagination of the reader, but one function of this simile is to remind the reader that she is in the distant jungle and that the decrepit lorry still has something of the wild animal in it and remains part of the jungle around.

Durrell obviously has a high opinion of the skills of West African lorry drivers, as he says that not even they can drive in impossible positions. Here, the adverb 'even' serves to compare West African lorry driver favourably with their counterparts elsewhere. Durrell introduces more humour when he describes the truck as 'noble', a royal quality it obviously acquires from its sedate and stately speed of 20mph. This is made more humorous with the idiomatic 'threw caution to the winds' and careered along in a madcap fashion at twenty-five. This is a piece of hyperbole as 25mph is anything but fast, but of course to the clapped out wagon it is very quick indeed.

Having brought the lorry to life, Durrell moves on in paragraph two to bring the jungle around him to life and endow the flora with surprising purpose. Here we have the trees standing in solid ranks as soldiers guarding something, but what? Later the metaphor is repeated as the ferns become guardians of a new landscape. Could these provide a clue as to Durrell’s purpose in Africa?

In the same paragraph we are introduced to the boys who sing a simple song in a simple dialect. All that interests them is going to ma home to ma mammy. They do not notice and have no interest in the wondrous sights around them. The driver too is deferential to Durrell, worried that he will object to the song. Durrell is obviously the boss, he knows everything about the forest, and compared to his rich and flamboyant language, the natives appear to be little more than simpletons who are merely there to help him on his dark purpose. This paragraph also contains beautiful, evocative descriptions of the love of Durrell’s life, the animals that inhabit the forest. The alliteration of the fricative f in flocks of hornbills flapped brings these exotic birds vividly to life. The onomatopoeia of honking conjures their call, and the simile like the ghosts of ancient taxis evokes a mystical, spiritual rather than physical presence and serves to remind the reader of the other worldliness of this domain. Then we meet the agama lizards who are alliteratively draped decoratively, an image of curtains in keeping with the nature of the forest and one which gains credence when their colour is described as sunset, a myriad of changes from orange through red to deepest violet. Once again the lizards are full of life as they nod their heads furiously. Furiously at what, one wonders – is it simply the speed of movement, or is it their anger and knowledge of Durrell’s purpose? The road too has life, looping its way in languid curves. The lengthy l sounds accentuating the long and lazy path it takes. All of this alliteration and onomatopoeia serve to bring the sounds of the forest to the readers’ ears.

In the third paragraph, we meet a new landscape, that of the uplands. This is much less luxuriant than the lowland forest, but nevertheless is described in vibrant terms. There are tree ferns which stand around plotting and planning with fronds like delicate green fountains, a simile which easily captures how they look and suggests the renewing life giving qualities of fountains. The hills become bare; they shrug themselves free of a cloak, because, of course, they too are alive. We find golden grass rippling, an echo of the undulating forest below. To close this section we return to the lorry, which has, against all the odds, made it to the summit exhibiting all the signs of illness and age previously mentioned. Though by now it truly seems to be on its last legs spouting steam like a dying whale. It is with a sense of relief and release that the passage ends with the closure of switched off the engine.

Whilst the use of language clearly plays the major role in how Durrell achieves his aim, there are some areas of structure which require comment. He uses colons, firstly to explain in detail why this particular lorry was worse than any he had met before. Secondly to list the operations he was required to supervise whilst in the lorry. The effect is to lead the reader to expect that in each case more information will be provided. Durrell also uses present participles rather than finite tenses to de-emphasise actions and thus focus more on the image presented. Thus we find that the agama lizards lay, blushing into sunset colouring: the focus clearly being on the picture of them blushing. Similarly we see massive tree-ferns standing in conspiratorial groups, and the effect helps us visualise them as humans.

Durrell easily conveys his enthusiasm for the forest and its inhabitants through his flamboyant use of language. The experience for the reader is to be transported with him onto the lorry and into the forests of West Africa; to an exotic location where everything is alive and conscious

Blk 1: Answering questions in Paper 1

2008-10-19T23:04:00.003+08:00

1. Read the rubric (brief explanation for the passage) carefully to get an idea of the genre and what the passage is generally about.

2. Read questions (a) and (b), underlining key words if necessary to help/remind you to answer the question relevantly.

3. Read the passage quickly the first time to get an overall impression of the meaning, based on the rubric. You may find certain words, phrases or language features in the passage striking and you should quickly underline the words and jot down brief notes.

4. As you read the passage a few times, you should be getting a clearer idea of what the passage is generally about ( What is basically going on in the passage? Overall, what is the passage about? what is the general idea in the passage? ) Continue to jot down your responses .

5. Try to see how language features (figures of speech, length of sentences, repetition, grammar, irony, contrast etc) help to convey this general idea effectively.

Blk 1 Adjectives to describe TONE (081020)

2008-10-19T16:03:00.003+08:00

Tone is the manner in which an author expresses his or her attitude; it is the intonation of voice which expresses meaning. Tone may shift from paragraph to paragraph, or even from line to line; it is the result of allusion, diction, figurative language, imagery, irony, motif, symbolism, syntax and style.

A speaker's tone is evident to all, but understanding written tone is an entirely different matter. The reader must appreciate word choice, details, imagery, and language to understand. To misinterpret tone is to misinterpret meaning; for this reason, we have compiled a guide of 30 categories of tone to elucidate the study of writing and its subtleties.

1.Threatening (menacing, intimidating) tone

"I shall throw you on a black ship and send you to the mainland, To King Echetos, destroyer of all mortal men, Who will cut off your nostrils and ears with a sharp bronze sword; He will tear off your private parts and give them to the dogs to eat raw." -The Odyssey, Homer

In this excerpt, one of Homer’s characters makes dire threats against another. Admittedly, this isn’t a terrifically difficult piece to analyze, but "threatening" fit so well that we had to include it. The key to classifying a tone as "threatening" is the possibility or promise of negative action against the subject. Our particular subject has achieved quite a severe set of consequences for himself and thus more than merits the designation.

2. Provocative (Stimulating, exciting ) tone
Freedom calls you! Quick, be ready –
Rouse ye in the name of God, --Onward, onward, strong and steady, -¬Dash to earth the oppressor’s rod. Freedom calls, ye brave! Rise and spurn the name of slave. -"Polish War Song," Percival

"Freedom calls you!" Yes, freedom is calling, "in the name of God," and all shall rise. The exclamation marks and calls to action are forceful in this passage. The excitement is evident in the way the author wants all to "rise" and fight. It is extremely provocative in this sense, to "spurn the name of slave."

3. Persuasive – Written to convince or win over
…there is no occupation concerned with the management of social affairs which belongs either to woman or to man, as such. Natural gifts are to be found here and there in both creatures alike; and every occupation is open to both, so far as their natures are concerned, though woman is for all purposes the weaker.
Certainly. Is that a reason for making over all occupations to men only? Of course not. No, because one woman may have a natural gift for medicine or for music, another may not. Surely. Is it not also true that a woman may, or may not, be warlike or athletic? I think so. …So for the purpose of keeping watch over the commonwealth, woman has the same nature as man, save in so far as she is weaker. -"Equality of Women" from The Republic of Plato

In this passage, Plato argues for the equality of the women in the process of selection for governmental posts. His persuasive tone is evident in the nature of his composition; he writes a dialogue between the master and the student, in which the student is won over to and subsequently supports the master’s point of view. Plato is making a point; he is arguing to an end; he is persuading his audience to share his personal opinion.

4. Sarcastic -- Snide, mocking
You will send your child, will you, into a room where the table is loaded with sweet wine and fruit – some poisoned, some not? – you will say to him, "Choose freely, my little child! It is so good for you to have freedom of choice; it forms your character – your individuality! If you take the wrong cup or the wrong berry, you will die before the day is over, but you will have acquired the dignity of a Free child."
-"Freedom," Ruskin

Ruskin does not mean for us to go and send our children into rooms with poisoned fruits. He means exactly the opposite, and he is snidely mocking those who would encourage a child to make his own choices. Using the extreme example of a “table…loaded with sweet wine and fruit – some poisoned, some not,” he is showing how the reasoning of letting children acquire “the dignity of a Free child” can go horribly askew. Meaning the opposite of what his literal words say, Ruskin has an extremely sarcastic approach to his subject.

5. Sardonic -- Derisively mocking
Once upon a time there was a lion that lived in Africa with all the other lions. The other lions were all bad lions and every day they ate zebras and wildebeests and every kind of antelope. Sometimes the bad lions ate people too. They ate Swahilis, Umbulus and Wandorobos and they especially liked to eat Hindu traders.
But this lion, that we love because he was so good, had wings on his back. Because he had wings on his back the other lions all made fun of him.
-"The Good Lion," Hemingway

Although known for simplicity, in this passage Hemingway uses simple words such as “good” and “bad” very obviously. Taken literally, these words are like a children’s book, yet in reality they carry more meaning. The “bad lions” eat zebras and Hindu traders, but our lion would never stoop so low. No, he has “wings on his back” – quite literally – and he is a good lion. But he is so good that one simply has to believe he is not as good as he seems. Our “good lion” is being mocked, in a sardonic tone, for he is “so good.”

6.Satiric – Satirizing, ironic, mocking, farcial
At the house of sticks, the wolf again banged on the door and shouted, "Little pigs, little pigs, let me in!" The pigs shouted back, "Go to hell, you carnivorous, imperialistic oppressor!" At this, the wolf chuckled condescendingly. He thought to himself: "They are so childlike in their ways. It will be a shame to see them go, but progress cannot be stopped." So the wolf huffed and puffed and blew down the house of sticks. The pigs ran to the house of bricks, with the wolf close at their heels. Where the house of sticks had stood, other wolves built a time-share condo resort complex for vacationing wolves, with a fiberglass reconstruction of the house of sticks, as well as native curio shops, snorkeling, and dolphin shows. At the house of bricks, the wolf again banged on the door and shouted, "Little pigs, little pigs, let me in!" This time in response, the pigs sang songs of solidarity and wrote letters of protest to the United Nations. By now the wolf was getting angry at the pigs refusal to see the situation from the carnivore’s point of view. So he huffed and he puffed, and huffed and puffed, then grabbed his chest and fell over dead from a massive heart attack brought on from eating too many fatty foods. -"The Three Little Pigs," Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, James Finn Garner

In this passage, Garner satirizes both the political correctness of the era and the American development of third-world countries while parodying a classic children’s tale. This story helps us to realize how flawed some practices of our society are; when humor makes us consider such things, we call it satire.

7. Disdainful -- Arrogant, lordly, superior, unsympathetic
You can dislocate your jaw and wrench your wrists out of joint and they still have not understood you, nor will they ever understand. They often grimace, then flash the whites of their eyes and foam at the mouth, but they don’t actually mean anything by it; it’s not even a threat, they just do it because that’s their nature. They take whatever it is they need. You can’t say that they employ force; when they grab at something, you simply stand aside and leave them to it.
-"An Old Leaf," Kafka

"Nor will they ever understand." The narrator has given up all hope at communication with these people. He is superior to them, he will not even fight them, "simply stand aside." Simply put, it's "their nature," so it seems they can't help their behavior, and the narrator is left to look down upon these people and give up on talking to them. The message the narrator conveys is that this not worthwhile anymore, and his tone amounts to great disdain.

8.Condescending - patronizing, arrogant
So all of a sudden, I sort of leaned over and said, "would any of you girls care to dance?" I didn't ask them crudely or anything. Very suave, in fact. But G-d damn it, they thought that was a panic, too. They started giggling some more. I'm not kidding, they were three real morons.
-Catching in the Rye, Salinger

The key element of condescension is the feeling that one is above one's surroundings or fellows. In this passage, Holden contrasts his "suavity" with the girls' stupidity. He thinks he is better than they are, and maybe he is; but "would any of you girls care to dance?" is an affected mannerism, especially for Holden. He is trying to make himself more than he is, and failing in some measure.

9.Horrific – Appalling, shocking, gruesome
Out a way, rolling in the sea, was a Landing Craft Infantry, and as we came alongside of her I saw a ragged shellhole through the steel plates forward of her pilothouse where an 88-mm. German shell had punched through. Blood was dripping from the shiny edges of the hole into the sea with each roll of the LCI. Her rails and hull had been befouled by sea-sick men, and her dead were laid forward of her pilothouse.
-By-Line: Ernest Hemingway, Hemingway

Hemingway’s tone is often difficult to discern, as he habitually writes with a very detached, journalistic style. This excerpt is actually from a newspaper article that he wrote about the invasion of Normandy. However, he lends more detail to his subject than a journalist should; he emphasizes the harshness of the scene, the gut-wrenching power of the experience. Blood does not drip from shiny, ragged steel edges purely to convey fact. Hemingway expects to horrify you, to make you think, "Dear God," and pause a moment over your morning coffee, to realize for a moment the brutality and the ugliness of war.

10. Bantering -- Teasing, joking
You never found out why these men spend so much time shaking hands [in beer commercials]. Maybe shaking hands is just their simple straightforward burly masculine American patriotic way of saying to each other: "Floyd, I am truly sorry I drank all that beer last night and went to the bathroom in your glove compartment."
-Dave Barry's Greatest Hits, Barry

Dave Barry is famous for his humorous, bantering style. He speaks straight to the reader in a bold second-person style -- "You never found out…" and talks to us as if we are good friends of his. A long string of adjectives describing the way these men talk as "simple straightforward burly…" adds to the casual style; this is not formal to use six adjectives in a row. Barry in a whole writes as if he's telling a joke to a good friend.

11. Amused -- Of a playful nature, entertained
Henri the painter was not French and his name was not Henri. Henri had so steeped himself in stories of the Left Bank in Paris that he lived there although he had never been there. Feverishly he followed in periodicals the Dadaist movements and schisms, the strangely feminine jealousies and religiousness, the obscurantisms of the forming and breaking schools. Regularly he revolted against outworn techniques and materials. One season he threw out perspective. Another year he abandoned red, even as the mother of purple. Finally he gave up paint entirely. It was not known whether Henri was a good painter or not for he threw himself so violently into movements that he had little time left for painting of any kind.
-Cannery Row, Steinbeck

Henri amuses the author of this passage. "He lived there although he had never been there." Simply the way Henri hurls himself into these movements Steinbeck laughs at -- he finds Henri's eagerness highly entertaining. Throwing himself "violently" into movements, Henri follows each idea that comes his way, eventually giving up paint entirely. This is silly, and Steinbeck sees this, conveying the humor to us.

12.Mock-heroic - Ridiculing a "hero"
[Don Quixote has just liberated a group of dangerous criminals]

"That is all very well," answered Don Quixote, "but I know what we should do now." Then he called all the galley slaves, who were now running hither and thither in a riotous mood and had stripped the commissary to the skin, and when they had gathered around him in a circle, he addressed them as follows: "It is the duty of well-bred people to be grateful for benefits received, and ingratitude is one of the most hateful sins in the eyes of God. I say this sirs, because you know what favor you have received from me, and the only return I wish and demand is that you all go from here, laden with the chains from which I have just freed your necks, to the city of El Toboso. There you are to present yourselves before Lady Dulcinea of El Toboso and tell her that her Knight of the Rueful Figure sent you there to commend his service to her. You are to tell her, point by point, the details of this famous adventure, and when you have done this, you may then go whichever way you please and good luck be with you."
-Don Quixote, Cervantes

Don Quixote's actions are suitable preposterous in this passage to make very little analysis necessary. He suggests that the convicts should present themselves to Lady Dulcinea in the name of the "Knight of the Rueful Figure;" he expects others to share his misplaced idealism; in short, he is clearly demented. What he would label heroism Cervantes calls folly; the tone is therefore mock-heroic.

13.Elegiac – Lamenting, poignant, funereal
Six Delaware girls, with their long, dark, flowing tresses falling loosely across their bosoms, stood apart, and only gave proofs of their existence as they occasionally strewed sweet-scented herbs and forest flowers on a litter of fragrant plants, that, under a pall of Indian robes, supported all that now remained of the ardent, high-souled, and generous Cora. Her form was concealed in many wrappers of the same simple manufacture, and her face was shut forever from the gaze of men.
-Last of the Mohicans, James Fenimore Cooper
Cooper’s diction clearly indicates his elegiac tone. He calls Cora "ardent, high-souled, and generous;" such praise is typical of an elegy. In addition, his words convey a sense of regret, of loss – again, typical of elegiac writing. This passage is a remembrance and a farewell, a last praise and a poignant song of mourning.

14.Disappointed -- Deceived, crestfallen, let down
But I felt after the novelty had worn off the Americans didn’t really understand our music or our culture. Coming from a country where having central heating was considered posh and a refrigerator a luxury, Americans seemed to me to be strangely spoiled and ‘old-fashioned.’ They seemed to be lost in the forties and fifties. I expected to find Americans more forward and progressive but I was surprised to find many very set in their ways, just like their English counterparts.
-Kink, Davies

Ray Davies was hoping for magic in America, yet he found "strangely spoiled" people who were "old-fashioned." What he expected -- "forward and progressive" -- Davies did not find; the experience of America ended up extremely disillusioning. The depressingness of finding these people "just like their English counterparts" made him extremely let down, and the disappointed tone shows it.

15.Somber – Bleak, depressing, dismal
No crowd of serfs ran out on to the steps to meet the masters; a little girl of twelve years made her appearance alone. After her there came out of the house a young lad, very like Piotr, dressed in a coat of gray livery, with white armorial buttons, the servant of Pavel Petrovitch Kirsanov. Without speaking, he opened the door of the carriage, and unbuttoned the apron of the coach. Nikolai Petrovitch, with his son and Bazarov, walked through a dark and empty hall…
-Fathers and Sons, Turgenev

Turgenev’s tone in this piece can be determined by examining the detail he provides. He emphasizes the absence of people; first noting that no "crowd of serfs" appeared, and later notes that Petrovitch, his son, and Bazarov walked through a "dark and empty hall." Next, observe the silence; no one speaks, and no noise is mentioned. Finally, note the use of color and light – gray, white, and dark. Turgenev’s paints a bleak, silent picture for us to observe - specifically, a bleak, silent, "somber" picture.

16.Urgent - imperative, critical, intensely necessary
"I must see the Lieutenant-Colonel," Gomez said.
"He is asleep," the officer said. "I could see the lights of that bicycle of thine for a mile coming down the road. Dost wish to bring on a shelling?" "Call the Lieutenant-Colonel," Gomez said. "this is a matter of the utmost gravity." "He is asleep, I tell thee," the officer said. "What sort of a bandit is that with thee?" he nodded toward Andrés. "He is a guerillero from the other side of the lines with a dispatch of the utmost importance for the General Golz who commands the attack that is to be made at dawn beyond Navacerrada," Gomez said excitedly and earnestly. "Rouse the Teniente-Coronel for the love of God."
The officer looked at him with his droopy eyes shaded by the green celluloid. "All of you are crazy," he said. "I know of no General Golz nor of no attack. Take this sportsman and get back to your battalion."
"Rouse the Teniente-Coronel, I say," Gomez said and Andrés saw his mouth tightening. "Go obscenity yourself," the officer said to him lazily and turned away. Gomez took his heavy 9 mm. Star pistol out of its holster and shoved it against the officer's shoulder. "Rouse him, you fascist bastard," he said. "Rouse him or I'll kill you." -For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway

In this excerpt, Hemingway uses terse, strained dialog to communicate urgency. Small details - the tightening of Gomez' mouth, for example - show us the tension inherent in this confrontation. This is an incredibly intense passage, and the dialog ripples with the force of the conflict. Hemingway uses the urgency in this piece to draw the reader in, to produce a gut-level emotional reaction that exemplifies his work.

17.Ominous – Fateful, ill-boding, foreboding, dire
He still thought it had all been set up too fast. Clemenza had given him copies of the police mug shots of the two punks, the dope on where the punks went drinking every night to pick up bar girls. Paulie had recruited two of the strong-arms in the family and fingered the punks for them. He had also given them their instructions. No blows on the top or the back of the head, there was to be no accidental fatality. Other than that they could go as far as they liked.
-The Godfather, Mario Puzo

The first sentence of this paragraph is ominous in the extreme. It expresses misgivings about an illegal venture; consequences could be severe if done improperly. In addition, the mention of "accidental fatality" indicates that this is a serious matter. This paragraph is written to convey to the reader the idea that something may go wrong.

18.Apprehensive - anxious, uneasy, worried
Time passed.
Susan waited.
The more Susan waited, the more the doorbell didn't ring. Or the phone. She looked at her watch. She felt that now was about the time that she could legitimately begin to feel cross. She was cross already, of course, but that had been in her own time, so to speak. They were well and truly into his time now, and even allowing for traffic, mishaps, and general vagueness and dilatoriness, it was now well over half an hour past the time that he had insisted was the latest time they could possibly afford to leave, so she'd better be ready.
-Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Douglas Adams

Douglas' tone in this piece is reflected by his syntax. He begins with short, choppy sentences, like the ticking of a clock. He continues to use medium/short sentences and then concludes the paragraph in a long, rushing sentence emphasizing the wrongness of the situation. One immediately gets the feeling that something has gone very wrong.

19.Audacious -- Daring, bold, insolent
…he tells them right back in a loud, brassy voice that he’s already plenty damn clean, thank you.
"They showered me this morning at the courthouse and last night at the jail. And I swear I believe they’d of washed my ears for me on the taxi over if they coulda found the vacilities. Hoo boy, seems like every time they ship me someplace I gotta get scrubbed down before, after, and during the operation…and get back away from me with that thermometer, Sam."
-One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Kesey

The speaker -- McMurphy -- is blatantly insolent in this quote. The people in charge are simple trying to take his temperature and give him a shower, yet he tells them to "get back away from me." He is speaking in a "brassy" voice; this clues the reader into his boldness immediately. Emphasis ("I swear…") in his speech patterns also forms this audacious tone.

20.Intimate -- Affectionate, devoted, fond
"Afterwards we will be as one animal of the forest and be so close that neither one can tell that one of us is one and not the other. Can you not feel my heart be your heart?"
-For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway

"My heart be your heart…" this excerpt is intimate, as these two people involved are extremely devoted to each other. Little is needed to explain the blatantly intimate tone in this short passage.

21.Whimsical -- Capricious, fantastic
They stood so still that she quite forgot they were alive, and she was just going round to see if ‘TWEEDLE’ was written at the back of each collar, when she was startled by a voice coming from the one marked ‘DUM.’
"If you think we’re wax-works," he said, "you ought to pay, you know. Wax-works weren’t made to be looked at for nothing."
-Through the Looking-Glass, Carrol

“She quite forgot they were alive,” pertains to Alice as she looks at the wax-like characters of Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee. This is a fantastic world of humor. These characters carry their name on their stomachs, and spout out absurd lines in absolute seriousness. Whimsy is ever-present in the world through the looking-glass, and shines in Lewis Carroll’s tone.

22. Reflective -- Contemplative, meditative, introspective
"There were always children there, and I spent all my time with the children, only with the children. They were the children of the village where I lived, a whole gang of them, who went to the local school…I was simply with them mostly, and I spent all my four years like that. I did not want anything else."
-The Idiot, Dostoyevsky

The character speaking in this quote, Myshkin, is missing his European home. "I did not want anything else," he says of the children's company in this town. He was "simply with them mostly," and longs for this simplicity, spending all his time with children. In retrospect, he sees how much he misses this past life, and this contemplation gives Myshkin a decidedly reflective tone.

23. Regretful -- Contrite, apologetic, sorry

Just when I'd stopped opening doors,
Finally knowing the one that I wanted was yours,
Making my entrance again with my usual flair,
Sure of my lines, No one is there.
Don't you love farce? My fault, I fear.
I thought that you'd want what I want.
Sorry, my dear. But where are the clowns?
Quick, send in the clowns.
Don't bother, they're here. -

"Send in the Clowns," Sonheim

"Sorry, my dear," is spoken in this song excerpt. They were "finally knowing" what they wanted, and could not achieve it. "No one is there." It is a song about trying too late, and missed chances. "Where are the clowns?" the author asks; where is the frivolity lacking in this melancholy life. The speaker is very sorrowful, as they say "I thought you'd want what I want." This conveys their tone of great regret.

24.Remorseful - penitent, contrite, rueful
"I am not made," I cried energetically, "the sun and the heavens, who have viewed my operations, can bear witness of my truth. I am the assassin of those most innocent victims; they died by my machinations. A thousand times would I have shed my own blood, drop by drop, to have saved their lives; but I could not, my father, indeed I could not sacrifice the whole human race."
-Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

In this passage, Dr. Frankenstein is remorseful to the point of self-loathing. Note the use of the words "assassin" and "machinations." He paints a picture of himself as a wretched, vile creature, who would yet die "a thousand times" to save the innocents he destroyed. He bathes in remorse.

25.Factual – Certain, absolute, irrefutable, unbiased
The kind of nuclear reaction that happens inside a nuclear reactor is called nuclear fission. The fuel is uranium or plutonium, two very heavy elements which have many protons and neutrons in their nuclei. Fission starts when a fast-moving neutron strikes a nucleus. The nucleus cannot take in the extra neutron, and the whole nucleus breaks apart into two smaller nuclei.
-The Way Things Work, David Macaulay

A factual tone is often more apparent from lack of opinion than presence of any particular type of diction or syntax. If the purpose of the passage is solely to convey information, the tone is factual. In this case, Macaulay explains the facts very simply and in a straightforward manner, without the pontificating that would cause us to label this excerpt "scholarly" or "pedantic."

26.Detached – Aloof, impartial
He had not a minute more to lose. He pulled the axe quite out, swung it with both arms, scarcely conscious of himself, and almost without effort, almost mechanically, brought the blunt side down on her head. He seemed not to use his own strength in this. But as soon as he had once brought the axe down, his strength returned to him.
-Crime And Punishment, Dostoyevsky

Dostoyevsky does not care that his character is axe-murdering anybody in this passage. The subject (Raskolnikov) himself is acting "without effort…mechanically." Dostoyevsky expresses no concern or opinion over the "scarcely concious" killing of an old lady. The detachment, within the character himself and towards him by the author, is evident.

27. Simpering - Overly happy, gushy
The world is so full of a number of things,
I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings. -

(Happy Thought, Robert Louis Stevenson)

This poem is mindlessly, unreasoningly happy. There are many things in the world; for this we should be happy? When an author gushes happiness without cause or thought, we call him simpering.

28. Reverent – Venerating, worshipping
God is love; his mercy brightens All the path in which we rove;
Bliss he wakes and woe he lightens;
God is wisdom, God is love.

("God is love," Bowring)

Bowring's great respect for God emmanates from this poetic verse. “His mercy brightens/All the path;” Bowring’s details are simplistic in their veneration of God. As he concludes the stanza with “God is love,” the reverent tone is sealed.

29. Pedantic – Scholarly, making a show of knowledge
"My attention was speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was there as a bridge for something passing through the hole, and coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt I was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless man who had had an Eastern training."
-The Adventure of the Speckled Band, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sherlock Holmes exemplifies the pedantic personality. Smoking a pipe, striding about the room, expounding on his latest brilliant discovery – Sherlock should come to mind almost immediately when one considers the term "pedantic." In this passage, he reveals to Dr. Watson his careful unraveling of a complicated mystery. Moreover, he strategically augments his topic to reveal his vast knowledge of diverse subjects and his incredible powers of reason.

30. Sympathetic -- Compassionate, sensitive.
The hunger artist sometimes remarked to himself that perhaps things might look a little brighter if he were not located quite so near the stables…But he did not dare complain to the management; after all he had the animals to thank for the numerous visitors who did pass his cage, among whom there always might be the one who was there just to see him, and lord knew where they might tuck him away if he called attention to his existence and thereby to the fact that, strictly speaking, he was no more than an obstacle in the path to the animals.
-"A Hunger Artist," Kafka

Kafka pities the hunger artist. “Numerous visitors…pass his cage.” The hunger artist is an “obstacle”, to be tucked away. This is sad, and Kafka shows us the hunger artist’s point of view through his sympathy for the man. Things “might look a little brighter,” always hopeful and optimistic even as the world looks bleaker. Although the people passing by neglect this old man, Kafka has great sympathy for him and his feeling of nonexistence.

Blk 1: Directed Writing by Dina

2008-10-15T05:50:00.003+08:00

End of Year Examination: Commentary Question 3, Directed Writing ( passage by Alice Walker on the development of her novel 'The Colour Purple')

The wind whistled a harmony as if giving acceptance to our newborn and evergrowing relationship. I took a deep breath and exhaled confidently. I consulted my friends to build an abode there - the place was beyond perfect (even Celia, Shug and Albert thought so). I could just live there forever. Celia, Shug and Albert began to grow closer to me. Nonetheless, they became closer to each other. Laughs turned to quarrels. I always acted as the peacemaker. Finally, my heart opened up... I began jotting. I began writing. From jotting notes on the palm of my hand to jotting notes on sticky pads. Celia, Shug and Albert, also, began to open up. They wanted to explore. They were not shy anymore. My book is coming to life... and now... My quilt is done. :)
No. of words: about 130.

Grade: B+

NOOR RASHIDINA ARIFFIN

Blk 1: Frankenstein and the Gothic novel

2008-10-10T21:26:00.002+08:00

Gothic fiction :
Prominent features of Gothic fiction include terror (both psychological and physical), mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted houses and Gothic architecture, castles, darkness, death, decay, doubles, madness, secrets and hereditary curses.

The stock characters of Gothic fiction include tyrants, villains, bandits, maniacs, Byronic heroes, persecuted maidens, femmes fatales, madwomen, magicians, vampires, werewolves, monsters, demons, revenants, ghosts, perambulating skeletons, the Wandering Jew and the Devil himself.

To find out more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_fiction

Frankenstein : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein

Full text: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)
http://books.google.com.bn/books?hl=en&id=BDuijLLwQEQC&dq=Mary+Shelley+Frankenstein&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=I-9aQNPA6x&sig=L9mZ1W2e0PW09hbNTKa7Yv1U17Y&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result#PPP1,M1

Blk 1 About IRONY...

2008-09-12T18:28:00.002+08:00

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/lit_term.html

Irony is the discrepancy(difference) between :
· what is said and what is meant,
· what is said and what is done,
· what is expected or intended and what happens,
· what is meant or said and what others understand.

Sometimes irony is classified into types:
· in situational irony, expectations aroused by a situation are reversed;
· in cosmic irony or the irony of fate, misfortune is the result of fate, chance, or God;
· in dramatic irony. the audience knows more than the characters in the play, so that words and action have additional meaning for the audience;
· Socractic irony is named after Socrates' teaching method, whereby he assumes ignorance and openness to opposing points of view which turn out to be (he shows them to be) foolish.

Irony is often confused with sarcasm and satire:
Sarcasm is one kind of irony; it is praise which is really an insult; sarcasm generally invovles malice, the desire to put someone down, e.g., "This is my brilliant son, who failed out of college."
Satire is the exposure of the vices or follies of an individual, a group, an institution, an idea, a society, etc., usually with a view to correcting it. Satirists frequently use irony.

Life and fiction are filled with ironies, as in the following "true news stories" which have been circulating on the Internet since the spring of 1998....
1. The average cost of rehabilitating a seal after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska was $80,000. At a special ceremony, two of the most expensively saved animals were released back into the wild amid cheers and applause from onlookers. A minute later they were both eaten by a killer whale.

2. A psychology student in New York rented out her spare room to a carpenter in order to nag him constantly and study his reactions. After weeks of needling, he snapped and beat her repeatedly with an axe, leaving her mentally retarded.

3. In 1992, Frank Perkins of Los Angeles made an attempt on the world flagpole-sitting record. Suffering from the flu, he came down eight hours short of the 400-day record, to find that his sponsor had gone bankrupt, his girlfriend had left him and his phone and electricity had been cut off.

4. A woman came home to find her husband in the kitchen, shaking frantically with what looked like a wire running from his waist towards the electric kettle. Intending to jolt him away from the deadly current, she whacked him with a handy plank of wood by the back door, breaking his arm in two places. Till that moment he had been happily listening to his Walkman.

5. Two animal rights activists were protesting the cruelty of sending pigs to a slaughterhouse in Bonn. Suddenly the pigs, all two thousand of them, escaped through a broken fence and stampeded, trampling the two hapless protesters to death.

6. Iraqi terrorist Khay Rahnajet didn't pay enough postage on a letter bomb. It came back with "return to sender" stamped on it. Forgetting it was the bomb, he opened it and was blown to bits.

Source: http://www.snopes.com/humor/lists/fakenews.htm

*********

IRONY, The Literary Encyclopaedia: http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1255

Views of Brunei

2008-09-11T15:40:00.002+08:00

Brunei
Nice video about Brunei from the BBC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xvApwmbmdo

An Outsider's View of Brunei
Have a look at this interesting travel article about Brunei from a British newspaper, the Daily Mail. As you can see from the description of the first picture, not entirely accurate, but interesting to see how Brunei is viewed by the outside world.http://www.travelmail.co.uk/travel/Brunei/Brunei----don-t-just-fly-by.html?article_id=27156

Blk 1: LIfe and how to survive it

2008-09-11T14:51:00.004+08:00

------------------------------
Life and How to Survive It

Below is a speech to the graduating class of 2008 at NTU convocation ceremony last week by Adrian Tan, a litigation lawyer and the author of *TheTeenage Textbook. *

I must say thank you to the faculty and staff of the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information for inviting me to give your convocation address. It's a wonderful honour and a privilege for me to speak here for ten minutes without fear of contradiction, defamation or retaliation. I say this as a Singaporean and more so as a husband.

My wife is a wonderful person and perfect in every way except one. She is the editor of a magazine. She corrects people for a living. She has honed her expert skills over a quarter of a century, mostly by practising at home during conversations between her and me.

On the other hand, I am a litigator. Essentially, I spend my day telling people how wrong they are. I make my living being disagreeable.

Nevertheless, there is perfect harmony in our matrimonial home. That is because when an editor and a litigator have an argument, the one who triumphs is always the wife.

And so I want to start by giving one piece of advice to the men: when you've already won her heart, you don't need to win every argument.

Marriage is considered one milestone of life. Some of you may already bemarried. Some of you may never be married. Some of you will be married. Someof you will enjoy the experience so much, you will be married many, manytimes. Good for you.

The next big milestone in your life is today: your graduation. The end of education. You're done learning.

You've probably been told the big lie that "Learning is a lifelong process"and that therefore you will continue studying and taking masters' degrees and doctorates and professorships and so on. You know the sort of people who tell you that? Teachers. Don't you think there is some measure of conflict of interest? They are in the business of learning, after all. Where would they be without you? They need you to be repeat customers.

The good news is that they're wrong.

The bad news is that you don't need further education because your entire life is over. It is gone. That may come as a shock to some of you. You're in your teens or early twenties. People may tell you that you will live to be 70, 80, 90 years old. That is your life expectancy.

I love that term: life expectancy. We all understand the term to mean the average life span of a group of people. But I'm here to talk about a bigger idea, which is what you expect from your life.

You may be very happy to know that Singapore is currently ranked as the country with the third highest life expectancy. We are behind Andorra and Japan , and tied with San Marino . It seems quite clear why people in thosec ountries, and ours, live so long. We share one thing in common: our football teams are all hopeless. There's very little danger of any of our citizens having their pulses raised by watching us play in the World Cup.Spectators are more likely to be lulled into a gentle and restful nap.

Singaporeans have a life expectancy of 81.8 years. Singapore men live to anaverage of 79.21 years, while Singapore women live more than five years longer, probably to take into account the additional time they need to spend in the bathroom.

So here you are, in your twenties, thinking that you'll have another 40 years to go. Four decades in which to live long and prosper.

Bad news. Read the papers. There are people dropping dead when they're 50,40, 30 years old. Or quite possibly just after finishing their convocation.They would be very disappointed that they didn't meet their life expectancy.

I'm here to tell you this. Forget about your life expectancy.

After all, it's calculated based on an average. And you never, ever want to expect being average.

Revisit those expectations. You might be looking forward to working, falling in love, marrying, raising a family. You are told that, as graduates, you should expect to find a job paying so much, where your hours are so much,where your responsibilities are so much.

That is what is expected of you. And if you live up to it, it will be an awful waste.

If you expect that, you will be limiting yourself. You will be living your life according to boundaries set by average people. I have nothing against average people. But no one should aspire to be them. And you don't need
years of education by the best minds in Singapore to prepare you to beaverage.

What you should prepare for is mess. Life's a mess. You are not entitled to expect anything from it. Life is not fair. Everything does not balance out in the end. Life happens, and you have no control over it. Good and bad things happen to you day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment. Your degree is a poor armour against fate.

Don't expect anything. Erase all life expectancies. Just live. Your life is over as of today. At this point in time, you have grown as tall as you will ever be, you are physically the fittest you will ever be in your entire life and you are probably looking the best that you will ever look. This is as good as it gets. It is all downhill from here. Or up. No one knows.

What does this mean for you? It is good that your life is over.

Since your life is over, you are free. Let me tell you the many wonderful
things that you can do when you are free.

The most important is this: do not work.

Work is anything that you are compelled to do. By its very nature, it is undesirable.

Work kills. The Japanese have a term "Karoshi", which means death from overwork. That's the most dramatic form of how work can kill. But it can also kill you in more subtle ways. If you work, then day by day, bit by bit, your soul is chipped away, disintegrating until there's nothing left. A rock has been ground into sand and dust.

There's a common misconception that work is necessary. You will meet people working at miserable jobs. They tell you they are "making a living". No,they're not. They're dying, frittering away their fast-extinguishing lives doing things which are, at best, meaningless and, at worst, harmful.

People will tell you that work ennobles you, that work lends you a certain dignity. Work makes you free. The slogan "Arbeit macht frei" was placed at the entrances to a number of Nazi concentration camps. Utter nonsense.

Do not waste the vast majority of your life doing something you hate so that you can spend the small remainder sliver of your life in modest comfort. Youmay never reach that end anyway.

Resist the temptation to get a job. Instead, play. Find something you enjoydoing. Do it. Over and over again. You will become good at it for tworeasons: you like it, and you do it often. Soon, that will have value in itself.

I like arguing, and I love language. So, I became a litigator. I enjoy it and I would do it for free. If I didn't do that, I would've been in some other type of work that still involved writing fiction – probably a sports journalist.

So what should you do? You will find your own niche. I don't imagine youwill need to look very hard. By this time in your life, you will have a very good idea of what you will want to do. In fact, I'll go further and say the ideal situation would be that you will not be able to stop yourself pursuing your passions. By this time you should know what your obsessions are. If you enjoy showing off your knowledge and feeling superior, you might become a teacher.

Find that pursuit that will energise you, consume you, become an obsession.Each day, you must rise with a restless enthusiasm. If you don't, you are working.

Most of you will end up in activities which involve communication. To those of you I have a second message: be wary of the truth. I'm not asking you to speak it, or write it, for there are times when it is dangerous or impossible to do those things. The truth has a great capacity to offend and injure, and you will find that the closer you are to someone, the more care you must take to disguise or even conceal the truth. Often, there is great virtue in being evasive, or equivocating. There is also great skill. Any child can blurt out the truth, without thought to the consequences. It takes great maturity to appreciate the value of silence.

In order to be wary of the truth, you must first know it. That requires great frankness to yourself. Never fool the person in the mirror.

I have told you that your life is over, that you should not work, and that you should avoid telling the truth. I now say this to you: be hated.

It's not as easy as it sounds. Do you know anyone who hates you? Yet every great figure who has contributed to the human race has been hated, not just by one person, but often by a great many. That hatred is so strong it has caused those great figures to be shunned, abused, murdered and in one famous instance, nailed to a cross.

One does not have to be evil to be hated. In fact, it's often the case that one is hated precisely because one is trying to do right by one's own convictions. It is far too easy to be liked, one merely has to be accommodating and hold no strong convictions. Then one will gravitate towards the centre and settle into the average. That cannot be your role.There are a great many bad people in the world, and if you are not offending them, you must be bad yourself. Popularity is a sure sign that you are doing something wrong.

The other side of the coin is this: fall in love.

I didn't say "be loved". That requires too much compromise. If one changes one's looks, personality and values, one can be loved by anyone.Rather, I exhort you to love another human being. It may seem odd for me totell you this. You may expect it to happen naturally, without deliberation.That is false. Modern society is anti-love. We've taken a microscope to everyone to bring out their flaws and shortcomings. It far easier to find a reason not to love someone, than otherwise. Rejection requires only onereason. Love requires complete acceptance. It is hard work – the only kind of work that I find palatable.

Loving someone has great benefits. There is admiration, learning, attraction and something which, for the want of a better word, we call happiness. In loving someone, we become inspired to better ourselves in every way. We learn the truth worthlessness of material things. We celebrate being human.Loving is good for the soul.

Loving someone is therefore very important, and it is also important to choose the right person. Despite popular culture, love doesn't happen by chance, at first sight, across a crowded dance floor. It grows slowly,sinking roots first before branching and blossoming. It is not a silly weed,but a mighty tree that weathers every storm.

You will find, that when you have someone to love, that the face is less important than the brain, and the body is less important than the heart.

You will also find that it is no great tragedy if your love is not reciprocated. You are not doing it to be loved back. Its value is to inspire you.

Finally, you will find that there is no half-measure when it comes to loving someone. You either don't, or you do with every cell in your body,completely and utterly, without reservation or apology. It consumes you, and you are reborn, all the better for it.

Don't work. Avoid telling the truth. Be hated. Love someone.

You're going to have a busy life. Thank goodness there's no life expectancy.

Blk 1 'The Conversion' More essays ...

2008-08-22T21:22:00.004+08:00

'The Conversion' by Md Khairul Hazwan bin Hj Maidin

Being in the young adulthood stage, I have grown up to become a very complex human being. Often intense, my mood ranges from uncontrollably jubilant and blithe to easily aggravated and agitated. It is in this stage of life that young adults like me either feel full of joy or utterly depressed as if life has been sucked right out of us. It is often the latter that dominates my life. I had gotten used to being fragile and intense to the extent that I became quite ignorant in life.

This was the case, until one day I was enlightened. An incident woke me up from my ignorance that until today, it bears as a reminder which cannot be erased from my mind.

It was a lazy Friday afternoon as I arrived at the bank. I waited as my brother opened the door for me and he quickly went to take a number. My number was 912 and the current number being entertained was 903. I pursed my lips as I waited impatiently. All the seats were full so I was forced to stand, which upset me even more.

I had been furious for days as I had found out my allowance of $100 had not been increased. I was promised a raise two months ago yet when I checked my account a few weeks ago I found out that my brother had not applied for my raise. I had been unkind to him ever since and so today he made an effort to meet my demands.

As I had nothing more to do than wait, I observed the many faces of the people in the bank. People from all walks of life were there, waiting patiently for their turn to manage their personal financial matters.
Suddenly the bell rang and the next number was 906. A middle aged couple stood up and went to the counter. My eyes were suddenly transfixed onto a young little girl in a yellow dress, smiling nonchalantly as she walked side by side her mother towards the counter. Her mother then picked her up and sat her down on the counter whilst her father managed their accounts.

I couldn’t help but notice the young girl’s ignorance of the fact that her parents probably saved money for her. Hugging her mother tight, she touched her mother’s delicately embroidered head scarf and expressed innocently how beautiful her mother looked. With a wide smile, her mother gave her an audible peck on the cheek which made them both laugh gleefully.

I suddenly saw myself in the cheerful little girl. I remembered that I had been much like her, not caring for monetary wealth, only for being happy and seeing others happy too. Her innocence reminded me of what I used to be and how happy I once was.

I suddenly remembered the cute child I was: guileless, timid, yet over-enthusiastic. I didn’t have the slightest care for any troubles at all, although I was always in trouble for being quite a menace. My mother’s smile and my father’s laugh were the only things I regarded as priceless. Yet now, it is the amount of money for me to spend which I hold dear most.

It suddenly dawned on me that I had been quite selfish and uptight over money. I had grown up to become self-centered and I felt stunned as I sat there thinking about it. I had regarded money as important, pushing away the more important aspects of my life. I had changed from being just like the little girl to enslaving the people around me, including my brother.

Until today, that incident at the post office is a reminder not to be self-indulgent with material wealth and to take into account other people’s feelings, especially the ones I love and care for the most. (648 words) [grade: B]

'The Conversion' by Angelyn Choo Tze Hui (B5).

My mother worked hard all her life so that I could have everything I ever wanted. I have become almost everything my mother had always hoped I would be: successful, wealthy and healthy, all at the same time. But she is not here to spend this time of my life with me, she left awhile back; she left me.

As my chauffeur drives along Richmond Road, I cannot help but glance out my window from the back seat of the car. I watch as the palm trees and grass fields roll away from me; I pretend that they are leaving me. Finally, the car pulls into the airport’s departure gate, and I step out of the car and on the dim platform. I linger around the hall so I can soak in the entire image, the entire sensation, the entire awareness of people leaving. I close my eyes and take it all in. Right at this very moment, I am thinking of my mother. In the very midst of crowded airport, I feel lonely. My hands start shaking and I clasp them tightly together, trying to calm myself down. I feel beads of sweat forming on my forehead, but I swear that the airport is cold; the air-conditioning is working just fine, so I guess it is just me.

All the sudden, as if the thin piece of thread holding my sutured heart together was snapped, memories of my mother and I come rushing back to me. I shut my eyes even more tightly; as if to keep the memories from invading my mind so maybe that would stop the tears that are now slowly making their way down my cheeks. But I know these memories too well; they always come back when I think about her. They replay over and over again, and I get angry because most of them are of her leaving me for some business trip or another one of her urgent meetings. But there is one memory that I remember more vividly than all the other memories combined - it was of my mother and I when I was fifteen years old, and I was terribly sick and even more stubborn.

“Alright!” my mother said, “if you won’t go to the doctor, at least come and sleep in my room with me. Don’t sleep alone; I’ll take care of you.” She then tried to carry me, but I kicked and screamed and refused to move, because I was so angry. Angry at her and angry at the fact that she could be so caught up with her own busy working life all the time, rather than be there for me.

“Just leave me alone!” I yelled, “Go back to your own room, your own life. I hate you!”

She said nothing and went back to her room. I really thought that this was her finally leaving me alone, she was not going to fight for me anymore –my heart sank. The darkness in my room suddenly became so obvious to me, I felt alone. The she came back with a blanket, covered me with it and placed her pillow beside mine. She lay down and slept in my room, on my bed, with me; holding my hand the entire time. And each time as the stomach pangs came back and I started crying again, she clasped my hand with her hands and hugged me even more tightly; she knew it would not help, but she did it to let me know that she was there –she would always be there. “Mom…” I mumbled to myself. “Don’t you think things would be so much better if you could spend more time with me?”

“Everyday, Andrea…” my mother’s soft words were the last sound I heard as I gave in to sleep. “Everyday.”

I take a deep breath and smile to myself through the tears that are still silently streaming down my cheeks. I smile because through it all, despite it all, I know she thought of me, everyday. Even though she was so busy with her working life and I never got to spend time with her, I adore her. And everyday, for the rest of my life, I will think of her as well. (709 words) [ grade: B]

‘The Conversion’ by Hamadatun Najwa bt Yusuf Wahbi

“No! That’s my final answer!” I was tired of yelling to Bree about not wanting to send a random ‘Friendster’ message to a guy who barely knew I existed in this world. All because of a function one night at our dad’s workmate’s place…

“But, it’s about time you got to know someone new in your life! You’re already 24 for goodness sake!” I’d say it was probably the billionth time I’d heard that from her lips. That’s how it went every single time. This was one of those other unfortunate times. She propped herself against the wall of the bed, stretching her legs out with her Macintosh laptop sitting on her lap. I don’t know how she amazingly and coincidentally found that guy on that ‘Friendster’ site.

Bree was my second sister – more like my best friend and my partner in crime, who had just gotten married to her flame from 3 years ago; destiny she called it. I, on the other hand, called it crap. “I don’t understand how you see love as something overrated,” she had often said.

Quite frankly, I never understood how people could not see it as something overrated. I had heard of one, too many sob stories of relationships and marriage, and I refused to be the victim in any of them. My deepest, darkest secret about it all… I was scared – full stop.

“Come on, little sister! Pleassee? Oh! Oh! I can type it out for you if you don’t want to!” she grinned at me with much anticipation. I rolled my eyes, snapped at her for one last time and marched out of the room. A non-risk taker, yes, I was known for that, and I have to admit to the truth of that. I always, and I mean always, went the safe way. I would just shrug ‘rather not’ to any wild suggestion anyone would come up with, and to me, this was wild. “You’re so boring! You don’t have any excitement in your life! You don’t even take the risk in finding any, coward!” she managed to shout out.

‘Shut up, I know,’ I silently responded deep down.

“AAAHHHHHHHH!!!” I heard Bree’s scream from across the room. “He replied!” my face struck with confusion. What? Who? Huh? “Hehe, um, I kind of sent it.”

“YOU WHAT?” This was crazy. She could not possibly have gone into my account and typed a message to that guy. But she did. It had been a week ago that she last suggested it, but she did what she wanted to anyway. She cajoled me in to reading it. There it was on the screen a message from that guy: nothing lame, nothing corny, nothing too cliché. A perfect ‘hello’ message, nice and different. I found myself smiling at the screen, amazed by his response and slightly tickled pink that someone would actually bother responding to my message (which I did not even send). ‘Ah, I’ll just reply to this guy’s message anyway. He’ll be off in no time. He’d be such a typical guy who has done this millions of times: he’ll keep sending a few messages, find out it’s not easy to get to know me, he’ll get bored of the routine, then he’ll go get some other girl with a click of his finger,’ a typical-Diana thought ran across my mind.

Morning, day and night – it all involved him. No, we did not have phone calls, we did not chat on-line and no, we did not phone text one another. We continued to send on-line messages. I was impressed, as I had underestimated him. He was everything that I had not assumed he was. An intriguing man of 27 who loved to talk, and also a successful lawyer. I found both of us talking about anything we could think about at the top of our heads. Despite that, I limited myself from letting him get too close to my life. I did not want him to know me too well. Most of all, I was scared to like him. ‘I am not going to fall for him,’ the robotic person that I was would keep reminding myself. But day-by-day, it was getting harder to not like this guy. “You should learn to take risks,” he said to me in one message one day. I had baldly told him my problem of trusting people and he had been willing to answer every single question I wanted to know about him self, just for me to trust him. He’s a charmer, I knew he was…and that’s what scared me. I was free-falling into the unknown.

One date led to several others , week after week, which later went on for months. I couldn’t help myself I was falling hard for this guy. I tried so hard to deny it, but it was of no use. He was the most honest guy I had ever met. He was not afraid to tell me his past, the bad and the good. We always spent good times together, simply with a meal and a long chat, which included a whole lot of uncontrollable laughter. My rock-hard heart just softened getting to know him. I just knew that he was so real, so sincere and genuine. How? ‘Because I trust him’ – I, Diana, had finally learnt to trust.

My heart raced faster than usual whenever I was about to see him. Butterfly feelings would rush over me whenever I saw him. Phone-call night became every night. Every song we shared, every problem we dealt with. His flaws, my flaws, our flaws – we knew it all, even the funny and stupid ones. I subconsciously found myself expressing myself, which had never been easy for me before. I felt like Sonny of the movie ‘I-Robot’, who developed emotions inside of him. Deep inside me, my heart felt so round, so full. I felt a certain type of happiness inside of me, one that I couldn’t even explain. He’s like the French fries of my Spicy McDeluxe Meal, not a must-have, but it wouldn’t taste as awesome without it. I wouldn’t say that I was happy because of him, but I’d say because of him, I was happier. Love - I didn’t think it was overrated anymore. This was real. It was the real deal… I was in love. I was in love with this man. The best part was, he felt the same way too.

It has been three years already. Marcus and I got married a year after being together, just like my parents did, and we haven’t been happier ever since. I still smile waking up beside him, the one man that I love. It’s amazing how he still gives me those funny feelings inside. I still find myself falling more and more in love with him everyday and I don’t know how he does it. He changed me even without realizing it himself, and I love him more for it. I learnt so much, and in fact I still am learning. It’s ironic how I refused to get to know this man, but it was all worth it. I took a risk, I risked it all, and yet again, it was worth it. Both of us always look back and have a good laugh at those early times that we started out, and see how we have grown together. I would not have asked for anything better.

Thank you God for blessing me with a wonderful man, thank you Bree for going against my will. Lastly, thank you Babe for being so incredible, I love you…

And no, love is not overrated, that’s for sure. (1497 words) [grade:A]

A Glossary for Text Analysis

2008-08-20T10:12:00.004+08:00

OVERVIEW

Genre Fact: brochure, speech, dialogue, biography, magazine etc Fiction: novel, mystery, science fiction, gothic etc

Purpose Express as a verb: To entertain, to arouse sympathy, to sell something, to amuse, to criticize etc

Tone (Mood) Express as an adjective: persuasive, critical, laudatory, humorous, informative etc . Does it change or develop throughout the text? Do relationships between people change throughout the text?

Audience Is it for a general or specific readership? If specific, who will read it?

STRUCTURE

Vocab.(Diction) Shows tone. Positive/Negative/Neutral. (In)formal? Contrast in the vocab, between and within paragraphs? Specialized?

Punctuation Use of (semi-)colons, commas, brackets, quotation marks etc. What is the effect?

Grammar Length of paragraphs and sentences. Tense? 1st/2nd/3rd Person? Parts of speech (nouns, verbs etc), Direct Speech?

FIGURES OF SPEECH

Simile X is like Y or X is as ____ as Y. "My love is like a rose which blooms in Spring”

Metaphor X is Y. “My love is a rose which blooms in Spring”

Personification Giving human characteristics to non-human things. “The old car wheezed as it fought its way up the hill”

Rhetorical Question Asking a question to make a point, not requiring an answer. “Why do I have to do everything round here?”

Onomatopoeia Sounds like a sound. Bang, crash, crackle, pop, splash, whizz.

Alliteration Repetition of initial consonant sounds, usually harsh ones. “Big, brown bear” “A piece of paper”.

Assonance Repetition of vowel sounds within words, “a ship in distress”, usually in poetry rather than prose.

Contrast Two opposite ideas placed in juxtaposition, “’It was the best of times, It was the worst of times”

Oxymoron A seeming contradiction. “Artificial grass, fighting for peace, a quiet scream”

Hyperbole Exaggeration: “I’ve told you a thousand times, stop exaggerating!”

Repetition “Physics homework, English homework, Geography homework, will it never end?”

Pun A word with a “double meaning” used for humorous effect. “A backward poet writes inverse”

Euphemism Language used to avoid offence. “I’m going to the little girl’s room to powder my nose”. “His father passed away.”

Irony Saying the opposite of what you mean. “No, I’m not upset you are dumping me!” she sniffed.

Idiom Device whereby the words used do not contain their literal meaning. “The cat got your tongue!” (You can’t speak)

Connotation Suggestion evoked by word or phrase e.g. bachelor (cool guy about town) spinster (old woman left on the shelf)

Imagery Pictures created in readers’ minds, using comparisons (simile, metaphor)

Juxtaposition Placing things next to each other to show a relationship.

Prose Continuous writing which is not verse or dialogue.

Parallelism. A balance of two or more similar words or phrases. Giving two or more parts of the sentences a similar form so as to give the whole a definite pattern.

Antimetabole. Repetition of a phrase in reverse, used often in a speech to make a phrase more memorable. "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." "This is not the beginning of the end, but perhaps the end of the beginning" "If you fail to prepare, then prepare to fail."

Blk 1 The Conversion by Sharifah Liyana...

2008-08-19T21:37:00.001+08:00

Sharifah Liyana Nadzira Binti Malai Haji Hashim
Tutor Group B6

‘The Conversion’

I am 17 now, it has been 12 years since my father left my mother. I am the second daughter and am known to be much like my mother. I have her looks, her character and needless to say her talent in cooking - I’m Mommy’s girl.
This incident started on a normal day when I was only 5 years old and my older sister was 7 years old. All of us, Daddy, my sister, and I were getting ready for the day’s events, school, work - Mommy was preparing breakfast in the kitchen. Then, we all sat at the dining table waiting for breakfast to be served. My mother came out from the kitchen holding her tummy and carrying her pan in her other hand - she was 8 months pregnant. Then we had our family breakfast. Everything was normal, everything seemed fine. I gave my Mommy a kiss on the cheek and we all left the house.

My father dropped us at school. School was the same as it usually was. I had play time, I had recess and I was happy in school as I always was. After recess, I came back into my classroom and was ready to learn addition and subtraction. I was so excited that everyday whenever I got home, I would tell my Mommy and Daddy what I had learnt that day. At that time I didn’t know my mother was in the office asking for my sister and me to be pulled out of class. I would definitely learn subtraction later.

A lady then came into my class and told me that my mother was waiting for me in the office. I packed up my crayons and my papers and left class with the lady. All the way to the office she was talking to me, but I wasn’t even listening - all I could think about were the different reasons why I was going home early.
I saw my mother and my sister at the office and I ran to my Mommy and hugged her leg. I couldn’t believe I was ever that small. I was ever that innocent that I didn’t even know something was going to happen to me that could happen to anyone. My sister and I both reached up to hold our Mommy’s hand, we walked to the taxi waiting outside the office and the driver brought us home. In the car, I asked my Mommy why we were going home early and she only said that I was too young to know.

We arrived home and my mother told us to go straight upstairs. My sister left the room door open, we heard screaming and arguing. Both of us didn’t know what was happening. More screaming, more arguing, more confusion. Then BANG! My mother came to the room and shut the door close. She told us that we were going to leave the house, my Mommy and Daddy were getting a divorce. Subtraction…

From then on, life was a blurry dream of endless custody and court battles, visitations, confusion and hatred. I used to believe that we were the happiest family - we would go on family vacations together, there were endless family times at the beach and we had fun in all the things we did. Eventually all happiness ended in one day. After the final custody was fought, I ended up with my mother and my older sister ended up with my father- I guess it was because I was known as Mommy’s girl and was closer to her than to my Daddy. I couldn’t believe I was going to be separated not only with my Daddy but with my sister - Who’s going to play Barbie dolls with me? What if the baby happens to be a boy? So many things happened, so many stories to tell, I could go on forever. But I won’t!

I went through so many hard times. The whole ordeal pushed me to grow up fast. I didn’t realize that until later on in life. After the divorce, we had to stay at my Mommy’s friend’s house. Mommy eventually gave birth a few weeks after the divorce. At the hospital, my Mommy’s best friend took care of her - not that I knew how. I recall not seeing my Daddy or my sister at the hospital when I was outside the theatre; I heard my Mommy screaming in pain and I was scared anything would happen to her - I didn’t want to lose the only person I’d got.
Another sister was born, I wasn’t sure whether it was good news for me. It was not that I wasn’t happy to have another sister. But wasn’t it going to give my Mommy more burdens since my Daddy didn’t even send us money and my mother had to loan some from her friends and start paying them when she got a job? Nevertheless, until today we have lived well without receiving any maintenance from my Daddy.

My sister was moved out from school and I have never heard from her ever since. I was rebellious. I didn’t believe in ‘happy family’ anymore. Whenever my friends talk about their happy times with their family, I would just ignore them and tell them that all the happiness that families enjoy can suddenly vanish in one day.

(Grade B 74%)

Blk 1 Writing a drama script or script for radio

2008-08-19T21:11:00.004+08:00

How to write a dialogue
http://www.carolgreene.com/education/vent/dialogue.html

How to write a Radio play
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/arts/features/howtowrite/radio.shtml

(Homepage BBC ) How to Write…: (browse only) http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/arts/features/howtowrite/index.shtml

Writing a Soap opera story : http://www.ehow.com/how_2067605_write-soap-opera-story.html

Writing romantic dialogue : http://www.writing-world.com/romance/dialogue.shtml

Writing World Com: http://www.writing-world.com/ (browse only)

Past Examination questions on DRAMA SCRIPT or SCRIPT for RADIO

1. Using interior monologues (between 300– 450 words each), write a script for radio called‘The Two Faces’. In the script you should write contrasting sections which reveal different sides of the same personality. (Nov 2006)

2. Write a complete drama script called ‘You Never Can Tell’. In writing the piece you should explore the ways in which a character is deceived by appearances or events. (Nov 2005)

3. Write a piece of prose or drama script called ‘Memories’ for radio. The piece should make use of a narrator (and other characters if desired) and use brief flashbacks to show how certan events have shaoed the present. (PTE Mock exam 2008)

4. Write a script for a radio programme which deals with disease. (PTE Mock exam 2006)

EXAMPLES OF SCRIPTS

1. Play Synopses: BRIEF SKETCHES http://web.ukonline.co.uk/pdwilson/Synopses.htm

Independence Day (mini-drama; 2m, 1f; 10 min)
A teenage son is at the stage of leaving home, but his parents too find advantages in independence.

Perils of Travel (conversation piece; 2f; 10 min)
Two young professional women, awaiting a flight to a meeting, discuss a missing passenger, security issues, and why not to travel in a business suit.

Crash (mini-drama; 2f; 8 min)
A teenage girl, who may or may not be dreaming, is visited by a friend who may or may not have stolen the first's boy-friend, and has been involved in a horrendous road accident.

Inn Memory (mini-drama; 2f; 8 min)
Why is the visitor alarmed by a completely peaceful rural scene?

2. Horton’s one-act plays : http://www.stagepage.info/oneactplayscripts/_oneact.html

3. Horton’s monologues: http://www.stagepage.info/monologs/_monologs.html

4. One-two minute monologues: http://www.stagepage.info/mouthoffs/oneminutemonologues.html

5. Other Fiction http://web.ukonline.co.uk/pdwilson/Otherfict.htm

6. Science Fiction scripts: http://scifiscripts.com/index.html

7. Drama magazine for young people: http://www.playsmag.com
Boxes: http://www.playsmag.com/html/Category/JuniorSeniorHigh/200110_13.html
One-time football hero returns home to confront tense family relationship. . .by Joanna L. Evans

Blk 1 AUTOBIOGRAPHY

2008-08-15T18:26:00.002+08:00

Autobiography (overview): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobiography

About some well known autobiographies:
Roald Dahl : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_(book)

Jacques Casanova: So famous a womanizer was he that his name remains synonymous with the art of seduction and he is sometimes called "the world's greatest lover".
About Jacques Casanova: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giacomo_Casanova

Casanova’s bautobiography “History of my Life” ” http://romance-books.classic-

Maya Angelou: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Know_Why_the_Caged_Bird_Sings

Malcolm X : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Autobiography_of_Malcolm_X

Jane Pitman : http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Autobiography+of+Jane+Pitman

Blk 1 Literary Elements

2008-08-08T21:13:00.003+08:00

Literay Elements

Character

Character can be revealed through the character's actions, speech, and appearance. It also can be revealed by the comments of other characters and of the author.
Certain types of characters appear in many stories. Describe the following types if they appear in your book:
● The protagonist is the central character (person, animal, or personified object) in the plot's
conflict.
● The antagonist is the force in conflict with the protagonist. It may be society, nature, or fate, as well as another person. It can also be the protagonist's own self, if he or she has an internal
conflict.
● A character foil is a character whose traits are in direct contrast to those of the principal
character. The foil therefore highlights the traits of the protagonist. The foil is usually a minor character, although if there are two protagonists, they may be foils of each other.
● A stereotype is a character who possesses expected traits of a group rather than being an individual. Using stereotypes is usually considered an indication of poor quality, especially in cases such as members of minority groups, people with disabilities, or women. However, stereotypes can be useful in furthering the story quickly and are acceptable in minor roles if they
do not provide hurtful portraits of the groups in question.

Character development is showing the multitude of traits and behaviors that give the literary character the complexity of a human being. The amount of character development affects the quality of the story:
·
A flat character is not fully developed; we know only one side of the character.
·A round character is fully-developed, with many traits--bad and good--shown in the story. We feel that we know the character so well that he or she has become a real person.

A static character is one who does not experience a basic character change during the course of the story.

A dynamic character is one who experiences a basic change in character through the events of the story. This change is internal and may be sudden, but the events of the plot should make it seem inevitable.

· There is also a continuum of character change in a story, with very static characters at one end, and very dynamic ones at the other. Every character lies somewhere on this continuum. Dynamism in the protagonist is usually considered an indication of quality, but many characters, especially in stories for younger children, have only the mild amount of change which can be expected from growing and maturing from day to day.

· A character may thus be round and dynamic, round and static, or flat and static. A flat character cannot usually be dynamic, because you do not know enough about the flat character to notice a change. If a character seems flat and yet seems to change, it is usually because the characterization is not well written.

Plot
Plot is the sequence of events which involves the characters in conflict.
The sequence of events is called the narrative order:
· The most common type of narrative order in children's books is chronological. In this case, the events are told in the order they happen.
· A flashback occurs when the author narrates an event that took place before the current time of the story. Flashbacks are uncommon in children's literature because the passage of time is difficult for children to understand. The opposite effect, a flash forward, is even rarer.

· A time lapse occurs when the story skips a period of time that seems unusual compared to the rest of the plot. There is no standard amount of time that might constitute a time lapse; it depends upon the reader's sense that a longer than usual period of time has passed since the previous episode.

Conflict is the struggle between the protagonist and an opposing force. There are several types of conflict:

Internal conflict, or person-against-self, occurs when the protagonist struggles within himself or herself. The protagonist is pulled by two courses of action or by differing emotions. This is often considered a characteristic of fine literature because it frequently leads to a dynamic change in the protagonist.

Interpersonal conflict, or person-against-person, pits the protagonist against someone else.

Conflict of person-against-society happens when the protagonist is in conflict with the values of his or her society. This is a difficult concept for small children to grasp.

Conflict of person-against-nature takes place when the protagonists is threatened by an element of nature.

·Conflict of person-against-fate occurs when the protagonist must contend against a fact or life or death over which people have little control, such as death or disability. Some literary critics, however, see this conflict as a type of person-against-nature.

· Several types of conflict may be present in any one story.
· Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between two types of conflict. If a teenager is arrested by a policeman for breaking a law, the conflict is probably person-against-society. If, however, a personal animosity develops between the two, so that the boy taunts the policeman and the policeman harasses the boy because they dislike each other, the conflict becomes person-againstperson. Likewise, if a character is attacked by a strange dog, the conflict is person-against-nature. But if the dog knows and dislikes the character, it could be considered person-against-person. If the protagonist is diagnosed with a fatal disease, he or she has a conflict with fate or nature, but also probably has an internal conflict in learning to accept his or her fate.

Most plots have certain common elements:
· A story commonly begins with exposition, an explanation of the situation and the condition of the characters. In children's books, the exposition is usually woven into the action.
· A plot usually begins with a problem which the protagonist must meet or solve. During the story, tension is built through a series of complications, incidents which either help or hinder the protagonist in finding a solution. This is the rising action.
· The climax is the peak or turning point of the action; at this point we know the outcome.
· The denouement or falling action is the part after the climax. It gives any necessary explanation and ends with resolution, the sense of at the end of the story that it is complete.

The ending of the story may be either open or closed:
o In a closed ending, the most usual one in children's books, readers feel that they know what will happen. The various parts of the plot are tied together satisfactorily, and the reader feels a sense of completion.

o In an open ending, readers must draw their own conclusions; they do not know what will happen.

o A cliffhanger is an abrupt ending at an exciting and often dangerous time in the plot. Its purpose is to keep the reader reading. It is usually found at the end of a chapter, but occasionally a book will end this way. (Not all open endings are suspenseful enough to be called cliffhangers.) Recently, books in some science fiction and fantasy series have ended in cliffhangers, which encourages the reading of the other books in the series.

Other elements which may be found in plots include:
· Suspense is a state of tension, a sense of uncertainty, an emotional pull which keeps the reader reading. All plots need some suspense to sustain interest.
· Foreshadowing is the planting of hints about what will happen later in the story. It prepares children for the outcome and reassures them when the suspense is very high. Good foreshadowing is subtle and often contributes to high quality in a story.
· Coincidence, the concurrence of events which happen by chance, is a fact in real life. However, real life is not a plot that moves from problem to climax to resolution. In fiction, coincidence seems contrived; it weakens the plot.
Coincidence in a plot is acceptable if it is carefully but subtly foreshadowed.

· Inevitability is the sense that the outcome is necessary and inescapable. It had to happen, given these characters and this situation; it is not contrived. It is a sign of high quality in writing.

· Sensationalism is unrelieved suspense; it often includes violence and may produce fear in the reader. Readers often like it, as the popularity of horror books and films attest, but it is usually considered a sign of poor quality. Even the Disney Studio, known for wholesome entertainment, is guilty of sensationalism. Sixty years ago, many children were frightened by the witch in Snow White. More recently The Lion King was criticized for excessive violence. In films, suspense is often heightened by cutting quickly between scenes and by the adroit use of background music to create a mood.

· Sentimentality is the opposite of sensationalism; it is the overuse of sentiment (a natural concern
for another person) that produces a tear-jerker. It is dwelling too much on the "cute" and the "precious." Like sensationalism, it is a sign of poor quality but is often popular. Movies such as Love Story and Terms of Endearment are examples of sentimentality. Many popular children's books are overly sentimental. Black Beauty, The Velveteen Rabbit, The Giving Tree, I'll Love You Forever, and the works of Joan Walsh Anglund have all been criticized for this.

Setting
Setting includes the place and the time period in which the story takes place.
Setting may or may not have an important influence on the story:
● An integral setting is essential to the plot; it influences action, character or theme.
● A backdrop setting is relatively unimportant to the plot; it is like the featureless curtain or flat painted scenery of a theater.
● Readers may interpret the importance of the setting differently; one may say that the setting is integral because the story must happen in a big city; another may say the same thing is backdrop because it may happen in any big city. (The former statement is probably more accurate, but either is acceptable if the meaning is clear.)
Setting can clarify conflict, illuminate character, affect the mood, and act as a symbol. The setting itself can be an antagonist in a person-against-nature conflict.

Theme
Theme is the underlying meaning of the story, a universal truth, a significant statement the story is making about society, human nature, or the human condition.
Although themes can convey important messages, they should never be overtly didactic. Didacticism is preaching and teaching so explicitly that children lose pleasure in the story and reject its message.

Types of themes:
● An explicit theme is one that is stated openly in the book. It is stated in universal terms in the
book itself.
· An implicit theme is one which is not directly stated, but which the reader can infer. Many times, readers will not notice that an explicit theme is directly stated, but they can often infer the theme anyway.
Themes must be clearly stated; one word is not usually enough. To say that a book's theme is "friendship" is not clear. It may mean, "Friends are a person's most valuable possession." It may also mean, "Friends can never be trusted if their own interests are opposed to yours."

An understanding of theme is dependent upon one's previous experience of life and literature. At the same time, theme in literature can enlarge one's understanding of life.
Not every good book has a significant theme; some books' value lies in the pleasure they give, rather than the message they bring. Books of humor, for instance, may or may not have a significant theme.

Style
Style is the language used in a book, the way the words are put together to create the story.
· Most children's books use standard written style. This style sounds natural, but when carefully analyzed, it is clear that it is more formal than most speech. Sentences are complete; expressions like "um," "you know," and "like--," are avoided; contractions are used less often than in ordinary speech. Lots of conversation may included, but the style as a whole does not sound like speech.
· In conversational style, the language is more informal, it sounds more like the way people really talk. The narration as well as the character's speeches sounds conversational.
· Dialect is easiest for children to read if word order or a few unusual words and expressions are used to suggest a difference from normal speech. Other languages may be suggested in the same way through speech patterns and foreign words. Foreign and unusual words should be explained naturally in context. .
· An ornate or unusual style is sometimes used, especially in some high fantasy and historical fiction. Older editions of traditional literature and older poetry may also have such styles.

Writers use many devices of style to make stories interesting.
· Imagery is the most frequently used device. It is an appeal to any of the senses--taste, touch, sight, sound, and smell. It paints pictures in our mind.
· Figurative language uses words in a nonliteral way, giving them a meaning beyond their ordinary one.
o Personification gives human traits to animals, nonhuman beings, or inanimate objects: "The trees bowed before the wind."
o A simile compares two different things, using the words "as," "like," or "than": "The
snowbank looked like a huge pile of marshmallow syrup."
o A metaphor is an implied comparison stating the resemblance between two things: "Her presence was a ray of light in a dark world."

· Devices of sound can increase pleasure and clarity. Books which use many such devices should be read aloud. Poetry is particularly rich in such devices.
o Onomatopoeia is the use of words that sound like their meaning: a skirt "swishes," a bat "cracks," a hasty eater "gulps" his food.
o Alliteration is repetition of initial consonants: "the soft surge of the sea."
o Consonance is repetition of consonants sounds anywhere in the words: "The sight of the apple and maple trees pleased the people."
o Rhyme is the repetition of a stressed sound, usually the final syllable: "His aim was to blame the dame."
o Assonance is repetition of vowel sounds in a phrase: The owl swept out of the woods and circled the house."
o Rhythm is the recurring flow of strong and weak beats in a phrase: "Chicka, chicka, boom, boom! Will there be enough room?" Meter is the regular rhythmic pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables found in a line of poetry. The less regular rhythm sometimes found in prose is often called cadence.
· Puns and other plays on words add interest and humor: "By the time the milking was finished, the new farmhand was thoroughly cowed." Puns are said to be "the lowest form of wit," but people usually enjoy them even as they groan.
· Hyperbole is exaggeration: "He was frightened out of his wits." Understatement is the opposite: "He was upset when he learned he had AIDS."
· Allusion is an indirect reference to something outside the current literary work: "He was a veritable Hercules." The reference may be to something in literature, history, modern culture, or another area. Allusion is often difficult for children to recognize because they lack the necessary background knowledge.

· A symbol is something--a person, object, situation, or action--which operates on two levels, the literal and the symbolic. For instance, an engagement ring is a real object, but it is also stands for the abiding love of the engaged couple. Symbols add depth and meaning to a story. Symbols may be universal (as the engagement ring) or specific to a particular story.

Qualities which should be avoided in style include triteness (dull, stale, overused expressions), condescension (talking down to children, making them feel unintelligent or immature), didacticism, sensationalism, and sentimentality.

Point of View
Point of view depends upon who the narrator is and how much he or she knows.

Point of view may be:
· First person - uses "I" - A character is telling the story.
· Second person - uses "you" - The author speaks directly to the reader. Second person is seldom used; it is found most often in nonfiction today.
· Third person - uses "he," "she," or "it" - The author is telling about the characters. There are three third person points of view:
o Limited omniscient - We are told the thoughts and feelings of only one character (sometimes, but very seldom, of two or three characters).
o Omniscient - We are told everything about the story, including the thoughts and feelings of all the characters, and even information in the author's mind which no character knows.
.
Tone
Tone is the author's attitude toward what he or she writes, but it may be easier to understand if you think of it as the attitude that you (the reader) get from the author's words. It is the hardest literary element to discuss; often we can recognize it but not put it into words. The easiest tone to recognize is humor. In describing tone, use adjectives: humorous, mysterious, creepy, straight-forward, matter-of-fact, exciting, boring, etc.

Blk 1 SREDNI VASHTAR

2008-08-08T20:34:00.004+08:00

Sredni Vashtar by SAKI (Hector Munro) (adapted)

SYNOPSIS
Sredni Vashtar is a short story written by Saki (Hector Hugh Munro) between 1900 and 1914 and initially published in his book Beasts and Super-Beasts. It has been adapted into a short film and a TV drama.
The story concerns a 10-year-old boy called Conradin, who lives with his strict cousin and guardian, Mrs. De Ropp. Conradin rebels against her and invents a new religion for himself, which centres around idolising a polecat-ferret he calls Sredni Vashtar; a vengeful, merciless god. Conradin keeps the polecat hidden in a cage in the garden shed, and worships the idol in secret. The story comes to a climax when his cousin sets out to discover his god.

In Hindi, Sherni means Tigress. Vastar is a region of India with hills and forests. Sherni Vastar in Hindi means The Tigress of Vastar region. Saki had strong connections with India.

**************

Conradin was ten years old, and the doctor had pronounced his opinion that the boy would not live another five years. The doctor counted for little[1], but his opinion was endorsed[2] by Mrs. De Ropp, who counted for nearly everything. Mrs. De Ropp was Conradin's cousin and guardian, and in his eyes she represented those three-fifths of the world that are necessary and disagreeable and real; the other two-fifths, were summed up in himself and his imagination. One of these days Conradin supposed he would succumb to the pressure of necessary things---such as illnesses and restrictions and dullness. Without his imagination, which was unrestrained in his loneliness, he would have succumbed long ago.

Mrs. De Ropp would never have confessed to herself that she disliked Conradin, though thwarting[3] him “for his good'' was a duty which she did not find irksome[4]. Conradin hated her with a sincerity which he was perfectly able to mask. Such few pleasures as he could contrive for himself gained a relish[5] from the likelihood that they would be displeasing to his guardian.

In the dull, cheerless garden, overlooked by so many windows that were ready to open with a message not to do this or that, he found little attraction. In a forgotten corner, however, almost hidden behind a shrubbery, was a disused tool-shed, and within its walls Conradin found a haven[i], something that became a playroom and a cathedral. He had peopled it with familiar phantoms, evoked partly from fragments of history and partly from his own brain, but it also boasted two inmates of flesh and blood. In one corner lived a ragged-plumaged Houdan hen, on which the boy lavished an affection that had scarcely another outlet. Further back in the gloom stood a large hutch[ii], divided into two compartments, one of which was fronted with close iron bars. This was the abode of a large polecat-ferret[iii], which a friendly butcher-boy had once smuggled, cage and all, into its present quarters, in exchange for silver. Conradin was dreadfully afraid of the sharp-fanged beast, but it was his most treasured possession. Its very presence in the tool-shed was a secret and fearful joy, to be kept from the knowledge of the Woman, as he privately dubbed[iv] his cousin.

And one day, he spun the beast a wonderful name, and from that moment it grew into a god and a religion. The Woman indulged in religion once a week at a church near by, and took Conradin with her, but to him the church service was an alien rite. Every Thursday, in the dim and musty silence of the tool-shed, he worshipped before the wooden hutch where dwelt Sredni Vashtar, the great ferret. Red flowers in their season and scarlet berries in the winter-time were offered at his shrine, for he was a god who laid stress on the impatient side of things, as opposed to the Woman's religion, which went to the contrary direction. And on great festivals, powdered nutmeg was strewn in front of his hutch. These festivals were of irregular occurrence, and were chiefly appointed to celebrate some passing event. On one occasion, when Mrs. De Ropp suffered from acute toothache for three days, Conradin kept up the festival during the entire three days, and almost succeeded in persuading himself that Sredni Vashtar was personally responsible for the toothache.

After a while Conradin's absorption in the tool-shed began to attract the notice of his guardian.

Vocabulary help

[1] Was not important
[2] approved
[3] Making him frustrated
[4] annoying
[5] Hearty enjoyment
[i] A place of refuge or rest
[ii] A coop for small animals
[iii] A weasellike, mammal often trained to hunt rats or rabbits.
[iv] nicknamed

``It is not good for him to be pottering down there in all weathers,'' she promptly decided, and at breakfast one morning she announced that the Houdan hen had been sold and taken away overnight. With her short-sighted eyes she peered at Conradin, waiting for an outbreak of rage and sorrow. But Conradin said nothing: there was nothing to be said. Something perhaps in his white set face gave her a momentary qualm, for at tea that afternoon there was toast on the table, a delicacy which she usually banned on the ground that it was bad for him;
``I thought you liked toast,'' she exclaimed, with an injured air, observing that he did not touch it.``Sometimes,'' said Conradin.

In the shed that evening there was an innovation in the worship of the hutch-god. Conradin had been wont[i] to chant his praises, tonight he asked a boon[ii].

``Do one thing for me, Sredni Vashtar.''

The thing was not specified. As Sredni Vashtar was a god he must be supposed to know. And choking back a sob as he looked at that other empty comer, Conradin went back to the world he so hated.

And every night, in the welcome darkness of his bedroom, and every evening in the dusk of the tool-shed, Conradin's bitter litany[iii] went up: "Do one thing for me, Sredni Vashtar."

Mrs. De Ropp noticed that the visits to the shed did not cease, and one day she made a further journey of inspection.

"What are you keeping in that locked hutch?" she asked. "I believe it's guinea-pigs. I'll have them all cleared away."

Conradin shut his lips tight, but the Woman ransacked his bedroom till she found the carefully hidden key, and marched down to the shed to complete her discovery. It was a cold afternoon, and Conradin had been bidden to keep to the house. From the furthest window of the dining-room the door of the shed could just be seen, and there Conradin stationed himself. He saw the Woman enter, and then he imagined her opening the door of the sacred hutch and peering down with her short-sighted eyes into the thick straw bed where his god lay hidden. Perhaps she would prod at the straw in her clumsy impatience. And Conradin fervently breathed his prayer for the last time. But he knew as he prayed that he did not believe. He knew that the Woman would come out presently with that pursed smile he loathed so well, and that in an hour or two the gardener would carry away his wonderful god, a god no longer, but a simple brown ferret in a hutch. And he knew that the Woman would triumph always, and that he would grow ever more sickly under her pestering and domineering and superior wisdom, till one day nothing would matter much more with him, and the doctor would be proved right. And in the sting and misery of his defeat, he began to chant loudly and defiantly[iv] the hymn of his threatened idol:

Sredni Vashtar went forth,
His thoughts were red thoughts and his teeth were white.
His enemies called for peace, but he brought them death.
Sredni Vashtar the Beautiful.

Vocabulary help
[i] Accustomed; used to
[ii] A timely blessing
[iii] A prayer consisting of a series of requests
[iv] Boldly resisting

And then of a sudden he stopped his chanting and drew closer to the window-pane. The door of the shed still stood ajar as it had been left, and the minutes were slipping by. They were long minutes, but they slipped by nevertheless. He watched the starlings running and flying in little parties across the lawn; he counted them over and over again, with one eye always on that swinging door. A sour-faced maid came in to lay the table for tea, and still Conradin stood and waited and watched. Hope had crept by inches into his heart, and now a look of triumph began to blaze in his eyes that had only known the wistful patience of defeat. Under his breath, with a furtive exultation, he began once again the paean[v] of victory and devastation. And presently his eyes were rewarded: out through that doorway came a long, low, yellow-and-brown beast, with eyes a-blink at the waning daylight, and dark wet stains around the fur of jaws and throat. Conradin dropped on his knees. The great polecat-ferret made its way down to a small brook at the foot of the garden, drank for a moment, then crossed a plank bridge and was lost to sight in the bushes. Such was the passing of Sredni Vashtar.

"Tea is ready," said the sour-faced maid; "where is the mistress?" "She went down to the shed some time ago," said Conradin. And while the maid went to summon her mistress to tea, Conradin fished a toasting-fork and proceeded to toast himself a piece of bread. And during the toasting of it and the buttering of it with much butter and the slow enjoyment of eating it, Conradin listened to the noises and silences which fell in quick spasms beyond the dining-room door. The loud foolish screaming of the maid, the answering chorus from the kitchen region, the scuttering footsteps and hurried cries for outside help, and then, after a lull, the scared sobbings and the shuffling steps into the house.

"Whoever will break it to the poor child? I couldn't for the life of me!" exclaimed a shrill voice. And while they debated the matter among themselves, Conradin made himself another piece of toast.

Vocabulary help
[v] A fervent expression of joy or praise:

Blk 1- Laila's commentary (Ndume the gorilla)

2008-08-08T17:19:00.004+08:00

An extract from Laila’s commentary (Ndume)

(a) Comment on the style and language of the passage.

Mrs Saunders’ comments:
For every line reference , Laila talks about the importance of words, phrases or parts of a sentence ( ie what they mean/how they emphasize the writer’s experience of the gorillas). In other words, every sentence in her answer explains the effect of language in the passage. To do this, Laila uses expressions like 'accentuates', 'paints an image of ...', 'stresses that..', shows that...'

Read the extract of Laila's commentary carefully. The effect (importance) of language is in italics.

Lines 12-13 basically just describe the mood as the writer faces Ndume , “He sat, and I lay” emphasizes the closeness of them and how much they can fit together. The phrase “deep green tangle of luxuriant vegetation” draws a vivid image in the readers’ mind.
Lines 13-14 also accentuates how much the writer and Ndume understand each other that they “shifted our eyes frequently”. There is a silent moment there where they just observing the surrounding and feel the peaceful atmosphere between them.
In line 14 the word “glittered” paints an image of shining, a beautiful shining on the leaves by the rain and this can make the readers to feel the atmosphere. In lines 15 and 16 the short sentence stresses how the surrounding has changed by the changing of Ndume’s mood, “holding his chin in the palm of his hand”. He seemed to be in a “contemplative mood.”
In lines 16-17 the writer is adopting the rule and tries not to break it as it may arouse gorilla’s anger.
In line 18-19, “he moved toward me, smiling vaguely and shifting his gaze in a we;;-bred manner”; this stresses that Ndume is now gaining the trust for the writer and t hat he likes the man but still acting politely with his guest.
In line 20 the writer is describing Ndume’s appearance and she compares Ndume’s muscles to the size of melons. This enables the readers to imagine how Ndume looks like.
The dashes in line 21 shows that the writer is trying to tell the readers of hat she thinks of the “silver hair”.

Blk 1 Ndume

2008-08-01T21:29:00.005+08:00

EAS November 2007, Paper 1

(Passage about a traveller's experience of a gorilla family in Rwanda)

Blk 1: Enough Already!

2008-07-23T21:50:00.003+08:00

Enough Already! 10 artists who should really stop making records
To Blk 1: You will be discussing the language and style of this article in groups next week . Then each group will present their commentary to the class. Please click on the link below to read the article now. The text will be printed and given to you in class next week.

http://music.msn.com/music/photos/enough-already/?photoidx=1

Blk 1 - PERSEPOLIS

2008-07-23T21:44:00.001+08:00

PERSEPOLIS

A memoir in comic strip images of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution:
http://www.randomhouse.com/pantheon/graphicnovels/persepolis.html

Marjane Satrapi, Why I wrote Persepolis http://www.randomhouse.com/pantheon/graphicnovels/satrapi2.html

PERSEPOLIS (the film): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persepolis_(film)

View the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PXHeKuBzPY

A review of the film: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/persepolis/

Blk 1 - The use of TALK in Informal language

2008-07-17T17:21:00.002+08:00

TALK – Oxford English Language teaching

look who’s talking/you can talk/ you’re a fine one to talk (informal)
used to tell somebody that they should not criticize somebody else for something because they do the same things too: Person A: ‘George is so careless with money.’ Person B: ‘Look who’s talking!’

now you’re talking (informal)
used when you like what somebody has suggested very much

talk about ... (informal)
used to emphasize something : Talk about mean! She didn’t even buy me a card. (2nd Assessment: Sovereign of the Seas review: ‘Talk about the march of progress’)

talk dirty (informal)
to talk to somebody about sex in order to make them sexually excited

talk the hind leg off a donkey (informal)
to talk too much, especially about boring or unimportant things

talking of somebody/something (informal, especially British English)
used when you are going to say more about a subject that has already been mentioned: Talking of Sue, I met her new boyfriend last week.

talk shop (usually disapproving)
to talk about your work with the people you work with, especially when you are also with other people who are not connected with or interested in it: Whenever we meet up with Clive and Sue they always end up talking shop.

talk the talk (informal, sometimes disapproving)
to be able to talk in a confident way that makes people think you are good at what you do: You can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk? (= can you act in a way that matches your words?)

talk through your hat (old-fashioned, informal)
to say silly things while you are talking about a subject you do not understand

talk tough (on sth) (informal)
to tell people very strongly what you want

talk turkey (informal, especially NAmE)
to talk about sth seriously

talk your way out of sth / of doing sth
to make excuses and give reasons for not doing sth; to manage to get yourself out of a difficult situation: I managed to talk my way out of having to give a speech.

PHRASAL VERBS
talk around / round (something):
to talk about sth in a general way without dealing with the most important parts of it: We spent a whole hour talking around the problem before looking at ways of solving it.

talk at (somebody):
to speak to somebody without listening to what they say in reply: You can’t have a real conversation with him—he just talks at you all the time.

talk back (to somebody)
to answer sb rudely, especially somebody in authority

talk down (to somebody)
to speak to sb as if they were less important or intelligent than you

talk (somebody) into / out of (something)
to persuade sb to do/not to do sth: I didn’t want to move abroad but Bill talked me into it.

talk (somebody) round to ( something) (BrE)
to persuade sb to accept sth or agree to sth: We finally managed to talk them round to our way of thinking.

talk (somebody) through (something)
to explain to sb how sth works so that they can do it or understand it: Can you talk me through the various investment options?

talk (something) through
to discuss sth thoroughly until you are sure you understand it: It sounds like a good idea but we’ll need to talk it through.

talk (somebody or something) up
to describe sb/sth in a way that makes them sound better than they really are: They talked up the tourist attractions to encourage more visitors.

‘Talk’ used as a NOUN

WORDS WITHOUT ACTIONS (informal)
words that are spoken, but without the necessary facts or actions to support them: It’s just talk. He’d never carry out his threats. Don’t pay any attention to her—she’s all talk.

STORIES / RUMOURS
stories that suggest a particular thing might happen in the future: There was talk in Washington of sending in troops. She dismissed the stories of her resignation as newspaper talk. There’s talk that he’s a difficult actor to work with.

TOPIC / WAY OF SPEAKING
a topic of conversation or a way of speaking:
business talk ;
She said it was just girl talk that a man wouldn’t understand.
The book teaches you how to understand Spanish street talk (= slang).
It was tough talk, coming from a man who had begun the year in a hospital bed.
(see also 'small talk, sweet talk, trash talk)

the talk of something : the person or thing that everyone is talking about in a particular place: Overnight, she became the talk of the town (= very famous).

Blk 1: Good essays from June Holiday Assignment

2008-07-15T15:19:00.008+08:00

SHARIFAH LIYANA NADZIRA BT MALAI HJ HASHIM ( B6 )

Write 2 contrasting pieces (between 300-450 words each) describing a sunrise and a sunset over the same place on the same day. In your writing you should try to bring out differences in mood and atmosphere. (June 2007)

Sunset
As I sat alone, I saw loving couples along the beach, watching the sunset, holding hands, cuddling, sharing their great happiness of being together and the intimacy of love. I felt alone. I calmed myself, gazing at the beautiful sunset.

The sun was a great, big, romantic and inspirational fire in the sky. The salt of the water could be tasted on the tip of my tongue. The caress of the breeze was a warm comfort, giving me joy and relaxation. It was like a sweet embrace, stilling my heart, and causing my breath to hold for the slightest of moments. The wonderment of the beauty of it collected all my bad and unpleasant feelings in a bag of mixed emotions, leaving me in elation.

It was silent for a while; the birds could be heard flapping their wings across the sea which made me feel like I was as free as they were; the soothing sound of the waves made me feel even better. Sunset proved to me the earth was going round to make the sun slowly disappear from this side of my view. It was like bright red fire flies dancing across the sky and changing colour from gold to orange to red, like dancers changing their costumes in a performance. The rays seemed friendly and they reminded me of an old friend saying goodbye and even though he was leaving, I knew he would be back again.

The sky was ablaze with colour: fiery orange, searing reds, hot as the yellow sun and yet the sky had begun to cool with the indigo of the night. The feeling was greatly serene. I looked back at my surroundings, each and every couple felt the same way I did - their faces showed it all. Then I thought for a moment of how wonderful it would be to watch the sunset with the one you care about right beside you.

Sunrise
We sit on a beach with a blanket wrapped around us, sharing a cup of hot coffee and waiting for the sun to rise. The sound of silence comes to mind, the still air is replaced by the morning breeze, cool and refreshing. It is the best time of day. An ideal time to smell the fresh air of dawn.

We wait for the sun to rise, spirited and energetic for a fresh start of a new day, to think of the day’s possibilities and promises rather than of its regrets. Slowly the bright orange ball appears like the colour of orange, mango and peach. The sky joins with the water and the light and begin to paint colours over the surface of the water: red of blood and orange of lust. It is a hope-filled event as my excitement grows slowly to watch the beautiful light shine out of its darkness. A splendid view with excellent light, colour and mood. The sun comes up, wrapping the day in beauty. The rays of sunrise glitter like diamonds on a smooth sheet of water over which birds fly peacefully.

We sit on the blanket now as the air is warmer. We watch the colour of the ocean change from dark blue green to a colour equally blue. We look at each other, we see the calmness and joy that is within us. Just as the sun brings light, a new beginning and a new creation to a new day, our relationship begins anew. This great opportunity has made me think of how wonderful nature is and it has taught me to start a new day filled with new ideas. (grade: C+)

Mrs Saunders’ comments:

1. Her essays are vibrant and rich in details:
· She describes how her senses respond to the environment - the salt of the water (taste); the caress of the breeze (touch), the soothing sound of the waves (hearing), like bright red fire flies dancing across the sky and changing colour from gold to orange to red (sight and movement).
· Her description of colour is dramatic (‘fiery orange, searing reds’) and it is given an emotional force (‘red of blood and orange of lust’)
· She has also used similes (which you can readily identify), metaphors(in italics) and alliteration ('soothing sounds')
· Abundant adjectives: serene, cool, refreshing, energetic, smooth, splendid, excellent, new, great, wonderful etc

2. More important, her writing shows good STRATEGY - the descriptive language has not caused her to detract from the main aim of the assignment which is to create CONTRAST in mood in the 2 essays.
This contrast is suggested in the sentences I put in italics. At sunset, there is a quiet loneliness in the narrator, while at sunrise, there is an atmosphere of hope - she is optimistic about her new relationship with her companion.

3. Note the difference in tense between the 2 essays. Consider the difference in effect.

ARAFAT BIN MAHABUB

1. Write 2 contrasting pieces (between 300-450 words each), one which describes a particular place at the end of a war or natural disaster and one which describes the way it looks after being rebuilt. In your writing you should try to bring out differences in mood and atmosphere. (Nov 2007)

After the war
The war has ended, so has the lives of many others. It is an evil thing, War. It is something that everyone wants to avoid but when it does happen, there is no imaginable way of escaping it. One can imagine how a battlefield, a friendly neighborhood for many families, would look like after a war: HELL. Debris and fragments from the houses that once housed an innocent toddler can be seen scattered everywhere. The dull and dark atmosphere can give us an idea of how spiritless the place is. Clouds of smoke and dust fill the pungent air and the stagnant water itself expresses the lifeless condition of the place. As you look over the hill, you can see the grey and gloomy clouds, slowly moving towards the desolate place. You can tell the place is in solitary.

The people stay helpless, depressed and heavy-hearted. The tears in their eyes speak a thousand words. The shattered hearts cry for help, feeling hopelessness and despair. Desperate to stand on their feet, hoping to move on with their life but they cannot forget the torments and excruciating pain they experienced. Dead bodies still lay on the ruined streets. Everything you see around you is destroyed. Nothing left in one piece. The survivors remain in a moody silence. By looking at their teary eyes, you can see how miserable they are, how sorrowful they feel, how stubborn they can become, how fed up they are.

The parliament buildings can be seen in piles of debris and you cannot differentiate between a national landmark and a bare and deserted land. Some of the walls of the building are covered in blood, a disturbing image indeed. Many bullet shells cover the surface of the streets of the town and to start collecting all these shells and to destroy them would be a start in rebuilding the once beautiful town.

After the rebuilt
After a war, basically the whole town is destroyed and also the lives of many others. It is very hard to start a new life and to forget the past. But the best way to move on with a new life is by rebuilding the town. Being united, working hard to make the place what it used to be before: a beautiful place.
Many years after the dreadful war the town was resurrected and new buildings were erected. The atmosphere has changed since the war, for the better. The sky is clear with the sun shining brightfully on the new built town. New trees have grown which provides shelter for the birds, chirping at daily sunrise, giving an impression that the birds are living in peace and are not disturbed. Many new buildings such as schools, hospital, etc, are built and also quite a few tourist sites to attract people in order to develop the town further. The peaceful environment in the town is created by various flowers producing a scent which provides the town with a fresh smell and a promising future.
The warm breeze from the west and the raining season keeps the town lively and gives hope for the town farmers. Many new retail shops are established to create jobs for those who are unemployed thus everyone in the town is united and the population is grateful and cheerful. New mosques and churches are built to keep the town blessed. Furthermore, monuments are also constructed in order to pay respect to the residents and the people who died during the war. Eventhough the town has been revived, it has not fully recovered from the damage made during the war. The people still think about the past and regret those moments. But a new town has been built, a better town where people can easily move on and try to forget the torturous past. (grade: C+)

Mrs Saunders’ comments

· He uses a plain conversational style. There is a sense of an omniscient narrator speaking to the reader directly (note the use of the second person pronoun). The tone is quiet and restrained.

Although the description of each scene is quite general, it is effective in showing contrast in atmosphere between the two scenes.

· The simple sentence structure works well in describing a difficult topic (war and reconstruction) clearly.
· Short sentences state a point with impact. (It is an evil thing, War. Nothing left in one piece )

· There is an emotional dimension in the writing. The narrator’s awareness of the peoples’ physical and mental suffering gives the essays more depth - ‘The people stay helpless, depressed and heavy-hearted. The tears in their eyes speak a thousand words; Desperate to stand on their feet; ..they cannot forget the torments…; moody silence’.

· Note how the opening sentence in the first work is similar that of the second:
Ist work: The war has ended, so has the lives of many others.
2nd work: After a war, basically the whole town is destroyed and also the lives of many others.
This similarity in sentence structure unifies the two pieces of writing.

· Note the abundant use of adjectives which is a basic must in descriptive writing.

· The essay ends on a realistic but hopeful note. ‘ The people still think about the past and regret those moments. But a new town has been built, a better town where people can easily move on and try to forget the torturous past.’
This is a mark of good writing because i)a simplistic approach (reconstruction = happy ending ) and ii) sentimentality (excessive emotion) have been avoided.

NORSAIDI BIN SERAIL (B7)

Write two contrasting pieces (between 300-450 words each) describing a sunrise and a sunset over the same place on the same day. In your writing you should try to bring out differences in mood and atmosphere.

Sunrise
It is morning again without anybody realizing it, because they are fast asleep. The pink sky has slowly changed colour to a bright yellow, which is then mixed with a bit of orange and red. Though this transformation is significant, no one bothers to examine it; they barely even look up to the sky and praise the works of the Almighty. However, one of the children stops dead in his tracks to gaze at the open sky to see a group of birds flying which have added to the beauty of the panoramic view. The sunrise is obviously signalling everybody to wake up to do their respective errands. But, at the same time, this phenomenon doesn’t get the approval of the bed-lover.

Here it is...Kampong Ayer, which stands out most in the core of the town.
The sunrise gives new hope not only to loners but to smugglers. It casts light on the flickering waves and shadows on the long, old jittery jetties. Sunrise means work to the business men and business women though they earn only little. Children jump happily into their school uniforms and this means another gruelling job for teachers. It also means another profitable day for water taxi drivers. It is as if the Sun has blessed people with life and luck, accompanying every person in his daily life with prosperity and promising journeys, wherever they are heading. The Sun has raised itself slightly adding heat to the river. A place that at one time felt quite silent, has become busy and full of distinct activities, which is why it is the centre of attraction of the town.

Sunset
On the other hand, when the Sun begins its journey of dipping below the horizon, people would be very busy hiring the water taxi drivers to go across the river. The Sun would be terrified if anyone dared to swim across the wide river just to get home. The tide has slowly become calm and safe to those people who are afraid of going on a water taxi. Slowly, business men and business women along the Kianggeh River begin their packing. Darkness would engulf the town, only to be disturbed by the lights and bulbs perk up the street and everyone’s houses. Birds are flying to their home after a day of hunting. They are no longer chirping, instead they are whistling as if singing to the sinking giant ball of flames.

Babies sleep comfortably in their mothers’ arms. Children from school yawn, their sleepy faces distinguishable by their heavy eyelids. Despite their tiredness, the water taxi drivers continue their services transporting villagers back and forth. It is nearly silent, only the sounds of waves hitting the walls are heard. Shops are beginning to close down one by one, adding to the silent atmosphere and a sense of gloom hangs in the air. The Sun has deliberately dipped into the horizon to give way to smugglers and pick pockets to begin their sinful activities especially in the stinking and dirty alleyways.

Restaurants and cafes open because as night approaches they will be the centre of attraction. Despite this, ‘azan’ from the mosque penetrate the dull air in the town, signalling people to watch their watches and reminding them to perform the Maghrib Prayer for Muslims. The once brave and arrogant smugglers in the alleyways have suddenly become weak and they hesitate, wondering whether to continue with their activities or not. So the day has melted into the night, with clouds drifting slowly, as if they are stage curtains and the people below are actors and actresses...
(Grade: C+)

Mrs Saunders’ comments
The impact of sunrise and sunset on life in of Kampong Ayer is described in a sensitive and imaginative way - the sun is written with a capital ‘S’ and described if it has intention and feeling (‘the Sun has blessed people with life and luck, accompanying every person in his daily life with prosperity...’;’ the Sun begins its journey...’; ‘The Sun would be terrified...’).

There is gentle humour in these lines:
'The sunrise is obviously signalling everybody to wake up to do their respective errands. But, at the same time, this phenomenon doesn’t get the approval of the bed-lover.'

The ironic humour derives from the contrast between the sun’s ‘eagerness’ to get everyone up to work, and the sleepers’ disinclination to respond.

Although the tone is mostly gentle, it is not uncritical of the villagers who fail to appreciate the wonder of sunrise as a gift from God. The word ‘sinful’ and the association of the smugglers’ activities with ‘the stinking and dirty alleyways’ show that the narrator strongly disapproves of this aspect of life in Kg Ayer.
The azan’s moral influence on life in Kg Ayer is implied in the words ‘penetrate’ and ‘signalling’ and also in the smugglers sudden loss of courage upon hearing it. Hence the essays have a spiritual angle, which give more depth and interest.
Contrast in mood
At sunrise, the serene atmosphere evoked in the first paragraph is slightly undercut at the start of the second paragraph when the writer refers to smugglers and ‘shadows on the long, old jittery jetties’. There is also an atmosphere of promise and increasing vitality as the people get more involved in their daily chores as the day progresses (even the smugglers are optimistic because of ‘the Sun accompanying every person in his daily life with prosperity and promising journeys’).

At sunset, everything slows down and the atmosphere of diminishing energy engulfs Kampong Ayer as villagers prepare to rest from the day’s work. Elsewhere in the busy restaurants and cafes, the ‘azan’ reminds the people of their spiritual obligations, implying that commercial activities are temporarily subdued.
The contrast in mood is also implied by the sudden lack of confidence that came upon the smugglers (in contrast to their optimism at sunrise)

The essay ends on a very satisfying note with the simile which compares the dark clouds covering the evening sky to the closing of stage curtains.

Blk 1 Good student essays - June Holiday Assignment

2008-07-12T09:16:00.004+08:00

Angelyn Choo Tze Hui. (B5)

Write 2 contrasting pieces (between 300-450 words each) describing a sunrise and a sunset over the same place on the same day. In your writing you should try to bring out differences in mood and atmosphere. (June 2007)

That place had something magical, I swear. Even though I had to wake up an hour before sunrise so I could reach my destination on time (using the quickest form of transportation I owned: my bicycle), I was really glad I did. When I finally made it to the abandoned field just a few minutes from my house, the sky was beginning to get light, and the chill of early morning was fading away, as if to hide from the glorious rays of light emerging from dark clouds that were bursting forth unto this small piece of paradise. All darkness departed as the sun rose higher into the sky; I could feel the heat on my skin. Beads of sweat formed on my forehead, arms, back and legs; I began to feel restless. All the silence and calm that protected the night before was being slowly consumed by birds chirping and not long after that, engulfed by honks, screeching of tires, the inevitable humming of car engines and the clanking (and stench) of the garbage truck that just passed by.

Simultaneously, my senses became overwhelmed by all that was going on: the beautiful scenery, the burning sensation on my skin, the intense noises and violent smell that mixed with the morning’s air and caused an electricity of excitement to run through the atmosphere. And suddenly, everything felt vibrant. I could literally feel the new day beginning, a fresh start; all sins from the night before were forgiven, all tears were wiped away. I looked around and saw that the grass held no secrets, the trees kept no hidden thoughts and the sky seized no clandestine hope; everything was in the open. (I wanted to be open as well. Transparent, with nothing holding me back.) Every leaf, every tree and every blade of grass, down to the smallest speck of dust, seemed to embrace the new light, perhaps even as a sort of salutation to the wonder that is the sunrise.

After a few hours, I was back in the field, waiting for the sun to perform her closing act. And without fail, she delivered. The sun’s slow gentle descent into the horizon brought about a familiar chill that surrounded me. I looked around and realized that everything had come to a halt. The clouds gathered in one panoramic view, as if they were wishing the sun a pleasant farewell for the day. All the noises of the harried day seemed to have diminished and a soothing silence reigned over the place. As the sun sank beneath the horizon, the sky mingled hot colors with colds ones; bright orange, fading into dark blue. The soft pinks and pale creamy yellows melted away as the soft darkness brushed across the sky.

A chill ran through my spine as I witnessed this. The sun deserved a standing ovation. The majestic splendor of that moment overtook me and I could not help but let the tears roll down my cheeks. But I was not worried that anyone would see me cry. As the sky turned dark, it felt like a reassurance that all secrets shared within that moment would be locked away safely. The grass and trees were no more in clear view, they were given a silent permission to do as they liked. And so was I. It was the ending of the day for some, yet only the beginning for others. I felt the evening’s cold fingertips brush against my face and decided that it was time to head home. (grade:B)

Mrs Saunders’ comments

Both the sunrise and sunset evoke powerful feelings and a heightened awareness in the narrator. The freshness of the morning fills her with exhilaration and a sense of liberty.

Figurative language to describe the external world of nature (‘the grass held no secrets, the trees kept no hidden thoughts and the sky seized no clandestine hope’) gives us an idea of the internal world of her emotions and thoughts. She felt freedom and joy in sharing all her innermost secrets.

The mood of openness that she experiences at sunrise is finely contrasted with the mood of withdrawal at sunset. The narrator now feels the need to keep her thoughts and feelings private as conveyed in the imagery of ‘locked safely away’. The darkening sky is also an apt metaphor for her state of mind; in the same way the sky at dawn (‘the sky was beginning to get light’) set the atmosphere for her elation that morning.

Rahimah Salaesah Ibrahim (B20)
Write 2 contrasting descriptive pieces (between 300-450 words each) about 2 different times of the day and their effect on a particular place. In describing each time you should create clear contrasts in mood and atmosphere.

The Day
I watched the sun rise high in the sky, smiling down at us; I sat down on the grass, watching people passing by. Nearby flora was blooming, showing their bright attractive colors: purple royal, cerulean, aqua, olive green, sunburst yellow, auburn and fuchsia as if it was an eternal rainbow. The children were at the playground. Most of them were playing hide and seek, others were in the sandbox with their own tools and two girls were seen on the swing. The echoes of their laughter could be heard resonating in the park. Parents were on the side watching the children with blissful smiles on their faces. Suddenly a boy stumbled and started to cry. I stood up and took a step forward but a girl stopped in front of the crying boy and helped him up. They resumed playing after the boy had calmed down and I sat back, assured that everything was fine. At the center of the park, there was the great fountain, symbolizing unity and peace. Its white marble texture and goblet-like structure were enhanced by the gentle flowing of the crystal clear water; it gleamed softly as the golden rays rested on it. There were tourists nearby, each one of them was different yet the important thing was they were having a good time. Birds were seen flying and singing, the squirrels were jumping from tree to tree, bees were buzzing and butterflies flew around the flowers. On the bench, facing the fountain, there was an old woman feeding the pigeons and an old man reading the morning paper right beside her. The gentle wind passed by once in a while, carrying the soft sound of comfort. A small sigh escaped my lips. The day was full of life.

The Night
Sitting down on the bench, facing the fountain, I stare at the dark night. Everything is very different at night. The bright colorful flowers earlier that day are now lifeless and dull as if they have withered and died. The playground is completely empty like an old ghost town, everyone has already gone home and there is not a soul around. The swing squeaks as if there is a child swinging on it yet it is only the wind gently pushing it. The moon is the only source of light that brightens the dark area yet to me it is still dim. The big oak tree stands tall creating an immense shadow, hiding whatever creature or someone lurking beneath it. The fountain emits a faded blue glow, making the surroundings gloomier than ever and the sound of water flowing can be heard more clearly than in the day. Suddenly out of nowhere, a big white owl swoops down and snatches a rat that is feeding nearby the garbage. I follow the owl with my eyes and it lands on the big oak tree branch and swallows its prey whole. I gulped as it stares at me with its big yellow eyes then it flies away leaving me staring at a feather that has fallen and landed on the ground. The sounds of crickets in the night are the only sounds heard other than the sound of the flowing water. The bushes behind me suddenly rattle; it startles me, I turn around and stare at the bush and suddenly a black cat jumps out and sprints away. I blink. I stand up and start to walk; it is time to head back home. The cold wind carries dead leaves and the air feels so dry and so suffocating as it passes by. It is cold and chilly and everything in the night seems mysteriously dead. (grade: C+)

Mrs Saunders’Comments:

Rahimah’s essays show that a simple sentence structure (‘Birds were seen flying and singing, the squirrels were jumping from tree to tree, bees were buzzing and butterflies flew around the flowers’;. ‘Sitting down on the bench, facing the fountain, I stare at the dark night.’ ‘Everything is very different at night.’ ‘The bushes behind me suddenly rattle’) can describe a scene vividly and create atmosphere effectively.

‘The Day’ is written in the past tense, while ‘The Night’ in the present tense. Is there a difference in effect as a result of this? In your view, which tense works better? Why?

The details in ‘The Day’ are concrete (real; can be seen, heard and felt by our 5 senses) but she uses imagery once. Can you spot it?

A striking contrast in atmosphere in the playground has been created in a simple and direct way, in the closing sentence of each piece (‘The day was full of life. ‘/ ‘It is cold and chilly and everything in the night seems mysteriously dead.’)

Blk 1 AND Block 5: June Hols Homework

2008-06-06T22:06:00.003+08:00

Paper 2, Section A: Narrative/Descriptive/Imaginative Writing

Choose ONE question. Your essay must be between 600-900 words.

1. Write 2 contrasting pieces (between 300-450 words each), one which describes a particular place at the end of a war or natural disaster and one which describes the way it looks after being rebuilt. In your writing you should try to bring out differences in mood and atmosphere. (Nov 2007)

2. Write 2 contrasting pieces (between 300-450 words each) describing a sunrise and a sunset over the same place on the same day. In your writing you should try to bring out differences in mood and atmosphere. (June 2007)

3. Write 2 contrasting pieces (between 300-450 words each) describing the same character when he/she is young and then old. In your writing you should try to bring out differences in the character’s appearance and outlook on life. (June 2006)

4. Write 2 contrasting descriptive pieces (between 300-450 words each) about 2 different times of the day and their effect on a particular place. In describing each time you should create clear contrasts in mood and atmosphere. (2004)

Please type your assignment if possible (using double spacing)
Deadline: Monday 30 June 2008

Blk 1: Model student assignments : DIRECTED WRITING - Based on extract from “The Road to Wigan Pier”

2008-06-06T21:12:00.007+08:00

Assignment Question
Basing your answer closely on the style and language of the extract from “The Road to Wigan Pier’ write part of an account expressing your strong dislike of a place, person or thing. (120-150 words)

You may use as many of the following features as possible:
1. The second person pronoun
2. Comparison
3. Diction: superlatives, negative suffix (-less), strong adjectives
4. Irony
5. Parenthesis to share a thought informally with your reader
6. Sentence without a finite verb, only participles (lines 43-48) to highlight the strong presence of an unattractive thing.

Suriati Anak Anyut
An army of trucks, assembling a huge, gloomy building - a hotel to be. Similar to an army of ants building its nest. Except that this construction of a building is far more horrid than that of the timid ants’ nest.
If you pass the construction site, you will realize air is not the only thing that fills your lungs…but also dust. Dust from the loading and unloading of graves of gravel. The dryness of the atmosphere itself even has the potential to suffocate everyone. Grey piles of tiles. Grey pails of paint. Grey masses of timber wood. Grey sacks of harsh cement. They reflect how solid the product will soon be. And oh, the noise! It’s as if the sound of machine guns is being shot right through your eardrums! (Not to mention the killing potential is the same!). (140 words) [Grade: C+]

Tutor's Comments:

Suriati has done a good job of applying all the features of style.
• Note the opening sentence has no finite verb, just the present participle ‘assembling’.
• Suriati has used comparison not once but twice. Can you spot the second one?
• The repetition of ‘grey’ in four short non-sentences and the alliterative "grey piles...grey pails" are very effective in reinforcing the dull and lifeless character of the building to be. They also convey the quiet disgust of the speaker as she surveys her immediate environment.
• Note the use of ‘even’ to stress the harmful effect of the dusty atmosphere.
• ‘And oh, the noise!’ is an acceptable adaption of that single short sentence in the original extract since she is not referring to smell.

• Note the use of parenthesis.

Diction: Strong adjectives - horrid, harsh; strong verbs - suffocate, shot right through

Now see how far each of the following answers below has used the 6 features of style in the list. Note also the strengths and individual style (the particular way the writer expresses his/her point of view) that make each work unique.

Amirul Hamizan
Antarctica, I would have to say, is the worst place you can ever live in. The place itself is an icy deathtrap; there is no way you can escape, you just have to learn to survive in the cold and tormenting environment. I imagine there are no animals or any living things except for the strange fishes under the ice and some polar bears ready to put you in their menu. All around, white icy flakes and sometimes stones of ice falling from the sky and the floor, so slippery and evil, waiting for someone to slip on it. It is as if Antarctica itself is an evil, cruel and cold serial killer just waiting for the right moment. No one but a bunch of crazy researchers would dare to live in its suicidal conditions. Well, simply put, you would agree with me when I say Antarctica is a much colder version of hell itself. (155 words) [Grade: B]

Jessica Tieng
Personally, I strongly despise judgmental people who see nothing wrong with themselves, yet see everything wrong with everyone else.
These judgmental, prejudiced and biased individuals make false assumptions and far-reaching pronouncements based on limited information. These brainless people decree what is right and wrong.
So basically if you look out for your own negative traits, you are less likely to sit in judgment over your fellow human beings, which will be all the better for you and them.

Yet judgmental people are far less worse than hypocrites who always seem to preach a certain belief or way of life but in fact they do hold these same virtues themselves

Just remember what William Shakespeare said, " Forbear to grudge, for we are sinners and all." (126 words) [Grade: B]

Haswan Hj Maidin
Our school canteen seems to be the dirtiest place in PTEB. The floor is decorated with sweet wrappers, tin cans, plastic containers and left-over food which apparently dominate the whole area so that you have to watch your feet! This litter (which can be seen almost anytime of the day) is so appalling that you could easily lose your appetite. But this is nothing compared to the horrid atmosphere of the toilets, from the distasteful smell to the dreadful sight of the unflushed toilets. The cubicles give a sinister feeling: a door with a broken lock, the dysfunctional toilet flush, the lifeless piece of pipe. Even the lights seem to be dim and scary as the hum of the toilet fan dominates the room. (124 words) (Grade: C+)

Here are 2 written pieces that are not based too closely on 6 listed features of language in the extract from ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’ but are nevertheless very effective in expressing disgust . Muizzah’s account is highly descriptive and vivid with an ironic observation in the closing sentence. Hamada does not adopt the cold and detached ironic tone found in the original passage. Instead she is amused at and affectionate towards her object of disgust, therefore the irony in her writing has a warm humorous quality.

Muizzah binti Kamal
As I entered the indoor fish market, the inevitable smell of fish predictably captivated my senses, and I cringed visibly. The air was thick with the nostalgic, salty scent of the seaside and the horribly offensive odor of dead fish. Walking along the stalls, I felt the growing dampness on my jeans. My gaze lingered on the mini drains which rivaled the large ones in the slums in lack of attention to hygiene. The drain was almost overflowing with substances which were unrecognizable since they did not show any signs of movement. The remnants of crabs and fish were mingling beautifully with the highly viscous, ash-coloured filth. The idea of running for the exit and abandoning Mother in her quest for a salmon was greatly tempting. The most disturbing thing was that the stall-keepers seemed oblivious to these facts.
(141 words) [Grade: B]

Hamadatun Najwa bt Yusuf Wahbi
After one year, I discover that my charming boyfriend has some amazingly disgusting habits. However, I still do love the guy despite my interesting encounter with him last week. Not even my guy friends show me their bad habits, and I've known them for a longer period. You would not imagine how revolting my lunch was that day. A strand of lamb meat stuck in between the teeth (I had already warned him that we were bound to get some meat stuck if we ordered lamb chop) in a mouth widely open with fingers meddling inside it struggling to remove the irritating piece of food remains. His face expressed the great strength he was using to take it out and showed much satisfaction after his successful attempt. What's worse came right after that. He took a glance at the pathetic strand, stayed motionless for two seconds before shrugging his shoulders, and then popped it right back into his mouth! It was absolutely appalling! (163 words) [Grade: B]

Block 5: Essay Homework

2008-06-03T20:16:00.003+08:00

Following the same process we have carried out over the last few lessons, write a discursive essay on the topic "Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of mobile phones". This means mobile phones in general, not just in school.
Things to remember:

• Taking several lines of argument both for and against
• Expanding and developing the lines of argument
• Presenting lines of argument in an ordered fashion
• Giving evidence to support the lines of argument
• Linking coherently each line of argument

1.Remember to keep the balance between the two sides of the argument, positive and negative, maybe three different points on each side.
2. Express each of these in a topic sentence.
3. Put them in a reasonable order.
4. Expand on each one.
5. Link them together, both within and between paragraphs, with various linking words either to add another point (Furthermore, moreover, also) or to contrast a previous point (However, in contrast etc)
6. Insert an introduction, saying what you are going to be talking about, then a conclusion which is a summary of what you have said, followed by a personal viewpoint. Basically "Say what you're going to say, then say it, then say what you said!"

As a rough guideline, you should write about 600 words, with 10% intro (approx 60 words), 80% main body (approx 480-500 words i.e. about 80 words per line of argument) 10% conclusion (another 60 words).

The Language of Advertising

2008-05-26T12:31:00.003+08:00

The text of the advertisement below appeared in the Radio Times.

Have you?
The value of experience
Well have you? You know, been there, done that

Anyone who tells you the world’s getting smaller hasn’t driven a Suzuki lately. For over 30 years, Suzuki 4 X 4s have been expanding drivers’ horizons, taking them as far as their imagination leads them. And sometimes beyond. For real adventures, you need a real 4 X 4.
Underneath that smoothly-contoured body shell, the Grand Vitara is pure, uncompromising, off-road engineering with a ladder-frame chassis that’s strong enough and durable enough to take on the toughest of terrains. Long-travel suspension and high ground clearance let you ride easily over rocks, ruts and river-beds. The Drive Select 4 X 4 system, giving you all the traction and control you need – with an effortless switch to 2WD when you get back on the tarmac. You can choose from 2.0 litre petrol and Turbo Diesel engines or a gutsy 2.5 V6. Whatever Mother Nature’s throwing at you outside, inside it’s all comfort, space and relaxation. And wherever life takes you, the Grand Vitara offers unparalleled safety, comfort and driver satisfaction, all at a price that’s a world away from other 4 X 4s. If you expect a lot from your car, we expect your call on 01892-707007.

How do we set about analysing an advertisement? Firstly we need to understand that this is persuasive writing. The author is trying to persuade us to buy something; in this case a car. Advertisers typically like to create needs in us; make us feel that our lives are incomplete unless we buy what they are selling. Very often it's a need we never knew we had.
Look at the heading and the questions. What need is the advertisement creating? Why are there so many questions? Why does the advertisement address the reader directly using you? Why does the author use value and experience? What is the purpose of been there, done that? What tone does all of this create?
In the main body contrast smaller with expanding, as far as, horizons, beyond., What has allowed people to lead a less restricted lifestyle? What is the only thing stopping you achieving this less restricted lifestyle? What's the importance of 30 years? Why is real repeated and what does it contrast with? What, therefore, will buying a Suzuki do for you? What does buying a Suzuki promise you?
Is there a non-sentence in the first paragraph? What is its effect?
In the next paragraph look at the compound modifiers smoothly-contoured, off-road, ladder-frame, long-travel. What do they mean? What are the words that they modify? What do those words mean? If you don't know, it's all jargon (find the meaning of this word). If you do know it's terminology (find its meaning). In either case, what is the effect of these phrases? Do they sound technical and impressive? What then is a drive select 4 X 4 system?
Can you spot a nice piece of alliteration? What effect does that have?
Do we have choice? How? Is the driver in complete control? How?
Find other words in the same lexical field as easily. What effect do they have?
Do the same for pure.
What effect does world away have? Does it echo another part of the advertisement?
Comment on the structure of the final sentence.
Did you find the word need anywhere? It would be very surprising not to find it somewhere.
Contrast the world outside the Suzuki with the one inside it.
Does the writer use contractions? What is their effect?
Can we say anything about sentence length?
Advertisers often hit us with a hard-sell, after all they are spending good money trying to get us to spend ours. Is there a hard-sell anywhere here? If so, how is it achieved?
Think about the audience in terms of age, gender, social status, professional status, income, aspirations and lifestyle. Now, when you are stuck in a huge traffic jam on your way to your boring dead-end job, where are you in your mind? Do you think that owning a Suzuki gives you freedom and choice and control over your life?

Advice for Writers

2008-05-26T09:56:00.002+08:00

1. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.
4. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
5. Avoid clichés like the plague. (They're old hat.)
6. Also, always avoid annoying assonance
7. Be more or less specific.
8. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.
9. Also too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies.
10. No sentence fragments.
11. Contractions aren't necessary and shouldn't be used.
12. Foreign words and phrases are neither apropos nor de rigueur.
13. Do not be redundant; do not use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
14. One should NEVER generalize.
15. Comparisons are as bad as clichés.
16. Don't use no double negatives.
17. Avoid ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
18. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
19. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
20. The passive voice is to be ignored.
21. Eliminate commas, that are, not necessary. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas.
22. Never use a big word when a diminutive one would suffice.
23. DO NOT use exclamation points and all caps to emphasize!!!
24. Understatement is always the absolute best way to put forth earth shaking ideas.
25. Use the apostrophe in it's proper place and omit it when its not needed.
26. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
27. If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times: Resist hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it correctly.
28. Puns are for children, not groan readers.
29. Who needs rhetorical questions?
30. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
31. The passive voice should never be used.
32. A writer must not shift your point of view.
33. Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences of 10 or more words, to their antecedents.
34. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
35. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.
36. Be careful to use the rite homonym.
37. Take care to spel werds corectly
38. And Finally...Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.

L6th EAS Assessment 1. May 2007

2008-05-06T18:33:00.003+08:00

Commentary on the text taken from George Orwell’s “The Road to Wigan Pier”

This text from George Orwell’s “The Road to Wigan Pier” is in the genre of a report or a social commentary/critique. His purpose is to bring to light or expose the conditions suffered by the working people in the North of England. The audience is likely to be the general public, but more specifically the government. Its tone therefore is critical, descriptive and provocative.

The first paragraph characterizes the South, East and Midlands of England as comfortably bland and uniform, through the use of such lexical items as “accustomed to”, “not much difference”, “not unlike” and “indistinguishable”. He then provides a stark contrast to this with his description of the towns of the North. The repetition of words such as “ugliness” and the use of adjectives like “frightful” and “arresting” heightens the terrible contrast between these comfortable pleasant towns of the rest of England, and those of the North.

The second paragraph consists of a description of Wigan. He uses a myriad of adjectives to describe the terrible scene he witnesses, such as “hideous, planless, functionless, frightful, evil.” All of these combine to create an image of a horrific environment. In the first line he uses the contradictory term “at best” along with the word "hideous" to show that the word is not enough to describe the scene of the slag-heap. That is indeed the best thing which can be said about it.
The simile “like the emptying of a giant’s dustbin” gives us an image of the huge size of the slag-heap. Adjectives such as “jagged” convey a harsh, sharp image of the scene. He then creates an image of hell with the use of the alliterative metaphor “red rivulets of fire, winding this way and that.” The never-ending nature of this horror is emphasized through the description of the “blue flames of sulphur, which always seem on the point of expiring and always spring out again.” There is no relief, no respite from the misery. These slag-heaps will also still be visible “centuries hence”. In the phrase “evil brown grass” he uses personification to show that even natural elements such as grass have this horrible characteristic. The fact that slag-heaps are used as playgrounds seems incongruous, almost ironic. These slag-heaps are compared with the use of a simile to the sharp peaks of “a choppy sea, suddenly frozen” or a metaphor with his depiction of an uncomfortable lumpy “flock mattress”.

In the third paragraph he recalls one particular winter afternoon in Wigan. he uses the alliterative metaphor “lunar landscape” to give the image of a barren, almost alien environment. There is no vegetation, just “cinders” and “frozen mud”. This environment is “criss-crossed by the imprint of innumerable clogs“ the alliteration generating the image of many people suffering under these harsh conditions. The “flashes – pools of stagnant water” intensify the image of this horrific place, as they were covered with “ice, the colour of raw umber”. You might, under normal conditions expect ice to clear or white, but not in this environment. There is an example of personification where the “lock gates wore beards of ice” emphasizing the image of this cold, barren land, from which “vegetation had been banished.”

However, all of this pales in comparison to Sheffield, as evidenced by the use of the intensifier “even”. It is “the ugliest town in the Old World”, with very few decent buildings, even compared to the average East Anglian village of only 500 inhabitants. Ironically, the inhabitants seem to be almost proud of this accolade. The exclamation mark after “…stench!” intensifies the already strong meaning of the word. There is some irony in the fact that even when the sulphur smell is not present, you smell gas. There is no respite, no relief from the unrelenting misery. “The shallow river…is usually bright yellow” and one might normally expect something yellow to be bright, primary and natural, however here, the yellow comes from “some chemical or other”. Throughout the text, Orwell uses colour imagery, “grey mountains…red rivulets…blue flames…brown grass…raw umber…bright yellow…dark red…blackened…blackish… red and yellow brick…rosy…redlit boys” to heighten the vivid effect of his imagery. Even the primary colours are indicative of something horrible.
The description of the thirty-three chimneys is heightened by the fact that it was only the smoke which hindered his view of many more. Further use of lexis such as “frightful…squalor…littered…gaunt” further increase the impression of impoverishment. His ironic use of the word “vista” to describe the ugly panorama is intensified by the repetition of “chimneys, chimney beyond chimney”.
The last paragraph gives us an image of Sheffield at night, a hideous place where there is nothing but “blackness” and the oxymoronic “sinister magnificence.“ The “serrated flames, like circular saws” reprises the “jagged” image from the description of Wigan. Orwell personifies the smoke and flames which “squeeze themselves”, as if they were alive. The vision of hell is once again highlighted with “fiery serpents” and “redlit boys”, and further intensified with the onomatopoeic “whiz, thump…scream.”
Orwell, through his cumulative use of imagery created by a variety of lexis, paints a picture of unmitigated horror. It is clear that his writing was intended to have a very strong effect on his audience.

George Orwell

2008-05-05T19:18:00.007+08:00

If you are interested in reading more about this writer, here is a brief (well, actually, it's quite long!!) biography. I will post a model commentary for the assessment text as soon as everyone has completed it, in a day or two.

AK

George Orwell

George Orwell is the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 [1][2] – 21 January 1950) who was an English writer and journalist well-noted as a novelist, critic, and commentator on politics and culture.
George Orwell is one of the most admired English-language essayists of the twentieth century, and most famous for two novels critical of totalitarianism in general (Nineteen Eighty-Four), and Stalinism in particular (Animal Farm), which he wrote and published towards the end of his life.
Early life
Eric Arthur Blair was born on 25 June 1903 to British parents[3] in Motihari, Bengal Presidency, British India. His father, Richard Walmesley Blair, worked in the Opium Department of the Civil Service. His mother, Ida Mabel Blair (née Limouzin), took him to England when he was one year old. He did not see his father again until 1907, during Richard's three-month visit to England. Eric had two sisters; Marjorie, the elder, and Avril, the younger. He later described his family as "lower-upper-middle class".[4]

Education
At six, Eric attended the Anglican parish school in Henley-on-Thames, where he impressed the teachers. Blair's mother wanted him to have a good public school education, but the family finances were against this unless he could obtain a scholarship. Her brother Charles Limouzin, who lived on the South Coast, recommended St Cyprian's School, Eastbourne, Sussex. The headmaster undertook to help Blair to win a scholarship, and made a private financial arrangement which allowed Blair's parents to pay only half the normal fees. At the school, Blair formed a life-long friendship with Cyril Connolly (future editor of Horizon magazine, who later published many of his essays). Years later, Blair mordantly recalled the school in the essay "Such, Such Were the Joys". However, while there he wrote two poems that were published in his local newspaper, came second to Connolly in the Harrow History Prize, had his work praised by the school's external examiner, and earned scholarships to Wellington and Eton.
After a term at Wellington College, Blair transferred to Eton College, where he was a King's Scholar (1917–1921), and Aldous Huxley was his French tutor. Later, Blair wrote of having been relatively happy at Eton, because it allowed students much independence. His academic performance reports indicate that he ceased serious work there, and various explanations have been offered for this. His parents could not afford to send him to Oxbridge without another scholarship, and they concluded from the poor results that he would not be able to obtain one.

Burma and the early novels
On finishing school at Eton, the family could not finance university; his father thought his scholarship prospects poor, so, in 1922, Eric Arthur Blair joined the Indian Imperial Police, serving at Katha and Moulmein in Burma. His imperial policeman's life led him to hate imperialism; on leave in England, he resigned from the Indian Imperial Police in 1927, to become a writer.
The Burma police experience yielded the novel Burmese Days (1934) and the essays "A Hanging" (1931) and "Shooting an Elephant" (1936). In England, he wrote to family acquaintance, Ruth Pitter and she and a friend found him rooms in Portobello Road (today, a blue plaque commemorates his residence there), where he began writing. From there, he sallied to the Limehouse Causeway (following Jack London's footsteps) spending his first night in a common lodging house, probably George Levy's 'kip'. For a while he "went native" (in his own country), dressing like a tramp, making no concessions to middle class mores and expectations, and recorded his experiences of the low life in "The Spike", his first published essay, and the latter half of his first book, Down and Out in Paris and London (1933).
He moved to Paris in spring of 1928, where his Aunt Nellie lived (and later died), hoping to earn a freelance writer's living; failure reduced him to menial jobs such as dishwasher in the fashionable Hotel X, on the rue de Rivoli in 1929, all told in Down and Out in Paris and London. The record does not indicate if he had the book in mind as the terminus of those low life experiences.
In later 1929, he returned to England, to his parents' house in Southwold, Suffolk, ill and penniless, where he wrote Burmese Days, and also frequently foraying to tramping in researching a book on the life of society's poorest people. Meanwhile, he regularly contributed to John Middleton Murry's New Adelphi magazine.
He completed Down and Out in Paris and London in 1932; it was published early the next year, while he taught at Frays College, near Hayes, Middlesex. He took the job to escape dire poverty; during this period, he obtained the literary agent services of Leonard Moore. Just before publication of Down and Out in Paris and London, Eric Arthur Blair adopted the nom de plume George Orwell. In a letter to Moore (dated 15 November) he left the choice of pseudonym to him and to publisher Victor Gollancz. Four days later, he wrote to Moore, suggesting these pseudonyms: P. S. Burton (a tramping name), Kenneth Miles, George Orwell, and H. Lewis Allways.[5]
As a writer, George Orwell drew upon his life as a teacher and on life in Southwold for the novel A Clergyman's Daughter (1935), written in 1934 at his parents' house after sickness and parental urging forced his foregoing the teaching life. From late 1934 to early 1936 he was a part-time assistant in the Booklover's Corner, a second-hand bookshop in Hampstead. Having led a lonely, solitary existence, he wanted to enjoy the company of young writers; Hampstead was an intellectual's town with many houses offering cheap bedsit rooms. Those experiences germinated into the novel Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936).

The Road to Wigan Pier
In early 1936, Victor Gollancz, of the Left Book Club, commissioned George Orwell to write an account of working class poverty in economically depressed northern England. His account, The Road to Wigan Pier was published in 1937. Orwell did his leg-and-homework as a social reporter: he gained entry to many houses in Wigan to see how people lived; took systematic notes of housing conditions and wages earned; and spent days in the local public library consulting public health records and reports on mine working conditions.
The first half of The Road to Wigan Pier documents his social investigations of Lancashire and Yorkshire. It begins with an evocative description of working life in the coal mines. The second half is a long essay of his upbringing, and the development of his political conscience, including a denunciation of the Left's irresponsible elements. Publisher Gollancz feared the second half would offend Left Book Club readers; he inserted a mollifying preface to the book while Orwell was in Spain.
Soon after researching the The Road to Wigan Pier, George Orwell married Eileen O'Shaughnessy.

The Spanish Civil War, and Catalonia
In December 1936, Orwell went to Spain as a fighter for the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War that was provoked by Francisco Franco's Fascist uprising. In conversation with Philip Mairet, editor of New English Weekly, Orwell said: 'This fascism . . . somebody's got to stop it'. [6] To Orwell, liberty and democracy went together, guaranteeing, among other things, the freedom of the artist; the present capitalist civilization was corrupt, but fascism would be morally calamitous.
John McNair (1887–1968), quotes him: 'He then said that this [writing a book] was quite secondary, and [that] his main reason for coming was to fight against Fascism'. Orwell went alone; his wife, Eileen, joined him later. He joined the Independent Labour Party contingent, which consisted of some twenty-five Britons who had joined the militia of the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM - Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista), a revolutionary communist party. The POUM, and the radical wing of the anarcho-syndicalist CNT (Catalonia's dominant left-wing force), believed General Franco could be defeated only if the Republic's working class overthrew capitalism — a position at fundamental odds with the Spanish Communist Party, and its allies, which (backed by Soviet arms and aid) argued for a coalition with the bourgeois parties to defeat the fascist Nationalists. After July 1936 there was profound social revolution in Catalonia, Aragón, and wherever the CNT was strong, an egalitarian spirit sympathetically described in Homage to Catalonia.
Fortuitously, Orwell joined the POUM, rather than the Communist International Brigades, but his experiences — especially his and Eileen's narrow escaping a June 1937 Communist purge in Barcelona — much increased his sympathies for the POUM, making him a life-long anti-Stalinist and firm believer in what he termed Democratic Socialism, socialism with free debate and free elections.
In combat, Orwell was shot through the neck and nearly killed. At first, he feared his voice would be reduced to a permanent, painful whisper; this was not to be so, though the injury affected his voice, giving it "a strange, compelling quietness". [7] He wrote in Homage to Catalonia that people frequently told him he was lucky to survive, but that he personally thought "it would be even luckier not to be hit at all".
George and Eileen Orwell then lived in Morocco for half a year so he could recover from his wound. In that time, he wrote Coming Up for Air, his last novel before World War II. It is the most English of his novels; alarums of war mingle with images of idyllic Thames-side Edwardian childhood of protagonist George Bowling. The novel is pessimistic; industrialism and capitalism have killed the best of Old England, and there were great, new external threats. In homely terms, Bowling posits the totalitarian hypotheses of Borkenau, Orwell, Silone and Koestler: "Old Hitler's something different. So's Joe Stalin. They aren't like these chaps in the old days who crucified people and chopped their heads off and so forth, just for the fun of it . . . They're something quite new — something that's never been heard of before".

World War II and Animal Farm
After the Spanish ordeal, and writing about it, Orwell's formation ended; his finest writing, best essays, and great fame lay ahead. In 1940, Orwell closed his Wallington house, and he and Eileen moved to No. 18 Dorset Chambers, Chagford Street, in the genteel Marylebone neighbourhood near Regent's Park, central London, Orwell supporting himself as a freelance reviewer for the New English Weekly (mainly), Time and Tide, and the New Statesman. Soon after the war began, he joined the Home Guard (and was awarded the "British Campaign Medals/Defence Medal") attending Tom Wintringham's home guard school and championing Wintringham's socialist vision for the Home Guard.
In 1941, Orwell worked for BBC's Eastern Service, supervising Indian broadcasts meant to stimulate India's war participation against the approaching Japanese army. About being a propagandist, he wrote of feeling like "an orange that's been trodden on by a very dirty boot". Still, he devoted much effort to the opportunity of working closely with the likes of T. S. Eliot, E. M. Forster, Mulk Raj Anand, and William Empson; the war-time Ministry of Information, at Senate House, University of London, inspired the Ministry of Truth in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Orwell's BBC resignation followed a report confirming his fears about the broadcasts: few Indians listened. He wanted to become a war correspondent, and was impatient to begin working on Animal Farm. Despite the good salary, he resigned from BBC in September 1943, and in November became literary editor of the left-wing weekly magazine Tribune, then edited by Aneurin Bevan and Jon Kimche (Kimche had been Box to Orwell's Cox when they were half-time assistants at the Booklover's Corner book shop in Hampstead, 1934–35). Orwell was on staff until early 1945, writing the regular column "As I Please". Anthony Powell and Malcolm Muggeridge had returned from overseas to finish the war in London; the three regularly lunched together at either the Bodega, off the Strand, or the Bourgogne, in Soho, sometimes joined by Julian Symons (then seemingly true disciple to Orwell) and David Astor, editor-owner of The Observer.
In 1944, Orwell finished the anti-Stalinist allegory Animal Farm published (Britain, 17 August 1945, U.S., 26 August 1946) to critical and popular success. Harcourt Brace Editor Frank Morley went to Britain soon after the war to learn what currently interested readers, clerking a week or so at the Cambridge book shop Bowes and Bowes. The first day, customers continually requested a sold-out book — the second impression of Animal Farm; on reading the shop's remaining copy, he went to London and bought the American publishing rights; the royalties were George Orwell's first, proper, adult income.
With Animal Farm at the printer's, with war's end in view, Orwell's desire to be in the thick of the action quickened. David Astor asked him to be the Observer war correspondent reporting the liberation of France and the early occupation of Germany; Orwell quit Tribune.
He and Astor were close; Astor is believed to be the model for the rich publisher in Keep the Aspidistra Flying; Orwell strongly influenced Astor's editorial policies. Astor died in 2001 and is buried in the grave beside Orwell's. Orwell never revealed his pen name, keeping his identity secret and thinking his work did not need a revealed author.

Nineteen Eighty-Four and final years
Orwell and his wife adopted a baby boy, Richard Horatio Blair, born in May 1944. Orwell was taken ill again in Cologne in spring 1945. While he was sick there, his wife died in Newcastle during an operation to remove a tumour. She had not told him about this operation due to concerns about the cost and the fact that she thought she would make a speedy recovery.
For the next four years Orwell mixed journalistic work — mainly for the Tribune, the Observer and the Manchester Evening News, though he also contributed to many small-circulation political and literary magazines — with writing his best-known work, Nineteen Eighty-Four, which was published in 1949. Originally, Orwell was undecided between titling the book The Last Man in Europe and Nineteen Eighty-Four but his publisher, Fredric Warburg, helped him choose. The title was not the year Orwell had initially intended. He first set his story in 1980, but, as the time taken to write the book dragged on (partly because of his illness), that was changed to 1982 and, later, to 1984.[8]
He wrote much of the novel while living at Barnhill,[9] a remote farmhouse on the island of Jura which lies in the Gulf stream off the west coast of Scotland. It was an abandoned farmhouse with outbuildings near to the northern end of the island, situated at the end of a five-mile (8 km), heavily rutted track from Ardlussa, where the laird, or landowner, Margaret Fletcher lived, and where the paved road, the only one on the island, came to an end.
In 1948, he co-edited a collection entitled British Pamphleteers with Reginald Reynolds.
In 1949, Orwell was approached by a friend, Celia Kirwan, who had just started working for a Foreign Office unit, the Information Research Department, which the Labour government had set up to publish anti-communist propaganda. He gave her a list of 37 writers and artists he considered to be unsuitable as IRD authors because of their pro-communist leanings. The list, not published until 2003, consists mainly of journalists (among them the editor of the New Statesman, Kingsley Martin) but also includes the actors Michael Redgrave and Charlie Chaplin. Orwell's motives for handing over the list are unclear, but the most likely explanation is the simplest: that he was helping a friend in a cause — anti-Stalinism — that they both supported. There is no indication that Orwell abandoned the democratic socialism that he consistently promoted in his later writings — or that he believed the writers he named should be suppressed. Orwell's list was also accurate: the people on it had all made pro-Soviet or pro-communist public pronouncements. In fact, one of the people on the list, Peter Smollett, the head of the Soviet section in the Ministry of Information, was later (after the opening of KGB archives) proven to be a Soviet agent, recruited by Kim Philby, and "almost certainly the person on whose advice the publisher Jonathan Cape turned down Animal Farm as an unhealthily anti-Soviet text", although Orwell was unaware of this.[10]
In October 1949, shortly before his death, he married Sonia Brownell. [11]

Death
Orwell died in London from tuberculosis, at the age of 46. [12] He was in and out of hospitals for the last three years of his life. Having requested burial in accordance with the Anglican rite, he was interred in All Saints' Churchyard, Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire with the simple epitaph: "Here lies Eric Arthur Blair, born June 25, 1903, died January 21, 1950"; no mention is made on the gravestone of his more famous pen-name. He had wanted to be buried in the graveyard of the closest church to wherever he happened to die, but the graveyards in central London had no space. Fearing that he might have to be cremated, against his wishes, his widow appealed to his friends to see if any of them knew of a church with space in its graveyard. Orwell's friend David Astor lived in Sutton Courtenay and negotiated with the vicar for Orwell to be buried there, although he had no connection with the village.
Orwell's son, Richard Blair, was raised by an aunt after his father's death. He maintains a low public profile, though he has occasionally given interviews about the few memories he has of his father. Blair worked for many years as an agricultural agent for the British government.

A Joke

2008-04-27T20:14:00.002+08:00

Nelson Mandela is sitting at home watching TV when he hears a knock at the door. When he opens it, he is confronted by a man, clutching a clip board and yelling,"You Sign! You sign!" Behind him is an enormous truck full of car exhausts. Nelson is standing there in complete amazement, when the man starts to yell louder,"You Sign! You sign!" Nelson says to him, "Look, you've obviously got the wrong man", and shuts the door in his face. The next day he hears a knock at the door again. When he opens it, the man is back with a huge truck of brake pads. He thrusts his clipboard under Nelson's nose, yelling,"You sign! You sign!" Mr Mandela is getting a bit annoyed by now, so he pushes the man back, shouting:"Look, go away! You've got the wrong man. I don't want them!" Then he slams the door in his face again. The following day, Nelson is resting, and late in the afternoon, he hears a knock on the door again. On opening the door, there is the same man thrusting a clipboard under his nose, shouting,"You sign! You sign!" Behind him are TWO very large trucks full of car parts. This time Nelson loses his temper completely, he picks up the man by his shirt front and yells at him:"Look, I don't want these! Do you understand? You must have the wrong name! Who do you want to give these to?"The man looks very puzzled, consults his clipboard, and says:"You're not Nissan Main Dealer?"

To Blk 1 The Ghastly Blank

2008-04-25T12:04:00.006+08:00

Here are the pointers for commentary again in case some of you did not have the time to copy them on Thursday. They are NOT exhaustive and are meant only to help you start writing your commentary and to generate responses OF YOUR OWN to the use of language in the text.

1.The use of negatives and words that have a negative meaning (think about prefxes and suffixes, and adverbs)

Here perhaps, more than anywhere, humanity had had a chance to make a fresh start. The land was absolutely untouched and unknown, and except for the blacks, the most retarded people on earth, there was no sign of any previous civilization whatever : not a scrap of pottery, not a Chinese coin, not even the vestige of a Portuguese fort. Nothing in this strange country seemed to bear the slightest resemblance to the outside world: it was so primitive, so lacking in greenness, so silent, so old. It was not a measurable man-made, antiquity, but an appearance of exhaustion and weariness in the land itself. The very leaves of the trees hung down dejectedly, and they were not so much evergreen as ever-
grey, never entirely renewing themselves in the spring, never altogether falling in winter. It was the bark that fell; it dried up and cracked on the tree trunks and then peeled off like the discarded skin of a snake.

Everything was the wrong way about. Midwinter fell in July, and in January summer was at its height; in the bush there were giant birds that never flew, and queer, antediluvian animals that hopped instead of walked, or sat munching mutely in the trees. Even the constellations in the sky were upside down and seemed to belong to another system of the sun. As for the naked aborigines, they were caught in a timeless apathy in which nothing
ever changed or progressed; they built no villages, they planted no crops, and except for a few flea-bitten dogs possessed no domestic animals of any kind. They hunted, they slept, just occasionally they decked themselves out for a tribal ceremony, but all the rest was listless dreaming.

A kind of trance was in the air, a sense of awakening infinitely delayed. In the
midsummer heat the land scarcely breathed, but the alien white man, walking through the grey and silent trees, would have the feeling that someone or something was waiting and and listening. The smaller birds did not fly away as they did in Europe. The kookaburra approached, uttered its raucous guffaw, then cocked its head waiting for a response. The kangaroo stood poised and watching. The earth itself had the same air of expectancy, as though it were willing the rain to fall, as though it were waiting for fertilization so that it
could come to life again.

2.The use of words that suggest the highest degree, complete truth giving the effect of an overstatement
(think about prefixes and suffixes, adjectives and adverbs)

Here perhaps, more than anywhere, humanity had had a chance to make a fresh start. The land was absolutely untouched and unknown, and except fort the blacks, the most retarded people on earth, there was no sign of any previous civilization whatever : not a scrap of pottery, not a Chinese coin, not even the vestige of a Portuguese fort. Nothing in this strange country seemed to bear the slightest resemblance to the outside world: it was so primitive, so lacking in greenness, so silent, so old. It was not a measurable man-made,
antiquity, but an appearance of exhaustion and weariness in the land itself. The very leaves of the trees hung down dejectedly, and they were not so much evergreen as ever- grey, never entirely renewing themselves in the spring, never altogether falling in winter. It was the bark that fell; it dried up and cracked on the tree trunks and then peeled off like the discarded skin of a snake.

Everything was the wrong way about. Midwinter fell in July, and in January summer was at its height; in the bush there were giant birds that never flew, and queer, antediluvian animals that hopped instead of walked, or sat munching mutely in the trees. Even the constellations in the sky were upside down and seemed to belong to another system of the sun. As for the naked aborigines, they were caught in a timeless apathy in which nothing
ever changed or progressed; they built no villages, they planted no crops, and except for a few flea-bitten dogs possessed no domestic animals of any kind. They hunted, they slept, just occasionally they decked themselves out for a tribal ceremony, but all the rest was listless dreaming.

A kind of trance was in the air, a sense of awakening infinitely delayed. In the
midsummer heat the land scarcely breathed, but the alien white man, walking through the grey and silent trees, would have the feeling that someone or something was waiting and and listening. The smaller birds did not fly away as they did in Europe. The kookaburra approached, uttered its raucous guffaw, then cocked its head waiting for a response. The kangaroo stood poised and watching. The earth itself had the same air of expectancy, as though it were willing the rain to fall, as though it were waiting for fertilization so that it
could come to life again.

3. Other features of language (consider the effect of the words in bold)

Here perhaps, more than anywhere, humanity had had a chance to make a fresh start. The land was absolutely untouched and unknown, and except for the blacks, the most retarded people on earth, there was no sign of any previous civilization whatever : not a scrap of pottery, not a Chinese coin, not even the vestige of a Portuguese fort. Nothing in this strange country seemed to bear the slightest resemblance to the outside world: it was so primitive, so lacking in greenness, so silent, so old. It was not a measurable man-made,
antiquity, but an appearance of exhaustion and weariness in the land itself. The very leaves of the trees hung down dejectedly, and they were not so much evergreen as ever- grey, never entirely renewing themselves in the spring, never altogether falling in winter. It was the bark that fell; it dried up and cracked on the tree trunks and then peeled off like the discarded skin of a snake.

Everything was the wrong way about. Midwinter fell in July, and in January summer was at its height; in the bush there were giant birds that never flew, and queer, antediluvian animals that hopped instead of walked, or sat munching mutely in the trees. Even the constellations in the sky were upside down and seemed to belong to another system of the sun. As for the naked aborigines, they were caught in a timeless apathy in which nothing
ever changed or progressed; they built no villages, they planted no crops, and except for a few flea-bitten dogs possessed no domestic animals of any kind. They hunted, they slept, (short clauses) just occasionally they decked themselves out for a tribal ceremony, but all the rest was listless dreaming.

A kind of trance was in the air, a sense of awakening infinitely delayed. In the midsummer heat the land scarcely breathed, but the alien white man, walking through the grey and silent trees, would have the feeling that someone or something was waiting and and listening. The smaller birds did not fly away as they did in Europe. The kookaburr approached, uttered its raucous guffaw, then cocked its head waiting for a response. The kangaroo stood poised and watching. The earth itself had the same air of expectancy, as though it were willing the rain to fall, as though it were waiting for fertilization so that it could come to life again.

An Outsider's View of Brunei

2008-04-20T22:37:00.000+08:00

Have a look at this interesting travel article about Brunei from a British newspaper, the Daily Mail. As you can see from the description of the first picture, not entirely accurate, but interesting to see how Brunei is viewed by the outside world.http://www.travelmail.co.uk/travel/Brunei/Brunei----don-t-just-fly-by.html?article_id=27156

Also, look at this Youtube video, which is from a BBC travel documentary about Brunei
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xvApwmbmdo

Looks like a really nice place, must visit there sometime!!

Model for Traveller's Check text

2008-04-17T14:27:00.000+08:00

The genre of this text is an article from an in-flight magazine. Its tone therefore is likely to be persuasive, as it is in effect an advert for the airlines services, as they only write about places they go to, and only ever in a positive light. It cannot be seen as an impartial opinion.
The purpose is to inform the readers about the North Borneo Railway, in an effort to persuade them to use it, and to use Malaysia Airlines to get there.
There is also a light-heartedness to the tone, which the author establishes early, with the pun in the title, between a possible means of paying for the journey and an introduction to the information to follow about the railway.
The attraction of train travel is outlined in the opening paragraph.: the metaphor “opened up the countryside” makes train travel attractive by suggesting new discoveries or the revelation of something concealed until now. “Head-off” is light-hearted and gives the idea that travel is relaxing and freedom-giving. The mention of Thomas Cook in the second paragraph gives historical accuracy and therefore credibility to train travel as something tried and tested.
The idiomatic usage of “puffin’ billy” is informal which gives the passage an easy feel to it. Train travel is for everyone. The metaphor “paradise” to describe the railway in north Borneo makes the countryside which it passes through seem idyllic., the most beautiful place on earth, or even a beauty which transcends the earth. The structure of the rest of the paragraph makes it easy to follow the rest of the passage because the writer outlines two options for travel on the railway, which then makes it possible to devote a paragraph to one of them. The idiom “trainheads” must mean those who love train travel, again the informal tone makes train travel seem accessible to ordinary people, and the newness of the idiom makes train travel seem modern and possibly an attraction for the young, who are the people who might invent this new slang.
In the fourth paragraph the vocabulary item “narrow rickety” is used to describe the train. Normally these adjectives would not enhance an overall description, but in this case they serve to make the train appear attractively old-fashioned. As if the privilege of having such a historical experience makes it worthwhile to suffer this discomfort. . The “lunatic fringe, fanatical steam train devotees” raises train travel to an almost religious level which is clearly hyperbole. Lunatic fringe is humorous because it suggests that those who like train travel are in some way mentally deranged. Contrast is established when the writer goes on to describe the other, completely different type of travelers (those with only a passing interest) therefore it can be seen that train travel is for all, and so every reader is included as a possible traveller, adding to the persuasive tone of the passage. The vocabulary captures the history and therefore the credibility of train travel in words such as “nostalgia” and “oblivion” with their connotations of long time scales. A simile describing the train as being “like a time capsule’ makers the train seem old-fashioned, by suggesting a trip on it is not only through this part of Malaysia but back through history to a time pre-dating our own modern trains. The metaphor “lifeline” comes from the literal idea of throwing a drowning person a rope with which to be pulled ashore: thus the vital importance of the railway to people’s way of life is underpinned.
In conclusion the writer seeks to persuade people to use these trains through an appeal to their sense of nostalgia.

A Few Quick Jokes

2008-04-13T21:07:00.000+08:00

Teacher: Name two pronouns?
Pupil: Who?, me?

Teacher: I'm glad to see your writing has improved.
Pupil: Thank you
Teacher: Now I can see how bad your spelling is though!

Pupil: I don't think I deserved zero on this test!
Teacher: I agree, but that's the lowest mark I could give you!

Teacher: You copied from Ahmad's exam paper didn't you?
Pupil: How did you know?
Teacher: Ahmad's paper says "I don't know" and you have put "Me, neither"!

Shanghai Childhood

2008-04-13T20:32:00.000+08:00

The genre of this text is from a novel which has been written from an autobiographical viewpoint. The tone is very much one of nostalgia and gentle humour. The writer’s purpose is to look back on childhood in a nostalgic, sometimes rather comical way. It is incongruous to describe a “mound” as having a “summit”. This shows that to small children a slight incline in the garden seems like a mountain. The writer concedes that his memory is exaggerated in the phrases “even at the time” and “hardly matched”: he acknowledges the “splendour“of the houses round the corner, which are described as “residences” rather than merely houses.
A comical picture of little boys is created. Their game is only running about in the garden and yet they are “worn…out” and are “panting”, in need of a rest. The gap between childhood and adulthood for the writer is shown in the words “around six years old”; he does not have an exact memory because it was a long time ago. Nostalgia is created in his closing his eyes “to bring back that picture”, consciously trying to evoke the past. His parents’ nostalgia for the England they have left behind is shown in their weak attempt to recreate an “English” lawn: the inverted commas show their attempt is not entirely unsuccessful in the climate of Shanghai. It is also important to note that tense shift from past to present which further highlights the nostalgic element in the text.

To Blk 1: Feedback on 'Toads and Dancing Monkeys'

2008-04-13T13:02:00.000+08:00

2 things:
1. Please be reminded about the pointer on seeing the passage as a whole when you write commentaries in future.
2. Here are some more references to humour that I did not have time to cover during the feedback on Saturday 12 April.

Seeing the passage as a whole

You need to see how the various language devices work together to achieve the writer’s purpose of informing and entertaining the readers.

Questions to ask yourself:
• What is the general meaning or message in the passage? (Answer: About his journey up the hills in West Africa in a decrepit lorry in the company of a few West Africans. Although he is anxious for his safety , Durrell takes the journey with a sense of humour and is fascinated by the beauty and vitality of the landscape.)

• How does Durrell use language to get across his meaning/message successfully? In particular, how does he use figures of speech to make the account of his journey vivid, humorous and lively?

• Which figures of speech are used most in the passage?

• Which figures of speech are the most effective in emphasizing/enhancing his description? (answer: in this case, personification is the most important device in contributing to the humour and vivid description. Other figures of speech such as alliteration and onomatopoeia are used together with personification (eg 'It stood there on buckled wheels, wheezing and gasping with exhaustion')

References to humour
(1)
Most West African lorries are not in what would call the first flush of youth... (l.1)
Understatement - this is a sarcastic and humorous way of saying these lorries were practically worn out by old age.

(2)
.....I consigned myself and my loads to it with some trepidation. The driver, who was a cheerful fellow.... (‘ 4-5)
Humour is produced from the contrast between narrator’s fear and driver’s complete oblivion (lack of awareness) to it.

(3)
Secondly, I had to keep a stern eye on the clutch, a wilful piece of mechanism, that seized every chance to leap out of its socket (l 8-9)
The clutch is personified as stubborn and mischievous.

(4)
Not even a West African lorry driver could be successful in driving while crouched under the dashboard in a pre-natal position...., (l 10 )
The word ‘even’ suggests he marveled at the skills of West African drivers but also humorously implies that their skills lay in handling decrepit vehicles. The position ‘crouched under the dashboard in a pre-natal position’ is described hyperbolically for comic effect.

(5)
Home again, home again,
When shall I see my home?
When shall I see my mammy?
I’ll never forget ma home… (l.20-24)

The song sounds like a lamentation (a song expressing grief or mourning) but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves singing it ( ‘the boys lifted up their voices in song’; the driver and the narrator ‘harmonized’ and the driver ‘played a staccato accompaniment on the horn’. Hence humour is derived from the contrast between the appropriate mood of the song and the actual mood of the singers.

(6)

...the driver and I harmonized and sang complicated twiddly bits (l.27)
‘To twiddle’ means to twirl or rotate something without purpose. ‘Complicated twiddly bits’ probably refers to the nonsensical parts of the song that were hard to sing but were splendidly managed by the good-humoured Durrell.

Toads and Dancing Monkeys - Model

2008-04-04T17:55:00.001+08:00

Here it is!! What you have all been waiting for with bated breath. Yes, it's Mr David Thomson's model answer for the Toads and Dancing Monkeys text commentary. This is what you should have done.

Sample Commentary – Toads and Dancing Monkeys

Durrell’s autobiographical account of his travels in West Africa during the early 1950s is humorous His intention is to transport the reader from her English sitting room through the brilliantly colourful jungle which teems with life and is full of exotic sights and sounds. Everything here is alive, from the ancient lorry to the sounds of the birds. Everything has a mind of its own, from the sentinel trees and ferns to the willful components of the truck. By bringing the scene so vividly to life, Durrell’s writing serves as a metaphor for the exuberance of life in the jungle. We can see that he considers the jungle to be a single living entity in his image of the forest, a thick pelt of green undulating into the distance. This then is his purpose, to make the scene come bursting alive, and the language which he uses achieves this aim wonderfully well.

In the first paragraph we are cleverly introduced to the pitiful clapped out jalopy of a truck. The negatively expressed and understated not in what one would call the first flush of youth leads us to expect a means of transport perhaps verging on cantankerous and unreliable middle age. However, the antique vehicle which arrives is personified as a geriatric human struggling for breath, and the alliterative wheels, wheezing and onomatopoeic gasping bring to vivid life its asthmatic condition, especially when it cannot cope even with the gentlest of slopes. Its component parts are also alive and possess minds of their own and thus Durrell has to take control of them like a strict schoolmaster watching over unruly pupils with his stern eye. One pupil, the handbrake, is surly, while the other, the clutch, is playful. Here we find the strange simile seized every chance to leap out of its socket with a noise like a strangling leopard. The noise of the clutch is surely a matter for the imagination of the reader, but one function of this simile is to remind the reader that she is in the distant jungle and that the decrepit lorry still has something of the wild animal in it and remains part of the jungle around. Durrell obviously has a high opinion of the skills of West African lorry drivers, as he says that not even they can drive in impossible positions. Here, the adverb even serves to compare West African lorry driver favourably with their counterparts elsewhere. Durrell introduces more humour when he describes the truck as noble, a royal quality it obviously acquires from its sedate and stately speed of 20mph. This is made more humorous with the idiomatic threw caution to the winds and careered along in a madcap fashion at twenty-five. This is a piece of hyperbole as 25mph is anything but fast, but of course to the clapped out wagon it is very quick indeed.

Having brought the lorry to life, Durrell moves on in paragraph two to bring the jungle around him to life and endow the flora with surprising purpose. Here we have the trees standing in solid ranks as soldiers guarding something, but what? Later the metaphor is repeated as the ferns become guardians of a new landscape. Could these provide a clue as to Durrell’s purpose in Africa? In the same paragraph we are introduced to the boys who sing a simple song in a simple dialect. All that interests them is going to ma home to ma mammy. They do not notice and have no interest in the wondrous sights around them. The driver too is deferential to Durrell, worried that he will object to the song. Durrell is obviously the boss, he knows everything about the forest, and compared to his rich and flamboyant language, the natives appear to be little more than simpletons who are merely there to help him on his dark purpose. This paragraph also contains beautiful, evocative descriptions of the love of Durrell’s life, the animals that inhabit the forest. The alliteration of the fricative f in flocks of hornbills flapped brings these exotic birds vividly to life. The onomatopoeia of honking conjures their call, and the simile like the ghosts of ancient taxis evokes a mystical, spiritual rather than physical presence and serves to remind the reader of the other worldliness of this domain. Then we meet the agama lizards who are alliteratively draped decoratively, an image of curtains in keeping with the nature of the forest and one which gains credence when their colour is described as sunset, a myriad of changes from orange through red to deepest violet. Once again the lizards are full of life as they nod their heads furiously. Furiously at what, one wonders – is it simply the speed of movement, or is it their anger and knowledge of Durrell’s purpose? The road too has life, looping its way in languid curves. The lengthy l sounds accentuating the long and lazy path it takes. All of this alliteration and onomatopoeia serve to bring the sounds of the forest to the readers’ ears.

In the third paragraph, we meet a new landscape, that of the uplands. This is much less luxuriant than the lowland forest, but nevertheless is described in vibrant terms. There are tree ferns which stand around plotting and planning with fronds like delicate green fountains, a simile which easily captures how they look and suggests the renewing life giving qualities of fountains. The hills become bare; they shrug themselves free of a cloak, because, of course, they too are alive. We find golden grass rippling, an echo of the undulating forest below. To close this section we return to the lorry, which has, against all the odds, made it to the summit exhibiting all the signs of illness and age previously mentioned. Though by now it truly seems to be on its last legs spouting steam like a dying whale. It is with a sense of relief and release that the passage ends with the closure of switched off the engine.

Whilst the use of language clearly plays the major role in how Durrell achieves his aim, there are some areas of structure which require comment. He uses colons, firstly to explain in detail why this particular lorry was worse than any he had met before. Secondly to list the operations he was required to supervise whilst in the lorry. The effect is to lead the reader to expect that in each case more information will be provided. Durrell also uses present participles rather than finite tenses to de-emphasise actions and thus focus more on the image presented. Thus we find that the agama lizards lay, blushing into sunset colouring: the focus clearly being on the picture of them blushing. Similarly we see massive tree-ferns standing in conspiratorial groups, and the effect helps us visualise them as humans.

Durrell easily conveys his enthusiasm for the forest and its inhabitants through his flamboyant use of language. The experience for the reader is to be transported with him onto the lorry and into the forests of West Africa; to an exotic location where everything is alive and conscious.

See! It's easy really!!!!

Punctuation

2008-04-01T23:28:00.000+08:00

Here are a couple of absolutely fascinating links about punctuation. Well, maybe not absolutely fascinating, but interesting. Well, maybe not even that, but they are of mild interest to you. Well, OK then, they are a bit boring, but they are very useful, so have a look at them

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/marks/marks.htm

http://www.correctpunctuation.co.uk/

http://www.iknowthat.com/com/L3?Area=Paintball

The third link is a game which you might like, then again you might not. Please yourselves.

Back to Work!

2008-03-29T09:56:00.000+08:00

Hope you all had a very pleasant holiday. I suppose most of you spent the time in Hawaii or Fiji, sunning yourself by the pool in a 5 star hotel, as you were served cool drinks by nubile waitresses or handsome waiters. The palm trees were quietly swaying in the breeze, the waves lapped gently against the beach of golden sand and thoughts of PTEB and English homework were a million miles away. Well, WAKE UP!!! It's back to reality now. For the blocks that had to do the Dancing Monkeys text, it's due on Monday. You can email it to the address at the top of this page if you wish. Make sure you identify yourself clearly with name and block. Either insert the text into the body of the email, or attach it as a Word document (NOT the latest version of Word with the .docx file extension. If you are running the newest edition, then please save the file as a Word 2003 type. ) For the more old fashioned ones among you, just use a feather-quill pen, an ink-well and parchment. See you Monday!!

Exam answers

2008-03-23T19:47:00.000+08:00

These are genuine answers given by students in various exams in last year's British GCSE exams (16 year olds)! :

Geography

Q: Name the four seasons. A: Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.
Q: Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink. A: Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists.
Q: What is a planet? A: A body of earth surrounded by sky.
Q: What causes the tides in the oceans? A: The tides are a fight between the Earth and the Moon. All water tends to flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the moon, and nature abhors a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins in this fight.

Sociology

Q: In a democratic society, how important are elections? A: Very important. Sex can only happen when a male gets an election.
Q: What are steroids? A: Things for keeping carpets still on the stairs.

Biology

Q: What happens to your body as you age? A: When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental.
Q: What happens to a boy when he reaches puberty? A: He says good-bye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery.
Q: Name a major disease associated with cigarettes. A: Premature death.
Q: What is artificial insemination? A: When the farmer does it to the bull instead of the cow.
Q: How can you delay milk turning sour? A: Keep it in the cow.
Q: How are the main parts of the body categorized? (e.g., abdomen). A: The body is consisted into three parts-the brainium, the borax and the abdominal cavity. The branium contains the brain, the borax contains the heart and lungs, and the abdominal cavity contains the five bowels, A, E, I, O and U.
Q: What is the Fibula? A: A small lie.
Q: What does "varicose" mean? A: Nearby.
Q: What is the most common form of birth control? A: Most people prevent contraception by wearing a condominium.
Q: Give the meaning of the term "Caesarean Section." A: The caesarean section is a district in Rome.
Q: What is a seizure? A: A Roman emperor.
Q: What is a terminal illness? A: When you are sick at the airport
Q: Give an example of a fungus. What is a characteristic feature? A: Mushrooms. They always grow in damp places and so they look like umbrellas.

English

Q: What does the word "benign" mean? A: Benign is what you will be after you be eight.

Technology

Q: What is a turbine? A: Something an Arab wears.

Irony

2008-03-18T07:04:00.000+08:00

Irony:
Verbal irony is a disparity of expression and intention: when a speaker says one thing but means another, or when a literal meaning is contrary to its intended effect.For instance, if a speaker exclaims, “I’m not upset! and intended to communicate that she was upset by claiming she was not, the utterance would be verbal irony.

These can often be combined with other figures of speech such as similes, for example:
· as hairy as a bowling ball
· as subtle as a sledgehammer
· as porous as steel
· as bulletproof as a spongecake
The intended audience for such similes must sufficiently understand the concepts involved so as to appreciate that the opposite of the intended meaning is being conveyed.

This is not entirely the same as "Sarcasm" which is ironic, but has the added purpose of the intention to insult or verbally hurt someone else, for example, if your teacher says to you, "Well, you certainly spent a long time on this piece of work!!" while awarding you grade E. Or if you miss a penalty in the last minute of a World Cup Final and your team mates say to you "Well Done" with a look of disdain on their faces.

Text for Holidays

2008-03-17T08:21:00.000+08:00

Taken from The Bafut Beagles by Gerald Durrell. Look him up on Wikipedia to find out more about this writer.
Start with a general overview in terms of genre, purpose, tone etc then look at the specifics, vocabulary, figures of speech. There is extensive use of personification, simile, some alliteration etc. Your commentary should not read like a list, but rather like an essay. Remember, identify the language feature then COMMENT on the effect achieved or at least sought by the writer. ENJOY, lah!!!

Toads and Dancing Monkeys
Most West African lorries are not in what would call the first flush of youth and I had learnt by bitter experience not to expect anything very much of them. But the lorry that arrived to take me up to the mountains was worse than anything I had seen before: it tottered on the borders of senile decay. It stood there on buckled wheels, wheezing and gasping with exhaustion from having to climb up the gentle slope to the camp, and I consigned myself and my loads to it with some trepidation. The driver, who was a cheerful fellow, pointed out that he would require my assistance in two very necessary operations: first, I had to keep the hand brake pressed down when traveling downhill, for unless it was held thus almost level with the floor it sullenly refused to function. Secondly, I had to keep a stern eye on the clutch, a wilful piece of mechanism, that seized every chance to leap out of its socket with a noise like a strangling leopard. As it was obvious that not even a West African lorry driver could be successful in driving while crouched under the dashboard in a pre-natal position, I had to take over control of these instruments if I valued my life. So, while I ducked at intervals to put on the brake, amid the rich smell of burning rubber, our noble lorry jerked its way towards the mountains at a steady twenty miles an hour; sometimes, when a downward slope favoured it, it threw caution to the winds and careered along in a madcap fashion at twenty-five.
For the first thirty miles the red earth road wound its way through the lowland forest, the giant trees standing in solid ranks alongside and their branches entwined in an archway of leaves above us. Flocks of hornbills flapped across the road, honking like the ghosts of ancient taxis, and on the banks, draped decoratively in the patches of sunlight, the agama lizards lay, blushing into sunset colouring with excitement and nodding their heads furiously. Slowly and almost imperceptibly the road started to climb upwards, looping its way in languid curves around the forested hills. In the back of the lorry the boys lifted up their voices in song:
Home again, home again,
When shall I see my home?
When shall I see my mammy?
I’ll never forget ma home…
The driver hummed the refrain softly to himself – glancing at me to see if I would object. To his surprise I joined in, and so while the lorry rolled onwards trailing a swirling tail of red dust behind it, the boys in the hack maintained the chorus while the driver and I harmonized and sang complicated twiddly bits, and the driver played a staccato accompaniment on the horn.
Breaks in the forest became more frequent the higher we climbed, and presently a new type of undergrowth began to appear: massive tree-ferns standing in conspiratorial groups at the roadside on their thick, squat and hairy trunks, the fronds of leaves sprouting from the tops like delicate green fountains. These ferns were the guardians of a new world, for suddenly, as though the hills had shrugged themselves free of a cloak, the forest disappeared. It lay behind us in the valley, a thick pelt of green undulating away into the heat-shimmered distance, while above us the hillside rose majestically, covered in a coat of rippling, waist-high grass, bleached golden by the sun. The lorry crept higher and higher, the engine gasping and shuddering with this unaccustomed activity. I began to think we should have to push the wretched thing up the last two or three hundred feet, but to everyone’s surprise we made it, and the lorry crept on to the brow of the hill, trembling with fatigue, spouting steam from its radiator like a dying whale. We crawled to a standstill and the driver switched off the engine.

Euphemisms

2008-03-17T08:16:00.000+08:00

Block 5: Here is a (sanitised!) selection of the euphemisms we looked at the other day. I am sure you can remember what they mean, if you can't, then look them up in the dictionary.

Ample proportions
Be excused
Between jobs
Big boned
Bite the dust
Bought the farm
Breathe one's last
Broad in the beam
Bun in the oven
Cash in your chips
Collateral damage
Dear John
Depart this life
Differently abled
Do your business
Dropped off the perch
Economical with the truth
Eternal rest
Ethnic cleansing
Fall asleep
Full figured
Happy event
In the club
In the family way
In trouble
It fell off the back of a lorry
Kick the bucket
Laid off
Leave the room
Little boy’s/girl’s room
Lose your lunch
Meet your maker
No longer with us
Pass on/away
Pass over to the other side
Peg out
Pop your clogs
Powder your nose
Put to sleep
Rest room
Smallest room in the house
Snatched from us
Spend a penny
Supreme sacrifice
The call of nature
The N word
The wrong side of the blanket
Tired and over emotional
Turn up your toes
Up the duff
Visually challenged
Well fed
With child

Oxymorons

2008-03-12T22:24:00.000+08:00

These are lexical items made up of two parts which are seemingly contradictory.

Examples:
· Act naturally
· Found missing
· Minor catastrophe
· Near miss
· Great depression
· Genuine imitation
· Same difference
· Almost exactly
· Sensitive man
· Government organization
· Everything except
· Alone together
· Silent scream
· Living dead
· Small crowd
· Soft rock
· New classic
· Sweet sorrow
· "now, then"
· Synthetic natural gas
· Passive aggressive
· Taped live
· Clearly misunderstood
· Peace force
· New and improved
· Plastic glasses
· Terribly pleased
· Definitely maybe
· Pretty ugly
· Diet ice cream
· Rap music
· Working vacation
· Exact estimate
· Loners club
· Artificial grass
· Authentic replica
· Crash landing
· Extinct life
· Fairly accurate
· Decaffeinated coffee

Interesting

2008-03-12T22:23:00.000+08:00

Strange things to say.
If you fall and break your leg, don't come running to me!
Don't look at me with that tone of voice
That question was so easy you could have answered it blindfolded.
Math illiteracy affects 7 out of every 5 people.

Definitions not in a dictionary
Avoidable: What a bullfighter tries to do.
Handkerchief: Cold Storage.
Polarize: What penguins see with.
Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
Shellfish: A bit like a shelf.

An English Teacher Joke and a few observations about English

2008-03-10T22:45:00.000+08:00

An English teacher at PTEB spent a lot of time marking grammatical errors in his students' written work. He wasn't sure how much impact he was having until one overly busy day when he sat at his desk rubbing his temples.
A student asked, "What's the matter, sir?"
"Tense," he replied, describing his emotional state.
After a slight pause the student tried again, "What was the matter? What has been the matter? What might have been the matter? What will be the matter... ?"

No wonder English is so hard to learn:
We polish the Polish furniture.
He could lead if he would get the lead out.
A farm can produce produce.
The dump was so full it had to refuse refuse.
The soldier decided to desert in the desert.
The present is a good time to present the present.
At the Army base, a bass was painted on the head of a bass drum.
The dove dove into the bushes.
I did not object to the object.
The insurance for the invalid was invalid.
The bandage was wound around the wound.
There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
They were too close to the door to close it.
The buck does funny things when the does are present.
They sent a sewer down to stitch the tear in the sewer line.
To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
After a number of Novocain injections, my jaw got number.
I shed a tear when I saw the tear in my clothes.
I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
I spent last evening evening out a pile of dirt

Metaphors are a Minefield!!

2008-03-10T14:05:00.000+08:00

Block 5. These are the examples we looked at, if you didn't manage to copy them down. See if you can identify the two sides of comparison, and the effect this has, or the image being created. Do as many as you think you can manage, don't worry if you only do two or three. Have fun!!

Metaphor - From the Greek, "carrying over"

· "The apparition of these faces in the crowd;Petals on a wet black bough."(Ezra Pound, "In a Station at the Metro")
· "My heart is a lonely hunter that hunts on a lonely hill."(William Sharp, "The Lonely Hunter")
· "Memory is a crazy woman that hoards colored rags and throws away food."(Austin O'Malley)
· "Words are bullets, and should be used sparingly, aimed toward a target."(Army Colonel Dick Hallock)
· "Language is a road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going."(Rita Mae Brown)
· "The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it--and the glow from that fire can truly light the world."(John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, 1961)
· "Before I met my husband, I'd never fallen in love. I'd stepped in it a few times."(Rita Rudner)

Similes are as easy as ABC!!

2008-03-08T12:40:00.000+08:00

Have a look at these links to give you a better idea about similes

http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/CET/flashactivities/similes.html

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/using_similes/eng/Introduction/default.htm

Recently voted "The World's Funniest Joke"

2008-03-08T03:46:00.000+08:00

Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other man pulls out his cell phone and calls emergency services.He gasps to the operator: "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator in a calm, soothing voice replies: "Take it easy. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the hunter says, "OK, now what?"

What to Expect

2008-03-04T17:26:00.000+08:00

Nice to see all of you today (4th March). There seemed to be so many of you!!

Just to reiterate:

You register for the EAS exam (Code 8693) in about April 2008, for the November 2008 sitting. The only reason not to register would be financial.
You take the exam in November.
In January 2009 you start studying GP
At end of January 2009 you get results from Nov 08 EAS exam.
At end of Jan/early Feb 2009 you register for June GP paper (Code 8004) if money is not an issue.
If your EAS result was not what you wanted, you also register for June EAS repeat.
In June 2009 you take GP and if applicable, repeat EAS.
In August 2009, results for the June papers come out.
If you have got a good grade in GP, then you can stop attending GP classes.
Everyone takes the November 2009 GP paper. (Code 8001) (Paid for)

Welcome to all new Lower 6th EAS students

2008-02-27T11:42:00.000+08:00

A very warm welcome to all the new students who are taking EAS at PTE Berakas. This is your very own blog. All EAS classes and teachers will be using it. There will be a variety of things appearing on here, homework, pictures, model answers of text commentary, links etc. You can also make use of the tag board on the side.
This is a brand new blog just for the Lower 6th, but we have been running one for the past year which you might like to look at on www.ptebenglishaslevel.blogspot.com.
We trust you will enjoy studying EAS this year, you will learn a lot, it will be a challenge and you are bound to experience some difficulties. Feel free to approach your teachers with any problems you may have.
Enjoy!