Month: June 2010

At the park

This is the picture of playground. Look at the picture and describe the different activities the children are engaged in. Also answer the questions given below:

  1. How many children are there in the park?
  2. Name the different games the children are playing in the park?
  3. Who is holding the balloons?
  4. How many boys are there on the slide?
  5. Is it a cold day or a bright, sunny day?
  6. Can you see a sidewalk in the park?
  7. What are the children doing there?
  8. Do you have a park near your house?
  9. What games do you play there?
  10. With whom do you go to the park – with your friends or your parents or by yourself?
  11. Describe the park you go to and the games you play there?


Classroom

This is the picture of a classroom. Look at the picture carefully and answer the questions given below:

  1. Name the things that you see in the classroom?
  2. How many children are there in the class?
  3. How many girls are there in the class?
  4. How many boys are there in the class?
  5. How many teachers are there in the class?
  6. Where are they all sitting?
  7. How are they all sitting?
  8. What is printed on the mat they are sitting on?
  9. What is the teacher doing?
  10. Are the children listening to her attentively?
  11. What is the colour of the wall behind the teacher?
  12. What do you see on the wall?
  13. Name the month shown in the calender?
  14. Do you see a library in the classroom?
  15. What do you find in a library?
  16. How many computers are there in the class?
  17. Do you know how to use a computer?
  18. What do you do on a computer?
  19. What picture do you see above the window?
  20. Can you see anything outside the window?

I hope you have been able to answer the questions . Now try and frame a paragraph based on your answers.

Speech Sounds

A. Speak the following words aloud and notice the difference. Notice the a, e, i, o and u sounds. These are the vowel sounds of English.

  1. eat    beat
  2. it       bit
  3. bed   beg
  4. bad   bag
  5. car    far
  6. ox     box
  7. short   fought
  8. put     sugar
  9. boot   shoe
  10. up      cup
  11. learn   girl
  12. about   tailor
  13. play pain   day race
  14. ice   rice   buy high
  15. oil   boy toy coin
  16. out   cow shout   house
  17. boat over   no go
  18. ear fear   near   real
  19. poor sure
  20. air care

B. Now read the following words aloud. Focus on the underlined sound of each word. These are the consonant sounds of English.

  1. pin
  2. bin
  3. tin
  4. din
  5. kin
  6. gun
  7. chin
  8. gin
  9. mine
  10. nine
  11. sing
  12. fine
  13. vine
  14. thin
  15. they
  16. sign
  17. zinc
  18. shine
  19. treasure
  20. hat
  21. light
  22. right
  23. yak
  24. wet

Giraffe

The giraffe is an African mammal. Giraffes are well known for their long necks, long legs and spotted patterns. No two giraffes have the same pattern of spots. Male giraffes are larger than females. Both male and female giraffes have small ”horns” or knobs on top of their heads. These knobs are used to protect the head in fights.

Giraffes live in the Savannas of Africa, where they roam freely among the tall trees, grasslands and open woodlands. Their long necks help giraffes to eat leaves from tall trees, typically the thorny leaves of the acacia tree. This is their favorite meal. They also browse on the twigs of trees and other vegetable food. A giraffe can eat 63 kg of leaves and twigs daily. Giraffes drink large quantities of water but if they need to, they can go for several days without water. They get most of the water from the plants they eat.

A giraffe cleans off any bugs that appear on its face with its extremely long tongue. The giraffe usually sleeps standing up, because it can take too long for a giraffe to get back up on its feet if a predator should approach.

The only natural predators of the giraffe are lions, hyenas and wild dogs. Young giraffes are very vulnerable and cannot defend themselves.  But otherwise the giraffes’ height (almost 19 feet) and excellent vision gives them a wide view of the grasslands, where they live, making it easy for them to spot predators from a distance.

Exercise:- Answer the following questions:

  1. Where are giraffes found?
  2. Do all giraffes have the same pattern of spots?
  3. What do giraffes eat?
  4. How much can a giraffe eat everyday?
  5. From where do giraffes get most of the water?
  6. How does a giraffe clean its face?
  7. How does a giraffe sleep and why?
  8. Name some natural predators of the giraffe?
  9. What helps giraffes spot predators from a distance?
  10. Give the meaning of – protect, roam, favorite, predator, defend, vulnerable

Clothes

All of us wear clothes. Clothes are one of our basic needs. We wear clothes to protect our body from the sun, rain, cold and dust. We wear different according to the weather.

In summer, we wear light clothes. They are made up of cotton. They keep our body cool. In winter, we wear clothes made up of wool. These clothes keep our body warm and protect us from cold.

When it is raining, we either take an umbrella or wear a raincoat to avoid getting wet. We also use gumboots when it rains. They are made of plastic or rubber.

Sometimes, people wear same type of clothes daily. It is their uniform. It is for the special work they do or place they go to. Children wear school uniforms. A doctor, a nurse, a policeman, a soldier, a pilot, a lawyer are some of the people who wear uniforms.

We should always wear neat and clean clothes.

Exercise:- Match the following:

  • Summer                           Woolen clothes
  • Winter                              Rain Coat
  • Rainy Season                  Cotton Clothes

Exercise:- Fill in the blanks:

  1. We wear _____ to protect our body.
  2. We wear _____ in school.
  3. In summer, we wear clothes made up of _____.
  4. Raincoats protect us from getting _____.
  5. We should always wear _____ and _____ clothes.

A Wild Donkey and a Potter’s Donkey

Once upon a time, there lived a wild donkey. He used to wander about freely in the jungle. He was free to do as he liked. One day, while he was roaming about, he reached the outskirts of a village. He saw another donkey, sitting comfortably, eating hay and enjoying the warm, winter sun. This donkey belonged to a potter. He looked very healthy, happy and content. The wild donkey felt very jealous of him.

After a few days, the wild donkey went towards the village again. But, he was surprised to see a very different sight this time. The potter’s donkey was walking slowly with his head bent low. He had a heavy load on his back. The donkey was walking with great difficulty because of the heavy load . And if the donkey stopped, even for a minute, the potter beat him with a stick.

The wild donkey, then, realized that he was happier than the potter’s donkey. He thanked God for giving him freedom and went back in the jungle.

Exercise:- Answer the following questions:

  1. Where did the wild donkey live?
  2. What did he see one day?
  3. Why was he jealous of the potter’s donkey?
  4. What changed his feelings?
  5. What did he do?

Exercise:- Say whether the following statements are true or false:

  1. The wild donkey was free to do as he liked.
  2. The wild donkey was not jealous of the potter’s donkey.
  3. The potter’s donkey walked fast even with a heavy load on his back.
  4. The potter did not beat the donkey even when it stopped.

Exercise:- Give the opposite of the following words:

  1. Free
  2. Wild
  3. Winter
  4. Happy
  5. Slow
  6. Heavy

Definition of Phonetics

Phonetics is the scientific study of the production, transmission and reception of speech sounds (sounds of human speech). It studies the medium of spoken language, speech processes, including the anatomy, neurology and pathology of speech, the articulation, description, classification, production and perception of speech sounds. It looks at speech from three distinct but interdependent viewpoints:

  1. It studies the speech organs, which produce sounds of language.
  2. It studies waves, the physical way in which sounds are transmitted through the air from one person to another.
  3. It studies the way in which human beings perceive sounds through the medium of the ear.

Phoneticians try to study how the various organs of speech – the lungs, the larynx, the soft palate, the tongue and the lip function in the production of speech. They also attempt to offer articulatory descriptions of various sounds by describing the air-stream mechanism and the phonatory and articulatory processes involved.

The Foolish Fox

There flowed a small river through a forest. A tortoise lived with his friends in this river. Sometimes, he would come out of the river and take a stroll on the bank.

One day, a hungry fox came to the bank of the river. He saw the tortoise and his friends walking slowly. He pounced and caught the tortoise. But the tortoise was very clever. He pulled himself into his shell. The tortoise has a very hard shell. The fox tried hard to eat the tortoise but he could not break the hard shell.

Suddenly, the tortoise had an idea. He said, ”Dear fox, I have a hard shell which will not break so easily. You put me back into the river for sometime. When the shell is soaked in water, it will become very soft. Then you can eat me up very easily.
The foolish fox believed the tortoise and pushed him into the river. The tortoise quickly swam to the middle of the river.
The hungry fox lost his prey and repented his folly.

Exercise:- Answer the following questions:

  1. Where did the tortoise live?
  2. What did the tortoise do sometimes?
  3. Who came to the bank of the river one day?
  4. What did the fox do?
  5. How did the tortoise save his life?
  6. What lesson do you get from this story?
  7. Find the meaning of the following words:
  • stroll
  • pounced
  • foolish
  • clever
  • prey
  • repented