ENGLISH FIRST ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE



ENGLISH FIRST ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE

GRADE 11

1 TERM LANGUAGE TEST – TOTAL: 45

2009

SECTION A – COMPREHENSION

Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:

1. Because I go to a private school, my friends from government schools sometimes accuse me of being elitist and even a snob. Well, I don’t think that’s true or fair. I may have certain privileges that they don’t have, but mostly I think school’s just school. Sometimes, though, private schools do end up in the limelight for one reason or another. And that is exactly what happened recently.

2. When our English teacher, Mr Gregory, told us that our school had been selected to take part in a project related to the media that would run for a month, I wasn’t too keen. Not after the film shoot for the fruit drink we did in grade 9! Well, as it turned out, this project did involve filming, but it also involved a series of magazine articles that would be published in tandem with a reality TV show.

3. But I’m jumping the gun here. Let me explain. As you know, reality shows have become very popular. Increasingly the media is intruding into the lives of ordinary people, filming how they spend their private time. Lately, there’s been a lot of publicity about the lifestyles of young people – teenagers whose lives are often very different from what their parents might imagine.

4. A leading magazine, together with a TV production house, decided that this would make for interesting reading and viewing, so they initiated a project to recruit eight teenagers (all between 16 and 18, and all still at school) to spend a period of one month under close scrutiny. This would include school life, as well as personal and private activities. The brief was that the participants should be absolutely honest and uninhibited; nothing was to be hidden. Imagine! All the details of your personal life were to be exposed to the eagle eye of the journalist and later to the harsh light of the camera! Quite a challenge, you’ll agree.

5.

The TV programme would include film clips shot during the two months, as well as an on-camera discussion about the experience. Hopefully, a pattern would emerge about how school going teenagers in South Africa conduct their everyday lives.

6. Our school asked for volunteers. At first I was reluctant to be involved. I’m quite a private person and the idea of people being around me all the time, filming and asking questions, didn’t appear to my sense of privacy. In addition, it would take a certain amount of daring later to speak about – and possibly defend – my lifestyle choices! So I didn’t volunteer, although several of my friends were keen. As it happened, they were interviewed, but weren’t selected in the end.

7. It was at that stage that Mr Gregory asked to speak to me. What followed was a long interview in which he asked me to reconsider taking part in the project.

8. He explained that the producers were looking for and out-going, sensible young woman whose lifestyle was not too ‘way out’; someone who was typical of the ordinary teenager-in-the-street. Should I feel flattered, I wondered, because I’m so ‘ordinary’? Ms Average, the cellophane teenagers whose life was transparent but not totally colourless? My immediate reaction was ‘No thank you!’, but Mr Gregory was persuasive. He asked me to think about it. He said I was representative of the majority of teenagers from stable, middle-class homes, who live ordinary lives – young people who go to school to learn, play sport to exercise (and win!) and enjoy spending time with their friends in activities that are part of a ‘normal’ lifestyle. I promised to think about it.

9. I ended up agonising over whether I should, and even could, do it. Would I be able to deal with such an invasion of my privacy? I spoke to my parents; I spoke to my friends. Eventually I decided I would do it – for the experience and also to make a point about South African teenagers who want to be part of building a better life for all in their country. Only time would tell whether I’d cope or not, but I was sure that whatever happened, I would be quite changed by the experience.

10. Anyway, the project was handled very professionally, and I had to sign a simple contract before the process got under way.

QUESTIONS

1. Find a synonym for elitist in the first paragraph.

(1)

1.2 Why did the writer use an apostrophe after school in “…I think school’s just school.”

A) The writer refers to schools

B) The writer wants to say “school is…”

C) The writer wants to say “schools are…”

D) The writer wants school to sound like “cool’s just school…”

(1)

1.3 Look at the dictionary meaning of “limelight”. Which meaning is the most appropriate for the way the word is used in the passage. Write down only the number of your answer.

limelight [lm līt] (plural limelights) noun

|1. |focus of attention: the focus of attention or public interest |

|2. |lamp in which quicklime is heated: a lamp used as an early form of stage lighting in which quicklime is |

| |heated to produce a brilliant light |

|3. |light from limelight: the light that a limelight lamp produces |

(1)

1.4 If you are not too “keen” about something, it means you are not

A) enthusiastic

B) quick to understand things

C) intense and lively

D) competitively low

(1)

1.5 “…that would be published in tandem with a reality TV show.”

1.5.1 What is the denotation of “tandem”?

(1)

1.5.2 What is the connotation of “tandem”?

(1)

1.6 What is a “reality TV show”?

(1)

1.7 What do you think is the meaning of the expression “jumping the gun”?

(2)

1.8 Why might a reality show about teenagers be upsetting to parents?

(1)

1.9 What do you think is the meaning of the expression “under close scrutiny”?

(1)

1.10 What special ability are journalists given in paragraph 4?

(1)

1.11 What does the TV program hope to achieve? (Par. 5)

(1)

1.12 What is the meaning of the word “reluctant” in paragraph 6.

(1)

1.13 Give two characteristics the producers were looking for in teenagers.

(2)

1.14 Why is the word “cellophane” appropriate to describe a transparent life? (par. 8)

(2)

1.15 How do you feel when you “agonize” over something?

(1)

1.16 Give one reason why the writer decided to do the show.

(1)

[20]

SECTION B (SUMMARY)

QUESTION 2

Look at the article titled ‘Is the Appeal of Reality TV waning?’. Find the main reasons for the declining popularity of reality TV. Write a point form summary where you make a numbered list of the seven reasons. Use 55 words. Indicate the number of words you have used.

Is the Appeal of Reality TV Waning?

For years now we have tuned into the lives of people as they go about either their everyday existence or are placed in foreign, and often hostile, environments.

However, the image of those early series may have become a little tarnished. Today, especially on American TV, money is more important than quality. A stream of unscripted shows is showing us more and more people in unusual – and often tedious – situations. Gone is the excitement of that first viewing of Big Brother or Survivor. Perhaps reality shows have passed their sell-by date?

One of the downsides of contemporary reality TV is that the shows are all so similar. Devoid of a script, they depend mainly on the personality quirks of the participants to carry the action. The genre has lost its individuality and has become a kind of fast food for television junkies. The question arises: just how much ‘reality’ can the public take before it reaches saturation point?

What reality TV needs at this stage in its development is an injection of new life – something that will revive the genre by adding an unusual freshness, rather than relying only on the bizarre.

(10)

1. Look at the following advertisement:

[pic]

1. Why is the picture of the female snorkelling biased?

(1)

3.1.2 Quote an example of text from the advertisement that is biased.

(1)

3.1.3 Why is the example you quoted in 3.1.2 biased?

(1)

2. Look at the following cartoon:

[pic]

1. Why is this cartoon an example of bias?

(1)

3.3 Look at the following dictionary entry and answer the questions::

aquatic [ə kwáttik]adjective

|1.|of water: connected with, consisting of, or dependent on water |

|2.|living in water: living or growing in water |

|3.|done in water: played or performed in or on water |

| |• aquatic sports |

noun (plural aquatics)

[14th century. < Latin < aqua 'water']

1. What is the root of the word “aquatic”?

(1)

3.3.2 What is the meaning got the root of the word “aquatic”

(1)

3.3.3 Form a new word with the root that means “place for fish (N)”?

(1)

3.4 Look at the following dictionary entry:

consecutive [kən sékytiv] adjective

|1.|successive: following one after another without interruption or break |

| |• He's been off work now for three consecutive days. |

|2.|following logical sequence: following a logical or chronological sequence |

[Early 17th century. Via French < medieval Latin sec < Latin seq- , past participle of consequi (see consequent)]

3.4.1 What is the root of the word “consecutive”?

(1)

3.4.2 From which language does the root of the word consecutive come?

(1)

3.4.3 Form a new word with the root that means “one stage after another (N)”.

(1)

3. Look at the following dictionary entry:

hydroplane [hdrō playn] noun (plural hydroplanes)

|1.|fast boat: a motorboat designed so that it rises up out of the water at high speed and skims along the surface |

|2.|vane on submarine: a horizontal vane on a submarine, used to control its vertical movement |

[< Greek hudr- , stem of hudōr 'water' < Indo-European]

1. What is the root of the word “hydroplane”?

(1)

3.4.2 From which language does the root of “hydroplane” come?

(1)

3.4.3 Form a new word with the root that refers to a gas.

(1)

3.5 Look at the words ambiguous and phycisian.

3.5.1 Which of the two words begins with a prefix?

(1)

3.5.2 Which of the words begins with a suffix?

(1)

[15]

Total: 45

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