Half-Yearly Examinations - February 2015
English Language / Track3 / Form: 1 / Time:2 hours
Name & Surname: / Class: / Index No:
Teacher:
Speaking / Listening / Writing / Total
Section A: Language 15 marks [ ]
A. Continue the letter by filling in the blanks with the correct form of the verb in brackets. The first answer has been given as an example.
Hi Lisa,
How are (be) you? Yesterday ______(be) a fantastic day for me because my sister and I ______(go) to see the fantastic pop group called Slam. Actually, let me tell you something about the group first. Well, the main members are Paul, Sarah and Ben. Paul ______(play) the guitar while Sarah ______(sing) and Ben ______(play) the drums. At the moment they ______(visit) Malta and they ______(stay) here for another week. Last week my dad ______(give) me two tickets for the Slam concert which was held at Ta’ Qali. It ______(take) us a long time to get there. There was so much traffic that I was afraid we were not going to make it. Fortunately, we got there just in time. ______(you not think) I’m lucky?
5 marks [ ]
B. Fill in with the correct Comparatives and Superlatives.
Two boys were playing football. Peter was the ______(big) and the ______(strong) of the two. Tim, his friend, was ______(young) and ______(short). Suddenly they started arguing about who the ______(good) footballer player in England was. Peter was certain Bill Jones was the ______(skilful) player, but Tim insisted that Mark Davis was ______(good). “Last year Davis did not play well and this year he was ______(bad). He scored ______(little) goals, while Jones scored so many that his team was given the ______(expensive) trophy of the year.
5 marks [ ]
C. Fill in with an appropriate word.
______verypoor woman received ______invitation to a party ______a rich friend of hers. She had nothing to wear so she made a dress ______some cloth and borrowed a ______necklace. “I can go now and I can have fun ______”, she thought. At the party she felt ______and ______. ______she got home, she was still laughing but putting her hand up to touch the beautiful necklace, the laughter ______. The necklace was stolen!
5 marks [ ]
Section B: Reading Comprehension20 marks [ ]
1. Leonardo Da Vinci is said to have been a so-called polyphasic sleeper, arranging his life around an endless series of naps. Cosmo Kramer attempts to adopt Da Vinci’s rest schedule in the classic episode of Seinfeld.
2. When we think about sleep today, this reference is much more useful, because it tells us that human rest typically backfires once it goes beyond common boundaries. Kramer ends up falling asleep on guest actress Lisa Arch, who immediately assumes he is dead and calls her criminal friends; Kramer is rolled up in a carpet, driven to the Hudson River, and, well, you can watch it yourself.
3. The point is that abandoning monophasic sleep is not a great idea if you are employed and enjoy, if only for short amounts of time, the company of others.
4. How much sleep do I really need? If you’re in a hurry, the answer is seven to nine hours. If not, let’s find out why.
How Much?
5. It is not difficult to find information about best practices for sleep online: a well-rested society is a happy society.
6. The National Sleep Foundation, is an independent nonprofit devoted to everything sleep. Here, you will find a neat list detailing the sleep needs associated with various stages in life.
- Adults (18+) — 7-9 hours
- Teens (11-17 years) — 8.5-9.5 hours
- School Age Children (5-10 years) — 10-11 hours
- Preschoolers (3-5 years) — 11-13 hours
- Toddlers (1-3 years) — 12-14 hours
- Infants (3-11 months) — 14-15 hours
- Newborns (0-2 months) — 12-18 hours
7. The hour range does not mean you can choose any amount of sleep within that range. Instead, you’re supposed to use this range to calculate not only your individual basal sleep need, but also your sleep debt, that is, how much sleep you need to make up for what you lost.
Need & Debt
8. Basal sleep need is quite self-explanatory: It refers to your personal baseline for rest. This is the amount of sleep your body wants you to get every single night. A healthy person who reaches this amount every night will technically remain well-rested throughout her entire life.
9. Unfortunately, no one reaches their basal sleep need every single night. That is why you also have to consider sleep debt. Sleep debt is essentially the amount of sleep you owe your body. If you stay up late watching TV or playing a computer game, without sleeping in the next day, your attention span and energy may suffer silently for several days. Circadian dips, or natural moments of distraction, will become more much more noticeable.
10. While it’s possible to solve this debt by compensating for it the following night, it is important to remember that lost sleep cannot always be recovered. Dr. Raghu Reddy, a sleep medicine specialist, explained, “The amount of sleep lost and recovered may not be the same, though. Most of the first few hours of sleep can be recovered, but if the amount of sleep lost is more than a few hours, not all of it will be recovered.”
Now answer the following questions:
1. State whether the following statements are TRUE or FALSE and give reasons for your answer. (4 marks)
- Leonardo Da Vinci was a monophasic sleeper. This is ______because ______
- Polyphasic sleep is sleeping briefly over and over again. This is ______because _
______
- Basal sleep need is the amount of sleep every person needs every night. This is ______because______
- Sleep debt is how much extra sleep you need in order to grow taller. This is ______because ______
In questions 2 and 3 underline the correct answer.(2 marks)
2. What happens to Cosmo Kramer when he tries to imitate Da Vinci’s sleeping habits?
a. He makes the actress fall in love with him.
b. He falls asleep and ends up in trouble.
c. He falls asleep after which she feels sorry for him and looks after him.
3. What is the purpose of the hour range?
a. To show how many hours a person needs to sleep every night.
b. To show how many hours a person needs to sleep every now and again.
c. To show how many hours a person needs to sleep per night and how to make up for the hours of sleep missed.
4. Why do you think the criminal friends of Lisa Arch rolled Kramer up in a carpet and took him to a river? (2 marks)
______
______
5. Why do you think that ‘a well-rested society is a happy society’? (1½ marks) ______
6. How many hours should adults and school-age children sleep?(1 mark)
______
7. What will happen to a person who reaches his/her basal sleep need?(1 mark)
______
8. What two things may happen if you stay up late watching TV or playing a computer game? (2 marks)
______
______
9. Is it possible to recover lost sleep? Explain in full.(2 marks)
______
______
10. What do the words in bold refer to in the passage? (2 marks)
a. it (paragraph 2)______
b. he (paragraph 2) ______
c. It (paragraph 8)______
d. it (paragraph 10)______
11. Give the meanings of the underlined following phrases as used in the passage:(2½ marks)
a. endless (paragraph 1) ______
b. backfires (paragraph 2) ______
c. abandoning (paragraph 3) ______
d. self-explanatory (paragraph 8) ______
e. compensating (paragraph 10) ______
Section C: Literature 20 marks [ ]
A. Prose\Drama – Unprepared Prose Text 10 marks [ ]
Answer all questions
The three siblings crept along the dark hallways of their new house. Mallory was in the lead, walking a few paces and then stopping to listen. Every now and then there would be a scratch or a sound like small footsteps inside the walls.
The scuttling grew louder as they neared the kitchen. In the kitchen sink, Jared could see a pan crusted with the remains of the macaroni and cheese they’d had for dinner.
“I think it’s there. Listen”, Mallory whispered.
The sound stopped completely.
Mallory picked up a broom and held the wooden end like a baseball bat. “I’m going to knock open the wall,” she said.
“Mom is going to see the hole when she gets back,” Jared said.
“In this house? She’ll never notice.”
“What if you hit the squirrel?” Simon asked. “You could hurt …”
(The Spiderwick Chronicles – The Field Guide – Diterlizzi & Black)
- Underline the correct answer
a)The passage is about three adventurous children who explore abandoned houses.
b) The passage is about three children who hear noises in the night and start exploring an old house.
c) The passage is about three hungry children who raid the kitchen to eat some macaroni and cheese.
1 mark [ ]
- Write down on the lines provided
a)Two words that show sound.
______
b) Two words thatshow movement.
______ 2 marks [ ]
3. Find one simile in the passage and one onomatopoeia
simile: ______
onomatopoeia: ______
2 marks [ ]
4. Why did Mallory pick up the broom?
______
1 mark [ ]
5. a) Who loves animals? ______
b) Who is very scared? ______
c) Who is a born leader? ______3 marks [ ]
6. Underline two correct answers
The writer creates an atmosphere of
Sadness, excitement, boredom, quiet, mystery.1 mark [ ]
B. Poetry – Unprepared Text
Answer all questions.
The Tom-Cat
At midnight in the alleyA Tom-cat comes to wail,
And he chants the hate of a million years
As he swings his snaky tail.
Malevolent, bony, brindled,
Tiger and devil and bard,
His eyes are coals from the middle of Hell
And his heart is black and hard.
He twists and crouches and capers
And bares his curved sharp claws,
And he sings to the stars of the jungle nights,
Ere cities were or laws. / Beast from a world primeval,
He and his leaping clan,
When the blotched red moon leers over the roofs,
Give voice to their scorn of man.
He will lie on a rug tomorrow
And lick his silky fur,
And veil the brute in his yellow eyes
And play he’s tame, and purr.
But at midnight in the alley
He will crouch again and wail,
And beat the time for his demon’s song,
With the swing of his demon’s tail.
DON MARQUIS
- Which figure of speech is used twice in the first stanza? Quote one example. ______(2 marks)
2a. What image are we given of the cat in the second stanza? (2 marks)
______
2b. How is this different from the image given in the fifth stanza, when the cat ‘will lie on a rug’? (1 mark)
______
- What figure of speech is ‘bony, brindled’? Can you find another example in the poem of the same figure of speech? (2 marks)
______
- Find one word in the poem that indicates sound. ______(1 mark)
- Why is the image in the first stanza repeated in the final stanza?(1 mark)
______
- What is the rhyme scheme of the poem? ______(1 mark)
Section D - Writing25 marks [ ]
Write between 150 and 200 words on ONE of the following:
- Write an e-mailto a friend in which you invite him/her to spend the week at your house during the Easter holidays. In the e-mail you need to give your friend directions to your house from the nearest bus stop. You can also write about activities you could enjoy doing together.
- The funniest person I have ever met.
- When I was turned into a dragon…
Task Number: ______
______
English Language, Form 1 , Track3Page 1 of 10