Weekly Bulletin – Issue 3 February 2016
Building Career Skills
Better Employment for a Better Life
This weekly bulletin is meant to give students easy access to learning
materials in English. The reasons for this are given in my message in
the first bulletin.
After that was posted in the new website for English Learning
materials set up by the TVEC (www.buildingcareerskills.gov.lk), we
conducted a workshop to introduce the new programme. The
workshop was held on January 24th for teachers of the Department
of Technical Education and Training. The DTET has now restarted the
English Foundation course, which is meant mainly for those who
have sat for their Ordinary Level Examination.
That course will lead to a NVQ Level 1 Qualification, in Building
Career Skills. It has now started in several Centres run by the
Department. Its popularity makes clear the need for such courses all
over the country. In Anamaduwa for instance, 83 students have
registered. We hope now to start the course also in Training Centres
run by the Vocational Training Authority. The VTA is now recruiting
English teachers for this purpose, and we hope that within a few
months we will have at least one BCS course in every Division in the
country.
Chairman, TVEC
Unit 3 - The Taj Mahal / The
Great Wall / The Alhambra
The Tools of English
Forming letters
Grammar – adverbs, phrases
Extracting information for a
table
Conversation – Describing
rivers
Important Announcement
When you study this unit, pay
careful attention to the building
blocks of language – meaning
the different types of words we
use. The most important of
these are nouns (naming words)
and verbs (action words). We
will learn about these and the
other building blocks in the next
few weeks.
The Taj Mahal at Agra (c. 1650 AD)
The Taj Mahal is a very famous building in Agra in India. One of the great Moghul kings of India,
Shah Jehan, built it when his wife died. Shah Jehan ruled over almost all of India from 1628 to 1658
AD. He loved his wife very much, and was very sorry when she died. He built the Taj Mahal to
remember her, and now, nearly 400 years later, many people know about his wife.
Emperor Shah Jehan was a handsome man. Mumtaz Mahal was half Persian and was one of the
loveliest women in India. But more than her beauty, Mumtaz Mahal was a very good woman. She
was an excellent wife and mother. She was kind and helped hundreds of women. She was loved
by all and most of all by her husband.
Shah Jehan travelled round his Empire a lot. Mumtaz Mahal always went with him, taking her three
daughters and four sons with her.
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When Mumtaz Mahal died, Emperor Shah
Jehan wept for many days. He was very sad.
For two months he did not come out of his
room. When he did finally come out, he
decided to build a beautiful tomb in her
memory.
He began work on the Taj Mahal. It took
about 20 years to build. It is made of the finest
white marble and the whole building is richly
decorated. Precious stones were put into the
outside walls, but these were later stolen.
When the lamps were lit at night, the gems
gleamed in the darkness. It was said to be
the most beautiful sight in the world.
Shah Jehan spent a lot of money to build the
Taj Mahal. It has been called a poem in marble. Today many tourists come to see the building. It is
especially beautiful by moonlight, and you are lucky if you can see it under a full moon.
Grammar and Vocabulary
Exercise 1
Exercise 3
Divide the proper nouns in this passage into
those that name people and those that name
places. Write them down carefully, making
sure you get the size and shape of the letters
correct.
Find adjectives in the passage that mean
the same as the following – very beautiful,
very good, expensive, well-known, of best
quality.
Which of the following is the opposite of
these? – ugliest, unknown, worst, cheap,
inferior.
Write down the names of friends and of
places in Sri Lanka that begin with the
following letters – J, K, B, R, P
Use these new words in sentences of your
own.
Exercise 2
Exercise 4
Look at the verbs that are highlighted (in
dark letters). Match them with the correct
meaning from the following – used, started,
made, cried, shone.
Look at the words and phrases (groups of
words) that are in italics. They tell you when
something happened. Words that tell you
more about an action – when it happened,
how it happened – are called adverbs.
Use the highlighted verbs in their present
tense in sentences of your own.
Using the following adverbial phrases, write
sentences about yourself – six years from
now, three months ago, between the ages of
five and ten, on Poya days, yesterday.
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Note the underlined adverbial phrases in the following sentences.
He loved his wife very much
Mumtaz Mahal was one of the loveliest women in India
The gems gleamed in the darkness
He did not come out of his room
Shah Jehan travelled round his Empire a lot
Some of these are adverbials of place, while some are adverbials of
degree, that is, they tell you the extent or degree of the action.
Which sentence has adverbials of place and of degree?
Match the sentences below with a suitable adverb from this list –
quickly, angrily, neatly, slowly, hungrily
The teacher looked …………… at the naughty pupils.
She walks ………… to school but she runs ………… to the
playground in the interval.
Miniature portrait of
Mumtaz Mahal from the
late 19th century
The dog looked …………… at the bone.
You must write the answers ………… in your exercise book.
Group Work
You can see that many adverbs are formed by adding the letters ly to an adjective that has a
similar meaning. Write down the adjectives that match the following adverbs – thirstily, cleverly,
sadly, helpfully, carefully. Make sentences with each of the adverbs and then make other
sentences with each of the adjectives.
Exercise 5
To what do the following pronouns, underlined in the passage, refer – it, his, her, these, it?
Speech and Writing
Exercise 6
Write 5 sentences about a place you think is very beautiful. You can describe
a) where it is
b) what it is – a building or a place of natural beauty
c) what is special about it
d) when you went there / saw it
Present your sentences to the class. Speak clearly and answer any questions your friends ask about
the place.
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Exercise 7
Answer the following questions
a) Why did Shah Jehan build the Taj Mahal?
b) Where is the Taj Mahal?
c) How many children did Shah Jehan and Mumtaz
Mahal have?
d) In which century did Shah Jehan live?
e) How long did it take to build the Taj Mahal?
Read the following verse as quickly as
you can. What does a mule use its
back legs for? What happens when
you stand behind a mule?
On mules we find two legs behind
and two we find before.
We stand behind before we find
what those behind be for.
Exercise 8
Read the following descriptions of beautiful buildings in other parts of the world and match the
highlighted words in the last two passages with their meanings from the list below defeated, short distances, placed, little by little, attackers, very large, save, food, move, whole
The Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China is 20 feet high. It was
built by Emperor Shi Huang Ti in the 3rd century
BC. He built it to defend the country from
invaders from the north and west. It has many
towers from which soldiers could see if anyone
was coming to attack China. The towers are 44
feet high and are spaced at intervals along the
Wall. The Wall was also used as a road to
transport troops and provisions across the
country. A full army was stationed across the
entire Wall and China was safe from invaders
for many years.
The Alhambra in Spain
The Alhambra is in Granada, Spain. It is on a hill
overlooking the city. The Moors conquered Spain
in the 8th century AD and ruled it for over 700
years. The Alhambra was begun in the 10th
century as a fort but it gradually developed into a
palace too. Moors loved gardens. As they came
from desert lands they also loved water. They
brought water from the hills for the city of Granada,
and in the Alhambra there are huge pools with
many fountains to keep the building cool.
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Exercise 9
Pair Work
Discuss with your partner and
write down 3 interesting points
about each of these buildings
and about the Taj Mahal. Tell
the class which building you
would most like to see, and why
you think it is interesting.
What
Who
When
Where
Why
The Taj
Mahal
The
Moors
As a
fort
3rd century
BC
Exercise 10
Group Work
Fill in the blanks in the following
table
Add another row to this table, to include a historic building
in Sri Lanka. Any students able to should give a short
description to the class of the building they have chosen.
Exercise 11
Now write a short description of yourself. You should mention what your name is, where you live,
how old you are, what you are studying and why.
Prepare a table for each member of your group including the question words given for the buildings.
Where do you put someone’s age?
Using the table, describe one of your friends, using ‘he’ or ‘she’.
Now write a description of five sentences about someone who does a job you might like to do.
Exercise 12
Match the correct response in Column B with the corresponding question in Column A
Column A
Column B
i.
Who built the Great Wall of China?
i.
The soldiers could see if anyone was
coming to attack China
ii.
When was it built?
ii.
Emperor Shi Huang Ti built it.
iii.
Where was it built?
iii.
It was built around China.
iv.
Why was it built?
iv.
It was built in the 3rd century BC.
v.
What could the soldiers see from
the towers?
v.
It was built to defend the country from
invaders from the north and west
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Conversation – Describing rivers
Fill in the blanks in the following sentences with
suitable words from the list below. Then make new
sentences about any rivers in Sri Lanka or in Asia
which you know about.
Teacher – Good morning, students. Today we will
describe our rivers.
Students – Good morning, ……………
The …………… river flows to the sea at Colombo. It
begins in the …………… hills and ……… in the Western Province.
The Kalu Ganga flows ………… and joins the sea at …………… It ………… very ……………
The ……………… is the longest river in ……………… It ………… the sea at Trincomalee.
The …………… Oya is in the north of the Wet Zone of Sri Lanka. It joins the sea at ……………
The Walawe Ganga flows ………… from the central hills. It joins …………… at Ambalantota.
Chilaw, west, Mahaweli, teacher, flows, ends, Sri Lanka, joins, the sea, central, Kalutara, Kelani,
quickly, Deduru, south
Nouns
A noun is a word used as the name of a person, place or thing. Look at the picture given below
and write the nouns from the following list that you see in the picture in the spaces provided.
tree
house
bird
knowledge
wall
river
girl
well
kindness
guitar
nest
pond
elephant
fence
flowers
ball
coconuts
dog
car
beauty
window
cat
love
hen
pen
computer
shirt
frock
lorry
book
sympathy
crowd
cow
garden
gate
anger
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The words you put in the spaces are Nouns. They are used to name people or things.
You can see some of these nouns in the picture. There are some nouns that are not in the picture
but which you can see elsewhere. But there are also nouns that you cannot see. Each column has
one such Abstract Noun. Abstract Nouns are those we cannot see or touch, they express feelings
or ideas.
Short Vowel Sounds
There are five short vowel sounds in English. Practise saying the following words aloud. Most of
them are nonsense words, but some that you might use are in italics.
PAPPLE
BABBLE
TATTLE
DADDLE
KAKKLE
GAGGLE
SASSLE
ZAZZLE
PEPPLE
BEBBLE
TETTLE
DEDDLE
KEKKLE
GEGGLE
SESSLE
ZEZZLE
PIPPLE
BIBBLE
TITTLE
DIDDLE
KIKKLE
GIGGLE
SISSLE
ZIZZLE
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POPPLE
BOBBLE
TOTTLE
DODDLE
KOKKLE
GOGGLE
SOSSLE
ZOZZLE
PUPPLE
BUBBLE
TUTTLE
DUDDLE
KUKKLE
GUGGLE
SUSSLE
ZUZZLE
Language Functions
Note the following Language Functions – a function is a use you make of language. A function can
be expressed in different ways as with
1.
Greetings = Hello / Good morning / How are you?
Give two different ways to express the following language functions 2.
3.
Introduce yourself
Leave somebody
Match the phrases before to the following language functions
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Agreeing
Expressing doubt
Giving instructions
Making a request
Correcting someone
Warning
Answer all the questions / Be careful / I’m not sure / That’s right / No, that’s not our teacher /
please give me your phone
Make sentences to express these functions.
Calculation
1 A girl buying sweets which cost Rs 90 handed the shopkeeper a Rs 200 note. Having no
change, the shopkeeper changed it in the next door shop and handed the girl Rs 110 change.
Later that day, the shopkeeper from next door came in saying the Rs 200 note was a forgery, so
the first shopkeeper had to replace it. How much did he lose?
Is this a true story?
2 On their way to school there was one boy in front of two boys and one boy behind two boys and
one boy between two boys. What is the least number of boys possible in this group?
3 The average of 12 numbers is 4 and the average of 8 other numbers is 9. What is the average of
all 20 numbers?
4 If the length of a rectangle is increased by 10% and its width is decreased by 10%. Does its area
increase or decrease or stay the same?
5 Over the side of a ship there is a rope ladder which just reaches the level of the water. The
rungs of the ladder are thirty centimetres apart. How many rungs of the ladder will be under
water when the tide has risen two metres?
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