ENGLISH SPM TRIALS 2009

ENGLISH JUJ PAHANG 2009

ENGLISH SPM TRIAL _KEDAH 2009

ENGLISH SPM TRIAL Q'S_JOHOR 2009

ENGLISH SPM TRIAL A'S_JOHOR 2009

ENGLISH SPM TRIAL_PERLIS 2009

ENGLISH SPM TRIAL_SABAH 2009

ENGLISH SPM TRIAL MARA 2009

ENGLISH SPM TRIAL MELAKA 2009

Common usage

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED by FADZILAH AMIN

IN a seminar organised by Pejabat Pelajaran Daerah, Johor Baru, the key personnel (KP) taught us to pronounce poems as POMS. Most teachers in Johor Baru are now pronouncing it as POMS. Is this really the new pronunciation?

Also, are these sentences correct, grammatically?

1) Everyone enjoy themselves very much.

2) My family has our dinner at the restaurant.

3) He took a taxi to go round the town Or He took a taxi to go around the town. What is the difference between round and around?

4) For Christmas Day and Christmas Eve, no apostrophe is required but it is used for New Year’s Day and New Year’s Eve. Why? – Teacher

It is not clear to me, how the “O” in your “POMS” is pronounced – whether it is like the “o” in “bomb” or the “o” in “Rome”.

In both British and American English, “poem” is a word of only one syllable, but its vowel is a triphthong, a combination of three vowel sounds. In British English, it is pronounced /peuim/, where the “e” (in bold) is a schwa and the “u” and “ i” are both short. The “o” in “Rome” is the diphthong /eu/ in British English and the diphthong /ou/ in American English. “Poem” is pronounced /pouem/ in American English, where the “e” (in bold) is a schwa. (A schwa is the vowel sound in the first syllable of “ago” and is usually represented by an upside down lower case “e”.)

There is no new pronunciation of the word “poem”, but many Malaysians are used to pronouncing it as if it were a word of two syllables, i.e. “po-em” or even “po-yem”. Is it possible that the key personnel you mentioned pronounced the word correctly, using the “o” sound as in “Rome” (eu) plus the “i” sound, but that the teachers missed the “i” after the “eu”?

Now I will answer your other questions.

1) No. It should be either the more formal “Everyone enjoys himself or herself very much.”, or the less formal but more convenient “Everyone enjoys themselves very much.” “Everyone”, like “everybody” takes a singular subject, but the pronoun that refers back to it (himself, herself, themselves) can be either singular (more formal) or plural (less formal).

2) “My family has our dinner at the restaurant.” is correct. You can also say “My family have our dinner at the restaurant.” You can use either a singular or a plural verb after “family”. Also, in your sentence, “our dinner” sounds better than “its dinner”, which sounds impersonal in that context. However, “its” can be used to refer to a family in a sentence like the following:

“Now I think about it, my family has had its share of characters, including one great-uncle who managed to blow a hole through his hand by putting it on top of his own (loaded) shotgun, whilst climbing over a gate.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/somerset/content/articles/2006/08/24/somerset_sounds_the_mangledwurzels_feature.shtml

3) Both “round” and “around” can be used in your sentence in British English, but “around” is more formal and it is also used in American English. Here are some examples from the Internet:

The volunteers also go around the town and surrounding villages with Father Christmas on his sleigh to greet the children of the communities before Christmas.

http://www.bbc.co..uk/wales/mid/sites/volunteers/pages/talgarthchristmaslights.shtml

“It is nice for the council and for the residents to see the effort that goes into the competition and to go round the town and see the results.”

http://www.burnleyexpress.net/996/Awards-for-town-gardeners.837755.jp

“DANCE; Up, Down and All Around The Town” (title of an article in New York Times)

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/29/arts/dance-up-down-and-all-around-the-town.html

4) “Christmas” means “the mass or festival of Christ” and no apostrophe “s” is needed for Christmas Day, since the possessive is already contained in the meaning of Christmas. But a saint’s day and eve usually come with an apostrophe “s” after the saint’s name, e.g. St Patrick’s Day, St George’s Day, St Agnes’ Eve.

New Year’s Day and New Year’s Eve have traditionally been written with an apostrophe “s” after “Year”. I think this is a matter of usage rather than logic. After all, we can say “a summer’s day” or “a winter’s day”, but NOT “an autumn’s day” or “a spring’s day”.

Confusing tenses

I’m very confused about how to use “Says” and “Said” and also “Had” and “Has”. Please help. – Malini

Says and said

“Says” is the singular simple present tense of the verb “say” and “said” is the simple past tense and also past participle of the verb “say”. You use “says” in a sentence when the subject is a singular noun or pronoun (except for “I” and “you”) and the sentence is in the simple present tense. “Said” is used with both singular and plural subjects. Here are some examples of their usage:

“She often says she is not pretty, but I think she is.”

“My grandma always says she is not ill, but only old.”

“Many people said hello to me at school yesterday.” (simple past tense)

“She is said to be very rich.” (past participle used with “is” to form a passive verb)

Has and had

“Has” and “had” can be main verbs or auxiliary (helping) verbs. “Has” is the singular simple present tense form of the verb “have” and “had” is the simple past tense and also past participle of the verb “have”. You use “has” in a sentence when the subject is a singular noun or pronoun (except for “I” and “you”) and the sentence is in the simple present tense. “Had” is used with both singular and plural subjects.

As a main verb, “have” means “to own”, but it has other meanings as well, among them “to eat”. You will have to consult a dictionary for the other meanings. Here are some examples of the use of “has” and “had” as main verbs:

“He has a cat that he is very fond of.” (has=owns)

“Shalini has breakfast at 7.30 every morning.” (has=eats)

He had a cat last year, but the cat died. (had=owned)

The students had dinner late last night. (had=ate)

“Has” is also used as an auxiliary verb in a sentence using the present perfect tense, which talks about an action that was done in the past, without giving the time when it was done. A present perfect tense verb consists of “has” or “have” + the past participle of the main verb. “Has” is used with singular subjects and “have” with plural subjects. Here are some examples:

“She has seen the film.” (has + past participle of “see”, which is “seen” and no time is given)

“My friend has gone to Egypt to study medicine.” (has + past participle of “go”, which is “gone” – no time given)

“Had” is used as an auxiliary verb in a sentence using the past perfect tense, which talks about two actions or events, one of which was completed before the other happened. A past perfect tense verb consists of “had” + the past participle of the main verb. The earlier action/event is expressed in the past perfect tense, and the later action/event in the simple past tense. Here are some examples:

“We had eaten our dinner when our friends came.”

“Ahmad had given up hope of going to a university when a letter arrived offering him a place in the university of his second choice.”

Fun with synonyms

By OH TEIK THEAM

EACH sentence below contains a synonym of the italicised word(s), spelt out in consecutive letters. Can you spot it?

Example: The couple continued their walk along the path in silence after he commented that she was not as slim as she used to be.

1. The wood of the shepherd’s hut has swollen, and the door won’t close.

2. “I hope Ning Baizura will let me be the introductory act at her concert.”

3. “Ladies and gentlemen, we are now nearing the mansion of a beautiful lady who won overnight fame with her first novel.”

4. She decided to follow her doctor’s advice to lose a few pounds before Christmas.

5. The cunning fox was lying when he reported to his friends that the chicken coop was empty.

6. The donations of tens of thousands of people helped to alleviate the misery of the flood victims.

7. “Mum, shall I shoo the turkeys off the porch or fire my popgun to frighten them?”

8. The little boy found a bag of greyish rubber bands near the bush.

9. Requesting me to repair a thermometer that he had carelessly dropped, the eccentric man said, “It’s somewhat easy if you concentrate hard on the task.”

10. Her obvious lack of enthusiasm for her work was underscored when the boss hauled her over the coals for being behindhand and negligent in the discharge of her duties.

11. After they had eaten a light meal, the couple had a tiff in the presence of their friends.

12. The big increase in the salary of my supervisor is effectively the result of favouritism.

13. When she entered the salon, the other customers couldn’t help but notice the beautiful shininess of her hair.

14. He was absolutely frank with her when he said to her, “Your only hope now is to accept the offer.”

15. With a supercilious air, the driver boasted that he would win the race, but his dream was shattered when his car smashed into a wall of tyres and sandbags.

Answers

1. shut 2. opening 3. renown 4. shed 5. sly 6. soften 7. shoot 8. shrub 9. rather 10. slack 11. tiffin 12. rise 13. sheen 14. open 15. lofty

TEACHER'S TALK

Proud to be Malaysian

TEACHER TALK
By NITHYA SIDHHU

Being thankful and appreciative of the peace and freedom we enjoy in this country each day, is also a form of patriotism.

Patriots are you, me, and thousands of others like us standing firm for our country — William McGinnis

ASK kids at school what patriotism means and they will give you varied answers. The young ones in primary schools will immediately tell you about how much they love the country – they will even draw you a picture that has the Twin Towers or a kampong in it with a group of children in diverse costumes smiling in front of it.

You’ll see the inevitable. Ali with his songkok and samping while Muthu will be coloured in dark-skinned tones. Mei Lee will be the girl in pigtails wearing a mandarin-collared blouse and Aminah will be next to her wearing the familiar baju kurung. You might see Mala in a sari too. To the primary school-goers, this is Malaysia — a melting pot of races, lots of good food to eat, kampong scenery or towering architectural buildings.

With colours bright and attractive (the red, blue, yellow and white of the flag will be unfailing choices!), Malaysia will be represented either in this manner or with the green of the rainforest and huge rafflesia in the background.

Young patriots

Sweet will be the picture and vibrant will be the tone.

The young keep their love for their country simple – their message is clear – they love this country – along with its food, culture, races, progress and tourist spots.

Ask an older school-going teenager and he’ll probably spout the usual model answer too. But, he will also be more questioning – “Why didn’t my brother get the PSD scholarship? He scored all A’s, didn’t he? Why do I have to go for the national service programme? Why do we have to study History?

Some Malay boys will be all of fifteen years old but their Islamic Studies teacher is bound to complain that they barely know their basics. There may be some amongst them who might be wasting precious time smoking and fooling around without having time for their daily prayers.

Some Chinese boys will claim that they are Buddhists until you find out they hardly know the tenets of Buddhism.

While you see some Indian boys coming to school with ash-smeared foreheads, there are others who don’t even go to temple on Fridays, or know that Lord Ganesh is the ‘remover of obstacles’.

Talk about patriotism and some students are confused. Is religion in Malaysia an identifiable part of patriotism?

If you’re a Malay school girl or teacher, the head scarf is such a given that some students think it is a Malaysian thing.

But many do realise that the religion you practise has nothing to do with patriotism – yet, when they talk about patriotism, they throw religion in for good measure.

So, what is patriotism?

They talk about the broad matters, about revolutionary heroes, about Merdeka Day parades, about soldiers, about politics – but they don’t talk about what’s going on inside them – the feeling they have for this country, the loyalty they ascribe to, the pride they take in being Malaysians, or, what they would be willing to do for their country.

A patriotic act is “any selfless act that directly benefits the nation”, according to Word.IQ.com.

It states that displaying the national flag, singing the national anthem, participating in a mass rally, placing a patriotic bumper sticker on one’s vehicle, or publicly proclaiming one’s allegiance to the nation in any appropriate way, are all acts of patriotism.

In Malaysia, the symbolic display of patriotism is particularly felt in August in schools with Merdeka Day competitions, speeches, songs, ceremonies and other events.

What these festivities aim to do and often achieve, is to make students realise how proud they can be of the fact that they are Malaysians living in a peaceful nation; a nation that values educational progress and which counts on its young to become the leaders of change tomorrow.

All they need to do to keep this country’s flag flying high, is to be the best they can be, and foster the true Malaysian spirit for now and the future.

My only concern is for students who are driven by materialism and are cold inside. Since they have neither felt the ravages of war nor have been called upon to fight for their country, since they were born in a free nation and taken its freedom for granted; since the life they lead has little to do with servitude to the nation; since their minds are caught up mostly with studying with an eye on making good money in the future; since their parents highlight the negative instead of the positive, since they too have got into the habit of griping rather than appreciating – they therefore give little thought to what it means to be a patriotic Malaysian. They take but they do not give.

Writer William McGinnis says this of patriotism – that it should be “alive in our hearts and active in our lives every day.” For our young Malaysians, is it? For us teachers, is it?

My country, my home

I may not give much thought to patriotism myself, but I do know that I feel grateful that I am working in this country and not in a neighbouring country where more than 300 teachers are said to have been killed or injured by Muslim insurgents since 2004.

I do know that I like being a Malaysian – that I identify myself as one with pride and simple dignity – that I’d rather be here than anywhere else. That this country is my true home. That when I take my teaching job seriously and make every effort to teach well, I am helping his nation. I may not ascribe much patriotic significance, but I do know this – it matters!

If we could all do our jobs well, take them seriously and be civil, non-prejudicial and good citizens, I think we are in a way publicly proclaiming our allegiance to the nation in the most appropriate way. Selamat Hari Merdeka, folks.