Vocabulary and Reading Quest

Vocabulary Quest

§  synonym using Oxford Thesaurus &

§  meaning using Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary

Reading Quest   Based on HOTS (higher order thinking skills):

o   analysis(review, dissection, scrutinize, distinguishing between facts and inferences),

o   synthesis (creatively builds a structure from diverse elements or ideas; put parts together to form a whole with emphasis on creating  a unique and new meaning.),

o   evaluation (use criteria to make and justify judgments about something) and

o   affective (respond with a statement of feeling, emotion, attitude and opinion without a standard appraisal; expressing feeling, emotion, opinion or attitude)

Verb tense [The continuous (progressive)]

Verbs are words that express action (run) or a state of being (love). The action can also be
abstract rather than visible, such as the words think and decide.
Verb tense tells when an action occurred on a time line. There are three tense-
present, past, and future.
Aspect indicates whether an action is complete or not.
The simple aspect indicates that an action occurred, without an indication of when it occurred.
The continuous (progressive) aspect indicates that the action is ongoing.
These two concepts are combined to give the twelve verb 12 different verb tenses. These are:
The simple tenses- present, past, and future
The continuous tenses- present, past, and future
The perfect tenses- present, past, and future
The perfect continuous- present past, and future.

Simple Past Tense

We use Simple Past Tense:

1). to describe actions and situations that happened in the past. These actions and situations were started and finished in the past at a definite time.
 The sentence often contains an adverb or adverb phrase of time, such as yesterday, the other day, last night, last week, three days ago, a few minutes ago, in (year), from (year) to (year), etc.

Subject Verb Agreement

Basic Principle: Singular subjects need singular verbs; plural subjects need plural verbs.

My brother is a nutritionist. My sisters are mathematicians.

1)The indefinite pronouns anyone, everyone, someone, no one, nobody are always singular and, therefore, require singular verbs. Examples:

Everyone has done his or her homework.

Somebody has left her purse.

None of you claims responsibility for this incident?

*None of the students have done their homework. (In this last example, the word their precludes the   use of the singular verb.

2). Prepositional phrases that come between the subject and the verb do not change the number of the subject. Some examples : as well as, in addition to, together with, along with, Examples:

 The teacher, as well as the students, was working on the problem.

The mother, together with her children, is waiting.

Subordinating Conjunctions

Subordinating conjunctions allow a writer to show which idea is more and which is less important. The idea in the main clause is the more important, while the idea in the subordinate clause (made subordinate by the subordinating conjunction) is less important.

Complex sentences with dependent adverb clauses:

Adverb clauses provide the following kind of information: when, where, why, for what purpose, and so on.

Oral Presentation

Your presentation material should be concise, precise and to the point. In addition to the obvious things like content and visual aids, the following are just as important as the audience will be subconsciously taking them in:

Your voice - how you say it is as important as what you say, so be expressive

Body language - your body movements express what your attitudes and thoughts really are.

Appearance - first impressions influence the audience's attitudes to you. Dress appropriately for the occasion.

Active And Passive Voice

Transitive verbs have both active and passive forms:

active		passive
The hunter killed the lion.	>>	The lion was killed by the hunter.
Someone has cleaned the windows	>>	The windows have been cleaned

The passive forms are made up of the verb be with a past participle:

	be	past participle
English	is	spoken	all over the world
The windows	have been	cleaned
Lunch	was being	served
The work	will be	finished	soon
They	might have been	invited	to the party

We sometimes use the verb get to form the passive:

Be careful with the glass. It might get broken.
Peter got hurt in a crash.

If we want to show the person or thing doing the action we use by:

She was attacked by a dangerous dog.
The money was stolen by her husband.

The Simple Past Tense And The Present Perfect Tense

The present perfect is used when the time period has NOT finished:

I have seen three movies this week.
(This week has not finished yet.)

The simple past is used when the time period HAS finished:

I saw three movies last week.
(Last week has finished.)