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San Ġorġ Preca College Secondary School, Blata l-BajdaHalf-Yearly Examinations - February 2015

English Language Track 1 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 underlining the correct form of the verb in brackets. The first answer has been given as an example.

Hi Lisa,

How (is, am, are) you? Yesterday (is/ was/ were) a fantastic day for me because my sister and

I (go/ am going/ went) 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/

plays/ played) the guitar while Sarah (sing/ sang/ sings) and Ben (play/ is playing/ plays) the

drums. At the moment they (visit/ are visiting/ visited) Malta and they (stay/ stayed/ are

staying) here for another week. Last week my dad (give/ gave/ is giving) me two tickets for

the Slam concert which was held at Ta’ Qali. It (take/ takes/ took) 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. (Won’t you think/ didn’t you think/ don’t you think) I’m lucky?

5 marks [ ]

B. Underline the correct Comparatives and Superlatives.

Two boys were playing football. Peter was the (big/ bigger/ biggest) and the (strong/

stronger/ strongest) of the two. Tim, his friend, was (young/ younger/ youngest) and (short/

shorter/ shortest). Suddenly they started arguing about who the (good/ better/ best) footballer

player in England was. Peter was certain Bill Jones was the (skilful/ more skilful/ most skilful)

English Language, Form 1 , Track 1 of 12

player, but Tim still thought that Mark Davis was (good/ better/ best). “Last year Davis did

not play well and this year he was (bad/ worse/ worst). He scored (little/ less / least) goals,

while Jones scored so many that his team was given the (expensive/ more expensive/ most

expensive) trophy of the year.

5 marks [ ]

C. Fill in with a suitable word from the following box.

Note: There are extra words.

the, with, When, to, stopped, an, sad, expensive, A, too, happy, from, excited, out of, a.

_______________ very poor 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 an ______________ 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 Comprehension 20 marks [ ]

1. The famous Leonardo Da Vinci is said to have been a

so-called polyphasic sleeper, organising his life around

an endless series of naps. Cosmo Kramer tries to do like

Da Vinci in the classic episode of Seinfeld.

2. When we think about sleep today, this episode is much

more useful, because it shows that human rest fails once

it goes beyond what is common. Kramer ends up falling

asleep on guest actress Lisa Arch, who immediately

thinks 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 have a job 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, an independent non-profit organisation devoted to

everything sleep, has created a 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 should use this range to calculate your individual basal sleep need, as well as

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 basically remain well-rested throughout her whole 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 basically the amount of sleep you need to give

your body. If you stay up late watching TV or playing a computer game, without sleeping in

the next day, your ability to pay attention and your levels of energy may suffer silently for

several days. You will be distracted more often than usual.


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 (4 marks)

a. Leonardo Da Vinci was a monophasic sleeper. _________

b. Polyphasic sleep is sleeping briefly over and over again. ________

c. Basal sleep need is the amount of sleep every person needs every night. _______

d. Sleep debt is how much extra sleep you need in order to grow taller. _______

In questions 2 to 4 underline the correct answer.

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. (1 mark)

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. (1 mark)

4. Why do you think the criminal friends of Lisa Arch rolled Kramer up in a carpet and took

him to a river?

a. They wanted to kidnap him.

b. They thought he was dead and wanted to get rid of his body by throwing him into the river.

c. They wanted to make sure he was dead by drowning him in the river. (2 marks)


5. Why do you think that ‘a well-rested society is a happy society’? (2 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 underlined words refer to in the passage? (2 marks)

a. it (paragraph 2) ______________________________________________

b. he (paragraph 2) ______________________________________________

c. It (paragraph 8) ______________________________________________

d. it (paragraph 10) ______________________________________________


11. Underline the meanings of the following words in bold as used in the passage: (2 marks)

a. endless (paragraph 1) - never-ending/ having an ending/ unbroken

b. abandoning (paragraph 3) - leaving/ ending/ dumping

c. self-explanatory (paragraph 8) - explains a person’s self/ transparent/ understandable

d. compensating (paragraph 10) - balancing/ making up for/ rewarding

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)


1. 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 [ ]

2. Write down on the lines provided

a) Two words that show sound.

__________________ ___________________

b) Two words that show 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.

I'd Like to Meet an Alien

I'd like to meet an alien.

Yeah, wouldn't that be neat?

I'm sure there's not another

creature I would rather meet.

I wouldn't care if he was big,

or medium, or tiny,

or if his skin was rough and tough,

or super smooth and shiny.

I'd like him if his head were bald

or covered up with hair.

I'd like him if his face were round,

triangular, or square.

He could be colored black and white,

or yellow, red, and green.

He might be awfully dirty

or meticulously clean.

I'd like him if he whispered

and I'd like him if he yelled.

I'd like him if he used perfume

or positively smelled.


It wouldn't matter much to me

if he was soft or scaly,

or if he danced the rhumba

or he played the ukulele.

He could look like a lizard

or be furry and mammalian.

I'd simply like to scare my mom

by bringing home an alien.

- Kenn Nesbitt

1. Find three words that describe the skin of the imagined alien. (1½ marks)

a. __________________ b. ________________ c. ____________________

2. Give two pairs of opposite phrases that describe the alien as used in the poem.

Phrase 1 Phrase 2 (Opposite)

(2 marks)

3. What two words describe the sound this alien could make? (1 mark)

a. _________________________ b. ___________________________

4. Which two animals is the imagined alien compared to? (1 mark)

a. _________________________ b. ___________________________

5. What reason does he give for wanting to ‘bring home an alien’? (1½ marks)

__________________________________________________________________

6. There is one simile in the poem. Which is it? _______________________ (1 mark)


7. Give two sets of rhyming words. (2 marks)

1a. _______________________________ 1b. _____________________________

2a. _______________________________ 2b. _____________________________

Section D - Writing 25 marks [ ]

Write between 100 and 150 words on ONE of the following:

1. Write an e-mail to a friend in which you invite him/her to spend the week at your

house during the Easter holidays. In the e-mail include:

directions to your house from the nearest bus stop

activities you could enjoy doing together.

people your friend might meet during the visit.

2. The funniest person I have ever met. Include:

a physical description

the different ways in which he/she is funny

3. When I was turned into a dragon… (You may wish to use some of the following

words or phrases: fire, flap my wings, pointed tail, breathe, castle, scales, drawbridge,

swish)


4. Using the pictures below tell the story of this town that remains flooded during a

storm.

The Flood

Task Number: __________

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