Progress Check Jan 10-8
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IC10Progress Check Jan 10-8
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IC10ENGLISH PROGRESS CHECK
Name:………………………………………………………..……..Year/Class……….
…... Date: 29 January 2010
READING SKILLS:
WRITING SKILLS:
Use of English: (√ = you did well / X = revise / XX = urgent revision is due / n.a. =
not applicable)
- Vocabulary - Dependent prepositions - Connectors
- Reported Speech - Word formation
The Peacelike Mongoose
In cobra country a mongoose was born one day who didn't want to fight cobras or
anything else. The word spread from mongoose to mongoose that there was a mongoose
who didn't want to fight cobras. If he didn't want to fight anything else, it was his own
business, but it was the duty of every mongoose to kill cobras or be killed by cobras.
"Why?" asked the peacelike mongoose, and the word went around that the strange new
mongoose was not only pro-cobra and anti-mongoose but intellectually curious and
against the ideals and traditions of mongooism.
"He is crazy," cried the young mongoose's father.
"He is sick," said his mother.
"He is a coward," shouted his brothers.
"He is a mongoosexual," whispered his sisters.
Strangers who had never laid eyes on the peacelike mongoose remembered that they
had seen him crawling on his stomach, or trying on cobra hoods, or plotting the violent
overthrow of Mongoosia.
"I am trying to use reason and intelligence," said the strange new mongoose.
"Reason is six-sevenths of treason," said one of his neighbors.
"Intelligence is what the enemy uses," said another.
Finally, the rumor spread that the mongoose had venom in his sting, like a cobra, and he
was tried, convicted by a show of paws, and condemned to banishment.
Moral: Ashes to ashes, and clay to clay, if the enemy doesn't get you your own folks
may.
[Mongoose – an animal that eats snakes (mangusto) / peacelike = peaceful]
A - Answer the following questions.
1. What type of text is this? Justify your answer.
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2. List the accusations his family made against the mongoose. Use your
own words.
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3. There were other accusations against him. How do you know these
accusations were false?
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4. What is your opinion of the mongoose?
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5. What is your opinion of the other mongooses?
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6. What is the story really about? What is its theme?
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B – Turn these sentences into the direct or indirect speech.
1. “I have never killed a cobra, and I never will," said the peaceful mongoose.
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2. “I am trying to use reason and intelligence,” explained the mongoose.
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3. “Let’s expel the mongoose,” suggested one of the neighbours.
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4. “Don’t act silly,” his mother told him.
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5. His neighbours accused him of being a terrorist.
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WRITING
You’ve read another story by James Thurber. Write a Learning Journal entry about it.
(100-130 words)
Write a summary of the plot / Explain the moral and/or the theme / Explain why you
liked it/didn’t like it.
The story I read is called
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