Q&A - PSLE English

[ridcully]

mrswongtuition:

WOW. I'm impressed at the difficulty level. These conjuctions are not part of the typical syllabus covered in school. Good as challengers but even I'm stumped by some (because the meaning does change slightly).


Q4. A painting of Mona Lisa is hung on the wall of the living room.
On the wall,_______
Ans: On the wall, a painting of Mona Lisa is being hung.

It should be:
On the wall in the living room, a painting of Mona Lisa is being hung.

mrswongtuition, is there a conjunction here?

In a Synthesis & Transformation exercise, I would have thought that the verb structure 'is hung' is passive with the agent being omitted. Therefore, I suspect it should be rewritten as an active sentence with an agent included. Thus, the answer would be something like:

On the wall of the living room, we hang a painting of the Mona Lisa.

[quote]Q1.She needs other children to play with.
____________with whom

I'm not too sure on this one. But could be:
It is the other children with whom she needs to play with.[/quote]Again, is there a conjunction here? This is an example of prepositional usage.

A better answer would be:

It is other children with whom she needs to play.

[quote]Q2. The best thing to do after a hard day's work is to have a massage.
_______________ as good as_____.


I'm not too sure on this one. But could be:
A massage is as good as the best thing to do after a hard day's work.[/quote]This time it's adjectival comparison in the positive form. How about:

Nothing is as good as a massage after a hard day's work.

or

A massage is as good as it gets after a hard day's work!

I would agree that these questions are too esoteric for the PSLE and would question why they are presented to the students. It is much better that students gain a good overall proficiency in standard S&T and not be demoralised by questions which frankly are highly unlikely to crop up.

Warm regards
R

[Belle2011]

Dear all,

I need some help on S&T.

1) Aisha was presented with an award. She was courageous during the robbery.

As a result …

My answer:
As a resulf of Aisha’s courage during the robbery, she was presented with an
award.

2) John sent my mother to the hospital when she fell. He also footed the bill.

Not only …

My answer:
Not only did John send my mother to the hospital when she fell, but also footed the bill.

Thank-you.

Cheers,
Belle.

[anneshirleygilbert]

Q4. A painting of Mona Lisa is hung on the wall of the living room.

On the wall,_______
Ans: On the wall, a painting of Mona Lisa is being hung.

Just wondering, would the following be acceptable in Spore schools?

"On the wall in the living room, hangs a painting of Mona Lisa."

I have another concern… is the marking of the Comprehension Cloze section of the English paper too stringent? From my daughter’s recent CA1 paper, I feel the graders could have spared a little more liberty in the students’ choice of words. I was told they go by standard answers. I don’t mind my daughter losing a few marks in this section. I told her to just cross this PSLE hurdle for now. When she becomes a writer, nothing can curb her liberty. However, I can’t help but feel it’s an unnecessary strictness.

School teachers or experienced tutors/parents out there, care to express your view?

[ridcully]

Belle2011:

1) Aisha was presented with an award. She was courageous during the robbery.


As a result ..........

My answer:
As a resulf of Aisha's courage during the robbery, she was presented with an award.

2) John sent my mother to the hospital when she fell. He also footed the bill.

Not only .........

My answer:
Not only did John send my mother to the hospital when she fell, but also footed the bill.

Hi Belle

Your answers look fine to me (apart from the misspelling 'resulf'). However, stylistically, rather than grammatically, I feel that it is more fluent to write:

John not only sent my mother to the hospital when she fell, but also footed the bill.

I do note though that the requested answer begins with 'Not only'.

Rgds
R

[ridcully]

anneshirleygilbert:

Q4. A painting of Mona Lisa is hung on the wall of the living room.

On the wall,_______
Ans: On the wall, a painting of Mona Lisa is being hung.

Just wondering, would the following be acceptable in Spore schools?

\"On the wall in the living room, hangs a painting of Mona Lisa.\"

Hi anneshirleygilbert

I have already answered this question. It is a transformation of passive to active. Therefore, your suggested solution is incorrect, and should not be acceptable in any school, Singaporean or otherwise.

With regard to the marking of Comprehension Cloze passages in schools, I feel it is not a case that the marking is too strict but rather that the marking is done by non-specialist teachers who lack a certain breadth of vocabulary. Consequently, they are fearful of deviating from the set answers. To be fair, most of the teachers, like some private tutors advertising themselves in this forum, probably teach maths and science as well as English so I can accept that they are making fair effort within their limitations.

With regard to the marking of the Comprehension Cloze passage in the PSLE itself, the markers are reputedly knowledgeable teachers and well supported by MOE guidelines but have to be fairly strict in order to ensure standardisation.

My experience is that most of the problems in completing Comprehension Cloze passages lie with inadequate reading preparation by students, not the quality of marking.

More power to your daughter's pen if she wishes to become a writer!

Rgds
R

[Eddow]

Hi all,


Need help on this one…It’s a Fill in the blank Qn, with helping words.

Helping words : runs , steals
Qn : The cat _____ towards the hole in the wall when the mouse emerges.

Both answers seem logical to me, how do we know which to use and why ?

TIA

[ridcully]

Eddow:

Helping words : runs , steals
Qn : The cat _____ towards the hole in the wall when the mouse emerges.

Both answers seem logical to me, how do we know which to use and why ?

Both answers are logical. It depends on context: 'runs' would be used when the cat is indifferent to being seen; 'steals' would be used when the cat wishes to act secretly.

If the question is within a cloze passage, then the context should be evident. If the question is standalone, then the safer choice would be to opt for 'steals' because presumably the cat does not wish its prey to see it coming lest it retreats back into the hole.

Rgds
R

[Eddow]

Both answers are logical. It depends on context: ‘runs’ would be used when the cat is indifferent to being seen; ‘steals’ would be used when the cat wishes to act secretly.


If the question is within a cloze passage, then the context should be evident. If the question is standalone, then the safer choice would be to opt for ‘steals’ because presumably the cat does not wish its prey to see it coming lest it retreats back into the hole.

Rgds
R[/quote]

Thanks lots for your explanation.

[elkniwt]

Hello, can someone pls help in the following S&T qns : :?:


1. Michael will not play basketball with us. He has to fetch his sister from school.
Unless _______________________________________________

My dd's answer is
Unless Michael has to fetch his sister, he will play basketball with us.

The answer given in the answer key is
Unless Michael does not have to fetch his sister from school, he will play basketball with us.

2. Drivers will not be able to see well at night. There are no lights along the roads.
Unless _________________________________________________

My dd's answer is
Unless there are no lights along the road, drivers will be able to see well at night.

Answer key :
Unless there are lights along the road, drivers will not be able to see well at night.

For Q2, the answer key sounds more logical but how to explain it to a child. She has problems with unless.

Q3) The new medicine will not be on sale if it is not properly tested.
Unless _____________________________________________

Ans1. Unless the new medicine is not properly tested, it will be on sale.
Ans2. Unless the new medicine is properly tested, it will not be on sale.


Q4) You can finish all the food if you are hungry.
_______________unless _______________________

Ans1. You can finish all the food unless you are not hungry.
Ans2. You cannot finish all the food unless you are hungry.

For Q3 and Q4, which ans is correct and why?

Thank you very much for any help!!!!

[ridcully]

elkniwt:

1. Michael will not play basketball with us. He has to fetch his sister from school.

Unless _______________________________________________

My dd's answer is
Unless Michael has to fetch his sister, he will play basketball with us.

The answer given in the answer key is
Unless Michael does not have to fetch his sister from school, he will play basketball with us.

Unless my failure to drink a strong coffee this morning is affecting my judgement, your daughter is correct; the given answer key is wrong.
[quote]2. Drivers will not be able to see well at night. There are no lights along the roads.
Unless _________________________________________________

My dd's answer is
Unless there are no lights along the road, drivers will be able to see well at night.

Answer key :
Unless there are lights along the road, drivers will not be able to see well at night.

For Q2, the answer key sounds more logical but how to explain it to a child. She has problems with unless. [/quote]See my notes below. The main idea is that drivers will not be able to see well at night.

[quote]Q3) The new medicine will not be on sale if it is not properly tested.
Unless _____________________________________________

Ans1. Unless the new medicine is not properly tested, it will be on sale.
Ans2. Unless the new medicine is properly tested, it will not be on sale.


Q4) You can finish all the food if you are hungry.
_______________unless _______________________

Ans1. You can finish all the food unless you are not hungry.
Ans2. You cannot finish all the food unless you are hungry.

For Q3 and Q4, which ans is correct and why?

Thank you very much for any help!!!![/quote]For Q3 the correct answer is Ans2 and for Q4 the correct answer is Ans1.

Conjunctions do not simply join words, phrases and clauses: they express the relationship.

'Unless' is a subordinating conjunction, that is it joins a dependent idea to the main idea. The dependent clause follows 'unless'.

In Q3 the main idea is 'The new medicine will not be on sale'. In Q4 the main idea is 'You can finish all the food'.

'Unless' expresses the relationship 'except on the condition that'. In Q3 the condition is 'except on the condition that the medicine is properly tested'. In Q4 the condition is 'except on the condition that you are not hungry.'

The verb is usually affirmative after 'unless'.

Rgds
R