Framework of second semester’s mid-term test 2012-2013

Everyone loves surprises. However, some people do hate surprises. So, here, I provide a framework for this semester’s mid-term test. (Btw, will a surprise be called as a surprise when it fails to generate astonishment?)

Framework of second semester’s mid-term test 2012-2013

Topics:

1. Tourist Information Leaflet

2. Short Narrative Story about a City

3. Phone Message

4. Biography

5. Famous Invention

6. E-mail message

Grammar focus:

1. Past Tense (be, can, regular verbs, irregular verbs)

2. Countries and Nationalities

3. Preposition (ex.: Solution Book page 133, part 2)

4. Multipart verbs (ex.: Solution Book page 134, Unit 7)

My unforgettable experience on rainy afternoon

My unforgettable experience on rainy afternoon

I saw a bicycle on the parking area of our school. It reminds me of an accident that occurred when I was a child. I was elementary school, grade 6.

That accident happened when I was with my uncle. At that time, he studied at a state university in Jakarta. My uncle was at home for holiday. It was an afternoon, he asked me to accompany him to a sugarcane field. 

Sugarcane (Saccharum) is a plant that is used to make sugar. There were some sugarcane fields in my village. Actually, it was illegal to eat that. It was because the sugar cane fields belonged to a sugar company. Therefore, it would be considered as stealing if people took sugarcanes out of there. However, it was not a secret that people in my village often took sugarcanes from there. I also loved to do that. I loved to eat the sugarcane because its sweet flavour.

Therefore, I cannot help saying no to my uncle’s offer. It was a breezy afternoon when my uncle rode me on his bicycle to a sugarcane field.

After taking some sugarcanes, we decided to go home. My uncle rode me on his bicycle. It was going to rain. The sky was dark and winds blew fast. Therefore, my uncle rode his bike quickly. Suddenly, my right leg accidentally entered the bicycle’s spoke. The bike stopped because of my feet. It was very painful.

People started to gather around us. They were curious about what was happening. They tried to remove my feet out of the spoke. However, that was useless. I screamed in pain when people tried to do that. My leg was stuck there. My ankle stuck between the bike’s rear fork and spoke. People and my uncle stared at me desperately. 

Then, there was someone tried to loosen the rear wheel’s hub using a spanner. But, it still didn’t work. Fortunately, someone brought pliers. He cut spokes using the pliers. As many as three or four spokes were needed to be cut so that my leg could be freed.

Next, my uncle held me on his arms. I remembered he crossed a river to make a shortcut to my grandmother’s house. Then, he brought me to the nearest hospital.

At the hospital, the doctor and nurses gave me some liquid to sterilize my wound. They tried to remove dead and broken skin from my leg. It was very painful.

I could not move my leg. So, I asked the nurses whether I needed to have X-ray or not. But, they assured me and my parents that X-ray was not needed. They said there were any broken bones in my leg. I felt relieved.

The doctor put bandage on my leg. He also gave me antibiotics. Then, he let me go home. As I could not move my leg, my uncle always held me on his arms. 

The same case occurred the next day when I came to school. My uncle---due to his guilty feeling---picked me up. He took me to school. He held me on his arms from the parking area to the classroom. Actually, I was a bit ashamed, but I had no option: I could not walk. Thank God, my friends cared so much. They helped me to strive during those ‘hard’ times.

Now, the scar has almost completely disappeared. Yet, I always remember about that incident every time I see a wheel of a bicycle. However, it doesn’t mean that I’m afraid of riding bicycle. Riding bicycle always makes me happy.

In case you need grammar (comparative, superlative, like, would like) practice and vocabulary practice

1   Complete the sentences with the correct comparative form of the adjectives in the box.

bad     far     important     exciting     dangerous     hot

1. Football is more exciting than chess! 

2. Which is _______? A shark or a giraffe?

3. It’s _______ to do your homework than to watch TV.

4. Is your house _______ from the school than Pete’s?

5. I’m not very happy. My exam results are _______ than my sister’s!

6. Let’s go to Italy. The weather’s _______ there than in England.

2   Complete the sentences with the correct superlative form of the adjectives in brackets.

1. Who is the most intelligent student in the class? (intelligent)

2. Open the window please. I think it’s the _______ (hot) day of the year!

3. That’s the _______ (expensive) hotel in the city!

4. Mike’s the _______ (fast) runner in the school.

5. Jerry is the _______ (bad) dancer I know!

6. This is the _______ (dry) summer people can remember.

     3  Complete the sentences with the correct form of like or would like.

1. I really like your new dress. It’s a lovely colour.

2. The teacher ______ to see you in the classroom now.

3. _______ me to help you?

4. My parents _______ old films from the 1980s.

5. He _______ to come with us. Is that OK?

6. _______ rap music? I love it.

4   Complete the sentences with the words in the box.

elephants     snakes     eagles     sharks     mosquitoes 

1. _______ sometimes attack people when they are swimming.

2. _______ can give people malaria.

3. _______ have very big ears.

4. _______ can see small animals from high in the sky.

5. Some _______ are dangerous but some aren’t.

What do you know about deadly animals?

A spy said that you already read our previous article. However, we are not type of people who are easy to believe something. So, we try to give you these questions in order to check whether you have read the mindblowing article. These are the questions.

1. What animal has a name meaning “river horse”?

       A. white sharks

       B. eagles

       C. hippopotamus

       D. platypuses

2. What animal has dark mouth?

       A. honey badgers

       B. dolphins

       C. sloth

       D. black mamba

3. What animal can live longer than 60 years?

      A. African hunting dogs

      B. saltwater crocodiles

      C. dolphins

       D. falcons

4. What animals eat termites?

      A. ghost bats

      B. redback spiders

      C. scorpions

      D. sloth bears

5. There is a form of martial art (Kung Fu) named   

       after the animal. What is the animal?

      A. hippopotamus

     B. praying mantis

      C. white sharks

      D. dolphins

Fifteen Deadly Animal Facts

I heard that you love animals. Here, I have a list of facts about some wonderful (and cute) animals. Check them out.

Fifteen Deadly Animal Facts

1. The hippo is extremely unpredictable, making it the most dangerous mammal in Africa. Hippopotamus is Greek for "river horse." Their teeth are so huge that they need large cavities in their heads to accommodate them!

2. A general rule of thumb when trying to detect how venomous scorpions are is to look at the size of their pincers and tail. If they have large pincers and a slim tail, it's likely that their sting will not be very venomous, but small pincers and a fat tail spell trouble.

3. The black mamba has a head the shape of a coffin and is, in fact, grey. It gets its name because its mouth is black. It has extremely fast-acting and potent venom.

4. African hunting dogs are some of the most efficient predators in Africa with an average 80% of hunts resulting in a successful kill compared with a lion's 10%. An average pack will consume a Thomson's gazelle in 10 minutes.

5.Fish eagles have remarkable sight and can see well through water. They dive feet first at high speed to grapple their aquatic prey.

6. Honey badgers have been listed in the Guinness Book of Records as "the most fearless animal on the planet." They have been known to drive lions off their prey.

7. The bite of a three-meter-long great white shark pushes four tons of pressure through every square centimeter of tooth.

8.The intelligent and much loved bottlenose dolphins herd fish like dogs herd sheep, singling out weak individuals for attack. Their sophisticated echo system helps them work out how far in front and in what direction their prey is moving.

9. Regarding redback spiders – only the females are dangerous to humans but they are also deadly to male redbacks and often eat the males when they mate.

10. Platypuses are one of the few venomous mammals in the world. They have a venomous spur which they use when fighting other males. They use "electrolocation" to detect their prey – the electro-receptors in their bill detect the muscle contractions of their next meal.

11. Saltwater crocodiles are the largest crocodilians on Earth. They are excellent swimmers, often spotted far out to sea, and can live for up to 70 years.

12. Ghost bats are the only carnivorous bats in Australia. They get their name from the extremely thin membrane of their wings and their ghostly pale fur. 

13. Sloth bears can be heard feeding on termites up to 100 meters away. They can close their nostrils to create a vacuum and they have huge jaws for tearing through rock-hard termite mounts.

14. The praying mantis is such a fast and aggressive predator that it even has its own form of Kung Fu named after it.

15. The peregrine falcon is the fastest animal on Earth. 

Taken from: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/wild/shows-deadly-60/fun-facts/)