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SubjectFree lesson

 COMPREHENSION A

ClassNotes Team 12 MIN READUPDATED 6 JUL 2026

ENGLISH LANGUAGE JSS1 SECOND TERM

WEEK TWO 

THEME: READING

 COMPREHENSION.

PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVE

Students should be able to;

  1. Read given selection in order to follow the direction
  2. Identify keywords in the passage that signal direction

CONTENT

Read and answer the questions below.

Recent advances in science and technology have made it possible for geneticists to find out abnormalities in the unborn fetus and take remedial action to rectify some defects which would otherwise prove to be fatal to the child. Through genetic engineering is still at its infancy, scientists can now predict with greater accuracy a genetic disorder. It is not yet an exact science since they are not in a position to predict when exactly a genetic disorder will set in. While they have not yet been able to change the genetic order of the gene in germs, they are optimistic and are holding out that in the near future they might be successful in achieving this feat. They have, however, acquired the ability in manipulating tissue cells. However, genetic miss-information can sometimes be damaging for it may adversely affect people psychologically. Genetic information may lead to a tendency to brand some people as inferiors. Genetic information can, therefore, be abused and its application in deciding the sex of the fetus and its subsequent abortion is now hotly debated on ethical lines. But on this issue geneticists cannot be squarely blamed though this charge has often been levelled at them. It is mainly a societal problem. At present genetic engineering is costly processes of detecting disorders but scientists hope to reduce the costs when technology becomes more advanced. This is why much progress in this area has been possible in scientifically advanced and rich countries like the U.S.A., U.K. and Japan. It remains to be seen if in the future this science will lead to the development of a race of supermen or will be able to obliterate disease from this world.

1. Which of the following is the same in meaning as the phrase ‘holding out’ as used in the passage?

      (a) catching                             (b) expounding

      (c) sustaining                         (d) restraining

      (e) controlling

2. According to the passage, the question of abortion is

      (a) ignored                               (b) hotly debated

      (c) unanswered                         (d) left to the scientists to decide

      (e) already settled

3. Which of the following is true regarding the reasons for progress in genetic engineering

     (a) It has become popular to abort female fetuses.

     (b) Human beings are extremely interested in heredity.

     (c) Economically sound and scientifically advanced countries can provide the infrastructure for such research.

     (d) Poor countries desperately need genetic information

4. Which of the following is the same in meaning as the word ‘obliterate’ as used in the passage?

      (a) wipe off                            (b) eradicate

      (c) give birth to                      (d) wipeout

      (e) very literate

THEME: WRITING

COMPOSITION WRITING

PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVE

Students should be able to;

  1. Read through a passage
  2. Jot down main and supporting ideas
  3. Arrange ideas in a logical sequence
  4. Write appropriate introduction and conclusion

CONTENT

MY MOTHER

My mother is a kind lady. She is very good at her behavior. Everybody in the family likes her. She has many qualities of head and heart. She is highly educated and intelligent. She is very hard-working, kind, caring and loving. Her love for us has no limits

She is a housewife and ever busy. She gets up earlier than others and goes to bed last of all. She cooks food, washes our clothes, looks after our every need and comfort. She enjoys serving us. Sometimes, I feel sorry for her and help her in her work in my own humble way.

Her love and care are a great source of inspiration. They help me in keeping good health and being cheerful. It is because of her that I am so good at studies. If I am ill she would leave no stone unturned to look after me till I get well and healthy

She prepares many delicious dishes for us. We can never forget her services and sacrifices. She is really great, wonderful, loving and kind. Nothing is so great as my mother. It has been rightly said that God could not be everywhere and therefore, he made mothers.

Nobody can ever repay the kindness of his or her mother. She is the first teacher or ‘guru’ of the child. Behind every great deed of a man, there is a mother.

There would have been no Gandhi, no Bhagat Singh, no Shivaji, no Rana Pratap, no Lincoln and no Buddha if there were no mothers

If my mother falls ill, there is a disorder in the house. Everybody is ill at ease. It is like a disaster for all of us. We always pray for her health and happiness. My mother is really a jewel and I love my mother.

Introduction from the passage is - My mother is a kind lady. She is very good at her behaviour. Everybody in the family likes her. She has many qualities of head and heart. She is highly educated and intelligent. She is very hard-working, kind, caring and loving. Her love for us has no limits.

The conclusion from the passage is - My mother is really a jewel and I love my mother.

 

THEME: SPEECHWORK

VOWEL /ɔ/

PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES

Students should be able to;

  1. Identify the vowel
  2. Differentiate the vowel /ɔ:/ and /ɔ/
  3. Write words containing the /ɔ/ sound

 

CONTENT

In English, the symbol ⟨ɔ⟩ (or ⟨ɔː⟩) is typically associated with the vowel in "thought", that vowel is produced with considerably stronger lip rounding and higher tongue position than that of cardinal [ɔ], i.e. as close-mid [oː] or somewhat lower. The contrast between /ɔː/ and /ɒ/ is thus strongly maintained, with the former vowel being realized as close-mid [oː] and the latter as open-mid [ɔ].  So do not mispronounce a word with these two vowels, check a dictionary to confirm. The longer type of this vowel has two dots to it, /ɔ:/.

Examples of the Vowel [ɔ]

  • door [dɔɹ]
  • long [lɔŋ]
  • long [lɔŋ]
  • poorest [pɔɹɛs]
  • morning [mɔɹnɪŋ]
  • accord [əkɔɹd]
  • before [bifɔɹ]
  • talking [tɔkɪŋ]

THEME: GRAMMATICAL ACCURACY

SUBJECTS AND OBJECTS OF VERBS

PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVE

Students should be able to;

  1. Identify the subjects in a given sentence
  2. Identify the objects in a given sentence
  3. Work on exercises given by the teacher

CONTENT

Subjects

In grammar, we use the word 'subject' to talk about the pronoun, noun or noun phrase that does the action of verb. In English, the subject is usually before the verb.

The simplest English sentences have only a subject and a verb.

  • John arrived. (Subject = John, verb = arrived. 'John' is a proper noun. 'John' is also the subject of this sentence, because John is the person who arrived, so he is the person who did the verb.)
  • Lucy smiled. (Subject = Lucy, verb = smiled. 'Lucy' is also a proper noun, and is also the subject of the sentence, because she is the person who smiled.)

 

Here are a few more examples. The subject is often a pronoun.

  • I love chocolate. (The subject is 'I'.)
  • They went to the cinema. (The subject is 'they'.)
  • The subject can also be a group of words.
  • The scientist looked out of the window. (The subject is 'the scientist'.)
  • An orange cat was sitting on the grass. (The subject is 'an orange cat'.)

Some verbs are not actions, but instead, link the subject to an adjective or phrase which gives us more information about the subject. In this case, the subject is the person or thing which we get more information about. These verbs are called linking verbs. In English, 'be', 'seem' and 'become' are examples of linking verbs.

  • I am hungry. (The subject is 'I' and the linking verb is 'am'.)
  • The children are in the garden. (The subject is 'the children' and the linking verb is 'are'.)
  • John seemed tired. (The subject is 'John' and the linking verb is 'seemed'.)

Subjects can be quite long in English. Sometimes they include a noun and all the words that are used to add extra information to that noun (or 'modify' the noun). (This is called a 'complex subject'.)

  • The man who lived upstairs gave us some sweets.

(Here, the subject is 'the man who lived upstairs'. The main noun is 'man' and 'who lived upstairs' is a relative clause giving us more information about the man.)

  • The book on the red table is mine.

(Here the subject is 'the book on the red table'. The main noun is 'book' and the prepositional phrase 'on the red table' gives us more information about the book.)

Subjects can even include two or more nouns that each have groups of words giving us extra information.

  • Lucy's grey cat and Alice's white cat went for a walk.

(Here the subject is 'Lucy's grey cat and Alice's white cat'.)

  • The man whose daughter I met in high school and the manager of the bank where Amanda works and my brother's new girlfriend played golf yesterday.

(The subject is 'the man whose daughter I met in high school and the manager of the bank where Amanda works and my brother's new girlfriend'.)

Objects

In grammar, we use the word 'object' to talk about the thing or person that the verb is done to, or who receives the verb. It can be a noun, a noun phrase, a pronoun or a longer complex object, which is modified (in a similar way to a complex subject).

Only a transitive verb can have an object. An intransitive verb never has an object. Read more about transitive and intransitive verbs here.

  • I love chocolate. (The object is 'chocolate'.)
  • David met Lucy yesterday. (The object is 'Lucy'.)
  • I put the orange cat into the garden. (The object is 'the orange cat'.)
  • We saw the man whose house my brother built. (The object is 'the man whose house my brother built'.)
  • The boys threw away the toys that they no longer played with and all the clothes that had become too small. (The object is 'the toys that they no longer played with and all the clothes that had become too small'.)

Direct and indirect objects

A few verbs in English can have two different kinds of objects. We call these the 'direct object' and the 'indirect object'. The 'direct object' is what I've been talking about on this page so far. It's the thing or person to who or to which we do the action of the verb. For example, in the sentence 'I give the chocolate', the subject is 'I', the verb is 'give' and the direct object is 'the chocolate'. But we can also say 'I give Lucy the chocolate'. In this case, 'Lucy' is the indirect object and she receives the direct object, which is the chocolate.

I made my friend some coffee. (Here the direct object is 'some coffee' the thing that I made. The indirect object is 'my friend', who is the person who receives the direct object.)

I threw John the ball. (Here the direct object is 'the ball' and the indirect object is 'John'.)

I passed Lucy the plate of biscuits. (Here the direct object is 'the plate of biscuits' and the indirect object is 'Lucy'.)

THEME: LITERATURE

PROSE 2

PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVE

Students should be able to ;

  1. List the features of prose
  2. Explain the features of prose
  3. Write a short story using the features of prose

CONTENT

The elements of prose are character, plot, setting, theme, and style. Of these five elements, the character is the who, the plot is the what, the setting is the where and when, the theme is the why, and style is the how of a story.

  1. A character is any person, personal, identity, or entity whose existence originates from a fictional work or performance.
  2. A plot, or storyline, is the rendering and ordering of the events and actions of a story, particularly towards the achievement of some particular artistic or emotional effect.
  3. The setting is the time and location in which a story takes place.
  4. The theme is the broad idea, message, or lesson of a story.
  5. The style includes the multitude of choices fiction writers make, consciously or subconsciously, as they create a story. They encompass the big-picture, strategic choices such as point of view and narrator, but they also include the nitty-gritty, tactical choices of grammar, punctuation, word usage, sentence and paragraph length and structure, tone, the use of imagery, chapter selection, titles, and on and on. In the process of writing a story, these choices meld to become the writer’s voice, his or her own unique style.

Example

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

In the short story of The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte sheds light on the difficulties faced by the narrator of the story, due to depression after the childbirth. Her husband John, a physician, takes her to a countryside home for the cure and assumes that she is suffering from hysteria. He doesn’t allow her to do her favourite activities, like writing which helps her escape reality. She is also distant to her child. After a while, she is obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in her room and imagines that a woman, like her, is stuck in it and wants to come out. To help the imaginary woman, the narrator starts peeling the wallpaper. By the end of the story, John, sees her creeping around the room and faints. The story also highlights how many women are ignored by their spouses, leading them to depression.