CSEC English

Hello there—especially all of you going into 4th or 5th form come September. We want to help you prepare for your English exams next year. If you follow our weekly lessons here in the Sunday Stabroek, you’ll get lots of tips to help you get a good grade. Read on now, and enjoy your CSEC English page!

LITERARY DEVICES—in drama

Why do we go to the theatre or the cinema? Why do we watch movies on TV? Here’s a list of things you probably enjoy about watching drama:

● The spectacle (the costumes, the setting, the props) ● The action (movements of the characters—fighting, kissing, escaping,

chasing, etc.) ● The plot (story line) and the ideas it puts in your mind ● The conflict (the struggle between characters or even within a character’s

mind) ● The sounds (explosions, music creating a mood, gun shots, a knock at the

door, a phone ringing, a wild animal roaring, etc.)

Do you agree with this list? Do you want to add anything? When your teacher or the CXC Examiner asks you to write about the dramatic devices, it’s so that you can show you have understood HOW the playwright thrills the audience.

Dramatic devices in Ti-Jean. Walcott’s play Ti-Jean is about three brothers who, in turn, try to defeat the Devil (in the form of a Planter). Only Ti-Jean succeeds, and manages to liberate future generations from oppression. If you see a production of Ti-Jean, you will notice that ALL of the items in that list above are in the play. Costumes: You will see characters in costumes that make them look like creatures of the forest, characters in costumes that make them look like devils, and one strange creature wearing a costume that suggests he is an unborn baby (the Bolom)—as well as ordinary people (the Mother and her three sons). Mask: You will see the Devil himself, but at times he appears as Papa Bois (the wise old man of the woods), and at times as the Planter—simply by changing the mask he wears. Cleverly Walcott suggests that appearances can be very deceptive, and evil lurks in unexpected places. Sound, sights and movement: You will hear thunderclaps as the Devil and his companions appear, along with scary music creating a sense of evil and fear. You will see those devils dancing in a crazy way as they rejoice over their success and power. You will see the lighting used to make sudden flashes to accompany the thunderclaps, a red glow that suggests cane fields burning, and a white spotlight on the Mother as she prays, suggesting something holy surrounding her. You will laugh as the military music accompanies Gros Jean, marching boldly to meet the Devil—totally unaware that his physical strength will be useless against such an Enemy. Props: Your heart will sink when you see the crosses marking the graves of MiJean and Gros-Jean; you will experience a shudder of disgust and fear when the Devil takes out Gros-Jean’s ‘leg’ and ‘eats’ it! You will laugh at Mi-Jean with his nose in a book all the time—totally unable to do anything useful with his fishing rod, like catch a fish for the family to eat! These are just a few examples of the dramatic devices Walcott uses. As you study the play, make a note of when these devices are used, and what effect they have on you—how they make you feel, and what thoughts they bring to your mind.

SPELLING

How good is your spelling? Here is a list of words to test your skills. livelihood, intact, interesting, irresistible, janitor, jealousy, kennel, kerosene, khaki, kindergarten, knowledgeable, manageable, knuckle, laboratory, length. Ask someone to test you and see if you can spell the words in this list. Go to the top of the class if you can get them all right!

CAUGHT IN THE SLIPS

“Everybody were having a great time” slip? said the young lady. Where was the

Yes, she should have said, Everybody was….

Remember, everyone AND everybody both need to be followed by a SINGU LAR verb (even though they seem to be referring to a plural entity.

WHOSE HAT? Let’s look at a problem that quite a few writers have: how to use the apostrophe correctly. Look at these sentences: 1. They were laughing at the woman across the road’s funny hat. 2. She was telling me about the headmaster at Tom’s school’s accident. In sentence 1, we are referring to the woman’s hat—but can you see it looks as if we are talking about the road’s hat? Similarly, in sentence 2, we are referring to the headmaster’s accident, but it looks as if we are talking about the school’s accident.

What has gone wrong?

The problem is that we need to put the two connected items together (woman’s hat, headmaster’s accident), but we have put other words in between, separating the connected items.

It is important NOT to do this. In cases like this we don’t use the apostrophe at all. This is what we do: They were laughing at the funny hat that the woman across the road was wearing. She was telling me about accident that the headmaster at Tom’s school was hurt in.

Your Turn Now

Here are some sentences like examples 1 and 2 in Whose Hat? friend and correct them as we have done in examples 3 and 4.

1. Marcia was taking care of her boyfriend who lives over the railway line’s

dog. 2. Ray is wearing his brother who lives in Canada’s shirt. 3. The table that we bought from the carpenter’s legs are wobbly. 4. Sunita forgot her aunt from New Amsterdam’s phone number. 5. We told the policeman the driver of the red car with the black stripe’s name.

CHOOSING THE CORRECT WORD

Using a dictionary, select the correct word from the brackets to complete each sentence.

1. Her father, who worked as a two occasions.

(miner/minor),

had narrowly escaped death on (lead/led) Work with a

2. Water used to be supplied through piping. 3. A slack attitude on the part of reporters will (mitigate/militate) effective investigation of problems in our society. pipes, but now we prefer PVC

4. Despite the damage to his bus, the driver sustained only injuries. (miner/minor), against (miner/minor)

5. As a vote. 6. In (passed/past) years this subject had just two written exams, but in 2008 SBA’s were introduced. Marcia’s twelve-year-old brother was not allowed to

7. Scientists travelling up the Potaro river were grateful to the skilled Amerindian guide who (lead/led) the expedition. 8. The damage to the car was so extensive that it was impossible to believe that it had been (stationary/stationery) at the time of the crash. 9. The (mitigating/militating) circumstances of the case impelled the authorities to be lenient with the wretched fellow. 10. The scientists were (lead/led) by an experienced and knowledgeable guide. Melanie was delighted to hear that she had (passed/past) her Spanish exam. 11. We were planning to employ more secretaries, so we needed more (stationary/stationery) for the office. 12. Time (passed/past) really quickly when we were on holiday in Tobago.

ANSWERS Choosing the Correct Word

1 miner, 2 lead, 3 militate, 4 minor, 5 minor, 6 past, 7 led, 8 stationary, 9 mitigating, 10 led, passed, 11 stationery, 12, passed

ANSWERS

Your Turn Now 1. Marcia was taking care of the dog belonging to her boyfriend who lives over

the railway line. 2. Ray is wearing the shirt belonging to his brother who lives in Canada. 3. The legs of the table that we bought from the carpenter are wobbly. 4. Sunita forgot the phone number of her aunt from New Amsterdam. 5. We told the policeman the name of the driver of the red car with the black

stripe.