CSEC ENGLISH

Hello there. For those of you doing English B, we are working through Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. For all of you, we have some revision exercises to help you with English A.

Read on now, and enjoy your CSEC English page.

ENGLISH B—To Kill a Mockingbird

The events in this novel take place in Maycomb, Alabama. The narrator is a little girl called Jean Louise “Scout” Finch. Scout and her older brother Jem, are the children of Atticus Finch, a lawyer. Their playmate is Dill—a mischievous boy from Mississippi, who spends his summer holidays in Maycomb.

Atticus Finch

Atticus is a man of great moral integrity. At a period when Black folk in the South had few, if any, rights, Atticus undertakes the defence of a black man, Tom Robinson, who has been falsely accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell. Even though the Ewell family are considered by the community to be ‘white trash’, the word of any white woman has more weight than that of a black man in the racist South, so Tom is assumed to be guilty.

Their father’s connection with Tom and his wife brings Jem and Scout into closer contact with the Black community, causing their awareness of racist attitudes to grow. They are victimized and insulted by the community, and their father is ostracized as a ‘nigger-lover’, but Atticus persists in his efforts to win a fair judgment for Tom.

Despite the evidence brought by Atticus at Tom’s trial, proving overwhelmingly that Tom is innocent and Mayella was lying, the all-white jury finds Tom guilty. In despair, Tom attempt to escape from the jail, and is shot dead in the process. Atticus is despondent when he sees the entrenched racism in his community, but realizes that at least he has shown his children that they must never give up if their cause is just.

Boo Radley

The Finch’s neighbor, Boo Radley, is an important character in the narrative. Rumour has it that Boo once stabbed his own father with a pair of scissors, and so is never allowed to leave the house. The children believe the house where Boo lives is haunted. Fascinated by the mystery surrounding Boo, the children dare each other to get nearer to his house. They leave notes for Boo, but are caught by Atticus and warned not to pester Boo. Still they persist in their forays into the Radley’s yard, and have several adventures because of their curiosity. Boo, they gradually discover, is kind and harmless: he mends Jem’s pants when they get caught and torn on a fence; he quietly puts a blanket around Scout when she is watching on as a neighbour’s house burns; he leaves gifts for the children in a nearby tree. Boo’s secret affection for the children is seen at the end of the novel when he rescues Jem and Scout from a murderous attacker: Mr Ewell. The man the children thought was a monster, a ghost, a lunatic, turns out to be their hero. After rescuing the children, Boo returns to his house, and they never see him again.

Mr. Ewell

Although Tom was falsely convicted, Mr. Ewell realizes that he and his daughter were shown up badly by Atticus’s arguments in court. He feels humiliated, and seeks revenge. One night, when Jem and Scout are walking home from the Halloween play at their school, Ewell follows them home in the dark, then attacks them with a large kitchen knife. Jem’s arm is broken in the scuffle, and Scout is unable to see what is going on because of the ham-shaped Halloween costume she is wearing. It is Boo Radley who saves the children: he appears from nowhere and stabs Ewell with the kitchen knife. For the first time, Scout is face to face with Boo. Rather than charge Boo with manslaughter, the sheriff declares that Mr. Ewell fell on his own knife so Boo can go free. In a twisted way it seems that justice has been served.

NOUNS FROM ADJECTIVES

Here are ten adjectives: inferior, long, enthusiastic, confident, unable, safe, certain, lonely, simple, boring.

A. Find the noun form for each of them

B. Fit those nouns appropriately into the blanks in these sentences:

1. When it came to her clothes, she loved ….., so her wedding dress had

very little adornment.

2. He expressed concern at the ….of time it had taken for the letter to reach

Bartica.

3. Because of her overwhelming sense of …., she felt that she could never

impress a potential employer.

4. Despite his …. to sing in tune, he managed to play the piano remarkably

well.

5. We can’t tell you with any …. whether or not your tooth will need to be

extracted until we have taken the X-ray.

6. At first the light-house keeper loved the peace and quiet of his job, but

eventually the….got to him.

7. Most of the students showed great….when the idea of a trip to Cayenne

was mooted, so we quickly organized some fundraising activities.

8. As we sat in the waiting room, to relieve our….we started playing cards. 9. Braving the smoke and flames, the fireman ran into the building and

soon reappeared, carrying the elderly invalid to ….

10. Sara lacked ….in herself, so she usually panicked as exam time

approached.

PRACTICE WITH THE PASSIVE

Look at this example:

A. These are the photos. The photographer took them. B. These are the photos taken by the photographer.

Combine the following sentences, following the example given in B.

1. This is the letter. Shania wrote it.

2. Those are the flowers. Sunika grew them.

3. This is the message. NCN broadcasts it.

4. Those are the intruders. Our neighbours beat them. 5. This is the song. Ana sang it.

6. These are the lines. Romeo spoke them.

7. That is the ball. The little boy threw it.

8. This is the bullet. The intruder shot it.

9. These are the creepers. Tarzan swings on them.

10. This is the money. Fazil borrows it.

HOW TO DO A SUMMARY

In about 85-90 words, summarize the writer’s views on how fashion designers have affected women. You will need to leave out specific examples that the writer uses to support his main ideas. Step 1. Underline the relevant material. Step 2. Write out the underlined sections in your own words. Step 3. Edit your work until you have the required number of words.

It is rather nice not to be a woman. I do not say this because I wish to be free from the boredom of housekeeping, or the dubious joys of giving comfort to a small band of uncivilized infants. No, my joy comes from being free from the whims and fancies of those people who call themselves fashion designers.

Have you, for instance, ever looked at the shape of women’s shoes and, in turn, the shape of women’s feet? No wonder a woman takes off her shoes at the slightest opportunity. My wife once bought a pair that she knew would cause her intolerable pain. But, she said, they were too beautiful to resist. And, I assure you, shoes are not the only culprits. So when you see a well-dressed woman walking down the street, remember that, more often than not, you are watching a living monument to pain and torture.

There must have been a time in our history when women wore clothing as protection, not only from the elements but from prying eyes. That time has long since gone, and from the look of things will not return in the near future. The eyes do not have to pry, they just have to be open, that’s all. I swear if designers could make money out of not clothing women at all, they would do so.

Indeed fashion designers continue to dupe women into squandering money which they cannot afford. They influence women into believing they have to discard as ‘old’ a skirt bought a month ago and buy the ‘fashionable’ slinky pair of tight-fitting blue jeans by Pierre Conman. If they do not have the latest, the designers say, they will not only look odd but be undesirable as women.

This leads women to consider no longer their own particular shapes before buying clothes. Short fat women don mini mini-skirts and tall skinny ones have a wardrobe of dresses with vertical lines. They have been led to believe that once a style is in fashion they will look good in it.

I cannot say however that all fashions are unappealing. The truth is there are some that enhance beauty of the female form, and I am fascinated by bolero jackets, culottes and dresses that I have been told have been cut on the ‘A’ line, which must not be confused with the Princess, or other lines. Cold shoulders too, in spite of their name, are quite attractive without being revealing.

Perhaps I should say that I used to like these styles because I no longer see them. In the fashion world, the rule appears to be ‘here today, gone tomorrow’. A woman may leave home in the morning in the height of fashion and return in the afternoon in a style that is old and outmoded, without changing her dress.

(Modified from Writing Summaries and Statistical Reports