Bahasa Inggeris notes, unit 8
Growing up
Textbook English Plus 1 Year 5, Second Edition (Student's Book, KPM edition), pages 72-81 (English Plus 1 Year 5 Student's Book, Unit 7 Growing up)
What this chapter covers
- I can describe people's height, build, hair, face, eyes and other features, like "She's tall and slim. She's got long, straight, black hair." (8.1)
- I can guess answers with key phrases, like "I think it's ..." and "I'm not sure." (8.1)
- I can read a short text and understand the general idea of it (8.2)
- I can use object pronouns (me, you, him, her, it, us, them) in place of nouns and names (8.3)
- I can make affirmative and negative past simple sentences with didn't + the base verb (8.3)
- I can use life event words and past simple forms, like grew up, left school and got a job (8.4)
- I can ask and answer past simple questions with Did ...? and question words (8.5)
- I can take part in an interview using key phrases like "Good question!" and "Thanks for your time." (8.6)
- I can write questions and answers about a person's life, with correct punctuation (8.7)
Welcome to Growing up (Unit 7 in the textbook, Unit 8 on this site)! In this unit we describe people, talk about life events and use the past simple to say what happened. You will learn object pronouns, how to say what did not happen, how to ask past simple questions, and how to write a short question-and-answer article about someone's life.
8.1Vocabulary: describing people
To describe a person we say their height and build, their hair, their face and eyes and any other features.
English Plus 1 Year 5, p. 72.
| Part | Words |
|---|---|
| Height | tall, average height, short |
| Build | overweight, average build, slim |
| Hair | short, long, curly, spiky, straight, bald |
| Hair colour | black, grey, dark brown, light brown, red, blonde |
| Face | round, square, thin |
| Eyes | blue, brown, green, grey |
| Other features | glasses, a beard, sunglasses, a moustache |
We say He's / She's + height or build (He's tall and slim) but He's / She's got + hair, eyes and other features (She's got curly red hair and green eyes).
Describing a person
My avatar is a man. He's short and slim. He's got spiky black hair, a round face and brown eyes. He's got a moustache and he wears glasses.Word order: size or length, then colour, then the noun: long dark brown hair, short black hair, big brown eyes.
Hair is not a plural! Say "Her hair is long", not "Her hair are long". Say "He's got a beard", not "He's a beard".
Pronunciation: diphthongs
A diphthong is a vowel sound that glides from one sound to another. In the odd-one-out exercise on p. 72, three words in each group share the sound and one word does not.
| Sound | Words | Odd one out |
|---|---|---|
| /ai/ | light, height, hair, quite | hair (it has /eə/) |
| /au/ | round, brown, board, mouth | board (it has /ɔː/) |
| /iə/ | height, beard, ear, we're | height (it has /ai/) |
| /eə/ | their, bald, fair, hair | bald (it has /ɔː/) |
Key phrases: guessing answers
English Plus 1 Year 5, p. 73.
| How sure are you? | Say |
|---|---|
| Very sure | I'm sure it's ... |
| Quite sure | I think it's ... |
| Not very sure | Maybe it's ... / Perhaps it's ... |
| Not sure at all | I'm not sure. |
| Think it is not | I don't think it's ... |
Look at a picture of a tall man with a long beard and glasses. Write a sentence to describe him, then a sentence to guess his age.
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For example: He's tall. He's got a long beard and glasses. / I think he's about sixty. (Perhaps he's old.)
8.2Reading: A life in photos
The general idea of a text is what the whole text is about. Read the title, look at the picture, then read the text once without stopping at every new word.
What the text says
The story. On 23 January 1996 Munish Bansal took a photo of his baby daughter Suman. After that he took one photo of her every day.The photos. Suman was sometimes tired or sad, sometimes happy. She usually had long hair, but sometimes it was short. She sometimes had glasses and sometimes she did not. From one day to the next she did not change a lot, but she grew and changed a little every month and year.
The present. On her eighteenth birthday, 6,575 days after she was born, Munish took the last photo. He collected all 6,575 photos, made one big picture from them and gave it to Suman as a present. It was the picture of her life.
English Plus 1 Year 5, p. 74 (retold in our own words).
General idea: a father made one big picture of his daughter's life from 6,575 daily photos.
Check the number. 18 years × 365 days = 6,570 days. Add 5 extra days for the leap years (1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012) and you get 6,575. The number in the text fits.
| Word in the text | What it means |
|---|---|
| took (a photo) | made a photo with a camera (take, took) |
| grew | became bigger or older (grow, grew) |
| changed | became different |
| collected | brought many things together |
| made / gave | past forms of make and give |
Is this true or false? "Munish took photos of Suman only on her birthdays."
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False. He took a photo every day, for 6,575 days.
8.3Language focus: object pronouns and the past simple
Object pronouns
An object pronoun takes the place of a noun (a thing or person) or a name after a verb or a preposition (to, from, with, for, at ...). It stops us repeating the noun.
Noun, then pronoun
Munish made one big picture from the photos. → Munish made one big picture from them.He gave the picture to Suman. → He gave it to her.
| Subject pronoun | Object pronoun | Example |
|---|---|---|
| I | me | Dad took a photo of me. |
| you | you | I can see you. |
| he | him | We like him. |
| she | her | Munish gave a picture to her. |
| it | it | I love this song. I listen to it every day. |
| we | us | Come with us. |
| they | them | He made a picture from them. |
Don't use a subject pronoun after a verb. Say "Come with us", not "Come with we", and "I like them", not "I like they".
Past simple: affirmative and negative
We use the past simple for things that finished in the past. The negative is didn't + base verb (the verb without -ed or any other ending).
| Affirmative | Negative |
|---|---|
| She had glasses. | She didn't have glasses. |
| Daniel loved the job. | Daniel didn't love the job. |
| He went to school. | He didn't go to school. |
After didn't the verb goes back to the base form. Say "He didn't go", not "He didn't went". The same form (didn't) is used for I, you, he, she, it, we and they.
Regular and irregular verbs
Regular: act → acted, love → loved, travel → travelled, start → startedIrregular: go → went, have → had, make → made, give → gave, take → took, eat → ate, see → saw
Make the sentence negative: "Between the ages of ten and twenty, Daniel Radcliffe made other films."
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He didn't make other films. (didn't + base verb make)
8.4Vocabulary and listening: life events
Life events are the important things that happen in a person's life. Here is the life of Robert Wadlow, the tallest man who ever lived, in order.
English Plus 1 Year 5, p. 76.
| Life event | Past simple |
|---|---|
| be born | was / were born |
| grow up | grew up |
| go to school | went to school |
| leave school | left school |
| go to university | went to university |
| get a qualification | got a qualification |
| get a job | got a job |
| travel | travelled |
| get married | got married |
| have children | had children |
| die | died |
Facts about Robert
Robert was born in Alton, Illinois, in the USA, and he grew up and went to school there. He was the oldest of five children. He went to university, but he left and he didn't get a qualification. He appeared in a circus and got a job with a shoe company. He didn't get married and he didn't have children.Reading the chart: the numbers at the bottom are his ages (1, 6, 12, 17, 22) and the numbers on the bars are his heights in metres. He grew from 1 metre at age 1 to 2.72 metres at age 22. That is 2.72 − 1 = 1.72 metres taller.
Order the events: be born, grow up, go to school, leave school, go to university, get a qualification, get a job, travel, get married, have children, die. Not everyone has every event, and not in exactly this order.
Write a sentence about a person in your family using was born and grew up.
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For example: My grandfather was born in Ipoh. He grew up in Penang.
8.5Language focus: past simple questions
To ask a past simple question we use did + subject + base verb. The main verb does not take -ed. Did is in all the questions.
| Question word | Auxiliary | Subject | Main verb | Other words |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (none) | Did | he | have | any brothers and sisters? |
| (none) | Did | he | go to | university? |
| How | did | he | become | famous? |
| What | did | people | call | him? |
| When | did | he | die? |
| Question | Short answers |
|---|---|
| Did he travel much? | Yes, he did. / No, he didn't. |
| Did you go to the cinema? | Yes, I did. / No, I didn't. |
Only did shows the past. Say "Where did he live?", not "Where did he lived?" and not "Where does he lived?".
From a sentence to a question (James Cameron)
He went to school in Ontario, Canada. → Where did he go to school?His family moved to the USA when he was seventeen. → When did his family move to the USA?
He learned about films from books and articles. → How did he learn about films?
He didn't go to university. → Did he go to university?
| Question word | Asks about |
|---|---|
| Where | a place |
| When | a time |
| How | the way something happened |
| What | a thing |
| Who | a person |
Ask a question with When: "Robert Wadlow died when he was twenty-two."
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When did Robert Wadlow die? (did + base verb die)
8.6Speaking: an interview with a famous person
English Plus 1 Year 5, p. 78.
| The interviewer says | The pop star says |
|---|---|
| I've got a few questions for you, if that's OK. | Sure. Go ahead. |
| One more question. | Good question! / That's a difficult one. |
| Thanks for your time. | You're welcome. |
Study strategy: improve your speaking. Do two things. React to what people say (Really? That's interesting. Cool!) and ask follow-up questions to find out more (Why? When? Where? What?).
Reacting and following up
A: I went to England when I was young.B: Really? When did you go?
A: I was eight.
B: That's interesting. Where did you stay?
Ideas for interview questions: When did you become a ...? What did you look like when you were ...? How did you feel when ...? When did you first ...?
Your friend says, "I visited Kuching last year." Write a reaction and a follow-up question.
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For example: Cool! Who did you go with? (or: Really? What did you do there?)
8.7Writing: biographical questions and answers
A biography tells the story of a person's life. A question-and-answer article for a magazine gives information in a short question, then a short answer.
Key phrases
| Use | Phrase |
|---|---|
| Describe the person | What's ... like in real life? |
| Ask about a place or time | Where / When / How exactly did he ...? |
| Say when a person became famous | He / She became well known in ... |
| Say what a person is famous for | He's / She's best known for his / her role(s) in ... / for his / her song ... |
| Ask about another topic | What about his / her personal life? |
| Say what you think is true | It looks like he / she enjoys ... |
A short Q and A (about a singer)
What is Aisha like in real life?She's tall and slim. She's got long, straight black hair and brown eyes.
Where exactly did she grow up?
She grew up in Ipoh, then her family moved to Kuala Lumpur.
How did she become well known?
She became well known when she won a singing contest.
What about her hobbies?
It looks like she enjoys swimming and reading.
Punctuation
| Mark | We use it ... | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Capital letter (A, B, C) | at the start of a sentence, and for names, countries, nationalities and names of books, films and songs | Malaysia, a Malaysian actress |
| Full stop (.) | at the end of a sentence | She was born in Ipoh. |
| Question mark (?) | at the end of a question | Where did she live? |
| Exclamation mark (!) | for an exclamation or an order | What a great photo! |
| Comma (,) | in lists and for pauses | She's tall, slim and strong. |
| Apostrophe (') | in short forms and to show who owns something | she's, Susan's |
Check short forms. "shes got" is wrong. Write she's got. And "jennifers role" needs two things: a capital J and an apostrophe, Jennifer's role.
Correct the punctuation
Ali is a Malaysian footballer. He was born in Johor. He is tall and he's got short black hair.
Writing guide: (A) the task, (B) think and plan: choose a person, list questions, find information, (C) write in a logical order using key phrases, (D) check word order, past simple forms and punctuation.
Add the missing punctuation: "when did he leave school"
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When did he leave school? (capital W and a question mark)
Summary
- Describing people: He's tall / slim. She's got long, curly, dark brown hair, a round face, green eyes and glasses.
- Guessing: I'm sure it's ... / I think it's ... / Maybe it's ... / I'm not sure. / I don't think it's ...
- Object pronouns: me, you, him, her, it, us, you, them. They replace nouns or names after verbs and prepositions.
- Past simple negative: didn't + base verb. She didn't have glasses.
- Past simple question: (question word) + did + subject + base verb. When did he die? Did he go to university? Yes, he did. / No, he didn't.
- Life events: be born, grow up (grew up), go to school (went), leave school (left), get a job (got), get married, have children (had), die.
- Interview: I've got a few questions for you. / Good question! / One more question. / Thanks for your time. React, then ask a follow-up question.
- Writing: capital letters for names, full stops, question marks, commas in lists, apostrophes in short forms.