Unit

1

Section 1: Listening and speaking

ObjectivesBy the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1 identify stress and counter stress2 use stress and counter stress intonation.

Stress and counter stress intonation 1 Listen carefully and then repeat this pair of sentences:

Who built the Tema Harbour?Nkrumah, built the Tema Harbour.

2 Practice this exercise:Who wrote Things Fall Apart?Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart.Armah wrote Things Fall Apart, didn’t he?No. Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart.

3 Practise the following sentences:Tamale is the capital of Ghana, isn’t it?Thursday comes after Tuesday, doesn’t it?Vancouver is the capital of Canada, isn’t it?Apples are picked from mango trees, aren’t they?Brown is the opposite of black, isn’t it?Christiansborg Castle is on the Cape Coast, isn’t it?The Nile is the largest river in Africa, isn’t it?Red in the fl ag of Ghana symbolises the vegetation, doesn’t it?

Notice that the most important word, “Nkrumah”, is fully stressed with a full stop tone. You may also notice the comma tone given to “harbour” at the end. This rise at “harbour” gives a certain weight of interest to the last part of the sentence. This is known as “counter-stress”. Now practise the sentences below. Note that it is the fi rst word in each case that needs to be changed and stressed, for example:Limann built the Tema Harbour, didn’t he?No. Nkumah built the Tema Harbour.

Note that

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Unit 1 7

Section 2: Reading comprehension

ObjectivesBy the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1 use skimming and scanning techniques appropriately in studying the given text

2 read and answer a variety of comprehension questions.

Read the following passage and then answer the questions that follow.

Last December African efforts to preserve

the vanishing forests received a needed

boost at the UN Climate Change conference

in Bali, Indonesia. The conference called for

negotiations on new curbs on emissions of

gases that contribute to global warming, and

pledged to expand programmes to assist

African and other developing nations protect

existing forests. But time is running out.

In the Democratic Republic of the

Congo (DRC), for example, the vast and

ancient woodlands are disappearing at an

alarming rate. In fact, all over Africa

indigenous forests are being cut down at a

rate of more than four million hectares per

year, twice the world’s deforestationaverage. According to the United Nations

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),

more than ten per cent of Africa’s forests

were lost between 1980 and 1995.

Saving Africa’s forests from the

chainsaws and axes of encroaching

humanity is essential to the health and

productivity of much of the continent’s

economy, experts say. They point out that

forests help to catch water, prevent soil

erosion and regulate local weather

conditions.

The fate of Africa’s forests could also

spell the difference between success and

failure in the race against global warming.

Trees are among the world’s largest and

most effi cient storehouses of carbon

monoxide. Preserving Africa’s survivingtropical forests and planting new trees to

replace those lost to deforestation could

help reduce the severity of climatic change.

Saving Africa’s forests

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English Book 4 for Senior High Schools8

The absorption by the trees of more carbon

from the air will ease the local impact of

climatic change by regulating local weather

conditions.

Deforestation itself directly causes global

warming. According to the UN environment

programme (UNEP), 20 to 25 per cent of all

carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere

each year comes from burning trees to clear

the land for farming, which is more carbon

dioxide than is produced by all the world’s

cars, planes, ships and trains. Burning trees

and brush releases the stored carbon back

into the atmosphere.

Estimates of the total amount of carbon

stored in the forests vary greatly. One

estimate, based on research by the UN-

sponsored intergovernmental panel on

climate change (IPCC) put the total at about

100 billion tonnes, or about 166 years worth

of current global carbon emission.

Africa contains about fi fteen per cent

of the world’s remaining forests. The

conversion of forest land to agriculture,

both subsistence and commercial, is by far

the most common and most destructive

cause of deforestation in Africa and other

tropical regions. As demand for farmland

grows in response to growing populations,

millions of hectares of tropical forests are

being burned in Africa, Asia and Latin

America. Daily Graphic, February 5, 2008

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Unit 1 9

Questions 1 What boost did African efforts at preserving its forests

receive at the UN Climate Change conference?

2 Why does the writer say “But time is running out”?

3 Mention three ways in which forests are important.

4 “Preserving Africa’s surviving tropical forests … could help reduce the severity of climatic change ….” (paragraph 4). What type of clause is underlined? What is its function in the sentence?

5 How, according to the writer, does burning brush help cause global warming?

6 What is a common cause of deforestation?

Word studyFind each of the following words in bold type in the passage. Give another word or phrase that means the same and that can replace it in the passage:boost curb deforestation surviving brush

Section 3: Grammar

ObjectivesBy the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1 identify comparisons in adjectives 2 use adjectives in comparing items.

Comparison of adjectivesIn Book Three, we studied adjectives and we looked at how adjectives are ordered. In this unit, we shall study how adjectives are compared. When one thing is compared with another with regard to a certain attribute, we use a comparative infl ection (“-er” or “-est”). Comparatives can express equality, superiority or inferiority. Comparatives state whether things have some quality in the same degree

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English Book 4 for Senior High Schools10

or in different degrees. There are three degrees of comparison: positive degree, comparative degree and superlative degree. For example:

Positive Comparative Superlativehigh higher highestlong longer longesthot hotter hottest.

The comparatives can also be formed using “more” and “most”. For example:

Positive Comparative Superlativeintelligent more intelligent most intelligenthandsome more handsome most handsomefaithful more faithful most faithfulhardworking more hardworking most hardworking

Usually equality is expressed using the positive degree.For example:

Kofi is as tall as Odartey. Kofi is just as tall asOdartey is.

Superiority or inferiority is expressed by the comparative degree. For example:

Kofi is taller than Odartey. Here Kofi and Odartey are not equal.

Supremacy is expressed by the use of the superlative degree. For example:

The most hardworking student in the class is Ayetey.The largest ocean in the world is the Pacific.

Formation of degree of comparisonTo form the comparative, add “-er” to the positive form.

long longerrich richersmall smallersweet sweeter

We also use “more” with the positive form. For example:beautiful more beautifulinteresting more interestingintelligent more intelligent

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Unit 1 11

To form the superlative degree, add “-est” to the positive. For example:

long longestrich richestsweet sweetest

We can also add the word “most” to the positive.For example:

beautiful most beautifulinteresting most interestingintelligent most intelligent

The above mentioned forms are regular. There are some irregular forms too. For example:

Positive Comparative Superlativegood better bestbad worse worstlittle less leastup upper uppermost

Exercise 1Give the comparative and superlative degrees corresponding to the following positive degrees.

1 cruel2 secure3 bitter4 evil5 determined6 pleasant7 afraid8 frightened9 convenient

10 good

Exercise 2Fill in the blank spaces with an adjective in thecorrect degree.

1 Hasana is one metre tall. Her twin sister Fusena is ... than a metre tall. Who is the ... of the two?

2 Atsu is nineteen years old. Mensah is twenty and Ako is twenty-two. Atsu is the ... and Ako is the ....

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English Book 4 for Senior High Schools12

ObjectivesBy the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1 recall the features of narrative writing and the language used in narrative essays

2 write a narrative essay using correct and appropriate features.

3 What was your ... subject at school? Mathematics was my ... and English my ....

Section 4: Essay writing

Narrative writingIn Book Three, we examined the basic features of a narrative essay or a creative or imaginative short story. Can you recall these features? They include setting in time and place. Realistic stories simulate real life events. Setting is therefore an essential feature of narratives. There is an inter-play between time and place. This creates an atmosphere that may be peaceful, or full of tension and anxiety. It is into this atmosphere that human characters bearing human identity markers, such as names, are introduced. Characters are a basic feature of narratives. Another feature of narratives is suspense which makes the reader want to continue reading in order to fi nd out what happens next. Characters often interact through language, so dialogue is a common feature of narratives. Dialogues help the reader to know more about the character and so to predict future actions in which the character may be involved. A narrative must end logically but not necessarily happily.

Language of narrativesA good narrative requires vocabulary that is concrete rather than abstract, and detailed descriptions rather than general expressions. A narrative must arouse the feelings of the

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Unit 1 13

reader and must sustain these feelings. It may do this by appealing to the different senses such as sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste. A wide vocabulary is therefore important for writing narratives.

Exercise 3Write about 400 words on one of the following topics:

My most memorable day at school.One event that has changed the course of my life.The most exciting event of the week.

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