Q&A - PSLE English

[PiggyLalala]

Thank you all the teachers. Appreciate yr time and effort.


May I ask if the same question is changed to ‘Mary has the opportunity to … …?’, without barely, what would be the answer, hasn’t she or doesn’t she? TIA.

[Nebbermind]

PiggyLalala:

Thank you all the teachers. Appreciate yr time and effort.


May I ask if the same question is changed to 'Mary has the opportunity to .... ..?', without barely, what would be the answer, hasn't she or doesn't she? TIA.

This one I'll go for 'hasn't' coz I have nothing else to bio...waiting to see what the 'chers say!!!

[jetsetter]

atutor2001:

For simplicity, I just told my kids in the good old days to replace words like barely, hardly .. with \"does not or do not\"

\"He barely has the opportunity ..\" becomes \"He does not have the opportunity ...\" Then the negative of 'does not have' (negative of negative becomes positive) is 'does he'

\"They hardly have proper meals.\" become \"They do not have proper meals.\" Then the negative of 'do not have' (negative of negative becomes positive) is 'do they'

COrrecto. :hi5:

\"has\" is a TRAP verb planted by the examiner. It appears like the auxiliary \"has\" in perfect tenses, so the kid will be tricked into using it for the tag...

But \"has\" wears 2 hats and means \"possesses\" here (Joan possesses the opportunity to...).

[Learning Partners]

Nebbermind:

PiggyLalala:

Thank you all the teachers. Appreciate yr time and effort.


May I ask if the same question is changed to 'Mary has the opportunity to .... ..?', without barely, what would be the answer, hasn't she or doesn't she? TIA.

This one I'll go for 'hasn't' coz I have nothing else to bio...waiting to see what the 'chers say!!!

Have edited my post to say I agree with jetsetter and atutor after reading their posts. (I was confused and answered too hastily.) :oops:


So to summarise:

(1) When 'has' is being used as a main verb, it should be paired with 'do'.

John has a bungalow, doesn't he?

He has to give you a reply, doesn't he?


(2) And only when it is used as part of perfect tense should it be paired with the opposite of itself in the main clause.

You haven't eaten, have you?

I have made a blunder, haven't I?

[Learning Partners]

redruby:

A large number of poultry is or are.............

'are'.


'A number of' means many -- plural.

'The number of' refers to a fixed number -- so singular.

[Learning Partners]

Jamesbond:

Learning Partners:

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The answer should be (3).


The common confusion is there are two rather similar verbs:


infinitive form : 'lay' (to put down), 'lie' (two meanings: to bluff and to be in a horizontal position).


The forms of 'lay': lay laid laid

The forms of 'lie' (when we mean bluff) : lie lied lied

The forms of 'lie' (when we mean to be horizontal): lie lay lain


In your question, we want to say the students have put their papers down on the desks, so should be 'had laid'.

Y can't it be (2)? Can u pl explain... :?[/quote]
Many pupils would think that if we put the papers down on the table, we are placing them horizontally, hence the answer can also be (2).


But look at the context and meaning of the sentence.


(1) Is the writer trying to say that the pupils had put down the papers before the teacher entered the classroom?


(2) Or is he stressing that the pupils had put the papers horizontally on the table before the teacher entered the classroom?


The likeliest meaning is (1), so we can infer that the infinitive verb used is 'lay', not 'lie', and hence answer should be 'had laid'.

[mommyNg]

What about this:


"Susan’s rarely been sick this year, … she?"

Has, or Hasn’t?

Soooo confusing…

[Nebbermind]

mommyNg:

What about this:


\"Susan's rarely been sick this year, .... she?\"

Has, or Hasn't?

Soooo confusing....

:frustrated:

[Learning Partners]

atutor2001:

Learning Partners:

......The PSLE syllabus covers the standard cases and not the special cases. In a school test or examination, the parent could still go to the teacher or HOD and argue for the mark, although his success in getting the lost mark is not guaranteed.


In the PSLE, there is no redress; even if you request to view the script and argue about the special cases, it's highly unlikely that MOE will agree to re-mark all the scripts.


2. 'Study dead book' as you say is indeed a problem with our academic system.

But please understand the dilemma of the teacher or even parent: teach too much and you may confuse the kid more than ever, teach too little, and you're accused of rote-learning without understanding.

A fine balance has to be struck, although the right balance may seldom be achieved.

Cheers.

I think tagging with \"dislike\", ,,,did come out in psle before. ,The problem is whether will an answer with \"does\" be marked wrong. I am pretty sure that if it is from a school exam, the answer with \"does\" will be considered as wrong, leaving a wrong impression forever.

The most obvious example is on the use of tense. Ask any adults on when to use present tense and most likely the answer is \"for action in present time\" which is not totally correct.

In my view, common \"exceptions\" should be taught so tha we will not construct sentences like, \"yesterday, the sun rose from the east\" - since we were told to use past tense if there is a past time indicated.

In short, if positive-positive is used in the PSLE, it WILL BE MARKED WRONG.



Long-winded answer:
When question tags appear in the PSLE, they usually appear in the Grammar MCQ segment. The setter would not have set an MCQ question that is meant to have two possible answers. So answer key: only 1 answer.

And during PSLE marking, MCQ questions are marked by machines. So no sharp-eyed teacher is going to say, 'But there are special cases...' So paper is set with one answer per question, and will be marked accordingly.



Regarding the usage of simple present tense, I think you are maligning the system. I can't say for sure that all teachers teach the usage of simple present tense in expressing facts or events that happen with regularity, but I'm sure most of them do.


Why? Because it's in the teacher guides and all the grammar texts.


But the other use (to express incident happening in the present) is stressed a lot more because of its contrast to the past tense (which is used even more often).


So it's not fair to say that teachers don't teach and hence the pupils don't know. If you were to ask any P5/6 primary school children if they can use the simple present tense to express a fact/regular event still happening, 7 or 8, or maybe even 9 out of 10 would say 'yes'. But they don't say it as the first answer because it's not stressed as often and hence not in the foremost of their minds.

[Learning Partners]

mommyNg:

What about this:


\"Susan's rarely been sick this year, .... she?\"

Has, or Hasn't?

Soooo confusing....

'Susan's rarely been sick this year, ... she?'

can be expanded to:

'Susan has rarely been sick this year...'

'has been' -- positive
'has rarely been' -- negative

so question tag should be positive, 'has she'