Q&A - PSLE English

[Verysuperkiasu]

Mdm Koh:

Verysuperkiasu:

I came across a sentence in a vocab cloze passage.


'I hastened to assist my uncle....'
supposed to replace the word 'hastened' with one of the following;

urge, quicken, attempted, moved

Most of the students would choose 'quicken', as the two words have the same meaning. But if u were to replace the word, it can't really fit as 'quicken' is a transitive verb means it needs to be followed by an object, such as quicken your footsteps, quicken your pace, etc. But in the above sentence, after the word is 'to assist' which is not an object.

Can someone pls enlighten me???

\"Moved\" seems to be the best fit, because to hasten means to move fast.

My initial answer was quickened actually, but on 2nd thought, it makes more sense to put 'moved' although i feel they should include a more obvious choice like 'hurried' in the choices.

[ridcully]

pixiedust:

chrisuformal letter - yes, it is in the syllabus. My P5 just did in school. Teacher wants them to specify sender's address only, not optional but no recipient address. Originally, I told him to write both sender and recipient addresses but in the end we followed the school's format.


R, if you do send the queries and get any reply, share with us here. Thanks in advance !

Hi pixiedust / chrisu

I have an official reply from MOE/SEAB. SEAB says that there is no one specific format for letters and refers me back to the head of the English Department of my child's primary school for further information.

Now we know why different schools can give different advice and are all seemingly correct...

[pixiedust]

Thanks for the update, R !

[chrisu]

Thank you riduclly for writing to MOE/SEAB.


The reply from them seems disappointing. It seem to suggest that letter writing will not be coming out in PSLE exam unofficially. With limited writing space, think will tell my daughter to start from Dear xxx, onwards if letter writing will to come out as told by her English teacher.

Thanks once again.

Cheers.

ridcully:

pixiedust:

chrisuformal letter - yes, it is in the syllabus. My P5 just did in school. Teacher wants them to specify sender's address only, not optional but no recipient address. Originally, I told him to write both sender and recipient addresses but in the end we followed the school's format.

R, if you do send the queries and get any reply, share with us here. Thanks in advance !

Hi pixiedust / chrisu

I have an official reply from MOE/SEAB. SEAB says that there is no one specific format for letters and refers me back to the head of the English Department of my child's primary school for further information.

Now we know why different schools can give different advice and are all seemingly correct...

[reddotresident]

Synthesis and Transformation Nanyang 2010 Eng prelim


1. You cannot take the cake out of the oven yet. It has to turn brown.

Ans: You cannot take the cake out of the oven until it turns brown

Is this also ok? -
You cannot take the cake out of the oven until it has turned brown.

2. Mr. Tan had just washed his new sports car.It started to rain.

No sooner had Mr. Tan washed his new sports car, when/that/than it started to rain.

which one is correct?

3. The heavy rain caused the motorists to slow down as they could not see well.
Due to the heavy rain, the motorists could not see well, so they slowed down.

Is this correct?

TIA all!

[ridcully]

reddotresident:

1. You cannot take the cake out of the oven yet. It has to turn brown.


Ans: You cannot take the cake out of the oven until it turns brown

Is this also ok? -
You cannot take the cake out of the oven until it has turned brown.

I would say no, although it is a subtle point and most teachers would indeed accept the present perfect here.

'Until' implies the time expression 'at that moment' and we are supposed to use the present perfect without specified time expressions.

reddotresident:

2. Mr. Tan had just washed his new sports car.It started to rain.

No sooner had Mr. Tan washed his new sports car, when/that/than it started to rain.

which one is correct?

than

reddotresident:

3. The heavy rain caused the motorists to slow down as they could not see well.
Due to the heavy rain, the motorists could not see well, so they slowed down.

Is this correct?

Yes, but you are introducing the extra connector 'so'. It is much better to say:

Due to the heavy rain, the motorists slowed down as they could not see well.

Rgds
R

[elkniwt]

Hi,


May know for "between", should it be followed by a "and" or a "to" ?

E.g. NCPG Will automatically ban between 25,000 ______ 29,000 undischarged bankrupts.

Is it "and" or "to" ??

Thanks!

[pixiedust]

elkniwt:

Hi,


May know for \"between\", should it be followed by a \"and\" or a \"to\" ?

E.g. NCPG Will automatically ban between 25,000 ______ 29,000 undischarged bankrupts.

Is it \"and\" or \"to\" ??

Thanks!

ridcully:

kurosaki:

..
2)Conservationists estimate that between 2000 ____ 3000 remain in the wild.
Answer given was \"and\", \"to\" is not acceptable. Can anyone explain this too?

Q2. Ans is \"and\". Common prepositional usage. Certain words go with certain prepositions. For most purposes, you simply have to accept collocation.

Rgds
R

elkniwt, based on the earlier discussions, answer to your question is \"and\".

[Vanilla Cake]

Paya Lebar MGS (Pri) 2009 P6 Prelim English Q68:


The culprit was punished by the law for his offence. He did not repent.
Despite _____________________________________________________

Answer given:
Despite being punished by the law for his offence, the culprit did not repent.

My answer:
Despite the fact that the culprit was punished by the law for his offence, he did not repent.

:please: kindly advise if the alternative answer is acceptable? TIA.

[ridcully]

Vanilla Cake:

Paya Lebar MGS (Pri) 2009 P6 Prelim English Q68:


The culprit was punished by the law for his offence. He did not repent.
Despite _____________________________________________________

Answer given:
Despite being punished by the law for his offence, the culprit did not repent.

My answer:
Despite the fact that the culprit was punished by the law for his offence, he did not repent.

:please: kindly advise if the alternative answer is acceptable? TIA.

Yes!

Key concept is that 'despite' is a preposition and must be followed by a noun or noun equivalent; 'the fact' is a noun phrase and 'being' is a gerund so both are acceptable.

Rgds
R