Download Unit 2 Informational Texts and Sentence Structure

Unit 2 Informational Texts and
Sentence Structure
Subject/Verb
English sentence has: subject and verb.
 Subject, placed near the beginning of the
sentence, tells us what/who the sentence
is about.
 Subject always consists of a noun or of
some words which can function as a
noun.
 John, being a friendly computer salesman
and baseball fan, refused to argue.

Verb/Object
Verbs needing an object are transitive verbs
(v.t.) and verbs which do not need an
object are intransitive verbs (v.i.).
 Object of a verb must be a noun or some
other word(s) which can act as a noun.
 Example:

Ms Christabel has discovered my secret.
 (subject)
(verb)
(object)

Nouns – The Subject and Object in
Sentences
A noun is a word used to name a person,
animal, place, thing or an abstract idea.
 Noun Gender
 Noun Plurals: s,es,ves,ies, etc.
 Possessive Nouns: Can function as an
adjective modifying another noun.
 E.g. The actor's face was covered in dust.
 E.g. The film crew accidentally crushed the
platypus's eggs.

Types of Nouns
Proper noun: Begins with a capital letter,
since the noun represents the name of a
specific person, place, or thing.
 Common noun: Refers to a person, place,
or thing in a general sense -- usually,
only begins with a capital letter when it
starts a sentence.
 Concrete noun: Anything (or anyone) that
you can perceive through physical senses:
touch, sight, taste, hearing, or smell.

Types of Nouns
Abstract noun: Anything which you can
not perceive through your five physical
senses.
 Countable noun: Has singular and plural
forms, anything (or anyone)you can count.
 Uncountable noun: Has no plural form
and refers to something that you could
(or would) not usually count.
 Uncountable noun always takes singular
verb in a sentence.

Types of Nouns
Some examples of uncountable nouns:
 furniture
 music, art, love, happiness
 advice, information, news
 luggage
 rice, sugar, butter, water
 electricity, gas, power
 money, currency

Types of Nouns
Collective noun: A noun naming a
group of things, animals, or persons.
 Usually think of the group as a whole.
 Need to maintain subject-verb agreement.
 The steering committee meets every
Wednesday afternoon.
 Here the collective noun "committee"
takes a singular verb, "meets".

Task 1

1. or/er
actor, painter, plumber, writer

2. ism
vandalism
criticism, egotism, magnetism,

3. ist
artist, capitalist, journalist, scientist

4. ment
establishment
arrangement, development,

5. tion
recognition
foundation, organisation,
Characteristics of Nouns
Irregular
Nouns
Determiners.
Possession
Task 2
1. a peaceful place (any other acceptable
answer)
 2. the tall, Indian man (any other
acceptable answer)
 3. this difficult child (any other acceptable
answer)
 4. my brown and white file (any other
acceptable answer)

Nouns that can be Countable and
Uncountable

Sometimes, the same noun can be
countable and uncountable, often with a
change of meaning.

Task 3

1. There are two hairs in my coffee! ( C )
2. I don't have much hair. ( UC )
3. Draw the curtain. There's too much light! (UC )


Task 3

4. There are two lights in our bedroom. ( C )

5. Shhhhh! I thought I heard a noise. ( C )

6. It's difficult to work when there is too much
noise. ( UC )

7. Our house has seven rooms. ( C )

8. Is there room for me to sit here? ( UC )
Task 4
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1. The board will meet next Monday to consider
your application. ( C )
2. The information you gave to the police was
very useful. ( UC )
3. I thought it was an unusual comment to
make. ( C )
4. Drinking too much damages your health.
( UC)
5. Jean is studying art at college. (UC )
Verbs
The verb is the most important part of a
sentence.
 A verb says something about the subject
of the sentence and expresses actions,
events, or states of being.
 My first teacher was Ms Susan, but I
remember the guard, Sam, more vividly.
 Paul seems unhappy.

Characteristics of Verbs
Certain endings are characteristic of the
base forms of verbs:
 Ending
Base Form
 -ate
concentrate, demonstrate,
.
illustrate
 -ify
clarify, dignify, magnify
 -ise/-ize
baptize, conceptualize

Forms of Verbs: Inflections
Indicate TENSE. For example:
 The -s inflection indicates the PRESENT
TENSE
 The -ed inflection indicates the PAST
TENSE

5 Forms of Verbs:
1.
Base/Infinitive: (to) sing/cook.
2.
Present tense: He sings/cooks.
3.
Past Tense: He sang/cooked.
4.
-ing Participle: He is singing/cooking.
5.
-ed Participle: He has sung/cooked.
AGREEMENT or CONCORD
This is the correspondence between the
pronoun (or noun) and the verb.
 Examples:
 She travels to work by train.
 They travel to work by train.

AUXILIARY VERBS/MAIN VERBS
Auxiliaries always occur with a main verb
 An important difference between
auxiliary verbs and main verbs is that
auxiliaries never occur alone in a
sentence.
 The old lady is writing a play.

Task 4

1. I will have the bread. ( MV

2. Police are investigating the accident. ( AV )

3. It is very cool here. ( MV )

4. Where does your sister work? ( AV )

5. They have decided to advertise the available
position. ( AV )
)
Missing Subject
Long sentences with several verbs usually
need two or more subjects – one for
each verb.
 The subject of a sentence must be a noun
or an ‘-ing’ gerund:
 Being well prepared for the exam helped
Mohammed to score distinctions.

Task 8

he
we
they

1. We cannot work any more when _____
become old and weak.

2. Jamaluddin’s motor-cycle made a lot of
noise before ____ repaired it.

3. Singapore depended on the athletes to
bring back a gold medal, but ____ failed to
achieve it.
INFORMATIVE TEXTS
An informative text is a text that wants to
advise or tell you about something.
 For example:
 A newspaper article might give you
information about a health issue like
giving up smoking.

Features of informative texts:
 Avoid
repetition
 Contain
 Give
facts
information in a clear way –
introducing the subject and then
developing it.
Chocolate[S] stimulates[V] the release of
endorphins.
 These[S] are[S] natural body hormones.
They[S] generate[V] feelings of pleasure and
well-being.

Sample Passage

Chocolate chemistry
Some people [S] crave [V] {pl} chocolate.
Like other sweet food, chocolate [S]
stimulates [V] {sg} the release of
endorphins, natural body hormones that
generate feelings of pleasure and well-being.
General sweetness aside, there [S] are [V]
{pl} various chemical elements specific to
chocolate that may help to stimulate
cravings. In fact, chocolate [S] contains [V]
{sg} over 300 chemicals and it [S] is [V] {sg}
not known how all of these affect humans.
Sample Passage

Central nervous stimulants such as caffeine
[S] are [V] {pl} present in small amounts,
and this [S] has [V] {sg} a mild effect on
alertness as we [S] know [V]{pl}from
drinking coffee. Another mild stimulant
present in chocolate is theobromine [S],
which also serves [V] {sg} to relax the
smooth muscles in the linings of the lung.
Chocolate [S] also makes [V] {sg} us feel
good by reacting with our brains
A)Why does cooked food go brown?

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

All foods [S] – meat, fish, and vegetables – brown [V] {pl} at
temperatures above 154°C. This [S] is [V] {sg} known as the
'Maillard Reaction'. It [S] generates [V] {sg} the characteristic
colour and aroma of foods cooked over a flame, in the oven, or in
oil.
The Maillard reaction [S] was [V] {sg} discovered in 1912 by the
French chemist Louis Camille Maillard. It [S] happens [V] {sg} when
sugar molecules and amino acids (a chemical found in proteins) [S]
are heated [V] {pl} together. The reaction [S] produces [V] {sg} a
bunch of highly flavoured molecules responsible for the brown
colour, smell and taste of cooked meat.
But not all cooked food [S] goes [V] {sg} brown. When you boil
something in water, the temperature of the food [S] never exceeds
[V] {sg} the boiling point of water (100°C). So it [S] doesn't [V] {sg}
get hot enough for the Maillard Reaction to happen. However,
deep-fried food [S] does go [V] {sg} brown because oil boils at over
154°C.
- Adapted from BBC Skillswise
B) Born to marathon?
The modern marathon [S], run over 26.2 miles or 42.195 km,
is [V] {sg} the only discipline in athletics to have become a
popular participation sport. However, some people [S] are
[V] {pl} better adapted to marathon running than others. This
[S] might be [V] {sg} by virtue of their build, physiology or
mental approach. There [S] is [V] {sg} one crucial feature
marathon runners must have to stand a chance of competing
at the highest level – the right kind of muscles.
 Marathon muscles
There [S] are [V] two different kinds of fibre in muscle:
 'Slow twitch' fibres – these [S] contract [V] {pl} slowly but
they [S] can keep going [V] {pl} for a long time
 'Fast twitch' fibres – these [S] contract [V] {pl} quickly but
are [V] {pl} rapidly worn

B) Born to marathon?

'Slow twitch' fibres [S] are [V] {pl} the key to successful
marathon running. If a person [S] has [V] {sg} a
preponderance of fast-twitch muscles there [S] is [V] {sg} no
chance of him or her becoming a world-class marathoner.
They [S] might however make [V] {pl} an ideal sprinter. The
marathon runner [S] needs [V] {sg} to have a large
proportion of slow twitch fibres in their muscles. This
characteristic [S] is [V] {sg} largely inherited but there [S] is
[V] {sg} some evidence that training [S] can make [V] {sg} a
small difference to the proportions of the different fibre
types. Findings [S] suggest [V] {pl} that a marathon runner
must avoid any sprint training at distances less than 100m.
Likewise, sprinters [S] must never engage [V] {pl} in
endurance exercise.

- Adapted from BBC Skillswise
Activity
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A) Write it!
Write an informative piece on an area you are interested in.
Your work should be about 100 words long. Some possible
topics are:
Global warming
Overseas volunteer missions
Fencing*, anyone? – An introduction to my favourite sport
[*Can be something else e.g. muay thai, belly dancing, wake
boarding, etc.]
Good ways to unwind in Singapore

B) Edit it!
 Exchange your work with a friend to do peer-editing,
focussing on subject-verb agreement.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE 1
ASSIGNMENT 2 (20marks), Pairwork
Sentence Structure & Informative Texts
 You are to work in pairs for this assignment. Find an
informative text of about 150 to 200 words long (1m). You
can search in magazines, books or online resources. Do state
the source you took the text from. Answer the following
questions using the text. You are to hand in the text together
with your answers.

Describe two features of the text which you used to identify
it as an informative text. (4m)

Pick out five sentences from your text. In these sentences
identify the Subjects [underline and mark as S] and Verbs
[underline and mark as V] used. Also, mark each subject-verb
pair as {sg} for singular or {pl} for plural. (15m)