Learning outcomes

• After we have studied this unit, we will be able to
• ask and answer questions
• read and enjoy poems
• use sounds, stress, and intonation appropriately
• talk about people, places and events
• read and understand texts
• write paragraphs and short compositions

A Read about Zishan's daily routine.

6:30 am : wake up
7:00 am : breakfast
8:30 am-3:00 pm : school
4:00 pm-5.00 pm : snack and free time
5.00 pm-6.00 pm : study with maths/science teacher
6:15 pm-7:15 pm : study with English /Social Science teacher
7:30 pm-8:30 pm : homework
8:30 pm : supper
9:00 pm-10:00 pm : TV
10:30 pm : go to bed

On Fridays Zishan does not go to school. But he studies for one hour with his teacher of religious studies. He also studies his school subjects by himself. Often he goes to visit his relatives with his parents.

B Discuss in groups or pairs and answer these questions.
1 How much time does Zishan spend on his studies?
(hints: too much / too little / the right amount of time)
2 Why do you think he spends too much / too little / the right amount of time on his studies?
3 Why do you think Zishan studies on Fridays?

C Look at Zishan's daily routine again and give your opinion about this statement, “All work and no play will make Zishan a dull boy.”

D Make your own daily routine. Show in it your free time and the activities you do in that time.

Key words: stare streams

A Read aloud and recite the poem.

Leisure

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad day light,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

A poor life this is if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

[William Henry Davies]

B Make a list of the beautiful things the poet talks about in the poem.

C Read the poem, discuss in groups/pairs and write answers to these questions:

1 Why does the poet think that we have no time to stand and stare?
2 Do you think people often do not have time to enjoy the beauty of nature? Give reasons.

D Suppose you are walking along a path through a wood. There are beautiful trees and flowers on either side of the path. What would you like to do?

Key words: glued to upload download messages

A Work in groups. Look at the pictures and talk about what the boys and girls are doing.

B Now read the paragraphs and match them with the pictures.

1 Young children play this game on the ground. The ground is marked by a set of joined squares. Each child throws a stone into a square, then hops (jumps on one leg) and jumps along the empty squares to pick up the stone again. They play this game in turn.
2 Some children are often glued to computers. They download games to play on them. Some also share personal updates on Facebook by uploading posts and pictures.
3 Children often watch football matches of both national and international teams on TV.
4 Children often play football in the school playground.

Note: glued to : giving all your attention to something
upload : transfer information, data to a computer system
download : copy data, information, etc from one computer system to another or to a disk

C Discuss in pairs and answer this question orally.
Which activities mainly take place in cities and which activities mainly take place in villages? Also say which activity or activities can take place both in cities and villages.

D Work in groups. Here is a list of children's activities. Which of them are free-time or leisure activities and which are not? Why are they so?

• studying for exams
• listening to music
• visiting relatives on weekends
• attending music lessons
• reading story books
• going to movies
• helping parents with housework
• going on a picnic with family or friends
• walking in the park on holidays

E. Write answers to these questions.

1 What free-time/leisure activities do you do?
2 Where and with whom do you do your leisure activities?
3 Why do you like or dislike to do your free-time activities?
4 Do you face any problems or difficulties in doing your leisure activities?

A Ask and answer these questions.

1 Have you ever travelled by train?
2 If you have, when, where, with whom, and why did you go?

B Listen to the teacher / CD and answer the following questions.

Tick the best answer.
1 The school is closed for ______ .
a winter.
b summer.
c autumn.

2 Julie is Zishan's ____ sister.
a older
b younger
c cousin

3 Zishan and Julie have finished their _____ exam.
a annual
b first-terminal
C second terminal

4 Zishan and Julie chat online. This means they talk to their friends _____ .
a on the internet.
bon the telephone.
C in the classroom.

5 Zishan and Julie are getting bored. The underlined words mean
a making friends.
b becoming angry
c feeling tired.

6 Zishan and Julie are getting bored because
a they are staying in the house.
b they are staying inside their closed room.
c they are busy talking to their friends.

7 What was the wonderful surprise to Zishan and Julie?
a Their second term exam were over.
b They were going to see their grandparents.
c They did not like to go to the village.

C Write a paragraph about what you will do after your first/second terminal exam is over.

Key words: departure empty printout

A Ask and answer this question: Have you ever looked through the window from a running train? If you have, what did you see?

B Read about a train journey.

Zishan, Julie and their parents Mr and Mrs Arif Khan got into a 1st class compartment at Kamalapur Railway Station. It was the Dewanganj-bound Tista Express. Zishan saw that the departure time on the big time table station was 7:30 am, but the train left at 8 o'clock. However, the train was running quite fast. The children sat by the window beside their parents. The compartment was half empty.

Yesterday Julie had downloaded a beautiful poem on a train journey by Robert Louis Stevenson, and printed out a copy of the poem. She took a printout of the poem. Now while looking out of the windows, she found similarities between the poem and real scenery. She took out the poem and began to read.

Questions
1 Were all the seats in the compartment taken?
2 Where did Zishan sit?
3 Where was the train going?
4 Did the train leave Kamalapur Station late or on time?
5 Where did Julie get the poem from?
6 What was Julie doing from her seat?

Key words: hedge ditch charge wink bramble tramp stringing lump glimpse

A Listen, read aloud and recite the poem.

From a Railway Carriage

Faster than fairies, faster than witches,

Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;

And charging along like troops in a battle

All through the meadows the horses and cattle:

All of the sights of the hill and the plain

Fly as thick as driving rain:

And ever again, in the wink of an eye,

Painted stations whistle by.

Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,

All by himself and gathering brambles;

Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;

And here is the green for stringing daisies!

Here is a cart runaway in the road

Lumping along with man and load;

And here is a mill, and there is a river:

Each a glimpse and gone forever!

[Robert Louis Stevenson]

B Read the poem silently and match the words with their meanings.

C Make a list of things that you can see passing quickly by a running train.

D Make a list of the words and phrases that tell us about how fast the train is running. Examples: faster than fairies, charging along etc.

E Listen and read the first two lines with stress.

Faster than fairies, faster than witches,

Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;

F How fast can you say?
The rain in Spain stays in the plains.

Key words: relaxed laugh one's head off

A Answer these questions.

1 Can you see the full moon from your house or yard?

2 Discuss in pairs or groups and answer this question:

What activities of the moon are noticed in the following stanza?

Slowly silently, now the moon

Walks the night in her silver shoon;

This way, and that, she peers and sees

Silver fruit upon silver trees.

[Walter de la Mare]

Note: shoon = shoes
peer = to look closely at something

B Read the passage silently.

It was Zishan's grandparents' house in the village. The night sky was clear. The full moon was shining brightly. All the family members had a delicious supper and sat in the yard. Zishan's cousins, Jahid and Shima, were very excited. They are the same age. They were also studying at a village school. Their grandparents gladly joined them. They were sitting on a bamboo mat. Everybody felt relaxed. They were talking, laughing and joking. The children's voices were the loudest. Jahid described how he played for his school in the Upazila Inter-School Tournament.

"What sports do you take part in, Zishan?" asked Jahid. Zishan could not answer. There was no playground in his school and around his house. Shima also told them how she won the first prize for 100 metre sprint in her school annual sports. She sang a beautiful Bhawaiya. Everybody clapped their hands in delight.

Julie's aunt Mrs Jahanara Khan told some funny jokes that made them laugh their heads off. The family gathering went on far into the night.

C Tick the best answer.

1 What made Jahid and Shima excited?
a the shining of the full moon
b meeting with their cousins
c sitting on the mats
d the delicious supper

2 Everybody was feeling relaxed. This means everybody was
a wearing nice clothes
b talking and enjoying themselves
c having no work to do
d sitting under the full moon

3 Zishan could not reply to Jahid's question, "What sports do you take part in?" because
a he does not like sports.
b his school does not organize any sports.
c sports are not part of examinations.
d his parents don't like sports.

4 Julie's aunt's funny jokes made everybody laugh their head off.
Here "laugh their head off" means laughing
a slowly.
b moving their heads.
c loudly.
d with a headache.

D Listen and say these words.

witch

each

touch

ditch

lunch

much

E Discuss in groups. Write a paragraph about leisure activities at your school and home. Also write who helps you with these activities. If you cannot do any of these activities, write why.

Key words: selfish giant gruff trespasser

A Look at the picture. Answer these questions.
1 Who do you think these people are?
2 Where do you think they are?
3 Can you guess what they are doing?

B Read the story silently.

The family gathering in the yard carried on with laughter and conversations. At one point, the children asked their grandfather to tell them a story. So, he began to tell the tale of a selfish giant who had a beautiful garden.

The Selfish Giant

Every afternoon, as they were coming from school, the children used to go and play in the Giant's garden.

It was a large lovely garden, with soft green grass. Here and there over the grass stood beautiful flowers. All around the garden were trees filled with sweet fruit. The birds sat on the trees and sang so sweetly that the children used to stop their games in order to listen to them. 'How happy we are here!' they cried to each other.

One day the Giant came back. He had been to visit his friend in a distant land, and had stayed with him for seven years. When he arrived, he saw the children playing in his garden.

'What are you doing here?' cried the Giant in a very gruff voice. The children ran away in fear.

'My own garden is my own garden,' said the Giant. "I will allow nobody to play in it but myself." So, he built a high wall all round the garden, and put up a notice:

TRESPASSERS WILL BE PUNISHED

C Discuss in groups and answer this question:

How do you know that the giant is selfish?

D Have you ever seen any garden or park? Where is it? Describe it using the following clues:

• how big
• trees- flowers and fruits
• play corner
• any other attractions

Note: trespasser: a person who enters somebody's land without their permission
gruff : harsh; unfriendly

Key words: castle

A Continue reading the story.
The children had now nowhere to play. There were no gardens around and the roads were busy and crowded. After school they used to go round the high wall and talk about the beautiful garden inside. "How happy we were there!" they said to each other.

Then came the spring. And all over the country there were flowers and there were birds. Only in the garden of the Giant it was still winter. Here no birds were singing and no flowers blossoming. There were only snow and frost and north wind in it.

"I cannot understand why the spring is so late in coming," said the Giant. He was sitting at the window of his big castle and looking out at his cold, dry and lifeless garden.
"I hope there will be a change in the weather."
But neither spring nor summer came to his garden.

B Discuss in groups and write an answer to this question:

What happens in a garden in winter?

C Suppose you are one of the children who were not allowed to play in the Giant's garden. In this situation:
1 What would you like to tell the Giant?
2 What do you think the Giant would tell you?

Key words: perfume sight twitter

A Continue reading the story.

One morning the Giant was lying awake in bed when he heard some lovely music. It was so sweet to his ears that he thought it must be the King's musicians passing by. But in fact, it was only a little bird singing outside his window. Then the north wind stopped and a delicious perfume came to him through the open window. "I believe the spring has come at last." said the Giant. He jumped out of bed and looked out. What did he see?

He saw the most wonderful sight. Through a little hole in the wall the children crept in and they were sitting on the branches of the trees. In every tree there was a little child. And the trees were so delighted to have the children back again that they covered themselves with blossoms. They were waving their arms gently above the children's heads. The birds were flying about and twittering delightfully. The flowers were looking up through the green grass and laughing.

But only in one corner of the garden, it was still winter. There, under a tree, a little boy was standing alone crying. He was so small that he could not reach up to the branches of the tree. The poor tree was still covered with snow, and the north wind was blowing above it.

B Match the words with their meanings.

C Discuss in groups or pairs and answer these questions.

1 Why was the little bird singing outside the window of the Giant's castle?
2 What happened to the garden when the spring came at last?
3 Why did one corner of the garden still have winter? What happened there?

Key words: frightened stretch out knock down fling

A Continue reading the story.

The giant felt sorry as he looked out. "How selfish I have been!" he said to himself. “Now I know why the spring would not come here.”

So, he quickly went out into the garden. But when the children saw him they were so frightened that they all ran away, and the garden became winter again. Only the little boy did not run, for his eyes were so full of tears that he did not see the giant coming. The giant quietly came behind him, took him gently in his hands and put him up in the tree. And the tree at once broke into blossom, and the birds came and sang on it. The little boy stretched out his two arms, flung them round the giant's neck and kissed him.

The other children saw this. They saw that the giant was not wicked any longer. So, they came running back. And with them came the spring. "It's your garden now, little children," said the giant. Then he took a huge axe and knocked the wall down. And the people passing by found the giant playing with the children in the most beautiful garden in the country.

[adapted from Oscar Wilde]

B Answer these questions.
1 Why did the giant feel sorry?
2 When did the garden become winter again?
3 Why didn't the little boy run away?
4 What happened when the giant put the little boy up in the tree?
5 Why did the other children think that the giant was no longer wicked?
6 What happened when the children came back into the garden?
7 Why was the giant's garden the most beautiful garden in the country?

C Fill in the blanks with the right form of the verbs given in the box.

Yesterday, I …………………… a really tall man in our office lift. He was almost seven feet tall the tallest man I had ever seen. I was …………………… to see such a tall man, and didn't say anything to him, but he looked at me and …………………… politely. Then he …………………… his hands and said hello. I also …………………… mine, and we shook hands. When the doors of the lift ……………………, he got out and went towards the manager's office. Later on, I ………………. him sitting on the manager's chair. That's when I ……………………, that he was our new manager. What a nice and humble man he is!

D Work in pairs to retell the story to each other.

E What do you think is the moral of the story "The Selfish Giant" Discuss in groups and write the moral in one or two sentences.