Head Start School Assignment given on 10th April 2020

System. Assignment to be
completed by:
14th April 2020

Online Assignment – English - Grade VIII

Instructions:
 Read the questions thoroughly before attempting.
 Attempt all questions; write the answers in set order on foolscap sheets if not
doing it as a word document.
 Write your name on each sheet and number the answer sheet in set order
before uploading.
 Use blue ink only and avoid using ink eraser.
 The given task is marked and no marks will be awarded if the submission is
made after the due date.

 The submission date for this marked assignment is Tuesday 14th April 2020
before 6:00 pm

Section A Comprehension Marks: 15

Read the passage and answer the questions that follow.
Ma Shwe
1. One evening, when the Upper Taungdwin River was in heavy spate, I was listening and hoping
to hear the boom and roar of timber coming from upstream. Directly below my camp the
banks of the river were steep and rocky and twelve to fifteen feet high, about fifty yards away
on the other side, the bark was made up of ledges of shale strata. Although it was already
nearly dusk, by watching these ledges being successively submerged, I was trying to judge how
fast the water was rising.

2. I was suddenly alarmed by hearing an elephant roaring as though frightened, and looking
down, I saw three or four men rushing up and down on the opposite bank in a state of great
excitement. I realized at once that something was wrong and ran down to the edge of the near
bank, and there saw Ma Shwe with her three months old calf, trapped in the fast-rising
torrent. She herself was still in her depth, and the water was about six feet deep, but there
was a life and death struggle going on. Her calf was streaming with terror and was afloat like a
cork. Ma Shwe was as near to the far bank as she could get, holding her whole body against
the raging and increasing torrent, and keeping the calf pressed against her massive body. Every
now and then the swirling water would sweep all the calf away; then, with terrific strength,
she could encircle it with her trunk and pull it upstream to rest against her body again.

3. There was sudden rise in the water, and the calf was washed clean over the mother’s hind
quarters and was gone. She turned to chase it, like an otter after a fish, but she had travelled
about fifty yards, downstream and, plunging and somethings afloat, had crossed to my side of
the river, before she had caught up with it and got it back. For what seemed minutes, she
pinned the calf with her head and trunk against the rocky bank. Then, with a really gigantic
efforts, she picked it up in her trunk and reared up until she was half standing on her hind legs,
so as to be able to place it on a narrow shelf of rock five feet above the flood level.

4. Having accomplished this, she fell back into the raging torrent, and she herself went away like
a cork. She knew well that she would now have to fight to save her own life, as less than three
hundred yards below where she had stowed her calf in safety there was a gorge. If she was

Page 1 of 4
 carried down, it would be certain death. I knew, as well as she did, that there was one spot
between her and the gorge where she had put her calf. By that time, my chief interest was in
the calf. It stood, tucked up, shivering and terrified, on the ledge just wide enough to hold its
feet. Its little fat, protruding belly was tightly pressed against the bank.

5. While I was peering over at it from about eight feet above, wondering what I could do next, I
heard the grandest sounds of a mother’s love I can remember, Ma Shwe has crossed the river
and got up the bank, and was making her way back as fast as she could, calling the whole time
a defiant roar, but to her calf it was music.

6. Ma Shwe emerged from the jungle and appeared on the opposite bank. When she saw her
calf, she stopped roaring and began rumbling, a never-to-be forgotten sound, not unlike that
made by a high-powered car when accelerating. It was the sound of pleasure and delighted
she must have been to see her calf still in the same spot where she had put her half an hour
before.

7. As darkness fell, the muffled boom of floating logs hitting against each other came from
upstream. A torrential rain was falling and the river still separated the mother and her calf.

8. At dawn Ma Shwe and her calf were together, both on the far bank. The spate had subsided to
a mere foot of dirty coloured water. No one in the camp has seen Ma Shwe recover her calf,
but she must have lifted it down from the ledge in the same way as she had put it there.

Answer the following questions.

1. Name the type of writing used by the author. /1

________________________________________________________________________________
2. The Upper Taungdwin River was “in heavy spate”. Explain the phrase in heavy spate.
(paragraph 1) /1

________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
2. Differentiate the feelings of the men on opposite bank and Ma Shwe? (paragraph 2) /2

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

3. Elucidate what the author portrays about the river torrent where Ma Shwe’s calf was “afloat
like a cork”? (paragraph 2) /1

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

Page 2 of 4
4. Identify two similes and onomatopoeias used in the passage? /2

Similes Onomatopoeias

1. 1.

2. 2.

5. Why do you think the defiant roar of Ma Shwe was music to her calf? (paragraph 5) /2

________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________

6. Parents are blessing for their child. In view of the passage, how strongly do you agree with the
statement? /2

________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________

7. For each of the words below, circle the letter (A, B, C or D) which has the same meaning that
the word has in the passage. /4
1. submerged (line 5)
A. swamped B. floated C. choked D. repressed

2. edge (line 9)
A. sharpen B. borderline C. limit D. advantage

3. accelerating (line 37)

A. expanding B. speeding C. gaining D. diminishing

4. recover (line 42)

A. collapse B. heal C. retrieve D. recollect

Section B Composition Marks: 15

Opinion based/persuasive essay.

Write a composition of about 200 – 250 words on the following topic. Use wide and precise
vocabulary, and figures of speech in your composition.
Content /6
Do you agree that the challenges of life bring out the best in Grammar /3
young people? Provide reasons and examples to support your Vocabulary/spelling /4
opinion. s
Paragraphing /1
Word count /1
https://youtu.be/5oca6PcR2Dw Total /15

Page 3 of 4
you may revise the requirement for your writing from the above given link.

Section C Grammar Marks: 10

Change the narration: /5
1. They said,” The situation is not good for shopping.”
__________________________________________________________________________
2. She said that they would go and get some food.
__________________________________________________________________________
3. “I watched a documentary about dolphins yesterday,” said Caroline.
__________________________________________________________________________
4. We said to them,” Congratulations.”
__________________________________________________________________________
5. I asked him if he could lift the heavy box with me.
__________________________________________________________________________
Fill in the blank with an indefinite pronoun: /5
1. ______________ must have taken my watch; I left it on this spot.
2. These biscuits look delicious. I’d like ______________ please.
3. ______________ can be gained by arguing.
4. Many people attempt to conquer this formidable mountain, but ______________ succeed.
5. The food looks tempting, but I don’t want ______________ as I’ve just had lunch.

Section D Literature Marks: 10

Write brief answers for the following questions from Act 1 of ‘The Garbage King’.
1. If you were a passenger in the bus, what would be your reaction towards Mamo seeking help
to escape Merga and why?

2. Fill in the Venn diagram jotting down the attributes of Mamo and Dani.

MAMO DANI

Page 4 of 4