Activity Sheet in English 8

Activity 1: (Determining the Meaning

of Words and Expressions that Reflect
the Local Culture by Noting Context Clues)

General Reminders: Use this activity sheet with care. Do not put unnecessary
mark/s on any part of the activity sheet. Use a separate sheet of paper in
answering the exercises. Read the directions carefully before doing each task.
Return this activity sheet to your teacher/facilitator once you are through with it.

Explore

My dear Learner, good day!

I hope you will sustain your interest in learning from the different activities
prepared for you today. This time you will use your reading strategies and
vocabulary skills as you reflect on some of our life’s enduring experiences that
somehow define our attributes and characteristics as Filipinos. What we repeatedly
do tells who we are and that forms a big part of our unique local culture.

As part of our culture, we celebrate fiesta every year. Right? Just imagine how it is
celebrated or valued in your community. So, start doing the task below.

Task: Modified Brainstorming

Directions: The items in the boxes below are lifted from the reading selection that
you will be reading today. Cross-out only those that tell about the fiesta celebration
in your place. Copy and do this in your Activity Notebook.

Enormous Procession and Decoration of the

expense mass streets
Various games Prodigious Bands parade
and prizes preparation and fairs
Golden sky Pigs and
Crowded
rockets in the chickens are
streets
evening killed

What does your answer tell you? Your answers may describe how grand the fiesta
must be celebrated in your place. One checked item means that the fiesta is one of
the great events in your place. More than one checked items tells that your place has
the grandest fiesta celebration. As the saying goes, “the more, the merrier.”

So, you are now ready to read the selection entitled “The Town Fiesta” by I.V.
Mallari. Please refer to the attached copy and read it in 10-15 minutes.

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Time is up! I hope you have fully understood the message of the writer.
You may now answer the items below as directed. Again, use your activity notebook.

1-2. Based on the selection, which of the following tells about the Filipino culture of
giving away to celebrations? Pick out the letters of the 2 possible answers.
A. Filipinos love parties in almost all occasions including fiestas.
B. Relatives bring their own food to be sure that they won’t be hungry.
C. During fiesta, everyone is involved as it is a community activity.
D. The guests during the fiesta are only those who are invited.

3. According to the writer, who help the host in the food preparation?
A. hired cooks B. no one C. the women D. some guests

4-5. What concrete details refer to the idea of the Filipinos’ excessive fiesta
celebration? Choose 2 from among the given options.
A. Games and fairs are prohibited at the plaza.
B. The host or hostess do not look after the needs in the kitchen.
C. The whole community is decorated with streamers and fiesta lanterns.
D. Every home is the center of festivities with enough foods for all guests.

6. After the fiesta, which of the following completely comforts the host and hostess?
A. When the impressive house is cleaned up
B. When they were able to keep foods for the family
C. When they gave gifts to their friends and relatives before leaving
D. When the guests were able to enjoy the games and fairs at the plaza

7. The writer points out in the last paragraph that Filipinos do not regret spending
much for the fiesta because what is important to us is the culture of _____.
A. valuing the joys that we can give to others
B. impressing other people
C. holding parties
D. being proud

8. The writer describes the busy time of the hosts as “purely physical activity”
because ______.
A. they failed to attend the procession and mass
B. they go with their guests in watching the games
C. they join in the different community fairs and games
D. they have enough time engaging equally with all their guests

9. Paragraph 12 uses the phrase “bends over backwards”. In your own words, give
the meaning of the phrase as described by the writer.

10. Go back to the last paragraph. What words are closely related in meaning?
A. strenuous – enormous – prodigious
B. experience – entails – regrets
C. celebrate – enormous
D. regrets – expense

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 Learn

In reading the selection, we meet unfamiliar words and phrases. Let’s go back to
your answers from number 7 to 9 under the Explore Activity.

The specific items test your vocabulary skills. It entails the use of dictionary or the
analysis of context clues. When we analyze context clues, we use other possible
words within the paragraph or text as our clues in understanding
unfamiliar/unknown words, phrases or expressions.

In number 7, you were asked to give the meaning of the phrase, “bends over
backwards”. This is an example of idiomatic expression. An idiomatic expression is
a group of words that speak of a different meaning from what is literally stated. So,
to “bend over backwards” does not literally bending the body backwards.

The best way to get the meaning of unfamiliar words and phrases is through
context clues. These are words within the passage that will help you understand
the meaning of difficult words or phrases. Let us analyze the following:

 Because of his fear of being considered lacking in hospitality, he bends over

backwards and becomes persistent in offering food to his guests.
o (Analyze the key words: fear… lacking in hospitality… persistent in
offering food. All these help us arrive at the meaning that to bend over
backwards is to work very hard or to do everything for someone in
whatever situation, an example for this is during fiesta.)
 So busy are the hosts with the “purely physical activity” of feeding their
guests that they barely have enough time to engage in conversation with any
one of them…. They do not have enough time to attend the procession, to
hear mass…
o (The phrase is not an idiom anymore. But, for those who find it difficult
to understand, the writer uses example clues for the physical activities
such as feeding the guests, barely have enough time to engage in
conversation, not have enough time to attend the procession and
mass…To emphasize, barely means “almost without” or “not having
enough”)
 To celebrate the town fiesta is a strenuous experience, but no Filipino
regrets the enormous expense and the prodigious effort that it entails.
o (These adjectives are closely related in meaning. By analyzing the
relationship of those words including the words they modify such
experience, expense and effort we can understand those words. This
strategy is known as “similarity or synonym clue”.)

LOADING STATION:
Deepen your understanding on context clues with these learning essentials.
Analyze these context clues strategies:
1. Similarity – This includes synonyms and other related words. Go back to
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the examples given previously (enormous and prodigious).
2. Contrast – This includes antonyms or words having opposite meaning or
relationship. (Example: luncheon and merienda - Luncheon refers to
formal heavy midday meal while merienda refers to a light meal eaten in
 Engage

Test your skills now in using context clues by engaging with the simple tasks below.

Directions: Answer the following items as directed. Do this in your activity

notebook.

1. Go back to paragraph 5 of the selection “The Town Fiesta.” What are the
phrases/words are used to make you understand the following local terms:
a. katingan – ______________________
b. sandoks – ______________________

2. What context clue strategy is used that make you understand katingan and
sandoks? Choose from the choices below
(Contrast ; Definition or description ; Similarity ; Association)

3. Improvised stoves are built. Tallasis, katingans and sandoks are in their places
in readiness for the great cooking marathon that is to take place the following
day.
a. What is a marathon? ______________________________________
b. What context clue is used by the writer? Choose only 1 from the choices.
(Association ; Contrast ; Definition)

c. What does the writer mean by associating cooking with marathon? Copy
the option that correspond to your answer.

* Just like a marathon, cooking is easy and enjoyable.

* Cooking requires time and great effort just like joining a marathon.
* Similar to a marathon, cooking is always a contested activity.

Great Job! Congratulations!

Did you find the activity challenging? I hope can do more in the next activity.

Apply

Directions: Use context clues to get the meaning of the underlined words or
phrases. For the clue, write the words from the sentence that help you
understand the meaning of the underline word. Write this in your
activity notebook including the letter of your choice of each item.

1. The biggest and the most elaborate party of the year is the fiesta.
A. most expensive B. economical C. reasonable
Clue: _________________

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2. Every Filipino feels he has to give away by spending much to the occasion of the
town fiesta.
A. spend without regrets B. withhold spending C. spend carefully
Clue: _________________

3. No written invitations to fiesta are sent out. Everybody takes for granted that he
is welcome.
A. doubts B. supposes C. wonders
Clue: __________________

4. The host becomes persistent in offering food because he has that enduring
hospitality.
A. untiring B. impolite C. worried
Clue: __________________

5. The procession of diners is often long and so continuous. What does procession
connote?
A. extremely numerous B. limited number C. several guests
Clue: __________________

You’re always doing great! Good luck for our next day’s activities. Be safe always.

Prepared by: Mr. Van G. Gaspang

ANSWER KEY

EXPLORE

Modified Brainstorming (Answers may vary)

ENGAGE

1-2. A and C
3. D
4-5 C and D
6. C
7. A
8. A
9. bends over backwards means that someone is exerting much effort or doing
everything
10. A

APPLY

1. A Clue: biggest
2. A Clue: spending much
3. B Clue: no written invitation
4. A Clue: enduring hospitality
5. A Clue: long and so continuous

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 THE TOWN FIESTA (EXCERPT)
I.V. Mallari
1
The Filipino loves to give parties at the slightest provocation. The christening
of a baby, the blessing of the new house, the marriage of a son or daughter, the
visit of an important personage – any of these occasions is seized upon as an
excuse for killing the fattened hog and a few chickens, and for entertaining friends
and relatives and neighbors. But the biggest and the most elaborate party of the
year is the one that every Filipino feels he has to give on the occasion of the town
fiesta.
2
No written invitations to this party are sent out. Everybody take it for
granted that he is welcome.
3
Since the host wants to make a good impression on his prospective guests,
he and his family make prodigious preparations. Two or three days before the great
event, the yard is swept clean of all dead leaves, which are gathered in a heap and
burnt.

4 The decoration of the streets is a community enterprise. The men of the

neighborhood, directed by the women, hang streamers and lanterns and set out
banana plants along the roadside. At important points like the plaza and at the
intersections at the main thoroughfares, elaborate arches of bamboo and banana
petioles are erected.
5
In the meantime, other preparations take place in the backyard. Improvised
stoves are built by digging holes in the ground and arranging stones or spikes
around them. Huge iron frying pans or tallasis; equally huge earthen pots, or

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katingans; and ladles made of coconut shells, or sandoks; are arranged in their
places in readiness for the great cooking marathon that is to take place the
following day.
6
Sometimes a large and shady tree is deemed sufficient to shelter the
amateur cooks from the heat of the sun or from unexpected showers. Another and
more pretentious pavilion of bamboo and banana leaves, decorated with paper
banners and flowers, usually built to shelter the huge dining table that is to be the
center of festivities.
7
On the eve of the town fiesta, relatives and friends from out of town begin to
arrive not empty-handed, for nobody would think of attending a fiesta empty-
handed. These friends and relatives bring live chickens, sweets, fruits, cookies, and
even firewood.

The fatted calf and the pigs and chickens are killed. Lard begins to sizzle in
the frying pans, and the pleasant odor of cooking fills the air.
8
Meanwhile, bands parade along the crowded streets; and the sky rockets fill
the evening with golden showers.
9
Then there are fairs where people out on a spending spree may buy toys and
articles for the house or win them as prizes in various games of skill and chance
going on simultaneously all over the courtyard of the church.
10
The guests begin to arrive long before noon – perspiring, thirsty, hungry, and
the creaky machinery of hospitality is set in motion. The host and the hostess and
their daughters fly from one place to another – from the living room to the
improvised kitchen to the dining pavilion under the trees – trying to do a thousand
things at once. They have to see that nothing is lacking in the kitchen and that the
cooks – who are also guests, after all – have nothing to complain about.
11
The problem of seating people at the dining table is always difficult and
confusing, because the table is never large enough; and there are never enough
spoons and forks and plates and glasses to go around. The procession of diners is
often so long and so continuous, as a matter of fact, that luncheon merges into
merienda and merienda into dinner and so on far into the night.
12
So busy are the hosts with “purely physical activity” of feeding their guests
that they barely have time to engage in conversation with any one of them for more
than five minutes at a stretch. Because of their fear of being considered lacking in
hospitality, they bend over backwards and becomes persistent in offering food to
their guests. They do not have enough time, in fact, even to attend the procession,
to hear mass or to watch the play at the plaza.
13
But even a Filipino town fiesta must, and does, come to an end. And the
Filipino host and hostess finally find relief when the last visitor has gone and the
front gate is closed. But this relief is not complete. There are still the little gifts that
they have to give to their relatives and friends from out of town who have come to
help them give the gargantuan feast.
14
To celebrate the town fiesta is a strenuous experience, but no Filipino regrets the
enormous expense and the prodigious effort that it entails. For there is nothing
that pleases him more than to see a lot of people having a good time

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