ENGLISH 8

Worksheet #1

Name: _________________________ Gr. &Sec.: ______________ Date: __________

Read and understand the paragraph below.

The Influence of Video Games to Children

Video games have been a part of children’s life for the past few decades. It all started when Atari
came up with its first gaming consul, which included a very simple game of tennis. The controller had just
1 stick and 1 button to play with. Now, we have many different types of consuls available in the market
with very complex games that requires controllers with two or more sticks and a variety of buttons.
Video games are almost second nature to the modern children and they are more comfortable playing
them. Playing video games can have many different effects (both positive as well as negative) on
children. Some of this effects include increasing hand eye coordination and increasing dexterity mental
skills; a decrease interest in other interest such as studies and sports ; and a very negative effect of
inducing violence.
One of the most positive effects of video games is increasing the dexterity of a child and improving
his or her hand eye coordination. As mentioned earlier, the new video games that are coming out are
extremely complex and they involve the movement of many different kinds of sticks and buttons on the
controllers. These can be very good for children as they learn to make the fast connections between
what they see and what their hands and fingers are doing. This allows them to think quickly and
improves their reflexes. The newest games are very precision-based and it takes very minute and
accurate movements for the children to control the characters. This helps in making the children much
more a depth at handling and operating real-life machinery and objectives.
Another effect that playing video games have on children is that they tend to get addicted to
playing this games and give them foremost priority. This takes the children away from their other
responsibilities, such as doing house chores, homework, and other physical activities. Children also end
at spending more time playing video games in front of television screens than playing real and actual
sports that involve physical exercise. This in turn can have many health related problems for children, as
they can get obese if they don’t exercise ad stay home playing video games. This is perhaps the worst
negative effect that video games can have on children. Parents and educators all over the world are
concern about this phenomenon and they are urging the children to not spend so much time playing
video games. Many new video games consuls, such as the new Nintendo WIIhave come out with games
that require users to actually get up and move.
Many researchers have talked about the effects of viewing violence in the media and how it
affects children. Video games takes this to another level, where the children are actually participating in
being violent in the video games. There are many games out there that allow children to play arm
bearing characters who can kill anyone that they want, steal cars, and commit many different kinds of
crime. These games can have negative implications on the children as they get immune to the idea of
committing crime and end up believing that it is alright. Research still on going on this negative effect
and it has not entirely been proven or disproven as of yet.
We find that plain video games can have various effects on children, both positive as well as negative.
Even though children can benefit by increasing their dexterity and improving their reflexes, the cost of
them losing out on their physical exercise and homework, as well as their becoming prone to violent
acts, are way too much. It is important that the parents and educators take up this problem seriously and
enable certain rules and regulations that allow children to divide their time responsively between
playing video games and completing their studies and other responsibilities.

Answer the following questions thoroughly.

1. Why are video games popular with children?

2. What are the positive effects of playing video games?

3. What are the negative effects of playing video games?

Directions: Complete the paragraph by filling in each blank with the appropriate grammatical
signal found in the box. You can use each grammatical signal once.

A. However, Also, This, Stories, Meanwhile

Stories can be commonly presented in print, audio, and audio-visual format. 1. _________
written in books is a form of print format. It gives the readers more information about the
characters and the plot. 2. _________, stories that are told through radios or podcasts are
examples of audio format. They enable the listeners to freely create different mental pictures of
the characters and scenes as they listen to the storylines. 3. __________, movies and TV series
shown in cinema or televisions are examples of audio-visual format. 4.____________,
regardless of the format, all of them can equally bring entertainment to people.

B. Finally, there are those who claim, Second, First, I believe

Even though school uniforms are not mandatory, 1. ________ that students must be required to
wear one for a number of reasons. 2. _______, it promotes safety since bonafide students can
be easily identified and it reduces security threats. 3. _________, it encourages equality since all
students are viewed in the same way regardless of their socio-economic status. 4. __________,
getting ready for school becomes faster and easier because many students save their time in
choosing what to wear to school. Although 5._______________ that uniforms take away
personal freedom, I strongly believe that wearing uniforms is more beneficial.

C. great, perfect, try, in addition, really

Everyone should participate in Zumba. It is an aerobic fitness performed with a dance music. It
is 1. ______ good for your body for it helps prevent diseases, enhance your flexibility, and
control your weight. 2. __________, learning and memorizing the steps of a dance routine is a
good mental exercise. It is indeed a 3. ________ exercise because you get to have fun and be
with friends at the same time. You don’t even need to be a good dancer to enjoy it. Truly, it is a
4. ________ way to develop one’s physical, mental, and social well-being. So, 5. _______
Zumba!
Write at least a five-sentence paragraph about the issue conveyed in the picture.