Comprehension, Vocabulary Development, Use of Intonation in Questions, Features of Formal Letter 

Hello, how are you today?

WRITING

WRITING FORMAL LETTERS

 

We will be learning how to write a formal letter in today’s class. We saw the features of a formal letter in our last class. Let me remind you.

Sender’s Address.

Date… 2nd Oct, 2024

Recipient’s Job Position… Manager, Director, Principal.

Recipient’s Address

Salutation… Dear Sir/Ma

Title of the Letter… Letter of Complaint

Opening Paragraph… State your purpose for writing the letter.

Subsequent Paragraph, should be two

Closing Paragraph

A word of thanks

Complimentary Close… Yours Faithfully/ Regards

Signature

Sender’s Name

Sender’s Position (if necessary)

 

Today, imagine you are the president of the literary and debating club in your school. You are required to write a letter to invite students from another to participate in the upcoming Literary and Debating Competition.  Let’s go.

Godson Schools,

Maryland,

Lagos State.

4th Nov, 2024.

President,

Literary and Debating Club,

Brightland High School,

Mowe,

Ogun State.

 

Dear Ma,

LETTER OF INVITATION

On behalf of the management of Godson Schools, I am writing to invite your great school to our annual literary and debating competition themed “Preserving the African heritage through the vehicle of Literature.”

The competition will be taking place in our school hall on the 17th of February 2025 by 9 a.m. We are requesting that you come with five representatives each for the literary and debating competitions. Also, the representatives should all be from the senior classes.

I hope you get back to us in good time so we can prepare for your coming. Your cooperation is highly appreciated.

Thank you.

                                                                                                                   Yours faithfully,

                                                                                                                   Signature.

                                                                                                                   Miracle Johnson

 

You must have noticed that the letter is straight forward, this is because it is a Formal Letter.

 

 

USE OF INTONATION PATTERNS IN QUESTIONS.

 

Intonation describes how the voice rises and falls in speech or when we talk, it is therefore the melody in our speech. There are two basic intonation patterns: Rising and Falling. With rising intonation, you have to raise slightly the pitch at the end of the sentence, whereas with falling intonation you go down a bit.

Today, we will be talking about intonation in questions. In questions, the voice rises and falls at the end.

 

Let’s do some practice.

 

Do you like pizza?

Here, the voice rises or goes up at the end of the sentence.

Now compare it with this question.

What’s your favorite pizza?

Here, the voice falls or goes down.

 

One easy way to know if the voice should rise or fall at the end of a sentence is by finding out if the sentence is a Yes or No question or not. A question that starts with can, do, is, are, have usually have a Yes or No answer and so has a rising intonation. Most of the other questions have a falling intonation.

Let’s check them out.

Are you hungry?

Do you eat meat?

Can you play football?

Other questions?

How hungry are you?

What don’t you eat meat?

How come you don’t like football?

 

Remember to keep practicing.

 

COMPREHENSION

THE NIGHT SKY

At might, you can see the stars twinkling in the vast expanse of outer space. There are billions of stars in the universe, and some of these may have planets like the Earth orbiting round them. No one knows exactly how many stars, planets and satellites the universe contains.

Our Solar System

Our Sun lies at the centre of our solar system. It is vital to life on Earth. Without its heat and light, nothing could survive on our planet. In the larger world of the universe, however, the Sun is just one of millions and millions of stars. It is a fiery ball of hydrogen gas that produces huge amount of energy, which leaves the Sun as heat and light. The temperature at the Sun’s centre is an amazing fifteen million Celsius.

The difference between stars and planets

Our Sun is a glowing ball of gas that produces heat and light. Planets do not give off heat and light. You can only see the planets and their moons because they reflect the Sun’s light.

The vast universe

The stars are so far away that a special unit called a light year is used to measure the distances between them and the rest of the universe. A light year is the distance that light travels in a year- 9.5 million kilometres.

Our solar system lies in a galaxy called the Milky Way, which measures about 100,000 light years from side to side. (Compare this with the eight and half minutes it takes for light to reach Earth from our Sun!) There are perhaps one hundred thousand million stars in our galaxy, our Sun being only one, and there are thousands of millions of galaxies in the universe.

A Solar Eclipse

A Solar Eclipse is when the moon passes between the Sun and the Earth. The light from the Sun is fully or partially blocked and the sky darkens, even in the middle of the day. A solar eclipse is an amazing sight, but the first thing people should remember is not to look straight at it.

 

QUIZ

Give answers to the following questions.

  1. What is at the centre of the solar system?
  2. What is the temperature at the centre of our Sun?
  3. Is our Sun a star or a planet?
  4. What is a Milky Way?
  5. Which is largest: a solar system, a galaxy or the universe?
  6. In a solar eclipse, what passes between the Earth and the Sun?
  7. How do we know when a solar eclipse is happening?
  8. What should you wear if you are going to see a solar eclipse?

 

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT

Let us learn some new words from our passage about The Night Sky.

Let’s go.

Vast expanse means an Uninterrupted Space.

 

Orbiting means Moving Around.

 

Vital means Needed.

 

Reflect means Send back.

 

Partially means Not completely.

 

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