* To draw lots means to let chance decide, for example, by seeing who takes the piece of paper with the cross on it out of the box.
Do you think the lion would have enjoyed having any of these animals for his breakfast? Why or why not?
(c) What are the effects of the rabbit’s words on the lion?
(d) If we change the lion’s first sentence into reported speech, it reads: The lion said that he had to hunt and eat one of them every morning. Change the lion’s third sentence into reported speech. Write it out.
(e) Write down six verbs from the second paragraph.
(f) Join up with another pair for the following game. Someone will need to keep score. One of you names an animal starting with the letter ‘a’, for example, ‘armadillo’. The next person has to name an animal starting with the last letter of that animal, for example, ‘orangutan’. If someone cannot think of an animal, that person scores one point, and gives an animal starting with the letter ‘b’ and the game continues. The person with the highest score is the loser.
A last look at language
The words we use to describe things show how we feel about them. These words could be complimentary or rude, insensitive and discriminatory. Here is an example to help you understand:
‘You are a real monkey’ said to someone who is not very bright. How would the person feel on hearing this? It would be better to say: ‘I can see you are struggling with that. Can I help you?’
In the final activity you are going to change any language that is inappropriate for the occasion, or that hurts the person it is addressed to.
1. The following sentences are not polite. Change them so that they are. Write a sentence explaining what is wrong with each.
(a) Hey! Move out of my way. (1)
(b) That is mine! Give it to me! (1)
(c) You are stupid! Don’t you know how to do that? (1)
(d) That girl is so fat she looks like a hippo. (1)
(e) Okay, I said I was sorry. What more do you want? (1)
(f) He is poor, look how he dresses. We don’t want him at our animal fancy dress party. (1)
(g) Boys are always better at science than girls. (1)
(h) Okay, I’ll take it, but it’s not something I really want. (1)
2. Look up the following words in a dictionary and add them with their meanings to your
personal vocabulary and spelling list:
(a) discrimination (2)
(b) racist (2)
(c) sexist (2)
(d) ageist (2)
(e) derogatory (2)
3. In the first column in the box below are words that are not polite to use when referring to people. Provide a more polite description in the second column. You may need to change the meaning.
Note: Stereotyping occurs when we generalise about someone or something, for example, if we say that all Muslim women wear headscarves or all slender people have Aids. We should not use stereotypes but rather look at the individual we are referring to.
Drama
A drama or play is written to be acted on the stage. It is usually divided into acts and scenes. It gives a list of the characters and the props or stage properties that are to be placed on the stage. The words in italics describe the setting. The words each character speaks are written after the name of that character. The part in italics in brackets indicates what the actor should do. They are not spoken. Usually actors have to memorise the words they are to speak so that they can act out the drama in front of an audience. In the following activity you are going to read a one-act drama. This activity should cover three periods.
1. Get into groups of four. Each will read a part of the following drama. Make sure that the person who plays the lion is a good reader.
Evening. Outside in the veld. Lion, Leopard and Zebra are sitting on the front left-hand side of the stage. They are talking to each other, but not to the Mantis. African music which is slowly fading away is playing.
| Lion | (Throws his arms excitedly up in the air): Are you ready for a story? |
| Leopard: | Yes! Yes! |
| Zebra: | Me too. I also want to hear a story! |
| Lion | (laughing loudly): Alright then! Let me tell you a story that the San people often tell their children. |
| Zebra: | (jumps up): I’m burning with curiosity. What is the name of the story? |
| Lion: | (Takes a deep breath) This is the story of the mantis and the moon. Come closer, and listen carefully. There was once a mantis who had very big dreams. |
| Mantis steps on stage. He looks around him, poking about here and there. The moon slowly rises over the mountains. | |
| Mantis | (watches the moon and sighs dreamily): Wow, just look at how breathtaking the moon looks tonight! Silver … and radiant … Just as it was last night. (calls out) Hello, moon! (Waits, but the moon does not reply) Oh, he never answers. It is probably because he has no mouth. (gazes at the moon and sighs loudly) It is so very beautiful – like goat’s milk in a calabash. How I wish that the moon belonged to me! |
| Leopard and Zebra: | But that cannot be! |
| Lion: | Yes, and that is where the trouble started. |
| Mantis: | If the moon were mine, I could sit on its back. Every evening, I could travel across the whole sky. All the animals would see me and say: ‘That mantis is truly amazing. Look at him riding on the moon. And he does not even fall off!’ (laughs happily) |
| Lion: | And then, the mantis came up with a plan. |
| Mantis: | I will find a way to catch the moon. Yes, yes! I will catch him, and then he will belong to me. |
| Mantis leaps into the air and tries to reach the moon. | |
| Lion: | But the mantis soon realised that it would not be so easy. His wings were too short … and far too weak to allow him to fly all the way to the moon to catch it. He had to devise another plan. |
| Moon sets, Sun rises | |
| Leopard: | Ah! |
| Lion: | The mantis waited impatiently for the day to pass so that the moon would rise again. |
| Mantis keeps looking up into the sky. From time to time he yawns. | |
| Zebra: | He must have been exhausted! |
| Lion: | Yes, Zebra, he must have been. And so, much later, darkness started to fall. |
| Sun sets, Moon rises | |
| Lion: | Slowly but surely, the moon slipped out from behind the mountains … |
| Mantis | (excited): There he is! The moon … My moon! |
| The moon moves behind a camel thorn tree. | |
| Mantis: | Aha! Look! The moon is trapped in the camel thorn tree! Now I will get my hands on him. (runs nearer, tries to take the moon out of the tree) Come to me, you beautiful thing. |
| Leopard: | But it did not work. |
| Lion: | Snatch it. (laughs) Then the moon moved towards the baobab tree. The mantis tried again, and again when the moon moved behind an acacia tree, and then into a baobab. |
| Moon moves to a baobab and
| |