Web Page  No 2146

5^th April 2015                                   

Top Picture: Concentration!!!

Middle Picture: Teachers Info Book

Bottom Picture: Remember these terrible questions?

The Eleven Plus

From way back in your memory can you drag forward some of the knowledge that you were expected to have back in the 1950’s when you took the 11 plus exam. Their very name still deeply divides opinion. For some, the Eleven-Plus exams, which determined whether a child would go to a grammar school or the secondary modern, set the educational benchmark. For others, they were hated symbols of a segregated, two-tier schooling system.  So, sharpen your pencil, open your notebook and try the test courtesy of the Daily Mail.

The answers are in the You Write section

GENERAL ENGLISH

1. Make adjectives from these nouns: beauty, slope, glass, friend, doubt, expense, delight, sleep, danger, sport. 

2. Write these lines of poetry in the usual way, putting in capital letters and the correct punctuation: the evening is coming the sun sinks to rest the rooks are all flying straight home to the nest caw says the rook, as he flies overhead it's time little people were going to bed. 

3. Choose the correct word from those in brackets: 

a) She gave the (fare, fair) to the conductor. 

b) I am (confidant, confident) of success. 

c) Why does she (die, dye) her hair? 

d) His sister has (wrote, written) him a letter. 

e) The screw fell off because it was (lose, loose). 

4. Fill in the relative pronoun in the following sentences: 

a) That is the coat .......... my brother took away. 

b) The man to .......... I spoke was very disagreeable. 

c) The boy .......... ball I kicked was offended. 

d) The man .......... does his duty is always brave. 

e) He asked me .......... I intended to do. 

5. Each of the following sentences contains one error. Re-write the sentences correctly: 

a) This is not an Infant's School. 

b) I am told that Tom Jones's brother have won a scholarship. 

c) The bishop and another fellow then entered the hall. 

d) When the dog recognised me it wagged it's tail. 

e) The matter does not concern you or I. 

f) Talking to my friend, the bus passed me. 

COMPREHENSION

Read the following:

'You are old, Father William,' the young man said, 'And your hair has become very white; And yet you incessantly stand on your head  -  Do you think, at your age, it is right?' 'In my youth,' Father William replied to his son, 'I feared it might injure the brain; 'But, now that I'm perfectly sure I have none, 'Why, I do it again and again.' 

'You are old,' said the youth, 'as I mentioned before, 'And have grown most uncommonly fat;  'Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door  -  'Pray, what is the reason of that?' 'In my youth,' said the sage, as he shook his grey locks, 'I kept all my limbs very supple. 'By the use of this ointment  -  one shilling the box  -  'Allow me to send you a couple?'

Now answer these questions:

a) Father William was certainly a queer man. Mention two queer things that he did.

b) When he was young, Father William thought that one of his pranks might do him harm. When he was old, he changed his mind. Why?

c) What does 'incessantly' mean? What is a back-somersault?

d) What does the word 'supple' mean? How did Father William keep supple? Do you keep supple in the same way?

e) What signs of old age did Father William show?

ARITHMETIC

Read the following:

1. 3,755 is multiplied by 25 and the result is divided by 125. Write down the answer.

2. A motorist leaves home at 10.15am and drives at 32 miles per hour. He stops for lunch from noon to 1.45pm and then continues his journey at 30 miles per hour. How many miles has he travelled by 5pm?

3. An aeroplane uses 100 gallons of petrol for a flight of 150 miles. How far could it fly using 40 gallons?

4. Write in figures: twelve thousand and twelve.

5. A race started at 23 minutes past three and finished at 23 minutes to four. How long did it take?

6. Simplify:

a) 1,000 - 10

b) 25 x 12

c) 615 divided by 3

d) 0.5 + 0.75

e) The fractions 4/5 - 7/10

7. Of 800 people living in a village, half are men and half women. A quarter of the men leave the village to join the army. How many more women then men now remain?

8. Multiply 7,296 by 479.

9. Which of these numbers is divisible by 4 without any remainder: 214, 230, 226, 224, 218?

10. Add all the odd numbers between 12 and 20.

GENERAL INTELLIGENCE/KNOWLEDGE

Read the following:

1. The letters ERBDA are just the letters of the word BREAD mixed up. Now, straighten up the following:

a) AAANNB is a fruit which comes from abroad.

b) ROHES is a large animal.

c) GRATEAMR is a girl's name.

d) DWEBORRA is an article of furniture.

e) SAIRINS are used in Christmas puddings.

2. Select and write down one of the answers below which makes the best answer to the following: 

A woman who had fallen into the water was dragged out in a drowning condition by a man, but she did not thank him because:

a) She never felt thankful for small things.

b) She did not know the man well enough.

c) She was feeling better.

d) She was still unconscious.

3. Complete the following by giving words expressing sound and ending in 'ing'.
e.g. the humming of telephone wires.

a) the ................. of leaves

b) the ................. of anvils.

c) the ................. of brakes.

d) the ................. of stairs.

4. In each of the sets of words given below there is one word meaning something rather different from the other three. Find the different word in each line and write it down:

a) alike, same, similar, somewhat.

b) pigeon, duck, goose, swan.

c) bus, conductor, passenger, driver.

d) this, that, the, those.

e) firm, rough, solid, hard.

f) desk, book, cupboard, drawer.

g) spade, earth, sand, gravel.

h) pretty, nice, charm, lovely.

i) justice, merciful, pitying, forgiving.

j) tumbler, cup, mug, jug.

k) fishing, rowing, climbing, swimming.

l) scarlet, blue, red, pink.

m) sewing, cotton, needle, calico.

5. Each of the following sentences here can be made into better sense by interchanging two words. 

Re-write the sentences correctly: E.g. Milk like cats  -  Cats like milk.

a) Our black cat had a retriever with the fight next door.

b) The sea went to the family for a swim.

c) The shepherd whistled by the gate and stood to his dog.

d) A was stung by Joan bee. 

e) Sailors have to climb able to be. 

Stay in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

You Write:

ANSWERS

You are getting off easily as in addition to the above, students were asked to write essays on subjects as varied as: 'The bravest deed that I know', Eggs, Everest, The Gothic, Queen Salote, The Maoris, and 'What life must be like as a cat'. 

GENERAL ENGLISH

1. beautiful, sloping, glassy, friendly, doubting, expensive, delightful, sleeping, dangerous, sporting/sporty

2. The evening is coming, The sun sinks to rest, The rooks are all flying Straight home to the nest. 'Caw', says the rook, As he flies overhead, 'It's time little people Were going to bed.'

3. a) fare; b) confident; c) dye; d) written; e) loose

4. a) which; b) whom; c) whose; 

5. a) This is not an Infants' School.

b) I am told that Tom Jones's brother has won a scholarship.

c) The bishop and another gentleman then entered the hall.

d) When the dog recognised me it wagged its tail.

e) The matter does not concern you or me.

f) While talking to my friend, the bus passed me.

COMPREHENSION

a) Two queer things that Father William did were to stand on his head and turn a back-somersault at the door. 

b) Father William changed his mind because he is sure he doesn't have a brain to injure. 

c) 'Incessantly' means repeatedly, without relief. A back-somersault is when someone jumps over backwards. 

d) The word 'supple' means flexible. Father William kept supple by using an ointment. 

e) The signs of old age that Father William showed were white hair and growing fat. 

ARITHMETIC

1. 751

2. 153.5 miles

3. 60 miles

4. 12,012

5. 14 minutes

6. a) 990 b) 300 c) 205 d) 1.25 e) 1/10

7. 100 more women

8. 3,494,784

9.224 

10. 64

GENERAL INTELLIGENCE/ KNOWLEDGE

1. a) banana; b) horse; c) Margaret d) wardrobe; e) raisins 

2. The best answer would be d) 

3. a) rustling; b) banging; c) screeching; d) creaking 

4. a) somewhat; b) pigeon; c) bus; d) the; e) rough; f) book; g) spade;  h) charm; i) justice; j) jug; k) climbing; l) blue; m) sewing 

5. a) Our black cat had a fight with the retriever next door. 

b) The family went to the sea for a swim. 

c) The shepherd stood by the gate and whistled to his dog. 

d) Joan was stung by a bee. 

e) Sailors have to be able to climb. 

You Write:

Anida Writes:-

Your piece on South Parade pier certainly stirred the old memory    cells!


The Laughing Policeman is one of my earliest memories and was   guaranteed to make me laugh along with it just as the song did on    'Uncle Mac'.  As for the metal tape machine the one on Ryde pier   has  gone down in family history.  These machines caused an early form of whiteboard blindness rendering an inability to spell, a         friend who shall remain nameless but she knows who she is! earned herself a lifelong nickname from her attempt at her name whilst    waiting for the ferry to take us home after a long hot day on the      beach at Whitecliff Bay.
If you were in the sea near the pier when the ferry arrived the wash was excellent for making the rubber tyre bob up and down!

Much later
we would spend Sunday evenings on the pier listening to the trad    jazz bands, I say listening as we were not allowed to dance and I    was told off on many occasions by the heavies.  It was nowhere      near as good as the 'Rendevous' on the Saturday but as you say, all  the big names were to be seen there.


Sadly I understand the pier, although still standing, is not what it     used to be.

News and Views:

On this day 5^th April 1960-1965

On 10/04/1960 the number one single was My Old Man's a Dustman - Lonnie Donegan and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was The Budget (All Channels) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 10/04/1961 the number one single was Wooden Heart - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Labour Party Political Broadcast (all channels) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 10/04/1962 the number one single was Wonderful Land - The Shadows and the number one album was Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was The Budget (All Channels) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was Film director Michael Curtiz and ex Beatle Stu Sutcliffe died.

On 10/04/1963 the number one single was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was Atomic US submarine sinks killing 129.

On 10/04/1964 the number one single was Can't Buy Me Love - The Beatles and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Labour Party Political Broadcast (all channels) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Beatles have 13 records in US chart.

On 10/04/1965 the number one single was Concrete & Clay - Unit 4 Plus 2 and the number one album was Rolling Stones Number 2 - The Rolling Stones. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.