UNIT 1 : PEOPLE AND PLACES
Key Unit Competence: To use language learnt in the context of people and places
1. Look at these pictures of national parks in Rwanda and discuss about them and answer questions that follow.
2. Look at these ladies and discuss their professions
After observing the above pictures, answer the following questions:
1. Why do you think people visit national parks?
2. Do you think there are gender differences in occupational
employment? Explain
3. What is the daily occupation of the person in fig 3? Is it suitable for women? Explain.
4. If you were a parent, would you spend money to take your children
to explore new places? Justify your answer.
Text: A conversation between schoolmates
Read the conversation below and answer the questions that follow:
Kalisa: Hello, my name is Kalisa. Welcome to our school.
Isimbi: Hi, I am Isimbi. This is Ineza. She is my best friend.
Kalisa: Hello Ineza. Nice to meet you.
Ineza: Nice to meet you too.
Kalisa: Where are you from Isimbi?
Isimbi: I am from Kayonza, how about you?
Kalisa: I’m from Musanze.
Isimbi: How is Musanze?
Kalisa: Musanze is very cold and mountainous. It harbors the largest part
of the Volcanoes National Park.
Isimbi: Wow! You must have seen mountain gorillas.
Kalisa: Yes, my mother took me to the National Volcanoes Park one day. It
was the day of naming baby gorillas.
Isimbi: How does it look?
Kalisa: I think it is the most famous destination in Rwanda. It is a forest of
the great volcanic massif called the Virunga Mountains, encompassing six
active and three extinct volcanoes.
Isimbi: What does your mum do?
Kalisa: My mother is an engineer. She plans and builds public buildings,
roads and bridges. What do yours do?
Isimbi: Mine works at the bank.
Kalisa: Ineza, why are you so quiet?
Ineza: Sorry, I was thinking of the place my dad took me to visit during
holidays.
Isimbi: Which place did you visit?
Ineza: We went to Akagera National Park.
Isimbi: Did you enjoy it? How is Akagera National Park?
Ineza: It is quite a remarkable eco-system. It is hot and dominated by
swamps and small lakes with flow in the wake of River Akagera. All the water
sources work together to create a piece of spectacular scenery.
Isimbi: The bell rings, it’s time to go to class. It was nice talking with both of
you.
Kalisa: Thank you! Have a good class.
Comprehension questions
1. Are the two speakers (Kalisa and Isimbi) meeting for the first time or
not? Justify your answer.
2. Did Isimbi and Ineza know each other before?
3. What does Kamali’s mother do?
4. From the dialogue, discuss the parts of speech reflected and provide
examples.
5. Identify differences in the places that the two speakers visited.
a. Mountainous
b. Harbours
c. Massif
d. Active volcanoes
e. Extinct volcanoes.
f. Engineer
g. eco-system
h. scenery
2. Write a 300 word composition describing a tourist destination of your
choice. Use present simple tense to show the importance of tourism on the
economy of the country.
This three day Rwanda chimpanzee trekking safari gave me an intimate
experience of tracking chimpanzees in Nyungwe forest national park.
Nyungwe forest national park is located in south western Rwanda with great
scenic views surrounded by tea plantations. Nyungwe forest is one of the
few remaining intact tropical forests in Africa. It is home to the Chimpanzees
and the largest troops of colobus monkeys.
The first day I departed to Nyungwe forest from Kigali was in the early morning
after my breakfast. This was to have enough time for stopover at the ethnographic
museum in Huye. The journey took us through Nyanza district and eventually
Huye. The ethnographic museum which is also the national museum of Rwanda
showcases the historic and cultural aspects of Rwanda through the ages.
It has materials and guides to take you through the rich Rwandan culture and
history. I had lunch after the museum experience before continuing on my journey
to Nyungwe forest. The roads to Nyungwe after Huye were mostly winding which
gave me amazing views of the famous ‘thousand hills’. I arrived at my lodge not
too far from the Nyungwe forest later that evening ready to take on the chimpanzee
trekking the next day.
The second day Chimpanzee trekking in Nyungwe forest national park started very
early in the morning and so this required me to leave my lodge as early as 5.00
am to make it to the briefing area at the Uwinka overlook. Nyungwe forest has
two main trail heads where Chimpanzee trekking happens i.e. Uwinka trail and
another at Cyamudongo section. The forest is rich in botanical diversity hosting
over 200 species of trees and flowering plants, 13 species of primates including,
colobus monkeys, vervet monkeys, red-tailed monkey, 300 bird species with
several Albertine rift endemics and several species of butterflies.
After the briefing, we were advised on which trail to take. I chose Cyamudongo and
it required us to drive out for a certain distance and my driver guide transferred me
to the starting point. After the chimp trekking, there was a canopy walk or return to
the lodge for the needed time of relaxation and take the canopy walk later in the
afternoon. I couldn’t miss that canopy walk.
In addition, I had forest hikes to waterfalls and birding. This particular tour was
organised specifically for chimpanzee trekking and canopy walk. However,
depending on the available time on the last day I chose to add two extra activities
before traveling back to Kigali.
The third day after my breakfast, I started my journey back to Kigali from the
amazing 3 day chimpanzee trekking safari. I had an option of staying there one
more day but I had an appointment with someone in Kigali. I will never forget the
three days I spent in Rwanda. I took a lot of photos of the beautiful Nyungwe forest
and I’m still viewing them.
Comprehension questions
1. Where is Nyungwe forest national park located?
2. Why did the narrator depart from Kigali early morning after his
breakfast?
3. Which touristic destination did the narrator visit before reaching
Nyungwe Forest?
4. Mention two activities the narrator did on the second day.
5. What prevented him to stay one more day?
1.Use a dictionary and thesaurus to look up the missing meanings of the
words or phrases in the table below. Copy the table into your book and
fill in the blank spaces.
2. Use each of the above words in your own sentences.
The differences in employment distributions among women and men have been, and continue to be, a prominent feature of the labour market. Researches indicated a high degree of difference that remained fairly constant from the early 1900s up until about 1970. The 1970s were a watershed period in occupational desegregation, as indicated by significant declines in measures of occupational differences.
The advances of the women’s movement, the enactment of laws prohibiting sex discrimination, increases in female enrolment in higher educationand professional schools, the steady increase in women’s labour force participation, and reductions in gender stereotyping in both education and employment all contributed to this trend. Women continued to make inroads into male-dominated occupations in the 1980s, although the pace of change slowed.
The degree to which the jobs that women and men hold differ, reflecting a number of factors including: the amount and types of education that workers have completed; the types of jobs that have expanded or declined; personal preferences; societal attitudes about gender roles, which can affect both the kind of work that men and women choose and how family responsibilities enter into work decisions; and, in some cases, discrimination. Data that are available for broad occupational groups for the past two decades clearly indicate two major points. First, the gender distribution of many occupations has shifted substantially. Second, despite these shifts, women and men still tend to be concentrated in different occupations: women are highly overrepresented in clerical and service occupations, for example, while men are disproportionately employed in craft, operator, and labourer jobs. Women generally have moved most rapidly into those occupational groups in which employment has been expanding over the past two decades. This is not surprising; because there is a greater demand for workers in faster growing occupations, so that growth could lower barriers to entry, such as gender discrimination. During 1975 to 1995, overall job growth was fastest among managers and professionals and slowest among machine operators, helpers and labourers, and farming occupations. Over this period, women increased their representation significantly among managerial and professional specialty occupations: in 1995, women accounted for 43 percent of managerial and related employment, nearly double their share in 1975 (22 percent); and women’s share of employment in professional occupations also rose over this period, from 45 percent to 53 percent. By contrast, women made few gains in employment share among a number of occupations that posted little or even negative growth during this period. For example, among operators, fabricators, and labourers, women’s share of employment remained unchanged between 1975 and 1995, at 24 percent. Currently, women and men are most equally represented among managersand professionals; in 1995, women held about half of such jobs. Employment of technicians and sales occupations also was about evenly split between women and men. Gender differences were still pronounced, however, among workers in other major occupational groups. For example, women held 4 out of 5 administrative support jobs. Women also were represented heavily in services occupations, particularly private household occupations (in which they account for 96 percent of employment) and service occupations, except private household and protective services (65 percent). Men, by comparison, were much more likely than women to work in the precision production, craft, and repair occupational group—which includes construction trades— holding 9 out of 10 such jobs in 1995. Men also continued to account for the large majority of employment in protective service (84 percent); farming, forestry, and fishing (80 percent); and operating, fabricating, and labouring occupations (76 percent). By Comprehension Barbara H. Wootton(1997) question
1. Describe the distribution of job occupations between men and women from the early 1900s to 1970.
2. State five factors or elements that contributed to the trend of
watershed period in occupational desegregation in 1970s.
3. Using an example explain how societal attitudes about gender role scan affect people’s careers.
4. The gender distribution of many occupations has shifted substantially but still, women and men tend to be concentrated in different occupations. What do you think causes this?
5. Why is the writer not surprised to see women moving most rapidly into new occupational groups (craft, operator)?
6. Explain how the distribution of jobs between men and women was in 1995, as far as employment of technicians and sales occupations is concerned
Use a dictionary and thesaurus to look up the missing meanings of the words or phrases in the table below. Copy the table into your book and fill in the blank spaces.
2. Write a 200 word composition explaining how societal attitudes about gender roles can affect people’s occupational employment. Text2: Rwanda’s first female commercial pilot, Esther Mbabazi,
During her childhood, Esther’s family would move on a regular basis due to her father’s work as a pastor. But her desire to take to the skies never wavered, even after her father passed away in a plane crash in the Democratic Republic of Congo, when the passenger aircraft he was traveling on overshot the runway and hit some terrain.
When Esther Mbabazi was 5, she looked up and watched an aeroplane cut across the sky. She thought to herself, “I want to be the one flying that plane.”
The fact that there were no female pilots in her native country Rwanda—and never had been before— didn’t occur to her. “You know what? I’m going to fly,” she said, “and that’s what motivated me my entire life, that idea I had as a young child.”
At 24, Esther became the first female commercial pilot in Rwanda. It shocked a lot of people because her father died in a plane crash when she was a young girl. But Esther refused to be deterred from her dream. “I love the adventure,” she says. “Every day is different. I would wake up today and even though I’m going to the same destination I was going to yesterday, something is going to be different. That’s what I enjoy about my job: Every day brings its own uniqueness.”
Esther refuses to believe that being a woman negatively affects her career. “It’s a modern world. I have no fear of heights and I like machinery,” she says, refusing to bow to the stereotypes about women that she’s come across.
But she has experienced some negative response. One day, a male passenger stepped onto the plane. When he saw Esther, he said that if she was the one flying, he wouldn’t stay on the plane.
“I feel like even though there’s just that one person, there’s a thousand more that are excited and are happy about where the world is going for women,” she says. Esther’s achievement is remarkable, but being a woman in a traditionally
male-dominated field isn’t an anomaly in Rwanda. “Of course, I’m sure everyone knows we have the highest number of women in the parliament in the world,” Esther says, citing Rwanda’s remarkable achievement in gender parity. Half of Rwanda’s Supreme Court is also women, and an equal number of boys and girls attend school in the country.
“You know a lot of leadership roles are taken by women in Rwanda,” Esther says. “I think Rwanda is doing really a good job training women and supporting women in all aspects.” Today, she gets dozens of letters from young girls who want to be a pilot someday. “Everything starts with a dream,” she says, and encourages those young girls to study math and ignore the naysayers. She also asks them to think about what will come between them and their dream—and then she encourages them to completely ignore it. “If they are girls, people will tell them “Oh, if you’re a pilot, it will be hard for you to have a family, to find a husband,” Esther says. “But those opinions don’t really matter.” “Overall, it’s a job that requires passion. Whether you’re a man or a woman, you just have to have passion.”
Adapted from https://www.one.org/international/blog/meet-esther-the-first- ;female-commercial-pilot-in-rwanda/ Comprehension questions
1. Why were people astonished to see Esther becoming a pilot?
2. What makes her enjoy her job?
3. What is the Esther’s position as far as sex discrimination in job occupations is concerned?
4. Using an example from the passage, explain how there are still negative societal attitudes towards job distribution between men and women.
5. Which advice does Esther give to young girls who want to be a pilot someday?
1. Use a dictionary and thesaurus to look up the missing meanings of the words or phrases in the table below. Copy the table into your book and fill in the blank spaces.
Present simple tense, also known as simple present tense or present indefinite tense is used to describe an action that is regular, true and normal. It could equally be used to describe what is happening currently.
Present 1. simple Repeated tense actions- can be For used example: for the following:
- She walks to work every day.
- The train leaves the railway station daily.
2. Habits,
- They swim every evening.
- I usually get up early.
3. Things which are generally true.
- They speak Ikinyarwanda at home.
- It shines a lot in summer.
4. Facts
- They come from Rwanda.
- Birds have wings.
5. Something fixed in the future.
- The school choir leaves at 7:00pm next Monday evening.
- She performs her traditional song tomorrow morning.
6. To talk about past actions when we are summarising a book, film or play
Example: Okwonko is moved although he remains unstoppable with his mission to
become a Lord of his clan. He is disappointed by Nwoye but maintains great
love for his daughter Ezinma, his child by his second wife Ekwefi. Ekwefi has begotten ten children but only Ezinma has survived. He loves the girl so much...
Extract from Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe The table below shows how the simple present tense can be used.
We use do or does for interrogative and negative sentences
in the present simple and we specifically employ does for the
third person singular.
For third person singular, (she, he, it) we add ‘s’ to the verb.
Often, adverbs of frequency such as sometimes, usually,
seldom etc. are used with the present simple.
Do and does can be used with some of the ‘WH’ words such
as where, when, what. Example, when does Nzeyi clean his
room?
However, “who” does not use do or does as seen in the example below:
Who lives in Huye?
1. Construct (10) grammatically well-structured sentences using the
present simple tense.
2. Narrate an experience you encountered at a college using the
present simple tense.
B. Past Simple tense
The past tense is formed by adding ‘ed’ at the end of the verb. This is very
applicable for only regular verbs in their past form. Such verbs in their base
include play, laugh, clean, pray etc. while the irregular verbs like Catch,
sweep, bring, carry have no defined formula to include for their past form.
Uses of the simple past tense:
To talk about something that happened once in the past
Examples:
1. We met at the market last evening.
2. We carried the books back to the library yesterday.
When talking about a thing that happened several times in the
past
Examples:
1. We sang a lot while we were in school.
2. They always enjoyed playing the piano.
For expressions with ago, we also use simple past
Examples:
1. I met my family twenty years ago.
2. Kevin finished his assignment two days ago.
When something was true for some time in the past
Examples:
1. She prayed a lot when she was sick.
2. I worked in Rwanda for fifteen years.
• Definition
A noun can simply be defined as a word that names a person, place, thing or
an idea. There are different types of nouns, but our focus will be on proper,
common, abstract, collective also known as mass nouns, countable or
uncountable nouns.
Abstract nouns: These are nouns that denote an idea, quality, or state rather than a concrete object. Examples are among others politeness, intelligence, truth, danger, happiness, etc. Collective nouns:
These are used to represent a group of things, people and animals. Examples include a flock of sheep, a gang of thugs, a crowd of people, a fleet of trucks etc.
Common nouns: These are also termed as general nouns and do not provide a specific name. Common nouns surround us. When seated in a class, you find that you are surrounded by tables, you are seated on a desk, at the front of the class there is a black or white board
Proper nouns: They are names of particular people, places, organizations, months, days of the week and some religious events. These are spelled or written with a capital letter. We also use capital letters for festivals such as Easter, Christmas, Iddi etc.
Countable and uncountable nouns: Countable nouns are those that can be counted for example bottles, books, cups while uncountable are those types of nouns that cannot be counted. Examples include Air, sand, wind etc.
1.4.3. Pronouns:
These are: Personal, indefinite, interrogative, demonstrative, relative, reflexive, reciprocal and possessive pronouns
They are words that are used in the place of a noun. In other words, they substitute for a proper name of a person, place, country etc. We normally use pronouns to limit repetition of the nouns that they refer to. The types of pronouns include, personal, indefinite, interrogative, demonstrative, relative, reflexive, reciprocal and possessive pronouns. This unit will therefore exploit personal, possessive and demonstrative pronouns.
Note:
There are many types of pronouns. They include; personal, indefinite, interrogative, demonstrative, relative, reflexive, reciprocal and possessive
pronouns.
1. Personal pronouns are divided into subject and object pronouns
2. Possessive pronouns. These show that something belongs to someone.
Examples include theirs, his, hers, mine, yours.
3. Demonstrative pronouns. They are kinds of words that are used to directly
point at something specific within a sentence. They are very few and include:
This, that, those, these, none, neither, such,
etc.
1.4.4. Articles: Indefinite articles, Definite articles
An article is a word that accompanies a noun to specify its grammatical
definiteness. Articles include a, an and the. They can be definite or indefinite.
Indefinite articles
Indefinite articles are a and an. They are used in several ways:
1. We use the indefinite articles (a and an) when we refer to any person or
thing and not a particular one. For example
a. She gave me a radio.
b. Kamali is afraid to use an escalator.
Note
The words “radio” and “ escalator” in the examples above are referring
not to particular but to general items.
2. We also use indefinite articles when we mention something for the first
time. Look at the examples below.
Example: A farmer approached an officer with a petition. The farmer felt
a bit scared because he did not know how the officer would react to the
petition.
3. We use the indefinite article an when the word that follows it begins with
a vowel sound. A is used when the word that follows it begins with a
consonant sound. Look at the examples below.
a. Her fiancé gave her a ring.
b. The girl gave an answer.
c. I prefer working in a university.
2. It is used when we mention something that we had mentioned before.
Example: A farmer approached an officer with a petition. The farmer felt a bit
scared because he did not know how the officer would react to the petition.
3.We don’t put an article before the name of a country, languages, sports,
and academic subject unless it starts with “united”, for example, the United
States of America or the United Kingdom; or its name contains the word
“Republic” or “Union”, for example, the People’s Republic of China.
1. Eg: Mary speaks French well.
Eddy plays volleyball well
Ann explains me mathematics once a week.
2. When referring to languages, we use the in the following ways: we say
“the English language” and not “English language”; We say “fluent in English” and not “fluent in the English”
3. Before the nouns like chapel, church, market, college, school, hospital, court, prison, work, and bed the article “the” is not used when are used for their primary purpose.
eg: we go to church every Sunday ( the primary purpose of church is
praying then this sentence means that we go to pray every Sunday)6.
Pronunciation of “the”
“the” has two pronunciations:/ðә/ and/ði/.
• “the” is pronounced /ðә/ when it precedes a consonant sound
Eg: the person / ðә pз:sәn/
The university / ðә ju:nivз:sIti/
• “the” is pronounced /ði/ when it precedes a vowel sound
Eg: the apple / ði æpl/
1.4.5. Conjunctions: Whereas, While, When, Where
Read the following sentences carefully and explain the role of the
highlighted words.
1. A home is generally defined as a place where one lives permanently
2. The term nuclear family refers to the family group consisting of
parents and children, while extended family includes all those with
kinship ties.
3. Nuclear family is composed of parents and siblings, whereas
extended family is made up of all people from the same ancestors.
Notes:
A conjunction is a part of speech that is used to connect words, phrases,
clauses, or sentences. Conjunctions are considered to be invariable grammar
particle. Below are some conjunctions that are used to contrast two similar
things.
a. Whereas
Whereas is a conjunction which is used to highlight an important differ-ence between two similar things or facts.
When whereas comes at the beginning of a subordinate (dependent) clause, we put a comma before it.
Examples
1. Nuclear family is composed of parents and siblings, whereas
extended family is made up of all people from the same ancestors.
2. The term nuclear family refers to the family group consisting of
parents and children, whereas extended family includes all those
with kinship ties
3. People say ‘fries’ in America, whereas in Britain they call them
‹chips›
Notes:
When the clause with whereas comes before the main clause, we put a
comma after that main clause.
Examples:
1. Whereas extended family is made up of all people from the same
ancestors, Nuclear family is composed of parents and siblings.
2. Whereas Bugesera has very hot summers, Musanze summers are
sometimes quite cold.
3. Whereas street children don’t get affection, children in families get
enough care.
b. While
While can be used instead of whereas
Examples
1. Nuclear family is composed of parents and siblings, whereas/while
extended family is made up of all people from the same ancestors.
2. Children in orphanages are sometimes sad, whereas/while children
in families are usually happy.
While can also be used to express time. In that case it introduces a time
clause and means “at the same time” or “during the time”.
Examples
1. While the kids were having a nap, the mom could have a relaxing
bath.
2. I remembered I had forgotten to buy food while I was just leaving
the market.
c. When
When can be used in different ways, but when it is used as a conjunction it means “at the time that”. The clause with when is a subordinate clause (sc) and needs a main clause (mc) to complete its meaning. If the when-clause comes before the main clause, we use a comma. When can be used to talk about the past, present or future as explained below.
Talking about the past
Examples:
1. When I was younger, there were no houses here.
2. Nobody spoke when she came into the room.
Talking about the present
Examples:
1. When a new baby is born, there is a lot of joy in family.
2. There is a lot of joy in family when a new baby is born.
Talking about the future
Notes:
In references to the future with when, we use the present simple or the
present perfect in the when-clause, not the future with shall and will:
Examples:
1. When the new park opens, my father will take me there.
Not: When the new park will open, my father will take me there.
2.When I’ve finished my homework, I’m going to phone my dad.
Not: When I’ll finish my homework, I’m going to phone my dad.
We can also use when to mean “considering that”.
Example:
What’s the point in going out when we have to be home by eleven o’clock?
d. Where
Where is used as a conjunction to mean ‘in the place that’ or ‘in situations
that’. The clause with where is a subordinate clause and needs a main
clause to complete its meaning. If the “where clause” comes before the
main clause, we use a comma.
Examples:
1. Where you find a lot of water, you will also find these beautiful
insects.
2. Where you have to pay a deposit, be sure to get a receipt.
1.4.6. Application activities: Using conjunctions and articles in
sentences
Choose the right words from the brackets to fill in gaps in each of the sen- tences below.
1. Kariza, will you lay the table....... I help your sister with her maths exercise, please. (whereas/while)
2. The twins are very different: Kalisa is shy and reserved....... Kamana is outgoing.(whereas/while)
3. My aunt Sophie is a doctor................. Uncle Pete is a dentist.
(whereas/where)
4. I remembered my keys................. I had left. (while/when)
5. Dad would like to have a holiday in Spain........... Mom would prefer
Italy. (whereas/when)
6. Why carrying bed covers in Musanze................we have to sleep
in a hotel. (where/when)
7. A home is generally defined as a place.................one lives
permanently. (where/when)
8. When my mother .................. I will tell her that you didn’t mop your
room. (comes, will come)
ii. Use a, an or the to fill the blanks in the following sentences. The first
one has been done for you.
1. My mother considered it an hour to receive the reward promised by
the President.
2. Your car is very nice. Does it have ---------DVD player?
3. Kamali rested at home in --------------garden-------------whole meaning.
4. Kalisa found --------cat. --------- cat belongs to his neighbour.
5. Keza has got -------job in ---------bank in Kigali.
6. She is --------useful person most of -------time.
1.5. Vocabulary: Word and Sentence Formation
Vocabulary is the basis for the development of all the other skills: reading
comprehension, listening comprehension, speaking, writing, spelling and
pronunciation. This is the main tool that will help you attempt to use English
effectively. You will first find meanings of words and then use them in your
own sentences.
