English For Today chapter 2: Our School Garden

1.1 Read the text.

Our school has a lovely garden in front of the big playground. A fence encloses the garden. In the garden, there are many beautiful flowers like roses, sunflowers, jasmines and marigolds. A swarm of butterflies dances on the flowers. It makes the garden look very beautiful.

There is a ditch near the corner of the garden. A group of frogs live there. Sometimes, we see a flock of birds sitting on the nearby trees, singing sweet songs.

We take care of the garden regularly. On a selected day, students from each class work together to clean the garden. We use a set of gardening tools like spades, rakes, and sickles. We water the plants and remove the weeds regularly. We also add compost to the soil for making it fertile.

The garden is full of plants and flowers. They give us joy and happiness. We love working in our school garden.

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2.1 Read the names given in the left column and write their category/type in the right column. One is done for you as an example.

2.2 Read the text again. Match each phrase with the correct word(s). The first one is done for you.

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3.1 Language Focus: Common Noun and Collective Noun

Look at the words—school, garden, flower, plant in the text. These are common nouns.

A common noun refers to a general name of an object, place, group or item.

Examples of common nouns:

• I bought a pen yesterday. (common object)
• I am going to school. (common place)
• Only ten students submitted homework today. (common group)
• The car is out of fuel. (common item)

Again, look at the words— swarm, flock, group, set used in the text. These are naming words. They indicate a group of animals, people and objects. These words are collective nouns.

A collective noun is the name of a specific group of people, animals, or things.

Examples :

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4.1 Fill in the blanks with the correct collective noun from the box.

swarm, flock, group, pair, set

a) A __________ of pepole is working in the field.

b) We saw a __________ of butterflies flying over the flowers.

c) There is a __________ of birds on the trees.

d) We used a __________ of gardening tools to clean the garden.

e) She bought a ___________ of shoes.

4.2 Read the sentences below. Find all the common nouns and the collective nouns. Write them in the correct column below.

a) A group of students visited the museum.

b) My dog chased a flock of hens in the yard.

c) The teacher brought a box of pencils for the class.

d) A band of musicians played wonderful songs.

e) We saw a swarm of bees near the big tree.

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4.3 Rearrange the jumbled words to make meaningful sentences. Now, write the sentences in your exercise book.

a) is / raining / it / outside b) the / sets / sun / behind / the mountains c) in the night / twinkle / the stars / brightly d) in the garden / beautiful / flowers / bloom e) she / banana / eating / breakfast / is / for f) Setu / and / class / late/ for / the / were / Fatima g) the / was / girl / very / little / excited / to / visit / zoo / the h) the / after / dinner / we / watch / TV i) sister / my / always / shares / toys / with / her / me j) like / pictures / painting / I / colourful

4.4 Imagine, you are visiting a farm or a zoo. Write 4 sentences describing what you see. Use common nouns and collective nouns in your sentences. Underline the common nouns and circle the collective nouns.

Example: A herd of cows is grazing in the green field.

a) ________________________________________________________

b) ________________________________________________________

c) ________________________________________________________

d) ________________________________________________________