ENGLISH ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE YEAR 2 (GR 8) LESSON 1

WEEK 1

Listening and speaking: Activity 1Look at the following vocabulary and make sure you know the meanings of all the words:

inventions non-inventions famous expert embarrassing catch on appreciate

Now look at the following pictures and say if they are inventions or non-inventions:

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licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

CC BY-NC-ND

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Reading, viewing and phonics: Activity 2Read the following dialogue with a friend:

Mylie: Did you know that the Gautrain isn’t the only fastest train in the world?

Sharon: No, I didn’t. What makes you say that?

Mylie: Last week I went to the Invention show and saw the Hyperloop.

Sharon: The WHAT? What is that?

Mylie: It’s a new train system that travels at 500km/h. This means it will take you from Johannesburg to Durban in 30 minutes and overseas from say London to Edinburgh or LA to San Francisco in under 30 minutes.

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CC BY-NC-ND

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

BY-SA

Sharon: What? Six hundred kilometres in 30 minutes? How is that even possible? Mylie: Well it’s like sending objects through a vacuum tube.

Sharon: Ok. You’ve lost me. Please explain some more.

Mylie: Hyperloop uses tunnels to travel from place to place. The air is sucked out of these tunnels so that there’s low pressure and the trains can run more smoothly.

Sharon: It’s an underground system then?

Mylie: Not necessarily. The tunnels are meant to be metal tunnels elevated (lifted up) as an over ground system.

Sharon: Fair enough, but what kind of wheels do these trains then have?

Mylie: They have air bearings which actually make the pods of the train move in the air.

Sharon: Wow that’s amazing. The first of its kind!

Mylie: Not quite.

Sharon: You’re kidding me. I can’t believe it.

Mylie: You’d better believe it. The Japanese have a similar train called the Maglev. The only difference is Maglev needs tracks with copper coiling, which can be expensive.

Sharon: I wonder who’s the genius who invented this?

Mylie: It’s a guy named Elon Musk.

Sharon: One last question. How is the whole system powered?

Mylie: Musk has suggested that solar panels run on top of the tunnels to generate enough electricity to power the system.

Sharon: Absolutely fascinating!

ASSESSMENT: Read the dialogue above for marks. You will be assessed as follows: Fluency: /5; Accuracy: /5; Confidence and eye contact: /5 TOTAL: 15

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