English — Last-Minute Revision
25 must-know points covering prose, poetry, grammar and comprehension. Read this the night before your TGBIE exam.
Father, Dear Father: theme = love and responsibility between parent and child. Key message: children often understand parents' struggles only later.
The Green Champion, Thimmakka: Saalumarada Thimmakka planted 384 trees along a 4.5 km road. Message: one person's dedication can create lasting environmental change.
The First Four Minutes: Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute mile barrier in 1954. Theme: the mind is often the real barrier, not the body.
The Noble Nature: poem by Ben Jonson. Theme: it is better to live nobly for a short time than to live long without purpose.
Box and Cox (One Act Play): farce comedy. Two men unknowingly share the same room — Box works days, Cox works nights.
Keep Going (poem): theme = perseverance despite failure. Key line idea: success comes to those who keep going after falling.
Happiness (poem): true happiness lies in simple things — a warm fire, a good friend, a book. Not in wealth or fame.
The Five Boons of Life: the man finally chose Death — the one boon that was genuinely valuable — realising it too late.
Grammar — Articles: 'a' before consonant sounds (a cat, a university = 'yoo-ni'), 'an' before vowel sounds (an hour = 'ow').
The use of 'the': before specific/unique things (the sun, the Ganga), before superlatives (the best), before names of rivers/oceans.
Prepositions of time: AT (specific time: at 5 pm, at noon), ON (days: on Monday), IN (months/years: in June, in 2026).
Tenses: Simple Present = V1/V1+s; Present Continuous = am/is/are + Ving; Present Perfect = has/have + V3.
Active to Passive: Object becomes subject; verb becomes 'be + V3'; subject becomes 'by + agent'.
Passive for present simple: am/is/are + V3 (The book is read). Past simple: was/were + V3 (The book was read).
Transformation — Degrees of comparison: 'No other X is as tall as Y' = 'Y is the tallest' = 'Y is taller than all other X'.
Reported speech: present tense → past tense. 'I am happy' → He said that he was happy.
Reported speech — time words: today → that day; yesterday → the previous day; tomorrow → the next day; here → there.
Conjunction types: coordinating (FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so); subordinating (because, although, if, when, since).
Complex sentence: has one main clause + one/more subordinate clauses joined by subordinating conjunction.
Reading comprehension: always answer in complete sentences. Use the exact vocabulary from the passage where possible.
Writing an essay: Introduction (define topic) → Body (3 points with examples) → Conclusion (summary and personal view).
Formal letter: Sender's address → Date → Receiver's address → Subject → Salutation → Body → Closing → Signature.
Subject-verb agreement: singular subject takes singular verb. 'Neither X nor Y is...' — verb agrees with the nearer subject.
Correction of sentences: common errors are (1) wrong tense, (2) wrong article, (3) subject-verb disagreement, (4) wrong preposition.
Word grammar: know noun/verb/adjective/adverb forms. E.g., succeed (v) → success (n) → successful (adj) → successfully (adv).