Running Blind by Desmond Bagley

Title : Running Blind 

Author : Desmond Bagley 

Publish : Fonata Books, 1978 

Genre : Action 

          I chose this novel because of three things. First, I wanted to know what feeling I would get when reading an action novel because I had never read any action novel before. Next, when looking its cover, I thought this novel was a good one because what was written on its cover showed me that this novel was a BBC TV serial. Last, after reading the first page of chapter one, I thought I could comprehend this novel because most words which the author used in this novel are familiar for me. In short, I chose this novel because of interest and easiness. 

          My favorite actress is Elin Ragnars Dottir; a main actor’s girl friend. I like her because of her brave that was really helpful. For instance, in a battle against opposites, Alan Stewart; a main actor, passed out because he lost his blood so much. At the moment, I thought it was the end of Alan’s life because Alan was only with Elin who had no ability for battling. It was, however, surprised me that Elin took a rifle and started to shoot the house where the opposites stayed in. she waited and when nothing happened, she walked into the house. She reached a telephone and rang Commander Nordlinger for a help. I think it was a very brave thing to do and very helpful to save Alan’s life. 

         I don’t like the end of this novel because, actually, the operation that Alan had been involved as a messenger boy was only a deception operation. This operation was only to make Russians keep their minds for a long time to solve an electronic package that Alan brought. Alan was almost killed by Russians who wanted to get the package. Alan really didn’t know about this operation. I think that was unfair to involve Alan, an innocent person, in such horrid operation. 

          The moral value of this novel is we must be a critical person. We should know not only what we must do but also why we do it. In this case, Alan had ever killed a person who was actually his innocent friend because he just did what he was told without analyzing why he had to do that. He really regretted it.

A Daring Courtship by Valerie King

Title : A Daring Courtship

Author : Valerie King

Publish : Zebra Books, 2003

Genre : Romance

           I chose this novel because its cover looks nice and its title makes me curious. I really wanted to know what a daring courtship means, so I took this novel for further reading. In short, I chose this novel because of interest.

          I like Mr. Piper; Madeline’s father because he really astonished me. It was only because he saw Madeline; a main actress, looking at Sir Roger in such fancy way at the first time, he designed to make Madeline meet and close to Sir roger. He wondered if he was true that Madeline fancied Sir Roger or not. That’s why I think he was really astonishing; however, he really cared her daughter even in such detail attention.

          I like the part when Madeline realized and gave all of her effort to prove that she really loved Sir Roger after making him hurt. I like this part because I could feel and imagine how sad I’m if I lose my soul mate because of my mistake.

          The moral value from this novel is “love doesn’t look someone’s parentage”. That’s what Mr. Piper taught to Madeline. He really disagreed with his society’s narrow perception that forbad a marriage with other nations such as English was forbidden to marry Scotsman. They thought doing that was misbehavior. After all, Madeline realized that her father was true. She loved Sir Roger and married him, a Scotsman.

My Lady Luck by Hayley Ann Solomon

Title     : My Lady Luck

Author : Hayley Ann Solomon 

Publish : Zebra Books, 2004

Genre : Romance 

          I chose this novel because when looking its cover, I predicted that this novel would tell me about the emergence of love because of gamble, since its cover showed me that a woman and a man were gambling. I thought its story was unique, so I took this novel for further reading.

           I like Miss Honoria Finchley because she was smart and brave. She had been proclaimed as the best student of her year at school and she always won gambling in games of skill with cards; moreover, she could notice that Chittlingdon was fleecing her in gambling. She didn’t like it, then she bravely accused and proved that Chittlingdon was a cheat.

          I like the end of this novel because it is a happy ending. I’m happy to know that Miss Honoria won a gamble at Brooke’s and became a rich person, then she married Lord Laxton who helped her win by asking his aunt; Laddy Darfield to tutor Honor in the finer points of playing.

          The moral value of this novel is “our family is our worth”. Our family will do everything for our good. For instance, Honor really cared her sister, Faith, even she gambled to get sufficient fund for Faith’s dowry.

The Raging by Jutta F. Jarnagin

Title     : The Raging
Author : Jutta F. Jarnagin
Publish : Living Books, 1982
Genre  : Inspirational

          I chose this novel because the vocabulary which the author used is familiar for me so that I thought I could comprehend this novel well. In addition, when reading its synopsis, I predicted this novel might tell me about family; therefore I thought the moral value would probably fit in my real life. In short, I chose this novel because of easiness and interest.

         I like Harold, a main actress’ husband, because of his pure love to his wife, Jutta Friedlander. He really cared and loved his wife; even his wife couldn’t bear a child. He always took care after his wife when Jutta was hospitalized. He encouraged her to recover. I adore Harold and I hope I have my future husband like him, a kind husband.

          I really got touched till my tears rolling down on my cheek when reading a part that told me about the death of Jutta’s mother. When reading this part, I remembered my mother. I haven’t done much good to help my mother and I imagined that if my mother died, I would be so sad.

          The moral value of this novel is “Problem is a gift that God gives to teach us”. In this case, when Jutta suffered a mental illness because she really gave her attention to what her neighbor said about her such as “you have a clean house because you don’t have any children”. Initially, she didn’t accept her fate but, further she realized that it was God’s way of teaching her to depend on him for everything and not look to others for approval.

Definition of Grammar

         Definition of grammar is often changed. The shifting of grammar definition is merely to improve the old grammar perspective with the better one. The old one refers to traditional view while the better one is functional view

        Commonly, the teaching of English grammar in Indonesia is under an assumption of traditional view point for the term of grammar. In this view, grammar is regarded as a set of rules that govern language behavior. It describes how a speaker produces sentences using the words, and serves as a way to manipulate language and combine words into sentences. If we look more carefully, traditional grammar more focuses on the language form rather than meaning. Moreover, this view left the importance of how to use grammar in real life. As stated by Alexander the primary concern of traditional grammar is with the forms of grammatical structures rather than with their meanings or uses in different contexts. Therefore, the teaching of grammar with this view makes students not be able to connect grammar with their lives. Consequently, students will feel grammar not meaningful to be learnt and finally their motivation to learn grammar will decrease

          On the contrary, the functional view includes a consideration of the structure functions and their meanings in context. In this view, grammar is regarded not only as a set of grammatical forms, but also grammatical meaning and use as a whole. Thus, grammar deals with three dimensions i.e. form, meaning and use. This assumption leads teachers to teach grammar that should be meaningful in the context and also teach students how to use it. As a result, students can connect grammar with their lives and their motivation to learn grammar will increase.

        In short, the two different main streams for the term grammar are traditional and functional views. The former more focuses on structure rather than meaning and use whereas the last focuses on not only structure but also meaning and use.

Importance of Grammar

     Grammar plays an important role in language teaching and learning. The importance of grammar is so many. The followings are the five importance of grammar.

          First, it is the function of grammar as a structural foundation of language skills. Grammar is regarded as a structural foundation of language skill because of an assumption which states that learning language skills is like build a building. Students have to build its foundation first before building its higher parts. If they do not make a strong foundation, the building will easily break and cannot be built into a higher one. The foundation of this building is grammar. So, to develop students‘ language skill, teacher needs to teach grammar since the teaching of grammar is so important for students as a foundation for their language skills.

          Second, it is the existence of grammar in language curriculum. As a language element that is needed to develop and measure students‘ proficiency in English,grammar becomes to be a subject that has to be taught and tested in language curriculum. It is on the language curriculum whether students like it or not. They have to pass this subject in order to graduate and be considered as having enough proficiency in English. Consequently, grammar is a must and important to be learnt by students.

         Third, it is the function of grammar as a sentence-making machine. Grammar becomes to be important for students because it can function as a sentence-making machine for them. It can describe the regularities of language behaviors and provide students with patterns to generate enormous number of new sentences. So, by knowing grammar students will be facilitated to produce new sentences. 

          Fourth, it is the function of grammar as a tool for language monitoring. Grammar enables students to self-monitor. It can assist students in becoming aware of a structure that they encounter and help them continue to notice it in subsequent encounters. Once students have internalized the structure through repeated exposure, they can use this knowledge to monitor their own language use. It then improves their proficiency in creating polish and acceptable English sentences. In short, knowing grammar can help students monitor their language use. 

           Last, it is the function of grammar to prevent students from fossilizing early. It is assumed that students who receive no grammar instruction seem to be at risk of fossilizing early because they cannot monitor their own language use. They will easily feel satisfied with their current ability. It then makes their language progress stop and fossilize early. Therefore, grammar is so needed to prevent students from fossilizing early. 

          To sum up, grammar is so important in language teaching and learning. It is because grammar functions as a structural foundation of language that enables students to develop their language skills. Consequently, grammar should be taught in language curriculum since it can function as a language-sentence machine for students because it describes the regularities of language behaviors so that students can use it as a pattern to make an enormous number of new sentences and help them monitor their language use. Finally, it will prevent them from fossilizing early.

Soal bahasa Inggris SMA prediksi UN 2014

Name  :

Class   :

Choose the correct answer.

This text is for question no. 1 – no. 4.

            Speech production is made possible by the specialized movements of our vocal organs that generate speech sounds waves.

            Like all sounds production speech productions requires a source of energy. The source of energy for speech production is the steady stream of air that comes from the lungs as we exhale. When we breathe normally, the air is inaudible. To become audible, the air stream must vibrate rapidly. The vocal cords cause the air stream to vibrate.

As we talk, the vocal cords open and close rapidly, chopping up the steady air stream into a series of puffs. These puffs are heard as a buzz. But this buzz is still not speech.

            To produce speech sounds, the vocal tract must change shape. During speech we continually alter the shape of the vocal tract by moving the tongue and lips, etc. these movements change the acoustic properties of the vocal tract, which is turn produce the different sounds of speech.

1.      The topic of the passage is about…….

(A) Speech                   (D) are stream

(B)  Vocal cords                       (E) speech production

(C)  Sounds waves

2.      ……..that comes from the lungs as we exhale (paragraph 2). The word ‘exhale’ means……

(A) Breath                   (D) Move

(B)  Send                      (E) Talk

(C)  Breathe

3.      What does speech production need?

(A) Energy

(B)  Sound waves

(C)  The steady stream of air

(D) The vocal tract

(E)  The vocal cords

4.      Which of the following statements is TRUE according the text?

(A) The air stream is inaudible if we don’t breathe normally

(B)  When we talk, the vocal cords open and close slowly

(C)  The vocal tract must charge shape to make speech sounds

(D) The air stream must vibrate rapidly to make the stream in audible

(E)  The vocal tract cause the air stream to vibrate normally

This text is for question no. 5 – no. 8.

            There are many reasons for both sides of the questions, “should we have pointed advertisement?"

            Many people have strong views and feel that ads are nothing more than useless junk mail, while other people feel they are an important source of information.

            Here some reasons why we should have advertisements in newspapers and magazines. One reason is ads give us information about what is new in the market. This is an easy way of shopping. Another reason is that advertisements promote business. When shop owners compete against each other the buyer saves money, mayor people come to their shops and they sell more goods.

            On the other hand, some people argue ads should not be put in newspapers and magazines for these various reasons. Firstly, ads cost the shopkeepers a lot of money to print into paper. Also come people don’t like finding junk mail in their letter boxes. People may also find the ads not very interesting. And also influence people to buy items they don’t need and can’t really afford. Ads use up a lot space and a lot of efforts has to be made to make the ads eye-catching. Ads also take up a lot of room in the papers and I don’t think I find some of them interesting.

In summary, although ads provide people with information, they cost a lot of money to print. Therefore I think, we should not have pointed advertisement.

5.      The text discusses…..

(A) The benefits of advertisements

(B)  Advertisements in general

(C)  The advantages and disadvantages of printed newspapers

(D) The disadvantages of having advertisements

(E)  The competition of advertisements in newspaper

6.      The third paragraph is mainly about…….

(A) The information given by advertisements

(B)  The benefits of advertisements

(C)  The people who need advertisement

(D) The bad of having advertisement on newspaper

(E)  The ways to use advertisement

7.      What are the functions of advertisements for a product company?

(A) It makes the product

(B)  It gives us information about the company

(C)  It promotes business especially the product sale

(D) It finds the new product for the company

(E)  It gives inspiration for making the other product

8.      According to the text, the following is NOT the reason why we should not have printed advertisement?

(A) It needs a lot money to print ads

(B)  It is an easy way to help shopping

(C)  It takes up a lot of space in the paper

(D) Some people don’t like finding junk mall in their letter boxes.

(E)  It influences people to buy things they don’t need

This text is for question no.9-no. 10.

Most people in Nepal are farmers. They live in some or timber houses with thatched or slab roofing. They grow rice, which is their main crop, maize, barley, potatoes, and vegetables. Sheep are their main source of meet. Cows are kept to produce milk. Donkey, mules, and dozes are used to carry goods. Nepal is an isolated country so hardly any modernizing has occurred. They have few facilities and mainly live on their intensive subsistence agriculture.

9.      The text mainly talks about……

(A) The borders of Nepal

(B)  The animals in Nepal

(C)  The facilities in Nepal

(D) The people in Nepal

(E)  The scenery in Nepal

10.  It is difficult to find modernization in Nepal because Nepal is…….country.

(A) A modern

(B)  An agriculture

(C)  An isolated

(D) A developing

(E)  A primitive

This text is for questions no.11 – no. 14.

Spring, summer, autumn, winter the season change without fail. The Ancient Greek told a story of how the seasons came to be.

When the world was new, it was always summer. The goddess Demeter took care of the earth. She watered the plants and crops, and picked up flowers with her beautiful daughter Persephone.

Below the earth, Pluto was king of the underworld, where it was always dark and gloomy. Sometimes he climbed to the banks of the River Styx at the earth. One day he saw Persephone. He had never seen anyone so beautiful and he fell in love with instantly, Pluto wanted Persephone to be his wife.

Pluto harnessed his chariot. He snatched Persephone and thundered back to the underworld. “Don’t be afraid” he said. I love you. I will make you my queen.

On earth, Demeter searched for Persephone and forgot all her work. When she had almost given up hope, she sat by the River Styx. The water whispered what had happened.

Demeter ran to the Zeus, the king of the Gods for help. “It Persephone eats anything in the underworld, she must stay, said Zeus. Let me send Hermes. My messenger is to find out.

In the underworld, Persephone is nothing at all. One day Pluto held out pornegranate. It smelled delicious, and when twelve seeds dropped into Persephone’s hand, she lifted them to her lips. Just at the moment, Hermes arrived in the underworld. “Stop!” he shouted. But it was too late. Persephone had eaten half the seeds. “Now, you must stay here forever,” said Hernes.

Finally, Zeus decided what would happen. “Because Persephone ate six seeds, she will live in the underworld for six month of the year. For the eater six months, she will return to her mother.”

That is why spring and summer when Demeter is happy, the sun shines. In autumn, when Persephone goes back to the underworld, flowers die and trees shed their leaves as Demeter cries.

11.  Paragraph three tells us that……

(A) Pluto took care of the earth

(B)  Pluto was dark and gloomy

(C)  Pluto asked Persephone and fell in love with her

(D) Pluto asked Persephone to marry

(E)  Pluto asked Persephone to understand

12.  What is the communicative purpose of the text?

(A) To describe a season

(B)  To inform readers about seasons

(C)  To persuade readers to pay attention to the reason

(D) To present different point of view about the season

(E)  To tell an amusing story to the readers

13.  To show the real words of the speakers, the writer uses…….

(A) Indirect speech

(B)  Direct speech

(C)  Reported speech

(D) Passive voice

(E)  Simple present tense

14.  Who was the king of the Gods?

(A) Pluto

(B)  Zeus

(C)  Demeter

(D) Persephone

(E)  Hermes

This text is for question no.15

To Mr. Vicky Fauzy

I found some viruses attack my documents. Please tell me how I can eliminate them. Sorry, I wrote this memo because you were not in your office.

Thank you

Mr. Sony Chandra.

15.  What kind of text is above?

(A) Memo                                (D) Brochure

(B)  Letter                                (E) Announcement

(C)  advertisement