Lesson Focus

This unit is about mysteries and unexplained phenomena, like crop circles and the Bermuda Triangle. It encourages critical thinking and builds vocabulary related to the unknown.

Key Vocabulary to Master

• Mystery: enigma, mysterious, unusual, puzzling, phenomenon, hoaxers (people who play tricks), aliens, supernatural.

• Investigation: culprits, investigators, anomalies, disappearances.

Grammar Focuses

1. Passive Voice (Impersonal): A specific and advanced passive structure used for reporting general beliefs or sayings. This is a key structure for formal writing.

• Structure: It is said / believed / reported / thought that...

• Example: Active: People say that crop circles appear overnight. → Passive: It is said that crop circles appear overnight.

1. Indefinite Pronouns: Pronouns that do not refer to a specific person or thing. They can be singular or plural.

• Singular: somebody, anybody, nobody, everyone, everything (take a singular verb, e.g., "Nobody knows.").

• Plural: both, many, several.

1. Plural Rules (Revision): Revising regular (-s, -es) and irregular plurals (leaf→leaves, child→children).

Important Points for the O/L Exam

• Paper II (Grammar & Reading):

  • Passive Voice: Sentence transformation from active to passive is a very common O/L question. The "It is said that..." structure is particularly important for higher marks.

  • Subject-Verb Agreement: Questions often test if you can match a singular pronoun like everybody with a singular verb (everybody **has**, not everybody have).

• Paper I (Writing):

  • The topics in this unit can inspire creative stories or essays that require you to present arguments (e.g., "Are aliens real?").

Study Tips & Tricks

• Practice the Impersonal Passive: Find a news report. Take a sentence like "Police believe the suspect escaped." and rewrite it as "It is believed that the suspect escaped."

• Pronoun Drill: Write five sentences using the indefinite pronouns somebody, nobody, everything, both, and some. Make sure your verb agrees with the pronoun.

• Debate Points: For the debate topic "Crop circles are created by aliens," write down two points FOR the idea and two points AGAINST it. This helps with organizing arguments for essays.