GRADE 7

Reading Comprehension and Language Assessment

Grade 7 English Home Language Term 3 Weeks 7-8: Reading and Viewing: Reading Comprehension and Language Assessment
Name:

Text 1

With Dogs, It’s What You Say — and How You Say It
By JAMES GORMAN AUG. 29, 2016

W ho’s a good dog?

Well, that depends on whom you’re
dog owners, only a word of praise said in
a positive tone really made the reward
system of a dog’s brain light up.
asking, of course. But new research
suggests that the next time you look at The experiment itself was something of an
your pup, whether Maltese or mastiff, you achievement. Dr. Andics and his colleagues
might want trained dogs to enter a magnetic resonance
to choose imaging machine and lie in a harness while
your words the machine recorded
carefully. their brain activity.
“Both what A trainer spoke
we say and words in Hungarian
Dogs that were trained to enter an M.R.I. how we say
— common words of
machine for the research. Photo Credit: it matters to praise used by dog
Enik Kubinyi dogs,” said owners like “good
Attila Andics, a research fellow at Eotvos boy,” “super” and
Lorand University in Budapest. “well done.” The
trainer also tried
Dr. Andics, who studies language and neutral words like
behaviour in dogs and humans, along with “however” and “nevertheless.”
Adam Miklosi and several other colleagues,
reported in a paper to be published in this The research found that different parts of
week’s issue of the journal Science that dogs’ brains respond to the meaning of a
different parts of dogs’ brains respond to word and to how the word is said, much as
the meaning of a word, and to how the human brains do.
word is said, much as human brains do. The positive words spoken in a positive
As with people’s tone prompted strong activity in the brain’s
brains, parts reward centers. All the other conditions
of dogs’ left resulted in significantly less action, and all
hemisphere react at the same level.
to meaning and In other words, “good boy” said in a neutral
parts of the right tone and “however” said in a positive or
hemisphere to neutral tone all got the same response.
A dog waiting for its brain
intonation — the
activity to be measured in a emotional content What does it all mean? For dog owners, Dr.
magnetic resonance imaging of a sound. And, Andics said, the findings mean that the dogs
machine for research reported perhaps most are paying attention to meaning, and that
in the journal Science. Photo interesting to you should, too.
Credit: Enik Kubinyi

© e-classroom 2015 www.e-classroom.co.za

 GRADE 7
That doesn’t mean a dog won’t wag its tail
and look happy when you say, “You stinky

Grade 7 English Home Language Term 3 Weeks 7-8: Reading and Viewing: Reading Comprehension and Language Assessment
mess” in a happy voice. But the dog is looking
at your body language and your eyes, and
perhaps starting to infer that “stinky mess”
is a word of praise.
In terms of evolution of language, the
results suggest that the capacity to process
meaning and emotion in different parts
of the brain and tie them together is not
uniquely human.

Anna Gabor speaking to a dog as part of the research. Photo

Credit Vilja and Vanda Molnár

Article taken from: https://goo.gl/LNEEYC

Questions - Text 1 (20 marks)

1. What is the main point of this article? (2)
2. Who do you think the target audience is? (2)
3. What kind of language has been used in this article? (1)
4. Using one adjective, describe the tone of this article. (1)
5. Give an example of emotive language in this article and explain why you think it is
emotive. (3)
6. Write down one example of an obviously biased opinion that the writer shows and
explain your answer. (2)
7. Rewrite the following facts from the article into chronological order. (7)
• A trainer spoke words in Hungarian — common words of praise used by dog owners
like “good boy,” “super” and “well done.”
• Dr. Andics and his colleagues trained dogs to enter a magnetic resonance imaging
machine.
• The trainer also tried neutral words like “however” and “nevertheless.”
• Dr. Andics reported in a paper to be published in this week’s issue of the journal
Science that different parts of dogs’ brains respond to the meaning of a word, and to
how the word is said.
• Dr. Andics and his colleagues devised an experiment using dogs to measure whether
dog’s brains respond to how we say things as opposed to just ‘what’ we say.
• The dogs had to lie in a harness while the machine recorded their brain activity.
• The positive words spoken in a positive tone prompted strong activity in the brain’s
reward centers.
8. Write down an alternate title for this article. (2)

© e-classroom 2015 www.e-classroom.co.za

 GRADE 7
Text 2
Meet Octobot:

Grade 7 English Home Language Term 3 Weeks 7-8: Reading and Viewing: Reading Comprehension and Language Assessment
Squishy,
Adorable and
Revolutionary
Octobot, a small, eight-armed machine, is the first fully autonomous
By NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR AUG. 26, 2016 soft-bodied robot. Credit Lori Sanders/Harvard University

Hello, Octobot! Also, unlike other soft-bodied robots, which

typically have batteries, wires or circuit
This squishy eight-armed machine is the boards, the octobot has no rigid parts in its
world’s first fully autonomous soft-bodied gummy body. Instead, chemicals course
robot. Researchers at Harvard University through its veins to give it power.
created the octopus by three-dimensional
printing, using silicone gel, which gives it Liquid hydrogen peroxide is its fuel, and
its flexible, rubbery texture. when it reacts with a platinum catalyst in the
cephalopod’s core, it creates a gas that inflates
On Wednesday, they unveiled their the creature’s limbs, like a balloon. Using the
adorable step toward the robot uprising chemical reaction, the octobot can wriggle its
in the journal Nature. The scientists said arms. It starts by lifting four of its arms while
in their paper that their creation could be lowering its other four, and then reversing
a foundation for the future of soft-bodied the motion. The octobot will continue cycling
robots. through its dance until it runs out of fuel,
Octobot is similar to other soft robots who which usually takes four to eight minutes.
mimic the movements of animals, such as The Octobot also has its own preservation
starfish, squids and octopuses. But while code. While moving, it avoids exploding by
many of those were tethered to a power releasing its excess gas through vent orifices.
source, the octobot can move free. It’s In other words, it farts.
cordless.
Article taken from: https://goo.gl/cRmkG5

Questions - Text 2 (15 marks)

1. In one sentence, explain what this article is about. (2)
2. What is unique about the octobot compared with other soft-bodied robots? (2)
3. Say which of the following headlines are literal / figurative: (4)
a) Meet the Octobot!
b) Harvard Scientists make waves with new creation.
c) Octobot steals five awards at technology fair.
d) Discover the Octobot: a new kind of invertebrate.
4. What ‘human-like’ characteristics does the octobot possess? Name two. (2)
5. Would you like to own the octobot? Explain your answer. (2)
6. Do you think that inventions like the octobot are important contributions to science and
technology? Explain your answer. (3)
© e-classroom 2015 www.e-classroom.co.za
 GRADE 7
Language Exercises – Texts 1 & 2
(40 marks)

Grade 7 English Home Language Term 3 Weeks 7-8: Reading and Viewing: Reading Comprehension and Language Assessment
Exercise 1 – Word Meanings: Antonyms and Synonyms (10 marks)

Write your own synonym and antonym for each of the following words found in Text 2.
Eg: core – centre/middle; outside/covering

Original Word from Passage Synonym Antonyms

1. squishy
2. unveiled
3. adorable
4. rigid
5. preservation

Exercise 2 – Parts of Speech: Prepositions and Compound and Complex Sentences (5 marks)
Use prepositions to join the following sentences, thus forming compound and / complex sentences.
*NB: the original meaning of the sentences in their context must not
be changed by your choice of preposition!
Eg: On Wednesday, they unveiled their
adorable step toward the robot uprising in
the journal Nature.
The scientists said in this paper that their
creation could be a foundation for the future of soft-
bodied robots.
Becomes: On Wednesday, they unveiled their adorable step toward the robot uprising in the
journal Nature and the scientists said in this paper that their creation could be a foundation for
the future of soft-bodied robots.
6. The experiment itself was something of an achievement.
Dr. Andics and his colleagues had to train the dogs to enter a magnetic resonance imaging
machine and lie in a harness while the machine recorded their brain activity.
7. A trainer spoke words in Hungarian — common words of praise used by dog owners like
“good boy,” “super” and “well done.” The trainer also tried neutral words like “nevertheless.”
8. The positive words spoken in a positive tone prompted strong activity in the brain’s reward
centers. All the other conditions resulted in significantly less action, and all at the same level.
9. That doesn’t mean a dog won’t wag its tail and look happy when you say, “You stinky mess” in
a happy voice. The dog could be looking at your body language and your eyes, and perhaps
starting to infer that “stinky mess” is a word of praise.
10. We may have thought up until now that the capacity to process meaning and emotion in
different parts of the brain and tie them together is uniquely human. The results of this study
suggest otherwise.
© e-classroom 2015 www.e-classroom.co.za
 GRADE 7
Exercise 3 – Parts of Speech: Adjectives and Degrees of Comparison (10 marks)
Complete the following sentences by changing the adjectives in brackets into their correct forms.

Grade 7 English Home Language Term 3 Weeks 7-8: Reading and Viewing: Reading Comprehension and Language Assessment
Eg: Dogs are intelligent, but not necessarily (intelligent) than other animals.
Answer: more intelligent.
11. My dog is fluffy, but
your St. Bernard is
(fluffy).
12. The experiment
measured many
aspects of dog
behaviour but the
(interesting) finding
was that dogs
respond to body
language and the tone of peoples’ voices.
13. The Octobot is the (mobile) soft bodied robot ever invented.
14. I have seen other robots, but I like the Octobot the (good).
15. The Octobot is (squishy) than jelly.

Exercise 4 – Punctuation (15 marks)

Punctuate the following paragraph.
when you praise a dog, its listening not just to the words you say but also how you say them. That
might not be huge news to dog owners But now scientists have explored this phenomenon by
using an imaging machine to peek inside the brains of 13 dogs as they listened to their trainers
voice. The reward pathway in the dogs brains lit up when they heard both praising words and an
approving intonation but not when they heard random words spoken in a praising tone or praise
words spoken in a flat tone according to a report in the journal science. Dogs process both what
we say and how we say it in a way which is amazingly similar to how human brains do says Attila
Andics a neuroscientist at eotvos lorand university in Hungary

© e-classroom 2015 www.e-classroom.co.za

 GRADE 7
Activity 6: Reading and Viewing – ‘Reading Comprehension and
Language Assessment’

Grade 7 English Home Language Term 3 Weeks 7-8: Reading and Viewing: Reading Comprehension and Language Assessment
Suggested Answers - Text 1 (20 marks)
For each of these answers the learner’s answers may differ from this memo as long as they contain the
same ideas. For each question, where 2 or more marks are allocated (besides question: 7), ½ of the mark
allocation for each question should be awarded for grammar. So, each grammatical mistake should
be penalised by a ½ mark up to ½ of the allocated marks for a question. So for example, in question 1,
a good answer with two spelling mistakes would be awarded only 1 out of 2 marks as each mistake
would be penalised by ½ a mark. However, a good answer with 3 spelling errors would also get 1 mark
and no more than ½ of the mark allocation should be deducted for grammatical errors.
1. What is the main point of this article? (2)
Answer: The main point of this article is that both what we say and how we say it matters
to dogs.
2. Who do you think the target audience is? (2)
Answer: The target audience of this article is dog Owners and people interested in research
and science to do with animals.
3. What kind of language has been used in this article? (1)
Answer: This article uses a mixture of formal and informal language with some witty phrases
to keep the reader entertained.
4. Using one adjective, describe the tone of this article. (1)
Answer: playful / fun / informative etc…
5. Give an example of emotive language in this article and explain why you think it is emotive. (3)
*There are a few different appropriate examples in this article, as long as the learner has
explained his/her reasoning appropriately, he/she may be awarded the marks.
Suggested Answer: “Who’s a good dog?” This is an example of emotive language because as
soon as you read it you can picture a dog owner saying it positively to his/her dog. This phrase
conjures up a positive emotive scenario where a dog has been well-behaved and is being praised.
6. Write down one example of an obviously biased opinion that the writer shows and explain
your answer. (2)
*There are a few different appropriate examples in this article, as long as the learner has
explained his/her reasoning appropriately, he/she may be awarded the marks.
Suggested Answer: “For dog owners, Dr. Andics said, the findings mean that the dogs are
paying attention to meaning, and that you should, too.” This quotation leaves no room for the
reader to think anything else. The use of the imperative ‘should’ orders the reader to behave in a
certain way instead of inviting him/her to form his/her opinion.
7. Rewrite the following facts from the article into chronological order. (7)
• A trainer spoke words in Hungarian — common words of praise used by dog owners
like “good boy,” “super” and “well done.”
• Dr. Andics and his colleagues trained dogs to enter a magnetic resonance imaging machine.
• The trainer also tried neutral words like “however” and “nevertheless.”
• Dr. Andics reported in a paper to be published in this week’s issue of the journal
Science that different parts of dogs’ brains respond to the meaning of a word, and to
how the word is said.
• Dr. Andics and his colleagues devised an experiment using dogs to measure whether
dog’s brains respond to how we say things as opposed to just ‘what’ we say.
• The dogs had to lie in a harness while the machine recorded their brain activity.
• The positive words spoken in a positive tone prompted strong activity in the brain’s
reward centers.
© e-classroom 2015 www.e-classroom.co.za
 GRADE 7
Answer: (1 mark for each fact correctly ordered).
a) Dr. Andics and his colleagues devised an experiment using dogs to measure whether

Grade 7 English Home Language Term 3 Weeks 7-8: Reading and Viewing: Reading Comprehension and Language Assessment
dog’s brains respond to how we say things as opposed to just ‘what’ we say.
b) Dr. Andics and his colleagues trained dogs to enter a magnetic resonance imaging
machine.
c) The dogs had to lie in a harness while the machine recorded their brain activity.
d) A trainer spoke words in Hungarian — common words of praise used by dog owners
like “good boy,” “super” and “well done.”
e) The trainer also tried neutral words like “however” and “nevertheless.”
f ) The positive words spoken in a positive tone prompted strong activity in the brain’s
reward centers.
g) Dr. Andics reported in a paper to be published in this week’s issue of the journal
Science that different parts of dogs’ brains respond to the meaning of a word, and to
how the word is said.
8. Write down an alternate title for this article. (2)
Answers will differ, so refer to the following guideline when marking:
1 mark - an attempt at an appropriate title but contains spelling mistakes or is slightly
inappropriate like being too long or off topic.
1.5 marks – a good title idea with grammatical error/s.
2 marks – an appropriate, catchy title with no grammatical errors.

Suggested Answers - Text 2 (15 marks)

1. In one sentence, explain what this article is about. (2)
Answer: The article is about the Octobot – the world’s first fully autonomous soft-bodied robot.
2. What is unique about the octobot compared with other soft-bodied robots? (2)
Answer: The Octobot can move freely - it’s cordless. Also, unlike other soft-bodied robots, which
typically have batteries, wires or circuit boards, the octobot has no rigid parts in its gummy body.
Instead, chemicals course through its veins to give it power.
3. Say which of the following headlines are literal / figurative. (4)
a) Meet the Octobot!
b) Harvard Scientists make waves with new creation.
c) Octobot steals five awards at technology fair.
d) Discover the Octobot: a new kind of invertebrate.
Answers:
a) Meet the Octobot! - Literal
b) Harvard Scientists make waves with new creation. – Figurative.
c) Octobot steals five awards at technology fair. – Figurative.
d) Discover the Octobot: a new kind of invertebrate. – Literal.
4. What ‘human-like’ characteristics does the octobot possess? Name two. (2)
Answer: The Octobot can move and fart.
5. Would you like to own the octobot? Explain your answer. (2)
Answer: *Learners’ answers will differ.
1 mark for Yes / No and 1 mark for a valid explanation.

© e-classroom 2015 www.e-classroom.co.za

 GRADE 7
6. Do you think that inventions like the octobot are important contributions to science and
technology? Explain your answer. (3)

Grade 7 English Home Language Term 3 Weeks 7-8: Reading and Viewing: Reading Comprehension and Language Assessment
Answer: *Answers will differ.
1 mark for Yes / No and 2 marks for two valid justifications such as:
• The Octobot is advancement in robotic technology which means that Scientists are
making progress in this field and we can expect that robots will be relied upon more
readily in the future.
• If scientists are able to invent a robot that is almost animate, perhaps they are closer to
being able to create animate objects. Etc…

Language Exercises – Texts 1 & 2: Suggested Answers (40 marks)

Exercise 1 – Word Meanings: Antonyms and Synonyms (10 marks)
1 mark for each word correctly spelt. -1/2 for each number for any spelling errors.

Original Word from Passage Synonym Antonyms

soft/squidgy/spongy/squelchy
1. squishy hard/brittle/tough/stiff etc…
etc…
uncovered/revealed/showed
2. unveiled veiled/covered/hidden etc…
etc…
3. adorable cute/loveable/likeable etc… hated/vile/despised etc…
4. rigid solid/hard/stiff/firm etc… soft/malleable/supple etc…
protection/defence/ destruction/damage/ruin
5. preservation
safeguarding etc… etc…

Exercise 2 – Parts of Speech: Prepositions and Compound and Complex

Sentences (5 marks)
The below answers are not the only options for some of these questions, but are probably the
most obvious choices. If a learner chooses another appropriate answer, he/she may be awarded
the full mark.
6. The experiment itself was something of an achievement because / as / seeing that Dr. Andics
and his colleagues had to train the dogs to enter a magnetic resonance imaging machine and
lie in a harness while the machine recorded their brain activity.
7. A trainer spoke words in Hungarian — common words of praise used by dog owners like
“good boy,” “super” and “well done” and / but / although the trainer also tried neutral words
like “nevertheless.”
8. The positive words spoken in a positive tone prompted strong activity in the brain’s reward
centers although / whilst / but all the other conditions resulted in significantly less action, and
all at the same level.
9. That doesn’t mean a dog won’t wag its tail and look happy when you say, “You stinky mess” in
a happy voice however / but / although the dog could be looking at your body language and
your eyes, and perhaps starting to infer that “stinky mess” is a word of praise.
10. We may have thought up until now that the capacity to process meaning and emotion in
different parts of the brain and tie them together is uniquely human but / although / however
the results of this study suggest otherwise.

© e-classroom 2015 www.e-classroom.co.za

 GRADE 7
Exercise 3 – Parts of Speech: Adjectives and Degrees of Comparison (10 marks)
1 mark awarded for each, correctly spelt, degree of comparison.

Grade 7 English Home Language Term 3 Weeks 7-8: Reading and Viewing: Reading Comprehension and Language Assessment
11. My dog is fluffy, but your St. Bernard is (fluffier).
12. The experiment measured many aspects of dog behaviour but the (most interesting) finding
was that dogs respond to body language and the tone of peoples’ voices.
13. The Octobot is the (most mobile) soft bodied robot ever invented.
14. I have seen other robots, but I like the Octobot the (best).
15. The Octobot is (squishier) than jelly.

Exercise 4 – Punctuation (15 marks)

1 mark for each punctuation mark correctly added. No negative marking.
When you praise a dog, it’s listening not just to the words you say but also how you say them.
That might not be huge news to dog owners. But now scientists have explored this phenomenon
by using an imaging machine to peek inside the brains of 13 dogs as they listened to their trainer’s
voice. The reward pathway in the dogs’ brains lit up when they heard both praising words and an
approving intonation but not when they heard random words spoken in a praising tone or praise
words spoken in a flat tone, according to a report in the journal Science. “Dogs process both what
we say and how we say it in a way which is amazingly similar to how human brains do,” says Attila
Andics, a neuroscientist at Eotvos Lorand University in Hungary.

© e-classroom 2015 www.e-classroom.co.za