Grade 12 English Textbook Notes

THE REPUBLIC OF THE UNION OF MYANMAR

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NATIONAL UNITY GOVERNMENT

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

Grade 12

English Textbook

February, 2024
STRESS

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UNIT CONTENTS

UNIT 1: CHASING DREAMS
UNIT 2: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) AND ROBOTICS: HELP OR THREAT?
UNIT 3: EQUAL ACCESS TO EDUCATION
REVIEW 1
POEM 1: EQUALITY
UNIT 4: CIVIC VALUES
UNIT 5: SELF-AWARENESS: TO MANAGE STRESS
UNIT 6: SMALL STEPS, GIANT LEAPS
REVIEW 2
POEM 2: BALLAD OF BIRMINGHAM
UNIT 7: GPS AND ITS USES
UNIT 8: DECIBEL DILEMMA: A CALL FOR CHANGE IN MYANMAR
UNIT 9: SERVE TO LEAD, OR LEAD TO SERVE?
REVIEW 3
POEM 3: THE SOLITARY REAPER
UNIT 10: REDOING HISTORY
UNIT 11: EXPLORING A SHABBY HAT
UNIT 12: EMBRACING SUSTAINABILITY: A PATH TO A GREENER FUTURE
REVIEW 4
POEM 4: DEMOCRACY

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Scope and Sequence

Unit | Topic | Receptive Skills | Productive Skills | Knowledge about Language

|--------|-------------------------|-----------------|----------------|--------------------------|
| 1 | Chasing Dreams | Listening to the interview with a young entrepreneur | Reading about Chasing Dreams | Interviewing about the dream company | Writing a descriptive essay | Idioms Used to, Be used to and Get used to |
| 2 | AI and Robotics: Help or Threat | Listening to different views on AI | Reading about AI | Talking about a robot friend | Discussion on benefits and potential dangers of AI | Writing a compare and contrast paragraph | Synonym and Antonym, Phrasal Verbs, Reported Speech |
| 3 | Equal Access to Education | Listening to three children talking about access to education | Reading about equal access to education | Expressing opinions and asking for opinions | Writing an opinion essay | Compound words, Relative adverbs ‘where’, ‘when’ and ‘why’ |
| 4 | Civic Values | Listening to two people talking about small acts of kindness | Reading about civic values | Talking about personal qualities | Writing about a community engagement activity | Personal qualities, Gerund phrases Vs participle phrases |
| 5 | Self-awareness: To manage stress | Listening to a dialogue about stress | Reading about stress management | Giving advice to other people | Writing a narrative essay | Idioms, Phrasal Verbs, Conditional Clauses (i) |

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| 6 | Small Steps, Giant Leaps | Listening to a talk about space travel | Reading about transportation revolution | Talking about a vacation trip | Writing a travel brochure | Compound adjectives, Relative adverbs ‘where’, ‘when’ and ‘why’ |
| 7 | GPS and its uses | Listening to a conversation about asking for and giving directions | Reading about GPS and its uses | Asking for and giving directions | Writing a narrative essay about a holiday trip | Compound adjectives, Participle phrases |
| 8 | Decibel Dilemma: A call for change in Myanmar | Listening to a conversation about noise pollution | Reading about noise pollution | Interviewing people about their perceptions on noise pollution | Writing an opinion essay | Words related to ‘sound’ and ‘noise’, –ed/-ing adjectives |
| 9 | Serve to lead, or lead to serve? | Listening to a presenter talking about leadership | Reading a speech delivered by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi | Giving a presentation on leadership | Writing an argumentative essay | Collocations (Words that go together), Transitional words and phrases |
| 10 | Redoing History | An interview with a historical fiction writer | Letters about perspectives on history | Functional language: Expressing interest and agreement, Responding to a question, Asking for clarification | Writing a response letter | Word formation: suffixes -ful and -less |
| 11 | Exploring a Shabby Hat | Listening to a conversation about Sherlock Holmes | Reading a Sherlock Holmes story | Interviewing about a crime that has been experienced recently | Writing a narrative essay | Words related to the story, The Past Tenses |
| 12 | Embracing Sustainability | An interview with an environmental activist | Environmental sustainability | An interview with an environmental activist | Writing an essay on environmental protection | Negative - forming prefixes, The Present Tenses (present simple, present continuous, present perfect, present perfect continuous), Parallelism |

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| Review 4 | Poem 4 - Democracy |
| Page Range | 1 | 11 | 21 | 32 | 34 | 37 | 49 | 60 | 72 | 74 | 78 | 90 | 101 | 115 | 117 | 121 | 133 | 146 | 160 | 162 |

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UNIT 1: CHASING DREAMS

Reading

  • Reading about successful entrepreneurs

Vocabulary

  • Idioms

Grammar

  • ‘Used to’, ‘Be used to’ and ‘Get used to’

Listening and Speaking

  • Listening to the interview with Michele, a young entrepreneur

  • Interviewing about the dream company

Writing

  • Writing a descriptive essay

1A Reading Pre-reading

  • Do you know who owns what? Match the founders with what they have founded.

  1. Bill Gates

  2. Jeff Bezos

  3. Steve Jobs

  4. Elon Musk

  5. Oprah Winfrey

  6. Larry Page

  7. Sam Walton

  8. Ted Turner
    a. Amazon.com
    b. Apple iPhone, Apple inc., NeXT inc.
    c. CNN Cable News Network
    d. Google
    e. Microsoft
    f. Oxygen, O, The Oprah Magazine
    g. Space X, Tesla, Twitter
    h. Walmart and Sam’s club

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Reading Passage

  • At which age do you think the best time to start a business is – 25 or 52? You might think that most successful entrepreneurs are older people and only older people have a greater advantage of possessing much experience in business. (1) ______________________ The reason is simple – young people have unique characteristics in many aspects; they are highly motivated, capable of thinking outside the box, and courageous to go out on a limb. Most entrepreneurs achieve success not because they have a great deal of business experience but because they are creative, imaginative, and adventurous. Statistics shows that 48 percent of the business firms were founded by older people whereas 64 percent of the successful thriving companies were headed by entrepreneurs in the 45-and-up group. The no-holds-barred kind of companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Twitter, or Facebook were founded by entrepreneurs younger than 35.

Successful Entrepreneurs

  • Here is a glimpse of some successful entrepreneurs, when they started their careers, and how they achieved success in business.

  • Elon Musk

    • An American entrepreneur; now one of the richest persons in the world.

    • CEO or owner of multiple companies including Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter.

    • Born in South Africa in 1971.

    • Created a video game at age 12 and sold it to a computer magazine.

    • Cofounded PayPal in 1999; founded Space X in 2002; became CEO of Tesla in 2004; acquired Twitter in 2022.

  • Steve Jobs

    • Born in San Francisco, California in 1955.

    • Founded Apple Inc. and NeXT Inc.; started invention at age 19.

    • Developed the first Apple computer in his garage.

    • Celebrated for the success of Apple Inc. and developing innovative technology.

  • Jeff Bezos

    • Born in New Mexico in 1964; founder of Amazon.com.

    • Developed software for the retail site while working out of his garage at age 31.

    • Amazon became the largest retailer on the web, starting with books and later diversifying into other products.

Conclusions on Success in Business

  • The significant characteristics of successful entrepreneurs are innovating new ideas, putting them into action, and persevering through challenges. (5) ____________________ The bottom line is that you need to set a goal that gives you something to focus on and strive for. Then chase the dream. Making the dream come true is not rocket science if you have the courage to pursue it.

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Comprehension A

  • Five sentences have been removed from the passage. Choose from the sentences (A-E) the one which best fits each gap (1–5).

    • A. It is a vast Internet-based enterprise that sells books, music, movies, housewares, electronics, toys, and many other goods.

    • B. When do you think he started his business?

    • C. Some are natural personality traits, but many skills and characteristics can be cultivated through learning and practice.

    • D. In reality, many successful entrepreneurs started their businesses when they were quite young.

    • E. You might be amazed to know where and how he invented it.

Comprehension B

  • 1. According to the passage, why do most entrepreneurs achieve success?

  • 2. What is the significant benefit of using Starlink?

  • 3. Where did Steve Jobs get the money to start his business?

  • 4. Why is Bezos’s online shopping website named Amazon.com?

  • 5. What are the three requirements to achieve success in business?

  • 6. Why is it important to set a goal in life?

  • 7. What do the three persons mentioned in the passage have in common?