English essays of the 8th form-03

09. Tell about your hobby in free time.

My hobby is stamp collecting. When I was still only a baby, my mother began to collect for me. Of course, she did not let me touch the stamps until I was old enough not to spoil them. I remember that it was on my fifteenth birthday that she first put them into my hands. They were in four fat books, but since that time I have added three more, so that now I have a bigger collection than any of my friends.
How do I get my stamps? I have never bought a single one from a shop -- so my collection has really cost me nothing. My father, who works in a big office, sometimes brings me home stamps from many countries of the world. And I have friends both here and in other lands who send me stamps in return for ones which I send to them.
Now that I am working for my living, I do not have as much time as before to spend on my stamps. But in the evenings, what can be better than to sit down at a table with my precious books, arranging new stamps in them, writing in the names of countries, or, if I am too tired, only looking through the stamps already in the books? Each stamp has a story to tell me of far countries and strange peoples. I see pictures of men and women, birds and animals that I have never seen.
But my stamp collection does not make me think only of the past. Just as my mother collected for me, so I, too, am collecting for my future child. What better way will there be of interesting him in history, geography and languages, and of making these subjects live for him instead of being only things in school books? If I pass my hobby on to him, he will bless me for it as I have blessed my mother for her wise action.

10. Examination day often makes many pupils worry
Do you agree?
The most exciting day in the life of a student is the day during the final examination for class promotion. He prepares himself well for about a month before the examination and still he has his fears and hopes on the day of the examination. Even a student who neglects his lessons sits up to make his eleventh hour preparation.
A boy who studies hard may feel confident once inside the examination hall for the first paper. Every student is anxious to know whether the question papers would be difficult or not, except a few who do not take their question papers would be difficult or not, except a few who do not take their lessons seriously. Most of the children eagerly look forward to the examination day.
Unlike the other days, examination days are usually quiet. Every one seems to browse his notes for the last time before going into the hall. Every minute seems precious before the bell goes as it provides the last chance to check the facts properly. Sometimes the last minute reading may help you to score marks.
It is indeed a day of excitement to every child who takes his or her lessons seriously.

11. Ways to help students enlarge their vocabulary

It is a self-evident truth that a good command of a language requires a knowledge of both its grammar and vocabulary as structural patterns serve as building blocks that hold lexical items together. Therefore, in addition to teaching grammatical rules, English teachers must help their students enlarge their vocabulary.
Teachers can first help by raising students’ awareness of the importance of vocabulary learning and expansion. As can be seen, not all students are fully conscious of the necessity of having a wide vocabulary of English. Some students may emphasize the acquisition of linguistic structures over that of vocabulary because the former, in their opinion, can help them operate effectively inn English. However, it is not difficult to find cases in which it is words, not grammatical structures that help one get his message across
Second, teachers can help students enrich their vocabulary by teaching words in context. The reasons for this technique are not difficult to understand. For one thing, the environment in which a word occurs with other words that will decide which meaning of the word is intended. Lexical items should thus not be presented to student in isolation; they should be presented in clear and meaningful contexts so that students can work out which sense of the word concerned in used.
Moreover, teachers can promote students’ vocabulary learning and expansion by teaching words in relation to other words. It is highly recommended that specific words such as red, blue, yellow should be related to the generic term color, that words like happy should compared with happily, happiness, unhappy, unhappily and unhappiness, that words like book should be extended to notebook.
One more thing that teachers can do to help their students to widen their vocabulary is to train them in dictionary using skills. Naturally, teachers cannot provide students with all the words they need. So dictionaries will serve as their best source of reference outside class time. And that