NVO Grade 7 Foreign Language cheat sheet

Listening for gist means identifying the speaker's main point or purpose; listening for detail means capturing specific facts such as names, numbers, times, and places.

Signal words that introduce key information include first, next, finally, however, because, and in fact; the words after them usually carry the answer.

Numbers in speech are often stated twice or corrected: a speaker saying "at nine - no, nine thirty" means the final stated time is correct.

Rising intonation at the end of a statement signals a yes/no question or uncertainty; falling intonation signals a completed statement.

Distractors in listening tasks are usually true words from the recording attached to the wrong person, time, or place.

Note-taking shorthand: use arrows for direction or change, plus and minus signs for agreement and disagreement, and abbreviations for repeated names.

When a speaker hedges with words like probably, maybe, or I think, the information is uncertain and should not be recorded as a confirmed fact.

Main idea is stated in the topic sentence, most often the first or last sentence of a paragraph; supporting details answer who, what, when, where, why, and how.

Skimming means reading quickly for gist; scanning means moving the eyes to locate a specific word, date, or number without reading every sentence.

Context clues for an unknown word include definition clues (is, means, that is), example clues (such as, for example), and contrast clues (but, unlike, however).

Inference is a conclusion supported by textual evidence but not stated directly; the answer must be provable from the passage, not from personal opinion.

Pronoun reference: a pronoun agrees with the nearest preceding noun that fits the meaning; check number and gender before deciding the referent.

Text structures include cause-effect, compare-contrast, sequence, problem-solution, and description; identifying the structure predicts where key information appears.

Fact versus opinion: facts can be verified; opinions contain judgment words such as best, worst, should, beautiful, or seems.

A summary restates only the central idea and major supports, omits examples and repetition, and uses the reader's own words.

Simple past describes completed actions at a definite past time; present perfect (have/has + past participle) links a past action to the present and rejects definite past time markers like yesterday.

Subject-verb agreement: a singular subject takes a singular verb; phrases between subject and verb do not change the verb number, as in "The box of pencils is on the desk."

Comparative adjectives add -er or use more for two items; superlatives add -est or most for three or more, as in "taller than" versus "the tallest of all."

Countable nouns take many and few; uncountable nouns take much and little, as in "much water" and "many bottles."

A run-on sentence joins two independent clauses with no punctuation or with only a comma; repair it with a period, semicolon, or coordinating conjunction.

Modals: can shows ability, may shows permission or possibility, must shows obligation, and should shows advice; the verb after a modal stays in base form.

Prepositions of time: in for months, years, and seasons; on for days and dates; at for clock times, as in "at 7 p.m. on Monday in May."

Prefixes change meaning: un-, dis-, and non- mean not; re- means again; pre- means before; mis- means wrongly; over- means too much.

Common suffixes mark parts of speech: -tion and -ment form nouns, -ful and -ous form adjectives, -ly forms adverbs, and -ize forms verbs.

Synonyms share meaning but differ in strength and tone, as with warm, hot, and scorching; choose the word matching the context's intensity.

Antonyms can be formed with prefixes (happy/unhappy, possible/impossible) or with entirely different words (ancient/modern).

Homophones sound alike but differ in spelling and meaning: their/there/they're, to/too/two, its/it's, and your/you're.

A word's connotation is its positive, negative, or neutral feeling; denotation is its dictionary meaning, so "thrifty" and "stingy" denote alike but differ in connotation.

Idioms carry meaning beyond their literal words, such as "break the ice" meaning to start a conversation, and cannot be decoded word by word.

Paragraph structure: topic sentence, supporting sentences with evidence or examples, and a concluding sentence that restates the main point.

A thesis statement gives the essay's central claim in one sentence and usually appears at the end of the introduction.

The writing process runs prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing; revision addresses ideas and organization, editing addresses grammar and spelling.

Transitions show relationships between ideas: however and nevertheless signal contrast; therefore and as a result signal cause-effect; for instance signals example.

Narrative writing uses first or third person, sensory detail, dialogue, and a clear sequence of events with conflict and resolution.

Persuasive writing states a claim, supports it with reasons and evidence, and answers the opposing view with a counterargument and rebuttal.

Sentence variety comes from mixing simple, compound, and complex sentences; a complex sentence contains one independent clause and at least one dependent clause.

Turn-taking follows adjacency pairs: a question expects an answer, a greeting expects a greeting, and an invitation expects acceptance or refusal.

Politeness in requests rises with indirectness: "Could you possibly...?" is more formal than "Can you...?" and "Give me..." is the most direct.

Paralinguistic cues include volume, pitch, pace, and pause; stress on a word changes emphasis, as in "I never said that" versus "I never said that."

Nonverbal communication includes eye contact, gestures, posture, and facial expression; conventions vary by culture, so direct eye contact is not universally polite.

In presentations, structure is signposted with an opening, an outline ("first, second, finally"), and a closing summary that repeats the main points.

Clarification strategies include asking "Could you repeat that?", paraphrasing to check meaning, and requesting slower speech.

Pronunciation features that affect meaning include minimal pairs such as ship/sheep and live/leave, plus word stress in nouns versus verbs like REcord and reCORD.