Paul Sparks,
Sino-Canadian International College, Guangxi University, Online English Lesson Plans, Lesson Material and Ideas
for Semester 2 Reading Lessons...
Reading: Compound Words
Lesson Objectives:
To understand how compound words are used when reading.
Compound Words - Definition:
In English, words, particularly adjectives and nouns, are combined into
compound structures in a variety of ways. And once they are formed, they
sometimes metamorphose over time. A common pattern is that two words will be
joined by a hyphen for a time and then be joined into one word.
There are three forms of compound words:
1. The closed form, in which the words are melded together, such as firefly,
secondhand, softball, childlike, crosstown, redhead, keyboard, makeup,
notebook;
2. The hyphenated form,
such as daughter-in-law, master-at-arms, over-the-counter, six-pack,
six-year-old, mass-produced;
3. The open form, such
as post office, real estate, middle class, full moon, half sister, attorney
general.
Compound Words Quiz:
If the compound structure is correct, write a tick in
the box, if it is wrong, write an cross.
"UNHAPPY IN NEW YORK":
Two and a half years ago,
my fifty-two year-old
brother-in-law , a
highly-respected (and,
might I add, well paid )
vice president of a bank,
moved to the forty-third
floor of a high-rise
apartment building in New York City. The building was brand-new
and still about three-quarters
empty. For us, this was unheard of
luxury, and I remember standing in my in-laws'
living-room , looking out
at all those sky-scrapers
and down on Central Park under a full-moon
in a coal-black sky, and
thinking, "This is it! This is the best the twentieth-century
has to offer!"
But my sister's-in-law
reaction was not a happy one. We should've known all-along
that our little understood
and long-suffering
relative would not be overly happy
in that over-populated
environment. In fact, her resistance to living there was greater than
expected . In a
matter-of-fact moment, and
in her usual self-confident
and thought provoking way,
she said, "When I'm fifty five
years of age , I'll be out
of here."
And she was nearly-right
, too, for a
year-and-a-half later,
they'd left behind the rat-race
pace and helter skelter
lifestyle of Manhattan's
upper-west-side and moved
back to their much-loved
and happily familiar
suburban hide-away in
upstate-New-York ,
northeast of Albany.