Read the following article about a vandal who was forgiven by the victim and answer the following questions

Transcription

1 1 Exercise 1 Read the following article about a vandal who was forgiven by the victim and answer the following questions Mosque forgives Vandal and pays his fine After a Mosque was vandalised in Fort Smith Arkansas with Nazi Swastikas and hate speech, the vandal was soon hit by an unexpected response. Abraham Davis had vandalised Masjid Al-Salam (The Mosque of Peace) with two of his friends in October 2016 and was later charged by the authorities. It was an act of bigotry that he deeply regretted and the repercussions had caused him much stress. He also failed to provide the money for bail and was thus left in prison waiting for the court date. In an act of painstaking remorse and regret, he penned a letter to the Mosque he had vandalised from his prison cell seeking their forgiveness. Dear Masjid Al-Salam Mosque, Abraham wrote. I know you guys probably don t want to hear from me at all but I really want to get this to Y all. I m so sorry about having a hand in vandalising your mosque. It was wrong and Y all did not deserve to have that done to you. I hurt Y all and I am haunted by it. And even after all this you still forgave me. You are much better people than I. I don t know what s going to happen to me, and that is honestly really scary. But I just wouldn t want to keep going on without trying to make amends. I wish I could undo the pain I helped to cause. I used to walk by your mosque a lot and ask myself why I would do that. I don t even hate Muslims. Or anyone for that matter. All in all, he concluded, I just want to say I m sorry. The Mosque Board was deeply overwhelmed by his plea for forgiveness and forgave him immediately. They, in fact, attended the sentencing and pleaded with the Judge for mercy on Abraham, and in doing so, he was released from prison. Hashim Yasin the Director of Masjid Al-Salam, later commented that this incident was one of the best things that happened to the Muslims in Fort Smith as it shed light on who the Muslims truly were. He commented a verse from the Quran You might hate something that happens to you, but actually it s excellent for you. But despite the Mosques act of forgiveness, Abraham was still a felon, and he was constantly faced with daily reminders of this including over $3200 worth of court fines and restitution. To make matters worse, if he stopped making repayments, he would, in fact, face prison for six years. It was an act of forgiveness like no other and one all of humanity can undoubtedly learn from.

2 2 (a) How many people were involved in vandalising The Mosque of Peace? (b) What is the probable reason for the incident? (c) Apart from the mental repercussions, how did the act affect Abraham? (d) What is Abraham's attitude towards the Muslims now? (e) Why did the director of the mosque view the incident as a positive one? (f) How much does Abraham have to pay as court fines and retribution at present? Exercise 2 Language Study Sometimes a word in a text refers back to another word for its meaning. This is called back reference or anaphoric reference. Example: Ahmed loves helping people. He often works for free. In this example, the meaning of the word He becomes clear when we check the sentence that precedes it. In other words it refers back to another word that came before it. Cataphoric reference or forward reference means that a word in a text refers to another word that comes later in the text and you need to look forward to understand it. Example: When she went out, Aysha realised that she had kept her phone inside. In this example, she refers to the word Aysha which comes after it. Anaphoric and cataphoric refernces help to avoid repeating the same word again and again, thus helping to achieve brevity. Often pronouns and words such as one are used for back and forward referencing.

3 3 (a) What do the words in bold in the article refer to? Are they cataphoric/anaphoric? You He one (b) An idiom is a word or phrase which means something different from its literal meaning. Idioms are common phrases or terms whose meaning is changed, but can be understood by their popular use. Look at the idioms underlined. Write the correct idioms next to their meanings as used in the text. show or demonstrate compensate for insulting being involved in (c) Look at the sentence that is bold underlined. This is an example of the second conditional. i) Which is the independent clause?.. ii) Complete the rule by filling the gaps with the most appropriate words/phrases. would infinitive past simple, present simple, will In the second conditional, we use the. after if, then '.' and the iii) Which of the following is a use of the second conditional? 1. to talk about things in the past that are not true 2. to talk about things in the future that are probably not going to be true.

4 4 (d) Now look at the following example. If I were Abraham, I wouldn t vandalise a mosque. How is the use of the second conditional different in this example? 1. It talks about something in the future that is probably not going to be true. 2. It talks about something in the present which is impossible, because it's not true. (e) Using the second conditional, complete the following sentences you wish to write to Abraham. If I were you,... I had your number, I know you wouldn t vandalise a mosque, What would you do if. You would know the beauty of Islam if

5 5 Exercise 1 - Answers (a) three (b) bigotry (c) Left in prison / had to stay in prison / was jailed (DO NOT ACCEPT stress, remorse,regret) (d) Better people (than him) (e) shed light on who the Muslims truly were (f) over $3200 Exercise 2 Language Study (a) What do the words in bold in the article refer to? Are they cataphoric/anaphoric? You Muslims / mosque goers Anaphoric He Hashim Yasin Anaphoric one act of forgiveness Anaphoric (b) Look at the idioms underlined. Write the correct idioms next to their meanings as used in the text. show or demonstrate compensate for insulting being involved in shed light on to make amends having a hand in (c) Look at the sentence that is bold underlined. This is an example of the second conditional. i) Which is the independent clause? He would, in fact, face prison for six years. ii) Complete the rule by filling the gaps with the most appropriate words/phrases. In the second conditional, we use the past simple after if, then 'would' and the infinitive.

6 6 iii) Which of the following is a use of the second conditional? 3. to talk about things in the past that are not true 4. to talk about things in the future that are probably not going to be true. (d) Now look at the following example. If I were Abraham, I wouldn t vandalise a mosque. How is the use of the second conditional different in this example? 3. It talks about something in the future that is probably not going to be true. 4. It talks about something in the present which is impossible, because it's not true. (e) Using the second conditional, complete the following sentences you wish to write to Abraham. Accept similar examples If I were you, I wouldn t hate Muslims. I had your number, I would call you to thank you for apologising. I know you wouldn t vandalise a mosque, if you had good friends. What would you do if you got out of jail? You would know the beauty of Islam if you studied the life of the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).