GRADE 8

THEMES OF THE COSTLY MISTAKE

1. Theme of hard work : Uchenna, Udoh and Wilson are serious and they work hard in school, so ,at the end of the story ,they became very successful. This means that those people who work hard would ripe the fruit of their hard work.

2. Waywardness and it consequences: Characters like Tony , Victor and Daniel chooses to be very naughty in school and their actions affected their studies. The all became drop out . Daniel ended up becoming a bus conductor.

3. The importance of education: Uchenna and others value education, at the end of the story, they became very successful. However, Daniel and his friends were not too serious and they regretted their actions. After seeing how Uchenna became successful, Daniel made up to go back to school. This shows how important education is.

4. The consequences of one actions:  The story teaches a lesson that what ever one sow ,he will reap. Daniel made a costly mistake and made his parents sad. Daniel learnt his lesson at the end of the story .

Assignments
Questions are based on the book The Costly Mistake.

1. In the story who called Daniel a dancing antelope?________

2. _______ delivered Stephanie message to Daniel in the story.

3. According to Daniel's friends ______ is the student who started well but ended up badly

4. Who usually denied the junior students of their food in school? ________

5. __________ is the English teacher Daniel's school

6. __________ sent a big card with rose flowers to Daniel in the story.

7.  ________ stole money from his parents to bride his teachers in the story.

8. _________ became a medical doctor in the prose work

9. In the story _______ studied  chemical engineering in the university

10. Daniel ended up becoming _______ in the story.





POETRY
MONEY BY OIWONA ANDREW

Too much of everything is bad
Money is everything
So is too much of money bad?
You have all the money
You have all the honey.

You are a paper that smells
And make men to smile
A light paper that makes men heavy
When they have bundle
See their joy in bundle

You are a rectangle
That makes men rest at all angles
A paper with a seal
That men steal with zeal

Money makes a man first
And his opinions seconded
A paper that makes men right
Even when they are more wrong

Money has no mouth
Yet it speaks your language
You have money
You have many

The affluent feel insecure
A disease difficult to cure
Running Helter skelter
From their shelter
At the slightest shot

It is not whether you have money
It is whether you don't have mourning
Because you have money


ANALYSIS OF THE POEM MONEY
The poem centered on the importance of money and the attitude of people towards money. The poem is structured into eleven stanzas and each stanza highlights the poet opinion about money.

The First stanza of the poem makes use of a
rhetorical question to ask some important questions about money. Contrary to the popular saying that too much of everything is bad, the poet stated that with money you can have all the good things in life.

In the second stanza, the poet employs apostrophe to gives the physical attribute of money. The poet stated:
         You are a paper that smells
          And make men to smile

In stanza three the poet continues to describe the value and attributes of money. The poet believes that with money one is confident and happy. The poet stated that because of the importance of money people resort to stealing it.

In stanza four , the poet stated that people with money are usually respected and honoured. Whatever they hold as opinion or belief in the society is always accepted by everyone as the best idea.

A contrast is employ in stanza six of the poem, the poet changes his opinion about money. The poet stated that money does not guarantee security. The went further to say that rich men don't peace because they run Helter skelter at the sound of anything they hear.

Assignment.
1. One major literary device use in poem is ________

2. In the poem money is describe as a paper with __________

3. The greatest problem which rich people face, according to the poet is _______

4. Yet it speaks your language'
What figure of speech is used in the above line?

5. The poet describes money as a _______