GRADE 8 English POLLUTION – LISTENING AND SPEAKING:LISTENING COMPREHENSION Notes
ENGLISH — Listening & Speaking: Listening Comprehension (Grammar focus)
Topic: Pollution (Kenyan context) — Target age: 13
- Recognise verb tenses and passive forms in short listening passages about pollution.
- Use modals (should, must, can) to report advice heard in a talk.
- Change direct speech to reported speech after listening.
- Form WH- and yes/no questions to check understanding of a listening text.
Key grammar points (with pollution examples)
1. Present Simple — facts and general truthUse for facts you hear in a talk: Pollution affects many rivers.
Use when the speaker talks about ongoing actions: People are burning rubbish near the river.
3. Passive voice — focus on what happens (not who does it)Many listening reports use passive to describe processes: Waste is dumped into the River Athi (we do not say who dumped it).
4. Modals for advice and possibilityListen for should/must/can/will: "We should recycle plastics." — advice. "This can harm people." — possibility.
5. Reported speech — reporting what a speaker saidDirect: "The teacher said, 'Plastic kills fish'." → Reported: The teacher said that plastic kills fish. (Notice: tense may change when the reporting verb is past.)
6. Question forms — check comprehensionWH- questions: Who, What, Where, When, Why, How. Yes/no questions: Is the river polluted?
7. Pronouns & subject-verb agreementWhen you refer to an earlier noun in a listening passage, use the correct pronoun: River Athi is dirty. It smells bad. (It = river, singular).
Short listening passage (read or play to class)
"In Nairobi, people are throwing plastic bags into the River Athi. The river is polluted and fish are dying. At Dandora dumpsite, smoke is being released from burning waste. The community leader said, 'We must stop burning rubbish. We should recycle more.'"
Tip: Read slowly and ask pupils to listen for verbs, modals and passive forms.
Practice — grammar tasks (after listening)
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Identify the tenses in these sentences from the passage:
- "people are throwing plastic bags" —
- "The river is polluted" —
- "fish are dying" —
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Change this active sentence to passive (use present continuous):
Active: "People are throwing plastic bags into the River Athi."Passive:
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Reported speech:
Direct: The community leader said, "We must stop burning rubbish."Reported:
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Make a question to check a fact from the passage.
(Example answer: "Is the river polluted?")Your question:
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Choose the correct modal (should / must / can):
"We ____ recycle more to reduce pollution." —
Speaking pair activity (use grammar you heard)
Work in pairs. One pupil plays the Reporter and the other the Community Leader. Use these prompts and the correct grammar:
- Reporter: Ask a WH question about the river (use present simple or present continuous).
- Leader: Answer with a full sentence (use passive or present continuous where possible). Example: "The river is polluted." or "Rubbish is being burned."
- Reporter: Ask for advice: "What should we do?"
- Leader: Give advice using a modal: "We should recycle more." or "We must stop burning plastic."
Practice twice, then swap roles.
Answer key (click to show)
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Tenses:
- "people are throwing plastic bags" — Present continuous
- "The river is polluted" — Present simple (adjective) / or passive idea: "is polluted" (state)
- "fish are dying" — Present continuous
- Passive (present continuous): "Plastic bags are being thrown into the River Athi (by people)."
- Reported speech: The community leader said that they must stop burning rubbish. (Or: The community leader said that they should stop burning rubbish.)
- Example question answers: many possible. Example: "Is the River Athi polluted?" — Yes, the River Athi is polluted.
- Modal: "We should recycle more to reduce pollution." (must can also be correct depending on strength)
- Play the short passage twice. Ask pupils to note verbs and modals they hear.
- Use local examples (Nairobi River, Dandora) to make sentences real and memorable.
- Correct gently and focus on meaning + grammar together.