Sessional_Paper_1907 — Page 1046

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23. Grammar.—Classes VI and V learn grammatical definitions. These classes were examined orally and the results were good on the whole.

24. Written papers were set for Classes IV, III, II and I. Class IV evidently found the paper easy. The A division of the Class obtained 73% of marks, good papers being done by Lo Ming-tat and Wong Ho-ying. In the B division 73% was also obtained. Class IV Č got 68%, IV D 54% and IV E 56%. This is a very satisfactory result and many of the mistakes made were due to a careless perusal of the question asked, for example giving the present participle when the past participle was required. Probably every boy in the Class knows that the feminine of son is daughter but a very great many boys suspecting a trap wrote down the feminine of stepson as stepsoness.

25. The results in Class III A and B were also satisfactory, 73% and 60% of marks being obtained respectively. Good papers, were done by Chiu Cheong Cho and Pun Kwok-ching in A and by Wong Hon and Li Shiu Tsoi in III B. Class III C was disappointing, 41% of marks was obtained and only two boys got more than half marks.

26. Class II A and B obtained 61% and 49% of marks. Very good papers were done by Chan Pak-hong in Class II A and by Chan U-chim in the B division. The analysis was was well done throughout the Class.

27. The papers done by Class I A and B were rather weak. Ng Cheung-hon did an excellent paper and Tso Chak-nun was good but many of the boys attempted only a few questions. The analysis was well done in both divisions of the Class but the questions were apparently beyond I B. The simpler questions were on the whole well answered. Boys in the top division of the school should we think have some elementary knowledge of the formation and history of the English language. The paper shewn up by Ng Cheung-hon shews that certain boys in the Class are quite competent to understand such instruction.

28. Shakspere.--A paper on Coriolanus was set to Class I A and B. done by 8 boys in I A. Arculli did an excellent paper and Mok Kai-fuk a four others boys were very fair and two very bad. One of these last, attempted questions and wrote rubbish in answer to them all.

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The paper was very good one, Chan Lui, only

29. Shakspere appears to be too difficult a subject for boys in I B. The paper was attempted by ten boys. Li Lun-kwai was the best of a bad lot. One boy contented himself with copying out three questions without attempting to give any answer and in reply to question 2 as to the plot of the play stated that "the play talked about the rebellions and wars of old English.' Another boy in reply to a question as to the source of the play wrote "The source of the play was that because the citizens hated Caius Marcius for he was not a patrician." The ten boys who attempted this paper have too little knowledge of ordinary English to be able to comprehend the meaning of Shakspere.

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GEOGRAPHY.

30. Speaking generally the results were not good, and considering the fact that three classes (Class II, III and IV) were examined in the same syllabus as last year they should certainly have done better. Too little attention was paid to the questions asked, and in many cases the predominating idea was apparently to finish in the shortest possible time.

A large proportion of papers did not exceed half a sheet of foolscap and questions begun well ended abruptly, possibly because the writer did not wish to exceed the allowance of paper he had received.

31. Taking the classes individually Class I A did badly, only two out of 8 boys getting over half marks. The highest marks obtained were 52%, a by no means creditable per- formance for the senior class. On the average Class I B did better and the highest marks scored were 68%. Due allowance was made for the length of the paper which was un- doubtedly too long, but as many boys only showed up one sheet of paper they were evidently not troubled on that score.