By the end of this exercise, you can tell Nelson Mandela's story in English and join two sentences together with relative clauses.
Free Year 9 English practice: Nelson Mandela, apartheid and the Rainbow Nation, with relative clause exercises, South Africa vocabulary and a writing task.
Read the text about Nelson Mandela. Choose the correct word for each gap.
Nelson Mandela was born in 1918 in a small village in the south-east of South Africa. At that time the country lived under a system called 1. It separated people by the colour of their 2: black families had worse schools, worse hospitals and no vote.
Mandela studied law and became a 3 in Johannesburg. He joined the ANC, a political party which fought against the system. In 1964 a court sent him to 4 for life.
He spent 27 years behind bars, most of them on Robben Island, where prisoners had to break stones in the hot 5. His letters were read by the guards, and for years he was allowed only one visitor every six months.
All over the world, musicians, students and governments demanded his 6. Finally, in February 1990, President de Klerk let him go.
Four years later South Africa held its first free 7, and Mandela became president. He did not want revenge. He wanted a country in which every group had the same 8 — the “Rainbow Nation”.
Use who for people, which for things, whose for possession, where for places and when for time. After a comma (non-defining clause) you must use which, never that.
1. Nelson Mandela was a man never gave up.
2. Apartheid was a system separated people by colour.
3. Robben Island is the place Mandela spent 18 years.
4. 1994 was the year South Africa held its first free election.
5. He met families homes had been destroyed.
6. The party he joined in 1944 was the ANC.
7. Cape Town, lies in the south-west, is a popular city with tourists.
8. Do you know the journalist interviewed Mandela in 1990?
Choose the word that fits the sentence.
1. Under apartheid, black South Africans were not allowed to in elections.
2. Mandela fought for between all citizens.
3. A is a poor area outside a city where black families had to live.
4. After 27 years he was finally from prison.
5. South Africa has eleven official .
6. Thousands of people took part in a peaceful against the government.
7. Mandela and de Klerk won the Nobel Prize in 1993.
8. Today South Africa is often called the Nation.
Write 6–8 sentences about a person you admire — Mandela or somebody else. Use at least three relative clauses.
• Who is the person, and where does / did he or she live?
• What did this person do that was difficult or brave?
• Why do you admire him or her?
• What could other people learn from this person?
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