Monday, September 26

Listening Practice

Listen to that video and then answer the following activities:

Listen to the speakers describing their favourite things and do the exercises to practise and improve your listening skills.

1. Preparation: matching

Do this exercise before you listen. Match the verb with the correct noun and write a – g next to the numbers 1 – 7.

1…….. take            e. photos                                                  a. a designer

2…….. listen to     g. music                                                    b. your scooter

3…….. watch         d. films                                                      c. a business

4…….. stroke         f. the cat                                                    d. films 
(= move your hand gently over something)       

5…….. park             b. your scooter                                        e. photos

6…….. make it as (= be successful as)     a. a designer    f. the cat

7…….. set up (= start)    c. a business                                  g. music

2. Check your understanding: matching

Match the speakers with their favourite things. Write a – e next to the numbers 1 – 5.

1…….. Speaker                   A                    a. a tablet

2…….. Speaker                   E                    b. a sewing machine

3…….. Speaker                   C                    c. a scooter

4…….. Speaker                   B                    d. a set of knives

5…….. Speaker                   D                    e. a cat

3. Check your understanding: gap fill

Do this exercise while you listen. Write the word to fill the gaps.

A. My favourite thing has to be my new tablet. It’s really light and quite _small, so I take it with me everywhere. I’m always writing to friends and it’s big enough to do college work on it too. It takes really good _photos, and I play games and listen to _the music on it as well, of course. I often download __films_ onto it, and watch them in _bed. My mum says I’m _digitized, because I’m always on it. I even read things on it at breakfast time. I’m not allowed to at _dinner time, though. I have to be _polite and talk to people then. “Welcome back to real life,” my mum says.

B. My favourite thing? Does my _cat count as a thing? She’s not really a thing, but anyway. She’s a really _beautiful little cat. I’ve had her since she was _full months old. You know how some cats are really _independent and hardly talk to you? I know cats don’t really talk, but you know what I mean. Well, she’s not like that at all. She’s really _affectionate  and comes up to me as soon as I get home, purring away like mad. She makes a lot of __noise_ for a tiny thing. She loves being stroked and comes and curls up next to me when I’m on the _sofa. She’s great _accompany.

C. My new scooter! It’s quite small, but _fun, and just what I needed for getting around the _city_. I used to have quite a long walk to the _metro, then a longish walk at the other end to get to _my college_. But now I can just whiz there on my _scooter. And there’s no problem parking, there’s always _space for it. You have to be _careful with the cars and _lorries – they don’t always see you – and when it rains the surface of the road is _terrible, it gets really slippery. But in general it’s perfect for me, and I can fit a _friend on the back too – I’ve got an extra _hamlet for a friend. It’s great. Riding along makes me feel so free.

D. This might sound a bit old-fashioned, but my sewing _machine_ is my favourite thing. I’m studying _fashion_ and love making things, as well as designing them. I also love _clothes_ myself and often buy second-hand clothes – everyone loves the “vintage” _look_ at the moment – and then I adapt them to my _size_. It’s much easier using a machine to do that than doing it by _hand_. I do alterations for my mum and my sister too. If I don’t make it as a _designer_, I suppose I can always set up my own alterations and customizing _business_. Customizing clothes, by taking things off and adding things on, is actually very _crisive_, so I wouldn’t mind that.

E. My set of Japanese knives. That sounds a bit sinister, doesn’t it, but I’m not a _murder_ or anything. They’re chef’s knives and the best ones come from _Japen_. Cooking is my new hobby. I got into it when I started watching Masterchef on TV. Then I went to an evening _class_ for beginners, and I haven’t looked back since. I try and have a _dinner_ for between four and eight_friends_ every two or three _weeks_. That gives me something to work towards and I

always do new _dishes_ so they can try them out and give me feedback. It’s quite an_expensive_ hobby if you use good _ingredients_, but now my friends help towards the_cost_. They still get a good _meal_ for a very low price.

4- What’s your favourite thing?
My favourite thing has to be my new iphone. It is my birthday gift which  my husband bought for me.

5- Why is it important to you?Because it is really light and small. It takes good pictures.

6- Vocabulary Box: Write any new words you have learnt in this lesson and use it in a sentence of your own.