Unit 7 - Extra vocabulary exercises

Check your answers to this week's extra material exercises about sports and activities.

Remember that in this case, you have to correct them by yourself and then hand in your photocopies for your teacher's check.

Unit 6 - Extra grammar exercises (2)

Check your answers to this week's extra material exercises.
Don't forget to correct them and bring your photocopies to hand in for your teacher's final check.

Paper 4 - Speaking Part 2.

This part tests the candidates’ ability to produce an extended piece of discourse.

Tests ability to: speak at length coherently, use language to describe, compare and contrast and comment upon a topic.

In Part 2, candidates are given the opportunity to speak for 1 minute without interruption. Each candidate is asked to compare two colour photographs, and to make a further comment about them in response to a task that is read out by the interlocutor.  A prompt is given to the candidates in the form of a direct question; this is written above the photographs. 

Candidates are expected to point out similarities and differences between the photographs and then move on to deal with the question, answering it with reference to both photographs.

Candidates have the opportunity to show their ability to organise their thoughts and ideas, and express themselves coherently with appropriate language. 

The listening candidate is also asked to comment (for about 30 seconds) after their partner’s long turn. They should not speak during their partner’s long turn. 

Example Task

The interview will begin with the examiner saying something like:

Q: In this part of the test I'm going to give each of you two photographs. I'd like you to talk about your photographs on your own for about 1 minute and also to answer a short question about your partner's photographs.Q: (Candidate A), here are your photographs. They show people participating in sporting activities.Q: I'd like you to compare the two photographs and say why sport is important to people. Q: All right?

Notice there are TWO instructions here: first to 'compare' the two photographs and also 'to say why' sport is important to people. In Part 2 candidates need to show they can compare but also give an opinion. 

The examiner will then ask Candidate B a short question about these photographs.Q: Thank you (Candidate A). (Candidate B) which sport would you most like to try?

Candidate B will then do their long turn with a different set of photographs and at the end, Candidate A will be asked a short question.

The Go-Between: chapters 8 to 13

Go on with your reading experience and complete these simple comprehension exercises. Don't forget to either post them or send them by email.

Unit 6 - Extra vocabulary and grammar exercises

Check your answers to last week's extra material exercises.
Don't forget to comment your doubts and bring your questions to share with the whole class.

Useful site to work on your writing skills!

The Go-Between: chapters 6 & 7

Activities

Chapter 6
What's the name of the chapter?
Write a short summary with the main events.







Chapter 7
What's the name of the chapter?
Explain the situation related to the image on the left.






Explain what Leo means in these sentences:

1. ‘I easily remembered the side that had to be used.’ (page 31)
2. ‘Although Marcus had told me about him, I could not hide my shock.’ (page 31)
3. ‘He should enjoy it because he rented Brandham Hall.’ (page 34)
4. ‘It was something strong and bright, like the sun, and didn’t change.’ (page 34)
5. ‘And I believed that he was nine times better than the first.’ (page 37)
6. ‘You are a guest in your own house!’ (page 38) 

Remember to send your answers by email!

Music video: Counting Stars - OneRepublic

In the link below you will find the music video of ´Counting Stars´, the song we listened to last class.

Press here for the video >>> Counting Stars

The link also has some interesting comments about the meaning behind the song.

Do you agree? What's your opinion?

The Go-Between: chapters 1 to 5

Scene from the film

Some words about the author
Leslie Poles Hartley was born in 1895 near Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England, the son of a solicitor who became a director of a factory. He was educated at Harrow and Oxford University and was an officer during World War 1 in the Norfolk Regiment. He started writing as a reviewer for various journals in the 1920s and published a collection of horror stories in 1924.

His first full-length novel was Simonetta Perkins (1925), which was based in Venice where he spent much of his time. But it was with The Shrimp and the Anemone, published in 1944 as the first part of a trilogy about a brother and sister growing up, that he achieved critical acclaim. His biggest success was with The Go-Between in 1953. This novel was made into a film by Joseph Losey in 1970, with a screenplay by Harold Pinter, a well-known British playwright, starring Julie Christie, Alan Bates and Michael Redgrave.

Hartley was awarded a CBE* in 1955. He died in 1972.

*CBE stands for ‘Commander of the Order of the British Empire’, which is the third in rank of the five classes of the honours system in the UK. For more information: UK honours and awards.

Summary

An elderly man, Leo Colston, finds an old diary he wrote when he was twelve. The diary makes Leo remember events which took place in the summer of 1900 when he stayed with Marcus Maudsley, a boy he had met at school.

The events affect him for the rest of his life.

Background and themes

In the prologue to The Go-Between, L. P. Hartley says: ‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.’ The Go-Between paints a detailed picture´of rural England at the beginning of the twentieth century (around 1900). So the past is one of the main themes of the book. Other main themes are: social classes, adolescence, and friendship, trust and betrayal. You will find them very often as long as you read the book.

Activities

Chapter 1
Setting (Place and Time)
Characters
Main events

Chapter 2
Setting (Place and Time)
Characters
Main events

Chapter 3
Setting (Place and Time)
Characters
Main events

Chapter 4
Setting (Place and Time)
Characters
Main events

Chapter 5
Setting (Place and Time)
Characters
Main events

Answer

1. Why were the star signs important to Leo?
2. Why did the boys attack Leo for using the word ‘vanquish’?
3. How did Leo solve his problems at his school?
4. Why couldn't he solve the problems he found at Brandham Hall?
5. What letters opened Leo’s diary?
6. Why hadn't he heard anyone say his name for many years?
7. What kind of relationship does Leo have with Maudsley at school?
8. Can you see a connection between Marian and the deadly nightshade? If so, what is it?
9. Who do you think Marian talked to in Norwich?

Are these sentences true (T) or false (F)? 

In case they are false, rewrite them so that they are true.

1. Mr. Maudsley was so rich that he didn’t have to work. 
2. Mr. Maudsley controlled everything at Brandham Hall. 
3. Denys got on well with his mother. 
4. Leo had already noticed that Marian was very beautiful when Marcus told him. 
5. Leo is embarrassed about being too hot. 
6. Leo realizes that his family is not as rich as Marcus’s. 
7. Leo is happy about the idea that Trimingham will marry Marian. 

Remember to send your answers by Friday June 5th by email.