What Do You Think of School?

S = Simon

R = Ruth

I = Interviewer

К = Kate

1. I: So, what do you think of school, Kate?

К: I think school's OK really. Um. I quite like history. Um. 'Cos the history teacher's really nice. Um, but the other subjects are really boring, 'cos I don't really like them. I think Wednesday is my favourite day because we have sport on Wednesdays and I'm good at that. Um. The worst thing about school is the dinners. The food is horrible.

I: And what are you going to do when you leave school?

K: Urn. I'm not really sure, but I love animals. I love cats, dogs, birds, and I'd just love to work with animals.

2. I: Right, now then Simon, what do you think about school?

S: I like school a lot. Um. I like all the teachers, except for one, the maths teacher. Umm. I think my favourite subject is French, 'cos I'm quite good at that. Um. This summer I'm going to stay with a French family in France.

I: That sounds great!

S: Yeah, I'm looking forward to it a lot. Um. I think the bad things about school are all the homework and the – you have to work really hard, it takes up a lot of your time. So, um, I like doing the extra things as well, like the school orchestra, and playing the violin, um, and the school football team.

I: So, what do you want to do when you leave school?

S: I think I'd like to be a French teacher, or even a football player for England!

3. I: What do you think of school, Ruth?

R: I hate school. The teachers hate me and I hate them. I've got no friends. That's because we moved recently. The only thing I like about my school is that we've got a swimming pool, but it's not open all the time. I really like swimming. I can't wait to leave school.

I: What are you going to do when you leave school?

R: I want to be an actress and work on television.

A. Questions.

1. What do you think of your school?

2. What do you like and dislike about it?

3. What is your favourite subject?

4. What is the social and cultural life in your school like?

5. Do you go in for sports?

6. Are the sport facilities good?

7. What do you want to do when you leave school?

B.Make up similar interviews.

Profile: Peter Parket

I = Interviewer P = Peter

I: With us in the studio this morning is Peter Parker. Good morning, Peter.

P: Good morning.

I: Peter Parker is an English Language teacher. He was always good at languages at school, so he decided to take his degree in French and German. When he finished his university studies, he began teaching in a secondary school in England. Two years later, however, he met someone by chance who offered him a job teaching English to foreign students during the long summer holidays. His students were adults and he enjoyed the work immensely. He soon found he was more interested in teaching his own language to foreigners than foreign languages to English schoolboys. Since then he has specialised in this work. He has found that one of the advantages of the job is that it enables him to find work almost anywhere in the world. First he went to Africa for two years and then he spent a year in Arabia. After this he went to Greece where he has worked for the last 3 years. He hasn't been to South America yet but he intends to go there next. He has taught men and women of all ages and of various nationalities. He has also learned to get on with all kinds of people and to adjust to different ways of life. So far he has not regretted his decision to follow this career. Now then, Peter, tell me...

A.Ask and answer questions on the text. Retell the text.

Linguistic talent

Betty: Why weren't you at the German class last night, Joan? Have you given up?

Joan: Well, no... I came back late yesterday and found Simon asleep in the chair. He'd been writing reports all day long and he was too worn out to go out again, so we gave the lesson a miss.

Betty: You've missed quite a lot of lessons lately, haven't you? Are you losing your enthusiasm?

Joan: Yes, I'm afraid so. Neither Simon nor I have a gift for languages. People just laugh at us when we attempt to speak German. How did you and Eric pick it up so quickly and easily? You've hardly been in Germany a month.

Betty: It was neither quick nor easy, I assure you. We'd both studied the language before we came, and we only needed to brush it up a bit.

Joan: Anyway, all our friends here speak English fluently so we don't really need to learn German.

Betty: Well, Eric and I have been both learning and teaching languages for years and we enjoy it immensely.

Joan: Well, keep it up! I'm all for teaching foreigners English, if it saves the trouble of learning foreign languages myself.

A. Questions.

1. Why did Joan and Simon miss the German class last night?

2. Have Joan and Simon made much progress in the study of English? And what about Betty and Eric?

3. Why does Joan think they don't really need learn German?

Language learning

I = Interviewer L = Liz

I: Liz, what language have you learnt?

L: Urn, I've just finished doing a course in Russian.

I: Russian! That sounds really exciting. Where did you learn it?

L: That was, er, that was a course of evening classes at a local college here.

I: And how many evenings did you go?

L: Um. Just one evening a week, we went for two hours every week, which wasn't really enough.

I: You'd need to go more often to make it worthwhile?

L: I think so, if you were going to learn the language properly, yes.

I: Mm. How did they teach it?

L: Um. It was quite a traditional method really. We did a lot of grammar exercises, um, obviously the grammar's quite different, quite important in Russian. Um. That was OK. I didn't mind that. I actually quite like grammar.

I: Any other techniques?

L: Um. Yeah, there was, er, a video course.

I: What did that involve?

L: That was, it went with the book we were using and, er, we used to watch a one hour video each week of people talking Russian, real Russians, um so that was good, that was an interesting way to learn.

I: You really enjoyed that?

L: Yeah. I think it was a more valid way to learn, really.

I: Was there a part of the course then that wasn't very satisfactory?

L: Yeah, we did a lot of translation in class, really again it was the traditional approach, um, reading around the class, taking turns to translate things around the class, which, basically was too difficult, um, for our level, we couldn't do it at all really.

I: Mm. So if, um, you know, if someone else was going to study at an evening class would you recommend it as a way of learning?

L: I think it depends on the course, um, and the teacher obviously. I don't think I'll be going back to that particular college next year.

A. Questions.

1. What language has Liz learnt?

2. Where did she learn it?

3. How often did she have Russian classes?

4. How did they teach Russian?

Grammar Lesson 14

Spelling Rules p. 195

Regular verbs form the Past Indefinite Tense by adding the suffix –ed to the infinitive. Observe the following spelling rules: i

1. The mute –e is dropped before adding the suffix -ed: to taste – tasted.

2. The final consonant is doubled before the suffix -ed if it is preceded by a vowel letter expressing a short stressed vowel sound: to stop – stopped.

3. The final -l is doubled if it is preceded by a vowel letter expressing a short vowel sound: to travel – travelled.

4. The final -y is changed into i before adding the suffix -ed if it is preceded by a consonant letter: to try – tried.

5. The letter -r is doubled if the final syllable is stressed: pre'fer – pre'ferred, but 'offer — 'offered.

Rule 1. The Past Indefinite Tense

(the past simple)

The Past Indefinite Tense is formed by adding the suffix -ed to the infinitive in the case of regular verbs, or by changing the root vowel, or in some other way in the case of irregular verbs.

I worked

You worked

He (she, it) worked

We worked

You worked

They worked

e.g. She passed the letter to John, who passed it to me.

Once upon a time there were three wicked brothers.

We had a great time in Greece.

Regularly every summer Janet fell in love.

She folded the letter and put it away in a drawer.

I often fell in love when I was younger.

The regular past is pronounced as follows:

[d] after voiced consonants and vowels as in to learn – learned

to play – played

[t] after voiceless consonants as in to jump – jumped

[id] after t, d as in

to want – wanted

to attend - attended

In the interrogative form the auxiliary verb did is placed before the subject. The notional verb is used in the infinitive without to.

Did I work?

Did you work?

Did he (she, it) work?

Did we work?

Did you work?

Did they work?

e.g. Did you catch the last train? – Yes, I did No, I didn t.

Did you finish that job?

How much did you win?

What chapter did you discuss?

Alternative questions:

Did you take it, or didn t you?

Did you or didn't you take it?

Did you or didn’t you?

Did you take it, or not?

Tag questions:

You had a holiday at Christmas, at New Year and at Easter, didn’t you?

A question to the subject does not require the auxiliary verb.

e.g. Who left the door open? (NOT ~~Who did leave~~ ~~...? )~~

What happened? (NOT ~~What did happen? )~~

Who said that?

In the negative form the negative particle not is placed after the auxiliary verb.

e.g. They did not arrive before 10.

Contracted negative forms are:

I didn’t work	We didn’t work
You didn’t work	You didn’t work
He (she, it) didn’t work	They didn’t work

Negative questions: Did I not work? or Didn’t I work?

e g Didn't she come yesterday?

Notes: 1. If the main verb is have, you usually use did as an auxiliary.

e.g. They didn’t have any money.

Hadn’t is not very common.

e.g. He hadn’t enough money.

2. The negative form to be is used without did.

e.g. He wasn’t a painter. (NOT ~~He didn~~’t ~~be a painter)~~

There weren’t any problems.

There were no footsteps to be seen.

The use

The Past Indefinite tense expresses an action which took place in the past and has no connection with the present. This is the usual tense of narration.

e.g. They decided to try to run at midnight.

Past Indefinite is used with such adverbial modifiers of the past time as yesterday, last week (month, year), three days ago, on Saturday, at 5 o'clock, in 1970, last (в последний раз), the other day; in special questions with when, with adverbial modifiers of place.

e.g. 'Have you seen this play? ' – 'Yes, I have I saw it last night. I saw it at the cinema house " Raduga ".'

When did you see him last?

When did you first visit London?

Note: Repeated actions in the past are also expressed by used to + Infinitive and would +Infinitive.

e.g. I used to dance when I was young.

He would spend all days reading

Would is used in narration to talk about past habits and typical characteristics.

e.g. On Saturday when I was a child we would all get up early and go fishing. Used to is mostly used in direct speech and related to the present, that is an action in the past is compared with the state of things in the present.

e.g. My parents used not to visit me often, but they do now.

Rule 2. The Past Continuous Tense

(the past progressive tense)

The Past Continuous tense is formed by means of the auxiliary verb was(were) and Participle I of the notional verb.

I was reading	We were reading
You were reading	You were reading
He (she, it) was reading	They were reading

e.g. He was still sleeping at 7.

In the interrogative form the auxiliary verb is placed before the subject.

e.g. Was her English improving?

In the negative form the negative particle not is placed after the auxiliary verb.

e.g. He was not smiling.

The contracted forms are: wasn t; weren't.

The use

I It expresses an action which was going on at some definite moment in the past. This definite moment may be indicated by an adverbial modifier of time or an adverbial clause of time.

e.g. What were уoи doing at eight o'clock yesterday evening? – I was watching TV.

When I got up this morning, the sun was shining, the birds were singing.

The Past Continuous is used to talk about some events which continued to happen before and after a given time in the past.

e.g. She phoned while I was cooking.

I looked out of the window. It was snowing again.

The Past Continuous is often used for temporary situation and actions. When we talk about longer, more permanent situations we use the Past Indefinite.

e.g. It happened while I was living in Eastbourne last year.

I lived in London for ten years while I was a child.

He was working at home at the time.

Bill was using my office until I came back from America.

Another use of the Past Continuous is to stress that an activity was in progress at every moment during a period of time.

e.g. I was painting all day yesterday.

They were travelling the whole time they were together.

Did he dance much last night? – He was dancing all evening.

The Past Continuous is used to express repeated actions with the adverbs always, continually, constantly when there is an element of exaggeration.

e.g. I didn't like him – he was continually borrowing money.

Rule 3. Indirect speech (reported speech)

Sequence of tenses

If the verb in the principle clause (a reporting verb) is in the Past Indefinite the verb in the object clause must also be in one of the past tenses.

e.g. She just said she was fourteen.

We move the reported clause one tense back.

e.g. He said, ‘I work till 9' – He said he worked till 9. (работает)

Are you deaf? I asked how old you were.

In this case the following changes take place:

here	is replaced by	there
this	is replaced by	that
these	is replaced by	those
now	is replaced by	then (may be omitted)
today	is replaced by	that day
now	is replaced by	right away
yesterday	is replaced by	the day before (on the previous day)
tonight	is replaced by	that night
3 days ago	is replaced by	3 days before
tomorrow	is replaced by	(the) next day
last year	is replaced by	the previous year (the year before)
next year	is replaced by	(the) following year
next week	is replaced by	the next week
last Tuesday	is replaced by	the Tuesday before
could	is replaced by	had been able

Must remains unchanged if it expresses advice or supposition.

e.g. He said that she must be more careful.

He said she must be very fond of music.

Must is replaced by had to if it expresses necessity arising out of circumstances.

e.g. She said she had to get up early every morning.

The following reporting verbs may be used in statements: explain (to smb.), add, remark, remind, declare, admit, assure, note, go on to say, continue; in indirect questions, want to know, wonder, inquire, be interested to know.

Rule 4. Articles

The nouns school, college, university, church, bed, prison, gaol are used without articles when they express the purpose for which they serve.

To be at school, to go to school, to leave school means to be a schoolboy or a teacher.

e.g. School in England begins at 5 years of age.

Chris is in college.

After he did military service, he went to university.

They arrested Alex and put him in prison.

Usually I was in bed when I heard my father's footstep on the porch.

but: Mother went to the school yesterday. (the building)

I went to the college for an interview with Professor Taylor. (the building)

I’m going to hospital means that I’m probably ill;

I'm going to the hospital means that I am probably visiting someone there.

⇐ Предыдущая 4 5 6 7 8910 11 12 13 Следующая ⇒