Unit 3A

more about travelling*

UK spelling TRAVELLING // US spelling TRAVELING

page 26-27

Listening

Read the instructions and the 8 sentences in Exercise 5a and make sure you understand at least 70% of it. Use Google Translate to help you.

When you are ready CLICK on this LINK to access Audio 2.7.

Assignment 2B. Identify three of the most interesting pieces of information that you found in Audio 2.7 and be ready to use them to complete Assignment 2.

ASSIGNMENT 2. - aeronautical flier

Now use the new language, new phrases and new grammar (so, so that...) you have learnt up to this point by pulling together all the information from Assignments 2A and 2B into a paragraph of approximately 120 words: Imagine that a prestigious aeronautical institute is designing fliers to send out to attract high school students to a career in the airline industry. Highlight in bold, every piece of new language and grammar you are using: you can copy phrases and expressions, but they must be correctly put together. You must incorporate this information into your flier: "to apply you must have an internationally recognized certificate which attests to B2-level English competence". These 15 words do not count towards the word-count.

Submit this dialogue as a DOC file which is named: YOURNAME- YOUR STUDENT NUMBER-MODULE NUMBER- ASSIGNMENT NAME.

IMPORTANT: In your writing, show that you are able to use the language in this Unit. When you have written the best you can, upload your document (DOC not PDF) onto an online platform and send us the URL to access your writing. Check that the URL works before sending it. Use this Google Form to upload Assignment 2.

If you choose to do this assignment, the due date for this assignment is TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22ND

Go to page 136

Grammar bank

narrative tenses...

This Grammar Bank explains how the past simple & continuous and the past perfect & continuous are used to narrate and tell people of our past experiences so that they can "see" what happened to us and empathize with us: put themselves in our shoes. This is therefore a very socially useful way of using these tenses: learn it so you can "share stories", even in English.

Read the 4 examples carefully and be sure you understand what they mean. Then, when you are ready, listen to Audio 2.8 to hear how these sentences are "spoken". Pay attention to how English sounds when spoken.

past perfect simple or continuous?

Now read the two sentences regarding Lina and when you are ready, listen to Audio 2.9 to practice your listening skills.

Finally, read the last bullet-point about how to use these two tenses effectively when you need to "tell your story".

Proceed to do Exercises (a) and (b).

Check how you did in Exercise (a) and practice your listening comprehension using this audio.

Then double-check your understanding of the audio with the Page of Answers, where you will also find the answers to Exercise b.

Go back to page 26

Grammar

Read and follow the instructions for Exercises 6a and 6b. As always look up as many of the words you do not know as you want to learn. This will help you at the exam, if we happen to choose this text for a text to work on.

Then check your answers in the Page of Answers.

Assignment 3A. Imagine that you are a journalist who has just obtained the information of this text from a passenger on this nightmare flight. This passenger happens to be the mayor of your small-town which has a local paper* that is read by almost all 100,000 inhabitants of your town. So, jot down** three of the most interesting points the mayor told you, for your article. Below, you will find more instructions about how to complete Assignment 3.

*in everyday parlance, and in a very clear context such as here, paper means newspaper

** note that we use COMMAS (,) and not decimal points (.) to separate numbers greater than one. And of course we use the decimal point*** to separate whole numbers from fractions: 1.5 = 3/2

*** when we speak about (.) in numbers, we call (.) a decimal point; When using it in writing, we say period (at the end of a sentence); When we use (.) in a URL, it is called a dot.

Pronunciation

Read and follow the instructions for Exercise 7a to review the past simple forms of these irregular verbs. When you are done, listen and check using Audio 2.10.

Language note

English regular verbs, require only the addition of "-ed" to form the past simple form. So you only need to learn a rule: "add -ed". By contrast, irregular verbs must be memorized. Is that not stupid for a language to have so many "irregular units" that must be memorized? Indeed. So what explains the existence of "irregular verbs" in English (or any language)?

One characteristic of English irregular verbs is that they are usually common-purpose verbs that describe actions that most of us do very often: eat, get up, pay, buy... Since these describe common actions, people use these verbs frequently. Since native speakers are frequently exposed to these verbs from childhood, "memorizing these" is not difficult.

You can imagine, therefore, that more "academic verbs" which are used more rarely, such as calculate, differentiate, integrate, centrifuge, operate, etc. are regular verbs, "add -ed".

Pronunciation continued...

Now read the text below the cartoon. If necessary, double-check your understanding of this text using Google Translate.

If you want to improve your pronunciation, pay attention to this task! Before you listen to the audio of this Exercise 7d, listen to this explanation that we have prepared for you about stress-timed and syllable-timed languages.

Now you are ready to proceed to Audio 2.11 and appreciate how English stresses high-information content-words and not grammar-words or phrases.

ASSIGNMENT 3. News of the mayor - audio report

Now return to your interview with your mayor. Now you can also use information in Audio 2.11. Imagine that you are responsible for reporting this news for the evening news on a local TV chanel. Elaborate your interview notes into a report that would last 50 seconds of speaking time. Your report must contain the narrative tenses covered in this Unit, and to demonstrate that you have understood that English is a stress-timed language, and not a syllable-timed language like Italian, emphasize certain words which you think would be emphasized if a native English speaker were "speaking" your report.

Then record your 50-second report on an online platform that gives you a URL (vocaroo.com online voice recorder or others). Try to demonstrate your understanding that English does not pronounce every single letter of every single word, like Italian. Use this Google Form to upload Assignment 3.

Don't forget to name your URL voice recording link as follows: YOURNAME- YOUR STUDENT NUMBER-MODULE NUMBER- ASSIGNMENT NAME

Check that the URL works before sending it.