| You are going to listen to Dialogue 1 and do some tasks.
Sara Black, an American woman, has just arrived home with a new friend and
is introducing her. |
| The tasks in this activity provide more listening practice for you. In Activity One, you heard some introductions and greetings in an informal context. In this activity, you are going to listen to six very short conversations. Some of the conversations are in informal contexts while others are more formal. In order to be able to function well in English you need to be familiar with all types of context, don't you? You can judge so much about the relationships between people from the way they speak to each other. |
Now that we have considered some of the most common forms of greeting
and introduction in face to face situations, we can move on to ways of
“introducing” or talking about a person who is not present. In other words,
we shall now consider ways of describing people. I'm sure you are already
familiar with descriptions like this one, which is part of a letter from
a penfriend:
I'm quite tall and slim with long, dark hair and green eyes.
So, we don't need to revise basic adjectives, do we? You probably already
know a lot of clothing vocabulary in English too. It is interesting, however,
that just as fashions change, clothing vocabulary can change too. In this
activity, you will learn some new clothing vocabulary and revise some
of the words and expressions you already know.
|
| Remember Tom and Sam, the twins? Because they look identical, it is hard
to tell them apart. For this reason, Sara, their mother often encourages
them to wear slightly different clothes--so, one boy may wear a red tee
shirt while the other wears a blue one; or one may wear a checked shirt
while the other wears a striped one. These days, clothes are made from a
wide variety of fabrics or materials (wool, cotton, nylon, denim, silk,
acrylic fabric and so on). You do NOT need to know the exact meanings of
all these types of fabric, but it is useful to know different common patterns
that make fabrics colourful. |
| This activity involves more listening tasks . You are going to hear two
people describing a photograph. You will hear Sara first and then Li Ting.
Both women are showing the same photograph to friends. |
| You have now "met" the Black family. In the tasks of this activity,
you will be hearing more about them. You are going to listen to a conversation
that takes place one morning in the Blacks' kitchen. |
| Have you changed since you were a child? You have certainly changed physically
but has your personality changed? Think of someone you have known since
you were a child and whom you still see regularly - a family member or close
friend. Do you still remember when you played all sorts of games together
and enjoyed each other's company? There were probably all sorts of times
when you disagreed and even squabbled with each other. How well did you
know each other? Do you know each other better now that you have grown up? |
| Now we have almost reached the end of this first unit. How have you got
on? I hope you haven't found too many problems. Remember, you should always
make a note of any problems you have so that you can raise them with your
tutor. Before you finish the unit, look back at the beginning, at all the
things you are told you should be able to do by the end of the unit. Do
you feel you can do them? I hope so. |