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What will you learn in this lesson?

• • Exam skill: You will learn how to do the Listening exercise. Part 2. Matching
  • Grammar:  You will learn How to ask and answer questions
  • Vocabulary: You will learn vocabulary related to sports
  • Pronunciation: You will learn silent consonants

1)Exam skill:  Listening

What’s the Listening about?

The Listening is paper 2 and  has 5 parts (from 1 to 5) and 3 types of exercises: Multiple choice, Matching/emparejar/ and Gap fill /completar espacio en blanco.

In this lesson we will study Part 2, which is a matching exercise.

Parte	Tarea	Núm. de preguntas	Formato de pregunta
Listening Part 2	Matching	5 (from 6 to 10)	You will hear two people talking about a subject. For questions 6-10 you have to write a letter (A-H) next to each person.

 

Source

What are they going to ask you?

They will ask you to listen to a conversation (two people talking usually friends) and then answer the questions matching the numbers on the left with the letters on the right. The numbers (6-10) usually refer to names, days of the week, or months and the letters (A-H) usually refer to sports, presents, objects, rooms, etc. Los números (6-10) de un lado que generalmente se refieren a nombres, días de la semana, meses, etc, tienen que ser emparejados a las letras (A-H) del otro lado que generalmente se refieren a deportes, regalos, objetos, habitaciones, etc.

For example:

Listen to Edgard talking to her sister about the presents he bought. Who got which present?

For questions 6-10 write a letter (A-H) next to each person. You will hear the conversation twice.

Example:

o Jim  C

My note: C is the correct answer because in the recording they said that Jim was going to get a book as a present.

 

	People			Presents
6	Rebecca	🔲	A	jacket
7	Paul	🔲	B	gloves
8	Martha	🔲	C	book
9	Erik	🔲	D	tablet
10	Samuel	🔲	E	glasses
			F	dress
			G	T-shirt
			H	perfume

How are you supposed to do this?

You have to learn vocabulary included in the A2 level, such as days of the week, months, sports, objects, descriptions, climate, health, environment , places, etc. It’s important that you remember the sounds of the words before remembering the spelling. Es importante que recuerdes el sonido de las palabras, antes que la ortografía.

It’s also important that you remember new words in sentences.  We are already doing all this in this course. También es importante que recuerdes las palabras nuevas en frases. Estamos ya haciendo todo esto en este curso.

You should read the questions and answers carefully. As you will hear the conversation twice, try to use the first recording to answer the questions and the second one to correct the mistakes.

Nota acerca del listening in Cambridge: Suele ser bastante difícil de superar porque las preguntas no solo miden lo que entiendes, si no que te obligan a analizar quién dijo que.  En KET este tipo de formato de pregunta es fácil de seguir con algo de práctica. Pero luego se va complicando en el PET y sobre todo a partir del B2 (FCE). Por eso es importante que empieces desde ya a familiarizarte  con este tipo de formato de pregunta.

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Now it’s time to practise.

Exercise 1

Go to exercise 1

Exercise 2

Go to exercise 2

Exercise 3

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2) Grammar

How to ask and answer questions?

In English, like in Spanish, there are two kinds of questions:

Questions with interrogatives and questions without interrogatives, so we will study them separately.

1. Questions without interrogatives

In this type of questions we only ask with the verb. You have to distinguish between TO BE QUESTIONS , questions with DO, DOES, DID and questions with MODAL VERBS (WOULD, COULD, WILL)

a) TO BE QUESTIONS

Structure:

Affirmative question: Verb” to be” conjugated + subject + object +?

Remember: First the verb and then the subject.

Examples:

• Is she in the office? ¿Está ella en la oficina?
• Were they working? ¿Estaban ellos trabajando?
• Are they busy? ¿Están ocupados?

Negative question: Contracted negative form of the verb “to be” conjugated + subject + object +?

Remember: First the verb then not and the subject.

Examples:

• Isn’t she in the office? ¿No está ella en la oficina?
• Weren’t they working? ¿No estaban ellos trabajando?
• Aren’t they busy? ¿No están ellos ocupados?

Answers:

• Yes + subject + verb to be conjugated.
• No +  subject +verb to be conjugated + not

Examples:

• Is she in the office?  Yes, she is. No, she isn’t.
• Were they working?  Yes, they were. No, they weren’t.
• Are they busy? Yes, they are. No, they aren’t.

Exercise 4

Translate the following questions and answers:

1. ¿Están ellos dentro?
2. ¿No estuvieron aquí tus tíos?
3. ¿Estás cansado?
4. No,  no estoy cansado
5. ¿Es importante? (a thing)
6. ¿Somos lo suficientemente listos?
7. ¿No es él?
8. ¿No son ellos profesores?
9. ¿Son ellas patinadoras?
10. ¿Es él un nadador famoso?

Check the answers here.

b)  QUESTIONS WITH DO, DOES or DID

To ask questions with verbs that are neither TO BE, nor MODAL VERBS we must use DO, DOES or DID.

• DO is used for the present tense with all persons except the third person: He, She and It.
• DOES para :He, She, It.
• DID is used with all persons when the question is in the past tense.

Structure of the questions (Present and Past Tense)

Affirmative questions: DO/DOES or DID  + subject + main verb in the infinitive  + object +?

Examples:

• Do you work here? ¿Trabajas tú aquí?
• Does she know what I’m talking about? ¿Sabe ella de lo que estoy hablando?
• Did they go to the presentation? ¿Fueron a la presentación?

Negative questions: Contracted negative form of DO/DOES or DID +subject + main verb in the infinitive  + object +?

• Don’t you work here? ¿No trabajas tú aquí?
• Doesn’t she know what I’m talking about? ¿No sabe ella de lo que estoy hablando?
• Didn’t they go to the presentation? ¿No fueron a la presentación?

Answers:

• Yes + subject +do/does or did
• No +  subject + don’t/doesn’t or didn’t

Exercise 5

Translate the following questions and answers:

1. ¿No sabes que él no está aquí?
2. No, yo no lo hice
3. ¿Lo hiciste tú?
4. ¿Jugamos nosotros el viernes?
5. ¿No cocina ella los domingos?
6. ¿Comiste pescado ayer?
7. ¿Vino ella a la fiesta?
8. ¿Lo sé yo?
9. ¿Caminas todos los días?
10. ¿Ven ellos la televisión durante la semana?

Check the answers here.

c) QUESTIONS WITH MODAL VERBS

Modal verbs are verbs that change the mode, or form of verb to express necessity or possibility. They act as auxiliary verbs.

For example:

I study English on Saturdays —> I COULD study English on Saturdays (Possibility).  Podría estudiar inglés los sábados.

Here you have a list of modal verbs:

• can /poder
• could/podría/pude
• may/puede que
• might quizás
• will -rá /futuro
• would/ -ía/cond.
• must/debo
• shall/-rá/invitación
• should
• ought to/debería

Structure of the questions with modal verbs

Affirmative: Modal verb+ subject+ main verb in the  infinitive + object+?

Remember: First the modal verb and then the subject.

Examples:

• Should I open the package? ¿Debería abrir el paquete?
• Can we have a meeting on Thursday?  ¿Podemos reunirnos el jueves?
• Will they go to Paris? ¿Irán ellos a París?

Negative questions: Modal verb in its negative contracted form +subject+ main verb in the infinitive + object+?

• Shouldn’t I open the package? ¿No debería abrir el paquete?
• Can’t we have a meeting on Thursday?  ¿No podemos reunirnos el jueves?
• Won’t they go to Paris? ¿No irán ellos a París?

Answers:

Yes + subject + modal verb

No +  subject + modal verb + not

Examples:

• Should I open the package?  Yes, you should. No, you shouldn’t.
• Can we have a meeting on Thursday?  Yes, we can. No, we can’t.
• Will they go to Paris? Yes, they will. No, they won’t. (The negative form of will is won’t. It is less frequent to hear: “will not”.)

Exercise 6

Translate the following questions and answers:

1. ¿Puedes hacerlo?
2. ¿Debe él estudiar más?
3. ¿Crees que yo debería llevarla al trabajo?
4. ¿Irán ellos a la fiesta?
5. No, no irán.
6. ¿Podrías decirme la hora?
7. ¿No crees que puede que sea falso?
8. ¿No puedes pensar de otra manera?
9. ¿Irás tú?
10. No, no puedo hacerlo.

Check the answers here.

2.Questions with interrogatives

This kind of questions are usually called “Wh- questions” because most interrogatives start with “Wh-”

• • What/Qué
  • Which/Cuál
  • Where/Dónde
  • When/ Cuándo
  • Who/ Quién
  • Whom/ A quién
  • Whose/ De quién
  • Why/ Por qué
  • How/ Cómo
  • What time?/ ¿A qué hora?
  • How much?/ ¿Cuánto/a?
  • How many?/ ¿Cuántos/as?
  • How long?/ ¿Cuánto tiempo?
  • How far?/ ¿A qué distancia?

Just like in Spanish the only thing we do is to add the interrogative at the beginning of the question.

Example:

• ¿Dónde está ella? Where is she?
•  ¿Por qué no funciona el ordenador? Why doesn’t the computer work?
• ¿Cómo estás? How are you?

You must remember three important things:

1) The use of What (Qué) and Which (Cuál) do not always coincide with Spanish.

Example:

• • • We say: What is your name? not “How is your name? ¿Cómo te llamas?
    • We use Which,  instead of  What, when there are few options.

Example:

• Which is your house? ¿Cuál es tu casa? (Solo estamos viendo dos casas).
• What is your nationality? ¿Cuál es tu nacionalidad? (Como son muchas nacionalidades pregunto con “What”)

2)Whose/ ¿De quién? Nota: Debes recordar que el objeto sobre el que se pregunta la pertenencia siempre va detrás de Whose, y no al final como en español.

Example:

¿De quién son estos zapatos?
Whose shoes are these? We don’t say: Whose are these shoes?

3) Questions that end in a preposition are difficult to understand because in Spanish we place the preposition at the beginning, not at the end.Las preguntas que acaban en una preposición suelen ser difíciles de comprender porque en español ponemos la preposición al principio, no al  final.

Examples:

• ¿Con quién fuiste a cenar?
•  Who did you have dinner with?  Notice how in this case the preposition goes at the end of the question, not at the beginning.

Exercise 7

Translate the following sentences:

1. ¿A qué hora vinieron ellos?
2. ¿Qué es lo que hiciste?
3. ¿Cómo lo hicieron ellos?
4. ¿Cuánto te costó?
5. ¿Dónde estuviste?
6. ¿Por qué no viniste?
7. ¿De quién es este paraguas?
8. ¿Cómo funciona? Note: a machine
9. ¿Cuál es?
10. ¿Qué quieres?

Check the answers here.

3) Vocabulary

Sports

• Source: Thank you 7esl.com
• Archery /ar cheri/: tiro con arco
• Bowling /bouling/:  bolos
• Figure skating /figier skeiting/: patinaje artístico
• Fencing: esgrima
• Weightlifting= Pesas
• Hang-gliding /hang glaiding/: volar con ala delta
• Climbing /claiming/: alpinismo, montañismo
• Billiards/billardss/ UK/ Pool (US): billar
• Shooting /shuting/: tiro
• Horse racing/reising/: carreras de caballo

 

Action verbs

 

• bounce /bauns/: rebotar
• kneel /nil/: arrodillarse
• bend: doblarse
• lie/lai/down/daun/: tumbarse
• ride /raid/: montar
• kick: dar patadas
• hop: dar saltitos
• skip: saltar a la soga
• throw /zrou/: arrojar
• catch: coger
• shoot/shut/: tirar
• dribble/dribol/: regatear

4) Pronunciation

Silent consonants 

Unlike in Spanish, in English there a many words that have consonants that are not pronounced. Here you have a list. Practise saying them aloud using the approximate pronunciation if you are not familiar with phonetics.

Letter K:

• know /nou/: saber
• knee /ni/: rodilla
• knack /nak/: truco
• knight /nait/: caballero
• knock/ nok/: golpear (una puerta, madera)

Letter B

• climb /klaim/: trepar, escalar
• comb /kom/: peine, peinar
• dumb /dam/: tonto
• lamb /lam/: oveja
• tomb /tum/: tumba

Letter S

• corps /corp/: cuerpo
• debris/debri/: escombro
• aisle /ail/: pasillo
• island /ailand/: isla

Letter T

When it appears between an “s” and “le”.

• castle /kasol/: castillo
• little /litol/: pequeño

Letter W

• wrong /rong/: equivocado
• wrestle /resol/: luchar (deporte)

Go to unit 8

Mónica

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