Cambridge English · Learner e-book
Ten stops through British life, in the English you already have
A2 Key · CEFR A2 · 10 units · 100 minutes of audio
Ten units, one line, one stop at a time. Each stop is a piece of British life and a piece of the A2 Key exam. Work through them in order — the language builds, and each unit assumes the one before it.
Every unit has the same eleven steps and takes about four hours. Grammar is the spine: the reading passage exists to make the unit's grammar visible, and the Grammar Clinic is the longest section in the unit for a reason. Listen first with the transcript closed, then again with it open. Do not stop the audio to look up words: the words you need are taught before you listen, and the rest are explained inside the programme.
The coloured buttons in each unit open tasks on the learning platform. Tick the box under each one when you finish it, and the bars at the top of the page and the top of each unit will fill up. Your teacher can see the same bars.
A note on the audio: the two voices are Tom, a retired London bus driver, and Nila, who works at a community radio station in east London. Both are Londoners, but they do not sound alike — Tom speaks the older, slower London of the bus garages, and Nila the quick London of a twenty-five-year-old. Listen for the difference. They present both levels of this series, so when you move up you keep the same companions and they simply speak faster.
| Journeys made in London in one year | billion journeys |
|---|---|
| Bus | 1.87 |
| Underground | 1.18 |
Learn these five words first. You will hear all of them in the story.
Predict: the story is called “Mind the Gap”. What do you think happens? Write one sentence before you listen.
Play: vocabulary warm-up→TOM(warm, unhurried) Every Saturday morning I take the bus to King's Cross station. (beat) King's Cross — that is K-I-N-G-S, Cross.
NILAYou don't drive the buses any more, Tom.
TOMNo, I don't, but I sat in that driver's seat for thirty-five years. Now I am a volunteer guide, and I like it.
NILAWhat exactly do you do at the station?
TOMI stand next to the big Underground map in a bright red jacket. People come to me with their questions, and I answer them.
NILADo they always ask you the same things?
TOMMost of them do — where is the exit, which line goes to the airport.
TOMOne morning a young man comes through the entrance with a big bag. His name is Paulo — that is P-A-U-L-O — and he is a tourist from Brazil.
NILADoes he speak much English?
TOMOnly a little, so he speaks slowly. He says, "Excuse me, I want to see the old ships."
NILAThe old ships? Which ships?
TOMHe means Greenwich, and that word is a trap for learners. We spell it G-R-E-E-N-W-I-C-H, but we do not say it like that.
NILAHow does he say it?
TOMHe says "Green-witch", and it is a very good guess.
NILABut the w is silent, isn't it?
TOMThe w is silent, so we say "GREN-itch". Paulo tries again — "GREN-itch" — and then he smiles at me.
NILADoes he have a ticket for the journey?
TOMNo, he doesn't, and he stands at the machine with a worried face.
NILABut he doesn't need a paper ticket in London.
TOMHe doesn't. You can touch a bank card on the round yellow reader. You touch in at the start, and you touch out at the end. Paulo touches his card, the gate opens, and he laughs out loud. Then he shows me his map, completely upside down. I turn the map round, and now the river is at the bottom. I point to our station, and then I point to Greenwich.
NILAHow long is the journey?
TOM"You must change twice," I say, "and it takes about forty minutes." Forty minutes — and he counts the stations with his finger.
NILADoes he understand the direction now?
TOMHe understands, but he asks one more question. "Does this train go to the sea?"
NILA(amused) To the sea!
TOM(dry) The Thames is not the sea, Paulo. The Thames — T-H-A-M-E-S — is a river, but the big ships come up it.
NILALondon is not next to the sea, and many visitors forget that.
TOMThey do, so we walk to the platform through a very crowded hall. There are hundreds of passengers, and everybody walks quickly.
NILADo you like crowded stations?
TOMI don't mind them, because I like the noise and the movement. We go down the escalator, and Paulo stands on the left.
NILAOh dear.
TOM(dry) In London we stand on the right and we walk up on the left. Paulo moves across quickly, and a woman behind us says thank you.
TOMWe reach the platform, and the train comes out of the tunnel. The doors open, and then Paulo hears the famous words.
NILA"Mind the gap" — the gap between the train and the platform.
TOMThat's right, because some platforms are curved and the gap is quite wide. Paulo looks down, steps over it carefully, and gets on the train. He turns round and waves at me through the dirty window. Then he shouts one word through the glass: "GREN-itch!"
NILA(warm) Perfect.
TOMPerfect, the doors close, and the train goes back into the tunnel. I walk to my map, and I wait for the next question.
Something new about london and the underground — this is not the story you just heard. Read it once straight through. Then read it again and underline every example of present simple: questions and negatives you can find. There are at least twelve.
Do you like asking questions? Every year, children send us questions about the London Underground. We do not answer the boring ones. Here are the best.
Which station is the busiest? Waterloo wins easily: in 2024, more than 74 million people went in and out of it. Does the network get busy too? Passengers make about 1.2 billion journeys on the Tube every year.
How deep does the Tube go? Hampstead station, on the Northern line, sits about 58 metres under the street. Do you love escalators? Angel station has the longest one on the whole network.
Do children pay? Very small children do not. A child between five and ten travels free on the Tube. Young people between eleven and fifteen do not pay on London buses and trams. On the Tube they pay only half price, and they need a Zip Oyster photocard for that.
Which two stations stand closest together? Covent Garden and Leicester Square are only 260 metres apart. Your legs do not need a ticket, so most Londoners simply walk it.
Does the Tube run all night? No, it does not. Most trains stop soon after midnight, and they start again at about half past five. On Friday and Saturday nights, five lines run all night. People call this the Night Tube.
And the silly question? Every year one brave person asks us this: does the Tube go to Paris? It does not! The Underground does not leave the country. Trains to Paris go from St Pancras station. So, what is your question? Ask a Londoner: they do not bite.
When you ask a question or say no in the present simple, you need a little helper: do or does. Use do with I, you, we and they. Use does with he, she and it. The helper takes the -s, so the main verb goes back to its simple form: Does the train stop here? For no, put not after the helper: I do not know, she does not know. When we speak, we say don't and doesn't.
| Person | Positive | Negative | Question |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | I take the bus. | I don't take the bus. | Do I take the bus? |
| you | You know the way. | You don't know the way. | Do you know the way? |
| he / she | She works at the station. | She doesn't work at the station. | Does she work at the station? |
| it | It stops at Bank. | It doesn't stop at Bank. | Does it stop at Bank? |
| we | We change at Green Park. | We don't change at Green Park. | Do we change at Green Park? |
| they | They live in London. | They don't live in London. | Do they live in London? |
Set A gives you everything. Set B takes away half the help. Set C takes away the rest. If you can only do A today, you have still done something real — do B tomorrow.
Notice the form. Read each sentence. Write P for positive, N for negative or Q for question. Then copy the helper word (do, does, don't, doesn't) if the sentence has one. The key does item 1 for you.
Complete the gaps. Use one word from the word bank in each gap. The bank has more words than you need, and you can use a word more than once.
Build the sentence. Write the new sentence in full. Item 1 shows you how.
NILA(bright) This is the Culture File, and today we go under London.
TOMPeople call it the Tube.
NILAWhy "the Tube", Tom?
TOMBecause the deep tunnels are round, so they look like long tubes.
NILAThat is a lovely picture, and here is fact number one. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway in the world.
TOMHow old is it exactly?
NILAThe first line opened in eighteen sixty-three, more than a hundred and sixty years ago. (beat) Say the date with me: eighteen sixty-three.
TOMThe first trains were steam trains, so the tunnels were full of smoke.
NILAThey were, and the seats were hard, but people loved the idea anyway.
TOMIt was not a comfortable journey.
NILANot at all. Now here is fact number two. There are eleven lines today, and they serve two hundred and seventy-two stations.
TOMTwo hundred and seventy-two stations is a lot of platforms.
NILAIt is, and every line has its own colour and its own name. The Central line is red, and the Piccadilly line is dark blue.
TOMPiccadilly — that is P-I-C-C-A-D-I-L-L-Y.
NILANow here is the big surprise of the day. Many people think the Tube runs completely under the ground.
TOMIt doesn't.
NILAIt doesn't, and that is our misconception for this unit. Only about forty-five per cent of the network is in tunnels.
TOMSo more than half of it is up in the daylight.
NILAMore than half — about fifty-five per cent of the network. In outer London you sit in the sunshine and look at people's gardens.
TOM(dry) And at the rain.
NILA(laughing) And at the rain, yes. Fact number three is about words. The announcement "Mind the gap" started in nineteen sixty-nine.
TOMYou hear it at every curved platform, and it is a serious safety message.
NILAIt is not a joke, because the gap can be surprisingly wide.
TOMPeople must look down before they step onto the train.
NILAFact number four is important for visitors: you don't need a paper ticket.
TOMYou can touch a bank card or a phone on the reader.
NILATouch in at the entrance, and then touch out again at the exit. If you don't touch out, the machine takes too much money.
TOMThat is a very common mistake.
NILAIt is, and here is one small rule about the escalator. Stand on the right, and walk up on the left. Londoners don't say anything to you, but they certainly look at you.
TOM(dry) They look at you for a very long time.
NILA(laughing) They do. Fact number five: the famous Tube map is not a real map.
TOMWhat does that mean?
NILAThe distances are wrong, and the lines are straight, but London isn't.
TOMSo who made it?
NILAA man called Harry Beck — that is B-E-C-K — drew it in nineteen thirty-three. He drew plans for the Underground, and he wanted something simple.
TOMNineteen thirty-three, and cities all over the world still copy his idea.
NILAThey copy it because simple beats correct.
NILANow, listener, here is your Talking Point for this unit. How do you travel in your town — by bus, by train, or on foot? Tell me about your journey to work or school now.
TOMIn my town the bus is best, and I should know.
NILA(warm) You certainly should. One last tip: stations are terribly crowded at eight in the morning.
TOMEight in the morning is the worst time of the whole day.
NILASo travel a little later, and the platform is much quieter.
TOMAnd then you can even get a seat.
NILAA seat on the Tube is a very good day indeed. Have you ever been to London? Think about your answer before next time.
How do you travel in your town — by bus, by train, or on foot?
One minute each, then swap. Use at least two words from the vocabulary bank.
The 15 words and phrases of this unit, each shown in the phrase it lives in. Learn the phrase, not the word on its own.
Reading and Writing Part 1 — six short real-world texts read for the main message. Station signs are exactly this task.
Six quick items. This is Unit 1, so every item comes from this unit, but each one tests a different piece of the grammar. Say your answer out loud, then write it.
Learn these five words first. You will hear all of them in the story.
Predict: the story is called “The Family on the Money”. What do you think happens? Write one sentence before you listen.
Play: vocabulary warm-up→TOM(warm, unhurried) It is Wednesday morning, and I am standing outside Buckingham Palace.
NILASo you are working today, Tom.
TOMI am working, because I am the guide for a school group from Leicester. (beat) Leicester — that is L-E-I-C-E-S-T-E-R. There are twenty-two children and three tired teachers with me.
NILAWhat are they all doing now?
TOMThey are standing at the gate and holding the black railings. One small boy is jumping up and down like a rabbit. His name is Zaid — that is Z-A-I-D — and he is nine years old.
TOMZaid asks me a new question every single minute of the morning. Right now he is asking me about the guards at the gate.
NILAWhat is he saying?
TOMHe is saying, "Tom, are they real soldiers or just actors?"
NILAThat is a very good question, and what do you tell him?
TOMI tell him the truth, because they are real soldiers in the British Army. They wear a red uniform and a tall black hat. That famous black hat is about forty-five centimetres tall, and it is heavy. (beat) Forty-five centimetres.
NILACan you touch a guard?
TOMNo, you can't, and you must not stand too close to them.
NILAAnd what is happening at the palace right now?
TOMListen — the band is playing, and the ceremony is starting.
NILAThe Changing of the Guard.
TOMYes, and it normally starts at a quarter to eleven in the morning. (beat) A quarter to eleven. Today it is starting exactly on time.
NILADoes it happen every single day?
TOMNo, it doesn't, because it happens on some days and not on others. People check the times online before they come. The new guards are marching through the gate at this moment. The old guards are waiting for them in the big yard. The old guards are going back to their barracks now, and then they rest.
NILAHow long is the ceremony?
TOMIt usually takes about forty-five minutes, and it is completely free. (beat) Free. You pay nothing, and you just stand and watch.
NILAThe children must be very excited.
TOMThey are excited, and some visitors are filming everything on their phones. A woman next to me is standing on a small blue box. And now Zaid is pulling my sleeve very hard.
NILAWhat does he want?
TOMHe wants the King, and he is looking up at the balcony. He says, "Tom, is the King at home today?"
NILA(softly) Oh. What do you say?
TOMI don't answer him with words, because I just point up at the roof.
NILAThe flag.
TOMThe flag, and there are two different flags here, Zaid. One is the Union Flag, and it flies when the King is away.
NILAAnd the other one?
TOMThe other one is the Royal Standard, in red, gold and blue. When that flag flies, the King is at home.
NILAAnd today?
TOMToday the Royal Standard is flying above the palace.
NILA(delighted) So he is at home!
TOMZaid is not moving now, and he is just looking up at that flag. Then he waves at the palace with both of his hands.
NILADoes anybody wave back?
TOM(dry) Nobody waves back, because the palace has seven hundred and seventy-five rooms. (beat) Seven hundred and seventy-five, and the King is in one of them. But Zaid is happy, and he takes a coin out of his pocket. He looks at the portrait of the King on the coin, and then at the palace.
NILAAnd what does he say?
TOMHe says one word only, and the word is "neighbours". Then the band stops, and we all go and find our lunch.
Something new about the royal family — this is not the story you just heard. Read it once straight through. Then read it again and underline every example of present continuous; the contrast with present simple you can find. There are at least twelve.
Every section of this fact file tells you what usually happens at Buckingham Palace. Then it tells you what is happening on one Tuesday in July. You are standing at the gate.
THE FLAG. Two flags fly above the palace. The Union Flag flies when the King is away. The Royal Standard flies when he is at home. Today the Royal Standard is flying, so the King is working inside. Visitors are pointing at the roof.
THE ROOMS. The palace has 775 rooms, and 78 of them are bathrooms. It is a home, but it is an office too, with 92 offices. Right now a cleaner is polishing a long floor, and two chefs are cooking lunch for the staff.
THE GARDEN. The garden covers 16 hectares, or 39 acres. It is the largest private garden in London, and more than 1,000 trees grow in it. Two gardeners are cutting the grass by the lake, and a robin is watching them.
THE BIRTHDAY. The King has two birthdays, and that sounds greedy. His real birthday is in November. His official birthday comes in June, with a huge parade and about 1,350 soldiers. Today a band is practising, and the drummer is counting the beats.
THE JEWELS. The Crown Jewels do not live at the palace. They sit in the Tower of London, under thick glass: more than 100 objects and over 23,000 gemstones. This morning a long queue is moving slowly past them. Outside, six ravens are walking about.
WHAT PEOPLE SAY. Not everybody thinks the same about palaces. Some people say the country pays too much for them. Others say the palaces bring millions of visitors, and the visitors bring money back. This week both sides are talking about it again. What do you think?
Use the present continuous for something in the middle of happening: right now, today, this week. Take am, is or are, and add -ing to the verb: I am waiting, she is waiting, they are waiting. Use the present simple for things that happen again and again: every day, usually, on Tuesdays. So the band plays in the yard every summer, but today it is playing in the rain.
| Present continuous - now | Present simple - again and again | Time words | |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | I am standing at the gate. | I stand here every Saturday. | now / every Saturday |
| he / she | She is waving at the guard. | She waves at the guard every time. | at the moment / every time |
| it | It is raining on the parade. | It rains a lot in June. | today / a lot |
| we | We are waiting for the band. | We wait here on Tuesdays. | this morning / on Tuesdays |
| they (negative) | They aren't marching today. | They don't march on Sundays. | today / on Sundays |
| question | Is the King working now? | Does the King work on Sundays? | now / on Sundays |
Set A gives you everything. Set B takes away half the help. Set C takes away the rest. If you can only do A today, you have still done something real — do B tomorrow.
Notice the form. Read each sentence. Write NOW if it is the present continuous, or OFTEN if it is the present simple. Then copy the verb.
Complete the gaps with words from the word bank. There are more words than gaps, and you can use a word more than once.
Build the sentence. Write it in full. Item 1 is done for you as a model.
NILA(bright) This is the Culture File, and today we look at palaces and money.
TOM(dry) My favourite subject is money.
NILA(laughing) Then fact number one is for you, but we start with the palace. Buckingham Palace is the King's official home in London.
TOMHow big is it?
NILAIt has seven hundred and seventy-five rooms, and that includes seventy-eight bathrooms. (beat) Seven hundred and seventy-five rooms. There are also ninety-two offices, because a palace is a workplace too.
TOMSo people are working in there right now.
NILAThey are working in there every day of the week. More than fifty thousand people also visit as guests each year. They come to garden parties, to lunches and to very big dinners.
TOM(dry) I am still waiting for my invitation.
NILA(laughing) So am I, Tom. Now, when did the family move in? In eighteen thirty-seven, and Queen Victoria was the first monarch there. (beat) Eighteen thirty-seven.
TOMAnd what about Windsor Castle?
NILAWindsor — that is W-I-N-D-S-O-R — is our fact number two. Windsor Castle is the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world.
TOM"Occupied" means that people still live inside it.
NILAExactly, so it is not a museum with empty rooms. People are living and working there today.
TOMWhere is it?
NILAIt is west of London, and you can go there by train in about an hour. The royal family often spends its weekends at Windsor.
TOMNow here is my question for you. Do the guards do a real job?
NILA(firm) That is our misconception for this unit, and the answer is yes. Many visitors think the guards are actors in costumes. They are trained soldiers in the British Army, and they guard the palace. They also serve in other countries, like any other soldiers.
TOMThe uniform is the show, but the job is completely real.
NILAWell said. And they make that tall black hat from real bear fur. It comes from black bears in Canada, and many people want a change.
TOM(dry) That argument is not a new one.
NILAIt certainly isn't. Fact number four is sitting in your pocket right now. Look at any British coin, and you see a portrait of the King.
TOMAnd on the banknotes?
NILABanknotes with King Charles the Third came out on the fifth of June, twenty twenty-four. (beat) The fifth of June, twenty twenty-four.
TOMWhat about my older notes?
NILADon't worry, because notes with Queen Elizabeth the Second are still good. The two kinds travel around together in the same pockets. And here is one important thing about power. The King does not make the laws of this country.
TOMParliament makes the laws.
NILAParliament makes the laws, and the government runs the country. The King's job today is mostly ceremony.
TOMHe opens buildings, he meets people, and he signs papers.
NILAHe wears the crown on very special days only. Most of the time the crown sits in the Tower of London.
TOM(dry) It is much safer there, and anybody can buy a ticket and look at it.
NILANow, listener, here is your Talking Point for this unit. Have you ever been to a palace or a castle in your country? What is its name, and who lives there now? Tell me now.
TOMI like the small castles best, because there are no queues.
NILA(warm) And no gift shop.
TOMThere is always a gift shop, Nila.
NILA(laughing) You are right, there is always a gift shop. So remember: the palace is a workplace and the guards are soldiers.
TOMAnd the flag on the roof tells you a small secret.
NILALook up, always look up.
Have you ever been to a palace or a castle in your country? What is its name, and who lives there now?
One minute each, then swap. Use at least two words from the vocabulary bank.
The 15 words and phrases of this unit, each shown in the phrase it lives in. Learn the phrase, not the word on its own.
Reading and Writing Part 3 — one longer text read for detail and main idea.
Six items, and they jump between Unit 1 and Unit 2 on purpose. Read the label before you answer.
| Rain in a year — London is drier than you think | millimetres of rain |
|---|---|
| New York | 1,270 |
| London | 600 |
Learn these five words first. You will hear all of them in the story.
Predict: the story is called “Four Seasons in One Afternoon”. What do you think happens? Write one sentence before you listen.
Play: vocabulary warm-up→TOM(warm, unhurried) Last Sunday I walked up a green hill in Derbyshire. (beat) The hill's name is Mam Tor — that is M-A-M, T-O-R.
NILAWere you alone up there?
TOMNo, there were nine of us, and I was the oldest walker in the group. (dry) I was also the slowest, but I was the driest.
NILA(laughing) Then tell me why.
TOMIn the morning I looked at the forecast on my phone. It said sunshine first, then showers, and then more sunshine.
NILAThat is a very typical British forecast.
TOMVery typical, so I took my raincoat and my wellies. (beat) Wellies are tall rubber boots for wet ground.
NILAAnd what did the others wear?
TOMA young man called Danny wore shorts and thin white trainers.
TOMAt ten o'clock the sky was blue, and it was warmer than the day before. The temperature was seventeen degrees. (beat) Seventeen degrees.
NILAThat is lovely weather for a long walk.
TOMIt was lovely, and there was a soft breeze on our faces. Danny said, "This is the best day of the whole year." And then we went higher, and the wind got much stronger. Up on a hill the wind is always stronger than in the valley.
TOMA big grey cloud came over the top, and the sky went darker. Much darker, and the temperature fell to nine degrees. Nine degrees is eight degrees colder than the car park.
NILAAnd Danny was still in his shorts.
TOMHe was, and he was much quieter now.
NILADid he have a coat in his bag?
TOMHe didn't have a bag, but he had a phone and a chocolate bar.
NILA(laughing) A real hill walker. Was it raining by then?
TOMNot yet, because first there was drizzle. Drizzle is very small, light rain, and it makes you slowly wet.
NILAI hate drizzle, and I think it is worse than heavy rain.
TOMI agree with you. Then the fog arrived, and we lost the whole view. I saw the person in front of me, but nobody else. So we walked closer together, and we stayed on the path.
NILAAnd then the shower came.
TOMThen the shower came, and it was the heaviest rain of the month. Five minutes, big drops, and very loud on my raincoat.
NILADid anybody have an umbrella?
TOMOne woman opened an umbrella, and the wind took it in two seconds. It flew away like a bird, and it was the funniest moment of the day.
NILA(laughing) Oh, the poor woman!
TOMShe laughed the loudest of all of us. The path was one long puddle, and my wellies were the best idea of the week. Danny's trainers were easily the worst idea. Then, at three o'clock, the strangest thing of all happened. The cloud moved east, and the sun came out again.
NILAMore sunshine?
TOMMore sunshine, and now it was hotter than the morning. Nineteen degrees — nineteen — and our coats were much too warm.
NILAAll of that in one single afternoon!
TOMIn one afternoon, and then we turned round and we saw it.
NILASaw what?
TOMA rainbow, and it went right across the valley from one side to the other. It was the biggest rainbow of my whole life.
NILA(softly) That is beautiful. Did you take a photograph?
TOMI tried, but a photograph is never as good as your own eyes. Nobody spoke for a minute, and even Danny was quiet.
NILAAnd what did he say in the end?
TOMHe said, "Now this really is the best day of the year."
NILA(warm) And was he right?
TOMHe was right, and he was wetter than everybody else on that hill. But he was also the happiest man on it.
Something new about the weather, and talking about it — this is not the story you just heard. Read it once straight through. Then read it again and underline every example of comparatives and superlatives you can find. There are at least twelve.
MONDAY. Science Week starts today, and my job is the weather. I have the best job in the class, because the others are counting worms. Our weather box has a thermometer, a rain gauge and a little windmill. At nine o'clock the temperature was 14 degrees, colder than last Monday. Sam thinks his corner of the playground is warmer than mine.
TUESDAY. Drizzle. All day. Drizzle is the most boring weather. It is lighter than rain, but wetter than fog, and it gets under your hood. My raincoat was better than Sam's umbrella. Temperature: 12 degrees, two degrees colder than yesterday.
WEDNESDAY. The wettest day of the week, and the noisiest. At lunchtime came the heaviest shower of the whole month: 11 millimetres in twenty minutes. The puddle by the bins grew bigger and bigger. My wellies were the best idea of my life.
THURSDAY. Sunshine! 21 degrees, the warmest day of the week and nine degrees hotter than Tuesday. Everybody sat outside, and the grass was drier than we thought. We saw a rainbow. Rainbows look better after a bad week.
MRS HALL'S FACT BOX. The Met Office gives Britain its official forecast. A sailor, Robert FitzRoy, started it in 1854. He wrote the first public forecast in 1861. The hottest day in British history was the eighteenth of July 2022, with 40.3 degrees in Lincolnshire. The coldest was much colder: minus 27.2 degrees at Braemar in Scotland in 1982.
FRIDAY. We made the biggest graph in the school hall, and my line was the neatest. The best weather of the week was Thursday, and the worst was Wednesday. Sam still thinks snow is better than sunshine. He is the funniest person in my class, so I let him win.
Are you comparing two things? Use a comparative: colder, wetter, better, more boring. Are you putting one thing at the top of a group? Use a superlative with the: the coldest, the wettest, the best, the most boring. Short words take -er and -est. Long words of three syllables or more take more and most. After a comparative we usually say than: Tuesday was colder than Monday.
| Adjective | Comparative | Superlative | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| cold (short word) | colder | the coldest | Tuesday was colder than Monday. |
| wet (one vowel + one consonant) | wetter | the wettest | Wednesday was the wettest day of the week. |
| dry, easy (ends in -y) | drier, easier | the driest, the easiest | The east of Britain is drier than the west. |
| boring (long word) | more boring | the most boring | Drizzle is the most boring weather in the world. |
| good, bad (irregular) | better, worse | the best, the worst | My wellies were better than his trainers. |
| far (irregular) | further | the furthest | Braemar is further north than Manchester. |
Set A gives you everything. Set B takes away half the help. Set C takes away the rest. If you can only do A today, you have still done something real — do B tomorrow.
Notice the form. Read each sentence. Write C for comparative or S for superlative, and copy the word or words.
Complete the gaps with words from the word bank. You do not need every word, and you can use a word more than once.
Build the sentence. Write it in full. Item 1 shows you the way.
NILA(bright) This is the Culture File, and today we talk about the weather. It is everybody's best subject, because British people talk about it constantly.
TOMWe do, and it is a safe subject, because nobody argues about a cloud.
NILAIt is often the first thing we say, sometimes before hello.
TOM(dry) "Cold today" is a greeting, not a piece of information.
NILA(laughing) Now, here is the big misconception of this unit. Many people think London is the rainiest city in Europe, but it isn't.
TOMReally?
NILAReally. London gets about five hundred and sixty millimetres of rain in a year. (beat) Five hundred and sixty millimetres.
TOMAnd how much does Rome get?
NILARome gets a little more, about five hundred and eighty-six millimetres. So Rome is actually wetter than London. New York is much wetter than both, with over a thousand millimetres.
TOMSo why do people think we are so wet?
NILABecause of drizzle, and that is fact number two. Our rain is lighter, but it comes much more often.
TOMA hundred small showers, not ten big storms.
NILAPerfect. Grey and damp is not the same thing as heavy rain.
TOMWhat is the real difference between drizzle and a shower?
NILADrizzle is light and slow, but a shower is heavier and much shorter. Fact number three: Britain does not have one weather, it has many. The west of the country is much wetter than the east.
TOMBecause the wind comes off the sea.
NILAYes, from the west, across the Atlantic, and then it meets the mountains. The wettest places are in Snowdonia, the Lake District and the Scottish Highlands.
TOMHow wet are those places?
NILASome of them get more than four metres of rain in a year. Four metres is about seven times more than London.
TOM(dry) Then take your wellies.
NILATake your wellies. Fact number four is much newer than the others. The hottest day in British history was the eighteenth of July, twenty twenty-two.
TOMHow hot was it?
NILAForty point three degrees, at Coningsby in Lincolnshire. (beat) Coningsby — that is C-O-N-I-N-G-S-B-Y.
TOMForty point three degrees is very hot for this country.
NILAIt is, and most British houses don't have any air conditioning. A hot day here feels hotter than a hot day in a hot country.
TOMBecause we are simply not ready for it.
NILAFact number five is the forecast. The Met Office gives the official forecast — Met, M-E-T, Office. People check it every morning, and then they take a raincoat anyway.
TOMThe Met Office also gives its warnings in three colours.
NILAYellow, amber and red. Yellow means "be careful" and amber means "get ready". Red means "danger, and please stay at home".
TOMA red warning is quite rare.
NILAIt is rare. Here is one last surprise, about snow.
TOMWe don't get very much of it.
NILAWe don't, and most of southern England gets only a few snowy days a year.
TOMBut the whole country stops.
NILA(laughing) Two centimetres of snow, and the trains are late.
NILAOne idiom for you today: "it's raining cats and dogs".
TOM(dry) Nobody says that.
NILA(laughing) Tom is right. It means "it is raining very hard". Books teach it, but real British people almost never use it. We say, "it's chucking it down", and that means the same thing.
NILANow, listener, here is your Talking Point for this unit. What is the weather like where you are, right now? Is it hotter or colder than yesterday? Tell me now.
TOMIn Britain the answer changes while you are speaking.
NILA(warm) And that is the whole story of this unit.
TOMFour seasons in one afternoon.
NILAAnd a rainbow at the end, if you are lucky.
What is the weather like where you are, right now? Is it hotter or colder than yesterday?
One minute each, then swap. Use at least two words from the vocabulary bank.
The 15 words and phrases of this unit, each shown in the phrase it lives in. Learn the phrase, not the word on its own.
Listening Part 2 — completing gaps in a page of notes. Weather forecasts are full of the numbers this task tests.
Six items from Units 1 to 3. Each one tests a different piece of grammar, so read the label first.
Learn these five words first. You will hear all of them in the story.
Predict: the story is called “Tea, Chips and Sunday Roast”. What do you think happens? Write one sentence before you listen.
Play: vocabulary warm-up→TOM(warm, unhurried) Last Sunday I cooked a big lunch for two guests.
NILAAnd I brought a friend from Portugal with me.
TOMHer name is Ana — that is A-N-A — and she works at your station. Ana was very polite, and she asked me about every single dish.
TOMI made a proper Sunday roast, with chicken and roast potatoes. There were carrots, there were peas, and there was some broccoli.
NILAHow many potatoes did you cook, Tom?
TOMTwenty. (beat) Twenty roast potatoes for three people.
NILA(laughing) Tom, that is far too many!
TOMThere is no such thing as too many roast potatoes.
NILAAnd how many carrots were there?
TOMNot many — only six — and Ana ate four of them.
NILAAnd did you make any chips?
TOMThere aren't any chips with a Sunday roast, Nila. Now, first of all, I put the kettle on. In this country we always put the kettle on before anything else.
NILAAnd you used a proper old teapot with a lid.
TOMMy mother used that teapot for fifty years. (beat) Fifty years. I don't put a tea bag in a cup. I made a big pot of tea, and Ana asked me a good question. She said, "Tom, how much milk do I put in?" I told her, "Just a little, and not too much." Some people take sugar, but I don't take any sugar at all.
NILAI take one.
TOMYou take two, Nila.
NILA(caught out) ...I take two.
TOMWe drank our tea from big mugs, and then we sat down at the table. There was a lot of food on every plate.
NILAAnd there was gravy.
TOMThere was gravy, and gravy is a hot brown sauce for the meat. Ana looked at it and asked, "Is there any meat in this sauce?" There is, because I make it in the same pan as the chicken.
NILAAna loved it, and she put gravy on absolutely everything.
TOMShe put gravy on her carrots, and that is very British indeed. And then came the famous moment of the afternoon.
NILATell them the story, Tom.
TOMI took a hot tray out of the oven with six Yorkshire puddings on it. (beat) Yorkshire — that is Y-O-R-K-S-H-I-R-E.
NILAThey looked like little golden brown cups.
TOMThey did, and I put one of them on Ana's plate. She looked very confused indeed.
NILA(laughing) Because of the name!
TOMBecause of the name. She said, "Tom, why is there pudding on my dinner?"
NILAIn her country, and in most countries, pudding means something sweet.
TOMIt does, but this pudding is not sweet, and there isn't any sugar in it. There is flour, there are eggs, and there is milk. That's all.
NILAAnd you eat it with the meat.
TOMYou eat it with the meat and the gravy, as part of the main course.
NILASo what did Ana say?
TOMShe was quiet for a moment, and then she ate the whole thing. Then she asked me for another one.
NILA(delighted) She really did!
TOMShe did, and she said, "In Portugal we need this."
NILA(laughing) I think we all need this.
TOMAfter that, we did have a sweet pudding, and it was apple crumble. There was custard, and there were biscuits with the second pot of tea.
NILAWas there any custard left?
TOMThere wasn't any custard left, and there is never any custard left.
NILAAnd how many biscuits did you eat, Tom?
TOM(dry) I don't count biscuits, and nobody else counts them either. We sat and talked until six o'clock, and the portions were much too big. Nobody wanted any dinner that evening.
NILAThat is a good Sunday.
TOMThat is a perfect Sunday.
Something new about food: tea, chips and the sunday roast — this is not the story you just heard. Read it once straight through. Then read it again and underline every example of countable and uncountable nouns; some, any, much, many you can find. There are at least twelve.
Dear Marco, Thank you for your letter and for the photo. You asked me three questions about food in England, so here are three answers. Sorry - I am hungry, and hungry people write a lot.
First, school lunch. There is a hot meal every day, and there is always some salad and some fruit. There isn't any chocolate in our canteen, and there aren't any sweets either. That is a rule for school food in England. How many children bring a packed lunch? About half of my class.
Second, tea. People here drink about 100 million cups of tea every day. My gran puts two sugars in hers. I don't take any sugar, but I take a lot of milk. Small cups are for guests.
Third, chips. Please listen carefully, because this part matters. In Britain chips are hot, thick and soft, and they come in paper. Crisps come in a bag, and they are thin and cold. A new report this summer counted 7,210 fish and chip shops in the UK. Many people put a lot of vinegar on their chips. I don't put much vinegar on mine, because it is very sharp.
Now some family news. On Saturdays we usually get a curry, and my favourite is chicken tikka masala. On Sunday my dad cooks a roast, and he puts gravy on almost everything. By Monday there isn't much food in the fridge, so we have beans on toast.
Next week our class is cooking in the food room. We are making leek and potato soup. I need some potatoes, two leeks, a little butter and a lot of pepper. There isn't any cream in our recipe.
Write soon, and tell me two things. How many meals do you eat in a day? How much bread do you eat? Send me a photo of your teapot. From your friend, Ellie
Some things you can count: one chip, two chips, ten chips. Other things you cannot count, because they come as a mass: milk, bread, water, sugar. Countable words can be plural and take are. Uncountable words stay singular and take is. Use some in positive sentences, and any in negatives and questions. To ask about the size of an amount, use many with countable words and much with uncountable ones: How many chips? How much milk?
| Countable (chips, biscuits) | Uncountable (milk, bread) | |
|---|---|---|
| Positive | There are some chips. | There is some milk. |
| Negative | There aren't any chips. | There isn't any milk. |
| Question | Are there any chips? | Is there any milk? |
| Asking the amount | How many chips? | How much milk? |
| A big amount | a lot of chips | a lot of milk |
| A small amount | a few chips | a little milk |
Set A gives you everything. Set B takes away half the help. Set C takes away the rest. If you can only do A today, you have still done something real — do B tomorrow.
Notice the form. Read each sentence. Write C if the food word is countable or U if it is uncountable, then copy the small word in front of it.
Complete the gaps with words from the word bank. You can use a word more than once, and some words are extra.
Build the sentence. Write it in full. Item 1 is the model.
NILA(bright) This is the Culture File, and today it is tea, chips and Sunday lunch.
TOMI am hungry already. Is tea really the national drink?
NILAIt really is, and I have some very big numbers for you. People in the UK drink about a hundred million cups of tea every day. That is nearly thirty-six billion cups in a single year.
TOMHow much of it is loose tea?
NILAAlmost none, because about ninety-seven per cent comes from tea bags.
TOMAnd how many people put in milk?
NILAMore than half of tea drinkers put some milk in their cup. About a quarter of them take sugar as well.
TOMWhat about coffee?
NILAPeople drink a lot of coffee here too, about seventy million cups a day. But tea is still in front. Fact number two: fish and chips is the classic British takeaway. There are thousands of fish and chip shops across Britain.
TOMWe call them chip shops, or simply the chippy.
NILAThe chippy. And here is a small warning for our visitors. In Britain, chips are hot, thick and soft, and they are not crisps.
TOMCrisps come in a bag, but chips come in paper.
NILAExactly, and many people put salt and vinegar on them. Vinegar — that is V-I-N-E-G-A-R — is sour and very sharp. Fact number three is Sunday lunch, or the Sunday roast. There is meat, there are roast potatoes, and there are vegetables and gravy.
TOMAnd there is a Yorkshire pudding, which is not sweet.
NILAMany pubs serve a roast on Sundays, and families book a table.
TOMNow tell them about the big mistake.
NILA(bright) Yes! Here is our misconception, and it is about "high tea". Many people think high tea is the fancy meal with little cakes.
TOMIt isn't.
NILAIt isn't, because we call that meal afternoon tea. It happens at about four o'clock, with small sandwiches, scones and cake.
TOMAnd what was high tea, then?
NILAHigh tea was a working family's hot meal, at five or six o'clock. There was meat, there were potatoes, there was bread and a strong pot of tea.
TOMSo the two names went the wrong way round.
NILAThey did, and hotels use "high tea" because it sounds grander. Now you know the truth, so order the afternoon tea. Fact number five is my favourite one, because Britain eats the world. Curry, kebabs, pasta, dumplings and jollof rice are all normal here. There are thousands of Indian restaurants in this country.
TOMEvery town has a curry house, and every high street has a café.
NILAAnd chicken tikka masala is one of the most popular dishes in Britain.
TOMWhere does that dish come from?
NILAPeople argue about that, but many say a cook in Britain invented it.
TOM(dry) So it is a British dish after all.
NILAIn a way, yes. British food is not only roast dinners — it is a long menu.
TOMAnd what about breakfast?
NILAThe full English breakfast has eggs, bacon, sausage, beans and toast.
TOMWith mushrooms and a fried tomato on the same plate.
NILABut most people don't eat it every day, because it is a weekend treat.
NILANow, listener, here is your Talking Point for this unit. What do you eat on a special day in your family? Who cooks it, and how many people sit at the table? Tell me now.
TOMMy mother made the same meal every Sunday for forty years.
NILA(warm) And you still cook it today.
TOMI still cook it, with far too many potatoes.
NILA(laughing) There is no such thing, Tom. (warm) So put the kettle on, and we will see you next time.
What do you eat on a special day in your family? Who cooks it, and how many people sit at the table?
One minute each, then swap. Use at least two words from the vocabulary bank.
The 15 words and phrases of this unit, each shown in the phrase it lives in. Learn the phrase, not the word on its own.
Reading and Writing Part 4 — multiple-choice cloze. This part tests exactly the food vocabulary taught here.
Six items from Units 1 to 4. They jump between units on purpose, so check the label before each answer.
Learn these five words first. You will hear all of them in the story.
Predict: the story is called “The Corner Shop”. What do you think happens? Write one sentence before you listen.
Play: vocabulary warm-up→TOM(warm, unhurried) There is a small shop at the end of my road.
NILAThe corner shop.
TOMIt opens at six in the morning and closes at ten at night. (beat) Six in the morning until ten at night, every day.
NILAWho works there?
TOMA family works there — Priya and her father, Raj. (beat) Priya — that is P-R-I-Y-A — is the shopkeeper now.
NILAWhat can you buy in a shop like that?
TOMAlmost everything: milk, bread, eggs, newspapers, batteries and cat food. The shelves go all the way up to the ceiling.
NILA(laughing) And can you find anything on them?
TOMI can't, but Priya can, because she knows every shelf. She can order things for you too, but you must ask her on a Monday.
NILAIs the shop expensive?
TOMA little, because a small shop can't buy in big numbers. The price is higher, but the shop is open, and that has a value.
TOMLast Tuesday I had to buy milk, and it was nine o'clock at night. The big supermarket was closed, but the corner shop was open. That is exactly why we need corner shops.
NILASo you walked down the road.
TOMI walked down the road in the rain, and I picked up a basket. I put in two pints of milk and a loaf of white bread.
NILAAnd anything else?
TOM(guilty) A packet of biscuits. Then I joined the queue, and there were four customers in front of me. There was a sign on the wall above the door. It said, "Two packets for the price of one."
NILAA bargain!
TOMA real bargain, so I went back and took a second packet of biscuits.
NILA(delighted) Tom!
TOMA discount is a discount, Nila, and you must not waste a discount. So, I got to the till, and Priya said hello. She asked me, "Do you want a carrier bag?"
NILAAnd bags cost money now.
TOMThey do, and you have to pay at least ten pence for one. (beat) Ten pence, and that is the law in England. Most people bring their own bags, but I forgot mine. So I paid the ten pence.
NILAHow much was all the shopping?
TOMI don't remember the exact price, but I remember the problem.
NILAWhat problem?
TOMI opened my wallet, and there was no bank card in it.
NILA(worried) Oh no.
TOMMy card was at home, on the kitchen table, next to my keys. So I put my hand in my pocket and I counted my change.
TOMThree pounds and forty pence. (beat) Three pounds, forty.
NILAWas that enough?
TOMIt was not enough, because I was twenty pence short. Twenty pence.
NILAAnd there was a queue behind you.
TOMThere was a long queue behind me, and my face went very red.
NILADid anybody say anything?
TOMNobody said a word, because British people wait politely and think loudly.
NILA(laughing) So what did you do?
TOMI said, "I am sorry, I must put the biscuits back."
NILA(softly) Oh, Tom.
TOMBut Priya put her hand on the biscuits, and she said six words.
NILAWhat did she say?
TOM"Pay me tomorrow, Tom. It's fine."
NILA(warm) That is lovely.
TOMShe gave me my receipt and my carrier bag with a smile. And the man behind me said, "She does that for everybody."
NILACan a big supermarket do that?
TOMIt can't, because a machine can never know your name.
NILAAnd did you pay her the next day?
TOM(dry) I paid her at seven o'clock the next morning. Twenty pence, and a very big thank you.
NILAAnd the biscuits?
TOMBoth packets were empty by Wednesday evening. It was a bargain, Nila, and you can't argue with a bargain.
Something new about shopping, money and the high street — this is not the story you just heard. Read it once straight through. Then read it again and underline every example of can, must and have to; prices and quantities you can find. There are at least twelve.
WELCOME TO THE HIGH STREET. The high street is the main shopping street in a British town. You can buy bread, batteries and cat food there. The UK has about 50,000 small convenience stores. You do not have to spend a lot there.
BAGS: YOU HAVE TO PAY. In England you have to pay for a new carrier bag. A shop must charge at least 10p. Big shops started with 5p in 2015, and every shop had to charge 10p from May 2021. So bring your own bag.
SUNDAYS: THE SIX-HOUR RULE. In England and Wales a large shop can open for only six hours on a Sunday. Those hours must be between ten in the morning and six in the evening. Small shops can open all day, and Scottish shops can choose their own hours.
CHARITY SHOPS: THE BEST BARGAINS. More than 223,000 volunteers work in more than 9,900 charity shops in the UK. In one year the shops made over 300 million pounds for good causes. You can find a coat or a school skirt for a few pounds.
MONEY IN YOUR HAND. British coins go 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, and then 1 pound and 2 pounds. The pound coin has twelve sides. Say prices like this: 'two pounds fifty' and 'eighty-five pee'.
AT THE TILL: WHAT YOU MUST DO. You must join the queue at the back. British people take queues very seriously. You can pay with cash, a card or a phone. You should keep your receipt, because you can't change a jumper without it.
MARKET STALLS, AND ONE LAST TIP. At a market stall you can sometimes ask for a better price. The answer is often yes! In a supermarket you mustn't try that, because the till reads the barcode on the label. A good bargain in Britain is 'cheap as chips'.
Use can for 'it is possible' and for 'I know how': You can pay by phone. Use must and have to for a rule or a strong need. Must often comes from you, or from the writing on the wall. Have to often comes from somebody else, like a law or a school. Mustn't is a strong no: do not do it. Don't have to is very different - nobody makes you, but you can if you like.
| Meaning | can / can't | must / mustn't | have to / don't have to |
|---|---|---|---|
| It is possible | You can pay with a card. | - | - |
| It is not possible | You can't pay with a card here. | - | - |
| A rule: do it | - | You must join the queue. | You have to pay 10p for a bag. |
| A rule: don't do it | - | You mustn't touch the fruit. | - |
| No rule at all | - | - | You don't have to bring cash. |
Set A gives you everything. Set B takes away half the help. Set C takes away the rest. If you can only do A today, you have still done something real — do B tomorrow.
Notice the form. Read each sentence. Write R if it is about a rule (must, mustn't, have to, don't have to) or P if it is about possibility (can, can't). Then copy the modal verb.
Complete the gaps with words from the word bank. You can use a word more than once, and some words are extra.
Build the sentence with a modal verb. Write it in full. Item 1 shows you how.
NILA(bright) This is the Culture File, and today we go shopping.
TOMThe high street is the main shopping street in a British town.
NILAIt is, and every town has one. What is on yours, Tom?
TOMA baker, a barber, three cafés and two empty shops.
NILAHigh streets are changing very fast. Now, fact number one: there are about fifty thousand convenience stores in the UK. Fifty thousand, and most of them are small family businesses. About seven in ten are independent, so they are not part of a big chain.
TOMThey must give a lot of people a job.
NILAThey do — more than four hundred thousand jobs across the country.
TOMAnd they open early and they close late.
NILAThat is their strength, because you can buy milk at ten at night.
TOMNow tell me about the shopping bag.
NILAFact number two: in England you must pay for a single-use carrier bag. The minimum price is ten pence. (beat) Ten pence.
TOMWhen did that rule start?
NILABig shops started charging five pence in October, twenty fifteen. Then every shop had to charge ten pence, from May, twenty twenty-one.
TOMAnd did it work?
NILAIt worked extremely well, because bag numbers in the big supermarkets fell enormously. They now sell a tiny fraction of the bags from ten years ago. All from one small rule. Fact number three is in your change. The pound coin has twelve sides, and it came out in March, twenty seventeen.
TOMWhy does it have twelve sides?
NILABecause the old round pound was easy to copy, and this one is much harder. You can also feel the shape in your pocket. Now, here is our misconception for this unit. Many visitors think British shops open all day on a Sunday.
TOMThey don't.
NILAThey don't, because England and Wales have a special rule. A large shop can open for only six hours on a Sunday. Between ten in the morning and six in the evening, and no longer. Small shops can open all day, and Scotland has no rule like this.
TOMSo the corner shop wins again.
NILAIt does. And here is one very British thing: the charity shop. Almost every high street has one. You can buy used clothes and books there very cheaply.
TOMAnd the money goes to a good cause.
NILAThere are thousands of them, and you can find a coat for a few pounds. There are also market stalls in many towns.
TOMYou can ask for a better price at a market stall.
NILASometimes you can, but please don't try it in a supermarket.
TOM(dry) I tried it once.
NILA(laughing) Of course you did. Now, one practical tip about paying. Most shops take cards, even for a very small price.
TOMYou can pay with a card, a phone or even a watch.
NILAContactless is fast, but many British cards stop at a hundred pounds.
TOMSo for a bigger price, you must put in your number.
NILAExactly, and you should keep a little cash too.
NILAOne idiom for you today: "cheap as chips". It means "very cheap", and chips are a cheap food, so it makes sense.
TOMThat old jacket was cheap as chips.
NILANow, listener, here is your Talking Point for this unit. Is there a small shop near your home, and what can you buy there? Do you know the shopkeeper's name? Tell me now.
TOMI know Priya's name, and she knows mine.
NILA(warm) And she knows all about your biscuits.
TOM(dry) She knows far too much about my biscuits.
NILA(laughing) That is the corner shop. We will see you next time.
Is there a small shop near your home, and what can you buy there? Do you know the shopkeeper's name?
One minute each, then swap. Use at least two words from the vocabulary bank.
The 15 words and phrases of this unit, each shown in the phrase it lives in. Learn the phrase, not the word on its own.
Listening Part 1 — five short dialogues with a picture answer. Prices and quantities are the commonest content.
Six items from Units 2 to 5. Each label tells you which unit the grammar comes from, so read it first.
Learn these five words first. You will hear all of them in the story.
Predict: the story is called “The Boy with No Tie”. What do you think happens? Write one sentence before you listen.
Play: vocabulary warm-up→TOM(warm, unhurried) It was the first morning of the autumn term, and the sky was grey.
NILAA new school year for everybody, and a big day for your grandson.
TOMHis name is Femi, F-E-M-I, and he is eleven years old. That morning he started at a big secondary school in Leicester, L-E-I-C-E-S-T-E-R. He always gets up early, but that morning he got up at six o'clock.
NILA(amused) I never get up at six, and I work in radio!
TOMHe put on his new uniform slowly and looked in the mirror for a long time. It was a dark blue blazer with the school badge on the pocket.
NILAAnd every secondary school in my city also asks for a tie.
TOMAh. (beat) The tie is the whole story this morning.
TOMHis mother looked in the school bag, but the tie was not there. She looked in his bedroom, and she looked under his bed. The school rules are clear, and students must wear the full uniform every day.
NILAThey mustn't wear trainers, and they mustn't wear big earrings.
TOMThey mustn't wear any of those things, and every child must wear a tie.
NILASo poor Femi walked to school with nothing round his neck.
TOMThe walk usually takes twenty minutes, but that morning it took twelve.
NILA(laughing) He was worried, and worried boys always walk fast.
TOMChildren often worry about small things on the first day of school.
TOMThe bell rang at eight fifty, and nine hundred children went into assembly. Femi sat at the back of the hall, close to the door.
NILAAnd did anybody in that big hall look at his neck?
TOM(dry) Every single person in that hall looked at his neck.
NILA(sympathetic) And then the head teacher stood up in front of them.
TOMHer name is Mrs Okafor, O-K-A-F-O-R, and she is usually very strict. She talks about the school rules in assembly every Monday morning.
NILAStudents mustn't run in the corridor, and they must be quiet in the library.
TOMAfter assembly, Femi looked at his timetable twice and found his first lesson.
NILAAnd what was the first lesson of his new school life?
TOMIn maths the teacher took the register, and then she stopped and looked at him. "You must go to the office at break," she said, and nothing else.
NILABreak is usually at eleven o'clock in a British secondary school.
TOMAt eleven he walked down the long corridor, and his hands were cold.
NILAWas he going to get a detention on his very first day?
TOMHe thought so, because children sometimes get a detention for the wrong uniform.
TOMMrs Okafor opened a big cardboard box on her desk.
NILAAnd what exactly was inside that box?
TOMHundreds of old ties from the lost property cupboard, in every colour.
NILA(delighted) A box with a hundred school ties inside it!
TOMShe always keeps that box, and she often gives a tie to a worried child. She said one thing only. "You mustn't worry, but you must bring it back."
NILAAnd did he remember to bring it back to her?
TOMHe brought it back on Friday morning, clean and folded in a paper bag. There was no detention at all, and he ate his lunch in the canteen. Then he played football in the playground until the bell rang again.
NILAThat sounds like a very good first day at a new school.
TOMA very good first day, and now he never forgets his tie.
NILADoes he really never forget that tie now?
TOM(dry) He almost never forgets it, but he forgets his homework instead.
NILA(laughing) Of course he does, and that is normal for boys.
Something new about school life in britain — this is not the story you just heard. Read it once straight through. Then read it again and underline every example of must and mustn't; adverbs of frequency you can find. There are at least twelve.
WELCOME TO YEAR 7. Hello, and welcome to Northgate Academy. You must read this page with somebody at home. Then you must bring your questions on Monday. Nobody remembers everything on day one, and we never expect that.
OUR UNIFORM. You must wear a black blazer, grey trousers or a grey skirt, and the red school tie. You mustn't wear trainers or big earrings. Ties often disappear, and we always keep a box of spare ones in the office.
THE SCHOOL DAY. The bell rings at twenty to nine. You must be in your form room by a quarter to nine. Your form tutor takes the register, and then we usually walk to assembly. You must never run in the corridor, because it is full of Year 9.
YOUR TIMETABLE AND YOUR HOMEWORK. Keep a photo of your timetable on your phone, because paper often disappears. Teachers usually set homework twice a week, and you must write it in your planner. You mustn't leave your planner in your locker on Friday. Homework is rarely long in Year 7: about thirty minutes.
CLUBS AND THE PLAYGROUND. We have twenty-two clubs, and they are all free. You don't have to join a club, but you should try one. At break you mustn't play football near the science windows. We sometimes lose a ball on the roof.
DETENTION, AND THE TRUTH ABOUT IT. Most pupils never get a detention. It is usually twenty minutes at the end of the day, and it is very boring. You must always bring a note from home after an absence. Teachers must phone your family before a long detention.
DID YOU KNOW? Schools in England must open for 190 days every year. Our week is 32.5 hours long, and that number comes from the government. See you in September - and please bring your tie.
Use must when there is no choice: a rule, a law or something important. Use mustn't when the answer is a strong no - it is forbidden. After must and mustn't the verb never changes: no -s, no to, no -ing. Adverbs of frequency (always, usually, often, sometimes, rarely, never) tell people how many times. They go before the main verb, but after am, is and are. You can also put one after must: You must never run.
| Rule: do it (must) | Rule: don't do it (mustn't) | How often (adverb) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | I must go to assembly. | I mustn't be late again. | I am never late on a Monday. |
| you | You must wear a tie. | You mustn't wear trainers. | You always wear it on Fridays. |
| he / she | She must take the register. | She mustn't forget it. | She usually takes it at 8.45. |
| we | We must queue in the canteen. | We mustn't push in the queue. | We often queue for ten minutes. |
| they | They must bring a note from home. | They mustn't leave the playground. | They sometimes bring a packed lunch. |
| Where do the words go? | must + verb (no -s, no to) | mustn't + verb | adverb before the main verb, but after am / is / are |
Set A gives you everything. Set B takes away half the help. Set C takes away the rest. If you can only do A today, you have still done something real — do B tomorrow.
Notice the form. Read each sentence. Write M if it is a rule with must or mustn't, F if it has an adverb of frequency, or M+F if it has both. Then copy the word or words.
Complete the gaps with words from the word bank. There are more words than gaps, and you can use a word more than once.
Build the sentence. Write it in full. Item 1 shows you how.
NILA(bright) Tom, I have one question about Femi's school before we start today.
TOMGo on and ask me anything you like.
NILADoes his family pay any money for that big secondary school?
TOMNot one pound for the lessons, and not one pound for the head teacher.
NILAGood, because that is fact one: almost all British schools are free.
TOMAnd how many children go to a free school?
NILANinety-three children in every hundred go to a free state school. Let me say that number again: ninety-three in every hundred.
TOMAnd what about the other seven children in the hundred?
NILAThey go to private schools, and their families pay for a place.
TOM(dry) But the films and the books always show the private ones.
NILAThey do, and that gives us our misconception for today.
TOM(amused) Here we go again with the misconceptions.
NILAMany people think British children sleep at school, in old buildings with towers. But it is wrong, because very few British children sleep at school.
TOMThe rest of them go home for their tea.
TOMNow tell me about the uniform, because Femi's blazer was not cheap.
NILAFact two is a big number: more than ninety schools in every hundred want a uniform.
TOMSo that is nearly every school in the country.
NILANearly all of them, and about six secondary schools in ten ask for a tie.
TOMAnd how many of those schools want a blazer as well?
NILAFewer of them, but about four secondary schools in ten do want one.
TOMThe expensive part is the school name on the jumper.
NILAYes, and we call those things branded items. There is a new rule about them.
TOMA new rule from when, exactly?
NILAFrom this September, and fact three is very good news for families.
TOMThen please give me the numbers.
NILAA primary school can ask for three branded items, and no more than three.
TOMAnd what about a big secondary school?
NILAFour items, or only three if the school does not want a tie.
TOMSo families must buy fewer expensive things every summer.
NILAThey should pay less, because a full uniform can cost over a hundred pounds.
TOM(dry) And children grow very fast indeed.
NILA(laughing) Children always grow, so here is fact four, about the school year.
TOMThe school year runs from September to July.
NILAFrom September to July, and there are three terms: autumn, spring and summer.
TOMAnd there is a short holiday in the middle of each term.
NILAWe call it a half term, in October, February and May.
TOMThen there are six long weeks in the summer.
NILAAbout six weeks, and children go to school for about a hundred and ninety days. And fact five surprises a lot of visitors.
TOMThen you should surprise me now.
NILAIn England you must go to school until you are sixteen years old.
TOMI remember that rule, because I left school at sixteen and started work.
NILABut now you mustn't stop at sixteen, and you must study or train until eighteen.
TOMA college place, or a job with training in it.
NILAA college, or a job with training, and it doesn't have to be a school. And now, listeners, here is your Talking Point for this unit.
NILA(direct, to the listener) Did you wear a uniform at your school, and what colour was it?
NILA(direct, to the listener) And are school uniforms a good idea in your opinion?
TOMMy old uniform was grey, and the shirt and the socks were grey too.
NILA(laughing) Of course they were, and next week we are talking about football.
TOM(dry) Finally we come to something really important.
Did you wear a uniform at your school, and what colour was it?
One minute each, then swap. Use at least two words from the vocabulary bank.
The 15 words and phrases of this unit, each shown in the phrase it lives in. Learn the phrase, not the word on its own.
Reading and Writing Part 2 — matching questions to short texts. School notices are a common context.
Six items, one from every unit so far. They jump about on purpose, so read the label before you answer.
Learn these five words first. You will hear all of them in the story.
Predict: the story is called “The Plumber in the Old Boots”. What do you think happens? Write one sentence before you listen.
Play: vocabulary warm-up→TOM(warm, unhurried) Twelve years ago I drove a bus in north London. And on Saturday afternoons I always went to watch my little football club.
NILATell me the name of this very famous club of yours.
TOMAshfield Town, A-S-H-F-I-E-L-D, and they are not famous at all.
NILA(smiling) I don't know that name, so how big is the club?
TOMFour hundred supporters on a good day, one small stand and a wooden gate.
NILAA non-league club, then, so what was the pitch like?
TOM(dry) The pitch was terrible, and in November it was more mud than grass.
TOMBut one year Ashfield reached a cup match against a much bigger club.
NILAA proper cup match, against a team from the television?
TOMA proper one, and the other club played two divisions above us.
NILAAnd how many people came to watch that match?
TOMTwo thousand people came, and our little ground was completely full.
NILAAnd when exactly was this famous afternoon?
TOMOn a Saturday in October, and kick-off was at three o'clock.
NILAThree o'clock was the old kick-off time for every match.
TOMI got to the ground at one, and I bought a programme and some tea.
NILAWere you nervous before the whistle, Tom?
TOMVery nervous. The players came out in the home kit, yellow shirts and black shorts.
TOMThe referee blew his whistle, and the big club scored after four minutes.
NILA(groaning) Four minutes is a terrible start for a small club.
TOMNobody in the stand spoke, and a man behind me ate his sandwich slowly.
NILA(laughing) Oh, Tom, and what happened after that?
TOMThen Ashfield got a goal back, and a boy of nineteen scored with his head.
NILASo it was one–one at half-time.
TOMOne–one at half-time, and we drank our tea and said nothing.
NILABut a draw is never enough in a cup competition.
TOMIn a cup you must win, because a draw means another match.
NILASo what happened in the second half of the game?
TOMNothing at all for forty minutes, and the rain came and the mud got deeper.
NILAAnd then something finally happened.
TOMThen the manager put on an old player called Danny Price, D-A-N-N-Y.
NILAA young man from the local college, I suppose?
TOM(amused) No, Danny was forty years old, and he was a plumber. He fixed taps and boilers from Monday to Friday, and he played on Saturday.
NILAAnd I think he played in very old boots.
TOMTerrible old brown boots, and they were older than my bus.
NILA(laughing) And this plumber scored the winning goal?
TOMIn the last minute the ball came across, Danny ran, and he hit it once.
TOMTwo–one to Ashfield Town in the very last minute.
NILA(delighted) I am sure the whole ground went completely mad.
TOMEverybody ran onto the pitch, and my tea went down the front of my coat. And an old man next to me cried, after sixty years of that club.
NILAAnd what did Danny do after the final whistle?
TOMDanny walked off the pitch with mud on his face, and he said almost nothing.
NILANothing at all, after a goal like that one?
TOMHe said one thing only. "I must go home, because I start work at seven."
NILA(softly) On Monday morning, like every other week of his life.
TOMOn Monday morning he fixed a boiler in a cold house in Palmers Green.
NILAAnd did the club win the next round of the cup?
TOMNo, they lost four–nil, but nobody in Ashfield talks about that match.
NILAThey all talk about the plumber instead.
TOMThey talk about the plumber, and about his terrible brown boots.
Something new about football and saturday afternoon — this is not the story you just heard. Read it once straight through. Then read it again and underline every example of past simple: regular and irregular verbs you can find. There are at least twelve.
THE ASHFIELD ADVERTISER, Tuesday. On Saturday morning the Ashfield Rovers under-14 girls played the biggest match of their lives. They won the county cup 3-2. The referee blew the whistle at 11.42 a.m. Two hundred people stood on the touchline, and nobody went home early.
Ashfield lost their first four matches last September. The girls trained on a car park, because the club had no pitch for them. Then a neighbour found them a proper one behind the leisure centre. 'We got better every week,' said the captain, Amara Singh, aged 13.
On Saturday Ashfield went two goals down after twelve minutes. At half-time the coach said six words: 'Keep the ball. Pass to Amara.' In the second half Amara scored twice. Then, in the last minute, the goalkeeper ran the whole length of the pitch and headed the winner.
In the crowd stood Doris Wheeler, aged 91. Mrs Wheeler played for a factory team in 1952. 'We loved it, but the big clubs closed their gates to us,' she said. 'Nobody printed our names in the paper,' she added.
Mrs Wheeler was right about those gates. In 1921 the Football Association stopped women from playing at its clubs' grounds. The ban lasted about fifty years. More than 45,000 people watched a women's match at Goodison Park on Boxing Day in 1920.
Then things changed. In 2022 England's women won the European Championship at Wembley, and 87,192 people came to the final.
After the match the club gave Mrs Wheeler a medal. She held it for a long time and did not say anything. 'Now win it again next year,' she said. Amara took the cup home on the bus, and the driver did not charge her.
Use the past simple for something that started and finished in the past: yesterday, last Saturday, in 1921. Most verbs are regular, so you just add -ed: played, scored, watched. A few spelling rules change the ending: stop becomes stopped, carry becomes carried. Then there are the irregular verbs. They do not take -ed at all - they turn into a new word: win becomes won, go becomes went, run becomes ran. There is no trick for those. You meet them, you learn them, and soon they feel normal.
| Type | Verb | Past simple | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|---|
| regular: add -ed | play | played | They played on Saturday morning. |
| regular: add -d | score | scored | Amara scored twice. |
| one vowel + one consonant: double it | stop | stopped | The rain stopped at half-time. |
| consonant + -y: -ied | carry | carried | She carried the cup home. |
| irregular: a new word | win / go / run | won / went / ran | They won the county cup. |
| irregular: no change at all | put / cut / hit | put / cut / hit | He put his boots in a box. |
Set A gives you everything. Set B takes away half the help. Set C takes away the rest. If you can only do A today, you have still done something real — do B tomorrow.
Notice the form. Read each sentence. Write R if the past simple verb is regular or I if it is irregular. Then copy the verb.
Complete the gaps with a past simple verb from the word bank. There are more verbs than gaps, and you use each answer once.
Build the sentence in the past simple. Write it in full. Item 1 is the model.
NILATom, that was a lovely story. But can a tiny club really beat a big one?
TOMIt happens somewhere in England every single year.
NILAIt does, and that gives us fact one: the competition is the FA Cup.
TOMAnd I think it is the oldest one in the world.
NILAIt is the oldest national football competition in the world, and it started in 1871.
TOMEighteen seventy-one is a very long time ago.
NILAEighteen seventy-one, so football in Britain is older than the motor car.
TOM(dry) And a great deal louder than the motor car.
NILA(laughing) Fact two: more than seven hundred clubs enter the cup every year.
TOMSeven hundred clubs in one single competition!
NILASeven hundred, and village teams and big city clubs all enter together.
TOMThe small clubs play first, in the autumn.
NILAThey play the early rounds in August and September, and the big clubs come later.
TOMAnd where do the two best clubs play the final?
NILAAt Wembley Stadium in London, in front of ninety thousand people.
TOMThat is a long way from a wooden gate in the corner.
NILAA very long way, and now here is fact three, which is very new.
TOMGo on and tell me about it.
NILAIn January this year a club called Macclesfield played Crystal Palace.
TOMMacclesfield, M-A-C-C-L-E-S-F-I-E-L-D, is a town in the north-west of England.
NILAIt is a non-league club, six divisions below the top, and Palace were the holders.
TOMThe holders won the same cup the year before.
NILAThey won it the year before, and Macclesfield beat them by a score of two–one.
TOM(impressed) Two–one against the holders of the cup.
NILAPeople call it the biggest upset in the whole history of the competition.
TOM(dry) Danny Price would be very proud of those players.
NILA(laughing) Fact four: the top league in England is the Premier League.
TOMAnd how many clubs play in that league?
NILAOnly twenty clubs, and three go down every May while three come up.
TOMSo a club can move up and down over the years.
NILANothing stays the same for long, and that is the best part of the system.
TOMAnd now we come to today's misconception.
NILAWe do, because many visitors think British football is only those twenty clubs.
TOMIt really isn't, and my old club is the proof.
NILAThere are thousands of clubs in England, on eleven different levels. And most supporters follow a small local team, not a famous one on television.
TOMCold Saturdays, bad tea and four hundred people in one stand.
NILA(warm) That is the real picture, and now here is fact five.
TOMYou mean the three o'clock kick-off rule.
NILAYes, and on Saturday afternoons you cannot watch most matches on British television.
TOMBetween quarter to three and quarter past five in the afternoon.
NILABetween two forty-five and five fifteen there is no live football on TV.
TOMAnd why do they still do that today?
NILABecause of the small clubs, and people must leave the sofa and go to a ground.
TOMThat rule started in the nineteen sixties.
NILAIn the nineteen sixties, and it is still here today.
TOM(dry) But the radio is always fine on a Saturday.
NILAThe radio is fine, and millions of people listen every Saturday afternoon.
TOMWith a cup of tea and a very bad temper.
NILA(laughing) Listeners, here is your Talking Point for this unit.
NILA(direct, to the listener) Is there a football team in your town, and what is its name?
NILA(direct, to the listener) And which sport is the most popular where you live?
TOMNext week we are going to your radio station in east London.
NILA(delighted) We are, and I am going to tell everybody about the dog.
Is there a football team in your town, and what is its name?
One minute each, then swap. Use at least two words from the vocabulary bank.
The 15 words and phrases of this unit, each shown in the phrase it lives in. Learn the phrase, not the word on its own.
Writing Part 7 — the picture story. Past simple narrative is the whole task.
Six items from Units 2 to 7, one from each. Read the label first, because the grammar changes every time.
Learn these five words first. You will hear all of them in the story.
Predict: the story is called “Three Seconds of Silence”. What do you think happens? Write one sentence before you listen.
Play: vocabulary warm-up→TOM(warm, unhurried) Last March, Nila invited me to her radio station in east London.
NILAAnd you didn't want to come to my studio at all.
TOMI didn't want to come, because I really don't like microphones.
NILABut you came anyway, on a very wet Tuesday afternoon.
TOMI came, and the station has four rooms and a very good kettle. The studio was extremely warm, and there were red lights on the wall.
NILAThe programme starts at four o'clock every weekday afternoon.
TOMAnd who was your guest on that particular day?
NILAA historian from the university, and his name was Doctor Blake, B-L-A-K-E.
TOMAnd did he come to the studio in the end?
NILA(flat) He did not come anywhere near the building that afternoon.
TOMWhy didn't he come to see you?
NILAHis train stopped outside Market Harborough, and he phoned me at ten to four.
TOMThat was only ten minutes before your programme!
NILATen minutes, and I had twelve minutes of interview to fill.
TOMSo what did you do about that problem?
NILAI looked at you, Tom, and you were sitting there drinking my tea.
TOM(dry) It was very good tea, and I finished it.
NILAI said, "Tom, come and sit at the microphone."
TOMAnd I didn't answer you for a long moment.
NILAYou didn't answer, and you didn't move either.
TOMBut I sat down in the end, the red light came on, and we were live.
NILAI read the news headlines first, and then the weather forecast.
TOMAnd your weather forecast took about nine seconds.
NILA(laughing) It did, so I started the interview with my new guest.
TOMYou asked me a question, and I said absolutely nothing.
NILAYou said nothing at all for three whole seconds.
TOMThree seconds is a very long time on the radio.
NILAOn the radio it feels like a year, and we call it dead air.
TOMDead air is silence, when there should be a voice.
NILAEvery radio presenter in the world is afraid of dead air.
TOMThen you asked me a much better question.
NILAAnd what exactly did I ask you?
TOMYou asked about the strangest thing on my bus in thirty years.
NILAAnd you didn't stop talking for eleven minutes.
TOM(amused) I told the story of the dog on the number thirty-eight. He got on at Victoria, he sat down, and he looked out of the window.
NILAAnd did that dog have a ticket?
TOM(dry) He did not have a ticket, because dogs never pay.
NILA(laughing) And where did he get off the bus?
TOMAt Hackney, and a woman was standing at the bus stop with his lead.
NILADid she know anything about his little journey?
TOMShe didn't know anything about it, and she was extremely surprised.
NILA(warm) And then the telephones in my studio started ringing.
TOMThe phone-in began, and twenty-two listeners called the station in nine minutes.
NILAThey all had a bus story, and one man talked about a chicken.
TOMA chicken on a bus in Nottingham, in nineteen eighty-four.
NILAIt was our best programme of the whole month.
TOMAnd did your boss say anything to you afterwards?
NILAShe didn't say very much. She only said, "Do that again next week."
TOM(dry) But I didn't come back to your studio.
NILA(laughing) You did not come back for six long months.
TOMBut I am here now, and the tea is still very good.
NILAAnd did the historian ever come back to us?
TOMWell, did he come back in the end?
NILAHe came back in April, and he was really very interesting.
TOMBut nobody at the station remembers the historian now.
NILA(laughing) Nobody remembers the historian, and they all remember the dog.
Something new about the bbc — this is not the story you just heard. Read it once straight through. Then read it again and underline every example of past simple: questions and negatives you can find. There are at least twelve.
This month our school paper chose Isla Kerr, aged 13. In May she won a young reporter competition. She spent a whole day at a BBC local radio station.
Q: Did you always want to be a reporter? A: No, I didn't. Two years ago I wanted to be a vet. Then Mr Doyle started a news club, and I didn't miss a single week after that.
Q: How did you win the competition? A: I made a three-minute programme about the bus stop outside our school. Nobody cleaned it for four months. I didn't write a script.
Q: What did you do at the station? A: I arrived at nine, and I didn't stop until four. I watched the news team all morning. Then I read a weather forecast into a real microphone, live. My hands shook, but I didn't say 'um' once.
Q: Did anything go wrong? A: Yes! I dropped my papers, and I didn't find page two for about eight seconds. The presenter didn't panic. She talked about the traffic until I came back.
Q: Did you learn any facts? A: Loads. Newsround started on the fourth of April 1972. John Craven presented it for seventeen years. A Blue Peter badge still takes you into many visitor attractions for free.
Q: What is your advice for other children? A: Ask questions at home. My grandad didn't have a television until he was fifteen. I didn't know that, because I never asked him before.
In the past simple you need one little helper: did. Put did at the front for a question, and didn't in front of the verb for a negative. Here is the important part: did already carries the past, so the main verb goes back to its simple form. Not 'Did you went?' but 'Did you go?' Not 'I didn't came' but 'I didn't come'. There is one exception, and it is a friendly one: was and were need no helper at all - Was it warm? It wasn't cold.
| Positive | Negative | Question | |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | I read the forecast. | I didn't read the news. | Did I read it well? |
| you | You came to the studio. | You didn't come alone. | Did you come by bus? |
| he / she | She dropped her papers. | She didn't drop the microphone. | Did she drop them again? |
| it | It went out at four o'clock. | It didn't go out late. | Did it go out live? |
| we / they | They phoned the station. | They didn't phone twice. | Did they phone at six? |
| with was / were (no did) | It was very warm. | It wasn't cold. | Was it warm in the studio? |
Set A gives you everything. Set B takes away half the help. Set C takes away the rest. If you can only do A today, you have still done something real — do B tomorrow.
Notice the form. Read each sentence. Write Q for a question, N for a negative or P for a positive. Then copy the helper word (did, didn't, was, were) or write 'no helper'.
Complete the gaps with words from the word bank. There are more words than gaps, and you can use a word more than once.
Build the sentence. Write it in full. Item 1 shows you the way.
NILAYour dog was on a small station, Tom, so now let's talk about the big one.
TOMYou mean the BBC, of course.
NILAThe BBC, B-B-C, stands for the British Broadcasting Corporation.
TOMMy mother always called it Auntie.
NILA(delighted) And that is where we start, because Auntie is the old nickname.
TOMBut why did people call it Auntie?
NILABecause it was like an aunt in the family: kind, careful and a little strict.
TOM(dry) And always in the corner of the living room.
NILAPeople also say "the Beeb", and both names are quite affectionate.
TOMAnd when did the whole thing start?
NILAFact one: it started on the eighteenth of October, nineteen twenty-two.
TOMThat is more than a hundred years ago.
NILAMore than a hundred years of radio, and television came a lot later.
TOMAnd how big is the BBC today?
NILAFact two: there are ten national radio stations for the whole country.
TOMTen national radio stations is a great many!
NILATen, and there are more stations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
TOMIn different languages, too, I think.
NILAIn different languages, yes, and that brings us nicely to fact three.
TOMGo on and tell me about it.
NILAThe BBC World Service makes news programmes in more than forty languages.
TOMForty languages, and how many listeners?
NILAAbout a hundred and ninety-two million people every single week.
TOM(impressed) A hundred and ninety-two million people every week.
NILAAnd many of them are learning English, exactly like our listeners today.
TOMNow tell me about the money, because that is the difficult part.
NILAFact four is good exam material: British homes pay a TV licence.
TOMAnd does every single home pay it?
NILAEvery household with live television, or with the BBC's own player app.
TOMAnd what is the price this year?
NILAFrom the first of April this year it costs a hundred and eighty pounds.
TOMA hundred and eighty pounds every single year.
NILAA hundred and eighty pounds, and you must pay it because it is the law.
TOM(dry) And what about a black-and-white television?
NILA(laughing) Sixty pounds and fifty pence, and a few thousand people still have one.
TOMI really don't believe you.
NILAIt is completely true, and now here is the misconception.
TOMThen tell me about it.
NILAA lot of visitors think the BBC is the government's radio and television.
TOMBut it certainly is not the government's radio.
NILAThe government does not write the news or choose the programmes.
TOMThe homes pay for it, not the ministers.
NILAThe homes pay, the BBC is independent, and its journalists ask hard questions.
TOMAnd politicians don't always enjoy those questions.
NILA(amused) They do not, and visitors always notice one more thing.
TOMAnd what do they notice so quickly?
NILAThere are no adverts on BBC channels in Britain, none at all.
TOMA programme starts, and it simply doesn't stop.
NILAIt doesn't stop, and now here is fact five, my favourite one.
TOMSomething about Christmas, I think.
NILAThe royal Christmas message went out on the radio in nineteen thirty-two.
TOMAnd when did it start on television?
NILAIn nineteen fifty-seven, and it is at three o'clock every Christmas Day.
TOMThree o'clock, after the lunch and before the sleep.
NILA(laughing) Exactly, and listeners, here is your Talking Point for this unit.
NILA(direct, to the listener) Do you listen to the radio, and what is your favourite programme?
NILA(direct, to the listener) And should people pay for television in your country?
TOMMy answer to that question takes about an hour.
NILA(laughing) It always does, and next week we are going to the seaside.
Do you listen to the radio, and what is your favourite programme?
One minute each, then swap. Use at least two words from the vocabulary bank.
The 15 words and phrases of this unit, each shown in the phrase it lives in. Learn the phrase, not the word on its own.
Listening Part 4 — identifying the main idea across five short extracts.
Six items from Units 3 to 8, one from each unit. Check the label, then answer out loud before you write.
| The highest mountain in each country | metres above sea level |
|---|---|
| Ben Nevis, Scotland | 1,345 |
| Yr Wyddfa, Wales | 1,085 |
| Scafell Pike, England | 978 |
Learn these five words first. You will hear all of them in the story.
Predict: the story is called “One Hundred and Ninety-nine”. What do you think happens? Write one sentence before you listen.
Play: vocabulary warm-up→TOM(cheerful) That is my rucksack, Nila, and it is extremely heavy today.
NILAAnd what on earth is inside it?
TOMTwo jumpers, a warm coat and my old walking boots.
NILAJumpers and a coat, Tom? It is the middle of July!
TOM(dry) We are going to the seaside, and in England you always take a coat.
NILA(laughing) All right, so where exactly are you going?
TOMTo Whitby, W-H-I-T-B-Y, a little town on the coast of Yorkshire.
NILAAnd when are you leaving?
TOMOn Saturday morning, and we are catching the nine-o-five train from King's Cross.
NILAThe nine-o-five train, and who is going with you?
TOMMy daughter Ruth, R-U-T-H, and her two young children.
NILAAnd where are you all staying?
TOMIn a small cottage near the harbour, and the window looks at the boats.
NILAThat sounds like a really beautiful view.
TOMIt is the best view in the town, and we are staying for six nights.
NILAAnd what are you going to do on the first day?
TOMThe children have a plan, and they are going to build an enormous sandcastle.
NILAOn the beach, of course.
TOMOn the beach at low tide, because the sand is harder near the water.
NILAAnd are you going to sit in a deckchair all afternoon?
TOM(amused) I am going to sit in a deckchair with a newspaper.
NILAAnd an ice cream in your hand, I think.
TOMAnd an ice cream, but I must be very careful with it.
NILAAnd why must you be so careful?
TOMThe seagulls in Whitby are big, clever and completely fearless.
NILA(laughing) Are they going to take your chips?
TOMThey are definitely going to try, and there are warning signs on the harbour wall.
NILAAnd what do the signs say?
TOM"Do not feed the gulls." But nobody feeds them, because they simply take.
NILAAnd is there a pier in the town?
TOMThere are two long piers, one on each side of the harbour mouth.
NILASo it is the sea in the morning, but what about the afternoons?
TOMRuth would like the hills, and the children would like the beach.
NILAThat sounds like a small family problem.
TOMA very small one, but we are not going to argue about it.
NILAI think you have a plan already.
TOMI have a plan, and on Tuesday we are climbing the steps.
NILAAnd which steps are these?
TOMIn Whitby there is a long path of steps up to the old church.
NILAAnd how many steps are there?
TOMThere are one hundred and ninety-nine steps to the top.
NILA(impressed) And are you going to climb every single one?
TOMEvery single one, and I am going to count them out loud.
NILA(laughing) All of them, from one to a hundred and ninety-nine?
TOMAll of them, and my grandson is going to count them with me.
NILA(doubtful) The children are going to hate that idea.
TOM(dry) The children are going to love it, and there are seats on the way.
NILAAnd what is at the top of the steps?
TOMAt the top there is the old church, the ruined abbey and the sea.
NILASo it is a holiday with a beach and a hill in it.
TOMBoth of them, and on the last day we are walking along the coast path.
NILAAnd how far are you walking?
TOMFive miles, and then fish and chips at the end of it.
NILA(warm) Send me a photograph from step one hundred and ninety-nine.
TOMI am going to send you a photograph of a seagull with my chips.
NILA(laughing) I would like that very much indeed.
Something new about the seaside and the countryside — this is not the story you just heard. Read it once straight through. Then read it again and underline every example of going to and the present continuous for the future you can find. There are at least twelve.
POSTCARD. Dear Grandad, We are having a brilliant week in Llandudno. Tomorrow we are catching the tram up the Great Orme. On Thursday we are taking the little train up Yr Wyddfa. I am going to send you a photo from the top. I am not going to eat another ice cream today. (I am.) Love, Cerys
A SHORT GUIDE TO LLANDUDNO. Are you going to visit north Wales this summer? Llandudno is a seaside town on the north coast of Wales.
1. THE PIER. Llandudno Pier opened on the first of August 1877, and it is 700 metres long. It is the longest pier in Wales. You are going to walk past little shops, a fortune teller and a lot of seagulls.
2. THE GREAT ORME TRAMWAY. The Great Orme is the big green hill above the town. The tramway opened in 1902, and a cable under the road pulls the tram up the street. You are not going to push, but the steep part feels like that.
3. THE MOUNTAIN RAILWAY. Yr Wyddfa is the highest mountain in Wales, at 1,085 metres. Are you going to walk up it? Or catch the little train from Llanberis. It is the only public rack railway in the United Kingdom. The round trip takes about two and a half hours.
4. TWO SMALL WARNINGS. In Wales you are going to need a coat in July. And the tide comes in fast on a flat beach, so watch it.
5. OUR OWN PLAN. Our class is coming here in June. We are staying three nights in a hostel near the beach. Mr Doyle is bringing forty sandwiches. Nobody is going to be hungry, and nobody is going to be dry.
Both of these talk about the future, and they are close friends. Use going to for a plan in your head, or for a prediction you can see coming: I am going to count the steps. Look at that cloud - it is going to rain. Use the present continuous - am, is or are plus -ing - for an arrangement that is already fixed, usually with a day, a time or a ticket: We are catching the 9.05 train on Saturday. When you say a plan and an arrangement together, both sound completely natural.
| going to (a plan or a prediction) | present continuous (a fixed arrangement) | Time words | |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | I am going to count the steps. | I am catching the 9.05 train. | tomorrow |
| you | You are going to love the pier. | You are staying in a cottage. | next week |
| he / she | She is going to build a sandcastle. | She is coming with us on Friday. | on Friday |
| it | Look at that cloud - it is going to rain. | The tram is leaving at ten. | at ten |
| we | We are going to walk five miles. | We are having fish and chips tonight. | tonight |
| negative and question | I'm not going to swim. / Are you going to swim? | We aren't leaving on Sunday. / Are you leaving on Sunday? | on Sunday |
Set A gives you everything. Set B takes away half the help. Set C takes away the rest. If you can only do A today, you have still done something real — do B tomorrow.
Notice the form. Read each sentence. Write P if it is a plan or a prediction with going to, or A if it is a fixed arrangement in the present continuous. Then copy the verb.
Complete the gaps with words from the word bank. There are more words than gaps, and you can use a word more than once.
Build the sentence about the future. Write it in full. Item 1 is the model.
NILATom is going to Whitby on Saturday, so today we are talking about the sea and the hills.
TOMAnd my first question is a simple one: how far away is the sea?
NILA(bright) That is fact one, and it is my favourite fact in the whole series.
TOMGo on and tell me the number.
NILAIn Great Britain you are never more than seventy miles from the sea.
TOMSeventy miles is really nothing at all.
NILASeventy miles, or about a hundred and thirteen kilometres.
TOMAnd where is the furthest place from the water?
NILAA farm in Derbyshire, near a village called Coton in the Elms.
TOM(amused) One quiet farm, right in the middle of the country.
NILAEvery other place in Britain is closer to the sea than that farm.
TOMAnd this brings us to today's misconception.
NILAIt does, because many people think Britain is only cities, traffic and grey buildings.
TOMBut it really isn't like that at all.
NILAMost of the land is countryside: fields, hills, woods and small villages.
TOMAnd ordinary people can walk in all of it.
NILAThey can, because there are thousands of public footpaths across private farms.
TOMYou mustn't drop litter, and you must close the gates behind you.
NILAClose the gates always, but you can walk, and that surprises many visitors.
TOMNow please tell me about the national parks.
NILAFact two: there are fifteen national parks in the United Kingdom.
TOMFifteen parks in one small country.
NILATen of them are in England, three in Wales and two in Scotland.
TOMAnd which national park came first?
NILAThe Peak District, in nineteen fifty-one.
TOMBut the Lake District is the famous one.
NILAIt is the most famous, and fact three is all about it.
TOMAnd how many people go there?
NILAAbout seventeen million visitors every year, and it is a World Heritage Site.
TOMAnd what about the mountains up there?
NILAEngland's highest mountain is Scafell Pike, at nine hundred and seventy-eight metres.
TOMNine hundred and seventy-eight metres is quite high.
NILAIt is not enormous, but the weather is serious and you should take a map.
TOMAnd which mountain is the highest in the whole United Kingdom?
NILABen Nevis in Scotland, at one thousand three hundred and forty-five metres.
TOMThat is a serious climb for a Saturday afternoon.
NILAAnd you must take a coat, and a very good pair of boots. (laughing) Always a coat, and here is fact four, about the seaside town.
TOMI think you mean Blackpool.
NILABlackpool, B-L-A-C-K-P-O-O-L, and the famous Tower opened in eighteen ninety-four.
TOMEighteen ninety-four is older than my grandmother.
NILAIt is a hundred and fifty-eight metres tall, and the builders copied the Eiffel Tower.
TOMAnd there is a beautiful ballroom inside it.
NILAAn old ballroom with a wooden dance floor, and people still dance there today.
TOMAnd Blackpool has three piers as well.
NILAThree piers in one town, but fact five is about a different pier.
TOMI think you mean Southend.
NILASouthend Pier, in Essex, is two point one kilometres long.
TOMThat is a very long walk indeed.
NILAIt is the longest pleasure pier in the world, and there is a train on it.
TOM(dry) Thank goodness for that little train.
NILA(laughing) Listeners, here is your Talking Point for this unit.
NILA(direct, to the listener) The sea or the hills — where would you like to go?
NILA(direct, to the listener) Now tell me your plan, and what are you going to do there?
TOMMy plan is a deckchair, a newspaper and one very small ice cream.
NILA(warm) Have a lovely holiday, Tom, and next week we finish with fireworks.
The sea or the hills — where would you like to go?
One minute each, then swap. Use at least two words from the vocabulary bank.
The 15 words and phrases of this unit, each shown in the phrase it lives in. Learn the phrase, not the word on its own.
Writing Part 6 — the short email or note. Holiday plans are a standard prompt.
Six items from Units 4 to 9, one from each unit. The grammar changes every time, so read the label first.
Learn these five words first. You will hear all of them in the story.
Predict: the story is called “The Wall of Photographs”. What do you think happens? Write one sentence before you listen.
Play: vocabulary warm-up→TOM(warm, unhurried) There is an old hall at the end of my road. Everybody in my street calls it the centre.
NILAA community centre for all the neighbours.
TOMOne big room, two electric heaters and a very old kettle.
NILA(amused) You always start your stories with a kettle.
TOM(dry) The kettle is important, and there is a long wall inside that hall.
NILAAnd what exactly is on the wall?
TOMPhotographs — forty-one years of photographs in cheap wooden frames.
NILABut photographs of what, Tom?
TOMOf festivals, and there is one photograph for each festival, every year.
NILAAnd who takes all of them?
TOMRosa, R-O-S-A, is the caretaker, and she is seventy-eight years old.
NILA(warm) Now tell me about last year, then.
TOMLast November we had the bonfire, and it was cold, wet and windy.
NILAThe fifth of November, of course.
TOMThe fifth, and the children made an enormous pile of old wood.
NILAAnd were there any fireworks?
TOMSmall ones, because fireworks are more expensive now, but we had sparklers.
NILAI love sparklers more than big fireworks.
TOMEverybody loves sparklers, and there were hot dogs and a stall with soup.
NILAAnd what was Rosa's photograph that night?
TOMTwenty faces and one big bonfire behind them, with orange light on everybody.
NILANow tell me about the summer festival.
TOMIn August we have the carnival, and Rosa's grandsons play in a steel band.
NILA(delighted) A real steel band in your community centre!
TOMThey practise in the hall from June, and it is extremely loud.
NILA(laughing) I am absolutely sure it is.
TOMThe costumes are the best part: blue feathers, gold masks and silver shoes.
NILAAnd do they ride on a float?
TOMThey walk behind the float, the parade is slow, and the crowd is enormous.
NILAIs it bigger than your bonfire party?
TOM(dry) A little bigger, with about two million people, more or less.
NILAAnd what was Rosa's photograph from the carnival?
TOMA boy of six in a gold mask, looking up at an enormous drum.
NILAAnd what about the winter photograph?
TOMAt Christmas we always have the party, on the twentieth of December.
NILAAnd what happens at this famous party?
TOMWe sing carols badly, we pull crackers, and we eat far too much food.
NILAA proper British feast, then.
TOMA proper feast, with candles on every table and paper hats on every head.
NILA(warm) And what about this year, Tom?
TOMThis year is different, because the hall is going to close in March.
NILA(concerned) Oh no, and why is it closing?
TOMThe roof is very old, and the money for a new one is not there.
NILASo what are the neighbours going to do about it?
TOMWe are not going to stop, and Rosa says one thing every day.
NILAAnd what does she say to you?
TOM"We must have the photograph. The wall must go on."
NILA(smiling) So I think there is a plan.
TOMThere is a plan, and in March we are having a party in the street.
NILAA big party in the street itself!
TOMIn the street, with a long table, a small fire and forty-one photographs.
NILAAnd are they going on the wall of the hall?
TOMOn the wall of my house, and Rosa is choosing the nails now.
NILA(laughing) Of course she is, and I would like to see that wall.
TOMYou can come in March, but please bring a warm coat.
NILA(warm) I am going to bring a camera as well.
TOM(dry) Rosa takes the photograph, and nobody else touches the camera.
Something new about festivals through the year — this is not the story you just heard. Read it once straight through. Then read it again and underline every example of consolidation: all the forms of the course you can find. There are at least twelve.
WORLD FESTIVAL DAY AT NORTHGATE ACADEMY. Saturday the fourteenth of November, eleven in the morning until four. In the hall and on the field. FREE. There are twelve stalls and two bands. Bring a coat: it is going to be cold.
WHY ARE WE DOING THIS? Last year our Year 8 pupils asked a question. How many festivals do our families celebrate? The answer was forty-one. So we are putting all of them into one day. Rosa's class is making the flags now.
11.00 THE PARADE. We are starting on the field. Mr Doyle is going to lead the parade, and he is louder than any drum. You mustn't run, because the grass is wet.
11.45 THE PANCAKE RACE. The pancake race in Olney is the oldest one in Britain. People say it started in 1445. The runners carry a frying pan, and they toss the pancake on the way. The town of Liberal, in Kansas, joined in 1950, and the two towns still compete. Our race is shorter, and our pancakes are worse.
13.00 THE FOOD STALLS. There are samosas, there is hot soup, and there is cake. The soup is free. You must bring your own spoon, because there are only nine spoons in this school.
14.00 LIGHTS, AND A LITTLE FIRE. Every autumn Leicester turns on a Wheel of Light for Diwali. In Lerwick in Shetland, up to a thousand people carry burning torches. On the last Tuesday in January they burn a wooden Viking ship. We are not going to burn a ship. We are going to light two hundred small candles in jars.
15.30 THE PHOTOGRAPH, AND THE MONEY. Everybody stands on the steps for one photograph. All the money is for the hall roof. Last year we made 840 pounds. This year we would like a thousand. We always need spoons.
This unit puts everything together, and the trick is always the same: read the time words first. Every day, usually and on Fridays send you to the present simple. Look, now and at the moment send you to the present continuous. Yesterday, last year and in 1445 send you to the past simple. Tomorrow and next week send you to going to or to am / is / are plus -ing. Rules and no choice mean must and mustn't; possible means can. Two things side by side need a comparative, and the top of a group needs a superlative with the.
| What you want to say | Form | Example from the programme |
|---|---|---|
| it happens again and again | present simple | Leicester turns on the Wheel of Light every autumn. |
| it is happening now | present continuous | Rosa's class is making the flags. |
| it happened and it finished | past simple | The town of Liberal joined the race in 1950. |
| a plan or a prediction | going to | It is going to be cold, so bring a coat. |
| a rule, with no choice | must / mustn't | You mustn't run, because the grass is wet. |
| two things, or the top of a group | comparative / superlative | Our pancakes are worse. Olney has the oldest race. |
Set A gives you everything. Set B takes away half the help. Set C takes away the rest. If you can only do A today, you have still done something real — do B tomorrow.
Notice the form. Read each sentence and write PS (present simple), PC (present continuous), PST (past simple), F (future) or M (a modal: must, mustn't, can). Then copy the verb.
Complete the gaps with words from the word bank. There are more words than gaps, and you can use a word more than once.
Build the sentence in the form the label asks for. Write it in full. Item 1 is the model.
NILAThis is the last programme of the series, Tom, so today: three British festivals.
TOMPlease start with the bonfire.
NILAFact one: Bonfire Night is on the fifth of November, every single year.
TOMAnd why do people light those big fires?
NILABecause of sixteen oh five, when a group of men made a secret plot.
TOMA plot against the King, I think.
NILAA plot against the King and the Parliament, but the plan did not work.
TOMAnd Guy Fawkes was the famous one.
NILAGuy Fawkes, F-A-W-K-E-S, and soldiers found him under the building at midnight.
TOMAnd people lit fires all over the city that night.
NILAPeople lit fires that night, and we still light them four hundred years later.
TOM(dry) Now give us today's misconception.
NILA(bright) Many visitors think the fifth of November is a day off work.
TOMBut it really isn't a day off.
NILAIt is not a bank holiday, nobody stays at home, and the shops stay open.
TOMYou finish work, you eat quickly, and you go out into the dark.
NILAExactly, and the next morning everybody goes back to work as usual.
TOMAnd where is the biggest bonfire event in the country?
NILAFact two: in Lewes, in Sussex, L-E-W-E-S, since sixteen seventy-nine.
TOMSixteen seventy-nine is more than three hundred years ago.
NILAThousands of people walk through the town in costume, with burning torches.
TOMNow please take us to the summer.
NILAFact three is the big one: Notting Hill Carnival, in west London.
TOMThat is the August one, I think.
NILAThe August bank holiday weekend, and this year it is on three days.
TOMAnd which three days are they?
NILAThe twenty-ninth, the thirtieth and the thirty-first of August.
TOMAnd what happens on each of them?
NILASaturday is the steel band competition, and people call it Panorama.
TOMAnd what about Sunday and Monday?
NILASunday is for families and children, and Monday is the big adults' parade.
TOMAnd how many people come to it?
NILAAbout two million people, and it is the biggest street festival in Europe.
TOMAnd when did the carnival start?
NILAThe first outdoor carnival was in nineteen sixty-six, but the story starts earlier.
TOMAnd how much earlier than that?
NILAIn nineteen fifty-nine, indoors, and a woman called Claudia Jones organised it.
TOM(interested) Tell me a little about her.
NILAShe came to Britain from Trinidad, and people call her the mother of the carnival.
TOMAnd the tickets must be very expensive.
NILA(delighted) No, the parade is completely free, and you just walk in.
TOMFree, in the middle of London.
NILAFree and on the street, and only the Saturday competition needs a ticket.
TOMGood, and now please finish with Christmas.
NILAFact five: Christmas Day and Boxing Day are both bank holidays.
TOMThe twenty-fifth and the twenty-sixth of December.
NILAOn both days the shops close and the trains are very quiet.
TOMAnd everybody eats far too much food.
NILAA big feast, crackers, carols and a very long walk in the afternoon.
TOMAnd the King speaks to the whole country.
NILAAt three o'clock, and that message started on the radio in nineteen thirty-two.
TOMNineteen thirty-two is a very long time ago.
NILAAnd on television in nineteen fifty-seven, and millions still watch it today.
TOMIt is a quiet old tradition.
NILAA quiet one, and listeners, here is your last Talking Point of the series.
NILA(direct, to the listener) What is the biggest festival in your town, and when does it happen?
NILA(direct, to the listener) And what do people eat at that festival?
TOM(warm) Thank you for listening to all ten programmes.
NILACome and see us in Britain one day, and bring a coat.
TOM(dry) You should always bring a coat to Britain.
What is the biggest festival in your town, and when does it happen?
One minute each, then swap. Use at least two words from the vocabulary bank.
The 15 words and phrases of this unit, each shown in the phrase it lives in. Learn the phrase, not the word on its own.
Speaking Part 2 and Reading and Writing Part 5 — discussion with a partner, and the open cloze.
The last mixed review: six items from Units 5 to 10, one from each. Read the label, answer out loud, then write it.
These 146 words and phrases are the taught vocabulary of the whole course. If you can use all of them, you are ready.