QUICK REVIEW I

Write tour interesting things about yourself or people you know. Work in pairs.
Take turns to say your sentences. Respond with an echo question and a follow-up
question. A {'ve been scuba diving a few times. B Ha ve you? Where did you go?
Vocabulary verb patterns (1)
Skills Reading: Under examination;
Listening: Exam stories
Help with Listening sentence stress
and rhythm
Review verb forms; echo questions
a) Read the article again. Tick the true sentences. Correct the
false ones.
1 He didn't sleep the night before bis maths exam.
2 The writer talked to bis classmates before bis triaths exam.
3 He thinks children have to do toa much writing in exarns.
4 He doesn't think that everything children learn at school is usefu
5 He wants bis daughters to leave school at 16.
6 He uses bis knowledge of maths a lot in bis daily liCeo
b) Work in pairs. Compare answers.
Reading and Vocabulary
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Je..en1.V Ha is looks back on his
experiences of school exams.
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twice as much as someone who left school
at 16. So 1 ~feten:d to believe that exams
are a good idea, and 1 always remember to
wish my daughters luck before each Que.
By the way, 1 did ~~;!;g~ to pass my
maths O Level, but since then nobody's
ever ~l:I:~~ me to do calculus or draw a
graph. The way 1 see it, if you need to
add up a few numbers, try using a
calculator. So maybe it's time to stop
testing how much children remember and
t~!~ them to be better bullan beings
instead.
Is a three-hour memory test
realiy a good way to find
out how much children
know? Kids always end up I
forgetting almost everything
they learn at school anyway.
! (Can you remember fue i
second law of thermodynarnics :::
or who invented the light
bulb? I thought not.) Personally
I r(!igr~:t spending so much time at
school learning things I've never
need~d to know since -and these days
you can find out everything on the Internet
anyway.
Of course, I still ~~~ifiurage my
daughters to take their GCSEs seriously
and I ii6~~~. them both to continue
studying next year. Emily l!)(ifi~es to become
a journalist and I'm trying to ~rauade
Julia to go to medical school. They're both
very bright, but they find it hard to
concentrate. They usualiy study for half an
hour and then stop to cali their friends or
watch T\Z However, we all know that
qualifications 1:~1~ people gel jobs, and
a graduate in the UK -earn nearly
I t's be en years
since 1 last did an
exam, but the
memories of my O
Levels* are still
disturbingly fresh. 1
remember staying
up all night before
my maths exam,
trying to learn dozens of equations by
heart. The next dar 1 ~voide(7.1 sitting next
to my friends on the school bus and refused
to talk to anyone outside the exam hall in
case they fui;td me forget everything I'd
learned. When the teacher finally i;tlldwea
us to pick up our pens, 1 immediately
wrote clown the equations in case 1 might
need them during the exam. 1 didn't, of
course, but 1 still have nightmares about
the whole experience.
Back then 1 never stopped to think if
exams were a good idea, but now that my
twin daughters are doing their GCSEs*,
I'm ~~gimr~ to wonder whether exams
are actually worth doing at all. Why do
we still r();~~ kids to sit in an overheated
gym and write until their arms fall off?
= exams that 16-year-olds in the UK took before*GCSEs
= exams that 16-year olds in the UK take
*0 Leve!
a) Work in pairs. Discuss these questions.
1 Do you think exams are a good way to tes1
students' knowledge? Why?/Why not?
2 What do you think is the best way to
revise for exams?
b) Read the article. Is jeremy Rarris for or
against exams? Why?
1C Vocabulary and Skills
C) a) Look at fue verbs in blue in fue article. Write
the infinitive forrns of these verbs in the table.
avoid i + verb+ing
" a)" Listen again. Write six words/phrases to help
you remember each story.
b) Work in new pairs. Take turns to tell each other one
of the stories. lnclude as much detail as possible.
refuse
+ infinitive with to
make
aLLow
+ object + infinitive
+ object + infinitive
with to
might + infinitive
b} Write these verbs in the table in 3a). Some
verbs can go in more than one place.
-
could would rather prefer keep let start
seem should don't mind continue finish
forget lave had better like pay hate
plan convince miss enjoy decide
.In spoken English we usually only stress the words
that give the rnain inforrnation. This gives English its
natural rhythm.
-a) IDI Listen to the beginning of the first exam
story. Notice the stressed words.
My worst exam moment happened when I was cau!jht
cheating by my mm after a h7storyexam. I realiy liked
history classes, but I clidn 't have a very good memory.
b) Work in pairs. Look again at 7a). Which parts of
speech are usually stressed? Which are usually
unstressed?
adjectives -stressed possessive adjectives -unstressed
c) Look at the next part of the story. Which words do
you think are stressed?
So on the moming of the exam' I wrote loads of
important facts and figures on the insides of my shirt
cuffs. I made sure that I gol to the exam room really
early so I could sil at the back.
d) IDI Listen and check.
e) Look at Rl.6, p143. Listen to the stories again.
Notice the sentence stress and rhythm.
d) Check in lB pl13.
" Work in pairs. Student A -+ plO4.
Student B -+ plO7. Follow the instructiollS.
Listening
" a) Check these words with your teacher or
in a dictionary.
.
l_~~__.:~~~~~t.:~~~~-,~~~~.~ '
b) Work in pairs. Look at pictures A and B.
What do you think is happening in each one?
c) ..Listen and check your answers to 5b).
1 What was the last exam you did? How did you feel
before, during and after it?
2 What was the hardest exam you've ever taken?
3 Have you ever done an oral exam? What was it like?
4 Do you know any other interesting or funny stories
about exams? If so, tell the group.
C) Look at the verbs in pink in the article.
Match the verb forms to the meanings.
1 remember + verb+ing
2 remember + infinitive with to
a) remember something that you did before
b) make a mental note to do something in the future
3 stop + verb+ing
4 stop + infinitive with to
c) stop something that you were doing
d) stop doing one thing in order to do something else
5 try + verb+ing
6 try + infinitive with to
e) make an effort to do something difficult
f) do something in order to solve a problem