A Monthly Newsletter for Teachers of English September 2008

STARTING OFF
How much do you know about Britain and how British people live? What kinds of things are different from your own
country? Work with a partner and think about some of these:

food and drink travel and transport numbers and measurements

shops and shopping sports and games

Would you like to live in Britain? Why/why not?

BEFORE YOU READ

Look at the questions below and discuss the answers with a partner. NB - more than one answer may be possible:

1. How many countries are there in Great Britain? 3. The English copied tea-drinking from the French.

a. three a. true

b. four b. false

c. five 4. English people wear their wedding ring on...

2. Why do people drive on the left in Britain? a. a different hand

a. to shake hands with a friend b. a different finger

b. to fight an enemy 5. How many regional languages are there in Great Britain?

c. to be different from the French a. six

b. five

c. four

© Pearson Education Polska 2008 PHOTOCOPIABLE

-1-
 ACTIVITIES SHEET September 2008

FIRST READING
Read the text and see if your ideas were right. Read as quickly as you can and remember that you don’t need to read
everything.

SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION
Below are five jumbled questions. Put the words in the right order to make correct questions.
1. the Republic of Ireland / is / Great Britain / part of
Is…
2. on the left / in Britain / always driven / have people
Have people…
3. tea with milk / who drank / the British or the French / first
Who drank…
4. why are / very practical / British taps / not
Why are…
5. in queuing / you take / where can / an examination
Where can…

SECOND READING
Read the whole text carefully this time and find the answers to the questions.

VOCABULARY 1
Eight words in the text are underlined. Match them to the definitions below.

1. extremely hot so that it can burn you, especially 2. a strong vehicle with four wheels, used for carrying
water or steam heavy loads and usually pulled by horses

3. a small group of people or things within a much

4. extremely cold
larger group

5. the force made by how much gas or liquid there is in

6. someone who is against you and wants to harm you
a place

7. something that is officially accepted (by the 8. different from

government, for example).

(all definitions adapted from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English)

© Pearson Education Polska 2008 PHOTOCOPIABLE

-2-
 ACTIVITIES SHEET September 2008

VOCABULARY 2
Complete the sentences using one of the words or phrases from Vocabulary 1. You may need to change the form of the
word.

1. Wait! I have to get my coat - it’s absolutely ____________________ outside.

2. Most people think it’s a good idea. It’s only a ____________________ who disagree.

3. I had a problem because my ID card wasn’t ____________________ by the authorities.

4. Be careful when you open it - the engine is full of steam and it’s ____________________ hot.

5. Why are you so angry with me? I’m not fighting you; I’m not your ____________________.

6. This problem is ____________________ any we have had before. It’s something completely new.

7. In the country most farmers have tractors now but you can still see horse-drawn ____________________ in
some places.

8. Hurricanes and tornadoes are caused by big differences in air ____________________.

SPEAKING
Britain is not the only country which has some strange customs - in fact, every country has its odd elements. Think about
your country, for example. What is odd or strange about it? What might be hard for a foreign visitor to understand? Work
with a partner and think about the areas below (and any others you can think of):
food and drink sports and games
shops and shopping town and country
travel and transport holidays and festivals
What are the strangest things about your country?

Prepare a short presentation to the rest of the class about your plans.

© Pearson Education Polska 2008 PHOTOCOPIABLE

-3-
 ACTIVITIES SHEET
WHY IS BRITAIN ALWAYS Why do the British drink tea with
A LITTLE BIT DIFFERENT? milk?
Those eccentric Britons: so
similar and yet so different in
so many little ways...
Just what is Great Britain?
There are three countries in Great
Britain: England, Scotland and Wales.
Northern Ireland is part of the United
Kingdom, not Great Britain. The
Republic of Ireland is a different
country completely.
Why do Britons drive on the left?
The answer is probably that it was
important to have your right hand
ready if you met a friend - or an enemy
- on the road. One thing to remember
is that until around 300 years ago
everyone drove (or rode) on the left,
only changing to the right because it
was easier to watch the wheels of very
big wagons from that side.
The left is important in Britain for other
things too. For example, when you
get married in Britain you put
your ring on your left hand,
not right as in most
other countries.
The ring goes
on the right only
if your
husband or
wife dies.
© Pearson Education Polska 2008
September 2008
The People of Britain
The British are well known for drinking
a lot of tea and for drinking it with milk, Britain is a multicultural
society with many different
unlike most countries where tea is
ethnic groups, religions and
usually drunk with lemon and sugar.
Surprisingly, adding milk to tea was not languages.
popular in Britain at first. In fact, in the
seventeenth century tea itself was
much more popular in France than in
Britain and it was the French who
usually drank it with milk; the British
copied the fashion from them.
Separate taps
Go into a British
bathroom and you’ll
notice something
unusual: at the sink
there are usually
two taps rather than one. In this case,
however, two are not better than one.
With one hot tap and one cold you
There are four recognised
have a choice of freezing your hands
or scalding them; the only way to get
regional languages in
warm water for washing is to fill up the Britain: Welsh, Scottish
bowl. Why? The reason is low water Gaelic, Scots and Cornish.
pressure in Britain which means that
mixer taps are often not possible. Britain’s population is over
90% white; the largest
Queuing ethnic minorities are South
Traditionally, British people are expert Asian and Black.
queuers. People queue at bus stops, in
shops, outside clubs… in fact, people The most popular religion is
queue everywhere. Queuing is such a Christianity (almost 50% of
part of British society that it is even
British people). Islam is
possible for foreigners staying in
second (about 3%),
Britain to take courses in queuing for
foreigners! As far as I know, though, followed by Hinduism,
there is no examination to take in Sikhism and Judaism.
queuing. At least not yet... Around half of all British
people have no religion.
PHOTOCOPIABLE
-4-