UNIT 8: Skills

GROUP B

Name: ________________________

Class: ________________________

DICTATION
1 [WIDGB1_Utest_8_Dictation.mp3] Listen and
write the sentences that you hear, including
the punctuation.

_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________ LISTENING

_______________________________________ 2 [WIDGB1_Utest_8_Listening.mp3] Listen to a

_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
teacher and students talking about language
and say if these sentences are True (T), False
(F) or Doesn’t say (?).Put a cross (X) in the
correct place in the table.
Use this key to help:
Sam = the teacher
Rafa = the first student
Monika = the second student
Anna = the third student

_______________________________________ Sentences T F ?

_______________________________________
1 Sam’s friend was from Spain.

_______________________________________
2 Sam’s friend had a baby.
_______________________________________
Rafa’s boss thought what he said
3
/7 was funny.

4 Rafa had a cold.

Monika really enjoyed visiting

5
Manchester.

Anna asked for help in a shop in

6
Germany.

7 Anna asked for help with her dog.

/7

© 2017 Pearson PHOTOCOPIABLE 1

 UNIT 8: Skills

GROUP B

Around 3________________% of Chinese people

speak Mandarin Chinese.

Geography of China: The south of China has more

4
________________ than the north.

The Government uses 5________________ official

languages.

The vocabulary of Mandarin contains around

6
________________ words.

/6

/20

READING
3 Read the article about the Mandarin Chinese
language and complete the notes below. Use
a maximum of TWO words or a number in
each gap.

The Mandarin Language

Almost 1________________ people have Mandarin

as a native language.

There are 2________________ languages spoken in

China.

The World’s Most Spoken Language

© 2017 Pearson PHOTOCOPIABLE 2
 UNIT 8: Skills

GROUP B

There are about 6,900 languages spoken in the

world. The number of speakers of these languages
goes from tiny to very large. One of those
languages which have a very large number of
speakers is Mandarin Chinese with nearly 1 billion
speakers! It’s only one of 297 languages that
people speak in China, but it’s by far the biggest.
About 70% of the population speak it, compared to
the 6.5% that speak the next biggest language, Wu.
Language experts think that it spread to so many
people in China because it’s a language from the
north of the country. There aren’t as many
mountains in the north so it was easier for people
to travel and for the language to travel too.
The Chinese government uses Mandarin in most of
the country, especially in the capital city, Beijing.
In Hong Kong and Macau, however, government
officials can also use Cantonese. No other
languages are used by the government.
The Mandarin vocabulary is quite large. It has
more words than French, for example (370,000
words compared to around 350,000), but fewer
than English, which has around 470,000 words.
Many students of Mandarin find the grammar quite
easy, but the pronunciation is more of a problem.

© 2017 Pearson PHOTOCOPIABLE 3