EXPLAINING

SESSION 7

TOPICS
• The meaning of words
• Describing quantities
• Referring to large and small quantities
Input 7.1A A new world

Metaverse is a concept that has existed for a long time. Metaverses are digital shared
universes where we can take on whatever personality we want or work with another person
on projects.

The CEO, who is the senior most executive of a company, at Meta (a multinational
technology company), Mark Zuckerberg, has described his idea of the metaverse as an
"internet that you're inside of, rather than just looking at."

We already are familiar with Virtual Reality (VR). VR uses computer technology to create an
environment where the user is inside it, and not just watch from outside. You can walk into
a VR tennis court and picking up a tennis rackets to play a game of VR tennis with another
person. So, what is the deal with metaverse? Is it different from gaming? It is! A key feature
of a metaverse is that it should imitate real life and is not being constructed for one specific
application, like a VR tennis game.

A core part of the metaverse experience will be with the use of avatars, which will be a
digital representation of you in the Meta world. It might be a 3D representation of you. An
important principle is that this avatar will be able to move across different areas of the
metaverse and be “you.”
Input 7.1B Language summary

Referring to things
Is there anything to do in your town?)
Yes of course, there’s something to do!
No, there isn’t anything to do. No, there’s nothing to do.

Is there someone in the office?

There’s nobody in the office now.

A helmet is something that/which construction workers put on their heads for safety.
A carpenter is someone who makes furniture.
Input 7.2A Language summary

For nouns that can’t be counted we ask:

How much greenery is in your house?

How much cement do you need to build the house?

For nouns that can be counted we ask:

How many fountains are in your house?

How many trees are in the garden?

We can say and write numbers in two ways:

14,67,840: Fourteen lakhs, sixty-seven thousand, eight hundred and forty.

1,467, 840: One million, four hundred and sixty-seven thousand and eight hundred
and forty.

We stress on the first syllable for numbers that end with -ty
Fourty, seventy

We stress on the last syllable for numbers that end with -teen
Fourteen, seventeen
Input 7.3A Much / many / a lot of?
In some of these sentences much is incorrect or doesn't sound nice. Change much to many
or a lot (of) where necessary. Write ‘okay’ if the sentence is correct.

1. We spent much money in Singapore.

_______________________________________________________________________

2. Sonia drinks much tea in the office.

_______________________________________________________________________

3. There is much salt in the food made in our canteen.

_______________________________________________________________________

4. We have to hurry. There isn't much time before the meeting begins.
_______________________________________________________________________

5. It cost much to repair the scanner.

_______________________________________________________________________

6. I don't know much people in the head office.

_______________________________________________________________________

7. My boss travels much.

_______________________________________________________________________

8. There isn’t much traffic in the mornings.

_______________________________________________________________________

9. You need much money to travel around the world.

_______________________________________________________________________

10. Much taxi drivers drive their cars too fast.

_______________________________________________________________________
Input 7.3B Language summary

Asking and answering questions about uncountable nouns:

Is there much water in the glass?
Yes, there is a lot of water in the glass.
No, there isn’t much / is only a little water.

Asking and answering questions about countable nouns:

Are there many printers in your office?
Yes, there are many / a lot of printers in my office.
No, there aren’t many / are only a few printers in my office.