Creating Opportunity Worldwide

Upper Intermediate Self Study Programme : Memories

Name ___________________________ Class_____________ Teacher ____________________

A. Introduction

You will read about a famous festival in Spain. Look at the picture.

What do you think happens at the festival?

That’s right. It’s a tomato throwing festival! It is called la Tomatina and people from all over the world go to Spain to take part.

B. Listening and vocabulary

You will watch a video about a young person’s experience of the festival. Watch the video and try to guess the meaning of these words (don’t look in your dictionary). Watch the video several times if you need to: Go to: http://smartselfstudy.com/> Upper Intermediate > go down to Self-Study program and select Module 3 LISTENING > Self Study Pack 1: Memories to watch the video.

Meaning Meaning

get my bearings rip people’s shirts off

dump them onto cannon sounds

solo-traveller aftermath

doorstep filled to the brim

packed roaming the streets

Check your answers on the last page of this study-pack.

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The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.

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C. Reading

You will read an article called “Spanish festival charges for tomato throwing.”

Before you read, do you think these statements will be true or false?

1. People will have to pay for a festival because of the increasing price of tomatoes.

2. Local people will still be able to go to the festival without paying.

3. A few tons of tomatoes are used in the Tomatina festival.

4. The mayor said he is charging partly for safety reasons.

5. There has never been a problem at the festival in the past.

Now read and check your answers. Do not look up any words in your dictionary yet.

Check your answers on the last page of this study-pack.

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The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.

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Spain's economic woes have led to one of its most famous festivals becoming a "pay-to-join" event. The cash-strapped town of Bunol will start charging participants who want to take part in its world-famous Tomatina tomato-throwing festival. Tourists will have to pay a minimum of 10 euros ($13) to be part of the hour-long tomato fight. Regardless, all 15,000 tickets have been sold. Local residents have been allocated 5,000 free tickets. The Tomatina costs the town 150,000 euros to organise. A hefty part of that sum goes toward paying for the 130 tons of tomatoes used as ammunition in the street battles. The streets are literally flooded with tomato juice at the festival's end.

Tourists from all over the world have flocked to the Tomatina for decades. Bunol's town mayor told reporters the decision to charge was partly due to financial constraints, but also out of security concerns. He said: "This is the first year we are charging for access to this popular festival due to the need to limit the crowd for safety reasons. We have had a problem for the past eight or 10 years. The Tomatina is not controlled. We don't know how many people are going to come." The festival started just after the end of WWII. There are various reports about its origins. The most popular is that of a brawl between teenagers near a vegetable market ending up with the youths pelting each other with tomatoes.

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D. Vocabulary (from the reading)

Look at the underlined words in the reading, but don’t look in your dictionary. From the sentence, try to guess the meanings and match them to words that have a similar meaning.

1. woes a. amount

2. cash-strapped b. limitations

3. take part c. fight

4. allocate d. participate

5. sum e. troubles

6. flocked f. to a certain extent

7. partly g. different

8. constraints h. poor

9. various i. gathered

10. brawl j. shared out

Check your answers on the last page of this study-pack.

© The British Council, 2016

The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.

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E. Grammar/ Vocabulary (Compound words)

“Cash-strapped” in the article above is an example of a compound adjective. A compound adjective is an adjective that comprises of more than one word. It usually has a hyphen between the words. Other examples include : right-handed, middle-aged, etc.

In the box, match the words to make compound adjectives:

a. high

b. broad

c. open

d. cold

e. time

f. baby

g. sure

a. footed

b. heeled

c. saving

d. shouldered

e. faced

f. minded

g. blooded

Check your answers on the last page of this study-pack.

Read the following text and circle examples of compound words (do not look up their meaning in your dictionary):

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My greatest memory is when I went to the French Open a few years ago and I saw Rafael Nadal play in the semi-finals there. Nadal is an internationally-known tennis player and he really played first-class tennis that day. He had already won numerous grand-slams, but the way he played demonstrated how he whole-heartedly dedicates himself to the sport even though he has already accomplished so much. He was playing another Spanish player that day, and he was absolutely incredible! After the match, we were wandering around the grounds and we bumped into him and some of his support-group as he was leaving. Nadal’s long-standing coach Tony Nadal, who has been part of his team since he was a youngster, was with him, and they even signed a tennis ball for me! I keep it in a glass box on my desk at home and it always reminds me of that really wonderful day when I met one of my real-life heroes.

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Look at each compound word in the text and decide if it is a noun, adjective or adverb. Try to guess from the sentence if you are unsure.

Adjective Noun Adverb

1.

2.

3.

4.

1.

2.

3.

1.

Check your answers on the last page of this study-pack.

Can you guess their meaning? Break the word into its two parts to help you.

F. Online resources

As some of these websites are not controlled by British Council, if you find that any of these links don’t work please do let us know so that we can update this

study-pack.

© The British Council, 2016

The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv58.shtml

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/some-compound-nouns-and-adjectives

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G. Speaking : memories.

Look at the following example of an IELTS speaking question. Spend one minute thinking about what you would say if you saw this question, then record yourself speaking about it.

Speak for about two minutes.

Now listen to the recording. While you listen, answer the following questions:

Did you hesitate or pause a lot while you were speaking?

Did you repeat any information that you had already said?

Were there any words that you kept repeating?

Can you think of other words you could have used?

Do you think there was anything you said that a listener would find difficult to understand?

How could you make your meaning clearer?

Now try recording yourself again. Was it better the second time?

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The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.

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Describe an important choice you had to make in your life.You should say: When you had this choice What you had to choose between Whether you made a good choice And explain how you felt when you were making this choice

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H. Writing : Your oldest memory.

What is the oldest memory that you have? Explain.

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If you want a teacher to check this writing, please put it in the ‘Blue Box’ marked SELF STUDY PROGRAMME in the ELLZ.

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Example:

The oldest memory I have is of when I was four years old. I remember playing with my pet dog in the driveway of my old house. I loved that dog. She was a German Shepard named “Coma”. We called her Coma because when she slept so heavily, it seemed as though she was in a coma.

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Answers page.

Section B

get my bearings = understand my location / dump onto = dropping / solo-traveller = someone who travels alone / doorstep = at the entrance / packed = crowded / rip a shirt off = tear it off violently / cannon sounds = a signal made by a canon / aftermath = the aftereffects of an event / filled to the brim = completely full / roaming = wandering

Section C

1 = F; 2 = T; 3 = F; 4 = T; 5 = F

Section D

1e; 2h; 3d; 4j; 5a; 6i; 7f; 8b; 9g; 10c

Section E

Answers for first question (matching): high-heeled, broad-shouldered, open-minded, cold-blooded, time-saving, baby-faced, sure-footed

Answers for second question (categorising): Adjectives: internationally-known, first-class, long-standing, real-life. Nouns : semi-finals, grand-slams, support-group. Adverbs : whole-heartedly.

© The British Council, 2016

The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.

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