Lab english activities

LAB ENGLISH ACTIVITIES UPPER INTERMEDIATE 

Listening part:

KENNEDY'S ASSASSINATION

1.	From this program we learn that President Kennedy ...
	A.    came from a famous political family.B.    was the youngest president of the USA. C.    had a son and a daughter.
2.	We also learn that the President was in Dallas because ...
	A.    was on his way to meet his wife. B.    lived there. C.    was making an official visit.
3.	What do we learn about the President's death?
	A.    He died instantly.. B.    No one knows who killed him. C.    He was shot twice by one person.
4.	What do we learn about Lee Harvey Oswald?
	A.    He denied killing the President.B.    He was shot when he was arrested. C.    He was found guilty of killing the President.
5.	Why was this news item included in the radio programme?
	A.    to show the style of earlier news reportingB.    to explain the importance of the assassination C.    to look back on an important event in modern history

Mistakes are in pink :P

Multiple-choice gap-filling

ACTIVITY 1Read the text below and choose from the menus the suitable answer. Then check your answers. The first alternative [ eager - fast - important - urgent ] is already done for you. WOMEN IN HISTORY Is the history of the world in urgent need of correction? Some historians, mostly women, argue that insufficient attention has been paid to a very important group: women. These historians want (demand) history textbooks to be revised so that they show accurately the role played by women. According to the history books, cavemen provided most of the food for their families through hunting animals. But the evidence shows that 80% of the diet of prehistoric humans was vegetarian and it was collected by females. In addition, women's efforts in fighting in wars or leading revolutions have been ignored. Textbooks concentrate on men such as Hannibal or Che Guevara and neglect outstanding women such as Théroigne de Méricourt, an opera singer who led the storming of the Bastille in 1789, or Mariya Bochkareva, a Bolshevik who organised a well-trained and highly (absolutely) successful troop of 2,000 fighting women during the Russian revolution in 1917. Women rulers are also forgotten. Between 962 and 1582 there were at least 16 women rulers in countries ranging (variying)from Italy to Angola. Women make up half the human race(being). If there is no reference to their contribution to history in the textbooks, then the real story is not being told. However many male historians deny that important female figures have been kept out of( in) the history books. MY LIFE AS A BARRY MANILOW FAN 0 I at first saw Barry Manilow on a TV programme in 1979. The 00 next day I went out and bought all the records of his that I 1 could find. I have been to 115 concerts now. I went to the New 2 York for two weeks because of he was doing 10 shows at Radio 3 City Music Hall. I saw all 10. You don't go to all that way 4 and only go to two or three, do you? Some people say I am too 5 crazy, but it does not seem so excessive, if you will compare 6 me with a football supporter going to see his favourite team 7 every week. I have got more 80 videotapes of Barry and a 8 couple of hundred records. What I dream about is having dinner 9 with him. Of course, there isn't any chance that could never 10 happen. I don't think Barry understands it why thousands of 11 women feel the way they do about him. It hurts to admit it, but 12 he must sometimes to feel like running away from his fans. 13 Life can be boring, but if I will have a concert to look 14 forward to. I am excited. One day he will stop doing concerts, 15 but that is something I dare not think about it too much.

ENGLISH SPELLING

Why does English spelling have a reputation for being difficult? English was first written down when Christian monks came to England in Anglo-Saxon times. They used the 23 letters of Latin to write down the sounds of Anglo-Saxon speech (communication)as they heard it. However, English has a wider range of basic sounds (over 40) than Latin. The alphabet was too small, and so combinations of letters were needed to express(explain) the different sounds. Inevitably, there were inconsistencies in the way that letters were combined.

With the Norman invasion of England, the English language was put at (in)risk. English survived, but the spelling of many English words changed to follow French patterns, and many French words were introduced into the language. The result was more irregularity.

When the printing press was invented in the fifteenth century, many early printers of English texts spoke other first languages. They made (did) little effort to respect English spelling. Although one of the short-term effects of printing was to produce a number of variant spellings, in the long term it created fixed spellings. People became used to seeing words spelt in the same way. Rules were drawn up(handed up), and dictionaries were put together which printers and writers could refer to.

However, spoken English was not fixed and continued to change slowly - just as it still does now. Letters that were sounded in the Anglo-Saxon period, like the 'k' in 'knife', now became silent (speechless). Also, the pronunciation of vowels then had little in common with how they sound now, but the way they are spelt hasn't changed.

No wonder, then, that it is often difficult to see the link between sound and spelling. MY REAL PARENTS People tell me I take after my mother. We have    the same  EXACT blue eyes. I don't know whether there is any    SIMILAR between my birth mother and me. I have no    of her  KNOW because I was adopted as a baby.  The fact that I am adopted is of no    to me. I don't want to  IMPORTANT look for    about my birth parents. Your real parents are the  INFORM ones who love and look after you - that's what I  . BELIEF My mother is a  ; she works very hard and often comes LAW home late. She sometimes worries    that this makes her a  NECESSARY bad mother. She says her children    her life and she would  BRIGHT like to spend more time with us. My father is a    artist and  PROFESSION works at home.  They are the best parents in the world. It was the    day of  LUCK my life when they adopted me.