Bridge 02, october 2013, volume 17
Teachers’ File
Activity Tips – LISTENING
Teachers’ File (TF) Activity Tips – Listening contains listening
exercises based on the articles and songs featured on the Bridge
CD, and solutions to Exam Time and TOEFL Junior test. The tasks
for Exam Time and TOEFL Junior test are only in the Bridge
magazine.
The TF is also available at www.bridge-online.cz
in the “UČITELÉ” section, password PLEASE.
T
teachers’
info
LITERATURE
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe (CD Track 16, Bridge pp. 12–13)
T
The first task helps students to understand
the recording by learning the more difficult words.
The teacher can discuss with students what they think
the story is about and what the narrator plans to do.
The teacher can remind students that in the story Poe
presents two characters, an old man and the narrator.
Poe never explained what relationship the two men
had. All we know is that they shared the same house.
Once the students are more familiar with the recorded text by completing
the first task, they can try to put the story’s main parts in the correct
order in the third task and fully enjoy the whole recording to check their
answers. They’ll know what the narrator planned to do. The answer is at
the beginning of the story, Slowly I was beginning to make up my mind
to take the life of the old man so that I wouldn’t have to see the eye
anymore. … I was wise and cautious about the whole thing. I was very kind
to the old man for the whole week before I killed him.
I. Look at the explanations of words
taken from Poe’s story The Tell‑Tale
Heart and use them to complete
the sentences that appear in the tale.
1 The disease _______________ my senses – not destroyed them.
A acute hearing – ability to hear very
well
3 Whenever it looked my way _______________ .
B boards – pieces of wood that make
up the floor
C cautious – careful
5 And then, when I could see the old man, I opened
the _______________ carefully to shine a single thin ray towards
the eye.
D corpse – dead body
6 I _______________ at this, and maybe he heard me.
E chuckled – laughed quietly
7 After some time I heard a small _______________ , and I knew it
was the sound of mortal terror!
F gasped for breath – tried hard to
breathe
G groan – a low sound a person
makes when unhappy or in pain
H had sharpened – had improved
I hideous – ugly
J lantern – oil‑burning lamp
K manners – how we behave
L my blood ran cold – it frightened
me
M pale – light colored; when one’s
skin looks as if it was without
colour, like white skin
N in vain – without success
O stains – marks, spots
2 You see, one of his eyes looked like the eye of a vulture –
a _______________ blue eye with a film over it.
4 I was wise and _______________ about the whole thing.
8 He had been trying to comfort himself that it was just a mouse or
the wind in the chimney – but all _______________ .
9 Thanks to my _______________ I heard a low, quick sound.
10 Then I put the _______________ back on the floor so cleverly that
no human eye – even his – could see that anything was wrong.
11 There were no blood _______________ either, no no, I was too
careful.
12 I even put my chair over the spot where the _______________ was
hidden.
13 The officers were satisfied and my calm _______________ convinced
them.
14 It was a low, quick sound – I _______________ – and yet
the policemen heard nothing.
15 It is the beating of his _______________ heart!
vulture – sup; film – povlak, vrstva; shine a single thin ray towards – si posvítil jediným tenkým
paprskem směrem; to convince – přesvědčit
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II.Complete the sentences with the words that best fit within the context. The pictures below will help you.
III.Rearrange the sentences/paragraphs and put them into the correct order according to how you think the story might go.
Help: the first one is D.
A There were three 1 ____________ who came to see
if everything was all right. They said a neighbor heard
a scream.
to see his vulture eye. It was open – wide, wide open.
And then I noticed one other thing. I heard a low,
quick sound. It was the beating of the old man’s
5 ____________ !
B I pulled the 2 ____________ I was sitting on across
the floor to cover the noise, but the sound continued
to grow louder and louder. Was it possible that they
did not hear anything? I must scream or die! I finally
cried out “I admit it, I killed him! See, look under
the floor!”
G I was quiet but a neighbor could possibly hear
the beating heart! The old man’s hour had come!
I screamed, jumped into the room and took the old
man from the 6 ____________ . I then put it on
top of him.
H Every night about midnight I went to see him. But
the eye was always closed so I couldn’t do the job.
Then on the eighth night he must have heard me,
because he suddenly cried out – “Who’s there?”
C For many minutes the heart beat on and then it
stopped. The 3 ____________ was dead. His eye
would trouble me no more.
D I didn’t have anything against the old man. I think it
must have been his 4 ____________ ! Slowly I was
beginning to make up my mind to take the life of the old
man so that I wouldn’t have to see the eye anymore.
I But I started to feel strange and I wished they
would leave. My head ached, and I heard a ringing
in my 7 ____________ . But then I realized that
the noise was not in my ears. The noise increased.
Why aren’t the policemen leaving?
E I told them it was me who had screamed – a bad
dream. The old man? He left for the country. I was
confident and asked them to have a rest and we all
sat down. They smiled and started to chat about
normal things.
J I was wise enough to hide the body. I cut off
the head, the arms and the legs, and hid them all
under the floor in the room. When I finished it was
four o’clock – still dark. At that point there was
a knocking on the front 8 ____________ .
F I knew he had been lying awake since the first small
noise. His fears had been growing inside him. I tried
T This exercise has the same structure as Part Three
NO SMALL JOB (CD Track 17 Bridge, p. 8)
of Listening in the Maturita exam.
Listen to the rest of Mary’s story and fill in the missing words for questions 1–5.
Do not use more than three words. The first one is done as an example (0).
Mary came to teach English to Prague in (0) 1995.
According to one of the department heads, the reason
for not having internet access was that it was
(3) ________________ .
Mary’s former colleague brought her a 15-year-old
(4) ________________ .
The man that Mary saw digging was next to
the (5) ________________ building.
The English department had one PC for all
the (1) ________________ .
The internet became more common in the Czech
Republic after about (2) ________________ years.
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Fashion Dialogue (CD Track 18, Bridge pp. 16-17)
Listen to the dialogue between Susan and her mum about clothing habits.
Fill in the words you hear and see if you remember the fashion vocabulary from the magazine.
Mum: Oh no! Susan, do you really want to
go to school like that? You look as if you just
(1) _________________ whatever you found in your
closet!
Susan: Mum, I’m going to school, not a fashion
show! Besides, this looks cool, I don’t want to dress
(2) _________________ .
Mum: You should be careful someone might call
the fashion police!
Susan: Don’t you (3) _________________ ? This
look is totally “in” right now! Orange dots and green
stripes are great and they go well with the colour of my
skin!
Mum: But why are you wearing black tights? It all looks
as if you just came out of the circus!
Susan: Don’t worry. Trends change so fast
I won’t be wearing this style for long. Who knows,
maybe next seasons school uniforms will be
the (4) _________________ !
SONGS
Nine Million Bicycles by Katie Melua (CD Track 19, Bridge p. 10 )
T VOCABULARY CHECK – OPPOSITES
First, try to fill in the opposites of the words in brackets.
Then listen and check your answers according to what you hear.
There are nine million bicycles in Beijing*
That’s a (1) ________ (fiction)
It’s a thing we can’t (2) ________ (admit)
Like the fact that I will love you till I (3) ________ (live)
We are twelve billion* light years from the (4) ________ (centre),
That’s a guess,
No-one can ever say it’s (5) ________ (false)
But I know that I will always be with you.
I’m (6) ________ (chilled) by the fire of your love everyday
So don’t call me a liar,
Just believe everything that I say
SOLUTIONS
The Tell-Tale Heart:
I. 1H, 2M, 3L, 4C, 5J, 6E, 7G, 8N, 9A, 10B,
11O, 12D, 13K, 14F, 15I
II. 1 policemen, 2 chair, 3 old man, 4 eye,
5 heart, 6 bed, 7 ears, 8 door
III. The correct order: D, H, F, G, C, J, A, E, I, B
No Small Job
1 teachers, 2 six/6, 3 (too) expensive, 4 Apple
Macintosh, 5 (old) university
Fashion Dialogue
1 mixed-and-matched, 2 conservatively,
3 follow trends, 4 hottest fashion
Katie Melua
1 fact, 2 deny, 3 die, 4 edge, 5 true,
6 warmed, 7 small, 8 high, 9 night
There are six billion people in the world
More or less
And it makes me feel quite (7) ________ (big)
But you’re the one I love the most of all
Tír na nÓg
I. 1D, 2A, 3E, 4C, 5B
II. 1G, 2F, 3D, 4A, 5E, 6C, 7B
EXAM TIME
LOWER LEVEL
Part Four: 1C, 2B, 3B, 4C
HIGHER LEVEL
Part Four: 1A, 2D, 3B, 4F, 5G, not used: C, E
We’re (8) ________ (low) on the wire*
With the world in our sight
And I’ll never tire,
Of the love that you give me every (9) ________ (day)
TOEFL Junior
Listening Comprehension Section
1A, 2D, 3D,4B, 5B, 6A, 7B, 8C, 9B, 10A, 11C,
12A, 13B,14C, 15C, 16A, 17D
26D, 27D, 28B, 29A, 30C, 31A, 32C
There are nine million bicycles in Beijing…
Glossary*
Beijing – sometimes called Peking, it is the capital of the People’s Republic of China
billion – a number equal to 1,000 million
wire – may refer to a high wire, like in the circus when an acrobat walks on a rope high
above the crowds
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Language Form and Meaning Section
1B, 2C, 3D, 4A, 5B, 6D, 7C, 8D, 9B, 10D, 11B,
12A, 13D
18B, 19C, 20A, 21B, 22D, 23A, 24B, 25D
Reading Comprehension Section
1D, 2C, 3A, 4D, 5B, 6B, 7C, 8A, 9C, 10A, 11B
Donald, Where’s Your Troosers by Tír na nÓg (CD Track 20, Bridge pp. 20–21)
I. The song contains some Scottish and slang words in bold.
Try to match them with their English meaning according to the context.
1 troosers
A girls
2 lassies
B can’t
3 afeared
C I didn’t have
4 I nae had
D trousers
5 canna
Eafraid
Glossary*
kilt – a knee-length skirt worn by men in Scotland
slippery – able to cause something to slide or fall, like ice or a wet floor
to put the brakes on somebody – to block someone’s activities, to cause
someone to stop doing something; brakes – Scottish word for trousers
to get afright – to be shocked
II. Listen to the Scottish song and match the sentences in italics with the picture that best describes them.
Just went down from the Isle of Skye
(1) I’m not very big but I’m awfully shy
The ladies shout as I go by
Donald where’s your troosers?
A
B
Chorus:
Let the wind blow high,
Let the wind blow low
(2) Through the streets in my kilt* I go
All the lassies say hello
Donald where’s your troosers?
Went down to a fancy ball
And it was slippery* in the hall
(3) I was afeared that I might fall
‘Cause I nae had on troosers
D
Chorus
(4) They’d like to wed me everyone
Just let them catch me if they can
You canna put the brakes on* a highland man
Who doesn’t like wearing troosers.
C
Chorus
To wear the kilt is my delight,
It isn’t wrong, I know it’s right.
The highlanders would get afright*
(5) If they saw me in me troosers.
Chorus
(6) Well, I caught a cold and me nose was raw
I had no handkerchief at all
(7) So I hiked up my kilt and I gave it a blow,
Now you can’t do that with troosers.
G
Chorus
Let the wind blow high,
Let the wind blow low,
Through the streets in my kilt I go
All the people in the house say yo
Donald where’s your troosers?
F
E
All the lovely ladies …………
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