Progress Check - LAUGHTER AND SENSE OF HUMOUR / HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS

Listening Comprehension

Listen to an interview with a famous male model, Channing Tatum, and answer the questions below.

  Interview

[brak pliku dzwiekowego]

Adapted from: Channing Tatum: Relentless http://www.modellaunch.com/face/article.php?id=Channing_Tatum&pg=2 dostęp: 15.08.2006

• Ćwiczenie 1 aqm

Reading Comprehension

Read the text about Australian sense of humour. Answer the questions below the text:

Australian Humour

Australian humour is often upside down. For instance, Australians love calling a tall man "Shorty", a silent one "Rowdy", a bald man "Curly", and a redhead is "Blue".
Australian humour may also be directed towards one racial group. For example, Australians of Greek extraction occasionally talk about their upbringing; they get nostalgic when they remember their mothers teaching them how to put on their underwear - yellow at the front and brown at the back, or how their fathers gave them gold chains so they would know where to stop shaving.
Irony is also common at a national level. During the opening of the Sydney Olympics, an obviously drunk Governor General, Sir William Deane, pronounced "Sa-sa-Sydney" and then knocked over the microphone. It was a shameful performance and most countries would have been scared that the world would have thought they were being led by a buffoon!! However, most Australians just found it funny, and even made jokes that if the Governor was fired for being drunk on the job, he may have a career as a rap singer.
When Australia was still a British colony, the ability to make a policeman laugh was so important that it could save lives. An important example of such a sense of humour was a convict of African extraction called Billy Blue. Billy had an old military uniform, a hat and a repertoire of jokes. So much did the authorities like him that they 'believed' that he was not an alcohol smuggler, but just kept finding bottles floating in Sydney harbour. Billy said that he had been stopped before he had had a chance to report it to the police.
When full-figured cricket player Shane Warne was found guilty of using a banned medication, he claimed that he was just trying to lose weight to look good for the cameras. He even threw in a few fat jokes, for example, that he was tired of being teased about having "more chins than a Chinese phonebook." Instead of being given the standard two-year suspension, Shane was only banned for one year. Don’t the Australians have a sense of humour?
Adapted from: Australian Humour http://www.convictcreations.com/culture/comedy.htm dostęp: 15.08.2006

• Ćwiczenie 2 aqm
• Ćwiczenie 3 aqm

Use of English

• Ćwiczenie 4 aqm

Write suitable questions to the answers given below by Gilbert Moore, a writer:

Your question	Answer
........................	Not really, I was born in Chicago, but my family moved to New York when I was seven.
........................	I started writing “The Thanksgiving Story” because I loved the holiday.
........................	Yes, I won three awards for this book.
........................	I am working on a collection of short stories about New York.
........................	I don’t know at the moment. I’ll think about it when the collection is finished.

Przykładowe odpowiedzi:

Your question	Answer
You were born in New York, weren’t you?	Not really, I was born in Chicago, but my family moved to New York when I was seven.
Why did you write “The Thanksgiving Story”?	I started writing “The Thanksgiving Story” because I loved the holiday.
You have won three awards for it, haven’t you?	Yes, I won three awards for this book.
What are you working on now?	I am working on a collection of short stories about New York.
What are your plans for the future?	I don’t know at the moment. I’ll think about it when the collection is finished.

Situational English

• Ćwiczenie 5 aqm

The following expressions have been removed from the scary story about Halloween below. Read the story carefully and decide where the expressions were originally:

1. called
2. gets
3. had
4. had finished
5. had gone
6. is
7. realized
8. was actually going
9. was going
10. will

The wife [1]_________ making the dinner, the husband had finished washing the car, and the two children had finished their homework. The wife yelled, "Dinner [2]_________ ready. Come and get it before it [3]_________ cold." It was Halloween and everybody [4]_________ to parties to have fun and dance until they couldn't anymore. The husband and wife [5]_________ plans to go to a party also. When the family had almost finished eating dinner, somebody knocked on the door. "That's odd," said the husband," It's still daylight." He got his bowl of candy and went to open the door. When he opened the door, he was horrified to see a crazy-looking man in ragged clothes waving a chainsaw in his face and yelling, "I [6]_________ kill you all." The children ran up the stairs and into their rooms. The wife [7]_________ the police. Later at the police station, the officers asked the strange man why he [8]_________ to that house wanting to slaughter the family. The guy [9]_________ he had gone to the wrong house. The supposedly "crazed killer" [10]_________ to a costume party and just got the address wrong.

Adapted from:Warphead.com http://www.warphead.com/modules/news/index.php?storytopic=2 dostep: 15.08.2006

• Ćwiczenie 6 aqm