Exercise 1

you have received a letter from your english-speaking pen-friend barrie who writes:

…at school we play rugby and basketball. could you tell me what sport games you and your classmates play?
as for my family news, my sister jane entered oxford university…

write a letter to barrie.

in your letter:

answer his questions
ask 3 questions about his sister jane
write 100—140 words.

remember the rules of letter writing.

exercise 2

read the sentences and put the verbs into the correct form.

sue needed to borrow some money. she tried gerry, but he was short of money too. (ask)
my grandmother isn’t able to look after herself any more. she needs after. (look)
if you don’t remind me my sister, i’ll forget about it again. (phone)
they were talking very loudly. i couldn’t help what they said. (overhear)
i didn’t want at first, but sally persuaded me for the job. (apply)
what are the advantages of a car? (have)
our team lost the game despite well. (play)
it was a difficult question . (answer)
having a car enables you around more easily. (get)
did you get into trouble for late ? (be)

exercise 3

fill in the gaps (1-6) with the missing sentences (a-g). there is one extra sentence.

mark: hi, sorie. talking about money, do you worry about money?

sorie: yes, i do. 1) and i’m not saving any money at the moment. and i have friends around me that are already saving up for their retirement. i’m 27 years old right now and i’m not sure if i should be concerned or not. are you concerned?

mark: well, what kind of options are there? how would you want to save up?

sorie:

mark: because you don’t have any money?

sorie: yeah, the present is plenty to think of. 3) do you have any recommendations at how i could do it?

mark: well, national pension plan or kind of put a little bit aside every week or forget about it. you’re only 27.

sorie: yeah. it’s very interesting, you know, because i know some people that instead of having a retirement plan, they decided to have a lot of kids and have their kids pay for them when they grow up and they get older. so that may be an option for me.

mark: yeah. and from where from also, that’s kind of the norm perhaps.

sorie: yeah, that’s right. how about you?

mark: yeah, i’m a bit older than you and i don’t have a pension plan either.

sorie: the time will come though.

mark: the time will come and the more i think about, the more we talk about it, it’s definitely something to be considering. but it’s interesting in national pension plan, isn’t it because what if we leave? 5) and then we move to another country.

sorie: so as an international person, it’s difficult to commit to a national pension because you don’t know where you’re going to end up, right?

mark: exactly.

sorie: that’s what you’re saying, i see.

mark: so if that was the case, it would seem that putting a little bit away every month or every week personally in an account would be a good idea.

sorie: and are you committed, like, can you do that every month? can you?

mark: 6) yeah, but it’s interesting that i haven’t considered such things. and now when we consider it and realize how important it is, it’s probably a good thing to be considering.

sentences:

a. i haven’t got my head around the future yet.

b. i would be nervous to lend a close friend money because it can sometimes affect friendship.

c. well, first of all, right now, i don’t have the option to save for retirement.

d. but i’m not quite so worried about it right now.

e. what if we won’t live in this country anymore, we had to move to another country and then we work there a little bit.

f. yeah, i think i can do that.

g. i especially worry about the future, about my retirement plan.

exercise 4

look at the text from exercise 3. find there 3 options to save for retirement. write them down:





which of the ideas seems the best for you? record your answer (audio or video). speak at least for 1 minute. support your answer with examples (you can find some for-and-against ideas in the text). make full sentences.

don’t forget to say about:

the importance of saving money for future;
the advantage and disadvantage of each option;
which one seems the best for you and why.