Week One

Introduction

In the first part of unit twelve, we will deal with damages. You will learn some words for describing the damage and listen to some conversations. Then you will describe damages and say why things were damaged.

Outcomes:

After this unit, you should be able to:

• describe a damage

• explain the reason for a damage

Tasks and Dates

This unit consists of five activities. In the first activity you will revise some words describing damages and look for their definitions.

In the second activity you will listen to two people explaining what happened to their vehicles.

Then you will look at the vocabulary again and divide them into verbs and adjectives.

In the fourth activity you will speak about three machines and explain how they can be damaged.

Finally you will imagine that you had your friend’s motorbike and it was damaged. You will describe the damage to the owner.

Activity One

1) Study the words below, then check your progress in quiz 1.1 - damages

blunt - not sharp
tangle - an untidy mass of things that are not in a state of order
scratch - to cut or damage a surface slightly with or on something sharp or rough
chip - to break a small piece off something by accident
flat - it does not contain enough air

tear - to pull or be pulled apart, or to pull pieces off
stain - to become covered with marks
crease - to become, or cause something to become full of folds that are not equal in size
jammed - unable to move
dent - to make a small hollow mark in the surface of something
clog - to (cause something to) become blocked
scorch - to burn slightly
bend - to (cause to) curve
rusty - covered with rust
crack - to break something so that it does not separate, but very thin lines appear on its surface
distort - to change something from its usual, original, natural or intended condition or shape

Activity Two

1) Listen to two conversations about some things that have gone wrong. Make notes of what has been damaged.

• Conversations

2) Listen again complete the missing words in quiz 1.2 - Listening.

Activity Three

Some of the words in exercise 2 are adjectives but most of them are verbs. Change the verbs to adjectives. Write all the verbs in one column and the adjectives in the other one. Study the example below and then complete this activity in quiz "1.3 - verbs and adjectives".

verb	adjective
chip	chipped
blunt	blunt

Activity Four

  1) Read and remember how and when to use the three verbs.

GO, GET, BECOME Get and become are used before adjectives to describe changes. Get is more often used in spoken and informal language than become. Go is used to talk about changes for worse. The tyres went flat.

2) Complete the sentences below with get or go + an adjective from Activity Three. Copy your sentence in to the FORUM 1.4

1) Make sure your car lights are off. The battery could …
2) Don´t leave your bicycle outside in the rain. The brakes could …
3) I don´t like parking my car in the city centre. I don´t want my car to …
4) These tools can only be used for cutting wood. If used for other harder materials they will...
5) Be careful when cleaning the windscreen wipers. They are made of a soft material and could …
6) If you park too close to another car your side mirror can …

3) Write down three things or machines. What do you think could happen to them? How could they be damaged? Use the adjectives from 5 to describe at least three kinds of damage to each item. Publish you answers in FORUM 1.5.

Activity Five

Imagine you borrowed your friend´s new motorbike. Unfortunately you had an accident and will call your friend to tell him/her about it. Say what has been damaged. Think of at least 8 problems. Write your sentences to FORUM 1.6.