Spoken English Intermediate

Module 2

Grammar Syntax

By the end of this task you should be more aware of a few collocations and
types of sentences in the context of sports. You will use this information to
make a short presentation about a famous sport personality.

Task 1: Look at the pictures and write the name of the sport. (4 min)

1. __Tennis________________________

2. _____Swimming________________________

3. ___Archery_______________________________

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4. _skiing______________________

5.__gymnastics______________________________

6. _Golf_________________________

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7. surfing______________________________

8. __Cricket______________________________

9. ___Boxing___________________________

Check your answers here.

Task 2: When we talk about playing these sports, we use one of these three
words: ‘play’, ‘do’ and ‘go’. An example is given below. Similarly, try to figure
out which word to use for the sports given in Task 1. (5 min)
E.g., 1. Tennis – play tennis

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Grammar Syntax

2. go swimming
3. do Archery
4. go skiing
5.do gymnastics
6.play golf
7.go surfing
8.play cricket
9.do boxing

Once you’ve finished, you can check the answers here.

Food for thought: (3 min)

Sometimes, we use a group of two or more words that usually go together as in ‘go’ and ‘running.’
to say ‘go running’. We do not say ‘do running’ because these words don’t collocate with each
other i.e., they don’t sound correct together. These words or phrases are called collocations.

Go is generally used for sports and activities ending in –ing (but not always).
E.g., "Let's go skiing this winter."

Do is generally used for individual sports and fighting sports.

"My son can do Judo."

Play is generally used for team sports, games and ball games.
"Who wants to play soccer with me?"

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 Spoken English Intermediate
Module 2

Grammar Syntax

Task 3: Click this link to take a quiz. Fill in the blanks with the correct form of
the word. (5 min)

Check for the answers in the last page.

Are you clause-trophobic? (4 min)

What is a clause? Consider the example Tommy goes running every day to keep himself fit. Let’s
split this sentence into two parts. 1) Tommy goes running every day. 2) to keep himself fit. Which
one of these two is a complete sentence that talks about a whole idea? Yes, you’re right. The
answer is 1, which is why it’s called as the main clause. The second one is a subordinate clause.
Remember! Remember!
If a sentence has one main clause, it’s a simple sentence. If it has a main clause and one or more
subordinate clauses, it’s a complex sentence. If a sentence has two or more main clauses, then
it’s a compound sentence.
Task 4: Read the sentences below. Find out what type of sentences they are.
(simple / compound / complex) Write your answers in the brackets. (5 min)

For Example
1. Tommy goes running every day. (simple)
2. Tommy goes running every day to keep himself fit. (complex)

1. Bethany Hamilton is a champion surfer who lost her left arm in a shark attack. (complex)
2. Roger Federer has won 19 Grand Slam singles titles. (simple.)
3. Though Bethany lost her arm, she did not stop surfing. (complex.)
4. A large building in which sports or entertainments take place is called a pavilion. (complex.)
5. Roger Federer is a tennis star and he is the founder of Roger Federer Foundation
(compound.)

Did you note? (3 min)

While doing Task 4, did you notice that certain words get added when we add more ideas to a
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 Spoken English Intermediate
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Grammar Syntax

sentence? Take sentence 1 for example. There are two whole

ideas mentioned in the sentence. 1) Bethany Hamilton is a
champion surfer. 2) She lost her left arm in a shark attack. The
word ‘who’ has been added to combine the two ideas to say it
together. We do this to explain longer thoughts, complicated
ideas or to describe a long chain of events. Some similar words that we use to combine ideas are:
because, after, before, but, so, who, that, where, when, which, though, and, etc.

Task 5: Look at the sentences given below. Combine the ideas together in a
single sentence and write your answers. (10 min)

E.g., Tommy goes running every day. He wants to keep himself fit.
Tommy goes running every day because he wants to keep himself fit

1. Sachin Tendulkar is considered one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket who
is the youngest person and the first sportsman to be conferred the Bharat Ratna
award,which is India's highest civilian honour.
2. Oscar Pistorious had both his legs amputated when he was only 11 months old who is
the first amputee to compete in the Olympics.
3. Mira Rai is a trail runner who is Nepal’s first female sports star and she was awarded the
Adventurer of the Year 2017 by National Geography.
4. Mira Rai stopped running because she had a knee surgery.
5. This is a stadium which is where the audience sit and watch the game.

Task 6: (5 minutes)
Listen to the audio about of David Beckham and answer the following
questions. Use headphones for better clarity. Click this link to listen to the
audio.

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1. Who is David Beckham?

______________________________________________________
2. What is his nationality?
______________________________________________________
3. When did he start playing professional football?
______________________________________________________
4. Is Beckham famous for anything other than playing football? If yes, what is it?
________________________________________________________
5. What other word for football is used in the audio?
______________________________________________________________________________

6. What is the audio about?

______________________________________________________________________________

Task 7: Listen to the audio again and write down the different events that
happened in Beckham’s life with the time they happened
in the correct order. Use the chart below. The first one is
done as an example. (10 min)

Event 1 - Event 2 Event 3 Event 4 Event 5

Birth
•May
2,1975
•London,
England

Task 8: (5 minutes)
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 Spoken English Intermediate
Module 2

Grammar Syntax

You’ve come to the last step of the lesson. Prepare a biographical speech for
five minutes about a famous sports personality. Try to use collocations,
compound and complex sentences. Record it using http://vocaroo.com/ and
post the link in edmodo.

You’ve come to the end of today’s lesson! You’ve completed all the tasks!
Well done! 

Also, fill out this learning outcome sheet and keep track of what you’ve learnt.

References:

©https://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/lessons/go-do-play-sports-collocations
© http://englishsentences.com/compound-complex-sentence/
© http://www.nationalgeographic.com/
© https://www.biography.com/
© http://dictionary.cambridge.org/

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