Unit 5 (City and space)

Activities 1: which places can you name in a town?

A library lends books; a bookshop sells them. A bus stop is a place where a bus stops; a bus station is usually a larger transport place. Keep the two words in bus stop. A street is a road with buildings along it. A bin is a container for rubbish. Learn the plural spellings libraries, cities and buses. A town is generally smaller than a city, but this language lesson does not set a legal population limit.

How do you use there is and there are?

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There’s means there is. Isn’t and aren’t are common negative contractions. Say There are two parks rather than There is two parks in careful written work. Use a/an with a singular countable place: a hospital, an airport. Use some for an unspecified positive plural and any in common questions or negative plural statements: There are some shops. Are there any shops? There aren’t any shops.

How is there different from it?

Practice 1: how do you read prepositions on a town map?

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Use this invented Palm Street layout throughout the map tasks. Across the upper row, from left to right, are the library, school and bank. Across the lower row are the park, cinema and hospital. The road separates the two rows. The library faces the park, the school faces the cinema and the bank faces the hospital. This written description gives the same information as the picture.

Next to is more precise than near. Opposite does not mean next to: the road separates the facing places. Between needs two reference points in this pattern, joined by and. For in front of and behind, identify which side of the building is its front. The Palm Street picture has no bus stop or garden, so the last examples introduce separate scenes rather than hidden map features.

How do you ask politely for a location?

Start with Excuse me, then ask Where is the library, please? A useful answer names a nearby landmark: It is next to the school, opposite the park. End with Thank you. If you miss a word, ask Can you repeat, please? If you mean several places, change the verb: Where are the shops? They are near the park.

A location tells someone where a place is; directions tell them how to get there. For a simple directions extension, learn go straight on, turn left and turn right. Check the starting point and facing direction before using left or right. The Palm Street tasks ask for relative locations, so an answer such as opposite the bank is sufficient without inventing a route.

Activities 2: what vocabulary describes space?

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In ordinary English, space here means the region beyond Earth’s atmosphere; it does not mean an empty space in a classroom. Earth is a planet and the Sun is a star. The Moon is Earth’s natural satellite; a satellite with solar panels in this illustration is artificial. Say an astronaut because astronaut begins with a vowel sound. The picture is a vocabulary board, so the objects are not drawn to the same scale.

Use familiar grammar to talk about jobs and routines

Use does + base verb for one person: Does he work? He does not work. Use do + base verb for several people: Do they work? They do not work. In a positive statement, he works takes s. For a scene happening now, use be + ing: The astronaut is working. An exercise may contain went or worked in a short past account; went means travelled or moved in the past, and worked is the past of work. Use the time clues in the account.

Practice 2: sort words and connect ideas

Reading: Nabil’s science-club message

Hello Adam, our science club meets at the library on Wednesday. The library is next to our school. The park is opposite the library. There are two small shops near the park, but there is not a bookshop in our street. I usually walk to the club because my home is near the school. This week we are making a space poster. I am drawing Earth and the Moon. Hamza is drawing an astronaut and an artificial satellite. We are not building a real rocket. Would you like to join us? Please bring a pencil and a notebook. Your friend, Nabil.

Read it once for the purpose: Nabil invites a friend to a science club. Read again to locate the meeting place, day, nearby places and drawing tasks. Repeating the word library makes the park’s landmark clear. Distinguish a stated negative from missing information: the text says there is no bookshop in the street; it says nothing about a hospital.

Listen, locate and explain

Partner-read script: There is a museum in my town. It is next to the library. There are three cafés opposite the museum. There is not a bus stop in front of the museum. The science room has a picture of an astronaut. Ask a partner to read slowly while you record the place beside the museum, the number of cafés and the missing transport place. Listen a second time, then compare notes with the script. The museum scene is separate from the Palm Street map.

Review: write about your town in 50–75 words

Draw a small map with four or five places first. Introduce your town or an invented neighbourhood. Write one there is sentence, one there are sentence and two location sentences. Add a personal routine or opinion with because. Keep the paragraph connected: introduce a place before referring to it with it or they.

Self-check: match is with one place and are with plural places. Check library versus bookshop, between … and …, and does + base verb. Explain one picture to a partner without pointing; a clear answer should still identify the place. Exit task: ask an existence question, locate the cinema on Palm Street and name one difference between a planet and a star.