Football: Making predictions

Transcription

1 Football: Making predictions In this lesson: Talking about football and sports in general Exaggerations Talking about your abilities Making future plans Synonyms for good/bad Conversation techniques Discussion Which country do you usually think of when you hear these sports? Discuss with a partner. Basketball 100m Sprint Ice hockey Rugby Cricket Ice Skating Football Tennis Judo Table Tennis Exaggerating When we want to emphasise how good or bad something is, we use a number of techniques. Often we use an adverb with a strong adjective: I can t/don t even Football? I m completely useless at it! I can t even kick in a straight line! Basketball? No, I m absolutely terrible at it! I don t even know how to play it! Translate these sentences into your own language, and then back into English. What are the differences between the original English and the translated English? Complete these sentences so they are true for you: I don t even know how to! I can t even I don t even know when! Now write questions that would make you say these sentences. For example:

2 When are you going to get married? Ha! I don t even know when I ll find a girlfriend! Put these adjectives into categories meaning good or bad Terrible Awful Useless Fantastic Superb Tremendous Atrocious Garbage Rubbish Wonderful Great Good at Bad at We can also take a quality of someone/thing and make it sound more interesting by not speaking realistically. Fast? He could run a marathon in a minute! Boring? Half of the crowd fell to sleep halfway through the match! Smart? He s smarter than a brain surgeon! To say we were good at something, we don t usually exaggerate. We use hedging phrases like quite. Put these sentences in order. 1. I m bad at not too 2. I OK I m at think 3. Good at quite I m 4. Used to be I now but I good quite at 5. I m Lionel Messi but can it do OK. Now ask a partner about their abilities in different sports/activities. Use the question: Are you any good at (playing guitar/basketball?) If you like football, who do you think the best footballer/football team in the world are? Debate with your partner.

3 Football He tends to get sent off every so often, he s a violent player and is always causing injuries. It was a tight game. Neither team were dominant, so the score line was a fair one. Come on ref! He hardly touched him! That s a blatant dive! He s absolutely rubbish! He s let another one in! He s got no hand-eye coordination The game s fixed. The ref s made bad decisions in every game. We ve won almost all our games this season. We deserve to get promoted. After a dismal display at Wembley, the club decided to sack the manager. He s really greedy. He can score bags of goals but he never wants to pass. I think he s hurt. He s being seen by the medical team after that tackle. (adapted from Outcomes Upper-intermediate) Could any of the words here be used for other sports? What do you think the words in bold mean? Are there any you could use to describe something in another part of life? Discussion Who is your favourite sportsperson? Why do you like them? Why do you think football is so popular? Who do you think is going to win the World Cup/Olympics?

4 Making predictions Lexical dictation I m not really sure who s going to win the cup this year. There are some very good teams in the mix. Spain have been good over the last few years, but I think their time is coming to and end and Germany and Argentina will outshine them. I think Germany have a balanced squad this year. They play fairly and are well organised. Brazil, of course, are bound to be favourites. They are playing in front of a home crowd, they ll be used to the climate and they have some excellent players. As for my team, England, I m quietly optimistic. I don t think we will win it, but I like that this year, we are dark horses. I think the USA might surprise a few people this year too, they are underdogs to qualify from their group but they managed to surprise England a few years ago! Find a: Compound verb + preposition = be better than someone Adjective + noun = A team with the right amount of different abilities. Adjective + preposition = Certain to Verb + preposition + noun phrase = an advantage for a sports team A phrase = An advantage Brazil have over every other team Adverb + adjective = A feeling about the chance of something An idiom (adjective + noun) = unexpected to win A noun = Unexpected to win When we have a feeling/intuition/idea that something will happen we often use will. We don t usually have evidence for this, we just rely on our feelings. Germany are good, but I have a feeling about Spain this year, I think they ll win. I don t think it ll be a good game. (I have no reason for thinking this, just my feeling) When we have some kind of evidence for what will happen, we use going to + verb England haven t been playing very well. They re 3 rd in the group. I don t think they re going to qualify for the next round. Oh, I think I m going to be sick. (I feel a pain in my stomach, and therefore, I think I am going to be sick).

5 Correct the mistakes in the sentences. England s players going to be very tired in the Brazilian heat. They re going to sweat buckets! Russia will beaten most of the teams in their group. The other teams couldn t score if you paid them! He runs like the wind! He s go to be a huge star! Brazil are not training hard because they are goes to play at home. Germany s fans is going to be the loudest in the stadium. The can sing the roof off! Other ways of making predictions Here are some other phrases that we can use to make predictions about the future. Choose the correct word in each of the sentences below. Brazil are bound to/not very likely to win. The team has lots of superstars. I bet / I doubt Spain will beat France. They are a much stronger team. I doubt / I think it s likely that the USA will qualify for the next round Ghana might / won t surprise everyone. They are very underrated. England might / will probably beat Spain. It s no unheard of! There s no way / I m unlikely that Italy are going to lose to Costa Rica Underline the expressions that show you think: Something will definitely happen You re not sure what might happen Something definitely won t happen. Tournament prediction game

6 See Vs Imagine Use see + imagine to talk about your predictions of the future. You can add a pronoun (myself, yourself, herself) to talk about future you. Examples: I imagine Brazil beating Germany. I can t see myself working in a supermarket all my life. Choose the correct verb form: How do you imagine life changing/will change in the next 20 years? Who do you see scoring /score the most goals in the World Cup? What do you see yourself do/doing in 10 years time? Can you see your team doing/will do very well?

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