er the following activities:

Listen to the speakers describing their favourite things and do the exercises to practise and improve your listening skills.

1. Preparation: matching

Do this exercise before you listen. Match the verb with the correct noun and write a – g next to the numbers 1 – 7.

1…e….. take                                                                                       a. a designer

2…g….. listen to                                                                                b. your scooter

3…d….. watch                                                                                   c. a business

4…f….. stroke (= move your hand gently over something)         d. films

5…b….. park                                                                                      e. photos

6…a….. make it as (= be successful as)                                         f. the cat

7……c.. set up (= start)                                                                    g. music

2. Check your understanding: matching

Match the speakers with their favourite things. Write a – e next to the numbers 1 – 5.

1……a.. Speaker                   A a. a tablet

2……e.. Speaker                   B b. a sewing machine

3……c. Speaker                   C c. a scooter

4……b.. Speaker                   D d. a set of knives

5……d.. Speaker                   E e. a cat

3. Check your understanding: gap fill

Do this exercise while you listen. Write the word to fill the gaps.

A. My favourite thing has to be my new tablet. It’s really light and quite _small____________, so I take it with me everywhere. I’m always writing to friends and it’s big enough to do college work on it too. It takes really good __photos___________, and I play games and listen to __music___________ on it as well, of course. I often download ____films_________ onto it, and watch them in _bed____________. My mum says I’m __adicted__________, because I’m always on it. I even read things on it at breakfast time. I’m not allowed to at _____dinner________ time, though. I have to be ________polite_____ and talk to people then. “Welcome back to real life,” my mum says.

B. My favourite thing? Does my ___cat__________ count as a thing? She’s not really a thing, but anyway. She’s a really _____beautiful________ little cat. I’ve had her since she was __four___________ months old. You know how some cats are really ___independed_______ and hardly talk to you? I know cats don’t really talk, but you know what I mean. Well, she’s not like that at all. She’s really _______affectionat______ and comes up to me as soon as I get home, purring away like mad. She makes a lot of ____noice_________ for a tiny thing. She loves being stroked and comes and curls up next to me when I’m on the ________sofa_____. She’s great _____company________.

C. My new scooter! It’s quite small, but____fun______, and just what I needed for getting around the _____city________. I used to have quite a longwalk to the __metro___________, then a longish walk at the other end to get to _______college______. But now I can just whiz there on my _scooter____________. And there’s no problem parking, there’s always ___space_________ for it. You have to be __careful___________ with the cars and ___lorries__________ – they don’t always see you – and when it rains the surface of the road is ______terrible_______, it gets really slippery. But in general it’s perfect for me, and I can fit a _____friend________ on the back too – I’ve got an extra _____helmet________ for a friend. It’s great. Riding along makes me feel so free.

D. This might sound a bit old-fashioned, but my sewing ______machine_______ is my favourite thing. I’m studying _____fashion_______ and love making things, as well as designing them. I also love _____________ myself and often buy second-hand clothes – everyone loves the “vintage” _____________ at the moment – and then I adapt them to my _____________. It’s much easier using a machine to do that than doing it by _____________. I do alterations for my mum and my sister too. If I don’t make it as a _____________, I suppose I can always set up my own alterations and customising _____________. Customising clothes, by taking things off and adding things on, is actually very _____________, so I wouldn’t mind that.

E. My set of Japanese knives. That sounds a bit sinister, doesn’t it, but I’m not a _____________ or anything. They’re chef’s knives and the best ones come from _____________. Cooking is my new hobby. I got into it when I started watching Masterchef on TV. Then I went to an evening _____________ for

beginners, and I haven’t looked back since. I try and have a _____________ for between four and eight_____________ every two or three _____________. That gives me something to work towards and I

always do new _____________ so they can try them out and give me feedback. It’s quite an_____________ hobby if you use good _____________, but now my friends help towards the_____________. They still get a good _____________ for a very low price.

4- What’s your favourite thing?

5- Why is it important to you?

6- Vocabulary Box: Write any new words you have learnt in this lesson.