G can, could, be able to

V -ed I -ing adjectives Can you

P sentence stress speak French? No, I'v e
never been able
to learn a f ore ig n
language.

1 GRAMMAR can, could, be able to

'if at first you don't succeed, tty, tty, tty ap,ain' is a
I've
a
well-known English sayi ng. What does it n1ean?

b More recently other people

have invented di fferent ways
of continuing the saying.
Which one do you like best?
een a e to ...
If at first you don't succeed ,
... give up
...blame your parents
... destroy all the evidence th at you t ried
---
... do it t he way your mother told you to
... skydiving is not for you

c Look at the defin ition of be able to. W hat other verb is

it sin1ilar to ?
be able to (do something) to have the ab il ity, o pportunity, tiine,
etc. ro do so1nerhing: Will you be able to come to the rneetinB 11ext \Veek?

d Read about three people v.rho have tried (but failed) to

learn son1eth ing, and complete the texts vvith A - G.
A I \vas able to
B lot being able to
C I just \.Yasn't able to
0 I \vi ii never be able to
E I \.VOu Id sudden ly be able to rea lly wanted to learn. Maybe it was because of that
scene in one of the very fr rst James Bond frl ms, w here a
F I've ahvavs , \.Vanted to be able to
beautifu l actress comes out of the sea l ook i n~ fabulous,
G \.Ve \.VOuld never be able to
w ith oxy~e n bottles on her back - I could see myself lookin~
e Read the article again. Why d id they have problerns? just li ke her. So, two years a~o I booked a ho liday w hich
Have they con1pletely given up trying? Have you ever included a week's intensive course. On the fr rst day of the
tried to learn son1ething and given up? \Vhy? course I was incredibly excited. First we had two ho urs of
th eory, and then we went into th e sea to put it into practice.
f Look at phrases A-G again. \Vhar tense or forrn is But as soon as I went under th e water I discovered tha t I
be able to in each one? W hat tenses or forn1s does can suffered f rom claustrophobia. 1 do it. After
have? about half an hour I ~ave up. Every even i n~ for the rest of
my holiday I had to listen to my sc u ba-div i n~ classmates
g >- p.138 Grammar Bank 4A. Learn n1ore about can, ta l k in~ about all the wonderful th i n~s they had seen that
could, and be able to, and practise them. day on th eir d ivin~ excursions. 2 join in the
conversa tion was very frustrat i n~.
11 >-Communicat ion Guess the sentence A p.105
B p.109. I still love sw i m min ~ and snorkel I in~. but I thi nk that I have
to accept lhat 3 scuba-d ive.

Bea, USA
 n .n
J1
n 2 PRONUNCIATION sentence stress
a (~ 3 6 l)) Listen and repeat the sentences . Copy the
rhythn1.

i I'dlove to be able t o ski.

2 we won't be able t o come .
...
3 I've never been able to dance.

il 4 She hates not being able to drive.

b 2 37 l)) Listen again. Make new sentences \Vith the

• verbs or verb phrases you hear.

l)) I'd love to be able to ski. Ride a horse
~ dance salsa, and when I was working in 0 love to be able to ride a horse.
Ecuador there were free classes, so I jo ined. Bui th e art of salsa
is to keep your arms still and move your hi ps, and I just couldn't >)) We won't be able to come. Park
do ii. When I hear music my arms start moving, but my hips
don't. After about ten hours of classes 5 do
0e won't be able to park.

the basic steps, but I was dancing like a robot! I didn't give
up, but soon everyone in th e cla ss was dancing and I was just 3 SPEAKING
slowly moving f rom sid e lo side and counting out loud 'one, two,
a Look at the topics. Choose t\·VO or th ree and th ink
th ree, fou r'. II was a bit embarrassing. I was sure that o ne day
6
about what you could say for then1.
do ii - but that never happened. I can still
remember th e fi rst two steps and I stil l try to dance when I hear ,-4.."I'-' .~
a salsa tune - as long as nobody is watchi ng! ---·-
Sean, UK

Something you've tried to learn, but have never been

able to do well.

.
Something you learnt to do af ter a lot of effort.
~

Something you can do, but you'd like t o be able t o

do better.
Somethi'!B_new that you would like t o be able t o do.
love Manga - Japanese comics - and I tried lo learn Japanese,
Something you are learning to do and tha t you hope you'll
but I fou nd ii incredi bly diffi cult and I gave up after two years.
I think orienta l languages, w hich have symbols instead of soon be able to do well.
word s, are extremely hard to learn for people who are more Something you think all young people should able to do
used to Roman letters. Also my teacher, a Japanese woman, before they leave school.
didn't speak Spanish very well, which didn't help' She was a
very charming woman, but she was a bit disappointed with us, b \Vork \Vith a partner. Tell h irn J her about the things
and you could see that she thought that 7 _ _ _ __ _ you chose i n a. Give reasons or explanations for each
learn. However, one day she invited us to dinner and gave us one.
some delicious trad itional Japanese food, and since then I often
go to Japanese restaurants. So I learnt to love the food, if not to ( '.'~~ never been able to ski, and now I don't think I'll ever learn.
~ays wanted to learn, but I don't live near mountains...
speak th e language!

Joaquin, Spain
 4 VOCABULARY -ed I -ing adjecti ves 5 READING & SPEAKING
a Do you know anybody who speaks more than two
/
languages? \ Vhich languages do they speak? !--low did they
le arn?

b '2, 8 9 >)) You are going to read an ar ticle about Alex Ra\~rlings,
\·v ho speaks 11 languages . Before you read, match the
la nguages belov.r \vith \vords 1- 11 . T hen Iis ten and check.
0 E nglish D Greek LJ Gern1an
D Spanish D Russian D Dutch
ITJ Afrikaans L French D I-Iebre\v
D Catalan L Italian
c Read the article. Which language(s) .. . ?
1 did he learn as a child
2 is be s tudying at universit y

a Look at the photo. Complete the sentences wit h 3 does he Iike best
bol'ed or bol'in&. 4 is he planning to learn next

1 The film was _ __

5 did he wish he had been a ble to speak when he was a chi ld
6 \vas the first one he taught hi 1nself
2 The audience were _ _ _
7 did he find the 1nost di fficu lt 1
j) -ed and -ing adjectives
Many adjectives for feelings have two possible
forms, eit her ending in -ed or in -ing, e.g. f rust rated
and frustrating .
We use t he adjective ending in -ed for the person
who has the feeling (I was very frustrated that I
He's English,
couldn't scuba-dive). We use t he adjective ending
in -ing for a person or situat ion t hat produces the
feeling (I couldn't join in the conversation, which
but he can speak
was very frustrating).
eleven languages
b Read th.e information box. T hen complete the
adjectives with -ed or -ing. lex Rawlings has been named the UK's most
1 What do you think is the most e xcit_ sport to
watch?
A multilingual student, in a competition run by a
dictionary publisher.
2 What's t he n1ost a m a z _ scenery you've ever The German and Russian student from London, who is
seen? only 20 years old, can speak 1 1 languages f luent ly. In a
3 \\That m usic do you listen to if you feel video fo r the BBC News website he demonst rated his skills
depress_ ? by speaking in all of them, changing quickly from one t o
4 Have you ever been disappoint_ by a anot her. Rawlings said t hat winning t he com petit ion was
birthday present? 'a bit of a shock'. He explained, 'I saw t he competition
s Which do you find more tir_ , speaking advertised and I heard something about a f ree iPad. I never
English or listening to English? imagined that it would generate this amount of media
attention.'
6 W hat's the n10St e mbarrass_ thing that's
ever happened to you? As a child, Rawlings' mother, who is half Greek, used to
speak to him in English , Greek, and French, and he often
7 Are you frig h ten _ of heights?
visit ed his family in Greece.
8 Do you feel very t ir_ in the nlorning? He said t hat he has always been int erest ed in languages.
9 Who's the n1oSt b or_ person you kno\v? 'My d ad worked in Japan for four years and I was always
10 Do you ever get fru str at_ by technology? frustrat ed that I cou ldn't speak to the k ids because of the
language ba rri er.' Af ter visiting Holland at the age of 14 he
c ~3 8 >)) Listen and check. U nderline the stressed
decided to learn Dutch with CDs and books. 'When I went
syllable in the adjectives.
back I could talk to people. It was great.'
d Ask a nd ans\ver the questions in pairs . Ask fo r
111o re information.

am
 d Look at the highligl1red words and p hrases related to e Read the grammar in for m ation box. Then complete
lang uage learning, and vvork out their rnea ning fron1 1-5 vvith a reflexive pronoun.
the context. Then ask and a nswer the q uestions with a
partner. }ID Reflexive pronouns
He t aught himself many of the languages with 'teach
1 Can you or anyone in your family speak another yourself' books.
language fluen tly? We use ref lexive pronouns (myself, yourself, himself,
2 Do you kno\v a ny basic p hrases in any other herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, t hemselves) when
la ng uages? t he object of a verb is t he same as t he subject, e.g. He
t aught himself Russian. = he was his own t eacher.
3 Do you have a person al link to a nother country or We also use reflexive pronouns to emphasize the subject
la ng uage? V/hy? of an action, e.g. We painted the kitchen ourselves.
4 Have yo u ever travelled to a nother country a nd felt th at
there \Vas a rea l language bar r ier:> 1 l always test on new vocabulary - it's a good
way to re1nen1 ber it.
5 W hat other la ng uages \vould you like to be able to
speak? W hy? 2 My u ncle bui lt the house . It took h i111 three
years.
3 3 T h is light is auto1n atic. It tu r ns ____ on and off.
4 D id you fix t he co1n puter ? \Veil done!
5 My sister's so vain ! Every ti rne she passes a n1irror, she
looks at in it!

6 LISTENING & SPEAKING

a 2J 40 l)) You're going to liste n to six advanced s tudents
of English g ivin g a ti p \vhich has h elped then1 to learn .
Listen once and co n1ple te t h eir tip . Then co mpare your
notes \Vith a par tner.

.· .,. TIP 1: Change t he language t o English on all

the you have, for example on

J
\W your ___, or _ __ , or _ __
"' I

TIP 2: Do t hings t hat you _ __

___ , but in English.

TIP 3: Try to find an English-speaking

___ or _ __
He taught himself many of the languages w it h 'teach
you rself' books. but also by watching f ilms, listening to
TIP 4: Get a ______ app for
music, and t ravelling to t he countries t hemselves . your phone.
Of all the languages he speaks, Rawl ings says that
Russian, which he has been learning for a year and a TIP 5: Book yourself a 1n
an _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
half, is t he hardest. He said, 'There seem to be more
exceptions t han ru les!' He added , 'I especially li ke
TIP 6: Listen t o as many as
Greek beca use I t hink it's beautif ul and , because of my possible in English, and then
mother, I have a strong personal link to t he country and
- - - them.
to the language .'
' Everyone should learn languages, especial ly if they
travel abroad . If you ma ke the effort t o learn even b L isten again. Try to ad d more details a bo ut each tip.
the most basic phrases wherever you go, it inst antly
shows t he person you're speaking to that you respect c Talk to a partner.
their cultu re. Going around speaking English loudly and • Do you alrea dy do any of t hese t hings?
---< getting frustrated at people is tact less and rude.'
• Which do you t hink is t he best tip?
• The next language Rawlings hopes to learn is Arabic,
• Which t ip could you easily put int o pract ice? Try it !
- but 'only once I've finished my degree and got some
-- more t ime on my ha nds. For now I need t o concentrate • What other things do you do to improve your English
-- on my Germa n and Russian, so I can prepare for outside class (e.g. visit chat websites, list en to audio
.
• my f inals.' book s)?

Glossary
finals t he last e xa n1s th at s ru<lenrs take at university