Welcome to Day 1!
Welcome to the first day of your Consolidation Course! Today is all about vocabulary – the essential words and phrases that native speakers use in everyday conversation.
In the Day 1 lesson, you worked with words like ‘keen’, ‘cottage’, ‘modest budget’, ‘precious’ and advanced expressions like ‘fly in the ointment’ and ‘spoilt for choice’.
If you haven’t watched the video lesson yet, click below to watch the Day 1 lesson before you start the exercises. It’ll give you the context and pronunciation guidance you need to get the most out of today’s activities.
B1 Vocabulary Bank
Here is some key vocabulary from the B1 section of the lesson. Click on the ℹ️ icon to see the definition and an example sentence containing the word or phrase.
B1 Task
Task A: Listen, Write & Shadow
Time to practise what you’ve learnt. This exercise helps you develop your listening skills and pronunciation at the same time.
Quick Win: Word Families
You’ve just learnt words like ‘keen’, ‘explore’ and ‘destination’. But here’s an important secret: each word has a family! When you learn a word family, you multiply your vocabulary instantly.
Word Family: explore
- explore (verb) – to travel around a place to see what it’s like
- “I love to explore new cities.”
- explorer (noun) – a person who explores
- “She’s a fearless explorer of remote places.”
- exploration (noun) – the act of exploring
- “We began our exploration of the old city at dawn.”
- exploratory (adjective) – done to discover or learn about something
- “They took an exploratory walk around the village.”
Word Family: adventure
- adventure (noun) – an exciting or unusual experience
- “I’m planning my next big adventure in Scotland.”
- adventurous (adjective) – willing to take risks or try new things
- “My sister is very adventurous and loves trying extreme sports.”
- adventurer (noun) – a person who enjoys adventures
- “He’s a real adventurer who’s travelled to over 50 countries.”
- adventurously (adverb) – in an adventurous way
- “We adventurously decided to camp in the mountains without a guide.”
B2 Vocabulary Bank
Here is some key vocabulary from the B2 section of the lesson. Click on the ℹ️ icon to see the definition and an example sentence containing the word or phrase.
B2 Task
Task B: Collocations Practice
Collocations are words that naturally go together in English. When you use the right collocations, you sound more natural and fluent. Let’s practise some common collocations with the vocabulary from today’s lesson!
First, look at these patterns:
- modest + budget / fee / income / reduction / salary / sum
- generous / huge / limited / small / tight + budget
- precious + gift / jewel / moment / possession / time
- isolated + area / spot / village (far away)
- isolated + incident (something that happened only once)
- to capture + (someone’s/something’s) attention / imagination
- packed + auditorium / cinema / stadium / theatre
C1 Vocabulary Bank
Here is some key vocabulary from the C1 section of the lesson. Click on the ℹ️ icon to see the definition and an example sentence containing the word or phrase.
C1 Task
Task C: Listen, Complete & Shadow
This exercise challenges your listening skills with a longer, more complex passage. You’ll need to catch those advanced vocabulary words and natural pronunciation features we covered today!
C1 Quick Win
This exercise challenges your listening skills with a longer, more complex passage. You’ll need to catch those advanced vocabulary words and natural pronunciation features we covered today!
Metaphors with Body Parts
Notice how many figurative expressions use body parts:
‘Shoulder season’ – The shoulder connects the arm to the body, just like this season connects high and low seasons. Native speakers visualise this!
Other metaphors with body parts related to travel:
- ‘to have/get itchy feet’ (to want to travel or go somewhere new; to feel eager for a change or new experience)
- ‘the heart of the city’ (the centre of the city)
- ‘to keep your eyes peeled’ (to look out for something or someone carefully)
Creating Mental Images
‘Spoilt for choice’ uses the concept of being ‘spoilt’ (having too much) applied to choices. It creates the image of someone overwhelmed by abundance.
Similar expressions:
- ‘drowning in work’ (too much work, like being underwater)
- ‘flooded with emails’ (overwhelmed, like a flood of water)
- ‘a mountain of paperwork’ (large amount, visualise a mountain)
