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Skills: Listening
Vocabulary: Phrases with make
Task: Complete a crossword and discover the secret word
In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack makes a fool out of Rich and Rich makes a crossword for his students. The language focus is on a verb with lots of different meanings - make. Jack and Rich look at five different ways of using make and how you can these phrases in your speaking and writing. Your task is to complete a crossword using phrases with make and to find the secret word. As always, we also have a new football phrase for you to guess. Enjoy!
How much did you understand?
In the podcast, Rich and Jack used some words and phrases that might be new for you. Do you know the words in bold?
Do you mean Accrington Stanley who play in the fourth division in front of average crowds of two thousand?
You shouldn't believe everything you see online. Sometimes it's made-up.
There were a few more tricky words in the podcast. Do you know what they all mean? Try the activity below, then, listen to the podcast again to hear how we used the words.
Activity 1: In this activity, try to match the words and phrases to their definitions. All of the words were in this week's podcast.
Don't worry! David de Gea isn't leaving Old Trafford for Accrington! Jack was just making a joke!
Phrases with make
In this week's podcast, Jack and Rich spoke about the word make. Did you know that it had lots of different meanings? They discussed five of the most common meanings of make:
To create or produce
We can use phrases such as make a pizza, make a cake and make a mess to talk about creating a pizza, a cake or a mess. This is probably the most common meaning of make and the easiest to understand. Take a look at these examples:
You've made a right mess there! Can you tidy it up please?
Rich made a crossword for his students.
The goalkeeper made a great save.
To make plans and decisions
We can use phrases such as make an appointment or arrangement, make your mind up and make a choice to talk about plans and decisions. Take a look at these examples:
I'm not feeling well. I should make an appointment to see the doctor.
Have you made up your mind yet? I need to let her know.
To talk about changing emotions
We can use phrases such as make you laugh, make you cry, make you jump to talk about things that cause different emotions. We often use these phrases to talk about how something made you feel. Take a look at tehse examples:
That film was scary. It really made me jump!
That joke really made me laugh.
To talk about how we speak and communicate
We can use phrases such as make a phone call, make a speech or make a point to talk about how we speak and communicate with each other. Here are some examples:
The groom made a great speech at the wedding.
Can you wait a second. I need to make a quick phone call.
Idioms and phrasal verbs
Make is a common word in many phrasal verbs and idioms. The best way to learn these words and phrases is in context. We ask you to do this in your first task this week (see below). Here are some examples of idioms and phrasal verbs we used in the podcast:
I just made the story up. It's not true.
I made up a story to make a fool out of Rich.
In the activity below, take a look at some sentences that use phrases with make and decide which of the above five meanings are being used.
Activity 2: In this activity, look again at the five meanings of make which were introduced in the podcast. Match the phrases with make to the five meanings.
Noticing new language
Your first task is to listen to the opening conversation again. Rich and Jack are talking about an email Rich received about the Manchester Utd goalkeeper, David De Gea. In the conversation, Jack and Rich used ten phrases that included make. We want you to listen and write down the ten phrases and think about what they mean in the context of this conversation. If this is difficult, use the transcript to help. Is listening in this way a good way to learn new words and phrases? Do you understand all ten phrases?
Phrases using make - Crossword
Below, you can see a crossword. We want you to look at the clues and complete the crossword. All the answers are phrases with make that were included in this podcast. When you have finished, some letters will be revealed. These letters are an anagram of a secret football word. Write the answer to the anagram in the comments section at the bottom of the page.
You can download and print the crossword in the downloads section on the right.
Across
5. What’s the pay like? Can you ____ _ _____ as a football coach? (4,1,6)
6. I know that you’re angry, but please don’t ____ _ _____. (4,1,5)
7. ____ ____ you lock your door when you go out. (4,4)
8. That show is so funny. It always _____ __ _____. (5,2,5)
9. I didn’t really want to sell it, but he ____ __ __ _____ I couldn’t refuse. (4,2,2,5)
10. I have a terrible toothache. I need to ____ __ ___________ at the dentist’s. (4,2,11)
11. I understand what you mean. You have ____ ____ _____. (4,4,5)
12. The first thing I do when I get up is put the kettle on and ____ _ ___ __ ___. (4,1,3,2,3)
Down
1. I have no idea what you are talking about. That doesn’t ____ _____ (4,5)
2. I don’t believe that story. I think you ____ __ __. (4,2,2)
3. What do you think about these jeans? Do they ____ __ ____ fat? (4,2,4)
4. It’s a tough decision, but you need to ____ ____ ____ __. (4,4,4,2)
5. I was feeling a little peckish (hungry) so I ____ ______ _ ________ (a snack made with bread and a filling). (4,6,1,8)
9. The film was so sad. The ending ____ __ ___. (4,2,3)
Secret word: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
What do you think?
In this week’s podcast, Jack and Rich spoke about phrases with make.
Have you ever made something up? Have you ever made a speech? How did it make you feel?
What makes you laugh? What makes you cry? What makes you jump?
Look at the task above and write your answers for the secret word.
Remember to write your guess at this week's football phrase, too!
If you want us to correct your English, just write 'correct me' at the beginning of your comment.
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