Sound check
«Sound check» – part of the English learning path «Cate's Sound Lab»: This time it's all about listening! You understand short spoken sentences and a little concert report, match instruments to their pictures and adjectives to their translations, learn the difference between so and such – and strengthen the past perfect you already know. Level A2–B1.
Das lernst du hier
- I can understand short spoken sentences and a short spoken text about music.
- I can use so and such correctly.
- I can use the music words from Module 1 and the past perfect from Module 2 again.
Liechtensteiner Lehrplan (LiLe): FS1E.1.A.1 (Die Schülerinnen und Schüler können verschiedenartige Hörtexte und Gespräche verstehen (Sachtexte, ästhetische Texte, Texte im Schulalltag, Gespräche im Kontakt mit Englisch sprechenden Personen).), FS1E.5.B.1 (Die Schülerinnen und Schüler verfügen über einen angemessenen Wortschatz, um sich mündlich und schriftlich zu äussern.), FS1E.5.D.1 (Die Schülerinnen und Schüler können grammatische Strukturen in Texten erkennen und für das Verständnis nutzen sowie beim Sprechen und Schreiben anwenden.)
Welcome to «Sound check»!
Put your headphones on – this is a sound check! In the first three modules you read, wrote and built sentences. In this module, for the first time, you listen: your device reads short English sentences and a little story to you.
In this module you will:
- listen to short sentences and show what you heard,
- match instruments to pictures and adjectives to their German translations,
- learn the difference between the two small words so and such,
- listen to a short story about a festival evening – and use your past-tense knowledge from Week 1.
A tip before you start: you can play each audio clip as often as you like. If your device has no English voice, the text appears on the screen instead – then simply read it.
Warm-up sentence 1
Press play and listen carefully. You can listen more than once. Then answer the question below.
Eigenaufnahme EveryCate (synthetische Stimme «Daniel», macOS), CC BY-SA 4.0
What did you hear?
Frage 1 von 1Choose the sentence you heard.
Warm-up sentence 2
Listen again – this time there is a question about the meaning.
Eigenaufnahme EveryCate (synthetische Stimme «Daniel», macOS), CC BY-SA 4.0
Check your listening
Frage 1 von 1Which instrument did you hear about?
Warm-up sentence 3
Listen carefully – three very similar sentences will follow.
Eigenaufnahme EveryCate (synthetische Stimme «Daniel», macOS), CC BY-SA 4.0
What did you hear?
Frage 1 von 1Choose the sentence you heard.
Warm-up sentence 4
One more sentence – then a question about what happens.
Eigenaufnahme EveryCate (synthetische Stimme «Daniel», macOS), CC BY-SA 4.0
Check your listening
Frage 1 von 1What does the singer do?
Match A: Words and pictures
Six words from Module 1, six pictures. Tap a word, then tap its picture – the pair gets the same number. You can undo a pair by tapping it again.
Tippe ein Element links und eines rechts an, um ein Paar zu bilden – mit welcher Seite du beginnst, ist egal. Nochmaliges Antippen wählt ab; Antippen eines verbundenen Elements löst das Paar wieder.
Bildnachweise: Eigene Darstellung, EveryCate, CC BY-SA 4.0
Match B: Adjectives and their German translations
Do you remember the describing words from Module 1? Match each English adjective to its German translation.
Tippe ein Element links und eines rechts an, um ein Paar zu bilden – mit welcher Seite du beginnst, ist egal. Nochmaliges Antippen wählt ab; Antippen eines verbundenen Elements löst das Paar wieder.
Language focus: so or such?
Both words make things stronger – but they have different partners.
so + adjective (or adverb) – no noun after it:
- The melody is so catchy!
- The band played so loudly that the walls shook.
such (+ a/an) + noun – there is always a noun at the end, often with an adjective before it:
- It was such a great concert.
- They are such good musicians. (plural – no a/an)
so many / so much – before nouns you can or cannot count:
- There were so many fans in front of the arena. (fans – you can count them)
- The neighbours complained about so much noise. (noise – you cannot count it)
Remember: adjective alone → so · noun at the end → such (a/an) · plural you can count → so many · things you cannot count → so much. The picture below shows it in two columns.
so or such – the quick rule
Exercise: so, such and friends
Drag the right words into the gaps (on a phone: tap first the word, then the gap). Careful: two forms in the list are wrong forms – they fit nowhere.
Tippe zuerst ein Wort an und dann die Lücke, in die es gehört. Antippen einer gefüllten Lücke legt das Wort zurück.
The concert was loud that my ears hurt the next day. I had never heard beautiful melody before. There were people in front of the stage that we could not see the band. The crew has to do before the show that nobody takes a break. It was unforgettable evening that we still talk about it. They are good musicians that every hall is full.
Exercise: Type so or such (a)
Now without a word list: type so, such or such a into each gap. Look at what comes after the gap – an adjective alone, or a noun at the end?
This song is catchy that I hum it all day. I had never been to big concert before. The tickets were expensive that we stayed at home. She is talented singer that everyone wants a photo with her. Why are you nervous? It is only a sound check!
Listening: My first festival
Now a whole story! Listen as often as you like, then answer the three questions below. Tip: listen once for the whole story, and a second time for the details.
Eigenaufnahme EveryCate (synthetische Stimme «Daniel», macOS), CC BY-SA 4.0
Check your listening: the festival story
Frage 1 von 3Three questions about the story you just heard. You can go back and listen again before you answer.
What happened first?
Quick repeat: past simple or past perfect?
One last look back at Week 1: put the verb in brackets into the past simple or the past perfect.
By the time the singer arrived, the fans (wait) for three hours. Everybody knew the lyrics, because the song (be) number one for weeks before. We (buy) our tickets months before, so we walked straight in. After the encore, we (take) the bus home.
Final listening sentence
One last sentence for your ears – the first question of the final quiz is about it.
Eigenaufnahme EveryCate (synthetische Stimme «Daniel», macOS), CC BY-SA 4.0
Final quiz: ears, words and tenses
Frage 1 von 5Five questions from the whole module. For the first one, use the audio sentence above – you can play it again.
Choose the sentence you heard.