Lesson 2: The language of newspapers

A. Read the article on Student's Book page 71 again. Then listen and complete this text about the same event.

• The fire started on the ground floor of number 218 Queen Street at 10.10 a.m. and it got up to the fourth floor in minutes.
• As soon as the police and fire brigade got here, they got everyone out of number 218 and the buildings on either side very quickly.
• A few minutes later, there was a loud bang. The police told the crowd in the street to get away from the building.
• They put police cars at the end of Queen Street, and they stopped people from going into the street.
• By 11 o'clock, the fire seemed to be out, but the inside of the building had been completely destroyed. Ambulances took five people to hospital, but they were OK.

C. Match the formal (written) and the informal (spoken) words.

D. The language in these sentences is informal. Rewrite the sentences so that they are formal. Change the contractions and replace the underlined words. Use the words in the box, changing the form of the verbs when necessary.

2. It's quite hard to work with all this noise.

It's quite difficult with all this noise.

3. Bye! And thanks very much.

Goodbye! And thank you very much.

4. I'm the boss of a small company in Baghdad.

I am the director of a small company in Baghdad.

5. My Mum told the kids to shut up.

My mother told the children to be quiet.

6. They were watching a soccer match on TV.

They were watching a football match on television.

7. We're having a great time.

We are having a very good time.

8. It got so hot that we couldn't go out.

It become so hot that we could not go out.

9. That guy won't be in the team.

That boy will not be in the team.

10. The team's been getting better all this year.

The team has been improving all this year.