Lesson Focus

This final unit revolves around the theme of sports, sportsmanship, and teamwork. It covers language used in sports commentary and discussions, as well as the qualities needed to be a good sport.

Key Vocabulary to Master

• General Sports: encounter, tournament, abandon (a match), score, wickets, opponent, victory, defeat, teamwork.

• Sports-Specific Terms: serve (badminton/volleyball), foul (netball/basketball), draw (a tied game), sprint (athletics), duck (getting out for zero runs in cricket).

• Sportsmanship: play fair, respect the opponent, accept the outcome, intelligence, championships.

Grammar Focuses

1. Past Perfect Continuous Tense: Used to talk about a longer, continuous action in the past that was happening before another shorter past action.

• Structure: had + been + verb-ing

• Example: "We had been playing for only a few minutes when it started to rain." (The playing was the longer action, interrupted by the rain).

1. Ellipsis and Short Agreements (So/Neither): A way to agree with someone without repeating the whole sentence. This is very common in spoken English.

• Positive Agreement:

  • A: "I am very happy." → B: "So am I."

  • A: "I love cricket." → B: "So do I."

  • Negative Agreement:

    • A: "I haven't done my homework." → B: "Neither have I."

    • A: "Mewan did not come yesterday." → B: "Neither did his sister."

Important Points for the O/L Exam

• Paper I (Writing): An essay on "The Importance of Sports" or "My Favourite Sport" is a very popular and frequently asked question. The ideas about teamwork, leadership, and health from this unit are perfect for this.

• Paper II (Reading): Reading passages about a famous sportsperson or a major sporting event are common.

• Paper I (Grammar): The Past Perfect Continuous is an advanced tense. Questions on this will test your grammar skills thoroughly and help you aim for a higher grade. Understanding short agreements is crucial for dialogue-based questions.

Tips & Tricks for Studying

1. Write a Match Report: Watch or read about a sports match and write a short paragraph summarizing it. Use at least five vocabulary words from this unit.

2. Use a Timeline: To master the Past Perfect Continuous, draw a line representing time. Mark a long action (e.g., "studying for 3 hours") and then a single point on that line where another action happened (e.g., "the power went out"). This helps visualize the concept: "I had been studying for three hours when the power went out."

Practice Short Agreements: Have a friend say a simple sentence, and you reply with the correct short agreement. (e.g., "I can swim." → "So can I." / "I don't like horror movies." → "Neither do I.")