1. Poems – English lesson
Introduction
You can listen to a recording of this poem at:
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/poems/english-lesson
This support pack contains the following materials:
• a pre-reading vocabulary activity
• the poem that you can listen to
• a comprehension activity
Before you read
Activity 1
Match the words and phrases at the top to their definitions.
a. Begging b. buckle c. dangling
d. groan e. overfed f. Podgy
g. screw up your face h. set aside i. Spokes
j. Whirring
1. If you .................... something, usually time or money, you save it for a special purpose.
2. If someone is .................... they have had too much to eat.
3. .................... means a little fat.
4. .................... is a low soft continuous sound, often of a machine.
5. .................... are the rods that join the edge of a wheel to its centre.
6. If you .................... , you twist your face to express disapproval.
7. A .................... is a piece of metal used to join two ends of a strap or belt.
8. If something is .................... it is hanging loosely.
9. .................... means making an urgent request.
10. When you .................... you make a deep long sound to express unhappiness.
Read the poem
English lesson
by Robert Seatter
We are doing Chapter 6: Hobbies, I like doing...
Roberto is playful and wants to talk about sex in cars
and gear sticks. We lose ourselves in body parts:
engine, carburettor, vroom, vroom.
Carla likes cooking, the gnocchi
her grandmother taught her how to make - a whole day set
aside, potatoes in piles, all the family peeling.
Her fingers forgetful of typewriter keys.
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2. Poems – English lesson
Giancarlo bicycles twenty kilometres every Sunday
(we imagine his overfed thighs in lycra and laugh).
He lists all the cups he won when the weekend was just
one long white road, his podgy hands making circles,
his moustached mouth the whirring of spokes.
Gianni goes back to his village, kisses his seven
little sisters, loves checking his row of reddening tomatoes.
He wears different shoes, screwing his face up at
buckled black leather. No briefcase. No boss.
Francesca likes going to the mountains, the lakes, the sea -
wherever her friends have houses. We are all invited.
When you open the windows all the houses have
beautiful views, and there is panettone for breakfast.
Franco plays cards in the bar with his friends.
Same bar, same friends: every evening playing poker
at Vittorio's place. He counts the years on his fingers
as if he had never counted before.
Lucia says she cries all weekend, every weekend -
since Massimo left her. She sits in the flat and cries.
There is nothing else to do.
The silence pulls at her words, dangling cut-out and
foreign on the air, begging to be mistakable:
a disappearing trick against the classroom's white walls.
Then Roberto claps his hands. He meant to say
he likes practising English. We all groan.
After reading
Activity 2
Decide if the following statements are true or false.
1. Carla prepares her favourite food alone
2. Giancarlo is overweight despite being a cyclist
3. Gianni takes his work home with him
4. Francesca stays in hotels when she goes to the country
5. Franco is surprised how long he has been going to the same bar
6. Roberto breaks the awkward silence after Lucia’s confession
Answers
Activity 1:
1. h; 2. e; 3. f; 4. j; 5. i; 6. g; 7. b; 8. c; 9. a; 10. d
Activity 2:
1. F (all the family peeling); 2. T (overfed thighs...podgy hands); 3. F (No briefcase. No boss); 4. F
(wherever her friends have houses); 5. T (as if he had never counted before); 6. T (Then Roberto claps
his hands)
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The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.