Your list
Read out the things you could not name. Point at them in Portuguese, or describe them — the place where you put money in and get a ticket out.
Describing it instead of naming it is a skill in itself, and it is what you will do for the rest of your life in a second language. Practise it here on purpose.
Five descriptions, five words. This is the game you just played, in reverse.
A timetable, a sign, and a set of directions
Three real text types. Each one uses vocabulary the other two do not.
Bus 42 — town centre to hospital
| Stop | Weekdays | Saturdays | Sundays |
|---|---|---|---|
| Market Square | every 10 min | every 20 min | every 30 min |
| Green Street | +3 min | +3 min | +3 min |
| The Library | +7 min | +7 min | +8 min |
| Hospital main entrance | +14 min | +14 min | +16 min |
| Last bus | 23:40 | 23:10 | 21:50 |
Three signs
1. NO ENTRY — PEDESTRIANS ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT
2. RESIDENTS' PARKING. PERMIT HOLDERS ONLY, MON–FRI 08:00–18:00
3. DIVERSION — FOOTPATH CLOSED, FOLLOW SIGNS VIA CHURCH LANE
Read the timetable and the signs. Answer from them.
1. It is Sunday. How long from Market Square to the hospital?
2. Sign 1 means you can go beyond that point…
3. Sign 2: you have no permit. When can you park there?
4. Sign 3: diversion means…
The vocabulary, organised
Transport
Tap each. Note the stress — on the first syllable in almost all of these.
Services and geography
Six more. These are the words that make a neighbourhood description specific rather than generic.
Match each transport word to what it actually means. Two of them are things Brazilian cities have but name differently.
Use them where they belong
One word per gap, all of them from Phase 03. Read the whole paragraph before you start.
I buy a ticket every month, because I take two buses each way and a costs the same as a single fare. The 42 runs along a bus most of the way, so it is quick even in rush . I get off at the and walk the last ten minutes along a behind the industrial . It is not pretty, but it is faster than the road.
Five sentences. Some have vocabulary errors, some have the Unit 2 grammar coming back. Rewrite each in full.
1. There is a diversion on the road because is fun.
2. In rush hour have a lot of traffic.
3. You can't to park without a permit.
4. There are a bus every ten minutes.
5. I take the bus in the terminus.
Read the timetable out loud
Task card · Speaking
Your teacher has to get to the hospital on a Sunday evening and has never used a bus here.
Tell them everything they need, from the timetable and the signs. Then answer three questions they ask.
- Where to get on, how often it runs on a Sunday, how long it takes, and when the last one is.
- Warn them about one thing — a sign, a closure, a stop that is easy to miss.
- Use at least four words from Phase 03.
One thing to get right first.
1. The last bus on Sunday is at 21:50. How do you say that time out loud?
Off your own list
Look back at the list you brought.
1. How many of the things you could not name can you name now?
2. Which is more useful to you?
Before the information gap
One word.
1. A sign says DIVERSION. What do you do?
Before Lesson 5. Next lesson is an information gap — you and your partner will have different maps and have to find the places you both have, by describing them.
Nothing to prepare. But re-read the Phase 03 words tonight, because in an information gap the missing word is the thing that stops you.