Reading about a seashore: details, idioms and words
Unit 4 is about the sea and the life beside it; its title is on page 55 and the aims are on the same page. To read for details, read the questions first, then look for the names, numbers, times and reasons in the text. An idiom is a fixed phrase whose meaning cannot be found by adding up its words, so guess it from the sentence around it. Two idioms from this unit: “a stitch in time saves nine” means that a small repair done early avoids a big problem later, and “a thing of the past” means something that belongs to old times and is not used any more. To guess a word, check which kind of word it is, look at the clues near it and test your guess in the sentence. The book’s article on pages 56 and 57 is named by page only; read it after this lesson and write down three words and one idiom from it.
| Idiom | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| a stitch in time saves nine | a small repair early avoids a big one | Mend the crack today. |
| a thing of the past | no longer used or found | Paper tickets are a thing of the past at our library. |
| Word clue | the words around the new word | touched nothing → fragile |
Last Saturday our class joined a clean-up morning on the shore of a small seaside town. Our teacher, Mr Hatem, told us that the tide would come in at noon, so we worked on the dry sand only and stayed in one group. We started at nine, and by eleven we had filled fourteen bags, mostly with old plastic. Plastic bags are a thing of the past in the town market, but the beach still held some. Then Salma, a member of the shore club, showed us a tide pool, a small rock pool full of vivid green weed and tiny crabs. She explained that such places are fragile, so we looked with our eyes and touched nothing. Behind us the cliff showed the slow erosion of wind and water, and a low fence now keeps visitors at a safe distance. Mr Hatem said, “A stitch in time saves nine,” because a small repair today avoids a big repair later. When we left, the pool looked clean, and the crabs seemed to thrive.
Speaking (page 57). With a partner, say two advantages and two disadvantages of many visitors coming to a seaside town, and one solution. Use: One advantage is …, A disadvantage is …, We could solve this by …. Then add three new words from the book’s article to your word notebook.