Exam Techniques to tackle FCE Use of English Part 4 with a Power point to help guide your students through it. This is the first in a series of 3 posts on FCE sentence transformations.
The Basics
In this part of the exam students have to rewrite 6 sentences to incorporate a new word without changing the meaning, or as Cambridge put it:
Each question is worth 2 points. For example, in the example below the student got 1 point for putting even though and another for writing she is.
Teach the technique
This Powerpoint (below) takes the students step-by-step through some transformations. The questions are simple because the focus is on strategy rather than language. However, it's important not to let the students jump the steps. A systematic approach will improve their chances on more difficult questions even when they are unfamiliar with the language.
Below are images from the slides with questions to guide students through the process and the answers your students should give.
Example 1: Changing a Verb
What do we need to do first?
- Cross out the words which are already in the answer*
Where does went need to go?
- At the end, with "to Shanghai"
Which word should we replace with remember?
- Forget.
Do remember and forget mean the same thing?
- No, it's the opposite.
What's the opposite of "I will never remember"?
- I will always remember.
What needs to happen to went? Should it be to go or going?
- going.
*Crossing out repeated language is really helpful because it allows the student to focus on the words which need to be replicated. Overly-confident students often miss out this step and can lose marks for missing out minor words which they otherwise would have noticed.
Example 2: Using Modals
What do we need to do first? (cross out)
Where does escaped need to go? (next to "to Shanghai")
Well done, by putting escaped in the right place, we have already got 1 mark for this question, even if we don't know the language!
Which idea should we replace with might? (it's possible)
Do might and it's possible mean the same thing? (yes)
Is might escaped right?
No because after modal verbs, you need to use the base infinitive.
Should it be might escape?
No because the original sentence is in the past, and anyway, you just told us we got one mark for putting escaped at the end.
So how can we use a modal verb in the past?
Put the next verb in the present perfect, that way might is followed by a base infinitive but the sentence still has past meaning.
Wow, good work students - I couldn't have put it better myself!
Example 3: The Passive
- What do we need to do first? (cross out)
- Where does from need to go? (next to Mercadona)
- What has happened to the subject?
It's changed - before the bananas were after the verb
- What does it mean when a noun that was after the verb goes in front of it (object becomes subject)?
We need to change it to the passive.
- Which verb should we add to make it passive?
To be.
- It needs to be in the same form as stolen, what's that?
Past participle.
- So...?
Been.
- Read through it - do the two sentences now have the same meaning?
Yes!
Example 4: A phrasal verb
- What do we need to do first? (cross out)
- Where does rob need to go? (next to banks)
- Does GIVE mean the same as not? (no)
- If we have a word like give but we don't want it to mean "give" we need to turn it into..?
A phrasal verb.
- Ok, so what type of word are we going to put after give?
A preposition.
- If you don't know which preposition to use, we can still get one mark by putting rob in the correct form. How should it be after a preposition?
robbing.
- Brilliant, so if we know we need a phrasal verb we can still get 50% even if we don't know what it is.
- To get 100%, what preposition do we need?
up.
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