Gateway B1+ unit 8

Complete the sentence. I don’t always understand ………………………paintings.

They don't look like real objects – they're more about making you feel something different.

Can you remember the ………………………to the band’s new song? I want to learnall the words. 

Last night, we went to the cinema to see that film everyone’s talking about.I thought it was going to be wonderful, but I was(1)………………………by the acting

She didn’t have the main (3)………………………, but she had quite an important one. 

Read the opinions about a 3D film. Match the comments to the people.

1

I’ve always been a film fan and I love all types of film, from horror to romantic comedy, from modern animations to black-and-white Hollywood classics.However, I’d never seen a 3D film until I went to see Alice in Wonderland, directed by Tim Burton. I know 3D films aren’t new – the technology has been around for a long time. In fact, my grandmother told me about her experience in the 1980s of going to see Jaws in 3D.She had to wear strange cardboard glasses with one red plastic lens and one green plastic lens! But anyway,Alice was my first experience of 3D and I have to say it was disappointing. I was expecting something dark and different from Tim Burton’s version of the classic Alice story, but actually I thought the 3D treatment made the film seem childish – like a cartoon.

2

I’m glad that my first 3D experience was Alice in Wonderland, because it showed me both the good and not so good aspects of 3D films. I went into the cinema with a great sense of expectation. Alice in Wonderland has always been one of my favourite books and I knew that the crazy world Alice finds herself in after falling down the rabbit hole would be an ideal subject for 3D effects. I was right – the special effects created incredible, surreal scenes with a mixture of real actors and animations. The colours were brilliant and I felt I could reach out my hand and touch the people and objects, like I was right inside the world of the film itself. It was magical and really brought the book to life for me – I loved the whole experience!

3

I thought Tim Burton’s interpretation of the story was a bit weird. In this version of Alice they extended Lewis Carroll’s original story to include a part about Alice’s life as a young teenager in the ‘real’ world of Victorian England. That part wasn’t in the book and here I felt the 3D treatment was unnecessary. It was quite appropriate to the fantasy world where Alice finds herself after she falls down the rabbit hole, but not to the ‘real’ world of Victorian England. It would have been a nice contrast if only the scenes that took place in the fantasy had been in 3D. Actually the 3D glasses annoyed me because they made some of the film look very dark. For scenes where the characters were inside, I had to keep taking my glasses off to see what was going on! 

Rewrite the sentences in reported speech. ‘I’ve never been to an exhibition of sculptures.’

     My mum said she ……………………………………………………..…….

‘I’m going to do some research on the arts project with Tony tomorrow.’

     He said she …………………………………………………………………….

Correct the mistakes in the sentence. I asked Bradley what was the film like

Today I went to see my maths teacher to talk about my last maths exam. I took the test last week and I had been studying for it……………weeks. 

But my mark was terrible and the teacher asked me what ……………wrong

She said that I ……………repeat the exam next week. So I have to start revising again! I ……………do all of it though, only a part of it.