Part 1 - 15

Part One
1. Read these sentences. Decide, as far as possible, who is speaking to whom in each case.

a)  Don't forget to take your bag when you go.
b)  Paul doesn't know the way - can you take him?
c)  We take the kids to school in the car.
d)  Our neighbor was taken away in a police car.
e)  Take the car to the garage to be repaired.
f)  Take your mother a cup of tea.
g)  I'll take the dogs with me when I go.

2. What idea does the verb take express in all of the above sentences?

3. Using the eye-2-eye technique with your partner, do an oral knock-off of each sentence. Ask your teacher if you aren't sure what the eye-2-eye technique is, or what an oral knock-off is.

Part Two

Look at these phrases: take a walk | take a bath | take a breath | take a vacation

1) What idea does the verb take express in all of these phrases?

2) What other nouns can be used in the same way with take? Be sure to check your predictions with your teacher.

Part Three
Now consider the following sentences:

a) The drive takes three hours.
b) It took three hours to fix the washing machine.
c) It took us half an hour to get there.

1. What does take mean in all of these sentences?

2. Do an Eye-2-Eye knock-off of each of the above sentences with your partner.

3. How is the grammar slightly different in each sentence?

Part Four

a) It takes strength and stamina to be a long-distance runner.
b) It took a lot of courage to admit you were wrong.

1. Complete these sentence-heads:

It takes strength and stamina to…
It takes enormous dedication to…
It takes a lot of hard work to…

2. Another way to express the idea of (a) above is to use the sentence-head You need… This is especially common in spoken English. Note that you means people (in general). Note also that this works in present tense but not in past tense. Try rewriting (a) above with you need:
You need…

Part Five

a) The car only takes unleaded.
b) What size batteries does a Walkman take?

1. What is the meaning of take here?

2. What two verb tenses would you expect to be used with this meaning of take?

Part Six:

Neil's got what it takes to be a great soccer player.

1. This is a fixed collocation. It means: to have the q__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ necessary to ______________ at something.

2. Give one of your partners a nice compliment using this phrase. Then, again using this phrase, tell your partner about a talent a friend of yours outside this class has.

Part Seven

a) I'm taking Reading and Writing in the morning, and Listening/Speaking in the afternoon.
b) I only had to take 6 credits my senior year.
c) What did you take at university? Chemistry, with a minor in molecular biology.
d) I had to take my driving test three times before I passed.

1. All the things being taken in these sentences are closely related in meaning, but nevertheless refer to three different kinds of things. What are these three categories?

a)

b)

c)

Part Eight

a) The burglars took most of our jewelry.
b) She's taken my pen.

1. In these cases the implication is that the jewelry and the pen were taken without
asking p__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __.

2. What other verb could replace take in (a)? In (b)?

Part Nine

a) Enemy forces have taken the airport.
b) Ann took control of the division last month.
c) Someone new is going to take (it) over next July.
d) Well, if no one else is going to take charge, I will.

1. What idea do all of these uses of take express?

2. With your partners, do an oral knock-off of each of these sentences.

Part 10

a) Jim took all the credit, even though he hadn't done much of the work.
b) I can't take any credit for my son's success at the saxophone-he inherited his musical talent from his father!

1. a) This is a fairly fixed collocation: the required words are __ __ __ __ and
__ __ __ __ __ __ (plus, optionally, __ __ __ + an object).

b) Do you know anyone who's taken the credit for something they didn't do?

2. A variant of this phrase is take the blame, as in:
I refuse to take the blame.
I refuse to take the blame for anything that happened last night.

a) Make a sentence of your own which includes the phrases took the blame for and car accident:

b) Have you ever taken the blame for something you didn't do?

Part 11

a) Can you imagine? She didn't even ask me to take a seat.
b) Come in. Please take a seat.

1. The phrase take a seat means __ __ __ __ __ __ __.
2. Can you (grammatically) invite someone to take a bench/chair/stool etc.?

3. Another way to say Take a seat is "__ __ __ __ a seat." Another is "Please __ __ __
__ __ __ __."

Part 12

a) Let me take your jacket and hang it up for you.
b) She took my arm as we walked down the street.

1. In both these cases take has the same specific meaning. What is it? (Clue: it's connected with a part of your body.)

2. When might you hear the following?
  a) Let me take that suitcase.
  b) Let me take your umbrella.
  c) And then he took my hand and kissed it!

Part 13

a) The choir had its concert last night, but Greg was too sick to take part.
b) She was invited to take part in a TV debate.

1. Concept-check: Can you take part in something you do by yourself, or must it be with other people?

2. Do an oral knock-off of (b).

Part 14

a) The contest takes place every four years.
b) We don't know exactly what took place, but they both looked furious afterward.

1. Two verbs which are closely related in meaning to take place are __ __ __ __ __ __ and __ __ __ __ __.

Part 15

a) If I were you I'd take the job.
b) I'll give you $50 - take it or leave it. (Note that this is a fixed collocation.)
c) I took your advice and went to the doctor's.
d) Do they take credit cards in this store? No, only cash.

1. In each of these cases, the take-phrase means: to __ __ __ __ __ __ something that someone __ __ __ __ __ __ you.

2. Do oral knock-offs of these four sentences. Keep the collocations intact in each case (i.e. use take+job for #1, take it or leave it for #2, take+someone's advice for #3, take+credit cards for #4).