Sport Scene 2

Stephen and Ashlie run the half-marathon but disagree about how to win the medal. Who’s going to win?

Do the Preparation task first. Then watch the video and do the first Task. Watch the video again and do the remaining activities. If you need help, you can read the Transcript at any time.

Preparation

Think about the following questions:

  • Who do you think will win the race, Ashlie or Stephen?
  • How does one win this kind of race?

Who do you think will win the race? Watch and find out!

Transcript

Stephen: Ashlie, Ashlie? Are you there? Ah, no signal. I’ll have to send her a text. OK, right. ‘Where are you? – You are late – Race about to start.’

Ashlie: ‘On my way.’

Stephen: Ash, you there?

Ashlie: Oh, hi Stephen.

Stephen: The race is about to start. All the runners are getting ready.

Ashlie: I’ve been sorting out my outfit.

Stephen: What? Your outfit? Ash, this isn’t the time to think about your clothes. We’re running a half-marathon. It isn’t a fashion show. Where are you?

Ashlie: I’m nearly there. Where are you?

Stephen: I’m near the starting line.

Ashlie: OK, I’ll come and find you.

Stephen: OK.

Ashlie: Hi, Stephen!

Stephen: Argh!

Ashlie: Like it? It’s my charity outfit. I think it’s really cute. What are you wearing, Stephen? You look like… er… like a, er… a proper runner.

Stephen: This is the very latest in high-tech equipment. I have satellite navigation so I know exactly where I am. I can measure how fast I run, check my heart rate. And look at this…

Ashlie: Yeah. Very impressive, Stephen. Oh look! There’s Kelvin. He’s the organiser.

Ashlie: Hi, Kelvin.

Kelvin: Hi. Great costume, Ashlie.

Ashlie: Thanks. This is my brother, Stephen. He’s running in the race, too.

Kelvin: Hi, Stephen.

Ashlie: I’ll be back in a minute. I’m just going to get my number. See you.

Stephen: So Kelvin, how many runners are there here today?

Kelvin: There’s five thousand people taking part today. And a lot of money’s being raised for charity. It should be a really good day.

Stephen: I’ve been training for weeks. I’ve been training very seriously.

Kelvin: That’s great to hear. Thank you for taking part.

Stephen: That’s OK. I’m hoping to get a really fast time today. I’m ready to go.

Kelvin: Excellent. The race is just about to start. See you at the finish line.

Stephen: OK. Thank you.

Ashlie: Hey, look I got my number. And guess what? There’s a medal for the person...

Stephen: A medal? What for?

Stephen and Ashlie: It’s for the person who…

Stephen: …gets the fastest time. Come on, Ash. I’m ready. Let’s get to the starting line.

Ashlie: Stephen, there’s a medal for the person who raises the most money!

Stephen: Oh come on, Ash. I’ve worked it out. We have to run the first 8 kilometres in 30 minutes.

Ashlie: Really? Why?

Stephen: That’s my race strategy. It’s very complicated. Don’t worry. You’re going too slow, Ash. If you’d trained more, you’d be running faster.

Ashlie: Well, it’s quite a long way, Stephen, so this is fast enough for me.

Stephen: Oh, I’m going on ahead. I’ll see you at the finish line. Good luck!

Ashlie: But Stephen…

Stephen: Well, must be that way. That’s what the GPS says.

Stephen: Excuse me. I think I’m lost. Have you seen a race round here?

Ashlie: Well done, Stephen. You finally made it. And you know what? Look what I won. I raised loads of money for charity. Isn’t it fantastic? Oh, Stephen!

Task 1

Task 2

Task 3

We can use 'be about to' to say that something will happen in the near future. For example, Stephen says:

  • You're late! The race is about to start.

This means: 

  • The race will start soon.

exercise

Task 4

Language level

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Submitted by Sharon May on Sun, 30/04/2023 - 14:13

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Can I ask a question please? I want to know what conditional is used in this sentence " If you'd trained more, you'd be running faster".
I'll appreciate your help. Thank you.

Hello Sharon May,

That's a mixed conditional. The first verb form ('had trained') refers to a non-factual past -- in other words, to a past action that didn't happen. Saying it this way means the person did not train more. This is typical of third conditionals.

The second verb form ('would be running') is 'would' plus a continuous infinitive. This is typical of second conditionals.

Together they speak about a non-factual past that would have a non-factual effect at the time of speaking. If Susan had trained more last month, right now she would be able to run faster.

All the best,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team

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Submitted by musashow17 on Fri, 01/02/2019 - 00:28

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Hello English Team Could you explain me that what is the difference between take off and take-off The first one is verb and the second one is noun isn't it? I would appreciate if you can give me a few more examples about this topic. I am looking forward to hearing from you Thank you so much

Hello musashow17,

You are correct: take off is a verb and take-off is a noun.

I'm not sure what else there is to say about this topic. There are other examples of phrasal verbs with 'off' which follow this pattern but not all of them do:

The football match kicked off at 3.00 / The kick-off was at 3.00

The conman ripped her off / It was a rip-off

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team