My Community and I
Senior 5 · English
My Community and I
Lesson 2 of 4
25 min
Let's begin
A new road, a water point or a classroom is opened once, with speeches. After that it has to be looked after every day, and that work falls to ordinary people. In this lesson you listen to a community radio interview about who does what to keep one village water point working. Then you practise two kinds of speaking that every A-level English examination tests: comparing, and describing your own interests.
Copy this frame into your exercise book. You will complete it during the second listening.
| Duty | Who does it | How often or when |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | ||
| 2. | ||
| 3. | ||
| 4. | ||
| 5. |
Important
Listening script: for a teacher or classmate to read aloud
Only the readers open the script; everyone else keeps it closed until after the third listening. Three readers: the presenter, Mrs Ingabire and Patrick. Read at a steady radio pace, about three minutes in all. The village, the programme and the speakers are imagined, and the fee is illustrative.
Presenter: Good afternoon, and welcome to Village Voices. Six months ago, the people of Rwinkuba village opened a new water point. Today I want to ask a different question: not who built it, but who keeps it running. With me are Mrs Ingabire, who chairs the village water committee, and Patrick, a student volunteer. Mrs Ingabire, let's start with the building.
Mrs Ingabire: The pipe and the taps came with the district's support, but the trench was dug by us. Every household was expected to give two days of labour, and almost everyone did. That matters, because people look after what they have built with their own hands.
Presenter: And now that it's built?
Mrs Ingabire: Now the real work begins. First, every household pays a small fee each month, three hundred francs, into a repair fund. The committee keeps the money, and our treasurer reads the accounts aloud at the village meeting every three months, so nobody can say the money has disappeared. Second, we have a cleaning rota. Every Saturday morning two households clear the drain and sweep the area around the taps. Third, we have rules. You mustn't wash motorbikes or clothes at the tap, and children mustn't play with the taps. And finally, anyone who sees a leak has to report it to our caretaker the same day.
Presenter: Patrick, where do young people fit in?
Patrick: We decided we had three jobs. The tap sits below a steep slope, and when it rained, soil washed down into the drain. So in our school holidays we planted grass and trees on the slope to stop the erosion. We also help elderly neighbours who can't carry a full jerrycan. And many older people found it hard to pay the fee by phone, so on Sunday afternoons we sit outside the church and show them how to do it.
Presenter: It sounds very organised. Has anything gone wrong?
Mrs Ingabire: Of course. Last year one tap broke, and it took three weeks to repair, because too many households were behind with their fees and the fund was nearly empty. For three weeks the queue was twice as long. Nobody needed a speech after that. People understood that the water is their right, but keeping it flowing is their duty.
Presenter: Mrs Ingabire, Patrick, thank you. Listeners, who keeps the shared things in your village working? Send us your stories.
Which title fits the interview best? Give one reason from what you heard.
Many of you live in one place and study in another, so you can compare two communities from experience. The diagram sorts some common differences. Not every village or town fits it: use it as a starting point, then correct it from what you know.
Figure 1.2 Some common differences between rural and urban life. They are generalisations, not rules.
| To say … | Useful language |
|---|---|
| a big difference | Kigali is much / far busier than my village. |
| a small difference | The market is slightly bigger than ours. |
| "less" without less | My village isn't as noisy as the town. |
| sameness | Both places have markets. The clinic is as busy as the town one. |
| contrast in one sentence | In the village everyone knows you, whereas / while in town nobody does. |
| contrast across sentences | Rents are low at home. In contrast, a room in town costs a lot. On the other hand, town wages are higher. |
| an extreme | Market day is the busiest day of the week. |
Task. In pairs, choose two places you both know: your home area and the area of your school, for example. Each of you speaks for about two minutes, comparing the two places under three headings: work, services and free time. Your partner listens and gives you a score from the checklist below.
| Speaking checklist | Yes / Partly / No |
|---|---|
| States the two places clearly at the start | |
| Covers all three headings | |
| Uses at least one comparative with much or slightly, one not as … as and one whereas or while | |
| Gives a real example for each point | |
| Ends with a personal preference and a reason |
A hobby is an activity you do regularly for pleasure in your free time. Each kind of hobby goes with its own verb.
| Verb | Goes with | Example |
|---|---|---|
| play | games with rules or competition; musical instruments (with the) | play football, play igisoro, play chess, play the guitar |
| go + -ing | activities that involve moving somewhere | go swimming, go hiking, go cycling |
| do | individual activities and arts without a ball | do karate, do yoga, do puzzles |
| join / belong to | groups | join a choir, belong to a debating club |
| take up / give up | starting or stopping a hobby | She took up drawing last year. |
To talk about how much you like a hobby: I'm (really) into …, I'm keen on …, I'm fond of …, What I enjoy most about … is …. All are followed by a noun or an -ing form: I'm keen on singing, not keen on sing.
A model talk (103 words, about one minute when spoken):
Ever since I was twelve, I have been repairing broken radios. It started when my grandfather's radio stopped working and nobody in our village could fix it. I opened it with a borrowed screwdriver, found a loose wire and, to my surprise, it played again. Now neighbours bring me radios, torches and, more and more often, phone chargers. I work on them on Saturday afternoons, at a small table outside our house. What I enjoy most is the moment a dead machine comes back to life. It is a quiet hobby, but it has taught me patience, and it has made me useful.
Notice how it is built: when the hobby began (present perfect continuous, have been repairing), the story of how it started (past simple), what happens now (present simple), and why it matters to the speaker.
Task. Prepare a one-minute talk about a hobby you have or would like to take up. Follow the same four steps, then give it to a partner without reading from your notes.
Warning
Practice
Sources and credits
