CB4 - Why, why, why - Worksheet

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//Why, why, why???

Conversation Book 4

1. Warm up 1.1 Take a look at the questions in the chart and discuss the following questions with the class. How are clouds formed? Why is water wet? What are shadows made of? Why are you so old? -How old do you think the people asking these questions are? -Do you know how to answer all of these questions? Explain. -How would you react if you were asked any of these questions? -Would you answer them? Why / why not? 1.2 Based on what you see in the pictures shown on the television, match the correct person to each question. ( ( ( (

) How are clouds formed? ) Why is water wet? ) What are shadows made of? ) Why are you so old?

1.3 Choose a question and report it to a classmate. Report your answer to this question as well. E.g. Robert asked why water is wet. I told him that…

2. Reading 2.1 Discuss with the class: Do you think children really ask too many questions? If so, why? Explain your answer to the class. 2.2 Read the text below and check your answer to the previous exercise. Were you right? Do children really ask that many questions? A new study has revealed that mums are bombarded with around 300 questions from their children on a daily basis. Girls aged four are the most curious, asking an incredible 390 questions per day. Eighty-two percent of children apparently go to their mum first rather than their dad if they have a question. And 24 percent of children said they go to their mother first because their dad will just say, “Ask your mum.” The sorts of questions mums tend to get asked vary greatly, but the most difficult include “What is God?” and “Are you going to die?” Other, more awkward, queries include “Why do we have to go to school?” and “Are we rich or poor?” The research encompassed children aged between two and ten and found that four-year-old girls are the most inquisitive. At the other end of the spectrum, nine-year-old boys are more content with their knowledge, asking “only” 144 questions per day. The questions kids ask increase in difficulty over time: 82 percent of mums admit that they can’t answer them and that they have resorted to secretly using Google to solve their children’s problems. 2.3 Answer the questions below based on the text. a) How many questions do children normally ask a day? b) Which age and gender was found to be the most curious? c) Why do children resort to asking their mothers? d) What kinds of questions are normally asked? e) Do the questions get easier with time? Explain. 2.4 Report the questions asked by the children in the text. a) b) c) d)

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3. Target Language

Reported Speech - Asking questions a) Yes/no questions: When we report yes/no questions, we use “if” or “whether”. E.g. Are you going to die? → She asked me if I was going to die. b) Questions with a question word: When there is a question word (what, when, why, etc.), we use that question word in the reported question. E.g. Why do we have to go to school? → He asked me why they had to go to school. The tense of the verb changes as it does in other reported speech, but we don’t use auxiliary verbs. The word order is the same as in an affirmative sentence.

4. Pair work Grab a card and report the question on it. Tell a classmate how you would answer this question.

5. Group work Get a slip of paper and write a question on it about something you would like to ask your parents. Write your name on the paper. Change papers with your classmates. (Now you have someone else’s question.) Mingle with your classmates and report the question on your paper to a classmate.

“In the olden days, was everything black and white?” (Sarah)

6. Composition

“Did you swallow the baby?” (Chancey)

Write about the funniest, weirdest, cleverest question you have ever heard. Give details about the context of the situation and who asked the question, and report the answer given.