One more time and you’ll have it!

While looking up the dates you came across many numbers. Some complex numbers cause difficulties in reading. The following note will give you help in the reading, speaking and writing of numbers.

Read the note and pay attention to the place of the conjunction and in the complex numbers.

101 - a/one hundred and one

152 – a/one hundred and fifty-two

1001 – а/one thousand and one

2 325 – two thousand, three hundred and twenty-five

15 972 – fifteen thousand, nine hundred and seventy two

234 753 – two hundred and thirty-four thousand, seven hundred

and fifty-three

! In American English conjunction and is supposed to be omitted.

Listen to the tape and practise saying the following numbers:

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12—20	13—30	14—40	15—50
16—60	17—70	18—80	19—90

105 238 950 1,200 2,780 5,060 11,900 120,000 450,000 843,926 5,600,420 42,857,139 123,456,789 921,637,458

N ow divide into two groups of players and a leader. The leader writes any complex number on a piece of paper and reads it to the players to write. One player from each group immediately writes this number on the board. The player who writes the number correctly becomes a leader, and that who makes a mistake, drops out of the game. The last player remaining is the winner.

Now you know how to read, speak, and write numbers and dates. It’s very important to distinguish them from other words while listening to the speaker.

1. You will hear four news items. On the tape there are sixteen numbers.

Write them down on a separate piece of paper. Write the numbers, not the letters: ■ 13

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2. Can you remember the whole phrases the numbers were in? Write down the phrases from memory. Check to see if your partner has the same as you. Then read them out to the class to discuss before listening for a final check.

3. Here is a gapped tapescript of four news items, but the senten-

ces are in a wrong order.

Fill in the gaps with correct numbers.

A man armed with a shotgun held up cashiers at the National Bank today and stole a) ₤ 5,500.

Police have appealed for witnesses. The number to ring is b) _____.

Eye witnesses said that the plane had reached its take-off speed of c) _____ mph when a fire broke out in the rear engine. d) _____ people managed to escape the blaze.

Last month there were e) _____ registered unemployed.

The accident happened at f) _____ past g) _____.

h) _____ car workers walked out on strike today in Coventry.

It is feared that i) _____ people may have died in a plane crash this morning.

Unemployment figures were released today.

The plane had covered three-fourth of the j) _____ mile trip, and had stopped to refuel.

They had asked for a pay rise of k) _____ %, but management said they could only offer l) _____ %.

It was Bel Air flight m) _____ , going from Singapore to New York.

This would mean an extra n) ₤ _____ per week. A union spokesman said ‘It’s not enough.’

That’s o) _____ % of the work force. Over the past year this number has increased by over p) _____.

Listen to this tape once again and correct your mistakes.

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At home you are to read the text again in more depth.

Make simple gapped sentences about each number and date on a separate sheet of paper.

■ The university has 4 large reading halls.

3	4	5	7	9	10	12	15
17	18	20	35	55	72	80	200
280	300	346	500	1910	1916	1930	1961
1994	1997	2002	2200	6300	35000	80000	500000

In class you will give other students your gapped sentences to fill in.

TAPESCRIPT SECTION