English Vocabulary in Use Pre-intermediate and Intermediate » Unit 43: Books and films

Word List
  • act [perform]
  • acting
  • actor
  • author
  • biography
  • comedy
  • complicated
  • direct (a film)
  • director (of a film)
  • entertain
  • entertainer
  • entertainment
  • fancy (doing) sth
  • fiction
  • film director
  • horror film
  • latest
  • literature
  • novel
  • poet
  • poetry
  • reviewer
  • romantic comedy
  • science fiction
  • single [record]
  • star [famous actor]
  • thriller
  • track [music]
  • What’s on?
Exercises

43.1 ‣ Cross out one wrong word in each sentence. Write the correct word at the end.

  1. Many poems are around 300 pages.
  2. Cinema grew in popularity in the first half of the 20th year. _____
  3. I enjoy science fiction because I like stories about the past. _____
  4. What’s happening at the cinema? _____
  5. We went to see the film because there was a good article in the newspaper. _____
  6. I’ve been reading a new autobiography of Alfred Hitchcock by Donald Spoto. _____
  7. Comedies should make people frightened. _____

43.2 ‣ Complete the sentences with the correct form of the word on the right.

  1. William Wordsworth is a very famous . POETRY
  2. I thought the film was good _____. ENTERTAIN
  3. Johnny Depp is one of my favourite _____. ACT
  4. My daughter wrote a lovely _____ for her school magazine. POETRY
  5. I thought the _____ in the film was a bit unnatural. ACT
  6. I like him very much; he’s a great _____. ENTERTAIN
  7. I didn’t agree with what the _____ said. REVIEW
  8. Who’s your favourite _____? DIRECT

43.3 ‣ Complete the dialogue.

A: What’s 1 at the cinema?
B: Er, there’s the 2_____ film by Pedro Almodóvar. It only came out yesterday.
A: Oh, the guy who 3_____ Julieta. He’s a very good 4_____, but I don’t understand some of his films–they’re a bit 5_____ for me. Anything else 6_____?
B: Well, a couple of romantic 7_____, which may be fun. And they’re showing The Kite Runner again.
A: Oh, what’s that?
B: It’s a film based on the 8_____ by Khaled Hosseini. It’s a very good book. Do you 9_____ seeing that?
A: Yeah, why not.

43.4 ‣

Over to you

Answer the questions. If possible, compare your answers with someone else.

  1. Do you read novels or poetry? If so, what do you like? Who are your favourite authors?
    _____
  2. Do you go to the cinema? If so, how do you decide which films to go and see?
    _____
  3. Do you often read film reviews?
    _____
  4. What are your favourite films? Who are your favourite actors?
    _____
Answer Key
A ‣ Books

“I used to hate literature1 at school, but now I read a lot. I started off with fiction2. I read hundreds of novels3, mostly thrillers4 and science fiction5. My favourite author6 is John le Carré.

Recently, I’ve started reading quite a lot of biographies7, and even some poetry8. Two of my favourite poets are Antonio Machado and Federico García Lorca. They both wrote poems in the early 20th century.”

1 serious and important writing
2 stories about imaginary people and events
3 fiction books
4 exciting stories, often about crime
5 stories about the future
6 someone who writes books
7 stories of a person’s life, written by another person
8 pieces of creative writing in short lines

B ‣ Films

How do you decide which films you are going to see?

If it’s a horror film [a film that makes people frightened, e.g.Dracula], I usually go and see it. I love horror films.

If a film gets good reviews [opinions in a newspaper or magazine], then I often go and see it.

If there’s a big star [a famous actor] in it, then I am more likely to see it. I don’t normally go and see films if I don’t recognise the names of the actors [the people who are in films].

I’m not interested in films that are serious or complicated [difficult to understand]; I only go to the cinema for entertainment [things you see or do to enjoy yourself].

I like comedies [films that are funny] and especially romantic comedies [comedies that have a love story]. I’ll go and see anything that Ashton Kutcher is in!

I look to see what’s on [what films are being shown at the cinema], and go to anything that I fancy seeing [want to see; infml].

For me, the film director [the person who tells the actors what to do, e.g. Spielberg] is the most important thing. I always go and see the latest film [the newest, most recent] by directors I really like such as Ben Affleck.

Language help

nounpersonverb
entertainmententertainerentertain
reviewreviewerreview
actingactoract
directingdirectordirect

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