The Internet. The IT Crowd

Warm Up Activity

Plot Summary

A geeky genius Maurice Moss, his lazy colleague Roy Trenneman, and Jen Barber, work in IT department deep in the basement of London company Reynholm Industries. Jen is the department head and relationship manager, but she knows nothing about computers. When Jen is named Reynholm Industries' Employee of the Month and Roy and Moss are annoyed. They decide to play a trick on her when she has to give a speech at the shareholders’ meeting.

 

1 Vocabulary focus. Study the words and  word combinations, practise their translation, spelling. Check your knowledge in the test. Play vocabulary game and set your own vocabulary game record.

2 Watch the video   and put the words into the gaps in the sentences.

1.     I offer  a _____ of it so that you can use it in your ______.

2.     Jen:   It _____ small.

3.     Moss:   That’s one of the _____ things about it.

4.     Jen:  _____ on, it doesn’t have _____ or anything.

5.     Moss:   It’s _______.

Jen:  Everything is _____ nowadays, _____ it?

6.     The Internet doesn’t _____ anything.

7.     ______ is Jen doing with the Internet?

8.     Moss said I _____ use it for my speech.

9.     Are you ____? What if she ____ it?

10. It gets on top of Big Ben. That’s where you get the best _____.

11. I won’t drop it, I’ll ___  ____ it.

12. I _____, I won’t let anything happen to it.

13. I spoke to the _____ of the Internet not one hour ago, I told them about Jen winning the _________________ and they were so ______ that they wanted to do whatever they could to help.

14. You’ve got to _____ me have it.

15. It’s just too _____.

16. Roy: Moss, has it been ______?

           Moss: By Stephen Hawking himself, who sends his ______ , by the ___.

17. Jen: _______ I have it?

18. Roy: You _______.

 

3  Fill in the blanks in the sentences with words and word combinations, each words and word combination can be used two times.

                                     insane, reception, loan, weigh

1.     I was halfway through Dan Brown’s “Digital Fortress” when my e-book _____ (by way of eBookFling) reached the two-week mark. I’d received e-mail, so I knew exactly when time was about to be up.

2.     The phone and tablet _____ 1.45 pounds, which is lighter than the iPad.

3.     Apple has blamed _____ problems in its iPhone 4 on a software error rather than a hardware fault - suggesting users haven't been holding the device incorrectly, after all.

4.     The Dodocase mini may _____ a little more than your traditional case, but the feel is perfect in your hand.

5.     The Internet is driving you ____ with all sorts of new conditions now being recognized by the medical community.

6.     Thousands of libraries across the U.S. can now ____ e-books through Amazon.

7.     Mobility is expanding at an _____ pace, wireless is hot and only getting hotter, and Ethernet is being marginalized in favor of the power of portability demanded by a generation of cool new devices.

8.     One of the problems could be the design of the phone that seems to affect its ______, and we noticed the signal strength drop 4 percent while holding the phone.

4 Answer the Questions.

1.     What did Moss give Jen? How could she use the object at the shareholders’ meeting?

2.     What was Jen’s reaction? Did she understand the joke?

3.     What did Roy do when he saw Moss and Jen getting ready for shareholders’ meeting?

4.     Why were the Elders mentioned? What did they do?

5.     Why was Stephen Hawking mentioned?

6.     Did Jen understand the IT guys’ joke?

5 Grammar. Look back at the sentences in Exercise 2. Can you find examples of reported (Indirect Speech)? Remember that we use reported speech when we want to tell somebody what another person said. Compare sentence 1 and sentence 8. How are verb forms changed in reported speech?  

SEQUENCE OF TENSES
Verb form introducing direct speech		Verb form in reported speech
PRESENT	Present Indefinite Jane says: ”You dance well”.	No changes		Jane says that I dance well
	Present Continuous Jane is crying: ”I felt so lonely”			Jane is crying that she felt so lonely.
	Present Perfect Jane’s said: “You dance well”			Jane has said that I dance well.
	Future Indefinite Jane’ll say: ”I felt so lonely”			Jane’ll say that she felt so lonely.
	Future Continuous Jane’ll be saying: ”I felt so lonely”			Jane’ll be saying that she felt so lonely.
	Future Perfect Jane’ll have said: ”I felt so lonely”			Jane’ll have said that she felt so lonely.
PAST	Past Indefinite Jane said: ”You dance well”.	Present Indefinite Jane said: ”You dance well”.	→	Past Indefinite Jane said that  I danced well
		Present Continuous Jane said: “I’m waiting for Kate”.	→	Past Continuous Jane said that she was waiting for Kate.
	Past Continuous Jane was crying: ”I felt so lonely”	Present Perfect Jane said: “ Kate has not phoned me”.	→	Past Perfect Jane said that Kate had not phoned her.
		Present Perfect Continuous Jane said: “I have been waiting for ages”.	→	Past Perfect Continuous Jane said that she had been waiting for ages.
		Past Indefinite Jane said:” I made it yesterday”.	→	Past Perfect Jane said she had made it the day before.
		Past Indefinite in time clause (f.ex.  When….) Jane said: “When I got there the place was almost empty”.	→	NO CHANGES Jane said that when she got there, the place had been almost empty.
		When there is a time clause the Past Simple verb in main clause (f.ex. the place was almost empty ) Jane said: “When I got there the place was almost empty”.	→	Past Perfect or NO CHANGES Jane said that when she got there, the place had been/ was almost empty.
		Past Indefinite (we refer to a situation that still exists in the present) Jane said: “We didn’t stay in the hotel because it was too expensive”. (and we think that the hotel is still expensive now)	→	NO CHANGES Jane said that they hadn’t stayed in the hotel because it was too expensive.
		Past Continuous Jane said: “ I was writing”. “When they arrived, I was still cooking the dinner”, - he said.	→	Past Perfect Continuous  or NO CHANGES (in conversation) Jane said that she had been writing. or Jane said that she was writing.  He said that when they arrived, he was still cooking the dinner.
		BUT Activity (verb in Past Continuous) was completed before an event in the Past Simple or Present Perfect “We were planning to go out but then Joe started feeling sick”, - she said.	→	Past Perfect Continuous   She said that they had been planning to go out but then Joe started (had started) feeling sick.
		Past Perfect Jane said: “I had written my report”.	→	NO CHANGES Jane said that she had written her report.
	Past Perfect Jane’d said: “You dance well”.
		Past Perfect Continuous Jane said: “ I had been writing my report”.	→	NO CHANGES Jane said that she had been writing her report.
		Future Indefinite Jane said: “I’ll do it”.	→	Future – Indefinite - in - the- Past Jane said that she would do it.
		Future Continuous Jane said:” I’ll be writing my report”.	→	Future – Continuous - in - the- Past Jane said that she would be writing her report.
		Future Perfect Jane said: “I’ll have written my report”.	→	Future – Perfect - in - the- Past Jane said that she would have written her report.

REPORTING QUESTIONS, REQUESTS, ADVICE, ORDERS

Type of sentence in direct speech	+	Reported speech
General question (+  alternative question (Is it a pen or a pencil?)) Jane asked: ”Have I seen you before? ”	Verbs that introduce reported speech  ASK, WONDER, WANT TO KNOW	if whether	+	Direct word order Subject + Predicate
		Jane asked me if she had seen me before.
Special question Jane asked: “Why didn’t you tell me the truth?”		Question word (who, when)	+	Direct word order Subject + Predicate
		Jane asked me why I hadn’t told her the truth.
Question (general or special) with the verb shall/should Jane asked: “What should I buy for Peter?” Jane asked: “Should I tell Jill what happened?”		Question word (special question) (who, where)  if  / whether (general question)	+	to  + Infinitive
		Jane asked me what to buy for Peter. Jane asked me whether to tell Jill what had happened. (mind sequence of tenses)
REQUESTS, ADVICE, ORDERS Imperative sentences))		To + Infinitive Not + to + Infinitive Jane asked me to help her write her speech. Jane told me to go at once. Jane told me not to stay out too late.
Jane asked: “Can you help me write my speech?” (request)
Jane told me: “Go at once”. Jane told me: “Don’t stay out too late”. (order, request)

  6 Write the sentences from Exercise 2 in reported speech.