↗️ How to ask the perfect questions at the Regional Stage? ↗️

The questions:
✏️ need to be on the topic of the presentation (NOT your partner's opinion)
✏️ should NOT be about the information already mentioned in the presentation
✏️ need to be wh-questions (start with who, what, when etc. — that's what «специальный вопрос» means)

Let's talk about the questions in the poll:
❌ Does the National History Museum have special facilities for handicapped people? — This is not a wh-question, the answer is Yes or No
✅ How many bricks are there in the Great Wall of China? — Will your partner be happy to get this question? No. Is it the best question to ask? Also no. However, it does fit the criteria
❌ What is Tchaikovsky's best work? — That one's really tricky. It's better to replace 'best' with 'influential' or 'popular', otherwise this might be interpreted as an opinion question
❌ What other works did Tchaikovsky write? — This is a question about something that has been mentioned (namely the works)
✅ Why was Thomas Jefferson the main author of the Declaration of Independence? — This is a good question to ask, although your partner might struggle to answer it

❗️If you are caught reading your partner's fact file, your question will NOT be accepted

💡The best strategy is to prepare 3-4 questions in advance based on the information you have in your fact file (remember, your partner has the same general topic and the same sections) and then dismiss them if your partner does mention the information

❓How to come up with the questions?
You can ask for details. A good idea is to ask when or where something happened.
Another common question is to ask why something happened.

🐸 Let's practice together!
In the comments, leave some questions that you think are appropriate. Base them on the following passage:

Lomonosov Moscow State University university was founded in 1755 by a decree of Empress Elizabeth of Russia. From 1755 to 1793, it was located in the Principal Medicine Store on Red Square. Between 1782 and 1793, it also occupied a building on Mokhovaya Street designed by Matvei Kazakov.
In the 18th century, the university had three departments: philosophy, medicine, and law. In 1930, medical education was separated from the university. In 1940, the institution was named after Mikhail Lomonosov.

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✨ New task for you! ✨

➡️ For items 1–7, choose a phrasal verb to fit into each pair of sentences. The second parts can be used as many times as needed. Two first parts are extra.
➡️ There is an example (0) done for you in the beginning.

1️⃣ First parts:
break, look, turn, move, set, take, get, run, put, write

2️⃣ Second parts:
off, down, up, out, over

0. She took off her jacket because it was too warm.
His new business really took off after he launched the ad campaign.

1. The car ____ on the highway.
She ____ in tears when she heard the news.

2. We ____ of milk, so I need to go buy some.
His visa ____ last month, and he had to leave the country.

3. They will ___ me ___ for the night in case I miss my train.
I won’t ____ with rude behavior in my classroom.

4. She ____ a meeting with the new client.
He was ____ by his colleagues to take the blame.

5. We ____ the address in the directory right now.
Things ____ after a rough start to the year.

6. Please ____ the music; it’s too loud.
She decided to ____ the job offer because it didn’t pay enough.

7. It took him months to ____ the flu.
We need to ____ this technical problem before launching the app.

👇🏻Share your guesses in the comments👇🏻

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💫Correct answers💫

We hope you enjoyed the task 💻

Now, let's take a closer look at the verbs from it:

0. take off
🔘to remove something, especially clothes:
He took off his clothes and got into the shower.
🔘to suddenly start to be successful or popular:
Her singing career had just begun to take off.

1. break down
🔘If a machine or vehicle breaks down, it stops working:
Our car broke down and we had to push it off the road.
🔘to be unable to control your feelings and to start to cry:
When we gave her the bad news, she broke down and cried.

2. run out
🔘to finish, use, or sell all of something, so that there is none left:
I've run out of milk/money/ideas/patience.
🔘If a document or official agreement runs out, the period of time for which it lasts finishes:
My passport runs out next month — I must get it renewed.

3. put up
🔘to provide someone with a place to stay temporarily:
Sally is putting me up for the weekend.
🔘to accept or continue to accept an unpleasant situation or experience, or someone who behaves unpleasantly:
I can put up with the house being messy, but I hate it if it's not clean.

4. set up
🔘to arrange for an event or activity to happen:
We need to set up a meeting to discuss the proposals.
🔘to trick someone in order to make them do something, or in order to make someone seem guilty of something that they have not done:
They claimed that they hadn't committed the crime, but that they'd been set up by the police.

5. look up
🔘to try to find a piece of information by looking in a book or on a computer:
If you don't know what the word means, look it up in a dictionary.
🔘to become better:
I hope things will start to look up in the new year.

6. turn down
🔘to use a control to adjust a piece of equipment or a power supply to reduce what it is producing:
I asked him to turn down the heating.
🔘to refuse an offer or request:
He offered her a trip to Australia but she turned it down.

7. get over
🔘to get better after an illness:
She was only just getting over the flu when she got a stomach bug.
🔘to overcome an obstacle or difficulty
He is still getting over the shock of being made redundant.

💫 Sign up for our free webinar on February 2nd at 19.00 for more useful vocabulary as well as lifehacks 💫

✅ You guessed it: the mistake is the improper use of articles with proper names. It can really tank your score for the Speaking or Writing sections.

❓How to avoid it? The only way to avoid it would be to learn the rules.

Where to find the rules? There is no single definitive guide, but some rules are:

❗️Usually with the (definite article)❗️

👉Universities, schools, academies
the University of California at Los Angeles
the Royal Academy of Art

👉Organizations, government bodies, parties
the United Nations (UN)
the European Parliament
the Republican Party
the World Wildlife Fund

👉Companies / corporations
the Ford Motor Company
the Bank of New York

👉Museums / galleries / monuments
the Louvre (Museum)
the Tretyakov Gallery
the Lincoln Memorial
the Pyramids, the Colosseum, the Parthenon
the Palace of Versailles, the Forbidden City

👉Buildings / centers / theaters
the Royal Albert Hall
the Empire State Building
the Metropolitan Opera House
the British Library

👉Parks / gardens / squares
the Botanical Gardens
the Red Square

👉Bridges
the Brooklyn Bridge
the Golden Gate Bridge

👉Airports
the John F. Kennedy International Airport
the Sheremetyevo International Airport

👉Hotels
the Hilton Hotel
the Hotel California

👉Newspapers
The New York Times
The Guardian

👉Conferences / documents
the Washington Summit
the UN Charter
the Constitution of the United States

👉Awards / honors
the Nobel Prize
the Academy Awards
Use of a/an before an award is possible when you mean one of many awards: e.g., She won an Academy Award.

📌 Still, there are lots of exceptions, so make sure to research each item individually

✏️ How to nail all Writing tasks? Join our Writing tasks course!

✏️ Practicing writing not only in English, but also in Russian? Learn argumentative writing in our Journalism course!

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💌 Вам сообщение 💌

Преподавательница интенсива к Олимпиаде СПбГУ Дарья Шкаруба передает привет:

📕 A pun vocabulary task: Vol 2 📕

We saw that you liked this task, so here’s another one for you!

For items 1–5, complete the puns. The number of letters is given in brackets to help you and there is an example (0) done for you.

0. Why did the math book look so sad? It had too many _ (8).
Answer: problems

1️⃣ Why don’t skeletons fight each other? They don’t have _ _ (3, 4).

2️⃣ Why did the scarecrow win an award? He was outstanding in _ _ (3, 5).

3️⃣ Why can’t your nose be 12 inches long? Because then it would be a _ (4).

4️⃣ Why did the tomato blush? It saw the salad _ (8).

5️⃣ Why did the stadium get hot after the game? All the _ (4) left.

Guess in the comments 👇

🩷 Sign up for our free webinar on February 2nd at 19.00 for useful tips on solving vocabulary tasks as well as practice exercises!

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