This Week: In Seventh Heaven

This Week: In Seventh Heaven

Jack: Hello my name’s Jack and welcome to our weekly round-up section called ‘This Week’ on Premier Skills English. 

Rich: My name’s Rich. If you want to listen and read at the same time we have a transcript of this podcast on the Premier Skills English website.

Jack: We’ve got lots of interesting words and phrases to help you talk about football in English. This week we focus on the teams at the top and two teams that scored lots of goals. 

Rich: It’s just the two of us this week - Laura’s on holiday.

Jack: And this will be our last episode for a couple of weeks too. 

Rich: But the football doesn’t stop over the Christmas holidays in the UK so we won’t forget to round up all the matches that take place when we come back at the beginning of January.

Jack: If you are lucky enough to get some time to spend with your family and friends at this time of year we’d like to wish you very happy holidays.

Rich: We’re going to look at three headlines from this weekend’s action and after each, we’ll look at a couple of useful phrases. 

Jack: We want you to use and practise these words and phrases by interacting with Premier League fans from around the world in our comments section.

Rich: If you listen to us on Apple Podcasts, you can leave your comments in the review section. We do read all the reviews and would love to hear from you.

Jack: You can find all of our latest content on the Premier Skills English homepage or the Premier Skills-British Council Facebook page. 

Rich: The words and phrases we are looking at this week are: to be in seventh heaven, for the record, to be hit for six, a consolation goal, to double an advantage and to be caught in two minds.

Jack: Later on we’ll also have a language challenge for you to have a go at so you need to be ready for that.

Headline 1

Rich: Reds in seventh heaven.

Jack: Liverpool hit seven goals past a Crystal Palace defence that didn’t know what had hit them. It was Liverpool’s biggest-ever Premier League win. For the record, the goalscorers were Takumi Minamino, Sadio Mane, Jordan Henderson and a brace each for Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah.

Rich: What a performance hey? And suddenly Liverpool are top of the table with a four-point lead over the chasing pack. 

Jack: Yes, it’s looking good for the Reds although I feel a bit sorry for the Crystal Palace defence and not a nice early Christmas present for their fans.

Rich: OK, let’s look at a couple of phrases from the headline. I said Liverpool were in seventh heaven. 

Jack: This is the headline of choice for all football journalists when a team score seven goals. I suppose it’s not overused because teams don’t score seven goals very often.

Rich: The phrase comes from religion but for many this has been forgotten and it has a more general use which is to be in a state of extreme happiness.

Jack: I wonder if this happiness is more or less than being on cloud nine - another phrase to which is used to describe being in a state of extreme happiness.

Rich: Is cloud nine above seventh heaven? Who knows but Liverpool players and fans will be in seventh heaven and on cloud nine this week.

Jack: The other phrase we wanted to pick out from the headline is for the record. I said  For the record, the goalscorers were and then I listed the goalscorers.

Rich: We use the phrase for the record to give people information about something that may be useful later but is not the most important thing you are saying. 

Jack: The result and performance by Liverpool was important and a list of goalscorers when a team has scored so many is less important.

Rich: We might also use this phrase to tell people publicly something important that you want others to remember.

Jack: A suspect in a crime might say to the police ‘and just for the record I was nowhere near the bank when it was robbed’.

Rich: Let’s move on to our second headline.

Headline 2

Jack: United hit Leeds for six.

Rich: Manchester United produced their best performance of the season as they brushed aside Leeds United at Old Trafford. Scott McTominay scored twice in the first three minutes and Leeds never recovered. Bruno Fernandes also scored twice and Daniel James and Victor Lindelof also got on the scoresheet. Stuart Dallas’ consolation goal for Leeds was the goal of the game but it finished 6-2 to the hosts.

Jack: United up to third in the table with a game in hand and scoring lots of goals.

Rich: Yes, they could be up there this season fighting for the title.

Jack: Let’s look at some language. We’ve already looked at the phrases to be in seventh heaven and to be on cloud nine and we’ve got another phrase with a number: to be hit for six.

Rich: We said Leeds were hit for six by United. To be hit for six here means to have an unpleasant or shocking effect on someone.

Jack: United hit Leeds for six. We could also say things like ‘when I heard the news it hit me for six’ or ‘the illness really hit me for six’ if something has a bad effect on you.

Rich: The phrase comes from cricket: a six is when you hit the ball off the pitch and sometimes even out of the stadium.

Jack: The other phrase I want to talk about is a consolation goal. We said that Stuart Dallas scored a fantastic consolation goal.

Rich: A consolation goal is a goal that is scored late in the game by a team that is losing badly. A consolation goal doesn’t effect the result of the game.

Jack: A consolation is something that makes someone who is feeling sad a little bit better.

Rich: Consolation goals are never really much consolation.

Jack: Let’s move on to our third headline.

Headline 3

Rich: Foxes up to second with win at Spurs.

Jack: Leicester City moved up to second place with a win at title rivals - Tottenham Hotspur. Jamie Vardy scored the opener from the spot in added time at the end of the first half. The Foxes continued to press for a second and doubled their advantage when Vardy’s header caught Toby Alderweireld in two minds and the defender could only put the ball in his own net.

Rich: I like the look of Leicester this season. They counter attack very quickly just like when they won the title a few seasons ago.

Jack: A couple of bad results for Tottenham - they need to start winning again quickly if they want to challenge.

Rich: Let’s look at some language. We’ve been looking at a few phrases with numbers today: hit for six, seventh heaven, cloud nine and there were a few more in this headline.

Jack: Leicester moved up to second place, they continued to press for a second which means a second goal and Leicester doubled their advantage.

Rich: To double something means to make something twice as big. Leicester had one goal and then they doubled this by scoring again.

Jack: They doubled their advantage. The score went from 1-0 to 2-0.

Rich: When Jamie Vardy headed the ball Toby Alderweireld was caught in two minds. He didn’t know whether to hit the ball out for a corner or pass the ball back to the goalkeeper.

Jack: He did neither and scored an own goal.

Rich: To be caught in two minds means to be unable to make a decision between two things. 

Jack:  OK. We’ve looked at three stories and six bits of vocabulary in our headlines. The words and phrases we’ve looked at are: to be in seventh heaven, for the record, to be hit for six, a consolation goal. To double an advantage and to be caught in two minds.

Rich: Don’t forget to look at the website for the transcript if you want to check your understanding of this vocabulary.

Prediction

Jack: This is where we normally do our prediction but we’re not going to do a prediction this week - we’re going to leave it to you.

Rich: As we said earlier we are going to be away for two weeks and while we are away there will be three rounds of Premier League fixtures.

Jack: So, we’re going to pick three of the matches we think you should watch and we want you to write your predictions for those matches.

Rich: OK, in matchweek 15 we think you should watch Leicester against Manchester United.

Jack: This is on the 26th of December - that’s Boxing Day in the UK. It should be a cracking match and will give us an idea of which of these two teams might be the more serious challenger to Liverpool.

Rich: Matchweek 16 is between Monday the 28th and Wednesday the 30th and the match we think you should watch is on the 28th, Everton against Manchester City.

Jack: Everton moved briefly into second place and have been doing really well under Carlo Ancelotti. City need to start scoring more goals quickly - it should be a good game.

Rich: Finally, matchweek 17 will be played between the first and fourth of January 2021 and we think the first match you should watch next year is on the 3rd of January: Chelsea v Manchester City.

Jack: It should be another good game and we’ll see if Chelsea can get back into the top four or will the Manchester clubs be riding high?

Rich: We haven’t mentioned Liverpool or Arsenal but I suppose we’ll be watching all our own team’s matches as well.

Jack: If I have to! You can make all your predictions for the holiday matches on the Premier Skills English website.

Rich: Let us know your predictions and tell us about the matches you watch. 

Language Challenge

Jack: To finish up the show we’ve got a quick language challenge connected to this week’s vocabulary.

Rich: This week we looked at lots of phrases connected to numbers: seventh heaven, cloud nine, hit for six and so on. We’re going to give you three more sentences which are connected to numbers.

Jack: We want you to write the missing words in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website.

Rich: Don’t think ______ about writing your answers on the Premier Skills English website.

Jack: Crystal Palace were definitely _____ best against Liverpool.

Rich: You sometimes need some kind of ______ sense to predict the result of football matches.

Jack: We want you to write the answers on the Premier Skills English website where we have some more questions and activities connected to this week’s show.

Rich: Or write your answer on Apple Podcasts if that’s where you listen to us. Just write the answers in the review section and say hi.

Jack: Before we finish we just wanted to say that we hope you found this lesson useful and we hope that all of you stay fit and healthy.

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football.