The I.T Crowd – Series 1 Episode 2 - Calamity Jen

Match the verbs with the nouns to make collocations:

Burst	war (on s.t/s.o)
Dial	a balloon
Ask s.o	a pair of glasses
Declare	the emergency services
Turn off	a few tips
Pick up	a personal question
Try on	your voice
Raise	Stress
Get in	a soldering iron
Remove	trouble
Aim	terrible rages
Obsessed with	harshly
Deal with	the safety clip
Look forward to	your feet
Be subject to	the nozzle
Stamp	shoes
Speak	hearing from you

Some more collocations:

Pick up - some ideas/a language/a hitchhiker/

Deal with – a difficult client/a problem/a situation

Aim – your gun/a missile/a weapon

Get in - your car/touch with/contact with

Raise - your salary/your arms/taxes/the alarm

Dial – the wrong number/999/

Burst – a spot/a blister/into tears/out laughing

Declare – oneself bankrupt/your goods (at customs)

Use these collocations in the following discussion questions:

1) What number should you ____ in your country if you require the ____ ____?

2) Do you think the government should ____ ____ or decrease them?

3) When you were a child, did you use to ____ ____ ____? How did you misbehave? How were you punished?

4) When was the last time you were so happy or so sad that you ____ ____ ____ or ____ ____ ____?

5) When you go abroad, do you usually ____ ____ ____ at customs, or walk straight through?

6) When was the last time your employer ____ ____ ____? What percentage did it increase by?

7) How do you ____ ____ stress? Do you have any tips?

8) How do you ____ ____ a language quickly?

Grammar – past simple, past continuous, past perfect

Past simple = did

Past continuous = was/were doing

Past perfect = had done

We use past simple for consecutive moments which are complete. We use past continuous for incomplete moments which often happen at the same time as other moments. For example

Roy screamed (COMPLETE) at the girl when she was waiting (INCOMPLETE) to try the stress machine.

We use past simple for consecutive moments (moments in the story that happen one after the other). We use past perfect in the narrative when we want to emphasize that something happened earlier than a past simple moment. For example

When Jen took off her shoe she saw that she had broken (EARLIER than other 2 verbs) her toe

Put the following verbs in to the correct past tense

When Jen (get) to work that morning she immediately (have to) go to a meeting where her boss (declare) war on stress. During the meeting Jen couldn’t stop thinking about the shoes she (see) in the shop window on the way to work. So she (decide) to leave early. The boss also (invite) an expert on stress to give a lecture. The staff reluctantly (agree) to go only after they (be told) about the free buffet. When Roy and Moss (arrive) at the stress lecture, the expert already (start) and everybody (sit) and (listen) to him. He (ask) for a volunteer and a lady (get up) and (try) the stress machine. Then Roy (offer) to be the next volunteer and he (scream) at the lady while she (sit) in her chair.

More questions for discussion:

If a fire breaks out in your place of work, what is the procedure for employees? How should they raise the alarm? Would you know how to use a fire extinguisher?

Do you have an IT department at work? How effective are they? Do they deal with your problems quickly?

Have you ever been fired? Have any colleagues been fired recently? How did they/you get in trouble?

Do you often raise your voice at work? What sort of thing causes this?

Answers:

Burst	a balloon
Dial	the emergency services
Ask s.o	a personal question
Declare	war (on s.t/s.o)
Turn off	A soldering iron
Pick up	a few tips
Try on	a pair of glasses
Raise	your voice
Get in	Trouble
Remove	the safety clip
Aim	the nozzle
Obsessed with	Shoes
Deal with	Stress
Look forward to	hearing from you
Be subject to	terrible rages
Stamp	your feet
Speak	Harshly

1) Dial, emergency services

2) Raise taxes

3) get in trouble

4) burst out laughing, burst into tears

5) declare your goods

6) raised your salary

7) deal with

8) pick up

Grammar

1) got

2) had to

3) declared

4) had seen

5) decided

6) had also invited

7) agreed

8) had been told

9) arrived

10) had already started

11) was sitting and listening

12) asked

13) got up

14) tried

15) offered

16) screamed

17) was sitting