Cardinal numbers (Cardinals)

1. Notice the change of stress in the following numbers:

15, 50 – fifteen, fifty

16, 60 – sixteen, sixty

2. In British English we say “and ” before the tens in large numbers:

364 – three hundred (and) sixty-four

905 – nine hundred (and) five

3. It is possible to say “a” instead of “one” in large numbers:

1,000 – a thousand

4. British and US English differ in the pronunciation of these very large numbers:

1,000,000,000 – a thousand million (British English), a billion (US English)

1,000,000,000,000 – a billion (British English), a trillion (US English)

5. In long numbers such as phone, fax, bank account, or credit card numbers, the figures are pronounced individually: 520633 – five two oh, six double three

Fractions

To express fractions ordinal numbers (ordinals) are used:

1/6 – a sixth, 1/7 – a seventh, 1/8 – an eighth, 1/10 – a tenth

But we say:

½ - a half, ¾ - three quarters, 1 2/3 – one and two thirds

Decimal fractions (decimals)

• A point is used when writing decimals:

8.7 – eight point seven

• “0” is pronounced “oh” after the point and “nought” before the point in British English and “zero” or “oh” in Us English:

• The numbers after the point are pronounced individually:

35.24 – thirty-five point two four

Pronounce the following numbers:

1. 17, 18, 80, 90, 19, 60, 16, 13, 15, 50, 40, 30, 14, 70

2. 375, 989, 810, 911, 103, 562

3. 5,000,109

4. 1,000,000

5. 2,500,000,000

6. +781874567

7. 2/5, 1/3, 3/7, 6 ½

8. 9.1, 27.1, 356.23

SPEAKING

In pairs discuss and give your comment on the following statements from the text:

1. “Television is a key enabler of another fundamental human need – being social”.

2. “What people want from TV is as varied as our population”.

3. “Many of us struggle without regular dosage of social activity. And in this sense TV is the original social network since it provides the motivation to gather with partners, friends, families, and occasionally thousands of strangers”.

4. “Watching TV is a good way of bringing the family together Television is what we want it to be”.

Use the following words:

• In my opinion, ...

• I am of the opinion that .../ I take the view that ..

• My personal view is that ...

• In my experience ...

• As far as I understand / can see, ...

• As I see it, ... / From my point of view ...

• As far as I know ... / From what I know ...

• I might be wrong but ...

• If I am not mistaken ...

WRITING.

Write a short report based on a poll about other students’ viewing habits: how much students in your group (university) watch TV per day, per week, per month; what kind of TV programmes they like to watch. Mention their reasons for TV viewing. Draw tables and diagrams to make your report more vivid and demonstrable.