I Can, I Can't

Every person is able to do some things and unable to do others. A runner can run very fast because he trains every day. A man carrying a huge sack cannot walk quickly because the load is too heavy. A singer can sing sweetly because she has practised for years. Two boys can play football because they play together every evening. English talks about all of this with four small words: can, can't, could and couldn't. This unit teaches you to use them, to ask other people about their abilities, and to give the reason with because.

Before the grammar, here is a song built on two little words: any and few. Each line puts an easy action beside a harder one. Anyone can make a promise; only a few people keep their word. Anyone can start; only a few can stay to the end. Sing it, and notice how often the word can appears.

After singing, talk with a friend: what can any woman, man, girl, brain, kid, gang, soul or dog do in this song, and what can only a few do? The song is really saying that starting is easy and finishing well is rare.

Shortly after the war, the writer and his brother were invited to spend a few days' holiday with their uncle, who had just returned from abroad. The uncle had rented a cottage in the country, though he rarely spent much time there. When the brothers arrived, they understood why. The cottage had no comfortable furniture, many of the windows were broken, and the roof leaked, which made the whole house damp.

On their first evening they sat around the fire after supper, listening to the uncle's stories of his adventures in distant countries. The writer was tired after the long train journey and would have preferred to go to bed, but he could not bear to miss a single one of his uncle's exciting tales.

The uncle was in the middle of describing a terrifying experience when a loud crash came from the bedroom above, the very room where the two boys were going to sleep. The uncle laughed loudly and said it sounded as if the roof had fallen in. When they opened the bedroom door, they could see nothing at first because of the thick clouds of dust that filled the room. As the dust began to clear, a strange sight met their eyes. A large part of the ceiling had collapsed, falling right onto the pillow of the writer's bed. If he had gone to bed early, he would have been seriously injured, perhaps killed.

That night everyone slept on the floor of the sitting room downstairs, because nobody wished to risk their life under a roof that might collapse at any moment. The very next morning they left for London, and the uncle gave up his cottage in the country. This was not the kind of adventure they cared for.

I can touch the ceiling because I'm tall. He can swim two kilometres because he has practised a lot. I cannot play tennis because I have never played it. I cannot touch the ceiling because I'm too short. To make a question, put can before the person: Can he drive a car? Can the children read yet? The short answers are simple: Yes, I can. No, I can't.

Use could and couldn't whenever the ability belongs to an earlier time. I could play football very well when I was a child. Namita couldn't call you yesterday. The question form works the same way as with can: Could you draw well when you were a child? Yes, I could. When you say what somebody can or cannot do, it is natural to add the reason too: She couldn't come to school yesterday because she was ill.

Here is the test. Look at what follows the gap. If you can find a subject and a verb there, choose because: I am late because the traffic was terrible. If only a thing follows, choose because of: I am late because of the traffic. Two more words, as and since, behave exactly like because and take a full clause: As it was really cold, I put on my gloves and my hat. Luca bought the shoes since they were perfect.

Say the word train aloud. The r sits before a vowel sound, so it comes out clear and strong. Now say war. Here the r sits after the vowel, at the end of the word, and many English speakers hardly pronounce it at all. The same soft r hides in brother, for, our, were, other, otherwise and wear. The strong r stands in train, story, roof and very. Listen to your teacher say each word, then repeat it, paying attention to what your tongue does with the r.

To ask about somebody's ability, put can before the person and answer with a short answer. Practise these little exchanges aloud with a partner.

• A: Can you lift this table? B: Yes, I can.
• A: Can you speak English? B: No, I can't.
• A: Can you help me? B: Yes, I can.
• A: Can you play the piano? B: No, I can't.

Then take the questions around your classroom. Find at least one person who can name ten colours, raise one eyebrow, name three countries in Africa, draw an elephant, make a paper bird, sing a song, bark like a dog, dance, say the English alphabet backwards, or hold their breath for ten seconds. Ask them to show you, write their name beside the activity, and report back to the class like this: Sunita can name ten colours.

Every profession is really a bundle of abilities. A farmer can grow vegetables and fruits on his or her farm, and a dentist can treat you when you have a toothache. Match a person to their work by asking what that person can do.

First, make your own list of things you can and can't do, and share it with your friends. Then comes a listening task. You will hear a girl and a boy talking about their abilities. Before the audio plays, read the table you must fill. For the girl, the lines are: play basketball, play baseball, run pretty fast, jump high, play soccer, sing, and play an instrument. For the boy: play an instrument, cook very well, cook basic things, cook an omelette, and bake cookies.

While you listen, put a tick beside each thing the speaker can do and a cross beside each thing they can't do. The trick is to catch the small word just before the activity: can gets a tick, can't gets a cross, and the two sound almost the same, so listen closely. When the audio ends, try to recall the names of any sports and any food you heard, make a list of them, and say who in your class can play or cook those things.

The Echoing Green is a short poem by William Blake. It paints one whole spring day on a village green, the open grassy ground where children play, from sunrise to sunset. Before reading, think: do you like greenery, and why?

In the first stanza it is morning. The sun arises and makes the skies happy, the merry bells ring to welcome the spring, and the sky-lark and thrush, the birds of the bush, sing louder to the cheerful sound of the bells. The green is called echoing because it rings with bells, birdsong and the shouts of children at play.

In the second stanza, Old John with his white hair sits under the oak among the old folk. Watching the children play, the old people laugh and remember that such were their own joys when they were girls and boys on this very green. In the last stanza the day ends. The little ones grow weary and can be merry no more, the sun descends, and the children gather round the laps of their mothers, like birds in their nest, ready for rest. The echoing green of the morning has become the darkening green of the evening.

A story only makes sense in order, so a useful writing skill is putting jumbled sentences back into their proper sequence. Try it with the story of the hare and the tortoise. Here is how to work.

• Find the sentence that introduces the characters and the situation. That is almost always the opening.
• Look for time words such as one day, soon, meanwhile, and at last. They tell you what happened earlier and what happened later.
• Follow cause and effect. A hare cannot wake up before he lies down to sleep.
• Read your finished order aloud and check that each sentence leads naturally into the next.

The same unit asks for three more pieces of writing. First, a story of your own from bare hints: a thirsty crow searches for water, finds a pitcher, cannot drink because the water is low, has an idea, drops pebbles into the pitcher, and drinks when the water rises. The hints are given in the present, but a story is told in the past tense: searched, found, could not drink, dropped. Second, a paragraph about a frightening incident that happened to you, your family or your friends, written in the past tense with a clear beginning, middle and end. Third, rewriting a description of the poem using present simple verbs. Remember the rule: with he, she, it or a singular noun, the present simple verb takes s or es. The sun shines. The sky looks beautiful. Birds sing.

A news report begins with a headline, then a dateline giving the place and date, such as Kathmandu, March 29, and then the facts. One report in this unit is headlined Nepal Wins Three Nations Football Tournament. It tells us that Nepal claimed the Three Nations Football Cup by defeating Bangladesh 2-1 at Dasharath Stadium in Kathmandu, with Kyrgyzstan finishing third. Sanjog Rai scored Nepal's first goal in the 18th minute, his first ever international goal, and Vishal Rai doubled the lead in the 41st minute. Mahbubur Rahman pulled one back for Bangladesh in the 83rd minute. Champion Nepal received 5,000 US dollars and runners-up Bangladesh received 3,000 US dollars. It was the third time the two teams had met in a final, after the South Asian Games finals of 1994 and 1999, and the tournament was organised by the All Nepal Football Association, ANFA, though it is not recognised by FIFA. Reading a news story means hunting facts: who, what, when, where, and how many.

Meet at least five people from your village or town who have different professions. Ask each one what they can do and what they can't do, and write the answers in a table with four columns: Name, Profession, Can do, Can't do. For example, Nitesh is a driver; he can drive a bus, but he can't fly an aeroplane. When everyone has finished, compare your tables with each other. You will practise real questions, real short answers, and you will learn something about the working people around you.