Matching Questions and Answers: Time, Day, Age, Feeling
A worksheet has four questions in one box and four answers in another. Students draw lines to match them. Questions: 1. How old are you? 2. What time is it? 3. How are you? 4. What day is it today? Answers: a. It's Friday. b. I'm thirteen. c. It's eight fifteen. d. I'm fine, thank you. Two questions look almost the same ('How old are you?' and 'How are you?') and two answers begin with the same word ('It's Friday' and 'It's eight fifteen'). One student matches 'What time is it?' with 'It's Friday' because both answers start with It's. Another writes 'I'm fine' for 'How old are you?'. The teacher wants the class to use the question words as keys, not the first word of the answer.
1. Match the four questions to the four answers.
Read the worked answer
1–b, 2–c, 3–d, 4–a. Use the question words as keys: how old asks for age, so the answer is a number of years (thirteen); what time asks for a clock time (eight fifteen); how alone asks about feeling or health (fine); what day asks for a day of the week (Friday). Match on the question word first, then check that the answer is the right kind of information.
2. Why is 'It's Friday' a wrong answer to 'What time is it?'
Read the worked answer
Both answers start with It's, but the question asks for time, and Friday is a day, not a time. The correct answer to 'What time is it?' must be a clock time such as eight fifteen or seven o'clock. Sharing the first word of a sentence does not make an answer correct - decide what kind of information the question wants, then look for that kind of word.
3. A student answers 'I'm fine, thank you' to 'How old are you?'. What did the student confuse, and how can she check next time?
Read the worked answer
She confused How are you? with How old are you?. How old asks for a number (age); How are you? asks about health or feeling. 'I'm fine' fits only the second. Next time, look for the word old before choosing an answer about age, and remember that an age answer needs a number such as thirteen, not a feeling word.