Unit 3: Asking for Information (Speaking)
ANSWER KEY
ACTIVITY 1: IN-CLASS DISCUSSION
Task 1:
Possible questions:
 When will the examination be held?
[It will be held on 6 December.]
 Where will the examination take place?
[It will take place in Multi-purpose Hall A]
 Which units will be covered in the examination?
[It will cover unit 1 to unit 6.]
 What is the examination pattern?
[It will be divided into three sections, multiple choice, cloze passage and
error correction.]
 How long will the examination last?
[It will last for 45 mins.]
Task 2: Answers may vary.
Task 3: Answers may vary. Possible words to ask questions include:
 Auxiliary verbs such as does, do, did, is, was, are, were
 ‘Wh-question’ words such as What, When
Task 4: Auxiliary verbs (e.g. does, do) are used to ask ‘yes-no’-questions. ‘Wh-question’
words are used to form ‘Wh’-questions in which additional information, instead of
simply ‘yes’ or ‘no’, is expected.
Task 5:
AUXILIARY VERBS:
 ‘Does/do/did’ is used at the beginning of a question if the verb group contains
only a finite verb, e.g. ‘Do we need to write a short essay?’
 ‘Is/was/are/were’ is used at the beginning of a question if the verb group
contains more than one word, e.g. ‘Are we going to write a short essay?’
‘WH-QUESTION’ WORDS:
‘Wh-question word’
+
AUX. VERB
+
PRONOUN/ NOUN
+
VERB
* except that the ‘Wh-question’ word is the SUBJECT of the ‘verb’:
‘Wh-question word’
e.g.
+
VERB
+
PRONOUN/ NOUN
What is the examination pattern?
Where is the examination venue?
Who marks the examination paper?
EPC(02-03B) (Unit 3-Speaking) (Key)
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Unit 3: Asking for Information (Writing)
ANSWER KEY
ACTIVITY 1: HOME PREPARATION
Answers may vary. Possible answers are as follows:
(a) There are three floors. You want to know the floor the sauna is on.
Which floor is the sauna on?
(b) You want to know the number of aerobic classes per day.
How many aerobic classes are offered per day?
(c) You want to know the business hours.
What are the business hours?
(d) Your friend, Alan, is a gym instructor of the club but you are not sure if he is working
in this branch because the club has four branches.
Is Alan working in this branch?
(e) Alan is not working in this branch and you want to know the branch he is working in
now.
Which branch is he working in?
(f) You want to know the cost of having a personal training.
How much does it cost for a personal training?
(g) You are told that a personal training costs $450 per session. You want to know its
duration.
How long does each session of personal training last for?
(h) You are working in Mongkok. You want to know if there is a branch near Mongkok
so that you can go to the gym right after the work.
Is there a branch near Mongkok?
(i) You want to know if the branch provides a free fitness test.
Does this branch provide a free fitness test?
(j) You want to find the location of the cardio theatre.
Where is the cardio theatre?
(k) You want to know the name of the instructor teaching the yoga class at 5:30 p.m.
Who will be teaching the yoga class at 5:30 p.m.?
(l) You have found that there is a wallet on the floor. So you pick it up and say:
Whose wallet is it?
EPC(02-03B) (Unit 3-Writing) (Key)
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Unit 3: Asking for Information
GRAMMAR EXERCISE
ANSWER KEY
1. Could you tell me why Joseph could obtain the scholarship?
Explanation: ‘why’ is a ‘subordinating’ conjunction instead of a ‘Wh-question’ word,
which links up the clause that follows i.e. Joseph could obtain the scholarship.
2. Where will you stay when you visit Japan this summer?
Explanation: The auxiliary verb ‘will’ should appear before the subject ‘you’ in a question.
3. What did the researchers find in the trip to the North Pole last year?
Explanation: After the auxiliary verbs such as did, does, do, can, could, we use the infinitive
without to. [Note: The tense has been marked by the auxiliary verb did in the question.]
4. What does ‘eczema’ mean?
Explanation: Since there is no other auxiliary verb in the question, we use ‘does’ to
begin the question because the verb ‘means’ is in the present tense and in the
third-person singular form.
5. Have you received the refund yet?
Explanation: Since, the auxiliary verb ‘have’ is used to show the present tense and the
perfect aspect, we should use ‘have’ at the beginning of the question.
6. Do we need to submit the assignment on Wednesday?
Explanation: ‘Does/do/did’ is used at the beginning of a question if the verb group
contains only a finite verb ‘need’.
7. What are John and his colleagues working on now?
Explanation: Only the auxiliary verb ‘are’, not the whole verb group ‘are working’,
should appear before the subject ‘John and his colleagues’.
8. Who won the President’s Award for Outstanding Performance last year?
Explanation: We don’t use any auxiliary verbs when the ‘Wh-question’ word is the
subject. Other examples are ‘Which student society is holding an exhibition on the
podium?’, or ‘Who plans to enroll in this summer course?’
9. Who is the supervisor of this shop? I want to see him.
Explanation: ‘Who’ is used when it is the subject of the question. However, ‘whom’ is
used when it is the object e.g. ‘Whom did you meet at the restaurant last Saturday?’
[The answer may be: ‘I met Peter at the restaurant last Saturday’].
10. Do you have some money to pay for the bill now?
Explanation: The auxiliary verb ‘do’ is used because the second ‘have’ is the finite verb.
EPC(02-03B) (Unit 3-Grammar) (Key)
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