Page 128 - Grasp English B1+ (Student Book)

10 Era of the Gifted

Grammar 1 Second conditional

A. Read the diary entry and answer the questions.
1. Why might a friend not be happy for you if you
suddenly won lots of money?
2. How would having money give you power over
your friends?

What would you do if you suddenly won lots of money? That’s the sort of essay question teachers give
us to write about, or that magazine articles use to show us sandy beaches, luxury hotels and wonderful
sunsets. For me, actually, the answer is that if I won lots of money, I wouldn’t want it. Here’s the problem:
if I suddenly had lots of money, would my friends be happy for me or jealous? If I invited them on a
round the world trip, at my expense, they would come, of course, but it could change our friendship. For
example, what if they didn’t like the hotel or the meal or the activities I was paying for? Would they tell
me? They might not because I’d be the one with the money. I think that if you had money, the power it
would give you could make for an unequal friendship. So, dear friends, I hope I don’t win lots of money,
but if I did, we would decide together which charity to give it to, and we would still be good friends!

B. Discuss with a partner. Are these statements true for you? Why/Why not?

1. If I could have any superpower, I’d want to be able to read minds.
2. If I were invisible, I could check the answers for our next test without the teacher seeing.
3. If I could fly, I might travel to New York for breakfast, then have lunch in Nairobi and dinner in Tokyo.

C. Choose the correct option.

1. The second conditional talks about real / unreal events and the result.
2. In the if clause, we use the past simple / present perfect.
3. In the clause explaining the result, we use would (or could or might) and the infinitive / verb + ing.
4. You can say both If I was or If I were but was/were is more formal.

D. Complete the sentences.
1. If I good at singing, I a competition like
The Voice. (be, enter)
2. If I well, I to make dinner every evening.
(be able to cook, offer)
3. If I more about fashion, I my own
clothes. (know, design)
4. If I how to code, I an app to make me
rich. (know, create)
5. If I green fingers, I all my own fruit and
veg. (have, grow)
6. I a sports team if I more athletic.
(join, be)
7. I school so difficult if I more.
(not find, study)
8. I an influencer if I more followers on
Instagram. (be, have)
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