Touchstone 2nd Edition Language summary Level 3

Unit 12 Lesson C: Did you hear about . . . ?

Vocabulary
(car) alarm (n)
(car) ignition (n)
(police) siren (n)
call the police (v)
on duty

Conversation strategies
Introducing news
You can use expressions like these to introduce news:

Did you hear (about) . . . ?

Did you hear about all the trouble here last night?

Have you heard (about) . . . ?

Have you heard about all the trouble here last night?

Did I tell you?

Did I tell you? My car was broken into last Thursday night.

Guess what?
Guess what? Our neighbor's car was stolen.

You know what?

You know what? He called the police, but they came too late.

You know . . . ?
You know that older guy on the first floor? His car was stolen.

Cambridge University Press 2014 Unit 12, Lesson C Page 1

Touchstone 2nd Edition Language summary Level 3

The . . . thing is / was

You can use The . . . thing is / was to introduce ideas.

Use The thing is / was to identify a key issue:

A My neighbor's car was stolen!
B I'm not surprised. The thing is, they just don't have enough police on duty at
night.

Use The other thing is / was to add another issue:

A There aren't enough police at night.
B That's true. And the other thing is, people don't stop to help each other
anymore.

Use The only thing is / was to raise a problem:

My car was broken into. The only thing was, they damaged the ignition trying
to start the car.

You can add adjectives to introduce other ideas:

The best thing is / was . . . The funny thing is . . . The scary thing is . . .

His car was stolen, but the police found it. The best thing was, the thieves didn't
damage it.

Cambridge University Press 2014 Unit 12, Lesson C Page 2