Acadsoc

IELTS
Basic Reading
阿卡索初级雅思阅读
Chapter 5 Arts and media
Lesson 23 Countable and
uncountable
nouns

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 Content
I. Warm up (4 minutes) II. Countable and uncountable nouns
(11 minutes)

III. Practice (9 minutes) IV. Review (1 minute)

2

In this lesson, you will learn:

• grammar rules about countable and uncountable nouns;
• commonly-used quantity expressions.

© 2018 Acadsoc Limited TI: No class time allocated here.

 I. Warm up 2 minutes

Read the words and pick ones that can be counted in numbers.

shelf literature furniture drawer 3

information suggestion education fact

TI: Ask the student to finish the activity. Answers are on next page.
© 2018 Acadsoc Limited
 I. Warm up 2 minutes

Answer key:

shelf literature furniture drawer

information suggestion education fact
4

Countable (可数的) Uncountable

shelf drawer literature furniture

suggestion fact information education

Turn to next pages for detailed explanations.

© 2018 Acadsoc Limited TI: Check the answers.

 II. Countable and uncountable nouns 3 minutes

Nouns are either countable [C] or uncountable [U]. Countable nouns can be
made plural(复数的); uncountable nouns are always singular(单数形式的).

Uncountable nouns 不可数名词 5

Countable nouns 可数名词
 We often use a/an with singular
countable nouns and some with plurals.
E.g. I've got a steak and some potatoes.
 They can never have an article(不定冠词)a/an.
 They can never have a plural(复数)‘s’.
 They can never be quantified(量化)with any
number.
E.g. I've got some garlic and some butter.

? Are the words in bold countable [C] or uncountable [U]?

These frogs don’t require large amounts of food, but they only eat insects.

© 2018 Acadsoc Limited TI: Explain the rules and ask the question. Answers are on upper right corner of next page.
 Answer key to the last page: frogs[C]; amount[C]; food[U]; insects[C]

II. Countable and uncountable nouns 5 minutes

Quantity expressions

Look at the table and make sentences with the highlighted ones.

Plural countable nouns Uncountable nouns

everything all (of) all (of) 6

lots of/plenty of/a lot of lots of/plenty of/a lot of

many (of) much (of)
large quantities
2 most (of) most (of)
a large/considerable/substantial number of a large/considerable/substantial amount of

medium quantities some (of)/a certain number of some (of)/a certain amount of

(a) few (of) (a) little (of)

small quantities
a small/limited/tiny number of a small/limited/tiny number of
3
nothing no/not any/none of no/not any/none of

© 2018 Acadsoc Limited TI: Explain the table and ask the student to make sentences.
 II. Countable and uncountable nouns 3 minutes

Choose the correct option in italics for each of these sentences.

1. Due to global warming, fewer/less birds are migrating than 50 years ago.
2. The number/amount of ice in the Arctic Ocean is decreasing.
3. Scotland produces fewer/less wool than New Zealand.
4. We have so many/much information about animals living in rainforests.

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Pay attention to the differences between a few/a little and few/little.

Few rooms have such good natural light. (= not many, so you are lucky)

We have a few rooms available with a sea view. (= a small number)

Little research has been done in this area. (= not enough)

A little research has already been carried out in this area. (= a small amount)

© 2018 Acadsoc Limited TI: Ask student to answer the questions. Answers are on upper right corner of next page.
 Answer key to the last page: 1.fewer; 2.amount; 3.less; 4.much

III. Practice 4 minutes

Fill in the gaps with a word from the box in the correct form. If the word is
countable, you may need to change it to a plural form.

advice cake electricity information situation size

1. Some of the best ______ I heard while I was a student was to take regular breaks when studying 8
so that you don’t lose concentration.
2. A dictionary is a wonderful source of __________.
3. I’ve made some _______ for Claire’s birthday party.
4. One hundred years ago cars all looked the same but these days they come in lots of different
shapes and ________.
5. My job as a journalist means I can find myself in difficult ________ at times, but at least it’s never
boring.
6. There was no _______ in the remote cottage, so they had to cook over the fire.

© 2018 Acadsoc Limited TI: Ask the student to do the practice. Answers are on next page.
 III. Practice 5 minutes

Answer key to the last page:

1. advice 2. information 3. cakes 4.sizes 5.situations 6.electricity

IELTS candidates often make mistakes with amount, number, few, less,
many and much. Find and correct the mistake in each of these sentences. 9

1. The chart shows the amount of people visiting wildlife reserves.

2. The five charts illustrate the number of water consumed per person in different
countries.
3. From the chart, we could say that women generally work less hours than men.
4. Killing too much animals will cause a lot of environmental problems.
5. Not everybody puts rubbish in the right place, and that is why there is so many
rubbish on the ground.

© 2018 Acadsoc Limited TI: Ask the student to do the practice. Answers are at the bottom of next page.
 IV. Review 1 minute

Countable and uncountable nouns

◼ Usually dictionaries use symbols [C] for countable and [U] for uncountable.
10

◼ We often use a/an before singular countable nouns and a number or some for plurals.
◼ Uncountable nouns can never be quantified(量化)with any number.
◼ Pay attention to the differences between a few/a little and few/little.

TI: Review this lesson briefly.

© 2018 Acadsoc Limited Answer key to the last page: 1.amount number 2.number amount 3.less fewer 4.much many 5.many much
 See you
next class!

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