- Hello, lovely students
and welcome back to "English With Lucy."
Recently, I sent out a survey to my students
and over 40% of you said that you are working towards
a B2 level of English, and it made me think why?
Why does everyone want to have the B2 level?
Today I have got a test and a lesson for you.
I have created 10 questions at high B2 level.
This test will show you if you have,
currently have a B2 level,
or if you're close to achieving one,
or if you have some way to go.
I have 10 questions.
It's a mixture of both grammar and vocabulary.
We're going to do each question one by one
and then we're going to discuss the answers.
But firstly, why does everybody want
this B2 level of English and what is it?
What is the B2?
B2 is regarded as an upper intermediate level of English
as defined by the CEFR.
In my opinion and experience as a teacher,
the B2 level is really where you start to become
fluent in English.
You move from being a learner of English
to a more confident speaker of English.
When you have the B2 level
you will be able to spontaneously interact,
which is what lots of people want to do.
They want to join in conversations.
You'll be able to follow more complex conversations.
You'll be able to speak without too much strain,
without thinking too hard.
Life just becomes that little bit easier
when you have the B2 level of a language.
Before we start the test
and the explanations of the answers,
I would like to tell you something really exciting.
I'd like to make an announcement.
We are launching our B2 English programme.
If you would like to learn more
click on the link in the description box.
Let's get started with the test.
Just a disclaimer that this test is meant as a guide
and not as an official certification.
Remember to share your scores and results
in the comments section.
Okay, first exercise.
Take a look at this sentence here.
I chatted to my best friend from childhood
about our first day at school last week.
Now we have another sentence and I want you to complete it.
Chantelle and I took a trip up memory avenue,
around memory street, or down memory lane.
Which option is correct?
I'll give you five seconds.
(timer ticking)
That's right.
There is no other place to reminisce but memory lane.
It's a lovely expression, a lovely B2 level expression.
Okay, exercise number two.
Take a look at this sentence.
We need to rearrange the words to make a sentence.
Here are your three options.
I'll give you five seconds to choose which one is correct.
(timer ticking)
My cousin finally received the card I sent,
but it shouldn't have taken so long.
This one was hard, and if I hadn't given you the options
it would've been super hard.
So we say shouldn't have plus past participle
when our expectations aren't met.
We cover modals of expectation in week seven
of the beautiful British English B2 programme.
Again, if you want to learn more about that,
click on the link in the description box.
Okay, number three, a vocabulary question.
If I want to describe someone as immature and inexperienced,
where would they be wet?
Where would they be wet?
Claude is wet on his feet, under his nails, behind his ears.
I'll give you five seconds.
(timer ticking)
Behind his ears.
C is correct.
Yeah, it's strange but true.
We associate being wet behind the ears
with being very young.
Now, I actually read that this expression comes from
how the amniotic fluid on newborn farm animals
lastly dries behind their ears.
It could also be from mother animals or maternal animals
licking their babies behind the ears to clean them.
I think it's a really cute expression.
Let's look at the next one, number four.
Take a look at this sentence.
I'll put on my best clothes later,
ready to go to an expensive restaurant.
There's another sentence.
Tonight, I'm getting dressed up to the,
which number could I use?
We have nines, tens, or elevens.
I'll give you five seconds.
(timer ticking)
It should be nines.
Tonight I'm getting dressed up to the nines.
Now, you would think that we would always use the number 10
to denote perfection, right?
Well not as far as dressing up goes.
We dress up to the nines and that's as good as it gets.
However, being called a 10 is a real compliment.
You're a 10 or you're a 10 out of 10.
That means you're perfect.
Okay, number five.
Let's take a look at this sentence.
I need to give my friend some advice.
I really don't think he should wear that strong aftershave
on his date.
What should I say to them?
Which is the best option?
You hadn't better wear that aftershave.
You had better not wear that aftershave.
Or you had not better wear that aftershave.
I'll give you five seconds to decide.
(timer ticking)
It should be the second option.
You had better not.
I know, this one was hard.
The word hadn't isn't correct in this case,
when we're giving advice.
We use had better plus infinitive instead of should,
and had better not plus infinitive instead of shouldn't.
We cover other semi-modal verbs like this
in week five of the B2 course.
Again, if you want to learn more,
click on that link in the description box.
We are halfway through already.
How are you doing?
Five out of five?
Oh, they've been quite hard.
Let's move on to number six and see how we do with that.
Okay, take a look at this sentence.
My company has a really ambitious project.
We've agreed to a very short timeframe.
What is the best way to say this?
We have three options.
We will have been finishing the project
by the end of the year.
We will have finished the project at the end of the year.
Or we will have finished the project by the end of the year.
I'll give you five seconds to decide which one is best.
(timer ticking)
It should be C.
We will have finished the project by the end of the year.
Yes, we use the future perfect, plus by, plus future time,
to talk about the time period within which
something will be completed.
By the way, the future perfect continuous plus for
is used to talk about duration.
So we could say,
in March we will have been studying on the B2 programme
for three months.
We go deeply into the future tenses in the B2 programme
in week nine.
Links down below.
Okay, number seven.
This one's about question tags.
As native speakers, we use these all the time.
What is the question tag for questions starting with let's?
As in, let's start.
Should it be do we, shall we, or should we?
I'll give you five seconds.
(timer ticking)
It should be, shall we?
It's interesting, isn't it?
Most question tags are self-explanatory.
Can goes with can't.
Are goes with aren't, and so on.
However, suggestions starting with let's
require the question tag shall.
We add this to give the listener some agency.
They can say no at this point.
If this intrigues you, then there are more question tags
in week eight of the B2 course.
The link to learn more is in the description box.
Okay, just three more questions now.
Number eight, can you identify the mistake in this sentence?
No one had any idea the pandemic would be so far-reaching.
Okay, should no one be no one with a space?
Should any be some?
Or should far-reaching not have a hyphen
and be far reaching?
I'll give you five seconds to decide.
This one's a tricky one.
(timer ticking)
Okay, it should be no one.
Spelling mistakes like this are very, very common,
even for native English speakers.
I would predict that quite a large percentage of the U.K.
doesn't know that no one should be separate with a space.
Someone, anyone, everyone, nobody, somebody, and everybody
are written as one word, but no one should be two words.
I know hyphens are confusing too.
However, in the case of far-reaching, the hyphen is correct
as it's part of an adjective.
Let's move on to number nine.
Some people obsessively check the internet
for bad news stories.
What are they doing?
We have doomsreading, doomscrolling, and bad-news scrolling.
I'll give you five seconds.
(timer ticking)
Okay, it should be doomscrolling.
Doomscrolling.
I can't believe that this is a thing, but it is, sadly.
The English language is rapidly expanding
to help us express ourselves
in this modern technological digital world,
and doomscrolling is a new word that we're using
more and more.
In the B2 programme we really focus on real British English,
not school book English.
The English that native speakers genuinely use.
We also focus on analysing the language used
in real conversations.
More information down there, there's too much to explain.
I'm just going to leave you with that link.
Okay.
Number 10, your last question.
Read this sentence.
I got to booking an appointment with my hairdresser.
I'm seeing her on Friday.
Which preposition fits here?
About, at, or around.
I'll give you five seconds.
(timer ticking)
It should be around.
This is a really nice phrasal verb, I think.
To get around to doing something
means to find the time to do it,
which we all know can be a big problem.
Now, I wonder, have I mentioned my B2 programme yet,
and the fact that there's a link in the description box?
(laughing)
One last mention
is that we have absolutely filled this course
with loads of useful phrasal verbs and idioms as well.
The ones that we genuinely use in everyday conversations.
Aside from that, we also have a huge focus on pronunciation
throughout the course.
We're going to eliminate your bad habits
and rebuild great English pronunciation habits.
We also have a huge focus on conversations.
We take real conversations
and we analyse them and break them down.
You cover B2 level grammar, B2 level vocabulary,
including idioms and phrasal verbs,
conversation breakdown and analysis,
and British English pronunciation.
Everything you need to know
is down there in that description box.
Right, how did you do in this test?
I don't expect you to have got 100%, or 10 out of 10.
If you did, a huge congratulations.
Here are my rankings for today's test.
If you got zero to three, firstly, well done.
This was really tough, so to even get any is amazing.
You should probably look to work towards a lower level
before going for a B2 course.
I also run a Beautiful British English B1 programme
and I've left the information down there.
If you scored between four and six, you are on track.
That's a fantastic achievement.
You're really doing quite well
with your vocabulary and grammar there.
If you scored between seven and nine, congratulations.
According to this very short limited test
you are really working towards a B2 level.
And if you scored 10 out of 10, get out of my classroom.
You don't need me.
No, I'm joking.
If you scored 10 out of 10, that's incredible.
Make sure you put it in the comments section below
so that we can celebrate you and your achievement.
Right, that's it from me today.
I hope you enjoyed this test
and I hope you learnt something.
Don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media.
You can also check out my courses
and you can take a look at my website, englishwithlucy.com,
where I have lots of amazing lessons
and an interactive pronunciation tool.
I will see you soon in another lesson.
Mwah!
(upbeat music)