3. Paco needs a haircut

Icono IDevice Reading activity

There are countless National and Regional Parks in Nunavut. Here one can see glaciers and many animals Paco has never seen before in his life, so our friend is thinking of visiting one of these places. They are remote spots but there are organized trips for the many people who want to visit these parks every year. Here one can discover the unspoiled land and the untamed wildlife. As an animal lover, Paco will surely enjoy the experience!

The weather forecast said it would not be so cold tomorrow so Paco is organizing his trip. He has gone to a little supermarket nearby with his shopping list to make sure he does not forget anything. He needs some hand cream to protect his hands from the freezing weather, and a new toothbrush. On the way to the till, he cannot help buying some apple pie too. It looked delicious and he could not resist! He pays with his credit card and gets out of the shop.

On the way back to the hotel, he remembers he also needs a haircut. He asks a passer-by and soon finds a hairdresser's. While he is waiting for his turn, Paco tries to do a crossword. He's not so bad! He is definitely learning a lot of English! Finally it is his turn.

The hairdresser is a nice old man. When Paco tells him he is going to a National Park the following day, the man talks about the amount of animals he can see there. As Arctic animals, all of them have special thick fur to protect themselves from the cold. The musk oxen are good examples of this, and they also tend to huddle together in search of warmth and protection; caribou are similar to deer and move also in groups; polar bears usually spend their time either in the water or on the ice, where they look for food; the walrus uses its whiskers to look for shellfish to eat, etc. Other animals Paco might see are wolves, seals, foxes, beavers or falcons. It will be great!


By mharrsch, C. Commons

Identify all the compound nouns that you can find in the text:


Self-Assessment activity
Read the text again and decide if the following statements are true or false:


1. There are few National Parks in Nunavut.
By ironmanixs, C. Commons

Verdadero Falso


2. It will be colder tomorrow.

Verdadero Falso


3. Someone in the street helps him to find a hairdresser's.

Verdadero Falso


4. Animals in the Arctic are prepared for the cold.

Verdadero Falso


5. Paco won't be able to see a great variety of animals.

Verdadero Falso
Icono de iDevice Solved exercise
We have seen a few compound nouns in the reading activity:

wildlife, shopping list, hand cream, toothbrush, apple pie, credit card, haircut, passer-by, crossword, hairdresser

As you can see, some are written as separate words, others are written together, and others are joined by a hyphen. However, all of them are formed by:

two words working as a single noun.
 
 
Compounds can be written separately, together in one word or hyphened -with a hyphen (-) in the middle. It depends on the word and you need to know and memorize it by heart: 
 
haircut (together)
washing machine (separately but still just one word, one concept) 
passer-by 
 

 

Another characteristic of this type of nouns is that they can be formed by different combinations of words, for example:

  • noun + noun- toothbrush
  • adjective + noun - wildlife
  • verb + noun - shopping list
  • noun + preposition - passer-by
  • noun + verb - haircut
  • etc

What combinations are...?

1. bedroom:

2. swimming pool:

3. underground:

4. washing machine:

5. dry-cleaning:

6. boyfriend:

 


Icono de iDevice Self-Assessment activity

Which compound nouns can you form with the following words?

board, glasses, case, driver, paper, phones, machine, clock, cream, port

suit

ice

sun

pass

taxi

coffee

head

black

alarm

news

  

Icono IDevice Further knowledge

Learn more about compound nouns by doing these exercises:

Exercise 1 Exercise 2

 

 


Let's learn a diphthong and vocabulary related to animals in the next section!