← Back to C1 General contentsWorkbook · 7B. A masterpiece?
Home practice · verbs of perception · art & colour idioms · answer key included
1 · Verbs of perception — choose the best form
'I saw her ______ the road.' — the whole action:
'I could hear them ______ upstairs.' — in progress:
Passive: 'He was seen ______ the building.'
'Something smells ______.' (there's a smell of it now)
'I noticed her ______ into the room quietly.' (softer, in progress)
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2 · Complete with an art word from the box
- Up close, you can see every one of Van Gogh's drop .
- It's a huge drop — nearly four metres wide.
- The buyers demanded proof of drop going back to the 1930s.
- He works in a drop style — the faces are all recognisable.
- The show is a beautifully drop selection of women photographers.
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3 · Rewrite using the structure in brackets
'She was crying. I heard it.' (in progress)
'He shut the door. I heard the whole thing.' (complete action)
'They saw him leave.' → passive
'I noticed her cross the road.' → in progress
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4 · Match the colour idiom to its meaning
- out of the bluedrop or tap here…
- see reddrop or tap here…
- green with envydrop or tap here…
- grey areadrop or tap here…
- true coloursdrop or tap here…
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5 · Voice message · Twenty-eight seconds
Listen to a voice message left by an English friend after a long afternoon in a European museum.
📄 Show transcript
Speaker: Hey, it’s me. Man, what an afternoon! That museum was HUGE. I was there for hours, totally lost in thought. You know, I actually spent about six minutes staring at the Night Watch. I saw myself standing there, just… gazing. It was incredible how long I could just stare, until I caught myself checking my phone for a message that had never even arrived. I could hear the audio guide leaking out of some guy’s headphones next to me, but I was just mesmerized by the brushstrokes. It really took about four minutes for those brushstrokes to properly come into focus. I even noticed a woman staring at the same painting for fifteen minutes, honestly, I don’t know how she did it. By the end, I was feeling slightly off-colour from all the concentration and probably low blood sugar. So, yeah, quite the cultural experience! Talk soon.
- How long did he actually look at the Night Watch?
- Which verbs of perception does he use about himself?
- What art word does he use twice?
- Which colour idiom does he use about himself at the end?
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6 · A short reflection (180–220 words)
Write a short first-person reflection titled: "The painting I said I'd seen". Use at least three verb-of-perception structures (mixing bare inf and gerund), two colour idioms and one art word. End with an honest, unheroic conclusion — nothing motivational.
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