Past perfect listening and speaking activities

Listening activity: Matilda by Roald Dahl

• Matilda - Movie Trailer (Embed)
• Caption: Matilda (1996) Movie trailer
• 1. Do you remember the movie "Matilda"? Based on the book by Roald Dahl, it was a classic in the 1990s. Look at the trailer and answer these questions about the plot:
• a. Why was Matilda so extraordinary? Name at least 3 things.
• b. What are Matilda's family like?
• c. Who is Ms. Trunchbull? What did she do in her past?
• d. What is Matilda's mission in the movie?
• e. What does the last sentence in the video say? What does it mean?

Discussion

• 2. Discussion questions:
• a) Did you have any awful teachers when you were in school? why were they so bad?
• b) What about the teachers you liked? what made them so great?
• c) What were your hobbies as a child?
• d) Were you a good student, like Matilda? Did you like going to school? why/why not?
• e) How do you think this movie/book ends? if you already know, invent an alternative ending.
• f) As the text you read earlier said, by the time she was 3, Matilda had taught herself to read and when she was 4, she had already learned to read fast and well.
• What unique things had you learned to do already by the age of 8? and by the time you were 12?
• g) Are there any things you have accomplished in life earlier than people normally do?
• Explain making sentences in the past perfect.