Joy English · Level C1 · Short storiesjoy-english.com
What the clockmaker left behind
Name:Date:
Follow a story with a noun clause, a participle phrase and an abstract ending.
Listen to each sentence and write what you hear.
Audio and answer checking: https://joy-english.com/listening-lessons/what-the-clockmaker-left-behind
Words to know
- workshop
- A room or building where things are made or repaired.
- granddaughter
- The daughter of your son or daughter.
- inherited
- Received from someone who has died.
- tradition
- A custom passed from one generation to the next.
Answer key
- After the clockmaker died, his workshop stayed locked for months because no one could agree what to do with it.'No one' has stress on 'no': NO-one. 'Agree what to do' links as 'agree-wha-ta-do'.
- His granddaughter, Grace, finally forced open the door and found countless tiny springs sorted into neat glass jars.'Granddaughter' has a silent d in fast speech: 'gran-dau-ter'. 'Sorted into' joins as 'sortid-into'.
- On the bench lay an unfinished watch, with a note asking whoever found it to complete the work.With 'on the bench lay', the verb comes before the noun (inversion). 'Whoever' means any person who.
- Grace had no training, but she spent a whole winter learning, and the watch slowly came to life.'Came to life' is an idiom: the watch began to work. 'Spent a' links as 'spen-ta'.
- What she inherited, she realised, was not a business but an invitation to carry on a patient tradition.The words 'she realised' interrupt the noun clause. 'Carry on' means continue.