Improve your listening and writing skills by filling in the blanks in the song lyrics. Today’s we propose a theme by Arcade Fire, a young indie rock band from Canada. The band is composed of husband and wife -Win Butler and Regine Chassagne-, along with a brother of Win and three more musicians. The song Ready to Start, released in 2010, seems to speak about someone who has lost a love and has decided to start a new life. However, as often happens with lyrics, it is open to interpretation!
These activities are designed for Beginners and Intermediates so that they can learn new vocabulary related to a specific topic in a quick and fun way.
Exercise
Fill in the missing words. ⇩
Don’t miss our latest song lyric activities. By creating a habit step-by-step, you will be able to shape your learning path while doing activities you love.
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Grammar – Second Conditional 
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Second Conditional
- We use the SECOND CONDITIONAL to talk about unreal situations in the PRESENT or FUTURE. We often use this structure with unlikely or hypothetical situations.
- We use the structure IF+SUBJECT+PAST SIMPLE; SUBJECT+WOULD+VERB. We can also exchange the “if” and “would” clauses:
- – “If we were rich, we would travel the world.”
- – “If Sam was smarter, he would own the company by now.”
- – “You would help me if I needed you.”
- – “Elizabeth and Francis would make us work harder if they were the managers.”
- – “If I was baking a cake, I would burn it.”
- We make this structure NEGATIVE when we place NOT between IF and the SUBJECT, WOULD and the SUBJECT, or in BOTH PLACES:
- – “If you weren’t short, you would be a basketball star.”
- – “If Rachel wasn’t kind, she wouldn’t have so many friends.”
- – “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t care about you.”
- – “We would own a home if the bank didn’t deny our loan application.”
- We make this structure INTERROGATIVE when we place WOULD+SUBJECT+PAST SIMPLE; IF+SUBJECT+VERB. We use this structure to ask questions about unreal or unlikely situations:
- – “Would they help us if we needed them?”
- – “Would everyone escape this building if it was burning?”
- – “Would Tristan have married Rachel if he hadn’t met Macy instead?”
- – “If you were an animal, would you be a bear?”
- – “If I was sick, would you visit me in the hospital?”
I got all the words right in the first attempt. This is the first time. 😄✌️
I got 13/!4
Hello!
I don’t really like the rhythm of this song…… 🤷♀️
Missed the word ‘pretend’ 🙂
I like this song and I think listening to songs is a good way to practice English listening and comprehention. Moreover, we can revise grammar in a funny way. Thanks