C2 Proficiency Use of English collocations dominoes

Cambridge C2 Proficiency (CPE) Use of English collocations dominoes card game

CPE Use of English Part One and Part Two

Instructions for teachers

Choose which pack of dominoes you want to use, perhaps due to which part of the test you have just practised or want to practise next. If you want to do both, you could do a Use of English Part One paper, then the Use of English Part One dominoes, then the Use of English Part Two dominoes, and finally a Use of English Part Two paper. Copy, cut up and shuffle one pack per group of two to four students.

Instructions for students

Shuffle up the cards that you are given. Take seven cards each and lay one more card face up in the middle of the table. Students take turns trying to match half of one of their cards to one of the halves on the table to make collocations from Cambridge Proficiency exams. If you can’t make any match that your partners accept, you have to take one more card from the pack of remaining cards, and play passes to the next person. Continue in the same way until someone finishes all their dominoes or until all of the dominoes have been taken but no one can go. The person with most dominoes left in their hand loses the game.

When you finish the game, compare your finished dominoes to the ones on the worksheet below. (They are in order on the worksheet). If you have put together different collocations, check them with your teacher.

After you finish the game, test each other on the collocations by:

• Saying a sentence with one of the collocations but with one word missing for your partner to complete
• Saying a collocation and seeing if your partner can make a suitable example sentence
• Saying half of a collocation and seeing if your partner can make a suitable example sentence with the full collocation

CPE Use of English Part One cards to cut up/ suggested answers

Only cut down the middle of the table so that two squares stay together in each domino.

serious concerns	stimulating	challenges	still
applicable	innate	talents	intrinsic
value	see the light	of day	lay to
rest (the myth…)	a shining	example of…	a rebranding
exercise	a dusty	old law firm	a new lease of
life	the deadly	perils (of…)	reckless
actions	draft	a report	advertising
campaign	a change of	fortune	of central
importance	put someone to	sleep	render something
useless	gather	pace	hasten
his demise	achievable	goals	become
the norm	a common	trait	works
perfectly	does his job	competently	confirm
that it is true	support	someone’s opinion	sustain

life	a plausible	excuse	a predictable
failure	a prospective	candidate	the final
destination	the exact	location	museum
pieces	a mistaken	notion	sparks
a revolution	have a serious	flaw	hit a
snag	family	heirloom	personal
legacy	capture	the imagination	command your
attention	hold	great appeal (for…)	address

CPE Use of English Part Two cards to cut up/ Suggested answers

forward	there is nothing	new under the sun	for all
we know	stay in close	formation	on the other
hand	brings	recognition to	to what
degree	for good	reason	come to
fruition	it’s a tall	order	might just make
it	would no	longer be needed	sounds

like science fiction	almost	all people…	each and
every time	it goes without	saying	needs little
more than…	strictly	speaking,…	I can’t help
but wonder	think	big	given
enough support,…	very	little research	in danger
of disappearing	briefly if at	all	there is nothing
new in…	as far	back as 1767	the phenomenon in
question	call to	mind	willing to put
up with discomfort	the first thing to pop	into my head	more often than
not	however odd it might	seem	change is on the
horizon	begin to make	up a bigger part	looking further

PDF for easy saving and printing:

Related pages

Collocations page

Cambridge Proficiency Use of English page

TEFL dominoes (TEFLtastic Classics Part 36)

Teaching C2 Proficiency: Interactive Classroom Activities (over 350 pages of photocopiable classroom materials on every part of the test) – NEW