APIEVocabulary: Road Trips and Travelling
Road trips and travelling by car
Answers and an explanation for each question appear once you add this activity to your own library.
🚗 Road Trips and Travelling by Car
Master 10 practical driving words, unlock common travel phrases, and train your speaking voice.
📌 How to use this lesson
Give learners five minutes to explore the word table and sound clips before starting the practice.
Have students complete the exercises independently, then check their answers together before opening the recording tasks.
First, read the word table carefully, tap each speaker button, and read the memory tips.
Next, solve the 16 practice challenges below and record your speech in the shadowing section.
Word table
Ten essential road trip words organized by travel stage.
| Word | Meaning | Common collocations | Word forms | Example sentence | Memory tip |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| motorway | a wide fast road for long-distance travel | join the motorway, motorway services | – | "We drove along the motorway for three hours." | Picture motor + way = a dedicated highway for motor cars. |
| petrol | liquid fuel used in car engines | petrol station, run out of petrol | – | "Let's stop for petrol before our tank is empty." | Petrol is the British word. Americans say gas. |
| detour | a longer way you take to avoid a problem on the road | take a detour, make a detour | – | "We had to take a detour because of road repairs." | De-tour = stepping off your normal tour route. |
| junction | a place where two or more roads meet | road junction, motorway junction | – | "Turn left at the junction after the bridge." | Think of join: a junction is where roads join together. |
| Word | Meaning | Common collocations | Word forms | Example sentence | Memory tip |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| rental | paying money to use a car for a short time | car rental, holiday rental | rent (v, n) | "The car rental office is right outside terminal two." | Notice rent inside rental: you pay rent for a ride. |
| overnight | lasting through or happening during the night | overnight stay, overnight trip | – | "We booked an overnight stay near the border." | Over + night = resting until morning light arrives. |
| refuel | to fill a vehicle with fuel again | refuel the car, time to refuel | fuel (n, v) | "We need to refuel before heading into the mountains." | Re- means again: fuel up the car one more time. |
| Word | Meaning | Common collocations | Word forms | Example sentence | Memory tip |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| scenic | having beautiful natural views | scenic route, scenic drive | scenery (n) | "We took the scenic route along the coastline." | Picture a calm natural scene like a postcard photo. |
| bumpy | rough and uneven with raised spots | bumpy road, bumpy ride | bump (n, v) | "The gravel track was so bumpy that our luggage jumped." | Say the word bump: your car bumps up and down! |
| steep | rising or falling at a sharp angle | steep hill, steep climb | steeply (adv) | "Our loaded car climbed slowly up the steep hill." | Think of climbing steps: steep feels like stairs. |
Practice
Sixteen tasks from easy to hard. Solve each step to test your driving vocabulary.
Word pairs: match the verbs to nouns
Choose the noun that naturally pairs with each driving action verb.
Dialogue gap-fill: on the road trip
Fill the blanks in this road trip conversation using the word bank words.
5. Emma: "Hold onto your cup! The track across these stones is so ____ that my coffee is spilling everywhere."
6. Liam: "Look, the petrol light is on. We must ____ at the next petrol station before climbing higher."
7. Emma: "Check the GPS again. We need to take the second exit when we reach the big highway ____."
8. Liam: "It is already getting dark. Let's make an ____ stop at a cozy roadside motel."
Choose the word that fits the context
All three choices fit grammatically, but only one matches the intended meaning.
9. We chose the ______ route along the cliffs because we wanted to see the ocean views.
10. The highway was closed due to an accident, so the police sent all cars onto a ______.
11. Before leaving the airport, we signed the paperwork for our weekly vehicle ______.
12. The heavy truck could barely crawl up the ______ hill, which went almost straight up.
Word formation: use the related forms
Change the base word in brackets into its correct related form from our word table.
13. They decided to ____ an electric SUV for their holiday. (rental)
14. The green mountains and lakes provided beautiful natural ____. (scenic)
15. The winding country path climbed ____ towards the top of the mountain. (steep)
16. Modern hybrid vehicles use far less ____ on long highway journeys. (refuel)
Shadowing
Listen to each audio prompt, repeat aloud with good rhythm, and record your voice.
Part 1: Key collocations (Items 17–20)
busy motorway
[Bài tập luyện nói]
____scenic route
[Bài tập luyện nói]
____steep hill
[Bài tập luyện nói]
____overnight stay
[Bài tập luyện nói]
____Part 2: Real-speech sentences (Items 21–24)
"We need to refuel the car now."
[Bài tập luyện nói]
____"Take a detour to avoid traffic."
[Bài tập luyện nói]
____"The country road was very bumpy."
[Bài tập luyện nói]
____"Turn left at the next junction."
[Bài tập luyện nói]
____Part 3: Everyday travel sentences (Items 25–26)
"Our car rental was cheap today."
[Bài tập luyện nói]
____"We stayed overnight in a small town."
[Bài tập luyện nói]
____Part 4: Precision word focus (Items 27–28)
Focus cleanly on clear syllable stress and vowel pronunciation for these two key words.
junction
Stress the first syllable: JUNC-tion.
[Bài tập luyện nói]
____refuel
Pronounce both syllables clearly: re-FU-el.
[Bài tập luyện nói]
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