Lesson 1
Date: 23.12.2020
Theme: Extreme adjectives.
1. Extremely
good/bad
Study the
following adjectives and put them into the correct categories below.
- awful
- horrible
- brilliant
- terrible
- dreadful
- terrific
- fantastic
- wonderful
Extremely good:
Extremely bad:
# If you want to make an extreme adjective sound more
extreme, you can use the word `absolutely':
absolutely brilliant, absolutely dreadful
But you cannot use `absolutely' with ordinary
adjectives: absolutely
good.
Work in pairs. Take turns to
describe something with an adjective above. It can be a film, a performance
(e.g. sport, music, acting), the weather, a holiday/vacation, food you have tried,
etc. Continue until all the adjectives have been used. For example: "Spain's performance in the World Cup was
absolutely brilliant."
2. From
ordinary to extreme
Match
the ordinary adjectives on the left with the extreme adjectives on the right.
1.
tired a.
boiling
2.
hungry b.
delicious
3.
dirty c.
exhausted
4.
crowded d.
filthy
5.
angry e.
freezing
6.
small f.
furious
7.
big g.
huge
8.
hot h.
packed
9.
cold i.
starving
10.
tasty j.
tiny
Complete the email below with the extreme adjectives
from the above. More than one answer may be possible in some cases.
Greetings from Tokyo!
This
city is __________ 1 - I can definitely see why it's the biggest metropolitan
area in the world. I've spent most of the day travelling on the subway, and I'm
completely __________ 2. The trains are
so
__________ 3, especially during rush
hour. There are even special employees who push passengers in so that the doors
can close!
People
say that the city's high population adds to the summer heat. And I can tell you
that it was absolutely __________4 today. But unlike other large cities I've
visited, which can be __________ 5, Tokyo's streets are extremely clean.
Now,
I'm back at the hotel. I'm staying at one of Tokyo's famous high-rise hotels.
The view of the city
from
my window is simply __________ 6.
Anyway,
I must go now. I haven't eaten all day and I'm absolutely __________7. I'm
going to have
sushi
at this small restaurant across the street. I've heard the food there is
__________ 8.
See you!
Work with a partner. Take turns to describe a place
you have visited using extreme adjectives.
Homework: Your friend wants to visit your home town or country.
Write an email recommending which places or cities he/she should visit, which
areas should be avoided, the best time of the year to come and when he/she
should avoid coming. Use as many extreme adjectives as possible.
Lesson 2
Date: 23.12.2020
Theme: Born to snooze.
1. Warm-up
What time do you
usually get up in the morning? How easy is it for you to wake up?
2. Idioms
Rephrase the
following sentences by replacing the underlined parts with a suitable idiom:
-
a
late riser
-
a
morning person
-
beyond
me
-
get
going
-
good-for-nothing
-
have
a lie-in
1. He is the
type of person who feels good in the morning.
2. He finds it
difficult to start becoming active in the morning.
3. He is the
type of person who wakes up late.
4. He is a lazy
and useless person.
5. It’s impossible
for me to understand why he quit his job.
6. I don’t work
tomorrow, so I think I will get up later than usual.
3. Key words
Match the
following words with their correct definition:
|
1. snooze (verb) |
a. a belief or opinion |
|
2. crucial (adj.) |
b. a bird with a flat face and large eyes that hunts
at night |
|
3. owl (noun) |
c. a small brown singing bird that is active in the
early morning |
|
4. lark (noun) |
d. extremely important |
|
5. notion (noun) |
e. slow and inactive, as if on drugs |
|
6. dopey (adj., informal) |
f. take a brief, light sleep |
4. Find the information
Take the test below to find out if you are a morning
or evening person. Then read the article to see if you are an ‘A’ or ‘B’ person
and what is the most suitable type of job for you.
1. If you had no commitments the next day, what time
would you go to bed?
a. 8pm-9pm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
b. 9pm-10.15pm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ….4
c. 10.15pm-12.30am . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
d. 12.30am-1.45am . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
e. 1.45am-3am . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. You have to do two hours of physically demanding
work. When would you choose to do it?
a. 8am-10am . . . . . 4
b. 11am-1pm . . . . . 3
c. 3pm-5pm . . . . . . 2
d. 7pm-9pm . . . . . . 1
3. You went to bed later than normal and don’t have to
get up at any particular time. Which of the
following is true?
a. You will wake up at the usual time and not fall
asleep again . . . . .4
b. You will wake up at the usual time and then snooze
. . . . . . . . . . . 3
c. You will wake up at the usual time but fall asleep
again . . . . . . . . 2
d. You won’t wake up until later than usual . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
4. You have to sit a two-hour test. When would you
choose to do it?
a. 8am-10am . . . . . 4
b. 11am-1pm . . . . . 3
c. 3pm-5pm . . . . . . 2
d. 7pm-9pm . . . . . . 1
5. If you had no commitments during the day, what time
would you get up?
a. 5am-6.30am . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
b. 6.30am-7.45am. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
c. 7.45am-9.45am. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
d. 9.45am-11am . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
e. 11am-12pm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
6. A friend invites you for a workout at the gym, at
10pm. How do you think you would perform?
a. Very well . . . . . . . 1
b. Fairly well . . . . . . 2
c. Poorly . . . . . . . . . . 3
d. Very poorly. . . . .4
7. Do you think you are a "morning" person
or an "evening" person?
a. Definitely morning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
b. More morning than evening . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
c. More evening than morning . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
d. Definitely evening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0
Add the scores together and compare your score with
the key:
• 32-28 ......... definitely morning
• 27-23......... moderately morning
• 22-16 ......... neither
• 15-11......... moderately evening
• 10-6......... definitely evening
Lesson 3
Date: 23.12.2020
Theme: Born to snooze.(part 2)
5. Were you born to snooze?
Can’t get going in the mornings? You’re not lazy, just
a ‘B-person’. It’s your circadian rhythms, explains late riser Dan Roberts.
1. Alarm clocks and I have never been the best of friends.
Many of them have been destroyed on my bedside table. I have missed or been
late for crucial morning meetings, job interviews, final exams, hospital
appointments, weddings... all because I simply can’t get up early.
2. It’s beyond me how those strange people who spring out
of bed at 6am and have jogged, showered, shaved and had breakfast before I’ve
hit the snooze button. Unsurprisingly, my friends, family and colleagues have
long considered me a lazy good-for-nothing, despite the fact that I often write
well into the evening while they’re sitting comfortably in front of the TV.
3. Finally, it seems I may have found support from an
unexpected source - Denmark’s B-Society. This pressure group supports the
rights of " B-people" who, like me, are slow to perform in the
morning, but whose energy spikes in the evening.
4. The B-Society’s founder, Camilla Kring, is campaigning
for fundamental changes in the way we learn, work and live. "Society is arranged
around A-people, who are happy working from eight to four," she says.
"We want to create a more flexible society, one which also has a place for
B-people - those who are genetically predisposed to wake and work later."
5. Kring bases her arguments on the notion that people
have different "circadian rhythms". These rhythms govern our body temperature,
hormone levels, heart rate and sleep-wake cycles. The circadian rhythms of
B-people, such as myself, wake us naturally at 9am or 10am, after which we feel
dopey most of the morning but become more energetic in the afternoon and
evening.
6. The rhythms are controlled by a group of about 10,000
nerve cells in our brains, which act as our internal clock. They are activated
by light, which enters the eye and is received by cells on the retina.
7. Professor Jim Horne is an expert of sleep research,
with 30 years’ experience of analysing our nocturnal habits. He uses the terms
"larks" and "owls" to describe early and late risers.
"About half the
population is neither one nor the other," he
says. "About 10 per cent are extreme morning or evening types. Most people
are somewhere in between."
8. Happily for me, Horne thinks that owls such as myself
have a good reason for our lie-ins. "The many studies we have conducted
show very clear differences between larks and owls. Owls are more adaptable to
shift work and jet lag, for example, and will work best in the afternoon and
evening."
9. The problem, of course, is that most jobs are
adapted to A-people, larks, morning people or whatever you choose to call them.
10. I no longer feel responsible. It’s not laziness;
I’m just a B-person, hater of alarm clocks and early mornings and lover of late
nights. Luckily, it seems I’m in the right profession. "A-people often
work in finance or the legal profession, while B-people are usually
journalists or creatives," Kring says. "Bs
are much more flexible than As."
11. Of course we are. So, if you’re a B person like
me, next time you arrive at work an hour late, showing signs of lack of sleep,
remember that it’s not your fault. Tell your boss it’s just those circadian
rhythms.
6. Checking understanding
Put T (True) or F (False) next to the statements
below. Correct the statements which are false.
1. The writer doesn’t like meetings and appointments.
2. The writer cannot understand people who get out of
bed early.
3. The writer considers himself to be lazy.
4. Normal work hours are more suitable for early
risers.
5. Most people are early risers.
6. Late risers suffer less from jet lag.
7. The writer feels that he should change his
profession.
7. Find the words
Find a word or phrase in the text which means:
1. get up quickly and suddenly (phrase, P2)
2. increases sharply before decreasing (verb, P3)
3. fighting or arguing for a particular ideal or
principle (verb -ing, P4)
4. likely to behave in a certain way because of your
genes (phrase, P4)
5. happening at night (adj,.P7)
6. working at different periods of time during the day
or night (noun, P8)
7. a feeling of tiredness caused by travelling in a
plane across different time zones (noun, P8)
8. Indicating your opinion
Study the following sentences from the text:
Unsurprisingly,
my friends, family and colleagues have long considered me a lazy goodfor-nothing.
Happily for me,
Horne thinks that owls such as myself have a good reason for our lie-ins.
Luckily,
it seems I’m in the right profession.
Study how the underlined adverbs and adverbial phrases
indicate the writer’s attitude to what he is writing about. These words and
expressions usually come at the beginning of the sentence and comment on the
whole of it. Look at some more adverbs that are used in this way:
ADVERBS: Admittedly, amazingly, coincidentally,
conveniently, fortunately, incredibly, miraculously, oddly, predictably, sadly,
surprisingly, typically, unbelievably, understandably, unfortunately,
worryingly
PHRASES: In my opinion, to be perfectly honest, to put
it mildly, frankly speaking
Complete the following
sentences with suitable adverbs or phrases from above. More than one answer is
possible:
1. John’s house was burgled yesterday.__________ , he
is in a very good mood today.
2. The airplane crashed into a mountain.__________ ,
all the passengers survived.
3. He was found guilty of robbing the bank.__________
, the judge sent him to prison.
4.__________ , we should tell him sooner rather than
later.
5.__________ , after 20 years of marriage, they are
getting divorced.
6. We can go out together tomorrow.__________ , I
don’t have to work.
7.__________ , I don’t like your attitude!
8. Peter did poorly in his mathematics test again. His
mother is __________quite concerned.
9. John turned up late for work for the third time
this week.___________ , his boss was a bit annoyed.
10.__________ , my computer crashed just when I was
writing an important document.
9. Talking point
Do you think that your society is suited to morning
people? What changes, if any, would you make?