Page 131 - Think 4. Teacher's Book B2

Unit 12
Off the beaten track Literature; Reading

Warmer Literature
To revise verb + noun collocations
from the last lesson, give a student
a noun and ask them to say the 1 Look at the photo and read the introduction to the The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle (1912)
extract. Do you think you would like to read the book?
correct verb to get a point, e.g. A: Professor George Challenger and his friend
Lord John Roxton, together with a reporter and
a speech, B: make a speech. Do this 2 Read the extract quickly and choose the best ending some local guides (one of whom is called Gomez),
for the statement.
two or three times with different The narrator feels worried about … travel up the Amazon River to find a plateau.
Challenger claims he has visited the plateau before,
collocations and then ask students 1 what will happen when the sun comes up. and that there are prehistoric creatures living
there. Also with them is another professor who
to play ‘collocations tennis’. In pairs, 2 the noise of drums that he can hear. dislikes Challenger and doesn’t believe his claims.
The reporter narrates the story.
one student says a noun and the 3 the animals in the jungle around them.
other person must reply with the
correct verb as quickly as possible. The very next day we did actually make our start upon this ‘How can they watch us?’ I asked, gazing into the dark.
remarkable expedition. We found that all our possessions
Gomez shrugged his broad shoulders.
fitted very easily into the two canoes, and we divided our ‘The native people know. They have their own way.
personnel, six in each, taking the obvious precaution, in They watch us. They talk the drum talk to each other.
1 Check/clarify: plateau. the interests of peace, of putting one professor into each Kill us if they can.’
canoe. […]
By the afternoon of that day – my pocket diary shows
Before students open their At dawn and at sunset the monkeys screamed together me that it was Tuesday, August 18th – at least six
books, ask: Can you think of any and the parrots started making their high-pitched noise, or seven drums were beating from various points.
but during the hot hours of the day only the loud noise of
Sometimes they beat quickly, sometimes slowly,
novels or films about dinosaurs? insects, like the beat of a distant surf, filled the ear, while sometimes in obvious question and answer, one far
What happens in them? Students nothing moved amongst the solemn views of huge tree- to the east breaking out in a high-pitched beat, and
trunks, fading away into the darkness which held us in.
being followed after a pause by a deep roll from the
discuss the questions in pairs. Once some creature, an ant-eater or a bear, walked clumsily north. There was something incredibly nerve-shaking
Listen to some of their ideas and amid the shadows. It was the only sign of life which I had and threatening in that constant noise, which seemed
seen in this great Amazonian forest.
to shape itself into the words that Gomez used and
write any repeated themes on And yet there were indications that even human life itself endlessly repeated them: ‘We will kill you if we can.
the board. was not far from us in those mysterious dark corners. We will kill you if we can.’ No one ever moved in the
On the third day out, we were aware of a strange, deep,
silent woods. All the peace of quiet nature lay in that
rhythmic beat in the air, coming and going on-and-off dark curtain of vegetation, but away from behind, there
2 Set a three-minute time limit to throughout the morning. The two boats were moving always came the one message from our fellow-man:
within a few yards of each other when we first heard it, and
encourage speed-reading. Tell our guides remained motionless, as if they had been turned ‘We will kill you if we can,’ said the men in the
east. ‘We will kill you if we can,’ said the men in the
students not to worry about to bronze, listening intently with expressions of terror upon north. […]
their faces.
difficult vocabulary at this stage ‘What is it, then?’ I asked. That night we tied our canoes with heavy stones for
anchors in the centre of the stream, and made every
as this will come up later. ‘Drums,’ said Lord John, carelessly, ‘war drums. I have preparation for a possible attack. Nothing came,
2 heard them before.’ however, and with the dawn we pushed upon our way,
‘Yes, sir, war drums,’ said Gomez. ‘Native people,
the drum-beating dying out behind us.
aggressive, not friendly; they watch us every mile of the
way; kill us if they can.’ Adapted from The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle
Culture note
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, born in
1859, was an author from Edinburgh,
Scotland. At the age of nine, he was
sent to boarding school in England
where he realised he had a talent
for storytelling and would often
make up stories to tell the younger
students. He trained as a doctor,
gaining a degree from the University
of Edinburgh in 1881. 116
Following a voyage to the Arctic
as a ship’s surgeon and to Africa In March 1886, Doyle started writing A Study in Scarlet. It catapulted him to
as a medical officer on a steamer, fame and introduced the world to Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. In 1891,
Doyle returned to England to open Doyle abandoned his medical career and wrote many more stories featuring
his own practice in Portsmouth. He Holmes. By 1893, frustrated that his other work was being largely ignored, he
divided his time between writing and decided to ‘kill off’ Sherlock Holmes to concentrate on other works. There was
medicine.
a public outcry, but Doyle wrote a number of other novels, including The Lost
World along with many non-fiction works before resurrecting Holmes in 1903.
He ran unsuccessfully for MP for Edinburgh Central and in later life became
very interested in spiritualism. He died in 1930 surrounded by his family, having
published over 200 stories and articles throughout his career.

T116 Off the beaten track | Unit 12