Page 93 - Think 4. Teacher's Book B2

Unit 8
List it! Reading

Warmer Elisa’s As you know, every week I post a top ten list here that
Elicit the names of ten school LIST BLOG someone has sent me. Well, this week, no one has sent
me anything, so I’m offering you a top ten list of …
subjects and write them on the my favourite top ten lists! And here they are.
board. Divide the class into pairs 1 Ten of the world’s strangest sports 7 Everyday inventions from
for students to rank their lists from Everything from extreme ironing to cheese rolling and toe Victorian times
most to least interesting, useful or wrestling. You won’t see any of these sports at the Olympics. Cement, chocolate, flushing toilets,
the sewing machine, the underground,
2 Ten crazy hotels
difficult. You could start them off by Suppose you fancied a night in a volcano … Or how about the radio and the X-ray – all invented
tasking them to rank them by ‘most a sandcastle or inside a giant wooden dog? There’s plenty of by the Victorians, but we couldn’t live
without them today.
inspiration for your next holiday here.
interesting’ and then assign ‘most 3 Top things you never knew your brain could do 8 Ten superhero powers you could actually learn
useful’ and/or ‘most difficult’ to any Did you know you can learn while you’re asleep? And that Fancy being a superhero? Well, here are the powers you could learn
to help you on your way, provided you’ve got the time. Powers
fast finishers. you can predict the future? Or know what’s happening include super strength, speed and agility. And mind control!
behind you without looking? Well, you can. And there’s a lot
more your brain can do, too. 9 Before they were famous
4 Ten amazing ways that animals communicate They weren’t always mega-famous: before turning her hand to
Elephants use their heads and tails to communicate. acting, Meghan Markle was a calligrapher (that means she wrote
1 Nominate one or two students to Honey bees dance and mushrooms have their own ‘internet’. things in nice handwriting), Beyoncé swept hair from the floor
of a salon and Brad Pitt wore a chicken costume to advertise
share their ideas with the class. The facts will fascinate you, as long as you’re interested a restaurant. Well, we’ve all got to start somewhere.
in nature.
5 Amazing things people have found on the beach 10 Ten amazing facts about the world around us
2 8.06 Before listening, set Thousands of rubber ducks, an enormous tree, The amount of water in our world never changes. It just gets
recycled. That means that cup of water you drank this morning
a three-minute time limit to eight-foot-tall Lego men … You just never know what might might have been drunk by a dinosaur 350 million years before.
turn up when you take a walk along the shoreline!
encourage students to read the 6 Ten criminals who needed to phone 999 to escape And that’s just the least interesting fact! Fascinating!
blog quickly for this initial reading- A burglar who got stuck in a chimney. A petrol station So, that’s me done for this week. You can find these lists in my
archive. Lastly – please send me a list, people,
robber who got his arm stuck in a window. A car thief who
for-gist task. got stuck in a car. Read all about them here – unless you’ve otherwise I won’t have anything for
next week.
1 because no one sent her a list got something better to do.
2 in the blog archive 3 She wants
them to send her lists.
REAdING
3 Check/clarify: crushed, buried, 1 SPEAKING Work in pairs and discuss what ‘top ten’
SPEAKING
ostriches, wrestling, volcano, lists you have seen (or written) recently.
Lego, cement, calligrapher. 2 8.06 Read and listen to the blog. Answer the
Point out that students need to questions.
1 Why is Elisa posting her own list this week?
decide which of the top ten lists 2 Where can you see the complete lists?
the sentences might be found in. 3 What does Elisa want her readers to do?
a 6 b 8 c 1 d 7 e 3 3 Read the blog again. Which list do each of these
sentences come from? Write a number (1–10) in
the boxes.
4 Listen to some of the students’ a One man wasn’t so lucky. While trying to
choices and have a show of hands rob a bank, the safe fell on him and crushed 4 SPEAKING Which three lists would you like to read
SPEAKING
him to death.
to find out which lists were most b Wim Hof set a world record when he buried in full? Compare your ideas with a partner.
popular. himself in freezing ice for 72 minutes, wearing 5 SPEAKING Choose one of these ideas, or use
SPEAKING
only a pair of shorts. your own idea, to write a new top ten list.
c Everyone has heard of horse racing – but in Then compare your lists in groups.
5 Encourage students to be as funny some parts of the world people race on ostriches. • My top five most interesting …
and imaginative as possible when d Perhaps the most remarkable of all, though, was • My top five worst …
choosing and creating their lists. the telephone, which changed the way people • My top five strangest …
communicate with each other forever.
e You can even learn to play the piano just • My top five funniest …
by imagining you’re playing it.
Culture note 78
On the internet, more and more
articles are written as lists. The A listicle is also much easier to plan and write than a regular article because the
editorial phenomenon – listicles (a order and structure of the points is less important, updates are easier to make
portmanteau of list and article) – is and new points can be slotted in without disruption.
incredibly popular. They appeal
because they are easier to read than However, listicles have also become controversial. They assume the public want
an ordinary article – they reduce the quick hits of information, but more importantly, they demonstrate the shift
subject into a manageable number of in power between traditional print and online. To many, not only are they a
facts, they are perfect for skimming ‘dumbing down’, but they are the result of cost-cutting and redundancies in the
and the title tells you what to expect. traditional newsrooms.
If you’re reading an article online and
it’s more than a single screen long,
you can’t be sure when it’s going to Activity idea Extension
end whereas a listicle encourages If students have access to the internet, ask them to do a search for one of the
you to keep going by helpfully letting lists in pairs. Give students time to make notes on the information they find. Put
you know how much there is left. pairs together to make groups of four to share the most interesting information
they found.
more
Workbook
Reading p76, Ex.1–4

T78 List it! | Unit 8