Session 3

1. Academic Vocabulary: AWL/Group 2

Collocations:

a) changed circumstances
/ˈsɜːkəmstænsiz/
b) the core areas of someone’s studies
/kɔː(r)/
c) the precise location of a place
/ləʊˈkeɪʃn/
d) register for an English class
/ˈredʒɪstə(r)/
e) use a technique
/tekˈniːk/
f) integrate students into the class
/ˈɪntɪɡreɪt/
g) draw a parallel with sth
/ˈpærəlel/
h) the retention of information
/rɪˈtenʃn/
i) alter considerably (=change a lot)
/ˈɔːltə(r)/
j) at someone’s discretion (=according to what sb wants)
/dɪˈskreʃn/
k) facilitate learning (=help learning)
/fəˈsɪlɪteɪt/
l) genetically modified (=changed)
/dʒəˌnetɪkli ˈmɒdɪfaɪd/
m) (we mixed X and Y) in a ratio of one to five
/ˈreɪʃiəʊ/
n) (The students) formed strong bonds with (each other).
/bɒnd/
o) (an area with) a high incidence of (crime)
/ˈɪnsɪdəns/
p) minimum wage
/ˌmɪnɪməm ˈweɪdʒ/
q) (These issues were) outside the scope of (this essay).
/skəʊp/
Now ask and answer the questions below in pairs.
My partner’s answers

1. Do you enjoy studying under the changed circumstances? There are some parts that she
Why (not)? enjoys, for example plan you week
more freely, you can listen the
podcats, it
-
 2. What techniques do you use to learn vocabulary in a foreign - To read books in English and, try
language? to use this words and in Duolingo
3. What are the core areas of your studies? (e.g. if you study PhD, law research, information law,
French, the core areas are French literature and linguistics.) Which core
management contract.
area are you interested in the most? - Geopraphy.. three maind
directions ( human
geography)
4. Do you know what the minimum wage is in your country of Switzerland, she is not quite
origin? Do you think it should be increased? Why (not)? minimal raches
-
5. Have you ever modified your diet? If so, how? If not, would Behind the main building of the
you modify anything about your diet? university of Bern
6. What is the precise location of your institute?

7. What are the registration requirements for this course? Two registration, first one

2. Reading for detail

A threat to bananas
Read a text about a fungus threatening bananas to practise and improve your reading skills.

Before reading
Do the preparation task first. Then read the text.

Preparation task
Match the definitions (a–h) with the vocabulary (1–8).

Vocabulary Definitions
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1. E------ resistant
a. makes a lot of profit
2. D---- fungus fungi (fun guy)
b. a baby plant
3. F---- a plantation
c. the long thin part of a plant
4. A --- lucrative
d. the family that mushrooms belong
5. B--- a shoot to
6. C---- a stem e. not affected by something
7. H---to quarantine f. a large area where crops
8. G----a monoculture are grown, for example
tea and coffee
g. one kind of crop with no others
grown for variety
h. to isolate something so
that nothing else can touch
SQ3Rs reading strategy it or be affected by it
1. Survey the text: How is it
structured? Are there any visual
aids? Read the first and the last
paragraphs.
2. Questions: Prepare 3 questions on
the basis of the information you have
at this point.
3. Read: Read the text quickly for
gist and try to find the answers to
your questions.
4. Repeat the key ideas of the text.
5. Review: Read the text again; this
time slowly for detail. What are the
three key ideas of the text? What
supporting information (example,
evidence) do you find in the text?
Highlight them.
Then discuss your ideas in small
groups.
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Reading text: A threat to bananas (by Ellen McHale, 2020)

In the 1950s, Central American commercial banana growers were facing the death of their most
lucrative product, the Gros Michel banana, known as Big Mike. And now it’s happening again to
Big Mike’s successor – the Cavendish.
With its easily transported, thick-skinned and sweet-tasting fruit, the Gros Michel banana plant
dominated the plantations of Central America. United Fruit, the main grower and exporter in South
America at the time, mass-produced its bananas in the most efficient way possible: it cloned shoots from
the stems of plants instead of growing plants from seeds, and cultivated them in densely packed fields.
Unfortunately, these conditions are also perfect for the spread of the fungus Fusarium oxysporum f.
sp. cubense, which attacks the plant’s roots and prevents it from transporting water to the stem and
leaves. The TR-1 strain of the fungus was resistant to crop sprays and travelled around on boots or
the tyres of trucks, slowly infecting plantations across the region. In an attempt to escape the fungus,
farmers abandoned infected fields, flooded them and then replanted crops somewhere else, often
cutting down rainforest to do so.
Their efforts failed. So, instead, they searched for a variety of banana that the fungus didn’t affect.
They found the Cavendish, as it was called, in the greenhouse of a British duke. It wasn’t as well suited
to shipping as the Gros Michel, but its bananas tasted good enough to keep consumers happy. Most
importantly, TR-1 didn’t seem to affect it. In a few years, United Fruit had saved itself from bankruptcy
by filling its plantations with thousands of the new plants, copying the same monoculture growing
conditions Gros Michel had thrived in.
While the operation was a huge success for the Latin American industry, the Cavendish banana
itself is far from safe. In 2014, South East Asia, another major banana
producer, exported four million tons of Cavendish bananas. But, in 2015, its exports had dropped by
46 per cent thanks to a combination of another strain of the fungus, TR-4, and bad weather.
Growing practices in South East Asia haven’t helped matters. Growers can’t always afford the
expensive lab-based methods to clone plants from shoots without spreading the disease. Also, they
often aren’t strict enough about cleaning farm equipment and quarantining infected fields. As a result,
the fungus has spread to Australia, the Middle East and Mozambique – and Latin America, heavily
dependent on its monoculture Cavendish crops, could easily be next.
Racing against the inevitable, scientists are working on solving the problem by genetically
modifying the Cavendish with genes from TR-4-resistant banana species. Researchers at the
Queensland University of Technology have successfully grown two kinds of modified plant which
have remained resistant for three years so far. But some experts think this is just a sophisticated
version of the same temporary solution the original Cavendish provided. If the new bananas are
planted in the same monocultures as the Cavendish and the Gros Michel before it, the risk is that
another strain of the disease may rise up to threaten the modified plants too.

Adapted from www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish

3. Grammar review: present simple vs present continuous

A:
B:
In the text, we can see a few examples of the present tense among the highlighted verbs. Please list them below:
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Verb forms in the present Which present tense is Why is that particular
tense used? tense used?
Present simple (infinitive +
(-s)) or present continuous
(am/are/is +Ving)?
1
2
3
4

State verbs (=verbs that are absolutely not/ very rarely used in the continuous form)
5 senses: mental process: know, believe, think
see

smell

taste

hear

feel

description/ possession:
emotions and desires: be, seem, appear, have
love, like, hate, prefer, (= own)
want, wish, need

Exceptions
Choose the correct alternative.
a. I haven’t decided whether to buy a car yet, but I think about it / I’m thinking about it.

b. I feel / I’m feeling he is not telling the truth.

c. I wonder if she is going to get this job. What do you think / What are you thinking?

d. She is / is being very rude to everyone today! What's happening to her?

Revising the present simple and the present continuous. Put the verb in brackets into the present simple or the
present continuous.
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a. My plane __LEAVES (leave) at 10 a.m. tomorrow. Timeables

b. My colleague is on holiday this week, so I m handling____ (handle) her work.

c. At the moment, I __doubt_____ (doubt) that we can do anything to help. State verbs

d. As a rule, we ______spend____ (spend) most of the day working in the lab.

e. He ___is_always complaining____________ (always complain)! I’m sick and tired of this! Annoyance:

present continuos

f. It is now quite certain that the earth’s temperature __is currently rising_____________ (currently rise)

due to the greenhouse effect.

g. ____Are they debating______ (they/debate) the issue now? I thought it was scheduled for later.

h. Such businesses __often make____ (often make) only a marginal profit.

i. We __are going_____ (go) on a fishing trip tomorrow despite the rainy forecast. Future arragments

j. Don’t put the dictionary away. I __need_____ (need) it. I _am translating_______ (translate) an article on

psychology.

k. My friend __is taking____ (take) an academic writing course this semester.

l. _Do you consent______ (you/consent) to undertake this task?

Communication
Due to the coronavirus, this semester is different from a normal semester. How? Use the present simple to
describe a normal semester and the present continuous to highlight events that are true this semester.
Write down 3–4 differences. Look at the example below:
1. I usually go to university by bus, but this semester I’m cycling to avoid the crowd.
2
3
4
5
Work in pairs. Read out loud your sentences by taking it in turns. Ask for more information if possible, e.g. Do
you think you will also cycle to university after the situation has normalized?

4. Grammar review: past simple vs past continuous

In the text, we can see a few examples of the past tense among the highlighted verbs. Please list them below:
 7

Past simple: I did my homework : single finished action

Past continuos: I was doing my homework when the ( long background action)
Verb forms in the past Which past tense is used? Why is that particular
tense Past simple (2 form of the tense used?
nd

verb) or past continuous

(was/were + Ving)?
1
2
3

Exercise 1. What is the difference in meaning between these sentences?

1. When the teacher came in the classroom, we learnt about tenses.
2. When the teacher came in the classroom, we were learning about tenses.

3. When the bell rang, the students were running out of the classroom.
4. When the bell rang, the students ran out of the classroom.

For further practice, check out MyGrammarLab 78-88 and 90-97.

Exercise 2. Look at the list of verbs below. Decide whether they are regular and irregular; if the latter, provide
their three forms.
Bring, dream, eat, enjoy, fly, found, freeze, hop, hurt, intend, lay (‘to put down’), learn, lie (‘to not tell the
truth’), lie (‘to rest’), ride, rise, shrink, spell, teach.
Regular verbs Irregular verbs (three forms)
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Regular vs irregular verbs

Regular verbs = verbs that add –ed to the infinitive to form the past simple.
Irregular verbs = verbs that do not follow the normal pattern. Consult the table below for their second and third
forms.
Regular verbs Irregular verbs (three forms)
dream bring brought brought
enjoy dream dreamt dreamt
found eat ate eaten
hop (but double fly flew flown
consonant: hopped, freeze froze frozen
hopped) hurt hurt hurt
intend lay laid laid
lie (‘to not tell the learn learnt learnt
truth’) lie (‘to rest’) lay lain
learn ride rode ridden
spell rise rose risen
shrink shrank shrunk
spell spelt spelt
teach taught taught
NB: dream, learn, and spell are– words that can be either regular or irregular, without change of meaning
Summary Writing
1. Read the text with the SQ3Rs-strategy
2. Organize your ideas according to the template below:

1st sentence: topic sentence (=a one-sentence-long summary of the whole article), e.g.
McHale (2020) reports that two lucrative banana types have faced the threat of dying

2: Main point 1---fungus

3: Supporting information to main point 1 ( new strain TR4)

4: Main point 2 consequence: Cavendish

5: Supporting information to main point 2 --- avoid bankruptcy

6: Main point 3: solutions: GM

7: Supporting information to main point 2

8: Concluding sentence

3. Proofread your text (grammar, vocabulary, spelling, style)