Cambridge English Empower A2
n it 6
UDifferent brother
1 SPEAKING
a Read through the instructions and make sure students
know the meaning of get on well together – to be friends;
to have a good relationship. Put students into pairs to
discuss the question and monitor and encourage them to
use examples from their own family or people they know.
Bring the class back together and ask for volunteers to tell
the class about their discussions. Do not over-correct for
accuracy and help students get their ideas across.
2 READING
a Encourage students to give their predictions about what
the text is about. Don’t confirm answers at this stage.
b Go through the instructions and check students understand
all the words in the descriptions. Use this opportunity
to pre-teach the meanings of parent, sibling, personalities
and career, all of which occur in the text. Set a short time
limit of about three minutes to encourage students to read
quickly.
Answer
Why siblings don’t usually have the same personalities.
BETTER READING: S KIMMING TO IDENTIFY THE MAIN
IDEA IN A PARAGRAPH
As the students have already seen in unit 2, skimming, or
reading for gist, is about getting an impression of the overall
meaning or general idea of a text and not being distracted
by small details. This is especially important when you are
reading in an L2, where it is easy to be distracted by words
you don’t know and might give up altogether. Here the skill is
applied to identifying the idea in each paragraph of a text.
1 As a lead-in activity, ask the students if they remember
what skimming is. Get them to discuss their ideas in pairs
before asking them for feedback. Explain that skimming is
also known as reading for gist.
Ask students to read items a–f and check students
understand that in item 1, strict means expecting people
(especially children) to follow rules, whereas easy-going
could describe parents who do not have many rules for their
children. Do the first item as a class to remind students how
to do the activity. Put students into pairs and monitor and
help as they continue. Nominate students to give answers
and others to say if they agree or not before feeding back.
Answers
a 4 b 6 c 1 d 5 e 3 f 2
Cambridge English Empower A2 © Cambridge University Press PHOTOCOPIABLE
READING PLUS
c Read through the instructions and do items 1 and 2 as a
class. Put students into pairs to continue the activity and
monitor and help if necessary. You could point out that
students can check the meaning of words and grammatical
information in their dictionaries. Ask for volunteers to
give answers and help with pronunciation as necessary.
Answers
1 single 2 wore 3 strict 4 bought 5 fun-loving
6 knew 7 unusual
d Ask students to read the questions and optional answers
and check vocabulary as necessary. Before students do
the activity, remind them that they should consider
each option carefully and be prepared to say why the
answer they choose is the best one. Ask students to work
individually before comparing in pairs. Ask for volunteers
to give answers and see if the class agrees before feeding
back. Ask for another volunteer to say why the answer is
correct. Do not over-correct for accuracy and help students
get their meaning across as necessary.
Answers
1 c 2 a 3 b 4 c 5 a
3 SPEAKING
a Give students about five minutes to make notes on
their answers to the questions and monitor and help with
ideas and vocabulary as necessary.
Put students into pairs to discuss the questions. Monitor
and encourage them to say more than just ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and
explain their answers. Encourage them to ask their partner
follow-up questions and to comment on whether or not
they agree with their partner and why or why not.
Ask for different pairs to volunteer to present their
discussions for the class. The class listens and votes on
which student asks more follow-up questions.
1