B1 lesson 17

Look at this picture carefully. Model Answer: Here are some possible answers:

1. I can see a mother and her daughter.

2. The mother is reading a book to her daughter.
3. The girl looks interested, curious and happy. The mother seems happy.

Use these words in a sentence: Model answers:

1. My 10-year-old brother is a bookworm. He reads 2 books a week.
2. Writers create different worlds in their stories.
3. Travelling satisfies my curiosity about how other people live.
4. Fashion design is a kind of art.
5.The discovery of a new Picasso painting has shocked the art world.

Jing, Talisha, Emilio and Emily explain what art and culture they like. Listen carefully
and match each speaker with the type of culture they talk about.
1. Emilio talks about video games.
2. Jing talks about dance.
3. Emily talks about books, films, and TV.
4. Talisha talks about paintings.

Teacher's Notes
1. Ask the students to work through the questions in groups and make a note of their
partner’s answers.
2. What did the students find in common? What were the differences, if any?
Model activity first.

In this video Emily talks about books.

1. True: Emily reads a lot of books.
2. False: Emily is currently reading a book in French.
3. False: Emily has read the book before in English.
4. False: There are lots of words in the book that Emily doesn’t know.
5. True: Emily tries to guess any words she doesn’t know in the book.
6. False: Emily’s guesses are often correct.

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Emily said she works out the meaning of new words when she reads them.
Look at the sentence. Balabobful is a nonsense word. It isn’t in the dictionary! Can
you work out what it means?

1. False: Balabobful is an adjective because it has -ful at the end.

2. True: Balabobful is a negative word because the speaker doesn’t recommend the
book.
3. False: Balabobful is used to describe books.
4. False: Balabobful could mean the same as horrible or awful.

Work in groups. Consider the use of balabob in each of the following sentences. Is it used as
a positive, negative or neutral word? What kind of word is it (verb, adjective, noun)? What
could it mean?

1. I went to the zoo and saw a lot of balabobs. They were jumping all over the place.
Balabobs = a neutral plural noun for an animal.

2. Have you balabobed the book yet? It’s really very interesting.
Balabobed = a neutral verb which means read.

3. She’s a really good balabobor. She can fix any machine she sees.
Balabobor = a positive noun for a person which means someone who is good at repairing
things.

4. He walked so balabobly. It took us a long time to get home.

Balobobly = a negative adverb which means slowly.

5. Three-year-old Timmy is very balabobious. He’s always getting into trouble!

Balabobious = a negative adjective for personality which means naughty or mischievous.

Teacher's Notes
Allow the students to work through the questions for about 2-7 minutes. Model activity first.
Brainstorm the benefits together as a class.
• It expands vocabulary.
• It puts vocabulary into context.
• It shows useful and natural language. • It helps learners reach a higher level.
• It connects learners with the culture/way of thinking
Elicit the main problems.

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• The main problems are usually vocabulary and grammar that is too high in level.
• Attitude - thinking ‘I can’t do it, it’s too difficult!’
Put the students in pairs/groups and ask them to think of solutions.
Hand out worksheet (An approach to reading on your own).

Match the book vocabulary a - e to the meanings 1 - 5.

1. The kind of story (e.g. romance, science-fiction, etc.) = genre. (d)

2. The writer of the story = author. (a)

3. The events in the story = plot. (b)

4. The people in the story = characters. (c)

5. The time and place the story happens = setting. (e)

Emilio asks Emily about the book she’s reading.

1. What are you reading?
2. Where’s it from?
3. What kind of book is it?
4. Who’s it by?
5. So, what’s it about?

Teacher's Notes
Put the ss in pairs and have them match the questions to their purpose. Nominate ss for
answers.
1. Who’s it by? = The author/writer. (c)
2. What’s it called? = The title of the story. (a)
3. What kind of book is it? = The genre of the story. (b)
4. Where’s it from? = The country it was written in. (d)
5. What’s it about? = The plot/story. (f)
6. When and where’s it set? = The time and place the story happens. (e)

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Watch the video to learn about the dramatic present tense.

1. It’s a love story about this man who falls in love with a woman.

2. It’s a science-fiction story about a robot which travels around the universe.

3. It’s a horror story about this group of people who get stuck in a ghost house.

Emily tells Emilio about the story of the book she is reading.

1. The book is about a woman in the future.

2. She lives on a spaceship.
3. She meets a man and they fall in love.
4. One day, the man goes away.
5. When the woman checks, she can’t find the man’s name.

Teacher's Notes
Put the students in groups and give them a few minutes to discuss the next
few points in the plot. Then ask them to share their predictions.
The class should then vote on the best / funniest prediction.
Model activity first.

eacher's Notes
1. Hand out the summaries of the two books (see resources) and the
worksheet. Give the students time to fill in the worksheet.
2. Put the students who read the same summary into pairs/groups to compare
their notes.
3. Pair learners who have read about different stories together. Give them
time to share what they have read.
4. Give them the answers to check the answers.