TALKS

Inspiring communication

■ Photocopiable tests use the format of internationally
recognized exams to assess students’ progress.
■ Two engaging communicative activities per unit get students
talking and consolidate the language presented in the
Student’s Book.
Components at each level
Student’s Book with DVD-ROM
Teacher’s Book with Audio CDs
Workbook with Audio CDs
MyELT Online Workbook
Interactive eBook without key
Teacher’s Presentation Tool
Companion website: ngl.cengage.com/keynote

A1

A2

B1

B2

C1

Keynote
PROFICIENT

Teacher’s Book

Hall

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

PROFICIENT  Teacher’s Book

■ Full teaching notes contain keys, scripts, tips, background
notes, suggestions for extension activities and a wealth
of ideas for maximizing the potential of TED Talks in the
ELT classroom.

Keynote

Featuring remarkable people communicating passionately
and persuasively, TED Talks provide the ELT classroom
with inspiring ideas and an unparalleled source of authentic
language input. Keynote invites students to explore these
life-changing stories and develop a deeper understanding
of our world. Underpinned by a carefully designed language
syllabus, Keynote enables students to express themselves
powerfully and proficiently in English – in their professional
and personal lives.


TALKS

Keynote

C2

CEFR correlation
Keynote Proficient is for students who have
achieved level C1 and want to achieve C2.

Diane Hall
WITH COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES

by Karen Richardson


Keynote
Proficient
Teacher’s Book

Diane Hall

NGL.Cengage.com/Keynote
PASSWORD

keynoteTchr#

Communicative Activities by Karen


Richardson


© 2017 National Geographic Learning, a part of Cengage Learning

Keynote Proficient
Teacher’s Book
Diane Hall
Karen Richardson
Publisher: Gavin McLean
Publishing Consultant: Karen Spiller
Project Manager: Karen White

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein
may be reproduced, transmitted, stored or used in any form or by any means
graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying,
recording, scanning, digitising, taping, Web distribution, information networks,
or information storage and retrieval systems, except as permitted under Section
107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, or applicable copyright law of
another jurisdiction, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Development Editor: Shona Rodger
Editorial Manager: Scott Newport
Head of Strategic Marketing ELT: Charlotte Ellis
Senior Content Project Manager: Nick Ventullo
Manufacturing Manager: Eyvett Davis
Cover design: Brenda Carmichael
Text design: MPS North America LLC
Compositor: MPS North America LLC
National Geographic Liaison: Leila Hishmeh

Audio: Tom Dick and Debbie Productions Ltd
DVD: Tom Dick and Debbie Productions Ltd
Cover Photo Caption: Mark Ronson speaks at TED2014,
Session One - Liftoff! - The Next Chapter, March 17–21,
2014, Vancouver Convention Center, Vancouver, Canada.
Photo: © Ryan Lash/TED.

For permission to use material from this text or product,
submit all requests online at www.cengage.com/permissions
Further permissions questions can be emailed to

ISBN: 978-1-305-57961-3
National Geographic Learning
Cheriton House, North Way, Andover, Hampshire, SP10 5BE
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with employees residing in nearly 40 different countries and sales in more
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Visit National Geographic Learning online at ngl.cengage.com
Visit our corporate website at www.cengage.com

CREDITS
Cover: © Ryan Lash/TED.
Photos: 206 © JG Photography/Alamy Stock Photo; 211 (l) © BluIz60/Shutterstock.com; 211 (r) © Shanti Hesse/
Shutterstock.com; 221 (l) © iDevicesinc; 221 (r) © epa european pressphoto agency b.v./Alamy Stock Photo.
Illustrations: MPS North America LLC
Text: pp 194–195 Beng Huat See for ‘Arts education may be important, but the academic benefits are unproven’,
The Conversation, />-unproven-50496

pp 213–215 Martin Klaffke and Robyn Johns for ‘Managing across generations will deliver more productive
workplaces’, The Conversation, www.theconversation.com/managing-across-generations-will-deliver-more-productive
-workplaces-46987
pp 218–220 Saima Noreen for ‘The internet is eating your memory, but something better is taking its place’, The
Conversation, />-place-47590

Printed in Greece by Bakis SA
Print Number: 01

Print Year: 2016


Contents
Introduction

4

1 Creativity

11

2 Hopes and fears

25

3 Perception

40

4 Human interaction


53

5 Economic resources

71

6 Practical design

84

7 Same but different

99

8 Food and sustainability

112

9 Internet sensation

129

10 The meaning of success

143

11 Learning and memory

160


12 Invention or innovation

175

Photocopiable tests
Tests answer key
Photocopiable communicative activities
Communicative activities teaching notes

193
222
231
255

3


Introduction
1

What is Keynote?

Keynote is a six-level, multi-syllabus English course that
takes learners from Elementary level (A1) to Proficient (C2). It
is suitable for all adults or young adults in higher education
or in work who need English in their professional or personal
lives. It is suitable for all teachers, however experienced –
extensive teaching notes will help the inexperienced teacher
plan lessons, while valuable background information,

teaching tips and extension activities will be of great use to
even the most experienced teacher.
The units in Keynote each take a TED Talk as their point
of departure. These talks are given by speakers from all
walks of life, countries and fields of work and provide a rich
and varied basis for the teaching and learning of authentic
English. See section 2 below for more about TED.
Each level contains enough material for between 90 and
120 hours’ classroom work. Teachers can reduce this time
by giving some preparation tasks to students to do at home
(such as watching the TED Talks) or extend it with the extra
activities in the teaching notes and the photocopiable
communicative activities at the back of this book.

• six two-page Presentation lessons that allow students to
practise the presentation skills from the Student’s Book and
build up a bank of personalized presentation language
Teacher’s Book
• full teaching notes for all the units and Review lessons,
containing answers, TED Talk and audio transcripts, teaching
tips, optional and alternative ways of dealing with the
Student’s Book exercises, extension activities and background
information
• six photocopiable progress tests, with sections looking
at the grammar, vocabulary, reading, speaking, writing and
often listening presented in the previous two units, with
answer key
• twenty-four photocopiable communicative activities, two
for each unit, with full teaching notes, containing a variety of
activities such as information gap, interactive crosswords and

mingling. While most of the worksheets are copied and given
to the students, some are to be cut into cards and given to the
students. In these cases, it may be best to copy the page onto
card (and possibly laminate it), so that the cards are sturdier
and can be used several times if necessary.
Website

What are the components of Keynote?
Student’s Book
• twelve units of five double-page lessons each
(See section 3 on page 5 for details.)
• six double-page Review lessons, one after every two units
• a grammar summary and extra exercises to accompany
each unit
• audioscripts and TED Talk transcripts
• DVD-Rom with all TED Talks, Vocabulary in context
exercises, Presentation skills montages, and recordings for
listening and pronunciation exercises
Workbook
• consolidation and extension of all the learning objectives in
the Student’s Book
• additional TED input via biographical information about the
speakers featured in the Student’s Book, playlists related to
the featured talks and audio of podcasts given by members of
the Keynote team
• six two-page Writing lessons that provide detailed practice
of the kinds of texts that come up in the Cambridge exams.
These process-based lessons help students generate ideas,
provide them with a model, give them useful language, and
help them plan, draft, revise and analyse.


4

Introduction

• video streaming of the TED Talks from the Student’s Book,
Vocabulary in context and Presentation skill montages
• worksheets organized by industry (e.g. manufacturing,
tourism, education) and business function (e.g. human
resources, marketing, research and development) that provide
highly targeted practice of the language specific to the learners’
field of work. They can be used in class or for self study.
• mid- and end-of-year tests
• Word versions of all the audio/video scripts and reading
texts that can be ‘re-packaged’ by teachers to create
additional practice material or tests

2

What is TED?

TED is a non-profit organization based on the idea that
many people from all areas of life have ‘ideas worth
spreading’, and should be given a platform to spread those
ideas. There are currently more than 2,000 TED Talks on
the TED website, and new talks by leading thinkers and
doers across a wide range of fields are constantly being
added. TED originated at a conference in 1984 centred on
Technology, Entertainment and Design, but the talks now
cover far more than those three areas. The talks are given



by speakers from across the world, ranging from highly
respected business leaders to school students, all of whom
have an idea worth spreading. The talks can last as long
as 18 minutes but are generally much shorter. By providing
this platform, TED aims to ‘make great ideas accessible and
spark conversation’. For more on TED, see www.TED.com.

Why are TED Talks great for learning English?
TED Talks feature remarkable people communicating
passionately and persuasively, and are a unique source of
engaging and often amusing real language. The talks are
intrinsically interesting, and are watched by millions
of people around the world. In the ELT classroom they
provide:

• the fourth lesson is based on a reading text, drawn from
the theme of the unit and addressing real-life topics, with
a variety of comprehension, reading skills and vocabulary
exercises
• the last lesson in each unit focuses on functional language,
and comprises listening and speaking with accompanying
vocabulary work, as well as a section on writing, focusing on
text type and writing skills
The grammar, reading and functional lessons in each unit
have 21st century outcomes, i.e. the lessons provide and
practise the skills and knowledge needed by students to
succeed in their professional and personal lives in the 21st
century.


• motivating content that learners choose to watch in their
leisure time for entertainment and edification

The grammar, vocabulary and skills presented in each unit
are practised further in the Review lessons after every two
units. (See Teaching tip 3 on page 7.)

• educational content, i.e. students learn about the world as
well as learning English

Grammar

• authentic listening input
• exposure to different language varieties: Keynote has a mix
of talks given by British English, American English, Australian
speakers and includes a glossary in each TED Talk lesson to
compare and contrast language (See Teaching tip 1 on page 6.)
• exposure to different accents (native, such as British and
US, as well as non-native)
• up-to-date language
• ideal material for developing critical thinking skills
• probably the best models in existence for presentation
skills

Grammar is presented in a natural and clear context
using an infographic, which means that there is not a
huge amount of reading for the students to do in order
to find the examples of the grammar. Students are led to
understanding of the grammatical points through guided

discovery, focusing on language from the infographic picked
out in one or two grammar boxes, and studied through
the use of concept check questions. Students are then
directed to the Grammar summary at the back of the book
to read about the grammar in more detail. The exercises
accompanying the Grammar summaries focus mainly on
form and can be done at this point before students tackle
the exercises in the unit, which focus more on meaning and
use, or they can be done for homework.

How do I teach with
Keynote?

The Workbook consolidates the grammar presented in
the Student’s Book and extends it (often looking at more
idiomatic grammar) in the ‘Grammar Extra’ exercises.

Unit structure

Vocabulary

Each unit in the Student’s Book contains five lessons around
an overarching theme:

There are three different categories of vocabulary
presentation and practice in Keynote:

• the first provides an introduction to the TED Talk for the
unit, including preparation by pre-teaching key vocabulary
and practising skills that will help students when listening to

authentic English

Key words

3

• the second is the TED Talk lesson where students watch
and listen to the talk, both in its entirety and in short sections,
and do further vocabulary work (mining the talk for interesting
vocabulary and collocations) as well as work on critical
thinking and presentation skills (See Teaching tip 2 on page 6.)
• the third is the grammar lesson, with real input in the form
of an infographic that provides a context for the presentation
of the grammar and practice, and ends in a spoken output
using the new language

The Key words section always appears in the first lesson. In
this section some of the words and phrases that are central
to the TED Talk are matched with definitions in order to
enable students to understand the talk more easily. Note
that these words are sometimes above the relevant CEFR
level. (See Teaching tip 4 on page 7.)
Vocabulary in context
The Vocabulary in context section always appears in the
second lesson, after students have watched the TED Talk.
Here, short excerpts which contain useful words, phrases or
collocations are repeated and the lexical items are matched
with synonyms and then practised in a personalization activity.

Introduction


5


Vocabulary development
Further vocabulary work focuses on vocabulary relevant
to the theme taken from the reading and listening texts,
building on it in the form of work on lexical sets, phrases
and collocation.
There is further work on vocabulary in context and the
lexical sets of the units in the Workbook. Additionally, the
Workbook provides more practice of wordbuilding and
common collocations of a topic word.

Skills
Reading
Each unit has a reading lesson based on a contemporary
and real-world text. The accompanying exercises cover
reading comprehension, reading skills and vocabulary work,
but also elicit a personal response to the content of the text.
Writing
There is a focus on writing in each final lesson, covering
a text type and writing skill, such as using linking words.
There are on-page models for students to analyse and
follow in their own writing. Writing is further practised in the
Workbook where there are six process-based, double-page
lessons that provide detailed practice of the kinds of texts
that come up in the Cambridge exams (matched to the level
of the book).
Listening

Listening is a key component of the course and is dealt with
in various ways. To help students deal with the authentic,
native speaker-level language of the TED Talks, Keynote
has a comprehensive authentic listening skills syllabus
that – together with a focus on key words from the Talk and
background information – allows students to understand
listening material which is usually well above their productive
level. (See Teaching tip 5 on page 7.) There is often listening
in the grammar lessons, consolidating the new language,
and there is also graded listening material in the final lesson
of each unit, using a wide variety of listening comprehension
task types.
Speaking
Each unit has a lesson that focuses specifically on
functional and situational language that is relevant to
working adults. This is supported by a useful language box
containing a number of expressions relevant to the function
or situation. There are also speaking activities throughout
the units.
Pronunciation
There is a pronunciation syllabus, integrated with the
grammar and speaking lessons where there is a relevant
pronunciation area.

6

Introduction

4


Teaching tips

The following teaching tips apply throughout the course.
There are lesson-specific teaching tips through the units.

Teaching tip 1 Which variety of English?
This deals with the notes comparing North American and
British English in the TED Talk lesson. Find out whether
your students are interested in learning about the different
pronunciation and vocabulary of these two varieties. Ask
them what varieties of English they prefer to listen to (native
and non-native) and why. Explore any prejudices the class
may have around variety. Discuss students’ long-term
pronunciation goals and whether they hope to sound like
native speakers or whether it is better to aim for a clear
accent that reflects their identities more accurately. The
conclusions to this discussion will determine what you do
with the footnotes. If your students are very interested in
the two varieties, you may decide to get them practising
saying the words in the different accents. Similarly, where
the spelling or vocabulary is different, you could encourage
students to use the variety they feel most comfortable
with in their learning, but ensure that they use one variety
consistently.
Where students are interested, you could spend some time
investigating the differences further. For example, with
spelling differences, you could ask the students to look
for patterns (in the glossaries in the book or using online
dictionaries). They should be able to identify patterns
such as the -or/-our ending in North American color/favor

and British colour/favour. With differences in vocabulary,
you could encourage students to speculate on how the
differences have come about, e.g. is sidewalk a more literal
word than pavement?

Teaching tip 2 Developing presentation skills
After students have watched a TED Talk in each unit, they
focus on a particular aspect of presentation skills such as
‘using props’ or ‘being concise’. Before embarking on the
Presentation skills sections, it’s probably worth finding out
from your students the kinds of situations when they might
have to present (in their first language or in English). Many of
your students will need to present information at work and
students in academic situations will have to present their
research. Even students who don’t often give presentations
will benefit from presenting in your class because it’s an
opportunity to build confidence in speaking in English and to
develop a key communication skill.
At first, some of your students might not feel comfortable
with giving presentations in English. That’s why many of
the presentations tasks in Keynote can be done in pairs,
with students taking turns to present to each other. As the
course progresses, you could ask students to present to
larger groups and once they are more confident, to the
whole class.


Remember to allow plenty of preparation time for the
presentations. Often it’s a good idea to set a presentation
task and ask students to work on it for homework before

they give their presentation in the next lesson. It’s also
useful to provide students with preparation strategies such
as making notes on pieces of card to refer to, rehearsing
in front of a mirror or presenting to family and friends at
home. You will find more tips on setting up and delivering
classroom presentations in the relevant part of each unit of
this Teacher’s Book.

Teaching tip 3 Using the Review lessons
The Review lesson is an opportunity for reflection and
consolidation. Encourage students to see the benefits of
reviewing recently encountered language as a means to
strengthening their learning and for diagnosing which areas
they need to study again.
The Review lessons could be set as homework, but by
doing them in class you will be available to clarify areas
of difficulty, answer questions and see for yourself where
students are doing well or not so well. Ask students how
hard they found the exercises as a means of diagnosing
what needs reviewing more thoroughly. Also, consider
putting students in small groups to work through the
grammar, vocabulary, speaking and writing activities on
their own while you conduct one-to-one sessions with
individuals. Speak to students to find out how they are
progressing, what they need to work on, whether they
are experiencing any difficulties in the class or any other
matters.

Teaching tip 4 Key words


• Students need time before and after listening to prepare
and compare: before, to read the task, ask questions and to
predict possible answers, and after, to write their answers and
to compare them with a partner.
• Time for writing answers is particularly important when
watching clips rather than listening because it is hard to watch
the video and write at the same time. This is one reason the
TED Talks are broken into small segments.
• Let students read the transcript while they listen or watch.
• Isolate the few seconds of the audio or video where the
answer to a question lies and let students listen to it a number
of times.
• It’s hard in long clips to keep concentrating all the time,
so pause just before an answer comes up in order to warn
students that they should refocus.
• There are ways of changing the speed that video is played
back. You may want to investigate how to slow down talks
slightly for your students using certain media players.
• If a task is difficult, make it easier. For example, if students
have to listen for a word to fill gaps, you could supply the
missing words on the board, mixed up, for them to choose.
• Celebrate the successes, however small. If a student
hears only one thing, praise them for that. Don’t supply extra
information which you heard but they did not, unless you have
a good reason.
• Remind them now and again of the advice they read about
listening to authentic speech in the first lesson of each unit,
especially the advice not to try to understand every word,
to stay relaxed and to keep listening. Reassure them that
listening improves with repeated practice and that the best

thing they can do for their listening skills is to persevere.

One way of dealing with the Key words activity in the first
lesson of each unit is to write the key words on the board.
Read out the first definition and nominate a student to
say the correct word. If they guess correctly, read out the
second definition and nominate another student to guess
that word. Continue until they have matched all the words
and their definitions in this way. However, whenever a
student guesses incorrectly, start from the very beginning
again and read out the first definition, nominating a different
student each time. The activity ends once the class has
correctly matched all the words and definitions in a row
without any mistakes.

Teaching tip 5 Dealing with difficult listening activities
The TED Talks are authentic English and may be challenging
for some students, which can be a cause of frustration. Here
are some ideas to increase your students’ ability to deal with
authentic language:
• Don’t miss out any of the pre-listening exercises in the first
lesson, such as Key words or Authentic listening skills. These
are designed to make listening easier.

Introduction

7


Unit walk through

Unit opener
Three keys to understanding authentic listening input

2

Hopes and
fears

BACKGROUND

Sprinter’s prayer at a track
competition, Annapolis,
United States

KEY WORDS

3 How do you feel about public speaking? Is it something
you dread? Why? / Why not? How comfortable do you
feel with other means of communication (for example,
speaking on the phone, writing letters and reports,
speaking in meetings)?

1 You are going to watch a TED Talk by Megan Washington
called Why I live in mortal dread of public speaking. Read
the text about the speaker and the talk. Then work in
pairs and discuss the questions.

2 Read the questions (1–6). The words in bold are used in

AUTHENTIC LISTENING SKILLS Listening

to songs

the TED Talk. First guess the meaning of the words. Then

Listening to songs is something that most non-native
speakers like to practise. It is beneficial because songs
are memorable and are also good for your pronunciation;
it is often easier to imitate something when it is sung than
when it is said. But understanding the lyrics can be difficult,
because the words are vocalized in a way that suits the
music rather than in the most comprehensible way for the
listener. Fortunately, you can often find song lyrics on the
Internet to read while you listen.

the questions with your partner.

1 What facts in the text indicate Megan Washington’s
success as a singer?
2 What is a stutter? How do you think a stutter would
affect a person who has one?

1 What other kinds of speech impediment are there apart
from a stutter?
2 Why do you think people talk to babies or children in a
singsong voice?
3 Megan and Sydney are proper nouns. Can you think of
other examples of proper nouns?
4 Is it cheating to use notes when you’re giving a talk?
5 Have you ever been advised explicitly about how to
speak in public?

6 What do you think is the most miraculous thing about
the human brain?

MEGAN WASHINGTON is a popular Australian singer and
songwriter. She has won two ARIA Awards, the Australian
equivalent of the Grammys, and was a judge on the TV singing
ng
talent show The Voice, in Australia. Her 2010 album I Believe
e
You Liar went platinum. In this talk she reveals a secret about
ut
herself that she has not shared publicly before – that she has
s
a stutter – and explains how singing helps her with this.

a
b
c
d
e

in a clear and detailed way, leaving no room for confusion
not following (or abiding by) the rules
remarkable and bringing amazing results
words that are the names of places or people
a defect that makes it difficult to speak or produce the
correct sound
f where the voice rises and falls in a musical way

s

Megan Washington’s idea worth spreading is that for all of us
express ourselves.

3a

5 Look at the Authentic listening skills box. Cover
Washington’s song. What did you understand?

3b

5
and read the lyrics at the same time. Complete the lyrics.
I would be a beauty but my 1
big for my face

is slightly too

And I would be a dreamer but my 2
too big for this 3

is slightly

18

19

TED Talk lesson
2.1 Work in pairs. Look at the lyrics of Megan
Washington’s song and try to complete the missing
words. The words at the end of a line rhyme with the

last word in the line before. Then watch the fourth
part (8.36 to the end) of the talk again and check your
answers.

I would be a beauty but my nose is slightly too big for
my face
And I would be a dreamer but my dream is slightly too big
space
for this 1
And I would be an angel but my halo it pales in the
2
of your 3
And I would be a joker but that card looks silly when you
play your 4
I’d like to know: Are there stars in hell?
And I’d like to know, know if you can 5
That you make me lose everything I know
That I cannot choose to or not let 6

2.1

Why I live in mortal dread
of public speaking

1

2.1 Watch the TED Talk. What message did you take
away from the TED Talk? Discuss with your partner.

2


2.1
Then work in pairs and answer the questions.
1 How does Megan Washington rate the seriousness
of her problem?
2 What is she fearful of? What is she not fearful of?
3 What things did she hope would happen when she grew
up?
4 What has she decided to do, now that she’s 28?

3

2.1 Watch the second part (2.47–5.22) of the talk
again. Complete the sentences.
1 The other stutterer Megan Washington met, Joe, thought
she was in love with him / making fun of him.
2 Many people think she’s stupid / drunk.
3 For Megan Washington, the most difficult thing as a
stutterer is saying proper nouns / people’s names.
4 If Megan Washington thinks she’s going to stutter,
she starts the sentence again / thinks of a synonym
or paraphrase.
5 She solved the problem of saying her band member
Steve’s name by dropping the ‘s’ / the ‘t’.

20

8

Introduction


And I’d stay forever but my home is slightly too far from
this place
And I swear I try to slow it down when I am walking at
your 7
But all I could think idling through the cities
in the rain?
Do I look 8
And I don’t know how someone quite so lovely makes
me feel 9
So much 10

▶ often /ˈɒf(ə)n/ BR ENG
▶ often /ˈɔf(ə)n/ N AM ENG

4

10 Read this comment* about the TED Talk. Do you agree
with the viewer’s comment? Were her reasons the same
as yours?
Viewers’ comments
Joss – I almost cried watching this. Her vulnerability,
grace and humility completely charmed me. It’s a very
courageous thing to stand up on stage in front of a group
of strangers and expose your flaws and insecurities.

J

*The comment was created for this activity.


PRESENTATION SKILLS Being authentic
11 Work in pairs. How can you ensure when you give a talk
that you speak from the heart and allow the audience to
see your true personality?

12 Look at the Presentation tips box. Compare your ideas
from Exercise 11 with the points in the box.
When you give a talk, there’s a temptation to see
the stage as an acting stage and play a different
character from the person you really are. Try to resist
this temptation: the audience want to see you, not an
actor. Follow these tips:
●
Be
yourself. Write your talk yourself. Use words and
expressions that you would normally use. Make
sure your words convey your personality and your
curiosity about the topic.
●
Be
personal and relatable. Pepper your talk with
stories, examples and applications of your idea –
make sure your talk isn’t overly conceptual.
●
Be
passionate. Whenever possible, choose a topic
that you feel passionate about. Your excitement
translates from the stage and becomes contagious.
●
Be

comfortable. Wear something you would
normally wear and feel comfortable in.

TIPS

5

VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT
2.1 Watch the third part (5.22–8.36) of the talk again.
Complete the summary with these words.
cheating
singsong

smooth

medication
TV

nice
understood

One technique that therapists use with stutterers is called
1
speech where they get the person to speak
in a 2
way. The problem is that it makes the
person sound as if they are on 3
. Megan
Washington uses this technique when she’s on
4

, but it feels like 5
.
sounds
Singing is not just about making 6
or feeling 7
; it’s the only time she can really
express herself. When she sings, it is the only time she feels
8
, because for some reason the brain
won’t allow you to stutter when you sing.

6

2.2 Watch the clips from the TED Talk. Choose the
correct meaning of the words and phrases.

7

2.3 Watch the clips from the talk. Complete the
collocations. Then discuss your answers.

8 Complete the sentences in your own words. Then
compare your sentences with a partner.
1 My best friend / mother / boss manages to stay serene
and calm, even when …
2 For me, speaking good English and … are inextricably
linked.
3 When you’re giving a public talk, you can’t get away
with …
4 After talking to people all day at work, … is sweet relief.


13

2.4 Watch the clip from the TED Talk. Which of the
techniques in the Presentation tips box can you see in
Megan Washington’s talk?

14 You are going to give an introduction to a talk on ‘How
I overcame a fear’. Use the ideas below or your own
idea. Make brief notes for an introductory paragraph and
practise presenting your introduction.
fear of flying
fear of heights
fear of driving at night
fear of making mistakes (e.g. when speaking English)

●
●

CRITICAL THINKING Winning your
audience over
9 Judging by the applause at the end, Megan Washington
clearly won her audience over. Work in pairs. Discuss
how you think she was able to do this. What techniques
did she use?

▶ awkward /ˈɔːkwə(r)d/ BR ENG
▶ awkward /ˈɔkwərd/ N AM ENG

Unit 2 Hopes and fears


TED Talks
are great for
discussion,
vocabulary,
critical thinking
and presentation
skills

▶ wanted /wɒntɪd/ BR ENG
▶ wanted /wɑnɪd/ N AM ENG

●
●

15 Work in small groups. Take turns to present your
introductions. Which techniques from the Presentation
tips box did you use? Were these techniques successful
in helping you to ‘be authentic’?

21


Grammar
Grammar is presented in real-world contexts and practised for real-world outcomes

LANGUAGE FOCUS Expressions of
certainty

5 Complete the sentences. Use an appropriate future form.

Sometimes more than one form is possible.

82 82

1 It’s impossible to predict what
(happen) in the next thirty years. We
(be) better off, we
(be) worse off.
(still / live)
2 At the rate I’m going, I
with my parents when I’m forty!
3 My partner and I have decided that we
(move) to an area where the cost
of living is lower.
(save) enough to
4 The idea that we
retire by the time we’re sixty like my parents did is a joke.
(never / be) able to buy our
5 We
own house, I don’t think.
6 You have to look on the bright side. We
(earn) as much money as our
(be)
parents did, but I think we
better off in other ways.
(pay) off all
7 This time next year, I
my student debts.
(do) a course in money
8 I

management next week. My friend did it and said it was
really good.

PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE WHO AGREE WITH THIS STATEMENT:

78

52

51

48

MY GENERATION WILL HAVE A BETTER
LIFE THAN MY PARENTS’ GENERATION.

50

46

47

47

42

41

41


42
40

41

40

40

38

32

36

33
29

25

SPAIN

16

24

16

BELGIUM


25

FRANCE

CANADA

AGREE (RESPONDENTS UNDER 30)

26

24

21

ND
POLA

Y
MAN
GB

GER

DEN

34

30

22


USA

30

SW
E

SOU
T

AGREE (RESPONDENTS OF ALL AGES)

35

ITALY

27

H KO

REA

A
AUS
TRA
LIA

SOUTH
AFRICA


40

30

ARGE
NTIN

JAPAN

RUSSIA

INDIA

TURKEY

CHINA

BRAZIL

34

12

8 Look at the two sentences from the economist’s
commentary in Exercise 3. How certain is the speaker
that these things will happen?
1 These statistics are just a snapshot of how people
feel at the moment. But the situation is very likely to
change.

2 We will use creative thinking and technology to
overcome the problems that we are all bound to face
in the future.
See page 144 for more information about expressions of certainty,
and do Exercise 4.

9 Look at these phrases and grade them by order of
certainty (A, B, C or D)
A
B
C
D
won’t happen__I__________I_________I______I_will happen
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

6 The last example in the Grammar box uses a present

GRAMMAR Future forms

the questions (1–2).
years ago, do you think people have:
a a better life?
b a worse life?

c a life that is better in some respects but worse in others?

2 Look at the infographic. Answer the questions.
1 Overall are people optimistic or pessimistic about having
a better standard of living than their parents?
2 Which countries are more optimistic? Which are more
pessimistic? Do these countries have anything in common?
3 Are the younger generation more or less optimistic than
the overall population?
4 Why do you think China is exceptionally optimistic?

3

tense to talk about future time. Work in pairs. Look at
these other uses of present and future tenses. Which
sentences refer to future time? Which sentences refer to
present or general time?

4 Read the sentences (1–8) in the Grammar box. Answer

1

6 Listen to an economist’s commentary on the
statistics in the infographic. Complete the sentences.
1 The economist describes the statistics as just a
of how people feel at the moment.
2 He describes China, Brazil and India as
industrialized countries and the US, Spain and
industrial economies.
France as

3 He says in future, Western economies will not rely on
sector industries.
4 Instead the economies will be based on
thinking and technology. This change will result in a
for everyone.
better quality of

1 Sorry, I have to go. My train leaves in half an hour.
2 Can you slow down? We’re going too fast.
3 There’s no point calling San Francisco now. No one will
be at work yet.
4 Oh no! I forgot to put a parking ticket on my car. I’ll be
back in a moment.
5 Is it five o’clock already? Sorry, I have to go. My wife will
be waiting outside in the car.
6 We’re getting married on 4th July, American
Independence Day.
7 He will keep interrupting when others are speaking.
8 Exercise works best for me when I do it early in the day.
9 If we are to get a good price, we’d better book the flight
soon.

FUTURE FORMS
1 In China and India people feel things are going to get
better.
2 In the US, Spain and France people think that in thirty
years, things will have got worse.
3 In thirty years or so, Western economies certainly
won’t be doing the same things they are doing now.
4 I’m not saying that things are about to change.

5 If we are to progress, the post-industrial economy will
have to evolve.
6 I think we will use creative thinking and technology to
overcome the problems.
7 A better standard of living in the post-industrialized
nations may or may not come out of that.
8 I’m speaking at the conference on Tuesday.

things coming true is? Give reasons.
people will live to be 150 years old
driverless cars will become common
the global population will reach 10 billion (currently it’s
7 billion)
●global warming will be reversed
●
●
●

SPEAKING Attitudes towards the future
11

21st CENTURY OUTCOMES
Work in pairs. Ask and answer the questions to complete
this questionnaire.
1 Do you think you will be better or worse off than your
parents in your lifetime?
2 Do you think the world in general will have become a
better or a worse place in fifty years’ time?
3 Are you (or your children) likely to be living in your own
home by the time you (or they) are thirty?

4 Do you think that having a lower income necessarily
means a worse quality of life (and vice versa)?
5 Do you think a richer generation should help their
children financially when they are adults?

a future plan or ambition you have, e.g. ‘One day I …’
an arrangement you’ve made, e.g. ‘Next weekend /

●
●

a prediction about your future, e.g. ‘I expect …’
a thing you know someone else is doing at this very
moment in another place, e.g. ‘Right now …’
●a thing you know you will be doing in the future, e.g. ‘In
two months …’
●
●

2 Which two sentences simply predict a future event?

It’s highly unlikely to happen.
In all likelihood, it will happen.
It may well happen.
It’s very likely to happen.
It’s bound to happen.
It’s anyone’s guess whether it will happen.
It’s a foregone conclusion.
It’s by no means certain.


10 Work in pairs. What do you think the probability of these

7 Work in pairs. Talk about these ideas.

1 Which sentence:
a describes a continuous event in the future?
b describes a completed event in the future?
c describes a future arrangement?
d expresses uncertainty about a future event?
e describes a change in the very near future?
f describes a pre-condition for a prediction?

Unit 2 Hopes and fears

2.2

12 Work with another pair Discuss your answers to the

Check your answers on page 143 and do Exercises 1–3.

questions in Exercise 11. Are you optimistic for the future?

21st CENTURY OUTCOMES

22

23

GLOBAL AWARENESS Reflect on future trends


Reading and vocabulary
2.3
READING Outside the comfort zone

could be taken out their comfort zones appealed to you
personally? Why? Discuss your ideas with your partner.

1 What does comfort zone mean? In what situations do
you feel outside your comfort zone?
2 What feelings – physical and emotional – do you
experience when you are outside your comfort zone?
3 Do you think it’s good to sometimes be in these
situations? Why? / Why not?

VOCABULARY Hopes and fears
6 Complete the idioms about hopes and fears with these
words.

give

2 You are going to read an article about being outside the
✓) the two
expressed.

3 Read the rest of the article. Choose the best option to
complete the sentences.
1 Being stuck in an overcrowded lift is given as an example
of an everyday / an unpleasant situation.
2 According to the article, getting out of the lift gives us a
feeling of accomplishment / liberation.

3 We get a feeling of achievement when we manage
frightening situations / everyday difficulties.
4 Overcoming your fear in a particular situation makes you
keener to do it again / less afraid in other situations.
5 The example of the prison visit is used to show
how being taken out of your comfort zone can build
understanding within communities / help business
leaders to manage teams.
6 Julia Middleton believes putting people in unfamiliar
situations teaches them to be less suspicious of others /
break out of their own small worlds.

4 Find the words in bold in the article. Then answer the
questions.
1 If there’s an overwhelming consensus, roughly what
percentage of people are in agreement? (para 1)
2 If someone said to you ‘Do you get my drift?’, what
would they be asking you? (para 1)
3 What does ‘which’ refer to in line 21? (para 2)
4 What things can you overcome, other than fears? (para 2)
5 What kinds of things do ‘adrenaline junkies’ do to get
their excitement? (para 2)
6 What adjective with the word ‘day’ in it means the same
as mundane? (para 2)
7 What’s another word for inmates? (para 3)
8 If a building is insulated against the cold, what kind of
measures have been taken? (para 4)

dark
nerves


dashed
pinned

feet
plucked

get
sky

1 I’ll help you look for your ring, but don’t
your hopes up – I may not find it.
2 His hopes of becoming a firefighter were
when he learned that – at fifty – he was
too old.
her hopes on getting the job, so
3 She had
she was disappointed when they told her that they had
hired someone else.
4 The thing that sets great sports people apart from
up hope.
ordinary ones is that they never
5 She’s so talented – she can go anywhere she wants.
’s the limit.
The
6 He wanted to ask her for her autograph, but he got
.
cold
before
7 Poor Jake. He was a bundle of

his talk.
up her
8 After some hesitation, she
courage and jumped across the gap.
in my stomach every time I think
9 I get
of my interview next Monday – I’m so nervous!
10 We really had no idea what our new life in Australia
.
would be like. It was a leap in the

1 There are few things of value within our comfort zone.
2 The general belief is that stepping out of your comfort
zone is a useful thing to do.
3 Stepping out of the comfort zone is not for everyone.
4 Too many of the tips you find on the Internet are about
self-improvement.

24

Outside
THE
COMFORT
ZONE

5 Which of the examples in the article of ways that people

1 Work in pairs. Discuss the questions.

5


10

15

20

7 Work in pairs. Discuss what each idiom in Exercise 6
means. Then choose four idioms to describe situations
that you have been in.

SPEAKING Comfort zone
8

21st CENTURY OUTCOMES
Work in pairs. Look at the suggestions (1–5) for taking
people out of their comfort zones. Then discuss the
questions (a–c) on page 25.
1 Volunteer to work at a soup kitchen, handing out food to
the homeless.
2 Try to eat a kind of food that you normally avoid eating.
3 Go out of your way to thank or show appreciation to
someone in your life whom you respect and admire.
4 Visit a part of your city that you never normally visit
(without any map or GPS help). Get acquainted with the
area by asking strangers for directions.
5 Give a short performance – a song, a story, a poem – at
a local ‘open mic’ event.

Unit 2 Hopes and fears


Contemporary,
real-world texts
are exploited for
reading skills,
vocabulary and
interest

25

30

Google ‘out of your comfort zone’ and, along with a host
of tips on how to get there, you will find an overwhelming
consensus that this is something we really all ought to
be doing. The general drift is that if you stay in your own
comfortable little box, never seeking new experiences or
taking risks, your life will be pretty dull and unfulfilling.
If, on the other hand, you step out of this familiar world,
something magical will happen: not only will you grow
as a person, but whole new vistas of opportunity will
open out before you. However, where a lot of the advice,
whether from bloggers or personal coaches, falls short is
how being taken out of your comfort zone can profit not
just you, the individual, but others too.
At its simplest level, being out of your comfort zone
means doing things that make you feel uncomfortable
or anxious, such as driving at night in the pouring rain
or being stuck in an overcrowded lift. No one, of course,
actually advocates seeking out these kinds of situation as

a route to self-improvement. Rather, they advise that we
place ourselves intentionally in challenging situations,
mastery of which will give us not just a sense of relief (as
in the case of escaping the crowded lift), but a sense of
real achievement. We have managed a difficult situation,
overcome a fear, and are now better placed to deal with
it the next time. Canoeing on white water for the first
time and managing to negotiate some treacherous rapids
would offer such a feeling of accomplishment. But it
doesn’t have to mean seeking adventure or becoming
an adrenaline junkie. It could equally be something
more mundane, like a person who has no experience of
cooking preparing a meal for ten guests. The principle is
the same: the more you attempt to do things that scare
you, the more confident you will become and the more
your fear, in general, will begin to fade. You’ll go for that

There is no doubt that these kinds of achievement bring
a greater sense of self-empowerment, but there still
seems to be something lacking here. The key perhaps is
in the word ‘self’. Where is the benefit to others? I was
struck the other day reading an article about a leadership
training company called ‘Common Purpose’ which offers
a more socially-minded approach to taking people out of
their comfort zones. One of their programmes involved
participants visiting a local prison and speaking to
inmates about how they had got there and what the
challenges of being ‘inside’ were. A managing director of
a local company who took part said, ‘What I gained from
this experience in a business sense might be indirect, but

in a social sense it was priceless – and like any business,
[my company] exists in a social setting.’ This experience
wasn’t so much about confronting one’s demons as
opening one’s eyes to the situation of others. That can
be uncomfortable, but ultimately, it is something that
benefits more than just the individual concerned.
We all operate within the confines of certain worlds
and our own thoughts and actions are limited by them.
The kind of programme offered by Common Purpose
removes this insulation and extends our knowledge
not just of our own limitations, but of the restrictions
and difficulties that others face. As Julia Middleton, the
founder of Common Purpose, puts it, ‘Most people tend to
stay within their limits … they often don’t recognize that
a different approach is needed … As professionals we
cannot afford to be isolated from fellow decision-makers,
and as people, we cannot continue to be insulated from
our fellow citizens.’

35

40

45

50

55

60


65

9 Think of another activity and answer the questions (a–c)

Questions
a Would you feel uncomfortable doing this or being in this
situation?
b What personal benefit could come from doing this?
c What benefit could it bring to the community or others?
21st CENTURY OUTCOMES

job you thought you had no hope of getting; you’ll go
travelling on your own; you’ll learn a new language.

from Exercise 8 for this activity. Then compare your idea

CRITICAL THINKING Evaluate ideas and make judgements

Introduction

25

9


Listening, speaking and writing
Functional language is presented via common, everyday situations where students need to interact in English

LISTENING Travel advice


1 Work in pairs. Discuss the questions. Then read the

3

extract from an article and check your answers.
1 What is a worst-case scenario?
2 What is ‘scenario planning’ and who uses it?
make collocations. Then discuss which of these things
you regularly do (or would do) when you travel abroad.

4

A
carry
read up on

take out

get
wear

hang on to

B

7 Listen to two people giving advice for two of the
worst-case scenarios described in the article. Make notes
for each scenario using these headings.


7 Work with a new partner. Act out two more

insurance
jabs
a money belt

10a Work in pairs. Look at the example of the future in the
past in the account in Exercise 8.

WRITING An account of an incident
8 Read this account from an online travel forum of

Ironically, I was originally going to come back on
the Thursday because my Friday meeting had been
cancelled. (= It was my intention to come back on
Thursday.)

escaping a tricky situation. How did the writer get out of
the situation? Did he follow any of the advice you heard
in Exercise 3 on page 26?

Giving advice
Three weeks ago I was returning from a
business trip in Krakow in Poland. It was a
Friday and I was supposed to be back in
London for my sister’s wedding the following day.
Ironically, I was originally going to come back on the
Thursday because my Friday meeting had been
cancelled, but I thought it would be more relaxing to
stick to my original schedule. What a mistake!

Overnight, it snowed very heavily and I woke to a thick
blanket of snow. I telephoned the airport immediately
to see what the situation was. They told me that no
flights would be taking off until the morning after at the
earliest.

Be aware that … / Be aware of …
For your own peace of mind, …
Take time to …
…-ing … is also advisable / a good idea.
Opt for ... / Choose … over …
Avoid …-ing
I’d (strongly) advise against …-ing
The best thing is to ...
In the event that / In the event of …
Consider …-ing …
Justifying advice
The chances are that …
It may be helpful if / when …-ing
It can be invaluable when …-ing
That way, you’ll / you won’t …
That will ensure that …

Worst

case scenario

Ironically, I was originally going to come back on the
Thursday because my Friday meeting had been cancelled.’


Writing skill Future in the past

conversations. Then discuss what the most
useful advice was that you received.

7 Listen to the advice again and look at the
expressions in the Useful language box. Tick (✓) the
expressions the speakers use. How do they complete
these expressions?

GIVING AND JUSTIFYING ADVICE

your booking
local laws / customs
a map
plenty of time
receipts

events by using comment adverbs and phrases. Look at
the example in bold. Find four more comment adverbs
and phrases in the account and discuss with your partner
what each one means.

1 Someone overcharging you for something you have
bought (e.g. a shop owner and a customer)
2 Your hotel cancelling your reservation (e.g. a hotel
receptionist and a guest)
3 Having an accident in your hire car
4 Getting bitten by a disease-carrying insect


1 The worst-case scenario mentioned
2 Preventative measures
3 Actions in the event of this happening

2 Match the verbs in box A with the nouns in box B to

allow
pack

9 In the account, the writer gives his opinion about certain

Scenarios

READING Being prepared

At that point I went into military mode. My only concern
was how I was going to get back in time for the
wedding. What were my options? Obviously, I couldn’t
hire a car. It was an eighteen-hour drive to the UK even
in good conditions. I went online and researched the
weather situation at other airports. Warsaw, Poznan´
and Berlin all had the same problems. Knowing that
the cheaper airlines flew to more obscure places, I
checked their websites. Luckily, Ryanair had a flight
that evening from Ostrava to London. Ostrava was
only 160 kilometres away and, amazingly, the flight
was only £20. With my heart in my mouth, I picked up
the phone and called Ostrava airport. Yes, flights were
operating as normal and the road to the airport was
clear.


Pronunciation Consonant clusters

Any forward-looking business or government will put plans
in place for all possible scenarios: best-case, worst-case,
probable case. Scenario planning doesn’t mean predicting
the future – it just means being prepared. Unfortunately,
many of us as individuals think we’re immune to bad things
happening. Bad things can happen to anyone, but they
happen a lot less if you take proper precautions.

5

This applies in particular to travellers, because there are an
awful lot of things that can go wrong when you are outside
your familiar environment. Worst-case scenarios include
things like having an accident in your hire car, leaving all your
valuables in a taxi, being stranded by a natural disaster, or
realizing you aren’t covered by your insurance following an
accident. The following tips are from people – travel agents,
guidebook writers and embassy officials – who routinely deal
with these situations and help people to avoid them.

SPEAKING Giving advice

8 How do you think the underlined consonant
clusters are pronounced? Discuss with a partner. Then
listen and check.
although
explain

sixth

asked

changed
helpful

clothes
lengthy

crisps
months

splash

I rang hotel reception and asked them to find a taxi that
could take me to Ostrava. Imagine my joy when they
said that two other people had made the same request
and that a taxi would be coming in half an hour. Better
still, we could share the cost. Not only was I going to
get home in time, but I would have company on the
journey too.

6 Work in pairs. Choose two of the scenarios (1–4) on
page 27. Decide on your roles and act out the
conversations.
Conversation 1: Advise the other person about how to
minimize of the risk of this situation happening
Conversation 2: Help someone to deal with the situation
when this has happened


Unit 2 Hopes and fears

2.4

See page 144 for more information on future in the past,
and do Exercise 5.

10b Complete the sentences using the verbs in brackets in
a form of the future in the past. Then compare answers
with your partner.
(come) with us but she
1 She
changed her mind.
(take off) at 7.00, but
2 The plane
it was delayed.
(be) expensive,
3 I thought the taxi
but it turned out to be very reasonable.
(wait) at the
4 I expected that he
station when I arrived.
(be) effective
5 The insect repellent
against mosquitoes, but it wasn’t.

10c How are these times reported in the future in the past in
the account?
1 tomorrow

2 on Thursday

11

3 tomorrow morning
4 this evening

21st CENTURY OUTCOMES
Write a similar account about a bad travel experience
and how you dealt with it. Use one of the situations you
discussed in Exercises 6 and 7, one of the topics below
or your own experience. Write 200–300 words.
1 arriving at a hotel to find that they haven’t finished
building it yet
2 getting on an overnight train to the wrong destination

12 Work in pairs. Exchange your accounts. Use these
questions to check your partner’s report.
Are the sequence of events clearly described?
Does the account use the future in the past correctly?
Does it include some comment adverbs?

●
●
●

QUOTE

21st CENTURY OUTCOMES


26

27

COMMUNICATION Express thoughts and ideas clearly in writing

Review
Language
and skills are
practised via
texts about
innovative
organizations

Review 1 | UNITS 1 AND 2
READING

GRAMMAR

1 Read the article about Pixar. Answer the questions.

4 Choose the correct options to complete the summary

1 What is Pixar’s current status in relation to Disney?
2 What single idea is at the heart of Pixar’s philosophy of
successful creativity?
3 How does the company guard against the risk of failure?
4 In what way has the company physically encouraged
interaction between staff?
5 What does ‘the trap of becoming a world unto itself’ mean?


There 1 was / has been a steady rise in the popularity of
animated films 2 over / since the last fifteen years. Among the
top thirty most popular films in the world in 2011, one
3
in / of four were animated films. Although a significant
4
element / proportion of the top thirty films (23%) 5 were /
have been produced outside the USA, all of the animated
films were American. Avatar has been the highest grossing
film (US$2.7 billion) 6 already / to date. Some say it is not a
true animation film, because the makers 7 have used / used
motion capture and CGI (Computer Generated Imagery)
when it 8 has been / was being made. In fact, in the last
9
years, the 10 vast / enormous majority of action
and adventure films have been made using these techniques.

VOCABULARY Idioms with back
2 Look at the expression on the back of (line 2) from the
article. Choose the correct meaning (i–iii). Then match the
expressions with back (1–10) with their meanings (a–j).
i following on from ii even in spite of
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

8
9
10
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j

iii as a reward for

turn your back on
go back on your word
go behind someone’s back
put it on the back burner
turn back the clock
take a back seat
know something like the back of your hand
get your own back
go back to the drawing board
be laid back
be very familiar with something
return to an earlier time
start a plan or project from the beginning again
break a promise

refuse to help
take revenge
act without consulting someone (often deceitfully)
be relaxed
have a less active role
leave for later (while you concentrate on other things)

3 Complete the sentences with expressions from Exercise
2. Use the appropriate form.
1 I’m going to
in the meeting – it’s
your idea and you’re best placed to make the case for it.
2 A lot of people find fame difficult to handle but he
about it.
3 One leading critic who was not invited to the official
by writing a
launch of the film
negative review later on.
. The economy has
4 You can’t
changed and we need to adapt to the new environment.
5 The government made certain financial commitments
to pensioners before the election, but now they have
and
them.
6 The advertisement we created wasn’t approved by the
.
management, so we need to
and told my boss
7 My colleague

that I had applied for a new job.
28

10

Introduction

PIXAR

– AN EXERCISE IN NURTURING CREATIVITY
Pixar is the world’s leading computer animation studio.
On the back of its box offices successes, such as
Toy Story (1995) and Finding Nemo (2003), it was
bought by Walt Disney studios – already a film-making
partner – in 2006 in a deal worth over US$7 billion. Yet
Pixar remained an independent entity, true to its own
principles of creative enterprise.
Pixar believes that creativity is not about single original
ideas; it’s a collaborative effort made by a community
of people who trust and get on with each other. Movies
contain thousands of ideas – about characters, sets,
dialogue, lighting, pacing – and each participant must
contribute suggestions that will collectively make it a
success. So a community of ‘good people’ is key to
Pixar’s philosophy. As its founder, Ed Catmull, says, ‘a
mediocre team can make a mess of a good idea, whereas
a great team can make a success of a mediocre idea.’
But, inevitably, creativity is also about taking risks and
because of the enormous costs involved in making
a movie, there is always a tension between original

creative expression and copying ideas that have been
known to deliver commercial success. Pixar’s solution to
this dilemma is to follow the principle that management
is not there to prevent risk but only to ensure that the
company’s financial recovery is possible if a particular
project should fail.
So Pixar creates an environment where it’s safe to have
ideas, breaking down barriers between employees and
management. Its offices contain large communal spaces
where people can bump into each other regularly and
have free and open exchanges. To avoid the trap of
becoming a world unto itself, it also urges employees to
keep an eye on technological innovations in the academic
community and on how people are using technology
in the wider world. In the words of its Chief Creative
Officer, John Lasseter, ‘Technology inspires art, and art
challenges the technology.’

5

10

15

5 Complete the text about Pixar’s future with these words.
about to
likelihood

bound
may well


is going to produce
is to
will
will be producing

We’ve already got Toy Story 1, 2, 3 and 4 and in all
1
we will see a Toy Story 5. Sequels of other
Pixar successes like Cars and Finding Nemo are also
2
to come out. But at what point does the
realize
public get tired of sequels? If Pixar 3
films
its founder’s ambition – that Pixar 4
long after he is gone – it will need fresh titles too. But this
5
be its (and Disney’s) thinking: that if it
6
creative new films, these will have to be
funded by material that is known to work. Is this a risky
tell. For now it seems to
strategy? Time 7
be working, but it doesn’t take into account that another
make a
innovative film studio could be 8
breakthrough.

VOCABULARY

20

25

30

35

up / out with the idea of making our own short film about
life as students and putting it online. It was a 5 flare / flash of
inspiration, because very quickly the first film went viral.’

4

6 Choose the correct options to complete the two personal
A
‘I took 1 up / in filmmaking at college. I had always wanted to
come at it from a different 2 side / angle, to break 3 out of /
with convention. So when I met Amir at college and saw what
he was doing with computers, I thought, ‘This is it. If we can
use this technology in films, 4 the sky’s / the stars are the limit.’
So we set out to make our first animation film together. It was
a leap in the 5 dark / night, but it was very exciting.’

SPEAKING
7 Work in pairs. For Pixar, the key to creativity lies in
collaboration. In what areas of your work, studies or
interests do you like collaborating with people? When
would you rather be independent? Give reasons.


8
characteristics and have feelings. Think about an idea for
to something non-human. Then take turns to present
your ideas. Try to develop / improve on them with
collaboration.

IMPROVE YOUR WRITING Sequencing
words and connectors
9 Read the account. Look at the underlined sequencing
words, connecting words and comment adverbs. Correct
or improve them where necessary.
The last summer we booked a two-week holiday in
Greece through a travel agent. 2 In the first place we
were going to book our flights and hotel directly,
like we usuallyy do, 4 but my husband thought using a
package holidayy operator would be easier and
5
with the addition cheaper. How wrong he was!
6
Even the flight itself wasn’t luxurious, 7 nevertheless it
was reasonably comfortable and, 8 with good luck, it
arrived on time. 9 However, from this moment, things
went downhill. 10 Once the plane arrived at two in the
morning, there was no bus waiting to transfer us. It
had broken down and we had to wait two hours for a
relief bus. 11 When it arrived 12 at the end, I refused to
get on it, 13 because of it looked so ancient and unsafe.
14
Instead, we waited until the car hire firm opened at
8.00 a.m. and 15 after we booked our own transport.

1

3

RATING

«

POSTED 2 days ago

COMMENTS 9

10 Work in pairs. Compare your edited versions of the
account in Exercise 9. Did you make the same changes?

B
‘I never meant to get into film work. I had actually 1 pinned /
nailed my hopes on becoming a stage actor and I had
2
directed / devoted myself to achieving that goal. But my
hopes were 3 dashed / devastated when I failed to get into
drama school. Luckily I was living with someone who came

29


1

Creativity


UNIT AT A GLANCE

GRAMMAR: Definite and indefinite time

THEME: Creativity and how we express it in our everyday
lives

LANGUAGE FOCUS: Expressions with statistics

TED TALK: Do schools kill creativity? Sir Ken Robinson
talks about the imperative in schools to focus almost
entirely on academic subjects like maths and languages
at the expense of the creative subjects like dance and
music

PRONUNCIATION: Emphasis and de-emphasis

AUTHENTIC LISTENING SKILLS: Rhythm and stress
CRITICAL THINKING: The speaker’s aims
PRESENTATION SKILLS: Using humour

LEAD IN
Optional step. If this is the very first lesson of a new
course with a new coursebook, you might want to start the
lesson with a ‘getting to know each other / Keynote’ activity.
Here are two suggestions:
●●

1 Write all the students’ names on separate slips of paper
and put them in a container. Shake them up and walk

round the class, asking each student to take a slip of
paper. Once they have done that, they find the student
whose name they have and they sit down together. (If
they draw their own name or that of someone they know,
they should draw another slip.) Then give the pairs a
limited time (no more than five minutes) to find out what
they can about their partners, but they should try to
discover something interesting, e.g. any unusual places
the student has travelled to, if they have any different
hobbies/interests/talents. At the end of the five minutes,
nominate individual students to tell the class something
about their partners, preferably something interesting.
2 Tell students that they are going to familiarize
themselves with the organization of Keynote Proficient.
Explain to the class every unit in Keynote begins with
a TED Talk. Ask students if they are familiar with TED
Talks and if they have ever watched one. Give them
about fifteen minutes to browse through the Student’s
Book and find the following:
– a photo that they find particularly intriguing
– a TED Talk that they think they will find of personal
interest
– a topic that they think is particularly pertinent to
today’s world
– a grammar point that they find tricky and need to
work on
– a writing text type that is likely to be useful in their
work or studies.

VOCABULARY: Creativity collocations

READING: What I talk about when I talk about running,
Sing while you work
LISTENING: A company choir
SPEAKING: Creativity survey, Learning from experience,
Describing likes and talents
WRITING: A progress report
WRITING SKILL: Nominalization

●●
Optional step. Books closed. Ask students to work in
pairs to write a definition of creativity. Elicit the different
definitions and discuss them as a class.
●●
Books open. Ask students to open their books at page 8
and look at the photo. Elicit suggestions as to how it illustrates
the notion of creativity. (The photo shows an artist at work. He
appears to be copying an existing picture, though, possibly
onto the pavement, so it could be considered that this is not
actually a creative activity.)

Give students the title of the TED Talk (Do schools kill
Creativity?) and ask for initial reactions. Would they answer yes
or no to the question?
●●

BACKGROUND
1
●●
Ask the class to read the text about Sir Ken Robinson and
his talk. If necessary, clarify the following words: knighted (to

knight) meaning given the rank of knight by the queen, a very
high honour, and allowed to use the title Sir, innate meaning
within/inside oneself.

Put students in small groups to discuss the questions.
Then encourage them to share their answers with the class,
justifying their ideas.
●●

Answers
1 He has focused on creativity within the educational
system.
2 It means ‘not allowing creativity to be expressed or
developed’.
3 Students’ own answers, but possibly the inclusion of
fewer academic subjects in education and more that are
creative, such as art and music.

1 Creativity

11


KEY WORDS
2
The aim of this section in every unit is to pre-teach some
of the key words students will need to know in order to
understand the TED Talk. It will also help them prepare to think
about the main themes of the talk.


●●
1 Tell students to read and listen to the extract from
the TED Talk, underlining the words and syllables that are
stressed.

●●

Ask students to read through sentences 1–6 (without
looking at a–f) and try to guess the meaning of the words in
context. Elicit some suggestions and write them on the board.
Then students can check to see if any of their ideas are in
a–f. (Alternatively, you could follow the procedure outlined in
Teaching tip 4 on page 7 of the Introduction.)
●●

Students can compare their answers with a partner and
explain their choices before you check with the class.
●●

2 a 3 b 4 f

What these things have in common, you see, is that kids
will take a chance. If they don’t know, they’ll have a go.
Am I right? They’re not frightened of being wrong.

3b
●●
1 Optional step. Play the extract again for students to
listen. Encourage them to tap out the stressed syllables.
●●

Students work in pairs to practise saying the extract with
stress timing.

3c

Answers
1 e

Answer

Tell students that they now have to listen for the
stressed words in another extract and complete it. Play the
recording, twice if necessary.
●●

5 c

6 d

Optional step. To further check comprehension, ask
follow-up questions: What kind of behaviour would you expect
from a child with ADHD? Can you think of a recent contention
made by the government that you agree with? What was your
favourite humanities subject at school? Can you think of
someone who has been stigmatized in the media recently?
●●

AUTHENTIC LISTENING SKILLS
Rhythm and stress


●●

2

Get students to check their answers in pairs.

Answers
1 don’t 2 say 3 wrong 4 same 5 creative 6 do
7 not 8 prepared 9 wrong 10 never 11 original
Note: Remind your students to watch the TED Talk at home
before you move on to Unit 1.1 in the class. Ask them to think
about Ken Robinson’s definition of creativity.

3a
●●
Books closed. Explain that English is a stress-timed
language. Ask if anyone can describe what that means.

Books open. Ask students to check their ideas with the
Authentic listening skills box on page 9.
●●

●●
Ask them if they know what the alternative to stress timing
is, and explain that it’s syllable timing, i.e. where each syllable
takes approximately the same amount of time. Common
syllable-timed languages are French, Spanish, Italian, Turkish
and Japanese, and common stress-timed languages are
English, Russian, Arabic and Finnish.


TEACHING TIP

Tap that stress!
You can illustrate stress timing quite easily by
building up a phrase that you ‘tap out’ to students;
start with something simple, tapping on each
underlined syllable (content word) below:
a small black cat sitting down
Then increase the syllables in the words, but
keeping the same time for each stressed syllable:
a little ginger cat sitting on the chair
These two phrases should take approximately the
same amount of time to say.

12

1

Creativity

 Do schools kill
creativity?
1.1

1
●●
Books closed. Ask students what Ken Robinson’s
definition of creativity is (having original ideas that have value)
and how similar this is to their definitions from the last lesson.
●●

Books open. Ask students to read the sentences and try to
complete them from their memory of the talk.
●●
1.1 Play the first part of the TED Talk from 0.12–5.25 for
students to check their answers and complete any they
couldn’t remember.

Answers
1 literacy 2 lesson 3 sent 4 frightened/afraid/
scared 5 stigmatize 6 creativity 7 child, English
8 girlfriend, pleased


Extra activity

to be wrong. And by the time they get to be adults,
most kids have lost that capacity. They have become
frightened of being wrong. And we run our companies
like this, by the way. We stigmatize mistakes. And
we’re now running national education systems where
mistakes are the worst thing you can make. And the
result is that we are educating people out of their
creative capacities. Picasso once said this, he said that
all children are born artists. The problem is to remain
an artist as we grow up. I believe this passionately,
that we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or
rather, we get educated out of it. So why is this?

Frank sent …
Check that students understand the joke in 3 above, i.e.

that the little boy had interpreted frankincense as Frank
sent. Ask if students have any stories of this kind of verbal
misinterpretation, and then tell them about a story (possibly
not true) from World War 1, where an order was given at the
front to a messenger to be relayed to headquarters. The
message had to be passed from person to person, and the
message that arrived at the headquarters was Send threeand-four pence, we’re going to a dance. Tell students that
‘three-and-four pence’ is a sum of money, and ask them to
work in small groups to try to decipher the message. What it
should be is Send reinforcements, we’re going to advance.

3.20

I lived in Stratford-on-Avon until about five years ago.
In fact, we moved from Stratford to Los Angeles.
So you can imagine what a seamless transition,
you know, this was. (Laughter) Actually, we lived
in a place called Snitterfield, just outside Stratford,
which is where Shakespeare’s father was born. Are
you struck by a new thought? I was. You don’t think
of Shakespeare having a father, do you? Do you?
Because you don’t think of Shakespeare being a child,
do you? Shakespeare being seven? I never thought
of it. I mean, he was seven at some point. He was
in somebody’s English class, wasn’t he? (Laughter)
How annoying would that be? (Laughter) ‘Must try
harder.’ (Laughter) Being sent to bed by his dad, you
know, to Shakespeare, ‘Go to bed, now!’ You know,
to William Shakespeare. ‘And put the pencil down.’
(Laughter) ‘And stop speaking like that.’ (Laughter)

‘It’s confusing everybody.’ (Laughter)

4.32

Anyway, we moved from Stratford to Los Angeles,
and I just want to say a word about the transition,
actually. My son didn’t want to come. I’ve got two kids;
he’s twenty-one now, and my daughter’s sixteen. He
didn’t want to come to Los Angeles. He loved it, but
he had a girlfriend in England. This was the love of his
life, Sarah. He’d known her for a month. (Laughter)
Mind you, they’d had their fourth anniversary by then,
because it’s a long time when you’re sixteen. Anyway,
he was really upset on the plane, he said, ‘I’ll never find
another girl like Sarah.’ And we were rather pleased
about that, frankly – (Laughter) because she was the
main reason we were leaving the country. (Laughter)

5.25

But something strikes you when you move to
America and when you travel around the world. Every
education system on Earth has the same hierarchy
of subjects. Every one. Doesn’t matter where you
go. You’d think it would be otherwise, but it isn’t. At
the top are mathematics and languages, then the
humanities, and at the bottom are the arts. Everywhere
on Earth. And in pretty much every system too, there’s
a hierarchy within the arts. Art and music are normally
given a higher status in schools than drama and

dance. There isn’t an education system on the planet
that teaches dance every day to children the way we
teach them mathematics. Why? Why not? I think this
is rather important. I think maths is very important,

Transcript
0.12

So I want to talk about education and I want to talk
about creativity. My contention is that creativity now is
as important in education as literacy, and we should
treat it with the same status. (Applause) Thank you. That
was it, by the way. Thank you very much. (Laughter)
So, fifteen minutes left. (Laughter) Well, I was born … no.
(Laughter)

0.45

I heard a great story recently – I love telling it – of a little
girl who was in a drawing lesson. She was six, and she
was at the back, drawing, and the teacher said this
little girl hardly ever paid attention, and in this drawing
lesson, she did. And the teacher was fascinated. She
went over to her, and she said, ‘What are you drawing?’
And the girl said, ‘I’m drawing a picture of God.’ And
the teacher said, ‘But nobody knows what God looks
like.’ And the girl said, ‘They will, in a minute.’ (Laughter)

1.20


2.18

When my son was four in England – Actually, he was
four everywhere, to be honest. (Laughter) If we’re
being strict about it, wherever he went, he was four
that year. He was in the nativity play. Do you remember
the story? He didn’t have to speak, but you know the
bit where the three kings come in? Now they come
in bearing gifts and they bring gold, frankincense and
myrrh. This really happened. We were sitting there and
they, I think, just went out of sequence, because we
talked to the little boy afterward and we said,
‘You OK with that?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, why? Was
that wrong?’ They just switched. I think that was it.
Anyway, the three boys came in, little four-year-olds
with tea towels on their heads, and they put these
boxes down, and the first boy said, ‘I bring you gold.’
And the second boy said, ‘I bring you myrrh.’ And the
third boy said, ‘Frank sent this.’ (Laughter)
What these things have in common, you see, is that
kids will take a chance. If they don’t know, they’ll
have a go. Am I right? They’re not frightened of being
wrong. Now, I don’t mean to say that being wrong is
the same thing as being creative. What we do know
is, if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never
come up with anything original – if you’re not prepared

1 Creativity

13



but so is dance. Children dance all the time if they’re
allowed to, we all do. We all have bodies, don’t we?
Did I miss a meeting? I mean … (Laughter) Truthfully,
what happens is, as children grow up, we start to
educate them progressively from the waist up. And
then we focus on their heads. And slightly to one side.
6.20

7.31

If you were to visit education, as an alien, and say
‘What’s it for, public education?’ I think you’d have
to conclude, if you look at the output, you know, who
really succeeds by this, who does everything that they
should, who gets all the brownie points, you know,
who are the winners – I think you’d have to conclude
the whole purpose of public education throughout
the world is to produce university professors. Isn’t
it? They’re the people who come out the top. And I
used to be one, so there. You know, (Laughter) and I
like university professors, but you know, we shouldn’t
hold them up as the high-water mark of all human
achievement. They’re just a form of life, you know,
another form of life. But they’re rather curious, and I
say this out of affection for them. There’s something
curious about professors. In my experience – not
all of them, but typically, they live in their heads.
They live up there, and slightly to one side. They’re

disembodied, you know, in a kind of literal way. They
look upon their body as a form of transport for their
heads. (Laughter) You know. Don’t they? It’s a way of
getting their head to meetings. (Laughter)
Our education system is predicated on the idea of
academic ability. And there’s a reason. The whole
system was invented, round the world, there were no
public systems of education, really, before the 19th
century. They all came into being to meet the needs of
industrialism. So the hierarchy is rooted on two ideas.
Number one, that the most useful subjects for work are
at the top. So you were probably steered benignly away
from things at school when you were a kid, things you
liked, on the grounds you would never get a job doing
that. Is that right? Don’t do music, you’re not going to be
a musician; don’t do art, you won’t be an artist. Benign
advice – now, profoundly mistaken. The whole world is
engulfed in a revolution. And the second is academic
ability, which has really come to dominate our view
of intelligence, because the universities designed the
system in their image. If you think of it, the whole system
of public education around the world is a protracted
process of university entrance. And the consequence
is that many highly talented, brilliant, creative people
think they’re not, because the thing they were good at at
school wasn’t valued, or was actually stigmatized. And
I think we can’t afford to go on that way.

8.36


In the next 30 years, according to UNESCO, more
people worldwide will be graduating through education
than since the beginning of history. Suddenly, degrees
aren’t worth anything. Isn’t that true? When I was a
student, if you had a degree, you had a job. If you
didn’t have a job, it’s because you didn’t want one.

14

1

Creativity

And I didn’t want one, frankly, so … (Laughter) But
now kids with degrees are often heading home to
carry on playing video games, because you need
an MA where the previous job required a BA, and
now you need a PhD for the other. It’s a process of
academic inflation. And it indicates the whole structure
of education is shifting beneath our feet. We need to
radically rethink our view of intelligence.
9.18

We know three things about intelligence. One, it’s
diverse. We think about the world in all the ways that we
experience it. We think visually, we think in sound, we
think kinesthetically. We think in abstract terms, we think
in movement. Secondly, intelligence is dynamic. If you
look at the interactions of a human brain, as we heard
yesterday from a number of presentations, intelligence

is wonderfully interactive. The brain isn’t divided into
compartments. In fact, creativity – which I define as the
process of having original ideas that have value – more
often than not comes about through the interaction of
different disciplinary ways of seeing things. And the
third thing about intelligence is, it’s distinct.

10.00 I’m doing a new book at the moment called
‘Epiphany’, which is based on a series of interviews
with people about how they discovered their talent.
I’m fascinated by how people got to be there. It’s
really prompted by a conversation I had with a
wonderful woman who maybe most people have
never heard of, she’s called Gillian Lynne. Have you
heard of her? Some have. She’s a choreographer,
and everybody knows her work. She did ‘Cats’ and
‘Phantom of the Opera’. She’s wonderful. I used to
be on the board of The Royal Ballet, in England, as
you can see. Anyway, Gillian and I had lunch one day
and I said, ‘How did you get to be a dancer?’ And
she said it was interesting. When she was at school,
she was really hopeless. And the school, in the ’30s,
wrote to her parents and said, ‘We think Gillian has
a learning disorder.’ She couldn’t concentrate; she
was fidgeting. I think now they’d say she had ADHD.
Wouldn’t you? But this was the 1930s, and ADHD
hadn’t been invented, you know, at this point. It
wasn’t an available condition. (Laughter) You know,
people weren’t aware they could have that. (Laughter)
Anyway, she went to see this specialist.

11.03 So, this oak-panelled room, and she was there with
her mother, and she was led and sat on this chair
at the end, and she sat on her hands for 20 minutes
while this man talked to her mother about all the
problems Gillian was having at school. And at the
end of it, because she was disturbing people; her
homework was always late; and so on, little kid of
eight. In the end, the doctor went and sat next to
Gillian, and said, ‘Gillian, I’ve listened to all these
things that your mother’s told me, I need to speak to
her privately.’ So he said, ‘Wait here. We’ll be back;
we won’t be very long,’ and they went and left her.
But as they went out of the room, he turned on the


radio that was sitting on his desk. And when they got
out the room, he said to her mother, ‘Just stand and
watch her.’ And the minute they left the room, she
said, she was on her feet, moving to the music. And
they watched for a few minutes and he turned to her
mother and he said, ‘You know, Mrs Lynne, Gillian
isn’t sick; she’s a dancer. Take her to a dance school.’
11.57 I said, ‘What happened?’ She said, ‘She did. I can’t tell
you,’ she said, ‘how wonderful it was. We walked in
this room and it was full of people like me. People who
couldn’t sit still. People who had to move to think.’ Who
had to move to think. They did ballet; they did tap; they
did jazz; they did modern; they did contemporary. She
was eventually auditioned for the Royal Ballet School;
she became a soloist; she had a wonderful career at

the Royal Ballet. She eventually graduated from the
Royal Ballet School, founded her own company, the
Gillian Lynne Dance Company, met Andrew Lloyd
Webber. She’s been responsible for some of the most
successful musical theatre productions in history, she’s
given pleasure to millions, and she’s a multi-millionaire.
Somebody else might have put her on medication and
told her to calm down. (Applause)
12.37 What TED celebrates is the gift of the human
imagination. We have to be careful now that we use
this gift wisely and that we avert some of the scenarios
that we’ve talked about. And the only way we’ll do it is
by seeing our creative capacities for the richness they
are and seeing our children for the hope that they are.
And our task is to educate their whole being, so they
can face this future. By the way – we may not see this
future, but they will. And our job is to help them make
something of it. Thank you very much. (Applause)

Background information
Nativity plays
Ken Robinson talks about a nativity play that his son was
in. This is a very common pre-Christmas event at primary
schools throughout the United Kingdom. The children put
on a play recounting the story of Joseph of Nazareth and
Mary going to Bethlehem for a census, and the birth of
Jesus. The play is usually performed for parents.
Note the differences in British English and North American
English shown at the foot of the spread. In this unit, these
focus on vocabulary and spelling differences. See Teaching

tip 1 on page 6 of the Introduction for ideas on how to present
and practise these differences.
●●

2

Answers
1 S

2 J/A

3 J/A

4 S

5 S

6 S

7 J/A

8 J/A

In 2, the humour is the little girl’s response, i.e. that she
believes she has really drawn God.
In 3, the joke is a pun on the word frankincense; see the
Extra activity on page 13.
In 7, the humour is in imagining Shakespeare as a child –
he is such a towering literary figure that the idea of his
being at school in an English class is a little ridiculous.

In 8, the unintended juxtaposition of the family moving
to Los Angeles just after the son had got together with
his girlfriend prompts the suggestion that she was
responsible for the move, which is clearly not the case.

3
Ask students to take notes while they listen/watch to
answer the questions.
●●

●●

1.1

Play the second part of the talk from 5.25–7.31.

●●
Give students a few minutes after they’ve watched to
expand on their notes, then ask them to discuss their ideas
in pairs.
●●

Ask pairs to share their answers with the class.

Suggested answers
1 They all have the same ‘hierarchy of subjects’
(mathematics and languages are at the top, then
humanities, then the arts).
2 Mathematics and languages are at the top; arts
subjects are at the bottom, and within the arts subjects,

drama and dance are ‘below’ art and music.
3 He thinks there’s no logic to the hierarchy/order of
subjects, e.g. dance being below maths in the hierarchy,
and that there’s too much focus on the subjects at the ‘top’.
4 To produce university professors.
5 They live in their heads. By this, Ken Robinson means
that their work is cerebral and academic, rather than
physical. He also says that they live ‘slightly to one side’
suggesting they favour the side of the brain responsible
for maths, logic, etc. rather than that responsible for
emotion and creativity.

4
Ask students to read the sentences and select the correct
option before they watch, if they can.
●●

Play the talk from 7.31–9.18 for students to check
their answers.
●●

1.1

Answers

Check that students have appreciated that a lot of Ken
Robinson’s presentation was humorous, and ask them to go
through the points in Exercise 1, classifying them into serious
points and jokes/anecdotes.


5

Check answers, and ask if students can explain the
humour in the jokes.

Tell students that they should identify the three adjectives
that Ken Robinson uses to describe intelligence.

●●

●●

1 industrialism 2 music 3 talented 4 a job 5 inflation

●●

1 Creativity

15


●●
1.1 Play the fourth part of the talk from 9.18–10.00, then
ask students which adjectives were used.

If most students have identified the correct adjectives, play
the extract a second time for them to match the adjectives
with the definitions. If they have had difficulty identifying
the adjectives, tell them to listen specifically for adjectives
beginning with di-/dy- and play the extract again.

●●

●●

Ask students to match the adjectives and definitions in pairs.

Answers
1 diverse – c

2 dynamic – a

3 distinct – b

6
Ask students to read through the notes about Gillian Lynne
quickly before they watch, and encourage them to fill in any
answers they think they know. The first letters of the missing
words should help.
●●

●●
1.1 Play the fifth part of the talk from 10.00 to the end,
allowing students a couple of minutes to complete their answers.

Answers
1 Cats 2 concentrate 3 ADHD 4 specialist
5 Sat 6 radio 7 dancing 8 think 9 Royal
10 founded 11 multimillionaire 12 calm 13 down
Ask students what the ‘moral’ of the story is, i.e. why Ken
Robinson felt it was a useful illustration. (It shows that some

kinds of intelligence do not respond to the typical school
model of sitting quietly and working.)
●●

Optional step. Ask students to work in pairs and
reconstruct the story of Gillian Lynne from the notes, taking
three or four headings each.
●●

VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT
7
The approach of this Vocabulary In Context may be new
to your students (and also to you) so explain how it works:
you are going to play extracts from the TED Talk. When the
video reaches a particular word, a multiple-choice question
will appear on the screen and students should choose the
correct meaning of the word from a choice of three definitions.
There are different ways in which to deal with the answers to
the questions and you may vary your approach from unit to
unit. One way is to ask students to call out their answers as
the questions appear; the only danger with this is that more
confident students may dominate the question and answer
session. Another alternative is for students to work alone and
write down the five answers. Then they can compare their
answers with a partner before you play the talk again and
check the answers as a whole class.
●●

●●
1.2 Play the clips from the talk. When each multiplechoice question appears, pause the video so students can

choose the correct definition.

16

1

Creativity

Transcript and subtitles
1 If they don’t know, they’ll have a go.
a become upset
b make an attempt
c do something different
2 But something strikes you when you move to America and
when you travel around the world.
a makes a strong impression on you
b makes you feel confused
c increases your understanding
3 … who does everything that they should, who gets all the
brownie points …
a gets the credit
b gets good results
c gets the benefits later on
4 But they’re rather curious, and I say this out of affection
for them.
a because I respect them
b because I feel sorry for them
c because I like them
5 Our education system is predicated on the idea of
academic ability.

a is traditionally concerned with
b gives preference to
c is based on
6 And it indicates the whole structure of education is
shifting beneath our feet.
a moving
b collapsing
c becoming more rigid
7 It’s really prompted by a conversation I had with a
wonderful woman … Gillian Lynne.
a connected to
b a result of
c a part of
8 She couldn’t concentrate; she was fidgeting.
a making small, impatient movements
b making dancing movements
c making movements with her hands

Answers
1 b

2 a

3 a 4 c

5 c 6 a 7 b

8 a

Background information

Brownie points
The expression get (all the) brownie points means to get
credit for doing something; similarly lose brownie points
means to lose merit in someone’s eyes. It is generally
thought that the term brownie points originates from
points accrued for achievements in the organization The
Brownies, which in the UK is a younger version of Girl
Guides (the female equivalent of Scouts).


TEACHING TIP

Exploring etymology
If your students are interested in language and
linguistics, then occasionally looking at the origin of
words and expressions can help them to remember
the language.

9
The aim of this exercise is to make sure students can use
some of the new vocabulary in a personal context.
●●

Ask students to complete the sentences in pairs in their
own words. Monitor to help them with ideas.
●●

Ask students to share and discuss some of their
sentences.
●●


Possible answers

8
●●
1.3 Play the clips from the talk. As the recording pauses
at the gap in each sentence, pause the video and ask students
to think about which word can fill the gap and note their
answers.
●●

Start the video again for students to check their answers.

Answers and transcript
1 We’re now running national education systems where
mistakes are the worst thing you can make.
2 I believe this passionately, that we don’t grow into
creativity, we grow out of it.
3 We moved from Stratford to Los Angeles. So you can
imagine what a seamless transition this was.
4 Don’t do art, you won’t be an artist. Benign advice –
now, profoundly mistaken.
5 The whole system of public education around the world
is a protracted process of university entrance.
6 We need to radically rethink our view of intelligence.
7 She’s been responsible for some of the most
successful musical theatre productions in history.
8 We have to be careful now that we use this gift wisely.
Note: Make sure that students realize that the collocations
used are just the choices of the speaker. It is quite possible

that other words could fill the gap, and their answers may
well be correct. Be sure to check them and praise any correct
answers. (See Teaching tip below.)

1 … been bungee jumping. / cooked a lobster. / videoed
myself.
2 … how friendly everyone is. / the fact that it’s so
multicultural. / the amount of green space there is in
cities.
3 … being a parent is easy / a degree entitles them to a
job / money will make them happy …
4 Becoming a US citizen / Having wisdom teeth out /
Buying a house …

CRITICAL THINKING The speaker’s aims
10
●●
Put students in pairs or small groups to decide on Ken
Robinson’s main aim. They can select from the options given
or add their own idea.
●●
Discuss the question as a class. Some students may think
that his main aim was to entertain, but others may feel that
the amount of humour distracted from the aim of persuading
people that creativity should be given a chance.

11
●●
Ask students to read the two comments and decide
whether they agree with the writers or not.

●●
Use the posts as an opportunity to have a discussion in the
class about the importance of creativity.

PRESENTATION SKILLS Using humour
12
Put students in groups of about four. One pair in each
group should list the benefits of using humour in a talk, while
the other pair should list the disadvantages. Give them a few
minutes to make their lists.
●●

TEACHING TIP

Collocations
Make sure that your students are aware that
collocations can range from completely fixed to
very loose. For example, in number 1 in Exercise 8,
the collocation is make mistakes. This is a fixed
collocation and we are unlikely to use any other verb
with mistakes, when we mean simply ‘performing’
one. On the other hand, number 3 is a much looser
collocation and we would be just as likely to say
a smooth transition. For each of these collocation
exercises, it is worth exploring the collocations further.
Other possibilities in this exercise would be, for
example: 2 believe … firmly, 4 completely mistaken,
5 a lengthy process, 8 use this gift carefully.

Ask the pairs to form back into their groups and to discuss

their points.
●●

13
●●
Ask students to look at the Presentation tips box and to
compare their ideas from Exercise 12 with those in the box. Do
they agree with the points in the box?

14
●●

1.4

Play the clip from the talk.

When the clip has finished, ask students to match the
points in the Presentation tips box to the clip. Which ones
does the joke illustrate?
●●

1 Creativity

17


3

Answers
The joke about Ken Robinson’s son’s girlfriend is from

a personal anecdote, and others can easily relate to it,
especially parents. It’s part of his informal and humorous
style, which is likely to relax people, and it isn’t likely to
offend anyone (except the girlfriend!). We don’t know
whether it has been ‘tested’ but the manner in which it is
delivered suggests that this isn’t the first time that it has
been told. It could, however, be seen as a distraction as it
isn’t part of the flow of the talk.

15
Ask students to think back to their school life and to select
one of the topics from the list. They should select one on
which they have something to say, and also can remember a
funny story about.
●●

Tell them to make a few notes about what they want
to say, and their story, and to check the points in the
Presentation tips box.
●●

16
Put students in small groups to present their points. They
should take the opportunity to practise their presentation, try
to fit it into a minute only, and take on board any constructive
criticism regarding the humour from their group.
●●

●●


Invite a few students to give their presentations to the class.

▶  Set

Workbook pages 4–5 for homework.

1.2  What’ve

up to?

you been

GRAMMAR Definite and indefinite time
1
Books closed. Write the prompts in 1 and 2 on the board
and put students in pairs to discuss them. Encourage them to
think ‘creatively’!
●●

Suggested answers
1 writing a letter to get something done, organizing
a workspace, contributing to advertising materials,
suggesting improvements to systems
2 playing an instrument, singing, dancing, creative
writing, sewing/knitting, woodwork, drawing/painting,
photography, growing flowers or vegetables, cooking

Allow them a few minutes to read the statistics and the
questions, then they can discuss the questions in pairs.
●●


●●

Invite students to share their answers with the class.

You could ask them where they think people participate
most in creative activities, e.g. in the home, in evening classes.
●●

Answers
1 They feel it’s important (80% say creativity is key to
economic growth and 66% say it’s valuable to society), but
that it’s not given enough attention at work (75% say they are
under pressure at work to be productive rather than creative)
and school (59% say the education system stifles creativity).
2 Students’ own answers. (Students may be surprised
that only 15% of respondents have shared their own
photographs, which may be age-related. They may also
be surprised that cooking doesn’t seem to be considered
as creative.)

4
Direct students’ attention to the Grammar box. Tell them to
answer the questions a–e.
●●

Students can check their answers and overall
understanding of definite and indefinite time by turning to the
Grammar summary on page 140. If you feel that students need
more controlled practice before continuing, direct them to

Exercises 1–4 in the Grammar summary. Otherwise, you could
continue on to Exercise 5 in the unit and set the Grammar
summary exercises for homework.
●●

Answers
a sentences 3 & 6 b sentences 1 & 2 c sentence 5
d sentence 4 e sentence 2

Answers to Grammar summary exercises
1
1 played 2 listened, was driving 3 has had,
bought 4 has lived, has never been 5 gave, was
touring 6 has had 7 have enjoyed 8 ’ve been trying
2
1 Have you been waiting 2 I’ve just been
looking 3 Have you seen 4 I’ve sorted 5 I’ve been
meaning 6 I haven’t had 7 I haven’t seen 8 I’ve
owned 9 I haven’t ridden 10 it has been raining
3

2
When students have had a few minutes, ask each pair to
join another pair and compare their ideas. Elicit a few ideas
and discuss any interesting ones as a class.
●●

●●
Ask the groups to discuss whether they think it’s important
to have creative activities in their lives, and why.


18

Books open. Ask students to look at the infographic and see
whether the suggestions they made in Exercise 1 are covered.
●●

1

Creativity

1 ever 2 yet/before 3 this week / for months 4 for
months / this week, so far / yet 5 just 6 In the last five
years / Lately / So far


4

Extra activity

(Suggested answers)

Have you ever made …?

2 Patients have been waiting up to 14 weeks for a
hospital appointment.

Note: Scissors are needed for this activity.

3 A man has crossed the Atlantic in a Canadian canoe.

4 Businesses have been told to be more transparent
about (their) special offers.
5 Schoolchildren have been targeted by mobile phone
thieves.

5
Ask students to look at the pairs of sentences. Explain that
the sentences in each pair either have a different meaning/
focus or different time of speaking.

Put students in pairs and tell them to write a similar
dialogue, then to copy it, but leaving a blank where the
verbs should be. They should try to use each of the verb
forms they’ve been practising at least once. When they’ve
finished, they should cut their gapped dialogues into
exchanges and jumble them up. Put students into groups of
four, i.e. two pairs, and ask them to exchange their cut-up
dialogues. Each pair should reconstruct the dialogue they’ve
been given and write in the verbs.

●●

●●
Let them compare their answers in pairs before checking
their answers.

Answers
1 In the first option she is still alive / still writing; in the second
she is either no longer alive or has retired from writing.
2 In the first option, the person is thanking their host just

after the event, possibly on leaving it; in the second the
thanks are given some time after the event.
3 In the first option the focus is on the duration or the
activity, which is probably not finished; in the second the
focus is on the completion of the activity.
4 In the first option the speaker still has the camera; in
the second they no longer have it.
5 In the first option the focus is on the activity; in the
second the focus is on what has been achieved.
6 In the first option the conversation is complete; in
the second the suggestion is that the conversation will
continue at some point.

7
●●
Ask students to choose the correct options individually.
They can check with a partner before you go through the
answers as a class.
●●
Check that students understand why the other expression
in each pair is incorrect, e.g. for 1, before would have to go at
the end of the question, and for 2 since needs to be followed by
a time rather than a period, e.g. since 2001 / since I left school.

Answers
1 ever 2 for six years 3 so far 4 over the last ten
years 5 just 6 yet 7 this week 8 before 9 all my
life 10 lately

8

●●
Ask students to complete the table with the time
expressions they chose in Exercise 7.

Answers
1 ever, so far, before
2 for six years, over the last ten years, yet, all my life
3 just, this week, lately

6
●●
Optional step. If your students are not confident in this
language area, give them a few minutes to work through the
dialogue individually and write in the answers.

Ask students to work in pairs to read the dialogue together.
Check answers by getting one or two pairs to read the
dialogue out.
●●

Answers
1 Have you ever made 2 made 3 ’ve built 4 haven’t
done 5 did you have 6 has been going 7 told 8 Have
you ever knitted 9 has knitted 10 ’s been experimenting

LANGUAGE FOCUS Expressions with
statistics
9
Explain that when we talk about statistics we use specific
language, and quite a lot of collocations.

●●

▶  Teaching

tip: Collocations, Unit 1, page 17

Ask students to work through the sentences in pairs,
choosing the correct word in each case. Before you check
the answers as a class, you could get students to read the
explanation in the Grammar summary on page 141, and go
back and correct any answers necessary.
●●

Answers
1 majority 2 proportion 3 handful 4 fraction
5 negligible 6 small 7 relatively 8 Hardly
9 every 10 in

1 Creativity

19


If you feel that students need more controlled practice
before doing Exercise 10, ask them to complete Exercise 5 in
the Grammar summary.
●●

Answers to Grammar summary exercise
5

1 vast 2 proportion 3 amount
6 hardly 7 fraction 8 deal

4 few

5 significant

10
Ask students to write three sentences about the
infographic using the expressions in Exercise 9.
●●

Once they have written their sentences, ask them to
compare the sentences with a partner.
●●

Suggested answers
The majority of people surveyed feel that creativity is key
to economic growth.
A significant proportion say they are under pressure to be
productive rather than creative at work.
A tiny fraction have sung solo or in a group.

SPEAKING Creativity survey
11

21st CENTURY OUTCOMES

If possible, put students in different pairs so they all work
with partners they are not so familiar with.

●●

Tell students to ask and answer the questions in the
survey, noting down their partner’s answers.
●●

12
Focus students’ attention on question 1, and ask students
to give their partner’s answer. List on the board the number of
students whose schools emphasized the creative arts.
●●

●●
Do the same with all the questions, simply listing the
number of yes answers on the board for questions 1–4, but
adding details for questions 5 and 6.

Give students a few minutes to think of two or three
conclusions they can make about their class using the
information on the board and the expressions in Exercise 9.
To fulfil the 21st century outcome of eliciting and analysing
information, tell them to focus on the most relevant
information.
●●

Extra activity
Write a report
Ask students to write the relevant information into a brief
report about their class. They should use the report in
Exercise 5 in the Grammar summary on page 142 to help

them. They can do this in pairs in the class, otherwise it can
be done for homework, and possibly displayed in the class
in the next lesson.

20

1

Creativity

▶  Photocopiable communicative activity 1.1: Go to page 231
for further practice of definite/indefinite time and a tenses
overview.
▶  Set

Workbook pages 6–7 for homework.

1.3  How

talent thrives

READING What I talk about when I talk
about running
1
●●
Optional step. Books closed. Ask students to consider
their own work or studies, and in particular to think about the
conditions (both physical and mental) in which they work most
efficiently and have their best ideas (e.g. morning/afternoon,
with a deadline looming / when they aren’t under pressure,

on their own / in a team, with music in the background / with
silence). Get them to discuss these aspects in pairs, and make
a few notes that they can refer to through the course of the
lesson.
●●
Books open. Ask students to read Exercise 1 and think
about why they think some people realize their talents and
others never do so.
●●
Elicit answers from the class and note their ideas on the
board.

Suggested answers
Some reasons for people not realizing their talent might
be: not having the determination to put failures behind
them and keep trying; being a fairly introvert character
who doesn’t like pushing themselves forward; not
knowing where to go or who to approach in order to
realize their talent; not having any luck (i.e. being in the
right place at the right time).

2
●●
Ask students to read the extract by Haruki Murakami. They
should read it quite quickly the first time.
●●
In pairs, ask them to discuss whether their ideas in
Exercise 1 are reflected in the text at all (both the ideas in the
Optional step if you did it, and the ideas on the board).
●●

Ask them to decide on the three keys to successfully
exploiting talent that Murakami discusses, and to write
definitions for them.

Suggested answers
focus, i.e. the ability to concentrate your talents on
whatever you’re doing at a particular moment
endurance, i.e. being able to focus and work over long
periods of time
training, i.e. improving focus and endurance through practice


Background information
Haruki Murakami
Japanese author Haruki Murakami was born in Kyoto in
1949. Before the publication of his most famous novel,
Norwegian Wood, in 1987, he and his wife Yoko ran a jazz
bar in Tokyo. In 1979 they sold the bar and left Japan,
eventually settling in the United States. Murakami has
written many novels, as well as short stories and nonfiction, and he is known for his surrealist, fantasy style.
He is one of the best known Japanese authors outside of
Japan. His memoir, What I talk about when I talk about
running, was published in 2008.

3
Give students a few minutes to read the article again, more
carefully this time.
●●

Ask them to choose the best answers, and to underline the

part of the text that indicates the answer.
●●

Answers
1 b (talent … the person involved can’t control its amount
or quality. … Talent has a mind of its own and wells up
when it wants to, and once it dries up, that’s it.)
2 b (the next most important quality … is focus. Without
that you can’t accomplish anything of value, while, if you
can focus effectively, you’ll be able to compensate for an
erratic talent or even a shortage of it.)
3 c (… gradually you’ll expand the limits of what you’re
able to do. Almost imperceptibly you’ll make the bar rise
… the results will come.)
4 a (… even if he didn’t write anything, he made
sure he sat down at his desk every single day and
concentrated.)

4
Give students a few minutes to discuss the questions in
pairs or small groups.

Monitor pairs as they are doing this to check that they have
understood correctly.
●●

Suggested answers
1 pre-requisite (line 5) = something that must be in place
for something else to happen. In the case of marriage this
could be, e.g. respect for each other, similar beliefs and

ambitions in life, a sense of humour.
2 well up (line 10) = when an emotion overwhelms us and
comes to surface, expressed by tears, anger, etc. When
an emotion wells up we might suddenly burst into tears,
shout, laugh, etc.
3 erratic (line 22) = not steady, irregular or unpredictable.
It probably wouldn’t be fun to play tennis with someone
whose game was erratic because you wouldn’t know
what to expect next.
4 hands down (line 28) = fully, completely, without a
doubt. If someone won a game or match hands down, it
means it was a comprehensive win.
5 imperceptible (line 38) = hardly noticeable. If changes
are imperceptible, then it’s likely that very little has
changed or that the changes are minor.
6 a must (line 39) = an essential ingredient/thing. Patience
is a must in jobs that involve working with children or
animals, for example.

VOCABULARY Creativity collocations
6
Explain to students that the collocations here are fairly
loose, but also quite common.
●●

Tell students to match the columns, and check quickly
round the class.
●●

Answers

1 e 2 d

3 a 4 g

5 h

6 b

7 i

8 c

9 f

●●

●●
Open the discussion to the whole class and elicit some
ideas.

Suggested answers
Murakami thinks that talent alone is not enough – we need
to focus, work hard and apply discipline in order to be
successful.
Another possible answer might be that a creative job
is just like any other in requiring hard work and
discipline.

7
●●

Ask students to complete the gaps in the sentences with
an appropriate verb from 1–9 in Exercise 6. Make sure they are
aware that the collocations are slightly different here, but that
the contexts will help them.
●●
Tell them not to worry about the fact the sentences are
incomplete.

Answers
1 had 2 broke with
5 come up with

3 took up

4 come at

5

8

Ask students to find the words and expressions in the text
and to try to work out their meanings from context.

When you have checked Exercise 7, tell students to work
with a partner and discuss ways of completing the sentences.

Then, in pairs, they should demonstrate that they
understand the words and expressions by answering the
questions and discussing them together.


Stop students after about five minutes. Accept any
reasonable ideas, but then direct students to page 176 at the
back for them to compare their answers with the reality.

●●

●●

●●

●●

1 Creativity

21


SPEAKING Learning from experience

LISTENING A company choir

9

3

21st CENTURY OUTCOMES

Give students a few minutes to think about the points in
the list and make notes about their work, studies or leisure
activities under the four headings. Encourage them to write

one lesson/thing they have learned in each area.

●●
Explain that students listen for the general gist of the
conversation and the participants’ attitudes to the choir when
they listen for the first time.

Encourage students to reflect on their learning and think
critically about how effective/successful it has been.

Transcript
A:

What do you think of the choir idea, then?

10

B:

I’m really in favour of it, actually. I can’t sing to save
my life, but it sounds like fun … What about you?
You’re into music, aren’t you?

A:

Well, yeah, in the sense that I really like listening to
music … and going to gigs, but I’m not sure I want to
sing that kind of music.

B:


What kind of music?

A:

You know, church choral music or … or music from a
musical. That’s not really my kind of thing.

B:

What, so you aren’t going to audition for it?

A:

No, I think I will. I’m quite curious … but I’ll be
surprised if I get picked. I’m not great at singing either.

B:

Oh, come on. I’ve heard you sing. You’re a natural.

A:

Er … I’d hardly say that, but it sounds fun. I have to
say, I do like the idea of creating something from
nothing … you know, the buzz you get from building
something from scratch with other people. I reckon
that aspect of it would be really rewarding.

B:


Yes, that’s exactly what appeals to me too … All right,
well hope to see you there then …

●●

●●

●●

3

Put students in small groups for them to discuss their
notes from Exercise 9.
●●

●●
Encourage students to be open and to offer advice or
constructive criticism to each other in order to fulfil the 21st
century outcome of reflecting critically on learning experiences
and processes.

▶  Set

Workbook pages 8–9 for homework.

1.4  It’s

thing


not really my

READING Sing while you work
1
Books closed. Write the two questions in the exercise on
the board, or just read them to students.
●●

●●
Ask students to discuss the questions in pairs, then
discuss them as a class.

Play the recording. Students complete the chart.

Answers

Suggested answers

Who

Speaker A (Woman)

Speaker B (Man)

1 If people feel bored or disengaged, then morale is likely
to be low, and that could result in lower productivity and
lower profits.

likes the idea?


not sure

yes

can sing?

yes

no

wants to
participate?

yes

yes

2 Students’ own answers (e.g. perks such as a company
car or a canteen with reduced prices, ways of relaxing
at work, e.g. yoga or pilates sessions in the lunch break,
more involvement with decision making at a relevant level)
Books open. Ask students to read the short text about
forming a choir at work. Was that something they thought of in
question 2?
●●

2
Point out the last line of the text, and tell students that the
participants listed various benefits of forming a choir at work.
●●


●●
Ask students to suggest what kind of benefits might have
been mentioned. List ideas on the board.
●●
Direct students to page 175 to read the statements from
some participants in the scheme, and to compare these with
their answers.

22

1

Creativity

4
●●
Tell students that they are going to listen again, this time for
the language used. Tell them to tick the phrases that they hear.
●●
●●

3

Play the recording again.

Check the correct phrases with the class.

Answers
I’m (really) in favour of / against … I (do/really) like / love …

It’s / That’s not (really) my (kind of) thing … You’re a natural.
I’m no good at … / I’m not great at … I can’t … to save my life.

Pronunciation Emphasis and de-emphasis

5a
Ask students to look at the sentences and think about
which words are stressed. You could play the conversation
from Exercises 3 and 4 again to help them.
●●


Tell students to listen and underline the stressed words.
Point out that they should be listening for emphatic stress, not
normal sentence stress.
●●

●●

4

Play the recording.

Optional step. Have students repeat the phrases focusing
on the stressed syllables.
●●

Answers and transcript (with stress underlined)
1 I do love a good musical.


7
Reorganize the pairs so that each student is working with a
different partner. They start by presenting their chosen activity
to each other.
●●

Then refer students to the conversation in Exercise 3 and
the expressions in the Useful language box. Tell them they are
going to discuss the activities that they have just presented, in
order to work out whether they are suited to the activities and
would like to sign up.
●●

2 The idea quite appeals to me, actually.
Reorganizing pairs

4 Classical music’s not really my thing.

If you want students to swap partners quickly to move
to a different stage in an activity, there are several
ways of doing it, depending on your classroom layout.
If the desks are in rows, then students can move from
working with the person next to them to working with
the one behind / in front of them. If your class has a
less traditional layout and students can move around,
you could ask students to designate an A and a B in
each pair, and then tell them to change partners so
that they are working with another student with the
same letter, i.e. AA, BB.


5 I’m quite good at singing, but I’m not keen on performing.
●●

Point out the following to the students:
– When we use do/does in an affirmative clause, we
are usually emphasising the verb, and do/does takes
emphatic stress.
– We always stress really when it is used for emphasis,
either to strengthen the proposition as in 3 above, or to
tone it down, as in 4 above.

TEACHING TIP

3 I really have no talent for playing music.

5b
Write I’m quite good at singing on the board, and say
it without stressing quite. Then underline quite and repeat
the clause with stress on quite. Ask if students can hear the
difference first, then ask if they know the difference in meaning.
●●

WRITING A progress report
8
Explain that the report is looking at the progress of a
couple of initiatives.
●●

Answer
The adverb quite can mean different things according to

whether it is stressed or not. When it is unstressed, it has
the meaning of fairly/rather, so I’m quite good at singing
is a straight assessment with quite strengthening good.
If however, it is stressed, as in 5 above, it weakens the
adjective and means ‘not very much’.

SPEAKING Describing likes and talents
6
Ask students to suggest other possible group activities
that could be done in workplaces, as in the choir in the text.
●●

Write a few suggestions on the board, then put students in
pairs to select one of the activities and discuss how it could be
organized.
●●

Suggested answers
Students could suggest sporting activities, which
could take place after work with teams from different
departments. Another possibility would be exercise such
as yoga or pilates, which could take place in meeting
rooms at lunchtime. More creative activities could be
suggested, such as growing plants (flowers or vegetables)
in convenient places in and around the building, with
different departments taking responsibility for different
areas.

Ask students to read the report quickly and answer the
questions.

●●

Answers
The initiatives had the desired results (to make the workplace
more stimulating and to hold monthly ‘theme days’.)

9
Put students in pairs. Tell them to read the report again
and to discuss together the function of each paragraph.
●●

Answers
Paragraph 1 outlines the purpose of the report.
Paragraphs 2 and 3 summarize the two different theme
days that have taken place.
Paragraph 4 describes the response to the theme days.
Paragraph 5 gives the next step.
Optional step. Ask students to underline the occurrences
of the present perfect in the report, and explain why it has
been used in each case. (This is a short report on the progress
we have made since the decision … = the progress from a
particular time until the present, but the project is unfinished.
We have held two theme days so far = events in an unfinished
time period; more theme days can be held. After this, the
descriptions of the theme days and the response to them is
●●

1 Creativity

23



in the past. A ‘Happy Work Environment’ group has also been
formed … = action in indefinite past, with an impact on the
present. No specific research has been conducted yet … =
unfinished time; research will be conducted. Details have yet to
be finalized … = unfinished time; details will be finalized.)

Writing skill Nominalization

10a
Explain that nominalization is using nouns instead of verbs
to express an action.
●●

Tell students that they will start practising this by looking at
how nouns and verbs can relate, and transforming nouns into
verbs. Point out that if an adjective is used with the noun form,
it will become an adverb when used with the verb.
●●

●●

Tell them to rewrite the sentences in Exercise 10a.

Students can check their answers and overall
understanding of nominalization by turning to the Grammar
summary on page 141.
●●


10b
Students are now going to transform verb phrases into
noun phrases.
●●

They can compare answers with a partner before you
check answers as a class.
●●

Answers
1 It was an/our attempt to encourage more collaboration. /
It was an/our attempt at encouraging more collaboration.)
2 There has been a significant increase in participation
rates.
3 There was (some) resistance to the idea at first.
4 We have no intention of repeating this exercise.
5 A decision was taken to test the idea on a small section
of employees.
6 It was interesting to see the employees’ reaction to the
initiative.

Answers

11

1 Employees responded extremely positively to both
initiatives.

●●
Remind students of the initiatives that they discussed in

pairs in Exercise 6 and 7.

2 94% of participants said they appreciated the theme days.

●●
Tell them they are going to write a report about that
activity. In their pairs from Exercise 6, they should expand on
the details of the activity, its success and the next steps.

3 A group has also been formed to come up with ways
we can improve the office space.
4 We intend to organize a contest involving various
physical activities.
If students are having difficulty with this concept and the
transformations, get them to do Exercise 6 from the Grammar
summary in class; otherwise they can do it for homework.
They can also do Exercise 7 (which covers all the grammar of
the unit) at this stage, or at the end of the lesson.
●●

Answers to Grammar summary exercise
6
1 Brazil has given confirmation of its participation in
the talks.
2 Not everyone agreed with the report’s
recommendations / the recommendations in the report.
3 Researchers published their findings after careful
analysis of the data.
4 There is opposition from environmentalists to the
expansion of the UK’s airport capacity.

5 There has been a demand from businesses for the
reduction of corporation tax / that there should be a
reduction in corporation tax.
6 We have made a commitment to the improvement of
working conditions in our factories.
7
1 have had had 2 been owing owed 3 has it
taken did it take 4 since for 5 quantity number
6 little few

24

1

Creativity

21st CENTURY OUTCOMES

Either in their pairs in class, or alone for homework, students
write a report on the activity, following the model in Exercise 8.
●●

12
Explain that students are going to evaluate each other’s
reports using the four questions given.
●●

Ask them to work with a different partner – maybe the one
from Exercise 7. They should check the report carefully against
the questions, in order to fulfil the 21st century outcome of

communicating effectively using an appropriate writing style.
●●

▶  Photocopiable communicative activity 1.2: Go to page 232
for further practice of creativity collocations and describing
talents and abilities.
▶  Set

Workbook pages 10–11 for homework.

▶  Set Workbook Presentation 1 on pages 12–13 for
homework.