IELTS Express Intermediate Second Edition Treasure Hunt Unit 1 Reading p.10-14

(Supplementary Materials for Specific Textbooks--IELTS Express Intermediate)

This is a treasure hunt.  The questions must be hidden around the classroom before the class begins.  The feedback is on Google slides.

Treasure Hunt (docs, pub)
Slide Show (slides, pub)

1.  How long does the IELTS reading exam take?

2.  How many sections are in the IELTS Reading test?

3.  For short answer questions, always check that your answer fits ____ _______ _____ _____.

4.  For short answer questions, remember to use words _______ ______ ____ ___ ________.

5.  What should you do to help you find the relevant part of the text?

6.  If the passage contains information relating to the statement, but doesn’t actually agree or disagree with it, how should you answer?

7.  What is the first thing you should do when dealing with short answer questions?

8.  What is a word that means “the most important words” ?

9.  In which task will you need to match the statements to the correct categories?

10.  In the IELTS Reading module, one of your biggest challenges is time.  What will help you save time?

Treasure Hunt  

The teacher has hidden 10 questions inside of the classroom.  See if you can find and answer the questions.  The first team to finish will get a prize.

All the questions come from pages 10, 11, 13, and 14 of your textbook, so make sure you take your textbooks with you.  

1._____________________________________________________________________________

2._____________________________________________________________________________

3. ______________     ______________     ______________     ______________    

4.  ______________     ______________     ______________     ______________     ______________

5. _____________________________________________________________________________

6. _____________________________________________________________________________

7. _____________________________________________________________________________

8. _____________________________________________________________________________

9. _____________________________________________________________________________

10. _____________________________________________________________________________

Answers:

1.  One hour

2.  3 sections

3.  the maximum word count

4.  taken directly from the passage

5.  scan the headings in the passage

6.  Not Given

7.  decide what kind of information you need to answer the question

8. keywords

9.  classification

10.  being able to skim and scan quickly

English World 3 Unit 8 Vocabulary

(Supplementary Materials for Specific Textbooks--English World 3)

Here is the Google Slide Presentation for the Vocabulary from Unit 8 in English World 3.
Supplemented, of course, with a quiz from quizlet (docs, pub)

Google (slides, pub)

English World 3 Unit 8

https://quizlet.com/_2d1wak

English World 3 Unit 8

https://quizlet.com/_2d1wak

English World 3 Unit 8

https://quizlet.com/_2d1wak

Life Pre-Intermediate Textbook: 6B World Party p.72-73

(Supplemental Materials for Specific Textbooks--Life Pre-Intermediate)

Google Drive Folder HERE

Life Pre-Intermediate 6B World Party p.72-73

Quizlet (drive, docs, pub)

Mingle Activity (drive, docs, pub)

Running Dictation: docs, pub

Life Pre-Intermediate 6B World Party p.72-73

https://quizlet.com/_1x121b

Life Pre-Intermediate 6B World Party p.72-73

https://quizlet.com/_1x121b

Life Pre-Intermediate 6B World Party p.72-73

https://quizlet.com/_1x121b

Life Pre-Intermediate 6B World Party p.72-73

https://quizlet.com/_1x121b

Festival in Vietnam

Festival Name: _____________________________

history
food
clothes
parades
music

Life Pre-Intermediate Textbook: 6A Changing Your Life p.70-71

(Supplemental Materials for Specific Textbooks--Life Pre-Intermediate)

Quizlet p.70-71(drive, docs, pub)

quizlet p.69-71 (docs, pub)

Life Pre-Intermediate 6A Changing Your Life p.70-71

https://quizlet.com/_1wkyea

Life Pre-Intermediate 6A Changing Your Life p.70-71

https://quizlet.com/_1wkyea

Life Pre-Intermediate 6A Changing Your Life p.70-71

https://quizlet.com/_1wkyea

Life Pre-Intermediate 6A Changing Your Life p.70-71

https://quizlet.com/_1wkyea

Life Pre-Intermediate Unit 6 Stages in Life p.69 and 6A Changing Your Life p.70-71

https://quizlet.com/_2cwfur

Life Pre-Intermediate Unit 6 Stages in Life p.69 and 6A Changing Your Life p.70-71

https://quizlet.com/_2cwfur

Life Pre-Intermediate Unit 6 Stages in Life p.69 and 6A Changing Your Life p.70-71

https://quizlet.com/_2cwfur

Star Trek Beyond

(Movie Review)

Positives
* There's a lot of debate about what a Star Trek movie should be.  (I know a lot of fans want to see a more intellectual movie).  But whether or not this is the Star Trek movie you wanted to see, you've got to at least give the film makers credit for doing what they set out to do.  They set out to do an action/adventure film set in space, and they delivered on that premise with a lot of incredible action set-pieces

* The best thing this reboot series has going for it is the very talented cast, and it's true in this movie as well.  (Rest in peace Anton Yelchin).

* Related to the above points, it has a script that gives all the characters time to shine, and has a lot of character driven moments.

Negatives
* Yet another villain who just wants to blow up everyone for the sake of blowing up everyone.

* The list of "things that are never explained at all" in this movie is really pushing it.  There's a lot of magical alien technologies.  (I guess that's par for the course in a Star Trek film).  Krall's motivation is kind of explained, but not really.  I still don't know what was the motivation of everyone working for Krall.  I don't understand how Krall got his powers.

* Jaylah's character was intriguing--what little we saw of her--but she never got developed into someone the audience was attached to.  Which made it bizarre when one of the movie's climatic fight scenes revolved completely around her.  What do I care happens to this white skin lady I've barely been introduced to?

* It's a minor thing, but for what it's worth I agree with George Takei about the gay Sulu controversy.  It was a nice gesture, but it would have been better to just leave Roddenberry's characters as they were, especially once George Takei had made his feelings known to the film makers (which he apparently did before the filming).

The Review
I know fans have high expectations of everything Star Trek, but for me, this film did exactly what it set out to do.  It was a fun action/adventure movie set in space.

Rating :
8 out of 10 stars

Links

For a counterpoint, see Fredrik deBoer, who writes:

I saw the new Star Trek movie. When I tell you that it’s all punching and shooting, I’m really not exaggerating. It’s all punching and shooting. And as far as punching and shooting summer action movies goes, it’s OK. It has an ending that’s like two 13 year old boys talking about what a good ending would be via text message, but it isn’t completely soulless, which is better than you can say for most franchise movies.
But Star Trek isn’t about punching or shooting.  It’s contemplative. It’s about actual moral conflict and ambiguity. It’s optimistic about the prospect of peace and the ability to solve problems nonviolently. It lets stories develop slowly. It’s about exploration and diplomacy far more than its about combat. 

Speaking as someone who was completely obsessed with Star Trek in his youth, I think Star Trek's reputation as "the thinking man's science fiction franchise" has been much exaggerated.  Sure, when the original series was at its best, it could be contemplative, about actual moral conflict and ambiguity, and optimistic about the prospect of peace and the ability to solve problems nonviolently. But I challenge people to go ahead and re-watch the original 1960s Star Trek.  It had episodes which were completely dumb, many episodes which ended in a climatic bare-knuckled fist fight, and lots of episodes that seemed to exist only for the purpose of having a few fight scenes and some scantily clad alien women.  (Some of the original Star Trek episodes were even polemics against pacifism as a realistic alternative--like City on the Edge of  Forever (W) ).
All of which is to say that I don't believe making Star Trek into a dumb action movie ruins the franchise.  Star Trek is a versatile franchise.  It can easily be a dumb action movie in one incarnation, and serious and contemplative in the next incarnation.  I'm content to enjoy this movie for what it is.

Update:
See Whisky Prajer's review over here.

Star Trek Links 
My review of Star Trek Into Darkness here,
My review of the original 2009 reboot here.
My review of Star Trek Enterprise here.
My 4th grade report (1987) on the original Star Trek series here.

Link of the Day
Noam Chomsky: Documentary on US Terrorism. (2016).

Life Pre-Intermediate Textbook Unit 5 Review p.68

(Supplemental Materials for Specific Textbooks--Life Pre-Intermediate)

Quizlet (drive, docs, pub)

Life Pre-Intermediate Unit 5 Review All Vocabulary

https://quizlet.com/_1vrgct

Life Pre-Intermediate Unit 5 Review All Vocabulary

https://quizlet.com/_1vrgct

Life Pre-Intermediate Unit 5 Review All Vocabulary

https://quizlet.com/_1vrgct

Life Pre-Intermediate Unit 5 Review All Vocabulary

https://quizlet.com/_1vrgct

It's a pity they can't both lose

Henry Kissinger once said of the Iran-Iraq War: "It's a pity they can't both lose."

Lately, I've been feeling this way about the election.

As I wrote before, I had been pessimistic about a Bernie Sanders victory all along, and that made it easy for me to bypass the outrage stage and go right to a cynical acceptance of Hillary's victory.

But I thought the DNC would at least try to make some show of appeasing the party's left wing with the Vice Presidential pick. (I really had my heart set on Elizabeth Warren).
That, plus the news about the leaked DNC e-mails, is making it really hard to work up the energy to support Hillary.

For a brief moment earlier this week, I caught myself hoping Hillary might actually lose, just because she deserves to lose.  But then I remembered how awful Donald Trump is, and I came back to sanity.

Still...it's really a pity that they can't both lose.

Addendum:
By all rights I shouldn't be shocked or angry about any of this, because I totally predicted it way back in November, when I wrote:

There's no way that the Democratic Party Establishment is ever going to let Bernie Sanders get the nomination, and so Hillary's nomination is inevitable.

I didn't think the DNC would be caught this red-handed, but I guess it doesn't surprise me that those e-mails exist.

Life Pre-Intermediate Textbook: 5F Coastal Clean-up p.66-67

(Supplemental Materials for Specific Textbooks--Life Pre-Intermediate)

Quizlet (drive, docs, pub)

SlideShow (slides, pub)

Debate (docs, pub)

The slideshow is based on Saigon, and will need to be adapted by anyone teaching in another city.  For anyone interested, however, the canal featured in the slideshow is right next to my apartment, and is where I take my daily walks every morning--although none of the pictures are mine, and are all taken off of a Google images search.

Life Pre-Intermediate 5F Coastal Clean-Up p.66-67

https://quizlet.com/_1vi76h

Life Pre-Intermediate 5F Coastal Clean-Up p.66-67

https://quizlet.com/_1vi76h

Life Pre-Intermediate 5F Coastal Clean-Up p.66-67

https://quizlet.com/_1vi76h

Life Pre-Intermediate 5F Coastal Clean-Up p.66-67

https://quizlet.com/_1vi76h

Team A: Write down all the reasons why we should volunteer to clean up the canal.

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

Team B: Write down all the reasons why we are too busy to volunteer to clean up the canal.

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

Debate.  Listen to the other team’s arguments.  Write down the points they make, and think about how you will respond to them.

Points the other team makes	How will I respond?

Life Elementary Unit 4 p.45

(Supplemental Materials for Specific Textbooks--Life Elementary)

Quizlet (drive, docs, pub)

Transcript for listening (drive, docs, pub)

Life Pre-Intermediate Textbook: 5E Problems with an Order p. 65

(Supplemental Materials for Specific Textbooks--Life Pre-Intermediate)

Quizlet (drive, docs, pub)

PowerPoint (slides, pub)

Exercise 4 and 5 (drive, docs, pub)

Backs to the Board Doreamon Game (drive, slides, pub)

Life Pre-Intermediate 5E Problems with an order p.65

https://quizlet.com/_1v9p3h

Life Pre-Intermediate 5E Problems with an order p.65

https://quizlet.com/_1v9p3h

Life Pre-Intermediate 5E Problems with an order p.65

https://quizlet.com/_1v9p3h

Life Pre-Intermediate 5E Problems with an order p.65

https://quizlet.com/_1v9p3h

You ordered a printer but it doesn’t work.  Write an email to the supplier and request a refund.

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

Write a reply from the supplier to the other group’s email.

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________