Unit 1, grade 12: Life Stories-Listening
1. Task 1 Unit 1 Grade 12 Listening
Why are people often interested in the life of celebrities or famous people? Tick the possible reasons and add some more if you can (Why do people usually care about the lives of celebrities or famous people? Mark possible reasons and add some details if you can)
They are curious (They are very curious)
They want to know more about their idols (They want to know more about their idol)
They can have something to gossip about (They may have something to gossip about)
They want to learn lessons from famous people’s failures or successes They want to learn lessons from failure or success from famous people.
They can criticize or slander the person they don’t like (They may criticize or speak ill of people they don’t like.)
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2. Task 2 Unit 1 Grade 12 Listening
Listen to a talk show with host Cindy Brown and guest speaker Andy Lewis, a sociologist. Choose the best answer to complete each statement (Listen to a talk show with host Cindy Brown and guest speaker Andy Lewis, a sociologist. Choose the best answer to complete each sentence)
first. According to Cindy, our audience are ____ stories about celebrities and famous people
A. interested in
REMOVE. overloaded with
OLD. bored with
2. People may use stories about our private life in order to _____
A. damage our reputation
REMOVE. write novels
OLD. make films
3. We should not share too much personal information ______
A. at parties
REMOVE. with strangers
OLD. online
4. Reading a person’s life story critically means _______
A. making judgments while reading it
REMOVE. making criticisms while reading it
OLD. reading it without finding any faults or merits
Guide to answer
1. B 2. A 3. C 4. A
first. According to Cindy, our audience are overloaded with stories about celebrities and famous people (According to Cindy, our audience is overloaded with stories about celebrities.)
2. People may use stories about our private life in order to damage our reputation. (People can use personal stories to ruin their reputation.)
3. We should not share too much personal information online. (We should not share too much personal information online/online)
4. Reading a person’s life story critically means making judgments while reading it. (Reading a story of one’s life critically means judging while reading it.)
Tapescript
Cindy: Welcome to our talk show with guest speaker Mr Andy Lewis, a sociologist. Mr. Lewis
Andy: Please call me Andy. I don’t want to be too formal
Cindy: No problem, Andy. These days, our audience seem to be overwhelmed with stories in the newspapers or on the Internet – stories about celebrities, political figures, or even ordinary people around us
Andy: You mean we’re living in a world of stories and scandals?
Cindy: Right. As a sociologist, do you have any advice for our audience?
Andy: I think there’re two sides to this issue. We need some life skills to protect ourselves. First, we don’t want other people to take advantage of our stories. They may use our private lives for blackmail or slander… in order to harm our reputation or just for fun
Cindy: For whatever purpose, it could be extremely damaging
Andy: Exactly. So we should not reveal too much of our private life on social networking sites
Cindy: I agree. But how about the stories of other people? Should we read or follow these stories?
Andy: That’s the second point I want to discuss. Another life skill is learning from other people’s lives. Everyone’s life story is like a book that can teach us something. So we should open that book and read it critically
Cindy: Critically? Can you explain this?
Andy: It means we should make careful judgments when reading a life story and ask ourselves questions like, “Why is this story told?” or “What lessons can I learn from it?”
Cindy: Lessons such as…?
Andy: Such as a person’s reasons for failure or success. This may help us to avoid similar failure or to adopt a new way of life so we can improve ourselves and become better human beings
Cindy: Very interesting. Thank you, Andy, for your advice and for sharing your thoughts with our listeners. Next week
Translation
Cindy: Welcome to our talk show featuring guest speaker Andy Lewis, a sociologist. Mr. Lewis
Andy: Please call me Andy. I don’t want to be too formal
Cindy: No problem, Andy. These days, audiences seem to be overwhelmed with stories in newspapers or on the Internet – stories about celebrities, political figures, or even ordinary people around us.
Andy: You mean we live in a world of stories and scandals?
Cindy: Right. As a sociologist. Do you have any advice for the audience?
Andy: I think there are two aspects to this. We need some life skills to defend ourselves. First, we don’t want others to take advantage of our story. They can use our lives for blackmail or insults… to damage our reputation or just for fun.
Cindy: Whatever the purpose, it causes great harm
Andy: Exactly. So we shouldn’t reveal too much about our private life on social networking sites
Cindy: I agree. But what about other people’s stories? Should we read or follow those stories?
Andy: That’s the second thing I want to discuss. Another life skill is learning from the lives of others. Everyone’s life story is like a book, it can teach us something. So we should open that book and read its comments
Cindy: Comment? Can you explain this?
Andy: That means we should make careful judgments when reading a life story and ask ourselves a question like “Why does this story say that?” or “What lesson can I learn from it?”
Cindy: What kind of lessons like…?
Andy: Such as the reason for one’s success or failure. This can help us avoid similar failures or adopt a new way of life so that we can improve ourselves to be better people.
Cindy: Very interesting. Thank you, Andy, for your advice and for sharing your thoughts with the audience. Next week
3. Task 3 Unit 1 Grade 12 Listening
Listen again. Answer the questions (Read it again. Answer the question)
first. What life skills does Andy think people should have? (What skills does Andy think people need in life?)
2. According to Andy, what questions should we ask ourselves when reading or hearing a life story? (According to Andy, what questions should we ask ourselves when reading or hearing about life stories?)
3. What can we benefit from learning about a person’s failures or successes? (What benefit do we gain from learning from the failures or successes of others?)
Guide to answer
first. The audience should have life skills to protect themselves and to learn from other people’s live.
(The audience should have life skills to protect themselves and learn from the lives of others.)
2. We should ask ourselves two questions: “Why is this story told?”, “What lesson can I learn from it?”
(We should ask ourselves two questions: “Why does this story say that?”, “What lessons can we learn?”)
3. We can learn how to avoid similar mistakes or to adopt a new way of life so we can improve ourselves and become better human beings.
We can avoid the same mistakes or adopt a new way of life so that we can improve ourselves and become better people.)
4. Task 4 Unit 1 Grade 12 Listening
Do you agree with Andy that everyone’s life story is like a book that can teach us something? Discuss with a partner (Do you agree with Andy that everyone’s life story is like a book that can teach us something? Discuss with a friend)
Guide to answer
– I agree with Andy that everyone’s life story is like a book that can teach us something.
(I agree with Andy that everyone’s life story like a book can teach us a few things.)
Because person’s reasons for failure or success help us to avoid similar failure or to adopt a new way of life so we can improve ourselves and become better human beings.
(Because one person’s reason for failure or success helps us avoid similar failures or approach a new way of life so that we can improve ourselves and become better people.)
5. Practice
5.1. Discussion
Discuss with your partner: Summarize the main ideas of the recording (about 5 sentences)
Summarize the main ideas of the listening passage in about 5 sentences.
6. Conclusion
End of new Unit 1 English Grade 12 lesson-Listening, students need to note some important words below
- Curious (adj): curious, curious
- Criticise (v): criticize, criticize
- Criticism (n): criticism
- Slander (v): slander someone, slander someone
- Reputation (n): popularity
- Judgment (n): evaluation, judgment
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