LISTENING. US STUDENTS SPEAK ABOUT RETURNING TO SCHOOL

LISTENING

US STUDENTS SPEAK ABOUT RETURNING TO SCHOOL

 I Lead-in.

A)  When does school year start in your school?

B)   Will students go to school to have face-to-face classes? Will they study online?

  

II Vocabulary focus. Match the words to their definitions. Use three words in your sentences.

1.	high school	A.	an activity that someone does for enjoyment, a hobby
2.	junior high school	B.	a typically competitive exhibition of science projects
3.	extracurricular activity	C.	a favorite person
4.	science fair	D.	a school especially in the U.S. usually including grades 9-12 or 10-12
5.	fave	E.	a first-year student at high school in the U.S.
6.	pastime	F.	activity that students do outside of class, for example,  arts, athletics, clubs
7.	freshman	G.	a school especially in the U.S. usually including grades 7-9

  

III U.S. high school students share their ideas about going back to school. Restore the word order in the sentences that express their thoughts.

1.    / wants / as / feel / go / I / to / everybody / school. / though / to

2.    return / / school. / I / to / back / personally / to / want / do / not

3.    I / school / like / safer. / feel / is / online

4.    feel / we / how / we / / don't / school, / to / feel / not / if / they / us / about / to / safe. / going / school / ask / Usually / going / or

5.    to / Everybody / school / go / school. / wants / high / be / into / / in / and

6.    friends / my / the / I / / extracurricular / and / seeing / activities. / miss

7.    the / our / to / At / want / the / do / to / do / the / we / parents, / virus / back / end / grandparents, / / day / not / can / that. / bring / of / we / and / our

IV Watch the video and check your answers. Which of the ideas do you agree with?

V Watch the video and fill in the gaps with the words from the list. There are some words you don’t need to use.

pastimes; young; self-employed; home; lives; teachers; projects; unhealthy; virtually; selfies; health; students; normal; high; voices

This whole going back to school thing has become a lot for 1) ______, parents, and honestly even for administrators making those decisions.  Well, one group who we haven't heard a whole lot from are the 2) ______. How do they feel about this upcoming school year? I spoke with three young ladies who say they just want their 3) ______to be considered. Three northeast Texas students.

-        I  feel as though everybody wants to go to school.

Two 4) ______schoolers and one in junior high.

-        I personally do not want to return back to school. I feel like online school is safer.

Sitting at 5) ______on a Zoom call.

-        Usually they don't ask us how we feel about not going to school or going to school, if we feel safe.

Virtual interactions have become a 6) ______, but not so welcome site this year.

 - Everybody wants to go into high school and be in school. And now that we're not able to do that it definitely is. It's not ideal.

 Covid- 19 has changed a lot in our 7) ______and some of the youngest voices really, they just want to make sure they are included in that conversation.

-        I miss seeing my friends and the extracurricular activities.

Even the things some of us  might not think about missing: the yearly science fair 8) ______and even those 9) ______with some of their faves. While they will miss a lot and possibly find new ways to enjoy some old 10) ______, they too recognize the importance of the decisions that have been made thus far about returning to school.

-         I do miss my friends, but I can wait to see them until the virus is over.

For Jordan Henderson, a soon-to-be freshman at Mansfield Legacy high school, she'll be attending school 11) ______. That's at least until September 8^th. It's a big year, she's been looking forward to for a while now, but even bigger are the 12) ______and safety of those around her.

-        At the end of the day we can bring the virus back to our parents, our grandparents, and we do not want to do that. So the best thing at this moment is to go online until we can regulate and keep the virus controlled.

All right, she said, what she meant and she meant what she said. Thank you to Jordan,  Zora,  Marissa, their parents for sharing their thoughts with us this morning. It’s always good to hear from the 13) ______folks in regards to what's happening with this whole going back to school.

VI  Watch the video and mark the sentences as True (T) or False (F). Correct the false statements.

1. Going back to school is important only for teachers and students.
2. The students in the video are two  high schoolers and one in junior high student.
3. All students in the video don’t like school and don’t want to return to school.
4. Students in the video answer the questions from their homes on a Zoom call.
5. Students miss seeing friends and the extracurricular activities.
6. Students don’t miss he yearly science fair  projects and even selfies with some of their faves.
7. Students say they don’t want to see their friends until the virus is over.
8. Jordan Henderson, a soon-to-be freshman at Mansfield Legacy high school will be attending school  virtually.
9. She's been looking forward to this school year.
10. Jordan Henderson thinks that the best thing at this moment is to go to face-to-face classes.   

 VII OVER TO YOU. What are your ideas about the new school year? What activities can be adapted for online and virtual studies? What will be the new normal for school in your opinion?

Grammar Focus. Past Simple Tense

Grammar Focus. Past Simple Tense

How Kamala Harris Went From Prosecutor to Vice Presidential Candidate

I Vocabulary Focus. Study the words and their definitions.

running mate - a political partner for a politician who is trying to become President

to run for- to take part in an election

prosecutor - a legal official who accuses someone of committing a crime in a law court

tough – strong, not easily broken

Deputy district attorney (DA) - the chief prosecutor for a local government area

vulnerable – able to be easily hurt

Attorney General - the head of the US Department of Justice

mortgage fraud – crime connected to money used to buy a house

prop 8 – proposition ( a suggested law)  to ban gay marriage in California

to grill - to ask someone a lot of questions for a long time

tuition - a sum of money people pay to study at a college or university

to surge – to grow suddenly

donation- money people give to help a person

busing - the practice of assigning and transporting students to schools within or outside their local school districts in an effort to reduce the racial segregation in schools

to endorse – to support

II Open the brackets. Use the verbs in text in the Past Simple tense.

After a lot of speculation it's finally official: Kamala Harris is Joe Biden's running mate. So how 1) (to go) the senator   from prosecutor to vice presidential candidate?

Let's rewind to 1964. Harris 2) (to be) born in Oakland, California to immigrant parents. Her father 3) (to be) from Jamaica and taught at Stanford, her mother 4) (to move) from India later becoming a scientist and activist.

-        My mother 5) (to be) the toughest the smartest and the most loving person I’ve ever known.

Fast forward to the 80s, Harris 6) (to study) Political Science & Economics at Harvard University. She later 7) (to get) her Law degree at UC Hastings. Her career 8)( to kick) off in 1990 as a Deputy district attorney in Alameda County.

-        Of course I 9) (to decide) to become a prosecutor because I felt, you know, I 10) (to feel) a very, and I still feel, a very strong sense of responsibility to protect those who are vulnerable.

 By 2004 Harris had won her first election DA of San Francisco. There she 11) (to craft) a prisoner re-entry initiative while also launching a controversial program the prosecuted parents who let their kids regularly skip school. Harris also 12) (to raise) her city's conviction rate eventually leading to blowback that she was too tough on crime particularly in communities of colour.

  Harris 13) (to run) for California Attorney General in 2010 beating her opponent by less than a percentage point. She 14) (to be) the first woman and first black American to get the job.

-        And I now stand before you as the top cop of the biggest state in the country.

 She 15) (to fight) against mortgage fraud and Prop 8 which banned same-sex marriage but critics say she should have pushed for more criminal justice reform or supported policies like legalizing marijuana especially given this interview on the Breakfast Club years later.

          In 2014 Harris 15) (to marry) lawyer Doug Emhoff and 16) (to become) stepmom or mamala to his two kids. This 17) was around the time she 18) (to announce) her Senate campaign. She 19)(to win) the race the same night Trump became president-elect and yet again she 20) (to make) history. Not only is she the first Indian American senator, but she's also one of the two black women ever elected to the Senate.

-        I  21) (can) not be more proud to represent my beautiful state.

 Harris 22) (to write) bills with senators across the aisle focusing on things like bail reform and immigration. She also 23) (to become) known for her ability to grill witnesses.

Then in January of 2019 this announcement: “I’m running to be president of the people, by the people, and for all people”. Harris 24) (to promote) Medicare for all and tuition-free college during the campaign. Her poll number 25) (to surge) during the first democratic debate when she 26) (to call) out Biden for opposing busing during the 1970s.

-        There 27) (to be) a little girl in California who  28) (to be) part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bused to school every day. And that little girl 29) (to be) me.

Donations 30) (to pour) in after that night but the enthusiasm 31) (not to last) forever. She 32) ( to drop) from the race in December after running out of money and despite those seriously contentious debates Harris 33) ( to end) up endorsing Biden earlier this year.

-         One of the things that we need right now is we need a leader who really does care about the people and who can therefore unify the people. And I believe Joe can do that.

 

III Check your answers. Watch the video and check your answers.

IV Watch the video and answer the questions. 

1.    When and where was Kamala Harris born?

2.    Where were her parents from? Where did they work?

3.    What kind of person was Kamala Harris’s mother?

4.    What did Kamala Harris study?

5.    What degree did she get?

6.    What was her job at the start of her career?

7.    Why did Kamala Harris decide to become a prosecutor?

8.    What did Kamala Harris do as DA of San Francisco?

9.    When did Kamala Harris run for California Attorney General? Did she win?

10.Why was her victory (if she won) so special?

11.What family life did Kamala Harris have?

12.What made Kamala Harris special as a Senator?

13.What work did she do in the Senate?

14.When did Kamala Harris decide to run for President? Was her campaign successful?

15.On what topic did Kamala Harris oppose Biden? What personal experience did she use as an example?

16.When did Kamala Harris decide to support Biden as a candidate?

V Over to You.  Discuss your ideas with classmates:

1.    What fact in Kamala Harris’s biography surprised you the most?

2.    Choose at least two facts about Kamala Harris that make her a good running mate for Joe Biden's campaign and a possible Vice-President (if Biden wins)?

3.    What problems can this choice of a running mate have for Joe Biden (for example, Kamala Harris didn’t always like Biden’s ideas; she wanted to become President and not Vice-President, etc.)?

Grammar focus: reporting current events

Grammar focus: reporting current events

Britons trying to return to UK from France

I Open the brackets. Use the verbs in text in the Present Simple  or Present Continuous tenses.

     Hundreds of thousands of British holidaymakers desperately 1) (to try) to return home to the UK after the government imposed quarantine measures on France and five other countries taking effect in just under six hours’ time. Travellers will have to self-isolate for 14 days as the French prime minister acknowledged the number of coronavirus cases in the country was going the wrong way.  

     - Well, the race to get home  2) (to continue) here through the night. Eurotunnel 3) (to run) shuttles right through till tomorrow morning, but they 4) (to be) all now booked up until Sunday. The short window for British tourists here 5) (to close).

       Our correspondent Gavin Lee 6) (to be) in Dieppe where the last ferry tonight to the UK 7) (to leave) in less than two hours.  Gavin, we can see the queues of cars behind you. How big a rush has it been for Brits trying to get out of France?

        -Well, we've heard so many stories. The BBC has been inundated today with tales of odysseys up to 11 hours from all parts of France to get to the northern port to try to get the ferries. Behind me, Dieppe 8) (to be) an interesting drama playing out in itself. Behind pretty much all of these people 9) (to be) British tourists who 10) (to try) to get back before the four o'clock deadline. This trip, the last phrase  they 11) (to wait) for, is the 11. 59 ferry. That 12) (to be) due to get in at four o'clock in the morning or thereabouts. Now DFDS, the company that are operating this, have actually tried to get legal advice. 13) (to mean) it   that they can get into British territorial waters or 14) (to have) they to dock? The legal advice back 15) (to be) they have to dock. And we've been told that the captain on board 16) (to keep) his eye on the watch to get them in before four o'clock.

  

II Check and explain. Watch the video and check your answers. Explain the use of the Present Simple  or Present Continuous tenses.

III Over to You. Retell the story from the perspective of (choose one):

a)     a British tourist who is trying to get home quickly;

b)    a Eurotunnel boss;

c)    a ferry captain;

d)    a French tourist who wants to visit the UK;

e)    a French journalist;

  Use the Present Simple or Present Continuous tenses in your story.