What's in a vaccine and what does it do to your body?

I Lead-in.

1)     Take two minutes to write down your associations with the word ‘vaccine’. Work in pairs and compare your lists. What are the similarities and differences in your lists? Ask follow-up questions to find out more about other students’ associations with the word ‘vaccine’.

2)    In what situation do people need vaccines? Where can people get vaccines? Watch the video I task II and note down the names of the diseases written on vaccine bottles.

 

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

 

1.	disease	A.	to look in different places, to examine
2.	conventional	B.	a situation where there is not enough of something
3.	sick	C.	the process of producing goods
4.	response	D.	the smallest part of a living thing
5.	tweak	E.	to collect a large number of things over a period of time
6.	trigger	F.	official permission
7.	efficacy	G.	an injection
8.	threat	H.	after something else
9.	shortage	I.	illness of people
10.	manufacturing	J.	ill, not healthy
11.	trace	K.	traditional, used for a long time
12.	foreign	L.	information, facts and numbers
13.	scout	M.	the ability to produce the right result
14.	scoop	N.	simple, easy to understand
15.	subsequently	O.	to make a small change
16.	jab	P.	not belonging to or coming from outside
17.	approval	Q.	a small sight that something existed
18.	cell	R.	possible danger
19.	spike protein	S.	answer or reaction
20.	straightforward	T.	to pick something up very quickly
21.	accumulate	U.	component of coronavirus structure
22.	data	V.	to make something happen quickly

 

 

III Vocabulary focus. Follow the link below. Focus on the words and expressions (study definitions), match the terms to their definitions, solve the crossword puzzle, complete the quiz, chase down the correct answer to earnpoints, unscramble words and phrases (correct order of letters), type in words to fill in the blanks, test your knowledge of  vocabulary.

 

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

 

diseases; people; elements; adjuvants; immune; popular; protein; traces; elementary; water; efficacy; ignores; infection; immediately; immune system; microbe; vaccines; stops; changing

 

There are all sorts of vaccines for lots of different 1) _____, but conventional vaccines all share some common ingredients. So, other than 2) _____, what are they made of? I asked professor Adam Finn to explain. He was involved in the Oxford  AstraZeneca vaccine work and he knows a lot about 3) _____.

There's nearly always a little bit of or maybe even all of a 4) _____that would normally cause an 5) _____to make you sick. But this time it's just going to make the 6) _____response without making you sick.

The part that is most commonly used is the 7) _____on the outside of a microbe which is called an antigen. So what else is there?

So there'll be some kind of a preservative in there that basically 8) _____the vaccine from containing something you really don't want to get. And the other thing that might be in there is something to just tweak your 9) _____   _____ into action. So it just kind of triggers things off and makes you get that protective response.

Those last things he mentioned are called adjuvants. Not all vaccines have or need adjuvants but when they are sometimes present, they can help a vaccine achieve the best 10) _____possible.

In many cases, without an adjuvant, the vaccine simply just doesn't work, it doesn't give you protection so the body just 11) _____it, it doesn't see it as a threat and nothing happens. The other point is that you can actually use  less of the antigen that you need to put in there by putting in the adjuvant and if there's a shortage, it means that you can spread it over a much larger number of 12) _____and get more people immunised for the same amount of vaccine.

Those are the main 13) _____of a vaccine: antigens, preservatives and 14) _____.   But then you've also got your stabilisers  to keep the antigen from 15) _____and there's also something called residuals  which are basically just the things left over from the manufacturing process. But these are only present in vanishingly small 16) _____.

 

V Comprehension check. Mark the sentences as True (T) or False (F). Correct the false statements.

1.    There are vaccines for lots of different diseases.  

2.     All conventional vaccines have completely different ingredients.  

3.    Many conventional vaccines include water.  

4.    Vaccines have a little bit of or maybe even all of a microbe that would normally cause an infection to make people sick.  .

5.     Vaccines are designed to make people sick, after the long period of disease people will have better immunity.  

6. The part that is most commonly used in vaccines is the protein on the outside of a microbe which is called an antibody.   

7. Vaccines need a preservative that stops the vaccine from containing something people don't want to get.  

8. Vaccines make immune system very weak and it cannot take action.  

9. All vaccines include adjuvants.  

10. Adjuvants can help a vaccine achieve the best efficacy possible.  

11. Sometimes without an adjuvant, the vaccine doesn’t work; it doesn't give any protection so the body just ignores it.  

12.  The main elements of a vaccine are: antibodies, preservatives and additives.  

13. Some vaccines include stabilisers that help to change antigen and residuals that are very important components.   

 

VI Watch the video and choose the correct option to complete the sentences.

That's what's inside a vaccinated/vaccine/toxin. But what happens when you put all these things inside your body? How does it reactor/reacted/react?

Cells in your body that are trained really to look for foreign/train/foreigner material in places where it shouldn't be. They're scouting around looking for that foreign material and they scoop it up and then they carry it off to areas called lymph nodes and that's where the mutiny/immune/immunity response starts to happen. And your body responds to that and it builds up cells and antibodies that will neutrally/neutralise/realised that foreign material and that will protect you if you then subsequently get exposed to that infectious/affection/infection whether it's a virus or a bacterium. And your whole body will be preparation/prepared/paired to react to that when it arrives and the way that it wouldn't have been if you  hadn't had the vaccine.

So what about the Covid jabs? Do they work like conveniently/conventional/intentional vaccines? There are a few different ones around  and they work in different ways. So we're just going to focus on the Covid vaccines that have already got proved/arrival/approval in the UK. That's the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine which involves DNA, then there's the Moderna vaccine and the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine which both involve mRNA. But I'll let Adam explain how that works.

So these vaccines are also different in the sense that you're not given little bits of the lobe/microbe/probe or even the whole microbe what we're doing instead is we're giving the genetic code for one part of the virus and then letting our own cellular/seller/cells  make the bits of virus that we then respond to by giving them the code to do that. So the ones we're using right now, those ones don't have adjuvants, they don't have preservatives in and  they do need to get used pretty quickly after you take them out the bridge/fridge/frigid for that reason.

 

 VII Watch the video again and answer the questions.

1.    How do cells react to a vaccine? 

2.    How does a body react to foreign material that came in a vaccine? 

3.    What Covid vaccines have already got approval in the UK? 

4.    Do Covid vaccines have small parts of microbes in them? Why or why not?

5.    What components do Covid vaccines have? How does it influence the way people use those vaccines?

 

 VIII Watch the video. Put the sentences from the talk in order (1- 6).

 

a)      They are no less safe than conventional vaccines.

b)      Modern Covid vaccines are helping our own cells make something that looks the same as a Covid viral spike protein so that our immune system can respond to it.

c)      We know a lot about old-fashioned vaccines, but Covid vaccines are the new ones. Modern Covid vaccines are pretty straightforward, they work much better than any of us expected them to.

d)      The only ingredients they do share with other more common vaccines are salt, water and sugar.

e)      Modern Covid vaccines are also new and like all new thing in science, it takes time to accumulate data to better understand how well they work.

f)       The three modern Covid jabs are not delivering a Covid microbe into the body.

 

IX OVER TO YOU. Discuss the questions with other students

A)  Compare the Covid vaccines described in the video and the Covid vaccines people can get in your country.

B)   Do people know how Covid vaccines work? Where can people get information about different types of Covid vaccines? 

C)   What do people in your country think about Covid vaccines? 

 

 

ROAD SAFETY. Successful Road Safety Changes in Sweden

 

ROAD SAFETY

Successful Road Safety Changes in Sweden

I Lead-in.

1)    Take two minutes to write down your associations with the word ‘road’. Work in pairs and compare your lists. What are the similarities and differences in your lists? Ask follow-up questions to find out more about other students’ associations with the word ‘road’.

2)     What is road safety? Do you know the road safety rules in your country?

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

1.	rate	A.	a person who is walking
2.	traffic fatality	B.	a machine used for transporting people
3.	to double	C.	to make something smaller
4.	curb	D.	city area
5.	to overtake	E.	someone who rides a bicycle
6.	head-on collision	F.	the speed at which something happens
7.	speed limit	G.	the act of driving a vehicle after drinking too much alcohol
8.	urban area	H.	raised edge of a road between where people can walk and cars can drive
9.	to reduce	I.	death caused by road accident
10.	safety belt	J.	accident in which fronts of two cars or buses hit each other
11.	vehicle	K.	to go faster past a moving car or bus and get in front of it
12.	cyclist	L.	the fastest rate at which people can drive in a certain area
13.	pedestrian	M.	a belt that fastens around you when you are traveling in a car
14.	drink driving	N.	to become two times as many

 

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

 

in front; change; centre; traffic jam; left-hand; roads; road signs; traffic fatalities; right; parking; right; limits; song; car; infrastructure; safety

 When it comes to 1) ___ safety Sweden has a pretty good reputation. And it’s based in fact. Sweden has one of the world’s lowest rates of 2) ___ ___ - only 2.8 deaths for every 100,000 people. Here’s how.

As Swedish society became motorized fatalities quickly began to rise. The number of deaths on the 3) ___ more than doubled between 1950 and 1970. One of the reasons was the majority of cars were 4) ___  drive imports being driven on the left-hand side of the road.

It means the driver is closer to the curb and further away from the 5) ___ of the road, which makes overtaking much harder, as the driver can’t see around the car 6) ___ ___, something which makes head-on collisions much more likely. But on September 3rd 1967 the Swedish Government made a big 7) ___ in the name of safety.

-Sweden decides to switch from left to 8)  ___!

The country changed to driving on the right side of the road. Its traffic 9) ___ was completely revamped in just one day. That included changing 360,000 10)  ___ ___.

Understandably, 11) ___ was a huge focus. The Government created a special team, the ‘RightLane Driving Commission’ to make sure the changeover went without incident. Speed 12) ___ in urban areas were reduced. Outside of towns they were introduced where previously they hadn’t existed. ‘H Day’, for högertrafik, Swedish for ‘right traffic’ even had its very own 13) ___. There were plenty of other every day reminders too like these helpful glasses or H-Day underwear.

 

IV Comprehension check. Mark the sentences as True (T) or False (F). Correct the false statements.

1.    In Sweden there is one of the world’s lowest rates of traffic fatalities.

2.    The number of deaths on the roads in Sweden grew between 1950 and 1970.

3.    One of the reasons for the deaths on the road was the fact that in Sweden the majority of cars were right-hand drive vehicles.

4.    Driving on the right means that overtaking is much harder, as the driver can’t see around the car in front.

5.    On September 3, 1967 the Swedish Government made a big change and decided to switch from right to left.

6.    In Sweden the traffic infrastructure was completely changed in just one day.

7.    Sweden changed 360,000 road signs.

8.    The country increased speed limits in cities.

9.    The country introduced speed limits outside of towns they were where previously they hadn’t existed.

10.There were funny songs and other reminders about the new rules.

   

V Watch the video and choose the correct option to complete the sentences.

 

The operation was deemed such a successful/succeed/success, the government formed the Swedish Road Safety Agency the very next year. Some of the first things it achieved: lowering speed limits/speed limitation/speeding limitation, and making seat belts and motorcycle helmets law. Meanwhile, the country’s biggest car maker, Volvo, invented the industry-changing 3-point safely belt/safe belted/safety belt, giving up the patent so any automaker could use it in their vehicles. More than a million people worldwide are thought to have been saved/safely/saving as a result. Since the beginnings of the Swedish Road Safety Agency, factual/fatally/fatalities dropped from 1307 in 1970 to 263 in 2015. What makes that even more astonishing is that in the same period the number of versatile/vehicles/technique on the roads more than doubled.

A lot of this is possible because Sweden is one of the wealthier countries in the world. It’s invested a lot of monetary/money/many in road infrastructure, separating cyclists and destination/pedestrians/personnel from traffic - and strictly policing speed limits and drink driving. In fact, the richer the country, the lower the number of fatalities generally. The ultimate goal is ‘Vision Zero’ - where there aren’t any deaths on Sweden’s roads at all. For many contrary/counters/countries there’s still a trade-off between mobility and the deaths that come as a result of it. In Sweden, safety has been the priority over speed/need/speak and convenience, since H-Day, September 3rd 1967.

 

VI Watch the video again and answer the questions.

1. What changes did the Swedish Road Safety Agency introduce?   

2. How did Volvo help the new car safety initiative?   

3. What results did the Swedish Road Safety Agency achieve?   

4. What factors helped Sweden achieve its success in road safety initiatives?  

5. What is the goal of the road safety initiatives?  

 

VII OVER TO YOU. Discuss the questions with other students

A)  Compare the road safety imitative described in the video and the road safety rules in your country. What rules and laws are the same? What are the biggest differences?

B)   What can the government in your country do to improve the road safety and reduce the number of traffic fatalities? Think of at least 3 ideas and share them with other students.