B2.1 Unit 1: The Week

Unit objectives

Listen to a conversation about a work-at-home dad.
Interview classmates about their usual week.
Read a magazine article about a typical week in the future,
Write a report about a possible work week in the future.

Task: Plan someone's weekly timetable.

Grammar

Transitive and intransitive verbs
Present simple vs. present continuous.
Review: talking about the future.

Vocabulary

Phrases related to everyday activities.

Reading

An atypical work environment.

Speaking

Discussing work










P6 - phrasal verbs

deal with
pick up
get rid of
ring back
hang out
take part (in)
keep up (with)
write down
look at

In some of these actions, an object is directly changed by the action. In others, the action is not directly connected with an object.

With phrasal verbs, the ones that we call "transitive" (that have a direct object) can be separated by an object. The intransitive ones (that don't have a direct object) can't be.

Some verbs, such as arrive, go, lie, sneeze, sit, and die, are always intransitive; it is impossible for a direct object to follow. This means that they aren't able to be used in the passive. 








P7  Present Simple vs. Present Continuous

Simple:

Sub + verb = obj

Q: Do/does + sub + bare inf.

Continuous:

Sub + be + gerund

Future reference:

There is no future tense in English. Present continuous is a good tense for plans and arrangements in the near future. Using "will" often works better for things in the more distant future.









P8 - Listening

Do understand what a "to-do" list is?

Here's some of the vocab in this listening:

to make a transition
to bring home the bacon
commitment
to collect the kids
sounds intriguing
a line of work
a day off
to doubt
in case
no matter how
to switch roles
to question a decision
Either way,
to maintain a household
to retire sth
an egg beater
to last

Listen out for this week's phrasal verbs in this listening.


Use these words in a sentence



P9 - Speaking

Use "will" for discussing the more distant future.

Some useful vocab for this topic:

workload
work force
work-life balance
overwork
a challenge
work hours
recover, recharge your batteries, restore
burn out
pressure
commitments
overcommitment









P 10 - Language builder (everyday activities)

active + lifestyle
do + the laundry
go + to the theatre
take + exercise
be late for + a show
how are your + studies + going?
spend time + outdoors
like to + relax + with a long hot bath










P11 - Review (talking about the future)

P12 - Reading

Read the first 4 paragraphs. Stop and discuss the point of the article.

Do the exercises on P13.

Extn: see of you can find some other interesting language in the text to ask me about.

Self study quiz for reading vocab

What are the differences between "affect" and "effect"?









P14 - Writing

Suggested headings (not in the correct order):

Flexible hours
Cost-effective
Conclusion
Introduction
Free-time
Productivity

Discuss: what will a typical working week be like in the future?

(B2.1 Unit 1: the week) Average worker wastes 2 hours a day

Lead in:

MY TIME:

In pairs / groups, talk to each other about how much time you spend each day doing different things. What takes up most of your time at home? What takes up most of your time at work or school? Do you waste a lot of time during each day? Talk about your time management skills.

"Average worker wastes 2 hours a day"

1. TRUE / FALSE:

Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):

a.	The average worker wastes 25% of his/her working time.	T / F
b.	Companies did a secret check on their workers.	T / F
c.	Company bosses thought workers wasted an hour a day.	T / F
d.	Many executives think time wasting is beneficial to a company.	T / F
e.	Drinking tea and coffee is the biggest time waster.	T / F
f.	Almost 40 % of employees waste time by daydreaming.	T / F
g.	Many employees complain that they do not have enough work to do.	T / F
h.	Women waste much more time than men.	T / F

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

a.	completed	extraordinary
b.	idled away	daydreaming
c.	amazing	upset
d.	angered	private
e.	beneficial	discovered
f.	personal	filled in
g.	confessed	sidetracked
h.	staring into space	admitted
i.	distracted	wasted
j.	found	favorable

Read and check

Time is money and according to a new 

survey, workers waste 25 per cent of working time on non-work related matters. That’s a lot of company money down the drain. A poll of 10,000 respondents by Salary.com and AOL.com indicates an average of 2.09 hours per day is idled away in offices. This is twice as much as company bosses predicted and amounts to a whopping $759 billion in the USA. However, corporate bosses are not rattled by these figures. They said one hour a day of time wasting is factored into calculating salaries. Many executives deem time frittered away to be of benefit to a company. Salary.com’s Bill Coleman called it “creative waste”.

The survey said the top time-wasting activity was using the Internet for personal use – 44.7% of respondents owned up to this. Other big offenders were socializing with co-workers (23.4%), conducting personal business (6.8%) and that most productive of pursuits – spacing out, otherwise known as staring into space (3.9%). Employees indicated the blame for time wasting could not always be pinned on them. The top time-wasting excuse was not having enough work to do (33.2%). Other employee gripes were feeling underpaid (23.4%) and being distracted by co-workers (14.7%). The survey also found that men and women squandered away equal amounts of time.

3. PHRASE MATCH: 

Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

a.	a lot of company money	into calculating salaries
b.	amounts to a whopping	away equal amounts of time
c.	bosses are not rattled by	on them
d.	time wasting is factored	up to this
e.	executives deem time frittered	$759 billion
f.	respondents owned	gripes
g.	spacing	down the drain
h.	could not always be pinned	away to be of benefit
i.	employee	out
j.	men and women squandered	these figures

GAP FILL: Put the words in the column on the right into the correct spaces.

Average worker wastes 2 hours a day

Time is money and according to a new survey, workers waste 25 per cent of working time on non-work related ________. That’s a lot of company money down the ________. A poll of 10,000 respondents by Salary.com and AOL.com indicates an average of 2.09 hours per day is ________ away in offices. This is twice as much as company bosses predicted and amounts to a ________ $759 billion in the USA. However, corporate bosses are not ________ by these figures. They said one hour a day of time wasting is ________ into calculating salaries. Many executives deem time frittered away to be of ________ to a company. Salary.com’s Bill Coleman called it “________ waste”.		idled factored drain benefit matters rattled creative whopping
The survey said the ________ time-wasting activity was using the Internet for personal use – 44.7% of respondents owned up to this. Other big ________ were socializing with co-workers (23.4%), ________ personal business (6.8%) and that most productive of pursuits – spacing out, otherwise known as staring into ________ (3.9%). Employees indicated the ________ for time wasting could not always be ________ on them. The top time-wasting excuse was not having enough work to do (33.2%). Other employee ________ were feeling underpaid (23.4%) and being distracted by co-workers (14.7%). The survey also found that men and women ________ away equal amounts of time.		conducting pinned squandered space gripes offenders blame top

LISTENING

Listen and fill in the spaces.

Listening

Average worker wastes 2 hours a day

BNE: Time is money and _________ to a new survey, workers waste a lot of working time. A questionnaire __________ by 10,000 employees reports an average of 2.09 hours ___ ___ is idled away in businesses. This is ______ __ much as company bosses thought. It means companies lose __ ________ $759 billion in the USA. However, bosses are ___ _______ by these figures. Many executives think this idle time is beneficial to a company. Salary.com’s Bill Coleman called it “________ waste”.

The top time-wasting activity was using the Internet for ________ ___ – 44.7% of workers confessed to this. Other big ____ _______ were chatting with co-workers (23.4%), personal business (6.8%) and staring into space (3.9%). The top time-wasting _______ was not having enough work to do (33.2%). Workers also complained about feeling __________ (23.4%) and being distracted by co-workers (14.7%). The survey also found that men and women wasted ______ ________ of time.

SPEAKING

GET STUDYING (ENGLISH):

In pairs / groups, think of ways how you can make better use of your time to study English more.

SITUATION	HOW TO USE TIME TO STUDY ENGLISH MORE
Breakfast	• • •
Going to work / school	• • •
Watching TV	• • •
Walking around town	• • •
Surfing the Internet	• • •
Bedtime	• • •

After you have finished, change partners and tell each other about your ideas. Give each other advice on how to make your ideas better.

Return to your original partner and use the advice you got to make your ideas

12-word quiz

(Upper-Intermediate) The Parable of the Law

The Parable of the Law


Insert the fragments:

A) lowly gatekeeper
B) grant him entry
C) each more powerful than the other
D) in order to see through the gate
E) in spite of my prohibition

Before the law sits a gatekeeper. To this gatekeeper comes a man from the country who asks to gain entry into the law. But the gatekeeper says that he cannot _________ at the moment. The man thinks about it and then asks if he will be allowed to come in later on. “It is possible,” says the gatekeeper, “but not now.” At the moment the gate to the law stands open, as always, and the gatekeeper walks to the side, so the man bends over __________ into the inside. When the gatekeeper notices that, he laughs and says: “If it tempts you so much, try it __________. But take note: I am powerful. And I am only the most _____________. But from room to room stand gatekeepers, ____________. I can’t endure even one glimpse of the third.”

Form the words:

The man from the country has not expected such difficulties: the law should always be   ACCESS    for everyone, he thinks, but as he now looks more    CLOSE    at the gatekeeper in his fur coat, at his large pointed nose and his long, thin, black Tartar’s beard, he decides that it would be better to wait until he gets     PERMIT    to go inside. The gatekeeper gives him a stool and allows him to sit down at the side in front of the gate.

Fill the gaps:

___ he sits for days and years. He ___ many attempts to be let in, and he wears the gatekeeper out with his requests. The gatekeeper often interrogates him briefly, questioning him about his homeland and many ____ things, but they are indifferent questions, the kind great men put, and at the end he always tells him ____ more that he cannot ___ him inside yet. The man, who has equipped himself with many things for his journey, spends everything, ___ matter how valuable, to win over the gatekeeper. The latter takes it ___ but, as he does ___, says, “I am taking this only so that you do not think you have failed to do anything.”

Form the words:

During the many years the man observes the gatekeeper almost      CONTINUE   . He forgets the other gatekeepers, and this one seems to him the only obstacle for  ENTER    into the law. He curses the   LUCK    circumstance, in the first years thoughtlessly and out loud, later, as he grows old, he still mumbles to himself. He becomes   CHILD    and, since in the long years studying the gatekeeper he has come to know the fleas in his fur collar, he even asks the fleas to help him persuade the gatekeeper. Finally his   SIGHT    grows weak, and he does not know whether things are really darker around him or whether his eyes are merely      DECEIVE    him. But he recognizes now in the darkness an   ILLUMINATE    which breaks inextinguishably out of the gateway to the law. Now he no longer has much time to live. Before his death he gathers in his head all his experiences of the entire time up into one question which he has not yet put to the gatekeeper. He waves to him, since he can no longer lift up his stiffening body. The gatekeeper has to bend way down to him, for the great     DIFFER      has changed things to the       ADVANTAGE     of the man. 

Insert the words:

insatiable
me
else
only
close
diminishing
strives

“What do you still want to know, then?” asks the gatekeeper. “You are_______.” “Everyone _____ after the law,” says the man, “so how is that in these many years no one except ______ has requested entry?” The gatekeeper sees that the man is already dying and, in order to reach his______ sense of hearing, he shouts at him, “Here no one ____ can gain entry, since this entrance was assigned ____ to you. I’m going now to _____ it.


Discuss:

This famous story is called a parable. What is a parable?

What is the story a parable of?


Additional reading

Unseen Kafka works may soon be revealed after Kafkaesque trial

- Zurich court rules safe-deposit boxes can be opened and shipped to Israel library

A long-hidden trove of unpublished works by Franz Kafka could soon be revealed after a decade-long battle over his literary estate that has drawn comparisons to some of his surreal tales.

A district court in Zurich upheld Israeli verdicts in the case last week, ruling that several safe-deposit boxes in the Swiss city could be opened and their contents shipped to Israel’s national library.

The papers could shed new light on one of literature’s darkest figures, a German-speaking Jew from Prague whose cultural legacy has been hotly contested between Israel and Germany.

Experts have speculated the cache could include endings to some of Kafka’s major works, many of which were unfinished when they were published after his death.

Israel’s supreme court has already stripped an Israeli family of its collection of Kafka’s manuscripts, which were hidden in Israeli bank vaults and in a Tel Aviv apartment. But the Swiss ruling would complete the acquisition of nearly all Kafka’s known works.

Kafka, whose name has become an adjective to describe inscrutable legal or bureaucratic processes, was known for his tales of everyman protagonists crushed by mysterious events. In The Trial, a bank clerk is put through excruciating court proceedings without ever being told the charges against him.

“The absurdity of the [legal process] is that it was over an estate that nobody knew what it contained. This will hopefully finally resolve these questions,” said Benjamin Balint, a research fellow at Jerusalem’s Van Leer Institute and the author of Kafka’s Last Trial, which chronicles the affair.

Kafka bequeathed his writings to Max Brod, his longtime friend, editor and publisher, shortly before his death from tuberculosis in 1924 at the age of 40. He asked for his writings to be burned unread, but Brod ignored his wishes and published most of what was in his possession – including the novels The Trial, The Castle and Amerika, which made the previously little-known author posthumously one of the most celebrated writers of the 20th century.

But Brod didn’t publish everything and on his death in 1968, he instructed his personal secretary, Esther Hoffe, to transfer the Kafka papers to an academic institution.

Hoffe instead kept the papers stashed away and sold some. The original manuscript of The Trial was auctioned for £1m at Sotheby’s in London and went to the German Literature Archive in Marbach, near Stuttgart. 

When Hoffe died in 2008 at the age of 101, she left the collection to her two daughters, Eva Hoffe and Ruth Wiesler, both Holocaust survivors like herself, who considered Brod a father figure and his archive their inheritance. Both have since also passed away, leaving Wiesler’s daughters to continue fighting for the remainder of the collection.

Jeshayah Etgar, a lawyer for the daughters, said his clients legitimately inherited the works and called the state seizure of their property “disgraceful” and “first degree robbery”.”

Israel’s National Library claims Kafka’s papers as cultural assets that belong to the Jewish people. “We welcome the judgment of the court in Switzerland, which matched all the judgments entered previously by the Israeli courts,” said David Blumberg, the chairman of the library, a nonprofit and non-governmental body.

“The judgment of the Swiss court completes the preparation of the National Library of Israel to accept the entire literary estate of Max Brod, which will be properly handled and will be made available to the wider public in Israel and the world.”