Classroom activities (1)

Lead in

1. A) Answer the questions:

• What can people be proud of?

• What do you take pride in?

• What things do you value most in life?

• What things could be called status symbols?

b) Look at the list of status symbols below and say which of them are more important to you. Explain what makes you think so.

fashionable clothes a fast and expensive car

a country house a yacht

a good education high-profile work

2. A) Skim through the text and say what the message of the text is.

 (1.5 min.)

People nowadays have more money, and some say this has made people more materialistic. It means they place too much importance on money, comfort and luxury goods. People have also become more acquisitive, which means they want to buy, own, possess more and more. We are not only money-oriented but also over-concerned with social and professional status. We care too much about our image, how other people see us. We like to own status-symbols like unnecessarily fast cars, the latest hi-fi equipment, fashionable clothes.

But is the picture so black? Are we really reduced to being mercenary creatures, motivated only by money? What can a mere individual do to improve the world? Perhaps it is time for us to examine our priorities and decide what is really important in life. Perhaps we should try to find self-fulfillment by exploring our capabilities and finding satisfaction in the spiritual aspects of life: an appreciation of art and nature, service to others, the improvement of our minds.

(The New York Times, 2005.)

b) Sum up the text in three sentences.

c) Scan the text for details.

d) Answer the teacher’s questions.

3. A) Open the brackets using the correct forms of the verbs.

blustery – windy, stormy

Anna, Marleen and Sarah __________ (1 – to come) from a small town in the east of Germany. In many ways, their lives are quite similar to those of middle-class young people from the United States. They ____________ (2 – to watch) American television shows like “Friends”, “Sex in the City” and “The Simpsons,” dubbed in German. They have cellphones, they Google, they _____________ (3 – to travel) – Anna as far as China, and Sarah several times to America.

They talk of their ambitions and expectations. For them coming of age means, above all, ___________ ( 4 – to come) to terms with economic reality.

Asked about the things most important to her once she _________ (5 – to finish) school, Anna had a ready reply: “A job which seems complicated ___________ (6 – to get).” She said she ____________ (7 – to want) ____________ (8 – to be) a journalist; her father ________ (9 – to be) a regional editor for the local daily newspaper, Volksstimme. “__________ (10 – not/to be) alone,” Anna continued her list. “To have friends.”

What would she like her life __________ (11 – to look) like when she ________ (12 – to be) 25? “I hope I _____________________ (13 – to graduate) from university,” Anna said. “I don’t want to be a lazy student,” one who spends years, as some German students do, hanging around the university, where tuition _______________ (14 – to cover) by the state.

That _________ (15 – to be) nearly a year ago, when Anna, Marleen and Sarah ______________________ (16 – first/to interview). They ________________ (17 – just/to have) a ceremony marking transition to adulthood. The ceremony came on a blustery Saturday in the auditorium of the Town Hall. While their parents and grandparents _______________ (18 – to watch), the girls _____________ (19 – to call) to the stage, __________ (20 – to give) a yellow rose and a handshake, and a book. “I _________ ________ (21 – to move),” Anna said, “when they said that childhood ____________ (22 – to be over), and I ____________________ (23 – modal/to take) more responsibility for my life.”

A year later, Anna said she _____________ (24 – to give) more shape to her interest in becoming a journalist, writing for the youth supplement of Volksstimme. Marleen, asked a year ago what _______ (25 – to be) important to her, said she really ____________ (26 – not/ to know) . Now she ______________ (27 – to decide) to look for a job as a clerk or secretary. Why _________ (28 – not/to go) to college and get a better job? “You go to university and you still __________________ (29 – modal/to find) a job,” she replied. “I know people who just _________ (30 – to finish) school and __________ (31 – to get) jobs, and others who got university diplomas and didn’t. There’s still a lot to learn,” Marleen said. “It’s quite exhausting.”

b) Answer the teacher’s questions.

VOCABULARY EXTENSION