Tag: First Certificate FCE

Fashion Designer Encourages Youth to Choose Heritage

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Fashion trends have changed dramatically over the years but this Vietnamese fashion designer encourages youth to choose heritage to bring back traditions and customs with a twist of modern fashion.

Let’s read the article to know more.

https://www.gulftoday.ae/lifestyle/2020/11/28/vietnamese-fashion-designer-encourages-youth-to-choose-heritage

Discussion Questions:

  1. What do you think about cultural heritage fashion ?
  2. Are you a fashionable person? What fashion trend do you follow?
  3. How are some fashion designers reinventing heritage as modern design?
  4. Do you think heritage fashion can be restrictive and impractical in today’s society?
  5. Do you wear any fashionable clothes that represents your country?

How to Know If It’s Time to Change Careers

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Career changes—at any level—are stressful, time-consuming, and, well, often agonizing. How do you know if you’re making the right decision? It’s not an easy process to pivot to something unfamiliar, or to quit a job that’s OK on many levels but ultimately professionally unsatisfying.

Let’s watch the video on how to know if it’s time to change careers.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Are you happy at work? Why / Why not?
  2. What are some of the most common reasons that people change their jobs?
  3. Do you know anybody who has led a successful career in one field and then suddenly given it up and changed to something completely different? What reasons do you think they may have had?
  4. What three things are most important for you in a job? Why?
  5. What is a dead-end job? Are you OK to have one if it pays well?
  6. What preparations did you make before leaving your previous job/jobs?

Poor Diet Creates 20cm Height Gap in Children

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Human growth is affected by complex interactions among various factors, including gene, race, birth weight, hormone, nutrition, and environment.
Eating behaviours evolve during the first years of life; children learn what, when, and how much to eat through direct experiences with food and observing the eating behaviours of others.

But how can poor diet and nutrition affect a child’s health?

Let’s read the article below to learn more about diet and height.

https://breakingnewsenglish.com/2011/201111-diet-and-height.html

Discussion Questions:

  1. What two things did the article see were behind the height gap?
  2. What did the article warn people against?
  3. What is the average height of children and also men and women in your country?
  4. Do you think you had a healthy lifestyle when you were a child? Is it possible to have a healthy lifestyle in this modern world?
  5. How could we improve the eating habits of children?

Advice If You Should Quit Your Job

B2 – Upper Intermediate

There are times when we feel tired and listless in doing our job. There are many reasons why, including toxic work environment, bosses from hell, and sometimes, the work itself is just so tiring.

In this video, it will help you realize why and how to continue even if you’re tired of your chosen profession. You will somehow think of the reasons why you need to continue or otherwise.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What is the problem of the two men? What did the sage tell them?
  2. How did the two men solve their problems?
  3. How do you explain these two expressions “Only a bowl of rice” and “Only a difference of thought”?
  4. What are some reasons you quit your previous jobs?
  5. What makes you stay in your current job?

A Tale About Honesty

B2 – Upper Intermediate

“Honesty is the best policy” this is one of the most popular sayings that we often hear. Though, it’s a popular one, most of us fail to be honest not because we want to but because we don’t want to hurt other people. But some do this plainly to deceive others to make money and skyrocket to fame.

This story teaches us a lesson that honesty is not more than lying. It is truth-telling, truth-speaking, truth-living and truth-loving.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How do you define honesty?
  2. What are white lies?
  3. Is there a time that you lie to someone?
  4. Do you know a person who lied so much?
  5. How do you deal with a liar person?

Awake at 3 a.m.? What to Do

B2 – Upper Intermediate

We’ve all had to burn the midnight oil at some point. Perhaps it was for that all-important presentation at work, or maybe we’ve had to pore over notes for that university examination that loomed the next day.

However, it’s a different thing altogether when we have the opportunity to get a full night’s sleep, but our body clock seemingly refuses to cooperate.

The following article has some nifty tips to have you snoozing your way to dreamland sooner and brimming with energy when the alarm clock finally rings.

https://www.thetimesinplainenglish.com/awake-at-3-a-m-what-to-do/

Discussion Questions:

  1. On an average evening, what time do you usually find yourself tucked up in bed? Do you sleep soon after or much later? What do you see as the ideal sleep schedule for you?
  2. Having read the article, what would you say are the things that keep you from falling asleep? How can you manage these factors to enjoy blissful slumber?
  3. Which of the tips do you find most useful? Which tips can you implement immediately to improve the quality of your sleep? Which would be difficult to put into practice?

Taking a Look At Extreme Exercise

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Eating a healthy diet and getting sufficient exercise have long been considered the power tandem of habits to reach a ripe, old age.

In this short segment from CNN10, we are given some key ideas on how to break a sweat effectively and maximize our workouts.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are the benefits of regular physical exercise?
  2. On average, how many hours do you exercise in a week? Would you describe the intensity as mild, moderate, or vigorous?
  3. How do you squeeze in your fitness routine into your daily grind?
  4. What activities comprise your workouts? Why do you prefer these forms of exercise over others?
  5. If you don’t get much exercise, what are the obstacles to your fitness goals? What changes can you make to accommodate this vital habit?
  6. What is your opinion about High Intensity Interval Training?

Is Punctuality Important?

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Punctuality isn’t universal as it varies from culture to culture. For some countries, it might be fuzzy as time moves in different pace, but it doesn’t mean that if someone is strictly conditioned to be on time that the person would be cultivated that way. It still depends on the individual. For this reason, some are always on time and some are late regardless whether punctuality is observed in their country or not.

Learn more about why punctuality is a struggle for many who couldn’t manage to be on time.

Listen to this audio and learn more about punctuality.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Does being prompt or on time matter to you? Is being on time important in your country? Why or why not?
  2. Do you think people in your country are somehow trained to be on time from when you are young? How can you say so?
  3. How does being punctual impact your personal and professional life?
  4. Why is being late trivial to some?
  5. Do you agree that being on time is a choice? Explain your stand.

New Device Puts Music in Your Head

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Move over, ear pods! Get out of the way, headsets!

Noveto Systems invented a device that sends sound directly to listeners. With this new technology, there is no need for headphones.

Are we soon going to bid ear pods and headsets farewell?

Watch the video, listen to the audio, and/or read the transcript about the new technology known as “sound beaming”.

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/new-device-puts-music-in-your-head-/5659759.html

Discussion Questions:

  1. What is your reaction to this new technology?
  2. How do you like listening to your music? What device do you use in listening?
  3. Do you think that with this technology, we would eventually no longer have the need for headsets and such listening devices?
  4. What technology related to music do you want to see in the future?
  5. What gadgets / technology for music are popular in your country these days?

How to Figure Out What You Really Want

B2 – Upper Intermediate

When life throws us curveballs, we suddenly learn to stop taking risks and start being afraid. We become afraid of failures and scared of criticism.

We are scared to put ourselves out there and do what we really want. Oftentimes, we get frustrated that we can’t leave our toxic jobs because we don’t know what we truly want yet.

Watch Ashley Stahl as she shares her 3 key steps to help you connect to your ideal career path.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRtBHF-WPpM&fbclid=IwAR0_ZrrTyCdvsCppfzqYvB8acDBzdXpKcSjlEvmbJ79j57dQtH8g6McFHKw

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are your thoughts on this statement: “People who call themselves realists are often just dreamers, who got their hearts broken somewhere along the way”?
  2. Do you follow your gut feeling?
  3. What is a joy journal?
  4. What skill set are you using when you’re inspired?
  5. What do you know that you wish you didn’t know?