Tag: First Certificate FCE

Health Benefits of Gardening

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Greens, colorful flowers, and vegetables, these are some views that will surely give us positive emotions. Feelings like amusement, appreciation, excitement, passion, happiness, and serenity will definitely have a great impact on our mental health.

Would you believe that you can achieve all these positive emotions in one activity? Yes! It’s gardening!

Here are the 8 surprising health benefits of gardening:

https://healthtalk.unchealthcare.org/health-benefits-of-gardening

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are the health benefits of gardening?
  2. Do you like gardening? Why or Why not?
  3. Do you have a garden? If yes, what are the plants that you have in your garden? If not, do you plan to put up a garden?
  4. Would you like to try growing your own food? Why or why not?
  5. According to WHO, good health means the presence of sense of community and happiness. Can you explain this?

The Rise of the Ripped Teen

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Elite is a popular 2018 Spanish thriller teen drama on Netflix. Perhaps one thing you will quickly notice about this show is how bulked up these high school students are! In a way, you’d think to yourself, that’s unrealistic, teens are normally not that buff. Safe to say, these teenagers do not only work on their studies now but on their bodies as well.

However, after reading this article, you might need to think again. The way these high schoolers are portrayed in that series could be true; that many people in their teens are all about abs and pecs now.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/may/09/anyone-popular-at-school-has-muscles-the-rise-of-the-ripped-teen

Discussion Questions:

  1. What might have led to this trend? What do you think are the good or a detrimental effects of this teens?
  2. What is your reaction to the rise of popularity of the muscular teens?
  3. Is this the same situation in your country? 
  4. What is your reaction to this: “If you’ve got a child who is overweight, you worry. I’ve got one who is extremely muscular and lean, and I still worry”?
  5. How would you compare teenagers’ hobbies and interests during your teenage years and now?

Cabin Fever

B2 – Upper Intermediate

After a long while being stuck indoors, we start feeling bored and restless. This is called “cabin fever”. It sounds like an actual disease but it is not. However, when one gets into this state, some effects could be being anxious, irritable, and even depressed caused by the long period of confinement in a tight or a remote, isolated space.

Read the article to learn more about cabin fever and be able to answer the questions below:

https://www.healthline.com/health/cabin-fever#symptoms

Discussion Questions:

  1. Have you ever had cabin fever before? If so, why and what happened?
  2. How did you cope or deal with it?
  3. What situations usually cause people to have it?
  4. What advice can you give to a person suffering from it?
  5. Are you a social hermit or a social butterfly?

Reading Might Help You Live Longer

B2 – Upper Intermediate

It’s undeniable that screens compete daily for our attention. Work and entertainment all play out to some extent on these digital displays, so much so that our days are consumed in activities that require their use. This includes reading.

Some argue that reading off anything other than a screen should be relegated to the past. However, some studies suggest that the act of assimilating ideas from the printed page may be just what the doctor ordered.

In this video, Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains how reading (or listening to a good read) can help add years to your lifespan.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What benefits of reading are mentioned by Dr. Gupta?
  2. How do you like your books? On the printed page, as an audiobook, or scrollable on a portable screen?
  3. What do you think can be done to encourage people to read more?

Things Healthiest People Have in Common

B2 – Upper Intermediate

The secret of longevity is mainly eating healthy food. However, it is also proven that the world’s healthiest people have the same habits, not only eating healthy food.

Learn the real secrets to healthy living by reading this article.

https://www.rdasia.com/healthsmart/fitness/17-things-worlds-healthiest-people-have-common?pages=2

 Discussion Questions:

  1. What can you say about the saying “health is wealth”?
  2. Do you do all these habits described in the article?
  3. Do you agree that these habits will keep you healthy?
  4. Aside from these habits mentioned in the article, what else do you think is helpful in providing major health benefits?
  5. What do you think of wellness institutions and their programs?
  6. From your own experience, can you give some examples of how the mind and the body are connected?

Ways to Kill Your Dreams

They say that dreams are only for children or for people who have the means to reach it. In reality, dreams are lifelong goals that we can achieve through discipline, hardwork, and believing in ourselves.

Brazillian entrepreneur Bel Pesce enumerate the ways of discouraging thoughts when we try to achieve our dreams and on how to keep ourselves going.

Watch the video below and learn more.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Discuss the five ways how not to follow your dreams?
  2. What does overnight success mean? Share a related story.
  3. What are your first thoughts about the video?
  4. What are your childhood dreams that came true?
  5. In the video, what is meant by “believe the fault is someone else’s?”
  6. From the five tips mentioned in the video, what is one tip that can be most helpful to you?

Nature Rebounding during Coronavirus

B2 – Upper Intermediate

More or less two months now since quarantine has started in most of the countries around the world. Obviously, we are experiencing adverse losses in the economy globally due to bounded outside activities. But amidst this pandemic that we are dealing with, our natural world is healing.

Let’s check some of the photos in different countries showing how nature is flourishing.

https://www.rdasia.com/culture/8-photos-that-show-nature-rebounding-during-coronavirus

Discussion Questions:

1.Is there any news in your place that reports nature’s healing during this lockdown?

2. What can you say about the photos that you’ve seen? Which one is your favorite?

3. Do you think people would do some efforts to maintain the improvement we’ve seen in nature even after this lockdown is over?

4. As a simple citizen, what can you do to help preserve our nature for the future generation?

The Most Dangerous Place in Earth’s History: Sahara Desert

B2 -Upper Intermediate

A team of scientists believe that an area of the Sahara desert in Morocco must be the most dangerous place on Earth. It was the home of terrifying array of ferocious predators. The report said that it was most uninhabitable place in Africa’s Age of Dinosaurs.

Let’s read the article and be ready to share your thoughts.

https://www.sciencealert.com/palaeontologists-say-ancient-sahara-was-most-dangerous-place-in-earth-s-history

Discussion Questions:

  1. Why is the Kem-Kem Group the most dangerous place in Earth’s history?
  2. What is your opinion about the article?
  3. What are some things scientists can learn from studying fossils?
  4. If you had to pick just one place as the most hostile or dangerous place of all on the entire planet, what would it be and why?
  5. How dangerous do you think the world is today? Support your answer with examples.

Couples Get Married Online in New York

B2 – Upper Intermediate

A wedding is without a doubt one of the most special days in a woman’s life. This is her big day. This day is all about her. That is why weddings have become a big global industry.

During this pandemic, most couples’ wedding ceremony had to be postponed but that is not entirely the case in New York.

Read the article about online weddings in New York.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/zoom-yorkers-wed-online-200419165225473.html

Discussion Questions:

  1. How is the online wedding procedure in New York?
  2. What is your opinion on online wedding?
  3. How do people in your country commonly get married?
  4. Share some traditional wedding practices in your country.
  5. Do you think this is one change we would eventually adapt even after the pandemic is over?

Fashion Upcycling

B2 – Upper Intermediate

When upcycling clothes, waste is looked at creatively and transformed into something new. A Swedish company found an alternative way to give old clothes new life and make them wearable again. In turn, this reduces wastes and contributes to making the world a more sustainable place.

Watch the video and be able to answer the questions that follow:

https://www.bbc.com/reel/playlist/sustainable-future?vpid=p06yvh4k

Discussion Questions:

  1. What do you think about upcycling clothes?
  2. How often do you go shopping for clothes?
  3. What are the advantages of textile upcycling?
  4. What do you usually do with your old, damaged, or worn-out clothes?
  5. Is fast fashion and textile waste an issue in your country?