Tag: First Certificate FCE

Yotel – Tiny Hotel Rooms

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Whether you are on a vacation or on a business trip, one of the things that is on the top of your list is a nice play to stay at where you can relax after a long day of city tour and shopping or after an intense meeting with a client.

A new hotel has just opened in the city of New York in the U.S. Find out below what makes it different from the rest.

http://www.english-online.at/news-articles/travel/yotel-tiny-hotel-rooms-in-manhattan.htm

Discussion Questions:

  1. Do you like staying at hotels when travelling?
  2. Have you experienced staying at a luxurious hotel?
  3. What are some of the excellent accomodations that you’ve stayed at in the past?
  4. Are there unique places to stay in in your city?

Silence is Golden for New York Restaurant

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Can you imagine having dinner out with friends without engaging in conversation? That is exactly the protocol at a New York restaurant called “Eat”.

Watch the video below and be prepared to share your thoughts about “Eat”. If you can’t access the video, search for: “Silence is golden for New York restaurant” on AFP News Agency’s YouTube Channel.

Silence is Golden for NY Restaurant

Discussion Questions:

  1. Explain the concept behind “Eat”.
  2. What is your take on the silent meal?
  3. What are the good things about this kind of meal experience?
  4. Towards the end of the video, how did the diners react to their dining experience?
  5. Do you think this kind of restaurant will fare in your city/country? Why or why not?
  6. What are some of the unique restaurants that you have been to?

No Dislike Button for Facebook

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B2 – Upper intermediate

If you’re a Facebook user, you’ve probably noticed that there’s more than one reaction button to choose from. You’ve got the simple “like” button, then you’ve also got the “wow” and “sad” buttons.

Read the article below to get more information as to why Facebook decided to come up with more reaction buttons.

No dislike button for Facebook, declares Zuckerberg

Discuss:

1. Do you approve of Facebook’s decision to not add a “dislike” button? Why or why not?
2. How do you generally feel about Facebook?
3. What other social media websites do you use?
4. How is social media useful in today’s society?

* As of September 2015, Facebook has announced that it is working on the “dislike” button. Watch the video here. 

Building a ‘Halal’ Internet

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Officials in Iran are planning to build a completely separate Internet called Yooz. Its purpose is to filter objectionable information just like China’s “Great Firewall”, the largest web filtering and censorship operation in the world.

Read the article below to know more about Yooz then express your opinions.

http://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/iran-next-step-in-building-hala-internet/2676579.html

Discussion Questions:

  1. How often do you use the internet?
  2. How important is the internet to your day to day life?
  3. What is your opinion about filtered and censored internet access
  4. Do you think that Yooz will do its job in filtering and securing?

The Family That Eats Together

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B2 – Upper intermediate

Family dinner builds good and positive relationship among the members. It also helps kids do better in school. But because of hectic schedules many families seldom have the time to do this anymore.

Read the article below to discover the benefits of dining together.

https://www.vision.org/family-eats-together-1336

Discussion Questions:

1. Do you agree with what the article is saying about family dinners?
2. Is this something that is usually practiced in homes in your country?
3. Does your country have very strong familial relationships?

Old Style Parenting

B2 – Upper intermediate

Old style parenting may no longer be appealing and can be equated to neglect. Others feel, however, that it is necessary to let kids wander.

Read the article below then share your opinions. Watch the 2 videos included in the article to get a bigger picture of the topic.

http://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/old-style-parenting-starts-debate-in-us/2679250.html

Discussion Questions:

1. What’s your take on “free-range” parenting?
2. Should the government interfere in a family’s parenting decision?
3. What do you think is the best parenting style?
4. How did your parents raise you as a child?

The Coldest City on Earth

B2 – Upper Intermediate

We sometimes travel to places to be able to experience a different kind of weather. Going to the beach to experience warmth during the winter. Or travelling to somewhere cold to beat the heat of summer.

The article below tells of a city about 450 kilometers south of the Arctic Circle that experiences winter for 8 months with temperatures of up to -50° C.

http://www.english-online.at/news-articles/travel/yakutsk-coldest-place-on-earth.htm

Discussion Questions:

  1. In your own words, tell me something about Yakutsk and how it was founded. How do people live there?
  2. What’s the coldest temperature you have ever experienced?
  3. How do you deal with the cold weather?
  4. Would you be interested in visiting Yakutsk?

*Here’s a site you can go to view pictures of Yakutsk: Yakutska in Russia

Organ Donation Myths

B2 – Upper Intermediate

More than 100,000 patients in the U.S. are waiting for an organ donor. However, there’s just not enough people who are interested in doing this. There’s always the fear of the risks surrounding this procedure.

What do we really need to know about organ donation?

Read the article below that might help clear up some myths about organ donation.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/consumer-health/in-depth/organ-donation/art-20047529?pg=1

Discussion Questions:

1. What was your notion on organ donation before reading this article?
2. What is your opinion about organ donation?
3. Would you consider organ donation?

Runcible: A Circular Smartphone

B2 – Upper Intermediate

We live in a world of quadrilateral architecture and design. Gadgets may have developed curve corners, but they are still predominantly four-sided.

Has living in a world of four-cornered tangibles affected the human thought process? Would developing a circular smartphone be the first step toward rethinking?

Read the article below and express your thoughts.

https://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/12/tech/mci-runcible-smartphone/index.html

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are your thoughts on circular smartphones?
  2. What could be Monohm’s motivation in working on the circular “anti-smartphone” called Runcible?
  3. The article suggests that the shape of an object’s frame impacts its use. Can you think of an everyday object that people would approach differently if it were round instead of rectangular?
  4. The author notes the rise of circular avatars in apps and various interfaces. Does this design choice make any difference at all to gadget users? Why or why not?

Riding a $10,000 Hoverboard

B2 – Upper Intermediate

It’s safe to say that startup companies have been working on creating a hoverboard for the past few years now, bringing in a sense of nostalgia from the film ‘Back to the Future’.

Read the article below to know more about Arx Pax and their hoverboard design.

https://www.engadget.com/2014-10-21-we-rode-a-hoverboard.html

Discussion Questions:

  1. Would you buy or try out a Hendo Hoverboard? Why or why not?
  2. Aside from being another form of transportation, how else do you think the Hendo Hoverboard can be useful?
  3. For what other things could levitation technology be helpful?