Speaking Activity: Success and Failure

B2 – Upper intermediate

Today’s society put too much emphasis and importance on being successful. In turn, failure becomes something that can be considered as personal weakness. How do you view success? How do you view failure?

Answer the following questions below related to success and failures and be ready to practice your speaking skills.

Discuss:

1. Describe a successful person.
2. Is your idea of success the same as other people’s idea of success?
3. Do you think people focus too much on appearing to be successful?
4. Why is money the most common way of judging success?
5. Can money buy happiness?
6. Do you think some parents put too much pressure on their children to be succesful?
7. Have there been any failures that made your life better?
8. Is there a right time to give up and stop trying? Or should you never give up?
9.Can you think of any famous people who failed spectacularly at something?
10. Talk about a time you failed at something you tried. How were you able to cope with it?
11. Can you think of any famous quotes or idioms about success or failure?

Autonomous Vehicles

B1 – Intermediate

What will future cars look like? Can future vehicles prevent road accidents? Will it really be possible for a car to take us from point A to B without controlling it?  Let’s discuss the Autonomous or driver-less cars of the future and find out more about it.

Listen to the podcast carefully and study the featured vocabulary words.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6-minute-english/ep-170105

Discussion Questions:

  1. Will self-driving cars be safer than human-controlled ones? Explain.
  2. Do you think that robot cars can handle life-or-death situations/decisions? Explain.
  3. Would you buy an autonomous car for yourself? Why or why not?
  4. What problems do you see with autonomous vehicles?