Tag: Preliminary PET

Goosebumps with Music, a Sign of Special Brain

B1 – Intermediate

Have you ever listened to a song that sent shivers down your spine?  A research shows that if music gives you the chills or goosebumps, then something in your brain might be unique.

Discover more by reading the article below.

https://www.classicfm.com/music-news/music-gives-goosebumps/

Discussion Questions:

1. What type of music do you like?

2. What is your favorite song? What emotions do you have when you listen to it?

3. What one song makes you emotional? What memory does it remind you of?

4. What gives you goosebumps?

5. How do you deal with your life’s sad moments?

Successful Family Life and Career

B1 – Intermediate

When you are an adult with a family, balance is something hard to find. A balance between your work and family seems impossible to do when you work 40 hours a week not to mention the time you spend on commuting from your house to work and vice versa.

Let’s read the article below and discuss how to have a successful career and a happy family.

Balancing a career and family is a common concern for most individuals. However, it’s important to realize the smallest of changes can produce the strongest of impacts.

I’ve often worked jobs that required evening and weekend hours. The question is: What can we do?

1. Morning Gratitude Moment

When you wake up in the morning, don’t jump out of bed for your workout immediately, or drag yourself to the washroom. Sit up straight, relax, and close your eyes. Say to yourself, “I am grateful for those who support me, believe in me, and are always there for me.” Say this with a deep breath in between each time you say it, and I recommend saying it for a full five minutes. When you open your eyes and look at everything around you—keep that moment of gratitude with you, throughout your day, reminding yourself how you can’t wait to get home to your loving family.

2. Workout Partners

Begin your day by stretching with your family and doing some physical activity together. All you need is 10 minutes. You’ve accomplished a two-for-one: physical activity and family time!

3. Family Playlist

On your shared streaming service, make a playlist of your family’s favorite music. When you take a break at work or feel a negative moment getting the best of you, listen to that music, think about your family, and regain your focus. Music is a powerful voice and has the ability to affect our mindset. Your family playlist will energize you and improve your mood.

4. Daily Phone Call

At least once a day, call or text your significant other or your kids and repeat Stevie Wonder: “I just called to say I love you, I just called to say how much I care.” Let your family know they are always in your thoughts. Even in the face of a big deadline or an important meeting, that moment will relax you and make your family smile.

5. Clarify Your Work Hours & Expectations

Discuss with your boss his/her expectations of you in regards to your time and your position to foster a mutual and clear understanding of your role. Should your role involve evening/weekend hours, and tasks such as answering emails, working from home, or extra time needed for special projects, establish a strategy and discuss with your boss how to meet these expectations so you don’t feel overwhelmed and pulled between your family and your job. If you are a new parent, have family members who require special needs, or have personal circumstances which require attention, bring these up as necessary, so if you have to leave early, there is an understanding of why this is the case.

6. Socializing At Work

It’s common for colleagues to hang out after work. Say yes when your significant other and/or kids are also busy. This will balance things out more. There are times to have beers with colleagues, but there are also times to go home, relax, watch a movie, and simply have fun with your family.

7. Buffer Moment

We all deal with a lot at work and at times might get irritated or annoyed. Remember you are a human being, not a robot, and thus it’s acceptable to have a buffer moment for these feelings. Take a deep breath, zone into your happy place that involves your family, think about how your energy can be used towards something else, and move on.

8. Yoda Philosophy

As Yoda puts it, “Do or do not, there is no try.” Don’t try to leave at 6:00 p.m. or 5:30 p.m.; just do it. Allocate the last half-hour of your day to do the following and leave at 5:30/6:00 p.m.:

  • For two minutes, take deep breaths, in and out, looking away from your desk, feeling the moment of gratitude you felt in the morning. Turn back to focus on leaving to see your family at home.
  • Organize your emails based on what is to be reviewed, what requires follow-up, and what needs a response after your breakfast/snack/meal. Your emails are emails, not a to-do list.
  • Write out your to-do list, priorities, goals, and key items for the next day.
  • Double-check that you have a water bottle and healthy desk snacks.
  • Organize your desk so that your to-do list is in front of you, papers for review are next to your list, and keep a pen ready with blank paper to jot down extra notes. Don’t always rely on your computer; rely on yourself and your mind.

9. Phone And TV-Free Dinner

At the dinner table, leave your phone and turn off the TV. Focus on your family, not on work, and use this as a time to bring all your energy, your aura, and your being in the moment with the people who support and believe in what you do, and love you for the ability to do what you do.

10. Your Work Journal

Keep a two-week work diary: try to track every fifteen minutes of your work time. After that, analyze for, and attack, any inefficiencies! This will import balance in your day and yield a well-deserved coffee break, a breath of fresh air, and time to make your daily family phone call!

Does email control you and take you away from your priority list, and thus your work-life balance? Organizational skills are an important factor in how you balance your day, affecting your work-life balance. Get organized and get happy! You’ll find that work-life balance sooner than you think

Discussion Questions:

  1. In your opinion, out of the 10, which tip is the most important?
  2. What are your personal ways to ensure a successful career and family life?
  3. What activities do you enjoy doing with your family?

Organ Donation and Transplant

B1 – Intermediate

It is kind of unnerving that the moment you get your driver’s license, you will be asked whether or not you are willing to become an organ donor. It would seem like they are expecting for a fatal accident to happen and only your organs will be saved. If you look at it from a different perspective, however, it is one way that you will be able to do your share in saving lives. Even in death, you will be able to do something heroic. But organ donation is a tricky subject and an equally tricky process that may come with side effects, which is why it remains a hot subject for debate.

Read the article and be able to answer the questions below.

https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/organ-transplant-donor-information

Discussion Questions:

  1. What do you think about organ donation?
  2. Should everyone be considered organ donors unless they ‘opt-out’? Explain your thoughts.
  3. Would you consider donating your organs in case of an untimely death? Why or why not?
  4. Would you allow your organs or tissue to be used for research purposes? Why or why not?
  5. Would you donate your body to medical science? Why or why not?

Interesting Facts about Spanish Culture

B1 – Intermediate

Spain has a lot to offer any sort of traveler. Spanish culture is just as fascinating as the nation’s coastlines and museums, and probably much more nuanced! Even if you spent years in Spain you most likely wouldn’t be able to uncover every aspect of the country’s vibrant traditions, but that doesn’t mean you won’t try, right?

Let’s check a few interesting facts about Spain and the Spanish way of life.

https://www.languagetrainers.co.uk/blog/2017/06/21/6-interesting-facts-about-spanish-culture/

 

Discussion Questions:

1. What do you think is interesting about your culture?

2. What don’t you like about your culture?

3. When people from other countries think about your culture, what do they usually think of?

Idioms and Their Origin

B1 – Lower Intermediate

Image result for cat got your tongue idiom

 

An idiom is a word or phrase which means something different from its literal meaning. When used correctly, it can amplify messages in a way that draws readers and listeners in and helps awaken their senses.

Let us get to find out some of the most used idioms and their crazy origins.

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/popular-idioms-with-crazy-origins

Discussion questions:

1. Tell some real-life situations when you have used or experienced these idioms.

2. Are you good at using idioms when speaking? How do you feel about people who are good at using idioms in a conversation?

3. Give an example of a Spanish idiom and explain its meaning and origin.

4. When is it necessary to use idioms? When is it not?

 

Sugar Baby University

B1 – Intermediate

In the US, there is a growing number of men and woman who have found alternative ways of getting through to college/university. They are turning to dating websites looking for wealthy older men (or women) who want to pay for their college fees.

Read the article below about sugar daddies paying for their sugar babies’ tuition and be ready to answer the questions that follow.

http://www.businessinsider.com/seeking-arrangement-sugar-daddies-pay-sugar-babies-college-tuition-2017-11

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are your thoughts on websites such as “seekingarrangement.com”?
  2. Do you hear this kind of arrangement being sought and made by young people in your country?
  3. Share your thoughts on this statement, “Some of [the sugar daddies] have that ‘white knight’ scenario where they really want to be helping somebody and saving them from their debt.”?
  4. In your country, how expensive is it to get through college?
  5. What are alternative ways to finish your college education if you can’t afford it?

Strange Laws Around the World

B1 – Intermediate

When you’re travelling around the world, it’s not always a bad idea to do your research on local laws and traditions. Not only could this keep you out of trouble, but it can also help you get the most out of your trip. However, there are some strange laws in some countries that will surely make you scratch your head.

Here are 14 strange laws to keep in mind next time you book a trip.

https://www.businessinsider.com/14-strange-laws-from-around-the-world-2016-7

Discussion Questions:

  1. Which among the laws mentioned do you find most absurd?
  2. Does your country have any strange laws as well?
  3. If you could add or remove a law in your country, what would it be?

Digital Cloning

B1 – Intermediate

Cloning has long been a subject of debate since the year dot. Supporters of cloning claim that it is the answer to preventing endangered species from disappearing as well as allowing human beings to live healthier lives. But just recently, another form of cloning has come to rise – digital cloning, wherein a copy of your “self” will be created online.

Read this blog about digital heaven.

Digital Heaven

If you had the opportunity to live forever, would you take it? The obstacles to keeping your body alive indefinitely still seem insurmountable, but some scientists think there is another possibility opened up by digital technology: creating a digital copy of your “self” and keeping that “alive” online long after your physical body has ceased to function.

In effect, the proposal is to clone a person electronically. Unlike the familiar physical clones – offspring that have identical features as their parents, but that are completely separate organisms with a separate conscious life – your electronic clone would believe itself to be you. How might this be possible? The first step would be to map the brain.

How? One plan relies on the development of nanotechnology. Ray Kurzweil – one of the prophets of artificial intelligence – predicts that within two or three decades we will have nanotransmitters that can be injected into the bloodstream. In the capillaries of the brain they would line up alongside the neurons and detect the details of the cerebral electronic activity. They would be able to transmit that information to a receiver inside a special helmet or cap, so there would be no need for any wires protruding from the scalp.

As a further step, Ray Kurzweil also envisages the nanotransmitters being able to connect you to a world of virtual reality on the internet, similar to what was depicted in the film ‘Matrix’. With the nanotransmitters in place, by thought alone, you could log on to the internet and instead of the pictures coming up on your screen they would play inside your mind. Rather than send your friends e-mails you would agree to meet up on some virtual tropical beach.

For Ray this would be, quite literally, heaven. Once you upload the brain onto the internet and log on to that virtual world the body can be left to rot while your virtual self carries on playing Counter Strike for ever.

Generations of Christians believed in Christ partly because his resurrection held out the promise that we too might be able to enjoy life after death. But why wait for the Second Coming when you can have a shot of nanobots and upload your brain onto the internet and live on as an immortal virtual surfer?

Who needs faith when you’ve got broadband?

(One snag: to exist on the net you will have to have your neural network parked on the computer of a web-hosting company. These companies want real money in real bank accounts every year or they will wipe your bit of the hard disc and sell the space to someone else. With your body six feet underground how will you pay? Here the anology with heaven really breaks down. God keeps heaven going for free, but the web is something you have to pay for.)

Vocabulary Questions:

  1. What does “cease” mean, “Creating a digital copy of your “self” and keeping that “alive” online long after your physical body has ceased to function.”? Use it in a sentence.
  2. What does “insurmountable” mean, “The obstacles to keeping your body alive indefinitely still seem insurmountable.”? Use this word in a sentence.
  3. What does “virtual” mean, “Rather than send your friends e-mails you would agree to meet up on some virtual tropical beach.”? Use it in a sentence.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What do you think about ‘digital cloning’?
  2. Would you like to be cloned and/or digitally cloned? Why/why not?
  3. With this technological advancement, how do you see the future of humanity?
  4. What can you say about the the last statement-question ‘Who needs faith when you’ve got broadband’?

Fad Diets

B1 – Intermediate

People go on special diets for different reasons. Some take it way too far though.

Fad diet, also known as diet cult, promises weight loss or other health benefits such as longer life without any scientific basis, and is often characterized by highly restrictive or unusual food choices.

Get more information about different examples of fad diets and some issues associated with them here:

https://www.medishare.com/blog/7-ways-to-lose-weight-no-fad-diets

Discussion Questions:

1. Talk about your regular diet.

2. Have you ever been on a diet?

3. In your opinion, how important is exercising as part of a diet?

4. Is it important to track one’s weight? Why or why not?

5. Are dietary habits in your country changing?

6. Why are people so worried about the way their body looks?

Can a Computer Teach Children to Read and Write?

B1 – Intermediate

Global XPrize aims to help the poorest children of the world to learn how to read and write by developing a user-friendly app.  They will test the winning app with thousands of children in Africa by using a tablet to learn.

Let us know your opinion after reading the full article and watching the video.

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/can-a-computer-teach-children-to-read-and-write/4055194.html

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are your thoughts on the Global XPrize competition?
  2. Do you think that children will be able to teach themselves basic educational skills with only a tablet? Why or why not?
  3. Is the U.N.’s goal to provide “universal primary and secondary education by 2030” realistic? Why or why not?
  4. Do you think that computers will play a major role in education in the near future? Why or why not?
  5. Would you say that teachers are an essential part of the education system? Why or why not?