Life changes

 August 16

We are going to start our course with an interesting speech Steve Jobs gave at Stanford University in 2005. We are going to speak about how our decisions can change our lives 

1. Look up these words in the monolingual dictionary http://www.macmillandictionary.com/

verbs			nouns
drop out	button up	relent	tuition
drop in	drown out	spend	loss
find out	put out	settle	baton
figure out	come back	look forward look backward	brick
lead off	stumble into	release	commencement
work out	clear out	free (v)	embarrassment
turn out	get fired	trap (v)	subtle
screw up	quit	dawn on (v)	trap (n)
			adjectives
			awful well-worn
			foolish

2. Watch and listen carefully the following video.

If you want to watch the complete video, go to the following link and answer the quiz:


http://www.eslvideo.com/esl_video_quiz_high_intermediate.php?id=2707



3. Please answer the following questions.


BEFORE WATCHING THE VIDEO


1. What is the speaker's name?
a. Bill Gates
b. Steve Jobs
c. Bill Clinton


2. This speech was given to..
a. a group of executives
b. Stanford University graduates
c. visitors to his company


3. Where did he complete his college education?
a. At Stanford University
b. In Europe
c. He did not finish college


4. What was his occupation?
a. Teacher at Stanford University
b. CEO Apple and Pixar Animation
c. Movie director


5. He says his speech is about...
a. the story of his company
b. the story of his life
c. three stories


AFTER WATCHING THE VIDEO

1.      Match the phrasal verbs with their corresponding definitions:                                                         

Phrasal verbs	Definitions
Drop out	To make someone feel so upset or confused that their whole personality is affected, often permanently
Drop-in	To be able to understand something or to solve a problem
Find out	To become involved in something by accident
Figure out	To think about a time or event in the past
Screw up	To leave something such as an activity, school, or competition before you have finished what you intended to do.
Stumble into	To discover a fact or piece of information
Quit	To make a short visit somewhere
Get fired	If something dawns on you, you realize it for the first time
Look back	Informal. To leave a job or school permanently
Dawn on	To make someone leave their job, sometimes as a punishment

First story: Connecting dots


 6. What did his biological mother want for him?
7. Who ended up adopting him?
8. What happened when he started college?

9. Steve Jobs decided to drop out of college, why did he say it was the best decision he has ever made?

10. What did he have to do when he was in college?
11. How did the calligraphy class have an impact in his career?
12. What did he want to say when speaking about connecting points?


Second story: Love and lost


13. How old was he when he started Apple?
14. Why was he fired from his own company?
15. What did he do after being fired from Apple?
16. What did he say about work?


Adapted from http://www.eslvideo.com/quiz_int3.php?id=2707 


1. Time Expressions 

There are many words and expressions to refer to time. You can use these expressions to sequence events and to make stories and anecdotes more interesting. Without them, the meaning may be unclear or different from the intended meaning.

Past 

In the past, people traveled by horse.
Fifty years ago, the air was cleaner.
My mother started working as a nurse in the 60’s.
In those days she lived in London.
Back then doctors were badly paid.

Present

I now live in a small city.
Nowadays I live in a big apartment.
These days, I don't have much time.
Today children are more intelligent.
She has studied for 10 years.

Future

Soon, there will be too many people.
In 20 years, anyone will be able to travel to the moon.
In the future, cars will fly.
Sometime in the future most animals will disappear.

Task: In groups, discuss how the decisions you have made in your life have lead you to the positions you have nowadys.Then prepare a simple oral presentation based on your discussion.

Adapted from Alejandra Jimenez' activities 

Personal opinion 

1. Have you ever made important decisions that have changed your life? which one?

2. How would your life be different if you had never dropped in the university?

3. If you had the chance to study a different language, which language would you study?

4. If you had the opportunity to drop in on different courses, which courses would you drop in?

 

 Vocabulary learning strategies:     

·         Use monolingual dictionary every time you need to know the definition of an unknown Word.

·         Write down the category of the Word (noun, verb, adjective, etc.).

·         After writing down the definition in English, write down an example with the word in context.