Everything is Connected

Enseñanzas Oficiales de Idiomas

English Level C1
Lesson 2

The Routes of English: Everything is Connected

Social Media (n. pl.) /´səʊʃəl ´mi:di:ə/

The social media are the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-
sharing and collaboration. Websites and applications dedicated to forums, microblogging, social networking, social bookmarking,
social curation, and wikis are among the different types of social media.

Image by daniel Iversen in Flickr under CC.

What social media do you use? How often? Do you have a favourite? Why? What characteristics make it better or more useful than
others?
Is there a particular app or media that you never use? Why?

Cloze Activity

You are going to listen to 6 people explaining why they use social media. Listen and choose the correct
answer.
1
 1
2
3
4
5
6

Which person:

used it for a personal matter?

did it because of peer pressure?
uses it for work?
had a dream come true?
regrets using the social media?
is optimistic about their possibilities?
finds their lives relatively unchanged?
has become addicted?

is related to learning?
Image by A JWatson with pixton.com.

Submit

Cloze Activity

Match the phrase with the correct picture. Then answer the questions.
Did you log in to this website?
 Did you scroll down or up to get to these questions?
Do you know how to change the settings on your smartphone/tablet/computer?
Do you still have a landline at home?
Do you use wifi, broadband or data allowance at home?

1 3

2
4
Image by roland tanglao in Image by J. S. Barber in Flickr
Image by A JWatson. Image by A JWatson.
Flickr under CC. under CC.

Submit

1. Shoot me
Do you take a lot of photos when you're on holiday or do you find it a pain ? Are you a good photographer? Would you pay extra to
have someone take your photos for you? What do you do with them afterwards - share them on social media (Flickr, Instagram,
etc.) or just keep them to yourself? Do you enjoy looking at other people's holiday snaps?

Image by A JWatson with wix.com from image by jill111 in pixabay under CC.

Multi-choice

You are going to hear a radio programme about new trends in photography and travel. Listen and
choose the best answer.
1. According to Sigurd, Instagram __________.
 1. According to Sigurd, Instagram __________.

a) has single-handedly boosted tourism in Iceland.

b) has been a factor in promoting the tourist industry in Iceland.
c) has 300,000 accounts all about Iceland alone.
2. Sigurd says that, as a result of Iceland’s experience, __________.
a) more and more tourist authorities are uploading their own photographs onto the social media.
b) travel companies and advertisers are thinking about following Iceland’s lead.
c) popular Instagrammers are being sent out to take photos of other places.
3. In Tom’s opinion, travel photography __________.
a) inspires people to document their every waking moment.
b) makes others want to travel.
c) is more popular because of improved but cheaper technical knowhow.
4. According to Tom, the good travel Instagrammer should __________.

a) be as informative as possible about the details of the photograph.

b) be brief so as not to reveal too much about the whereabouts.
c) upload their work onto blogs as documented travel-diaries.
5. Dave’s company ShootMyTrip __________.

a) takes advantage of local knowhow.

b) sends one of company photographers on holiday with its clients to ensure they get the best
technical shots.
c) is for people who want to upload their shots on the social media.
6. Dave says his company __________.

a) is similar to having a photographer with you at other society activities.

b) caters for those who love looking great.
c) is becoming popular little by little.

Activity

Describing a picture
When describing a picture, it's important to use the correct language:
When describing a picture, it's important to use the correct language:

Image by moyan brenn in Flickr under CC.

It's a picture of... Not: We can see

I can just make out.../can't quite make out (when the detail is not clear)
Speculating about the topic/provenance: It looks like/as if....... It could/might be in ...... because ....
Remember that at C1 level it is not only about describing what is there, but also what happened before
and what may happen afterwards.

Cloze Activity

You are going to hear Sigurd describe 5 of the pictures below. Before you start, describe the pictures
to yourself (this will help you with the vocabulary so that you are better able to detect it).
Now listen and write the letter of each picture.
 Now listen and write the letter of each picture.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

A B C

F
D E

G H I
A ll images by moyan brenn in Flickr under CC.

Submit

1.1. LOL

Reading Activity

Phubbing
How do you feel when people you are in a conversation with start using their smartphones to text
other people, send messages etc.? Do you do it yourself? Do you consider it a problem?
 other people, send messages etc.? Do you do it yourself? Do you consider it a problem?

Image by Roberto Sanchez in Flickr

under CC.

1. According to the presenter, what is phubbing?

2. What is the point of the anecdote the expert shares at the beginning?
3. What does the presenter mean when he talks about nannying?
4. What are some girls doing in social settings with their phones?
5. Why is it “horrific” to be using your phone when a child is present?
6. What idea does the expert recommend as a way of controlling people's phone use without offending them
when at a social event?
7. If you are expecting an important call, how should you react at a social gathering?

Show Feedback

A new word is invented every 2 hours in English and nowadays most of them are related to new technologies. Before doing the
next listening, look at these ways of coining (=inventing) new words in English:
blending: a combination of two words to make a new one, such as brunch from breakfast and lunch, sexting from sex and
texting or blog, from web log.
clipping: cutting parts of a word such as app (from application).
acronyms: taking the initial letters of words and pronouncing them as a new word, like NATO or DINKY (Dual Income, No Kids Yet)
alphabetisation: this takes the initial letters of words and pronounces them as letters, e.g. BBC and CD.
compounding: this combines two words to make a new one, e.g. photo bomb (from photo and bomb) = to appear without
permission in someone else's photograph, especially a selfie.

Cloze Activity

Listen to an interview with an expert about the origins and meaning of some of the new words.
Complete the gaps.
Hashtag was originally a symbol in the that indicated
weight in .
The expression trolling originally referred to a way of catching
. As a noun it coincides with the monster from
literature.
Avatar comes from the ancient language of and referred
to the idea of a coming to earth. It first made its
appearance in the English language in the century. Its
present meaning comes from a novel published in .
Richard Dawkins, the writer and scientist, wanted the word meme
to sound like .
Geek is from and referred to someone doing weird
things in a . The present meaning comes from a
science fiction novel.
Acronyms are useful because we want to write messages
or because of the character on Twitter.
The meaning of LOL confused the British
.
An expression like YOLO is used on social media after uploading
photos of an exciting activity like or Image by A JWatson with pixton.com.
snowboarding.
GTG stands for .

Image by A JWatson with pixton.com. Image by MathKnight in wikipedia under CC.

Submit

Do you remember that in the Student's Guide we gave you varying degrees of formality?
Obviously, texting is in the realm of the extremely informal and even slangy.

DropDown Activity

Look at the messages. Can you decipher them? The first one is done for you.

Abbreviation What it means

 ASAP As Soon As Possible
ATM
B4
CUIMD
F2F
GAL
HAND
J4F
MYOB
SOL

Check Show Feedback

2. A friend in need

Activity

A text should be coherent and cohesive, so that the reader can follow it easily. For this, the writer uses
connectors (conjunctions, adverbs) and reference (this, that, etc.). Learning to recognise how a text
fits together will help you write better.

Multi-select

Choose all the correct options to complete the sentence.

1. At first I wasn't sure how to do it, __________.

a) so then I got better

b) but then I got better
c) and I got better

Show Feedback

2. _____________ her being a good friend, John still refused to help.

a) Despite
b) Even though
c) While
d) In spite of

Show Feedback

Cloze Activity

Read the following text and choose the correct paragraphs for the gaps. There are two paragraphs you
do not need.
 Robin Dunbar came up with his number almost by chance. The University of
Oxford anthropologist was investigating the problem of why primates devote so
much time and effort to grooming. While pondering the solution, he came upon a
potentially far more intriguing application for his research. At the time, the Social
Brain Hypothesis had just been introduced into primate research. It held that
primates have big brains because they live in socially complex societies: the bigger
the group, the bigger the brain. Thus, from the size of an animal’s neocortex, you
could in theory predict the group size for that animal.

Image by stefaenrolofs
in Pixabay under Public Domain. The Dunbar number is actually a series
of them. The best known, 150, is what
we call casual friends—the people, say,
you’d invite to your 50th birthday party. (Actually, it’s a range: 100 at
the lower end and 200 for the more social of us.) Dunbar discovered
that these numbers then decrease roughly by a rule of three. The
next step down, 50, is the number of people we call close friends—
perhaps the people you’d invite to a group dinner. You see them Image by Michael Mandlberg
often, but not so much that you consider them to be true intimates. in Flickr under CC.
Finally, there’s the circle of 15: the friends that you can turn to for
sympathy when you need it, the ones you can confide in. The most
intimate Dunbar number, five, is your close support group. These are your best friends (and often family
members). While the group sizes are relatively stable, their composition can be fluid. Your five today may not be
your five next week; people drift among layers and sometimes fall out of them altogether.

There’s no question, Dunbar agrees, that networks like Facebook are changing the nature of human
interaction. “What Facebook does and why it’s been so successful in so many ways is it allows you to keep
track of people who would otherwise effectively disappear,” he said. But one of the things that keeps face-to-
face friendships strong is the nature of shared experience: you laugh together; you dance together; you sing
karaoke together. We do have a social-media equivalent— liking, sharing, knowing that all of your friends have
seen the same surfboarding dog on YouTube as you did—but it lacks the synchronicity of shared experience.
It’s like a comedy that you watch by yourself: you don’t laugh as loudly or as often, even if you’re fully aware
that all your friends think it’s hysterical. We’ve seen the same movie, but we can’t bond over it in the same
way.”

A With social media, we can easily keep up to date with the lives and interests of far more than a hundred
and fifty people. But without investing in face-to-face time, we lack deeper connections to them, and the
time we invest in superficial relationships comes at the expense of more profound ones. We may widen our
network to two, three, or four hundred people that we see as friends, not just acquaintances, but keeping up
an actual friendship requires working on it. “The amount of social capital you have is fixed,” Dunbar said. “It
involves time investment. The more connections you have, the thinner your average social capital is
distributed among them” In other words, time spent clicking on “like” and commenting with an ever-widening
network means less time and capacity left for our closer groups. The truth is, no one really knows how
relevant the Dunbar number will remain in a world increasingly dominated by virtual interactions. “It’s quite
conceivable that we might end up less social in the future, which would be a disaster because we need to be
more social—our world has become so large” Dunbar said. "The more our virtual friends replace our face-to-
face ones, in fact, the more our Dunbar number may shrink.”
B Looking at his data, Dunbar made the mental leap to humans. Dunbar did the calculations, using a ratio of
neocortical volume to total brain volume and average group size, and came up with a number. Judging from the
size of a typical human brain, the number of people the average person could have in a social group was 150.
Anything beyond that would be too complicated to handle at optimal processing levels. For the last twenty-
two years, Dunbar has been exploring what that number actually means—and whether our ever-expanding
social networks have done anything to change it.
C When Dunbar consulted the anthropological and historical record, he found remarkable consistency in
support of his structure. The average group size among modern hunter-gatherer societies (where there was
accurate census data) was 148.4 individuals. Company size in professional armies, Dunbar found,
was also remarkably close to a hundred and fifty, from the Roman Empire to sixteenth-century Spain to the
twentieth-century Soviet Union. Companies, in turn, tended to be broken down into smaller units of around
fifty then further divided into sections of between ten and fifteen. At the opposite end, the companies formed
battalions that ranged from five hundred and fifty to eight hundred, and even larger regiments.
D As constant use of social media has become the new normal, however, people have started challenging
the continued relevance of Dunbar’s number: isn’t it easier to have more friends when we have Facebook,
Twitter, and Instagram to help us to cultivate and maintain them? Some, like the University of California,
Berkeley, Professor Morten Hansen, have pointed out that social media has facilitated more effective
collaborations. Our real-world friends tend to know the same people that we do, but, in the online world, we
can expand our networks strategically, leading to better business outcomes. Yet, when researchers tried to
determine whether virtual networks increase our strong ties as well as our weak ones, they found that, for
now, the essential Dunbar number, a hundred and fifty, has remained constant. When researcher Nicole Ellison
surveyed a random sample of undergraduates about their Facebook use, she discovered that, while that their
median number of Facebook friends was 300, they only counted an average of 75 as actual friends.
E In a series of studies, Dunbar and his colleagues demonstrated that very light touch triggers a cascade of
endorphins that, in turn, are important for creating personal relationships. Because measuring endorphin
release directly is invasive—you either need to perform a spinal tap or a PET scan, and the latter, though
considered safe, involves injecting a person with a radioactive tracer—they first looked at endorphin release
indirectly. In one study, they examined pain thresholds: how long a person could keep her hand in a bucket of
ice water (in a lab), or how long she could maintain a sitting position with no chair present (back against the
wall, legs bent at a ninety degree angle) in the field. When your body is flooded with endorphins, you’re able
to withstand pain for longer than you could before, so pain tolerance is often used as a proxy for endorphin
levels. The longer you can stand the pain, the more endorphins have been released into your system.
 levels. The longer you can stand the pain, the more endorphins have been released into your system.
Adapted from: Konnikova, M. (2014, October 07). The Limits of Friendship - The New Yorker. Retrieved March 10, 2016, from
http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/social-media-affect-math-dunbar-number-friendships

Submit

Consider the questions below. You might want to share your views with your partners.
On average, how often do you see your friends?
Do you often find it hard to keep in touch with some of them?
Do you think it’s necessary to have a lot in common with friends?
Are friends on social media really friends?
On the whole, do you think you do more for them than they do for you?
The saying goes "A friend in need is a friend indeed". What do you think it means? Do you
agree?

Image by gosheshe in Flickr under CC.

2.1. Unplugged
Facebook is where you lie to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth
to strangers.
Anon.

Multi-choice

Girl Unplugged
You are going to read a text about a girl who says she is not a typical "screenager" (from screen and
teenager). What do you think she is going to talk about? Read and check then answer the questions
below.

The physiotherapist digs her thumbs into my shoulder. "So when you're sitting on the computer at home on
Twitter or Facebook, you can do these neck exercises." Like many adults, this physio has immediately
assumed that because I'm a "teenager", I obviously spend all of my time in a dark room bent over a phone
or i-pad screen.
Just like teens in movies, I tend also to be grumpy and messy and moody and rebellious, desperately
infatuated with social media, and give my "totally loser" parents massive eye-rolls. (I am pretty good at
eye-rolls, actually, but I tend to use it only sarcastically).
The truth is, I'm 15 years old - but I'm not really a "teenager".
I don't have Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat. In fact, the only form of social media that I have is
Edmodo - a kind of "educational Facebook" where you can receive school assignments and feedback. And
even this I can't use because I somehow managed to translate the whole site into Spanish. If my phone
buzzes, it will be my mum saying, "No, you can walk home!" and the majority of my messages come from
weird call-centre promotions.
In fact, my dad is much more inclined towards social media. He keeps going off on his "Instagram trips" - a
walk or drive (often during dramatic weather) armed with his trusty iPhone and a wide variety of Instagram
filters. He comes back laden with pictures of expressive trees, stormy clouds and the odd misty puddle. For
Dad, everyday life presents many Instagram opportunities - along the lines of "Keira! Keep still and let the
spider crawl over you so I can take a photo."
I guess there are plenty of reasons why social media is great - keeping in touch with old friends, messaging
people, organising things and providing a brilliant opportunity to share millions of horribly unnecessary
photos.
I'm not avoiding it to be cool. I'm not making a stand against conformity or trying to be different and
fashionable. I don't have any social media because... I just don't want it.
Not having Facebook or Instagram doesn't have a huge impact on my social life. It does mean, however,
that my friends really are just that - friends. I don't interact with anyone unless I'm comfortable with
inviting them over for a swim or going out to the movies.
Occasionally, I do miss out on something. Our school drama class is organised on Facebook - so all the
 Occasionally, I do miss out on something. Our school drama class is organised on Facebook - so all the
assignments, notes and reminders about our productions are put up there. My friends are pretty good at
letting me know if there's something important (and some less important things: "OMG, you have to see this
cat meme"), but every now and then I'll come to class in school uniform while everyone else is dressed as a
'50s housewife/ghost/robber for a performance.
My friends are always saying, "Oh, if only you had Facebook!", because there is a generous supply of
terrible pictures of me on my friends' phones. These are of the sort where they're taking a photo and you
jump in the way and pull a face, resulting in a beautiful portrait of the insides of your upturned nostrils and
a bit of half-chewed food on its way down your throat. Apparently, these horrible pictures are a waste
unless they can be posted on Facebook on the victim's birthday for all to see. Come on, what is the point
of #selfies unless it is to block up someone else's phone memory?
One terribly sad side effect of social media is the replacement of the phone call. Birthday mornings used to
be busy with calls from family and friends and strange aunts you never even knew existed. Now on my
birthdays, I only get called by my grandparents - and although listening to my grandpa singing Happy
Birthday can be somewhat awkward, it sure is nicer than getting 10 "hve a gr8 bday" messages from some
distant friends who only sent it because Facebook reminded them to.
Not having social media also means I missed out on the whole "acronym" thing. I am still amazed at why
people would say "btw" - or "bee-tee-duh-bell-you" - instead of the simple, three-syllable "by the way".
And when you type things like "LOL" and "haha" - are you actually laughing? (If you were to actually type a
human laugh, it would be more of a "hmphaa hnphaff hpfhnaaa" than a "haha" anyway.)
Probably the best thing about not being a "screenager" is that I don't have an online persona to keep up. I
don't have to worry about which photo is pretty or cool or beachy enough for my profile picture. I don't
have to build up a social media identity and show the things I want other people to see in me. I can be
whoever I want to be without worrying about how many "likes" that photo gets.
And perhaps that's the reason I don't have social media. Simply put, I don't want to have that pressure to
be fake.
So maybe next time I'm at the physio I'll correct her. I’ll explain that no, my neck problems aren't from
hunching over Facebook or Instagram. And I'm not a "teenager" either. I'm 15 years old and a perfectly
capable human being.
A dapted from:
Baker, K. (2015, July 02). Girl unplugged: Why I don't use social media. Retrieved March 10, 2016, from
http://www.essentialkids.com.au/life/technology/girl-unplugged-why-i-dont-use-social-media-20150702-gi3o4m

1. The author __________.

a) admits to following stereotypical teenage behaviour with her mum and
dad.
b) is digitally proficient although she doesn’t use social media.
c) resents the assumption that she is stereotypical.
2. The author mentions her father’s “Instagram trips” __________.
a) as an example of how people can waste time on the social media.
b) to express her annoyance at him.
c) to complain about being forced to pose for him.
3. Because she isn’t on Facebook, the author __________.
Image by spino73 in
a) has nowhere to store embarrassing pictures of herself.
Flickr under CC.
b) needs her family and friends to tell her what is happening in the real
world.
c) occasionally does the wrong thing.
4. With regard to the traditional phone call, the author __________.
a) regrets the passing of old customs.
b) suggests returning to the old ways.
c) feels embarrassed at receiving Facebook messages on her birthday.
5. The author’s purpose in the article is __________.

a) to criticise the social media.

b) to affirm her individualism.
c) to make us laugh.
Talking about routines and habits in the present
To talk about these we can use:
1. Present simple: adverbs are not necessary in general as the tense itself indicates its recurrent state:on my birthdays, I
only get called by my grandparents
2. We can use present continuous + forever/always to indicate a surprising recurrence, especially if it’s annoying for the
speaker:My friends are always saying
3. We can use will+ infinitive,usually with a frequency adverb, to indicate a repeated preference:every now and then I'll
come to class in school uniform
4. We can use expressions like:
a) tend to + infinitive: I tend to use it only sarcastically; I tend also to be grumpy and messy.Note that the
negative is tend not to: I tend not to work at the weekend; or
b) keep _ing to indicate repeated or continuous actions: He keeps going off on his "Instagram trips"

2.2. (Mr) Right!

What advantages can you see to using online dating compared to more traditional ways (introductions from friends, at
work, etc.)? What about the disadvantages?

Cloze Activity

Read the paragraph below and fill in the missing words. In this exercise the missing words are function
(grammatical) words or collocations.
Finding Mr (or Ms) Right
More a third of recent marriages in the USA started online, according a study out Monday
that presents more evidence of just how much technology taken hold of our lives.
"Societally, we are going to increasingly meet more of our romantic partners online as we establish more of an
online presence in terms of social media," says lead author John Cacioppo, "I really think mobile dating is
going to be the main driver of this growth."
The research, based on a survey of more than 19,000 individuals who married 2005 and 2012,
also found relationships that began online are slightly happier and likely to split than those that
started offline.
The findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, put the percentage of
married couples that now meet online almost 35% -- gives what may be the first broad look
at the overall percentage of new marriages that result from meeting online. About 45% of couples met on
dating sites; the rest met on online social networks, chat rooms, instant messaging or other online forums.
The study is in a prestigious scientific journal but it is not without controversy as it was commissioned
the dating website eHarmony. "It's a very impressive study," says social psychologist Eli Finkel of
Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. "But it was paid by somebody with a horse in the race and
conducted by an organization that might have an incentive to tell this story.
" this study suggest that meeting online is a compelling way to meet a partner who is a good
marriage prospect for you? The answer is 'absolutely,'" he says. But it's "premature to conclude that online
dating is than offline dating."
The findings about greater happiness in online couples "are tiny effects," says Finkel, research
published last year found "no compelling evidence" support dating website claims that their algorithms
work better than other ways of pairing romantic partners.

Image by Brett Jordan in Flickr under CC.

A dapted from:
Jayson, S. (2013, June 03). Study: More than a third of new marriages start online. Retrieved March 23, 2016, from
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/03/online-dating-marriage/2377961/

Submit

Activity

Social Media are excellent places to find material for further

study, whether they are blogs, websites or particular language
 study, whether they are blogs, websites or particular language
swap sites like italki and busuu.
Here's an excellent site on Pinterest.

It’s important to get the rules of punctuation correct, especially as they are not necessarily the same in Spanish.
Colons are used in several different ways in writing​.
Introducing Lists
Colons are most commonly used after a statement to introduce a list. For example:
list
only a few states have nuclear weapons:the USA, Russia, the UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel.
To give emphasis, we can introduce just a single item with a colon:
Guess what he was wearing: nothing!
To introduce quotations:
As Bertrand Russell said: “Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.”
(Note though that we can also use a comma before a quotation).

Colons can also be used to explain a previous statement:

Statement: explanation
I’m cold: the heating is broken.
Giving examples:
Finally, colons are used to give examples (as demonstrated above).

Images by design bolts in Wikipedia and by A rvin61r58 in O penclipart under Public Domain.

Punctuation saves lives!

Image by sabertasche2 in Flickr
under CC.

True-False Question

Decide if these sentences are correctly punctuated.

1. John and I believe in one thing, and one thing alone,
independence
 independence
True False
2. The reason why we were stopped was as follows, we didn't have
our lights on; we didn't stop at the traffic light; and John was
driving all over the place
True False
3. His company was a roaring success: the expansion plan had
worked! Image by A lberto in wikimedia under CC.

True False
4. Dear John:
Thank you so much for your letter.....
True False
5. For the party, we are going to need the following: chairs: music: food:decorations: and permission.
True False

3. NetWORKing

Cloze Activity
 Image by Dean Meyers in Flickr under CC.

Match words from each column to complete the spaces below:

A B
internal covering maternity working maternity hunter resources plans satisfaction form
career head human application job promotion conditions letter leave(x2)

THE OLD WAY

If you want to get a job, then one of the best places to look is the classifieds in the papers. If you see
something appealing, then you should apply either on the (if there is one)
or enclosing a with your CV (in the US, resumé). If the
manager is interested, you could be called for a first interview.
At the interview you will be asked questions about your career plans (i.e. why you want to work there) and
you will want to find out about the : the salary, of course, but also how
many days a year you have as , or if you are planning on having
children, the etc.
If you are already in employment, you might be interested in (as you
are already working there, it should be easier). And maybe you will get a phone call from a
asking you to join another company.

Submit
If you were looking for a job, which would be the best way to find it?
i) word of mouth
ii) social networks
iii) job centre
iv) other

Image by A JWatson with pixton.com.

Cloze Activity
 Synonyms or not?
For each number, mark the words with Y (for Yes) or N (for No) depending on whether they have the
same meaning as the original. Formality may be relevant here.

A BRAVE NEW WORLD OF WORK

The economic crisis has meant that fewer people resign (1) than before as they are worried about being out
of work (2). Of course, the crisis also meant that many were laid off (3) so there is far more competition for
new jobs, with employers (4) requiring more and more qualifications(5). If you work for one of the big techie
companies like Google or Facebook, there may be additional perks (6) such as longer holiday allowance or as
many breaks as are necessary to get the creative juices flowing! Such well-paid jobs are also demanding (7).
If you stick with it, there’s every chance of getting promoted (8).
Technology and the internet have changed every aspect of our lives of course, including the way employers
hire (9) people. Equally, many applicants nowadays are beginning to use new technologies, especially the
social media.
Part of the genius of LinkedIn is its foundation in the basic principles of networking. With it you can connect
with colleagues (10)or share your interests in affinity groups.

1. quit leave their job drop out

2. off work unemployed
3 sacked made redundant

4 bosses chiefs

Image by texty cafe in Flickr

under Public Domain.

5 titles skills careers

6 benefits compensation
7 challenging motivating rewarding
8 a raise getting a rise
9 recruit take on employ
10 acquaintances co-workers

Submit

Multi-choice

You are going to hear a radio programme in which a social media expert gives advice on how to use
the social media to find work. Listen and choose the best answer.
1. According to the expert, for people just starting a career __________.
 1. According to the expert, for people just starting a career __________.

a) it’s important to have a wide range of interests.

b) it’s useful to use social media for research.
c) it’s important to choose a career you like and are interested
in.
2. When the expert was at university, __________.
a) he missed having people with related interests around.
b) he had a clear idea of his future profession.
c) it was easy to get advice about his future career.
3. Networking with people via social media __________.
a) is a poor second best to meeting them face-to-face.
b) avoids the potential problem of invasiveness. Image by jurgen appelo in Flickr under CC.

c) allows you to make more friends.

4. Having a good profile on social media, __________.
a) allows employers to find prospective candidates without advertising.
b) gives employers a better overall view of the candidates.
c) means it’s not necessary to write a CV any more.
5. In the expert’s opinion, Twitter __________.
a) should be used to put as much information about you online as possible.
b) can be used for sharing with other people.
c) is an excellent source of information about companies and people.
6. When asked about whether it is a good idea to avoid posting potentially embarrassing photos on your profile
page, the expert __________.
a) points out that everyone gets drunk at parties so it’s no big problem.
b) recommends differentiating what is posted on different sites.
c) says that different company brands are interested in people with different experiences

Preknowledge

Brave New World

Brave New World is a novel of ideas written in 1932 by Aldous Huxley. It is set in a dystopian world, London in
AD 2540. The book, unlike so many futuristic novels, successfully predicts developments in psychological
manipulation, reproductive technology and classical conditioning that combine to change society. Whereas
earlier novels by H.G. Wells had been optimistic about the future, Huxley used
the setting and characters in his science fiction novel to express
widely held opinions, particularly the fear of losing individual identity in
the fast-paced world of the future. On an earlier trip to the USA,
Huxley had been outraged by the commercial cheeriness, culture of
youth and sexual promiscuity of many Americans; and the book was in
part a response to his feelings. The sex-hormone chewing gum in the
book is a parody of the ubiquitous chewing gum, something of a
symbol of America at that time. Society now uses the dates A.F-
After Ford, as in Henry Ford, the American entrepreneur. In 1999, the
book was ranked 5th on the list of the 100 best English-language
novels by the Modern Library.
Image by james in Flickr under CC.
Nowadays, it is used as a shorthand term to express a new possibly
negative way of doing things.

3.1. Cover me

Activity
In order to write a cover letter or email:
Use appropriate phrases to start and finish the letter.
Say where you saw the job/grant etc. advertised.
Use paragraphs to organise the main body of the letter.
Use a suitable style: no contractions or informal expressions, use
conditional sentences (would be delighted..) as they sound more
polite, and appropriately formal vocabulary.
Be positive about why you are suitable for the position without
sounding too arrogant.
Don’t include irrelevant information.

Image by Samuel Mann in Flickr under CC.

Reading Activity

Look at Luke's covering letter to accompany his C.V.

1) Which of the tips above hasn't he followed?
2) What information is included in the different paragraphs?
2) What information is included in the different paragraphs?
3) If instead of a letter, it was an email, what change(s) might you make?

14 Bush Drive
Newcastle
TYW 56321
Ms. Sally James
Human Resources Manager
MacAlee News Limited
Crompton House 14th April 20__
Blackfriars
LONDON EC1 2TR

Dear Ms. James,

Vacancy for Journalist (ref: 561/2)

I am writing in reply to your advert for the above post, advertised in The Times on 2nd April 20__, and I am
sending my CV in application.
(1) I am currently in the final year of a BA (Hons) course in Journalism at City University, Bristol, and expect to
graduate in June 20___. I have always wanted to pursue a career as a journalist in a TV and press
environment (in fact my father used to be a reporter at The Daily Telegraph) and have sought to tailor my
studies to that end. I have obtained A grades in the Multi-platform, Creating Content and Reporting Skills
modules, and am currently completing a dissertation on the growth of microblogging in the world of journalism.
I speak and write German and Spanish pretty well as I have a Spanish girlfriend.

(2) As well as the qualifications and abilities outlined above, I have kept my IT skills fully up to date (including
MS Excel) and am competent in a wide range of operations. In this job you also need someone with good
communications skills who is able to work well under pressure: I enjoy making new contacts and establishing
relationships with a wide range of people, and successfully liaised with German companies when arranging
student activities while I was a Teaching Assistant in Heidelberg.
(3) I feel that the position offered would be great to give me the opportunity to use my education and skills
to provide a high level of service for the challenging work you describe. You can call me for an interview any
time.
I cannot wait to hear from you. I know you will not be disappointed.

Yours faithfully

Luke Green

Show Feedback

Reading Activity

Look at the expressions in italics. They are not formal enough for this type of letter. Rewrite them
using the word in brackets.
 Image by cllkerFreeV ectorimages in Pixabay under Public Domain.

1. I am sending my CV. (ENCLOSE)

2. As well as the qualifications and abilities outlined above,... (ADDITION)
3. I speak and write German and Spanish pretty well. (HIGH)
4. In this job you also need someone with good communications skills. (REQUIRES)
5. the position offered would be great to give me the opportunity to use my education. ( IDEAL)
6. You can call me for an interview any time. (AVAILABLE)
7. I cannot wait to hear from you. (LOOK)

Show Feedback

Activity

Have you ever written a cover letter? What did you write it for? Was it in English or Spanish? Did it look similar
to the one above?
If you would like more information on how to write a cover letter in case you apply for a job abroad, follow the
link to the University of Kent, it contains all the information you need to know about writing a cover letter in
English:
http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/cv/coveringletters.htm
Purdue University has a renowned Writing Lab called OWL, check it out:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/engagement/34/42/

4. School Reunion
Many social media sites are helpful in organising school reunions, a chance to find out what those people
from your class are up to.
Let's take a look at one.

Reading Activity

After reading the text, look at the following tasks. Can you supply the appropriate response in each
case?
1. Explain Mr Brown's nickname.
1. Explain Mr Brown's nickname.
2. Did the boys dislike Mr Brown?
3. In what way was Mr Shepherd different to Mr Brown?
4. Why did they put a sheep of all things in Mr Shepherd's office?
5. What has happened to Mr Aitkin?

Show Feedback

DropDown Activity

Match the vocabulary with its meaning.

get detention

skive off

bloke

give someone a telling off

go ballistic

own up

hold it against someone

get fed up

pass away

Check Show Feedback

Reminiscing: Talking about past habits and states. Look at these examples from the texts:
We used to call him Mr Grey.
We'd set off stink bombs or keep asking him. the next he'd be shouting and screaming.
He gave us a right telling off. We got detention for a week.
We can use:
1. Past simple: in general an adverb is needed to indicate recurrency: When I was younger, we often went to Brighton.
Whenever I told him,..... (= every time)
2. As a common alternative to the past simple, we often use used to (no adverb needed).
We used to have this maths teacher.... we used to behave really badly.
3. We use would+ infinitive (usually contracted to 'd) as an alternative to used to. It helps to reduce repetition, especially where
several recurring actions are mentioned. It can also be used with the continuous (He'd be talking).
It isn’t used at the beginning of a text (for that use used to or past simple):
We'd set off stink bombs or keep asking him... Sometimes we'd skive off his classes.
Note: it isn’t used with stative verbs: I'd have long hair I had long hair/I used to have long hair.
4. Just as with the present, the use of the continuous + always indicates a surprising or annoying habit.
One moment he was talking to you...
5. We can use remember + _ing/noun: I remember sitting next to Kelvin.

Multi-select

For each sentence, decide the correct verb form to use. If both are possible, mark both.
1. My dad ___________ friendly with the neighbours.
a) would always be
 a) would always be
b) was always
c) always used to be

Show Feedback

2. Whenever I got home early, my sister _______________ for me with a big smile and a hug.
a) was always waiting
b) always waited
Show Feedback

3. When I was 7 or 8, we ___________________ to the nearby beach to skip stones across the water
a) often went
b) used to go
c) would go
Show Feedback

4. My brother and I _______________ each other - no one believed we were brothers.

a) didn't use to look like
b) wouldn't look like
c) weren't looking like
Show Feedback

5. I remember that one time we ___________________ to bring our little sister back home with us.
a) wouldn't remember
b) didn't remember

Show Feedback

Cloze Activity

Listen to the song and complete the gaps.

The River - Bruce Springsteen
I come from down in the valley
where mister when you're
They bring you up to do like your daddy done
Me and Mary we met in high
when she was just seventeen
We'd ride out of this down to where the fields were green

We'd go down to the river

And into the river we'd
Oh down to the river we'd ride

Then I got Mary

and man that was all she wrote
And for my nineteenth birthday I got a union card and a wedding
We went down to the courthouse
and the judge put it all to
No wedding day smiles, no walk down the aisle
No flowers, no wedding

That night we went down to the river

And into the river we'd dive
Oh down to the river we did ride

I got a job working for the Johnstown Company

But lately there ain't been much work on account of the
Now all them things that seemed so important
Well mister they vanished right into the
Now I just act like I don't remember
Mary acts like she don't

But I remember us riding in my brother's car

Her body tan and wet down at the reservoir
At night on them banks I'd lie
And pull her close just to feel each breath she'd take
Now those memories come back to haunt me
they haunt me like a
Is a dream a lie if it don't come true
Or is it something
that sends me down to the river
though I know the river is
That sends me down to the river tonight
Down to the river
my baby and I
Oh down to the river we ride
Submit

Case Study

Understanding a Song
 Understanding a Song
1. What is the tone of the song? (happy, melancholic, nostalgic, etc) - why do you think so?
2. What do you think Springsteen means with "I got Mary pregnant, and man, that was all she wrote"
3. How does he describe the wedding day? What impression does it give?
4. They'd go down to the river but at the end he says that the river is now dry. What does that mean?
Show Feedback

Preknowledge

What do you know about the education system in the UK? Do the quiz and see how many you know.

True-False Question

1. In Britain schools are either public or private.

True False
2. University courses last 4 years
True False
3. Classes in secondary start at 9 and finish at 2.30
True False
4. Both primary and secondary education are for 5 years each.
True False
5. Only private and public schools wear uniforms, not state school children.
True False

At former levels, it was more or less acceptable to discriminate between the pronunciation of t/d + -ed and all other
regular verbs ending in voiced or voiceless forms. At a C1 level, you must distinguish the three forms.
Visit the following link and check your pronunciation is correct: https://www.espressoenglish.net/105-regular-verbs-with-ed-in-
the-past/

4.1. Zero For Conduct

Cloze Activity

Do you think cyberbullying is a big problem? Look at these statistics. Do they surprise you?
Here are the startling facts from the UK charity group Childline, which helps children in trouble:
 49% of UK children have an account on a social media website.
62% of UK children between the ages of 12 to 15 have a smartphone.
38% of children and teens will experience cyber bullying.
1.6 million times per year, children call the Childline.
Childline received 87% more calls about cyber bullying in 2014 than it did in 2013.

Complete the spaces with words derived from the word in brackets (adjective, verb, noun, etc.). The
first one is done for you.
CYBERBULLYING
Cyberbullying is an issue on which
schools and parents must work
together. Parental (0) engagement
(engage) is at the core of a school’s
response – and the need to (1)
(construct)
support parents around this difficult
topic is important.
“We see parents as partners in their
child’s education, and want things to be
open so that they can talk to us if
there’s a problem,” says Jo Hellman, a
deputy headteacher. “Equally, if we
have (2) (identity)
a bullying issue, we need their support
to help stop it.”
Hellman believes cyberbullying can be
tackled by educating young people and
their parents/carers on positive uses of
technology. “Banning phones doesn’t
solve the problem,” she says. “In our
computing lessons, we inform children Image by John Spencer in Flickr under CC.
about how they can (3)
(dependent)
use technology while staying safe.”
By showing students how to use the internet, apps and emails, schools can (4) (power) young
people.
Charlotte Palmer, a primary school teacher, also believes that setting out guidelines to teachers, parents and
students from day one is important in cyberbullying (6) (prevent). “Our policy is written
every year by staff,” she says. Parents are also asked to sign a copy of our e-policy agreement.”
Instead of administering school rules through (7) (force), this approach is (8)
(consensus), creating a dialogue with teachers, pupils and parents/carers so that their
approach is decided by the whole school community.
Submit

What do you think?

Do you agree with the approach mentioned in the text? What can teachers and parents do to protect children from cyberbullying?
Why don't you share your thoughts with your partners?

Multi-select

Connectors (adverbs and conjunctions) direct the reader as to how to interpret the text.
Choose the correct ways to finish the sentences below (some have more than one correct answer).
 1. At first I wasn't sure what to do __________.
a) ; therefore, I got better.
b) , but I got better.
c) Nevertheless, I got better.
Show Feedback

2. __________ he had been my best friend, I refused to help him.

a) Even though
b) Yet
c) Despite
Show Feedback

3. I lost my job __________.

a) due to the economic situation.
b) because of the economy.
c) on account of the company's financial problems.
Show Feedback

4. That morning, I took my umbrella __________.

a) in case it rained.
b) if it rained.
c) unless it rained
Show Feedback

Consider the following questions:

Have you ever cheated in an exam? If so, in which subjects and how did you do it- with a cheat sheet?
How do you think social networks have made cheating easier?
Why do people cheat in exams?
What punishment (if any) should there be for people who cheat in exams: expulsion from
school/university, suspension (temporary expulsion), lowering grades, or something else?
Why don't you share your answers with your partners?

a cheat sheet/crib sheet

Image by hariadhi in wikipedia under CC.

DropDown Activity

Read the text and decide which phrase goes in each gap. There are two phrases you do not need.

Helicopters, scanners no match for Egypt's exam cheats

High school exam seasons in Egypt are often accompanied by exam leaks —

, despite several attempts to confront it. The government transports exam questions in a military helicopter from
the printers affiliated with the Ministry of Education, whose locations remain a secret, all to prevent the leaking of
the exams. Also, the Ministry of Education has started using electronic detectors to search the students for
mobile phones

. The Ministry of Interior is working to secure students' conduct during examinations, amid a phenomenon of mass
cheating.
In the past, students have threatened to beat up proctors, assault them, and, in 2014, exam proctors were held
at gunpoint in the city of Asyut. Amid all of this, some people on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter
continue to defy the Egyptian Ministry of Education.
In the first hours of exam day, and especially in high school exit exams, there are many public online requests

. Once the exam starts, the work starts on developing an answer sheet that allows everyone to pass the exam
easily. There are also instructions and tips published on social media, using innovative ways to hide mobile phones
used in the cheating process. The students involved justify their actions by claiming that the ministry's exams are
unreasonably difficult.
The Ministry of Education has so far been unable to control this phenomenon, despite establishing a
special government group to fight fraudulence on Facebook by immediately reporting any pages that leak exam
questions and

The current exam season in Cairo saw several leaked exams for Al-Azhar secondary school. On June 4, the
questions for the English subject were leaked less than half an hour after the exam’s start. On June 1, material on
jurisprudence and mechanics was leaked by a number of students on Facebook and Twitter despite all the
precautionary measures taken by Al-Azhar. Three students were expelled from the school and their exams were
cancelled

. Evidence against them was provided by the police.

High school exit exams are the Egyptian students’ gateway into university, in the words of Kamal Mogheeth, an
expert and researcher at the National Centre for Educational Research. He said that he did not expect the high
school exam season to pass without the exam questions being leaked.He added, “Those leaks negate the exams'
very purpose and violate the principle of ensuring fairness and equal opportunities for students.”
Students who are pros at leaking exams work to improve their performance every year. They recently released an
application called “Shaw Ming,”

, and sends the exam questions via a chat system. The application has five components: Twitter, LiveLeak,
Facebook, Instagram and a private chat element. This page caused chaos in the exam season in 2014. After it
was used to leak several secondary school exams on subjects such as economics and foreign languages, the
Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology tried to take down the
page, but the latter's administrators simply created four other pages with the same name to continue.
As to what is behind the cheating phenomenon, Mogheeth said, “There is a flaw in the educational system, which
relies on end-of-year exams. This tempts students to obtain the questions illegally because it means avoiding
making a year’s worth of effort. Modern education systems, however, are based on grading students on the
various subjects [more than once] throughout the academic year. Exam leaks and cheating will continue as long
as the system remains as is — giving the student only one opportunity [to sit for a test]. Egyptian universities
cannot accommodate all those

. This complicates matters further and makes the student worry about reserving a seat in any university and by
any means, regardless of the student's abilities and skills.”

A dapted from al-monitor

Image by defenceimages in Flickr under CC.

Check Show Feedback

What do you think?
Look at this quote from the text:
"There is a flaw in the educational system, which relies on end-of-year exams.... Modern education systems, however, are based
on grading students on the various subjects [more than once] throughout the academic year."
Do you agree? Do you prefer final exams or continuous assessment? Does project work throughout the year stop cheating?
Share your point of view with your partners.

5. Bite size

Image in O penclipart by A nonymous under Share.

A number of expected results were established at the beginning of the lesson. Click here and download the outcomes list.
Follow the same procedure as in Lesson One: In the blank columns, fill in your trouble areas or areas you need to work on. Pay
special attention to
The difference in formal and informal register,
Writing a cover letter;
Improving the pronunciation of your "-ed" endings;
Using the present and past tenses;
Aspects of cohesion;
Aspects of punctuation.
Remember that these pages will be a reminder of the areas you need to polish up.