7F Awkward situations
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✂
You arranged to meet your friend outside the cinema
at seven o’clock. He’s always on time or lets you
know if he’s going to be late. It’s now 7.30 p.m. and
the film’s about to start. You’ve tried phoning his
mobile several times, but there’s no answer.
✂
Your parents have always had a good relationship
and you’ve always enjoyed spending quality time as
a family. Recently, however, they’ve been bickering
a lot and going out separately rather than together.
✂
Your parents have just returned from the annual
parent-teacher meeting at your school and they
aren’t very happy. They inform you that your English
teacher said you were immature and didn’t take your
studies seriously. You are confused. English is your
favourite subject and you’ve been working really
hard all year and have achieved good results.
✂
Whenever you have female friends over to your
house, your younger brother insists on hanging out
with you and your mates. Your friends have started
to tease you about this and some of them have
stopped coming round so often.
✂
One of your classmates, Libby, has been absent from
school for a few days. You assume that she must be
ill. You bump into her mum in the library and ask how
Libby is and when she’ll be back at school. Her mum
looks confused and asks what you mean.
✂
You’re thirteen years old and your parents have
never left you in the house on your own. You have
never given them reason to think that you are
irresponsible. You would like them to trust you more
and allow you more freedom.
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Solutions 2nd edition  Upper-Intermediate
Your mum gave up smoking a month ago, after being
a heavy smoker for twenty years. You haven’t seen
her smoking since she quit. However, when you got
the shopping out of her car this afternoon, you’re
sure you could smell smoke.
You’re in your older sister’s room looking for your
MP3 player, which she borrowed last week. You’re
having a look through her drawers and in one of
them you come across a small plastic container with
a lot of money inside.
You’ve been attending a private secondary school,
where you have been doing very well academically
and have made many close friends. Your parents
have just told you that you need to change schools
next year and start going to the local state school,
which has a terrible reputation. Next year is your
final year at school before you go to university.
A close friend who has always confided in you has
recently become very cagey and reluctant to talk to
you. She says everything’s fine, but you don’t believe
her. She’s been looking tired recently and is more
irritable than usual.
You feel as if your parents love your younger sister
more than you. They give her more praise, spend
more time with her and there are even more photos
of her around the house. You are desperate for them
to pay you more attention.
You’re on the bus, on your way home from school.
Looking out of the window, you’re pretty sure you
see your friend’s boyfriend with his arm around
another girl.
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 7F Awkward situations

Aims  To review and practise using modals to speculate. To give

students practice in using the second conditional to discuss
hypothetical situations.
Time  15 minutes
Materials  1 handout, cut up into cards, for each group of
four students
• Write the following situation up on the board: You are
seventeen years old. Out of the blue, your parents announce that
they are cutting your monthly allowance by 50% so that you
can learn how to budget wisely. Tell the students to speculate
about the situation, using must/might/can’t (have). Elicit
ideas from the class, e.g. The parents must think that their son/
daughter wastes their allowance./It might just be an excuse. The
parents might be having financial trouble themselves./They can’t
have given their son/daughter any warning about the cut.
• Now elicit from the class ideas on what they would do in
this situation. Tell them to use the second conditional, e.g.
If they were my parents, I’d complain that they hadn’t given me
any notice./If I were in this situation, I’d find a part-time job to
supplement my allowance.
• Divide the class into groups of four and tell them to arrange
themselves in a small circle. Give each group a pile of cards
and tell them to keep the cards face down.
• One student picks up a card and reads the scenario to their
group. The other students should speculate about the
situation and then say what they would do, i.e. following the
same format as the model.
• The activity continues in the same way, with students taking
turns to read out a situation, until all the scenarios have been
discussed. At the end, get some feedback from each group
on which situation they found most interesting to talk about
and what suggestions were put forward.

Solutions 2nd edition  Upper-Intermediate © Oxford University Press