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GENERAL ENGLISH · GENERAL ISSUES · INTERMEDIATE (B1-B2)

LEFT-
HANDED
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1 Warm up

Discuss these questions in pairs or small groups.

1. Do you usually write with your left hand or your right hand?
2. What percentage of people in the world do you think are left-handed?
3. Do you think left-handed people have different talents and abilities to right-handed people?

2 Vocabulary

Complete both of these vocabulary exercises.

Part 1: Match the words and their meanings.

1. competition a. a feeling like sadness, anger or happiness

2. cooperation b. a situation where people are trying to beat each other to become
the winner
3. emotion c. a situation where people work together to achieve something

4. evolution d. the way something changes over time from one form to another

5. interaction e. the way two people or things communicate with or react to each
other

Do you know the related verb forms of the nouns from Part 1 above?

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Part 2: Use these words to complete the sentences.

balance / fascinating / genes / skilled / spectrum

1. A rainbow includes a whole of colour, from red to purple.

2. A chef can prepare any type of food very quickly.
3. It’s important to have a good work-life so that you avoid stress and
stay healthy.
4. She’s very intelligent, and so are her parents. She’s got great .
5. Your uncle’s stories about his travels around the world are !

Which words in Part 2 are nouns, and which are adjectives?

3 Listening 1

Read these sentences, underline the key words and think about if they are true or false. Then listen
to the Mind and Body podcast to check your ideas.

1. 15% of people in the world are left-handed.

2. To decide if you are left-handed, you shouldn’t only think about how you write.
3. Some people choose or learn how to be left-handed.
4. Two right-handed parents are as likely to have a left-handed child as two left-handed parents.
5. There are more male left-handers than female.
6. Picasso, Van Gogh and many other famous artists were left-handed.
7. Left-handed people sometimes have problems using cameras.
8. Having a small number of left-handed people is an advantage in fighting and hunting.
9. It’s an advantage to be left-handed in all sports.
10. We shouldn’t include left-handers in studies of how the brain works.

What new information have you learnt from the podcast?

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4 Language point

When we talk about some types of information, we sometimes want to show how we feel about it.
We may want to say that we fully believe that the information is always true, or we may want to say
that we aren’t sure if the information is completely true. This is called hedging.

Compare the two sentences in the box. How does the second sentence show that the writer is
hedging?

1. Left-handedness is on a spectrum, so some people are very left-handed while others are
only a little bit.
2. It appears that left-handedness is on a spectrum, so some people are very left-handed
while others are only a little bit.

We can hedge in these ways:

• use a range of special reporting verbs, like appears.

• use modal verbs like could, may and might.
• include subjects like scientists, experts, researchers or studies.

Answer these questions:

1. Why do people want to use hedging?

2. What other points of view might people hold about the information in the sentence in the box?

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5 Listening 2

Read the sentence beginnings from the listening and underline the verbs used for hedging. Then
match the beginnings and endings of each sentence. Check your ideas.

Part 1

1. Left-handers seem to have much stronger a. be predicted by the position of the baby inside
the mother.
2. And interestingly, studies indicate b. better mathematical skills, language skills and
ability to recognise emotions.
3. Some researchers claim that it can c. communication between the two sides of their
brains than right-handers.
4. Many people believe that left-handers d. have special talents as musicians, artists,
architects and chess players.
5. Studies suggest that we also have e. that left-handedness develops before birth.

Part 2

1. But making them use their right hands a. around 10% of humans have been left-handed
might have for five hundred thousand years!
2. From the study of bones and tools, it looks b. been mostly sign language.
like
3. Left-handers using right-handed tools may c. have more accidents, leading to more deaths
and reducing their numbers.
4. Some scientists think that early language d. led to delays in development and problems with
could have language.
5. But many experts now doubt e. that this connection is so simple.

For which one of these sentences is hedging the most important?

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6 Practice

Reorder the words to make sentences with hedging.

diet / have / a much poorer / Some experts / suggest / than meat-eaters. / that vegetarians

1.

and mental ability. / a connection / doubt / Many people / that / there’s / between age

2.

about wildlife. / be doing / educating / a good job / people / seem to / Zoos

3.

better / may have / mathematical / Men / skills / than / women.

4.

blondes / have / indicate / more fun. / really / Studies / that

5.

Can you understand why hedging is used in these sentences? Give another point of view for each
item.

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7 Final activity

Choose one of these activities.

Discussion

Discuss these questions in pairs or small groups. Speak in full sentences and give reasons or examples.

1. Are you, or do you know, anyone who is a little bit left-handed?

2. Why do you think people in the past used to make left-handers use their right hands?
3. In general, do you think left-handers have more advantages or more disadvantages?
4. What special help might left-handed children need at school?
5. How can we design products differently to help left-handers? Do you think this is a good business
idea?

Interview

• If you could interview a left-handed person about their experiences, what would you ask them?
Use the ideas from the podcast to prepare at least five interview questions.
• Can you find one or more left-handers to interview? Ask your questions and use the answers to
write a short blog post for Janna’s Swipe Left blog.
• If you are left-handed yourself, you could go straight to writing something about your experiences
for Janna’s blog.

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8 Optional extension

Janna Cooper runs a blog about left-handedness called Swipe Left. We say "swipe left" when we use
social media, to show that we don’t like something.

Expressions relating to left things often have negative meanings. What do you think the expressions
in bold in these sentences mean?

I never dance with my boyfriend. He’s got two left feet.

• A: You don’t look so tired today.

• B: Wow - that’s a left-handed compliment!

I don’t know what the boss was talking about. Those comments really came out of left field.

• A: I just got an e-mail saying we could get a refund on our tickets.

• B: But I thought you just spoke to the company on the phone, and they said they wouldn’t
give you the money.
• A: I guess the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.

• A: What a sinister-looking guy!

• B: I know - he really looks like Dracula, doesn’t he?

Does your language have any similar expressions?

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