STARTING OFF

DIscuss the questions below in a small group.

Do you play sports or games? Which are you best at?

How much time does it take to be very good at a sport or game?

Here is one student’s typical week. Is yours similar or

different?

Now make a chart of your typical week.

Compare it with your friends’ charts. Are they similar?

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 Students worksheet

VOCABULARY 1
Match each word to the correct definition.

1. tournaments A. you play tennis with this

2. racquets B. for example: hamburgers, pizzas...

3. trainers C. when you have an accident you sometimes get one of these

4. injuries D. these people help you to learn to play better

5. fast food E. for example: Wimbledon, the US Open...

VOCABULARY 2
Complete the sentences using one of the words or phrases from Vocabulary 1.
1. It’s not healthy, but I love hot dogs - in fact, any kind of ____________________.
2. Roger Federer wins more ____________________ than anybody else.
3. I want to buy a new ____________________, but they’re very expensive.
4. A good ____________________ teaches you to play well.
5. Players sometimes stop playing because they have too many ____________________.

BEFORE YOU READ

You’re going to read about two tennis players: Jade Hopper, who is twelve years old, and Venus Williams. Before you
read, look at the sentences below and decide which sentences are about Jade (J), which are about Venus (V) and which
are about both players (B).
J V B
She travels all over the world to play in tournaments.
She has won over 30 tournaments.
Her practice day starts at 8.30 am and ends at 6.30 pm.
Her practice day starts at 9.30 am and ends at 1.00 pm.
She has Spanish lessons.
She has Maths lessons.
She gets a lot of injuries.
She has a sponsor for her racquets and tennis clothes.
One of her sponsors is a fast-food company.
One of her sponsors is an Italian shoe company.

FIRST READING
You will get a text about one of the two tennis players. Read it to see which sentences were true for your player. Then
speak to a student who read the other text to check the final answers.

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 Students worksheet

SECOND READING
Work with a partner who read the other text (but do not read the other text yet). Discuss the questions below together:

Who has the most fun, Venus or Jade?

Which things are the same for both of them?

Who has the harder day?

After you finish discussing the questions, swap texts and read each other’s.

LEXIS
Choose the right preposition from this list for each phrase below. Be careful - sometimes no word is needed. The first one
has in each list been done for you as an example.

THINGS WE DO
TIMES AND PLACES
8. wake up
1. in the morning
9. get ____________ of bed
2. ____________ the evening
10. go ____________ school
3. ____________ the evening
11. go ____________ with friends
4. ____________ night
12. meet ____________ friends
5. ____________ school
13. go ____________ home
6. ____________ home
14. go ____________ bed
7. ____________ six o’clock

Talk to your partner. When do you do the things in the ‘things we do’ list?
“I wake up at 6.00 in the morning...”

SPEAKING
What do you think? Discuss the questions below with a partner:
Is it OK for someone 12 years old to work so hard?
Is success more important than having fun?
Would you like to have a career like Jade?

Now work in a group of three or four. Imagine you have to go on holiday together. Can you plan a holiday which will make
everybody happy?

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 Students worksheet

Meet Jade Hopper

the first steps of a tennis career
By Peter Moran
Jade Hopper is a tennis player. She is not the biggest player in the world - in fact, at 145
centimetres and 35 kilogrammes, she is one of the smallest. But that is no surprise because she
is just 12 years old.
Jade comes from Queensland in Australia and is the winner of over 30 tournaments already.
She has a special diet to help her grow taller and a physiotherapist to help her get stronger. She
practises every day and flies all over the world to play in tournaments.
Jade’s father Gavin, a tennis trainer, is determined to make Jade a champion. She trains hard:
8.00 Jade’s alarm wakes her up
8.30 Practice with her father
11.30 Fitness training (running, exercise in the gym)
12.00 Lunch
1.00 English, Maths and Japanese lessons with her mother
4.00 Practice with her father
6.30 Jade’s training ends
For her age, Jade is the best in the world, and her success means she is already quite famous -
and quite rich. She has an Italian shoe sponsor and another sponsor for her tennis racquets
and clothes. Jade’s whole life is tennis. Is she too young for this? It is very controversial, but
Jade’s father says she is happy. Time will tell if her father is right.

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 Students worksheet

Meet Venus Williams

at the top of the tennis ladder
By Peter Moran
Venus Williams is one of the most famous and most successful tennis players in the world. She
is the winner of more than 30 tournaments, including Wimbledon three times and the US Open
twice.
Venus comes from Florida in the United States. She travels to tournaments all over the world,
but likes to spend time at home when she isn’t playing in a tournament. Venus doesn’t play in
all tournaments because she gets a lot of injuries, and she has physiotherapy to help with
this. A typical day looks like this:
9.00 Venus wakes up
9.30 Practice with her trainer
11.30 Fitness training (running, biking, exercise in the gym)
12.30 Physiotherapy; Venus’ training day ends
1.00 Spanish, guitar or acting lessons
4.00 Work in the office

Venus has many sponsors, including a credit card company, a fast-food (hamburger) company
and, of course, a sponsor for her tennis racquets and clothes. Venus is also a businesswoman
with her own design company - she’s a very busy person, but she’s already planning for life
after tennis.

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