LEARNING OBJECTIVES Top Notch 1 learning objectives are designed for false beginners.

es are designed for false beginners. They offer a rigorous review and
an expansion of key beginning concepts as well as a wealth of new and challenging material.

COMMUNICATION GOALS VOCABULARY GRAMMAR

1
• Meet someone new • Formal titles • Information questions with be: Review
UNIT
• Identify and describe people • Positive adjectives to describe • Contractions
• Provide personal information people • Modification with adjectives: Review
• Introduce someone to a group • Personal information • Positive adjectives
Getting • Countries and nationalities • Yes / no questions and short answers with be: Review
Acquainted GRAMMAR BOOSTER
PAGE 2 • Information questions with be: usage and form
• Possessive nouns and adjectives
• Verb be: usage and form
• Short answers with be: common errors

• Accept or decline an invitation • Music genres • Prepositions of time and place; Questions with
• Express locations and give • Entertainment and cultural events When, What time, and Where: Review
directions • Contractions

2
UNIT • Locations and directions
• Make plans to see an event
GRAMMAR BOOSTER
Going Out • Talk about musical tastes
• Prepositions of time and place: usage rules
PAGE 14 • Would like for preference: review and expansion

• Report news about relationships • The extended family • The simple present tense: Review
• Describe extended families • Relationships and marital status • Spelling exceptions

3
UNIT • Compare people • Other family relationships • Contractions
• Discuss family cultural traditions • Similarities and differences • The simple present tense—information
The Extended questions: Review
Family GRAMMAR BOOSTER
PAGE 26 • The simple present tense: usage and form
• Information questions in the simple present tense:
form questions with who, common errors

• Ask for a restaurant • Parts of a meal • There is and there are with count and non-count nouns;
recommendation • Categories of food Anything and nothing
• Order from a menu

4
UNIT • Degrees of hunger • Definite article the
• Speak to a server and pay for a meal • Communicating with a waiter GRAMMAR BOOSTER
Food and • Discuss food and health or waitress
• Non-count nouns: expressing quantities
• Adjectives to describe the
Restaurants healthfulness of food • Some and any
PAGE 38 • Questions with How much and How many
• Words that can be count nouns or non-count nouns
• Plural count nouns: spelling rules
• Non-count nouns: categories and verb agreement

• Recommend a brand or model • Electronic devices • The present continuous: Review

• Express sympathy for a problem • Replacing products

5
GRAMMAR BOOSTER
UNIT • Complain when things don’t work • Positive descriptions
• The present continuous: spelling rules for the
• Describe features of products • Collocations for using present participle
Technology electronic devices
• The present continuous: rules for forming
and You • Activities statements
• Ways to sympathize • The present continuous: rules for forming
PAGE 50
• Negative descriptions questions
• Household appliances and
machines
• Ways to state a problem
• Features of manufactured
products

iv
CONVERSATION STRATEGIES LISTENING / PRONUNCIATION READING WRITING
• Begin responses with a question Listening Skills Texts Task
to confirm • Listen for details • An enrollment form • Write a description of a classmate
• Use Let’s to suggest a course • Infer information • Personal profiles
of action WRITING BOOSTER
Pronunciation • A photo story
• Ask personal questions to • Capitalization
• Intonation of questions Skills/strategies
indicate friendliness
• Infer information
• Intensify an informal answer
with sure • Scan for facts

• “Use Would you like to go?” to Listening Skills Texts Task

make an invitation
• Repeat with rising intonation to
confirm information
• Provide reasons to decline
an invitation
• Use Too bad to express
disappointment
• Use Thanks, anyway to
acknowledge an unsuccessful
attempt to help
• Listen for key details • A music website • Write about oneself and one’s
• Draw conclusions • An entertainment events page musical tastes
• Listen for details • Authentic interviews WRITING BOOSTER
• Listen for locations • A survey of musical tastes
• The sentence
Pronunciation • A photo story
• Rising intonation to confirm Skills/strategies
information • Interpret maps and diagrams
• Confirm content
• Make personal comparisons

• Use Actually to introduce a topic Listening Skills Texts Task

• Respond to good news with
Congratulations!
• Respond to bad news with
I’m sorry to hear that
• Use Thanks for asking to
acknowledge an inquiry
of concern
• Use Well to introduce a
lengthy reply
• Ask follow-up questions to keep a
conversation going
• Listen to classify • Family tree diagrams • Make a Venn diagram
• Listen to infer • A self-help website • Compare two people in a family
• Listen to identify similarities and • A survey about adult children
differences WRITING BOOSTER
• A photo story
• Listen to take notes • Combining sentences with and
Skills/strategies or but
• Listen for details • Interpret a diagram
Pronunciation • Confirm facts
• Linking sounds • Infer information

• Use Could you . . . ? to make a Listening Skills Texts Task

polite request • Listen to take notes • Menus • Write a short article about food for
• Use Sure to agree to a request • Listen to predict • A nutrition website a travel blog
• Clarify a request by asking for • Infer the location of a conversation • A photo story WRITING BOOSTER
more specific information Pronunciation Skills/strategies • Connecting words and ideas: and
• Indicate a sudden thought • The before consonant and vowel • Interpret a map or in addition
with Actually sounds • Understand from context
• Use I’ll have to order from
a server • Infer information
• Increase politeness with please

• Use Hey or How’s it going for an Listening Skills Texts Task

informal greeting
• Use What about . . . ? to offer
a suggestion
• Use Really? to indicate surprise
• Use You know to introduce a topic
• Express sympathy when someone
is frustrated
• Infer meaning • Newspaper advertisements • Write a review of a product
• Listen to predict • An online review for a product
WRITING BOOSTER
• Listen for details • A photo story
• Placement of adjectives: before
• Listen to classify Skills/strategies nouns and after the verb be
• Understand from context
Pronunciation
• Intonation of questions • Activate language from a text

v
 COMMUNICATION GOALS VOCABULARY GRAMMAR
• Plan an activity with someone • Physical activities • Can and have to
• Talk about habitual activities and • Places for sports and exercise • The present continuous and the simple
future plans present tense: Review

6
UNIT • Frequency adverbs
• Discuss fitness and eating habits
GRAMMAR BOOSTER
Staying in • Describe your routines
• Can and have to: form and common errors
Shape • Can and have to: information questions
PAGE 62 • Can and be able to: present and past forms
• The simple present tense: non-action verbs
• The simple present tense: placement of
frequency adverbs
• Time expressions

• Greet someone arriving from a trip • Adjectives to describe trips • The past tense of be: Review
• Ask about someone’s vacation • Intensifiers • Contractions

7
UNIT • Discuss vacation preferences • Decline and accept help • The simple past tense: Review
• Describe good and bad vacation • Adjectives for vacations • Regular and irregular verb forms
On Vacation experiences • Bad and good travel experiences
GRAMMAR BOOSTER
PAGE 74 • The past tense of be: form
• The simple past tense: spelling rules for
regular verbs
• The simple past tense: usage and form

• Shop and pay for clothes • Clothes and clothing departments • Uses of object pronouns
• Ask for a different size or color • Types of clothing and shoes • Subject and object pronouns

8
UNIT • Navigate a mall or department • Formal clothes • Comparative adjectives
store • Clothing that comes in “pairs”
GRAMMAR BOOSTER
Shopping for • Discuss clothing do’s and don’ts • Store departments
• Direct objects: usage
Clothes • Clothing sizes
• Indirect objects: usage rules and common errors
• Interior store locations and
PAGE 86 directions • Comparative adjectives: spelling rules
• Prepositions of interior location
• Formality and appropriateness
in clothing

• Discuss schedules and buy tickets • Kinds of tickets and trips • Modals should and could
• Book travel services • Ways to express disappointment • Be going to + base form to express the future:
Review

9
UNIT • Understand airport announcements • Travel services
• Describe transportation problems • Airline passenger information GRAMMAR BOOSTER
Taking • Some flight problems • Modals can, could, and should: meaning, form,
Transportation • Transportation problems and common errors
• Means of transportation • Expansion: future actions
PAGE 98

• Ask for a recommendation • Financial terms • Superlative adjectives

• Bargain for a lower price • How to bargain • Irregular forms

10
UNIT • Discuss showing appreciation • How to describe good and • Too and enough
for service bad deals
GRAMMAR BOOSTER
Spending • Describe where to get the best
deals • Comparative and superlative adjectives: usage
Money and form
PAGE 110 • Intensifiers very, really, and too

Countries and nationalities / Non-count nouns / Irregular verbs page 122

Grammar Booster page 123
Writing Booster page 142
Top Notch Pop Lyrics page 149
Pronunciation Table page 151

vi
CONVERSATION STRATEGIES LISTENING / PRONUNCIATION READING WRITING
• Use Why don’t we . . . ? to Listening Skills Texts Task
suggest an activity • Listen to activate grammar • A bar graph • Write about one’s exercise and
• Say Sorry, I can’t to apologize for • Listen for main ideas • A fitness survey health habits
turning down an invitation • Listen for details • A magazine article WRITING BOOSTER
• Provide a reason with have to to • Apply and personalize information • A photo story
decline an invitation • Punctuation of statements and
• Use Well, how about . . . ? to Pronunciation Skills/strategies questions
suggest an alternative • Can / can’t • Interpret a bar graph
• Use How come? to ask for a • Third-person singular –s: Review • Infer information
reason • Summarize
• Use a negative question to
confirm information

• Say Welcome back! to indicate Listening Skills Texts Task

enthusiasm about someone’s • Listen for main ideas • Travel brochures Write a guided essay about a vacation
return from a trip • Listen for details • Personal travel stories
• Acknowledge someone’s interest • Infer meaning • A vacation survey
WRITING BOOSTER
with Actually • Time order
Pronunciation • A photo story
• Decline an offer of assistance
• The simple past tense ending: Skills/strategies
with It’s OK. I’m fine. Regular verbs • Activate language from a text
• Confirm that an offer is declined
with Are you sure? • Identify supporting details
• Use Absolutely to confirm a • Support an opinion
response • Draw conclusions
• Show enthusiasm with No
kidding! and Tell me more.

• Use Excuse me to indicate you Listening Skills Texts Task

didn’t understand or couldn’t
hear
• Use Excuse me to begin a
conversation with a clerk
• Infer the appropriate location • An online clothing catalogue
• Understand locations and directions • Simple and complex diagrams
Pronunciation and plans
• A travel article
• Write a letter or e-mail explaining
what clothes to pack
WRITING BOOSTER

• Follow a question with more
information for clarification
• Acknowledge someone’s
assistance with Thanks for your
help
• Respond to gratitude with
My pleasure
• Contrastive stress for clarification • Connecting ideas with because
• A personal opinion survey
and since
• A photo story
Skills/strategies
• Identify supporting details
• Paraphrase
• Apply information

• Use I’m sorry to respond with Listening Skills Texts Task

disappointing information
• Use Well to introduce an
alternative
• Use I hope so to politely respond
to an offer of help
• Use Let me check to buy time to
get information
• Infer the type of travel service
• Understand public announcements
• Listen for details
• Use reasoning to evaluate
statements of fact
Pronunciation
• Intonation for offering alternatives
• Transportation schedules • Write about two different trips, one
• Public transportation tickets past trip and one future trip
• Arrival and departure boards WRITING BOOSTER
• Magazine and newspaper articles
• The paragraph
• A photo story
Skills/strategies
• Make decisions based on
schedules and needs
• Critical thinking

• Use Well to connect an answer to Listening Skills Texts Task

an earlier question
• Use How about . . . ? to make a
financial offer
• Use OK to indicate that an
agreement has been reached
• Listen for key details • A travel guide
• Listen for main ideas • Product ads
• Listen for details • A magazine article
Pronunciation • Personal travel stories
• A photo story
• Rising intonation for clarification
Skills/strategies
• Classify information
• Draw conclusions
• Apply information
• Write a guide to your city, including
information on where to stay, visit,
and shop
WRITING BOOSTER
• Connecting contradictory ideas:
even though, however, on the
other hand

vii