A Discuss these questions.

1. Where do you study—at a community college, an adult school, a high school, or another kind
of school? A
2. What community college is nearest to your home? What programs does it offer? • Ask students to read the passage on
the previous page straight through
B Circle the correct word or phrase. without stopping. Explain that they
may not understand everything, but
1. The program will train him to be a police officer / student. they should try to understand the
2. The school accepts many students / classes each semester. main ideas.
3. The student needed a basic skills course in reading / financial aid. READING NOTE • Ask some general comprehension
Finding Examples questions about the passage. For
4. The tuition at an affordable school is reasonable / expensive. A reading often example: What kinds of classes can
5. Some students transfer from a two-year college to a gives facts about a
topic. Then, it tells a you take at a community college?
four-year college / job. story to give specific How much is the average community
6. Emily’s goal is to become a nurse / apply to college. examples. college tuition?
• Ask students to answer the
C CIVICS Read the facts about community college students. Find examples in the reading to discussion questions with a partner.

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show that Emily is a typical community college student. • Ask some questions about new
1. Community college students are often the first ones in their families to attend college. vocabulary. For example: What is

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Emily’s parents and brother didn’t go to college. ­tuition? What is financial aid? What are
basic skills courses?

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2. Most students need one or more basic skills courses.
B

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Emily needed to take a course in basic math.
• Ask students to complete the
3. Most students work full or part time. exercise individually.
Emily works full time at the county hospital.
c • Call on volunteers to read their
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answers aloud in complete
sentences. Then, ask other students if
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4. More women than men attend community college.

Fifty-six percent of community college students are women. they agree with each answer.
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5. More than half of the students receive some financial aid. C

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Emily is going to receive $1,500 in financial aid next semester. • Read the Reading Note aloud. Then,
read the first item and the sample
answer from Exercise C.
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• Suggest that students underline the

D WATCH Watch the video about diversity in Queens, New York. How does this compare to
diversity in your school? relevant sentence in the passage for
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each question before writing their

Life in the United States 29 answers.
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• Go over the answers as a class.

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MORE ACTION D WATCH

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Review the vocabulary in Exercise B

by making flashcards with an example
sentence on one side and the missing
word on the other side. The example
sentence should have a blank for the
vocabulary word. For example, The tuition
is not expensive. It is _____________.
(Answer: affordable) Hand out the cards
and ask students to test each other on
the vocabulary words.
• Play the video. Ask students to take
notes while they watch the video.
• Ask students to compare diversity
in Queens with diversity at school,
using their notes and what they
recall about the video. Encourage
students to cite examples that show
similarities and differences.

Life in the United States 29

SAMPLE COPY, NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION

 WRITING OUR STORIES The Average Brazilian
WRITING OUR
STORIES: The Average A Read.
Brazilian

A
• Ask students to read the passage
silently. Explain that it isn’t important
for them to understand ­every
single word, but they should try to
understand the main ideas in each
paragraph.
• When students finish reading, invite
them to ask about anything they People enjoy a beach day
don’t understand. in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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• Ask what differences there are
between the ­average Brazilian and 1 My family is from Brazil. Brazil is the largest or fish and a vegetable or a salad. On Sundays,
the average American.

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country in South America and one of the largest the whole family often eats together. There is a
countries in the world. The people of Brazil lot of talking, laughing, and enjoying each other’s
• Ask students what facts they found company.

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speak Portuguese.
­surprising. What facts are ­different for
2 Brazilians are outgoing, expressive people. 5 We enjoy sports, especially volleyball,
their own ­countries? What things are basketball, and tennis. But the most popular

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When we meet, we kiss each other on both
the same? cheeks. Men pat one another on the back or give
each other a hug. When we speak with a friend,
ABOUT THE PHOTO we often touch or hold hands.
sport is futebol (soccer in the United States).
We think that our teams and players are the
best in the world. Brazil has won the World

With a landscape consisting of tropical

c
3 Families are the center and heart of our lives.
Cup five times.
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Families usually live in the same city or in the 6 One of our favorite activities is going to
beaches and lush mountains, Rio the beach. The beaches are free. We put down
same area of the city. Often, many members of a
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de Janeiro is a very popular tourist
destination, where visitors can hike
trails with scenic views, visit old
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family live on the same block! We see each other our blankets, take out our suntan lotion, and
almost every day. On the weekends, the younger turn on our stereos—loud! People walk along
the beach selling food, drinks, hats, jewelry,
cousins go out in groups together. There are

few childcare centers because aunts and uncles and many other things. As the day continues,
churches and museums, and lounge we begin to dance and it becomes like a party
and grandparents help care for the babies and
on iconic beaches like Ipanema and
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younger children. on the beach. We stay at the beach until late at

Copacabana. night. Brazilians enjoy celebrations and parties.
4 The main meal is lunch, in the early When you visit our country and receive your
Rio’s Carnaval, a five-day festival that
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attracts thousands of visitors every
year, is one of the world’s most famous
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afternoon, between 12 and 2 p.m. We eat a lot of first invitation to a party, remember to come at
rice and beans and we know how to cook them least an hour late. In Brazil, we are very relaxed
many different ways. Lunch also includes meat about time.

celebrations.
30 Unit 2
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MORE ACTION
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Extend Exercise A by going around the
class and having each student ask a
question about the passage. The other
students in the class will answer. The
only rule is that a question cannot be
repeated. For example:
S1: How do Brazilians greet each other?
S2: They kiss each other on the cheek,
pat each other on the back, or hug.
Another way to extend this activity is
to ask students to work in pairs. One
student closes the book while the
other student asks questions about the
passage. Then, they can switch roles.

30 Unit 2

SAMPLE COPY, NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION

 WRITING NOTE
Adding Details
In a composition, each paragraph has one topic or idea. B
To make a story more interesting, include many details Read the Writing Note aloud to
and examples about the topic.
the class. Explain that a topic is the
subject of a paragraph or reading. Tell
B Write the topic of each paragraph in the reading. students that the first paragraph of a
1. introduction reading is usually the introduction to
2. greetings the main topic of the entire reading.
3. families

4. food / meals C
5. sports • Tell groups to pick a few topics from
the list or make up their own topics
6. the beach / other activities
to discuss.
• Assign a representative in each
C LET’S TALK. In groups, talk about the lives of average people in your country. Take notes. group to take notes as students talk.
Some topics you can discuss are:
• Have each group give a report to

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greetings education In my country, most young the class about the lives of average
families holidays people like to go to the beach people in their country using the
when they are on vacation.

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sports weekend activities group’s notes.
food religion

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transportation work
D

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Students can start writing in class and
D Write a composition about the lives of average people in the country you are from. Choose three or complete this task for homework.
four topics to write about. Give many details and examples. Use your notes from Exercise C.

c E
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E CIVICS Correct the mistake with the underlined verb. If the verb is correct, write correct. If students need help completing this
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1. Most Americans drives to work. drive exercise, have them refer back to the
2. Many Americans take public transportation. correct grammar charts on page 22 (Singular
and Plural Subjects).
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3. Most American women doesn’t get married before age 25. don’t get

4. The average American have a computer. has

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5. The average American doesn’t eat a large breakfast. correct

have
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6. Most American families has one or two children.

7. Americans eats their main meal in the evening. eat
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Life in the United States 31

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TEACHING TIP
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Students enjoy hearing about life in other

countries. Make copies of several student
paragraphs from ­Exercise D for the class to
read or invite two or three students to read
their stories aloud. Encourage ­comments and
questions from other students.
For example:
S1: In my country, most teenagers play sports, too.
What sports are popular in your country?
S2: In my country, students don’t wear uniforms.
What color are the school ­uniforms in your
country?

Life in the United States 31

SAMPLE COPY, NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION


ENGLISH IN ACTION:
Taking a Survey
A One student is the leader and will read each question to the entire class.
• Read the instructions and ask for
three volunteers—one student who
will ask the questions, one student
who will count the answers, and one
student who will write the answers
on the board.
• Hand the exercise over to the
class and see how they manage to
complete the task.
• At the end, you may decide to give
­feedback on how well the class
conducted the exercise.
B Who watches TV one hour a day?
• Ask students what answers from
Exercise A would be best
represented by a pie chart and which
answers would be best represented
by a bar graph.
• Divide the class into five groups
and assign each group one of the
­questions from Exercise A. Each
group should ­decide on what kind of
infographic they are going to create
for their question.
• After groups have finished, have one
or two representatives from each
group come to the board and draw
their group’s graph. Have the rest of
the class evaluate the accuracy and
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clarity of each graph and determine
whether the answers are well
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represented by the type of graph
selected by the group.
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ACADEMIC
Remind students of the pie charts and
bar graphs they saw earlier in the unit.
Would either of these be useful for
showing some of the information?
32 Unit 2
SAMPLE COPY, NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION
ENGLISH IN ACTION Taking a Survey
A ACADEMIC Take a class survey. Write the information about your class. Answers will vary.
●
● Students will raise their hands to show their answers to each question.
● Two students are the counters. They will count each answer, including their own.
● Write the answers in your book.
1. Number of students in our class:
2. Seat belts
Who wears a seat belt?
Who doesn’t wear a seat belt?
3. Work
Who works part time?
Who works full time?
Who doesn’t work?
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4. How many hours do you watch TV?
Who doesn’t watch TV?
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Who watches TV two hours a day?
Who watches TV three hours a day?
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Who watches TV four or more hours a day?
5. What country are you from?
Country Number of Students
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B ACADEMIC In small groups, draw four charts to show the results of your class survey.
Use the information from Exercise A.
32 Unit 2
MORE ACTION
Ask students to give examples of ­subjects
in school that often use pie charts
or bar graphs (for example, ­scientific
­information, population charts, and so
on). Ask what kind of information these
graphs are used to present. What are
the benefits of ­presenting information
in a graph versus writing it out in
sentences? If ­possible, bring in examples
of infographics from a ­textbook or news
article and ask ­students to describe the
information in their own words.