PET PEEVES

Warm Up Questions

1 Do you have any annoying habits that you’re aware of?

2 Do any of your friends or co-workers have any annoying habits?

3 Are there any things that are culturally acceptable in other countries that annoy you?

4 Do you think people in your country are generally polite or rude?

5 Are you easily annoyed?

6 What’s an example of something that someone has done recently that’s annoyed you?

Watch, read or listen!

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Listening Questions

Watch the YouTube video and answer the following questions.

1 How many “pet peeves” do they mention in the article?

2 What is a “pet peeve”?

3 What time of day do many of the people travel?

4 What do people hate about taking the train?

5 How does it make Tim from Bethel Green feel?

6 What is a common complaint about people who go to restaurants?

7 What is “busy-bragging”?

8 How does busy-bragging make Paul feel?

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Speaking Activity

Use the illustrations to talk about the passage and things that annoy you.

Word Bank

annoy | to make one’s blood boil | busy-bragging

chew | complain | complaint | disgusting | loudly
mood | populated | the price one has to pay
survey | sound like (something)

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MATCHING

Match the words on the left with the meanings on the right.

1 disgusting (adj) A frequent

2 to make one’s blood boil (phr) B having people living there

3 the price one has to pay (idiom) C to cause someone to be very angry

4 chew (v) D seems to be a certain way

5 populated (adj) E allow

6 annoying (adj) F extremely unpleasant or unacceptable

7 let (v) G to leave a bus or train

8 get off (phr.v) H the unpleasantness someone has to suffer

9 common (adj) I making you feel slightly angry

10 sound like something (expr) J to bite and crush with the teeth

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DISCUSSION

Discuss the following quotes about pet peeves and annoying things.

“You can speak loudly with deep silence.”

- Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

“Annoying people are a wake-up call.”

- Auliq Ice

“It’s taken years, but part of my own personal growth has involved deciding that I can learn
something from even the most annoying person.”

- Auliq Ice

“Annoyances are strangely not so annoying when the person responsible has endeared
himself to you.”

- Richelle E. Goodrich

“Don't invite annoying people into your life and set ground rules for the ones you
inherited.”

- Alan Robert Neal

“Some people just don't get that I'll rather talk to a wall than them.”
- Francine Chiar

PRACTICE

Discuss the following questions about pet peeves.

1. How do you deal with things that annoy you?

2. Has anyone ever asked you to stop something because it annoys you?

3. What is the most annoying question that you get asked?

4. Do you think telling people to, “calm down” is effective?

5. Make a list of the top 10 things you think are the most common pet peeves. Google it!

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In Your Own Words

Explain what the word or phrase in bold means and give an example.

Example: She was exhausted because she worked until midnight.

Meaning: very tired - I’m exhausted because I stayed up and studied all night.

1. How many of your pet peeves are on the list?

Meaning /

2. It can put me in a bad mood for the whole day!

Meaning /

3. It's part of the price that we pay for living in such populated cities.

Meaning /

4. It’s really disgusting when people chew with their mouths open.

Meaning /

5. It really makes my blood boil!

Meaning /

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MISSING WORDS

Watch the video or listen to the audio again and complete the sentences.

Sometimes in life, we all find things that other people do very _________________ 1.

It's part of the ______________________ 2 for living in such populated cities. We've been

taking your comments and have come up with this list of the top 3 pet peeves. How many of

your pet peeves are _______________________ 3?

Top Pet Peeves !

1. People pushing onto trains !

A lot of people who ____________________ 4 to our survey travel by train in the morning,

and many of them said the same thing; they hate people who push onto the trains without

letting them ________________ 5 first. On a busy morning on the way to work, the last thing

we need is people being rude. As Tim from Bethell Green said, "It can put me in a

____________________ 6 for the whole day!" !

2. People chewing loudly in restaurants !

Another _____________________ 7 complaint was when people go to a restaurant and eat

with their mouths open. "It's so ____________________ 8" said Candice from Queensbury,

"I don't want to hear someone chewing from across the room." !

3. Busy-bragging !

People often like to talk about how busy they are, and they do it in a way which

______________________ 9 complaining. According to Paul "People just do this to try to

show how important they are. It really __________________________ 10!

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Transcripts

Sometimes in life, we all find things that other people do very annoying. It's part of the price

that we pay for living in such populated cities. We've been taking your comments and have

come up with this list of the top 3 pet peeves. How many of your pet peeves are on the list?

Top Pet Peeves

1. People pushing onto trains

A lot of people who responded to our survey travel by train in the morning, and many of

them said the same thing; they hate people who push onto the trains without letting them

get off first. On a busy morning on the way to work, the last thing we need is people being

rude. As Tim from Bethell Green said, "It can put me in a bad mood for the whole day!"

2. People chewing loudly in restaurants

Another common complaint was when people go to a restaurant and eat with their mouths

open. "It's so disgusting" said Candice from Queensbury, "I don't want to hear someone

chewing from across the room."

3. Busy-bragging

People often like to talk about how busy they are, and they do it in a way which sounds like

complaining. According to Paul "People just do this to try to show how important they are. It

really makes my blood boil!"

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Answer Key

Listening
1. three

2. It’s something that another person does that you find annoying.

3. in the morning

4. They hate people who push onto the trains without letting them get off first.

5. It can put him in a bad mood for the whole day.

6. People who eat with their mouths open.

7. It’s when people talk about how busy they are.

8. It makes his blood boil.

Matching
1. F 2. C 3. H 4. J 5. B 6. J 7. E 8. G 9. A 10. D

Missing Words
1. annoying 2. price that we pay 3. on the list 4. responded 5. get off 6. bad mood
7. common 8. disgusting 9. sounds like 10. makes my blood boil

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