Our world
— A —
Reading and vocab ulary Everyday life
1 SPEAKING Which of these things are most important
to you? Which are least important? Number them
1 (most important) to 7 (least important).
education family : free time friends: happiness
■ health ■ success
2 Read the article about a film called Life in a Day.
What things are important to people in the film?
STRATEGY
Scan n in g for specific inform ation
If you need to find specific information in a text, like
a name or a number, you do not need to read every
word. You can quickly scan the text for key words.
To scan a text:
decide what information you want to find: a number,
a date, a time, a name.
move your eyes quickly down the page until you find
the information.
■ do not read whole sentences until you have found
your answer
3 Read the strategy. Scan the article to complete
sentences 1-7. You will find the information in
paragraphs 1 and 2.
1 The film is by a director called
2 People recorded their day on
July 2010.
3 They sent in ............................................. video clips.
4 There w ere..................................... hours of footage.
5 It took...................................weeks to make the film.
6 I he film is minutes long.
7 There are .................................. countries in the film.
4 Read the article. Are the sentences true (T), false (F)
or not given (NG)? Correct the false ones.
1 People recorded short video clips of a special day.
2 The film begins at the start of a new day.
3 People in the film have friends in other countries.
4 I he director thinks w e worry about different things.
5 People in the film don't have typical things in their
pockets.
6 I he man with empty pockets feels ashamed because
he hasn't got any money.
7 The young woman is happy with her life.
8 Most people want to be rich and famous.
4 O u r w orld
LIFE DAY
W h a t do you love? W h a t do you fear? W h a t ’s in
yo u r p ocket? These are the questions from the film Life
in a Day. D irector Kevin Macdonald asked people around
the w orld to answ er the questions and send in a video
5 clip from a typical day. H e was interested in creating a
picture o f the world, a digital time capsule for the future.
O n 24 July 2 0 10, people from Africa, Europe, America,
Antarctica and Asia recorded events on their mobile
phones and digital cameras and uploaded the results
io onto YouTube. Altogether there w ere 8 1,000 video clips,
o r 4,500 hours o f footage. It too k Macdonald and a team
o f researchers seven weeks to make them into a film.
The film starts at midnight.The moon is high in the sky,
elephants are bathing in a river in Africa and a baby is
is sleeping. A t the same time, in other parts o f the world,
people are getting up, brushing their teeth and making
breakfast. In the next minutes o f the film, which is one and
a half hours long, w e watch everyday routines from more
than 140 different countries and see the connections
20 between them. In one scene an American girl is playing
with her hula hoop, in another a child is working as a
shoeshine in Peru. O n e looks privileged, the other is poor;
but then the shoeshine boy shows us his favourite thing -
his laptop. He's very proud o f it because he earned the
25 money to pay for it.
'W e all care about the same things,' says the director and
in some ways he’s right. Family and friends are the things
most people love and many o f them are keen on sports,
like football. But then one man says he loves his cat and
3o another loves his fridge because it doesn’t talk back!
Monsters, dogs and death are the things most people fear
O n e young girl is anxious about growing up and a man
in Antarctica says,Tm afraid o f losing this place/ But when
asked,'W h a t’s in your pocket?', the answers are surprising.
35 W e don't see an ID card, a shopping list, o r a bus ticket.
Instead, one person has a gun, then another shows us
car keys for his Lamborghini. A po orer man says he has
nothing. He's not ashamed o f his poverty because he
adds,'But w e are alive.’
40 The film ends just before midnight, with a young woman
in her car It's raining outside and she's fed up with her
life. She was excited about Life in a Day, but her day was
to o boring to film. 'I just w ant people to know that I’m
here,’ she says.‘W h a t she really wants is to be different, to
45 matter;’ says Macdonald. In Life in a Day, that's w hat most
people want.
V ocab ulary: adjectives + prepositions: feelings; com pound nouns: everyday Sp eak ing : discussing everyday life, travel and immigration;
1 A
objects; collocations: make and do; phrasal verbs: get persuading; asking for personal information
G ram m ar: present simple and continuous; articles W ritin g : an informal letter

5 SPEAKING Work in pairs. Discuss the questions

from the film.
■ W hat do you love?
■ W hat do you fear?
■ What's in your pocket?
Work with another pair and compare your answers.
The director of Life in a D ay thinks people are very
similar. Is he right? Are your answers similar or
different?

nsight Adjectives + prepositions: feelings

6 Study the highlighted adjectives in questions 1-8.

Scan the article to find the missing prepositions.
Complete the questions. Then work in pairs and
answer the questions.
1 Which sports are you interested.......................?
2 Which possessions or achievements are you
proud.......................?
3 Which school subjects are you keen ?
4 W hat do you get anxious .....?
5 What are you afraid .?
6 W hat things might people feel ashamed....................
7 W hat do you get fed u p ....................... ?
8 W hat do you get excited ..........?

nsight Compound nouns: everyday objects

7 A compound noun is a word or phrase that has two or

more parts that combine to make a single meaning,
for example, ca rpark. Find compound nouns in the
article to match definitions 1-6.
1 a portable machine with a keyboard
2 a thing you use to open the door of a car
3 a piece of paper that lets you travel from one place
to another
4 a note of the things you want to buy
5 a document that shows who you are
6 a portable machine that lets you call people

8 Make ten compound nouns with the words below.

ring
computer
game
parking credit
centre card
shopping concert
ticket bag
birthday
program
key
board

9 SPEAKING Work in groups. Imagine you are filming

a video clip for Life in a Day. What part of your day
are you filming and why?

Vocabulary bank Routines page 134

O ur w orld