Marvel Powers American English Teacher

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ENGLISH FOR TEENAGERS · GENERAL ISSUES · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)
MARVEL
POWERS
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1 Warm up
Part A: What superpowers would you like to have out of the following and what would you do if you
had them?
• The ability to control fire

• The ability to become invisible
• Incredible superhuman strength
• The ability to stretch your body into any shape you want
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UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)
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Part B: These superpowers belong to the Marvel comic book characters, the Fantastic Four. Match
the characters with their descriptions.
1. Reed Richards
2. Susan Storm
3. Ben Grimm
4. Johnny Storm
a. Also known as the Human Torch, this character is the younger brother of Susan Storm. He can
engulf his body in fire at any time and control any nearby fire. He can also fly.
b. This character is also known as the Invisible Woman. Not only does she have the ability to become
invisible but she is also able to make other things invisible too. She is married to Reed Richards.
c. This character is also known as Mister Fantastic. He is a scientist and inventor. Known as the
smartest man in the universe, he has extensive knowledge of science and engineering. He can
stretch his body at will.
d. Also known as The Thing, this character has superhuman strength. He looks like a very large
rock-like monster. He was a former test pilot. His catchphrase is: "It’s clobberin’ time!"
2 Video: prediction task
In the beginning of the following video a man named Zach King receives a delivery. It is a box labelled
"Fant4stic Delivery Kit".
1) What could be in the box?
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2) Look at this picture from inside the box. What do you think are inside these four
boxes? What do you think the symbols mean?
Now watch the video and answer the following questions.
1. What were in the boxes?

2. How was each item related to the Fantastic Four characters?
3. If you could have a box of anything delivered to your door, what would be in it?
Interjections
• In the video Zach uses interjections. These are words that express a feeling, in this
case excitement. For example, Zach says: "Woah!" and "Oh yeah!". Other examples of
interjections include:
yikes → expresses alarm ouch → something hurts
oops → refers to a mistake well→ expresses surprise or sympathy
wow → something amazing
• They can be used on their own, e.g.: If you see something cool you can simply say: "Wow!"
Otherwise, if used in a sentence they are seen as separate to it so in writing they are
marked off by commas, e.g.: "Wow, that’s cool."
• They often (but not always) are followed by an exclamation mark.
• They are informal, so interjections should not be used in formal writing!

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3 Focus on vocabulary
Part A: Match each word or phrase to its correct definition.
1. out of the ashes (phr.) a. payments made to the owner or author of a work
2. venture (n) b. state of being legally unable to pay debts
3. in a bid to (phr.) c. something promised as security for a loan
4. collateral (n) d. conflict and difficulty
5. strife (n) e. an attempt to do something
6. royalties (n) f. help someone with a problem, especially financial
7. bankruptcy (n) g. emerge anew from some destruction
8. bail out (phr. verb) h. new business activity, especially involving risk
Part B: Write the correct word or phrase from Part A in each sentence.
1. The shop started a ’buy one box get one free’ offer increase sales.
2. The bank said it was too big to fail, so the government gave them a
of 10 million dollars.
3. Financial problems are a big source of for families.
4. Although the singer only had one big hit he was able to live off the
when the song was used as the theme song for a sitcom.
5. The United Nations emerged of World War II.
6. After a series of financial losses the company was no longer able to pay its debts and had to declare
.
7. The billionaire’s latest was the delivery of groceries by drone.
8. The woman offered a diamond ring as for her loan.
Part C: Match each word or phrase to its correct definition.
1. pay off (phr. verb) a. speculation by non-professionals on which actors would suit

a role
2. fan-casting (n) b. have a successful result
3. in earnest (phr.) c. lose something as a penalty
4. forfeit (v) d. total income before tax
5. cumulative (adj.) e. take some risk to try to achieve a result
6. gamble (n) f. with serious and sincere intention
7. gross (n) g. increased by each addition
8. on deck (phr.) h. the next one in line to do something

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4 Listening: prediction task

You are going to listen to an audio recording about Marvel. Predict the answers to the following
topics.
1. Why did Marvel sell the rights to X-Men and Fantastic Four?
a. it needed the money
b. it was bored with the characters and wanted to get rid of them
c. an employee did a fraudulent deal
2. By 1996 Marvel
a. was the biggest company in the world
b. had become bankrupt
c. had changed its name
3. The movie Blade made $70m at the box office. How much did Marvel make from it?
a. $1,000,000 b. $100,000 c. $25,000
4. The MCU stands for
a. Marvelous Characters United
b. Marvel Cinematic Universe
c. Marvel’s Cool USA
5. The Fantastic Four reboot is set to come out in
a. 2023 b. 2024 c. 2025
Look back at your predictions. Which ones were right?

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5 Intensive listening
Listen to the audio again and complete the gaps with vocabulary from exercise three. Note the form
of the word may be different from how it appears in exercise three so listen carefully for the correct
answer.
Part A:
1
a. But by the time the 1990s rolled around Marvel was in financial trouble.
2 3
of financial Marvel did a number
of licensing deals throughout the 80s and 90s.
b. The licenses typically gave the rights to the moviestudios to use the characters and in return
4
Marvel would receive a fee or – without having the produce the
movies themselves.
c. But, despite these efforts, by 1996, Marvel was ultimately forced to declare
5
.
6
d. | The company struggled on until 1998 when it was able to emerge
from bankruptcy under the control of toy-industry billionaire Isaac Perlmutter.
7
e. Marvel realized the real money would only come if it started a new
to make its own movies.
8
f. As , the company put up rights to 10 of the biggest characters,
including Ant-Man, Black Panther, and the Avengers.
Part B:
1
a. If Marvel’s movie’s bombed, some of its most valuable properties would be .
2 3
It was a huge , which fortunately for them, .
4
b. The movie was a huge hit when it came out in 2008 and ultimately
more than $585 million.
5
c. By 2020 more than 20 MCU movies had been released, and the franchise’s
global box office receipts had topped $22 billion.
6
d. The was Fantastic Four.
e. While a director and writers have been attached no actors have been cast yet. But
7 8
has begun .

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6 Grammar: reported speech
Part A: Reported speech is used when we want to report what someone else has said. It is a type of
indirect speech.
• Direct speech:
"My name is Ben Grimm aka The Thing. I have superhuman strength. I am taking a break now
because I have just clobbered some villains. I had been asked to do so by Reed Richards.
Actually, I have been clobbering villains all week right here in the town square. I will clobber
some more tomorrow too."
• Reported speech:
"I met this weird guy a couple of days ago. He told me his name was Ben Grimm aka The Thing
and that he had superhuman strength. Oh, and he also said that he had been clobbering
villains right there in the town square. Oh and he looked like he was made of rocks."
In reported speech we move the tense further back in the past, for example:
present simple → past simple
"My name is Ben Grimm." → He told me his name was Ben Grimm.
present continuous → past continuous
"I am taking a break." → He told me that he was taking a break.
present perfect → past perfect (and their continuous forms)
"I have clobbered some villains" → He said that he had clobbered some villains.
"I have been clobbering villains" → He said that he had been clobbering villains.
Past perfect does not change
"I had been asked to do so by my friend, Richard Reed."
He said he had been asked to do so by his friend, Richard Reed.

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• We may also need to change other words for it to make sense, e.g.:
"... by my friend, Richard Reed." → ... by his friend, Richard Reed.
"... right here in the town square" → ... right there in the town square
"I will clobber some more tomorrow too." → He said he would

clobber some more the following day too.
Sometimes we do not change the tenses. This is only when the thing is still true or relevant.
For example:
• "My name is Ben Grimm." → "He said his name was Ben Grimm." or "He said his name is Ben
Grimm."
• Or if Ben said: "I will clobber some more on Friday too." and you are reporting this to
someone on Monday (before Friday) then the clobbering has not yet happened.
• So then you can say either: "He said he will clobber some more on Friday too.” or ‘’He said
he would clobber some more on Friday too."
Important!
• You tell someone something, e.g.: He told me that, he told him that. (Only "He told that" is
incorrect)
• You say something: He said hello. (Not: he said him hello).
Part B: Change the following direct speech statements to reported speech. The beginnings are in
italics.
1. "I love bananas" John said

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2. "I ate a raw turnip yesterday." He told me that
3. "My friend was running for hours in this forest here." He said that
4. "I will go home next year." He said that
5. "They’d seen many Marvel movies." He said that
7 Class survey
Part A: Do a short survey of your classmates and make short notes of the answers.
Part B: Now use the results from above and report them to someone else.
For example:
Sinita told me that she has seen 10 Marvel movies. She said that her favorite is
Dr. Strange. She is a big fan of them. Her favorite character is Dr. Strange.
8 Roleplay (optional)
You will be either the producer or director of the new Fantastic Four movie. You have to meet to
discuss your casting ideas so you can agree on a final list together.

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Role: Producer of the Fantastic Four reboot
• You are a producer of the new Fantastic Four movie. You already have some great ideas
for the actors you want to cast in the movie.
• From your perspective you want to cast the actors who are going to bring in the most
money and will be easy to market to an audience.
• But you have to negotiate with the director first. You’re going to have a meeting to discuss
the potential cast. Listen to the director’s ideas and try to agree on a final list together.
• You want to cast:
1. ________________________________________ - as Reed Richards

2. ________________________________________ - as Susan Storm
3. ________________________________________ - as Ben Grimm
4. ________________________________________ - as Johnny Storm
Role: Director of the Fantastic Four reboot
• You are the director of the new Fantastic Four movie. You already have some great ideas
for the actors you want to cast in the movie
• You want to cast the best actors for the roles. You don’t care how well-known they are.
You don’t care so much about finances and marketing. You just want the perfect actor
for the role.
• But you have to negotiate with the producer first. You’re going to have a meeting to
discuss the potential cast. Listen to the producer’s ideas and try to negotiate the final list
you can agree on.
• You want to cast:
1. ________________________________________ - as Reed Richards

2. ________________________________________ - as Susan Storm
3. ________________________________________ - as Ben Grimm
4. ________________________________________ - as Johnny Storm

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9 Homework/extension exercise
a) Write a review of a Marvel movie you’ve seen before.
1. Give it a star rating (1 for the worst and 5 for the best).
2. Who stars in it? What is it about?
3. Who are the main characters in it?
4. Explain what was good about it and bad about it.
b) Watch a trailer of a Marvel movie you haven’t seen before.
1. Write a short description of it.

2. Who stars in it?
3. What does it seem to be about?
4. Do you think you will watch it? Why/why not?
c) Write the correct word or phrase from in each sentence.
cumulative fan-casting forfeit gamble

gross in earnest next on deck paid off
1. He had to his deposit after he left the rental property in a damaged

state.
2. Her of buying the shares worked out well after the price doubled
overnight.
3. The student’s hours of study when he became top of the class.
4. The company’s profit has increased five-fold since last year.
5. The effect of years of loud music damaged the drummers hearing.
6. Sarah’s boss had retired two years earlier and now she was the to
head into retirement.
7. When the new Star Wars movie was announced forums people immediately started
on online forums.
8. Once her children had left home Marina began writing and was
finally able to complete her novel.
d) Discuss these questions and use the words in bold in your answer
1. Have you ever taken a gamble? Did it pay off?

2. What kind of business venture would you start if you could?

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Transcripts
2. Video: prediction task
Speaker: Fantastic Kit
Speaker: Woah.
Speaker: Flame On Matches. Do not strike indoors.
Speaker: Slinky Plus Hand.
Speaker: What is this?
Speaker: How does this work?
Speaker: Glue Plus Rocks.
Speaker: Woah! This is awesome!
Speaker: Oh yeah!
4. Listening: prediction task
Speaker: The complex web of Marvel
Speaker: Marvel was a comic book publisher which started in 1939. In 1961 it launched its Marvel
era when the company released The Fantastic Four. But by the time the 1990s rolled
around Marvel was in financial trouble.
Speaker: In a bid to bail itself out of financial strife, Marvel did a number of licensing deals throughout
the 80s and 90s. For example, Marvel sold the film rights to X-Men and Fantastic Four to
20th Century Fox. It sold The Incredible Hulk to Universal Pictures and Spiderman to Sony.
Speaker: The licenses typically gave the rights to the film studios to use the characters and in
return, Marvel would receive a fee or royalties – without having the produce the movies
themselves.
Speaker: But, despite these efforts, by 1996, Marvel was ultimately forced to declare bankruptcy.
Speaker: Out of the ashes
Speaker: The company struggled on until 1998 when it was able to emerge from bankruptcy under
the control of toy-industry billionaire Isaac Perlmutter.
Speaker: It then decided to start making its own movies. The company had seen that movies with
their characters were popular, such as Blade in 1998, X-Men in 2000 and Spiderman in
2002. But Marvel didn’t actually make that much money from them. Blade, for instance,
made $70 million at the box office, but Marvel only got a return of $25,000.
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Speaker: The Marvel Movie era
Speaker: Marvel realized the real money would only come if it started a new venture to make its own
movies. But to do it they needed to take an enormous risk. To finance the new venture,
Marvel took on a $525 million loan. As collateral, the company put up rights to 10 of the
biggest characters, including Ant-Man, Black Panther, and the Avengers. If Marvel’s movie
were bombed, some of its most valuable properties would be forfeited. It was a huge
gamble, which fortunately for them, paid off.
Speaker: The first movie they chose to make was Iron Man. It was chosen after focus groups revealed
it was the character most likely to sell toys. The film was a huge hit when it came out in
2008 and ultimately grossed more than $585 million.
Speaker: The year after its release, Disney bought Marvel for $4 billion dollars. It was a wise
investment as Iron Man became the first movie of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
And the MCU would go on to become the highest-grossing movie franchise in history.
Speaker: The MCU
Speaker: The MCU is a single shared universe where all of the characters can cross over. So far there
have been four phases within it. Iron Man was the first movie in Phase 1, which concluded
with The Avengers, a film which alone grossed more than $1.5 billion worldwide. By 2020
more than 20 MCU films had been released, and the franchise’s cumulative global box
office receipts had topped $22 billion.
Speaker: Marvel also wanted its other characters back. After a court battle in 2015, they reached
an agreement with Sony to share Spiderman allowing both studios to use the character.
Speaker: Fantastic Four reboot
Speaker: The next on deck was Fantastic Four. Marvel managed to gain the rights back after Disney
acquired the rights holder of 20th Century Fox in 2019. A Fantastic Four reboot is now in
the works.
Speaker: Currently pegged for release in February 2025, the movie will be part of Phase 6 which
will also include Deadpool 3, and two Avengers sequels. While a director and writers have
been attached no actors have been cast yet. But fan-casting has begun in earnest. As for
the plot, the only thing that has been announced is that it won’t be an origin story.
Speaker: Will the world domination of the MCU continue? Only time will tell.
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Key
1. Warm up
3 mins,
Part A: Students can have a fun discussion of superpowers in order to get into the topic. Put them in pairs or small
groups to discuss.
After feedback ask them to move on to Part B
3 mins.
1. → c. 2. → b. 3. → d. 4. → a.
These superpowers belong to the Marvel comic book characters, the Fantastic Four.
Students should match the characters with their descriptions. Even if they don’t know anything about the characters
they will be able to do this through logic starting with Susan Storm. She is the only woman, she is married to Reed
and is the brother of Johnny. This then leaves only Ben.
2. Video: prediction task
5 mins.
Students do the prediction takes to prepare for the short video ahead. They can watch the video and then discuss
the questions. The video does not have a lot of language so one viewing will probably be enough.
Source for images: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kPkTncSxCM
3. Focus on vocabulary
Students match the vocabulary with the definitions and then complete the gap fills. Let them know these will
appear in a listening exercise to come.
Part A:
5 mins.
1. → g. 2. → h. 3. → e. 4. → c. 5. → d. 6. → a. 7. → b. 8. → f.
Part B:
5 mins.
1. in a bid to 2. bail out 3. strife 4. royalties

5. out of the ashes 6. bankruptcy 7. venture 8. collateral
Part C:
5 mins.
1. → b. 2. → a. 3. → f. 4. → c. 5. → g. 6. → e. 7. → d. 8. → h.
4. Listening: prediction task
3 mins.
Students do the prediction task in individuals or pairs to prepare for the listening task ahead.
1. a. 2. b. 3. c. 4. b. 5. c.
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Students listen to the audio and then revisit their prediction questions.
Sources:
https://www.teampay.co/blog/marvel-back-from-bankruptcy
https://slate.com/business/2021/03/marvel-comics-history-bankruptcy-cinematic-universe.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Cinematic_Universe
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Marvel-Comics
https://www.cnet.com/pictures/the-marvel-cinematic-universe-incredible-hidden-history/
5. Intensive listening
Allow the students to listen again so they can complete the gaps.
Part A:
3 mins.
1. In a bid to 2. bail itself out 3. strife 4. royalties

5. bankruptcy 6. Out of the ashes 7. venture 8. collateral
Part B:
3 mins.
1. forfeited 2. gamble 3. paid off 4. grossed

5. cumulative 6. next on deck 7. fan-casting 8. in earnest
6. Grammar: reported speech
Part A:
10 mins.
Give students time to read through this grammar section and discuss the examples with them. Make sure they
are clear before moving on to the practice. Note that this is a brief overview and it does not cover all aspects of
reported speech. The reporting verbs have also been kept simple (e.g.: only say and tell) to keep the focus on the
backshifting of tenses and other word changes. But you may wish to mention these if appropriate, for example
ask, advise, remark, state, etc.
Part B:
5 mins.
Students practice reported speech by completing the sentences.
1. John said he loved bananas. / he loves bananas.

2. He told me that he had eaten a raw turnip the day before.
3. He said that his friend had been running for hours in that forest there.
4. He said that he will go home next year / would go home next year.
5. He said that they’d seen many Marvel movies.
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7. Class survey
Part A:
5 mins.
Depending on time and the arrangement of your class students could simply pair up with the person next to them
or do a class mingle and talk to more than one person. The idea is to have an opportunity to discuss the Marvel
movies with each other and to also gather information which they will then report in the next section.
Part B:
5 mins.
Students can now mingle or pair up with someone else in order to report some of the information they have
gathered.
8. Roleplay (optional)
Give students some time to prepare for the roleplay by coming up with possible names of actors. It would be
helpful if you can have a list at hand of top-grossing movie stars or similar so they could simply select from a list.
Encourage them to come up with names of stars they might know from their own country. Then pair them up in
Director, Producer pairs and give them time to argue their case. Monitor and do feedback to find out who they
did or didn’t agree on. If there is an uneven number any extras can be an additional producer.
9. Homework/extension exercise
a); b)These are optional exercises for students who are excited to do more on the Marvel theme. You could
encourage them to share their thoughts on the movie or trailer in the next class if they want to.
c) This exercise is intended to revise the vocabulary of the current classes.
1. forfeit 2. gamble 3. paid off 4. gross

5. cumulative 6. next on deck 7. fan-casting 8. in earnest
d) This exercise is for optional discussion to reinforce a few of the words.
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ENGLISH FOR TEENAGERS · GENERAL ISSUES · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)

• The ability to control ﬁre

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2 Video: prediction task

1) What could be in the box?

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Now watch the video and answer the following questions.

1. What were in the boxes?

yikes → expresses alarm ouch → something hurts

oops → refers to a mistake well→ expresses surprise or sympathy

wow → something amazing

• They often (but not always) are followed by an exclamation mark.

• They are informal, so interjections should not be used in formal writing!

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2. venture (n) b. state of being legally unable to pay debts

3. in a bid to (phr.) c. something promised as security for a loan

4. collateral (n) d. conﬂict and diﬃculty

5. strife (n) e. an attempt to do something

6. royalties (n) f. help someone with a problem, especially ﬁnancial

7. bankruptcy (n) g. emerge anew from some destruction

3. Financial problems are a big source of for families.

5. The United Nations emerged of World War II.

7. The billionaire’s latest was the delivery of groceries by drone.

8. The woman oﬀered a diamond ring as for her loan.

Part C: Match each word or phrase to its correct deﬁnition.

1. pay oﬀ (phr. verb) a. speculation by non-professionals on which actors would suit

3. in earnest (phr.) c. lose something as a penalty

4. forfeit (v) d. total income before tax

5. cumulative (adj.) e. take some risk to try to achieve a result

6. gamble (n) f. with serious and sincere intention

7. gross (n) g. increased by each addition

8. on deck (phr.) h. the next one in line to do something

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4 Listening: prediction task

a. it needed the money

c. an employee did a fraudulent deal

a. was the biggest company in the world

b. had become bankrupt

c. had changed its name

a. $1,000,000 b. $100,000 c. $25,000

4. The MCU stands for

a. Marvelous Characters United

b. Marvel Cinematic Universe

c. Marvel’s Cool USA

5. The Fantastic Four reboot is set to come out in

a. 2023 b. 2024 c. 2025

Look back at your predictions. Which ones were right?

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6 Grammar: reported speech

present simple → past simple

present continuous → past continuous

"I am taking a break." → He told me that he was taking a break.

present perfect → past perfect (and their continuous forms)

Past perfect does not change

"I had been asked to do so by my friend, Richard Reed."

He said he had been asked to do so by his friend, Richard Reed.

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"... by my friend, Richard Reed." → ... by his friend, Richard Reed.

"I will clobber some more tomorrow too." → He said he would

1. "I love bananas" John said

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