HEAAADERLOGORIGHT

GENERAL ENGLISH · ENGLISH IN VIDEO · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)

THE POWER
OF SMILING

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1 Warm up

In pairs or small groups discuss the questions below.

1. What are some common reasons people smile or laugh?

2. How do you feel when you see someone smiling or laughing? Why?
3. Can you describe the differences between a smile and a laugh?
4. In your culture, when is it considered appropriate or inappropriate to smile or laugh?
5. Have you ever experienced a situation where you couldn’t stop laughing? What happened?
6. How can smiling and laughing positively affect our mood and overall well-being?

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THE POWER OF SMILING

2 Focus on vocabulary

Match the words to the definitions below.

1. intergalactic (adj.) a. make something weaker so it is less effective

2. competent (adj.) b. experience something as a result of your actions

3. uniform (adj.) c. between galaxies

4. a grand (n) d. the same

5. impair (v) e. causing similar behaviour in others

6. contagious (adj.) f. a thousand

7. incur (v) g. able to do something well

3 Before you watch

Part A: You’re going to watch a health expert talk about the benefits of smiling. First, choose the
best answer for each of the statements below, then watch the first part (00:00-04:22) to confirm or
correct your answers.

1. The size of young people’s smiles could help researchers predict the quality of their future:

a. diet

b. marriage

c. career

2. The span of a person’s smile is connected to:

a. how rich they will be

b. how many children they will have

c. how long they will live

3. A third of us smile more than:

a. 20 times per day b. 30 times per day c. 40 times per day

4. Children can smile as many as:

a. 300 times per day b. 400 times per da c. 500 times per day

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Part B: Before you listen to the second part of the talk (04:23-06:59), do the same as in the previous
activity and choose the correct answers for each of the statements below.

1. One smile can generate the same level of brain stimulation as:

a. a good date

b. watching your favourite TV show

c. 2,000 bars of chocolate

2. Smiling gives us an equivalent feeling to receiving:

a. $25,000

b. $50,000

c. $100,000

3. Smiling makes you seem:

a. capable of doing your job

b. satisfied with your job

c. like you find your job easy

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4 Find the words

Part A: Match the underlined word or phrases in the fragments of the transcript (page five) to their
meanings below.

1. (phr. v) make a connection (with something) that will give you an advantage

2. (phr. v) discovered something by accident

3. (phrase) examinations done under the same conditions

4. (n) sudden strong increases in energy

5. (adj.) improving

6. (phrase) believed that something was a result of a particular action

Part B: Find the synonyms in the fragments of the transcript (page five) for each of the verbs below.

1. (para. 1) begin

2. (para. 1) produce

3. (para. 4) decide

4. (para. 4) imitate

5. (para. 5) cause

6. (para. 6) restrain

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1: When I was a child, I always wanted to be a superhero. I wanted to save the world and make
everyone happy, but I knew that I’d need superpowers to make my dreams come true. So, I
used to embark on these imaginary journeys to find intergalactic objects from planet Krypton,
which was a lot of fun but didn’t yield much result. When I grew up and realized that science
fiction was not a good source for superpowers, I decided instead to embark on a journey of real
science, to find a more useful truth.
2: I started my journey in California, with a UC Berkeley 30-year longitudinal study that examined
the photos of students in an old yearbook and tried to measure their success and well-being
throughout their life. By measuring the students’ smiles, researchers were able to predict
how fulfilling and long-lasting a subject’s marriage would be, how well she would score on
standardized tests of well-being, and how inspiring she would be to others. In another yearbook,
I stumbled upon Barry Obama’s picture. When I first saw his picture, I thought that his
superpowers came from his super collar. (...)
3: In studies conducted in Papua New Guinea, Paul Ekman, the world’s most renowned researcher
on facial expressions, found that even members of the Fore tribe, who were completely
disconnected from Western culture, and also known for their unusual cannibalism rituals,
attributed smiles to descriptions of situations the same way you and I would. So from Papua
New Guinea to Hollywood all the way to modern art in Beijing, we smile often and use smiles
to express joy and satisfaction. (...)
4: In a recent mimicking study at the University of Clermont-Ferrand in France, subjects were asked
to determine whether a smile was real or fake while holding a pencil in their mouth to repress
smiling muscles. Without the pencil, subjects were excellent judges, but with the pencil in their
mouth – when they could not mimic the smile they saw – their judgment was impaired.
5: In addition to theorizing on evolution in "The Origin of Species," Charles Darwin also wrote the
facial feedback response theory. His theory states that the act of smiling itself actually makes us
feel better, rather than smiling being merely a result of feeling good. In his study, Darwin actually
cited a French neurologist, Guillaume Duchenne, who sent electric jolts to facial muscles to
induce and stimulate smiles. Please, don’t try this at home.
6: In a related German study, researchers used fMRI imaging to measure brain activity before and
after injecting Botox to suppress smiling muscles. The finding supported Darwin’s theory, by
showing that facial feedback modifies the neural processing of emotional content in the brain,
in a way that helps us feel better when we smile. Smiling stimulates our brain reward mechanism
in a way that even chocolate – a well-regarded pleasure inducer – cannot match.
7: British researchers found that one smile can generate the same level of brain stimulation as up to
2,000 bars of chocolate. Wait – The same study found that smiling is as stimulating as receiving
up to 16,000 pounds sterling in cash. That’s like 25 grand a smile. It’s not bad. And think about
it this way: 25,000 times 400 – quite a few kids out there feel like Mark Zuckerberg every day.
And unlike lots of chocolate, lots of smiling can actually make you healthier. Smiling can help
reduce the level of stress-enhancing hormones like cortisol, adrenaline and dopamine, increase
the level of mood-enhancing hormones like endorphins, and reduce overall blood pressure. (...)
8: So whenever you want to look great and competent, reduce your stress or improve your
marriage, or feel as if you just had a whole stack of high-quality chocolate without incurring
the caloric cost, or as if you found 25 grand in a pocket of an old jacket you hadn’t worn for
ages, or whenever you want to tap into a superpower that will help you and everyone around
you live a longer, healthier, happier life, smile.

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5 Focus on vocabulary: idioms

Part A: Match the idioms with the correct definitions.

Group 1:

1. have the last laugh

2. laugh one’s head off

3. laughing stock

4. laugh in someone’s face

5. laugh up one’s sleeve

a. show open disbelief, contempt, or disrespect towards someone by laughing directly at them

b. be secretly or inwardly amused

c. a person who is publicly ridiculed or made fun of

d. ultimately succeed or be proven right, after initially facing ridicule or doubt

e. laugh uncontrollably or extremely hard

Group 2:

1. a smile that could light up a room

2. no laughing matter

3. you’re having a laugh

4. wipe the smile off someone’s face

5. laugh off

a. a serious situation that should not be treated lightly or made fun of

b. dismiss something by making a joke about it or treating it lightly

c. used to describe someone with a very bright and warm smiley

d. an expression used to convey disbelief or disagreement with what someone is saying, suggesting
they must be joking

e. cause someone to stop feeling happy or pleased, often by revealing unpleasant information or
defeating them in some way

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Part B: Complete the sentences below with the appropriate idiomatic expression from the previous
part. You may need to change the form of the words.

Group 1:

1. The comedian was so funny that I couldn’t help but his entire
performance.

2. When she found out her rival failed the exam, she because she
didn’t want anyone to see her satisfaction.

3. Despite everyone doubting his abilities, he managed to when his

business idea turned out to be a huge success.

4. He was so offended by the ridiculous accusation that he couldn’t help but .

5. After his embarrassing mistake during the presentation, he became the

of the office for a few days.

Group 2:

1. When he said he could run a marathon without any training, I replied, " !
There’s no way you could do that."

2. She tried to her mistake by making a joke about it, but her boss
was not amused.

3. The factory accident was a tragedy and definitely ; it was not appropriate
for anyone to make jokes about it.

4. She had , making everyone feel welcome as soon as she entered

the room.

5. The news of the team’s loss was enough to as the winning streak
came to an end.

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Part C: In pairs or small groups, discuss the following questions.

1. Can you recall a time when you laughed your head off? What was the reason behind it?
2. Have you ever laughed up your sleeve at someone or something? What was the situation, and
why did you choose to laugh secretly?
3. Describe a situation when you, or someone you know, had the last laugh. How did it feel to prove
others wrong?
4. How would you react if someone laughed in your face? Do you think it’s ever acceptable to do
this, or is it always disrespectful?
5. Have you ever felt like a laughing stock? How did you handle the situation, and what did you learn
from the experience?
6. Can you think of a situation where you or someone else managed to laugh off an embarrassing
moment? Did it help ease the tension?
7. Share an example of a time when someone said something so unbelievable or outrageous that you
responded with "You’re having a laugh!"
8. Discuss a situation where joking or laughing would be considered inappropriate or insensitive
because it was a no laughing matter.
9. Who is someone in your life with a smile that could light up a room? How does their smile make
you feel?
10. Describe a time when something wiped the smile off your face. How did you react and move
forward from that moment?

6 Talking point

In pairs or small groups, discuss the following questions.

1. Do you feel annoyed if someone tells you to smile? Why/why not?

2. Do agree with the speaker that smiling is similar to the brain stimulation created by 2,000 bars of
chocolate? Why/why not?
3. Can you think of any idiomatic expressions or sayings related to smiling or laughing in your native
language? How would you translate them into British English?
4. How do you think cultural differences might affect the way people perceive or react to smiling and
laughing?
5. Have you ever experienced a "language barrier" moment that led to laughter? Share your story.

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