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GENERAL ENGLISH · GENERAL ISSUES · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)

A CHANGING
WORLD

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1 Warm up

Work with a partner.

1. Think of some events which you feel have caused an important change in the world (or your
country) in the past year. Explain why you feel they were important.
2. Now think of some changes which have happened in the past ten years. Explain why you feel
these were important.

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2 Collocations
Part A: Match the nouns to the definitions

1. consciousness a. damage to someone’s body in an accident or attack

2. injury b. the state of being awake and being able to think and notice
things
3. coma c. an illness affecting humans, animals or plants

4. disease d. a deep unconscious state, usually lasting a long time

Now match the verbs to the nouns to create collocations.

fall into / catch / lose / suffer / come out of / contract / sustain / regain

verb 1 verb 2

a coma

an injury

a disease

consciousness

Do the collocations for each noun have the same or different meanings?

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Part B: Choose a verb from Part A to fill in the gaps. Remember you may have to change the verb
form:

1. The man a coma after life threatening injuries during a serious

accident.

2. Several people malaria after being bitten by mosquitoes during the trip.

3. The climber consciousness after hitting his head on a rock, but fortunately, he
consciousness after a few minutes.

4. Although the woman only minor injuries in the crash, she a virus
while in hospital, which meant she had to stay for longer than expected.

5. He has been unconscious for some time, but doctors hope he will eventually the
coma.

3 Focus on vocabulary

Part A: Match the words to the definitions.

1. surge (n) a. understand something completely

2. variant (n) b. expect or predict a future situation

3. foresee (v) c. stop changing or moving

4. stabilise (v) d. a sudden increase in the amount of something

5. reminiscent (adj.) e. reminding you of somebody/something

6. transmission (n) f. working hard at something because it is very important to

you
7. grasp (v) g. the process of passing something from one person, place or
thing to another
8. dedicated (adj.) h. a slightly different form of something

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Part B: From the context, decide if the word in brackets is correct, and if not, replace it with a word
from the same word family.

1. The company saw a in the number of bookings when Covid-19 restrictions were
lifted. (surge)

2. We will take into account all circumstances before making our decision. (foresee)

3. Many viruses are through the air. (transmission)

4. When she retired, she was rewarded for her to the company with a generous gift.
(dedicated)

5. He found the exam question very difficult to understand but eventually he it.
(grasp)

6. The doctors were concerned about the patient, but he is now in a condition.
(stabilise)

7. Sometimes, manufacturers release several of the same product. (variant)

8. I often about my university days; I really enjoyed that period of my life. (reminiscent)

4 Scanning for information

Quickly read through the text and note why the following years are mentioned:

a. 1984 –

b. 1989 (x2) –

c. 2003 (x2) –

d. 2021 –

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Waking up in a different world

The stories of two people who regained consciousness to find that a lot had changed

A. In February 2021, a British teenager came out
of a 10-month long coma with no knowledge of
the Covid-19 pandemic despite having caught the
disease twice. Joseph Flavill, 19, suffered a traumatic
brain injury after he was hit by a car on the 1st of
March 2020, when there were only 36 known cases
of Covid-19 in the UK.
B. On the day of the accident, there was little to no
mention of the virus on the front page of most British
newspapers. Few people at the start of March could
have foreseen how quickly things would change
over the next few weeks, but in hindsight we know
that the world was facing an extremely challenging
situation, very different from other pandemics in
recent times.
C. In next to no time headlines were dominated by
words like ‘threat’, ‘crisis’ and ‘battle’, and the "stay at
home" order issued by the British Prime Minister on
the 23rd of March marked the beginning of the UK’s
first lockdown.
D. Over the course of the next year and beyond, people
in the UK saw their lives seriously disrupted. When
Joseph woke up at the start of February 2021, his
family were unable to be with him in person due to
the restrictions in place at the time. Dealing with
a surge in cases caused by a new variant of the
virus, the government was desperately trying to buy
time by slowing transmission while accelerating its
vaccination programme.
E. Joseph’s situation is reminiscent of the 2003 film
Goodbye Lenin! In which an East German woman
falls into a coma in 1989 and regains consciousness
after eight months in a very changed world, having
missed the collapse of communism. The woman’s son
tries to hide the situation from her, fearing the shock
may kill her.
F. In Joseph’s case there was nothing to hide;
everything would be explained in due course.
However, at the time his aunt explained, "I just don’t
know where to start". She claimed that if someone
had told her a year ago about what was going to
happen, she wouldn’t have believed them: a feeling
probably shared by many other people!
G. Others have regained consciousness after a much
longer period of time. American Terry Wallis lost
consciousness and was left in a coma after sustaining
serious injuries in a car crash in 1984. Coincidentally
Wallis was also 19 at the time. Within a year,
his coma had stabilised into a "minimally conscious
state"*, with doctors believing this condition to be
permanent.
H. Remarkably though, on the 11th of June 2003, Terry
started talking again. His dedicated family had taken
him out regularly, and even to special events every
now and again. Scientists believe this may have
helped him to eventually regain full consciousness.
I. When he awoke, he was completely unaware of how
much time had passed and had difficulty grasping the
fact that it was 2003. To him, Ronald Reagan was still
president. In reality, Ronald Reagan had left office in
1989, George W Bush had been elected in 2000 and
the USA had seen two other presidents come and go
in the meantime.
J. At the time of Terry’s accident, the threat of nuclear
war was at the front of many people’s minds in the
USA. He was shocked to hear that the U.S.S.R was no
longer an enemy and that the Berlin wall had fallen.
He had missed the September 11th attacks two years
previously, along with many other significant political
events.

Sources: The Guardian, BBC News, MT Technology Review

*minimally conscious state - a mental state where the person is not in a coma and there is some
evidence of consciousness

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5 Reading comprehension

Read the sentences and decide if they are true (T), false (F) or not given (NG). Give reasons for your
answers.

1. On the 1st of March 2020, many headlines in British newspapers were about Covid-19.

2. A "stay at home" order was in place in the UK when Joseph Flavill came out of the coma.

3. In the film Goodbye Lenin! a man tries to hide the truth from his mother.

4. Joseph Flavills’s family thought it would be difficult to explain the pandemic.

5. Doctors believed that Terry Wallis would regain consciousness eventually.

6. Terry Wallis and Joseph Flavill were the same age when they were involved in serious accidents.

7. Three different US presidents were in office while Terry Wallis was in a coma.

6 Time expressions

Part A: Find an expression in the text which means.

1. analysing the past with the knowledge that one has now (para. B) →

2. so quickly that it is surprising (para. C) →

3. do something in order to delay an event or a decision (para. D) →

4. during (para. D) →

5. at the right time and not before (para. F) →

6. occasionally (para. H) →

7. during the period between two events (para. I) →

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Part B: Fill in the gaps with an expression from Part A.

1. I didn’t know a word of the local language when I moved to the country, but I managed to learn
the basics .

2. She doesn’t really like football, but she watches a match with her friends.

3. Buying this car seemed like the right decision at the time, but I should have bought
a smaller one.

4. My English class finishes at 5pm, but my bus doesn’t leave until 7pm. I’m not sure what I’ll do
.

5. His life changed dramatically the next 5 years; he moved to a new city, finished
his degree and found his dream job.

6. Please be patient. Your request will be dealt with .

7. I’m not ready yet! Can you go and talk to her for a minute to me some .

Part C: Discuss the questions

1. Describe something you do every now and again. Why don’t you do it more regularly?
2. What would you like to do over the course of the next few years?
3. Think of a decision you would have made differently in hindsight. Why didn’t you make that
decision at the time?
4. Have you ever tried to buy time when you wanted to delay something? Were you successful?

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7 Talking point

In pairs, discuss the questions below.

1. How would you begin to describe the Covid pandemic to someone who knew nothing about it
2. How much has the world changed since Terry woke up in 2003?
3. Do you know any other accounts of people who have regained consciousness after a long period
of time? Is so, what happened?
4. Terry Wallis was in a minimally conscious state between 1984 and 2003. How much do you think
the following had changed in that time:

• Entertainment (e.g. music, film, magazines)

• Technology (e.g. phones, computers, communication)
• Social issues (e.g. racial equality, gender equality)

8 Writing – optional task / homework

Write a short account of the change or event, aimed at somebody who doesn’t know anything about
it. You should write 200-300 words. Choose one of the following:

• an change or event you discussed during the warm-up task

• an change or event you discussed during the talking point

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