Giáo trình Speaking 3 - Trần Thị Gia Quý (Phần 1)

tify which 
category your own family fits into, and whether this is typical in your country. 
- Discuss the pros and cons of each category. 
- Discuss questions 1 -6. 
Vocabulary: 
- Matriarchal (a): belonging to a social organization in which mothers are the 
heads of families. 
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- Patriarchal (a): belonging to a social organization in which fathers are the heads 
of families 
- Instil (v): introduce (ideas, etc.) gradually 
2. Listening: You will hear an Indian woman (born in Britain) describing how an Indian 
family differs from an English family. 
- Predict the differences between Indian and English family life. 
- Answer the questions: 
 a. Does the Indian woman agree that there is no family life in England? 
 b. Is the typical English family nuclear? 
 c. List two pros and two cons of the extended family. 
 d. Who is expected to look after old people in England? 
Answer: 
 a. no 
 b. yes 
 c. pros: support for other family members (young help old), sense of continuum (not 
fragile like nuclear family); cons: intrusive, no room for individuality, forced to do what 
you don’t necessarily want to do, conservative 
 d. the state 
III. LIFE IN A KIBBUTZ 
- Think what a kibbutz is and what the lifestyle there is like. 
- Read the facts and rank the various elements from the most positive (i.e. those that 
you most agree with) to the most negative. Think about the rationale behind these ideas. 
Vocabulary: 
- Kibbutz (n): communal farm or settlement in Israel 
- Communal (a): of or for a community; for common use; shared 
- Allocate (v): give, put on one side, as a share or for a purpose 
IV. LOVE AND MARRIAGE 
1. Read the passage and discuss the questions 
Vocabulary: 
- Polygamy (n): is a generic word which covers both polygyny and polyandry; the 
latter is very rare. 
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2. Listening: 
Listen to a Uganda woman talking about polygamy in her country. Answer the 
following questions: 
 a. How many wives did her father and grandfather have? 
 b. What advantages dos polygamy have? 
Answer: 
 a. 5 (father), 20 (grandfather) 
 b. replacement mothers 
V. SACRIFICE? 
1. Read the passage and answer the true/false statements. Then discuss your answers with 
your friends. 
Vocabulary: 
- overstep (v): go beyond 
- Bronchitis (n): inflammation of the mucous membrane of the bronchi 
 Bệnh viêm cuống phổi 
- Pneumonia (n): serious illness with inflammation of one or both lungs 
 Viêm phổi 
- Lobe (n): subdivision of the lungs or brain 
 Thuỳ (phổi, não) 
2. Listening: Listen to a New Zealander, an American and an Indian (born in England) 
discussing what they will do with their parents when they get old. 
Answer these questions: 
 a. How old are the first speaker’s parents? 
 b. Does he want to have his parents living with him? - why? Why not? 
 c. In India where do grandparents live? 
 d. Does the Indian woman want to have her parents living with her? Would they 
agree? 
 e. Why are old people’s homes so “terrible”? 
 f. What is the best solution? 
Answer: 
 a. approaching 70s 
 b. no; unnatural 
 c. with their children 
 d. yes; maybe not 
 e. surrounded by only old people 
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 f. granny flat ( a house next door) 
* Look at unit 10: “Parents Are Too Permissive with Their Children Nowadays” in the 
book For and Against by Alexander , L. G. for more ideas. 
UNIT 7: GEOGRAPHY 
I. WARM-UPS 
- Draw quick outlines of five countries. 
- Pass these outlines to your partner, who has to write sentences like: I think this is 
France, this looks like Britain, this could be Australia, this must be Italy. They then 
criticize each other’s maps: this should have been bigger, you’ve missed out this part, etc. 
II. GEOGRAPHY TEST 
1. Answer the ten questions 1-10 in groups and see which group can finish first. Then 
check the answer in the key. (statistics on questions 2 and 3 vary from source to source 
and year to year, so check with an up-to-date reference book). Then discuss the questions 
11 and 12 
Some useful words: highlands; steep and dangerous mountains (núi non hiểm trở); low 
temperature; low-lying area (vùng đất thấp); flood; storm; drought (hạn hán). 
2. Writing: 
Discuss one of the following: 
 a. If you could live anywhere in the world (apart from where you live now) where 
would it be? 
 b. Are people who live in cold climates greater achievers than those who live in 
warmer climates? 
Write down your ideas. 
3. Listening: 
- Listen to some people discussing the effects of geographical location on people’s lives 
and personality. 
- Fill the answers while listening in the table below. 
Country Features Climate Personality 
Speaker 1: NZ 
Speaker 2: USA 
“Features” refers to geographical and natural features 
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“Personality” refers to the effect that these features and climate have on the personality of 
the inhabitants. 
Some useful words and phrases: 
- friendlier as a consequence 
- everything was accessible 
- the climate’s quite extreme 
- outstanding natural beauty 
Answer: 
Country Features Climate Personality 
Speaker 1: NZ Open space, 
beautiful nature, 
beaches, skiing 
Hot summers, 
cold winters 
Friendly, easy-
going, relaxed 
Speaker 2: USA Natural beauty, 
cities 
 East: reserved and 
hard 
West: laid-back, 
warm, open 
 4. Writing: 
Choose two or three of the following and write about the implications of living under 
such conditions: in a remote mountain village, under a volcano, in a desert, in a third 
world country, near a river which often floods, where there is no natural water supply, 
near a nuclear power station. 
III. SETTLEMENTS: 
1. Discussion: 
a. Think of the life of primitive man. Focus the discussion in the following areas: 
food, shelter, defence, health, religion and death, industry and trade, entertainment. 
* For reference: Life in Britain: In the Paleolithic age (before 8000 BC) people lived 
by hunting, fishing and food gathering (e.g. nuts, roots and berries); often dwelled in 
caves; animals included bison, bear, rhino and hyena. Mesolithic (8000 - 3250 BC): still 
no permanent settlements; first evidence of temporary woodland clearances. Neolithic: 
began farming land with grain crops; settlement on high ground; burial chambers; 
extensive trade in stone axes. Bronze age (1700 -500 BC): bronze weapons and 
ornamental objects; wood and stone still used fro agricultural tools; more forest clearing; 
stone circles; evidence of lowland settlements. Iron age (500 BC-43AD): hilltop forts 
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serve as tribal capitals; farmsteads and small villages; cattle and sheep grazing; trade 
routes expanded. 
Vocabulary: 
- Paleolithic (a): Thời kỳ đồ đá 
- Dwell (v): reside 
- Bison (n): European wild ox; American buffalo 
- Rhino (n): con tê giác 
- Hyena (n):linh cẩu 
- Mesolithic (a): thời đại đồ đá giữa 
- Neolithic (a): thời kỳ đồ đá giữa 
 b. Imagine that you are part of a primitive tribe. You have just moved to a new area 
and are deciding where to settle. Look at the map and decide on three alternative positions 
for your camp. Then decide on the best position. 
Suggested ideas: Decide whether you will live on the mountains, or in the forest where 
you rely on hunting animals and picking fruit for living; or on the grassland where there 
are many edible animals; or on the lowland where you rely on agriculture; or near the 
ocean where you rely on fishing, etc. 
2. Follow-up: 
a. Get a local map, think about possible locations for some of the following: a new 
town, disco, supermarket, sports center, etc. in your city. Write a description of the 
locations and the reasons why you choose them. 
 b. Local geography: What do you know about the origin of the places where you 
live? What do you know about the local history? 
IV. THE PETERS PROJECTION 
- Cover the Peters Projection and focus your attention on the traditional map (the top 
one) 
- Compare the relative sizes of Greenland (2, 175,600 km²) and Australia ( 7, 682, 
300 km²) to estimate which is the bigger and how much bigger it is. (Australia is more 
than three times as big). Think of the main problem of map-making (i.e. how to represent 
a three dimensional globe on a two-dimensional map). 
For reference: Mercator, the Flemish cartographer, whose map, published in 1569, is the 
basis of our modern maps, resolved the problem by treating the world as a cylinder (north 
up, south down) to make life easy for navigators. 
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- Look at the Peters Projection. What are the relative proportion of the various 
countries? Why was such a map made? How does it affect our view? 
Suggested ideas: Mercator placed Europe in the center of his world picture. And since 
the southern hemisphere was something of an irrelevance in 1569, he relegated it to the 
bottom third of the map. Peters drew the earth in “equal-area” and in the atlas itself, all 
pages are of equal scale and representation. This also means third world countries become 
much more prominent on the map. 
- Read the two passages and decide which comes from the introduction to the Peters 
Atlas and which from a review. 
Vocabulary: 
Answer: 1. Introduction to the Peters Atlas 
 2. Review (The Economist) 
UNIT 8: HONESTY 
I. WARM-UPS 
Brainstorm on what you prefer in a person: honesty/ sincerity, intelligence, sense of 
humour, good looks. Put the four in the order of priority. Then justify the inverse order, 
i.e. if you have put good looks as being the least important, you should think of 
justifications for it being the most important. 
II. HOW HONEST ARE YOU? 
1. Read the quiz. Answer the questions individually then if possible discuss them with a 
friend. 
2. Writing: Given the opportunity most people would steal if there was no way of being 
caught. Discuss. 
III. WHITE LIES 
- Discuss how you can tell if someone is lying, whether lying is actually bad, who 
we lie most often to and what it is that we lie about. 
Some suggested ideas: 
Whilst we are all very good at telling lies we are not so good at spotting them. 
Unless someone is a professional/ compulsive liar there are a number of things that people 
tend to do when they lie: they tend to avoid lie contact; their voice has a high pitch than 
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usual; what they say sounds rehearsed - probably using words that are supposed to be 
convincing but generally sound unnatural and distant; they tend to touch their nose or 
ears, scratch parts of their body, and shift in their seats. Interestingly, we tend to lie more 
to attractive people rather than unattractive people. Most lies are not intended to be 
deceptive; generally we lie unconsciously, either to be tactful or to protect/promote 
ourselves, by editing out details. Lying is not always a bad thing; married couples who 
religiously tell each other everything are more likely to get divorced than those who have 
a few secrets. In any cases, imagine what life would be like if we always told the truth! 
- Read the situations in the student’s book, discuss in which of the situations it would 
be convenient to tell a white lie. Say what the lie might be and whether you would 
actually use it. 
 Some suggested ideas: 
 + Situation 1: “It’s much too good to wear.” / “I like it but no one in my class wears a 
new jumper.” 
+ Situation 2: “ Thank you for your invitation but I do not feel very well today.” 
+ Situation 3: “ Your illness is not too bad. Don’t worry. You should relax and enjoy 
life.” 
+ Situation 4: “My daughter will be 13 years old in two months.” 
+ Situation 5: A lie: “You look lovely, darling.” But in this situation I would tell the 
truth: “You look very nice but you will be lovelier if you don’t wear so much make-up.” 
IV. CHEATING 
- Cover the text. Answer the true and false questions, then discuss them with your 
friends if you have any. 
- Read the text and check if your answers are right. Correct the true and false 
answers where necessary. 
- Brainstorm on ways that adults cheat (e.g. tax dodges, drugs for sports 
performance enhancement, politicians, infidelity, lying to their kids). 
V. HIPPOCRATIC OATH 
1. Cover the text and questions. Brainstorm what the Hippocratic Oath is what kind of 
promises they imagine that doctors have to make. Then read the text and discuss the 
reasons behind the oaths and the consequent implications. 
Answer: 
Implications: 3 This could initiate a discussion on Jehovah’s witnesses. 
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 4 euthanasia 
 5 abortion 
Vocabulary: 
- Oath (n): solemn declaration that something is true 
- Hippocratic Oath : oath to observe the medical code of ethical and professional 
behaviour, sworn by entrants to the profession 
- Euthanasia (n): (bringing about of a) mercifully easy and painless death (for 
persons suffering from an incurable and painful disease) 
- Jehovah (n): name of God used in the Old Testament 
2. Writing: Promises are made to be broken. Discuss. 
Suggested ideas: 
Pros: Some people feel it easy to make a promise, even when they don’t think that 
they can do what they have promised. However, in their opinion, it’s not important for 
them to keep the promise. Making a promise, to them, is just to please other people at the 
time. 
Cons: It’s not good to frequently break your promise because that will make you 
lose other people’s trust. Only promise what you can do for other people. 
UNIT 9: IDEAS 
I. WARM-UPS: 
1. Look at the things illustrated in the student’s book. They are a TV remote control, a zip, 
a magnet, a tennis, a racket, a human being, a rubber. Think of their normal uses. 
- Try to think of novel uses of three of these six things. You should try to extend 
your ideas beyond obvious uses. 
Suggested ideas: the remote control could obviously be used for switching other things 
off and on (including people we don’t want to hear); the rubber could be used to cancel 
bad memories; an Austrian surgeon once sewed a zip into a man’s stomach so that it was 
instantly accessible for internal dressings; the racket can be used for catching fish, the 
human being can be used to entertain people from other planets; etc. 
2. Listening: 
You will hear about the origins of jeans. 
First discuss the following questions: 
 a. Why are jeans called jeans? 
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 b. What is the name of the material used? 
 c. Where does this name come from? 
 d. Who invented jeans? 
 e. Who for? 
 f. What nationality was the inventor? 
Then listen and check your answers to the questions. 
Answers: 
 a. After Strauss’ wife, Jean, who took a hand in shaping and sewing the trousers in 
the early days of the business, or may have derived from the Italian town of Genoa, where 
the fabric for producing jeans was supposedly originally made. 
 b. Denim 
 c. serge de Nimes cloth 
 d. Levis Strauss 
 e. Prospectors, cowboys, farmers, lumberjacks, railroad construction men, oil 
drillers, and town people who wanted hard-wearing trousers. 
II. FIXED IDEAS 
1. Pre-discussion: 
- In what sense ideas can be considered as “fixed”? 
- Suggested answer: A “fixed” idea is one in which a person persists and which 
tends to occupy his thoughts too much. 
-Think of some of your parents’ and grandparents’ fixed ideas, including ideas on 
traditions and religions. 
2. Discussion: 
a. Read the text. 
Vocabulary: 
- Prosecute (v): continue with; start legal proceedings agaisnt 
- Theory of evolution: theory of the development of more complicated forms of 
life (plants, animals) from earlier and simpler forms 
- Appeal (v): make an earnest request; take a question (to a higher court, etc), fro 
rehearing and a new decision. 
- Conviction (n): declaring in a law court that a person is guilty of (a crime) 
- Technicality (n): technical word, phrase, point 
- Fundamentalist (n): supporter of Fundamentalism 
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- Fundamentalism (n): maintenance of the literal interpretation of the traditional 
beliefs of the Christian religion (such as the accuracy of everything in the Bible), in 
opposition to more modern teachings 
- Ape (n): tailless monkey (gorilla, chimpanzee, orang-outang, gibbon) 
- Imminent (a): (of events, esp dangers) likely to come, happen soon 
- Resurrect (v): bring back into use; revive the practice of; take from the grave; dig 
up 
- Eternal (a): without beginning or end; lasting forever 
- Campaign (n):series of planned activities to gain a special object 
- Abortion (n): expulsion of the foetus from the womb during the first 28 weeks of 
pregnancy 
- Homosexuality (n): the condition of being sexually attracted to persons of one’ 
own sex 
- Pornography (n): treatment of obscene subjects, in writing, in pictures 
- Sacred (a): of God; connected with religion; solemn 
- Impose (v): lay or place a tax, duty, etc on; force (sth, oneself, one’s company) on 
sb. 
b. Answer True and False to the statements. 
c. Listening: You will hear someone’s views on this matter. Try to understand 
which questions 1-5 the speaker discusses and what you think about them. 
Answer: 
Question 1: The speaker thinks that no one has the right to convict the teacher because he 
was teaching established scientific fact. 
Question 2: The speaker thinks parents have the right to decide, for example, whether 
their child should be taught religion or not. 
 d. Discuss with your partner your answers to the 5 questions under the reading text. 
 e. Writing: “There is only one truth.” Discuss. 
Suggested ideas: 
 - Everything on the Earth keeps changing and developing so it is impossible to have 
only one truth. 
- Everything has two sides: positive and negative. So sometimes one fact is true in 
this situation but false in the other situation. 
III. ANY IDEAS? 
1. Discussion: 
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- Read the ten kinds of machines mentioned in the student’s book. 
- In groups, decide which machines it would actually be feasible to create. 
- When the “impossible” machines have been eliminated, still in your groups, 
narrow your choice down to four. 
- Your task now is to draw a design for one or more of the machines: Each 
individual makes a drawing of one of these four machines, but without specifying which, 
not writing any explanations. 
- Then you show each other your drawings and have to guess what you are supposed 
to depict / describe. 
- Each student explains to each other how his/her machine works while the others 
make criticisms. 
2. Writing: Write to the patents office putting forth your ideas for one of the machines 
and explaining why it’s so good. 
IV. STRANGE IDEAS? 
1. Read the “Thinking” text. Guess who the Papalagi might be. 
Information: Tuiavii, a wise man of a tribe from Samoa, travelled to Europe in the early 
1900s, and came into contact with the habits of the “Papalagi” - the white man. On his 
return to his native islands, he warned his people against the perverse attraction of 
Western life. Erich Scheurmann, an artist friend of Hermann Hesse, who was in Samoa to 
escape the horrors of the first World War, made a collection of Tuiavii’s criticisms of the 
mistaken values of the Europeans, in a book. What we read there makes us question the 
whole quality of our lives, through the eyes of someone totally unaffected by the so-called 
progress of mankind. Scheurmann divided Tuiavii’s insights into different sections, some 
of which are summarised on the student’s pages. 
2. What do you think a native of the tribe might say about “things” and “time” in the 
context of Western culture? 
3. Read the passages and discuss the ideas in them. 
Vocabulary: 
- Infantile (a): characteristic of infants 
- Obsession (n): state of being occupied the mind of (a fear, a fixed or false idea) 
- Devise (v): think out, plan 
4. Writing: 
Imagine what Tuiavii might have said about newspapers and money. Try to write 
id\t down. 
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