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At top speed • Do you think they were frightened to travel on them?
Unit objectives
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Reading and Use of English Part 7: using content and cohesive features to complete the task Writing Part 1: writing an essay, using linking devices, structuring an essay Reading and Use of English Part 4: correcting the mistakes in answers Listening Part 1: listening for global meaning, opinion and detail Speaking Part 2: advanced vocabulary for describing photos; strategies for dealing with difficulties Grammar: time clauses; prepositions in time expressions Vocabulary: verb/noun collocations undergo a transformation etc., action, activity, event and programme; deal with infringements, check identity, etc.
Starting off As a warmer With books closed, ask students to work in pairs and talk about two or three times when they have been in a hurry recently. They should say when, why and how they felt. When they have finished, get feedback from the class by asking: • Who was in a hurry about something which was really urgent? • Who was in a hurry unnecessarily? • Who got really stressed from being in a hurry? Ask students to elaborate on their answers. Extension idea Ask students: • People say the pace of life is getting faster and faster. Do you think this is true? Why (not)? • Do you think it is a good thing? Why (not)? Students can discuss these questions in pairs or as a whole class.
Listening | Part 1 1 As a warmer Ask students to look at the painting and discuss these questions in pairs: • How do you think people felt about the early trains?
Background note The painting is Saint-Lazare station in Paris painted in 1877 by the French Impressionist painter Claude Monet. 2
Before they listen, give students 15 seconds to look at the questions and underline the key ideas. Answers 1B 2A
CD 2 Track 07 Extract One Man: Yes, well of course when the steam train was invented, it completely changed nineteenth-century society, didn’t it? Woman: Yes, it was a tremendous change. People’s entire world view underwent a profound transformation. There were things we find laughable today, such as 1the fear that the vibration would shatter passengers’ skeletons. And over the next hundred years railways had a radical impact on the countryside, making it possible to live there and commute to work in cities. Outlying villages which had been quiet sleepy places before trains arrived became busy suburbs. Man: That’s right, and humans underwent a sudden evolution from being comparatively slow and clumsy to becoming the fastest living creatures. This had a subtle but distinct effect in the following years on the way people regarded their place in the world. 2They began to believe they were no longer totally at the mercy of natural events but that they were somehow above them and could take action to harness these phenomena. I doubt if any other invention has had such a profound influence on the human psyche. Nineteenth-century literature and art’s full of it. Woman: And early steam trains were to blame for some quite horrific accidents … 3 Extension idea Ask students: What other inventions have changed our world view? Why? 4 Extension idea Ask students to work in groups and answer this question: What factors may lead to records being broken? (Suggested answers: better training techniques, improved equipment and clothing, better diet) 65
