Discuss these questions about jobs with a partner.
Now paraphrase to another person what your partner’s opinion is. Use your own words to explain what they have discussed.
Listen to this lecture on TED Talks by Anthony Goldbloom about machine learning and our future. Take notes as you listen to the lecture.
Use your notes to complete these points:
9 months - the age of his niece 2013 - researchers at Oxford University did a study on the future of work 1 in 2 - jobs have a high risk of being automated by machines 100's of 1,000's - experts to solve important problems for industry and academia early '90s - machine learning started making its way into industry 2012 - a challenge was set to build an algorithm that could grade high-school essays 10,000 - a teacher might read 10,000 essays 40 years - a 40-year teaching career 50,000 - an ophthalmologist might see 50,000 eyes millions - a machine can read millions of essays or see millions of eyes within minutes World War 2 - the microwave oven was invented frequent, high-volume tasks - machines are getting smarter and smarter tackling novel situations - humans
Use your notes from the debate to write an essay on the same topic.
All countries should create a new national anthem every 50 years.
You can either agree or disagree with the statement. Use three arguments to support your point of view in the body so that you essay will be 5 paragraphs altogether, including the introduction and conclusion.
For more help on how to write an essay go to Unit 9 Essay Writing to give you detailed instructions on how to write an introduction, body and conclusion.
A debate is an argument between two teams on one topic where each team supports one side of the argument. In other words one team will agree with the statement and the other team will disagree.
When looking at a topic you need to consider the pros and cons and make a list of both the positive and the negative points.
A class can hold a debate by having 2 teams debating the same topic. One team supports the statement and the other team opposes the statement. Students must listen carefully to the other teams arguments to be able to respond with a rebuttal or explanation that disagrees with their arguments.
Divide the class into groups of 6 students to debate this topic:
All countries should create a new national anthem every 50 years.
For each group have 3 students agree with the statement and come up with 3 main ideas or points to support the statement. The other 3 students must disagree with the statement and figure out 3 main points to oppose the statement. Each student must speak uninterrupted for a set time to explain their point (between 2 – 4 minutes). The rest of the class will be the audience and they will judge which team wins the debate with the stronger argument.
Follow this guide for each speaker:
Debates are a great activity to practise speaking and listening and forming opinions, but most of all to have fun!!
Listen to this interview by Mandia Sami discussing how Switzerland is holding a competition to find a new national anthem and take notes the first time you listen.
Listen for a second time and answer these questions.
Answers: 1. mountains, chocolates, clocks, tradition 2. no 3. 1841 4. too hymn like and old 5. 4% 6. more than 200 7. German, French, Italian, Romansch 8. 30 9. 3 10. submit it as a suggestion to the government
Read about it here, then answer these questions.
Answers: 1. music publisher, journalist and lyricist 2. music director 3. create the Swiss national anthem 4. the government wanted the public to have an opinion 5. because their original anthem sounded the same as the British anthem, they wanted something Swiss 6. 1981 7. German, French, Italian, Romansch
Think about something that has happened to you recently that you can write a news story about.
Answer these questions as you write the most important information about your news story.
Use short, simple sentences and short paragraphs. Don’t forget to include a headline for your news story.
Choose a current news story that you are interested in to talk about. You can either listen to the news story or read about it – in English of course!
Once you have chosen the news story take notes on these questions:
Now use your notes to tell your partner what your news story is about. Once you have finished telling the news discuss what your opinion is on the news story.
Listen twice to the audio from ABC News Radio, 16th June 2015 and answer the questions that follow.
Answers
1. 59%, 2. 51%, 3. Facebook and twitter, 4. Under 35’s, 5. Over 45’s, 6. Print, TV and radio, 7. 11%
Have a look at the photos in this article and see if you recognise any of the 10 animals from films or TV shows.
Now read through the article about the highest paid animal actors and answer these questions.
Answers: 1. German shepherd 2. Warner Brothers Studio 3. Rinty 4. Free Willy 5. from pneumonia 6. Alaskan brown bear 7. 23 years old 8. Pal 9. Collie 10. Eddie 11. his son Enzo started to act 12. Capuchin monkey 13. because of poor ratings 14. Terrier 15. the dog broke his foot 16. Asta 17. walking on hind legs and untying hands 18.Benji
Go to Unit 2 Reading Books for more reading activities.