Lesson 2

Listening

1. Listen to a lecture about the qualities or successful people. Make notes on the four qualities in your notebook. Does she mention any of the qualities that you discussed?

four qualities of successful people:
1st: They have speciic goals. They are motivated.
2nd: They’re prepared to learn new things and develop their skills to achieve something.
3rd: They work hard to achieve something over a long period of time. They persevere.
4th: They’re prepared to wait to achieve success, if necessary. They are patient.

2. Listen again. Are the sentences true (T) or false (F)? Correct the false statements.

1. There is only one answer to the question of what qualities successful people have. F. There are many different answers to the question of what qualities successful people have.
2. You’re more likely to achieve a goal if it isn’t too specific. F. You’re more likely to achieve a goal if it’s (more) specific.
3. Successful people are always looking for new opportunities to learn and develop their skills. T
4. If you want to be successful, you need to work hard for a few weeks or months and then take a break. F. If you want to be successful, you need to keep working hard over a longer period of time.
5. Don’t expect to achieve success immediately because it sometimes takes a long time. T

Language

4. Complete the sentences about success with the words in the box. There are some extra words you don’t need.

1. There has been some discussion about what exactly success is.
2. Some of our successful athletes have been coming here to train for more than ten years.
3. She has only had success as an author since she was about forty-five.
4. Recently, I’ve been trying to enjoy all of the little successes I have every day.
5. After studying the research, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are many different definitions of success.

5. Choose the correct verb form to complete the sentences.

1. Where have you been/ have you been being? We’ve waited/been waiting for you for half an hour.
2. We’ve thought/ been thinking about learning Spanish for a while, but we haven’t found/ haven’t been finding a good course yet.
3. How much time have you spent/ have you been spending on the geography project over the last two weeks? I haven’t had/ haven’t been having very much time to work on it recently.
4. I’ve learned/ been learning to play the drums for three years now and I’ve never enjoyed/ never been enjoying playing as much as I do at the moment.

Writing

6. Read the tips for writing effective notes while you’re listening to a lecture. Answer the questions in your notebook.

1. What are signposting words and phrases?

Signposting words and phrases are words or phrases that a speaker uses to give the listeners information about what he/she’s going to talk about; and to give the listeners other information that will help them to better understand the lecture, for example what the most important points are.

2. Which phrase would you expect to hear when a speaker wants to start talking about a new topic?

A. It’s very important to remember that ….

B. In this talk, I will explain three different ways in which this can happen.

C. Now, I’d like to move on to the second reason for this.

3. When should you quote something that a lecturer says?

You should quote something that a lecturer says when you want to remember every word that he/ she said.

4. What do you do when you paraphrase information from a lecture?

You write the information you heard in your own words when you paraphrase information from a lecture.