Listening, speaking and vocabulary: The greatest

Vinsight Collocations: achievement

1Read about Tex Avery. Choose the correct words to complete the collocations. 

If you really 

¹makeputtakedo

 

your mind to it, you'll 

²dorisetakemake

 

progress and 

³makesolvetakerise

 

all the problems you've got. That's how Tex Avery, the famous cartoonist who created Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, viewed life. When he first started in animation, he wasn't very good, but he

 

⁴solvedfoundroseput

 

to the challenge and, eventually, he 

⁵achievedmadesolveddid

 

his goal – he became a great cartoonist. When he lost the sight in one of his eyes in an accident, some people thought that he couldn't continue as a cartoonist, but he 

⁶foundachievedmadeput

 

a way to keep drawing. Today, people remember him as the man who created some of the funniest cartoon characters in history.

Expressing and justifying opinions

2Read about two different world records. In your opinion, which is the greater achievement? 

• 

  1

• 

  2

• 1In 2009, 47-year-old Russian diver Natalia Molchanova jumped into the sea, held her breath, and went down to 101 metres. She broke the women's world record for a free-dive.

• 2In 2012, a 43-year-old Austrian man called Felix Baumgartner broke the world sky-diving record. He jumped from a helium balloon at the amazing height of 39 kilometres above the Earth.

3Play the recording and listen to the Daisy and Jack's talk about the two achievements in exercise 2. Which one do they think is the greater achievement? 

Daisy and Jack think that Felix Baumgartner'sNatalia Molchanova's record is the greater achievement. 

Expressing and justifying opinions

4Play the recording and listen to the Daisy and Jack's talk about the two achievements. Which of the following opinions does Daisy express? 

• 1Free-diving is easier than going up in a helium balloon and sky-diving.✓✗ 

• 2Free-divers do more training than sky-divers.✓✗ 

• 3Free-divers are stronger than sky-divers.✓✗ 

• 4Free-divers aren't as brave as sky-divers.✓✗ 

• 5Free-diving is as dangerous as going up in a helium balloon and sky-diving.✓✗ 

Expressing and justifying opinions

5Choose Daisy, Jack or No one next to the phrases that they use in the dialogue. Play the recording, listen and check. 

• Expressing opinions

• 1For me, … .DaisyJackNo one

• 2In my view, … .DaisyJackNo one

• 3It seems to me that … .DaisyJackNo one

• Justifying opinions

• 4The reason I say that is … .DaisyJackNo one

• 5You can't deny that … .DaisyJackNo one

• Conversation fillers

• 6Well, … .DaisyJackNo one

• 7Basically, … .DaisyJackNo one

• 8Right, … .DaisyJackNo one

6  Look at the photos of three great stuntmen and women. In your opinion, which one performed the greatest stunt of the twentieth century? Write a dialogue between you and a friend. Use the phrases in exercise 5. In 1974, Phillppe Petit walked between the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Center on a tightrope. In 2000, David Blaine spent sixty-three hours inside a block of ice in Times Square, New York. In 1974, Debbie Lawler jumped over sixteen vehicles on her motorbike in Houston, Texas.  Write your task in another program (e.g. Word).  Save the file to your computer.  Upload your file.  If you want to add a note to your teacher, write it in the Comments box.  Select Submit to Dropbox to send your work to your teacher.