11. PLANTA DE ABASTECIMIENTO
11.3. MECANISMOS DE CONTENCIÓN DE LÍQUIDOS
Summary
Topic: Life-changing decisions
Reading: The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost Vocabulary: Analysing meaning
Grammar: Unreal situations
Lead-in 1
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Ask students to make a list of important life-changing decisions that they might make during their lifetime. Give some examples, e.g. go to university, get married, apply for a particular job.•
Give students two minutes to write their lists. Then ask a few students to write their ideas on the board. Ask the rest of the class to contribute more ideas. Keep the list on the board for exercise 1.2
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Tell students that they are going to read a famous poem. Ask them to work in groups to discuss the following questions:How is poetry is different from prose?
Have you ever written a poem? Do you think that anyone can write a poem? Why / why not?
Do you think that poems need to rhyme?
Can you think of any lyrics to popular songs that are ‘poetic’? How are they poetic?
Exercise 1 page 88
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If you used lead-in activity 1, you can refer to the ideas on the board and ask students to discuss one of these decisions. Alternatively, ask them to brainstorm ideas forimportant decisions and write them on the board before students begin their discussion.
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Tell students, briefly, about a decision that you made, e.g. Last year I decided to sell my car and travel everywhereby bike or public transport. I was influenced by my concern about global warming. It was a difficult decision because I like driving and it’s convenient to travel by car, so I didn’t make the decision quickly. At the moment I think it’s the right decision because I’m saving a lot of money.
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Students then discuss the questions in pairs. Exercise 2 $ 2•13 page 88•
Play the recording as students read the poem. Point out that Frost was an American poet so he used the American spelling for traveler (British English: traveller) and traveled (British English: travelled).•
Ask different students for suggestions about what the writer’s decision was.He had to decide which road to take when he had a choice of two possible paths.
Extra activity: Rhyme schemes
Explain to students that Frost’s poem follows a particular rhyme scheme. We can write the pattern of rhymes in a poem with the letters a, b, c, d, etc. The first set of lines that rhyme at the end are called a, the second set are called b, and so on. Give a simple example using a limerick by Edward Lear:
There was an Old Man with a beard Who said, ‘It is just as I feared! Two Owls and a Hen, Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!’
Elicit that the rhyming scheme for this limerick is a, a, b, b, a. Ask students to work out the rhyming scheme of Frost’s poem (a, b, a, a, b).
Exercise 3 page 88
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Give students a minute to read the summaries before they do the exercise.•
Students compare their answers with a partner.•
Check answers as a class. 1 B 2 A 3 D 4 CCulture: The Road Not Taken
There are two common interpretations of Frost’s famous poem, The Road Not Taken. Some people believe that it emphasizes the importance of choosing one’s own path in life, even if this is less popular (I took the one less traveled by, /
And that has made all the difference.). They see it as a poem
about the importance of individualism. However, others believe that Frost wrote the poem as a parody of people who regret the choices they have made in their lives. In this interpretation, both roads are actually quite similar (Though
as for that the passing there / Had worn them really about the same), and the poet is suggesting that people who look
V insight Analysing meaning
If your students seem to be daunted by poetry, point out that many people share their feelings. However, it can be helpful to read a poem (initially, at least) as if is a piece of prose, with a good dictionary to hand. It is also useful to think about the associations that words, images and sounds have. For example, the colour green can be associated with spring, and therefore life or youth. On the other hand, the colour green (in English) is also associated with envy. Such associations can help to unlock a poem’s meaning.
Exercise 4 $ 2•13 page 88
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Play the recording again and ask students to listen to the poem carefully. Encourage them to feel the rhythm of the poem – get them to try ‘conducting’ the poem as they listen to it so that they think about the stressed words. You could then ask four students to read out the poem, one verse each.•
Discuss the questions as a class, encouraging students to justify their answers by quoting relevant lines from the poem. You could point out that there is more than one interpretation of this poem.1 No, he can’t. (And looked down one as far as I could /
To where it bent in the undergrowth;)
2 It is autumn. This suggests that the author is in the ‘autumn’ of his life – late middle age. This might make his choice more difficult because he has less time to go back if he has chosen the wrong path.
3 He is hesitant. (… long I stood)
4 Students’ own answers
5 In the future he will claim that his path was ‘the one less traveled by’, but actually he has already stated that they were both ‘really about the same’. A more independent, adventurous or stronger-minded person might take ‘the road less traveled’.
6 The road could be a metaphor for an important life- changing decision such as starting a new career, getting married, starting a family or giving up a job.
Extra activity: Further discussion
In groups, students discuss the following questions:
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The image of two possible paths in Frost’s poem is a metaphor. What other metaphors for the same idea do you think the poet could have used?•
Robert Frost once wrote: ‘A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.’ Do you agree with him? Why / why not?•
Do you think it is useful or important to learn poems byheart and to recite them aloud? Why / why not?
Exercise 5 page 88
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Read through the life events with the class. Remind students, if necessary, that they learned the phrasal verbdrop out (to leave school, college, etc. without finishing
your studies) in 3A.
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Ask students to read Frost’s biography and underline the key life events. This will help them to do the ordering activity.•
Check answers as a class.his father died met the love of his life worked for a newspaper had his first child
dropped out of university lived on a farm
travelled to England became famous
Additional vocabulary
The following words are from the poem The Road Not
Taken and the biography Robert Frost (1874–1963):
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diverge (v) /daɪˈvɜːdʒ/ to separate and go in differentdirections
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undergrowth (n) /ʌndəɡrəʊθ/ a mass of bushes and plants that grow close together under trees in woods and forests•
hence (adv) /hens/ an amount of time from now•
frustrated (adj) /frʌˈstreɪtɪd/ feeling annoyed and impatient because you cannot do or achieve what you want•
inauguration (n) /ɪˌnɔːɡjəˈreɪʃn/ a special ceremony to introduce a new public official or leader•
claim (n) /kleɪm/ a right that somebody believes they have to something, especially property, land, etc.DVD extra Making decisions Language note: Unreal situations
We can use a number of different expressions to talk about unreal situations in the present and the past. We use the present simple or the past simple to describe a possible situation, a preference or a supposition in the present. The past simple suggests a lower likelihood.
Imagine / Suppose we move / moved to France – do you think we’d be happier?
I know you like small cars, but I’d rather / sooner we buy / bought a bigger one.
It’s as if / though he is / was a child.
We usually use the past perfect to describe a possible situation, a preference or a supposition in the past.
Imagine / Suppose I’d left school when I was sixteen, I wouldn’t be a doctor now.
I’d rather / sooner we’d spoken to him yesterday.
It was as if / though she had forgotten everything she knew.
Exercise 6 page 89
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Write sentences 1–4 from the biography on the board and underline the verb forms in each sentence.•
Point at the verb forms and ask different volunteers to come up to the board and label each verb with the name of its tense. Then explain that these sentences are all examples of unreal situations in the past.•
Check answers as a class. 1 No.2 past
3 1: simple past, past perfect; 2: would rather + present perfect; 3: past perfect; 4: past perfect