1. Homework tracker
2. Ultra processed food - ask questions based on the video
1. What did you learn from the experiment?
2. What was the effect on the brain?
3. Have you changed your opinion about ultra-processed food?
4. How much ultra-processed food do people in your country eat?
5. Is obesity a big problem in your country?
6. Are people healthier now than in the past?
3. Fat America
Match the numbers to the information. Make your best guesses.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Number of overweight teenagers (millions)
Percentage of teens living in the suburbs
Number of hours spent in cars per day
Number of hours watching TV per week
Percentage of teens who exercise each week
Daily calories consumed by an American teen (recommended daily calories for a
teenager = 2,000)
2,700
12.2
22
2
50
25
Read the text and correct the information
Fat America
America is getting fatter. Back in the 1970s only 10% of teens were overweight, but today, one in three
teenagers (or more than 25 million) are overweight or obese. Let’s take a look at the reasons why.
Car culture.
In the 1940s, the population inside cities grew rapidly and American families started to move into the
suburbs. Today, more than 50% of American teenagers live there. In the suburbs, houses are bigger,
gardens are bigger, and teenagers are bigger, too. It’s easy to see why - they go everywhere in cars.
Suburbs are a long way from shopping centres, schools and friends’ houses. They often have no
pavements, making it 23 times more dangerous to walk or cycle than to drive. As a result, families spend
an average of two hours a day in their cars. And, when they reach their destination, drive-through
supermarkets, restaurants and banks keep them comfortably in their seats.
‘Screenager’
A typical American family has three TVs and the average teenager, or ‘screenager’, watches 22 hours of
television every week. By the time they leave High School, most teenagers will have spent more time in
front of a TV than in the classroom. But it’s not just TV that makes kids extremely inactive. The average US
home has 24 electronic gadgets, including smartphones, computers and games consoles. It’s not
surprising that only 12,2% of American teenagers actually exercise each week.
Fast food
Fast food is one of America’s great success stories and Americans have been eating hamburgers for
decades. The first burger bar opened in 1921, but it wasn't until the 1950s that fast food became incredibly
successful. Women started to work, people had less time and restaurants like McDonald’s fed families
quickly and cheaply. Today, 50% of meals are eaten outside the home and more than three quarters of
American teenagers eat a fast food meal at least once a week. People have known about the problem of
fast food for years, but they still eat it. Why? Probably because the salt, fat and sugar makes it taste really
good.
Supersizing
In the 1960s jumbo-sized popcorn went on sale in a movie theatre in Chicago. The manager wanted
people to spend more, but he noticed that customers only bought one bag of popcorn because they didn’t
want to look greedy. However they didn’t mind buying a bigger-sized bag. The idea of supersize portions
was born. In the 1970s, fast food restaurants adopted the same approach and introduced larger fries and
sodas. Surprisingly, today’s ‘small’ fries are the same size as large fries in 1970. Similarly, the largest soda
in 1955 was much smaller than today’s child-size soda. Over the last three decades the average
teenager’s calorie consumption has risen by 25% to 2,700 a day. Worryingly, that’s 700 calories more a
day than they need.
So what does the future hold for America?
Doctors fear an epidemic of illnesses like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Many think this could be the
first generation that doesn’t outlive its parents. But health centres for obese children are starting to make a
difference. At the centres are children like 12-year-old Conchita. Conchita’s tired today because she’s been
exercising. ‘It’s hard work, but I’m feeling good,’ she says. How many times has she exercised this week?
‘Three,’ she replies, ‘and I’ve given up fast food, too,’ These kids want long lives and they want to do a lot
of things,’ explains a doctor at the centre. ‘Clearly, that’s not going to happen unless they change their
lifestyle.’
4. Hedging
What is wrong with the following sentences?
Women are better at financial decision making than men.
Your students might say that there are some problems with grammar or vocabulary. Explain that there are
no grammatical or lexical problems with it. The problem is with the style. The sentence is an
overgeneralization, potentially incorrect and there is no evidence in the sentence. People often write their
opinions as facts and it affects the style and the language. To avoid this, we will use “Hedging” language.
Look at the following sentences:
Women are less likely to make mistakes in financial planning than men.
Women tend to make better financial decisions.
Men have a tendency to make more compulsive decisions in finances.
It is often thought that women make more sensible decisions about money.
Hedging language sounds more professional and it reduces your likelihood of generalising and
oversimplifying. It also allows you to use less direct language.
5. Essay analysis - Obesity (causes and solutions)
In some countries the average weight of people is increasing and their levels of health and fitness
are decreasing. What do you think are the causes of these problems and what measures could be
taken to solve them?
Although this century has seen tremendous developments in health care service, millions of people
worldwide are now overweight. This is mostly caused by people’s lifestyle and diet and can be
tackled through in various ways, including raising awareness and state intervention.
One of the most contingent reasons for the increase in people’s average weight is clearly the
unhealthy eating diet they live on. Traditional food using natural ingredients is now being painfully
ignored by the masses. Instead, nowadays the mass-produced one, fast-food, high in cholesterol and
chemical additives, seems to be a more appealing option because it saves people’s time. This tendency
has a corrosive effect on people’s health, especially when eaten excessively. Additionally, this problem
could be attributed to the sedentary lifestyle of people. Idleness is alluring and modern people are too busy
with their work to set aside a reasonable amount of time to work out or do physical exercises. The
outcome of such idleness is getting out of shape and even losing some cognitive vitality.
There are many ways to tackle this issue. First and foremost, people need to be better informed of nutrition
and its implications. With better understanding of the malign influence of junk-foods, they may have a
second thought about what to eat. Moreover, decisive is the role the government plays in increasing its
population’s level of fitness. Banning the advertisement of unhealthy foods and tightening up on foods of
unclear origin could also have a far-reaching effect. In addition, obese people need to incorporate more
physical exercises into their everyday life, making it a must to complete before the end of the day.
In conclusion, unhealthy diets and the sedentary lifestyle are held most responsible for the worsening in
people’s health. There are, however, a number of ways that can be used to ease the severity of this
problem modern people have to face.
Pay your students’ attention to the collocations.
6. How to solve any IELTS problem
In the IELTS test often you need to solve a particular problem. For instance, read the following essay
questions.
● Tourism is causing environmental problems all around the world. What are the main causes of this?
What are some solutions?
● Many students find it difficult to focus or pay attention at school nowadays. What are the reasons for
this? What can be done to solve this problem?
● In many countries, the number of animals and plants is declining. Why do you think this is
happening? How can this issue be solved?
● In many countries, crime rates amongst young people have been rising. Discuss the causes and
solutions for this problem.
● Nowadays more and more older people who need employment have to compete with younger
people for the same jobs. What problems does this cause? What are the solutions?
● In many countries, children are becoming overweight and unhealthy. Some people think that the
government has the responsibility to solve this problem. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
There are several universal solutions that can be used to solve any IELTS problem. One of them is raising
awareness, which means to talk about the problem and to explain why the problem is urgent. For instance,
to deal with the decline in the number of animals and plants we can make posters or some TV programs
can be launched. The second universal collocation which can solve almost anything is state intervention,
that is to say the tools that the government can use. For example, in tackling the problem of obesity one
way of state intervention is to increase the tax on fast food or to ban fast food promotion. Finally, you can
solve almost anything with the collective effort, where all parties can do something to solve the issue.
7. Paragraph writing - What are the solutions to the problem of work-related stress?
8. Task 1 - Bar chart + Pie chart
Write your introduction and overview to the following graph. After that compare their answers with
the sample answer.
The bar chart shows the expenditure of two countries on different consumer goods in 2010.
The chart illustrates the amount of money spent on five consumer goods (cars, computers, books,
perfume and cameras) in France and the UK in 2010. Units are measured in pounds sterling.
Overall, the UK spent more money on consumer goods than France in the period given. Both the British
and French spent most of their money on cars whereas the least amount of money was spent on
perfume in the UK compared to cameras in France. Furthermore, the most significant difference in
expenditure between the two countries was on cameras.
UK citizens spent more money than those in France on cars, books and cameras. The amount of money
paid out for cars in the UK and France constituted about 460,000 and 400,000 pounds, respectively.
Next, UK citizens spent about 410,000 on books, while the French spent 110,000 pounds less on this
category. The most noticeable difference can be observed in the expenditures on cameras: about
360,000 pounds were spent in the UK and 150,000 pounds in France.
On the other hand, the French purchased more computers and perfume. The total amount of money
French citizens spent on computers accounted for approximately 375,000 pounds, while 350,000
pounds were spent on the same consumer goods in the UK. Perfume made up the lowest expenditures
and people in France and the UK spent 200,000 and 130,000 pounds, respectively.
Do the same thing with the following task
The two pie charts below show the percentages of industry sectors' contribution to the economy of
Turkey in 2000 and 2016.
The two pie charts illustrate how different industry sectors contributed to the economy of Turkey in the
years 2000 and 2016.
Overall, at the beginning of the period construction contributed the least to the economy of Turkey and
agriculture was the most significant economic sector. In comparison, at the end of the period healthcare
and education became the largest economic segment and the lowest contribution was made by financial,
business and other services.
Construction sector accounted for 3% of Turkey's economy in 2000, and experienced a more than
threefold increase to one-tenth in 2016. Economic income from trade, utilities and transportation was
14% in 2000 and experienced slight growth of 2% in 2016. At the beginning of the period, manufacturing
and finance, business and other services made up 8% and 5% of Turkey's economy, respectively, and
these figures rose to 12% and 8% in 2016.
Agriculture, which comprised almost a quarter of Turkey's economy in 2000, fell to 14% in 2016. In 2000
economic outputs from government and leisure and hospitality sectors were at 12% and 17%,
respectively, and both decreased by 3% after a 16-year period. In contrast, contributions from the
healthcare and education sector remained constant in both years at 17%.
9. Random Essay - choose a topic for each student and make them write an intro for it.
10. Reading - two texts from the reading file.
11. Homework
Homework
1. Write introductions + overviews
The following charts represent the weight measurements of people living in Charlestown in 1955 and
2015.
The pie charts show the amount of money that a children’s charity located in the USA spent and received
in one year.
2. Britain's obesity crisis - watch this video and write down good collocations and add them into your anki
3. Examining the placebo effect - IELTS reading practice test - do this text and send a screen
4. Articulate - How to be More Articulate - 8 Powerful Secrets - watch this video and apply the following
ideas in the speaking test
5. Full answer
The pie charts below show the comparison of different kinds of energy production in France in two years.