Here are two activities about interesting topics that you can use with B2 level students to improve their vocabulary. The first one is about the famous Glastonbury Festival which takes place in the UK every year. The second activity is a word formation exercise based on a reading text about Masterchef in Brazil. I hope you find them useful.
ACTIVITY ONE
- Ask students to talk about the following in pairs: What kind of music do you like? Have you ever been to a music festival? If so, what was it like?
- Give each student a copy of the text and task below. Ask the students to read the text and match the highlighted words to their definitions.
GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL
Read the text below and then match the highlighted words with their meanings below.
Have you ever been to a music festival? They are all the rage nowadays in many places all over the world. The most famous one in the UK is Glastonbury, which began in 1970. It is a five-day celebration of contemporary music, dance, comedy, theater, circus and other arts. It is the largest green field festival in the world and is attended nowadays by around 175,000 people. Most of the staff are volunteers and help raise millions of pounds for charity every year. The founder of this popular festival is Michael Eavis, who is a dairy farmer. The festival actually takes place on his farm in the West country. One of the first headline acts in 1970 was English rock band T-Rex. Eavis remembers Marc Bolan, the lead singer turning up in a cadillac covered in some kind of velvet. Eavis also recalls that he himself offered free milk from his herd of cows to all the festival goers and that he was the only security guard at the gate. Hells Angels, a group of bikers, helped out with on-site security. Eavis does admit to almost throwing in the towel as he didn´t have the funds to continue. However, he managed to get a bank loan and said that with the support of Jean, his then-wife they ploughed on and kept it going. And it is a good job they did! Glastonbury is loved by people from all walks of life who come from all corners of the world to appreciate great music and arts. The line-up of stars over the years has been incredible from Paul McCartney to Amy Winehouse. Eavis certainly deserves the CBE award he received in 2007 from the Queen and he has also been nominated by Time magazine as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world
Match the highlighted words in the text with the synonyms in the table.
| A large group of animals, especially cattle | |
| A sum of money that is borrowed | |
| The main attraction | |
| Organisation set up to raise money for those in need | |
| Extremely popular | |
| To quit/to be defeated | |
| Containing or made from milk | |
| A person who creates or establishes something | |
| A list of people taking part in an event | |
| Continued doing something although it was difficult |
- After you have checked the answers, ask students to get into groups of three and discuss the following: 1. In your opinion, what are the advantages and disadvantages of music festivals? 2. Which group or singer would you like to see live? Why do you like this group or singer? 3. If you could meet your favourite singer, what would you ask him/her?
- For homework, ask students to listen to an interview with Michael Eavis on the famous British radio programme Desert Island Discs and next class tell their partner what else they learnt about the Glastonbury Festival. The link is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fn89g
Answers
| A large group of animals | Herd |
| A sum of money that is borrowed | Loan |
| The main attraction | Headline act |
| Organisation set up to raise money for those in need | Charity |
| Extremely popular | All the rage |
| To quit/to be defeated | Throw in the towel |
| Containing or made from milk | Dairy |
| A person who creates or establishes something | Founder |
| A list of people taking part in an event | Line-up |
| Continued doing something although it was difficult | Ploughed on |
ACTIVITY TWO
- Ask your students who has seen the programme Masterclass. Elicit from them what it is about and what the contestants have to do.
- Give each student a copy of the text and word formation exercise below. Ask them to do the task.
| MASTERCHEF Use the word given in capitals at the end of some lines to form a word that fits in the gap in the same line. The first one is an example. Reality shows are very popular on television all round the world nowadays. The latest one in Brazil is Masterchef, which is a competitive cooking show where amateur chefs are given a limited amount of time to cook dishes for a panel of judges. After being given the _______________________ of what to make, the chefs grab ingredients from a supermarket, which has been set up especially in the TV studio. What follows is a _______________ hour of mixing, adding and trying the food to reach perfection. The __________________________ are gradually eliminated through different rounds according to the judges´ _____________________________. The criteria used to select the winner include the taste and appearance of the dish, as well as the cooks´ ____________________________. For those seeking a career as a chef, it is well worth entering the ________________________ to try winning. Prizes include US$50,000 to open your own restaurant, US$300 per month to spend in a well-known supermarket, a brand new car and a ______________________ to study at the famous Cordon Bleu Culinary Arts school in Paris. | COMPETE INSTRUCT TENSION CONTEST DECIDE CREATE COMPETE SCHOLAR |
Answers: instructions; tense; contestants; decisions; creativity; competition; scholarship.
- After you have checked the answers, ask students to talk about the following in pairs: 1) What do you think of reality shows? 2) Would you like to participate in a reality show? Why/Why not? 3) Some people say reality shows are like human zoos. Do you agree?
For more activities like these, please check out Jane´s book published by Disal called Exercícios para falar melhor em inglês .
