2 PREVIEW Words A / B / D Answers A 1 (b) 2 (c) 3 (a)
B 1They all show fantasy stories. (The Nutcracker ballet is a fantasy).
D A witch is a woman with magic powers. She is sometimes old, but also sometimes young and beautiful. A dragon is an imaginary animal that breathes fire and has wings and a tail. A fairy is an imaginary magical creature like a very small person. A fairy usually has wings. A prince is the son of a king / queen, a princess is the daughter of a king / queen. A vampire is an imaginary dead person who bites people’s necks and sucks their blood.
2 PREVIEW Language A / B / C Answers A The sentences are passive.
B They refer to the present (or future).
C They have the same structure: modal (can / must / should) + be + past participle.
Students who have read the trilogy may already know what a daemon is (question B) - in which case allow them to explain to the rest of the class. If not, allow students to guess from the context of the sentences. The explanation is given on the opposite page in the 'book review' of the extract.
You will probably need to explain these words:
robin (= a small brown bird with a red chest), to scorn (= to reject). Explain that to scorn is an old fashioned word that we don’t really use these days.
3 READING
CD 2 (Blue) track 9, page 65 SBThe text features an extract from a well-known fantasy trilogy, His Dark Materials (See
Background informationnotes below.) The extract is taken (and adapted) from the second book in the trilogy, The Subtle Knife. Preceding the text is a ‘book review’, which puts the extract in context and explains the concept of a ‘daemon’.
Write the title His Dark Materials on the board (The title may have a different translation in the students’ language) and the words by Philip Pullman underneath. Explain that the books are a trilogy (=
series of three novels) and ask students if they have read any of the novels. Tell them that in many countries this fantasy trilogy has had great success.
Explain that the class will first read a short book review, and then an extract from the second book in the trilogy, The Subtle Knife. Activity A tests
comprehension for the main points, while activities Band C test more detailed comprehension.
3CStudents may need help with Question 1 and Question 3:
Question 1: And then there came the first
moment of understanding between them. (line 22) The inference here is that John Parry and Will realise that Parry is Will's father: the straight black eyebrows so like his mother’s (line 20) / He was my father and neither of us knew until the second you killed him! (line 49)
Question 3: The inference is that because Will was holding the robin, the witch's daemon, this made her very vulnerable, and she fell out of the sky.
Background information / Internet reference Northern Lights, the first novel in the epic fantasy trilogy His Dark materials, by British writer Philip Pullman was published in 1995.
Two other novels followed, The Subtle Knife (1997) and The Amber Spyglass (2000). The trilogy describes the adventures of a boy called Will and a girl called Lyra in a number of different worlds. As with many fantasy novels, the trilogy describes a battle against evil. The concepts underlying the story are profound and philosophical, taking ideas from the English poet and artist William Blake and the English poet Milton, among others. The concept of the daemon, as a creature that represents a person's soul, is one of the most striking concepts of the novel.
For more information go to this website:
www.hisdarkmaterials.org
Unit 14 Unit 14
QSE Intermediate
See pages 64-67 SB, 34-35 WB Teacher’s Guide2 PREVIEW Idea A Answers
A Witch / daemon. She fell down out of the sky, crashing to the ground.
B A daemon is another version of yourself, represented by an animal or a bird.
Key words / expressions
• (book) review • to take place • universe
• hero • philosophical • soul • ambitious
• serious • to light (a match) • growth
• beard • exhausted • savage • wild
• curiosity • to shoot (shot) • arrow
• heart • to vanish • robin • to crash
• rocky • throat • to forgive • wounded
• to whisper • term = expression
• blazing = very bright (like a blazing fire)
• force = energy
3 READING A / B / C Answers A 1 a) Lyra is one of the main characters in His
Dark Materials - the heroine.
b)Will is the hero.
c)John Parry is Will's father.
d)Juta Kamainen is a witch.
2 A daemon is a creature that cannot be
separated from you and goes everywhere with you. It knows all your thoughts. If your daemon is killed, then you die too. The daemon can be seen as a person's soul.
3 He dies, killed by an arrow in his heart. The
4 TALK ABOUT IT
4AStudents will certainly find the idea of a
‘daemon’ one of the most interesting aspects of the His Dark Materials extract. They should find it amusing to decide what kind of creature their daemon would be, if they had one. It's also a wonderful opportunity to practise the second conditional!
4BThis activity provides an opportunity to practise the structure focused on in the unit, passives with modals. Walk round and read students'
paragraphs. Choose one or two and write them on the board. Praise them and ask the class to say what they like about them. Then ask students to say how the paragraphs could be improved, encouraging them to use the passive form.
5 LISTEN IN
CD 2 (Blue) track 10, page 66 SBThe Audio text is in the Workbook (page 70).
In the listening passage, three American teenagers (two boys, Tom and Dave, and a girl, Nancy), discuss and watch a horror movie. The girl does not like horror movies and would prefer to watch a thriller. She leaves the room for some of the time.
The boys enjoy the film precisely because it is so
‘gross’. In fact the film is so horrifying that at one point Tom thinks he’s going to be sick. The conversation ends with the two boys agreeing to watch the sequel the following week. The conversation is very typical of the way teenagers talk, with quite a lot of slang, such as That was really gross! / That was bad! / Cool man / I think that must totally be seen.
5AThe listening passage refers to both horror movies and thrillers. If students can explain the difference between horror movies and thrillers by saying that a horror movie is very frightening, while a thriller is exciting, that is an adequate explanation. Students may have seen the films pictured. Ask them: What did you think of (Mission Impossible)? Take the opportunity to teach adjectives, eg It was brilliant / amazing, and expressions, such as It had great special effects (= the artificial images and sounds in a film that are created by technology).
5BElicit examples of abstract nouns like happiness / the past to check that students understand the meaning of abstract noun (= a word that names a quality, idea or feeling),
5CFor words 1, 4 and 5, elicit both active and passive forms of the adjectives: terrifying / terrified, horrifying / horrified, exciting / excited.
Ask students to make sentences showing they understand the difference, eg The story was horrifying / I was horrified (by the story).
5DExplain that the conversation is between two boys, Tom and Dave, and a girl, Nancy. Explain also that they use typical teenage expressions.
5E For this activity, you will probably need to play the relevant sentences at least twice before students can hear the differences between the sentences. Alternatively you could read the sentences from the Audio text in the Workbook.
Unit 14 Unit 14
See pages 64-67 SB, 34-35 WB
Fantasy worlds
arrow was shot by Juta Kamainen.
B 1True.
2 False: The story takes place in number of universes. In Lyra's universe, everyone has a daemon.
3 False. A daemon can be seen as a person's soul.
C 1 They understood that John Parry was Will's father.
2 Because John Parry died.
3 Because Will was holding her daemon, the robin.
4 Because she loved him and he rejected her.
5 Because Will only just realised that Will Parry was his father and now his father is dead, killed by the witch.
Key words / expressions
• to vote • horror movie
• (I) can’t stand (horror movies) • violence
• to terrify • the point • thriller
• channel (7) • joke • chip • nightmare
• the suspense (is killing me) • evil • awful
• gross • effect • stuff • entertainment
• to be sick • relief • horrifying • dream
• the point = the most important fact, idea
• scary = frightening
• to be over = to be finished
• sequel = a book, film, play etc that continues the story of an earlier one
• totally (slang) = absolutely
6 CONTROVERSY
See Role cards page 61 WB Read the notes about this section in theIntroduction. Put students into pairs and allow them to choose which part they want to play.
Explain that the conversation must end with them watching either a fantasy or a horror movie. Walk round while students are performing the role play and choose two pairs of confident students to perform the role play for the class. Afterwards, ask the class to say what they liked about the role plays and to point out mistakes.
7 PORTFOLIO WRITING
To practise the language used in the model, ask the class to agree on a film that most of them have seen. Ask them to talk about and give their opinion of the film using the language in the boxes, eg (name of film) is a comedy directed by (name of director). / The story takes place in (New York). / It’s about ……
Encourage students to briefly describe the plot and say what they liked / disliked about the film.
You may need to explain that the phrase I find / found it (boring / exciting / slow) is a phrase used to give an opinion. Having practised the language, students will be able to write their review (of a film of their own choice) with more confidence.
Writing model