Guest Post: 3rd Conditional – What Bad Luck!

Posted on March 24, 2021March 24, 2021 by Tim Warre

$14.6 Million Winning Lottery Ticket Goes Unclaimed | PEOPLE.com

This is a guest post by Alice from Hot Take English on the topic of superstitions and bad luck. Students discuss common superstitions in English speaking cultures and their own, then read an article about some seriously bad luck. The main grammar focus of the lesson is the 3rd conditional to talk about hypothetical past events. Download the handout and teacher’s notes below:

third-conditional-worksheet Download

third-conditional-teachers-notes Download

Visit https://www.hottakeenglish.com/ to check out more of Alice’s work. She has some great, free materials on a range of engaging topics.

What Bad Luck – Student Worksheet

1) Warmer: superstitions

Below is a list of good and bad superstitions that are particularly popular in the UK and Ireland. Discuss them with a partner. From where do you think they originate? Do you believe they bring bad/good luck?

Things that bring bad luck:

Walking under a ladder
Seeing one magpie
Putting new shoes on a table
Opening an umbrella inside

Things that bring good luck:

Getting pooed on by a bird
Coming across a black cat
Finding a four-leafed clover

What superstitions are there in your culture or country?

2) Vocabulary

Match the words on the left with their meanings on the right.

1. jackpot	a) extremely shocked
2. invalidated	b) the sale was not successful/the money was not taken out of the person’s bank account
3. stunned	c) not enough
4. draw	d) the most valuable prize in a game or contest
5. the payment didn’t go through	e) very very happy
6. insufficient	f) stopped a ticket from being legally or officially acceptable
7. on top of the world	g) the act of selecting numbers or names randomly to decide the winners of a competition

3) Comprehension check

Read the article. Are these statements true or false?

Rachel Kenny lost the winning ticket.

The 19-year old student was aghast at what had happened.

Rachel and Liam chose different numbers each time they played the lottery.

The money for the lottery tickets was usually taken directly from Rachel’s bank account.

The problem was that Rachel didn’t have enough money in her bank account to pay for the ticket.

Rachel and Liam refuse to play the lottery any more.

4) Grammar practice

With a partner, write down as many third conditional sentences about the article as you can.

E.g. “If the payment had gone through, they would have won the lottery”.

Writing: My Biggest Regret

Write 100-500 words about your “biggest regret”. Include some third conditional sentences.

EuroMillions Player ‘Heartbroken’ After Finding Error Cost Her £182m Lottery Jackpot

The 19-year-old was in shock when her numbers came up – until she noticed a critical problem

Originally published 2 March 2021

A 19-year-old student who thought she had won a £182m lottery jackpot has been left “absolutely heartbroken” after realising an error invalidated the ticket.

Rachel Kennedy, 19, and her boyfriend Liam McCrohan, 21, were stunned when their regular numbers of 6, 12, 22, 29, 33, 6 and 11 came up in the EuroMillions mega jackpot.

Kennedy had played the same numbers for five weeks in a row and had a direct debit set up to automatically play the numbers each week.

The teen was greeted with a message saying she had a ‘winning match’ after last Friday’s draw, according to The Sun.

However, the business student’s hopes of being one of the richest women in Britain were crushed when she found the ticket sale had not gone through due to insufficient funds in her account.

Rachel, of Brighton University, said: “I called my boyfriend Liam and my mum into the room and they couldn’t believe it either so I was like, ‘Oh! My God! I need to call them’.

“I called the number thinking that I had won £182m and they said ‘yeah you’ve got the right numbers but you didn’t have the funds in your account for the payment of the ticket so it didn’t actually go through’.

“I was on top of the world when I thought I had won, but when I found out I hadn’t, Liam was actually more upset than me.”

Rachel said they were “absolutely heartbroken” – and now thinks of her usual weekly numbers as “unlucky” and has decided to change them.

Source: iNews, https://inews.co.uk/news/euromillions-jackpot-player-heartbroken-finding-error-cost-182m-ticket-895016

Exam Preparation Class, Grammar Classes

First Certificate (FCE) Grammar/Language Checklist

Posted on February 14, 2020February 14, 2020 by Tim Warre

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This is a lesson plan designed for students on preparation courses for the Cambridge B2 First (FCE) exam. In particular I think it would be good for students who are close to taking the exam. It works as a diagnostic test of a range of the grammar points that are tested, particularly in part 4 of the reading and use of English exam. Download the handout below:

First Certificate Grammar Checklist

Quizlet set

Procedure:

Self-Assessment

Give out copies of the handout, have students individually assess their grasp of each of the structures. They should fill in the box on the end with either a tick (I know this very well) a cross (I’ve got no idea about this) or a wiggly line (I more or less get this).

Have students compare with their partner. Ask them to look for differences, there should be opportunities for peer teaching here, have one student attempt to explain a grammar point to another.

Practice

Project the quizlet set of key word transformations. Put students in pairs. First students need to identify the structure that is being tested. This is a very important step, getting them to put themselves in the examiner’s shoes and not just jump straight in and answer. Check that they’ve identified the structure, then have them work together to try to complete the sentence. Encourage reflection and comparison between their initial self-assessment and then their scores and performance in the exam task.

The checklist is not exhaustive, have I missed any common structures that come up in part 4?

Grammar Structure	Examples	Self-assessment
Past simple/Present perfect	I haven’t seen John for 5 years. The last time I saw John was 5 years ago.
2^nd conditional	If I won the lottery, I would buy a mansion. If I didn’t work in construction, I would be an actor.
3^rd conditional	If I hadn’t slipped on that banana, I wouldn’t have broken my arm. If I had known you were coming, I would have baked a cake.
The passive voice	Active: The police arrested the man. Passive: The man was arrested by the police. Other example: It is said that cigarettes give you cancer. Cigarettes are said to give you cancer
Wish/If only	I regret eating so much -> I wish I hadn’t eaten so much. It was a bad idea to drink that wine -> If only I hadn’t drunk that wine.
Linkers: Despite/in spite of -> Although/even though	Despite the rain, the party was great -> The party was great even though it was raining. Although he felt ill, he still went to school. -> He still went to school in spite of his illness.
Reported speech	“I went there last year.” -> He said that he had gone there last year. “I will call him tomorrow.” -> She said that she would call him the following day.
Reported questions	“Have you been to Paris?” -> He asked me if I had been to Paris. “Where is the train station?” -> He asked me where the train station was.
Phrasal verbs	He wants to cancel the meeting -> he wants to call off the meeting. He won’t tolerate bad behaviour -> he won’t put up with bad behaviour.
Causative have/get: have/get something done	I need to get my hair cut. I need to have my computer repaired.
Comparatives/superlatives	This restaurant is better than that one -> That restaurant isn’t as good as this one. He’s not nearly as tall as me. My brother is slightly younger than me. No one is as good at football as Messi -> Messi is the best football player.
Past modal verbs: Must have Could/might/may have Should have etc.	The butler must have murdered him, there’s blood on his shirt. It can’t have been Sarah you saw at the mall, she’s on holiday in Dubai. I shouldn’t have drunk so much last night.
So/such	It was so hot that we couldn’t leave the hotel -> It was such a hot day that we had to stay in the hotel. It rained so much that the house flooded. ->It was such a rainy day that the house flooded.
Gerund/infinitive	I’m a big fan of playing water sports. I’m interested in studying history. I have decided to study biology. He spent 10 minutes knocking on my door.