Hooked on bad news

What's in the lesson

1. 1Warm-up
2. 2In this lesson
3. 3Guess the words (1)Vocabulary exercise
4. 4Guess the words (2)Vocabulary exercise
5. 5Check the wordsVocabulary
6. 6Check your understandingReading comprehension
7. 7Use the new wordsVocabulary exercise
8. 8True or false? (the conversation)Listening comprehension
9. 9Find the present perfect continuousGrammar exercise
10. 10The present perfect continuousGrammar rule
11. 11What have they been doing?Grammar exercise
12. 12Questions about your phoneGrammar exercise
13. 13Say it naturally: Maya's partSpeaking practice
14. 14A digital detox planSpeaking practice
15. 15Let's discussDiscussion
16. 16Wrap-up

Homework

1. 1Homework: closest meaningVocabulary exercise
2. 2Homework: your sentencesVocabulary exercise
3. 3Homework: find the mistakeGrammar exercise
4. 4Homework: a habitDiscussion

Words

• addicted/əˈdɪktɪd/

  unable to stop doing or using something (addicted to something)

• anxious/ˈæŋkʃəs/

  worried and nervous

• feed/fiːd/

  the list of new posts and updates that you see in an app

• trigger/ˈtrɪɡər/

  to make something happen, often a strong feeling

• notification/ˌnoʊtɪfɪˈkeɪʃn/

  a message on your phone that tells you something new has happened

• relieved/rɪˈliːvd/

  happy because something bad has stopped or did not happen

• awareness/əˈwernəs/

  knowing about something and noticing it

• avoid/əˈvɔɪd/

  to stay away from something, or try not to do it

• reach for/ˈriːtʃ fər/

  to move your hand to take something

• habit/ˈhæbɪt/

  something you do often, almost without thinking

Two slides from the lesson

Warm-up

Let's talk about phones and the news.

1. Where do you usually get your news: TV, websites, social media, friends?
2. What is the first thing you do with your phone in the morning?
3. Have you ever taken a break from the news or from social media? What happened?

Grammar rule

The present perfect continuous

have / has been + -ing

I've been reading about the floods since breakfast.

We use it for

• an activity that started in the past and is still going on: How long have you been waiting? I've been waiting for twenty minutes. (I am still waiting.)
• an activity that has just stopped and explains what we can see now: Your eyes are red. You've been looking at your phone. (The red eyes are the result.)

Verbs like know, like and have (= own) are not usually used in the continuous: I've known her for years, not I've been knowing her. With live, work and study, both forms are fine: I've lived here / I've been living here for two years.