Breaking habits

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. 7Listen: Kate, the queen of "later"Listening comprehension
8. 8Use the new wordsVocabulary exercise
9. 9Find the phrasal verbsGrammar exercise
10. 10What do they mean?Grammar exercise
11. 11Phrasal verbsGrammar rule
12. 12Talking about habitsGrammar exercise
13. 13Say it naturallySpeaking practice
14. 14Role-play: the habit coachSpeaking practice
15. 15Let's discussDiscussion
16. 16Wrap-up

Homework

1. 1Homework: closest meaningVocabulary exercise
2. 2Homework: your sentencesVocabulary exercise
3. 3Homework: where does it go?Grammar exercise
4. 4Homework: my habit planDiscussion

Words

• automatically/ˌɔːtəˈmætɪkli/

  without thinking about it

• boredom/ˈbɔːrdəm/

  the feeling you have when nothing interesting is happening

• procrastinate/prəˈkræstɪneɪt/

  to keep delaying something that you should do

• admit/ədˈmɪt/

  to agree that something is true, especially something bad about yourself

• willpower/ˈwɪlpaʊər/

  the ability to control what you do, even when it is difficult

• reward/rɪˈwɔːrd/

  something good that you get because you did something

• setback/ˈsetbæk/

  a problem that stops your progress for a while

• once and for all/ˌwʌns ən fər ˈɔːl/

  finally and completely, so that it never happens again

• quit cold turkey/ˌkwɪt koʊld ˈtɜːrki/

  to stop a bad habit suddenly and completely

• keep track of/ˌkiːp ˈtræk əv/

  to keep a record of something, so that you know how it is changing

Two slides from the lesson

Warm-up

Let's talk about habits.

1. How many bad habits can you name in one minute?
2. Is there a habit you would like to break? (You don't have to say what it is!)
3. Have you ever stopped doing something suddenly, from one day to the next? Was it easy?

Grammar rule

Phrasal verbs

Verb + up, off, out, down, on…

A phrasal verb is a verb and a small word that go together. Together, they often have a new meaning:

• give up = stop trying, or stop doing something (give up sugar) · put off = delay · figure out = understand

Where does it go?

Many phrasal verbs can split: I put off my homework. / I put my homework off.

With it, them, me, her…, the pronoun goes in the middle: I put it off. (not I put off it)

Some phrasal verbs never split: I ran into an old friend. → I ran into her. There is more about this in the unit's grammar lesson.