The subscription economy

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: Gabe's subscription auditListening comprehension
8. 8Use the new wordsVocabulary exercise
9. 9What does it mean?Grammar exercise
10. 10Conditions without ifGrammar rule
11. 11Unless, as long as, in case, otherwiseGrammar exercise
12. 12Say it naturallySpeaking practice
13. 13Subscription auditSpeaking practice
14. 14Let's discussDiscussion
15. 15Wrap-up

Homework

1. 1Homework: closest meaningVocabulary exercise
2. 2Homework: your sentencesVocabulary exercise
3. 3Homework: conditions without ifGrammar exercise
4. 4Homework: worth it or not?Discussion

Words

• ownership/ˈoʊnərʃɪp/

  the fact of owning something

• recurring/rɪˈkɜːrɪŋ/

  happening again and again, often at regular times

• predictable/prɪˈdɪktəbl/

  that can be known in advance; not surprising (opposite: unpredictable)

• upfront/ˌʌpˈfrʌnt/

  at the beginning, before you get or use something (pay upfront; an upfront cost)

• auto-renew/ˌɔːtoʊ rɪˈnuː/

  (of a plan or a membership) to start again automatically at the end of a period

• sign up for/ˌsaɪn ˈʌp fər/

  to join a service, a class or a plan by giving your name and details

• free trial/ˌfriː ˈtraɪəl/

  a short period when you can use something without paying

• perk/pɜːrk/

  an extra advantage that comes with a job, a membership or a situation

• burden/ˈbɜːrdn/

  something difficult that you have to carry or deal with

• niche/nɪtʃ/

  interesting to or meant for only a small, special group of people

Two slides from the lesson

Warm-up

Let's talk about subscriptions.

1. What do you pay for every month, apart from bills like rent and electricity?
2. Is there anything you own that you would never sell? What is it?
3. Have you ever found it hard to cancel something? What happened?

Grammar rule

Conditions without if

Word	Meaning	Example
unless	if … not	Unless you cancel, the plan renews. (= If you don't cancel…)
as long as / provided (that)	only if	You can borrow my bike as long as you bring it back tonight.
in case	because something might happen	Bring a book in case there's a long wait.
otherwise	if not (after a sentence or a semicolon)	Set an alarm; otherwise, you'll oversleep.

After unless, as long as, provided (that) and in case, use the present simple for the future: unless you cancel (not unless you will cancel). Unless already means if … not, so don't add another not: not unless you don't cancel. The unit's grammar lesson practices these and more (even if, only if, suppose).