That's English! - Module 7 - Unit 2: Good science, bad ethics? (B1.2)

Introduction
In this unit we are going to speak about how development can be something good or something to be aware of. About grammar, we'll see purpose clauses. Besides, there is a review of connectors and how to use them to join and connect all the ideas expressed in a text.

General Questions

• Do you think there is a "good science" and a "bad science"? Give reasons for your answer
• Do governments and/or society should set boundaries to science? Which ones?
• Can you think of a dilemma connected to science or medicine, such as the use of stem cells, palliative cares, who is worth being save or what to do with terminal ill people?
• Taking drugs should be legalized? Under what conditions or in what cases drugs might be allowed?
• What technical advances would you like to see in the future? Explaqin how those improvements would affect our lives.

Activity 1
Which advances mentioned below do you think are more necessary? Discuss with your partner and give reasons for your answer.

• Advances in biotechnology, especially the use of stem cells.
• Safer, faster transportation
• Improvements in information technology: is it a necessity or an addiction?
• The use of IT: new devices and how to use them
• Space travel, as the last frontier and even as a touristic destination

Activity 2

The use of purpose is very usual in spoken English. Let's work with some examples. Find some sentences which express the meaning given below:

• To say the use or purpose of something:  A hammer is a tool for .... (-ING); a camera is something you use to .... (INFINITIVE); an umbrella is something people use so that they ...... (followed by A SENTENCE); we use medicines in order not to ..... (INFINITIVE)

• To say the reason for doing something: I started doing exercise to feel better. The doctor told me to do it little by little in order to avoid health problems. I trained more and more so that I could take part into a competition. I did it hard for geting the first price.

Try to do the same with your partner. Share your examples. This link will give you some examples as well: click here.

If you want to see a good summary of how to express purpose, go to this link. At the end of this page you've got a chart about purpose.

Activity 3 (use of conditional sentences)

In this unit there is a review of zero conditional or general truth conditional sentences (if-clause with present simple and main clause with present simple as well). Let's work with second conditionals or hypothetical/conditional sentence (simple conditional - simple past). Here you are some questions to work with your partner:

• What happens when you want to lose weight?  If you need to be slimmer you can do exercise; if I were overweight, I'd try to eat less
• What can you do to learn a language?
• Professional athletes need to take drugs to boost their performance.

Activity 4 (listening comprenhension)

Listening comprenhension exercise. You'll here some news about cloned animals. Fill in the blanks with a missing word. Click here
This other exercise is very useful to review passive voice. Although it is not in this unit I think it'll be a good help to refresh your grammar with this exercise: click here

Activity 5

See you in class!