ADVANCED LEVEL

TEACHER: JANE QUEIROZ

Discuss the following questions.

1 – How do you define CHALLENGE?

2 – Talk to your partner and share a challenge you have faced while you were a child /
teen. How did you overcome it? Did anybody help you to achieve success? If you
could have done something different, what would it be?

1 - Can you match these people to their jobs / occupations? Try it and check your answers with
a partner.

a) Niki Lauda ( ) drummer

b) Andre Agassi ( ) champion paracyclist
c) Rick Allen ( ) actor
d) Robert Downey, Jr. ( ) student and humanitarian
e) Alessandro Zanardi ( ) former tennis player
f) Malala Yousafzai ( ) former F1 racer

2 – What information do you know about the people mentioned in the previous question?
Discuss with a partner and share your information with the whole group. For those you do not
know any information, try to make some guesses.
3 –Match these idioms to their meanings. Use the underlined examples as a clue.

a) elephant in the room

b) Achilles heel
c) come hell or high water
d) asking for trouble
e) break the back of the beast

( ) This expression refers to a vulnerable area or a weak spot, in an otherwise strong situation, that could
cause one's downfall or failure. He's extremely intelligent, but his inability to speak in public is his ___________.

( ) Someone who is ________________ is behaving so stupidly that he/she is likely to have problems. Driving
fast on these roads is really_____________________!

( ) If someone __________________________, they succeed in overcoming a major difficulty. After hours of

effort, the technicians finally_______________________and turned the electricity back on again.

( ) If you say that you will do something __________________, you mean that you will do it in spite of the
difficulties involved. _________________, I've got to be on time for the interview.

( ) A problem that no one wants to discuss, but is so obvious that it cannot be ignored, is called ____________.
Let’s face it, his work is unsatisfactory. It's an elephant in the room that we need to discuss.

http://www.learn-english-today.com/idioms/idiom-categories/problems/problems1-achilles-chill.html
1
 Read the following biographies.
Do they match your information / suppositions in the previous exercise?

Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani school pupil and spokesperson for women’s right to education. In
retaliation for her high profile campaign for education and criticism of the Taliban, she was shot in the
head at close range by a Taliban gunman. She survived the gunshot wound and has become a leading
spokesperson for human rights, education and women’s rights. She has received numerous peace
awards, and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 along with Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian children’s
rights activist.

http://www.biographyonline.net/women/malala.html

Alessandro "Alex" Zanardi born 23 October 1966)

is an Italian professional racing driver and paracyclist.

He won two CART championship titles in North

America during the late 1990s. He also had a less
successful career as a Formula One driver. More
recently, he has attracted widespread praise for his
return to competition in the aftermath of a crash in
2001 that resulted in the amputation of his legs. He
returned to racing less than two years after the
accident, competing in the FIA World Touring Car
Championship for BMW Team Italy-Spain between
2003 and 2009.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Zanardi

Richard John Cyril "Rick" Allen (born 1 November

1963) is an English drummer.

He has played for the hard rock band Def Leppard

since 1978. He overcame the amputation of his left
arm in 1985 and continued to play with the band,
which subsequently went on to its most
commercially successful phase. He is known as
Switching sports, Zanardi took up competition in
"The Thunder God" by fans.
handcycling, a form of paralympic cycling, with the
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Allen stated goal of representing Italy at the 2012 Summer
Paralympics.

2
Andreas Nikolaus "Niki" Lauda (born 22 February 1949) is an
Austrian former Formula One driver who was three times F1 World
Champion, winning in 1975, 1977 and 1984. He is currently the only driver
to have been champion for both Ferrari and McLaren, the sport's two
most successful constructors. More recently an aviation entrepreneur, he
has founded and run two airlines (Lauda Air and Niki). He is also
Bombardier Business Aircraft brand ambassador. He was also a consultant
for Scuderia Ferrari and team manager of the Jaguar Formula One racing
team for two years. He is currently working as a pundit for German TV
during Grand Prix weekends and acts as non-executive chairman of the
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team.

Lauda was seriously injured in a crash at the 1976 German Grand Prix at
the Nürburgring, during which his Ferrari burst into flames and he came
close to death after inhaling hot toxic fumes and suffering severe burns.
However he recovered and returned to race again just six weeks later at
the Italian Grand Prix. Scars from the injuries he suffered have left him
permanently disfigured.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niki_Lauda

Andre Kirk Agassi, born April 29, 1970) is an American retired professional
tennis player and former World No. 1, who was one of the game's most
dominant players from the early 1990s to the mid-2000s. Generally considered
by critics and fellow players to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time
Agassi had been called the best service returner in the history of the game.

After suffering from sciatica caused by two bulging discs in his back, a
spondylolisthesis (vertebral displacement) and a bone spur that interfered with
the nerve, Agassi retired from professional tennis on September 3, 2006, after
losing in the third round of the US Open to Benjamin Becker.

1997 was the low point of Agassi's career. His wrist injury resurfaced, and he
played only 24 matches during the year. He later confessed that he started using
crystal methamphetamine at that time and failed the ATP drug test.

In 1998, Agassi began a rigorous conditioning program and worked his way back
up the rankings by playing in Challenger Series tournaments. On April 28, 2003,
he recaptured the world no. 1 ranking after a quarterfinal victory over Xavier
Malisse at the Queen's Club Championships to become the oldest top-ranked
male player since the ATP rankings began.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Agassi

3
Robert John Downey, Jr. (born April 4, 1965) is an American actor whose career has included critical and
popular success in his youth, followed by a period of substance abuse and legal troubles, and a resurgence of
commercial success in middle age.

After being released in 2000 from the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison where
he was on drug charges, Downey joined the cast of the TV series Ally McBeal playing Calista Flockhart's love
interest. His performance was praised and he received a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an
Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Miniseries, or Television Film. His character was written out when
Downey was fired after two drug arrests in late 2000 and early 2001. After one last stay in a court-ordered
drug treatment program, Downey finally achieved sobriety.

Downey has starred in several movies that have each grossed over $500 million at the box office worldwide.
Three of those films, The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Iron Man 3, each earned over $1 billion.
Downey tops the Forbes list of Hollywood's highest-paid actors with an estimated $75 million in earnings
between June 2012 and June 2013.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Downey,_Jr.

2 – What do all these people have in common?

_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________

3 – Choose a biography to report to your mate. When doing this, use some of the idioms
studied on question 3 of Before reading section.

4 - Finish the given sentences in Reported Speech.

a) Tim: "She works in an office."
Tim said that she _________________________ .

b) Jessica: "I am going to clean the room."

Jessica told me that she ______________________ .

c) Jeff: "They like the song."

Jeff said that they ___________________________ .

d) Ian and Marvin: "We need new shoes."

Ian and Marvin remarked that they ___________________________ .

e) Kathy: "He can speak Spanish."

Kathy told us that he __________________________ .

f) Teacher: "Rachel has never been to Philadelphia."

The teacher said that Rachel ___________________________ .

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/reported_speech/sentences.htm