Episode 100

EPISODE 100
LEVEL A1.2/ A2.1

READING COMPREHENSION 

 

BODY SIZE AND BODY PARTS

You can say that Mr and Mrs Brown are an average (= typical) couple. His name is Jack and her name is Kate. They’ve got two children – a boy and a girl.

Are they tall or short? Mr and Mrs Brown are not tall or short. They are both of average height (not tall and not short).

Are they fat or slim? Mr Smith is certainly not weak or skinny (= very slim), but he is also not well built (= strong, with big muscles) or obese (= really fat). He is just average. Mrs Smith cannot be described as thin (= slim), but she is also not overweight (= fat).

Every part of their bodies is average size. Their feet are neither big nor small. Their hips (= the part of your body between waist and legs) are not too wide and their legs are not too short. 

Mr and Mrs Smith are just an average couple. Except for one thing. They are the only couple in the country which is average in so many ways. This means that the Smiths are in fact quite unique.

 

More contexts for the new words: 

• Arnold Schwarzenegger used to be a world champion in body building. (= special exercises that you do regularly to make your muscles bigger)
• These films represent a major body of work. (= a large amount or collection of something such as information, knowledge or work)

 

EXERCISE 1 

Complete sentences with correct words:

1. John is really t……………. – over 200 cm.
2. Linda is of a…………….. height. She’s 160cm.
3. He’s got really big f………. He wears size 46.
4. Women look more feminine if their h…………… are wide.
5. Look at Emma! She’s so s………… – she weighs about 40 kg.
6. She collected a huge b…………… of information on the subject.

 

EXERCISE 2 

Match the beginnings of the questions with the endings. Then answer the questions.

1. Would you like to try
2. What is the average height
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages 

1. of being very tall or very short?
2. body building? Why/ why not?
3. for men and women in your country?
   

 

ENGLISH IN USE  

When you want to say that something is possible you use can.
You can buy these tickets in the Tourist Information Centre.

To say that something isn’t possible you use can’t.
You can’t travel from Warsaw to Siedlce by plane.

We also you can and can’t to talk about ability.
Mary can speak five languages.
She can’t drive a car

 

IDIOM CLOSE-UP

 

They were totally committed to each other, BODY AND SOUL.

If we do something or believe something body and soul, we do it or believe it completely.

 

PHRASAL VERBS CLOSE-UP

1. When you BUILD SOMEONE UP, you make them healthier and stronger, especially by making them eat more.

You need lots of fresh fruit to help build you up.

 

2. When you BACK OUT, you decide not to do something you agreed to do.

We’re hoping that no one will back out of the deal.

 

EXERCISE 3 

Complete sentences with correct words:

1. You agreed to come. You can’t b……….. out now!
2. They gave him soup to b………… up his strength.
3. She dedicated herself to her research, b………….. and soul.

 

NEWS

 

BODY PARTS TRADE

A serious shortage of donated organs in rich countries is leading to a worrying increase in the illegal body parts trade. Rich foreigners who are seriously ill are looking to poorer nations like China, Colombia, Egypt, Pakistan and the Philippines to get an organ that will give them a new life. “Transplant tourists” are finding it easier to find new organs because the number of poor people who want to sell their liver or kidney as a short-term escape from poverty increases.

The body part trade is banned in many countries around the world but laws are often very confusing. This makes it difficult for authorities to regulate and to crack down on illegal sales, which increases the number of deaths among donors. In Pakistan there is a “kidney bazaar” – rich patients pay $8,000 for a new kidney, for which donors are paid $300 – $1,000 and often get no medical care after the surgery. China recently banned the sale of human organs and restricted transplants for foreigners. 

 

GLOSSARY 

• shortage – when there is not enough of something
• increase – a rise in the amount or size of something
• liver – a large organ in your body which cleans the blood
• kidney – one of the two organs in your body that clean blood and remove waste
• to ban sth – to say officially that people must not do something
• to crack down on – to start dealing with something more strictly
• a donor – a person who gives a part of their body to someone who is ill
• to restrict sth – to limit something

 

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