G third conditional

V making adjectives and adverbs You were

P sent ence stress really lucky! Yes. If he
hadn't helped me,
I would have missed
t he t rain.

1 READING & SPEAKING

a Answer the questions \vith a partner. Say b Read the beginning of a true story by the
what you would do and why. \.Vriter Bernard Hare, about son1ething
What would you do if... ? that h appened to hirn \.Vhen he \Vas a
student. T hen in pairs, decide what you
1 son1ebody in the street asked you for money
think happe11ed next.
on your way hon1e tonight
2 you were drivi ng hon1e at night and you sa\.v c 5 2 >)) Now listen to what happened.
somebody v.rho had run out of petrol Were you rigl1t?
3 you saw an old man being attacked in the
street by a couple of teenagers d Listen again and answer the questions.
4 you vvere in a queue at a station or airport 1 What did Bernard have to do as soon as he got off the train?
and son1eone asked to go in front of you 2 H o\v did Bernard react?
because he/ she \Vas in a hurry 3 What did the ticket inspector t hen ask hin1 to do?

'
I was living in a student flat in North London, when the
police knocked on my door one night. I thought it was because I
hadn't paid the rent for a few months, so I didn't open the door.
But then I wondered if it was something to do with my mother,
who I knew wasn't very well. There was no phone in the flat and
this was before the days of mobile phones, so I ran down to the
nearest phone box and phoned my dad in Leeds, in the north of
England. He told me that my mum was very ill in hospital and that
I should go home as soon as I could.
When I got to the station I found that I'd missed the last train
to Leeds. There was a train to Peterborough, from where some
local t rains went to Leeds, but I would miss the connection by
about 20 minutes. I decided to get the Peterborough train - I was
so desperate to get home that I thought maybe I could hitchhike
from Peterborough.
'Tickets, please.' I looked up and saw the ticket inspector. He
could see from my eyes that I'd been crying. 'Are you OK?' he
asked. 'Of course I'm OK,' I said. 'You look awful,' he continued.
' Is there anything I can do?' 'You could go away,' I said rudely.
But he didn't. He sat down and said ' If there's a problem, I'm here
to help'. The only thing I could think of was to tell him my story.
When I finished I said, ' So now you know. I'm a bit upset and I
don't feel like talking any more, OK?' 'OK,' he said, fin ally getting
up. ' I'm sorry to hear that, son. I hope you make it home.'
I continued to look out of the window at the dark countryside.
Ten minutes later, the t icket inspector came back.
e After this story was on the BB C, several people \.Vrote in \'v'ith 2 GRAMMAR third conditional
their stories abou t being helped by strangers. A read The students,
B read The an8el. a M atch the sentence halves fron1 t he story.
1 D If t he inspector hadn't stopped the train
to Leeds, . ..
The students 2 D If t he couple hadn't helped Karina, .. .
I was living in South Korea at
the t ime, teaching English. I had
3 D If them.an in the car hadn't stopped, .. .
to leave t he country and return A s he \'v'Ou Id have been a lone without any
again because of problems w ith inoney.
my visa, so I booked a ferry to
B they '"ou ld have had to \.Valk for miles in the
Fukuoka in Japan. I intended to
change some Korean money into cold.
Japanese yen when I got there, C he would have rnissed his connection.
but when I arrived I d iscovered it was a holiday in Japan and all the
banks were c losed. I didn't have a c re dit card, so I walked from the
b Novv look at t he sentences below. Which one
ferry terminal towards the town won dering what I was going to do describes \.vhat re a lly happened? \Vhich one
w ithout any Japanese money. I was feeling lonely and depressed describes how the situation n1ight have been
when suddenly I heard a young couple speaking French. I asked different?
them if they spoke any English, and t hey told me (in good English)
that they were Belg ian students. When I explained my problem, 1 If t he inspector hadn't stopped the t rain, he
they immediately offered to t ake me around the c ity and look fo r would have missed his connection.
somewhere where I could change money. They paid fo r my bus 2 The inspect or stopped the t rain, so he didn't
ticket, and they took me to several places and in t he end we fou nd miss his connection.
a hotel where I was able t o change my cash. They then invited me
to join t hem and their fri ends for the evening. I had a fantastic night c >- p.148 Grammar Bank 9A. Lear n n1ore
and have never forgotten how they changed all their p lans just to about the third conditional and practise it.
help a stranger. - Karina

The angel 3 PRONUNCIATION

It w as a cold Sunday evening in
Manc hester. I was a university sentence st ress
student, and my girlfriend and
a 4>)) Listen and repeat the sen tences. Copy
I had been invited to dinner with
our t utor at his house 30 km
the rhythn1.
away. We decided to go on
my motorbike, but we hadn't 1 If I'd known you were ill, I would have
realized how cold it was, so we come to see you.
hadn't dressed properly, and after ten minutes o n the bike we were 2 If the weather had been better, we
absolutely freezing. When we were about half way there, t he bike
started to make a funny noise and then stopped. We had run out of would have stayed longer.
petrol. We stood at the side of t he road, shivering w ith cold , and not 3 1f 1hadn't stopped to get petrol,
sure what to do. I WOUldn't have been late.
Suddenly a passing car stopped. The driver got out, opened t he 4 We would have missed our flight if it
boot of his car, and took out a can of petrol. He walked up to my hadn't been delayed.
bike, opened the petrol tank, and poured the petrol in. He t hen
closed the tank and got back into his car, w ithout saying a single
b r~s >)) Listen a nd write five third conditional
word, and d rove away. We couldn't believe our luck. We sometimes
sen tences.
wonder if the man who rescued us was an angel. .. - Andy
c >- Communication Guess the conditional
A p.108 8 p.111.
f in pairs, tell each other your s tory. Tell you r partner:
Where it happened
What the problem was
What the stranger(s) did t o help
~~~~~~~~~~~~---

g Which of the three stories do you think \.vas a) the n1ost

s urprising b) the n1ost n1oving? Why?

11 I-l ave you ever he lped a st ranger, or been helped by a s trange r?

'vVl1at h.appene<l ?
4 SPEAKING 5 READING & LISTENING
a Read the q uestions and think about your ans,vers. a Think of son1e very successfu l people, e.g. business
l Look at some quotes about luck. Do you think they
people, n1usicians, sports stars. VVh ich of these th rec
are true? things do you think '~' as probably n1ost in1portant in
rnaking thern successful: a) ta lent b) hard \VOrk c) luck?

b Read the article A question of luck? about a book by

'The more Malcoln1 Gladvvell, and ans\ver the questions.

I practise, 1 \.\!hat t hree fac tors docs he think being successful

rea lly depends on?
the luckier 2 \,\l hy is it an advantage for sports players to be born in
I get.' the first 111onths of t he year in son1e countries;>
'
Gary Player, golf player 3 \,\!hat is the 10,000 hours theory?
c 15 6 l)) No'~' listen to t\VO other exan1ples G lad\vell
•
'You've got rnentions, The Beatles and Bill Gates. \Vhat two n1ain
to think lucky. reasons does he give for their extraordinary success?
If you fall into a
lake, check your back
pocket - you might
have caught
a fish.'
Darrell Royal,
American football
coach
'Remember
that sometimes
not getting what
you want is a
wonderful str~7~ d Listen again and ans\ver the questions.
of luck.' _}
The 14th Dalai Lama, \\
THE BEATLES
religious leader 1 \Vhere did they play and bet\veen \Vhich years?
2 \Vhcre did the club owner usually get bands fron1?
'If you have 3 Ho\v n1uch did they have to play?
two fr:ile nds in. your 4 How many tin1es had they performed live by 1964?
lifetime, you are lucky.
Bill GATES
If you have one good 5 \Vhen did his school start a corn puter club?
friend, you are more 6 \Vhy \Vas this unusual?
than lucky.' 7 \Vhat did he and his friends do at \veekends?
Susan Hinton, writer 8 Ho\v n1any hou rs did he spend at the con1puter club
every \Veek?
e \~! hat do you think? Answer these questions \Vith a
partner.
2 Do you consider yourself in general to be a lucky 1 Do you agree that luck and practice are just as
person? Why (not)? important as talent? Ts luck rnore in1portant than
3 Ca n you rernernber a ti rne \vhen you \Vere either very practice or the other \vay around?
lucky or very unlucky? \Vhat happened? 2 Think of sornething you are quire good at or very good
4 Do you kno\v anyone \Vho you think is particularly at. \Vere you lucky to be able to have the opportunity to
lucky or unlucky? \Vhy? start doing it;> How n1any hours do you thi nk you have
spent practising it? Do you think you have spent rnore
b fn groups of three or fou r, discuss your ans,vers. G ive
hours doing it than other people you kno\v?
as n1uch detail as possible.

m
 A questi~ 6 VOCABULARY
making adjectives and adverbs
One of these is luck, for example being
lucky ehough t o be in t he right place at
the right time.

•
hat is the question we always ask about successful
a Look at t he bold words in the sentence
above. \Vh ich is a noun and w hich is an
people? We want to know what t hey're like - what kind
adjective? Using the word luck, can you
of personalities they have, or how intelligent they niake ... ?
are, or what kind of lifestyles they have, or what special talents l a negative adjective
they might have been born with. And we assume t hat i t is those 2 a positive adverb
personal qualities that explain how that indi vi dual gets to the top 3 a negative adverb
of hi s or her profession.

But accordi ng to Malcol m Gladwell, in his book Outliers, we

b > p.163 Vocabulary Bank Word building.
Do Part 2.
are asking the wrong questions. He thinks that while talent is
obviously a factor, there are two ot her more important ones that
make a person successful. The first of these factors is luck.
7 WRITING
a R ead the rules for the sente11ce ga1ne.

The sentence game

1 You must write correct sentences with t he
exact number of words given (contractions
count as one word).
2 The sentences must make sense.
3 You must include a form of the word given
(e.g. if the word is luck, you can use lucky,
luckily, etc.).
He begins wit h the example of sports players. In recent research
done on vari ous groups of elite ice hockey players from Canada
b Work in tean1s of three or four. Play the
and t he Czech Republic, one fascinating fact came to light.
sentence ga1ne. You have five n1inutes to
In both countri es, i t was discovered that 40°/0 of the players
in the top teams were born between January and March, 30°/0
'"'rite the follov;ing sentences.
between April and June, 20°;0 between July and September, and I fortune (11 WORDS)
only 10°/0 between October and December. The explanation was 2 comfort (9 WORDS)
si mple. The school year in these countries runs from January
3 luck (7 WORDS)
to December. A boy who is ten on January 2nd will be in the
same class as one whose 10th birthday i s on December 30th . 4 care (6 WORDS)
•
I· The chances are the first boy will be bigger, stronger, and more 5 patience (12 WORDS)
coordinated. He is much more likely than the ot her boy t o be
chosen to play i n junior teams. He will then get better coaching c Your teacher \vill tell you if your sentences
than t he ot hers, and will play many more games, so will also get are correct. The team vvith the 1nost correct
more pract ice. In the beginning his advantage isn't so much that sentences is the \vin ner.
he is more talented, simply that he is older. He was lucky enough
to be born in the fi rst months of t he year. But by t he age of 13 or
14 , with the extra coaching and practice, he really will be better 8 rs g >)) SONG Karma ~
than the others, and far more likely to be successful.

The extra practice i s vital, because the second fac tor t hat
Gladwell believes is of great importance in determi ning whet her
somebody is goi ng to be successful or not is what he calls the
'10,000 hours theory'. Thi s theory, based on studies in many
different fields, says that in order to get to the very top you
need to put i n 10,000 hours of practice, whet her it is playing an
i nstr ument or a sport, or programming a computer.

Adapted from a British newspaper