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Life in the UK

L ook at th e ph otog raph s an d d iscus s

th ese que stion s.

W hen do y ou t hink the

ph otog raph s w ere t aken ?

H ow d o yo u th ink life has c han ged

in the time bet wee n the firs t an d

th e se cond pho tog raph s?

What you will do

This unit is about the way in which life in the UK is changing. These are the

skills you will practise. Which are the most useful to you? Tick the boxes.

Listening and speaking

Skill

Skill code

Understand and give a factual account of social trends

Lr/L1.1a; Sc/L1.3a, 3b, 3e

Listen to explanations and presentations

Lr/L1.2a, 2d

Giving and following a talk

Sc/L1.4b, 4e; Sd/L1.1a, 1b

Reading and writing

Skill

Skill code

Read about statistics and social trends

Rt/L1.2a, 3a, 5a; Rs/L1.1a; Rw/L1.2a

Understand the structure of a text presenting advantages and

disadvantages

Rt/L1.1a

Write a text to develop an argument

Wt/L1.3a; Ws/L1.1a

Extend vocabulary related to social change

Rw/L1.2a

Plan a talk

Wt/L1.1a

Project work

At the end of this unit you will choose an area to research relating to life in the UK.

You will then give a talk and write a short report.

L1 ESOL

Unit 1 Page 1

Changes in the UK

Activity A

Reading an article about changes

The article below compares different aspects of life in the UK in 1953 and now.

1 Work in groups. Make a list of changes that have happened during the period.

Discuss these points: life expectancy, spending, family life, lifestyle.

2 Now read the article. How many of the changes you discussed are mentioned?

A half -cen tury of c han ge

A recent re port shows ju st how much

li fe in the U K has chan ged since

1953 . The finding s are stagger ing.

Peop le are livin g much lo nger

than befor e. In fact, li fe expectanc y

f or both m en and wo men has

incr eased by nin e years over the last

50 year s.

As a na tion, we are considerabl y

b etter off. We have more than twice

as much spar e cash to spend.

Nowad ays, we spen d a significa ntly

lower pro portion of o ur income o n

f ood, and su bstantially m ore on a

vari ety of goods and services such as

foreign holidays, d esigner clo thes,

DVDs, com puter game s and cars.

Indeed, with so man y of us spend ing

our hard-e arned cash on cars, the

to tal number of vehicles o n the road

has greatly incre ased. In 195 3 there

were 23 million few er cars and v ans

on the road than there a re today.

More cont roversial for some are

the social ch anges that have

occurre d. In 1953, on ly one in tw enty

children w ere born t o unmarried

p arents, whe reas nowada ys two in

five children are born out of

wedloc k. By the sam e token, in 2003

far more couples coh abited befor e

g etting mar ried compa red with

thos e in 1953. No wadays the f igure is

seven o ut of ten com pared with one

in 20. Inte restingly, on ly 1.5 millio n

p eople lived alone 50 years ago

com pared with s even million today.

Fina lly, we are changing sh ape.

Our wais tlines are g etting bigge r.

I t is unclear whether th is is due

to better nutrit ion, higher calorie

consum ption or a more seden tary

lifestyle. W hatever th e reasons, th e

a verage size of men’s waists has

incr eased by 12 cm to 90 cm in the

last 50 years, and w omen’s ave rage

waist size has increase d by 7.5 cm to

7 5 cm.

3 Work in pairs. Discuss any of the changes mentioned in the report which you

found surprising or interesting.

4 Read the text again. Underline structures used to compare life in 1953 and now.

5 Look at the word in bold in line 4. Find four other words in the text with the

same meaning.

Page 2 Unit 1

L1 ESOL

Sc/L1.3e; Lr/L1.2d; Rt/L5.a; Rs/L1.1a; Rw/L1.2a

6 Read the text again and complete the table below.

1953

2003

Life expectancy

Men

Women

Number of people who live alone

Couples who cohabit before marriage

1/20

Number of children born to unmarried parents

Number of cars and vans

26 million

Average waist size

Men

90 cm

Women

75 cm

Activity B

Listening to a radio programme

1 Listen to a reporter from local radio asking five members of the public whether

they think life in the UK is getting better or worse. What do they think? What

reasons do they give?

2 Listen again and tick the expressions as you hear them.

much less rigid than

almost as easy

a lot easier

twice as much as

much less safe than

far easier time

so much more advanced

nearly as safe as

lots more

so much faster

Activity C

Talking to others about changes

Interview other members of your class. Ask questions about how they think life is

changing and make a note of their answers. Report back your findings to the class.

Is life getting better or worse?

Do you think technology is

making life better or worse?

L1 ESOL

Unit 1 Page 3

How we spend our time

Activity A

Reading statistical information

Last month Quest, a market research company, was asked to carry out a survey to

find out how people in the UK today spend their time. They interviewed 2,800

people and the report on page 5 is a summary of their findings.

Before you read the report, your teacher will give you a quiz.

1 Read through the quiz and answer each question.

2 Work in pairs and compare your answers.

3 Now read the report of the findings of the survey. Use the information in the

report and the pie chart to check the answers to your quiz.

4 Complete these sentences about the findings of the survey, using words or

phrases from the box. Make sure you keep the same meaning as in the text.

four out of five

generally

half as much

one in two

three-quarters

one in ten

twice as much

thirty-three per cent

a .................................................. of the day is spent sleeping and eating.

Thirty-three per cent

b By midnight .................................................. of adults are sleeping.

c On average, children watch .................................................. TV as older people.

d Just over .................................................. of adults are up by 8 am during the week.

e Only .................................................. people go to bed later than 1 am at weekends.

Activity B

Saying figures

Listen. Tick each figure when you hear it.

9.30–6

50%

1/15

10–50

25/100

Activity C

Designing a questionnaire

1 You want to find out how people spend their time. Work in small groups to

decide on the topics for your survey. Then design a questionnaire.

2 Interview a number of different people using your survey.

3 Pool your results with the other members of your group. Work out some

statistics and prepare a summary of the result. If possible, include a pie chart.

4 Present your summary to the class using some of the expressions used in the

report and in Activity A task 4.

Page 4 Unit 1

L1 ESOL

Sc/L1.3b; Rt/L1.3a; Rw/L1.2a

Unit 1 Page 5

L1 ESOL

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