Match the sentence beginning (1-3) with the correct endings (a-c). The sentences all contain expressions from the text (c)
1. Investment companies are reporting a sharp increase in the number of …
2. Consumers are using their windfall gains from building society …
3. Peter is 26 and is wondering whether to join his company pension scheme …
if he decides to stay for at least two years he should join. If not, he should take out a personal pension.
small investors who are investing in unit trusts.
demutualizations to buy new furniture or a new car.
Discuss
1. What type of bank accounts and personal investments do you prefer?
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the different types?
Unit 9 Briefing in sport
Lead-in: Winners
Listen and speak: Giving post-production feedback
Focus on reading: Running Free
Language Focus: Writing commentary and Captions on Sports Photo
Lead-in
Winners
Look at the given pictures. In pairs, describe the photos and answer the questions.
1 What do you think the people all have in common?
2 What do you think they had to do to achieve their success?
3. Can you remember any sporting moments that you’ve watched when someone has left in similar ways?
Match presenter’s questions with Tony Greenwood’s answers.
P-presenter, T-Tony Greenwood
P: 1_________________
T: Hello …
P: 2_________________
T: Well, I suppose that’s sometimes true. There are examples of sports people who are extremely successful and have never needed any help with their mental determination. Mohamed Ali was probably the most famous of all. He had complete self-belief that he was the best and absolutely unbeatable.
P: 3_________________
T: No … and there are other examples of sportspeople who seem to be totally committed to their own success: tennis player Bjorn Borg, racing driver Michael Schumacher and basketball player Michael Jordan to name a few. But these people are actually quite rare … most sportspeople do a lot of work on mental preparation and get a lot of help with staying focused on winning.
P: 4_________________
T: Well, our basic job is to prepare the mind and we can do this in different ways depending on who we’re working with. One of the most important things we do is to help people change negative thoughts into positive ones. I did some work with a football recently. He missed a really important goal and started thinking that he couldn’t do it anymore. I told him he could do it by thinking about something different, not on missing the goal. After practicing thinking about the way the ball was turning instead, his whole game improved dramatically.
P: 5_________________
T: Yes, that’s right. For much of her career, she was constantly getting injured and then worrying that it would happen again. I remember that she admitted feeling totally out of control when she got injured all the time. But the fact is, athletes have to get over that and start to take control mentally. That’s exactly what she did – and then of course won two gold medals at the Athens Olympics, which was a fantastic achievement!
P: Yes, she was really brilliant!
T: There are other things we can do to help with mental preparation too. Things like routines to get the players focused and working as a team can really help.
P: 6_________________
T: Well, the New Zealand All Blacks rugby teams do their Haka war dance to focus themselves and to try and worry the other team. Then there are people who have their own personal lucky routines. Footballer Andy Cole said he always wanted to be the last player onto the pitch. It might seem bit silly, but if it works …
Kelly Holmes is a good example of that too, isn’t she?
So, first of all, Tony, let’s think about that question. Is sports psychology really necessary? Some people would say that you’ve either got the determination to succeed or you haven’t. What do you think?
OK … so what do the sports psychologists do? How do you help people to succeed?
Routines? What do you mean?
Today on Sports Alive we are looking at success and achievement in sport. Who are the most successful sportspeople in the world and just how do they achieve their success? There is a huge sports psychology industry working with almost all athletes these days. But does it work? Is it all really necessary? We’ve got sports psychologist, Tony Greenwood here to help us these questions. Hello, Tony. Welcome to the programme.
That’s right. Nobody needed to remind him to focus on the goal!