English for

Lesson 2 Summarising a discussion 
Time: 90 minutes
By the end of this lesson, learners will be able to
➡
identify language that shows a problem is being discussed
➡
summarise a discussion orally
➡
evaluate another’s oral summary of a discussion
Language focus
2 Before learners do this activity, you could remind them 
that some adjectives in English can be given the opposite 
meaning by adding a prefix (e.g. possible, impossible), and 
ask them to compile a list of prefixes used for the purpose. 
Answers should include un-, im-, il-, in-, ir-, dis-.
Answers
1 unclear 2 unacceptable 3 irrelevant 4 incapable
5 irresolvable 6 indefinite
3 
Suggested answers
1 This problem seems irresolvable.
2 You have mentioned an irrelevant issue.
3 This objective is unclear.
4 And what about the students who are incapable of completing 
the task?
5 Such behaviour is unacceptable.
4 To provide more practice, you could ask learners to use 
the underlined expressions in their own sentences.
Answers 
1 f 2 g 3 c 4 a 5 e 6 b 7 d

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English for Academics Book 2 Teacher’s Guide
© Cambridge University Press and British Council Russia 2015
www.cambridge.org/elt/english-for-academics
PHOTOCOPIABLE 
20
Lesson 2
Module 1
between different disciplines was crucial. In the years that 
followed the discovery of X-rays in 1895, their paradoxical 
behaviour caused a lot of confusion among physicists: some 
experiments showed that X-rays were waves, yet others 
revealed them as particles. Meanwhile at the other end of the 
spectrum of natural research was genetics, which was badly in 
need of a method to induce mutations in the laboratory. It still 
seems remarkable that Muller, a geneticist by training, made a 
connection between these unrelated problems, and as a result 
produced a revolution …