Vocabulary: British and American English

A2, B1, B2, (C1)

There are many differences between British and American English words, You are going to learn some of the most common ones. Activity time: 15 minutes to 1 hour

Task:  Look at the 12 pictures on the right.

1  Can you name the different things in the pictures? Do you know if your word is American or British English? 

2  Go to the interactive wordlist and check your answers. NB You have two search options - British to American or American to British.

3 If you want to learn some more British and American English differences, do the quiz. If you're not sure of the answer, the interactive wordlist can help you. 

Go to the interactive wordlist here.
Go to the quiz here.
Check your answers to 1 and 2 here. 

Video: The Secret Powers of Time

(B1), B2, C1, C2

Philip Zimbardo  is a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. In this talk from the RSA site, he describes how our different perspectives of time influence our personalities, our relationships, and our actions. The talk is illustrated by a cartoonist, who reproduces the key points with pictures and text. Video time: 10 minutes 9 seconds. Activity time: 20 minutes to 1 hour.


Task:  1 Look at the illustration above. What kind of people do you think live in past, present or future time zones? How is their behaviour different? Do you think we live in different time zones at different ages?

2 Watch the video to see how Philip Zimbardo answers the questions in 1. Pause the video where necessary  to look at the illustrations and relate them to what the speaker has just said.

Go to the video here.