Lesson Plans
Miguel de Cervantes
- Spain
- Fire
- B1
Warming Up
What do you see in the painting?
At the top and on the left, what do you see?
In the centre of the painting, what is the man doing?
Does he seem scared? What do you think he is thinking?
Who is he?
If you were in his situation, what would you do?
Vocabulary
Drag the words to complete the sentences.
Cultural Heritage Background
React to statements by writing a T if the sentence is True or an F if the sentence is False. If there is not enough information to give a response write NM (not mentioned in the text).
The Byzantine Empire or the Roman Empire of the East was a large territory along the Mediterranean. For many years, the empire was frequently attacked by the Normans, Arabs, Bulgarians and later the Ottoman Turks. The Ottoman Turks attacked the empire many times and succeeded in 1453 when they invaded Constantinople, now Istanbul.
The fall of Constantinople shocked Europe and changed the geopolitical situation as the Turks interrupted trade in the Mediterranean. Many Christian kings feared that the Ottomans would continue invading towns and cities. But it was not until the 16th century that Pope Pius V helped to organise the “Holy League”. This group of armies had the goal to stop the Ottoman Empire and protect the Eastern Mediterranean cities and towns.
The Holy League, which included the major Catholic powers of the south of Europe, the Spanish Empire and the republics of the Italian peninsula, was successful on 25 May 1571. The Ottoman Turks lost the battle in Lepanto (now in Greece).
Lepanto is considered the greatest battle at sea of modern times as more than 400 ships were involved. Winning the battle meant that the Ottomans stopped invading towns and cities that were part of the Byzantine Empire.
As a curious fact, the great Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes took part in the battle and described Lepanto as “the most memorable and noble occasion that the centuries have seen, and that those to come expect to see” (Exemplary Novels, Prologue).
Now, your turn to anwer the questions…
Listening
Listen to a sentence from the Cultural Heritage text and answer the following questions…
The Byzantine Empire or the Roman Empire of the East was a large territory along the Mediterranean. For many years, the empire was frequently attacked by the Normans, Arabs, Bulgarians and later the Ottoman Turks. The Ottoman Turks attacked the empire many times and succeeded in 1453 when they invaded Constantinople, now Istanbul.
The fall of Constantinople shocked Europe and changed the geopolitical situation as the Turks interrupted trade in the Mediterranean. Many Christian kings feared that the Ottomans would continue invading towns and cities. But it was not until the 16th century that Pope Pius V helped to organise the “Holy League”. This group of armies had the goal to stop the Ottoman Empire and protect the Eastern Mediterranean cities and towns.
Reading the story
Move the paragraphs up and down to arrange them in the correct order and for the story to make sense.
Reading Comprehension
Read the following sentence for the text and fill in the blanks
Grammar
Look at the painting and imagine: If you were rich, where would you travel?
Let’s continue playing: Imagine you could have any fantastical creature as a pet, what pet would you have?
These types of imaginary questions are “conditionals” and we use them, for example, to say that one thing depends on something else.
Here are some examples:
0 (Zero) Conditional = is used to talk about things that are generally true, especially for laws and rules (true facts or scientific truths).
If I drink too much coffee, I can’t sleep at night.
The structure is:
if/when + present simple > > present simple.
1st Conditional = is used to talk about future situations that we believe are real or possible.
If it doesn’t rain tomorrow, we’ll go to the beach.
In sentences with first conditional, the structure is usually as follows:
if/when + present simple > > will + infinitive.
2nd Conditional = it is used to talk about imaginary situations that are impossible or improbable in reality.
If we had a garden, we could have a cat.
The structure is usually: if + past simple > > + would/could + infinitive.
Now it’s time to practice: Fill in the blanks with the words in the boxes.
Zero Conditional
First Conditional
Second Conditional
Additional activities
- Learn vocabulary for feelings: How do you feel? | Learning English | Cambridge English
- Practice Conditionals with the following exercise: Conditionals 1 | LearnEnglish (britishcouncil.org)
- Check your understanding with the following quiz: B1 Grammar: Zero, first and second conditionals – Detalles – Kahoot!
