Learn English Vocabulary
Freakonomics

Do you want to improve your English and learn English vocabulary? You can practice your comprehension and learn new vocabulary and idioms here with my free English reading lesson.

What would you do if you were an overweight insomniac with acne who was often slightly depressed? Would you go to the doctor? Would you experiment on yourself to try and resolve each of your problems? Seth Roberts asked himself these questions 25 years ago and chose the route of self-experimentation. Would you like to find out some of his conclusions and try them out for yourself?

Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner are 'rogue economist(s who explore) the hidden side of everything', and authors of the books Freakonomics and Super Freaknonimcs. This lesson is based on an article they wrote for the NYTimes, in which they examine the 'Accidental Diet', and ask if there is any value to self-experimentation.

Free Downloadable Lesson Plan

Level

If you want to learn English vocabulary and you are at upper-intermediate or advanced level English, then this lesson is perfect for you (B1, B2 and C1).

Language Focus

This lesson starts off with some things for you to think about. You can propose some solutions for our poor, overweight, depressed psychology professor with acne.

There is some new vocabulary from the text with appropriate synonyms for you to learn. Of course there are some comprehension questions from the text, and then the lesson concludes with some idioms with the word 'fat', which are mostly informal, so make sure you learn in what context they are best used (if you tell your prospective employer at your next job interview that they are a fat lot of good, there's a fat chance you'll get the job!)

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