"Unlock is a five-level academic skills course that combines carefully scaffolded exercises, a comprehensive approach to critical thinking and motivating video.

Unlock Reading and Writing Skills Level 2 provides 60-90 hours of classroom material. Access to the Online Workbook is provided via a code packaged with the Student's Book.

Critical Thinking sections give students frameworks to formulate their own opinions and express themselves effectively in the end-of-unit academic tasks.

Unique research into common learner errors (using the Cambridge English Corpus) focuses the language used in Unlock on those areas learners find most challenging.

Videos from Discovery Education™ (accessible via the Cambridge Learning Management System and supplied on the Teacher's Book DVD) provide new angles on a range of academic subjects." (Publisher's Website)

CONTENTS

Map of the book / Introduction

Introduction / Teaching tips

Unit 1 - PLACES
READING 1: Rise of the megacities (Geography)
READING 2: Homestay holidays (Travel and Tourism)

VIDEO: Life in faraway places

READING - Key reading skill:
Scanning for numbers
Understanding key vocabulary
Making predictions
Reading for main ideas
Reading for detail
Scanning to find information
Working out meaning
Scanning to predict content
Making inferences

VOCABULARY: Vocabulary to describe places (e.g. exciting, interesting, polluted, noisy, boring)

GRAMMAR: Nouns, verbs and adjectives

GRAMMAR FOR WRITING: Sentence structure 1: subject + verb; There is / There are

CRITICAL THINKING:
Understand the differences between two texts
Evaluate information using a T-chart
Analyze positives and negatives using a T-chart
Create your own T-chart to organize your ideas

WRITING
Academic writing skills: Capital letters and full stops
Writing task type: Write descriptive sentences
Writing task: Describe the place where you live. Write about the positives and negatives.

Unit 2 - FESTIVALS AND CELEBRATIONS
READING 1: Celebrate! (Sociology)
READING 2: Muscat Festival (Cultural Studies)

VIDEO: Festivals: Mongolia

READING - Key reading skill:
Previewing
Understanding key vocabulary
Reading for main ideas
Reading for detail
Recognizing text type
Scanning to predict content

VOCABULARY: Vocabulary to describe festivals (e.g. lucky, culture, traditional, history, highlights)

GRAMMAR: Prepositions of time and place: on, in, at; Adverbs of frequency

GRAMMAR FOR WRITING: Sentence structure 2: subject and verb order; Prepositional phrases

CRITICAL THINKING:
Apply your knowledge to a calendar
Evaluate events in your country from an outsider's point of view
Create a spider diagram to organize ideas

WRITING
Academic writing skills: Paragraph organization 1: organizing sentences into a paragraph Writing task type: Write a descriptive paragraph
Writing task: Describe a festival or special event

Unit 3 - SCHOOL AND EDUCATION
READING 1: La Masia: the best footballers in the world (Education)
READING 2: My Princeford experience (Education)

VIDEO: A reading class

READING - Key reading skill:
Skimming
Understanding key vocabulary
Using visuals to predict content
Reading for main ideas
Reading for detail
Understanding discourse
Making inferences
Previewing
Using your knowledge

VOCABULARY: Vocabulary to describe education (e.g. a principal, a lecturer, a lab, a graduate, an office)

GRAMMAR: Education nouns; Plural nouns

GRAMMAR FOR WRITING: Subject pronouns; Because and so

CRITICAL THINKING:
Remember information from texts
Analyze information in your notes
Create a wh- chart to organize information

WRITING
Academic writing skills: Paragraph organization 2: topic and supporting sentences
Writing task type: Write a descriptive paragraph
Writing task: Describe your education

Unit 4 - THE INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY
READING 1: Someone's always watching you online... (Information technology)
READING 2: Video games (Information technology)

VIDEO: The rise of social media

READING - Key reading skill:
Making inferences
Scanning to predict content
Reading for main ideas
Reading for detail
Understanding key vocabulary
Identifying type

VOCABULARY: Vocabulary to describe the internet and technology (e.g. an online game, a computer program, a chat room, internet banking, a smartphone)

GRAMMAR: Compound nouns; Giving opinions

GRAMMAR FOR WRITING: And, also and too; But and however

CRITICAL THINKING:
Analyze an essay question
Evaluate advantages and disadvantages
Create your own list of advantages and disadvantages

WRITING
Academic writing skills: Topic sentences
Writing task type: Write a one-sided opinion paragraph
Writing task: The internet has made our lives better. Do you agree or disagree?

Unit 5 - LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION
READING 1: Writing systems (Linguistics)
READING 2: Language change: a study guide (Linguistics)

VIDEO: The importance of codes

READING - Key reading skill:
Reading for main ideas
Understanding key vocabulary
Using your knowledge
Reading for detail
Recognizing text type
Scanning to predict content
Making inferences

VOCABULARY: Vocabulary to describe language and communication (e.g. sign, symbol, information, money, word)

GRAMMAR: Countable and uncountable nouns; Articles, a, an or no article

GRAMMAR FOR WRITING: Quantifiers: some, many, a lot of, a few, a little

CRITICAL THINKING: Evaluate ideas and examples using an ideas map; Create your own ideas and examples/evidence

WRITING
Academic writing skills: Supporting sentences
Giving examples: like, such as and for example
Writing task type: Write a descriptive paragraph
Writing task: How is your language different from 50 years ago? Describe the way that people speak and write your language has changed.

Unit 6 - WEATHER AND CLIMATE
READING 1: Extreme weather (Geography)
READING 2: Surviving the Sea of Sand (Environmental Science)

VIDEO: Stormchasers

READING - Key reading skill:
Using your knowledge to predict content
Understanding key vocabulary
Reading for main ideas
Reading for detail
Recognizing text type

VOCABULARY: Vocabulary to describe temperatures and graphs (e.g. high, low, rise, drop, an increase, a decrease)

GRAMMAR: Collocations with temperature; Describing a graph

GRAMMAR FOR WRITING: Comparative and superlative adjectives

CRITICAL THINKING: Analyze a graph; Evaluate a table and a graph

WRITING
Academic writing skills: Introductory sentences for descriptive paragraphs about a graph
Writing task type: Write sentences to describe a graph
Writing task: Describe a graph

Unit 7 - SPORTS AND COMPETITION
READING 1: Five strange sports (Sports Science)
READING 2: Tough man: a race to the limit (Sports Science)

VIDEO: Sports and competition

READING - Key reading skill:
Scanning to predict content
Understanding key vocabulary
Skimming
Reading for detail
Recognizing text type
Previewing
Reading for main ideas
Understanding discourse
Working out meaning

VOCABULARY: Vocabulary to describe prepositions of movements (e.g. past, through, across, along, over)

GRAMMAR: Prepositions of movement

GRAMMAR FOR WRITING: Subject and verb agreement

CRITICAL THINKING: Analyze a diagram; Apply information to a description and a diagram

WRITING
Academic writing skills: Ordering events in a process; Eliminating irrelevancies
Writing task type: Write a process paragraph
Writing task: Write a narrative paragraph about the business history of Google

Unit 8 - BUSINESS
READING 1: Are you ready for the world of work? (Human Resources)
READING 2: You can choose your grandma! (Business)

VIDEO: The changing world of business

READING - Key reading skill:
Working out meaning from context
Scanning to predict content
Reading for main ideas
Reading for detail
Working out meaning
Identifying the audience
Understanding key vocabulary
Making inferences

VOCABULARY: Vocabulary to describe business (e.g. set up, a business partner, an employee, employ, a product)

GRAMMAR: Collocations with business; Business vocabulary

GRAMMAR FOR WRITING: Past and present tenses; Clauses with when

CRITICAL THINKING: Analyze a spider diagram; Create a timeline to organize events

WRITING
Academic writing skills: Adding detail

Unit 9 - PEOPLE
READING 1: Respect! (Sociology)
READING 2: People I admire (Sociology)

VIDEO: Mine rescue

READING - Key reading skill:
Reading for detail
Understanding key vocabulary
Scanning to predict content
Reading for main ideas
Identifying purpose
Making inferences

VOCABULARY: Vocabulary to describe people (e.g. reliable, talented, patient, sensible, selfish)

GRAMMAR: Noun phrases with of; Adjectives to describe people

GRAMMAR FOR WRITING: Subject and object pronouns; Possessive adjectives

CRITICAL THINKING:
Apply information to a category
Analyze photographs
Create an idea wheel to categorize information

WRITING
Academic writing skills: Concluding sentences
Writing task type: Write an explanatory paragraph
Writing task: Describe a person you admire and explain why

UNIT 10 - Space and the universe
READING 1: Alien Planet (Space Science)
READING 2: Life on other planets (Space Science)

VIDEO: Our journey into space

READING - Key reading skill:
Scanning to find information
Previewing
Understanding key vocabulary
Reading for main ideas
Working out meaning
Scanning to predict content
Making inferences

VOCABULARY: Vocabulary to describe giving evidence and supporting an argument (e.g. studies, reports, research, an expert)

GRAMMAR: Giving evidence and supporting an argument; should and it is important to

GRAMMAR FOR WRITING: Developing sentence structure; Infinitive of purpose

CRITICAL THINKING:
Analyze an essay question
Evaluate arguments for and against
Create evidence and examples for arguments

WRITING:
Writing task type: Write a balanced opinion essay.
Academic writing skills: Essay organization
Writing task: Exploring space is very expensive. Some people think that it is too expensive. However, other people think it is a good way for governments to spend our money. Discuss both points of view and give your opinion.

Glossary / Review tests answer key

Video script / Review tests

Acknowledgements / Model answers and additional writing tasks

Acknowledgements

Level: High Beginner (A2)