"Building on the success of the previous editions, Northstar, Third Edition continues to engage and motivate students with new and updated contemporary topics delivered through a seamless integration of print and online components.

What is special about the new edition?

Blended approach with MyEnglishLab.
Online activities offer support and expansion, fully blending the student book with MyEnglishLab for extra practice, ongoing assessment, and instant feedback.

New and updated themes and topics.
Presented in a variety of genres - including literature and lectures - and in authentic reading and listening selections, the content challenges and engages students intellectually.

Explicit skills instruction.
The inclusion of 2-3 explicit language skills in every unit allows students to build their language proficiency.

New and revised assessments tied to learning outcomes.
Online assessments allow teachers to track students' progress mastery of material and skills.

A new design with thought provoking images.
A compelling graphic look makes the content and activities come alive." (Book Cover)

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Unit 1 THE BRAIN – The Fantastic Plastic Brain
Listening 1: An Interview with a Brain Researcher
Listening 2: The Merits of Unitasking

LISTENING:
Make and confirm predictions
Identify and take notes on main ideas and details
Identify a speaker’s point of view
Recognize a language that signals a revision of previously held beliefs

SPEAKING:
Express and support opinions
Paraphrase a speaker’s ideas
Connect statements to specific speakers
Interpret graphs
Use expressions to correct a myth or misconception TASK: Prepare and deliver an oral presentation using “rich pictures”

INFERENCE: Infer a speaker’s degree of certainty

PRONUNCIATION: Recognize emphasis through stress

VOCABULARY: Recognize synonyms
Recognize and use commonly confused words

GRAMMAR: Recognize and use verbs + gerund or infinitive with a change of meaning

VIDEO: Memory Boost (ABC News)

ASSESSMENTS: Check What You Know, Checkpoint 1 and 2, Unit 1 Achievement Test

Unit 2 LYING: Is Honesty the Best Policy?
Listening 1: Interview with a Psychiatrist
Listening 2: Family Secrets

LISTENING:
Make and confirm predictions
Summarize main ideas and details
Support ideas from one listening with reasons from a second listening
Identify a speaker’s attitude

SPEAKING:
Express and support opinions
Recognize and use expressions to introduce, defend, and express multiple sides of an issue
TASK: Plan a group discussion, summarize an ethical dilemma, and present various solutions

INFERENCE: Interpret the author’s words to understand intention

PRONUNCIATION: Recognize reductions of the auxiliary verb have

VOCABULARY: Infer word meaning from context

GRAMMAR: Recognize and use modals to express degrees of certainty

VIDEO: Why Do Kids Lie? (ABC News)

ASSESSMENT: Check What You Know, Checkpoints 1 and 2, Unit 2 Achievement Test

Unit 3 PERSONALITY – Revolution of the 50%
Listening 1: A Quiet Revolution of the 50%: Interview with Author Susan Cain
Listening 2: The Pollyanna Syndrome

LISTENING:
Make and confirm predictions
Summarize main ideas
Identify supporting details
Connect problems and solutions
Identify creative and effective examples

SPEAKING:
Express and support opinions
Interpret cartoons
Describe personality
Express and defend preferences
Initiate and maintain a conversation
TASK: Prepare and dramatize a group presentation about sleep deprivation

INFERENCE: Infer meaning from language that presents a balanced point of view

PRONUNCIATION: Recognize thought groups and formulate meaning

VOCABULARY: Infer word meaning from context

GRAMMAR: Recognize and use identifying and non-identifying adjective clauses

VIDEO: Dale Carnegie Training Institute

ASSESSMENTS: Check What You Know, Checkpoints 1 and 2, Unit 3 Achievement Test

Unit 4 CROSS-CULTURAL INSIGHTS – Ancient Wisdom Travels West
Listening 1: Interview with a Feng Shui Expert
Listening 2: Feng Shui in the Newsroom

LISTENING:
Make and confirm predictions
Summarize main ideas and details
Identify a speaker’s viewpoints and attitudes
Organize information using a bagua chart
Identify subtle ways to ask for and give advice

SPEAKING:
Express and support opinions
Emphasize a point in a conversation
TASK: Present an argument

INFERENCE: Infer a speaker’s intention

PRONUNCIATION: Recognize pauses and intonation with discourse connectors

VOCABULARY: Infer word meaning from context
Recognize and use word forms (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs)

GRAMMAR: Identify and use discourse connectors

VIDEO: Japanese Gardens

ASSESSMENTS: Check What You Know, Checkpoints 1 and 2, Unit 4 Achievement Test

Unit 5 BUSINESS – Business Not As Usual
Listening 1: The Story of Zappos
Listening 2: The Progress Principle

LISTENING:
Make and confirm predictions
Summarize main ideas
Identify supporting details
Recognize language to concede a point and present a counterargument

SPEAKING: Agree and disagree with opinions
Make concessions to introduce counterarguments
TASK: Prepare and deliver an oral presentation

INFERENCE: Infer meaning from expressive intonation

PRONUNCIATION: Recognize and distinguish between /ae/, /a/, and /e/

VOCABULARY: Infer word meaning from context
Recognize and use synonyms
Recognize and use idioms connected to business

GRAMMAR: Recognize and use direct and indirect speech

VIDEO: Giving Back (ABC News)

ASSESSMENTS: Check What You Know, Checkpoints 1 and 2, Unit 5 Achievement Test

Unit 6 SOCIAL MEDIA – Together Alone
Listening 1: An Interview with Sherry Turkle
Listening 2: Online Identity: Authenticity or Anonymity?

LISTENING:
Make and confirm predictions
Identify and complete main ideas
Identify supporting details
Recognize language that signals opposing perspective of an issue
Connect statements to specific speakers

SPEAKING: Agree and disagree with opinions
Interpret cartoons
Prepare for and engage in a debate
Recognize and use language that builds and expands on others’ ideas
TASK: Participate in a group discussion and report on the groups’ recommendations

INFERENCE: Infer meaning and recognize techniques a speaker uses to take a stance on an issue

PRONUNCIATION: Infer a speaker’s attitude from intonation and stress

VOCABULARY: Infer word meaning from context
Recognize and use synonyms and antonyms

GRAMMAR: Recognize and use wish statements, expressing unreality

VIDEO: Making the Grade (ABC News)

ASSESSMENTS: Check What You Know, Checkpoints 1 and 2, Unit 6 Achievement Test

Unit 7 THE ARTS – Learning through the Arts
Listening 1: Brain Waves: This Is Your Brain on Art
Listening 2: El Sistema: Music Education Changing Lives

LISTENING:
Make and confirm predictions
Summarize main ideas and details
Recognize persuasion with parallel structure

SPEAKING:
Express and support opinions
Summarize others’ opinions
Prepare and deliver a mini-lecture
Incorporate parallel structure to speak persuasively TASK: Prepare for and participate in a simulation of a public meeting

INFERENCE: Infer a speaker’s purpose for examples

PRONUNCIATION: Recognize variations in how final consonants are joined

VOCABULARY: Infer word meaning from context
Recognize and use synonyms
Distinguish between literal and figurative language

GRAMMAR: Recognize and use the passive voice and the passive causative

VIDEO: Interlochen Arts Academy

ASSESSMENTS: Check What You Know, Checkpoints 1 and 2, Unit 7 Achievement Test

Unit 8 POVERTY – Changing Lives for $50
Listening 1: Promises and Pitfalls of Microfinance
Listening 2: Interview with a Microfinance Director

LISTENING:
Make and confirm predictions
Summarize main ideas and details
Recognize summary statements
Identify examples from listening

SPEAKING:
Express and support opinions
Paraphrase a speaker’s key points
Summarize examples from the listenings
Use summary statements to demonstrate understanding
TASK: Prepare for and participate in a simulation of a policy meeting

INFERENCE: Infer meaning by recognizing a speaker’s assumptions about the listeners

PRONUNCIATION: Recognize word stress in two-word compound expressions

VOCABULARY: Infer word meaning from context
Recognize and use synonyms

GRAMMAR: Recognize and use present, past, and mixed unreal conditionals

VIDEO: Young Innovators (CBC News)

ASSESSMENTS: Check What You Know, Checkpoints 1 and 2, Unit 8 Achievement Test

Level: Advanced