Unit 2

White Children Nearly a Minority in the USA

  1. Pre-listening task
  2. How do you understand the word “minority”?
  3. What problems do minorities have?
  4. Is your country multicultural?
  1. Listening

Listen to the article and answer the following questions:

  1. How is demographic in the USA changing?
  2. Think about the new majority ethnic groups.
  3. What is the fastest growing community?
  4. Which country has the second largest Hispanic population?
  5. What did the Bureau see for the first time ever?

 

  1. According to this article, are these sentences True (T) or False (F)?

1. White children in the country are set to become a minority within five years

 

T/F

2. 49.9% of American children under the age of five are from non-white backgrounds

T/F

3. The Bureau gave three main reasons for this trend

T/F

4. The steady number of immigrants arriving in Latin America

T/F

5. Deaths outnumbered births among whites in a one-year period

T/F

6. The number of Asians rose by 2.2 per cent

T/F

7. The U.S. Hispanic population is second only to Mexico’s

T/F

 

  1. Vocabulary work. Match the phrases

1. demographics

a. community

2. white

b. background

3. ethnic

c. impact

4. non-white

d. children

5. birth

e. recently released

6. Hispanic

f. rates

7. global

g. implication

8. incredible

h. immigrants

9. statistics

i. are changing

10. the steady number of

j. groups

 

 

  1. Writing. Rank these words, put the most interesting to the top
  • crime statistics
  • births and deaths statistics
  • marriage and divorce statistics
  • sport statistics
  • business statistics
  • social statistics
  • epidemiological statistics
  • statistics about migration

 

For example:

 

 

  1. Grammar Spot. The Present Simple and Present Continuous

Present Pimple

We use the Present Pimple tense for things that we do regularly and for facts, habits, truths and permanent situations. We often use time expressions like every day, once a week, on Fridays.

I check my email every day. (regular activity)

Yuki works at the bank. (permanent situation)

Form:

For positive sentences, use the same form as the infinitive without ‘to’ for I, you, we and they. For he, she and it, add -s or -es to the infinitive. Make questions and negatives with do / does + the infinitive without ‘to’.

They live in Rome.

Julian starts work at nine o’clock and finishes at five.

I don’t eat meat.

It doesn’t usually snow in October.

Why do you read the news online every day?

Does the supermarket sell stamps?

 

Present Continuous

We use the Present Continuous for things that are happening at the time we are speaking, for temporary situations, and for activities that are in progress.

Just a minute. I’m checking my email. (now)

She usually works in London, but she’s working from home this week. (temporary)

I’m studying Economics (activity in progress)

We can also use the present continuous for future arrangements, usually with a time expression.

I’m seeing the doctor on Monday morning.

Form:

For positive sentences, the form is subject + am/is/are + verb-ing. Make questions and negatives with am/are/is + not + verb-ing.

Can I call you back later? We’re having dinner right now.

He isn’t answering his mobile at the moment.

What are you doing?

Is it raining?

Note: There are some verbs that we don’t usually use in the continuous form. They are often verbs of thinking and feeling, for example: hear, see, smell, hate, know, understand, want, need.

WRONG: Could you explain that again? I’m not understanding.

CORRECT: Could you explain that again? I don’t understand.

 

Source: https://www.bbc.com/learningenglish/english/intermediate-grammar-guide