loadingAppendix I
Key to Exercises (Units 1-8)
Unit 1
Part I Pre-reading Task
Script for the recording:
Have you ever heard of the pop singer, John Lennon? Here he is singing a song he wrote for his son. It's called Beautiful Boy.
Close your eyes
Have no rear
The monster s tone
He's on the run and your daddy's here
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Beautiful boy
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Beautiful boy
Before you go to sleep Say a little prayer
1 John Lennon (1940-1980): First became famous as a singer and guitarist in the Beatles, a British rock group, writing many of their most successful hits. Later he left the group, but continued to be popular as a singer and songwriter.
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I
Every day in every way
It's getting better and better
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful
Beautiful boy
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful
Beautiful boy
Out on the ocean sailing away I can hardly wait To see you come of age
But I guess we’ll both just have to be patient ‘Cause it's a long way to go A bard row to hoe Yes it's a long way to go
But in the meantime
Before you cross the street
Take my band
Life is what happens to you
While you're busy making other plans
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Beautiful boy
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Beautiful boy
Before you go to sleep Say a little prayer Every day in every way It's getting better and better
1 A hard row to hoe: To hoe is to use a special farming tool, a hoe, to clear small weeds and break up the surface of the soil. The row referred to is a row of plants.
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Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Beautiful
boy Darling, darling, darling Darling Sean
You've just heard John Lennon singing a lullaby to his son Sean. A lullaby is a song we sing to help babies to go to sleep. So he tells Sean \into the future. He sees his son setting out on life's adventure:
Out on the ocean sailing away
And he can hardly wait to see his son grow up, to reach eighteen when he comes of age and celebrates becoming an adult. But he knows they'll both have to be patient
Cause it'a long way to go A hard row to hoe
Growing up can be difficult. At times it can, as we say, be a hard row to hoe. It's a phrase we use to describe any difficult task.
But if growing up is sometimes hard, it is also full of surprises. Things happen when we least expect them:
Lire is what happens to you
While you're busy making other plans
I think you'll find the stories you are going to read in this unit show that John Lennon was right: growing up can be quite an adventure, full of the unexpected.
As for John Lennon, sadly he never did live to see his son grow up and come of age, for John was shot dead by a madman in New York while Sean was still only five years old.