How good a good speaker or writer do you think you are? Who are your favorite speakers or writers? About what subjects do you often have interesting things to say? Do you have any favorite proverbs or famous quotes?
amount : a collection or mass especially of something which cannot be counted • average : the result obtained by adding two or more amounts together and dividing the total by the number of amounts • bigamy : the crime of marrying a person while already legally married to someone else • camel : a large animal with a long neck, that lives in the desert and has one or two humps (= large raised areas of flesh) on its back • celebrity : someone who is famous, especially in the entertainment business • committee : a small group of people chosen to represent a larger organization and either make decisions or gather information for it • design : to make or draw plans for something, for example clothes or buildings • imply : to communicate an idea or feeling without saying it directly • independent : not influenced or controlled in any way by other people, events or things • invent : to design and/or create something which has never been made before • lyrics : the words of a song, especially a pop song • monogamy : when someone has a sexual relationship or marriage with only one other person at a time • philosophy : the use of reason in understanding such things as the nature of reality and existence, the use and limits of knowledge and the principles that govern and influence moral judgment • polygamy : the fact or custom of being married to more than one person at the same time • power : ability to control people and events • quote : a phrase or short piece of writing taken from a longer work of literature, poetry, etc. or what someone else has said • seek : to try to find or get something, especially something which is not a physical object • sincere : not pretending or lying; honest • spouse : a person’s husband or wife • version : a particular form of something which varies slightly from other forms of the same thing
1 Happiness is good health and a bad memory. (Ingrid Bergman, actress)
Do you agree with this quote? How true do you think it is for you? A famous psychologist said that three things are needed for people to be happy: love, play, and work. What do you think of this idea? How happy would you say you are now? Have you ever been much happier, or much less happy, than you are now? What would you say are the things, besides good health, that you need to be happy?
2 A camel is a horse designed by committee. (Alec Issigonis, car designer)
Do you agree with this quote? If so, can you think of any other examples where a committee produced much worse results than one smart person could have produced? Have you ever served on a committee? If so, could you describe your experience? In general, do you prefer working in a group to working independently? Why or why not?
3 If women didn’t exist, all the money in the world would have no meaning. (Aristotle Onassis, businessman)
Do you agree with this quote? If, as the quote implies, men seek money as way to get women, why do women seek money? How important to you is making much money? How satisfied are you with the amount of money you have now? If you’re not satisfied, what would you do if you had enough money to be satisfied?
4 Anything too stupid to be spoken is sung. (Voltaire, writer)
Do you agree with this quote? Can you think of a song whose lyrics you think are especially stupid? How much attention do you pay to the lyrics of a song? Do you have a favorite song lyric? When you are singing a song at a KTV in front of other people, do you care what they lyrics are?
5 It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both. (Niccolo Machiavelli, political philosopher)
Do you agree with this quote? How many people are you feared by? Why are you feared? If you had to choose between being feared and loved, which would you choose? Why? Machiavelli wrote the words in the quote as advice to people who want to have power. Do you think being feared is more important than being loved for such people? If so, why?
6 Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people. (Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of President Franklin Roosevelt)
Do you agree with this quote? If the quote is true, what kind of mind do you have? Are there any ideas that you enjoy discussing? What is a recent event that has caught your interest? What people do you end up talking most about—for example, someone in your family, a friend, or a celebrity?
7 Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same. (Oscar Wilde, writer)
Do you agree with this quote? What do you think of the system of polygamy? If you could have more than one spouse, would you? Why or why not? Are most of the married couples you know satisfied? Do all the married people you know recommend marriage? Do any of them recommend not getting married?
8 There is no sincerer love than the love of food. (George Bernard Shaw, writer)
Do you agree with that the love of food is at least as “sincere” as the love between lovers? Would you say that you “love” food? What are some of your favorite foods? Besides people, what are some of the things that you would say that you “love”?
9 Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. (Gandhi, political and religious leader)
Do you agree with this quote? How closely do you follow Gandhi’s advice? When you choose things to learn, is your goal usually just to increase your knowledge or to improve some skill? Why are you taking this English course? What other things are you learning? What other subjects do you hope to learn more about in the future?
