The topic explained
LESSON 4A READING AND VOCABULARY
- I can identify specific details in a text and talk about spoilers.
What is a spoiler? Start with the cartoon
1 SPEAKING In pairs, look at the cartoon and answer the questions.
A: Why do people enjoy fiction?
2 Read the article and compare what the writer says with your ideas from Exercise 1.
Check the article: six detail questions
3 In pairs, read the article again and answer the questions.
1 Why does the author suggest we may enjoy fiction?
2 What did the first research study show?
3 What extra point were they trying to make with the second study?
4 What did the students conclude about stories which had been spoiled?
5 What does the article suggest about the personality of people who avoid spoilers?
6 What does the author say about changing viewing habits?
Prepositional phrases: at, by, in, on, under
5 Complete the phrases with prepositions from the box. You can use the prepositions more than once.
at by in on under
1 ____ suspense
2 ____ least
3 ____ addition
4 ____ fact
5 ____ all likelihood
6 ____ the impression
7 ____ purpose
8 ____ accident
9 ____ their/his/her (etc.) part
Use the phrases: rewrite the underlined parts
7 Replace and rewrite the underlined parts of the sentences with prepositional phrases from Exercise 5.
1 He didn’t mean to spoil the ending.
2 I thought that there would be a happy ending.
3 It is very probable that the show will be cancelled.
4 I have been excited since last week’s episode, waiting to see what happens!
5 You shouldn’t watch less than a few episodes before you decide.
6 I asked him what he had liked about the film besides the special effects.
7 To tell the truth, I don’t really mind spoilers.
8 Revealing the surprising part of the TV series was her mistake.
9 You make it sound as if I planned to do it!
Talk about it: four speaking questions
GLOSSARY
SPOILERS: LOVE'EM OR HATE'EM? 10
- A Why do people enjoy fiction?
- Some people are under the impression that it’s because we are in suspense about what is going to happen, so someone actually telling you the plot would completely spoil the experience.
- But, it’s also clear that some people actually love reading spoilers.
- Why is this?
B: A study says spoilers help
- B You might be surprised to learn that research would actually suggest the opposite: that spoilers can in fact enhance our experience.
- In a study, participants were divided into two groups and each group was given the same stories to read.
- It could be said that when we love a book, we often read it again – sometimes many times.
- We aren’t doing this to find out what happens.
- In all likelihood, we enjoy it more the second time because we are free to notice more of the detail.
- Knowing what happens at the end of great classic works of fiction isn’t going to ruin them.
C: The follow-up study, halfway through
- C This research was followed up two years later.
- However, this time participants were stopped from reading the stories before they had finished and asked about their enjoyment at that point.
- It could be said that there is plenty of evidence that some familiarity with a work of art enables you to appreciate it more.
D: A newer study disagrees
- D However a more recent study found that spoilers did negatively affect people’s enjoyment.
- 412 university students were given several short stories.
- Before they read them, they were given summaries of the stories, some of which gave away the ending on purpose.
- The study found that the stories that had been ‘spoiled’ were considered to be less thought-provoking.
E: Who avoids spoilers?
- E Interestingly, the research carried out showed that the kind of people who are keen to avoid spoilers by accident tend to have a particular personality type.
- They are very emotionally involved with what they are reading.
- People who are less emotionally connected with the characters are happy to know about what is going to happen because it requires less effort on their part.
F: The Internet changed how we watch
- F Finally, we should take into account how much the Internet has changed our viewing habits.
- Gone are the days when everyone would watch the same thing at the same time and then talk about it the next day.
- Now, everyone is watching at different times across the world, and a lot of the discussion is happening in online communities.
- Maybe discussing spoilers is all part of the fun?
