7A Moving

Lead-in

• Imagine that your life so far divides up into a number of 'stages' or 'periods'. How many are there? What name would you give to each stage?
• What are the times when people's lives change in important ways (eg leaving school)?
• What do you think is the biggest change in a human's life? Your first girl/boyfriend? Finishing your degree? Losing your job? Getting married? Getting divorced? Having a baby? Retiring? Something else?

Language notes: phrasal verbs with live

Some of the following phrasal verbs are used only in certain fixed expressions:

- If you live up to someone's expectations you are as good as they expect you to be. You can also talk about living up to your own expectations, eg The last Star Wars film didn't really live up to my expectations. Expectations is by far the most likely collocation with this phrasal verb. It is unusual to use other nouns - though hopes is possible.

- If you live through a period of time, you manage to survive a difficult time (maybe a dangerous time like a war, or a time with other problems such as poor health or lack of money, etc.)

- When you live out of a suitcase, you travel a lot from place to place, and hardly ever get the chance to completely unpack and settle down in a location. This is another phrasal verb that isn't often used with any other nouns - though you could say other containers, eg cardboard box, rucksack, carrier bag, etc.

- People who live off social security depend on government financial help. You can also live off other people - this means you depend on them for money, food, etc. eg He's 25 years old, but still lives off his parents.

- The money you have to live on is the money available for use on essential things like food, rent, bills, heating, etc. This phrasal verb is usually used when the money is a small or limited amount, eg I don't have a lot to live on. 

- When you live for something it is the most important thing in your life - almost an obsession. 

Language notes: reading:

• Redundancy is when you lose your job because the company doesn't need anyone to do your work any more or because it needs to employ fewer people or to save money. This is different from being sacked or fired which is maybe because of poor work or bad behaviour.
• PR consultant: PR stands for Public Relations, ie the part of a company that works to make sure that the public and the company have good relations, and that the public has good opinions of the company's work and products. A consultant is someone who gives advice.
• The unthinkable happened means 'something happened which was so awful that it was impossible to predict it'.
• If something is superficial, it may be real and attractive when you look at it, but has no real honesty or depth, ie it isn't connected with any genouinely serious or important things.
• A farm hand is a manual worker employed on a farm.
• A moving experience: if something moves you, you feel affected emotionally by it, eg it makes you feel sad or happy or seiours or excited, etc. A moving experience is something that moves you.

Grammar corner: present perfect continuous

• Present perfect continuous is used to emphasize the duration of something - how long it lasted. This is why it regularly goes with the verbs wait, live and work - when talking about the length of time a person has been doing something.
• It is a tense that is not used very much and when it is used it is most often with a limited number of verbs (working, waiting, living, studying, doing) in a few typical sentences and questions, eg:
• How long have you been waiting/living here/working here/doing that?
• Have you been waiting/living here/working here/doing that long?
•  What have you been doing?
• I've been studying/waiting/living here/working here/doing this since nine o'clock/last week/month/year.
• Other verbs used with the present perfect continuous are: studying, getting, making (plans, progress, enquiries), thinking, trying, expecting.

FOR and SINCE

- For indicates a period of time with a beginning and end. After the word for, the length of time is mentioned, eg for six months, for six years, for six minutes. In the present perfect continous tense, the period lasts up to the moment now.

- Since indicates when something started and is almost always used with a perfect tense. After the word since the starting point is mentiond, eg since two o'clock, since January, since the first time we met. The action or event is still continuing now and may (or may not) continue into the future. 


Further practice
Check out the following link to continue practicing vocabulary and grammar related to this topic. The page includes listening and language exercises with online correction.
Life events

If you'd like to learn about Steven Jobs, give the following exercises available in the link below a try:
A look back at the life of Steven Jobs


State verbs and activity verbs