Language Focus 1

Study the sentences from the texts on page 60. Do they talk about ability in the past, present or future?

1. After they graduate, many students will be able to have very successful careers as singers or actors.

2. Young people can join the school from the age of fourteen.

3. They can't forget to do their homework!

4. If you study hard and have a passion for performing arts, you won't be able to resist the BRIT school.

5. People believed that girls couldn't play football as well as boys.

Match sentences 1-5 in exercise 1 with rules a-c.

1. After they graduate, many students will be able to have very successful careers as singers or actors.

2. Young people can join the school from the age of fourteen.

3. They can't forget to do their homework!

4. If you study hard and have a passion for performing arts, you won't be able to resist the BRIT school.

5. People believed that girls couldn't play football as well as boys.

Choose the correct options.

1. “Will you be able to / Can you hear the bell in your classroom?”

“Yes, we can. It's really loud!”

2. In the future, we could / will be able to do all our exams online.

3. At my last school, we won't be able to / couldn't use tablets in class.

4. These days, many students can / could find out what their homework is from the school's website.

5. “In the past, will students be able to / could students use computers in class?”

“No, they couldn't.”

6. Turn the music down. I can't / couldn't study.

Complete the report with the words and phrases in the box. You can use them more than once.

Many people think that homeschooling is much easier than going to school. They think homeschoolers ¹ .................. get out of bed at any time they like and simply have a relaxing day. The truth is that homeschoolers ² ............... do whatever they like: they have a timetable like students at ordinary schools. In the past, teachers or parents taught children at home who ³………….. go to school. This was often because they lived too far away from the nearest school. Today, many parents choose to homeschool their children. They believe that if they teach their children at home, they ⁴………… learn better this way. They also think their children ⁵…………. get better exam results in the future.

USE IT! Work in pairs. Which of these school issues are the same now as in the past? Which will be different in the future? Use can, can't, could, couldn't or will / won't be able to.

1. choice of subjects

2. ways of learning

3. school uniforms

4. class size

5. rules

The issues we think are the same now as in the past are...

In the past, students couldn't choose unusual subjects. In the future, they will be able to make more unusual choices.