WARM-UP VIDEO FOR PAST SIMPLE (IRREGULAR VERBS)

Instructions. Listen to the interview and type phrases with irregular verbs in Past Simple.

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Exercise. Complete each gap with suitable words and expressions you hear from the video.

In the late 1980s, in a moment of youthful indiscretion, (1) ………….. to law school. (Laughter) In America, law is a professional degree: after your university degree, you go on to law school. When (2) ………….. to law school, I didn't do very well. To put it mildly, I didn't do very well. I, in fact, graduated in the part of my law school class (3) ………….. the top 90% possible. (Laughter) Thank you. Many people begin trying to thumbtack the candle to the wall. Doesn't work. (4) ………….. somebody kind of make the motion over here -- some people have a great idea where they light the match, melt the side of the candle, try to adhere it to the wall. who is now at Princeton University, US, This shows the power of incentives. He gathered his participants and (5) ………….. : "I'm going to time you, how quickly you can solve this problem." To one group (6) ………….. , "I'm going to time you to establish norms, averages for how long it typically takes someone to solve this sort of problem." To the second group he offered rewards. (7) ………….. , "If you're in the top 25%of the fastest times, you get five dollars. If you're the fastest of everyone we're testing here today, How much faster did this group solve the problem? Answer: (8) ………….. them, on average, three and a half minutes longer. 3.5 min longer. This makes no sense, right? This is one of the most robust findings in social science, and also one of the most ignored. (9) ………….. the last couple of years looking at the science of human motivation, particularly the dynamics of extrinsic motivators Dan Ariely, one of the great economists of our time, he and three colleagues did a study of some MIT students. (10) ………….. these MIT students a bunch of games, games that involved creativity, and motor skills, and concentration. But once the task called for even rudimentary cognitive skill, a larger reward led to poorer performance. Then (11) ………….. , "Let's see if there's any cultural bias here. Let's go to Madurai, India and test this." economists at LSE looked at 51 studies of pay-for-performance plans, inside of companies. Here's what (12) ………….. : "We find that financial incentives can result in a negative impact on overall performance." for our businesses. I want to talk today only about autonomy. In the 20th century, (13) ………….. up with this idea of management. Management did not emanate from nature. Management is not a tree, it's a television set. The mid-1990s, Microsoft started an encyclopedia called Encarta. They had deployed all the right incentives, (14) ………….. professionals to write and edit thousands of articles. Well-compensated managers oversaw the whole thing to make sure (15) ………….. in on budget and on time. A few years later, another encyclopedia got started. Different model, right? if you had gone to an economist, anywhere, "Hey, I've got these two different models for creating an encyclopedia. If (16) ………….. head to head, who would win?" 10 years ago you could not have found a single sober economist anywhere on planet Earth

Key: Look at the key and say aloud the script from the video to improve your English.

In the late 1980s, in a moment of youthful indiscretion, (1) (I went) to law school. (Laughter) In America, law is a professional degree: after your university degree, you go on to law school. When (2) (I got) to law school, I didn't do very well. To put it mildly, I didn't do very well. I, in fact, graduated in the part of my law school class (3) (that made) the top 90% possible. (Laughter) Thank you. Many people begin trying to thumbtack the candle to the wall. Doesn't work. (4) (I saw) somebody kind of make the motion over here -- some people have a great idea where they light the match, melt the side of the candle, try to adhere it to the wall. who is now at Princeton University, US, This shows the power of incentives. He gathered his participants and (5) (he said) : "I'm going to time you, how quickly you can solve this problem." To one group (6) (he said) , "I'm going to time you to establish norms, averages for how long it typically takes someone to solve this sort of problem." To the second group he offered rewards. (7) (He said) , "If you're in the top 25%of the fastest times, you get five dollars. If you're the fastest of everyone we're testing here today, How much faster did this group solve the problem? Answer: (8) (It took) them, on average, three and a half minutes longer. 3.5 min longer. This makes no sense, right? This is one of the most robust findings in social science, and also one of the most ignored. (9) (I spent) the last couple of years looking at the science of human motivation, particularly the dynamics of extrinsic motivators Dan Ariely, one of the great economists of our time, he and three colleagues did a study of some MIT students. (10) (They gave) these MIT students a bunch of games, games that involved creativity, and motor skills, and concentration. But once the task called for even rudimentary cognitive skill, a larger reward led to poorer performance. Then (11) (they said) , "Let's see if there's any cultural bias here. Let's go to Madurai, India and test this." economists at LSE looked at 51 studies of pay-for-performance plans, inside of companies. Here's what (12) (they said) : "We find that financial incentives can result in a negative impact on overall performance." for our businesses. I want to talk today only about autonomy. In the 20th century, (13) (we came) up with this idea of management. Management did not emanate from nature. Management is not a tree, it's a television set. The mid-1990s, Microsoft started an encyclopedia called Encarta. They had deployed all the right incentives, (14) (They paid) professionals to write and edit thousands of articles. Well-compensated managers oversaw the whole thing to make sure (15) (it came) in on budget and on time. A few years later, another encyclopedia got started. Different model, right? if you had gone to an economist, anywhere, "Hey, I've got these two different models for creating an encyclopedia. If (16) (they went) head to head, who would win?" 10 years ago you could not have found a single sober economist anywhere on planet Earth

Sources: 

Channel: TED. The puzzle of motivation | Dan Pink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvAUbU9Y

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