WARM-UP VIDEO FOR COMPARATIVE ADJECTIVES.

Instructions. Listen and type comparative adjectives.

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

I pretty much wasn't allowed to. (Laughter) But today, against my (1) ………….. judgment, against the advice of my own wife, I want to try to dust off some of those legal skills -- How much faster did this group solve the problem? Answer: It took them, on average, three and a half minutes (2) ………….. . 3.5 min (3) ………….. . This makes no sense, right? I mean, I'm an American. I believe in free markets. That's not how it's supposed to work, right? (Laughter) If you want people to perform (4) ………….. , you reward them. Right? Bonuses, commissions, their own reality show. Incentivize them. in many parts of Asia, in North America, in Australia, white-collar workers are doing (5) ………….. of this kind of work, and more of this kind of work. That routine, rule-based, left-brain work -- As long as the task involved only mechanical skill bonuses worked as they would be expected: the (6) ………….. the pay, the (7) ………….. the performance. Okay? But once the task called for even rudimentary cognitive skill, a (8) ………….. reward led to (9) ………….. performance. Then they said, "Let's see if there's any cultural bias here. Let's go to Madurai, India and test this." Standard of living is (10) ………….. . In Madurai, a reward that is modest in North American standards, is more meaningful there. What happens? People offered the medium level of rewards did no (11) ………….. than people offered the small rewards. But this time, people offered the highest rewards, they did the worst of all. In eight of the nine tasks we examined across three experiments, (12) ………….. incentives led to (13) ………….. performance. Is this some kind of touchy-feely socialist conspiracy going on here? No, these are economists from MIT, autonomy, mastery and purpose. Autonomy: the urge to direct our own lives. Mastery: the desire to get (14) ………….. and (15) ………….. at something that matters. Purpose: the yearning to do what we do in the service of something (16) ………….. than ourselves. These are the building blocks of an entirely new operating system for our businesses. Traditional notions of management are great if you want compliance. But if you want engagement, self-direction works (17) ………….. . Some examples of some kind of radical notions of self-direction. You don't see a lot of it, Some examples. How many of you have heard of the company Atlassian? It looks like (18) ………….. than half. (Laughter) Atlassian is an Australian software company. Well-compensated managers oversaw the whole thing to make sure it came in on budget and on time. A few years (19) ………….., another encyclopedia got started. Different model, right?

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

I pretty much wasn't allowed to. (Laughter) But today, against my (1) (better) judgment, against the advice of my own wife, I want to try to dust off some of those legal skills -- How much faster did this group solve the problem? Answer: It took them, on average, three and a half minutes (2) (longer) . 3.5 min (3) (longer) . This makes no sense, right? I mean, I'm an American. I believe in free markets. That's not how it's supposed to work, right? (Laughter) If you want people to perform (4) (better) , you reward them. Right? Bonuses, commissions, their own reality show. Incentivize them. in many parts of Asia, in North America, in Australia, white-collar workers are doing (5) (less) of this kind of work, and more of this kind of work. That routine, rule-based, left-brain work -- As long as the task involved only mechanical skill bonuses worked as they would be expected: the (6) (higher) the pay, the (7) (better) the performance. Okay? But once the task called for even rudimentary cognitive skill, a (8) (larger) reward led to (9) (poorer) performance. Then they said, "Let's see if there's any cultural bias here. Let's go to Madurai, India and test this." Standard of living is (10) (lower) . In Madurai, a reward that is modest in North American standards, is more meaningful there. What happens? People offered the medium level of rewards did no (11) (better) than people offered the small rewards. But this time, people offered the highest rewards, they did the worst of all. In eight of the nine tasks we examined across three experiments, (12) (higher) incentives led to (13) (worse) performance. Is this some kind of touchy-feely socialist conspiracy going on here? No, these are economists from MIT, autonomy, mastery and purpose. Autonomy: the urge to direct our own lives. Mastery: the desire to get (14) (better) and (15) (better) at something that matters. Purpose: the yearning to do what we do in the service of something (16) (larger) than ourselves. These are the building blocks of an entirely new operating system for our businesses. Traditional notions of management are great if you want compliance. But if you want engagement, self-direction works (17) (better) . Some examples of some kind of radical notions of self-direction. You don't see a lot of it, Some examples. How many of you have heard of the company Atlassian? It looks like (18) (less) than half. (Laughter) Atlassian is an Australian software company. Well-compensated managers oversaw the whole thing to make sure it came in on budget and on time. A few years (19) (later) , another encyclopedia got started. Different model, right? Do it for fun.

Sources: 

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

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Compiled by Top Grade Edu