Cover of the textbook Speakout Upper-Intermediate - Students' Book

The key answer of exercise 3

The key to exercise solutions in chapter 6.1 - The time of my life for the textbook Speakout Upper-Intermediate - Students' Book with authors Frances Eales and Steve Oakes from Pearson Education

Question

  1. Work in pairs and discuss. What do you think it means to 'peak early' or to be a 'late bloomer'? Read the first two paragraphs of the article and check.
  2. Work in pairs and discuss the questions. Make notes on your ideas.

Answer

a)

  • peak early → have success at an early age, and then lose it
  • late bloomer → someone who finds what they're good at and possibly has success in it relatively late in life

b)

  1. late bloomers → Ang Lee, Colonel Sanders, Cervantes; peaked early → Wang Yani, Nadia Comäneci, Jocelyn Lavin
  2. sports ('Sports are particularly biased towards youth ...')
  3. Malcolm Gladwell is talking about the period before the late bloomer finds success, when they seem to be struggling and getting nowhere.
  4. The article gives examples of: freedom → first when you're allowed to do things on your own in childhood, e.g. stay out late, take public transport alone, drive a car. Then when you're older and earning money, 'you don't have to worry about money for a nice holiday or a meal at a fancy restaurant'. obligation → the teenager who has to do her homework and come home before 10 o'clock. expectations → the 30-year-old who is obliged to work hard, doesn't feel successful, but meanwhile pretends he is successful because he feels it's expected.