Loading…
Teaching or studying this?
All lesson plans
Lesson planC155 minsNew. New: checked automatically for level, grammar, facts and originality; a teacher's review is still to come. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
Prone to Distraction: Dependent prepositions
Students practise nouns, verbs and adjectives with dependent prepositions to talk about habits and distraction, then write a short article about changing a habit.
Dependent prepositions · Habits · Psychology · Wellbeing
Or download everything as a ZIP (2 PDFs)This lesson plan and its PDFs are free.
Plan at a glance
Aims
- Learn and use 8 words and phrases in one set: Words with dependent prepositions
- Read for detail: Why we keep doing it
- Writing task: an article about habits
Stages · 55 min
- 5 minLead-in: Pairs talk about habits and share ideas with the class.
- 5 minVocabulary: Ex. 1
- 5 minLanguage focus: Go through the grammar notes together and check understanding.
- 10 minControlled practice: Ex. 2–3
- 5 minAccuracy practice: Ex. 4–5
- 10 minReading: Ex. 6
- 15 minWriting: Ex. 7
Printables
Click a page to preview it, download it or open it in a new tab.
Download all (ZIP, 2 PDFs)Grammar notes
Words that take a fixed preposition
- Many nouns, adjectives and verbs are followed by one particular preposition. Learn them as a unit: an insight into, an impact on, adept at, refrain from.
- After a preposition, use a noun or an -ing form: She refrained from commenting. He is prone to forgetting names.
- The preposition can change the meaning, so the right one matters: an insight into a problem (an understanding of it), not an insight on it.
Groups worth remembering
- + to: prone to, conducive to, susceptible to, an aversion to
- + on: an impact on, reliance on, insistence on, dependent on
- + with: preoccupied with, obsessed with, inundated with
- + from: refrain from, abstain from, exempt from
Study tips
- Write new words with their preposition and an example: conducive to sleep, adept at negotiating.
- When you read, underline adjective + preposition and noun + preposition pairs.
Glossary
- Words with dependent prepositions8 items
Complete the exercises, then check your answers.
1
Habits of mind
Match each expression with its meaning. There is one extra meaning.
Tap an item…
…then its match
2
Which preposition?
Complete each sentence with one preposition.
- a
Keeping a diary can give you a real insight your own habits.
- b
Late-night scrolling can have a noticeable impact the quality of your sleep.
- c
Some people are remarkably adept forming new routines.
- d
Try to refrain checking your phone during the first hour of the day.
- e
If you are prone putting things off, break big tasks into smaller ones.
- f
A tidy, quiet desk is more conducive concentration than a cluttered one.
- g
He was so preoccupied his inbox that he forgot to eat lunch.
- h
Children are especially susceptible adverts for sugary snacks.
- i
She attributes her energy a short walk every morning.
- j
Our growing reliance apps to remind us of everything may be weakening our memory.
3
Sort by preposition
Which preposition usually follows each word? Put each word in the correct group.
- a
abstain
- b
conducive
- c
exempt
- d
impact
- e
obsessed
- f
prone
- g
susceptible
- h
preoccupied
- i
inundated
- j
insistence
- k
aversion
- l
dependent
- m
reliance
- n
refrain
4
Key word transformations
Complete the second sentence so that it means the same as the first. Use the word in capitals and between two and six words, including the word given.
- a
Sophie is very good at helping people change their habits.
ADEPT
Sophie is people change their habits.
Use 2–6 words, including the word given.
- b
Please don't eat or drink in the reading room.
REFRAIN
Please or drinking in the reading room.
Use 2–6 words, including the word given.
- c
It is very hard to study when there is a lot of noise.
CONDUCIVE
A lot of noise is not .
Use 2–6 words, including the word given.
- d
Social media affects teenagers' mood a great deal.
IMPACT
Social media has teenagers' mood.
Use 2–6 words, including the word given.
- e
He gets ill very easily in winter.
PRONE
He is very in winter.
Use 2–6 words, including the word given.
- f
We depend on our phones far too much.
RELIANCE
There is far too much our phones.
Use 2–6 words, including the word given.
5
Find and correct the mistake
Each sentence has one mistake. Write the correction.
- a
Regular exercise has a positive impact in your mood.
- b
My brother is prone of losing his keys.
- c
Please refrain to use your phone during the session.
- d
Bright light late at night is not conducive for sleep.
- e
The study gave us a fascinating insight on how habits form.
- f
Our reliance of technology keeps growing every year.
6
Read: Why we keep doing it
Read the article. Are the sentences true, false or not given?
For most of us, the problem is not knowing what to change; it is actually changing it. We know that late-night scrolling has a damaging impact on our sleep, and yet we keep reaching for the phone. According to Dr Lena Moravec, a behavioural scientist at the Halden Institute, this is not a weakness of character but a feature of the way the brain works. In a two-year project, Moravec's team asked 400 volunteers to keep a detailed record of one habit they wanted to break. The diaries gave the researchers a rare insight into the moments when good intentions collapse. "People are not prone to slipping at random," Moravec explains. "They slip in predictable situations: when they are tired, when they are bored, or when they are preoccupied with something else." The volunteers who succeeded were not those with the most willpower. They were the ones who were most adept at changing their surroundings. One man who wanted to refrain from snacking at his desk simply moved the biscuit tin to another floor. A woman who struggled to read in the evenings started leaving her phone to charge in the kitchen, which made her living room far more conducive to reading. Moravec is cautious about her findings. The volunteers chose their own habits, she points out, and most were office workers in their thirties, so the results may not apply to everyone. She is also sceptical about our growing reliance on habit-tracking apps. "An app that sends you twenty reminders a day can easily become one more thing to ignore," she says.
- a
Moravec believes that bad habits show a weakness of character.
- b
Each volunteer kept a record of a habit they hoped to stop.
- c
Most of the volunteers managed to break their habit.
- d
According to Moravec, people usually give in to habits in situations that can be predicted.
- e
The most successful volunteers had the strongest willpower.
- f
The woman who wanted to read more bought a new lamp for her living room.
- g
Moravec thinks her results apply to people of all ages.
- h
Moravec has designed her own habit-tracking app.
7
Write: an article about habits
Write an article for a wellbeing website.
Write an article (200–250 words) for a wellbeing website about a habit you have changed, or one you would like to change. What effect did or does it have on your life? What makes it hard to change, and what has helped or might help? Use at least six expressions with a dependent preposition. Word box: insight into · impact on · adept at · refrain from · prone to · conducive to · preoccupied with · reliance on Example: I used to be prone to checking my emails at midnight, which had a serious impact on my sleep. These days I try to refrain from looking at screens after ten.
Suggested minimum: 200 words
0 words · aim for at least 200
Spotted a mistake in this lesson?· tell us the exercise and item
Revise with a game
This lesson's own words and questions. Play on your own, or in teams on the classroom screen.
- Step UpAnswer the lesson's questions to climb to the top.
- Pair UpMatch the lesson's words to their meanings against the clock.
- SnapA word and a meaning: do they go together? Answer fast.
- Fix ItFind the mistake in each sentence, then correct it.
- Quiz BoardTeams choose questions worth 100 to 500 points.
- Retro arcadeWord Invaders, Word Snake, Word Maze and Word Crossing: classic arcade games with the lesson's words.
Glossary
The 8 words and phrases this lesson teaches, in one set.
Words with dependent prepositions
- insight into
- a deep understanding of something
- impact on
- a strong effect on something
- reliance on
- the state of depending on something
- adept at
- very skilful at doing something
- prone to
- likely to do or suffer from something, usually something bad
- conducive to
- providing the right conditions for something to happen
- preoccupied with
- thinking about something so much that you ignore other things
- refrain from
- to stop yourself from doing something (formal)
How was this lesson plan?
One tap helps other teachers find the best lessons, and helps us improve them.