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GENERAL ENGLISH · HISTORICAL FIGURES · INTERMEDIATE (B1-B2)

WALT
DISNEY
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1 Warm up

Identify the character in the picture and the Disney movie she appears in.

Work in pairs or small groups. You have one minute to write down as many Disney movies as you
can. Use the English titles if possible.

What do you know about Walt Disney, the man behind the movies?

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2 Vocabulary

Read the paragraph and match the words in bold with their meanings.

Cartoons

Cartoons, or animated movies, have been popular for over 100 years. Everyone has their
favorite cartoon series from childhood: classics like The Simpsons and SpongeBob SquarePants,
or stories that feature superheroes like Batman or Superman. Kids and adults also enjoy
watching feature-length animations at the cinema. These are often versions of familiar stories
like Beauty and the Beast or Aladdin.

1. : a set of TV programs that tell stories about the same characters but in
different situations
2. : describing a type of movie which shows drawings that appear to move

3. : forms of the same story that are slightly different from each other

4. : include a person or thing as an important part

5. : taking the same time as the main film shown in the cinema

6. : the most famous and best quality works

Choose the best option to complete these sentences.

1. I wish you wouldn’t critic / criticize my cooking all the time. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to
eat it!

2. Elon Musk has built up a huge business empire / emperor and is now one of the richest men in
the world.

3. If you want to be a successful social media influencer / influential, you’ll have to get a lot of
followers on sites like Instagram and TikTok.

4. I’m on strike / in strike! I’m not going to walk the dog anymore - it’s your turn.

5. That kind of racism / racist behavior is not only unacceptable, it’s against the law!

6. Mark Zuckerberg was to pioneer / a pioneer of social media.

7. She broke up with her boyfriend because he was completely unsensitive / insensitive and never
understood how she was feeling.

How do you think these words will be used in the story of Walt Disney’s life?

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3 Listening 1

You are going to listen to information about the life of Walt Disney (1901-1966). Before you listen,
look through the list of events and places. Then listen and match items on the two lists.

1. drew cartoons for the school newspaper a. Burbank, California

2. produced Laugh-O-Grams and Alice in Cartoonland b. Chicago

3. created Mickey Mouse and other related characters c. Glendale, California

4. suffered negative effects from a strike and the d. Kansas City

Second World War
5. built his first theme park, Disneyland e. Hollywood

6. burial after death from lung cancer f. Anaheim, California

4 Language in context

Read these sentences from the recording and explain the meaning of the words in bold.

1. The pair went on to make Alice in Cartoonland, mixing animation and live-action.

2. After moving to a new location in 1939, the business suffered a setback when its animators went
on strike.

3. Disney was one of the first people to recognize the possibilities of the new mass media, television,
in the 1950s.

5 Listening 2

Read the questions. Can you remember the answers? Listen again to check.

1. How did Disney improve his art skills when he was in high school?

2. Why did Disney, Roy, and Iwerks decide to leave Kansas City?

3. Give two reasons why the 1937 movie Snow White was so special.

4. How many feature films did Disney make, and how many Academy Awards did he win?

5. When did Disneyland open, and how much did it cost to build?

6. In what different ways do people think of Disney nowadays?

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6 Language point

We can add extra information to a sentence in different ways. Look at the examples and answer the
questions.

1. The pair went on to make Alice in Cartoonland, which mixed animation and live-action.

2. The pair went on to make Alice in Cartoonland, mixing animation and live-action.

1. Which sentence uses a relative clause to add extra information?

2. How does the other sentence introduce the extra information?

Match these sentence halves from the recording.

1. Altogether, Disney made one hundred a. featuring one of their new characters
feature films during his lifetime, called Mickey Mouse.
2. In 1928, they created Steamboat Willie, a b. appearing in color after 1932.
short cartoon
3. Characters like Minnie Mouse and Donald c. including classics like Fantasia, Bambi, and
Duck soon joined Mickey in a series called One Hundred and One Dalmatians.
"Silly Symphonies,"

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Read this extra information about Walt Disney’s life and rewrite each sentence replacing the relative
clause with a present participle.

1. Flowers and Trees was an early color cartoon, which won an Oscar for Disney Studios in 1932.

2. Disney’s brother Roy had the idea of selling watches, dolls, T-shirts, and other merchandise, which
made the company a lot of money.

3. Walt Disney wanted to watch the construction of Disneyland, so he kept an apartment on-site,
where he lived over the Fire Station on Main Street.

4. On Disneyland’s opening day in 1955, some criminals sold fake tickets outside the gates, which
allowed thousands of extra visitors to crowd into the park.

5. The man who voiced Mickey Mouse and the woman who voiced Minnie Mouse were a real-life
couple who married in 1991.

6. After his death, there were untrue reports that Disney’s body was frozen rather than buried, which
suggested that he was hoping to come back to life in the future.

7 Talking point

Discuss these questions in pairs or small groups.

1. What would you ask Walt Disney if you could meet him?
2. What do you think Disney would be working on if he were alive today?
3. A role model is a person who others admire and try to copy. Do you think the characters in Disney
movies provide good role models for the children who watch them?
4. Disney’s movies have been criticized for racism and political insensitivity. What has the company
done (or could it do) to fix this?
5. Which of these Disney quotes do you like best and why?

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8 Optional extension

There are lots of different types of rides at theme parks like Disneyland. Read the descriptions and
match the words.

1. This has animals or little cars that you sit on as you a. a haunted house
go around and around in a circle.
2. This is like a very fast train that goes up and down b. a Ferris wheel
big hills and around sharp corners.
3. This is more of a means of transportation than a ride, c. bumper cars
but sometimes you get a good view of the park while
you travel from one place to another.
4. This takes you up and down around a circle several d. a carousel or merry go round
times.
5. This ride has several arms, and each arm has several e. a roller coaster
places to sit. You go around as well as up and down,
very fast.
6. This takes you up and when you come down you get f. a water slide or log flume
wet.
7. You drive your own little vehicle and try to crash into g. a scrambler
other people.
8. You ride or walk through a place full of ghosts and h. a monorail
skeletons.

How many of these rides can you see in this picture?

Answer the questions below.

1. Which of these rides do like the best? Why?

2. What’s the best theme park you have ever visited?
3. Are there any rides or theme parks you would like to experience in the future?

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