More practice with the language you're learning
Supplementary support — grammar, vocabulary, speaking and review — built from language already taught in the course. Not a lesson, and never a test.
1.Transformation: express the same meaning without repeating the original wording — "**Name**: 'The question underneath that is whether the strategy is working — and I'm happy to answer it directly.'"
2.Transformation: express the same meaning without repeating the original wording — "**Concede**: 'On one measure — waiting times in the northeast — you're right, and it's the one that's kept me up this year.'"
3.Transformation: express the same meaning without repeating the original wording — "**Pivot**: 'But that's why the second half of this plan targets exactly that region — and here is what has already moved.'"
4.NAME the underneath question of: 'Isn't this just a distraction from your other problems?'
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'The question underneath that is whether we can do two things at once — and I want to answer that directly.'
5.CONCEDE one specific thing to: 'Your figures have been repeatedly wrong.'
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'On the January figure — yes, we published it, we corrected it, and I'm the one who should have caught it before it went out.'
6.Mini-context: someone disagrees with you in a meeting. Reply in two turns, using this structure at least once.
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Live-interview craft at C2: (a) NAME what is being asked without accepting a loaded frame ('The question underneath that is whether X — let me answer that'); (b) CONCEDE one thing on purpose, specifically, so what follows is trusted ('You're right that on measure A we're behind'); (c) PIVOT to the answer you actually want to give, signposted ('but the reason I'm still confident is this'); (d) LAND on a line short enough to survive being clipped.
1.Sort these into "positive", "neutral" and "critical" in tone, and be ready to defend a borderline case: to fight the frame, not the interviewer, to accept the premise, a graceful pivot, to concede on purpose, a clip-safe line, to land on your own line, to filibuster, a working answer
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to fight the frame, not the interviewer — to reject a loaded premise without attacking the person asking | to accept the premise — to agree, on air, to the (usually loaded) assumption inside the question | a graceful pivot — a signposted turn from the interviewer's question to the answer you want to give | to concede on purpose — to give ground on one specific thing, deliberately, to earn trust for the rest | a clip-safe line — a sentence short and self-contained enough to survive being edited into a 12-second social clip | to land on your own line — to end the exchange on a sentence you chose, not one the interviewer chose for you | to filibuster — to talk out the clock without answering | a working answer — an answer that actually addresses the underneath question, even briefly, before pivoting
2.Odd one out: which of these is least like "to fight the frame, not the interviewer" in meaning or use — to accept the premise / a graceful pivot / to concede on purpose? Explain why.
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Compare against: to reject a loaded premise without attacking the person asking
3.Odd one out: which of these is least like "to accept the premise" in meaning or use — a graceful pivot / to concede on purpose / a clip-safe line? Explain why.
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Compare against: to agree, on air, to the (usually loaded) assumption inside the question
4.Odd one out: which of these is least like "a graceful pivot" in meaning or use — to concede on purpose / a clip-safe line / to land on your own line? Explain why.
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Compare against: a signposted turn from the interviewer's question to the answer you want to give
5.Odd one out: which of these is least like "to concede on purpose" in meaning or use — a clip-safe line / to land on your own line / to filibuster? Explain why.
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Compare against: to give ground on one specific thing, deliberately, to earn trust for the rest
6.Semantic map: place "to fight the frame, not the interviewer" on a scale from mild to strong against two other words you know. Then use the strongest one.
7.Semantic map: place "to accept the premise" on a scale from mild to strong against two other words you know. Then use the strongest one.
8.Semantic map: place "a graceful pivot" on a scale from mild to strong against two other words you know. Then use the strongest one.
9.Mini-dialogue: write four lines in which two of this lesson's words appear naturally.
1.Word family: give the noun, verb, adjective and adverb forms linked to "to fight the frame, not the interviewer" where they exist, then use the form that is hardest for you.
2.Word family: give the noun, verb, adjective and adverb forms linked to "to accept the premise" where they exist, then use the form that is hardest for you.
3.Word family: give the noun, verb, adjective and adverb forms linked to "a graceful pivot" where they exist, then use the form that is hardest for you.
4.Word family: give the noun, verb, adjective and adverb forms linked to "to concede on purpose" where they exist, then use the form that is hardest for you.
5.Spot the mismatch: which partner does NOT work with "to fight the frame, not the interviewer" — and what would a proficient speaker say instead?
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Natural model: She fought the frame, not the interviewer — and that's why the clip helped her.
6.Spot the mismatch: which partner does NOT work with "to accept the premise" — and what would a proficient speaker say instead?
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Natural model: The moment he accepted the premise, the interview was over.
7.Spot the mismatch: which partner does NOT work with "a graceful pivot" — and what would a proficient speaker say instead?
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Natural model: It was a graceful pivot — you could see the hinge.
8.Rewrite one sentence from your last piece of writing, swapping a weak combination for a precise one from this lesson.
1.Shift the register twice: make this markedly formal, then markedly conversational — "**Name**: 'The question underneath that is whether the strategy is working — and I'm happy to answer it directly.'"
2.Shift the register twice: make this markedly formal, then markedly conversational — "**Concede**: 'On one measure — waiting times in the northeast — you're right, and it's the one that's kept me up this year.'"
3.Shift the register twice: make this markedly formal, then markedly conversational — "**Pivot**: 'But that's why the second half of this plan targets exactly that region — and here is what has already moved.'"
4.Diplomatic vs direct: soften this, then sharpen it. Which version would you actually use, and to whom? "Where would 'let me be clear' or 'look' have been fatal?"
5.Compress: express the idea behind "She fought the frame, not the interviewer — and that's why the clip helped her." in six words or fewer without losing the nuance.
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to reject a loaded premise without attacking the person asking
6.Compress: express the idea behind "The moment he accepted the premise, the interview was over." in six words or fewer without losing the nuance.
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to agree, on air, to the (usually loaded) assumption inside the question
7.Compress: express the idea behind "It was a graceful pivot — you could see the hinge." in six words or fewer without losing the nuance.
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a signposted turn from the interviewer's question to the answer you want to give
8.Read one of your own paraphrases aloud. Which word choice is doing the most work? Replace everything around it.
1.Rank and justify: order the ideas in Where would 'let me be clear' or 'look' have been fatal? / Where did she filibuster and where did she not? / Where did she talk to one person and let the audience overhear? from most to least convincing. Defend your top choice.
2.Role-play: 5 minutes prep on the three questions you'd least like to be asked and your honest first draft of each. Take the position you least agree with.
3.Decision task: you have two minutes to reach a single recommendation on 100 words: your worst answer named + your rewrite, then one sentence: 'The move I still can't do under pressure is ____.'. State it in one sentence.
4.Now switch sides and argue the opposite for 60 seconds. Which language had to change?
5.Follow-up — push further: Subject: you head a hospital trust with rising A&E waits. Add a counter-example.
6.Follow-up — push further: Subject: you launched an AI tutoring product used in 200 schools. Add a counter-example.
1.Paragraph ordering: draft your four topic sentences only, then decide their best order and say why.
2.Partial writing: write only the concession paragraph of Write a 320–380-word transcript of a fictional live-air exchange in which a hostile interviewer asks four escalating questions and the subject uses NAME · CONCEDE · PIVOT · LAND. You MUST: (a) include at least one leading question and one bad-faith question, (b) show the subject naming the underneath question at least once, (c) include one specific concession that costs the subject something, (d) close on a clip-safe LAND that is the subject's own line, (e) use at least FIVE target items naturally. Do NOT let the subject use 'look' / 'let me be clear' / 'that's a great question'. — 60–80 words.
3.Editing pass: cut 15% of your words without losing content. What went first?
4.Audience switch: rewrite your opening for a hostile reader, then for a sympathetic one.
5.Self-check: underline every repeated word and replace two with precise choices from this lesson.
1.Take a Cambridge Part 4-style follow-up (real or invented). Draft ONE pivot sentence — 20 words or fewer — starting 'That's fair on X — the piece I'd push back on is…' Read it aloud.
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When the examiner presses (or seems to disagree), name the underneath question in one sub-clause, concede one specific thing, then pivot with a signpost. Never fight the examiner; fight the framing.
2.Find the evidence: which exact words in the text/script support this — Where does the minister NAME the underneath question?
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First reply: 'The question underneath that is whether the reforms are working, and I want to answer it directly.' She refuses the loaded 'simply failed' framing without attacking the interviewer.
3.Find the evidence: which exact words in the text/script support this — Where and how does she CONCEDE on purpose?
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Second reply — she names the specific measure ('northeast 12-week waits'), agrees she's behind, and names the political cost ('kept me up this year'). Small, specific, deliberate.
4.Find the evidence: which exact words in the text/script support this — How does she PIVOT without pivoting cold?
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She gives the working answer first (accept 12-week is behind), THEN pivots to two other regional measures — and pre-empts 'cherry-picking' by acknowledging she led with the bad number.
5.Key word transformation: rewrite "**Name**: 'The question underneath that is whether the strategy is working — and I'm happy to answer it directly.'" using the structure from Live-air survival: name · concede · pivot · land, in 3–8 words.
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Live-interview craft at C2: (a) NAME what is being asked without accepting a loaded frame ('The question underneath that is whether X — let me answer that'); (b) CONCEDE one thing on purpose, specifically, so what follows is trusted ('You're right that on measure A we're behind'); (c) PIVOT to the answer you actually want to give, signposted ('but the reason I'm still confident is this'); (d) LAND on a line short enough to survive being clipped.
6.Reflection: which part of this task type costs you most time, and what will you do differently next time?
1.True, false or not stated? Decide for each, then correct the false ones: "First reply: 'The question underneath that is whether the reforms are working, and I want to answer it directly.' She refuses the loaded 'simply failed' framing without attacking the interviewer." · "Second reply — she names the specific measure ('northeast 12-week waits'), agrees she's behind, and names the political cost ('kept me up this year'). Small, specific, deliberate." · "She gives the working answer first (accept 12-week is behind), THEN pivots to two other regional measures — and pre-empts 'cherry-picking' by acknowledging she led with the bad number."
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Where does the minister NAME the underneath question? → First reply: 'The question underneath that is whether the reforms are working, and I want to answer it directly.' She refuses the loaded 'simply failed' framing without attacking the interviewer. | Where and how does she CONCEDE on purpose? → Second reply — she names the specific measure ('northeast 12-week waits'), agrees she's behind, and names the political cost ('kept me up this year'). Small, specific, deliberate. | How does she PIVOT without pivoting cold? → She gives the working answer first (accept 12-week is behind), THEN pivots to two other regional measures — and pre-empts 'cherry-picking' by acknowledging she led with the bad number.
2.Retrieval race: in 60 seconds, list every word from this lesson you can remember, then check what you missed.
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to fight the frame, not the interviewer, to accept the premise, a graceful pivot, to concede on purpose, a clip-safe line, to land on your own line, to filibuster, a working answer
3.Use "to fight the frame, not the interviewer" in a sentence about a completely different topic from the lesson.
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to reject a loaded premise without attacking the person asking
4.Use "to accept the premise" in a sentence about a completely different topic from the lesson.
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to agree, on air, to the (usually loaded) assumption inside the question
5.Use "a graceful pivot" in a sentence about a completely different topic from the lesson.
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a signposted turn from the interviewer's question to the answer you want to give
6.Teach it back: explain Live-air survival: name · concede · pivot · land to someone who has never met it, in under 45 seconds.
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Live-interview craft at C2: (a) NAME what is being asked without accepting a loaded frame ('The question underneath that is whether X — let me answer that'); (b) CONCEDE one thing on purpose, specifically, so what follows is trusted ('You're right that on measure A we're behind'); (c) PIVOT to the answer you actually want to give, signposted ('but the reason I'm still confident is this'); (d) LAND on a line short enough to survive being clipped.
7.Whose live-air interview under pressure have you seen done well — what was the specific move that saved it?