Changes to the new edition

The new edition of Passages is even more flexible, communicative, and easy to use while offering students additional ways to build vocabulary, master sophisticated grammar, develop academic skills, and continue learning outside of the classroom.

Passages, Second Edition offers a number of new features and improvements for students and teachers, including the following:

• More vocabulary activities. There are now vocabulary activities in every lesson (two per unit), with an added emphasis on collocations, prefixes and suffixes, and phrasal verbs. In addition, the new Self-study section includes even more vocabulary exercises based on the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary CD-ROM, which is included in every Student’s Book.
• More sophisticated grammar. The grammar strand has been made more challenging, and overlaps with Level 3 of Interchange have been reduced. And just like the first edition, the grammar is presented clearly so that students can use it in conversation right away.
• More integrated skills work. The new edition also offers more integrated skills work, such as new “listening & speaking” and “vocabulary & speaking” activities, that are crucial to success on important proficiency assessments such as the iBT TOEFL.
• New, more varied readings. Nearly all of the reading texts have been updated with fresh, contemporary topics designed to stimulate meaningful classroom discussion. The new readings also cover a wider range of text types, including news stories, Web pages, book reviews, and more.
• More follow-up listening activities and a wider range of listening tasks. Follow-up listening tasks have been added to help students and teachers get the most from the Class Audio recordings. The listening tasks are more varied in the new edition and develop a range of crucial listening skills, including listening for gist, listening for details, making inferences, note-taking, and paraphrasing.
• NEW Grammar Plus section. The 24-page Grammar Plus section in the back of the Student’s Book offers additional explanations, examples, and controlled practice for each lesson’s grammar. These activities can be assigned as homework, used as in-class activities when more grammar study is needed, or used to manage larger multi-level classes where some students may finish earlier than others or need extra help.
• NEW Self-study section with Audio CD/Dictionary CD-ROM. The new Self-study section includes content-rich listening passages in a variety of genres relevant to university life, such as lectures and conversations on campus. The self-study vocabulary activities that follow build important academic vocabulary and dictionary skills using the included Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary CD-ROM.
• NEW interleaved Teacher’s Edition. The new Teacher’s Edition places the teaching instructions side-by-side with the Student’s Book page. The teaching notes also include answer keys, grammar notes, culture notes, and offer ideas for extra optional activities that require little or no preparation. The Teacher’s Edition also includes new photocopiable speaking activities, supplemental readings, group projects, written and oral unit quizzes, language summaries, and audio scripts.
• NEW TestCrafter CD-ROM. Teachers can create their own custom tests quickly and easily with the new TestCrafter CD-ROM. The TestCrafter package also includes an Audio CD/CD-ROM with PDF files and audio recordings for the Interchange / Passages Placement Tests.