Mayo's Return: The Underdogs Are Back
Grammar: Hedging and speculative language
A Level 5 English lesson exploring sport.
What's in this lesson
A Level 5 (advanced) ESL lesson on sport, practising hedging and speculative language. The worksheet has a reading, target vocabulary and discussion questions.
From the reading: Mayo's Return: The Underdogs Are Back
There is something almost theatrical about Mayo's relationship with Gaelic football. For years, the county from Ireland's west coast was defined not by what it won but by what it kept coming agonisingly close to winning — a pattern so consistent it acquired a name: the curse. The story goes that a Mayo team, returning home with the Sam Maguire Cup decades ago, failed to stop their bus for a passing funeral. The priest at the graveside is said to have declared that Mayo would never win another All-Ireland while any of that team's players still lived. Whether one believes in such things or not, the coincidences proved stubborn enough to keep the legend alive.
Vocabulary
- clinical
- dismantled
- pointed
- relentlessly
- at breakneck speed
- in hindsight
- in the balance
- make hay
- On the flipside
Discussion questions
- Have you ever supported a team or person that everyone else had written off?
- What makes an underdog story genuinely compelling to watch?
- Should sports journalists be held accountable for their predictions?
Mayo's Return: The Underdogs Are Back
Grammar: Hedging and speculative language
What's in this lesson:
Full lesson plan with reading, grammar, vocabulary, and discussion.
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