ESL WORKSHEET - Hermit lifestyle

LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS

IN THE WILD

LinguaHouse

Nov. 5, 2024

Level: Intermediate (B1-B2)
Type of language: General English
Tags: Environment and Nature; People and Places; Incredible Stories; Exam Preparation; Past Tenses; Past Perfect; Present Perfect; Grammar Practice; Article Based; 10-12 Years Old; 13-15 Years Old; 16-18 Years Old; 18+ Years Old
Publication date: 11/05/2024

This slightly updated worksheet is based on a newspaper interview with Jake Williams, a hermit who has lived in the Scottish wilderness for 30 years. There is an optional grammar exercise on the present perfect, past simple and past perfect tenses, which feature a lot in the article. Students discuss the hermit lifestyle at the end of the lesson.

• CLICK HERE to download the student’s worksheet in American English.
• CLICK HERE to download the teacher’s lesson plan in American English.
• CLICK HERE to download/listen to the audio in American English.
• CLICK HERE to download the student’s worksheet in British English.
• CLICK HERE to download the teacher’s lesson plan in British English.
• CLICK HERE to download/listen to the audio in British English.

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Narrator: Life as a Hermit - “My Life is a Great Adventure”
For nearly 30 years, Jake Williams has lived as a hermit in the Scottish wilderness. He explains why he could never go back to a ‘normal’ life.
Jake Williams: I always wanted to be a hermit. There was a tradition in the 18th century to pay hermits to live on your grounds and entertain the guests; I would have liked that. I live alone in an old house in the Scottish wilderness, near Aberdeen.
I’ve lived like this since I got the house 30 years ago. I did it because I was sick of dealing with landlords. I was living in Aberdeen with friends, we’d made the place nice and then suddenly had to move out. It was a nightmare. I decided to save money and buy the first place that I could afford. I always thought people would come and live with me eventually - I’m not impossible to live with, I’m very friendly - but it just hasn’t happened yet.
I don’t think my life is unconventional. At first, I worked in order to save up - I didn’t want to take out a mortgage. I moved in the first day I got the place. There weren’t any windows, and it was very damp. Nobody had lived there for 20 years. I started making fires and making the house dry. That was about Halloween, so I needed to get it ready for winter. It was a happy adventure.
I’ve got a garden with a lot of kale - it’s like a primitive cabbage. It’s 1,000ft up where I live and that affects the climate. I’m not very good at growing carrots here, but I’ve got a lot of redcurrants. I consider myself to be a hunter-gatherer, so when I see some wood, I pick it up. I don’t like to miss a chance to get something for nothing. I like to do a lot of different little jobs. I am always busy boiling a pan of potatoes on the fire for tomorrow or looking for something I’ve lost.
I’ve always had an open house and people visit me. I’ve been in Scottish dance bands, I write letters and freelance articles for a magazine, and I even represented the Green Party in the elections earlier this month - I got 6 per cent of the votes, which they told me is quite good. But mostly I spend my days alone.
Summer is the best time. You can go outside and cook with an outdoor fire. It’s lovely. It’s an easy life. If I want to stay at home, I can. I stock up on food and firewood, so I won’t starve if I don’t go out.
Three winters ago a guy from Latvia was with me, and the cold was nothing to him. We went skiing in the hills and had a great adventure. Having two people was good because we could keep the fire nice and toasty.
Then two winters ago it was a hard life... it was a hard winter everywhere. Somebody had tried to sue me, and I had to go to Aberdeen to the court. I had to ski for six miles, then stay with a friend and then ski six miles back home regularly for about five months. When I came home, the fires were out and I was cold and wet. It was a nightmare. It’s usually not that hard, that year was the exception, but I’ve survived.
To me, this seems like normal life. Having a career seems strange. It is not enough to work in a job and take money home. This seems more straightforward or easier than that. It sounds sort of depressing, but it’s not - it’s a great adventure.

Adapted from: https://www.linguahouse.com/esl-lesson-plans/general-english/in-the-wild. Accessed on November 11, 2024. © 2008–2024 LinguaHouse.com. All rights reserved.