Listening

Warm Up

Helpful Words and Phrases

Listen and repeat.

  1. a hack
    • ex. I love to watch videos about cooking and cleaning hacks. They’re so creative!
  2. a mash-up
    • ex. The song is a mash-up of several hits from the 1980s.
  3. topped with (something)
    • ex. I love their fresh salad topped with feta cheese.
  4. disgusting
    • ex. Sorry, but I can’t eat this. It’s disgusting!
  5. provide
    • ex. You don’t need to take anything. They’ll provide everything that you need.

Article

Read the article below and answer your tutor's questions.

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Earlier this year, US McDonald’s began selling sandwich hacks that were inspired by fan creations. For many years, customers have been creating their own mash-ups of McDonald’s menu items and sharing them on social media, but for a limited time, they could officially order them from McDonald’s restaurants.

The most popular hack was the Hash Brown McMuffin, a McMuffin topped with a hash brown, while the least popular one was a mix of a Big Mac, McChicken, and Filet-o-Fish called the Land, Air & Sea. Many people said that its combination of Big Mac sauce, tartar sauce, and mayo was disgusting. McDonald’s also offered the Crunchy Double, a Double Cheeseburger topped with Chicken McNuggets and barbecue sauce, and the Surf + Turf, a mix of a Filet-o-Fish and Double Cheeseburger.

Customers were excited to officially order the hacks, but many were soon disappointed. They discovered that McDonald’s employees did not actually build the sandwiches shown in the commercials; instead, they only provided all of the menu items for customers to build their own. “I got six separate sandwiches,” one Twitter user complained. “When did you become IKEA?” another angry customer wrote.

Discussion

Choose a topic and discuss the questions with your tutor.

McDonald’s Hacks

  • Many customers were disappointed that they had to build their own hacks. In your opinion, why did McDonald's employees not build the sandwiches (ex. because of Covid-19, because it takes more time)? Discuss.
  • Which of the hacks would you like to try (the Hash Brown McMuffin, Crunchy Double, Surf + Turf, and/or Land, Air & Sea)? Why? Discuss.
  • Imagine that you can design your own McDonald's hack. What menu items will you mix (ex. French fries with an Oreo McFlurry, apple pie with barbecue sauce)? Why? Discuss.

Hacks

  • There are many different types of hacks: life hacks, cleaning hacks, food hacks, etc… What kind of hack are you most interested in? Why? Discuss.
  • What's the most useful hack that you know (ex. using frozen grapes for ice cubes, using toilet paper rolls as smartphone speakers)? Why? Discuss.
  • Do you think that people should believe all hacks that they see online? Why or why not? Discuss.