The 7 Steps May
1. CONTEXT
Mindmap
anything you
know about thetopic, including
vocabulary. Do
some research
online to help.

Volkswagen
Listening Questions 1
1. Name two famous models Volkswagen has manufactured.
.
2. What do Lamborghini, Porsche, Ducati, and Scania all have in common?
.
3. How many people does Volkswagen employ as of 2019 and when were
they founded?
.
4. In what year did VW stop making the Beetle and how many of them did
they make in total?
.
5. When did Volkswagen open offices in the US?
.

2. QUESTIONS

Read the listening
questions tocheck yourunderstanding.
Look up any new
vocabulary.

3. LISTEN

Listening Questions 2
1. Who did Volkswagen partner with in 2018 and what is their goal?

Listen and answer
the questions
using full
sentences. Circle
the number oftimes and % you
understood.

.
2. How much is the German car manufacturer going to invest in Argo AI?
.
3. What kind of company is Argo AI and where are they based?
.
4. What is VW building in Tennessee and when is it supposed to open?
.
5. What did Volkswagen do in 2019?

1Listening 1
2 3 45%%%

1

Listening 2
2 3 45%%%%%%%.
Discussion Questions
1. How have cars and their usage changed during your lifetime?
2. How do you feel about the emergence of autonomous and electricvehicles?

4. CHECK ANSWERS
TRANSCRIPT 1
One of the most famous automobile manufacturers in the world is Volkswagen, the maker ofseveral iconic models such as the Beetle, Rabbit, and Golf. The Volkswagen family consists ofsome of the most prestigious brands in the world including Lamborghini, Bugatti and Ducati,and fellow German car makers Porsche and Audi. Less well-known perhaps are the brands
Scania and MAN, makers of large trucks and buses.

Read through thetranscript andunderline theanswers. Checkthem against yourown answers.

According to Volkswagen, their entire network includes over 120 production facilities around theworld and they employ in the neighborhood of 700,000 people as of the end of 2019.
Volkswagen, also known as VW, was originally established in 1937.

5. CHECK VOCABULARY
Read thetranscript andcircle any newvocabulary youfind. Look themup and add themto your list.

MATCH THE ANTONYMS BY DRAWING LINES BELOW:

6. READ ALOUD

Read thetranscript aloudat least 5 times,
focusing onintonation andpronunciation.

11223344553344

Unknown

RecallRemoveProminent

AtypicalConcludeSuccessor

Predecessor

ForgetInjectInsignificant

IconicStart

TRANSCRIPT 2

Another partnership Volkswagen has entered into is with Ford and Argo AI. In June 2020, thethree companies concluded a deal that includes the German automaker investing more than $2billion in Argo AI, a US based self-driving vehicle company founded in 2016.

Say the transcript
aloud at the sametime as the audio
without reading
it. Circle how
many times
below.

22Prestigious

More and more car companies are developing vehicles that will be connected to the Internet. In
late 2018, VW announced they would be collaborating with Microsoft to create the ‘Volkswagen
Automotive Cloud’. The goal is to bring together a range of digital services into aninterconnected experience that extends beyond the time a driver spends in the actual vehicle.

7. SHADOWING

11In July 2019, Volkswagen stopped manufacturing their legendary Beetle. According to thecompany, more than 21 million Beetles were built in its long history. Some people may recall
that a Beetle played a prominent role in several Disney movies, one of which was the 1968 film
‘The Love Bug.’ Volkswagen established offices in the United States in 1955 and their US
headquarters are located in Virginia.

Our future also includes more electric vehicles. In late 2019, Volkswagen announced that they
had started construction on a facility that will eventually be their North American assembly site
for their EVs. The facility is located in the state of Tennessee and is slated to open in 2022.

55

From time-to-time companies rethink their logo to inject new energy into their brand. In 2019,
Volkswagen introduced a new logo that is crisper than its predecessor.