🪜 Horizon: Banned Basics & Upgrades
The crew holds a retirement ceremony for the four basic words that have carried them since primary school. They climb the upgrade ladder from awful to brilliant, learn why extreme adjectives take absolutely instead of very, fine-tune strength with incredibly and barely, and perform live surgery on a flat B1 journal paragraph until it sounds like an actual trip.
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Lesson Plan
- How often do you say good, bad, very?
- What does “good” actually tell your listener?
- Rank the ladder words by strength
Key Vocabulary
Grammar Points
- Extreme (non-gradable) adjectives take absolutely/utterly, never very: absolutely exhausted, not very exhausted
- Gradable adjectives accept very/incredibly/fairly (incredibly tired); really works with both families
- barely carries negative meaning on its own (I barely slept) — never combine it with not
- Upgrading very + weak adjective to a single strong adjective: very interesting → fascinating
- Replacing vague thing with the exact noun adds precision: the best thing → the best moment / meal / view
