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Bright Lives English · Teacher sheet

Louis Pasteur: A Boy Was Bitten by a Mad Dog… and Pasteur Took a Huge Risk

Level B2 (Upper intermediate) · Video 5:20 · 45-minute lesson

brightlivesenglish.com/lessons/louis-pasteur-huge-risk/

45-minute lesson plan

TimeStageWhat to do
0–3′Warm-upAsk the class: “Have you ever had a vaccine? Do you know any scientists who changed medicine? Would you take a risk to help a stranger?” Let a few students answer.
3–10′WordsPre-teach the 5 words with the flashcards: microbe, pasteurise, rabies, experimental, take a risk. Say each word, show the meaning, and ask for a quick example.
10–17′VideoPlay the video (5:20). Students follow the transcript. Play it a second time if needed.
17–25′ComprehensionWorksheet C (or the online Story Challenge): check answers together. Ask “How do you know?”
25–33′Grammarhad no choice but to + verb: to say that there was only one possible thing to do. Show “He had no choice but to try.”, then do worksheet E together.
33–40′WorksheetStudents do worksheet A, B and D alone or in pairs. Check with the answer key.
40–45′SpeakingIn pairs: “Pasteur was not a doctor, and the vaccine had never been tried on a person. If he had refused, Joseph would probably have died. Was he right to take the risk? Who should decide in a situation like this?”

Homework: students finish the lesson online (flashcards + Story Challenge). With your class link, you see who finished.

Words and grammar

  • microbe (noun): a living thing so small that you can only see it with a microscope. “Pasteur showed that tiny microbes cause disease.”
  • pasteurise (verb): to heat a drink gently to kill harmful microbes (past: pasteurised). “Today, most of our milk is pasteurised.”
  • rabies (noun): a deadly disease people can catch from the bite of an infected animal. “In those days, rabies almost always killed.”
  • experimental (adjective): new and not yet fully tested. “His rabies vaccine was still experimental.”
  • take a risk (phrase (took a risk)): to do something even though it could go badly wrong. “Pasteur took a huge risk.”

Grammar: had no choice but to + verb — to say that there was only one possible thing to do. “He had no choice but to try.”

Discussion questions

  1. Pasteur was not a doctor, and the vaccine had never been tried on a person. If he had refused, Joseph would probably have died. Was he right to take the risk? Who should decide in a situation like this?
  2. What was the hardest moment in Louis Pasteur's story? What did Louis Pasteur do?
  3. Make two sentences about your own life with “had no choice but to + verb”. (From the story: “He had no choice but to try.”)

Student worksheet

Name: Date:

A Match the words to their meanings

  1. microbe (noun)
  2. pasteurise (verb)
  3. rabies (noun)
  4. experimental (adjective)
  5. take a risk (phrase (took a risk))
  6. bite (noun / verb (bit, bitten))
  7. spoil (verb)
  8. fermentation (noun)
  1. a deadly disease people can catch from the bite of an infected animal
  2. (of food or drink) to go bad (past: spoiled / spoilt)
  3. to heat a drink gently to kill harmful microbes (past: pasteurised)
  4. to do something even though it could go badly wrong
  5. a wound made by teeth; to cut with your teeth
  6. new and not yet fully tested
  7. a living thing so small that you can only see it with a microscope
  8. the process in which microbes change sugar into alcohol or acid

B Complete the sentences from the story

took a huge risk · pasteurised · rabies · bitten · spoil · experimental · microbes · fermentation

  1. Pasteur .
  2. A mad dog had him fourteen times.
  3. In those days, almost always killed.
  4. Today, most of our milk is .
  5. Pasteur showed that is caused by living microbes.
  6. Pasteur showed that tiny cause disease.
  7. His rabies vaccine was still .
  8. Microbes made the wine .

C Did you understand?

  1. As a teenager, Pasteur loved drawing portraits.True / False
  2. Why did broth stay fresh in the swan-neck flasks?
    1. The broth was frozen
    2. The flasks were very hot
    3. Microbes from the air could not get in
    4. There was salt in the broth
  3. Pasteur was a medical doctor.True / False
  4. Who gave Joseph the injections?
    1. Joseph's mother
    2. Doctor Grancher
    3. Pasteur's wife
    4. A shepherd
  5. What happened to Joseph Meister?
    1. He became a famous painter
    2. He went back to the doctor every year
    3. He moved to Russia
    4. He stayed healthy and later worked at the Pasteur Institute

D Put the words in order

  1. had / choice / to / He / no / try / but

E Grammar: had no choice but to + verb

We use it for to say that there was only one possible thing to do. He had no choice but to try. · His mother had no choice but to beg for help. · We have no choice but to wait.

Example from the story: He had no choice but to try.

  1. Pasteur had no choice to try. (but / and / or)
  2. His mother had no choice but for help. (to beg / begging / beg)
  3. After the stroke, he had choice but to let his assistants help. (no / not / any)

F Your turn

Retell Louis Pasteur's story in 5–6 sentences. Use at least three words from exercise A.

Answer key

A. 1g 2c 3a 4f 5d 6e 7b 8h

B. 1 took a huge risk · 2 bitten · 3 rabies · 4 pasteurised · 5 fermentation · 6 microbes · 7 experimental · 8 spoil

C. 1 True · 2 c · 3 False · 4 b · 5 d

D. 1 He had no choice but to try.

E. 1 but · 2 to beg · 3 no

Transcript

In July 1885, a mad dog bit a nine-year-old boy fourteen times.

A scientist had a new vaccine, but he had never tried it on a person.

Would the boy live?

This is the story of Louis Pasteur.

Welcome to brightlivesenglish.com, where we teach real English using real-life stories.

Microbe. A microbe is a living thing so small that you can only see it with a microscope.

Pasteur showed that tiny microbes cause disease.

Pasteurise. To pasteurise a drink means to heat it gently to kill harmful microbes.

The past is pasteurised.

Today, most of our milk is pasteurised.

Rabies. Rabies is a deadly disease that people can catch from the bite of an infected animal.

In those days, rabies almost always killed.

Experimental. Something experimental is new and has not been fully tested yet.

His rabies vaccine was still experimental.

Take a risk. When you take a risk, you do something even though it could go badly wrong.

The past is took a risk.

Pasteur took a huge risk.

Now, one pattern: had no choice but to.

We use it when there is only one possible thing to do.

There was only one thing he could do: try.

He had no choice but to try.

Ready? Let's begin.

Louis Pasteur was born in a small town in eastern France in 1822.

His father was a tanner.

At school, he was an average student, but he loved art.

As a teenager, he drew portraits of his family and neighbours.

Then he discovered chemistry, and it changed his life.

Around 1860, he did a famous experiment with flasks that had long, curved necks, like a swan.

Broth stayed fresh in them for months.

The reason was simple.

The microbes in the air could not get in.

Microbes, he realised, were everywhere, and they made wine go sour.

Gently heating the wine killed them without spoiling the taste.

The method still carries his name.

Today, most of our milk is pasteurised.

In 1868, at 45, a stroke partly paralysed the left side of his body.

Delicate work with his hands became difficult, so he had no choice but to let his assistants do much of it.

But his mind never stopped.

Then he turned to rabies.

In those days, rabies almost always killed.

In his laboratory, he dried the spinal cords of infected rabbits, which made the disease weaker day by day.

It protected dogs.

But he had never tried it on a human being.

On 6 July 1885, a mother arrived from a small village in Alsace with her son, Joseph Meister.

Two days earlier, a mad dog had bitten him fourteen times.

His mother had no choice but to beg Pasteur for help.

But Pasteur was not a medical doctor.

If the boy died, he would be blamed.

His rabies vaccine was still experimental.

Two doctors examined Joseph and agreed that he had no other hope.

Pasteur felt he had no choice but to try.

Every day for ten days, Doctor Grancher gave Joseph an injection, each one stronger than the last.

Pasteur took a huge risk.

At night, he could not sleep.

His wife wrote to their children: "Your father has had another bad night."

Days passed. Then weeks. Joseph stayed healthy.

He played, he ate, he laughed.

The vaccine had worked.

Joseph Meister had been saved.

A few months later, a 15-year-old shepherd was bitten while protecting younger children from a mad dog.

He was saved too.

In 1886, nineteen Russian farmers bitten by a wolf travelled all the way to Paris. Sixteen survived.

People around the world sent money, and in 1888, the Pasteur Institute opened in Paris.

Pasteur died in 1895.

Years later, the boy he had saved, Joseph Meister, worked there as the caretaker.

Let's review. Pasteur showed that tiny microbes cause disease.

Today, most of our milk is pasteurised.

In those days, rabies almost always killed.

His rabies vaccine was still experimental.

Pasteur took a huge risk.

And remember: he had no choice but to try.

Louis Pasteur's story teaches us: sometimes the bravest science is a careful risk to save one life.

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