The book is an update to the work by the same authors, Working with grammar, first published by Longman in 1993. As stated in the notes at the beginning of the book (titled Presentazione, Presentation), the two volumes differ in their exercises, which were almost completely changed for the new version in 2001. The authors also underline that the book aims at assisting teachers involved in functional-notional courses with grammar explanations and exercises of gradually increasing difficulty, following “the principle of complexity” (Nava 2018, 254).
The book is comprised of 20 units divided into two sections, Basic steps and Extension. The former focuses on elementary to intermediate level structures, while the latter includes upper-intermediate, advanced structures, which are also compared to their Italian counterparts. Between the two sections there are tests that the students can use for self-assessment before moving to the Extension. The key of the tests was available on the Publisher’s site (www.longman.it), while the key to the exercises in the book was available in the Teacher’s book, which also included further tests.
