Tuesday November 3, 2004
Pre-Intermediate +

THE ARTICLE

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is in hospital in France recovering from a mystery stomach illness. He is still healthy, even at 75 years old. However, newspapers report that his family and colleagues are already fighting over who should control Arafat`s huge fortune after he dies. He has an estimated $4.2 billion to $6.5 billion spread around the world.

Arafat is reported to have written a will, which gives all of his money and property to his wife and her family. This has upset many Palestinians as his wife is Christian. They believe the money belongs to the Palestinian Authority to help the Palestinian people and economy. Most Palestinians live in poverty and their economy has been destroyed after years of Israeli occupation.

It is not so simple to identify where Arafat’s money is. He has many secret bank accounts in his name and in the name of the Palestine Liberation Orgaization and Al-Fatah. He has millions of dollars in cash in Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands. He also owns hotels and resorts in Spain, Italy, France, Switzerland, and Austria, and is the major shareholder in two mobile phone companies in Tunisia and Algeria.

 
 

WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS

1. RIGHT OPPOSITE: Individual or pairwork? Students match the correct opposites of the words in exercise 1. Compare answers in pairs. Teacher to monitor and help / receive questions after exercise.

2. WILL OR WON’T: Write the word ‘will’ on the board. Ask students what part of speech it is (of course most students will say an auxiliary verb). Tell students it is also a noun and ask for the meaning. Students talk about wills. Also introduce the sense of 'will' meaning spirit or determination.

3. COLLOCATIONS:  Explain ‘will’. Write the following collocates on the board (or paste into your word proc. doc.): make / last / leave in one’s / fight over / contest a ~ / in one’s ~ etc. Ask students in pairs to guess the meanings.

4. MID-EAST KNOWLEDGE: In pairs students pool their knowledge of Yasser Arafat and Palestine, (especially of the past few years?). Students change partners until they have shared / accumulated lots of info/knowledge

 .

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. VOCAB CHECK:  Students choose the opposites from exercise 2 above.

2. GOOD/BAD:  As you read place a tick (check) next to the things you think are good, and a cros s next to the things you think are bad, or not so good.

3. VOCABULARY: Students circle any words they do not understand. In groups pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings.

4. QUESTIONS: Make notes for questions (opinions or factual) you want to ask the class about the information in the article.

5. CHOOSE CORRECT WORD: Read the text and circle which of the words in italics is correct:

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is in hospital in France recovering from a well-known / mysterious stomach illness. He is still healthy, even at 75 years old. However, newspapers report that his family and colleagues are already fighting over who should control Arafat`s huge / tiny fortune after he dies. He has an estimated $4.2 billion to $6.5 billion spread around the world.

Arafat is reported to have written a will, which gives all of his money and property to his wife and her family. This has pleased / upset many Palestinians as his wife is Christian. They believe the money belongs to the Palestinian Authority to help the Palestinian people and economy. Most Palestinians live in luxury / poverty and their economy has been destroyed after years of Israeli occupation.

It is not so simple / complicated to identify where Arafat’s money is. He has many secret bank accounts in his name and in the name of the Palestine Liberation Orgaization and Al-Fatah. He has millions of dollars in cash in Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands. He also owns hotels and resorts in Spain, Italy, France, Switzerland, and Austria, and is the minor / major shareholder in two mobile phone companies in Tunisia and Algeria.

 

POST READING IDEAS

1. GOOD/BAD:  Share and discuss with your partner the things you ticked / crossed above.

2. REPORT: In pairs / groups, discuss who the money should go to – his wife, other family members, the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian people... Change partners/groups and discuss further

3. WILLS: People leave their cash / fortune / wealth to all manner of recipients. Write the following on the board (or paste into your word proc. doc.) for students to rank in order or priority regarding who should be left money: immediate partner / siblings / children / a secret lover whom the deceased wanted to marry / charity / a pet / the local place or worship / the government / the deceased’s much-loved, passionately supported football club …

4. INTERNET IDEAS: Here are some opinions taken from an Internet chat room regarding Mr Arafat’s will. Students react to each opinion.

- His fortune should go to Baet el Mall (the Palestinian public treasury) for schools and hospitals for the Palestinian people.
- They should give some to the Israeli victims of suicide bombers.
- His Muslim people, not his Christian wife.
- This monry should fund the campaign against American occupation around the world.
- His wife is the legal heir, and Arafat wants to give his money to her.
- It’s not his money. It was given to him by oil-rich Arab princes and businessmen to help the Palestinian struggle against Israel. It should go to Hamas.
- It should buy a bigger, higher, stronger wall to divide Israel and Palestine.
- The cash should be used to buy high-tech weapons so the Palestinians have a better, more equal, chance fighting Israel

5. VOCABULARY: As a class, cover the vocabulary students circled above.

6. QUESTIONS: Students ask the class the questions they made about the information in the article.

 

HOMEWORK

1. VOCAB EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or the Google search field to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on Yasser Arafat. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. WILL INFO: To find out about making a will in your country or other countries around the world, , visit www.makeyourwill.com

4. PALESTINIAN: Imagine you are a Palestinian refugee. Write a letter to Yasser Arafat explaining where you think the money should go.

ANSWERS

Matching:

	mysterious	well-known
	huge	tiny
	upset	pleased
	poverty	luxury
	simple	complicated
	major	minor

 

Full text:

The Fight for Arafat’s Fortune Begins

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is in hospital in France recovering from a mystery stomach illness. He is still healthy, even at 75 years old. However, newspapers report that his family and colleagues are already fighting over who should control Arafat`s huge fortune after he dies. He has an estimated $4.2 billion to $6.5 billion spread around the world.

Arafat is reported to have written a will, which gives all of his money and property to his wife and her family. This has upset many Palestinians as his wife is Christian. They believe the money belongs to the Palestinian Authority to help the Palestinian people and economy. Most Palestinians live in poverty and their economy has been destroyed after years of Israeli occupation.

It is not so simple to identify where Arafat’s money is. He has many secret bank accounts in his name and in the name of the Palestine Liberation Orgaization and Al-Fatah. He has millions of dollars in cash in Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands. He also owns hotels and resorts in Spain, Italy, France, Switzerland, and Austria, and is the major shareholder in two mobile phone companies in Tunisia and Algeria.