Date: March 26, 2005
Level: Pre-Intermediate +
Downloads: This Lesson (Word Doc) | Class Handout (Word Doc) | Class Handout (PDF)

THE ARTICLE

An outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus has reached the Angolan capital, Luanda, and has so far killed 114 people. It has taken the lives of at least 109 people along the Angola-Congo border and a further five in Luanda. The death toll is expected to rise despite World Health Organization (WHO) attempts to contain the spread of the virus. Among the dead are a UN Italian doctor, who had been treating a Marburg patient, and a 15-year-old boy, who had traveled to the capital city from the border region. Three-quarters of the fatalities are children under the age of five. Portugal, which has a large Angolan community, has put its airports on alert fearing the virus may spread beyond Angola’s borders. Angola is an ex-Portuguese colony.

The Marburg virus is related to Ebola and originated in a similar area. It is transmitted through close contact with animals, the bodily fluids of infected people, or through unprotected sex. The WHO says the disease “can be rapidly fatal” and that there is no vaccine or cure for it. The first symptoms include fever, headaches, vomiting and diarrhea. Within a week other symptoms occur, such as stomach aches and severe bleeding through the skin and eyes. The fatality rate is around 25 per cent. The virus was first identified in 1967 among laboratory workers in the German city of Marburg who had been working with green monkeys. It has struck in African countries before in the 1970s and ‘80’s.

WARM UPS

1. CHAT: Talk in pairs or groups about viruses/ Angola / the WHO / Ebola / outbreak / diarrhea / fever / headaches / vomiting / monkeys …

To make things more dynamic, try telling your students they only have one minute (or 2) on each chat topic before changing topics / partners. Change topic / partner frequently to increase conversation.

2. VIRUS BRAINSTORM: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘virus’. Share your words with your partner / group and talk about them.

3. VIRUSES: How safe is the world from a major outbreak? Is your country prepared? Can it handle a sudden pandemic? Are you worried? Talk about this with your partner / group. Use the following prompts to help you:

1. Ebola
2. SARS
3. bird flu
4. WHO
5. vaccine
6. virus
7. international travel
8. China

4. OPINIONS: Talk about these with your partner.

1. Governments panic too much when an outbreak occurs.
2. A serious pandemic will never seriously affect major world cities.
3. Governments should more money on finding cures for viruses, especially HIV/AIDS.
4. A deadly virus will one day kill half the world’s population.
5. There should be better checks at international airports to detect viruses.
6. Viruses have always been with us.
7. If the Marburg virus spreads to Portugal, Europe and the whole world will be affected.
8. Rich countries don’t spend money on virus research because most viruses affect people in the developing world.

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. WORD SEARCH: Students look in their dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … of the words ‘deadly’ and ‘virus’.

2. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the headline and guess whether these sentences are true or false:

1. The German city of Marburg has been hit by a deadly virus.  T / F
2. The WHO predicts the death toll from Marburg virus will rise.  T / F
3. Among the dead is an Italian doctor who had been treating a Marburg patient.  T / F
4. Seventy-five per cent of the fatalities are no older than five.  T / F
5. Marburg virus is related to SARS.  T / F
6. It is transmitted through eating the meat from chickens and pigs.  T / F
7. The vaccine to cure Marburg virus is very expensive.  T / F
8. A quarter of those who contract the virus will die.  T / F

3. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

(a)	outbreak	number
(b)	border	passed on
(c)	toll	deaths
(d)	contain	deadly
(e)	fatalities	arise
(f)	transmitted	epidemic
(g)	fatal	recognized
(h)	symptoms	stop
(i)	occur	signs
(j)	identified	frontier

4. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

(a)	An outbreak of the	beyond Angola’s borders
(b)	It has taken	toll
(c)	death	cure
(d)	Three-quarters of the fatalities	the lives of at least 109 people
(e)	the virus may spread	identified in 1967
(f)	originated	fluids
(g)	bodily	occur
(h)	there is no vaccine or	deadly Marburg virus
(i)	other symptoms	in a similar area
(j)	The virus was first	are children

 

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. GAP-FILL:  Put the words on the right into the gaps.

Marburg virus death toll up to 114

An __________ of the deadly Marburg virus has reached the Angolan capital, Luanda, and has so far killed 114 people. It has __________ the lives of at least 109 people along the Angola-Congo border and a further five in Luanda. The death toll is expected to rise despite World Health Organization (WHO) attempts to __________ the spread of the virus. Among the dead are a UN Italian doctor, who had been treating a Marburg patient, and a 15-year-old boy, who had traveled to the capital city from the border __________. Three-quarters of the fatalities are children under the age of five. Portugal, which has a large Angolan community, has put its airports on alert fearing the virus may __________ beyond Angola’s borders. Angola is an ex-Portuguese colony.		spread taken outbreak contain region
The Marburg virus is related to Ebola and __________ in a similar area. It is transmitted through close contact with animals, the bodily fluids of __________ people, or through unprotected sex. The WHO says the disease “can be rapidly fatal” and that there is no __________ or cure for it. The first symptoms include fever, headaches, vomiting and diarrhea. Within a week other __________ occur, such as stomach aches and severe bleeding through the skin and eyes. The fatality rate is around 25 per cent. The virus was first identified in 1967 among laboratory workers in the German city of Marburg who had been working with green monkeys. It has __________ in African countries before in the 1970s and ‘80’s.		symptoms infected struck vaccine originated

2. TRUE/FALSE:  Students check their answers to the T/F exercise.

3. SYNONYMS:  Students check their answers to the synonyms exercise.

4. PHRASE MATCH:  Students check their answers to the phrase match exercise.

5. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article.

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

POST READING IDEAS

1. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the gap-fill exercise.

2. QUESTIONS:  Students ask the discussion questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class. Pool the questions for all students to share.

3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above.

4. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: Pairs/Groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Conduct their surveys alone. Report back to partners to compare answers. Report to other groups / the whole class.

5. ‘DEADLY’ / ‘VIRUS’: Students make questions based on their findings from pre-reading activity #1.

6. DISCUSSION:

1. What was interesting in this article?
2. Were you worried by anything in this article?
3. What do / did you know of this virus?
4. Are you worried Marburg virus might spread to your country?
5. Is this something your government should be guarding against?
6. Did you worry about SARS and bird flu?
7. Do you worry about AIDS?
8. Will the world experience a pandemic that will kill millions?
9. What would you do if a killer virus came to your town?
10. Is your country prepared for an outbreak?
11. What will happen if the virus reaches Portugal?
12. How often do you have fever, headaches, vomiting or diarrhea?
13. Do you remember the Ebola virus?
14. Is your body strong?
15. What did you like best about this discussion?
16. Teacher / Student additional questions.

HOMEWORK

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find information on the Ebola and Marburg viruses. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. MARBURG: Create an information poster about Marburg virus. Compare it with your classmates in your next class.

4. PANDEMIC PLAN: You are the head of your town’s government. Write an emergency plan on what the citizens should do if Marburg virus hits your region.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

1. The German city of Marburg has been hit by a deadly virus.  F
2. The WHO predicts the death toll from Marburg virus will rise.  T
3. Among the dead is an Italian doctor who had been treating a Marburg patient.  T
4. Seventy-five per cent of the fatalities are no older than five.  T
5. Marburg virus is related to SARS.  F
6. It is transmitted through eating the meat from chickens and pigs.  F
7. The vaccine to cure Marburg virus is very expensive.  F
8. A quarter of those who contract the virus will die.  T

SYNONYM MATCH:

(a)	outbreak	epidemic
(b)	border	frontier
(c)	toll	number
(d)	contain	stop
(e)	fatalities	deaths
(f)	transmitted	passed on
(g)	fatal	deadly
(h)	symptoms	signs
(i)	occur	arise
(j)	identified	recognized

PHRASE MATCH:

(a)	An outbreak of the	deadly Marburg virus
(b)	It has taken	the lives of at least 109 people
(c)	death	toll
(d)	Three-quarters of the fatalities	are children
(e)	the virus may spread	beyond Angola’s borders
(f)	originated	in a similar area
(g)	bodily	fluids
(h)	there is no vaccine or	cure
(i)	other symptoms	occur
(j)	The virus was first	identified in 1967

GAP FILL:

Marburg virus death toll up to 114

An outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus has reached the Angolan capital, Luanda, and has so far killed 114 people. It has taken the lives of at least 109 people along the Angola-Congo border and a further five in Luanda. The death toll is expected to rise despite World Health Organization (WHO) attempts to contain the spread of the virus. Among the dead are a UN Italian doctor, who had been treating a Marburg patient, and a 15-year-old boy, who had traveled to the capital city from the border region. Three-quarters of the fatalities are children under the age of five. Portugal, which has a large Angolan community, has put its airports on alert fearing the virus may spread beyond Angola’s borders. Angola is an ex-Portuguese colony.

The Marburg virus is related to Ebola and originated in a similar area. It is transmitted through close contact with animals, the bodily fluids of infected people, or through unprotected sex. The WHO says the disease “can be rapidly fatal” and that there is no vaccine or cure for it. The first symptoms include fever, headaches, vomiting and diarrhea. Within a week other symptoms occur, such as stomach aches and severe bleeding through the skin and eyes. The fatality rate is around 25 per cent. The virus was first identified in 1967 among laboratory workers in the German city of Marburg who had been working with green monkeys. It has struck in African countries before in the 1970s and ‘80’s.