Britain’s Queen Elizabeth has published her yearly financial report online*. It is the first time she has put details of her royal income and spending on the Internet. The report states that the Queen’s spending for the year 2003/2004 was nearly $67 million. This is 1.7% higher than last year. This slight increase is mainly because of more overseas tours. The Royals have been under public pressure to cut their spending. The British people have demanded more information on how the Queen spends taxpayers’ money.

The yearly cost of the Royals to the British taxpayer was $1.12 per person. Buckingham Palace thinks this is great value for money. The Queen’s accountant said that the cost each Briton has to pay should be the same as for a loaf of bread. However, milk has replaced bread this year in making comparisons. The report states: “With the passage of time, the loaf of bread has become stale and this year’s expenditure per person, per annum, amounts to [$1.12] or less than the price of [1 liter] of milk.” It is difficult to know if British people prefer milk or monarchy.

*http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page3263.asp

WARM-UPS

1. HI. I’M THE QUEEN: (Or the king.) Imagine you are the king or queen (or emperor / empress / sultan / sultana) of your country. In pairs / groups, talk about your royal life. Talk about money – where you get it from and what you spend it on. Do you like your people? Should they give you more money? Is it hard for a royal to survive? Do you worry about money? …

2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words are most interesting and which are most boring.

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth / Buckingham Palace / royal income / royal spending / overseas tours / taxes / loaves of bread / cartons of milk

3. INCOME: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word “income”. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

4. ROYAL QUICK OPINIONS: Do you agree or disagree with these short opinions? Talk about them with your partner(s). Change the statements so they match your own opinion. Tell you partner(s) why you made your changes.

1. Monarchies should be finished.
2. Kings and queens should work.
3. Queens should go shopping in supermarkets.
4. Royals are better than common people.
5. Having royal powers is unfair.
6. Taxpayers shouldn’t pay for royal families.
7. Queen Elizabeth should sell some diamonds and give the money to charity.
8. Royals should have a weekly TV show about their week’s news.
9. It is good to die in war for one’s king or queen and country.
10. Royals have special blood.

5. ROYAL FAMILIES: In pairs / groups, talk about royal families around the world. Does (did) your country have a royal family? Do you like them? Do you have a favorite? Do you think they are good value for money? Which royal family is the best in the world? If your country doesn’t have a royal family, would you like one? Change partners every two minutes.

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):

a.	A secret report of British royal finances has been put online.	T / F
b.	The British Queen spent $6.7 million last year.	T / F
c.	The British Queen traveled overseas less last year.	T / F
d.	British people asked their royal family to reduce its spending.	T / F
e.	British taxpayers each spend $112 a year for their royal family.	T / F
f.	Buckingham Palace said the British royal family is good value.	T / F
g.	Royal accountants use bread prices to compare the cost of royals.	T / F
h.	British people prefer milk to monarchy.	T / F

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

a.	published	reduce
b.	income	called for
c.	slight	earnings
d.	cut	royalty
e.	demanded	out-of-date
f.	per	released
g.	comparisons	yearly
h.	stale	examples
i.	per annum	small
j.	monarchy	for each

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

a.	yearly financial	money
b.	income and	increase
c.	slight	of time
d.	under public pressure to	report
e.	taxpayers’	of the Royals
f.	yearly cost	comparisons
g.	great value	spending
h.	a loaf	cut their spending
i.	making	for money
j.	the passage	of bread

WHILE READING / LISTENING

ODD WORD OUT: Circle the word in each group of three (in italics) that does not fit.

British royal finances online

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth has released / published / punished her yearly financial report online. It is the first time she has put / posted / mailed details of her royal income and spending on the Internet. The report states / says / tells that the Queen’s spending for the year 2003/2004 was totally / nearly / almost $67 million. This is 1.7% higher / more / increase than last year. This slight / huge / tiny increase is mainly because of more overseas tours. The Royals have been under public pressure to trim / cut / knife their spending. The British people have demanded more information on how the Queen spends taxpayers’ taxes / taxis / money.

The yearly / annual / anniversary cost of the Royals to the British taxpayer was $1.12 poor / per / for each person. Buckingham Palace thinks this is great / excellent / terrible value for money. The Queen’s accountant said that the cost each / every / all Briton has to pay should be the same as for a loaf of bread. However, milk has replaced bread this year in baking / making / drawing comparisons. The report states: “With the pass / passing / passage of time, the loaf of bread has become stale and this year’s expenditure per person, per annum / year / decade, amounts to [$1.12] or less than the price of [1 liter] of milk.” It is difficult to know if British people prefer milk or monarchy / royalty / royal.

AFTER READING / LISTENING

1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘royal’ and ‘income’.

• Share your findings with your partners.
• Make questions using the words you found.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.

• Share your questions with other classmates / groups.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

3. ODD WORD OUT: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about any relationships you can find between the correct words and the odd word out?
 

4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.

5. STUDENT ROYAL FAMILY SURVEY: In pairs / groups, write down questions about royal families and who should pay for them.

• Ask other classmates your questions and note down their answers.
• Go back to your original partner / group and compare your findings.
• Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

6. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall exactly how these were used in the text:

published first spending slight public pressure taxpayers’ money

yearly cost value loaf comparisons passage British people

 DISCUSSION

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

1. What was your first thought when you saw this headline?
2. Did the headline make you interested in the story?
3. Are you interested in knowing about the British Queen’s finances?
4. Should all monarchies around the world publish their finances?
5. Is it right that taxpayers should finance royal families?
6. Should royal families go shopping in supermarkets and buy clothes from discount stores?
7. What do you think of the fact that President George W. Bush takes more holidays then Britain’s Queen Elizabeth?
8. Do you think members of royal families work hard?
9. Should members of royal families do more for charities?
10. Should royalty represent their country at the United Nations?

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

1. Did you like reading this article?
2. What did you think about what you read?
3. Do you think a royal family is good for a country?
4. Do you like your royal family? / Would you like a royal family?
5. Which royal family would you like to be a member of and why?
6. Do you think the idea of a royal family belongs in the 21st century?
7. Is $1.12 a year per taxpayer excellent value for money to keep a royal family?
8. Would you rather pay $1.12 to help pay for a royal family or buy a liter of milk?
9. Who is the world’s greatest royal?
10. Did you like this discussion?

AFTER DISCUSSION: Join another partner / group and tell them what you talked about.

1. What question would you like to ask about this topic?
2. What was the most interesting thing you heard?
3. Was there a question you didn’t like?
4. Was there something you totally disagreed with?
5. What did you like talking about?
6. Do you want to know how anyone else answered the questions?
7. Which was the most difficult question?

SPEAKING

ROYAL SPENDING RULES: In pairs / groups, decide on some spending rules that the royal family from country X must follow. The rules should be general guidelines - what is and what isn’t it OK to spend money on?

AREA OF SPENDING	SPENDING RULES
Clothes
Jewelry (USA) Jewellery (UK)
Cars
Overseas tours
Garden parties
Servants
Palaces
Presents for VIPs
Other
Other

• Change partners and compare the rules of thumb you decided on with your previous partner(s). Give each other feedback on the rules.
• Talk with your new partners so that you agree on the spending rules.

LISTENING

Listen and fill in the spaces.

British royal finances online

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth ___ _________ her yearly financial report online. It is the first time she has ___ _______ __ her royal income and spending on the Internet. ___ ______ _____ that the Queen’s spending for the year 2003/2004 was nearly $67 million. This is 1.7% higher than last year. This ______ ________ is mainly because of more overseas tours. The Royals have been _____ ______ ________ to cut their spending. The British people have demanded more information on how the Queen spends _________ ______.

The ______ ____ ___ the Royals to the British taxpayer was $1.12 per person. Buckingham Palace thinks this is _____ _____ ___ ______. The Queen’s accountant said that ___ ____ ____ Briton has to pay should be the same as ___ __ ____ ___ bread. However, milk has replaced bread this year in ______ _________. The report states: “With the passage of time, the loaf of bread has become stale and ____ _____ _________ per person, per annum, _______ __ [$1.12] or less than the price of [1 liter] of milk.” It is difficult to know if British people prefer milk or monarchy.

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 more information on the finances of the British royal family (or any other royal family). Share your findings with your class in the next lesson.

3. ROYAL FAMILY: Create an information poster showing why a royal family is a good thing or a bad thing for a country. Show your poster to your classmates in your next lesson. Did everyone have similar ideas?

4. DIARY / JOURNAL: Imagine you are king or queen (or emperor / empress / sultan / sultana). Write the entry in your diary for a shopping trip you went on recently. Where did you go? What did you buy? Why? Read your entry to your classmates in your next lesson. Did you all write about similar things?

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a. F

b. F

c. F

d. T

e. F

f. T

g. T

h. F

SYNONYM MATCH:

a.	published	released
b.	income	earnings
c.	slight	small
d.	cut	reduce
e.	demanded	called for
f.	per	for each
g.	comparisons	examples
h.	stale	out-of-date
i.	per annum	yearly
j.	monarchy	royalty

PHRASE MATCH:

a.	yearly financial	report
b.	income and	spending
c.	slight	increase
d.	under public pressure to	cut their spending
e.	taxpayers’	money
f.	yearly cost	of the Royals
g.	great value	for money
h.	a loaf	of bread
i.	making	comparisons
j.	the passage	of time

ODD WORD OUT:

British royal finances online

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth has released / published / punished her yearly financial report online. It is the first time she has put / posted / mailed details of her royal income and spending on the Internet. The report states / says / tells that the Queen’s spending for the year 2003/2004 was totally / nearly / almost $67 million. This is 1.7% higher / more / increase than last year. This slight / huge / tiny increase is mainly because of more overseas tours. The Royals have been under public pressure to trim / cut / knife their spending. The British people have demanded more information on how the Queen spends taxpayers’ taxes / taxis / money.

The yearly / annual / anniversary cost of the Royals to the British taxpayer was $1.12 poor / per / for each person. Buckingham Palace thinks this is great / excellent / terrible value for money. The Queen’s accountant said that the cost each / every / all Briton has to pay should be the same as for a loaf of bread. However, milk has replaced bread this year in baking / making / drawing comparisons. The report states: “With the pass / passing / passage of time, the loaf of bread has become stale and this year’s expenditure per person, per annum / year / decade, amounts to [$1.12] or less than the price of [1 liter] of milk.” It is difficult to know if British people prefer milk or monarchy / royalty / royal.

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