Rioting broke out in Paris yesterday, for the fifth night in a row. Angry gangs of young men threw bricks, and Molotov cocktails at police during hours of street battles. The police responded with tear gas and baton charges to try and stop the violence and send the angry crowds home. Eleven cars were set on fire and twelve people were arrested. The level of violence was lower than on the first four nights. However, a worrying development was news that the unrest was spreading to neighboring suburbs. Gangs of youths in nearby Montfermeil burned down a police garage and destroyed two patrol cars.

The violence is because of the deaths of two teenagers, aged 15 and 17, who died last week. Local residents say the boys were running away from police when they jumped over a fence into an electrical power station. They were electrocuted after they touched the high voltage transformers. Clichy-sous-Bois has a large and poor Muslim community. Tensions have been high there since the accidental electrocutions of the teenagers and reached boiling point when police fired tear gas at the local mosque. France’s interior minister, Nicolas Sarkzoy, has promised an inquiry into the deaths and the unrest.

WARM-UPS

1. UNHAPPINESS: In pairs / groups, talk about the things in life you are unhappy with, that perhaps make you angry. These could be about your partner, family, friends or job. What do you do about your unhappiness or anger? Talk also about what people in your town and country are angry about.

2. SOCIAL UNREST: Look at these reasons for social unrest. Talk about them with your partner(s). Have you experienced or witnessed any of these things? Do these things happen in your hometown or where you live now.

Poverty	Racial tensions
Slum housing	Religious tensions
Police harassment	Unemployment
Drugs and prostitution Dissatisfaction with government	Environmental degradation Other

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

Rioting / Paris / gangs / anger / street battles / Molotov cocktails / tear gas / unrest / immigrant communities / police harassment / mosques / boiling points / inquiries

Have a chat about the topics you liked. For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently.

4. PARIS: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with Paris. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

5. IMMIGRANTS: You are now a poor immigrant in a strange land. Talk with the other “immigrants” in your class about your life, your worries and fears. How do the local people in your community treat you? What do you do every day? What can you do to improve your life?

6. STREET PROTEST: Would you ever take part in a riot? Which of these things would make you protest in the streets? How serious are they? Do they happen in your country?

1. Human rights violations
2. Your president / prime minister having extra-marital sexual relations
3. Going to war against a country that is not your enemy
4. Your country’s immigration policy
5. Abortion rights
6. Too much police harassment and brutality
7. The doubling of income tax
8. A law that prohibits the public wearing of religious symbols
9. The introduction (or removal) of the death penalty

Change partners and compare what you talked about.

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

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

a.	Parisians rioted in the heart of their city for the fifth night in a row.	T / F
b.	Gangs of youths drank Molotov cocktails and threw rocks at police.	T / F
c.	The level of violence was highest on this fifth night of rioting.	T / F
d.	Gangs of youths burned a police station and destroyed patrol cars.	T / F
e.	The violence is because of the recent apartment fires in Paris.	T / F
f.	Two boys were electrocuted after touching high voltage transformers.	T / F
g.	Tear gas hit a local mosque and increased tensions.	T / F
h.	France’s interior minister promised an inquiry into the boys’ deaths.	T / F

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

a.	broke out	replied
b.	in a row	violence
c.	responded	youths
d.	worrying	running
e.	burned down	sizeable
f.	teenagers	erupted
g.	residents	shot
h.	large	disturbing
i.	fired	torched
j.	unrest	citizens

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

a.	Rioting broke	to neighboring suburbs
b.	The police responded with	the high voltage transformers
c.	Eleven cars were set	the deaths of two teenagers
d.	a worrying	tear gas and baton charges
e.	the unrest was spreading	into the deaths and the unrest
f.	The violence is because of	out in Paris yesterday
g.	electrocuted after they touched	on fire
h.	Tensions have been	development
i.	reached	high there
j.	…promised an inquiry	boiling point

WHILE READING / LISTENING

WORD ORDER: Put the underlined words back into the correct order.

Fifth night of riots in Paris suburb

broke in rioting out Paris yesterday, for the fifth night in a row. Angry gangs of young men threw bricks, and Molotov at police during cocktails hours of street battles. The police responded with tear gas and baton charges to try and
send the stop and violence the angry crowds home. Eleven cars were set on fire and twelve people were arrested. The level of violence was
first than on the lower four nights. However, a worrying development was news that the unrest was spreading to neighboring suburbs. Gangs of youths in nearby Montfermeil garage a police down burned and destroyed two patrol cars.

The violence is two of because deaths of the teenagers, aged 15 and 17, who died last week. Local residents say the boys were running away from police
a fence when over they jumped into an electrical power station. They were electrocuted high touched they after the voltage transformers. Clichy-sous-Bois has a large and poor Muslim community. Tensions have been high there since the accidental electrocutions of the point teenagers and boiling reached when police fired tear gas at the local mosque. France’s interior minister, Nicolas Sarkzoy, has into inquiry promised an the deaths and the unrest.

LISTENING

Listen and fill in the spaces.

Fifth night of riots in Paris suburb

Rioting ______ ____ in Paris yesterday, for the fifth night in a row. Angry gangs of young men threw bricks, and Molotov cocktails at police _______ _______ of street battles. The police responded with tear gas and baton charges to try and stop the _________ and send the angry crowds home. Eleven cars were set on fire and twelve people were _________. The level of violence was lower than on the first four nights. However, a worrying development was news that the _________ was spreading to neighboring suburbs. Gangs of youths in nearby Montfermeil _______ _____ a police garage and destroyed two patrol cars.

The violence is because of ____ ________ ___ two teenagers, aged 15 and 17, who died last week. Local ___________ say the boys were running away from police when they jumped over a fence into an electrical power station. They were electrocuted after they touched the _____ __________ transformers. Clichy-sous-Bois has a large and poor Muslim community. Tensions have been ______ _________ since the accidental electrocutions of the teenagers and reached boiling _______ when police fired tear gas at the local mosque. France’s interior minister, Nicolas Sarkzoy, has promised an inquiry into the deaths and the ________.

AFTER READING / LISTENING

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

• 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. WORD ORDER: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers.

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

5. STUDENT “SOCIAL UNREST” SURVEY: In pairs / groups, write down questions about social unrest in cities.

• 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:

broke out cocktails baton on fire spreading patrol

teenagers jumped voltage poor boiling promised

DISCUSSION

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

1. Did the headline make you want to read the article?
2. Do you think Paris is a tolerant and cosmopolitan city?
3. What goes though your mind when you see people rioting in the streets of cities like Paris?
4. What goes though your mind when you see people rioting in the streets of places like Baghdad or Karachi?
5. Has there ever been rioting in your town / country?
6. What would you do if you saw rioters torch your car?
7. What can the Paris police do to reduce tensions?
8. Do you think Nicolas Sarkozy’s inquiry will make the local community happy?
9. How can the police stop future unrest?
10. Are the immigrant communities in your country happy?

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

1. Did you like reading this article?
2. What do you think about what you read?
3. Shouldn’t the local community accept that the boys were electrocuted in a very sad accident?
4. Do you think you could ever riot in the streets?
5. What kinds of punishments should rioters get?
6. How should local authorities police and control rioting?
7. What are the main causes of rioting?
8. How do you think police officers feel when they try to control a riot?
9. Is it OK for police to use tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets?
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

SOCIAL UNREST: You are a government minister. The people in your country are close to boiling point over the issues below. The whole country could explode and riot in the streets by the end of this class. You must find solutions to these problems. These solutions must keep the people happy and stop them from destroying the country and each other. You must do what’s best for your country.

PROBLEMS	SOLUTIONS TO STOP RIOTS BREAKING OUT
Terror suspects are being held in prison without charge.
Your country’s leader is suspected of wide scale corruption.
Your leader has announced he/she will declare war on a distant land accused of having nuclear weapons.
There have been 17 unexplained deaths of immigrants in your country’s prisons.
The government has announced plans it must double income.
The government has announced all religions are banned and places of worship to be destroyed to reduce religious extremism.
Your education minister has announced all English teachers must leave the country by Friday lunchtime.

• Change partners and show each other your suggestions.
• Give each other feedback on whether these suggestions will work and offer advice on how to improve them.
• Role play the government minister giving the suggestions to the near-boiling-point citizens.
• Discuss which of the above problems are most serious.

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 riots in Clichy-sous-Bois. Share your findings with your class in the next lesson. Did you all find out similar things?

3. SOCIAL UNREST: Write an essay on an area of your town, city or country in which tensions are always high. Describe the area and the conditions in which people live. Has there been any social unrest? Show what you wrote to your classmates in your next lesson. Did you all write about similar things?

4. EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT: You are a local resident of the Paris suburb Clichy-sous-Bois. Write down your eyewitness account of the violence. You saw everything from your bedroom window. Show what you wrote to your classmates in the 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. T

SYNONYM MATCH:

a.	broke out	erupted
b.	in a row	running
c.	responded	replied
d.	worrying	disturbing
e.	burned down	torched
f.	teenagers	youths
g.	residents	citizens
h.	large	sizeable
i.	fired	shot
j.	unrest	violence

PHRASE MATCH:

a.	Rioting broke	out in Paris yesterday
b.	The police responded with	tear gas and baton charges
c.	Eleven cars were set	on fire
d.	a worrying	development
e.	the unrest was spreading	to neighboring suburbs
f.	The violence is because of	the deaths of two teenagers
g.	electrocuted after they touched	the high voltage transformers
h.	Tensions have been	high there
i.	reached	boiling point
j.	…promised an inquiry	into the deaths and the unrest

WORD ORDER:

Fifth night of riots in Paris suburb

Rioting broke out in Paris yesterday, for the fifth night in a row. Angry gangs of young men threw bricks, and Molotov cocktails at police during hours of street battles. The police responded with tear gas and baton charges to try and stop the violence and send the angry crowds home. Eleven cars were set on fire and twelve people were arrested. The level of violence was lower than on the first four nights. However, a worrying development was news that the unrest was spreading to neighboring suburbs. Gangs of youths in nearby Montfermeil burned down a police garage and destroyed two patrol cars.

The violence is because of the deaths of two teenagers, aged 15 and 17, who died last week. Local residents say the boys were running away from police when they jumped over a fence into an electrical power station. They were electrocuted after they touched the high voltage transformers. Clichy-sous-Bois has a large and poor Muslim community. Tensions have been high there since the accidental electrocutions of the teenagers and reached boiling point when police fired tear gas at the local mosque. France’s interior minister, Nicolas Sarkzoy, has promised an inquiry into the deaths and the unrest.

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