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Date: Apr 12, 2008
THE ARTICLEU.S. military equipment on sale on eBaySensitive U.S. military items are frequently for sale on eBay, according to a new report from the American government. Many of the items are in perfect working order and could be used against American troops by its enemies. Investigators working undercover discovered thousands of stolen pieces of army equipment that should never have left military hands. These included super high-tech night vision goggles that were specially made to spot U.S. troops in a war zone. Other items included components for F-14 fighter jets and army combat uniforms. The report said these items could have been "used directly against our troops and allies”. Indeed, Iraqi fighters wore stolen U.S. army uniforms in January 2007 when they sneaked into a US base in Iraq and killed five American soldiers.
EBay said it was doing its best to prevent the sale of banned and sensitive military items. A senior public relations officer Kim Rubey told reporters that the online auction site had 113 million items listed for sale, and it was easy for stolen items to slip through the net. EBay’s Vice President Todd Cohen said the company does its utmost to prevent the sale of items that could put U.S. troops in harm’s way: "We created prohibited and restricted items policies and built tools using state-of-the-art technology to enforce those policies," he said. The U.S. Army admitted most of the items were stolen from its own military buildings. A high-ranking spokeswoman Sarah H. Finnicum called the ongoing theft, "property accountability and visibility challenges". WARM-UPS1. MILITARY EQUIPMENT: Walk around the class and talk to other students about military equipment. Change partners often. After you finish, sit with your original partner(s) and share what you found out. 2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words from the article are most interesting and which are most boring.
Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently. 3. HEADLINE PREDICTION: With your partner(s), use the words in the “Chat” activity above to predict what the news article will be about. Once you have your story, change partners and share them. Who was closest to the real story? 4. EBAY ADJECTIVES: Decide on 6 student possessions to put in the table. Auction them to the class. Pairs or groups of students use adjectives that describe the items instead of money to bid for them. The winning bid is the team who holds up the most adjectives to describe each item.
5. AUCTION: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘auction’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories. 6. QUICK DEBATE: Students A strongly believe that people should go to prison for buying sensitive military equipment online; Students B strongly believe it’s not the average person’s fault if they buy something they see on eBay, sensitive or not. Change partners again and talk about your roles and conversations. BEFORE READING / LISTENING1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):
2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:
3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):
WHILE READING / LISTENINGGAP FILL: Put the words into the gaps in the text.
LISTENING: Listen and fill in the spaces.Sensitive U.S. military items _____________________ on eBay, according to a new report from the American government. Many of the items _____________________ and could be used against American troops by its enemies. Investigators working undercover discovered thousands of stolen pieces of army equipment that should never _____________________. These included super high-tech night vision goggles that were _____________________ U.S. troops in a war zone. Other items included components for F-14 fighter jets and army combat uniforms. The report said these items could have been "used directly ________________________”. Indeed, Iraqi fighters wore stolen U.S. army uniforms in January 2007 _____________________ US base in Iraq and killed five American soldiers. EBay said it was _____________________ the sale of banned and sensitive military items. A senior public relations officer Kim Rubey told reporters that the online auction site had 113 million items listed for sale, and it was easy for stolen items to _____________________. EBay’s Vice President Todd Cohen said the company _____________________ the sale of items that could put U.S. troops in harm’s way: "We created prohibited and restricted items policies and built tools using _____________________ to enforce those policies," he said. The U.S. Army admitted most of the items were stolen from its own military buildings. _____________________ Sarah H. Finnicum called the ongoing theft, "property accountability _____________________ ". AFTER READING / LISTENING1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘military’ and ‘equipment’.
2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.
3. GAP FILL: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the words from the activity. Were they new, interesting, worth learning…? 4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings. 5. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall exactly how these were used in the text:
STUDENT eBAY SURVEYWrite five GOOD questions about eBay in the table. Do this in pairs. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper. When you have finished, interview other students. Write down their answers.
DISCUSSIONSTUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)
LANGUAGESensitive U.S. military items are (1) ____ for sale on eBay, according to a new report from the American government. Many of the items are (2) ____ perfect working order and could be used against American troops by its enemies. Investigators working (3) ____ discovered thousands of stolen pieces of army equipment that should never have left military (4) ____. These included super high-tech night vision goggles that were (5) ____ made to spot U.S. troops in a war zone. Other items included components for F-14 fighter jets and army combat uniforms. The report said these items could have been "used directly against our troops and allies”. Indeed, Iraqi fighters wore stolen U.S. army uniforms in January 2007 when they (6) ____ into a US base in Iraq and killed five American soldiers. EBay said it was doing its best to (7) ____ the sale of banned and sensitive military items. A senior public relations officer Kim Rubey told reporters that the online auction site had 113 million items listed for sale, and it was easy for stolen items to slip (8) ____ the net. EBay’s Vice President Todd Cohen said the company does its (9) ____ to prevent the sale of items that could put U.S. troops in (10) ____ way: "We created prohibited and restricted items policies and built tools using state-of-the-(11) ____ technology to enforce those policies," he said. The U.S. Army admitted most of the items were stolen from its own military buildings. A high-ranking spokeswoman Sarah H. Finnicum called (12) ____ ongoing theft, "property accountability and visibility challenges". Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.
WRITING:Write about eBay for 10 minutes. Correct your partner’s paper. _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ HOMEWORK1. 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 out about the sale of U.S. military items on eBay. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson. 3. AUCTION RULES: Make a poster showing the rules for online auction sites like eBay - for sellers and buyers. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things? 4. EBAY: Write a magazine article about stolen military items that were sold on eBay and then used against the army they were stolen from. Include imaginary interviews with a soldier who suffered and an eBay representative. Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Write down any new words and expressions you hear from your partner(s). 5. LETTER: Write a letter to eBay’s Vice President. Ask him three questions about his company. Give him three pieces of advice on what he should do to ensure no more sensitive military equipment is sold on his site. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions. 6. DIARY / JOURNAL: Imagine you are an undercover investigator trying to find out how much sensitive military equipment there is on eBay. Write your diary / journal entry for one day of your undercover working week. Be sure to write about a huge success. Read your entry to your classmates in the next lesson. ANSWERSTRUE / FALSE:
SYNONYM MATCH:
PHRASE MATCH:
GAP FILL: U.S. military equipment on sale on eBaySensitive U.S. military items are frequently for sale on eBay, according to a new report from the American government. Many of the items are in perfect working order and could be used against American troops by its enemies. Investigators working undercover discovered thousands of stolen pieces of army equipment that should never have left military hands. These included super high-tech night vision goggles that were specially made to spot U.S. troops in a war zone. Other items included components for F-14 fighter jets and army combat uniforms. The report said these items could have been "used directly against our troops and allies”. Indeed, Iraqi fighters wore stolen U.S. army uniforms in January 2007 when they sneaked into a US base in Iraq and killed five American soldiers. EBay said it was doing its best to prevent the sale of banned and sensitive military items. A senior public relations officer Kim Rubey told reporters that the online auction site had 113 million items listed for sale, and it was easy for stolen items to slip through the net. EBay’s Vice President Todd Cohen said the company does its utmost to prevent the sale of items that could put U.S. troops in harm’s way: "We created prohibited and restricted items policies and built tools using state-of-the-art technology to enforce those policies," he said. The U.S. Army admitted most of the items were stolen from its own military buildings. A high-ranking spokeswoman Sarah H. Finnicum called the ongoing theft, "property accountability and visibility challenges". LANGUAGE WORK
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