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THE ARTICLEChildren caught in Sri Lanka fightingThe United Nations children’s agency, UNICEF, is worried about tens of thousands of children caught up in the conflict in Sri Lanka. UNICEF says a growing number of children have died in the past week because of fighting between Sri Lanka’s army and the rebel Tamil Tigers. Sri Lanka's defence secretary said the UN numbers were exaggerated. The UN estimates there are a quarter of a million civilians trapped in the fighting. It has requested both sides in the war to give “absolute priority” to the safety and security of children. UN spokesman Daniel Toole said: "We have clear evidence that children are being caught up in the crossfire, and that children are being injured and killed." He added that: “It is crucial that safe areas, schools and medical facilities are protected and considered zones of peace, in all circumstances.”
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's guarantee of safety for all civilians trapped in the area. Mr. Ban asked both sides to make sure civilians escaped the conflict zone peacefully. He urged the Tigers to let civilians move freely to areas where they felt most secure. The situation remains extremely dangerous for civilians as Sri Lanka has said it will not stop the fighting. A government spokesman said: "There will be no ceasefire. We will continue with our military operations and we will continue to liberate areas which have not been liberated so far." This seems certain to increase the risk of innocent, civilian deaths. 70,000 have died since the Tigers started their fight for a Tamil homeland in 1976.
WARM-UPS1. CHILDREN: Walk around the class and talk to other students about children. Change partners often. After you finish, sit with your partner(s) and share your findings. 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. FIGHTING: What would you worry most about armies fighting around you? Complete the table below. Change partners and share what you wrote.
4. CEASEFIRE: Students A strongly believe all sides should always agree to a ceasefire; Students B strongly believe sometimes a country needs to ignore calls for a ceasefire. Change partners again and talk about your conversations. 5. PRIORITIES: What are your priorities in life? Rank these in order of most important. Discuss your ranking with your partner(s). Change partners and talk about your conversations.
6. CONFLICT: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘conflict’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories. 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.The United Nations children’s agency, UNICEF, is _____________________ thousands of children caught up in the conflict in Sri Lanka. UNICEF says a growing number of children have died __________________ because of fighting between Sri Lanka’s army and the rebel Tamil Tigers. Sri Lanka's defence secretary said the UN numbers __________________. The UN estimates there are a quarter of a million civilians trapped in the fighting. It has requested both sides __________________ “absolute priority” to the safety and security of children. UN spokesman Daniel Toole said: "We have clear evidence that children are __________________ the crossfire, and that children are being injured and killed." He added that: “It is crucial that safe areas, schools and medical facilities are protected and considered zones of peace, __________________.” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's __________________ for all civilians trapped in the area. Mr. Ban asked both sides to make sure civilians escaped the conflict zone peacefully. He urged the Tigers to let civilians __________________ where they felt most secure. The situation remains extremely dangerous for civilians as Sri Lanka __________________ stop the fighting. A government spokesman said: "There will be no ceasefire. We will continue with our military operations and we will continue __________________ which have not been liberated so far." This seems __________________ the risk of innocent, civilian deaths. 70,000 have died since the Tigers started __________________ Tamil homeland in 1976. AFTER READING / LISTENING1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘cross’ and ‘fire’.
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 how they were used in the text:
STUDENT SRI LANKA SURVEYWrite five GOOD questions about Sri Lanka 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.
SRI LANKA DISCUSSIONSTUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)
LANGUAGEThe United Nations children’s agency, UNICEF, is (1) ____ about tens of thousands of children caught up in the conflict in Sri Lanka. UNICEF says a growing (2) ____ of children have died in the past week because of fighting between Sri Lanka’s army and the (3) ____ Tamil Tigers. Sri Lanka's defence secretary said the UN numbers were exaggerated. The UN estimates there are a quarter of a million civilians trapped in the (4) ____. It has requested both sides in the war to give “absolute priority” to the safety and security of children. UN spokesman Daniel Toole said: "We have (5) ____ evidence that children are being caught up in the crossfire, and that children are being injured and killed." He added that: “It is crucial that safe areas, schools and medical facilities are protected and considered zones of peace, in (6) ____ circumstances.” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's guarantee of (7) ____ for all civilians trapped in the area. Mr. Ban asked both sides to make sure civilians (8) ____ the conflict zone peacefully. He urged the Tigers to let civilians move (9) ____ to areas where they felt most secure. The situation remains extremely dangerous for civilians as Sri Lanka has said it will not stop the fighting. A government spokesman said: "There will be (10) ____ ceasefire. We will continue with our military operations and we will continue to liberate areas which have not been liberated (11) ____ far." This seems certain to increase the risk of innocent, civilian deaths. 70,000 have died since the Tigers started their (12) ____ for a Tamil homeland in 1976. Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.
WRITING:Write about Sri Lanka 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 more about the conflict in Sri Lanka. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson. 3. WAR CHILDREN: Make a poster for the United Nations. Create and describe the rules armies must follow regarding children in war zones. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things? 4. WAR: Write a magazine article about war and when it will end. 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. CONFLICT ZONE: Write an imaginary conversation between a child caught in the middle of the fighting and an enemy soldier. The child begins by talking about his/her family. Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Write down any new words and expressions you hear from your partner(s). Role play your conversation in front of the class. 6. LETTER: Write a letter to a child trapped in the war zone in Sri Lanka. Ask him/her three questions about his/her life. Give him/her three suggestions on what he/she should do to survive. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions. ANSWERSTRUE / FALSE:
SYNONYM MATCH:
PHRASE MATCH:
GAP FILL: Children caught in Sri Lanka fightingA woman in Southern California gave birth on January 27th to octuplets. It is only the second time in US history a mother has delivered eight babies. It is also only the second time ever for all octuplets to survive their first day. Doctors said the six tiny boys and two girls were all doing well and breathing on their own. They all arrived nine weeks early and ranged in weight from 0.68kg to 1.47kg. The mother and the team of doctors received a huge surprise at the end of the birth an eighth baby. The mother believed she was going to have just seven babies (septuplets) before the birth. After the doctors delivered babies A to G, they discovered baby H. The mother asked the nurses: “Really? An eighth baby? How did we miss that baby?” There are no pictures of the babies yet. The mother has asked the hospital to keep her identity a secret. She also does not want the media to find out whether or not she took fertility drugs before becoming pregnant. Dr Richard Paulson of the University of Southern California told reporters that the octuplets were probably because of fertility drugs. He also spoke about the risks involved in multiple births: “It's a risky decision to try to have all eight babies. I would not recommend it under any circumstances,” he said. He added that the chances of having eight children naturally, without drugs, were “unbelievably rare”. Twins occur in roughly 1 in 80 births; triplets in 1 in 6,400 births. The likelihood of octuplets being born is 1 in 20 trillion pregnancies. LANGUAGE WORK
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