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THE ARTICLEJapan minister quits over drunk at G7 claimsJapan’s Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa resigned on Tuesday, causing great damage to the Japanese government. There was an enormous amount of pressure for Nakagawa to step down after he appeared to be drunk at an international meeting. He looked extremely sleepy at a Group of Seven news conference in Rome. He slurred his words and could hardly keep his eyes open. He even appeared to fall asleep at one point. Nakagawa denied being drunk. He said an unfortunate combination of a sip of wine and his cold medicine made him very drowsy. His explanation was not enough for Japan’s opposition politicians, who immediately called for his resignation. This is a huge blow for Japan’s Prime Minister Taro Aso in an election year. Nakagawa’s resignation could not come at a worse time for Prime Minister Aso. He is already one of Japan’s most unpopular leaders in modern times. His popularity rating is currently less than ten per cent. Nakagawa resigned a day after Japan released its worst economic data for 35 years. The country is in its worst economic slump since the world oil crisis in 1974. Japan’s Finance Ministry announced the economy shrank by 3.3 per cent between October and December. This is the same as a 12.7 percent annual over a year. A strong yen against the dollar is adding to Japan’s economic woes. Nakagawa apologized to the Japanese people, saying: "I have caused trouble to the people. I apologize for…my careless health management."
WARM-UPS1. JAPAN: Walk around the class and talk to other students about Japan. 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. GREAT DAMAGE: What damage can your country’s leaders do? Complete the table below. Talk with your partner. Change partners and share what you wrote.
4. DRUNK: Students A strongly believe any world leader found drunk should automatically resign; Students B strongly believe there’s nothing wrong with world leaders getting drunk. Change partners again and talk about your conversations. 5. PRESSURE: In pairs / groups, rank the following in order of which you think is the worst kind of pressure.
6. QUIT: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘quit’. 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.Japan’s Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa resigned on Tuesday, causing ________________ the Japanese government. There was an enormous amount of pressure for Nakagawa to step down after ________________ be drunk at an international meeting. He looked extremely sleepy at a Group of Seven news conference in Rome. He slurred his words ________________ keep his eyes open. ________________ to fall asleep at one point. Nakagawa denied being drunk. He said an unfortunate combination of a sip of wine and his cold medicine made him very drowsy. His explanation ________________ Japan’s opposition politicians, who immediately called for his resignation. This ________________ Japan’s Prime Minister Taro Aso in an election year. Nakagawa’s resignation could not come __________________ Prime Minister Aso. He is already one of Japan’s most unpopular leaders in modern times. His popularity ________________ less than ten per cent. Nakagawa resigned a day after Japan released its worst economic data for 35 years. The country is in its worst economic ________________ world oil crisis in 1974. Japan’s Finance Ministry announced the economy ________________ cent between October and December. This is the same as a 12.7 percent contraction over a year. A strong yen ________________ is adding to Japan’s economic woes. Nakagawa apologized to the Japanese people, saying: "I have caused trouble to the people. I ____________________ health management." AFTER READING / LISTENING1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘enormous’ and ‘amount’.
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 PRESSURE SURVEYWrite five GOOD questions about pressure 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.
BEING DRUNK DISCUSSIONSTUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)
LANGUAGEJapan’s Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa (1) ____ on Tuesday, causing great damage to the Japanese government. There was an enormous amount of pressure (2) ____ Nakagawa to step down after he appeared to be drunk at an international meeting. He looked extremely (3) ____ at a Group of Seven news conference in Rome. He slurred his words and could (4) ____ keep his eyes open. He even appeared to fall asleep at one point. Nakagawa denied being drunk. He said an unfortunate combination of a sip of wine and his cold medicine (5) ____ him very drowsy. His explanation was not enough for Japan’s opposition politicians, who immediately called for his resignation. This is a huge (6) ____ for Japan’s Prime Minister Taro Aso in an election year. Nakagawa’s resignation could not (7) ____ at a worse time for Prime Minister Aso. He is already one of Japan’s most unpopular leaders in modern times. His popularity rating is currently (8) ____ than ten per cent. Nakagawa resigned a day after Japan released its worst economic data for 35 years. The country is in its worst economic slump (9) ____ the world oil crisis in 1974. Japan’s Finance Ministry announced the economy shrank by 3.3 per cent between October and December. This is the same as a 12.7 percent contraction (10) ____ a year. A strong yen (11) ____ the dollar is adding to Japan’s economic woes. Nakagawa apologized to the Japanese people, saying: "I have caused trouble to the people. I apologize (12) ____ …my careless health management." Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.
WRITING:Write about pressure 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 Japanese economy. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson. 3. PRESSURE: Make a poster about the different kinds of pressure people are under nowadays. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things? 4. DRUNK: Write a magazine article about the effects of Nakagawa’s actions on the Japanese government. Include imaginary interviews with Nakagawa, Japan’s Prime Minister Taro Aso and a Japanese citizen. 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 Shoichi Nakagawa. Ask him three questions about his actions. Give him your three suggestions on what he should do next. 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: Japan minister quits over drunk at G7 claimsJapan’s Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa resigned on Tuesday, causing great damage to the Japanese government. There was an enormous amount of pressure for Nakagawa to step down after he appeared to be drunk at an international meeting. He looked extremely sleepy at a Group of Seven news conference in Rome. He slurred his words and could hardly keep his eyes open. He even appeared to fall asleep at one point. Nakagawa denied being drunk. He said an unfortunate combination of a sip of wine and his cold medicine made him very drowsy. His explanation was not enough for Japan’s opposition politicians, who immediately called for his resignation. This is a huge blow for Japan’s Prime Minister Taro Aso in an election year. Nakagawa’s resignation could not come at a worse time for Prime Minister Aso. He is already one of Japan’s most unpopular leaders in modern times. His popularity rating is currently less than ten per cent. Nakagawa resigned a day after Japan released its worst economic data for 35 years. The country is in its worst economic slump since the world oil crisis in 1974. Japan’s Finance Ministry announced the economy shrank by 3.3 per cent between October and December. This is the same as a 12.7 percent contraction over a year. A strong yen against the dollar is adding to Japan’s economic woes. Nakagawa apologized to the Japanese people, saying: "I have caused trouble to the people. I apologize for…my careless health management." LANGUAGE WORK
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