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World’s Oldest Person Dies Aged 115The oldest person in the world has died in her sleep at the age of 115. Ms. Gertrude Baines from the USA had held the title for most of this year. She became the world’s oldest person in January, following the death of Portuguese Maria de Jesus. She also died at the ripe old age of 115. Ms. Baines was born in Georgia in 1894. She grew up in the southern American state during the time of terrible racial discrimination against black people. She saw many changes in her life, including the civil rights movement that brought greater equality. She got married when she was very young and had a child when she was just fifteen. Gertrude received a Guinness World Records certificate on her 115th birthday.
Ms. Baines had such a long life because of her healthy lifestyle. The AFP news agency reported what she said to her doctor Charles Witt: "She told me that she owes her longevity to the Lord; that she never did drink, she never did smoke and she never did fool around." Dr. Witt said Gertrude had been “in excellent shape” just two days before her death. "She was mentally alert. She smiled frequently," he said. Ms Baines became famous in 2008 for voting for President Obama in the U.S. election. It was only the second time she had voted. The first was for John F. Kennedy in the 1960s. She lived to see 21 different American presidents. She told reporters she chose Mr. Obama “because he’s for the coloured people”.
WARM-UPS1. OLD AGE: Walk around the class and talk to other students about old age. Change partners often. Sit with your first 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. CHANGES: If you lived to be 100, what changes would you see? Complete this table with your partner(s). Change partners and share your ideas. Change and share again.
4. RIPE OLD AGE: Students A strongly believe it would be great to live to the ripe old age of 100; Students B strongly believe 100 is too old. Change partners again and talk about your conversations. 5. DECADES: What do people typically do in each of these decades? Did / Do / Will you do these things? Talk about this with your partner(s). Change partners and share what you heard.
6. AGE: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘age’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories. BEFORE READING / LISTENING1. TRUE / FALSE: Read the headline. Guess if a-h below are true (T) or false (F).
2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article.
3. PHRASE MATCH: (Sometimes more than one choice is possible.)
WHILE READING / LISTENINGGAP FILL: Put the words into the gaps in the text.
LISTENING – Listen and fill in the gapsThe oldest person in the world has __________________ at the age of 115. Ms. Gertrude Baines from the USA __________________ for most of this year. She became the world’s oldest person in January, following the death of Portuguese Maria de Jesus. She also died __________________ age of 115. Ms. Baines was born in Georgia in 1894. She grew up in the southern American state __________________ of terrible racial discrimination against black people. She saw many changes in her life, __________________ rights movement that brought greater equality. She got married when she was very young and had a child __________________ fifteen. Gertrude received a Guinness World Records certificate on her 115th birthday. Ms. Baines had __________________ because of her healthy lifestyle. The AFP news agency reported what she said to her doctor Charles Witt: "She told me __________________ longevity to the Lord; that she never did drink, she never did smoke and she never __________________." Dr. Witt said Gertrude had been “in excellent shape” just two days before her death. "She __________________. She smiled frequently," he said. Ms Baines became famous in 2008 for voting for President Obama in the U.S. election. It was only the second __________________. The first was for John F. Kennedy in the 1960s. She lived to see 21 different American presidents. She told reporters she chose Mr. Obama “__________________ coloured people”. AFTER READING / LISTENING1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionary / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘old’ and ‘age’.
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 OLD AGE SURVEYWrite five GOOD questions about old age 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.
OLD AGE DISCUSSIONSTUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)
LANGUAGE – MULTIPLE CHOICEThe oldest person in the world has (1) ____ in her sleep at the age of 115. Ms. Gertrude Baines from the USA had held the title for most of this year. She became the world’s oldest person in January, (2) ____ the death of Portuguese Maria de Jesus. She also died at the (3) ____ old age of 115. Ms. Baines was born in Georgia in 1894. She grew up in the southern American state during the time of terrible (4) ____ discrimination against black people. She saw many changes in her life, including the civil rights movement that brought greater (5) ____. She got married when she was very young and had a child when she was just fifteen. Gertrude received a Guinness World Records certificate (6) ____ her 115th birthday. Ms. Baines had such a long life (7) ____ of her healthy lifestyle. The AFP news agency reported what she said to her doctor Charles Witt: "She told me that she owes her (8) ____ to the Lord; that she never did drink, she never did smoke and she never did (9) ____ around." Dr. Witt said Gertrude had been “in excellent shape” just two days before her death. "She was (10) ____ alert. She smiled frequently," he said. Ms Baines became famous in 2008 for voting for President Obama in the U.S. election. It was only the second time she (11) ____ voted. The first was for John F. Kennedy in the 1960s. She lived to see 21 (12) ____ American presidents. She told reporters she chose Mr. Obama “because he’s for the coloured people”. Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.
WRITINGWrite about old age 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 old age. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson. 3. OLD AGE: Make a poster about old age. What are the good and bad things? Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things? 4. WORLD’S OLDEST: Write a magazine article about being the oldest person in the world. Include imaginary interviews with that person and a 5-year-old. 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 a 100-year-old person. Ask him/her three questions about old age. Give him/her three pieces of advice on how he/she can help the world. 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: World’s oldest person dies aged 115The oldest person in the world has died in her sleep at the age of 115. Ms. Gertrude Baines from the USA had held the title for most of this year. She became the world’s oldest person in January, following the death of Portuguese Maria de Jesus. She also died at the ripe old age of 115. Ms. Baines was born in Georgia in 1894. She grew up in the southern American state during the time of terrible racial discrimination against black people. She saw many changes in her life, including the civil rights movement that brought greater equality. She got married when she was very young and had a child when she was just fifteen. Gertrude received a Guinness World Records certificate on her 115th birthday. Ms. Baines had such a long life because of her healthy lifestyle. The AFP news agency reported what she said to her doctor Charles Witt: "She told me that she owes her longevity to the Lord; that she never did drink, she never did smoke and she never did fool around." Dr. Witt said Gertrude had been “in excellent shape” just two days before her death. "She was mentally alert. She smiled frequently," he said. Ms Baines became famous in 2008 for voting for President Obama in the U.S. election. It was only the second time she had voted. The first was for John F. Kennedy in the 1960s. She lived to see 21 different American presidents. She told reporters she chose Mr. Obama “because he’s for the coloured people”. LANGUAGE WORK
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