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200 dead despite Eid cease-fire in Syria (28th October, 2012)The four-day cease-fire between Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's regime and the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) was in tatters yesterday just two days into the holy Eid al-Adha holiday. The United Nations special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi arranged the cease-fire last week to allow all Syrians to celebrate Eid. Mr Brahimi also hoped a four-day cessation of hostilities would provide a window for talks to extend the truce. However, fighting broke out on both sides early on Friday, including in the capital Damascus. Both sides are blaming the other for breaking the cease-fire. The FSA told reporters that Syrian forces have been pounding Damascus and Aleppo. A jet-fighter strike killed eight people in an attack on the capital. Reports are that over 32,000 people have been killed in the fighting since the civil war began in March 2011. Recent events have seen the conflict spill over Syria's borders. Turkey launched rockets into Syria for days after a Syrian shell killed five Turks in a border village. Tensions have heightened in neighbouring Lebanon, where a large part of the population supports the Syrian leadership. The BBC reported that Lebanon risks being "torn apart" by the conflict. Al Qaeda has called on Muslims everywhere to support Syrians in their fight against what it described as al-Assad's "murderous, cancerous regime." Russia and China are refusing to back the United States, France and others in calling for greater international intervention. WARM-UPS1. SYRIA: Walk around the class and talk to other students about Syria. Change partners often. Share your findings with your first partner. 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. REGIONAL SPILLOVER: How does the Syria conflict affect these countries? Complete this table with your partner(s). Change partners often and share what you wrote.
4. ASSAD: Students A strongly believe Syrian president Bashar al-Assad will not last another six months; Students B strongly believe he will. Change partners again and talk about your conversations. 5. PEACE: Where will it come first? Rank these and share your rankings with your partner. Put the most likely to see peace at the top. Change partners often.
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: 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 gaps(1) _____________________ between Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's regime and the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) (2) _____________________ just two days into the holy Eid al-Adha holiday. The United Nations special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi arranged the cease-fire last week to allow all Syrians to celebrate Eid. Mr Brahimi also hoped a four-day (3) _________________ would provide a window for talks (4) _____________________. However, fighting broke out on both sides early on Friday, including in the capital Damascus. Both sides (5) _____________________ for breaking the cease-fire. The FSA told reporters that Syrian forces have been pounding Damascus and Aleppo. A (6) _____________________ eight people in an attack on the capital. Reports are that over 32,000 people have been (7) ____________________ since the civil war began in March 2011. Recent events have seen the (8) _____________________ Syria's borders. Turkey launched rockets into Syria for days after a Syrian shell killed five Turks in a border village. Tensions have (9) _____________________ Lebanon, where a large part of the population supports the Syrian leadership. The BBC reported that Lebanon risks (10) _____________________ the conflict. Al-Qaeda has called on Muslims everywhere to support Syrians in their fight against what it described as al-Assad's "(11) _____________________." Russia and China are refusing to back the United States, France and others in calling for greater (12) _____________________.
AFTER READING / LISTENING1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionary / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words 'cease' 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:
SYRIA SURVEYWrite five GOOD questions about Syria 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.
SYRIA 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 four-day cease-fire between Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's regime and the (1) ____ Free Syrian Army (FSA) was in (2) ____ yesterday just two days into the holy Eid al-Adha holiday. The United Nations special (3) ____ Lakhdar Brahimi arranged the cease-fire last week to allow all Syrians to celebrate Eid. Mr Brahimi also hoped a four-day (4) ____ of hostilities would provide a window for talks to extend the truce. However, fighting broke (5) ____ on both sides early on Friday, including in the capital Damascus. Both sides are blaming the other for breaking the cease-fire. The FSA told reporters that Syrian forces have been (6) ____ Damascus and Aleppo. A jet-fighter strike killed eight people in an attack on the capital. Reports are that over 32,000 people have been killed in the fighting since the civil war began in March 2011. Recent events have seen the conflict spill (7) ____ Syria's borders. Turkey launched rockets into Syria for days after a Syrian shell killed five Turks in a border village. Tensions have heightened in (8) ____ Lebanon, where a large part of the population (9) ____ the Syrian leadership. The BBC reported that Lebanon risks being "torn (10) ____ " by the conflict. Al-Qaeda has called on Muslims everywhere to support Syrians in their fight against what it described as al-Assad's "(11) ____, cancerous regime." Russia and China are refusing to back the United States, France and others (12) ____ calling for greater international intervention. Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.
WRITINGWrite about Syria 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 Syria. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson. 3. SYRIA: Make a poster about Syria and its history. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things? 4. CEASE-FIRE: Write a magazine article about the broken cease-fire. Include imaginary interviews with Bashar al-Assad and the leader of the Free Syrian Army. 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 Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. Ask him three questions about the conflict. Give him three pieces of advice on what to do from now. 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: 200 dead despite Eid cease-fire in SyriaThe four-day cease-fire between Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's regime and the (1) rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) was in tatters yesterday just two days into the (2) holy Eid al-Adha holiday. The United Nations special (3) envoy Lakhdar Brahimi arranged the cease-fire last week to allow all Syrians to celebrate Eid. Mr Brahimi also hoped a four-day (4) cessation of hostilities would provide a window for talks to extend the (5) truce. However, fighting broke out on both sides early on Friday, including in the capital Damascus. Both sides are (6) blaming the other for breaking the cease-fire. The FSA told reporters that Syrian forces have been (7) pounding Damascus and Aleppo. A jet-fighter (8) strike killed eight people in an attack on the capital. Reports are that over 32,000 people have been killed in the fighting since the (9) civil war began in March 2011. Recent events have seen the conflict (10) spill over Syria's borders. Turkey launched rockets into Syria for days after a Syrian (11) shell killed five Turks in a border village. Tensions have (12) heightened in neighbouring Lebanon, where a large part of the population supports the Syrian leadership. The BBC reported that Lebanon risks being "(13) torn apart" by the conflict. Al-Qaeda has called on Muslims everywhere to support Syrians in their fight against what it (14) described as al-Assad's "murderous, (15) cancerous regime." Russia and China are refusing to back the United States, France and others in calling for greater international (16) intervention. LANGUAGE WORK
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