My 1,000
Ideas
e-Book

Breaking News English

HOME  |  HELP MY SITE  |  000s MORE FREE LESSONS
 
My 1,000
Ideas
e-Book
 

HOW TO PLAY:
Type the correct word in the boxes from the pairs of words in italics.
Click "Check your answers" to see how many correct answers you got.
Press the "refresh" button on your browser to play again.

Good Luck.
Detroit, [once / used to] a powerhouse of American industry, has [filled / filed] for bankruptcy. It has gone [bust / burst] , to become the biggest city to declare [solvency / insolvency] in U.S. history. Detroit's emergency financial manager Kevyn Orr said the city could no [lengthy / longer] afford to pay its bills, and was a whopping $20 billion [in / on] debt. He has requested the court's help in restructuring city finances to [enable / capable] it to continue to function. He named over 100,000 creditors, including the city's major pension funds and its 10,000 [plus / add] public employees. Detroit's pension system is underfunded by over $3.5 billion, [leaving / left] many current and past police officers, firefighters and public service workers with big question marks [over / top] their future.

Half a century ago, Detroit was held [down / up] as a gleaming example of American [enterprise / entity] . Its extensive automobile industry earned it the nickname "Motor City". However, the once-thriving middle-class city has [degenerated / regenerated] into a sprawl of run-down [blurbs / suburbs] with abandoned, [boarded-up / hoarded up] houses and high unemployment. The car factories that [spammed / spawned] its success have all [but / put] disappeared. The city said essential services would continue, but street lighting had been cut off. The city mayor explained: "Detroit simply was not on a sustainable [legging / footing] , continuing to borrow, continuing to [confer / defer] pension payments, continuing not to pay its bills on time - continuing a [depth / deepening] insolvency."

 
 

 

NEXT ACTIVITY
(Put the whole text back together)

Back to the lesson page



MORE ACTIVITIES:
QUIZZES MORE QUIZZES PRINT READING SEAN'S OTHER SITES

Missing Words

No letters

Gap-Fill

Text Jumble

Word Order

Grammar Gap-Fill

Articles Gap-Fill

Consonants

Prepositions Gap-Fill

Vowels

Missing Letters

Initals Only

Text Jumble - 15

Text Jumble - 24

No Spaces

 

26-Page Handout

Two-Page Mini-Lesson

 

LISTEN

MP3

Discussion Questions

 

DICTATION

10 Sentences

Spelling (12 Words)

Speed Reading
Activities

 

650+ Discussions (13,000+ Qs)

One-Minute Listening Lessons

Famous People Lessons

Holiday & Anniversary Lessons

Sean Banville on Twitter

My Blog

Free ESL Materials

Business English Materials

Lessons On All American Presidents

Lessons On Movies - Classic & New



Copyright © 2004-2023 by Sean Banville | Links | About | Privacy Policy

 
 
SHARE THIS LESSON: E-Mail RSS