Sunday November 21, 2004
Pre-Intermediate +

THE ARTICLE

The oldest man in the world died yesterday. Supercentenarian Fred Hale Senior died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 113, just two weeks before his 114^th birthday. He became the world's oldest man in March after Joan Riudavets Moll of Spain died aged 114. He had five children, nine grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and 11 great-great-grandchildren.

Hale was born on in a different time in history, on December 1, 1890, before the invention of radio, airplanes, Corn Flakes and escalators. He was born in the same year Wilhelm II of Germany fired Bismarck, Idaho became the 43^rd US state, Vincent Van Gogh killed himself, and the Meiji constitution started in Japan. He was 17 when he saw his first car, but was too old to serve in World War One.

He was in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's oldest driver when he renewed his driving license aged 104, but gave up driving four years ago because New York drivers were “too slow”. He never smoked, rarely drank alcohol and ate a teaspoon of honey every morning. His grandson said he didn’t need a lot to be happy.

POSSIBLE WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS

1. CHAT:  Talk in pairs or groups about being old, your year of birth, healthy living, Guinness Book of Records…

2. OLDEST PEOPLE I KNOW: Students write down the names of the three oldest people they know and talk about them.

3. WHEN I’M 100: Students imagine they are 100 and talk about a day in their life.

4. FAMILY TREE: In pairs students talk about their family trees and go back as far as they can. Interesting facts will come out in a multicultural class.

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. CENT: Look in the dictionary to find other words beginning with ‘cent’. Write down only those with the meaning of one hundred. Talk about each of the words.

2. AGE GROUP: Students match the following age groups and talk about each group after (best, wisest, richest, the one I want to be …):

	toddler	a person aged 110 or more
	octogenarian	people in their 70s
	supercentenarian	2 or 3 years old
	teenager	difficult to say. i think around 60 to 65
	septuagenarian	someone over (and including) 100
	nonagenarian	someone in their 80s
	middle-aged	between 90 and 99
	centenarian	those aged between 13 and 19

3. TRUE/FALSE: Students predict whether they believe the following statements are true or false:
(a)  The world’s oldest man was from Azerbaijan.  T / F
(b)  He died at the age of 113.  T / F
(c)  He had 83 great-great grandchildren.  T / F
(d)  He was born in the same year radio was invented.  T / F
(e)  When he was born there were only 42 states in the USA. T / F
(f)  He saw a car for the first time when he was 38.  T / F
(g)  He was an officer in World War One. T / F
(h)  He stopped driving a car when he was 108.  T / F

3. PREDICT THE STORY: Students try to piece together the article from the following words:
supercentenarian     sleep     114^th birthday     invention of radio     World War I     driving license     alcohol     honey     happy

4. PHRASE MATCH: Students match the following phrases taken from the text:

	the oldest man	in his sleep
	died	his driving license
	great-great	the invention of
	a different time	in the world
	before	drinking
	too old to	in history
	he renewed	grandchildren
	he gave up	serve in WWI

 .

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. GAP-FILL:  Put the missing words under each paragraph into the gaps.

World’s oldest man dies

The oldest man in the world died yesterday. Supercentenarian Fred Hale Senior died ________ in his ________ at the age of 113, ________ two weeks before his 114th birthday. He became the world's oldest man in March ________ Joan Riudavets Moll of Spain died aged 114. He had five children, nine grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and 11 great-great-grandchildren.		just sleep after peacefully
Hale was born on in a different ________ in history, on December 1, 1890, before the ________ of radio, airplanes, Corn Flakes and escalators. He was born in the same year Wilhelm II of Germany fired Bismarck, Idaho became the 43rd US state, Vincent Van Gogh killed himself, and the Meiji ________ started in Japan. He was 17 when he saw his first car, but was too old to ________ in World War One.		serve time constitution invention
He was in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's oldest ________ when he ________ his driving license aged 104, but gave ________ driving four years ago because New York drivers were “too slow”. He never smoked, rarely drank alcohol and ate a ________ of honey every morning. His grandson said he didn’t need a lot to be happy.		driver teaspoon renewed up

2. TRUE/FALSE:  Students check their answers to the T/F exercise.

3. PHRASE MATCH: Students check their answers to the word match exercise.

4. PREDICTION: Students check how close their predictions were.

5. WOW: Students circle anything in the text they went ‘wow’ about.

6. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article.

7. VOCABULARY:  Students circle any words they do not understan d. In groups pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings.

POST READING IDEAS

1. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the gap-fill exercise.

2. QUESTIONS:  Students ask the questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class.

3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above.

4. WOW:  Students tell each other about the things they circled. Introduce the following language
I thought / think it’s amazing / unreal / incredible / awesome … that …
I can’t believe he was born when / before / at the time …
I can’t imagine being …

Wow, he lived through …
Wow, that means he could remember …
Wow, that means he was alive when …
Wow, that means he saw / heard / watched …
[Opportunity to focus on ‘must have’ + pp]

5. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: Pairs/Groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Conduct their surveys alone. Report back to partners to compare answers. Report to other groups / the whole class.

6. TO BE 100: In pairs students brainstorm ideas on the positive things of being 100. They share their ideas and discuss whether and why (not) they’d like to live to be 100.

7. WHEN I’M 100: Brainstorm ideas on the board on what the world will be like when they are 100. Pair off and talk about these. Or … Write the following headings on the board for pairs / groups of students to create presentations on regarding the time 100 years from now: medicine     computing     travel     fashion     food     studying English     music     jobs     China     Africa     etc etc etc
[Opportunity to focus on future simple and progressive for predictions]

HOMEWORK

1. VOCAB EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or the Google search field to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on world records. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. MY YEAR: Create a poster detailing all of the events that took place in the year you were born.

4. GRANDPARENT BIO: Write a biography of the life and times of one of your grandparents.

5. 2104: Write on any topic you like about the year 2104.

ANSWERS

PHRASE MATCH:

	toddler	2 or 3 years old
	octogenarian	someone in their 80s
	supercentenarian	a person aged 110 or more
	teenager	those aged between 13 and 19
	septuagenarian	people in their 70s
	nonagenarian	between 90 and 99
	middle-aged	difficult to say. I think around 60 to 65
	centenarian	someone over (and including) 100

TRUE/FALSE
(a)  The world’s oldest man was from Azerbaijan.  F
(b)  He died at the age of 113.  T
(c)  He had 83 great-great grandchildren.  F
(d)  He was born in the same year radio was invented.  F
(e)  When he was born there were only 42 states in the USA. T
(f)  He saw a car for the first time when he was 38.  F
(g)  He was an officer in World War One. F
(h)  He stopped driving a car when he was 108.  T

PHRASE MATCH:

	the oldest man	in the world
	died	in his sleep
	great-great	grandchildren
	a different time	in history
	before	the invention of
	too old to	serve in WWI
	he renewed	his driving license
	he gave up	drinking

 

GAP FILL:

The oldest man in the world died yesterday. Supercentenarian Fred Hale Senior died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 113, just two weeks before his 114^th birthday. He became the world's oldest man in March after Joan Riudavets Moll of Spain died aged 114. He had five children, nine grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and 11 great-great-grandchildren.

Hale was born on in a different time in history, on December 1, 1890, before the invention of radio, airplanes, Corn Flakes and escalators. He was born in the same year Wilhelm II of Germany fired Bismarck, Idaho became the 43^rd US state, Vincent Van Gogh killed himself, and the Meiji constitution started in Japan. He was 17 when he saw his first car, but was too old to serve in World War One.

He was in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's oldest driver when he renewed his driving license aged 104, but gave up driving four years ago because New York drivers were “too slow”. He never smoked, rarely drank alcohol and ate a teaspoon of honey every morning. His grandson said he didn’t need a lot to be happy.