Sunday December 5
Pre-Intermediate +

THE ARTICLE

The 54^th Miss World Contest was won yesterday by Miss Peru, Maria Julia Mantilla Garcia. The judges decided Ms Garcia was more beautiful than all of the other 106 contestants, and perhaps the other two billion women from all over the world. She was very humbled by her hard-fought victory, saying, “I'm very surprised but I'm also very happy”. She also blew kisses to the audience –a true champion. She wants to be a high school teacher but that may change after collecting her $10,000 prize (pretty insignificant for such a high-profile and important world event) and a year’s worth of modeling contracts. The second most beautiful woman in the world, not quite as nice as Maria Julia, was from the Dominican Republic. Miss USA came third.

For the first time TV audiences took part in the judging, voting by telephone and e-mail. For the second year in a row the beauty pageant was held on Hainan Island, China, where it will be also held next year. The whole circus had to be moved from Nigeria to London in 2002 after 220 people died in violent protests that the contest degraded women. However, last year’s winner said the contest was not demeaning to women, rather, “it's a huge honour for any young girl... it gives young women an opportunity to give an opinion on global issues.” Miss Philippines agreed, “We are not here just to show off beauty, but we're here also to show our purpose.” Didn’t elaborate on that one.

China lifted a ban on beauty contests in 2003 and with one swipe increased the profile of China’s southernmost province and tourism revenues. Such a high-profile world extravaganza needed a high-caliber world pop star, so the organizers drafted in world famous Lionel Ritchie to sing a song he recorded 19 years ago. The world famous panel of beauty experts included an actress unknown outside of Australia, a Chinese photographer, and an Irish businessman of Indian descent.

WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS

1. CHAT:  Talk in pairs or groups about Miss World contests, Mister World, Most beautiful woman / handsome man in the world, beauty, sexism, swimsuits …
To make things more fun, try telling your students they only have one minute (or 2) on each chat topic before changing topics / partners. Change topic / partner frequently to energize the class.

2. MISS WORLD BRAINSTORM: Students call out the attributes needed by a Miss World. Talk in pairs about whether these are important or not.

3. MISS… WHAT?: Teacher brainstorms other contests that could take place around the world. ‘Miss This’ or ‘Mister That’. Talk in pairs about who might win such a contestant.

4. 2-MINUTE DEBATES: Students face each other in pairs and engage in the following (for-fun) 2-minute debates. Students A are assigned the first argument, students B the second. Rotate pairs to ensure a lively pace and noise level is kept:
(a) Miss world discriminates against married women. It should be Miss and Mrs World. vs. Don’t be silly. Married women are too busy washing and cooking to take part in beauty pageants.
(b) Miss world is Anglocentric. Why not World Madameoiselle, Senorita World or a title more international than ‘Miss’?. vs ‘Miss’ is only a word, and English is the international language.
(c) ‘Miss’ is sexist. Should be ‘Ms’ World. vs ‘Ms’ causes pronunciation problems and is not as well-known as ‘Miss’. It’s just a trendy way of Americans showing how forward-thinking they are.
(d) Miss World doesn’t need swimsuits and expensive cocktail dresses. Is that what you need to be beautiful? vs. Yes.
(e) Miss World is degrading to women. Many young girls around the world who are not white or near-white, tall, have perfectly straight teeth, healthy-looking skin and long legs may feel less than beautiful. Vs. That’s their problem.
(f) The winner of Miss World gets $10,000. That’s peanuts. vs. It’s not the money that’s important. It’s the chance to be an ambassador for your country, to change the world, and to get lots of lucrative modeling jobs.

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. WORD SEARCH: Students look in their dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … of the words ‘miss’ and ‘world’.

2. TRUE / FALSE: Students predict whether they believe the following statements are true or false:
(a)  This was the 54^th Miss World Contest.  T / F
(b)  The beauty pageant was contested by 107 women.  T / F
(c)  The winner wasn’t surprised she won.  T / F
(d)   The prize money for winning Miss World is $10,000.  T / F
(e)  The winner wants to be a high school teacher. T / F
(f)  The 2002 contest was moved from Nigeria because 202 people died in protests against the event.  T / F
(g)  The contest is degrading to women. T / F
(h)  It gives young women an opportunity to give an opinion on global issues.  T / F
(i)  The contest attracted very important and high profile judges and entertainers.  T / F

3. PHRASE MATCH: Students match the following phrases based on the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

(a)	more beautiful than	victory
(b)	from all	issues
(c)	hard-fought	part in the judging
(d)	blow	an opinion
(e)	took	all of the others
(f)	violent	protests
(g)	give	profile
(h)	global	kisses
(i)	high	over the world

4. NUMBERS: Students try to guess what the following numbers mean in the text by matching the numbers with the possibilities in the right column:

(a)	54	The estimated number of women in the world.
(b)	20	How many years ago a pop star first recorded the song he sang at the closing ceremony of the contest.
(c)	107	The number of expert judges.
(d)	2,000,000,000	The number of years the winner is Miss World.
(e)	10,000	The number of times the contest has now been held.
(f)	1	The total number of contestants in the pageant.
(g)	206	The year in which China first held the contest.
(h)	2003	The amount of prize money for the winner (in US$).
(i)	19	The number of people killed in anti-Miss World protests in Nigeria in 2002.
(j)	0	The age of the winning contestant.

 

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

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

Miss Peru Most Beautiful

The 54th Miss World Contest was won yesterday by 20-year-old Miss Peru, Maria Julia Mantilla Garcia. The __________ decided Ms Garcia was more beautiful than all of the other 106 contestants, and perhaps the other two __________ women from all over the world. She was very humbled by her hard-fought victory, saying, “I'm very surprised but I'm also very happy”. She also blew __________ to the audience –a true champion. She wants to be a high school teacher but that may change after collecting her $10,000 prize (pretty __________ for such a high-profile and important world event) and a year’s worth of modeling contracts. The second most beautiful woman in the world, not quite as nice as Maria Julia, was from the Dominican Republic. __________ less beautiful Miss USA came third.		kisses judges billion insignificant slighly
For the first time TV __________ took part in the judging, voting by telephone and e-mail. For the second year in a __________ the beauty pageant was held on Hainan Island, China, where it will be also held next year. The whole __________ had to be moved from Nigeria to London in 2002 after 220 people died in violent protests that the contest __________ women. However, last year’s winner said the contest was not demeaning to women, rather, “it's a huge honour for any young girl... it gives young women an opportunity to give an opinion on global issues.” Miss Philippines agreed, “We are not here just to show off beauty, but we're here also to show our __________.” Didn’t elaborate on that one.		purpose circus degraded row audiences
China __________ a ban on beauty contests in 2003 and with one __________ increased the profile of China’s southernmost province and tourism revenues. Such a high-profile world __________ needed a high-caliber world pop star, so the organizers drafted in world famous Lionel Ritchie to sing a song he recorded 19 years ago. The world famous panel of beauty __________ included an actress unknown outside of Australia, a Chinese photographer, and an Irish businessman of Indian __________.		descent swipe lifted extravaganza experts

 

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. NUMBERS:  Students check their answers to the Numbers exercise.

5. SERIOUS JOURNLIST?:  Students underline anything they think shows that the journalist / writer of the article is writing a little tongue in check.

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 understand. 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 discussion questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class. Pool the questions for all students to share.

3. NUMBERS SHOULD:  Students talk / ask questions about the numbers in pairs. They have to rewrite the possibilities given in the right column to something that fits their opinions
Eg Two hundred and six people shouldn’t have died in 2002. / There should be more than 107 contestants – half of the world is missing…
With their ‘corrected’ sentences, change partners and share them. Agree/disagree with your partner and give opinions.

4. SERIOUS JOURNLIST?:  Students talk about what they underlined.
If they are having problems, write what I was being tongue in cheek about and get the students to talk about this:
(i)  Miss Peru is more beautiful than perhaps the other two billion women in the world.
(ii)  The victory was ‘hard-fought’.
(iii)  Blowing kisses is the sign of a true champion.
(iv)  $10,000 is not just insignificant, it’s a joke.
(v)  Contestants always profess modest ambitions of the schoolteacher, nurse, pedestrian crossing attendant mould. Come on, what they really want is the fame, the glory, the diamonds, the gazillions in modeling contracts, escape from a humdrum existence… (and who doesn’t?!!!!)
(vi) ‘.. not quite as nice … Slightly less beautiful’ – a little TIC.
(vii) Calling the pageant a circus (although that could be a legitimate synonym).
(viii) “Didn’t elaborate on that one.” I watched the show (guilty) and saw no humanitarian purpose beyond who could smile widest.
(ix) “With one swipe” – a TIC reference to China putting aside moral objections to beauty contests for commercial gain (and who doesn’t?!!)
(x) All references involving the word ‘world’ at the end, and doubts over the quality of judges.

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

6. 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.

7. 10-MINUTE DEBATES: In pairs / groups, students brainstorm ideas based on one of the ‘2-minute debates’ from above. Do the following to increase student involvement in language, ideas, opinion-giving, concept-familiarization, comfort and confidence with speaking…Take part in the debate, repeat the debate with same partner(s), repeat the debate with changed partners, talk about your role in the debate, talk about whether you agree with what you said in the debate, repeat all of the previous but with students now taking the opposite sides of their previous debates (change sides)

8. MS. / MLLE / MISTER / SENOR… STUDENT: Students create their own questionnaires to find the best student in the class. They decide their own criteria. Stage the pageant to find the winner.

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 Homo floresiensis. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. LETTER TO ORGANIZERS: Write a letter to the Miss World Organizers in support of / against the beauty pageant.

4. RESEARCH: Create an information poster on the history of the Miss World Contest. It may be interesting to assign themes (Past winners / controversy / a wonderful cause / one winner’s story / The Morleys (the organizers) …

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:
(a)  This was the 54^th Miss World Contest.  T
(b)  The beauty pageant was contested by 107 women.  T
(c)  The winner wasn’t surprised she won.  F
(d)  The prize money for winning Miss World is $10,000.  T
(e)  The winner wants to be a high school teacher. T
(f)  The 2002 contest was moved from Nigeria because 202 people died in protests against the event.  T
(g)  The contest is degrading to women. ?
(h)  It gives young women an opportunity to give an opinion on global issues.  T (?)
(i)  The contest attracted very important and high profile judges and entertainers.  F

PHRASE MATCH:

(a)	more beautiful than	all of the others
(b)	from all	over the world
(c)	hard-fought	victory
(d)	blow	kisses
(e)	took	part in the judging
(f)	violent	protests
(g)	give	an opinion
(h)	global	issues
(i)	high	profile

NUMBERS:

(a)	54	The number of times the contest has now been held.
(b)	20	The age of the winning contestant.
(c)	107	The total number of contestants in the pageant.
(d)	2,000,000,000	The estimated number of women in the world.
(e)	10,000	The amount of prize money for the winner (in US$).
(f)	1	The number of years the winner is Miss World.
(g)	206	The number of people killed in anti-Miss World protests in Nigeria in 2002.
(h)	2003	The year in which China first held the contest.
(i)	19	How many years ago a pop star first recorded the song he sang at the closing ceremony of the contest.
(j)	0	The number of expert judges.