Date: April 24, 2005
Level: Harder (Try the easier lesson.)
Downloads: This Lesson (Word Doc) | Class Handout (Word Doc) | Class Handout (PDF)

Listening (1:44 - 204.3 KB - 16kbps)

THE ARTICLE

Ever wanted to know what a teenage James Bond looked like? Well now you have your chance to find out. The family of Ian Fleming, creator of 007, has approved of a drawing depicting the sleuth in his schoolboy days. The young Bond is very different from the suave and sophisticated man he grows up to be. The illustration, to be used on the cover of a new set of children’s books about the schoolboy Bond, shows a lanky, adolescent James in baggy pants, sporting a mop of messy hair. Naturally, he is a dashing lad and has no acne, crooked teeth, nor any other teenage horrors. And if you look closely enough, you’ll see the faintest of resemblances to Connery, Moore and co.

The young Bond books are written by long time Fleming aficionado Charlie Higson. His first offering, Silver Fin, was a bestseller the instant it hit the shelves in early April. The novel portrays James as a public schoolboy at Eton. His first mission is to foil the villainous and dastardly deeds of an unsavory American classmate’s evil father. Mr Higson said the illustration of the superspy as a schoolboy greatly helped him develop the youth’s character: “The hardest thing when writing Silver Fin was picturing the young Bond in my mind…Now I know what he looks like. Young Bond and his world have really come alive.”

WARM UPS

1. CHAT: Talk in pairs or groups about: teenagers / James Bond / adolescence / teenage problems / Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan / children’s books / superspies… For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently.

2. JAMES BOND / 007 BRAINSTORM: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with James Bond or 007. Share your words with your partner / group and talk about them.

3. BEING 13: What was life like as a 13-year-old? (1) Talk with your partner / group about your memories of your earliest teens. Was it a good or difficult time? (2) In pairs / groups, imagine being 13 again. Talk to each other as 13-year-olds about life today.

4. JAMES BOND: Talk with your partner about the British superspy. Who is your favorite actor to play 007? What is your favorite Bond movie song? What is your favorite James Bond gadget? What is your favorite Bond movie? A list of movies is below:

Dr. No (1962) From Russia With Love (1963) Goldfinger (1964) Thunderball (1965) Casino Royale (1967) You Only Live Twice (1967) On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) Diamonds Are Forever (1971) Live And Let Die (1973) The Man With The Golden Gun (1974) The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Moonraker (1979) For Your Eyes Only (1981) Never Say Never Again (1983) Octopussy (1983) A View To A Kill (1985) The Living Daylights (1987) Licence To Kill (1989) GoldenEye (1995) Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) The World Is Not Enough (1999) Die Another Day (2002)

 
5. CHILDREN’S BOOKS: In pairs / groups, talk about children’s books. Who is / was your favorite author? Which characters did you like best? Are there any children’s authors from your country who are (or should be) famous internationally? Which of the following writers / books would you encourage your children to read?

• J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter series)
• Hans Christian Andersen (Fairy tales)
• Aesop (Many famous fables)
• Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)
• Dr Seuss (Green Eggs and Ham)
• A.A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh)
• Lewis Carroll (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)
• Michael Ende (The Never Ending Story)
• Kenneth Graham (Wind in the Willows)
• Tove Jannson (Finn Family Moomintroll)
• Rudyard Kipling (Jungle Book)
• J.R.R. Tolkein (The Hobbit)
• E.B. White (Charlotte’s Web)

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. WORD SEARCH: Use your dictionary / computer to find word partners (collocates), other meanings, synonyms or more information on the words ‘school’ and ‘boy’.

2. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true or false:

1. There is now an official illustration of James Bond, aged thirteen.  T / F
2. The 13-year-old James Bond looks identical to the adult 007.  T / F
3. The illustration depicts him as being very smart and stylish.  T / F
4. In the picture he looks absolutely nothing like the 007 actors.  T / F
5. The Bond creator’s family strongly objected to the illustration.  T / F
6. A new book about the schoolboy James sold badly in bookshops.  T / F
7. His first mission is to hunt down al-Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan.  T / F
8. The writer said the illustration made it easier to write the book.  T / F

3. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

(a)	depicting	fan
(b)	sleuth	gangly
(c)	suave	piece of work
(d)	lanky	spy
(e)	faintest	obnoxious
(f)	aficionado	exploits
(g)	offering	showing
(h)	villainous	slightest
(i)	unsavory	wicked
(j)	deeds	polished

4. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

(a)	Ever wanted	and sophisticated
(b)	a drawing	alive
(c)	suave	the shelves
(d)	sporting a mop of	in my mind
(e)	you’ll see the faintest	depicting the sleuth
(f)	long time Fleming	of resemblances to Connery
(g)	hit	deeds
(h)	villainous and dastardly	to know…?
(i)	picturing the young Bond	aficionado
(j)	really come	messy hair

 

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. GAP-FILL: Fill the gaps with the words in the column on the right.

James Bond, aged 13

Ever wanted to know what a teenage James Bond looked like? Well now you have your chance to find out. The family of Ian Fleming, __________ of 007, has approved of a drawing __________ the sleuth in his schoolboy days. The young Bond is very different from the __________ and sophisticated man he grows up to be. The illustration, to be used on the cover of a new set of children’s books about the schoolboy Bond, shows a lanky, __________ James in baggy pants, sporting a mop of messy hair. Naturally, he is a dashing lad and has no __________, crooked teeth, nor any other teenage horrors. And if you look closely enough, you’ll see the faintest of __________ to Connery, Moore and co.		suave creator adolescent resemblances depicting acne
The young Bond books are written by long time Fleming __________ Charlie Higson. His first __________, Silver Fin, was a bestseller the instant it __________ the shelves in early April. The novel portrays James as a public schoolboy at Eton. His first mission is to foil the villainous and __________ deeds of an __________ American classmate’s villainous father. Mr Higson said the illustration of the superspy as a schoolboy greatly helped him develop the youth’s character: “The hardest thing when writing Silver Fin was __________ the young Bond in my mind…Now I know what he looks like. Young Bond and his world have really come __________.”		dastardly alive unsavory offering picturing aficionado hit

 

2. TRUE/FALSE: Check your answers to the T/F exercise.

3. SYNONYMS: Check your answers to the synonyms exercise.

4. PHRASE MATCH: Check your answers to the phrase match exercise.

5. QUESTIONS: Make notes for questions you would like to ask the class about the article.

6. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.

POST READING IDEAS

1. GAP FILL: Check your answers to this exercise.

2. QUESTIONS: Ask the discussion questions you thought of above to your partner / group / class. Pool the questions for everyone to share.

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

4. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: In pairs/groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Each student surveys class members independently and reports back to their original partner/ group to compare their findings.

5. ‘SCHOOL’ / ‘BOY’: Make questions based on your findings from pre-reading activity #1. Ask your partner / group your questions.

6. DISCUSSION:

1. Did you like this article?
2. Was there anything in the article that raised your eyebrows?
3. Before reading this article, had you ever envisaged a young James Bond?
4. What do you think of having a teenage James?
5. What are your favorite children’s books? Why do you like them?
6. Are there any children’s authors you would prohibit your children from reading?
7. Are the children’s writers from your country the best?
8. Would you like to know about the adolescence of other heroes?
9. Would you want to see George W. Bush or Bill Gates, aged 13?
10. What were you like as a thirteen-year-old?
11. Do you like looking at photos of yourself in your early teens?
12. What adjective would you use to describe your adolescence and why?
13. Do you have good or bad recollections of being thirteen?
14. Would you like to be thirteen again?
15. Do you like James Bond?
16. Why do you think James Bond movies are so successful?
17. Which of his gadgets do you like best?
18. Can you easily recall the James Bond theme song and opening titles?
19. Would you like to be a superspy?
20. Would you like to be / date James Bond?
21. Is James Bond the quintessential British gentleman?
22. Did you like this discussion?
23. Teacher / Student additional questions.

HOMEWORK

1. 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 information on James Bond. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. 13 YEARS OLD: Write something about your life as a 13-year-old. Read it to you classmates in your next lesson.

4. 007/13: Write an outline of a story for the next “James Bond, Aged 13” novel. Show it to your classmates in your next lesson.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

1. There is now an official illustration of James Bond, aged thirteen.  T
2. The 13-year-old James Bond looks identical to the adult 007.  F
3. The illustration depicts him as being very smart and stylish.  F
4. In the picture he looks absolutely nothing like the 007 actors.  F
5. The Bond creator’s family strongly objected to the illustration.  F
6. A new book about the schoolboy James sold badly in bookshops.  F
7. His first mission is to hunt down al-Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan.  F
8. The writer said the illustration made it easier to write the book.  T

SYNONYM MATCH:

(a)	depicting	showing
(b)	sleuth	spy
(c)	suave	polished
(d)	lanky	gangly
(e)	faintest	slightest
(f)	aficionado	fan
(g)	offering	piece of work
(h)	villainous	wicked
(i)	unsavory	obnoxious
(j)	deeds	exploits

PHRASE MATCH:

(a)	Ever wanted	to know…?
(b)	a drawing	depicting the sleuth
(c)	suave	and sophisticated
(d)	sporting a mop of	messy hair
(e)	you’ll see the faintest	of resemblances to Connery
(f)	long time Fleming	aficionado
(g)	hit	the shelves
(h)	villainous and dastardly	deeds
(i)	picturing the young Bond	in my mind
(j)	really come	alive

GAP FILL:

James Bond, aged 13

Ever wanted to know what a teenage James Bond looked like? Well now you have your chance to find out. The family of Ian Fleming, creator of 007, has approved of a drawing depicting the sleuth in his schoolboy days. The young Bond is very different from the suave and sophisticated man he grows up to be. The illustration, to be used on the cover of a new set of children’s books about the schoolboy Bond, shows a lanky, adolescent James in baggy pants, sporting a mop of messy hair. Naturally, he is a dashing lad and has no acne, crooked teeth, nor any other teenage horrors. And if you look closely enough, you’ll see the faintest of resemblances to Connery, Moore and co.

The young Bond books are written by long time Fleming aficionado Charlie Higson. His first offering, Silver Fin, was a bestseller the instant it hit the shelves in early April. The novel portrays James as a public schoolboy at Eton. His first mission is to foil the villainous and dastardly deeds of an unsavory American classmate’s villainous father. Mr Higson said the illustration of the superspy as a schoolboy greatly helped him develop the youth’s character: “The hardest thing when writing Silver Fin was picturing the young Bond in my mind…Now I know what he looks like. Young Bond and his world have really come alive.”