Breaking News English

Level: Easier (Try the harder lesson.)

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THE ARTICLE

People who want to quit smoking may soon have something to help them. The Swiss drug company Cytos Biotechnology has developed and tested a vaccine that fights nicotine. The vaccine produces antibodies in our blood that stop nicotine from entering the brain. The antibodies reduce the desire of smokers to have a cigarette. It also lessens the pleasure that smokers experience when they smoke.

Experiments on 341 heavy smokers produced impressive success rates. Forty percent of those who received the vaccine stopped smoking. All smokers who took the vaccine developed the antibodies that reduce the desire for a cigarette. Cytos believes it has the best answer to date to fight nicotine addiction. This is good news for the world’s 1.3 billion smokers. Five million people die each year from smoking.

WARM-UPS

1. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics you are interested in, which do not look interesting and which look really boring:

Switzerland / smoking / bad habits / vaccines / blood / heavy smokers / pleasure / cigarettes / antibodies / the brain / good news / web casts

Have a chat about the topics you liked. For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently.

2. SMOKING: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with smoking. Share your words with your partner / group and talk about them.

3. 2-MINUTE DEBATES: With a partner, engage in these fun 2-minute debates. Students A firmly believe in the opinions on the left, Students B strongly support the opinions on the right. Change partners often.

1. Nothing will stop people smoking. vs. Something will be found.
2. Smokers can smoke anywhere they want. vs. That’s a stupid idea.
3. Passive smoking doesn’t kill people. vs. It does.
4. The new anti-nicotine vaccine won’t be successful. vs. It will save millions of lives.
5. People who cannot quit smoking are weak. vs. Nicotine is a very powerful drug.
6. Tobacco companies will disappear one day. vs. There will always be tobacco companies.
7. Smoking will be illegal one day. vs. It won’t. Governments need the money from taxes.
8. Smoking looks cool. vs. You must be joking.

4. 'FILTHY' HABITS: Talk about other ‘filthy’ / bad / unsociable / unhealthy habits. Are the bad habits worse or not as bad as smoking?

1. drinking (alcohol)
2. spitting in the street
3. graffiti
4. showing gum as you chew it
5. peeing (urinating) in the street
6. littering (dropping your trash / rubbish in the street)
7. using a loud Walkman on the train
8. wearing strong perfume in a crowded area
9. talking loudly on a mobile phone
10. swearing (using very bad words / language)

5. SMOKERS I KNOW: Write down the names of three smokers you know. Talk about these smokers and their addictions

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):

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

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

WHILE READING / LISTENING

WHICH WORD? Circle the correct word in each pair of words in bold.

Anti-smoking vaccine developed

People who want to quit / quote smoking may soon have someone / something to help them. The Swiss drug company Cytos Biotechnology has developed and tested / toasted a vaccine that fights nicotine. The vaccine produces antibodies in our blood / bleeding that stop nicotine from entering the brain. The antibodies reduce the desire / design of smokers to have a cigarette. It also heightens / lessens the pleasure that smokers experience when they smoke.

Experiments on 341 weight / heavy smokers produced impressive success / interest rates. Forty percent of these / those who received the vaccine stopped smoking. All smokers who took the vaccine developed the antibodies that reduce the desire for a cigarette. Cytos believes it has the best question / answer to date / time to fight nicotine addiction. This is good news for the world’s 1.3 million / billion smokers. Five million people die each year from smoking.

AFTER READING

1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘kick’ and ‘habit’.

• Share your findings with your partners.
• Make questions using the words you found.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.

• Share your questions with other classmates / groups.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

3. WHICH WORD?: In pairs / groups, compare and talk about your answers to this exercise. After you agree, check your answers against the text.

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

5. STUDENT SMOKING SURVEY: In pairs / groups write down questions about smoking.

• Ask other classmates your questions and note down their answers.
• Go back to your original partner / group and compare your findings.
• Make a mini-presentation to another group / the class on your findings.

6. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall exactly how these were used in the text:

LANGUAGE

“PEOPLE WHO WANT TO QUIT”:

Look at the following sentence from the article.

People who want to quit smoking may soon have something to help them.

Make five different sentences of your own:

People who want to quit smoking may soon __________________________

People who want to quit smoking may soon __________________________

People who want to quit smoking may soon __________________________

People who want to quit smoking may soon __________________________

People who want to quit smoking may soon  _________________________

Show your sentences to your partner(s) and write down unknown vocabulary.

In pairs / groups, start from the original sentence and replace one or two words at a time. You may replace a word with one or two other words. Make sure the sentence always makes sense. Do this ten times.

Example.

People who want to quit smoking may soon have something to help them.

People who want to quit smoking may one day have something to help them.

Parents who want to quit smoking may one day have something to help them.

Parents who want to quit smoking may one day have no one to help them…

Change partners and show (a) your final sentence and (b) how your sentences changed.

DISCUSSION

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

1. What did you think when you saw the headline of this article?
2. Do you like reading about science and medicine?
3. Do you think this vaccine will work?
4. How many people do you know who might try it?
5. Do you think it’s easy to quit smoking?
6. Governments don’t want people to stop smoking because they lose money from taxes. What do you think about this?
7. Do you think smoking looks cool?
8. Why do people start smoking?
9. How would you feel if your younger brother or sister / son or daughter started smoking?
10. Are you addicted to anything?

STUDENT B’s questions (Do not show these to student A)

1. Did you like reading the article?
2. What do you think of the new nicotine vaccine?
3. Do you know anyone who would try it?
4. What do you think of tobacco companies?
5. Do you think smoking will ever disappear?
6. Do you have any bad habits you want to quit?
7. Does your government have any anti-smoking policies?
8. Should nicotine become an illegal drug?
9. Do you know anyone who you really want to quit smoking?
10. Did you like this discussion?

AFTER DISCUSSION: Join another partner / group and tell them what you talked about.

1. What question would you like to ask about this topic?
2. What was the most interesting thing you heard?
3. Was there a question you didn’t like?
4. Was there something you totally disagreed with?
5. What did you like talking about?
6. Do you want to know how anyone else answered the questions?
7. Which was the most difficult question?

SPEAKING

ADDICTIONS: Talk about these addictions. Are they harmless or dangerous addictions? What kind of dangers are there?

1. Chocoholic
2. Workaholic
3. Alcoholic
4. Drug addict
5. TV addict
6. Gaming addict
7. Addicted to love
8. Addicted to ice cream
9. Addicted to studying English
10. Addicted to nicotine
11. Addicted to gambling

In pairs, choose one of the addictions. Pretend you are both addicts. Write down how this addiction has changed your…

Change partners. One partner is a counselor, the other is an addict. The counselor’s job is to offer advice to make the addict to quit. (The addict always finds a “good excuse” or reason why he/she dislikes the counselor’s advice).

Return to your original partners and discuss the “counseling” you received and whether or not it was good.

LISTENING

Listen and fill in the spaces.

Anti-smoking vaccine developed

People ___ ____ __ ____ smoking may soon have something to help them. The Swiss drug company Cytos Biotechnology has developed and ______ __ ______ that fights nicotine. The vaccine produces ___________ in our blood that stop nicotine from entering the brain. The antibodies _______ ___ ______ of smokers to have a cigarette. It also ________ ___ _________ that smokers experience when they smoke.

Experiments on 341 _____ _______ produced impressive success rates. Forty percent __ _____ ____ received the vaccine stopped smoking. All smokers who took the vaccine developed the antibodies that reduce the desire for a cigarette. Cytos believes it has the best _______ __ ____ to fight nicotine addiction. This is good news for the world’s 1.3 billion smokers. Five million people ___ ____ ____ ____ smoking.

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 nicotine. Share your findings with your class in the next lesson.

3. NO SMOKING: Make a poster about the dangers of smoking. Show it to your classmates in your next lesson. Discuss with your classmates which is the most effective poster.

4. LETTER: Write a letter to your government or a tobacco company. Tell them what they should do to reduce the number of deaths from smoking each year. Show your letter to the class next lesson. Did your classmates write similar things?

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE

SYNONYM MATCH

PHRASE MATCH:

WHICH WORD?:

Anti-smoking vaccine developed

People who want to quit smoking may soon have something to help them. The Swiss drug company Cytos Biotechnology has developed and tested a vaccine that fights nicotine. The vaccine produces antibodies in our blood that stop nicotine from entering the brain. The antibodies reduce the desire of smokers to have a cigarette. It also lessens the pleasure that smokers experience when they smoke.

Experiments on 341 heavy smokers produced impressive success rates. Forty percent of those who received the vaccine stopped smoking. All smokers who took the vaccine developed the antibodies that reduce the desire for a cigarette. Cytos believes it has the best answer to date to fight nicotine addiction. This is good news for the world’s 1.3 billion smokers. Five million people die each year from smoking.