British Finance Minister Gordon Brown has asked rich, oil-producing countries for $20 billion. He wants the money to add to his international fund for African aid. He told the oil-rich Arab nations: “I would like to see the oil-producing states, the countries that have done well out of the rise in oil prices, being willing to make a contribution.” He said he wants the oil producers to do their part to lift Africa out of poverty. Mr. Brown has a busy week ahead trying to raise funds. He needs to drum up support for his plan to help Africa ahead of next month’s G8 summit.

Mr. Brown already has $80 billion promised by the European Union. He needs $100 billion for his scheme to work. Mr. Brown said: “Globally, tackling the world’s deadliest diseases and halving world poverty will require the overall doubling of aid to Africa.” A back-up plan may be needed if George W. Bush refuses to contribute to the development fund. Mr. Bush meets with Tony Blair for crunch talks in Washington this week. Mr. Brown challenged Mr. Bush to be bold and find the money. He told Mr. Bush: “This is not a time for timidity, nor a time to fear reaching new heights.”

WARM-UPS

1. CHALLENGES: In pairs / groups pretend to be world leaders. Student(s) A must challenge Student(s) B (Student B is George W. Bush, who does not want to agree to anything Student A suggests). The challenges A puts to B may include:

1. Pull American troops out of Iraq next month.
2. Release all prisoners from Guantanamo Bay.
3. Accept the Kyoto Protocol on climate change to create a cleaner world.
4. Give Tony Blair $20 billion for African Aid.
5. Destroy all of your nuclear weapons to create a more peaceful world.
6. Stop taking so many holidays in Texas, or, resign.

2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words are most interesting and which are most boring.

Rich countries / poor countries / oil-producing countries / oil / oil prices / Africa / $100 billion / world poverty / challenges / heights

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

3. ARABIAN GULF: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the Arabian Gulf. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

4. STORY PREDICTION: In pairs / groups, use the words from the “CHAT” activity to predict the story in the article. Change partners and compare your stories. If you have different ideas, talk about which are likelier to be in the article.

5. 2-MINUTE DEBATES: With a partner, take part in these fun 2-minute debates. Students A strongly believe in the opinions on the left, Students B support the opinions on the right. Change partners often.

1. Great change will come to Africa. vs. Western countries can never bring great change.
2. George W. Bush will give the $20 billion. vs. He needs it for the conflict in Iraq.
3. The British plan is great. vs. It’s just another plan for Africa that won’t work.
4. Africa must first help itself. vs. Africa doesn’t know how to help itself.
5. The whole world must help Africa. vs. Charity begins at home.
6. Oil nations should do more. vs. They must protect their futures after the oil runs out.
7. Gordon Brown should get a Nobel Prize. vs. He’s only had a few meetings.
8. One percent of oil profits should go to help Africa. vs. Oil companies are not charities.

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

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

a.	Mexican Gulf countries are being asked to help Africa.	T / F
b.	Britain’s finance minister wants $200 billion from oil-rich nations.	T / F
c.	Recent oil price rises have made oil-producing countries richer.	T / F
d.	Britain’s finance minister will play the drums at the G8 summit.	T / F
e.	The EU has promised $100 billion for African aid.	T / F
f.	Aid for Africa needs to be tripled.	T / F
g.	George W. Bush and Tony Blair will talk about crunching.	T / F
h.	Gordon Brown told George W. Bush to be bold and fearless.	T / F

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

a.	rich	need
b.	fund	weakness
c.	states	defeating
d.	poverty	countries
e.	drum up	wealthy
f.	scheme	brave
g.	tackling	plan
h.	crunch	kitty
i.	bold	get
j.	timidity	tough

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

a.	oil-producing	African aid
b.	fund for	heights
c.	have done well	part
d.	do their	deadliest diseases
e.	He needs to drum up	countries
f.	$80 billion promised	support for his plan
g.	tackling the world’s	plan
h.	back-up	out of the rise in oil prices
i.	George W. Bush refuses	by the European Union
j.	reaching new	to contribute

WHILE READING / LISTENING

WORD ORDER: Put the underlined words into the correct order.

Oil-rich Gulf urged to help Africa

British Finance Minister Gordon Brown has asked rich, oil-producing countries for $20 billion. He wants the add money to his to international fund for African aid. He told the oil-rich Arab nations: “I would like to see the oil-producing states, the countries that have
out of well done the rise in oil prices, being willing to make a contribution.” He said he wants the oil producers part to their do to lift Africa out of poverty. Mr. Brown has a busy week ahead trying to raise funds. He needs support to drum up for his plan to help Africa ahead of next month’s G8 summit.

Mr. Brown already has $80 billion promised by the European Union. He needs $100 billion work to scheme for his. Mr. Brown said: “Globally, tackling the world’s deadliest diseases and world halving poverty will require the overall of aid to doubling Africa.” A back-up plan may be needed if George W. Bush refuses to contribute to the development fund. Mr. Bush meets with Tony Blair in for talks crunch Washington this week. Mr. Brown challenged Mr. Bush to be bold and find the money. He told Mr. Bush: “This is time for a not timidity, nor a time to fear reaching new heights.”

AFTER READING / LISTENING

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

• 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. WORD ORDER: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers.

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

5. STUDENT AFRICA SURVEY: In pairs / groups write down questions about poverty in Africa.

• 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:

$20 billion fund oil prices do their part drum summit

European Union deadliest doubling crunch bold heights

 DISCUSSION

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

1. What did you think of the headline?
2. Do you follow news of Gordon Brown and G8?
3. Do you think this is another plan for Africa that won’t work?
4. Do you think the oil-rich Gulf nations should give the $20 billion?
5. Do you think Gordon Brown’s plan, G8 and Live 8 mean something special is happening over Africa?
6. Do you think Africa is a forgotten continent?
7. Do you think Africa will become a continent of tiger economies, just like Asia did?
8. What do you think of a 10% rise in gasoline / petrol prices to help raise money for Africa?
9. How long do you think it will take for Africa to become rich?
10. Do you think disease will ever disappear from Africa?

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

1. Did you like reading the article?
2. How did this news make you feel?
3. What do you think of Gordon Brown’s plan?
4. Do you think Tony Blair can persuade George W. Bush to give $20 billion?
5. Should America help Africa more?
6. Do you think Gordon Brown’s plan will help poor African people?
7. Will Africa always suffer from poverty?
8. What are the most important areas that need to change in Africa?
9. Should Bob Geldof, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair get a Nobel Prize?
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

HELP GORDON: Help British Finance Minister Gordon Brown help Africa. In pairs / groups, work out a plan to raise money in your school / community for African charities. Use this table to help you:

NAME OF YOUR PLAN ______________________________________________
TO THINK ABOUT	THE DETAILS
Aims (What do you want to do?)
How (What will you do to reach your aims?)
People (Who’s going to do what?)
Plan B (What might go wrong and what is your “Plan B”?)
Timeline (When is everything going to start and finish?)
Other?

• After you have finished, change partners / groups and look at other students plans (the more the better).
• Give advice / feedback to improve your each other’s plans.
• In pairs / groups, discuss the good points of all the plans you listened to and vote for the best one(s).
• Go and set your plans into action!

LISTENING

Listen and fill in the spaces.

Oil-rich Gulf urged to help Africa

British Finance Minister Gordon Brown ___ _____ ____, oil-producing countries for $20 billion. He wants the money __ ___ __ his international fund for African aid. He told the oil-rich Arab nations: “I would like to see the oil-producing states, the countries that have ____ ____ ____ of the rise in oil prices, being willing to ____ __ ____________.” He said he wants the oil producers to do their part to lift Africa out of poverty. Mr. Brown has a busy week ahead trying __ _____ _____. He needs to drum up support for his plan to help Africa _____ __ _______ month’s G8 summit.

Mr. Brown already has $80 billion promised by the European Union. He needs $100 billion for ___ ______ __ _____. Mr. Brown said: “Globally, ________ the world’s deadliest diseases and _______ world poverty will require the overall _________ of aid to Africa.” A back-up plan may be needed if George W. Bush
_______ __ __________ to the development fund. Mr. Bush meets with Tony Blair for crunch talks in Washington this week. Mr. Brown challenged Mr. Bush __ __ ____ and find the money. He told Mr. Bush: “This is not a time for timidity, ___ __ _____ __ fear reaching new heights.”

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 more information on Gordon Brown’s fundraising for Africa. Share your findings with your class in the next lesson.

3. ARABIAN GULF: Make a poster on the countries and emirates of the Arabian Gulf. You could focus on culture, people, economy, oil, tourism, sport or themes of your own choosing. Show your posters to your classmates in your next lesson.

4. LETTER: Write a letter to British Finance Minister Gordon Brown telling him what you think of his plan. Give him advice on how to use the aid money. Show your letter to your classmates in your next lesson. Did you all write about similar things?

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a. F

b. F

c. T

d. F

e. T

f. F

g. T

h. T

SYNONYM MATCH:

a.	urged	pressed
b.	barons	industrialists
c.	coffers	funds
d.	crucial	vital
e.	thrashed out	negotiated
f.	kitty	purse
g.	reluctant	uneager
h.	balk	shirk
i.	laid down the gauntlet	challenged
j.	timidity	faint-heartedness

PHRASE MATCH:
 

a.	do their	part
b.	lifting Africa	out of poverty
c.	price	hikes
d.	Mr. Brown’s bid to drum	up support
e.	the details could be thrashed	out
f.	aid	kitty
g.	crunch	talks
h.	inject much needed	investment into Africa
i.	laid down	the gauntlet
j.	reaching new	heights

WORD ORDER:

Oil-rich Gulf urged to help Africa

British Finance Minister Gordon Brown has asked rich, oil-producing countries for $20 billion. He wants the money to add to his international fund for African aid. He told the oil-rich Arab nations: “I would like to see the oil-producing states, the countries that have done well out of the rise in oil prices, being willing to make a contribution.” He said he wants the oil producers to do their part to lift Africa out of poverty. Mr. Brown has a busy week ahead trying to raise funds. He needs to drum up support for his plan to help Africa ahead of next month’s G8 summit.

Mr. Brown already has $80 billion promised by the European Union. He needs $100 billion for his scheme to work. Mr. Brown said: “Globally, tackling the world’s deadliest diseases and halving world poverty will require the overall doubling of aid to Africa.” A back-up plan may be needed if George W. Bush refuses to contribute to the development fund. Mr. Bush meets with Tony Blair for crunch talks in Washington this week. Mr. Brown challenged Mr. Bush to be bold and find the money. He told Mr. Bush: “This is not a time for timidity, nor a time to fear reaching new heights.”

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