Pope Benedict XVI gave an open-air mass to more than one million young Roman Catholics on Sunday. Hundreds of thousands of people camped out overnight to guarantee their chance of getting close to the Pope and hear his words. The pilgrims cheered enthusiastically when the Pope arrived in the traditional popemobile. People had come from almost 200 different countries to participate in the World Youth Day celebration. The Pope spoke in four different languages and the crowds listened carefully to each of them.

The Pope delivered a strong message to young people about returning to the basic values of religion. He spoke about the dangers of new religions that only follow trends in society. He said: “If it is pushed too far, religion becomes almost a consumer product. People choose what they like, and some are even able to make a profit from it.” He warned: “Religion constructed on a do-it-yourself basis cannot ultimately help us.” He said he was worried about a “strange forgetfulness of God” throughout modern society.

WARM-UPS

1. RELIGION: Write down the religions below on a piece of paper. Talk to your partner(s) about these religions and what you know about them. What similarities do they share? Change partners and gather more information.

Christianity / Islam / Hinduism / Buddhism / Sikhism / Judaism / Jainism / Shinto

2. VALUES: In pairs / groups, talk about how important the items in this list are to you. Do you think some of these things should be more or less important? Why?

God Money Prayer Clothes Love Entertainment

Religious leaders Sports and movie stars The Bible / Koran / Torah … Books and movies Going to a church / temple … every week Shopping

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

Popes / Pope Benedict XVI / Roman Catholics / Germany / camping / pilgrims / being multilingual / Jesus Christ / trends / consumer products / religion / God

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

4. GOD: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word “God”. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

5. OPINIONS: Do you agree with these opinions on religion? Talk to your partner(s) about them.

1. Religion creates more problems than it solves.
2. There should be just one world religion.
3. Religion should be the most important things in our lives.
4. Money is the new religion.
5. Religion will always be used as an excuse for war.
6. Religious leaders are not doing a very good job.
7. Religious studies should be an important subject at schools.
8. Religion should guide government policy and constitutions.

6. QUICK DEBATE: Students A think religion will save the world. Students B think religion will continue to divide the world. Change partners often.

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

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

a.	A million people shook hands with the Pope in Germany.	T / F
b.	Hundreds of people camped out overnight to see the Pope.	T / F
c.	The Pope arrived by helicopter.	T / F
d.	The Pope spoke only in German and Latin.	T / F
e.	The Pope told young people to return to the basics of religion.	T / F
f.	The Pope asked people to buy consumer products wisely.	T / F
g.	The Pope loves doing DIY at the weekends.	T / F
h.	The Pope fears people will forget about God in modern society.	T / F

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

a.	open-air	wholeheartedly
b.	guarantee	fashions
c.	enthusiastically	closely
d.	participate	fundamental
e.	carefully	money
f.	delivered	outdoor
g.	basic	take part in
h.	trends	basically
i.	a profit	make sure
j.	ultimately	gave

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

a.	an open-air	getting close to the Pope
b.	people camped	product
c.	guarantee their chance of	carefully
d.	The pilgrims	message to young people
e.	the crowds listened	a profit from it
f.	The Pope delivered a strong	mass
g.	follow trends	cheered enthusiastically
h.	consumer	modern society
i.	able to make	out overnight
j.	throughout	in society

WHILE READING / LISTENING

SYNONYM FILL: Place the number of the synonym group in the correct gap (It is not important to guess a correct word - any of the synonyms from each group could be put into the relevant gap).

1 million greet Pope in Germany

Pope Benedict XVI ____ an open-air mass to more than one million young Roman Catholics on Sunday. Hundreds of thousands of people camped out overnight to ____ their chance of getting close to the Pope and hear his words. The pilgrims cheered ____ when the Pope arrived in the traditional popemobile. People had come from almost 200 different countries to ____ in the World Youth Day celebration. The Pope spoke in four different languages and the crowds listened carefully to each of them.

The Pope ____ a strong message to young people about returning to the basic values of religion. He spoke about the dangers of new religions that only follow ____ in society. He said: “If it is pushed too far, religion becomes almost a consumer product. People choose what they like, and some are even able to make a profit from it.” He ____: “Religion ____ on a do-it-yourself basis cannot ultimately help us.” He said he was worried about a “strange forgetfulness of God” throughout modern society.
 

1 guarantee make sure make certain ensure	2 trends fads fashions crazes	3 delivered sent gave expressed	4 constructed made built assembled
5 participate take part join share	6 gave held celebrated conducted	7 warned cautioned urged advised	8 enthusiastically wholeheartedly eagerly passionately

AFTER READING / LISTENING

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

• 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. SYNOMYM FILL: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the words from the synonym fill. Were they new, interesting, worth learning…?

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

5. STUDENT “RELIGION” SURVEY: In pairs / groups, write down questions about religion.

• Ask other classmates your questions and note down their answers.
• Go back to your original partner / group and compare your findings.
• Make mini-presentations to other groups 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:

mass overnight cheered participate spoke carefully

message dangers pushed profit do-it-yourself forgetfulness

DISCUSSION

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

1. What did you think when you first read this headline?
2. Did the headline make you want to read the article?
3. What do you think of Pope Benedict XVI?
4. Would you camp out overnight to hear a religious leader?
5. Are religious leaders important to you?
6. How important is religion to you?
7. Do you think there are dangers in do-it-yourself religions?
8. Do religions and churches need to change to match modern society?
9. What do you think of the Roman Catholic Church?
10. Is there a “forgetfulness of God” in modern society?

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

1. Did you like reading this article?
2. What do you think about what you read?
3. Would you like to be more religious?
4. Do you think there would be fewer wars without religions?
5. Do you think religion can be dangerous?
6. Why do people believe so strongly in just one religion?
7. Do you think it’s realistic that people in the 21^st century should follow values created thousands of years ago?
8. Do you think it’s wrong for people to make money from religion?
9. Do you think religion should play a bigger part in education, government and constitutions?
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

ONE RELIGION: You are a committee member of the new World Religion Council. Just one religion will replace all others. In pairs / groups, discuss the basic values of the new religion.

Point	Basic values – Your ideas
Worship
Family  planning
Women
Prayer
After death
Capitalism
Law and  punishment
Education

Change partners and show each other your ideas for your new religion.

LISTENING

Listen and fill in the spaces.

1 million greet Pope in Germany

Pope Benedict XVI gave an _____-____ mass to more than one million young Roman Catholics on Sunday. Hundreds of thousands of people _______ out overnight to guarantee their _______ of getting close to the Pope and hear his words. The pilgrims _______ enthusiastically when the Pope arrived in the traditional popemobile. People had come from almost 200 different countries to __________ in the World Youth Day celebration. The Pope spoke in four different languages and the crowds listened __________ to each of them.

The Pope __________ a strong message to young people about returning to the basic values of __________. He spoke about the dangers of new religions that only follow __________ in society. He said: “If it is pushed too far, religion becomes almost a __________ product. People choose what they like, and some are even able to make a profit from it.” He warned: “Religion __________ on a do-it-yourself basis cannot ultimately help us.” He said he was worried about a “strange __________ of God” throughout modern society.

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 Pope Benedict XVI. Share your findings with your class in the next lesson.

3. LETTER: Write a letter to Pope Benedict XVI. Tell him what you think of his belief that people should live their lives in the way Jesus Christ taught. Read your letters to your classmates in your next lesson. Did you all write about similar things?

4. RELIGION: Create a poster comparing two of the world’s religions. Show your posters to your classmates in your next lesson. Did you all find out similar things?

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a. F

b. T

c. F

d. F

e. T

f. F

g. F

h. T

SYNONYM MATCH:

a.	open-air	outdoor
b.	guarantee	make sure
c.	enthusiastically	wholeheartedly
d.	participate	take part in
e.	carefully	closely
f.	delivered	gave
g.	basic	fundamental
h.	trends	fashions
i.	a profit	money
j.	ultimately	basically

PHRASE MATCH:

a.	an open-air	mass
b.	people camped	out overnight
c.	guarantee their chance of	getting close to the Pope
d.	The pilgrims	cheered enthusiastically
e.	the crowds listened	carefully
f.	The Pope delivered a strong	message to young people
g.	follow trends	in society
h.	consumer	product
i.	able to make	a profit from it
j.	throughout	modern society

SYNONYM FILL:

1 million greet Pope in Germany

BNE: Pope Benedict XVI ---6--- an open-air mass to more than one million young Roman Catholics on Sunday. Hundreds of thousands of people camped out overnight to ---1--- their chance of getting close to the Pope and hear his words. The pilgrims cheered ---8--- when the Pope arrived in the traditional popemobile. People had come from almost 200 different countries to ---5--- in the World Youth Day celebration. The Pope spoke in four different languages and the crowds listened carefully to each of them.

The Pope ---3--- a strong message to young people about returning to the basic values of religion. He spoke about the dangers of new religions that only follow ---2--- in society. He said: “If it is pushed too far, religion becomes almost a consumer product. People choose what they like, and some are even able to make a profit from it.” He ---7---: “Religion ---4--- on a do-it-yourself basis cannot ultimately help us.” He said he was worried about a “strange forgetfulness of God” throughout modern society.

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