A newly published report says that girls should eat breakfast every day if they want to stay slim. Researchers from America’s Maryland Medical Research Institute followed the eating habits and weight of nearly 2,400 girls throughout their adolescence. This ten-year period is a time when “girls put on a lot of weight”, according to lead researcher Bruce Barton. The conclusion of the findings was that teenage girls who ate cereal for breakfast three times a week or more were more likely to stay slim.

A press release from the Journal of the American Dietetic Association reports that “cereal consumption had positive effects on the girls”. This is because cereals contain high levels of calcium and fiber and low levels of fat and cholesterol. The researchers suggest that there are other reasons why eating cereal may help girls stay slimmer. One factor is that other healthy things are usually consumed with cereal, such as milk and juice. Researchers also concluded that cereals help girls to get the right amounts of nutrients.

WARM-UPS

1. BREAKFAST: In pairs / groups, talk about breakfast. Is it the most important meal of the day? Do you ever skip breakfast? Which of these things would you like to eat in the morning?

Cereal Eggs Rice Toast

Pancakes Seaweed Curry Fish

2. HEALTHY WEIGHT: What should teenagers do to stay at a healthy weight? Talk about the following:

Breakfast Lunch time Exercise Weekends

Television and computer games Fast food Dieting Pills

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

Girls / breakfast / staying slim / eating habits / adolescence / weight gain / cereal / nutrients / cholesterol / milk / juice

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

4. TEENAGE GIRLS: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with teenage girls. 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 teenagers and weight? Talk about them with your partner(s).

1. People worry too much about kids’ weight.
2. Parents are to blame for overweight kids.
3. Food companies should be more responsible and stop selling unhealthy food.
4. Kids shouldn’t worry about their weight.
5. Cereals are boring.
6. It’s difficult to make sure kids get a good breakfast in today’s busy world.
7. Kids should eat breakfast with their family.
8. Kids want to eat the delicious things they see on television.

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 new diet breakfast cereal has become popular with girls.	T / F
b.	Researchers followed the eating habits of 2,400 girls for ten years.	T / F
c.	Adolescence is not a time when girls put on weight.	T / F
d.	Girls must eat cereal every day to stay slim.	T / F
e.	Cereal consumption had positive effects on the girls.	T / F
f.	Cereal is very high in cholesterol.	T / F
g.	Milk and juice must be drunk with cereal for people to lose weight.	T / F
h.	Cereal consumption helps girls get the right amounts of nutrients.	T / F

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

a.	newly	tracked
b.	stay	factors
c.	followed	remain
d.	adolescence	head
e.	lead	beneficial
f.	press	taken
g.	positive	recently
h.	reasons	quantities
i.	consumed	youth
j.	amounts	media

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

a.	A newly	slim
b.	they want to stay	of the findings
c.	girls put	amounts of nutrients
d.	The conclusion	effects on the girls
e.	more likely	eating cereal may help
f.	press	high levels of calcium
g.	cereal consumption had positive	published report
h.	cereals contain	release
i.	there are other reasons why	on a lot of weight
j.	cereals help girls to get the right	to stay slim

WHILE READING / LISTENING

GAP FILL: Put the words in the column on the right into the gaps in the text.

Breakfast helps girls stay slim

A newly ________ report says that girls should eat breakfast every day if they want to ________ slim. Researchers from America’s Maryland Medical Research Institute ________ the eating habits and ________ of nearly 2,400 girls throughout their adolescence. This ten-year ________ is a time when “girls ________ on a lot of weight”, according to lead researcher Bruce Barton. The ________ of the findings was that teenage girls who ate cereal for breakfast three times a week or more were more ________ to stay slim.		period conclusion stay weight likely published put followed
A press ________ from the Journal of the American Dietetic Association reports that “cereal consumption had ________ effects on the girls”. This is because cereals ________ high levels of calcium and fiber and low levels of ________ and cholesterol. The researchers ________ that there are other reasons why eating cereal may help girls stay slimmer. One ________ is that other healthy things are usually ________ with cereal, such as milk and juice. Researchers also concluded that cereals help girls to get the right ________ of nutrients.		contain consumed positive factor release suggest amounts fat

AFTER READING / LISTENING

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

• 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. GAP FILL: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the words from the gap 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 “BREAKFAST” SURVEY: In pairs / groups, write down questions about breakfast, teenage diets and weight loss.

• 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:

newly stay followed period lead likely

press positive cholesterol factor juice right

DISCUSSION

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

1. What did you think when you first saw this headline?
2. Did the headline make you want to read the article?
3. Do you like breakfast cereals?
4. What do you usually have for breakfast?
5. What would you like to eat for breakfast?
6. How have your breakfast eating habits changed over the years?
7. Do you think breakfast is the most important meal of the day?
8. Do you think it is important to eat breakfast with your family?
9. Why do you think many children do not eat healthier breakfasts?

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. Are teenage girls overweight in your country?
4. Do kids have a busier lifestyle now than 10 or 20 years ago?
5. Do you think it’s easy to get adolescents to change their eating habits?
6. How nutritious is the breakfast you eat?
7. Did you worry about your weight or your figure when you were fifteen years old?
8. What do you think about the size and length of this study?
9. 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

MY DIET

How healthy is your daily diet?

Write what you usually eat every day in the “food eaten” column. In pairs / groups, discuss how healthy this food is. Partners must suggest a healthier replacement. Talk about whether you will change to this healthier replacement.

FOOD EATEN	HEALTH VALUE	HEALTHIER REPLACEMENT	CHANGE?
Breakfast
Mid-morning snack
Lunch
Afternoon snack
Dinner
Evening snack

Change partners and report what you heard from your first partners. Did people give the same answers?

LISTENING

Listen and fill in the spaces.

Breakfast helps girls stay slim

A _______ published report says that girls should eat breakfast every day if they want to stay _______. Researchers from America’s Maryland Medical Research Institute _______ the eating habits and weight of nearly 2,400 girls throughout their adolescence. This ten-year _______ is a time when “girls put on a lot of weight”, according to lead researcher Bruce Barton. The conclusion of the _______ was that teenage girls who ate cereal for breakfast three times a week or more were more _______ to stay slim.

A press _______ from the Journal of the American Dietetic Association reports that “cereal consumption had _______ effects on the girls”. This is because cereals _______ high levels of calcium and fiber and low levels of fat and cholesterol. The researchers _______ that there are other reasons why eating cereal may help girls stay slimmer. One _______ is that other healthy things are usually consumed with cereal, such as milk and juice. Researchers also _______ that cereals help girls to get the right amounts of nutrients.

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 the different things people eat for breakfast around the world. Share your findings with your class in the next lesson.

3. NUTRITION POSTER: Make a poster showing the healthiest breakfast adolescents can eat. Show your posters to your classmates in your next lesson. Did you all include similar things in your breakfast choice?

4. DIET RECORD: Keep a record of what you eat over a three-day period. Write a short report on how healthy this food is. Show your findings to your classmates in your next lesson. Who had the healthiest diet?

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a. F

b. T

c. F

d. F

e. T

f. F

g. F

h. T

SYNONYM MATCH:

a.	newly	recently
b.	stay	remain
c.	followed	tracked
d.	adolescence	youth
e.	lead	head
f.	press	media
g.	positive	beneficial
h.	reasons	factors
i.	consumed	taken
j.	amounts	quantities

PHRASE MATCH:

a.	A newly	published report
b.	they want to stay	slim
c.	girls put	on a lot of weight
d.	The conclusion	of the findings
e.	more likely	to stay slim
f.	press	release
g.	cereal consumption had positive	effects on the girls
h.	cereals contain	high levels of calcium
i.	there are other reasons why	eating cereal may help
j.	cereals help girls to get the right	amounts of nutrients

GAP FILL:

Breakfast helps girls stay slim

A newly published report says that girls should eat breakfast every day if they want to stay slim. Researchers from America’s Maryland Medical Research Institute followed the eating habits and weight of nearly 2,400 girls throughout their adolescence. This ten-year period is a time when “girls put on a lot of weight”, according to lead researcher Bruce Barton. The conclusion of the findings was that teenage girls who ate cereal for breakfast three times a week or more were more likely to stay slim.

A press release from the Journal of the American Dietetic Association reports that “cereal consumption had positive effects on the girls”. This is because cereals contain high levels of calcium and fiber and low levels of fat and cholesterol. The researchers suggest that there are other reasons why eating cereal may help girls stay slimmer. One factor is that other healthy things are usually consumed with cereal, such as milk and juice. Researchers also concluded that cereals help girls to get the right amounts of nutrients.

TOP