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Date: Oct 30, 2005
Level: Harder (Try the easier lesson.) Downloads: Word Doc | PDF Doc | Listening Audio: (1:46 - 207.2 KB - 16kbps)
THE ARTICLEChina’s government has announced it will reform its system of capital punishment by ensuring the Supreme Court reviews all death sentences. This transfers ultimate decision making for capital punishment out of the hands of provincial courts, which have all too often been responsible for wrongly executing innocent people. The new judicial process should reduce the instances of miscarriages of justice from taking place. Several mistaken executions exposed recently prompted the latest review, which could reduce the total number of death sentences by a third. The president of the Supreme People’s Court, Chief Justice Xiao Yang, said: “As few executions as possible should be carried out and as cautiously as possible, to avoid wrongful executions.” China executes more people each year than all other countries combined. Chinese authorities refuse to reveal actual numbers, but Amnesty International estimates more than 3,400 people were executed last year and a further 6,000 sentenced to death. Amnesty claims many of these were wrongly executed. One such case recently came to light, sixteen years after the execution took place. The supposed victim of a man executed by firing squad was found alive and in prison. Mr. Yang insisted that capital punishment must be imposed fairly to avoid error. He said: “The death sentence is the most serious level of penalty for criminals. It is reserved for felons guilty of the most atrocious crimes.” WARM-UPS1. MY COUNTRY: In pairs / groups, talk about the system of justice in your country. Is it effective? Does it prevent crime? Does it make society safer? What measures or changes would you like to see introduced. 2. DEATH PENALTY METHODS: In pairs / groups, talk about the following methods of capital punishment that are used around the world. What is the worst thing about each method?
3. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words are most interesting and which are most boring.
Have a chat about the topics you liked. For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently. 4. DEATH PENALTY: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the death penalty. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories. 5. AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: Discuss the following statement from Amnesty International about the death penalty: “The death penalty is the ultimate, irreversible denial of human rights. By working towards the abolition of the death penalty worldwide, Amnesty International…looks to end the cycle of violence created by a system riddled with economic and racial bias and tainted by human error.” 6. TWO-MINUTE DEBATES: Debate each of the arguments about the death penalty below with a partner for just two minutes, before moving on to the next partner and debate. Student A agrees with the first argument, Student B, the second.
BEFORE READING / LISTENING1. 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):
AFTER READING / LISTENINGGAP FILL: Put the words in the column on the right into the gaps in the text. China’s death penalty reform
LISTENINGListen and fill in the spaces. China’s death penalty reformChina’s government has announced it will reform its system of capital punishment ___ _________ the Supreme Court reviews all death sentences. This transfers ultimate decision making for capital punishment out ___ ____ ______ of provincial courts, which have ___ ____ ______ been responsible for wrongly executing innocent people. The new judicial process should reduce the _________ of miscarriages of justice from taking place. Several mistaken executions exposed recently __________ the latest review, which could reduce the total number of death sentences by a third. The president of the Supreme People’s Court, ______ __________ Xiao Yang, said: “As few executions as possible should be carried out and as cautiously as possible, to avoid _________ executions.” China executes more people each year than all other countries _________. Chinese authorities _______ ___ _______ actual numbers, but Amnesty International estimates more than 3,400 people were executed last year and a further 6,000 sentenced to death. Amnesty claims many of these were wrongly executed. One such case recently _____ ___ ______, sixteen years after the execution took place. The ___________ victim of a man executed by firing squad was found alive and in prison. Mr. Yang insisted that capital punishment must be ___________ fairly to avoid error. He said: “The death sentence is the most serious level of penalty for criminals. It is reserved for ___________ guilty of the most ___________ crimes.” AFTER READING / LISTENING1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘death’ and ‘penalty’.
2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.
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 “DEATH PENALTY” SURVEY: In pairs / groups, write down questions about the death penalty.
6. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall exactly how these were used in the text:
DISCUSSIONSTUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)
STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)
AFTER DISCUSSION: Join another partner / group and tell them what you talked about.
SPEAKINGCRIME AND PUNISHMENT: In pairs / groups, discuss and agree on the correct punishment for people found guilty of each of the following crimes:
Change partners and show each other what punishments you decided. If your ideas are different, compromise and agree on a new, jointly decided punishment. Discuss what your government(s) might think of your punishments. Give a presentation of your punishments and reasoning to the rest of the class. Vote on the best presentations. HOMEWORK1. 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 capital punishment around the world. Share your findings with your class in the next lesson. Did you all find out similar things? 3. PROS AND CONS: Make a poster outlining the pros and cons of capital punishment. Show your posters to your classmates in your next lesson. Did you all find similar things? Discuss the pros and cons together. 4. LETTER: You are a relative of the man in the article who was wrongly executed sixteen years ago. Write a letter to the government about your feelings towards his death and of the system of capital punishment. Show what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all write about similar things? ANSWERSTRUE / FALSE:
SYNONYM MATCH:
PHRASE MATCH:
GAP FILL: China’s death penalty reformChina’s government has announced it will reform its system of capital punishment by ensuring the Supreme Court reviews all death sentences. This transfers ultimate decision making for capital punishment out of the hands of provincial courts, which have all too often been responsible for wrongly executing innocent people. The new judicial process should reduce the instances of miscarriages of justice from taking place. Several mistaken executions exposed recently prompted the latest review, which could reduce the total number of death sentences by a third. The president of the Supreme People’s Court, Chief Justice Xiao Yang, said: “As few executions as possible should be carried out and as cautiously as possible, to avoid wrongful executions.” China executes more people each year than all other countries combined. Chinese authorities refuse to reveal actual numbers, but Amnesty International estimates more than 3,400 people were executed last year and a further 6,000 sentenced to death. Amnesty claims many of these were wrongly executed. One such case recently came to light, sixteen years after the execution took place. The supposed victim of a man executed by firing squad was found alive and in prison. Mr. Yang insisted that capital punishment must be imposed fairly to avoid error. He said: “The death sentence is the most serious level of penalty for criminals. It is reserved for felons guilty of the most atrocious crimes.”
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