Breaking News English

1. THE INTERNET: What do you know about the Internet? Find out as much as you can from your partner. Change partners often to build up your information.

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

The Internet / problems / earthquakes / cables / Mother Nature / communication / ships / repairing things / the seabed / long distances / satellites / technology

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

3. UNCONNECTED: Imagine there is no Internet. Look at the points in the table. How would NO Internet change these things?

Writing to friends Music Reading the news Studying

Shopping Finding information Hobbies Other _____________

4. QUICK DEBATE: Students A believe we need the Internet in our lives. Students B believe we don’t need the Internet. Debate this with your partners. Change partners often.

5. BEING WITHOUT:  In pairs / groups, finish these sentence starters. Change partner(s) and talk about what you wrote.

a.    Being without the Internet ________________________________________

b.    Being without George W. Bush as US President ________________________

c.    Being without McDonalds and Coca Cola ______________________________

d.    Being without wars ______________________________________________

e.    Being without music _____________________________________________

f.     Being without (your choice) _______________________________________

6. EARTHQUAKE: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with earthquakes. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

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 volcano damaged Internet connections for people in Asia.	T / F
b.	Six out of seven underwater Internet cables broke.	T / F
c.	Mother Nature helped people around the world to communicate.	T / F
d.	International financial markets suffered a lot of serious damage.	T / F
e.	One of the damaged Internet cables links South Korea with Europe.	T / F
f.	It is not an easy job to fix underwater Internet cables.	T / F
g.	Many people in Asia will be without the Internet for up to a week.	T / F
h.	Using satellite technology is cheaper for telecom companies.	T / F

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

a.	experiencing	mess
b.	following	go back
c.	linked	area
d.	chaos	facing
e.	region	costly
f.	repair	extends
g.	stretches	joined
h.	cause	fix
i.	return	after
j.	expensive	make

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

a.	still experiencing	Nature
b.	it broke six of	to normal
c.	Mother	their way to repair the cables
d.	people could not even use an ATM	seven undersea Internet cables
e.	markets escaped serious damage as	or washed away
f.	Several ships are now on	problems
g.	the ends of the cables may be buried	to withdraw cash
h.	move long	as possible are connected
i.	return	many traders were on holidays
j.	make sure as many people	distances under the sea

WHILE READING / LISTENING

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

Internet chaos in Asia
 

The Internet in Asia is ______ experiencing problems following the earthquake off southern Taiwan last week. Although the quake caused ______ damage to buildings and roads, it broke six of seven undersea Internet cables. As a ______, millions of people in the Asia-Pacific region could not use the Internet. The damaged cables ______ countries in North and Southeast Asia to ______ other, and to North America and Australia. The powerful magnitude 6.7 quake showed how ______ Mother Nature can bring chaos to international communication. Banking services ______ the region were badly hit and millions of people could not even use an ATM to withdraw cash. Financial markets escaped serious damage as many traders were on holidays ______ of the New Year.		easily result each ahead still linked across little
Several ships are now on their ______ to repair the cables. One damaged cable is the North Asian Loop – a 38,000-kilometre link that stretches from South Korea ______ India to Holland. Repairing it could be a very difficult job because the ends of the cables may be buried or washed ______. Earthquakes can create a lot of damage on the seabed. They can cause things to move ______ distances under the sea. Taiwanese officials have warned it could take ______ days or even a week to fix the problems. This means Internet access across most of Asia will not ______ to normal for a week or so. The cost of repairs for Asian telecommunication companies ______ be half a billion dollars. They are using more expensive satellite technology to make sure as ______ people as possible are connected.		could long around return way many away several

LISTENING

Listen and fill in the spaces.

Internet chaos in Asia

The Internet in Asia ____________ experiencing problems following the earthquake off southern Taiwan last week. Although the quake caused ____________ to buildings and roads, it broke ____________ undersea Internet cables. As a result, millions of people in the Asia-Pacific region could not use the Internet. The damaged cables linked countries in North and Southeast Asia ____________, and to North America and Australia. The powerful magnitude 6.7 quake showed how easily Mother Nature can ____________ international communication. Banking services across the region ____________ and millions of people could not even use an ATM to withdraw cash. Financial markets escaped serious damage as many traders were on holidays ____________  New Year.

Several ships are now ____________ to repair the cables. One damaged cable is the North Asian Loop – a 38,000-kilometre link that stretches from South Korea around India to Holland. Repairing it could be a very difficult job because ____________  cables may be buried or washed away. Earthquakes ____________  lot of damage on the seabed. They can cause things to move long distances under the sea. Taiwanese officials have warned it could take ____________  even a week to fix the problems. This means Internet access across most of Asia will not ____________  for a week or so. The cost of repairs for Asian telecommunication companies could be half a billion dollars. They are using more expensive satellite technology to make ____________ people as possible are connected.

AFTER READING / LISTENING

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

• 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 activity. 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 “INTERNET” SURVEY: In pairs / groups, write down questions about the Internet.

• 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:

·      still ·      roads ·      result ·      powerful ·      hit ·      ahead

·      way ·      buried ·      distances ·      normal ·      half ·      connected

DISCUSSION

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

a.    Did the headline make you want to read the article?

b.    Did anything in the article surprise you?

c.    What do you think of the Internet?

d.    Do you think the Internet is a good thing?

e.    How would the world be different without the Internet

f.     How do you think the Internet will develop?

g.    Do the older members of your family use the Internet?

h.    What would you like the Internet to do in the future?

i.      How important is the Internet in your life?

j.     What would you do if you could not use the Internet for a month?

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

a.    Did you like reading this article?

b.    What do you think about what you read?

c.    Are you surprised an earthquake could cause so much Internet chaos?

d.    What could happen if terrorists took control of the Internet?

e.    Which is better, writing e-mails or real letters?

f.     Do you think the Internet should be free?

g.    Have you experienced any chaos in your life?

h.    What do you think Mother Nature?

i.      What would you like Mother Nature to stop doing?

j.     Did you like this discussion?

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

a.    What was the most interesting thing you heard?

b.    Was there a question you didn’t like?

c.    Was there something you totally disagreed with?

d.    What did you like talking about?

e.    Which was the most difficult question?

SPEAKING

COMPUTER FREE: You are on the committee to make a better, computer free world. Make notes below on why the world would be better with/without PCs. Present your ideas to your group/class. Write a magazine article on your thoughts.

	This would be better / worse with computers
Family life
Studying
Eyesight
Letter writing
Health
Record keeping
Games
Your idea ______

LANGUAGE

CORRECT WORD: Choose the correct words from a – d below and write them in the article.

The Internet in Asia is (1) ______ experiencing problems following the earthquake off southern Taiwan last week. Although the quake caused
(2) ______ damage to buildings and roads, it broke six of seven undersea Internet cables. As a (3) ______, millions of people in the Asia-Pacific region could not use the Internet. The damaged cables linked countries in North and Southeast Asia to each other, and to North America and Australia. The powerful (4) ______ 6.7 quake showed how easily Mother Nature can bring (5) ______ to international communication. Banking services across the region were badly hit and millions of people could not (6) ______ use an ATM to withdraw cash. Financial markets escaped serious damage as many traders were on holidays ahead of the New Year.

Several ships are now on their (7) ______ to repair the cables. One damaged cable is the North Asian Loop – a 38,000 kilometre link that (8) ______ from South Korea around India to Holland. Repairing it could be a very difficult job because the ends of the cables may be buried or washed
(9) ______. Earthquakes can create a lot of damage on the seabed. They can cause things to move long distances under the sea. Taiwanese officials have warned it could take several days or even a week to fix the problems. This means Internet access across most of Asia will not (10) ______ to normal for a week or (11) ______. The cost of repairs for Asian telecommunication companies could be half a billion dollars. They are using more expensive satellite technology to (12) ______ sure as many people as possible are connected.

1.	(a)	yet	(b)	still	(c)	ago	(d)	gone
2.	(a)	tiny	(b)	few	(c)	little	(d)	small
3.	(a)	rest	(b)	resulting	(c)	results	(d)	result
4.	(a)	magnitude	(b)	magnify	(c)	magic	(d)	magnificent
5.	(a)	chaos	(b)	chase	(c)	chaotic	(d)	cha-cha-cha
6.	(a)	odd	(b)	even	(c)	flat	(d)	just
7.	(a)	wax	(b)	was	(c)	war	(d)	way
8.	(a)	stretcher	(b)	stretches	(c)	stretch	(d)	stretching
9.	(a)	a-to-z	(b)	about	(c)	away	(d)	around
10.	(a)	returns	(b)	return	(c)	returned	(d)	returning
11.	(a)	so	(b)	as	(c)	because	(d)	then
12.	(a)	make	(b)	create	(c)	cause	(d)	effect

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 about the Internet. Talk about what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.

3. EARTHQUAKES: Research two different earthquakes that happened around the world. Find five differences and five similarities between them. Make a poster using your findings

4. INTERNET LIFE: Write a story about how you could use the Internet to do everything you need to do in your life. Read your story to your classmates in the next lesson. Which story did you like best and why?

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a. F

b. T

c. F

d. F

e. T

f. T

g. T

h. F

SYNONYM MATCH:

a.	experiencing	facing
b.	following	after
c.	linked	joined
d.	chaos	mess
e.	region	area
f.	repair	fix
g.	stretches	extends
h.	cause	make
i.	return	go back
j.	expensive	costly

PHRASE MATCH:

a.	still experiencing	problems
b.	it broke six of	seven undersea Internet cables
c.	Mother	Nature
d.	people could not even use an ATM	to withdraw cash
e.	markets escaped serious damage as	many traders were on holidays
f.	Several ships are now on	their way to repair the cables
g.	the ends of the cables may be buried	or washed away
h.	move long	distances under the sea
i.	return	to normal
j.	make sure as many people	as possible are connected

GAP FILL:

Internet chaos in Asia

The Internet in Asia is still experiencing problems following the earthquake off southern Taiwan last week. Although the quake caused little damage to buildings and roads, it broke six of seven undersea Internet cables. As a result millions of people in the Asia-Pacific region could not use the Internet. The damaged cables linked countries in North and Southeast Asia to each other, and to North America and Australia. The powerful magnitude 6.7 quake showed how easily Mother Nature can bring chaos to international communication. Banking services across the region were badly hit and millions of people could not even use an ATM to withdraw cash. Financial markets escaped serious damage as many traders were on holidays ahead of the New Year.

Several ships are now on their way to repair the cables. One damaged cable is the North Asian Loop – a 38,000-kilometre link that stretches from South Korea around India to Holland. Repairing it could be a very difficult job because the ends of the cables may be buried or washed away. Earthquakes can create a lot of damage on the seabed. They can cause things to move long distances under the sea. Taiwanese officials have warned it could take several days or even a week to fix the problems. This means Internet access across most of Asia will not return to normal for a week or so. The cost of repairs for Asian telecommunication companies could be half a billion dollars. They are using more expensive satellite technology to make sure as many people as possible are connected.

LANGUAGE WORK

1 - b

2 - c

3 - d

4 - a

5 - a

6 - b

7 - d

8 - b

9 - c

10 - b

11 - a

12 - a

 

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