Breaking News English ESL Lesson Plan on Chocolate

A study carried out in Germany has found that chocolate may be good for your heart. This is fantastic news for all chocolate lovers. The extensive research was conducted over eight years. The research team followed the chocolate-eating habits and health of almost 20,000 people. They compared how much chocolate was in their diet to the number of heart attacks and strokes people had. Lead researcher Brian Buijsse said: "The good news is that chocolate is not as bad as we used to think, and may even lower the risk of heart disease and stroke." Mr Buijsse said his team found that dark chocolate was the healthiest kind to eat: "Dark chocolate exhibits the greatest effects, milk chocolate fewer, and white chocolate no effects," he said.

The German study showed that people who ate the most chocolate (at least one bar per week) reduced their risk of having a heart attack by 27 per cent. The risk of suffering a stroke was cut by as much as 48 per cent. Nutrition experts believe that natural compounds in chocolate called flavonols are good for our heart. Flavonols also help reduce blood pressure. They are found in cocoa beans so dark chocolate (which has more cocoa) contains more of them than milk chocolate (which has more fat). Buijsse warns people not to suddenly eat lots of chocolate: "Eating higher amounts will most likely result in weight gain. If people start eating small amounts of chocolate, it should replace something else, preferably other high-calorie sweets or snacks."

WARM-UPS

1. CHOCOLATE: Walk around the class and talk to other students about chocolate. Change partners often. Sit with your first partner(s) and share your findings.

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

studies / fantastic news / research / diet / heart attacks / milk chocolate / risks / suffering a stroke / nutrition / blood pressure / weight gain / calories / sweets / snack

Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently.

3. NAUGHTY BUT NICE: Complete this table. Talk with your partner(s) about what you wrote. Change partners and share what you heard.

Things	Good / Bad (why)	These things in my life
Chocolate
Television
Fast food
Coffee / Cola
Spending lots of money
Gossip

4. HEALTH: Students A strongly believe that one day, we will all eat very healthily; Students B strongly believe the opposite. Change partners again and talk about your conversations.

5. HEALTHY: Are these healthy? Rate them and share your ratings with your partner: 10 = Super healthy 1 = Will send you to an early grave Change partners and share again.

chocolate
KFC
cheese
red wine

raw fish (sushi / sashimi)
pizza
ice cream
coffee

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

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

1. TRUE / FALSE: Read the headline. Guess if a-h below are true (T) or false (F).

a.	The article says German chocolate is the healthiest in the world.	T / F
b.	A study looked at 20,000 people over an eight-year period.	T / F
c.	Researchers followed people who were on a chocolate diet.	T / F
d.	Researchers found white chocolate helped reduce heart attacks.	T / F
e.	Chocolate cut the chances of strokes more than heart attacks.	T / F
f.	Chemicals in chocolate called flavonols are not found in nature.	T / F
g.	The lead researcher warned people not to eat too much chocolate.	T / F
h.	The researcher suggested replacing sweets with chocolate.	T / F

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

1.	found	a.	chance
2	fantastic	b.	experiencing
3.	extensive	c.	cut
4.	risk	d.	volumes
5.	exhibits	e.	discovered
6.	reduced	f.	wide-ranging
7.	suffering	g.	mixtures
8.	compounds	h.	wonderful
9.	amounts	i.	if possible
10.	preferably	j.	shows

3. PHRASE MATCH: (Sometimes more than one choice is possible.)

1.	chocolate may	a.	of heart disease
2	This is fantastic news for	b.	called flavonols
3.	They compared how much chocolate	c.	eat lots of chocolate
4.	lower the risk	d.	be good for your heart
5.	dark chocolate was the healthiest	e.	stroke was cut
6.	at least one	f.	sweets or snacks
7.	The risk of suffering a	g.	was in their diet
8.	natural compounds in chocolate	h.	kind to eat
9.	Buijsse warns people not to suddenly	i.	bar per week
10.	other high-calorie	j.	all chocolate lovers

WHILE READING / LISTENING

GAP FILL: Put the words into the gaps in the text.

A study ____________ out in Germany has found that chocolate may be good for your heart. This is ____________ news for all chocolate ____________. The extensive research was conducted over eight years. The research team followed the chocolate-eating ____________ and health of almost 20,000 people. They compared how much chocolate was in their ____________ to the number of heart attacks and strokes people had. Lead researcher Brian Buijsse said: "The good news is that chocolate is not as bad as we used to think, and may even lower the ____________ of heart disease and stroke.” Mr Buijsse said his team found that dark chocolate was the healthiest ____________ to eat: "Dark chocolate exhibits the ____________ effects, milk chocolate fewer, and white chocolate no effects," he said.

diet
lovers
kind
carried
greatest
habits
fantastic
risk

The German study showed that people who ate the most chocolate (at ____________ one bar per week) reduced their risk of having a heart attack by 27 per cent. The risk of suffering a stroke was ____________ by as much as 48 per cent. Nutrition ____________ believe that natural compounds in chocolate called flavonols are good for our heart. Flavonols also help reduce blood ____________. They are found in cocoa beans so dark chocolate (which has more cocoa) ____________ more of them than milk chocolate (which has more fat). Buijsse warns people not to ____________ eat lots of chocolate: "Eating higher amounts will most likely result in weight ____________. If people start eating small amounts of chocolate, it should replace something ____________, preferably other high-calorie sweets or snacks."

suddenly
cut
pressure
else
experts
least
gain
contains

LISTENING – Listen and fill in the gaps

______________________ Germany has found that chocolate may be good for your heart. This is fantastic news for all chocolate lovers. The extensive research was conducted over eight years. The research team followed the chocolate-______________________ of almost 20,000 people. They compared how much chocolate was in ______________________ of heart attacks and strokes people had. Lead researcher Brian Buijsse said: "The good news is that chocolate ______________________ used to think, and may even ______________________ disease and stroke.” Mr Buijsse said his team found that dark chocolate was the healthiest kind to eat: "Dark chocolate ______________________, milk chocolate fewer, and white chocolate no effects," he said.

The German study showed that ______________________ chocolate (at least one bar per week) reduced their risk of having a heart attack by 27 per cent. The risk of suffering a stroke ______________________ 48 per cent. Nutrition experts believe that natural compounds in chocolate called flavonols ______________________. Flavonols also help reduce blood pressure. They are found in cocoa beans so dark chocolate (which has more cocoa) ______________________ than milk chocolate (which has more fat). Buijsse warns people ______________________ lots of chocolate: "Eating higher amounts will most likely result in weight gain. If people start ______________________ chocolate, it should replace something else, preferably other high-calorie sweets or snacks."

AFTER READING / LISTENING

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

heart

attack

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. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall how they were used in the text:

carried
lovers
diet
bad
healthiest
milk

least
risk
blood
suddenly
gain
calorie

STUDENT CHOCOLATE SURVEY

Write five GOOD questions about chocolate in the table. Do this in pairs. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper.

When you have finished, interview other students. Write down their answers.

	STUDENT 1 _____________	STUDENT 2 _____________	STUDENT 3 _____________
Q.1.
Q.2.
Q.3.
Q.4.
Q.5.

Now return to your original partner and share and talk about what you found out. Change partners often.
Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

CHOCOLATE DISCUSSION

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

a)	What did you think when you read the headline?
b)	What springs to mind when you hear the word ‘chocolate’?
c)	How important is chocolate in your life?
d)	Will you eat more chocolate if it’s healthy for you?
e)	What do you think of this research?
f)	Do you prefer dark, milk or white chocolate (why)?
g)	Have you changed your chocolate-eating habits since you were a child?
h)	What part does chocolate play in your country’s culture?
i)	Can you describe how you eat chocolate (what happens in your mouth)?
j)	What’s the best chocolate in the world?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

a)	Did you like reading this article?
b)	Do you think the study in this article is an important one?
c)	Do you ever worry about eating chocolate?
d)	Do you think it’s OK to give chocolate to children?
e)	What other benefits are there of eating chocolate?
f)	What’s your favourite chocolate dessert (and why)?
g)	What’s the most you’d pay for a bar of chocolate?
h)	Will you now eat more dark chocolate instead of other sweets and snacks?
i)	Why is chocolate so nice (or not nice)?
j)	What questions would you like to ask Brian Buijsse?

LANGUAGE – MULTIPLE CHOICE

A study carried (1) ____ in Germany has found that chocolate may be good for your heart. This is fantastic news for all chocolate lovers. The extensive research was conducted (2) ____ eight years. The research team followed the chocolate-eating habits and health of almost 20,000 people. They compared how much chocolate was in their (3) ____ to the number of heart attacks and strokes people had. Lead researcher Brian Buijsse said: "The good news is that chocolate is not as bad as we used to think, and may even (4) ____ the risk of heart disease and stroke.” Mr Buijsse said his team found that dark chocolate was the healthiest kind to eat: "Dark chocolate (5) ____ the greatest effects, milk chocolate (6) ____, and white chocolate no effects," he said.

The German study showed that people who ate the most chocolate (at least one (7) ____ per week) reduced their risk of having a heart attack by 27 per cent. The risk of suffering a stroke was cut by as (8) ____ as 48 per cent. Nutrition experts believe that natural compounds in chocolate called flavonols are good for our heart. Flavonols also help reduce blood pressure. They are found in cocoa beans (9) ____ dark chocolate (which has more cocoa) contains more of them than milk chocolate (which has more fat). Buijsse warns people (10) ____ to suddenly eat lots of chocolate: "Eating higher amounts will most (11) ____ result in weight gain. If people start eating small amounts of chocolate, it should replace something else, (12) ____ other high-calorie sweets or snacks."

Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.

1.	(a)	in	(b)	on	(c)	out	(d)	up
2.	(a)	under	(b)	around	(c)	above	(d)	over
3.	(a)	diet	(b)	food	(c)	weight	(d)	nutrition
4.	(a)	low	(b)	lower	(c)	lowly	(d)	lows
5.	(a)	exhibition	(b)	exhibits	(c)	exhibited	(d)	exhibit
6.	(a)	fewer	(b)	lower	(c)	least	(d)	last
7.	(a)	par	(b)	ear	(c)	bar	(d)	tar
8.	(a)	more	(b)	many	(c)	most	(d)	much
9.	(a)	so	(b)	as	(c)	such	(d)	should
10.	(a)	now	(b)	no	(c)	not	(d)	non
11.	(a)	liked	(b)	likely	(c)	likelihood	(d)	likes
12.	(a)	prefer	(b)	preference	(c)	prefers	(d)	preferably

WRITING

Write about chocolate for 10 minutes. Correct your partner’s paper.

_____________________________________________________________________________

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 out more about chocolate and health. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.

3. CHOCOLATE: Make a poster about chocolate around the world. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things?

4. CHOCOLATE LOVERS: Write a magazine article about two people who love chocolate. Include imaginary interviews with them.

Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Write down any new words and expressions you hear from your partner(s).

5. LETTER: Write a letter to a chocolate expert. Ask him/her three questions about chocolate. Give him/her three of your favorite chocolate stories. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

SYNONYM MATCH:

1.	found	a.	discovered
2	fantastic	b.	wonderful
3.	extensive	c.	wide-ranging
4.	risk	d.	chance
5.	exhibits	e.	shows
6.	reduced	f.	cut
7.	suffering	g.	experiencing
8.	compounds	h.	mixtures
9.	amounts	i.	volumes
10.	preferably	j.	if possible

PHRASE MATCH:

1.	chocolate may	a.	be good for your heart
2	This is fantastic news for	b.	all chocolate lovers
3.	They compared how much chocolate	c.	was in their diet
4.	lower the risk	d.	of heart disease
5.	dark chocolate was the healthiest	e.	kind to eat
6.	at least one	f.	bar per week
7.	The risk of suffering a	g.	stroke was cut
8.	natural compounds in chocolate	h.	called flavonols
9.	Buijsse warns people not to suddenly	i.	eat lots of chocolate
10.	other high-calorie	j.	sweets or snacks

GAP FILL:

Chocolate is good for your heart

A study carried out in Germany has found that chocolate may be good for your heart. This is fantastic news for all chocolate lovers. The extensive research was conducted over eight years. The research team followed the chocolate-eating habits and health of almost 20,000 people. They compared how much chocolate was in their diet to the number of heart attacks and strokes people had. Lead researcher Brian Buijsse said: "The good news is that chocolate is not as bad as we used to think, and may even lower the risk of heart disease and stroke.” Mr Buijsse said his team found that dark chocolate was the healthiest kind to eat: "Dark chocolate exhibits the greatest effects, milk chocolate fewer, and white chocolate no effects," he said.

The German study showed that people who ate the most chocolate (at least one bar per week) reduced their risk of having a heart attack by 27 per cent. The risk of suffering a stroke was cut by as much as 48 per cent. Nutrition experts believe that natural compounds in chocolate called flavonols are good for our heart. Flavonols also help reduce blood pressure. They are found in cocoa beans so dark chocolate (which has more cocoa) contains more of them than milk chocolate (which has more fat). Buijsse warns people not to suddenly eat lots of chocolate: "Eating higher amounts will most likely result in weight gain. If people start eating small amounts of chocolate, it should replace something else, preferably other high-calorie sweets or snacks."

LANGUAGE WORK

1 - c

2 - d

3 - a

4 - b

5 - b

6 - a

7 - c

8 - d

9 - a

10 - c

11 - b

12 - d

Breaking News English

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13-Page Class Handout
with all-skills activities

LISTEN

MP3 (2:00 - 1,000KB)

Chocolate Is Good For Your Heart (2nd April, 2010)

WARM-UPS

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

WHILE READING / LISTENING

LISTENING – Listen and fill in the gaps

AFTER READING / LISTENING

STUDENT CHOCOLATE SURVEY

CHOCOLATE DISCUSSION

LANGUAGE – MULTIPLE CHOICE

WRITING

HOMEWORK

ANSWERS

Chocolate is good for your heart

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Sean Banville's Book

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My 1,000 Ideas e-Book	Breaking News English HOME \| HELP MY SITE \| 000s MORE FREE LESSONS	My 1,000 Ideas e-Book

Breaking News English

PRINT

13-Page Class Handout with all-skills activities

LISTEN

MP3 (2:00 - 1,000KB)

Chocolate Is Good For Your Heart (2nd April, 2010)

WARM-UPS

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

WHILE READING / LISTENING

LISTENING – Listen and fill in the gaps

AFTER READING / LISTENING

STUDENT CHOCOLATE SURVEY

CHOCOLATE DISCUSSION

LANGUAGE – MULTIPLE CHOICE

WRITING

HOMEWORK

ANSWERS

Chocolate is good for your heart

Help Support This Web Site

Sean Banville's Book

Thank You

13-Page Class Handout
with all-skills activities