Breaking News English

        

WARM-UPS

1. 2011: Walk around the class and talk to other students about 2011. 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.

futurologists / experts / New Year / resolutions / environment / applications / spelling / quality time / texting / get fitter / promises / quitting smoking / helping others

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

3. RESOLUTIONS: What are yours? Complete this table and share it with your partner(s). Change partners and share again.

	Why?	Chances of success?
Study
Family & friends
Health
Money
Habits
Other

4. 2011: Students A strongly believe 2011 will be the best ever year; Students B strongly believe it won’t.  Change partners again and talk about your conversations.

5. PREDICTIONS: What are your for this year? Make some about these topics and share them with your partner. Change partners and share your and their predictions again.

money sport war my English

technology environment weather my country

6. BEST: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘best’. 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.	People who study the future predicted this year will be great.	T / F
b.	More poor people will no longer be poor.	T / F
c.	One expert predicted very bad things for the environment.	T / F
d.	A new solar-powered car called the Tesla will go on sale.	T / F
e.	The most common New Year’s resolution is to save more money.	T / F
f.	Many of us will try not to text or use mobile phones when with family.	T / F
g.	Experts believe many people will keep resolutions to get fit until June.	T / F
h.	Studying English more is an important resolution for many people.	T / F

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

1.	experts	a.	anticipated
2	predict	b.	appeared
3.	access to	c.	specialists
4.	awaited	d.	survey
5.	brush up on	e.	forecast
6.	poll	f.	instead of
7.	rather than	g.	improve
8.	resolve	h.	(the) use of
9.	featured	i.	keep
10.	stick to	j.	decide

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

1.	This is welcome	a.	applications
2	a greater number of people with access	b.	will resolve to do
3.	the world's largest solar	c.	of debt
4.	cool websites and	d.	our New Year’s resolutions
5.	brush up	e.	to computers
6.	It seems more of us will keep	f.	on spelling
7.	spend more quality	g.	news
8.	The second most popular thing we	h.	time with family
9.	many of us could	i.	power plant
10.	getting out	j.	keep this promise

WHILE READING / LISTENING

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

Futurologists and experts who study New Year’s resolutions ____________ 2011 will be the best year ever for many people. This is ____________ news for the billions around the world who hope this year will be better than last year. 2011 will see more people ____________ out of poverty and there will be a greater number of people with ____________ to computers. One expert ____________ forward to new developments that will help the environment. California will open the world's largest solar power ____________ and several electric cars will go on sale, including the much-awaited Tesla. It’s going to be a great year if you study English. There will be more ____________ websites and applications for students to ____________ up on spelling, vocabulary and grammar.		access cool lifted brush predict plant looked welcome
It ____________ more of us will keep our New Year’s resolutions this year. According to a New Year’s Day ____________, the top resolution is to spend more ____________ time with family and friends. This means talking to them rather than being on the phone or texting messages in ____________ of them. The second most popular thing we will resolve to do is ____________ fitter. Experts say many of us could keep this promise well into February before ____________ up. We usually forget about this resolution in mid-January. Other top plans include quitting smoking, getting out of ____________ and helping others. Of course, studying English more featured high on many people’s lists. Make 2011 your best ever year and ____________ to your resolutions.		quality debt seems get stick poll giving front

LISTENING – Listen and fill in the gaps

Futurologists and experts who study New Year’s ______________________ be the best year ever for many people. This ______________________ the billions around the world who hope this year will be better than last year. 2011 will see more people ______________________ and there will be a greater number of people with access to computers. One expert looked forward to new developments that will help the environment. California will open the world's largest solar power ______________________ cars will go on sale, ________________________ Tesla. It’s going to be a great year if you study English. There will be more cool websites and applications for ______________________ spelling, vocabulary and grammar.

It ______________________ keep our New Year’s resolutions this year. According to a New Year’s Day poll, the top resolution is to spend ______________________ family and friends. This means talking to them rather than being on the phone or texting messages in front of them. The second most popular thing ______________________ is get fitter. Experts say many of us could keep ______________________ February before giving up. We usually forget about this resolution in mid-January. Other top plans include quitting smoking, ______________________ and helping others. Of course, studying English more featured high on many people’s lists. Make 2011 your best ever ______________________ resolutions.

 
 

AFTER READING / LISTENING

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

best

year

• 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:

predict billions lifted help sale brush

seems quality second get top stick

STUDENT 2011 SURVEY

Write five GOOD questions about 2011 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.

2011 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 year ‘2011’?
c)	What do you think 2011 will be like?
d)	Do you like the New Year period?
e)	How do you usually celebrate a new year arriving?
f)	Do you make / keep New Year’s resolutions?
g)	How could 2011 be the best year ever?
h)	Do you think more people will be lifted from poverty?
i)	What’s your prediction for the environment for 2011?
j)	Are you going to study English more this year? How?

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

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

a)	Did you like reading this article?
b)	Are you going to try and spend more quality time with family and friends?
c)	Does your mobile phone get in the way of being with family and friends?
d)	Do you need to get fitter?
e)	Why do so many of us not keep our New Year’s resolutions?
f)	What resolutions should your country make?
g)	What will you do to make 2011 a great year?
h)	Do we need mid-year resolutions too?
i)	How was 2010 for you?
j)	What questions would you like to ask the futurologists?

LANGUAGE – MULTIPLE CHOICE

Futurologists and experts who study New Year’s resolutions predict 2011 will be the best year ever for many people. This is (1) ____ news for the billions around the world who hope this year will be better than last year. 2011 will see more people lifted (2) ____ of poverty and there will be a greater number of people with access (3) ____ computers. One expert looked forward to new developments that will help the environment. California will open the world's largest solar power (4) ____ and several electric cars will go (5) ____ sale, including the much-awaited Tesla. It’s going to be a great year if you study English. There will be more cool websites and applications for students to (6) ____ up on spelling, vocabulary and grammar.

It seems more of us will (7) ____ our New Year’s resolutions this year. According to a New Year’s Day poll, the top resolution is to spend more quality time with family and friends. This means talking to them (8) ____ than being on the phone or texting messages in front of them. The second most popular thing we will resolve to do is get fitter. Experts say many of us could keep this promise (9) ____ into February before (10) ____ up. We usually forget about this resolution in mid-January. Other top plans include quitting smoking, getting (11) ____ of debt and helping others. Of course, studying English more featured high on many people’s lists. Make 2011 your best ever year and (12) ____ to your resolutions.

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

1.	(a)	greetings	(b)	hello	(c)	salutation	(d)	welcome
2.	(a)	up	(b)	out	(c)	into	(d)	away
3.	(a)	to	(b)	at	(c)	of	(d)	from
4.	(a)	flower	(b)	tree	(c)	plant	(d)	shrub
5.	(a)	in	(b)	at	(c)	on	(d)	of
6.	(a)	vacuum	(b)	brush	(c)	sweep	(d)	clean
7.	(a)	keep	(b)	be	(c)	depend	(d)	drive
8.	(a)	instead	(b)	prefer	(c)	over	(d)	rather
9.	(a)	good	(b)	well	(c)	fine	(d)	OK
10.	(a)	taking	(b)	saving	(c)	getting	(d)	giving
11.	(a)	in	(b)	up	(c)	out	(d)	over
12.	(a)	stick	(b)	glue	(c)	bond	(d)	tape

 
 

WRITING

Write about 2011 for 10 minutes. Correct your partner’s paper.

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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 how the world celebrated the arrival of 2011. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.

3. 2011: Make a poster about your hopes and fears for 2011. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things?

4. BEST EVER: Write a magazine article about 2011. Include imaginary interviews with futurologists.

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 futurologist. Ask him/her three questions about 2011. Give him/her three of your predictions for this year. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions.

 

 
 

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a.

T

b.

T

c.

F

d.

F

e.

F

f.

T

g.

F

h.

T

SYNONYM MATCH:

1.	experts	a.	specialists
2	predict	b.	forecast
3.	access to	c.	(the) use of
4.	awaited	d.	anticipated
5.	brush up on	e.	improve
6.	poll	f.	survey
7.	rather than	g.	instead of
8.	resolve	h.	decide
9.	featured	i.	appeared
10.	stick to	j.	keep

PHRASE MATCH:

1.	This is welcome	a.	news
2	a greater number of people with access	b.	to computers
3.	the world's largest solar	c.	power plant
4.	cool websites and	d.	applications
5.	brush up	e.	on spelling
6.	It seems more of us will keep	f.	our New Year’s resolutions
7.	spend more quality	g.	time with family
8.	The second most popular thing we	h.	will resolve to do
9.	many of us could	i.	keep this promise
10.	getting out	j.	of debt

GAP FILL:

2011 to be best year ever

Futurologists and experts who study New Year’s resolutions predict 2011 will be the best year ever for many people. This is welcome news for the billions around the world who hope this year will be better than last year. 2011 will see more people lifted out of poverty and there will be a greater number of people with access to computers. One expert looked forward to new developments that will help the environment. California will open the world's largest solar power plant and several electric cars will go on sale, including the much-awaited Tesla. It’s going to be a great year if you study English. There will be more cool websites and applications for students to brush up on spelling, vocabulary and grammar.

It seems more of us will keep our New Year’s resolutions this year. According to a New Year’s Day poll, the top resolution is to spend more quality time with family and friends. This means talking to them rather than being on the phone or texting messages in front of them. The second most popular thing we will resolve to do is get fitter. Experts say many of us could keep this promise well into February before giving up. We usually forget about this resolution in mid-January. Other top plans include quitting smoking, getting out of debt and helping others. Of course, studying English more featured high on many people’s lists. Make 2011 your best ever year and stick to your resolutions.

LANGUAGE WORK

1 - d

2 - b

3 - a

4 - c

5 - c

6 - b

7 - a

8 - d

9 - b

10 - d

11 - c

12 - a

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