Breaking News English

        

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

Afghanistan / peace talks / leaders / security / religious / neighbouring / process / statement / suicide bomber / responsibility / disguised / confirm / reject / high profile

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

3. AFGHANISTAN: How can it find peace? Complete this table with your partner(s). Change partners and share what you wrote. Change and share again.

Players	has to…	… because…
Taliban
Afghan government
Pakistan
Afghan people
The USA
United Nations

4. PEACE: Students A strongly believe peace will come to Afghanistan one day; Students B strongly believe it won’t.  Change partners again and talk about your conversations.

5. HOT SPOTS: Which will become stable soonest? Rank these and share your rankings with your partner. Put the soonest at the top. Change partners and share your rankings again.

Afghanistan Libya North/South Korea Yemen

Palestine Somalia Syria Other ____________

6. SECURITY: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘security’. 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.	Afghanistan’s president walked out of a conference with the Taliban.	T / F
b.	The Afghan president cannot find the Taliban’s leaders to talk to.	T / F
c.	Hamid Karzai said he would talk to Pakistan instead of the Taliban.	T / F
d.	The leader of the Taliban asked for talks to take place in Pakistan.	T / F
e.	An ex-Afghanistan president was assassinated by a suicide bomber.	T / F
f.	The Taliban claimed responsibility for Burhanuddin Rabbani’s death.	T / F
g.	Rabbani was killed by someone he believed to be a Taliban leader.	T / F
h.	Rabbani’s death has made Hamid Karzai want to talk to the Taliban.	T / F

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

1.	suspend	a.	leading
2	locate	b.	securing
3.	achieving	c.	party
4.	side	d.	murder
5.	other than	e.	put on hold
6.	assassination	f.	ex-
7.	former	g.	apart from
8.	horror	h.	find
9.	chief	i.	discussion
10.	dialogue	j.	dismay

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

1.	suspend peace	a.	ex-president was killed
2	unable to locate	b.	talks with the Taliban
3.	a better chance	c.	profile killings
4.	neither he nor any	d.	after the assassination
5.	the other side in the peace	e.	its leaders
6.	Karzai’s statement comes days	f.	of the Taliban council
7.	The Taliban has neither confirmed	g.	charge of negotiations
8.	the manner in which the	h.	of achieving peace
9.	Afghanistan's chief official in	i.	process
10.	high	j.	nor denied responsibility

 

WHILE READING / LISTENING

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

Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai says he will (1) ____________ peace talks with the Taliban after being (2) ____________ to locate its leaders. He said he would instead move his focus to talking to Pakistan. Mr Karzai believes his country has a better (3) ____________ of achieving peace and security by (4) ____________ with neighbouring Pakistan. Karzai told religious leaders in Kabul on Friday that he could not continue (5) ____________ with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar because neither he nor any of the Taliban council could be (6) ____________. He asked: “Who is the other side in the peace (7) ____________? I do not have any answer other than saying the (8) ____________ side in the talks is Pakistan. This is because we cannot find Mullah Mohammed Omar.		process chance suspend engaging unable found other talks
President Karzai’s statement (9) ____________ days after the assassination of former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani by a suicide bomber. The Taliban has (10) ____________ confirmed nor denied responsibility for Mr Rabbani’s killing, although President Karzai believes the group was (11) ____________. He spoke of his (12) ____________ at the manner in which the ex-president was killed, saying: “A messenger comes (13) ____________ as a Taliban council member and kills, and [the Taliban] neither (14) ____________ nor reject it.” Mr Rabbani was Afghanistan's chief official in charge of negotiations with the Taliban. Mr Karzai said the assassination (15) ____________ him to focus on dialogue with Islamabad. It is the latest in a (16) ____________ of high profile killings of Afghan officials.		disguised responsible series comes confirm convinced neither horror

LISTENING – Listen and fill in the gaps

Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai says he ____________________ with the Taliban after being ____________________ leaders. He said he would instead move his focus to talking to Pakistan. Mr Karzai believes his country has a better ____________________ peace and security by engaging with neighbouring Pakistan. Karzai ____________________ in Kabul on Friday that he could not continue talks with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar because neither he nor any of the Taliban council could be found. He asked: “Who is the other side ____________________? I do not have any answer other than saying the ____________________ talks is Pakistan. This is because we cannot find Mullah Mohammed Omar.

President Karzai’s statement comes days after ____________________ former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani by a suicide bomber. The Taliban has neither confirmed ____________________ for Mr Rabbani’s killing, although President Karzai believes the ____________________. He spoke of his horror at the manner in which the ex-president was killed, saying: “A messenger ____________________ a Taliban council member and kills, and [the Taliban] neither confirm nor reject it.” Mr Rabbani was Afghanistan's chief ____________________ negotiations with the Taliban. Mr Karzai said the assassination convinced him to focus on dialogue with Islamabad. It is the latest in a series ____________________ of Afghan officials.

 
 

AFTER READING / LISTENING

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

peace

talks

• 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:

suspend move engaging continue side cannot

days denied horror member chief profile

STUDENT TALIBAN SURVEY

Write five GOOD questions about the Taliban 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.

TALIBAN 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 ‘Taliban’?
c)	What do you know about the beginnings of the Taliban?
d)	Do you think security will ever come to Afghanistan?
e)	Is Hamid Karzai right to suspend talks?
f)	How ill talking to Pakistan instead of the Taliban help?
g)	Why do you think Taliban leaders cannot be found?
h)	Is there really a peace process in Afghanistan?
i)	Has Hamid Karzai been an effective leader?
j)	What needs doing to bring peace and security to Afghanistan?

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

a)	Did you like reading this article?
b)	What would you like to know about the Taliban?
c)	What do you know about the past 100 years of Afghanistan’s history?
d)	Why are the Taliban staying quiet on the assassination of former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani?
e)	What are the similarities and differences between the Taliban and Al Qaeda? Why do people think they are the same?
f)	Would you like to visit Afghanistan? Why (not)?
g)	Where will Afghanistan be in five, ten, twenty years?
h)	Are Afghan leaders brave to do the job they do?
i)	What do you think the Afghan people want?
j)	What questions would you like to ask Hamid Karzai?

LANGUAGE – MULTIPLE CHOICE

Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai says he will (1) ____ peace talks with the Taliban after being unable to locate its leaders. He said he would (2) ____ move his focus to talking to Pakistan. Mr Karzai believes his country has a better chance (3) ____ achieving peace and security by engaging with neighbouring Pakistan. Karzai told religious leaders in Kabul on Friday that he could not continue talks with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar because neither he (4) ____ any of the Taliban council could be found. He asked: “Who is the other side in the peace (5) ____? I do not have any answer other than saying the other side in the (6) ____ is Pakistan. This is because we cannot find Mullah Mohammed Omar.

President Karzai’s statement (7) ____ days after the assassination of former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani by a suicide bomber. The Taliban has neither confirmed nor (8) ____ responsibility for Mr Rabbani’s killing, although President Karzai believes the group was responsible. He spoke (9) ____ his horror at the manner in which the ex-president was killed, saying: “A messenger (10) ____ disguised as a Taliban council member and kills, and [the Taliban] neither confirm nor reject it.” Mr Rabbani was Afghanistan's chief official (11) ____ charge of negotiations with the Taliban. Mr Karzai said the assassination convinced him to focus on dialogue with Islamabad. It is the latest in a (12) ____ of high profile killings of Afghan officials.

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

1.	(a)	suspense	(b)	suspender	(c)	suspension	(d)	suspend
2.	(a)	in place	(b)	inside	(c)	instead	(d)	insight
3.	(a)	from	(b)	of	(c)	by	(d)	on
4.	(a)	nor	(b)	not	(c)	non	(d)	no
5.	(a)	train	(b)	time	(c)	process	(d)	full
6.	(a)	walkie-talkie	(b)	talked	(c)	talkative	(d)	talks
7.	(a)	goes	(b)	comes	(c)	delays	(d)	circles
8.	(a)	denied	(b)	replied	(c)	contrived	(d)	supplied
9.	(a)	to	(b)	of	(c)	for	(d)	so
10.	(a)	coming	(b)	come	(c)	comes	(d)	become
11.	(a)	in	(b)	by	(c)	on	(d)	at
12.	(a)	serious	(b)	service	(c)	serial	(d)	series

 
 

WRITING

Write about Taliban 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 the Taliban. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.

3. TALIBAN: Make a poster about the Taliban. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things?

4. PEACE: Write a magazine article about peace in Afghanistan. Include imaginary interviews with an average Afghan, the Afghan president and a Taliban leader.

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 Hamid Karzai. Ask him three questions about the Taliban. Give him three of your opinions on how to secure peace. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions.

 

 
 

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a.

F

b.

T

c.

T

d.

F

e.

T

f.

F

g.

T

h.

F

SYNONYM MATCH:

1.	suspend	a.	put on hold
2	locate	b.	find
3.	achieving	c.	securing
4.	side	d.	party
5.	other than	e.	apart from
6.	assassination	f.	murder
7.	former	g.	ex-
8.	horror	h.	dismay
9.	chief	i.	leading
10.	dialogue	j.	discussion

PHRASE MATCH:

1.	suspend peace	a.	talks with the Taliban
2	unable to locate	b.	its leaders
3.	a better chance	c.	of achieving peace
4.	neither he nor any	d.	of the Taliban council
5.	the other side in the peace	e.	process
6.	Karzai’s statement comes days	f.	after the assassination
7.	The Taliban has neither confirmed	g.	nor denied responsibility
8.	the manner in which the	h.	ex-president was killed
9.	Afghanistan's chief official in	i.	charge of negotiations
10.	high	j.	profile killings

GAP FILL:

Karzai ends peace talks with the Taliban

Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai says he will (1) suspend peace talks with the Taliban after being (2) unable to locate its leaders. He said he would instead move his focus to talking to Pakistan. Mr Karzai believes his country has a better (3) chance of achieving peace and security by (4) engaging with neighbouring Pakistan. Karzai told religious leaders in Kabul on Friday that he could not continue (5) talks with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar because neither he nor any of the Taliban council could be (6) found. He asked: “Who is the other side in the peace (7) process? I do not have any answer other than saying the (8) other side in the talks is Pakistan. This is because we cannot find Mullah Mohammed Omar.

President Karzai’s statement (9) comes days after the assassination of former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani by a suicide bomber. The Taliban has (10) neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for Mr Rabbani’s killing, although President Karzai believes the group was (11) responsible. He spoke of his (12) horror at the manner in which the ex-president was killed, saying: “A messenger comes (13) disguised as a Taliban council member and kills, and [the Taliban] neither (14) confirm nor reject it.” Mr Rabbani was Afghanistan's chief official in charge of negotiations with the Taliban. Mr Karzai said the assassination (15) convinced him to focus on dialogue with Islamabad. It is the latest in a (16) series of high profile killings of Afghan officials.

LANGUAGE WORK

1 - d

2 - c

3 - b

4 - a

5 - c

6 - d

7 - b

8 - a

9 - b

10 -c

11 - a

12 - d

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