Breaking News English

        

1. THE “OCCUPY” PROTESTS: Walk around the class and talk to other students about the “Occupy” protests. 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.

protests / major cities / out in force / financial centres / injured / corporate greed / activists / Arab Spring / our future / richer and richer / organically / concerned

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

3. PROTESTS: What’s the best way to protest about these things? Complete this table with your partner(s). Change partners and share what you wrote.

	The best way	Effectiveness
Increased homework
Corporate greed
Government cuts
War
A faulty product
Rising prices

4. GREEDY: Students A strongly believe people will stop being greedy one day; Students B strongly believe the opposite.  Change partners again and talk about your conversations.

5. DEMONSTRATE: What would make you take to the streets? Rank these and share your rankings with your partner. Put the best at the top. Change partners and share your rankings again.

Higher taxes War Environment Building of nuclear plants

Education cuts Democracy To oust a leader Corporate greed

6. GREED: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘greed’. 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 “Occupy” protests have moved to almost every country on Earth.	T / F
b.	The article mentions cities on there different continents.	T / F
c.	Cars were set on fire in the Italian capital.	T / F
d.	The Japanese protested against the Fukushima nuclear power owners.	T / F
e.	The protests were originally started by angry Americans.	T / F
f.	“Occupy” has also started in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.	T / F
g.	One per cent of the wealthiest are also protesting.	T / F
h.	Demonstrators are communicating via social networking sites.	T / F

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

1.	protests	a.	richest
2	worldwide	b.	fights
3.	battles	c.	set on fire
4.	torched	d.	likened
5.	inequality	e.	taking part
6.	compared	f.	demonstrations
7.	wealthiest	g.	unfairness
8.	glad	h.	worried
9.	participating	i.	globally
10.	concerned	j.	happy

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

1.	Protesters were out	a.	torched
2	battles between protestors	b.	plants
3.	shop windows smashed and cars	c.	very organically
4.	corporate greed	d.	group Adbusters
5.	the Fukushima nuclear power	e.	in force
6.	the Canadian activist	f.	about each other
7.	the spread of the protests	g.	and participating
8.	people are taking a role	h.	and corruption
9.	The growth is happening	i.	and police
10.	friends who are concerned	j.	around the world

 

WHILE READING / LISTENING

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

The “Occupy Wall Street” protests that (1) ____________ in New York on September the 17th have now moved around the world. Demonstrations have spread to more than 60 (2) ____________ cities worldwide. Protesters were out in force at the weekend in Tokyo, Rome, London, Buenos Aires, Helsinki and other capitals and financial centres. Protests in the Italian capital saw (3) ____________ between protestors and police in which (4) ____________ were injured, shop windows smashed and cars (5) ____________. The protests are against corporate greed and corruption, government cuts, and social (6) ____________. In Japan, protestors marched (7) ____________ “Occupy Tokyo" banners and protested outside the headquarters of the owner of the Fukushima nuclear power (8) ____________.		inequality dozens major behind plants began torched battles
Occupy Wall Street was started in New York by the Canadian (9) ____________ group Adbusters. The movement is now being (10) ____________ to the Tahrir Square protests in Cairo earlier this year and the Arab Spring. Jesse LaGreca, a leader of Occupy Wall Street, spoke on U.S. television about the (11) ____________ of the protests around the world. He said: "We are seeing our future (12) ____________ away from us while the wealthiest one percent get richer and richer, and I'm glad people are taking a (13) ____________ and participating in their democracy." He added: “The growth is happening very (14) ____________. There is communication (15) ____________ protesters worldwide through Twitter, through Facebook, through social (16) ____________, and just through friends who are concerned about each other."		media stolen among compared spread role activist organically

LISTENING – Listen and fill in the gaps

The “Occupy Wall Street” _______________________ New York on September the 17th have now moved around the world. Demonstrations have spread to more than 60 _______________________. Protesters were out in force at the weekend in Tokyo, Rome, London, Buenos Aires, Helsinki and other capitals and financial centres. Protests in the Italian capital saw _______________________ and police in which dozens were injured, shop windows _______________________. The protests are against corporate _______________________, government cuts, and social inequality. In Japan, protestors marched behind “Occupy Tokyo" banners and protested _______________________ of the owner of the Fukushima nuclear power plants.

Occupy Wall Street was started in New York by the Canadian activist group Adbusters. The movement is _______________________ to the Tahrir Square protests in Cairo earlier this year and the Arab Spring. Jesse LaGreca, a leader of Occupy Wall Street, spoke on U.S. television about the _______________________ around the world. He said: "We are seeing our future stolen away from us while the _______________________ get richer and richer, and I'm glad people are taking a _______________________ in their democracy." He added: “The growth is happening very organically. There is communication _______________________ through Twitter, through Facebook, through social media, and just through friends who are _______________________ other."

 
 

AFTER READING / LISTENING

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

street

protests

• 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:

moved force centres cars cuts plants

group earlier spoke richer growth media

STUDENT THE “OCCUPY” PROTESTS SURVEY

Write five GOOD questions about the “Occupy” protests 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.

THE “OCCUPY” PROTESTS 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 ‘protests’?
c)	What do you protest about and how?
d)	What do you think of the “Occupy Wall Street” protests?
e)	Do you think the protests will continue, and continue to spread?
f)	What are the protestors protesting about?
g)	What would get you onto the streets wearing a face mask?
h)	How do you feel about corporate greed?
i)	What should governments do about social inequality?
j)	What do you hope for the future of the protests?

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

a)	Did you like reading this article?
b)	Do you think the movement will develop into something bigger?
c)	Are there similarities between “Occupy Wall Street” and the Arab Spring?
d)	Is Jesse LaGreca right in saying, “We are seeing our future stolen away from us”?
e)	Do the rich deserve to be rich?
f)	Should more people be participating in the protests?
g)	Is protesting something governments welcome as part of democracy?
h)	Where would the protests be without Twitter and Facebook?
i)	What would you like to protest about at the moment?
j)	What questions would you like to ask Jesse LaGreca?

LANGUAGE – MULTIPLE CHOICE

The “Occupy Wall Street” protests that began in New York on September the 17th have now moved around the world. Demonstrations have (1) ____ to more than 60 major cities worldwide. Protesters were out in (2) ____ at the weekend in Tokyo, Rome, London, Buenos Aires, Helsinki and other capitals and financial centres. Protests in the Italian capital (3) ____ battles between protestors and police in which dozens were injured, shop windows smashed and cars (4) ____. The protests are against corporate (5) ____ and corruption, government cuts, and social inequality. In Japan, protestors marched behind “Occupy Tokyo" (6) ____ and protested outside the headquarters of the owner of the Fukushima nuclear power plants.

Occupy Wall Street was started in New York by the Canadian activist group Adbusters. The movement is now being (7) ____ to the Tahrir Square protests in Cairo earlier this year and the Arab Spring. Jesse LaGreca, a leader of Occupy Wall Street, spoke (8) ____ U.S. television about the spread of the protests around the world. He said: "We are seeing our future (9) ____ away from us while the wealthiest one percent get richer and richer, and I'm glad people are taking a role and participating (10) ____ their democracy." He added: “The growth is happening very (11) ____. There is communication among protesters worldwide through Twitter, through Facebook, through social media, and just through friends who are concerned (12) ____ each other."

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

1.	(a)	spreading	(b)	spreads	(c)	spreader	(d)	spread
2.	(a)	force	(b)	farce	(c)	forth	(d)	fourth
3.	(a)	looked	(b)	view	(c)	saw	(d)	watch
4.	(a)	lit up	(b)	torched	(c)	spotlighted	(d)	beamed
5.	(a)	greedy	(b)	greed	(c)	breed	(d)	weedy
6.	(a)	tatters	(b)	rubbers	(c)	banners	(d)	zippers
7.	(a)	compared	(b)	comparison	(c)	comparative	(d)	comparing
8.	(a)	of	(b)	at	(c)	in	(d)	on
9.	(a)	burgled	(b)	robbery	(c)	theft	(d)	stolen
10.	(a)	at	(b)	in	(c)	of	(d)	from
11.	(a)	organically	(b)	organs	(c)	organism	(d)	organic
12.	(a)	of	(b)	from	(c)	about	(d)	under

 
 

WRITING

Write about the “Occupy” protests 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 “Occupy” protests. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.

3. THE “OCCUPY” PROTESTS: Make a poster about the “Occupy” protests. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things?

4. PROTESTS: Write a magazine article about the protests. Include imaginary interviews with people who are for and against 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 protest leader. Ask him/her three questions about the “Occupy” protests. Give him/her three of your opinions on them. 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.

T

e.

F

f.

F

g.

F

h.

T

SYNONYM MATCH:

1.	protests	a.	demonstrations
2	worldwide	b.	globally
3.	battles	c.	fights
4.	torched	d.	set on fire
5.	inequality	e.	unfairness
6.	compared	f.	likened
7.	wealthiest	g.	richest
8.	glad	h.	happy
9.	participating	i.	taking part
10.	concerned	j.	worried

PHRASE MATCH:

1.	Protesters were out	a.	in force
2	battles between protestors	b.	and police
3.	shop windows smashed and cars	c.	torched
4.	corporate greed	d.	and corruption
5.	the Fukushima nuclear power	e.	plants
6.	the Canadian activist	f.	group Adbusters
7.	the spread of the protests	g.	around the world
8.	people are taking a role	h.	and participating
9.	The growth is happening	i.	very organically
10.	friends who are concerned	j.	about each other

GAP FILL:

‘Occupy’ protests go global

The “Occupy Wall Street” protests that (1) began in New York on September the 17th have now moved around the world. Demonstrations have spread to more than 60 (2) major cities worldwide. Protesters were out in force at the weekend in Tokyo, Rome, London, Buenos Aires, Helsinki and other capitals and financial centres. Protests in the Italian capital saw (3) battles between protestors and police in which (4) dozens were injured, shop windows smashed and cars (5) torched. The protests are against corporate greed and corruption, government cuts, and social (6) inequality. In Japan, protestors marched (7) behind “Occupy Tokyo" banners and protested outside the headquarters of the owner of the Fukushima nuclear power (8) plants.

Occupy Wall Street was started in New York by the Canadian (9) activist group Adbusters. The movement is now being (10) compared to the Tahrir Square protests in Cairo earlier this year and the Arab Spring. Jesse LaGreca, a leader of Occupy Wall Street, spoke on U.S. television about the (11) spread of the protests around the world. He said: "We are seeing our future (12) stolen away from us while the wealthiest one percent get richer and richer, and I'm glad people are taking a (13) role and participating in their democracy." He added: “The growth is happening very (14) organically. There is communication (15) among protesters worldwide through Twitter, through Facebook, through social (16) media, and just through friends who are concerned about each other."

LANGUAGE WORK

1 - d

2 - a

3 - c

4 - b

5 - b

6 - c

7 - a

8 - d

9 -d

10 - b

11 - a

12 - c

 

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