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

overtaken / study / economic performance / trillion / finance minister / counterpart / growing trend / BRIC countries / predicts / league table / shift / vital commodities

Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently.
3. ECONOMIES: What do you know about these? Complete this table with your partner(s). Change partners and share what you wrote. Change and share again.

Countries	Economic strengths	Problems
Brazil
US
China
India
Russia
Libya

4. NUMBER ONE: Students A strongly believe the USA will always be the world’s number one economy; Students B strongly believe not.  Change partners again and talk about your conversations.
5. GROWTH: What’s most important? Rank them and share your rankings with your partner. Put the best at the top. Change partners and share your rankings again.

skilled workforce low interest rates strong currency god transport system

political stability wealthy middle class trade surplus stable banks

6. ECONOMY: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘economy’. 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.	Brazil is now the world’s fifth largest economy.	T / F
b.	Brazil is one of the fastest growing economies in the world.	T / F
c.	Brazil’s GDP this year will be over two trillion American dollars.	T / F
d.	Brazil’s economy is predicted to grow by more than 5% next year.	T / F
e.	Brazil is a key maker of bricks.	T / F
f.	A world economist said Brazil would be in the top 6 economies in 2020.	T / F
g.	The economist said global economic power is shifting westwards.	T / F
h.	Brazil’s finance minister said Europeans have higher per capita income.	T / F

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

1.	overtaken	a.	indicates
2.	study	b.	tendency
3.	shows	c.	get to
4.	counterpart	d.	report
5.	predicted	e.	develop
6.	trend	f.	surpassed
7.	emerge	g.	change
8.	shift	h.	forecast
9.	vital	i.	peer
10.	reach	j.	essential

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

1.	the world’s sixth	a.	will continue
2.	its strong economic performance	b.	better
3.	it fared	c.	league table
4.	his British	d.	largest economy
5.	dipping back into	e.	west to the east
6.	part of a growing	f.	income
7.	a shift from the	g.	negative growth
8.	gradually climbing up the economic	h.	standards
9.	per capita	i.	counterpart
10.	20 years to reach European	j.	trend

WHILE READING / LISTENING

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

Brazil has (1) ____________ Britain to become the world’s sixth largest economy. A study from the UK’s Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) (2) ____________ that the Brazilian economy is one of the world’s fastest growing and that its strong economic performance will (3) ____________. Its GDP for this year will be US$2.4 trillion. Only the United States, China, Japan, Germany and France have larger economies. Brazilian               (4) ____________ minister Guido Mantega said his country had outperformed Britain because it (5) ____________ better during the world financial crisis. He also said Brazil’s economy was strengthening. Mantega (6) ____________ it would grow between 4 to 5 per cent in 2012. This is the kind of (7) ____________ his British counterpart can only dream of; Britain’s economy is currently in danger of (8) ____________ back into negative growth and recession.		fared continue growth overtaken dipping shows finance predicted
The boss of the CEBR, Douglas McWilliams, told BBC Radio that Brazil overtaking the UK was part of a growing (9) ____________ that will see the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) (10) ____________ as the most important economies. He predicts they will all be in the top six of the World Economic League Table by 2020, (11) ____________ the US and Japan. McWilliams said: “I think it’s part of the big economic change, where not only are we seeing a (12) ____________ from the west to the east, but we’re also seeing that countries that produce (13) ____________ commodities, food and energy and things like that, are doing very well and they’re (14) ____________ climbing up the economic league table.” Mr Mantega said: “European countries have much higher per capita (15) ____________ than we do. We’ll need 10, 20 years to reach European (16) ____________.”		emerge standards shift trend gradually joining income vital

LISTENING – Listen and fill in the gaps

Brazil has overtaken Britain ____________________ sixth largest economy. A study from the UK’s Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) shows that the Brazilian economy is one of the world’s fastest growing and that its strong ____________________ will continue. Its GDP for this year will be US$2.4 trillion. Only the United States, China, Japan, Germany and France have larger economies. Brazilian finance minister Guido Mantega said his country had outperformed Britain because ____________________ during the ____________________. He also said Brazil’s economy was strengthening. Mantega predicted it would grow between 4 to 5 per cent in 2012. This is the kind of growth his British counterpart ____________________; Britain’s economy is currently in danger of ____________________ negative growth and recession.
The boss of the CEBR, Douglas McWilliams, told BBC Radio that Brazil overtaking the UK was part of ____________________ that will see the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) emerge as the most important economies. He ____________________ all be in the top six of the World Economic League Table by 2020, joining the US and Japan. McWilliams said: “I think it’s part of the big economic change, where not only are we ____________________ from the west to the east, but we’re also seeing that countries that produce ____________________, food and energy and things like that, are doing very well and they’re ____________________ the economic league table.” Mr Mantega said: “European countries have much higher ____________________ than we do. We’ll need 10, 20 years to reach European standards.”

 
 

AFTER READING / LISTENING

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

economics

business

• 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:

become shows only during grow danger

growing emerge produce climbing income reach

BRAZIL SURVEY

Write five GOOD questions about Brazil 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.

BRAZIL 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 ‘Brazil’?
c)	What do you know about Brazil’s economy?
d)	How interested are you in world economics?
e)	What’s your country’s economy like?
f)	How do you think Brazil came to be the world’s sixth largest economy?
g)	What does a country have to do for its economy to grow?
h)	What’s wrong with Britain’s economy?

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a)	Did you like reading this article?
b)	After the BRIC countries, where else will we see strong economies emerge?
c)	Do you think the North African economies will now grow?
d)	What changes would you like your country to make to its economy?
e)	Why are we seeing a shift from west to east?
f)	Will all the world economies be strong one day?
g)	What will the world economy be like 100 years from now?
h)	What questions would you like to ask Brazilian finance minister Guido Mantega?

LANGUAGE – MULTIPLE CHOICE

Brazil has (1) ____ Britain to become the world’s sixth largest economy. A study from the UK’s Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) shows that the Brazilian economy is one of the world’s fastest growing and that its strong economic (2) ____ will continue. Its GDP for this year will be US$2.4 trillion. Only the United States, China, Japan, Germany and France have larger economies. Brazilian (3) ____ minister Guido Mantega said his country had outperformed Britain because it (4) ____ better during the world financial crisis. He also said Brazil’s economy was strengthening. Mantega predicted it would grow between 4 to 5 per cent in 2012. This is the kind of (5) ____ his British counterpart can only dream of; Britain’s economy is currently in danger of (6) ____ back into negative growth and recession.
The boss of the CEBR, Douglas McWilliams, told BBC Radio that Brazil overtaking the UK was part of a growing (7) ____ that will see the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) emerge (8) ____ the most important economies. He predicts they will all be in the top six of the World Economic League Table by 2020, (9) ____ the US and Japan. McWilliams said: “I think it’s part of the big economic change, where not only are we (10) ____ a shift from the west to the east, but we’re also seeing that countries that produce vital commodities, food and energy and things like that, are doing very well and they’re (11) ____ climbing up the economic league table.” Mr Mantega said: “European countries have much higher per capita income than we do. We’ll need 10, 20 years to (12) ____ European standards.”
Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.

1.	(a)	overtaken	(b)	overtakes	(c)	overtake	(d)	overtaking
2.	(a)	show	(b)	routine	(c)	performance	(d)	piece
3.	(a)	cash	(b)	money	(c)	invest	(d)	finance
4.	(a)	dared	(b)	fared	(c)	pared	(d)	bared
5.	(a)	develop	(b)	strong	(c)	growing	(d)	growth
6.	(a)	sipping	(b)	nipping	(c)	dipping	(d)	ripping
7.	(a)	brand	(b)	trend	(c)	bland	(d)	tread
8.	(a)	as	(b)	is	(c)	has	(d)	was
9.	(a)	joining	(b)	joint	(c)	joiner	(d)	joins
10.	(a)	seen	(b)	saw	(c)	seeing	(d)	sees
11.	(a)	normally	(b)	habitually	(c)	globally	(d)	gradually
12.	(a)	breach	(b)	reach	(c)	beach	(d)	broach

 
 

WRITING

Write about Brazil 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 BRIC economies (Brazil, Russia, India and China). Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.
3. BRAZIL: Make a poster about Brazil’s economy. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things?
4. NUMBER SIX: Write a magazine article about Brazil’s economy. Include imaginary interviews with Brazilians.
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 an economic expert. Ask him/her three questions about Brazil’s economic rise. Give him/her three of your opinions. 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.

F

f.

T

g.

F

h.

T

SYNONYM MATCH:

1.	overtaken	a.	surpassed
2.	study	b.	report
3.	shows	c.	indicates
4.	counterpart	d.	peer
5.	predicted	e.	forecast
6.	trend	f.	tendency
7.	emerge	g.	develop
8.	shift	h.	change
9.	vital	i.	essential
10.	reach	j.	get to

PHRASE MATCH:

1.	the world’s sixth	a.	largest economy
2.	its strong economic performance	b.	will continue
3.	it fared	c.	better
4.	his British	d.	counterpart
5.	dipping back into	e.	negative growth
6.	part of a growing	f.	trend
7.	a shift from the	g.	west to the east
8.	gradually climbing up the economic	h.	league table
9.	per capita	i.	income
10.	20 years to reach European	j.	standards

GAP FILL:

Brazil overtakes UK economy

Brazil has (1) overtaken Britain to become the world’s sixth largest economy. A study from the UK’s Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) (2) shows that the Brazilian economy is one of the world’s fastest growing and that its strong economic performance will (3) continue. Its GDP for this year will be US$2.4 trillion. Only the United States, China, Japan, Germany and France have larger economies. Brazilian (4) finance minister Guido Mantega said his country had outperformed Britain because it (5) fared better during the world financial crisis. He also said Brazil’s economy was strengthening. Mantega (6) predicted it would grow between 4 to 5 per cent in 2012. This is the kind of (7) growth his British counterpart can only dream of; Britain’s economy is currently in danger of (8) dipping back into negative growth and recession.
The boss of the CEBR, Douglas McWilliams, told BBC Radio that Brazil overtaking the UK was part of a growing (9) trend that will see the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) (10) emerge as the most important economies. He predicts they will all be in the top six of the World Economic League Table by 2020, (11) joining the US and Japan. McWilliams said: “I think it’s part of the big economic change, where not only are we seeing a (12) shift from the west to the east, but we’re also seeing that countries that produce (13) vital commodities, food and energy and things like that, are doing very well and they’re (14) gradually climbing up the economic league table.” Mr Mantega said: “European countries have much higher per capita (15) income than we do. We’ll need 10, 20 years to reach European (16) standards.”
LANGUAGE WORK

1 - a

2 - c

3 - d

4 - b

5 - d

6 - c

7 - b

8 - a

9 -a

10 - c

11 - d

12 - b

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