Breaking News English

        

1. WOMEN’S SOCCER: Walk around the class and talk to other students about women’s soccer. 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.

soccer / captain / awards / triumph / tournament / kimono / emotional / dream / previous / paid tribute to / proud / legends / fair play / earthquake / tsunami

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

3. WOMEN: Complete this table with your partner(s). Change partners and share what you wrote. Change and share again.

	Better/Worse than men?	Why?
Soccer
Cooking
Driving
Budgeting
Arguing
Designing

4. SOCCER: Students A strongly believe ‘soccer’ is the best word; Students B strongly believe ‘football’ is.  Change partners again and talk about your conversations.

5. SPORT: Rank these and share your rankings with your partner. Put the best at the top. Change partners and share your rankings again.

soccer boxing skiing tennis

basketball marathon running ice hockey Formula 1

6. AWARD: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘award’. 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 captain of Japan’s soccer team is women’s player of the year.	T / F
b.	Homare Sawa is the first woman to lead Japan to a world cup trophy.	T / F
c.	Sawa wore her national football kit at the awards ceremony.	T / F
d.	Sawa said she hoped children would dream about becoming footballers.	T / F
e.	Sawa is only the second Asian woman in history to win the award.	T / F
f.	A Brazilian player won the award 6 years in a row.	T / F
g.	Japan did not win any other awards at the FIFA ceremony.	T / F
h.	The Japan coach said Japan’s victory helped the earthquake victims.	T / F

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

1.	body	a.	victory
2	scooped	b.	selected
3.	triumph	c.	opportunity
4.	next to	d.	association
5.	chance	e.	earlier
6.	previous	f.	star
7.	ace	g.	lifted
8.	coach	h.	won
9.	chosen	i.	manager
10.	boosted	j.	alongside

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

1.	soccer's international governing	a.	such legends
2	first ever World Cup Finals	b.	giving ceremony
3.	the prize-	c.	future players
4.	for the third year	d.	supported Japan
5.	given a chance for	e.	to the Brazilian ace
6.	the five previous	f.	body
7.	Sawa later paid tribute	g.	spirits
8.	sitting here today alongside	h.	triumph
9.	Sasaki thanked those who	i.	in a row
10.	boosted their	j.	years

 

WHILE READING / LISTENING

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

FIFA, soccer's international governing (1) ___________, has named Japan’s captain Homare Sawa as the Women's World Player of the Year. The 33-year-old (2) ___________ the award, known by the French term the Ballon d’Or, for (3) ___________ her country to Japan’s first ever World Cup Finals triumph in July last year. She won the best player and top scorer (4) ___________ at that tournament. Ms Sawa wore a pale blue kimono at the prize-giving (5) ___________. She stood next to Lionel Messi, who won the men’s award for the third year in a    (6) ___________. An emotional Sawa told the audience: “I feel very pleased to have been given this honor. I'd like to thank all those who have helped me to play soccer….I hope our football has given a (7) ___________ for future players and children to (8) ___________."		ceremony leading dream body row scooped chance awards
Sawa is the first Asian player to win the award. She beat Brazil’s Marta, who was best female player in the world for the five (9) ___________ years. Japanese Aya Miyama came fourth. Sawa later paid (10) ___________ to the Brazilian ace at a news conference, saying: “I am proud to be sitting here today alongside such (11) ___________ as Marta.” Japan (12) ___________ up another two awards at the ceremony. Norio Sasaki, manager of the women’s team, was coach of the year, and the Japan Football Association was (13) ___________ for FIFA’s Fair Play award. Mr Sasaki thanked those who (14) ___________ Japan following the earthquake and tsunami that (15) ___________ in March 2011. He said: "We provided excitement for Japanese people and boosted their (16) ___________.”		legends chosen previous struck spirits tribute picked supported

LISTENING – Listen and fill in the gaps

FIFA, soccer's international ___________________, has named Japan’s captain Homare Sawa as the Women's World Player of the Year. The 33-year-old ___________________, known by the French term the Ballon d’Or, for leading her country to Japan’s first ever World Cup Finals triumph in July last year. She won the best player and ___________________ at that tournament. Ms Sawa wore a pale blue kimono at the ___________________. She stood next to Lionel Messi, who won the men’s award for the third year in a row. An emotional Sawa ___________________: “I feel very pleased to have been given this honor. I'd like to thank all those who have helped me to play soccer….I hope our football has ___________________ for future players and children to dream."

Sawa is the first Asian player to win the award. She beat Brazil’s Marta, who was best female player in the world for ___________________ years. Japanese Aya Miyama came fourth. Sawa later ___________________ the Brazilian ace at a news conference, saying: “I am proud to be sitting here today _____________________ as Marta.” Japan picked up another two awards at the ceremony. Norio Sasaki, manager of the women’s team, was coach of the year, and the Japan Football Association ___________________ FIFA’s Fair Play award. Mr Sasaki thanked ___________________ Japan following the earthquake and tsunami that struck in March 2011. He said: "We provided excitement for Japanese people and ___________________.”

 
 

AFTER READING / LISTENING

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

foot

ball

• 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:

captain term triumph next feel dream

beat previous paid coach thanked spirits

WOMEN’S SOCCER SURVEY

Write five GOOD questions about women’s soccer 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.

WOMEN’S SOCCER 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 ‘soccer’?
c)	What do you think of awards for the best sports players?
d)	Should the award be for the whole team, as it’s a team sport?
e)	What do you think of women’s soccer?
f)	Do you prefer the word ‘soccer’ or ‘football’?
g)	Who do you think is happier with their award, Homare Sawa or Lionel Messi?
h)	Do you think Sawa’s award will mean better Japanese players?
i)	What questions would you like to ask Homare Sawa?

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

a)	Did you like reading this article?
b)	Have you ever won any awards?
c)	Which sports players do you think are legends?
d)	What do you need to do to win a fair play award?
e)	Do you think women’s soccer is as exciting as men’s?
f)	Do you think a woman will ever play on a professional men’s team?
g)	Where do you think women’s soccer will be in a few decades?
h)	What do you know about female soccer stars?
i)	What three adjectives describe this story, and why?

LANGUAGE – MULTIPLE CHOICE

FIFA, soccer's international governing body, has (1) ____ Japan’s captain Homare Sawa as the Women's World Player of the Year. The 33-year-old (2) ____ the award, known by the French term the Ballon d’Or, for leading her country to Japan’s first ever World Cup Finals (3) ____ in July last year. She won the best player and top scorer awards at that tournament. Ms Sawa wore a pale blue kimono at the prize-giving ceremony. She stood next to Lionel Messi, who won the men’s award for the third year in a (4) ____. An emotional Sawa told the (5) ____: “I feel very pleased to have been given this honor. I'd like to thank all those who have helped me to play soccer….I hope our football has given a (6) ____ for future players and children to dream."

Sawa is the first Asian player to win the award. She (7) ____ Brazil’s Marta, who was best female player in the world for the five previous years. Japanese Aya Miyama came fourth. Sawa later (8) ____ tribute to the Brazilian ace at a news conference, saying: “I am proud to be sitting here today (9) ____ such legends as Marta.” Japan picked (10) ____ another two awards at the ceremony. Norio Sasaki, manager of the women’s team, was coach of the year, and the Japan Football Association was chosen for FIFA’s Fair Play award. Mr Sasaki thanked (11) ____ who supported Japan following the earthquake and tsunami that struck in March 2011. He said: "We provided excitement for Japanese people and (12) ____ their spirits.”

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

1.	(a)	naming	(b)	names	(c)	name	(d)	named
2.	(a)	scooped	(b)	dug	(c)	shoveled	(d)	excavated
3.	(a)	tri-annual	(b)	triumvirate	(c)	triumph	(d)	trilogy
4.	(a)	stand	(b)	row	(c)	header	(d)	column
5.	(a)	fan	(b)	audience	(c)	pilgrims	(d)	congregation
6.	(a)	perchance	(b)	chances	(c)	chance	(d)	chancing
7.	(a)	beat	(b)	won	(c)	victory	(d)	lost
8.	(a)	laid	(b)	said	(c)	maid	(d)	paid
9.	(a)	sidled	(b)	side	(c)	siding	(d)	alongside
10.	(a)	as	(b)	up	(c)	over	(d)	on
11.	(a)	those	(b)	them	(c)	they	(d)	these
12.	(a)	mooted	(b)	roasted	(c)	boosted	(d)	fastened

 
 

WRITING

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

3. WOMEN’S SOCCER: Make a poster about women’s soccer. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things?

4. HOMARE SAWA: Write a magazine article about Homare Sawa. Include imaginary interviews with a team mate and her coach.

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 the boss of FIFA. Ask him three questions about women’s soccer. Give him three of your opinions on it. 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.

T

e.

F

f.

F

g.

F

h.

T

SYNONYM MATCH:

1.	body	a.	association
2	scooped	b.	won
3.	triumph	c.	victory
4.	next to	d.	alongside
5.	chance	e.	opportunity
6.	previous	f.	earlier
7.	ace	g.	star
8.	coach	h.	manager
9.	chosen	i.	selected
10.	boosted	j.	lifted

PHRASE MATCH:

1.	soccer's international governing	a.	body
2	first ever World Cup Finals	b.	triumph
3.	the prize-	c.	giving ceremony
4.	for the third year	d.	in a row
5.	given a chance for	e.	future players
6.	the five previous	f.	years
7.	Sawa later paid tribute	g.	to the Brazilian ace
8.	sitting here today alongside	h.	such legends
9.	Sasaki thanked those who	i.	supported Japan
10.	boosted their	j.	spirits

GAP FILL:

Japan’s Sawa soccer world player of 2011

FIFA, soccer's international governing (1) body, has named Japan’s captain Homare Sawa as the Women's World Player of the Year. The 33-year-old (2) scooped the award, known by the French term the Ballon d’Or, for (3) leading her country to Japan’s first ever World Cup Finals triumph in July last year. She won the best player and top scorer (4) awards at that tournament. Ms Sawa wore a pale blue kimono at the prize-giving (5) ceremony. She stood next to Lionel Messi, who won the men’s award for the third year in a (6) row. An emotional Sawa told the audience: “I feel very pleased to have been given this honor. I'd like to thank all those who have helped me to play soccer….I hope our football has given a (7) chance for future players and children to (8) dream."

Sawa is the first Asian player to win the award. She beat Brazil’s Marta, who was best female player in the world for the five (9) previous years. Japanese Aya Miyama came fourth. Sawa later paid (10) tribute to the Brazilian ace at a news conference, saying: “I am proud to be sitting here today alongside such (11) legends as Marta.” Japan (12) picked up another two awards at the ceremony. Norio Sasaki, manager of the women’s team, was coach of the year, and the Japan Football Association was (13) chosen for FIFA’s Fair Play award. Mr Sasaki thanked those who (14) supported Japan following the earthquake and tsunami that (15) struck in March 2011. He said: "We provided excitement for Japanese people and boosted their (16) spirits.”

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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