Breaking News English Lesson on Ethiopia Drought

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Drought Leaves Ethiopia Facing Food Crisis (12th February, 2016)

The Reading / Listening - Level 6

International charities have issued a stark warning about a looming humanitarian catastrophe in Ethiopia. The North African country has been hit by its worst drought for 50 years. It is widely expected that emergency food aid for 10 million Ethiopians will run out unless more funds can be found. John Graham, the head of the charity Save the Children in Ethiopia, said: "The international community has just three weeks to provide $245 million in emergency food aid to help prevent a potentially catastrophic escalation in severe malnutrition cases." He added that: "If these emergency funds do not arrive in time, there is no question that there will be a critical fracture in the food aid supply pipeline."

Ethiopia is Africa’s second most populous country. It is no stranger to natural disasters of this kind. Famine killed over one million Ethiopians in 1984. The latest drought was brought on by the El Nino weather phenomenon, which has caused drought and flooding across much of Africa. Ethiopia is one of the countries hardest hit. Charities say that over 400,000 Ethiopian children under the age of five will suffer from severe malnutrition this year. In addition, 1.7 million under-fives, pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers will need treatment for malnutrition. Mr Graham warned that, "the window for action is rapidly closing" as it can take four months to buy food aid and transport it into the landlocked country.

Try the same news story at these easier levels:

Level 4 or Level 5

Sources

geeskaafrika.com

news.sky.com

iol.co.za

Make sure you try all of the online activities for this reading and listening - There are dictations, multiple choice, drag and drop activities, crosswords, hangman, flash cards, matching activities and a whole lot more. Please enjoy :-)

The 40 Lesson Activities on the PDF Handout

WARM-UPS

1. DROUGHT: Students walk around the class and talk to other students about drought. Change partners often and share your findings.

2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, talk about these topics or words from the article. What will the article say about them? What can you say about these words and your life?

charities / humanitarian / catastrophe / emergency / food aid / community / supply / populous / famine / drought / flooding / malnutrition / pregnant / window / transport

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

3. NEEDS: What would life be like without them? Complete this table with your partner(s). Change partners and share what you wrote. Change and share again.

	What would life be like?	What would you do?
food
water
shelter
warmth
medicine
education

4. AID: Students A strongly believe the world will come to Ethiopia's aid; Students B strongly believe the opposite. Change partners again and talk about your conversations.

MY e-BOOK

See a sample

5. RESOURCES: What are most important in a famine? Rank these and share your rankings with your partner. Put the best at the top. Change partners and share your rankings again.

aid workers
army
4WD trucks
water tablets

blankets
basic medicine
wood for fire and cooking
peace

6. EMERGENCY: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word "emergency". 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.	Charities have warned of a terrible catastrophe about to hit Ethiopia.	T / F
b.	Ethiopia has been hit by its worst drought ever.	T / F
c.	Ten million Ethiopians are in need of food aid.	T / F
d.	Ethiopia needs $245 million in food aid in the next three months.	T / F
e.	Ethiopia has the second highest population of any country in Africa.	T / F
f.	The latest drought is because of El Nino.	T / F
g.	Charities say half-a-million 5-year-olds will be severely malnourished.	T / F
h.	It takes four weeks to buy food aid and transport it to Ethiopia.	T / F

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

1.	issued	a.	most recent
2.	catastrophe	b.	increase
3.	expected	c.	medical care
4.	escalation	d.	disaster
5.	fracture	e.	serious
6.	latest	f.	given
7.	phenomenon	g.	quickly
8.	severe	h.	believed
9.	treatment	i.	event
10.	rapidly	j.	break

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

1.	a looming humanitarian	a.	expected
2.	hit by its worst drought	b.	populous country
3.	widely	c.	pipeline
4.	provide $245 million in	d.	of five will suffer
5.	a critical fracture in the food aid supply	e.	rapidly closing
6.	Africa’s second most	f.	emergency food aid
7.	caused drought and flooding	g.	catastrophe
8.	children under the age	h.	across much of Africa
9.	mothers will need treatment	i.	for 50 years
10.	the window for action is	j.	for malnutrition

GAP FILL

International charities have issued a stark (1) ____________ about a looming humanitarian catastrophe in Ethiopia. The North African country has been hit by its (2) ____________ drought for 50 years. It is widely expected that emergency food aid for 10 million Ethiopians will run out unless more (3) ____________ can be found. John Graham, the head of the charity Save the Children in Ethiopia, said: "The international community has just three weeks to (4) ____________ $245 million in emergency food aid to help prevent a (5) ____________ catastrophic escalation in severe malnutrition (6) ____________." He added that: "If these emergency funds do not arrive in time, there is no (7) ____________ that there will be a critical fracture in the food aid supply (8) ____________."

potentially
cases
worst
pipeline
funds
question
warning
provide

Ethiopia is Africa’s second most (9) ____________ country. It is no stranger to (10) ____________ disasters of this kind. Famine killed over one million Ethiopians in 1984. The latest drought was brought on by the El Nino weather phenomenon, which has caused drought and (11) ____________ across much of Africa. Ethiopia is one of the countries (12) ____________ hit. Charities say that over 400,000 Ethiopian children under the age of five will suffer from (13) ____________ malnutrition this year. In addition, 1.7 million under-fives, pregnant women and breast-(14) ____________ mothers will need treatment for malnutrition. Mr Graham warned that, "the window for action is (15) ____________ closing" as it can take four months to buy food aid and transport it into the (16) ____________ country.

flooding
natural
rapidly
populous
severe
landlocked
hardest
feeding

LISTENING - Guess the answers. Listen to check.

1)	International charities have issued a stark warning about a looming ______
	a. humanitarian catastrophic b. humanitarian catastrophe c. humanitarian catastrophes d. humanitarian cat astral fee
2)	The North African country has been hit by its ______ for 50 years
	a. worse drought b. worst drought c. whilst drought d. wilts drought
3)	It is widely expected that emergency food aid for 10 million Ethiopians ______
	a. will run up b. will run at c. will run it d. will run out
4)	provide $245 million in emergency food aid to help prevent a potentially ______
	a. catastrophic escalations b. catastrophic escalated c. catastrophic escalating d. catastrophic escalation
5)	there is no question that there will be a critical fracture in the food aid ______
	a. supple pipeline b. sup ply pipeline c. supply pipeline d. sup plies pipeline
6)	Ethiopia is Africa’s second most populous country. It is no stranger to natural ______
	a. disaster of this kind b. disastrous of this kind c. disasters of this kind d. dis asters of this kind
7)	over 400,000 Ethiopian children under the age of five will suffer from ______
	a. severe malnutrition b. several malnutrition c. severance malnutrition d. sever malnutrition
8)	1.7 million under-fives, pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers ______
	a. will needs treatment b. will needy treatment c. will needing treatment d. will need treatment
9)	Mr Graham warned that the window for action ______
	a. is rapidly closing in b. is rapidly closing c. is rapidly close in d. is rapidly closed in
10)	it can take four months to buy food aid and transport it into the ______
	a. landlocked country b. land blocked country c. land clocked country d. land looked country

LISTENING – Listen and fill in the gaps

International charities have (1) ___________________ warning about a looming humanitarian catastrophe in Ethiopia. The North African country has been (2) ___________________ drought for 50 years. It is widely expected that emergency food aid for 10 million Ethiopians will (3) ___________________ more funds can be found. John Graham, the head of the charity Save the Children in Ethiopia, said: "The international community has just three (4) ___________________ $245 million in emergency food aid to help prevent a potentially catastrophic escalation in (5) ___________________ cases." He added that: "If these emergency funds do not arrive in time, there is no question that there will be a critical fracture in the food aid (6) ___________________."

Ethiopia is Africa’s (7) ___________________ country. It is no stranger to natural disasters of this kind. Famine killed over one million Ethiopians in 1984. The (8) ___________________ was brought on by the El Nino weather phenomenon, which has caused drought and flooding (9) ___________________ Africa. Ethiopia is one of the countries hardest hit. Charities say that over 400,000 Ethiopian children under the age of five (10) ___________________ severe malnutrition this year. In addition, 1.7 million under-fives, pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers will need (11) ___________________ malnutrition. Mr Graham warned that, "the window for action is rapidly closing" as it can take four months to buy food aid and (12) ___________________ the landlocked country.

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

1.	Who gave a stark warning about Ethiopia's looming catastrophe?
2.	How many Ethiopians are at risk of not receiving food aid?
3.	What charity was mentioned in the article?
4.	How long does the international community have to provide funds?
5.	What will there be a fracture in if funds to not arrive in time?
6.	How many African countries have a bigger population than Ethiopia?
7.	What is the weather phenomenon causing the latest drought?
8.	How many under-fives could suffer from severe malnutrition?
9.	What did a charity worker say is rapidly closing?
10.	How long can it take to buy and transport food aid to Ethiopia?

MULTIPLE CHOICE - QUIZ

1.	Who gave a stark warning about Ethiopia's looming catastrophe?	6.	How many African countries have a bigger population than Ethiopia?
	a) the African Union b) international charities c) the World Health Organisation d) Ethiopia's leader		a) 2 b) 3 c) 1 d) 5
2.	How many Ethiopians are at risk of not receiving food aid?	7.	What is the weather phenomenon causing the latest drought?
	a) 1,000,000 b) 100,000,000 c) 100,000 d) 10,000,000		a) St. Elmo's fire b) global warming c) Indian summer d) El Nino
3.	What charity was mentioned in the article?	8.	How many under-fives could suffer from severe malnutrition?
	a) Save the Children b) Doctors Without Borders c) Greenpeace d) Action Aid		a) over 400,000 b) a million c) half-a-million d) 1.7 million
4.	How long does the international community have to provide funds?	9.	What did a charity worker say is rapidly closing?
	a) 2 weeks b) 4 weeks c) 3 weeks d) 5 weeks		a) the window for action b) banks c) transport services d) famine
5.	What will there be a fracture in if funds to not arrive in time?	10.	How long can it take to buy and transport food aid to Ethiopia?
	a) relations b) the food aid supply pipeline c) bones d) Internet cables		a) three weeks b) four months c) a week d) two weeks

ROLE PLAY

Role A – Aid workers

You think aid workers are most important in a famine. Tell the others three reasons why. Tell them why their things aren't so good. Also, tell the others which is the least useful of these (and why): blankets, wood or mobile phones.

Role B – Blankets

You think blankets are most important in a famine. Tell the others three reasons why. Tell them why their things aren't so good. Also, tell the others which is the least useful of these (and why): aid workers, wood or mobile phones.

Role C – Wood for fire and cooking

You think wood is most important in a famine. Tell the others three reasons why. Tell them why their things aren't so good. Also, tell the others which is the least useful of these (and why): blankets, aid workers or mobile phones.

Role D – Mobile phones

You think mobile phones are most important in a famine. Tell the others three reasons why. Tell them why their things aren't so good. Also, tell the others which is the least useful of these (and why): blankets, wood or aid workers.

AFTER READING / LISTENING

1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionary / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words 'emergency' and 'aid'.

emergency

aid

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:

issued
50
10
245
time
supply

stranger
1984
400,000
1.7
window
four

ETHIOPIA'S DROUGHT SURVEY

Write five GOOD questions about Ethiopia's drought 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.

ETHIOPIA'S DROUGHT DISCUSSION

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

1)	What did you think when you read the headline?
2)	What springs to mind when you hear the word 'drought'?
3)	Why are there still people in danger of starving in today's world?
4)	What can we do to help those at risk in Ethiopia?
5)	Why don't the world's billionaires provide more funds?
6)	Two jet fighters cost more than the aid needed. Why are jet fighters more important then feeding 10 million people?
7)	What is malnutrition?
8)	What would you do if you were head of a charity?
9)	What can you do today to help the people in Ethiopia?
10)	What three adjectives best describe this story?

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

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

11)	Did you like reading this article? Why/not?
12)	What do you know about drought and famine in Ethiopia?
13)	Should world leaders be held responsible for deaths due to famine?
14)	What is El Nino and how does it affect the weather?
15)	What natural disasters are there in your country?
16)	Why isn't this story in the news every day?
17)	Why doesn't just one billionaire provide the $245 million of aid needed?
18)	Why are people more interested in celebrities than starving people?
19)	When will malnutrition completely disappear from our world?
20)	What questions would you like to ask world leaders?

DISCUSSION (Write your own questions)

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)
1.	________________________________________________________
2.	________________________________________________________
3.	________________________________________________________
4.	________________________________________________________
5.	________________________________________________________
6.	________________________________________________________

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

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)
1.	________________________________________________________
2.	________________________________________________________
3.	________________________________________________________
4.	________________________________________________________
5.	________________________________________________________
6.	________________________________________________________

LANGUAGE - CLOZE

International charities have issued a (1) ____ warning about a (2) ____ humanitarian catastrophe in Ethiopia. The North African country has been hit by its worst drought for 50 years. It is (3) ____ expected that emergency food aid for 10 million Ethiopians will run out (4) ____ more funds can be found. John Graham, the head of the charity Save the Children in Ethiopia, said: "The international community has just three weeks to provide $245 million in emergency food aid to help prevent a potentially catastrophic (5) ____ in severe malnutrition cases." He added that: "If these emergency funds do not arrive in time, there is no question that there will be a critical fracture in the food aid supply (6) ____."

Ethiopia is Africa’s second most populous country. It is no (7) ____ to natural disasters of this kind. Famine killed over one million Ethiopians in 1984. The latest drought was brought (8) ____ by the El Nino weather phenomenon, which has caused drought and flooding (9) ____ much of Africa. Ethiopia is one of the countries hardest hit. Charities say that over 400,000 Ethiopian children under the age of five will suffer from (10) ____ malnutrition this year. In addition, 1.7 million under-fives, pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers will need (11) ____ for malnutrition. Mr Graham warned that, "the window for action is rapidly closing" as it can take four months to buy food aid and (12) ____ it into the landlocked country.

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

1.	(a)	stark	(b)	strict	(c)	stuck	(d)	stork
2.	(a)	canter	(b)	diligent	(c)	looming	(d)	forthright
3.	(a)	width	(b)	widens	(c)	widely	(d)	widening
4.	(a)	duress	(b)	nevertheless	(c)	regardless	(d)	unless
5.	(a)	escalation	(b)	elevated	(c)	highlighting	(d)	arising
6.	(a)	tube	(b)	pipeline	(c)	vein	(d)	canal
7.	(a)	shadow	(b)	mystery	(c)	alien	(d)	stranger
8.	(a)	to	(b)	on	(c)	of	(d)	for
9.	(a)	all	(b)	on	(c)	across	(d)	arriving
10.	(a)	acrid	(b)	severe	(c)	venomous	(d)	icy
11.	(a)	medicinal	(b)	carer	(c)	copious	(d)	treatment
12.	(a)	vehicle	(b)	transport	(c)	delivery	(d)	haulage

SPELLING

Paragraph 1
1.	a looming humanitarian chotpsearta
2.	engcrmeye food aid
3.	The international tnyioucmm
4.	rseeve malnutrition cases
5.	there will be a licatirc fracture
6.	in the food aid supply nieeplpi
Paragraph 2
7.	Africa’s second most puosuolp country
8.	It is no stranger to natural essiartsd
9.	the El Nino weather eohnpnmnoe
10.	caused drought and gioflond
11.	tpennarg women and breast-feeding mothers
12.	tmtateenr for malnutrition

PUT THE TEXT BACK TOGETHER

Number these lines in the correct order.

( )	hit. Charities say that over 400,000 Ethiopian children under the age of five will suffer
( )	feeding mothers will need treatment for malnutrition. Mr Graham warned that, "the window for action is rapidly
( )	$245 million in emergency food aid to help prevent a potentially catastrophic escalation in severe
( )	time, there is no question that there will be a critical fracture in the food aid supply pipeline."
( )	expected that emergency food aid for 10 million Ethiopians will run out unless more funds can be found. John Graham, the head
( 1 )	International charities have issued a stark warning about a looming humanitarian catastrophe
( )	malnutrition cases." He added that: "If these emergency funds do not arrive in
( )	in Ethiopia. The North African country has been hit by its worst drought for 50 years. It is widely
( )	Ethiopia is Africa’s second most populous country. It is no stranger to natural disasters of this kind. Famine killed over
( )	closing" as it can take four months to buy food aid and transport it into the landlocked country.
( )	phenomenon, which has caused drought and flooding across much of Africa. Ethiopia is one of the countries hardest
( )	from severe malnutrition this year. In addition, 1.7 million under-fives, pregnant women and breast-
( )	one million Ethiopians in 1984. The latest drought was brought on by the El Nino weather
( )	of the charity Save the Children in Ethiopia, said: "The international community has just three weeks to provide

PUT THE WORDS IN THE RIGHT ORDER

1.	catastrophe about a A looming stark humanitarian warning .
2.	by hit been has country African North The drought worst its .
3.	for 10 million Ethiopians will run out Emergency food aid .
4.	not time these do in If funds arrive emergency .
5.	aid fracture food pipeline critical the supply A in .
6.	Africa’s Ethiopia populous second is country most .
7.	stranger to natural disasters of this kind It is no .
8.	hit of the Ethiopia countries is hardest one .
9.	age will Ethiopian the five under of suffer children .
10.	action the is window Warned rapidly for that closing .

CIRCLE THE CORRECT WORD (20 PAIRS)

International charities have issued a stork / stark warning about a looming humanitarian catastrophe / catastrophic in Ethiopia. The North African country has been hit by its worse / worst drought for 50 years. It is widely / width expected that emergency food aid for 10 million Ethiopians will run out unless more funds can be found. John Graham, the head of the clarity / charity Save the Children in Ethiopia, said: "The international community has just three weeks to providing / provide $245 million in / on emergency food aid to help prevent a potentially catastrophic escalation / escalator in severe malnutrition cases." He added that: "If these emergency funds do not arrive in time, there is no answer / question that there will be a critical fracture in the food aid supple / supply pipeline."

Ethiopia is Africa’s second most populate / populous country. It is no stranger / stronger to natural disasters of this kindly / kind. Famine killed over one million Ethiopians in 1984. The latest draught / drought was brought on by the El Nino weather phenomenon, which has caused drought and flooding / flooded across much of Africa. Ethiopia is one of the countries hardest hit. Charities say that over 400,000 Ethiopian children under the aged / age of five will suffer from several / severe malnutrition this year. In addition, 1.7 million under-fives, pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers will need / needy treatment for malnutrition. Mr Graham warned that, "the window / hatch for action is rapidly closing" as it can take four months to buy food aid and transport it into the unlocked / landlocked country.

Talk about the connection between each pair of words in italics, and why the correct word is correct.

INSERT THE VOWELS (a, e, i, o, u)

_nt_rn_t__n_l ch_r_t__s h_v_ _ss__d _ st_rk w_rn_ng _b__t _ l__m_ng h_m_n_t_r__n c_t_str_ph_ _n _th__p__. Th_ N_rth _fr_c_n c__ntry h_s b__n h_t by _ts w_rst dr__ght f_r 50 y__rs. _t _s w_d_ly _xp_ct_d th_t _m_rg_ncy f__d __d f_r 10 m_ll__n _th__p__ns w_ll r_n __t _nl_ss m_r_ f_nds c_n b_ f__nd. J_hn Gr_h_m, th_ h__d _f th_ ch_r_ty S_v_ th_ Ch_ldr_n _n _th__p__, s__d: "Th_ _nt_rn_t__n_l c_mm_n_ty h_s j_st thr__ w__ks t_ pr_v_d_ $245 m_ll__n _n _m_rg_ncy f__d __d t_ h_lp pr_v_nt _ p_t_nt__lly c_t_str_ph_c _sc_l_t__n _n s_v_r_ m_ln_tr_t__n c_s_s." H_ _dd_d th_t: "_f th_s_ _m_rg_ncy f_nds d_ n_t _rr_v_ _n t_m_, th_r_ _s n_ q__st__n th_t th_r_ w_ll b_ _ cr_t_c_l fr_ct_r_ _n th_ f__d __d s_pply p_p_l_n_."

_th__p__ _s _fr_c_’s s_c_nd m_st p_p_l__s c__ntry. _t _s n_ str_ng_r t_ n_t_r_l d_s_st_rs _f th_s k_nd. F_m_n_ k_ll_d _v_r _n_ m_ll__n _th__p__ns _n 1984. Th_ l_t_st dr__ght w_s br__ght _n by th_ _l N_n_ w__th_r ph_n_m_n_n, wh_ch h_s c__s_d dr__ght _nd fl__d_ng _cr_ss m_ch _f _fr_c_. _th__p__ _s _n_ _f th_ c__ntr__s h_rd_st h_t. Ch_r_t__s s_y th_t _v_r 400,000 _th__p__n ch_ldr_n _nd_r th_ _g_ _f f_v_ w_ll s_ff_r fr_m s_v_r_ m_ln_tr_t__n th_s y__r. _n _dd_t__n, 1.7 m_ll__n _nd_r-f_v_s, pr_gn_nt w_m_n _nd br__st-f__d_ng m_th_rs w_ll n__d tr__tm_nt f_r m_ln_tr_t__n. Mr Gr_h_m w_rn_d th_t, "th_ w_nd_w f_r _ct__n _s r_p_dly cl_s_ng" _s _t c_n t_k_ f__r m_nths t_ b_y f__d __d _nd tr_nsp_rt _t _nt_ th_ l_ndl_ck_d c__ntry.

PUNCTUATE THE TEXT AND ADD CAPITALS

international charities have issued a stark warning about a looming humanitarian catastrophe in ethiopia the north african country has been hit by its worst drought for 50 years it is widely expected that emergency food aid for 10 million ethiopians will run out unless more funds can be found john graham the head of the charity save the children in ethiopia said "the international community has just three weeks to provide $245 million in emergency food aid to help prevent a potentially catastrophic escalation in severe malnutrition cases" he added that "if these emergency funds do not arrive in time there is no question that there will be a critical fracture in the food aid supply pipeline"

ethiopia is africa’s second most populous country it is no stranger to natural disasters of this kind famine killed over one million ethiopians in 1984 the latest drought was brought on by the el nino weather phenomenon which has caused drought and flooding across much of africa ethiopia is one of the countries hardest hit charities say that over 400000 ethiopian children under the age of five will suffer from severe malnutrition this year in addition 17 million under-fives pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers will need treatment for malnutrition mr graham warned that "the window for action is rapidly closing" as it can take four months to buy food aid and transport it into the landlocked country

PUT A SLASH ( / ) WHERE THE SPACES ARE

Internationalcharitieshaveissuedastarkwarningaboutaloominghum
anitariancatastropheinEthiopia.TheNorthAfricancountryhasbeenhit
byitsworstdroughtfor50years.Itiswidelyexpectedthatemergencyfoo
daidfor10millionEthiopianswillrunoutunlessmorefundscanbefound.J
ohnGraham,theheadofthecharitySavetheChildreninEthiopia,said:"
Theinternationalcommunityhasjustthreeweekstoprovide$245millio
ninemergencyfoodaidtohelppreventapotentiallycatastrophicescalat
ioninseveremalnutritioncases."Headdedthat:"Iftheseemergencyfu
ndsdonotarriveintime,thereisnoquestionthattherewillbeacriticalfrac
tureinthefoodaidsupplypipeline."EthiopiaisAfrica’ssecondmostpopu
louscountry.Itisnostrangertonaturaldisastersofthiskind.Faminekille
doveronemillionEthiopiansin1984.Thelatestdroughtwasbroughtonb
ytheElNinoweatherphenomenon,whichhascauseddroughtandfloodi
ngacrossmuchofAfrica.Ethiopiaisoneofthecountrieshardesthit.Chari
tiessaythatover400,000Ethiopianchildrenundertheageoffivewillsuff
erfromseveremalnutritionthisyear.Inaddition,1.7millionunder-fiv
es,pregnantwomenandbreast-feedingmotherswillneedtreatmen
tformalnutrition.MrGrahamwarnedthat,"thewindowforactionisrapid
lyclosing"asitcantakefourmonthstobuyfoodaidandtransportitintoth
elandlockedcountry.

FREE WRITING

Write about Ethiopia's drought for 10 minutes. Comment on your partner’s paper.

_____________________________________________________________________________

ACADEMIC WRITING

Leaders of rich countries have a duty to stop people dying in droughts. Discuss.

_____________________________________________________________________________

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 Ethiopia's drought. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.

3. ETHIOPIA'S DROUGHT: Make a poster about Ethiopia's drought. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things?

4. OVERSEAS AID: Write a magazine article about overseas aid. Include imaginary interviews with leaders of rich countries, and with people who think rich countries should give more money in aid.

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. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT? Write a newspaper article about the next stage in this news story. Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Give each other feedback on your articles.

6. LETTER: Write a letter to an expert on droughts. Ask him/her three questions about Ethiopia's drought. Give him/her three ideas on how to help people affected by the drought. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions.

A Few Additional Activities for Students

Ask your students what they have read, seen or heard about this news in their own language. Students are likely to / may have have encountered this news in their L1 and therefore bring a background knowledge to the classroom.

Get students to role play different characters from this news story.

Ask students to keep track of this news and revisit it to discuss in your next class.

Ask students to male predictions of how this news might develop in the next few days or weeks, and then revisit and discuss in a future class.

Ask students to write a follow-up story to this news.

Students role play a journalist and someone who witnessed or was a part of this news. Perhaps they could make a video of the interview.

Ask students to keep a news journal in English and add this story to their thoughts.

Also...

Buy my 1,000 Ideas and Activities for Language Teachers eBook. It has hundreds of ideas, activity templates, reproducible activities for:

News
Warm ups
Pre-reading / Post-reading
Using headlines
Working with words
While-reading / While-listening
Moving from text to speech
Post-reading / Post-listening
Discussions
Using opinions
Plans
Language
Using lists
Using quotes
Task-based activities
Role plays
Using the central characters in the article
Using themes from the news
Homework

Buy my book

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ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE (p.4)

a

T

b

F

c

T

d

F

e

T

f

T

g

F

h

F

SYNONYM MATCH (p.4)

1.	issued	a.	given
2.	catastrophe	b.	disaster
3.	expected	c.	believed
4.	escalation	d.	increase
5.	fracture	e.	break
6.	latest	f.	most recent
7.	phenomenon	g.	event
8.	severe	h.	serious
9.	treatment	i.	medical care
10.	rapidly	j.	quickly

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS (p.8)

1.	International charities
2.	10 million
3.	Save the Children
4.	Three weeks
5.	The food aid supply pipeline
6.	One
7.	El Nino
8.	Over 400,000
9.	The window for action
10.	Four weeks

MULTIPLE CHOICE - QUIZ (p.9)

1.

b

2.

d

3.

a

4.

c

5.

b

6.

c

7.

d

8.

a

9.

a

10.

b

ALL OTHER EXERCISES

Please check for yourself by looking at the Article on page 2.
(It's good for your English ;-)

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Breaking News English Lesson on Ethiopia Drought

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Drought Leaves Ethiopia Facing Food Crisis (12th February, 2016)

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The Reading / Listening - Level 6

The 40 Lesson Activities on the PDF Handout

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