The Reading / Listening - Easter Eggs - Level 1

Easter eggs will be more expensive this year because of climate change. Extreme weather is making cocoa more difficult to grow. Cocoa beans are used to make chocolate. Most of the world's cocoa beans come from West Africa. Heatwaves and heavy rains have cut cocoa bean harvests. Reuters said cocoa prices have more than doubled in the past year. A climate analyst said cocoa farmers were, "struggling in the face of both extreme heat and rainfall".

People give chocolate eggs at Easter. This celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. Chocolate eggs first appeared in France in 1725. In 1873, an English chocolate company made the first hollow chocolate egg. It was like the ones we can buy today. Wikipedia says: "In Western cultures, the giving of chocolate eggs is now commonplace." However, climate analysts say we need to cut fossil fuel emissions to have cocoa and chocolate.

Try the same news story at these levels:

    Easter Eggs - Level 0 Easter Eggs - Level 2   or  Easter Eggs - Level 3

Sources
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_egg https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-68619912
  • https://www.ecowatch.com/chocolate-more-expensive-climate-change.html
  • https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cocoa-prices-surge-chocolate-bunnies-easter/


Make sure you try all of the online activities for this reading and listening - There are dictations, multiple choice activities, drag and drop activities, sentence jumbles, which word activities, text reconstructions, spelling, gap fills and a whole lot more. Please enjoy :-)

Phrase Matching

Paragraph 1

  1. eggs will be
  2. because
  3. extreme
  4. making cocoa more
  5. Cocoa beans are used
  6. heavy rains have cut
  7. prices have more than
  8. cocoa farmers were
  1. cocoa bean harvests
  2. difficult to grow
  3. doubled
  4. of climate change
  5. struggling
  6. more expensive this year
  7. to make chocolate
  8. weather

Paragraph 2

  1. People give chocolate eggs
  2. This celebrates the resurrection of
  3. Chocolate eggs first appeared
  4. the first hollow
  5. like the ones we
  6. the giving of chocolate eggs is
  7. we need to cut fossil
  8. cocoa and
  1. now commonplace
  2. chocolate
  3. chocolate egg
  4. Jesus
  5. fuel emissions
  6. at Easter
  7. in France in 1725
  8. can buy today

Listening — Listen and fill in the gaps

Easter (1) ___________________ more expensive this year (2) ___________________ change. Extreme weather is making cocoa more difficult to grow. Cocoa beans (3) ___________________ make chocolate. Most of the world's cocoa beans come from West Africa. Heatwaves (4) ___________________ have cut cocoa bean harvests. Reuters said cocoa prices have more than (5) ___________________ past year. A climate analyst said cocoa farmers were, "struggling in the (6) ___________________ extreme heat and rainfall".

(7) ___________________ eggs at Easter. This celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. Chocolate eggs (8) ___________________ France in 1725. In 1873, an English chocolate company made the first hollow chocolate egg. It was (9) ___________________ we can buy today. Wikipedia says: "(10) ___________________, the giving of chocolate eggs (11) ___________________." However, climate analysts say we (12) ___________________ fossil fuel emissions to have cocoa and chocolate.

Put a slash (/) where the spaces are

Eastereggswillbemoreexpensivethisyearbecauseofclimatechange.E
xtremeweatherismakingcocoamoredifficulttogrow.Cocoabeansareu
sedtomakechocolate.Mostoftheworld'scocoabeanscomefromWestA
frica.Heatwavesandheavyrainshavecutcocoabeanharvests.Reuters
saidcocoapriceshavemorethandoubledinthepastyear.Aclimateanaly
stsaidcocoafarmerswere,"strugglinginthefaceofbothextremeheatan
drainfall".PeoplegivechocolateeggsatEaster.Thiscelebratestheresur
rectionofJesus.ChocolateeggsfirstappearedinFrancein1725.In1873
,anEnglishchocolatecompanymadethefirsthollowchocolateegg.Itwa
sliketheoneswecanbuytoday.Wikipediasays:"InWesterncultures,th
egivingofchocolateeggsisnowcommonplace."However,climateanaly
stssayweneedtocutfossilfuelemissionstohavecocoaandchocolate.

Student survey

Write five GOOD questions about this topic 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.

(Please look at page 12 of the PDF to see a photocopiable example of this activity.)

Discussion — Write your own questions

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

(a) ________________

(b) ________________

(c) ________________

(d) ________________

(e) ________________

(f) ________________

(g) ________________

(h) ________________

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

(i) ________________

(j) ________________

(k) ________________

(l) ________________

(m) ________________

(n) ________________

(o) ________________

(p) ________________

Free writing

Write about this topic for 10 minutes. Comment on your partner’s paper.

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Answers

(Please check your answers against the article above.

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