Date: April 28, 2005
Level: Easier (Try the harder lesson.)
Downloads: This Lesson (Word Doc) | Class Handout (Word Doc) | Class Handout (PDF)

Listening (1:17 - 152.4 KB - 16kbps)

THE ARTICLE

An amazing act of kindness and selflessness happened earlier today. A woman gave birth to five baby boys in five minutes and then handed them to a couple who were unable to have children. Teresa Anderson, 25, decided one year ago to be a surrogate mother for Luisa Gonzalez and Enrique Moreno. They agreed on a sum of $15,000 for Ms Anderson to have Ms Gonzalez and Mr Morenos’ child. The agreement was, of course, for just one baby. Teresa got a huge surprise when she was told she was pregnant with five babies. Following her discovery, she refused to accept payment from the genetic parents. She knew they had to make ends meet and thought that raising five kids would be a financial problem. Teresa is a student nurse and has two children of her own.

WARM UPS

1. CHAT: Talk in pairs or groups about: kindness / selflessness / baby boys / surrogacy / multiple births / huge surprises / making ends meet / financial problems … For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently.

2. BABY: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word “baby”. Share your words with your partner / group and talk about them.

3. KINDNESS: Write down some kind things you have done recently and some of the kindest things you have ever done. Talk with your partner about these acts of kindness. Repeat the activity by writing down the kind (or unkind) things people have done for you.

4. BE KIND: Look at the following list of kind acts. Talk with your partner / group about which you do / would do. How often do you do these? When was the last time you did any of these? How did you feel after? Was it a sudden decision to help?

• Give your seat on the train or bus to someone else.
• Allow another shopper at the supermarket checkout to go ahead of you.
• Smile and say “hello” to a stranger in the street.
• Donate some money to charity.
• Tell someone that they are great at their job.
• Lend someone some money and tell the person you don’t want it back.
• When asked for directions, take the person to where they want to go.
• Give a homeless person some food or money.

5. FIVE BABY BOYS: (1) In pairs / groups, spend a minute or two writing down (a) the problems and (b) the joys and good things about having five baby boys. After you have finished, talk about the things you wrote. (2) Change partners. Tell your new partners the problems you wrote down. Your new partners will give you reasons why these are not problems at all.

6. 2-MINUTE BOYS OR GIRLS DEBATES: Face each other in pairs and engage in the following fun 2-minute “debates”. Students A take the first argument, students B the second. Rotate pairs to ensure a lively pace and noise level is kept:

1. Baby boys are cuter. vs. Baby girls are cuter.
2. Boys are naughtier. vs. Girls are naughtier.
3. Girls are more intelligent. vs. Boys are more intelligent.
4. Girls are quieter and better mannered. vs. Boys are better fun.
5. Boys sulk too much. vs. Girls cry too much.
6. You can play sports with boys. vs. You can play the same sports with girls.
7. Boys grow up to be nicer teenagers. vs. Teenage boys are not nice.
8. Girls need expensive clothes. vs. Boys need expensive toys.
9. Girls are more useful around the house. vs. Boys are way more useful.
10. Girls getting boyfriends is a worry. vs. Boys getting girlfriends is a bigger worry.

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. WORD SEARCH: Use your dictionary / computer to find word partners (collocates), other meanings, synonyms or more information on the words ‘give’ and ‘birth’.

2. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true or false:

1. A woman was unbelievably kind.  T / F
2. A woman gave birth to five babies in five minutes.  T / F
3. A woman gave birth and suddenly decided to give her babies to a childless couple.  T / F
4. A woman tried to sell her babies for $15,000 each.  T / F
5. The woman was very surprised at being pregnant with five babies.  T / F
6. The genetic parents of the babies are amazingly rich.  T / F
7. The surrogate mother said raising five kids isn’t so expensive.  T / F

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

a.	amazing	substitute
b.	selflessness	gigantic
c.	surrogate	survive
d.	sum	bringing up
e.	huge	unbelievable
f.	accept	amount
g.	make ends meet	take
h.	raising	unselfishness

4. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

a.	amazing act	a sum of $15,000
b.	gave	problem
c.	surrogate	birth
d.	They agreed on	payment
e.	Teresa got a huge	ends meet
f.	she refused to accept	mother
g.	make	surprise
h.	financial	of kindness and selflessness

 

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. SPOT THE MISTAKES: Half of the words in bold in each paragraph are right and half are wrong. Circle the incorrect words and try to replace them with words that fit.

Surrogate mother donates 5 boys

An amazing act of kindness and selflessness happened earlier today. A woman took birth to five baby boys in five minutes and then handed them to a couple who were unable to have parents. Teresa Anderson, 25, decided one year ago to be a surrogate mother for Luisa Gonzalez and Enrique Moreno. They agreed on a sum of $15,000 for Ms Anderson to have Ms Gonzalez and Mr Morenos’ child. The agreement was, of course, for just one baby. Teresa got a tiny surprise when she was told she was pregnant with five babies. Following her discovery, she refused to accept payment from the genetic parents. She knew they had to make beginnings meet and thought that raising five kids would be a financial problem. Teresa is a student nurse and has two children of her own.

2. TRUE/FALSE: Check your answers to the T/F exercise.

3. SYNONYM MATCH: Check your answers to this exercise.

4. PHRASE MATCH: Check your answers to this exercise.

5. QUESTIONS: Make notes for questions you would like to ask the class about the article.

6. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.

POST READING IDEAS

1. SPOT THE MISTAKES: Check your answers to this exercise.

2. QUESTIONS: Ask the discussion questions you thought of above to your partner / group / class. Pool the questions for everyone to share.

3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above.

4. STUDENT BABIES SURVEY: In pairs/groups write down questions about babies. Ask other classmates your questions and report back to your original partner/ group to compare your findings.

5. ‘GIVE’ / ‘BIRTH’: Make questions based on your findings from pre-reading activity #1. Ask your partner / group your questions.

6. DISCUSSION:

1. How did this article make you feel?
2. Were you surprised at anything you read in the article?
3. Did reading the article change your opinion of people?
4. What do you think of babies?
5. Which are better, baby boys or baby girls?
6. How many babies would you like?
7. Are you a very kind person?
8. Have you ever done anything amazingly kind?
9. What is the kindest thing anyone has done for you?
10. Is everyone in the world kind?
11. Do you know any unkind people?
12. What do you know about surrogacy?
13. What do you think about surrogacy?
14. What do you think about Teresa Anderson’s act of kindness?
15. Would you have said no to the $15,000?
16. When was the last time you got a huge surprise?
17. Do you have any financial problems?
18. Is it difficult for you to make ends meet?
19. Did you like this discussion?
20. Teacher / Student additional questions.

7. KIND PERSON: Think of a person you know who should be kinder. Write down the things you want that person to do to be kinder. Tell your partner about this person and why he/she is unkind. Think of reasons why the person might be unkind and what you could do to make him/her become kinder.

8. KIND HEADLINES: In pairs / groups, choose one of these (imaginary) headlines below and make a story about it. You need to develop the background, characters, what happened, what people said etc. Change partners / groups and report the story you created. Be prepared to answer questions from your new partners.

• George W. Bush changes his mind
• China and Japan are friends again
• Roses for everyone
• Israelis and Palestinians have a big party together
• World Kindness Day is a huge success
• Old lady helps the man who stole her car

Story headline:
Background
People
What happened?
Why was it kind?
What did the main character say?
What did the other main character say?
What did person X say?
Conclusion

 

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 information on surrogacy. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. MY KIND SCHEDULE: Write a list of kind things you will do within the next week. Try and do them. Report to your classmates on your success.

4. LETTER: Write a letter to Teresa Anderson telling her what you think of her kind act.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

1. A woman was unbelievably kind.  T
2. A woman gave birth to five babies in five minutes.  T
3. A woman gave birth and suddenly decided to give her babies to a childless couple.  F
4. A woman tried to sell her babies for $15,000 each.  F
5. The woman was very surprised at being pregnant with five babies.  T
6. The genetic parents of the babies are amazingly rich.  F
7. The surrogate mother said raising five kids isn’t so expensive.  F

SYNONYM MATCH:

a.	amazing	unbelievable
b.	selflessness	unselfishness
c.	surrogate	substitute
d.	sum	amount
e.	huge	gigantic
f.	accept	take
g.	make ends meet	survive
h.	raising	bringing up

PHRASE MATCH:

a.	amazing act	of kindness and selflessness
b.	gave	birth
c.	surrogate	mother
d.	They agreed on	a sum of $15,000
e.	Teresa got a huge	surprise
f.	she refused to accept	payment
g.	make	ends meet
h.	financial	problem

SPOT THE MISTAKES: The correct words are those in bold.

Surrogate mother donates 5 boys

An amazing act of kindness and selflessness happened earlier today. A woman gave birth to five baby boys in five minutes and then handed them to a couple who were unable to have children. Teresa Anderson, 25, decided one year ago to be a surrogate mother for Luisa Gonzalez and Enrique Moreno. They agreed on a sum of $15,000 for Ms Anderson to have Ms Gonzalez and Mr Morenos’ child. The agreement was, of course, for just one baby. Teresa got a huge surprise when she was told she was pregnant with five babies. Following her discovery, she refused to accept payment from the genetic parents. She knew they had to make ends meet and thought that raising five kids would be a financial problem. Teresa is a student nurse and has two children of her own.