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THE ARTICLE

The very first South American-Arab summit opened on May 10 in Brazil. Its aims are to strengthen economic and political ties between the two regions. The two-day meeting is between leaders from 22 Arab and twelve South American countries. Trade and political cooperation are the most important issues that will be discussed. Brazil’s President Lula da Silva hopes to create a “new international economic geography”. This means he wants Arab and South American countries to depend less on the United States and Europe. He also wants developing nations to be treated better by rich countries.

The topic of terrorism has overshadowed the summit. Many summit countries support the right of people in Iraq and Palestine to fight against the American forces and Israel. American and Israeli spokespersons naturally expressed their concerns about this. Algeria’s President Bouteflika said America and Israel should not worry. It is likely that summit leaders will ask Israel to withdraw from land it has occupied since 1967. There will also be a call for East Jerusalem to become the Palestinian capital. The summit is expected to close with a request to the U.N. for a conference to define what is meant by a “terrorist crime”.

WARM UPS

1. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics you are interested in, which do not look interesting and which look really boring:

South America / Arab nations / Brazil / President Lula da Silva / trade / geography / rich countries / terrorism / East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital / What is a “terrorist crime”?

Have a chat about the topics you liked. For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently.

2. BRAZIL: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with Brazil. Share your words with your partner / group and talk about them.

3. ONE FACT: Choose ten of countries attending the South American–Arab summit. Talk to as many different students as you can and ask for one fact about the countries. After you have finished, sit with a partner / group and share your information. If there is time left, try to fill in information on all countries.

SOUTH AMERICAN COUNTRIES

Argentina. Brazil. Bolivia. Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam, Uruguay, Venezuela.

ARAB COUNTRIES     

Algeria, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Comores, Djibouti, Egypt, Yemen, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Tunisia.

4. OPINIONS: Read the following comments on the South American-Arab summit. Talk with your partner / group about whether you agree or disagree with the comments. Change the comment so that you agree with it and discuss again.

1. This summit will improve the lives of 600 million people in the two regions.
2. I don’t understand why such a meeting has never happened before.
3. These two regions will challenge America’s power.
4. This summit is a waste of time.
5. I agree that East Jerusalem should be the Palestinian capital.
6. South America the Middle East have little in common.
7. Africa should also be at the summit.
8. Brazil will soon become a world leader.
9. Half of the leaders from the summit countries didn’t come. That’s not very good.
10. South America and the Middle East will become economic powerhouses.
11. This summit is for countries that support terrorism to pose for photographs.

PRE-READING IDEAS

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

2. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):

1. The tenth South American-Arab summit opened on May 10 in Brazil.  T / F
2. Top of the summit’s agenda are terrorism and oil prices.  T / F
3. The two regions want to reduce their dependence on the USA and Europe.  T / F
4. The summit will support Iraqis fighting against U.S. forces.  T / F
5. Leaders will not ask Israel to change its borders .  T / F
6. The summit will discuss what is a “terrorist crime”.  T / F

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

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

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. WORD ORDER: Put the underlined words back in the correct order.

First S. American-Arab summit opens

The very first South American-Arab summit opened on May 10 in Brazil. Its aims are to strengthen economic and political the between two ties regions. The two-day meeting is between leaders from 22 Arab and twelve South American countries. Trade and political cooperation issues are important the most that will be discussed. Brazil’s President Lula da Silva hopes to create a “new international economic geography”. This means he wants Arab and South American depend on countries to the less United States and Europe. He also wants developing nations to be treated better by rich countries.

The topic of terrorism has overshadowed the summit. Many summit countries people the right of support in Iraq and Palestine to fight against the American forces and Israel. American and Israeli spokespersons naturally concerns this about their expressed. Algeria’s President Bouteflika said America and Israel should not worry. It is likely that summit leaders will ask Israel to withdraw from land it has occupied since 1967. There will also be a call for East Jerusalem to become the Palestinian capital. The summit close to expected is with a request to the U.N. for a conference to define what is meant by a “terrorist crime”.

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. WORD ORDER: In pairs / groups, 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 SUMMIT SURVEY: In pairs/groups write down questions about the South American-Arab summit. Ask other classmates your questions and report back to your original partner/ group to compare your findings.

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

6. DISCUSSION:

1. What did you think of this article?
2. Did anything in this article make you think the world will be better?
3. Did you raise your eyebrows at anything in the article?
4. What do you think of the South American-Arab summit?
5. Do you think it will be successful?
6. What issues need to be discussed at the summit?
7. Should the summit talk about terrorism or trade and political cooperation?
8. Will South American and Arab nations become stronger in the world?
9. How are South American and Arab countries similar?
10. Which leaders from the two regions have lots of charisma?
11. What should South American and Arab nations do with all their oil?
12. Should America and Israel be worried about this summit?
13. Is it OK for Iraqis and Palestinians to fight against American or Israeli forces?
14. Should Israel pull back to its pre-1967 borders?
15. Do you think East Jerusalem should become the Palestinian capital city?
16. What is a “terrorist crime”?
17. Did you like this discussion?
18. What was difficult to talk about?
19. Teacher / Student additional questions.

7. SUMMIT LEADERS: You are leaders at the South American-Arab summit. It is your job to decide on a policy for the issues in the table. In pairs / groups, agree on one idea for points a – h in the table:

Change partners. With your new partners, discuss each other’s policies. Agree with your new partners on which policy is better. Go back to your original partners to show how your first policies have changed.

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 the South American-Arab summit. Share your findings with your class in the next lesson.

3. ONE COUNTRY: Choose one country from those attending the summit and write a short article about it. Show your article to your classmates in your next lesson.

4. LETTER: Write a letter to the leader of the summit. Give him / her advice on what to talk about at the summit. Show your letters to the class next lesson. Discuss the points you wrote about.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

1. The tenth South American-Arab summit opened on May 10 in Brazil.  F
2. Top of the summit’s agenda are terrorism and oil prices.  F
3. The two regions want to reduce their dependence on the USA and Europe.  T
4. The summit will support Iraqis fighting against U.S. forces.  T
5. Leaders will not ask Israel to change its borders.  F
6. The summit will discuss what is a “terrorist crime”.  T

SYNONYM MATCH:

PHRASE MATCH:

WORD ORDER:

First S. American-Arab summit opens

The very first South American-Arab summit opened on May 10 in Brazil. Its aims are to strengthen economic and political ties between the two regions. The two-day meeting is between leaders from 22 Arab and twelve South American countries. Trade and political cooperation are the most important issues that will be discussed. Brazil’s President Lula da Silva hopes to create a “new international economic geography”. This means he wants Arab and South American countries to depend less on the United States and Europe. He also wants developing nations to be treated better by rich countries.

The topic of terrorism has overshadowed the summit. Many summit countries support the right of people in Iraq and Palestine to fight against the American forces and Israel. American and Israeli spokespersons naturally expressed their concerns about this. Algeria’s President Bouteflika said America and Israel should not worry. It is likely that summit leaders will ask Israel to withdraw from land it has occupied since 1967. There will also be a call for East Jerusalem to become the Palestinian capital. The summit is expected to close with a request to the U.N. for a conference to define what is meant by a “terrorist crime”.