Breaking News English

Level: Harder (Try the easier lesson.)

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Audio: (2:07 - 248.8 KB - 16kbps)

THE ARTICLE

A $4 billion oil pipeline that will pump oil from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea has been opened ten years after construction started. The presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Turkey attended the official opening ceremony near Baku, the Azerbaijan capital, amid hopes of a brighter economic future for their nations. Revenues from the pipeline are expected to be a major boost for local economies. A letter from US President George W. Bush fully backing the pipeline was read at the ceremony. It stated: “The US has consistently supported [the pipeline] because we believe in the project’s ability to bolster energy security, strengthen participating countries’ energy diversity, enhance regional co-operation, and expand international investment opportunities.”

WARM-UPS

1. SEARCH FOR OIL: Try to find out as much as you can about oil. Speak to as many students as you can, collecting information. Join a partner / group and share your information. Choose four different categories and classify the information you collected in the appropriate category. Make mini oil presentations to the class / other groups. Use your category headings as presentation sections. Vote on the best presentation

2. ENERGY: Talk with your partner / group about energy sources. How important is oil? How bad is oil for the environment? What happens when the world’s oil runs out? What are the alternatives?

Talk about the pros and cons of these energy sources. Which do you think will be providing our energy needs 50 years from now?

3. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words are most interesting and which are most boring.

Oil / $4 billion / Caspian Sea / Mediterranean Sea / Azerbaijan / Georgia / Kazakhstan / Turkey / energy / technological achievements

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

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

5. OILY OPINIONS: In pairs / groups, decide which of these opinion you agree with. Discuss how much truth there is in each one.

1. The price of oil is too high.
2. Oil is a disaster for the environment.
3. Not enough is being done to find alternative energy sources.
4. Oil companies do their best to protect the environment.
5. Oil companies have too much power.
6. Oil is the most important of earth’s resources.
7. Oil companies make an obscene amount of money.
8. Local people should receive the financial benefits of oil.

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

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

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

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

WHILE READING / LISTENING

WHOOPS: There are six mistaken words in each paragraph. Find and circle them. Think of a replacement. The mistakes may be in spelling, grammar, meaning or general knowledge.

Caspian oil pipeline opens

A $4 billion oil pipeline that will plump oil from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea has been opened ten years after construction started. The presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Turkey attended the official closing ceremony near Baku, the Azerbaijan capital, amid hopes of a brighter economic future for their nations. Costs from the pipeline are expected to be a major boost for local economies. A letter from US President George W. Bush fully sidelining the pipeline was read at the ceremony. It stated: “The US has consistently rejected [the pipeline] because we believe in the project’s ability to bolster energy security, weaken participating countries’ energy diversity, enhance regional co-operation, and expand international investment opportunities.”

The pipeline is the first direct link from the landlocked Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean. Its construction represents a diplomacy as well as a technological achievement. Oil will fly a distance of 1,760 km, from Baku in Azerbaijan, to Ceyhan in Turkey, linking the world’s third largest oil and gas reserves to the shipping distribution ports on Turkey’s coast. It will increase the dependence of Europe and America on Middle Eastern oil. The grip Iran and the Soviet Union once had on the Caspian Sea during the Cold War era collapsed with the rise of communism. New capitalist economies emerged and now both Iran nor Russia has any share of the lucrative pipeline. Instead, British Petroleum has a 30 per cent steak in it.

AFTER READING

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

• 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. WHOOPS: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about any relationships the correct and mistaken words have.

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

5. STUDENT OIL SURVEY: In pairs / groups write down questions about oil.

• Ask other classmates your questions and note down their answers.
• Go back to your original partner / group and compare your findings.
• Make a mini-presentation to another group / the class on your findings.

6. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall exactly how these were used in the text:

 DISCUSSION

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

1. Did this headline capture your interest?
2. Were you aware of the pipeline before reading the article?
3. Do you like reading about technological achievements?
4. What do you know about oil prices?
5. Do you know anything about OPEC?
6. Do you think this new pipeline is a good thing?
7. How can you prevent terrorist attacks along a 1,700 km pipe?
8. Where does your country get its energy resources?
9. Do you think oil companies are greedy?
10. Do oil companies do enough to repair the damage from oil spills?

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

1. Did you like reading the article?
2. What did you think of this news?
3. How important is oil in our lives?
4. What would happen if oil suddenly dried up?
5. Do you think gas / petrol prices in your country are too high?
6. What damage does oil and its byproducts do to the environment?
7. Do you think petroleum companies care about the environment?
8. What do you think the energy of the future will be?
9. What will happen to countries in the Middle East when their oil runs out?
10. Did you like this discussion?

AFTER DISCUSSION: Join another partner / group and tell them what you talked about.

1. What question would you like to ask about this topic?
2. What was the most interesting thing you heard?
3. Was there a question you didn’t like?
4. Was there something you totally disagreed with?
5. What did you like talking about?
6. Do you want to know how anyone else answered the questions?
7. Which was the most difficult question?

SPEAKING

OIL ROLE PLAY: The world must decide on just one resource for the future. There are four choices for the resource. A $10 billion contract goes to the winner of the role play.
Team up with classmates who have been assigned the same role to develop your roles and discuss ideas and “strategies” before the role play begins. Introduce yourself to the other role players before the role play begins.

Change roles and repeat the role play. Comment in groups about the differences between the two role plays. Discuss which of the energy sources you believe is the most viable for the future. Decide which team wins the $10 billion.

LANGUAGE QUIZ

In pairs / groups, decide on the answers to the following questions. The questions are based on language from the news article.

1. “to be in the pipeline” means ...

(a) Something that is in the process of happening.
(b) Something that has become caught and cannot escape.

2. What are the nationality adjectives for Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Turkey?

3. Which word is not normally used after “boost of ~”?

(a) energy (b) meat (c) capital (d) cash (e) speed

4. The prefix “inter” can be added to national to make “international”.
What other geography words can you think of that are prefixed with “inter”?

5. Which word is not normally used before or after “flow”?

(a) cash (b) chart (c) watch (d) in full (e) constant

6. Which word is not a synonym of “collapse”?

(a) crumble (b) downfall (c) disintegration (d) die (e) cave-in

7. Which word is not a synonym of “emerged”?

(a) mushroomed (b) materialized (c) appeared (d) surfaced (e) sprang up

8. Another meaning of the word “stake” is ...

(a) A piece of wood pointed at one end for putting into the ground
     as a marker or tent peg.
(b) A thick slice of meat, usually beef.

LISTENING

Listen and fill in the spaces.

Caspian oil pipeline opens

A $4 billion oil pipeline ____ ____ ____ ___ from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea has been opened ten years after construction started. The presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Turkey attended the official opening ceremony near Baku, the Azerbaijan capital,
____ _____ ___ __ brighter economic future for their nations. Revenues from the pipeline are expected to ___ __ ______ _______ for local economies. A letter from US President George W. Bush fully backing the pipeline was read at the ceremony. It stated: “The US has consistently supported [the pipeline] because we believe in the project’s ability to ________ ________ ________, strengthen participating countries’ energy diversity, ________ _________ ____________, and expand international investment opportunities.”

The pipeline is the first direct link ____ ____ __________ Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean. Its construction represents a diplomatic as well as a technological achievement. Oil ____ _____ __ ________ ___ 1,760 km, from Baku in Azerbaijan, to Ceyhan in Turkey, linking the world’s third largest oil and gas reserves to the shipping distribution ports on Turkey’s coast. It will _______ ___ _________ __ Europe and America on Middle Eastern oil. The grip Iran and the Soviet Union once had on the Caspian Sea during the Cold War era collapsed with the fall of communism. New _________ _________ _____ __________ and now neither Iran nor Russia has any share of the lucrative pipeline. Instead, British Petroleum has a 30 per cent stake in it.

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 Caspian Sea pipeline. Share your findings with your class in the next lesson.

3. OIL: Write an information sheet on the different products that are made from oil. Compare your ideas with your classmates’ ideas in your next lesson.

4. LETTER: Write an imaginary letter to the boss of a major oil company to complain about the damage oil does to the environment. Show your letter to your classmates in your next lesson. Did you write about the same things?

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

SYNONYM MATCH:

PHRASE MATCH:

WHOOPS:

Caspian oil pipeline opens

A $4 billion oil pipeline that will pump oil from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea has been opened ten years after construction started. The presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Turkey attended the official opening ceremony near Baku, the Azerbaijan capital, amid hopes of a brighter economic future for their nations. Revenues from the pipeline are expected to be a major boost for local economies. A letter from US President George W. Bush fully backing the pipeline was read at the ceremony. It stated: “The US has consistently supported [the pipeline] because we believe in the project’s ability to bolster energy security, strengthen participating countries’ energy diversity, enhance regional co-operation, and expand international investment opportunities.”

The pipeline is the first direct link from the landlocked Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean. Its construction represents a diplomatic as well as a technological achievement. Oil will flow a distance of 1,760 km, from Baku in Azerbaijan, to Ceyhan in Turkey, linking the world’s third largest oil and gas reserves to the shipping distribution ports on Turkey’s coast. It will reduce the dependence of Europe and America on Middle Eastern oil. The grip Iran and the Soviet Union once had on the Caspian Sea during the Cold War era collapsed with the fall of communism. New capitalist economies emerged and now both Iran nor Russia has any share of the lucrative pipeline. Instead, British Petroleum has a 30 per cent stake in it.

LANGUAGE QUIZ:

     2. Azerbaijani, Georgian, Kazakh and Turkish

     4. intercontinental / intercity / intergalactic / interstate / inter-regional …