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Related materials from ESL Discussions.com on mountains. THE ARTICLEHistoric jumps made above Mt. EverestThree skydivers made history over Mount Everest on October 5th by being the first people to parachute above the world’s highest mountain. The parachutists, from New Zealand, Britain and Canada, trained for many years to make their jumps. Their plane flew about 150 metres above Everest’s peak when they leapt out. They had to wear oxygen masks and parachutes that were larger than usual to help them in the thin air. The three were in freefall for 30 seconds before their chutes opened and they glided down to land. A member of the jumpers’ support team Krishna Aryal explained to the Reuters news agency what the jumps looked like from the ground: "They looked like tiny birds flying in the blue sky as they jumped from the plane," he said.
The skydivers were over the moon with their jump over Everest. New Zealander Wendy Smith said: "It was stunning. I had never seen so many mountains before. To be on top of the world was simply stunning.” Britain’s Holly Budge agreed, saying her jump was “just spectacular”. Their jumps broke several skydiving records. They entered the record books for making the highest skydiving freefall at nearly 8,900 metres. They also landed on the world’s highest drop zone at 3,761 metres. Twenty-nine more daredevils are waiting for favourable weather conditions to make the same jump. The thrill seekers are part of the ‘Everest Skydive 2008’ event organized by the British extreme sports company High and Wild.
WARM-UPS1. MT. EVEREST: Walk around the class and talk to other students about Mount Everest. Change partners often. After you finish, sit with your partner(s) and share your findings. 2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words from the article are most interesting and which are most boring.
Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently. 3. DAREDEVIL: Are you a daredevil and a thrill seeker? Would you like to have some real fun? Complete the table. Share your ideas with your partner(s). Change partners and share your ideas again. Who is the biggest daredevil?
4. THRILL SEEKERS: Students A strongly believe everyone must have a really exciting, action-packed hobby; Students B strongly believe gentle, safe hobbies are best. Change partners again and talk about your roles and conversations. 5. SIMPLY STUNNING: Which of these things would you most like to see? Rank them in order. Talk to your partner(s) about your rankings.
6. HISTORY: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘history’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories. BEFORE READING / LISTENING1. 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 / LISTENINGGAP FILL: Put the words into the gaps in the text.
LISTENING: Listen and fill in the spaces.Three skydivers __________________ Mount Everest on October 5th by being the first people to parachute __________________ highest mountain. The parachutists, from New Zealand, Britain and Canada, trained for many years __________________ jumps. Their plane flew about 150 metres above Everest’s peak when they leapt out. They had to wear oxygen masks and parachutes that were larger __________________ help them in the thin air. The three were in freefall for 30 seconds before their chutes opened and they glided __________________. A member of the jumpers’ support team Krishna Aryal explained to the Reuters news agency what the jumps looked like from the ground: "They looked __________________ flying in the blue sky as they jumped from the plane," he said. The skydivers were over the __________________ jump over Everest. New Zealander Wendy Smith said: "It was stunning. I had never seen so many mountains before. To be on top of the world __________________.” Britain’s Holly Budge agreed, saying her jump was “__________________”. Their jumps broke several skydiving records. They __________________ books for making the highest skydiving freefall at nearly 8,900 metres. They __________________ world’s highest drop zone at 3,761 metres. Twenty-nine more daredevils are waiting __________________ conditions to make the same jump. The thrill seekers are part of the ‘Everest Skydive 2008’ event organized by the British __________________ company High and Wild. AFTER READING / LISTENING1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘dare’ and ‘devil’.
2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.
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:
STUDENT THRILL SURVEYWrite five GOOD questions about thrills 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.
SKYDIVING DISCUSSIONSTUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)
LANGUAGEThree skydivers made (1) ____ over Mount Everest on October 5th by being the first people to parachute above the world’s highest mountain. The parachutists, from New Zealand, Britain and Canada, (2) ____ for many years to make their jumps. Their plane (3) ____ about 150 metres above Everest’s peak when they leapt out. They had to wear oxygen masks and parachutes that were larger than (4) ____ to help them in the thin air. The three were in freefall for 30 seconds before their chutes opened and they glided (5) ____ to land. A member of the jumpers’ support team Krishna Aryal explained to the Reuters news agency what the jumps looked like from the ground: "They looked like tiny birds flying in the blue sky (6) ____ they jumped from the plane," he said. The skydivers were over the moon (7) ____ their jump over Everest. New Zealander Wendy Smith said: "It was stunning. I had never seen so many mountains before. To be on top of the world was (8) ____ stunning.” Britain’s Holly Budge agreed, saying her jump was “just spectacular”. Their jumps broke several skydiving records. They entered the record books (9) ____ making the highest skydiving freefall at nearly 8,900 metres. They also landed on the world’s highest drop zone at 3,761 metres. Twenty-nine more daredevils are waiting for (10) ____ weather (11) ____ to make the same jump. The thrill seekers are part of the ‘Everest Skydive 2008’ event organized (12) ____ the British extreme sports company High and Wild. Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.
WRITING:Write about Mt. Everest for 10 minutes. Correct your partner’s paper. _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ HOMEWORK1. 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 the record-breaking jump above Everest. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson. 3. EXTREME: Make a poster about some of the world’s extreme sports. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things? 4. OVER THE MOON: Write a magazine article about someone who is over the moon about something. Include an imaginary interview with the person. 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. DIARY / JOURNAL: You are into extreme sports. What’s your favourite extreme sport? Write about what you do in a normal day of training. Read your entry to your classmates in the next lesson. 6. LETTER: Write a letter to the skydivers. Ask them three questions about their jump. Give them three suggestions on what to do next. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions. ANSWERSTRUE / FALSE:
SYNONYM MATCH:
PHRASE MATCH:
GAP FILL: Historic jumps made above Mt. EverestThree skydivers made history over Mount Everest on October 5th by being the first people to parachute above the world’s highest mountain. The parachutists, from New Zealand, Britain and Canada, trained for many years to make their jumps. Their plane flew about 150 metres above Everest’s peak when they leapt out. They had to wear oxygen masks and parachutes that were larger than usual to help them in the thin air. The three were in freefall for 30 seconds before their chutes opened and they glided down to land. A member of the jumpers’ support team Krishna Aryal explained to the Reuters news agency what the jumps looked like from the ground: "They looked like tiny birds flying in the blue sky as they jumped from the plane," he said. The skydivers were over the moon with their jump over Everest. New Zealander Wendy Smith said: "It was stunning. I had never seen so many mountains before. To be on top of the world was simply stunning.” Britain’s Holly Budge agreed, saying her jump was “just spectacular”. Their jumps broke several skydiving records. They entered the record books for making the highest skydiving freefall at nearly 8,900 metres. They also landed on the world’s highest drop zone at 3,761 metres. Twenty-nine more daredevils are waiting for favourable weather conditions to make the same jump. The thrill seekers are part of the ‘Everest Skydive 2008’ event organized by the British extreme sports company High and Wild. LANGUAGE WORK
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