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THE ARTICLESwiss banks promise less secrecySwitzerland’s banks will soon change the way they operate. Swiss banks have for centuries been the place for the rich to deposit money they want to hide. Many wealthy people avoid paying taxes in their own country by opening a Swiss bank account. However, the Swiss government is under a lot of international pressure to change its banking laws because of the global banking crisis. The U.S. in particular says it is now time for Americans to pay tax in the USA. America’s government wants Swiss banks to stop helping people evade tax. Helping foreigners evade tax is not a crime in Switzerland. Swiss banks have made trillions of dollars from protecting wealthy foreigners who should be paying tax on their income to their own government.
Switzerland is the world’s largest tax haven. Swiss president Hans-Rudolf Merz said Swiss banks would co-operate with the international community to fight the tax cheats. However, he said any help would only be on a case-by-case basis. He said banks would only help where foreign governments can prove bank customers are breaking the law. Many governments say this is not good enough. It also means the world’s dictators can continue to steal their country’s riches and hide the money in Swiss banks. US President Obama wants to rid the world of tax havens, which he believes is costing the USA billions of dollars a year in lost tax revenues. Switzerland is treading carefully. It fears it could be blacklisted by world powers.
WARM-UPS1. BANKS: Walk around the class and talk to other students about banks. 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. BANKING: Are you happy with the banking you receive? Complete the table. Talk about what you wrote with your partner(s). Change partners and share what you found out.
4. TAX: Students A strongly believe everyone in the world should pay the same rate of tax; Students B strongly believe poor people should pay no tax and rich people should pay a lot of tax. Change partners again and talk about your conversations. 5. SERVICE: How do banks compare with other places you visit? Rank the following in order of best and worst service. Change partners and talk about your ranking.
6. CHEAT: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘cheat’. 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.Switzerland’s banks will soon ____________________ operate. Swiss banks have for centuries been the place for the rich to deposit money they want to hide. Many wealthy ____________________ taxes in their own country by opening a Swiss bank account. However, the Swiss government is under a lot of international ____________________ banking laws because of the global banking crisis. The U.S. in particular says it is now time for Americans to pay tax in the USA. America’s government wants Swiss banks to stop ____________________ tax. Helping foreigners evade tax is not a crime in Switzerland. Swiss banks have made trillions of dollars from protecting wealthy foreigners who should be paying tax on ____________________ own government. Switzerland is the world’s largest tax haven. Swiss president Hans-Rudolf Merz said Swiss banks ____________________ the international community to fight the tax cheats. However, he said any help would only be on a ____________________. He said banks would only help where foreign governments can ____________________ are breaking the law. Many governments say this is not good enough. It also means the world’s dictators can continue to steal their country’s riches ____________________ Swiss banks. US President Obama wants to rid the world of tax havens, which he believes is costing the USA billions of dollars a year in lost tax revenues. Switzerland ____________________. It fears it could be blacklisted by world powers. AFTER READING / LISTENING1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘tax’ and ‘haven’.
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 BANK SURVEYWrite five GOOD questions about banks 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.
BANKS DISCUSSIONSTUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)
LANGUAGESwitzerland’s banks will soon change the way they (1) ____. Swiss banks have for centuries been the place for the rich to deposit money they want to hide. Many wealthy people avoid (2) ____ taxes in their own country by opening a Swiss bank account. However, the Swiss government is (3) ____ a lot of international pressure to change its banking laws because of the global banking crisis. The U.S. in (4) ____ says it is now time for Americans to pay tax in the USA. America’s government wants Swiss banks to stop (5) ____ people evade tax. Helping foreigners evade tax is not a crime in Switzerland. Swiss banks have made trillions of dollars from protecting wealthy foreigners who should be paying tax (6) ____ their income to their own government. Switzerland is the world’s largest tax haven. Swiss president Hans-Rudolf Merz said Swiss banks would co-operate (7) ____ the international community to fight the tax cheats. However, he said any help would only be on a case-by-case (8) ____. He said banks would only help where foreign governments can (9) ____ bank customers are breaking the law. Many governments say this is not good enough. It also means the world’s dictators can continue to steal their country’s (10) ____ and hide the money in Swiss banks. US President Obama wants to rid the world of tax havens, which he believes is (11) ____ the USA billions of dollars a year in lost tax revenues. Switzerland is treading carefully. It fears it could be (12) ____ by world powers. Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.
WRITING:Write about banks 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 tax havens. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson. 3. BANKS: Make a poster about different kinds of banking services. Show how each one could improve to serve customers better. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things? 4. CHEATS: Write a magazine article about a wealthy tax cheat. Include imaginary interviews with the tax cheat and an honest worker who regularly pays taxes. 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. LETTER: Write a letter to Swiss president Hans-Rudolf Merz. Ask him three questions about Swiss banks. Give him three ideas on what he should do to help the global banking crisis. 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: Swiss banks promise less secrecySwitzerland’s banks will soon change the way they operate. Swiss banks have for centuries been the place for the rich to deposit money they want to hide. Many wealthy people avoid paying taxes in their own country by opening a Swiss bank account. However, the Swiss government is under a lot of international pressure to change its banking laws because of the global banking crisis. The U.S. in particular says it is now time for Americans to pay tax in the USA. America’s government wants Swiss banks to stop helping people evade tax. Helping foreigners evade tax is not a crime in Switzerland. Swiss banks have made trillions of dollars from protecting wealthy foreigners who should be paying tax on their income to their own government. Switzerland is the world’s largest tax haven. Swiss president Hans-Rudolf Merz said Swiss banks would co-operate with the international community to fight the tax cheats. However, he said any help would only be on a case-by-case basis. He said banks would only help where foreign governments can prove bank customers are breaking the law. Many governments say this is not good enough. It also means the world’s dictators can continue to steal their country’s riches and hide the money in Swiss banks. US President Obama wants to rid the world of tax havens, which he believes is costing the USA billions of dollars a year in lost tax revenues. Switzerland is treading carefully. It fears it could be blacklisted by world powers. LANGUAGE WORK
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