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A Million Flee Pakistan-Taliban FightingA new humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Pakistan. Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis have fled their homes to escape fighting between the Pakistan Army and Taliban forces. There are estimates that nearly one-and-a-half million people in the Swat Valley area of Pakistan are displaced. The United Nations say 900,000 civilians moved to avoid the violence in the past month. Huge numbers of internal refugees were on the move on Thursday as the army eased a curfew. Hundreds of cars and overloaded buses formed a huge convoy. They were all heading for refugee camps in the south. Pakistan's Prime Minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani said the growing refugee crisis is his nation’s worst since the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947.
Fighting between the Pakistan military and Taliban rebels has got worse in recent days. Army commanders are increasing their efforts to root out the militants. Pakistan’s ‘Dawn’ newspaper reported heavy fighting in the north-west of the country as the military went on the offensive. Army Major General Athar Abbas said his troops killed at least 55 Taliban fighters in recent attacks. More than 15,000 Pakistan troops have moved into the Swat Valley to take on around 5,000 heavily-armed militants. A Taliban spokesman denied the casualty figures. Muslim Khan said his fighters have killed over 37 Pakistani soldiers in fighting since Wednesday. He said Pakistani troops killed just three Taliban soldiers.
WARM-UPS1. PAKISTAN: Walk around the class and talk to other students about Pakistan. Change partners often. Sit with your first 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. HUMANITARIAN CRISIS: With your partner(s), talk about the best way to give Pakistani refugees help in the ongoing crisis. Change partners and share your ideas.
4. PAKISTAN: Students A strongly believe Pakistan will defeat the Taliban and other militant groups; Students B strongly believe Pakistan will never defeat the Taliban. Change partners again and talk about your conversations. 5. FLEEING: What would you take if you had to flee from your home? Rank theses in order of which you would take first. Talk about your rating with your partner(s). Vote as a class on which things are most / least important.
6. TALIBAN: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘Taliban’. 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 gaps.A new humanitarian crisis _____________ Pakistan. Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis _____________ homes to escape fighting between the Pakistan Army and Taliban forces. There are estimates that nearly one-and-a-half million people in the Swat Valley area of Pakistan are displaced. The United Nations say 900,000 civilians _____________ the violence in the past month. Huge numbers of internal refugees were on the move on Thursday as the army _____________. Hundreds of cars and overloaded buses formed a huge convoy. They were _____________ refugee camps in the south. Pakistan's Prime Minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani said the growing refugee crisis is ________________ since the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. Fighting between the Pakistan military and Taliban rebels ______________ recent days. Army commanders are increasing their efforts to _____________ militants. Pakistan’s ‘Dawn’ newspaper reported heavy fighting in the north-west of the country _____________ went on the offensive. Army Major General Athar Abbas said his troops killed at least 55 Taliban fighters in recent attacks. More than 15,000 Pakistan troops have _________________ Swat Valley to take on around 5,000 heavily-armed militants. A Taliban spokesman denied the _____________. Muslim Khan said his fighters have killed over 37 Pakistani soldiers in fighting since Wednesday. He said Pakistani _________________ three Taliban soldiers. AFTER READING / LISTENING1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘million’ and ‘flee’.
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 TALIBAN SURVEYWrite five GOOD questions about the Taliban 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.
TALIBAN DISCUSSIONSTUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)
LANGUAGEA new humanitarian (1) ____ is unfolding in Pakistan. Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis have fled their homes to escape fighting between the Pakistan Army and Taliban forces. There are (2) ____ that nearly one-and-a-half million people in the Swat Valley area of Pakistan are displaced. The United Nations say 900,000 civilians moved to (3) ____ the violence in the past month. Huge numbers of internal refugees were on the (4) ____ on Thursday as the army eased a curfew. Hundreds of cars and overloaded buses formed a huge convoy. They were all heading (5) ____ refugee camps in the south. Pakistan's Prime Minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani said the growing refugee crisis is his (6) ____ worst since the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. Fighting between the Pakistan military and Taliban rebels has got worse (7) ____ recent days. Army commanders are increasing their efforts to (8) ____ out the militants. Pakistan’s ‘Dawn’ newspaper reported heavy fighting in the north-west of the country (9) ____ the military went on the offensive. Army Major General Athar Abbas said his troops killed at (10) ____ 55 Taliban fighters in recent attacks. More than 15,000 Pakistan troops have moved into the Swat Valley to take on around 5,000 heavily-armed militants. A Taliban spokesman (11) ____ the casualty figures. Muslim Khan said his fighters have killed over 37 Pakistani soldiers in fighting (12) ____ Wednesday. He said Pakistani troops killed just three Taliban soldiers. Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.
WRITING:Write about the Taliban 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 Taliban. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson. 3. HUMANITARIAN CRISES: Make a poster about different humanitarian crises in the world today. Include their history and solutions on how to end each crisis. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things? 4. PAKISTAN FIGHTING: Write a magazine article about the fighting between Pakistan and the Taliban. Include imaginary interviews with a Pakistani soldier and a Taliban militant. 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 Pakistan's Prime Minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani. Ask him three questions about the Taliban. Give him three ideas on how he could win his war. 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: A million flee Pakistan-Taliban fightingA new humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Pakistan. Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis have fled their homes to escape fighting between the Pakistan Army and Taliban forces. There are estimates that nearly one-and-a-half million people in the Swat Valley area of Pakistan are displaced. The United Nations say 900,000 civilians moved to avoid the violence in the past month. Huge numbers of internal refugees were on the move on Thursday as the army eased a curfew. Hundreds of cars and overloaded buses formed a huge convoy. They were all heading for refugee camps in the south. Pakistan's Prime Minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani said the growing refugee crisis is his nation’s worst since the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. Fighting between the Pakistan military and Taliban rebels has got worse in recent days. Army commanders are increasing their efforts to root out the militants. Pakistan’s ‘Dawn’ newspaper reported heavy fighting in the north-west of the country as the military went on the offensive. Army Major General Athar Abbas said his troops killed at least 55 Taliban fighters in recent attacks. More than 15,000 Pakistan troops have moved into the Swat Valley to take on around 5,000 heavily-armed militants. A Taliban spokesman denied the casualty figures. Muslim Khan said his fighters have killed over 37 Pakistani soldiers in fighting since Wednesday. He said Pakistani troops killed just three Taliban soldiers. LANGUAGE WORK
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