Breaking News English

        

1. SPORTS EQUIPMENT: Walk around the class and talk to other students about sports equipment. Change partners often. Share your findings with your first partner.

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

furious / fake equipment / synchronized swimming / logo / frustrating / proper stuff / committee  / counterfeit / poor economic conditions / outrage / disgrace / quality

Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently.

3. SPORTS GEAR: What do you really, really, really need? Complete this table with your partner(s). Change partners and share what you wrote. Change and share again.

Gear for…	Really need?	Can do without…
football
cycling
tennis
marathon
swimming
skiing

4. PROPER STUFF: Students A strongly believe athletes must have branded stuff (Nike, Adidas, etc.); Students B strongly believe there's nothing wrong with cheaper, non-branded stuff.  Change partners again and talk about your conversations.

5. FAKE: Rank these fake things and share your rankings with your partner. Put the worst at the top. Change partners often and share your rankings.

sports gear Louis Vuitton bags perfume Rolex watches

art CDs passport iPads

6. LOGO: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word 'logo'. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

1. TRUE / FALSE: Read the headline. Guess if  a-h  below are true (T) or false (F).

a.	Egypt's athletes have been given fake javelins and bicycles.	T / F
b.	An athlete's bag had an Adidas logo with the words "Nike" on the zips.	T / F
c.	The athlete wasn't happy about having to spend $300 on proper stuff.	T / F
d.	Egypt's Olympics committee is now buying stuff from Nike UK.	T / F
e.	Egypt's Olympics chiefs didn't see things the same way over the issue.	T / F
f.	Egypt's Olympics chairman said a poor economy meant fake stuff.	T / F
g.	Egyptians don't seem too bothered about the issue.	T / F
h.	Nike has not made a statement on the incident.	T / F

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

1.	furious	a.	affair
2.	series	b.	obviously
3.	clearly	c.	genuine
4.	shell out	d.	string
5.	proper	e.	fury
6.	shocked	f.	worried
7.	purchase	g.	enraged
8.	incident	h.	pay
9.	outrage	i.	horrified
10.	concerned	j.	acquisition

3. PHRASE MATCH:  (Sometimes more than one choice is possible.)

1.	given fake equipment	a.	from convincing
2.	highlighted the scandal in	b.	embarrassment
3.	The fake was clearly far	c.	from her own pocket
4.	she had to shell out more than $300	d.	find out
5.	It's so frustrating that we	e.	a series of tweets
6.	he was shocked to	f.	Nike's quality standards
7.	counterfeit	g.	had to pay extra
8.	in light of Egypt's	h.	to use
9.	it is a huge	i.	economic situation
10.	products that do not meet	j.	gear

 

WHILE READING / LISTENING

GAP FILL: Put the words into the gaps in the text.

Egypt's Olympians are furious (1) ____ it was discovered they have been given fake equipment to use at the London Olympic Games. Yomna Khallaf, one of the team's synchronised swimmers, highlighted the scandal in a (2) ____ of tweets this week. She wrote: "The bags for example have a big Nike logo in the front and the zippers are Adidas." The fake was clearly (3) ____ from convincing.  Ms Khallaf also tweeted that she had to (4) ____ out more than $300 from her own pocket to buy the appropriate     (5) ____. She added: "It's so frustrating that we had to pay extra...to have other (6) ____ stuff to wear so that we can look (7) ____, not even good." She later tweeted that: "They are      (8) ____ new clothes now from Nike UK!!"		ordering series shell after proper far okay gear
The Egyptian Olympic Committee's secretary general, Motaz Sonbol, said he was (9) ____ to find out that the equipment was not "directly from Nike".  However, the committee's chairman, general Mahmoud Ahmed Ali, (10) ____ the purchase of the "counterfeit" gear because of his country's (11) ____ economic conditions. He said: "We (12) ____ with a Chinese distributor in light of Egypt's economic situation." The incident has caused     (13) ____ in Egypt with many people saying it is a (14) ____ embarrassment for the country and a disgrace. Sports goods manufacturer Nike is also (15) ____ that "the athletes will have received products that do not meet Nike's (16) ____ standards".		outrage poor quality shocked concerned defended signed huge

LISTENING – Listen and fill in the gaps

Egypt's Olympians (1) ___________________ was discovered they have been given fake equipment to use at the London Olympic Games. Yomna Khallaf, one of the team's synchronised swimmers,                                    (2) ___________________ in a series of tweets this week. She wrote: "The bags for example have a big Nike logo in the front and the zippers are Adidas." The fake (3) ___________________ convincing.  Ms Khallaf also tweeted that she (4) ___________________ than $300 from her own pocket to buy the appropriate gear. She added: "It's so frustrating that we had to pay extra...to have other (5) ___________________ so that we can look okay, not even good." She later tweeted that:                                   "(6) ___________________ clothes now from Nike UK!!"

The Egyptian Olympic Committee's secretary general, Motaz Sonbol, said he (7) ___________________ out that the equipment was not "directly from Nike".  However, the committee's chairman, general Mahmoud Ahmed Ali,  (8) ___________________ of the "counterfeit" gear because of his country's (9) ___________________. He said: "We signed with a Chinese distributor in light of Egypt's economic situation."                                  (10) ___________________ outrage in Egypt with many people saying it is a huge embarrassment for the (11) ___________________. Sports goods manufacturer Nike is (12) ___________________ "the athletes will have received products that do not meet Nike's quality standards".

 
 

AFTER READING / LISTENING

1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionary / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words 'fake' and 'equipment'.

fake

equipment

• 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. 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:

discovered series example far pocket ordering

directly purchase signed situation huge meet

SPORTS EQUIPMENT SURVEY

Write five GOOD questions about sports equipment 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.

	STUDENT 1 _____________	STUDENT 2 _____________	STUDENT 3 _____________
Q.1.
Q.2.
Q.3.
Q.4.
Q.5.

• Now return to your original partner and share and talk about what you found out. Change partners often.

• Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

 
 

SPORTS EQUIPMENT DISCUSSION

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

a)	What did you think when you read the headline?
b)	What springs to mind when you hear the word 'fake'?
c)	What do you think about what you read?
d)	Do you think Egypt's Olympians are right to be angry?
e)	Does it matter if the bag was a fake?
f)	Should Yomna Khallaf be given her money back?
g)	Is it important for athletes at the Olympics to look good?
h)	Would it be different if the swimmer's costumes or goggles were fake?
i)	Is it an insult for the athletes to get fake stuff?
j)	Do you think Nike should step in and give the athletes free equipment?

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

a)	Did you like reading this article?
b)	How could it be that Egyptian Olympics Committee's secretary general did not know about the fake goods?
c)	Is it fair to buy the fake products because of Egypt's poor economic conditions?
d)	Should Nike sue the Egyptian Olympics Committee?
e)	Do you think it's a huge embarrassment for Egypt?
f)	Would you (Do you) buy fake sports equipment?
g)	Do you think sports equipment is overpriced?
h)	What piece of sports equipment do you need most?
i)	What's the best sports equipment maker and why?
j)	What questions would you like to ask the boss of the Egyptian Olympics Committee?

LANGUAGE – MULTIPLE CHOICE

Egypt's Olympians are (1) ____ after it was discovered they have been given fake equipment to use at the London Olympic Games. Yomna Khallaf, one of the team's synchronised swimmers, highlighted the scandal in a (2) ____ of tweets this week. She wrote: "The bags for example have a big Nike logo in the front and the zippers are Adidas." The fake was clearly (3) ____ from convincing.  Ms Khallaf also tweeted that she had to shell (4) ____ more than $300 from her own pocket to buy the appropriate (5) ____. She added: "It's so frustrating that we had to pay extra...to have other (6) ____ stuff to wear so that we can look okay, not even good." She later tweeted that: "They are ordering new clothes now from Nike UK!!"

The Egyptian Olympic Committee's secretary general, Motaz Sonbol, said he was shocked (7) ____ find out that the equipment was not "directly from Nike".  However, the committee's chairman, general Mahmoud Ahmed Ali, (8) ____ the purchase of the "counterfeit" gear because of his country's (9) ____ economic conditions. He said: "We signed with a Chinese distributor in (10) ____ of Egypt's economic situation." The incident has caused (11) ____ in Egypt with many people saying it is a huge embarrassment for the country and a disgrace. Sports goods manufacturer Nike is also concerned that "the athletes will have received products that do not (12) ____ Nike's quality standards".

Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.

1.	(a)	fury	(b)	furry	(c)	furiously	(d)	furious
2.	(a)	serious	(b)	cereal	(c)	series	(d)	servers
3.	(a)	near	(b)	far	(c)	distant	(d)	most
4.	(a)	out	(b)	in	(c)	over	(d)	about
5.	(a)	neutral	(b)	cog	(c)	gear	(d)	lever
6.	(a)	properly	(b)	prosper	(c)	prompted	(d)	proper
7.	(a)	after	(b)	to	(c)	for	(d)	by
8.	(a)	defended	(b)	defensive	(c)	defend	(d)	defenders
9.	(a)	woe	(b)	poor	(c)	save	(d)	poverty
10.	(a)	dark	(b)	soft	(c)	light	(d)	heavy
11.	(a)	outrage	(b)	outage	(c)	outing	(d)	ousted
12.	(a)	greet	(b)	tweet	(c)	sweet	(d)	meet

 
 

WRITING

Write about sports equipment for 10 minutes. Correct your partner's paper.

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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 out more about sports equipment at the Olympics. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.

3. SPORTS EQUIPMENT: Make a poster about sports equipment. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things?

4. FAKE: Write a magazine article about the fake sports equipment. Include imaginary interviews with the person who ordered it and an angry athlete.

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 the boss of Egypt's Olympics committee. Ask him/her three questions about the fake sports equipment. Give him/her three ideas on what to do from now. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions.

 

 
 

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a.

F

b.

F

c.

T

d.

T

e.

T

f.

T

g.

F

h.

F

SYNONYM MATCH:

1.	furious	a.	enraged
2.	series	b.	string
3.	clearly	c.	obviously
4.	shell out	d.	pay
5.	proper	e.	genuine
6.	shocked	f.	horrified
7.	purchase	g.	acquisition
8.	incident	h.	affair
9.	outrage	i.	fury
10.	concerned	j.	worried

PHRASE MATCH:

1.	given fake equipment	a.	to use
2.	highlighted the scandal in	b.	a series of tweets
3.	The fake was clearly far	c.	from convincing
4.	she had to shell out more than $300	d.	from her own pocket
5.	It's so frustrating that we	e.	had to pay extra
6.	he was shocked to	f.	find out
7.	counterfeit	g.	gear
8.	in light of Egypt's	h.	economic situation
9.	it is a huge	i.	embarrassment
10.	products that do not meet	j.	Nike's quality standards

GAP FILL:

Egypt's Olympic athletes given fake equipment

Egypt's Olympians are furious (1) after it was discovered they have been given fake equipment to use at the London Olympic Games. Yomna Khallaf, one of the team's synchronised swimmers, highlighted the scandal in a (2) series of tweets this week. She wrote: "The bags for example have a big Nike logo in the front and the zippers are Adidas." The fake was clearly (3) far from convincing.  Ms Khallaf also tweeted that she had to (4) shell out more than $300 from her own pocket to buy the appropriate (5) gear. She added: "It's so frustrating that we had to pay extra...to have other (6) proper stuff to wear so that we can look (7) okay, not even good." She later tweeted that: "They are (8) ordering new clothes now from Nike UK!!"

The Egyptian Olympic Committee's secretary general, Motaz Sonbol, said he was (9) shocked to find out that the equipment was not "directly from Nike".  However, the committee's chairman, general Mahmoud Ahmed Ali, (10) defended the purchase of the "counterfeit" gear because of his country's (11) poor economic conditions. He said: "We (12) signed with a Chinese distributor in light of Egypt's economic situation." The incident has caused (13) outrage in Egypt with many people saying it is a (14) huge embarrassment for the country and a disgrace. Sports goods manufacturer Nike is also (15) concerned that "the athletes will have received products that do not meet Nike's (16) quality standards".

LANGUAGE WORK

1 - d

2 - c

3 - b

4 - a

5 - c

6 - d

7 - b

8 - a

9 - b

10 - c

11 - a

12 - d

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