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Scientists have found that pesticides harm the ability of bees to find food. Bees must learn which flowers contain nectar (their food) from the smell of the flowers. If the bees do not learn which scents mean food, they will starve. Researchers at the University of Dundee in Scotland and Newcastle University in England found that pesticides used by farmers and gardeners can switch off the part of a bee's brain that is responsible for associating smells with food. Lead researcher Dr Geraldine Wright said pesticides could seriously impact the survival of honeybee colonies. She said, "bees that cannot learn will not be able to find food". This also means bees will not pollinate crops and wild plants.
Bee populations around the world have been declining. Scientists have searched for a long time for a reason why so many bees are disappearing. This new research may be an important clue. However, the British government does not want to stop the use of the pesticides that may prevent bees from learning. It wants to carry out more tests to make sure pesticides are the real reason for the reduction in the number of bees. A spokeswoman from the Friends Of The Earth charity said the government must act sooner rather than later. "Bee health is far too urgent to wait until more research has been completed. [Controls] should be placed on these pesticides until bee safety can be [guaranteed]," she said. Sources: WARM-UPS 1. BEES: Students walk around the class and talk to other students about bees. Change partners often 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. HELPFUL BUGS: What do you know about these helpful creatures? Complete this table with your partner(s). Change partners often and share what you wrote.
4. FUTURE: Students A strongly believe chemicals in food will be bad for us in the future; Students B strongly believe the opposite. Change partners again and talk about your conversations. 5. FOOD DANGERS: Rank these and share your rankings with your partner. Put the biggest dangers at the top. Change partners often and share your rankings.
6. LEARNING: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word 'learning'. 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).
2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article.
3. PHRASE MATCH: (Sometimes more than one choice is possible.)
GAP FILL
LISTENING - Guess the answers. Listen to check.
LISTENING – Listen and fill in the gaps Scientists have found that pesticides (1) _______________________ bees to find food. Bees must (2) _______________________ nectar (their food) from the smell of the flowers. If the bees do not learn which scents mean food, they will starve. Researchers at the University of Dundee in Scotland and Newcastle University in England (3) _______________________ by farmers and gardeners (4) _______________________ of a bee's brain that is responsible for associating smells with food. Lead researcher Dr Geraldine Wright said pesticides (5) _______________________ the survival of honeybee colonies. She said, "bees that cannot learn will not be able to find food". This also means bees (6) _______________________ and wild plants. Bee populations around the world (7) _______________________. Scientists have searched (8) _______________________ a reason why so many bees are disappearing. This new research may be an important clue. However, the British government does not (9) _______________________ of the pesticides that may prevent bees from learning. It wants to carry out (10) _______________________ pesticides are the real reason for the reduction in the number of bees. A spokeswoman from the Friends Of The Earth charity said the government (11) _______________________ than later. "Bee health is (12) _______________________ until more research has been completed. [Controls] should be placed on these pesticides until bee safety can be [guaranteed]," she said. COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
MULTIPLE CHOICE - QUIZ
ROLE PLAY
AFTER READING / LISTENING 1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionary / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words 'honey' and 'bee'.
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:
BEES SURVEY Write five GOOD questions about bees 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.
BEES DISCUSSION STUDENT A's QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- STUDENT B's QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)
DISCUSSION (Write your own questions)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
MULTIPLE CHOICE - LANGUAGE Scientists have found that pesticides (1) ____ the ability of bees to find food. Bees must learn which flowers (2) ____ nectar (their food) from the smell of the flowers. If the bees do not learn which scents mean food, they will (3) ____. Researchers at the University of Dundee in Scotland and Newcastle University in England found that pesticides used by farmers and gardeners can switch (4) ____ the part of a bee's brain that is responsible for associating smells with food. Lead researcher Dr Geraldine Wright said pesticides could seriously (5) ____ the survival of honeybee colonies. She said, "bees that cannot learn will not be able to find food". This also means bees will not (6) ____ crops and wild plants. Bee populations around the world have been (7) ____. Scientists have searched for a long time for a reason why so many bees are disappearing. This new research may be an important (8) ____. However, the British government does not want to stop the use of the pesticides that (9) ____ prevent bees from learning. It wants to carry out more tests to make sure pesticides are the real reason for the reduction (10) ____ the number of bees. A spokeswoman from the Friends Of The Earth charity said the government must act sooner (11) ____ than later. "Bee health is far too urgent to wait until more research has been completed. [Controls] should be (12) ____ on these pesticides until bee safety can be [guaranteed]," she said. Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.
SPELLING
PUT THE TEXT BACK TOGETHER Number these lines in the correct order.
PUT THE WORDS IN THE RIGHT ORDER
CIRCLE THE CORRECT WORD (20 PAIRS) Scientists have found that pesticides harm / harmful the ability of bees to find food. Bees must learn which flowers retain / contain nectar (their food) from the smell / smelling of the flowers. If the bees do not learn which scents / sense mean food, they will starve / scarf. Researchers at the University of Dundee in Scotland and Newcastle University in England found that pesticides used on / by farmers and gardeners can switch on / off the part of a bee's brain that is responsible to / for associating smells with food. Lead researcher Dr Geraldine Wright said pesticides could seriously compact / impact the survival of honeybee colonies. She said, "bees that cannot learn will not be able to find food". This also means bees will not pollinate crops and tame / wild plants. Bee populations / popularity around the world have been declined / declining. Scientists have searched for a long time for a reason why so many bees are disappearance / disappearing. This new research may be an important clue / clueless. However, the British government does not want to stop the use / used of the pesticides that may prevent bees from learning. It wants to carry out / in more tests to make sure pesticides are the really / real reason for the reduction in the number of bees. A spokeswoman from the Friends Of The Earth charity said the government must act / action sooner rather than later. "Bee health is far / for too urgent to wait until more research has been completed. [Controls] should be placed on these pesticides until bee safety / safe can be [guaranteed]," she said. Talk about the connection between each pair of words in italics, and why the correct word is correct. INSERT THE VOWELS (a, e, i, o, u) Scientists have found that pesticides harm the ability of bees to find food. Bees must learn which flowers contain nectar (their food) from the smell of the flowers. If the bees do not learn which scents mean food, they will starve. Researchers at the University of Dundee in Scotland and Newcastle University in England found that pesticides used by farmers and gardeners can switch off the part of a bee's brain that is responsible for associating smells with food. Lead researcher Dr Geraldine Wright said pesticides could seriously impact the survival of honeybee colonies. She said, "bees that cannot learn will not be able to find food". This also means bees will not pollinate crops and wild plants. Bee populations around the world have been declining. Scientists have searched for a long time for a reason why so many bees are disappearing. This new research may be an important clue. However, the British government does not want to stop the use of the pesticides that may prevent bees from learning. It wants to carry out more tests to make sure pesticides are the real reason for the reduction in the number of bees. A spokeswoman from the Friends Of The Earth charity said the government must act sooner rather than later. "Bee health is far too urgent to wait until more research has been completed. [Controls] should be placed on these pesticides until bee safety can be [guaranteed]," she said. PUNCTUATE THE TEXT AND ADD CAPITALS scientists have found that pesticides harm the ability of bees to find food bees must learn which flowers contain nectar (their food) from the smell of the flowers if the bees do not learn which scents mean food they will starve researchers at the university of dundee in scotland and newcastle university in england found that pesticides used by farmers and gardeners can switch off the part of a bee's brain that is responsible for associating smells with food lead researcher dr geraldine wright said pesticides could seriously impact the survival of honeybee colonies she said "bees that cannot learn will not be able to find food" this also means bees will not pollinate crops and wild plants bee populations around the world have been declining scientists have searched for a long time for a reason why so many bees are disappearing this new research may be an important clue however the british government does not want to stop the use of the pesticides that may prevent bees from learning it wants to carry out more tests to make sure pesticides are the real reason for the reduction in the number of bees a spokeswoman from the friends of the earth charity said the government must act sooner rather than later "bee health is far too urgent to wait until more research has been completed [controls] should be placed on these pesticides until bee safety can be [guaranteed]" she said PUT A SLASH ( / ) WHERE THE SPACES ARE
FREE WRITING Write about bees for 10 minutes. Comment on your partner's paper. _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ ACADEMIC WRITING Farmers should only use natural things on their farms, not pesticides. Discuss. _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ 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 bees and how they make honey. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson. 3. BEES: Make a poster about bees. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things? 4. PESTICIDES: Write a magazine article about pesticides and bees. Include imaginary interviews with people who are for and against the use of pesticides. 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. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT? Write a newspaper article about the next stage in this news story. Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Give each other feedback on your articles. 6. LETTER: Write a letter to a bee expert. Ask him/her three questions about bees. Give him/her three of your opinions on the use of pesticides. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions. ANSWERS TRUE / FALSE (p.4)
SYNONYM MATCH (p.4)
COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS (p.8)
MULTIPLE CHOICE - QUIZ (p.9)
ALL OTHER EXERCISES Please check for yourself by looking at the Article on page 2. Help Support This Web Site
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