The Reading / Listening - Sensitivity Readers - Level 0

Book companies are worried that words in old books might upset people. They are editing the books. They edited "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and the James Bond books. Companies are using "sensitivity readers" to check for language that might upset people. The language is from 50 years ago. It was okay then.

The James Bond books had racist and sexist words about black characters and women. The books now have a warning. This explains that the books have negative words because they are from the 1950s. One edited word is "fat". This changed to "enormous". The UK's prime minister said it was wrong to edit the books.

Try the same news story at these levels:

    Sensitivity Readers - Level 1 Sensitivity Readers - Level 2   or  Sensitivity Readers - Level 3

Sources
  • https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/james-bond-ian-fleming-books-rewritten-b2289747.html
  • https://variety.com/2023/film/news/james-bond-novels-edited-racism-1235536164/
  • https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/james-bond-novels-reprinted-racist-language-removed-1234687052/


Make sure you try all of the online activities for this reading and listening - There are dictations, multiple choice activities, drag and drop activities, sentence jumbles, which word activities, text reconstructions, spelling, gap fills and a whole lot more. Please enjoy :-)

Phrase Matching

Paragraph 1

  1. Book companies are
  2. words in old books might
  3. They are
  4. Companies are using
  5. check for
  6. that might upset
  7. The language is from 50
  8. It was okay
  1. people
  2. "sensitivity readers"
  3. then
  4. language
  5. years ago
  6. editing the books
  7. worried
  8. upset people

Paragraph 2

  1. racist and
  2. words about black characters
  3. The books now have a
  4. the books have negative
  5. they are from the
  6. This changed to
  7. The UK's prime minister said it
  8. edit the
  1. "enormous"
  2. warning
  3. was wrong
  4. sexist
  5. books
  6. and women
  7. 1950s
  8. words

Listening — Listen and fill in the gaps

Book companies (1) ___________________ words in old books (2) ___________________. They (3) ___________________ books. They edited "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and the James Bond books. Companies are using "sensitivity readers" (4) ___________________ language that might upset people. The (5) _________________ 50 years ago. It (6) _________________.

The James Bond books (7) ___________________ sexist words about black (8) ___________________. The books now have a warning. (9) ___________________ the books have negative words because they are (10) ___________________. One edited (11) ___________________. This changed to "enormous". The UK's prime minister said it was (12) ___________________ the books.

Put a slash (/) where the spaces are

Bookcompaniesareworriedthatwordsinoldbooksmightupsetpeople.
Theyareeditingthebooks.Theyedited"CharlieandtheChocolateFacto
ry"andtheJamesBondbooks.Companiesareusing"sensitivityreaders
"tocheckforlanguagethatmightupsetpeople.Thelanguageisfrom50y
earsago.Itwasokaythen.TheJamesBondbookshadracistandsexistwo
rdsaboutblackcharactersandwomen.Thebooksnowhaveawarning.T
hisexplainsthatthebookshavenegativewordsbecausetheyarefromth
e1950s.Oneeditedwordis"fat".Thischangedto"enormous".TheUK'sp
rimeministersaiditwaswrongtoeditthebooks.

Student survey

Write five GOOD questions about this topic 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.

(Please look at page 12 of the PDF to see a photocopiable example of this activity.)

Discussion — Write your own questions

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

(a) ________________

(b) ________________

(c) ________________

(d) ________________

(e) ________________

(f) ________________

(g) ________________

(h) ________________

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

(i) ________________

(j) ________________

(k) ________________

(l) ________________

(m) ________________

(n) ________________

(o) ________________

(p) ________________

Free writing

Write about this topic for 10 minutes. Comment on your partner’s paper.

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Answers

(Please check your answers against the article above.

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