The Reading / Listening - National Service - Level 0

The UK may start national service for 18-year-olds. They will have two choices. One is a year in the army. About 30,000 people will choose this. The other is voluntary work for one weekend a month. This means volunteering in the health, ambulance or fire services. The UK's leader wants young people to learn useful skills.

Many people say national service is too expensive. There are not enough staff to train 30,000 army volunteers. A former navy boss said it would "suck" money out of defence. Young people are worried about their freedom. However, one teenager says national service works well in many countries.

Try the same news story at these levels:

    National Service - Level 1 National Service - Level 2   or  National Service - Level 3

Sources
  • https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9xx1w48wjdo
  • https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/may/26/rishi-sunaks-national-service-pledge-is-bonkers-says-ex-military-chief
  • https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/05/27/national-service-rishi-sunak-memes-election/


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. The UK may start
  2. They will have two
  3. a year
  4. About 30,000 people will
  5. one weekend
  6. This means
  7. ambulance or
  8. learn useful
  1. fire services
  2. choose this
  3. skills
  4. choices
  5. volunteering
  6. in the army
  7. a month
  8. national service

Paragraph 2

  1. national service is too
  2. There are not enough
  3. train 30,000
  4. A former navy
  5. suck money
  6. worried about
  7. national service
  8. in many
  1. out of defence
  2. army volunteers
  3. staff
  4. countries
  5. works well
  6. boss
  7. their freedom
  8. expensive

Listening — Listen and fill in the gaps

The UK (1) ___________________ service for 18-year-olds. They will (23) ___________________. One is a year in the army. About 30,000 (3) ___________________ this. The other is voluntary work for one (4) ___________________. This means volunteering in the health, ambulance (5) ___________________. The UK's leader wants young people to (6) ___________________.

Many people say national service (7) ___________________. There are (8) ___________________ to train 30,000 army volunteers. A (9) ___________________ said it would "suck" money out of defence. Young (10) ___________________ about their freedom. However, (11) ___________________ national service works well (12) ___________________.

Put a slash (/) where the spaces are

TheUKmaystartnationalservicefor18-year-olds.Theywillhavetwoch
oices.Oneisayearinthearmy.About30,000peoplewillchoosethis.The
otherisvoluntaryworkforoneweekendamonth.Thismeansvolunteeri
nginthehealth,ambulanceorfireservices.TheUK'sleaderwantsyoung
peopletolearnusefulskills.Manypeoplesaynationalserviceistooexpen
sive.Therearenotenoughstafftotrain30,000armyvolunteers.Aforme
rnavybosssaiditwould"suck"moneyoutofdefence.Youngpeoplearew
orriedabouttheirfreedom.However,oneteenagersaysnationalservic
eworkswellinmanycountries.

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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