Objectives:
• to practise intensive reading of newspaper articles and explaining
what happened in them
• to foster students' spoken habits
Warm up
Newspapers are an important part of daily life in Britain. There are
different kinds of newspapers there. What are they?
Introducing the Topic
Reading
There are four articles. They all concern a British magician, Colin Cole
(also known as Kali Kalini) touring Spain...
A) Read the article from The Guardian and tell your partner what
happened.
The Guardian
Monday 26 July 2002 Scorpion scare
Three highly poisonous African scorpions escaped from a magician's van
during a bungled robbery yesterday, causing the tourist beach at El Puig, Costa
Brava, Spain, to be sealed off.
B) Pair work
Can you work out the meaning of these words: poisonous, bungled, beach,
sealed.
C) Look at the information from The Times. What information does it contain
that isn't in The Guardian?
What information does The Guardian article have that isn't in The Times?
The Times
Monday 26 July 2002 Sting operation
El Puig, Spain. Three highly poisonous African scorpions escaped from a
van belonging to Kali Kalini, a Scottish conjuror, when thieves broke in. The
popular Spanish tourist beach here was sealed off while police searched for the
scorpions.
D) Look at the article from The Sun. What new information does it
contain? The Sun
Monday 26 July 2002 Shingle Stingle
A search was on yesterday for a pregnant scorpion dumped on a beach in
El Puig, Spain. The creature, stolen from a circus, could lay 100 eggs.
E) Compare your answers with your partner's.
F) Read the longest article in The Scotsman and make a list of all the
new information.
The Scotsman
Monday 26, July 2002
Circus robbers find a sting in the tail
From Tim Brown, Madrid
A Scots circus artist, Colin Cole, started a frantic police hunt in
Spain yesterday when he reported that thieves had broken into his trailer van
and released three giant scorpions onto a popular holiday beach.
The highly poisonous tropical scorpions, nearly eighty inches long and
with a sting that can kill, were set free when thieves, thinking they had found
a strong box, broke open the container in which the deadly arachnids were
kept. When they discovered their mistake the panic-stricken thieves
dropped the box on the beach at El Puig, near Valencia, and fled.
After Mr. Cole had raised the alarm police cleared the beach of bathers
and sealed it off before starting a careful search.
One scorpion was quickly recovered but last night the 30 police and firemen
taking part in the hunt had still failed to find the other two — one of them a
pregnant female due to lay some 100 eggs within hours.
Mr Cole, 50, was touring Spain with scorpions and several other unusual
species, including snakes and giant spiders, which he uses in his act.
G) Compare your list with your partner's. Discussion
— Why do you think The Scotsman decided to carry a longer article than
other newspapers? Do you think it was a good idea? Why? Why not?
— In general, how do you think newspapers decide which items of the news
to include and how much space to give them?
— What can you learn by comparing newspapers?
— Are there big differences in the way newspapers in your country report
the same story?
— Has anyone in your group ever had first-hand knowledge of a newspaper
story? Did the newspaper report the story accurately?
Homework
Write an article (articles) to one of the Ukrainian newspaper (newspapers).
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