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THE ARTICLEFirst woman swims across the AtlanticA 56-year-old has become the first woman to swim across the Atlantic Ocean. Jennifer Figge climbed out of the water in Trinidad on February the 5th to write her name in the record books. She left the Cape Verde Islands near Africa’s west coast on January the 12th. Her original plan was to swim in a straight line to the Bahamas. However, bad weather forced her to change direction and she had to swim an extra 1,600 kilometres to Trinidad. She spent almost a month in the water, swimming for up to eight hours at a time. Her day started at 7.00 am with a huge breakfast to keep her energy levels high. She burnt up to 8,000 calories a day during her epic adventure. Her team threw her energy drinks as she swam to keep her going.
Figge first decided to swim the Atlantic when she was a teenager. She was on a stormy flight to the USA and decided if the plane crashed, she could swim back to shore. She got inspiration from French swimmer Benoite Lecomte, who became the first man to achieve the feat a decade ago. She trained for her trans-Atlantic marathon in an outdoor swimming pool surrounded by snow. Figge said she was never afraid during her swim, even though she used a shark cage. She said she never saw any sharks, but did see lots of whales, dolphins and turtles. She thought a lot about her family and her pet dog while in the water and told the Associated Press news agency: "My dog doesn't know where I am. It's time for me to get back home to Hank."
WARM-UPS1. SWIMMING: Walk around the class and talk to other students about swimming. Change partners often. After you finish, sit with your partner(s) 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. FEATS: What do you think of people doing these things in public places? Complete the table below. Change partners and share what you wrote.
4. MAD: Students A strongly believe people who try and swim across the Atlantic are mad, crazy, nuts and bananas; Students B strongly believe people who try and swim across the Atlantic are inspirational. Change partners again and talk about your conversations. 5. INSPIRATION: Who inspires you most? Score these people from 10 (= unbelievably inspiring) to 1 (not at all inspiring). Discuss your scores with your partner(s). Change partners and talk about your conversations.
6. SWIM: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘swim’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories. BEFORE READING / LISTENING1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):
2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:
3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one. combination is possible):
WHILE READING / LISTENINGGAP FILL: Put the words into the gaps in the text.
LISTENING: Listen and fill in the spaces.A 56-year-old has become the first woman to ___________________ Atlantic Ocean. Jennifer Figge climbed out of the water in Trinidad on February the 5th to ___________________ the record books. She left the Cape Verde Islands near Africa’s west coast on January the 12th. Her original plan ___________________ straight line to the Bahamas. However, bad weather forced her to change direction and she had to swim an extra 1,600 kilometres to Trinidad. She spent almost a ___________________, swimming for up to eight hours at a time. Her day started at 7.00am with a huge breakfast ___________________ levels high. She burnt up to 8,000 calories a day during her epic adventure. Her team threw her energy drinks as she swam ___________________. Figge ___________________ the Atlantic when she was a teenager. She was on a stormy flight to the USA and decided if the plane crashed, she ___________________ shore. She got inspiration from French swimmer Benoite Lecomte, who became ___________________ achieve the feat a decade ago. She trained for her trans-Atlantic marathon in an outdoor swimming pool surrounded by snow. Figge said she was never afraid during her swim, ___________________ used a shark cage. She said she never saw any sharks, but did see lots of whales, dolphins and turtles. She thought a lot about her family and her pet dog ___________________ and told the Associated Press news agency: "My dog doesn't know where I am. It's time ___________________ home to Hank." AFTER READING / LISTENING1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘straight’ and ‘line’.
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:
STUDENT SWIMMING SURVEYWrite five GOOD questions about swimming 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.
SWIMMING DISCUSSIONSTUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)
LANGUAGEA 56-year-old has become the first woman to swim across the Atlantic Ocean. Jennifer Figge (1) ____ out of the water in Trinidad on February the 5th to write her name in the (2) ____ books. She left the Cape Verde Islands near Africa’s west coast on January the 12th. Her (3) ____ plan was to swim in a straight line to the Bahamas. However, bad weather forced her to change direction and she (4) ____ to swim an extra 1,600 kilometres to Trinidad. She spent almost a month in the water, swimming for (5) ____ to eight hours at a time. Her day started at 7.00am with a huge breakfast to keep her energy levels high. She burnt up to 8,000 calories a day during her epic adventure. Her team threw her energy drinks (6) ____ she swam to keep her going. Figge first decided to swim the Atlantic when she was a teenager. She was on a (7) ____ flight to the USA and decided if the plane crashed, she could swim back to shore. She (8) ____ inspiration from French swimmer Benoite Lecomte, who became the first man to achieve the feat a decade ago. She trained for her trans-Atlantic marathon in an outdoor swimming pool surrounded (9) ____ snow. Figge said she was never afraid (10) ____ her swim, even though she used a shark cage. She said she never saw any sharks, but did see lots of whales, dolphins and turtles. She thought a lot about her family and her pet dog (11) ____ in the water and told the Associated Press news (12) ____: "My dog doesn't know where I am. It's time for me to get back home to Hank." Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.
WRITING:Write about swimming for 10 minutes. Correct your partner’s paper. _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ HOMEWORK1. 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 Jennifer Figge’s trans-Atlantic swim. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson. 3. RECORD FEATS: Make a poster about different record feats. Write what you think is inspiring about them. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things? 4. SWIMMING: Write a magazine article about the record swim. Include imaginary interviews with Jennifer Figge and her team. 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. THE SWIM: Write an imaginary conversation between Jennifer Figge and some dolphins she met along the way. Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Write down any new words and expressions you hear from your partner(s). Role play your conversation in front of the class. 6. LETTER: Write a letter to Jennifer Figge. Ask her three questions about her swim. Give her three suggestions on what she should do next. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions. ANSWERSTRUE / FALSE:
SYNONYM MATCH:
PHRASE MATCH:
GAP FILL: First woman swims across the AtlanticA 56-year-old has become the first woman to swim across the Atlantic Ocean. Jennifer Figge climbed out of the water in Trinidad on February the 5th to write her name in the record books. She left the Cape Verde Islands near Africa’s west coast on January the 12th. Her original plan was to swim in a straight line to the Bahamas. However, bad weather forced her to change direction and she had to swim an extra 1,600 kilometres to Trinidad. She spent almost a month in the water, swimming for up to eight hours at a time. Her day started at 7.00am with a huge breakfast to keep her energy levels high. She burnt up to 8,000 calories a day during her epic adventure. Her team threw her energy drinks as she swam to keep her going. Figge first decided to swim the Atlantic when she was a teenager. She was on a stormy flight to the USA and decided if the plane crashed, she could swim back to shore. She got inspiration from French swimmer Benoite Lecomte, who became the first man to achieve the feat a decade ago. She trained for her trans-Atlantic marathon in an outdoor swimming pool surrounded by snow. Figge said she was never afraid during her swim, even though she used a shark cage. She said she never saw any sharks, but did see lots of whales, dolphins and turtles. She thought a lot about her family and her pet dog while in the water and told the Associated Press news agency: "My dog doesn't know where I am. It's time for me to get back home to Hank." LANGUAGE WORK
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