Breaking News English

        

1. RAISING CHILDREN: Walk around the class and talk to other students about raising children. Change partners often. Sit with your first 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.

freezing weather / outrage / strength / intelligence / limitations / expectations / diagnosed / development / training schedule / video footage / begs / scientific basis

Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently.
3. PARENTHOOD: What’s most difficult? Complete this table with your partner(s). Change partners and share what you wrote. Change and share again.

	How big a worry?	Why?
Kids’ health worries
Good education
Bullying
Paying for kids
Kids’ marriage
Discipline

4. TOUGH: Students A strongly believe children need to be toughened up; Students B strongly believe otherwise.  Change partners again and talk about your conversations.
5. NEEDS: What do children need most? Rank these and share your rankings with your partner. Put the most needed at the top. Change partners and share your rankings again.

love discipline brothers and sisters two parents

a good education English independence toys

6. FREEZING: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘freezing’. 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).

a.	A father made his young son train outside in freezing conditions.	T / F
b.	The father believes such training will make his son more intelligent.	T / F
c.	The little boy had to train without any kind of footwear.	T / F
d.	The temperatures the boy trained in were colder than -10 degrees C.	T / F
e.	The boy was born with a developmental problem.	T / F
f.	The father did not consult any medical experts about his son’s training.	T / F
g.	The little boy was brave and did not shed a tear in the video of him.	T / F
h.	A children’s doctor said a lot of research supported the training.	T / F

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article.

1.	freezing	a.	outdo
2.	outrage	b.	small
3.	increase	c.	identified
4.	force	d.	subzero
5.	exceed	e.	punishing
6.	diagnosed	f.	raise
7.	hinder	g.	make
8.	tough	h.	make certain
9.	ensure	i.	anger
10.	modest	j.	hold back

3. PHRASE MATCH:  (Sometimes more than one choice is possible.)

1.	train in freezing	a.	challenge limitations
2.	caused outrage	b.	footage
3.	increase his	c.	expectations
4.	force him to	d.	with cerebral palsy
5.	exceed his own	e.	development of his son
6.	his son was diagnosed	f.	weather
7.	hinder the intellectual	g.	intelligence
8.	video	h.	change
9.	begs	i.	across the world
10.	lead to a modest	j.	to be picked up

WHILE READING / LISTENING

GAP FILL: Put the words into the gaps in the text.

A video of a father making his 4-year-old son (1) ____________ in freezing weather has caused (2) ____________ across the world. The man, He Liesheng, 44, calls himself "Eagle Dad" because he believes he will give his son strength and                (3) ____________ his intelligence if he trains him like eagles raise their young. Mr Liesheng recorded his son, He Yide, wearing just underpants and trainers running in a (4) ____________ 13 degrees Centigrade blizzard. He said: "When the old eagle teaches its young, it takes the young eagles to the cliff side, beats them and (5) ____________ them to teach them to use their wings, and I (6) ____________ I am helping my son in this way - to    (7) ____________ him to challenge limitations and exceed his  (8) ____________ expectations."		minus force outrage believe train own increase pushes
Liesheng said on Tuesday that his son was (9) ____________ with cerebral palsy when he was born and that this could (10) ____________ the intellectual development of his son. He explained that the (11) ____________ training schedule, including jogging in the snow without clothes, would make his son as healthy and intelligent as other children. He told CNN: “I consulted my doctor friends to (12) ____________ what we do is scientific and that it won't harm my son's body.” In the video (13) ____________, little Yide is crying as he chases his father and (14) ____________ to be picked up. Xu Pengfei, a paediatric doctor said Mr Liesheng’s method “(15) ____________ scientific basis” and that “education can only lead to a modest change in (16) ____________.”		ensure IQ hinder begs diagnosed lacks tough footage

LISTENING – Listen and fill in the gaps

A video of a father making his 4-year-old son _______________________ has caused outrage across the world. The man, He Liesheng, 44, calls himself "Eagle Dad" because he believes he will _______________________ and increase his intelligence if he trains him like eagles raise their young. Mr Liesheng recorded his son, He Yide, wearing just underpants and trainers _______________________ 13 degrees Centigrade blizzard. He said: "When the old eagle teaches its young, it takes the young eagles to the cliff side, beats them and _______________________ them to use their wings, and I believe I am helping my son in this way - _______________________ challenge limitations _______________________ expectations."
Liesheng said on Tuesday that his son _______________________ cerebral palsy when he was born and that this _______________________ intellectual development of his son. He explained that the tough training schedule, including jogging in the snow without clothes, would make his son as healthy _______________________ other children. He told CNN: “I consulted my doctor friends to ensure what we do is scientific and that it _______________________ body.” In the video footage, little Yide is crying as he chases his father and begs to be picked up. Xu Pengfei, a paediatric doctor said Mr Liesheng’s method “_______________________” and that “education can only _______________________ change in IQ.”

 
 

AFTER READING / LISTENING

1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionary / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘freezing’ and ‘weather’.

freezing

weather

• Share your findings with your partners.

• Make questions using the words you found.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.

• Share your questions with other classmates / groups.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

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:

train strength minus minus beats own

born tough jogging doctor begs change

RAISING CHILDREN SURVEY

Write five GOOD questions about raising children 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.

	STUDENT 1 _____________	STUDENT 2 _____________	STUDENT 3 _____________
Q.1.
Q.2.
Q.3.
Q.4.
Q.5.

• Now return to your original partner and share and talk about what you found out. Change partners often.
• Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

RAISING CHILDREN DISCUSSION

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

a)	What did you think when you read the headline?
b)	What springs to mind when you hear the word ‘tough’?
c)	What kind of upbringing did you have?
d)	What do you think about what you read?
e)	What challenges did you present your parents with?
f)	Did your parents raise you in any ways you disagreed with?
g)	Do you think Mr Liesheng’s training could have any value?
h)	Do you think Mr Liesheng should be arrested for cruelty to children?
i)	What do you think of the comparison with how eagles raise their young?
j)	What expectations have you exceeded?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

a)	Did you like reading this article?
b)	What’s the most difficult thing about raising children?
c)	What can parents do to further the intelligence of their children?
d)	How would you feel about training in freezing conditions half naked?
e)	What do you think of Mr Liesheng as a father?
f)	Are you / Would you be a good parent?
g)	How has raising children changed over the past few decades?
h)	Should children be toughened up as they grow?
i)	What can change IQ besides education?
j)	What questions would you like to ask Mr Liesheng?

LANGUAGE – MULTIPLE CHOICE

A video of a father making his 4-year-old son train (1) ____ freezing weather has caused outrage across the world. The man, He Liesheng, 44, calls himself "Eagle Dad" because he believes he will give his son strength and increase his intelligence if he trains him like eagles (2) ____ their young. Mr Liesheng recorded his son, He Yide, wearing just underpants and trainers running in (3) ____  minus 13 degrees Centigrade blizzard. He said: "When the old eagle teaches its (4) ____, it takes the young eagles to the cliff side, beats them and pushes them to teach them to use their wings, and I believe I am helping my son in this way - to (5) ____ him to challenge limitations and exceed his (6) ____ expectations."
Liesheng said on Tuesday that his son was diagnosed (7) ____ cerebral palsy when he was born and that this could (8) ____ the intellectual development of his son. He explained that the tough training schedule, including jogging in the snow without clothes, would make his son as healthy and intelligent as other children. He told CNN: “I (9) ____ my doctor friends to (10) ____ what we do is scientific and that it won't harm my son's body.” In the video (11) ____, little Yide is crying as he chases his father and begs to be picked up. Xu Pengfei, a paediatric doctor said Mr Liesheng’s method “lacks scientific basis” and that “education can only lead to a  (12) ____ change in IQ.”
Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.

1.	(a)	by	(b)	on	(c)	at	(d)	in
2.	(a)	rise	(b)	rose	(c)	raise	(d)	risen
3.	(a)	of	(b)	a	(c)	an	(d)	as
4.	(a)	young	(b)	youth	(c)	children	(d)	toddlers
5.	(a)	face	(b)	farce	(c)	force	(d)	fierce
6.	(a)	self	(b)	alone	(c)	lonely	(d)	own
7.	(a)	at	(b)	with	(c)	by	(d)	of
8.	(a)	hinder	(b)	date	(c)	chance	(d)	damaging
9.	(a)	resulted	(b)	consulted	(c)	exulted	(d)	reputed
10.	(a)	sure	(b)	insure	(c)	ensure	(d)	pleasure
11.	(a)	footage	(b)	adage	(c)	triage	(d)	bandage
12.	(a)	modesty	(b)	modern	(c)	modernity	(d)	modest

 
 

WRITING

Write about raising children for 10 minutes. Correct your partner’s paper.
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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 raising children. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.
3. RAISING CHILDREN: Make a poster about raising children. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things?
4. EAGLE DAD: Write a magazine article about Eagle Dad. Include imaginary interviews with him and a child-raising expert.
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. LETTER: Write a letter to a child development expert. Ask him/her three questions about raising children. Give him/her three of your opinions on the best way to raise children. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions.

 

 
 

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a.

T

b.

T

c.

F

d.

T

e.

T

f.

F

g.

F

h.

F

SYNONYM MATCH:

1.	freezing	a.	subzero
2.	outrage	b.	anger
3.	increase	c.	raise
4.	force	d.	make
5.	exceed	e.	outdo
6.	diagnosed	f.	identified
7.	hinder	g.	hold back
8.	tough	h.	punishing
9.	ensure	i.	make certain
10.	modest	j.	small

PHRASE MATCH:

1.	train in freezing	a.	weather
2.	caused outrage	b.	across the world
3.	increase his	c.	intelligence
4.	force him to	d.	challenge limitations
5.	exceed his own	e.	expectations
6.	his son was diagnosed	f.	with cerebral palsy
7.	hinder the intellectual	g.	development of his son
8.	video	h.	footage
9.	begs	i.	to be picked up
10.	lead to a modest	j.	change

GAP FILL:

Father makes toddler train in blizzard

A video of a father making his 4-year-old son (1) train in freezing weather has caused (2) outrage across the world. The man, He Liesheng, 44, calls himself "Eagle Dad" because he believes he will give his son strength and (3) increase his intelligence if he trains him like eagles raise their young. Mr Liesheng recorded his son, He Yide, wearing just underpants and trainers running in a (4) minus 13 degrees Centigrade blizzard. He said: "When the old eagle teaches its young, it takes the young eagles to the cliff side, beats them and (5) pushes them to teach them to use their wings, and I (6) believe I am helping my son in this way - to (7) force him to challenge limitations and exceed his (8) own expectations."
Liesheng said on Tuesday that his son was (9) diagnosed with cerebral palsy when he was born and that this could (10) hinder the intellectual development of his son. He explained that the (11) tough training schedule, including jogging in the snow without clothes, would make his son as healthy and intelligent as other children. He told CNN: “I consulted my doctor friends to (12) ensure what we do is scientific and that it won't harm my son's body.” In the video (13) footage, little Yide is crying as he chases his father and (14) begs to be picked up. Xu Pengfei, a paediatric doctor said Mr Liesheng’s method “(15) lacks scientific basis” and that “education can only lead to a modest change in (16) IQ.”
LANGUAGE WORK

1 - d

2 - c

3 - b

4 - a

5 - c

6 - d

7 - b

8 - a

9 - b

10 - c

11 - a

12 - d

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