The Reading / Listening - Selfies - Level 1

Tourists do silly things for a selfie. A tourist in Italy damaged a valuable painting. The man was in the famous Uffizi Gallery. This is full of priceless paintings. The man wanted a photo of himself in front of a 300-year-old portrait by an Italian painter. He lost his balance and fell backwards. He put his hand through the painting. Museum staff reported him to the police. Experts are now repairing the painting. They say it isn't badly damaged.

The tourist made people angry. The Uffizi Gallery told a newspaper that selfies are a headache. It said people taking selfies to put on social media "is now out of control". The museum has strict rules to stop behaviour that does not respect Italy's culture. The director of another Italian museum said a similar thing happened in her gallery. She said: "Sometimes we lose our minds to take a picture, and we don't think about [what can happen later]."

Try the same news story at these levels:

    Selfies - Level 0 Selfies - Level 2   or  Selfies - Level 3

Sources
  • https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14837713/Fury-Italy-tourist-tears-hole-18th-century-painting-posing-selfie.html
  • https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/medici-portrait-damaged-by-tourist-at-uffizi-galleries-florence-1234745923/
  • https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw5yky19623o


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. Tourists do silly things
  2. A tourist in Italy damaged
  3. The man was in the famous
  4. This is full of priceless
  5. The man wanted a photo
  6. a 300-year-old portrait
  7. He lost his
  8. Experts are now
  1. repairing the painting
  2. paintings
  3. a valuable painting
  4. by an Italian painter
  5. for a selfie
  6. balance
  7. of himself
  8. Uffizi Gallery

Paragraph 2

  1. The tourist made
  2. selfies are a
  3. taking selfies to put
  4. out of
  5. The museum has strict
  6. respect Italy's
  7. a similar thing happened in
  8. Sometimes we
  1. rules
  2. on social media
  3. culture
  4. headache
  5. her gallery
  6. people angry
  7. lose our minds
  8. control

Listening — Listen and fill in the gaps

Tourists do (1) _________________________________________________ a selfie. A tourist in Italy damaged (2) _________________________________________________. The man was in the famous Uffizi Gallery. This is (3) _________________________________________________ paintings. The man wanted a photo of himself in front of a 300-year-old portrait by an Italian painter. He (4) _________________________________________________ and fell backwards. He put his hand through the painting. Museum (5) _________________________________________________ to the police. Experts are now repairing the painting. They say (6) _________________________________________________ damaged.

The tourist (7) _________________________________________________. The Uffizi Gallery told a newspaper that selfies (8) _________________________________________________. It said people taking selfies to put on social media "is now out of control". The museum (9) _________________________________________________ to stop behaviour that does not (10) _________________________________________________. The director of another Italian museum said a similar thing happened in her gallery. She said: "Sometimes we (11) _________________________________________________ to take a picture, and we don't think about what (12) _________________________________________________."

Put a slash (/) where the spaces are

Touristsdosillythingsforaselfie.AtouristinItalydamagedavaluablepai
nting.ThemanwasinthefamousUffiziGallery.Thisisfullofpricelesspain
tings.Themanwantedaphotoofhimselfinfrontofa300-year-oldportr
aitbyanItalianpainter.Helosthisbalanceandfellbackwards.Heputhish
andthroughthepainting.Museumstaffreportedhimtothepolice.Exper
tsarenowrepairingthepainting.Theysayitisn'tbadlydamaged.Thetou
ristmadepeopleangry.TheUffiziGallerytoldanewspaperthatselfiesar
eaheadache.Itsaidpeopletakingselfiestoputonsocialmedia"isnowo
utofcontrol".Themuseumhasstrictrulestostopbehaviourthatdoesnot
respectItaly'sculture.ThedirectorofanotherItalianmuseumsaidasimi
larthinghappenedinhergallery.Shesaid:"Sometimesweloseourmind
stotakeapicture,andwedon'tthinkabout[whatcanhappenlater]."

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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_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

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Answers

(Please check your answers against the article above.

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