Starting off
Discuss the questions below with a partner.
1 What do you remember about 2010? Think of these various headings.
The World Cup in South Africa was good. I watched every match on TV.
Sport:
Music:
TV:
Films:
Natural disasters:
People:
Songs / albums:
Before you read
1. Match the words to the meanings.
A miner a. a very large wave, caused by extreme conditions such as an earthquake.
A volcano b. a very large amount of water that covers an area that is usually dry.
A flood c. someone who works under the ground to remove coal, gold etc.
An earthquake d. when a volcano sends smoke, fire, and rock into the sky
A tsunami e. a mountain with a large hole at the top, through which lava (=very hot liquid rock) is sometimes forced out.
To erupt f. a sudden shaking of the earth's surface that often causes a lot of damage.
First reading
1. Match the headings to the paragraphs:
a. Film of the year
b. Crime of the year
c. Sports personality of the year
d. Natural disaster of the year
e. Song of the year
f. Happy event of the year
Second reading
1. Match the facts to the people / events.
1. It lasted for almost ten weeks.
2. It may have more success in 2011.
3. He repeated a success he had six years earlier.
4. It stopped people from travelling.
5. The whole event was filmed.
6. People gave their time and help for nothing.
2. Decide whether these sentences are true (T), false (F) or there is no information (N).
1. No manager has ever won the Champions League twice before.
2.The record for Haiti was the best-selling song of the year.
3. The police have found the stolen paintings.
4. People didn’t know the miners were alive for two weeks.
5. Mark Zuckerberg has seen the film ‘The Social Contract.’
6. The volcano in Iceland was the worst natural disaster of the year.
Vocabulary 1
1. Find the words in the text which can complete these sentences.
1. When people are in trouble somewhere, we need to organise a _________ _________ to bring them back safely. (paragraph 4)
2. Animals which are __________ can’t be killed or hunted. ((paragraph 3)
3. An _________ rings when there is a fire, a burglar or to wake you up in the morning. (paragraph 3)
4. This __________ sends out a beam of light which can cut through anything. (paragraph 3)
5. We didn’t know who it was because he was wearing a _________ on his face. (paragraph 3)
6. There’s a big, black _________ in the sky. I think it’s going to rain soon. (paragraph 6)
7. The fire was so strong that there was nothing left except a lot of grey __________ on the floor. (paragraph 6)
8. In December, it is winter in the northern ___________ and summer in the southern ___________. (paragraph 6)
9. There was so much rain that the football match had to be __________. (paragraph 6)
Vocabulary 2
1. Find words related to these words in the text.
Portugal - Portuguese
Celebrate - _____________
Success - _____________
World - _____________
Erupt - _____________
North - ____________
2. Complete the sentences with the words from exercise 1. Sometimes you may have to change the form of verbs.
1. He is from ____________..
2. When are we going to ___________ your birthday?
3. He is a very __________ singer. All his songs sell millions of copies.
4. What will you do if the volcano __________?
5. I’ve been all over the ____________.
6. __________ England is colder than southern England.
7. When Spain won the World Cup, there were big ___________ all over the country.
8. The book sold over five million copies _____________.
Speaking :
1. Work in pairs or small groups and answer the questions.
1.Did you watch the World Cup?
a) Which team / player did you like the best?
b) Which team / player surprised you?
2. Did you buy any CDs this year?
a) What was the best CD you bought / downloaded / heard?
b) Why do you like it?
3. Are you on Facebook?
a) Why / Why not?
4. Have you been to an art gallery or museum this year?
a) What kind of paintings do you like / dislike?
b) What does a good museum need to make it interesting?
2 ____________________
In January 2010, an earthquake hit Haiti in the Caribbean. Thousands of people died and over a million lost their homes. To try to help, a group of singers, including Miley Cyrus, Kylie Minogue, Robbie Williams and many more, made the record ‘Everybody Hurts’. All the money went to Haiti, not to the singers, and the record sold almost half a million copies in the first week.
1 ____________________
In 2004, Jose Mourinho helped Porto to win the Champions League football tournament. In 2010 he won the same competition with Internazionale of Milan. It was the first time they had won Europe’s biggest football tournament since 1965. Now he is in Spain with Real Madrid. Will he win the Champions League for a third time? It’s possible.
3 _________________
In most films, art galleries are protected by lasers and alarms so it was quite surprising when, on May 20th , someone climbed into the Musee d’art Moderne in Paris and took five paintings worth €100 million. Cameras filmed everything but the man was wearing a mask. No-one knows who he was or where the paintings are.
2010 has finished and 2011 has just begun but we are looking back at some of the people and events which made 2010 what it was. Here are the first six categories.
6 __________________
There have been earthquakes, floods, heatwaves and tsunamis this year. The volcanic eruption in Iceland in March wasn’t very big or dangerous but it did cause huge problems. A cloud of ash blew over much of the northern hemisphere. Flights all over Europe were cancelled for over a week from April 14th to 23rd.
5 ___________________
Mark Zuckerberg is the man who started the website Facebook, which now has over 500 million users. It has obviously taken a lot of time and effort to make it so successful but it was, perhaps, surprising that anyone thought it would make a good film. However, The Social Network has made $180 million worldwide and it may win a few Oscars next year.
4 ____________________
Mining is a difficult job and thousands of miners die each year. On the 5th of August 2010, 33 miners in Chile had to live underground for 69 days. For the first two weeks, no-one knew if they were alive or dead. Finally, contact was made and the rescue operation started. When the men finally got out, there were celebrations all over the world.
© Pearson Central Europe PHOTOCOPIABLE - 2 -
Communication task
You are working with three other people to discuss people and events of 2010.
Think alone of your ideas for these things and then get together with the other members of your group and try to agree on one person or thing for each category.
· Sports person of the year
· Film of the year
· Song / album of the year
· TV star of the year
· TV programme of the year
· Happiest event of the year
· Website of the year
Now think of one image to put on the cover of a magazine called ‘Looking Back on 2010’
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k-krawicka