A man from Norway died when he tried to parachute from the Eiffel Tower in Paris. His parachute jump was a publicity stunt for a Norwegian clothing brand. The man had planned to record every second of the jump on a small video camera in his helmet.

The jump from the second level of the Eiffel Tower did not go according to plan. The police said his parachute got caught on some metal just before he jumped and fell off of his back. He fell 50 meters and died instantly after his body hit the frame of the first level of the tower.

The 324-metre-high Eiffel Tower is one of the world’s most visited tourist attractions and attracts over six million visitors a year. Hundreds of people have leapt to their deaths before, usually to commit suicide. The first parachute death was an Austrian man who tried to test his strange invention - the “parachute coat”.

WARM-UPS

1. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics you are interested in, which do not look interesting and which look really boring:

Norway / parachuting / Eiffel Tower / Paris / publicity stunts / clothing brands / tourist attractions / parachute coats / bungee jumping

Have a chat about the topics you liked. For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently.

2. PARIS: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with Paris. Share your words with your partner / group and talk about them.

3. OPINIONS: With a partner, talk about whether you agree or disagree with these opinions.

Anyone who tries to parachute from the Eiffel Tower is totally crazy.
The Eiffel Tower is a popular place for people who want to parachute – there should be much tighter security.
The Norwegian clothing company is responsible for the man’s death.
There should be a safety net on the Eiffel Tower to stop people from jumping.
The Norwegian government should apologize to the city of Paris.
I can’t think of a worse way to die.
Publicity stunts like this should be made illegal.
I’d love to try a parachute jump from the Eiffel Tower – right from the top.
Parachuting from the Eiffel Tower is old news. It’s not a very good publicity stunt.

4. X-SPORTS: Parachuting from buildings is called base jumping. It is an X-sport, which is short for “extreme sport”. “Extreme” may mean “extremely dangerous” or “extremely crazy”. Have you tried any extreme sports? Would you like to? Talk about this list of extreme sports with your partner. Use these expressions:

I’d (absolutely) love to try it
I would definitely give it a go
I’d seriously think about trying it
You must be crazy
No way
Not in a million years

Bungee jumping

Elevator surfing (standing on top of elevators as they go up and down)

Whitewater kayaking

Surfing

Skateboarding

Base jumping

Skydiving

Snowboarding

Rock climbing

Mountain biking

Caving

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):

a.	A parachutist died when he fell on top of the Eiffel Tower.	T / F
b.	A man died in a failed parachute jump from the Eiffel Tower.	T / F
c.	The jump was a publicity stunt for a clothing brand.	T / F
d.	The man had forgotten to put his parachute on and jumped.	T / F
e.	The man died in hospital.	T / F
f.	The Eiffel Tower is the world’s most visited sight.	T / F
g.	Hundreds of people have committed suicide from the Eiffel Tower.	T / F
h.	Someone once tested a “parachute coat” from the Eiffel Tower.	T / F

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

a.	tried	public relations
b.	publicity	structure
c.	brand	novel
d.	did not go according to plan	attempted
e.	caught	draws
f.	frame	went wrong
g.	attracts	label
h.	strange	snared

3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

a.	parachute from	instantly
b.	publicity	to their deaths
c.	record every	tourist attractions
d.	did not go	the Eiffel Tower
e.	died	second of the jump
f.	the world’s most visited	invention
g.	leapt	stunt
h.	tried to test his strange	according to plan

WHILE READING / LISTENING

SENTENCE ORDER: Complete the following paragraphs by choosing the correct sentences from the list below. Each paragraph needs two more sentences.

Paragraph 1

A man from Norway died when he tried to parachute from the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Paragraph 2

The jump from the second level of the Eiffel Tower did not go according to plan.

Paragraph 3

The 324-metre-high Eiffel Tower is one of the world’s most visited tourist attractions and attracts over six million visitors a year.

He fell 50 meters and died instantly after his body hit the frame of the first level of the tower.

His parachute jump was a publicity stunt for a Norwegian clothing brand.

Hundreds of people have leapt to their deaths before, usually to commit suicide.

The first parachute death was an Austrian man who tried to test his strange invention - the “parachute coat”.

The man had planned to record every second of the jump on a small video camera in his helmet.

The police said his parachute got caught on some metal just before he jumped and fell off of his back.

AFTER READING

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

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. SENTENCE ORDER: In pairs / groups, compare and talk about your answers to this exercise. After you agree, check your answers against the text.

4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.

5. STUDENT X-SPORTS SURVEY: In pairs / groups write down questions about dangerous sports.

Ask other classmates your questions and note down their answers.
Go back to your original partner / group and compare your findings.
Make a mini-presentation to another group / the class on your findings.

6. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall exactly how these were used in the text:

parachute
stunt
second
helmet
plan

back
frame
attractions
suicide
coat

LANGUAGE

NATIONALITIES:

The man who died at the Eiffel Tower was Norwegian. Fill in the table of nationality words below. Check in a dictionary or on the Internet.

*Country*	*Adjective*	*Person*	*Nation*
Norway	Norwegian	Norwegian	the Norwegians
Afghanistan
Egypt
Greece
Iceland
Iraq
Israel
Peru
Poland
Sudan
Thailand
Turkey
(My country)

After you have finished, write down five questions using the nationality words of your own country. Ask other students your questions. Sit with a new partner and tell them about what you were told by other students.

DISCUSSION

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

What did you think when you saw the headline of this article?
Do you like reading about strange news?
What do you think of the man who tried to parachute from the Eiffel Tower?
Do you think the Norwegian clothing manufacturer is responsible for the man’s death?
Do you like heights?
Have you ever tried or would you like to try parachuting?
What is the most dangerous thing you’ve ever done?
Are there any extreme sports you’d like to try?
Would you like to try elevator surfing?
What do you do for excitement?

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

Did you like reading the article?
What word would you use to describe the parachutist?
Are you a daredevil?
Do you know of any other crazy publicity stunts?
Would you ever do anything crazy make your company famous?
What do you think of elevator surfing
Do you want to buy a parachute coat?
Do you want to test a parachute coat?
What is the most famous landmark in the world?
Did you like this discussion?

AFTER DISCUSSION: Join another partner / group and tell them what you talked about.

What question would you like to ask about this topic?
What was the most interesting thing you heard?
Was there a question you didn’t like?
Was there something you totally disagreed with?
What did you like talking about?
Do you want to know how anyone else answered the questions?
Which was the most difficult question?

SPEAKING

PUBLICITY STUNTS: You are members of a marketing team for a new company. You are 100 per cent sure that your company will be an international success. You are positive it will make millions of dollars. All it needs is a little publicity. Your job is to think of the publicity stunt that will give your company world famous. In pairs / groups decide on the following:

Name of the company
Product
Product name
Advertising slogan
What is the publicity stunt? Where? What things do we need? Is it illegal? Are there any dangers? Will it shock people? Newspapers and TV? Who will do it?

After you have finished, show your ideas to other students and give each other feedback. Tell each other how your publicity stunts could be improved.

LISTENING

Listen and fill in the spaces.

Eiffel Tower parachutist dies

A man from Norway died when he _____ ___ parachute from the Eiffel Tower in Paris. His parachute jump was a
________ _______ for a Norwegian clothing brand. The man had planned to record ______ ______ of the jump on a small video camera in his helmet.

The jump from the second level of the Eiffel Tower did not go __________ ___ ______. The police said his parachute got caught on some metal ____ _____ ___ jumped and fell off of his back. He fell 50 meters and died instantly after his body hit ___ _____ __ ____ first level of the tower.

The 324-metre-high Eiffel Tower is ___ __ ___ _______ most visited tourist attractions and attracts over six million visitors a year. Hundreds of people ____ _____ to their deaths before, usually to commit suicide. The first parachute death was an Austrian man ___ _____ __ ____ his strange invention - the “parachute coat”.

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 information on the Eiffel Tower. Share your findings with your class in the next lesson.

3. LANDMARK: Choose your favorite world landmark. Make a tourist poster for it so that people will want to come to visit. Show your posters to your classmates in your next lesson.

4. REPORTER: Imagine you were a reporter at the Eiffel Tower. Write your report for this evenings newspaper. Describe what you saw and include other eyewitness accounts in your story.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a. F

b. T

c. T

d. F

e. F

f. F

g. T

h. T

SYNONYM MATCH:

a.	tried	attempted
b.	publicity	public relations
c.	brand	label
d.	did not go according to plan	went wrong
e.	caught	snared
f.	frame	structure
g.	attracts	draws
h.	strange	novel

PHRASE MATCH:

a.	parachute from	the Eiffel Tower
b.	publicity	stunt
c.	record every	second of the jump
d.	did not go	according to plan
e.	died	instantly
f.	the world’s most visited	tourist attractions
g.	leapt	to their deaths
h.	tried to test his strange	invention