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Date: Dec 15, 2005 Level: Harder (Try the easier lesson.) Downloads: Word Doc | PDF Doc | Listening Audio: (1:52 - 219.3 KB - 16kbps)
THE ARTICLECuba’s government has barred members of a women’s opposition movement from traveling to Europe to receive the prestigious Sakharov human rights prize for freedom of thought. The so-called “Ladies in White” are joint winners of the prize but have been grounded by Fidel Castro for being an outlawed group. Repeated petitions by the European Union, which oversees the annual award, have fallen on deaf ears in Cuba’s Foreign Department. Instead, the EU is weighing up the option of sending its own delegates to Cuba to present the accolade. The prizewinners have been protesting since 2003 against the long-term detention of their husbands and sons, who are political dissidents. Havana has so far remained tight-lipped about the prize and travel ban. Condemnation from Europe over the refusal to issue visas to the women has been fierce. Germany’s Hans-Gert Poettering, head of the European Popular Party, said: “I call on the Cuban authorities to let them depart. If they do not, we will be obliged to again harshly criticize [one of] the last Communist dictatorships on the planet.” Spanish conservative Jose Ignacio Salafranca stated that the women “have committed no offense other than to bravely defend the rights of their family members”. A spokeswoman from the group, Miriam Leiva, lambasted her government, saying: “It does with our lives whatever it wishes.…It controls whether we can travel abroad. It won’t allow any opinion other than its own. We are very peaceful people and we have just been striving for our rights.” WARM-UPS1. CUBA SEARCH: Talk to as many other students as you can to find out what they know about Cuba. After you have talked to lots of students, sit down with your partner(s) and share your information. Tell each other what you thought was interesting or surprising. Would you like to travel to or live in Cuba? 2. PROTEST: What do you think is the best form of protest against a government? What kind of protests would your government listen to? In pairs / groups, talk about how effective the following forms of protest might be in your country. How would your government react? Which would you take part in?
3. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words are most interesting and which are most boring.
Have a chat about the topics you liked. For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently. 4. FREEDOMS: Do you live in a free country? Do you think there should be greater freedom in your country? Write down five things you are free to do in your country that you cherish. Talk about these with your partner(s). Talk also about what life would be like without these things. 5. OPPOSITION OPINIONS: Discuss these opinions with your partner(s).
6. FREEDOM: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with freedom. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories. 7. COMPARISONS: Make comparisons between these countries. They are often in the news regarding human rights issues: Cuba China North Korea Zimbabwe Chile USA Russia Sudan 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 in the column on the right into the gaps in the text. Cuba grounds human rights prizewinners
LISTENINGListen and fill in the spaces. Cuba grounds human rights prizewinnersCuba’s government has _______ members of a women’s opposition movement from traveling to Europe to receive the ___________ Sakharov human rights prize for freedom of thought. The so-called “Ladies in White” are joint winners of the prize but have been grounded by Fidel Castro for being an __________ group. Repeated petitions by the European Union, which oversees the annual award, have fallen ___ _____ ears in Cuba’s Foreign Department. Instead, the EU is weighing up the option of sending its own delegates to Cuba to present the _________. The prizewinners have been protesting since 2003 against the long-term detention of their husbands and sons, who are political _________. Havana has so far _________ tight-lipped about the prize and travel ban. Condemnation from Europe over the refusal to issue visas to the women has been _________. Germany’s Hans-Gert Poettering, head of the European Popular Party, said: “I call on the Cuban authorities to let them depart. If they do not, we will be obliged to again _________ criticize [one of] the last Communist dictatorships on the planet.” Spanish conservative Jose Ignacio Salafranca stated that the women “have committed no _________ other than to _________ defend the rights of their family members”. A spokeswoman from the group, Miriam Leiva, ____________ her government, saying: “It does with our lives whatever it wishes.…It controls whether we can travel abroad. It won’t allow any opinion _______ ______ its own. We are very peaceful people and we have just been ___________ for our rights.” AFTER READING / LISTENING1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘ladies’ and ‘white’.
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. STUDENT “HUMAN RIGHTS” SURVEY: In pairs / groups, write down questions about our freedoms, human rights and the countries that disallow them.
6. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall exactly how these were used in the text:
DISCUSSIONSTUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)
STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)
AFTER DISCUSSION: Join another partner / group and tell them what you talked about.
SPEAKINGLUCKY? In pairs / groups, talk about the human rights listed below (one of them is not an official right!). Discuss what life would be like without these rights. Put the main points in the middle column. Discuss what your life is like having been afforded these rights. Summarize your thoughts in the right hand column.
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 more information on the Ladies in White. Share your findings with your class in the next lesson. Did you all find out similar things? 3. STUDENT RIGHTS: Create a charter of student rights (students of English or other languages and subjects). Think of eight basic rights all students must have. Provide an explanation supporting each point. Show your charters to your classmates in the next lesson. Whose charter best champions students? 4. LETTER: Write a letter to Fidel Castro asking him why his government refuses to allow the Ladies in White to travel. Give him advice on the benefits to Cuba of granting the women travel visas. Show what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all write about similar things? ANSWERSTRUE / FALSE:
SYNONYM MATCH:
PHRASE MATCH:
GAP FILL: Cuba grounds human rights prizewinnersCuba’s government has barred members of a women’s opposition movement from traveling to Europe to receive the prestigious Sakharov human rights prize for freedom of thought. The so-called “Ladies in White” are joint winners of the prize but have been grounded by Fidel Castro for being an outlawed group. Repeated petitions by the European Union, which oversees the annual award, have fallen on deaf ears in Cuba’s Foreign Department. Instead, the EU is weighing up the option of sending its own delegates to Cuba to present the accolade. The prizewinners have been protesting since 2003 against the long-term detention of their husbands and sons, who are political dissidents. Havana has so far remained tight-lipped about the prize and travel ban. Condemnation from Europe over the refusal to issue visas to the women has been fierce. Germany’s Hans-Gert Poettering, head of the European Popular Party, said: “I call on the Cuban authorities to let them depart. If they do not, we will be obliged to again harshly criticize [one of] the last Communist dictatorships on the planet.” Spanish conservative Jose Ignacio Salafranca stated that the women “have committed no offense other than to bravely defend the rights of their family members”. A spokeswoman from the group, Miriam Leiva, lambasted her government, saying: “It does with our lives whatever it wishes.…It controls whether we can travel abroad. It won’t allow any opinion other than its own. We are very peaceful people and we have just been striving for our rights.”
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