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Date: Mar 10, 2008
THE ARTICLEUS fat cats quizzed over high salariesThree former CEOs of U.S. banking giants are currently facing tough questions by American lawmakers over the size of their salaries. In particular, why their earnings, bonuses and leaving packages were so high when the companies they headed were doing so poorly. Ex-Merrill Lynch CEO E. Stanley O’Neal and Citigroup’s Charles O. Prince III resigned from their companies in late 2007 with million-dollar golden goodbyes. This is despite the fact that the corporations they headed lost billions of dollars and low-income homeowners lost their homes in America’s housing collapse. Democrat Henry A. Waxman said America was an unequal society. “Most Americans live in a world where economic security is [uncertain] and there are real economic consequences for failure. But our nation’s top executives seem to live by a different set of rules, he said.
Many Democrat politicians focused on why top executives were paid so well when their decisions led to huge, billion-dollar losses. One concerned committee member asked: “When companies fail to perform, should they give millions of dollars to their senior executives?” Republicans defended the executives and asked questions of their own. Darrel E Issa from California wondered why the CEOs were being targeted as “bad guys”. Mr Issa said the executives also suffered because the value of the hundreds of millions of dollars they received in stocks went down when share values plummeted. A majority of Americans believe that their business leaders are highly overpaid. CEOs earn about 600 times more than the average American worker. This figure has rocketed from 1980 levels, when CEOs earned just 40 times more than Jo Public. WARM-UPS1. SALARIES: Walk around the class and talk to other students about salaries. Change partners often. After you finish, sit with your original partner(s) and share what you found out. 2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words from the article are most interesting and which are most boring.
Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently. 3. PAY: Which job should get the highest salary / benefits? With your partner(s), fill in this table. Change partners and share your ideas.
4. MESSING UP: What should happen to CEOs who mess up big time? Talk with your partner(s) about these cases. Do they happen in real life? Make up some stories about them. Change partners and share your ideas.
5. EXECUTIVES: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘executives’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories. 6. QUICK ROLE PLAY: Students A strongly believe that there should be no limit on CEO salaries; Students B strongly believe it is wrong for a CEO to be paid millions of dollars. Change partners again and talk about your roles and conversations. 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 into the gaps in the text.
LISTENING: Listen and fill in the spaces.Three former CEOs of U.S. banking giants ______________________ tough questions by American lawmakers ______________________ salaries. In particular, why their earnings, bonuses and leaving packages were so high when the companies they headed ______________________. Ex-Merrill Lynch CEO E. Stanley O’Neal and Citigroup’s Charles O. Prince III resigned from their companies in late 2007 with million-dollar golden goodbyes. This is ______________________ the corporations they headed lost billions of dollars and low-income homeowners lost their homes in ______________________. Democrat Henry A. Waxman said America was an unequal society. “Most Americans live in a world where economic security is [uncertain] and there are real economic consequences for failure. But our nation’s top executives ______________________ different set of rules, he said. Many Democrat politicians ______________________ executives were paid so well when their decisions led to huge, billion-dollar losses. One concerned committee member asked: “When companies __________________, should they give millions of dollars to their senior executives?” Republicans defended the executives and asked ______________________. Darrel E Issa from California wondered why the CEOs were being targeted as “bad guys”. Mr Issa said the executives also suffered ______________________ hundreds of millions of dollars they received in stocks went down when share values plummeted. A majority of Americans ___________________ business leaders are highly overpaid. CEOs earn about 600 times more than the average American worker. This ______________________ 1980 levels, when CEOs earned just 40 times more than Jo Public. AFTER READING / LISTENING1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘fat’ and ‘cat’.
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. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall exactly how these were used in the text:
STUDENT CEO SURVEYWrite five GOOD questions about CEOs 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.
DISCUSSIONSTUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)
-------------------------------------------------------------------- STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)
LANGUAGECORRECT WORD: Put the correct words from a–d below in the article. Three former CEOs of U.S. banking (1) ____ are currently facing tough questions by American lawmakers (2) ____ the size of their salaries. In particular, why their earnings, bonuses and leaving packages were so high when the companies they headed were doing so (3) ____. Ex-Merrill Lynch CEO E. Stanley O’Neal and Citigroup’s Charles O. Prince III resigned from their companies in late 2007 with million-dollar golden goodbyes. This is (4) ____ the fact that the corporations they headed lost billions of dollars and low-income homeowners lost their homes in America’s housing collapse. Democrat Henry A. Waxman said America was an (5) ____ society. “Most Americans live in a world where economic security is [uncertain] and there are real economic consequences for failure. But our nation’s top executives seem to live by a different (6) ____ of rules, he said. Many Democrat politicians focused (7) ____ why top executives were paid so well when their decisions led to huge, billion-dollar losses. One concerned committee member asked: “When companies (8) ____ to perform, should they give millions of dollars to their senior executives?” Republicans defended the executives and asked questions of their (9) ____. Darrel E Issa from California wondered why the CEOs were being targeted as “bad guys”. Mr Issa said the executives also (10) ____ because the value of the hundreds of millions of dollars they received in stocks went down when share values plummeted. A majority of Americans believe that their business leaders are (11) ____ overpaid. CEOs earn about 600 times more than the average American worker. This (12) ____ has rocketed from 1980 levels, when CEOs earned just 40 times more than Jo Public.
WRITING:Write about CEOs for 10 minutes. Correct your partner’s paper. _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ 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 out about America’s sub-prime crisis and housing collapse. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson. 3. CEOs: Make a poster about two CEOs. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things? 4. DIFFERENT SETS OF RULES: Write a magazine article about two very different people in your society who live by different sets of rules. Include imaginary interviews them. Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Write down new words and expressions. 5. LETTER: Write a letter to a CEO. Ask her/him three questions about her/his job. Give her/him your thoughts on her/his multi-million-dollar salary. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions. ANSWERSTRUE / FALSE:
SYNONYM MATCH:
PHRASE MATCH:
GAP FILL: US fat cats quizzed over high salariesThree former CEOs of U.S. banking giants are currently facing tough questions by American lawmakers over the size of their salaries. In particular, why their earnings, bonuses and leaving packages were so high when the companies they headed were doing so poorly. Ex-Merrill Lynch CEO E. Stanley O’Neal and Citigroup’s Charles O. Prince III resigned from their companies in late 2007 with million-dollar golden goodbyes. This is despite the fact that the corporations they headed lost billions of dollars and low-income homeowners lost their homes in America’s housing collapse. Democrat Henry A. Waxman said America was an unequal society. “Most Americans live in a world where economic security is [uncertain] and there are real economic consequences for failure. But our nation’s top executives seem to live by a different set of rules, he said. Many Democrat politicians focused on why top executives were paid so well when their decisions led to huge, billion-dollar losses. One concerned committee member asked: “When companies fail to perform, should they give millions of dollars to their senior executives?” Republicans defended the executives and asked questions of their own. Darrel E Issa from California wondered why the CEOs were being targeted as “bad guys”. Mr Issa said the executives also suffered because the value of the hundreds of millions of dollars they received in stocks went down when share values plummeted. A majority of Americans believe that their business leaders are highly overpaid. CEOs earn about 600 times more than the average American worker. This figure has rocketed from 1980 levels, when CEOs earned just 40 times more than Jo Public. LANGUAGE WORK
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