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Date: Mar 22, 2008
THE ARTICLEVietnam illegally logging Laos forestsVietnam is illegally logging vast areas of rainforest in neighboring Laos and turning it into furniture for consumers in the US and Europe. This is the claim of the UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), which stated: "Vietnam's booming economy and demand for cheap furniture in the West is driving rapid deforestation in Laos.” There are estimates that the timber illegally crossing into Vietnam is worth billions of dollars. This now makes Vietnam a world centre for logging. Loggers pay huge bribes to smuggle the logs across the border. The EIA's head of forest campaigns Julian Newman pointed out that poor villages suffer most: "The cost of such…greed is [paid] by poor rural communities in Laos who are dependent on the forests for their traditional livelihoods," he said.
The EIA said it was up to Western governments to act to stop the deforestation in Laos. EIA spokeswoman Faith Doherty said the US Congress was taking steps to ban the import of illegal wood products. She also said the European Union was creating a certificate system to make sure of the origin of all wood products. Newman agreed, stating: "The ultimate responsibility for this dire state of affairs rests with the consumer markets which import wood products made from stolen timber." The report says actions taken by the West have not worked: “The stark reality is 'business as usual' for the organised syndicates looting the remaining precious tropical forests for a quick profit," authors say. They add that Thai and Singapore traders are also “cashing in” by exploiting their northern neighbour. WARM-UPS1. WOOD: Walk around the class and talk to other students about wood. 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. CHEAP PRICE: With your partner(s), decide which of these are worst. What are the alternatives? Would you pay double the price to make sure these practices are stopped? Change partners and share your ideas.
4. GUILTY: A lot of furniture sold in shops comes from wood from illegal logging. Who is most guilty? Talk about this with your partner(s). Give a score from 10 (very guilty) to 1 (totally innocent). Change partners and share your ideas. _____ the guy who cuts down the tree _____ the boss of the timber company _____ the leader of the country where logging takes place _____ the leader of the country in which the furniture is sold _____ the shop in Europe or the US that sells the furniture _____ the customer who buys the furniture 5. FOREST: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘forest’. 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 logging is not such a problem and the forests will recover; Students B strongly believe that logging will eventually destroy the Earth. 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.Vietnam is illegally logging _______________ rainforest in neighboring Laos and turning it into furniture for consumers in the US and Europe. This is _______________ UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), which stated: "Vietnam's __________________ demand for cheap furniture in the West is driving rapid deforestation in Laos.” There are estimates that the timber illegally crossing into Vietnam _______________ dollars. This now makes Vietnam a world centre for logging. Loggers _______________ smuggle the logs across the border. The EIA's head of forest campaigns Julian Newman _______________ poor villages suffer most: "The cost of such…greed is [paid] by poor rural communities in Laos who are dependent on the _______________ traditional livelihoods," he said. The EIA said it was up to Western governments _______________ the deforestation in Laos. EIA spokeswoman Faith Doherty said the US Congress was taking _______________ import of illegal wood products. She also said the European Union was creating a certificate system to _______________ origin of all wood products. Newman agreed, stating: "The ultimate responsibility for this _______________ affairs rests with the consumer markets which import wood products made from stolen timber." The report says _______________ the West have not worked: “The stark reality is 'business as usual' for the organized syndicates looting the remaining precious tropical forests _______________," authors say. They add that Thai and Singapore traders are also “_______________” by exploiting their northern neighbour. AFTER READING / LISTENING1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘dire’ and ‘state’.
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 LOGGING SURVEYWrite five GOOD questions about logging 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 ad below in the article. Vietnam is illegally logging (1) ____ areas of rainforest in neighboring Laos and turning it into furniture for consumers in the US and Europe. This is the (2) ____ of the UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), which stated: "Vietnam's booming economy and demand for cheap furniture in the West is driving (3) ____ deforestation in Laos.” There are estimates that the timber illegally crossing into Vietnam (4) ____ worth billions of dollars. This now makes Vietnam a world centre for logging. Loggers pay huge bribes to smuggle the logs across the border. The EIA's head of forest campaigns Julian Newman pointed (5) ____ that poor villages suffer most: "The cost of such…greed is [paid] by poor rural communities in Laos who are dependent (6) ____ the forests for their traditional livelihoods," he said. The EIA said it was (7) ____ to Western governments to act to stop the deforestation in Laos. EIA spokeswoman Faith Doherty said the US Congress was taking steps to (8) ____ the import of illegal wood products. She also said the European Union was creating a certificate system to make sure of the (9) ____ of all wood products. Newman agreed, stating: "The ultimate responsibility for this dire state of affairs rests with the consumer markets which import wood products made from (10) ____ timber." The report says actions taken by the West have not worked: “The stark reality is 'business as (11) ____' for the organized syndicates looting the remaining precious tropical forests for a quick profit," authors say. They add that Thai and Singapore traders are also “cashing (12) ____” by exploiting their northern neighbour.
WRITING:Write about logging 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 the Environmental Investigation Agency. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson. 3. LOGGING: Make a poster about the scale and effects of logging around the world. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things? 4. TRADITIONAL LIVELIHOODS: Write a magazine article about the effects logging has on small rural communities in rainforests. Include imaginary interviews with the villagers and the loggers. Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Write down new words and expressions. 5. LETTER: Write a letter to Vietnam’s environment minister. Ask him/her three questions about the illegal logging in Laos. Give him/her three pieces of advice on what he/she should do to stop the logging. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions. 6. DIARY / JOURNAL: Imagine you are a logger in a tropical rainforest. Write your diary / journal entry for one day in your life. Read your entry to your classmates in the next lesson. ANSWERSTRUE / FALSE:
SYNONYM MATCH:
PHRASE MATCH:
GAP FILL: Vietnam illegally logging Laos forestsVietnam is illegally logging vast areas of rainforest in neighboring Laos and turning it into furniture for consumers in the US and Europe. This is the claim of the UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), which stated: "Vietnam's booming economy and demand for cheap furniture in the West is driving rapid deforestation in Laos.” There are estimates that the timber illegally crossing into Vietnam is worth billions of dollars. This now makes Vietnam a world centre for logging. Loggers pay huge bribes to smuggle the logs across the border. The EIA's head of forest campaigns Julian Newman pointed out that poor villages suffer most: "The cost of such…greed is [paid] by poor rural communities in Laos who are dependent on the forests for their traditional livelihoods," he said. The EIA said it was up to Western governments to act to stop the deforestation in Laos. EIA spokeswoman Faith Doherty said the US Congress was taking steps to ban the import of illegal wood products. She also said the European Union was creating a certificate system to make sure of the origin of all wood products. Newman agreed, stating: "The ultimate responsibility for this dire state of affairs rests with the consumer markets which import wood products made from stolen timber." The report says actions taken by the West have not worked: “The stark reality is 'business as usual' for the organized syndicates looting the remaining precious tropical forests for a quick profit," authors say. They add that Thai and Singapore traders are also “cashing in” by exploiting their northern neighbour. LANGUAGE WORK
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