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Date: Apr 6, 2008
THE ARTICLEHuge US job losses spark recession fearsThere seems to be little doubt among Americans that the USA is sinking into recession. The US Labor Department reported 80,000 job losses in March, the biggest reduction in five years. The cuts came as an unwelcome surprise to economists, who predicted an increase of 50,000 jobs. Almost a quarter of a million jobs have been lost in America in the first three months of the year. This is another grim economic statistic that suggests the world’s largest economy has some difficult times ahead. The US unemployment rate now stands at 5.1 percent. There are fears that further job losses will come in the next few months. Economists are worried that employers will cut back on hiring because of a lack of confidence in the financial system. The credit crisis and recent housing slump has put companies off taking risks.
The US treasury secretary Ben Bernanke came as close as he has ever come to acknowledging that a recession was looming. He didn’t use the “r” word but did admit that the US economy could be heading into a very mild recession. "It now appears likely that real gross domestic product (GDP) will not grow much, if at all, over the first half of 2008 and could even contract slightly," he said. On a more positive note, he did say any negative growth would be short term: "We expect economic activity to strengthen in the second half of the year, in part, as the result of [our] monetary and fiscal policies.” He said recent actions to help banks had helped the economy, but that "financial markets remain under considerable stress." All eyes will now be on the job figures for April. WARM-UPS1. THE ECONOMY: Walk around the class and talk to other students about the economy. 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. JOB LOSS: How bad is losing your job? What lifestyle changes would you need to make if you were unemployed? Talk about the things in the table with your partner(s). Change partners and share your ideas.
4. POLICIES: If you were your nation’s leader, what would you do on each of these? With your partner(s), agree on one or two decisions for each. Change partners and share your decisions.
5. RECESSION: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘recession’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories. 6. QUICK DEBATE: Students A strongly believe that the world’s economy will strengthen from now; Students B strongly believe the world’s economy will weaken from now. 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.There seems _____________________ among Americans that the USA is sinking into recession. The US Labor Department reported 80,000 job losses in March, the biggest reduction in five years. The ________________ unwelcome surprise to economists, who predicted an increase of 50,000 jobs. Almost a quarter of a million jobs ________________ America in the first three months of the year. This ________________ economic statistic that suggests the world’s largest economy has some difficult times ahead. The US unemployment ________________ 5.1 percent. There are ________________ job losses will come in the next few months. Economists are worried that employers will cut back on hiring because of a ________________ in the financial system. The credit crisis and recent housing slump has put companies ________________. The US treasury secretary Ben Bernanke came ___________________ ever come to acknowledging that a recession was looming. He didn’t ________________ did admit that the US economy could be heading into a very mild recession. "It now ________________ real gross domestic product (GDP) will not grow much, if at all, over the first half of 2008 and could ________________," he said. On a more positive note, he did say any negative growth would ________________: "We expect economic activity to strengthen in the second half of the year, in part, as the result of [our] monetary ________________.” He said recent actions to help banks had helped the economy, but that "financial markets remain under considerable stress." ____________________ the job figures for April. AFTER READING / LISTENING1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘job’ and ‘loss’.
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 RECESSION SURVEYWrite five GOOD questions about recession 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.
RECESSION 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) to (d) below in the article. There seems to be (1) ____ doubt among Americans that the USA is sinking into recession. The US Labor Department reported 80,000 job (2) ____ in March, the biggest reduction in five years. The cuts came (3) ____ an unwelcome surprise to economists, who predicted an increase of 50,000 jobs. Almost a quarter of a million jobs have been lost in America in the first three months of the year. This is another (4) ____ economic statistic that suggests the world’s largest economy has some difficult times ahead. The US unemployment rate now (5) ____ at 5.1 percent. There are fears that further job losses will come in the next few months. Economists are worried that employers will cut back (6) ____ hiring because of a lack of confidence in the financial system. The credit crisis and recent housing slump has put companies off taking risks. The US treasury secretary Ben Bernanke (7) ____ as close as he has ever come to acknowledging that a recession was looming. He didn’t use the “r” (8) ____ but did admit that the US economy could be heading into a very mild recession. "It now appears likely that real gross domestic product (GDP) will not grow much, if at (9) ____, over the first half of 2008 and could even contract slightly," he said. On a more positive (10) ____, he did say any negative growth would be short term: "We expect economic activity to strengthen in the second half of the year, in (11) ____, as the result of [our] monetary and fiscal policies.” He said recent actions to help banks had helped the economy, but that "financial markets remain under considerable stress." All (12) ____ will now be on the job figures for April.
WRITING:Write about recession 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 possible recession in the USA. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson. 3. ECONOMIES: Make a poster about very different economies around the world. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things? 4. RECESSION: Write a magazine article about how a recession affects the lives of a company CEO and a factory worker. Include imaginary interviews with them. Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Write down any new words and expressions you hear from your partner(s). 5. LETTER: Write a letter to the US treasury secretary Ben Bernanke. Ask him three questions about America’s economy. Give him three pieces of advice on what he should do to avoid recession. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions. 6. DIARY / JOURNAL: Imagine you are US treasury secretary Ben Bernanke. Write your diary / journal entry for one day in your life. Be sure to write about the possibility of the recession. Read your entry to your classmates in the next lesson. ANSWERSTRUE / FALSE:
SYNONYM MATCH:
PHRASE MATCH:
GAP FILL: Huge US job losses spark recession fearsThere seems to be little doubt among Americans that the USA is sinking into recession. The US Labor Department reported 80,000 job losses in March, the biggest reduction in five years. The cuts came as an unwelcome surprise to economists, who predicted an increase of 50,000 jobs. Almost a quarter of a million jobs have been lost in America in the first three months of the year. This is another grim economic statistic that suggests the world’s largest economy has some difficult times ahead. The US unemployment rate now stands at 5.1 percent. There are fears that further job losses will come in the next few months. Economists are worried that employers will cut back on hiring because of a lack of confidence in the financial system. The credit crisis and recent housing slump has put companies off taking risks. The US treasury secretary Ben Bernanke came as close as he has ever come to acknowledging that a recession was looming. He didn’t use the “r” word but did admit that the US economy could be heading into a very mild recession. "It now appears likely that real gross domestic product (GDP) will not grow much, if at all, over the first half of 2008 and could even contract slightly," he said. On a more positive note, he did say any negative growth would be short term: "We expect economic activity to strengthen in the second half of the year, in part, as the result of [our] monetary and fiscal policies.” He said recent actions to help banks had helped the economy, but that "financial markets remain under considerable stress." All eyes will now be on the job figures for April. LANGUAGE WORK
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