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THE ARTICLEBarack Obama pulls ahead of HillaryDemocratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama is moving ahead of his rival Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House. Mr Obama has built a solid lead over Mrs Clinton in the past few months. He won a landslide victory in the contest for North Carolina last Tuesday, while Senator Clinton narrowly hung on to win Indiana, a state in which she was hoping for a big win. Her narrow margin of victory strengthened Obama’s campaign. Many analysts predicted the Indiana result was the beginning of the end for Mrs Clinton, who looked tired and lacked enthusiasm in her victory speech. Barack is also winning the contest for the votes of the nearly 800 super-delegates - party officials who will probably decide whether Mr Obama or Ms Clinton runs for President in November.
There are still six more states that are yet to vote for their presidential nominee. It seems likely that the race between the two candidates will go right to the wire. However, more and more people now predict that Obama will win the right to challenge Republican John McCain to be America’s 44th President. On Friday, a former candidate in the race, John Edwards, said that Senator Obama was now the party's "likely presidential nominee". This is another blow to Mrs Clinton’s campaign. She is now running out of big-name supporters as well as money. She must dip into her own personal fortune if she wants to continue on the campaign trail. She suggested she would join forces with Obama if she lost the race. “We will stand together and…go on to the White House,” she said.
WARM-UPS1. US POLITICS: Walk around the class and talk to other students about American politics. Change partners often. After you finish, sit with your partner(s) and share your findings. 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. VOTE FOR ME: Do you have big ideas to change things? Would you like to change your school? Complete this table with your ideas about the things in the left column. Talk with your partners about your answers. Change partners often and share your findings. Who is the best candidate for change?
4. VOTE FOR CHANGE: What are the important issues for you when you vote? Rank these things in order of importance from the most to least important. Talk about your rankings. Change partners and share your scores and findings.
5. HEADLINE PREDICTION: With your partner(s), use the words in the “Chat” activity above to predict what the news article will be about. Once you have your story, change partners and share them. Who was closest to the real story? 6. RIVAL: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘rival’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories. 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.Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama ______________________ rival Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House. Mr Obama ______________________ Mrs Clinton in the past few months. He won a landslide victory ______________________ North Carolina last Tuesday, while Senator Clinton narrowly hung on to win Indiana, a state ______________________ for a big win. Her narrow margin of victory strengthened Obama’s campaign. Many analysts predicted the Indiana result was ______________________ for Mrs Clinton, who looked tired and lacked enthusiasm in her victory speech. Barack is also winning the contest for ______________________ 800 super-delegates - party officials who will probably decide whether Mr Obama or Ms Clinton runs for President in November. There are still six more states ______________________ their presidential nominee. It seems likely that the race between the two candidates ______________________. However, more and more people now predict that Obama ______________________ challenge Republican John McCain to be America’s 44th President. On Friday, a former candidate in the race, John Edwards, said that Senator Obama was now the party's "likely presidential nominee". This is another blow to Mrs Clinton’s campaign. She is ______________________ supporters as well as money. She ______________________ personal fortune if she wants to continue on the campaign trail. She suggested she would join forces with Obama if she lost the race. “We ______________________ …go on to the White House,” she said. AFTER READING / LISTENING1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘pull’ and ‘ahead’.
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 how they were used in the text:
STUDENT PRESIDENT SURVEYWrite five GOOD questions about presidents 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.
PRESIDENT DISCUSSIONSTUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)
LANGUAGEDemocratic presidential (1) ____ Barack Obama is moving ahead of his rival Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House. Mr Obama has (2) ____ a solid lead over Mrs Clinton in the past few months. He won a landslide victory in the contest for North Carolina last Tuesday, while Senator Clinton narrowly hung (3) ____ to win Indiana, a state in which she was hoping for a big win. Her (4) ____ margin of victory strengthened Obama’s campaign. Many analysts predicted the Indiana result was the beginning of the (5) ____ for Mrs Clinton, who looked tired and lacked enthusiasm in her victory speech. Barack is also winning the contest for the votes of the nearly 800 super-delegates - party officials who will probably decide whether Mr Obama or Ms Clinton (6) ____ for President in November. There are still six more states that are yet to vote for their presidential nominee. It seems (7) ____ that the race between the two candidates will go right to the wire. However, more and more people now predict that Obama will win the right (8) ____ challenge Republican John McCain to be America’s 44th President. On Friday, a (9) ____ candidate in the race, John Edwards, said that Senator Obama was now the party's "likely presidential nominee". This is another (10) ____ to Mrs Clinton’s campaign. She is now running out of big-name supporters as well as money. She must dip (11) ____ her own personal fortune if she wants to continue on the campaign trail. She suggested she would join forces (12) ____ Obama if she lost the race. “We will stand together and…go on to the White House,” she said. Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.
WRITING:Write about rivals 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 Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson. 3. 43 PRESIDENTS: Make a poster about some of America’s past presidents. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things? 4. RIVALS: Write a magazine article about the race for the Democratic presidential nomination between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Include imaginary interviews with the two senators. Include questions about the future of America. 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 Barack Obama. Give him three pieces of advice on what he should do to stay ahead of Senator Clinton. Ask him three questions about his plans for America. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions. 6. DIARY / JOURNAL: You are running to be president. Write your diary entry for one day in your campaign. Include your thoughts on what you want to do for your country. Read your entry to your classmates in the next lesson. ANSWERSTRUE / FALSE:
SYNONYM MATCH:
PHRASE MATCH:
GAP FILL: Barack Obama pulls ahead of HillaryDemocratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama is moving ahead of his rival Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House. Mr Obama has built a solid lead over Mrs Clinton in the past few months. He won a landslide victory in the contest for North Carolina last Tuesday, while Senator Clinton narrowly hung on to win Indiana, a state in which she was hoping for a big win. Her narrow margin of victory strengthened Obama’s campaign. Many analysts predicted the Indiana result was the beginning of the end for Mrs Clinton, who looked tired and lacked enthusiasm in her victory speech. Barack is also winning the contest for the votes of the nearly 800 super-delegates - party officials who will probably decide whether Mr Obama or Ms Clinton runs for President in November. There are still six more states that are yet to vote for their presidential nominee. It seems likely that the race between the two candidates will go right to the wire. However, more and more people now predict that Obama will win the right to challenge Republican John McCain to be America’s 44th President. On Friday, a former candidate in the race, John Edwards, said that Senator Obama was now the party's "likely presidential nominee". This is another blow to Mrs Clinton’s campaign. She is now running out of big-name supporters as well as money. She must dip into her own personal fortune if she wants to continue on the campaign trail. She suggested she would join forces with Obama if she lost the race. “We will stand together and…go on to the White House,” she said. LANGUAGE WORK
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