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South Africans Support Caster SemenyaThe new women’s 800 metres world champion has received an enthusiastic welcome in her native South Africa. Eighteen-year-old Caster Semenya was greeted by thousands of cheering fans and well-wishers at Johannesburg airport. She hit the headlines last week after officials at the World Athletics Championships questioned her gender. She finished the race a massive 2.45 seconds ahead of the runner-up and defending champion. The BBC reports that athletics authorities tested Ms Semenya hours before the final. The results showed testosterone levels three times higher than those that are usual in females. Officials decided to test her because her personal best time improved by seven seconds in the month before the race.
South Africans are furious at the way the athletics body has treated Ms Semenya. President Jacob Zuma personally welcomed her at the airport. He publicly congratulated her and spoke of his “displeasure” at the International Amateur Athletics Federation for “publicly humiliating” her. Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife Winnie told a press conference: "We are here to tell the whole world how proud we are of our little girl." There is now a Facebook group called In Support of Caster Semenya and African Women. It started "to show support for the running sensation who has received unfair treatment". The president of Athletics South Africa said Caster’s gender was a non-issue, saying: “It's very simple: She's a girl.”
WARM-UPS1. ATHLETICS: Walk around the class and talk to other students about athletics. Change partners often. Sit with your first 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. PERSONAL BESTS: What are yours? Complete this table. Share what you wrote with your partner(s). Change partners and share again.
4. GENDER: Students A strongly believe it is terrible that the IAAF questioned Caster Semenya’s gender; Students B strongly believe the IAAF should test anyone they want for anything they want. Change partners again and talk about your conversations. 5. WORLD CHAMPIONS: Would you like to be one? Rate these and share your ratings with your partner: 10 = would love to be; 1 = zero interest. Change partners and share your ratings again.
6. RACE: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘race’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories. BEFORE READING / LISTENING1. TRUE / FALSE: Read the headline. Guess if a-h below are true (T) or false (F).
2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article.
3. PHRASE MATCH: (Sometimes more than one choice is possible.)
WHILE READING / LISTENINGGAP FILL: Put the words into the gaps in the text.
LISTENING Listen and fill in the gapsThe new women’s 800 metres world champion has received _______________________ in her native South Africa. Eighteen-year-old Caster Semenya was greeted by _______________________ fans and well-wishers at Johannesburg airport. She hit the headlines last week after officials at the World Athletics Championships _______________________. She finished _______________________ 2.45 seconds ahead of the runner-up and defending champion. The BBC reports that athletics authorities tested Ms Semenya _______________________. The results showed testosterone levels three times higher than those that are usual in females. Officials decided to test her because her personal best _______________________ seven seconds in the month before the race. South Africans are _______________________ the athletics body has treated Ms Semenya. President Jacob Zuma personally welcomed her at the airport. He _______________________ her and spoke of his “displeasure” at the International Amateur Athletics Federation for “_______________________” her. Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife Winnie told a press conference: "We are here to tell the whole world _______________________ our little girl." There is now a Facebook group called In Support of Caster Semenya and African Women. It started "to show support _______________________ who has received unfair treatment". The president of Athletics South Africa said Caster’s _______________________, saying: “It's very simple: She's a girl.” AFTER READING / LISTENING1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionary / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘non’ and ‘issue’.
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 CASTER SEMENYA SURVEYWrite five GOOD questions about Caster Semenya 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.
CASTER SEMENYA DISCUSSIONSTUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)
LANGUAGE MULTIPLE CHOICEThe new women’s 800 metres (1) ____ champion has received an enthusiastic welcome in her native South Africa. Eighteen-year-old Caster Semenya was greeted (2) ____ thousands of cheering fans and well-(3) ____ at Johannesburg airport. She hit the headlines last week after officials at the World Athletics Championships (4) ____ her gender. She finished the race a massive 2.45 seconds ahead of the runner-up and defending champion. The BBC reports that athletics authorities tested Ms Semenya hours (5) ____ the final. The results showed testosterone levels three times higher than those that are usual in females. Officials decided to test her because her personal (6) ____ time improved by seven seconds in the month before the race. South Africans are (7) ____ at the way the athletics body has treated Ms Semenya. President Jacob Zuma personally welcomed her at the airport. He publicly congratulated her and (8) ____ of his “displeasure” at the International Amateur Athletics Federation for “publicly humiliating” her. Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife Winnie told a press conference: "We are here to tell the whole world how (9) ____ we are of our little girl." There is now a Facebook group called In Support of Caster Semenya and African Women. It started "to (10) ____ support for the running sensation who has received unfair treatment". The president of Athletics South Africa said Caster’s gender was a (11) ____ -issue, saying: “It's very (12) ____: She's a girl.” Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.
WRITINGWrite about Caster Semenya 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 more about Caster Semenya. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson. 3. WORLD CHAMPIONS: Make a poster about different world champions. Explain why you chose to put them on your poster. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things? 4. GENDER: Write a magazine article about Caster Semenya. Include imaginary interviews with her and an IAAF official. 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 Caster Semenya. Ask her three questions about running. Give her three pieces of advice about what to do from now. 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: South Africans support Caster SemenyaThe new women’s 800 metres world champion has received an enthusiastic welcome in her native South Africa. Eighteen-year-old Caster Semenya was greeted by thousands of cheering fans and well-wishers at Johannesburg airport. She hit the headlines last week after officials at the World Athletics Championships questioned her gender. She finished the race a massive 2.45 seconds ahead of the runner-up and defending champion. The BBC reports that athletics authorities tested Ms Semenya hours before the final. The results showed testosterone levels three times higher than those that are usual in females. Officials decided to test her because her personal best time improved by seven seconds in the month before the race. South Africans are furious at the way the athletics body has treated Ms Semenya. President Jacob Zuma personally welcomed her at the airport. He publicly congratulated her and spoke of his “displeasure” at the International Amateur Athletics Federation for “publicly humiliating” her. Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife Winnie told a press conference: "We are here to tell the whole world how proud we are of our little girl." There is now a Facebook group called In Support of Caster Semenya and African Women. It started "to show support for the running sensation who has received unfair treatment". The president of Athletics South Africa said Caster’s gender was a non-issue, saying: “It's very simple: She's a girl.” LANGUAGE WORK
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