Breaking News English

        

1. ANGER: Walk around the class and talk to other students about anger. Change partners often. Share your findings with your first partner.

2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words from the article are most interesting and which are most boring.

study / teenagers / disorder / sufferers / lose control / on impulse / violent / scream / published / document (verb) / effective treatment / gets in the way / chronic / cracks

Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently.

3. ANGRY: How do these people / things make you angry? Complete this table and share what you wrote. Change and share again.

Who/What	Why?	How angry?	What do you do?
Best friend
Family
Government
Another country
Yourself
Computers

4. MENTAL DISORDER: Students A strongly believe all mental disorders will disappear one day; Students B strongly believe the opposite, that they will grow in number and become more serious.  Change partners again and talk about your conversations.

5. CALM DOWN: What's the best way to calm down if you are angry? Rank these and share your rankings with your partner. Put the best at the top. Change partners often and share your rankings.

listen to music talk to someone sleep go for a walk

scream and shout exercise watch a movie other _____________________

6. RAGE: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word 'rage'. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

1. TRUE / FALSE: Read the headline. Guess if  a-h  below are true (T) or false (F).

a.	A study said 10,000 U.S. teenagers are extremely angry.	T / F
b.	A research team interviewed more than 10,000 American teenagers.	T / F
c.	The researchers said six million teenagers worldwide suffer from IED.	T / F
d.	IED makes people scream, shout or be violent over the smallest things.	T / F
e.	The IED study mentioned in the article is the biggest of its kind.	T / F
f.	A researcher said IED is not treatable.	T / F
g.	A doctor said the problem of IED was bigger than he thought.	T / F
h.	The doctor believes IED is given lots of attention as a medical problem.	T / F

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article.

1.	disorder	a.	incurable
2.	intermittent	b.	hostile
3.	youths	c.	household
4.	aggressive	d.	extensive
5.	domestic	e.	random
6.	large-scale	f.	see
7.	potential	g.	illness
8.	detect	h.	acceptance
9.	chronic	i.	young people
10.	recognition	j.	possible

3. PHRASE MATCH:  (Sometimes more than one choice is possible.)

1.	a disorder that leads to fits	a.	mental disorder
2.	suffered from a	b.	document the extent of IED
3.	suddenly lose	c.	violence
4.	become extremely	d.	cracks
5.	responsible for a lot of domestic	e.	lot of people have it
6.	the first large-scale research to	f.	aggressive
7.	detect IED early and intervene	g.	of uncontrollable rage
8.	it really gets	h.	with effective treatment
9.	an awful	i.	control
10.	fall through the	j.	in the way

 

WHILE READING / LISTENING

GAP FILL: Put the words into the gaps in the text.

A new study (1) ____________ that a high number of American teenagers suffer from a disorder that leads to (2) ____________ of uncontrollable rage. Researchers from the Harvard Medical School conducted a survey and interviewed over 10,000 teens aged 13 to 17. They discovered that eight per cent of them (3) ____________ from a mental disorder called intermittent explosive disorder (IED). The team says that (4) ____________ on its results, up to six million (5) ____________ in the U.S. could be suffering from this illness. IED leads sufferers to suddenly lose control of even the smallest, non-threatening situations. They can fly into a fit of rage (6) ____________ impulse and become extremely aggressive. Sufferers break or smash things, scream and shout, become (7) ____________ and can attack others. The scientists say it is (8) ____________ for a lot of domestic violence and problems at school.		suffered responsible suggests on youths fits violent based
The study is published in the (9) ____________ of Archives of General Psychiatry. It is the first large-(10) ____________ research to document the extent of IED in the USA. Lead researcher doctor Ronald Kessler described the (11) ____________ importance of his research, saying: "If we can detect IED early and intervene with effective treatment right away, we can prevent a substantial (12) ____________ of future violence." He added: "It's a problem because it really gets in the (13) ____________ of your life. There are lots of things people don't get treatment for because it doesn't really impact them. This does. The problem is an (14) ____________ lot of people have it — more than I thought — it's awfully chronic, and it's impairing." Dr Kessler believes it is important this problem is (15) ____________ more recognition. "Social disorders can fall through the (16) ____________, and this is one of them," he said.		way potential cracks given journal amount scale awful

LISTENING – Listen and fill in the gaps

A (1) ______________________ that a high number of American teenagers suffer from a disorder (2) ______________________ of uncontrollable rage. Researchers from the Harvard Medical School conducted a survey and interviewed over 10,000 teens aged 13 to 17. They discovered that eight per cent (3) ______________________ from a mental disorder called intermittent explosive disorder (IED). The team says that based on its results, up to six million youths in the U.S. (4) ______________________ from this illness. IED leads sufferers to suddenly lose control of even the smallest, non-threatening situations. They (5) ______________________ of rage on impulse and become extremely aggressive. Sufferers break or smash things, scream and shout, become violent and can attack others. The scientists say it is responsible for a (6) ______________________ and problems at school.

The study is published in the journal of Archives of General Psychiatry. It is the (7) ______________________ to document the extent of IED in the USA. Lead researcher doctor Ronald Kessler described the                                 (8) ______________________ of his research, saying: "If we can detect IED early and intervene (9) ______________________ right away, we can prevent a substantial amount of future violence." He added: "It's a problem because it really (10) ______________________ your life. There are lots of things people don't get treatment for because it doesn't really impact them. This does. The problem (11) ______________________ people have it — more than I thought — it's awfully chronic, and it's impairing." Dr Kessler believes it is important this problem is given more recognition. "Social disorders can fall (12) ______________________, and this is one of them," he said.

 
 

AFTER READING / LISTENING

1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionary / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words 'fly' and 'fit'.

fly

fit

• Share your findings with your partners.

• Make questions using the words you found.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.

• Share your questions with other classmates / groups.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

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:

suggests 10,000 8 based impulse problems

large detect prevent way awful fall

ANGER SURVEY

Write five GOOD questions about anger 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.

	STUDENT 1 _____________	STUDENT 2 _____________	STUDENT 3 _____________
Q.1.
Q.2.
Q.3.
Q.4.
Q.5.

• Now return to your original partner and share and talk about what you found out. Change partners often.

• Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

 
 

ANGER DISCUSSION

STUDENT A's QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

a)	What did you think when you read the headline?
b)	What springs to mind when you hear the word 'anger'?
c)	What do you think of intermittent explosive disorder?
d)	When was the last time you exploded?
e)	What makes you angry?
f)	Are you good at controlling your anger?
g)	Do you think people are becoming angrier?
h)	What do you think of people who get very angry very quickly?
i)	Are you surprised that 8% of teenagers suffer from IED?
j)	How often do you shout or raise your voice?

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STUDENT B's QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

a)	Did you like reading this article?
b)	Is your country an angry one?
c)	How do you treat someone who gets angry all the time?
d)	How do you deal with someone who is angry at you?
e)	When was the last time you saw someone angry in public?
f)	Could this research make society a calmer place?
g)	Are we angry from birth or do we learn to become angry?
h)	Is there anything positive about anger?
i)	Is there a time you got angry and really regretted it later?
j)	What questions would you like to ask IED researcher Ronald Kessler?

LANGUAGE – MULTIPLE CHOICE

A new study suggests that a (1) ____ number of American teenagers suffer from a disorder that leads to (2) ____ of uncontrollable rage. Researchers from the Harvard Medical School conducted a survey and interviewed over 10,000 teens aged 13 to 17. They discovered that eight per cent of them suffered from a (3) ____ disorder called intermittent explosive disorder (IED). The team says that (4) ____ on its results, up to six million youths in the U.S. could be suffering from this illness. IED leads sufferers to suddenly (5) ____ control of even the smallest, non-threatening situations. They can fly into a fit of rage on impulse and become extremely aggressive. Sufferers break or smash things, scream and shout, become violent and can attack others. The scientists say it is responsible for a lot of (6) ____ violence and problems at school.

The study is published in the journal of Archives of General Psychiatry. It is the first large-(7) ____ research to document the extent of IED in the USA. Lead researcher doctor Ronald Kessler described the (8) ____ importance of his research, saying: "If we can detect IED early and intervene with effective treatment right away, we can prevent a (9) ____ amount of future violence." He added: "It's a problem because it really     (10) ____ in the way of your life. There are lots of things people don't get treatment for because it doesn't really impact them. This does. The problem is an awful lot of people have it — more than I thought — it's (11) ____ chronic, and it's impairing." Dr Kessler believes it is important this problem is given more recognition. "Social disorders can fall through the (12) ____, and this is one of them," he said.

Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.

1.	(a)	height	(b)	heighten	(c)	high	(d)	highest
2.	(a)	bits	(b)	fits	(c)	wits	(d)	hits
3.	(a)	mental	(b)	mentally	(c)	mentality	(d)	mentalities
4.	(a)	urged	(b)	pegged	(c)	filtered	(d)	based
5.	(a)	forget	(b)	waste	(c)	lose	(d)	throw
6.	(a)	tame	(b)	homely	(c)	domestic	(d)	native
7.	(a)	pale	(b)	scale	(c)	impale	(d)	descale
8.	(a)	potential	(b)	impotent	(c)	important	(d)	portable
9.	(a)	substance	(b)	substantial	(c)	substandard	(d)	subsiding
10.	(a)	gets	(b)	lets	(c)	bets	(d)	nets
11.	(a)	lousily	(b)	horrible	(c)	nasty	(d)	awfully
12.	(a)	papers	(b)	sky	(c)	volcano	(d)	cracks

 
 

WRITING

Write about anger for 10 minutes. Correct your partner's paper.

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HOMEWORK

1. 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 IED. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.

3. ANGER: Make a poster about anger. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things?

4. IED: Write a magazine article about Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED). Include imaginary interviews with people who are for and against it.

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 an expert on anger. Ask him/her three questions about anger. Give him/her three of your ideas on how to keep it under control. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions.

 

 
 

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a.

F

b.

T

c.

F

d.

T

e.

T

f.

F

g.

T

h.

F

SYNONYM MATCH:

1.	disorder	a.	illness
2.	intermittent	b.	random
3.	youths	c.	young people
4.	aggressive	d.	hostile
5.	domestic	e.	household
6.	large-scale	f.	extensive
7.	potential	g.	possible
8.	detect	h.	see
9.	chronic	i.	incurable
10.	recognition	j.	acceptance

PHRASE MATCH:

1.	a disorder that leads to fits	a.	of uncontrollable rage
2.	suffered from a	b.	mental disorder
3.	suddenly lose	c.	control
4.	become extremely	d.	aggressive
5.	responsible for a lot of domestic	e.	violence
6.	the first large-scale research to	f.	document the extent of IED
7.	detect IED early and intervene	g.	with effective treatment
8.	it really gets	h.	in the way
9.	an awful	i.	lot of people have it
10.	fall through the	j.	cracks

GAP FILL:

Anger disorder high among U.S. teens

A new study (1) suggests that a high number of American teenagers suffer from a disorder that leads to (2) fits of uncontrollable rage. Researchers from the Harvard Medical School conducted a survey and interviewed over 10,000 teens aged 13 to 17. They discovered that eight per cent of them (3) suffered from a mental disorder called intermittent explosive disorder (IED). The team says that (4) based on its results, up to six million (5) youths in the U.S. could be suffering from this illness. IED leads sufferers to suddenly lose control of even the smallest, non-threatening situations. They can fly into a fit of rage (6) on impulse and become extremely aggressive. Sufferers break or smash things, scream and shout, become (7) violent and can attack others. The scientists say it is (8) responsible for a lot of domestic violence and problems at school.

The study is published in the (9) journal of Archives of General Psychiatry. It is the first large-(10) scale research to document the extent of IED in the USA. Lead researcher doctor Ronald Kessler described the (11) potential importance of his research, saying: "If we can detect IED early and intervene with effective treatment right away, we can prevent a substantial (12) amount of future violence." He added: "It's a problem because it really gets in the (13) way of your life. There are lots of things people don't get treatment for because it doesn't really impact them. This does. The problem is an (14) awful lot of people have it — more than I thought — it's awfully chronic, and it's impairing." Dr Kessler believes it is important this problem is (15) given more recognition. "Social disorders can fall through the (16) cracks, and this is one of them," he said.

LANGUAGE WORK

1 - c

2 - b

3 - a

4 - d

5 - c

6 - c

7 - b

8 - a

9 - b

10 - a

11 - d

12 - d

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