Rat Diseases on the Rise

Transcription

1 english-to-go.com Rats Rats Rats Pre-Reading Activities A: Discussion Work together in small groups and discuss the questions below. 1. What is the name of these animals? 2. Do you like them? Why or why not? 3. What problems do they cause? 4. How do people remove these animals from their homes from offices and shops? 5. What is a pest control inspector? What do they do? Reading Activities Pre-Intermediate Instant Lesson A: Listening And Understanding Your teacher will read you an article about rats in New York. Listen and fill the gaps in Article One with the words you hear. New York may never win its war on rats New York, Mon March 5, (Reuters) - Video of rats scampering across a New York City restaurant floor may have worried television viewers worldwide but some experts say the 1. are less dangerous than other creatures drawn to restaurants - people. The video showed rats running wild at a 2. /Taco Bell restaurant just one day after the 3. had passed a city Health Department inspection... The owner of the KFC/Taco Bell franchise, ADF Companies, has closed 10 of its restaurants until they pass inspections... The Health Department warned that greater threats to public health include restaurant workers who fail to wash their 4. or food stored at improper temperatures. Philip Alcabes, a professor at New 5. Hunter College School of Health Sciences agrees. Rat Diseases on the Rise "I would worry much more about poor hygiene on the part of [workers] of a restaurant than mice or 6. living in the basement," he said. "If you were to ask me would 7. eat in a restaurant where there were rats, I would say I probably already do." Still, the incident reinforces New York's reputation of having a more severe rat problem than other big New York's crowded quarters force restaurants to store trash indoors until it can be collected, providing rats with an indoor food source. "I once opened up a 9. in a restaurant and a rat ran between my feet," a spokesman from the New York Pest Management Association said. "The guy warned me that you have to knock on the door first to scatter them away. I couldn't solve the 10. because it was structural." ARTICLE 2007 REUTERS LIMITED. LESSON Glossary: hygiene - keeping yourself and where you live and work clean, trash - garbage, rubbish, things you do not want and so throw away structural - something to do with a building or how something is built B: Vocabulary 1. Read Article Two quickly and look at the words shown in Italics. Say what you think the words mean. CANBERRA Mon Feb 10 (Reuters) - With nearly four million rats born every day experts warned on Monday that the rodents could spread more disease through towns and cities in developing nations. Researchers from 39 countries at a conference in Australia said rats were already known to carry nearly 70 diseases, but there were fears they could carry far more. "It is more likely than ever we will have greater levels of debilitating diseases caused by rats... with the increased density of human populations, "Dr Lyn Hinds, of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, told Reuters. Although rats have been a problem for city-dwellers and farmers for centuries, researchers have not yet found an efficient way to stop them spreading disease or ruining crops. Ten rats are born for every human million a day -- although many don't live for longer than a few months. ARTICLE 2003 REUTERS LIMITED. LESSON Glossary: debilitating - making a person's body very weak density - people or things crowded together in large numbers in the same area ARTICLE 2003, 2007 REUTERS LIMITED. LESSON

2 2. Now work in pairs and choose one of the two lists, A or B. Check the meanings of the words in your list in your dictionary. Think about how you can explain these words in English. Then share the meanings of the words in your list with your partner. List A: warn, cause, ruin List B: conference, crop, for centuries C: Main Idea Read Article Two again. Which sentence below gives the main idea of Article Two? 1. Researchers have not found an efficient way to stop rats spreading disease. 2. Researchers from 39 countries were at a conference in Australia. 3. Nearly four million rats are born every day and experts warn that they could spread more disease. D: True or False Read these statements and decide whether they are True T or False F. 1. Rats are a problem in some New York restaurants. 2. New Yorkers should perhaps worry more about rats in restaurants than workers with dirty hands million rats are born every day. 4. Rats can spread many diseases. 5. Many rats die when they are three or four months old. 6. Rats have been a problem for about a hundred years. E: Reading Carefully Answer these questions about Article Two. Use the article and your own ideas to answer them. 1. Where could rats spread more diseases? 2. "It is more likely than ever we will have greater levels of debilitating diseases caused by rats...with the increased density of human populations." Hinds believes there will be more diseases spread by rats in the future. Why? 3. What do you think the researchers at the conference were hoping to do? ARTICLE 2003, 2007 REUTERS LIMITED. LESSON

3 Post-Reading Activities You may do one or more of these. A: Language In Article Two there were these words: Although rats have been a problem for city-dwellers and farmers for centuries, researchers have not yet found an efficient way to stop them spreading disease or ruining crops. We use although to show something is unexpected. When something is expected, we use because. Researchers met in Australia to talk about rats spreading disease because it is such a serious problem. Complete the sentences below using either although or because. For example, 1. Because Kate is a good runner, she won the race. 2. Although Kate is a good runner, she didn't win the race. 3. we didn't have any money, we didn't go to the restaurant. 4. we didn't have any money, we went to the restaurant. 5. it was cold and raining, we didn't go for a walk. 6. it was cold and raining, we went for a walk. 7. I had been very nice to Andrew, he was horrible to me. 8. I had been very nice to Andrew, he was nice to me. B: Shouting Dictation Your teacher is going to divide the class into two groups, A and B, and give you a worksheet. You will work in pairs with someone from the other group. Group A students read out part of Article Two to their partners. Group B students listen and write the information down. Then swap roles. When you have both finished, work together and compare your work with the original article and correct any mistakes. C: Pair Crossword Your teacher is going to divide the class into two groups and give you half of a crossword. You are going to explain these words in English to a partner from the other group. Think about how to explain the words on your crossword. Now find a partner from the other group. One of you is Student A, the other is Student B. Work together and fill in the crossword. Ask and answer questions with your partner. Do not show the other person your words! ARTICLE 2003, 2007 REUTERS LIMITED. LESSON

4 TEACHERS' NOTES AND ANSWER KEY Please Note: This lesson also has a listening dictation exercise for your students to do online at You can get a username and password for your students by clicking on the blue icon next to this lesson description at Pre-Reading Activities A: Discussion - Notes You may like to do this as a lead-in class activity. Check that students know what a pest inspector is, but don't give much other information away in response to the questions as students will learn a lot about rats during the lesson. Reading Activities A: Listening And Understanding - Notes You may like to ask students to read the article through before you read it aloud. You could ask them to talk a little about what they think the main idea of the article is and predict what the missing words might be. Read the text two or three times at a normal pace. A: Listening And Understanding - Text To Be Read Aloud To Students New York may never win its war on rats Video of rats scampering across a New York City restaurant floor may have worried viewers worldwide but some experts say the rats are less dangerous than other creatures drawn to restaurants -- humans. The video broadcast on television a week ago showed rats running wild at a KFC/Taco Bell restaurant just one day after the restaurant had passed a city Health Department inspection... The owner of the KFC/Taco Bell franchise, ADF Companies, has closed 10 of its restaurants until they pass inspections... The Health Department warned that greater threats to public health include restaurant workers who fail to wash their hands or food stored at improper temperatures. Philip Alcabes, a professor at New York Hunter College School of Health Sciences agrees. "I would worry much more about poor hygiene on the part of workers at a restaurant than mice or rats living in the basement," he said. "If you were to ask me would I eat in a restaurant where there were rats, I would say I probably already do." Still, the incident reinforces New York's reputation of having a more severe rat problem than other big cities... New York's crowded quarters force restaurants to store trash indoors until it can be collected, providing rats with an indoor food source. "I once opened up a door in a restaurant and a rat ran between my feet," a spokesman from the New York Pest Management Association said. "The guy warned me that you have to knock on the door first to scatter them away. I couldn't solve the problem because it was structural." A: Listening And Understanding - Answers 1. rats, 2. KFC, 3. restaurant, 4. hands, 5. New York's,6. rats, 7. I, 8. cities, 9. door, 10. problem. B: Vocabulary - Notes 2. Often at lower levels, vocabulary causes a lot of stress to the students. This part of the activity allows the students to explore the new words more collaboratively. They can find them in the article and look at them in the context of this as they check them in their dictionaries. (The answers below are for your reference although you may give them to students if you wish.) B: Vocabulary - Answers 2. List A: warn - tell somebody that something bad may happen. cause - be the reason why something happens. ruin - damage something badly so that it is no longer useful or good. List B:conference - a time when lots of people meet together to talk about a problem or thing. crop - plants of one kind grown in large amounts for food. for centuries - for hundreds of years, (a century is a period of a hundred years). C: Main Idea - Answers The best answer is: 3. (1. and 2. are both true but 3. sums up the main idea of the article: rat numbers are enormous and there is a risk that rats could spread even more diseases in the future.) D: True or False - Answers 1. T, 2. F (it's the opposite: they should worry more about restaurant workers), 3. T, 4. T, 5. T, 6. F, (for centuries i.e. hundreds of years). E: Reading Carefully - Notes This is a fairly demanding activity, requiring students to use their own knowledge as well as their understanding of the article to answer the questions. You may prefer to have a class discussion on the questions. E: Reading Carefully - Suggested Answers 1. In the towns and cities of developing nations. 2. Because of the increased density of human populations--with more people living together in crowded conditions. 3. Share information and ideas about rats and perhaps try to think of ways to solve the disease problem or at least think of ways in which they can research it more effectively. Post Reading Activities A: Language - Answers 3. because, 4. although, 5. because, 6. although, 7. although, 8. because. B: Shouting Dictation - Notes Each pair of students will need a piece of paper and a pen. Divide the class into two groups, A and B. Arrange the desks so they form two lines with a distance between them (the further apart the desks, the harder the activity is). Ask the students to sit down at the desks, Group A students sit in one line with their partners from Group B sitting opposite them. Give Group A students the dictation text below, Group B students have the paper and pen. (You can give the Group B students their copy of the dictation text below at the same time, but tell them not to use it until their partners have finished dictating.) Group A students dictate the first part of Article Two to their partners. Group B students listen and write what they hear. They then swap roles. You may need to remind the students that they will need to say 'capital letter', 'comma' etc. to their partners. The student who is listening and writing can ask for clarification or for something to be repeated. Once they have finished, ask the students to sit with their partners and compare their dictation with the article, correcting any mistakes. This can be a very noisy activity so check or warn teachers in nearby rooms, if appropriate. This activity can be frustrating for the students as it requires a high level of accuracy in a number of areas. Point out at the start or end of the activity that this develops selective and accurate listening skills, encourages clear pronunciation, helps with spelling and error correction skills. B: Shouting Dictation - Worksheets To Be Copied And Given To Students on the folllowing page. C: Pair Crossword - Worksheets To Be Copied And Given To Students on the folllowing page C: Pair Crossword - Notes This is an information exchange activity. One student has the answers the other student needs. It's up to the student seeking the answers to work out what the missing words are by asking questions and listening to their partner's definitions. Have one student fill in their crossword first and then have the students switch roles. Remind students that the words are from Article Two. ARTICLE 2007 REUTERS LIMITED. LESSON

5 B: Shouting Dictation - Worksheets To Be Copied And Given To Students And Answers Group A With nearly four million rats born every day experts warned on Monday that the rodents could spread more disease through towns and cities in developing nations. Researchers from 39 countries at a conference in Australia said rats were already known to carry nearly 70 diseases, but there were fears they could carry far more. Group B Although rats have been a problem for city-dwellers and farmers for centuries, researchers have not yet found an efficient way to stop them spreading disease or ruining crops. Ten rats are born for every human million a day -- although many don't live for longer than a few months. Student A Student B 2007 English To Go Ltd. All rights reserved. News article 2007 Reuters, used with permission. Not to be reproduced or stored in any way without the permission of English To Go Ltd. English To Go and Instant Lessons are the registered trade marks of English To Go Ltd. editor@english-to-go.com hltj ARTICLE 2007 REUTERS LIMITED. LESSON