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Pre-Intermediate Instant Lesson™

A Bomb Dog

Pre-Reading Activities

A: Guessing Game

Play this game with the rest of your class:

One student sits on a chair facing you and the other students, with their back to the board. The teacher shows the student a word or words. The other students can't see the word.

All of your class should ask the student questions to guess the word. The student can only answer "yes" or "no". (There may be one or two words.) You should try and guess the word in less than 20 questions if possible.

The student who guesses the word is the next student to answer the questions.

The words you are guessing are from today's articles.

 

B: Create a Story

Write down the words from Pre-Reading Activity A in a list on your paper. Work with a partner to make a one paragraph news article using all the words on your list. Be ready to share your paragraph with your class.

 

Reading Acitivities

Worksheet for Student A

A: Finding the Main Ideas

News articles often contain the most important information in the first two paragraphs. This information usually answers the questions:

1. Work in pairs. Read Text A (while your partner reads Text B). Then answer the questions above with information from your text. Do not use a dictionary, but try to guess the meaning of any unknown words. (You are reading the first paragraph of one of today's two articles.)

Text A:

SYDNEY, Australia Tuesday January 2 (Reuters) - A police dog trained to detect bombs has run away after apparently being scared off by New Year fireworks, Australian police said Tuesday.

(detect: find, notice)

2. Talk about what you read with your partner.

3. Write headlines for the two texts, using no more than 5 words. Remember that headlines only contain key words.

 

B: Matching Headlines

Work with the same partner.

1. Read the two headlines below. It does not matter if you do not understand every word. Which headline belongs to Text A? Which headline belongs with Text B?

'Explosion-Shy Police Bomb Dog Found'

'Bomb Dog Flees Big Bang'

2. Use a dictionary to look up any new words and try to understand the headlines.

3. Read Article A. Do not use a dictionary.


Article A

SYDNEY, Australia Tuesday January 2 (Reuters) - A police dog trained to detect bombs has run away after apparently being scared off by New Year fireworks, Australian police said Tuesday.

Jed, a five-year-old Golden Labrador, broke out of his police yard home in Sydney's southwest minutes after the city's multi-million dollar New Year fireworks extravaganza began at midnight Sunday.

``Jed was obviously very frightened by the fireworks and smashed his way through the backyard fence to escape,'' police spokesman sergeant Paul Jarrett said in a statement.

``He hasn't come home and searches in the local area have not located him,'' he said.

Jarrett said the highly-trained Jed had been a police dog for four years and was worth about $5,500.

Jed had been part of the security team assembled for the Sydney Olympics in September, which passed without any major security incidents.

``They are trained to find explosives, but they do not all like the sound of them,'' Jarrett said. 

Article © 2001 Reuters Limited. Lesson © 2001 www.english-to-go.com
Vocabulary:
extravaganza: a big expensive show for people to go and see
smash: break something into pieces
local: of a place near you
assemble: bring together people or things as a group
incident: something that happens
explosives: bombs

 

C: Finding Information

Work with a partner to complete the following:

1. Look at the table below and make sure you understand all the words.

Information about the dog
Answer

Dog's Name

Age

Type of Dog

Where he lives

Value

Length of time he has worked as police dog

Past roles/jobs

What he looked like when he was found

Where he was found

How he was when he was found

 

2. Use your article to find answers to as many of the spaces in the table as you can. Your text will not have all the answers you need, but your partner will have the rest of the information.  Do not use a dictionary.

3. Share your information with your partner. Ask your partner questions to complete any gaps in your table.

4. Read your partner's article and check the information in your table.

 

D: Gap-Filling

Fill in the gaps below with a verb. (Think about the tense of the verb you use and whether the verb is active or passive.)

On Thursday a police bomb dog called Jed ______________ away because he _______________ scared of the fireworks at New Year.

Two days later a petrol station owner _______________ the dog when he _______________ into a petrol station not far from his home. The station owner _______________ the NSW police dog unit immediately. The dog ________________ so happy when his owner ________________ to get him that he nearly _________________ him over.

Jed ____________ , ____________ and checked over. Then he ____________ ready to get back to work.

Jed ____________ part of the Sydney Olympics security team last year.

(End of worksheet for Student A)
Post-Reading Activities
You may do one or more of these.

A: Vocabulary

Work in pairs and complete the following:

1. Find 6 words from today's articles that are new to you. Choose 3 words each.

2. For each of your words:

  1. look at the sentence the word is in and decide what part of speech the word is (e.g. noun, verb etc).
  2. look at the words which go together with the new word and write them down.
  3. check the meaning of the word in your dictionary.
  4. write a new sentence using the word.

3. Now teach your three words to your partner.

 

B: Ask and Answer

Work with a partner to complete the following:

1. You and your partner are both journalists. One of you must write 5 questions to ask the petrol station owner about the dog incident, and the other one must write 5 questions to ask Paul Jarrett from the police unit. 

2. Ask your partner your 5 questions and then answer the questions your partner has written.

 

C: Animal Associations

1. As a class, brainstorm all the characteristics of the dog in today's article.Use your imagination.

E.g. clever, reliable, friendly…

2. Now think of an animal which has characteristics that you would like to have as a person.Make a list of all the characteristics of this animal and why they are important. (Eg. I identify myself with the lion because it is brave, and being brave is very important. )

3. Write a paragraph using this information. You should begin: 

" I identify myself with the … because it…