Do you have traffic jams in your town or city? What are the best ways to avoid such jams in the future?
NEWS LESSONS / Car boom leaves Caracas in one big jam / Intermediate
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KEY
1 Key words
1. stationary
2. shoot-out
3. disruption
4. shanty town
5. road rage
6. potholed
7. neglect
8. irritable
9. commuter
10. tense
2 What do you think?
1; 4; 5
3 Comprehension check
1. F
2. T
3. T
4. T
5. F
6. F
7. F
8. T
4 Vocabulary: Opposites
1. reduce
2. dramatically
3. rapid
4. huge
5. worse
6. heavy
7. a lack of
8. narrow
5 Vocabulary: Find the word or expression
1. side-street
2. jammed / paralysed
3. in broad daylight
4. double
5. skyscraper
6. detour
7. barrio
8. congestion charging
6 Vocabulary: Word building
1. advice
2. warning
3. criticism
4. reduction
5. robbery
6. disruption
7. attack
8. appearance
Car boom leaves Caracas in one big jam
Level 2
Intermediate
NEWS LESSONS / Christmas is coming / Intermediate
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Christmas is coming - all the way from China
Level 2
l
Intermediate
1
Key words
Fill the gaps using the key words from the text.
cargo goods cracker capital maiden
decorations exploitation wrapping paper implications
1 A
is a decorated paper tube that makes a noise when you pull it apart. It contains a small
toy, a paper hat and a joke inside. It’s used traditionally at Christmas in the UK.
2 In countries which celebrate Christmas, people often put
up in their house.
3
is special paper used for wrapping presents.
4
are objects produced for sale.
5
is money or property that you use to start a business or invest.
6
is unfair treatment of someone in order to get benefit for yourself.
7
are possible effects or results
8
are things that are sent by ship, airplane or truck.
9 A
voyage or flight is one that is done for the first time.
2
Find the information
Look in the text and find this information as quickly as possible.
1 What is the Emma Maersk 3?
2 Where is it from?
3 Where is it going?
4 What is on the Emma Maersk 3?
5 Are people happy about this?
Christmas is coming - all the way from China
by John Vidal
Christmas is coming this year on board the biggest ship afloat, on its maiden voyage from China. To the
relief of children, parents and shopkeepers everywhere - but to the despair of European manufacturers
- mountains of crackers, toys and games as well as decorations, wrapping paper, food and every imaginable
gift are on the way to Felixstowe, Suffolk, aboard the Emma Maersk 3.
If anything should happen to this 400m-long, 61 metre-high boat, that is as wide as a motorway and is
powered by the largest diesel engine ever built, then Christmas might have to be cancelled. The 3,000
containers of goods that it will drop off in Britain on its way to mainland Europe contain the largest amount
of Christmas goods ever delivered - a floating world of British desires and necessities. Crackers, poker
tables, bingo sets, drum kits, electronic toys and pre-school building blocks will be delivered in astonishing
quantities: 1,886,000 Christmas decorations are loaded in one container, 40,000 rechargeable batteries and
22,280kg of Vietnam tea in another. In another are 12,800 MP3 players.
NEWS LESSONS / Christmas is coming / Intermediate
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There are potato mashers and spoons to cook with, leather sofas to recline on, new spectacles to watch
new televisions by, and pyjamas to go to bed in. Pets will be especially happy; 138,000 tins of catfood are on
their way, as are mountains of dogfood. But the ship and its cargo was the subject of an intense row over the
increasing number of imports from China. Caroline Lucas, Green Member of European Parliament (MEP) for
southeast England, said it was a “microcosm of globalisation gone mad”. “All these goods could have been
made in Europe,” said Ms Lucas “Whole sectors of global trade are now being dominated by China. The real
cost of the goods that the Emma Maersk is bringing in should include the environment, the markets destroyed
in developing countries and the millions of jobs lost.” Britain exported more than GBP 2.8bn of goods to China
last year but imported nearly GBP 16bn, a 30-fold increase on 1980. The UK is Europe’s third-biggest trading
partner with China but in global terms represents less than 2% of China’s trade.
The Emma Maersk is carrying about 11,000 containers and is by far the largest container ship ever built.
Yentian port, from which it set off last month, now exports nearly three times that many containers every day.
Last year Ms Lucas led an EU study into trade with China and found its implications terrifying. “These are
the goods that Europe used to make. We are faced with a country that has an almost absolute advantage
in an increasing number of sectors. This a triumph for multinational capital, not for Chinese workers who, as
well as suffering from some of the worst labour exploitation on record, are also losing jobs at a phenomenal
rate,” she said.
The Emma Maersk, the first of a fleet of seven equally large container ships, will soon be on its way back
to China taking back the waste of Christmas. One of Britain’s biggest exports to China is now waste plastic
- which is turned back into soft toys and decorations.
GBP: Great Britain Pounds
bn: billion
© Guardian News & Media Ltd 2006
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