Fill the gaps in the sentences using these key words from the text. The paragraph numbers are given to help you

   Find the word

4

Find the following words and phrases in the text.

an adjective meaning 

1. 

relating to dogs (para 1)

a reflexive verb meaning 

2. 

to pass bodily waste (para 1)

a noun meaning 

3. 

health and happiness (para 2)

a two-word expression meaning 

4. 

treatment designed to improve behaviour (para 2) 

an adjective meaning 

5. 

different (para 4)

a two-word expression meaning 

6. 

one after the other (para 4)

a verb meaning 

7. 

to write something down so that you will have a record of it (para 5)

a verb meaning 

8. 

to accommodate with new owners (para 7)

   Two-word expressions

5

Match the words in the left-hand column with those in the right-hand column to make two-word phrases 

from the text.

animal 

 

 

 

a.    therapy

1. 

emotional 

 

 

 

b.    owner

2. 

behavioural   

 

 

c.    situation

3. 

food  

 

 

 

d.    welfare

4. 

pet   

 

 

 

e.    bowl

5. 

ambiguous   

 

 

f.     issues

6. 

---

NEWS LESSONS / Dogs are either optimists or pessimists, claim scientists / Intermediate

•PHOT

OCOPIABLE

•

CAN BE DOWNLOADED

FROM 

WEBSITE

© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2010

 

 Dogs are either optimists or pessimists, claim scientists

Level 2    

Intermediate

   Discussion

7

Do you like dogs? Why? Why not?

   Word-building

6

Complete the table.

noun

adjective

1.

anxiety

2.

emotion

3.

ambiguity

4. 

optimism

5.

behaviour

6. 

spite

---

NEWS LESSONS / Dogs are either optimists or pessimists, claim scientists / Intermediate

•PHOT

OCOPIABLE

•

CAN BE DOWNLOADED

FROM 

WEBSITE

© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2010

 

 Dogs are either optimists or pessimists, claim scientists

  

Level 2    

Intermediate

1  Key words

gloomy

1. 

calm

2. 

anxious

3. 

relinquish

4. 

spiteful

5. 

issues

6. 

vet

7. 

breed

8. 

bowl

9. 

ambiguous

10. 

2  Find the information

ten million

1. 

24

2. 

from nine months to nine years old

3. 

20 minutes

4. 

five minutes

5. 

Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty  

6. 

to Animals

3  Comprehension check

F

1. 

T

2. 

T

3. 

F

4. 

F

5. 

T

6. 

4  Find the word

canine

1. 

relieve oneself

2. 

welfare

3. 

behavioural therapy

4. 

various

5. 

in turn

6. 

note

7. 

re-home

8. 

5  Two-word expressions

d

1. 

f

2. 

a

3. 

e

4. 

b

5. 

c

6. 

5  Word-building

noun

adjective

anxiety

emotion

ambiguity

optimism

behaviour

spite

anxious

emotional

ambiguous

optimistic

behavioural

spiteful

KEY

---

 

 

 

 

© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2006 

 

 

Taken from the Magazine

 

section in 

www.onestopenglish.com

 

 

 

 

Fill the gaps using these key words from the text: 

 

bureaucracy 

 hijack 

 disastrous 

nickname 

incompetent 

corrupt  rescue 

plan 

bribe 

 sanctions 

émigré 

 

1. A ____________ is a plan designed to save a company and change its 

fortunes. 

2. An ____________ is a person who leaves their country in order to live 

somewhere else. 

3. A ____________ is money offered to an official to help you by doing 

something illegal or dishonest.  

4. If you ____________ a plane, you take control of it using force. 

5. ____________ are official orders to stop trade with a country that has 

broken international law. 

6. ____________ is a complicated system of rules and processes. 

7. If something is ____________ , it causes a lot of damage or harm. 

8. An ____________ person does not have the ability to do a job correctly. 

9. A ____________ person does dishonest or illegal things to earn money. 

10. A ____________ is an informal name that is not a real name. 

 

 

 

Look in the text and find this information as quickly as possible: 

 

1.  What is the name of Afghanistan’s national airline? 

2.  How many employees does Ariana have? 

3.  How much money does the manager of Ariana earn each month? 

4.  When was Ariana founded? 

5.  When did the US invade Afghanistan? 

6.  How many flights does Ariana now operate each week? 

 

It’s four o'clock in the afternoon and a hundreds of employees are leaving the 

headquarters of Ariana, Afghanistan's national airline. In the boardroom, one 

man stays behind. Dr Muhammad Atash, a man with a kind but worried face, 

sits in his chair and rubs his eyes. Ariana faces a number of "difficulties", he 

explains. "Employees steal from the company. They give jobs to members of 

their family. There’s a lot of bureaucracy. There aren’t many qualified staff and 

a lot of people prefer not to do any work." But then he pauses. "I believe we 

are starting to make progress." 

 

  

---

 

 

 

 

© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2006 

 

 

Taken from the Magazine

 

section in 

www.onestopenglish.com

  

Ariana is different from most other airlines for many reasons, all of them bad. 

Its history is terrible. During Afghanistan's quarter of a century of war, Ariana 

planes were shut down, shot down or hijacked. No-one chooses to fly Ariana 

today. It has a disastrous safety record and this means it cannot fly to most 

European and American airports. It is nicknamed "Scaryana". UN officials and 

foreign diplomats are not allowed to take Ariana flights. And most of the 1,700 

staff are, according to Atash, either extremely incompetent or corrupt.  

 

Is Ariana the world's worst airline? Perhaps not. There are many bad airlines 

in the developing world. "Ariana is no worse than many others," says David 

Learmount at Flight International magazine. "If a country has no safety 

culture, neither does its airline." But Ariana has one advantage over other 

disaster airlines – it has a rescue plan. Atash, a straight-talking Afghan-

American emigre, returned three years ago from the USA where he ran a 

business. He was given the job of manager at Ariana in June.  

 

It is not a glamorous job. Atash is paid just $100 a month and uses his own 

mobile phone. But he has a can-do attitude and plans to get rid of hundreds of 

incompetent staff. It is a difficult task but he is not alone. In comes Hanns 

Marienfeld, the leader of a six-strong team from Lufthansa hired to help with 

the rescue plan. He describes the state of Ariana one year ago: "It was not up 

to international standards," he says. "It had no flight schedule. Customers had 

to pay a bribe to get a ticket, a second bribe to get a boarding pass and 

sometimes a third to get their seat in business class. We flew here or there, 

whenever the pilots felt like it." Initial safety standards were not good. In 2003 

and 2004, Ariana's fleet of six planes suffered six major engine failures. "In 

Germany, our pilots only see that sort of thing in a flight simulator. In Ariana 

we do it in real life," says Marienfeld.  

 

The early years were very different. Ariana was founded in 1955 and quickly 

gained a reputation as a small but proud regional carrier. It flew hippies and 

adventurers from London, Paris and Frankfurt and brought honeymooning 

couples from neighbouring Pakistan. But in 1973, King Zahir Shah was 

overthrown and five years later a civil war began. The visitors vanished and 

Ariana, like the rest of Afghanistan, suffered very badly. 

 

During the 10-year Soviet occupation, when the roads were too dangerous, 

Ariana became the safest way to travel. But the sense of security was relative. 

The mujahideen fighters who were fighting the Soviet forces were armed with 

American anti-aircraft missiles. So Ariana pilots had to learn how to avoid the 

missiles while taking off and landing. Some staff could take no more. On a 

flight to Kandahar in 1989, a fight broke out between the pilot and the co-pilot. 

The pilot wanted to fly the plane to Iran. The co-pilot did not want to go. As 

they fought for the controls, the plane fell out of the sky, crashing into the 

desert near the Iranian border. All six people on board died.  

---

 

 

 

 

© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2006 

 

 

Taken from the Magazine

 

section in 

www.onestopenglish.com

 

After the Soviet departure the airline went from bad to worse. When the 

Taliban took control of Kabul a year later, they brought their 7

th

 century ideas 

to Ariana's 20th-century business. They sent the stewardesses home, banned 

inflight music and gave the job of director to a 26-year-old religious fanatic.  

 

The UN imposed an international flight ban on the airline as part of UN 

sanctions against the Taliban. The company's reputation for disaster got 

bigger as its fleet of ageing aircraft got smaller. The former prime minister 

died in a 1997 crash; two accidents in 1998 killed about 100 people. In 2000, 

a flight from Kabul to Mazar-i-Sharif was hijacked to Stansted airport in the 

UK.  

 

In 2001, the US led an international invasion of Afghanistan. This should have 

saved Ariana but instead it almost destroyed the company. US planes 

bombed the Ariana fleet, destroying six of its eight planes. The Taliban took 

$500,000 in company cash and ran.  

 

Now a process of change has begun. The number of flights has increased 

from 10 to 15 a week. Ariana management says 85% of flights are on time. 

Ariana made a modest $1m profit last year. At Kabul airport the mechanics 

have new tools and new pilots are being trained. The old Kabul office will 

close soon and a modern sales centre, complete with young, enthusiastic staff 

and computerised booking, will open soon. 

 

Meanwhile Atash plans to ask half his 1,700 staff to stay at home but continue 

their pay. "We are building the system with completely new people. We 

cannot mix them with the corrupt old ones," says Atash. Success is not 

guaranteed, however, and there is now a battle for control of the company. 

"We're going to fight all the way," Atash promises. "Because the other option 

is to sit here and do nothing. And that's not an option - either for Ariana or for 

Afghanistan."  

 

 

 

Choose the best answer to each question: 

 

1.  Most of the current staff at Ariana are: 

a. hard-working  

b.  lazy and corrupt 

 

c. new 

 

  

---

 

 

 

 

© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2006 

 

 

Taken from the Magazine

 

section in 

www.onestopenglish.com

2.  The situation at Ariana is: 

a. getting worse 

 

b. getting better 

 

      c. dangerous 

 

3.  Ariana is banned from most European and US airports because of: 

a. its safety record 

 

b. its pilots 

 

 

c. UN sanctions 

 

4.  The flight to Kandahar in 1989 crashed because of: 

a. engine failure 

 

b.  an American missile  

c.  a fight between the pilot and co-pilot 

 

 

 

 

Match the words in the left-hand column with those in the right hand 

column to make phrases from the text: 

 

1. safety    

a. failure 

2. flight    

b. centre 

3. rescue   

c. standard 

4. boarding 

d. plan 

5. engine   

e. schedule 

6. flight 

 

f.  pass 

7. sales   

g. class 

8. business 

h. simulator 

 

 

 

Complete the table: 

 

 Adjective 

Noun 

1. safe 

  ___________ 

2. disastrous 

___________ 

3.  

different 

___________ 

4. corrupt  ___________ 

5.  

incompetent  ___________ 

6. proud 

  ___________ 

7. enthusiastic 

___________ 

8. successful 

___________ 

  

---

 

 

 

 

© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2006 

 

 

Taken from the Magazine

 

section in 

www.onestopenglish.com

 

 

 

Fill the gaps using an appropriate preposition. Check your answers in 

the text. 

 

1. different _______ 

2. advantage _______ 

3.  get rid _______ 

4.  fall _______ the sky 

5.  _______ bad _______ worse 

6.  a process _______ change 

7.  increase _______ 10 _______ 15 

8.  85% of flights are _______ time 

 

 

 

Would you travel with this airline? Why? Why not? 

 

  

---

 

 

 

 

© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2006 

 

 

Taken from the Magazine

 

section in 

www.onestopenglish.com

  

KEY 

 

1 Key 

Words 

 

1. rescue plan 

2. emigre 

3. bribe  

4. hijack 

5. sanctions 

6. bureaucracy 

7. disastrous 

8. incompetent 

9. corrupt 

10. nickname 

 

2 

Find the Information 

 

1. Ariana 

2. 1,700 

3. $100 

4. 1955 

5. 2001 

6. 15 

 

1. b; 2. b; 3. a; 4. c 

 

 

4 

Vocabulary 1 

 

Noun + Noun Collocations 

 

1. c; 2. e (h); 3. d; 4. f; 5. a; 6. h (e); 7. b; 8. g 

 

5 

Vocabulary 2 

 

Word Building 

 

1. safety 

2. disaster 

3.  

difference 

4. corruption 

 

5.  

incompetence 

 

6. pride 

   

7. enthusiasm 

 

8. success   

 

---

 

 

 

 

© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2006 

 

 

Taken from the Magazine

 

section in 

www.onestopenglish.com

  

6 Vocabulary 

3    Prepositions 

 

 

1. from 

2. over 

3. of 

4. out of 

5. from; to 

6. of 

7. from; to 

8. on