IN A NUTSHELL - NO WAY TO BERNIE'S MITTENS
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NO. 21
IN A NUTSHELL
•
20/21
YOUR WEEKLY DISCUSSION BOOSTER
NO WAY TO BERNIE'S MITTENS
WRESTLE DEATH GO VIRAL
Iran executes second A clever way the senator
wrestler over a few months used an awkward moment
LEVEL 1
B1 - B2
No way to
wrestle
death
Over the last decades, the support for the death
RETELL
penalty has been steadily falling. There are 142
countries which either abolished it totally or do not
use it in practice. However, since 2013 as many as 33 1. How many countries do not use the death penalty?
states have killed at least one prisoner. One of these 2. Who was Mr Hosseini and why was he executed?
countries is Iran.
3. According to Iranian law, what can
a murdered person's family do with the killer ?
On January 25, 2021, yet another person was killed by
4. Why was the second wrestler, Mr Afkari, executed?
hanging - a national-level wrestler, Mehdi Ali Hosseini.
The sportsman was arrested last year and charged 5. Which country carries out most executions a year?
with murder. Apparently, he took part in a fight in
which one person died.
The law in Iran says the victim's family can accept
compensation and spare a murderer's life, but this
time the family did not agree even after getting a
petition from an Iranian wrestling hero, Hamid DISCUSS
Sourian.
A victim's family should have a say in
The case raises controversies because just a few
months before another wrestler, Navid Afkari (a what punishment a criminal gets.
member of Iran's national team), was executed for
murdering a security officer. Critics of the authorities
claim both men supported the opposition and they
were punished for their political views. Officially,
Afkari was also hanged, but the family doubt it and ARGUMENT BANK
claim his body looked as if he had been tortured
instead.
Can a family understand that the suspect
made a mistake and make his punishment smaller?
Iran remains the country with the second-highest
Will it help the family get over the pain?
number of executions - in 2019 alone, 251 of them
were carried out there. Surprisingly enough, the state Can money compensate for
the loss/injury of a family member?
which supervises human rights across the world, the
USA, is not innocent, either: 25 criminals were Can a family's verdict be objective?
executed there over the same period. The infamous
Can they judge evidence professionally?
number one in the statistics is China, where over 1000
people a year are sentenced to capital punishment. Will they want to take revenge at all cost?
LEVEL 2
C1 - C2
Bernie's
mittens go
viral
RETELL
In an era of immediate information exchange, even
something as innocuous as U.S. Sen. Bernie
Sanders’ woolly mittens that he wore to the At what event was the U.S. senator photographed?
presidential inauguration, can not only spark
What was Bernie Sanders wearing?
endless memes across social media but also yield
unconscionable profits for charitable organizations. How did internet users turn the photo
of the senator into a meme?
The photograph of Bernie Sanders wearing How did Bernie use this sudden publicity?
oversized grandpa mittens, a parka and a mask was What did he do with the money he earned?
taken by Agence France-Presse and
instantaneously took the world by storm. Internet
users turned the facetious picture of the senator
into a meme and started posting it as pasted part of
funny images wherever possible – from
underground stations to barber chairs to beaches DISCUSS
and a slew of other creative locales.
Sanders himself was utterly surprised by the There is always a way to benefit from what
interest his photo had aroused. He did not pass up people post about you online.
the opportunity though and adroitly capitalized on
the seemingly unprofitable prank. Soon after the
inauguration, he put merchandise, including T-
shirts, sweatshirts and stickers, on his campaign
website, and the first run allegedly sold out in less ARGUMENT BANK
than 30 minutes. The proceeds are said to have
Can a good sense of humour help you deal
gone to charities, which did the senator a lot of
even with some bad news about you?
credit.
Do celebrities effectively use scandals to generate profit?
So, next time you dismiss something as useless or How can you use the fact that your name is
frequently googled?
too silly to even pay attention to, think twice - even
the most nonsensical thing can turn your world Can you benefit e.g. from the fact that people quote
a racist comment you made?
upside down and make you a famous or rich person.
Preferably two in one. What if it is revealed that you committed a crime?
Can you escape a wave of negative comments?How to use
this magazine? THE TEACHER
CHOOSING THE LEVEL
THE LEARNER Use the right text with the right learners. The first article will
work with teenagers (grade 7 and higher) and adults at B1 -
B2 levels. The second one is for high-schoolers and adults at
C1 - C2 levels.
READING
CHOOSE YOUR LEVEL Get the students to read the text at home. Pick one to retell
Choose a text which is fairly easy for you to understand. the story in class. Reading in class is possible, but takes away
Continue reading articles at this level until you are ready for precious time.
more advanced reading.
READ THE TEXT CHECKING THE VOCABULARY
Read the text and check if you can answer the questions in Ask your students to look up the bolded words before the
the box. Try to retell the text to yourself or find someone you lesson. They can prepare definitions or translations.
can talk to in English.
RETELLING THE STORY
CHECK THE VOCABULARY At the beginning of class, a chosen student retells the story.
Words are the essence of any language. Look them up on He or she should do it well, trying to use as many bolded
your own. This extra effort pays off! Make your own notes. lexical items from the text as possible.
Don't check every single word you don't understand.
DISCUSSION
DISCUSS/WRITE Get your students to discuss the subject. Make them find at
Find somebody to discuss the subject with. If you work alone, least 5 arguments for and 5 against. They should note the
try to find arguments and write an essay about the subject. If arguments down for later use.
you can get it checked by someone - perfect!
REVISE WRITING
Never read a text only once. Always come back to it - next Ask your students to write an essay based on their
day, after a week, after a month. Try to retell the text to arguments. Discuss it with them. Give constructive feedback.
yourself using the bolded words. Make sentences with the
bolded words. Practise, practise, practise!
REVISION
During the next meetings, ask your students to retell the
story in pairs. Also, they can try to write their own sentences
with the bolded words. Practice is key, and there are many
ways to do it!
EVERY WEEK
IN A NUTSHELL, a weekly discussion booster for teachers and learners of English.
Authors: Zbigniew Stępień, Andrzej Machnacz.
stepien.edu.plYou can also read
