Students
Last week, we introduced you to the idea of using the Bangkok Post
to study geography. Easy, wasn't it? If you remember, we gave you
some news stories with "datelines" (the bold text at the
start of the story that tells you where it comes from) and asked you
to fill in the missing places in each story by choosing from a list.
This week, we've made it harder for you by choosing some stories with
less familiar place names and with some quite difficult language.
The idea is that you read the story and then, from what you know or
by using an atlas (or even from details in the story), you can work
out where the story comes from.
Read the stories and then try to match up the cities in the stories
with the countries listed. Be careful, though - some of the stories
mention more than one country, so make sure you think about the answers.
Again, don't worry too much about comprehension, as this is a geography
exercise.
Teachers
This is a simple and easy lesson that needs little preparation -
all you need is a copy of a newspaper. Cut out or copy small international
stories with unusual datelines and pass them round to your students.
Have them work out where the stories originated by reading them.
Students can then try to find the places on an atlas or pinpoint
countries to continents or regions (Europe, Asia, America, etc.).
While this exercise may be suitable for older students, it can be
adapted for many different age groups and can even be used for Thai
geography given that local stories also have a dateline.
______________________
This lesson was adapted from a lesson in Test Your English With
the Newspaper written by Terry L. Fredrickson and published by Post
Books.
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Singapore
PM visits Burma
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Rangoon - Singapore
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong arrived in Burma yesterday,
amid rumblings over whether the military-ruled nation should
be allowed to become chairman of Asean as scheduled next year.
Mr Lee, who became leader of his city-state in August, is
on a three-day visit to Laos, Burma and Cambodia as part of
a new leader's traditional visits to fellow members of Asean.
He was due to meet Prime Minister Lieutenant-General Soe Win
and later yesterday have talks with junta leader Senior General
Than Shwe, before having dinner with Lt-Gen Soe Win. AFP
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Tornado
takes lives of 34, over 500 injured
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Dhaka - At least
34 people were killed and more than 500 injured by a tornado
that flattened more than 3,000 houses in 15 villages in northern
Bangladesh, police said yesterday.
The twister accompanied by a hailstorm lashed the area late
on Sunday, police chief Bhanu Lal Das said, killing 34 people,
including 24 in the Sadullahpur sub-district and 10 in adjoining
Sundarganj.
"The death figures will go up as we cannot start full-scale
search operations because of the rough weather," Mr Das
said by telephone.
Winds destroyed crops, uprooted trees and electricity poles,
cutting off communications to the 15 villages, in one of the
most impoverished parts of the country. AFP
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Mourinho
pleads ignorance
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Chelsea
soccer club manager Jose Mourhinol.
-- AP |
Tel Aviv - Chelsea
manager Jose Mourinho has said he did not personally witness
his Barcelona counterpart Frank Rijkaard enter the referee's
dressing room during a Champions League match at the Nou Camp.
Governing body Uefa has charged the Premier League leaders
with bringing the game into disrepute after Mourinho accused
Rijkaard of speaking to referee Anders Frisk at half time
in the first leg of the first knockout round tie on February
23.
Uefa specifically cited Mourinho, his assistant Steve Clarke
and security man Les Miles. Chelsea, who were leading 1-0
at half-time, lost the first leg 2-1 after striker Didier
Drogba was sent off.
"I just relayed what my staff told me. I saw nothing,
I wasn't involved," Mourinho told Israel's Channel 5.
"I am always the first man to leave the pitch at half-time
and some assistants told me what happened. I have to believe
in the people who work with me because the day I don't believe,
I don't trust the people who work with me, I go home, or I
send them home." REUTERS
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Bizarre testimony in trial
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Ankara - The trial continued yesterday of the self-styled
"Caliph of Cologne", Metin Kaplan, who faces life
imprisonment with prosecutors once again accusing the radical
Islamic cleric of high treason, the Anadolu news agency reported.
Kaplan again pleaded not guilty before the three judges of
the Istanbul Heavy Penal Court.
The cleric is accused of being behind a 1998 plot to fill
a light plane with explosives and crash it into the mausoleum
of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern secular
Turkish republic, on a day when Turkey's top military and
political leaders would have been gathered there for national
day ceremonies.
AGENCIES
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Tigers 'lost' from sanctuary
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JAIPUR - Authorities in the desert state of Rajasthan
have suspended eight forest officials after more than two
dozen tigers vanished from a wildlife sanctuary in less than
two years, a state minister said recently. Concerned over
the dwindling tiger population, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh last month ordered a police investigation and formed
a new task force to stem the rapid fall in the number of the
endangered species.
"We have suspended the chief wildlife warden and seven
other forest department employees posted in Sariska,"
said LN Dave, minister for forest and environment in Rajasthan.
REUTERS
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Saved from dinner plates
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Not
so tasty - rescued pangolins are returned to the wild
if discovered in Thailand. -- Sarot Meksophawannakul |
HANOI - Authorities seized 5.5 tons of wild animals destined
for restaurants in China, an official said yesterday. The
shipment, which included three tons of turtles and two tons
of iguanas, pangolins and snakes, was the biggest amount of
wild animals ever seized in Thanh Hoa province in northern
Vietnam, said Le Nam, director of the provincial forest control
bureau. The truck driver has been detained for questioning.
AP
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Draw a line matching each dateline city with the country it's
in. Note that we've put in a few deliberately incorrect answers!
| City |
Country |
| Ankara |
Bangladesh |
| Tel Aviv |
Israel |
| Dhaka |
Vietnam |
| Hanoi |
Burma |
| Jaipur |
Turkey |
| Rangoon |
Cologne |
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India |
| |
Singapore |
Answers
| City |
Country |
| Rangoon |
Burma |
| Dhaka |
Bangladesh |
| Tel Aviv |
Israel |
| Ankara |
Turkey |
| Jaipur |
India |
| Hanoi |
Vietnam |
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