Starting off

The students should be able to come up with quite a list here and there are many possibilities for exploiting this, from categorising (religious traditions, state traditions, sporting traditions etc.) to comparing with other countries.

Before you read / First reading

This discussion acts as the prediction stage of the reading sequence and is an important pre-reading stage, so be

sure to provide the students with sufficient time to do the task effectively. You might wish to summarise the students'

ideas on the board to provide a clear focus for the reading task to follow.

Key:

apples - eaten, covered in toffee

prams - used to carry the Guy from house to house

gunpowder - was to be used to blow up Parliament

potatoes - roasted in the embers of the bonfire

old clothes - used to make the Guy

the Houses of Parliament - the target of the plotters

Second reading

Read the text again more slowly and decide which of the sentences below fit into which gaps (1-5 in the text).

Key:

a) 3 b) 5 c) 1 d) 4 e) 2

Vocabulary 1

Find words or phrases to complete the sets. All the words and phrases you need are in the text.

Vocabulary 2

Key:

1. current 2. every year 3. superbly 4. following

Third reading

Key:

1. c

2. Old clothes, straw, paper and anything the children can find.

3. To carry it from house to house.

4. Hard.

5. He was betrayed.

6. Generally, no.

Speaking

The task is designed to allow for a mixture of general and personalised discussion. Encourage the latter as far as

possible, ideally by providing an example yourself of, for example, your family Christmas traditions.

Extension

The discussion in the final activity lends itself to a writing task where the students write a letter inviting a friend to

come and stay with them; in the letter they would describe how their family spends, for example, Christmas. The

letters could then be exchanged and compared.

Contact

Please let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas for future editions of Around English.

Peter Moran [e-mail]

TEACHER'S NOTES AND KEY

November 2008

© Pearson Education Polska 2008

TEACHER'S NOTES AND KEY

October 2008

© Pearson Education Polska 2008

Remember, Remember the Fifth of November, The Gunpowder, Treason and Plot, I know of no reason Why the gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot. Bonfire Night Every year on the 5th of November British people celebrate `Bonfire Night' with large bonfires, fireworks and special food. It is a very popular tradition, especially with children. (1) But where does the tradition come from? The answer might be surprising… The Traditions In the weeks leading up to Bonfire Night, British children make a `Guy' out of old clothes, paper, straw and anything else they can find. The Guy is put into a pram and in the days before Bonfire Night the children take it to houses in the neighbourhood asking for `a penny for the Guy'. (2) If the owner of the house thinks the Guy is well made then he or she will give the children a few coins or something nice to eat or drink.

The Guy is thrown onto the fire after the bonfire is lit. Another tradition is the building of bonfires in gardens, parks and town centres. (3) The bonfires are built in the week before and lit after dark on Bonfire Night. Fireworks are set off and toffee apples - apples covered in crunchy toffee - are eaten, together with very dark and hard toffee called `Bonfire Toffee'. Other foods are popular as well: potatoes roasted in the embers of the fire, parkin (ginger cake) and marshmallows toasted on sticks by the fire, for example. The History The celebrations on Bonfire Night are related to real events in history and date back over four hundred years, to November 5th, 1605. The Guy of Bonfire Night represents Guy Fawkes, one of the most well-known characters in English history.

Who Was Guy Fawkes? Guy Fawkes was a soldier who had fought in the Netherlands on the side of the Spanish Catholic forces against the protestant armies of the Dutch. He was a Catholic nationalist and, when the protestant James I of Scotland became King of England, Fawkes joined a plot to kill the King and the protestant English aristocracy. (4) The conspirators aimed to do this by blowing up the Houses of Parliament by exploding gunpower in the cellars. The plot was betrayed and Fawkes, who was guarding the gunpowder, was captured, tortured and killed. Around the World Bonfire Night is celebrated in many former colonies of Great Britain, including New Zealand and South Africa. (5) As in Britain, however, few people remember the real story these days. Perhaps if they did they might treat their Guys a little bit more gently!

The hurricane season is upon us again and it might be another record-breaking season. But what are hurricanes and how are they formed?

some years

most years

EVERY YEAR

LEADING UP TO

during

following

badly

reasonably

WELL

superbly

light

medium

DARK

FORMER

current

future

- 3 -

- 1 -

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