Sunday, March 22, 2009

SESSION 10: EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION AND FINAL TASK

SESSION 10: EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION AND FINAL TASK

2. EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION

2.1 DIETS: Are you happy with what you eat? Think of the health benefits or costs for the following types of diets. Would you be able to follow these diets or not? Why?
- Strict vegetarian
- Less strict vegetarian
- Fast food
- Meat-based
- Fruitarian
- Liquid

2.2 EXPRESS YOUR OPINION:
- I strongly believe everyone in the world should be vegetarian to save the planet.
- I strongly believe vegetarianism is totally unnecessary.

2.3 CANCER: What do you think is the best way to prevent cancer? Rank the following in order:
- vegetarian diet
- using sun screen
- exercise
- regular health checks
- avoiding cigarettes/alcohol
- not having a microwave
- living a stress-free life
- living in the countryside

2.4 VEGETARIANISM DISCUSSION.Here are some questions you can try asking yourself before you come to our discussion on Wednesday:
a. What did you think when you read the headline?
b. Did you like reading about diet and health?
c. What springs to mind when you hear the word 'vegetarian'?
d. What do you think of vegetarianism?
e. Why do you think it has taken so long to do a major study on cancer and diet?
f. Would you change your diet to avoid being ill?
g. Do you think eating meat is unhealthy?
h. What do you think of the argument that it is wrong to kill animals?
i. Are strict vegetarians healthier than vegetarians who eat dairy products and honey?
j. Have you ever changed your diet?
k. How healthy or unhealthy is your diet?
l. Should fast food restaurants offer more vegetarian choices?
m. Do you think the environment would be in a better condition if we were all vegetarians?
n. Some say eating meat makes people more violent. Do you agree?
o. do you think vegetarians are happier and healthier?

PREPARING A DISCUSSION IS FUNDAMENTAL:

THIS MUST BE DONE IN TWO DIRECTIONS:
FIRST, YOU NEED TO LEARN NEW VOCABULARY AND EXPRESSIONS THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO USE FOR THE DISCUSSION.
SECONDLY, YOU HAVE TO PREPARE THE TOPIC BY LOOKING UP INFORMATION IN THE INTERNET, BOOKS, ENCYCLOPAEDIAS.
THIS WAY YOU WILL FEEL MUCH MORE CONFIDENT AND AT THE SAME TIME YOU WILL HAVE MUCH MORE TO TALK ABOUT.

FINAL TASK:

HERE IS ONE FINAL TASK THAT YOU MAY DO AND THIS WAY YOU WILL COVER THE FOUR SKILLS YOU MUST IMPROVE WHEN LEARNING A LANGUAGE: LISTENING, READING, SPEAKING AND WRITING.

WRITING:

Write a composition of not more than 180 words and leave it in the blog as a comment to Session 10, I will edit it in the blog so that everybody can learn from other people´s opinions.

Choose one of the following options:
- Write a magazine article about vegetarianism. Include imaginary interviews with a vegetarian and someone who loves meat.
- Express your opinion: "A healthy diet and life reduces disease risk"

3 comments:

  1. From the point of view of somebody like me who is fallen in love with food, it is very difficult not to eat meat, eggs, milk or any other products that come from animals although some researches made by prestigious experts say that they are unhealthy.

    Apart from my big interest in food, I have observed in several occasions contradictory findings between researches published in the same decade or even different experts defending different conclusions at the same time.

    Maybe this research about vegetarian diet and cancer were true, but what would happen if soon afterward a new research advice us not to eat green vegetables because they are unhealthier than then rest of vegetables? (It can be true too) In a few years, human beings would not know what to eat because they only could choose between two or three products.

    I am not sure at all but I am going to continue eating what I want in a natural way at least until I was banned by a doctor.

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  2. - Express your opinion: "A healthy diet and life reduces disease risk"

    In the past, about fifty years ago, people were not very health conscious and eating anything was the most important thing. This situation has recently changed and nowadays, people are becoming taking care of themselves and trying to do the best to their health.

    A healthy diet and life reduce disease risk has both pros and cons. On the plus side, lots of scientists agree with this idea after analysing their studies. Another point is that a healthy diet and life causes a feeling of well-being for people.

    On the other hand, there are important disadvantages. Opponents maintain the idea that they and their parents have been living eating meat and other kind of unhealthy foods their whole life without suffering any illness. Moreover, it is particularly difficult to do in our real life, because we don’t have always enough time.

    To sum up, I believe that we need to be careful with our diets and with our life, because it leads to an improvement in the quality of life, despite the disadvantages.

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  3. I love meat. Possibly, I’m a fourth generation butcher’s son. One of my brothers continues the saga still now. Moreover, humankind has meat as a root for brain development and enlargement of cranium capacity: at the very beginning we were apes which started eating flesh and the internal part of bones, in addition to our vegetarian diet. The extra proteins gave us the fuel for the evolutionary jump. We’ve got fangs among our teeth! The problem with meat is the quality, average and amount of fats and meat derivatives people eat usually: we devour pork, chicken and cow produced in farms industrially, with animals under stress. What is more, we don’t eat vegetables in a good proportion (meat eaters tend to avoid fruits and vegetables completely). The conclusion is crystal clear: overweight people all around.

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