SESSION 28: EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION AND FINAL TASK
2. EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION
2.1 WAR ON TERROR: How can we end War on Terror? Give your ideas:
- Using the internet
- With financial aid
- Militarily
- Using embargos
- Via education
- Via intercultural understanding
- Diplomatically
- 9/11
- Madrid Bombings
- Bali
- Marrakesh
- US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania
- London Bombings
- Jakarta hotel bombing
- Attack on the USS Cole
a) Did you know about this news already from the TV, the radio or the newspapers? What did you think when you read the headline?
b) What springs to mind when you hear the name ‘Osama Bin Laden’?
c) Do you think the photo should be released?
d) Do you think it was necessary to kill Bin Laden?
e) What do you think of the way in which the death of Osama Bin Laden has been reported in the press?
f) How do you think his death will affect the war on terror?
g) Should the photo be released if there’s a chance it’ll create more violence?
h) How did you feel when you heard the news of Bin Laden’s death?
i) Should the photo be released if it’s “too gruesome”?
j) Do you want to see the photo? Why? Why do people want to see the photo?
k) How do you think it’s possible that Bin Laden hid near Islamabad for so long?
l) How risky was the move to raid Bin Laden’s hideout?
m) How much do you think the Pakistani authorities and military knew about the raid?
n) Why do you think so many papers put the fake Bin Laden photo on their front covers?
o) Do you think it’s possible that Bin Laden isn’t dead?
p) What conspiracy theories have you heard about Bin Laden’s death?
q) What three adjectives would you use to describe this story (and why)?
r) What do you think will happen to Al Qaeda now?
s) What questions would you like to ask the head of the CIA?
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 IN ORDER TO COVER THE FOUR SKILLS YOU SHOULD FOCUS ON WHEN LEARNING A LANGUAGE: LISTENING, READING, SPEAKING AND WRITING.
Write a composition and leave it in the blog as a comment to Session 28, I will edit it in the blog so that everybody can learn from other people´s opinions. Choose one of these two options:
- It´s right/wrong to release Osama Bin Laden´s postmortem photo. Express your opinion.
- 'Terrorism has changed since 11/9 attacks'. Express your opinion.
Recent news we have got from different means of communication are most of the time incredibly worrying. We live in a world with lots of differences between both developed and developing countries, so that is the reason why powerful countries want to control weak ones. But from September 11th everything changed and westernized countries begun to worried of a new way of terror we did not know before.
ReplyDeleteSometimes everything begins with acts we realize they are wrong very late. For example, Bin Laden was helped by the USA providing him with all sorts of guns when he was fighting against the extinct URSS. It is thought that Bin Laden wanted to fix Muslins up with Arabian countries union in order to fight against capitalism. Even though this thoughts might be misunderstood by lots of countries, he chose the worst way to transmit his ideas. They were spread with terror and the collapse of the Twin Towers was the beginning of his arrangements. Several acts of terrorism followed this bloody attack, for example in Bali, the underground of Madrid, London and many others places.
Lots of countries have had acts of terrorism for long time and even they have recently, but the attacks New York city suffered, they showed us a new form of terrorism in which human being are not important at all. Thousands of people were killed this sad day by Muslim terrorist who knew they were going to die with other innocent people. These pictures were seen all over the world on live by million of spectators who could not believe they were watching on TV. The media showed how devastated people were and how towers collapsed one after another.
In conclusion, this date will be remembered as the day any country will be able to be attacked and its population will suffer their madness in unimaginable proportion to people who enjoy living in peace. Besides, we have to learn to live with lots of precaution especially when we travel by plane, train or even by bus.
There is something strange about Bin Laden’s death and I have the feeling that it is not true all what we are said. It is very difficult to believe that the most powerful country in the world, having the most advanced technology, has taken ten years to find him in Abbottabad, a medium size town close to the capital of Pakistan where he lived in a big house but apparently not very well protected.
ReplyDeleteIf you analyse one of the videos USA has just released in which an old Bin Laden sitting over the floor is watching an old-fashioned TV in a untidy and dirty room with a lot of electrical cords, you can hardly see him as the most dangerous terrorist in the world.
Something similar I thought when Saddam Hussein was arrested inside a cellar and his appearance was totally awful. I ask myself how the chief of the ‘third most dangerous army’ according to USA, risked his luxury life having a lot palaces and richness to finish as a condemned man.
I thing is not very decisive is a Bin Laden’s postmortem photo is released since any boy can create a false one with Photoshop, but at least, I hope that photo is not very cruel.
In many ways, terrorism has taken on new meaning since September 11th attacks. This has been due to different reasons, for example, the impact of the news media was experienced on live TV. Also, the amount of lives lost that day as a result of terrorist action by al Qaeda.
ReplyDeleteFrom the U.S. perspective, they have gone from feeling ultra confident to feel fear or distrust, as all wars, all terrorist activities and violent had ever happened far from home and, suddenly, they found that the entire world is coming down.
From Spanish point of view, we became the target of another terrorist group, as if we had not enough with ETA, but we shared the same problem with USA and Americans gave us ways to fight terrorism, in order to take advantage against ETA and Al Qaeda.
The paranoid fear has changed our lives, this is something we can see every time we want to try to board a plane or when we are interested in travelling to USA. In fact, it was not easy for many people, after the Madrid 11M attack, to get a local-distance train or the underground sharing the carriage with someone of Arab race who is carrying a backpack. Now, even the plastic bags from the bins are transparent, in order to see what's inside.
To conclude, terrorism changed when it appeared the figure of the suicide bomber, when a person was able to die to destroy so many lives as possible as he could. I do not believe that any serious religion would be able to order something like this.