SESSION 16: EXERCISES WORKING WITH THE TEXT

SESSION 16: EXERCISES WORKING WITH THE TEXT

NOTE: IN ORDER TO WORK WITH THE TEXT, UNDERSTAND AND PREPARE IT BETTER I RECOMMEND THESE EXERCISES:

THERE WILL BE TWO TYPES OF EXERCISES:

1. EXERCISES WORKING WITH THE TEXT: THESE ARE EXERCISES FOCUSING ON THE READING COMPREHENSION, WORKING WITH VOCABULARY AND EXPRESSIONS.

2. EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION: EXERCISES FOCUSING ON THE PREPARATION FOR THE DISCUSSION.

1. EXERCISES WORKING WITH THE TEXT

1.1 TRUE/FALSE: Look at the article and guess whether these sentences are True (T) or False (F):

a. Americans lose lots of money in holiday pay.

b. U.S. bosses believe Americans are the world’s best workers.
c. A researcher asked over 7,000 Americans about their vacation days.
d. Just over a third of Americans said they could not afford a holiday.
e. French workers take fewer holidays than American employees.
f. British workers generally take all of their vacation days.
g. The average Japanese worker takes less than half of his/her holidays.
h. Indians are hesitant to take all their days because it could look bad.

1.2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:
1. bosses ............... a. usually
2. equivalent .......... b. yearly
3. figures .............. c. hesitant
4. annual ............... d. pay for
5. afford ............... e. energized
6. appear .............. f. employers
7. generally ........... g. standard
8. average ............ h. equal
9. reluctant ........... i. seem
10. refreshed ......... j. stats

1.3 PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from this article (sometimes more than one option is possible):

1. among the worst ............... a. 226 million days

2. Either ............................ b. feeling refreshed
3. the equivalent of ............... c. afford a holiday
4. These figures come from ...... d. much take all of them
5. not being able to ................ e. way
6. lack of ............................ f. to have a problem
7. don’t appear ..................... g. in the world
8. … and pretty ..................... h. reluctant
9. Indians are also .................. i. planning
10. come back to work ............ j. an annual survey

1.4 GAP FILL: Put the words into the gaps in the text:

QUESTIONED - FOLLOWED - PAID - FEELING - AMONG - FIGURES - REASON - WORKING

U.S. workers are (1) ____________ the worst in the world for not taking all their vacation days. Their bosses might say they are among the best in the world for (2) ____________ their holidays. Either way, Americans will give up $34.3 billion in (3) ____________ vacation leave in 2012, which is the equivalent of 226 million days off. These (4) ____________ come from an annual survey conducted by Harris Interactive for Expedia. They (5) ____________ 7,083 employees in 20 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, South America and Australia. The top (6) ____________ for Americans not using up their holidays was not being able to afford a holiday (34%). This was (7) ____________ by lack of planning (15%), the statement "work is my life" (15%) and (8) ____________ bad about asking the boss for time off.

RELUCTANT - AVERAGE - REFRESHED - PRETTY - APPEAR - NEGATIVELY - FEWER - GENERALLY

Workers in other countries don’t (9) ____________ to have a problem taking vacations. French workers get an (10) ____________ 30 vacation days a year and (11) ____________ use them all. In the UK, employees get 25 days and (12) ____________ much take all of them. Asia is the only region where workers receive and take (13) ____________ holidays than Americans. The average Japanese worker only gets 11 days a year and takes just five of them. Indians are also (14) ____________ to take all of their vacation. Expedia found that 20 per cent of workers in India did not take all their holidays because they "may be perceived (15) ____________ at work". In America, bosses believe it is important that workers use all their vacation so they can come back to work feeling (16) ____________.