Ex. 17. European Union discussion

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

Ex.18. LANGUAGE

The people of Ireland have rejected the European Union’s reform treaty in a referendum and (1) ____ the EU into crisis. The Irish delivered a Friday the 13th bad omen to European integration. All 27 countries needed to agree (2) ____ the Lisbon Treaty in order for it to come into (3) ____. Ireland represents less than one per cent of the EU population, but their ‘no’ vote meant it was (4) ____ to the drawing board for the whole of the EU. The treaty was supposed to replace the constitution, give the EU stronger leadership and (5) ____ streamlining reforms to take place more quickly. It took many years to draw (6) ____ and just a few hours to vote into the trash can of history. The ‘no’ vote also highlights how unpopular the EU is to its citizens. Three years ago, the French and Dutch voted to reject the EU constitution. Other European countries are now debating how to progress in the (7) ____ of the Treaty’s collapse. Britain, France and Germany are keen to somehow ratify the treaty through backdoor legal (8) ____. France takes over the EU Presidency on July 1st and President Sarkozy will now need all his diplomatic skills to paper over the (9) ____ that are appearing in Euroland. France’s foreign minister Bernard Kouchner warned Ireland last Monday that it would be a bad idea to vote no. He said: “We would not be able to (10) ____ on the Irish who counted a lot on Europe’s money.” He was referring to the millions of Euros the EU has given Ireland to turn it (11) ____ a booming economy. There will now be considerable pressure on Dublin to find a workable (12) ____ that will allow the reforms to go ahead.

Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.

Ex.19. WRITING: Write about the European Union for 10 minutes. Correct your

partner’s paper.

Ex.20. SPEKING: Speak on the European Union.

ADDITIONAL TASKS

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find out more about the effects of the Irish ‘No’ vote. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.

3. EU: Make a poster about the different EU countries and what they get out of the EU. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things?

4. CRACKS: Write a magazine article about Ireland’s ‘No’ vote. Include imaginary interviews with French President Sarkozy and an Irish person who voted no. What do they think of the EU’s future?

Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Write down any new words and expressions you hear from your partner(s).

5. LETTER: Write a letter to President Sarkozy. Ask him three questions about what he did in Europe over the six months of the French presidency of the EU. Give him three pieces of advice on what he should do paper over the cracks.

6. TRANSLATION FROM RUSSIAN INTO ENGLISH: Find the article in

Russian describing the EU activities. Render it in English.

Unit VI