Arany 9c

Meteorite in Russia

1. METEORITES: Walk around the class and talk to other students about meteorites. Change partners often and share your findings.

2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words from the article are most interesting and which are most boring.

meteorite / science fiction / atmosphere / shooting star / smashed windows / explosion / army / craters / investigators / radioactive / protect the public / atomic bombs / rocks

Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently.

3. SCIENCE FICTION: Will these happen? Complete this table with your partner(s). Change partners often and share what you wrote.

	(When) (Will) it happen?	What would you do?
Live on Mars
House robots
Live to be 200
Jet backpacks
Alien invasion
Time travel

4. SURVIVE: Students A strongly believe we can survive being hit by a giant meteorite; Students Bstrongly believe we can't.  Change partners again and talk about your conversations.

5. SPACE DANGERS: Which of these are worst? Rank them and share your rankings with your partner. Put the worst at the top. Change partners often and share your rankings.

Earth hit by gigantic asteroid alien invasion solar flare reaches Earth space virus

space junk space wars ozone gets stronger other ______________

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

1. TRUE / FALSE: Read the headline. Guess if  a-h  below are true (T) or false (F).

a.	A meteorite exploded after it hit Russia on Friday.	T / F
b.	Many people in a swimming pool saw it fly across the sky.	T / F
c.	A city in Russia was left without gas and Internet.	T / F
d.	The shock wave from the explosion smashed thousands of windows.	T / F
e.	Russia's army found six craters that were three metres wide.	T / F
f.	The distance from some craters to others was up to 80km.	T / F
g.	The meteorites were made of rock and lead.	T / F
h.	People are trying to sell bits of the meteorite for $15 a rock.	T / F
Meteorite hits Russia, thousands injured (17th February, 2013)

A meteorite exploded above central Russia on Friday morning. It was just like a scene from a science fiction movie. People watched the bright, swimming pool-sized rock fly across the sky and then crash. It entered the Earth's atmosphere and looked like a giant shooting star. The power of the explosion damaged many buildings and smashed thousands of windows. The city of Chelyabinsk had no gas or Internet for a short time after the meteor shower came down. Thousands of people went to hospital for medical treatment. Many of them had cuts from flying glass. They did not know the shock wave from the explosion would be so dangerous and cause so much damage.

The Russian army found three giant holes in the earth where different parts of the meteorite hit the ground. One crater was six metres wide. The craters were 80 km apart. Investigators are checking the sites of where the meteorites came down to see if they are radioactive. The police have sealed off the areas to protect the public. Scientists working at the site said the meteor was mostly rock and iron. They said it is the largest meteorite to hit the Earth for over 100 years. NASA estimated that the meteor weighed around 7,000 tons and exploded with the power of 20 atomic bombs. Russian newspapers say that some people are now trying to sell rocks from the meteorite for $15 each.

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article.

1.	exploded	a.	came into
2	bright	b.	mainly
3.	entered	c.	huge
4.	power	d.	blew up
5.	treatment	e.	closed
6.	giant	f.	force
7.	crater	g.	calculated
8.	sealed	h.	shining
9.	mostly	i.	hole
10.	estimated	j.	care

3. PHRASE MATCH:  (Sometimes more than one choice is possible.)

1.	A meteorite exploded	a.	radioactive
2	just like a scene from a	b.	and then crash
3.	fly across the sky	c.	off the areas
4.	went to hospital for medical	d.	in the ground
5.	shock	e.	treatment
6.	three giant holes	f.	above central Russia
7.	The craters were 80 km	g.	wave
8.	see if they are	h.	of 20 atomic bombs
9.	police have sealed	i.	science fiction movie
10.	exploded with the power	j.	apart

FREE WRITING

Write about meteorites for 10 minutes. Comment on your partner's paper.

ACADEMIC WRITING

We should spend more money on protecting the Earth from meteorites.  Discuss.

HOMEWORK

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 meteorites. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.

3. METEORITES: Make a poster about meteorites. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things?

4. CRASHED: Write a magazine article about the meteorite that crashed into Russia. Include imaginary interviews with people who were there.

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. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT? Write a newspaper article about the next stage in this news story. Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Give each other feedback on your articles.

6. LETTER: Write a letter to a meteor expert. Ask him/her three questions about meteorites. Give him/her three of your opinions on them. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions.