Comparative
Superlative - Topical News Lessons

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english.com 2002 |
This page can be photocopied
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World’s richest man gives $100m ‘gift’
Level 1 |
Elementary
1
1
Pre-reading | Key Vocabulary
Match the words with their meanings:
1
•
a virus
2
•
a donation
3
•
panic
4
•
a hospice
5
•
a patient
6
•
to predict
7
•
a
pandemic
8
•
unpopular
9
•
shocking
10
•
currently
2
Find the Information
Read the text and find the answers to these questions as quickly as possible:
1
•
How much money did Bill Gates give to fight HIV/Aids in India?
2
•
How many people in India will probably have the Aids virus by 2010?
3
•
How many people could die from Aids in India, China and Russia by 2025?
4
•
What percentage of the adult population of India has the HIV virus?
a
•
to say that something will happen in the future
b
•
a special hospital for people who are dying
c
•
now; at the moment
d
•
a feeling of fear
e
•
a very small living organism that
causes disease in people
f
•
something that makes you extremely angry or worried is _________
g
•
money given to an organisation to help people
h
•
a disease which almost everyone in a large area catches
i
•
a person who receives medical treatment in hospital
j
•
not liked by many people
© one
stop
english.com 2002 |
This page can be photocopied
.
World’s richest man gives $100m ‘gift’
Level 1 |
Elementary
2
B
ill Gates is the richest man in the
world. Recently he said that he
would give $100
million to help
people in India who have the HIV virus.
The Indian government was unhappy
about this, however. It said that Mr
Gates’ gift would cause “panic” in India
because people would think that the
problem of HIV/Aids in India was
getting worse. Mr Gates was not
worried by this reaction, however.
“There
is a big, big problem with Aids in
India”, he said. “And we have seen in
other countries what happens with Aids
if you don’t take early action.”
While he was in India he visited an Aids
hospice in Delhi. Earlier, the Indian
government said that it was very
unhappy with
a report which predicted
that 20 million to 25 million Indians
would probably have the virus by 2010.
The report also said that India would
soon be the country with the largest
number of Aids cases. At the moment
South Africa has most cases of Aids in
the world.
A new, shocking report says that Eurasia
- India, China and Russia – will soon
have the
same kind of Aids pandemic
that is destroying sub-Saharan Africa. In
these three countries Aids could kill
between 43 million and 105 million
people by 2025, it says. The report,
published in an American magazine, will
probably be very unpopular with India’s
rulers, who, as Bill Gates has found out,
do not like listening to advice from
foreigners.
Last week India’s health minister,
Shatrughan Sinha, said that it was not
true that India
would soon have an Aids
epidemic. He said that these reports
were completely wrong. The Indian
government says that Aids prevention
programmes are working and that the
number of people with the HIV virus is
around 4 million - 0.7% of India’s adult
population. Other experts say that 5
million to 8 million Indians are already
infected.
India is a conservative, mainly Hindu
country and
people do not talk openly
about sex.
In Indian films Indians are not even
allowed to kiss each other. In a country
like this, Bill Gates’ donation to help
fight Aids is certain to be unpopular
with many people.