News-based lesson: 19 March 2011
Britain’s sleep deficit
Teacher’s notes and key
Level: B1+ lower-intermediate and above
Aims:
 to practise reading for gist and detail
 to work on prepositions and/or editing skills.
Timing: up to one and half hours.
Lead-in
1.
2.
3.
Write the following quotation on the board:
‘____________ is the golden chain that ties health and our bodies
together.’ (Thomas Dekker, 1572-1632)
Elicit suggestions from the students as to what might complete the quotation.
Answer: sleep.
Ask the students how many hours they usually sleep have, and whether they think
this figure is too much, about right or not enough, and why.
Task A
1.
2.
3.
Explain to students that they are going to read a short news story about sleep
levels.
Give each student a copy of the article ‘Britain’s sleep deficit’, from p.19 of The
Week magazine (downloadable from www.teachitworld.com) with the title
missing. Also make sure you remove the title from the top of the worksheet!
Ask them to skim-read the article and decide which of the three headlines in Task
A is the most appropriate.
Answer: a.
Task B
1.
2.
3.
4.
Ask students to look at Task B. Alternatively, write the questions on the board or
dictate them.
Explain that the questions are simple true/false questions designed to check
general understanding of the content of the text.
Ask students to write T or F next to each statement, then to check their answers
with a partner or two. Answers: 1F; 2F; 3F; 4T; 5F.
Collect in the copies of the article and explain that you will give them back later.
Task C
There is a choice of two worksheets: Option A focuses on prepositions; Option B is an
error correction exercise.
Note: it would probably not be appropriate to do both in the same lesson, but you could
set one for homework and give back the copies of the article the next lesson.
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News-based lesson: 19 March 2011
Britain’s sleep deficit
Option A
Again, there is a choice of worksheets: in Version 1, the prepositions are replaced by the
letters a-p; in the easier Version 2, each preposition is represented by a symbol (with
the same symbol used for the same preposition throughout).
Note that although students have already read the complete text, they will not have
focused on the prepositions simply because prepositions do not carry much meaning.
For this reason the activity will still be challenging for them.
1.
2.
Give each student a copy of the relevant version.
Once they have completed the task and compared their answers in pairs, give back
the copies of the article so that they can check against the original text.
Version 1 answers:
a. as; b. by; c. on; d. of; e. in; f. for; g. of; h. of; i. in; j. around; k. as; l. of; m. with;
n. of; o. in; p. to.
Version 2 answers:
# as; @ by; $ on; * of; % in; ^ for; £ around; € along with; + up to.
Note that there is considerable scope here for looking in more detail at
prepositions and the patterns they occur in.
For instance, you may wish to look at the difference between prepositions and adverb
particles – there is one example of the latter in the text (get by on) – which may
confuse students because by can of course act as a preposition as well.
Simply put, the difference is that a preposition must have an object – a noun or noun
phrase which comes immediately after it – hence the word pre-position; adverb
particles, on the other hand, are attached to a verb, hence the word ad-verb. The
two-word prepositions along with and up to each function as a single unit of meaning.
The distinction between prepositions and adverb particles is an important one when it
comes to students’ understanding of multi-word verbs – in the text, for example, get
by on is a three-part multi-word verb consisting of verb + adverb particle +
preposition. (Strictly speaking, the word ‘than’ is used as a preposition in the phrases
less than six hours a night and less than five hours, but not in the phrase than they
did a century ago. However, this is probably more than students will want to know!)
Option B
1.
2.
3.
Give each student a copy of Task C (Option B).
Explain that on most lines, an extra, incorrect word has been added.
Ask the students to read through the text and write the extra words on the lines to
the right. If you prefer, tell them that two of the lines are actually correct, with
no extra words added. Stress that the extra words are not optional words but
words which are actually incorrectly positioned in terms of the grammar in the
text. You may also want to point out that this activity type used to feature in the
Cambridge FCE exam.
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News-based lesson: 19 March 2011
4.
Britain’s sleep deficit
Once students have completed the task and compared their answers in pairs, give
back the copies of the article so that they can check against the original text.
Answers:
1 if; 2 them; 3 the; 4 more; 5 it; 6 to; 7 she; 8 CORRECT; 9 have; 10 only; 11 to; 12
a; 13 CORRECT; 14 of; 15 that.
Task D
1.
2.
Ask the students to give their reaction to the text. For example, do they agree
that less than six hours’ sleep is insufficient for a healthy life? Also, ask them why
they think many young American sleep two hours less than they did a century ago,
despite the number of time- and labour-saving devices we now have at our
disposal.
To conclude the lesson, divide the students into groups of four and ask them to play
the board game (Task D). This is a standard board game, in which students take it
in turns to roll a dice, move the requisite number of places and answer the
question they find there. All the questions are, of course, sleep-related.
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News-based lesson: 19 March 2011
Britain’s sleep deficit
Worksheet
Task A
Skim-read the article and choose the best heading.
a)
Britain’s sleep deficit
b)
Sleepy Britain
c)
Overweight, overworked and oversleeping
Task B
Read the article again. Are the statements below true (T) or false (F)?
1.
One Briton in every eight does not get enough sleep.
2.
British culture regards having a lot of sleep as a macho thing.
3.
Getting enough sleep is even more important than eating well.
4.
Sleeping for more than five hours brings significant health benefits.
5.
Americans tend to get even less sleep than people in Britain.
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News-based lesson: 19 March 2011
Britain’s sleep deficit
Task C (Option A)
Version 1
__a__ a nation, we’re risking our health __b__ trying to get by __c__ too little sleep. A
survey __d__ 14,000 families suggests that one __e__ eight Britons now sleeps __f__ less
than six hours a night. Professor Sara Arber __g__ the University __h__ Surrey, who
produced the data, blames a culture __i__ which “there’s almost a macho image __j__
not needing much sleep”. But although Margaret Thatcher famously claimed four hours
was enough, a good night’s sleep should be seen __k__ a vital component __l__ a
healthy life, along __m__ a balanced diet and regular exercise. Previous research has
indicated that getting less than five hours significantly
increases the risk __n__ diabetes, heart disease and
obesity. Similar patterns are being seen elsewhere
__o__ the West. Young Americans now get up __p__
two hours less sleep a night than they did a century
ago.
a ......................
b ......................
c ......................
d ......................
e ......................
f .......................
g ......................
h ......................
I .......................
j .......................
k ......................
l .......................
m .....................
n ......................
o ......................
p ......................
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News-based lesson: 19 March 2011
Britain’s sleep deficit
Version 2
__#__ a nation, we’re risking our health __@__ trying to get by __$__ too little sleep. A
survey __*__ 14,000 families suggests that one __%__ eight Britons now sleeps __^__ less
than six hours a night. Professor Sara Arber __*__ the University __*__ Surrey, who
produced the data, blames a culture __%__ which “there’s almost a macho image __£__
not needing much sleep”. But although Margaret Thatcher famously claimed four hours
was enough, a good night’s sleep should be seen __#__ a
vital component __*__ a healthy life, __€__ a balanced
diet and regular exercise. Previous research has indicated
that getting less than five hours significantly increases the
risk __*__ diabetes, heart disease and obesity. Similar
patterns are being seen elsewhere __%__ the West. Young
Americans now get __+__ two hours less sleep a night than
they did a century ago.
# ................................
@ ...............................
$ ...............................
* ................................
% ...............................
^ ...............................
£ ................................
€ ...............................
+ ...............................
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News-based lesson: 19 March 2011
Britain’s sleep deficit
Task C (Option B)
As if a nation, we’re risking our health by trying to get by
1 ............
on too little sleep. A survey of them 14,000 families suggests
2 ............
that one in eight the Britons now sleeps for less than six
3 ............
more hours a night. Professor Sara Arber of the University
4 ............
of Surrey, who produced it the data, blames a culture in
5 ............
which “there’s almost a macho image around not needing to
6 ............
much sleep”. But although Margaret Thatcher she famously
7 ............
claimed four hours was enough, a good night’s sleep
8 ............
should have be seen as a vital component of a healthy life,
9 ............
along only with a balanced diet and regular exercise. Previous 10 ..........
research has indicated to that getting less than five hours
11 ..........
significantly increases the risk of diabetes, a heart disease
12 ..........
and obesity. Similar patterns are being seen elsewhere in
13 ..........
the West. Young Americans now get up to two hours of less
14 ..........
sleep a night than that they did a century ago.
15 ..........
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News-based lesson: 19 March 2011
Britain’s sleep deficit
Task D
Have you
ever fallen
asleep
somewhere
you shouldn’t
have?
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