Activities

Carnival around the world (A1)

Read the text and then answer the questions below.

Germany loves to celebrate Carnival. Think of the parades in Cologne and the thousands of visitors who enjoy this festival. People dress up in costumes, they drink a lot and have a good time! But Germany is not alone. Many other countries like to celebrate Carnival as well.

The Carnival Capital of the world is Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. The Rio Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) Carnival is a wild five-day celebration which begins on Friday and finishes on Tuesday. There are 70,000 participants in over 440 groups who dance and sing and play music in the parade and there is an audience of many millions who watch this gigantic party on television. The first record of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro was in 1723 when the celebration was, of course, much smaller.

Panama is a very small country, but it celebrates Mardi Gras in a big way, too. Some people say it is the second biggest Carnival in the world. Like in Brazil, the festival starts on Friday and finishes on Tuesday. Many towns have their own celebrations, but Panama City has an exciting and lively parade along the Via España. There are plenty of water trucks spraying visitors and people throw water ballons – so watch out, you will get wet!

Carnival in Venice started nearly one thousand years ago in 1162 and has become very popular today. Masks are very important in this Carnival and people wear masks of different colours and designs – and costumes, too, of course. Today more than three million people visit Venice for Carnival – so don’t expect to find an empty gondola during this time.

Questions on the text

1 Which is the oldest Carnival? 2 Which is the biggest Carnival? 3 Where do people wear masks? 4 Where do people throw water? 5 How many people visit Carnival in Venice?

Discussion questions

1 Have you visited any of these Carnivals? 2 Which of these Carnivals would you like to visit? 3 Do you enjoy the celebrations in Germany? Why? / Why not?

Key to Questions on the text: 1 The Carnival in Venice. 2 The Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. 3 In Venice. 4 In Panama City. 5 More than 3 million.

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David Cameron (A2)

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David Cameron is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He is also the leader of the Conservative Party. He was born on 9 October 1966 to a wealthy family and he went to private school. When David was seven he went to Heatherdown Preparatory School in Berkshire - the same school that Prince Andrew and Prince Edward (Queen Elizabeth II's two younger sons) attended. At thirteen he went to Eton, one of the most famous (and certainly one of the most expensive) private schools in England. His father and older brother had also attended Eton.

David was a very clever boy and a successful student, until the day the teachers discovered he was smoking cannabis! But he passed all his school exams with excellent grades and went on to study at University. He was a very good student at Oxford and received a first class degree. While he was at Oxford, he joined the Bullingdon Club, a group of male Oxford University students who had a reputation for excessive spending, drinking and wild behaviour. Other members of the Bullingdon Club in 1980s were (now the Chancellor of the Exchequer) and (the ).

David Cameron married Samantha Sheffield in 1996 while he was working at Carlton Communications.

He first tried to become an MP (Member of Parliament) in 1997 in Stafford, but wasn’t successful. He won the second time in 2001 in Witney in Oxfordshire where he now lives (when he is not in 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the Prime Minister).

Samantha and David Cameron’s first child, Ivan, was disabled and he died when he was six years old. They now have three children: Nancy, Arthur and Florence.

Questions on the text 1 What do these numbers refer to? a) 7, b) 13, c) 1966, d) 1996, e) 2001 2 Why are these places important for David Cameron? a) Oxford b) Witney 3 What does he have in common with a) Prince Edward b) the Mayor of London? 4 What’s the equivalent of a) Prime Minister b) Chancellor of the Exchequer in your country? Who is your country’s Prime Minister and who is your country’s Chancellor of the Exchequer?

Key: 1 a) David Cameron was 7 years old when he went to Heatherdown School. b) He was 13 years old when he went to Eton School. c) He was born in 1966. d) He got married in 1996. e) He became an MP in 2001. 2 a) He studied at Oxford University. b) He lives in Witney and he is MP for Witney. 3 a) He went to the same school as Prince Edward. b) He was in the Bullingdon Club with Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London. 4 a) ~ Premierminister/in / Regierungschef/in des Landes / Bundeskanzler/in b) ~ Finanzminister/in Network Now Seite 2 Activities

A new kind of café (B1)

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What do you think about a restaurant where the food is free? Where the drinks are free? Does it sound too good to be true? If you have ever spent an hour or two enjoying a coffee and cake with a friend, this new café might make you eat and drink more quickly. Why? Because Ziferblat is the UK’s first pay-per-minute café, but at only 3p per minute to stay, you might find yourself spending even longer chatting next time.

The name Ziferblat means clock face in Russian and German (‘Zifferblatt’). Just like in an office, you clock in when you arrive and then you clock out when you leave. The minutes are added and the amount you have to pay is calculated. It is only £1.80 (about 2 euros) to stay for an hour!

So how does the café make a profit? It’s hard to say at this point, but it seems that it is more a social experiment at the moment. It describes itself as a social project and not a business model. From time to time the organisation asks for donations to help fund further development.

There is free fruit, coffee and tea and you can cook your own food if you want to. It looks like a regular arty restaurant, with comfortable chairs and tables. The chain has five cafés in Russia and Ziferblat in London is the first to be opened abroad.

So if you are in London (or in Russia) and want somewhere different for a coffee, then try Ziferblat where ‘everything is free, except the time you spend there’.

Questions on the text

1 Why is this café different from usual cafés? 2 How much is it to stay in the café per minute? How much would it cost for one and a quarter hours? 3 How many cafés like this are there in total in 2014? 4 Why is it called Ziferblat?

Key: 1 You pay for the time you stay in the café and not for the food. 2 3p per minute. £2.25. 3 6 (5 in Russia and 1 in London). 4 Ziferblat means ‘clock face’ – you clock in when you arrive and you clock out when you leave.

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