Dutch game show pits failed asylum seekers against each other

Level 2 Intermediate
1 Key Warmer words
Fill the gaps in the sentences using these key words from the text. The paragraph numbers are given to help you. contestant controversial game show sceptical tasteless immigration fake donor smarmy deport provocative asylum seeker

1. A ______________________________ is a TV programme in which people play games or answer questions to win prizes. (title) 2. An ______________________________ is someone who has to leave their own country because they are in danger and who arrives in another country and asks to be allowed to live there. (title) 3. If something is described as ______________________________, it is slightly rude and offensive and not appropriate to the situation. (para 1) 4. If something is ______________________________, it is intended to start arguments between people or make people angry or upset. (para 1) 5. A ______________________________ is someone who takes part in a competition. (para 2) 6. If you ______________________________ someone, you send them out of a country because they have no legal right to be there. (para 2) 7. A ______________________________ person is extremely pleasant and polite in a way that seems false. (para 3) 8. ______________________________ is the process in which people enter a country in order to stay there for a long time. (para 4) 9. If you are ______________________________ about something, you have doubts about it even though other people think that it is right. (para 5) 10. A ______________________________ subject is one that people disagree about or do not approve of. (para 7) 11. A ______________________________ is someone who gives part of their body to be used in the medical treatment of someone else. (para 7) 12. If something is ______________________________, it is made to look like something real in order to trick people. (para 7)

2 Find the information

Find this information in the text as quickly as possible. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. How many contestants are there in the game show? What is the quiz about? How much money does the game show winner receive? What is Curaao? What is the PVV? When was The Big Donor Show made?
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Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2011 NEWS LESSONS / Dutch game show pits failed asylum seekers against each other / Intermediate

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Dutch game show pits failed asylum seekers against each other

Level 2 Intermediate

1

Dutch game show pits failed asylum seekers against each other
Peter Walker 1 September, 2011 The Dutch TV programme Weg van Nederland might seem to be tasteless and provocative but it does, in fact, have a liberal aim. The contestants on the one-off game show are five asylum seekers who are no longer allowed to stay in the Netherlands legally and are soon to be deported to their home countries. They play in a quiz about Dutch culture, history and language and the winner receives 4,000 to help them adapt when they are deported. Consolation prizes include a bulletproof vest. The show is presented by a smarmy male host accompanied by a pair of female assistants wearing air cabin crew uniforms. The title is a play on words, meaning either leaving the Netherlands or mad about the Netherlands. The contestants are well-educated and well-spoken, and include an aeronautical engineer from Cameroon and a Slavic languages student who is being sent back to Chechnya. The programme does not want to laugh at asylum seekers it wants to demonstrate how well integrated many of them are. Viewers can play too using the internet to answer the same questions, but their prize is a flight return, of course to the Caribbean island of Curaao. The programme is a response to stricter immigration and asylum laws in the Netherlands. The country was once seen as one of the worlds more liberal nations over new arrivals. One example of the changing attitudes in the Netherlands is that the anti-Muslim, far-right PVV party is now the third biggest in the Dutch parliament. The head of VPRO, Frank Wiering, said he was extremely sceptical when he first heard the idea. My first reaction was: terrible idea, were not doing that. Then I looked into the issue more

deeply and decided we have to do this. Weg van Nederland focuses attention on the fact that, these days, many asylum seekers who are being deported have children who have lived in the Netherlands for eight years or more. They have had a good education, speak perfect Dutch and have only seen their country of birth on television. We believe its time to stop and think about this. The contestants are, he added, highly intelligent, confident people who can decide for themselves whether to play or not. The programme has the support of a group that works with asylum seekers. Someone from the group said: Were hoping Weg van Nederland makes more people think about how we treat asylum seekers, that they understand more about what asylum seekers go through. Sometimes it takes far too long before they know whether they can stay. His organization would like a fast but careful asylum procedure. Young people who have spent so many years in the Netherlands are often more Dutch than Afghan or Somali and more at home here than in their home countries. Another controversial programme was made by another Dutch broadcaster in 2007. In The Big Donor Show, three people who needed a transplant played to win a kidney from a terminally ill woman. The woman was an actor, and although the contestants genuinely needed transplants, they knew the show was fake and was just to increase awareness. Weg van Nederland is genuine though, Wiering said: The candidates are not actors, they are genuine unsuccessful asylum seekers who have to leave this country within a month or two.
Guardian News and Media 2011 First published in The Guardian, 01/09/11

Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2011 NEWS LESSONS / Dutch game show pits failed asylum seekers against each other / Intermediate

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N T O FR BE C O DO O M W P W N IA EB LO B SI A L TE DE E D

Dutch game show pits failed asylum seekers against each other

Level 2 Intermediate
3 Comprehension check
Are these statements true (T) or false (F) according to the text? 1. The contestants want to leave the Netherlands. 2. The programme aims to laugh at asylum seekers. 3. Weg van Nederland has two meanings. 4. The programme is not fake. 5. The Big Donor Show was not fake. 6. The aim of both programmes was to increase awareness.

4 Find the word

Find the following words and phrases in the text. 1. a two-word adjective meaning happening only once (para 2) 2. a two-word noun phrase meaning something small given to someone who has failed to win (para 2) 3. a three-word expression meaning a clever or funny use of a word or phrase that has two different meanings (para 3) 4. a two-word adjective meaning fully involved in a society (para 3) 5. a two-word phrasal verb meaning to try to discover the facts about something (para 5) 6. a two-word phrasal verb meaning to experience something difficult or unpleasant (para 6) 7. a two-word adjectival phrase meaning soon to die from a disease (para 7) 8. an adverb meaning honestly, or in a sincere way (para 7)

5 Verb + noun collocations

Match the verbs in the left-hand column with the nouns and noun phrases in the right-hand column to make expressions from the text. 1. have 2. focus 3. increase 4. spend 5. look into 6. change a. b. c. d. e. f. many years attitudes attention an aim an issue awareness

Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2011 NEWS LESSONS / Dutch game show pits failed asylum seekers against each other / Intermediate

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N T O FR BE C O DO O M W P W N IA EB LO B SI A L TE DE E D

Dutch game show pits failed asylum seekers against each other

Level 2 Intermediate
6 Word-building
Complete the table. verb 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. aim contest assist proceed view fly (person) (person) (person) noun

7 Discussion
Do you think this programme is a good idea? Why? Why not?

Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2011 NEWS LESSONS / Dutch game show pits failed asylum seekers against each other / Intermediate

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N T O FR BE C O DO O M W P W N IA EB LO B SI A L TE DE E D

Dutch game show pits failed asylum seekers against each other

Level 2 Intermediate KEY

1 Key words
1. game show 2. asylum seeker 3. tasteless 4. provocative 5. contestant 6. deport 7. smarmy 8. immigration 9. sceptical 10. controversial 11. donor 12. fake

4 Find the word

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. one-off consolation prize play on words well-integrated look into go through terminally ill genuinely

5 Verb + noun collocations

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. d c f a e b

2 Find the information

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. five Dutch culture, history and language 4,000 a Caribbean island a political party 2007

6 Word-building
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. aim contestant assistant procedure viewer flight

3 Comprehension check
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. F F T T F T

Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2011 NEWS LESSONS / Dutch game show pits failed asylum seekers against each other / Intermediate

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N T O FR BE C O DO O M W P W N IA EB LO B SI A L TE DE E D