News-based English language activities from the global newspaper

April 2009
Level ≥ Lower intermediate
Style ≥ Lesson plan
Welcome to the Guardian Weekly’s special news-based materials to support learners and teachers of English.
Each month, the Guardian Weekly newspaper selects topical news articles that can be used to practise English
language skills. The materials are graded for two levels: advanced and lower intermediate. These worksheets
can be downloaded free from guardianweekly.co.uk/learningenglish/. You can also find more advice for
teachers and learners on the site.

Readers reveal books they lie about

Materials prepared by Janet Hardy-Gould

Instructions
Lesson focus: reading, discussing books
Materials sheet: copies of the article, classic novels
Time: 55 minutes

1 Bring in classic novels in English. Has anybody read them
in translation or seen the film? Ask students about the
most admired classics in their country/language. Brain-
storm a list on the board. Are any hard to read because they
are long or difficult? Leave the list on the board. 5 mins
4 Ask: Why do people lie about reading books? Students
find and underline key information.
Answers: They’re embarrassed. (paragraph 2); they want
to impress others (para 4); they get sucked into making
false claims (para 5) 4 mins

2 Tell students they are going to read about a survey on
books. Pre-teach: survey, questionnaire, respondent, ma-
jority, to reveal, to lie, to admit, to get sucked into. 7 mins
3 Give out copies of the article. Distribute the true or false
questions on the worksheet. Check unknown vocabu-
lary. Students read to find answers. Feedback. 10 mins
a [ ] More than half the people surveyed admitted to
lying about books.
b [ ] About a third of people have never lied about
books.
c [ ] War and Peace is the book that most people have
lied about.
d [ ] Francesca Simon read books by Italo Calvino at
Oxford University.
e [ ] More than half of people turn down the corners of
the pages.
f [ ] Only a very small percentage of people read books
they have bought as presents.
g [ ] Jonathan Douglas is positive about the survey
results.
Answers: a T b T c F d F e T f F g T
5 Look back at the books on the board. Which ones do you
think people in your country lie about? Why? 4 mins
6 Draw up a mind map (see worksheet) with “Books and
Reading” in the centre. Draw three lines from the middle
with “adjectives”, “type of book” and “elements of a book”
on them. Elicit vocabulary for each category, for example:
adjectives: gripping, moving, very readable, slow, heavy
going; type: thriller, classic novel, detective novel, biogra-
phy, autobiography; elements: character, chapter, begin-
ning, end. 10 mins
7 Tell students they’re going to discuss two books in pairs.
First, students think of two books – one they’ve read and
one that is a lie. Students then prepare five questions to
ask their partner about the books. For example, Would
you recommend the books? Are they very readable? One
student asks questions and the other talks convincingly
about their books. At the end, the questioner guesses
which book is a lie. Reverse roles. 15 mins
News-based English language activities from the global newspaper

April 2009

Materials sheet Article: Readers reveal books

Student tasks
Read the article and find the true or false answers to
these questions
a [ ] More than half the people surveyed admitted to
lying about books.
b [ ] About a third of people have never lied about
books.
c [ ] War and Peace is the book that most people have
lied about.
d [ ] Francesca Simon read books by Italo Calvino at
Oxford University.
e [ ] More than half of people turn down the corners of
the pages.
f [ ] Only a very small percentage of people read books
they have bought as presents.
g [ ] Jonathan Douglas is positive about the survey
results.
Why do people lie about reading books? Find and
underline the key information in the article
Mind map — think of vocabulary for each of the books
and reading categories in the mind map below
adjectives
gripping
they lie about
1 In a survey carried out in Britain about books, over half of
people admit to lying about what they have read.
2 When asked if they have read a famous book many
people are often too embarrassed to say “no”.
3 The survey was part of the annual World Book Day and it
used information from 1,342 respondents to a question-
naire. While 33% of people say they have never lied about
books – a clear majority – 65% have.
4 The classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
came top in the UK’s list of books that people falsely say
they have read. More than 40% of people lied about read-
ing it in order to impress others. It is followed by Tolstoy’s
War and Peace (31%), James Joyce’s Ulysses (25%) and the
Bible (24%).
5 The children’s writer Francesca Simon thinks it is possible
to get sucked into making false claims. She remembered
one of her professors at Oxford University asking her
about the Italian writer Italo Calvino. “I said that I’d heard
of him and she started questioning me over which books I
had read and then I couldn’t get out of it.”
6 The poll reveals that many of us are impatient readers –
we sometimes just go straight to the end. We are also not
particularly worried about how we treat the book – 62% of
people in the survey admit they turn down the corner of
the page to keep their place.

7 In addition, a total of 48% of people admit to buying a

Books and book for someone else and reading it first. This is some-
reading thing that Simon is happy to admit to. “But no one can
ever tell,” she said.

8 Jonathan Douglas, director of the National Literacy Trust

types elements organisation, said that in many ways the results were
thriller character good. “It shows that reading has a huge cultural value in
the way we present ourselves as intelligent and engaged
people.”
Original article by Mark Brown, rewritten by
Janet Hardy-Gould