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FREE Handout, Listening & Quizzes - Diwali
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Hindus Asked to Cut Noise During Diwali (26th October, 2011)

Hindus around the world have begun celebrating the festival of Diwali, or the "festival of lights" in English. The celebration is one of the most important in the Hindu calendar. People celebrate by buying gold, eating special sweets and letting off firecrackers. Indian government spokesman Prithviraj Chavan asked citizens to cut down on noise pollution by not burning loud crackers. He said: "This is also a time to protect our environment from pollution."

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Diwali falls on the new moon night between mid-October and mid-November. This year, animal lovers have asked people not to make too much noise when they celebrate. A doctor from India’s Government Pet Hospital said: “Pets get stressed during Diwali due to the noise of firecrackers. So they should be…indoors. They should not be left alone especially in the evening.” He said the hospital has already seen bad cases of stress in pets over the last two days.

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PHRASE MATCH

Match the following phrases from the article.

Paragraph 1

1.	Hindus around the world have	a.	calendar
2	festival	b.	from pollution
3.	in the Hindu	c.	begun celebrating
4.	letting	d.	noise pollution
5.	cut down on	e.	of lights
6.	protect our environment	f.	off firecrackers

Paragraph 2

1.	Diwali falls on the new	a.	lovers
2	animal	b.	two days
3.	not to make too	c.	be left alone
4.	Pets get stressed	d.	moon night
5.	They should not	e.	much noise
6.	over the last	f.	during Diwali

LISTENING GAP FILL

Hindus around the world ______________________ the festival of Diwali, or the "festival of lights" in English. The celebration is one of the ______________________ the Hindu calendar. People ______________________ gold, eating special sweets and letting off firecrackers. Indian government spokesman Prithviraj Chavan asked ______________________ on noise pollution by not ______________________. He said: "This is also a time to ______________________ from pollution."

Diwali falls on the ______________________ between mid-October and mid-November. This year, ______________________ asked people not to make too much noise ______________________. A doctor from India’s Government Pet Hospital said: “Pets ______________________ Diwali due to the noise of firecrackers. So they should be…indoors. They should not be ______________________ in the evening.” He said the hospital has already seen bad cases of ______________________ over the last two days.

MULTIPLE CHOICE

Hindus around the world have (1) ____ celebrating the festival of Diwali, or the "festival of (2) ____" in English. The celebration is one of the most important (3) ____ the Hindu calendar. People celebrate (4) ____ buying gold, eating special sweets and letting off firecrackers. Indian government spokesman Prithviraj Chavan asked citizens to (5) ____ down on noise pollution by not burning loud crackers. He said: "This is also a time to protect our environment from (6) ____."

Diwali (7) ____ on the new moon night between mid-October and mid-November. This year, animal lovers have asked people not to make (8) ____ much noise when they celebrate. A doctor from India’s Government Pet Hospital said: “Pets (9) ____ stressed during Diwali (10) ____ to the noise of firecrackers. So they should be…indoors. They should not be left (11) ____ especially in the evening.” He said the hospital has already seen bad cases of stress in pets (12) ____ the last two days.

Put the correct words from this table into the article.

1.	(a)	begun	(b)	begins	(c)	began
2.	(a)	lighting	(b)	lit	(c)	lights
3.	(a)	at	(b)	in	(c)	of
4.	(a)	at	(b)	by	(c)	in
5.	(a)	cut	(b)	chop	(c)	reduce
6.	(a)	polluted	(b)	pollution	(c)	pollutes
7.	(a)	falls	(b)	wills	(c)	tells
8.	(a)	to	(b)	such	(c)	too
9.	(a)	be	(b)	get	(c)	did
10.	(a)	due	(b)	cue	(c)	hue
11.	(a)	loner	(b)	lonely	(c)	alone
12	(a)	under	(b)	through	(c)	over

SPELLING

Spell the jumbled words (from the text) correctly.

Paragraph 1
1.	Hindus drunoa the world
2.	savfltei of lights
3.	in the Hindu rcndaale
4.	itlngte off firecrackers
5.	cut down on nisoe
6.	tetcpor our environment
Paragraph 2
7.	nweetbe mid-October and mid-November
8.	animal vrsleo
9.	pets get deerstss
10.	they should be rnoiosd
11.	be left aenol
12.	aedryal seen bad cases

PUT THE TEXT BACK TOGETHER

Number these lines in the correct order.

( )	calendar. People celebrate by buying gold, eating special sweets and letting
( )	already seen bad cases of stress in pets over the last two days.
( )	citizens to cut down on noise pollution by not burning loud crackers. He said: "This is
( 1 )	Hindus around the world have begun celebrating the festival of Diwali, or the "festival of
( )	off firecrackers. Indian government spokesman Prithviraj Chavan asked
( )	also a time to protect our environment from pollution."
( )	mid-November. This year, animal lovers have asked people not to make too much
( )	indoors. They should not be left alone especially in the evening.” He said the hospital has
( )	Diwali falls on the new moon night between mid-October and
( )	lights" in English. The celebration is one of the most important in the Hindu
( )	noise when they celebrate. A doctor from India’s Government Pet Hospital said: “Pets get
( )	stressed during Diwali due to the noise of firecrackers. So they should be…

THE READING / TAPESCRIPT

With a partner, put the words back into the correct order.

1.	have world the around Hindus celebrating begun.
2.	One most the the in calendar of important Hindu.
3.	gold buying by celebrate People.
4.	asked on citizens noise to cut Chavan down.
5.	pollution from environment our Protect.
6.	new the on falls Diwali night moon.
7.	Asked too people much not noise to make.
8.	Stressed noise the to due Diwali during.
9.	They not left should be alone.
10.	bad seen already has hospital The cases.

DISCUSSION (Write your own questions)

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)
1.	________________________________________________________
2.	________________________________________________________
3.	________________________________________________________
4.	________________________________________________________
5.	________________________________________________________
6.	________________________________________________________

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)
1.	________________________________________________________
2.	________________________________________________________
3.	________________________________________________________
4.	________________________________________________________
5.	________________________________________________________
6.	________________________________________________________

WRITING

Write about Diwali for 10 minutes. Show your partner your paper. Correct each other’s work.

______________________________________________________________________________

HOMEWORK

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. DIWALI: Search the Internet and find more information about Diwali. Talk about what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.

3. MAGAZINE ARTICLE: Write a magazine article about Diwali and pets. Include imaginary interviews with two pets. Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Give each other feedback on your articles.

4. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT? Write a newspaper article about the next stage in this news story. Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Give each other feedback on your articles.

5. LETTER: Write a letter to a Diwali expert. Ask him/her three questions about Diwali. Give him/her three of your opinions on it. Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Your partner will answer the questions you asked.

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News English Lessons FREE Handout, Listening & Quizzes - Diwali (11 Pages of Materials & 8 Online Activities)