The e-Book

1,000 IDEAS & ACTIVITIES FOR
LANGUAGE
TEACHERS

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

Home
Donate

E-mail this lesson to
a student /colleague

COPYRIGHT:
Please write to
me for permission.

Obese Indian Elephants Put On A Diet (18th September, 2012)

Elephants working in temples in India's southern Tamil Nadu state are to go on a diet. They may seem to have a relaxing life, but they are too heavy and are becoming unhealthy. The elephants are obese and need to lose kilos. In fact, one temple reports it has an elephant who is 700kg overweight. A temple official told the BBC that he was worried about his elephants and their health. He said the female elephant at his temple was 500kg overweight and that she is now on a diet to reduce her weight.

Advertisements

There are several reasons why the elephants are obese. One is that they do not get enough exercise – they spend long hours chained up inside the temples. Another cause is their diet – people feed them sweets, rice and bread, which are all high in calories. A large number of tourists, including religious pilgrims, visit the temples every day, so the elephants are generally overfed. The animal is worshipped in India as a god. Many Hindus feed them because they believe it will bring them good luck in business.

Advertisements

PHRASE MATCH

Match the following phrases from the article.

Paragraph 1

1.	go on	a.	kilos
2	They may seem to	b.	elephant
3.	need to lose	c.	overweight
4.	700kg	d.	her weight
5.	the female	e.	a diet
6.	on a diet to reduce	f.	have a relaxing life

Paragraph 2

1.	several	a.	enough exercise
2	they do not get	b.	worshipped in India
3.	people feed	c.	in calories
4.	high	d.	reasons why
5.	The animal is	e.	good luck
6.	it will bring them	f.	them sweets

LISTENING GAP FILL

Elephants (1) _____________________ in India's southern Tamil Nadu state are (2) ______________________. They may seem to have a relaxing life, but they are too heavy and are becoming unhealthy. The elephants are (3) ______________________ to lose kilos. In fact, one temple reports it has an elephant who is 700kg overweight. A (4) ______________________ the BBC that he was (5) ______________________ elephants and their health. He said the female elephant at his temple was 500kg overweight and that she is now on a diet (6) ______________________.

There are (7) ______________________ the elephants are obese. One is that they do not (8) ______________________ xercise – they spend long hours chained up inside the temples. Another (9) ______________________ – people feed them sweets, rice and bread, which are all (10) __________________. A large number of tourists, including religious pilgrims, visit the temples every day, so the elephants (11) __________________. The animal is worshipped in India as a god. Many Hindus feed them because (12) ______________________ will bring them good luck in business.

MULTIPLE CHOICE

Elephants working in temples in India's southern Tamil Nadu state are to (1) ____ on a diet. They may (2) ____ to have a relaxing life, but they are too heavy and are becoming unhealthy. The elephants are obese and need to lose kilos. In (3) ____, one temple reports it has an elephant who is 700kg overweight. A temple official told the BBC that he was worried (4) ____ his elephants and their health. He said the (5) ____ elephant at his temple was 500kg overweight and that she is now on a diet to (6) ____ her weight.

There are (7) ____ reasons why the elephants are obese. One is that they do not get enough exercise – they spend (8) ____ hours chained up inside the temples. Another cause is their diet – people (9) ____ them sweets, rice and bread, which are all high in calories. A large (10) ____ of tourists, including religious pilgrims, visit the temples every day, so the elephants are generally overfed. The animal is worshipped in India (11) ____ a god. Many Hindus feed them because they believe it will bring them good luck (12) ____ business.

Put the correct words from this table into the article.

1.	(a)	come	(b)	go	(c)	leave
2.	(a)	seen	(b)	seep	(c)	seem
3.	(a)	fact	(b)	facts	(c)	factual
4.	(a)	of	(b)	about	(c)	from
5.	(a)	girl	(b)	feminine	(c)	female
6.	(a)	reduce	(b)	deduce	(c)	induce
7.	(a)	servants	(b)	several	(c)	starving
8.	(a)	long	(b)	deep	(c)	wide
9.	(a)	food	(b)	feud	(c)	feed
10.	(a)	number	(b)	size	(c)	type
11.	(a)	has	(b)	as	(c)	was
12	(a)	on	(b)	by	(c)	in

SPELLING

Spell the jumbled words (from the text) correctly.

Paragraph 1
1.	India's trhsueno Tamil Nadu state
2.	have a lrniegax life
3.	becoming leythuhna
4.	a temple ficfloai
5.	afleem elephant
6.	reduce her igtehw
Paragraph 2
7.	vselaer reasons why
8.	get enough reiexecs
9.	cihdean up
10.	high in oraleisc
11.	the elephants are generally roeedfv
12.	good luck in ssienbsu

PUT THE TEXT BACK TOGETHER

Number these lines in the correct order.

( )	exercise – they spend long hours chained up inside the temples. Another cause
( )	unhealthy. The elephants are obese and need to lose kilos. In fact, one temple
( )	about his elephants and their health. He said the female elephant at his temple was
( 1 )	Elephants working in temples in India's southern Tamil Nadu state are to go
( )	There are several reasons why the elephants are obese. One is that they do not get enough
( )	a god. Many Hindus feed them because they believe it will bring them good luck in business.
( )	reports it has an elephant who is 700kg overweight. A temple official told the BBC that he was worried
( )	calories. A large number of tourists, including religious pilgrims, visit the temples
( )	every day, so the elephants are generally overfed. The animal is worshipped in India as
( )	is their diet – people feed them sweets, rice and bread, which are all high in
( )	500kg overweight and that she is now on a diet to reduce her weight.
( )	on a diet. They may seem to have a relaxing life, but they are too heavy and are becoming

THE READING / TAPESCRIPT

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

1.	Tamil southern India's in Temples state Nadu.
2.	relaxing seem life to have They a may.
3.	elephants to and are lose need The kilos obese.
4.	was about elephants He worried his.
5.	now on a diet to reduce her weight She is.
6.	are elephants the why reasons Several obese.
7.	not enough do get exercise They.
8.	long inside Spend up chained temples hours the.
9.	as is India god animal in a The worshipped.
10.	good It luck will in bring business them.

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 diets 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. DIETS: Search the Internet and find more information about the elephants and their diets. Talk about what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.

3. MAGAZINE ARTICLE: Write a magazine article about diets. Include an imaginary interview with a temple elephant. 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 diets expert. Ask him/her three questions about diets. Give him/her three of your opinions on them. Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Your partner will answer the questions you asked.

Back to the top

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