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PHOTOCOPIABLE
 
© Cambridge University Press 2008
8
Find out if everyone agrees on the most unusual – or funniest 
– story.
More activities
1
Ask students to write some newspaper headlines for 
unusual stories, e.g. 
Spider kills three, Man fi nds mouse 
in soup, Woman thinks husband is burglar
. Remind them 
to use the present simple in the headlines and also not 
to include 
a/an, the, his/her
, etc. Give each student a 
small piece of paper on which to write their newspaper 
headline. Students can then exchange headlines. They 
have to write the short article that follows the headline on 
the slip of paper they received.
2
Alternatively, ask students if they know any other strange 
but true stories.
B
Strange, but true!
1
Students can do this exercise in pairs. They can help each 
other to work out the meaning of any unknown words in 
italics, and then ask and answer the questions. Students can 
either answer the questions about banking in their home 
country or in the town/city where they are studying.
2 
Set a short time limit for this exercise, e.g. ten seconds, to 
make sure that students skim the text.
3
Students can do this exercise in pairs .They can help each 
other to understand any unknown words.
4–5 
Look at the instructions with the class. Remind students 
to scan the article for the information needed to answer the 
questions. You could set a time limit for this exercise, e.g. one 
minute.
6
Before students read the article, explain that this is a typical 
newspaper article in that it doesn’t relate the events of the 
story in the order in which they happened.
7
Students can do this exercise in pairs. Check the answers with 
the class. Ask individual students to read out a sentence each 
in the order in which the events happened.
8
Check the answers with the class. Ask three students to 
supply the missing adjectives.
Ask students what they think about the situation and how 
they think the problem arose.