And the Winner is… Blog

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. ‘BLOG’ WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … of the word ‘blog’. In fact it isn’t in paper dictionaries, so the challenge is to attempt this without conventional dictionaries.

2. BLOGGING: Discuss reasons why people want to set up blogs and blog. What subject would you like to blog about? Create new members of the word family ‘blog’ (mine are ‘blog off’, ‘blogging hell’, ‘blog jam’, ‘bloggercize’, ‘blognophobia’, ‘blogpert’, but I won’t give my definitions here.

3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases based on the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

(a)	It’s	word on the Internet
(b)	a contraction	people
(c)	the most searched	big thing
(d)	dictionary	definition
(e)	by a wide	official
(f)	dictionary	giant
(g)	personal	margin
(h)	interact with	journal
(i)	the word has been	of the term …
(j)	the next	around since 1999

4. OTHER WINNERS: Match the words which came 2^nd to 10^th in the Mirriam-Webster awards. (Listed in descending order). Don’t forget to work on pronunciation – these words can be tricky

(a)	incumbent (2^nd)	devoted to or biased in support of a party, group, or cause
(b)	electoral	of or relating to elections
(c)	insurgent	in cycling, a densely packed group of riders who stay together for mutual advantage
(d)	hurricane	the act of throwing someone or something out of a window
(e)	cicada	someone currently holding a specified office
(f)	peloton	a wind with a speed greater than 74 miles (119 kilometers) per hour
(g)	partisan	complete independence and self-government
(h)	sovereignty	someone who rises in revolt against established authority, especially a government
(i)	defenestration (10^th)	an insect with large wings; male has drum-like organs for producing a high-pitched sound

5. PRE-TELL: Try to pre-tell the contents of the article from the following contracted or two-word lexical terms:
- word Oscar
- most-searched
- dictionary giant
- press release
- user- requests
- wide mar gin
- online journal
- easy-to-use (OK there are 3 parts here)
- took off
- big thing

1. 12 - GAP-FILL: Put the missing words under each paragraph into the gaps.

BNE: … And the winner is… no, not a movie, but a __________. It’s official, ‘blog’ a contraction of the __________ ‘web log’, won the equivalent of a word Oscar yesterday for being the most __________ word on the Internet in 2004. This is according to dictionary giant Mirriam-Webster. In a __________ release, they stated, “The __________ one word of the year, receiving the largest number of user- requests by a __________ margin, is ‘blog’” Their dictionary definition is "a Web site that contains an __________ personal journal with reflections, comments, and often __________ provided by the writer." According to Blogger.com, “A blog is your easy-to-use web site, where you can quickly __________ thoughts, interact with people, and more.” The word has been around since 1999, but only took __________ this year because of the explosion in world bloggers (people who blog - verb) who create blogs (noun). Blogging (noun) is the __________ big thing and will become as __________ as texting, spamming, gaming, phishing, hacking, filesharing….

wide term word number press off online ubiquitous post searched hyperlinks next

2. PHRASE MATCH: Check your answers to the word match exercise.

3. QUESTIONS: Make notes for questions you would like to ask the class about the article.

4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings.

Дата добавления: 2015-01-03