News-based English language activities from the global newspaper
December 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.
Telescope hit by broadband problems
Materials prepared by Janet Hardy-Gould
Instructions
Lesson focus: reading, writing letter of complaint
Materials sheet: copies of the article
Time: 60 minutes
1 Show the class the picture of Salt but don’t say that it’s a tel-
escope. In pairs, students speculate what it is: it might/could
be a block of flats, art gallery etc. Class feedback. 5 mins
2 Write up the headline with a gap as indicated below.
Students try to guess the missing word: Telescope hit by
_____ problems. 3 mins
3 Pre-teach the following set of telescope related words:
astronomer, universe, moon, hemisphere, light years, de-
tect, finding, data. Students suggest two or three further
words to add. 10 mins
4 Give out the article – students read the headline and
learn that the telescope has broadband problems. Ask
students if they also have problems with this. 3 mins
5 Write up these questions and go through them as a class.
Students read and choose the correct answers. Class
feedback. 14 mins
1 The telescope’s broadband connection is very _____.
a old b slow c expensive
2 The astronomers send their data by _____.
a plane b train c motor vehicle
3 Salt is the _____ telescope in the Southern Hemisphere.
a largest b oldest c best
4 Salt has had problems with the South African _____
company.
a television b electricity c telecoms
5 It takes more than _____ to send data from one night’s ob-
servation.
a an hour b a day c a week
6 The people at Salt began negotiations for broadband
some _____ ago.
a weeks b months c years
7 In September a _____ delivered information faster than
broadband.
a bird b horse c runner
Answers: 1 b 2 c 3 a 4 c 5 b 6 c 7 a
6 Read out the following questions one by one. Students
put up their hands to answer. 5 mins
a How much did the telescope cost?
b How big is the telescope’s mirror?
c How far away is the nearest internet cable?
d How much money is Telkom asking for?
e How far is the drive to deliver data?
f How big was the memory stick carried by the pigeon?
Answers: a $45 b 11m wide c 18km d $1.3m e 370km
f 4GB
7 Tell students they need to write a letter of complaint
about poor broadband service. As a class, establish three
key paragraphs: reason for writing, details of the prob-
lem, what you would like the company to do. Students
begin in class and finish for homework. 20 mins
News-based English language activities from the global newspaper

December 2009

Materials sheet Article: Telescope hit by

broadband problems
1 It can see to the edge of the universe. It can look back in
time to the end of the Big Bang. Just don’t ask it to send
any information by email.

2 The $45m Southern African Large Telescope (Salt) is a

world-famous science facility with everything but fast
broadband. Its astronomers have found download speeds
so slow that they have to send their findings by road.

3 The problem is familiar to South African residents: very

slow service delivery. Politicians have now asked the
telephone company to improve the situation and save
South Africa’s scientific reputation.

4 Salt, on a hill in the Karoo desert, is the biggest telescope

in the southern hemisphere and it has a 11m-wide mirror
that can detect a candle flame on the moon.

5 But while it can get data from 10bn light years away, Salt
is 18km short of the nearest internet cable. And now five
Dome ... Southern African Large Telescope years of negotiations have stopped because Telkom, the
South African telecoms operator, is demanding $1.3m.
Student task 6 Dr David Buckley, operations manager at Salt, said
1 Students read and choose the correct answers. Class sending data from a single night’s observation takes
feedback. 24 hours or more. But in an ideal world it would be done
1 The telescope’s broadband connection is continuously in real time.
very .
a old b slow c expensive 7 Buckley and his colleagues frequently put their precious
2 The astronomers send their data by data on disk and make the 370km drive to the South
. African Astronomical Observatory where it is processed.
a plane b train c motor vehicle “We bring the data ourselves in a minibus or car,” he said.
3 Salt is the telescope in the
Southern Hemisphere. 8 “This is something we work with in South Africa: pathetic
a largest b oldest c best broadband,” he added. “It’s extremely frustrating. We
4 Salt has had problems with the South African started negotiations with Telkom in 2004 for broadband
company. that would be efficient and affordable.”
a television b electricity c telecoms
5 It takes more than to send data 9 In September, a pigeon called Winston beat Telkom’s
from one night’s observation. broadband service when it carried a 4GB memory stick
a an hour b a day c a week from Howick to Durban in two hours – in which time the
6 The people at Salt began negotiations for broadband ADSL line had sent just 4% of the data.
some ago.
a weeks b months c years Original article byDavid Smith, rewritten by
7 In September a delivered Janet Hardy-Gould
information faster than broadband.
a bird b horse c runner