RKWC Diploma Year 1 2009-10 Semester 2 ENG N1255

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Facebook more popular than Arab

newspapers - survey
Monday, 24 May 2010
By Magdi Abdelhadi BBC Middle East editor

A. Discussion – Share your ideas

1. Do you use social networking sites like Facebook?

2. Which is the best social networking site?
3. What do you use these sites for?
4. Are sites like these a waste of time?
5. Can these sites be used in positive ways? Give examples
6. What other kinds of thing do you read and write? How much? How often?

A. Vocabulary – Guess the meaning of the following words

1. The survey confirms what the researchers thought.

2. Facebook has more subscribers in the Middle East than newspapers.
3. The circulation of Arab newspapers is decreasing.
4. While sales of weekly newspapers are remaining steady, sales of the
dailies are much lower than a few years ago.
5. Young people embrace change more quickly than old people.
6. People don’t have time to meet new friends, so they have resorted to
using Facebook.

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 RKWC Diploma Year 1 2009-10 Semester 2 ENG N1255

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A. Complete the following sentences with your own ideas.

1. People in the Arab world are starting to use
Facebook to ___________________
information.
2. Saudi Arabia has the _____________________
number of subscribers to Facebook after Egypt.
3. In the Arab region _________________ is
increasing because the majority of people are
young.
4. Facebook is a very useful tool for ____________________ who want to
reach a large group of customers.

A. Numbers – Answer the questions with a number from the box

1/3 300,000,000
14,000,000

15,000,000 3,500,000

1. How many people in the Arab world subscribe to Facebook?

2. How many Arabic, English and French newspapers are sold in the region?
3. How many people in Egypt use Facebook?
4. What is the population of the region?
5. What proportion of the population in the UAE use Facebook?

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 RKWC Diploma Year 1 2009-10 Semester 2 ENG N1255

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Now read the article and check your answers

There are now more Facebook users in the Arab world

than newspaper readers, a survey suggests. The
research by Spot On Public Relations, a Dubai-based
agency, says there are more than 15 million
subscribers to the social network. The total number of
newspaper copies in Arabic, English and French is just under 14 million. The
findings seem to confirm the increasing popularity of the social interaction
platforms in the region.

Spot On Public Relations, a marketing and communications agency, says the

figures show that such platforms are beginning to define how Arabs discover and
share information. In Egypt alone, there are 3.5 million users, which is way
beyond the circulation of any of the biggest dailies. Even in conservative Saudi
Arabia, people have been quick to embrace Facebook. It is the country with the
second-largest membership after Egypt. One-third of the population in the
United Arab Emirates are said to be on Facebook.

The findings should come as no surprise. The majority of the region's more than
300 million people is young, and internet use is on the rise. In societies where
political freedoms are severely limited, many have also resorted to Facebook as
an alternative to the public sphere. But the survey does not provide a detailed
breakdown of how it is used in Arab countries - for example how much of it is for
chatting and making friends and how much is for political and social
campaigning. But it contains valuable information for advertisers who want to
reach the largest possible number of people.

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 RKWC Diploma Year 1 2009-10 Semester 2 ENG N1255

Name: ID: Section:

A. Paragraph headings - Choose from the list

i. Facebook can be used by for different reasons

ii. Facebook is the most popular social networking site
iii. Research shows social networking is increasing in popularity
iv. The trend seems to be the same in all Arab countries
v. There are advantages and disadvantages to using Facebook

Paragraph 1= ________

Paragraph 2= ________

Paragraph 3= ________

A. Sentence completion – Go back to Exercise C and complete the

sentences using NO MORE THAN 3 WORDS from the article.

B. True/False/Not Given

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 RKWC Diploma Year 1 2009-10 Semester 2 ENG N1255

Name: ID: Section:

1. There are almost 14 million English language newspapers sold in the Arab
region. T / F / NG
2. Egypt has the most Facebook users in the region. T / F / NG
3. There are 300 million young people in the Arab world. T / F / NG
4. Facebook has more information than newspapers about politics in the
region. T / F / NG
5. People use Facebook more for chatting than they do for social
campaigning. T / F / NG
6. Facebook is a useful business tool. T / F / NG

A. Ideas for writing – Brainstorm

Social networking sites like Facebook have changed the way we communicate
and find out information. To what extent have these changes been positive?

Positive changes

Negative changes

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