雅思教学资料：DIY death pill 雅思教学资料

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Call it assisted suicide, euthanasia, or mercy killing; whatever the name, it has just become easier to commit suicide painlessly thanks to a new cocktail of self-mixed over-the-counter drugs. An Australian doctor and strong euthanasia campaigner, Dr. Philip Nitschke, has concocted a secret recipe to allow people to end their lives without pain. He plans to hold a workshop at a secret location in Australia to teach people how to make his “peaceful pill” from items readily available in any pharmacy.
Nitschke, also known as Dr. Death for aiding four Australians to take their own lives in 1996, said his actions were not illegal. Speaking of the workshop participants, he said, "They will each teach themselves, they will each only manufacture for themselves, they won't be making enough to sell to their friends or to give to their wives or husbands … they will walk home with 10 grams of peaceful pills knowing that they've all done it themselves". The fact that no third party need be involved means it breaks no laws.
Pro Life groups have expressed concerns about his actions. Information from his workshops will undoubtedly end up on the Internet and in the hands of any suicidal surfers. This may trigger copycat group suicides like those now occurring in Japan, where total strangers too afraid to end their lives alone, meet via the Internet and take part in communal suicides. However, many people still feel it is their right to choose to die, especially the terminally ill who are in pain.

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WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS
1. CHAT:  Talk in pairs or groups about one/several of the following: drugs (medicinal) / pharmacies / euthanasia / suicide / doctors …

2. DOCTOR WHO?:  Write on the board the following ‘Doctor Death’, ‘Doctor Diet’, ‘Chocolate Doctor’, ‘Smart Doctor’, ‘Doctor Alcohol’, ‘Brain Doctor’, …. Students decide in pairs what kind of doctor these are and would they visit them.

3. SUICIDE IS… Write the following words on the board ‘a sin’, ‘a personal choice’, ‘wrong’, ‘bad’, ‘OK’, ‘not the answer’, ‘a last resort’, ‘freedom’ …  Students sit/stand in lines facing each other and are given one minute to comment on each of the words associated with the sentence starter ‘Suicide is…’. Revolve students to face new partners.

4. GOOD DOCTOR BAD DOCTOR: Teacher brainstorms student ideas based on the theme good doctor, bad doctor to get students thinking about medical responsibility.

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PRE-READING IDEAS
1. PREDICTION: From the headline and following words predict the contents of the article with your partner. (You may need a dictionary).
euthanasia     cocktail     pill     insurgency     10 grams   
no third party     pro-life     Internet     terminally ill
2. DEFINITIONS: Match the definitions with their correct meaning:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

suicideconcoctreadilyaidmanufacturepillthird-partyconcernstrigger

prepare by mixing ingredientsmake or produce somethinghelp or assistkill oneselfeasilyworries or fearsstart or suddenly make happenanother person / other people not involvedsmall tablet of medicine that is swallowed

3. COLLOCATION:  Students look up collocates of ‘commit ~’ and ‘~suicide’. You may also want to have students guess the meaning of the following ‘~icide’ words by looking at the pre-‘icide’ part of the word (hom = homo = person / gen = generation…)* homicide, genocide, matricide, patricide, fratricide, infanticide, pesticide, herbicide …
4. DISCUSSIONS:  Students take parts in discussions based on the article:
Is suicide wrong?
Is mercy killing wrong?
Is telling people how to commit suicide wrong?
Is it wrong for a doctor to show people how to end their own lives?

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WHILE READING ACTIVITIES
1. GAP-FILL:  Put the words on the right in the correct spacesIY Death Pill

	BNE: Call it __________ suicide, euthanasia, or mercy killing; whatever the name, it has just become easier to __________ suicide thanks to a new cocktail of self-mixed over-the-counter drugs. An Australian doctor and strong euthanasia campaigner, Dr. Philip Nitschke, has __________ a secret recipe to allow people to end their lives without pain. He plans to hold a workshop at a secret location in Australia to teach people how to make his “peaceful pill” from items __________ available in any pharmacy.		readily commit assisted concocted
	Nitschke, also known as Dr. Death for __________ four Australians to __________ their own lives in 1996, said his actions were not illegal. Speaking of the workshop participants, he said, "They will each teach themselves, they will each only __________ for themselves, they won't be making enough to sell to their friends or to give to their wives or husbands … they will walk home with 10 grams of peaceful pills knowing that they've all done it themselves". The fact that no third party need be __________ means it breaks no laws.		take aiding involved manufacture
	Pro Life groups have expressed __________ about his actions. Information from his workshops will undoubtedly end up on the Internet and in the hands of any suicidal surfers. This may trigger __________ group suicides like those now occurring in Japan, where total strangers too afraid to end their lives alone, meet via the Internet and take part in __________ suicides. However, many people still feel it is their right to choose to die, especially the __________ ill who are in pain.		concerns terminally copycat communal

2. PREDICTION / DEFINITIONS: Check your answers to the above activities.
3. WRONG OR NOT:  Students circle anything they read in the article that they think is wrong and underline anything they think is good.
4. VOCABULARY:  Students circle any words they do not understand. In groups pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings.

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POST READING IDEAS
1. PREDICTION: Students talk about how near to the article they were in the while-reading activities.
2. WRONG OR NOT:  Students talk in pairs groups about what they circled / underlined, and why.
3. GAP-FILL RECONSTRUCT: Students compare their gap-fill answers and check against the full text. They then have to reconstruct the article story without looking at the text. Another pair (with the text) can prompt and check to see if anything is missing, and then assign a score.
4. SENTENCE OPINIONS:  Students look at one sentence of the article and discuss it. Teacher could cut the sentences up and assign them for discussion forums.
5. THAT’S TOTALLY WRONG:  Student A chooses information from the article and plays devil’s advocate with Student B. A starts by recounting the information and saying ‘That’s totally wrong’.
6. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above.
7. SURVEY: In pairs students write, conduct and report back to the class on a survey based on issues in the article.
8. DISCUSSION: In pairs/groups students think of 2 or 3 questions for a class discussion on the article. Teacher corrects on board and puts students into discussion groups.
9. READY-MADE DISCUSSION: Copy and give the following discussions to students:
The Bible says suicide is a sin. Is it?
Is mercy killing / assisted suicide / euthanasia a form of murder?
Should Dr. Nitschke have his medical license removed, or should he go to gaol?
Is it totally, 100% legal if you buy the drugs legally and make the ‘painless pills’ only for yourself?
If you were a lawmaker, what would you do about this issue?
Is it dangerous to put information on the Internet about how to end your life?
If someone is terminally ill and in great pain, isn’t it OK to choose for yourself when and how to die?

10. ROLE PLAY: Depending on your number of students, role play a discussion on euthanasia with the characters below. Repeat role play and rotate characters. Have a pre-role play ‘what to talk about’ ideas brainstorm in pairs / groups. With bigger classes have ‘team roles’ – each team sits behind their role player, teacher tags that player to change team members when contribution is flagging:
“Dr, Death”, a pro-life priest, George Bush, a police officer, a family member supportive of the right to die, the terminally ill patient wishing to end their days …

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HOMEWORK
1. VOCAB EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or the Google search field to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. WEB LINK: For more information on this subject, visit http://www.euthanasia.com /
http://www.religioustolerance.org/euthanas.htm / www.prolifeinfo.org …

3. LAWMAKER: Outline your proposals for a new law on euthanasia, complete with penalties.

4. LETTER: Write a letter to “Dr. Death” explaining your views on his actions.

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DEFINITIONS:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

suicide concoct readily aid manufacture pill third-party concerns trigger

kill oneself prepare by mixing ingredients easily help or assist make or produce something small tablet of medicine that is swallowed another person / other people not involved worries or fears start or suddenly make happen