The cockroach advanced, inne2
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The Turkmen cockroach
Level 3
Advanced
1
Warmer
cockroach
/ˈkɒkrə
Ʊ
tʃ/
noun [countable]
An insect similar to a large beetle that lives in places where food is kept.
Cockroaches are insects of the order
Blattodea
. This name derives from the Latin word for ‘cockroach’,
blatta
.
Discuss what you would do if you saw a cockroach:
•
•
•
in the street?
in your home?
in a restaurant?
2
Key words
Skim read the article and ind a word that means:
1.
To get rid of an employee – two words. (sub-title and para 4)
2.
A short news broadcast or oficial statement. (para 1)
3.
One complete turn around a course or a circuit. (para 2)
4.
A silly or embarrassing mistake. (para 3)
5.
Something that fails completely in an embarrassing way. (para 5)
6.
To improve the way something looks by making major changes to it. (para 5)
7.
An informal word for an argument. (para 6)
8.
To start a new project, one that will dificult and take time. (para 8)
9.
To make a short visit. (para 11)
10.
The act of chopping off someone’s head. (notes)
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2008
NEWS LESSONS / The Turkmen cockroach / Advanced
The Turkmen cockroach
Level 3
Advanced
And inally... how the march of a lone
cockroach put 30 people out of work
Luke Harding in Moscow
February 22, 2008
Niyazov, who also had run-ins with state TV
executives. Several executives were sacked after
drunken technicians failed to screen the New Year’s
address to the nation by Niyazov. They eventually
managed to get the bulletin on air at 3am.
Turkmen president sacks staff after insect’s
walk-on part in TV news bulletin
7
Those sacked in the cockroach debacle included
journalists, directors, camera operators, and
technical staff, the website reported. Yesterday
nobody from the Turkmen embassy in Moscow was
available for comment.
1
For the viewers of Turkmenistan’s popular nightly
news programme,
Vatan
, it was another routine
bulletin. But as the newsreader began the 9pm
broadcast, viewers across the central Asian country
spotted something unusual crawling across the
studio table: a large brown cockroach.
8
Berdymukhamedov has been credited with
improving relations with the west, and embarking
at home on a series of mild liberal reforms. He
has announced the opening of Internet cafes in
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan’s capital, and reintroduced
foreign languages to the school curriculum.
2
The cockroach managed to complete a whole
lap of the desk, apparently undetected, before
disappearing. The programme, complete with
cockroach, was repeated at 11pm that night.
9
Last March the president restored pensions to
more than 100,000 elderly citizens and in January
he reversed another of his predecessor’s more
bizarre bans – on opera and ballet performances.
3
It was only at 9am the following day that horriied
oficials from Turkmenistan’s ministry of culture
discovered the cockroach’s guest appearance.
And that, perhaps, should have been the end of
the matter, the mildly entertaining footage being
occasionally shown on a TV bloopers show. But
the consequences of this particular cockroach’s ive
minutes of fame were immediate and severe.
10
“Our lourishing nation should not stand separate
from the world,” Berdymukhamedov told state-run
television. He added: “It absolutely should have a
worthy operatic theatre and a worthy state theatre.”
The irst opera would be performed in six or seven
months, he suggested.
4
The country’s president, Kurbanguly
Berdymukhamedov, took news of the insect so
badly that he responded by iring no fewer than 30
workers from the main state TV channel, the news
website
Kronika Turkmenistan
reported yesterday.
11
Berdymukhamedov has moved to end
Turkmenistan’s isolation from the rest of the world
in other ways too. He has overseen attempts
to attract larger numbers of foreign tourists to
Turkmenistan, including the building of a multibillion
pound tourist resort on the Caspian Sea. The
president has also dropped in on Washington.
5
Before the cockroach debacle, Berdymukhamedov
had instructed Turkmenistan’s minister of culture,
Gulmurat Muradov, to revamp the country’s
Soviet-era TV channel. However, a new ministerial
supervisory committee founded to carry out this
task only worked 9am to 6pm - allowing the
cockroach to make its run undetected.
12
Berdymukhamedov’s apparent dislike of
cockroaches may have something to do with his
previous career as a dentist. He graduated from
Turkmenistan’s state medical institute in 1979,
completing a PhD in medical sciences in Moscow,
and working as a dentist from 1980 to 1995. In
December 1997 he was appointed minister
for health.
6
Berdymukhamedov became leader of the oil-rich
former Soviet republic in December 2006, following
the sudden death of Turkmenistan’s longstanding
and lamboyantly authoritarian ruler Saparmurat
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2008
NEWS LESSONS / The Turkmen cockroach / Advanced
The Turkmen cockroach
Level 3
Advanced
Cockroach notes
4,500 cockroach species have been classiied,
but there are thought to be at least twice as many
species yet to be discovered around the world.
Despite the belief cockroaches would be the only
survivors of nuclear war, being 15 times more
resistant to radiation than humans, other insects
such as fruit lies can survive even higher doses.
•
A cockroach will live after decapitation for several
weeks before starving to death; the severed
head survives several hours.
The world’s largest species is the wingless
Australian rhinoceros (Macropanesthia
rhinoceros), weighing up to 33.5 gms and up to
90 mm in length.
•
•
© Guardian News & Media 2008
First published in
The Guardian
, 22/02/08
3
Comprehension check
1. Where does Turkmenistan’s wealth currently come from?
a) Tourism
b) Oil
c) Pharmaceuticals
2. Before he became president, Berdymukhamedov was...
a) a dentist.
b) the Minister for Health.
c) Both of the above.
3. Operatic theatre and ballet...
a) can now be performed in Turkmenistan.
b) have been banned.
c) are free for pensioners.
4. The cockroach wasn’t noticed at irst because...
a) the technical staff had been sacked.
b) the bulletin wasn’t shown until 3am.
c) the ministerial advisory committee had inished work for the day.
5. Berdymukhamedov wants to...
a) cut ties with Russia.
b) bring about an end to Turkmenistan’s isolation from the rest of the world.
c) offer free dental treatment to the country’s 100,000 pensioners.
6. Turkmenistan is...
a) landlocked.
b) an island.
c) is on the Caspian sea.
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2008
NEWS LESSONS / The Turkmen cockroach / Advanced
•
The Turkmen cockroach
Level 3
Advanced
4
Vocabulary: Collocations
Join the words to make 3(or 4)-word collocations from the article.
Then, talk with a partner, explain what they mean and write an example sentence of your own for
each collocation.
mildly
tourist
institute
lamboyantly operatic resort
mild
authoritarian
theatre
worthy
medical
footage
multibillion pound
liberal
ruler
state
entertaining
reforms
4
Discussion
Berdymukhamedov’s reaction to the cockroach debacle was to sack 30 people.
Do you think his actions were justiied? Give reasons why or why not.
7
Webquest
Do cockroaches bite? How big is a cockroach baby? What do cockroaches eat?
Go to
to ind the answers to these and
many other questions.
Create a class quiz with each student contributing one question (plus answer).
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2008
NEWS LESSONS / The Turkmen cockroach / Advanced
The Turkmen cockroach
Level 3
Advanced
KEY
2 Key words
4 Vocabulary: Collocations
1. sack and ire
2. bulletin
3. lap
4. bloopers
5. debacle
6. revamp
7. run-in
8. embark
9. drop in
10. decapitation
mildly entertaining footage
lamboyantly authoritarian ruler
mild liberal reforms
worthy operatic theatre
multibillion pound tourist resort
state medical institute
2 Comprehension check
1. b) Oil
2. c) Both of the above.
3. a) can now been performed in Turkmenistan.
4. c) the ministerial advisory committee had inished work
for the day.
5. b) bring about an end to Turkmenistan’s isolation from
the rest of the world.
6. c) is on the Caspian sea.
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2008
NEWS LESSONS / The Turkmen cockroach / Advanced
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