Upper-Intermediate Instant Lesson™

Madagascar
Pre-Reading Activities

A: Short Discussion

Find Madagascar on a map and answer these questions:

a. Discuss:
1. What kind of climate do you think it has?
2. How many people do you think live there?
3. What crops do you think grow there?
4.Did you see the movie, "Madagascar"? What did you learn about Madagascar from the
movie?

b. Make a Guess:

Now try this multiple-choice quiz:

1. Madagascar has a population of 2. One of its main exports is

a) 3 - 6 million people. a) tea.
b) 8 - 11 million people. b) fish.
c) 13 - 15 million people. c) coffee.

4. Madagascar has two official languages.

3. Its staple foods are
One of them is Malagasy, the other is
a) beef, fish and potatoes.
a) Spanish.
b) fish, bananas and potatoes.
b) Portuguese.
c) rice, cassava and sweet potatoes.
c) French.

5. It is in the 6. The nearest African country to it is

a) Atlantic Ocean. a) Kenya.
b) Pacific Ocean. b) Malawi.
c) Indian Ocean. c) Mozambique.

7. One animal native to Madagascar is

a) the zebra.
b) the lion.
c) the lemur.

C. Listen for the Answers

Now listen as your teacher reads aloud a short text about Madagascar and check your
answers for the quiz.
 Reading Activities

A: Reading Cloze

Read the first four paragraphs of the article. Fill the gaps in the text with the words from
the list:

$179.6 million, environment, "Madagascar", rare, tourist, voices

Hollywood could help save Madagascan forests

By Tim Cocks
ANTANANARIVO, Monday July The animated film by DreamWorks
11, 2005 (Reuters) - The hit movie Studios, which has earned 4.
1. _________ has raised hopes that _________since its May release,
its namesake island will benefit from features the 5._________ of actors
higher 2. _________visits, which Ben Stiller, David Schwimmer and
could encourage locals to conserve Chris Rock.
rainforests considered among the More tourists dollars would give
world's most pristine and 3. some of the island's poor an
_________. economic incentive to preserve their
6. _________, Conservation
International President Russell
Mittermeier said. (Continued/...)
Article © 2005 Reuters Limited. Lesson © 2005 www.english-to-go.com

B: Comprehension

Read the questions and then find the answers in the second part of today's article.

1. What is special about Madagascar?

2. What are poor people living in Madagascar forced to do?
3. What is at risk because of farming and logging?
4. What does Mittermeier hope will happen as a result of the movie, "Madagascar"?
(Look back at the first part of the article as well.)
5. What is a little strange about the animals in the movie according to Rabesahala?
6. Who does Rabesahala compare to the lemus?

(Continued/...) The island, the world's Madagascar attracted 230,000

fourth-largest, is home to tens of tourists in 2004, up from 160,000 in
thousands of species of plant and 2003.
animal life found nowhere else,
including birds, insects, chameleons Henri Rabesahala, on a government
and lemurs -- a cuddly primate that taskforce to capitalize on the film's
features in the DreamWorks cartoon. tourism potential, said he hoped it
would encourage tourists despite the
But they are threatened by rampant fact that all the main roles are played
poverty that drives poor residents by animals not native to the island.
 into slash-and-burn farming, logging "It was a little funny to see a lion, a
and hunting. giraffe and a zebra in Madagascar,"
Rabesahala said. "But the image is:
As many as 300 million are expected the tourists are the lions and the
to see the film worldwide by the time zebra. We are the lemurs ... So we
it is released on a pay-per-view basis, hope those people from New York
Mittermeier said. will come to see us lemurs."
"If we get just 1 percent in the next 5-
10 years coming to Madagascar,
that's a 10 to 20-fold increase in
tourists," he said.
Article © 2005 Reuters Limited. Lesson © 2005 www.english-to-go.com

C: Reading and Note-taking

Read the article below and take notes on these questions:

1. What impact did cyclones Eline and Gloria in Madagascar have on:

1. forests?
2. animals?
3. people?

2. What impact has human settlement had in Madagascar on:

1. forests?
2. land stability?

Madagascar Cyclones Fell Trees, Kill Rare Animals

By Kieran Murray
ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar Paddack said the biggest impact of
Friday March 17 (Reuters) - The the cyclones had been on the human
cyclones that ripped through population with an estimated 150
Madagascar recently almost people killed and key subsistence
certainly tore down areas of crops washed away. But it has not
endangered forest and killed some of yet been possible to accurately
the island's rare animals and birds, measure the damage to the
wildlife experts say. environment in the remote, almost
inaccessible, interior of the island.
Jean-Paul Paddack, head of the
World Wide Fund for Nature Madagascar has thousands of
(WWF) in Madagascar, said endemic species of plants and trees
cyclones Eline and Gloria packed but its rich biodiversity has been
winds of above 130 mph and would under assault for decades as forest-
have blown down sections of clearing, slash-and-burn agriculture
Madagascar's rich rainforests. and mining for rare minerals has
decimated the forests.
"I think the biggest impact is
probably on forest cover, just the An estimated 80 percent of the
sheer force of wind blowing away island's original forest cover has
trees. I suspect some species were disappeared and it continues to lose
caught in that and died, no doubt,'' up to 200,000 hectares every year.
Paddack told Reuters late Thursday.
Environmentalists say the
He said the species caught in the destruction of the forests is itself
 cyclones included birds, small making the country more vulnerable
mammals, reptiles and amphibians. because the resulting soil erosion
creates a growing danger of flooding
"They would have been knocked and mudslides whenever heavy rains
down from trees and washed away roll in from the Pacific Ocean.
in rivers or affected by trees falling,''
Paddack said. "The tremendous amount of forest
clearing in the last years and
Madagascar, which lies off the decades, the last century, has meant
eastern coast of Africa, is home to that when cyclones come through,
thousands of species of animals erosion will be accelerated, washing
found nowhere else on earth. They away roads and causing tremendous
include most of the world's lemurs -- levels or sedimentation in rivers and
monkey-like mammals with huge other areas. On rice fields, for
eyes -- as well as hundreds of rare example,'' Paddack said.
and unique species of birds,
chameleons and brightly-colored
frogs.

Environmental workers say they

received reports of dead lemurs
floating in the flood waters of
northeastern Madagascar when the
cyclones ripped through in late
February and earlier this month.
Article © 2000 Reuters Limited. Lesson © 2005 www.english-to-go.com

D: Check your understanding

Complete this diagram, by adding information to numbers 1 - 4, to show the effects of

human settlement and cyclones on Madagascar as described in today's article:

E: Drawing Conclusions

1. According to the article, how does the effect of humans on Madagascar compare
with the cyclones' effect?
2. What makes Madagascar special?
F: Language

Part one:
Present Simple or Present Perfect Simple?

Put the verbs in brackets, in the text below into the correct tense without looking back at
the article:

Madagascar ______________ (have) thousands of endemic species of plants and trees

but its rich biodiversity ______________ (have) under assault for decades as forest-
clearing, slash-and-burn agriculture and mining for rare minerals ______________
(decimate) the forests.

An estimated 80 percent of the island's original forest cover ______________

(disappear) and it ______________ (continue) to lose up to 200,000 hectares every
year.

Part two:
used to or be used to?
Choose the correct option for each of the sentences.

1. Madagascar used to/ am used to be covered in forest, but now 80 percent of its orginal
forest has gone.
2. People in Madagascar used to/are used to the slash-and-burn method of farming.
3. I used to/ am used to think we could cut down trees and not damage the environment.
Now I know I am wrong.
4. We used to/ are used to having one or two cyclones each year--they have a devastating
effect on our environment.
5. The people used to/ are used to eating rice, so when a cyclone hit last year and crops
were destroyed, there was a famine.

Post-Reading Activities
You may do one or more of these.

A: Vocabulary

Answer these questions:

1. The word 'biodiversity' is used in the second article. What does it mean?
2. How old do you think this word is?
3. What threatens Madagascar's 'rich biodiversity'? Think of some examples of
activities that threaten biodiversity in your country.

B: Give an Opinion

"Humans need to change the natural environment in order to exist. Animals are often
destructive in their behaviour (eating plants or other animals) and of course earthquakes,
tidal waves and cyclones have a devastating effect on natural environments. We shouldn't
feel guilty about the impact we have had on the natural world. What we are doing is quite
natural."

Work in pairs. Discuss this opinion. To what extent do you agree or disagree with it?

C: Research

Find out more about the island of Madagascar. Decide what you would like to know, how
you are going to get this information and how you will record and present the information
you obtain. You could visit a travel agent or check out the Internet or your local library.
 TEACHERS' NOTES AND ANSWER KEY

Pre-Reading Activities

A: Discussion - Notes
Students look at a map and find the island of Madagascar. They then answer the questions. Then get them
to put the map away and do the Make a Guess questions.

B: Make a Guess - Text (to be read aloud by the teacher)

Madagascar is a large island in the Indian Ocean with an area of 587, 041 square
kilometers (226, 658 square miles). It lies parallel to the south-east African coast and is
nearest the country of Mozambique. The centre of Madagascar has a mild climate, while
the south-west part of the island is quite dry. The eastern coast is wet and hot, covered in
rain forest and is threatened by cyclones.

Its main exports are vanilla, coffee and cloves and the chief foods are rice, cassava and
sweet potatoes.

It has a population of 14, 763, 000 people. The two official languages are Malagasy and
French. It has a long history with boats of different countries visiting and trading and at
one time was used as a base by pirates. In 2005 a movie "Madagascar' was released
which has a zebra, lion, giraffe and hippo from a zoo in New York coming to the island
and learning that life for animals on the island like the native lemurs is tougher than they
think.

B: Make a Guess - Notes

After students have answered the questions, read aloud the text above about Madagascar while they check
their answers for the quiz. (Read it at a normal speed, and do it two times if necessary.)

B: Make a Guess - Answers

The answer for each question is (c).

Reading Activities

A: Reading Cloze - Answers

1. "Madagascar", 2. tourist, 3. rare, 4. $179.6 million, 5. voices, 6. environment.

B: Comprehension - Answers
1. It's the world's fourth largest island and is home to tens of thousands of species of animals and plants
found nowhere else.
2. Slash and burn style farming, logging and hunting.
3. Animal and plant species.
4. The number of tourists visiting Madagascar increasing. This might give the residents of the island an
economic incentive to preserve its forests.
5. They aren't native to the island.
6. The people of Madagascar.

C: Reading and Note-taking - Notes

This article describes what cyclones and humans have done in Madagascar. You may wish to point out to
students that these pressures continue. In January 2005 southwest Madagascar was hit by Cyclone Ernest
which had winds of 100 km/hr (60 mph). In 2004 two cyclones hit crops, causing prices for rice to shoot
up--this led to severe problems with inflation and very high food prices.

D: Check your understanding - Answers

(1) cyclones; (2) humans; (3) soil erosion; (4) sedimentation
E: Drawing Conclusions - Suggested Answers
1. Humans have been responsible for much of the removal of the forests on the island (because of
agriculture and mining). This has led to severe erosion and many trees are now endangered. Presumably,
although this is not stated, the animal and bird population would also be at increased risk because of what
humans have done in the past.

The cyclones are also responsible for destruction of forests and Paddack of WWF notes that animal and
bird species would have died as a result. However, humans are responsible for the disappearance of 80% of
the island's forest cover and the continuing disappearance of 200, 000 hectares every year. Students may
therefore decide that humans have had more of a devastating effect on Madagascar's plant and animal life
than cyclones.

2.Madagascar, according to the article, has thousands of species of plants and trees and birds and animals
that are found nowhere else on earth. (Students may already know that Madagascar became separated from
Africa during the period of Continental Drift: this is why so many of its animal and plant species are found
nowhere else.)

E: Language - Notes
(You may wish to revise these rules with students before or after they do the activity.)
Part one:
Some uses of the Present Simple and Present Perfect Simple:
The present simple can be used for habitual actions and facts which are always true.
The present perfect simple can be used to describe actions that happened some time ago but have a
connection with the present, actions that could be repeated and actions that began in the past and continue
to the present.
Part two:
'Used to' expresses a past habit or state. (Used + to + base form of verb.) It is used for something that often
happened but doesn't happen now.
If you are used to something, you are accustomed to it. It isn't strange or unusual for you.

F: Language - Answers
Part one:
Madagascar has thousands of endemic species of plants and trees but its rich biodiversity has been under
assault for decades as forest-clearing, slash-and-burn agriculture and mining for rare minerals has
decimated the forests.
An estimated 80 percent of the island's original forest cover has disappeared and it continues to lose up to
200,000 hectares every year.

Part two:
Madagascar used to be covered in forest, but now 80 percent of its orginal forest has gone.
People in Madagascar are used to the slash-and-burn method of farming.
I used to think we could cut down trees and not damage the environment. Now I know I am wrong.
We are used to having one or two cyclones each year--they have a devastating effect on our environment.
The people are used to eating rice, so when a cyclone hit last year and crops were destroyed, there was a
famine.

Post-Reading Activities

A: Vocabulary - Notes
This is a short activity which provides a good introduction to Activity B.

A: Vocabulary - Answers
1. It means a diversity of plant and animal life.
2. It came into common use in the mid 1980s.
3. Activities like forest-clearing, slash-and-burn agriculture, clearing land for farming cattle and mining are
all possibilities.