Alcohol More Harmful Than Heroin

 

LANGUAGE – MULTIPLE CHOICE

A new (1) ____ has discovered that alcohol is a more dangerous drug than heroin and cocaine. The report is from Britain’s Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs. Its research classified drugs (2) ____ the basis of the harm they do in our society. Alcohol (3) ____ top of the list, with heroin second and cocaine third. Researchers created nine categories of harm that drugs can do "from death to damage to mental functioning and (4) ____ of relationships," and seven types of harm they do (5) ____ others. Experts in Britain are now calling for new laws to control alcohol. Don Shenker from the group Alcohol Concern said: “The government should now urgently ensure alcohol is made less affordable and invest in prevention and treatment services to deal (6) ____ the rise in alcohol dependency that has occurred."

The research was led by a former government drugs (7) ____, Professor David Nutt. He has been calling for a change in the way Britain classifies drugs for many years. He was fired in 2009 (8) ____ his views and claimed the government was more interested in politics than (9) ____ evidence. Any laws that make alcohol a dangerous drug would cause harm to any government trying to win an election. However, the current study is very extensive and (10) ____ suggests he was right to call for a reclassification. Professor Nutt told Britain’s Guardian newspaper: “We need to rethink how we deal with drugs in the (11) ____ of these new findings." One suggested change is that cigarettes are put in the same category as cocaine, because they cause (12) ____ much harm to the individual and society.

Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.

1.	(a)	studies	(b)	studied	(c)	studying	(d)	study
2.	(a)	on	(b)	in	(c)	ay	(d)	of
3.	(a)	come	(b)	came	(c)	coming	(d)	comes
4.	(a)	lost	(b)	loses	(c)	loss	(d)	losing
5.	(a)	at	(b)	in	(c)	to	(d)	of
6.	(a)	by	(b)	with	(c)	at	(d)	on
7.	(a)	advice	(b)	advise	(c)	advises	(d)	advisor
8.	(a)	for	(b)	at	(c)	by	(d)	as
9.	(a)	sciences	(b)	scientific	(c)	sci-fi	(d)	scientists
10.	(a)	strength	(b)	strong	(c)	strongest	(d)	strongly
11.	(a)	dark	(b)	heavy	(c)	light	(d)	lamp
12.	(a)	as	(b)	was	(c)	has	(d)	is

 

WRITING

Write about drugs for 10 minutes. Correct your partner’s paper. 

HOMEWORK

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find out more about alcohol. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.

3. DRUGS: Make a poster about drugs. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things?

4. ALCOHOL: Write a magazine article about alcohol. Include imaginary interviews with people who are for and against it.

Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Write down any new words and expressions you hear from your partner(s).

5. LETTER: Write a letter to your country’s leader. Ask him/her three questions about alcohol. Give him/her three ideas on how to reduce the damage it does to society. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions.

 

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a.

T

b.

T

c.

F

d.

F

e.

T

f.

T

g.

F

h.

F

SYNONYM MATCH:

1.	discovered	a.	found
2	basis	b.	grounds
3.	categories	c.	groups
4.	experts	d.	specialists
5.	deal with	e.	handle
6.	advisor	f.	consultant
7.	fired	g.	sacked
8.	evidence	h.	proof
9.	extensive	i.	broad
10.	suggested	j.	proposed

PHRASE MATCH:

1.	alcohol is a more dangerous	a.	drug than heroin
2	classified drugs on the basis of	b.	the harm they do
3.	Alcohol came top	c.	of the list
4.	ensure alcohol is made	d.	less affordable
5.	deal with the rise in	e.	alcohol dependency
6.	He has been calling	f.	for a change
7.	He was fired in 2009	g.	for his views
8.	more interested in politics	h.	than scientific evidence
9.	deal with drugs in the light	i.	of these new findings
10.	they cause as much harm	j.	to the individual

GAP FILL:

Alcohol more harmful than heroin

A new study has discovered that alcohol is a more dangerous drug than heroin and cocaine. The report is from Britain’s Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs. Its research classified drugs on the basis of the harm they do in our society. Alcohol came top of the list, with heroin second and cocaine third. Researchers created nine categories of harm that drugs can do "from death to damage to mental functioning and loss of relationships," and seven types of harm they do to others. Experts in Britain are now calling for new laws to control alcohol. Don Shenker from the group Alcohol Concern said: “The government should now urgently ensure alcohol is made less affordable and invest in prevention and treatment services to deal with the rise in alcohol dependency that has occurred."

The research was led by a former government drugs advisor, Professor David Nutt. He has been calling for a change in the way Britain classifies drugs for many years. He was fired in 2009 for his views and claimed the government was more interested in politics than scientific evidence. Any laws that make alcohol a dangerous drug would cause harm to any government trying to win an election. However, the current study is very extensive and stronglysuggests he was right to call for a reclassification. Professor Nutt told Britain’s Guardian newspaper: “We need to rethink how we deal with drugs in thelight of these new findings." One suggested change is that cigarettes are put in the same category as cocaine, because they cause as much harm to the individual and society.

LANGUAGE WORK

1 - d

2 - a

3 - b

4 - c

5 - c

6 - b

7 - d

8 - a

9 - b

10 - d

11 - c

12 - a

 

http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1011/101101-drugs.html