News-based English language activities from the global newspaper

January 2011
Level ≥ Lower intermediate
Style ≥ Lesson plan
Welcome to the Guardian Weekly’s special news-based materials to support learners and teachers of English.
Each month, the Guardian Weekly newspaper selects topical news articles that can be used to practise English
language skills. The materials are graded for two levels: advanced and lower intermediate. These worksheets
can be downloaded free from guardian.co.uk/weekly/. You can also find more advice for teachers and learn-
ers from the Guardian Weekly’s Learning English section on the site.

Tajikistan aims to build tallest flagpole

Materials prepared by Janet Hardy-Gould

Instructions
Lesson focus: reading, superlatives
Materials: article, pictures sheet
Time: 50 minutes

1 Tell students the lesson is about buildings/structures a 90 b 162 c 165

that break a world record. Show pictures of: a the Millau
viaduct, France b the Pentagon, US c the Burj Khalifa
tower, Dubai d the Marina Bay Sands hotel, Singapore.
In pairs, students guess how they are record-breaking.
Feedback. Revise superlatives (and comparatives). 15 mins
Answers: world’s: a tallest bridge – 343m b largest office
building – 604,000 sq m c tallest building – 828m d most
expensive hotel– $8bn.
2 Show students the article photo. Write on the board the
gapped headline: Tajikistan aims to build tallest _____.
Check where Tajikistan is and elicit ideas to go in gap.
Establish: flagpole, hoist a flag, base. 5 mins
2 The current record holder for the highest flagpole is _____.
a Azerbaijan b Tajikistan c Turkmenistan
3 Other strange building projects include a statue of a
past _____ .
a record holder b president c minister
4 A lot of the money in Tajikistan comes from _____ .
a workers abroad b engineering companies c a former
president
5 The first attempt to hoist the flag in Azerbaijan was _____ .
a very slow b successful c unsuccessful
6 They would need a _____ to put together a higher flagpole.
a helicopter b crane c plane
Answers: 1 c 2 a 3 b 4 a 5 c 6 a

3 Ask students to match the adjective part of these 5 Students complete the text with the comparative or
collocations to the definitions. 5 mins superlative of the adjectives. 10 mins
a recent ceremony 1 existing now Central Asia already has some of (a) ______ (strange) and
b current record 2 strange or unusual (b) ______ (unusual) buildings in the world. Soon, Tajikistan
c eccentric president 3 a short time ago will have (c) ______ (tall) flagpole – it will be three metres
d revolving statue 4 of a time before now (d) ______ (high) than the current one. It will probably be
e former leader 5 large and impressive (e) ______ (expensive) flagpole in the world too – even
f monumental flagpole 6 turning in a circle (f) ______ (expensive) than the $32m pole in Azerbaijan.
Answers: a 3 b 1 c 2 d 6 e 4 f 5 Answers: a the strangest b most unusual c the tallest
d higher e the most expensive f more expensive
4 Go through these questions. Students read text and
choose answer. Feedback. 15 mins Homework: students research four superlative questions
1 The new flagpole will measure _____ metres. for a class quiz.
News-based English language activities from the global newspaper

January 2011

Pictures sheet Student tasks

1 Match the adjective part of these collocations to these
definitions.
a recent ceremony 1 existing now
b current record 2 strange or unusual
c eccentric president 3 a short time ago
d revolving statue 4 of a time before now
e former leader 5 large and impressive
f monumental flagpole 6 turning in a circle

2 Read the text and choose answers.

The Millau viaduct, France Christophe Ena/AP
1 The new flagpole will measure ________________ metres.
a 90 b 162 c 165
2 The current record holder for the highest flagpole is
________________.
a Azerbaijan b Tajikistan c Turkmenistan
3 Other strange building projects include a statue of a past
________________.
a record holder b president c minister
4 A lot of the money in Tajikistan comes from
________________.
a workers abroad b engineering companies c a former
president
5 The first attempt to hoist the flag in Azerbaijan was
The Pentagon, US Jason Reed/Reuters
________________.
a very slow b successful c unsuccessful
6 They would need a ________________ to put together a higher
flagpole.
a helicopter b crane c plane
Answers: 1 c 2 a 3 b 4 a 5 c 6 a

3 Complete this text with the comparative or superlative

of the adjectives.
Central Asia already has some of
(a) (strange) and
(b) (unusual) buildings
Marina Bay Sands Hotel, Singapore in the world. Soon, Tajikistan will have
(c) (tall) flagpole – it
will be three metres
(d) (high) than the
current one. It will probably be
(e) (expensive)
flagpole in the world too – even
(f) (expensive) than
the $32m pole in Azerbaijan.

Burj Khalifa, Dubai Ana Marin/Reuters

News-based English language activities from the global newspaper
Article: Tajikistan aims to build tallest flagpole
Tajik competitors raise their national flag at the 2004 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah Robert Sullivan
1 Its Pamir mountains are known as the “roof of the world” but
Tajikistan now wants to reach new heights – by building the
world’s tallest flagpole.
2 The country’s president, Emomali Rahmon, attended a recent
opening ceremony in the centre of the capital, Dushanbe.
He watched as construction began on the base for the new
flagpole. It will be 165 metres – more than half the size of the
Eiffel Tower.
3 The pole will hoist a 30 by 60-metre flag outside the Palace of
Nations and reach just higher than the current world record
holder in Azerbaijan, which is 162 metres high.
4 That flagpole was only confirmed as the tallest by the Guinness
Book of Records in May.
5 Central Asia’s leaders are keen on large and bizarre projects.
Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, has a shopping centre in the shape
of a giant wigwam. In Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan
there was until recently a 90-metre revolving gold statue of the
eccentric former president, Saparmurat Niyazov.
January 2011
6 The recent flagpole in Azerbaijan reportedly cost around $32m
and the new project in Dushanbe is likely to raise eyebrows.
Tajikistan has a low per capita GDP of $1,900 and it survives
largely on money sent home by migrant workers in Russia.
7 Building “monumental” flagpoles and sending flags to the top
is a feat of engineering. On the first attempt to hoist Azerbaijan’s
350kg flag in September, it tore in half. In 2001 the world’s
highest unsupported flagpole, in Vancouver, Canada, was only
86 metres high, but its successors have almost doubled in size
over the last decade.
8 The new flagpole will be built by the US company, Trident
Support. The poles are made from 12-metre sections of metal
tube and are put together by crane. They could possibly reach
200 metres high but beyond that, helicopters would be needed
to put the upper sections into place.
Original article by Tom Parfitt, rewritten by
Janet Hardy-Gould