mnl changing india and the world through yoga ele 2

7/25/2019 MNL Changing India and the World Through Yoga Ele 2

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mnl-changing-india-and-the-world-through-yoga-ele-2 1/5 NEWS LESSONS / Changing India and the world through yoga / Elementary

• P H O T O

C O P I

A B L E

•

C A N B E

D O W

N L O A D E

D

F R O M

W E B

S I T E© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2015

Changing India and the world through yoga

Level 1 l Elementary

Key words2

Warmer1

Do you dislike waking up early?

How do you usually start your day? Do you simply get up and get ready or do you go for a run, do some

yoga, stretch, call someone, read the paper…?

Match the key words with the denitions. Then, nd them in the article to read them in context. The

paragraph numbers will help you.

1. to make your arms, legs or body as straight as possible so that your muscles become long and tight

________________________ (para 1)

2. to focus your mind for a period of time in order to relax ________________________ (para 1)

3. to do an activity with people who are already doing it ________________________ (para 4)

4. unt and unhealthy ________________________ (para 7)

5. If something is ________________________, it must be done because of a rule or law. (para 7)

6. people who work for government departments ________________________ (para 7)

7. someone who does a particular activity ________________________ (para 8)

8. very, very old ________________________ (para 9)

9. a situation when things work well together ________________________ (para 9)

10. a religious or spiritual leader ________________________ (para 12)

join in compulsory out of shape meditate stretch

ancient guru civil servants harmony practitioner



• P H O T O

C O P I

A B L E

•

C A N B E

D O W

N L O A D E

D

F R O M

W E B




Modi’s plan to change India and the

world through yoga angers

religious minorities

Jason Burke, Delhi

6 June, 2015

1 Every morning, before India’s capital gets too hot,

some old friends meet. On the dry grass not far

from the India Gate monument at the centre of

Delhi, they stretch, breathe and meditate.

2 “It is the only healthy way to start the day. Much

better than an egg or a sandwich or a cup oftea,” said Arvind Singh at 6.15am as he did his

breathing exercises.

3 Singh, a 42-year-old salesman, and his friends

are not alone. All across India you can see

people doing yoga together.

4 On 21 June – the new International Day of Yoga

– Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, hopes

the world will join in. On the grass near India

Gate, up to 45,000 people will take part in a

35-minute class. They hope it will be the biggest

yoga session ever.

5 The participants will include 64-year-old Modi,

most of his government and celebrities.

6 Modi wants to encourage Indians, and others, to

stretch. Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party won

the Indian election in 2014. In May 2015, he told

schools to make sure students attended yoga

events on the International Day of Yoga.

7 Everybody in India knows that their police ofcers

are out of shape. So, India wants to introduce

compulsory yoga for them. And, three million civil

servants and their families will get free daily yoga

lessons. Air India, the national airline, has also

said it will introduce yoga for trainee pilots.

8 Modi is a vegetarian and a yoga practitioner. He

suggested an international yoga day when he

spoke to the United Nations on a visit to New

York in 2014.

9 Modi said that yoga is a gift of India’s ancient

tradition. He said that, when you do yoga, you

bring together mind and body, thought and action,

and create harmony between man and nature.

He added that “It is not about exercise – it isabout feeling in harmony with yourself, the world

and nature”.

10 Yoga is between 3,000 and 6,000 years old. It is

connected with local religious traditions including

Buddhism and Jainism, as well as Hinduism,

which is practised by 80% of Indians. In ancient

India, yoga was part of daily life.

11 Modi has been criticized for creating a view of

Indian culture that doesn’t give other traditions a

fair place.

12 Suneel Singh, a guru in south Delhi, said that

yoga does not just belong to one religion: “Is t’ai

chi just Chinese? Is football just English? It is the

same with yoga – yoga is for everybody. It is acheap way to stay healthy.”

© Guardian News and Media 2015

First published in The Observer , 06/06/15



• P H O T O

C O P I

A B L E

•

C A N B E

D O W

N L O A D E

D

F R O M

W E B




Yoga4

Answer the questions with information from the article.

1. Where is the world’s largest yoga session?

place _____________________________

city _________________

country _________________

2. What do you know about India’s prime minister?

name _____________________________

age _________________

political party _____________________________

lifestyle ___________________________________________________

3. Which large group of unt people does he want to do compulsory yoga? _____________________________

4. Who else will be offered free yoga classes with their families? _____________________________

5. Who does Air India want to offer yoga classes to? _____________________________

6. What does the prime minister say about yoga? Complete the quote.

‘It is not about exercise – it is about ___________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________.’

7. When did people start doing yoga?

between _________________ and _________________ years ago

8. Who does Suneel Singh say yoga is for? _________________

Comprehension check3

a. Read back through the article. Complete the words that come before or after the word yoga. The rst

letters are given to help you.

b. Add any further word pairs of your own.

c. Write ve sentences of your own that each include one of the word pairs.

verb or adjective + yoga

1. c_________________

2. d_________________

yoga + noun

3. p_________________

4. e_________________

5. l_________________

6. s_________________



• P H O T O

C O P I

A B L E

•

C A N B E

D O W

N L O A D E

D

F R O M

W E B




Webquest7

• Are there yoga or any other sports or exercise classes at your company or school?

• If so, do you attend any classes? Why? Why not?

• What other sports or exercise classes would you like your company or school to offer?

• What yoga events were held around the world during the most recent International Day of Yoga (21

June)? Where were they? How many people attended?

Discussion6

Vocabulary – word families5

a. Complete the table with the related words.

b. Make sentences with the words.

noun verb

stretch

meditate

breath

exercise

attendance



• P H O T O

C O P I

A B L E

•

C A N B E

D O W

N L O A D E

D

F R O M

W E B




KEY

Teacher’s note: At some point during the lesson,

nd out whether any of your students practise yoga. If

they do, get them to tell the others what a typical yoga

class is like. If no one in the class can tell the others

about yoga, look up some yoga poses (asanas) on the

internet, for example here: www.yogajournal.com/

category/poses/.

2 Key words

1. stretch

2. meditate

3. join in

4. out of shape

5. compulsory

6. civil servants

7. practitioner

8. ancient

9. harmony

10. guru

3 Comprehension check

1. near India Gate monument; Delhi; India

2. Narendra Modi; 64; Bharatiya Janata Party;

vegetarian and yoga practitioner

3. India’s police

4. civil servants

5. trainee pilots6. feeling in harmony with yourself, the world

and nature

7. 3,000; 6,000

8. everybody

4 Yoga

1. compulsory

2. daily

3. practitioner

4. event(s)

5. lesson(s)

6. session

5 Vocabulary – word families

noun verb

stretch stretch

meditation meditate

breath breathe

exercise exercise

attendance attend

http://www.yogajournal.com/category/poses/




mnl changing india and the world through yoga ele 2

Documents