English Reading Exercises for A1 – Say no to cyberbullying

1. Complete the phrases in these sentences using the words below.

account      campaign      internet      media      page      story

1) She read about the story on a well-known ____________ forum.

2) he closed his Twitter ____________ because of cyberbullying.

3) We use social ____________ to tell people about our meetings.

4) They started a hashtag ____________ to save the local library.

5) Over a million people have visited her fundraising ____________

6) His reply to the bullies quickly became a viral ____________

2. Read the Reading Strategy. Then read the text below and put events a-f in the correct order. Write a-f in the table.

a People posted unkind comments about Kaitlyn’s appearance.

b Kaitlyn made a video and posted it on YouTube.

c Somebody deleted the photo of Kaitlyn from Facebook.

d Somebody uploaded a photo of Kaitlyn to Facebook.

e Kaitlyn’s video became a viral story.

f Kaitlyn started her own YouTube channel.

A cheerleader fights back – Kaitlyn Collins

The Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears are two American Football teams. Both teams have a lot of fans, and the fans have their own websites and internet forums. On these pages, they share photos, stories and jokes about the games and the players. 1) _____. But one day in 2013, a ‘joke’ became an example of cyberbullying.

A fan uploaded a photo of a Green Bay Packers cheerleader to the Chicago Bears’ Facebook page. He added an unkind comment about her appearance and invited other Chicago Bears fans to do the same. 2) _____. They called her ugly and said that the Green Bay Packers had the worst cheerleaders in America. To them, it was all a big joke. But how did that cheerleader feel?

The name of the Green Bay Packers cheerleader in the photo was Kaitlyn Collins. She found her photo on the Chicago Bears’ Facebook page, read the comments and was very upset. She complained to Facebook, but they did not remove the photo. 3) _____. So Kaitlyn decided to fight against the bullies in her own way. She made a video and posted it on YouTube.

In her video, she did not speak; she wrote messages on paper and showed them to the camera. She explained that most of the Facebook comments were ‘too horrible to repeat’ but they had the same theme: they said she was ‘ugly’. She also explained that some comments were different – they were kind. One comment said: ‘I’m a Bears fan, but she is not ugly – and she is also somebody’s daughter.’ Her video became a viral story. 4) _____.

After that, somebody from the Chicago Bears fan club deleted the photo from its Facebook page. In its place is a message about the dangers of cyberbullying. And now Kaitlyn has her own channel on YouTube. Her videos continue the fight against cyberbullying.

3. Match gaps 1-4 in the text with sentences A-E. Use your answers to exercise 2 to help you. There is one extra sentence.

a Within a few days, there were hundreds of comments about the cheerleader.

b The comments did not make Kaitlyn feel sad; they made her feel angry.

c Of course, they sometimes make negative comments about other teams and players too!

d They said that it was not cyberbullying, according to their rules.

e Soon, it had nearly a million views on YouTube.

Extra exercises

Strategy

When you do a matching task, read the headings first and underline the key words. Then think of three words related to the topic of the words you underlined. This will help you match the headings to the paragraphs.

1. Read the Strategy. Then look at the headings A-E in exercise 2 and underline the key words. For each heading, choose three words below that are related to the topic. Compare your ideas with a partner.

banana      calendar      count      days      drawings      fish      images

lunch      maths      photos      six      spelling      word      write      late

Heading A   ________________

Heading B   ________________

Heading C   ________________

Heading D   ________________

Heading E   ________________

2. Read the text. Match paragraphs 1-4 with headings A-E. There is one extra heading.

a Knowing their numbers

b A snack for a correct answer

c Learning with letters

d Passing the time

e Say it with pictures

Animals and touch-screens

1) ___ .

Esme, Molly, Quinn and Emily have each got a touch-screen tablet. Esme and Quinn push the blue circle on the right of the screen, but nothing happens. So, they move to the left of the screen, put their noses to the other circle, and they get a snack. Molly and Emily don’t get a snack because they don’t push the correct button. The tablets are part of an experiment at the University of Vienna. But Esme, Molly, Quinn and Emily aren’t humans: they’re tortoises.

2) ___ .

Of course, the tortoises in Austria aren’t the first animals to use this technology. More than thirty years ago, a male bonobo monkey called Kanzi learned how to use a large touch-screen to communicate with a human. Kanzi lives with other bonobos at the Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. He ‘talks’ to his trainer, Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, using a screen with 400 lexigrams – simple images that represent words.

3) ___ .

Scientist Jennifer Vonk also uses touch-screens with the animals she studies. A few years ago, she did an experiment with three young black bears: Brutus, Dusty and Bella. At the time, people thought that only animals who lived in groups could count. Vonk experimented with bears because they usually live alone. Using extra strong touch-screen tablets, she found that the bears could count just like animals in groups – the group isn’t important in learning how to count.

4) ___ .

But animals don’t only use touch-screens in experiments. The penguins at a zoo near Los Angeles have a tablet that they use for entertainment. Two young male penguins, Jere and Newsome, particularly like an app called Game for Cats. In the game they have to ‘catch’ a mouse on the screen. The game exercises their minds and helps to make their lives in the zoo more interesting.