A Woman’s Place?

english-to-go.com Elementary Instant Lesson™

Pre-Reading Activities
A: Talking About Numbers
1. Look at the fractions and percentages in the pie charts below.

2. How do we say the fractions below? Say the fractions (as words) in English.
i. 1/4: _______ ii. 1/3: _______ iii. 3/4: _______ iv. 1/2: _______
3. How do we say these percentages? Say the percentages (as words) in English.
i. 25%: _______ ii. 33.3%: _______ iii. 75%: _______ iv. 50%: _______
4. Look at the pie chart on your right. Which sentence is correct?
i. Most of the doctors in our hospital are men.
ii. Most of the doctors in our hospital are women.

B: Vocabulary
Look at the meanings of these words from today’s article.
Home is the place where you live. I stayed at home yesterday because I was sick.
Work is the place where you have a job. I am not going to work today because it is Saturday.

Reading Activities
A: Check Your Understanding
Read the sentences about today’s article. Fill the gaps with the correct number. Use the article to help you.
1. _________ of workers in the world are women.
2. _________ of people in a poll think women should not work. (poll - people are asked questions to see what they think)
3. _________ % of people in a poll think women should work.

Is a woman’s place in the home?

1 in 4 say yes
NEW YORK, Sun Mar 7, Women are “A woman’s place is in the home”
world leaders, CEOs and are 50% of Poll Results
the world’s workers but a poll shows Country Agree % Disagree %
that a quarter of people, most of them India 54 46
young, think a woman should stay at Turkey 52 48
Japan 48 52
home and not work. China 34 66
The Reuters/Ipsos poll of more Russia 34 66
than 24,000 people in 23 countries Hungary 34 66
shows that many people from India, South Korea 33 67
Turkey, Japan, China, Russia, Hungary Czech Republic 28 72
and South Korea think women should Australia 25 75
United States 25 75
not work. Great Britain 22 78
Surprisingly, people aged Netherlands 20 80
between 18 and 34 years think Canada 20 80
that women should not Italy 19 81
work. Poland 18 82
H o w e v e r, m o s t Belgium 16 84
Germany 14 86
people in the survey, Spain 12 88
74 percent, think Brazil 10 90
a woman’s place Sweden 10 90
is not in the home. Mexico 9 91
France 9 91
Argentina 9 91
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B: Comprehension
Read the questions below. Find the answers in today’s article.
1. Who did the poll?
2. How many countries were in the poll?
3. How many people were in the poll?

C: Correct or Incorrect?
Read these sentences. Which one is correct?
1. i. Most people in the survey think women should work. ii. Most people in the survey think women should not work.
2 i. Young people in some countries think women should work. ii. Young people in some countries think women should not work.

D: Understanding Figures
Use the article to answer these questions.
1. In how many countries did more than half of the people in the survey think women should not work?
2. In how many countries did more than half of the people in the survey think women should work?
3. In which countries did more than half of the people in the survey think women should work?

E: Language
However is an adverb. It means ‘but’. It shows that a thing or an idea is different. It joins two sentences.
Find it in today’s article. 1. Why did the writer use ‘however’ here?
Surprisingly is an adverb. It means that something is surprising or is something that we did not expect.
Find it in today’s article. 2. Why did the writer use ‘surprisingly’ here?

Post-Reading Activities
You may do one or more of these.
A: Discussion
1. What question did the poll ask?
2. What is your answer for this question? Why do you think this?

B: Find out...
Find out the name of a woman who is a leader or a CEO.
What does she do? Then give a short report to the class about her.

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TEACHERS' NOTES AND ANSWER KEY
Pre-Reading Activities
A: Talking About Numbers - Answers
2i. one quarter/a quarter, ii. one third/a third, iii. three quarters, iv. a half/one half.
3. i. twenty five percent, ii. thirty three and a third percent (recurring), iii. seventy five per
cent, iv. fifty percent.
4. ii.

Reading Activities
A: Check Your Understanding - Answers
1. 50%/ Half, 2. a quarter /25%, 3. 74%/nearly three quarters.

B: Comprehension - Answers
1. Reuters/Ipsos, 2.23 countries, 3. more than 24,000.

C: Correct or Incorrect? - Answers

1i. and 2ii. are correct according to today’s article.

D: Understanding Figures - Answers

1. 2, 2. 21, 3. All of the countries in the poll except for India and Turkey.

E: Language - Answers
1. The writer uses it to show that while many young people think women should not
work, most people in the survey think differently: they think women should not be in the
home.
2. We would expect older people perhaps to have this view as older people are often
thought to be more conservative and young people more idealistic and more radical.

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