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GENERAL ENGLISH · BREAKING NEWS · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)

GAMESTOP
SHARES
SHOCKER!
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1 Warm up

In pairs, discuss the following questions.

1. Have you bought a video game in the last two years? Where? Why did you decide to buy it?
2. Have you bought any company shares in the last two years? Where? Why did you decide to buy
them?

2 Scanning for details

You’re going to read a text (page 3) about the basics of investing. Before you do, skim through the
text to find words and phrases in bold which mean the same as the following words.

1. go wrong

2. don’t worry

3. ordinary people in a particular country

4. lower your risk of losing

5. something that cuts easily

6. everything

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Where would you find the following article?

A) In a university text book

B) In a magazine

C) In a serious newspaper

3 Understanding the text

Decide if the following statements are true or false.

1. The cost of GameStop’s shares has increased steadily lately.

2. The price of shares varies according to how well people think the company will perform.
3. In the example, WoodenWeaponzRus loses value because their weapons aren’t as good at cutting
butter.
4. Shorting stocks requires someone to borrow stocks, sell them, and then buy them back at a lower
price.
5. It is possible to lose money by shorting stocks.
6. A hedge fund reduces risk by investing in one or two stocks.

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UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)
GAMESTOP SHARES SHOCKER!
Finance 101
Winning and losing in the world of finance
1.
With GameStop’s rocketing share price making
headlines recently, the world of finance has been
drawing more attention than normal from the general
public. But what if, like many, you have no idea what
they are talking about? You don’t know stocks from
socks? Have no fear, here at Finance 101 we are here
to help!
2.
Let’s start with shares! A share is a little piece of
a company that you can buy. How much it costs
depends on both how well the company is doing now,
and how well people think the company is going to
do in the future. As with all trade, the price of shares
depends on supply and demand. So if a lot of people
want them, the price goes up. If not, it goes down.
3.
Now imagine that we go back in history, and you
find a company that makes weapons out of wood:
spears, arrows, swords, the lot. Anyone who wants
a weapon, goes to them. You would invest in that
company because you see that business is good,
so you buy shares. Then, someone invents steel.
Now there’s a company down the road selling steel
weapons and showing people how their swords slice
through wooden swords like a knife through butter.
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4.
If I now borrow your shares from you and give you
a small amount of money to say thank you, I can sell
your shares. Let’s say you have 10 shares and I get 5
gold coins for each share, so I now have 50 gold coins.
5.
More and more people buy steel weapons and the
price of WoodenWeaponzRus shares falls to 2 gold
coins per share. Then I buy 10 shares back for the
price of 20 gold coins and give them back to you. I
have made 30 gold coins. Thank you very much! This
is called ’shorting stocks’.
6.
Where it can backfire, is if I sell my shares and make
50 gold coins in profit, and then the price goes up.
Now I’ve got to spend more money to buy them
back - and return the shares to you. This is what
happened with the hedge funds that were expecting
GameStop’s stock to go down.
7.
What is a hedge fund? Well, that’s a large amount
of money controlled by a manager that is invested in
multiple stocks. The idea is to make as much money
as possible and reduce the risk of losing money.
If you ’hedge your bets’, you lower the chance of
losing money. That is what hedge funds do. Until
GameStop!
Sources: The Conversation, BBC, Reuters, The Guardian
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GAMESTOP SHARES SHOCKER!

4 Before you listen - prediction

In the Breaking News podcast, you will hear the following numbers. What do you predict they will
be connected to?

1. $2.80
2. $340
3. 1700%
4. $19 billion
5. 2008

Now listen and check if your predictions were correct.

5 Synonyms

The newsreader uses the following words in the podcast. Underline the words which have a similar
meaning.

1. rapid

a. smooth b. speedy c. steady

2. financial

a. economic b. serious c. salary

3. soaring

a. quickly b. moving c. rocketing

4. gains

a. advantages b. changes c. strengths

5. goal

a. win b. aim c. score

6. revenge

a. beat b. hurt c. payback

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6 Understanding the news

Answer the following questions with no more than three words from the podcast.

How many people were involved in the rise in share price?

1.

How long has GameStop been having problems?

2.

When did their stock hit the lowest share price?

3.

Who wanted to profit from GameStop’s loss?

4.

What is Reddit?

5.

Where did some of the small investors send their money?

6.

Who do some see this as a fight between?

7.

Where are the new battles going to be?

8.

Now listen again and answer the questions.

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7 Talking point

In pairs, discuss the following questions.

1. What is your opinion of the small investors? Is this something you would be tempted to be involved
in? Why? Why not?
2. What is your opinion of the hedge fund managers? Do you think they deserved to lose money, or
do you see them as victims? Why?

8 Extension activity

Read the following extracts from news stories.

Wallstreetbets, the Reddit forum where users discussed buying GameStop shares, was
banned from its server due to accusations of hate speech and spreading misinformation.
This happened on the same day that Wall Street lost billions. The forum has moved to other
servers, while ....

...argued that Wall Street short sellers help bring attention to companies which are being
mismanaged and aren’t being honest. They can potentially save ordinary investors large
amounts in lost earnings, keeping the market more accessible for all ...

Does the information in the extracts change your opinion on the story? Why? Why not?

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TEACHER MATERIALS · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)

GAMESTOP SHARES SHOCKER!

Transcripts

4. Before you listen - prediction

Narrator: The company - GameStop - experienced a rapid rise in its share price today due to
thousands of people working together on social media, causing historic financial upset.
GameStop, a company which sells video games and electronics, has been struggling for
many years.

Narrator: The outbreak of the pandemic has only increased its problems. As a result, their share
price went down as far as $2.80 a share last year. Some hedge fund managers saw this as
an opportunity for shorting stock and making a profit.

Narrator: That was until a large group of small investors got together on Reddit, an online discussion
site, and invested in GameStop’s stock.

Narrator: This sent the price soaring to over $340 a share, an increase of more than 1700%. Losses
for hedge funds are said to total some $19 billion while small investors have made huge
gains, some of them donating the profits to charity.

Narrator: For many of the small investors, the goal wasn’t to make money, but to take revenge on
the Wall Street companies who they hold responsible for causing the financial crash of
2008, and making money from the pandemic.

Narrator: With the gap between rich and poor increasing, are online trading markets a new war
zone? Only time will tell.

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TEACHER MATERIALS · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)

GAMESTOP SHARES SHOCKER!

Key

1. Warm up

5 mins.
Tell students they are going to read a text and listen to the GameStop share story. Ask them to discuss the
questions. If you have anyone who knows about shares and buying them, and they are willing to explain it to the
class, you could use this to the class’s advantage. Discussion about video games should try and stay focused on
where they were bought as it will help explain the difficulties that GameStop has run into in recent years (as game
buying has largely gone online and away from the High Street). Try to steer conversation away from the merits or
failure of any one game and aim to keep conversation general.

2. Scanning for details

5-10mins.
Ask the students to quickly look for the underlined phrases and match them to their equals. You may want to set
a time limit to discourage them from reading too much in depth. See if they can complete the task using context
only before allowing use of the internet and dictionaries. Then ask them to discuss the answer to the questions
about where they would find it. This will help them to determine style. Ask them for examples of language
which tell them the answer (this may include "You don’t know stocks from socks?", "Like a knife through butter",
"WoodenWeaponzRus" etc.)
Where would you find the following article?
B) In a magazine
1. backfire
2. have no fear
3. the general public
4. hedge your bets
5. like a knife through butter
6. the lot

3. Understanding the text

10 mins.
Ask the students to read in more detail and answer the questions. Encourage them to underline where the answer
is given where possible.
1. False. ’With GameStop’s rocketing share price making headlines recently...’
2. True. ’How much it costs depends ... how well people think the company is going to do in the future.’
3. False. They lose value because steel is better for making weapons than wood.
4. True. ’I can sell your shares. ... now have 50 gold coins... the price of WoodenWeaponzRus shares falls to 2
gold coins per share. Then I buy 10 shares back for the price of 20 gold coins and give them back ...’
5. True. ’Where it can b, is if I sell my shares and make 50 gold coins in profit, and then the price goes up.’
6. False. ’Well, that’s a large amount of money controlled by a manager that is invested in multiple stocks.’

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4. Before you listen - prediction

5 mins.
Ask the students to make predictions and discuss their answers. You may want to quickly do this as a whole class
activity after giving the students some time to think about their answers.
1. The lowest share price for GameStop last year (2020).
2. The price shares reached following the mass-buying of stock by small investors.
3. The percentage increase in stock price.
4. The amount lost by hedge funds.
5. The year of the financial crash which many blame Wall Street for causing.

5. Synonyms

5 mins.
Ask the students to quickly complete the questions. Ensure students are able to pronounce the target language.
1. b 2. a 3. c 4. a 5. b 6. c

6. Understanding the news

5-10mins.
Ask students to complete the questions. Ensure they understand that while they are open questions, the answers
are going to consist of words they hear in the video only. Lower-level students may require further listening to
complete this, or you may want students to work in pairs or small groups to complete the task.
1. thousands (of people) 2. for many years
3. last year 4. hedge fund managers
5. (a/an) social media site/online discussion site 6. to charity
7. rich and poor 8. online trading markets

7. Talking point

10 mins.
Ask students to consider their reaction to the story and then discuss the questions. Circulate and help with
pronunciation. You may want to bring any strong points the students make back to the class and discuss it as a
whole. As always, remain neutral in your view to encourage students to feel they can express their own views.

8. Extension activity

5 mins.
Give the students time to read the extracts from the newspapers. Ask them to discuss if it changed their views.
You may want to ask students to identify which group they were more sympathetic towards before doing this
task, then ask if their view changed. Point out that with large groups of people, it is easy to assign the behaviour
of a few members to the group as a whole. This is rarely wise.

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