photo Tara Benwell Listen to News with Tara Benwell - Instructions:
1. Preview the vocabulary and read the gapfill text.
2. Play the news report and try to fill in the blanks.
3. Answer the comprehension questions by writing full sentences.
4. Use the discussion question to write an essay or discuss the story with other students.
5. Click "show Answers" to see the full text.
6. Pretend to be a news anchor by reading each story out loud.

dateline: 08 February 2017

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Day Care Tells Parents To Get Off Their Phones

Pre-Listening Vocabulary

  • day care provider: a person or organization that cares for young children while their parents work
  • distracted: not focusing on the person or thing that one should be focused on
  • appalling: terrible, awful
  • go viral: to suddenly become very popular online

Day Care Tells Parents To Get Off Their Phones

A day care provider in Texas has a sign on its door telling parents to get off their phones when they pick up their children. The reads, “Your child is happy to see you! Are you happy to see your child?” It goes on to describe an scene where a child is trying to show something to a parent who is too distracted by her phone to notice. The day care provider calls this behaviour “appalling” and wants it to stop. When one of the parents took a of the sign and posted it on Facebook, the message went viral.

Comprehension Questions

  1. Where was this sign placed?
  2. What was the main message of the sign?
  3. How did the sign’s message go viral?

Discussion Questions: While many people agree that some parents need a wake-up call to pay more attention to their children, others feel the day care provider was out of line. Do you think mobile phones are a harmful distraction for parents, and do you agree or disagree with this day care’s approach?

show Answers

Written and recorded by Tara Benwell for EnglishClub
Tara Benwell is a Canadian freelance writer and editor who specializes in materials and articles for the ELT industry.
© EnglishClub.com
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