A Gathering of Bald Men

Modern life is full of worries - money problems, your daughter's unsuitable boyfriend, your wife who doesn't understand you, your boss at work who doesn't listen to your good ideas …

Caleb Zungu is not a happy man. He sells insurance to people who don't want to pay for it, he worries about the money that he owes the bank - and he discovers he is going bald. A man can only take so much …

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Use the lesson plan provided with last month's free story. Once students have listened to the Audio Hook, ask them to work in pairs and discuss why they think Caleb screamed. Encourage them to think about what Caleb will do next in the story. They can then share their ideas with another pair.

Once students have read the story, ask them to try this writing activity, taken from the After-Reading Activities in Dancing with Strangers: Stories from Africa.

Don't miss next month's free story at oup.com/bookworms

The Festive Season in a Part of Africa

Two days after Christmas a Zulu woman and her schoolboy son sat waiting for me to finish my morning's clinic in Ondini. She wanted me to visit her old mother's cow, which had a calf waiting to be born. But for two days now the calf would not come out, and the poor cow was getting very tired. 'We have heard that you are a good vet,' the woman said to me.

So off we went. The schoolboy in the front of my pick-up, to show me the way, and the woman and my assistant Mbambo in the back.

Download this story

http://www.oup-bookworms.com/teachers-only.cfm

Activity

Use the lesson plan provided with last month's free story. Once students have listened to the Audio Hook, ask them how many of these things they think will happen in the story:

http://fds.oup.com/www.oup.com/pdf/elt/promo/bookworms/teaching_notes1.pdf

The cow dies	The cow has a calf
The vet is very expensive	The vet agrees a good price

After your students have read the story, put them in pairs and ask them to discuss why the vet said that half of 2,000 rands was 750, not 1,000. When they have finished their discussion, ask them to look at these two ideas, and decide which one they agree with:

1. He made a mistake because he was not good at numbers.
2. He did not really make a mistake; he wanted to give Granny a good price because it was the festive season.

Your students can also read an interview with the Author of this story on our website.

Reading tip

Include DEAR time in your lesson plans (Drop Everything And Read). Make sure that students always have a book with them in class, and from time to time announce 15 or 20 minutes DEAR time. Everybody reads, including the teacher, which demonstrates the value of reading and helps to establish a reading community. Oxford Bookworms Series Editor Jennifer Bassett For more tips visit our ask the experts web page.

Don't miss next month's free story at oup.com/bookworms
http://elt-marketing.oup.com/q/12hMXEFcSrOo7/wv

This month's Free Story

She watched him pack his clothes and his wedding suit into his old suitcase. She could smell his cologne. When did he last wear cologne? Ah, at their wedding. It smelt strange then too. She never wore perfume. What use was perfume to a working woman like her? And married women who wear perfume are looking for lovers, trying to catch other men. That’s what people say. She already had a good, hardworking husband with a shop of his own. What more can a woman want? Download this story Use the lesson plan provided with last month's free story. This time, as you play the Audio Hook, give your students a copy of the picture on page 3 of the free story. Then ask them these questions about the picture: How do the people in the picture feel? Whose wedding is the husband going to? Can you guess? Ask your students: Why do you think the author wrote this story? How long did she take to write it? Encourage students to find out by reading the interview with the author. http://www.oup-bookworms.com/teachers-only.cfm