David in danger of collapse

Learning goal

  • To acquire useful vocabulary in order to be able to describe certain types of damage suffered by sculptures and some of the most commonly used protective measures.

To achieve that goal, you should become familiar with the words in the resource, paying special attention to those included in the exercises. The interactive activities provide feedback so that you can evaluate your performance.

Read and listen

You are going to do some activities adapted from the lesson plan published by Sean Banville (copyright) on 5 May 2014 at http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1405/140505-michelangelo-david.html.

To begin with, you have to read the news article:

  • Click on the link above to read the article (level 6 of language difficulty). If you have trouble understanding the text, you can also read easier, adapted versions of the article (level 5 and level 4).
  • Speed read: try reading the article at four different speeds (this link is for the level 6 text, but you can also try levels 5 and 4).
  • Listen to the text at five different speeds: slowest, slower, medium, faster and fastest. You must do that with the level 6 text (make sure you scroll down to the bottom of the page), but you can also try the different speeds with the other two texts, if you want to.

Michelangelo's David

Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:David_von_Michelangelo.jpg