Skip to main content

News Quiz 2020

Photo by Victor He on Unsplash
Here's the delayed 2020 edition of my traditional news quiz with apologies to my friends and followers. I hope it still arrives in time for your first lesson of the new year.

This year's quiz is heavily influenced by the pandemic, which shouldn't come as a surprise! Still it has a considerable dose of non-Covid related new stories from the world of sports, science and entertainment.

The unprecedented events of the year call for a slight change in the format of the quiz. As most of you are probably teaching remotely (using Zoom or MS Teams), the quiz is made with Google Slides and Quizizz (which is similar to Kahoot, but better!) and can be used in both traditional and remote teaching scenarios.

Another change is that the questions are all multiple choice this time. As usual, the idea is to get through the quiz part of the activity as quickly as possible - and multiple choice helps keep this part short - and devote sufficient time to the language.

The quiz is available in two levels:
  • Advanced (B2+/C1 or higher)
  • Intermediate (B1/B2)
For each level three formats are available. All of these are editable so you can adapt them if you wish.

  • a Google Slides presentation. To edit, click on File -> Make a copy
  • a Google Doc. To edit, click on File -> Download -> select the desired format
  • a gamified quiz created on Quizizz 
Below you will also find:
  • the Teacher's guide (note that the document is being updated) 

UPDATE 10 January 2021: Click HERE for follow up language-focused activities

Wishing you all a happier year ahead!

Google Slides

Advanced (B2+/C1) level followed by language focus

Preview below or click HERE to download 

Intermediate (B1/B2) level followed by language focus

Preview below or click HERE to download


Google Docs

This is the 'old' format suitable for a face-to-face classroom. This can also be sent to students by email for review after the lesson.

Advanced (B2+/C1) level with answers

Preview below or click HERE to download the editable Google doc


Intermediate (B1/B2) level with answers

Preview below or click HERE to download the editable Google doc




Teacher's Guide




Credits & acknowledgements


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Benefits Of Healthy eating Turmeric every day for the body

One teaspoon of turmeric a day to prevent inflammation, accumulation of toxins, pain, and the outbreak of cancer.  Yes, turmeric has been known since 2.5 centuries ago in India, as a plant anti-inflammatory / inflammatory, anti-bacterial, and also have a good detox properties, now proven to prevent Alzheimer's disease and cancer. Turmeric prevents inflammation:  For people who

Women and children overboard

It's the  Catch-22  of clinical trials: to protect pregnant women and children from the risks of untested drugs....we don't test drugs adequately for them. In the last few decades , we've been more concerned about the harms of research than of inadequately tested treatments for everyone, in fact. But for "vulnerable populations,"  like pregnant women and children, the default was to exclude them. And just in case any women might be, or might become, pregnant, it was often easier just to exclude us all from trials. It got so bad, that by the late 1990s, the FDA realized regulations and more for pregnant women - and women generally - had to change. The NIH (National Institutes of Health) took action too. And so few drugs had enough safety and efficacy information for children that, even in official circles, children were being called "therapeutic orphans."  Action began on that, too. There is still a long way to go. But this month there was a sign that

Not a word was spoken (but many were learned)

Video is often used in the EFL classroom for listening comprehension activities, facilitating discussions and, of course, language work. But how can you exploit silent films without any language in them? Since developing learners' linguistic resources should be our primary goal (well, at least the blogger behind the blog thinks so), here are four suggestions on how language (grammar and vocabulary) can be generated from silent clips. Split-viewing Split-viewing is an information gap activity where the class is split into groups with one group facing the screen and the other with their back to the screen. The ones facing the screen than report on what they have seen - this can be done WHILE as well as AFTER they watch. Alternatively, students who are not watching (the ones sitting with their backs to the screen) can be send out of the classroom and come up with a list of the questions to ask the 'watching group'. This works particularly well with action or crime scenes with