Numbers- Social Issues Pairwork

Social issues numbers trivia pairwork

Choose one of the statements on your worksheet and change it into a question about the a number on it, e.g. “What percentage of…?” or “How many…?” Give your partner hints such as “(It is) far higher” and “very slightly lower” until they get exactly the right answer, the switch roles and do the same.

Useful language for doing the activity Questions about numbers what percentage what fraction how many/ how much how often how long/ how many years/ how many months/ how many weeks/ how many days when/ in what year   Hints about how close or far away the answer is far/ considerably/ slightly/ very slightly + + higher/ longer/ more + lower/ shorter/ less/ fewer

 

After doing the pronunciation activities below, work together to pronounce these numbers, if possible in more than one way:

Try to say these other numbers:

1066 (year)                                                 

1902 (year)

0.23                                                             

0.05

1 1/2                                                            

1 4/5                                

1/100                               

23/24

31^st                                                                                   

30^th/13^th

 

Homework

Check the meaning of all the topics on the last two pages, then choose three topics. For each topic, find several numbers. In the next lesson you will explain the numbers without saying the topic until your partner guesses which thing below that you are talking about.

 

Student A

Choose one of the statements on your worksheet and change it into a question about the a number on it, e.g. “What percentage of…?” or “How many…?” Give your partner hints such as “(It is) far higher” and “very slightly lower” until they get exactly the right answer, the switch roles and do the same.

1. A commuter in Chiyoda ward, Tokyo spends two point nine years travelling to and from work.
2. A half of American LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) adults say there is a lot of discrimination against LGBT people and nineteen percent say there is a lot of acceptance of them today.
3. A hundred and forty thousand people were killed and half a million homes were destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake of nineteen twenty three.
4. A strike at Nissan in Japan in nineteen fifty three lasted half a year.
5. A third of British eighteen to twenty four year olds receive parental help in paying their rent or mortgage (= housing loan).
6. A third of high school students in Japan think school is fun. Worldwide, fifty three percent of high school children enjoy school.
7. Eighteen point one seven percent of Japanese people work in manufacturing. Seventeen point three six percent work in wholesale and retail.
8. Eighty six point six percent of Japanese people, ninety one point seven percent of Finnish people and seventy one point three percent of Chinese people consider themselves middle class.
9. Every year in the USA tobacco kills three hundred and ninety thousand people, alcohol kills eighty thousand people, passive smoking kills fifty thousand people, cocaine kills two thousand two hundred people, heroin kills two thousand people, aspirin kills two thousand people and marijuana kills none.
10. Five hundred and fifteen million people are infected with malaria.
11. Forty point seven percent of Japanese men and twenty two point nine percent of Japanese women go to university.
12. The Architectural Institute of Japan listed thirteen thousand buildings as historical monuments in nineteen eighty. By two thousand and one, four thousand of them had been knocked down.
13. Half of British people consider that they belong to one particular religion. In nineteen eighty three, two thirds of British people said they belonged to one particular religion.
14. Half of UK adults regularly give to charity.
15. Sixteen hundred people are infected with HIV-AIDS in the world every day.
16. Twelve million Japanese people owe money to illegal loan sharks.

Switch worksheets and do the same, this time making sure you start with the most difficult examples (because your partner has already seen those examples).

Ask about statements you don’t understand, numbers you think could be different, etc.

Student B

Choose one of the statements on your worksheet and change it into a question about the a number on it, e.g. “What percentage of…?” or “How many…?” Give your partner hints such as “(It is) far higher” and “very slightly lower” until they get exactly the right answer, the switch roles and do the same.

17. Greenpeace has half a million members in Germany and five thousand four hundred members in Japan.
18. Health costs per person in nineteen ninety eight were four thousand and ninety four dollars in the USA, two thousand six hundred and forty four dollars in Switzerland, and two thousand three hundred and sixty five dollars in Germany (the top three in the world).
19. In January two thousand and two the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun sold fourteen million three hundred and twenty three thousand seven hundred and eighty one copies (a world record).
20. In the USA, three-quarters of people who see a drug on TV and ask doctors for it are successful.
21. In two thousand and five, JFE Steel was found to be putting seventy six times the legal limit of poisonous chemicals into Tokyo Bay.
22. In two thousand and three, two point five billion yen in cash was handed into the Tokyo police. Seventy two percent was returned to its owners.
23. Japan’s biggest yakuza mafia group the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate has nine hundred gangsters working from fifty five offices in Tokyo.
24. Japanese women are expected to have a life expectancy of ninety two point five years by the year twenty forty five.
25. One fifth of British people trust government to put the nation's needs above those of a political party. In nineteen eighty six, thirty eight percent of British people trusted the government to put the nation’s needs above those of a political party.
26. One third of Japanese twelve year olds go to bed at midnight or later.
27. Only two hundred and ninety four of the eight hundred and twenty eight food additives accepted in Japan are accepted by the WHO (World Health Association).
28. The longest civil court case in the world took place in Japan when a professor sued the Ministry of Education over changes to one of his textbooks. The case lasted thirty two years.
29. The Oedo line in Tokyo cost one point four trillion yen to build (the most expensive underground line in the world).
30. The Tokyo police receive three hundred thousand umbrellas a year.
31. There are thirty nine thousand love hotels in Japan.
32. Two thirds of all Japanese students aged twelve to fifteen attend cram school.
33. Two thirds of Tokyo women have been groped on a train.

Switch worksheets and do the same, this time making sure you start with the most difficult examples (because your partner has already seen those examples).

Ask about statements you don’t understand, numbers you think could be different, etc.

 

Extras 

Suitable for use by the teacher in the presentation stage or for a third student in an odd numbered group.

34. A quarter of the average American’s daily calorie intake comes from sugar.
35. Eighty three percent of British people think it is acceptable for a gay man or lesbian to teach in a school. In nineteen eighty three, forty one percent of British people thought it was acceptable for a gay man or lesbian to teach in a school.
36. Eighty two percent of British workers in "caring, leisure and other services", and seventy seven percent of British administrative and secretarial workers are female.
37. Fifteen percent of the UK National Health Service budget is spent on treating diabetes.
38. Fifty five percent of the Japanese coastline is covered in concrete
39. Fifty one percent of British people think that benefits for unemployed people are "too high and discourage work".
40. Fifty three percent of British people believe the government has a responsibility to provide a decent standard of living for the unemployed. In nineteen eighty five, eighty one percent of British people thought the government had a responsibility to provide a decent standard of living.
41. Forty five percent of British people think it is very important for Britain to continue to have a monarchy.
42. Forty percent of the Japanese national budget is spent of construction. In the UK and France around five percent of the national budget is spent on construction.
43. In the famous “Recruit scandal” a hundred and fifty important people such as politicians were found to have been accepting bribes from the Japanese company Recruit.
44. In the UK, alcohol abuse is linked to sixty five percent of suicide attempts, seventy six thousand facial injuries a year, thirty nine percent of fires and fifteen percent of drownings.
45. Ninety nine percent of Japanese workers said they if they knew their company was doing something illegal they wouldn’t tell anyone.
46. The eating disorder anorexia afflicts two percent of female Japanese high school students, with another ten percent at potential risk of developing it. Five point five percent were underweight when they were in their first year of high school, with the figure rising to thirteen point two percent by the time the girls reached their final year.
47. The LDP ruled Japan for thirty eight unbroken years.
48. The US military thirty seven facilities in Japan’s Okinawa prefecture uses ten point four percent of the land area and nineteen percent of the main island.
49. There are four hundred thousand vending machines in Tokyo.
50. There are one point nine million foreign citizens in Japan.
51. There are one thousand two hundred and fifty koban police boxes in Tokyo.
52. There is a seventy percent chance of a magnitude seven earthquake hitting Tokyo in the next thirty years.
53. Thirty four percent of Scottish thirteen year olds said they had been offered a drug and thirteen percent said they had used a drug.
54. Tokyo consumers come into contact with three thousand advertisements everyday

 

Pronounce the numbers another way

Try to think of or remember other ways of saying the underlined numbers. Put a question mark next to any you aren’t sure about.

• A strike at Nissan in Japan in nineteen fifty three lasted six months.
• Greenpeace has five hundred thousand members in Germany.
• In 2003, two billion five hundred million yen in cash was handed into the Tokyo police.
• Japanese women are expected to have a life expectancy of ninety two point five years by the year two thousand and forty five.
• One thousand six hundred people are infected with HIV-AIDS in the world every day.
• The Oedo line in Tokyo cost one trillion four hundred billion yen to build.

Check any which you aren’t sure about above.

 

Pronounce the numbers

Try to think of or remember at least one way to say each of the numbers written as figures below. Put a question mark next to any you aren’t sure about.

Dates and times

• A hundred and forty thousand people were killed in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.
• The Architectural Institute of Japan listed thirteen thousand buildings as historical monuments in nineteen eighty. By 2001, four thousand of them had been knocked down.

Large numbers

• Only 294 of the 828 food additives accepted in Japan are accepted by the WHO.
• There are 39,000 love hotels in Japan.
• Health costs per person in nineteen ninety eight were $4,094 in the USA…
• The Tokyo police receive 300,000 umbrellas a year.
• Every year in the USA tobacco kills 390,000 people.
• 12,000,000 Japanese people owe money to illegal loan sharks.
• 515,000,000 people are infected with malaria.
• In January two thousand and two the… Yomiuri Shimbun sold 14,323,781 copies…

Decimals and fractions

• A commuter in Chiyoda ward, Tokyo spends 2.9 years travelling to and from work.
• 6% of Japanese people…consider themselves middle class.
• 17% of Japanese people work in manufacturing. 17.36% work in wholesale and retail.
• 1/2 of British people consider that they belong to one particular religion.
• 1/3 of high school students in Japan think school is fun.
• 1/5 of British people trust government to…
• 2/3 of Tokyo women have been groped on a train.
• In the USA, 3/4 of people who see a drug on TV and ask their doctors for it are successful.

Where can “and” go in the numbers above? Write “and” in as many places as you can.

Compare your answers with the original worksheets, including where “and” can go. Start with any that you put question marks next to. The original sentences are in alphabetical order.

What is the rule on using “and” with large numbers?

Homework

• Affiliation with political parties/ Interest in politics/ Membership of political parties
• Affordable housing
• Age of retirement
• Agriculture (e.g. as a percentage of GDP or percentage of the workforce)
• Alcoholism/ Health problems due to alcohol
• Allergies
• Approval for a particular policy
• Awareness of social class
• Bankruptcy
• Belief in religion
• Birth rate
• Blue collar jobs
• Breakup of marriages (e.g. divorce and separation)
• Bullying
• Bureaucracy
• Car ownership/ Households with two cars
• Censorship
• Children in care
• Community activism
• Control of the internet
• Corruption (e.g. bribery and nepotism)
• Cost of healthcare
• Crime (e.g. white collar crime, or petty crime like graffiti and other vandalism)
• Data protection problems
• Discrimination (e.g. sexism, racism or ageism)
• Domestic violence
• Donation of blood and organs/ Shortage of blood and organs
• Downsizing/ Restructuring
• Drinking and driving
• Drugs (e.g. hard drugs, soft drugs or prescription drugs such as anti-depressants)
• Eating disorders (e.g. anorexia/ bulimia)
• Economic inequality/ Income differences between the rich and poor/ The income gap
• Educational standards (e.g. positions on international educational rankings)
• Emigration
• Entrepreneurism
• Fast food/ Pre-prepared food
• Fear of crime
• Female employment rates/ The proportion of women at work
• Gambling
• Giving to charities
• Homelessness
• House sales
• Household debt/ Personal debt
• Household income/ Income of households
• Human trafficking
• Immigration
• Industrial decline
• Interest in traditional arts and crafts
• Internet addiction
• Job instability/ Job mobility/ Job stability
• Lack of health insurance
• Leaving the family home later/ Shared households/ Multigenerational households
• Lifestyle diseases
• Local tax/ Local spending
• Long term unemployment
• M&A (= mergers and acquisitions)
• Mental illness
• Minorities in work (e.g. in senior positions)
• Multilingual classrooms
• Number of elderly
• Obesity
• Old people’s homes
• Organised crime (e.g. mafia and gangs)
• Outsourcing
• People dropping out of the workforce (e.g. NEETs or people on disability benefits)
• Political extremism
• Position of the middle class/ Size of the middle class
• Poverty (e.g. the Working Poor or people living under the poverty line)
• Pre-school education
• Pressure on children to succeed
• Property prices/ Rents
• Recidivism (= Reoffending)
• Respect for elders/ teachers/ parents/ fathers
• School absenteeism
• School violence
• Self-harm
• Sexual harassment (e.g. groping on trains)
• Single member households
• Stress-related illnesses
• Smoking/ Health problems due to smoking (including second hand smoke)
• Social entrepreneurism
• Social isolation
• Social liberalism
• Social mobility
• Social welfare
• The lifestyle of “Millennials” (adults ages 18 to 32)
• The superrich (e.g. Internet billionaires)
• The underclass
• Trust in public institutions (civil service, the press and other media, the monarchy, etc)
• Union membership/ Union action (strikes etc)
• University entrance
• White collar jobs
• Youth violence