Paradise almost lost: Maldives seek to buy new homeland
Level 2 Intermediate
1 Key words
Fill the gaps in the sentences using these key words from the text.
pace archipelago cuisine flogging banishment
outcome unprecedented receptive autocracy inevitable
1. An _________________ is a form of government in which one person has complete power.
2. If someone is _________________, they are willing to consider suggestions.
3. If something is _________________, it is impossible to avoid or prevent.
4. _________________ is the act of officially ordering someone to leave a country or a region as a punishment.
5. An _________________ event is one that has never happened before.
6. _________________ is a punishment where someone is hit many times with a stick or a whip.
7. The _________________ is the final result of a process or activity.
8. An _________________ is a large group of small islands.
9. _________________ is the speed at which something happens.
10. The _________________ of a particular country or region is its style of cooking food.
2 Find the information
Look in the text and find this information as quickly as possible.
1. How far are the Maldives from the tip of India?
2. How many islands make up the Maldives?
3. How many people live in the Maldives?
4. How far above sea level are most of the Maldives?
5. What was the average income in the Maldives under the previous government?
6. How many people live in the capital of the Maldives?
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Paradise almost lost: Maldives seek to buy new homeland
Level 2 Intermediate
Paradise almost lost: Maldives seek itself. It is a victim of climate change caused by
to buy a new homeland rich countries.”
Randeep Ramesh in Male 5 Nasheed said he was planning to create
November 10, 2008 a “sovereign wealth fund” from the dollars
generated by importing tourists, in the way that
Arab states have done by exporting oil. “Kuwait
1 Mohamed Nasheed, the new president of the
might invest in companies; we will invest in
Maldives, a group of 1,200 islands in the Indian
land.” The 41-year-old president is a rising
Ocean, says the country will soon spend part
star in Asia, where he has been compared to
of its billion-dollar annual tourist income on
Nelson Mandela. Before taking office the new
buying a new homeland – as an insurance
president asked Maldivians to look to the future
policy against climate change that could turn the
and not seek revenge for the past. This was an
300,000 islanders into environmental refugees.
astonishing call as Nasheed had gone to jail 23
The Maldives, just 500 miles from the tip of
times, been tortured and spent 18 months in
India, could disappear under the waves if the
solitary confinement.
current pace of climate change continues to raise
sea levels. 6 “We have the ability to remove anyone from
government and prosecute them. But I have
2 The UN forecasts that the seas are likely to rise
forgiven my jailers, the torturers. They were
by up to 59cm by 2100, due to global warming.
following orders ... I ask people to follow my
Most parts of the Maldives are just 1.5m above
example and leave Gayoom to grow old here,”
water. The president said even a “small rise”
he said.
in sea levels would cover large parts of the
archipelago. “We can do nothing to stop climate 7 The Maldives is one of the few Muslim nations
change on our own and so we have to buy that has moved from autocracy to democracy
land somewhere else. It’s an insurance policy relatively peacefully. The Gayoom “sultanate”
for the worst possible outcome. After all, the was a dictatorship that controlled the police,
Israelis [began by buying] land in Palestine,” said army and courts, and which banned rival parties.
Nasheed, also known as Anni. Gayoom used public flogging, banishment and
torture to suppress dissent and the young pro-
3 The president swept to power in elections last
democracy movement. Gayoom was ‘elected’
month after defeating Maumoon Abdul Gayoom,
president six times in 30 years – but never
the man who once imprisoned him. He said he
faced an opponent. However, public pressure
had already discussed the idea with a number of
grew and last year he agreed that democracy
countries and found them to be “receptive”. He
was inevitable.
said Sri Lanka and India were targets because
they had similar cultures, cuisines and climates. 8 Upmarket tourism was useful for the dictatorial
Australia was also a possibility because of the regime. Gayoom’s Maldives became the richest
amount of unoccupied land available. “We do country in South Asia, with the average income
not want to leave the Maldives, but we also do $4,600 a year. But Gayoom’s friends and
not want to be climate refugees living in tents for supporters took much of the wealth and there
decades,” he said. was a huge gap between rich and poor. The
speedboats and yachts of local multimillionaires
4 Environmentalists say the issue raises
fill the capital’s harbour, while almost half of
the question of what rights citizens have
Maldivians earn less than a dollar a day.
if their homeland no longer exists. “It’s an
unprecedented wake-up call,” said Tom Picken, 9 The capital of the Maldives, Male, is the world’s
head of international climate change at Friends most densely populated town: 100,000 people
of the Earth. “The Maldives is left to fend for live in just two square kilometres. “We have
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NEWS LESSONS / Paradise almost lost: Maldives seek to buy new homeland / Intermediate
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Paradise almost lost: Maldives seek to buy new homeland
Level 2 Intermediate
unemployment at 20%. Heroin has become government and turn the presidential palace
a serious social issue, and crime is rising,” into the country’s first university. “It’s a very
Nasheed said. He added that the extra difficult situation. We are a 100% Islamic
social spending he was planning would cost country and democracy came from inside. Do
an immediate $243m. He said that without you want to lose that because we don’t have the
emergency financial help from the international money to deal with the poverty created by the
community, the future of the Maldives as a dictatorship?” he said.
democracy would be in doubt.
© Guardian News & Media 2008
10 To raise money, his government will sell state
First published in The Guardian, 10/11/08
assets, reduce the number of people in the
3 Comprehension check
Are these statements true (T) or false (F) according to the text?
1. All of the Maldives will be under water by the year 2100.
2. The Maldives have a similar culture and climate to Australia.
3. Indian cooking is similar to Maldivian cooking.
4. The inhabitants of the Maldives want to leave the islands and settle elsewhere.
5. The Maldives have recently become a democracy.
6. Under the dictatorship the Maldives was the richest country in South Asia.
4 Find the word
Find the following words and phrases in the text.
1. A three-word expression meaning to win an election by a very large number of votes. (para 3)
2. A noun meaning a period of ten years. (para 3)
3. A three-word expression meaning a bad experience that warns people to change something, usually the way
they behave. (para 4)
4. A three-word expression meaning to look after oneself without help from anyone else (para 4)
5. A two-word expression meaning a punishment in which a prisoner is kept alone, separate from other prisoners.
(para 5)
6. A verb meaning to say officially that people must not do something. (para 7)
7. A verb meaning to stop an activity, especially by making laws or using your authority. (para 7)
8. A noun meaning strong disagreement with what people in authority think. (para 7)
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NEWS LESSONS / Paradise almost lost: Maldives seek to buy new homeland / Intermediate
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Paradise almost lost: Maldives seek to buy new homeland
Level 2 Intermediate
5 Two-word expressions
Match the words in the left-hand column with the words in the right-hand column to make two-word
expressions from the text.
1. global a. assets
2. climate b. movement
3. sea c. change
4. insurance d. populated
5. pro-democracy e. policy
6. densely f. warming
7. social g. level
8. state h. issue
6 Word building: Noun endings
Add endings to these words to form nouns. Check your answers in the text.
1. dictator_______
2. confine_______
3. environment_______
4. move_______
5. jail_______
6. support_______
7. employ_______
8. govern_______
7 Discussion
What can the inhabitants of the Maldives do to save their homeland?
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NEWS LESSONS / Paradise almost lost: Maldives seek to buy new homeland / Intermediate
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Paradise almost lost: Maldives seek to buy new homeland
Level 2 Intermediate
KEY
1 Key words 4 Find the word
1. autocracy 1. sweep to power
2. receptive 2. decade
3. inevitable 3. a wake-up call
4. banishment 4. fend for oneself
5. unprecedented 5. solitary confinement
6. flogging 6. ban
7. outcome 7. suppress
8. archipelago 8. dissent
9. pace
10. cuisine
5 Two-word expressions
2 Find the information 1. f
2. c
1. 500 miles 3. g
2. 1,200 4. e
3. 300,000 5. b
4. 1.5m 6. d
5. $4,600 a year 7. h
6. 100,000 8. a
3 Comprehension check 6 Word building: Noun endings
1. F 1. –ship
2. F 2. –ment
3. T 3. –alist
4. F 4. –ment
5. T 5. –er
6. T 6. –er
7. –ment
8. –ment
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NEWS LESSONS / Paradise almost lost: Maldives seek to buy new homeland / Intermediate
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