Many middle schools, and even high schools, do not cover current events. This is a shame. Here's a very topical and meaningful article. Many Americans do not know that their designer clothes are made by extraordinarily poor people in developing Asian countries. These workers are paid very low wages while the companies make huge profits.
Cambodia is a very poor country in SE Asia. Here is an article about how the Nike corporation treats its female workers there.
The following vocabulary words come from this article (please review the definitions from this link before doing the exercise):
http://convostartersenglish.blogspot.com/2013/05/workers-are-harmed-after-protesting-at.html
Words to be used:
minimum wage, to decline to, to collapse
a clash, to account for, a strike,
a protest, a coffin, to be deployed
Vocabulary exercise (answers are below the exercise):
1) Right now the US government has US soldiers _______________ in over 100 countries around the world.
2) If we want to stimulate the economy, perhaps we should raise the __________________ law. $7.25/hr. is way too low. If people made more money, they would spend more and more goods and services would be needed.
3) In the movies, Dracula, or other vampires, usually have to be inside their ____________ by daybreak, or they will finally die.
4) There was a _____________ between protesters and police near Wall Street last year, when young people were protesting the unequal distribution of wealth in the USA (as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement).
5) Although Bob invited his old friend to attend his wedding anniversary party, Joe ____________ come because he still felt angry with Bob over a negative situation that had happened years before.
6) Many people now agree that the Vietnam War was one of the most foolish wars that the USA ever got involved in. In the late 1960s thousands of young people began to ____________ the war, and this lead to the US government removing troops from Vietnam in 1973.
7) Last month over 1,000 people died at a factory in Bangladesh because the roof was too weak and it ________________.
8) Internet and computer companies are beginning to _________________ a larger and larger portion of the money generated in the US economy.
9) Only if workers become truly dissatisfied do they seem to ________________. Nobody wants to stop working and start losing wages unless he/she really has to.
Answers are below:
Answers:
1) deployed
2) minimum wage
3) coffins
4) clash
5) declined to
6) protest
7) collapsed
8) account for
9) strike
