A man named Nayib Bukele, who leads a country, is very happy because he used the country’s money to buy something called Bitcoin. Now, the price of Bitcoin has gone up, so he has more money than he spent. He told people who didn’t agree with him that they should say sorry. But some smart money people say it’s too soon to be happy because what he did was very risky. Nayib has 2,764 Bitcoins, and right now, they are worth more money than he paid.

Nayib used $120 million of the country’s money to buy Bitcoins. Some people don’t think this is a good idea. They say the money could have been used for other important things. Even though Nayib spent a lot of money, not many people in his country use Bitcoin. Smart money people also say Nayib is not telling everyone how he is spending the money or how many Bitcoins he has. Nayib doesn’t want to sell the Bitcoins, even though their price goes up and down.

Original news source: Bitcoin rally: Is El Salvador’s Bitcoin bet paying off? (BBC)

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Vocabulary:

Group or Classroom Activities

Warm-up Activities:

– Charades
Instructions: Divide the class into two teams. Give each team a set of words related to the article (e.g. Bitcoin, money, risk, country, etc.). One student from each team will come up to the front and act out the word silently while their team tries to guess. The team with the most correct guesses wins.

– News Summary
Instructions: In pairs, students will take turns summarizing the article to their partner in their own words. Encourage them to include the main points and key details. After both partners have summarized, they can compare their summaries and discuss any differences or misunderstandings.

– Opinion Poll
Instructions: Create a simple opinion poll related to the article (e.g. “Do you think it was a good idea for Nayib to use the country’s money to buy Bitcoin?”). Have students walk around the class and ask their classmates the question, recording their responses. Afterwards, they can share their findings with the class and discuss different perspectives.

– Vocabulary Pictionary
Instructions: Give each student a vocabulary word from the article (e.g. Bitcoin, risk, money, etc.). Students will draw a simple picture to represent their word without using any letters or numbers. They can then show their drawings to the class and have their classmates guess the word. This activity can also be done in pairs or small groups.

– Two Truths and a Lie
Instructions: Have each student come up with two true statements and one false statement related to the article (e.g. “Nayib spent $100 million on Bitcoin”, “Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency”, “Nayib’s decision was supported by all his citizens”). In small groups, each student takes turns sharing their three statements while the others try to guess which one is the lie. This activity encourages listening comprehension and critical thinking.

Comprehension Questions:

1. Who is Nayib Bukele?
2. Why is Nayib Bukele happy?
3. What did Nayib Bukele use the country’s money to buy?
4. What do some smart money people think about what Nayib Bukele did?
5. How many Bitcoins does Nayib Bukele have?
6. How much money did Nayib Bukele use to buy Bitcoins?
7. Why do some people not think it was a good idea for Nayib Bukele to buy Bitcoins?
Go to answers ⇩

Listen and Fill in the Gaps:

A man named Nayib Bukele, who leads a country, is very happy because he used the country’s money to buy something (1)______ (2)______. Now, the price of Bitcoin has gone up, so he has more money than he spent. He told people who didn’t agree with him that they should say sorry. But some smart money people say it’s too soon to be (3)______ because what he did was very risky. (4)______ has 2,764 Bitcoins, and right now, they are worth more money than he paid.

Nayib used $120 million of the country’s money to buy Bitcoins. Some people don’t think this is a good (5)______. They say the money could have been used for other important (6)______. Even though Nayib spent a lot of money, not many people in his (7)______ use Bitcoin. Smart money people also say Nayib is not telling everyone how he is spending the money or how many Bitcoins he has. Nayib doesn’t want to sell the Bitcoins, even though their price (8)______ up and down.
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Discussion Questions:

Students can ask a partner these questions, or discuss them as a group.

1. What is Bitcoin?
2. How would you feel if you had more money than you spent?
3. Do you think it’s a good idea to use a country’s money to buy Bitcoin? Why or why not?
4. What other important things do you think the money could have been used for?
5. Do you like the idea of buying Bitcoin? Why or why not?
6. How do you think Nayib feels now that the price of Bitcoin has gone up?
7. Why do you think some people don’t agree with Nayib’s decision?
8. Do you think it’s important for Nayib to tell everyone how he is spending the money? Why or why not?
9. How do you think Nayib feels about the price of Bitcoin going up and down?
10. What would you do if you had 2,764 Bitcoins?
11. Do you think Nayib should sell the Bitcoins? Why or why not?
12. How do you think Nayib would feel if the price of Bitcoin suddenly went down a lot?

Individual Activities

Vocabulary Meanings:

Match each word to its meaning.

Words:
1. money
2. Bitcoin
3. risky
4. country
5. happy
6. sorry
7. smart
8. sell
9. spend
10. people

Meanings:
(A) Something that might be dangerous or not safe
(B) To use money to buy something
(C) To give something to someone in exchange for money
(D) Very clever and intelligent
(E) A place where a lot of people live and work together
(F) A special kind of money that you can only use on the computer
(G) Feeling bad and wanting to apologize
(H) Feeling good and glad about something
(I) Something you use to buy things
(J) A group of humans
Go to answers ⇩

Multiple Choice Questions:

1. Who is very happy because he bought something called Bitcoin?
(a) Nayib Bukele
(b) The smart money people
(c) The people who didn’t agree with Nayib
(d) None of the above

2. What did Nayib use the country’s money to buy?
(a) Gold
(b) Houses
(c) Bitcoin
(d) Cars

3. Why are some people not happy with Nayib’s decision?
(a) They think Bitcoin is a good investment
(b) They think the money could have been used for other important things
(c) They think Nayib should sell the Bitcoins
(d) None of the above

4. How many Bitcoins does Nayib have?
(a) 1,000
(b) 2,764
(c) 100
(d) 10

5. What is the current value of Nayib’s Bitcoins?
(a) More money than he paid
(b) Less money than he paid
(c) The same amount of money as he paid
(d) None of the above

6. What do smart money people say about Nayib’s decision?
(a) It was a great idea
(b) It was a waste of money
(c) None of the above
(d) It was very risky

7. Does Nayib want to sell his Bitcoins?
(a) Yes
(b) Maybe
(c) No
(d) None of the above

8. How many people in Nayib’s country use Bitcoin?
(a) Most of them
(b) All of them
(c) None of them
(d) Not many

Go to answers ⇩

True or False Questions:

1. Nayib told people who didn’t agree with him to say sorry.
2. A man named Nayib Bukele used his personal money to buy something called Bitcoin.
3. Some smart money people think what Nayib did was low-risk and it’s not too soon to be happy.
4. Some people don’t think it was a good idea to use the money for Bitcoin, they think it could have been used for other important things.
5. Nayib has 2,764 Bitcoins, and right now they are worth less money than he paid.
6. Nayib is happy because the price of Bitcoin has gone up, so now he has more money than he spent.
7. Not many people in Nayib’s country use Bitcoin, and he doesn’t want to sell the Bitcoins even though their price goes up and down.
8. Nayib didn’t use any of the country’s money to buy Bitcoins.
Go to answers ⇩

Write a Summary:

Write a summary of this news article in two sentences.

Writing Questions:

Answer the following questions. Write as much as you can for each answer.

1. What did Nayib Bukele use the country’s money to buy?
2. Why is Nayib Bukele happy about buying Bitcoin?
3. What do some smart money people say about Nayib’s decision?
4. How much money did Nayib spend to buy Bitcoins?
5. Why do some people think Nayib’s decision was not a good idea?

Answers

Comprehension Question Answers:

1. Who is Nayib Bukele?
Nayib Bukele is a man who leads a country.

2. Why is Nayib Bukele happy?
Nayib Bukele is happy because the price of Bitcoin has gone up, so he has more money than he spent.

3. What did Nayib Bukele use the country’s money to buy?
Nayib Bukele used the country’s money to buy Bitcoins.

4. What do some smart money people think about what Nayib Bukele did?
Some smart money people think what Nayib Bukele did was risky and it’s too soon to be happy.

5. How many Bitcoins does Nayib Bukele have?
Nayib Bukele has 2,764 Bitcoins.

6. How much money did Nayib Bukele use to buy Bitcoins?
Nayib Bukele used $120 million to buy Bitcoins.

7. Why do some people not think it was a good idea for Nayib Bukele to buy Bitcoins?
Some people don’t think it was a good idea because they believe the money could have been used for other important things and not many people in his country use Bitcoin.
Go back to questions ⇧

Listen and Fill in the Gaps Answers:

(1) called
(2) Bitcoin
(3) happy
(4) Nayib
(5) idea
(6) things
(7) country
(8) goes
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Vocabulary Meanings Answers:

1. money
Answer: (I) Something you use to buy things

2. Bitcoin
Answer: (F) A special kind of money that you can only use on the computer

3. risky
Answer: (A) Something that might be dangerous or not safe

4. country
Answer: (E) A place where a lot of people live and work together

5. happy
Answer: (H) Feeling good and glad about something

6. sorry
Answer: (G) Feeling bad and wanting to apologize

7. smart
Answer: (D) Very clever and intelligent

8. sell
Answer: (C) To give something to someone in exchange for money

9. spend
Answer: (B) To use money to buy something

10. people
Answer: (J) A group of humans
Go back to questions ⇧

Multiple Choice Answers:

1. Who is very happy because he bought something called Bitcoin?
Answer: (a) Nayib Bukele

2. What did Nayib use the country’s money to buy?
Answer: (c) Bitcoin

3. Why are some people not happy with Nayib’s decision?
Answer: (b) They think the money could have been used for other important things

4. How many Bitcoins does Nayib have?
Answer: (b) 2,764

5. What is the current value of Nayib’s Bitcoins?
Answer: (a) More money than he paid

6. What do smart money people say about Nayib’s decision?
Answer: (d) It was very risky

7. Does Nayib want to sell his Bitcoins?
Answer: (c) No

8. How many people in Nayib’s country use Bitcoin?
Answer: (d) Not many
Go back to questions ⇧

True or False Answers:

1. Nayib told people who didn’t agree with him to say sorry. (Answer: True)
2. A man named Nayib Bukele used his personal money to buy something called Bitcoin. (Answer: False)
3. Some smart money people think what Nayib did was low-risk and it’s not too soon to be happy. (Answer: False)
4. Some people don’t think it was a good idea to use the money for Bitcoin, they think it could have been used for other important things. (Answer: True)
5. Nayib has 2,764 Bitcoins, and right now they are worth less money than he paid. (Answer: False)
6. Nayib is happy because the price of Bitcoin has gone up, so now he has more money than he spent. (Answer: True)
7. Not many people in Nayib’s country use Bitcoin, and he doesn’t want to sell the Bitcoins even though their price goes up and down. (Answer: True)
8. Nayib didn’t use any of the country’s money to buy Bitcoins. (Answer: False)
Go back to questions ⇧