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Learnenglish Magazine Grameen Bank Support Pack - 0 PDF
Learnenglish Magazine Grameen Bank Support Pack - 0 PDF
Introduction
You can listen to a recording of this article at:
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/magazine-articles/grameen-bank
Activity 1
At the top are 16 words and phrases from the text. Below are sentences which contain these words and
phrases. Complete the sentences with the correct words and phrases.
Its difficult for the [.....(1).....] to break free of the cycle of [.....(2).....].
The woman that Yunus met couldnt [.....(3).....] to buy bamboo to make her stools.
Yunus [.....(4).....] twenty-seven dollars to the people in the village and they [.....(5).....] all of it back.
Conventional banks dont want to [.....(6).....] money to poor people because they dont have any
[.....(7).....].
The Grameen bank started a new [.....(8).....] to lending money.
The Grameen bank [.....(9).....] people to make small [.....(10).....] over a year.
People cant [.....(11).....] more money if they dont pay back the first [.....(12).....].
The majority of Grameen [.....(13).....] are women.
There is [.....(14).....] from the rest of the group to [.....(15).....] the money.
The Grameen system [.....(16).....] people to make their lives better.
Page 1 of 5
The United Kingdoms international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.
Magazine Grameen bank
Grameen bank
by Linda Baxter
If we are looking for one single action which will He lent them the money and told them to pay it
enable the poor to overcome their poverty, I back whenever they could. He got all of it back,
would focus on credit. so he went to other villages and did the same
Dr Muhammad Yunus thing. He always got his money back. The official
banks didnt want to get involved in what he was
doing, so Yunus started his own bank. The
Grameen bank was born, and with it a new
approach to lending money micro-credit.
Page 2 of 5
The United Kingdoms international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.
Magazine Grameen bank
After reading
Activity 2
Complete the gaps with a word from the box to make a summary of the text.
Mohammed Yunus started the Grameen bank in order to lend poor women in Bangladesh small
[.....(1).....] of money. The bank does not take legal [.....(2).....] if the person has difficulties in repaying
and the system is based entirely on [.....(3).....]. It works because those taking the [.....(4).....] know they
must return the money if they want to borrow again in future. They must also join together as a group so
that they are partly responsible for each others [.....(5).....]. Only 1% of borrowers have ever defaulted.
The banks [.....(6).....] programme encourages borrowers to improve their own and their childrens living
[.....(7).....]. This [.....(8).....] system has spread to 50% of Bangladeshi villages and many other countries,
including those in the so-called developed world.
Activity 3
In each of the questions below there are words in bold. Decide in each case what these words refer to by
selecting the correct answer.
1. She couldnt afford to buy the bamboo canes to make the stools, so she had to borrow the money
from the bamboo sellers and then pay them a large part of the profit from each one she sold.
a. the stools
b. the bamboo sellers
c. the bamboo canes
2. As Yunus says I felt ashamed of myself for being part of a society which could not provide even
twenty-seven dollars to forty-two hardworking, skilled human beings.
a. Yunus
b. society
c. feeling ashamed
Page 3 of 5
The United Kingdoms international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.
Magazine Grameen bank
3. The Grameen bank was born, and with it a new approach to lending money micro-credit.
4. Grameen gives priority to those who have nothing, particularly the poorest women.
a. people
b. women
c. loans
The system encourages the borrowers to do practical things to improve their living conditions, health
and level of education. These are known as the Sixteen Decisions Decisions which include, for
example, not continuing the dowry system, growing fresh vegetables, organising clean drinking water
and good sanitation, education for children, and being ready to help each other whenever necessary.
a. the borrowers
b. living conditions
c. practical things
a. the borrowers
b. the sixteen decisions
c. the children
7. The bank now lends over a billion dollars to more than two million borrowers, 96% of them women,
and involving more than half of the villages in Bangladesh.
a. women
b. dollars
c. the borrowers
8. Grameens success in Bangladesh has also shown that the developing world has lessons to teach
richer countries like the USA and Britain. Both countries have begun to encourage microcredit schemes
based on the Grameen model, in an attempt to deal with their own levels of poverty.
Page 4 of 5
The United Kingdoms international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.
Magazine Grameen bank
Answers:
Activity 1
1. m; 2. n; 3. a; 4. i; 5. k; 6. h; 7. f; 8. c; 9. b; 10. p; 11. d; 12. j; 13. e; 14. l; 15. o; 16. g
Activity 2
1. b; 2. a; 3. h; 4. d; 5. f; 6. g; 7. c; 8. e
Activity 3
1. b; 2. b; 3. a; 4. a; 5. c; 6. a; 7. c; 8. c
Page 5 of 5
The United Kingdoms international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.