This policewoman reacts to the destruction caused by the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York.

One of the best vocabulary learning strategies is called "narrow reading". There is a lesson based on the idea here.

This week’s tragic events in New York and the number of related stories and pictures are an excellent example of the way newspapers provide material for narrow reading.

Here are three quick ways to use this week’s pictures and stories to learn vocabulary necessary to understand and talk about all stories about disasters caused by nature and humans.

Look at the pictures and captions in your newspaper of Wednesday and Thursday. You'll be able quickly to understand what these words mean: rescue workers, survivors, rubble, debris (di BREE), smoke, ash, fire ball?

You will certainly be following this story on TV and in local newspapers in your own language, so you already know about these events. So, just by reading a few stories in English, you will soon understand these words, too: collapse, evacuate, hijack, death toll.

This third activity takes a bit more work, but is really worthwhile. You can use a story like the one below to learn words for the way people react to disasters.

You will notice that each word is repeated several times. Also, once you learn one form of the word you’ll soon recognise it in its different forms. The more you read, the more familiar the words become.

Below is a list of words from the story; they all explain different ways people react to disasters. First, check the meaning of the words in your dictionary. Then read the story. As you do that, underline all the different forms of the words you find.

sympathy
revulsion
condemnation
outrage
support
horror
shock
condolences

At the end of the story you'll find a few pictures of people who show or have expressed their reactions to the tragic events in New York and Washington. Complete the sentences with words from the list above.

Follow up

This New York policewoman reacts with _________ . These women hug each other to express their _________ .

This rescue worker shows his _________ . Vladimir Putin reacted with _________ .

Jacques Chirac expressed _________ . Tony Blair expressed _________ .

Gerhard Schroeder reacted with _________ . Yasser Arafat expressed _________ .

Putting the lesson together

Putting this lesson together was easy because all newspapers in the world have a wealth of pictures and stories to use. You just have to photocopying a story for individual students or making a copy to use with an overhead projector.

Gather pictures that illustrate the vocabulary and post them about your classroom or pass them around. Coloured photos add effectiveness to the lesson.

Just remember that any major event, hopefully a happier one such as a sporting competition can be used to make the same kind of lesson. It's not difficult!