Read the news at the Japan Times, at Dawn.com and The News.com.
Key words and expressions: Peace envoy, to reach a deal, death toll, warring parties, break-off, breakdown, setback, regime, to undermine, to baulk, besieged city, stalemate, to chastise...
LANGUAGE - CLOZE
The man in (1) ____ of the Syrian peace talks has apologised to the Syrian people. Lakhdar Brahimi is the United Nations' peace envoy to Syria. His job was to help the two sides in Syria's civil war (2) ____ peace. Syria's government and Syrian rebel leaders are in Geneva to try and find a way to end the war. It is the second time they have sat (3) ____ together. There are many difficult problems to discuss. The Syrian people are hoping the two sides can reach a (4) ____. They are tired of the fighting. More than 140,000 have died in the three-year war and three million need humanitarian (5) ____. Mr Brahimi said: "I'm very, very sorry. I think it is better that every side goes back and (6) ____, and accepts their responsibility."
The two sides in Syria's peace talks ended their discussions being (7) ____ with each other. Mr Brahimi asked them if they really wanted the peace talks to continue or (8) ____. They did not set a date for future talks. The UK's Foreign Secretary William Hague said the (9) ____ of the talks was very sad. He said it was "a serious setback in the search for peace in Syria". Syria's opposition leader (10) ____ Syria's government for the failure of the talks. He said: "The regime is not serious….I'm very sorry to say there is (11) ____ positive we can take from this." Syria's government team said the talks failed because the opposition people were "amateurs". Mr Brahimi was still hopeful and said: "I very (12) ____ hope there will be a third round."
Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.
| 1. | (a) | change | (b) | char | (c) | charge | (d) | chore |
| 2. | (a) | make | (b) | take | (c) | fake | (d) | sake |
| 3. | (a) | down | (b) | in on | (c) | in | (d) | on |
| 4. | (a) | deal | (b) | seal | (c) | real | (d) | meal |
| 5. | (a) | stuff | (b) | aid | (c) | assist | (d) | tents |
| 6. | (a) | pictures | (b) | images | (c) | mirrors | (d) | reflects |
| 7. | (a) | be | (b) | were | (c) | being | (d) | was |
| 8. | (a) | non | (b) | no | (c) | never | (d) | not |
| 9. | (a) | breakdown | (b) | accident | (c) | stall | (d) | obstacle |
| 10. | (a) | said | (b) | blamed | (c) | pointed | (d) | apologised |
| 11. | (a) | not | (b) | nothing | (c) | never | (d) | none |
| 12. | (a) | many | (b) | most | (c) | much | (d) | more |
Read more:http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1402/140218-syria-peace-talks.html#ixzz2uzJBiOQD
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