1 Listen to a radio programme about the Ponzi scheme. Decide if the sentences are true (T) or false (F).

(Nghe chương trình phát thanh về kế hoạch Ponzi. Quyết định xem các câu đó đúng (T) hay sai (F).)

1 A Ponzi scheme is a way of deceiving investors. ☐

2 The first ever Ponzi scheme was run by Charles Ponzi. ☐

3 Ponzi set up his scheme as soon as he arrived in the USA. ☐

4 The scheme involved the buying and exchanging of International Reply Coupons. ☐

5 Ponzi's scheme was illegal right from the start. ☐

6 At the height of the scheme, Ponzi was making a quarter of a million dollars a day. ☐

7 Ponzi's investors wanted to leave the scheme when the police began investigating his company. ☐

8 Ponzi was sent back to the country of his birth on his release from prison. ☐

2 Work in pairs. You've lost your school bag containing all your books. You think you left it on the train. Report the loss to the train company. In the conversation, discuss the following points:

1 The circumstances of losing the bag

2 A description of the bag

3 What was in the bag

4 What will happen next

(Làm việc theo cặp. Bạn đã đánh mất chiếc cặp đựng tất cả sách vở của mình. Bạn nghĩ rằng bạn đã để nó trên tàu. Báo cáo tổn thất cho công ty tàu hỏa. Trong cuộc trò chuyện, hãy thảo luận về các điểm sau:

1 Trường hợp mất túi

2 Mô tả về túi

3 Có gì trong túi

4 Điều gì sẽ xảy ra tiếp theo)

3 Read the text below and choose the correct answers (a-d).

(Đọc đoạn văn dưới đây và chọn câu trả lời đúng (a-d).)

1 The most shocking thing about Amina Arraf is that

a she disappeared and remains missing.

b she wasn't a real person.

c she wasn't afraid to express her views online.

d she was very close to an American man.

2 The reason why Tom MacMaster blogged under a false identity was

a to find out what his fellow countrymen and women thought.

b to deceive people into taking sides with the USA.

c to appeal to both men and women in the Middle East.

d to give credibility to his radical ideas.

3 Debbie Swenson created Kaycee Nicole because

a she enjoyed sharing her medical knowledge.

b she wanted advice on how to treat her daughter's illness.

c she needed to feel popular with other people.

d she felt like showing her support for cancer sufferers.

4 The sock puppet Mary Rosh was used by John Lott

a to give him the voice of authority.

b to criticise his opponents.

c to make out that he was married.

d to encourage others to look on his work favourably.

5 The writer of the article concludes that

a everybody should be wary of people they come across online.

b the police should create more sock puppets to combat crime.

c social media sites are safer than they used to be.

d terrorists pose a bigger threat on the internet than they do in real life.

Who are you?

On 6 June 2011, the media reported the kidnapping of a female Syrian- American blogger called Amina Arraf. Regarded as a daring political rebel, the 35-year-old had become popular for her blogs protesting about the lack of freedom in Syria, where she was supposedly living at the time. Yet only two days after her disappearance, it was discovered that Amina had never existed at all. She was a fictional character created by a forty-year-old American man called Tom MacMaster, a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh.

MacMaster's invention of the blogger is an example of sock puppetry: the use of false identities to deceive others. The false identity is known as a sock puppet, and its creator, a puppet master. MacMaster created Amina to enable him to express his strong views on Middle- Eastern affairs without offending other Americans, who may not have approved. Writing as Amina Arraf gave him the authority to be able to say what he wanted to. But this is not the only reason for using sock puppetry.

At the turn of the millennium, an American woman named Debbie Swenson created the fictional character Kaycee Nicole, a teenage girl suffering from terminal cancer. Her blog, Living Colours, described in detail Kaycee's fight for survival, and it attracted millions of readers. When Kaycee 'died' on 14 May 2001, her fans were devastated. But their distress turned to anger when they discovered that Kaycee was not a real person. The character had been developed by Ms Swenson to get the attention and sympathy she craved.

While Amina and Kaycee were used as a means to meet the needs of their creators, other identities have been invented to make a profit. American gun advocate John Lott made up a fake student, Mary Rosh, to defend his writing online and give him positive reviews. Mystery writer RJ Ellory went further and fabricated a whole team of sock puppets, not only to praise his own books, but also to criticise those of his rivals. Well-respected British historian Orlando Figes lost face completely when he had to publicly apologise for doing the same.

Yet none of these stories can compete with the large-scale sock puppetry in existence today. It is understood that the New York City Police Department has several false identities hanging out on social media sites in order to catch criminals. The US military is said to have a number of sock puppets online searching for potential terrorists. While most of us are unlikely to have dealings with these organisations, the stories of Amina, Kaycee and the fake reviewers are much closer to home. It is clear that the internet is a minefield today and we all have to step very carefully in order not to get hurt.

10 a does it cost

b it cost

c did it cost

5 You have read an article about the dangers of using social media. Write an article for your school website about the risks associated with using social media and propose ways of persuading young people to use it responsibly.

(Bạn đã đọc một bài viết về sự nguy hiểm của việc sử dụng mạng xã hội. Viết một bài báo cho trang web của trường bạn về những rủi ro liên quan đến việc sử dụng mạng xã hội và đề xuất cách thuyết phục giới trẻ sử dụng nó một cách có trách nhiệm.)