This is a worksheet based on the film "Mad City" starring John Travolta and Dustin Hoffman. It aims to show students how the media is a powerful tool that can shape people’s opinions and self-awareness. Students will do gap-filling exercises, account for the meaning of an idiom and use it in a sentence, compare different portraits of the same situation, write an essay. I have included a table with linkers to help students writing their essay. Before watching the film and start working with this worksheet I recommend showing your students the film's poster to speculate on the film's plot. You can ask them these questions: - As you can see, the two main characters are played by Dustin Hoffman and John Travolta. Which object is each of them carrying? - So what role do you think they will play? - Why do you think they’re standing behind a window in the poster? - The film’s tagline is “One man will make a mistake. The other will make it a spectacle”. Which of them do you think will make a mistake and which will make it a spectacle? - What mistake do you think he will make? - What do you think of when you hear the word “spectacle”? - Why do you think it is used in this tagline?
