News-based English language activities from the global newspaper Page 

April 2009
Level ≥ Advanced
Style ≥ Individual or group activities
Welcome to the Guardian Weekly’s special news-based materials to support learners and teachers of
English. Each month, the Guardian Weekly newspaper selects topical news articles that can be used to
practise English language skills. The materials are graded for two levels: Advanced and Lower Intermediate.
These worksheets can be downloaded free from guardianweekly.co.uk/learningenglish/. You can also
find more advice for teachers and learners on the site
Materials prepared by Janet Hardy-Gould

World learns from London’s all-seeing CCTV hub

View . . . Westminster’s cameras record 600 ‘incidents’ a month Felix Clay

that is used to film people.

Before reading eA is a system of computers
1 Nouns from the article — Complete the definitions etc which are joined together.
with the words: gaze, hub, image, incident, joystick, fA is an upright handle used
network, surveillance camera to move images on a computer game etc
a A is the central and most g An is a picture seen on a TV
important part of a place. or computer.
b §An is something that hap-
pens which is unpleasant or bad. 2 Look at the headline, photo and caption.
cA is a long and steady look Answer these questions.
at something. a What is CCTV? What do you think the letters stand
dA is a piece of equipment for? How does it work?
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News-based English language activities from the global newspaper
b Why do people from different countries go to the
CCTV hub in London?
c How many incidents are recorded in Westminster
every month?
Article
World learns from London’s
all-seeing CCTV hub
1 Millions of people walk beneath the unblinking
gaze of central London’s surveillance cameras.
Most don’t know that deep under the pavements
along which they are walking their digital image
is gliding across a wall of plasma screens.
2 Westminster council’s CCTV control room,
where a click and swivel of a joystick delivers
panoramic views of any central London street, is
seen by civil liberty campaigners as a symbol of
the UK’s growing dependence on surveillance.
3 The Home Office, which funded the creation of
the $1.76m facility seven years ago, believes it to
be a “best-practice example” on which the future
of the UK’s public surveillance system should be
modelled.
4 So famed has central London’s surveillance net-
work become that more than 6,000 officials from
30 countries have come to learn lessons from the
centre.
Page 
April 2009
5 They include police with the job of keeping order
in the most dangerous cities on earth, from São
Paulo in Brazil to Baltimore in the US, as well as
officials from China.
6 The UK leads the world in surveillance of its peo-
ple. Exactly how many CCTV cameras there are
in the UK is not known, although one study four
years ago estimated 4.8m cameras had been in-
stalled.
7 What is rarely disputed is that the UK has more
cameras per citizen than anywhere else.
8 Inside Westminster’s control room with its wall
of 48 CCTV monitors Dan Brown supervises op-
erators whose job it is to zoom in on anything
suspicious.
9 “The majority of our cameras can zoom in to ID
someone from a range of 75 metres,” said Brown.
10 Westminster cameras record 600 “incidents” a
month, from littering to serious assaults.
11 Footage has proved crucial to police investiga-
tions, said Dean Ingledew, Westminster’s direc-
tor of community protection, but the benefits of
CCTV are still being debated.
12 A joint Home Office and police report recently
found 80% of CCTV pictures are of such poor
quality they cannot be used for detecting crime,
and a police surveillance expert estimated last
year that just 3% of crimes were solved by CCTV.
13 Defending the searching gaze of London’s cam-
eras, Ingledew said that people who do not look
as though they are doing anything wrong will be
left alone.
Paul Lewis
Glossary
Home Office (noun) the UK ministry that deals with
the police and prisons
civil liberty campaigner (noun) person who cam-
paigns for the freedom of people to say or do what they
want while respecting others
facility (noun) a place with buildings used for a particu-
lar purpose
littering (noun) throwing away rubbish in the street
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News-based English language activities from the global newspaper Page 

April 2009

While reading
1 Read the article. Put yes (Y) or no (N) next to the
statements.
Westminster council’s control room . . .
a is underground.
b can see any street in the whole of London.
c was created seven years ago.
d has been visited by about 30 officials from e are 80% of CCTV pictures
around the world. not useful for detecting crime?
e contains a wall of 75 screens.
f has special cameras which can zoom in on
people.

2 Read the article again. Match the question words

to the questions. Then find the answers: how, how
many, how much, what, who, why
a do civil liberty campaign-
ers think about the control room? f will be left alone, accord-
ing to Dean Ingledew?

b money did the Home

Office spend on the centre?
After reading
1 What do these words from the headline and first
paragraph mean?
a World learns from London’s all-seeing CCTV hub.

c does the UK compare to

b Millions walk beneath the unblinking gaze of . . .
other countries in terms of surveillance?
surveillance cameras.

c Most don’t know that their . . . digital image is

gliding across a wall of plasma screens.

d CCTV cameras were in the

UK four years ago?
≥4
News-based English language activities from the global newspaper Page 

April 2009

Why do you think the journalist used these words? 1 2 3

6 7

2 Complete the crossword with words from para-

graphs six to 13. Put all nouns in the singular and
verbs in the base form. 8
Across
1 advantage (7)
4 to focus more closely on an object being filmed (4, 2)
6 distance over which something can be seen (5)
8 person who belongs to a country or town (7)
9
9 physical attack (7)

Down
2 to guess roughly (8)
3 part of a film showing an event (7) Activity — debate
5 very important (7)
Imagine that a new CCTV control centre is going to
7 person who knows a lot about a subject (6)
be built in your town.
1 Work in two groups. Each group is either for or
against the CCTV centre. Brainstorm reasons why you
are for/against. Choose a main speaker and summa-
riser.

2 Come together as a class. The main speaker from

each group puts forward their ideas and take ques-
tions. At the end, the summarisers conclude and de-
fend the opinions of their group.

3 Reflect back on the debate as a class.

age 5 crucial 7 expert
2 Across: 1 benefit 4 zoom in 6 range 8 citizen 9 assault Down: 2 estimate 3 foot-
ple in turn are moving across the screens in a ghostly and unreal way.
To create the image of an inhuman creature secretly spying on people. The peo-
and silently across.
1 a Able to see everything. b Without ever closing its “eyes”. c Moving smoothly
After reading
wrong.
poor quality. f Who? People who don’t look as though they are doing anything
country. d How many – an estimated 4.8m cameras. e Why? Because they are
much – $1.76m c How – The UK has more cameras per citizen than any other
2 a What – It’s a symbol of the UK’s growing dependence on surveillance. b How
1aYbNcYdNeNfY
While reading
c 600.
etc. with images sent back to a control centre. b To learn about CCTV surveillance.
2 a A method of surveillance. Closed circuit television. Cameras film in the street
1 a hub b incident c gaze d surveillance camera e network f joystick g image
Before reading
Answers