First of an apology: Yes, I know, they are all male. I racked my brains for at least twenty minutes trying to find even one woman to add a little balance to this exclusively male group. The problem is that all the people listed should have two main qualities. They should be both internationally renowned and have a reputation that has been (at least in some way) tarnished. While I could think of plenty of world famous women, none of the current ones I know are perceived as being anything other than good. But if you can think of female alternatives to my male protagonists, please write and tell me, and I will add them right away.

The activity itself involves students studying the list individually and marking them as either G (good guys) or B (bad guys). Once they have made their own minds up, they can discuss their ideas with other class members. I find this technique of getting students to commit themselves to opinions in writing, before they discuss them, is a good way of encouraging contention, especially where some class members have a tendency to always agree with what the last speaker said.

The list I have included here is really only meant as an example. There are probably other more notable people in the country where you are teaching who should definitely be on the list and some of the ones I've listed may never have been heard of and should certainly be "bumped from the list".

You have a choice of two different methods of getting this handout to your printer. It all depends on whether your computer has "Adobe Acrobat Reader" installed. If it has, then this would be the recommended method for printing out the worksheet. Try selecting the "PDF (Adobe Acrobat)" link below. If all goes well, a new application window should appear including a print button, which when selected will print out one copy.

If, on the other hand you do not have "Adobe Acrobat" select the "HTML (web page)" link below. (Also, this method is recommended for users of Netscape Navigator, which seems to have trouble interacting with the Acrobat program like this.) If all goes well, a new browser window will open, from which you can either click the "print button" on the toolbar or open the "File" menu, select "Print" and then adjust the "Print Dialog Box" to your own preferences.

The final link below is to enable you to print this "instruction page" if you want to. Click on the link, and when the page appears on a new screen you will be able to print it using the browser's "print button" or "file menu". After printing, close the window again so that you can continue to navigate around the site.

For teacher training courses, English courses in Bristol UK and free interactive exercises, visit The Language Project Website.