The microskills for reading which are presented in Reading 4 are developed using a variety of different activity types. Extracting main ideas It is usually essential to decide what the point of the text is before analysing other aspects and developing other skills. It is especially important to encourage the learner not to be distracted by unfamiliar vocabulary unless absolutely necessary. necessary. The techniques used in Reading 4 are varied, but all will involve the learner to a lesser or greater extent in a process of summarising the text. Understanding text organisation Sometimes Sometimes it is difficult to understand what message or information the writer is trying to convey. The activities which focus on this skill help the learner appreciate the logic of a text through its implicit organisation and the use of explicit discourse markers. In [erring A writer may want you to understand more than the actual words you read. Inferring activities draw the reader’s attention to the overall atmosphere of the passage. They also help build their vocabulary. Predicting Before learners read a text, it may be helpful to encourage them to look at the subject or the title of the passage, and to think about the possible content. But remember: it doesn’t matter if the learners do not predict correctly. The activity still helps prepare them for reading. Dealing with unfamiliar words In this book there will be many words which the learner will not understand. This is because all the passages are examples of real-life written English. It is important to try and guess the general sense of a difficult word, and there are a number of activities which help the reader deal with unfamiliar vocabulary without using dictionaries or asking the teacher to explain or translate. Reading for specific information We sometimes read to find the answer to a particular question, and not to understand the general sense of the passage. There are a number of exercises like this to help the learner read for specific information. Evaluating the text In order to understand a text more thoroughly, the reader may need to appreciate the writer’s viewpoint and the reason it was written, as well as to distinguish between facts and opinions. The exercises which develop this particular microskill help to develop the learner’s more critical faculties. Understanding the writer’s style It is important and enjoyable for the reader to appreciate the reason why the writer uses certain words and expressions, and the effect they create. The reader’s attention attention is drawn to a number of stylistic devices such as exaggeration, humour and imagery. Reacting to the text In order to engage the readers’ readers’ interest in a text, it is useful to encourage them to react in a more subjective way to, for example, its humour or its literary and poetic appeal. This microskill may also develop their ability to supply missing context and information about the text. However, it has to be said that one disadvantage of giving too much importance to microskills is that the learner may already have acquired some or all of them. In this case, they should be seen as devices for motivating the learner.
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A. In this article, article, which appeared appeared in The Observer, Observer, the writer Richard Richard Brooks Brooks uses the term MSS to talk about what annoys him, and suggests a solution and an explanation. Read it and find out what MSS is, and what the solution is. i s.
The Odd Couple Richard Brooks on the high divorce rate among Socks I FIRST noticed it about seven or eight years ago. Since then it has got prog progre ress ssiv ivel ely y wors worse e and and more more myste mysterio rious. us. Missin Missing g Sock Sock Syndr Syndrom ome e is one one of the the affl afflic icti tion ons s of mode modern rn times. I have my theories ies about MSS, hut, sadly, no real real cure. cure. The root root of the problem must lie in having a larg large e fami family ly.. I have haven’ n’tt done a foot count, nt, but there must he more than 100 100 pair pairs s of sock socks s in my household. Every week, at leas leastt one one goes goes miss missin ing. g. Occasionally, days or even weeks later, it turns up. Sometimes it is dis discovere ered stuc tuck in the the washing machine, or, more cosily, in the tumble drier. Some Someti time mes s it is sigh sighte ted d down the back of a radiator.
But the mystery rema emains ins. Why do socks desert their partners, often never to return? And where do they go when they are never found again? MSS can be alleviated. One colleague says that his decisio decision n to rema remain in single single has been largely influenced by not not want wantin ing g to catc catch h MSS. Another has only pairs of blue and red socks; 12 pairs of each colour. About a year ago, getting increasingly fed up with the syndrome, I went out and bought bought five pairs pairs of grey grey socks socks.. Very Very drab, drab, said my my wi wife. It ha has helped, though not enti entire rely ly.. Iden Identi tica call pair pairs, s, I’ve discovered, manage to end up with one sock sign signif ific ican antl tly y bigg bigger er than than the the other her after fter sever evera al washes.
Last week, I asked my young younges estt daugh daughter ter,, aged aged six, six, about about missin missing g socks socks.. She She had had some some answ answer ers. s. She She look looked ed into into her her sock sock draw drawer er,, and and foun found d thre three e lone socks. To my amazement, she knew the whereabouts of their ‘partner’. One was ‘in the cellar’, another ‘at Maxine’s’ (her best friend), while the third ird was ‘at Aunty Mary’s’. I was stunned at her sock insouciance. Only my nine nine-- year year-o -old ld daug daught hter er shows some early signs of inheriting her father’s MSS conc concer erns ns.. My wife wife think thinks s I’m a sock bore. But then, I have noticed that my socks regu regula larl rly y turn turn up on my wife’s feet — she is cavalier when it comes to hosiery.
B. Which of the following words words would you use to describe describe the tone of the the passage? Can you explain why? You may want to choose more than one word. pessimistic optimistic humorous serious dramatic mock-serious threatening poetic ironic light-hearted C. The writer uses uses slightly complex language that that suggests that MSS is very serious. serious. Look at these sentences from the article and write them in a simpler way. You may want to use a dictionary to appreciate the nuances of certain words. 1. I haven’t done a foot count 2. Why do socks socks desert desert their partners...? partners...? 3. MSS can can be be alleviated. alleviated. 4. I was stunned at her sock insouciance. 5 ... she is cavalier when it comes to hosiery. D. Do you think his family shares his concern about MSS? Can you explain why or why not? E. The poem The The Solo Sock is by Garrison Garrison Keillor, the contemporary contemporary American American writer and broadcaster. Read the first two stanzas and decide where each line ends. Mark the line endings like this
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A. In this article, article, which appeared appeared in The Observer, Observer, the writer Richard Richard Brooks Brooks uses the term MSS to talk about what annoys him, and suggests a solution and an explanation. Read it and find out what MSS is, and what the solution is. i s.
The Odd Couple Richard Brooks on the high divorce rate among Socks I FIRST noticed it about seven or eight years ago. Since then it has got prog progre ress ssiv ivel ely y wors worse e and and more more myste mysterio rious. us. Missin Missing g Sock Sock Syndr Syndrom ome e is one one of the the affl afflic icti tion ons s of mode modern rn times. I have my theories ies about MSS, hut, sadly, no real real cure. cure. The root root of the problem must lie in having a larg large e fami family ly.. I have haven’ n’tt done a foot count, nt, but there must he more than 100 100 pair pairs s of sock socks s in my household. Every week, at leas leastt one one goes goes miss missin ing. g. Occasionally, days or even weeks later, it turns up. Sometimes it is dis discovere ered stuc tuck in the the washing machine, or, more cosily, in the tumble drier. Some Someti time mes s it is sigh sighte ted d down the back of a radiator.
But the mystery rema emains ins. Why do socks desert their partners, often never to return? And where do they go when they are never found again? MSS can be alleviated. One colleague says that his decisio decision n to rema remain in single single has been largely influenced by not not want wantin ing g to catc catch h MSS. Another has only pairs of blue and red socks; 12 pairs of each colour. About a year ago, getting increasingly fed up with the syndrome, I went out and bought bought five pairs pairs of grey grey socks socks.. Very Very drab, drab, said my my wi wife. It ha has helped, though not enti entire rely ly.. Iden Identi tica call pair pairs, s, I’ve discovered, manage to end up with one sock sign signif ific ican antl tly y bigg bigger er than than the the other her after fter sever evera al washes.
Last week, I asked my young younges estt daugh daughter ter,, aged aged six, six, about about missin missing g socks socks.. She She had had some some answ answer ers. s. She She look looked ed into into her her sock sock draw drawer er,, and and foun found d thre three e lone socks. To my amazement, she knew the whereabouts of their ‘partner’. One was ‘in the cellar’, another ‘at Maxine’s’ (her best friend), while the third ird was ‘at Aunty Mary’s’. I was stunned at her sock insouciance. Only my nine nine-- year year-o -old ld daug daught hter er shows some early signs of inheriting her father’s MSS conc concer erns ns.. My wife wife think thinks s I’m a sock bore. But then, I have noticed that my socks regu regula larl rly y turn turn up on my wife’s feet — she is cavalier when it comes to hosiery.
B. Which of the following words words would you use to describe describe the tone of the the passage? Can you explain why? You may want to choose more than one word. pessimistic optimistic humorous serious dramatic mock-serious threatening poetic ironic light-hearted C. The writer uses uses slightly complex language that that suggests that MSS is very serious. serious. Look at these sentences from the article and write them in a simpler way. You may want to use a dictionary to appreciate the nuances of certain words. 1. I haven’t done a foot count 2. Why do socks socks desert desert their partners...? partners...? 3. MSS can can be be alleviated. alleviated. 4. I was stunned at her sock insouciance. 5 ... she is cavalier when it comes to hosiery. D. Do you think his family shares his concern about MSS? Can you explain why or why not? E. The poem The The Solo Sock is by Garrison Garrison Keillor, the contemporary contemporary American American writer and broadcaster. Read the first two stanzas and decide where each line ends. Mark the line endings like this
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The Solo Sock Of life’s many troubles, I’ve known quite a few; bad plumbing and earaches and troubles with you, but the saddest of all, when it’s all said and done, is to look for your socks and find only one. Here’s a series of single socks stacked in a row. Where in the world did their fellow socks go? About missing socks, we have very few facts. Some say cats steal them to use for backpacks, or desperate Norwegians willing to risk prison to steal socks to make lutefisk. But the robbery theories just don’t hold water: why would they take one and not take the odder? F. Read the rest rest of the poem and find out Keillor’s Keillor’s solution for what what Brooks calls calls MSS. Now, some people hse socks, and though you may scoff, Some go to shows and have their socks knocked off. Some use a sock to mop up spilled gin with And some people had just one sock to begin with. But for most missing socks, or sock migration, Sockologists have no quick explanation. Socks are independent, studies have shown, And most feel a need for some time alone. Some socks are bitter from contact with feet; Some, seeking holiness, go on retreat; Some need adventure and cannot stay put; Some socks feel useless and just underfoot. But whatever the reason these socks lose control, Each sock has feelings down deep in its sole. If you wake in the night and hear creaking and scraping, It’s the sound of a sock, bent on escaping. The socks on the floor that you think the kids dropped? They’re socks that went halfway, got tired and stopped. It might help if, i f, every day, As you don your socks, you take time to say: “Thank you, dear socks, for a job that is thankless. You comfort my feet from tiptoe to ankless, Working in concert a cotton duet, Keeping them snug and absorbing the sweat, And yet you smell springlike, a regular balm, As in Stravinsky’s Le Sacré du Printemps, And so I bless you with all my heart And pray that the two of you never shall part. I love you, dear socks, you are socko to me, The most perfect pair that I ever did see. I thank you and bless you now. Vobiscum Pax.” Then you bend down and put on your socks. This may help, but you must accept That half of all socks are too proud to be kept, And, as with children, their leaving is ritual. Half of all socks need to be individual. Garrison Keillor G. There are are a number of lines in the poem which look as if they rhyme rhyme rather strangely. For example, he writes: But the robbery theories just don’t hold water: Why would they take one and not take the odder? In fact, the word odder suggests how some Americans would pronounce that word other and make it rhyme with water, and also refers to the odd sock. Can you find
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other examples of lines which rhyme because of the way they are pronounced by an American speaker? There is one pair of lines which only rhyme because he invents a word. Can you find which it is? The writer has also invented some words just for fun. Can you find any?
H. Pick up a passage from English Newspaper, and design a reading exercises consisting of 10 True-False items, and 5 Essay items. Don’t forget to include the answer keys.
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A Coward Everybody called him Signoles’, but he liked to use his full name Viscount Joseph de Signoles. His parents had both died, leaving him a good deal of money. He was quite handsome, spoke well, and looked very noble and proud. All the ladies liked him, and he lived a peaceful, completely happy life. He was supposed to be very good with a sword and even better with a pistol. If I have to fight a duel with anybody,’ he used to say “I shall choose a pistol. If I use that weapon I shall be absolutely certain of killing my enemy.’ Now, one evening, he had been to the theatre with two ladies and their husbands. Afterwards he had invited them into a restaurant and bought them ice-cream. They had been there a few minutes when he noticed that a man sitting at a table nearby was staring at one of the two ladies. She seemed upset, annoyed, and she turned her head away from the man who was staring at her. Finally she said to her husband, ‘There’s a man over there who won’t take his eyes off me. I don’t know him at all. Do you know him?’ Her husband, who had not really noticed anything looked at the man and remarked, ‘No. I’ve never seen him before.’ The young woman, half smiling and half in anger, said, ‘Well, it’s very annoying. That man is spoiling my ice-cream.’ ‘Oh. don’t take any notice of him,’ said her husband. ‘If we spent time on all the people who behave rudely we’d never finish!’ But Signoles had suddenly jumped to his feet. He could not bear the thought that a stranger should spoil an ice-cream that he had bought for a lady. He felt that he was the one who had been insulted because it was he who had invited his friends into the restaurant. He went up to the stranger and said, ‘Sir, I cannot bear the way you are staring at these ladies. Please stop it!’ ‘Go away!’ said the man. ‘Take care, sir!’ said Signoles angrily. ‘You are going to make me forget myself!’ The man simply replied by saying one word, a rude word which could be heard all over the restaurant and which came as a shock to every person sitting there. They all made a sudden movement as though they had been moved by a spring. Everybody turned to look. The duel is arranged For a moment there was absolute silence, then suddenly, a sharp sound. Signoles had struck the man across the face. People stood up to stop the fight. The two men exchanged visiting cards. They would fight a duel. When Signoles got home he walked up and down his room for a few minutes. He was too upset to think properly. Only one idea filled his mind: ‘A duel!’ He had done what he should have done. People would talk about him now. They would say he had done the honourable thing. They would speak well of him. ‘What a pig that man is!’ he said aloud. Then he sat down and began to think. Early the next morning he would have to find some seconds two friends who would help to arrange the duel. Who would he choose? He thought about the richest and most famous of his friends. Finally he decided to ask a nobleman and an army officer whose names would look well in the newspapers. He noticed that he was thirsty and drank three glasses of water, one after the other. Then he started to walk up and down the room again. He decided that he would be brave. He would ask for a serious duel — one which would lead to death. Perhaps if he did this his enemy would not want to fight a duel, after all. Perhaps he would find an excuse. He picked up the stranger’s visiting
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card which he had thrown on the table. He had glanced at it in the restaurant and on the way back, and now he read it again. It simply said, George Lamil, 51 Moncey Street.’ He stared at these mysterious words. George Lamil! Who was this man? What kind of work did he do? Why had he looked at this woman in this way? How disgusting it was that a complete stranger should suddenly come and upset your life, just because he had felt like staring at a woman. ‘What a pig!’ said Signoles once again. Then he stood still. He kept on staring at the card, feeling anger and hatred growing inside him. How silly the whole business was! He took a penknife and stuck it into the name printed on the card, just as if he was sticking a sword into a real person. So he would have to fight! Should he choose a sword or a pistol? He considered that he was the person insulted, and so he had a right to choose the weapon to be used. With a sword there was less risk of being killed. But if he chose a pistol there was a chance that his enemy might not want to fight. There certainly was a serious risk of being killed if they used pistols, but it was worth taking the risk, because the other man might be too afraid to go ahead with the duel, and then people would say that he, Signoles, had behaved in an honourable way. ‘I must be firm,’ he said. ‘He’ll be too afraid to fight.’ The sound of his voice made him tremble, and he looked round the room feeling very nervous. He drank another glass of water and started to get undressed. Signoles is too frightened to sleep As soon as he got into bed he blew out the candle and closed his eyes. ‘I have all day tomorrow to think about this,’ he said. ‘I’ll have a good night’s sleep. I’ll be all right in the morning.’ He felt quite warm between the sheets, but he could not get to sleep. He turned over and over in bed, lying for five minutes on his back, then on his left side, then on his right side. He was still thirsty. He got up to have another drink of water. Then he was suddenly filled with a terrible anxiety. ‘What’s the matter with me? Could it be that I’m afraid?’ Why did his heart start to beat madly at each little sound in the room? When the clock was going to strike, the sound caused by the spring, made him jump and made him so nervous that he had to breathe with his mouth open for a few seconds. ‘Is it possible,’ he asked aloud, ‘to be afraid in spite of your self?’ And he began to be filled with doubt and terror. What would happen if a power stronger than his will took hold of him? Yes, what would happen then? He would, of course, go to fight the duel, because he wanted to. But what if he started trembling? What if he fainted? And he began to think about the mess he was in. about his reputation about his good name. Suddenly he was seized by a peculiar need to get up again and look at himself in the mirror. He lit his candle. When he saw his face reflected in the glass of the mirror he hardly recognizes himself. It seemed as though he had never seen him self before. His eyes looked enormous, and he was pale. My word! How pale he was! Signoles thinks about his own death He stood looking at himself in the mirror. He put out his tongue to see if it looked healthy. Then suddenly, this thought entered his brain: ‘By this time tomorrow I might be dead!’ And his heart started to beat violently. By this time tomorrow I might be dead. This person in front of me, this me that I see in the mirror, will not exist any more! Here I am. I can see myself. I know I am alive, and in twenty-four hours I shall be lying in that bed, dead, with my eyes closed,
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cold, stiff, gone for ever!’ He turned round and looked at the bed. He could clearly picture himself lying on his back in the very sheets he had just left. He had the hollow face of a dead man and soft hands that would never move again. Now he was afraid to go back to bed, lie went into the next room and started to smoke a cigar. He felt cold. He was going towards the bell, ready to ring to wake up his servant. But he stopped, and said, if I call my servant he’ll notice that I’m afraid.’ He did not ring. He lit a fire himself, with trembling hands. His thoughts were becoming confused. He felt as though he was drunk. He kept on saying to himself, What am I going to do? What’s going to become of me?’ His whole body was trembling, shaking all over. He got up and went to the window to open the curtains. Day was dawning, a summer’s day. The sky was pink and was making all the roofs and walls look pink. The world was waking up to this great shower of bright light, coming down like a kiss from the rising sun. As soon as he saw the cheerful brightness his heart was filled with hope. How crazy he was to let himself be made miserable by fear! Nothing was decided yet. His seconds had not yet seen those of George Lamil, and he didn’t even know for certain that he would have to fight. He got dressed and left the house, walking with a firm step. As he walked he kept on saying to himself, ‘I must be strong, very strong. I must show people that I am not afraid.’ His two seconds, the nobleman and the officer, were waiting for him. After they had both given him a warm hand-shake the officer asked him, ‘Do you want a serious duel?’ ‘Very serious,’ replied Signoles. ‘Are you going to use a pistol?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Can we go ahead and arrange everything?’ ‘Twenty yards,’ said Signoles, speaking with a dry, nervous voice. ‘On the command we take aim and fire. We keep on shooting until there is a serious wound. ‘Those are excellent conditions,’ said the officer. ‘You shoot well. All the luck is on your side.’ Signoles then went back home to wait until they had arranged everything. His nervousness, which had disappeared for a few minutes, was now getting worse and worse. He seemed to be trembling all down his legs and arms. He could not sit still. He could not stand still. His mouth was so dry that his tongue seemed stuck, and it made a peculiar sound when he moved it. He thought he would have some lunch, but he could not eat anything. Then he had the idea that if he drank some rum it would give him courage. He drank six small glasses, one after the other. A warm, burning feeling spread through his body and his mind seemed to be filled with a kind of mist. This is the way to do it,’ he thought. ‘I shall be all right now.’ An hour later he had drunk the whole bottle of rum and he was in a terrible state. He felt as though he wanted to roll about on the floor, shouting and biting. The seconds arrive It was getting dark when the door-bell rang. The sound gave him such a shock that he hadn’t the strength to stand up when his two seconds entered the room. He hardly dared speak even a single word to them, because he was afraid they would discover what state he was in by the sound of his voice. ‘Everything has been arranged according to the conditions you suggested,’ said the officer. Your enemy at first claimed that he was the one who had been insulted so he had a right to choose the weapons. But he gave in almost immediately. His seconds are both army officers.’
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‘Thank you,’ said Signoles. ‘We’ll have to go now.’ said the nobleman. ‘We still have a lot to do. We need to get a good doctor, because the fight will only stop when there has been a serious wound . You can’t play games with bullets, as you know. We must find a place near a house where we can carry the wounded man, if necessary. Anyhow, we’ll be another two or three hours. ‘Thank you,’ said Signoles a second time. ‘Are you all right?’ asked the officer. Are your nerves steady?’ ‘Yes, very steady, thank you.’ And the two seconds left the house. When he was all alone again he felt as though he was going to go mad. He sat down at his writing-desk and wrote at the top of a page: ‘This is my last will and Testament…” Then he jumped up and walked away from the desk, unable to think properly or to make any kind of decision, even a simple one. So he was going to fight a duel! He could not avoid it now. What was happening inside him? He wanted to fight, he was very definite about that. And yet he knew that in spite of all his efforts he would not even be able to find the necessary strength to get to the place where the duel would be fought. He tried to imagine what it would look like. He pictured himself standing there and he pictured his enemy facing him. He tried to read, picking up a book about shooting. Then he thought, ‘Is my enemy an expert with a pistol? How can I find out?’ He remembered that he had a book which contained a list of all those who were famous for shooting. He looked carefully through it. The name George Lamil was not there. But if this man was not sure he could kill his enemy, why had he agreed to fight a duel which might lead to death? He opened a box containing a pair of pistols. He took one of them out and held it, taking aim, as if he was ready to shoot. But his hand was trembling so much that he could not keep the gun steady. It was waving about, pointing in all directions. ‘It’s impossible!’ he said. ‘I can’t fight a duel in this state!’ He looked at the end of the pistol and saw the little black hole which spits death. He thought of the disgrace. People would whisper about him. They would laugh at him. The ladies would hate him. There would be things about him in the newspapers. Cowardly men would insult him. He kept on staring at the weapon in his hand. Suddenly he noticed that the pistol was already loaded. This gave him a strange feeling of pleasure which he could not explain. Everybody would expect him to face his enemy in a manner that was noble and calm. If he failed to do so life would not be worth living. Everyone would pour scorn on him. They would treat him as a man who had done something dreadful and shameful. He would no longer have any friends. And he knew very well that he would not have this calm, courageous manner when he stood in front of his enemy. Signoles kills himself Yet he was brave, after all. A thought flashed rapidly through his mind. He suddenly opened his mouth wide, pushed the pistol into it as far as it would go, then fired…. When his servant heard the bang he rushed into the room and found him lying on his back. Some blood had fallen on the white sheet of paper on the desk, and there was a great splash of red above the words: This is my last Will and Testament’
1. Read the short story above, and write a synopsis for it. 2. Elaborate the characters involved in the story.
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3. Explain its plot: orientation, evaluation, complication, resolution, and reorientation 1. In the passage on the next page, which appeared in The Independent, the writer, Suzanne Moore, describes a fire she had at her flat. Before you r ead it, think of three or four situations at home in which a fire can start. 2. Here are the first lines of each paragraph. Put them in the right order and find out how the fire started. a) I could hear the firemen crashing about and shouting. b) And now, a few days later, 1 am starting to feel very strange. c) Ti started under the grill. d) We could hear the sirens of the fire engines. e) I arrived with two kids and bags full of smelly clothes in a taxi. f) The firemen were back. “Let’s take you in there to have a look.” g) I phoned a friend. h) Returning to my “new home”, my daughter presented me with a picture she had drawn. i) By now flames were coming out of the top of the cooker. j) A minute later, smoke was pouring out of all the windows of my flat. 3. The writer tends to imply things rather than state them directly. What words or phrases would you use to describe the reactions of the following people? the people in the street her next-door neighbour the firemen an old lady her neighbour’s girlfriend her friend’s son her friend 4. Look for the point in the passage when she comments directly on her own reactions. Would you describe the overall style as calm or emotional? Another aspect of the passage’s style is the large number of short sentences and the absence of linking words like and and but while she is describing the events of the fire itself. What effect do you think this has? There are some words and phrases which reveal her feelings while her home was on fire. I rushed over the road … But it wasn’t all right — my flat was on fire. Can you find other words or phrases which reveal her feelings? 5. Answer the questions about vocabulary. Use a dictionary to help you, if necessary. 1. ‘He came out choking...’ If smoke was pouring out of the flat, what effect would this have on someone who went in? 2. ‘...his hair singed.’ There were flames in the flat. His skin wasn’t burnt, but what are the flames likely to do to his hair? 3. ‘.. . the cooker, the fridge, the washing-machine gutted.’ What is likely to be left of these household appliances after a fire? 4. ‘Very, very tired and slightly dislocated.’ Physically, she felt tired. How do you think she felt emotionally? 6. Answer the questions. 1. “Sit by the fire,” he offered. “You need warming up.”’ What is the irony in her neighbour’s remark?
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2. “We’re not the police, you know,” he laughed.’ What might the fireman be implying about the police? 3. ‘“It could have been worse,” said the fireman, a phrase I have heard a lot in the last few days.’ How much worse could it have been? Do you think the writer is comforted by this remark?
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FRIENDSHIP A. The passage in this unit is about friendship. Before you read it decide which of the following statements you agree or disagree with. a) You can have a lot of friends but only one best friend. b) Really good friends are always of the same sex. c) Childhood friendship rarely lasts into adulthood. d) Time and distance cannot alter real friendship. e) A friend is someone you can talk freely to. f) A really good friend is someone with whom you have shared many experiences. g) Adult friendship is of a different nature from childhood friendship. h) Childhood friendship is often more emotional than adult friendship. B. The following article is about Raymond Blanc, a well-known chef. Read it and decide which statement(s) in Exercise A he would agree with. I thought the world was caving in, for the first time ever I lost somebody I loved; he didn’t die, he just went away, but I still measure all pain by the hurt Rent caused me. It was a very nice childhood, an adolescence most people would wish to have, we were living in a tiny village and were a close family, very pleasant, much earthed, and the table was very important. Our neighbours had a son, and my wonderful childhood was shared with René; basically, we grew up together, we spent every day together, went to school together; we did all the things that children can do. It was a childhood spent in the woods, discovering the beautiful seasons, there was an abundance of produce that grew in the wild, and we went mushrooming and frog hunting, and we searched for cepes under a full moon in winter, which we would sell because my parents didn’t have much money. The adventures that children go through in the making of a friendship, building a tree house and spending a night in the forest and losing our way back home, these things create a fantastic fabric to the friendship. There was the loving element; too, he was very caring. Rene was a tall bloke and very strong, and he Would be my defender; if anyone ever teased me, he would be there. It was the finest friendship anyone could have, a brilliant pure friendship in which you would give your life for your friend. And life seemed marvelous, it seemed full of shine, full of incredible, beautiful things to discover, and I looked forward so much to growing up with Rene. And then at the age of 14, his parents moved to the south of France, ands we were in the east of France which is 750 kilometers away… the south of France sounded like the end of the world. Well our parents realized it would be very traumatic, and they did not know how to break the news. So they just announced It the day before. It was a beautiful summer‘s day, around five o’clock in the evening, and both parents came and said: “We are moving away, and obviously Rene will have to come with us. I went quiet for the news to sink in; at first it was sheer disbelief, numbness. I couldn’t sleep and then in the night I understood the impact of the news, I understood that my life would be totally separate from his, and I had to be by myself alone.
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And at that time my world stopped. It was the most incredible pain I have ever experienced. I couldn’t see life without my friend, my whole system, my life was based on René, and our friendship was my life. And although he was only going away he did not die, it was the worst loss 1 have ever had in my life, still, now, and thirty years later I have not received another shock of that nature. I had other friends, but never did I achieve that kind of closeness. My world completely collapsed, and nothing was the same, people, the classroom, nature, the country, butterflies. Maybe because he was more mature he understood a hit better that this was part of life, that life brings people together and separates them, and distance is riot necessarily the end. He accepted that life would separate us. He didn’t see it as something final; it was my dramatic side to see only the negative side, self-pity in a way. He is now living a happy life in Provence with a beautiful wife and two lovely daughters, and he is coming here next year, so it is going to be quite wonderful. It is the first time he has ever come to England, he’s a good Frenchman, and he does not speak a word of English. Hopefully, we will see each other more, but it is not essential. We now have a beautifully matured, adult friendship where it is easy to talk about anything because we feel totally at ease. There is not a single bitter note, there are no power games, there is nothing secret, and there is nothing which detracts from the purity of It is a good solid relationship that has been established over so many years, and has overcome all the barriers which life and time can create. I don’t think it really could have lasted the way it was. C. Find these words and expressions in the passage and answer the questions. 1. I thought the world was caving in...’ Is this likely to be a pleasant or an unpleasant feeling? Can you find another expression in the article which means more or less the same thing? 2. ‘René was a tall bloke...’ A bloke is a familiar term for a man or a male teenager. Is it likely to be a neutral term or an offensive one? 3. ‘...if anyone ever teased me...’ When people, particularly children, know each other well, they tease each other. In this context, is this likely to be kind or unkind behaviour? 4. ‘...it would be very traumatic...’ What would be traumatic? Is this likely to be a pleasant event or a shocking one? 5. ‘...for the news to sink in...’ Choose the best definition for the words in italics: a) to go deep b) to be understood c) to go down D. The writer uses some very different words to describe his friendship before René’s departure and after. For example: before: beautiful, abundance, full moon, after: caving in, pain, hurt, Find more words in the passage to add to the before and after lists. E. Think about the relationship and the separation from René’s point of view. Which of the words you wrote in Exercise D do you think he would use? Write a few sentences describing what happened from his point of view.
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How would you describe the parents’ reaction to what happened? Would they have used any of the words in Exercise D? F. Think of some more questions you would like to ask Raymond Blanc about his friendship with René, or note anything which surprises you about the relationship. G. Compare your childhood with the writer’s. Did you have a very close friend like René? Write down three names: a childhood friend you still know, a friend with whom you’ve lost touch and a close friend now. How similar or different are your relationships with each one? Write down some words and phrases to describe these relationships.
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Friday’s assignment 1. Write the pointers you get from the “discourse analysis”. 2. Based on your pointers, draw a chart describing “discourse analysis” DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
A. A Brief Historical Overview Discourse is a continuous stretch of language larger than a sentence, often constituting a coherent unit, such as a sermon, argument, joke, or narrative. Discourse analysis is concerned with the study of the relationship between language and the contexts in which it is used. It grew out of work in different disciplines in the 1960s and early 1970s, including linguistics, semiotics, psychology, anthropology and sociology. Discourse analysts study language in use: written texts of all kinds, and spoken data, from conversation to highly institutionalised forms of talk. B. Form and Function So how we interpret grammatical forms depends on a number of factors, some linguistic, some purely situational. One linguistic feature that may affect our interpretation is the intonation. So the intonation does not inherently carry the function of question either, any more than the inversion of auxiliary verb and subject did. Grammatical forms and phonological forms examined separately are unreliable indicators of function; when they are taken together, and looked at in context, we can come to some decision about function. So, decisions about communicative function cannot solely be the domain or grammar or phonology. Discourse analysis is not entirely separate from the study of grammar and phonology, but discourse analysts are interested in a lot more than linguistic forms. C. Speech Acts and Discourse Structures In one sense we are talking about functions: we are concerned as much with what someone is doing with language as with he is saying. When we say that a particular bit of speech or writing is a request or an instruction or an exemplification we are concentrating on what that piece of language is doing, or how the listener/reader is supposed to react; for this reason, such entities are often also called speed acts. Each of the stretches of language that are carrying the force of requesting, instructing, and so on is seen as performing a particular act. D. The Scope of Discourse Analysis Discourse analysis is not only concerned with the description and analysis of spoken interaction. In addition to all our verbal encounters we daily consume hundreds of written and printed words: newspaper articles, letters, stories, recipes, instructions, notices, comics, billboards, leaflets pushed through the door, and so on. We usually expect them to be coherent, meaningful communications in which the words and/or sentences are linked to one another in a fashion that corresponds to conventional formulae, just as we do with speech; therefore discourse analysts are equally interested in the organization of written interaction. The term discourse analysis is used to cover the study of spoken and written interaction. Our overall aim is to come to a much better understanding of exactly how natural spoken and written discourse looks and sounds. E. Spoken Discourse: Models of Analysis One influential approach to the study of spoken discourse is that developed at the University of Birmingham, where research initially concerned itself with the structure of discourse in school classrooms (Sinclair and Coulthard 1975). The Birmingham model is certainly not the only valid approach to analyzing discourse, but it is a relatively simple and powerful model which has connections with the study of speech acts. Sinclair and Coulthard found in the language of 14
traditional native-speaker school classrooms a rigid pattern, where teachers and pupils spoke according to very fixed perceptions of their roles and where the talk could be seen to conform to highly structured sequences. T: What do we do with a saw? Marvelette. P: Cut wood. T: We cut wood. Sinclair and Coulthard call this unit an exchange. This particular exchange consists of a question, an answer and a comment, and so it is a three-part exchange. Each of the parts is given the name move. Sinclair and Coulthard call the first move in each change an opening move ; the second an answering move, and the third a following up move . They prefer to talk of initiation, response, and follow up. F. Conversations outside the classroom So far we have looked at talk in a rather restricted context: the traditional classroom, where roles are rigidly defined and the patterns of initiation, response and follow-up in exchanges are relatively easy to perceive, and where transactions are heavily marked. The classroom was a convenient place to start, as Sinclair and Coulthard discovered, but it is not the ‘real’ world of conversation. It is a peculiar place, a place where teachers ask questions to which they already know the answers, where pupils (at least younger pupils) have very limited rights as speakers, and where evaluation by the teacher of what the pupils say is a vital mechanism in the discourse structure. Conversations outside classroom settings vary in their degree of structuredness, but even so, conversations that seem at first sight to be ‘free’ and unstructured can often be shown to have a structure; what will differ is the kinds of speech-act labels needed to describe what is happening, and it is mainly in this area, the functions of the parts of individual moves, that discourse analysts have found it necessary to expand and modify the Sinclair—Coulthard model. Obviously there are numerous other features in the conversation (intonation, gesture, etc.) which make us more confident in our analysis. So far we have looked only at one model for the analysis of spoken interaction, the Sinclair—Coulthard ‘Birmingham’ model. We have argued that it is useful for describing talk in and out of the classroom; it captures patterns that reflect the basic functions of interaction and offers a hierarchical model where smaller units can be seen to combine to form larger ones and where the large units can be seen to consist of these smaller ones. The bare bones of the hierarchy (or rank scale) can be expressed as follows: TRANSACTION ↨ EXCHANGE ↨ MOVE ↨ ACT G. Talk as a Social Activity Because of the rigid conventions of situations such as teacher talk and doctor-patient talk, it is relatively easy to predict who will speak when, who will ask and who will answer, who will interrupt, who will open and close the talk, and so on. But where talk is more casual, and among equals, everyone will have a part to play in controlling and monitoring the discourse, and the picture will look considerably more complicated. The approach that is usually used to analyze outside conversation is ethnomethodologist. This approach has been largely, but not exclusively, an American phenomenon, and it has concentrated on areas of interest such as how pairs of utterances relate to one another (the study of adjacency pairs), how turn-taking is managed, how conversational openings and closings are effected, how 15
topics enter and disappear from conversation, and how speakers engage in strategic acts of politeness, face-preservation, and so on. The emphasis is always on real data, and observing how people orient to the demands of the speech event. H. Written Discourse With written texts, some of the problems associated with spoken transcripts are absent: we do nor have to contend with people all speaking at once, the writer has usually had time to think about what to say and how to say it, and the sentences are usually well formed in a way that the utterances of natural, spontaneous talk are not. But the overall questions remain the same: what norms or rules do people adhere to when creating written texts? Are texts structured according to recurring principles, is there a hierarchy of units comparable to acts, moves and exchanges, and are there conventional ways of opening and closing texts? As with spoken discourse, if we do find such regularities, and if they can be shown as elements that have different realization in different languages, or that they may present problems for learners in other ways, then the insights of written discourse analysis might be applicable, in specifiable ways, to language teaching. I. Text and Interpretation Markers of various kinds, i.e. the linguistic signals of semantic and discourse functions (e.g. in English the -ed on the verb is a marker of pastness), are very much concerned with the surface of the text. Cohesive markers are no exception: they create links across sentence boundaries and pair and chain together items that are related. But reading a text is far more complex than that: we have to interpret the ties and make sense of them. Making sense of a text is an act of interpretation that depends as much on what we as readers bring to a text as what the author puts into it. Interpretation can be seen as a set o procedures and the approach to the analysis of texts that emphasizes the mental activities involved in interpretation can be broadly called procedural. Procedural approaches emphasize the role of the reader in actively building the world of the text, based on his/her experience of the world and how states and events are characteristically manifested in it. The reader has to activate such knowledge, make inferences and constantly assess his/her interpretation in the light of the situation and the aims and goals of the text as the reader perceives them. Another level of interpretation which we are involved in as we process texts is that of recognizing textual patterns. Certain patterns in text reoccur time and time again and become deeply ingrained as part of our cultural knowledge. These patterns are manifested in regularly occurring functional relationships between bits of the text. These bits may be phrases, clauses, sentences or groups of sentences; we shall refer to them as textual segments to avoid confusion with grammatical elements and syntactic relations within clauses and sentences. A segment may sometimes be a clause, sometimes a sentence, sometimes a whole paragraph; what is important is that segments can be isolated using a set of labels covering a finite set of functional relations that can occur between any two bits of text. J. Larger Patterns in Text The clause-relational approach to text also concerns itself with larger patterns which regularly occur in texts. If we consider a simple text like the following, which is concocted for the sake of illustration, we can see a pattern emerging which is found in hundreds of texts in a wide variety of subject areas and contexts: Most people like to take a camera with them when they travel abroad. But all airports nowadays have X-ray security screening and X rays can damage film. One solution to this problem is to purchase a specially designed lead-lined pouch. These are cheap and can protect film from all but the strongest X rays.
The first sentence presents us with a situation and the second sentence with some sort of complication or problem. The third sentence describes a response to the problem and the final
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sentence gives a positive evaluation of the response. Such a sequence of relations forms a problem —solution pattern, and problem-solution patterns are extremely common in texts. DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AND GRAMMAR A. Grammatical Cohesion and Textuality 1) Reference Reference includes pronouns, demonstratives, the article, and items like such as. The reference that is confirmed by looking back in the text is called anaphoric. The reference that shares worlds outside of the text is called exophoric. The reference that is confirmed by looking forward in the text is called cataphoric 2) Ellipsis and Substitution Ellipsis is the omission of elements normally required by the grammar which the speaker/writer assumes are obvious from the context and therefore need not to be raised. Substitution is similar to ellipsis, in that, in English it operates either at nominal, verbal, or clausal level. The items commonly used for substitution are: one(s), do, so/not, same. 3) Conjunction Conjunction can be simplified into three headings: elaboration, extension, and enhancement Type sub-types examples Elaboration apposition in other words Clarification or rather Extension addition and/but Variation alternatively Enhancement spatio-temporal there/previously Causal-conditional consequently/in that case 4) Theme and Rheme Sentence can be analyzed seen from the view point of word position, subject, verb, object, etc. Theme is the topic of the clause; while rheme is the comment of the clause. I (theme) read a book everyday (rheme). 5) Tense and Aspect Tense is the term used to show the relationship between time and other conditions and the form of verb. Aspect is term some grammarians used to describe different ways of thinking about action and time. English has two aspects: a perfect aspect and progressive aspect. The telling of stories, jokes, anecdotes, abstracts, narratives etc. need different tense and aspect.
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We’ve never had it so bad
A. The article in this unit is about teenagers in the 1990s. It was written by a British writer, Caitlin Moran, when she was sixteen. Do you think a teenager today could say ‘We’ve never had it so bad’? Think about what a teenager in your country might complain about. B. Read the article and find out if it mentions any of the ideas you thought about in Exercise A. C. Choose five words or phrases from the following list which seem to summarize the general meaning of the article. material world drugs cry vote sell self-loathing misery protest marches angst symbols identity future art gallery parents’ generation nothing depressing mirror middle-class clothes war rebellion advertisers Without looking back at the passage, write five sentences using the words you chose. Try and convey the main ideas of the article. D. What evidence can you find for the following statements? 1. The writer’s friend hates life because she is still too young to do things without her parents’ permission. 2. She is happy to accept the identity the advertisers sell her. 3. The Nineties’ teenage cult is self-hate rather than rebellion. 4. Drugs are one of the main causes of the teenagers’ passive attitude to life. 5. They have adopted another generation’s values because they have none of their own. 6. The material comfort and safety of middle-class life does not make a teenager’s plight any easier. 7. Protesting and rebelling against parents is better than self-loathing.
We’ve never had it so bad What’s so great about being a teenager in the material world of the nineties? asks Caitlin Moran. WHERE is the anger? Where is the protest? Where is the teenage point of view these days? Where are the rebellions and the cults and the things that adults can’t understand?
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Why are ‘the youth of today’ living the ‘there’s a club ... and you go and you stand on your own, and you leave on your own, and you cry and you want to die’ life and still happy to accept it? One of my friends, at 16— six and ten years on this planet, four leap years — says that her life terrifies her because, when she looks at it, it seems so long until she’ll die. At 16, welcoming oblivion, when she’s too young to vote, too young to drive, too young to leave home without her parents’ permission. She’s not on drugs or the mother of an unwanted child, she lives a middleclass existence in a low- crime suburb, and she has no identity except that which advertisers sell her: it is too confining, both physically and mentally. Sometimes we climb up on to a five-storey car park, and throw bits of gravel at the people below, and she’ll shout ‘Who am 1?’ and I laugh till I cry because no one can hear us, and nobody can tell her. We sit on the steps outside the art gallery and she’ll tell me her plan for the future: ‘I don’t know, and I’ll read her palm and make up things, because ‘nothing’ is too depressing. She reapplies her eyeliner for the fifth time that day, and I gloomily pick nut chips out of a Fruit and Nut block. She puts her little mirror back in her bag and tells me that she wants to be sick every time she sees her face, and she wouldn’t mind giving up her future right to vote if she could live in a country where the women wear veils. And she hugs the railings and looks like she could melt away at any minute with misery, and what can I say? She saw her face in the mirror, and she’s been made to hate it so much that it distorted, Why the self-loathing? Why do thousands and thousands of teenagers suddenly hate their picked upon, pressurized selves? Instead of shouting at their parents, which is what parents expect and justify their grey hairs with, why do teenagers shout at themselves? Who’s going to stand up for them? Jimmy Cricket? I’m angry, and I’m scared because no one else seems to be. I’m angry that there is no ‘Nineties’ scene. We’re being given our parents’ music and clothes and angst and I want to know why. Is it because the past isn’t dangerous? It’s been coped with and poses no threat? What are we afraid of now? Why are we being sold the traumas of the Vietnam war when we had our own war, our own Nineties war, to feel concerned about and go on marches about and have Tshirt slogans about? We’ve been sold another generation’s problems, symbols and ethics. They look silly and they don’t fit. E. The writer suggests that teenagers are being manipulated into accepting another generation’s identity and values. For example: “…she has no identity except that which advertisers sell her...’ Can you find other instances of this idea in the article? What reason does she suggest may be behind this manipulation? Who do you think the writer is referring to? F. Look back at the sentences you wrote in Exercise C. Would you change any of them now you are more familiar with the passage? Use these sentences to write a short summary of the article. G. Do you agree with Caitlin Moran’s analysis of the teenager’s plight? How do or did your experiences as a teenager compare to those described in the article?
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Make a list of ideas you could include in an article which is much more optimistic about teenage life today. H. Friday’s assignment 1. Read the text “THE MIND-CENTERED SYSTEM” carefully. 2. Determine whether the text is narration, explanation, discussion, commentary, or review. And give your reason. 3. Explain its generic structure.
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Business people are not good at defending capitalism. Maybe it is because they don’t quite understand it themselves.
THE MIND-CENTERED SYSTEM By Michael Novak (Philosopher,
novelist, journalist and ex-US ambassador Michael Novak is now at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC. Among his most recent books are Taking Glasnost Seriously and Will It Liberate? Questions about Liberation Theology)
Last fall I met an executive of a large American multinational, whom I shall call Robert Wilson. He told me with some dismay that his son had come home from university the preceding Christmas denouncing (to his mother) first “obscene profits” and “wicked multinational corporations” (Mrs. Wilson did her best to defend her husband’s line of work), and then the entire capitalist system. Still, not having read the exact authors and books her son was citing, she knew she hadn’t argued very well. Bob Wilson didn’t do much better afterwards—even worse, since he lost his temper. What is this thing called “capitalism,” anyway? American dictionaries usually define it in a rather Marxist way. (Not surprising, since it was Marx who first defined what he opposed.) The American Heritage Dictionary defines capitalism as: “An economic sys-tem characterized by freedom of the market with increasing concentration of private and corporate ownership of production and distribution means, proportionate to increasing accumulation and reinvestment of profits.” Not all definitions are quite
so pejorative this respect, the word “concentration,” capitalism, which Marx “accumulation”. intended as pejorative, is Nonetheless, the emphasis accurately chosen. in most does fall on private Simply put, the cause of property, markets and wealth is human creativity. profits. Smith dramatized this But these three point in his example of the institutions cannot possibly pin factory. Human provide an accurate ingenuity discovered a way definition of capitalism. For to make pins quickly and in the word itself was large multiples, whereas invented to define a new individual craftsmen had economic system, which earlier required many emerged fully only at the laborious hours for each. end of the 18th century. Its To paraphrase Havek, novelty is what drew capitalism didn’t do much attention to it—even Marx’. for duchesses who already What made this new had pins silk stockings and system different could not many other items, but it have been private did a lot for working property, markets and women who had never had profits. Biblical Jerusalem, them, but soon did. at a crossroads of three Capitalism is the first continents, had all three. It social system organized was (economically) a around mind. It gives market that respected primacy to mind—to private property and practical intellect, in the (aspiring to be a “land of first place, but in the end milk and honey”) smiled on also to intellectual research profits. and contemplation for their These three own sakes. Systematic characteristics do not attention to the needs of capitalism make. They mind begins in schools define the traditional oriented to new discoveries economy in most times, at and practicality. It most places. What is continues in patent and distinctive about capitalism copyright laws. It comes to is hidden in the word itself. flower through ease of What is the answer to incorporation, through Adam Smith’s original habits of enterprise, inquiry into the cause of favorable conditions for the wealth of nations? In capital formation and one word, the cause is wit: access to the credit needed invention, discovery, mind. to bring creative ideas to (In Latin, caput, head.) In realization.
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Thus, a decisive right to their respective moment in the history of writings and discoveries.” capitalism occurred at the In this clause occurs for Constitutional Convention the first and only time in in Philadelphia in 1787, the Constitution proper the when the same right (the word “right”—a right copyright) earlier extended grounded in the capacities to writers in Great Britain of the human spirit for was here extended to invention and discovery, patents for inventors and and justified as a discoveries. Article 1, preeminent service to the Section 8, of the common good. Constitution listed among In theological language, the limited powers granted we can say that a capitalist to the Congress the system is founded on the following: To promote the Jewish and Christian belief progress of science and that the Creator of all useful arts, by securing for things made every man limited times to authors and every woman in His and inventors the exclusive image. He thus endowed in each the right and the duty
to be creative as He is creative: to invent and to discover, and thereby to serve the common good of all. Capitalism is the system organized around creativity. That is what makes it different from the pre-capitalist economy, and also from the socialist economy. A system named for the human head (caput) is, like the human mind itself, forever open and inventive. If Bob Wilson and other business people want to mount an effective defense of capitalism, they should learn to explain it in these terms.
Boldness in industrial undertakings, said Tocqueville, was the chief cause of America ‘s rapid progress, power and greatness. GREED DOES NOT EXPLAIN IT Philip J. Freedenberg book Greed Is Not in the biblical ages, and of Fairfax, Va. upbraids Enough. in all cultures. Indeed, me in a letter recently Trouble is, “the there are many reasons published in FORBES for impulse to acquisition, for believing that in the over-praising creativity pursuit of gain, of capitalist era greed (in as the cause of the money, of the greatest its ancient meaning) has wealth of the West, and possible amount of diminished as a motive for neglecting “the money, has in itself force, or has in any case mechanism that. . . nothing to do with been deeply altered. deserves equal billing: capitalism,” Max Weber In a free society—both greed.” wrote in The Protestant democratic and capitalist The enemies of Ethic and the Spirit of —there are lots of capitalism ever have Capitalism. “It should be reasons why human been quick to imagine taught in kindergarten of beings do great deeds, that greed is the linchpin cultural history that this build new industries, of capitalism. R.H. naive idea of capitalism launch new inventions. Tawney wrote of the must be given up once Without judging personal “acquisitive” impulse, and for all.” motives, one can Marx of “accumulation,” Greed did not begin imagine many types of and recently the late with capitalism (late in human energies being Robert Lekachman, one the 18th century). unleashed by liberty: the of my favorite socialists, Outbreaks of it are found zest for life, ambition, called his anti-Reagan from the earliest times, challenge, excitement,
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conquest, selfdetermination, creativity, the will-to-power—yes, and greed. Yet the word greed is always used to name a vice, never a virtue. The dictionaries say that it means an “excessive” hunger. Do those who insist that the driving mechanism of capitalism is greed want to prove that the system is inherently vicious? Yes, they do. By contrast Adam Smith thought that the drive to “better one’s condition” is an admirable natural impulse. But the most telling comment comes from Alexis de Tocqueville: “To clear, cultivate and transform the huge uninhabited continent which is their domain,” he wrote, “the Americans need the support of an energetic passion; that passion can only e the love of wealth. So no stigma attaches to the love of money in America, and provided it does not exceed the bounds imposed by public order, it is held in honor.” In the zero-sum societies of the past, those who hoarded a portion of the common stock made others poorer. Not so, Tocqueville noted, in a country and an economy “limitless and full of inexhaustible re sources.” Wealth newly
created takes from no one. And the early Americans needed boldness: “For a people so situated the danger is not the ruin of a few, which is soon made good, but apathy and sloth in the community at large. Boldness in industrial undertakings is the chief cause of their rapid progress, power and greatness. To them industry appears as a vast lottery in which, a few men daily lose but in which the state constantly profits. Such a people is bound to look with favor on boldness in industry and to honor it.” In ancient and medieval Europe, great landowners grew food not so much for markets as to feed their armies. Wealth for them was gold and precious objects to be seized from others. Not understanding how wealth is created and, as the book of Proverbs put it, “greedy of loot,” they formed robber bands and pillaging armies to bring the booty home. In those days greed typically meant “unlawful gain” and was expressed through armed might, brigandage and piracy. By contrast the proponents of a new type of society—”the commercial republic”— believed that commerce
ANALYTICAL EXPOSITION
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would tame ferocious manners. Commerce, they thought, is better for society than war. Inherently, it requires peaceful ways, trustworthy personal relationships, long time horizons, voluntary contracts and international law. It teaches patience, discipline, a prudent watchfulness over small losses and small gains. It spurs vision, enterprise and grand designs. Proportionate to risk, it honors a reasonable return. Without such returns, indeed, there is no peaceful economic growth. Thus the Americans regarded the warlike barons and lords of Europe as lawless, untamed and frenzied with greed. Their medieval ancestors would have called the American concern for steady material progress “base cupidity,” Tocqueville noted. The Americans regarded economic enterprise as a “noble and estimable ambition,” lawlike, respectful of public order, indispensable to national prosperity and boldly progressive. Like our forebears, we should be careful to distinguish “boldness in industry” from “greed.” The first is admirable, the second, not.
Thesis: Position In Australia there are three levels of government, the federal government, state governments and local governments. All of these levels of government are necessary. This is so for a number of reasons. Argument 1 Point First, the federal government is necessary for the big things. Elaboration They keep the economy in order and look after things like defence. Argument 2 Point Similarly, the state governments look after the middle sized things. Elaboration For example they look after law and order, preventing things like vandalism in schools. Argument 3 Point Finally, local governments look after the small things. Elaboration They look after things like collecting rubbish, otherwise everyone would have diseases. 85 Lampiran-lampiran
Conclusion Thus, for the reasons above we can conclude that the three levels of government are necessary
NEWS ITEM Town ‘Contaminated’ Newsworthy Event Moscow - A Russian journalist has uncovered evidence of another Soviet nuclear catastrophe, which killed 10 sailors and contaminated an entire town. Background Events Yelena Vazrshavskya is the first journalist to speak to people who witnessed the explosion of a nuclear submarine at the naval base of shkotovo - 22 near Vladivostock. The accident, which occurred 13 months before the Chernobyl disaster, spread radioactive fall-out over the base and nearby town, but was covered up by officials of the then Soviet Union. Residents were told the explosion in the reactor of the Victor-class submarine during a refit had been a ‘thermal’ and not a nuclear explosion. And those involved in the clean up operation to remove more than 600 tonnes of contaminated material were sworn to secrecy. Sources A board of investigators was later to describe it as the worst accident in the history of the Soviet Navy.
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VITAL ROLE IN WORLD AIRLINE INDUSTRY Telecommunications play a vital part in the world airline industry where there is a need for speedy contact over long distances, and where the sheer size of the number of people and freight being carried today would overwhelm systems lacking the most modern technology. Most of the world’s airlines have highly advanced systems, although some of them have tended to be outpaced by the explosive growth enjoyed by the industry over the past decade, particularly in areas such is the Middle East, parts of Africa, and the Far East. Estimates made at the beginning of the decade of the number of messages which would be passed by 1980 proved in most cases to be far too low, with the result that there was a scramble during the late I 970s for new equipment. But while the equipment is available, the highly skilled manpower needed to operate it and to service it remains scarce for the airlines which have to compete with the many other users of advanced telecommunications. Most of the bigger airlines now have their own training schools, while the smaller ones send their trainees to schools such as that operated by International Aeradio at Bath. There is still a residual glamour about working for an airline for some recruits, and the prospect of cheap staff travel also attracts people. Airline communications break down into four main sections: radio, teletype, telephone and data processing. Radio is used for passing messages between ground and the airliners, although in remote parts of the world it may also be used for messages between various bases. Each operator will have a selective call band over which it can pass company messages to its crews in flight wherever they are. Routine low-speed internal company messages generally come over the company teletype system, but in most airlines they have reached such large numbers that they me distributed by computer. The exercises in this section all refer back to the extract above. Find those parts of the extract which imply that the following statements are true, although they are not explicitly stated. 1. Airline personnel are entitled to special discounts when they travel. 2. Some of the bigger airlines have to send their trainees outside training schools. 3. Trained telecommunications specialists are in demand. 4. The teletype system is mainly used by smaller airlines. 5. Highly advanced systems are necessary for the efficiency of air transport. Listed below are four topics discussed in the article extract above and underneath these details relative to each. Read both lists and then classify the details according to the topics to which they refer. 1. The growth of the airline industry between 1970 and 1980 2. The role of telecommunications in the world airline industry 3. Personnel 4. Types of airline communications a. b. c.
Details The existence of special training schools Estimates of growth made in 1970 have proved to be too low. The prospect of cheap travel for employees
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d. e. f. g. h. i. j. k. l. m.
Low-speed internal company messages are passed by teletype. The industry has expanded in the Middle East Africa and the Far East. The glamour attached to working for an airline. Large numbers of passengers and freight are being transported. The necessity for fast contact over long distances The necessity for new equipment during the late 1970s Radio, teletype, telephone and data processing Messages between different bases may be passed by radio. The necessity for skilled manpower Messages between ground and airliners are passed by radio. The article continues, giving specific examples of how the sharing of computers and telecommunications is common in the airline industry. The following sentences will appear in the rest of the article. Which one do you think comes immediately after the extract you have seen? Choose the most appropriate one.
1. When Saudia Installs Its own computer it will cope not only with reservations and the engineering and inventory at present carried in Rome but such extra tasks as payroll, finance, flight-crew scheduling, and flight operations rosters. 2. Later this year each office with a computer terminal will be able to use the computer in London for the construction of fares... 3. The network extends from Oslo and Helsinki in the north to Cape Town and Christchurch in the south, and east to west from Tokyo and Aukland to Los Angeles. 4. Modern telecommunications are expensive to develop and install, but once in and operating they have great potential for saving money as well as time. 5. SITA, the international airlines communications consortium, and a similar organization in the United States, play a major part in this vast messagepassing operation. 6. The system uses a vast network of communications links around the world consisting of more than 50 computers linked to 3,500 visual display units and 1.000 teleprinters in 650 cities. 7. Offices in such faraway places as Australia and South Africa receive replies to booking requests in two or three seconds. 8. The computers in London handle such inquiries at the rate of 60 per second at peak times, and in total the system handles more than 1.250.000 messages every day.
Next Friday Reading In affection and esteem
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In affection and esteem First part Miss Myrtle Brown had never received the gift of a box or a bouquet of flowers. She used to think, as she trudged away to the underground station every day, to go and stitch buttonholes in a big London shop, that it would have been nice if, on one of her late returns, she had found a bunch of roses red, with thick, lustrous petals, deeply sweet, or white, with their rare fragrance — awaiting her on her table. It was, of course, an impossible dream. She ought to be glad enough to have a table at all, and a loaf to put on it. She ought to be grateful to those above for letting her have a roof over her head. “You might,” she apostrophized herself, as she lit her gas ring and put on the kettle, “not have a penny for this slot. You might, Myrtle Brown, not have a spoonful of tea to put in this pot. Be thankful!” And she was thankful to Providence, to her landlady, to her employer, who sweated his workers, to the baker for bringing her loaf, to the milkman for leaving her half a pint of milk on Sundays, to the landlady’s cat for refraining from drinking it. Yet she could not help thinking, when she put out her light and lay down, of the wonderful moment if ever she did receive a bouquet. Think of unpacking the box! Think of seeing on the outside, ‘Cut Flowers. Immediate’, undoing the string, taking off the paper, lifting the lid! What then? Ah, violets, perhaps, or roses; lilies of the valley, lilac or pale pink peonies or mimosa with its warm sweetness. The little room would be like a greenhouse — like one of the beautiful greenhouses at Kew. She would borrow jam pots from the landlady, and it would take all evening to arrange them. And the room would be wonderful — like heaven. To wake, slowly and luxuriously, on a Sunday morning, into that company — what bliss! She might, of course, out of her weekly wage, buy a bunch of flowers. She did occasionally. But that was not quite the perfect thing, not quite what she desired. The centre of all the wonder was to be the little bit of pasteboard with her name on it, and the sender’s name, and perhaps a few words of greeting. She had heard that this was the custom in sending a bouquet to anyone — a great actress or a prima donna. And on birthdays it was customary, and at funerals. Birthdays! Suppose, now she received such a parcel on her birthday. She had had so many birthdays, and they had all been so very much alike. A tomato with her tea, perhaps, and a cinema afterwards. Once it had been a pantomime, the landlady having been given a ticket, and having passed it on in consideration of some help with needlework. Second Part Always in her heart was the longing for some great pageant, some splendid gift of radiance. How she would enjoy it! But nobody seemed anxious to inaugurate any pageant. And, at last, on a bleak winter day when everything had gone wrong and she had been quite unable to be grateful to anybody, she made a reckless decision. She would provide a pageant for herself. Before she began to save up for the rainy day, she would save up for the pageant. “After that,” she remarked, carefully putting crumbs on the windowsill for the birds, “you’ll be quiet. You’ll be truly thankful, Myrtle Brown.” She began to scrimp and save. Week by week the little hoard increased. A halfpenny here and a penny there — it was wonderful how soon she amassed a shilling. So great was her determination that, before her next birthday, she had got
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together two pounds. “It’s a wild and wicked thing to spend two pounds on what neither feeds nor clothes,” she said. She knew it would be impossible to tell the landlady. She would never hear the last of it. No! It must be a dead secret. Nobody must know where those flowers came from. What was the word people used when you were not to know the name? ‘Anon’. Yes. The flowers must be ‘anon’. There was a little shop at Covent Garden where they would sell retail. Wonderful things were heaped in hampers. She would go there on the day before her birthday. She was radiant as she surveyed early London from the bus. She descended at Covent Garden, walking through the piled crates of green stuff, the casks of fruit, the bursting sacks of potatoes. The shopkeeper was busy. He saw a shabby little woman with an expression of mingled rapture and anxiety. “I want some flowers. Good flowers. They are to be packed and sent to a lady I know, tonight.” “Violets?” “Yes, violets and tuberoses and lilies and pheasant-eye and maidenhair and mimosa and a few dozen roses.” “Wait a minute! Wait a minute! I suppose you know they’ll cost you a pretty penny.” “I can pay for what I order,” said Miss Brown with hauteur. “Write down what I say, add it up as you go on, put down box and postage, and I’ll pay.” The shopkeeper did as he was told. Miss Brown went from flower to flower, like a sad-colored butterfly, softly touching a petal, softly sniffing a rose. The shopkeeper, realizing that something unusual was afoot, gave generous measure. At last the order was complete, the address given, the money — all the two pounds — paid. “Any card enclosed?” queried the shopman. Triumphantly Miss Brown produced one. ‘In affection and esteem.’ “A good friend, likely?” queried the shopman. “Almost my only friend,” replied Miss Brown. Through Covent Garden’s peculiarly glutinous mud she went in a beatitude, worked in a beatitude, went home in a dream. First Part Decide what evidence, if any, there is in the first part of the passage for these statements. 1. She lived a very lonely life. 2. She worked very hard. 3. Her life was rather tedious. 4. She adored flowers more than anything else. 5. She felt guilty about her impossible dream. 6. She was getting old. 7. She wanted to be a great actress or a prima donna. Why does Miss Brown think that boxed flowers would be so much better than ones she has bought for herself? What does this suggest about her life? Second Part Answer the questions. 1. What is her reckless decision?
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