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Unit 12 The Rough and the Smooth

Introduction The title refers to the English saying: “You have to take the rough with the smooth” (meaning that

in this life if you want to enjoy the good things you are going to have to accept some things which

are unpleasant). Someone might want to use this phrase to talk about the topic of this unit: scientific and technological progress. They might acknowledge the downside and then urge us to

just accept it if we want to enjoy all this new technology. People with this attitude are also fond of another saying: “You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs.”

Discussion: Try to identify some of the downsides of the following achievements?

• An endless stream of new electronic devices offering more stimulating forms of home entertainment.

• The invention of mobile telecommunication, or in other words: the mobile phone (US: cell phone).

• A seemingly unlimited supply of energy (electricity) in the home available at the flick of a switch.

• The development of new pesticides, herbicides and artificial fertilizers to boost agricultural productivity.

Vocabulary Having mentioned the topic of progress, let’s revise a little vocabulary. Put these key words in the gaps that follow. Eagle-eyed students will notice that there are more words than gaps.

progress retreat heading advances

milestone breakthrough recession evolution

leap strides ascend accelerate

1. For a while no one could satisfactorily explain some very weird results of experiments on the speed of light. It was as if physics had come up against a formidable obstacle. This is why Einstein’s theory of relativity, which made everything seem relatively simple and enabled physics to proceed further, is considered to be such an important scientific ..............................

2. Darwin’s theory of ....................... could not be left out of any brief overview of the scientific “journey” because it was such an important .......................... (Choose a metaphor that connects with the idea of the scientific endeavour as a journey.)

4. The technology for home entertainment took a great ............... forward when it became possible to record sounds and images in digital form. (Clue: another word for “jump”.)

5. Ever since the students got to the stage where they could read books and articles on their own they have really found their feet and have been making great ......................... with their English. (Clue: a metaphor that connects with the reference to feet.)

6. Significant ........................ in the field of surgery were only possible after the development of a reliable anaesthetic technique in 1846.

7. We haven’t finished our research project yet. It is still in ...................... .

8. (Conversation in a car:) Honey, are you sure we are .......................... in the right direction?

9. In the beginning, the development of computers proceeded at a relatively slow pace. Later on, it began to .................................. (get faster and faster)

10. Armies either push forward and attack or ...................... when they realize that the enemy is more powerful.

Pre-reading discussion 1. A cause for concern for some people is the increasingly widespread use of synthetic

chemicals. Before reading the passage talk about this: Apart from the pesticides, herbicides and artificial fertilizers mentioned above, do you know of any other synthetic chemicals that we

are exposed to and that may have unpleasant repercussions for our health?

What about batteries? Why are we supposed to be careful when we dispose of them?

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2. Perhaps your Mum has suggested that she squeeze a few oranges for you so that you have fresh fruit juice to drink instead of the commercial fizzy orangeade which contains additives.

What are these?

Does it matter if my favourite banana milkshake has no banana in it? Are some people right to be

worried about the artificial colourings and flavours used by the food industry or do they simply

forget that what gives real bananas their colour and flavour is chemicals? Whether they’re natural or artificial, they’re all chemicals.

Reading

Endocrine Disrupters The production of man-made chemicals is booming. According to one estimate, global production in 1930 was a mere 1 million tonnes a year. By 2000 this figure had risen to 400 million tonnes. Many of these chemicals are now considered essential to modern agriculture and to areas of industry that produce the consumer goods we now take for granted. Over the same period that the use of these chemicals has soared there has also been a disturbing increase in the incidence of certain diseases. One area of particular concern is cancer. Over the last 50 years the incidence of some cancers has increased by as much as 300%. The number of women suffering breast cancer, for instance, has risen from one in 20 in 1950 to one in nine now in the US.

One group of chemicals now known to be carcinogenic are called endocrine disrupters. These either mimic human hormones or disrupt their action. (Hormones, which are produced by glands belonging to the endocrine system, are some of the body’s most potent chemical messengers since they are able to enter cells and either switch genes on or off.) It was only recently that scientists were able to demonstrate conclusively that at least some of the endocrine disrupters can trigger the genetic mutations in cells that lead to malignant growths.

Some chemicals that act as endocrine disrupters are released into streams and rivers during the paper production process. Others (dioxins) are released into the atmosphere when plastics are burnt. Yet others are used as pesticide sprays in agriculture. Then there are the parabens – a group of anti-bacterial preservatives widely used in cosmetics and some toothpastes. Some people are especially concerned about parabens in roll-on deodorants for women. They argue that because deodorants are used in the armpit, which is in such close proximity to the breast, this particular use of parabens should definitely be banned.

Another endocrine disrupter is bisphenol A, which is used in sun creams and in the lining of food cans (known in English as “tins”). An equally worrying chemical is known as BHA - an antioxidant used as a preservative in processed food. There are also the phthalates which are commonly added to plastic to increase its flexibility. A particular focus of concern is the plastic used in food containers where the chemical could leach into the food and then be ingested.

These chemicals, and others, are widely used despite the fact that many scientists regard them as toxic and hazardous. In one study conducted by the World Wildlife Fund most of these chemicals could be detected in blood samples taken from children around Europe. One of the scientists conducting the research made the following comment: “The use of endocrine disrupters is an experiment on people and the environment. We don’t yet know what the results will be, although all the indications are that they will be unpleasant.”

Questions 1. What is said in the first paragraph to suggest that there might be a link between the use of

synthetic chemicals and illness?

2. The rest of the passage concentrates on one specific group of chemicals. Why are these

chemicals called “endocrine disrupters”?

3. Why do they add parabens to products such as gels, deodorants and toothpaste?

4. Odour is a neutral word referring to a smell. Can you work out what a roll-on deodorant

is?

5. Can you work out where your armpit is?

6. Why would some women like to see the use of parabens banned in roll-on deodorants?

7. I open a tin of sardines (which are supposed to be good for my health). Which of the above-

mentioned chemicals might I unwittingly expose myself to?

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1. The verb “leach” is rare and not worth learning, but can you use the context in the fourth

paragraph to work out what it must mean?

2. The last paragraph quotes the opinion of a scientist. How certain is he that serious

damage is being done?

Vocabulary Exercise A 1. We talk about the sonic boom when a jet plane breaks through the sound barrier and

makes a tremendous noise as if something had exploded. What do you think is meant by

the sentence: “Chemical production is booming”?

2. Some chemicals react with oxygen in the atmosphere in a process known as oxidation. For

instance, if you cut an apple and leave it exposed, it quickly turns brown. Your aunt might sprinkle lemon juice on the apple to prevent this. Which scientific term from the passage

completes this sentence: The lemon juice acts as an ................. ?

3. Some of the underlined words above match the following meanings. Which are they?

a. powerful b. put into the mouth to eat

c. causing cancer d. the number of cases of something

e. close to

f. copy g. leaving no room for doubt

h. change (e.g. in the form of an organism)

i. do (e.g. research) j. e.g. the parts of the skin that

produce sweat or the structures above the kidneys that produce

adrenaline

k. the part of the anatomy of the mammal enabling mothers to feed

their young with milk l. an interior covering layer

B. The passage said that parabens are preservatives. The verb preserve and its derivatives

are easily confused with conserve and its derivatives. Try to remember these examples:

• Doctors have a duty to preserve life.

• Freezing, smoking and pickling are three ways of preserving food.

• In a situation that might be embarrassing or humiliating, you try to preserve your dignity.

• We switch the lights off when we leave the room to conserve energy.

• Someone who has a conservative attitude to life is unwilling to accept new ideas.

• A place where wildlife is protected is called a conservation area, or a wildlife reserve.

When talking about your local traditions or your cultural heritage you can use both verbs.

C. Deodorants are used to counteract unpleasant body odour. There are a number of

words in English for different kinds of smells. Try to group the following according to whether

they have a positive, neutral or negative meaning:

aroma perfume stink scent odour

Over to you How much of a cause for concern do you think the use of chemicals like these is, especially in products that we either eat or apply to the skin? How alarming do you think this is? What, if anything, should be done?

Language extra: participles There are different kinds of participles:

• present participle e.g. booming

• past participle e.g. oxidised

• perfect participle e.g. having ingested

Let’s look at how to begin a sentence with a participle phrase. First look at this example.

Being concerned about the harmful effects, some women no longer use roll-on deodorants.

The first part of the sentence tells us why the women no longer use roll-on deodorants. In sentences like this the participle phrase introduces the reason for what follows. A simpler alternative would be:

Because they are concerned about the harmful effects, some women no longer use roll-on deodorants.

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A second situation in which we often begin a sentence with a participle phrase is when we

describe a series of events.

Having washed and dressed, Tracy went downstairs to enjoy a slice of hot buttered

toast with marmalade.

Here the perfect participle helps to emphasize that the first event happened before the second.

When you use participle phrases like this you need to be careful to avoid the sort of mistake you

can see in the next sentence. What’s the problem?

Being so dangerous, Tracy decided not to use roll-on deodorants.

Practice A. Rewrite the following sentences in your notebooks beginning with participle phrases.

1. After I had read the reports about synthetic chemicals I just wanted to go and live

in a clay jar like Diogenes and eat dried figs.

2. Because the chemicals are extremely potent they only need to be present in small

quantities to do harm.

3. Because I have worked in an abattoir* for years I am not bothered by the sight of

blood. (*i.e. a place where animals are slaughtered for meat)

4. I felt a lot calmer once I was told that the lump was benign.

B. In addition to these structures there are some useful set phrases that use participles:

• Generally speaking, every chemical that can mimic human hormones is potentially

dangerous.

• Taking everything into consideration, it is clear that the restrictions on the use of

synthetic chemicals must be made much tighter.

• Bearing in mind how powerful these chemicals are, the task of clearing up the

environment is going to be huge.

• Given the evidence of their carcinogenic and gender-bending properties, some

scientists would like to see endocrine disrupters banned completely.

To practise using these, pick a subject you are interested in (it could be anything) and write four

sentences beginning with the phrases in bold above.

Pre-reading discussion a. Many people can now expect to live a lot longer than their ancestors. How would you account

for this increase in life-expectancy?

b. There are two different types of medicine: preventive and therapeutic. How would you

describe the difference? Which is the type that most doctors are concerned with? To what extent do you agree with the emphasis?

c. If you were a public health professional responsible for preventive medicine, what changes would you try to make to help promote public health in your country?

Reading Modern medicine is generally seen as a tremendous success story. However, a few people have

tried to argue that alongside the story of success there is a less positive story to be told. The person who has expressed this point of view in the most extreme way is Ivan Illich (doubtless you

will remember his equally extreme views about education). Here are his views about the eggs that have had to be broken to make the omelette known as the modern medical establishment.

The Sickness of Modern Medicine The social critic Ivan Illich argues that the progress of modern medicine has come with a number of costs: we are becoming increasingly dependent on the expensive services of medical experts whose contributions to human health are sometimes dubious; the social causes of ill-health are hidden and ignored; and we no longer have a healthy attitude to sickness and death.

The fact is that doctors need patients and pharmaceutical companies need to sell more and more drugs to stay in business, so it is not surprising that the medical establishment is continually finding new ways to tell us that we need medical attention. For instance,

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nowadays you don’t have to wait until you have chest pains to be told you need to be treated for heart disease - just having a higher than normal blood pressure is enough. And what used to be purely personal or social problems are now medical ones. Unhappy with your dead-end job? It’s not the job that it is to blame - it’s a chemical imbalance in the brain. Not to worry, your doctor knows how to rectify it. And what about those kids who can’t sit quietly in class for hours on end doing exercises in books? The problem is not that they are just naturally boisterous. No, they have an ailment called Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. They need to see a doctor who will be caring enough to prescribe the latest drug, Ritalin.

Doctors and drug companies help to promote the idea that only by putting more and more resources into the latest costly high-tech therapies can we improve people’s health. Scientific breakthroughs and life-saving operations grab the headlines, and most doctors aim to become highly paid specialists who cure people who are already ill, but the consequence of this is that attention and resources are diverted from the undramatic public health measures that can prevent people becoming ill in the first place - measures such as reducing the exposure to harmful chemicals and radiation, improvements in working conditions and in people’s diet, and tackling the poverty and unemployment that can lead people to neglect themselves.

Equally disturbing for Illich is the myth propagated by medical science that it will have a cure for everything. This creates the practical problem of a soaring demand for treatment that the system cannot satisfy, but it also leads to the ethical problem that people can no longer accept that disease, suffering, ageing and even death are inescapable facts of life. In other cultures it is considered a virtue to accept the limits of our mortal life in a dignified way. Once we believe that medicine will be able to cure everything we ignore the inevitable and rush to buy the latest creams and dietary supplements that promise wrinkle-free skin and limitless adolescent vitality. Of course we all want to remain healthy and active for as long as possible, but there is a failing in our culture if it does not help us to accept that our lives are limited.

Questions 1. A number of costs are mentioned in the first paragraph. What are they and how do they

relate to the topics of the paragraphs that follow?

2. A road that just stops and doesn’t lead somewhere else is called a dead end. In paragraph

two what do you think is meant by a dead-end job?

3. What condition is the drug Ritalin supposed to treat?

4. Paragraph 3 briefly mentions the media. What is said there about the role that the media play

in supporting the medical establishment?

5. What is meant in the third paragraph when it is said that an event “grabs the headlines”?

6. According to the third paragraph, what aspect of medicine is being neglected?

7. In what way does modern medicine make it more difficult for people to come to terms with

the limits of their existence (their mortality)?

Vocabulary A. Look for words in bold that match the following.

a. to correct

b. to cause something to move away

from its normal or proper direction c. to spread (e.g. an idea, rumour or

myth) d. an organization with great power and

influence in society

e. that can be doubted or criticized

f. too lively and noisy (adjective)

g. one of the lines your skin acquires as it

ages h. a sickness

i. a way of thinking and acting that is morally valuable

j. being full of life (noun)

B. The verbs divert and deviate can easily be confused. The latter is more common when

talking about statistics. Each group has an average or a norm, and anything that is not normal or average is said to deviate from the norm. Hence, in a social context we describe people as social

deviants when their behaviour is unacceptably different from the social norm. Divert is more

common when talking about traffic. If there are road works traffic might have to be diverted along an alternative route – a route referred to as a diversion.

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Over to you a. How do you feel about the idea of prescribing Ritalin to boisterous children who disrupt

lessons at school? Would an alternative approach be preferable?

b. Illich believes that the ability to cope with pain, sickness and death is fundamental to health,

i.e. part of what it means to be healthy is that you can live with these things. Do you agree with this idea, or do you think Illich is stretching the concept of health too far? Should we

accept sickness and death or should we look forward to a day when medicine will enable us to achieve immortality?

Vocabulary extra The morally good characteristics that we ought to demonstrate through our actions are called virtues (and the morally bad characteristics are called vices). Some people say the virtues are an endangered species; others say they are already extinct. Be that as it may, here is a list of some of the old values. Match them with the questions that follow.

altruism moderation prudence

loyalty humility self-reliance

having a stiff upper lip austerity

1. Isn’t it good to be humble and modest and to keep a low profile? Didn’t they use to say you should never blow your own trumpet?

2. Isn’t it a fine and noble thing to be faithful to your old team instead of signing a contract with whoever offers you the most money?

3. Shouldn’t we think about the welfare of others before we try to promote our own self interest?

4. Wasn’t Aristotle right to insist on his famous happy medium and to denounce anything that was excessive and extreme?

5. Weren’t they right when they used to urge British boys not to moan and grumble in the face of adversity?

6. Isn’t it important to know how to do things for yourself – things like fix your own bike, make your own bread, fix leaks in the plumbing and knit your own jumpers?

7. Isn’t it better to be cautious and sensible instead of being rash and impulsive? It’s nice to spend money but shouldn’t we save something for a rainy day?

8. Wouldn’t it be better to live a simpler life, without all the unnecessary luxuries?

Pre-reading discussion Illich was criticizing what we call mainstream or conventional medicine. Whatever we think

of his criticisms it is a fact that a growing proportion of people are turning away from this and turning instead to forms of alternative medicine. Are you familiar with any of its forms?

How about acupuncture? How about homeopathy? What do you know about these?

Why do you think some people might prefer to go to see an alternative health practitioner

instead of a conventional doctor?

Reading

Homeopathy One of the most popular alternative therapies in the West is homeopathy. This is based on a set of principles laid down by Samuel Hahnemann (1775-1843) who was a qualified German doctor. His most basic belief was one that attracted many supporters: the treatment of disease ought to be gentle and harmless. As a young doctor in the early nineteenth century he quickly became disillusioned with a form of medicine that relied on distressing techniques such as blood-letting (cutting the patient and allowing the wound to bleed freely), burning the skin where it was infected and inflamed, and using chemicals to induce vomiting. He withdrew from conventional medicine, made his living by translating medical text books. At the same time he gradually developed the principles of a form of alternative medicine.

His first principle was that like cures like. He stumbled across this idea when he was translating a description of how a particular tree bark was used to treat malaria. When he tried this on himself he was surprised to find that he developed symptoms strikingly similar to those of malaria.

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To minimize the side-effects of these treatments he devised a system of diluting the substances in water. Hahnemann was convinced that through dilution none of the therapeutic properties of the substance would be lost, even if the dilution was so low that there was virtually none of the original substance left in the water.

The process of dilution has to be carried out in stages, and between each stage the preparation is shaken vigorously. Hahnemann believed that during the shaking some form of “vital force” added to the therapeutic qualities of the preparation. This became known as the third principle of homeopathy.

Hahnemann set his ideas out in a book published in 1810 and he opened the first Homeopathic Hospital in 1833 in Leipzig.

It is not difficult to account for the popularity of homeopathy:

• Firstly, people appreciate the gentle form of treatment that Hahnemann originally sought. The dilutions of homeopathic remedies are so low that homeopaths can guarantee that there will be no side-effects even when the active ingredient is a highly toxic substance such as snake venom.

• Another attraction is the holistic approach of many modern homeopaths. Whereas conventional medicine focuses on diseased organs, modern homeopaths aim to treat the whole person. A patient with a physical symptom will also be asked about their diet, work, personal relationships and their mood. An hour-long consultation in which the homeopath listens attentively to the patient talking about his or her problems can in itself be of great therapeutic value.

• A third attraction is the relative simplicity of homeopathy. With only a few simple principles and a list of remedies some people have the impression that they can start to take control of their own therapy instead of being dependent on a system of medicine they could never hope to understand.

Questions 1. Why did Hahnemann turn away from conventional medicine?

2. The passage mentions the three basic elements of homeopathy (referred to as “principles”). What are these?

3. What is it about homeopathic remedies that ensures that they are harmless even when they

are derived from highly toxic substances? 4. A doctor might claim to have a holistic approach to the treatment of patients. What does this

mean?

5. Apart from prescribing remedies, what else do homeopaths do that is said to be of great

therapeutic value?

6. Why might the relative simplicity of homeopathy be attractive to some people?

Over to you 1. Does the basic principle of homeopathy that like cures like sound reasonable to you? Of

course this is the principle used when conventional medicine vaccinates people to help them

develop an immunity to a disease, but does it sound like a good idea if someone has a fever, for instance, to give them something that can cause a fever?

2. Some of those who believe in homeopathy are adamant that it has helped them live healthier lives, but some very carefully controlled experiments have indicated that certain homeopathic

remedies are no more effective than plain tap water. Where do you think the truth lies?

Vocabulary 1. An illusion is something you think is real or true, but isn’t. We have an idea that we are free.

Some people think this is an illusion. Hahnemann probably went into medicine with some very

fine ideas about what he could achieve as a doctor. He became disillusioned, though. What does this mean?

2. If you stumble your foot doesn’t go down on the ground correctly and you nearly fall, but

stumbling across something while reading a book or while tidying your room has nothing to do with falling. What might it mean?

3. Dogs bark. Trees don’t bark, but their trunks and branches are covered with bark. What is this?

4. A marriage guidance consultant gives expert advice to couples whose relationships are on the

rocks. What do you think a consultation is?

5. What’s the name for the poisons produced by spiders, scorpions and snakes?

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6. Match the remaining words in bold with the following. a. poisonous b. using a lot of energy c. where the skin is cut d. red and swollen e. medicines f. upsetting

g. throw up (empty the contents of the stomach through the mouth)

h. adding water to a solution to make it weaker

i. create

Language extra: -ed & -ing forms A. Did you know we can use the past participle of some verbs at or near the beginning of sentences like this:

Stunned by the terrible news, I just had to cancel the party.

When tortured, people often confess to crimes they have never committed.

You can think of these as shortened forms of verbs in the passive voice: “Because I was stunned

by ...” and: “When they are tortured ...”

Practice

Use your vivid imaginations to complete these sentences in your notebooks.

1. Saddened by .......

2. When asked what they thought about ..........

3. Alarmed at the sight of ........

B. Surely you remember the gerunds? Of course we use them after prepositions, as in: “I’m looking

forward to seeing you.” Just complete this sentence for us, if you don’t mind:

Lately, I have been devoting most of my spare time to ...

Okay, but do you remember which verbs are followed by gerunds and which are followed by

infinitives? Just to check, complete the following with something that begins with a verb (either the –ing form or the infinitive).

a. Mum, don’t forget ...

b. It was a fantastic summer. I’ll never forget ...

c. Going into the army means ...

d. Oops! Sorry, I didn’t mean ...

e. Your scooter is filthy. It needs ... (Two possible answers.)

f. I have recurring nightmares about people drilling my teeth. I dread ...

g. Tonight I’d really like ...

h. Tomorrow is my big day, so I’d like you ....

i. There are some things I hate having to do. For instance, I resent ...

j. If you invest all of your money in shares on the stock market you risk ...

k. Look. He was ultimately responsible for the deaths of thousands of people, so he

deserves ...

l. I was furious with the dog when it ate my new trainers so I kicked it, but then I

immediately regretted ...

m. You are always full of surprises. You never cease ...

Writing Here’s the topic:

One scientist who was a Health Adviser to the American Government made the following comment about our increasing use of synthetic chemicals such as endocrine disrupters: “It is as if we have struck a bargain on behalf of humanity – a bargain that reminds me of the deal struck between Faust* and the devil in the play by Goethe. In return for so many of the benefits of modern society we have agreed to expose ourselves to so much that could undermine our health. Personally, I don’t accept that bargain. The stakes** are too high.”

Write an essay in which you present your appraisal of the benefits and drawbacks of our increasing reliance on synthetic chemicals. You should end by considering whether there are certain measures that society ought to take.

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(* In the German play that dates from 1806 Faust is looking for a moment of pure happiness in life. Feeling desperate and depressed that there will never be such a moment, he enters into an agreement with the devil, who promises to make his dream come true. In the beginning his wishes are granted and he is happy, but there are terrible consequences which he never foresaw.)

(** The stakes are what you bet when you gamble.)

Planning

Although the topic is difficult the structure of the essay should be fairly obvious. Say now what the

topics of the paragraphs will be.

Tip: With topics like this it is a good idea to begin with one or two general statements and then

concentrate on a more limited area that you can talk about in more depth. For instance, you could concentrate on the endocrine disrupters, instead of trying to deal with the whole range of synthetic

chemicals.

To get your ideas you can use the reading passage in this unit plus the information in the box below.

Where's the proof that endocrine disrupters are damaging? The strongest evidence comes from the animal kingdom. In the 1980s and '90s, fish and whales with horrible cancers, ulcers and other malformations showed up in the Great Lakes region of Canada. Other reproductive abnormalities in seagulls, eagles, alligators and other animals have been blamed on chemicals that mimic hormones. Furthermore, in the laboratory, tiny concentrations of these substances transform previously normal cells into malignant growths.

Some scientists say oestrogen mimics could explain the growing incidence of breast cancer and prostate cancer in humans. Furthermore, Several studies -

but not all - have found a worldwide lowering of sperm counts, and they have blamed it on the rising concentrations of oestrogen mimics in the environment. Tests on people living as far from factories as the Arctic have found some of these chemicals at levels that could be dangerous.

..................................

Theo Colborn, in her book “Our Stolen Future”, issues the following warning: “Because hormone disrupting chemicals sabotage fertility and development, they can jeopardize the survival of entire species – perhaps in the long run even humans.” (p209)

To help you work out your ideas, answer the questions that follow:

• Which of the following would you say are useful applications of synthetic chemicals that

we definitely wouldn’t want to lose? Synthetic paints and dyes; bleach (used as a cleaning fluid and to make paper whiter); washing powder and detergent (as opposed to

natural soap); artificial colouring and flavouring for food; artificial fertilizers; herbicides and pesticides; sun cream and a range of cosmetics; plastics; correction fluid.

• As far as endocrine disrupters are concerned, what are some of the risks supposed to be?

Is there any proof?

• Given that there is a cause for concern, which of the following steps would you

recommend? a. Leave the testing to the manufacturers.

b. Ensure that every new chemical is rigorously tested by an independent authority

before it is used.

c. Ban all synthetic chemicals and force companies to look for natural alternatives.

• How optimistic are you about the future?

Language for the intro

Here’s a sketch for a possible introduction.

There can be no doubt that people are being exposed more and more to an increasing

range of synthetic chemicals. In some respects these chemicals have proved to be very

useful. For instance, ............................ However, an increasing number of independent

scientists have been trying to draw our attention to .................. Some people even go so

far as to claim that ............. (the point of view expressed in the essay topic) This strikes me as

a perfectly understandable point of view which I personally would have no hesitation in

endorsing. (Or: This strikes me as an unjustifiably extreme point of view which I

personally cannot accept.)

Write it! What are you waiting for? Let’s see 250-300 words on the thorny issue of synthetic chemicals, and

don’t forget to begin one or two sentences with a participle phrase.

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F u l l s p a t e P r eF u l l s p a t e P r eF u l l s p a t e P r eF u l l s p a t e P r e ---- P r o f i c i e n c y P r im e rP r o f i c i e n c y P r im e rP r o f i c i e n c y P r im e rP r o f i c i e n c y P r im e r

Unit 13 The Other Health Debate Introduction When people in affluent countries discuss health issues the debate is often limited to their own health problems and the reforms they need to make to their national health services. Health as a global issue is rarely discussed. It just doesn’t get into the news unless there are some moving images of a few thousand emaciated Africans on the verge of death in a refugee camp. The millions of others who needlessly suffer and die are completely ignored.

Discussion: In pairs or groups discuss the following questions:

1. Try to think of the major health problems faced by people in affluent countries and those in poorer countries. How would you describe the differences?

2. How would you describe the main causes of disease in the wealthiest and the poorest countries of the world?

3. Almost all affluent countries have taken steps to ensure that all their citizens have reasonably healthy living conditions and easy access to essential medical treatment. Why don’t we extend the same attitude and the same policies to the rest of humanity? Ought we to do more in this direction? Why, or why not?

Reading Before you read the following passage you should be familiar with:

• The Holocaust – this can be used generally to refer to a very large-scale destruction and loss of life, but it is more often used specifically to refer to the killing of millions of people in concentration camps during the Second World War.

• Infectious diseases – these are caused by bacteria or viruses and the infection is easily transferred from one person to another. A synonym for infectious is contagious. One infectious disease is measles, whose symptoms include a high fever and red spots on the skin.

The Other Holocaust The Holocaust was one of the horrors of the twentieth century. Some six million people lost their lives. What disturbs many health practitioners in the poorer countries of the world is that they are witnessing the equivalent of almost two Holocausts every year as millions of people die of infectious diseases that could easily be prevented. (The figure exceeded 11 million in 2005 according to some estimates.)

Half of those dying are children under five. The most common diseases are lung infections (3.9 million cases) and diarrhoea (2.2 million cases). About a million people are dying every year of malaria, a disease carried by a species of mosquito. AIDS is another big killer. Here the death toll in developing countries is over 2.5 million people per year. In some countries it has reached epidemic proportions. In Kenya in Africa, for instance, one in four adults are HIV-positive. Measles accounts for the deaths of another 500,000, most of them children, even though there are cheap and effective vaccines.

The comparison between the death rate from infectious disease in the developing world and the developed world is startling. In the poorer countries of the world it is a major cause of death whereas in the rich world it is relatively insignificant compared to heart attacks, strokes, cancer and diabetes.

Many of the factors which contribute to this prevalence of infectious disease stem from poverty. One major problem is that around a billion people in developing countries still lack clean drinking water and good sanitation facilities. Where this is absent people who are often unaware of the hazards end up drinking water which is contaminated by human waste – one of the reasons why millions of children are dying every year of diarrhoea. Another factor is malnutrition. A report published by the United Nations estimated that in 2005 the deaths of over five and a half million children under the age of five could be attributed wholly or in part to malnutrition. It also estimated that another 146 million children around the world under the age of five were seriously malnourished. This is not a minor lack of certain vitamins or minerals, but a serious deficiency in their intake of calories and proteins.

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Not only are the poorest people of the world much more vulnerable to infectious diseases, but once they are infected they often face grave problems of access to medical treatment. Again, poverty is one of the roots of the problem. In countries like the US and Britain health spending per person per annum exceeds a thousand dollars. In a country like India, for example, the figure is less than $30. Inevitably, health services cannot meet the needs of the population. Furthermore, the poorest people of the world have no health insurance and no right to free public health care. They often have to pay for medical treatment out of their own pockets. If one child becomes ill others may have to drop out of school and start working in order to cover the costs of treatment.

Questions 1. The above passage does two main things. What are they? Choose from:

a. It explains why children are more vulnerable to infectious disease than adults. b. It explains why so many children suffer from malnutrition. c. It highlights the huge number of people dying from infectious disease in poor countries. d. It explains why some people are still dying from infectious disease in affluent countries. e. It explains why the poorest people in the world are much more vulnerable to infectious

disease.

2. What explanation is given for the millions of deaths of children from diarrhoea?

3. Paragraph four mentions two things which the poorest people of the world lack that directly contribute to ill-health. What is the second?

4. What is the estimate of the number of children who died as a result of this lack of suitable food?

5. The last paragraph gives one reason why the mortality rate is so high once people become infected. What is the reason?

Over to you Can you think of any reasons why the poorest countries in the world suffer food shortages? Which of the following do you think are the main reasons?

a. drought b. ignorance of more effective agricultural techniques c. lack of the means of irrigating farmland d. civil war e. land mines making land too dangerous to farm f. using too much land to grow crops for export (e.g. coffee, tea, sugar cane, rubber, cocoa) g. people abandoning the land to look for work in the cities

Vocabulary 1. When you drive along some motorways you come to a point where you have to stop and pay a

toll. Literally the toll is a tax. After a war or some other disaster where there are fatalities people estimate the death toll. What do you think this is?

2. You remember the words sane and sanity but perhaps you are unfamiliar with sanitation. Look again at the context and decide which of the following is the better definition.

a. whatever stops people going crazy b. system for keeping living areas clean of human waste

3. Match the remaining words in bold with the following.

a. when food or water is no longer pure because it now has something harmful for our health in it

b. units of energy c. what is given to people to help their bodies develop an immunity to a disease d. a worker (usually a professional) e. organ in which gases are exchanged between the atmosphere and the bloodstream f. serious g. the fact that something is widespread and common h. a fly that sucks blood i. consumption j. every year k. easily affected by l. lack

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Vocabulary extra A. A little more practice with medical words. Match the names with their descriptions.

liver intestine

kidneys bladder

endocrine system ribs

1. A number of glands (e.g. the adrenal glands and the thyroid) spread around the body which produce hormones and release them directly into the blood stream.

2. A pair of organs situated in the abdominal cavity that filter the liquid waste from the blood.

3. The 24 long curved bones (12 on each side) that form the skeleton of the chest cavity, enclosing the heart and lungs.

4. The very long tube that joins the mouth to the other end of the body and along which the digestion and absorption of food occurs.

5. The body’s main detoxifier, removing toxins such as nicotine, caffeine and alcohol from the blood. It also helps to regulate protein and sugar levels in the blood and it removes “elderly” red blood cells.

6. The organ that stores liquid waste until it can be discharged into the outside world.

B. Surely you know what a heart attack is, but do you know the following medical conditions?

AIDS diarrhoea diabetes

Alzheimer’s acne arthritis

migraine tuberculosis hay fever

1. Unsightly spots on the skin due to overactive glands producing excessive amounts of an oily substance that then become infected.

2. The inability to retain ingested material in the intestine long enough for normal digestion and absorption to occur. In children the dehydration it causes can be fatal.

3. Loss of the body’s ability to regulate the blood sugar level due to insufficient levels of the hormone insulin.

4. When the body’s immune system becomes defective as a result of damage caused by a particular virus.

5. Itchy eyes, sneezing and a runny nose due to an allergy to pollen.

6. A lung infection.

7. Severe headaches accompanied by nausea, vomiting and visual disturbances.

8. Degeneration of the nerve cells in the brain causing short-term memory loss and personality changes.

9. Pain in the joints accompanied by stiffness and swelling.

Pre-reading To prepare the way for the next piece we need to understand something about intellectual property. You knew you could own physical things like your pencil case and your bicycle, but did you know that you can own your ideas? How is this possible? Here are two ways it can be done.

If you write a song or a book you can copyright it. Then you can take someone to court if they use your words or music to make money without your permission.

If you invent a new gadget or a new drug you can go to your country’s patent office to patent your idea. It then becomes your intellectual property and people can get into big trouble if they steal the idea. (Note: as an adjective “patent” can mean “obvious”.)

Discussion 1: Imagine you are a biochemist and you have discovered a cure for cancer. Will you:

• patent the idea, set up your own production company, sell the drug at a high price and make loads of money, or

• share the idea with others in the knowledge that lots of companies in different countries will make cheaper copies of the drug enabling more people to be cured – there won’t be much money but there will be interviews on TV and in the press and there might even be a Nobel prize.

Discussion 2: Read the following true description and discuss your reaction. Does it provoke a sense of outrage, or is it just life – some people are lucky and others are not so lucky.

Picture this scene in a clinic in a poor area in Central America: The clinic has 90 AIDS patients, but because of its limited budget it only has medicines to treat four of them. These four are to be selected through a lottery. In the waiting area of the clinic, 90 people living with AIDS gather to see who the winners will be. The prize: a year’s supply of life-saving anti-HIV medications.

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Reading

Patent Injustice Although the death rate from preventable diseases in the poorest parts of the world is unacceptably high the likelihood is that it will rise further because of recent changes in international law which will make it much harder for those who are poor and sick to find drugs that they can afford.

The supply of affordable drugs to the poorest people of the world is one of the issues which charities like Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) have been campaigning about for some time now. There are many things that need to be done to improve the health of people in developing countries, but when people fall sick they need a supply of affordable medication. Until recently the only inexpensive drugs that existed in the poorest countries in the world often came from phamaceutical industries in countries like India, Brazil and Egypt which manufactured cheap copies of drugs from the West.

The difference in price between generic drugs produced in India, for instance, and the original drugs can be astonishing. A year’s supply of drugs for the treatment of AIDS from a Western pharmaceutical firm can cost $10,000. The Indian company Cipla produces an identical copy and has set the price at only $600 dollars for a year’s supply. Another drug used to treat the kind of infection that AIDS patients are vulnerable to is priced at $4 a pill by the company that originally produced it (a price that exceeds the daily wage of the majority of those who live in the poorest countries of the world). The copy costs just 20 cents.

For some in the Western business world the activities of companies like Cipla constitute an outrageous attack on the principles of free and fair international trade. Those speaking on behalf of Western pharmaceutical companies have argued that when drugs are copied there is an infringement of intellectual property rights. They insist that patents must be respected because they protect the profits without which the companies would not be in a position to invest in the costly research and development (R&D) of new drugs. Pharmaceutical R&D is a long and expensive business so the companies doing it need a way of ensuring that they can get their money back and make a profit. By contrast, the companies making the cheap copies have not invested anything in developing the new drugs, which gives them an unfair advantage.

In 2005 the Western pharmaceutical companies successfully persuaded the World Trade Organization to tighten its legislation regarding intellectual property rights so that companies in countries like India, Brazil and Egypt would have to stop making copies of their drugs.

MSF agrees that in general the respect for private property is a worthy principle, but it contends that human life must be given priority. People are dying, and if more people die as a result of the stricter laws about drug patents then those laws are unjustifiable. The problem is that the needless deaths never enter into the equation for the drug companies, but MSF knows that, for instance, if it has a supply of cheap drugs from India it can treat 60,000 AIDS patients in 30 countries. If the supply is cut off, as it probably will be, the charity will be able to treat far fewer patients and the rest will be turned away in the knowledge that they will die.

Questions 1. In the title of this text there is a play on words (where the writer exploits the fact that a word

can have two different meanings). What is the play on words in this case?

2. What has the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres been campaigning for?

3. What do we learn about the average wage of people working in the poorest countries of the world?

4. What is a generic drug?

5. Look at the costs of the pill that treats the AIDS infection and express the difference between the generic and the brand-name drug as a fraction.

6. What is it that threatens to force companies like Cipla to stop producing cheap copies of drugs?

7. Why is it said that companies like Cipla have an unfair advantage?

8. What is the attitude of MSF to intellectual property rights in general?

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Vocabulary Match the words in bold in the passage with the following:

a. organizing activities to try to change public opinion

b. tablet; solid medication c. act of breaking a law d. e.g. E=MC2 e. representing a group f. expensive

g. refused access or admission to a place or programme

h. deserving respect (adjective) i. that could have been avoided

(adjective) j. to put money into a project with the

hope of making a profit

Over to you 1. Pharmaceutical companies argue that patents are vital if they are to make a good profit (they can charge a higher price for patented drugs because there is no competition), and they have to make large profits so that they have money to invest in the research and development (R & D) of new treatments. How convincing is this argument?

2. Cipla argues that it is not causing Western pharmaceutical companies to lose money because it is selling drugs to people who would never be able to afford high-price original drugs. Is that a good justification for what they are doing?

Language extra: prepositions In a nutshell, the previous text told us that the supply of cheap drugs to the poor is now under threat. Those last two words form what is called a prepositional phrase. We are extremely fond of prepositional phrases in English. For instance, we can say, “Bob loves Tracy,” but we are just as likely to say, “Bob is in love with Tracy.”

A. Here are a few sentences using phrases with “under”. Read them and try to explain what they mean.

a. He was charged with driving while under the influence of an illegal substance.

b. The police had been keeping him under surveillance for some time and had tapped his phone.

c. He was under suspicion of illegal arms trafficking.

d. Sorry, I was under the impression that you were in our group.

e. The witch is a powerful woman who has the frog-prince completely under her spell.

f. Perjury is the offence of lying while under oath in a court of law.

g. Look, don’t push me otherwise all hell is gonna break loose. I’ve been under so much stress recently I feel like I’m gonna explode.

B. Here’s another group of phrases. Explain what they mean.

a. At last, the tulips are in bloom.

b. The situation was really getting out of hand so some of the boys fired a few tear gas canisters at those anarchist yobs. That quietened them down for a while.

c. We were told we could do anything within reason to keep things under control.

d. The president never really meets ordinary people so it is easy for him to become completely out of touch with popular feeling.

e. In retrospect/ With hindsight it is obvious now that it was all a complete mistake.

f. By and large, it was a success. There were a few hiccups, but that’s to be expected.

g. 5 million people are out of work, although the figure for those in work is still over 80%.

h. We’ll have to throw this packet of Coco Pops out. It’s out of date.

i. Everyone is, to a certain extent, selfish.

j. Oh, no! We’re out of Merenda. You’d better put that on the shopping list as well.

k. He’s good at first aid but he hasn’t got a clue how to reassure people who are in distress.

l. At a rough estimate I would say this job’s going to take us at least another 4 days.

m. Bob, I’m sick of you lying all the time and being unfaithful. Enough is enough. It’s all over. Pack your bags and get out of my life!

n. Guys, get yourselves a good razor because this year it’s the clean-shaven look that’s in.

Pre-reading discussion Imagine you are the managing director of a large pharmaceutical firm. You are trying to decide what drugs you should develop next. You receive a report from your market research department informing you that people who earn over $12,000 a year would be interested in buying treatments to lower cholesterol levels, relieve depression, reduce bags under the eyes and stop their toenails turning yellow. You also happen to see a small report in the middle of a newspaper that around a

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million people in hot and humid countries thousands of miles away are dying every year of a terrible tropical disease because there still isn’t an effective treatment (most of these people earn less than $500 a year). What sort of treatment would you choose for your next R & D project?

Reading

Medical Research Priorities: Toenail Fungus or Tuberculosis?

While campaigning against drug patents Medecins Sans Frontieres has also been trying to highlight the huge discrepancy between the kinds of drugs that are being developed and world health needs. As things stand at the moment the health needs of the majority of the world’s population are being largely ignored. Take tuberculosis (TB) as an example. 25,000 people come down with this lung infection every day and every day 4,500 people die from it. MSF says that there is a desperate need for new and more effective techniques to diagnose and treat this dangerous disease. For decades now nothing new has been developed.

The problem is that the only organisations developing new medications and diagnostic tools are private companies. Whether they want to or not, they have to make money to survive in the economic market, and so when they make decisions about research they inevitably opt for projects with the prospect of large profits. It doesn’t make much economic sense for them to look for inexpensive drugs to sell to charities and people who earn only a few dollars a day. Hence the decision to concentrate on things like new treatments to lower cholesterol levels – something which they know that affluent people are prepared to pay a high price for.

One former managing director of a giant pharmaceutical company put it this way: “A corporation with shareholders can’t set up a laboratory that will focus on Third World diseases, because it will go broke. That’s a social problem, and industry shouldn’t be expected to solve it.” As a consequence we end up with the bizarre situation in which hundreds of thousands of people in the Third World are dying of a disease like TB (which people used to say would be eradicated by the end of the 1980s) while people in the West are spending over a billion dollars on the new drug Lamisil which combats a fungus that turns people’s toenails yellow (sales of Lamisil in 2004 were $1.2 billion, and it was fourth on the list of Novartis’ top-selling drugs).

In the World Health Assembly of 2005 MSF urged governments to set up new publicly funded organizations to conduct medical research and development – organizations that would be able to respond in a more responsible way to world health needs because they would be free from market constraints. Other charities such as Oxfam are also concerned about the lack of work being done to address the health needs of poorer countries. They have proposed that governments be obliged to invest a certain percentage of public funds in medical research focusing on these neglected health problems.

Vocabulary 1. Look for the words in bold that match the following.

a. that is the reason for b. the way things are now c. choose d. failure of one thing to match up with another e. a form of life of which the mushroom is an example f. cease to be financially viable; bankrupt g. got rid of completely h. weird, crazy i. limitations j. business

2. Some of the larger companies sell shares in their businesses on the stock market. What do we call the people who own those shares?

Questions 1. In a nutshell, what is the complaint voiced by the charity MSF?

2. Why do large pharmaceutical companies pay so little attention to Third World diseases?

3. MSF has put forward a proposal to ensure that more is done for the health of the world’s poor. What is the proposal?

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Vocabulary extra The presence in that passage of the lovely word “discrepancy” gives us a great excuse to have a closer look at a group of words to do with difference. Watch out for the extra word.

incompatible distinguishing disparity

discrepancy discrimination distinction

deviant diversity deficiency

antagonism unprecedented diversion

1. John, I’m not impressed with your accounting skills. The figure written here in the book should be the same as the amount you deposited in the bank, but I see there’s a big .........................

2. People who are malnourished will almost certainly be suffering from a ............................. of certain vitamins and minerals. (lack)

3. The scale of the response after Princess Diana’s death was ........................... Never before had there been such an outpouring of grief across the nation.

4. Men who treat women as if they are only suited for certain roles in society can be accused of sexual ............................

5. Your passport has your signature, your photo and a list of any ............................ features you might have, such as a scar or a birthmark.

6. I think it is important to draw a ............................. between pop singers who are there just to make money and those who actually have something to say.

7. That kind of digital music is in the wrong format for my MP3 player. It won’t work; the two are ............................... .

8. I pride myself on my individuality and I don’t give a damn if people say I am a social .................... just because I do stuff that they think is weird.

9. A pluralist, multicultural society is one that celebrates cultural .......................... instead of insisting on a single national identity.

10. Because there were road works I couldn’t take my usual route to work. I had no choice but to follow the signs and take the ...............................

11. Usually we talk about the gap between the rich and the poor, but we can also talk about the economic ....................... between the two groups.

Language extra: four things about adjectives 1. The drug Lamisil is American, it’s a cream and it’s white, so should we say it’s an American, white cream or should we say it’s a white, American cream? This ought not to matter very much but one or two exams, such as the Michigan proficiency, do like to check from time to time that you know how to get your adjectives in the right order. So what is the right order?

The first thing you need to know is that the rules are very COMPLICATED. But there is a simple rule applicable in many situations which you can remember by remembering the first four letters of that word: Colour

Origin (e.g. Vietnamese, Australian) Material (e.g. woollen, carbon-fibre, steel) Purpose of the object (e.g. a magnifying glass; my sports equipment)

Have a go! Put these words in the right order: football, German, black, leather

Look at my new pair of ............................................................................. boots.

Other adjectives (describing size, age, shape, etc) come earlier in the list and they come in this

order: SIZE, AGE, SHAPE. Hence: “four small, round landmines and six huge, brand-new

bazookas.”

One other rule should be so obvious it is definitely not worth worrying about. If we mention the number of something we put that first. We NEVER say, for instance: “I saw wicked, two witches.”

The only other rule which may not be obvious but which is worth remembering is that adjectives expressing your opinion about something come before all the others except for the number. Hence:

I saw two beautiful, cordless, Chinese, Vista-compatible mice with 30 different scroll

functions.

2. Sometimes we want to use adverbs like very or extremely with an adjective. In these cases it is useful to know that there are two groups of adjectives. Let’s imagine a bloke meets two girls. One of the girls, he thinks, is very beautiful. The other, though, is extremely beautiful. To describe the second girl he could also say: she is gorgeous. Then a third appears who is head and shoulders above the rest. Question: Can we say: “She is very gorgeous”?

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If you are a bloke and a girl takes your breath away so much so that the word gorgeous on its own just isn’t enough to describe her, you can say: “She is absolutely gorgeous.” Because adjectives like gorgeous convey the idea of an extreme degree we don’t think it is right to use the adverbs “very” or “extremely” with them.

Adjectives that can be qualified by words like quite, very and extremely are called gradable adjectives, whereas adjectives describing extreme qualities are called ungradable, and they are qualified by words like “absolutely”, “unbelievably”, “totally”, “utterly” etc .

In the following list there are pairs of adjectives which both refer to closely related qualities, but one is gradable and the other ungradable. Identify the pairs and decide which is which.

hot incomprehensible disappointed foolish magnificent

confusing ecstatic packed petrified enormous

devastated busy intolerable impressive afraid

tedious big happy scorching ludicrous

3. In some languages, like Greek, there is no restriction on making adjectives into nouns. In English this is not the case. After a heavy fall of snow we CAN’T say: “The good was that school was cancelled.” We have to use a noun with the adjective. A very useful noun in these situations is “thing”. Hence: “The good thing was that school was cancelled.”

There are only a limited number of adjectives that can be used as nouns. For instance,

• superlatives. e.g. “Let me tell you which one was the best.” • adjectives used for talking about groups of people, e.g. the rich, the disabled, etc • adjectives of nationality: the English, the Chinese, etc

4. Question: What do we call a tank that can hold 500 litres of water? Answer: a 500-litre tank.

Come up with phrases containing an adjectival expression between the article and the noun for the following:

• a note worth 10 pounds (in the US: a bill worth ten dollars) • a crew consisting of two women • an omelette made from four eggs • a girl who is 13 years old

Writing Here is the topic:

When looking at the figures concerning the mortality rates for preventable diseases there is a huge disparity between the developed and the developing worlds. How urgent an issue is this in your opinion? Which factors would you highlight to account for the differences, and what steps could be taken to ameliorate the situation? How optimistic are you that things will improve?

Tips There are lots of things you could say in answer to this question but remember what we said about essays: depth is more important than breadth. In other words, focus on a couple of ideas and go into them in some depth instead of mentioning a whole range of ideas that are dealt with only superficially.

The texts in this unit should help you with both ideas and language. Borrowing words and phrases is to be recommended, but copying out entire sentences will be frowned upon.

Write it! After looking back at the texts to refresh your memory of the ideas and language you can use, write 250-300 words on the burning issue of world health. Try and use one or two of those lovely proficiency structures that should already be second nature to you now.

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F u l l s p a t e P r eF u l l s p a t e P r eF u l l s p a t e P r eF u l l s p a t e P r e ---- P r o f i c i e n c y P r im e rP r o f i c i e n c y P r im e rP r o f i c i e n c y P r im e rP r o f i c i e n c y P r im e r

Unit 14 Frankenstein: the Sequel Introduction What do you know about the story of Dr Frankenstein and his monster?

The original story by Mary Shelley (published 1818) is actually a biting critique of the ambitions of modern science. Dr Frankenstein is obsessed with the idea of conquering the forces of nature. More specifically, he wants to overcome the limitations imposed upon us by our mortality. To do that he strives to give life to a previously lifeless body composed of the carefully chosen parts of corpses. In the short term the experiment is successful, but the longer term consequences are catastrophic for the scientist: his wife and family are killed and he ends his days in a futile attempt to hunt down the monster that has fled to the frozen wastes of the arctic.

Critics of cloning and genetic engineering (the topics of this unit) sometimes accuse the scientists involved of being the new Dr Frankensteins – they try to take control of the previously natural process

of evolution so that we can shape our own biological destiny. Although great strides have been made, there are disturbing indications that the results could ultimately be to our detriment.

Let’s begin with cloning. Here are a few points to discuss:

• What do you know about cloning?

• Have you any idea how scientists clone an organism?

• What success stories have you heard of?

• What problems have been encountered?

Reading

The Need to Clone Few scientific developments arouse as much hostility as cloning does. Many people associate it with designer babies or with Nazi dreams of breeding a perfect race, and they are quick to condemn the practice. Unfortunately, amid all this hostility there is a lack of informed opinion about the different kinds of cloning and their possible applications.

As far as human beings are concerned, the only cloning going on at the moment is therapeutic cloning. Scientists have already managed to replace the genetic material of a human egg cell with that of a body cell. It is possible to painlessly scrape off a few cells from the inside of a person’s cheek, isolate one cell, remove its nucleus and use it to replace the nucleus of a human egg - a process called somatic cell nuclear transfer. If successful, the genetic material returns to the pronuclear state, which is only found in fertilized eggs. The nuclei then proceed to divide and the single cell becomes a cluster of cells. At this early stage the undifferentiated cells are known as stem cells because they have the ability to develop into any and every type of cell in the body, be it a bone cell, muscle cell, nerve cell or whatever. This is the point at which therapeutic cloning stops since its goal is simply to gather the stem cells that are of immense therapeutic value.

The hope is that in a wide range of disease conditions these stem cells could be introduced into the diseased or damaged tissue where they would divide and grow to replace the lost cells and restore the lost function. Conditions that could be treated in this way include diabetes, strokes, cancer, AIDS, and neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. In sharp contrast to traditional organ and tissue transplants, stem cells from the patient's own DNA will not trigger a hostile response from the immune system.

The dread of pro-Life groups and some ethicists is that other companies or individual scientists might use the techniques to clone a human being. This would be reproductive cloning. The techniques currently used for therapeutic cloning could theoretically be used for reproductive purposes if the cloned egg were replaced into the mother's uterus and allowed to develop like a normal embryo. Legislation has now been introduced in the UK to ensure that cloned eggs cannot legally be implanted in the womb.

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There are a number of technical difficulties with reproductive cloning, which means that it is not an immediate prospect. One problem, though, has now been solved: the premature ageing of clones produced from adult genetic material. In the cases of Dolly the sheep and other cloned animals it seemed as if the genetic clocks of their cells hadn't gone back to zero when they started life again as an embryo. This problem has now been overcome and cloned nuclei have been observed going through the process of reprogramming - returning to the embryonic state - meaning that they were starting their natural lifespan from the beginning again.

Although there is a great deal of hostility to the idea of reproductive cloning, particularly from religious groups, it would be the only hope for some infertile couples to obtain a child of their own. Against those who argue that scientists who clone are playing God, some advocates of (controlled) cloning insist that it is ridiculously arbitrary to say that cloning is playing God but that cardiac resuscitation (using electric shocks to revive someone after a heart attack), for instance, is not.

Questions 1. Try to sum up in your own words what cloning involves.

2. What are the essential differences between the two kinds of cloning?

3. What is a stem cell?

4. What are some of the possibly beneficial applications of therapeutic cloning?

5. The fifth paragraph mentions “premature ageing”. What is this?

6. Which technical difficulty faced by reproductive cloning is mentioned in the passage?

7. Why might some infertile couples be particularly keen on reproductive cloning?

Over to you 1. How sympathetic are you to the criticism that scientists are playing God and that this form of

intervention is unethical or perhaps sinful?

2. Are you for or against reproductive cloning? Under what conditions?

Vocabulary 1. In the fourth paragraph there are two names for the same female organ. What are the names

and what is the organ?

2. A scratch on your CD or the lens of your camera can ruin it. A scratch, though, is usually a

single thin line. When you peel carrots or potatoes you use a blade to remove a thin layer. Which of the words in bold also refers to this action of removing a thin layer with something

like a blade?

3. If you have a horse that can gallop fast, you can make money by finding a suitable mate and

allowing the pair to reproduce. Which word in bold refers to this activity of putting males and

females together to produce offspring?

4. Find words in bold that correspond to the following.

a. to put something into a place

where it will stay and grow b. surgery in which an organ is

transferred from one body to

another

c. a group in the shape of a ball

d. illness

e. collect

f. to bring a dying person back to life

g. not logical

h. in which the nerves deteriorate

i. unable to reproduce

j. sides of the mouth and face

k. part of a cell containing the genetic

material l. great anxiety and fear about what

is going to happen

m. the unborn animal in its earliest

stages of development (Note: in

the later stages before birth the unborn baby is known as a

foetus.)

Speaking Many believe that human cloning is inevitable. At least one scientist in Italy has declared that he will defy any law that tries to prevent him from making this scientific breakthrough. The next step

will then be for the techniques of genetic engineering to be applied to humans to select and

enhance the traits that the child will be born with.

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What might the repercussions of this be? To help you speculate about the future, consider these questions:

• Who would be the first to clone and genetically engineer themselves?

• What might their motives be?

• If some “people” have been genetically engineered to have super-human strength or

super-human intelligence how might they feel about themselves in comparison to the silly

weaklings they see around them?

• How might the others react?

Vocabulary extra: uncertainty Cloning and genetic engineering are examples of subjects about which many people are uncertain. It is not always easy to have a firm opinion one way or the other (either for or against). In cases like these it is worth knowing a range of expressions with which we can express our uncertainty. Fit the following words into the appropriate gaps.

bewildering debatable way

blessing respects ambivalent

dilemma coin minds

extent

1. The development of nuclear physics has been a mixed .................... It has given us a good source of energy – nuclear power – but it has also given us the nuclear bomb.

2. To use the old cliché, there are two sides to every ........... , and cloning is no exception.

3. To a certain .................... I am in favour of cloning but there are still some serious doubts in my mind.

4. It is highly ............................... whether this form of intervention would really of benefit to humanity.

5. In a ..............., the idea appeals to me, but there are some things I am just not happy about.

6. After considering this subject in some depth I find that I am still in two ................. about whether the risks outweigh the benefits.

7. To be honest, I find this subject somewhat ........................... Even after reading about it in some depth I still have so many unanswered questions.

8. In some ........................ the new technology will be beneficial, but we can imagine situations in which the consequences could be severely detrimental.

9. It seems to me that we are faced with a ............................ : if we ban cars from the city centre people will go elsewhere to shop and businesses will suffer, but if we don’t ban cars the level of pollution will continue to rise.

10. Although I am a patriotic Englishman I do feel ........................ about the monarchy.

Reading Francis Fukuyama became famous with his book “The End of History”, which argued that political history had come to its final resting point with liberal democracy. Since then he has turned his attention to the prospects opened up by advances in medicine and bio-technology. Here are some of his ideas from the book “Our Post-human Future”.

The End of the Species? Some people outside the field of science are particularly concerned about where developments in genetics may lead. In the opinion of Francis Fukuyama, it could spell disaster for at least one of the most fundamental ideas upon which our social order is based, and the consequence of that could be chaos.

The fundamental idea in question is that of equality. Quoting Thomas Jefferson (US president 1801-09), Fukuyama says that for the time being we neither believe that the mass of humanity are born with saddles on their backs ready to be ridden, nor that a few are born with boots and spurs ready to ride them. But what will happen to that sense of equality if biotechnology makes it possible for an elite group to feel that they have been born with boots and spurs, ready to lead and control the genetically deprived mass who, for economic reasons, didn’t have access to the new technology?

Not only would this prospect be ethically unacceptable, maintains Fukuyama, but it would also lead to social upheaval. For this reason Fukuyama believes that we really ought to impose a strict ban on these reproductive technologies. He is aware, however, that this may not be feasible. In countries like the US citizens can go to the Supreme Court to challenge laws which they think contravene one or more of the basic principles of their country’s constitution, and in this way the government’s ban on

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new reproductive techniques could be overturned. It is quite conceivable that parents could successfully establish in the Supreme Court that they have the right to give their child the best possible start in life and that this requires their liberty to genetically engineer their future children if they wish.

In the event that a ban is judged to be unconstitutional, Fukuyama has a second suggestion. He recommends that the state ensure that every citizen has access to the new technology and encourage them to use it. This would be state-sponsored eugenics – not the bad old form of eugenics that discriminated against the disabled and the less intelligent by forbidding them to have children, but a new form that strives to help those who would otherwise be at a genetic disadvantage.

Questions 1. Ideally, what policy does Fukuyama think governments should adopt with regard to human

genetic engineering?

2. What does the quotation from Jefferson mean when it talks about people not being born

with saddles on their backs ready to be ridden?

3. Some countries like the US have a written constitution that lays down certain principles

which must be respected by the rest of the country’s legislation - principles which must be respected by each government. What does Fukuyama think might happen if a government

in a country like the US tried to ban human genetic engineering?

4. Without government control, what is the dark scenario that Fukuyama envisages?

5. If governments can’t ban the technology and this kind of cloning becomes common, what

is the second policy that Fukuyama recommends?

6. Fukuyama is careful to emphasize that his proposed form of eugenics is different from the

one that was attractive to fascist regimes in the 1930s and 40s. How would you characterize the difference?

Over to you Fukuyama is a well-respected intellectual with moderate, liberal ideas – he’s not a lone weirdo

writing crazy stuff on the internet. Do you find anything in this passage believable or do you think his ideas are really wide of the mark?

If you disagree with Fukuyama, can you foresee an alternative scenario for the future?

Vocabulary Match the words in bold with the following.

a. try hard, struggle towards

b. what you put on a horse to sit on

c. practically possible

d. ultimate; highest

e. mean; result in (something negative)

f. disorder, conflict

g. the most privileged and powerful group in society

h. break (a law)

i. exclude someone because of their race, gender, religious beliefs etc

Vocabulary extra: certainty Some people might be uncertain about thorny issues like genetic engineering. Other people are in no doubt whatsoever. Here are some phrases for people like these. Put them in the gaps.

self-evident inconceivable convinced

indisputable shadow categorically

dispute shake hesitation

undoubtedly

1. I am ............................... that if we go down that road we will be making a huge mistake.

2. I have no ............................ in drawing the conclusion that this will jeopardize the prospects for world peace.

3. ............................, a ban on genetic engineering would constitute an infringement of our human right to self-determination.

4. There is no ........................ of a doubt in my mind that this policy defies the will of God.

5. Nothing can ................ my belief that our duty is to serve nature and not to dominate it.

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6. It is ................................. (unimaginable) that our current concept of human equality will survive if we allow people to genetically engineer a group of people who are virtually a different species.

7. It is ............................ that those who are genetically engineered to have superior traits will assume that they were born to lead and the rest of us were born to follow. (Clue: you can’t ague with this.)

8. The people who wrote the declarations of human rights in the eighteenth century assumed it was ................................ that everyone was born equal. (Clue: obvious.)

9. The government has stated ................................. that it will not allow human cloning.

10. Although there used to be a lot of argument about whether the earth was flat or round, the issue is now beyond ................................ because we have conclusive proof.

Pre-reading discussion Fukuyama was trying to imagine what might happen in the future if genetic engineering

techniques are applied to human embryos. These techniques are not science fiction. They are already a reality especially in the field of agriculture. This is the next topic. As usual, let’s

begin with what you already know.

• Certain plants and animals used in agriculture have been genetically modified to

enhance or alter their characteristics. Which examples have you heard of?

• In some countries, particularly in Europe, there has been a great deal of hostility to

genetically modified foods. Do you have any idea of the reasons for this?

Reading

The Row over GM Crops

Here is a list of FAQs (frequently asked questions):

What are the most common GM crops? Soya, maize (sweet-corn), cotton and a plant used to make vegetable oil called oilseed rape. The USA grows a huge quantity of soya - a lot of it for export - the vast majority of which is now genetically modified.

How widespread is it? In 2005 there were over 8 million farmers in 21 countries growing GM crops. By far the biggest producer is the USA where the world’s biggest biotech companies are based and where almost 60% of the world’s GM crops are grown. Other important producing countries are Argentina, Canada and Brazil. The EU imposed a ban on the import of all GM crops until 2003 when it was forced by the World Trade Organisation to open up its market to these foods. It has since approved a long and growing list of GM crops. Despite the ruling of the WTO some European countries have closed their borders to GM crops: Greece, Luxembourg, Austria, France and Italy. To allay the fears of consumers, almost all UK supermarkets have made a pledge not to stock GM produce.

I’m not a vegetarian so why should I care? You may never have boiled a soya bean in your life but you have certainly eaten loads of soya. They use soya flour in baby food, breakfast cereals, ice cream, hamburgers, cakes and biscuits and thousands of other processed foods. Do you know if it was GM soya they used in your last chocolate chip cookie or your last bowl of Coco Pops?

How do they actually do it? One technique uses viruses. These have the natural ability to enter a cell’s nucleus and alter its DNA. Geneticists now know how to exploit this ability to insert new genetic material into plant and animal egg cells. Another technique involves coating tiny gold particles with genetic material and then firing the particles into cells and hoping that some of the new genes become incorporated into the host DNA. Both techniques have a high failure rate so thousands of attempts might be needed before a successful integration is achieved. Because scientists cannot control exactly where in the host DNA the new genetic material will be inserted it is impossible to predict all the consequences of the genetic modification.

What are the benefits supposed to be? Here are four:

• The promise is that GM crops will give farmers a better yield. A bigger harvest means bigger profits.

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• A big headache for many farmers is weeds. GM crops are produced now with a high resistance to very powerful herbicides which will kill all other plant life in the area.

• Another big headache for farmers is pests (caterpillars and insects that eat vegetables). To save farmers having to use yet more sprays, crops can now be genetically engineered to make their own toxins to kill the pests that try to eat them.

• To sell GM crops to developing countries there is also the promise that they can combat malnutrition. Genes from nuts were inserted into the DNA of soya to increase its nutritional value. The GM potato also promised 33% more protein content. Rice engineered to contain iron was said to be ideal for countries where rice is a staple food and iron-deficiency is a common problem.

So what are the objections? Here are a few:

• There are clear indications of possible health risks for consumers. In one experiment scientists transferred a gene from some harmless beans to some previously harmless peas. They discovered that the GM peas caused an acute inflammation of the intestine in laboratory mice. Other tests indicate that a wide range of GM produce could increase the risks of intestinal cancer.

• The risks for the environment are another concern. Pollen can be carried a number of kilometres by the wind, making it possible for GM crops to contaminate other crops of the same species over a wide area. If we later realize that the modification was harmful it may be impossible to destroy all the modified genetic material once it has spread so far.

• The amount of herbicide sprayed on the land has risen sharply as the herbicide-resistant GM crops have become popular with farmers. These sprays are powerful endocrine disrupters posing a threat both to wildlife and human health.

What is to be done? The bio-tech firms insist that the risks are negligible and that farmers should be free to grow whatever they want. The European Union has decided that independent and rigorous tests must be carried out on each new crop before the authorization is given for it to be used by farmers. However, organizations like Friends of the Earth question whether the tests will be rigorous enough to detect the long-term damage to the environment and to human health.

Questions 1. How might you be unwittingly eating GM food?

2. What have many supermarkets in the UK done, and why have they done it?

3. Viruses are much smaller than bacteria. Why are they particularly useful to geneticists?

4. According to the passage why is it impossible for scientists to predict whether a genetic modification will result in a crop which is safe and edible or unsafe for human consumption?

5. In your own words, as much as possible, sum up the supposed benefits of GM crops.

6. If it turns out that a new crop is dangerous after all, why might it be difficult to destroy all the modified genetic material?

Vocabulary 1. If you are a European Coco Pops manufacturer you might want to buy soya flour from the

USA and bring it into Europe. What do we call this flow of goods into a country?

2. If you then sell your Coco Pops abroad what do we call the outflow of goods?

3. You can buy chocolate coated nuts. What do you do if you coat a nut?

4. The biggest company in the world selling chemicals and seeds to farmers is Monsanto. One way it became so big was by buying other smaller companies which then became a part of the Monsanto corporation. What verb (underlined in the passage) could we use to describe this process of becoming part of a whole?

5. Which of the underlined nouns also refers to this process of becoming part of a whole?

6. Use the context of the passage to work out what yield refers to?

7. Think of a can of Coke and think of a glass of your Mum’s freshly squeezed orange juice. Which has the highest nutritional value? Why?

8. Recent tests on a new GM potato also showed that the intestines of laboratory rats became red and swollen. What is the name we give to this swelling and redness?

9. If a company like Monsanto says the risks involved in eating GM produce are negligible, does it mean they are significant or insignificant?

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10. Match the remaining underlined words with the following phrases.

a. the microscopic things released by flowers carrying the male genetic material

b. severe c. permission

d. promised

e. make use of; take advantage of f. strict, detailed and thorough

g. unwanted plants in a garden or field h. material that has had to be specially prepared so that it is suitable to eat

i. the major component of a typical diet in a nation

j. tiny pieces k. put in

Over to you If you were the Minister for Agriculture in your government, what policy would you adopt on

this issue? Would rigorous testing be enough or would it be better to impose a total ban on all genetically modified food?

Language extra: singular or plural? A. In the GM crops article we read: “A number of different techniques are used.”

There are times in English when we use a singular noun with a plural verb.

With phrases like a lot of and the majority of the choice of verb form tends to depend upon whether or not the second noun is countable or not:

A lot of crops have been modified in one way or another.

A lot of food has been modified.

The majority of experiments are funded by the big biotech companies.

The majority of research is funded by the big biotech companies.

However, sometimes when we talk about quantities we think of, for instance, ten kilos as one

amount of something. Hence:

Ten kilos is enough.

Fifteen years seems a long time to wait.

B. If a singular noun refers to a group of people we sometimes use a plural verb. Hence:

The jury are trying to reach a verdict.

My family are taking part in an experiment.

My team are great. They really know how to play together.

C. Some nouns don’t look plural, but they are:

Cattle are also being modified.

The police are keeping the demonstrators away.

The youth of this country are more aware of what is going on in the world.

Other nouns look plural, but they aren’t:

The news is bad. Politics is complicated. Maths is impossible. (US: Math)

Statistics is a difficult field of study.

Economics is my favourite subject.

Some nouns should be plural but aren’t. In Latin the word data is the plural of datum, but

few people pay any attention to that and the word data is now used as an uncountable noun.

(E.g. The data is being processed.)

D. If you listen closely to movie dialogues you will notice from time to time that sentences beginning “There’s...” can have either a plural or singular subject (but this only occurs in

speech, not in writing). Hence:

There’s two cops on our tail, Eddy.

E. When writing essays in which we list a number of things if we then want to refer back to that

list of items we usually use the word this.

E.g. “There is the prospect of Nazi-style eugenics; there are the hazards for the

environment; and then there are the health risks. All this is very worrying.”

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Writing Here is the topic:

The application of genetic engineering in agriculture has sparked a debate about how beneficial the new genetically modified crops really are. How do you assess the benefits and the risks of GM crops, and what would the most appropriate response from the government be?

Plan The basic outline for this essay should be blindingly obvious. In pairs discuss the plan and jot

down a few ideas you might concentrate on in each of the paragraphs, then compare your plan

with those of the rest of the class.

Language

Here’s some stuff you might like to use:

P1 Few scientific topics are more hotly debated than that of genetic engineering.

One particular focus of concern is the genetically modified crops that have

recently been developed. These have been vigorously promoted by large

biotechnology companies which claim that ...........*............ At the same time, groups

concerned with the environment and with public health have insisted that

.........*......... Despite all the publicity many people are still bewildered and unsure

whether or not to trust the new foods.

(* Remember not to be too specific when indicating the different points of view – save the

specifics for the paragraphs that follow.)

P2 The companies that manufacture and market GM seeds would have us believe

that ..................

P3 Turning to potential risks, there are indications that ..........

P4 After weighing up both sides of the argument the obvious conclusion to be

drawn is that ................... In the light of this, it would seem wise for the government

to ......

Steps and measures phrases In writing tasks it is not uncommon to be asked to make suggestions about the steps and

measures that individuals or governments should take in response to a social problem. For occasions like these here are some useful phrases:

The most appropriate response to this situation would be to .......

The wisest course of action would be to ....

The burden of responsibility lies with the ................. They ought to ...........

Legislation ought to be introduced to ensure that ....................

There must be harsh penalties for those who do not abide by the law.

An organization needs to be established to control/supervise ......

The level of public awareness needs to be raised. A campaign could be launched to ....

There is a great deal of room for private initiatives such as .......

It is imperative that ..... (some agency do something)

Write it! Having studied this subject in so much depth you should have no trouble whatsoever writing

250-300 words on the topic of GM crops.

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F u l l s p a t e P r eF u l l s p a t e P r eF u l l s p a t e P r eF u l l s p a t e P r e ---- P r o f i c i e n c y P r im e rP r o f i c i e n c y P r im e rP r o f i c i e n c y P r im e rP r o f i c i e n c y P r im e r

Unit 15 An Eye for an Eye The title comes from the Old Testament where it says: “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,”

which is one version of the idea that a punishment should fit the crime. That’s the topic of this unit: crime and punishment.

A. Let’s begin with a little vocabulary. How many different English names do you know for crimes? Here are some crimes. Try to match them with the definitions that follow.

armed robbery arson blackmail fraud forgery

tax evasion kidnap hijack smuggling assault

1. deceiving someone in order to gain money (e.g. signing someone else’s name on a cheque) 2. deliberately setting fire to property 3. transporting goods or people illegally into or out of a country 4. deliberately not paying the proportion of your income that you owe to the state 5. making unauthorised copies of money, documents, paintings, etc 6. attacking someone, usually physically 7. using force to take control of a vehicle while it is on a journey 8. taking someone away by force and demanding money from their family 9. threatening to do something unpleasant (e.g. reveal secrets) to force the victim to pay money 10. an act of theft where guns are used or their use is threatened

B. Discussion Topic for a brief class discussion: Thinking about your country, which areas would you say have

the highest crime rate and which areas have the lowest crime rate? What would you say the

differences are due to?

C. Here are some more useful crime words. Match them with the definitions that follow.

homicide verdict jury oath

a warrant custody prosecute appeal

forensic team interrogation solitary confinement sentence

1. the group of twelve ordinary citizens who sometimes decide whether the accused is guilty or innocent

2. being kept in prison 3. a punishment used in prisons in which the inmate is kept alone in a special cell and denied

contact with other prisoners 4. the final judgment concerning the guilt or innocence of the accused 5. general word for the punishment handed out by the judge to the convicted person 6. questioning a suspect 7. the promise made by someone appearing in court to tell the truth 8. the official written permission given by the court for the police to search someone’s property or

arrest them 9. murder (a common expression in American movies) 10. the objection made by someone who has been found guilty and who wants to have the

judgment changed 11. people who are experts in gathering evidence from a scientific examination of objects at a

crime scene 12. calling in the police to accuse someone and so begin criminal proceedings against them

D. Do you remember? Three things from previous units which are useful here:

• Normal people are supposed to be well-behaved, law-abiding citizens. What does that mean?

• Some people are said to be not so normal – we deviate from the social norm, so we are called

social deviants and the abnormal things we do are forms of social deviance (e.g. the normal

thing in society is to abide by the law, so crime is a form of deviant behaviour).

• Don’t confuse deviation (which means “difference from the norm”) with diversion. You are in

your car and you have stopped in front of some people digging up the road. You see a sign with an

arrow saying “DIVERSION”. What is the sign telling you?

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E. The following paragraph describes different responses to crime. Read it and then discuss which of the responses is closest to your own.

Broadly speaking, when people hear about a crime that has been committed in some other part of the country they react in one of two different ways. Firstly there is the punitive reaction: people are outraged by the crime and the damage that has been caused and they want to see the criminal get the harsh treatment that he or she deserves. A sharp distinction is drawn between the good law-abiding citizens and the malevolent criminals. There is sometimes the assumption that punishment will teach criminals a lesson and that only by being punished might these wicked people change their ways. Then there is the therapeutic approach according to which instead of blaming criminals we should try to understand the factors in their social background that lead them to do such acts. Certain people become criminals not because they are born “bad” but because of the action of certain unfortunate social forces. The priority should not be to punish but to provide the kind of treatment (training, therapy or whatever) that will help them turn over a new leaf. Here there is a collective sense of society’s responsibility for its failings and there may also be the idea that “there but for the grace of God go I”, i.e. if I had been born into the criminal’s family and been through the same experiences I too might have ended up a criminal.

Vocabulary search

1. Look for words in the previous paragraph that are synonymous with: a. strict, severe, very unpleasant

b. wanting to do bad c. evil

d. make a complete break with the past and start a new and better way of life

e. imperfections, shortcomings f. divine kindness

Reading In the following text there are five theories of crime, followed by descriptions of their public policy

implications. Read about the theories first and then try to match each one with the implications it has for the way society should deal with crime and criminals.

An Introduction to Criminology Criminology is a branch of sociology that aims to explain at the most general level why we have the phenomenon of crime. Although they may seem very abstract, some of them have played an important role in public life. Many public policies that are implemented to deal with crime are actually informed by some theory or other. In fact, criminologists are often hired by the government to suggest how the problem of crime can be tackled.

Social Control Theory This assumes that individuals have a natural propensity to act in ways that could be considered deviant or criminal, and to this extent criminal activity is perfectly normal – it is not the product of some evil or malignant force in society. A person’s innate selfishness and greed will lead them to act in ways that are injurious to other people and their property if they judge that the benefits outweigh the risks or costs of the deed.

Social Disorganization Theory This theory assumes that children will grow up to be law-abiding citizens if they grow up in stable and caring families, live in pleasant neighbourhoods that they can come to feel attached to, and have schools that they can enjoy attending. Communities with little or no crime are also those that are settled, tightly-knit with numerous personal ties, a sense of solidarity and a single coherent set of beliefs that everyone shares. Crime emerges when areas in society fail to develop this level of organization, which often occurs in urban areas characterized by high residential mobility, racial and ethnic heterogeneity (a mixing of groups with conflicting systems of values), and poverty. Consequently the process of socialization is defective and children growing up in these areas fail to develop the feeling for their communities that normally motivates law-abiding behaviour.

Neurological Deficit Theory Apparently there is a neurological explanation for the behaviour of violent criminals. Their mental activity is deficient in two important ways. Firstly, horrific images of human suffering do not disturb them, which indicates a severe lack of empathy. Secondly, stimuli need to be extreme before the person feels excited. Hence, in their pursuit of pleasure it is very easy for them to end up hurting others without caring about the pain they are causing.

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Strain Theory “Strain” here refers to the conflict between a society’s ideology and the social reality. The theory, developed first in America, pointed to the discrepancies between goals which the culture prescribed for everyone and the limited means available to individuals in US society. According to the dominant ideology the country was a land of equal opportunity where anyone could rise from “log cabin to the White House” and where wealth was the chief indicator of success. However, the chances of achieving these goals by legitimate means are very unequally distributed. The resulting discrepancy between aspirations and realistic expectations which many less fortunate people face leads to frustration - a feeling to which individuals respond in a variety of ways, one of which is by resorting to crime.

Labelling Theory In the normal course of social interaction some individuals are labelled as deviant. In the home a child may be perfectly normal but his or her parents call it “useless”. At school various forms of hierarchy result in a number of young people being labelled as failures even though they may actually have a lot to offer. People often internalize labels like these so that their self-understanding is altered – and it may be altered in such a way as to incline them to join social groups outside the mainstream of society. If the person is then picked up by the police and prosecuted they will be officially recognized as a criminal - a label that carries a profound social stigma. Once society says that you are a criminal it is easy to believe that your fate is to live a life of crime. Through these processes of labelling society effectively creates its own sub-communities of deviants.

Public Policy Implications

a. Brain scans must be carried out on young people to detect the forms of deficiency which mean that the normal constraints on social action are lacking. The individuals who are identified in this way ought to be sent to a secure place isolated from the rest of society because it is only a matter of time before they harm others in their pursuit of gratification.

b. The taxation system should be reformed to increase the income tax paid by the more prosperous sections of society and redistribute that wealth to those who are much poorer so that there is a consensus that the distribution is fair.

c. Society must take harsh measures to deter people from breaking the law. The death penalty, for instance, might be considered a suitable deterrent for those who are contemplating committing serious violent crimes. The police force must ensure that detection rates for crimes are kept high and systems of surveillance need to be adopted to eradicate the belief that people can get away with breaking the law.

d. Alternatives to imprisonment must be found for those guilty of non-violent offences – alternatives that help offenders develop a more positive understanding of the role they can play in society. Those who are imprisoned must be treated in such a way that they have the skills and self-esteem to join mainstream society once they are released.

e. Urban planning must be improved and more public money ought to be spent on improving inner city green areas, and local sports and recreation facilities especially for young people. There is also a need for programmes, such as neighbourhood watch schemes, that enable local residents to be more actively involved in their communities.

Questions 1. Which theory or theories imply that social factors are the main causes of crime?

2. Which theory has the most negative view of human nature?

3. Which theory implies that all social institutions (such as schools) will tend to push some people into deviant patterns of behaviour?

4. Which theory implies the strongest criticism of modern city life?

5. You know what a mobile phone is, but in the paragraph about social disorganization theory

what does “high residential mobility” refer to?

6. In that same paragraph do you think socialization refers to:

a. People going out to meet their friends.

b. Children learning how to behave in a socially acceptable way.

7. Which word from the paragraph on strain theory (not in bold) means “deciding to do something which you probably wouldn’t have chosen if the situation had been better”?

8. In the paragraph on labelling theory which word is used to describe the social majority who are normal (not in bold)?

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Vocabulary 1. Which word in the subtitles of the paragraphs means “lack”?

2. Knitting is what your granny might do with two large needles and a ball of wool to make you

a nice scarf for the winter. If a community is tightly knit it doesn’t mean everyone is wearing nice woolly scarves. What does it mean?

3. You know what solid means (my baseball bat is solid but my tennis ball is hollow and my milkshake is a liquid). What do I mean if I say my local community feels a great sense of

solidarity so everyone is going to pull together to do what’s best for this area?

4. Prisons aren’t meant just to punish criminals. There is also the idea that people who might be

thinking about committing a crime will think about prison and decide to remain a law-abiding citizen. What verb can we use to refer to this act of persuading people not to misbehave?

5. Match the remaining words in bold with the following:a. unified; where the different parts fit

together and make sense b. hopes

c. the set of principles and values that a group of people believe in

d. satisfaction e. imperfect

f. differences

g. an adjective indicating that someone was born with an in-built ability or

tendency h. (e.g. the police) watching what

people are doing

i. sensitivity to the suffering of others

j. to make something more likely to happen k. inclination, tendency

l. part of a tree which has been cut down m. shameful reputation

n. main, most important o. get rid of

p. a vertical social order in which some

people have a higher status than others q. the variety within a group

Over to you 1. Which of the theories do you feel are the most persuasive?

2. Is there one or more that you feel has little basis in reality?

3. Looking at the policy proposals which would you say should be given top priority by the

government?

4. Are there any proposals that you would have no hesitation in rejecting?

Language extra: dependent prepositions In the passage we read that money ought to be spent on improving inner city areas. “On” is the

preposition we must use when we use the verb “spend” to talk about where the money is going. Here’s another example: “It isn’t good for children if their parents and others are too permissive.”

Here we have a preposition that must be used with a certain preceding adjective. These can be a real headache. For instance, we also say, “John’s been really good to me – he’s so good at

reassuring people who are upset. He’s also very good with children – he really knows how to keep

them occupied.” In addition to verbs and adjectives, some nouns sometimes need to be followed by specific prepositions. The following exercise will either be a piece of cake or absolutely impossible.

Have a go.

1. In general, interrogation officers in the prisons of Uzbekistan have no hesitation in torturing their suspects. However, the prison at Doneck is an exception ...... the rule. There they are only interested in confessions that are made voluntarily.

2. “We’re fed up ...... all this interference from abroad,” said one Uzbeki prison officer.

3. People think there has been a marked deterioration ...... the levels of crime.

4. They aren’t aware ...... how misleading an impression the figures can give.

5. Contrary ...... popular belief the police don’t arrest everyone they see breaking the law.

6. She said she had had no intention ...... causing a breach of the peace; she just enjoyed listening to her music with the volume turned up.

7. Tagging can be no substitute ...... a short, sharp shock such as a period in prison.

8. The community needs to give young people more opportunities to achieve things that they can take pride ...... .

9. The fact that employers insist that candidates already have experience is an obstacle ...... reducing youth unemployment.

10. If young people feel that the police are picking on them there is little likelihood ..... them developing a more positive attitude.

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11. Young people who have dropped out of school, have no qualifications, no skills and no helpful contacts can easily believe that they are incapable ...... getting a regular job.

12. Many of these kids have been deprived ...... lots of the things that more fortunate children take for granted.

13. They are suspected ...... having assaulted two coloured youths in the park.

14. The chief of police said they only resorted ...... the use of tear gas when there was no other way of restoring law and order.

15. Members of the black and Asian communities maintain that the police are prejudiced ...... them.

16. I am not convinced ...... the need for criminals to spend longer periods in prison.

17. I congratulated Bob ..... receiving the award for his invaluable services to the community.

18. He has devoted his entire life ...... the welfare of young people in his area.

19. He is a tremendously modest man who would never boast ...... his achievements.

20. He said he wanted to help young people make the most ...... their lives.

Discussion A little later on we are going to read a passage about the anti-social behaviour of people who are sometimes

called “yobs” (an informal word for young men who cause a public disturbance by being noisy and badly

behaved). First take each of these comments in turn and discuss whether or not you agree with them:

1. “There is a general breakdown in our local communities. There are no extended families any longer and few suitable role models. The church has gone and teachers don’t discipline children as well as they used to. For this reason the state must start to give a firm message about the kind of behaviour that is and isn’t acceptable.”

2. “Society nowadays is too permissive, too tolerant. We give children far too much freedom. It isn’t good for them and it isn’t what they really want. Many of the children I have met over the years are desperate for structure, boundaries and for someone to say, ‘No’.”

3. “There’s a popular sociology nowadays and it is has gone too far. There is an idea that poverty causes crime and when poor people act badly we should react with understanding. But poverty can’t be an excuse for crime. We have to stop being so soft and start judging people, letting them know that bad behaviour won’t be tolerated, no matter how poor they might be.”

Reading

Time to Take On the Yobs (?) Recently the British government declared that the time had come to stop tolerating anti-social behaviour. There was a crisis in neighbourhoods where the quality of life for the majority was being dragged down by a malevolent minority that showed no respect for the rights of others – idle, badly behaved individuals referred to in the press as “yobs”. Despite a general decline in crime levels, law-abiding citizens still had a long list of complaints about anti-social behaviour: vandalism, noisy neighbours, groups of youths who roam the streets and intimidate residents or who are drunk and disorderly.

To tackle this, the government has introduced a new set of controversial laws. For the first time the police are able to impose on-the-spot fines for drunkenness, damage to property or for a breach of the peace. Anyone over the age of ten who persistently causes a nuisance can also be banned from certain areas of the city. Other new powers mean that groups of youths can be imprisoned for up to three months if they refuse to disperse from public spaces, and children under 16 on the street can be taken into custody if a member of the public believes there is a possibility that they might be intimidated. Local authorities have also been given the power to impose a curfew forbidding children up to the age of 15 from being out on the streets between 9pm and 5am. As for the problem of the “neighbours from hell” (as they have been described in the media), they can now be evicted from their homes for 3 months and moved to special local authority accommodation.

The phenomenon of children drifting first into deviance and then into crime has to be nipped in the bud, says the government. Hence the focus on families described as chaotic and dysfunctional. Schools are used to identify children whose disruptive behaviour is symptomatic of a poor family background. The parents of those children can now be forced to attend parenting classes to learn how to deal with difficult adolescents. Failure to comply with these orders can result in imprisonment.

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Many of the new measures have proved to be very popular with voters, but there are a few critics. Some people have pointed out that all the talk about respect seems to be aimed only at the poor. No mention has been made, for instance, of the yob culture amongst the young and wealthy employees in the London’s business district – people with a reputation for drinking too much and behaving atrociously on Friday and Saturday nights.

A more serious criticism is that trying to force these people to change their behaviour with threats, punishments and more state intervention could aggravate the discontent and nihilism that lies behind a lot of the anti-social behaviour. Bob Holman, who works on community projects in deprived areas of Glasgow, says there is an alternative: “When young people are treated with respect and given opportunities to get involved, their behaviour improves. Let kids design adventure playgrounds and then let them build them, and you’ll see them respond.” Other schemes need to bring different sections of the community together to build bridges and promote mutual understanding. It is true that some parents do need support and counselling but those with experience of counselling say it should always be provided on a voluntary basis rather than being accompanied by threats of imprisonment. The other problem is that many of the young people being picked up by the police are psychologically disturbed or have drug problems and many have very low literacy levels. Often it is only when they end up in prison that they receive help with those problems. Wouldn’t it be better to improve the provision of services in the community to help young people keep a grip on their lives before they drift into crime?

Questions 1. In the past someone who was drunk and disorderly in public only had to pay a fine if the police

gathered enough evidence and took the case to court. Often the police felt this was a waste of

time and effort so people were rarely convicted. What did the government do to try to make sure that more people are punished for misconduct like this?

2. Many residents complained that they felt intimidated by groups of youths gathering on street

corners. What was the government’s response to this particular complaint?

3. What do you think a curfew is?

4. Under what circumstances might a parent be ordered to attend parenting classes?

5. How would you sum up the more serious of the two criticisms?

6. Instead of trying to force young people to stop behaving badly, Bob Holman suggests an

alternative approach. Very briefly, how would you sum it up?

Vocabulary 1. Some words containing “vol” have to do with the will, e.g. “voluntary” and volition (another

word for “free will”). What do you think malevolent means?

2. Breach means almost the same as “break” but we only use it to refer to things like agreements, laws, promises, walls and the peace. What do you think a breach of the peace is?

3. The third paragraph contains the phrase: nip in the bud. If you nip something you pinch or

squash it between your fingers and a bud is a young flower before it opens. That is the literal meaning, but can you explain what the phrase means as it is used in the third paragraph?

4. If you are contented, you are happy or satisfied. Which word in bold means “unhappiness”?

5. What do you think a dysfunctional family is?

6. If you annihilate something you destroy it completely. Then there is nothing left, and the word

indicates that because “nihil” is Latin for nothing. What is the name for the set of beliefs people have when they think that none of the values that societies promote is worth defending,

supporting or fighting for?

7. Look for words in bold to go with these definitions:

a. obey b. disturbance, annoyance

c. break up (a group) d. pull

e. make someone feel frightened

and threatened f. wander; walk without a very

clear purpose

g. move without any means of controlling direction

h. not working properly i. lacking things considered

necessary

j. not doing anything when you should be

k. repeatedly l. very badly

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Over to you A. What do you think of this highly controversial policy which is being used in cities across America: daytime curfews for the under 16s during school term?

Police patrols pick up any child seen on the city streets during school hours. If they don’t have a good excuse for being absent from school, they are sent to a juvenile court where they are either made to pay a fine (about 150 euros) or given 27 hours community service. The aim of the authorities is to stop kids dropping out of school and getting involved in gangs and crime. The results? Truancy figures are down, as is the crime rate during school hours, and 88% of local residents said they felt the curfew made the streets safer.

B. Here’s another controversial policy: the electronic tagging of offenders. Read this brief

description and then discuss whether you are for or against it.

Stuart, 17, would really like to be out with his mates but he has had to rush back home before the time of his curfew: 8pm. He wears an electronic tag around his ankle which uses satellite technology to let the police know exactly where he his 24 hours a day. Tagging is becoming increasingly common for more serious persistent offenders. Stuart has a string of convictions including arson, theft of a motor vehicle and damage to property. Instead of being sentenced to six months in prison he is being tagged for six months, kept under curfew from 8pm until 5am and is obliged to do 200 hours community service.

His mum says: 'The difference in Stuart is amazing. He’s starting to think for himself now. He's much more responsible these days. I feel like I can trust him. But he still has to stop hanging out with older kids.” His father, who has a history of mental health problems, said: “If he wants it to work, it will. Sometimes I just want to get up and kick him.”

C. How law-abiding do you think 15 and 16-year-olds are in your country? Try to predict the percentages of young people in that age group who have:

• Committed a crime at least once: ......

• Carried a knife or other weapon over the past year: ......

• Attacked someone with the intention of hurting them seriously: ......

• Broken into a building with the intention of stealing: ......

• Stolen from shops (shoplifting): ......

• Drunk five or more alcoholic drinks at a session: ......

• Used cannabis three or more times in the past month: ......

Now turn to the end of this unit to compare your estimates with the actual figures for the UK.

Are any of the figures surprising?

D. The death penalty (aka capital punishment) still exists in some American states and in

other countries around the world. Do you think that some crimes are so atrocious that the guilty person should be sentenced to death, or are you against the death penalty? Why?

E. A common expression when talking about the treatment of criminals is rehabilitation. This

refers to the process of helping someone who was on the margins of society (such as a criminal) become a responsible, law-abiding citizen keen to do their bit for the community. Question: when

we punish criminals, how important is it to think about rehabilitation? Is it likely that this will happen quite naturally as convicts sit in prison and think about the bad things they have done?

Language extra How about a few more prepositions?

1. ...... keeping suspects awake for at least 24 hours they are able to get you to sign a false confession. (Two answers: one emphasizing the series of events; the other emphasizing that this is how they do it.)

2. Despite all the allegations, not a single police officer has been convicted ...... accepting bribes.

3. My lawyer told me to plead guilty ...... the lesser of the two charges because he had done a deal with the judge.

4. I took advantage ...... my time in prison to catch up on my studies and write my autobiography.

5. I begged the Uzbeki interrogation officer to have mercy ...... me and stop the electric shocks.

6. I had been screaming in pain for ages but they were completely indifferent ...... my suffering. They didn’t care at all that they were causing so much suffering to another human being.

7. Uzbeki prison cells are lacking ...... some of the comforts we take for granted in the UK like beds and toilets. They just give you a mattress and a bucket.

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8. It was Bob’s fault that I got caught by the police. But I don’t hold it ........... him. I would have done the same in his position. It’s every man for himself in this game.

9. The drug dealers deposited their money ...... a Swiss bank account.

10. My parents wouldn’t give their consent ...... our marriage. They said that there was no way they were going to let me marry a trapeze artist. They are so narrow-minded.

11. If you have a house in Greece you should really take out insurance .......... earthquake damage.

12. One of the factors that contributed ...... my decline was my total lack of self-discipline.

Extra reading Before reading the passage discuss this: Do you think that the public perception of the level of crime in your country is accurate or is there a gap between the image people have and the true extent of the problem?

Read the following short passage and find out: a) what the situation in the UK is, and b) what the explanation for the gap is. While you are reading underline any new vocabulary that you think might be worth learning.

The Gap between Image and Reality A number of recent surveys in the UK reveal a widely held public perception that crime in the country is on the increase. Yet the official statistics show that crime rates have been declining for some years now. People’s perceptions of crime levels bear little relation to reality.

The reason for this discrepancy is not hard to find. Recently there have been two incidents in which people have been stabbed. One young man came to the defence of a woman in a dispute on a train and was then fatally wounded. In another incident a 15-year-old boy died after he was knifed outside his school. These were two isolated incidents, but journalists quickly starting phoning police authorities to collect more stories connected with knives and before long reports appeared in the media first of a “wave” then of an “epidemic” of knife-related incidents. Reporters hung out on the streets with boys eager to brag about the "shanks" in their pockets. One 15-year-old claims he's called "Killer" and shows the journalist his fancy-handled knife with pride. Another boasts of the people he's shanked to get respect.

During all the dramatic reporting nobody considered it worth publicizing the official figures: In 1995 there were 243 murders with sharp instruments; 10 years later there were slightly fewer: 236. Over the decade the annual number of murders had remained relatively constant.

(Note: “Shank” is not a word you need to learn, but it should be obvious what it means in this

context.)

Question: Why do you think the press acted in this way?

Writing Here’s the essay question:

For relatively minor first offences (such as burglary) is community service preferable to a term in prison for juvenile offenders?

Do you know what community service is? Here’s an example: a British pop star in New York was

caught in possession of cocaine. Instead of being sent to prison he was ordered to spend a hundred days picking up litter and weeding public parks in the city. That is community service.

You might already feel that you have a clear point of view on this issue and yet feel that you don’t have much to say. In pairs work through the following points and decide whether or not they

suggest ideas that you might like to include in your essay.

• What misbehaving youngsters need is a short, sharp shock to make them realize they must change their ways. A spell in prison is just the job.

• Prisons are universities of crime.

• There is a stigma attached to having been in prison which isn’t attached to community service.

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• 90% of people between the ages of 15 and 17 who are sent to prison in England have either a mental health problem or a drug problem.

• Only 1% of prison officers believe that prisons are very successful at rehabilitating inmates*. (* Another word for “prisoners”)

• Community service can be organized so that offenders see it as a way of repaying their debt to the community.

• Offenders are much more likely to re-offend if they can’t find a job. Those with few or no qualifications will find it even harder to secure employment if employers know they have been to prison.

• Prison is the right place for people who use violence and pose a real threat to our communities.

• According to official figures, 56% of those imprisoned in the UK re-offend within two years, compared to 44% of those who are given community penalties.

• Prison overcrowding is now at crisis levels in the UK.

• It costs the state over 50,000 euros a year to keep a person in prison. The cost of a community programme is a tiny fraction of this.

• The routine of community service can help to bring some order into lives that are often chaotic.

• For most people, prison is the end of a road paved with deprivation, disadvantage, abuse, discrimination and other social problems which imprisonment only exacerbates.

• Recent policies in the US and the UK using the slogan “Prison works” have proved to be very popular with voters.

• Community service is so much of a “soft option” that it will not deter people from committing crimes.

Tip There are two possible approaches to this essay: you could argue for your point of view all the way through the essay or you could give a balanced presentation of the two sides of the argument then

weigh up the two sides in the conclusion. The choice is yours, but if you choose the first don’t

forget to acknowledge the opposite side of the argument. To do this, the following language may be useful.

There are those who claim that .................... To a certain extent this is true, but it

overlooks the fact that ...................

We often hear the argument that .............................. However, this is not the case.

Anyone with any experience of ................. will say that ................

Introduction It’s worth knowing that in the UK, at least, community service for young first offenders is a popular option with many judges and is supported particularly by many social workers and others who are

involved in the rehabilitation of criminals. However, there are some very vociferous groups in the general public and in the press who oppose this form of punishment.

Write it! We are looking forward to reading your 250-300 words on the subject of community service, and

we will be looking out for those lovely proficiency structures amongst which you will surely include one or two interesting phrases with prepositions.

.................................................................................................................................................

Appendix A survey of 14,000 pupils aged 15 and 16 in England, Scotland and Wales came up with the following percentages for those who have:

• Committed a crime at least once: 48.5%

• Carried a knife or other weapon over the past year: 22% (boys)

• Attacked someone with the intention of hurting them seriously: 19% (boys)

• Broken into a building with the intention of stealing: 10% (boys)

• Stolen from shops (shoplifting): 25%

• Drunk five or more alcoholic drinks at a session: 52%

• Used cannabis three or more times in the past month: 5% (girls) 9% (boys)

(NB The questionnaire included certain trick questions, e.g. about imaginary drugs, to help the researchers eliminate responses from people who might be bragging.)

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F u l l s p a t e P r eF u l l s p a t e P r eF u l l s p a t e P r eF u l l s p a t e P r e ---- P r o f i c i e n c y P r im e rP r o f i c i e n c y P r im e rP r o f i c i e n c y P r im e rP r o f i c i e n c y P r im e r

Unit 16 A Clash of Civilizations?

Introduction In 1989 the Berlin Wall was pulled down, thereby symbolically bringing to an end the rift between

the East and the West that had existed since the end of the Second World War Communism was in

retreat everywhere and it seemed to many commentators that western liberal democracy would now spread gradually over the entire face of the earth. The most famous comment came from an

American called Francis Fukuyama who boldly declared that history was coming to an end. This was, he said, the last stage of human economic and political development. World harmony and

universal peace were just around the corner. A few years later, when McDonald’s opened a fast-food restaurant in Moscow’s Red Square, the theory seemed even more credible.

On 11 September 2001 the unthinkable happened. Two passenger airliners were flown into the

twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York and a third one into the Pentagon (the US military headquarters in Washington). The finger of blame was pointed at Muslim extremists from

the Middle East who were unhappy apparently with the spread of an increasingly commercial and secular culture. From then on, the tide turned completely. Fukuyama’s book with its rosy hopes

of world peace became little more than an academic curiosity and everybody started talking about

the clash of civilizations.

rift: a deep division that prevents friendship

tide: the flow of events (literally: the daily rise and fall of the sea level)

Discussion 1. It would be interesting to find out how you would characterize your civilization. What are its

central values? If you have your own ideas you should discuss those first. If your mind is blank, skip this very general question and go on to question 2.

2. Lots of people in the West refer back to the French Revolution, which occurred at the end of the eighteenth century. It was a movement that declared liberty, equality and fraternity to be the most fundamental values. Why not take each one of these in turn and try to make sense of what relevance it has to your understanding of your civilization.

a) Take liberty, for instance: what kinds of freedom are of paramount importance in the public life of your country?

b) How about equality? In what ways are the citizens of your country supposed to be treated equally?

c) Fraternity is a French word that means brotherhood or sisterhood or, in other words, a strong feeling of community and solidarity. Can you think of any public policies that try to promote the value of fraternity?

3. There are other values that are worth discussing. Take each of the following in turn and talk about their relevance or irrelevance to your society and culture.

• Giving free rein to scientific progress.

• Recognising that life is just a short bridge and it is futile to build much on it.

• Striving to be the strongest player on the international stage.

• Saying: “Hey guys! This is it. You won’t get a second chance. Enjoy yourselves!”

• Acknowledging that the land and its resources cannot be owned by anyone and that we are here merely to tend and cultivate nature with humility and respect.

• Doing whatever is needed to achieve maximum possible economic growth.

• Encouraging people to think critically and be as open-minded as possible.

Each of these values has been a focus for conflict from time to time. Since the fall of the Berlin

Wall the most serious focus of conflict has been religion. In fact, the clash of civilizations people talk about nowadays is essentially a conflict between religion and liberty. One point of view is that

the most important value in public life is liberty so the state must not be attached to one particular religion (i.e. it must be secular) and it must leave everyone free to practise whatever religion they

choose. Another point of view insists that the state should recognize and promote the religion its

people believe in even if this involves limiting some people’s freedoms (such as the freedom to buy alcohol or the freedom to wear a bikini on the beach). This is the conflict we will focus on in what

follows.

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Reading Before you read the text we need to be sure you know that Muslims are a people who share a religious faith called Islam which was established by the prophet Muhammad (570-632AD). You also need to know that there is a well-established Islamic tradition that when they leave the home women ought to dress very modestly (meaning they mustn’t draw attention to themselves with mini-skirts, high heels, tight T-shirts, etc). For many Muslims this requires girls and women to cover their hair with a headscarf known as the hijab.

Strict Neutrality or Tolerant Inclusion? In September 2004 the French government introduced a law banning all conspicuous religious symbols from schools. Immediately there was a storm of protest from certain sections of the Muslim community in France who were outraged that Muslim girls would not be allowed to wear their headscarves in school. To the angry opponents of the law it was irrelevant that the ban was not aimed specifically at Muslim symbols but at any ostentatious signs of religious faith, including large Christian crosses and Jewish skullcaps. (According to the law, discreet symbols of religious affiliation such as small crosses worn around the neck on a chain would be acceptable.)

This new law had its place in a very long tradition in France of insisting that all government services, including education, have a secular character. For over a hundred years courses in state schools had to be strictly neutral as regards religion – any attempt to promote one set of religious beliefs was outlawed.

For many people in France, including an overwhelming majority of teachers, schools ought to promote the two most important values of the French Revolution: liberty and equality. To them the headscarves worn by Muslim girls symbolized the exact opposite: oppression and inequality, and for that reason it seemed perfectly justifiable to ban them from school premises. A number of advocates of the ban expressed the belief that Muslim girls were often forced to wear the headscarf by older male relatives. In those cases, they argued, the ban would help to protect those girls against this form of domestic coercion. As one politician put it: “While some allege that we are taking away their individual freedom, in some cases we will actually be restoring it. This law is here to protect those girls who are compelled to do things they don't want to do.”

A further argument was that if the children of immigrant parents are encouraged to think of themselves first and foremost as free and equal French citizens then this will aid their assimilation into French society. Allowing groups to assert a completely different identity would lead to social fragmentation. Many arguments in favour of the ban ended by emphasizing that there was no attempt to regulate what people did in the private sphere, merely to stipulate that in the public sphere, certain rules must apply.

In one debate held at a French Lycee (senior high school) girls wearing scarves insisted that they were under no pressure at home to wear the veil. In fact, quite the opposite. Their parents would prefer them to remove it than jeopardize their education. The girls felt that there was nothing oppressive in wearing this particular piece of clothing. One of them said: “Some women say we are too submissive, but as I see it they are the ones who are submissive because they give in to men’s ideas about the way women should dress.” For these girls the hijab was an integral part of their faith and their identity, and to them it was a deplorably oppressive act to force a girl to remove it before entering a school.

Other moderate commentators pointed out that if assimilation was one of the aims of the law, it would fail miserably. The law exacerbated the feeling that Muslims were being discriminated against. Christians could carry on as normal because their religion didn’t require any particular dress code. It was unfair that only Muslims were feeling the effect of the law. The consequent feeling of victimization would fuel extremism and social fragmentation, not reduce it.

One observer in England made the comment that the arguments of the French politicians were absurd: “The government is making a mountain out of a molehill. The headscarf really is a trivial matter. Letting Muslim girls wear headscarves to school poses no significant threat to the high ideals of the French state or to its national identity.” He, along with others both inside and outside France, suggested that in a multi-cultural society it is vital that the cultural identities of people from different ethnic, racial and religious backgrounds be publicly respected and appreciated instead of being ignored or challenged.

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Vocabulary 1. If something is conspicuous it is obvious for all to see. Which word (not in bold) in the first

paragraph has a similar meaning, although it can also be used to refer to things designed

deliberately to attract attention?

2. There are two kinds of state. One has a religious character in that one particular religion is recognized and promoted. What adjective in bold could we use to describe those states that try to keep religion out of the country’s political life?

3. Oppression exists when a government places unjustifiable constraints on people’s liberty. What is the adjective used to describe regimes that do this?

4. When thinking about the most important duty of your Prime Minister (or President) you could begin a sentence like this: “Her/His duty is first and foremost to .....” How would you say

this in other words?

5. If you find a fragment of an ancient vase while you are digging in your garden, you only find a

piece – not the whole. What do you think the term social fragmentation refers to?

6. People say something must be done to help the integration of immigrants into their host society. What is the synonym in the passage for “integration”?

7. Some people who commented on these events in France had very extreme views. What adjective in bold could we use to describe the views of those who were not extreme?

8. A molehill is a little animal, blind apparently, that digs tunnels underground. As it digs it periodically throws the soil up onto the surface, leaving a line of little hills. Your Mum would be

making a mountain out of a molehill if she grounded you for a month because you accidentally made a tiny scratch on her second-hand Scoda Fabia. What does this mean?

9. Look for words in bold to match the following. a. not obvious and not drawing attention to

itself b. membership

c. ban d. building

e. force (noun)

f. to accuse someone of doing something without having adequate proof

g. to clearly state a rule

h. to endanger

i. an adjective used to describe those who give in too easily to the dictates of others

j. an adverb meaning outrageously; unacceptably

k. essential

l. treat unfairly m. irrational; crazy

n. unimportant

Questions 1. According to the passage what was the main reason why all conspicuous religious symbols

were banned from French schools?

2. Some politicians thought they were helping the Muslim girls by insisting that the headscarf not

be worn at school. In what way was this thought to be good for the girls?

3. It was also argued that the ban would be good for the integrity (wholeness) of the French

nation. What was the argument?

4. The passage indicates a contrast between the attitude of the first wave of immigrants from

northern Africa into France and their children and grandchildren. What is the difference?

5. The quotation from the high school girl in the fifth paragraph begins with a reference to “some

women”. Which women is she referring to?

6. The law was meant to cover all religions, but in practice it only really had an impact on the

lives of Muslims. Why was this?

7. Some people said the ban would help the integration of young people from immigrant families,

others said it would have the opposite effect. What was the reason for the latter point of

view?

8. According to the current system in France the government would ideally like to preserve public

neutrality by excluding all religions and their symbols from state institutions. What alternative approach is suggested in the last paragraph?

Over to you 1. Many of the French politicians and teachers saw the headscarf as being symbolic of female

oppression. Have you any idea what this might mean? Why might a headscarf be seen as a symbol that women are not as free and equal as they ought to be?

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1. According to systems like the one in France there must be a clear separation between the secular state and the Church. In other words, religious leaders should have no way of

exercising any special political power or influence. In some other societies people believe that their faith is an integral part of their national identity and that the church ought to play

an active role in the country’s political life. Which point of view are you most sympathetic

with?

2. Were you in a position to advise the French government about how to deal with girls who

insist on wearing headscarves to school, what course of action would you suggest?

Vocabulary revision Use the words in bold to complete the sentences below.

discreet ostentatious conspicuous trivial

absurd discriminated fragmented assimilate

submissive coerced jeopardized

1. Because of the scar she now had on her face she felt ............................. when she was in the company of strangers.

2. Always wanting to be the centre of attention, he was very fond of wearing ..........................., brightly-coloured floral shirts.

3. You’re too ............................. Why do you keep letting him have his own way? (you give in too easily to others)

4. When Brian got a job as a salesman for Coca Cola he thought his company car would have a(n)............. advert on it somewhere – something quite small and inconspicuous. He didn’t realize that the red and white car would be entirely covered by the company’s logo.

5. To some people the idea that securing peace requires us to spend more and more on the military is just .......................... It just doesn’t make sense.

6. To many Muslim girls the headscarf is not a .................... matter. Since wearing it is a religious obligation, it is extremely serious.

7. The prisoner was ......................into signing the confession by being chained to a wall in an upright position for a whole week.

8. When citizens feel that what divides them is greater than what unites them, their society has become .......................... . (it is broken into pieces)

9. Some people object to having to put their religion on their identity card because they fear they may subsequently be ........................ against, for instance when they apply for a job.

10. Sonia was worried that her future prospects might have been ........................... by her participation in the political demonstrations. (endangered)

11. When she went to live in France she learnt the language but she didn’t try to lose her strong Manchester accent. It was obvious that she didn’t want to completely ................................ into French society. (be absorbed/integrated into)

integral benefits established

modest tide rosy

credible allegations deplore

12. The claim that the towers collapsed because the fires from the burning planes and the burning office equipment melted the steel just isn’t ................. I can’t believe it. From what I’ve read, the fires weren’t hot enough to do that.

13. There are ........................ that the Mayor of New York was trying to destroy the evidence when he ordered the debris to be cleared before a proper investigation had been carried out. (accusations)

14. The gravitational attraction of the moon is what is responsible for the rising and falling of the sea level that we call the ................

15. If there’s one thing I .................., it’s people telling me how to do my job. (hate)

16. One way our society tries to promote the value of fraternity is by supporting people with unemployment ........................ when there aren’t enough jobs in the economy. (payments)

17. Bob is very ........................ He has built some fantastic buildings, but he never boasts about his achievements.

18. Singing the national anthem every morning is a well ................... tradition in many American schools. (widespread, accepted and it won’t be changed easily now)

19. Some priests object to people attending their church services dressed in a way that is not .......

20. In my youth I had a very .................... (optimistic) view of the future. Now in my old age things seem very bleak.

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Language extra: metaphors To add colour to our writing we can use metaphors. For instance, when we say that someone had a flash of inspiration we are talking about thought using a word that originally referred to a burst

of bright light. The metaphor draws a comparison between the burst of light and thought, and so

not only adds colour to our speech but also helps to illuminate something we want to say about the object in question.

Look at the following examples and match them with the literal meanings below and then try to explain the metaphorical meaning:

1. There are few issues that are thornier than the question concerning the true meaning of freedom.

2. She didn’t seem to be a particularly bright student at school but once she got to university she really started to blossom.

3. The debate flared up again when a new generation of Muslim girls began to challenge the school rules.

4. What struck me when I first met her was her impressive command of the English language.

5. When I was told I would never be able to walk again I was shattered.

6. After news of my accident got around I was inundated with cards from people wishing me well.

7. The writings of the Prophet Mohammed spawned a number of different religious movements, among which the most prominent are the Sunni and the Shia traditions.

8. The long years of trudging through the jungle trying to bring the word of God to the natives finally took their toll on the priest. He grew weak and decided he could no longer carry on.

a. tax b. hit

c. when a frog or a fish lays a huge number of eggs

d. when flowers grow and open

e. the sharp projections on, e.g., a rose stem

f. to flood g. when something bursts into flames

h. break into lots of small pieces

9. National integrity is threatened if people no longer feel that anything binds them to the larger society in which they live.

10. The boy is drifting through life. It is a good job he has little interest in material possessions because he will certainly never make any money.

11. Trouble has been brewing for the last few months, and clashes with the police seem imminent.

12. After three weeks of the hardest exams she had ever had to sit she felt a complete wreck.

13. I don’t think you should make a decision now. The time just isn’t ripe.

14. Samson’s powers withered once his hair had been cut.

15. Adam Smith said that if companies were free to charge whatever they wanted for their goods and make huge sums of money, wealth would eventually trickle down to the poor.

16. Friedrich Engels was of the view that the poorest members of society merely receive crumbs from the tables of the rich.

i. when a fruit is ready for reaping, i.e. harvesting j. when e.g. a ship is moving without any means of controlling its direction

k. a ruined ship l. tie

m. verb to describe the movement of drops of liquid as they roll slowly down a vertical surface n. the small pieces of bread left on the table after a loaf has been cut

o. the process of making wine or beer p. when a plant starts to dry up and die because of heat and drought

Reading Here is the story of another conflict between the same two cultures - one that flared up violently

and spread way beyond the borders of a single country. Here you need to know that according to Islam any image that depicts the prophet Muhammad is strictly forbidden.

The Danish Cartoon Controversy 1. In September 2005, one of Denmark’s largest daily newspapers published a series of 12

cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. The editor knew this would be provocative, but he wasn’t prepared for the scale of the fury that his sacrilegious act would provoke.

2. The repercussions were not confined to Denmark. By January 2006 word had spread and Muslim groups around the world were indignant. Demonstrators took to the streets in their

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thousands, violence broke out and Danish flags were burnt and stamped on. A number of Danish embassies in Islamic countries were set on fire and some of the demonstrators were killed as the police tried to restore law and order. As an official protest, some countries closed their embassies in Denmark, and, less officially, some groups issued death threats not only against Danish citizens but also against Europeans generally, especially after papers in other European countries reprinted the cartoons. Danish exports to Islamic countries were hit badly as Muslims started to boycott Danish products.

3. "It's gone completely beyond anyone's imagination," said the editor of the Danish newspaper in February 2006. "The world can't go mad just because of 12 cartoons."

4. Explaining the background to the cartoons, the editor said that it all started when they heard that an author was having great difficulty finding an illustrator for his children’s book on the life of Muhammad. The artists had refused to draw the illustrations because of fears that they would be attacked. "For me, this was a case of self-censorship," explained the cultural editor of the Danish newspaper. "So I wrote a letter to Danish cartoonists to ask them to depict Muhammad as they see him." He said that they had not done it to offend Muslims but to challenge the restrictions imposed by the Muslim community on the freedom of expression.

5. Islamic groups and political representatives called on the editor to apologize. He refused. "We will not do it, because it implies that we did something wrong and we don't think we have.” There were also calls for the Danish government to intervene, but the country's prime minister maintained that this was out of the question. "The government can in no way influence the media. And neither the Danish government nor the Danish people can be held responsible for what is published in independent media."

6. In February 2006 the newspaper still refused to apologize but did admit that it had seriously underestimated the reaction of Muslims. “What if we had known the full consequences back in September, would we have published the cartoons? Today the answer is ‘No’. If we had known that it would end with death threats to Danes and other people losing their lives, we would not have published the drawings."

Questions 1. Was the editor at all aware that the publication of the cartoons would provoke a hostile

reaction?

2. How did some European countries other than Denmark exacerbate the problem?

3. How was the Danish economy affected?

4. What was main reason for the editor’s plan to publish the cartoons?

5. Why did he refuse to apologize?

6. With the benefit of hindsight in February 2006 how did he feel about his actions five months earlier?

Vocabulary Look for words in the passage above having the following meanings. The numbers in brackets

refer to the number of the relevant paragraph. a. size (1)

b. anger (1)

c. an adjective describing an action that show great disrespect for

something holy (1) d. limited to (2)

e. shocked and angry (2)

f. began (phrasal verb) (2) g. to violently hit something on the

ground with the sole of your foot or shoe (2)

h. made (threats) (2)

i. to refuse to buy something as a political

protest (2) j. limiting your own freedom of speech (4)

k. public demands (5) l. a verb describing what a person or group

does when it tries to resolve a conflict

between two other parties (5) m. said (5)

n. expected something to be less than it turned out to be (6)

Over to you A. What is your opinion about how free the press should be in situations like the one in Denmark?

Since this is not the simplest of issues it might be better to look at a range of opinions first and consider which you think is the most sensible. On the next page are three such points of view.

Read each one and discuss how sympathetic you are to it.

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The radical liberal view There is no value more important in public life than individual liberty. Hence, nothing should curb the individual’s freedom of expression. As Voltaire (a French revolutionary from the eighteenth century) put it: "I may disapprove of what you say, but I will fight to defend your right to say it."

The state should not try to promote one particular way of life but should give people the freedom to live their lives as they see fit. It certainly shouldn’t oblige people to refrain from saying certain things in public. As for the media, they ought to be able to express any and every point of view no matter how offensive this may be to certain individuals.

The conservative point of view Freedom matters, but what matters more is what we do with our freedom. Who could argue with the proposition that some deeds are good and others bad? And anyone who acknowledges this must surely appreciate how important it is for the community to uphold those values, and discourage or outlaw actions that threaten to subvert them. The media, too, will appreciate that they are morally, if not legally, obliged to act responsibly instead of thinking that they are free to print and broadcast whatever they please.

(Note: To hold this point of view you don’t have to be defending a religion, but when religion is involved there is an extra dimension: the sacred. Religions insist that certain things are holy, and this creates the offence we call blasphemy or sacrilege. Some communities have gone to extreme lengths to demonstrate that they will not tolerate anything which is blasphemous or sacrilegious. A number of different Christian communities, for example, have been known to publicly burn books they found offensive.)

The democratic view Democrats insist that what really matters in public life is not the liberty of isolated individuals but their participation in a democratic culture. Within that culture individual freedom has a purpose, which is to challenge those in positions of power. If those in power are offended or embarrassed, this is no excuse for silencing the critics. However, in Denmark the Muslims were on the margins of society and were far from being in a position of power. In view of this, some curtailment of the freedom of expression might be justified.

Democrats are also keen to preserve the much-neglected third value of the French Revolution: fraternity. The spirit of a democracy will dwindle if the sense of social unity withers. To safeguard social cohesion and the sense of community, disadvantaged groups may need special treatment to help them feel part of the wider society. The press, for instance, may be required to restrain themselves so that they don’t print things which cause offence to the less privileged groups.

So which point of view seems to be the most reasonable? From that point of view, what would you say the press or the government ought to have done when the row broke out in

Denmark?

B. In the FCE you had to compare and contrast photos. Now we are going to ask you to compare and contrast two historical events. One event is the Danish cartoon row we have

just looked at. The other is an event that happened in Austria at almost the same time. Read this brief summary and then try to highlight the interesting parallels and contrasts

between the two cases.

Early in 2006 the British historian David Irving was taken to court in Austria for something he had said in a speech given to a group of students. This was not a rousing political speech, just a calm academic lecture, but the speaker was a controversial figure who had often come under attack for his controversial views. In his talk he tried to cast doubt on the existence of gas chambers at the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Second World War, and he had argued that the figure of six million Jewish dead in the holocaust was an exaggeration. Those statements amounted to a breach of the law in Austria against diminishing, denying or trying to justify the holocaust. The historian pleaded guilty, thinking he would be treated leniently, but the judges sentenced him to three years in prison. (Similar laws about the holocaust exist in a number of other countries in Europe, including Germany, France and Poland.)

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Vocabulary 1. Which three verbs on the previous page refer to limiting behaviour?

2. When you are on a diet you refrain from eating too much. To do this you will have to restrain yourself because you have some powerful desires that you must not submit to. In this context what do these two expressions mean?

3. Which of the verbs in this text did we come across in the earlier exercise on metaphors? What does it mean in this context?

4. We have: cohere (verb) and coherent (adjective). What is the noun, and what does it mean?

5. Now look for words in bold to match the following definitions (some words will be left over).

a. limiting; reduction; diminution

b. edges c. make sure that something is

respected d. believe to be right

e. the act of saying something

disrespectful to God f. to destroy the power and

influence of something; undermine

g. decline; reduce

h. to lose its life or strength i. to take dramatic steps

j. unity k. rooms

l. enflaming passions (adjective)

m. enjoying special advantages or opportunities

n. to call into question

C. To practise some of the phrases from this unit here is a little transformation exercise.

1) People became violent. broke Violence .......................................

2) This picture shows the Virgin Mary. depiction This is ......................................................................

3) How do we know what this will lead to? repercussions How do we know what ...........................................................?

4) The police tried to stop the violence. restore The police tried ...............................................................

5) Some groups threatened to kill the cartoonists. issued Some groups .......................................................... against the cartoonists.

6) Do whatever you think is right. fit Do whatever ...........................................

7) If the government stops TV channels broadcasting something, then that is censorship. constitute Government actions that stop TV channels broadcasting something ..................

8) People have been attacking immigrants. attack Immigrants have been .................................................

9) David Irving expressed his scepticism about the facts of the holocaust. doubt David Irving ...........................................................on the facts of the holocaust.

10) Even though the cartoon was intended as a joke, it was almost the same as a terrible act of sacrilege. amounted Even though the cartoon was intended as a joke, it ................................... a terrible act of sacrilege.

Writing Topic:

Should people be free to publicly express any and every point of view, or should there be strict limits on the freedom of expression?

To help you develop your ideas for the essay, you should discuss the following questions:

• How well-established is the respect for the freedom of the individual in your society?

Does it have a long history or is it a recent phenomenon?

• As a general principle, is it a good idea to try to encourage the widest possible debate

about every issue (and to do that people need to be free to express even the craziest or most offensive ideas)? If we really want to find out the truth about Christ, for

instance, shouldn’t people be free to say and publish whichever view they have?

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• Can real harm be done by something said in public? There is a saying in English:

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” How true is this?

• Are some things so sacred or some issues so sensitive that there should be a law

making it illegal to publicly ridicule or criticise them? We have already come across some examples, what are they?

• In a multicultural society where groups with different racial and ethnic backgrounds

have to live in harmony, should there be special laws prohibiting racist remarks in public?

• Is it a step backwards or a step forwards if we put limits on what artists can show or

exhibit? Some people have called for recent controversial films about the life of Christ

to be banned.

• If some extremist groups can’t openly express their views, what are they likely to do?

Are the groups likely to break up and cease to exist?

• There are new laws in some countries such as the UK making it an offence to say

anything in public in support of groups that use violence to fight for what they think is right. Is it right that people should be arrested for saying things like this?

Planning Here are the topics of the paragraphs making up the main bodies of two different compositions, one generally in favour of the freedom of expression, and one which takes a

dimmer view of that freedom. Decide which composition they belong in and in what order:

1. An explanation of why these values are incomprehensible to the atheist and an acknowledgment that the liberal system is an appropriate one for atheists.

2. Some examples of those special circumstances to illustrate what might justify some compromise of the freedom of expression.

3. A description of what is more important than the freedom of expression.

4. One or two points backing up the idea that the freedom of speech is of great value and should only be curtailed in very special circumstances.

Composition for.

a. ...........

b. ...........

Composition against.

a. .............

b. .............

Language

Introduction: You could begin with one or two sentences summing up the story of the Danish cartoon controversy (so we begin with an interesting example of what we are going to

talk about).

You could then highlight the issue (the same issue that the essay question focuses on).

“Cases like this raise the issue of whether .................................”

Because the whole of the composition will be a presentation of your point of view, you should

briefly state that point of view (without any of the justifications) at the end of the introduction:

“As I see it, ...............................” “There is little/no doubt in my mind that ...............”

Conclusion: Someone with a moderate liberal point of view might begin the conclusion like

this:

“In conclusion, although individuals ought to be able to ...................................., I

would concede that in certain cases there should be laws to ............................”

They could then end by re-emphasizing how important an open dialogue is (and that requires

that the whole spectrum of viewpoints is heard).

“The foundations of a democratic society would be undermined if .........................”

Write it! Although this is a very difficult topic, especially for younger writers, the discussions you have

had so far should have given you enough ideas for an essay of between 250 and 300 words.

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F u l l s p a t e P r eF u l l s p a t e P r eF u l l s p a t e P r eF u l l s p a t e P r e ---- P r o f i c i e n c y P r im e rP r o f i c i e n c y P r im e rP r o f i c i e n c y P r im e rP r o f i c i e n c y P r im e r

Unit 17 “I Want to Teach the World to Sing”? Introduction

The topic here is globalization. The title comes from an old TV advert for Coca-Cola. The piece of film was shot from a helicopter and showed a huge group of people from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds on a beautiful green hillside singing: “I want to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony ....” The message of the advert was ambiguous. To achieve peace and harmony should all the peoples of the world be singing English pop songs together, or was the important thing for all of us to enjoy the same brown fizzy refreshment? Whatever the real meaning of the advert, the image and the song were perfect for a company that had the aspiration to “go global”.

The phenomenon of globalization has a number of aspects, some of which are easy to grasp and others not so easy. Let’s begin with a discussion of some of the more obvious aspects of

globalization.

1. Some people say that globalization is about the world getting smaller. They usually mean that distant parts of the world no longer seem so foreign or alien. Does that make sense?

If you think that something like this is happening, try to connect the phenomenon with developments in the following fields:

• transport

• tourism

• communications

• the media and the internet

• lifestyle

2. Here’s a question to help you think about another aspect of this: How much do you rely on goods produced in other countries? What about your TV, your computer, its software, your

clothes, the chocolate you eat, your bike or your car? Where were they made and what is

the nationality of the company that sold them?

Were people in your country always as reliant on foreign goods, or is this a relatively recent

phenomenon?

Part 1 This massive chapter is divided into two parts: one dealing with globalization and another concerned with the responsibilities that the affluent countries have towards those that are not so privileged.

We begin with globalization. Because it is a complex phenomenon we are giving you four short reading passages which should help you acquire the ideas and language you need to talk about

this immense trend.

Text 1

Globalization: the West is the Best At the most superficial level globalization is a process of creeping uniformity in which more and more of the rest of the world starts to look like the West. Take, for instance, the cuisine of this new “global village.” Are there any major cities left in the world where you can’t buy a Coke, a burger and a portion of fries with ketchup? Then there is the spread of western styles of dress, forms of transport, communication, entertainment, and many others including our magnificent language. There is a darker side to this process of homogenization, which is that other customs, traditions, cultures, identities and even languages are threatened with extinction. People sign petitions to save the whale but no one really cares about the future of the Massai warriors in Africa, for example. It is taken for granted that this once proud tribe will have to give up its traditional way of life and settle for becoming just another tourist attraction in the new Massai theme park in Kenya.

Isn’t this a tremendous achievement? The opinion of many European intellectuals prior to the middle of the twentieth century was that a form of globalization like this was not only inevitable but also rational. Prominent thinkers such as Adam Smith and Karl Marx were convinced that the destiny of every nation in the world was to accept some version of western institutions and values. There were disagreements about which western values were the fundamental ones but there was a consensus that the world’s chaotic diversity of cultures would and should be superseded by a universal and more rational form of social life.

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Questions 1. How does the first paragraph of this passage characterize the process of globalization?

2. The Massai warriors of Africa are mentioned as an example of what?

3. What sort of opinion did many of Europe’s leading intellectuals have about the world’s cultural diversity prior to the mid-twentieth century?

Vocabulary Including those in the introduction, there are 15 words and phrases in bold. Match them with these definitions:

a. strips of potato cooked in boiling oil b. moving slowly (usually so as not to draw attention to yourself)

c. your country’s traditional dishes d. ambitions

e. containing bubbles of carbon dioxide

f. with two or more possible meanings g. state in which different things are made to the same design or specification

h. process of making everything more similar (NB virtually synonymous with the previous word) i. fate, pre-determined future

j. customs and forms of organization that are an established part of society

k. a piece of paper bearing a political demand and a list of signatures of those who support it l. variety

m. accept something unwillingly n. replaced by something superior

o. agreement amongst members of a group

Over to you 1. How do you feel about the fate of tribes and societies like those of the Massai? Is it a cause for

concern, or is this progress and you just have to accept it?

2. Intellectuals used to argue about how to make the world more rational. If western values and practices are adopted by every other country in the world would that represent a victory for Reason over the dark forces of primitive life, or does that idea sound a bit crazy?

Text 2

The Driving Force What drives the process of creeping homogenization? Certainly the underlying economic forces are an important part of the explanation. In our free market system it is imperative that companies keep growing and growing otherwise their shareholders will sell their shares and the value of the company will plummet. Way back in 1993 the CEO (chief executive officer) of Coca-Cola said: “How can a company as mammoth as ours keep expanding? Fortunately, there are new worlds of opportunity out there - densely populated areas with cultures and climates that are ripe for soft drink consumption. That’s virgin territory and we need to develop it.” He pointed to Indonesia as an example – a country where everyone drank tea. “With enough aggressive investment,” he said, “the Indonesians can be persuaded to switch to our beverage.”

To pursue this goal of ever-increasing profits companies like these need the freedom to expand abroad. Often, though, countries have various import controls and other business regulations to protect their local industries and fragile economies. Globalization requires that these be eliminated to create what is often referred to as a “level playing field”. This means that an international giant like Coca-Cola can come and operate within a country on equal terms with the local drinks industry. Ideally all restrictions on foreign trade and investment would be scrapped so that the whole world would become one big free market in which companies like these could sell their goods and move their centres of production wherever they chose.

Questions 1. Which driving force behind the process of globalization does the passage identify?

2. From the point of view of the world’s largest and most powerful businesses, what should each country do with the various restrictions it has on imports and the activities of foreign businesses?

3. Playing fields are normally places where you play sport. When economists talk about level playing fields, what do they mean?

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Vocabulary As before. (Routine is a terrible thing, but what can we do?)

a. drop sharply b. ready; at the right stage of

development c. untouched

d. absolutely necessary e. the flow of goods into a country

f. huge (like those extinct hairy

elephants) g. (literally:) land

h. get rid of

i. remove something that is unnecessary (virtually synonymous

with the above) j. drink (noun)

k. putting your money into some scheme or project with the hope of

making a profit

l. a part of the ownership of a company that can be bought and

sold m. people owning the above

Text 3 This text lists four justifications of globalization and text 4 gives three criticisms of it. There are no

comprehension questions for these two texts. Instead you should discuss each of the points in

turn to make sure you have understood them.

Note: The titles of the following sections come from an English saying: Every cloud has a silver lining. If

the sun is behind a cloud, the latter will appear to have a silvery edge – that is the lining. The saying means that every bad occurrence has a good side.

The Silver Lining 1) Globalization is obviously a boon to the big companies that become even bigger as they expand across the world but it is also supposed to be a godsend for the undeveloped economies that open their borders to the commercial giants. If they kept their borders closed to international trade and investment those backward economies would have no hope of developing. With open borders wealthy foreign investors will invest millions of dollars in new factories, jobs, advertising, transport and retail outlets. Everyone stands to gain.

2) Globalization just gives people what they want. On a hot summer’s day, take anyone from the remotest Indonesian village and give him a choice between a cup of tea and a chilled can of Coke. You know which one he’s bound to pick.

3) Globalization promotes peace. If we’re all part of one big happy market buying the same brands and enjoying the same forms of entertainment, there won’t be any reason to start bombing each other again.

4) Although it isn’t much of an idea, one of the most common excuses for the current form of globalization is that there is no alternative. The process, they admit, can be aggressive and painful at times, but what other option is there? An alternative was tried once in Cuba, the former Soviet Union, China and North Korea. There they tried to be cooperative and egalitarian and promise everyone a house, a job and free public services. The result was that everyone was equal, but everyone was equally poor, and no one wants that, do they?

Vocabulary a. shops where goods are sold to ordinary individuals (2 words)

b. names associated with a manufacturer used to identify goods (e.g. Levi’s jeans) c. a gift that helps you so much that you want to get down on your knees and say a prayer

of thanks

d. something that makes life easier or better (virtually synonymous with the above) e. respecting equality

f. cooled g. the quality of working together well (adjective)

Text 4

The Dark Cloud 1) The most common criticism is that the state of affairs which the rich countries describe as a level playing field actually gives the poor countries a raw deal. To see why this might be, let’s consider an imaginary example: Imagine you are an Asian shoe maker. Like all your fellow craftsmen you make shoes in the traditional way on a very small scale with

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only the simplest machinery to help you. I am a wealthy European with a huge shoe factory that utilizes the latest materials and technology. When I find out that your government is now welcoming foreign businesses I immediately see that I can make a lot of money by moving my factory to your country. With my technology and the low-cost unskilled labour of your fellow countrymen I can make shoes which are either cheaper than yours or much more popular because they look so hip and cool. With your more expensive, old-fashioned, leather shoes you just can’t compete and you go out of business.

This kind of globalization can have a devastating impact on local industries. A different form of globalization might have assisted countries in developing their local industries (by sharing technical knowledge and selling them materials and machinery, for instance) before exposing them to international competition.

2) Another cause for complaint is hypocrisy. The wealthy countries insist that the rest of the world open its borders to free trade, but they reserve the right to maintain their own restrictions if it suits them. In Bolivia, for example, a severe economic crisis gave the US an opportunity to persuade the Bolivian government to open its markets to all goods manufactured in the States. The Americans, though, saw no reason to ease their restrictions on imports of sugar, which Bolivian farmers might have grown if they had been able to export it.

3) The horrific acts of terrorism we have witnessed disprove the thesis that this form of globalization is conducive to world peace. On the contrary, one of its most significant drawbacks is that it provokes international conflict. What seems to many people in the West like a benign expansion of liberty and prosperity can appear to those abroad like the worst form of hubris, with its arrogant dismissal of their concerns about their national sovereignty, national identity, their morality and religion. The economic changes required by the system of “free trade” can spawn injustice, social upheaval and anarchy, thus forming a perfect breeding ground for extremists who yearn to take up arms against the conceited foreigner.

Vocabulary a. very damaging

b. putting something in a situation where

it is not protected c. keep

d. an unfair arrangement (2 words) e. people who make a living from things

like woodwork, stonework, pottery,

weaving, etc f. an adjective used to indicate that

people have something in common such as the same job or nationality

g. harmless

h. really want

i. use

j. a noun used to talk about the extent or size of something

k. lead to, cause l. adjective referring to something

that helps to encourage something

else m. arrogance n. believing you are better than

everyone else (adjective)

o. disruption

Notes: Raw is more commonly used to refer, for instance, to meat before it is cooked. Hence: “The nutritional value

of raw carrots is far higher than that of boiled carrots.”

Crafts are things like pottery, weaving and carving where things are done by hand and involve traditional

skills. But if someone is crafty they are cunning – deceitful in a clever way.

Over to you 1. As with all historical developments globalization has its positive and its negative sides. How

would you weigh up the benefits and the drawbacks?

2. As we said above, many people argue that there is no alternative, and they say that those who reject this form of globalization are really trying to bring history to a standstill. How

sympathetic are you to this point of view, or do you think there might be an alternative beyond simply trying to stop the clock?

Vocabulary practice Use your own ideas to complete these sentences. (If you are unsure how to use the word look

back at the text whose number is given in brackets).

1. Our school has a representative committee of student leaders, and amongst its fifteen members there is a consensus (1) that ......................................................................................................

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2. Will you sign our petition? (1) We are campaigning for ..............................................................

3. The days of the petrol (gasoline) fuelled car are numbered. It won’t be long before petrol is superseded (1) by ........................................ as a fuel for cars.

4. There is a lot of room for improvement in our public services. There ought to be more investment (2) in .........................................

5. It is imperative (2) that students who want to pursue a career in journalism ................................. ...................................................................

6. Share prices will plummet (2) if ........................................................................................................

7. Some people believe that joining the European Union has been a boon (3) to Greece, while others believe that .............................................................................................................................

8. More aggressive competition between businesses in the global economy might be good for profits but it is not necessarily conducive to (4) .......................................................................................

9. The discovery of oil spawned (4) ..................................................................................................

10. As a child I was very sensitive. Consequently, ........................................................................ had a devastating impact on me. (4)

11. I yearn to (4) .................................................................................................................

12. Social upheaval (4) would surely result if ....................................................................................

Language extra: ambiguous words Some words in English have more than one meaning, so, for instance, if someone says: “That’s

funny,” they might mean: “That makes me laugh,” or, “That’s strange.” Without the broader context the meaning of the words would be ambiguous. Can you fit these potentially ambiguous

words into their contexts? (Each word is used twice. You may have to change the form of the

word.)

current fair grave appeal curious moral plain blow stage

1. The documentary was thought-provoking, and I was ........................... to find out more.

2. There is nothing to joke about here. This is a ................... matter

3. People with a ................... complexion ought to use a good sun cream to protect their skin in bright sunlight.

4. I don’t read novels for pleasure. Literature just doesn’t ........................... to me.

5. It isn’t .................... for women to be paid less than men for work which is equal to theirs.

6. Don’t go swimming there. There is a very strong ..................... that can carry you out to sea.

7. Because the dead are not known for being talkative, there is a saying in English: As silent as the ................... .

8. When you .................. your nose you should really use a handkerchief or a paper tissue.

9. I have never known a man with more ...................... integrity than Ghandi – he stuck to his principles even though he knew he might end up in jail or be assassinated.

10. Convinced that her conviction for criticising the government constituted a violation of the right to free speech, the journalist immediately decided to ....................... against the verdict.

11. Crop circles are certainly .......................... phenomena.

12. It was a great .................... to me when I found out that all the hard work had been for nothing.

13. If a piece of fabric or some other surface has no pattern or design (like spots or checks) it is said to be .........................

14. At its ........................ rate of growth the company will be selling 1.5 billion cans a year by the end of the decade.

15. The process of extracting oil from olives involves a number of different .....................

16. From the way he kept hesitating and contradicting himself it was ................... that he was lying.

17. In the theatre the actors usually perform on a raised platform known as a .......................

18. The .................... of the “Cinderella” story is obvious: there is no need for those who are good to fight against evil; they just have to be patient and they will be rewarded.

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Part 2 In part 2 we shift the focus to look at some of the less well-off inhabitants of our global village, and we try to reflect a little upon how we should respond to the difficulties they face.

To get the discussion going it is worth reminding ourselves of the gap between our position and that of the less fortunate people in the world. Read this short text and discuss the points that follow.

The Disparity between the Rich and the Poor On average, European farmers and the governments that give them generous subsidies spend the equivalent of 3 US dollars a day on their cows. In other less fortunate parts of the world there are over 1.3 billion people who have less than a dollar a day to live on. A great many of these regularly go to bed hungry and on average the deaths of some 34,000 children every day can be directly attributed to malnutrition.

Equally disturbing is the magnitude of the disparity between the rich and the poor: The combined assets of the three richest people exceed the gross domestic product (i.e. the value of all the goods produced in the economy in a year) of the 48 least developed countries and their 600 million inhabitants. Even if we move away from the extremes, the contrast is still stark: Roughly 20% of the world’s population owns 80% of the world’s wealth. Picture it this way: There are ten of us and there are ten bars of chocolate. My friend has four bars and so do I, while you poor guys just have a quarter of a bar each. Don’t you just feel a little bitter – a little bit sore about being treated so unjustly?

Questions to discuss: 1. What do you think about this kind of inequality? Some people see such inequality as

perfectly natural – Darwin told us that life is a competitive struggle so perhaps we should just

accept that there are going to be winners and losers. Other people feel that we are morally obliged to make society fairer instead of leaving it like a place in which, as someone else said,

“man is a wolf to man”. What’s your opinion?

2. There are lots of charities raising money to fund relief programmes in developing countries – programmes which can help deprived communities dig wells, improve sanitation facilities,

vaccinate children or provide food aid when people are starving or malnourished. Should we give more money to charities or do you have your reservations about what would

happen to the money? Should donations be voluntary or should the government oblige us

to give money?

Vocabulary a. an adjective used to describe how large and unpleasant the difference between two things

is

b. the valuable goods and property that an individual or company owns c. lacking something important

d. doubts e. size

f. holes dug to obtain water from underground

g. a medical intervention giving someone immunity to a disease h. difference

i. the state that someone is in because their diet is inadequate j. systems for keeping places clean and healthy (especially sewage systems for the removal

of domestic liquid waste)

k. public money given to companies that would not otherwise be economically viable

Reading

Does Aid Work? From time to time a protracted drought or a civil war disrupts food supplies in some impoverished corner of the world and leaves hundreds of thousands of people on the brink of starvation. When this happened in the east African country of Ethiopia in 1984 the conscience of one British pop star, Bob Geldof, was pricked and he quickly organised a mammoth campaign to raise money for the starving. He wrote the song “Do they know it’s Christmas?” that went to No.1 in 13 countries, and donated the proceeds - $18 million

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– to Ethiopian famine relief. Six months later another $80 million was raised during two huge concerts in the UK and the US and a television marathon. Bob was a charismatic figure who made his passionate commitment to the cause plain for all to see. At one point during the tele-marathon he started thumping the glass table and yelling to the viewers: “Don’t go to the pub tonight. There are people dying NOW. So please, please stay in and give us the f***ing money!” The money poured in from people who, perhaps for the first time in their lives, genuinely cared about the plight of those in dire need.

Twenty years later Bob Geldof returned to Ethiopia to see how well the country was doing. He was not heartened by what he found. Although he didn’t see anyone dying of hunger and although the civil war which had been raging in 1984 was over, the level of poverty was still appalling, despite all the aid money (over a billion dollars had been given in total in 1984 alone). In 2005 the infant mortality rate was 10% (i.e. one in ten children died before reaching their first birthday), half of the surviving children were underweight and the country had the lowest per capita income in the world, with the average person surviving on $100 a year.

Vocabulary 1. Match the words in bold with the following.

a. the money raised by a charitable event b. able to impress an audience

c. a noun referring to a desperate situation

d. an adjective meaning desperate e. terrible

f. shout g. edge

h. state in which people are starving

i. when the duration of something is longer than expected (adjective) j. encouraged

k. obvious l. the faculty of the mind which enables us to appreciate ethical values and feel guilty

m. to hit with the fist

2. If you are using a pin or a needle and you accidentally prick your finger, the sharp point

pierces the skin. The TV images of the famine “pricked Bob Geldof’s conscience.” What

do you think this might mean?

Over to you 1. Ethiopia is in Africa and it is one of the poorest countries in the world. Look at the following

list and say which of the reasons is probably the least important in explaining why countries

like Ethiopia are so poor (we are not experts, but let’s make an educated guess).

• The country’s borders were drawn by foreigners, and the tribes who live within them cannot cooperate with each other.

• The government is corrupt – leaders are putting public money into their own private bank accounts instead of using it to improve public services.

• The culture does not place a high value on the accumulation of wealth. • The country lacks natural resources. • Levels of education are poor so local people are less likely to know how to improve their situation.

• The country has difficulty producing sufficient food because of climatic problems such as drought.

• The vast majority of people are lazy.

2. Having read the account of Bob Geldof’s project, how effective would you say the aid given to Ethiopia was?

3. Bob Geldof saw people starving and he made a mammoth effort to raise money to feed those desperate people. Of course in emergencies like this it is right that food aid is given

top priority, but if we take a more long-term view of the problem is there anything to be

said against an exclusive focus on food aid? 4. Some people argue that once the emergency is over and the victims are no longer dying of

starvation, there ought to be a plan to reduce poverty. Although it is extremely difficult to come up with concrete proposals about what should be done, can you come up with some

general ideas or principles for the approach that should be taken?

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Reading

Keeping the Poor in their Place When countries like Ethiopia were colonies it was understandable that their native populations were downtrodden and hard up. But the collapse of the Empires after the Second World War ought to have ushered in a period of liberty and prosperity. It didn’t. Ever since day one, an unfortunate combination of factors has hindered their development.

One factor is the injustice of international trade. To illustrate this let’s take the example of chocolate. Manufacturers and retailers can make a healthy profit from chocolate products. The farmers, however, who grow the cocoa beans generally make very little money, despite the fact that they have probably had to work for six months to cultivate their crop. Now it just so happens that 90% of the world’s cocoa beans are grown in developing countries that used to be colonies, while 95% of the world’s chocolate is manufactured in the wealthy countries of their former masters. If the international system were just, it would allow those poor countries to make their own chocolate products and sell them abroad, thereby vastly increasing their income. As it is, the wealthy countries have imposed a system of tariffs (taxes imposed on goods imported into the country) to protect their own industries from competition. The tariffs on beans are non-existent while those on chocolate products from developing countries are astronomical, so those countries have no choice but to limit themselves to selling beans.

This wouldn’t be too bad if the foodstuffs and raw materials the developing countries have to sell could fetch a reasonable price on the world market. All too often, though, they can’t. The case of coffee illustrates two of the reasons why not. There are hundreds of thousands of small coffee producers around the world, but six huge multinational companies (including the Swiss company Nestle, the makers of Nescafe) buy half of the world’s coffee beans. In a market like that the handful of buyers hold all the power and the small farmers simply have to accept the price they are given. To make matters worse all the Third World countries are put under pressure to earn money from the same short list of exports. The world markets are soon flooded and prices fall further. The system works so well that the prices of coffee and cocoa beans and cotton are now a third of what they were in 1980 – great news for western manufacturers but a devastating blow for Third World farmers.

One final example of atrocious injustice: In 2005 the US signed an agreement with a number of African countries allowing their clothing factories to export garments to the US. There was, though, one important condition: the clothes had to be manufactured using "fabrics woven and cut in the United States." At the same time those same African countries were negotiating with the World Bank to try to borrow money to sort out their economies. They were told quite bluntly that the loans would be granted providing they “eliminate all impediments to private investment, both domestic and foreign.” While the US had the power to defend its own clothing industry, African countries on the verge of financial ruin were powerless to defend anything. They had no other choice but to throw open their borders regardless of the effect it might have on their local industries.

Level-headed, clear-thinking rational people are right to be sceptical of conspiracy theories. However, if you read enough about international economic and political developments it is difficult to avoid drawing the conclusion that the wealthy countries are quietly collaborating to keep the poor countries poor and thereby ensure that they have a plentiful supply of cheap raw materials and cheap labour.

Questions 1. The verb tread (trod, trodden) means to put your foot down on something: e.g. “Sorry for

treading on your foot.” What does the adjective downtrodden in the passage above?

2. Cinemas used to have ushers – people whose job it was to show you to your seat. In the

first paragraph do you think the verb usher in means: a. mark the beginning, or

b. mark the end?

3. Given its context in the first paragraph, do you think hinder means “aid” or “obstruct”?

4. How do wealthy countries stop poorer countries making money from the export of chocolate

products?

5. What do we call companies that have factories and offices in a number of different countries?

(Paragraph 3)

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6. What is said to have been “a devastating blow” to farmers in the developing world?

7. In 2005 America agreed to let African countries export clothing to the US. What was the catch

in the agreement?

8. Paragraph four refers to African countries which were “on the verge of financial ruin.” What

does this mean?

9. Does the last paragraph imply that we are justified in believing that there is a conspiracy to keep the poor countries trapped in poverty?

Vocabulary Look for words and phrases in bold that match the following. (The number of phrases exceeds the

number of definitions). a. weak after a long period of ill-

treatment by more powerful people b. a country controlled by another

country c. terrible, appalling

d. impoverished

e. items of clothing f. to aggravate the situation

g. in that way h. obstruct

i. obstruction

j. calm and sensible

k. working together l. directly, without worrying about

other people’s feelings m. people who sell things to ordinary

people (not to other owners of

shops) n. when people secretly plan things

that are against other people’s interests

Over to you 1. Ethiopia grows large amounts of coffee beans. What changes in the current system of trade

would need to be made to allow Ethiopia to make more money from this crop?

2. Why would companies and governments in places like Europe prefer to keep things as they

are now?

3. Ethiopian coffee might be cheaper than coffee made in Europe but if it were imported into

Europe, workers in the European factories where they process coffee beans would lose their jobs. Is this a fair price to pay to help a country like Ethiopia develop? Do you think

European voters could be persuaded to accept it?

Vocabulary practice Use 10 of the following words to fill the gaps. You will have to change the form of some of them.

hinder blunt atrocious

retail thereby weave

prick verge disheartened

plight raise subsidize

1. I didn’t care much about the starving people of Africa until I saw the documentary that really .................. my conscience.

2. I desperately wanted to do something to relieve the ............................. of those poor people.

3. The concert will not only ................... money for the charity but it will also ....................... people’s awareness of what is going on in sub-Saharan Africa.

4. Many farmers in Europe would go out of business if they were not ..........................(given financial support) by the EU.

5. If you own a shop, you want to purchase things in bulk and pay wholesale prices for them, so you wouldn’t go to an ordinary ...................... outlet in the high street.

6. Last year I thought I was on the brink of losing my job. Now I’ve lost it and I feel as if I am on the .................. of a nervous breakdown.

7. I feel particularly ......................... about losing my job as a supervisor at the factory because I know that I won’t find another one like that and so I’ll probably have to go back to doing something like delivering pizzas on a scooter.

8. In the end he enrolled on a plumbing course and ................... gained the skills he needed to set up his own little business.

9. He had thought of becoming a singer, but he soon realized he had a(n) ............................. (dreadful) voice.

10. After the first lesson he asked his teacher for her opinion, and she said: “To be .................. Bob, there is no hope of me making you into a pop star.”

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Language extra: agreeing and disagreeing We are going to write a composition in which we have to agree or disagree with something someone says so this stuff should come in handy. Put the verbs in the right form.

wholeheartedly find strike overlook

extent fail concede endorse

further ridiculous reservations mistaken

truth head come mark

1. To a certain ................... (up to a point) I agree with the writer, but ...

2. The writer is ......................... (wrong) when he assumes that all women want to be mothers.

3. It is ......................... (absurd and outrageous) to suggest that these people are no longer interested in having a better standard of living.

4. Nothing could be .......................... from the truth. (i.e. what they say is completely wrong)

5. I ......................... (very much) agree with the idea that ......

6. I .......................... myself in complete agreement with the writer when she says that ......

7. She hits the nail on the ...................... when she points out that instead of feeding these people we should be helping them to feed themselves.

8. He is very wide of the ........................ when he says that Ethiopia suffered a great deal during the age of Empire. Of all the African countries Ethiopia suffered the least since it was only occupied by foreign powers between 1936 and 1944.

9. I have my .............................. (doubts) about the argument that this will eliminate poverty in Africa.

10. He also ............................ (ignores) the fact that without a good transport system it is very difficult for farmers to get their produce to market.

11. There is a lot of ...................... in what she says.

12. The idea that Ethiopia was the birthplace of humanity ..................... me as highly doubtful.

13. Although you disagree with me now, I am sure you will ...................... round to my way of thinking if you look into the matter a little further.

14. Although I oppose the plan to import coffee products from Ethiopia, I .................... that this would be a boost to the Ethiopian economy.

15. I cannot ....................... (support) the plan to reduce import controls on coffee products.

16. The writer .................... to appreciate that things look very different from a woman’s point of view.

Writing This time we will write a letter. You need to imagine that you have read an article by a male author in a British newspaper and you have decided to write to the editor to express either your agreement or your disagreement and to respond to the points raised. (NB You don’t need to imagine you are British. You can give the view from abroad and comment on what you think of this particular view.) Below is an extract from the article, followed by some facts about Ethiopia:

There is more than a grain of truth in the old English saying that charity begins at home. Few people in Britain are starving but many are in need, and catering for their needs ought to be our priority. This is where our most pressing duty lies. Ethiopia – to take one example of a country we are often asked to feel sorry for – is a long distance away, we have no ties with the Ethiopians, we have nothing in common with them (apart from the fact that half the population is Christian) and they provide us with nothing (although there will be a few ground Ethiopian

beans in the instant coffee we get from Switzerland), so there is no way we can or should persuade the British people to make significant sacrifices to assist them.

If there is another drought in East Africa and people are starving, I would endorse sending a few shipments of food aid. Europe has an agricultural surplus so we wouldn’t incur any great loss in transferring some of the extra wheat to Africa. Once the emergency is over, however, the aid ought to stop.

Vocabulary In the extract look for words or phrases that mean:

a. satisfy (needs)

b. needing minimal preparation (ready almost immediately) c. the amount of goods that can be sent by a single ship, plane, train or other vehicle

d. the quantity that is over and above what is actually needed e. to lose something in an economic transaction or business dealing

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Ethiopia Factfile

Famous for: being the country where coffee was first discovered in the fourteenth century.

Infamous for: poverty (the average income is the second lowest in the world)

Population: 75 million and growing fast

Ethnic diversity: Immense – 8 major tribes and 83 languages

Life expectancy: 49 years

Proportion of the population under 16: 50%

Literacy rate: only one in three can read and write

Education: only 15% of children attend secondary school

Health: 9.3% of the population HIV positive

Average income: $115 per year. Over 80% have less than $2 a day to live on.

Average walk from a rural farm to a road: six hours.

Economy: 85% of the population are small-scale farmers most of whom grow coffee beans for export. In some years the country must import a million tonnes of food to feed its population. Agricultural productivity is often hindered by poor farming practices, drought and pests such as locusts.

Development priorities: improved roads; vehicles for transport in rural areas; education, especially training for farmers; equipment and training for irrigation; provision of low-interest loans to small farmers; allowing Ethiopia to export its own processed coffee products.

Analysis

A. First identify the two main points in the extract that you could respond to.

1. ........

2. ........

B. To help you work out your response to these it might be helpful to discuss the following:

1. Few would deny that charity begins at home, but does it end there? Is it right to turn our

backs on the plight of other countries?

2. Should you wait for people to start dying of starvation before offering help? In other words,

isn’t prevention better than cure? In very general terms what needs to be done to prevent a

repetition of the catastrophe?

To help you with the discussion of food aid, here is some more information. What point does this

paragraph make? Is this a point you would want to make in your letter?

In times of famine food aid is a godsend but at other times it can do real damage. For a country to be able to feed itself its agriculture needs to thrive, but that won’t happen if there is an influx of free food from abroad. Demand for local produce collapses and so local farmers go out of business. In countries where the majority of the population work on the land, if the farmers lose their livelihood the economy as a whole takes a nosedive. In the end, the free gift starts to look more like a stab in the back as the country is driven further into poverty.

Language Some people may want to partially agree with some of the writer’s points instead of wholly agreeing or wholly disagreeing. In conversation they can say: “I agree up to a point, but ....” In

their writing they might prefer to put it like this: “The writer is quite right when he says that ........”, and then they can qualify that agreement by saying: “However, this does not mean that we

should not ........”.

Letters to editors might begin like this:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I have just read the article in today’s paper about ................., and I would like to

express my wholehearted agreement with/fervent disagreement with/doubts about

the points made in that thought-provoking/outrageous/insightful article.

According to the writer, ....

At the end of the letter there is no need for a traditional conclusion that begins with a phrase like “To sum up,..” Use the last major paragraph to make your final point and then end with “Yours

faithfully,” and your signature.

Write it! Write you letter to the editor (between 250 and 300 words) using information and ideas from this unit and not forgetting two or three of the lovely phrases for agreeing and disagreeing.

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