A WINDOW ON THE UNIVERSE: USING … · Memòria de treball. Llicència retribuïda, curs 2008-09 A WINDOW ON THE UNIVERSE: USING NEWSPAPERS IN THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM Mª Dolores Raventós

Memòria de treball. Llicència retribuïda, curs 2008-09

A WINDOW ON THE UNIVERSE:

USING NEWSPAPERS IN THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM

Mª Dolores Raventós Conill

Curs 2008-2009 Modalitat : B2

Memòria del treball de l’especialitat d’anglès realitzat durant el període de llicència retribuïda, concedida pel Departament d’Ensenyament de la Generalitat de Catalunya

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INDEX

1. Introducció

1.1. Explicació del tema i marc referencial ……………. p.1

1.2. Antecedents del tema objecte de treball ……….. p.2 1.3. Objectius que es pretenen assolir ………………….. p.3

2. Treball dut a terme 2.1. Disseny del pla de treball …………………………….. p. 4 2.2. Metodologia emprada …………………………………. p. 4 2.3. Descripció dels recursos utilitzats ………………….p. 5

3. Resultats obtinguts. 3.1 Índex d’activitats ……………………………..…….. p.6

3.2. Activitats ………………………………………………. p. 8-130

4. Conclusions …………………………………………… p. 131

5. Bibliografia bàsica utilitzada ………………….. p. 132

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1. INTRODUCCIÓ

1.1. Explicació del tema i marc referencial

Aquest treball té el seu destinatari en un context educatiu i temporal molt específic: el

món de les Escoles Oficials d’Idiomes en l’era de la comunicació i dels mitjans

audiovisuals.

Les Escoles Oficials d’Idiomes són entitats molt especials dins el món educatiu.

Pertanyen al món de l’ensenyament públic i, al mateix temps, s’inscriuen dins l’apartat

d’educació no obligatòria. Els seus estudiants són persones de totes les edats i

nacionalitats, d’extracció social i cultural molt variada, i normalment estan molt

motivats per aprendre la llengua estrangera que han escollit. Les activitats que

presentem van adreçades als alumnes de Cicle Superior: als alumnes de nivell quart,

tradicionalment catalogat com a “upper-intermediate” i que fa de pont entre el nivell

intermig i el nivell avançat, i als alumnes de nivell cinquè, dit també “advanced” i on

l’alumne rep, si realitza la prova final satisfactòriament, el títol anomenat Certificat de

Nivell Avançat.

Dit això, cal considerar les raons principals per les quals els estudiants manifesten el

seu interès en aprendre l’anglès. La gran majoria necessita aquest idioma, autèntica

“lingua franca” del món actual, per raons professionals (han de manegar bibliografia

en anglès, viatgen per motius laborals), o bé necessiten l’anglès per fer turisme, per

comunicar-se amb amics o coneguts estrangers, o bé per entendre les cançons, les

pel·lícules o les sèries de televisió que els interessen. Una minoria confessa que

estudien anglès perquè els agrada, simplement. Treta aquesta darrera consideració, és

evident que l’índole d’aquesta necessitat és bàsicament comunicativa i que es

requereix per part de l’alumne un marge d’autonomia el més ampli possible.

És aquí on el món dels mitjans de comunicació apareix com a canalitzador d’aquests

interessos. Aquest treball té com objectiu presentar una sèrie de textos periodístics

autèntics que descriuen el món divers i multicultural dels diferents països de parla

anglesa; aquest textos van acompanyats per material complementari en format DVD

amb activitats per fomentar la pràctica de la comprensió oral. És a dir, els textos seran

l’excusa per practicar allò que anomenem “integrated skills” o destreses integrades.

Al mateix temps, els textos i les activitats intentaran ser quelcom més que simples

eines per aprendre una llengua estrangera: la llengua és el canal que expressa una

realitat cultural, històrica i social determinada. En aquest cas, l’anglès és la llengua

emprada cada dia per milions d’habitants a diferents països dels cinc continents, i

aquesta és una realitat sovint molt desconeguda per els alumnes. Per aquesta raó,

intentarem buscar textos i crear activitats que siguin rellevants a l’experiència dels

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estudiants i que configurin una autèntica finestra que doni al món, “a window on the

universe”.

1.2. Antecedents del tema

Tradicionalment, la lectura de textos periodístics a l’aula d’anglès permet combinar dues tècniques lectores diferents: l’anomenada “extensive reading” o lectura extensiva, la qual cosa vol dir llegir una sèrie de textos variats bàsicament per plaer, buscant només la comprensió general del text, i l’anomenada “intensive reading” o lectura intensiva, que suposa llegir un text amb més atenció, tot buscant informació específica. Els beneficis de la tècnica d’extensive reading són molts: els alumnes accepten de grat la invitació a la lectura perquè es troben llegint textos que podrien estar llegint en la seva pròpia llengua, aprenen coses sobre temes que els interessen o sobre temes que desconeixien, s’ho poden passar bé descobrint una història interessant o discutint sobre temes que desperten controvèrsia. El volum d’exposició a la llengua estrangera mitjançant aquesta activitat és enorme i suposa un gran avenç en l’aprenentatge inconscient de l’idioma. També cal destacar que té un aspecte molt gratificant perquè normalment és difícil que l’alumne es quedi amb la impressió, en acabar de llegir l’article, de que no ha entès absolutament res. La lectura intensiva presenta normalment un nivell més elevat d’exigència, però molts alumnes la valoren positivament per allò que té de repte. Permet combinar activitats de vocabulari amb o sense diccionari (monolingüe en el cas del Cicle Superior que ara ens ocupa), analitzar matisos, jocs de paraules, i treballar la comprensió escrita més detalladament. La meva experiència personal com a professora dels nivells quart i cinquè, i com a cap de nivell quart durant molts anys, m’ha demostrat que la lectura de textos periodístics és una activitat rellevant a l’experiència personal dels alumnes (tant com a individus com a estudiants), està carregada de significat, no és intranscendent ni superficial, i és altament gratificant. És quan som capaços de llegir premsa estrangera en l’idioma original que sentim que, d’alguna manera, hem avançat en el camí d’aprendre aquesta llengua amb èxit. L’elaboració de la part de comprensió escrita del nivell quart i de l’examen final per obtenir el Certificat d’Aptitud contempla aquesta importància del material periodístic: l’alumne s’enfronta a una sèrie de textos periodístics variats (entrevistes, articles, notícies breus...) i ha d’acreditar la seva comprensió. Aquest aspecte de la comprensió escrita es complementa amb la presentació de notícies, reportatges i entrevistes tretes de canals televisius per tal de practicar la comprensió oral. L’objectiu últim d’aquest projecte és preparar material per tal d’aconseguir que els alumnes siguin capaços de buscar i escollir material periodístic autèntic pel seu compte d’una manera autònoma i, al mateix temps, entenguin que aprendre i gaudir d’aquesta activitat no són tasques incompatibles. Tots aquests arguments són igualment aplicables a la pràctica de la comprensió a l’aula d’idiomes. Els motius que m’han portat a escollir el tema d’aquest projecte són diversos. En primer lloc, sempre es fa èmfasi en els beneficis de la utilització de material autèntic a l’aula d’idiomes, perquè és atractiu en tant que és pròxim a l’experiència personal de

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l’alumne. Dona, mai millor dit, “autenticitat”. Però, al mateix temps, els llibres de text no són gaire generosos a l’hora d’oferir material periodístic autèntic interessant. De vegades, al Cicle Superior, aquest material ha sigut prèviament adaptat, manipulat o retallat per presentar activitats de caire gramatical. El fet mateix d’integrar el text en un mètode fa que perdi frescor i proximitat. Per altra banda, degut a que la preparació d’aquest tipus de material por arribar a suposar una inversió de temps molt considerable, els diferents departaments d’anglès no sempre en tenen gaire material periodístic autèntic al seu abast. Vull mencionar en aquest apartat els treballs duts a terme per la professora Núria

Casas Martí, Vídeos i activitats interactives de comprensió oral en anglès, i per Miguel

Castillo Muñoz, Tècniques per promoure l’autonomia i l’aprenentatge de l’anglès a les

EOI.

1.3. Objectius

La finalitat d’aquest projecte és proveir els alumnes d’un “reading bank” de textos periodístics autèntics, amb activitats complementàries per practicar la comprensió oral. Els objectius immediats són els següents:

1. Millorar la comprensió lectora 2. Millorar la rapidesa lectora 3. Expandir el seu vocabulari 4. Familiaritzar els alumnes amb la rica realitat multicultural dels diferents països

de parla anglesa i ampliar la seva visió del món 5. Presentar un recull de les diferents varietats de llengua anglesa 6. Donar pràctica a l’alumne, a partir del text escrit, en altres destreses: 7. Donar estratègies per enfrontar-se, de manera individual, a les dificultats

presentades per un text autèntic. 8. Despertar el seu esperit crític mitjançant la comparació del tractament de la

mateixa notícia segons el mitjà de comunicació que l’ha emès. 9. Donar eines per l’autoavaluació, de manera que puguin comprovar de manera

objectiva i autònoma el seu progrés. 10. Posar els alumnes en contacte amb diferents pàgines web i diaris online , que

permetin reforçar l’autonomia de l’alumne en comprensió lectora. 11. Donar pràctica per l’examen final del Certificat d’Aptitud.

La selecció de material autèntic, la preparació de les diferents tasques, i el seguiment

de l’actuació de l’alumne es faran tenint en compte el currículum específic elaborat

per el Departament d’Educació de la Generalitat de Catalunya per el Cicle Superior de

les Escoles Oficials d’Idiomes i les directrius del Consell d’Europa desenvolupades en el

Marc Europeu Comú de Referència per a Llengües

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1. TREBALL DUT A TERME

2.1. Disseny del pla de treball

Aquest projecte correspon a la sol·licitud d’una llicència de tipus B-2, és a dir, s’ha dut a terme durant els cinc mesos que van de l’1 de febrer al 30 de juny de 2009. Les activitats estan organitzades tot seguint uns eixos temàtics, que són els tradicionalment presentats pels diferents llibres de text. El primer més va estar dedicat a la recollida de material, feta de manera sistemàtica per apartats temàtics i per destreses (Reading i Listening). A mida que emmagatzemava el material anava preparant les activitats. La llista de temes va ser modificada: el tema “Men and women” es solapava amb el tema “The world of work” i “Living abroad” amb “Travel and holiday”. Vaig afegir “Science and Technology”, que em semblava atractiu i no estava contemplat en la proposta inicial.

TRAVEL AND HOLIDAY: 1-15 febrer THE ENVIRONMENT: 15-28 febrer THE WORLD OF WORK: 1 març-15 març FOOD AND HEALTH: 15 març-30 març

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: 15 abril- 30 abril CRIME: 2 maig-15 maig ART: 15 maig-30 maig

La primera setmana de juliol va ser dedicada a arrodonir la presentació de la memòria: introducció al treball, compaginació de temes, edició definitiva de format i de materials, revisió de les tasques, correcció d’errates, i elaboració de conclusions.

2.2. Metodologia emprada

Com ja hem mencionat abans, els temes escollits i el material seleccionat tenen com a finalitat donar l’oportunitat als alumnes de practicar la comprensió oral i escrita de manera integradora i, al mateix temps, ampliar la seva visió de la rica realitat del món configurat pels països de parla anglesa. Per aconseguir aquesta finalitat tindrem en compte diferents aspectes i teories metodològiques. La creença que la lectura és una activitat beneficiosa en l’aprenentatge d’una llengua estrangera es remunta a l’antiguitat clàssica i a l’edat mitjana.. Heinrich Schliemann, descobridor de les restes de Troia a finals del segle XIX, va aprendre grec antic traduint tot sol l’obra d’Homer a l’alemany. Als anys 30 del segle passat, l’americà Michael West va idear la teoria del “Reading Method” o “reading approach”, que basava l‘aprenentatge de l’idioma en la lectura únicament, en detriment de la pràctica d’altres destreses i del coneixement de la gramàtica. El gran avantatge d’aquest mètode era que reforçava l’autonomia de l’aprenent al no subjectar-lo a un horari o a un espai físic determinat. Els anys 60 introdueixen l’idea d’”exposure” o exposició a la “target language” o llengua objecte de l’aprenentatge, i troba en el concepte d’”immersió” els seu punt culminant, És aquí on la pràctica de la comprensió oral i escrita adquireixen una nova rellevància.

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Aquest concepte és desenvolupat més extensament per les teories cognitives dels anys 70, que presenten les llengües com un conjunt complex de regles emprades de forma “automàtica” (Diller, 1978) gràcies al seu ús: una llengua viva és una llengua en la qual podem “pensar”, i oposava “meaningful practice” o pràctica significativa a l’aprenentatge de l’idioma mitjançant la repetició mecànica de drills o estructures fora de context. La rellevància del context queda aquí palesa: la llengua reflecteix l’entorn, la societat i la mentalitat dels què la parlen; l’immersió en una realitat lingüística és també la immersió en la cultura dels països que l’empren. Aquest ús contextual de la llengua ens porta directament al mètode comunicatiu proposat per Hymes (1972) i Widdowson (1978), on la llengua és concebuda com un mitjà de relació entre els éssers humans que té per objectiu la “comprensió”. Malgrat que la lectura és un acte eminentment solitari, el professor por crear situacions dins l’aula en què els alumnes es vegin obligats a integrar la comprensió lectora dins un context comunicatiu, és a dir, relacionant la tasca amb activitats orals, escrites i de comprensió oral. Totes aquestes teories, que no es neguen entre sí sinó que perfeccionen i superen les anteriors, queden millorades per la integració de les teories relatives al “learning to learn” o de “aprendre a aprendre”, que busquen millorar l’autonomia de l’alumne a l’aula i defineixen el rol del professor com a monitor o “facilitator”, i de l’ “action research” de teòrics com a Van Lier, que proposa noves estratègies en la detecció de problemes en l’acte de l’aprenentatge i el seu seguiment individualitzat i solució per part del professor. Aquí hem de destacar la importància de les pautes metacognitives facilitades pel principi de l’ “Action Research” i les escales descriptives fixades pel Marc de l’Avaluació DIALANG, descrites al document sobre el Marc Europeu Comú de Referència per a Llengües. Aquestes escales presenten diferents estadis en el procés de l’aprenentatge i, a partir dels resultats obtinguts en l’execució de les diverses tasques, l’alumne pot valorar la seva actuació de manera autònoma, avaluar el seu progrés i prendre consciència de les seves mancances o d’allò que necessita per tal de millorar. Per altra banda, l’ “action research” es basa en la detecció de problemes en el procés de l’aprenentatge i en la presa de mesures per resoldre’ls a partir d’un seguiment pautat i sistemàtic (les “pautes metacognitives”). Tots aquests aspectes queden complementat per el punt de vista que aporten els estudis culturals o “Cultural Studies”, que ens aconsellen allunyar-nos d’una visió etnocèntrica del món.

2.3. Descripció dels recursos utilitzats

La selecció de material autèntic i la preparació de les diferents tasques s’han fet tenint en

compte el currículum específic elaborat per el Departament d’Educació de la Generalitat de

Catalunya per el Cicle Superior de les Escoles Oficials d’Idiomes i les directrius del Consell

d’Europa desenvolupades en el Marc Europeu Comú de Referència per a Llengües.

Com a principals fonts directes de material podem citar:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/ http://www.britishcouncil.org/

http://www.reuters.com/ http://www.newspapers.com/

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/ http://www.mirror.co.uk/

http://www.cnn.com/ http://www.independent.co.uk/

http://www.nytimes.com/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/

http://www.foxnews.com/ http://news.sky.com/skynews/home/

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/ http://www.voanews.com

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ http://www.msnbc.msn.com

http://english.aljazeera.net/

2. RESULTATS OBTINGUTS: ACTIVITATS

1. TRAVEL

a. AFRICA

i. Alive and in South Africa (Reading Comprehension)

ii. Whale-Watching in South Africa (Listening Comprehension)

iii. Letter from Africa: America’s cousin on the continent (RC)

iv. Natural Fitness in Kenya (LC)

b. INDIA

i. Why Kerala needs eco-tourism (RC)

ii. India village has 300 sets of twins (LC)

iii. Mumbai’s dabba deliveries (RC)

iv. India reprise the Tiger Dance (LC)

c. AUSTRALIA

i. Aboriginal heritage on the rocks (RC)

ii. Aboriginal remains returned (LC)

d. CANADA

i. Canada: My adventure cruise to Baffin Island (RC)

ii. Weekend window to Jasper, Canada (LC)

2. THE ENVIRONMENT

a. GOING GREEN

i. Anti-nuclear protest 50 years on (RC)

ii. Australia debates energy future (LC)

iii. Global warning from Copenhagen (RC)

iv. Climate change killing sea life (LC)

b. NATURAL CATASTROPHES

i. Not a mini-tornado, but a genuine twister (RC)

ii. How we survived a tornado (LC)

3. THE WORLD OF WORK

a. WORKING MUMS

i. One-third of working mums are burned out (RC)

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ii. Baby boom in congress (LC)

b. THE HOMELESS

i. Homelessness in Canada (RC)

ii. Homeless success story (LC)

4. FOOD AND HEALTH

a. FAST FOOD

i. Kid goes into McDonald’s and orders… yogurt? (RC)

ii. Fast food reigns in China (LC)

b. ALCOHOL ABUSE

i. Tackling ‘Booze Britain’ (RC)

ii. Are you an alcoholic? (LC)

5. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

a. MOBILE PHONES

i. In rural India, a passage to wirelessness (RC)

ii. Indian children, climate change and mobile phones (LC)

b. DARWIN

i. Rage of reason (RC)

ii. Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday (LC)

6. CRIME

a. ECO-CRIME i. Massacre of Congo’s gorillas (RC)

ii. Eco-cops fight environmental crime (LC)

b. CYBERCRIME

i. Software piracy worsens in Asia (RC)

ii. Digital piracy (LC)

c. SLAVERY

i. Back to their roots on an island of tears (RC)

ii. Modern slavery in Kenia (LC)

7. ART

a. PICASSO IN LONDON i. Picasso v the old masters? No contest (RC)

ii. Picasso v the old masters at the National Gallery (LC)

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TRAVEL

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Alive and in South Africa May 05 2009 By Lois Nicholls

Alive! The word pops into my head as we enter Johannesburg's Oliver Tambo Airport.

Ironic really, isn't it, for a country with one of the highest crime rates in the world? Yet I feel it. Sense it. I am reminded of a friend who says he comes alive every time he returns – feels boring, bland and disconnected for weeks in his new country, Australia, every time he goes back.

"An electricity in the air" is how another friend describes it. People seem to laugh more, live more.

These thoughts resonate as my daughter and I arrive jaded yet expectant. We collect cling-

wrapped suitcases and plastic piping containing an art canvas paintstakingly painted by my mother in law for my niece's wedding gift and embark on our flight to Durban.

On arrival in Durban, we load luggage onto trolley, relieved and mildly surprised everything is

still intact. We meet my precious parents who are so, so happy to see us. It seems like yesterday yet it is years since our last visit. My friend's Italian in-laws are there too – collecting gifts and a watch needing repair from the bowels of my cling-wrapped suitcase. In the commotion of unwrapping suitcase, embracing parents and searching for gifts, I leave the plastic piping carrying painting in the middle of Arrivals. I remember my concentration lapse

halfway to my parent's home. The joy of arriving is tainted by the concern that I will never see

the painting again. Surprise! Euphoria! They have found the painting. Early the next morning, my dad and I brave the hour's journey back to the airport to claim my well-traveled artwork. I acknowledge the piping looks like a bazooka and marvel no-one called the bomb squad.

We repeat the hair-raising journey back home to my parent's picturesque little retirement village lined with neat homes and colourful gardens.

The views are sensational. I marvel at how green and lush everything looks. Plants grow fast.

There is broccoli in the garden, a prolific crop of bright red pepperdews (which my dad later bottles for me), green peppers are ready for picking and a profusion of pink dahlias bloom in the front garden. My mother carelessly tosses seeds into a flowerbed of rich, dark soil and they sprout within days.

I learn the bright orange flowers that joyfully spill over a trellis in the back yard are Black-eyed Susans. I wonder if they'll grow in my dry shale garden back home.

I photograph old oak trees and magnificent liquid amber's dressed in their bright red autumn wardrobe. We take a walk within an extensive boundary of electric fencing and encounter impala, blesbok and zebra. The grass smells sweet. I am reminded of my youngest son who when asked what he loved most about South Africa, thought for a moment and then said: "The smell." At the time a more cynical me wondered what he meant. I now understand.

A warm, friendly neighbour delivers freshly baked carrot muffins and says she'll leave cheese

puffs at the front door early on Sunday morning. Random acts of kindness are a hallmark of

this little village.

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Green rolling mountains. The Howick Falls – gaily decorated with colourful, newly washed blankets at its summit. Where else in the world?

(…)

We travel deep into KwaZulu-Natal for my niece's nuptials. I meet my beautiful sisters, my nephews and nieces. Everything is warm and fuzzy.

The wedding scene is breath-taking. A stark white marquee has a backdrop of imposing mountains, a dam complete with ducks and a green field of inquisitive cows.

The local tight-knit farming community pitches in to help – arranges flowers, helps set out tables and an all-important dance floor. A garden arch is transformed with foliage and baby's breath. The marquee is bedecked with white drapes, fairy lights and chandeliers. Generous urns of flowers spill out from corners, green hydrangeas, roses and soft pink proteas add subtle splashes of colour to crisp white table settings. My daughter and I help tie sage green chiffon sashes around smartly dressed white chairs.

The day arrives and the weather is perfect. An exquisite bride and handsome groom exchange vows under a fabric festooned arch. The bride sobs when it comes to say "I do" and we all cry with her.

Photographs are taken under an old oak tree. A three-layered dense, dark chocolate cake decorated with golden spun sugar and chocolate cup cakes is cut out in the afternoon sunshine on the edge of the dam. A herd of curious cows offer their congratulations.

My daughter is enraptured. She learns what it means to party country style and later dances the night away in her flower girl champagne silk dress and Ugg boots. It is 1am before she finally gives in and falls into an exhausted heap. The country revellers party on.

In a sober moment, I chat to my nephews about leaving South Africa. Would they? They all say no, never. Bright, young and highly educated, they are prepared to work abroad but actually leave forever? Leave surfing in Llandudno? Their friends? Their unique lifestyle? Not possible. They are optimistic, realistic - full of life and hope. They claim most of their friends are too. Yet they acknowledge the road ahead is tough. "White, male and bottom of the pile," they laugh. So

they simply study longer and harder, confident this will give them the edge in a biased job

market. I so want them to succeed and believe strongly that they will.

The elderly appear more pragmatic, slightly less optimistic. A sage farmer tells me, "If you live here, you can't complain, you stand in queues if you have to. You adapt."

(…)

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TRAVEL

AFRICA

Reading comprehension

ALIVE AND IN SOUTH AFRICA

1. Are the following statements true or false?

1. Australia has one of the highest crime rates in the world. 2. The writer has a friend who thinks life in Australia is more exciting than

life in South Africa. 3. The painting was with the narrator‘s luggage when she left Johannesburg

for Durban. 4. The narrator left the painting at the airport on purpose because she didn‘t

like it. 5. The narrator‘s mother grows flowers mainly. 6. The people in the village are very hospitable. 7. The wedding takes place in a church surrounded by a garden. 8. The narrator is black. 9. According to the narrator‘s nephews, black people in South Africa have

more opportunities than white people. 10. There has been a deep change in the job market in South Africa.

2. Circle the synonym that best corresponds to these words highlighted in the text:

Jaded: forgetful - tired out - hungry

Relieved: comforted - confused - reliable

Tainted: tortured - blinded - spoilt

Lush: luxuriant - dead - faded

Blesbok: a plant - an animal - a language

Hallmark: typical characteristic - defect - disgrace

Biased: impartial - strange - partial

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TRAVEL

AFRICA

Reading comprehension: KEY

ALIVE AND IN SOUTH AFRICA

1. Are the following statements true or false?

1. Australia has one of the highest crime rates in the world. FALSE 2. The writer has a friend who thinks life in Australia is more exciting

than life in South Africa. FALSE 3. The painting was with the narrator‘s luggage when she left

Johannesburg for Durban. TRUE 4. The narrator left the painting at the airport on purpose because she

didn‘t like it. FALSE 5. The narrator‘s mother grows flowers mainly. FALSE 6. The people in the village are very hospitable. TRUE 7. The wedding takes place in a church surrounded by a garden.FALSE 8. The narrator is black. FALSE 9. According to the narrator‘s nephews, black people in South Africa

have more opportunities than white people. TRUE 10. There has been a deep change in the job market in South Africa.

TRUE

2. Circle the synonym that best corresponds to these words highlighted in the text:

Jaded: forgetful - tired out - hungry

Relieved: comforted - confused - reliable

Tainted: tortured - blinded - spoilt

Lush: luxuriant - dead - faded

Blesbok: a plant - an animal - a language

Hallmark: typical characteristic - defect - disgrace

Biased: impartial - strange - partial

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AFRICA

Listening comprehension

WHALE-WATCHING IN SOUTH AFRICA

True or False?

1. Tania spent two weeks in Cape Town

2. Between July and October the whales go there to mate

3. The weather wasn‘t very good

4. She could see the whales perfectly

5. The person who showed them the whales was an expert

6. Seals and sharks share the same habitat

7. There were many young people on board

8. It was winter in South Africa then

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AFRICA

Listening comprehension: KEY

WHALE-WATCHING IN SOUTH AFRICA

True or False?

1. Tania spent two weeks in Cape Town FALSE

2. Between July and October the whales go there to mate TRUE

3. The weather wasn‘t very good TRUE

4. She could see the whales perfectly FALSE

5. The person who showed them the whales wasn‘t an expert

TRUE

6. Seals and sharks share the same habitat TRUE

7. There were many young people on board TRUE

8. It was winter in South Africa then TRUE

15

Letter from Africa: America's cousin on

the continent

Africa correspondent David Smith travels around South Africa and discovers the

country has an array of similarities with the US

Tuesday 19 May 2009

Cape Town is a liberal, laid-back city like San Francisco

"History doesn't repeat itself," said Mark Twain, "at best it sometimes rhymes." I have

begun to wonder if the same is true of places. In recent days I travelled from

Johannesburg to Cape Town, Pretoria and Durban. The look and feel of these cities is

not remotely British. If I had to compare South Africa with another country, it would be

America.

Both are heavyweight nation states, the superpowers of their continents. Both are

remarkably diverse topographies containing cities and skyscrapers, deserts and

mountains, natural wonders and wildlife. Both are cultural kaleidoscopes, and both are

constitutional democracies where electing a black president has novelty value.

A man from Los Angeles told a friend of mine: "When I fly into Johannesburg, I think

I'm back in LA." Both cities are accused of lacking a centre or a soul. In both, the car is

king, public transport minimal, and pedestrians an endangered species. Both are

dominated by wide concrete highways linking the sprawling tree-lined suburbs where

the security alarms and protective walls are perhaps more conspicuous in the African

version.

Just like LA, Johannesburg has its drive-in shopping malls, drive-by stores with familiar

logos and classical pastiche architecture overlooking manicured lawns. For Disneyland,

read Montecasino, the entertainment complex that aspires to resemble an old Tuscan

village. Lift your eyes to the forested hills above the city and you half expect to see the

Hollywood sign.

Johannesburg was born in a gold rush that brought prospectors, labourers and conflict

which a fledgling California might have recognised. Both it and LA are scarred by

poverty, violence and deep divisions of race. Both can be dangerous, glamorous and as

likely to provoke loathing as loyalty.

Pretoria, like Washington DC, is the administrative capital but not the centre of the

action. I watched as crowds gathered with hope and adulation for a presidential

inauguration, just as they did for Barack Obama, though the comparison between the

American leader and Jacob Zuma ends about there.

The humid climate, ocean surfers and faded beachfronts of Durban reminded me of

Miami, and both are unexpectedly graced by numerous art deco buildings. Where

16

Miami has one of America's biggest Hispanic populations, Durban is the main centre for

Asians in South Africa.

If some cities are cousins, Cape Town and San Francisco are twins. They are a place

apart, sharing more in common with each other than their respective countries. They are

the refuge of artists, liberals, gays, bohemians and dope smokers. Just as northern

California would never vote for George Bush, so the Western Cape was the only

province to cock a snook at Zuma in the recent elections.

In Cape Town and San Francisco I have seen pure morning light embrace the peninsula,

a deep fog settling on the bay and an architecture that seems more old world than new.

Each has a sunlit hinterland of wine country where people luxuriate in tours and

tastings.

Whereas San Francisco's tourists pour on to ferries to Alcatraz to hear the stories of

former prisoners, so visitors in Cape Town take the boat to Robben Island – to hear the

stories of former prisoners.

In Alcatraz, we are shown what is thought to be Al Capone's former cell, though no one

can be sure. On Robben Island, we are shown what is thought to be Nelson Mandela's

former cell, though again there is uncertainty. Nevertheless, tourists gather around it

with cameras like paparazzi at a film premiere.

In South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle there are echoes of America's civil rights

movement. My guide on Robben Island told the story of Robert Sobukwe, interned in

solitary confinement under the so-called "Sobukwe clause" because he was perceived as

uniquely dangerous to the apartheid state.

Sobukwe had broken away from the African National Congress to form the more

militant Pan Africanist Congress, which rejected alliances with whites. "Think of

Sobukwe as Malcolm X, and Nelson Mandela as Martin Luther King," our guide said.

"Sadly today not many people remember Robert Sobukwe."

In both America and South Africa, race remains a significant factor in social inequality,

crime patterns or trying to predict how people will vote. On the surface, South Africa is

the country that apparently flicked a switch to install a black governing elite for its

majority black population. But America has had more time to heal the old wounds and

create a black middle-class that South Africa can still only dream about.

In South Africa the problems feel familiar but more raw and more intense. At its worst,

there is a culture of lawlessness and brutality at the point of a gun that must have been

the way of the wild west. But just 15 years after apartheid, there is also the spirit of a

new frontier and a sense of the possible.

Yet there is one thing that South Africans have not mastered, and that is the relentless

optimism of Americans about their country. Whether they would be well advised to do

so is a question that will take time to resolve.

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LETTER FROM AFRICA: AMERICAN’S COUSIN ON THE CONTINENT

1. Choose the right answer: 1. According to Mark Twain

a. some places are always the same b. place and time are relative concepts c. some historical facts bear a certain resemblance

2. In Johannesburg the city centre

a. is full of life b. is very dangerous c. does not exist

3. According to the writer, Johannesburg

a. has a genuine beauty b. looks very artificial c. has nothing to do with LA

4. Both LA and Johannesburg

a. have similar origins b. are equally loved c. hate racism

5. Pretoria

a. has an interesting cultural life b. gave Obama a warm welcome c. is not a very representative city

6. In Durban

a. there are lots of Hispanic immigrants b. we can find people from India c. pop art is a hallmark

7. People in Cape Town love

a. the hippy style b. conservative leaders c. Zuma

8. Both Cape Town and San Francisco

a. are important wine producers

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b. have representative modern architecture c. are far away from the coast

9. Alcatraz and Robben Island

a. have famous inmates b. are representative of the fight for civil rights c. are offcoast

10. Robert Sobuke

a. founded the African National Congress b. was a radical political activist c. was a peaceful political activist

11. In South Africa

a. most people are middle class b. the government is composed of black and white people equally c. race is still an issue

12. Americans are

a. more optimistic than South Africans b. less optimistic c. as optimistic as South Africans

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LETTER FROM AFRICA: AMERICAN’S COUSIN ON THE CONTINENT

1. c

2. c

3. b

4. a

5. c

6. b

7. a

8. a

9. c

10. b

11. c

12. a

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NATURAL FITNESS IN KENYA

Read the text and fill in the gaps with the right words

while you listen:

Louise‘s guests are defined as city-__________; they

are compared to _________ animals. They are out of

__________, they eat __________ and they don‘t get

enough __________. They need to reconnect with

__________ and become ________ animals again.

Guests stay at an_______-_______ on the coast of

Kenya. They get up at ________ in the morning and

then do a bit of _______________. The first class is

_________, __________or _________, and then they

have _________ or _____________ for breakfast.

Then they do something more relaxing like

____________ or ___________.

During the fitness test they pretend they are in the

______________. They go leopard-____________

and they have to drag a ___________. The exercise

with poles aims at making people more

____________, especially if their shoulders are

____________ because they work in an__________.

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NATURAL FITNESS IN KENYA

Read the text and fill in the gaps with the right words

while you listen:

Louise‘s guests are defined as city-SLIKERS; they are

compared to ____ZOO__ animals. They are out of

___SHAPE_____, they eat __BADLY____ and they

don‘t get enough __EXERCISE_____. They need to

reconnect with __NATURE____ and become

___WILD_____ animals again.

Guests stay at an __ECO__-_LODGE__ on the coast

of Kenya. They get up at ___6 O’CLOCK_____ in the

morning and then do a bit of __STRETCHING___.

The first class might be __SWIMMING_______,

_RUNNING__ or __BOXING___, and then they have

__FRUIT_____ or ____EGGS_____ for breakfast.

Then they do something more relaxing, like __YOGA_

or __VOLLEYBALL___.

During the fitness test they pretend they are in the

___JUNGLE___________. They go leopard-

__CRAWLING__________ and they have to drag a

__WEIGHT______. The exercise with poles aims at

making people more __FLEXIBLE______, especially

if their shoulders are ___TIGHT_________ because

they work in an __OFFICE___.

22

While the houseboat industry has brought a welcome source of income for the Kerala backwaters, their uncontrolled proliferation is having a dramatic impact on the fragile coastal ecosystem. Prasanam, a boatman who takes tourists through the Alappuzha backwaters on a traditional 'kettuvallam', explains why eco-tourism should come to Kerala

Wednesday May 6th 2009

Boatman Prasanam (left) in his traditional kettuvallam. Photograph: Lily Philipose

I have lived in Alappuzha since the day I was born. There was practically no tourism here till about the 1990s, when things started to change quickly. The backwaters became the hot spot for Kerala tourism. As boatmen we had used our thatched-roof wooden ―kettuvallams‖ [boats with no outboard motor or overnight accommodation and which use a traditional punting pole] to transport rice. Then we realised we could make much more money by taking people to tourist resorts and spice farms. On the whole, the tourist industry has helped boatmen. But I worry about the condition of the backwaters. Neither the tour operators or the government are paying much attention to its worsening quality. The backwaters suffer from pollution because water hyacinths are growing so rapidly that they have taken over the waterways in some parts. The clusters of these mauve flowers make for scenic photographs but in actuality the hyacinths are choking the water. Boatmen see how fast these plants grow from week to week, and how they disrupt the natural water flow. Once they cover the surface of the water, they block off the sunlight, and the fish and native plants below become starved of oxygen. When the plants decompose they add to the pollution and soon mosquitoes start breeding. That is the reason why there have been malaria outbreaks in some of the backwater areas. There is a simple and natural way to get rid of the water hyacinths without using any chemicals, and many boatmen know how. If we channel the sea water to enter the backwaters for a few months, the salt kills the hyacinths and keeps the water clean and weed-free for a long time. If only people in authority would listen to us, they could easily improve the situation.

23

An even more serious pollution is created by the houseboat industry. The tourists come mostly for the backwater tours, so the boatmen have begun to build bigger and fancier boats. Look along the shores and you can see how many wooden hulls are being constructed this very moment. There are about 2,000 houseboat ―kettuvallams‖ today, and some of them are floating palaces. All have living/dining rooms, kitchens, bathrooms and verandas. The kitchens use kerosene stoves for cooking, and there is a generator for electricity and an outboard motor that runs on diesel. The luxurious versions even have two storeys, air-conditioned bedrooms, conference rooms, flat screens and whirlpools. I‘m all for attracting visitors to enjoy this natural beauty. Many of us have well-paid jobs because of the stream of visitors. Besides, I enjoy taking tourists on my boat, and many of them stay in touch with me from all over the world. I‘ve kept all their letters and cards in this book, and I read them from time to time. I have a beautiful card from a young couple from France who were here on their honeymoon. But I have chosen to ply the simple traditional version of the ―kettuvallam‖ with no outboard motor and no overnight accommodation. I tell tourists who choose this kind of boat that they leave smaller footprints on the natural environment. The tourism board is simply ignoring the environmental effect of the increasingly numerous and luxurious houseboats. The diesel from the outboard motors and the kerosene from the stoves leak into the water, and sometimes we can actually taste the kerosene in the ―karimeen‖ [also known as pearlspot fish] that the fishermen catch here. The cooking water from the kitchens and shower and bathwater also end up polluted. Remember, the backwaters are not only here for the tourists. There are village people who live on the shores, and they use the polluted water for their cooking, cleaning and washing. The tour operators of the fancy houseboats make good money, but the people in the villages whose waters get polluted don‘t see any of the profits. We know Kerala does not have many other industries that will bring us money to live well. So, yes, we want development and economic opportunity. Yes, we want to open up to tourism. But we need the kind of tourism that will not destroy the natural beauty of the backwaters that makes Kerala so attractive for travellers and for the people who have lived here all their lives. • Prasanam was talking to Guardian Weekly reader Lily Philipose.

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WHY KERALA NEEDS ECO-TOURISM

Are the following statements true or false?

1. Tourism has been the main source of change in Kerala 2. From context, we understand that a ‗backwater‘ is a beach. 3. Tourism has always been important there 4. The government hasn‘t shown any interest in solving the

problem of the backwaters. 5. The writer finds water hyacinths beautiful 6. Too much vegetation causes pollution in the backwaters 7. Chemicals are the only way of getting rid of polluting

vegetation 8. Malaria outbreaks have disappeared from the region 9. ―Kettuvallams‖ are always richly decorated 10. According to Prasanam, tourism has both positive and

negative consequences.

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WHY KERALA NEEDS ECO-TOURISM

Are the following statements true or false?

1. Tourism has been the main source of change in Kerala TRUE 2. From context, we understand that a ‗backwater‘ is a beach.

FALSE 3. Tourism has always been important there FALSE 4. The government hasn‘t shown any interest in solving the

problem of the backwaters. TRUE 5. The writer finds water hyacinths beautiful TRUE 6. Too much vegetation causes pollution in the backwaters

TRUE 7. Chemicals are the only way of getting rid of polluting

vegetation FALSE 8. Malaria outbreaks have disappeared from the region FALSE 9. ―Kettuvallams‖ are always richly decorated FALSE 10. According to Prasanam, tourism has both positive and

negative consequences. TRUE

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INDIAN VILLAGE HAS 300 SETS OF TWINS

True of false?

1. Kerala is a state in the north of India 2. People in Kerala are very religious 3. In this village live more than 1000 families 4. Their 300 sets of twins represent nearly 5 times the national

average. 5. Many people think this phenomenon is a miracle 6. Mohamed Ali has three sets of twins 7. The youngest twins are two months old 8. The oldest are 85 9. Having so many twins is a source of problems 10. It has been proved that something in the water is the

origin of this phenomenon

27

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INDIA


INDIAN VILLAGE HAS 300 SETS OF TWINS

True of false?

1. Kerala is a state in the north of India FALSE 2. People in Kerala are very religious TRUE 3. In this village live more than 1000 families TRUE 4. Their 300 sets of twins represent nearly 5 times the national

average. FALSE 5. Many people think this phenomenon is a miracle TRUE 6. Mohamed Ali has three sets of twins FALSE 7. The youngest twins are two months old TRUE 8. The oldest are 85 FALSE 9. Having so many twins is a source of problems FALSE 10. It has been proved that something in the water is the

origin of this phenomenon FALSE

28

The Mumbai Tiffin Box Supply Charity Trust was established in 1890 in the heyday of British rule in India. The carriers of the city‘s lunch boxes soon came to be known as dabbawalas, dabba being the local word for box. Back then, most of the customers were British officials, or from the Persian, Christian and Parsi communities, who didn‘t trust food that wasn‘t cooked by their wives or mothers. For 50 years Gangaram L Talekar has been part of a service so popular and reliable that it has grown by leaps and bounds, from the original 20 dabbawalas into a huge network that has won praise from around the world

Wednesday August 20th 2008

Mumbai dabbawalas pack lunch boxes into an already-loaded train carriage. Photograph: joshidaniel/wikimedia commons

1. My father was a migrant from Pune who came down to Mumbai to work as a lunch box carrier. I was a school dropout and joined the trade at the age of 20, way back in 1966. After working for 50 years I rose to the post of secretary and now take care of the welfare of other dabbawalas. Most are migrants from the neighbouring city of Pune, and belong to the Maratha community. Coming from poor families with little in the way of education, we are obliged to take unskilled work.

2. We use handcarts and bicycles to deliver around the city. They‘re cheap and don‘t contribute to global warming. The workforce is about 5,000-strong and spread out to all corners of Mumbai and its outskirts. Each of the circular boxes is made of steel or aluminium, and is the property of the customer. Inside they are divided into layers for different kinds of food.

3. We use about 3,000 bicycles and 500 handcarts to deliver 200,000 boxes a day. A dabbawala has to wake up at the crack of dawn. Each group of 60 covers its own area. Between 8am and 11am the dabbawalas visit their assigned houses to pick up the packed lunch boxes. They then meet up to transport them to the nearest railway station. Four or five carry each wooden crate of boxes. During peak hours they have to fight to load them inside the packed luggage compartment, braving shoves and pushes. We are always asking the railway ministry for a car of our own on the trains we use.

29

4. It is a common sight to see dabbawalas outside the railway station at Churchgate and on street corners sorting out and identifying the boxes by the unique coding on top of each box. The numerical codes represent the pick-up area, destination and customer‘s name and work address. This system ensures that the right box gets to the right owner on time. At noon the empty boxes are collected and delivered back to their homes. Even during monsoon when the city is flooded, we are still on the streets pushing our handcarts through the water. That‘s commitment.

5. We earn about 5,000 to 6,000 rupees ($115-$135) a month and are insured too. We are asking the government to provide us with subsided medical facilities. We charge each of our customers 350 to 450 rupees ($8-$10) a month, and they love us. The rest of the world is simply amazed that a chain of human beings using primitive modes of transportation can be so efficient.

6. In 2003, when Britain‘s Prince Charles visited Mumbai, he took time off to see how we operate. He was full of praise, which for us was the ultimate recognition from a foreign dignitary. At the time of his marriage [to Camilla Parker-Bowles] he even sent us a wedding invitation. Two of our dabbawalas went, and on behalf of all of us presented the couple with gifts including the traditional white cap we wear and the bangles and mangalsutra wedding chains our brides wear.

7. We cannot afford to use vans to transport the boxes, but our low cost of transportation makes our service extremely economical. And as we don‘t use petrol or diesel we do not add to the air pollution that chokes the city. In a way, we are even contributing to the national economy because the country spends less on importing oil.

8. All said and done, life has not changed for our brethren who do the backbreaking job of pushing the handcarts or riding the bicycles, braving the hot sun and monsoon rain.

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MUMBAI’S DABBA DELIVERIES

1. Choose the right answer:

1. Dabbawalas appeared a. when the British were ruling India b. at the end of the British dominion c. when India became an independent nation

2. A dabbawala is

a. kind of servant b. a slave c. a worker

3. Gangaram took up this job

a. while he was at university b. when he left school c. while he was at school

4. In order to be a dabbawala

a. you need to master certain skills b. you need to provide your own boxes c. you don‘t have to possess any specific skills

5. Their means of transport is

a. a little polluting b. environmentally friendly c. very noisy

6. The boxes

a. are carefully disposed of b. get easily lost c. contain different kinds of things

7. During the monsoon season

a. the dabbawala service is interrupted b. the dabbawala service is not interrupted c. the water destroys the boxes

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8. This service is a. efficient and cheap b. efficient but a little expensive c. not very efficient but cheap

9. Prince Charles visited Mumbai

a. after his marriage to Camilla Parker-Bowles b. before his marriage to Camilla Parker-Bowles c. and was offered some presents for him and his wife.

10. Being a dabbawala implies

a. not being very popular among customers b. a good salary, insurance and free medical assistance c. hard work

2. Find words or groups of words in the text meaning:

a. the time of most power or influence (Preface) __________ b. abruptly or impulsively (Preface) ________________ c. one who quits school (paragraph 1) ______________ d. suburbs (paragraph 2) ______________ e. very early in the morning (paragraph 3) _____________ f. suffocates (paragraph 7) ___________ g. extremely hard physically (paragraph 8) _______________

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MUMBAI’S DABBA DELIVERIES

1. Choose the right answer:

1. a 2. c 3. b 4. c 5. b 6. a 7. b 8. a 9. b 10. c

2. Find words or groups of words in the text meaning:

a. the time of most power or influence (Preface) ___HEYDAY_______ b. abruptly or impulsively (Preface) __BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS_____ c. one who quits school (paragraph 1) ___DROPOUT___________ d. suburbs (paragraph 2) __OUTSKIRTS____________ e. very early in the morning (paragraph 3) __AT THE CRACK OF

DAWN_ f. suffocates (paragraph 7) __CHOKES_____ g. extremely hard physically (paragraph 8) ___BACKBREAKING____

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INDIA REPRISE THE TIGER DANCE

True of false?

1. Nearly 50 people take part as dancers in the festival 2. The music comes from drums and other traditional instruments 3. People in the village think this dance will never die out 4. The preparation for the festival is very simple 5. The dancers have their bodies painted to look like tigers or

other animals 6. The dancers want to please a local goddess 7. The costumes are cheaper now than they used to be 8. The dancers usually keep the paintings on until next year

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INDIA REPRISE THE TIGER DANCE

True of false?

1. Nearly 50 people take part as dancers in the festival FALSE

2. The music comes from drums and other traditional instruments TRUE

3. People in the village think this dance will never die out FALSE

4. The preparation for the festival is very simple FALSE 5. The dancers have their bodies painted to look like tigers or

other animals FALSE 6. The dancers want to please a local goddess TRUE 7. The costumes are cheaper now than they used to be

FALSE 8. The dancers usually keep the paintings on until next year

FALSE

35

The Burrup Peninsula in western Australia contains the largest concentration of Aboriginal rock art in the world – some of it as old as 30,000 years. Last year the federal government placed 99% of the islands in the Dampier archipelago, of which the Burrup is a part, on the National Heritage list. The remaining 1% is leased to Woodside, Australia‗s second biggest oil and gas producer, which is building a processing plant for its offshore natural gas reserve. The development will mean the destruction or relocation of thousands of the petroglyph-covered rocks. It has sparked the outrage of Wilfred Hicks, an elder of the Wong-Goo-Tt-Oo, Aboriginal custodians of the land

Wednesday June 4th 2008

A rock with ancient etchings stands near the site of the Woodside oil and gas plant. Photograph: Carmela Ferraro

The Burrup Peninsula is full of rocks with lots of carvings – kangaroos, emus, snakes, dogs, turtles, whales, people – there‘s everything carved on those rocks. It‘s also a deeply spiritual place. You walk out there, especially around some gorges, and you can feel the spirits. European people and anthropologists or other scientists who have been there at night say that it‘s frightening, that they get goose pimples when they walk around. The Burrup means everything to our people. All that we know, that we sing about, that has been taught to us through our elders, is based on what is carved on those rocks out there. Our ancestors created each and every one of those engravings for a reason – a spiritual reason. But the mining companies are destroying what‘s there. They say that they don‘t break the rocks anymore, that they just shift them. But the moment you move a rock with a carving of a person, a snake or whatever on it, you‘ve broken its spirit. It‘s the same as moving someone from their grave. The spirit mourns, it cries for the place it was forced to leave. The National Heritage listing of the Burrup was, of course, a great thing. But it hasn‘t lessened the threat to the land: Woodside will have to shift a lot of rocks to make room for its new processing plant. And it‘s not going to stop there. Woodside is not talking to us and hasn‘t been informing us of its plans for a while now, but I believe the company intends to dramatically increase its business in the future. This can only mean more development in the area.

36

We can‘t work out why the government leased Woodside that 1% [of the Dampier archipelago islands] – it‘s the very area that was in danger and that we wanted to protect. The whole Burrup should be seen as one, rather than bits and pieces. The rocks link to each other and should be left where they belong. Mind, my people and the other two local Aboriginal custodian groups do have an agreement with the state government about industrial development on the Burrup. But I can‘t talk too much about that. All I can tell you is that it‘s not worth the paper it‘s written on. I can say that they must want the development – the dollars. But the Wong-Goo-Tt-Oo [one of the land's traditional custodian groups, of which Wilfred Hicks is an elder] are not trying to stop development. What‘s there already, we can‘t do anything about. After all, we can‘t expect the companies to pack up and move. And the economics is good – for them, the state, the country – even for our people: we get jobs out of it. But rather than adding to the demise of our heritage by creating a new facility, why can‘t Woodside take its new buildings, trucks and pipeline further out? There‘s plenty of empty land for them to go to. Apache Energy moved 40km down and they‘re not having any problems. It wouldn‘t affect the business side of it, and people would still get to keep their jobs – they‘d just be working in a different area. Woodside reckons it‘s too expensive to move elsewhere. But what: they‘d rather see our heritage get broken, our bible torn apart? At the moment we‘re working hard to get the Burrup on the World Heritage list so that it gets the respect it deserves. After all, the Burrup is there for everybody – like Stonehenge in England, which by the way is thousands of years younger than this rock art. We‘ve been pushing for the listing for the past three to four years. The International Federation of Rock Art Organisations (Ifrao) has been helping us with making applications to the minister, that sort of thing. But we‘ve got nowhere so far. We can‘t get the state government to back it. They say that it‘s state government land, that the Burrup isn‘t within the boundary areas handed down as part of the native title around these parts. The courts rejected our claim. They reckoned that native title no longer exists over the Burrup because the original group was wiped out in a massacre and is no longer a distinct group. But that‘s not right. My people, being the closest group to them, had close ties with them, and some of us are the descendants of those who escaped. But it‘s not just the Wong-Goo-Tt-Oo who cry over the destruction and desecration of our land. All the other Aboriginal groups around here are also upset. I have to say, it didn‘t help matters that at first the other groups didn‘t want the World Heritage listing. I don‘t know if it was because they valued the money over their heritage, or because the powers that be encouraged us to fight so that we would be divided, which would leave them to do as they liked. But seeing the damage now, the others are coming in and saying that what has been done to our country should never have happened. We now all want World Heritage protection for the Burrup. Without it the damage will only get worse, and eventually there‘ll be nothing left. • Wilfred Hicks was speaking to Carmela Ferraro.

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ABORIGINAL HERITAGE ON THE ROCKS

True or false?

1. Woodside has bought 1% of the Burrup Peninsula 2. This company wants to destroy the Aboriginal heritage 3. This land means a lot to Aborigines, especially in economic

terms 4. It is easy to find kangaroos, snakes and other animals living

among these rocks 5. The mining companies destroy the rocks because they break

them 6. The stories told by the Aborigines in the Burrup Peninsula are

based on the oral tradition 7. The Burrup is protected both by National Heritage and World

Heritage 8. Woodside has informed the government but not the Aborigines 9. The Aborigines had some kind of agreement with the

Government about the industrial development of the region. 10. There is no legal evidence of an agreement with the

government 11. The Aborigines get some benefits from the mining

companies 12. The history of Aborigines can be traced back to the Bible 13. The institutions claim that the original inhabitants of the

Burrup have disappeared 14. Some Aboriginal groups are changing their strategy

towards the Government now

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AUSTRALIA


ABORIGINAL HERITAGE ON THE ROCKS

True or false?

1. Woodside has bought 1% of the Burrup Peninsula FALSE 2. This company wants to destroy the Aboriginal heritage

FALSE 3. This land means a lot to Aborigines, especially in economic

terms FALSE 4. It is easy to find kangaroos, snakes and other animals living

among these rocks FALSE 5. The mining companies destroy the rocks because they break

them TRUE 6. The stories told by the Aborigines in the Burrup Peninsula are

based on the oral tradition TRUE 7. The Burrup is protected both by National Heritage and World

Heritage FALSE 8. Woodside has informed the government but not the Aborigines

FALSE 9. The Aborigines had some kind of agreement with the

Government about the industrial development of the region. TRUE

10. There is no legal evidence of an agreement with the government FALSE

11. The Aborigines get some benefits from the mining companies TRUE

12. The history of Aborigines can be traced back to the Bible FALSE

13. The institutions claim that the original inhabitants of the Burrup have disappeared TRUE

14. Some Aboriginal groups are changing their strategy towards the Government now TRUE

39

TRAVEL

AUSTRALIA


ABORIGINAL REMAINS RETURNED

True of false?

1. The Aborigines want to recover the dead bodies of two of their ancestors

2. Australia has already recovered more than two thousand remains in the last twelve years

3. Aboriginal remains are scattered all over the world 4. They have already performed more than 600 rituals 5. People should be taught about the rights of the

Aborigines 6. On this trip, they are only visiting London, Liverpool

and Oxford 7. The connection with their ancestors is not only spiritual

but also physical 8. The remains of their ancestors will be shown in

Australian museums

40

TRAVEL

AUSTRALIA


ABORIGINAL REMAINS RETURNED

True of false?

1. The Aborigines want to recover the dead bodies of two of their ancestors FALSE

2. Australia has already recovered more than two thousand remains in the last twelve years FALSE

3. Aboriginal remains are scattered all over the world TRUE

4. They have already performed more than 600 rituals TRUE

5. People should be taught about the rights of the Aborigines TRUE

6. On this trip, they are only visiting London, Liverpool and Oxford FALSE

7. The connection with their ancestors is not only spiritual but also physical FALSE

8. The remains of their ancestors will be shown in Australian museums FALSE

41

May 9, 2009

Canada: my adventure cruise to Baffin Island A big-city cissy gets a taste of adventure in the Arctic's desolate, frozen vistas and the fabled Northwest Passage

Erica Wagner

Just off the coast of Devon Island, the Zodiac is pitching and heaving. Shannon Fowler, five-

foot-nothing in her socks, is in command. She is not, of course, wearing only socks, but rubber

boots too, as we all are, and a survival suit.

The ten of us have lifejackets. The sea is clear turquoise, a surreally tropical colour given that

the water temperature is a neat 0C.

Despite the team of Russian sailors standing up to their waists in the stuff, there‘s no guarantee

that our Zodiacs will be able to run ashore. Things were fine five minutes ago, when we left the

ship; but that‘s Baffin Bay for you.

When at last it seems as if we will be able to hit the beach — but with the stern, rather than the

bow, of the Zodiacs to land, which makes getting out more difficult — Fowler reminds us that if

we want simply to ride back to the ship and not attempt a landing, that‘s OK too. ―Remember,‖

she sings out, ―you‘re on vacation!‖

Travel to Baffin Island with Adventure Canada and you will have a vacation like no other. I trust

you will have taken the above tale as a wee warning: if your idea of a cruise includes sun

loungers, mojitos and shuffleboard, then the Arctic — and this company‘s way of travelling in it

— is not for you. When you fall asleep on board ship each night you will do so because you are

exhausted.

When you sit down to the table at dinner you will devour everything in front of you because you

are famished after Zodiac trips, long hikes, invigorating lectures or lessons in Inuktitut . . . or

possibly because you‘ve dressed up as a cowboy for a shipboard barn dance (yes, really) or

had a quick swim in the polar sea (yes, really).

I joined the team in Ottawa — an utterly delightful city, and one that I plan to return to as soon

as may be, for its wonderful museums (especially the beautiful, fascinating Canadian Museum

of Civilisation), fine food (elk terrine) and truly welcoming people.

I didn‘t mind staying at the delightful Fairmont Château Laurier hotel either, a grand place —

built at the beginning of the 20th century by the Canadian Pacific Railway to prove the motto ―If

we can‘t export the scenery we‘ll import the tourists‖.

But the delights of Canada‘s capital city were not, to say the least, the point of ―The Baffin

Expedition‖, as the company‘s brochure had it. From Ottawa we would fly to Kuujjuaq, Quebec,

42

there to board the MV Lyubov Orlova and sail up the east coast of Baffin Island, all the way to

Resolute Bay, the entrance to the Northwest Passage. (…)

How to convey, in a few paragraphs, the wonder of two weeks travelling towards the North Pole

in this way? The once-in-a-lifetime moments are too many to count. Gliding into Isabella Bay,

where the rare bowhead whale may sometimes be seen — there are now perhaps 300 in the

world — only to discover 40 or 50 spouting round the ship.

Stepping ashore, when the weather had cleared, under a brilliant blue sky in Durban Harbour

and learning to look for an abundance of life writ small: heather, sedge, bearberries,

blueberries, gleaming orange jewel lichen; I bend to drink from a sweet, clear-running stream.

Seeing the print of an arctic hare in the snow or seeing a flock of snow geese lift off from a

mountainside — or a polar bear reclining on a nearby berg, which for many of our company was

worth the price of the trip.

Knowing there has been human habitation here for millennia: this is a land that seemed harsh

and forbidding to southern ―explorers‖, who died here by the score, but not to those who lived,

and still live, in this glorious environment.

It‘s to Adventure Canada‘s credit that it works so closely with the Inuit communities here; and

one of the trip‘s greatest pleasures was being able to stop in places such as Clyde River (pop.

820) and Pond Inlet (pop. 1,300) and be welcomed by the people there. (…)

For all the fun to be had, a spell in the Arctic encourages a different way of being than the way

that city life, quotidian southern work-life, usually allows. On board the Orlova I re-read Barry

Lopez‘s classic Arctic Dreams. Lopez writes: ―A man in Anaktuvuk Pass, in response to a

question about what he did when he visited a new place, said to me, ‗I listen.‘

That‘s all. I listen, he meant, to what the land is saying. I walk around it and strain my senses in

appreciation of it for a long time before I, myself, ever speak a word. Entered in such a

respectful manner, he believed, the land would open to him.‖ Even for those unaccustomed to

such a quality of attention, it‘s possible to learn.

Stillness is required, an awareness that this place is as alive as you are, and that you, the

visitor, must learn the way to be here. If you don‘t think that‘s true, all you have to do is note that

on land, outside the communities, the staff keep their rifles handy — polar bears are cuddly only

in pictures.

If you, the visitor, get cold, it‘s most likely you won‘t have any idea how to warm yourself without

recourse to a ride back to the ship; the danger of exposure becomes rather less theoretical than

it is in London. Usually I‘m content to be solitary; here, happy as I was, I missed my husband

and son, because the place itself seemed to remind me of what was truly significant in my life.

At the beginning of our journey, at the top of Ungava Bay, there was greenery on the land; by

the time we reached Beechey Island, our last stop before Resolute and where the graves of

three of Sir John Franklin‘s men are to be found, the snow was getting thick — and it was only

the end of summer. (…)

The Arctic is such a place. ―You can sit for a long time with the history of man like a stone in

your hand,‖ Lopez writes. ―The stillness, the pure light, encourage it.‖ All I can say is: go.

43

TRAVEL

CANADA


CANADA: MY ADVENTURE CRUISE TO BAFFIN ISLAND

Choose the right option:

1. Shannon Fowler is a. a short woman b. a tall woman c. a medium height woman

2. The weather in Baffin Bay is

a. always cold b. very changeable c. sometimes tropical

3. The programme is

a. very flexible b. very strictly organized c. not very varied

4. The writer

a. loved the mojitos on board b. got a little bored at night c. didn‘t have any mojitos

5. The writer

a. loved Ottawa and her hotel there b. loved Ottawa but didn‘t like the hotel c. doesn‘t want to return to Ottawa

6. For many people, the most rewarding activity was

a. drinking fresh water from a source b. observing the whales c. spotting polar bears

7. The writer listened to

a. the inuit people

44

b. Nature c. other explorers

8. Nature there is

a. a threatening environment b. a welcoming environment c. full of life

9. The writer experienced

a. a dangerous exposure b. a spiritual discovery c. a terrible loneliness

10. The Arctic is

a. full of stones b. a cold place but not in summer c. a cold place even in summer

45

TRAVEL

CANADA


CANADA: MY ADVENTURE CRUISE TO BAFFIN ISLAND

1. a 2. b 3. a 4. c 5. a 6. c 7. b 8. a 9. b 10. c

46

TRAVEL

CANADA


WEEKEND WINDOW TO JASPER, CANADA

Fill in the gaps with the missing words:

Jasper National Park is in the middle section of the Canadian ____________. The most ____________ thing about the park is its size, it’s just over_______________ square kilometers of protected area.

There are big waterfalls, especially in summertime, when the rivers are ____________ high and the ______________ are melting. There is this enormous volume of water ________________ through this little _____________. There’s lots of opportunities to see ______________.

There are ____________ peaks all around you and it looks like it would never ________.

As you go onto the glacier, you’ll hear _____________ flowing down, you’ll see water _____________ into these holes, you’ll feel the ____________ ice underfoot.

Jasper National Park shows people what it’s like to be in a place where there is lots of _________, where you can see ______________. You can see lots of green and lots of pine trees and then, ___________ above, you can see the peaks.

47

TRAVEL

CANADA


WEEKEND WINDOW TO JASPER, CANADA


Jasper National Park is in the middle section of the Canadian __ROCKIES__. The most _UNIQUE___ thing about the park is its size, it’s just over__11,000___ square kilometers of protected area.

There are big waterfalls, especially in summertime, when the rivers are __FLOWING___ high and the __GLACIERS____ are melting. There is this enormous volume of water ___POUNDING____ through this little _GORGE_. There’s lots of opportunities to see __WILDLIFE___.

There are _SPECTACULAR_ peaks all around you and it looks like it would never _CHANGE_.

As you go onto the glacier, you’ll hear __STREAMS___ flowing down, you’ll see water __POURING___ into these holes, you’ll feel the __CRUNCHY__ ice underfoot.

Jasper National Park shows people what it’s like to be in a place where there is lots of _SPACE__, where you can see __WILDERNESS____. You can see lots of green and lots of pine trees and then, _TOWERING__ above, you can see the peaks.

48

THE ENVIRONMENT

49

Easter 1958: some 10,000 people marched from London to the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in Aldermaston to protest against Britain's first hydrogen bomb tests. Fast forward to the Easter weekend this year and people have come together from across Britain – some of whom protested in the original march – to participate in the 50th anniversary event. Rowenna Davis, interested to find out whether anti-nuclear campaigners are 'noble or naive', went along for the ride

Wednesday March 26th 2008

Anti-nuclear protesters hold hands as they encircle the nuclear base at Aldermaston. Photograph: Jon Molinari

The snow didn‘t stop them coming. Half a century since the first march to Aldermaston in 1958, members of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament were going back to the base to protest against the government‘s plans to renew Trident, the UK‘s nuclear weapons system. And this time I was going with them. As a general rule, anti-nuclear protesters are considered to be the most unrealistic of all campaigners – and I wanted to see for myself whether they were noble or naive. The protestors dismounted from over 60 coaches, many clad in stereotypically bright bobble hats with beards and dungarees. But blanket generalisations don‘t fit this movement – mothers with prams, Japanese campaigners and nerdy scientists could all be found alongside the usual suspects. One gentleman was even sporting a tweed cap and waistcoat. "I like to defy convention," he said, taking a puff on his cigar. The protestors were aiming to form a human chain around the five mile base, a stunt that was estimated to take about 5,000 people. Nuclear warheads have been built behind the Atomic Weapon Establishment‘s barbed wire walls and, right now, the site is being used to conduct research into strengthening the UK‘s nuclear weapons capacity. It may have been cold enough to simulate a nuclear winter, but the atmosphere was positive; there was a sense of genuine coalition and grassroots democracy. High profile figures including designer Vivienne Westood, Caroline Lucas MEP and Jeremy Corbyn MP could be found wandering alongside the lay campaigner. Even the police were in a good mood; they know that

50

CND protestors, true to their cause, are more likely to offer them a flapjack than a fist. This demonstration wasn‘t just a protest, it was a celebration. The people knew that they were also there to mark the 50th birthday of CND, and the colourful energetic movement it has helped create. Unlike relatively new campaigns on issues such as climate change and poverty, there is a distinct sense of history, tradition and identity within the peace movement, and you could feel it in the air. Some of the protestors were old enough to remember the first march to Aldermaston. On a similarly freezing Easter weekend in 1958, 4,000 people gathered in Trafalgar Square to walk to the base. By the time they arrived four days later, their numbers had swollen to 9,000. "We didn‘t think we‘d be here 50 years later still campaigning," said Lucy Stevens, one of the original marchers who talks to me while trying to extract her walking stick from the mud. Like her, many of the original protestors believe that the end of the Cold War has lulled our generation into a false sense of security. "There was a fear then that doesn‘t exist now," she said, "and unfortunately it‘s fear that gets people out on the streets." Her words are telling: if 50 years is something to celebrate, it may also be something to mourn. There is a perception that the peace movement, along with its original supporters, is losing momentum. My generation grew up with nuclear weapons neatly sewn into the political fabric; the things previous generations challenged have become mainstream, and the nuclear decisions made in Westminster feel very far away. (…) The peace movement is also reinvigorating itself by joining with other more fashionable causes – particularly the climate change movement. As Caroline Lucas told me: "Taking £30bn from Trident could provide enough wind turbines to make up 15% of the UK‘s energy. We need to think about the real threats to our security."(…) At 2pm the full force of the protest began to make itself felt as people surrounded the base. The brave took their stand in the less comfortable spaces, wading knee deep into puddles to keep the chain unbroken. Yellow and black striped tape bearing a "nuclear hazard" warning helped bridge the gaps. Hands joined and whistles blew as the protestors encircled the base. To my left, a mother stood with a baby bundled on to her stomach and three other kids in tow. I asked her how she found time to protest with such a large family. "To be honest it‘s given me a new perspective on things," she said. "Why spend all my time investing in the future if there‘s a chance someone will nuke it?" (…) But it was the words of Yoshio Sato, a Japanese survivor from Hiroshima, that made the deepest impact on me. He was just 14 when the bomb went off less than a mile from his house. He was asleep at the time, but he awoke to find his world flattened. He lost his mother, brother and sister to the bomb. He developed stomach cancer from the leftover radiation, and has since had half of his stomach removed. The weapons being manufactured today are eight times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima. Despite that fact, Aldermaston is being used to make weapons that are ever more powerful. Thinking about these stories on the coach home, I‘m glad I made the pilgrimage to Aldermaston. The protestors might be naive, but they have the courage to hold on to a fact that others can‘t: no matter how unlikely world peace might be, it becomes impossible if we lose faith in it.

51

THE ENVIRONMENT

GOING GREEN


ANTI-NUCLEAR PROTEST 50 YEARS ON

True or false?

1. The demonstration took place after the Easter weekend 2. The marchers wore casual clothes 3. The marchers come from very similar backgrounds 4. The Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston is a

nuclear power station 5. The police didn‘t have any sense of danger 6. As in the 1958 demonstration, the marchers walked to the

base. 7. People feel safer nowadays 8. According to Lucy Stevens, fear keeps people moving 9. The peace movement has nothing to do with the climate

change movement 10. There is a general perception that nuclear weapons are

not a threat anymore

52

THE ENVIRONMENT

GOING GREEN


ANTI-NUCLEAR PROTEST 50 YEARS ON

True or false?

1. The demonstration took place after the Easter weekend FALSE

2. The marchers wore casual clothes TRUE 3. The marchers come from very similar backgrounds FALSE 4. The Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston is a

nuclear power station FALSE 5. The police didn‘t have any sense of danger TRUE 6. As in the 1958 demonstration, the marchers walked to the

base. FALSE 7. People feel safer nowadays TRUE 8. According to Lucy Stevens, fear keeps people moving TRUE 9. The peace movement has nothing to do with the climate

change movement FALSE 10. There is a general perception that nuclear weapons are

not a threat anymore TRUE

53

THE ENVIRONMENT

GOING GREEN


AUSTRALIA DEBATES ENERGY FUTURE

True of false?

1. Australia is a country where it is very easy to get energy from natural sources.

2. Australia has traditionally invested a lot of money in alternative energy

3. It would take 13 square kilometers of these mirrors to power the entire country

4. This plant was developed by an Australian researcher very recently

5. This scientist moved to the US and Germany 6. The ‗greenhouse mafia‘ is not interested in renewable energy 7. The ‗greenhouse mafia‘ is mainly composed of people from

the industrial and agricultural sectors 8. Australians are not interested in renewable energy 9. The government has promised more incentives to people

using new forms of energy 10. In England, some people rent their roofs to people who

need solar panels 11. Other countries offer tax breaks and cheaper workers,

but also a great deal of red tape

54

THE ENVIRONMENT

GOING GREEN


AUSTRALIA DEBATES ENERGY FUTURE

True of false?

1. Australia is a country where it is very easy to get energy from natural sources TRUE

2. Australia has traditionally invested a lot of money in alternative energy FALSE

3. It would take 13 square kilometers of these mirrors to power the entire country FALSE

4. This plant was developed by an Australian researcher very recently FALSE

5. This scientist moved to the US and Germany TRUE 6. The ‗greenhouse mafia‘ is not interested in renewable energy

TRUE 7. The ‗greenhouse mafia‘ is mainly composed of people from

the industrial and agricultural sectors TRUE 8. Australians are not interested in renewable energy FALSE 9. The government has promised more incentives to people

using new forms of energy FALSE 10. In England, some people rent their roofs to people who

need solar panels TRUE 11. Other countries offer tax breaks and cheaper workers,

but also a great deal of red tape FALSE

55

THE ENVIRONMENT

GOING GREEN


GLOBAL WARNING FROM COPENHAGEN

Ocean levels will rise higher than even the gloomiest scientific forecasts have predicted and governments are being asked to act fast on reducing carbon emissions. This is the upshot of last week's Copenhagen summit, a three-day conference on climate change and policy that serves as the preliminary to the Copenhagen climate change conference in December this year. Tan Copsey went along to meet the scientists

Monday March 16th 2009

Warmer air is melting the sea ice. Photograph: John McConnico/AP

Arrange the following paragraphs into the right order:

A. What was unusual about this scientific gathering was its deliberate nature. It was an active attempt to influence the political process – something scientists are not traditionally noted for doing. Sitting in a cavernous hall with about a thousand others, I watched Amanda Lynch, a meteorologist and climatologist from Monash University in Melbourne, give a speech about this transformation. She called on scientists to become more engaged in politics, reasoning that apart from the environmental benefits, their engagement would be good for democracy. She also asked that we learn from those

56

who have already changed their lifestyles. The congress ended with the assembled scientists making a series of recommendations for quick and consistent action to combat climate change. When I left Copenhagen and came back to London a colleague asked me if I felt I had witnessed a historic event. From my new scientist friends I had learned the art of qualifying an answer, and I told her: 'Though the evidence of accelerated warming is frightening, it's impossible to know whether politicians will respond in kind.'

• Tan Copsey attended on behalf of online environmental news organisation chinadialogue.net

B. The flight path to Copenhagen airport passes over the 20 turbines of the Middelgrunden offshore wind farm, which seemed an encouraging sign as I made my way to the Copenhagen international scientific conference on climate change. The Bella Centre was full to bursting. Media, business and government representatives were in attendance alongside leading research scientists and the centre probably had more scientific doctorates per square metre than anywhere else in the world. The experts were there to present new research related to climate change, and everyone else was there to help them discuss and debate the findings and formulate new advice for global leaders and policy-makers. The reassurance I felt on seeing the wind turbines lasted until my first session. It was on ‗cryosphere instability and sea-level rise‘, which was convened by Dorthe Dahl-Jensen and Konrad Steffen, leading experts in the field. Although I may have been the only person in the room without a postgraduate degree in a scientific discipline, I understood enough to be scared. Warmer air is melting the Arctic faster than previously anticipated and there is no longer any perennial sea ice in the North Pole. This melting combined with liquefying glaciers and warming seas could lead to larger sea-level rises than previously anticipated, and would have serious consequences for the 600 million people who live in low-lying regions.

C. Later I spoke to James Wilsdon of Britain's Royal Society, who is putting together an evaluation of various geo-engineering proposals. He suggested that geo-engineering should not become a distraction from the real business of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and negotiating a global political agreement. The urgent necessity of political action was the bottom line of the summit and particularly well hammered home by a series of presentations on 'tipping points in the Earth system‘. The session was a huge draw, and to find a place I had to pick my way through people squatting in the aisles. Abrupt climate change, we were told, had occurred frequently in the past and seems likely to happen again in the near future as we pass key temperature thresholds. Beyond the consequences for us, animals and forests and deserts are also under threat. Tipping points could trigger extinctions of everything from polar bears to species of plant. Afterwards I talked to Tim Lenton of the University of East Anglia, whose groundbreaking research provided the impetus for the session. After outlining the scale of the problem he suggested that "we need social tipping points to avoid climate tipping points". These would encompass profound political, economic and personal changes – completely changing our carbon-intensive lifestyles, for instance, and removing economic subsidies that encourage fossil-fuel burning.

http://www.chinadialogue.net/

57

D. Despite the seriousness of their predictions, the scientists at the congress were a surprisingly cheery group. They appeared to revel in the company of their peers, smiling and congratulating each other – those who were successful in extracting useful Arctic wind-speed data from the QuikScat (Quick Scatterometer) satellite came in for special praise. After coffee, pears and jellybeans I made my way to one of the hot tickets of the congress: a session on geo-engineering. Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution brought together the leading lights of this new and dangerous discipline and they explained their ideas for reducing the build up of greenhouse gases by altering the composition of the atmosphere. Dan Lunt from Bristol University presented his idea for creating a "sunshade world" by placing reflective mirrors between the earth and the sun to reduce incoming solar radiation. But Georgiy Stenchikov of Rutgers University warned that even if these approaches worked, they would be risky. For instance, schemes to sequester carbon-dioxide in the ocean might accelerate a process of acidification, killing vast swathes of marine life. 1. ________ 2. ________ 3. ________ 4. ________

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QuikSCAT

58

THE ENVIRONMENT

GOING GREEN


GLOBAL WARNING FROM COPENHAGEN

1.____B____ 2.____D____ 3. ____C____ 4. ____A____

59

THE ENVIRONMENT

GOING GREEN


CLIMATE CHANGE KILLING SEA LIFE

Finish these sentences:

1. The Coral Triangle is nicknamed ______________ 2. It is located in _______________ 3. Mark Erdman has been diving these waters for nearly

_____________ 4. He compares the discovery of a new species to finding

________________________ 5. This species became extinct ________________ 6. The Coral Triangle is composed of _______________ 7. Australia and the US have promised __________ 8. The US will invest __________________ 9. The Coral Triangle is the most biodiverse marine

___________________ 10. Biodiversity is threatened by _____________,

______________, and _______________ 11. Oceans cover ___________ 12. Angelique Batuna started diving when she was

_______ 13. Scientists only know ______________

60

THE ENVIRONMENT

GOING GREEN


CLIMATE CHANGE KILLING SEA LIFE: KEY

Finish these sentences:

1. The Coral Triangle is nicknamed _THE AMAZON OF THE SEAS_

2. It is located in __SOUTH-EAST ASIA___ 3. Mark Erdman has been diving these waters for nearly

_2 DECADES 4. He compares the discovery of a new species to finding _A

DINOSAUR IN YOUR BACKYARD 5. This species became extinct __65 MILLION YEARS AGO__ 6. The Coral Triangle is composed of __6 COUNTRIES__ 7. Australia and the US have promised _FINANCIAL SUPPORT_ 8. The US will invest __$40 MILLION OVER 5 YEARS 9. The Coral Triangle is the most biodiverse marine _ECOSYSTEM

ON THE PLANET_ 10. Biodiversity is threatened by _OVERFISHING_,

_POLLUTION_ and __CLIMATE CHANGE_ 11. Oceans cover __70%_OF THE EARTH__ 12. Angelique Batuna started diving when she was __13__ 13. Scientists only know __5% OF THE OCEAN SPECIES_

61

THE ENVIRONMENT

NATURAL CATASTROPHES


December 7, 2006

Not a mini-tornado, but a genuine twister

Paul Simons, Times Weather Man

FILL IN THE GAPS WITH THE FOLLOWING PHRASES

A. as conditions in the southern half of Britain turned convective B. green lightning flashing from its sides C. which blasted out shop fronts D. as the infamous twisters of Tornado Alley in the American Midwest E. exploding into thunderclouds F. a scene of devastation G. the winds in the atmosphere were coming in different directions H. Amongst all this mayhem I. by British standards J. of another violent tornado in West and North West London

Today's tornado in North West London was a medium-sized twister______1______. Initial

reports of the level of damage to trees, roofs and cars indicate wind speeds of around 100mph

(160kph), a T3-T4 strength tornado, on a scale ranging from T0 to T10 developed by the

Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (Torro).

In fact, Torro had issued a forecast alert of thunder, hail, lightning and tornado _______2_____.

This meant that air was rising through the atmosphere - a surge of warm, moist tropical air rose

up and hit colder drier air higher up, ________3__________. This produced a squall line, a

violent band of thunderclouds, which tore across Southern England during the morning.

62

Crucial for the development of a tornado, ___________4___________and set the air spinning

inside a cumulo-nimbus cloud, rather like whirling a child‘s spinning top. As a vortex created

within, the cloud grew increasingly narrow and spun faster – rather like an iceskater spinning

faster as they flatten their arms against their body - until eventually a funnel-shaped cloud grew

from the bottom of the thundercloud and touched the ground with violently rotating winds: a

tornado.

Such incidents in this country are often incorrectly dubbed "mini-tornados" in the media. In fact,

tornados in Britain can be as powerful and destructive ___________5___________. In July

2005, Birmingham was struck by one of the most brutal tornados recorded in this country, with

wind speeds estimated to have reached over 140mph (225kph), ________6_______, ripped off

roofs, brought down buildings and felled more than 1,000 trees. Nineteen people were injured

and damage was estimated at £39 million.

Coincidentally, tomorrow marks the anniversary 52 years ago _________7_________. A huge

thunderstorm drove in from the South Coast, the sky turned ink-black and a tornado touched

down at Bushey Park, near Hampton Court, smashing down trees.

At around 5pm, the storm reached Chiswick, West London, with a huge conical cloud hanging

down from the sky, ________8_________and a deafening roar like an express train. The

tornado blew Gunnersbury station apart before demolishing two nearby factories and driving on

through Acton, not far from BBC Television Centre, and on to Willesden, close to Kensal Rise.

Roofs on houses were ripped off, chimneys crashed down and walls collapsed. A car was

reported hurled through the air whilst terrified people outside ran for cover as a barrage of

bricks, glass and wood shot through the air like missiles. Newsreels of the day showed

_______9_______ in described as looking like something from the Blitz.

The vortex cut a swathe of devastation for several miles, finally petering out around Golders

Green and Southgate in North London. ______10_______, it is incredible that there were very

few casualties, with only minor injuries.

1. ______ 2. _______ 3. _______ 4. ________ 5. ________

6. ______ 7. _______ 8. ________ 9. _________ 10. _________

63

THE ENVIRONMENT



NOT A MINI-TORNADO, BUT A GENUINE TWISTER

FILL IN THE GAPS WITH THE FOLLOWING PHRASES

1. ___I___ 2. ___A____ 3. ___E____ 4. ___G____ 5. ____D____

6. ___C___ 7. ___J____ 8. ____B____ 9. ____F_____ 10. ____H_____

64

THE ENVIRONMENT



HOW WE SURVIVED A TORNADO

TICK THE 4 TRUE SENTENCES

1. The first sign of the tornado was a light breeze 2. The process of destruction was rather slow 3. Sherri Bird‘s home was thrown 50 feet 4. The roof was the first part of the house to disappear 5. The other members of the family were not with her 6. Her husband was downtown 7. Her house was not the only one destroyed by the tornado 8. The telephone tower stands still 9. Her Bible remained intact

65

THE ENVIRONMENT



HOW WE SURVIVED A TORNADO


1. The first sign of the tornado was a light breeze 2. The process of destruction was rather slow 3. Sherri Bird‘s home was thrown 50 feet 4. The roof was the first part of the house to disappear TRUE 5. The other members of the family were not with her TRUE 6. Her husband was downtown 7. Her house was not the only one destroyed by the tornado

TRUE 8. The telephone tower stands still 9. Her Bible remained intact TRUE

66

THE WORLD OF WORK

67

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

One-Third of Working Moms Are Burned Out as They Struggle to Provide for Their Families in a Tough Economy, Finds CareerBuilder's Annual Mother's Day Survey

- President of Personified and Mother of Three Offers Tips for

Achieving a Healthy Work/Life Balance -

CHICAGO, May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Quality time with family is the most

important "to-do" on working moms' lists this Mother's Day. In fact, some

working moms report struggling to find work/life balance as they take on

additional hours and second jobs in tough financial times. Thirty percent of

working moms, whose companies have had layoffs in the past 12 months, are

working longer hours and 14 percent of working moms have taken on second

jobs in the last year to help make ends meet. One-third (34 percent) reported

they are burned out. This is according to CareerBuilder's annual Mother's Day

survey conducted from February 20 to March 11, 2009, among 496 women,

employed full-time, with children under the age of 18.

Working moms are feeling increased pressure to be able to continue providing

for their households and are spending more time on work. Forty percent of

working moms fear losing their jobs today more than they did one year ago.

Forty-three percent work more than 40 hours per week, while 16 percent of

working moms reported bringing work home at least two days a week. Six

percent said work comes home with them every workday.

Increased workloads are impacting the quantity and quality of time spent with

their families. Nearly one-in-five working moms (19 percent) said they spend

two hours or less with their children each day. One-in-four (25 percent)

reported they had missed two or more significant events in their child's life in

the last year.

"More than anything, working moms want the gift of time this Mother's Day,"

said Mary Delaney, President of CareerBuilder's talent management and

recruitment outsourcing division, Personified, and mother of three. "Nearly

one-third say that despite it being one of the toughest economies in the nation's

history, they would even consider taking a pay cut to spend more time with their

kids. If you're struggling with work/life balance, talk to your manager. Working

68

moms who communicate their need for flexible time, job sharing or something

in between will find that most companies are receptive to these kinds of

policies."

Many working moms choose to work alternative schedules so they can spend

more time with their kids. Fifty-five percent of working moms say they take

advantage of flexible work arrangements at their organizations, with the vast

majority reporting that work style adjustments have not adversely affected their

career progress.

Delaney recommends the following tips for managing the working mom

balancing act:

1. Take care of yourself - It may seem like there is never enough time for

yourself, but be sure to take an hour or two each week to enjoy your

favorite activities. If you need help sticking to it, block off the

time in your calendar as an appointment so you don't cancel your "me

time."

2. Talk to your manager - Propose alternative work arrangements that not

only provide better work/life balance, but positively impact

productivity. Suggest compressed work-weeks, flexible hours that let

you start earlier and leave earlier and telecommuting.

3. Keep a routine - Make sure that chores, dinners and other household

responsibilities are planned and scheduled in advance to save you time,

stress and mental energy. Having a solid routine in place helps the

whole family operate more smoothly and allows for more quality family

time.

4. Make the most of family time - Sometimes getting home from work to a

whole other set of to-dos can feel like the second shift of your day.

Learn to not sweat the small stuff and take full advantage of your

family time by enjoying activities with your kids and putting other

menial task on the back burner.

5. Lighten the load - While you may be tempted to be involved in every

project and every conference call, get comfortable with delegating

responsibilities to members of your team. Not only will this allow your

staff to continue to grow, but it will help alleviate your day-to-day

duties.

69

THE WORLD OF WORK

WORKING MUMS


ONE-THIRD OF WORKING MUMS ARE BURNED OUT

True or false?

1. Some mums have to work longer hours because their companies have fired some of their employees

2. Some women have to take on second jobs due to the crisis 3. Many of these women don‘t mind spending more time at work 4. Some women who spend longer hours at work find it very

rewarding 5. More than 5% bring work home every workday 6. Most mums would rather have a pay cut and stay longer with

their children 7. Flexible work arrangements at work are a very common thing

in the US 8. According to Mary Delanay, flexibility at work and productivity

are not incompatible 9. Delanay thinks quantity is as important as quality 10. Delegating responsibilities means relief from stress

70

THE WORLD OF WORK

WORKING MUMS


ONE-THIRD OF WORKING MUMS ARE BURNED OUT

True or false?

1. Some mums have to work longer hours because their companies have fired some of their employees TRUE

2. Some women have to take on second jobs due to the crisis TRUE

3. Many of these women don‘t mind spending more time at work FALSE

4. Some women who spend longer hours at work find it very rewarding FALSE

5. More than 5% bring work home every workday TRUE 6. Most mums would rather have a pay cut and stay longer with

their children FALSE 7. Flexible work arrangements at work are a very common thing

in the US FALSE 8. According to Mary Delanay, flexibility at work and productivity

are not incompatible TRUE 9. Delanay thinks quantity is as important as quality FALSE 10. Delegating responsibilities means relief from stress

TRUE

71

THE WORLD OF WORK

WORKING MUMS


BABY-BOOM IN CONGRESS

Fill in the gaps with the missing words or groups of words:

At _______ a.m. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand takes her children to

______________ and to school in her _____________. She is part

of a baby boom _________ female lawmakers. Her son _________

is _________ months old.

She thinks being a mum makes her and the other women who have

kids better _____________ because they really understand some of

the _________ that other mums and other families ____________

every day.

Stephanie Herseth Sandlin had her baby ______________ ago. She

is on the ______________ for congressional _____________, so

the baby usually stays with the _________ or family. She juggles

legislating with _______________.

Herseth Sandlin was only the ___________ lawmaker to give birth

while serving , Gillibrand was the __________. Those numbers are

now _______________ faster because of the new _____________

for women in politics. Most used to take Nancy Pelosi‘s

____________: first have ____________, then run for _________.

Not anymore.

They admit it is easier for them to balance babies and work since

they are the _____________. These are unique _____________ but

luckily they get lots of ______________ from the _____________

of working mums serving in Congress.

72

THE WORLD OF WORK

WORKING MUMS


BABY-BOOM IN CONGRESS

Fill in the gaps with the missing words or groups of words:

At __8.30__ a.m. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand takes her children to

__DAY CARE_ and to school in her ___MINIVAN__. She is part of

a baby boom _AMONG__ female lawmakers. Her son _HENRY__

is ___11__ months old.

She thinks being a mum makes her and the other women who have

kids better _LEGISLATORS__ because they really understand

some of the _STRUGGLES__ that other mums and other families

__FACE__ every day.

Stephanie Herseth Sandlin had her baby _5 MONTHS___ ago. She

is on the _WAITING LIST__ for congressional _DAY CARE___, so

the baby usually stays with the __NANNY___ or family. She juggles

legislating with _BREAST FEEDING_.

Herseth Sandlin was only the _SEVENTH_ lawmaker to give birth

while serving , Gillibrand was the __SIXTH___. Those numbers are

now _CLIMBING___ faster because of the new __DYNAMIC__ for

women in politics. Most used to take Nancy Pelosi‘s __PATH__: first

have _KIDS__, then run for __OFFICE____. Not anymore.

They admit it is easier for them to balance babies and work since

they are the _BOSS___. These are unique _CHALLENGES_ but

luckily they get lots of _SUPPORT_ from the _NETWORK_ of

working mums serving in Congress.

73

THE WORLD OF WORK

THE HOMELESS


HOMELESSNESS IN CANADA

Range these paragraphs into the right order:

It is time for a fresh look at homelessness in Canada

With all the stimulus money floating around, some could be aimed here

BY STEPHEN MURGATROYD JUNE 7, 2009

A. A second are those who, for whatever reason, have turned to drink and drugs as a

way to cope with the travails of their lives. At some point, the drink or the drugs

have taken over their lives and it has led to them not being able to afford or sustain

shelter. The street becomes their home.

A third, smaller but nonetheless disconcerting group, is the runaways. Teenagers

who can no longer tolerate the impertinence of their parents or the rivalry with

siblings or the abuse from peers run away to find a new space in which they can

find out who they are and secure solace in the anonymity of a new start. Rarely

does this lead to the solution they sought; often it leads to abuse, prostitution,

degradation and poverty. The street is both their prison and their lost hope.

B. In any major city in North America, homelessness is a challenge in search of a

solution. Each day, good people with strong commitments work to ease the pain of

homelessness, to provide temporary shelter and solace and do what they can. But

still they come. Each month, politicians at all levels renew their commitments and

speak eloquently about solutions and support, provide some funds and make a

difference to a few people. But still they come.

It is time we tackled this problem. A stimulus package aimed at solving

homelessness in Canada - rebuilding and restoring our mental- health system with

sensible medium-term care and treatment to tackle those on the street, because

the care in the community is not there; new counselling services and support

centres for teenagers who cannot cope with their lives, their parents and their

crumbling social world; new approaches to drink and drugs; new work opportunities

74

in social programs and public services to provide some basis training; a concerted

effort to make Canada a home-full country.

Now that would be something.

C. A final group, growing fast, is those who are victims of the recession: the

dispossessed, the desperate, the indebted. Some seek shelter with family and

friends, but eventually their network is exhausted and they sleep in their car or van,

in parks or on the street. Some are working poor - holding down a part-time job, but

unable to afford a home.

Some of the homeless try to get out of the cycle of poverty - but the number of

working poor and homeless is growing. Some find homes, but cannot keep them

and find themselves back on the streets weeks or months later, even more

desperate than they were before they tasted what the future could be like, but the

taste soured and became an acid despair, sometimes in more ways than one.

Others do make it out of street-sleeping and start to pull themselves together, but

they need support and constant reinforcement to sustain their new life. It is not

easy, however it turns out.

D. One cause of homelessness is our complete inability as a society to know what to

do with the mentally ill. We used to have hospitals and centres where those

troubled within themselves were kept and occasionally cared for. While sometimes

the treatments provided were more experiments with drugs, power chords and

music, sometimes they also made a difference.

They were not pretty places - I used to work in one and, believe me, they were not

arts centres or blissful havens of tranquility - but at least they gave those not able to

care for themselves shelter, warmth and food. When these places were deemed

cruel and inhospitable and "care in the community" became the mantra of the do-

gooders, patients were turned loose onto communities without the "care" provision.

They are one source of homeless people.

E. We have a strange attitude toward homelessness. We are all clearly against it and

think that something must be done, but rarely do anything ourselves.

Municipal governments are against it, have no authority or mandate or funds

dedicated to it, but build affordable housing anyway with taxpayers' money, then

ask provincial and national governments to support them. Provincial and national

governments provide funds for affordable housing, and some affordable housing

gets built, but homelessness persists.

75

Stephen Murgatroyd is a consultant in innovative business and education practices with a Ph.D

in psychology.

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

1. __________ 2.___________ 3.__________ 4. _________ 5. __________

76

THE WORLD OF WORK

THE HOMELESS


HOMELESSNESS IN CANADA

Range these paragraphs into the right order:

1.____E______ 2.____D_____ 3.____A____ 4. ____C___ 5. ____B____

77

THE WORLD OF WORK

THE HOMELESS


HOMELESS SUCCESS STORY

Tick the five true sentences:

1. Andy Andrews‘ father died when he was 15

2. Andy‘s mother got lost somewhere

3. He was 18 when he found himself homeless

4. He had to sleep in other people‘s gardens

5. An old man gave him three biographies

6. He had to give the books back to the old man

7. He read 200 biographies

8. He read these biographies in the next seven years

9. He didn‘t keep in touch with the old man

10. Andy thinks it is a good thing if you make plans while

lying on a coach

11. He compares taking action with feeding birds

12. Working for other people is a negative thing

13. Hope is more important than control

14. Sometimes, important companies turn to him for advice

15. He has consulted AIG in the last three years

78

THE WORLD OF WORK

THE HOMELESS


HOMELESS SUCCESS STORY

Tick the five true sentences:

1. Andy Andrews‘ father died when he was 15

2. Andy‘s mother got lost somewhere

3. He was 18 when he found himself homeless

4. He had to sleep in other people‘s gardens

5. An old man gave him three biographies TRUE

6. He had to give the books back to the old man

7. He read 200 biographies TRUE

8. He read these biographies in the next seven years

9. He didn‘t keep in touch with the old man TRUE

10. Andy thinks it is a good thing if you make plans while

lying on a coach

11. He compares taking action with feeding birds TRUE

12. Working for other people is a negative thing

13. Hope is more important than control

14. Sometimes, important companies turn to him for advice

TRUE

15. He has consulted AIG in the last three years

79

June 16, 2009 WELL

Kid Goes Into McDonald‟s and Orders ... Yogurt? By TARA PARKER-POPE

Stuart Bradford

The eating habits of American children appear to be shifting. And for a change,

the news is good.

Chicken nuggets, burgers, fries and colas remain popular with the under-13 set,

of course. _______1_________, while soup, yogurt, fruit, grilled chicken and

chocolate milk are on the rise.

The findings, ______2______, follow a report last year that childhood obesity

appears to have hit a plateau after rising for more than two decades. That

finding, reported by The Journal of the American Medical Association,

______3______, and it remains unclear whether efforts to limit junk food

and increase physical activity in schools have had a meaningful effect on the way

children eat.

But the new data suggest that a number of factors, ______4______, may be

influencing a general shift in eating preferences among children. (…)

Clearly, the economy is playing a big part in these trends. Orders for kids‟ meals

_______5_______ were down 11 percent last year, for example, while “value

80

menu” orders were up 9 percent. More recently, children‟s orders for cold-cut

sandwiches are up 11 percent, a surge that appears to be driven largely by the

fast-food chain Subway‟s “$5 foot-long” campaign.________6_______,

restaurant birthday parties for children dropped 5 percent in the quarter ending

in February, compared with the same quarter last year.

But economics cannot explain the entire shift, _______7_______, a

restaurant analyst for NPD. Cheeseburgers, fries and colas are all on value

menus, but their consumption among children under 13 has fallen while

healthier foods are on the rise.

Among the losers in the year ending March 31 were colas (down 10 percent),

chicken nuggets and strips (8 percent), French fries (7 percent) and hot dogs (6

percent). Winners included soup (29 percent), grilled chicken sandwiches (26

percent), yogurt (21 percent), carrots (9 percent) and fruit (6 percent).

Even pizza is losing favor. While it is still the most popular food for children in

quick-service restaurants, its year-to-year growth is flat, according to NPD. And

in full-service restaurants, it has been replaced by pasta as the most popular

food among children. (…)

To be sure, pizza, burgers, fries and kids‟ meals are still the most popular items

ordered by children; the percentage gains for items like soup and yogurt are

from a smaller base. But the trends bolster an argument that children‟s health

researchers have made for years:_________8_________.

And many restaurants are taking the hint. Last month, Burger King announced

three new kids‟ meals that include small burgers, sliced apples that look like

French fries, reduced-sodium chicken tenders, calcium-fortified apple juice and

fat-free chocolate milk.__________9__________, and Wendy‟s kids‟ meals

include mandarin oranges.

“The food industry is always saying, „We‟re giving people want they want; that‟s

why we‟re giving you chicken nuggets, burgers and fries for your kids,‟ ” said

Leann L. Birch, director of the Center for Childhood Obesity Research at Penn

State. “_________10________. If kids are given different options and if

parents make them available and let them choose some of those things, I think

quite often we see you do get shifts in eating.”

81

FOOD AND HEALTH

FAST FOOD


KID GOES INTO McDONALD’S AND ORDERS… YOGURT?

Insert these phrases in the right place:

A. has been greeted with guarded optimism B. That‟s not really true C. And after more than three years of growth D. if you offer more healthful food, kids will eat it E. But new market research shows that consumption of these

foods at restaurants is declining F. McDonald‟s offers apples and yogurt G. said Bonnie Riggs H. based on survey data by the Chicago market research firm

NPD Group I. that included a toy J. from the economic downturn to new offerings from fast-food

giants

82

FOOD AND HEALTH

FAST FOOD


KID GOES INTO McDONALD’S AND ORDERS… YOGURT?

Insert these phrases in the right place:

1. E

2. H

3. A

4. J

5. I

6. C

7. G

8. D

9. F

10. B

83

FOOD AND HEALTH

FAST FOOD


FAST FOOD REIGNS IN CHINA

True or false?:

1. Nowadays, Chinese products rule the west

2. Every day, a new McDonald‘s opens in China

3. McDonald‘s has nearly 1000 restaurants in China

4. McDonald‘s plans to create 10,000 jobs there

5. They are going to open 150 new restaurants

6. McDonald‘s isn‘t cheap for Chinese people

7. McDonald‘s is regarded as a symbol of modern life

8. Chinese people think McDonald‘s is very healthy

9. Due to the present crisis, McDonald‘s sales in China are

dropping

10. Kentucky Fried Chicken is introducing Chinese

ingredients in meals

84

FOOD AND HEALTH

FAST FOOD


FAST FOOD REIGNS IN CHINA

True or false?:

1. Nowadays, Chinese products rule the west FALSE

2. Every day, a new McDonald‘s opens in China FALSE

3. McDonald‘s has nearly 1000 restaurants in China FALSE

4. McDonald‘s plans to create 10,000 jobs there TRUE

5. They are going to open 150 new restaurants TRUE

6. Chinese people find McDonald‘s cheap FALSE

7. McDonald‘s is regarded as a symbol of modern life TRUE

8. Chinese people think McDonald‘s is very healthy TRUE

9. Due to the present crisis, McDonald‘s sales in China are

dropping FALSE

10. Kentucky Fried Chicken is introducing Chinese

ingredients in meals TRUE

85

Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, says the UK government must address the price and availability of alcohol if it is to reduce the number of people dying from the effects of excessive consumption

Thursday August 23rd 2007

Drinks lined up on a bar. Photograph: David Sillitoe

1. Our newspapers and television are full of horror stories of the drinking habits of the UK and the effects on anti-social behaviour and on our health. But is this simply media

hype? Is alcohol the next target for the nanny state in a society that is becoming

increasingly risk averse? Has not alcohol always been with us and taken in intermittent

binges to dull the pain of harsh reality? Was not alcohol misuse a major concern as

far back as records go, with no fewer than seven acts of Parliament passed in less than 25 years during Elizabethan times (indeed, the weapon of taxation was used in a series of ‗Gin Acts‘ in the 18th century and restricted opening hours introduced in 1854, although the Act was repealed the following year because of its unpopularity)? The answer to these questions is of course yes, and there is nothing new under the sun. But there do seem to be some real changes in the last decade that are putting

particular strains on both the NHS and the police service that, although not new, do

need critical analysis if the trends are to be reversed.

2. Alcoholic cirrhosis is where the liver is progressively replaced by scar tissue in an attempt to heal repeated damage from drink until such time that there is insufficient healthy liver to sustain life or the scar tissue itself produces complications by stopping blood reaching the liver. I have been a liver specialist for over 25 years and have watched the pattern of disease in my patients for that period of time. Initially, I saw cirrhosis mainly in middle-aged or elderly men, but now it is commonplace in both sexes at ages as young as the early twenties. It usually takes heavy drinking for a minimum of 5-10 years to cause cirrhosis, and so this underlines how people are starting to drink ‗seriously‘ much younger and includes girls as well as boys.

86

We used to look at continental countries such as France, Italy and Spain with a degree of disdain, but deaths from cirrhosis in the UK have now overtaken the European Union average. And so what has changed in the UK to bring about this epidemic? The short answer is we don‘t know, but it is unlikely to be one single factor.

3. Candidates are the emancipation of women, greater anxiety and stress at work, more disposable income, increased emphasis on leisure time, loosening family ties, need for risk-taking and an all-pervading 24 hour exposure. But many of these beg the question as to why this seems to be a particularly British (and Irish) problem within western Europe. Undoubtedly there is a dearth of good sociological research on the various factors driving the drink culture and, equally importantly, how to reverse it. In the USA there is a heavily funded National Institute of Alcohol Studies – we urgently need an equivalent here.

4. However, the fact that we don‘t fully understand the phenomenon does not mean we

haven‘t some tools to tackle it. We know from clear international evidence that health

damage is best reduced by tackling our national per capita consumption and that the best levers in that regard are price and availability. We do not need to look far afield for confirmation that price is an important lever of consumption. In Finland the price was reduced drastically in March 2004 through a 40% cut in tax because of cheaper drinks in neighbouring countries, resulting in a 10% rise in heavy drinking among 17 year-olds within six months and a concomitant rise in harm. Off-license prices of alcoholic beverages in this country have never been cheaper in living memory. (…)

5. The Secretary of State for Health in the UK, Patricia Hewitt, broke government ranks recently with the welcome proposal to at least look at taxation as a tool in the context of ready mixed preparations like alcopops aimed at the young market.(…) There should be a serious look at overall excise duty rates to gradually bring the cost in real terms to where it was about 20 years ago. This and an attack on irresponsible ‗special offers‘ in bars and clubs would show an intention to confront the problem of alcohol misuse. There are other possible regulatory approaches that could be taken without any

government putting themselves too much in the ‘nanny state’ mould and would

demonstrate a firm stand against industry pressure. For instance, the UK and Ireland are among the very few European countries to have a drink-driving limit of 80mg per 100ml rather than 50mg. It was well shown in Australia that lowering the drink-driving limit to 50mg, accompanied by vigorous policing including random testing, had health benefits beyond drink-related accidents. International evidence also shows us what does not work – for example, the effects of education (including in schools) and public information are extremely disappointing. This does not mean that they should be abandoned, but we cannot back off tougher regulatory measures. The enthusiasm of the drinks industry for education and information is in itself suspicious that it may not be very effective.

6. The organisation I represent, the Royal College of Physicians, and I are not against alcohol and are not seeking prohibition. But, as Babor states in the title of his book [see below], alcohol is not an ordinary commodity. It is, instead, our favourite drug and does need extraordinary measures to tackle the current wave of alcohol-related harm. Yes, I hold my hand up as guilty of calling for the Nanny state to intervene, but when we don‘t understand the nature of the problem, sometimes nanny knows best. • Professor Ian Gilmore is president of the Royal College of Physicians, a liver

87

specialist, and one of the country‘s leading experts on the health effects of alcoholism. Babor‘s book, ‘Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity – Research and Public Policy‘, is published by Oxford University Press.

88

FOOD AND HEALTH

ALCOHOL ABUSE


TACKLING ‘BOOZE BRITAIN’

1. Match these ideas with the paragraph they summarize:

A. Governmental position B. Writer‘s personal opinion C. Very brief history of alcohol consumption in Britain D. Solutions to the problem E. Traditional symptoms of alcoholism F. Possible reasons for alcoholism in modern society

1. _____ 2. _____ 3. _____ 4. _____ 5. ______ 6. _____

2. Circle the synonym for the words highlighted in the text:

hype information - excessive publicity - advertisement

binges hiccups – spasms - excessive drinking

dull highlight – soften - increase

strains pressure – strings - blame

tackle play with - deal with – stay with

the ‗nanny state‘ nursing government -overprotective government – self-confident government

89

FOOD AND HEALTH

ALCOHOL ABUSE


TACKLING ‘BOOZE BRITAIN’

1. Match these ideas with the paragraph they summarize:

A. Governmental position B. Writer‘s personal opinion C. Very brief history of alcohol consumption in Britain D. Solutions to the problem E. Traditional symptoms of alcoholism F. Possible reasons for alcoholism in modern society

1. __C__ 2. __E__ 3. __F__ 4. __D___ 5. __A__ 6. __B___

2. Circle the synonym for the words highlighted in the text:

hype excessive publicity

binges excessive drinking

dull soften

strains pressure

tackle deal with

the ‗nanny state‘ overprotective government

90

FOOD AND HEALTH

ALCOHOL ABUSE


ARE YOU AN ALCOHOLIC?

True or false?

1. Nowadays the limits between being or not an alcoholic are not

clear

2. Some questions in the survey change depending on gender

3. Thirty-three thousand people answered these questions

4. The idea behind the survey is to identify people with drinking

problems as soon as possible

5. Some people volunteered to talk about their experience in

front of a camera

6. The government is investing a lot of money in treatments

7. The treatment for alcoholism is very similar for everybody

8. Some people can get better without a specific treatment

9. Experts are studying the role of genes in this problem

91

FOOD AND HEALTH

ALCOHOL ABUSE


ARE YOU AN ALCOHOLIC?

True or false?

1. Nowadays the limits between being or not an alcoholic are not

clear TRUE

2. Some questions in the survey vary depending on gender

TRUE

3. Thirty-three thousand people answered these questions

FALSE

4. The idea behind the survey is to identify people with drinking

problems as soon as possible TRUE

5. Some people volunteered to talk about their experience in

front of a camera FALSE

6. The government is investing a lot of money in treatments

TRUE

7. The treatment for alcoholism is very similar for everybody

FALSE

8. Some people can get better without a specific treatment

TRUE

9. Experts are studying the role of genes in this problem TRUE

92

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

93

August 4, 2001

In Rural India, A Passage To Wirelessness;

Companies Jump In As Convenience And Need

Catch On

By SARITHA RAI

In the seas southwest of here off the coast of southern India, the steady drone of

motorized fishing boats is often interrupted by the ringing of mobile phones. Even as

they land their catch in the boats, fishermen are already in touch with the dozen-odd

seafood markets around here,__________1___________.

One fisherman, Ratish Karthikeyan, says that,_________2__________, his profit on

each eight-day fishing run in his trawler has doubled. Two months ago, for instance,

Mr. Karthikeyan, 35, netted an extra $1,000 by using his phone to compare prices at

Cochin with those at Quilon, a port 85 miles away.

The 5,000 fishermen who work off the coast of Kerala state are not alone in embracing

wireless technology. From garment exporters in Tiruppur in the south to farmers in

Punjab in the north,_________3__________. Many areas have never had conventional

fixed-line service.

''There is so much happening in small towns and rural areas in India,

_________4_________, and that is creating a need for mobility and communication like

never before,'' said Fausto B. Cardoso, chief executive of BPL Mobile Cellular Ltd.

here. Some parts of the Indian countryside have more mobile phones for every 100

people than do some of India's biggest cities.

Sensing opportunity in those circumstances, ________5_________, from multinational

corporations like AT&T and Hutchison Telecom of Hong Kong to state-owned

companies like Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. to local operators like Spice

Telecom, are jumping into local markets. Some of these companies are already

established in Bombay, New Delhi and other big cities but are betting that there is

money to be made by serving eager customers in the countryside, too.

Many people in rural areas have no alternative. Half of India's 660,000 villages were

never wired for fixed-line service, and those that were connected have outdated

equipment and long waiting lists for new service.

''Rural telephony has been terribly neglected in India, and the demand has been

artificially capped by long waiting lists,'' said Kobita Desai, __________6__________.

94

Phone companies are adopting novel approaches to fill the gap.

In the Bhimavaram region in the southeast, for example, Birla Tata AT&T -- jointly

owned by AT&T and two Indian industrial conglomerates, the Birla Group and the Tata

Group -- has successfully sought out shrimp farmers. ''___________7__________,'' said

S Nagarajan, the general manager for marketing.

Even in territories like western Maharashtra and Gujarat, _________8__________, as

well as Madhya Pradesh, a less-developed region, the awareness of the benefits of

cellular phones has increased tremendously, Mr. Nagarajan said.

The Gartner Group, ________9________, forecasts that the growth rate of mobile

phone subscribers in India will soar from a mere 3.1 million at the end of 2000 to

surpass anywhere else in Asia, reaching 30 million by 2005. By then, if the projections

prove accurate, India will have moved well past the much smaller Philippines in the

total number of mobile users but will still remain far behind China.(…)

Potential customers from spice traders in Unjha to sugar-cane farmers in Bardoli

responded. ''As farmers and small-business men realize the impact of mobile

communications on the pace and efficiency of their lives, _______10________,'' said

Sandip Das, the chief executive of Fascel. (…)

Back then, a mobile phone was a showy accessory in big Indian cities

where________11_______. India still has relatively few users for its population, which

recently exceeded 1 billion. Only about 0.35 percent of Indians subscribe to a mobile

phone service, compared with about 9 percent in China.(…)

The goal, here as elsewhere, is to persuade more people to subscribe and to get

subscribers to talk more. Analysts think it will work.

''The industry has achieved a sustainable level of maturity and is likely to maintain its

high growth prospects,'' said Ms. Desai, the Gartner Group analyst.

Many average Indians agree.

''Life without a mobile phone,'' said Mr. Karthikeyan, the Cochin fisherman, ''is

unthinkable.''

95


MOBILE PHONES


IN RURAL INDIA, A PASSAGE TO WIRELESSNESS

Fill in the gaps with the right phrase:

A. populated by an affluent mix of people in industry and farming B. usage is shooting up rapidly C. a research and advisory firm D. Our expanded coverage has led to the segment

wholeheartedly embracing mobile phone E. checking prices at different ports F. rural India has discovered the convenience of doing business

on mobile phones G. two dozen companies H. an analyst for the Gartner Group I. only the rich and near-rich could afford one J. since he acquired his BPL mobile service over a year ago K. both in terms of economic activity and cultural change

96


MOBILE PHONES


IN RURAL INDIA, A PASSAGE TO WIRELESSNESS

Fill in the gaps with the right phrase:

1. E 2. J 3. F 4. K 5. G 6. H 7. D 8. A 9. C 10. B 11. I

97


MOBILE PHONES


INDIAN CHILDREN, CLIMATE CHANGE AND MOBILE PHONES


1. The game called ―Copenhagen Challenge‖ is about saving the planet

from a Danish invasion

2. The students on the video are from Mumbai

3. This game is available only on PCs.

4. The most important telecommunications institution in India is called

Telecom Regulation Agency

5. There are more than 300 million mobile phone users in India

6. Most of them live in rural areas

7. They have to use expensive phones

8. The expansion of mobile phones makes it more difficult to educate

people

9. Copenhagen will be holding the next International Climate Change

Conference

10. It will take place next November

11. CMQ is a company specialized in mobile phones

12. ―Safety cricket‖ is a game about health and sports

13. The game is offered in English

14. Sexual education in schools is banned in India

15. AIDS causes 3% of deaths in India

16. ―Safety cricket‖ has been downloaded 10 million times by all kinds of

people in India

17. A new game about pregnancy and nutrition will be launched next year

98


MOBILE PHONES


INDIAN CHILDREN, CLIMATE CHANGE AND MOBILE PHONES


1. The game called ―Copenhagen Challenge‖ is about saving the planet

from a Danish invasion

2. The students on the video are from Mumbai

3. This game is available only on PCs.

4. The most important telecommunications institution in India is called

Telecom Regulation Agency

5. There are more than 300 million mobile phone users in India TRUE

6. Most of them live in rural areas TRUE

7. They have to use expensive phones

8. The expansion of mobile phones makes it more difficult to educate

people

9. Copenhagen will be holding the next International Climate Change

Conference TRUE

10. It will take place next November

11. CMQ is a company specialized in mobile phones

12. ―Safety cricket‖ is a game about health and sports TRUE

13. The game is offered in English

14. Sexual education in schools is banned in India

15. AIDS causes 3% of deaths in India

16. ―Safety cricket‖ has been downloaded 10 million times by all kinds of

people in India TRUE

17. A new game about pregnancy and nutrition will be launched next year

99

Rage of reason

Issue 23 of Cosmos, October 2008

by Robin McKie

Richard Dawkins is a towering figure in evolution who skewers creationists for sport. He doesn't suffer fools gladly, but was kind enough to talk to Robin McKie.

Spreading the word: Dawkins, looking youthful for his 67 years, is pictured with a copy of his book

The God Delusion.

Credit: AFP

1. RICHARD DAWKINS IS sitting on a cheap, beige sofa waiting for his make-up. Dressed – with typical elegance – in a grey suit, blue shirt and a tie covered with images of eagles, gorillas and other wildlife, the scourge of creationism is preparing for his appearance on Richard & Judy, a daytime TV chat show in which husband-

and-wife team Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan interview some of Britain's more intriguing celebrities. (…)

On this occasion, however, his brief is precise. He is promoting his latest three-part TV series on evolution – The Genius of Charles Darwin – which has just been shown in Britain and is scheduled for screening around the world, including in Australia and

New Zealand, to celebrate the forthcoming 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species.

2. IT'S A BUSY time for Dawkins, who is now 67 (though he could easily pass for a man in his early 50s). Hence our dressing-room meeting: an opportunity for a quiet, uninterrupted interview during a hectic schedule.

"I wanted to do more than just describe how Darwin came to natural selection, but to explore what it means to people today," he says. "The theory was, and remains, the most powerful, revolutionary idea ever put forward by an individual."

http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/issues/2008/23/

100

The end result is typical Dawkins: an eloquent presentation of how Darwin developed

his theory; an uncompromising description of its operation in the wild; and a few barbed anti-religious jibes for good measure. We see lions hunting down zebras and polar bears slaughtering seals, he says. The weak are killed off, leaving only animals best suited to their environment to pass on their genes to future generations. Slowly these genes accumulate until a new species emerges. This is natural selection – though it is scarcely a pleasant business.

"The total amount of suffering in the natural world is beyond all decent contemplation," Dawkins insists. "For most animals, reality is a business of struggle, suffering and sudden death."

3. NEVERTHELESS, THIS IS how species appear and die out, a process that drives

evolution not just on Earth but throughout the galaxy, Dawkins argues. "I would put my shirt on betting that if there is life anywhere else in the universe – and it may be weird, weird, weird – that it will be Darwinian in origin," he says.

It's an intriguing argument. But couldn't life evolve in non-Darwinian ways on other planets, I ask? For instance, couldn't creatures on another world change in ways so that characteristics acquired during their lifetimes – powerful muscles, long necks, or

thick skins – would be passed on directly to future generations, thus driving evolution? After all, the inheritance of acquired characteristics was an idea (originally outlined in the early 19th century by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck but later disproved as an influence on life on Earth) that Darwin thought, briefly, might have had some impact on evolution here.

But Dawkins is emphatic: "The idea of the inheritance of acquired characteristics is too crude to produce detailed adaptations like the eye or the human brain." The key point about natural selection, he argues, is that if there is a change in the wiring of a creature's nerves, or in its biochemistry, or its anatomy, and this

alteration produces an improvement in its survival, then that change will be passed on automatically. But most characteristics acquired by a creature during its lifetime are actually harmful – broken bones, lost limbs – and if these were passed on, as Lamarck argued, species would be wiped out almost as soon as they got started. "That is why I am sure natural selection is not confined to this planet. It is a universal, cosmic

force," adds Dawkins.

4. THE OXFORD BIOLOGIST was 35 when he emerged as a champion of evolution with the publication, in 1976, of his book The Selfish Gene. "Intelligent life on a planet comes of age when it first works out the reason for its own existence," runs its opening sentence, one of the great scientific introductions of all time.

In the book, Dawkins rips up the idea of evolution as it was then understood and substitutes his own vision of natural selection. Animals and plants do not use genes to self-replicate, he argues. It's the other way around: creatures are built by genes

to make more genes. "We are robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known

as genes," he states. Thus the egg not only comes before the chicken, it runs the animal's entire life. The book, and its central tenet that evolution is gene-driven, remains his proudest achievement. After The Selfish Gene, Dawkins went on to write a number of exquisitely argued books that expanded this thesis: The Extended Phenotype, The Blind Watchmaker, River Out of Eden, Climbing Mount Improbable, and The Ancestor's Tale.

Each extemporises on the theme that natural selection, operating at the level of the gene, is quite sufficient to account for the wonderful array of wildlife that inhabits our

101

planet, from bacteria to whales and from plankton to the giant redwood trees of

California.

5. AN UNDERSTANDING OF the rich detail of life on Earth and its evolution is Darwin's gift to humanity, Dawkins insists. Natural selection is simply the greatest idea ever to occur to a human mind – hence his anger at churches, governments, education authorities and families who hide this great truth from young people.

"Most children in Britain – and in most Western countries – get a few hours of education about natural selection. Against that, many of them have to go through an entire childhood's religious indoctrination. It is scarcely surprising that 40 per cent of people in most Western countries say they still think that God created men and women and that Earth is only 6,000 years old."

And here, one feels, lies the paradox about Richard Dawkins. For a committed atheist, he can also be fervently evangelical about the causes he believes in and sometimes seems as driven as a preacher who wants to pass on The Word.

It is an analogy that goes down badly, needless to say. The difference between science – where every statement has to be tested and proved – and religion, where basic tenets go unchallenged, is too vast to justify such comparisons, he says. (…)

6. AS TO THE FATE of our species, Dawkins is unhesitatingly pessimistic. Humanity has considerable technological expertise, but equally it is our own activities that now threaten our planet with environmental mayhem. "I can envisage a scenario in which small pockets of humanity survive in pods where

technology protects us from the dreadful effects we have let loose," he adds. It sounds fairly apocalyptic. So I ask if he has read Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer-winning novel, The Road – soon to be released as a film starring Viggo Mortensen – which outlines an equally dreadful future for our planet before adding, for clarification, that McCarthy also wrote the novel on which the Oscar-winning film No

Country for Old Men is based. Dawkins brightens. "Ah, Yeats," he smiles and finishes the line: "That is no country for old men. The young| In one another's arms, birds in the trees..."

Robin McKie is science editor of Britain's The Observer newspaper, and a contributing editor of Cosmos.

102


DARWIN


RAGE OF REASON

Match the paragraphs with the ideas that best summarize them:

A. The power of inheritance

B. Dawkins and the establishment

C. The interview in context

D. Predictions for the future

E. Dawkin‘s documentary

F. Dawkin‘s beginnings as a writer

1. _______ 2. ______ 3. _______ 4. ______ 5. _______ 6. ______

103


DARWIN


RAGE OF REASON

Match the paragraphs with the ideas that best summarize them:

A. The power of inheritance

B. Dawkins and the establishment

C. The interview in context

D. Predictions for the future

E. Dawkin‘s documentary

F. Dawkin‘s beginnings as a writer

1.___C___ 2. ___E___ 3. ___A___ 4. ___F___ 5. ___B____ 6. __D____

104


DARWIN


CHARLES DARWIN 200TH BIRTHDAY


Charles Darwin made some of his earliest discoveries in the ____________ Islands. He saw how some _________ had adapted to the most ____________ climate. Some years later he __________ ___ with the idea of natural selection. He wrote his book The Origin of Species in ________.

According to Randal Kaynes, Darwin helps us understand our place in natural

life as ___________ and how ___________ we must be in preserving it all.

Darwin‘s idea of how humans came ___ ____ contradicted the ________vision

of _________ . He __________ that humans evolved from the _______

species. Since then, scientists have worked __________________ to find the

____________ __________ between _________and people.

Today ________ Darwin‘s 200th birthday. His family home in Kent is now a

museum. Cathy Power is the ______________ there and she feels very

_____________.

The __________ __________ has dedicated its latest ____________ to

Darwin, an honour __________ to very few people.

Darwin‘s work still causes _______________ but his contribution to science and

history is _________________.

105


DARWIN


CHARLES DARWIN 200TH BIRTHDAY


Charles Darwin made some of his earliest discoveries in the _GALAPAGOS__ Islands. He saw how some _SPECIES___ had adapted to the most _DEMANDING_ climate. Some years later he _CAME_ _UP__ with the idea of natural selection. He wrote his book The Origin of Species in _1859__.

According to Randal Kaynes, Darwin helps us understand our place in natural

life as ___HUMANS__ and how __CAREFUL____ we must be in preserving it

all.

Darwin‘s idea of how humans came _TO__ __BE__ contradicted the

_BIBLICAL__vision of _CREATION_ . He _ARGUED_ that humans evolved

from the _LOW__ species. Since then, scientists have worked

_TIREDLESSLY__ to find the _MISSING__ ___LINK_ between _APES_and

people.

Today _MARKS_ Darwin‘s 200th birthday. His family home in Kent is now a

museum. Cathy Power is the __CURATOR__ there and she feels very

_EXCITED__.

The _ROYAL__ _MAIL_ has dedicated its latest _STAMP_ to Darwin, an

honour _BESTOWED_ to very few people.

Darwin‘s work still causes _CONTROVERSY_ but his contribution to science

and history is _UNDENIABLE_.

106

CRIME

107

In the Guardian Weekly print edition we reported on the recent slaughter of rare mountain gorillas in Congo‘s Virunga National Park. Paulin Ngobobo, chief warden at the park, describes the dangerous job of protecting the animals from rebel groups

September 1st 2007

Rangers recover the body of a gorilla killed in Virunga National Park in 2007. Photograph: WildLifeDirect

The killing of a gorilla is a disaster for us. When a silverback is habituated, it‘s worse. A habituated gorilla is extremely trusting and will let a human being approach to almost touching distance. They don‘t stand a chance against poachers, unless we can protect them. The habituation is for tourism, which generates revenue for the local community – their support is one of the main reasons that we have managed to protect them. In January, we received news from Bukima that the Silverback from one of our habituated groups had been shot by a rebel group poaching in the Park. The killing happened less than 600 metres from our abandoned patrol post at Bikenge, now occupied by rebels. A local farmer was ordered to help the rebels collect the meat of the gorilla. He told them that the meat was dangerous to eat, and immediately informed us of the incident. It was one of three possible solitary silverbacks that we have in DRC, and we really wanted to know which one had been killed by the rebels. To retrieve the body, I needed to get UN protection because the military from the 13 battalion who were occupying the Patrol Post at Bukima had entered the gorilla‘s habitat and started to cut it down to make charcoal. If we didn‘t do something quickly, it could be a disaster for the gorillas. I wanted to send my rangers in to stop the military from cutting down the forest, but last time I tried to stop them, they shot at me. Then they arrested me, threw me in their prison and had me flogged 65 times until I was bleeding. The military commander responsible has now been sent to Kinshasa, so I decided to try and meet the new military commander in the hope he would be

108

more willing to work with us and control his men. (…) We then received more bad news from some of our rangers who live near Bikenge. Very recent gorilla remains were said to have been found about 1km from where the last was killed. Local people reported that its body was cut up and shoved down a pit latrine (this terrible act was done to humans during the Rwandan genocide). If this was true, I knew the gorilla was probably from the group Mapua. With Robert Muir from the Frankfurt Zoological Society and six of my men, we tried to enter the rebel-held territory to talk to the rebel commanders. We were turned back at the first rebel checkpoint on the road. Our only chance at this stage was to get through to higher command and get them to stop their men from killing the gorillas. We were certain it was rebel leader Laurent Nkunda‘s men, because UN peacekeepers confirmed that no-one else had access to the area where the gorilla was killed. It was also clear that they know they shouldn‘t be doing it because they were trying to hide the evidence. A second gorilla was killed, with the possibility that others had been shot. It was time to fetch the remains. We entered the valley and drove past a rebel camp, entrenched less than 250 metres from where we were. They were observing us, seemingly a little surprised. We came to a line of trees, and just beyond that was Bikenge, our destination. The site where the gorilla‘s remains were supposed to have been discarded was still about 500 metres away, but at that point we saw a group of over 20 rebel soldiers pacing down the hillside towards us. As we hadn‘t been able to get a message across that we were coming, the fair assumption was that they were not too friendly. We decided to move out fast, and retreated a couple of kilometres away. This is where our plan B kicked in. We had sent in two of our trackers the day before and they had managed to get to the area and recover the gorilla‘s head. It was a terrible thing to have to see. They joined us and we moved out. We did this because we needed to identify the individual, and to bring back irrefutable proof that gorillas were being killed. We learned a lot: the gorilla had been eaten for meat. His name was Karema, another solitary silverback that had been born into a habituated group. Above all, we learned that the remaining gorillas were extremely vulnerable – the rebels were after the meat, and it‘s not difficult for them to find and kill them. We finally had a meeting with one of Laurent Nkunda rebel commanders, to discuss the gorilla killings and to explain that this has to be stopped. We headed out for Jomba, one of the key gorilla sites close to the Uganda border where the rebels have their headquarters. Shortly after our arrival at 10.30am, a company of men came striding down the hilltop in camouflage gear, most of them carrying heavy weapons and rocket launchers. Quite a few were also carrying spears too. I met Colonel Makenga of the rebel forces and explained who the rangers were, what we were trying to achieve in the park, and how important it is to protect the mountain gorillas and other wildlife, even during times of war. I requested access to the Patrol Posts in the gorilla sector so that my rangers could search for the gorilla groups and establish their status. Col. Makenga granted my request.(…) If the Silverback is killed by poachers, it has a catastrophic effect on the rest of the group, the group itself is usually destroyed, and the trauma is felt for years afterwards.

• Paulin Ngobobo works with WildlifeDirect, a conservation group based in the DRC and Kenya that supports the rangers working in Virunga National Park. Read their blog at www.gorilla.cd.

http://www.gorilla.cd/

109

CRIME

ECO-CRIME


MASSACRE OF CONGO’S GORILLAS

True or false?

1. Gorillas are used to human presence due to the abundance of poachers

2. Tourism in the region is seen as a positive thing 3. Gorillas are usually caught in the middle of wars between

different factions 4. Farmers in that region usually eat the meat of these gorillas 5. The writer of this article has managed to keep away from

danger so far 6. The writer tried to talk to the rebel commanders all alone 7. Nkunda‘s men were not aware of the problems that killing the

gorillas involved 8. Before entering a rebel zone, it is advisable to send a

message to the commanders announcing the rangers‘ arrival 9. The rebels in that region are heavily armed 10. They are cruel to the gorillas but not to people

110

CRIME

ECO-CRIME


MASSACRE OF CONGO’S GORILLAS

True or false?

1. Gorillas are used to human presence due to the abundance of poachers FALSE

2. Tourism in the region is seen as a positive thing TRUE 3. Gorillas are usually caught in the middle of wars between

different factions TRUE 4. Farmers in that region usually eat the meat of these gorillas

FALSE 5. The writer of this article has managed to keep away from

danger so far FALSE 6. The writer tried to talk to the rebel commanders all alone

FALSE 7. Nkunda‘s men were not aware of the problems that killing the

gorillas involved FALSE 8. Before entering a rebel zone, it is advisable to send a

message to the commanders announcing the rangers‘ arrival TRUE

9. The rebels in that region are heavily armed TRUE 10. They are cruel to the gorillas but not to people FALSE

111

CRIME

ECO-CRIME


ECO-COPS FIGHT ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME

True or false?

1. Matthew Nichols had previously announced his visit to the market

2. The market is located in Bronx‘s Chinatown 3. He is looking for illegal fruit on sale 4. There are not many environmental patrols in the city 5. According to Lt.Fitzpatrick, people in New York feel very

sceptical about their job 6. A dolphin lost its way earlier this month 7. Sometimes, marine animals get stranded in New York

harbour 8. Officer Nichols also deals with other kinds of crime 9. Some people find this kind of job very boring 10. They think their mission is relevant

112

CRIME

ECO-CRIME


ECO-COPS FIGHT ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME

True or false?

1. Matthew Nichols had previously announced his visit to the market FALSE

2. The market is located in Bronx‘s Chinatown FALSE 3. He is looking for illegal fruit on sale FALSE 4. There are not many environmental patrols in the city TRUE 5. According to Lt.Fitzpatrick, people in New York feel very

sceptical about their job TRUE 6. A dolphin lost its way earlier this month FALSE 7. Sometimes, marine animals get stranded in New York

harbour TRUE 8. Officer Nichols also deals with other kinds of crime FALSE 9. Some people find this kind of job very boring TRUE 10. They think their mission is relevant TRUE

113

Software piracy worsens in Asia: study

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 SINGAPORE: Software piracy in the Asia-Pacific region continued to grow last year, a study said Tuesday, driven by the rapid ___1____ in computer sales and the availability of ____2_____ programmes online. The annual survey by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and industry research firm IDC showed that in 2008, an ___3____ of 61 percent of the region's software were unlicensed. The figure was up from 59 percent the ____4____ year. This ____5____ legal software vendors to lose 15.26 billion US dollars, up 8.3 percent from 14.09 billion dollars the previous year, according to the study. The global average of ____6_____ software worsened to 41 percent in 2008 from 38 percent the previous year, causing losses of almost 53 billion dollars, the study said. "This increase in the average ____7_____ rate is attributed to the mathematical outcome of more rapid growth of PC (personal computer) markets in economies of higher piracy rates," said Jeffrey Hardee, BSA's vice president and regional director. "Even if piracy were to go ___8____ in every high-piracy country, their growing market share for PCs could drive the regional average up." ____9____ use of the Internet was another factor behind the increase, the study said. "The availability of pirated software on the Internet, which ironically is facilitated by increasing broadband penetration in the region, is also a major ___10____," said Hardee. Software includes operating systems, systems software like ___11____ and security packages and application software like office packages, finance and tax packages and PC computer ___12___. Bangladesh was the biggest ___13___ in the region last year with a piracy rate of 92 percent, ___14____ by Sri Lanka at 90 percent and Pakistan at 86 percent, the study showed. Japan had the ___15___ rate, at 21 percent, followed by New Zealand at 22 percent and Australia at 26 percent. In China, the average piracy rate dropped to 80 percent last year from 82 percent in 2007, the study showed. The improvement in China is due to "more vigorous enforcement and education," it said.

114

From The Daily Jang, Pakistan

CRIME

CYBERCRIME


SOFTWARE PIRACY WORSENS IN ASIA

Fill in the gaps with the right word:

a. concern

b. bootleg

c. unlicensed

d. databases

e. followed

f. previous

g. Widespread

h. led

i. growth

j. lowest

k. piracy

l. average

m. down

n. led

o. culprit

p. games

1. ____ 2. ____ 3. ____ 4. ____ 5. ____ 6. ____ 7. ____ 8. ____ 9. ____

10.____ 11. ____ 12. ____ 13. ____ 14. ____ 15. ____

115

CRIME

CYBERCRIME


SOFTWARE PIRACY WORSENS IN ASIA

Fill in the gaps with the right word:

1. __i__

2. __b__

3. __l__

4. __f__

5. __n__ 6. __c__ 7. __k__ 8. __m__ 9. __g__ 10. .__a__ 11. __d__ 12. __p__ 13. __o__ 14. __e__ 15. __j__

116

CRIME

CYBERCRIME


DIGITAL PIRACY

True or false?

1. We can‘t help feeling guilty when we copy a CD. 2. Copying a CD is different from copying a film. 3. When we copy a CD we don‘t break the copyright rules if we

paid for it. 4. According to the narrator, downloading is a crime. 5. We feel comfortable about downloading since we don‘t know

the face of the people we share the files with. 6. Internet piracy has nothing to do with stealing. 7. Internet piracy is a very risky crime.

117

CRIME

CYBERCRIME


DIGITAL PIRACY

True or false?

1. We can‘t help feeling guilty when we copy a CD. FALSE 2. Copying a CD is different from copying a film. FALSE 3. When we copy a CD we don‘t break the copyright rules if we

paid for it. FALSE 4. According to the narrator, downloading is a crime. TRUE 5. We feel comfortable about downloading since we don‘t know

the face of the people we share the files with. TRUE 6. Internet piracy has nothing to do with stealing. FALSE 7. Internet piracy is a very risky crime. FALSE

118

Guardian Weekly reader Pete Browne takes us on a tour of the museums on the Senegalese island of Gorée, where he finds remnants of Senegal's colonial past at the House of Slaves

Wednesday June 3rd 2009

A view from the sea of the Slave House museum, on Goree Island, Senegal. Photograph: Claire Soares/Reuters

The tiny island of Gorée can be defined by what it lacks. There are no roads, no cars, and no hassle, a welcome change for visitors from the bustling Senegalese capital of Dakar.

Gorée‘s 1,300 inhabitants make a living selling souvenirs and manning the restaurants and museums. It is one of Senegal‘s premier tourist destinations, and visitors flock to see the faded architecture of this former Portuguese, Dutch, British and French territory.

Like many islands dotted around the fringe of Africa, Gorée has a troubled past. During colonial times it was an embarkation point – and final sight of home – for many west Africans sold into slavery. Remnants of the former regimes still inhabit the island, from a Portuguese stone chapel to the Dutch-built fort and ―house of slaves‖, both converted into museums.

Exhibits range from a dogfish embalmed while in the process of digesting a human foot, to a heart-shaped stamp used to sear the flesh of slaves with the most inappropriate of motifs. This unusual combination could be said to represent Gorée‘s confused and conflicted nature. One the one hand the island is a simple fishing village, no different from many others dotted along the Senegalese coast. On the other it‘s a place of extreme sadness and pain, a living monument to human suffering.

119

Among the visitors was a party of African-Americans. As far as they were concerned this was no sightseeing excursion. This was a matter of remembrance and respect, an event holding deep personal significance. For many descendants of slaves tracing their roots, Gorée is the point where paper records began, a point that defines a pivotal moment of family histories.

In another parallel with its former life, the waters round Gorée today are patrolled by European forces. The nearby Canary Islands are Spanish territory and a gateway to prospective asylum seekers and economic migrants. Boats depart from Gorée on a regular basis. In 2007, 14 Senegalese men made it to within 160km of New York before being caught by US coastguards.

For any who do succeed in using Gorée as a launch pad to a new life, another interesting consequence could emerge as their descendants find themselves doing what many visitors are doing today, tracing their roots and returning to Gorée.

120

CRIME

SLAVERY


BACK TO THEIR ROOTS ON AN ISLAND OF TEARS

True or false?

1. Both Gorée and Dakar are very peaceful places. 2. In Gorée, the remains of the past are very well-kept. 3. In the past, slaves from all over Africa embarked there. 4. Gorée has a rich historical past. 5. The museum holds, among other things, an interesting fish

collection. 6. Fishing is Gorée‘s most important economic activity. 7. Visiting Gorée is a deeply moving experience for African-

Americans. 8. Some African-Americans get information about their ancestors

thanks to Gorée‘s archives. 9. People from Gorée travel to the US in search of their relatives

in America. 10. In the future, the descendants of these emigrants might

go back to the island looking for their ancestors.

121

CRIME

SLAVERY


BACK TO THEIR ROOTS ON AN ISLAND OF TEARS

True or false?

1. Both Gorée and Dakar are very peaceful places. FALSE 2. In Gorée, the remains of the past are very well-kept. FALSE 3. In the past, slaves from all over Africa embarked there. FALSE 4. Gorée has a rich historical past. TRUE 5. The museum holds, among other things, an interesting fish

collection. TRUE 6. Fishing is Gorée‘s most important economic activity. FALSE 7. Visiting Gorée is a deeply moving experience for African-

Americans. TRUE 8. Some African-Americans get information about their ancestors

thanks to Gorée‘s archives. TRUE 9. People from Gorée travel to the US in search of their relatives

in America. FALSE 10. In the future, the descendants of these emigrants might

go back to the island looking for their ancestors. TRUE

122

CRIME

SLAVERY


MODERN SLAVERY IN KENIA

True or false?

1. Bahrein is in Africa 2. Many Kenian women are taken to Bahrein as home-help 3. Ann was offered a house for her and her two children 4. She was also offered a contract for one year 5. The first month, she was not badly-treated 6. She had to sleep on the floor with her children 7. Her salary was extremely low 8. Her boss told her to work for eight more months to pay for her

visa and tickets 9. She didn‘t get much food 10. She was allowed to leave the house but not alone 11. She managed to escape with the help of a neighbour 12. She hid under the back seat of the car 13. She managed to go back to Kenia 14. Ann‘s bosses were not well-off 15. Ann is planning to take legal action against her

employers

123

CRIME

SLAVERY


MODERN SLAVERY IN KENIA

True or false?

1. Bahrein is in Africa FALSE 2. Many Kenian women are taken to Bahrein as home-help

TRUE 3. Ann was offered a house for her and her two children FALSE 4. She was also offered a contract for one year FALSE 5. The first month, she was not badly-treated TRUE 6. She had to sleep on the floor with her children FALSE 7. Her salary was extremely low FALSE 8. Her boss told her to work for eight more months to pay for her

visa and tickets TRUE 9. She didn‘t get much food TRUE 10. She was allowed to leave the house but not alone TRUE 11. She managed to escape with the help of a neighbour

TRUE 12. She hid under the back seat of the car FALSE 13. She managed to go back to Kenia TRUE 14. Ann‘s bosses were not well-off FALSE 15. Ann is planning to take legal action against her

employers FALSE

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ART

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JONATHAN JONES - ON ART BLOG

Picasso v the old masters? No contest The National Gallery's retrospective pits the Spanish genius against the all-time greats. So how does he fare?

An educated animal … Pablo Picasso in London in 1950. Photograph: Corbis

Picasso is my favourite artist. For that very reason, I was nervous about the National Gallery's exhibition Picasso: Confronting the Past. ____1____. Would it annoy me for putting on a poor show of his genius – or worse still, would the setting undermine my admiration and make me feel he cannot stand up to the masters in the National Gallery collection after all?

At last, yesterday I sidled in, anxiously, furtively. _____2______. There is nothing here that is less than blazing. Picasso makes other artists look like hacks – I mean, almost all other artists in the history of the world – because everything he does feels necessary. ______3_______ or knew only in small reproductions, and explores a theme in his work that has not had a lot of attention recently. It has no cliches in it and nothing overfamiliar. It plays on Picasso's most disconcerting strength, which is the sheer volume and manysidedness of his imagination. The most brilliant curatorial decision is to dispense with chronology. How often I seem to have entered the Sainsbury Wing galleries suppressing a sigh as I prepare to negotiate three or four rooms of minor early works by an artist before getting to the good stuff. Here, the very first room introduces you to a Picasso seen across the full range of his life. Paintings done in his youth hang near late works. His early self-portrait in an 18th-century wig shares space with his mesmerising 1958 painting Minotaur, ______4______and violence and the mystery of art. That Minotaur was painted at a date when Picasso is conventionally thought to have gone off – to have started to lose the prodigious creativity of his youth and

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middle age. Born in 1881, ____5_____ - and would go on working right up to his death in 1973. But I confess that in collections of his work like the Musée Picasso in Paris my enthusiasm has often flagged after the second world war. This exhibition's most enriching achievement is to almost stand that cliche on its head. You end up thinking Picasso progressed towards his last works, rather than declining. At any rate, his late paintings here get a truly eye-opening show. The appetite for the bizarre and the grotesque in works like his Seated Musketeer With a Sword (19th July 1969) comes over here as unbelievably funny, vital, dazzling. ______6_______: the big pastiche or rather rethinking of Velázquez's Las Meninas is disconcerting in the way it at once pays homage to the original's deep space and mocks the illusions of art. (…)

Yet, when all is said and done, it is not the interpretations of masterpieces or insulting pastiches of art history that make this exhibition so fascinating. What I came away with is a biting awareness of sex and death. _______7_______. No other makes death as real. There's an effect in Picasso's art – let's call it the Picasso Effect - that he learned through his cubist experiments and then applied throughout his life to kick you into seeing things, understanding things. When I look at a Picasso, I wait for the kick - and it almost always arrives. Try this. Just look at his 1952 painting Ram's Skull for a while. Relax. ______8_______. Look again. (…) When the Picasso Effect kicks in, I am not looking at a picture of a skull: I am looking at the skull, and at the same time seeing it dissected, crushed, ground up, reconstituted, turned inside out, eaten, shat, buried and exhumed. That skull does all this for me, and so does the nearby 1946 work Skull, Sea Urchin and Lamp On a Table. So does The Kiss (1969) and so does a phenomenal 1962 interpretation of Poussin's Rape of the Sabine Women in which a gigantic horse looms up in monochrome over a woman. ____9_____. It's stunning to see such a late work that matches Picasso's terrifying depictions of bullfights and bombings from the 1930s. This mad horse leaves me with a scary thought. Picasso has got a bad press for his life. Hostile biographers – _____10______ – have portrayed him as a cruel, evasive, brutal man in his relations with women. There are, in this exhibition, enough sensual and, yes, loving nudes to tell you that's only half the truth. But this exhibition does have a dark side. Paradoxically it may seem (but not if you look at the old masters regularly), it is in his confrontations with Poussin, Rembrandt or Greek mythology that Picasso discovers his most savage demons. There's no use denying that he paints violence well because he has violence in him - and yet, it's in high art that he finds his lusts mirrored. Picasso inhabits the highest realm of culture and the lowest, too. He is an educated animal; the Minotaur unleashed.

http://paul.rutgers.edu/~mosteiro/velazquez.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2009/feb/23/picasso-challenging-past-national-gallery?picture=343660951%20

http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/art66235

http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/art66235

http://www.guidelive.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/visualarts/stories/DN-nasher_0508gl.ART.State.Edition1.4635333.html

http://www.abcgallery.com/P/picasso/picasso65.html

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ART

PICASSO IN LONDON


PICASSO V THE OLD MASTERS? NO CONTEST

Fill in the gaps with the missing sentences:

A. its monstrous face intimating terrors of sexuality and violence B. Wait C. he was by now nearly 80 D. This painting captures the essence of violence E. Would it reduce my enthusiasm? F. including his own grand-daughter G. No other artist makes sex as carnal H. But I needn't have worried I. This exhibition is full of paintings I hadn't seen before J. His versions of masterpieces are brilliantly subversive

1. ___ 2. ___ 3. ___ 4. ___ 5. ___

6. ___ 7. ___ 8. ___ 9. ___ 10. ___

http://www.jeremyjosephs.com/picasso.htm

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ART

PICASSO IN LONDON


PICASSO V THE OLD MASTERS? NO CONTEST

Fill in the gaps with the missing sentences:

1. E 2. H 3. I 4. A 5. C 6. J 7. G 8. B 9. D 10. F

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ART

PICASSO IN LONDON


PICASSO V THE OLD MASTERS AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY


In this show, every room is a kind of _____________. Picasso‘s development is more or less ____________ organized.

In the first room, you can see Picasso‘s ________________. It begins with a really comparatively classical picture of him in a ________, looking as if he were going to a _____________ party imitating _________ directly, and then you go right round through all his periods: ___________ Picasso, cubist Picasso, scrolled Picasso, and of course image of Picasso as the Spanish ________.

There is another room devoted to his models and ___________. From very tender, harmonious, __________ pictures in which he‘s looking at Bonnard to brutal, _____________, cubist works where he‘s _________________ planes and distorting faces and ______________ figures and brutalizing them.

This show is also a document of the many faces and ______ of Picasso, and it‘s a document of his _________ life and the women he knew.

There is a portrait of Marie-Thérèse Walter painted in _________. She is sitting in an ____________, her arms come round and _______________ her like the arms of a man, she grows like a _____________. It‘s a cubist painting in the ____________ way, it‘s a very ___________, tender, loving picture.

When the show was in Paris, people _____________ for three hours to get in.

ART

130

PICASSO IN LONDON


PICASSO V THE OLD MASTERS AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY


In this show, every room is a kind of _MINI-RETROSPECTIVE__. Picasso‘s development is more or less _CHRONOLOGICALLY___ organized.

In the first room, you can see Picasso‘s _SELF-PORTRAITS_. It begins with a really comparatively classical picture of him in a _WIG__, looking as if he were going to a _FANCY DRESS_ party imitating _GOYA_ directly, and then you go right round through all his periods: _MONUMENTAL__ Picasso, cubist Picasso, scrolled Picasso, and of course image of Picasso as the Spanish _BULL_.

There is another room devoted to his models and __MUSES__. From very tender, harmonious, _HAZY_ pictures in which he‘s looking at Bonnard to brutal, _ABRUPT_, cubist works where he‘s _SHATTERING__ planes and distorting faces and _SMASHING_ figures and brutalizing them.

This show is also a document of the many faces and _STYLES_ of Picasso, and it‘s a document of his _LOVE_ life and the women he knew.

There is a portrait of Marie-Thérèse Walter painted in _1932__. She is sitting in an __ARMCHAIR___, her arms come round and _EMBRACE_____ her like the arms of a man, she grows like a _PLANT__. It‘s a cubist painting in the _SOFTEST__ way, it‘s a very __GENTLE__, tender, loving picture.

When the show was in Paris, people __QUEUED__ for three hours to get in.

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4.CONCLUSIONS

Aquest és un projecte llargament pensat i és també el fruit directe de la realitat

professional viscuda per mi com a professora d’anglès a les diferents Escoles Oficials

d’Idiomes de Catalunya on he treballat.

El Cicle Superior és un cicle especialment gratificant, ja que els alumnes, com a tals,

han adquirit ja una certa maduresa. Les bases gramaticals estan ja establertes, la

integració de destreses és viscuda per ells d’una forma natural, i existeix una

familiaritat amb la dinàmica cooperativa i comunicativa a l’aula. Ha arribat el moment

on l’alumne desitja, més que mai, ser autònom. I també és l’ocasió per aprofundir en

temes culturals, que a nivells anteriors van quedar en segon terme.

Crec fermament que l’elaboració d’un “reading bank” de material autèntic amb

diversos texts periodístics i la seva complementació amb material audiovisual pot ser

de gran utilitat per professors i alumnes del Cicle Superior, tant per fer servir a l’aula, a

fora de l’aula, o al Centre d’Autoaprenentatge.

Vull agrair des d’aquí, de manera especial, a la Dra. Sara Martín Alegre, cap del

Departament de Filologia Anglesa de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, el seu

assessorament. Les seves directrius han estat essencials a l’hora de elaborar aquest

treball.

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5. BIBLIOGRAFIA BÀSICA

ALDERSON, J.C. (2000) Assessing Reading. Cambridge Language Assessment Series

(eds. J.C. Alderson I L.F. Bachman). Cambridge, CUP.

BOB WOLFF, L. “Learning to Learn: Teachers Reflecting, Students Reflecting” APAC

Febrer 2008

CAMPBELL, C; KRYSZEWSKA, H. (1995). Learner-based Teaching. Oxford, OUP.

CANALE, M; SWAIN, M. (1981) “A theoretical framework for communicative

competence”, Palmer, Groot & Trosper S.A. (eds.) The Construct Validation of Tests of

Communicative Competence. Washington DC., TESOL.

CLANFIELD, L., FOORD, D., (2007). “Newspapers in the EFL ESL Classroom”

Oxford TEFL, www.oxfordtefl.com

DILLER, K. C. (1978) The language teaching controversy. Second edition. Rowley,

Mass., Newbury House Publishers

GRELLET, F. (1990). Developing Reading Skills. A Practical Guide to Reading

Comprehension Exercises. Cambridge, CUP.

GRUNDY, P. (1993). Newspapers. Oxford, OUP

HADFIELD, J. (1992). Classroom Dynamics. Oxford, OUP.

HYMES, D. (1972). "On communicative competence". Sociolinguistics. Eds. Pride, J.B.

y J. Holmes. London, Penguin Books.

KAGAN, S. Cooperative Learning (1994). San Clemente, CA., Kagan Publishing

KRASHEN, S.D.; TERRELL, T.D.(1983) The Natural Approach: language acquisition

in the classroom. Oxford, Pergamon

LYONS, J. (1981) Language, Meaning and Context. Oxford, Fontana.

MORGAN, J., RINVOLUCRI, M. (1986). Vocabulary. Oxford, OUP.

REED, C. “Action Research: A Strategy for Instructional Improvement” (2002).

http://www.newhorizons.org.

STOREY, J. (1998) What is Cultural Studies?. London, Arnold

TOMALIN, B.; STEMPLESKI, S., (1993). Cultural Awareness. Oxford, OUP.

VAN LIER, L. (1996) Interaction in the Language Curriculum: Awareness, Autonomy

and Authenticity. London, Longman.

VAN LIER, L. (2004). The Ecology and Semiotics of Language Learning: A

Sociocultural Perspective (Educational Linguistics), New York, Kluwer Academic

Publishers

VIGOTSKY, L.S. (1978) Thought and Language. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard

University Press.

WELDEN, A. (1991) Learner Strategies for Learner Autonomy. London, Prentice Hall.

WIDDOWSON, H.G. (1998) "Communication and Community. The Pragmatics of

ESP." English for Specific Purposes 17/1 3-14. WRIGHT, J. ( 1991). Dictionaries. Oxford, OUP.

Marc Europeu Comú de Referència:

<http://www6.gencat.net/llengcat/publicacions/marc/index.htm>

Documents

A WINDOW ON THE UNIVERSE: USING … · Memòria de treball. Llicència retribuïda, curs 2008-09 A WINDOW ON THE UNIVERSE: USING NEWSPAPERS IN THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM Mª Dolores Raventós