How far do you agree or disagree with the following?

1. HIV started because of homosexuality.

2. Too much money is spent on research into HIV. Cancer research is more important.

3. It is irresponsibly of the Roman Catholic Church to say that people should not use condoms.

4. Developed countries only care about their own HIV infected population. They are doing nothing to help the developing world.

MATCH THE QUESTIONS AND THE ANSWERS

1. What are AIDS and HIV?

2. How does HIV work?

3. What does AIDS-HIV do?

4. How do you get HIV?

5. How many people are infected?

6. How do you cure AIDS?

7. How do you stop AIDS?

 

A) In the year 2001, 36 million people were infected; 25 million in sub-Saharan Africa, 7.1 million in Asia and 940,000 in North America. Ninety percent of new infections are in developing countries. Twenty-two million people have died from AIDS related illnesses in the past twenty years.

B) A person who is HIV-positive (who has HIV) is under siege. HIV batters the body’s defences until diseases which the immune system normally fights off become major threats. These diseases are called “opportunistic diseases” and include pneumonia, meningitis, tuberculosis and bacterial infections. So in fact, a person doesn’t die of AIDS, they die of one of these other diseases that they have no protection against.

C) Don’t have unprotected sex (sex without a condom). If you use drugs, don’t share needles. It is possible to win the war against the HIV epidemic, but everyone needs to have good information about preventing infection, along with support from society to help them act on this information.

D) Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a set of symptoms that show that a person has become infected by a virus that attacks and damages the body’s immune system. AIDS is caused by HIV (the human immunodeficiency virus). HIV attacks the body’s immune system, especially the cells that help fight infections (T cells).

F) You can only become infected if your blood comes into contact with the HIV virus. Blood, semen, vaginal secretions and breast milk can all carry the virus.

The three most common ways people become infected are:

1. Having unprotected sex with an infected person;

2. Injecting drugs with a needle that’s been used by an infected person;

3. Being born to a mother who is already infected.

You can also get HIV through receiving infected blood (in a blood transfusion for example).

G) At the moment, there is no magic bullet that can cure AIDS. Doctors are unable to wipe out the infection once it has started. However, there are drugs now available which can stop the progress of HIV and allow people with AIDS to live normal lives. These drugs are often very expensive, and are not often easily available in developing countries.

H) HIV invades the T-cells and tricks them into reproducing copies of the AIDS virus. After a while, the virus destroys the T-cell. The HIV ‘copies’ then finds more cells to attack. Finally, the virus destroys so many T-cells that the immune system breaks down and it becomes defenceless against deadly invaders.

7. READING

Read the text

Mercury rising

Freddie Mercury was born on the island of Zanzibar on September 5th, 1946. Hisparents, Bomi and Jer Bulsara, called their son Farrokh. His parents were Persian but his father worked as a cashier for the British government in Zanzibar.

At the age of eight, the young Farrokh was sent to an English boarding school near Bombayin India. While he was at school, his friends and family started calling him Freddie. He was a keen sportsman and loved art more than any other subject. The headmaster of the school also noticed that Freddie had exceptional musical talent and recommended to his parents that they pay for their son to have some piano lessons. As well as having piano lessons, Freddie also joined the school choir and started taking part in school theatrical productions. All of this was helping Freddie to prepare for his future career.

After leaving school, Freddie returned to Zanzibar. Soon afterwards, because of political problems, Freddie and his family moved to England and settled in Middlesex, near London.

Freddie entered the Ealing College of Art to study to be a graphic illustrator. At college he met, and became friends with Tim Staffell, a bass player in a band called Smile. Tim introduced him to the other members of the band Brian May (who played guitar) and Roger Taylor (who played drums). Freddie had no idea at the time that he, Roger and Brian would end up in one of the biggest bands of the 70s, Queen.

After leaving college, Freddie opened a stall in Kensington Market in London and sold his art and other items. In the summer of 1969 he was introduced to a band from Liverpool called Ibex. He joined the band and they enjoyed some success, covering artists like Jimi Hendrix, Cream and (Freddie’s favourite band) Led Zeppelin. His time with the band was short-lived -they broke up just a few months later.

In April 1970, Freddie’s friend Tim left the band Smile and Freddie joined them as lead singer. He decided to change the band’s name to Queen and his own name to Mercury. In 1971, John Deacon joined the band and the full line up was complete. Freddie wrote their first song to enter the charts (Seven Seas of Rhye), their first big hit (Killer Queen) and their most famous song (Bohemian Rhapsody), which was at the top of the charts for nine weeks.

In 1975, the band toured Japan. Freddie fell in love with the country and became a keen collector of Japanese art. For the rest of the 70s and throughout the early 80s, the band continued to top the charts. They also provided material for the films Flash Gordon (1980) and Metropolis (re-released 1984). In the late 80s, Freddie teamed up with Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé with a song he had written for her and her home city, Barcelona. The song was an enormous hit but sadly Freddie died a month later, on November 24th, 1991, of AIDS-related pneumonia, just one day after announcing his illness to the world.

In 1992, Queen held a tribute concert at Wembley Stadium for their friend. Singer George

Michael took Freddie’s role as the band played their most famous songs.

The world is a quieter, less colourful place without him, but we will never forget Freddie Mercury, the world’s ultimate showman.

Freddie Mercury Quiz

1. Where was Freddie Mercury born?

a. Zanzibar

b. India

c. Egypt

2. What was his original name?

a. Farrokh Bulsara

b. Federico Makkura

c. Mohammed Hamyouni

3. His parents were

a. Turkish.

b. Egyptian.

c. Persian.

4. He went to school in

a. Kenya.

b. India.

c. England.

5. Apart from music, what was his favourite subject at school?

a. biology

b. modern languages

c. art

6. When he was 20, he went to

a. Ealing College of Art.

b. The Royal College of Music, London.

c. Merton College, Oxford University.

7. He met the other members of Queen through

a. a college friend.

b. a member of his family.

c. a member of his first band.

8. His first band was called

a. Led Zeppelin.

b. Cream.

c. Ibex.

9. True or False? Freddie Mercury didn’t actually write Queen’s greatest hit Bohemian Rhapsody.

10. Which country did Freddie Mercury fall in love with after touring it in 1975?

a. Japan

b. The U.S.A.

c. Italy

11. Which of these films didn’t he write material for?

a. Metropolis

b. Flash Gordon

c. Champion

12. In the late 80s, he had a huge hit called

a. Madrid.

b. Barcelona.

c. Valencia.

13. Freddie Mercury died as a result of

a. AIDS.

b. cancer.

c. a heart-attack.

14. In 1992, Queen played a tribute concert for Freddie Mercury. Who took the part of Freddie as lead singer?

a. George Michael

b. Elton John

c. Sting

Lesson 75.

VOCABULARY

The mass media are part of our life. They can be divided into several types as below. Which words do you associate with each of them? Use the ones from the box and add other.