Task 2. Give synonyms to the following.

ПРЕДИСЛОВИЕ

 

Одной из основных целей современной системы образования является подготовка молодежи к жизни в сложной системе общественных отношений, к успешному выполнению определенной социальной роли. Общественная и политическая жизнь становится все более многообразной, она не всегда укладывается в привычные стереотипы и схемы.

Реалии современной жизни требуют понимания сути демократического общества, самостоятельного и ответственного выполнения определенных социальных функций, четкого представления о правах и обязанностях личности и государства. Содержание гражданского образования подразумевает ознакомление с ценностями и нормами жизни в условиях демократического общества.

Идея гражданского образования удачно реализуется в курсе изучения иностранного языка в рамках Программы курса иностранного языка для студентов неязыковых специальностей (раздел «Основы и ценностные ориентиры современного общества).

Учебно-методическое пособие “People and Society” предназначено для студентов второго курса факультетов журналистики, философии и социальных наук, а также может быть использовано студентами других гуманитарных специальностей.

Основная цель учебно-методического пособия – развивать и совершенствовать навыки говорения студентов на основе оригинальных текстов. Пособие состоит из четырех структурно идентичных глав. Каждая глава снабжена серией упражнений для активизации лексики, заданиями для развития навыков аудирования и говорения и завершается тестом для контроля полученных знаний.

В пособии представлены также тексты для дополнительного чтения, которые могут быть использованы как для аудиторной, так и для самостоятельной работы. Для облегчения работы студентов предлагается англо-русский словарь.

 

INTRODUCTION

A diverse and complicated world is around us nowadays. Living in countries with different social systems, different political and economic situations people are facing various but often similar problems. And it's obvious that to better settle them one should be able to conduct a discussion, to set the conflict on a compromise and to make collective decisions. One of the ways to solution of the above-mentioned problems is to realize one's place in a society, to assume the existence of different opinions, attitudes and goals, to try not to impose your personal views and ideas on the whole community.

Teaching Civics as an integral part of the education process assists in preparing students to live in a democratic and legal state by forming an adequate notion of the society, basic social relations and connections. Civic education is obviously a fundamental part of cross-cultural study as it teaches students to accept the variety of the national peculiarities, prevents cultural shocks that may affect people exposed to an alien culture and environment without adequate preparation. It’s quite natural that it becomes a part of the English language course as one of the components of the Basic English studies at the BSU, as it meets the requirements of the Academic program (the sphere of socio-political communication).

The manual “People and Society” is an attempt to contribute in teaching students to become good citizens of their country and realize the diversity of social groups, values and practices in the world.

This manual hopefully meets the needs of teachers and second-year students of journalism, philosophy, sociology, communication and other humanities in the course of the English language studies (Basic English) as regards the part of the curriculum devoted to the social and political studies. It is mainly focused on providing material for development and improvement of the learners’ skills in reading and speaking based on the authentic texts. The manual contains materials for reading, discussion, arguments, debates, conclusion making and other types of intellectual and speech activities in and outside the classroom.

Generally it is designed for about 50–60 hours of class activities. It is organized in such a way that it’s possible to work on it both as a class activity and as a self-studying.

The manual is organized into four units and is supplied with an appendix which includes supplementary texts for reading and a glossary.

Each unit opens with the list of basic vocabulary terms, which is followed by the vocabulary development exercises. The “Reading Practice” part includes several texts accompanied with pre-reading, reading and post-reading tasks. Texts which are considered to be basic according to the topic of the unit are marked by the sign (!) and are compulsory for studying. Texts for skimming or scanning contain some additional information and broaden the students’ outlook but they are not designed for obligatory reading. It’s worth mentioning that when students are assigned to skim the text it means that they are supposed to glance through or to read the text in a superficial manner just for some general idea or a gist. Having got the task to scan the text the students should read, examine or analyze it for some specific information. The unit is completed with some listening and speech practice activities of different types, writing practices and an achievement test. The main aim of the tests is to check vocabulary awareness of the students after completing the work on each unit.

The second part (Appendix) presents some additional material for reading and a glossary. It is up to the teacher’s choice and the language abilities of a specific group whether to use these materials or not. Besides, texts for supplementary reading may be used as an individual or group task for home- reading. The students may read and translate or discuss them.

At the end of the book one can find a glossary, which will definitely help to better understand texts.

 

UNIT I

INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY

 

There is no such thing as society.

There are individual men and

women, and there are families.

Margaret Thatcher

 

It’s just impossible nowadays to imagine a person living totally isolated. Since early times people have realized that it’s much safer and easier to give and act in groups or communities sharing common interests, traditions, ways of life. Both an individual and society can’t but influence each other. And the more democratic a society is the more guaranteed the rights and freedoms of a person are.

The origins of democratic theory lie in ancient Greek political thought around the fifth century BC. Imagining a continuum running from rule by one person, through rule by a few, to rule by many, at one end is autocracy. At the other end is democracy, which means authority in, or rule by the people. But the ancient Greeks were afraid of democracy – rule of people personifying it with the mob rule, which along side with other reasons had led to the collapse of the first democratic state.

Having worked on the material of this unit you’ll be able to speculate on the problems of relationships within a society, on the symbols and main principles of a democratic government, on the reasons of some isolation of people living in certain communities.

BASIC VOCABULARY TERMS

bias (n) a tendency to consider one person, group, idea etc. more favourably than others;

community (n) a group of people who share the same nationality or religion or who are similar in another way;

engagement (n) an arrangement to do smth or meet someone;

group (n) a) several people or things that are all together in the same place;

b) several people or things that are connected with each other in some way;

household (n) all the people who live together in one house;

individual (n) one person, considered separately from the rest of the group or society that they live in;

lobby (n) a group of people who try to persuade a government that

a particular law or situation should be changed;

society (n) people in general considered in relation to the structure of laws, organizations etc, that makes it possible for them to live together;

civic (adj) connected with the people who live in a town or city;

voluntary (adj) done willingly and without being forced.

 

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT

Task 1. a) Complete the following word-form chart with the missed information. The first line is an example.

Noun	Adjective	Verb
organization	organizational	organize
		individualize
society
	national
		develop
concept
	democratic
		obey
resident
	prevalent
election

b) Complete the sentences with the most suitable word.

1.	At the first people live and work ….	individual, individually
2.	Within its historical development the mankind has undergone the stages from an individual through a group, …, to society.	community, communicative
3.	A permanent … is a person who constantly lives in a certain country.	resident, residential
4.	In the representative democracy people … their representatives to the government.	election, elect
5.	The science which deals with the persons relationships within a society is ….	social, sociology
6.	The notions of freedom and … are often used interchangeably.	democratic, democracy
7.	Most of the charity programs are organized on a … basis.	volunteer, voluntary

READING PRACTICE

T E X T 1

Pre-reading Activity

Reading Activity

(!) Read the text and say why no individual can be totally independent of other people.

We learn from history that prehistoric man first lived and hunted alone. Later, he realized that he was more successful if he hunted with a group of other men. Eventually, men built their home together, and began to farm the land. These men came together because they had something in common – in this case, hunting and farming – and they found that they could achieve more by helping each other. In this way, first primitive communities were formed. Since then, these communities have expanded and joined together, into villages, towns, cities and nations. The people who live in them have developed a relatively fixed way of life. In the course of time they have evolved their own laws, customs, beliefs and institutions. An organized and permanent group of individuals living together in this way make up a society.

Nowadays, we usually think of societies as national, and even international communities. For example, when we talk of “Western Society” we mean the ways of life of people in Western Europe, in North America, and even in Australia and New Zealand. Within every national society, however, there are many smaller communities, social groups and “societies” in which individuals with common interests live or work or play together.

Everyone today belongs to one or more of these kinds of society. Certainly, no individual can ever be totally independent of other people. Everyone is greatly influenced by the society he lives in: at the same time, the individual person can play a responsible part in the creation and the development of that society.

Before the 18th century, few people ever looked seriously at the make-up of the various social groups in which they lived. Since that time, however, the study of society has developed into the important science of sociology. It is indeed by means of the sociological study of the relationships that exist between the individual and that it is hoped to create a better society in the future.

(“The Individual in Society”

Izolda Geniene, Liongina Miseviciena, 1997)

Post-reading Activity

 

Task1.Decide which of the statements below are true and which are false. Read aloud the part of the text that you think gives you the answer.

1. The people who live in communities have developed a relatively unstable way of life.

2. Prehistoric man first lived and hunted in a group.

3. An unorganized and nonpermanent group of individuals living together makes up a society.

4. No individual can ever be totally independent of other people.

5. The prehistoric men came together because they had something in common.

6. In a short period of time the people have evolved their own laws, customs, beliefs and institutions.

7. Society is a system in which people live separately in organized communities.

T E X T 2

Pre-reading Activity

 

1. Can you explain the origin and the meaning of the term “democracy”?

2. What are the most characteristic features of a democratic society to your mind?

3. Having read the text see if your ideas correspond to the given information.

Reading Activity

 

(!) Read the text and make its outline. Check it with your group mates' samples.

 

DEFINING DEMOCRACY

Democracy may be a word familiar to most, but it is a concept still misunderstood and misused in a time when totalitarian regimes and military dictatorships alike have attempted to claim popular support by pinning democratic labels upon themselves. Yet the power of the democratic idea has also evoked some of the history most profound and moving expressions of human will and intellect: from Pericles in Ancient Athens to Vaclav Havel in modern Chechoslovakia, from Thomas Jefferson’ Declaration of Independence in 1776 to Andrey Sakharov’s last speeches in 1989.

In the dictionary definition, democracy “is government by the people in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.” In the phrase of Abraham Lincoln, democracy is a government “of the people, by the people and for the people.”

Freedom and democracy are often used interchangeably, but the two are not synonymous. Democracy is indeed a set of ideas and principles about freedom, but it also consists of a set of practices and procedures that have been molded through a long, often tortuous history. In short, democracy is the institutionalization of freedom. For this reason, it is possible to identify the time-tested fundamentals of constitutional government, human rights and equality before the law that any society must possess to be properly called democratic.

Democracies fall into two basic categories, direct and representative. In a direct democracy, all citizens, without the intermediary of elected or appointed officials, can participate in making public decisions. Such a system is clearly only practical with relatively small numbers of people – in a community organization or tribal council, for example, or the local unit of a labor union, where members can meet in a single room to discuss issues and arrive at decisions by consensus or majority vote. Ancient Athens, the world's first democracy, managed to practice direct democracy with an assembly that may have numbered as many as 5.000 to 6.000 persons – perhaps the maximum number that can physically gather in one place and practice direct democracy.

Modern society, with its size and complexity, offers few opportunities for direct democracy. Even in the northeastern United States, where the New England town meeting is a hallowed tradition, most communities have grown too large for all the residents to gather in a single location and vote directly on issues that affect their lives.

Today the most common form of democracy, whether for a town of 50.000 or nations of 50 million, is representative democracy, in which citizens elect officials to make political decisions, formulate laws and administer programs for the public good. In the name of the people, such officials can deliberate on complex public issues in a thoughtful and systematic manner that requires an investment of time and energy which is often impractical for the vast majority of private citizens.

How such officials are elected can vary enormously. On the national level, for example, legislator can be chosen from districts that each elect a single representative. Alternatively, under a system of proportional representation, each political party is represented in the legislature according to its percentage of the total vote nationwide. Provincial and local elections can mirror these national models, or choose their representatives more informally through group consensus instead of elections. Whatever the method used, public officials in a representative democracy hold office in the name of the people and are accountable to the people for their actions.

Democracy is more than a set of constitutional rules and procedures that determine how a government functions. In a democracy, government is only one element coexisting in a social fabric of many and varied institutions, political parties, organizations and associations. This diversity is called pluralism, and it assumes that the many organized groups and institutions in a democratic society do not depend upon government for their existence, legitimacy or authority.

Thousands of private organizations operate in a democratic society, some local, some national. Many of them serve a mediating role between individuals and the complex social and governmental institutions of which they are a part, filling roles not given to the government and offering individuals opportunities to exercise their rights and responsibilities as citizens of a democracy.

These groups represent the interests of their members in a variety of ways – by supporting candidates for public office, debating issues and trying to influence policy decisions. Through such groups, individuals have an avenue for meaningful participation both in government and in their own communities. The examples are many and varied: charitable organizations and churches, environmental and neighborhood groups, business associations and labor unions.

In an authoritarian society, virtually all such organizations would be controlled, licensed, watched or otherwise accountable to the government. In a democracy, the powers of the government are, by law, clearly defined and sharply limited. As a result, private organizations are free of government control; on the contrary, many of them lobby the government and seek to hold it accountable for its actions. Other groups, concerned with the arts, the practice of religious faith, scholarly research or other interests, may chose to have little or no contact with the government at all.

In this busy private realm of democratic society, citizens can explore the possibilities of freedom and the responsibilities of self-government – unpressured by the potentially heavy hand of the state.

(What is Democracy

US Information Agency, 1997)

Post-reading Activity

T E X T 3

 

Pre-reading Activity

 

1. What does a word “community” mean?

2. Recall some films, books, newspaper articles, TV reports about the way the communities live within a society.

3. What do you think characterizes a community in the best way?

 

Reading Activity

AMISH FOLK

The AMISH are called “Plain People” because their clothes are so simple and undecorated.

The Amish began coming from Switzerland and Germany into Pennsylvania near the beginning of the 1700’s. They came seeking freedom to worship as they pleased, and to preserve their own ways of life. Many of them are still living much as their forefathers did 250 years ago.

The Amish do not have telephones in their homes. “Electricity is not in the Bible”, they say; though they will use those in other people’s homes, or public ones, in emergencies. Cars and tractors have also long been resisted by the conservative Amish. They say “A tractor gets the work done more quickly, but horses and the love of hard work keep us nearer to God”.

It is customary among the Amish to intermarry to keep the sect together. Weddings take place in November, when there is less work on the farms. Barn-raising is another old Amish custom. When a farmer’s barn burns or becomes too small or old, all his neighbours help him build a new one. A hundred men or more turn up. They can build a barn in a day.

In the barnyard are usually three cows. “They give us enough milk for our family, and enough left over to make cheese.” The families are almost self-sufficient. They raise pigs, kill them, smoke some of the meat, and sell the rest or trade it with neighbours. They also grow their own vegetables.

Unless it is absolutely necessary, many Amish folk will not obey the laws that violate their beliefs. Many refuse to pay for Social Security, saying they can take care of themselves – they do not need the State.

The Amish prefer to teach their children at home.

They say: “The training our children get at home is training for the lives they will lead. When we give them gifts, we give housework things to the girls, and tools, harness and so on to the boys”.

Keeping the sect together is still uppermost in the minds of the Amish folk. Nevertheless their numbers have increased since 1900 from 10,000 to almost 50,000 today.

(Abridged from “Northern Indiana Amish Country”

tourist guide of the Elkhart County Convention and Visitors Bureau, 2000)

Post-reading Activity

LISTENING PRACTICE

T A P E S C R I P T 1

THE COMPARISON GAME

Pre-listening Activity

 

Listening Activity

SPEECH PRACTICE

 

Task 3. Being a member of a debate club work in teams. Give your arguments for and against the following: it's impossible to live in a society and to be free from that society at the same time. Do not forget to elect a spokesman to lead the debates.

WRITING PRACTICE

UNIT II

FREEDOM OF THE INDIVIDUAL

 

If society fits you comfortably enough,

you call it freedom.

Robert Frost

 

Freedom is the main asset in a new civilization. It is not a cure-all, but it gives people a c hance, without it there is no chance. Without it, a “power” can be established that may huff and puff but will have neither real might nor dignity. Perhaps no issue is discussed more often, than the rights and freedoms of the individual – how far should the state, decide what is best for us, and how far should we have the right to control our own lives?

Even in the countries where social and political values are very similar, the laws about some of the world’s most controversial issues can be very different.

Let’s discuss what freedom actually is: a reality or a mirage?

To encourage you to speak, start with one-minute talk, choosing any of the points below:

- What I know about freedom.

- The level of freedom in the country.

- Complete freedom implies...

 

BASIC VOCABULARY TERMS

 

amendment (n)	a minor change or addition to a document etc.;
censorship (n)	the action or policy of examining books, films, plays, letters etc. and removing parts which are considered offensive, politically unacceptable or (esp. in war) a threat to security;
euthanasia (n)	painless killing of people who are very old or terminally ill;
freedom (n)	the power or right to act, speak, think etc. as one wants (chooses) without anyone stopping one;
hospice (n)	a hospital for people who are dying;
interference (n)	trying to change what somebody else is doing;
redrafting (n)	writing something in a better form;
reservation (n)	a reason for not agreeing to (a plan), accepting (an idea)
right (n)	a just, proper or legal claim; a thing that one is entitled to do or have by law;
violation (n)	breaking a rule, principle, law; rights

 

 

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT

Task 2.

a) Give synonyms to the following words.

teenager to reduce

weird to comply with

offence to participate

illness lack of smth.

 

b) Give antonyms to the following words.

similar to suffer

safe hopefulness

to be allowed rights

voluntary decent

READING PRACTICE

 

T E X T 1

Pre-reading Activity

 

What is freedom?

Reading Activity

(!) Read the text and

a) state its topic and main idea;

b) name the key-words of the text.

 

KINDS OF FREEDOM

Freedom is the ability to make choices and carry them out. The words freedom and liberty mean much the same thing. For people to have complete freedom, there must be no restrictions on how they think, speak or act. They must be aware of what their choices are, and they must have the power to decide among those choices. They must also have the means and opportunity to think, speak and act without being controlled by anyone else. However, no organized society can actually provide all these conditions at all times.

From a legal point of view, people are free if society imposes no unjust, unnecessary or unreasonable limits on them. Society must also protect their rights - that is, their basic liberties and privileges. A free society tries to distribute the conditions of freedom equally among the people.

Most legal freedoms can be divided into three main groups: (1) political freedom, (2) social freedom and (3) economic freedom.

Political freedom includes theright to vote, to choose between rival candidates for public office, and to run for office oneself. It includes the right to criticize government policies, which is part of free speech. People who are politically free can form and join political parties and organizations. This right is part of the freedom of assembly.

In the past, many people considered political freedom the most important freedom. They believed that men and women who were politically free could vote all other freedoms for themselves. But most people now realize that political liberty means little unless economic and social freedom support it. For example, the right to vote does not have much value if people lack the information to vote in their own best interests.

Social freedom

Freedom of speech is the right of people to say what they believe. Political liberty depends on this right. People need to hold free discussions and to exchange ideas so they can make an informed decision on political issues.

Freedom of the press is the right to publish facts, ideas and opinions without interference. This right extends to radio, television and films as well as to printed material. It may be considered a special type of freedom of speech.

Freedom of religion means the right to believe in and practice the faith of one’s choice. It also includes the right to have no religion at all.

Freedom of assembly is the right to meet together and to form groups with others of similar interests. It also means that people may associate with anyone they wish. On the other hand, no one may be forced to join an association against one’s will.

Academic freedom is the group of freedoms claimed* by teachers and students. It includes the right to teach, discuss, research, write and publish without interference. It promotes* the exchange of ideas and the spread of knowledge.

Due process of law* is a group of legal requirements that must be met before a person accused of crime is punished. It includes people’s right to know the charges against them. The law also guarantees the right to obtain a legal order called a writ* of habeas corpus, which orders the police to free a prisoner if no legal charge can be made against them. It protects people from being imprisoned unjustly.

Economic freedom enables people to make their own economic decisions. This freedom includes the right to own property, to use it and to profit from it. Workers are free to choose and change jobs. People have the freedom to save money and to invest it as they wish. Such freedoms form the basis of the economic system called capitalism

Notes:

Claimed (here):believed to be their right

promotes: helps to improve

due process of law: the correct procedure to be fallowed in law

writ:document from a court, ordering smb. to do smth

Post-reading Activity

 

Juge Learned Hand

 

Do not believe in freedom in the philosophical sense. Everybody acts not only under external compulsion but also in accordance with inner necessity.

Albert Einstein

 

It is often safer to be in chains than to be free.

Franz Kafka

 

In our country we have three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience and the prudence never to practise either.

Mark Twain

 

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

George Bernard Shaw

 

Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

George Orwell

Man is condemned to be free.

Jean-Paul Sartre

T E X T 2

Pre-reading Activity

Reading Activity

Post-reading Activity

Task 2. Some people predict that active euthanasia will be a standard part of medical service. Organize a discussion between 2 groups to find out what effect it will have on society. Work under the mediator’s guidance, he will present the results of the discussion afterwords.

T E X T 3

Pre-reading Activity

CENSORSHIP

Censorship is universal. There is always someone trying to stop someone else doing, saying or showing something that the first person doesn’t like. Itcan be moral, political or religious censorship. It is a battle between those who believe that everyone should have the right to see, read, talk or write about what they choose. And those who believe that the State or Church or Party should decide what everyone is allowed to see, read, talk or write about.

The discussion usually centres on the amount of sex in films, books or TV programmes, but also concerns the use of bad language and excessive violence. The disagreement is usually between those who say erotic films or books are “obscene” and those who believe they are “realistic” or “artistic”. But these value judgments are more political. For the difference is really between those who believe “I don’t like this book or film or idea, but you can decide for yourself” and those who believe “I don’t like this book or film or idea, so you must not be allowed to find out about it.”

But censorship is not only concerned with sex or violence. It is concerned with ideas – social ideas, artistic ideas, political ideas. It concerns people’s right to freedom of speech, freedom of expression. And because people disagree about the meaning of freedom, there is disagreement about the meaning and necessity of censorship.

Post-reading Activity

LISTENING PRACTICE

Pre-listening Activity

 

SPEECH PRACTICE

Task 1. Being members of the debating club work in two teams. Try to find arguments and examples for and against the following quotation: “Natural rights are those which appertain to man in right of his existence. Of this kind are all the intellectual rights, or rights of the mind, and also all those rights of the acting as an individual for his own comfort and happiness, which are not injurious to the natural rights of others…” (Thomas Paine, American political theorist and writer 1737 – 1809).

Task 3. Imagine you have been asked to advise the government on the necessity of the bill introducing an alternative military service. As one political decision often has far-reaching effects, sometimes never thought of, you are to examine possible effects. Work in groups. Then present some of your thoughts to “the government”.

Task 5. Role-playing. Situation: You are invited to the TV studio to discuss the problem of euthanasia, the present situation, its further development. You discuss changes in medicine, possible effects of making the process of mercy killing legal.

Role-Assignments

Student 1

You are a TV programme host. You are to lead the discussion, trying to cover all important points, helping the invited people to share their points of view.

Student 2

You are a representative of the first Hospice in Belarus. Speak about the present situation.

Student 3

You are a member of Belarusian Parliament where the problem is about to be debated.

Student 4

You are a member of the Dutch Government. Focus on the effects of the legitimating euthanasia.

Students 5, 6

You are hospice physians from the UK and the USA and familiar with the problem.

Student 7

You are a student of Medical University. You are collecting data for your course project.

Students 8, 9... You are ordinary citizens. You ostensibly are critical about the present situation.

 

WRITING PRACTICE

ACHIEVEMENT TEST

UNIT III

LAW AND ORDER

SOCIAL PROBLEMS

 

Successful societies are those

which focus on people...

 

Social problems, as the words imply, are problems which concern not only society as a whole but also each of us individually. It has been possible for a man to succeed in landing on the moon and yet he has so far failed to solve the problems of poverty, hunger, unemployment, racism, terrorism etc.

Crime, violence, drugs... what are the forms of young people’s reaction to all these problems?

To encourage you to speak, start with one-minute talk, choosing any of the points below:

- what I know about social problems

- the most serious social problems my country faces

- TV programs on social problems I watch

- what I read in the newspapers about social problems.

BASIC VOCABULARY TERMS

abuse (n)	wrong use; mistreatment; a corrupt practice;
crime (n)	an offence for which one may be punished by law;
delinquency (n)	crime, usually not of a serious kind (misdemeanor) especially as committed by young people;
hostage (n)	a person who is captured and held prisoner and threatened to be kept, harmed or killed unless certain demands are met;
law (n)	all the rules astablished by authority or custom for regulating the behaviour of members of a community or country;
terrorism (n)	organized violence designed to create fear by random targeting of people or sites;
traffic in	illegal trading (the traffic in arms, drugs, stolen goods).

 

 

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT

READING PRACTICE

T E X T 1

Pre-reading Activity

YOU AND THE LAW

If every person on earth were a hermit and had no contact with other people, there would be no need for laws. Fortunately, human beings live in social groups. This helps each person in the group live a better life. But this also means that people must work and cooperate with each other. Unfortunately, it seems that some people in society behave in antisocial ways. Some individuals are irritable, some angry, some selfish, some aggressive and some violent. These hostilities may be turned against other persons or groups in society. Laws are made to protect people from the “bad” actions of others. In effect, the idea of law is to put limits on people’s greed, drives and emotions. As individual, we all have certain freedoms and rights. Sometimes, for the protection of society, the law places limits on the rights. As a famous judge once pointed out, ”Your right to swing your fist ends at the point where the other fellow’s nose begins”.

Imagine for a moment what your world would be like without laws. None of your possessions would be safe – your radio, television, stereo player, bicycle or even your clothes. Someone bigger, stronger or faster could take them from you. Even your person could not be safe from attack. The law of the jungle, “might makes right”, would take over.

We may not always agree with the laws we live by. In fact, we may not always know what the laws are. However, we are expected to live by these laws. Ignorance is no real excuse and no guarantee against being charged. If we feel that a certain law is unfair, we have the right to appeal it or work to change it. We do not have the right to break it.

Laws basically exist to maintain order and stability. The most obvious function of the law is social control. Other functions include dispute settlement, innovation or social engineering and allocations of goods and services. Modern law in Western societies is adapted to a market society that puts high value on freedom to buy and sell.

Post-reading Activity

 

Pre-reading Activity

 

Post-reading Activity

Task 2. What do you think.

a) When is child no longer a child?

b) Do adults in general and parents in particular always know best?

c) Do Belarusian adolescents have similar legal rights as their British peers?

d) Why should teenagers’ legal rights be discussed and thought through?

e) What really annoys you in legal rights you have (haven’t)?

TEXT 3

Pre-reading Activity

 

Task 1. a) Look up the meaning of the following words and learn them.

Abyss (n), astute (a), augmentation (n), cripple (v), curb (v), evanescence (n), minor (n), retribution (n), shatter (v), staggering (a), stern (a), strive (v), subsequently (adv), hinge on (v), warrant (n)

b) Give your own sentences with these words.

c) Explain the meaning of these phrases: drug doom; crime boom.

T E X T 4

Pre-reading Activity

 

Reading Activity

(!) Read the text and

a) find the answers to the above questions;

b) state the topic of the text and its main idea;

c) name the key-words or phrases to support the main idea

 

TERRORISM

Terrorism is the use of violence, or the threat of violence, to create a climate of fear in a given population. Terrorist violence targets ethnic of religious groups, governments, political parties, corporations, and media enterprises. Organizations that engage in acts of terror are almost always small in size and limited in resources compared to the populations and institutions they oppose. Through publicity and fear generated by their violence, they seek to magnify their influence and power to effect political change on either a local or an international scale.

The deliberate killing of civilians to intimidate the civilian population or government is one of the worst features of contemporary terrorism and can clearly be distinguished from the type of clandestine warfare waged by resistance groups or insurgency movements against official and military targets. By their actions the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) are terrorist organizations. But one would not use the term to describe the Polish and French underground resistance movements of World War II. Terrorism, as sociologists see it is a form of deviance that overlaps with regular military actions, and indeed different people will not necessarily agree as to whether any particular violent act is a case of terrorism or not. One person’s “terrorist” is another person’s “freedom fighter”. And many of the methods of terrorism have been adapted by armies for regular use; examples are “search and destroy missions” into enemy territory, as well as many guerrilla tactics. When governments engage in illegal and clandestine kidnapping and murder to intimidate their people - as in the case of the Nazis in Germany - the term “state terrorism” is appropriate.

One important characteristic of modern terrorism is its quest for spectacular horror effects in order to attract media coverage. Terrorist atrocities like the PLO’s midair destruction of civilian airliners and murder of helpless athletes at the 1972 Olympics and school children were perpetrated to publicize a cause. Most of the victims of the Italian Red&Brigades and the German Baader-Meinhog gang were selected for symbolic reasons. The choice of New-York City’s World Trade Center as the target of terrorists in 1993 and 2001 was presumed to have been made for similar reasons.

Another characteristic of modern terrorism is its international dimension - the ability of terrorists to slip across national frontiers, the support given to certain terrorist groups by a few countries and logistical ties that exist between terrorist groups of widely divergent ideologies and objectives. The 1985 hijacking by Palestinians of the Italian cruise ship Archille Lauro off Egypt, as well as the 1994 hijacking of the Russian cruise ship by Chechens, dramatized international ramification of terrorism.

The beginning of the 21 century has been the beginning of the international struggle against terrorism. The attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York and Washington brutally exposed how vulnerable open societies are. The extent of the violence, the perpetrators’ logistic back-up and their cross-border strategy make it necessary for international community to take legal instruments a stage further, to give top priority to the safety of all citizens and the defense of democratic values.

Guidelines for the future

Today there are many challenges to be faced: ethnic and religious rivalries, the decline of nation states, violation of human rights and terrorist attacks. All these new dangers force global society to adapt to new tasks.

In democracies, the need to protect civil liberties, the difficulty of proving conspiracy and the devastating nature of terrorist outrages have shifted the emphasis from deterrence to prevention. Today, by general consensus the most effective means of frustrating terrorist activity is through detailed intelligence obtained primarily by penetration of terrorist networks. Countries pledged themselves to take joint action against terrorism, they promised to deny terrorist suspects entry into their countries, to bring about close cooperation between the police and security forces in their countries and to cooperate in a number of other ways.

The one lesson to be learned from “Afghanistan” is that it would be criminal, indeed foolhardy, to ignore the fact that while Bin Laden manipulates the feelings of hundreds of millions of people for his own false ends, these feelings nevertheless do exist. There is a connection between the alienation of many Muslims and the unresolved Palestine issue in the same way as there is a connection between the misery of countless people and their readiness to pin the blame for their situation on the industrialized nations. Globalization improved many people’s prospects, whether in the North or the South. Yet many people couldn’t keep up and are now limping along, without hope, behind those who are storming ahead. There must be greater efforts to give them specific help.

 

Post-reading Activity

Text 1. Hostage

Pre-listening Activity

Task 1. Listen to the story. Ali has taken Flight 144 many times. It was always long and boring. But this time, something has happened. Listen to his story and find out: What has happened on the flight?

 

Text 2. Death Penalty

Pre-listening Activity

SPEECH PRACTICE

Task 5. Work in groups. Make a list of your proposals of the 10 most urgent measures for social reform in our country. Have a brain-storming session in which all ideas are noted down by the group leader. Then discuss your lists with another group.

Task 6. Role-Playing: “Speaker’s Corner”

Situation: As you walk past Hyde Park in London you may see people speaking out on any subjects they like. Freedom of speech is sacred. Make your own Speaker’s Corner. In turns speak on the following subjects. A time limit may be set.

Role-Assignments:

Student 1. You know how to ensure a fairer distribution of wealth.

Student 2. You speak about the greatest problem facing our country nowadays and you know the ways to solve it.

Student 3. You are a great believer in law and order.

Student 4. You believe that the death penalty is a primitive ritual and should be abolished.

Student 5. You know the reasons for the capital punishment.

Student 6. You are for (against) strict gun control.

Student 7. Your basic principle is self-help. All social problems must be run by people themselves, not waiting for the government support.

Student 8. You know the ways to stop terrorism. It is up to you to decide which of the ways is more preferable prevention or retaliation (vengeance).

Student 9. You believe that aggression is innate in a man, i.e. is in his genes.

WRITING PRACTICE

 

Task 3. By definition terrorist wants publicity. The mass media provide extensive coverage of every major or minor terrorist attack. Do they not play into the hands of the terrorists by doing so? To what extent should the media withhold publicity about terrorist acts? Write an essay to reflect on the problem.

ACHIEVEMENT TEST

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT

 

READING PRACTICE

Pre-reading Activity

 

Reading Activity

 

(!) Read the text and answer the following.

How have governments and rulers tried to control people’s freedom of movement?

 

T E X T 1

THE HISTORY OF BORDERS

 

Ancient migrations

Human history is the history of migrations and the most sophisticated civilizations arose where human traffic was heaviest. The ancient land near East, the Indian sub-continent, China – all had constant influxes of migrants bringing new ideas and change.

 

Bonded serfs

Large-scale restrictions were imposed with the introduction of serfdom in Europe under the Roman Empire during the third and fourth centuries AD. By mediaeval times a large part of Europe’s population was bound in place and traded like chattels.

 

Nation states

During the early Renaissance period a new social order emerged founded on wage laborers and serfdom started to die out. People were viewed as wealth, and rulers even encouraged immigration by offering newcomers citizenship, tax incentives and other benefits. The ideology of nationalism united a vast range of cultural groups and classes on the basis of loyalty to the state while designating others as “outsiders”. Countries like Spain and France ordered mass expulsions of ethnic or religious minorities.

 

 

Slave labor

More horrific than these expulsions, however, was the shipment of millions of West Africans to slavery in the Americas – the largest involuntary migration in history. In all, between eight and ten million Africans were taken to the Americas from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century.

 

Right to leave

By the end of the seventeenth century “liberal” thinkers like John Locke were questioning a ruler’s right to restrict the movement of the individual. Border controls were relaxed and monied people in the West could largely choose where they went. The New World was settled in the nineteenth century by people exercising this right to leave.

 

War wounds

Waves of refugees swept across Europe in the early twentieth century. The post-World War One political realignment of territories that occurred after the four great European empires collapsed made many thousands homeless. By the 1920s immigration controls were tightened and passports – which had fallen into disuse in many places – were reintroduced. The Second World War brought another exodus as intensified aerial bombardment left massive numbers homeless.

 

Post-reading Activity

T E X T 2

Pre-reading Activity

 

NATION OF DIVERSITY

 

The United States is a country of many ethnic groups. An ethnic group is made up of people who share one or more characteristics which make them different from other groups. They may share specific racial or physical traits, speak their own language or practice a distinctive religion. They are usually bound to one another by common traditions and values, and by their own folklore and music.

The Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups lists 106 major groups in the United States today, including Native Americans, Albanians, Afro-Americans, Arabs, Burmese, Chinese, Eskimos, Filipinos, Greeks, Irish, Italians, Jews, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and Swiss.

Most members of ethnic groups long established in the United States have lost much of the distinctiveness of their culture. Third generation Germans, for example, may only speak English and may think of themselves as “plain” Americans. Third generation Chinese, however, often retain their language and many cultural and family traditions. They will usually define themselves as Chinese Americans.

Black Americans are only now beginning to overcome the effects of 250 years of slavery.

Since the 1950s, Black Americans have been moving into the mainstream of American life. Though a fairly large black middle class has emerged, many blacks continue to exist on the economic margins.

The situation of the Native Americans, many of whom must choose between living in reservations or moving outside remains difficult, as well.

Racial prejudice and discrimination against the African-Americans, Chinese and Native Americans has often meant that many members of those groups have been forced to live and work in narrow sectors of American life. Recent Hispanic immigrants such as Mexicans and Puerto Ricans, also have encountered discrimination based on their ethnicity.

Those ethnic groups which suffer systematic economic or social disadvantages are called minority groups. About one of every five Americans is a member of such a group.

In the past, many minority groups overcame the barriers that confronted them. The Irish, the Italians and the Germans, the Catholics and the Jews all faced hostility and discrimination which severely restricted their opportunities for decades. In time they largely overcame these barriers and became fully integrated into national life. There are many signs that today’s minorities are following the same path. For several decades, it has been an official aim of public policy to encourage such an outcome.

 

Post-reading Activity

 

Adrienne Rich

 

Either you will

go through this door or

you will not go through.

 

If you go through

there is always the risk

of remembering your name.

 

Things look at you doubly

and you must look back

and let them happen.

If you do not go through

it is possible

to live worthily

 

to maintain your attitudes

to hold your position

to die bravely

 

but much will blind you,

much will evade you,

at what cost who knows?

 

The door itself

makes no promises.

It is only a door.

 

Task 4. Answer the following question.

 

T E X T 3

Pre-reading Activity

One minority group that has suffered from prejudice in many countries has been gypses. Why are gypses wanted out in many countries?

 

Reading Activity

T E X T 4

Pre-reading Activity

1. Do you think it is right to speak about the nationality stereotype?

2. What definition can you give to the term “national stereotype”?

Reading Activity

(!) Read the text. Answer the following: What is the essence of the experimental ways of investigating stereotypes?

THE ENGLISH

Almost every nation has a reputation of some kind. The English are reputed to be cold, reserved, rather haughty people who do not yell in the street, make love in public or change their governments as often as they change their underclothes. They are steady, easy-going, and fond of sport.

The English are a nation of stay-at-homes. There is no place like home, they say. “The Englishman's home is his castle”, is a saying known all over the world; and it is true that English people prefer small houses, built to house one family, perhaps with a small garden.

The fire is the focus of the English home. What do the other nations sit around? The answer is they don’t. They go out to cafes or sit round the cocktail bar. For the English it is the open fire, the toasting fork and the ceremony of the English tea.

Foreigners often picture the Englishman dressed in tweeds, smoking a pipe, striding across the open countryside with his dog at his heels. This is a picture of the aristocratic Englishman during his holiday on his country estate. Since most of the countryside is privately owned there isn't much left for the others to stride across. The average Englishman often lives and dies without ever having possessed a tweed suit.

Apart from the conservatism on a grand scale, which the attitude to the monarchy typifies, England is full of small scale and local conservatism, some of them of a highly individual or practical character. Regiments in the army, municipal corporations, schools and societies have their own private traditions, which command strong loyalties. Such groups have customs of their own, which are very reluctant to change, and they like to think of their private customs as differentiating them, as groups, from the rest of the world.

Most English people have been slow to adopt rational reforms such as the metric system, which came into general use in 1975. They have suffered inconvenience from adhering to old ways, because they did not want the trouble of adapting themselves to new. All the same, several of the most notorious symbols of conservatism are being abandoned. The twenty-four hour clock was at last adopted for the railway timetables in 1960s - though not for most other timetables, such as radio programs.

 

(Habits and Ways in Great Britain and in the USA.

I.A.Tenson, G.A.Voitova, 1978)

Post-reading Activity

 

THE PEOPLE OF BELARUS

Have you ever thought what kind of person a Belarusian is? What kind of people are they? As a matter of fact, it is very difficult to give an answer to this question, for it is one that can hardly be answered at all.

There is a certain something about his appearance - very elusive though. It lies in the shape of his nose, ears, eye sockets and the set of the eyes themselves, his manner of moving about, gesticulating, speaking and many other things.

The general appearance is gentle, and the constitution may seem at first glance, a little delicate, but this is deceptive. The show of outward strength that might impress you for a moment and soon vanish is substituted here by endurance, wiriness, and staying power. Where another person might give up, the Belarusian will stick it out. Otherwise in ancient times they would not have survived in the midst of these thick forests and boundless swamps, on this unprolific land. This hardening has become a permanent part of their character. Not for nothing were Belarusians, even in old times, considered indispensable for such hard tasks as earth clearing and timber-drifting. Later also it was turned to good account, for instance in unbearably difficult war situations, and in partisan warfare.

Before the revolution public opinion often discredited the quiet, patient Belarusian, by making him out to be a “poor wretch”. This opinion arose in the thirties of the 19^th century, and then it caught on. With generous compassion, with anguish and a bleeding heart, the great Hertzen wrote about him as a person who “had lost his tongue”. He said that many generations of serfs had given birth to this outcast with a narrow skulk the great Nekrasov portrayed him as inarticulate overburdened by toil. The same opinion has found an expression in the works of some Belarusian poets. All this was, midly speaking far from the truth. Those who lived with these people, who deeply understood their way of life were of a different opinion. Here are the words of the publicist Gruzinsky: “The current notion of the Belarusian pleasant type makes him out to be an unprepossessing feeble fellow down-trodden by a hard life in a marshy, barren country. My personal impression was otherwise. I saw him as strongly built, although rather gaunt… The main thing, however, is that I did not notice any trace of depression, or drooping spirits. His carriage and manner of speech differed from those of Great Russians in its deliberatenes