Task 1. Make a summary of the text.

Task 2. Agree or disagree with the following statements. Support your opinion by the information from the text, your personal experience, the knowledge you’ve gained at the classes.

- Censorship is universal.

- A really democratic society has no need in censorship.

- The main concern of censorship should be sex and violence problems in the society.

- The notion of censorship is closely connected with the people’s right of speech.

LISTENING PRACTICE

Pre-listening Activity

 

Answer the following questions.

1.What do you think of piercing?

2. Do you have any piercings? Would you like to get some?

3. Do any of your friends have parts of their bodies pierced (ears, nose)?

 

 

Listening Activity

 

Task 1. Listen to the dialogue.

Phil is talking with his friend Brian. Phil is unhappy with his girlfriend, Michelle. Why is he unhappy?

Task 2. Check your understanding.

1. How does Phil feel about Michelle's piercings?

2. What does Brian think about them?

3. What does Michelle want Phil to do?

Task 3. Read these three opinions.

Amber: If Phil really loves her, he will get used to her body piercing.

Anton: If Michelle really loves Phil, she will stop wearing her piercing.

Monica: Body piercing is neither natural, nor beautiful.

a) Match the supporting statements with the opinions. Each opinion has two supporting statements.

1. True love is deeper than physical beauty.

2. In any relationship, people have to be understanding.

3. We were born without holes in our bodies.

4. Our bodies are gifts that we should not change or damage.

5. Phil needs to be patient. People can get used to almost anything.

6. Michelle should not be overly concerned about fashion.

b) Now compare with a classmate.

Task 4. Work in a group of three. Ask your partners.

Do you agree with Amber? Do you agree with Anton? Do you agree with Monica?

Answer for each person: I really agree /1 agree /1 disagree /1 really disagree.

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).

Do not forget to elect a spokesman who is supposed to coordinate debates and summarize the results.

Task 2. Think about a students’ charter for our university.

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 4. You are invited to lecture at the University about undemocratic forms of rule. Reflect on such human right abuse as censorship. The students are expected to ask you questions.

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

Task 1. Write an essay in which you discuss those freedoms that are being limited in today’s society.

Task 2. Do you believe life-support systems, respirators and feeding tubes, are devices that sustain life or prolong dying? Write an essay in which you express your opinion.

Task 3. React to the following statement in an essay: “Censorship cannot eliminate evil – it can only kill freedom”.

Task 4. Write an essay: Freedom: mirage or reality?

ACHIEVEMENT TEST

I. Give appropriate terms to the following definition.

a) the right or power to do as one wishes;

b) a minor change or addition to a document etc.;

c) breaking a law, rule, principle, rights;

d) painless killing of people who are terminally ill;

e) a reason for not accepting or not agreeing to;

f) trying to change what sb else is doing.

II. Match the synonymous pairs.

1.	alleviate	a)	necessary
2.	guidelines	b)	voluntary
3.	reduce	c)	recommendations
4.	comply with	d)	ease
5.	willing	e)	abide by, obey
6.	indispensable	f)	shrink

 

III. Choose the most suitable word to complete the sentence.

1. Who should decide what everyone is … to see, read, talk or write about.

a) said b) let c) allowed d) made

2. But censorship is only … with sex and violence

a) related b) worried c) anxious d) concerned

3. Freedom of … is the right of people to say what they believe.

a) press b) speech c) expression d) religion

4. The UN Convention defines the right and needs of children and the duties and … of governments and other adults to children.

a) obligations b) responsibilities c) requests d) promises

5. Voting is the biggest … of a democracy.

a) ability b) profit c) benefit d)opportunity

6. Society must … human rights.

a) defend b) defeat c) prevent d) protect

IV. Fill in the blanks with the proper words given below.

Recent medical advances mean that, with special (1)… women of almost any age can give birth. In most countries, this is only (2)… for women up to about 50, but in Italy until recently there were no laws to limit this, with the (3)… that several women in their sixties have given birth. Some experts remain (4)… that women of this age have the same (5)… to have children as women in their forties, provided they are mentally and (6)… fit.

Treatment, physically, right, allowed, result, convinced

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

Task 1. Study the following words, add missing words of the same family.

 

Word-Form Chart

Noun	Verb	Adjective
		criminal
	to terrorize
offense
	to go to law to lay down the law