Working Conditions (Impersonal)

Содержание

 

 

ПРЕДИСЛОВИЕ.. 4

Unit I. Professions. THE Work Itself
S. Oskamp APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY.. 5

Unit II. Professions. Teachers and teaching
W. Saroyan Laughter 53

Unit III. Language and Culture
G. Mikes HOW TO BE AN ALIEN 103

Unit IV. THREATS. TERRORISM
G. Greene THE QUIET AMERICAN 151

Unit V. THREATS. WORLD DISASTERS
D. Goyle LOOK AT THE PROGRESS WE`VE
ALREADY MADE. 202

Unit VI. ART
S.Maugham THE MOON AND SIXPENCE. 214

Библиографический список.. 264

ПРЕДИСЛОВИЕ

Данное учебное пособие представляет собой третью часть Учебного комплекса под названием «Мир, в котором мы живем» и предназначено для студентов-выпускников институтов иностранных языков, факультетов романо-германской филологии, студентов старших курсов неязыковых факультетов университетов и педагогических университетов. Как и в первой части, все разделы объединены единой тематикой, представленной пятью уроками, рас­положенными в следующей последовательности:

I. Professions – Work Itself.

II. Professions – Teachers and Teaching.

III. Language and Culture.

IV. Threats – Terrorism.

V. Threats – World disasters.

VI. Art.

Композиционную основу каждого урока составляют тексты разной типологии, соответствующие по содержанию и проблематике теме урока, удовлетворяющие требованиям их информативности, новизны, современности и соответствующей функционально-сти­левой принадлежности. Следуя прин­ципу преемственности, свя­зы­вающему все части учебного комплекса, авторы, тем не менее, строго учитывают требования образовательного стандарта в отно­шении целей и задач обучения английскому языку на данном этапе. В связи с этим особое внимание уделяется анализу текста (концептуально-содержательный – лингво-стилистический), свобод­ному пе­ре­воду с русского языка на английский и переводу с английского языка на русский; работе над проектами: выявление и формулирование проблемы; создание информационно-дидак­тиче­ского обес­печения; защита проектов; оценка проектов; дискуссия.

Учитывая новые подходы к процессу обучения инностранному языку, и прежде всего, личностно-деятельностный и компетентностный, сущностью которых является само обучение, само развитие, само совершенствование, само реализация, авторы уделили особое внимание упражнениям, заданиям, задачам, направленным на активную самостоятельную работу обучаемых, способствующую выработке собственного мышления, мнения, собственной точки зрения и собственной позиции.

Несмотря на четкую структуру пособия, определенную последовательность уроков, преподаватель имеет возможность творческой самостоятельности в переконструировании содержания, изменении его объема с учетом конкретных условий обучения.

Unit I.

Professions. THE Work Itself

Labour we take delight in physics pain

APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Stuart Oskamp

 

A Social Psychologist Looks at Job Satisfaction

 

Research has shown many work attributes to be related to job satisfaction. Locke (1976) concluded that most of them have in common the element of mental challenge.

Probably the most basic attitude here is that the work must be personally interesting and meaningful to the individual in question (Herzberg, Mausner, & Snyderman, 1959; Nord, 1977). Obviously, this specification makes work satisfaction subject to a wide range of individual differences, for indi­viduals with one set of values, abili­ties, and backgrounds may find a particular kind of work personally interesting, while people with different values, abilities, and backgrounds may find the same work completely unmeaningful. A more objective aspect of meaningfulness is task significance – the impact of the work on the lives of other people (Hackman, Oldham, Janson & Purdy, 1975). For example, a worker riveting aircraft wings has a more significant job than one riveting trash containers, and is likely to feel more satisfaction with it.

Application of skill is another job attribute that contributes to work satisfaction (Gruneberg, 1979). On as­sembly lines and other jobs that involve much repetitive work, the amount of variety in the job has frequently been found to be positively related to job satisfaction (Walker & Guest, 1952; Hackman & Lawler, 1971; Kremen, 1973). "Utility workers" and others who rotate from job to job usually show higher satisfaction than workers who perform only one operation all day long, and this finding has been the basis of many "job enrichment" schemes. Again, individual differences are im­portant, for not all workers value more varied or challenging jobs (Hulin, 1971).

Another job aspect related to skill is job autonomy – the worker having a say in when and how to perform the job. A somewhat sim­ilar work attribute is task identity-doing a "whole" job, or at least a portion where one's personal contribution is clear and visible. Both of these factors have been found to be positively related to job sat­isfaction (Hack­man & Lawler, 1971).

Too little challenge in the work, as in completely automated tasks, generally leads to boredom and lowered satisfaction. However, so much challenge that the worker cannot cope with it may lead to failure and frustration, also an unsatisfying state of affairs. Thus success or achievement in reaching an accepted standard of compe­tence on the job is an important factor in satisfaction (Locke, 1965; Ivancevich, 1976), though again individual differences make this a less important factor for individuals with a low need of achieve­ment (Steers, 1975). Although suc­cess can generally be judged by workers themselves, external recognition confirms the worker's success and also provides feedback about the level of achievement. Of course, recognition, in the form of awards, promotion, or praise, is also part of the general working conditions and of the interpersonal aspects of the job, and so it has multiple implications for satisfaction.

A final task attribute that contributes to satisfaction is the relative absence of physical strain (Chadwick-Jones, 1960). This is one major advantage of automation in heavy industrial jobs; for some jobs and some individual workers it can offset auto­mation's disadvantage of promoting boredom.

Interpretation of the Text

1. What factor is most basic to work satisfaction?

2. What types of external recognition does the author mention?

3. According to the excerpt, too little challenge in work may lead to some problems. What are some of the problems caused by too few challenges? On the other hand, problems are also created when the work offers too many challenges. What are these prob­lems?

4. The final paragraph mentions four systems of determining pay. What is hourly pay? What is a piecework system? What is a straight salary? What is an incentive scheme? How do these systems com­pare?

5. Why is variety in the job an important factor in work satisfaction? Can there ever be too much variety?

6. What does it mean to rotate from job to job all day long?

7. Do you agree with the author that riveting aircraft wings is a more significant job than riveting trash containers? What makes one job more significant than another?

8. The author states that piecework tends to interfere with friend­ships on the job. Do you think this is true? Have you ever had any experiences or have you known anyone who has had experi­ences doing piecework? Did they have a similar experience to the one the author describes?

9. For what audience was this selection written? How do you know? What indications are there that this excerpt was not written for a general audience?

10. Of all the factors that the author mentions as contributing to job satisfaction, which is the most important to you?

11. What is the most satisfying job you have ever had? Discuss why this job was so satisfying. Do your reasons for liking the job cor­respond to the excerpt's analysis of job satisfaction?

12. Have you ever had the job that you did not like? If you have, describe the job to your group and explain in detail why this job was not satisfactory to you.

13. The author states that “success can generally be judged by workers themselves.” If workers know they are doing a good job, why is external recognition so important?

14. Define the type of the text under study. What are the peculiarities of this style? Speak on the text arrangement.

15. Analyze the stylistic means the author resorts to: lexical, syntactical, lexical-syntactical, graphic, phonetic, compositional devices.

16. Give a summary of your comments on the text.

Key Notions and Words

II. Fill in the gaps.

1. Most EC governments simply leave the jobless to rot on the _____.

2. A _______ who sent out 8,700 applications may have finally found work. Steve Horvath used to spend five hours a day sending off applications all round the world. But yesterday his luck changed when company boss Peter Hawkins offered him an interview after hearing about his 10-month ______.

3. Wall Street still employs 220,000 New Yorkers despite 50,000 __________ since 1987.The job-hunter with a carefully chosen fluent language could find this an additional advantage which may just tip the balance in his favour.

4. British Nuclear Fuels yesterday announced it was ________ 750 jobs at its head office and main design centre.

5. Another major American company has announced massive ______ and other cost-cutting measures. Allied Signal Incorporated said today that it would cut 5,000 jobs.

6. The motoring ____ is only one of the special privileges that can provide an MP with a total pay and ________ worth more than £100,000 this year. Now the MP's are demanding more.

7. I've worked in an accounts office, so I know I don't want a boring ______ job.

8. Employers should encourage programs that give parents time with their children, programs such as parental leave, _____, shared jobs or work at home.

9. It took Julie an hour to ______ home and she would come back tired and frustrated.

10. One of the major difficulties for ________ has been the psy chological effect of moving from a sociable to an unsociable environment.

11. The fact is they haven't been _____ or ______. They are still employees.

12. Thousands of federal employees in the United States face the prospect of being ____ because of the budget crisis.

13. The core of this agreement is one of looking at ways to _____ GM's workforce in a very turbulent period.

14. Lockheed Missiles' management says it has to reduce its ______ by 2,000 positions by the end of the year.

15. Congress is ready to approve extended ____________ for the long-term unemployed.

16. Another 29,100 people have joined the ______, stretching it to 2,753,400.

Jobs

For more than two decades, from the late 1940's to the early 197O's, the ____________ world enjoyed an _________ period of ____________ growth and ____________ productivity that had economies running at full steam. Trade grew, incomes rose, living standards soared and in Europe, the United States and Japan, practically everyone who wanted a job could have one.

Look at us now. Our economies are growing at a snail's pace, if they're growing at all. Governments are running chronic deficits. And most miserable of all, millions of people can no longer find the work they need. In recession-plagued western Europe, more than 20 million work­ers are idle, an ____________ rate of per cent, and it's rising.

Nearly half of Europe's unemployed have been out of work for a year or more. Worse, unemployment has stubbornly refused to contract for more than a decade, even in _________ years.

 

Discussion Exercises

Work

There is no point in work

Unless it absorbs you

like an absorbing game.

If it doesn’t absorb you,

if it’s never any fun,

don’t do it.

When a man goes into his work

he is alive like a tree in spring,

he is living not merely working.

David H. Lawrence

When a Man’s Busy

When a man’s busy, why, leisure

Strikes him as wonderful pleasure:

 

Faith, and at leisure once is he?

Straightaway he wants to be busy.

Robert Browning

ЭТИКА ДЕЛОВОГО ОБЩЕНИЯ

Особенности общения через переводчика.

Переводчик, как правило, не только филолог, но и страновед, что дает основания использовать его знания и опыт не только для переводческой работы, но и налаживания доверительных отношений с партнерами.

Переводчик-профессионал играет ключевую роль в установлении духа сотрудничества, особенно тогда, когда переговорные процессы идут с представителями народов и культур, мировоззрение, нравственные установки и особенности делового этикета которых имеют значительные отличия от принятых на Западе. Общаясь через переводчика, нужно соблюдать следующие правила:

- говорить медленно, четко формулируя мысли, не допускать возможности двусмысленного толкования сказанного;

- произносить следует не более одного-двух предложений подряд, учитывая, что удержать в памяти и перевести большее количество материала полно и правильно переводчик не в состоянии. К тому же некоторые языки грамматически прямо противоположны русскому. Например, в персидском языке сказуемое всегда завершает предложение, а не стоит в его середине, как в русском, английском и других языках; нельзя сопровождать свою речь поговорками, идиоматическими оборотами и, тем более, цитированием стихов. Перевод их на другой язык требует длительной работы и невозможен в ходе динамичной беседы.

- неверный перевод способен испортить атмосферу переговоров, поскольку наши пословицы и поговорки на другом языке могут приобрести двусмысленное значение, а иногда и оскорбительный смысл;

- необходимо учитывать реакцию партнеров и немедленно принимать меры, если возникает ощущение, что они понимают вас неправильно. Переводчик, в свою очередь, может в случае необходимости попросить любую из сторон пояснить мысль более простыми словами или повторить фразу еще раз;

- перед переговорами необходимо выделить достаточное время для работы с переводчиком, чтобы как можно подробнее ознакомить его с кругом затрагиваемых проблем, пояснить используемую терминологию. Доклад, речь на презентации и другие письменные материалы должны передаваться переводчику для ознакомления за день-два до выступления. И последнее, нет переводчиков, которые без подготовки одинаково хорошо оперируют и медицинской, и технической, и любой иной терминологией.

INTERPRETER CODE OF ETHICS

The Contracted Interpreter shall respect all confidences received in the course of interpretation. All information gained by the Interpreter in the course of his/her contracted professional assignment shall remain strictly confidential. This information shall not be communicated, published or in any way divulged to any organization or person, other than the organization or person using the services of the Interpreter.

Accuracy & Completeness. The Contracted Interpreter shall render, to the best of his or her ability, a complete and accurate interpretation without altering or omitting anything that is stated. Interpreter shall not add to what is said nor provide unsolicited explanation. The Contracted Interpreter shall be impartial, unbiased and shall refrain from conduct that may give an appearance of bias. He or she shall not allow personal opinions to interfere with his or her duties nor add unsolicited comments or make recommendations except to assist communication. The Contracted Interpreter shall not take personal advantage in the cour­se of his or her work. The Contracted Interpreter shall, at all times, assess his or her ability to maintain the highest standards of interpretation. He or she shall immediately convey any reservations about his or her ability to successfully complete the assignment for the customer. The Contracted Interpreter shall decline any assignment he or she believes to be beyond his or her technical knowledge or linguistic ability. The Contracted Interpreter shall provide excellent customer service and maintain a professional demeanor, be courteous and use the tone voice appropriate to the situation.

Code of Ethics

1. CONFIDENTIALITY

Interpreters bear a unique responsibility to deaf, hard of hearing, late deafened, and deaf-blind consumers and to hearing clients and society because of their role as language and cultural mediators, bridging the communication divide. Maintaining confidentiality is essential to protect all those involved in interpreted exchanges.

1.1 Interpreters keep all assignment-related information strictly confidential, except when: a) required by law; b) complying with a court order; c) complying with a subpoena; or d) testifying in a civil, criminal, or disciplinary action arising from the interpreted situation (in which case client confidences can only be disclosed in the course of that action); e) the subject matter being interpreted was seen by the public at large (such as a play, televised political event, or public event).

1.2 Interpreters keep abreast of applicable laws, policies, and rules that may affect confidentiality. They determine their ability to maintain confidentiality and may inform consumers of any possible exceptions to confidentiality before providing services.

2. PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE AND INTEGRITY

2.1 Interpreters maintain high standards of professional competence and integrity.

2.2 Interpreters conduct themselves professionally in a manner appropriate to the setting, devote their full attention to the assignment, and refrain from conduct that can lead to substandard performance. Interpreters recognize that their appearance is important to ensure effective delivery of services and use good judgment with regard to attire, body jewelry, hygiene, and appropriate behavior.

2.4 Interpreters should be willing to give back to the community by providing pro bono services.

2.5 Before accepting assignments, interpreters should determine whether they are qualified, assessing their current skill level, ability to remain impartial, knowledge of the subject and the consumers involved.

2.6 Interpreters decline or withdraw from an assignment when they are unable to provide the requisite level of professional services.

2.7 Interpreters render messages faithfully, always conveying the content and spirit of what is being communicated, using language most readily understood by the deaf, hard of hearing, late deafened, or deaf-blind person and by hearing clients.

2.8 Interpreters take responsibility for their performance on the job and, when appropriate, repair interpreting errors promptly and discreetly.

2.9 Interpreters remain impartial and unbiased and refrain from conduct that may give an appearance of bias. Interpreters also disclose any real or perceived conflict of interest.

2.10 Interpreters accept the right of consumers and clients to request the services of other interpreters and refrain from badgering or coercing agencies, organizations, schools, companies or individuals to hire or retain them for given assignments.

3. RESPONSIBILITY TO THE PROFESSION

3.1 Interpreters recognize that their actions reflect on the interpreting profession as a whole and endeavor to advance the stature of the profession by developing their skills and knowledge.

3.2 Interpreters strive to further their knowledge and skills by participating in workshops, attending professional meetings, interacting with professional colleagues, and reviewing current literature in the field.

3.3 Interpreters accurately represent their certification, educational background, training, and pertinent experience.

4. RESPONSIBILITY TO CONSUMERS

4.1 Interpreters foster communication and cultural understanding and make a conscientious effort to be responsive to the needs and wishes of deaf and hard of hearing consumers.

4.2 Interpreters respect and use the language choice of the consumer.

4.3 Interpreters actively strive to understand the diverse cultural backgrounds of consumers and hearing clients by developing sensitivity and skills essential to working with diverse populations.

4.4 When providing services in various work environments, interpreters consult with appropriate persons about proper etiquette to ensure that information is conveyed in accordance with the norms of the industry or trade while adhering to the standards of the interpreting profession.

5. RESPONSIBILITY TO COLLEAGUES

Interpreters treat colleagues with respect, courtesy, fairness, and good faith, and cooperate with colleagues in order to promote effective communication and the best interests of consumers.

ПРОФЕССИОНАЛЬНЫЙ КОДЕКС
ЧЛЕНА СОЮЗА ПЕРЕВОДЧИКОВ РОССИИ

Принят III съездом СПР 14 мая 1998 года

Руководствуясь международными принципами признания гражданских и профессиональных прав и свобод личности, принципами «Рекомендации ЮНЕСКО о юридической охране прав переводчика», Хартии переводчика, Конституцией РФ, законодательством РФ, а также Уставом СПР, III съезд СПР принимает настоящий Профессиональный кодекс члена СПР.

Переводческие профессии играют особую роль в жизни международного сообщества, способствуя прогрессу мировой цивилизации, взаимообогащению национальных культур. Чтобы исполнить эту роль, переводчик вправе рассчитывать на уважение его труда обществом, на условия труда и жизни, определяемые спецификой его деятельностью, одновременно профессия накладывает на него конкретные обязательства морального и профессионального характера. Исходя из этого:

Переводчик – член СПР обязан соблюдать и требовать соблюдения по отношению к нему всех предусмотренных национальным и международным правом принципов и норм, которым обязался следовать Союз переводчиков России.

Переводчик обязан соблюдать принципы профессиональной солидарности, избегая нелояльной конкуренции, а также не соглашаясь на условия, уступающие тем, что были согласованы СПР, органами власти и работодателями.

Переводчик не должен соглашаться на условия, унижающие его профессиональное и человеческое достоинство, не позволяющие ему гарантировать высокое качество перевода и не отвечающие традициям, нормам и интересам переводческого сообщества.

Переводчик, и только переводчик, несет ответственность за качество и аутентичность перевода, независимо от условий заключенного им с заказчиком договора (контракта).

Переводчик должен гарантировать конфиденциальность ставшей ему известной информации.

Переводчик должен соблюдать законные права (авторов) оригинальных текстов.

Работая в составе переводческих коллективов, в частности при синхронном переводе, в составе временных творческих коллективов, переводчик обязан соблюдать общие для всех профессиональные правила работы и поведения, а также требовать равные условия оплаты его труда.

Переводчик должен требовать соблюдение заказчиками и иными лицами его законных авторских прав.

Переводчик – член СПР обязан строго соблюдать Устав СПР, за несоблюдение уставных, профессиональных и этических норм к переводчику могут быть применены преду­смотренные Уставом СПР санкции.

Tour-guide

Key Notions and Words

Complete the list of the vocabulary using dictionaries and reference books, transcribe the words and practice their pronunciation.

 

Archives stocks Boast Conducted tour Cruise tourist Discerning Exhibits (displays) Get away from it all Imagery Itinerary Local lore Lucidity Preliminary work

Recharge Savour Sightseer (excursionist) Standards of speech Stunning Survey excursion The object of demonstration To establish contact Unbeatable Unrivaled Unwind Value for money

Continue the list and present the vocabulary (make use of sche­mes, charts, tables, diagrams, etc.).

Положение

об обязанностях и квалификационных требованиях

гида-переводчика и экскурсовода

Общие положения

Основной задачей гида-переводчика (экскурсовода) в работе с туристами является проведение информационно-экскурсионной работы, направленной на ознакомление их с историей, культурой и современной жизнью города и страны в целом.

Работа гида-переводчика предусматривает следующие основные направления деятельности:

- в качестве гида-переводчика в соответствующих тур­ре­гионах;

- осуществление различных видов переводов: устный, последовательный.

- в качестве турсопровождающего по территории Российской Федерации, СНГ и зарубежных стран по различным видам туризма.

2. Квалификационные требования к профессии гида-переводчика:

- высшее или среднее специальное образование, знание иностранного языка (языков) в объеме специальных курсов, наличие диплома или свидетельства о специальной подготовке по рекомендованной Ассоциацией гидов-переводчиков программе;

- высокий общеобразовательный уровень со специальным акцентом на историю, географию, искусство и архитектуру, экономику, политику, религию и социологию данного турцентра, постоянное совершенствование знаний и профессиональных навыков;

- знание специальной терминологии во многих областях;

- гуманитарные навыки и навыки общения, владение технологией отбора информации, умение устанавливать контакт с туристами, умение создавать благоприятную дружескую атмосферу в группе;

- наличие аккредитации гида-переводчика (экскурсовода).

3. Квалификационные требования к профессии экскур­со­вода:

- высшее, неоконченное высшее или среднее специальное образование, специальная экскурсионная подготовка (курсы экскурсоводов);

- высокий общеобразовательный уровень по следу­ющим направлениям: историко-краеведческое, историко-архи­тек­турное, искусствоведческое, литературное, краеведческое, природоведческое;

- наличие перечня экскурсионных тем, подтвержденных текстами и методическими разработками, рецензиями на прослушивание на маршруте, характеристикой с места экскурсионной работы;

- соответствие следующим критериям оценки рассказа экскурсовода: познавательная ценность, четкость формулировок, занимательность, эмоциона­льность, образность язы­ка, простота изложения, доступность для слушателей, техника и культура речи.

Экскурсовод

Любимым видом отдыха миллионов людей стали экскурсии в музеи, по историческим местам, к памятникам природы и культуры.

Чтобы экскурсия стала для ее участников интересной, содержательной и приятной, специалисты экскурсионного дела должны провести большую предварительную работу. При подготовке (разработке) экскурсии они изучают литературу, делая выписки и составляя конспекты нужных текстов, анализируют архивные документы, знакомятся с экспозициями и фондами музеев и слушают беседы, лекции, проводимые их сотрудниками. В зависимости от цели и темы экскурсии устанавливают вид и число объектов показа, а затем составляют маршрут ее, заранее предусмотрев, какие объекты будут показаны более подробно, какие бегло, а также длительность остановок, переездов и переходов.

При практическом проведении экскурсии экскурсовод организует осмотр объектов, сопровождая его краткой информацией или подробным рассказом, используя иллюстрации и другие материалы.

Личность экскурсовода, его образованность и культура общения, способность быстро устанавливать контакт со слушателями, умение увлечь их интересным рассказом и сосредоточить внимание на главном – все это во многом определяет успех экскурсии. Экскурсовод должен обладать и некоторой артистичностью, ему важно владеть мимикой, жестом, выразительными средствами речи (образностью, эмоциональностью).

Рабочий день экскурсовода не нормирован ни по продолжительности, ни по времени начала и окончания работы. Нет и единой рабочей недели. Работать приходится в музеях, выставочных залах, в автобусах, на теплоходах.

Те, кто уже имеет высшее образование, могут получить профессию экскурсовода на зональных курсах по подготовке и повышению квалификации туристско-экскур­сионных кадров. Экскурсоводом можно стать, окончив высшую шко­лу культуры, куда принимаются люди со средним образованием и двухлетним стажем работы (по культурно-просве­титель­ному профилю).

* * *

Если к вам хоть раз приезжали родственники или друзья из другого города, то профессией экскурсовода, пусть ненадолго, вам пришлось овладеть. В общем-то это даже приятно: рассказывать о местных достопримечательностях. Обуревает чувство гордости за свою малую Родину. Можете себе представить как гордятся родным городом профессиональные экскурсоводы. Знают, рассказывают другим и получают за это деньги. Как гласит статистика, типичный экскурсовод – это женщина. Средний возраст – 45 лет. Хотя есть и уникумы, которым возраст не помеха. Говорят, что в Красноярске работает экскурсовод, которому перевалило за 70. Образование у профессиональных рассказчиков, конечно, высшее. Предпочтение отдают выпускникам университета и пединститута: биология, география, ин.яз. Испытательного срока как такового не существует. Просто начинающего экскурсовода прикрепляют к опытному. Особое внимание при приеме на работу уделяют интеллектуальному уровню, умению добывать новую информацию и коммуникабельности. Такой специалист способен заработать неплохие деньги, тем более, что зарплата в этой профессии сдельная. Кстати, в советские времена зарплата у них была ого-го. Рублей по 300. Конечно, сейчас получают не так много, но для подавляющего большинства экскурсоводов – это не единственный заработок. Их график работы позволяет трудиться в нескольких местах.

(Кириллова А. Эфир 28.04.99)

Answer these questions

1) Order these words from the most physically demanding to the least physically demanding: ramble, trek, hike

2) What verb might you find in travel advertisements meaning enjoy?

3) What adjective can be used with traveller to mean one who knows exactly what he or she wants in terms of quality and value?

4) Where would you find the bush?

5) How do you say this and what does it mean? 4x4

XVI. Professional Humour.

An accountant is someone who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

A banker is a person who lends you an umbrella when the sun is shining and wants it back the minute it begins to rain.

A consultant is someone who takes the watch off your wrist and tells you the time.

A diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you will look forward to the trip.

An editor is a person employed on a newspaper whose business it is to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to see that the chaff is printed.

A journalist is someone who spends 50% of the time not saying what they know and the other 50% of the time talking about things they don't know.

A modern artist is someone who throws paint on canvas, wipes it off with a cloth and sells the cloth.

A philosopher is a person who doesn't have a job but at least understands why.

A professor is someone who talks in someone else's sleep.

A programmer is someone who solves a problem you didn't know you had in a way you don't understand.

A psychologist is a person whom you pay a lot of money to ask you questions that your spouse asks free of charge.

A schoolteacher is a disillusioned person who used to think they liked children.

Continue the list with your own definitions.

Make up your own.

What is education for?

AN EDUCATION FOR LIFE?

There is a problem that will touch us all – men, women and children – in the not too distant future, a problem that resolves itself into a question: what is education for? At the moment most of us can answer that fairly practically and without too much soul-searching. On the lowest level education is for enabling us to cope in an adult world where money must be added up, tax forms filled in, numbers looked up in telephone directories, maps read, curtains measured and street signs understood. On the next level it is for getting some kind of job that will pay a living wage.

But we are already peering into a future so different from anything we would now recognise as familiar that the last of these two educational aims may become as obsolete as a dodo. Basic skills (reading, writing and arithmetic) will continue to be necessary but these, after all, can be taught to children in from one to two years during their childhood. But education with a view to working for a living, at least in the sense of earning daily bread, may well be on its way out right now for the majority of us. Then the question «what is education for?» becomes much more complex. Because what the future proclaims is: an education is an education is an education.

In other words, our grandchildren may well spend their lives learning as, today, we spend our lives working. This does not simply involve a straightforward substitution of activity but a complete transformation of motive. We work for things basically unconnected with that work – usually money, prestige, success, security. We will learn for learning’s sake alone: a rose is a rose because it is and not what we can get out of it. Nor need any cynic doubt that we shall not wish to work without there being any obvious end in view. Already, adult education classes are overcrowded – one friend of mine teaching French literature says she could have had 10 pupils for every one she has.

Nevertheless, we still live in a very competitive society and most of us will need to reshuffle the furniture of our minds in order to gear our children towards a future in which outer rewards – keeping up with the Joneses – become less relevant than inner and more individual spurs. The existence of competition has always meant doing things because they win us some essentially unconnected advantage but the aim of the future must be to integrate the doing with its own reward, like virtue.

Oddly enough it is in America, that citadel of competitiveness, that the first experiments in this change of mind are taking place. In that New World, there are already organizations set up to examine ways in which competitiveness can be replaced by other inner-directed forms of rewards and pleasures. Take one interesting example in a Foundation whose aim is to transform competitive sport. A tug-of-war, as we all know, consists of one team pitting its strength against another team. The aim is to tug the opposing team over a line and, by doing so, win.

In the brand-new non-competitive version, things are very different. There are still two teams on either end of a rope but now the aim is not to win but to maintain the struggle. As the two teams tug, any individual on either team who senses a coming victory must let go the winning end of the rope and rush over to lend his weight to the other side, thus redressing the balance, and keeping the tug-of-war going as long as possible. If you actually imagine doing this, the startling fact that emerges is that the new game offers more possibilities of individual judgement and skill just because victory is not the aim and the tug-of-war is ended only by defeat of those judgements and skills. What’s more, I think most people would get more pleasure out of the neo-tug than the old winners-take-all concept.

So could it be for learning. Most of us, at some time or another, have glimpsed one of the real inner pleasures of education – a sort of one-person chase after an elusive goal that pits You only against You or, at the very most, against the discoveries of the greatest minds of other generations. On a more humble level, most of us have already got some pleasurable hobby that we enjoy for its own sake and become expert in for that enjoyment. In my own stumbling efforts, since last year, to learn the piano, I have seen the future and it works.

(From an article by Jill Tweedie in the Guardian)

VIII. Do profound reading of these two texts (follow the scheme of the first text if it is necessary) and choose the one to depict the teacher’s profession better. Work out the criteria of your comparative analysis.

The Foreigner

W. Saroyan

Hawk Harrap, whose father came from somewhere in Asia Minor and used to sell vegetables and fruit from a wagon drawn by a horse, was of my time in Fresno, so I remember the days when he was a kid in overalls hustling The Evening Herald or sneaking in to the fights at the Civic Auditorium or playing hookey from Emerson School to sell soda pop at the Country Fair and make a lot of money.

His father was Syrian but seldom spoke the language, as he had married a woman who was Scotch-Irish. Harrap was his name on all the school records, although his father's name was something that only sounded a little like Harrap. He was given the name Hawk by myself for being as swift as that bird or as swift as I imagined that bird was. By the time we were at Longfellow Junior High School together, the nickname was on the school records, too. Actually, his mother had named him Hugh after a dead brother.

The day I first met Hawk at Emerson School, in 1916, he took me to a boy named Roy Coulpa and insulted him by saying, "Roy, you're an Italian!" It did not seem to matter at all that Roy Coulpa was Italian. It was Hawk's tone of voice that was insulting. After making this painful and preposterous remark, Hawk shoved me into Roy with such force that we fell and began to wrestle. Roy was surprised and angry, and strong enough to make me exert myself. The school playground was Fresno dirt, so a lot of dust got kicked up as each of us broke free of all kinds of holds. The matched stopped when the recess bell rang, and Roy and I got up and had a look at one another. We looked around for Hawk, too. We were not permitted to move until we heard the second bell, at which time we fell in at the entrance of the school. When a third bell rang we marched to our classrooms. Hawk was standing among the two dozens spectators. When I caught his eye he winked, and I wondered what the hell he meant.

After school he and Roy and I walked to California Playground, and there the three of us wrestled for the fun of it.

The point is, it was impossible to dislike him.

Hawk lived on О Street, so he and I walked home together when Roy set out for his house across the S.P. tracks on G Street, beyond Rosenberg's Packing House.

"What are you, anyway?" Hawk said as we walked home. "Even the teacher can't pronounce your name."

"I'm American," I said.

"The hell you are," Hawk said. "Roy's Italian, I'm Syrian, and I guess you're Armenian."

"Sure," I said. "I'm Armenian all right, but I'm American, too. I speak better English than do Armenian."

"I can't talk Syrian at all," Hawk bragged, "but that's what I am. If anybody asks you what you are, for God's sake don't tell them you are American. Tell them you're Armenian."

"What's the difference?"

"What do you mean what's the difference? If you're Armenian and you say you're American everybody'll laugh at you. The teacher knows what you are. Everybody knows what you are."

"Aren't you American?"

"Don't make me laugh," Hawk said. "I'm a foreigner. My father sells vegetables from a wagon."

"Weren't you born in America?"

"I was born in Fresno. I was born in the house on О Street. What's that got to do with it?"

"Well, I'm American," I said. "And so are you."

"You must be looney," Hawk said. "But don't worry, you'll find out what you are soon enough."

One day months later, after lunch, Miss Clapping, our teacher, suddenly stopped teaching and said, "You Armenian boys who go home for lunch have got to stop eating things full of garlic. The smell is more than I can stand and I'm not going to put up with it any longer."

Hawk turned to see how I was taking the insult.

As a matter of fact lunch for me that day had been dried eggplant, okra and stringbeans made into a stew with chunks of shoulder of lamb, in which garlic was absolutely necessary.

The day wasn't so cold, however, that the windows of the room could not be opened or the radiator turned off. The classroom was air-tight and over-hot.

"Open the window," I said to Miss Clapping.

Hawk gave a hoot of amazement and Miss Clapping looked at me as if she had no intention not to finish my life immediately. The rest of the class stirred in their seats and waited for developments. I decided to kill Miss Clapping and be done with it, but when I got to thinking how I might do it, the scheme seemed impractical. Miss Clapping went to her desk and studied her class book.

"Yes," she said at last. "Here is your name. I'm sure you know how to pronounce it. The Lord knows I don't."

Another insult!

She closed the book and looked at me again.

"Now," she said, "what did you say when I said you Armenian boys will have to stop eating garlic?"

"I said open the window."

"Perhaps I don't understand," Miss Clapping said, her lips beginning to tremble a little.

She put down the book she was holding and picked up a twelve-inch ruler. She stepped away from her desk and stood at the foot of the row in which my desk was the last one.

"Now, tell me," she said, "just what do you mean?"

"I mean," I said, "it would be stuffy in this room no matter what anybody ate for lunch. This room needs fresh air. It's easier to open the window than to ask people to cook stuff without garlic."

Hawk hooted again, and without any further discussion Miss Clapping moved down the row to my desk.

"Put out your right hand," she said.

"What for?"

"For being impertinent."

It happened that I had recently learned the meaning of that word.

"I haven't been impertinent," I said.

"You're being impertinent now," the teacher said. "Put out your right hand or I shall send you to the Principal, who will give you a thrashing."

"No, he won't," I said.

"Oh, he won't, won't he?" the teacher said. "We'll see about that. You're not going to make a fool out of me in this class. Put out your right hand."

Miss Clapping waited a full minute for me to put out my hand. So many things happened to her face, to her eyes and mouth, that I almost felt sorry for her. I certainly felt disgusted with myself, although I knew she was being ridiculous.

Finally she returned to her desk and with a shaking hand scribbled a note which she folded and handed to a little girl named Elvira Koot who took the note and left the room. The class sat in silence, the teacher tried to occupy herself looking into her book, and I wished I lived in a more civilized part of the country. At last the little girl returned to the room and handed the teacher a note which the teacher read. I was sure the Principal had considered the situation and had urged her to open the window; I was ready to apologize for having made so much trouble; but when I saw the evil smile on the teacher's face I went back to planning to kill her, for I knew I was headed for hard times.

"Report to the Principal in his office at once," Miss Clapping said.

I got up and left the room. In the hall I decided to kill the Principal too. I had seen him from a distance, the usual tall man around public schools; and I had heard about him; but I hadn't believed what I had heard. The report was that he was quite a rooster among the old hens who taught at school and that he wouldn't think of giving you a chance to tell your side of a story. If one of the old hens said you deserved to be punished the rooster punished you. Instead of reporting to his office immediately, I left the school building and walked home.

My mother was in the kitchen cutting up half a dozen cabbages for sour cabbage soup.

"What are you doing here?" she said.

"I don't want to go to that school any more," I said.

I tried to explain as accurately as possible what had happened. My mother listened to my side of the story and cut up the cabbages and put them into a five-gallon crock and poured salt over them and put a piece of apple-box wood on top of the cabbage, and on top of the wood she put rocks the size of eggplants. She said nothing until I was finished, and then she said, "Go back to the school and mind the teacher. Hereafter when there is garlic in your lunch, eat a spring of parsley. Do not be so eager to defend the honor of Armenian cooking."

This attitude infuriated me.

I went to my room and put some things together – a pair of socks, a sling shot, three pebbles, a key I had found, a magnifying glass, and a copy of The New Testament I had won at Sunday School – and tied them into a bundle, to run away. I walked two blocks and then went back to the house and threw the bundle on the front porch and went back to the school and reported to the Principal.

He gave me a strapping with a heavy leather belt. After this greatest insult of all, I dried my eyes and went back to my class and sat at my desk.

After school Hawk said, "See what I mean? You're a foreigner and don't ever forget it. A smart foreigner keeps his feelings to himself and his mouth shut. You can't change teachers. You can't change Principals. You can't change people. You can laugh at them, that's all. Americans make me laugh. I wouldn't fool with them if I were you. I just laugh at them."

The Teacher
S. Anderson

Snow lay deep in the streets of Winesburg. It had begun to snow about ten o'clock in the morning and a wind sprang up and blew the snow in clouds along Main Street. The frozen mud roads that led into town were fairly smooth and in places ice covered the mud. "There will be good sleighing," said Will Henderson, standing by the bar in Ed Griffith's saloon. Out of the saloon he went and met Sylvester West the druggist stumbling along in the kind of heavy overshoes called arctics. "Snow will bring the people into town on Saturday," said the druggist. The two men stopped and discussed their affairs. Will Henderson, who had on a light overcoat and no overshoes, kicked the heel of his left foot with the toe of the right. "Snow will be good for the wheat," observed the druggist sagely.

Young George Willard, who had nothing to do, was glad because he did not like working that day. The weekly paper had been printed and taken to the post office Wednesday evening and the snow began to fall on Thursday. At eight o'clock, after the morning train had passed, he put a pair of skates in his pocket and went up to Waterworks Pond but did not go skating. Past the pond and along a path that followed Wine Creek he went until he came to a grove of beech trees. There he built a fire against the side of a log and sat down at the end of the log to think. When the snow began to fall and the wind to blow he hurried about getting fuel for the fire.

The young reporter was thinking of Kate Swift, who had once been his school teacher. On the evening before he had gone to her house to get a book she wanted him read and had been alone with her for an hour. For the fourth or fifth time the woman had talked to him with great earnestness and he could not make out what she meant by her talk. He began to believe she might be in love with him and the thought was both pleasing and annoying.

Up from the log he sprang and began to pile sticks on the fire. Looking about to be sure he was alone he talked aloud pretending he was in the presence of the woman. "Oh, you're just letting on, you know you are," he declared. "I am going to find out about you. You wait and see."

The young man got up and went back along the path toward town leaving the fire blazing in the wood. As he went through the streets the skates clanked in his pocket. In his own room in the New Willard House he built a fire in the stove and lay down on top of the bed. He began to have lustful thoughts and pulling down the shade of the window closed his eyes and turned his face to the wall. He took a pillow into his arms and embraced it thinking first of the school teacher, who by her words had stirred something within him, and later of Helen White, the slim daughter of the town banker, with whom he had been for a long time half in love.

By nine o'clock of that evening snow lay deep in the streets and the weather had become bitter cold. It was difficult to walk about. The stores were dark and the people had crawled away to their houses. The evening train from Cleveland was very late but nobody was interested in its arrival. By ten o'clock all but four of the eighteen hundred citizens of the town were in bed.

Hop Higgins, the night watchman, was partially awake. He was lame and carried a heavy stick. On dark nights he carried a lantern. Between nine and ten o'clock he went his rounds. Up and down Main Street he stumbled through the drifts trying the doors of the stores. Then he went into alleyways and tried the back doors. Finding all tight he hurried around the corner to the New Willard House and beat on the door. Through the rest of the night he intended to stay by the stove. "You go to bed. I'll keep the stove going," he said to the boy who slept on a cot in the hotel office.

With Hop Higgins safely stowed away in the chair behind the stove only three people were awake in Winesburg. George Willard was in the office of the Eagle pretending to be at work on the writing of a story but in reality continuing the mood of the morning by the fire in the wood. In the bell tower of the Presbyterian Church the Reverend Curtis Hartman was sitting in the darkness preparing himself for a revelation from God, and Kate Swift, the school teacher, was leaving her house for a walk in the storm.

It was past ten o'clock when Kate Swift set out and the walk was unpremeditated. It was as though the man and the boy, by thinking of her, had driven her forth into the wintry streets. Aunt Elizabeth Swift had gone to the country seat concerning some business in connection with mortgages in which she had money invested and would not be back until the next day. By a huge stove, called a base burner, in the living room of the house sat the daughter reading a book. Suddenly she sprang to her feet and, snatching a cloak from a rack by the front door, ran out of the house.

At the age of thirty Kate Swift was not known in Winesburg as a pretty woman. Her complexion was not good and her face was covered with blotches that indicated ill health. Alone in the night in the winter streets she was lovely. Her back was straight, her shoulders square, and her features were as the features of a tiny goddess on a pedestal in a garden in the dim light of a summer evening.

During the afternoon the school teacher had been to see Doctor Welling concerning her health. The doctor had scolded her and had declared she was in danger of loosing her hearing. It was foolish for Kate Swift to be abroad in the storm, foolish and perhaps dangerous.

The woman in the streets did not remember the words of the doctor and would not have turned back had she remembered. She was very cold but after walking for five minutes no longer minded the cold. First she went to the end of her own street and then across a pair of hay scales set in the ground before a feed barn and into Trunion Pike. Along Trunion Pike she went to Ned Winters' barn and turning east followed a street of low frame houses that led over Gospel Hill and into Sucker Road that ran down a shallow valley past Ike Smead's chicken farm to Waterworks Pond. As she went along, the bold, excited mood that had driven her out of doors passed and then returned again.