Sample word completion exercises.

Transcription

INTENSIVE READING PRACTICE.
Exercises based on authentic texts from the English
language press to help improve your understanding
and build up your vocabulary.
Recommended for students preparing for the UNIcert® III Reading Test.
Maurice Roche
1
CONTENTS.
Introduction: How to get the most from this book.
3
1.
Sample word completion exercises
5
2.
Sentence completion exercises
13
3.
True or false exercises/vocabulary building I:
suggesting synonyms for words and expressions in a text
23
4.
Text cohesion: selecting the most appropriate word in the
context of the article you are reading
36
5.
Vocabulary in context: multiple choice exercises
45
6.
Word insertion exercises
73
7.
Vocabulary building II: finding synonyms in a text
76
8.
Warm-up mini-test
9.
Three sample reading tests
149
10.
Sample writing test
168
146
2
INTRODUCTION: HOW TO GET THE MOST FROM THIS BOOK
Introduction: How to get the most from this book.
This book has been created for students who are seeking to focus specifically on bettering their reading skills
reading in English. The main aims of this book are as follows:
•
Students can learn to improve their general understanding of authentic texts from the English
language press. The texts are complete and have not been altered in any way. These also
come from a variety of sources so that students are exposed to both British and American
English.
3
•
Users of this book have the opportunity to work intensively on building up both their knowledge
of everyday vocabulary as well as focusing on the specific words and expressions required for
careers in the field of social work/social management. However, the texts in this book have
been chosen with a view to covering as wide and varied a range of topics as possible and
therefore its use is not solely limited to students of the social sciences; it also provides a wealth
of reading practice for people simply wishing to build up their skills to ensure quicker, better and
more detailed understanding of what they read in the press in general.
•
By choosing authentic texts from the English language press, users of this book are also offered
the possibility of familiarising themselves with a number of the most important matters in our
world today. Users do not only build language skills, but can also use the information in the
texts to be better informed about issues of importance in the English-speaking world . It is
advisable to develop the ability to compare and contrast the situation being written about in
each English, American, Irish, etc. text with how the same situation is in Germany.
•
From my experience as a teacher, many students tend to read without understanding what it is
they are reading. Although they may understand the words on the page, there is often great
difficulty in understanding the context in which these language structures are used. This book
aims to bridge the gap between reading to simply understand the words and reading to
understand what is actually being said. For this reason, many of the exercises have been
designed in such a way as to force users to think about how an article is structured from start to
finish and that each sentence/paragraph is constructed the way it is for the simple reason of
ensuring continuity and a logic that can be traced through from start to finish.
•
Although this book can be used for work in the classroom, it comes with a complete booklet of
solutions which therefore renders it useful for self-access learning. It is, however,
recommended that users of the book should follow the instructions for each type of exercise
carefully in order to obtain the maximum possible benefit, and in the (hopefully rare) case that
their mistakes are not clear, then users should ideally either consult a dictionary or speak to a
course teacher who will be able to quickly and easily clear up the problem.
•
This book is particularly recommended for students taking the UNIcert® III reading test, and in
particular the three sample tests provide ample opportunity to test themselves in exam
conditions (should they really wish to take the challenge!)
•
Many of the exercises in this book can be used to also gain useful practice in writing and
speaking. For example, it can be useful for your writing skills to get into the habit of writing
summaries for the texts in this book and perhaps asking your teacher to check over them.
Reading texts aloud can also be a first step in confidence building for students who feel inhibited
n the classroom, as it offers the opportunity to work alone and just develop a feel for the
language, its natural rhythm, intonation patterns and so on. More confident oral communicators
could try to give brief oral summaries of the texts, paying attention to use as much of the newlyacquired language as they can.
As a final note I would add that some exercises are more difficult than others, so users should not feel
demotivated because they get only very few answers correct in the first few exercises they try from this book. Do
not be discouraged – just keep working through the exercises, making lists of vocabulary, reading aloud to get a
better feel for the rhythm of the language, and following all of the other practical guidelines given throughout the
book and you will find that the more you work at it, the easier it gets
(– really!!!). Perhaps at first just concentrate on getting as much as possible from the easier exercises and then
tackle the more difficult ones. With regular practice you will find that understanding what you read becomes less
and less difficult, and what’s more, you can do it faster than before!
4
PART ONE: WORD COMPLETION EXERCISES (GAP FILLING)
Sample word completion exercises.
In the following pages you will find a number of gap test exercises which you can try out. They
vary in length and degree of difficulty.
Some of these are from the beginning of articles, others are from elsewhere in the text. The
important thing is to try to get a feeling for the context of the piece. What is the subject matter
of the piece? Which words are immediately evident? If you are having difficulty, then try rereading the text again and see things become clearer. Look at the words which come before
and after the word which is posing a problem to you. What are these words – adjectives?
Singular/plural nouns? Articles? Adverbs? Pronouns? Sometimes being able to recognise
these details can help you find the word you need, and its correct form.
Each space is one letter. See how many of them you can get correct.
Text 1.
Since the 11 September terrorist attacks on the United States, hundreds of thousands of Americans have rushed to give blood to aid the victims.
Now s _ _ _ of t _ _ donors a _ _ themselves ask _ _ _ for h _ _ _ . Many p _ _ _ _ _ are do _ _ _ _ _ _ blood f _ _ the fi _ _ _ time a _ _
the A _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Red Cr _ _ _ estimates t _ _ _ at l _ _ _ _ 1% of d _ _ _ _ _ will le _ _ _ that t _ _ _ have
5
di _ _ _ _ _ _ such a _ syphilis, hep_ _ _ _ _ _ and HIV. “I_ is trau _ _ _ _ _ for m _ _ _ people t _ find o _ _ there i _ a problem ,
especially one such as AIDS”, said David Bergmire-Sweat, director of the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) national hotlines.
(Source: Nation Positive – The UK’s HIV magazine, November 2001, Issue 72, page 12. Article title: Double terror in USA).
Text 2.
Five campaigners for the legalisation of cannabis were arrested yesterday after trying to open Britain’s first Amsterdam-style cafe to sell the drug,
writes Tony Thompson. The ow _ _ _ , Colin Davies, w _ _ involved i _ scuffles w _ _ _ police of _ _ _ _ _ _ in t _ _ doorway o _ the c_ _ _ .
Davies, w _ _ has sm _ _ _ _ the dr _ _ to rel _ _ _ _ pain af _ _ _ he br _ _ _ his spi _ _ four y _ _ _ _ ago, sa _ _ the ai _ of h _ _ new
bus _ _ _ _ _ venture w _ _ to of _ _ _ the dr _ _ to si _ _ people t _ help relieve their symptoms. “He is a healer, not a dealer,” shouted one
of his supporters as Davies, of Stockport, was put into the back of a police van.
(Source: The Observer, 16 September 2001, page 3, news section. Article title: Police roll up to protester’s cannabis cafe).
Text 3.
The government will face demands this week to abolish pension cuts for old people enduring long stays in hospital, after it emerged that more than
20,000 sick older people endure cuts of up to 40% in return for treatment. A rep _ _ _ to b _ published b _ the char _ _ _ Age Concern deta _ _
_ how, si _ _ _ the intr _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ of t _ _ NHS an _ the Nati _ _ _ _ Insurance sys _ _ _ in 1948, t _ _ number o _ pensioners fac _ _
_ weekly redu _ _ _ _ _ _ has rea _ _ _ _ a rec _ _ _ high. Aro_ _ _ 14,900 pe _ _ _ _ had th _ _ _ pensions cu _ by 40% la _ _ year, it fi
_ _ _ , and ano _ _ _ _ 16,000 lo _ _ a fifth of their entitlements. A single person who is ill loses £28,30 a week – more than a third of their
pension – after six weeks in hospital.
(Source: The Observer, 16 September 2001, page 3, news section. Article title: Pension cuts for elderly sick under fire).
Text 4.
Huixtla, Mexico – Immigration agents said that when they began to search Samuel Medina’s 18-wheeler, it was the smell of human sweat that
revealed he was hauling more than bananas. The age _ _ _ found 94 m _ _ and wo _ _ _ hidden beh _ _ _ the cra _ _ _ of fru _ _ . All we _ _
from Cen _ _ _ _ America. And al _ , with Mr. Medina’s h _ _ _ , were ho _ _ _ _ to rea _ _ the Un _ _ _ _ States. Mov _ _ _ migrants fr _ _
many cou _ _ _ _ _ _ through Mexico t _ the Un _ _ _ _ States h _ _ become a hu _ _ enterprise. Newspapers t _ _ next d _ _ featuring ph _
_ _ _ of Mr Medina wi _ _ a wa _ of 500-peso bills, called the veteran truck driver a pollero, the term for an immigrant smuggler that stirs images
of greed and ruthlessness.
(Source: International Herald Tribune, August 17, 2001, Page 2. Article title: An illicit trade tempts truckers).
Text 5.
The American Association of Blood Banks says that one in 20,000 blood samples tests positive for HIV, one in 2,500 for hepatitis B and one in 500
for hepatitis C. Inf _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ hotlines acr _ _ _ the USA h _ _ _ experienced a dram _ _ _ _ increase i _ calls fr _ _ donors see _ _ _ _
help. “Th _ _ are rea _ _ _ panic-stri _ _ _ _ . They h _ _ _ no id _ _ what i _ means,” sai _ Thelma King Thiel, cha_ _ of t _ _ US Hepatitis
Foun _ _ _ _ _ _ . Several ma _ _ _ Aids orga _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ in New York w _ _ _ based i _ the
disa _ _ _ _ area ne _ _ the Wo _ _ _ Trade Ce _ _ _ _ but it appears that everyone in these offices got out alive. Many HIV charities across
the USA are experiencing severe funding problems in the wake of 11 September.
(Source: Nation Positive – The UK’s HIV magazine, November 2001, Issue 72, page 12. Article title: Double terror in USA).
Text 6.
“He’s a healer, not a dealer”, shouted one of his supporters, as Davies, of Stockport, was put into the back of a police van. A
spokesw _ _ _ _ for Greater Manchester Pol _ _ _ said fo _ _ other pe _ _ _ _ - three Du _ _ _ men a _ _ a Du _ _ _ woman w _ _ _
arrested a _ the caf_ on suspi _ _ _ _ of be _ _ _ concerned w _ _ _ the sup _ _ _ of dr _ _ _. Coen Spring Elkamp, a Du _ _ _ journalist, sai _
: ‘I w _ _ out i _ Stockport la _ _ night a _ _ saw thir _ _ _ _ and four _ _ _ _ -year-o _ _ girls d _ _ _ _ in pubs at 9 p.m. The police and
governments should be stamping on that and not something like this.
(Source: The Observer, 16 September 2001, page 3, news section. Article title: Police roll up to protester’s cannabis cafe).
Text 7.
Ann Johnson discovered that her husband, Gilbert, from Cumbria, had bladder cancer last April. Just ov _ _ a mon _ _ into h _ _ treatment, t _
_ weekly pens _ _ _ she a _ _ her hus _ _ _ _ shared f _ _ twelve ye _ _ _ was sud _ _ _ _ _ cut. ‘N _ one t _ _ _ me I wo _ _ _ receive le _
_,’ she sai _ , but t _ _ cheques shru_ _ by ab _ _ _ £14 ev _ _ _ week fr _ _ our we _ _ _ _ pension o _ £130. I w _ _ devastated. Th _ _
just c _ _ it off in one fell swoop,’ she said. It’s equivalent to about ten years of the pension increases this wonderful Government have given us.’
(Source: The Observer, 16 September 2001, page 3, news section. Article title: Pension cuts for elderly sick under fire).
Text 8.
But, two weeks later, with his raggedy clothes and trembling hands, Mr. Medina, 37 and the father of three, seemed anything but a callous border
bandit. “I w _ _ willing t _ take a ri _ _ because I wa _ _ _ _ a bet _ _ _ life f _ _ my fam _ _ _ ,” he sai _ in a _ interview fr _ _ a ja _ _ here,
descr _ _ _ _ _ the sa _ _ sort o _ desire th _ _ drives ill _ _ _ _ immigrants thems _ _ _ _ _ . “That’s
w _ _ I agr _ _ _ to ta _ _ the mo _ _ _.” But fr _ _ whom h _ took i _ , he w _ _ afraid to say. Mr. Medina’s son, Ricardo, 18, who
accompanied him on most trips, recalled how powerfully his father was drawn to what seemed like a huge windfall - $11,000 – for a man making
$400 a week.
(Source: International Herald Tribune, August 17, 2001, Page 2. Article title: An illicit trade tempts truckers).
Text 9.
Government guidance to give head teachers more power to exclude disruptive and unruly pupils has sent worrying shivers down the spines of
professionals working with children. The exclu _ _ _ _ rate amo _ _ children i _ care i _ on ave _ _ _ _ ten tim _ _ higher
th _ _ that o _ their pee _ _ . As ma _ _ as thir _ _ per ce _ _ of chil _ _ _ _ in ca _ _ are ou _ of mainst _ _ _ _ education, whet _ _ _
through exclu _ _ _ _ or trua _ _ _ , according t _ the Chil _ _ _ _ _ Act Repo _ _ 1995-9. The gov _ _ _ _ _ _ _ announced i _ _ intention o _
dealing with schooling problems among underprivileged children with increased funds in the comprehensive spending review.
(Source: Community Care, article title: Concern mounts over exclusions, 10 – 16 August 2000, page 9).
6
Text 10.
Britain’s social service departments are on the brink of collapse, with some of the most vulnerable children in society being refused help, according
to the country’s most senior social worker. Moira Gibb, presi _ _ _ _ of th _ Association o _ Directors o _ Social
Serv _ _ _ _, said chil _ _ _ _ could di _ if th _ pressure o _ frontline soc _ _ _ services i _ not eas _ _ by immed _ _ _ _ and
subst _ _ _ _ _ _ investment. La _ _ night th _ government admi _ _ _ _ there w _ _ a cri _ _ _ and sai _ child prote _ _ _ _ _ was
be _ _ _ made a prio _ _ _ _ . Extra mo _ _ _ was be _ _ _ invested and a national campaign for social workers would be launched. But citing
the ‘bombardment’ of new referrals of children rising remorselessly, Gibb said many departments across the country were having to turn away
people who desperately needed help.
(Source: The Observer, 16. September 2001, page 3, article title: Children at risk in care crisis.)
Text 11.
Packing for travel can be so difficult. Travellers kn _ _ that i _ is mu _ _ warmer i _ January in Austra _ _ _ than i _ Paris, o _ that wh _ _
works i _ Mia _ _ may rai _ _ eyebrows i _ a Munich boardr _ _ _ . But i _ is sti _ _ remarkably ea _ _ to ge _ it wr _ _ _ . Alex, a man _ _ _
_ in Sili _ _ _ Valley has be _ _ finding th _ _ out th _ hard w _ _ . For ye _ _ _ , during the Internet boom, his California casual style – chinos,
short-sleeved shirt, maybe a jacket on the East Coast or in Europe, never a tie – was cutting edge, acceptable, if not exactly admired in many
parts of the fashion world.
(Source: The International Herald Tribune, Friday August 17, 2001, page 7. Article title: Send those suitcase blues packing).
Text 12.
We tend to think of RB as a disease of the Victorian era, but in fact it has never left us. Last y _ _ _ there we _ _ a rec _ _ _ 7,000 new ca _ _ _
in Brit _ _ _ and ov _ _ 400 reported dea _ _ _ from th _ disease. Lond _ _ alone n _ _ has mo _ _ cases th _ _ any ot _ _ _ European ci _ _
and th _ East En _ borough o _ Newham h _ _ been cal _ _ _ the TB capi _ _ _ of th _ western wo _ _ _ . TB i _ a parti _ _ _ _ _ concern
bec _ _ _ _ many of those who are ill with the disease are known to be also HIV positive. Many of these people have come to the UK from Africa
and Asia where the disease is endemic.
(Source: Nation Positive – The UK’s HIV magazine, November 2001, Issue 72, page 38. Article title: The return of the white plague).
Text 13.
The Treasury announced £450 million to create a children’s fund that would help prevent young people falling into drug abuse, unemployment,
crime and truancy. This i _ in addi _ _ _ _ to £375 mil _ _ _ _ in th_ Quality Protects initia _ _ _ _ , which se _ local author _ _ _ _ _ educational
obje _ _ _ _ _ _ for loo _ _ _ -after chil _ _ _ _ in rea _ _ _ _ , maths, sci _ _ _ _ and GCSE an _ GNVQ
qualif _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . However, guida _ _ _ announced b _ schools mini _ _ _ _ Jacqui Smith last we _ _ prompted conc _ _ _ that th _
government’s atti _ _ _ _ towards preve _ _ _ _ _ school exclu _ _ _ _ _ is lukew _ _ _ . Under th _ guidance, exclusion appeal panels, made up
of lay members, local education authority officials and school representatives, will be prevented from overturning head teachers’ exclusion orders.
It also demands that councils reduce the proportion of children permanently excluded from school.
(Source: Community Care, article title: Concern mounts over exclusions, 10 – 16 August 2000, page 9).
Text 14.
More demand and fewer resources meant frontline social workers were under too much pressure to cope and children were slipping through the
net. ‘Social serv _ _ _ _ are se _ _ as someh _ _ letting everyo _ _ down while mo _ _ and mo _ _ people wa _ _ a pie _ _ of u _ than w _
can poss _ _ _ _ give,’ s _ _ said. Spea _ _ _ _ in adva _ _ _ of th _ opening o _ an inqu _ _ _ into th _ case o _ Victoria Climbie – t _ _
eight ye _ _ old w _ _ died af _ _ _ being tort _ _ _ _ and star _ _ _ by her aunt and the aunt’s boyfriend – Gibb defended workers who were
doing their best under enormous pressure. “If you take heart operations, the idea that one child dying is a complete disaster is unrealistic of all the
other lives that are saved.
(Source: The Observer, 16. September 2001, page 3, article title: Children at risk in care crisis.)
Text 15.
Dressing appropriately can protect travellers from danger, as well as embarrassment and discomfort. There a _ _ no bene _ _ _ _ in loo _ _ _ _
like a tou _ _ _ _ , as oppo _ _ _ to a we _ _-dressed trave _ _ _ _ . Dressing f _ _ travel i _ a tric _ _ business t _ get
rig _ _ , especially f _ _ those w _ _ want t _ travel lig _ _ . But i _ enables trav _ _ _ _ _ _ to bet _ _ _ immerse thems _ _ _ _ _ in
t _ _ cultural a _ _ commercial li _ _ of ano _ _ _ _ city. Besi _ _ _ , dressing as stylishly as the Romans when in, well, just about any place
where the people like to dress up, is fun. Some styles, when adapted to reflect the sensibilities of the wearer, can help them to cross borders with
aplomb.
(Source: The International Herald Tribune, Friday August 17, 2001, page 7. Article title: Send those suitcase blues packing).
Text 16.
Even though TB is a major killer of people with HIV and AIDS across the globe, drugs are actually available which make the disease completely
curable if treatment is promptly given and strictly adhered to. 31-ye _ _ -old Eliza Dickie i _ not th _ stereotypical TB
suff _ _ _ _ at al _ . A white univ _ _ _ _ _ _ graduate fr _ _ Sussex, sh _ is th _ epitome o _ middle cl _ _ _ England, y _ _ she fo _ _ _ she
has bo _ _ HIV a _ _ TB less th _ _ a ye _ _ ago. “I ha _ 104-deg _ _ _ fevers a _ _ night swea _ _ and I tho _ _ _ _ I had
mala _ _ _ . They tes _ _ _ me f _ _ everything and persuaded me to have a HIV test. I had a CD4 count of just two, and a viral load of a
quarter of a million.
(Source: Nation Positive – The UK’s HIV magazine, November 2001, Issue 72, page 38. Article title: The return of the white plague).
Text 17.
Lady Thatcher’s larger-than-life sta _ _ _ as Britain’s mo _ _ loved and hated Pri _ _ Mini _ _ _ _ since Sir Winston Churchill was confirmed
yest _ _ _ _ _ when a man decapi _ _ _ _ _ the marble sta _ _ _ of the for _ _ _ Conservative lea _ _ _ on disp _ _ _ at the Guildhall Art
Gal _ _ _ _ in the City of London. The head on the two ton sta _ _ _ , which is an imposing eight fe _ _ high, was knoc _ _ _ off aft _ _ the
assai _ _ _ _ deployed a metal rope support stanchion, acco _ _ _ _ _ to the Corporation of London. A man was arre _ _ _ _ . The dama _ _
_ work, sculp _ _ _ by Neil Simmons and unve _ _ _ _ by lady Thatcher in May, was rem _ _ _ _ from disp _ _ _ . It was due to be inst _ _ _
_ _ in the commons after the ne _ _ elec _ _ _ _ The Chairman of the Commons advisory art commit _ _ _ , leftwing MP, Tony Banks, said
that alth _ _ _ _ the sta _ _ _ ranked “among our most controv _ _ _ _ _ _ commissions, acts of vand _ _ _ _ _ agai _ _ _ works of art can
nev _ _ be tole _ _ _ _ _ in a civil _ _ _ _ society”. Lady Thatcher said nothing.
th
(Source: The Guardian, Thursday July 4 2002, page 1. Article title: Heads they lose... Head one: Thatcher statue decapitated by
Michael White)
Text 18.
7
The art wor _ _ was la _ _ night try _ _ _ to esta _ _ _ _ _ whet _ _ _ builders had accid _ _ _ _ _ _ _ defrosted a seminal pie _ _ of
Britart by unplug _ _ _ _ collector Charles Saatchi’s kitc _ _ _ freezer. Rumo _ _ _ spr _ _ _ after sugg _ _ _ _ _ _ _ that Saatchi had stor _
_ a blood scul _ _ _ _ _ made by Britart’s enfant terrible, Marc Quinn, amo _ _ his frozen peas. The work, Self,
cons _ _ _ _ of Quinn’s head cast in nine pints of his own frozen, congealed blood. Builders who arri _ _ _ to exte _ _ Saatchi’s London kit _ _
_ _ at the req _ _ _ _ of his part _ _ _ , the telev _ _ _ _ _ chef, Nigella Lawson, are said to have unplug _ _ _ the appliances to find red liq
_ _ _ oozing across the floor. Saatchi decl _ _ _ _ to com _ _ _ _ last night. Some art wor _ _ insiders were scep _ _ _ _ _ , arguing the
blood head was alw _ _ _ exhib _ _ _ _ in its own refrige _ _ _ _ _ _ unit. Saatchi bou _ _ _ the piece for a rumo _ _ _ _ £13,000 in 1991
from art dea _ _ _ Jay Jopling, who said the “very fragile” scul _ _ _ _ _ “requires qui _ _ a bit of commi _ _ _ _ _ on the part of the coll _ _ _ _
_ ”.
th
(Source: The Guardian, Thursday July 4 2002, page 1. Article title: Heads they lose... Head two: blood sculpture may be ruined by
Angelique Chrisafis)
Text 19.
The Fre _ _ _ prime mini _ _ _ _ , Jean-Pierre Raffarin, prom _ _ _ _ to act aga _ _ _ _ crime and ille _ _ _ immi _ _ _ _ _ _ _ yesterday, to
add _ _ _ _ the pub _ _ _ conc _ _ _ about secu _ _ _ _ exploited by the extr _ _ _ right in the rec _ _
preside _ _ _ _ _ and general elec _ _ _ _ _ . Setting out his government's progr _ _ _ _ in a lively spe _ _ _ warmly rece _ _ _ _ by the
conser _ _ _ _ _ _ MPs who now form the maj _ _ _ _ _ in the national asse _ _ _ _ , he said it would cre _ _ _ 13,500 new jobs in the ne _ _
five years in the police and gendarmerie. Proce _ _ _ _ _ for asse _ _ _ _ _ the rig _ _ of asy _ _ _ would be speeded up, he ad _ _ _ . He
painted a France in wh _ _ _ the poli _ _ _ _ _ process will be ope _ _ _ up to the pub _ _ _ , the bureauc _ _ _ _ will be slimmer, and citi _ _ _
_ will have a greater say in loc _ _ government and pub _ _ _ serv _ _ _ _ .
(Source: The Guardian, Thursday July 4th 2002, page 6. Article title: French to get more police and tax cuts, by Pierre Tran)
Text 20.
Analysts attrib _ _ _ _ the reco _ _ level of abste _ _ _ _ _ in the presid _ _ _ _ _ _ and parliame _ _ _ _ _ elec _ _ _ _ _ in May and June
to the poli _ _ _ _ _ class being out of sync with the pub _ _ _ , and the extr _ _ _ right's vote as a mark of disench _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . Mr Raffarin
said his government wou _ _ work to bui _ _ a "republic of neighbourhoods" in wh _ _ _ decis _ _ _ _ wou _ _ no
lon _ _ _ be tak _ _ in Paris but wou _ _ be devolved to loc _ _ and regi _ _ _ _ councils. He wou _ _ make France mo _ _
democ _ _ _ _ _ and open to its citi _ _ _ _ through decentr _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ and loc _ _ democ _ _ _ _ . Social dialo _ _ _ and
referendums wou _ _ bring the state clo _ _ _ to the peo _ _ _ . He reiterated the prom _ _ _ of a 5% tax cut ma _ _ by Jacques Chirac in his
presid _ _ _ _ _ _ camp _ _ _ _ , and said it was ti _ _ to put a st _ _ to the brain drain of scient _ _ _ _ and the flight of footballers and ten _ _
_ players to fore _ _ _ lands. A glum-looking Lionel Jospin, who set out his Socialist coali _ _ _ _ government's prog _ _ _ _ _ in a dry spe _ _
_ five years ago, liste _ _ _ immobile, his head propped on one hand.
th
(Source: The Guardian, Thursday July 4 2002, page 6. Article title: French to get more police and tax cuts, by Pierre Tran)
Text 21.
The civil ser _ _ _ _ , notoriously sl _ _ and tied up in red ta _ _ , would be refor _ _ _ to prov _ _ _ a "true admin _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ of serv _
_ _ ," Mr Raffarin said. As civil serv _ _ _ _ retired - 807,000 are expe _ _ _ _ to go by 2007 - some departm _ _ _ _ _ staff
wou _ _ be redu _ _ _ , some stabilised and some incre _ _ _ _ . Avoi _ _ _ _ the word privati _ _ _ _ _ _ , anathema to pub _ _ _ sector
unions, Mr Raffarin sa _ _ shares wou _ _ be sold in the electr _ _ _ _ _ and gas utilities but the sta _ _ would ke _ _ the
maj _ _ _ _ _ holding. The civil ser _ _ _ _ stat _ _ of the utilities' employees and their gene _ _ _ _ pensions would not be touc _ _ _, but the
pub _ _ _ ser _ _ _ _ _ , which are gene _ _ _ _ _ popular in France, wou _ _ have to move tow _ _ _ _ guaranteeing a
mini _ _ _ serv _ _ _ : an objec _ _ _ _ hi _ _ the unions have fire _ _ _ _ reps _ _ _ _ .
th
(Source: The Guardian, Thursday July 4 2002, page 6. Article title: French to get more police and tax cuts, by Pierre Tran)
Text 22.
A maj _ _ recru _ _ _ _ _ _ campa _ _ _ to impr _ _ _ the overwhelmingly nega _ _ _ _ pub _ _ _ ima _ _ of social workers will be laun _
_ _ _ by the gove _ _ _ _ _ _ this aut _ _ _ in a bid to tac _ _ _ seri _ _ _ staff shor _ _ _ _ _ throu _ _ _ _ _ England. Chief
inspe _ _ _ _ of social services Denise Platt has sa _ _ the three-year crus _ _ _ will be unvei _ _ _ at the Asso _ _ _ _ _ _ _ of Directors of
Social Services ann _ _ _ confe _ _ _ _ _ in Harrogate on October 17. It will ai _ to chal _ _ _ _ _ the nega _ _ _ _ ima _ _ of the profe _ _
_ _ _ and pub _ _ _ igno _ _ _ _ _ of its wo _ _ . It fol _ _ _ _ the publi _ _ _ _ _ _ of the 10th ann _ _ _ rep _ _ _ of the social services
inspectorate, which war _ _ _ acute recru _ _ _ _ _ _ and retention pro _ _ _ _ _ were impe _ _ _ _ the
prog _ _ _ _ of service improv _ _ _ _ _ _ and moderni _ _ _ _ _ _ .
(Source: The Guardian, Friday August 17th 2001, Article title: Crusade to combat poor image of social workers by David Batty)
Text 23.
The rep _ _ _ said some London boroughs have been una _ _ _ to fill nea _ _ _ 40% of their social work posts, whi _ _ the aver _ _ _ vaca _
_ _ rate in Birmingham is 26%. Last ye _ _ the Local Government Asso _ _ _ _ _ _ _ found that 63% of councils were
experi _ _ _ _ _ _ diffic _ _ _ _ _ _ in recru _ _ _ _ _ social care sta _ _ . It ident _ _ _ _ _ seri _ _ _ short _ _ _ _ in children's services,
with a turno _ _ _ ra _ _ of 16.9% amo _ _ home care wor _ _ _ _ . Rese _ _ _ _ unvei _ _ _ by the Depar _ _ _ _ _ of Hea _ _ _ at the
ministerial sum _ _ _ on workforce in March ident _ _ _ _ _ the neg _ _ _ _ _ pub _ _ _ ima _ _ of social workers as the maj _ _ deter _ _ _
_ to peo _ _ _ ente _ _ _ _ the profe _ _ _ _ _ . It al _ _ reve _ _ _ _ an alm _ _ _ comp _ _ _ _ la _ _ of know _ _ _ _ _ abo _ _ the
profession's work.
th
(Source: The Guardian, Friday August 17 2001, Article title: Crusade to combat poor image of social workers by David
Batty)
Text 24.
Respondents unanim _ _ _ _ _ recalled all media cover _ _ _ of social work as nega _ _ _ _ , typi _ _ _ _ _ "seizing children" or mak _ _ _
mist _ _ _ _ . Social work was rega _ _ _ _ as an extr _ _ _ _ _ dema _ _ _ _ _ but poo _ _ _ pa _ _ job, with
uncer _ _ _ _ prosp _ _ _ _ for prom _ _ _ _ _ or specialisation, desp _ _ _ being nece _ _ _ _ _ and worthw _ _ _ _ . The new
camp _ _ _ _ ai _ _ to add _ _ _ _ this igno _ _ _ _ _ though a ma _ _ _ pub _ _ _ relat _ _ _ _ and adver _ _ _ _ _ _ dri _ _ in the nati
_ _ _ _ and loc _ _ pre _ _ and rad _ _ . Booklets and pos _ _ _ _ will be prov _ _ _ _ to loc _ _ empl _ _ _ _ _ and
8
organ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ for their own recru _ _ _ _ _ _ purp _ _ _ _ , as we _ _ as inter _ _ _ _ _ indiv _ _ _ _ _ _ . A teleph _ _ _
adv _ _ _ line and webs _ _ _ will al _ _ be se _ up to pro _ _ _ _ furt _ _ _ infor _ _ _ _ _ _ .
th
Batty)
Text 25.
Ian Johnston, director of the British Asso _ _ _ _ _ _ _ of Social Workers, welc _ _ _ _ the recru _ _ _ _ _ _ offensive, but
expr _ _ _ _ _ disap _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ that adver _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ wou _ _ not go out on telev _ _ _ _ _ . Howe _ _ _ , he war _ _ _ it
wou _ _ be diff _ _ _ _ _ to overt _ _ _ the public's prej _ _ _ _ _ towa _ _ _ _ the profe _ _ _ _ _ . "Peo _ _ _ instin _ _ _ _ _ _ _ dista
_ _ _ thems _ _ _ _ _ from the mo _ _ 'unple _ _ _ _ _ ' asp _ _ _ _ of social wo _ _ , su _ _ as men _ _ _ hea _ _ _ and
chi _ _ ab _ _ _ . At the sa _ _ time our cult _ _ _ places gre _ _ val _ _ on indepe _ _ _ _ _ _ so social workers are regar _ _ _ as
busybo _ _ _ _ , stic _ _ _ _ their nos _ _ in to thi _ _ _ that peo _ _ _ don't wa _ _ to kn _ _ about." The workforce cri _ _ _ is not confi
_ _ _ to England, how _ _ _ _ . Accor _ _ _ _ to the Statistical Bulletin Staff of Scottish Lo _ _ _ Authority Social Work Services 2000, there
were ab _ _ _ 1800 vaca _ _ _ _ _ , exclu _ _ _ _ home ca _ _ sta _ _ , in Scottish social services la _ _ ye _ _ , inclu _ _ _ _ 330 for qual
_ _ _ _ _ social workers.
th
Batty)
Text 26.
Social workers must not regard violence and abuse as part of their job but must report every incident. This w_ _ the mes _ _ _ _ from
Community Care’s edi_ _ _ -in-chief Terry Philpot at the offi_ _ _ _ launch of No Fear, t _ _ magazine’s camp_ _ _ _ for saf _ _ _ in
so _ _ _ _ work. Philpot war _ _ _ that hi _ _ quality ca _ _ could n _ _ be prov _ _ _ _ by st _ _ _ under at _ _ _ _ . “Just a _ we
bel _ _ _ _ in the hig _ _ _ _ possible qua _ _ _ _ of ca _ _ for serv _ _ _ users, we bel _ _ _ _ that cann _ _ be ach _ _ _ _ _ without
t _ _ highest pos _ _ _ _ _ quality of con _ _ _ _ for the cond _ _ _ _ _ _ in wh _ _ _ social wor _ _ _ _ have t _ work a _ _ the real – not ju _
_ potential – thr _ _ _ _ they ha _ _ to end _ _ _ ,” he said.
(Source: Community Care, July 29th to August 4th 1999. Article title: Violence “not part of the job” by Rachel Cowney)
Text 27.
I _ social wor _ _ _ _ did n _ _ realise vio _ _ _ _ _ and ab _ _ _ were unac _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ , they wo _ _ _ not reco _ _ it and
em _ _ _ _ _ _ _ would n _ _ act up _ _ it, he ad _ _ _ . “Our camp _ _ _ _ does not se _ _ special trea _ _ _ _ _ for so _ _ _ _ workers or
indu _ _ _ in spe _ _ _ _ pleading,” Philpot said. “We a _ _ being ve _ _ practical. We aren’t see _ _ _ _ sympathy – tho _ _ _ goodness on _ _
knows so _ _ _ _ workers d _ deserve a b _ _ of pra _ _ _ occasionally.” Philpot outl _ _ _ _ the cruc _ _ _ difference bet _ _ _ _ social wor _
_ _ _ and other prof _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ who a _ _ subject to vio _ _ _ _ _ in th _ _ _ jobs, including nurses, GPs and po _ _ _ _ officers – the nat _
_ _ of the wo _ _ of others rar _ _ _ entails a lo _ _ -term rela _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ with a _ assailant. “A GP
c _ _ refuse a pat _ _ _ _ on th _ _ _ list, the assailant of a po _ _ _ _ officer disa _ _ _ _ _ _ behind bars a _ _ nurses’
prof _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ rela _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ are us _ _ _ _ _ comparatively sho _ _ if th _ _ _ patient is vi _ _ _ _ _. But a resid _ _ _ _ _ _
social wor _ _ _ , for ex _ _ _ _ _ , may wo _ _ for ye _ _ _ with som _ _ _ _ who assa _ _ _ _ them; and a fie _ _ worker wi _ _ a family, one o
_ whose mem _ _ _ _ may have abu _ _ _ them.
th
th
(Source: Community Care, July 29 to August 4 1999. Article title: Violence “not part of the job” by Rachel Cowney)
Text 28.
Clinical psycho _ _ _ _ _ _ and Community Care contributor Oliver James bla _ _ _ the hi _ _ levels of vio _ _ _ _ _ outlined i _ the magazine’s
sur _ _ _ on society’s l _ _ regard for soc _ _ _ workers. “Social workers are desp _ _ _ _ and vie _ _ _ as pathetic figures, los _ _ _ who ea _ _
little mo _ _ _ and waste th _ _ _ time do-gooding,” he said. James ad _ _ _ that the va _ _ majo _ _ _ _ of
vio _ _ _ _ people co _ _ from chaotic, disadv _ _ _ _ _ _ _ homes, wh _ _ _ they were seri _ _ _ _ _ and freq _ _ _ _ _ _ physically
puni _ _ _ _ , and where the pattern of rew _ _ _ was varied. “The main res _ _ _ is that you are qu _ _ _ paranoid,” he said, “You
th _ _ _ that pe _ _ _ _ are o _ _ to get you.” Dep _ _ _ _ _ _ _ was al _ _ a fac _ _ _ : three-qua _ _ _ _ _ of convi _ _ _ _ violent men suf _
_ _ from it. James al _ _ blamed the Thatcherite economics for the dram _ _ _ _ rise in vio _ _ _ _ incidents in the 1980s. “The cli _ _ _ _ who
thems _ _ _ _ _ have been shat on are thems _ _ _ _ _ shitting on the so _ _ _ _ workers,” he said.
Text 29.
Labour MP Ann Coffey, a for _ _ _ social worker, said th _ _ _ was a “la _ _ of unders _ _ _ _ _ _ _ about what social workers ha _ _ to do”.
“We have to st _ _ _ thinking ab _ _ _ informing the pub _ _ _ better ab _ _ _ what social workers do. It h _ _ to be a
long-run _ _ _ _ campaign,” she sug _ _ _ _ _ _ . Coffey ga _ _ assur _ _ _ _ _ that the gov _ _ _ _ _ _ _ was tak _ _ _ the is _ _ _
seriously, The summit on 23 Sep _ _ _ _ _ _ to disc _ _ _ ways to tac _ _ _ the pro _ _ _ _ would be opened by Health Secretary Frank
Dobson. “There’s no sim _ _ _ solution t _ it,” she said. “There’s a wh _ _ _ range of strat _ _ _ _ _ that ne _ _ to be lo _ _ _ _ at.” Better tra
_ _ _ _ _ , better prot _ _ _ _ _ _ and better sup _ _ _ _ were ne _ _ _ _ . Tony Korris, who worked with murdered social worker Jenny
Morrisson, said she was the fifth social worker to be killed on duty in the past fifteen years. “There’s more that can be done to prepare, prevent
and protect,” he added.
Text 30.
Edinburgh is facing a dramatic shortage in social workers if more applicants can’t be found to enter the profession, it was revealed this week. The
City Coun _ _ _ is se _ to lau _ _ _ urgent meas _ _ _ _ aimed a _ redressing th _ falling num _ _ _ _ of n _ _ trainees
bef _ _ _ the pro _ _ _ _ affects th _ prov _ _ _ _ _ of ser _ _ _ _ _ in th _ city. A _ present, th _ num _ _ _ of th _ _ _ applying f _ _
vacancies i _ the so _ _ _ _ work dep _ _ _ _ _ _ _ are fal _ _ _ _ , prov _ _ _ _ _ fears th _ _ it co _ _ _ become ha _ _ _ _ to fi _ _ empty
pos _ _ _ _ _ _ , lea _ _ _ _ the dep _ _ _ _ _ _ _ under-staffed a _ _ under pre _ _ _ _ _ .
(Source: Edinburgh Herald and Post, September 2001. Article title: Skills shortage in social work.)
Text 31.
Concerns ab _ _ _ the pro _ _ _ _ this we _ _ led t _ the Coun _ _ _ Executive be _ _ _ asked t _ approve n _ _ measures t _ arrest
t _ _ situation, inc _ _ _ _ _ _ setting u _ a centr _ _ _ _ _ _ recruitment proc _ _ _ , appointing a dedi _ _ _ _ _ employee
dev _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ officer a _ _ advertising vaca _ _ _ _ _ on t _ _ Internet. T _ _ social wo _ _ department al _ _ want t _ employ u _ to fi _
_ trainee so _ _ _ _ workers a _ _ set u _ a bursary sch _ _ _ for u _ to te _ students a ye _ _ .
Text 32.
Councillor Kingsley Thomas, exec _ _ _ _ _ member f _ _ social wo _ _ , said h _ hoped th _ _ the meas _ _ _ _ would ma _ _ a
dif _ _ _ _ _ _ _ in Edinburgh. B _ _ he war _ _ _ that t _ _ problem we _ _ deeper: “Urg _ _ _ action i _ now ne _ _ _ _ to att _ _ _ _ more
pe _ _ _ _ into t _ _ social wo _ _ profession i _ we a _ _ not t _ face re _ _ problems i _ the ne _ _ future. O _ _ plans t _
intr _ _ _ _ _ bursary a _ _ training sch _ _ _ _ should he _ _ , but st _ _ _ do ne _ _ to b _ taken nati _ _ _ _ _ _ to ma _ _ social
9
wo _ _ a mo _ _ attractive pro _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . Everyone i _ looking f _ _ real impr _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ in hea _ _ _ and so _ _ _ _ care a _ the mo _
_ _ _ . This can _ _ _ happen wit _ _ _ _ a prop _ _ _ _ staf _ _ _ and mot _ _ _ _ _ _ social ca _ _ workforce.”
Text 33.
A _ the mo _ _ _ _ , more qual _ _ _ _ _ workers a _ _ leaving t _ _ department th _ _ enter i _ . Currently, t _ _ social wo _ _ department ha
_ three full-t _ _ _ vacancies a _ _ one part-t _ _ _ post em _ _ _ in t _ _ children a _ _ families tea _ _ , after fil _ _ _ _ nine vac _ _ _ _ _ _
over t _ _ last thr _ _ months. B _ _ some 60% o _ workers i _ these ar _ _ _ are ag _ _ 41 and ov _ _ , suggesting fe _ _ _ young recr _ _ _ _
coming in _ _ the ser _ _ _ _. Applications for post-graduate social work training have fallen by more than half nationally over the last six years.
(Source: Edinburgh Herald and Post, September 2001. Article title: Skills shortage in social work)
Text 34.
Plans for a nati _ _ _ _ popul _ _ _ _ _ regi _ _ _ _ of everyb _ _ _ lawf _ _ _ _ resident in Britain as part of a "univer _ _ _ identity card
sche _ _ " were unvei _ _ _ yeste _ _ _ _ . The "high-qual _ _ _ common popul _ _ _ _ _ regi _ _ _ _ " - which could co _ _ up to £3bn to
set up and run - will hold "core data" inclu _ _ _ _ the emplo _ _ _ _ _ stat _ _ of every UK resi _ _ _ _ who will be
assig _ _ _ a "unique pers _ _ _ _ number that could be us _ _ across the pub _ _ _ sector". The idea, wh _ _ _ has the backing of the
home secretary, David Blunkett, imme _ _ _ _ _ _ _ stirred "very deep anxi _ _ _ _ _ " amo _ _ backbench Labour MPs over the
priv _ _ _ impli _ _ _ _ _ _ _ of su _ _ a pow _ _ _ _ _ gover _ _ _ _ _ database. Such nati _ _ _ _ regi _ _ _ _ _ of the
popul _ _ _ _ _ have only be _ _ tho _ _ _ _ neces _ _ _ _ previ _ _ _ _ _ as a tempo _ _ _ _ wartime meas _ _ _ , with the first one
introduced in 1915 to aid military conscr _ _ _ _ _ _ .
(Source: The Guardian, Tuesday July 4th 2002. Article title: Privacy fear over ID plans by Alan Travis)
Text 35.
Mr Blunkett yesterday tri _ _ to reas _ _ _ _ Labour MPs that pers _ _ _ _ data wou _ _ only be transf _ _ _ _ _ to other government agen
_ _ _ _ "for very spec _ _ _ _ purp _ _ _ _ " and only with the cons _ _ _ of the indi _ _ _ _ _ _ . But if the priv _ _ _ impli _ _ _ _ _ _ _ of
the sch _ _ _ did not immed _ _ _ _ _ _ disturb all MPs, the costs and cha _ _ _ _ deta _ _ _ _ in the small print of the Home Office consul _
_ _ _ _ _ paper publi _ _ _ _ yesterday are lik _ _ _ to set the ala _ _ bells rin _ _ _ _ . Mr Blunkett ma _ _ clear that he has not won the
agre _ _ _ _ _ of the Treasury to prom _ _ _ any new funds to underwrite the sch _ _ _ . The Home Office consul _ _ _ _ _ _ paper makes
clear that the ne _ _ for it to be self-fina _ _ _ _ _ could incr _ _ _ _ the char _ _ _ for passport and driving lice _ _ _ _ - on whi _ _ it will be
based - by up to £19.
th
(Source: The Guardian, Tuesday July 4 2002. Article title: Privacy fear over ID plans by Alan Travis)
Text 36.
The consul _ _ _ _ _ _ paper envis _ _ _ _ a sch _ _ _ whereby the 51 million peo _ _ _ in Britain over the age 16 would be
regi _ _ _ _ _ _ on the database and iss _ _ _ with their own "entitlement card" which wou _ _ give them acc _ _ _ to social
secu _ _ _ _ bene _ _ _ _ , hea _ _ _ and education and oth _ _ serv _ _ _ _ . The idea is to exp _ _ _ the exis _ _ _ _ photocard driving
lic _ _ _ _ and the forthco _ _ _ _ passport card into an entitl _ _ _ _ _ card as well. Those without driving lic _ _ _ _ _ or passports wou _ _
be iss _ _ _ with a chea _ _ _ entit _ _ _ _ _ _ card only. The esti _ _ _ _ _ costs of the set _ _ _ _ up of the
sch _ _ _ and run _ _ _ _ it for the first 10 years vary bet _ _ _ _ £1.3bn and £3.1bn depe _ _ _ _ _ on whe _ _ _ _ a sim _ _ _
plas _ _ _ card, a sim _ _ _ smartcard (with a digitised photo _ _ _ _ _ ), or a sophi _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ smartcard (with a digitised
fingerpr _ _ _ and iris imprint) is us _ _ .
Text 37.
The Home Off _ _ _ admi _ _ _ _ yesterday these esti _ _ _ _ _ were "cautious" and did not incl _ _ _ the cos _ _ of insta _ _ _ _ _ thou _
_ _ _ _ of mach _ _ _ _ to scan or "read" the new cards in pub _ _ _ serv _ _ _ _ arou _ _ the coun _ _ _ . The home secretary insi _ _ _ _
yesterday that his "unive _ _ _ _ entit _ _ _ _ _ _ card sch _ _ _ " was not a compul _ _ _ _ meas _ _ _
beca _ _ _ the poli _ _ are not to be given any new pow _ _ to dem _ _ _ that peo _ _ _ prod _ _ _ their card in the stre _ _ . "Any sch _ _
_ eventu _ _ _ _ appro _ _ _ wou _ _ not enta _ _ poli _ _ off _ _ _ _ _ or other offici _ _ _ , stop _ _ _ _ peo _ _ _ in the str _ _ _ to
dem _ _ _ their card," said Mr Blunkett.
th
(Source: The Guardian, Tuesday July 4 2002. Article title: Privacy fear over ID plans by Alan Travis)
Text 38.
Inst _ _ _ "everyone wou _ _ regi _ _ _ _ for and wou _ _ be iss _ _ _ with a card, requ _ _ _ _ for the purp _ _ _ of gaining
acc _ _ _ to serv _ _ _ _ or emplo _ _ _ _ _ . Cruci _ _ _ _ the entit _ _ _ _ _ _ card cou _ _ help us tack _ _ ille _ _ _ working,
whi _ _ underm _ _ _ _ the mini _ _ _ wage and the rig _ _ _ and cond _ _ _ _ _ _ of the lowe _ _ paid," he said. When
minis _ _ _ _ were chal _ _ _ _ _ _ on whe _ _ _ _ some ser _ _ _ _ _ , such as the accid _ _ _ and emer _ _ _ _ _ depar _ _ _ _ _ of a
hosp _ _ _ _ , wou _ _ not be avai _ _ _ _ _ to those without the entit _ _ _ _ _ _ card, they said su _ _ det _ _ _ _ had not yet
be _ _ worked out.
Text 39.
Offi _ _ _ _ _ _ , the government is rema _ _ _ _ _ neut _ _ _ on the ques _ _ _ _ of identity cards and whi _ _ the Home Office
docu _ _ _ _ outli _ _ _ the bene _ _ _ _ in tack _ _ _ _ ille _ _ _ working and social sec _ _ _ _ _ bene _ _ _ fra _ _ , it also
poi _ _ _ out that might raise concerns that the "card sch _ _ _ might allow the government to link toge _ _ _ _ all of the
infor _ _ _ _ _ _ held on indiv _ _ _ _ _ _ " and ackno _ _ _ _ _ _ _ that if the new cards were not secu _ _ , the sch _ _ _ its _ _ _ could
bec _ _ _ a sour _ _ of identity fra _ _ .
Text 40.
In the Commons, the Liberal Democrats' Simon Hughes clai _ _ _ the identity card wou _ _ be divisive as it would be main _ _ needed by the
"unfortu _ _ _ _ many" to claim welf _ _ _ bene _ _ _ _ . The shadow home secretary, Oliver Letwin, said the nati _ _ _ _ popu _ _ _ _ _ _
regi _ _ _ _ would engender "real and widesp _ _ _ _ scepticism and anx _ _ _ _ ". Fiona Mactaggart, the Labour MP for Slough, told Mr
Blunkett the _ _ was "very deep anx _ _ _ _ about the priv _ _ _ impli _ _ _ _ _ _ _ of data sharing and carr _ _ _ _ data about yours _ _ _
on your card".
Text 41.
10
That AIDS is quie _ _ _ but letha _ _ _ seeping acr _ _ _ the globe has ju _ _ been exposed by the United Nations age _ _ _ , Unaids. Its
report this we _ _ calcu _ _ _ _ _ that more th _ _ 2 million peo _ _ _ died of Aids in Afr _ _ _ alone la _ _ year. Unaids also
poi _ _ _ out th _ _ some of the world’s lar _ _ _ _ countries – am _ _ _ them India and China – are on the ed _ _ of outbr _ _ _ _ that, if not
tack _ _ _ , will dwarf the scale of the curr _ _ _ global cri _ _ _ , which affe _ _ _ 40 million people.
th
(Source: The Guardian, Tuesday July 4 2002. Article title: Failing the Aids victims)
Text 42.
Aids is not an unstop _ _ _ _ _ pandemic dis _ _ _ _ . Action on prev _ _ _ _ _ _ and treat _ _ _ _ are requ _ _ _ _ . The former
requ _ _ _ _ countr _ _ _ in which popu _ _ _ _ _ _ _ are affe _ _ _ _ to ta _ _ a le _ _ in chan _ _ _ _ the cult _ _ _ and impro _ _ _ _
the hea _ _ _ infrast _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . But the latter requ _ _ _ _ interna _ _ _ _ _ _ act _ _ _ . The _ _ was a groundswell of wor _ _ opin _
_ _ that led the UN to lau _ _ _ a glo _ _ _ fund for Aids, mala _ _ _ and tuberculosis this ye _ _ . But th _ _ _ have be _ _ many fine words
and not mu _ _ conce _ _ _ _ act _ _ _ from ri _ _ coun _ _ _ _ _ to counter the catast _ _ _ _ _ of Aids.
th
(Source: The Guardian, Tuesday July 4 2002. Article title: Failing the Aids victims)
Text 43.
In its eff _ _ _ _ to com _ _ _ Aids, the UN wants $10bn, but has on _ _ colle _ _ _ _ $2bn so far. The Uni _ _ _ States has be _ _ partic _
_ _ _ _ _ slow to pay up and its deci _ _ _ _ last mon _ _ to off _ _ $500m over three ye _ _ _ is a small vic _ _ _ _ . The _ _ are dr _ _ _
avai _ _ _ _ _ to ena _ _ _ suffe _ _ _ _ to live wi _ _ , not die of, Aids. The pri _ _ of antiretroviral dr _ _ _ , used to
sa _ _ lives of suffe _ _ _ _ in ri _ _ coun _ _ _ _ _ , needs to drop fur _ _ _ _ so th _ _ poor peo _ _ _ can bene _ _ _ . Cheap
cop _ _ _ of these dr _ _ _ are manufa _ _ _ _ _ _ in some devel _ _ _ _ _ coun _ _ _ _ _ , but big pharmac _ _ _ _ _ _ _ firms have regis
_ _ _ _ _ atte _ _ _ _ to prom _ _ _ these generics for fear of foregoing prof _ _ _ .
(Source: The Guardian, Tuesday July 4th 2002. Article title: Failing the Aids victims)
Text 44.
For ex _ _ _ _ _ , coun _ _ _ _ _ are usu _ _ _ _ forbi _ _ _ _ to impo _ _ generics. These obsta _ _ _ _ mean the pr _ _ _ of these treat
_ _ _ _ _ remains, at $300 a ye _ _ a person, beyo _ _ the reach of po _ _ nations. Witho _ _ them the bill cou _ _ be, charities esti _ _ _
_ , about $50. Enabling this is not ea _ _ . But denying a life to po _ _ peo _ _ _ infe _ _ _ _ with HIV, while
offe _ _ _ _ their ri _ _ counterp _ _ _ _ a fut _ _ _ , is not an opt _ _ _ .
th
(Source: The Guardian, Tuesday July 4 2002. Article title: Failing the Aids victims.)
Text 45.
The list of what it is not for is far lon _ _ _ than what it is for. Yesterday’s prop _ _ _ _ for a new UK identity card – now relab _ _ _ _ _ a nati _
_ _ _ entit _ _ _ _ _ _ card – is not an anti-terrorist mea _ _ _ _ . Minis _ _ _ _ appe _ _ to have acce _ _ _ _ that
terr _ _ _ _ _ _ , who have alr _ _ _ _ demon _ _ _ _ _ _ _ they have the funds and exper _ _ _ _ to forge fal _ _ passports, wou _ _ be
ab _ _ to forge fal _ _ ID cards. It is not a law enfor _ _ _ _ _ _ move eit _ _ _ . It wou _ _ not be a crim _ _ _ _ offe _ _ _ to decl _ _ _
to car _ _ it. It wou _ _ not exte _ _ police pow _ _ _ . They wou _ _ not ha _ _ the pow _ _ to dem _ _ _ to see it,
tho _ _ _ they wou _ _ ret _ _ _ their rig _ _ to req _ _ _ _ peo _ _ _ to prov _ _ _ some pro _ _ of their iden _ _ _ _ .
(Source: The Guardian, page 9,Tuesday July 4th 2002. Article title: Suspects or citizens?)
Text 46.
One opt _ _ _ in yesterday’s consultation paper on introd _ _ _ _ _ ID cards in the UK is to all _ _ existing cre _ _ _ card-style
dri _ _ _ _ licen _ _ _ and the plan _ _ _ passport cards to doub _ _ up as entit _ _ _ _ _ _ cards. There is a seco _ _ rea _ _ _ for taking
yesterday’s prop _ _ _ _ _ calmly. The wor _ _ has mo _ _ _ on sin _ _ the ID cards iss _ _ _ in the second wor _ _ war were abol _ _ _ _
_ in 1952. We ha _ _ bec _ _ _ a card-carrying soc _ _ _ _ . Indi _ _ _ _ _ _ _ hold ov _ _ 100 mil _ _ _ _ of them
fr _ _ banks, building societies and cre _ _ _ agen _ _ _ _ through stores, clubs, rail, bus and AA/RAC resc _ _ serv _ _ _ _ .
th
(Source: The Guardian, page 9,Tuesday July 4 2002. Article title: Suspects or citizens?)
Text 47.
ID cards are be _ _ _ shown by the hundreds of thou _ _ _ _ _ every hour, to esta _ _ _ _ _ an individual’s deta _ _ _ . It is
impos _ _ _ _ _ _ to ca _ _ a cheq _ _ even in one’s own ba _ _ without fir _ _ flashing a card. Th _ _ _ are 38 mil _ _ _ _
dri _ _ _ _ licen _ _ _ and 44 mil _ _ _ _ passports. New techn _ _ _ _ _ offers further ben _ _ _ _ _ such as chips on cards that wou _ _
al _ _ _ all man _ _ _ of ot _ _ _ mate _ _ _ _ to be added volun _ _ _ _ _ _ : DNA, blo _ _ gro _ _ , special medi _ _ _ condi _ _ _ _ _ ,
and readi _ _ _ _ to dona _ _ org _ _ _ in the eve _ _ of dea _ _ by fa _ _ _ acci _ _ _ _ .
th
Text 48.
Even so, in their numer _ _ _ interviews, briefings and spee _ _ _ _ yeste _ _ _ _ , Home Office mini _ _ _ _ _ fai _ _ _ to prod _ _ _ a convi
_ _ _ _ _ case for intro _ _ _ _ _ _ an ID card. The day beg _ _ with a disas _ _ _ _ _ inter _ _ _ _ by Beverly Hughes on the BBC Rad _ _
Four’s Today progr _ _ _ _ that prov _ _ _ _ no enlight _ _ _ _ _ _ . Later, David Blunkett, in his spe _ _ _ to the Commons, prov _ _ _ _
three rea _ _ _ _ : easi _ _ acc _ _ _ to ser _ _ _ _ _ ; tigh _ _ _ cont _ _ _ of fra _ _ ; stric _ _ _
cont _ _ _ of ille _ _ _ emplo _ _ _ _ _ . The first rea _ _ _ raises the que _ _ _ _ _ of what pub _ _ _ ser _ _ _ _ _ will be
har _ _ _ to acc _ _ _ with _ _ _ a card. Will peo _ _ _ be tur _ _ _ away from Acci _ _ _ _ and Emerg _ _ _ _ serv _ _ _ _ if they do not
ha _ _ one? Minis _ _ _ _ said they wou _ _ not, but were not ab _ _ to list the ser _ _ _ _ _ where acc _ _ _ wou _ _ be better.
(Source: The Guardian, page 9,Tuesday July 4th 2002. Article title: Suspects or citizens?)
Text 49.
Social sec _ _ _ _ _ fra _ _ is a peren _ _ _ _ prob _ _ _ , but a cabinet off _ _ _ report al _ _ publ _ _ _ _ _ yest _ _ _ _ _
sug _ _ _ _ _ ID cards wou _ _ only sa _ _ 1% of welf _ _ _ losses thr _ _ _ _ fra _ _ . Stea _ _ _ _ a person’s “identity” and
us _ _ _ their cre _ _ _ card num _ _ _ _ or online access is one of the fas _ _ _ _ gro _ _ _ _ cate _ _ _ _ _ _ of crime, but is
sur _ _ _ a mat _ _ _ for banks and cre _ _ _ card comp _ _ _ _ _ , not government minis _ _ _ _ . Mr. Blunkett has ma _ _ mu _ _ of his
ne _ _ rea _ _ _ : the deg _ _ _ to whi _ _ ill _ _ _ _ workers depress the minim _ _ wag _ and cre _ _ _ a black mar _ _ _ in low-paid
lab _ _ _ . This is a ser _ _ _ _ iss _ _ but can be tack _ _ _ in other ways th _ _ iss _ _ _ _ 40 million ID cards and the crea _ _ _ _ of a
nati _ _ _ _ data bank. Th _ _ _ have on _ _ been two occa _ _ _ _ _ in the la _ _ 100 yea _ _ in wh _ _ _ we
ha _ _ set up su _ _ data banks: the two wor _ _ wars.
th
Text 50.
Mr. Blunkett wan _ _ a nati _ _ _ _ deb _ _ _ to let the peo _ _ _ dec _ _ _ . What this sug _ _ _ _ _ is th _ _ the cabinet is
divi _ _ _ , the Treasury is opp _ _ _ _ and the co _ _ has been camou _ _ _ _ _ _ . From the leaked $1.3bn cost, a smartcard sys _ _ _ wou
_ _ cost $3bn. Post-September 11, supp _ _ _ for ID cards was hi _ _ . Stand b _ for this to wane wh _ _ peo _ _ _ lea _ _ the costs and
the intru _ _ _ _ that ID cards op _ _ up.
11
th
PART TWO: SENTENCE COMPLETION EXERCISES
12
In this section you will find a series of texts to read. In the case of several of the sentences within each
text the end part has been removed. These end parts can be found on a list directly after each text. Try
to find the correct ending for each sentence. In each case fill in the number of the sentence ending into
the blank space.
In case you are not sure, sometimes it is worth looking at the words which come just before the blank
space. What kinds of words are these? Adverbs? Adjectives? Modal verbs? Prepositions? Sometimes
when you can identify what type of word this is, it can be easier to find the correct ending.
Text 1.
Monkey chants as black man died 'not racist'
Vikram Dodd
Tuesday July 23, 2002
The Guardian
A tape capturing monkey chants made as a _______________ .
Christopher Alder, 37, died handcuffed and face down in a Hull _______________ . Sections of the tape show the officers _______________ .
Last month five Humberside policemen were cleared _______________ .
Tapes from the custody suite cameras were seized in April 1998, but a section containing monkey chants and _______________ .
Mr Alder's family are furious that this evidence was _______________ . The crown prosecution service said it never tried to have
_______________ .
Last night the CPS and West Yorkshire police, who investigated the case, refused to say whether any of the officers on the tape
_______________ .
But a source with knowledge of the investigation told the Guardian that the evidence was found so _______________ .
The CPS also said it could not be proved the monkey chanting was racist as someone could have been _______________ .
Mr Alder's sister, Janet Alder, said: "West Yorkshire police and the CPS have seen _______________ . How could they _______________ ?
They just wanted _______________ .
"It's typical of the racist, inhuman and disgraceful way they've treated my _______________ . They've added _______________ ."
In a letter to Ms Alder, the CPS says an expert determined the _______________ . It continued: "It is not possible to infer that there
_______________ ."
Barrister Peter Herbert, a member of the attorney general's race advisory _______________ .
He said the missed monkey chants were just one _______________ .
"Anybody with any common _______________ .
The officers, who now face an internal disciplinary investigation, have returned _______________ .
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... was a racist motivation here
... this evidence admitted because it could not be determined who was making the noises
... police station in April 1998 surrounded by police officers, after choking on his own vomit
... reacting or laughing at an officer who uttered the word "banana", shortly before the monkey chant is heard on the tape
... everything
... sense knows monkey noises [are] evidence of racial abuse," he added
... joking and chatting as the former paratrooper died
... this to go away
... to duty after being suspended for four years
... sounds on the tape to be "chimpanzee or monkey like"
... laughter was not investigated until March 2002, a fortnight before the trial began
... late none of the five officers was ever asked about the animal noises
... to our hurt
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... never put before the jury
... black man lay dead on a police station floor was missed by investigators for nearly four years, it emerged yesterday
... had been questioned about who made the noises
... family and my brother
... of manslaughter and neglect of public duty over the death
... example of a bungled case
... miss it
... body, called for a public inquiry
Text 2.
Bullying at work led to suicide of black postman
Thursday July 18, 2002
The Guardian
A black postman committed suicide after constant _______________ .
The actions of some staff at its sorting office in Aston, Birmingham, contributed to 26-year- _______________ .
Royal Mail made the announcement after mounting the largest internal investigation in its history, which has led to nearly 50 recommendations
_______________ .
Mr Lee was found hanged from a _______________ . An inquest a year later heard he left a note accusing _______________ .
Royal Mail managers interviewed more _______________ . "It was with extreme shock, regret and sorrow that we found the actions of some
employees contributed to _______________ .
"He did suffer harassment and bullying at work and there are strong indications this weighed heavily on his mind, although it cannot
_______________ ."
Royal Mail said it had dismissed some staff believed to have "acted against _______________ ". The investigation has led to a new complaints
procedure and new _______________ .
"Basic human decency and respect for everyone working in the organisation are at the heart of these standards and a clear message is sent to
_______________.
Mr Lee's mother, Urnell Lee, launched a posthumous claim of racial discrimination against the Royal Mail on behalf of her son after the
_______________ . The company said it _______________ .
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... inquest found he had killed himself
... belt at his home in Hall Green, Birmingham, on November 16, 1999
... colleagues of eight months of bullying
... Jermaine's decision to take his own life," it said
... bullying at the depot where he worked, the Royal Mail said yesterday
... old Jermaine Lee's decision to kill himself, it said
... its standards and policies
... had settled the claim
... than 100 staff over six months during the investigation
... all employees that anything less will not be tolerated," the company said
... be certain to what extent this contributed to his decision to take his life
... for change to prevent a similar tragedy
... training schemes to tackle potential harassment
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Text 3.
Europe locks up
We are overreacting to the Right
Asylum myths and reality - Observer special
Leader
Sunday June 23, 2002
The Observer
It could have _______________ . At yesterday's Seville summit the EU drew back from a hard-line position on asylum-seekers, despite the best
_______________ . Instead, it has agreed a framework of 'positive conditionality' rather _______________ . Countries will be given incentives to
stop outflows of migrants rather than be punished with cuts to vital _______________ . French, Germans and Swedes, for all criticisms levelled
against Europe's move to the Right, could not accept Britain's suggestion that poor _______________.
Even so, with new proposals for joint immigration policing operations at external borders, the move represents another _______________ . The
adoption of the rhetoric and policies of closure and exclusion may be an attempt to assuage the _______________ . The three priorities now
should be to establish a common European definition of asylum-seeker, agreed as an aim at the Tampere summit three years ago; to agree that
asylum-seekers' claims should be treated fast and effectively in the first EU country in which they arrive; and to establish a _______________ . In
addition, the entire international infrastructure for dealing fairly and _______________ .
Nobody is arguing for an immigration free-for-all or for abuse of asylum to be ignored, but the demand for order should _______________ . That
the EU failed to _______________ . It's failure could lead us into dark _______________ .
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... countries should be made poorer for their neglect of EU-imposed duties
... than sanctions
... and dangerous waters
... been worse
... fair quota system for allocating asylum-seekers between countries
... step in the creation of a fortress Europe
... be accompanied by a consistent reassertion of the principles that underpin open societies
... humanely with refugees needs investment and support
... do in Seville
... aid budgets when they are deemed to be insufficiently helpful to Europe
... xenophobic Right but it represents a failure of leadership and initiative
... efforts of Britain and Spain
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Text 4.
Lawrence suspect: My 9 years of persecution.
Cahal Milmo
The Independent
th
Wednesday July 24 2002
A suspect in the murder if the black teenager Stephen Lawrence claimed yesterday that “ nine years of persecution” after _______________ .
David Norris, 25, told a jury that he threw the McDonald’s container at Detective Constable Gareth Reid because the officer had given
_______________ .
Mr Norris, together with Neil Acourt, 27, another suspect in the Lawrence killing, is accused of committing a racist attack on Mr Reid by
_______________ . The incident took place in May last year outside a railway station in Eltham, south-east London.
The racist abuse was allegedly shouted at the policeman by Mr Norris, from Chislehurst, Kent, as he _______________ . Mr Acourt, from
Greenwich, south east London, is _______________ . Both men deny a joint charge of racially _______________.
Mr Norris told Woolwich Crown Court that an alleged campaign of threatening letters to the family since Stephen Lawrence _______________ .
He said: “Mr Reid was looking at us in a certain tone, with a certain look on his face, like he was not really _______________ .”
The jury is expected to _______________ .
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... was murdered by a white gang in 1993 had caused him to lose his temper when he saw Mr Reid
... him a “certain look” as he crossed the road in front of him
... appreciating us being there
... aggravated harassment intended to cause alarm or distress
... shouting the word “Nigger” as they drove past him
... said to have laughed hysterically
... the killing led him to “flip” and throw a drinks carton at an off-duty black police officer
... retire today to consider its verdicts
... threw the drinks container
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Text 5.
Allied Dunbar takes the ‘well’ out of welfare
Jill Insley
The Observer
th
May 5 2002.
The Government has made it clear that it _______________ . That’s why 34-year-old window cleaner Sean Corrigan _______________ . The
policy would pay out if he _______________ .
Last November he fell two floors onto his head, _______________ . He left hospital after four months, suffering _______________ . He can
move around his house with a walking frame, but is _______________ .
Allied Dunbar thinks Corrigan is _______________ .
According to the insurer, Corrigan must suffer a disability that leaves him ‘irreversibly unable to carry out any gainful occupation’, or suffer ‘the total
and _______________ .’
Because his hospital report said he could move 50 metres with a walking frame, his mobility was improving, his physical ability to work was
unclear, and he had been ‘provided with contact numbers for advice for _______________ .
Jenny Kennedy, his solicitor, who specialises in catastrophic injury claims, is shocked the insurer _______________ . ‘They haven’t asked for a
head _______________ . I see a lot of low-level paraplegics: some _______________ . You have to investigate on _______________ .’
Allied Dunbar says that if Corrigan’s _______________ . In the meantime he has two young children, his home needs _______________ .
Perhaps if Allied Dunbar is so sure he will be able to _______________ . And perhaps the Government should reassess whether the personal
finance _______________ .
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... based its decision on just one report
... can no longer afford cradle-to-grave support
... a case-by-case basis
... irreversible loss of the use of two or more limbs
... work again, they should offer him a job
... bought a critical illness policy from Allied Dunbar to cover his mortgage
... partial paralysis in all four limbs
... not disabled enough to claim
... smashing skull, vertebrae and pelvis
... industry is fit to take responsibility for our welfare
... adapting, and his mortgage needs paying
... can work again; some can’t
... employment and occupational therapy’, he did not satisfy the plan definitions
... condition worsens, he can make a new claim
... became permanently and totally disabled or paralysed
... dependent on a wheelchair outside
... or spinal injuries expert to examine him
Text 6.
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Children's book features gay boy
Matt Wells, media correspondent
Friday June 7, 2002
The Guardian
A mainstream children's books publisher has released a novel aimed at _______________ .
Strange Boy is thought to be the first "gay book" aimed at the youth market since the Thatcher government introduced the Section 28 legislation to
_______________ . Simon and Schuster, the book's publisher, expects _______________ .
The novel, by Paul Magrs, describes the main character's sexual development - he has a crush on _______________ . While it contains some
sex, it is not _______________ . Strange Boy also describes the protagonist's family problems, bullying at _______________ .
Simon and Schuster acknowledged that the decision to place the _______________ .
Stephen Cole, who edited Strange Boy, said: "Some people will doubtless pick up on the gay elements of the book, which are treated frankly
_______________ . I would argue that the real controversy of Strange Boy lies in the fact that it's not making a big _______________ . It's just a
given, like the colour of _______________ . This is _______________ ."
Magrs, 32, said the book was largely autobiographical, and defended it as an accurate _______________ . "I stick by the truth of it. It's true for
me, and it will be true for other people. People from all sorts of backgrounds and persuasions will find _______________ ."
A review on the cool-reads.co.uk website, which is produced by teenagers for young readers, gave it the maximum five stars. The reviewer, a 15year-old boy, says about the main character: "David doesn't have to worry about school, because it's the summer holidays. This should mean
David's life is easy, but it isn't, it's a chaotic whirl of messed up lives, family feuds, confusing feelings for boys, adults that ask him to tell
_______________ . David doesn't know whose side to be on, who to turn to, or how to cope in this _______________ ."
Jim MacSweeney, manager of Britain's longest-established gay bookshop, Gay's the Word, said there are not many books dealing
_______________ .
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... prevent the "promotion" of homosexuality in schools
... the truth but seem to prefer it when he lies
... deal out of having a gay child as its protagonist
... not an 'issue' book
... book on its youth list, aimed at children aged 13 and over, will raise controversy
... school and his belief that he has magical powers
... graphic and is not a dominant theme
... portrayal of a young person's development
... schools and libraries to stock it
... with homosexuality that are suitable for young teenagers or their parents
... and honestly, as being shocking and controversial
... a 14-year-old friend
... teenagers that features a 10-year-old boy's experiences of homosexuality
... his hair or his love of Marvel comics
...by turns comic and dramatic story about childhood's end
...something in this book that they will recognise.
Text 7.
Gender pay gap stays intact
Women still earn half as much as men, DTI admits
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John Carvel, social affairs editor
Saturday July 13, 2002
The Guardian
Women continue to get paid less than half the amount earned by men, according to government figures yesterday which show that the gender gap
has been little affected by changes _______________ .
The women and equality unit at the Department of Trade and Industry said 40% of women earned less than £100 a week from pay, benefits and
tax credits in 2000/1, but less than 20% of men. More than half of all women but only a quarter of all men had disposable incomes of less than
£100 a week, after taking account of childcare, travel _______________ .
The weekly average total individual income for women in 2000/1 was _______________ . These were the median averages, with as many above
the figure as below.
The DTI figures estimated individual earnings. They did not compare living _______________ .
Julie Mellor, chairwoman of the Equal Opportunities Commission, said: "These shocking figures reveal how many _______________ . Although a
minority may have access to top jobs and generous incomes, for the _______________ ."
It was unlikely that women on such low incomes would be able to save for a pension and proposals _______________ .
"Inequality on this scale demands _________________ . Employers must ensure their pay systems are fair, that their working practices don't keep
women with children in low paid jobs, or force _______________ ," Ms Mellor said. The DTI said: "Women's median (average) weekly total
individual income as a _______________ ."
Across all age bands, median individual incomes for women were less _______________ . Women earned most between 25 and 29, when they
averaged £208 a week - 68% of the figure for men.
Men earned most between 35 _______________ .
Slightly less than 70% of total family income of couples came _______________ . This proportion was similar across _______________ .
Ms Mellor added: "We need more affordable childcare and a change in Britain's working culture so that men can play their part in family life and
enable more.
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... women to share the role of breadwinner
... to scrap survivors' benefits would leave many in even more dire straits
... £133, compared with £271 for men
... all family income bands, the DTI said
... than for men
... through the man and 30% through the woman
... to work, tax and national insurance
... majority low pay or no pay remains a fact of life
... standards in households where incomes were shared
... urgent action
... proportion of that of men increased from 46% in 1996/7 to 49% in 2000/1
... them out of work altogether
... and 39, when they averaged £387 a week
... women are still existing on the breadline
... to employment law and benefits since Labour came to power in 1997
Text 8.
Woman claims male recruit was paid £1m more
Simon Bowers
Wednesday June 26, 2002
The Guardian
A senior female analyst with 23 years' experience of working in the City told an employment tribunal yesterday how an initially "hopeless" male
_______________ .
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Louise Barton, 52, claimed that the investment bank Investec Henderson Crosthwaite had handed £2.1m to Mathew Horsman – a former journalist
with no analytical _______________ . At the same time she was paid _______________ .
Ms Barton is claiming sexual discrimination against her former firm, where she worked _______________ . She believes the method used by the
firm to determine employees' salaries, bonuses, benefits and share _______________ .
Lawyers for Investec, who deny discrimination, told Ms Barton she was suffering from "sour grapes", and was "jealous" _______________ .
The lawyer for the bank, Roy Lemon, told Ms Barton: "Your baby has outgrown you and you are reluctant to acknowledge that [fact] ... Now you
want a piece _______________ ."
Ms Barton dismissed _______________ . She pointed out that she had in _______________ . "Because of his inexperience he had been
absolutely hopeless and had to be helped to get a deal off the ground, but he still got 100% of his research _______________ ."
Ms Barton said Mr Horsman was awarded a bonus of £1m for the _______________ . During the previous year, Mr Horsman's salary rose from
£105,000 _______________ .
Mr Lemon told the tribunal in central London that this pay rise had been awarded to Mr Horsman in an _______________. He held up a copy of
Sky High: The Amazing Story of BSkyB, a book Mr Horsman wrote shortly after joining Investec from the Independent newspaper.
"People who put themselves about get recognised – and _______________ . "Have you ever been on the television? Have you ever
_______________ ?"
Ms Barton retorted: "Public relations is only relevant if it produces revenue, and I have yet to see _______________ ."
Mr Lemon said Mr Horsman had generated three or four _______________ . But Ms Barton noted that in previous years she had generated
"hundreds _______________ .
The hearing _______________ .
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... times more revenue than Ms Barton in the year to April 2001
... these suggestions as baseless
... continues today
... effort to stop him being poached
... options was biased towards male staff
... as a media analyst for almost 12 years
... recruit had been paid £1m more than her over four years
... to £150,000, while Ms Barton's salary remained static at £105,000
... where his [ Mr Horsman's] PR led directly to revenue generation
... fee allocation even though he had to be assisted
... get the promotions," he told Ms Barton
... of times" more revenue than Mr Horsman
... of Mathew Horsman's action as a reward for bringing him on board
... of Mr Horsman, whom she had recruited and trained in 1997
... effect "subsidised" Mr Horsman as he learned the ropes at Investec
... just over £1m
... year to April 2001, while she received £300,000
... written books
... background - for work between January 1997 and April 2001
Text 9.
Spain split in row over girl's veil
Emma Daly in Madrid
Sunday February 17, 2002
The Observer
A war of words has broken out in staunchly Catholic Spain between a 13-year-old Moroccan girl and the government, which has compared her
desire to wear a traditional _______________ .
Fatima, 13, her mother, Zhora, and three younger siblings, arrived in Spain last autumn to join her father Ali el-Hadi, a construction
_______________ . The local authorities assigned Fatima a place at a Catholic school where pupils must wear uniform, prompting Hadi to ask
that she be allowed to attend the local state school, _______________ .
However, the principal refused to allow _______________ . Delia Duró said she did not want any girl 'coming with a veil, a chador or any type of
dress that is a symbol of _______________ .'
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Ali el-Hadi said it was Fatima who chose to wear the veil, and that 'if _______________ '. He was keen for his daughter to attend school, but said
_______________ .
'And they will be the _______________ .
Duró's decision was supported by the Education Minister, Pilar del Castillo, who argued that the hejab is not a 'religious _______________ '.
Fatima, she said, 'will have to go to school dressed the same as the other girls', adding that she _______________ .
The Minister for Labour and Social Affairs, Juan Carlos Aparicio, does not believe Spain needs to ban the veil but his _______________ . He told
a meeting of the ruling Popular Party that 'there are customs which are always unacceptable, and we can cite two examples - the use of
discriminatory clothing, or, very clearly, the practice of female genital circumcision; it cannot be understood as a cultural or religious
_______________ .'
The Association of Moroccan Workers and Immigrants in Spain has said it will file suit against the school if it continues to ban Fatima's headscarf,
and asked _______________ '.
The controversy is surprising, given that in the predominantly Muslim Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla girls in hejab _______________ . The
same is true for schools in parts of Andalusia with a _______________ .
Dr Mansur Escudero, who heads Spain's Islamic Commission, an official body, has filed several complaints over the banning of the veil, winning
agreement from the Interior Ministry, for instance, that women could wear hejab _______________ .
Three years ago, a similar case in a Madrid school was resolved with _______________ . 'That is why this _______________ .
'They have entered very _______________ . It seems the government's attitude, especially after 11 September, is to show the public and the
United States that _______________ . That is the interpretation some of us put _______________ .'
Statistics show the proportion of Muslim girls compared to boys at school falls at adolescence, education officials say, arguing that some
immigrant Muslim families are _______________ .
The Socialist Education spokesman came out against Fatima, but another Socialist parliamentarian supported her right to choose, saying attempts
_______________ . 'What is in play here is the rights of the girl, not the _______________. And the girl's right is to wear the _______________ .
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... dangerous territory
... veil if she wants,' said Diego López Garrido
... criticism of the custom went further
... case surprises me,' Escudero said
... submission, of women in this case, and which violates citizens' civil rights
... less interested in educating girls... worker who has been living here for 13 years
... both the government and the opposition Socialist Party to reflect on the issue with serenity
... if the school would not let her in wearing the veil, she would not go
... to ban her headscarf violated her rights
... concept, but only as savagery
... the girl allowed to wear the veil
... was prepared to legislate over the issue if necessary
... Fatima to attend wearing her headscarf
... it is maintaining a firm position towards Muslims
... routinely attend state schools
... she wants, she can take it off
... rules of a school
... symbol but a sign of discrimination against women
... on this situation
... the Instituto Juan de Herrera in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, north-west of Madrid
... Muslim headscarf to school with the practice of female circumcision
... in photos for passports or national identity documents
... ones who are excluding her,' he added
... high proportion of Muslim immigrants
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PART THREE: TRUE OR FALSE EXERCISES/VOCABULARY
BUILDING I: SUGGESTING SYNONYMS FOR WORDS AND
EXPRESSIONS IN A TEXT
In this section of the booklet, there are a number of texts for you to read. After each one there
are several statements, and you have to decide whether they are true or false, according to
what you have read in the text.
Several words have also been underlined in each text. As a supplementary exercise in
vocabulary building, it is recommended that you try to find synonyms and antonyms for each
word, and compile topic-based lists of vocabulary for use in your writing and speaking.
If you really want to be “extra diligent” you can make thematic lists of vocabulary to help you
remember and revise the new words and expressions. Knowing many synonyms for a word
can greatly improve the quality of your written and spoken language, and you can avoid that
well-known trap of using the same word to many times in one text/conversation. Making a list
of the antonyms (where possible) is also a good way to enrich your word power.
Text 1.
On U.S. campuses, intolerance grows
The International Herald Tribune
Brian Knowlton
Tuesday, February 12, 2002
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WASHINGTON There are many ways to inhibit free speech short of passing new laws. You can ask a person to shut up. You can drown him out,
boo him off a stage, place a reprimand in his personnel file, restrict the times and places where he is allowed to speak. Such pressures on free
speech have been growing on college campuses in the view of some professors, and especially since the events of Sept. 11.
The terrorist attacks have sharply heightened political tensions, made criticism of government less palatable to many, and also made Muslim
students more sensitive to their professor’s words. A handful of faculty or staff members who have espoused unpopular views, or been linked to
questionable causes, have been disciplined, even dismissed.
An American Civil Liberties Union official in Washington is even talking of a “new McCarthyism,” in which “political dissent is being equated to
treason.”
Some professors say a chill has been cast on some campuses, traditional cradles of open debate. Others say they simply recognize the need to
be more sensible, thoughtful or tactful in what they say. Times of crisis or tension - the “red scare” in the 1950s or the Vietnam War are prime
examples - have always meant heightened pressure for those advocating unpopular views.
Criticism of the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan is particularly unpopular on American campuses, according to a recent poll by Harvard University’s
Kennedy School of Government, which found that 79 percent of college students supported U.S. action there.
Intolerance of anti-government dissent appears to have reinforced an existing popular notion, dismissed as “political correctness” by its critics,
that, as the Chronicle of Higher Education put it, “No one should have to listen to ideas or even acts that upset them.”
That seemed to have been the case at California State University in Sacramento when, in the aftermath of Sept. 11, a commencement speaker
was booed and heckled off the stage five minutes into her speech after she asked rhetorically whether the fight against terrorism would require
compromising Americans’ civil liberties.
The speaker, Janis Besler Heaphy, publisher of the Sacramento Bee newspaper, was showing “total insensitivity,” one parent complained. Of the
more than 300 letters and emails the poured into the Bee offices, two-thirds attacked Heaphy’s views, not the suppression of her freedom to
speak.
At the University of New Mexico, meanwhile, a history professor, Richard Berthold, sparked a firestorm by telling his class on Sept. 11, “Anyone
who can blow up the Pentagon has my vote.” State legislators demanded his resignation and threatened to reduce the university’s funding unless
he was dismissed. Instead, Berthold apologized. ”I was a jerk,” he said, while adding that the U.S. Constitution “protects my right to be a jerk.”
The university reprimanded him.
But trouble has come from all sides. Kenneth Hearlson, a professor at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California, was suspended for 11
weeks after four Muslim students charged that he had equated them to terrorists.
He was exonerated, though a letter of reprimand was placed in his personnel file, he said.
Professors have also faced off-campus fire. In a report issued late last year, a group called the American Council of Trustees and Alumni cited 100
instances of speech or writing by college professors of what it said was a “blame America first” sentiment pervading campuses.
A spokesman for the group, which was founded by Lynne Cheney, wife of the U.S. vice president, said that “at a time when we are defending our
civilization” it was necessary “to alert university trustees that it is incumbent upon them to make sure U.S. history and the heritage of Western
civilization is fairly transmitted on their campuses.”
But some of those targeted said the list had the feel of a McCarthyist blacklist. It could cast a chilling pall, they said, and seriously interfere with a
need to help students explore the political, cultural and religious reasons for the hatred behind terrorist attacks on the United States.
David Barash, a psychology professor at the University of Washington, was among those named. Shortly after Sept. 11, he had written an article
for an education journal in which he reacted to President George W. Bush’s warning that the United States would not distinguish between
terrorists and those who harbor them. To take that approach, he wrote, put the United States on the same plane as those terrorists who attacked
U.S. civilians, failing to distinguish between them and the U.S. government that was their real target.
The report cited one line from his article: that “many people consider the United States to be a terrorist state,” and Barash felt there was an
attempt to make him look disloyal. He found this odd. While he had long been antiwar, he said, “I’m not sure that I am opposed to this war.”
Barash had no difficulty with his university administration, but an assistant provost telephoned him, sounding “very supportive” but asking how to
respond to the “phone calls and emails objecting to me.”
The phone call seemed proper, he said, but as a long-time tenured professor, he felt secure in his job. “Had I been more junior, I might have felt
more intimidated.”
Intimidation, he believes, is the point of the report. The group says that its mission is to promote academic freedom but also accountability;
notably, it defended Berthold, the New Mexico professor.
Alan Charles Kors, a free-speech specialist who teaches history at the University of Pennsylvania, believes that universities have been giving in to
pressure groups for 15 years, and that Sept. 11 simply accelerated the trend.
“After Sept. 11, the abyss that universities themselves had created - the idea that one person’s freedom of speech ended where another’s sense
of offence or outrage began - now got applied across the board,” he said.
His free-speech advocacy group, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, defends “people who are critics of the war, people who believe
the U.S. brought on what it got, and - the largest number of cases - people whose support of the war has led them to be accused of creating a
hostile environment for Muslims or Arab-Americans.”
Kors likes to quote from the former Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, who wrote: “Freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter
much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing
order.”
Thus, he said, Professor Berthold’s comment was “a terrible thing to say, and people can protest, call him a fool, break off social relations, but
what you can’t do is trash the Constitution of the United States.” He added, “That’s the voice of liberty, and it’s binding on public universities.”
The case that now most angers him is that of Sami Al-Arian, a University of South Florida professor. Al-Arian was placed on indefinite leave and
ultimately fired - a rarity in higher education - after a television report suggested he had ties to two suspected terrorists. Al-Arian said he knew the
men as academics only, and he has never been charged with anything.
The university president, Judy Genshaft, said that the firing was based not on Al-Arian’s views but on insubordination and breach of contract,
because he had failed to make clear that his comments on a television talk show represented only his personal views, not those of the university.
The firing, however, was highly unusual in higher education. Some critics of the university believe it was acting after threats from donors that they
would cut off their gifts to the school.
“It seems to me,” said Robert O’Neil, a professor of law at the University of Virginia and the school’s former president, “that all he’s done is to
express an extremely unpopular viewpoint.”
O’Neil, the founding director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Speech, said that he would argue with those who believe
free speech has eroded on campuses.
23
“Most institutions have really made a very conscientious effort to keep the channels open,” he said. At the Sacramento campus where Heaphy
was shouted down, he said, “the president did everything humanly possible to keep the event going, and when that was not possible, made sure
her speech was posted both on the university’s Web site and the newspaper’s.”
However, O’Neil conceded: “I probably do feel a little less free in my classes each year. But that seems to me an appropriate acknowledgement
both of the increasing diversity of our society and the likelihood that I will have more and more people of different faiths and different backgrounds
in my classes.”
“I would today approach a class on polygamy, once a part of the Mormon religion, or faith-healing in Christian Science more sensitively than I
suspect I would have done 20 years ago. Is that censorship? It isn’t even self-censorship, it seems to me. It is sensitivity.”
Brian Knowlton is on the staff of the International Herald Tribune.
True or False?
1.
It is very difficult to prevent people from freely speaking their minds.
2.
The events of September 11 have reinforced the respect for the right to free speech in many universities in the US.
3.
The events of September 11th have led to an increase in the atmosphere of tension in US universities.
4.
American Civil Liberties groups are angry because as they see it, many people who do not agree with the US government’s policies
are seen as being disloyal to America.
5.
In times when the US feels under threat, there seems to be increased pressure on those who express opinions contrary to those of the
majority of Americans.
6.
It is commonplace and acceptable to criticise and disagree with American policy in the Afghanistan conflict.
7.
It is implied in the text that political correctness puts pressure on people to accept ideas, opinions and attitudes they may not
necessarily agree with.
8.
Professor Richard Berthold’s comments were accepted as being harmless by the majority of Americans.
9.
Four Muslim students proved that Kenneth Hearlson was a terrorist.
10.
Lanne Cheney believes that fair education about all things American should be a priority in all American universities.
11.
It is essential to help students learn about and understand the various reasons for which another culture would attack the US.
12.
In his report, David Barash says that it is evident that the US government can tell the difference between terrorists and countries which
protect terrorists.
13.
Barash’s report led to a large amount of critical reaction.
14.
Barash feels that his age and track record as a professor helped protect him from the reaction to his comments, but had he been not so
well established in the academic world, he would perhaps have felt a little less secure.
15.
Charles Kors believes that American universities have always shown huge resistance to pressure groups.
16.
Kors says that the events of September 11th resulted in people’s right to speak freely and openly being only valid until those listening
got hurt or annoyed.
17.
The quotation from Robert Jackson implies that freedom of speech is not really freedom of speech unless it is applied to serious issues
of national importance as well as to less serious matters.
18.
Sami Al-Arian was temporarily dismissed from his job but later reinstated when it was evident that he had no connection to terrorist
activities.
19.
Al-Arian was sacked, according to Judy Genshaft, for expressing only his personal views on TV and not those of the university for
which he worked.
20.
Many people believe that Al Arian was fired to keep the school’s financers happy.
21.
Robert O’Neil believes that freedom of speech has gradually been eroded in US universities.
22.
O’Neil believes that the University in Sacramento behaved very well when Heaphy’s speech led to her being booed and heckled into
silence, and the university’s actions after the event are proof of this.
23.
O’Neil says that despite the increasing diversity of students in his class groups with each passing year, on the whole it has not brought
about any changes in the way he teaches.
th
24
Text 2.
Asians take a closer look at Islamic schools
Michael Richardson
SINGAPORE Without warning, a phalanx of riot police and plainclothes officers descended on a school for about 200 young children in a lush oil
palm estate in the southern Malaysian state of Johor, adjacent to Singapore.
The raid, on Jan. 3, led to the closure of the Islamic school, or madrasa, which Malaysian authorities say was linked to a group of Muslim
extremists.
The school is alleged by officials to have been teaching students to hate the Malaysian government and preparing them to fight a jihad to establish
an Islamic state, or theocracy, in Malaysia, where about a third of the 23 million-strong population is non-Muslim.
“They took away the principal,” said a staff member at the former school. “After that, parents pulled their children out and the teachers also left.”
Across Asia in countries that have significant Muslim communities, governments, intelligence services, law enforcement agencies and the military
are taking a long, hard look at Islamic religious education following the terror attacks on the United States on Sept. 11 and the resulting
international campaign against terrorism.
Starting in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the campaign has produced an ever-growing trail of evidence linking the indoctrination programs of some
madrasas to Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network, which is blamed by the Bush administration for the suicide attacks on the World Trade Center
and the Pentagon in September, as well as earlier bombings of U.S. targets in Africa and the Middle East.
Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad of Malaysia said recently that he was concerned about Malaysians studying Islam in Pakistan and possibly
other countries because some forge links with Afghanistan’s ousted Taliban regime and Al Qaeda to learn about weapons, bomb-making and the
tactics of war. Mr. Mahathir said a number of extremists arrested in recent months in Malaysia had been schooled in Pakistan’s madrasas and
received terrorist training in Afghanistan.
Thousands of students from Southeast Asia, as well as Central Asia and the Balkans, have attended Pakistani madrasas, officials say.
Many ethnic Malay Muslim families send their sons to religious schools out of piety, with some paying for a religious education abroad in the wellknown madrasas of Pakistan and Egypt.
But as part of a crackdown on Islamic militants, Pakistan’s president, General Pervez Musharraf, announced new measures last month to rein in
the estimated 6,000 to 8,000 madrasas, particularly what he called the minority of such religious schools that “propagate hatred and violence” and
produce only “semiliterate religious scholars.” The Pakistani government is requiring all Islamic schools to register with the authorities, teach
courses in modern subjects along with the Koran, and restrict foreign students and teachers sharply.
Long unregulated, Pakistan’s madrasas offered free board, accommodation and education for hundreds of thousands of local children, mainly
boys, from poor families who could not otherwise afford to send their sons to school in a country with a weak public education system.
This pattern has been replicated in many other parts of Asia, officials said, although they emphasized that most of the religious schools are a vital
part of local education and have modernised their teaching to cover not just the study of Islamic values and rules, but secular subjects such as
mathematics, computer studies and European languages.
25
Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country, has many thousands of religious schools, including boarding schools known as pesantrens.
These schools have come to play an even more important role in national education in the past few years as an economic slump and shortage of
government funds have undermined the public school system.
Indonesian officials insist that the vast majority of pesantrens are breeding grounds of tolerance and peace, not hatred and violence.
“We won’t let a wayward few destroy tens of thousands of pesantrens that have brought peace to this country for ages,” said Mohammed Irfan,
director of Islamic religious schools at Indonesia’s Ministry of Religious Affairs. “We do not see any worrying sign. We will not intervene because
intervention will only breed distrust.”
Schools for Thailand’s Muslim minority have never taught anyone to be violent, said Naiem Wongkasorn, a spokesman of Anurak Moradok Islam,
a Thai Muslim education group.
But many other Asian countries are no longer taking an unconcerned, hands-off approach. “Basically, the children are taught to fight for Islam,”
said one official in the Catholic-dominated Philippines, which has around 1,500 madrasas for its Muslim minority.
China is strengthening controls over Islamic education in the troubled far west province of Xinjiang by standardizing classes for local imams, or
priests, Chinese state media reported last month.
Singapore’s Islamic Religious Council, which administers madrasas in the island-state, said it has been updating its register of religious teachers,
or ustadz, following the disclosure by Singapore and Malaysian police that Qaeda cells in both countries were led by a number of people claiming
to be Muslim teachers. “We don’t want any Tom, Dick or Harry calling themselves ustadz,” the council president Maarof Salleh said recently.
Singapore and Malaysia both have well developed and widely used public education systems. The Malaysian government said recently that it is
considering closing religious nursery schools run by the opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia because they are allegedly being used to indoctrinate
hatred of the government and its leaders - a charge denied by Parti Islam. It is the country’s biggest opposition party and also governs two of
Malaysia’s 14 states.
In Johor, the state government, an ally of Mahathir’s governing multi-ethnic coalition, is reviewing the religious education system to ensure that
religion is not used for political purposes and that students can find paid employment after they finish school.
“There must be a balance between religious education and academic knowledge so that students from religious schools will not lag behind in the
modern world, especially in their careers and jobs,” said Johor’s chief minister, Abdul Ghani Othman.
Michael Richardson is senior Asia-Pacific correspondent of the International Herald Tribune.
True or False?
1.
The raid on the school in Johor was completely unexpected.
2.
Johor is a poor state.
3.
There seems to be a certain amount of proof that the schools in question were preparing students to become part of extremist Muslim
groups.
4.
The Prime Minister of Malaysia is worried that students attending these schools later go on to learn dangerous skills which could be
used for terrorist purposes.
5.
Such terrorist schools are limited to Malaysia only.
6.
Many ethnic Malay Muslim families send their children to school primarily for religious reasons.
7.
The President of Pakistan is trying to organise a strategy to combat terrorism.
8.
The word “propagate”, as it is used in the text, means “dispel”.
9.
The President of Pakistan believes that although these schools educate people for terrorism, they also provide students with a very
high standard of academic ability .
10.
Pakistan is doing all it can to increase the number of foreign students and teachers in its schools in an attempt to counteract terrorism
with intercultural tolerance.
11.
Pakistan’s madrasas were controlled by the state for a long time, and provided low-cost education as well as meals and lodgings for
the privileged children of well-off families.
12.
Many religious schools throughout Asia provide both religious education as well as education in non-religious subjects.
13.
In times of economic crisis, the schools provide a very necessary service which the government could otherwise not be able to finance.
14.
The Indonesian spokesman for the Ministry of Religious Affairs believes that it is only in a small number of schools that extremism is
being propagated and that the majority of Indonesian schools are not like this,
15.
The Indonesian spokesman for the Ministry of Religious Affairs believes that to pursue a plan of action against terrorist schools would
only result in negative consequences for the schools which are anti-terrorist.
16.
In Thailand and The Philippines children are being instructed in schools to fight for Islam.
17.
Singapore has been taking precautions to ensure that any teaching staff hired in schools are not teachers of terrorist strategies.
18.
Parti Islam refutes the allegations that it is teaching young children to hate the political system in Malaysia.
19.
In Johor, the state government is doing precious little to ensure that terrorist-teaching in schools is stamped out.
20.
Johor’s chief minister denies that without a balance between religious and academic learning, students will be greatly disadvantaged
when it comes to having careers in the modern world of today.
26
Text 3.
British debate deepens on faith-based schools
Barry James
While the British government is proposing to turn part of the state education system over to religious groups, the idea is increasingly coming under
attack by parents and in political circles.
“Before Sept. 11, it looked like a bad idea; it now looks like a mad idea,” said Tony Wright, a member of Parliament who belongs to the ruling
Labour Party.
The proposal to extend state funding to more religious schools is part of the current Education Bill, but the terrorist attacks and race riots in
northern cities last summer may force a rethinking as it is debated in the House of Commons.
Frank Dobson, a former Labour education spokesman, had introduced an amendment that would require religious schools to reserve a quarter of
places to children of different faiths, but the measure was rejected last week.
The Home Office recommended the measure after releasing a report on the riots in the northern cities of Bradford, Oldham and Burnley that
warned that a heavy concentration of students from one religion or racial group risks damaging community cohesion.
A recent survey by the Mori polling organization indicated that three quarters of respondents oppose the government proposals. It also found that
34 percent thought that religion should not be part of education at all and 29 percent thought that faith-based schools would be divisive in society.
Only 11 percent of those who responded to the poll said they strongly supported schools run by religions.
Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain supports the establishment of religious schools as part of the government’s efforts to improve the quality of
secondary education. (He sends his children to Roman Catholic schools although he is not a Catholic.)
The Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church already run many of the schools that are paid for by the state. Few people complain about
the Anglican church’s domination of the primary school sector because these schools are open to members of all faiths.
Church of England schools usually have a morning assembly based on Christian teaching, but pupils are allowed to abstain or attend meetings of
their own faith. The church says most of its schools closely reflect their local communities.
The real argument, touching on questions of race, culture and national identity, concerns the place of religious minorities such as Muslims and
Sikhs in the state-financed education sector - and whether the taxpayer should be required to finance schools run by minorities.
There is nothing to prevent religious communities from establishing private schools, financed by fees. But the existing religious schools are unable
to meet the demand for places, and parents from minority groups insist that the state should support their schools as it does Christian schools.
According to figures supplied by the Department of Education and Skills, the Church of England runs 4,716 schools in the maintained, or statefinanced, sector; the Roman Catholic Church runs 2,110; the Methodist church 27 and Jewish communities 32. Since 1997, the Labour
government has extended funding to 13 schools run by minority faiths, including Sikh, Muslim, Greek Orthodox and Seventh Day Adventist.
Religious groups can now apply to take over failing schools.
The secretary of education, Estelle Morris, told the General Assembly of the Church of England that Britain has “a long and honorable tradition of
faith schools within our education system.”
“It is only right and proper, given the multifaith society we live in, that we extend that right to other faiths as well,” she said.
But many look to Northern Ireland, where faith-based education has not only failed to prevent sectarian tension but is, according to some analysts,
one of the main causes of it. They cite the spectacle of schoolgirls in Belfast having to be escorted to their Catholic schools by police because of
attacks and taunts by Protestant neighbors.
“I think very few people in the government have looked carefully at the implications of a society 10-20 years down the line where there is a more
clear divide between the religions and schooling,” said Barry Sheerman, chairman of the House of Commons select committee on education.
“We’ve only got to look at the painful, recent example of Northern Ireland within the Christian community to see what problems that produces.”
Many people fear that allowing minority faiths to run state schools will perpetrate practices that are not generally acceptable in British families,
such as arranged marriages, which are common on the Indian Subcontinent and a frequent source of
tension among families in Britain.
27
Morris believes this problem can be overcome by insisting that, as a price for receiving funding from the state, all schools teach a national
curriculum that includes certain core values. “As from September 2002, all maintained schools will be teaching citizenship as part of the national,
regional, religious and ethnic identity,” she said, “including issues of national, regional, religious and ethnic identity. All state schools also have a
duty to adhere to human rights, equal opportunities and race legislation.” Michael Wills, the junior government minister responsible for nationality
issues, says it is “absolutely clear” that certain things such as “forced marriages, genital mutilation or discrimination on any grounds” will never be
acceptable in British society. But he says it should be possible to accept the idea that one can be both British and Pakistani, English or Scottish. In
an interview published in The Daily Telegraph, he disagreed with the report on the northern riots that suggested that faith-based schools might
contribute to racial tension.
“There weren’t any faith schools in Oldham and Bradford, so it’s rather beside the point in that context,” he said. “There are faith-based
independent schools, so if parents want to send their children to them and can afford to do so they will. The state doesn’t sponsor them without
expecting them to agree to certain values, like teaching the same things to boys and girls. I don’t think they do necessarily encourage
segregation.”
Wills said that poverty rather than education was largely responsible for the clashes.
The chairman of the Islamia Schools Trust, Yusuf Islam, (formerly Cat Stevens) says secular schools also could be divisive in society by
inculcating the idea that “all religious-minded people are out of order.” The trust operates three state-funded Islamic schools in London.
But Wright said, “The last thing our society needs at the moment is more schools segregated by religion.”
To which, Morris responded in a House of Commons debate: “I don’t know what message it gives about a multicultural society if you say to people
who aren’t Christians and Jews that you’re the only group that can’t have a faith-based school.”
Despite the recommendation that all religious schools should admit a sizeable proportion of students from other faiths, this could be difficult
from a practical point of view because of the demand from parents wanting to put their children in such schools. Because private Islamic schools
are so oversubscribed, there could be resentment if eventual state-funded Islamic schools had to turn down Muslim students in order to admit a
quota of non-Muslims.
Barry James is on the staff of the International Herald Tribune.
True or False?
1.
The majority of British parents is in favour of having many educational establishments handed over to religious groups, but the
government is highly resistant to this.
2.
Terrorist activities and race riots in the north of England last summer have provoked a critical review of the proposals to extend state
funding to faith-based schools.
3.
Frank Dobson’s proposal to set aside 25% of places for children of minority religions was very favourably received.
4.
In a survey, 75% of people questioned said they were against the government’s proposals.
5.
Tony Blair believes in giving state finance to Catholic schools because his children go to Catholic schools.
6.
Many people are annoyed because the Anglican schools do not accept pupils from other religions.
7.
Although Church of England schools respect the different faiths of their pupils, they nevertheless insist that all pupils participate in the
morning assembly, which is based on Christian teaching.
8.
The key issue in this debate appears to be whether minority religions in the education sector should be paid for by the British taxpayer.
9.
Religious groups now have the option of applying to take over schools in which the level of achievement is extremely poor.
10.
Many people believe that instead of promoting racial harmony, multi-faith schools do the opposite and create tension.
11.
A certain amount of people believe that integrated schools could lead to making unacceptable practices in British schools.
12.
Estelle Morris believes that all maintained schools have an obligation to respect the rights of individuals, respect for the law and
equality for all.
13.
Michael Wills believes that the race riots in the north of England could have been provoked because of the conflict over faith-based
schools.
14.
Michael Wills believes that faith-based schools encourage necessary segregation.
15.
Yusuf Islam believes that all religious-minded people are out of order.
16.
Implementing a system in which schools would be obliged to take in a quota of minorities is not without problems.
28
Text 4.
Biodegradable plastics reach for next frontier
The New York Times The New York Times
Monday, July 22, 2002
Finally, an affordable solution to the landfill problem: Fujitsu Ltd. and Sony Corp. have figured out how to use biodegradable plastics in their hightech gear. This autumn Sony will reintroduce that classic from the 1980s, the Walkman tape player, with 90 percent of its casing made from
vegetable-based plastic. Fujitsu plans to use the same plastic in the shell of its Biblo laptop computers starting in 2004.
The magic ingredient in this plastic is polylactic acid, a corn-based polymer. Fujitsu experimented with the substance in industrial tape in 1996 but
could not produce it cheaply. Two years ago, Cargill Dow, a joint venture of Dow Chemical Co. and the commodities processor Cargill Inc., came
up with a cheaper version that is as strong as the plastic in most consumer electronics.
The plastic disintegrates in just a few months, with the speed depending on the soil composition, temperature and the extent to which the plastics
are exposed to air. The degradable plastic is produced with less petroleum, and it emits no dioxin when burned or buried.
Fujitsu has begun using the corn-based plastic in bits of its laptop computers but says more flammability tests will be needed before it can become
the chief material. Ultimately it is expected to make up the entire housing, making sorting and disassembling the machine easier.
True or false.
1.
Using biodegradable plastics in high-tech products is financially unfeasible.
2.
Polylactic acid is a magic substance.
3.
Despite trying hard to find a way of using polylactic acid in high tech products, Fujitsu found it to be too expensive.
4.
Cargill Dow and Dow Chemical Co are in fierce competition with each other.
5.
The cheaper version of the plastic devised by Cargill Dow and the Dow Chemical Co can be broken down easily and quickly.
29
Text 5.
The unbeatable lightness of miniature laptops
Miki Tanikawa
Monday, July 22, 2002
TOKYO Squeezed between Palm-like handhelds on one side and full-featured laptop
computers on the other, the middle ground of so-called subnotebooks never quite found a place in the world of mobile computing after they were
first introduced in the mid-1990s.
But as road warriors tire of trying to type on tiny cell phones - and as “hot spots” for wireless connections spring up in more public places subnotebooks could be overcoming their identity crisis.
In Japan in particular, where miniaturization is king, major PC makers like Sony Corp., Fujitsu Ltd. and Toshiba Corp. are rolling out new models to
a somewhat more receptive market, analysts say. These “subnotes” are sleek, light and tough but pack nearly the punch of a full-blown laptop.
Some of the companies are studying whether to take them to North America and Europe - though there is no guarantee of global success in a
computer market where nothing of any size is selling very fast.
Some analysts note that a precipitous fall in the price of subnotebooks - which now average ¥150,000 to ¥160,000 ($1,285 to $1,370), already 25
percent cheaper than regular notebooks - could trigger demand.
The latest wave of interest started in late April, when Sony debuted its Vaio-U model, the smallest in the company’s popular Vaio series (Sony
says “U” stands for “ubiquitous”).
By May, Vaio-U was the best-selling laptop computer in Japan, with as much as 5 percent of the market, according to Computer News Inc., a
computer market researcher and publisher.
“It was very unusual that a mininotebook computer achieved the top spot in the overall market” for notebook PCs, said Yasunori Takamizo, senior
analyst at the company’s research arm.
Weighing 820 grams (1.8 pounds) and measuring 185 millimeters wide by 139 millimeters deep and 30 millimeters thick (7.2 inches wide by 5.4
inches deep and 1.2 inches thick), the Vaio-U is nearly half the size of a typical notebook.
It comes with an 867-megahertz Transmeta processor, a 20-gigabyte hard drive and 256 megabytes of memory. (Subnotebooks are generally
defined as under 1.3 kilograms.)
Jyunji Tsuyuki, a senior manager at Sony’s Vaio division, said Sony might export the Vaio-U, but he noted that Americans generally were not as
keen for a mini PC because they often travel by car.
In Europe, notebook sales are only 24 percent of the overall PC market, and much of that is in the hands of professionals whose use is entirely
business, according to Karine Paoli, an analyst with International Data Corp.’s European personal-computing group. That contrasts with more
than 50 percent for notebooks in the Japanese market.
Worldwide, about 10 percent of total portable-computer sales are in the so-called ultra-portable category, International Data Corp. said. Still, PC
makers hope a subnotebook might attract PC-savvy households looking to buy a second or third family computer.
In May, Fujitsu updated its subnotebook-sized Loox series, which are also sold in the United States, while Toshiba has come up with a slightly
smaller version of its subnotebook brand Libretto. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which has a small presence in the Japanese PC market,
introduced a model called CF-R1, which claims six hours of battery life per charge as well as the ability to withstand 30-centimeter drops to a hard
surface.
In Japan, about 1.1 million subnotebooks were sold in the 12 months that ended in March, a 3 percent increase from the year before, while sales
of full-sized notebooks fell 9 percent during the same period to 4.7 million units. Worldwide, International Data expects 6.6 million ultra-portables to
be sold this year.
Toshio Hirai, a computer application developer who lives in Ikoma city near Osaka, said he used a Vaio subnotebook at home, on the train during
his one-hour commute, and at work. The device allows him to rely consistently on one PC wherever he is and avoid having to transfer files and
synchronize hard drives, he said.
“I don’t want to bother moving files and having to figure out which ones are most updated and so forth,” he said.
The mini-PCs do have limitations, such as small keyboards. Sony tried to address this with a unique design. The left-right click buttons and the
track ball are positioned, respectively, on the left and right sides of the keyboard. This allows the user to manipulate the PC while holding it in both
hands.
“You can stand and use it,” Tsuyuki said. That makes it easy for train commuters, he said. Most of the personal digital assistants sold by Palm,
Handspring, Sony, Compaq and others do not have keyboards at all.
But Naota Sawabe, an expert in wireless network systems at Mitsubishi Research Institute, said that what bothered people about the smallest
computers more than tough typing is the limited operating system - typically, Windows CE.
In subnotebooks, most of which are powered by the full-featured Windows XP, "people are finding the compromise point," he said.
TRUE OR FALSE.
1.
Subnotebooks had only a very minor degree of commercial success in the mid-1990s.
2.
In Japan, the bigger a computer is, the better.
3.
Today the public seems to be more receptive to subnotebooks than in the past.
30
4.
Subnotebooks are smaller than laptops but are twice as good.
5.
Should subnotebooks be put on the market in North America and Europe, then it is certain that they will be successful.
6.
More people may be inclined to buy a sunbotebook now that the prices have come down.
7.
“Ubiquitous” means “mono-functional”.
8.
It is not surprising that a mininotebook should top the sales figures in Japan.
9.
A mininotebook costs 1.8 pounds.
10.
Americans are not really receptive to the idea of having a Vaio-U, as they are unsuitable for use in cars.
11.
In Europe, half of the people who buy mini computers buy them for personal use rather than for professional use.
12.
A subnotebook could be a viable option for a family with technological knowledge seeking a second or third computer.
13.
3% of 1.1 million notebooks were sold in Japan last year.
14.
6.6 million ultra-portables will definitely be sold this year.
15.
Subnotebooks can be tricky as they imply a lot of hard drive synchronisation and transfer of files.
16.
There seem to be absolutely no disadvantages to subnotebooks.
31
Text 6.
Turkish family killing tests Sweden's tolerance
Sarah Lyall
The New York Times
Wednesday, July 24, 2002
UPPSALA, Sweden For a while, Fadime Sahindal seemed an ideal symbol of
second-generation immigrant success in a country that prides itself on its openness and tolerance.
She spoke fluent Swedish, had a Swedish boyfriend and believed that foreigners should adapt to Swedish culture. Last year, she spoke
passionately in Parliament about the difficulties of being a young Turkish woman pressing for Western-style independence against the wishes
of her deeply traditional parents.
But it was this very desire for independence that provoked her father into a rage so great that he killed her in January, turning her into the
tragic emblem of a European society’s failure to bridge the gap in attitudes between its own culture and those of its newer arrivals.
As Sweden prepares for national elections this fall at a time of rising anti-immigrant sentiments across Europe, the case has hardened many
Swedes’ attitudes toward non-Nordic immigrants, who make up about 9 percent of the population. Rightist parties want to require immigrants
to conform more thoroughly to Swedish customs with language lessons, citizenship tests and the like.
“It’s hard to say what Swedish society should do,” said Marianne Broddesson, the treasurer of Terrafem, a support network for immigrant
women. “It has to do with the whole social situation in the country, and it’s very, very complicated. It has to do with segregation, doesn’t it? with people who don’t want to enter into Swedish society, and who don’t realize that their kids are growing up here. But how do you tell people
to become more Swedish?”
By all accounts, Fadime’s father, Rahmi Sahindal, had little interest in becoming Swedish. Originally from a small Kurdish village, he moved to
Sweden with his family - five daughters and one son - in search of better prospects. At the time of the relocation, Fadime was 11.
Neither Rahmi Sahindal nor his wife learned to speak Swedish. Instead, they clung hard to their Kurdish identity, living as part of a patriarchal
clan of some 400 emigrants from the same region.
Authority was vested in a network of male relatives, and the concept of honour - to the family, and to tradition - was all-important. Fadime’s
two older sisters both married first cousins from back home. But Fadime, as she is universally known in Sweden now, refused to enter into
such an arrangement. Instead, in the late ‘90s, she secretly began dating a Swede named Patrick.
But her father, who worked in a dry cleaner’s, once saw the couple holding hands and exploded with anger.
“Fadime said she knew from that instant that she could never live with her family again, that she could never be secure again,” said Leiff
Ericksson, one of Sweden’s best-known lawyers, who represented Fadime after her father threatened her. She moved north, returning home
only to fetch her possessions under police escort.
Her father - and her brother, who now hated her with all-consuming passion, family members say - continued to threaten her over the
telephone. She went to the authorities, who decided to prosecute.
The case received a great deal of publicity, and the trial became the subject of a television documentary. Television cameras recorded, too,
how Mesud Sihandal, Fadime’s brother, tried to attack her during a break in the trial.
The father was ordered to pay a fine. The brother, 17, received a suspended jail sentence.
Fadime then prepared to defy her family again, by returning from the north to move in with her boyfriend. But in a sad twist to a very sad tale,
Patrick was killed in a car accident two weeks after the trial ended.
Several days later, Fadime’s brother attacked her in an Uppsala street, beating her so badly that she was taken to the hospital in an
ambulance. In the subsequent trial, Mesud, who had a criminal record, testified in court that Fadime was a “whore.”
“I asked him in court, ‘You say that Fadime has dishonored the family, and what have you done - you have stolen and used drugs,’” Ericksson
said. “’Doesn’t that dishonor your family?’ And he said, ‘I’ve broken your rules, but Fadime has broken our rules, and our rules are much more
important.’”
Mesud was sentenced to six months in prison, and Fadime moved north again. But relations with her family were apparently irreparably
damaged.
Nalin Pekgul - a Kurdish member of the Swedish Parliament, who befriended Fadime and tried to make peace between her and her parents quoted Fadime’s father as saying, “She has destroyed so much for us, and we are so ashamed.”
“He thought his life was finished because wherever he went, people gossiped about him,” Pekgul said. “He kept saying, ‘I have no life. I wish I
was dead now.’”
Pekgul brokered an agreement where Fadime’s father pledged not to harm her, as long as she stayed away from the news media and from
Uppsala. Fadime agreed never to speak publicly again, pursuing her work instead in the youth wing of the Social Democratic Party.
Her main family ally was her younger sister Songul, a fragile young woman who has been plagued by psychiatric problems for most of her 24
years. The sisters spoke often, and it was at Songul’s Uppsala apartment that Fadime was killed.
At least three people saw Rahmi Sihandal shoot his 26-year-old daughter that January day - Fadime's mother, a teenage sister and Songul.
"At the hospital, the doctors said that Fadime was dead," Ericksson said. "At that point, one of her older sisters phones a male member of
the family, in Songul's presence, and says, 'The whore is dead now.'"
True or false.
1.
Fadime Sindal is the perfect example of a typical Swede.
2.
Sweden feels good about being such a tolerant and welcoming country.
3.
Fadime espoused the idea that Western-style independence should remain beyond the grasp of Turkish women.
4.
The number of people who support anti-foreigner policies in Sweden is growing.
5.
Many foreigners in Sweden reject the idea of their children growing up as Swedes.
6.
Fadime’s father strongly advocated becoming Swedish.
32
7.
At the time she was murdered, Fadime was 11.
8.
Fadime’s relationship with Patrick had to be kept under wraps for fear of being detected by her family.
9.
Fadime and Patrick’s relationship when her father saw the couple holding hands in the dry-cleaners in which Fadime worked.
10.
In the trial against Fadime’s family for harassment, her brother was sent to serve a prison sentence.
11.
Patrick was murdered in a car accident.
12.
Some days after Patrick’s death, Fadime was assaulted.
13.
Fadime’s father threatened to hurt her again, and for this reason she agreed not to ever again speak publicly.
14.
Songul was Fadime’s enemy.
15.
Fadime died without witnesses.
33
PART FOUR: TEXT COHESION: SELECTING THE MOST
APPROPRIATE WORD IN THE CONTEXT OF THE ARTICLE YOU
ARE READING
For these exercises it is recommended that you decide which of the three words is the correct
one, and also find out what the other two mean, and how they are used. However, a word of
warning is necessary here. Some of the “incorrect” alternatives are not real words at all, so be
sure to check these out. Once you have found out the meanings of the words, then perhaps
read the tests again, each time underlining and looking up the meanings of these words and
expressions so that you can add them to your vocabulary lists.
Text 1.
Dole queues drive young to suicide bridge
Unemployment in the east will dominate German elections.
34
John Hooper
The Guardian
Wednesday July 24th 2002.
The Göltzschtalbrücke is the (world/ worlds’/ world’s) biggest brick bridge. It stands 250 (feet/ foot/ feets) high in a (profound/ infinite/ deep)
river valley near the town of Reichenbach in south-eastern Germany.
Between the river and a car park from which you can (disgust/ admire/ retrieve) this feat of engineering, a banner has been put up in the trees
which reads “Jesus always has time for you.”
People have been (throwed/ throwing/ thrown) themselves off the Göltzschtalbrücke ever since it was finished in 1851. But, according to
Marjon Thümmel, the (author/ novelist/ editor) of the Vogtland Anzeiger local paper: “This is the worst year anyone can remember.”
Six young people have (sauntered/ leapt/ soared) to their deaths from the Göltzschtalbrücke and another nearby railway bridge in the past 12
months. All but one came from the former communist east.
Three chained themselves together. Just to make sure.
Though doubtless (influenced/ pulled/ motioned) by specific psychological factors, the recent surge in suicides at the Göltzschtalbrücke has
turned the bridge into a symbol of (hopefulness/ hopelessness/ hopeless) that today infuses the young of eastern Germany – a of
(hopefulness/ hopelessness/ hopeless) rooted in the (lack/ overabundance/ excess) of prospects in a region bleeding jobs and population.
Unemployment – (particularly/ peculiarly/ particular) eastern unemployment – has (got/ became/ become) the dominant issue in Germany’s
general election campaign. Its importance was (highlighted/ played down/ concealed) yesterday when the chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, in
effect, (called a halt to/ launched/ clamped down on) his drive for re-election with a high-profile meeting with the (personnel/ personal/
personally) director of Volkswagen, Peter Hartz, (which/ that/ whom) he has commissioned to find ways to (expand/ trim/ maximise) the dole
queues.
Pollsters (doubt/ reckon/ deny) half the country’s floating voters are in the east, where the jobless rate is (almost/ although/ all so) 18%,
(compared /comparing/ comparison) with less than 8% in the west. So eastern voters have not only an (insignificant/ inconsequential/
overwhelming) interest in the unemployment issue, but also a disproportionate ability to influence the outcome of the (elect/ poll/ votation) on
September 22.
Reichenbach (encapsulates/ disperses/ refutes) the profoundly paradoxical situation in which the east finds itself. The decision to convert
easterners’ savings and earnings at a rate of one ostmark to one deutschmark made them rich overnight, (tethering/ uprooting/ unleashing) a
consumer and construction (boot/ boat/ boom) that was (boosted/ roosted/ loosened) by aid from the west. But the same decision robbed the
east’s industries of their price (corner/ side/ edge) and, together with (tiny/ hefty/ minuscule) wage settlements, made many of its businesses
(uncompetitive/ lucrative/ miserly).
The town hall is packed with (lacklustre/ gleaming/ dismal) new furniture and equipment. The square outside is being (repaved/ reshaved/
restrained) with public money. The people walking across it are infinitely better dressed than they were before reunification. They own better
cars and smarter houses.
But their town’s ability to (fend for itself/ look at itself/ help of itself) has been destroyed. Its textile industry, which once (provided/ deprived/
redundant) 4,000 jobs, now offers just 800 – 1,000.
“(Overalls/ Overall/ under all), more than half the jobs in Vogtland have been lost since reunification,” Marjon Thümmel said.
In a (youth/young/ young’s) club on the edge of Reichenbach, 16-year-old Björn Schumann sat playing cards with his friends on a (rainiest/
rained/ rainy) afternoon. Through the (consideration/ condensation/consternation) on the windows, you could just make (up/ out/ in) a line of
communist-era housing blocks, recently (pencilled/ crayoned/ painted) in pastel shades of lilac, mulberry and primrose.
Björn left school this year along with 21 others. Only six have found work.
“The rest are out looking for something. Every year it gets worse,” he said.
Manfred Lenzer, on the other side of the table, had been looking for work for nine months. He had lost (number/ amount/ count) of the number
of (applyings/ applications/ applied) he had sent off – “Twenty? Thirty?” – but (still/ even/ although) nothing.
“The east is dying,” he said, angrily (pirouetting/ flinging/ stroking) his cards across the table. “Just look at the streets. There aren’t any young
people. Just old people,”
Reichenbach has (loss/ loosed/ lost) a sixth of its population since reunification. “Girls in (particular/ especially/ peculiar),” said Holger Kairies,
the social worker in charge of the youth club. “They go to Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg [the prosperous southern states of former West
Germany]. And they leave (permanent/ permanently/ everlasting).”
Sometimes they come back to visit, though. As the card game broke up, two young women burst into the youth club, shaking rain from their hair.
“The girls from Munich,” said one of the card players.
Nadine Christoph, 23, had found herself a job as a hairdresser at the airport.
“As a stylist here, I’d get about half what I (win/ earn/ do) in Munich,” she said.
35
Text 2.
‘Get industry into the prison for job interviews’
The Guardian
th
Wednesday July 24 2002.
Michelle Downer, 29, a junior grade governor in charge of operations and security at Stafford prison.
“I’ve been to conferences and people go: “My God, you work at Stafford” – the picture was of a very (hardly/ hard/ harder) place with very
(hardly/ hard/ harder) staff, a traditional male-dominated prison.
And I say to them, Yeeesss, but it’s changed. In fact there’s a female governing governor and a lot of very good staff who are working very
(hardly/ hard/ harder) to take the prison (backwards/ down/ forward).
Our next big thing, coming in September, is the (resettle/ resettled/ resettlement) programme. We’ll be linking the prison to the outside world so
when people step out the door they’ve got some work prospects, interview at a job centre (still/ already/ yet) set (up/ on/ of). Or getting business
or (industrial/ industrialisation/ industry) to come into the prison and (make/ had/ do) interviews.
Another thing we’ve done is (exceeded/ limited/ maximised) drugs coming in through the visits area, (which/ that/ what) is one of the parts
covered by my team in security and operations.
Visits was the one area I hated as soon as I (was coming/ come/ came) into the prison last September. We put in soft (seating/ sitting/ sits)
instead of (hard/ hardly/ hardened) chairs. Kids were running riot so we’ve got a play area now with (useless/ trained/ inappropriate) nursery
staff – that’s been jointly (finded/ founded/ funded) by the prison and a charity, Pre-School Learning Alliance.
36
Before, to screen visitors for incoming drugs, we sometimes used a dog and if the dog (relented/ indicated/ attacked) on a visitor we’d strip that
person. We got a lot of (complaints/ praise/ admiration).
Now, if a visitor has a positive (relenting/ indication/ attack) by a dog they’ll be placed on a non-contact table. When we began this, all the noncontact tables were in (use/ using/ used): now it’s two or three. The information from prisoners is that it’s very (simple/ difficult/ unsettling) to
(get/ become/ require) drugs through visits now.
That’s made a big (stretch/ hole/ impact) because most problems in a prison are drug-related. Crack cocaine can make somebody 10 times
(strongly/ stronger/ strongest) and very (violent/ violence/ violently); people get in debt buying drugs and there’s more (camaraderie/
bullying/ solidarity), and (treats/ threats/ throats) to their family if they don’t pay. We’re still changing things and we will be looking more at
drugs.
I’ve worked since the (age/ year/ years) of 16 and I’ve never stopped. From about 19, I worked with young offenders and later, youth courts.
(Paid/ Funded/ Financing) my way through my law finals at Birmingham, I worked in youth clubs with kids who are socially (excluded/
uninterested/ included).
When I began looking for a solicitor’s job, I sent out 500 CVs for (train/ training/ trained) posts in Birmingham. Getting a job with a solicitors’ firm
is (quit/ quiet/ quite) difficult enough as it is, and much (more/ most/ less) so when you’re black, young, female and going to interviews heavily
pregnant and not (married/ wedding/ widowed). Stafford is my fourth posting since (doing/ making/ joining) the prison service in 1998. The
most (difficult/ difficulty/ difficults) was my second, when I got (prevention/ promotion/ proposal) to principal officer and went to Brockhill [in
Worcestershire], which is a female prison. I would say women – along with young (offendings/ offences/ offenders), and remand prisoners
[those who have just come in from the courts] – are the hardest to work with.
Tell women to do something, they’ll constantly question it, constantly challenge it. There are a greater number who self harm [compared to male
prisoners] or have mental health problems; many have been victims of abuse.
A man, you know what’s coming because you can see he’s getting angry, he’s shouting. A woman can (reveal/ hide/ show) it very well, and then
all of a (suddenly/ sadden/ sudden) something happens.
I learnt a lot at Brockhill. A governor that had been in the service 20 years said to me, If you get (though/ through/ throw) this year you’ll be able
to (cope/ deal/ handle) anything.
Graham Linney, 58, has retired after 30 years as an officer and junior governor at Nottingham prison, Wormwood Scrubs, and elsewhere.
Prison is like a village. It isn’t just about discipline officers, it’s about education staff, workshop instructors, physical education staff, kitchen staff.
One of my most satisfying times was as governor in (change/ charge/ chance) of lifers at Nottingham because you got all parts of the prison
working together.
With lifers, they’re doing such a long time you’ve got to be setting them annual targets to (achieve/ fail/ ignore) and getting to know them very
(good/ right/ well). Once every year there’s the lifer review. All the various departments would have their say, you built up a full picture of the
man.
What’s especially changed in my 30 years is that prisoners are not just allowed to (improve/ excel/ stagnate): if the idea is to (raise/ cut/
aggravate) crime prisons should be preparing the man for release from the word go, try to get him a work (ethic/ ethnic/ ethical) and some
education classes if he needs them. The personal officer scheme was introduced a few years ago, where each officer had a number of inmates
he had to look (at/ on/ after), get to know, write reports on.
But when you start getting on personal terms, there is a very fine line to (dance/ stroll/ tread). Some officers got out of their (depth/ deep/
deeper), were being (manifested/ manipulated/ maintained) by prisoners. I feel there should have been more of a mentor system. – one of the
features of the prison service is this macho idea that we don’t need this sort of thing.
Overcrowding impinges on everything you’re trying to do, though. Short-term prisoners [less than a year] are just sausage-machined through now,
because there just isn’t time to do anything with them.
Text 3.
Summertime and the living is boring
It is as (integral/ integration/ integrated) a part of summertime as sore toes from new flip-flops... “I’m (boring/ bores/ bored),” What can we do?
Do we offer “When I was a lad, we made do...” No, we don’t. Because our children should never have a (spare/ spared/ sparse) moment when
they are not fully (deranged/ stressed/ occupied) in productive play? Time not filled with exciting educational games is time (gained/ won/
wasted). Why else do parents feel (reassured/ guilty/ innocent) unless their child’s holiday leisure is filled with ballet, chess, tennis, sports and
acting clubs? And now, come the holidays, we have seven weeks to fill. We feel self-righteous for (providing/ depriving/ impeding) our children
with things to do. It shows what good parents we are.
Yet, if I (return/ remain/ repeal) to my own childhood, I recall hour after hour spent in the garden or the park without an adult for miles. And
certainly no organised (maintenance/ entertainment/ bother) laid on. Parents would suggest we stopped bothering them.
Now we could no more (contemplate/ conjugate/ conflagrate) that than say education doesn’t matter. The mere thought of leaving a child
(supervised/ irresponsible/ unattended) would worry us and (promote/ dispel/ promise) an image of (ourself/ ourselfs/ ourselves) as
(disresponsible/ irresponsible/ unresponsible) and uninterested parents.
We dare not send them out to play because of the (frightening/ worrying/ fear) that they will encounter a rogue motorist or molester. We can’t
take the chance, even (through/ though/ thought), according to Diana McNeish, head of research for Barnardo’s, statistically crime against
children has remained (static/ statistic/ statistically) for 30 years. What has increased are (anxiety/ insouciance/ frightening) levels and
publicity. “However infinitesimal the risk, most parents don’t want to take it,” she says. “But if a child is (serious/ seriousness/ seriously)
injured, it is most (likeness/ likely/ alike) by the hand of their family.”
My own children are ushered from one improving event to the next. My car can now find its own way to Crystal Palace stadium where we grin just
because they happen to be romping in a ball park, good for eye-to-hand co-ordination. And when my five-year-old son sat (quitely/ quickly/
quietly) in his room, (created/ creation/ creating) a fantasy world with Action Man, I felt driven to intervene in case he lost sight of the (really/
real/ reality) world. “People are frightened that (boredom/ boring/ bored) leads to trouble,” says McNeish. “I don’t think we should run away with
the idea that it is all 24-hour ballet lessons, but we are in danger of overstructuring childhood and taking all the adventure out.”
37
According (by/ at/ to) Frank Furedi, author of Paranoid Parenting, it is this inflated fear of danger that has (resulting/ result/ resulted) in adults
feeling the need to exert more control over children’s free time. “Adults intervene in situations they would never have dreamed of,” he says. “If
you go to New York, it is (seldom/ commonly/ common) to see 40 adults watching over half that number of (children/ childrens/ childs) on the
monkey bars. I was reading a novel and each time my son climbed up, and adult would take him back down. They seemed to think they were
doing me a big (disservice/ favour/ insult), but I wanted him to play without an adult holding his hand.”
Adults believe they must make free time “pay”, (otherwise/ to ensure/ so that) their children will fall behind. Far better to structure their (actions/
activities/ acts), so we know where they are, (claims/ refutes/ disclaims) Furedi. “Children are always (subjected/ objected/ conjectured) to
external stimulation and never allowed to be on their own,” he says. “We bombard them with videos and TV so they become (reluctant/
adamant/ insistent) to play on their own.”
There are larger social issues and (tends/ tendings/ trends) at work here, about which parents can do little. The growth in traffic, the
privatisation of public space and a decline in community values has not helped. The perception is that there are simply (less/ fewer/ lower)
places where children can be allowed to play without tight adult supervision.
“Adults have a (responsible/ response/ responsibility) that the social world is one where children can have an equal space.” Argues McNeish.
“Children have been squeezed out into designated space areas and that is not the answer. But to move forward, adults will have to give up things,
like cars, I don’t know if we are ready to address that.
What can adults do? “Children feel they must ask, ‘What shall I do?’” says Furedi. “For a parent to say ‘Work it out for yourself,’ is a brave thing to
do. We are creating a (depending/ dependency/ depend) upon adults which could end up (reducing/ eliminating/ extending) childhood until
people reach their mid-20s.” It would be a (shameful/ shaming/ shame) if we are creating a generation who (refuse/ refute/ refer) to leave
home. Yet parents can release themselves from (guilt/ guilty/ guiltiness) and desire to control if they countenance turning (bored/ boring/
boredom) into a positive part of growing up. Tim Gill, of the Children’s Play Council, believes (bored/ boring/ boredom) is a useful (experiment/
experience / expertise).
“We have still not got to grips with what childhood means and the sense that it is a journey to adulthood,” he says. “It is good to experience
autonomy – although adults are nervous of handing it to them.”
That may be the crux of the matter. Aldous Huxley observed, “Your true traveller finds (bored/ boring/ boredom) rather agreeable. It is the
symbol of his liberty.”
Text 4.
Gran and supergran
Grannies knit cardigans and mind the kids. Wrong, says Louise Clarke.
The Guardian
th
Wednesday 24 July 2002
There’s a woman in a very smart suit kneeling in the puddles on my bathroom floor and washing my (children/ childrens’/ children’s) hair. She
has dumped her briefcase in the hall, with a (pile/ pill/ pole) of papers to read after she’s finished with Blue Kangaroo and My Naughty Little
Sister. She is just back from a two-day conference and has swept in with a brace of shopping bags, She is supergran – the (epistle/ epitome/
epigram) of the new model nan set to change our perception of grandmas forever.
According to research (publishing/ publishes/ published) this month by the Institute of Community Studies, the grannies of the future are more
(likely/alike/ likened) to be working and (enjoying/ despising/ detesting) their work. And they will be too busy, earning grey pounds to spend
on foreign travel, to babysit. The report’s author, Professor Geoff Dench, recognises the supergran as a trend for the future – one which the
government and social planners appear to have overlooked.
“The most (signifying/ significant/ signification) current change in terms of (extension/ extended/ extends) family life may well be that (less/
not so much/ fewer) older women are choosing to give up work when grandchildren are born,” he says. “They are giving (priority/ priory/
periphery) to their economic (role/ roll/ rule) instead. What is, arguably, new is not so much the (stress/ stressful/ pressure) on grannies to do
childcare as their resistance to it. The revolutionary generation of women who (accepting/ submitting to/ challenged) conventions are in
(reverse/ revolt/ revile) against the traditional (expected/ expectation/ expects) of daughters for childcare support.”
Victoria Beckham and Cherie Blair are among the millions of mums who still rely (to/ of/ on) their own mothers as childcare-(providers/ provers/
priorities) on a regular (basis/ base/ based). Leo’s and Brooklyn’s grandmothers may not be stereotypical grandmas, but there is a lingering
idea that all grans are old-style nans, sitting knitting, just waiting for the next generation to look after. The (real/ reality/ realism) is that more and
more women in their 50s are still working and still (getting/ rewarding/ earning).
Despite (proponents/ propensities/ proposals) before the government to pay grandparents for providing childcare, granny may well say no, as
more older women enjoy opportunities in education and work and live longer, (filler/ fuller/ finer) lives. These grans have handbags (staffed/
stiffed/ stuffed) with pagers and palmtops. Their lives are a little more (dynamic/ dynamite/ dysfunctional) than the doormat gran.
38
Pat Hand is (head /foot/ arm) of Surrey and Region Open College Network and grandmother to Dylan and Joseph. She would not (contain/
consist/ consider) giving up her work to help out her daughters, having taken the time out when they were young themselves.
“I did not work full-time until my daughters, Sarah and Kathrine, were in (second/ double/ secondary) school,” she says, and then it was a job
that could (fit/ fly/ suit) around family commitments. It feels as if it has taken a long time to get back into a (properly/ proper/ property) career. I
love my job. I also have a big (heap/ pile/ gap) in my (pension/ dole/ social assistance) to fill.”
It is not that she wants to (act/ opt/ stick) out of family life entirely. It is more a question of priorities.
“My husband, who works more (flexibility/ flexibly/ flexible), has done some childcare for Kathrine so she can finish her masters in social work,”
she says. “I think my relationship with Dylan and Joseph is good (while/ that/ because) I see them (fairness/ fairly/ fair) regularly – at least one
day a fortnight. I spend good (quality/ quantity/ quartet) time with them having fun, looking after them when Sarah or Kathrine want some time
(on/ off/ over), or if there is a crisis their end and my work diary is free. We have loads of toys for them; they have their own special storage
spaces and we are fully (equipment/ equip/ kitted) for overnight stays.”
Theresa Hearne, operations manager in a public-sector organisation and grandmother to six, aged four to 14, says she has much to enjoy about
this time of her life. “My own work means (excessive/ lacking/ sufficient) financial (resources/ researches/ resorts) and the freedom to make
decisions on how we (spend/ bring/ waste) our time – without the responsibility of always (condemning/ considering/ condescending) how this
will affect our children or grandchildren if we are not (availed/ availing/ available),” she explains. “Being able to do things or change plans on the
(spur/ spit/ span) of the moment, accept late invitations and be (guilt-ridden/ carefree/ insistent) about being absent from home with no one
else to worry about but ourselves – I don’t think I have ever had this much control over my life.”
It is the changes in the pattern of women’s work that have had the (great/ greater/ greatest) influence on the emergence of the supergran, says
Dench. “The main trend in women’s employment since the 70s has been the expansion of careers, as (opposite/ opposing/ opposed) to jobs –
which can be readily dropped and picked up again – and the (correspondence/ corresponding/ corresponded) disappearance of ‘housewives’.
“Grandmothers of present-day young grandchildren are much more (likeness/ likely/ alike) to have interesting work, which in some cases may
also be better paid than their daughters. It is in the nature of a career that (remuneration/ renumeration/ renumbering) increases with age,
unlike the unskilled jobs to which women, by virtue of the shortness of their working lives, were confined.”
“I couldn’t consider giving up work now,” says Hearne. “Financially, it would not be possible, but I don’t think I would enjoy spending time with the
grandchildren so (more/ many/ much) if I had to care for them all the time. I did care (regularity/ regularly/ regular) for my grandchildren when
we lived closer and I worked part-time, but I found this very (liberating/ restrictive/ introspective) as I always had to consider how my actions
would affect the rest of the family.”
Sara Jones, spokesperson for the National Centre for Social research, which is also publishing new findings about patterns of grandparenting later
this month, says that supergrans want (quality/quantity/ quantified) time, not a babysitting job. Although the grandma with a career dilemma is a
middle-class problem, many of today’s grandmothers are willing to do more with their grandchildren – but not on a (regularly/ regularity/ regular),
paid basis.
“Paying for childcare would make it more of a job, and more of an (option/ oblige/ obligation), for many of the families we have (speak/ spoke/
spoken) to,” she says. “I think today’s grandparents long to play a more (active/ action/ acted) (roll/ role/ rule) in the family, but that means
helping out on their own terms,” says Jones.
This certainly chimes with Hearne’s experience. “I definitely have a better relationship with my grandchildren because when I (bring/ give/
spend) time with them, I can (plan/ plane/ planify) it so that the time we have together is special and we all enjoy it,” she says. “Because I am
working, I can (afford/ effort/ affect) to take them on (outsides/ outlays/ outings) to the zoo or cinema or away for the weekend. I can also
(chose/ choose/ chosen) the times they (bring/ give/ spend) with us, and it is more of an occasion.”
Today’s grannies cannot be (relying/ relied/ rely) upon to make up for a nationwide shortfall of nannies or nurseries. While many will take (away/
on/ off) occasional care, it is as a (favour/ flavour/ father) to the family – helping (in/ out/ off) in an emergency, not working as care (provers/
provisions/ providers). In any case, there is a whole other group of grandmas who are working, either through choice or necessity, and won’t be
willing or able to take on the nation’s babies and toddlers while their mums go to work.
State support for grandparents who take on (regularity/ regularly/ regular) childcare of their grandchildren has been mooted; the most likely
(form/ from/ forum) it would take would be an (extension/ extending/ extent) of the childcare tax credit to (include/ invite/ incite) family
members besides parents. This would go a long way towards putting what is a (rare/ widespread/ widened) practice on a more formal footing,
but this doesn’t adequately recognise the changes in modern grandparents as younger, fitter and enjoying their own fuller lives.
“The feminist generation, coming to (adulthood/ adultness/ adultery) in the 60s, who have mined their own lives for copy – relationships,
parenting, the menopause, the glass ceiling, divorce, empty nest, - have yet to reach this later stage,” says Joan Bakewell, broadcaster and
supergran to six. “So grandparenthood has yet to be examined for its (signification/ significance/ signifying) in the lifecycle of women and their
place in society.”
The new supergran has worked (hard/ hardness/ hardly) to get where she is: it seems that future generations will look to her as a new (roll/ role/
rolled) model. What is more, according to Dench’s study, these grandmothers are enjoying the (highest/ tallest/ lesser) level of role satisfaction
yet. Supergrans, it seems, have more fun.
39
Text 5.
The big question about children.
Childhood obesity is on the rise, with all its associated health problems and unhappiness. So how
should we be tackling it) And who – or what – is to blame?
Clare Rudebeck
The Independent
th
Joseph Richardson was not an (unnormal/ unusual/ unsuspecting) child. His favourite food was pizza and he hated fruit and vegetables. After
school, he (player/ playing/ played) outside with his friends, preferring (chat/ chatting/ chatted) to running around. He really wanted to be in the
rugby team, but never quite made the grade. But by the time he was 12, the junk food and (lack/ excess/ minority) of exercise had taken their
(toll/ tell/ told). He was overweight. “I didn’t like the was I looked at all,” he says. “People used to take the mickey out of me because I was fat.”
Being young and overweight is no longer (suspecting/ sustained/ abnormal). One in three British children is now heavier than they (could/
ought/ should) be. Thirteen per cent are obese. Before hitting their teens, these youngsters have to (dealing/ deal/ coping) with the depression
and social (ostracism/ostracised/ ostriches) that often accompanies weight problems. There are physical health (worries/ benefits/ greats)
too. Early signs of (coronary / corny/ crowning) heart disease are now being found in children and (teenages/ adolescents/ youngs). Obesitylinked diabetes has recently been (rejected/ detected/ respected) for the first time.
But despite obesity being the most (common/ commonly/ commune) disease among British children, there is (currant/ currantly/ currently) no
effective treatment (available/ availing/ availed) on the NHS. Joseph was lucky. Listening to the radio one day, he (saw/ heard/ told) a report
about a weight-loss summer camp for children in his home town of Leeds. “I thought it sounded good, and so I asked my parents if I could go,” he
said.
They said yes. He went last year, weighing sixteen and a half stone, and lost nearly two stone. “It was great. There’s no one to take the mickey
out of you on the camp,” he says. “We played every sport you can imagine – football, rugby, basketball. Sport’s fun now. This year I’ve been
playing rugby (serious/ seriously/ seriousness) and now I do (waits/ weights/ wates) four times a week.” This year’s camp, run by Leeds
Metropolitan University, started on Sunday, and Joseph, now 13, has come back for more. “I’m looking (forward/ foreward/ for words) to it,” he
says. “I made so many (friends/ enemies/ foes) here last year.”
Leeds Metropolitan’s weight-loss programme has now been (running/ walking/ dancing) for four years and its results are (depressive/
impressive/ repressive). A one-year follow-up of last year’s campers showed that 75 per cent of the children had (maintained/ disdained/
complained) their weight loss and 80 per cent were fitter. As a result, an increasing number of children are being (preferred/ deferred/ referred)
to the £2,000 programme on the NHS.
“This year 16 out of 75 children are being (paid/ paying/ payed) for by the NHS,” says Paul Gately, who runs the camp. “Last year, there (is/
was/ were) five. This is (currant/ actual/ currently) the only treatment (available/ availing/ availed) to overweight children in the UK.”
The camp’s aims are simple: to help the children eat (healthy/ healthier/ healthily) and exercise more. “A lot of kids come to the camp with the
view that physically their bodies are different – that they have a slow (metabolism/ mentality/ metaphor),” says Paul Gately. “It’s a
(misappropriation/ misconception/ mistaking). The camp shows them that they can (lose/ loose/ loosing) weight and get fitter. What we do
is give the kids the skills to (destroy/ manage/ unsettle) their own lives in an environment that makes people fat.”
40
No one is denied food. “We could eat what we wanted on the camp, but in (portions/ buckets/ mountains), and it was all (healthy/ healthily/
healthiness) food,” says Joseph. “It was different to what I normally ate, but that’s all there was so I had it and I just liked it. My favourite food
now is rice. I just love it.”
The camp changed the children’s behaviour by working with them. “We give the kids positive experiences,” says Paul Gately. “Everyone
(ignores/ remembers/ attempts) the cross-country run from school as an experience that they hated. It would never (entertain/ endure/
encourage) a child to be physically active.” Instead his programme makes sure the children all enjoy the sports they play. “You use up lots of
(calories/ colourings/ challenges) running, but what’s the point if you never do it again? However, if a child really enjoys playing basketball and
plays it for the next 20 years, that might keep the weight (on/ out/ off) then.
The camp also helps the children deal with the (psychotic/ psychological/ psychology) side (effects/ affects/ addicts) of their weight, including
(advices/ advisings/ advice) on how to deal with bullying. Joseph says it has really helped him. The parents of other children who came to the
2001 camp also say their children are now much happier, as well as slimmer. Many are spending more time with friends, doing better at school
and buying (trendy/dopey/ outdated) clothes for the first time.
Helping to improve a child’s confidence is often the key to keeping weight off them in the long term. Daniel Smith, 11, is also young and
overweight. Last year, he became so unhappy about weighing 15 stone that he didn’t go to school for three months. His mother didn’t know how
to help him. “It was a self-perpetuating situation. When he (felt/ feel/ fell) down about himself, he wanted to comfort eat. But that made him feel
(worse/ worst/ worser),” says Jan Smith, who runs a bakery in Northfleet, Kent. Daniel just felt (powerful/ dynamic/ powerless). “I felt like
killing myself,” he says.
When he and his mum went to the doctor about it, he was given antidepressants and half an hour with a dietician. “The dietician just said, ’Here’s
your diet sheet. Here’s what you can and can’t eat’ and that was it,” says Jan Smith. “There was no (back-up/ fall out/ overflow), so it didn’t
work.
But Daniel was also lucky. He got on to a new family-based (pilot/ plot/ piled) scheme run by Professor Jane Wardle of University College,
London. The programme gets the whole family, not just the overweight child, to work towards changing their eating and exercise habits. The aims
are very (simpler/ similar/ similarity) to the camp at Leeds Metropolitan University, but they are achieved through 12 weekly sessions. Jane
Wardle says the preliminary results are encouraging. “Daniel lost a lot of fat on the programme, as (has/ had/ have) the other children. There’s
no way that a child would come down to a normal weight in that time, but most of the families seem to understand more about how to manage
their child’s weight.”
Jan Smith says it’s made a big difference to Daniel. “He’s a (lot/ lots/ loads) more confident. I think he feels much more in control,” she says.
He now does more games at school, goes swimming on his own and has (conkered/ conquered/ contoured) his fear of school. “He’s going to
secondary school in September and I know he’s looking (for words/ foreward/ forward) to it now,” she says.
Unlike Paul Gately, Jane Wardle thinks that the children on her programme are (gentically/ genetically/ geneticly) prone to obesity. Scientists at
Glasgow University have recently (lanced/ lent /launched) a study to test the truth of this (climb/ clamp/ claim). An earlier study found that a
single gene (determinated/ determines/ deterrents) whether a fruit fly is an energetic “rover” or an inactive “sitter”. The (scientists/ sciences/
scientifics) are now taking DNA (simples/ shambles/ samples) from 15,000 Scottish children to discover if a similar gene exists in humans.
As a result, Wardle believes that parents cannot be (executed/ blamed/ honoured) for their child’s weight. “At the beginning of the century,
(virtual/ virtuality/ virtually) no one was overweight. In the last few decades the number of overweight children has doubled. It’s a broad social
(tend/ treat/ trend) : individual parents are not to (execute/ blame/ honour).”
Dealing with this (tend/ treat/ trend) is going to be (costing/ costly/ costless). Obesity (yet/ never/ already) kills 30,000 people every year in
Britain. It is (elevated/ estimated/ extricated) to cost the economy directly and indirectly £2bn (annual/ animally/ annually). With the number of
obese people trebling in the last 20 years, these figures are set to (plunge/ stagnate/ rocket).
Paul Gately says: “Doctors aren’t lifestyle managers. You need to get inside an individual’s life to understand why they are obese. You need to
know when they eat, what kinds of food they eat and who they eat with. Doctors just don’t have that time.”
Jane Wardle says: “As a society we are (going to have to/ making to/ go to having to) decide if we are going to get bigger and bigger, or if
we’re going to do something about it.”
41
PART FIVE: VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT: MULTIPLE CHOICE
EXERCISES
42
In this section there are a number of multiple choice exercises. To make it easier for you, the
word for which you have to choose the correct synonym has been underlined. It is important
to bear in mind that some words can have more than one meaning, and the correct answer
depends on how the word is used and in which context. If you are not sure, then read the
entire sentence before deciding which answer is correct. It is also worthwhile looking up the
other alternatives given to find out exactly what they mean and then adding them to your
vocabulary lists. Again, as in the previous exercise there are a number of words which do not
exist at all, so be careful! Once you have completed these texts correctly, they are also good
practice for reading/summarising aloud or for summarising in written form.
Text 1.
He walked like us, he talked like us.
A con man goes back to high school – at the age of 31.
By Mark Miller
Newsweek, p32-p33, February 15th 1999.
He was, his friends agreed, one of the coolest kids in the class. Deandre Deangelo had transferred to Grant High School in Portland, Ore. From
Beverly Hills High, where, he claimed, he had been a basketball star and an honors student. He said he was 17 and that he was a nephew of
former Supremes star Diana Ross. He drove a snappy red 1000 Chevy Camaro and sang solos in the school choir. Because he was outspoken
and articulate about serious subjects, his classmates elected him to student government. They had no way of knowing that he was a 31-year-old
convicted felon.
Deangelo’s real name is Michael Backman, and he is a talented con artist. He got away with his scam for more than three months last fall, until
someone tipped off the police just before Christmas. In some ways Backman’s story is a timeless one – the clever grifter, chasing the American
dream of renewal and reinvention. Weary of life as a practised check forger and car thief, Backman says he went back to high school – the same
one from which he graduated in 1986 – because it was the one place he felt a measure of happiness and success. Now in jail, he spoke to
NEWSWEEK and ABC News’ “20/20” about his belief that he had been transformed by going back to high school. “I liked the feeling of doing that
work and getting that grade,” he says. “All I have to do is do it again.” He seemed sincere, but some others who have known him longer,
including his family, still wonder if he isn’t running one more scam.
At one level, Backman has always been unsure of his identity. He is African-American; his adoptive parents are white. The Backmans were an
idealistic working-class couple: they chose to live in a racially mixed neighborhood in Portland so Michael and his black adopted sister might feel
more comfortable. When Michael was 9, his parents returned his little sister to the foster-care system. They explained that the girl had emotional
problems requiring an expert’s care, but young Michael feared that he might be sent back, too. At school, he says he felt “uncomfortable around
black kids” but “didn’t really know why”. Other black kids would ask him “Where are your parents?” Weary of explaining, he lied and told them his
true mother was Diana Ross: “A lot of them believed that,” he says.
Sensing Michael’s alienation, his parents tried to help, sending him to a high school for the performing arts. Michael failed to fit in with the other
black students, “I didn’t talk the same way. I didn’t dress the same way. I didn’t have the same interests,” he says. “I was a laughing stock.” He
transferred to Grant high, a well-regarded public school. He found a niche, performing with the Royal Blues, a select school singing group, but his
academic performance was indifferent. After graduation and a stint in the army, Backman found his vocation – stealing cars. He learned that, with
a confident manner, forged papers and a few hundred dollars for the down payment, he could drive a brand new car off the lot. He delivered them
to stolen-car rings in the Pacific Northwest and Canada. He was repeatedly caught, arrested (his parents turned him in the first time) and sent to
jail.
But he never stopped dreaming of going to college. In 1994 he decided to apply to the U.S Military Academy. Using a phony high-school
transcript and a bogus basketball record, he persuaded Congressman Carlos Moorhead of California to nominate him to be a cadet. That January
he spent four days at West Point interviewing and visiting classes. He so impressed the army that he won admission and a certificate signed by
President Clinton. That spring, however, he was arrested on a bad-check charge. Out of jail two years later, Backman tried again, this time at
Lewis and Clark College in Oregon. Arriving at the admissions office in a stretch limousine in November 1995, he conned the admissions director,
Mike Sexton, into believing he was Adante Deangelo Ross (this time, Diana’s nephew), 11th in his class and cocaptain of the Beverly Hills High
basketball team. (“He was very good...personable, eloquent,” Sexton ruefully told NEWSWEEK.) But when Lewis and Clark checked, Beverly
Hills High had never heard of Adante Deangelo Ross. In February Backman was arrested and later convicted on six more counts of check fraud.
43
Fresh from California state prison, Backman was wandering the hallways of Grant High in Portland last September, dropping off a student as a
favor to a friend, when a teacher accosted him. “Don’t you have class right now?” the teacher demanded. Why not? he thought. It didn’t take him
long to fake a transcript with a 3.94 GPA from Beverly Hills High, forging the school’s seal ($100 at Kinko’s). For his birth date he chose, with a
wink, April 1, 1981.
At first Backman says he was “terrified. Every time I went down the hallway, I was scared someone would see me and say ‘Aren’t you...?’ “ But
none did. Instead he shone, getting A’s in every subject except advanced Spanish (he had never taken a Spanish course before). “Some kids
said, ‘Are you sure he’s 17?’ “his choir teacher Doree Jarboe recalled. “They just thought he was too good to be true.” He gave her a signed
photo of Diana Ross inscribed “To Doree and the a cappella choir. Thank you so much for being part of Deandre’s life.”
Still, in his baggy pants and Old Navy T shirt, the keys to his Camaro dangling around his neck, Backmann fit in well. “He dressed like us, he
walked like us, he talked like us,” says Bill Phanthongphay, 17. Backman was an ardent advocate of students’ rights. When a young English
instructor played rap music to help illustrate a point, Backman strongly protested that the lyrics were too vulgar for teenagers. Backman was angry
when he heard the news that Thomas Jefferson had sired a mixed-race child with a slave, Sally Hemmings. In class, Backman riveted students
with a story about an old Southern plantation his family bought where slaves had been herded into a pit and scalded with boiling water (he
apparently lifted the details from “Mandingo”).
Impressed, his classmates elected him to student government. For the Christmas concert, he was chosen to sing “O Holy Night”. Two days later
Portland police acted on an anonymous tip: Deangelo, said the caller, was an impostor. Confronted with cops holding his 1986 yearbook picture,
Backman was led away from the school in handcuffs.
In January Backman pleaded guilty to forgery and theft in connection with the fraudulent purchase of a Ford Mustang, and he is likely to be
charged with forging public documents to enrol in the high school. Backman now expresses regret about his life of crime (“it’s been a huge
waste”) and his deception of fellow students, and talks wistfully of going to college after he gets out of jail. That may be a couple of years. Senior
Deputy District Attorney Patrick S. Callahan dismissed Backman’s vow to straighten up as “another round of the same b.s. he has given us all
th
along.” In an interview with ABC’s Connie Chung, to be broadcast on Feb. 15 , his father, Bill Backman, was still hopeful that Michael was finally
adopting a “different attitude”. Maybe this time round, Backman can change his attitude – instead of his identity.
1.
claimed
a. denied
2.
b. unconvincing
c. wannabe
d. convicted
b. collection
c. interruption
d. deception
d. arsonist
b. spring
c. term
d. autumn
b. foiled
c. bamboozled
d. deceived
b. tired
c. involved
d. happy
b. buyer
c. writer
d. booker
b. sum
c. degree
d. step
c. superficial
d. evasive
c. unworried
d. inert
unsure
b. definite
returned
a. taken away from
16.
c. criminal
b. genuine
a. uncertain
15.
b. victim
sincere
a. taciturn
14.
d. attended
measure
a. meter
13.
c. excluded
forger
a. faker
12.
b. selected
weary
a. fascinated
11.
d. modest
tipped off
a. alerted
10.
c. fashionable
fall
a. tumble
9.
b. clapped-out
scam
a. reception
8.
d. troublemaker
talented
a. gifted
7.
c. mediocre student
felon
a. class clown
6.
b. underachiever
elected
a. rejected
5.
d. joked
snappy
a. noisy
4.
c. maintained
honors student
a. grade A student
3.
b. hinted
b. removed from
c. given back to
d. selected from
b. expected
c. decided
d. worried
feared
a. dreamed
44
17.
uncomfortable
a. undecided
18.
a.
b. insufferable
c. stoic
d. ill at ease
b. the class joker
c. the object of
fascination
d. a failure
b. week
c. brief period
d. struggle
a laughing stock
a figure of
ridicule
19.
stint
a. long period
20.
down payment
a. deposit
21.
b. guarantee
a. refusal
c. struggled
d. threw in the towel
b. stood out
c. distinguished
d. assumed
b. unwilling
c. opposing
d. enthusiastic
b. harangued
c. interrogated
d. captivated
b. stole
c. discovered
d. based
b. one-upmanship
c. fear
d. exacerbation
b. worriedly
c. wishfully
d. sadly
b. denial
c. acceptance
d. promise
wistfully
a. fearfully
30.
b. excelled
deception
a. fooling
29.
d. coerced
lifted
a. raised
28.
c. hoodwinked
riveted
a. bored
27.
b. bullied
ardent
a. hesitant
26.
d. realistic
fit in
a. blended in
25.
c. genuine
shone
a. shimmered
24.
b. fake
conned
a. intimidated
23.
d. mortgage
phony
a. authentic
22.
c. loan
vow
45
Text 2.
France's neo-Nazi breeding ground
Rise of the right has its origins in violent student movements
Jon Henley in Paris
The Guardian
The experience still gives Gabrielle nightmares. A normal morning at the Tolbiac faculty of Paris university a couple of years ago, a crowded
lecture hall, a group of sleepy first-year political science students, a sudden commotion.
"They came in so fast nobody knew what was happening," she said. "They were all wearing scarves or masks. They sprayed tear gas everywhere,
and amid the shouting and the uproar they released a whole bunch of rats. It was revolting but also very, very frightening."
Gabrielle, 25, and her fellow students were lucky that time. A leftist student union pamphleteer was beaten with a baseball bat later outside the
Sorbonne and a passerby with the wrong colour skin was stabbed after the Groupe Union Défence left the Les Halles restaurant, where it had
th
been celebrating its 30 anniversary.
Generations of Paris students have learned to fear the GUD. Its déscentes éclaires may be less frequent than they were in the 1980s, when one
of hundreds of such "lightning descents" left 12 victims in hospital, and it has now been banned from its longstanding HQ at the Assas law faculty
near the Panthéon.
But France's ultra-right student movement is still very much alive - and has some disturbing links not only to the legitimate far right of Jean-Marie
Le Pen and his former lieutenant Bruno Mégret, but to some prominent figures on the mainstream right as well.
Most of the GUD's rats noirs (so called after their emblem, a black rat sporting a celtic cross and a martial arts truncheon) now gravitate around
Unité Radicale, a federation of France's disparate ultra-right clans whose best-known member, since last weekend, is the man who pulled out a
rifle on the Champs-Elysées and tried to kill Jacques Chirac.
"Maxime Brunerie was a young militant like lots of others: enthusiastic, determined and serious," said a UR leader, Guillaume Luyt.
"It is not for us to approve or criticise his act; simply to show, in his present distress, that camaradarie is not, for us, an empty word."
Both the GUD and UR, founded in 1998, are rabidly racist, anti-Semitic and anti-American, declared enemies of "global, cosmopolitan finance",
supportive of the September 11 attacks and believers in la France blanche .
While they profess to be genuine "nationalist revolutionaries" rather than neo-Nazis, the paraphernalia of the Third Reich is never far from their
gatherings. When the UR celebrated the summer solstice in the woods near Montségur a few weeks ago, the swastikas were hanging from the
trees along with the banners proclaiming "Europe, Youth, Revolution" and "In Paris as in Gaza, Intifada!"
The group is closely associated with a skinhead record label, Bleu-Blanc-Rock, and the guest speaker at its latest meeting in April was Horst
Mahler, a former member of the Baader-Meinhof group who is now the defence lawyer of choice for Germany's neo-Nazi NPD movement.
But if their words and acts go way beyond even those of the legitimate far right of Mr Le Pen's National Front and Mr Mégret's National Republican
Movement, France's hardcore ultra-right is
not so far removed from the political mainstream as all that.
A number of former and current conservative MPs have passed through its ranks. Two of them, Alain Madelin and Gerard Longuet, went on to
become ministers.
Mr Madelin was briefly economic development minister in the ill-fated 1995 government of Alain Juppé, and Mr Longuet once held the education
portfolio in a right-wing administration headed by Eduard Balladur.
Both were leading members of Occident, the immediate and equally violent predecessor of GUD, in the mid-1960s, alongside the prominent Paris
conservative MP Claude Goasguen. Mr Longuet, who wrote the GUD's founding charter, is now a senator; Mr Madelin ran in this year's
presidential elections under the banner of the free-market Liberal Democracy party.
All three men now angrily refuse to talk about their student political involvement, dismissing it as a youthful if instructive adventure comparable to
the early flirtation with Trotskyism of the former Socialist prime minister Lionel Jospin, which was revealed only last year.
They also insist they were never part of the movement's violent fringe, and they have subsequently moved smoothly up to the highest ranks of
national politics.
The movement's links to the racist far-right are far stronger. Guillaume Luyt is a former head of the Young National Front who resigned from the
party in 2000 mainly because an activist of North African origin was elected to its national committee.
Past and present members of GUD have long appeared in the ranks of the National Front's black-gloved security service, at rallies and
demonstrations. Despite Mr Le Pen's recent drive for respectability, a small group of UR militants managed to take part in this year's National
Front May Day parade.
In black leather jackets, sunglasses and boots, they dodged the security men to chant "Burn the immigrants" and "Anarchy today, the New Order
tomorrow".
And since the foundation of Mr Mégret's MNR in December 1998, Unité Radicale has consistently backed the party's racist and nationalist line,
even fielding candidates - including Mr Brunerie - on the MNR's electoral lists.
46
According to the UR's website: "We do not compete with the MNR, but we aim to complete it by creating room for expression for those who could
be left unsatisfied by its necessary moderation. We do not want to be a mass party but an avant-garde; our tough, organised structure
compensates for our numbers."
Commentators have raised the spectre of a resurgence of ultra-right violence triggered by resentment at the outcome of this year's general
elections, which saw the legitimate far-right
parties fail to win a single seat despite Mr Le Pen's record 18% score in the presidential poll.
Disappointed at the polls, more UR militants could yet turn to direct action.
Reached by telephone, Fabrice Robert, another of the group's leaders, said Mr Brunerie's assassination attempt was "an act of desperation" that
should have surprised no one.
"When the 20% of the French population who voted for the far right find themselves without a representative in parliament, such acts cannot, I'm
afraid, be excluded," he said.
1.
commotion
a, disruption
2.
longstanding
a.
new
9.
disturbing
a. worrying
d. knifed
b. evacuated
c. outlawed
d. evaluated
b. disorganised
c. recently-established
d. long-established
b. interrupting
c. urgent
d. vital
c. enemy
d. concept
b. wearing
c. challenging
d. winning
b. reclusive
c. motivated
d. motivating
b. avoid
c. favour
d. disprove
approve
founded
b. set down
c. set up
d. set upon
rabidly
b. viscously
c. quickly
d. efficiently
b. denounce
c. refuse
d. claim
b. ramassings
c. meetings
d. recruitments
b. to be shunned
c. disapproved of
d. favoured
profess
gatherings
a. collections
of choice
a. to be avoided
20.
c. threatened
b. password
a. deny
19.
b. lynched
d. reserved
a. viciously
18.
d. aggravated
enthusiastic
a. set out
17.
c. aggrieved
c. well-known
a. denounce
16.
b. soothed
b. removed
a. hesitant
15.
d. disgusting
sporting
a. playing
14.
c. revolutionary
emblem
a. symbol
13.
b. exciting
prominent
a. retiring
12.
d. order
banned
8.
11.
c. chaos
stabbed
a. excommunicated
10.
d. going over
beaten
a. shot
7.
c. going on
revolting
a. assaulted
6.
b. going about
b. louder
a. fascinating
5.
d. objection
uproar
a. scream
4.
c. disapproval
happening
a. going off
3.
b. distance
go way beyond
47
a. succeed
21.
a. relief
b. connects
c. connectings
d. connected
b. signed up
c. left
d. betrayed
b. fought
c. collaborated with
d. sneaked
in unnoticed
b. supported
c. undermined
d. behind
b. makes little of
c. makes much of
d. makes up
b. remuneration
c. rebirth
d. restriction
b. initialled
c. intimidated
d. interacted
b. disillusionment
c. pride
d. bitterness
triggered
a. initiated
30.
d. made public
resurgence
a. reduction
29.
c. resuscitated
compensates
a. makes up for
28.
b. covered up
backed
a. denounced
27.
d. inefficient
dodged
a. collided
26.
c. doomed
resigned
a. joined
25.
b. fortunate
links
a. connections
24.
d. recede
revealed
a. disguised
23.
c. precede
ill-fated
a. lucky
22.
b. exceed
resentment
Text 3.
Easy exams make pupils unfit for jobs, say bosses
48
Kamal Ahmed, political editor
Sunday July 21, 2002
The Observer
Britain's education system is being fatally undermined because exams have become too easy and too many pupils are pushed into sub-standard
university courses, says the Institute of Directors.
A major study to be published by the institute this week will reveal that many of the country's top business leaders believe children are leaving
school and university with qualifications that do not make them fit for jobs.
The hard-hitting report, prepared over six months by the head of the IoD, Dr Ruth Lea, says falling standards in schools and universities are one of
our most important national problems.
'When it comes to general education standards, the country is simply not world-class,' the report is expected to say.
'The labour market cannot satisfactorily overcome some very fundamental basic skills deficiencies in literacy and numeracy. Far too many school
leavers are siphoned off into higher education.'
The report will criticise the Government's target of getting 50 per cent of all school pupils into higher education by 2010 as 'ludicrous'. It says far
too many are taking 'soft' subjects at university, such as media studies.
'We see variable and, arguably, declining standards along with endemic grade inflation within the secondary school system, which we believe is in
order to "qualify" more students for higher education,' the report will say.
'The GCSE [has become] the exam "no one can fail", and A-levels are less demanding and discriminatory than they to be.'
The study will reignite the debate about school and university standards. The Government insists that exams are not getting easier and that the
increasing numbers of pupils passing them is a measure of improved teaching methods.
Recent research revealed that universities are now awarding record numbers of first and upper-second degrees. The research also revealed that
in 1987 fewer than 40 per cent of GCSE pupils scored A* to C grades, compared with 57.1 per cent in 2001.
In 1989 the mark needed to achieve a Grade C GCSE was 65 per cent. Last year it had fallen to 48 per cent.
The IoD, which represents some of the most powerful business leaders, now says that employers are becoming increasingly wary of degrees from
many new universities and that the A-level is fast losing its status as the 'gold standard' in exams.
[There are] hugely variable standards of higher education institutions,' the report is expected to say. 'The endemic grade inflation in degree
classes and the proliferation of soft subjects do little to help a graduate's employability.'
The study argues that the number of people going to university should be cut and that students should be encouraged to take vocational courses,
training to be plumbers and intermediate engineers. A chapter on the teaching of maths says that 'standards are slipping in schools' and that there
is a wealth of evidence that the tuition in one of education's core subjects is failing.
The Government is expected to announce a major overhaul of maths teaching in the next few days, and it will write to employers and teaching
bodies to ask how the subject can be 'made more relevant to the twenty-first century'.
This move is part of a response to concerns similar to those raised by the IoD. Estelle Morris, the Education Secretary, will say that new teaching
methods are needed in the subject if students are to be able to use maths skills once they are in employment.
Whitehall officials said that, although some of the IoD's arguments 'were worth listening to', the call for a cut in the numbers of students going into
higher education would lead to elitism in the education system.
'Do they really want to return to the fifties when only a very small percentage of people went to university?' asked one official who is close to
Morris.
'At the moment 10 per cent of graduates go into teaching, and we will need 29 per cent of all maths graduates to go into teaching if we are to
maintain the improvements we have made.
'By 2010, eight out of ten jobs are going to need some form of higher education qualification,' he added. 'How does cutting numbers achieve that?'
1.
undermined
a. damaged
2.
b. insidious
c. no-holds barred
d. snide
c. levels
d. reaches
b. evaluate
c. get over the obstacle of
d. maximise
b. abundances
c. peripheries
d. impressions
b. ridiculous
c. unlikely
deficiencies
ludicrous
a. fascinating
8.
d. expose
overcome
a. lacks
7.
c. discourage
b. heights
a. extricate
6.
b. disguise
standards
a. highs
5.
d. attacked
hard-hitting
a. impartial
4.
c. monitored
reveal
a. conceal
3.
b. ill
d. difficult
declining
49
a. increasing
9.
d. suspicious
b. ill-repute
c. interest
b. levelling off of
c. ever-increasing choice
d. irrelevance
b. plunged
c. decreased
d. upped
b. stimulated
c. respected
d. spared
b. levelling out
c. falling slightly
d. plummeting
b. modicum
c. hint
d. minor element
b. vocational
c. main
d. irrelevant
b. solution
c. suppression
d. facelift
b. motivation
c. system
d. arrogance
overhaul
a. destruction
20.
c. liberal
core
a. optional
19.
b. reckless
wealth
a. mountain
18.
d. reply to
slipping
a. improving
17.
c. retain
encouraged
a. disturbed
16.
b. quench
cut
a. risen
15.
d. imploring
proliferation
a. reduction in
14.
c. restrictive
status
a. reputation
13.
b. varied
wary
a. devil-may-care
12.
d. decreasing
reignite
a. rekindle
11.
c. stunting
demanding
a. challenging
10.
b. improving
move
a. proposal
d. annoyance
Text 4.
A slippery slope of exclusion
The Asylum and Immigration Bill returns to the House of Commons this week. Proposals to remove the
rights of refugee children to be educated in schools must be removed
Rebecca Hardman
Sunday June 9, 2002
No sooner had the Government consigned the debacle of vouchers to its fast-growing archive of unsuccessful asylum policies, than it dreamt up
another equally pernicious measure - removing refugee children's right to be educated in mainstream schools. The asylum bill currently going
through parliament includes proposals to prohibit refugee children in accommodation centres form attending local schools.
One of the founding principles of the 1944 Education Act was that school-based education should be universally available. Allowing a child's
immigration status to determine whether or not they can attend mainstream school is a dangerous and unprecedented attack on this principle.
50
On Tuesday, as the Bill returns to the Commons for its report stage, MPs will have the opportunity to consider amendments that would give
children in accommodation centres the same right to attend mainstream school as any other child. Save the Children believes that MPs who want
to maintain parity of education provision for all children in the UK will support these amendments.
Mainstream nursery or school is the ideal starting point to enable refugee children to rebuild their lives. The structure and routine of a regular
school day can help to provide a sense of normality and security in a child's life, vital to promoting their emotional, physical, educational and social
development and well-being. A child's experience of education and schooling in the UK will also have a lasting impact on his or her long-term
positive integration into school, community and wider society.
There is evidence from other countries, where children are educated outside of the mainstream, that their educational progress is adversely
affected. But school life is not just about the curriculum. The richness and value of social interaction with peers is vital to children's emotional and
mental well-being and to their personal development.
But it is not just refugee children themselves who benefit. There is extensive evidence to indicate that all pupils benefit from the presence of
refugee children in their schools. Headteachers with a significant proportion of refugee children have argued that the proposals are unnecessary,
and that the removal of children seeking asylum would have a detrimental effect on all of the children in their care.
One headteacher points to the benefits: "We challenge anyone to stand in our playground and pick out the refugees from the rich array of children
happily playing together. We regard the presence of refugee children with their particular experiences as a unique benefit to other pupils. They
learn a great deal from them and develop knowledge, respect and acceptance which improves their own understanding of the world around them
and thus their educational opportunities, and prepares them to be good citizens of a multi-cultural society."
Another headteacher agrees that there is no evidence of educational need for the proposed changes, but rather the opposite: "My point is not that
the proposals are illegal, nor that they are morally indefensible (which I believe them to be), but that they are unnecessary, resource-inefficient
and fundamentally at odds with the Government's avowed commitment to pluralism and social inclusion. I am convinced that educating refugees
and asylum seekers in a mainstream school actually works My experience, backed by the judgement of Ofsted and HMI, supports that conviction."
This is not to deny that the presence of refugee children in mainstream schools can present a substantial challenges to individual schools,
teachers and Local Education Authorities These schools face similar challenges from the inclusion of other children - for example, homeless
children and children whose first language is not English.
But the answer is not to segregate groups of children that are viewed as problematic but to build upon and share the good practice that has
already been developed, and to ensure that adequate and appropriate resources are available to support schools and teachers. The alternative is
a slippery slope of exclusion, for there is no guarantee that this policy will begin and end with refugee children.
Refugee children are children first and foremost. The measures currently contained in this bill represent an alarming and unwarranted attack on
their rights. The Government should have the courage and the conviction to adopt a more enlightened approach.
Rebecca Hickman is Political Advisor for Save the Children which has campaigned on the asylum bill in alliance with other organisations as part
of the Refugee Children's Consortium.
1.
debacle
a. scheme
2.
b. normal
b. criticisms
c. implications
d. adjustments
b. superiority
c. inferiority
d. equality
c. frequent
d. limited
b. advantageously
c. beneficially
d. respectively
b. corresponding
c. essential
d. correct
b. damaging
c. encouraging
d. boastful
b. mix
c. choose
b. typical
c. singular
array
d. preference
unique
a. mundane
13.
d. pretend
detrimental
a. fit
12.
c. highlight
vital
a. favourable
11.
b. discriminate
adversely
a. superfluous
10.
d. forbid
b. short-term
a. unfavourably
9.
c. limit
lasting
a. durable
8.
b. enhance
parity
a. less
7.
d. underachieving
amendments
a. beliefs
6.
c. subversive
determine
a. dictate
5.
d. curiosity
prohibit
a. encourage
4.
c. disaster
mainstream
a. special
3.
b. success
d. bleak
illegal
a. unlawful
b. unright
c. unforgiveable
d. unpardonable
51
14.
fundamentally
a. basically
15.
d. contrary to
b. strong belief
c. generality
d. survey
b. disintegrate
c. propagate
d. separate
b. deficient
c. sufficient
d. affluent
b. shocking
c. warning
d. troublesome
b. tolerable
c. uncomplicated
d. unexceptional
alarming
a. expected
20.
c. supported
adequate
a. efficient
19.
b. spelled out
segregate
a. amalgamate
18.
d. excessively
conviction
a. principle
17.
c. unimportantly
backed
a. independent of
16.
b. exceptionally
unwarranted
a. unprovoked
Text 5.
Revealed: Britain's drug habit
Exclusive poll shows more than half of young flout law
Ben Summerskill and Kamal Ahmed
Sunday April 21, 2002
The Observer
More than half of Britain's 16- to 24-year-olds have taken illegal drugs, according to one of the most extensive studies undertaken into the growing
drug culture.
The news comes as the Government prepares a significant relaxation of drugs laws, The Observer can reveal.
More people now believe tobacco is a 'drug of greater risk' than ecstasy, according to the Observer/ICM poll, which also reveals that more than 5
million people regularly use cannabis, 2.4m ecstasy and 2m amphetamines and cocaine.
Two in five people between 25 and 34 and more than a third of 35- to 44-year-olds say they have taken unlawful drugs, confirming that drug use
is more prevalent than previously believed. The findings, in a poll commissioned as part of a months-long investigation into drug use published
today in Drugs Uncovered, a special 64-page magazine free with The Observer, will increase pressure on the Home Office to speed up reform of
drugs laws.
David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, is now set to lay fresh legislation before Parliament in June to allow the reclassification of cannabis from
Class B to Class C, a move which many see in effect as decriminalisation.
Government officials said that two of Blunkett's three 'tests' on cannabis had now been met. Firstly, the Advisory Council on Misuse of Drugs
reported earlier this year that it supported reclassification of cannabis. Secondly, in Lambeth, London, an experiment by the Metropolitan Police
under which users have cannabis seized rather than face arrest has been seen as a success, with wide public support.
The third test is the long-awaited Home Affairs Select Committee report on drugs which, as The Observer revealed earlier in the year, will also
back the move when it is published in mid-May. Sources said Blunkett would then 'lay an order in council', allowing an amendment to the Misuse
of Drugs Act.
In another signal that Blunkett is softening his line on drugs, in December GPs will be sent new guidelines on prescribing heroin. Published by the
Department of Health under pressure from the Home Office, these will say that doctors should be more willing to prescribe the drug to addicts. The
Home Office hopes that up to 1,500 heroin addicts could be helped. At the moment only 300 are prescribed heroin by GPs, a tiny percentage of
the 270,000 heroin addicts in the country.
The Observer poll reveals that 28 per cent of people over 16 – 13 million adults - have taken illegal drugs. Men are twice as likely to have taken
drugs as women. Two million people say they took drugs while under 14. Four out of five illegal drug users have taken cannabis, 27 per cent
ecstasy, 25 per cent amphetamines and more than one in five LSD and cocaine.
Roger Howard, chief executive of Drugscope, said: 'We are not surprised. The threat of criminal sanctions is simply not stopping large numbers of
young people experimenting with drugs.'
Police forces already claim to have insufficient resources to monitor use of all drugs. The experiment in Lambeth introduced confiscation, rather
than arrest for those found in possession of cannabis. Its pioneer, Commander Brian Paddick, has now been suspended after a former partner
claimed he had smoked cannabis in Paddick's home.
Under the scheme, arrests for dealing in hard drugs have climbed and street robberies have fallen.
Opponents of existing drugs laws say the illegality of cannabis and ecstasy in particular leads to the 'criminalisation' of otherwise law-abiding
young people. Last year Prince Harry admitted taking cannabis while celebrating the end of his GCSEs.
52
The Home Affairs Select Committee is expected to recommend this summer that cannabis be decriminalised and ecstasy downgraded to Class B.
However, even as the Home Secretary wrestles with Britain's drugs crisis, he faces public pressure not to relax the laws. Just 35 per cent of
voters say cannabis should be decriminalised; 7 per cent want ecstasy made legal; only 4 per cent think all drugs should be freely available.
ICM Research polled 1,075 people aged 16-plus in February/March. The results were weighted to reflect the opinions of all adults.
1.
extensive
a. detailed
2.
a. ignores
c. counteracted
d. confiscated
b. forbidding
c. eliminating
d. assessing
b. relenting
c. reinforcing
d. reiterating
b. revisions
c. remediations
d. remedies
b. doubtful
c.
d. accepting
b. penalties
c. persuasions
d. permission
b. excessive
c. unavailable
d. a lack of
b. solve
c. look on
b. opposition
c. ownership
b. maintained
c. refuted
d. denied
b. handling
c. trading
d. commercialising
b. advocates
c. adversaries
d. competitors
b. openly said
c. concealed
d. pretended
impassive
d. control
d. distribution
opponents
admitted
a. allowed in
20.
b. contrabanded
dealing
a. stalwarts
19.
d. disapproved
claimed
a. coping
18.
c. underrated
possession
a. decided
17.
b. downplayed
monitor
a. connection
16.
d. limitation
insufficient
a. look at
15.
c. legalisation
sanctions
a. unnecessary
14.
b. prohibition
willing
a. petitions
13.
d. uncommon
guidelines
a. refusing
12.
c. widespread
softening his line
a. regulations
11.
d. unprecedented
allowing
a. reflecting
10.
c. legal
seized
a. permitting
9.
b. against the law
supported
a. consumed
8.
d. carried away
decriminalisation
a. upheld
7.
c. carried out
b. controlled
a. lawfulisation
6.
b. carried up
prevalent
a. limited
5.
d. inappropriate
unlawful
a. disrespectful
4.
c. considerate
undertaken
a. carried on
3.
b. general
wrestles
b. grapples
c. shies away
d. fears
53
Text 6.
Drive to boost sex convictions
Gaby Hinsliff, chief political correspondent
The Observer
Rape victims who know their assailant will be given fresh encouragement to report the attack in a drive to boost sex crime convictions.
Fear of not being believed by police or of a humiliating ordeal in the witness box is still thought to deter many women from coming forward,
particularly if the attacker is an ex-partner or acquaintance. Barely one reported rape in 13 now ends in a conviction.
This week the Government will launch new training programmes for police officers in sensitive handling of cases, backed up by new standards for
collecting forensic evidence in the vital first hours after an allegation.
A national review of the way rape victims are treated in police stations will also be launched, in hopes of extending the use of special facilities such
as 'rape suites', where women can be interviewed and examined privately in homely surroundings.
Home Office Minister John Denham and Solicitor General Harriet Harman will also outline plans to boost domestic violence prosecutions including new powers for judges to issue restraining orders preventing convicted men from approaching their wives when released from prison,
and a consultation on whether domestic violence victims should be given the right to anonymity in court.
This would effectively mean men accused of domestic violence would also have their names withheld for fear of identifying the wife.
'A lot of rape cases occur within the home or by people you know, and we can't really separate domestic violence on the one side and rape on the
other,' said one Home Office source.
Under plans unveiled last week in the Criminal Justice White Paper, courts will for the first time be allowed to study evidence in serious crimes not
only of previous convictions but behaviour patterns shown up by acquittals. For example, a man who has been repeatedly accused and acquitted
of date rape may see former witnesses recalled in a later case.
The action plan for rape victims follows a highly critical report by Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary (HMIC) and HM Crown
Prosecution Inspectorate earlier this year, which called for specialist rape prosecutors to be consulted before any case is dropped.
It also found a quarter of police crime reports failed to contain basic information such as whether the victim knew the attacker.
The Home Office has been promised a Criminal Justice and Sentencing Bill in this autumn's Queen's Speech, expected to contain many of the
measures.
Harman is also pushing for a separate domestic violence Bill, which would include compulsory 'murder reviews' to be conducted whenever a
woman is killed by a partner.
1.
assailant
a. solicitor
2.
b. assessor
a. campaign
3.
d. hope
b. increase
c. deter
d. impeach
c. sentences
d. guilt
humiliating
b. invigorating
c. unfair
d. shameful
b. discourage
c. motivate
d. inspire
deter
a. encourage
7.
c. deal
b. numbers
a. frightening
6.
b. idea
convictions
a. phrases
5.
d. attacker
boost
a. aid
4.
c. abseiler
drive
coming forward
54
a. telling out
8.
d. appearance
b. beating up
c. contacting
d. embarrassing
b. indifferent to
c. fearful of
d. charged with
c. kept secret
d. deed poll
b. begin
c. are aggrieved
d. worsen
b. concealed
c. rejected
b. confinements
c. liberations
d. incarcerations
b. rarely
c. occasionally
d. scarcely
d. revealed
acquittals
repeatedly
measures
a. reasons
20.
c. acceptance
unveiled
a. frequently
19.
d. frightening
occur
a. imprisonments
18.
c. criticising
b. changed
a. tested
17.
b. trivial
d. treatment
withheld
a. happen
16.
c. probing
accused of
a. published
15.
b. dismissal
approaching
a. innocent of
14.
d. hinder
b. accusation
a. avoiding
13.
c. put into effect
allegation
a. assault
12.
b. call a halt to
vital
a. important
11.
d. speaking out
handling
a. avoidance
10.
c. revealing out
launch
a. examine
9.
b. naming out
b. justifications
c. reservations
d. proposed steps
compulsory
a. voluntary
b. obligatory
c. irrelevant
d. indifferent
55
Text 7.
Suicide fear for teen victims of Blunkett's get-tough rules
Children behind bars: As 12-year-old 'bail bandits' are sent into custody, Martin Bright launches The
Observer's campaign with the Children's Society
The Observer Crime and Justice debate
Sunday July 7, 2002
The Observer
The teenager made it clear what would happen to Bentley if the two boys were forced to share a cell. 'If you don't give me my own cell, I'm going
to beat him up,' he spat at police.
Bentley had been on remand at the notorious Feltham Young Offenders Institution and was due to appear on a burglary charge for stealing 1,000
cigarettes. The 17-year-old was taken to the police cells before a court hearing in Slough four months ago. He never made it. Instead he was
taken to hospital with blood streaming from his broken jaw after his cellmate carried out his threat. The blow's force was so great his bottom jaw
was knocked out of alignment and doctors later fitted a steel plate to hold his face together. For the three days Bentley spent in hospital, he was
chained to a prison officer.
Bentley was on trial for a first offence that he'd committed to fund his drug habit. He shoplifted a bottle of whisky while on bail and, under strict
adherence to new guidance from the Home Office, the courts adopted a two-strikes-and-you're-out policy. Home Secretary David Blunkett wants
to get tough on 'bail bandits' like Bentley and he was sent to one of the country's harshest youth prison regimes.
On his first night in prison, the time when experts believe children are most at risk of suicide or self-harm, Bentley was given no treatment for his
drug addiction and had no assessment of his mental state. Later he told drugs counsellors that he thought about suicide all the time.
'I was a first offender. To put someone inside so unexpectedly, knowing I'd been stealing because of the habit, was cruel really. I could easily
have killed myself that night. I had my trainers with the laces in them.'
Sheila Quinn, a mental health worker in Manchester, saw her 17-year-old son, Paul, slip into mental illness after a period on remand in Stoke
Heath Young Offenders Institution in the West Midlands. 'He told me that if he was still inside on his eighteenth birthday, he would kill himself. He
had never experienced anything like this, and he is now an extremely paranoid young man,' she said.
Paul had been accused of threatening a friend with a knife during a fight. When he was released on bail, he began having religious visions and
jumped out of a window. As a result he was sent back to prison, for his own safety and for mental assessment. Like Bentley, he was a drug user,
but he had no record of violence. All charges against him were later dropped, but Paul still suffers mental illness brought about, his mother
believes, by a combination of drug abuse and his time spent inside. Sheila Quinn said: 'I feel passionately that children who should not be in prison
in the first place are being left to rot.'
This weekend a prominent children's charity has described the Government's policy on youth crime as an abuse of children's human rights. A book
to be published by the Children's Society this week includes interviews with more than 100 staff and inmates in young offenders' institutions. It
describes a bleak picture of a system struggling to cope with the increasing number of children being incarcerated.
Vulnerable Inside, by Barry Goldson, shows that Bentley and Paul's experiences are not unique. In one example, a child with learning disabilities
was remanded in custody for the theft of toffees from a jar of sweets and criminal damage to the lid of the jar. One prison officer said: 'I think that
when the door closes and there is no one else around, the bravado goes and they realise that they are just children. The thought of me being
locked up alone when I was 15 - it would have scared the hell out of me.'
But the most shocking testimony of bullying, intimidation, neglect and self-harm comes from the children themselves. One 16-year-old tells of a
child who committed suicide after bullying: 'This morning, when we came out for breakfast, the screws said that he had tried to kill himself and he
was in hospital on a life-support machine. At dinner they said he was dead. He was 16, the same age as me. Everyone was quiet.'
The latest figures show a rise of 21 per cent in the number of 15-year-olds remanded into prison in the 12 months to April 2001. A quarter of all 15to-16-year-olds remanded in prison are accused of property offences.
Children's charities are voicing serious concerns about Blunkett's April announcement that suspects as young as 12 will now be remanded in
custody for persistent petty crimes. The Home Secretary has already ordered 600 places to be made available in secure local authority
accommodation in 10 pilot areas and the scheme will go national in September.
The policy is having a knock-on effect in the prison population, with 15-year-olds being moved from secure units into prison to make way for the
younger arrivals. These, in turn, have displaced young offenders into already overcrowded adult prisons.
Author Barry Goldson, a specialist in youth crime policy at Liverpool University, said: 'This is morally reprehensible and cuts across any civilised
notion of justice. Children will be imprisoned not because they have committed serious crimes, but for being a nuisance.'
1.
forced
a. told
2.
b. asked
c. asked
d. made
b. available to
c. forced to
d. saved from
b. time
c. criminal act
d. acquittal
due to
a. supposed to
3.
offence
a.
offer
56
4.
fund
a. charge
5.
b. sell
b. to be more lax
c. ill-reputed
d. voluntary
b. failing
c. fighting
d. ignoring
b. interrogated
c. tortured
b. twisted
c. frank
d. imprisoned
d. distorted
intimidation
b. violence
c. solidarity
d. procrastination
concerns
b. ideas
c. worries
d. frights
b. regularity
c. regularly
d. regular
b. plane
c. experimental
d. unorthodox
b. a dice effect
c. a domino effect
d. a backgammon effect
b. disallowed
c. disjointed
d. disparate
persistent
pilot
a knock-on effect
a. a chess effect
20.
d. dismal
shocking
a. examination
19.
c. bright
incarcerated
a. regulated
18.
b. frightening
struggling
a. opinions
17.
d. accused
bleak
a. bullying
16.
c. accusatives
b. well known
a. frightening
15.
b. accusings
d. worryingly
a. freed
14.
d. past history
c. unnecessarily
a. avoiding
13.
c. fear
b. very strongly
a. disappointed
12.
b. tendency
prominent
a. obscure
11.
d. cruellest
passionately
a. lovingly
10.
c. most unusual
charges
a. accusations
9.
b. toughest
record
a. inclination
8.
c. to be more scared d. to be more severe
harshest
a. easiest
7.
d. finance
to get tough
a. to be more lenient
6.
c. deal
reprehensible
a. disgraceful
57
Text 8.
BBC to show controversial terror film
The decision to screen a documentary shot in the Twin Towers during the 11 atrocities has been attacked
by the victims' families
Terrorism crisis - Observer special
Kamal Ahmed, political editor
The Observer
The BBC is to broadcast a controversial documentary on the 11 September terror attacks despite protests from relatives who have accused the
makers of 'walking across the graves' of loved ones killed in the strikes on the World Trade Centre.
Although lauded as one of the most remarkable pieces of television to mark the terrorist atrocity, the 90-minute film, shot inside the Twin Towers
as people fled for their lives, was attacked by victims' families when it was broadcast in America earlier this year.
The film will be the centrepiece of the BBC's coverage of the anniversary of the event. Official ceremonies will focus on St Paul's Cathedral, which
will play host to a national memorial service held at the same time as a service in New York. Tony Blair is expected to attend the event along with
British relatives of people killed on 11 September, politicians from all parties and members of the royal family.
A number of victims' families complained that when the film, 9/11, was broadcast by the CBS television network in March, it reawakened horrific
memories of the day.
'They're going to show my mum exploding,' said Carie Lemack, whose mother Judy Larocque, died on one of the American flights which crashed
into the Twin Towers. 'We are a country that doesn't show public executions, and that's basically what this boils down to.'
There were calls for transmission to be delayed until families had had more time to deal with the experience of losing loved ones. CBS, which ran
a warning before the film was broadcast, refused and was later praised for the high standard of the programme.
The film is by two French video journalists, Jules and Gedeon Naudet, who were in New York making a film about firefighters when the attack
happened.
The two brothers became famous internationally when 10 seconds of film shot by Jules of the first plane crashing into one of the towers was
beamed around the world.
The two men spent the next hour in the Twin Towers, surrounded by debris, screaming victims and chaos. Fire fighters are seen in a desperate
battle to save people, before turning and running. Many are never seen alive again.
The two men continued filming after one of the towers had collapsed, leaving a thick cloud of ash covering people as they fled. Fire fighters used
the camera lights to find their way through the buildings.
The BBC is still in discussion about whether the film can be shown before the 9pm watershed. Much of the language is graphic and the footage, if
run uncut, horrific.
'It is an important piece of film which will be handled sensitively,' said one BBC executive. 'We are not in the business of upsetting people.'
When it was shown in America, it split opinion on whether it was a voyeuristic and unnecessary detailing of the day or a piece of historic television
footage.
'It feels like you are being buried alive,' said one review in the New York Times. 'You are on the ground, gray ash falling everywhere, as if it is
being shovelled over you. There is nothing in this film that shouldn't be shown and much that is immensely moving.'
Although the programme is likely to be one of the main talking points of the day, services across the country will mark the anniversary of the
attacks.
The service at St Paul's Cathedral will begin at 2pm, the same time as a service at Ground Zero in New York. Both will mark the time of the first
attack, just before 9am in America.
David Dimbleby is being lined up to lead the coverage from Britain, with the 6pm BBC news presenter, Huw Edwards, anchoring a special
programme from New York. The documentary will be run in the evening.
Channel 4 said that it was also planning a series of special programmes. The acclaimed documentary maker, Norma Percy, who made Death in
Yugoslavia, has made a film about al-Qaeda, called Tackling Terror.
In it she has interviewed General Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, Blair and the Russian president Vladimir Putin.
1.
broadcast
a. air
2.
b. transfer
d. amazed
b. incredible
c. unwitting
d. tasteless
b. tragically
c. tragedy
d. tragical
b. main element
c. artwork
d. opera
centrepiece
a. peripheral event
6.
c. praised
atrocity
a. tragic
5.
b. raised
remarkable
a. valueless
4.
d. send
lauded
a. braised
3.
c. prohibit
what it boils down to
58
a. the key issue here
7.
d. broadcast
b. mourners
c. litter
d. clearance workers
b. unpleasantness
c. fear
d. pandemonium
c. hoping
d. try
b. fell
c. disappeared
d. grumbled
b. ran about
c. ran away
d. ran to
b. being debated
c. being related
d. being permitted
graphic
b. enticing
c. extenuating
d. explicit
upsetting
b. distressing
c. dissolute
d. dismounting
split
a. divised
20.
c. miscast
in discussion
a. discounting
19.
d. disturbed
fled
a. implicit
18.
c. ignored
collapsed
a. under talking
17.
b. applauded
b. effect
a. ran in
16.
d. to come to terms with
battle
a. exploded
15.
c. to threaten
chaos
a. struggle
14.
b. to grieve
debris
a. aggression
13.
d. postponed
b. plastercast
a. rubble
12.
c. professed
beamed
a. forecast
11.
b. proposed
praised
a. snubbed
10.
d. what the public wants
to deal with
a. to be angry about
9.
c. what is sad
delayed
a. procrastinated
8.
b. unfair
b. devised
c. division
d. divided
service
a. ceremony
b. celebration
c. event
d. inauguration
Text 9.
No sex 'n' drugs... just Jesus
Christian rock is losing its happy-clappy image and picking up a flock of fans with a plunge into heavy
metal – to the horror of pop pundits
York Membery
59
The Observer
A Christian rock band from a tiny seaside resort has eclipsed both Oasis and Blur to become one of Britain's most spectacular music successes in
the United States.
While most British bands struggle to make an impact with American audiences, the Littlehampton-based Delirious have sold more than 300,000
copies of their most recent album in the US, outselling stars such as Michael Jackson and R.E.M.
But despite playing live to more than 600,000 people in the past six months alone and supporting Bryan Adams on his current UK tour, they have
made little impact in Britain. Their fans blame the refusal of British radio stations to give Delirious airtime.
Delirious are the latest addition to the Christian rock market, which has exploded in the past two years. Last week EMI signed a five-year
worldwide distribution deal with the band's label, Furious Records.
'The Christian rock scene is getting bigger all the time, although that's not really reflected in media coverage,' said Tony Patoto of Furious. 'For
instance, Delirious have sold one million records in America alone over the past four years. That's why we've been pursued about setting up this
deal.'
The five-piece group, who have been compared to Ireland's U2, play loud stadium rock to huge audiences - a far cry from the early Nineties, when
they performed for church youth groups. In 1996 Delirious turned professional and set up the Furious label.
The popularity of bands such as Delirious and Payable On Death (POD), a US heavy metal band, has made the Christian rock scene worth up to
£20 million a year, according to one music business estimate. Crucial to the resurgence of Christian rock is a more youth-conscious approach. In
the Eighties, Christian groups such as the garish Stryper - whose members wore yellow-and-black uniforms and released albums such as In God
We Trust - played concerts in churches, where they threw copies of the Bible at the audience. But these days groups like Delirious and POD no
longer force hellfire down fans' throats. POD even featured in the Bible of teenage cool - the New Musical Express.
But for all their desire to be viewed as a rock band, as distinct from a 'Christian rock band', it would be hard to mistake Delirious for the likes of the
badly behaved Oasis or the laddish Limp Bizkit. Outside their rehearsal room, a poster proclaims the Christian message: 'Love God. Love One
Another. Love the Lost.' Their songs have titles like 'Deeper, Promise' and 'I Could Sing of Your Love Forever'. One of their live favourites, a
catchy punk song, includes the lyric: 'I'm not ashamed of the Gospel, I'm not ashamed of the one I love.'
However, as both sales and plaudits stack up, the group continue to struggle against a music industry that fails to recognise their success. Since
turning professional, the band's sales have not been reflected in the Top 40 because most sales are made in Christian bookstores and are not
taken into account by compilers of the UK's pop charts.
'Historically, few Christian groups have managed to break through,' said Delirious vocalist Martin Smith. 'There's a stigma attached. People think
our music will be either second-rate or clappy-happy. But we don't have a specific agenda. We're not solely about bringing God into the charts.'
But despite the overwhelming lack of radio attention, the Christian message seems to be getting through. The band now claim to have a swelling
fan base outside the Christian rock scene. One of their biggest fans is Men Behaving Badly star Neil Morrissey.
At the same time, Arundel-based Furious is thriving. It now has a turnover of £3m a year and has signed up new Christian acts - including a
Scottish band called Superhero whose debut album is being produced by Alan Branch, best known for his work with Primal Scream and Björk.
Whether Christian rock can succeed remains to be seen. Pat Gilbert, editor of the rock magazine Mojo, said: 'Many people in Britain still feel
incredibly uneasy seeing guys with guitars leaping around on stage singing about Christian worship and advocating things
like no sex before marriage, which are so completely at odds with the whole rock 'n' roll aesthetic of sex 'n' drugs 'n' rock 'n' roll.'
1.
tiny
a. gigantic
2.
c. minuscule
b. failed
c. imitated
d. showmanship
b. fly through
c. deny
d. give up
c. act
c. concert
d. avoidance
b. exonerate
c. excuse
d. say it is the fault of
blame
a. argue
7.
c. pointless
impact
a. impression
6.
b. impressive
struggle
a. have problems
5.
reflected
a. brought to the fore b. denied
8.
b. attention
c. intention
d. exclusion
b. ignored
c. refused
d. tolerated
estimate
a. intelligent guess
11.
d. hidden
pursued
a. followed up
10.
c. concealed
coverage
a. boycotting
9.
d. done better than
spectacular
a. dull
4.
d. huge
eclipsed
a. mocked
3.
b. enormous
b. miscalculation
c. expert analysis
d. precision
b. hatred
c. indifference to
d. rebirth of interest
resurgence
a. protests against
60
12.
audience
a. fan club
13.
b. impressarios
b. pointless
c. ditty
d. addictive
c. critical praise
d. dissatisfaction
b. schedule
c. dream
d. mission
b. rapidly increasing
c. indifferent
d. static
b. doing little
c. doing really well
d. doing reasonably well
swelling
thriving
a. doing badly
20.
d. gets
agenda
a. diminishing
19.
c. reads
b. bad press
a. diary
18.
b. shouts
plaudits
a. criticals
17.
c. in accordance with d. against
catchy
a. innocuous
16.
b. as opposed to
proclaims
a. writes
15.
d. public
as distinct from
a. as much as
14.
c. disclaimers
uneasy
a. laid-back
b. amused
c. bored
d. uncomfortable
Text 10.
Earth 'will expire by 2050'
Our planet is running out of room and resources. Modern man has plundered so much, a damning report
claims this week, that outer space will have to be colonised
The end of earth as we know it?
Observer Worldview
Mark Townsend and Jason Burke
Sunday July 7, 2002
The Observer
Earth's population will be forced to colonise two planets within 50 years if natural resources continue to be exploited at the current rate, according
to a report out this week.
A study by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), to be released on Tuesday, warns that the human race is plundering the planet at a pace that outstrips
its capacity to support life.
61
In a damning condemnation of Western society's high consumption levels, it adds that the extra planets (the equivalent size of Earth) will be
required by the year 2050 as existing resources are exhausted.
The report, based on scientific data from across the world, reveals that more than a third of the natural world has been destroyed by humans over
the past three decades.
Using the image of the need for mankind to colonise space as a stark illustration of the problems facing Earth, the report warns that either
consumption rates are dramatically and rapidly lowered or the planet will no longer be able to sustain its growing population.
Experts say that seas will become emptied of fish while forests - which absorb carbon dioxide emissions - are completely destroyed and
freshwater supplies become scarce and polluted.
The report offers a vivid warning that either people curb their extravagant lifestyles or risk leaving the onus on scientists to locate another planet
that can sustain human life. Since this is unlikely to happen, the only option is to cut consumption now.
Systematic overexploitation of the planet's oceans has meant the North Atlantic's cod stocks have collapsed from an estimated spawning stock of
264,000 tonnes in 1970 to under 60,000 in 1995.
The study will also reveal a sharp fall in the planet's ecosystems between 1970 and 2002 with the Earth's forest cover shrinking by about 12 per
cent, the ocean's biodiversity by a third and freshwater ecosystems in the region of 55 per cent.
The Living Planet report uses an index to illustrate the shocking level of deterioration in the world's forests as well as marine and freshwater
ecosystems. Using 1970 as a baseline year and giving it a value of 100, the index has dropped to a new low of around 65 in the space of a single
generation.
It is not just humans who are at risk. Scientists, who examined data for 350 kinds of mammals, birds, reptiles and fish, also found the numbers of
many species have more than halved.
Martin Jenkins, senior adviser for the World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge, which helped compile the report, said: 'It seems things
are getting worse faster than possibly ever before. Never has one single species had such an overwhelming influence. We are entering uncharted
territory.'
Figures from the centre reveal that black rhino numbers have fallen from 65,000 in 1970 to around 3,100 now. Numbers of African elephants have
fallen from around 1.2 million in 1980 to just over half a million while the population of tigers has fallen by 95 per cent during the past century.
The UK's birdsong population has also seen a drastic fall with the corn bunting population declining by 92 per cent between 1970 and 2000, the
tree sparrow by 90 per cent and the spotted flycatcher by 70 per cent.
Experts, however, say it is difficult to ascertain how many species have vanished for ever because a species has to disappear for 50 years before
it can be declared extinct.
Attention is now focused on next month's Earth Summit in Johannesburg, the most important environmental negotiations for a decade.
However, the talks remain bedevilled with claims that no agreements will be reached and that US President George W. Bush will fail to attend.
Matthew Spencer, a spokesman for Greenpeace, said: 'There will have to be concessions from the richer nations to the poorer ones or there will
be fireworks.'
The preparatory conference for the summit, held in Bali last month, was marred by disputes between developed nations and poorer states and
non-governmental organisations (NGOs), despite efforts by British politicians to broker compromises on key issues.
America, which sent 300 delegates to the conference, is accused of blocking many of the key initiatives on energy use, biodiversity and corporate
responsibility.
The WWF report shames the US for placing the greatest pressure on the environment. It found the average US resident consumes almost double
the resources as that of a UK citizen and more than 24 times that of some Africans.
Based on factors such as a nation's consumption of grain, fish, wood and fresh water along with its emissions of carbon dioxide from industry and
cars, the report provides an ecological 'footprint' for each country by showing how much land is required to support each resident.
America's consumption 'footprint' is 12.2 hectares per head of population compared to the UK's 6.29ha while Western Europe as a whole stands
at 6.28ha. In Ethiopia the figure is 2ha, falling to just half a hectare for Burundi, the country that consumes least resources.
The report, which will be unveiled in Geneva, warns that the wasteful lifestyles of the rich nations are mainly responsible for the exploitation and
depletion of natural wealth. Human consumption has doubled over the last 30 years and continues to accelerate by 1.5 per cent a year.
Now WWF wants world leaders to use its findings to agree on specific actions to curb the population's impact on the planet.
A spokesman for WWF UK, said: 'If all the people consumed natural resources at the same rate as the average US and UK citizen we would
require at least two extra planets like Earth.'
The world's ticking timebomb
Marine crisis:
North Atlantic cod stocks have collapsed from an estimated 264,000 tonnes in 1970 to under 60,000 in 1995.
Pollution:
The United States places the greatest pressure on the environment, with its carbon dioxide emissions and over-consumption. It takes 12.2
hectares of land to support each American citizen and 6.29 for each Briton, while the figure for Burundi is just half a hectare.
Shrinking Forests:
Between 1970 and 2002 forest cover has dwindled by 12 per cent.
Endangered wildlife:
African elephant numbers have fallen from 1.2 million in 1980 to half a million now. In the UK the songbird population has fallen dramatically, with
the corn bunting declining by 92 per cent in the past 30 years.
1.
exploited
a. used
2.
b. stolen
c. protected
d. avoided
b. divulged
c. assembled
d. published
released
a. concealed
62
3.
plundering
a. depleting
4.
b. used off
b. children
b. less abundant
b. indirect
c. produce
d. conduce
b. chosen
c. chose
d. choice
b. guessed
c. rounded off
d. exact
b. drama
c. slight
d. stable
b. conflict
c. worsening
d. ignorance
b. microscopic
c. undervalued
d. tiny
b. slight
c. dangerous
d. severe
b. levelling out
c. falling
d. unchanging
b. learn
c. ignore
d. statistic
b. appeared
c. disappeared
d. fluctuated
b. cornered
c. concentrated
d. contoured
b. arguments
c. proposals
d. agreements
ascertain
vanished
focused
claims
fireworks
a. fear
26.
b. induce
declining
a. maintenances
25.
d. explicit
drastic
a. concerned
24.
c. unclear
overwhelming
a. reappeared
23.
d. rarely
deterioration
a. evaluate
22.
c. merciful
sharp
a. rising
21.
d. take in
estimated
a. minor
20.
c. dispel
option
a. enormous
19.
d. human beings
curb
a. improvement
18.
c. aliens
vivid
a. drastic
17.
d. damaged
scarce
a. precise
16.
c. ruined
b. exude
a. choose
15.
d. used over
absorb
a. reduce
14.
d. depleted
mankind
a. veiled
13.
c. used in
b. disgusted
a. plentiful
12.
c. purchased
destroyed
a. give off
11.
d. uncertainty
exhausted
a. men
10.
c. refusal
b. necessary
a. sullied
9.
d. concedes
required
a. used up
8.
c. recedes
b. support
a. superfluous
7.
b. exceeds
d. allieviating
condemnation
a. severe criticism
6.
c. fighting
outstrips
a. supersedes
5.
b. digging
b. revivals
c. problems
d. disappointments
marred
63
a. spoiled
27.
b. indoctrinated
b. assessors
d. representatives
b. written up
c. privatised
d. hushed up
b. estimate
c. need
d. have
b. fallen
c. soared
d. used
require
a. buy
30.
c. legislators
unveiled
a. made public
29.
d. led
delegates
a. culprits
28.
c. blessed
dwindled
a. risen
Text 11.
Whatever happened to teen tearaways?
Be happy, think positive and trust your parents - that's the philosophy of today's youth
Ben Summerskill
The Observer
Additional reporting by Edward McGown and Dino Mahtani
Britain's young people are more optimistic, positive and principled than millions think. They trust their parents, believe in their country and care for
each other, a major new portrait of young Britain reveals.
Commentators may paint a picture of a selfish generation high on drugs and soft on the work ethic. However, one of the most comprehensive
surveys of young people's views carried out for a decade suggests that the first generation to come to adulthood in the new century is tolerant,
thoughtful and generous.
Almost two in three 11- to 21-year-olds say that their most important ambition in future is to be happy. In spite of being inculcated with the values
of the 'Thatcher years' during early childhood, only one in six told Observer/YouGov pollsters that making money would be their greatest priority in
life.
'These are remarkable findings,' said Philip Hodson of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. 'One of the consequences of the
"get-rich-quick" years of the 1980s and the Nineties has been that many people have indeed had more money. But all too many people, the
parents of today's teenagers, have now realised that it doesn't actually make you happy. This survey appears to confirm that this realisation is
being passed on.'
In spite of repeated claims that family life is in peril, nine out of 10 young people trust their parents to guide them through adolescence. Four out of
five say they trust brothers and sisters and their teachers.
Only 13 per cent say most of their knowledge of growing up came from TV and radio, both often attacked as a malign influence on the young.
Perhaps even more disturbing for religious and 'family values' campaigners, just one in 50 young Britons trust most what vicars and priests have to
say about sex and growing up.
The poll reveals optimism for the future. More than half our young people think they will one day be better off than their parents ever were. Two in
five think they will be healthier. And, as the Government pledges that 50 per cent of young people should eventually attend university, four out of
five believe they will be better educated than their parents.
The YouGov poll was carried out to mark the start of the Commonwealth Games, which open in Manchester this week. It followed a nationwide
competition to identify what young people think of life in a multi-cultural Britain.
64
'Everybody has the right to fulfil their dreams and do what they wish,' said 15-year-old Shaznara Khan from Burnley. 'Today, life in Britain as a
Muslim teenager is very different from how it would have been if I were born earlier.'
However Merrick Jackson, 13, from west London cautioned: 'I've walked past people who keep looking at me with a strange look and kept their
distance. I think it's because they are not used to seeing a black person around their area. They probably think that because I'm young I'm up to
no good, and think that all black people just rob houses.'
Two in five of Merrick's generation still worry that young people from black and Asian families have less chance of succeeding in today's Britain.
The latest Labour Force survey confirms that they are right. Just 53 per cent of black Caribbean young men aged 18-30 were employed compared
to 81 per cent of white males in the same age group.
Two in three think that young people from poorer families have less chance of success in later life. And one in three say the same will apply to gay
and lesbian teenagers as they grow up.
However, a majority think that girls will now grow up to do as well as boys. The one in five who think they will do less well is matched by a similar
number who think girls will do better. In many professions such as the law this trend is borne out, with successful female entrants now almost
matching the number of successful males.
Only 38 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds voted in last year's general election. But that does not mean that young Britons are disengaged from
important political issues. Eighty per cent of 11- to 21-year-olds believe that it is right that girls should have access to the morning after pill. More
than six out of 10 think sex education should begin in primary schools.
However, young people do appear more cautious than their parents generation about the legalisation of cannabis. Just four in 10 support a cause
which is finally capturing the attention of politicians.
The reason for not voting may be that only one in 50 young people trust politicians a lot - slightly more, admittedly, than trust journalists.
'The survey does reflect what we are hearing around the country,' said Paul Simpson of the Children and Young People's Unit, set up by
Children's Minister John Denham last year. 'Politicians and the media need to engage their enthusiasm better so they feel confident they can
influence things through politics.'
Even though disconnected from party politics, Britain's youngsters actively demonstrate their concern for the world around them in other ways.
More than two thirds say they give money to charity. Almost half do voluntary work to help other people. And one in three support environmental
groups such as Greenpeace.
YouGov surveyed 708 young people across Britain between 17 and 19 July.
1.
selfish
a. self-righteous
2.
a. visit
b. reasons
c. results
b. improve
c. approve
d. series
d. prove
b. under treat
c. under treatment
d. threatening
b. look over
c. look to
d. look after
b. lead
c. led
d. inform
c. harmless
d. fearless
b. cumbersome
c. worrying
d. unfeasible
b. priests
c. advocates
d. opposition
b. admits
c. disproves
d. promises
b. apply for
c. go to
d. come from
campaigners
pledges
a. threatens
14.
d. objecting
disturbing
a. opponents
13.
c. objection
b. sad
a. pointless
12.
b. objective
malign
a. harmful
11.
d. politicians
guide
a. reject
10.
c. elected
trust
a. look at
9.
b. voters
in peril
a. under threat
8.
d. unfeeling towards
confirm
a. disprove
7.
c. drained of
consequences
a. causes
6.
b. aloof
priority
a. objectivity
5.
d. self-obsessed
pollsters
a. opinion-hunters
4.
c. self-service
inculcated
a. steeped in
3.
b. self-sufficient
attend
65
15.
cautioned
a. warned
16.
c. on a pair with
d. on a part with
b. tendency
c. threat
d. thought
b. fearful of
c. out of touch with
d. regarding
cautious
a. wary
20.
b. on a pear with
disengaged
a. irresponsible
19.
d. pleaded
trend
a. fashion
18.
c. suggested
matched
a. on a par with
17.
b. interrupted
b. close to
c. in line with
d. naive than
voluntary
a. stressful
b. paid
c. unremunerated
d. community
Text 12.
Half of all 'elder abuse' inflicted by relatives
Care homes - Observer special
Amelia Hill
The Observer
Thousands of old people are being physically, sexually and psychologically abused in their own homes by relatives and those paid to look after
them, according to a new survey.
Of more than 2,400 complaints made, almost half concerned abuse inflicted by relatives, with 28 per cent perpetrated by a paid worker and 11 per
cent by a friend of the victim.
'Most cases of elder abuse in Britain take place in the victim's own home and are perpetrated by family or paid carers,' said Gary FitzGerald, chief
executive of Action on Elder Abuse (AEA), an independent charity that conducted the study. 'The frequency of abuse in the homes of old people is
terrifying.'
According to the survey, one in three old people suffers some form of psychological abuse; one in five is physically abused and the same number
conned out of their savings; more than 10 per cent are neglected and 2.4 per cent sexually abused.
Almost 400,000 old people receive home help from largely untrained carers funded by their local council, and the study's authors fear the scale of
abuse will rise after last week's revelations that 64,000 places in care homes have been lost since Labour came to power in 1997, with the closure
of 827 private and voluntary care homes last year alone.
One victim was 78-year-old Margaret Panting, found dead in the Sheffield home of her former son-in-law five weeks after he had removed her
from sheltered housing accommodation to look after his three children.
'This is a case of elder abuse,' said pathologist professor Guy Rutty, who found more than 100 injuries on Panting's body when he examined it
after her death last July, including cigarette burns under her arms and razor cuts on her stomach.
Peter Biggin and his sons, Martin, 18, and Nathan, 16, were arrested on suspicion of murder, a charge that was dropped last month when the
court said it could not be proved who was responsible for the injuries. All three deny the charges.
'It's the opposite end of the age spectrum to child abuse,' said Rutty. 'This lady had been repeatedly struck, she's been excessively gripped, she's
been burned and she's probably also been cut with sharp implements.'
Such sufferings are not, however, unusual: the study shows more than two-thirds of elder abuse takes place in the home of the victim, compared
with just 11 per cent in nursing homes and 10 per cent in residential homes.
'These closures are forcing old people to stay at home in ever-larger numbers,' said FitzGerald. 'Unfortunately, a total lack of regulation means this
situation is one of the most dangerous they could be in: the situation is an open book for abuse.
'There is no requirement for carers to be trained at all,' he added. 'This is all the more shocking when you think that someone's home is a
completely unsupervised environment where intensive, intimate one-to-one relationships build up, often completely unobserved.'
1.
a. bodily
psychologically
b. spiritually
c. mentally
d. psychosomatically
66
2.
relatives
a. strangers
3.
a. fearing
c. stolen of
d. bullied
b. over cared for
c. despised
d. driven insane
b. unpleasant
c. unqualified
d. untimely
b. agree of
c. are adamant that
d. are indifferent to
d. inconsequential
c. level
d. lethal
b. reclosures
c. closures
b. hurts
c. wounds
d. disclosures
d. insults
c. freed
d. convicted
deny
b. question
c. refute
d. eliminate
b. person
c. prism
d. level
b. control
c. constancy
d. feeling
b. necessity
c. claim
d. idea
b. feared
c. frightening
d. afraid
spectrum
regulation
requirement
a. rule
20.
b. cheated out of
b. not followed up
a. frequency
19.
c. horrified
dropped
a. group
18.
b. horrific
injuries
a. admit
17.
d. regression
revelations
a. pursued
16.
c. regular
b. legalisation
a. spots
15.
b. regulation
scale
a. enclosures
14.
d. carried out
fear
a. levelling
13.
c. carried off
untrained
a. worry
12.
b. carried over
neglected
a. voluntary
11.
d. incarcerated
conned out of
a. not looked after
10.
c. inflicted
terrifying
a. convinced out of
9.
d. were made by
frequency
a. a bit scary
8.
c. had done with
conducted
a. regularity
7.
b. were doing
b. interned
a. carried away
6.
d. paid carers
perpetrated
a. injected
5.
c. uncles
concerned
a. were to do with
4.
b. family members
shocking
67
PART SIX: WORD INSERTION EXERCISES
68
For each of these exercises, ten words have been removed from each text extract. Try to figure
out where each of these should go. If you know what part of speech each of the missing words
is, then this should be a help to you. On the whole, these exercises are really difficult, so if you
cannot get all of the answers then don’t panic.
Exercise 1.
As most social care staff only too well, clients’ relationships family members can have a huge on whether not they accept services, how the work
is carried, and on its effectiveness and outcomes. Workers may have to tread, especially where other members of the family are either part of the
problem or progress, and staff are often in danger of being regarded as meddlesome. The dilemmas and faced by staff are particularly in
situations where family dynamics are a part of the problem, as was the case in Alison Beattie’s work with Jean Baxter (not her real name).
(Source: Community Care, 10 – 16 August 2000, page 32, Article title: No safety at home).
influence
major
out
pronounced
carefully
difficulties
hinder
or
know
with
Exercise 2.
Beattie is a community support for vulnerable adults in a pilot scheme run under the aegis of the Down Lisburn Trust. The scheme aims to
practical support to adult of abuse. She works closely with social work and health. About six months ago an assistant care manager her about
Jean Baxter, who had been admitted to hospital as a result of a assault. She had alleged that the perpetrator was grandson. Beattie went to see
her shortly she was discharged. Although Baxter had a history of refusing services she accepted Beattie’s intervention. She had been living on
her own for many years, since her husband had died, and was not close to her only daughter. One neighbour helped her out, but most of her
contacts were drinking partners.
professionals
emotionally
provide
contacted
social
her
serious
survivors
worker
after
(Source: Community Care, 10 – 16 August 2000, page 32, Article title: No safety at home).
Exercise 3.
Edinburgh is facing a shortage in social workers if more can’t be found to enter the profession, it was revealed this week. The City Council set to
launch urgent measures aimed at redressing the numbers of new trainees before problem affects the provision of in the city. At present the
numbers of those applying for in the social work department are falling, provoking that it could become harder fill empty positions, leaving the
department under-staffed and pressure.
is
fears
vacancies
dramatic
applicants
the
to
under
falling
services
(Source: The Herald and Post, Thursday July 26th 2001, pages 1/3, article title: Skills shortage in social work).
Exercise 4.
At the, more qualified workers are leaving the social work than enter it, with Edinburgh placing eighth out of 32 local authorities on these grounds.
Currently, the social work department three full-time vacancies one part-time post empty in the children and families teams, after filling nine
vacancies the last three months. But some sixty per cent of in these areas are aged 41 over, suggesting fewer young recruits into the service.
Applications for post-graduate work training have by than half nationally over the last six.
and
has
years
department
coming
moment
over
more
workers
fallen
th
(Source: The Herald and Post, Thursday July 26 2001, pages 1/3, article title: Skills shortage in social work).
Exercise 5.
69
Opponents of the death have never had a clear-cut martyr: of the 513 men and executed since the U.S Supreme reinstated capital in 1976, not
one has later been proved innocent. That almost changed last fall. In September 1998 a named Anthony Porter was two days shy of lethal for a
pair of 1982 murders, when the Illinois Supreme Court intervened. Because his IQ is just 51 the court ruled, Porter’s mental competency to be
examined. The Chicago man was still on death last week when Milwaukee resident Alstory Simon confessed that he the victims in self during a
drug dispute.
convict
defence
needed
Court
women
row
punishment
penalty
shot
injection
(Source: Newsweek, p.33, Feb. 15th 1999. Article title: Coming two days shy of martyrdom (extract))
Exercise 6.
Joshua lives on a north London estate his mother Heather, who is on support, and 12-year-old brother Rory. Joshua’s parents up when he was
five old, and he continues to his father sporadically. “My mum guides me, but I up to my dad,” he says. A lot of friends’ parents aren’t together,
and he doesn’t think it makes that difference. “My mum gives me advice and the to have a good, happy life. My dad gives me too, but not on
schoolwork, on life – how to get on well with people, how to survive and keep it real.”
split
his
advice
much
with
years
income
see
look
stability
th
(Source: The Guardian Europe, Thursday July 4 2002, p.9. Article title: Being 16 (extract))
Exercise 7.
Born on a Scottish in 1962, Clark started dancing at the of four and would get a bus to Aberdeen four times a where he was often the only in the
class. By 13 he was at the Royal Ballet in London. He became a there and then at Ballet Rambert. His first public was in 1982 and by 1984 he
had made 16 original pieces- The parallels are unavoidable and when I him about Billy Elliot he laughs and says he hasn’t seen the. Apparently
though, many of his friends and colleagues have insisted the movie is based on his.
dancer
film
age
farm
life
concert
week
studying
question
boy
(Source: Gi, May 2002, p. 56. Article title: Are ye right there, Michael? (extract)
70
71
PART SEVEN: VOCABULARY BUILDING II: FINDING
SYNONYMS IN A TEXT
Here you will find a large number of exercises to help you build up your vocabulary as well as
enable you to better understand what you are reading. For each of these texts it is
recommended to make vocabulary lists and try to use the new vocabulary you acquire when
you write and speak. These texts are also good for reading aloud, or summarising either orally
or in written form.
Text 1.
World leader or third world straggler?
The second of a three-day series shows that Britain's battle against the killer disease is better than
sometimes painted
Sarah Boseley, health editor
Tuesday August 6, 2002
The Guardian
Part one.
The scourge of cancer, the dread disease of the west and the most edgy issue in the politics of the NHS, appears to be on a slow but perceptible
retreat even though it is too early for government reforms to have had any impact on the figures.
Death rates in Britain are dropping, and they are coming down faster than in most of the rest of Europe. Data compiled by Peter Boyle, director of
the division of epidemiology and biostatistics at the European Cancer Institute in Milan, show that Britain almost achieved a target set by the EU in
1985 for a 15% reduction in cancer deaths by 2000. Only Austria and Finland got there, but Britain and Italy came close.
Recent statistics produced for Cancer Research UK from Professor Sir Richard Peto of Oxford University's clinical trials unit show that Britain has
the biggest drop in the world in deaths from the two leading cancers, lung and breast. Lung cancer deaths are down because of Britain's
successful war on smoking, and breast deaths are down because of screening to pick up tumours earlier and widespread use of the hormonal
drug tamoxifen which was discovered in Britain over half a century ago. Prof Peto said that there has been an overall drop of 20% in premature
cancer deaths (among the middle aged) during the 1990s.
72
It is a very different picture from that commonly painted, of Britain lagging hopelessly behind the rest of Europe because of outdated equipment,
inadequate spending on drugs and the bad planning which has led to chronic shortages of staff. All those problems exist, but the effect they have
had on people's chances of living or dying with cancer is energetically disputed among some of the most brilliant medical brains in the country.
Find a word or expression in part one which means:
-
thorny topic
___________________________________________
-
noticeable
___________________________________________
-
effect
___________________________________________
-
information put together
___________________________________________
-
nearly reached a level
___________________________________________
-
figures published over the last few weeks
___________________________________________
-
testing to detect the presence of cancer
___________________________________________
-
common taking of
___________________________________________
-
unmodern, old-fashioned
___________________________________________
-
fiercely questioned by
___________________________________________
Part two.
One camp says you must measure success by death rates. The other says that five-year survival rates give a truer picture. What may seem an
arcane dispute is a fundamental question. The five-year survival Bible is the Eurocare study, published in 1996. It blighted cancer services in
Britain. It painstakingly amassed complex data on many different types of the disease from cancer registries in 17 countries. The conclusions were
shocking. England's average five-year survival for men was 31.1% and for women 42.7%, followed by Scotland and then only Slovakia, Slovenia
and Estonia.
Perhaps most surprising was the data on breast cancer, where screening in the UK and the British wonder drug tamoxifen are agreed to have
made a big difference. Eurocare still said that for those diagnosed in 1987-89, only 68% survived for five years, compared with 83% in France and
81% in Sweden and Iceland.
Eurocare III is expected later this year and will probably have a similar tale to tell. But Prof Boyle's data suggests that public confidence in cancer
treatment in Britain has been unfairly damaged.
Mortality rates, he says, are a better indicator than five-year survival. "Five-year survival can give you some interesting insights but it doesn't give
you the complete picture. At the end of the day, you really want to stop people dying of the disease... The UK reached the 15% reduction in
mortality target in women but not in men. We're the third or fourth best in Europe."
-
a more exact result
____________________________________
-
harshly criticised
____________________________________
-
put together with great effort
_____________________________________
-
findings, results
_____________________________________
-
unexpected
_____________________________________
-
the numbers of people dying
_____________________________________
73
Part three.
There is another argument against the Eurocare data. Britain has one of the best systems of cancer registries in the world, collecting information
about every cancer patient in the country. Many other countries in Europe are nowhere near as thorough. The study suggested, implausibly, that
Estonia was top of the league in certain cancers. It also showed that immigrants to Switzerland fared better than native Swiss - because they went
home to die and their deaths were not recorded.
But Michel Coleman, of the cancer and public health unit of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said there were just as many
problems with mortality data. "If you are talking about cancer, both pieces of information are useful and they tell you different things," he said.
"Women who die of breast cancer, for instance, might have been treated 10 years earlier, so mortality rates tell you little about the success or
otherwise of treatment." The dispute matters because the Eurocare data has been used to help set an agenda for change. It has spurred on the
government to reforms in cancer care, but there are those who think it has unduly skewed spending in favour of new drugs, which rarely cure
cancer and sometimes prolong lives by only a matter of weeks.
At a conference for cancer specialists organised by the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly in November 1999, the Eurocare study was used to claim
that patients in Britain were getting a "third world service".
Eurocare is also much cited because there is little other data by which to compare services against those of other countries. One of the problems
is that cancer services are organised differently: France has 23 dedicated cancer hospitals, for instance, and Italy eight, whereas in Britain cancer
treatment is organised within 34 networks which have a cancer centre within a general hospital at their hub. Funding systems and people's
entitlement to treatment are radically different.
-
unrealistically
________________________________
-
at the head of the list
________________________________
-
argument
________________________________
-
pushed, stimulated
________________________________
-
changes
________________________________
-
seldom
________________________________
-
is also singled out
________________________________
-
in another way
________________________________
-
centre, in the middle
________________________________
-
financing programmes
________________________________
-
right to care
________________________________
Part four.
No fuss
According to Prof Boyle, based in Milan, there is none of the public fuss over waiting times in Italy that we have here, and yet the whole of Europe
has shortages of staff that mirror ours: cancer specialists, nurses, radiographers and radiotherapists are in short supply across the globe as
people in wealthy countries live longer and cancer becomes more of a priority. "I don't think there is anywhere in the world that is happy with the
number of trained nurses and doctors," said Prof Boyle.
On the other hand, Britain is ahead of the game in screening. It was one of the first countries to set up a national breast cancer screening
programme, in 1988. Cervical cancer screening, which began in the mid-1960s, also went national in the mid-1980s. Many countries in Europe
have access to screening only for those who can pay. The Netherlands and Sweden are exceptions and France has just started national
screening for breast cancer.
The real changes in cancer trends have little to do with the latest drugs, which can prolong survival by a matter of months. The biggest
improvement has come from Britain's success in curbing smoking rates, the cause not only of the biggest killer, lung cancer, but of several other
cancers and other diseases. Lung cancer death rates are soaring in France, are catastrophic in Hungary where high tar cigarettes are still popular
and are predicted to surge in Spain where women began to smoke only relatively recently.
Treatment can and must improve in Britain and lives will be extended in some of the rare, most distressing forms of the disease perhaps by a few
years, but radical change in the outcomes for British people with cancer is some way off.
-
in the opinion of
____________________________
74
-
has not enough personnel
____________________________
-
around the world
____________________________
-
rich
____________________________
-
in advance of other countries
____________________________
-
went countrywide
____________________________
-
which can make people live longer
____________________________
-
reducing
____________________________
-
increasing dramatically
____________________________
-
on a disastrous level
____________________________
-
forecast
____________________________
-
is still quite far away
____________________________
75
Text 2.
76
Sceptics question funding promise
Sarah Boseley
The Guardian
The government is putting large sums of new money into cancer services: £255m last year, £407m this year and £570m next year. But cancer
centres and district hospital cancer units around the country say they have not seen much of the promised extra cash.
Many say their allocation will only cover the extra bill for expensive new cancer drugs recommended by the National Institute for Clinical
Excellence (Nice).
"It became apparent that whatever [extra] we got could only be spent on Nice drugs," said Hilary Thomas, professor of oncology at the Royal
Surrey county hospital in Guildford. "So we're giving £2,000 worth of drugs to somebody to give them six weeks of life with pancreatic cancer, but
we can't improve services we need to treat people across the board.
"There is real disillusionment in cancer services."
Stuart Welling, chief executive of the Brighton and Sussex Universities hospitals trust, said the total new cancer money he has seen this year for
what is one of the country's 34 cancer networks is £1.7m.
"Out of £407m, I would have expected to see more."
Mike Richards, the cancer tsar, admits the government does not know where all the money has gone. "There have been areas where, because of
financial constraints, it probably hasn't been possible to get the money through in its entirety," he said.
The government-commissioned Wanless report on NHS funding, recommended an extra £1.3bn a year on top of the current spending of £2.5bn.
Find a word or expression in the text which means:
-
investing a lot of financial resources in
_____________________________________
-
the money they receive from the government
_____________________________________
-
costly
_____________________________________
-
obvious
_____________________________________
-
disappointment
_____________________________________
-
money restrictions
_____________________________________
-
in addition to
_____________________________________
Text 3.
Trip guidelines risky for teachers, say unions
Polly Curtis
The Guardian
Part one.
77
A teaching union today called for a rethink on new government guidelines for school visits saying they could make teachers more vulnerable to
investigation and prosecution.
The guidelines, produced by the Department for Education and Skills, call for schools to appoint a trip co-ordinator to assess potential risks
involved in every outing. Local education authorities will also have to appoint someone to oversee each trip.
Launching the guidance booklet, which includes advice on risk assessment and emergency procedures, minister for young people and learning,
Stephen Twigg, said: "Parents and pupils need to know that every measure will be taken to protect their children from danger. LEAs and Teachers
need to feel confident that they have the training and clear framework to carry out their jobs safely and successfully."
But Chris Keates, deputy general secretary of the National Association of School Masters Union of Women Teachers, said, although the
guidelines offered some sound advice, she believed appointing co-ordinators an "ill-conceived" idea.
-
a reconsideration
_____________________________________
-
susceptible
_____________________________________
-
to nominate
_____________________________________
-
possible dangers
_____________________________________
-
excursion, school trip
_____________________________________
-
action to be taken in a crisis situation
_____________________________________
-
step
_____________________________________
-
very good tips
_____________________________________
-
badly thought-out
_____________________________________
Part two.
"The proposal for school-based co-ordinators is unlikely to make trips safer," she said. "It will simply increase the number of teachers vulnerable to
investigation and prosecution should problems arise.
"NASUWT already strongly advises members to think very carefully before organising or becoming involved in school trips. We will undoubtedly
extend that advice to the co-ordinator's role and caution them against accepting such an onerous responsibility." Instead, Ms Keates suggested
safety on school trips be monitored by fully trained health and safety officers employed by local authorities.
John Bangs, assistant general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said his members' concern was over increased red-tape and placing
the additional burden of this responsibility on teachers without lightening their workload elsewhere.
Phil Willis, Liberal Democrat education spokesman, agreed, adding: "New guidance for school trips and visits is vital. However, without
government support to indemnify teachers we are going to continue to see this valuable element of our children's education diminish.
"The number of problems caused by teacher negligence is minuscule compared with the vast numbers of well organised and successful school
trips."
Find a word or expression in part two which means:
-
will probably not
___________________________________
-
warn
___________________________________
-
checked, carried out by
___________________________________
-
worry, fear
___________________________________
-
bureaucracy
___________________________________
-
the extra load
78
___________________________________
-
essential
___________________________________
-
carelessness
__________________________________
-
tiny
__________________________________
-
huge, enormous
__________________________________
Part three.
He urged the government to "put in place the support mechanisms to ensure that teachers receive the support they deserve".
The guidelines follow several well-documented cases of fatal accidents on school trips in recent months.
The health and safety executive last month announced it was to prosecute Leeds city council after the deaths of Hannah Black, 13, and Rochelle
Cauvet, 14, in October 2000 while on a week-long residential trip, organised by Royds school in Leeds, to Stainforth Beck in North Yorkshire. At
the end of last term a 12-year-old boy from the Washington area of Tyne and Wear died while on a school organised activity holiday.
The Association of Teachers and Lecturers had earlier called for an overhaul of the organisation and legal structure that covers school trips.
-
pleaded with
_________________________________
-
to make certain
_________________________________
-
merit
_________________________________
-
deadly
_________________________________
-
a restructuring of
_________________________________
Text 4.
UK immigration figure of 2m rejected by Home Office
Tania Branigan
The Guardian
Part one.
The Home Office united with campaign groups yesterday to dismiss an assertion that more than 2 million migrants will arrive in the UK over the
next decade.
The figure was produced in a report by Migration Watch UK, founded by Sir Andrew Green, a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Syria, and
David Coleman, a demographer from Oxford University.
Set up in December last year, the group describes itself as an independent thinktank that has "no political axe to grind" and is funded by the
public. "We are producing what we hope is the best description of the [migration into the UK] situation," said Sir Andrew yesterday. He added: "We
do not believe the present situation is either sustainable or in the interests of any group in our society."
The research combines government statistics with estimates by the group itself of figures such as the number of illegal entrants. Sir Andrew said
that the key figure on which Migration Watch UK based its findings - 180,000 immigrants a year - came "straight out of a Home Office document".
A Home Office spokeswoman flatly denied that the group's figures were accurate and said the country was likely to see net migration of around
135,000 people a year - a far cry from the 200,000 claimed by Migration Watch UK, which would equate to a city the size of Cambridge.
-
joined together with
__________________________________
-
people from other countries seeking to live in Britain
__________________________________
-
that is not putting forward any one political argument
__________________________________
-
financed by
79
__________________________________
-
a representative
__________________________________
-
refuted
__________________________________
-
precise, correct
__________________________________
-
much different to
__________________________________
-
which would be the same as
__________________________________
Part two.
"The figures in the report are an overestimate," she said.
"They include returning British citizens, for example, as well as people who are not settling here permanently."
Tauhid Pasha, of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said: "David Coleman's report at the very best should be treated with scepticism,
and at worst is scaremongering."
The council dismissed Migration Watch's claim that only 27% of asylum seekers were granted asylum or special leave to remain, saying the real
figure was just over 50%.
Sir Andrew said yesterday: "Let's not close down the debate by talking about scaremongering or racism... Even if they were all paragons, 2 million
people would be a problem.
"Unless reasonable, rational people address these issues, you leave the field wide open to a bunch of extremists, and we are strongly opposed to
that."
The BNP has welcomed the creation of Migration Watch.
Sir Andrew is chairman of the British charity Medical Aid for Palestinians, and a board member of Christian Solidarity Worldwide. He became
interested in migration issues when principal adviser on the Middle East to the foreign secretary, and his efforts to remove from Britain what he
saw as Islamic extremists were frustrated by the courts.
Dr Coleman, the group's consultant, has repeatedly criticised immigration rates.
Find a word/expression in part two which means:
-
coming to live here on a long-term basis
_____________________________________________
-
suspicion, disbelief
_____________________________________________
-
inciting fear
_____________________________________________
-
models of perfection
_____________________________________________
-
his attempts
____________________________________________
80
Text 5.
Tough on crime, tougher on jails
Alternatives to custody desperately sought as number of inmates jumps to record 71,000
Alan Travis, home affairs editor
The Guardian
Part one.
Cherie Blair stood up and declared this week that the huge increase in prison numbers and the prevalence of short-term sentences was crippling
the prison system.
Her Prison Reform Trust speech followed a Downing Street seminar two months ago at which she and her husband had listened to Martin Narey,
the director general of the prison service, attack the courts' "continuing love affair with custody" and warned them: "We cannot simply keep
building ahead of this thirst for custody."
Mr Narey suggested to the Blairs that removing those who get sentences of six months or less would reduce the prison population by 6,500 at a
stroke.
They have not been the only senior political figures recently trying to persuade the courts to send fewer people to prison. The lord chief justice,
Lord Woolf, the lord chancellor, Lord Irvine, and the home secretary, David Blunkett have repeatedly tried to "talk down the prison population".
Find a word/expression in part one which means:
1.
stated
______________________________
2.
enormous
______________________________
3.
tendency to favour
______________________________
4.
having a destructive effect on
______________________________
5.
conference
______________________________
6.
proposed
______________________________
7.
immediately
______________________________
81
8.
convince
______________________________
9.
consistently
______________________________
10.
to discuss with a view to reducing the numbers of people in prison
______________________________
Part two.
Indeed, Mr Blunkett is the first home secretary since Douglas Hurd in the late 1980s to declare that prison does not work and that alternatives to
custody have a much better chance of reducing crime. This month Mr Blunkett told an international crime conference
in London: "We have had an increase from 40,000 to 71,000 over the last seven years in the number of prison places and a fat lot of use it has
been in reducing crime and disorder."
You would not have heard either Michael ("prison works") Howard or Jack ("prison works for some") Straw making such a speech. Indeed, you
would have to go back to Mr Hurd whose 1989 criminal justice white paper famously stated that "prison was an expensive way of making bad
people worse" to have found a precedent. Mr Hurd was determined to bring down a then record prison population of 45,000 to 40,000. He
succeeded but it took several years and the development of "punishment in the community".
David Blunkett is now finding out what Mr Hurd painfully learned: that it is easy for home secretaries to sound tough on crime and "talk up" the
prison population but it is far harder to "talk it down". That is especially true if from time to time you want to give a much tougher message on
violent crime such as this year's "crackdown" on street crime.
1.
to claim
________________________________
2.
is ineffective
________________________________
3.
the other options to incarcerating people
________________________________
4.
it has been of no use whatsoever
________________________________
5.
costly
________________________________
6.
a higher number of prison inmates than ever before
________________________________
7.
discovering
_______________________________
8.
severe, strict
_______________________________
9.
much more difficult
_______________________________
10.
campaign to drastically cut down on wrongdoing
_______________________________
Part three.
The remorseless rise in prison numbers from that Douglas Hurd-inspired low of 40,000 in January 1993 to the record 71,000 today has been
accompanied by a succession of home secretaries - from Kenneth Clarke to Michael Howard to Jack Straw - who have persistently "talked tough"
on crime.
The turning point coincided with the tragic murder of James Bulger which propelled crime in Britain to centre stage of the political debate which it
has never left. Each home secretary introduced at least one and sometimes two new criminal justice acts each containing a wholesale package of
reforms, most of them urging the courts to use longer sentences of one sort or another.
Mr Blunkett has not yet had a chance to introduce his first major criminal justice bill. His attempt last autumn was knocked off course by the need
to introduce anti-terrorism measures following September 11. He has promised a battery of new measures designed to reduce the prison
population and develop alternative rigorous community penalties. They have tough sounding names, custody plus, custody minus, community
custodial orders (weekend prison), but if they work they should, as Mr Narey suggested to the Blairs, remove the prisoners serving sentences of
six months or less.
Find a word/expression in part three which means:
1.
unashamed
82
________________________________
2.
a series
________________________________
3.
constantly, repeatedly
________________________________
4.
moment of change
________________________________
5.
happened at the same time as
________________________________
6.
...which made crime a central issue in governmental discussions
________________________________
7.
legislation rulings to deal with law breakers
________________________________
8.
pleading with the legal system
________________________________
9.
severe
________________________________
10.
...but should they succeed,
________________________________
Part four.
Instead they will undergo "tough" community penalties under the supervision of a much expanded probation service. The details of those
measures will be published next Wednesday and the bill will be introduced in the autumn. But while the 12 months has passed the prison
population has accelerated. It stood at 66,800 when Mr Blunkett became home secretary and has now risen to 71,480.
Home secretaries cannot instruct magistrates and judges on sentences but they can shape the political atmosphere and, sometimes, the media
coverage of crime that fuels the public thirst for tougher sentences.
The detailed prison figures show that the biggest increases have taken place in the number of prisoners on remand. There are 12,400 unconvicted
people inside awaiting trial, a rise of 16% in the last 12 months. That is one in six of all prisoners and a majority of them do not go on to receive a
prison sentence.
The number of women in prison is also rising sharply. This weekend there are 4,428 women in prison. Ten years ago the number was 1,577.
Much of the increase is due to drug-related offences.
Find a word/expression in part four which means:
1.
will be subjected to
______________________________
2.
steps
______________________________
3.
will be made known
______________________________
4.
will come into effect
_______________________________
5.
increased extremely quickly
_______________________________
6.
they can play a role in forming political development
_______________________________
7.
the press focus
_______________________________
8.
makes the public more favourable to stricter penalties for offenders
_______________________________
9.
unsentenced
_______________________________
10.
is because of
83
_______________________________
Part five.
Building new prisons has not solved the overcrowding crisis. In the last 10 years, 19 new prisons have been built - 14 of them are already
overcrowded. This weekend there are 14,000 prisoners who are doubled up two to a cell designed for only one.
In 1994 the Home Office produced research showing that the "incapacitation effect" of locking up criminals meant that a rise of 25% in the prison
population was needed to cut the overall crime rate by only 1%. In the past eight years that research has been put to the test. Crime has fallen by
around 33% over that period but the contribution that prison has made probably accounts for only 3% to 4%. The rest came from a well-targeted
crime reduction campaign involving the police and the public that produced the biggest falls in burglary and car crime.
Prison may satisfy the public - and the tabloids' - lust for retribution but it does precious little to actually cut crime. As Tony Blair argued when he
was shadow home secretary, it is not prison but "increasing the chances of detection and conviction which will have the greatest effect on criminal
behaviour." It may be time to stop being "tough on crime" and start being "smart about crime" instead.
Find a word/expression in part five which means:
1.
constructing
________________________________
2.
the problem of prisons which are too full
________________________________
3.
originally created as single accommodation space
________________________________
4.
the effect of rendering people unable to do anything
________________________________
5.
tried out
________________________________
6.
decreased
________________________________
7.
explains, makes up for
________________________________
8.
breaking into houses
________________________________
9.
overwhelming desire to see justice done and criminals punished
________________________________
10.
the possibilities of being caught
________________________________
84
Text 6.
What really causes crime
Ministers hate to admit they can't do much about criminality. But their impact on prison numbers is huge
Polly Toynbee
Friday July 12, 2002
The Guardian
Part one
Crime figures have always been a battleground. They are profoundly unreliable and the best that can be expected is a broad trend over several
years. But that trend looks reasonably good in today's annual figures. Official recorded figures show crime may have risen by 2%, while the British
Crime Survey (BCS) found it may have fallen by 2%: most analysts reckon that overall it remained stable after recent sharp falls. That will not stop
another blast of headlines yet again scaring the living daylights out of a public already wildly misled about the risk of crime.
The BCS is the most reliable measure, sampling people's experience of crime in the past year, instead of relying on the vagaries of crime figures
reported to the police. Even with the new, more accurate system for police recorded crime, the survey will always uncover more. Today's BCS
figures show overall crime is down by 22% since 1997, domestic burglary down 39%, car crime down 26% and the chance of being a victim of
crime lower than at any time since the survey began in 1981. Violence has risen by 2% on one measure or fallen by 5% on the other, but they
agree street robbery rose by 28% (mostly kids and mobiles), though in London that has now been brought back down to last years' figure.
1.
statistics
________________________________
2.
cannot be depended upon at all
________________________________
3.
yearly
________________________________
4.
estimate/calculate
________________________________
5.
unchanged
________________________________
6.
terrifying
________________________________
7.
depending on
_______________________________
8.
precise
_______________________________
9.
documented offences
_______________________________
10.
house break-ins
_______________________________
Part two.
The home secretary boasted: "This fall in crime has been sustained thanks to the increased police numbers, a focus on police performance and
many crime reduction initiatives." However, he has scant evidence that the fall in crime is due to anything this or the last home secretary did.
Some recent figures show that parenting classes do cut juvenile crime and anecdotally other schemes look successful. But there is no evidence
that more police mean less crime: perversely, the more police officers around, the more crime gets reported. The chances are that economics, not
home secretaries, still shape the course of crime, now as ever. These crime figures for Labour's first five years precisely match what would be
predicted from the current state of the economy.
85
In 1988 a piece of Home Office research fell on stony ground, out of kilter with the ruling ideology of the times. Trends in Crime and their
Interpretation plotted crime figures in the last century against the economic cycles, with graphs tracking crime against boom and bust. Its evidence
is conclusive: in good times when per capita consumption rises with higher employment, property crime falls. When people have money their need
is less great so burglary and theft trends drop. However, theft rises as soon as consumption falls when the economy dips and people on the
margins fall out of work.
1.
maintained
______________________________
2.
schemes to keep the amount of criminal activity as low as possible
______________________________
3.
very little proof
______________________________
4.
youth criminality
______________________________
5.
still define crime trends
______________________________
6.
exactly
______________________________
7.
forecast
______________________________
8.
was unheeded as it didn’t conform to the beliefs of the time
______________________________
9.
good and bad economic periods
______________________________
10.
peripheries
______________________________
Part three.
But that is not the whole picture. Something else happens in good times. People have more money in their pockets, they go out more and their
consumption of alcohol rises. The result? They hit each other more and personal violence figures rise. Exactly this is happening now with near fullemployment and soaring drink consumption creating a rise in assaults, mainly young men hitting each other at night (mainly not very hard: only
14% visited a doctor afterwards).
Home secretaries don't like to admit they are swept along by economic forces beyond their control. Tories like the cause of crime to be sin and the
cure punishment. Labour home secretaries want their own social programmes to be the reason why crime falls. But throughout the last century
and in all kinds of countries, this pattern is pinned down in Home Office Research Study 119.
Of course it would be too reductionist, too determinist to suggest nothing else could ever prevail against the economic tides. Since half of all
property crime is committed by drug addicts, a quarter of those in jail are former children from care and most prisoners cannot read or write
enough to earn themselves a decent living, the right remedies are obvious and could transform the crime figures. Since little has been done in past
decades to tackle these causes of crime, no one knows if huge investment in good programmes can buck future economic trends in crime. It is too
early to know if well-run schemes from Lord Warner's Youth Justice Board will show up in future crime figures.
Find a word or expression in part three which means:
1.
the full situation
______________________________
2.
boom periods
______________________________
3.
rising extremely fast
______________________________
4.
violent attacks
______________________________
5.
propelled by
______________________________
6.
to claim, to maintain
______________________________
86
7.
to have a sufficient income to cover basic requirements
______________________________
8.
evident
______________________________
9.
to deal with
______________________________
10.
will be present
______________________________
Part four
But one big disaster makes it unlikely that crime figures will deviate from their old economic destiny. Despite the fall in crime, prison numbers have
soared to over 70,000, more people in prison than ever before. There is no justification for the courts giving ever heavier sentences, responding
not to facts but to irrational public fear. Governors warn that prisons are about to burst out into using local police cells. Overcrowding makes
education and therapy impossible, riots likely. Now the Home Office is bidding for more money to build yet more of these criminogenic human
warehouses with their shocking reconviction rates.
Plainly David Blunkett wants to reduce the prison population. Sometimes he says so and next week's white paper will spell out ways to create
sentences to let more prisoners out on electronic tags. He knows prison doesn't work and would like to create a prison system that does, housing
only essential cases with capacity to treat them intensively. Since most crime is committed by those who have already been arrested before, the
failure of the entire criminal justice system to alter the trajectory of people's lives is so expensive the chancellor should refuse more money until
prison is used effectively: at £25,000 a year per prisoner, the budget should be cut. The home secretary may know prison is worse than useless,
but what he does not know, like Jack Straw before him, is how to stop himself causing prisons to fill every time he panders to the Daily Mail.
1.
catastrophe
______________________________
2.
improbable
______________________________
3.
increased dramatically
______________________________
4.
illogical, unfounded
______________________________
5.
to curb
______________________________
6.
the whole legal system
______________________________
7.
costly
______________________________
8.
totally pointless and inefficient
______________________________
9.
but what he is ignorant of
______________________________
10.
jails
______________________________
Part five.
The previous head of the Home Office research department used to keep a graph he had privately drawn up on his wall. It plotted the speeches
home secretaries made and the direct effect on the prison population. So when Douglas Hurd released some petty offenders from prison and
barked out his wish to keep prisons only for serious offenders, the judges listened and gave lighter sentences: the prison population fell. But within
a month or two of Michael Howard's infamous "Prison Works" speech, jail numbers climbed steeply and they have soared ever since under Labour
rhetoric.
What politicians say usually matters little, but what a home secretary says matters a great deal because judges and magistrates take their cue
from his words. So Blunkett has panicked over his cannabis law relaxation and promised to double the sentences for dealers, the courts will now
lock away a bunch of relatively harmless small timers: those who might have got one year will now get two or three for no good purpose.
Similarly when Lord Woolf, lord chief justice, thoughtlessly said all mobile phone thieves should serve five years automatically, sentences got
harsher. If Blunkett genuinely wants to release wasted money from incarceration to spend on treatment, he has to keep telling the courts that
prison doesn't work, whatever the tabloids say. He has to start telling the public what might work.
Find a word/expression part five which means:
1.
former
87
_________________________________
2.
charted
__________________________________
3.
prisoners convicted of minor crimes
__________________________________
4.
less severe punishments
__________________________________
5.
is very important
__________________________________
6.
act on what these people say
__________________________________
7.
people who buy and sell narcotic substances illegally
__________________________________
8.
In the same way
__________________________________
9.
without even considering what he was saying
__________________________________
10.
gutter press publications
__________________________________
Text 7.
A life inside
Temporary release is a strange kind of limbo - you get to play at being normal, but you're not actually free
Erwin James
The Guardian
88
Part one.
Question: When is a prisoner not a prisoner? Answer: When he is on temporary release. That is how it felt for a while, anyway. There is no
denying that it was odd in the beginning. Especially that initial step. Being allowed to walk unescorted out of the prison gate after so long felt so
normal, yet at the same time so strange. Would I be called back? ("OK, you didn't run. You've passed that test. Back you come.")
Would I be followed? Spied upon? Even though the senses feel locked on to the highest level of stimulation and fresh waves of euphoria are
generated by the most banal scenes - people standing at a bus stop, a postman emptying a postbox - the feeling that it just cannot be right that I'm
out here on my own persists.
And odder still is the return. Walking back to the prison. Standing outside the gate. Pressing the bell to be let back in. The choice to stay or go, at
last, is mine.
1.
not permanent
_______________________________
2.
it cannot be refuted that
_______________________________
3.
strange
_______________________________
4.
first
_______________________________
5.
unaccompanied
_______________________________
6.
observed
_______________________________
7.
bliss
_______________________________
8.
mundane
_______________________________
9.
remains
_______________________________
10.
option
_______________________________
Part two.
Long ago, I decided that this sentence was going to be as positive an experience as I could possibly make it. From that time on, I always saw my
imprisonment as a means to an end. It took some time to work out exactly what that end was going to be. But one thing I knew from the start, was
that freedom, liberation, release - whichever term best describes the end of incarceration - was never my main objective.
Perhaps that is why this new stage of the sentence feels like it has arrived so quickly.
Clearly I was prepared for it. The supervised work in the community obviously helped, as did the shopping trips to the local town with my case
officer: "Escorted absences," as those sorties are known officially. But looking back, the real preparation was the way I chose to do the sentence.
Having my own agenda meant that I had a measure of control over the way my life inside developed. I never yearned for the outside world, I never
longed for experiences which were impossible to achieve in confinement. That, in itself, was a type of liberation. I was
determined to live in prison, and not merely "do time". Now the time has come to think about living on the outside. And this is the period of
transition.
1.
prison term
_______________________________
2.
incarceration
_______________________________
3.
a way of achieving an objective
_______________________________
4.
precisely
_______________________________
5.
evidently
_______________________________
89
6.
accompanied trips outside of the prison
_______________________________
7.
in retrospect
________________________________
8.
an element of the decision-taking process
________________________________
9.
craved (2 expressions possible)
________________________________
10.
changing from one period of life to another
________________________________
Part three.
The options for undertaking unsupervised voluntary work are varied. Places are available in charity shops, local authority establishments, or as
general helpers to less able members of society, such as the elderly or the sick. I considered all of these and then remembered that I was once
helped by an organisation that runs an information centre for people with special needs. Its main office is just a train ride away. I knew it used
volunteers, and applied. "I've learned to type," I wrote, "I have good communication skills and I'm adept at lugging heavy things about."
The reply from the administrator made me feel dizzy. "We would be delighted to have you join us as a volunteer," she wrote, "We have a vacancy
for an information officer." I would have to keep the job title quiet among the lads, of course, but I accepted immediately.
I had already been out on my own several times to undertake road maintenance on the dirt track which encircles the prison before I took the job
with the information centre. But to go out in town clothes and join the throng of commuters - that was something else altogether. Walking the
streets unaccompanied. Blending in with the crowds. Occasionally catching sight of my reflection in a shop window.
1-
choices
_________________________________
2-
of many kinds
_________________________________
3-
thought about
_________________________________
4-
people who work for free
_________________________________
5-
to be good at
_________________________________
6-
extremely pleased
________________________________
7-
an opening
________________________________
8-
crowd
________________________________
9-
people who travel to and from work every day
________________________________
10-
every now and again
________________________________
Part four.
I was slightly nervous the first time I queued at the hatch at the train station. My turn came and I told the man behind the glass my destination.
"Return please," I said. There was no question that I would be coming back.
Once on board I found a seat and settled down to enjoy the journey. The train seemed surprisingly old. It soon filled up, so much so that people
had to stand in the aisles. Some read newspapers, some read books - and some had conversations on their mobile phones. "Hi, I'm on the train..."
Like a visitor from a foreign land I observed and mentally noted.
Now I am a regular commuter. Three days a week I work in an office. The people with whom I work are warm and accepting and treat me like a
colleague. There are so many reasons why it would be easy to forget my status.
But real freedom beckons - a far greater reason not to forget. In the meantime I'll enjoy this experience for what it is, and remember that temporary
release is just an extension of the boundaries.
90
1.
just a little bit
_____________________________________
2.
got comfortable
_____________________________________
3.
the area between rows of seats
______________________________________
4.
for the moment
______________________________________
5.
limits
______________________________________
Text 8.
Parents face benefits axe over unruly children
Gaby Hinsliff, chief political correspondent
Sunday April 28, 2002
The Observer
Part one.
Parents could be stripped of child benefit if their children repeatedly play truant or commit crime, under controversial plans being considered by
Tony Blair.
The draconian measure, which will infuriate many Labour MPs and is understood to have divided the Cabinet, follows increasing concerns over
teenage offenders.
The collapse of the Damilola Taylor murder trial last week and Blair's pledge to get street crime 'under control' by the end of September have
raised the stakes for the Government.
The plan to punish parents financially for their children's misdeeds is understood to have been discussed at Cabinet level for three weeks.
'We are looking at other ways of making sure parents face their responsibilities,' a Downing Street spokeswoman said last night. 'This is one of a
number of ideas.'
1.
deprived of
_______________________________________
2.
consistently
91
_______________________________________
3.
skip school
_______________________________________
4.
severe, old fashioned, strict
_______________________________________
5.
really anger
_______________________________________
6.
split
_______________________________________
7.
a promise
_______________________________________
8.
misbehaviour
_______________________________________
9.
spoken about
_______________________________________
10.
considering
_______________________________________
Part two.
The Home Office is already extending orders that compel parents of troublesome teenagers to attend classes in managing them, while courts
have long had power to fine adults for failing to ensure their children attend school. However, critics argue these measures penalise the poorest
families, such as single mothers, whose offspring may be beyond their control.
Education Secretary Estelle Morris is expected to announce a separate crackdown on truancy this week. But the Prime Minister is said to have
been shocked by figures showing that 80 per cent of truants caught in a sweep of shopping centres were accompanied by an adult, often a parent
- suggesting that they condoned the child's behaviour.
But he is keen for any new law to exempt parents who have genuinely tried to get their children to school.
1.
oblige, force
________________________________________
2.
disruptive
________________________________________
3.
controlling
________________________________________
4.
to make someone pay money as a punishment
________________________________________
5.
to make certain
________________________________________
6.
punish
________________________________________
7.
children
________________________________________
8.
approved of, excused, allowed
________________________________________
9.
way of acting
_______________________________________
10.
enthusiastic about, in favour of
_______________________________________
Part three.
The new measures would also breach the principle that child benefit - now £15.75 for the first child and £10.55 for others - is a universal payment
that goes to all parents to recognise that bringing up a family is expensive.
92
Chancellor Gordon Brown and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott are believed to be unconvinced.
The plan risks comparison with Blair's proposals two years ago for hooligans to be marched to cashpoints to pay on-the-spot fines for anti-social
behaviour. This was condemned as unworkable.
The Department of Work and Pensions is said to have warned against extending the new proposal to take from parents other Government help,
such as housing benefit.
1.
be in opposition to
_________________________________
2.
all-encompassing
_________________________________
3.
raising kids
_________________________________
4.
not cheap
_________________________________
5.
still do not believe
_________________________________
6.
vandals, troublemakers
_________________________________
7.
automatic transaction machines
_________________________________
8.
a way of acting which is unacceptable to the general population
_________________________________
9.
unfeasible
__________________________________
10.
money received from the state for paying rent
___________________________________
Text 9.
Yob parents blamed for child crime
Minister attacks 'feckless' adults over school chaos
Kamal Ahmed and Martin Bright
Sunday March 24, 2002
The Observer
Part one.
Yob parents are to blame for a growing crisis of child and teenage delinquency sweeping Britain, undermining education and leading to street
violence, the Government will claim this week.
In a deliberate and controversial move to focus the raging debate on school indiscipline on parents rather than children and teachers, Estelle
Morris, the Education Secretary, will say that 'feckless' parents are undermining the good work of schools. In a speech to the Association of
Teachers and Lecturers on Wednesday, she will say it is time to redefine the debate on crumbling school discipline.
Although she will say that children themselves have to learn to behave, she will insist that one of the biggest problems is violent parents who
march to the school and are verbally and physically abusive.
'How can we expect pupils to respect teachers if their parents don't?' she will say. 'Parents must set the right example, and most do. But there is a
hardcore of feckless parents who have a corrosive effect on the rest. There is a cycle of disrespect starting in school and lasting throughout these
children's lives.
Find a word/expression in part one of the text which means:
1.
hooligan
___________________________
2.
are responsible for
___________________________
3.
youth crime
___________________________
4.
intentional
93
___________________________
5.
irresponsible
____________________________
6.
hindering
_____________________________
7.
to act correctly and responsibly
_____________________________
8.
a group of irresponsible mothers and fathers
_____________________________
9.
destructive
_____________________________
10.
a pattern of
_____________________________
Part two.
'If teachers think their reward for tackling bad behaviour in class is abuse from a parent then many will be fearful of taking any action at all. These
abusive parents undermine our mission to drive bad behaviour out of schools.'
Morris will demand that councils make wider use of parenting orders, introduced by the Government in 2000. Violent parents can be ordered to
attend counselling and anger management classes or face a court appearance and a £1,000 fine.
She will also announce a discipline 'summit' to bring together teaching unions, parent groups and Government Ministers to tackle the problem.
Parents who have been involved in attacks on teachers will be asked how they reformed their behaviour.
Officials said they were unhappy with the 'patchy' use of the parenting orders. An Observer survey of London local education authorities revealed
that some councils, such as Islington, had not used any, despite high levels of poor discipline in schools.
Find a word/expression in part two for each of the following:
1.
recompense
____________________________
2.
dealing with
____________________________
3.
mistreatment
____________________________
4.
scared
____________________________
5.
to force
____________________________
6.
forced to go to advice sessions
____________________________
7.
unite
____________________________
8.
changed for the better
____________________________
9.
displeased
____________________________
10.
a study
____________________________
Part three.
Last week Islington Green school was at the centre of attention after it was revealed that a teacher miscarried following an attack by a pupil.
Attacks by parents on teachers is a growing problem across the country. A survey in November revealed that many schools report weekly
incidents of parents verbally and physically abusing teaching staff. Nine out of 10 teachers surveyed said that it was harder to control parents
rather than children.
In one case a headteacher was held hostage by angry parents after she sent their daughter home from a school in Herefordshire for wearing a
nose ring. The parents were later sentenced to nine months in prison.
In another case a teacher suffered a mental breakdown after being targeted by parents at a school.
94
Many teachers said parents had an inflated view of their child's academic abilities and thought that the school was persecuting their children.
Find a word/expression in part three of the text which means:
1.
the focus area
_________________________________________
2.
shown
_________________________________________
3.
acted incorrectly
_________________________________________
4.
assaults
__________________________________________
5.
bullying, attacking
__________________________________________
6.
more difficult
__________________________________________
7.
captive
__________________________________________
8.
condemned to
__________________________________________
9.
exaggerated, overblown
__________________________________________
10.
picking on, punishing unnecessarily
__________________________________________
Part four.
Where parents failed to set a good example to their children, there was more truancy and street crime as children roamed the streets
unsupervised.
Teaching unions said that they fully supported the Education Secretary's move. Nigel de Gruchy, head of the National Association of
Schoolmasters/ Union of Women Teachers, said that Morris's speech bought a level of sanity to the debate.
But the Minister's attack brought an angry reaction from parents groups and opposition parties. 'It is easy for politicians and unions to denigrate
these parents because they are not a powerful lobbying group,' said Margaret McGowan, a spokeswoman for the Advisory Centre for Education.
'Despite its early commitment to social inclusion, the Government is happy to use parents and pupils as a bargaining chip with those heads and
teachers who believe the removal of disruptive children is the answer to the problems of discipline.'
Phil Willis, Liberal Democrat education spokesman, said: 'What this fails to recognise is that a significant number of parents failing to control their
children are already on benefits, and fining them will make no difference to the issue of discipline.
'Sadly, too many children face a conveyor belt of temporary teachers which gives them an increasing sense of isolation and rejection.'
Find a word/expression in part four of the text which means:
1-
did not succeed
________________________________________
2-
skipping school
________________________________________
3-
wandered about
_________________________________________
4-
upheld
_________________________________________
5-
representative
_________________________________________
6-
troublesome
_________________________________________
7-
an important amount
________________________________________
95
8-
will not change the situation
_________________________________________
9-
unfortunately
_________________________________________
10-
a feeling of being alone and unwanted
_________________________________________
Text 10.
Should parents get bad marks for their children's behaviour?
Two brothers are out of control and a girl is filmed smashing a shop window. Tony Blair blames their
homes, but schools do not agree. Martin Bright reports
Martin Bright
Sunday March 24, 2002
The Observer
Part one.
It is Friday afternoon and Nicola Martin-Davis is taking stock of events at Lealands High School, a large Luton comprehensive. In one day there
has already been a catalogue of serious problems.
They included a crisis meeting with the family of a teenager who made two attempts on her life, allegations that a boy with a history of temper
tantrums was victimised by teachers and a girl who arrived at school to announce her parents had kicked her out of home.
As the manager of the school's Social Inclusion Centre, Martin-Davis spends all her time dealing with children with problems. But she spends
almost as much time dealing with their parents. The mother of the suicidal girl, it turned out, had her own mental health
problems.
And the parents of Michael, the 12-year-old with the temper tantrums, were forced to admit that the school had been right to keep him isolated
from other pupils for a day after an unprovoked attack on one of his classmates. They agreed to rip up their complaint.
1.
assessing
__________________________________________
2.
a series
___________________________________________
3.
who tried to kill her twice
___________________________________________
4.
accusations
____________________________________________
5.
fits of bad humour
____________________________________________
6.
coping with
_____________________________________________
7.
wanting to kill themselves
_____________________________________________
8.
it transpired
_____________________________________________
96
9.
separated
_____________________________________________
10.
unsolicited
_____________________________________________
Part two.
His parents had already agreed to put Michael on an anger management course, a scheme launched by Education Secretary Estelle Morris last
year. 'When I get angry I take it out on pupils and teachers,' said Michael. 'I swear at them in class. In the course you get talking about stress and
anger and it helps.'
It is not always possible to blame children's behaviour on the attitudes of their parents. Sandra, 14, also attends the Social Inclusion Centre and,
although her parents were at first hostile, they have come round to the idea of anger management classes . 'I used to have a bad attitude towards
teachers. I was mouthy and I told my parents "Don't blame me". But I'm getting better.'
Sandra's mother and father do not fit the model of feckless parents: they have been together for 16 years, are both in work, deeply committed to
their daughter's education and do not approve of her bad behaviour at school.
Find a word/expression in part two of the text which means:
1.
project
______________________________________
2.
curse, use bad language
______________________________________
3.
to say it is the fault of
______________________________________
4.
goes to
______________________________________
5.
against the idea
______________________________________
6.
have been convinced
______________________________________
7.
cheeky, impudent
8.
______________________________________
are not the stereotype of irresponsible mothers and fathers
______________________________________
9.
employed
______________________________________
10.
do not think it is good
______________________________________
Part three.
'Sometimes it is the case that parents reinforce bad behaviour,' said Martin-Davis. 'But sometimes there are just naughty children. The reality is
that many parents of teenage children would value the opportunity of talking about how to deal with teenagers. It's not easy for anyone.'
In a week in which two uncontrollable teenage brothers were blamed for a mini crime-wave in Weston-super-Mare and an 11-year-old girl was
filmed throwing a brick through a shop window, the Government has again turned its attention to feckless and unruly parents who Ministers claim
encourage their children's criminal behaviour.
Speaking at a Manchester school on Friday, the Prime Minister announced that local councils should do more to prosecute parents of unruly
children and enforce so-called parenting orders. Under these punishments handed out by the courts, parents of persistent truants and young
offenders must attend weekly classes for three months to help them deal with their children's behaviour. The orders operate in conjunction with the
local authority, which provides the parenting classes.
1.
make something stronger, make something worse
__________________________________________________
2.
badly behaved
___________________________________________________
3.
the fact of the matter is
___________________________________________________
4.
appreciate the chance
___________________________________________________
97
5.
to cope with
___________________________________________________
6.
unmanageable, completely undisciplined
__________________________________________________
7.
focused on
__________________________________________________
8.
maintain
__________________________________________________
9.
consistent, regular
__________________________________________________
10.
on a parallel to
__________________________________________________
Part four
But Lealands' head, Janett Smith, said the Government should not be tempted to look for soft targets in the war against yob culture: 'Blaming the
parents is not the answer. We do have parents who get angry and frustrated, but a blanket statement that parents are the problem just isn't very
helpful.'
Across Luton at Denbigh High School, headteacher Yasmin Bevan has an added problem. As one of the few schools in the area to accept children
of asylum seekers, she often has to deal with parents whose attitudes are more suited to a war zone.
'We have been at meetings with parents when half the community turns up. We have had an issue with families from Kosovo. But when people
come from an area where there is violence, you have to re-educate children and parents about how to deal with conflict.'
In a school where 60 per cent of children qualify for free meals and 90 per cent are from families where English is not their first language, staff are
engaged in a constant struggle to keep parents involved with their children's education - and sometimes it does not work. Bevan has had to take
out court orders to keep violent parents off the school premises.
1.
scapegoats
________________________________________
2.
hooliganism in society
________________________________________
3.
additional
________________________________________
4.
opinions and beliefs
________________________________________
5.
fitting
_________________________________________
6.
a problem
_________________________________________
7.
to handle
_________________________________________
8.
differences in behaviour and opinions
_________________________________________
9.
involved in
_________________________________________
10.
a battle
_________________________________________
Part five.
'Sometimes parents don't want to admit there is a problem, but it is important not to penalise the child for the parents' behaviour.' As one of the
100 fastest-improving schools in the country, Denbigh is clearly doing something right, but Bevan is not convinced that good schools should
become obsessed with unruly parents.
'Of course we work closely with parents. But you have to start with the aspiration that every child can succeed and that means concentrating on
what they are taught at school, whatever their home background.'
98
One strategy Bevan has refused to accept is the systematic exclusion of disruptive children used by many other schools, understandably
concerned about national league tables. When she took over as head a decade ago, 10 per cent of the school population was temporarily
excluded at any given time. No child has been permanently excluded for two years.
The close relationship between parents and schools is a relatively recent phenomenon. Successive Conservative governments gave parents
increased rights of access to previously confidential information about their children. In 1986 they were given a place on governing bodies and two
years later came 'parental choice', giving people the right, in theory, to send their children to whichever school they wished in their area.
Find a word/expression in part five of the text which means:
1.
to punish
________________________________________
2.
obviously
________________________________________
3.
hope, objective
________________________________________
4.
focusing on
_______________________________________
5.
shutting out
_______________________________________
6.
unruly
_______________________________________
7.
worried
_______________________________________
8.
in the past
_______________________________________
9.
secret
_______________________________________
10.
school administration bodies
_______________________________________
Part six.
League tables gave them even more information. When Labour came to power, they retained all these parental 'rights' but added 'responsibilities'
such as obligatory home-school contracts, under which parents and children pledge to maintain basic standards of behaviour and attendance. At
the same time, the idea grew that parents could also be held directly responsible for their children's conduct at school, and even their criminal
behaviour. Some experts remain unconvinced by this latest development.
Professor Ted Wragg of Exeter University said: 'Of course there are criminally negligent parents and they use up a disproportionate amount of
police and teachers' time. But they are a very small group.'
Luton was one of the pilot areas for the new scheme. Since September 1998 there have been 27 orders issued by the courts, 14 against parents
who failed to send their children to school and 13 because their children were persistent criminals. A further 80 families volunteered for orders.
Find a word/expression in part six of the text which means:
1.
details
________________________________________
2.
won the elections
________________________________________
3.
kept
________________________________________
4.
enforced
_________________________________________
5.
promise
_________________________________________
6.
behaviour
_________________________________________
7.
still do not accept, still do not believe
_________________________________________
8.
uncaring
99
_________________________________________
9.
test regions
_________________________________________
10.
of their own free will
_________________________________________
Part seven.
'I was very sceptical of parenting orders before we began the pilot,' said Mike Thomas, who runs the Luton scheme. 'But now I am convinced it has
helped focus on the attitudes of the family and not just on the young offender.'
But elsewhere there has been resistance. An Observer survey of London boroughs shows that some have taken them up with enthusiasm while
others have not used them at all since they were introduced nationally in 2000. In Greenwich, there have been nearly 40 orders, all successfully
completed, but in some areas most affected by youth crime - Islington, Camden and Havering in east London - not a single order has been made.
A spokesman for Islington council, which is being sued by a teacher who claims she miscarried after being assaulted by a child at Islington Green
school, said the council refused to use parenting orders: 'We think a more constructive approach is to engage parents and children before it gets
to a court appearance.'
Find a word/expression in part seven of the text which means:
1.
doubtful
_________________________________________
2.
test project
_________________________________________
3.
certain
_________________________________________
4.
in other places
________________________________________
5.
favourably accepted them
________________________________________
6.
around the whole country
________________________________________
7.
representative
________________________________________
8.
taken to court
________________________________________
9.
maintains
________________________________________
10.
lost her baby
________________________________________
Part eight.
From Blair's comments on Friday, it is clear he is fast losing patience with feckless councils that refuse to act to control feckless parents.
The names of some of the children in this article have been changed.
Teenagers at risk
· Half of all teenagers have committed a crime by the age of 15.
· One third of 14- and 15-year-olds have vandalised property.
· A quarter of 14- and 15-year-olds have shoplifted.
· Almost a quarter - 23 per cent - of 15-year-olds are regular smokers.
· Nearly one in four teenagers aged 11-15 drinks alcohol; of this number, 24 per cent drink an average of 10.4 units (more than five pints of beer) a
week.
· More than one in four 15- year-olds have used cannabis.
· Nearly one in 10 of 15-year- olds (6 per cent of 14-year-olds) has used drugs including cocaine, crack, ecstasy, amphetamines and poppers.
· There were 6,710 permanent exclusions from secondary schools in 1999-2000 Research by Sandra Cole Sources: Joseph Rowntree
Foundation; Department for Education and Skills (National Statistics); Department of Health (National Statistics)
Find a word/expression in part eight of the text which means:
1.
remarks
_______________________________
2.
evident
_______________________________
100
3.
in danger
__________________________________
4
stolen
_________________________________
1.
narcotics
_________________________________
101
Text 11.
Teachers are failing black boys
Diane Abbott
Sunday January 6, 2002
The Observer
Part one.
There is a silent catastrophe happening in Britain's schools in the way they continue to fail black British school-children. When African and AfroCaribbean children enter the school system at five they do as well as white and Asian children in tests. By 11 their achievement levels begin to
drop off. By 16 there has been a collapse. And this is particularly true of black boys - 48% of all 16-year-old boys gain five GCSEs, grades A to E.
Only 13% of black boys in London achieve this standard. In some boroughs the figure is even worse.
This is not a new issue. As long ago as 1977 a House of Commons select committee on race relations and immigration reported that 'as a matter
of urgency the Government should institute a high-level and independent inquiry into the causes of the underachievement of children of West
Indian origin in maintained schools and the remedial action required'. But in 1999 Ofsted, in its publication, Raising the Attainment of Minority
Ethnic Pupils, said: 'The gap between Afro-Caribbean pupils and the rest of the school population continues to widen.'
But it is an issue no one wants to address. Ministers and advisors talk endlessly about social exclusion and the problems of children for whom
English is a second language. You can discuss the underachievement of boys. But not how the system fails black boys. Research both in this
country and the United States shows that black boys need men in the classroom. They simply do not see reading or educational attainment as
masculine or 'cool'. Although this also applies to white working-class boys, strategies designed to address male under-achievement in general are
not working with black boys.
1.
disaster
_______________________________________________
2.
reach
_______________________________________________
3.
a recent problem
_______________________________________________
4.
emergency
_______________________________________________
5.
investigation
_______________________________________________
6.
the reasons for
_______________________________________________
7.
lack of academic success
_______________________________________________
8.
corrective
_______________________________________________
9.
chasm
________________________________________________
10.
counsellors
________________________________________________
Part two.
It may be the demonisation and marginalisation of black men in British society which makes some young black boys hold fiercely to a concept of
masculinity which is about bravado and violence. But with black boys there are the added factors of racism and the extreme unwillingness of
teachers and educationalists to face up to their own attitudes.
Black boys are often literally bigger than their white counterparts and may come from a culture which is more physical. Primary schools, in
particular, are almost entirely staffed with women and, while some white women teachers achieve excellent results with black boys, it would be
remarkable if all white women teachers were free from the racial stereotypes that permeate this society about black men. Groups which work in
the black community are seeing increasingly younger black boys being excluded and it seems a black boy doesn't have to be long out of disposal
nappies for some teachers to see him as a miniature gangster rapper. Yet
experienced black teachers describe how the most unruly and obnoxious black schoolboy can melt given firm but loving handling. It is important to
stress that there are models of success. For a generation, Britain's black community have run self-help Saturday schools specifically to
compensate for the failures of mainstream schools. Traditionally they had a strong emphasis on formal education together with a positive black
identity.
1.
exclusion
_____________________________________________
2.
cling as strongly and desperately as possible to
102
______________________________________________
3.
notion
______________________________________________
4.
macho image and behaviour
______________________________________________
5.
to challenge
______________________________________________
6.
nearly totally
______________________________________________
7.
doesn’t need to be very old
______________________________________________
8.
badly behaved and arrogant
______________________________________________
9.
strict but affectionate treatment
______________________________________________
10.
to make up for
______________________________________________
Part three.
The Claudia Jones Saturday school is a successful one in my own borough of Hackney. The Seventh Day Adventist schools in London are de
facto all black, the best known being John Loughborough in Tottenham, north London. The children wear uniform and there is a strong emphasis
on discipline and high standards. They have had success in raising the achievement of black boys whom mainstream schools had written off.
What all of these schools have in common are highly motivated black teachers, involved parents, strong discipline and boundaries, and a
celebration of the children's cultural identities.
We all have a role to play. Black parents need to become engaged in a constructive way with the school system. Teachers need to examine their
attitudes. Most teachers, and their trade unions, see themselves as liberals on race matters and they react badly to any suggestion that they are
failing black children. But, as the 1985 Swann Report pointed out: 'Teachers' attitudes towards, and expectations of, West Indian pupils may be
subconsciously influenced by stereotyped, negative or patronising views of their abilities and potential, which may prove a self-fulfilling prophecy,
and can be seen as a form of unintentional racism.' In 2001 most black parents would say nothing much has changed.
Above all the Government needs to give a lead. Ministers need to push it up the agenda. In 1996 Ofsted said: 'The question of race and equality of
opportunity has fallen from the prominent position it once held.' Time to put it back up there. We have a generation of black children to save.
· Diane Abbott is MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington
1.
stress on
__________________________________________
2.
improving the academic performance of
__________________________________________
3.
normal schools
__________________________________________
4.
dismissed as hopeless cases
__________________________________________
5.
limits
__________________________________________
6.
to get involved in
__________________________________________
7.
to consider/reconsider their attitudes and opinions
__________________________________________
8.
mocking attitudes to
__________________________________________
9.
to give it a higher level of importance
__________________________________________
10.
outstanding
103
__________________________________________
Text 12.
Europe can defeat fascism
Author: Will Hutton
Publication: The Observer, UK
Date: May 5, 2002
Part one.
The Standard Comment is familiar. In an era of globalisation, governing parties have little room for manoeuvre, so meaningful political choice is
close to non-existent. The government always wins. Broader voter apathy is giving disillusioned voters experimenting at the margins more
influence. All over Europe, in response to crime and growing immigrant populations, there is a re -emergence of fatal DNA in the European values
gene, a murky cocktail of racism, anti-Semitism, nationalism, anti-immigration and calls for ultra-hard-line criminal justice policies.
Europe, we learn from conservative Americans, commentators and British Eurosceptics, cannot be trusted. The pro-Palestinian leanings and tooready criticism of Israel by mainstream Europeans opinion, writes the Washington Posts commentators Charles Krauthammer, for example, is part
of a general cultural disposition that incubates anti-Semitism and racism. France’s Jean-Marie Le Pen, far from being an outlier and outcast as he
104
rails against immigrants and crime alike, is, in truth, the standard-bearer of a European truth that dare not speak its name. Just as European
peoples turned to fascism in the 1930s, so they are now playing with racism at home and anti-Israel policies abroad. The English- speaking
peoples, always on the side of good against evil over the last century, must now keep their distance from Europe and express total solidarity with
Israel in its fight against terrorism.
1.
significant
_____________________________________
2.
disappointed electors
_____________________________________
3.
unclear , unhealthy
_____________________________________
4.
discriminatory feelings against the Jewish community
_____________________________________
5.
extreme policies for dealing with people who break the law
_____________________________________
6.
tendencies
_____________________________________
7.
fosters
_____________________________________
8.
someone who is socially undesirable and therefore excluded
_____________________________________
9.
must separate themselves
_____________________________________
10.
unity
_____________________________________
Part two.
This will certainly be one of the undercurrents in the demonstration tomorrow in Trafalgar Square by an expected 20,000 British Jews concerned
that the so-far isolated incidents attacks on individual Jews are the forerunners of much worse to come and that they must make a strong protest
now. The BNP’s winning of three council seats in Burnely is portrayed in the same light. Emotions are running high. We stand on the edge of a
slippery slope.
If this porridge of views did describe reality it would be serious indeed, but the elision of a disparate trends into one great, allegedly growing racist,
anti-Semitic. European force is to make a profound mistake. There are dangers ahead but they loom as much from Charles Krauthammer’s US
and Sharon’s Israel as from Europe. We must never drop our guard against anti-Semitism or racism but sweeping generalisations make matters
worse. We need to disentangle the various strands and hit hard at what needs to be tackled rather than invoking ghosts from the past.
In the first place, European democracy is robust and well entered. American commentators need to be extraordinarily careful before launching
attack on Europe when the US is so compromised: 4.5 million American felons, mostly black are disqualified from voting in the American South, a
contemporary version of the Jim Crow laws that effectively disenfranchised blacks after the Civil War. Right-wing militias recruit violent members
under anti-Jew, anti-Israel programmes that make Le Pen look moderate. Indeed, the Vichy slogan - work, family and patriotism - that is at the
core of the Le Pen world view is equally at the heart of the Republican Right, and just as menacingly justifies extravagant US nationalism and
unilateralism, if Americans could but see it.
1.
protest march
______________________________
2.
up to now
______________________________
3.
mix of opinions
______________________________
4.
supposedly
______________________________
5.
a serious error
______________________________
6.
leave ourselves undefended
______________________________
7.
deal severely with
105
______________________________
8.
strong
______________________________
9.
criminals
______________________________
10.
at the centre of
______________________________
Part three.
Le Pen may have given this supremely conservative credo a more overtly racist tinge, and sickeningly 17 per cent of French citizens voted for it,
but nobody in Europe or the US should imagine that in similar circumstances (the peculiar French voting system, political cohabitation etc) their
own democracies would be. As impressive has been the French reaction. One million French hit the streets on 1 May in protest and the
recognition that voting matters fundamentally has suddenly become the new common currency. In the English council elections, there was a sharp
rise in voter turnout where voting to block the British National party mattered. The indications in France, although we may be confounded, are that
Le Pen will not advance much beyond his first vote, a rallying to the values of democracy and tolerance that is as inspiring as the initial vote was
depressing.
Paradoxically, the votes for Le Pen, along with parallel parties in Holland, Germany, Italy, Denmark and Britain, are an important democratic
signal. For the poor, urban, working class, especially those in port cities and regions particularly exposed to immigration, ranging from Dover to
Marseilles, fear of crime and concern about immigrants has become an overwhelming preoccupation. This needs to be taken seriously.
1.
a more obvious tone of racism
__________________________________________
2.
disgustingly, unpleasantly
__________________________________________
3.
the number of people who participate in the elections
___________________________________________
4.
to stop the progress of
___________________________________________
5.
we might be mistaken
___________________________________________
6.
to progress
___________________________________________
7.
encouraging
__________________________________________
8.
indicator
___________________________________________
9.
worry
____________________________________________
10.
enormous
____________________________________________
Part four.
New Labour has been right to respond in a way that the European Left has not, even to the point of flirting with highly conservative responses; it
gives the right wing nationalist parties little political opening. But even more sense of mobilisation against crime is needed along with a powerful
public rhetoric that it matters, marrying a policy of both carrot and stick in response. Mentoring crime-prone families, providing disciplined
educational structures for their children and equipping prisons with powerful rehabilitative programmes are as important as tough custodial
sentences or, say, electronically tagging repeat offenders. The important political truth is to act, and to be seen to act, decisively and purposefully.
As for race, there are three strands in play. There is the longstanding concern about asylum-seekers. There is a second prejudice against Arabs in
general and Islamic fundamentalism in particular, a culture which has been particularly impervious to well-intentioned efforts at integration and
assimilation all over Europe. And, lastly, there is strong sympathy for the Palestinians despite the horrors of suicide bombing. But to criticise the
more powerful state in this cruel conflict is not anti-Semitic . Israel’s critics criticise it for its actions, not for Jewishness, a moving on from the old
categories that is long overdue. A noxious anti-Semitism does exist in the refugee camps but this has an obvious cause –and obvious remedy.
The more festering racist concern in Europe, including Britain, is anti-Islamicism: at least as many, if not more, mosques as synagogues have
been vandalised, made much worse by the hostility around since 11 September.
1-
to retaliate
___________________________________
106
2-
that it is important
___________________________________
3-
counselling and caring for
____________________________________
4-
schemes to help prisoners get back to being useful citizens
___________________________________
5-
people who commit the same crime over and over again
___________________________________
6-
an old worry
___________________________________
7-
discrimination
___________________________________
8-
that should have happened a long time ago
___________________________________
9-
evident
___________________________________
10-
conflict
___________________________________
Part five.
One of the reasons for the West scrupulously observing international law and respecting international rules of justice in Afghanistan, the West
Bank or in any action Against Iraq is that we need the Islamic community, whether in immigrant communities or within its own countries, to
recognise that there are universal codes which it itself needs to observe. The way it treats its criminals and its women alike cannot be justified by
cultural mores or ancient religious texts; it need to conform to common universal standard of justice, of which on the West’s side fair and
transparent treatment of asylum-seekers would be part. Some delicate work needs to be done to persuade Europe’s Islamic community that
universal principles trump cultural exceptionalism, and that refusing to acknowledge this truth helps in part to legitimate an ugly backlash.
Religious school which further these differences needs to be curbed rather than expanded.
All this is emotional and cultural dynamite, but the lesson of the last six months is that inactivity is more dangerous. Before the irrationalities and
high-octane emotionalism of those who foster racist hatred and those like Krauthammer who claim they can detect it, we have to stick to universal
principles and a clear understanding of what really is at work. Better forensic mine sweeping than indiscriminate carpet-bombing.
1.
supervising
__________________________________________
2.
to respect
__________________________________________
3.
deals with
__________________________________________
4.
to adapt to, to get in line with
__________________________________________
5.
to convince
__________________________________________
6.
win over
__________________________________________
7.
to recognise
__________________________________________
8.
doing nothing
__________________________________________
9.
perilous
__________________________________________
10.
detesting someone on account of their national/cultural origins
__________________________________________
107
Text 13.
There's more to sex than the facts of life
Young people have numerous ways to find out about the mechanics of sex, but who will teach them how
to handle their emotions?
Yvonne Roberts
Sunday May 5, 2002
The Observer
Part one.
'So,' said a friend's teenager casually to her mother over supper last week, 'what do you think about fisting?' It transpired that the daughter was
markedly better informed about the manual habits of homosexuals since she, unlike her mother, had watched, The Truth About Gay Sex on
Monday night on Channel 4.
By flicking through the channels, like most of her friends, she has also expanded her understanding of lesbian lovemaking, bestiality, men with a
fetish for amputees, S&M, adults who orgasm in romper suits and nappies, couples who 'swing' and that enduring star of Channel 5, the bonking
broad abroad, who abhors all ties, except for the kind used to lash a 'fella' to the bedpost while she has her lay.
108
In the same week as 'the codes and rules' of gay sex were broadcast, 'FCUK', the advertising slogan which, since the late 90s, has phenomenally
boosted the sales of the fashion retailer, French Connection, received its by now ritual drubbing from the Advertising Standards Authority. 'The
ASA has consistently ruled against the use of fcuk [sic] as an expletive or a substitute word in a sentence,' said the authority po-facedly in its
annual report, in response to more than 140 complaints from the public.
Find a word/expression in section one of the text which means:
1.
it turned out that
_______________________________________
2.
much more in the know
________________________________________
3.
zapping
_______________________________________
4.
increased her knowledge of
_______________________________________
5.
in another country
_______________________________________
6.
hates, despises, detests
_______________________________________
7.
a guy
________________________________________
8.
transmitted
________________________________________
9.
hugely increased
_______________________________________
10.
habitual, ceremonial
_______________________________________
Part two.
French Connection's campaign is hugely popular among 15- to 24-year-olds and for all the right reasons : it is cheeky, witty, subversive and, in its
straightforwardness, it challenges the hypocrisy and ambivalence with which the British often deal with sex. What's refreshing is that even if you
disagree with the message, at least in the campaign what you see is what you get, unlike a myriad of 'sexumentaries' and series which adopt an
academic disguise to offer peepshow entertainment (with some honourable exceptions).
Unlike, too, the shambolic dissembling which so often passes as 'sex education', in which teenagers are taught how to put a condom on a banana,
but rarely advised on the emotions, desires, pleasures and responsibilities that help to make relationships mutually respectful (however brief)
without draining away all passion. Nor are they assisted often enough to acquire the confidence and self-esteem to say no, if they so choose.
Sex is injected into the television schedules (with mixed ratings) more frequently than baby boomers resort to Botox. Research tells us that the
majority of viewers think the quantity of sexual coverage on television (including in dramas) is just about right (so long as the hero wears clean
underpants). After all, they can always reach for the off switch if what they see offends against personal definitions of decency and taste. The
problem, however, is not the quantity but the quality of sex on offer and the particular impact it may have on the unsupported young.
Find a word/expression in section two of the text which means:
1.
publicity drive
_______________________________________
2.
enormously
_______________________________________
3.
directness
_______________________________________
4.
a huge number
_______________________________________
5.
intellectual
_______________________________________
6.
seldom
________________________________________
7.
destroying
________________________________________
8.
to gain
109
________________________________________
9.
spectators
________________________________________
10.
effect
________________________________________
Part three.
In the Sixties, women demanded to be seen as more than the blonde with the big knockers or the brunette with the bum. They wanted their brains
and personalities to be part of the equation, too. Now, ironically, television's obsession with very specific aspects of sex - explicit rather than erotic;
action preferred to anticipation; predilections more important than people; seedy rather than cerebral - conveys the illusion that we're all objectified
now, somebody else's sex toy, valued only for our sexual prowess; intercourse as the twenty-first century's gladiator sport.
Do grown-ups really believe this tosh? While yet another Marjorie in Majorca is telling us how many men she's pulled since getting off the plane
five hours earlier, surveys say that the majority have relatively few sexual partners (relative meaning under a dozen) and adultery is still (allegedly)
a minority pursuit. But change is plainly on the way. In the past, only 'bad' girls liked 'it'; now, the orthodoxy of women's magazines is that only
weird women don't. (According to one survey, 11 per cent of young women have sex two or three times a week as a pleasant way of turning a
stranger into a nodding acquaintance.)
Once upon a time, men longed for it and women denied them until they had the promise of a ring. The Pill, the autonomy permitted by the female
wage packet and the recolonisation of the clitoris, 'the scorner of men', have all made an impact on shame, guilt and female inhibitions. As the
novels of Nick Hornby and Tony Parsons illustrate, modern plots reverse the old order: now men weep as women have their way. And, of course,
there is Sex and the City , a male fantasy about rapacious female lust made a little less frightening because what the girls want, what they really,
really want, apart from giant organs and monstrous orgasms, is exactly the same as their mothers: marriage to Mr Right.
Find a word/expression in section three of the text which means:
1.
fascination, fixation
___________________________________________
2.
detailed elements
____________________________________________
3.
adults
____________________________________________
4.
rubbish
___________________________________________
5.
studies
___________________________________________
6.
twelve
___________________________________________
7.
supposedly
___________________________________________
8.
bizarre, abnormal
___________________________________________
9.
refused to give it to them
___________________________________________
10.
independence
___________________________________________
Part four.
For many adults, today's sexual currents are contradictory, confusing and difficult to navigate. This is even more the case for the young, not least
because they can't avoid so much so prematurely in a society that sells sex with everything but is reluctant to equip them with the holistic
knowledge that is their best defence. What children see on the box as 'grown-up' behaviour isn't necessarily also civilised, but how will they know,
unless parents are more willing to use their voice? Visiting a primary school recently, I saw a nine-year-old boy simulating sex with a girl of a
similar age, happily joining in 'the game' (and, yes, they were middle class). Give me doctors and nurses any day.
Research says that British parents are woefully unwilling to talk to their children about the facts of life, and the pleasures, as well as the values,
rights and responsibilities that matter in sexual relationships. A 10-year study, published in 1998, revealed that many of the young girls interviewed
'spoke of not using condoms, of making no protest at rape, of accepting violence, of coming under pressure to have unwanted penetrative sex'.
Sex on the box expands our knowledge of the mechanics, but it often does so in such a reductive way, so that, instead of encouraging empathy, it,
paradoxically, distances and disconnects one individual from another. We all then become exhibits in the human zoo. As always, it's not sex that's
the problem, but the way that we view it. But does anybody give an FCUK?
1.
they cannot escape from
_________________________________________
110
2.
so early on
_________________________________________
3.
hesitant
________________________________________
4.
protection
________________________________________
5.
the TV
________________________________________
6.
pretending to have sex
________________________________________
7.
reluctant
________________________________________
8.
unsolicited
________________________________________
9.
deepens our understanding
________________________________________
10.
the manner in which we perceive it
_______________________________________
Text 14.
Zimbabwe brain drain
Teachers flee poverty and repression
Barbara Wall
Part one.
According to an old African proverb, knowledge is like a garden: if it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested.
President Robert Mugabe, who came to power in Zimbabwe in March 1980, initially tended that garden well: during his tenure, education became
a major recipient of government funding - second only to defence.
However, lack of sustained investment, escalating school fees and a marked exodus of skilled teachers - fleeing both poor working conditions and
the threat of reprisals as they are increasingly targeted as enemies by the Mugabe regime - have wreaked havoc.
The result is that what was one of Africa's leading educational settings has seriously deteriorated, according to Nesta Hatendi, a Zimbabwe-based
program director for Britain's Voluntary Services Overseas.
"An increasing number of parents, particularly those living in rural areas, are unable to afford even a basic education for their children," she said,
adding, "Primary education in state schools is supposed to be free, but there are hidden costs such as uniforms and building levies."
1.
saying
_____________________________________
2.
wisdom
_____________________________________
3.
tended
_____________________________________
4.
at first, at the start
_____________________________________
111
5.
rising education costs
_____________________________________
6.
running away from
_____________________________________
7.
have created chaos
_____________________________________
8.
drastically worsened
_____________________________________
9.
countryside regions
_____________________________________
10.
is said to be, alleged
_____________________________________
Part two.
"All national examinations are paid for by parents, and in recent years parents have been asked to also pay for the improvement of infrastructure of
their schools," she said. "The government provides subsidies to help poorer families meet these costs, but some children still fall through the net.
This shows that the post-independent gains in education as a priority area for development, have been eroded."
Schools are reporting that dropout rates are on the increase. "The reasons," Hatendi said, "include lack of funding, increase in orphans and childheaded households due to HIV infection, and the consequences of fast-tracking of land distribution when there is inadequate infrastructure in the
new areas of resettlement."
Zimbabwe's problems, economic and political, have had a profound effect on teacher morale. Hyperinflation has eroded salaries and an increasing
number of teachers have become targets of repression as Mugabe steps up campaigning for the March presidential elections, according to a
Zimbabwe-based education adviser, who requested anonymity.
Teachers have been identified as dissidents because of their supposed support for the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change,
according to Chris Kabwato, a former Zimbabwean journalist who now lives in Johannesburg and works with SACOD, a coalition of filmmakers
whose primary focus is the production and distribution of socially responsible films. Fear of reprisals has prompted many teachers to quit their jobs,
Kabwato said.
1.
financed by
____________________________________
2.
grants
____________________________________
3.
less well off
____________________________________
4.
some kids still remain deprived of an education
_____________________________________
5.
the levels of people choosing to leave school without finishing their studies
_____________________________________
6.
children whose parents are dead
_____________________________________
7.
insufficient
_____________________________________
8.
who asked for his name to not be revealed
_____________________________________
9.
people against the government
_____________________________________
10.
to leave their positions
_____________________________________
Part three.
The problem is particularly widespread in rural areas, notably in the provinces of Mashonaland Central, Midlands and Matabeleland North, he said.
Schools in Masvingo have also been attacked in recent months.
"I personally know teachers who have been threatened, but it is not worth making an official complaint," Kabwato said. "Local officials turn a blind
eye to the intimidation because they do not want to get embroiled in any conflict, or to be seen as anti-government," he said.
112
According to a former government aide, teachers are on the front line as the "enemies" of Mugabe's re-election. "This is why hundreds of rural
schools have been closed and the teachers chased away. Many have been tortured and accused of promoting the opposition party in rural areas,"
the former official said, adding, "Teachers wield a lot of influence in rural Zimbabwe, where more often than not they are the most educated people
and the ones folks look up to. During the struggle for independence they played a very important role in rallying the masses and now they seem to
be doing the same except that your liberator of yesterday is now the villain. "Nora F. (not her real name) taught in a primary school in a rural district
of Zimbabwe before fleeing to Britain 18 months ago with her 2-year-old son. She said that in areas where there is tension between supporters of
Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, known as the ZANU-PF, and the opposition party, teachers are frequently subjected to
threats and beatings, often in front of pupils.
"Teachers have to watch what they say because even neighbours may report them to violent gangs of ZANU-PF supporters operating in the area. It
is difficult to gauge the full extent of the intimidation because complaints are few and far between; people who do complain often disappear," F said.
She decided that she had had enough when supporters of Mugabe's party burned down the home of her local Parliament representative, a member
of the Movement for Democratic Change.
1.
especially an issue
______________________________________
2.
there’s no point in
______________________________________
3.
pretend not to see
______________________________________
4.
to get mixed up in, to get involved in
______________________________________
5.
in the main line of fire
______________________________________
6.
have a lot of power to affect how people think
______________________________________
7.
the criminal
______________________________________
8.
conflict
______________________________________
9.
to assess
______________________________________
10.
it is rare that people express their dissatisfaction
______________________________________
Part four.
Possibly the biggest factor affecting teacher morale is the loss of teachers to HIV and AIDS. "The consequences of HIV/AIDS in a population where
possibly one in three is HIV positive means that deaths and sickness on the job among the teaching fraternity has resulted in a major setback in the
provision of quality education," Hatendi said.
"The exodus of trained personnel from education into the private sector and abroad because of conditions of service and the impact of HIV has
meant that classes have become bigger and many schools, particularly in the rural areas, have closed down," she said, adding, "The teaching
colleges are producing graduates but the attrition rate is high.
State schools are not the only ones suffering from Zimbabwe's worsening economic and political climate - private schools are also feeling the effects.
"The costs of everything have skyrocketed - over 100 percent in the past year alone, and this has caused the private schools to continually raise
their fees to the point of being unaffordable by a population trapped at a fallacious exchange rate set by the government and reserve bank," said the
head teacher of a private school in Harare, who requested anonymity.
Zimbabwe has become increasingly isolated from the international community following the implementation last month of the Public Order and
Security Act, which imposes restrictions on freedom of expression. The law has been met with widespread condemnation and the threat of
sanctions. International aid organizations, including Voluntary Services Overseas, have begun withdrawing from Zimbabwe.
1.
maybe a third
__________________________________
2.
the supply of good quality schooling
__________________________________
3.
the huge numbers of qualified people who are leaving in droves
__________________________________
4.
people who complete their studies and get their degrees
___________________________________
113
5.
negatively affected by
___________________________________
6.
feeling the pinch
___________________________________
7.
soared
___________________________________
8.
enforcement
___________________________________
9.
the right to speak one’s opinion openly
___________________________________
10.
pulling out of
___________________________________
Part five.
In this climate, what does the future hold for the country's education system?
Kabwato said he was especially concerned about the proliferation of so-called retraining centers, where children whose minds have been "polluted"
by anti-government teachers can be re-educated.
All high school graduates must now enroll in youth retraining camps to qualify for government jobs, according to reports. The youth training program
is needed, according to Elliot Manyika, Zimbabwe's youth minister, because teachers had not properly emphasized the importance of patriotism and
the country's liberation struggle to Zimbabwe's young people.
Hatendi is hopeful that Zimbabwe's troubles will be short-lived. "As a Zimbabwean, I have never thought the situation to be hopeless; disturbing,
depressing - yes. In an ideal world, the provision of education would be divorced from politics - a tall order. But even in the current economic and
political climate, visitors to Zimbabwe could not fail to appreciate the country's great potential," she said.
1.
political atmosphere
___________________________________
2.
particularly worried
___________________________________
3.
the increasing numbers of
___________________________________
4.
poisoned, contaminated
___________________________________
5.
register for
___________________________________
6.
stressed, highlighted
___________________________________
7.
the feeling of national pride
___________________________________
8.
battle for freedom
___________________________________
9.
perfect
___________________________________
10.
kept separate from
___________________________________
114
For texts 15 to 24, the articles have not been divided up into sections. These are a lot more
difficult than texts 1 to 14, so do not panic if you are having problems at first. It just means you
need some more regular reading practice before being able to complete these exercises
correctly and without too much difficulty.
Text 15.
Music industry shows it still loves Eminem.
Andrew Gumbel
The Independent
th
The rappers Eminem and Missy “Misdemeanour“ Elliott and the rock band P.O.D. lead the nominees for this year’s MTV Video Music awards,
which will be announced at New York’s Radio City Music Hall at the end of next month.
All three acts have six nominations apiece. Eminem’s comic book-style clip for “Without Me”, in which he dresses up as a version of Batman’s
sidekick, Robin, received nominations, including video of the year, best male video and best rap video. The controversial Detroit rapper, known for
his violent, misogynistic lyrics, remains a darling of the industry and is already booked to perform at the awards.
Elliott’s “One Minute Man”, which takes place in a hotel and features rappers Ludacris and Trina, is up for best hip-hop video. It was also
nominated in several technical categories including best direction, editing and special effects.
“Alive” by P.O.D., featuring an elaborate highway crash, was nominated in categories including video of the year and best group video. The
band’s other hit, “Youth of the Nation” is up for best rock video.
Also drawing multiple nominations is Shakira’s “Whenever, Wherever”. The Colombian singer was recognised in four categories, including best
female video, best dance video and best pop video.
The garage rock band The White Stripes has four nominations for “Fell in Love with a Girl.” The clip, done completely in Lego animation, is up for
video of the year, breakthrough video, editing and special effects.
In the best new artist in a video category, the nominees are Ashanti (“Foolish”), John Mayer (“No Such Thing”), Avril Lavigne (“Complicated”), B2K
(“Uh Huh”) and Puddle of Mud (“Blurry”).
Aside from Eminem, slated performers at the August 29th ceremony will include Bruce Springsteen and Pink.
Find a word/expression in the text which means:
a.
to head.
_________________________________
b.
prizes
_________________________________
c.
made publicly known
_________________________________
d.
each
_________________________________
e.
animation-like
_________________________________
f.
partner, aide
_________________________________
115
g.
anti-women
_________________________________
h.
hero
_________________________________
i.
classifications
_________________________________
j.
receiving
_________________________________
k.
acknowledged
_________________________________
l.
new, original, unique
_________________________________
m.
with the exception of
_________________________________
116
Text 16.
Fast-track justice for teenagers
· Super-courts for 10 crime hotspots
· Plan to evict parents of unruly children
Kamal Ahmed, Political Editor
Sunday May 5, 2002
The Observer
Fast-track 'super courts' staffed by expert prosecutors are to be set up in Britain's 10 high crime hotspots as the Government struggles to regain
the initiative against spiralling lawlessness on the streets.
The Attorney-General, Lord Goldsmith, and the Director of Public Prosecution, David Calvert-Smith, are set to announce that 60 high-flyers within
the Crown Prosecution Service will be used to deal with the growing backlog of young offenders arrested by the police and then left to languish in
the criminal justice system.
Procedures will be truncated so that repeat and persistent offenders can be dealt with more quickly, rather than being let out on bail to commit
more crime.
The Government hopes that the moves, part of a wide-ranging reform of the criminal justice system to be announced in the next two weeks, will
head off a growing chorus of criticism that the CPS and the courts are failing.
Yesterday it was reported that the CPS wrongly dropped more than 11,000 prosecutions with 'little or no analysis or reasons for the decision'.
The number of teenage criminals prosecuted and jailed has also fallen steeply over the past two decades. In 1983, more than 88,000 teenage
boys were convicted of crimes, with 13,000 jailed.
By 2000 that figure had fallen to 30,000 convicted and 4,700 jailed. It is the first time that the CPS has launched a separate system for dealing
specifically with street crime - particularly muggings, car jacking and robbery.
The new scheme, aimed at areas of high crime such as inner London, Liverpool, Manchester and the West Midlands, will be described as a
'premier service' and will only use prosecutors used to deal with issues of repeat offenders and street crime.
The Government hopes that courts staffed by 'super prosecutors' will be more successful in tackling criminals and defence teams expert at finding
holes in the case.
The move comes two weeks after the two teenagers accused of murdering Damilola Taylor were found not guilty. The CPS case against them
was described by critics as 'a shambles'.
The move, which will be carefully scrutinised by the civil liberties lobby, is just one of a series of initiatives demanded from Number 10 on the crime
issue.
Last week Tony Blair was engulfed in controversy after it was revealed that parents who fail to control truanting children could have their child
benefit docked.
The Observer can reveal that the Government is now considering plans to evict parents of unruly children from council houses.
Although Downing Street officials said that the plans were at 'an early stage', they said that sanctions had to be applied to parents who were not
taking on their responsibilities seriously.
This week Home Secretary David Blunkett will also demand that magistrates show greater consistency in sentencing. He will announce new
guidelines forcing magistrates, who deal with more than one million criminal cases a year, to choose a limited set of punishments to stop wide
variations across the country.
'These disparities need to be tackled,' a Home Office spokeswoman said. 'It should not be a matter of which court you go affecting the sentence
you get. We have to make sure the punishment fits the crime, wherever it might take place.'
Figures from the Home Office reveal wide variation in the way magistrates deal with criminals. Just over 20 per cent of people charged with house
burglary on Teesside receive an immediate custodial sentence compared with 41 per cent in Brighton.
Oliver Letwin, the Shadow Home Secretary, attacked the Government for allowing 'major defects' to infect the criminal justice system.
'I hope you will make it clear that a lasting reform of our criminal justice system needs not only to make that system vastly more efficient and more
responsive to the concerns of victims and witnesses, but also to respect and enshrine the protection of our liberties that have proved so robust
over so long a time,' he said in an open letter to the Home Secretary.
a.
specialist
_______________________________
117
b.
battles
_______________________________
c.
escalating crime
_______________________________
d.
the increasing build-up of delinquents
_______________________________
e.
the legal process will be made less long and complicated
_______________________________
f.
measures
_______________________________
g.
increasing dissatisfaction being voiced
_______________________________
h.
not succeeding
________________________________
i.
plummeted
________________________________
j.
the last 20 years
________________________________
k.
people who commit the same crime several times
________________________________
l.
declared innocent of a crime
________________________________
m.
a chaotic mess
________________________________
n.
examined in detail
________________________________
o.
was bogged down in
________________________________
p.
kids who stay away from school
________________________________
q.
could face reductions in their state payments for raising their kids
________________________________
r.
penalties
________________________________
s.
Something has to be done about the differences from one area to the next.
________________________________
t.
no matter where it happens
________________________________
u.
statistics, numbers
________________________________
v.
breaking into people’s homes to steal things
________________________________
w.
are sentenced to prison straightaway
________________________________
x.
a long-term series of changes
________________________________
y.
much more effective
118
________________________________
z.
solid, resistant
________________________________
Text 17.
At last, family told the sad truth about Suzy
Sixteen years after the young estate agent vanished, her parents and sisters have been told the news
they've dreaded, but waited so long to hear
Ben Summerskill
Sunday May 5, 2002
The Observer
Sixteen years ago, a vivacious young woman with countless admirers and as many friends disappeared during an ordinary working day in west
London.
She left behind her parents and two adoring younger sisters. Now the family of Suzy Lamplugh has finally been told by police that she was
murdered.
Officers will brief the family within weeks on the fate that befell her. 'We still await final details,' said Diana Lamplugh. 'I'm actually looking forward
to hearing exactly what happened. It will be a huge relief when I know. We have now been told that Suzy was murdered.'
Suzy, then 25, was last seen soon after leaving her office in Fulham, west London, on 28 July 1986. She had arranged to show a client, who
called himself Mr Kipper, around a vacant property.
Her disappearance sparked a nationwide search. Her family always believed it unlikely that she had willingly left her life behind, but in the absence
of any clues every possibility had to be considered by police.
Forensic teams have since searched sites around the country in the hope of finding remains. On one occasion, animal bones were thought to be
Suzy's body.
'Time and again we've been told she's been found and then you find out it's not true,' said Mrs Lamplugh, 70. 'It can be terribly distressing.
'It must have been terrible for the parents of missing Milly Dowler to see all those headlines only the other day saying that a body had been found.
Then it was not hers.
'Quite frankly, we're not so keen to actually find Suzy's body now because we don't think she'd like to be found in the state she must be in.'
Last summer, after a new appeal on BBC1's Crimewatch, police arrested a serving prisoner. He was returned to jail without charge.
'We understand that a file has been passed to the Crown Prosecution Service and that's where things are now,' said Mrs Lamplugh. 'I can give no
further details. I don't want to say anything that might prejudice the case at all. We expect to know everything in the near future.'
The Lamplugh case, now called Operation Phoebus, was reopened late in 1999. It is one of hundreds which police believed might benefit from
developments in DNA testing.
Six new detectives were allocated to the Lamplugh investigation. However, 4,000 lines of inquiry had already been pursued and there were a
million words on file about it. It left doubt that further key clues might emerge.
'The police have been so good to us,' said Mrs Lamplugh. 'Truly excellent.'
At Scotland Yard, a spokesman for the investigation team, based at Belgravia station in central London, said: 'We have nothing further to say at
this time.'
Suzy's sisters have waited nervously to discover what happened to her. Tamsin was 24 when her 'mother hen' disappeared; Lizzie was 16.
Tamsin revealed last January that she still talks to a picture of her lost sister daily. She also disclosed that she still suffers 'horrific nightmares - lots
of death and stabbing, always happening to her'. She said then: 'The big thing is still to find out what happened.'
Lizzie has explained that she is always mindful of what happened to Suzy. 'When I was at boarding school, the teacher told us it was bad luck to
wave goodbye. It was probably a ploy to stop pupils crying when their parents left, but since Suz disappeared, I always say my goodbyes properly.
'I never end a phone call on a bad note, or leave my husband without looking him in the eye. You never know when you'll see people again.'
In the year of Suzy's disappearance, Diana Lamplugh set up the Suzy Lamplugh Trust to promote personal safety. 'What happened to Suzy need
not have happened,' she said. 'That's why we focus on helping people to learn skills which can help prevent them becoming a victim.'
The trust has campaigned for safe travel in minicabs and better protection for members of the public on trains and at railway stations. It also
researches and advises on a range of issues from missing persons to the treatment of sex offenders.
Lamplugh has advised members of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy on how to deal with loss in the wake of events such
as the 11 September bombings. In 1992 she was awarded an OBE for her work with the trust.
'If something like this happens to you, you never actually get over it,' said Mrs Lamplugh last night. 'You become accustomed to it. However, it's an
amazing legacy that Suzy has left me. It has been very, very difficult but in a way quite remarkably fulfilling.
'Above all, I do believe that we shouldn't stop young people doing things. That's why we go into schools now to help young people deal with the
wider world.
'I always remember when Suzy was 16 or so and I said to her "You're doing too much". But she said "No, mum. Life's for living". That will always
stay with me.'
a.
lively, outgoing
119
_______________________________
b.
loving
_______________________________
c.
about what happened to her
_______________________________
d.
It will be like having a great weight lifted off my shoulders
_______________________________
e.
an empty house or building
_______________________________
f.
gave rise to people looking for her all over the country
_______________________________
g.
as there were no indications which could shine a light on the truth
_______________________________
h.
extremely upsetting
_______________________________
i.
we’re less interested in finding our daughter’s corpse...
_______________________________
j.
He was sent back to prison.
_______________________________
k.
the case has been handed over to
_______________________________
l-
a representative
_______________________________
m.
really bad dreams
_______________________________
n.
conscious, aware, keeps it in mind
________________________________
o.
concentrate on
________________________________
p.
how to cope with loss after traumatic experiences
________________________________
q.
you never really recover from it
________________________________
r.
you get used to it, you live with it
________________________________
s.
extremely worthwhile
________________________________
Text 18.
Cherie Booth firm takes on Blunkett over asylum child education
Kamal Ahmed, Political Editor
Sunday May 5, 2002
The Observer
120
Controversial proposals to deny asylum seekers rights to educate their children in British schools are facing a legal challenge because they breach
human rights legislation.
Save the Children, one of Britain's leading charities whose Patron is Princess Anne, has received legal opinion which says that David Blunkett's
plans to educate asylum seeker children in special detention centre schools is in contravention of United Nations law.
The move will reignite the row over the plans. Blunkett caused a storm of protest when he spoke of asylum seekers' children 'swamping' local
schools.
Nick Blake QC, an expert in child law at Matrix Chambers, the law firm headed by the Prime Minister's wife, Cherie Booth, said that the Home
Office was forcing children into a 'different regime because of their status as asylum seekers.
'To take asylum seeking children out of mainstream education for at least six months seems a serious departure from previous practice and may
well be discrimination contrary to Article 2 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,' Blake wrote in his opinion to the charity.
'Blunkett's obnoxious language of "swamping" is unnecessary, inappropriate and offensive. How can a separate educational regime for asylum
seeking children be other than discrimination?'
Save the Children said it was investigating taking legal action against Blunkett's proposals. Britain ratified the UN's children's rights convention in
1991, making it part of UK law.
Although Britain obtained an opt-out for policies concerned with nationality and asylum, the Government has always made it clear that this was
simply done to ensure strong border controls could be used against residents of certain countries.
Lord Rooker, the Home Office Minister with responsibility for asylum, wrote to an MP recently: 'Let me reassure you that all children in the United
Kingdom do have the same rights irrespective of the immigration reservation to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
'The immigration reservation in no way inhibits the discharge of our obligations to refugee and asylum seeking children in the UK.'
The UN convention says primary education should be 'available free to all' and that children, from whatever background, should be treated without
discrimination.
In a letter in today's Observer , Bill Morris, leader of the Transport and General Workers Union, adds his voice to the condemnation of the
proposals.
'Segregated education provision cannot be justified,' the letter says. 'It is discriminatory and represents an alarming and unwarranted attack on the
rights if the child.'
The Government has defended the plans, saying that critics have come up with few alternatives to deal with the problem.
'We have a problem which we have to tackle,' said one senior Home Office figure.
'Schools find it difficult to deal with a sudden influx of children whose first language is not English, they do not have the resources to deal with that.
Children will still be getting full-time, mainstream education.'
But Mike Aaronson, director-general for Save the Children UK, attacked the Home Office arguments, saying that the Government was pandering
to racist attitudes.
'We believe denying refugee children access to school places is a blatant violation of their rights,' he said. 'The Government is abdicating its duty
under international law to provide education on the basis of equal opportunity and non-discrimination. Whichever way you look at it, encouraging
segregated education and discouraging integration and inclusion is not a progressive policy for twenty-first century Britain.
'It is precisely this kind of measure that gives oxygen to prejudice and discrimination. The Government needs to think hard about the potential fallout from its proposals, in terms of their negative impact on vulnerable children and the signals they send to the public about how we should treat
people seeking asylum.'
a.
to refuse
_________________________________
b.
they are breaking the law on human rights
_________________________________
c.
has taken legal advice
_________________________________
d.
is breaking the United Nations law
_________________________________
e.
spark off again
_________________________________
f.
the dispute
_________________________________
g.
a wave of angry reaction and disagreement
_________________________________
h.
invading, flooding, overrunning
_________________________________
i.
a specialist
_________________________________
121
j.
normal schooling
_________________________________
k.
a major change from the way things were done in the past
_________________________________
l.
racist
_________________________________
m.
looking into the possibility of/considering taking someone to court
_________________________________
n.
to make sure that
_________________________________
o.
regardless of
_________________________________
p.
accessible to everyone at no cost
_________________________________
q.
a shocking and unnecessary attack
_________________________________
r.
upheld the proposals
_________________________________
s.
the means to cope with that
_________________________________
t.
an obvious disrespect for their rights
_________________________________
u.
shirking its obligation
_________________________________
v.
it is exactly this kind of step...
_________________________________
w.
the bad effect on susceptible children
_________________________________
Text 19.
Rich 'too mean' to support charities
Those who can afford most usually give least, reports Ben Summerskill
Sunday May 5, 2002
The Observer
Stark evidence of the meanness of Britain's rich has been uncovered by new research into charitable giving. Many wealthy people give little more
than small change to charities while others resent ever being asked for money.
The nationwide study explains why substantial donors such as Lord Sainsbury, J.K. Rowling and Niall Quinn remain in a tiny minority. And it sheds
further doubt on repeated claims that lowering top rates of income tax encourages generosity towards good causes.
'We were staggered at some of the reasons we found among the well-off for not helping,' said Laura Edwards of the Institute for Public Policy
Research, author of A Bit Rich?
'People erect a hugely complex series of hurdles for not giving. For the majority of those we spoke to the question wasn't "How much should I
give?" but "Why should I give at all?" '
122
Seven hundred thousand top-rate taxpayers gave nothing to charity in the last year. The same number contributed only small change to street
collections. One top earner, who does not give to charity, told researchers: 'I don't consider myself that well-off. We've got our eye on a house
worth £1.4 million. When I look at other dads at school, I'm probably in the middle.'
Another non-giver, earning more than £80,000 a year, said: 'I'd be gutted with one and a half million pounds from the Lottery. It's nothing. You
can't even buy a decent house for that.'
The two men, both in the top 2 per cent of taxpayers, are typical of rich Britons who don't regard themselves as wealthy. The richest 20 per cent of
households in Britain give less than 1 per cent of their income to charities, while the poorest 10 per cent give 3 per cent.
Another key group of non-givers identified were those who don't think they ever benefit from charity. 'The welfare state is crumbling,' said one
man, earning almost a six-figure salary. 'Things we used to be able to rely on, we now have to pay for out of our own pocket, like education and
health and pensions. You think of your own charity.'
Another high-earner complained: 'I paid £27,000 in tax last year. I've never had anything out of the welfare state.'
The survey found many of the rich resented being asked for money, but this did not necessarily mean they would help in other ways. The
reluctance to give is a cause of deep concern to charities reliant upon donations to survive.
Once attracted, top earners can be highly generous. Government Minister Lord Sainsbury is one of Britain's most lavish charitable donors. He is
estimated to have given £47 million last year. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has signed over the royalties of two books to Comic Relief, netting
the charity £8m. Rowling also gives substantial amounts to the National Council for One Parent Families.
On Tuesday, footballer Niall Quinn will stage a testimonial match at Sunderland. It is expected to raise £1m for children's charities. However, it is
the first football testimonial ever to be devoted wholly to good causes.
In America, charitable donations represent almost 2 per cent of the national income. In Britain, the figure is less than 1 per cent. Since 1998, the
Treasury has been trying to encourage charitable giving by offering tax concessions. 'Tax incentives and high-profile fundraising campaigns may
work with the minority of rich individuals already giving large amounts,' said Laura Edwards.
'However, they simply do not inspire the majority who give little or nothing.'
The new study found that the best way to boost enthusiasm for good causes was by encouraging people to volunteer. Shaks Ghosh, chief
executive of Crisis, agreed: 'Many of the 3,000 people who volunteer for us at Christmas describe the experience as life-changing. It's a
completely different experience from just giving cash.
'But even those who don't return the next Christmas tend to become donors because they've seen what we do at first-hand. It's a very powerful
introduction to what a charity does.'
'Both the Government and charities need to put a lot more effort into engaging people in giving time,' said Edwards. 'That's the best way to get
them to give money as well and to overcome the sense that charities and the problems they set out to tackle are nothing to do with them.'
Les Hems of the Institute of Philanthropy, set up two years ago to promote charitable giving, said: 'What does need to be examined is how
charities encourage donors. It's not just a case of people not wanting to give. You need to find the right mechanism to stimulate them.'
Latest figures, from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, show that one in three people gave nothing to charity in the last year.
Women gave more than men.
a-
clear proof
_________________________________
b-
stinginess
_________________________________
c-
revealed
_________________________________
d-
rich, well off
_________________________________
e-
people who give quite large amounts of money to charities
_________________________________
f-
shocked, amazed, horrified
_________________________________
g-
I don’t think that I am that rich
_________________________________
h-
I’d be really disappointed with
_________________________________
i-
consider themselves to be rich
_________________________________
j-
falling apart
_________________________________
k-
things we could depend on in the past
123
_________________________________
l-
got angry/annoyed, didn’t like being asked
_________________________________
m-
dependent on
_________________________________
n-
the money given by the public for the upkeep of a charity
_________________________________
o-
one of the most extravagant givers
_________________________________
p-
large quantities (of money)
_________________________________
q-
to be completely consecrated to charitable work
_________________________________
r-
to improve people’s desire to give to charities
_________________________________
s-
they see for themselves what we do
_________________________________
t-
to motivate
_________________________________
u-
statistics
_________________________________
Text 20.
Voice experts to root out false asylum claims
Antony Barnett and Matthew Brace
Sunday May 5, 2002
The Observer
The Home Office is paying Swedish linguistic experts to analyse the voices of asylum seekers in an effort to pinpoint their accents and root out
false claimants.
But a company being used to carry out the tests has been accused of making a string of mistakes which led to the deportation of some refugees to
the wrong countries. The use of the method has been strongly criticised by the Refugee Council, which has expressed doubts on the reliability of
the tests. A spokesman said there was 'extreme concern' about the development.
In November, Home Office Minister Angela Eagle announced the use of language tests to crack down on false claims after she said some asylum
seekers were lying about coming from countries such as Somalia, Afghanistan or Sri Lanka.
Confidential documents obtained by The Observer have revealed the Government is now using two Swedish language companies to undertake
these tests. If an immigration official doubts the asylum seeker's claim that he or she originates from a certain country, he sends a 15-minute tape
of them speaking to one of two language firms in Stockholm.
The companies are staffed by linguistic experts who claim to be able to use a person's dialect to pinpoint the precise region of the world they are
from. One company recently reported it could pinpoint the origin of a Somali asylum seeker to a particular suburb of north Mogadishu.
Yet these language firms, which offer similar services to immigration authorities in a number of countries including Australia and Germany, have
been the subject of heavy criticism. An official test by the Swedish government in 1998 found that out of 50 asylum seekers deported from Sweden
based on these language tests nine were sent back to the wrong country.
More recently a Swedish television documentary investigating Eqvator, the largest language firm in Sweden and one of the companies being used
by the Government, found four examples where the company's language test failed to get the asylum seeker's correct country of origin.
124
Academic linguists have also cast doubt on the claims that it is possible to be so sure of a person's origin just from their dialect. For example, they
say it is virtually impossible to say where asylum seekers are from in the linguistically complex region around Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan
with any degree of accuracy.
These criticisms are strongly rejected by one of the Swedish companies being used. Gunnell Martenson, manager of Sprakab, said: 'We are very
professional and fully understand the difficulties. But we are very successful. We use several analysts on each case and when we are certain of a
speaker's country of origin we say so, but we point out when there is a chance we may be wrong.'
A spokeswoman for the Home Office said people would be asked to undergo the tests only when immigration staff had 'objective reasons' for
doubting their nationality.
Nick Hardwick, chief executive of the Refugee Council said: 'We would be extremely concerned if the Home Office uses these controversial
language tests as the sole indicator to decide an asylum seeker's nationality. A whole range of indicators must be used to properly determine
nationality, which take into account the asylum seeker's case history, their knowledge of their country and information about their parents'
background.'
The Home Office confirmed officials also used a Swiss firm called Lingua and Bureau Taalanalyse from the Netherlands to carry out language
tests. The spokeswoman said the Government has not yet decided whether to extend the pilot test.
a.
to find out precisely
_________________________________
b.
to seek out people asking for asylum when they don’t really need it
_________________________________
c.
to conduct the examinations
_________________________________
d.
a series of errors
_________________________________
e.
...has said it is not too sure about , not convinced by
_________________________________
f.
serious worries
_________________________________
g.
to do something to reduce the number of people pretending to need asylum
_________________________________
h.
not telling the truth
_________________________________
i.
Private, secret papers
__________________________________
j.
cassette recording
_________________________________
k.
say they are capable of
_________________________________
l.
have been harshly attacked
_________________________________
m-
removed from (a country)
_________________________________
m.
did not succeed
_________________________________
n.
have expressed uncertainty
_________________________________
o.
to take (a test)
_________________________________
p.
very worried
_________________________________
q.
as the only criterion to ascertain where someone comes from
_________________________________
125
Text 21.
Bitter North braced for another summer of hate
Buoyed by its election gains, the BNP is plotting to stir racial divisions, which could spark a new spate of
violence. Paul Harris and Burhan Wazir report
Paul Harris and Burhan Wazir
Sunday May 5, 2002
The Observer
Landlord Andrew Wallace knows that trouble is on its way. Three weeks ago the windows of his Preston pub were smashed during five hours of
racial violence that flared after a football match. Standing in his bar last week he sucked on a cigarette and revealed he had little doubt as to who
was to blame - and that there was more violence to come in the North.
'It's the Asians around here. They come looking for trouble. They've led to this,' he said.
A fear of rioting and racial attacks has become entrenched in Preston's racially mixed Deepdale area. But Wallace also believes he knows who
has the answer: it is the British National Party.
'I expect they'll be here soon. Things just can't carry on like this. Someone has to do something,' he said.
In a string of Northern towns the picture is the same. Summer is coming with its long, hot nights and everyone - white and Asian - fears a repeat of
the race riots that broke out in Leeds, Bradford, Oldham and Burnley last year.
It is a fear that has only been heightened by the BNP's performance in Burnley - snapping up three council seats in the biggest electoral victory for
British neo-fascists in more than two decades.
Sinister forces are already gathering. This week the ultra-extremist National Front will apply to hold a march in Oldham in early June, The
Observer can reveal. If it is banned, members will go anyway. Among their number will be hardened hate activists and supporters of racist terror
group Combat 18. It was NF rallies like this that triggered last summer's violence.
Right-wing activists clearly want to repeat the trick again this year. Their target is the segregated Asian 'ghettos' of the North, islands of poverty
and overcrowding in old mill towns already hit by unemployment and poor housing. The lesson seems obvious: last year's riots led to far-right
election gains.
But the legacy of fear is just as obvious. Many older Asians are afraid to talk. In Burnley their white neighbours have just voted for a party that
wants them to leave the country. In the town's Woodhouse Street a sole Asian shopkeeper sat behind his till ringing up groceries for customers
who talked loudly about voting BNP.
'I'm nervous,' he said. 'I can't talk. You must understand, I have to live here. What am I supposed to do?'
126
But young Asians are not so reticent. There is a yawning generation gap in the Asian community that last year's riots exposed. The old may try to
put their heads down, to weather the storm, but the young will fight for their rights in the country they were born in.
'Things are about to kick off here big time,' said one young Asian man in Burnley. 'Now, with the BNP in, the beatings will start. They'll come after
our women first. And then us.' From his smile and laughter, it was clear he was not afraid of the fight.
Burnley is now the unofficial racist capital of Britain. In far-right circles across the country the town's voters are being hailed as heralds of a new
era of British fascism. Yet the continual cry of the BNP supporters there is that they do not hate Asians. They say they just want a fair deal for
whites; an end to double standards; and a halt to courting the Asian vote with grants and funds.
'I only voted for the BNP because Labour isn't doing anything around here for whites,' said labourer Dale Perry as he scuttled home clutching a
pint of milk bought at his local Asian-run corner store.
'Why should the Asians have all the jobs? They own all the shops as well. Well, we want the shops back. I think the BNP will set things straight.'
Perry's complaint goes to the heart of problems in the North. These are towns that feel they have been consistently ignored and abandoned by
central government. They have quietly voted Labour for decades and what have they got for their loyalty? Closed mills, no jobs, crumbling housing
and endless platitudes from a Labour Party machine that took their votes for granted.
Parts of Burnley Wood - an impoverished white estate of narrow terraces - resemble a war zone, with burnt-out housing, abandoned cars and
rubble in the streets. There are similar places in most other Northern towns. People there are angry. And the BNP was there to listen, offering a
sympathetic ear and someone to blame - the Asians.
Outside a Burnley shop, Ian Cheetham, 33, unemployed, stood and chatted for a while. He described his decision to vote for the BNP as a 'protest
action' against mainstream politicians.
'I'm not racist. But someone has to step in and make sure the whites get their fair share. We were born here. And I'm disgusted with my Labour
candidate. Where the hell was he when we needed him?'
These are the fears and myths the BNP have played on. Under Nick Griffin, the party has transformed itself from a mob of thugs to a group of
suited men and women with a talent for highlighting local grievances.
Copying the successful tactics of the Liberal Democrats - and, ironically, Sinn Fein - locally-recruited BNP activists hit the streets, knocking on
doors, launching low-profile and carefully targeted membership drives. Their success has surprised only the political elite of London. It has been
an open secret in the North for years.
Even last year's riots brought no change. Bradford's disturbances - the worst race riots in more than 20 years - led to a flood of hand-wringing and
a lengthy official report. Yet last month its author, Sir Herman Ouseley, said that things had now got worse, not better, in the city. Segregation was
more in place than ever.
Yet observers point out that the BNP won in Burnley only because of a boundary change that led to each ward electing three councillors in one go.
In no single ward did the party come first. However, that ignores the fact that it is only the 'first-past-the-post' system that keeps the BNP from
power elsewhere. In the 68 seats it contested across Britain last week, it scored an average 18 per cent. Under a different electoral system that
would have netted it far more seats than three in Burnley.
Griffin thinks he is a British version of Jean-Marie Le Pen. He sees the Burnley breakthrough as similar to the first electoral gains of Le Pen's Front
National in France in the 1980s. Now Le Pen is vying for the presidency and Griffin has big plans too.
'It does mark a credibility breakthrough,' said Dr David Baker of Warwick University, an expert in far-right politics.
Griffin and the BNP now have their eyes firmly set on exploiting Burnley. The publicity of the victory has already generated hundreds of
membership inquiries and promises of donations.
Within 24 hours of the result, Griffin had scrapped plans to field 100 local election candidates next year. The number is now likely to be nearer
200, perhaps more. The party is also considering standing in elections to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly, where the electoral system
contains an element of proportional representation.
And in 2004 there are the European elections. Any victory there, taking advantage of the proportional representation voting system, would catapult
Griffin on to the European stage. His dreams of racial power - which include the ultimate aim of an all-white Britain - would be starting to come
true.
But the costs of those right-wing fantasies will be paid by ordinary British people of all colours. With the BNP victory, the North has moved into a
whole new ball game of racial politics. More riots will only worsen that. Racist attacks - on whites as well as Asians - have already increased since
last year's trouble.
Despite its successes the BNP remains unacceptable to Britain's body politic. Because, beneath the smart suits and the broad smiles, Griffin's
BNP is still full of extremists. He himself has a conviction for spreading racist material, while his right-hand man, Tony Lecomber, once tried to
blow up the offices of a left-wing political party.
In the past few weeks anti-fascist campaigners, with the direct help of Downing Street, have exposed the criminal pasts of dozens of BNP
candidates, activists and supporters. One, in Oldham, was a convicted gang rapist.
That will prevent Griffin from achieving the same success as Le Pen, who moved into the mainstream by attracting 'respectable' supporters from
the Left and Right. 'You don't have to scratch too far under the surface to find the old face of the BNP,' Baker said.
In Burnley that was all too clear. On Friday night white youths prowled the streets and proudly proclaimed their new political leaders as the
saviours of unemployed, disenfranchised whites. 'BNP! BNP! BNP! yelled one man, who walked past The Observer 's reporter, a bag of chips in
his hand.
He was asked why he had voted for the party. He ignored the question and kept walking, yelling: 'BNP! BNP! BNP!' What single issue had drawn
him to the party?
This time he stopped and turned. His reply was simple and loud: "Cos they wanna get rid of Paki scum like you.'
a.
problems are coming
_________________________________
b.
This just can’t go on!
_________________________________
127
c.
(the fear has been) greatly increased
_________________________________
d.
forbidden, outlawed
_________________________________
e.
they want to do the same thing again
_________________________________
f.
evident
_________________________________
g.
a cash register, cash desk
_________________________________
h.
a huge difference between young and old Asians
_________________________________
i.
hypocritical policies and treatment
_________________________________
j.
debris
_________________________________
k.
changed
_________________________________
l.
a group of hooligans
_________________________________
m.
racial separation
_________________________________
n.
He is aiming for the highest position
_________________________________
o.
would be beginning to materialise
_________________________________
p.
he has a criminal record
_________________________________
q.
to bomb
_________________________________
r.
shouting
_________________________________
128
Text 22.
Harry Potter magic fails to inspire young to read more
J.K. Rowling bestsellers cornered the market at the expense of other authors, claims new survey.
Amelia Hill
Sunday May 5, 2002
The Observer
The Harry Potter magic was just an illusion. In spite of the success of J.K. Rowling's best-selling books, children are reading less, according to a
new survey. For the fourth year in succession, fewer books have been bought for children.
Rowling's tales of a boy wizard were the book trade phenomenon of 2001 when, boosted by a top-grossing film, the fourth book in the series,
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, sold more copies in a single year than any other author ever before.
Harry was hailed as the saviour of children's fiction, but official research by the industry has shown that the genre could be in more trouble now
than before Potter burst on to the scene.
'The received wisdom is that the Potter trend has done amazing things for the children's market, but the truth is that Harry Potter did amazing
things for Harry Potter only,' said Steve Bohme of Book Marketing Ltd, whose company found that while UK spending on children's books held
steady at £425 million last year, the number of copies bought for children fell for the fourth year, from an estimated 109 million in 2000 to 104
million in 2001.
'Everyone looked at sales of children's books around the release of each Potter title, saw the millions of Potter books sold and quite naturally
concluded that the series must be having an enormous impact on the market as a whole,' said Bohme.
'The reality is that sales of Potter books have done nothing to increase the volume of books sold to their target audience, children aged seven to
14,' he added.
Bohme believes that the Potter phenomenon has made it more difficult for both established authors and new writers. The first misconception was
that Rowling would inspire a whole new audience for children's books. Instead, Bohme maintains, readers of Scholastic's massively popular
Goosebumps series merely transferred their loyalty to the alternative brand.
Bohme also believes that the price of the Potter books inhibits families from buying more books for their children; the average price paid for a
children's book rose from £3.90 in 1999 to £4.10 in 2001, yet the hardback edition of Goblet of Fire costs up to £15.
He found that because of the length of the Potter adventures, children had less time to read other works, a problem exacerbated by the fact that
children tend to read the Potter books over and over again.
The Rowling phenomenon continues: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and
the Goblet of Fire monopolised three of the top four places in last week's official children's fiction list, accounting for 86 per cent of the overall
market.
But such figures are misleading, according to Bohme, because the books are selling heavily to young adults and to parents eager to keep up with
their offspring.
According to the survey, while 71 per cent of Harry Potter books were bought for eight-to 14-year-olds in 1999, by 2001 this share had fallen to 36
per cent, with readers aged from 15 to 34 accounting for the rest.
'This widening of audience is yet another reason why the industry got it so wrong about the impact the Potter books would have,' said Bohme. 'It is
true millions of Potter books are being sold, but the reality is that they are being sold to adults.'
David Kewley, managing director of Scholastic and former president of the Publishers' Association, said: 'There was a lot of false euphoria about
how Harry Potter was going to single-handedly make children buy more books, but the market is much more complex than that.
'It was just simplistic to believe one author could save the whole children's industry.'
129
Elaine McQuada, marketing director at Puffin, the children's imprint of Penguin Books and the publisher of Roald Dahl, the fourth most popular
children's author of all time, agrees that the Potter phenomenon has not produced new readers. 'The children's market is flat,' she said.
In contrast with the fall in sales of children's books, the Book Marketing Ltd consumer panel, based on regular submissions from 7,000 households
across the UK, estimated that total consumer book spending grew by 5 per cent last year, to an estimated £2.2
billion.
'These findings are completely inexplicable,' said Nicholas Clee, editor of The Bookseller , the industry's bible. 'All the anecdotal evidence from
parents is that children who would not have looked twice at a book before were glued to the pages of the Potter adventures.
'Clearly the phenomenon found no new readers, but it has done nothing but good for the industry as a whole,' he added. 'Children's fiction has
never been so respected within the industry and that can only be a good thing for the future - even if the results are not yet beginning to show.'
a.
a trick
_____________________________________
b.
a study
_____________________________________
c.
in a row
_____________________________________
d.
magician
_____________________________________
e.
novelist
_____________________________________
f.
tendency, craze, fad
_____________________________________
g.
the amount of money paid out for children’s books didn’t change
_____________________________________
h.
a huge effect
_____________________________________
i.
the quantity of books
_____________________________________
j.
mistaken idea
_____________________________________
k.
simply switched
_____________________________________
l.
prevents
_____________________________________
m.
made even worse
_____________________________________
n.
total
_____________________________________
o.
wanting to keep the same pace as their kids
_____________________________________
p.
the decrease in buying children’s books
_____________________________________
q.
results
_____________________________________
r.
cannot be explained
_____________________________________
s.
were fascinated by
_____________________________________
t.
obviously, evidently
_____________________________________
130
Text 23.
Web hath no fury like a woman scorned
Amelia Hill
Sunday May 5, 2002
The Observer
It is one of Britain's most popular websites. Friends Reunited has brought together old schoolfriends and childhood sweethearts in thousands of
emotional reunions. Such is the reach of the internet that millions of people across the world log on every day in fresh bids to track down long-lost
friends - and, in some cases, to pillory former teachers.
Now, the owners of the site have a different problem; they have discovered that their successful online creation is also being used by bitter
spouses to humiliate their philandering partners.
In a withering, explicit and abuse-filled message, a woman used the noticeboard last week to denounce her husband for alleged infidelities. Not
content with listing the intimate details of the affair alongside the school he attended, the wife went on to give the name, full address and phone
number of the woman she accuses of tempting him away from the family home.
The message was pulled off the site, www.friendsreunited.co.uk, within 48 hours of its placement. But echoing the embarrassment caused when a
sexually explicit exchange between a young couple was emailed to millions, the wife's rage is still alive and well in cyberspace, and being posted
to email addresses across the globe.
'Either she or someone who read the message thought it was so good that they emailed it to a friend as an attachment,' said Laura Lumley, a
spokeswoman for Friends Reunited. 'We deleted the original message from Friends Reunited but there is nothing we can do about the email,' she
said. 'It has probably been seen by thousands of people already; there is no way of stopping it.'
Steve Pankhurst, co-founder of the site, removed the message last Friday when a visitor drew it to his attention. He admits there is nothing he can
do to stop such messages being posted in the first place. 'Friends Reunited take abuse on the site very seriously,' he said. 'If member notes are
reported to us as abusive we remove both the notes and the individual from the site but we do not censor prior to posting. These notes are meant
to be an update for friends.'
The scorned woman's rant is not the first message to disgrace Friends Reunited: last year the noticeboard was temporarily suspended when
former pupils began using it to accuse teachers of physical abuse, alcoholism and even, in veiled hints, of paedophilia.
The alleged temptress at the heart of the woman's tirade has disconnected her telephone, but it is thought that she is considering prosecuting the
author for libel, as the National Association of Head Teachers threatened to do last year.
Since its launch in 2000, membership of Friends Reunited has snowballed to more than 800,000 people. Users have the option to pay £5 a year to
send as many messages as they like, and celebrities such as Billy Bragg (Barking Abbey Comp) and Adam Ant (St Marylebone Grammar) have
been attracted to log on.
But although the site carries accounts of marriages between previously estranged friends and even some cases of adopted children reunited with
their natural parents, it is also responsible for a growing list of divorces and painful separations.
Last month Shirley Bell left her husband of 25 years, her three children and her home two weeks after regaining contact, via the website, with her
childhood sweetheart Steve Morgan.
'I was stunned when Shirley sent me an email asking how I was, and cannot believe that two weeks later we were back together again after all this
time,' Morgan said. 'It really is like something out of a Mills and Boon novel.'
Not, one suspects, a sentiment likely to be echoed by the alleged philanderer whose wife's furious tirade is doing the rounds.
a.
boyfriends and girlfriends
_____________________________________
b.
extent, appeal
_____________________________________
c.
attempts
_____________________________________
d.
to locate
_____________________________________
131
e.
annoyed married people
_____________________________________
f.
to embarrass
_____________________________________
g.
unfaithful
_____________________________________
h.
supposed unfaithfulness
_____________________________________
i.
luring
_____________________________________
j.
removed
_____________________________________
k.
fury
_____________________________________
l.
around the world
_____________________________________
m.
representative
_____________________________________
n.
wiped out
_____________________________________
o.
pointed it out to him
_____________________________________
p.
tirade
_____________________________________
q.
stopped for a while
_____________________________________
r.
taking (the writer of the message) to court
_____________________________________
s.
famous stars
_____________________________________
t.
shocked
_____________________________________
132
Text 24.
Nuclear family goes into meltdown
Generations learn to link up to cope with lonely lifestyle
John Arlidge
Sunday May 5, 2002
The Observer
THE nuclear family of mum, dad and 2.4 kids is splitting up. Researchers have coined a name for the emerging British household - the Beanpoles.
They 'live together' and have 1.8 children.
As Britons live longer, divorce rates rise and couples have fewer children, the traditional family - married parents with two or more children - is
giving way to cohabiting couples with a single child.
A new study by the London-based research group Mintel shows family groups are getting 'longer and thinner - like a beanpole'. While 20 years
ago the average extended family comprised three 'nuclear' generations, family groups are now made up of four generations
of often co-habiting couples, each with an average 1.8 children.
'The family is undergoing radical changes under the pressure of an ageing population, longer lifespans, increased female working, the tendency to
marry later in life, the falling birth rate and the rising divorce rate,' the study says.
'Twenty years ago, family groups were "horizontally broad", comprising two or three generations with many children in each nuclear family. The
next 20 years will see the rapid growth of beanpole families - long, thin family groups of three or four small generations.'
More than half of the adult population lives in 'beanpole' structures, the study says. With fewer brothers and sisters and cousins, children are
growing up faster. 'Children are being starved of the companionship of family members of their own age. Individualism is of growing importance,'
the study says.
'This could lead to greater social dislocation, with children growing up isolated from other children and younger adults. It could also encourage
greater social isolation, with teenagers adopting a more selfish attitude towards life.'
Pressure on 40 to 60-year-olds is growing sharply. This 'sandwich generation' is caught between children, who need financial help, and elderly
relatives, who need looking after.
The rising divorce rate, the study predicts, 'will make family structures more fluid and lead to a rise in "boomerang children" – children who leave
the family home only to return at a later date after a marriage or long-term relationship breaks down.'
While the growth of the 'beanpole' family may promote more contact between different generations, Mintel says it will make it even harder for the
middle-aged to strike a work/life balance.
This generation 'will feel that their quality of life is being reduced due to time pressures. The strain will be particularly acute for women, more and
more of whom are working at senior levels but still carry out most of the caring responsibilities.'
The rising divorce rate partly explains the growth of the 'beanpole' family. With almost one in two marriages ending in divorce, many adults have at
least two families, each with a single child. While the number of married couples will fall over the next 10 years, the number of cohabiting couples who have been married before - is set to double, the study says.
Medical advances, which mean the elderly live longer, explain why four-generation extended families are now the norm.
The Mintel study is backed by leading family researchers. Julia Brannen, professor of family sociology at the Institute of Education at London
University, said: 'People are living longer, but family units are small and they are getting smaller and thinner all the time, just like a beanpole.
'Soon the issue will be: will young people miss the boat and not have families at all? We are already down to one child and soon for many people it
may be none. Nuclear Family, RIP.'
a.
breaking up, dissolving
_____________________________________
b.
found a word for
_____________________________________
c.
increase
_____________________________________
d.
two people living together in a relationship
_____________________________________
e.
with one kid
_____________________________________
f.
survey
133
_____________________________________
g.
consisted of
_____________________________________
h.
deprived of
_____________________________________
i.
separated from/ apart from
_____________________________________
j.
propagate
_____________________________________
k.
older family members
_____________________________________
l.
forecasts
_____________________________________
m.
stress, pressure
_____________________________________
n.
especially sharp, felt even more by
_____________________________________
o.
is supported by
_____________________________________
134
135
PART EIGHT: WARM-UP MINI-TEST
You can try this short test as a warm up exercise... Give yourself 45 minutes to one hour.
Blunkett vigilante warning
Blunkett warning on asylum vigilantes
Alan Travis, home affairs editor
136
Friday January 24, 2003
The Guardian
Part one.
Circle the correct word in each of the groups of words in brackets).
The home (secetry /secretry /secretary), David Blunkett, warned yesterday that British society was "like a coiled spring" on the (issue /matters /thing) of asylum
seekers and he raised new (fears /scares /worryings) of vigilante action, saying that (raising /rised /rising) tension could soon spill (up /over /at) into "people
taking the (legal /lawful/ law) into their own hands".
Mr Blunkett asked newspapers not to (exacerbate /extricate/ eliminate) those "genuine fears and concerns [that] can so (easy /easier /easily) turn to a (desire
/destroy/ deciding) to find scapegoats".
Refugee groups last night welcomed his words, which came in an interview in the New Statesman, and said there was already (proofs /evidences /evidence) that
(publicly /publicity /public) (hostileness /hostility /hostile) towards asylum seekers could prompt an increase in attacks on them.
Refugee Action reported that an Iraqi asylum seeker had been (beaten /beat /beating) up in (wide /large /broad) daylight in Plymouth over the weekend by a gang
of men. The police are (treating (threatening/ treated) the attack as a "racially aggravated assault".
Part two.
(Complete the words in this part of the text. Each space stands for one letter).
The last fortnight has seen virulent coverage of asylum in most of Britain's tab _ _ _ _ newspapers, lin _ _ _ _ terrorism to refugees as the tone of public deb _ _ _
over refugees has sud _ _ _ _ _ changed.
The Sun yesterday clai _ _ _ that 50,000 rea _ _ _ _ had already signed up to its camp _ _ _ _ demanding tou _ _ _ _ action
aga _ _ _ _ illegal immi _ _ _ _ _ _ . The paper has also been demanding the depor _ _ _ _ _ _ of Abu Hamza, of the Finsbury Park mosque in north London, igno
_ _ _ _ the difficulty that he is a British cit _ _ _ _ .
The "asylum crusade" echoes the "Sarah's Law" anti-paedophile camp _ _ _ _ that the newspaper's new edi _ _ _ , Rebekah Wade, ran at the News of the World.
Part three.
Read part three of the text and then decide which of the synonyms a, b, c or d is the closest to the underlined word.
But the Sun has not been alone and the Daily Mail, the Daily Express and the Daily Telegraph have all demanded that Mr Blunkett take radical action, including
tearing up Britain's commitment to the Geneva convention on refugees and the European convention on human rights.
There have been threats to burn down the hotel in Sittingbourne, Kent, which the Home Office had earmarked as an asylum induction centre. Kent police said last
night that they had six separate inquiries from national newspapers asking for details of all crimes committed by asylum seekers in the county.
In his New Statesman interview, Mr Blunkett, when asked about people and newspapers making the link between terrorism and asylum, replied: "I'm worried about
tension and frustration spilling over into the disintegration of community relations and social cohesion. I'm worried about people taking the law into their own hands.
"I want the debate to be in the open. I want people's fears to be genuinely reflected. I want to be able to ensure that they know the facts and get information on which
they can make a judgement."
1.
alone
a. ideal
2.
d. scrawling
b. implication
c. valuation
d. specification
b. set fire at
c. put fire to
d. set fire to
b. set off
c. set aside
d. set about
b. connected
c. different
d. split
b. connected
c. connecting
d. connection
b. feared
c. scaring
worried
a. concerned
10.
c. scratching
link
a. connect
9.
b. scrapping
separate
a. linked
8.
d. insisted
earmarked
a. set in
7.
c. desisted
burn
a. set fire of
6.
b. resisted
commitment
a. obligation
5.
d. self-righteous
tearing up
a. scraping
4.
c. numerous
demanded
a. persisted
3.
b. singular
d. indifferent
in the open
a. public
b. publicly
c. publicity
d. publication
Part four.
For each of the underlined words, give a synonym. Make sure that each synonym can be inserted into the text in such a way as to ensure the text still
reads correctly)
137
Mr Blunkett said the government was prepared to listen to "feasible suggestions" on asylum but compared the tabloid campaigns on asylum to the activities of latterday Trotskyites making absurd demands: "I ask people not to demand them, because I had a bellyful, as others did 20 years ago, when we were dealing with the
Trotskyites in the Labour party - their impossible demands with outrageous resolutions that they knew we couldn't match followed by denunciation of failures."
He went on to criticise certain newspaper commentators, who his aides declined to name, saying that if he could bring some trust and security into the asylum
system it might be possible to cool a debate "where, bizarrely, people whose families survived only because they were able to flee to Britain are actually writing
about how we should stop families fleeing to Britain".
Margaret Lally, of the Refugee Council, welcomed his intervention: "People have genuine anxieties. It would be best to try to address those anxieties by giving them
facts."
Sandy Buchan of Refugee Action said: "Now more than ever, asylum seekers face a disturbing climate of fear, and some face violence. A rational debate is
overdue."
But others were critical of Mr Blunkett. Habib Rahman of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants said his remarks were "loose talk and dangerous talk". Dr
Michael Wilks of the Asylum Coalition claimed that raising the "spectre" of vigilante action would become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
1.
prepared
_______________________________
2.
feasible
_______________________________
3.
absurd
_______________________________
4.
a bellyful
_______________________________
5.
aides
_______________________________
6.
bizarrely
______________________________
7.
flee
______________________________
8.
anxieties
______________________________
9.
address
______________________________
10.
claimed
______________________________
138
PART NINE: THREE SAMPLE READING TESTS
There are three complete reading tests here. Some of the exercises are just like the ones you
have done in this book so far, but there are a few other kinds of exercises which you haven’t
seen before – just to keep you on your toes!!!
For each test, the recommended time of 90 minutes should be observed, although if you find
that this is too short then you can give yourself an extra 20 to 30 minutes. These tests are a bit
longer than what you would have in a normal UNIcert ® III reading test, and possibly a little
more difficult as well, so there is no need to get upset if you find them difficult, or if you feel
that you are really having problems getting everything done in 90 minutes. After each test
there are guidelines for marking your paper (you will find the solutions in the book of
solutions). Be fair, even strict on yourself when marking!! Have fun, and good luck!
SAMPLE READING TEST 1
Being 16.
Joshua is a typical working-class, inner-city lad on the verge of adulthood. His mum doesn’t have much money, his friends get into
fights, and he is offered drugs on the street. But he is most concerned with his GCSEs, says Libby Brooks, in the final part of her series
on childhood.
The Guardian
139
th
Thursday 04 July 2002
Libby Brooks
Part one.
Fill in the blanks to complete the words. Each blank represents one letter.
‘I’m begin _ _ _ _ to unders _ _ _ _ that the whole univ _ _ _ _ doesn’t revo _ _ _ aro _ _ _ me.’ Joshua is slouched in his us _ _ _ posi _ _
_ _ on the sofa, knees wide, arms easy, staring past the busy pot plants on the window ledge. He has bri _ _ _ blue eyes and dark brows, and
he’s ju _ _ about to be very handsome. He’s hu _ _ – 6ft 4in – and too big for the furn _ _ _ _ _ , too big for this cheery but cram _ _ _
housing association flat.
He li _ _ _ with his mot _ _ _ , Heather, who is on inc _ _ _ support, and his 12-year-old bro _ _ _ _ Rory. Joshua’s par _ _ _ _ split up when
he was five years old, and he cont _ _ _ _ _ to see his father spora _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . “My mum gui _ _ _ me, but I look up to my dad,” he says. A
lot of his friends’ par _ _ _ _ aren’t toge _ _ _ _ , and he doesn’t think th _ _ it makes much diffe _ _ _ _ _ . “My mum gi _ _ _ me adv _ _ _
and the stab _ _ _ _ _ to have a good, happy li _ _ . My dad gi _ _ _ me adv _ _ _ too, but not on schoolwork, on life – how to get o _ well
with peo _ _ _ , how to surv _ _ _ and keep it real.” He talks stea _ _ _ _ , his left hand occasi _ _ _ _ _ _ flicking up to his face. His vo _ _ _
is low, his north London acc _ _ _ strong.
With Rory, he says with a wry smile, it’s love-hate. “I love him and he’s my bro _ _ _ _ , but somet _ _ _ _ I want to knock hi _ out.”
At the end of the test, check the solutions. Give yourself one point for each word which you have completed correctly. At the end,
divide your total score by 2 to get your mark out of 20 for this section of the test.
Part two.
The second part of each section has been removed. These are given to you under this part of the text. Decide which ending you need
to complete each sentence so that it makes complete sense.
This is Joshua’s world: his mum doesn’t have much money, his friends are in fights most weekends, he _______________ . He has already
broken the _______________ . Joshua’s world doesn’t look that nice, but it _______________ . What is particular about Joshua is not what goes
on around him but the choice he is already making in response – that the things that could hold him _______________ . “I just want
_______________ . Like one of my teachers was saying, it’s a cruel world out _______________ . It’ll chew you up and spit you
_______________ . And make a _______________ .”
Joshua _______________ . “Mainly my friends are in the football team, and we _______________ . I’ve also got friends that live on the
_______________ . Some of them are in the _______________ ."
He says he has always _______________ . His teachers have predicted that he will get mainly Bs and Cs for his GCSEs, which
_______________ . “I’m not a _______________ . I chat a lot in class but if the teacher tells _______________ .’” He is not going out so much
right now – just Friday nights and Saturdays – and he has set himself a two-hour _______________ .
Joshua goes clubbing once every couple _______________ . It is hard when there is nowhere to go. “I’ve said it to my _______________ .
People turn to _______________. There’s quite a lot of teenage pregnancy – they’ll just go and shag the nearest bird.”
1.
1.
2.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
... year above or older, but when we're together I don't notice
... have just started, and an A or A* for drama, his passion
... of months, but there aren’t many under-18 nights locally
... out, so you’ve got to be strong
... me to stop I think, ‘Fair enough
... to work hard
... law, had sex and tried drugs
... estate and I hang out with them at weekends
... is not that unusual either
... tried to get on with his schoolwork
...mates quite a few times – it’s just the boredom
... bit of money
... disruptive child
... there, and you’ve got to do the best you can
... gets offered drugs on the way home from the tube station
... hang around a lot outside school
... back won’t become the things that define him
... revision period every night, though he doesn’t always stick to it
... drugs for the excitement, or the booze
... attends the local boys’ comprehensive
At the end of the test, check the solutions. Give yourself one point for each correct answer to get your mark out of 20 for this part of the
test.
Part three.
Circle the word/expression in brackets which fits best into the text. Only ONE of the three alternatives is to be circled.
When he (lines/ goes/ meets) up with his (foes/ mates/ opponents), usually they will go round to someone’s house and listen to music or play
on computers. He likes rock music and garage, (though/ through/ thought) (lately/ later/ recent) he has been getting (upon/ into/ by) rap. He
and his friends (chat/ yarn/ drivel) about music, football, girls, sometimes (currant/ actual/ current) affairs, but (rare/seldom/ common)
schoolwork – (main/ mainly/ maining) because, he (tells/ dictates/ explains), his friends aren’t as (committed/ commitment/ committee) as he
is.
Joshua wants to go (at/ in/ to) university, but (mostly/most/ mosts) of his friends (talks/ talking/ talk) about being plumbers. It doesn’t (interest/
bother/ frighten) him. He has (addictions/ amphibians/ ambitions) and when he talks about his route up and out, the (derivation/
determination/ dissension) rises off him like (lead/ steam/ concrete). “You have your (targets/ failures/ objectivities), but you don’t chat
about it. ‘Don’t worry about my business, you worry about yours,’ is the (mental/ mentality/ mentally) most of us have.”
test.
Part four.
In this section, five words have been removed from each paragraph. The five words are given to you after each paragraph. Can you put
each word into the correct place in the text?
140
It is a later and Joshua has spent weekend practising his GCSE drama performance at his friend’s house. It’s a bit like Dead Man Walking, he
says, the of a guy on row who is thinking about his past and what got him there. Joshua the main character’s brother.
plays
the
death
story
week
He loves drama. “I like the. It’s not that you can become someone because I’m quite comfortable with I am, but you get to change from the
ordinary and something new. It does ask a lot of you but it’s fun.” Once or he has dreamed that he was in a television programme.
else
excitement
try
who
twice
There a big fight near his yesterday. ”This one boy was thinking he was a bit and got in a fight with this other boy who’s a bit heavy. He had a
cosh and hit him round the face, and the other boy came back with his and they had another big scuff. There are at school every few weeks but
this was a really big one.”
fights
flash
dad
school
was
Heather a lot about her son’s safety, though she him to stay out of trouble. “I it’s very difficult for teenagers in inner-city areas,” she says. “It’s
quite, and it’s acceptable to him now that it’s that.”
think
worries
dangerous
like
trusts
test.
Part five.
Read part five and then decide for each of the words/expressions that follow which of the four alternatives is the closest synonym to it
(in the context of the text). To help you out, the words have been underlined in the text so you can read them in context before
choosing the answer.
Joshua is one of those working-class teenage boys recently described as a “major public-health issue” by a senior government health adviser.
Professor John Ashton made his comments in May, following the publication of a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation which found that one
in four teenage boys is armed, while half of all teenagers have committed a crime by the time they reach 15.
Joshua admits that he has broken the law. Relatively, his transgressions are pretty minor – underage sex, smoking cannabis, a ride on a stolen
moped a couple of years ago. He doesn’t carry a knife, though he knows plenty of people who do. “I wouldn’t rely on a weapon to get me out of
trouble. I’d rely on myself.”
He is more confident on the streets than he used to be, he says, and consequently gets into less trouble. “I think because of my physical
appearance people think twice about starting. I used to fight a lot more, because people would say the wrong thing and I’d react badly. It’s all
about respect.”
He talks about his fighting years with some superficial bravado – he says the point was “to do as much damage as possible” – but Joshua is not a
violent kid. He detests violence, he says, and he detests street crime. He is a steady soul, but talking about the fights and the petty thieving that
riddle his world are the only times he gets really agitated. And the times when I am most reminded that he is a child.
But if I saw Joshua on the street at night, would I hold my bag tighter? Yes. He is used to this reaction and he hates it. “People do look at me
and my friends and think, “Teenage boys, they might cause a bit of trouble.’ Every stereotype is based on some true-life fact, but at the moment it
has been taken out of context. People think every teenage boy is the same. There are those people out there who steal phones, but have you got
to expect the worst?”
The police don’t hassle him as much as they used to, though the next time we meet he tells me that a car he was travelling in was pulled over.
“When I was younger I’d just be walking down the street at night and a police car pulls up and they’re like, ‘Boys, come here, let me search you,’
and they’d check your name over the radio.” The police can be racist, he says, stopping black friends of his while the white kids are left go.
1.
working class
a. aristocratic
2.
b. invincible
c. carrying weapons
d. vulnerable
b. carried out
c. carried over
d. carried away
b. denies
c. reveals
d. conceals
b. misgivings
c. misnomers
d. mistakings
b. a few
c. several
d. hardly any
b. force
c. carry
d. overestimate
plenty
a. few
8.
d. remarks
transgressions
a. misdemeanours
7.
c. mentions
admits
a. refutes
6.
b. anecdotes
committed
a. carried on
5.
d. well-off
armed
a. protected
4.
c. lower class
comments
a. sayings
3.
b. noble
rely
a. depend on
141
9.
weapon
a. mate
10.
b. confrontation
b. barge in
b. avoids
c. mildly dislikes
d. adores
b. lonesome
c. well-adjusted
d. fearsome
b. serious
c. organised
d. illegal
b. joke about
c. embarrass
d. humour
b. stoic
c. indifferent
d. embarrassed
b. dreads
c. lives in fear of
d. has changed
hassle
a. excuse
20.
d. tomfoolery
used to
a. familiar with
19.
c. awareness
agitated
a. annoyed
18.
b. harm
riddle
a. infest
17.
d. hesitant
petty
a. minor
16.
c. surface
steady
a. equilibriated
15.
b. sincere
detests
a. despises
14.
d. greatly fear
damage
a. prevention
13.
c. idly do
superficial
a. deep
12.
d. limb
think twice
a. be careful about
11.
c. arm
b. overlook
c. arrest
d. harass
check
a. find out
b. disprove
c. fear
d. disbelieve
test.
Part six.
Read part six and decide whether the each of the statements which follow it are true or false.
Joshua smoked cannabis a couple of times when he was younger, but he didn’t enjoy it. He says he has never tried any harder drugs, though he
has been offered them. “Drugs ain’t for me. A lot of times people I know have offered me spliffs and that. They say, 'Why don’t you?’ and I say,
‘It’s up to me. Just worry about yourself, man.’ If you just be telling them they get the idea.”
“I don’t really go for drinking either. I ain’t been drunk for ages. I don’t really want to spend my money on drink. And because I play sport,
smoking and drinking doesn’t help you with football.”
Perhaps this sounds too good to be true. But what Joshua doesn’t like to talk about is the fact that he has seen, up close, exactly what drug and
alcohol abuse can do to a person. A family member has struggled with addiction for years, and the experience has left Joshua resolute about
taking a different path.
True or false?
1.
Joshua consumed cannabis with considerable regularity in his younger days.
2.
The pleasure Joshua got from smoking cannabis was immense.
3.
Harder drugs such as heroin have never really been enticing to Joshua.
4.
Joshua feels that the decision to take drugs or not is something for each individual to decide for him or herself.
5.
Alcohol consumption is one of Joshua’s most common ways of socialising.
6.
Alcohol and drugs have no real positive benefits for an athlete.
7.
Joshua himself has had problems in the past because of his excessive alcohol and drug consumption.
8.
Joshua has simply no idea of the consequences of drug and alcohol abuse.
9.
Joshua is quite willing to discuss the addiction problem of people in his own family.
10.
Joshua does not think he will ever walk a different path.
At the end of the test, check the solutions. Give yourself two points for each correct answer to get your mark out of 20 for this part of
the test.
142
Part seven.
Another week, another fight. Joshua’s drama practical has gone well, and he is about to begin study leave. But there was a lot of trouble at the
weekend. “My mate rang me up and said. ‘Do you want to come to the pub?’ We were having a good time, and then a fight broke out and my
mate got bottled.”
The boy who started on Joshua’s friend had had a “problem” with him before. He had pulled a knife on him in a club after Joshua’s friend
challenged him for harassing his girlfriend. “So when we saw him, me and some other mates went up to him and said, ‘Forget about it. We don’t
want no problems, and he was like, ‘Yeah, it’s cool:’”
It wasn’t cool, though, and as soon as Joshua’s friend walked off to the toilet, the boy and his mates jumped him. They smashed bottles over his
head, and rammed cups into his face. He had two black eyes, and his head and face were badly cut.
Joshua’s friend was kept in hospital overnight. The boys who attacked him ran off, but Joshua and the rest of his friends followed. They tracked
them down to the snooker club, ready to kick off again. Then an Irish lad, who had a “problem” with another of Joshua’s group, started threatening
them. Everyone started squaring up again, but in the end no one else got hurt.
He doesn’t relate this with relish. He sounds weary, and a little embarrassed. “I don’t like having to put myself in that position because I’m not a
violent person and I don’t like fighting, but if the situation occurs you’ve got to do it. That’s my friend and I want to help if he’s getting battered.”
What would happen if he didn’t? “People might think, ‘He ain’t my mate, he didn’t help,’ or, ‘He’s a bit of a pussy, he’s scared of a fight.’”
“We ain’t violent people,” he insists. “We’re not looking for trouble, but if trouble comes looking for us we can’t let people mug us off.”
Decide in each case whether answer a, b, c or d is correct.
1a.
1b.
1c.
1d.
Joshua had an exam in drama and it was practically a fight.
Joshua had an examination in drama which was not a written one.
Joshua is practically dramatic during his exams.
Joshua’s written exam in drama was a very practical one.
2a.
2b.
2c.
2d.
Joshua is about to leave his studies.
Joshua is leaving study behind
Joshua has been given time off school for the specific purpose of studying.
Joshua leaves study until the weekend is over.
3a.
3b.
3c.
3d.
Joshua’s mate pulled a knife on him for harassing his girlfriend.
Joshua pulled a knife on his mate for harassing his girlfriend.
Joshua’s friend pulled a knife on a guy who had a problem with Joshua’s girlfriend.
Joshua’s friend was the victim of a guy who pulled a knife on him, accusing him of having harassed his girlfriend.
4a.
4b.
4c.
4d.
Joshua’s friend was unharmed in the attack.
Joshua’s friend received minor injuries in the attack.
Joshua’s friend was unhurt as he was in the toiled at the time of the attack.
Joshua’s friend was so seriously injured that a period of observation was necessary.
5a.
5b.
5c.
5d.
When Joshua followed the attackers to the snooker club he was alone.
When Joshua followed the attackers to the snooker club, a fight was threatened but avoided in the end.
When Joshua followed the attackers to the snooker club there was a major fight again.
When Joshua followed the attackers to the snooker club, the attackers squared up the costs of the hospitalisation charges.
Now check your answers and give yourself two points for each correct answer. Then do the rest of the questions for this exercise.
Now find the word in the text which means:
a.
hassle, bother
_____________________________________
b.
telephoned
_____________________________________
c.
pounced
____________________________________
d.
preparing to fight
____________________________________
e.
satisfaction
____________________________________
f.
tired
____________________________________
g.
ashamed
____________________________________
h.
being beaten up
____________________________________
i.
coward
143
____________________________________
j.
push us around
____________________________________
Now give yourself one point for each correct answer.
Part eight.
Read part seven and then give a synonym of your own for each of the underlined words/expressions.
Joshua says he and his friends tend not to talk to each other about their feelings. “If it’s something personal they may not want to say it in case
the person laughs or tells other people.. My mates do tell each other, ‘Oh, I’ve got this girl, blah, blah, blah, but we don’t go into details.”
He doesn’t have a girlfriend right now – “to be honest I think it’s be a bit of a distraction from studying” – though he has been out with girls in the
past. He says that “going out” basically means you’re having sex. He reckons most of his mates use condoms. “I don’t think there’s pressure to
have sex. People want to do it. If you want to have sex and there’s a girl who wants to have sex as well, easy as. There’s one boy out of all my
mates that ain’t had sex.”
But what makes a girl popular with boys? “You’ve got to be fit. I like girls who are a bit intelligent and know what they want out of life. Some
people just think, ‘Forget about how intelligent she is, I want to bang her.’ Different people like different things. But there’s still one necessity: a
girl’s got to be nice-looking.”
So what do boys think of girls who have a lot of sex? Joshua snorts. “Slags, man. When people say, ‘That girl’s an osh,’ that means she gives
head. If you ring her, she’s on it. They might be doing it to get popular, even though they eventually lose popularity. They might enjoy it,” he adds
unconvincingly.
And what do boys think of other boys who have lots of sex? “They respect them. Maybe it’s a bit silly, but they think, ‘He gets girls, he’s got
confidence.’ It’s not really fair but that’s the society we live in. There’s not much you can do about it.”
1.
tend not to talk
______________________________________________
2.
feelings
______________________________________________
3.
personal
______________________________________________
4.
mates
______________________________________________
5.
go into details
______________________________________________
6.
to be honest
______________________________________________
7.
distraction
______________________________________________
8.
reckons
______________________________________________
9.
pressure
______________________________________________
10.
easy as
______________________________________________
11.
popular with
______________________________________________
12.
a bit
______________________________________________
13.
nice-looking
______________________________________________
14.
Slags
______________________________________________
15.
ring
______________________________________________
144
16.
eventually
______________________________________________
17.
popularity
______________________________________________
18.
unconvincingly
______________________________________________
19.
silly
______________________________________________
20.
fair
______________________________________________
test.
Part nine.
Read part eight of the text and answer the questions which follow.
_______________ _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________ .
He says it does his head in. It is a week on, and the TV is blaring above the two single beds. _______________ _______________
_______________ _______________ _______________ _______________ , the Loaded calendar and the stack of lad mags are Joshua’s.
Though there aren’t many grooming products on display in here, _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________
_______________. It has even been put to him that he might be a bit vain. He rates his looks seven out of 10. _______________
_______________ _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________
_______________ _______________ _______________
“My friends are still living in tracksuit bottoms and trainers, but I’m more into denim and stuff like that. I like to dress nice and smart. I don’t like
creases in my clothes – I get really moody. My mum irons my school stuff ‘cause it’s too early in the morning for me to do, but on weekends I get
the ironing board out myself.”
He keeps his revision books on the desk in the sitting room, and some videos and books on the shelving unit there. His football trophies – last
year his team won the Camden Unity Cup – crowd round his mum’s scented candles.
He prefers to read magazines, but if he sees a book he really likes he will ask his mum to buy it for him and he will read it all the way through. “I
like philosophy – books that get your mind working. _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________
_______________ _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________
__________________ . I saw the programme and then asked my mum to buy it. I couldn’t believe it. I just thought, ‘What is going on in the
world?’”
Several full sentences, or parts of sentences have been removed from this part of the text and these are given to you in scrambled form
after the text. Put the words in the correct order and then replace them in the sentences.
1.
brother/ shares /Joshua/ a/ with/ room/ his
2.
belong/ the/ to/ posters/ Rory/ football
3.
very/ always/ Joshua/ clean/ looks
3.
to/ individual/ it/ he/ he/ is/ when/ an/ says/ clothes/ comes
4.
a/ the/ guy/ book/ I/ Ronson/ read/ by/ called/ was/ Jon/ last
Give yourself four points for each fully correct answer.
Give yourself two points if there are only two words in the wrong place.
If there are more than two words misplaced, then do not give yourself any points.
Part ten.
Joshua hasn’t thought about whether he will vote when he turns 18. He is not that bothered about religion either, but he does believe in Jesus
Christ. It gives him “ a little bit of inspiration that when you die you can rise up and still have something left – it’s not like game over.”
His rules for living are simple. “My outlook would be that all the wrongdoers have got it coming back and what goes around comes around. I
would never start on people, but if people want to start you’ve got to be strong. Never take the mick out of someone because you wouldn’t like it is
it happened to you back. Try and be nice to people. I believe that giving is like receiving, so if you give something to other people then you
receive a lot back; maybe not material goods, but psychologically – if you believe you’ve done something nice, it makes you feel good inside.”
Joshua is dreading this week’s GCSEs in French and science. And at the weekend? “More fucking trouble.” He shakes his head. “My mate got
his arm broken, and all his knuckles were swollen. I was like, ‘Why do you have to get into so much trouble?’”
But his biggest concern is his exams. “I’m fairly smart so I’m confident that I’ll do well, but there’s that horrible feeling when you open the results
and you’ve done two years for nothing.”
Write one or two short sentences to answer each of the following questions. Be sure to answer in your own words. Do not copy the
text.
1.
What is Joshua’s attitude to religion?
___________________________________________________________________________________
145
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
2.
Summarise Joshua’s outlook on life.
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
3.
What happened to Joshua’s friend at the weekend, and what was Joshua’s reaction?
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
4.
How does Joshua feel about his exams?
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
Give yourself five points for each question if you have all of the main points as listed in the solutions. Then it is up to you to decide
how many points per question you should have taken off for incorrect grammar and expression. If you are not sure about doing this,
then get a friend to correct this for you, or best of all, ask your class teacher to correct it.
Part eleven.
Joshua daydreams about making money. “I don’t mean a lot of money, but I dream about having a job where I can buy the stuff I want, and then
I’ll be perfectly content. I won’t have to worry, ‘Oh, my jeans are dirty. I’ll have to wear my tracksuit bottoms.’ I’ll think, ‘My jeans are dirty. I’ll try
the other pair on.’”
Does he get money from his mum? He rolls his eyes – Heather worries that he feels cheated because she can’t provide him with new things all
the time. The main arguments they have are about money. “I don’t get pocket money, but if I’m going out at the weekend I’ll ask for a tenner if
she’s got it. But she doesn’t really have that much money. She makes sure she has enough for the shopping, though.”
He notices that he is becoming less dependent on his parents as he gets older. “I know I’ve got to get on with my own life and not rely on them to
bail me out. But I still need them. If they weren’t there I’d cave in – I wouldn’t be ready for the world.
“There are still quite a lot of things in my life that I’d like to change, but I am happy. I know that things are the way they are for a reason and though sometimes it makes me angry - I try to accept it. I’ve got to get on with it.”
He says he is no longer that little kid who would come home to his mum and have her make everything all right again. “I understand that there’s a
big world out there and I want to do as well as I can.”
Now find a word/expression in the text which means the OPPOSITE of:
1.
unhappy
________________________________
2,
clean
________________________________
3.
privileged
________________________________
4.
deprive him of
________________________________
5.
ignores
________________________________
6.
more reliant
________________________________
7.
discontent
________________________________
8.
pointlessly
________________________________
9.
reject
________________________________
10.
an adult
________________________________
146
Now give yourself two points for each correct answer and get your mark out of 20 for this part of the test.
Now add your marks together for all seven parts of the test. The total number of points possible is 220. How did you do?
Less than 110 points
very poor
5,0
Between 110 and 145 points
fair
4,0
good
3,0
very good
2,0
excellent
1,0
SAMPLE READING TEST 2
Being 12
Isabel likes playing at models - dressing up and making up like the catwalk stars. And she definitely wants to be a pop singer or an actor when she
grows up. But for the moment, the biggest event on her horizon is becoming a teenager. Libby Brooks continues her series with girl on the cusp of
adolescence
Libby Brooks
Wednesday July 3, 2002
The Guardian
Part one.
Read part one of the text and fill in each of the sentence endings from the list below. Just write the number of each sentence ending in
the gap.
The wide oak table in the _______________ . Isabel and her friends have been playing "models", dressing _______________ . Her younger sister, Rachel, plays
too. "She's very fashion conscious _______________. This afternoon, Isabel is wearing a lilac T-shirt, dark hipster jeans and a suggestion of eyeshadow. The cool
group at school used to wear crop tops, she explains, but now they wear baggy jeans and baggy _______________. She rolls her eyes. "They say they do but
one of them told me secretly she likes SClub7."
Isabel isn't sure who first decides these fashions. "You could go out in anything I suppose and say 'Didn't you know it's the latest fashion?'" She laughs. She has a
fine grasp of the absurd.
Today her friend Ella came round, and they went on _______________ . Both Ella and Isabel attend an all girls' public _______________ . "In our class there are
the people who think they're cool, and they pretend to go to discos and things. Then there are the people who do _______________ . And then there's my little
group - we don't really have a description. Nobody really makes _______________ ."
This first year of secondary school has been very different _______________ . "It's work, work, work. We get three homeworks a day which are supposed to take
about half _______________ . All the teachers say, 'Just do it for half an hour then stop,' but then if you do they say, 'Why haven't you finished this you bad, bad
girl?'"
She likes English, though not reading books aloud. She likes essay-writing, art and drama, because you don't _______________ . Algebra is horrible. She's
terrible at science - they have tests every week and she always leaves _______________ .
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
... for a five-year-old," says Isabel
... friends with anyone from other groups
... school in south-west London
... kitchen is spread with photographs of fancy poses
... it until the last day to revise
... sweatshirts and say they like Nirvana
... from her primary experience
... the bus to Covent Garden with Katja, Isabel's au pair
... have to get the right answer
... up and making up each other's faces
... an hour each but usually take longer
... really well at everything
(12)
Part two.
Read part two of the text and decide whether each of the statements which follow is true or false.
Isabel prefers being at an all-girls school: "I suppose I don't like boys because of my brother and all his annoying friends. You go off them."
Isabel has known her best friend, Grace, since the first year of primary school. "But lately things have been a bit tricky. Grace is really clever at maths and music
and everything, which is annoying! And also, I really like Ella. Ella likes shopping but Grace doesn't. Me and Ella talk for ages about films that we've seen,
celebrities, what we think of this person, that person."
Isabel would like to be a celebrity. "I'd like to be Britney Spears, though she's always trying too hard. I would like to be famous, to be a pop star or an actress. I'd
like to do a series like Friends, something funny."
She supposes she might have to go to acting school. "But lots of people don't go to acting school, like Hugh Grant. You need to be discovered, or invite some
producer guy to the school play and be the STAR of the play."
She dissolves into laughter at her own credulity. Possibility and realism tug Isabel's hopes in opposite directions. She seems to be in a perpetual state of review which imaginings are worth carrying through to the adult world, and which are too childishly optimistic to bring anything but disappointment.
Isabel lives in a tall house with high ceilings and a long garden in south London. She folds her lean bare legs beneath her grey school skirt on a springy armchair
in the first-floor sitting room. She is looking forward to the weekend. On Fridays she can watch as much television as she likes, and on Saturday she is going to
Ella's house with their friend Emily, and then to the cinema to see About A Boy. "Usually I come home from school, muck about, have tea, then watch the
Simpsons from 6pm to 6.30pm, then do my homework. I'll read a book to Rachel if mum isn't here and put her to bed."
147
Isabel's mother, Ann, works part-time - on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays - as secretary general of the Franco-British Council. Most of Isabel's friends'
mothers work outside the home. "I don't mind at all that she does," she says, bemused by the idea she might. "It's not as though she isn't connected to her
children. We have Katja who looks after us and then Mum's here on Mondays and Fridays and she also comes in at 6 o'clock on the other days - and we're at
school the rest of the time."
Isabel's father has just been appointed a QC. "We had to go along for the ceremony at the House of Lords which was a bit boring. They said lots of stuff in Latin
and I wasn't really listening, then they said 'Mark Warby' and it was over really quickly."
She wriggles with pride, none the less. "Before that there was a reception, and we were the only children there. All the grown-ups came and talked to us and they
talked about really boring stuff - 'Do you know my son did...' and you're standing there going 'Yes, mmm'." Isabel is a brilliant mimic. "Then mum took us outside
and we had crisps."
1.
Isabel would prefer to be at a mixed school even though she finds boys annoying.
2.
Grace is annoyed that she is so clever at maths.
3.
In recent times the friendship between Isabel and Grace has been a bit strained.
4.
Isabel tries too hard to be like Britney Spears.
5.
Few of Isabel’s mother’s friends work outside of the home.
6.
Isabel believes that although her mother works outside of the home, she nevertheless makes sure that her children’s needs are
catered for.
7.
Isabel’s mother works full time every day from Monday to Friday.
8.
Isabel seems to have a natural talent for imitating people.
(8)
Part three.
Fill in the blanks to complete the words in this part of the text. Each blank represents one letter.
Sometimes she wis _ _ _ she had older sibl _ _ _ _ . "I play with Milo [her 11-year-old bro _ _ _ _ ] and Rachel but I'd like some _ _ _ to play with me - or he _ _
me with my homework. I loved it when Rachel was a baby and I loo _ _ _ after her qu _ _ _ a lot, but now she's older and grumpy all the time. She's a real lit _ _
_ teenager!"
Isabel will enter her teens in September. "I want to have a big party but I don't think things will cha _ _ _ . I alw _ _ _ thought my life would cha _ _ _ drast _ _ _
_ _ _ when I went from nine to 10 - into double figures - but nothing happened."
She does get more grumpy now, she adm _ _ _ , when people patro _ _ _ _ her, or when she has lots of home _ _ _ _ , or when parents say 'Do one more thing
about the house, we'll pay you' and they never do. Some _ _ _ _ _ Isabel wor _ _ _ _ about older boys in the street, especially walking home from school. Once
some boys set off a firework when she and her fri _ _ _ _ were playing in the park, and another friend was foll _ _ _ _ right up to her front door by a girl her own
age. "She prob _ _ _ _ wanted her mobile ph _ _ _ ," she says. "I don't have one, and the only rea _ _ _ I want one is because all my friends do. They just ri _ _
their mums to come and col _ _ _ _ them, so it's not that cool. I like my little area here, but when you go down there [she indic _ _ _ _ a nearby council est _ _ _
] it gets a lot more dodgy. And there are never any policemen. There are these big yellow
si _ _ _ saying, did you see this murder or this robb _ _ _ ."
What wo _ _ _ it be like to li _ _ in one of those areas? "I'd be really, really sca _ _ _ . But if you act _ _ _ _ _ live in one of those pla _ _ _ I think you bec _ _
_ a bit rou _ _ _ _ and not as sca _ _ _ because you know wh _ _ to do. It might aff _ _ _ how you gr _ _ up - you think, why not? Those kids do it so w _ _
don't I?"
(20)
Part four.
Read through part five of the text and choose the correct word from the list which fits into each space.
It is 5pm a _______________ later and Rachel, Milo, Isabel and her _______________ Ella and Emily are piling down pasta in the kitchen. Although Katja is
serving, Rachel _______________ wants her sister to give her more ketchup. Isabel sighs like a properly harassed mum and administers it adroitly.
Isabel has been sitting next to Emily and Ella this week. "I've tried to _______________ to Grace that I want to be best friends with Emily and Ella too but..." This
_______________ of thing is happening a lot, the girls say. "It's _______________ because in year seven some people are more _______________ than
others," explains Ella. "When you ask some girls which boys they _______________ they say Superman and Harry Potter because they have magical powers,"
adds Isabel _______________ . Some girls stay immature because their parents don't want them to grow up, Emily suggests. And some are scared themselves of
becoming teenagers, adds Ella.
The rules are certainly _______________ .
"Like, it's not cool to dress up for discos, you've got to dress down," says Emily. "Dressing down is looking like you've made no _______________ whatsoever,
but you have to _______________ it right."
"Get your hair all tousled just right!" laughs Isabel.
Make-up makes Ella's skin itchy, but Isabel likes _______________ it in the house, though she would only wear lipgloss outside. And boys? "They're really short!"
snuffs Ella.
"I like celebrity boys," says Isabel. "Josh Hartnet, Heath Ledger, Brad Pitt. I don't like real live boys. They all want to play _______________ and Indians."
"But what about..." says Emily slyly, and Isabel slowly turns puce while Emily and Ella commence a two-pronged tease about a boy she likes who drives past her
on the way to school.
There's a lot to contend with. Emily worries that she is going to go to a party where someone will force drugs on her.
Ella _______________ a film where a girl was given a cake and it was _______________but she didn't realise. "But everyone talks about drugs so much, that
they're terrible, that they make you feel good but then you feel bad, and it sort of makes me want to try them!" There is a chorus of deliciously shocked shrieks.
At school the older girls smoke, says Isabel. "I made a _______________ never to take drugs, and I don't think I'll ever smoke because it looks horrible. My friend
Amy said she's pretty certain she's going to smoke, even though she doesn't want to, because she'll be pressurised into it. I think a lot of girls would be
pressurised into smoking."
148
Isabel has _______________ champagne at parties. "I had a beer once but it was _______________, though my parents both seem to enjoy it. I think I will drink,
but just on special _______________ , unless I become really rich and then I'll drink champagne every day for breakfast."
drugged
effort
get
drunk
fancy
week
specifically
watched
explain
mature
mainly
disgusting
sort
vow
derisively
occasions
cowboys
friends
confusing
wearing
(20)
Part five.
The first sentence of each paragraph has been removed. From the list below, choose the correct sentence to begin each paragraph.
_______________ There are shelves of books, a few cuddly toys and an electronic keyboard which she got last Christmas. The wallpaper includes a frieze of
ladies in wide skirts that the family has coloured in together over the years.
_______________ However, this week she has been off school for two days with a temperature of 103.4. On Tuesday she watched 20 episodes of Friends and
on Wednesday 36. She feels much better now and is chomping through a packet of Starburst, the papers strewn across her duvet.
_______________ "We call them Meggie and Doogie because that's what dad called them when he was younger because he couldn't say mummy and daddy.
Meggie used to be a model so she's always giving me make-up and moisturiser. This time she tried putting mascara on me and my eyes were really huge."
_______________ 'Isabel always do your own thing, don't get into drugs...' I just nod along."
_______________ The craze at the moment is sort of hippy-ish but because everyone wears uniform you have to show the fashion with accessories. And Grace
is hanging around with a new friend! "She's started going around with Felicity. It's not like we're enemies. We're still going to be friends."
_______________ "Girls tell each other everything. Boys don't." She pauses, chewing noisily on a sweet. Isabel can't think of anything she wouldn't talk to her
friends about.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Last weekend, the whole family visited her father's parents in Bristol.
"She's always trying to have girly chats with me She is hardly ever ill.
This afternoon she is wearing a purple tie-dye headband.
Isabel's bedroom is at the very top of the house.
It is important to be loyal, she says, though she worries that she hasn't been loyal to Grace.
(12)
Part six.
Find words in this part of the text which mean the opposite of the words in the exercise below.
There are other differences. If boys have a fight then it's a fight and they're friends the next day. If girls have a fight then they're enemies for weeks and weeks,
and when they make up it's really emotional. "I think it's easier to be a girl. Boys keep their problems to themselves. With girls you can tell everyone. Girls fight
verbally and they're much better at arguing." Isabel found out about the facts of life ages ago - she can't remember exactly how, but it was a gradual process. "We
don't talk about it much, but if it comes up in conversation it's not embarrassing."
A few girls in her class have boyfriends, but she wouldn't like to go on a date herself. She can imagine a time in the future when she would, but it would have to be
with someone who didn't try to be cool in front of girls. And it wouldn't be romantic. No, she just wants to have fun. Some of her friends have divorced parents.
Ella's family is very different from Isabel's - she lives with her mother though her father comes over regularly. "Ella is a lot more protective; I don't know if that has
anything to do with it. She mothers everyone at school. And she knows a lot more about stuff."
She's struggling to put it into words, rolling round on the bed in exasperation. "She knows how things work, that everything's not perfect, that it's not this happy
little world."
And what does Isabel think? She frowns again. "When I'm inside, in this house, it feels like a safe little world. But when I go on the streets and see beggars and
stuff I know it's not."
1.
similarities
________________________________________________
2.
friends
________________________________________________
3.
sudden
________________________________________________
4.
she can envisage
________________________________________________
5.
ideal
________________________________________________
6.
insecure
________________________________________________
(12)
Part seven
Another (weak/ weekly/ week) has passed and Isabel has been grouching at her mother, who made her have acupuncture for her hay fever this afternoon. "I
didn't need it," she says (tearfully/ tearingly/ tearing), tiredly. "I had to have it in my toes, which really, really (pains/ hurts/ slips)." Upstairs, she is (brightful/
brightening/ brighted) at the thought of Friday evening television. And she has made (up/ off/away) with Grace. "She said: Issy, why are you (seating/sat/
149
sitting) with Ella and Emily all the time?' and I said 'Sorry, sorry' and sat with her. And we're friends (again/ back/ more) , and Ella and Emily are friends with her
too. So that's sort of (aggravated/ cured/ cursed) it. I hope it's not going to go wonky again." Isabel sounds resigned to the vicissitudes of relationships.
She is not a very (seriously/ seriousness/ serious) person, she confesses, and at her age everything to do with politics is deemed sad so you don't want to
know about it. She would like some more CDs and more books, but doesn't (need/ needing/ needs) anything else. She daydreams about being a (celebrate/
celebration/ celebrity) but doesn't think it's unfair that she doesn't look like one.
She wriggles around in the armchair, sitting up on her knees to look out of the window. "Everyone wants to (grew/ grown/ grow) up but I just want to stay at home
and be a little girl," she says - half mocking, half wistful. "I always used to think that when I was 13 I would suddenly change into a teenager, in some strange
morphing session. But everything happens so (gradually/ graduated/ gradual) that you never (note/ notice/ noticing) it changing."
"I'm happiest now. I like (independence/ independent/independency) - doing things and going places on my own. I like having lunch with my friends, or going to
the cinema on our own, because I always used to go everywhere with mum and Milo. I like having no homework on a Friday night. I like being 12. I don't really
want to be 13. It sounds all... I've (forgotten/ forgetted/ forgot) the word... tacky. Twelve sounds nice and 13 sounds horrible. I want to be 12."
Take 12: the facts
Most popular girl's names: Jessica, Ashley, Amanda
Most popular boy's names: Michael, Christopher, Joshua
Ratio of boys to girls: 51% to 49%
Books: Anthony Horowitz, Jacqueline Wilson, Darren Shan, Eion Colfer
Games/interests etc: PlayStation, Power Podz, War Hammer, make-up, shoes
Music: Dance music is more popular than rock or pop among 12-year-olds (according to the British Phonographic Industry). Plus rap (Eminem) and nu metal (Limp
Bizkit, Sum 41)
(16)
Evaluation.
Check your answers on the answer sheet and give yourself points accordingly. You should end up with a total out of 100 points. For a
better idea of how this number of points corresponds to the German correction system, see below.
95 – 100 points =1,0
90 – 94 points = 1,3
85 – 89 points = 1,7
80 – 84 points = 2,0
75 – 79 points = 2,3
70 – 74 points = 2,7
65 – 69 points = 3,0
60 – 64 points = 3,3
55 – 59 points = 3,7
50 – 54 points = 4,0
Less than 50 points counts
as 5,0, which is a fail mark.
SAMPLE READING TEST 3.
Homo, a loan?
There’s never been a better time to buy a home of your own, but, as Conor DeLion found out, gay men need to be pretty careful when
applying for a mortgage.
150
(From Gi magazine, May 2002)
Part one.
Fill in the blanks to complete the words. Each blank represents one letter.
Twelve months ago Chris and his partner of six years deci _ _ _ it was time to get out of the renting game and buy their first home. Both had go
_ _ jobs and betw _ _ _ them they had eno _ _ _ money sa _ _ _ to cov _ _ a depo _ _ _ and the fees and expe _ _ _ _ of buying what
would be their family ho _ _ .
Getting initial appr _ _ _ _ for the cash was no problem. They had the cred _ _ history to show they could eas _ _ _ meet the mortgage repa _
_ _ _ _ _ to the lender. But the deliv _ _ _ of the money was conditional to the couple taking out a life insurance
pol _ _ _ . This would guar _ _ _ _ _ that if Chris or his partner di _ _ before the full mortgage had been rep _ _ _ , an insurance payout would
cov _ _ their portion of the mortgage and the grieving partner would not have to fa _ _ an enor _ _ _ _ financial
bur _ _ _ on one income.
The prob _ _ _ for the life insurance companies was that Chris and his partner were bo _ _ men. For most underwriters, gay
relatio _ _ _ _ _ _ mean greater ris _ _ .
“Any cand _ _ _ _ _ for a mortgage is obli _ _ _ by law to ap _ _ _ for life prote _ _ _ _ _ ,” says John Reidy, a Dublin-based solicitor who has
advi _ _ _ many gay men in Chris’s position. “But they’re not obli _ _ _ to acc _ _ _ it if the pol _ _ _ they are offered is loaded with higher
prem _ _ _ pay _ _ _ _ _ than a ‘standard risk’ cand _ _ _ _ _ would be offered.” Appli _ _ _ _ _ for a mortgage can sign a waiver or
disclaimer and go ah _ _ _ with the loan but without insurance cov _ _ the mortgage-holders are left exp _ _ _ _ to mass _ _ _ repay _ _ _ _
_ on the de _ _ _ of a partner.
“The prob _ _ _ is that most companies are living in the Dark Ages,” says one Dublin-ba _ _ _ mortgage broker. “They reme _ _ _ _ a time
when AIDS see _ _ _ like an enor _ _ _ _ unquantifiable thr _ _ _ , something that ri _ _ assessors can’t de _ _ with.” The reality is, a gay
man in a sta _ _ _ relatio _ _ _ _ _ is no more in dan _ _ _ of de _ _ _ by lifestyle than his mar _ _ _ _
counterp _ _ _ , but try tel _ _ _ _ that to most ri _ _ underwriters.
At the end of the test, check the solutions for part one. Give yourself one point for each word which you have completed correctly. At
the end, divide your total score by 3 to get your mark out of 20 for this section of the test.
Part two.
The second part of each section has been removed. These are given to you under this part of the text. Decide which ending you need
to complete each sentence so that it makes complete sense.
It is hardly surprising then that most solicitors and mortgage brokers _______________ . Many will advise _______________ . The only problem
is, if you’ve lied on the insurance application form and this becomes apparent on the death of one of the partners – for example if the death is
_______________ . Most gay men are prepared to take _______________ .
The key question asked by most life insurance companies is whether _______________ .
‘The usual question is, ‘Do you feel your lifestyle is such _______________ . “I simply tell clients who are in a monogamous _______________.
The few brave ones admit to being a _______________ .” It can work if your life assurance ______________ .
“Ultimately,” says Reidy, “it’s up to the client to decide whether he wants to _______________ . Only he can know whether his lifestyle is such
that it _______________ .”
The problem of prejudice from _______________ . “It doesn’t seem to exist _______________ . “Men in their thirties are almost always
subjected to an _______________ . If you find yourself facing a difficult life insurance representative _______________ .
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
... you’re probably going to be sent for a test,” says Reidy
... gay couple and being in a monogamous relationship
... from a HIV-related illness – then the insurance company may refuse to pay on the policy
... broker is reasonable and unprejudiced
... invasive questionnaire and a demand for doctors’ certificates
... might result in a positive result
... life companies is more acute when two men over thirty are applying
... that you are likely to be in a position where you could contract HIV?’” says Reidy
...are prepared to look the other way if clients decide to lie about their situation
... the risk to avoid a loading of up to six times what a straight man would have to pay on his policy
... relationship that there is no need to say “yes” to this
... for younger men,” says Reidy
... doing so
... put himself in a position where he will be asked to do a HIV test
... or not you’ve ever had a HIV test, although questionnaires differ from company to company
At the end of the test, check the solutions. Give yourself one point for correct answer. Then divide your score for this part of the test
by 3 and multiply it by 4 to get your mark out of 20 for this part of the test.
Part three.
Circle the word/expression in brackets which fits best into the text. Only ONE of the three alternatives is to be circled.
One (pair, duo, couple) (spoken, interviewed, interrogated) were not (reluctant, hesitant, prepared) to (lie, fake, come clean) about their
situation when (applying, implying, craving) for cover. Roy in his early (fourties, fortys, forties) and his partner, Ronan is 28. “We made a
(call, decision, try) to be (honest, evasive, assertive) about our relationship and answered the questionnaire truthfully,” says Ronan. As a (end,
result, reward) of their (sneakiness, shame, candour), they were (obligated, obliged, obliging) by the life company to (make, do, fail) HIV
tests.
Luckily, once Roy and Ronan had (completed, ending, finish) the medical tests, their life (politic, police, policy) wasn’t loaded. The life broker
accepted that they had been (devious, two-faced, up-front) and used his (discretion, deception, disrepute) and gave them cover on the
(base, basic, basis) of their long-standing (monogamous, monochronic, monolithic) relationship. “Underwriting is not an (precise, exact,
legal) science,” says one broker. “But that leaves a lot of room for (bigot, bigoting, bigotry) to (fizzle out, thrive, wane).” Reidy believes life
and lending companies are complicit in the discrimination. “The buck is passed to the life insurer but the lender is (required, obligated, forcing)
by law to (exist, insist, persist) that life cover be (applied, implied, craved) for on a family home.”
Last year in Britain, doctors’ representatives announced they would not (oppose, condone, undermine) the lifestyle questionnaire which was
being used over there. They believed it was overly (invasive, introverted, inverted) and (seeked, sought, saw) information that was
(unrelevant, inrelevant, irrelevant) to the provision of life insurance.
151
But the provision of gay friendly financial services is an established business in the UK. As far back as 1990, Ivan Massow (set upon, set up, set
off) an insurance brokerage to service the needs of the gay community. “He had (passed, spent, crossed) a few years working in the insurance
industry and being a gay man had realised the difficulties in getting life cover if you weren’t (heterosexual, asexual, oversexed),” says Sarah
Killick, a director at Ivan Massow, the company in London.
Massow had experience of the panic of the late eighties and early nineties, the period of greatest (uncertainty, laxism, fickleness) over the effect
AIDS would have on gay men in (particular/ peculiar/ proposal). “Speculation over how (magnificent, dire, lethargic) the expected (epidemic,
epidermis, epistle) was going to be was generally very (negation, negative, negotiable) ,” says Killick. “Any suspicion that an (postulant,
supplicant, applicant) for life cover might be gay was enough to scupper his chances of getting a policy (rejected, dejected, approved).”
Also at that time, lending wasn’t as (flexible, rigid, available) as it is now. “Most lenders (existed, persisted, insisted) on life cover as part of
the mortgage arrangement, whereas now, with a couple of exceptions it’s possible to get a UK mortgage without getting life cover if you want,”
says Killick.
At the end of the test, check the solutions. Give yourself one point for each correct word you have selected. Divide the total number of
points scored by 2 to get your mark out of 20 for this section.
Part four.
Read this section of the text and then decide whether the statements which follow are true or false.
Most British life insurance questionnaires asked single men direct questions about sexuality. Any suspects were sent for a HIV test. “Even with
negative results, loadings of three and four hundred per cent were very common five or ten years ago,” says Killick. “Sometimes life brokers
simply refused to cover the applicant.”
There are insurers in the UK who still take that view but others are far more flexible. “The brokers we deal with are obviously very open to
applications from gay men and as long as there’s nothing medically wrong, they will take the case on at equitable rates.”
Some life insurance companies are more disposed to providing fair cover to gay men. “Usually it comes down to a friendly local underwriter rather
than overall company policy,” says Killick.
Ivan Massow has built up a good relationship with the lenders and insurers they deal with. “They know what kind of client base we have and they
appreciate that these are single people who are unlikely to be faced with school fees and the like in future years,” says Killick.
As a matter of course, lenders monitor the rates of defaulters and those who drop out of mortgage agreements, by broker. In this regard, Ivan
Massow’s rating with lenders is extremely high. It’s simply because the clients we bring to the lenders rarely default,” sans Killick, “because they
don’t tend to have the same financial burdens later on in life.” Typically, Ivan Massow deals with London-based professionals in the 30 to 40 age
group. Smart lenders and insurers were quick to spot the advantage.
1.
Most life insurance companies in Britain tend to consider details such as the sexual orientation of applicants for life insurance as
unimportant.
2.
A few years ago it seemed to be the case that gay men were charged more for their policies by insurance companies regardless of
whether they were HIV-positive or not.
3.
No insurance company has ever turned applicants away on grounds of their sexual orientation.
4.
Many insurance companies in the UK today are much more laid-back about accepting applicants who are gay for life insurance.
5.
Many companies will accept gay applicants for life insurance as long as they are willing to pay a higher level of costs than heterosexual
applicants.
6.
Sometimes a gay man’s success in securing good life insurance is often due to the fact that the person he deals with is very
understanding of gay issues, even if such understanding is not necessarily the policy of the company as a whole.
7.
Not having children can be a real disadvantage to gay men when applying for life insurance, and can be a key factor pushing their
premiums up in price.
8.
Ivan Massow’s relationship with most of the insurers and lenders he works with can best be described as problematic and
uncooperative.
9.
Massow has a lot of problems with people who are unable to keep up payments of their mortgages.
10.
When Massow started out in his own business, only the insurers with a good head for business recognised the money-making potential
in offering life insurance policies to gay people.
Give yourself two points for each correct answer. Then add up your points to get your mark out of 20 for this section of the test.
Part five.
In this section, four words have been removed from each paragraph. The four words are given to you after each paragraph. Can you
put each word into the correct place in the text?
Other financial might regret their hesitation. When Massow set his firm in 1990, he was obliged to get licences from life insurance companies in
order to sell their products. One local office of a large insurance company, on discovering the leanings of his client base, to deal with him. The
same company’s in Harrow, just outside London, had no such problem.
declined
up
office
institutions
“What makes worse is that in this case the products being provided were, so the applicant’s sexuality would have been,” says Killick. “Money
would have paid in rather than a loan taken out.” There is no doubt that the company’s refusal to deal was purely out of prejudice. “If someone
has a million pounds to invest it doesn’t matter if they’re gay, straight, one-legged or terminally ill,” says Killick. “Money is money.”
been
irrelevant
pensions
it
Many of John Reidy’s clients were of a generation that were most exposed to the threat of HIV ten years ago. “Some of my older clients are HIVpositive and still in,” he says. “In those circumstances, if one partner isn’t infected then he would have to get the mortgage in his own – lenders
and insurers don’t deal with HIV-infected people – with his name alone going on the title.” In such circumstances a contract is drawn up between
the two individuals to share.
152
ownership
employment
name
infection
“But how binding such contracts is open to question,” says Reidy. When applying for a mortgage you have to make a that no one else has an
interest in the property by way of a trust or otherwise. That might void a giving your partner a share the property from the outset.
contract
declaration
in
are
“I find these the difficult cases to deal with because it puts under a amount of pressure,” says Reidy. “The partner with the property in his name
feels a little guilty and the other may feel nervous or insecure. It requires a of trust to accept that your effective family home is in your partner’s
sole name.”
huge
people
most
lot
Now check the solutions and give yourself one point for each correct answer. This is your mark out of 20 for this section.
Part six.
Read part six and answer the questions that follow it.
Killick at Ivan Massow hopes financial institutions will change their stance towards HIV sufferers. “I can see a time when even people who have
HIV will be able to get life cover because treatment has improved so much,” she says. “We know people who have stayed healthy for five or ten
years. We may see them living for 25 years or more with medication, which should make them an acceptable risk for life companies.”
But it’s not all doom and gloom for a gay couple with a yearning to make a home. “On the mortgage side you’ll probably get the money quite
easily if you both have an income,” says Jonathan Cairns, managing director of Irish Mortgage Network, an independent mortgage brokerage.
With a straight couple there is always the expectation that one half will stop working at some stage to look after kids who will themselves be a
draw on income. “So financial institutions often look on applications from gay couples more favourably for that reason,” says Cairns. “In my
experience, they certainly never flinch at it.”
But he preaches caution when applying for life cover. “Once you’re loaded after an application for insurance, you’re loaded forever,” he says.
“Every application for any sort of insurance policy will ask if you’ve ever been loaded, which you can't lie about. So, 25 years down the line if
you’re getting cover for, say, a term loan, you’ll also be loaded on that.”
Inheritance tax is another problem for gay couples to consider. Any unmarried couple, whether gay or straight, will be treated as strangers by the
Revenue Commissioners on the death of one of the partners. That means an inheritance tax bill for the survivor.
“There have been promises to sort out the issue with regard to all unmarried couples for the last 11 years, but nothing has been done yet,” says
Cairns.
The Revenue Commissioners give a six month grace period to those who owe the tax before interest starts to accrue. “But quite often the survivor
has to sell the house to pay the tax,” says Cairns. Increasing a life policy to the value of the mortgage plus inheritance tax is one way of avoiding
grief for your partner in the event that you die.
Question one. Find the word/expression in section six which means:
a.
adapt their attitude.
_______________________________________
b.
drugs
_______________________________________
c.
bad news
_______________________________________
d.
he recommends being careful
_______________________________________
e.
decease
_______________________________________
For each correct answer give yourself one point.
Question two. Find the word/expression in section six which means the opposite of:
a.
worsened
_______________________________________
b.
negatively
_______________________________________
c.
tell the truth
_______________________________________
d.
gay
_______________________________________
e.
ensuring
_______________________________________
For each correct answer give yourself one point.
Question three. Select the correct answer in each of the following:
1.
Ms Killick believes that:
a.
b.
c.
d.
2.
financial institutions will have a more positive attitude to gay clients in the future.
financial institutions will have a more negative attitude to gay clients in the future.
financial institutions will maintain their current attitude to gay clients in the future.
financial institutions stand to make huge financial gains by alienating gay clients in the future.
The advances in medical science have:
a.
b.
decreased the life expectancy of HIV sufferers.
neither increased nor decreased the life expectancy of HIV sufferers.
153
c.
d.
3.
Insurance companies:
a.
b.
c.
d.
4.
are hesitant to sell life insurance to gay people because of the improbability of them having children.
see it as an advantage for gay people that they are unlikely to have children.
prefer to insure married couples with children as they get more money.
see gay clients as a draw on their financial resources.
Another expression for “flinch” in the context of the article is:
a.
b.
c.
d.
5.
increased the life expectancy of HIV sufferers.
made it more difficult for insurance companies to refuse to give life insurance policies to HIV sufferers.
embrace
crave
disgust
shy away from
In the eyes of the Revenue Commissioners,
a.
b.
c.
d.
unmarried couples are treated as two completely unconnected people.
unmarried couples are treated in much the same way as married couples.
one member of a couple is under no circumstances allowed to inherit the house he lived in with his partner.
married couples are only exempt from inheritance tax if they have children.
For each correct answer give yourself two points.
Now add your points together to get your mark out of 20 for part six.
Part seven.
Read part seven and then decide for each of the words/expressions that follow which of the four alternatives is the closest synonym to
it (in the context of the text). To help you out, the words have been underlined in the text so you can read them in context before
choosing the answer.
Structuring the title to the property is another issue to be considered. Couples who buy as co-owners must decide whether to hold the property as
joint tenants or tenants in common. If there’s no will, a joint tenant will automatically inherit on the death of his partner. A tenant in common’s
interest will go to his estate on his death and a will is needed to bring it back to the surviving partner.
This is where life insurance comes into its own. Paying a full mortgage would be impossible for most people.
“Generally I would be much more cautious about allowing gay men to sign a contract on a property unless loan approval has been granted and the
conditions of the approval are known,” says Reidy, “again because of the life cover. Loan approval may be issued subject to the life cover being
granted. You could wind up at closing date for the sale and still not have the life cover in place.”
The time between the initial loan approval and full loan approval can be much longer for gay men. “The problem is very often the heartache is
only starting at that stage,” says Reidy. “There really is a lot of victimisation.”
“The only difficulties that arise after that is when they split up!” says Reidy. “That’s when two fellas can get really nasty!”
Establishing relative ownership from the outset is the best way to avoid acrimonious fallout at a later stage. “If there’s any difference in what each
party is contributing, it should be set out in writing so it’s clear who’s entitled to what in the event of a break-up,” says Reidy.
For married couples, the family home is protected. If two names are on the title to a property, there is a presumption that the ownership is equal.
But if only one party is making contributions to the mortgage, it’s a presumption that can be rebutted. So it’s always advisable to have an
agreement.
1.
considered.
a. seen
2.
a. prior
d. lacking
b. is unimportant
c. cannot do much
d. solves the problem
b. unnecessary
c. constricting
d. frightening
b. enthusiastic
c. wary
d. uninhibited
b. irrespective of
c. regardless of
d. contrary to
b. packaged up
c. unattended to
d. sorted out
b. final
c. most recent
d. first
subject to
in place
a. uncovered
9.
c. unessential
cautious
a. depending on
8.
d. section
impossible
a. unrealistic
7.
c. share
comes into its own
a. unfeasible
6.
b. enthusiasm
b. optional
a. is superfluous
5.
d. ignored
needed
a. vital
4.
c. underestimated
interest.
a. fascination
3.
b. thought about
initial
154
10.
heartache
a. bother
11.
b. attacking
b. crop up
b. break out
b. lawyers
d. tactile
b. demanding
c. existing
d. wondering about
c. the moment of
splitting up
d. the end
b. bitter
c. unnatural
d. heartbreaking
b. is right to
c. is right of
d. is given the title of
entitled
ownership
a. position
20.
c. unpleasant
acrimonious
a. has the right to
19.
d. insurance providers
b. indifferent
b. the start
a. sensitive
18.
c. investors
outset
a. initial
17.
d. separate
Establishing
a. setting out
16.
c. dwindle away
nasty
a. loquacious
15.
d. increase
fellas
a. guys
14.
c. fizzle out
split up
a. divide up
13.
d. relationship
arise
a. filter through
12.
c. paperwork
b. protraction
c. possession
d. protection.
advisable
a. legal
b. particular
c. reminded
d. recommended
Give yourself one point for each correct answer. The total you arrive at is your mark out of twenty for this section.
Now add your marks together for all seven parts of the test. The total number of points possible is 140. How did you do?
Less than 70 points
very poor
5,0
Between 70 and 87.5 points
fair
4,0
Between 87.5 and 105 points
good
3,0
Between 105 and 122.5 points
very good
2,0
Between 122.5 and 140 points
excellent
1,0
155
156
PART TEN: SAMPLE WRITING TEST
SAMPLE WRITING TEST
The sample writing test is based on the text used for the first sample reading test. The reason
for this is to give you the opportunity to deal with a topic you are now familiar with and should
have enough vocabulary to be able to write about the topic of this article quite well. This may
be a little difficult to start with, so don’t necessarily limit yourself to 90 minutes for this as you
would have to in a real UNIcert® III writing test. Just see how well you can use the language
you have learnt to answer the questions as well as you can. Also be sure to check what you
have written to ensure that the grammar and expression are correct.
In the solutions booklet there are no solutions given for these exercises, and it is therefore
recommended that you get your course teacher to correct it for you if possible.
157
Being 16
Joshua is a typical working-class, inner-city lad on the verge of adulthood. His mum doesn't have much money, his friends get into fights, and he is
offered drugs on the street. But he is most concerned about his GCSEs, says Libby Brooks, in the final part of her series on childhood
Libby Brooks
The Guardian
Part one.
“I'm beginning to understand that the whole universe doesn't revolve around me." Joshua is slouched in his usual position on the sofa, knees wide, arms easy,
staring past the busy pot plants on the window ledge. He has bright blue eyes and dark brows, and he is just about to be very handsome. He's huge - 6ft 4in - and
too big for the furniture, too big for this cheery but cramped housing association flat.
He lives on a north London estate with his mother Heather, who is on income support, and his 12-year-old brother Rory. Joshua's parents split up when he was five
years old, and he continues to see his father sporadically. "My mum guides me, but I look up to my dad," he says. A lot of his friends' parents aren't together, and he
doesn't think that it makes much difference. "My mum gives me advice and the stability to have a good, happy life. My dad gives me advice, too, but not on
schoolwork, on life - how to get on well with people, how to survive and keep it real." He talks steadily, his left hand occasionally flicking up to his face. His voice is
low, his north London accent strong.
With Rory, he says with a wry smile, it's love-hate. "I love him and he's my brother, but sometimes I want to knock him out."
This is Joshua's world: his mum doesn't have much money, his friends are in fights most weekends, he gets offered drugs on the way home from the tube station.
He has already broken the law, had sex and tried drugs. Joshua's world doesn't look that nice, but it is not that unusual either. What is particular about Joshua is not
what goes on around him but the choice he is already making in response - that the things that could hold him back won't become the things that define him. "I just
want to work hard. Like one of my teachers was saying, it's a cruel world out there, and you've got to do the best you can. It'll chew you up and spit you out, so
you've got to be strong. And make a bit of money."
Joshua attends the local boys' comprehensive. "Mainly my friends are in the football team, and we hang around a lot outside school. I've also got friends that live on
the estate and I hang out with them at weekends. Some of them are in the year above or older, but when we're together I don't notice."
He says he has always tried to get on with his schoolwork. His teachers have predicted that he will get mainly Bs and Cs for his GCSEs, which have just started, and
an A or A* for drama, his passion. "I'm not a disruptive child. I chat a lot in class but if the teacher tells me to stop I think, 'Fair enough.' " He is not going out so much
right now - just Friday nights and Saturdays - and he has set himself a two-hour revision period every night, though he doesn't always stick to it.
Joshua goes clubbing once every couple of months, but there aren't many under-18 nights locally. It is hard when there is nowhere to go. "I've said it to my mates
quite a few times - it's just the boredom. People turn to drugs for the excitement, or the booze. There's quite a lot of teenage pregnancy - they'll just go and shag the
nearest bird."
When he meets up with his mates, usually they will go round to someone's house and listen to music or play on computers. He likes rock music and garage, though
lately he has been getting into rap. He and his friends chat about music, football, girls, sometimes current affairs, but seldom schoolwork - mainly because, he
explains, his friends aren't as committed as he is.
Joshua wants to go to university, but most of his friends talk about being plumbers. It doesn't bother him. He has ambitions and when he talks about his route up and
out, the determination rises off him like steam. "You have your targets, but you don't chat about it. 'Don't worry about my business, you worry about yours,' is the
mentality most of us have."
1.
Rewrite the following sentences from part one in your own words.
1.
“I'm beginning to understand that the whole universe doesn't revolve around me."
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________
2.
"My mum guides me, but I look up to my dad," he says.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________
3.
Joshua's parents split up when he was five years old, and he continues to see his father sporadically.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________
4.
He has ambitions and when he talks about his route up and out, the determination rises off him like steam.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________
(12)
2.
Summarise the main ideas of part one of the text in 180 – 200 words.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________
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158
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________
(20)
Part two.
It's a week later, and Joshua has spent the weekend practising his GCSE drama performance at his friend's house. It's a bit like Dead Man Walking, he says, the
story of a guy on death row who is thinking about his past and what got him there. Joshua plays the main character's brother.
He loves drama. "I like the excitement. It's not that you can become someone else because I'm quite comfortable with who I am, but you get to change from the
ordinary and try something new. It does ask a lot of you but it's fun." Once or twice he has dreamed that he was in a television programme.
There was a big fight near his school yesterday. "This one boy was thinking he's a bit flash and got in a fight with this other boy who's a bit heavy. He had a cosh and
hit him round the face, and the other boy came back with his dad and they had another big scuff. There are fights every few weeks at school but this was a really big
one."
Heather worries a lot about her son's safety, though she trusts him to stay out of trouble. "I think it's very difficult for teenagers in inner-city areas," she says. "It's
quite dangerous, and it's acceptable to him now that it's like that."
Joshua is one of those working-class teenage boys recently described as a "major public-health issue" by a senior government health adviser. Professor John
Ashton made his comments in May, following the publication of a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation which found that one in four teenage boys is armed,
while half of all teenagers have committed a crime by the time they reach 15.
Joshua admits that he has broken the law. Relatively, his transgressions are pretty minor - underage sex, smoking cannabis, a ride on a stolen moped a couple of
years ago. He doesn't carry a knife, though he knows plenty of people who do. "I wouldn't rely on a weapon to get me out of trouble. I'd rely on myself."
He is more confident on the streets than he used to be, he says, and consequently gets into less trouble. "I think because of my physical appearance people think
twice about starting. I used to fight a lot more, because people would say the wrong thing and I'd react badly. It's all about respect."
He talks about his fighting years with some superficial bravado - he says the point was "to do as much damage as possible" – but Joshua is not a violent kid. He
detests violence, he says, and he detests street crime. He is a steady soul, but talking about the fights and the petty thieving that riddle his world are the only times
he gets really agitated. And the times when I am most reminded that he is a child.
But if I saw Joshua on the street at night, would I hold my bag tighter? Yes. He is used to this reaction and he hates it. "People do look at me and my friends and
think, 'Teenage boys, they might cause a bit of trouble.' Every stereotype is based on some true-life fact, but at the moment it has been taken out of context. People
think every teenage boy is the same. There are those people out there who steal phones, but have you got to expect the worst?"
The police don't hassle him as much as they used to, though the next time we meet he tells me that a car he was travelling in was pulled over. "When I was younger
I'd just be walking down the street at night and a police car pulls up and they're like, 'Boys, come here, let me search you,' and they'd check your name over the
radio." The police can be racist, he says, stopping black friends of his while the white kids are let go.
Joshua smoked cannabis a couple of times when he was younger, but he didn't enjoy it. He says he has never tried any harder drugs, though he has been offered
them. "Drugs ain't for me. A lot of times people that I know have offered me spliffs and that. They say, 'Why don't you?' and I say, 'It's up to me. Just worry about
yourself, man.' If you just be telling them they get the idea.
"I don't really go for drinking either. I ain't been drunk for ages. I don't really want to spend my money on drink. And because I play sport, smoking and drinking
doesn't help you with football."
Perhaps this sounds too good to be true. But what Joshua doesn't like to talk about is the fact that he has seen, up close, exactly what drug and alcohol abuse can
do to a person. A family member has struggled with addiction for years, and the experience has left Joshua resolute about taking a different path.
159
Exercise: In part two you have just read about Joshua’s experience of drinking alcohol, drugs and teenage violence. Do you think that
if Joshua were a German teenager that his experience would be the same or not? Write 150 words giving three reasons to justify your
answer.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________
(18)
Part three.
Another week, another fight. Joshua's drama practical has gone well, and he is about to begin study leave. But there was a lot of trouble at the weekend. "My mate
rang me up and said, 'Do you want to come to the pub?' We were having a good time, and then a fight broke out and my mate got bottled."
The boy who started on Joshua's friend had had a "problem" with him before. He had pulled a knife on him in a club after Joshua's friend challenged him for
harassing his girlfriend. "So when we saw him, me and some other mates went up to him and said, 'Forget about it. We don't want no problems,' and he was like,
'Yeah, its cool.' "
It wasn't cool, though, and as soon as Joshua's friend walked off to the toilet, the boy and his mates jumped him. They smashed bottles over his head, and rammed
cups into his face. He had two black eyes, and his head and face were badly cut.
Joshua's friend was kept in hospital overnight. The boys who attacked him ran off, but Joshua and the rest of his friends followed. They tracked them down to the
snooker club, ready to kick off again. Then an Irish lad, who had a "problem" with another of Joshua's group, started threatening them. Everyone started squaring up
again, but in the end no one else got hurt.
He doesn't relate this with relish. He sounds weary, and a little embarrassed. "I don't like having to put myself in that position because I'm not a violent person and I
don't like fighting, but if the situation occurs you've got to do it. That's my friend and I want to help if he's getting battered."
What would happen if he didn't? "People might think, 'He ain't my mate, he didn't help,' or, 'He's a bit of a pussy, he's scared of a fight.' "
"We ain't violent people," he insists. "We're not looking for trouble, but if trouble comes looking for us we can't let people mug us off."
Joshua says he and his friends tend not to talk to each other about their feelings. "If it's something personal they might not want to say it in case the person laughs or
tells other people. My mates do tell each other, 'Oh, I've got this girl, blah, blah, blah, but we don't go into details."
He doesn't have a girlfriend right now - "to be honest I think it'd be a bit of a distraction from studying" - though he has been out with girls in the past. He says that
"going out" basically means you're having sex. He reckons most of his mates use condoms. "I don't think there's pressure to have sex. People want to do it. If you
want to have sex and there's a girl who wants to have sex as well, easy as. There's one boy out of all my mates that ain't had sex."
But what makes a girl popular with boys? "You've got to be fit. I like girls who are a bit intelligent and know what they want out of life. Some people just think, 'Forget
about how intelligent she is, I want to bang her.' Different people like different things. But there's still one necessity: a girl's got to be nice-looking."
So what do boys think of girls who have a lot of sex? Joshua snorts. "Slags, man. When people say, 'That girl's an osh,' that means she gives head. If you ring her,
she's on it. They might be doing it to get popular, even though they eventually lose popularity. They might enjoy it," he adds, unconvincingly.
And what do boys think of other boys who have lots of sex? "They respect them. Maybe it's a bit silly but they think, 'He gets girls, he's got confidence.' It's not really
fair but that's the society we live in. There's not very much you can do about it."
Joshua shares a room with his brother. He says it does his head in. It is a week on, and the TV is blaring above the two single beds. The football posters belong to
Rory, the Loaded calendar and the stack of lad mags are Joshua's. Though there aren't many grooming products on display in here, Joshua always looks very clean.
It has even been put to him that he might be a bit vain. He rates his looks seven out of 10. He says he is an individual when it comes to clothes.
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"My friends are still living in tracksuit bottoms and trainers, but I'm more into denim and stuff like that. I like to dress nice and smart. I don't like creases in my clothes
- I get really moody. My mum irons my school stuff 'cause it's too early in the morning for me to do, but on weekends I get the ironing board out myself."
He keeps his revision books on the desk in the sitting room, and some videos and books on the shelving unit there. His football trophies - last year his team won the
Camden Unity Cup - crowd round his mum's scented candles.
He prefers to read magazines, but if he sees a book he really likes he will ask his mum to buy it for him and he will read it all the way through. "I like philosophy books that get your mind working. The last book I read was by a guy called Jon Ronson. I saw the programme and then I asked my mum to buy it. I couldn't believe
it. I just thought, 'What is going on in the world?' "
Joshua hasn't thought about whether he will vote when he turns 18. He is not that bothered about religion either, but he does believe in Jesus Christ. It gives him "a
little bit of inspiration that when you die you can rise up and still have something left - it's not like game over."
His rules for living are simple. "My outlook would be that all the wrongdoers have got it coming back and what goes around comes around. I would never start on
people, but if people want to start you've got to be strong. Never take the mick out of someone because you wouldn't like it if it happened to you back. Try and be
nice to people. I believe that giving is like receiving, so if you give something to other people then you receive a lot back; maybe not material goods, but
psychologically - if you believe you've done something nice, it makes you feel good inside."
Joshua is dreading this week's GCSEs in French and science. And at the weekend? "More fucking trouble." He shakes his head. "My mate got his arm broken, and
all his knuckles were swollen. I was like, 'Why do you have to get into so much trouble?' "
But his biggest concern is his exams. "I'm fairly smart so I'm confident that I'll do well, but there's that horrible feeling when you open the results and you've done two
years for nothing."
Joshua daydreams about making money. "I don't mean a lot of money, but I dream about having a job where I can buy the stuff I want, and then I'll be perfectly
content. I won't have to worry, 'Oh, my jeans are dirty. I'll have to wear my tracksuit bottoms.' I'll think, 'My jeans are dirty. I'll try the other pair on.' "
Does he get money from his mum? He rolls his eyes - Heather worries that he feels cheated because she can't provide him with new things all the time. The main
arguments they have are about money. "I don't get pocket money, but if I'm going out at the weekend I'll ask for a tenner if she's got it. But she doesn't really have
that much money. She makes sure she has enough for the shopping though."
He notices that he is becoming less dependent on his parents as he gets older. "I know I've got to get on with my own life and not rely on them to bail me out. But I
still need them. If they weren't there I'd cave in - I wouldn't be ready for the world.
"There are still quite a lot of things in my life that I'd like to change, but I am happy. I know that things are the way they are for a reason and - though sometimes it
makes me angry - I try to accept it. I've got to get on with it."
He says he is no longer that little kid who could come home to his mum and have her make everything all right again. "I understand that there's a big world out there
and I want to try to do as well as I can."
Take 16: the facts
Most popular girls' names: Sarah, Laura, Gemma
Most popular boys' names: Christopher, James, David
Ratio of boys to girls: 52% to 48%
Books: George Orwell (1984), Vladimir Nabokov, JD Salinger, Nick Hornby, Irvine Welsh, Iain Banks, Alex Garland, Anne McCaffrey
Games/interests etc: Skateboarding, concerts, shopping, cinema, watching TV (Casualty, ER, Big Brother, EastEnders)
Music: An eclectic mix of garage, jungle, hip-hop, R'n'B, soft rock, heavy metal and even veterans such as Bob Dylan, Queen, and the Sex Pistols
Read part three of the text and answer each of the following questions.
1.
Briefly summarise in your own words what happened when Joshua and his friends went to the pub at the weekend.
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2.
From what you have read in the text, how would you describe Joshua’s attitude to violence?
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3.
In your own words, explain Joshua’s attitude to relationships and sex.
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4.
In your own words, summarise Joshua’s rules for living.
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5.
Give three examples of how Joshua is becoming more independent of his parents.
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(30)
In most European countries, there are many social problems, and in particular among teenagers. Write about 200 words in which you
explain in which areas of youth social work there is the greatest need for qualified, skilled social workers.
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162
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(20)
TOTAL: 100 POINTS.
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Sample word completion exercises.

Transcription

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