The microskills for reading which are presented in Reading 4 are

developed using a variety of different activity types.

Extracting main ideas It is usually essential to decide what the point of the text is
before analysing other aspects and developing other skills. It is especially
important to encourage the learner not to be distracted by unfamiliar vocabulary
unless absolutely necessary. The techniques used in Reading 4 are varied, but all
will involve the learner to a lesser or greater extent in a process of summarising
the text.
Understanding text organisation Sometimes it is difficult to understand what message
or information the writer is trying to convey. The activities which focus on this skill
help the learner appreciate the logic of a text through its implicit organisation and
the use of explicit discourse markers.
In [erring A writer may want you to understand more than the actual words
you read. Inferring activities draw the reader’s attention to the overall
atmosphere of the passage. They also help build their vocabulary.
Predicting Before learners read a text, it may be helpful to encourage them to look at
the subject or the title of the passage, and to think about the possible content. But
remember: it doesn’t matter if the learners do not predict correctly. The activity
still helps prepare them for reading.
Dealing with unfamiliar words In this book there will be many words which the learner
will not understand. This is because all the passages are examples of real-life
written English. It is important to try and guess the general sense of a difficult
word, and there are a number of activities which help the reader deal with
unfamiliar vocabulary without using dictionaries or asking the teacher to explain or
translate.
Reading for specific information We sometimes read to find the answer to a particular
question, and not to understand the general sense of the passage. There are a
number of exercises like this to help the learner read for specific information.
Evaluating the text In order to understand a text more thoroughly, the reader may
need to appreciate the writer’s viewpoint and the reason it was written, as well as
to distinguish between facts and opinions. The exercises which develop this
particular microskill help to develop the learner’s more critical faculties.
Understanding the writer’s style It is important and enjoyable for the reader to
appreciate the reason why the writer uses certain words and expressions, and the
effect they create. The reader’s attention is drawn to a number of stylistic devices
such as exaggeration, humour and imagery.
Reacting to the text In order to engage the readers’ interest in a text, it is useful to
encourage them to react in a more subjective way to, for example, its humour or
its literary and poetic appeal. This microskill may also develop their ability to
supply missing context and information about the text.
However, it has to be said that one disadvantage of giving too much importance to
microskills is that the learner may already have acquired some or all of them. In
this case, they should be seen as devices for motivating the learner.

1
A. In this article, which appeared in The Observer, the writer Richard Brooks uses the
term MSS to talk about what annoys him, and suggests a solution and an
explanation. Read it and find out what MSS is, and what the solution is.

The Odd Couple

Richard Brooks on the high divorce rate among Socks

I FIRST noticed it But the mystery Last week, I asked my

about seven or eight years
ago. Since then it has got
progressively worse and
more mysterious. Missing
Sock Syndrome is one of
the afflictions of modern
times.
I have my theories
about MSS, hut, sadly, no
real cure. The root of the
problem must lie in having
a large family. I haven’t
done a foot count, but
there must he more than
100 pairs of socks in my
household. Every week, at
least one goes missing.
Occasionally, days or even
weeks later, it turns up.
Sometimes it is
discovered stuck in the
washing machine, or, more
cosily, in the tumble drier.
Sometimes it is sighted
down the back of a
radiator.
remains. Why do socks
desert their partners, often
never to return? And where
do they go when they are
never found again?
MSS can be alleviated.
One colleague says that his
decision to remain single
has been largely influenced
by not wanting to catch
MSS. Another has only
pairs of blue and red socks;
12 pairs of each colour.
About a year ago,
getting increasingly fed up
with the syndrome, I went
out and bought five pairs
of grey socks. Very drab,
said my wife. It has
helped, though not
entirely. Identical pairs,
I’ve discovered, manage to
end up with one sock
significantly bigger than
the other after several
washes.
youngest daughter, aged
six, about missing socks.
She had some answers.
She looked into her sock
drawer, and found three
lone socks. To my
amazement, she knew the
whereabouts of their
‘partner’. One was ‘in the
cellar’, another ‘at
Maxine’s’ (her best friend),
while the third was ‘at
Aunty Mary’s’.
I was stunned at her
sock insouciance. Only my
nine- year-old daughter
shows some early signs of
inheriting her father’s MSS
concerns. My wife thinks
I’m a sock bore. But then, I
have noticed that my socks
regularly turn up on my
wife’s feet — she is
cavalier when it comes to
hosiery.

B. Which of the following words would you use to describe the tone of the passage?
Can you explain why? You may want to choose more than one word.
pessimistic optimistic humorous serious dramatic
mock-serious threatening poetic ironic light-hearted

C. The writer uses slightly complex language that suggests that MSS is very serious.
Look at these sentences from the article and write them in a simpler way. You may
want to use a dictionary to appreciate the nuances of certain words.
1. I haven’t done a foot count
2. Why do socks desert their partners...?
3. MSS can be alleviated.
4. I was stunned at her sock insouciance.
5 ... she is cavalier when it comes to hosiery.

D. Do you think his family shares his concern about MSS? Can you explain why or why
not?

E. The poem The Solo Sock is by Garrison Keillor, the contemporary American writer
and broadcaster. Read the first two stanzas and decide where each line ends. Mark
the line endings like this
2
 The Solo Sock
Of life’s many troubles, I’ve known quite a few; bad plumbing and earaches and
troubles with you, but the saddest of all, when it’s all said and done, is to look for
your socks and find only one. Here’s a series of single socks stacked in a row.
Where in the world did their fellow socks go?
About missing socks, we have very few facts. Some say cats steal them to use for
backpacks, or desperate Norwegians willing to risk prison to steal socks to make
lutefisk. But the robbery theories just don’t hold water: why would they take one
and not take the odder?

F. Read the rest of the poem and find out Keillor’s solution for what Brooks calls MSS.
Now, some people hse socks, and though you may scoff,
Some go to shows and have their socks knocked off.
Some use a sock to mop up spilled gin with
And some people had just one sock to begin with.
But for most missing socks, or sock migration,
Sockologists have no quick explanation.
Socks are independent, studies have shown,
And most feel a need for some time alone.
Some socks are bitter from contact with feet;
Some, seeking holiness, go on retreat;
Some need adventure and cannot stay put;
Some socks feel useless and just underfoot.
But whatever the reason these socks lose control,
Each sock has feelings down deep in its sole.
If you wake in the night and hear creaking and scraping,
It’s the sound of a sock, bent on escaping.
The socks on the floor that you think the kids dropped?
They’re socks that went halfway, got tired and stopped.
It might help if, every day,
As you don your socks, you take time to say:
“Thank you, dear socks, for a job that is thankless.
You comfort my feet from tiptoe to ankless,
Working in concert a cotton duet,
Keeping them snug and absorbing the sweat,
And yet you smell springlike, a regular balm,
As in Stravinsky’s Le Sacré du Printemps,
And so I bless you with all my heart
And pray that the two of you never shall part.
I love you, dear socks, you are socko to me,
The most perfect pair that I ever did see.
I thank you and bless you now. Vobiscum Pax.”
Then you bend down and put on your socks.
This may help, but you must accept
That half of all socks are too proud to be kept,
And, as with children, their leaving is ritual.
Half of all socks need to be individual.
Garrison Keillor

G. There are a number of lines in the poem which look as if they rhyme rather
strangely. For example, he writes:
But the robbery theories just don’t hold water:
Why would they take one and not take the odder?
In fact, the word odder suggests how some Americans would pronounce that word
other and make it rhyme with water, and also refers to the odd sock. Can you find

3
other examples of lines which rhyme because of the way they are pronounced by
an American speaker?
There is one pair of lines which only rhyme because he invents a word. Can you
find which it is?
The writer has also invented some words just for fun. Can you find any?

H. Pick up a passage from English Newspaper, and design a reading exercises

consisting of 10 True-False items, and 5 Essay items. Don’t forget to include the
answer keys.

4
 A Coward

Everybody called him Signoles’, but he liked to use his full name Viscount
Joseph de Signoles. His parents had both died, leaving him a good deal of
money. He was quite handsome, spoke well, and looked very noble and proud.
All the ladies liked him, and he lived a peaceful, completely happy life. He was
supposed to be very good with a sword and even better with a pistol. If I have
to fight a duel with anybody,’ he used to say “I shall choose a pistol. If I use
that weapon I shall be absolutely certain of killing my enemy.’
Now, one evening, he had been to the theatre with two ladies and their
husbands. Afterwards he had invited them into a restaurant and bought them
ice-cream. They had been there a few minutes when he noticed that a man
sitting at a table nearby was staring at one of the two ladies. She seemed
upset, annoyed, and she turned her head away from the man who was staring
at her. Finally she said to her husband, ‘There’s a man over there who won’t
take his eyes off me. I don’t know him at all. Do you know him?’ Her husband,
who had not really noticed anything looked at the man and remarked, ‘No. I’ve
never seen him before.’ The young woman, half smiling and half in anger, said,
‘Well, it’s very annoying. That man is spoiling my ice-cream.’ ‘Oh. don’t take
any notice of him,’ said her husband. ‘If we spent time on all the people who
behave rudely we’d never finish!’
But Signoles had suddenly jumped to his feet. He could not bear the
thought that a stranger should spoil an ice-cream that he had bought for a
lady. He felt that he was the one who had been insulted because it was he who
had invited his friends into the restaurant. He went up to the stranger and said,
‘Sir, I cannot bear the way you are staring at these ladies. Please stop it!’ ‘Go
away!’ said the man. ‘Take care, sir!’ said Signoles angrily. ‘You are going to
make me forget myself!’ The man simply replied by saying one word, a rude
word which could be heard all over the restaurant and which came as a shock
to every person sitting there. They all made a sudden movement as though
they had been moved by a spring. Everybody turned to look.

The duel is arranged

For a moment there was absolute silence, then suddenly, a sharp sound.
Signoles had struck the man across the face. People stood up to stop the fight.
The two men exchanged visiting cards. They would fight a duel. When Signoles
got home he walked up and down his room for a few minutes. He was too upset
to think properly. Only one idea filled his mind: ‘A duel!’ He had done what he
should have done. People would talk about him now. They would say he had
done the honourable thing. They would speak well of him. ‘What a pig that man
is!’ he said aloud. Then he sat down and began to think. Early the next morning
he would have to find some seconds two friends who would help to arrange the
duel. Who would he choose? He thought about the richest and most famous of
his friends. Finally he decided to ask a nobleman and an army officer whose
names would look well in the newspapers.
He noticed that he was thirsty and drank three glasses of water, one after
the other. Then he started to walk up and down the room again. He decided
that he would be brave. He would ask for a serious duel — one which would
lead to death. Perhaps if he did this his enemy would not want to fight a duel,
after all. Perhaps he would find an excuse. He picked up the stranger’s visiting

5
card which he had thrown on the table. He had glanced at it in the restaurant
and on the way back, and now he read it again. It simply said, George Lamil, 51
Moncey Street.’ He stared at these mysterious words. George Lamil! Who was
this man? What kind of work did he do? Why had he looked at this woman in
this way? How disgusting it was that a complete stranger should suddenly
come and upset your life, just because he had felt like staring at a woman.
‘What a pig!’ said Signoles once again.
Then he stood still. He kept on staring at the card, feeling anger and
hatred growing inside him. How silly the whole business was! He took a pen-
knife and stuck it into the name printed on the card, just as if he was sticking a
sword into a real person. So he would have to fight! Should he choose a sword
or a pistol? He considered that he was the person insulted, and so he had a
right to choose the weapon to be used. With a sword there was less risk of
being killed. But if he chose a pistol there was a chance that his enemy might
not want to fight. There certainly was a serious risk of being killed if they used
pistols, but it was worth taking the risk, because the other man might be too
afraid to go ahead with the duel, and then people would say that he, Signoles,
had behaved in an honourable way. ‘I must be firm,’ he said. ‘He’ll be too afraid
to fight.’ The sound of his voice made him tremble, and he looked round the
room feeling very nervous. He drank another glass of water and started to get
undressed.

Signoles is too frightened to sleep

As soon as he got into bed he blew out the candle and closed his eyes. ‘I
have all day tomorrow to think about this,’ he said. ‘I’ll have a good night’s
sleep. I’ll be all right in the morning.’ He felt quite warm between the sheets,
but he could not get to sleep. He turned over and over in bed, lying for five
minutes on his back, then on his left side, then on his right side. He was still
thirsty. He got up to have another drink of water. Then he was suddenly filled
with a terrible anxiety. ‘What’s the matter with me? Could it be that I’m afraid?’
Why did his heart start to beat madly at each little sound in the room? When
the clock was going to strike, the sound caused by the spring, made him jump
and made him so nervous that he had to breathe with his mouth open for a few
seconds.
‘Is it possible,’ he asked aloud, ‘to be afraid in spite of your self?’ And he began
to be filled with doubt and terror. What would happen if a power stronger than
his will took hold of him? Yes, what would happen then? He would, of course,
go to fight the duel, because he wanted to. But what if he started trembling?
What if he fainted? And he began to think about the mess he was in. about his
reputation about his good name. Suddenly he was seized by a peculiar need to
get up again and look at himself in the mirror. He lit his candle. When he saw
his face reflected in the glass of the mirror he hardly recognizes himself. It
seemed as though he had never seen him self before. His eyes looked
enormous, and he was pale. My word! How pale he was!

Signoles thinks about his own death

He stood looking at himself in the mirror. He put out his tongue to see if
it looked healthy. Then suddenly, this thought entered his brain: ‘By this time
tomorrow I might be dead!’ And his heart started to beat violently. By this time
tomorrow I might be dead. This person in front of me, this me that I see in the
mirror, will not exist any more! Here I am. I can see myself. I know I am alive,
and in twenty-four hours I shall be lying in that bed, dead, with my eyes closed,
6
cold, stiff, gone for ever!’ He turned round and looked at the bed. He could
clearly picture himself lying on his back in the very sheets he had just left. He
had the hollow face of a dead man and soft hands that would never move
again. Now he was afraid to go back to bed, lie went into the next room and
started to smoke a cigar. He felt cold. He was going towards the bell, ready to
ring to wake up his servant. But he stopped, and said, if I call my servant he’ll
notice that I’m afraid.’ He did not ring. He lit a fire himself, with trembling
hands. His thoughts were becoming confused. He felt as though he was drunk.
He kept on saying to himself, What am I going to do? What’s going to become
of me?’
His whole body was trembling, shaking all over. He got up and went to
the window to open the curtains. Day was dawning, a summer’s day. The sky
was pink and was making all the roofs and walls look pink. The world was
waking up to this great shower of bright light, coming down like a kiss from the
rising sun. As soon as he saw the cheerful brightness his heart was filled with
hope. How crazy he was to let himself be made miserable by fear! Nothing was
decided yet. His seconds had not yet seen those of George Lamil, and he didn’t
even know for certain that he would have to fight.
He got dressed and left the house, walking with a firm step. As he walked
he kept on saying to himself, ‘I must be strong, very strong. I must show
people that I am not afraid.’ His two seconds, the nobleman and the officer,
were waiting for him. After they had both given him a warm hand-shake the
officer asked him,
‘Do you want a serious duel?’ ‘Very serious,’ replied Signoles.
‘Are you going to use a pistol?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Can we go ahead and arrange
everything?’
‘Twenty yards,’ said Signoles, speaking with a dry, nervous voice. ‘On the
command we take aim and fire. We keep on shooting until there is a
serious wound. ‘Those are excellent conditions,’ said the officer. ‘You
shoot well. All the luck is on your side.’
Signoles then went back home to wait until they had arranged
everything. His nervousness, which had disappeared for a few minutes, was
now getting worse and worse. He seemed to be trembling all down his legs and
arms. He could not sit still. He could not stand still. His mouth was so dry that
his tongue seemed stuck, and it made a peculiar sound when he moved it. He
thought he would have some lunch, but he could not eat anything. Then he had
the idea that if he drank some rum it would give him courage. He drank six
small glasses, one after the other. A warm, burning feeling spread through his
body and his mind seemed to be filled with a kind of mist. This is the way to do
it,’ he thought. ‘I shall be all right now.’ An hour later he had drunk the whole
bottle of rum and he was in a terrible state. He felt as though he wanted to roll
about on the floor, shouting and biting.

The seconds arrive

It was getting dark when the door-bell rang. The sound gave him such a
shock that he hadn’t the strength to stand up when his two seconds entered
the room. He hardly dared speak even a single word to them, because he was
afraid they would discover what state he was in by the sound of his voice.
‘Everything has been arranged according to the conditions you suggested,’
said the officer. Your enemy at first claimed that he was the one who had been
insulted so he had a right to choose the weapons. But he gave in almost
immediately. His seconds are both army officers.’
7
 ‘Thank you,’ said Signoles. ‘We’ll have to go now.’ said the nobleman.
‘We still have a lot to do. We need to get a good doctor, because the fight will
only stop when there has been a serious wound. You can’t play games with
bullets, as you know. We must find a place near a house where we can carry
the wounded man, if necessary. Anyhow, we’ll be another two or three hours.
‘Thank you,’ said Signoles a second time.
‘Are you all right?’ asked the officer. Are your nerves steady?’
‘Yes, very steady, thank you.’ And the two seconds left the house.
When he was all alone again he felt as though he was going to go mad. He
sat down at his writing-desk and wrote at the top of a page: ‘This is my last will
and Testament…” Then he jumped up and walked away from the desk, unable
to think properly or to make any kind of decision, even a simple one. So he
was going to fight a duel! He could not avoid it now. What was happening
inside him? He wanted to fight, he was very definite about that. And yet he
knew that in spite of all his efforts he would not even be able to find the
necessary strength to get to the place where the duel would be fought. He tried
to imagine what it would look like. He pictured himself standing there and he
pictured his enemy facing him.
He tried to read, picking up a book about shooting. Then he thought, ‘Is
my enemy an expert with a pistol? How can I find out?’ He remembered that he
had a book which contained a list of all those who were famous for shooting.
He looked carefully through it. The name George Lamil was not there. But if
this man was not sure he could kill his enemy, why had he agreed to fight a
duel which might lead to death?
He opened a box containing a pair of pistols. He took one of them out
and held it, taking aim, as if he was ready to shoot. But his hand was trembling
so much that he could not keep the gun steady. It was waving about, pointing
in all directions.
‘It’s impossible!’ he said. ‘I can’t fight a duel in this state!’ He looked at
the end of the pistol and saw the little black hole which spits death. He thought
of the disgrace. People would whisper about him. They would laugh at him. The
ladies would hate him. There would be things about him in the newspapers.
Cowardly men would insult him. He kept on staring at the weapon in his hand.
Suddenly he noticed that the pistol was already loaded. This gave him a
strange feeling of pleasure which he could not explain. Everybody would
expect him to face his enemy in a manner that was noble and calm. If he failed
to do so life would not be worth living. Everyone would pour scorn on him. They
would treat him as a man who had done something dreadful and shameful. He
would no longer have any friends. And he knew very well that he would not
have this calm, courageous manner when he stood in front of his enemy.

Signoles kills himself

Yet he was brave, after all. A thought flashed rapidly through his mind.
He suddenly opened his mouth wide, pushed the pistol into it as far as it would
go, then fired…. When his servant heard the bang he rushed into the room and
found him lying on his back. Some blood had fallen on the white sheet of paper
on the desk, and there was a great splash of red above the words: This is my
last Will and Testament’

1. Read the short story above, and write a synopsis for it.
2. Elaborate the characters involved in the story.

8
 3. Explain its plot: orientation, evaluation, complication, resolution, and
reorientation
1. In the passage on the next page, which appeared in The Independent, the
writer, Suzanne Moore, describes a fire she had at her flat. Before you read
it, think of three or four situations at home in which a fire can start.

2. Here are the first lines of each paragraph. Put them in the right order and
find out how the fire started.
a) I could hear the firemen crashing about and shouting.
b) And now, a few days later, 1 am starting to feel very strange.
c) Ti started under the grill.
d) We could hear the sirens of the fire engines.
e) I arrived with two kids and bags full of smelly clothes in a taxi.
f) The firemen were back. “Let’s take you in there to have a look.”
g) I phoned a friend.
h) Returning to my “new home”, my daughter presented me with a picture
she had drawn.
i) By now flames were coming out of the top of the cooker.
j) A minute later, smoke was pouring out of all the windows of my flat.

3. The writer tends to imply things rather than state them directly. What words
or phrases would you use to describe the reactions of the following people?
the people in the street her next-door neighbour the firemen
an old lady her neighbour’s girlfriend her friend’s son
her friend

4. Look for the point in the passage when she comments directly on her own
reactions. Would you describe the overall style as calm or emotional?
Another aspect of the passage’s style is the large number of short sentences
and the absence of linking words like and and but while she is describing the
events of the fire itself. What effect do you think this has?
There are some words and phrases which reveal her feelings while her home
was on fire.
I rushed over the road …
But it wasn’t all right — my flat was on fire.
Can you find other words or phrases which reveal her feelings?

5. Answer the questions about vocabulary. Use a dictionary to help you, if

necessary.
1. ‘He came out choking...’ If smoke was pouring out of the flat, what effect
would this have on someone who went in?
2. ‘...his hair singed.’ There were flames in the flat. His skin wasn’t burnt,
but what are the flames likely to do to his hair?
3. ‘.. . the cooker, the fridge, the washing-machine gutted.’ What is likely
to be left of these household appliances after a fire?
4. ‘Very, very tired and slightly dislocated.’ Physically, she felt tired. How do
you think she felt emotionally?

6. Answer the questions.

1. “Sit by the fire,” he offered. “You need warming up.”’ What is the irony in
her neighbour’s remark?
9
2. “We’re not the police, you know,” he laughed.’ What might the fireman
be implying about the police?
3. ‘“It could have been worse,” said the fireman, a phrase I have heard a lot
in the last few days.’ How much worse could it have been? Do you think
the writer is comforted by this remark?

10
 FRIENDSHIP
A. The passage in this unit is about friendship. Before you read it decide which
of the following statements you agree or disagree with.
a) You can have a lot of friends but only one best friend.
b) Really good friends are always of the same sex.
c) Childhood friendship rarely lasts into adulthood.
d) Time and distance cannot alter real friendship.
e) A friend is someone you can talk freely to.
f) A really good friend is someone with whom you have shared many
experiences.
g) Adult friendship is of a different nature from childhood friendship.
h) Childhood friendship is often more emotional than adult friendship.

B. The following article is about Raymond Blanc, a well-known chef. Read it and
decide which statement(s) in Exercise A he would agree with.

I thought the world was caving in, for the first time ever I lost somebody I
loved; he didn’t die, he just went away, but I still measure all pain by the hurt
Rent caused me. It was a very nice childhood, an adolescence most people
would wish to have, we were living in a tiny village and were a close family,
very pleasant, much earthed, and the table was very important. Our
neighbours had a son, and my wonderful childhood was shared with René;
basically, we grew up together, we spent every day together, went to school
together; we did all the things that children can do. It was a childhood spent in
the woods, discovering the beautiful seasons, there was an abundance of
produce that grew in the wild, and we went mushrooming and frog hunting,
and we searched for cepes under a full moon in winter, which we would sell
because my parents didn’t have much money. The adventures that children go
through in the making of a friendship, building a tree house and spending a
night in the forest and losing our way back home, these things create a
fantastic fabric to the friendship.
There was the loving element; too, he was very caring. Rene was a tall
bloke and very strong, and he
Would be my defender; if anyone ever teased me, he would be there. It was
the finest friendship anyone could have, a brilliant pure friendship in which you
would give your life for your friend. And life seemed marvelous, it seemed full
of shine, full of incredible, beautiful things to discover, and I looked forward so
much to growing up with Rene. And then at the age of 14, his parents moved
to the south of France, ands we were in the east of France which is 750
kilometers away… the south of France sounded like the end of the world. Well
our parents realized it would be very traumatic, and they did not know how to
break the news. So they just announced It the day before. It was a beautiful
summer‘s day, around five o’clock in the evening, and both parents came and
said: “We are moving away, and obviously Rene will have to come with us. I
went quiet for the news to sink in; at first it was sheer disbelief, numbness. I
couldn’t sleep and then in the night I understood the impact of the news, I
understood that my life would be totally separate from his, and I had to be by
myself alone.

11
 And at that time my world stopped. It was the most incredible pain I have
ever experienced. I couldn’t see life without my friend, my whole system, my
life was based on René, and our friendship was my life. And although he was
only going away he did not die, it was the worst loss 1 have ever had in my life,
still, now, and thirty years later I have not received another shock of that
nature. I had other friends, but never did I achieve that kind of closeness. My
world completely collapsed, and nothing was the same, people, the classroom,
nature, the country, butterflies. Maybe because he was more mature he
understood a hit better that this was part of life, that life brings people
together and separates them, and distance is riot necessarily the end.
He accepted that life would separate us. He didn’t see it as something
final; it was my dramatic side to see only the negative side, self-pity in a way.
He is now living a happy life in Provence with a beautiful wife and two lovely
daughters, and he is coming here next year, so it is going to be quite
wonderful. It is the first time he has ever come to England, he’s a good
Frenchman, and he does not speak a word of English.
Hopefully, we will see each other more, but it is not essential. We now
have a beautifully matured, adult friendship where it is easy to talk about
anything because we feel totally at ease. There is not a single bitter note, there
are no power games, there is nothing secret, and there is nothing which
detracts from the purity of
It is a good solid relationship that has been established over so many years,
and has overcome all the barriers which life and time can create. I don’t think it
really could have lasted the way it was.

C. Find these words and expressions in the passage and answer the questions.
1. I thought the world was caving in...’ Is this likely to be a pleasant or an
unpleasant feeling? Can you find another expression in the article which
means more or less the same thing?
2. ‘René was a tall bloke...’ A bloke is a familiar term for a man or a male
teenager. Is it likely to be a neutral term or an offensive one?
3. ‘...if anyone ever teased me...’ When people, particularly children, know
each other well, they tease each other. In this context, is this likely to be
kind or unkind behaviour?
4. ‘...it would be very traumatic...’ What would be traumatic? Is this likely to
be a pleasant event or a shocking one?
5. ‘...for the news to sink in...’ Choose the best definition for the words in
italics:
a) to go deep b) to be understood c) to go down

D. The writer uses some very different words to describe his friendship before
René’s departure and after. For example:
before: beautiful, abundance, full moon,
after: caving in, pain, hurt,
Find more words in the passage to add to the before and after lists.

E. Think about the relationship and the separation from René’s point of view.
Which of the words you wrote in Exercise D do you think he would use?
Write a few sentences describing what happened from his point of view.

12
 How would you describe the parents’ reaction to what happened? Would
they have used any of the words in Exercise D?

F. Think of some more questions you would like to ask Raymond Blanc about
his friendship with René, or note anything which surprises you about the
relationship.

G. Compare your childhood with the writer’s. Did you have a very close friend
like René?
Write down three names: a childhood friend you still know, a friend with
whom you’ve lost touch and a close friend now. How similar or different are
your relationships with each one? Write down some words and phrases to
describe these relationships.

13
Friday’s assignment

1. Write the pointers you get from the “discourse analysis”.

2. Based on your pointers, draw a chart describing “discourse analysis”
DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

A. A Brief Historical Overview

Discourse is a continuous stretch of language larger than a sentence, often constituting a
coherent unit, such as a sermon, argument, joke, or narrative. Discourse analysis is concerned with
the study of the relationship between language and the contexts in which it is used. It grew out of
work in different disciplines in the 1960s and early 1970s, including linguistics, semiotics,
psychology, anthropology and sociology. Discourse analysts study language in use: written texts of
all kinds, and spoken data, from conversation to highly institutionalised forms of talk.

B. Form and Function

So how we interpret grammatical forms depends on a number of factors, some linguistic, some
purely situational. One linguistic feature that may affect our interpretation is the intonation. So the
intonation does not inherently carry the function of question either, any more than the inversion of
auxiliary verb and subject did. Grammatical forms and phonological forms examined separately are
unreliable indicators of function; when they are taken together, and looked at in context, we can
come to some decision about function. So, decisions about communicative function cannot solely
be the domain or grammar or phonology. Discourse analysis is not entirely separate from the study
of grammar and phonology, but discourse analysts are interested in a lot more than linguistic forms.

C. Speech Acts and Discourse Structures

In one sense we are talking about functions: we are concerned as much with what someone is
doing with language as with he is saying. When we say that a particular bit of speech or writing is a
request or an instruction or an exemplification we are concentrating on what that piece of language
is doing, or how the listener/reader is supposed to react; for this reason, such entities are often also
called speed acts. Each of the stretches of language that are carrying the force of requesting,
instructing, and so on is seen as performing a particular act.

D. The Scope of Discourse Analysis

Discourse analysis is not only concerned with the description and analysis of spoken
interaction. In addition to all our verbal encounters we daily consume hundreds of written and
printed words: newspaper articles, letters, stories, recipes, instructions, notices, comics, billboards,
leaflets pushed through the door, and so on. We usually expect them to be coherent, meaningful
communications in which the words and/or sentences are linked to one another in a fashion that
corresponds to conventional formulae, just as we do with speech; therefore discourse analysts are
equally interested in the organization of written interaction. The term discourse analysis is used to
cover the study of spoken and written interaction. Our overall aim is to come to a much better
understanding of exactly how natural spoken and written discourse looks and sounds.

E. Spoken Discourse: Models of Analysis

One influential approach to the study of spoken discourse is that developed at the University
of Birmingham, where research initially concerned itself with the structure of discourse in school
classrooms (Sinclair and Coulthard 1975). The Birmingham model is certainly not the only valid
approach to analyzing discourse, but it is a relatively simple and powerful model which has
connections with the study of speech acts. Sinclair and Coulthard found in the language of

14
traditional native-speaker school classrooms a rigid pattern, where teachers and pupils spoke
according to very fixed perceptions of their roles and where the talk could be seen to conform to
highly structured sequences.

T: What do we do with a saw? Marvelette.

P: Cut wood.
T: We cut wood.

Sinclair and Coulthard call this unit an exchange. This particular exchange consists of a question,
an answer and a comment, and so it is a three-part exchange. Each of the parts is given the name
move. Sinclair and Coulthard call the first move in each change an opening move; the second an
answering move, and the third a following up move. They prefer to talk of initiation, response, and
follow up.

F. Conversations outside the classroom

So far we have looked at talk in a rather restricted context: the traditional classroom, where
roles are rigidly defined and the patterns of initiation, response and follow-up in exchanges are
relatively easy to perceive, and where transactions are heavily marked. The classroom was a
convenient place to start, as Sinclair and Coulthard discovered, but it is not the ‘real’ world of
conversation. It is a peculiar place, a place where teachers ask questions to which they already know
the answers, where pupils (at least younger pupils) have very limited rights as speakers, and where
evaluation by the teacher of what the pupils say is a vital mechanism in the discourse structure.
Conversations outside classroom settings vary in their degree of structuredness, but even so,
conversations that seem at first sight to be ‘free’ and unstructured can often be shown to have a
structure; what will differ is the kinds of speech-act labels needed to describe what is happening,
and it is mainly in this area, the functions of the parts of individual moves, that discourse analysts
have found it necessary to expand and modify the Sinclair—Coulthard model.
Obviously there are numerous other features in the conversation (intonation, gesture, etc.)
which make us more confident in our analysis. So far we have looked only at one model for the
analysis of spoken interaction, the Sinclair—Coulthard ‘Birmingham’ model. We have argued that
it is useful for describing talk in and out of the classroom; it captures patterns that reflect the basic
functions of interaction and offers a hierarchical model where smaller units can be seen to combine
to form larger ones and where the large units can be seen to consist of these smaller ones. The bare
bones of the hierarchy (or rank scale) can be expressed as follows:
TRANSACTION
↨
EXCHANGE
↨
MOVE
↨
ACT

G. Talk as a Social Activity

Because of the rigid conventions of situations such as teacher talk and doctor-patient talk, it is
relatively easy to predict who will speak when, who will ask and who will answer, who will
interrupt, who will open and close the talk, and so on. But where talk is more casual, and among
equals, everyone will have a part to play in controlling and monitoring the discourse, and the picture
will look considerably more complicated.
The approach that is usually used to analyze outside conversation is ethnomethodologist. This
approach has been largely, but not exclusively, an American phenomenon, and it has concentrated
on areas of interest such as how pairs of utterances relate to one another (the study of adjacency
pairs), how turn-taking is managed, how conversational openings and closings are effected, how

15
topics enter and disappear from conversation, and how speakers engage in strategic acts of
politeness, face-preservation, and so on. The emphasis is always on real data, and observing how
people orient to the demands of the speech event.

H. Written Discourse
With written texts, some of the problems associated with spoken transcripts are absent: we do
nor have to contend with people all speaking at once, the writer has usually had time to think about
what to say and how to say it, and the sentences are usually well formed in a way that the utterances
of natural, spontaneous talk are not. But the overall questions remain the same: what norms or rules
do people adhere to when creating written texts? Are texts structured according to recurring
principles, is there a hierarchy of units comparable to acts, moves and exchanges, and are there
conventional ways of opening and closing texts? As with spoken discourse, if we do find such
regularities, and if they can be shown as elements that have different realization in different
languages, or that they may present problems for learners in other ways, then the insights of written
discourse analysis might be applicable, in specifiable ways, to language teaching.

I. Text and Interpretation

Markers of various kinds, i.e. the linguistic signals of semantic and discourse functions (e.g.
in English the -ed on the verb is a marker of pastness), are very much concerned with the surface of
the text. Cohesive markers are no exception: they create links across sentence boundaries and pair
and chain together items that are related. But reading a text is far more complex than that: we have
to interpret the ties and make sense of them. Making sense of a text is an act of interpretation that
depends as much on what we as readers bring to a text as what the author puts into it.
Interpretation can be seen as a set o procedures and the approach to the analysis of texts that
emphasizes the mental activities involved in interpretation can be broadly called procedural.
Procedural approaches emphasize the role of the reader in actively building the world of the text,
based on his/her experience of the world and how states and events are characteristically manifested
in it. The reader has to activate such knowledge, make inferences and constantly assess his/her
interpretation in the light of the situation and the aims and goals of the text as the reader perceives
them.
Another level of interpretation which we are involved in as we process texts is that of
recognizing textual patterns. Certain patterns in text reoccur time and time again and become deeply
ingrained as part of our cultural knowledge. These patterns are manifested in regularly occurring
functional relationships between bits of the text. These bits may be phrases, clauses, sentences or
groups of sentences; we shall refer to them as textual segments to avoid confusion with grammatical
elements and syntactic relations within clauses and sentences. A segment may sometimes be a
clause, sometimes a sentence, sometimes a whole paragraph; what is important is that segments can
be isolated using a set of labels covering a finite set of functional relations that can occur between
any two bits of text.

J. Larger Patterns in Text

The clause-relational approach to text also concerns itself with larger patterns which regularly
occur in texts. If we consider a simple text like the following, which is concocted for the sake of
illustration, we can see a pattern emerging which is found in hundreds of texts in a wide variety of
subject areas and contexts:
Most people like to take a camera with them when they travel abroad. But all airports
nowadays have X-ray security screening and X rays can damage film. One solution to this
problem is to purchase a specially designed lead-lined pouch. These are cheap and can
protect film from all but the strongest X rays.
The first sentence presents us with a situation and the second sentence with some sort of
complication or problem. The third sentence describes a response to the problem and the final

16
sentence gives a positive evaluation of the response. Such a sequence of relations forms a problem
—solution pattern, and problem-solution patterns are extremely common in texts.
DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AND GRAMMAR

A. Grammatical Cohesion and Textuality

1) Reference
Reference includes pronouns, demonstratives, the article, and items like such as. The
reference that is confirmed by looking back in the text is called anaphoric. The reference
that shares worlds outside of the text is called exophoric. The reference that is confirmed by
looking forward in the text is called cataphoric
2) Ellipsis and Substitution
Ellipsis is the omission of elements normally required by the grammar which the
speaker/writer assumes are obvious from the context and therefore need not to be raised.
Substitution is similar to ellipsis, in that, in English it operates either at nominal, verbal, or
clausal level. The items commonly used for substitution are: one(s), do, so/not, same.
3) Conjunction
Conjunction can be simplified into three headings: elaboration, extension, and enhancement
Type sub-types examples
Elaboration apposition in other words
Clarification or rather
Extension addition and/but
Variation alternatively
Enhancement spatio-temporal there/previously
Causal-conditional consequently/in that case
4) Theme and Rheme
Sentence can be analyzed seen from the view point of word position, subject, verb, object,
etc.
Theme is the topic of the clause; while rheme is the comment of the clause.
I (theme) read a book everyday (rheme).
5) Tense and Aspect
Tense is the term used to show the relationship between time and other conditions and the
form of verb. Aspect is term some grammarians used to describe different ways of thinking
about action and time. English has two aspects: a perfect aspect and progressive aspect. The
telling of stories, jokes, anecdotes, abstracts, narratives etc. need different tense and aspect.

17
 We’ve never had it so bad

A. The article in this unit is about teenagers in the 1990s. It was written by a
British writer, Caitlin Moran, when she was sixteen. Do you think a teenager
today could say ‘We’ve never had it so bad’? Think about what a teenager in
your country might complain about.

B. Read the article and find out if it mentions any of the ideas you thought
about in Exercise A.

C. Choose five words or phrases from the following list which seem to
summarize the general meaning of the article.
material world drugs cry vote sell
self-loathing
misery protest marches angst symbols identity
future
art gallery parents’ generation nothing depressing
mirror
middle-class clothes war rebellion advertisers

Without looking back at the passage, write five sentences using the words
you chose. Try and convey the main ideas of the article.

D. What evidence can you find for the following statements?

1. The writer’s friend hates life because she is still too young to do things
without her parents’ permission.
2. She is happy to accept the identity the advertisers sell her.
3. The Nineties’ teenage cult is self-hate rather than rebellion.
4. Drugs are one of the main causes of the teenagers’ passive attitude to
life.
5. They have adopted another generation’s values because they have none
of their own.
6. The material comfort and safety of middle-class life does not make a
teenager’s plight any easier.
7. Protesting and rebelling against parents is better than self-loathing.

We’ve never had it so bad

What’s so great about being a teenager in the material world of the nineties?
asks Caitlin Moran.

WHERE is the anger? Where is the protest? Where is the teenage point of
view these days? Where are the rebellions and the cults and the things that
adults can’t understand?

18
 Why are ‘the youth of today’ living the ‘there’s a club ... and you go and
you stand on your own, and you leave on your own, and you cry and you want
to die’ life and still happy to accept it?
One of my friends, at 16— six and ten years on this planet, four leap years
— says that her life terrifies her because, when she looks at it, it seems so long
until she’ll die. At 16, welcoming oblivion, when she’s too young to vote, too
young to drive, too young to leave home without her parents’ permission.
She’s not on drugs or the mother of an unwanted child, she lives a middle-
class existence in a low- crime suburb, and she has no identity except that
which advertisers sell her: it is too confining, both physically and mentally.
Sometimes we climb up on to a five-storey car park, and throw bits of
gravel at the people below, and she’ll shout ‘Who am 1?’ and I laugh till I cry
because no one can hear us, and nobody can tell her.
We sit on the steps outside the art gallery and she’ll tell me her plan for
the future: ‘I don’t know, and I’ll read her palm and make up things, because
‘nothing’ is too depressing. She reapplies her eyeliner for the fifth time that
day, and I gloomily pick nut chips out of a Fruit and Nut block.
She puts her little mirror back in her bag and tells me that she wants to be
sick every time she sees her face, and she wouldn’t mind giving up her future
right to vote if she could live in a country where the women wear veils.
And she hugs the railings and looks like she could melt away at any minute
with misery, and what can I say? She saw her face in the mirror, and she’s
been made to hate it so much that it distorted,
Why the self-loathing? Why do thousands and thousands of teenagers
suddenly hate their picked upon, pressurized selves? Instead of shouting at
their parents, which is what parents expect and justify their grey hairs with,
why do teenagers shout at themselves? Who’s going to stand up for them?
Jimmy Cricket?
I’m angry, and I’m scared because no one else seems to be. I’m angry that
there is no ‘Nineties’ scene. We’re being given our parents’ music and clothes
and angst and I want to know why. Is it because the past isn’t dangerous? It’s
been coped with and poses no threat? What are we afraid of now? Why are we
being sold the traumas of the Vietnam war when we had our own war, our own
Nineties war, to feel concerned about and go on marches about and have T-
shirt slogans about? We’ve been sold another generation’s problems, symbols
and ethics. They look silly and they don’t fit.

E. The writer suggests that teenagers are being manipulated into accepting
another generation’s identity and values. For example:
“…she has no identity except that which advertisers sell her...’
Can you find other instances of this idea in the article?
What reason does she suggest may be behind this manipulation?
Who do you think the writer is referring to?

F. Look back at the sentences you wrote in Exercise C. Would you change any
of them now you are more familiar with the passage? Use these sentences
to write a short summary of the article.

G. Do you agree with Caitlin Moran’s analysis of the teenager’s plight?

How do or did your experiences as a teenager compare to those described
in the article?
19
 Make a list of ideas you could include in an article which is much more
optimistic about teenage life today.

H. Friday’s assignment
1. Read the text “THE MIND-CENTERED SYSTEM” carefully.
2. Determine whether the text is narration, explanation, discussion,
commentary, or review. And give your reason.
3. Explain its generic structure.

20
 Business people are not good at defending capitalism. Maybe it is
because they don’t quite understand it themselves.
THE MIND-CENTERED SYSTEM
By Michael Novak
(Philosopher, novelist, journalist and ex-US ambassador Michael
Novak is now at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington,
DC. Among his most recent books are Taking Glasnost Seriously
and Will It Liberate? Questions about Liberation Theology)

Last fall I met an so pejorative this respect, the word

executive of a large “concentration,” capitalism, which Marx
American multinational, “accumulation”. intended as pejorative, is
whom I shall call Robert Nonetheless, the emphasis accurately chosen.
Wilson. He told me with in most does fall on private Simply put, the cause of
some dismay that his son property, markets and wealth is human creativity.
had come home from profits. Smith dramatized this
university the preceding But these three point in his example of the
Christmas denouncing (to institutions cannot possibly pin factory. Human
his mother) first “obscene provide an accurate ingenuity discovered a way
profits” and “wicked definition of capitalism. For to make pins quickly and in
multinational corporations” the word itself was large multiples, whereas
(Mrs. Wilson did her best to invented to define a new individual craftsmen had
defend her husband’s line economic system, which earlier required many
of work), and then the emerged fully only at the laborious hours for each.
entire capitalist system. end of the 18th century. Its To paraphrase Havek,
Still, not having read the novelty is what drew capitalism didn’t do much
exact authors and books attention to it—even Marx’. for duchesses who already
her son was citing, she What made this new had pins silk stockings and
knew she hadn’t argued system different could not many other items, but it
very well. Bob Wilson have been private did a lot for working
didn’t do much better property, markets and women who had never had
afterwards—even worse, profits. Biblical Jerusalem, them, but soon did.
since he lost his temper. at a crossroads of three Capitalism is the first
What is this thing called continents, had all three. It social system organized
“capitalism,” anyway? was (economically) a around mind. It gives
American dictionaries market that respected primacy to mind—to
usually define it in a rather private property and practical intellect, in the
Marxist way. (Not (aspiring to be a “land of first place, but in the end
surprising, since it was milk and honey”) smiled on also to intellectual research
Marx who first defined profits. and contemplation for their
what he opposed.) The These three own sakes. Systematic
American Heritage characteristics do not attention to the needs of
Dictionary defines capitalism make. They mind begins in schools
capitalism as: “An define the traditional oriented to new discoveries
economic sys-tem economy in most times, at and practicality. It
characterized by freedom most places. What is continues in patent and
of the market with distinctive about capitalism copyright laws. It comes to
increasing concentration of is hidden in the word itself. flower through ease of
private and corporate What is the answer to incorporation, through
ownership of production Adam Smith’s original habits of enterprise,
and distribution means, inquiry into the cause of favorable conditions for
proportionate to increasing the wealth of nations? In capital formation and
accumulation and one word, the cause is wit: access to the credit needed
reinvestment of profits.” invention, discovery, mind. to bring creative ideas to
Not all definitions are quite (In Latin, caput, head.) In realization.
21
 Thus, a decisive
moment in the history of
capitalism occurred at the
Constitutional Convention
in Philadelphia in 1787,
when the same right (the
copyright) earlier extended
to writers in Great Britain
was here extended to
patents for inventors and
discoveries. Article 1,
Section 8, of the
Constitution listed among
the limited powers granted
to the Congress the
following: To promote the
progress of science and
useful arts, by securing for
limited times to authors
and inventors the exclusive
Boldness in industrial undertakings, said Tocqueville, was the chief cause of
America ‘s rapid progress, power and greatness.
GREED DOES NOT
EXPLAIN IT
Philip J. Freedenberg
of Fairfax, Va. upbraids
me in a letter recently
published in FORBES for
over-praising creativity
as the cause of the
wealth of the West, and
for neglecting “the
mechanism that. . .
deserves equal billing:
greed.”
The enemies of
capitalism ever have
been quick to imagine
that greed is the linchpin
of capitalism. R.H.
Tawney wrote of the
“acquisitive” impulse,
Marx of “accumulation,”
and recently the late
Robert Lekachman, one
of my favorite socialists,
called his anti-Reagan
right to their respective
writings and discoveries.”
In this clause occurs for
the first and only time in
the Constitution proper the
word “right”—a right
grounded in the capacities
of the human spirit for
invention and discovery,
and justified as a pre-capitalist
preeminent service to the
common good.
In theological language,
we can say that a capitalist
system is founded on the
Jewish and Christian belief
that the Creator of all
things made every man
and every woman in His
image. He thus endowed in
each the right and the duty
book Greed Is Not
Enough.
Trouble is, “the
impulse to acquisition,
pursuit of gain, of
money, of the greatest
possible amount of
money, has in itself
nothing to do with
capitalism,” Max Weber
wrote in The Protestant
Ethic and the Spirit of
Capitalism. “It should be
taught in kindergarten of
cultural history that this
naive idea of capitalism
must be given up once
and for all.”
Greed did not begin
with capitalism (late in
the 18th century).
Outbreaks of it are found
from the earliest times,
22
to be creative as He is
creative: to invent and to
discover, and thereby to
serve the common good of
all.
Capitalism is the
system organized around
creativity. That is what
makes it different from the
economy,
and also from the socialist
economy. A system named
for the human head (caput)
is, like the human mind
itself, forever open and
inventive. If Bob Wilson
and other business people
want to mount an effective
defense of capitalism, they
should learn to explain it in
these terms.
in the biblical ages, and
in all cultures. Indeed,
there are many reasons
for believing that in the
capitalist era greed (in
its ancient meaning) has
diminished as a motive
force, or has in any case
been deeply altered.
In a free society—both
democratic and capitalist
—there are lots of
reasons why human
beings do great deeds,
build new industries,
launch new inventions.
Without judging personal
motives, one can
imagine many types of
human energies being
unleashed by liberty: the
zest for life, ambition,
challenge, excitement,
conquest, self- created takes from no would tame ferocious
determination, creativity, one. manners.
the will-to-power—yes, And the early Commerce, they
and greed. Yet the word Americans needed thought, is better for
greed is always used to boldness: “For a people society than war.
name a vice, never a so situated the danger is Inherently, it requires
virtue. The dictionaries not the ruin of a few, peaceful ways,
say that it means an which is soon made trustworthy personal
“excessive” hunger. Do good, but apathy and relationships, long time
those who insist that the sloth in the community horizons, voluntary
driving mechanism of at large. Boldness in contracts and
capitalism is greed want industrial undertakings is international law. It
to prove that the system the chief cause of their teaches patience,
is inherently vicious? rapid progress, power discipline, a prudent
Yes, they do. and greatness. To them watchfulness over small
By contrast Adam industry appears as a losses and small gains. It
Smith thought that the vast lottery in which, a spurs vision, enterprise
drive to “better one’s few men daily lose but in and grand designs.
condition” is an which the state Proportionate to risk, it
admirable natural constantly profits. Such honors a reasonable
impulse. But the most a people is bound to look return. Without such
telling comment comes with favor on boldness in returns, indeed, there is
from Alexis de industry and to honor it.” no peaceful economic
Tocqueville: “To clear, In ancient and growth.
cultivate and transform medieval Europe, great Thus the Americans
the huge uninhabited landowners grew food regarded the warlike
continent which is their not so much for markets barons and lords of
domain,” he wrote, “the as to feed their armies. Europe as lawless,
Americans need the Wealth for them was untamed and frenzied
support of an energetic gold and precious with greed. Their
passion; that passion can objects to be seized from medieval ancestors
only e the love of wealth. others. Not would have called the
So no stigma attaches to understanding how American concern for
the love of money in wealth is created and, as steady material progress
America, and provided it the book of Proverbs put “base cupidity,”
does not exceed the it, “greedy of loot,” they Tocqueville noted. The
bounds imposed by formed robber bands Americans regarded
public order, it is held in and pillaging armies to economic enterprise as a
honor.” bring the booty home. “noble and estimable
In the zero-sum In those days greed ambition,” lawlike,
societies of the past, typically meant respectful of public
those who hoarded a “unlawful gain” and was order, indispensable to
portion of the common expressed through national prosperity and
stock made others armed might, boldly progressive.
poorer. Not so, brigandage and piracy. Like our forebears, we
Tocqueville noted, in a By contrast the should be careful to
country and an economy proponents of a new distinguish “boldness in
“limitless and full of type of society—”the industry” from “greed.”
inexhaustible re commercial republic”— The first is admirable,
sources.” Wealth newly believed that commerce the second, not.

ANALYTICAL EXPOSITION

23
Thesis: Position
In Australia there are three levels of government, the federal government,
state governments and local governments. All of these levels of government
are necessary. This is so for a number of reasons.
Argument 1
Point
First, the federal government is necessary for the big things.
Elaboration
They keep the economy in order and look after things like defence.
Argument 2
Point
Similarly, the state governments look after the middle sized things.
Elaboration
For example they look after law and order, preventing things like vandalism
in schools.
Argument 3
Point
Finally, local governments look after the small things.
Elaboration
They look after things like collecting rubbish, otherwise everyone would
have diseases.
85
Lampiran-lampiran
Conclusion
Thus, for the reasons above we can conclude that the three levels of
government are necessary
NEWS ITEM
Town ‘Contaminated’
Newsworthy Event
Moscow - A Russian journalist has uncovered evidence of another Soviet
nuclear catastrophe, which killed 10 sailors and contaminated an entire town.
Background Events
Yelena Vazrshavskya is the first journalist to speak to people who witnessed
the explosion of a nuclear submarine at the naval base of shkotovo - 22 near
Vladivostock.
The accident, which occurred 13 months before the Chernobyl disaster, spread
radioactive fall-out over the base and nearby town, but was covered up by officials
of the then Soviet Union. Residents were told the explosion in the reactor of the
Victor-class submarine during a refit had been a ‘thermal’ and not a nuclear
explosion. And those involved in the clean up operation to remove more than
600 tonnes of contaminated material were sworn to secrecy.
Sources
A board of investigators was later to describe it as the worst accident in the
history of the Soviet Navy.

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25
26
 VITAL ROLE IN WORLD AIRLINE INDUSTRY
Telecommunications play a vital part in the world airline industry where
there is a need for speedy contact over long distances, and where the sheer
size of the number of people and freight being carried today would overwhelm
systems lacking the most modern technology.
Most of the world’s airlines have highly advanced systems, although some
of them have tended to be outpaced by the explosive growth enjoyed by the
industry over the past decade, particularly in areas such is the Middle East,
parts of Africa, and the Far East. Estimates made at the beginning of the
decade of the number of messages which would be passed by 1980 proved in
most cases to be far too low, with the result that there was a scramble during
the late I 970s for new equipment.
But while the equipment is available, the highly skilled manpower needed
to operate it and to service it remains scarce for the airlines which have to
compete with the many other users of advanced telecommunications. Most of
the bigger airlines now have their own training schools, while the smaller ones
send their trainees to schools such as that operated by International Aeradio at
Bath. There is still a residual glamour about working for an airline for some
recruits, and the prospect of cheap staff travel also attracts people.
Airline communications break down into four main sections: radio,
teletype, telephone and data processing. Radio is used for passing messages
between ground and the airliners, although in remote parts of the world it may
also be used for messages between various bases. Each operator will have a
selective call band over which it can pass company messages to its crews in
flight wherever they are. Routine low-speed internal company messages
generally come over the company teletype system, but in most airlines they
have reached such large numbers that they me distributed by computer.

The exercises in this section all refer back to the extract above. Find those
parts of the extract which imply that the following statements are true,
although they are not explicitly stated.
1. Airline personnel are entitled to special discounts when they travel.
2. Some of the bigger airlines have to send their trainees outside training
schools.
3. Trained telecommunications specialists are in demand.
4. The teletype system is mainly used by smaller airlines.
5. Highly advanced systems are necessary for the efficiency of air transport.

Listed below are four topics discussed in the article extract above and
underneath these details relative to each. Read both lists and then classify the
details according to the topics to which they refer.
1. The growth of the airline industry between 1970 and 1980
2. The role of telecommunications in the world airline industry
3. Personnel
4. Types of airline communications

Details
a. The existence of special training schools
b. Estimates of growth made in 1970 have proved to be too low.
c. The prospect of cheap travel for employees

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d. Low-speed internal company messages are passed by teletype.
e. The industry has expanded in the Middle East Africa and the Far East.
f. The glamour attached to working for an airline.
g. Large numbers of passengers and freight are being transported.
h. The necessity for fast contact over long distances
i. The necessity for new equipment during the late 1970s
j. Radio, teletype, telephone and data processing
k. Messages between different bases may be passed by radio.
l. The necessity for skilled manpower
m. Messages between ground and airliners are passed by radio.
The article continues, giving specific examples of how the sharing of computers
and telecommunications is common in the airline industry. The following
sentences will appear in the rest of the article. Which one do you think comes
immediately after the extract you have seen? Choose the most appropriate
one.

1. When Saudia Installs Its own computer it will cope not only with
reservations and the engineering and inventory at present carried in
Rome but such extra tasks as payroll, finance, flight-crew scheduling, and
flight operations rosters.
2. Later this year each office with a computer terminal will be able to use
the computer in London for the construction of fares...
3. The network extends from Oslo and Helsinki in the north to Cape Town
and Christchurch in the south, and east to west from Tokyo and Aukland
to Los Angeles.
4. Modern telecommunications are expensive to develop and install, but
once in and operating they have great potential for saving money as well
as time.
5. SITA, the international airlines communications consortium, and a similar
organization in the United States, play a major part in this vast message-
passing operation.
6. The system uses a vast network of communications links around the
world consisting of more than 50 computers linked to 3,500 visual display
units and 1.000 teleprinters in 650 cities.
7. Offices in such faraway places as Australia and South Africa receive
replies to booking requests in two or three seconds.
8. The computers in London handle such inquiries at the rate of 60 per
second at peak times, and in total the system handles more than
1.250.000 messages every day.

Next Friday Reading

In affection and esteem

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 In affection and esteem
First part
Miss Myrtle Brown had never received the gift of a box or a bouquet of
flowers. She used to think, as she trudged away to the underground station
every day, to go and stitch buttonholes in a big London shop, that it would
have been nice if, on one of her late returns, she had found a bunch of roses
red, with thick, lustrous petals, deeply sweet, or white, with their rare fragrance
— awaiting her on her table. It was, of course, an impossible dream. She ought
to be glad enough to have a table at all, and a loaf to put on it. She ought to be
grateful to those above for letting her have a roof over her head.
“You might,” she apostrophized herself, as she lit her gas ring and put on
the kettle, “not have a penny for this slot. You might, Myrtle Brown, not have a
spoonful of tea to put in this pot. Be thankful!”
And she was thankful to Providence, to her landlady, to her employer, who
sweated his workers, to the baker for bringing her loaf, to the milkman for
leaving her half a pint of milk on Sundays, to the landlady’s cat for refraining
from drinking it. Yet she could not help thinking, when she put out her light and
lay down, of the wonderful moment if ever she did receive a bouquet. Think of
unpacking the box! Think of seeing on the outside, ‘Cut Flowers. Immediate’,
undoing the string, taking off the paper, lifting the lid! What then? Ah, violets,
perhaps, or roses; lilies of the valley, lilac or pale pink peonies or mimosa with
its warm sweetness. The little room would be like a greenhouse — like one of
the beautiful greenhouses at Kew. She would borrow jam pots from the
landlady, and it would take all evening to arrange them. And the room would
be wonderful — like heaven. To wake, slowly and luxuriously, on a Sunday
morning, into that company — what bliss!
She might, of course, out of her weekly wage, buy a bunch of flowers. She
did occasionally. But that was not quite the perfect thing, not quite what she
desired. The centre of all the wonder was to be the little bit of pasteboard with
her name on it, and the sender’s name, and perhaps a few words of greeting.
She had heard that this was the custom in sending a bouquet to anyone — a
great actress or a prima donna. And on birthdays it was customary, and at
funerals. Birthdays! Suppose, now she received such a parcel on her birthday.
She had had so many birthdays, and they had all been so very much alike. A
tomato with her tea, perhaps, and a cinema afterwards. Once it had been a
pantomime, the landlady having been given a ticket, and having passed it on in
consideration of some help with needlework.

Second Part
Always in her heart was the longing for some great pageant, some
splendid gift of radiance. How she would enjoy it! But nobody seemed anxious
to inaugurate any pageant. And, at last, on a bleak winter day when everything
had gone wrong and she had been quite unable to be grateful to anybody, she
made a reckless decision. She would provide a pageant for herself. Before she
began to save up for the rainy day, she would save up for the pageant.
“After that,” she remarked, carefully putting crumbs on the windowsill for
the birds, “you’ll be quiet. You’ll be truly thankful, Myrtle Brown.” She began to
scrimp and save. Week by week the little hoard increased. A halfpenny here
and a penny there — it was wonderful how soon she amassed a shilling. So
great was her determination that, before her next birthday, she had got

29
together two pounds. “It’s a wild and wicked thing to spend two pounds on
what neither feeds nor clothes,” she said. She knew it would be impossible to
tell the landlady. She would never hear the last of it. No! It must be a dead
secret. Nobody must know where those flowers came from. What was the word
people used when you were not to know the name? ‘Anon’. Yes. The flowers
must be ‘anon’. There was a little shop at Covent Garden where they would sell
retail. Wonderful things were heaped in hampers. She would go there on the
day before her birthday.

She was radiant as she surveyed early London from the bus. She descended at
Covent Garden, walking through the piled crates of green stuff, the casks of
fruit, the bursting sacks of potatoes. The shopkeeper was busy. He saw a
shabby little woman with an expression of mingled rapture and anxiety. “I want
some flowers. Good flowers. They are to be packed and sent to a lady I know,
tonight.”
“Violets?”
“Yes, violets and tuberoses and lilies and pheasant-eye and maidenhair and
mimosa and a few dozen roses.”
“Wait a minute! Wait a minute! I suppose you know they’ll cost you a pretty
penny.”
“I can pay for what I order,” said Miss Brown with hauteur. “Write down what I
say, add it up as you go on, put down box and postage, and I’ll pay.”
The shopkeeper did as he was told.
Miss Brown went from flower to flower, like a sad-colored butterfly, softly
touching a petal, softly sniffing a rose. The shopkeeper, realizing that
something unusual was afoot, gave generous measure. At last the order was
complete, the address given, the money — all the two pounds — paid.
“Any card enclosed?” queried the shopman.
Triumphantly Miss Brown produced one. ‘In affection and esteem.’
“A good friend, likely?” queried the shopman.
“Almost my only friend,” replied Miss Brown.
Through Covent Garden’s peculiarly glutinous mud she went in a beatitude,
worked in a beatitude, went home in a dream.

First Part
Decide what evidence, if any, there is in the first part of the passage for these
statements.
1. She lived a very lonely life.
2. She worked very hard.
3. Her life was rather tedious.
4. She adored flowers more than anything else.
5. She felt guilty about her impossible dream.
6. She was getting old.
7. She wanted to be a great actress or a prima donna.

Why does Miss Brown think that boxed flowers would be so much better than
ones she has bought for herself? What does this suggest about her life?

Second Part
Answer the questions.
1. What is her reckless decision?

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 2. ‘Always in her heart was the longing for some great pageant, some
splendid gift of radiance.’ A pageant is a very grand and colorful
ceremony. How do these images contrast with her present life?
3. How does she feel about her plan?
4. ‘“. . . you’ll be quiet. You’ll be truly thankful, Myrtle Brown.”’ Do you think
this is likely to be true?

Write a different ending to the stoty.

31