133 39 5MB
English Pages 223 [220] Year 2021
Catherine Piola
IN THE NEWS Maîtriser en anglais les grands enjeux du monde contemporain
Création maquette : La Femme Assise Maquette intérieure : PCA Illustrations de couverture : jesadaphorn, Valenty © Shutterstock
Colin, 2021 © Armand Armand Colin est une marque de Dunod Éditeur, 11 rue Paul Bert, 92240 Malakoff ISBN 978-2-200-63331-8
TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8
Chapter 1. THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10
Text 1 Will Brexit spell the end of English as an official EU language?....................................................................
12
Text 2 Africa’s colonisation of the English language continues apace ................................................................
14
Text 3 Irish support for Native American Covid-19 relief highlights historic bond.................................
16
Text 4 Lady Scotland to stay on as Commonwealth secretary general..............................................................
18
Internet Doc. A Will technology end the English language’s global domination? ..............................
21
Internet Doc. B Samir Puri discusses “The Great Imperial Hangover”......................................................................
22
Internet Doc. C The Australian Identity Debate – A Different Lens.............................................................................
24
Revision The English-Speaking World.......................................................................................................................................................................
26
Vocabulary The English-Speaking World.............................................................................................................................................................
29
Chapter 2. HIGH TECH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
32
Text 2 Screen time minutes are the new calories, and it’s high time I went on a diet.......................
34
Text 3 AI and me: friendship chatbots are on the rise, but is there a gendered design flaw?...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
38
Text 4 Universities beware: shifting classes online so quickly is a double-edged sword...........
42
Text 5 For all its sophistication, AI isn’t fit to make life-or-death decisions......................................................
46
Internet Doc. A Are we on the brink of a jobless future?................................................................................................................
48
Internet Doc. B The ethical dilemma of self-driving cars.............................................................................................................
50
Internet Doc. C Your phone is trying to control your life.................................................................................................................
52
Revision High Tech...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
55
Vocabulary High Tech.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................
58
Texting Alphabet Soup Samples of textspeak / SMS language abbreviations.........................................
59
Chapter 3. GLOBAL TRADE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
30
Text 1 Apple whistleblower goes public over “lack of action” ..............................................................................................
60
Text 1 Indians call for boycott of Chinese goods after fatal border clashes..................................................
62
Text 2 Capital and Ideology by Thomas Piketty – if inequality is illegitimate, why not reduce it?.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
66
Text 3 Have a heart, KitKat, don’t break with Fairtrade ..................................................................................................................
70
Text 4 Shark finning: why the ocean’s most barbaric practice continues to boom ...........................
70
Text 5 Delivery disaster: the hidden environmental cost of your online shopping ..............................
71
5
Text 6 Fast fashion creates misery – and that’s always a bad look ............................................................................
74
Internet Doc. A The Strategy of international business..................................................................................................................
77
Internet Doc. B Does microfinance empower or impoverish?...............................................................................................
79
Internet Doc. C Richard Wolff On the Root of Consumerism ...............................................................................................
81
Revision Global Trade..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................
82
Vocabulary Global Trade...............................................................................................................................................................................................................
85
Chapter 4. WORKING CONDITIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
90
Text 2 Covid will force us to reimagine the office. Let’s get it right this time..................................................
94
Text 3 “The Zoom shirt”: how the pandemic changed work dress codes............................................................
96
Text 4 Virgin Atlantic’s sexism goes deeper than telling women what to wear........................................
96
Text 5 Farewell workplace burnout: will coronavirus slow the manic pace of our modern lives?..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
98
Internet Doc. A Jeffrey Pfeffer: Is your workplace killing you? .............................................................................................
101
Internet Doc. B The women fighting sexual abuse in the factories where your jeans are made.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
103
Internet Doc. C Amazon doesn’t report its warehouse injury rates...............................................................................
104
Revision Working Conditions...................................................................................................................................................................................................
105
Vocabulary Working Conditions.........................................................................................................................................................................................
108
Chapter 5. DEVELOPING COUNTRIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
110
Text 1 World faces worst food crisis for at least 50 years.............................................................................................................
112
Text 2 Will Europe’s museums rise to the challenge of decolonisation?..............................................................
114
Text 3 A third of my country was just underwater. The world must act on climate..............................
118
Text 4 Petrol sold to Nigeria from Europe “dirtier” than black market “bush” fuel...................................
120
Internet Doc. A The UN Least Developed Country Category...............................................................................................
122
Internet Doc. B A Counterintuitive Solution to Poverty: Stop Trying to Eradicate It...........................
123
Internet Doc. C The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020...............................................
125
Revision Developing Countries.............................................................................................................................................................................................
127
Vocabulary Developing Countries...................................................................................................................................................................................
130
Chapter 6. THE EUROPEAN UNION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6
88
Text 1 Parosha Chandran: “Modern slavery in the UK is not confined to one place in the Midlands”...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
132
Text 1 Europeans of colour are finding their voice – it’s time “Brussels so white” listened.........
134
Text 2 The coronavirus crisis has exposed the truth about the EU: it’s not a real union................
138
Text 3 To save the EU, its leaders must first focus on saving the planet...............................................................
142
Text 4 I was one of the millions opposed to Brexit. I’ve seen nothing here to change my mind........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
144
Internet Doc. A Europe Explained.....................................................................................................................................................................................
146
Internet Doc. B Is The European Union Worth It Or Should We End It?..................................................................
149
In the News
Internet Doc. C Why Europe Doesn’t Build Skyscrapers................................................................................................................
151
Revision The European Union.................................................................................................................................................................................................
153
Vocabulary The European Union.......................................................................................................................................................................................
157
Chapter 7. THE ENVIRONMENT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
160
Text 1 Littering epidemic in England.............................................................................................................................................................................
162
Text 2 $10bn of precious metals dumped each year in electronic waste...........................................................
164
Text 3 Pompeii ruins show that the Romans invented recycling.......................................................................................
166
Text 4 One billion people will live in insufferable heat within 50 years...................................................................
168
Text 5 Women shouldering the burden of climate crisis need action, not speeches........................
170
Internet Doc. A1 Can 100% renewable energy power the world?.....................................................................................
172
Internet Doc. A2 Fossil Fuels vs Renewable Energy Sources .................................................................................................
172
Internet Doc. A3 300 years of fossil fuels history - in 5 minutes ........................................................................................
172
Internet Doc. B What really happens to the plastic you throw away?.....................................................................
174
Internet Doc. C What is a green economy?.......................................................................................................................................................
176
Internet Doc. D Greenwashing: A Fiji Water Story...................................................................................................................................
177
Revision The Environment.............................................................................................................................................................................................................
179
Vocabulary The Environment..................................................................................................................................................................................................
182
CLUES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
185
Chapter 1 The English-Speaking world.....................................................................................................................................................................
185
Chapter 2 High Tech...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................
188
Chapter 3 Global Trade.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................
193
Chapter 4 Working Conditions..............................................................................................................................................................................................
196
Chapter 5 Developing Countries........................................................................................................................................................................................
200
Chapter 6 The European Union............................................................................................................................................................................................
204
Chapter 7 The Environment........................................................................................................................................................................................................
207
APPENDIX. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
213
English/French False friends........................................................................................................................................................................................................
213
Acronyms & Abbreviations.............................................................................................................................................................................................................
215
Abbreviations......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
216
British English & American English.....................................................................................................................................................................................
216
Phrasal verbs........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
218
List of irregular verbs................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
219
TABLE OF CONTENTS
7
Introduction When students decide to improve their English or when adults need to set higher goals for themselves in English, the initial piece of advice usually given by teachers, independently of attending a course, is “Read in English”, “Read the newspapers in English”, “Listen to the radio in English”. Although this seems the simplest way to test one’s comprehension, develop argumentative skills, enrich one’s knowledge of the language and culture, the task may be daunting and too challenging to be effectively put into practice without any support.
In the News offers a selection of articles and internet documents to read and watch for learners who may be at university, in preparatory classes, in business, engineering or communication schools or for adults wanting to make progress in contemporary English. It is intended to help them develop not just their reading and listening comprehension skills, but also their autonomy in expanding their vocabulary and their competence in expressing ideas creatively. It helps them refine their cultural awareness and provides them with opportunities to challenge ideas related to contemporary society. Though the study of grammar is not dealt with per se, In the News introduces some practice on advanced grammar points in the learning material provided with the selection of texts and internet documents. This selection of self-study documents can also be very useful to prepare the reading and listening comprehension sections of international certification tests. In the News is made of seven independent chapters, each having the same pattern: • a short introduction to the topic; • four or five one-page newspaper articles with exercises on the page opposite to the text; • three internet documents to watch and a study programme for each; • a revision section: 30 multiple choice questions, three gap-filling texts followed by topics for debate; • a bilingual (French-English) glossary. The articles are unabridged and were all published in The Guardian. For each chapter, the selection offers a variety of views on the topic. Some articles from different chapters echo one another as they may approach several issues and can be studied over various chapters. It is the case, for example, with articles and internet documents dealing with discrimination in chapters on technology, working conditions, the European Union and on the environment. The learner does not therefore need to cover one full chapter but can work here and there according to one’s curiosity. As a guide, the level of difficulty of each text is indicated at the beginning of the chapter in reference to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. The Internet documents come from a wide range of sources: TV reports, International organisations, interviews, conferences. They vary in length and are all available online. The learning
material suggested for each document allows the student to work on the key points and breaks up long documents into shorter sections to be studied successively. The visual elements are, as much as possible, integrated into the analysis of each document. Overall, they have been selected to complete the content of the articles and expose the learners to a variety of speech forms and accents. They are all available on the YouTube channel Get It? ESL. The revision section allows independent work to be carried out after having studied the texts and internet documents. It provides a quick and efficient testing of one’s knowledge on the lexical and grammatical contents of the whole chapter. Finally, the topics for debate can be used as food for thought to fuel a broader approach or as essay topics for those who want to challenge their writing skills on the key notions explored in the chapter. At any point of the work in the chapter, the glossary is a helpful tool not just as a list of the major key terms on the topic, but as the basis for a more systematic and comprehensive vocabulary learning. Above all, In the News provides students with hours of practical linguistic training, the result of which will materialise in a greater autonomy and pleasure in the use of the English language as well as a better understanding of some of the issues at stake in the contemporary world.
9
1 h s i l g n The E d l r o W g n i k a e Sp That there is an English-speaking world is an undeniable fact, defining it precisely, however, remains quite a challenge. It is a lot greater than the sum of its parts, bearing in mind it includes not only nations such as the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand but also Ireland, South Africa and a number of Caribbean States among others. Can anyone agree on what c haracterizes Britishness, Irishness and possibly Englishness or Americanness and find enough common ground – and territory – to assume a synergy based on a shared cultural and linguistic experience strong enough to bind these countries together? This chapter gives readers some insights into the Commonwealth and the post-colonial era, the status of the English language in the EU and in Africa, the Australian identity, Irish solidarity and the impact of English on technology. It provides food for thought on some of the notions at stake in this complex cultural and geopolitical entity some nationalists controversially refer to as the “Anglosphere”.
CONTENTS TXT 1 Will Brexit spell the end of English as an official EU language? B1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 TXT 2 Africa’s colonisation of the English language continues apace B2+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 TXT 3 Irish support for Native American Covid-19 relief highlights historic bond B1+ . . . . . 16 TXT 4 Lady Scotland to stay on as Commonwealth secretary general C1+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 INTERNET DOC. A Will technology end the English language’s
global domination? 7’11”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
INTERNET DOC. B Samir Puri discusses “The Great Imperial Hangover” 4’17”. . . . . . . . . . . . .22 INTERNET DOC. C The Australian Identity Debate – A Different Lens 10’59”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 REVISION
Multiple choice questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Gap-filling texts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Topics for debate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
VOCABULARY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
WILL BREXIT SPELL THE END OF ENGLISH AS AN OFFICIAL EU LANGUAGE?
TEXT 1
Though the UK is leaving, English is likely to remain a lingua franca in Brussels. Just don’t expect it to stand still
Now that we know that Boris Johnson will “get Brexit done”, what are the implications for English as an official language of the European Union and in the European parliament? Could it stop being used when Britain leaves? In 2016 the MEP Danuta Hübner was quoted as saying, “If we don’t have the UK, we don’t have English.” But is it as simple as that? Until the 1990s, the dominant language of the EU was French. When the EU was the EC and the official language policy was defined, Dutch, French, German and Italian were identified as the working languages. However, as more countries joined, many of which had English as a second or additional language, the number of English speakers grew until English became the majority common language. Currently, the EU lists 24 official and working languages. The UK is the only member country that gives English as its official language. There are a few member countries that commonly use English but have nominated a different language as their EU official language. For instance, the Republic of Ireland gives Irish Gaelic as its official language, and Malta gives Maltese. When Britain withdraws from the EU (and leaving aside possible negotiations with Scotland or other territories), in order to remove English as an official language, as clarified in a statement on behalf of the European commission in Ireland dated 27 June 2016, there would have to be a unanimous vote in the European parliament in favour of doing so. Speaking at the time of the referendum, in 2016, the German EU commissioner Günther Oettinger explained, “We have a series of member states that speak English, and English is the world language which we all accept.” So, even if there was the will to do so, getting rid of English wouldn’t be straightforward. Even if it did come to that, would it be a knock-down blow for the language? Historically, English has weathered a number of storms. When colonies of the British empire sought to gain their independence, it may have seemed logical for English – the language of the oppressors – to be rejected at the same time. The fact that this did not happen, and that English is used as an official first or second language in more than 70 countries worldwide, points in part to its developing socioeconomic and political status during the 20th century. The number of speakers for whom English is an unofficial second or foreign language is greater than all other English lan-
guage speakers, and continues to grow. With the decline of the British empire came the rise of the United States, which has English as its official language. Prof Murphy from the University of Sussex believes the US saved the English language. From the perspective of its use as a global lingua franca, she has got a point. In fact, in some postcolonial situations, English is regarded as a more or less neutral language. In India, for example, English was supposed to be phased out post-independence in 1947 in favour of Hindi. However, as not everyone in India speaks Hindi, and many do not want to for various cultural and political reasons, English continued to be used, and is now an official language of India. In Hong Kong, English is still an official language despite the return of the territory to the People’s Republic of China in 1997. As Hong Kong is an international hub for trade and finance, this makes pragmatic sense, but there is also evidence that Hong Kong people feel that the English language is part of their identity – something that makes Hong Kong distinctive from mainland China. Singapore has speakers of Malay, Chinese (various dialects) and Tamil, among others; in this context, English is a unifying language. But these Englishes are not “British English”, or even “American English”. The Englishes spoken around the world have developed their own vocabulary and grammar; EuroEnglish is no exception. English simply does not belong to traditional “native” English speakers any more: it belongs to everyone who speaks it, and it will develop and change depending on the communicative needs of speech communities. Brits and Americans need to bear this in mind when using English in international settings, as they cannot assume they will be understood by every English speaker. So, will English cease to be a language of the EU? Probably not in the short to medium term, either in conversations between EU member countries, MEPs, or in EU interaction with other countries around the world. One Swedish MEP even suggested that communications in the EU could be fairer in English, as it will be everyone’s second language. In the long term, however, the continued dominance of English as a global language may depend on its political and socioeconomic fortunes. As it is so well-established and widespread, I believe it is likely to be used as a global lingua franca for some time. But situations and languages change. I think it was Andy Hamilton who pointed out that, once Latin was everyone’s second language, it was no longer anyone’s first. Jane Setter, The Guardian, Dec. 27, 2019 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
12
In the News
1 In
the article, the word language comes with a variety of adjectives to show its status and importance. Explain for each what is meant for a state, a territory, an institution and speakers. official, dominant, additional, working, second, common, unofficial, foreign, neutral, unifying, global, first What other status can languages have in the EU? (You may check the Languages of the European Union Wikipedia website)
2 What is the meaning of the verb to spell in the
headline? In the following sentences, replace the verb underlined by a synonym taken from the article. Make the necessary changes. ex: English may be less spoken after Brexit in the EU Parliament. -> English is likely to be less spoken…
You should remember that the EU has more than one English-speaking country. If languages don’t move, the risk of them dying is high. The EU is right when it intends to protect its minority languages. When speakers of rare languages stop speaking their mother tongue, their whole culture is threatened. Latin was very naturally made to disappear over several centuries. None intends to criticize ancient texts, but for linguists, the story of the Tower of Babel is just a lovely fable. It seems English was chosen by many countries, maybe it will become the only remaining lingua franca. Some national policies intended to do away with dialects, thus depriving speakers of their mother tongue. Taking for granted that one language is going to dominate the world is a colonial view. Some languages have come safely through decades of nationalist oppression.
3 In each of the following sentences, explain what
each verb tense expresses. You should question if expressing future actions always requires the use of the future tense. Do past forms always express past actions? What are the meanings of modal verbs? — When Britain leaves, English could no longer be spoken at EU meetings. — French was the dominant language, not so long ago. — Some countries have nominated their official language. — Even if there was a will to do so, English would be difficult to get rid of. — The Republic of Ireland gives Irish Gaelic as its official language.
The English-Speaking World
— When Britain withdraws from the EU, there would have to be a vote. — Even if it did come to that, would it be a blow for the language? — English is a unifying language. — When former British colonies sought independence, English may have been rejected. — English speakers worldwide have developed their own vocabulary.
4 For each statement, say if it is true or false and replace the word(s) underlined with a synonym.
a The article states that those who speak English as a mother tongue will still be the ones impacting its evolution. b Globalisation and the use of one language in international environments meant that one language was needed to allow communication. c All is clear-cut and predictable when it comes to the future of languages. d Trade through English and the emergence of a focal centre for business are combined in places like Hong Kong. e The ups and downs of any language are not just pragmatic, they also have to do with a sense of identity.
5 Define the Lingua Franca concept. According to
you, can an artificial, simplified language exist so that anyone could quickly learn it and be able to talk to other speakers? Why? Why not? Does this language already exist?
6 In Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, a fiction-
al language, Newspeak, is imposed by an authoritarian State. Why? What does it imply between speakers and their language? Discuss the extent to which a nation can impose norms or control what people think? Are there nations which try to control the circulation of ideas? How do they operate in the 21st century? Can they be entirely successful?
7 Debate topics — Keeping English as an official language in former British colonies is the result of a long “soft policy” of rewarding the newly decolonised nations. Discuss. — English has played a major unifying part in nations which are made of several ethnic communities. Do you agree? Quote examples to support your opinion. — Discuss the linguistic and cultural factors that have helped English become a global language. Could other languages compete?
13
AFRICA’S COLONISATION OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE CONTINUES APACE
TEXT 2
There is one expression I have grown up hearing from relatives of a certain age, but never been able to accept. It’s the description of Twi – the Akan language spoken by my family – as “the vernacular”, a term which implicitly compares it with the colonial language, English, and somehow finds it wanting. The word itself is a revealing symptom of the colonial project. Just as nations like the Yoruba, with a population of more than 40 million, were patronisingly described as “tribes”, when in fact they were substantial nations, African languages were downgraded to “the vernacular”. It’s a term more befitting of a regional dialect than a nation’s language, with its own history, politics and literature.
The attempt to discourage Africans from speaking our own languages not only failed, but has had the glorious result of backfiring, to the extent that now Britain’s own inhabitants are officially adopting African vocab. This month the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) added Nigeria’s first entries to already recognised gems like “howzit” from South Africa. Other Africans will recognise lots of the latest lingo to get the OED stamp – “chop”, to eat or to misappropriate funds; “next tomorrow”, the day after tomorrow; “sef”, a great Pidgin flourish for emphasis. Nigerian pre-eminence in the English language is nothing new. One of the first global literary successes by a black author was The Interesting Narrative, by the Igbo writer Olaudah Equiano, the beautifully written 1789 account of his enslavement and subsequent freedom. As a Booker prize judge last year, I was struck – although not surprised – by just how many entries there were from Nigerians, with two on the longlist, and the joint winner, Bernadine Evaristo, of Nigerian heritage. The sheer number of legendary authors from the nation makes it often overrepresented in the English canon. But Nigeria’s relationship to the English language, like that of all English-speaking African nations, is a complicated one. Chinua Achebe – one of the legends – wrote of the English language, “we may go on resenting it, because it came as part of a package deal that included many other items of doubtful value, especially the atrocities of racial arrogance and prejudice which may yet set the world on fire… If [English] failed to give them a song it at least gave them a tongue for sighing.” English was imposed on Africans by force. “In Kenya, English became more than a language: it was the language, and all the others had to bow before it in deference,” wrote the great Kenyan novelist Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. In his seminal book Decolonising the Mind, he described children at his English-speaking school in Nairobi being beaten if they were caught speaking Gĩkũyũ. One of my favourite grievances with that colonial legacy, and the ongoing failure to give the descendants of empire equal status, came via the unlikely topic of weather systems. “Yo why storm
Brendan?” wrote the doctor and TV presenter Dr Ronx earlier this month, “I’m out here waiting to be blown away by storm Oluwatunde! We need to decolonise storm names!” Why storms always have European names can be added to a growing list of questions: why don’t British schools teach the history of empire; why does it have no national museum; why do we glorify colonial violence as personified by figures like Cecil Rhodes; why do we know the name of William Wilberforce but not Equiano, a key abolitionist as well as celebrated author? The great thing about language though, is that it waits for no one. While calls to decolonise curricula – and weather – seem likely to continue falling on deaf ears, culture moves on. Several years ago I wrote about how the situation of “the Queen’s English” in Ghana – once associated with superior education and intelligence – has become more perilous, with the potential to attract derision under the acronym LAFA – locally acquired foreign accent. Not just English but other European languages are finding their centre of gravity shifting to Africa. Portuguese currently has its greatest number of speakers in Brazil – where Yoruba and indigenous languages have moulded vowels and expressions utterly different from the language of Portugal – but some believe that by the end of the century, the growth of Angola and Mozambique will make Africans the most numerous speakers of Portuguese. The history of colonialism by France and Belgium means that since 2010, 68% of the world’s new French speakers now live in West and Central Africa. The African capacity to survive the brutality of colonialism means French is now the fifth most widely spoken language in the world. The paradox of empire is perhaps most visible in its legacy of language. The psychology of colonisation could not have worked without suppressing expressions of existing culture, and “educating” its subjects to believe in their own inferiority. But the independence of the African continent in the 20th century could not have come about when it did without the unity that was forged out of common languages brought by colonisers – English, French and Portuguese. The resulting ambivalence towards English is shared not just on the African continent but in the diaspora as well. As the great AfricanAmerican writer James Baldwin once wrote, “my quarrel with the English language has been that the language reflected none of my experience”. But, Baldwin conceded, “it might be made to bear the burden of my experience, if I could find the stamina to challenge it.” His words reflect a fatigue with the colonial story, which I often share. But at the same time, we always did find the stamina to challenge it, whether or not that was recognised by dictionaries. Afua Hirsh, The Guardian, Jan. 29, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
14
In the News
1 For each word in bold characters, find a synonym
from the choice offered. Check your answers reading the article.
Linguists will all agree that languages change apace (slowly / step by step / rapidly). This is an ongoing (continuous / one way / dead-end) process particularly true in Africa where the legacy (law / inheritance / gift) of colonisation has created some unlikely (improbable / different / simple) and imaginative new lingo (accent / vocabulary / tongue). The canons (weapons / models / criticism) of such linguistic creativity occasionally forge (establish / hide / erase) some trendy expressions to be used by the worldwide community of speakers. Though the supporters of the appropriation of English often sigh (moan / laugh / expect) because of the slow nature of this development, their stamina (use / strain / endurance) remains and leads to some linguistic creations some qualify as gems (treasures / oddities / bacteria).
2 In the article, there are at least a dozen expres-
sions, nouns or verbs, expressing something negative. Draw a list of ten of them and explain their precise meaning.
4 In this article, the journalist discloses a few per-
sonal details drawn from her experience. What can you tell about the journalist from these elements?
5 Research
the following terms from the article and write a one-sentence definition for each. Twi / Akan / Yoruba / Igbo / Olaudah Equiano / Bernardine Evaristo / Chinua Achebe / Ngugi wa Thiong’o / Gĩkũyũ / Cecil Rhodes / William Wilberforce / James Baldwin / Take one of the characters mentioned in the list and prepare a one-minute presentation about who the person was and why (s)he is mentioned in this article.
6 Explain with examples the contradictions that a
colonial language has imposed on some African speakers.
7 The journalist uses the word empire with no ar-
Ex: to backfire: to create the reverse reaction (usually negative) of what was expected
ticle. Can you explain this unusual use? Can you sketch a map of the English-speaking world? List the countries and, for 5 of them, explain why English remains an official language.
Use some of these terms to explain why the linguistic situation in some African countries reflects the past and present of these countries.
The British Empire was often referred to as “the empire on which the sun never sets”. Explain this definition.
3 In
the article, three idiomatic expressions are used. Find them with their definition. — To be ignored by all — To change your priorities — To suffer the consequences Write sentences with each expression about what you think languages can, should or may enable someone to do.
The English-Speaking World
8 Discuss James Baldwin’s ambiguity concerning the use of English.
Essay topic: James Baldwin said that “(language) is the most vivid and crucial key to identity: It reveals the private identity, and connects one with, or divorces one from, the larger, public, or communal identity.” To what extent can this be true and false at the same time according to the article? How does this statement echo your personal experience of language or someone else’s you may know? In your analysis, include dialects and even Pig Latin.
15
IRISH SUPPORT FOR NATIVE AMERICAN COVID-19 RELIEF HIGHLIGHTS HISTORIC BOND
TEXT 3
The list of recent donors reads like an Irish phone book. Aisling Ní Chuimín, Shane Ó Leary, Sean Gibbons, Kevin Boyle, Kevin Keane, Clare Quinn, Eamonn McDonald, on and on down a GoFundMe page that by Friday had raised $3.15m of a $5m goal. The individual amounts are not remarkable – $10, $20, $30, some exceeding $100 – but the story behind the donations stretches back two centuries and encompasses a singular act of generosity that forged a bond between Native Americans and Ireland, a bond now renewed in the coronavirus era.
In 1847 the Choctaw nation set aside its own impoverishment and suffering to make a $170 donation to victims of the Irish famine. The tribe had suffered grievously during its Trail of Tears, a forced relocation to Oklahoma, and empathised with Irish people enduring misery and starvation more than 4,000 miles away. The generosity left a lasting mark on Ireland, which remembers it through art and commemorations. Now Irish people are reciprocating by donating to a fund for Navajo and Hopi communities hit by Covid-19. “A beautiful act of solidarity from our friends in Ireland, who remember the kindness shown to them by our Choctaw brothers and sisters, who sent them aid during the great potato famine in 1847. Thank you so much, Ireland!!!” wrote Ethel Branch, one of the fund organisers. “The favour is returned through generous donations from the Irish people to the Navajo Nation during our time of crisis. Thank you, Ireland, for showing solidarity and being here for us,” wrote Vanessa Tully, another organiser. Adversity often brings out the best in people, the Choctaw tribe said in a statement. “We are gratified – and perhaps not at all surprised – to learn of the assistance our special friends, the Irish, are giving to the Navajo and Hopi nations. Our word for their selfless act is ‘iyyikowa’ – it means serving those in need.” The Choctaw and Irish had become kindred spirits since the potato famine, the tribe said. “We hope the Irish,
Navajo and Hopi peoples develop lasting friendships, as we have. Sharing our cultures makes the world grow smaller.” The donations will help supply food, water and medical supplies for vulnerable families, many of whom have diabetes and other diseases. The Navajo nation has the highest percapita Covid-19 infection rate after New York and New Jersey. Its rural territory stretches 27,000 sq miles across Arizona, New Mexico and Utah and surrounds the Hopi reservation. The official death toll is likely to be much higher than current figures show because the sickest patients are transferred to state hospitals. The virus has spread rapidly even though the tribal government was among the first to issue a stay-athome order, lock down schools and business. Recently, the Nation received its portion, around $600m, of federal coronavirus relief funding, six weeks after it was promised and only after suing the federal government over who was eligible for the money. The GoFundMe appeal’s original goal of $2m was increased after Irish people discovered the appeal via social media and swiftly swelled donations from the US and elsewhere. Ireland has never forgotten the Choctaws’ generosity. The tribe had endured a forced 600-mile trek that left thousands dead from hunger, cold and disease, and then impoverishment in Oklahoma, yet somehow rustled up $170 – which today translates to $5,350 – to help the Irish. About 1 million Irish people died of hunger or disease from 1845 to 1849, and another million emigrated. In 1995 Mary Robinson, Ireland’s then president, visited Oklahoma to thank the Choctaws, a pilgrimage repeated by Leo Varadkar, the taoiseach, in 2018. An outdoor sculpture titled the Kindred Spirits in Midleton, county Cork, commemorates the link between Ireland and Native Americans. Stainless steel in the form of eagle feathers form a circle, representing a gift of a bowl of food. Rory Carroll, The Guardian, May 9, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
16
In the News
1 Solidarity vocabulary: Fill in the table with either a noun or a verb matching the definition; the verbs or nouns with a dot are found in the article and they are in alphabetical order in the table. You can then complete the rest of the table with the help of a dictionary.
Definition (verb form) to provide help to someone to make an urgent and heartfelt request to stand by in order to help to establish a link between people based on feelings to give (money or other) for a good cause to suffer pain patiently to understand and share the feelings of someone to raise or supply money for a specific purpose to give someone pleasure or satisfaction to give one’s word, to pledge to do something to give and take mutually to remove something painful or oppressive to have in common, to partake of something to experience something painful to make available, to provide
Nouns • • • • •
Verbs
• • •
• • • • • • • •
Use some of these words to give a good definition of what solidarity is.
2 For each statement, say if it is true (T) or false (F) or if the article does not say (?).
a Several Indian tribes helped each other with donations. b The $3.15m donations come from Irish people. c The Native American tribes tried to prevent the spread of the virus. d The Irish donations will supply basic commodities to the Native Americans who need it most. e The Native Americans were not surprised by the Irish generosity. f The Native American tribes received federal funds as soon as the pandemic started. g The impact of the pandemic was difficult to assess when the article was published. h The Irish recently donated funds to help the Choctaw nation hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. i Two presidents of Ireland paid a visit to Oklahoma to strengthen Irish / Native American links. j Native Americans believe that Ireland had to reciprocate the aid.
3 Write a leaflet to hand out to customers at your
local supermarket entrance and encourage them to donate one or two items they’ve just bought to provide for a population you define, who needs it most in an era of economic recession. Be emphatic and convincing. Appeal to solidarity.
The English-Speaking World
4 Define
the expressions: a selfless act and kindred spirits. Have you ever committed yourself to any good cause? What cause would you be ready to support? Is giving money the best way to help? Can you think of other ways?
5 Research
The Trail of Tears. When, why, by whom and how was it organised? Research the Great Irish Famine. What happened, when and why? Are there common points between the two events?
6 The end of the article refers to a piece of art created to commemorate the 19th century donation. What are the symbols used? How could the 21st century donations be remembered? Imagine and describe a piece of art that could be displayed in an Indian reservation in Oklahoma. More generally, discuss the importance of commemorating events of the past in public places. Refer to some specific examples.
7 Discuss this statement from the article in an articulated essay:
Adversity often brings out the best in people.
17
LADY SCOTLAND TO STAY ON AS COMMONWEALTH SECRETARY GENERAL
TEXT 4
Lady Scotland, the controversial Commonwealth secretary general, will remain in post until next year, despite Downing Street sowing doubts about her future. Following reports that Boris Johnson had used his role as chair of the Commonwealth organisation to prevent Scotland’s reappointment, she has been given a formal written contract to remain in post at least until the next Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which is likely to take place in mid-2021 in Rwanda. Scotland has been under fire from Downing Street for alleged profligacy and internal audits which revealed some contracts had been offered outside the normal competitive tendering process. Her first four-year term was due to expire this week, but before a virtual meeting of Commonwealth heads that she had convened for Wednesday, the UK government sent her a letter extending her role until the summit. The secretariat said: “The usual reappointment process for Commonwealth secretary generals occurs when leaders gather for the CHOGM, therefore the chair in office has proposed that, as is customary, the reappointment process will now take place when next summit is able to meet.” Scotland’s allies claim the majority of nations want her to be reappointed.
Scotland, a Labour peer, had called the virtual meeting to discuss the effects of coronavirus on the Commonwealth, including the impact of escalating debt problems and the need for relief. The UK government had challenged the calling of the three-hour summit, saying it had been convened at short notice and without any clear purpose. Scotland’s allies pointed out that most other comparable multilateral organisations had been convened on an emergency basis to respond to the coronavirus crisis, and the proposed meeting had first been suggested in April. Citing the short notice and lack of consultation, the UK government did not dispatch a minister to the meeting, but instead sent Philip Parham, its Commonwealth envoy. Some sources claimed many other countries did not send senior representatives in a sign of disapproval, but the Commonwealth secretariat said it had “received significant support for such a meeting from a majority of Commonwealth member states”.
It said 45 countries, or 80% of Commonwealth states, had sent government representatives. Boris Johnson said earlier this month that there was no consensus within the 54-nation Commonwealth for Scotland to be given a second term, and despite the calls from some nations for her to be reappointed for another four years she remains on a form of probation. The process of countries expressing views about Scotland’s future is not fully transparent. Scotland’s supporters recognise that the Commonwealth operates best through consensus, but argued that if this requirement was pushed to its extreme, a small group of countries could, in effect, operate a veto both over calling meetings and the appointment of the secretary general. UK officials deny that the nucleus of opposition to Scotland is coming from the Anglosphere nations, but it is true that she enjoys strong support from the Caribbean nations and smaller states. Scotland was attorney general under Gordon Brown, and the timing of the UK’s objections are said to be linked to her politics and whether they will stand in the way as the government forges ahead with setting up a new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The “global Britain” agenda is likely to give a central role to the Commonwealth, and if Downing Street is determined to oust Scotland, Britain will have to organise support for an alternative candidate before next year’s summit. The UK regards the Commonwealth as an asset. Buckingham Palace will be watching the row with concern. Speaking on Wednesday at the launch of his book The Great Imperial Hangover, Samir Puri, a lecturer at King’s College’s war studies department, said the Commonwealth, with its common legal and parliamentary assumptions, still had a remarkable ability to convene professional networks and leverage power. He said the eventual death of the Queen might act as a seismic shock to the Commonwealth and require a re-examination of the UK’s role. Patrick Wintour, The Guardian, Jun. 24, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
(If you are not familiar with the Commonwealth of Nations, check its website at: https://thecommonwealth.org/)
18
In the News
1 Read
the article once and then match each verb with its object. Check your answers reading the article again.
to convene to dispatch to operate to operate to prevent to receive to remain to respond to stand to sow
• • • • • • • • • •
• in post • doubts • in the way • an offer • a veto • to a crisis • a meeting • support • through consensus • reappointment
to set up to tender
• •
• •
an envoy a new office
2 Focus on adjectives: in the article, a number of adjectival structures are used. STRUCTURES / COMMENTS
EXAMPLES
— The simplest structure (Article) + Adjective + Noun (the comparative form of an adjective can be found:
➞a seismic shock; the usual reappointment ➞ the smaller states
— A noun can be used as an adjective, thus creating a category of the final noun : (Article) + Noun + Noun
➞ government representatives
— One or two nouns can be used as adjectives to qualify the final noun: (Article) (+ Noun) + Noun + Noun ➞ Commonwealth member states In this case, when speaking, a short pause is only possible after ➞ the three-hour summit; the “Global Britain” the first noun, not between the final two nouns which form a sub- agenda category of the final noun. But this is not true if hyphenation or inverted comas are used to signal the two words need to be pronounced in one breath. — A combination of the two structures above is possible: (Article) + Adjective (+ Noun) + Noun
➞ the usual reappointment process
— Adjectives can be a verb form (present or past participle) functioning as an adjective (Article) + Verb form + Noun
➞a n escalating debt; the proposed meeting
When accumulating adjectives, the word order matters; the main rule is: the further away from the final noun, the more subjective the adjective is. The closer the adjective is to the noun it qualifies, the closer it is to its definition, category, identity. When there is no possible ranking between adjectives, comas or the preposition ➞ a new Foreign, Commonwealth and Develop and need to be used, or even a combination. ment Office — Some adjectives come after the noun they qualify.
➞ s ecretary general, attorney general
Check you can use several adjectives for the same noun: — Read out loud and pause where possible: the war studies department; her first four-year term; — Put the words in the right order and check your choices with the article: 1
competitive / normal / process / the / tendering
2
comparable / most / multilateral / organisations / other
3 and / assumptions / common / its / legal / parliamentary 4 Commonwealth / controversial / general / secretary / the
The English-Speaking World
19
3 Highlight the numerous business terms found in the article. You should have over thirty. Check you know what they mean.
For example: What is an agenda? What does leverage mean?
4 Comprehension questions. Answer the questions as precisely as possible. a b c d e
20
Why was the British PM opposed to Lady Scotland’s reappointment? What are the terms of her extended period as Secretary general? What has this disagreement shown about the way the Commonwealth operates? What could redefine the Commonwealth’s operating process in months or years to come? What internal divide has this crisis revealed?
In the News
INTERNET DOC. A WILL TECHNOLOGY END THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE’S GLOBAL DOMINATION? CGTN, Dec. 26, 2020, www.cgtn.com/europe, 7’11”
A Watch the document once and answer the following questions in your own words. 1
Describe the opening view of the document to explain what you are led to expect.
2
Throughout the document, what visual elements convey the ideas of technology and worldwide activities? How is coding represented?
3 What factors explain that English is the dominant language in the world according to the document? 4 Can you think of other reasons? 5 The linguist states that Pinyin is good for many reasons but does not mention them. Can you think of some obvious ones? Are there limits to this? 6 Why is the coding language so important? Describe the share of internet content in English over the past 20 years. 7 Is the internet exposing users more to other languages? 8 According to the specialist, to what purpose do the speakers of a same language use it differently? Is sharing a same language enough to bring individuals closer? 9 Why is a language always evolving, changing, coining new phrases? 10 What makes language use difficult for computer language and programming? 11 Why is technological advance going slower than what one expects? 12 Why would people continue learning a language if machine translators can almost instantly convey a meaning in many different languages?
B
This is part of what you can read when watching the document. Can you remember the content and fill in the gaps? English has become the world’s most language. The latin is used by 70% of the world. Studies suggest half of all searches are now via input. Now the dominance of English is threatened by the advance of Despite English losing dominance, smaller languages are still A 2018 study found the internet only features 7% of the world’s 6,000+ Sometimes, humans use the language barrier on purpose – this can Will technology stop people new languages?
.
technology. . translation software.
Rephrase these messages into two sentences to summarise the content of the document.
C Find words in the document matching these definitions. opinion, point of view / narrow outlook, scope / to reach the lowest point / outside structure used in construction / environment where alternative ideas are not present / miniature world / to motivate, encourage / intrinsic, essential part of / to interpret, to decipher / time between two related events
D Debate one of the following topics Can minority languages survive on the internet? Do you believe that the high number of speakers of English encourages communication between peoples? Can translating machines be reliable one day?
The English-Speaking World
21
INTERNET DOC. B SAMIR PURI DISCUSSES “THE GREAT IMPERIAL HANGOVER”
YouTube, Atlantic Books, July 6, 2020, 4’17”
A As in a storyboard, match the script with its most striking visuals listed on the opposite page. How empires have shaped the world (1) Questions of our identity in our history are exploding into significance. We are seeing arguments both within nations and between nations. Our need to grapple with a wider variety of perspectives has never been greater. (2) The legacies of empires are shaping the 21st centuries’ problems in the most profound ways. We are, after all, in the first empire-free millennium since ancient times and yet the world remains in the throes of the great imperial hangover. Some imperial legacies are tangible, for example shaping our borders and determining the composition of our populations. Other imperial legacies are attitudinal, for example in the ways in which different histories of conquest or subjugation affect present generations. (3) I can empathize with a history of conquest and how it might have caused humiliation cascading down through the generations; (4) and yet my pride in being British means I also understand how a country might be imbued by a great sense of confidence because its recent forefathers had been successful empire builders. (5)
Now I’m not here to pick sides in divisive debates, I’ve written this book in order to convey the importance of understanding a wider range of imperial inheritances, whether in our own countries or further afield around the world. (6) Imperial legacies are everywhere. Empires have existed for so long that we are just only getting used to their absence. I distinguish between the old formal empires of conquest and direct occupation that existed before the common era and that continue to exist right into the 20th century until the collapse of the European colonial maritime empires and, in 1991, of the landed Colossus: the Soviet Union. (7) Today, we have informal empires of political, economic dominance. For example, those that have been forged by the USA and China. (8) The Great Imperial Hangover embarks on a world tour taking into account
the different post-imperial experiences of Europe, Asia, America, the Middle East and Africa. I examine how the USA refashioned the very notion of empire in the 20th century and why it still struggles with the legacies of slavery today; (9) how the UK is trapped between the guilt and the grandeur of its own sweeping imperial past; (10) how the European Union, itself opposed the imperial projects, still has to contend with the some of the challenges of empire; how Russia’s rulers have embraced their own impaired inheritance; how China has arisen in a way today that emulates its grand old imperial history (11); how India has risen through the Mughal and the British imperial eras to its present state; how the Middle East still deals with some of the cascading legacies from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire (12) and how Africa still scrambles beyond the legacies of colonialism. I do not think that we are entering a new imperial age, rather the World Order comprises of a number of different post imperial legacies. When these different legacies collide, whether within nations or between nations, misunderstandings, friction and even war could be the result. We are not habitually raised with the stories of other peoples’ histories, which is why it can take real efforts to see the world through other peoples’ eyes. Sometimes, understanding what is different between us can be essential to fostering a more harmonious world and often, there are no greater differences than our varied imperial inheritances.
22
In the News
— — — — — — — — — — — —
B
Dec. 26, 1991, Red flag lowered View of Tiananmen Square with Mao Zedong’s portrait, Beijing Military vessels cruising slaves / servants June 2020, the statue of Cecil Rhodes thrown into Bristol’s harbour View of Hagia Sophia, Istanbul Lord Mountbatten, last Viceroy of India & Lady Mountbatten Historic docks, London, Tree Sisters galleon in the background Signing of Treaty of Rome, 1957 Removing General Lee monument in Virginia, USA Tower Bridge, Tobacco docks, London Men pulling a heavy cart, white man with colonial hat carried by several slaves and servants Soldiers marching in British Boer War uniforms
Answer the questions in your own words. 1
What is the purpose of the documentary?
2
Why does the speaker need to explain his purpose?
3 Why is there irony in the phrase “imperial hangover”? 4 What is the scope of his project? 5 Why would someone / you be interested in this topic? For more on the topic, listen to Samir Puri’s interview in the series The Bunker at: https://play.acast.com/s/the-bunker/imperialhangover-drsamirpurionthelegacyofempire
The English-Speaking World
23
INTERNET DOC. C THE AUSTRALIAN IDENTITY DEBATE – A DIFFERENT LENS
YouTube, Monash University, Jan. 2019, 10’59”
Fill in the notes taken on the document. Aus.= Australia(n); Id= Identity 0” ➞ 0’40” National Id.? People are disenfranchised, 1 New idea of “The Aussie Battler” = tried to 2
, living in pain , pay the bills etc…
0’50” ➞ 1’50 no single, 3 national Id. for Aus. disconnection between now and what our parents 4 themselves to be part of, to (re)work towards a symbol to 5 ; History is a 6 1‑50” ➞ 3’ National Id = unfurling & 7 type of Id., shaped by what has come before, how it’s been 8 , the profile of who makes us up, the sort of 9 we make now Id helps 10 the idea of diverse origins, a sense of ourselves in the eyes of others At the turn of the century, the flag = up flagpoles to be 11 ; today more part of you on Tshirt, clothe The flag can have an ugly side, 12 towards other people who we think are not as Aus. as we are 3'07” ➞ 4’20” Average Aust. = city / suburbs; post WWII, pioneers built own houses, not now The Australian Battler = tech. worker, so tenuous link between the 13 celebrated & the way we live. The new Aussie Battler is now those who are welcome to Australia and are given 14 every year, we all are, some of us battling pretty 15 over some issues. Growing up with the notion = helping each other out, may be not anymore, along side notion of makeshift & helping = struggle; id = problematic 4’20” ➞ 6’02” National character =16 box, politicians, activists put different things into it (ideology, politics, purposes), problematic because 17 can end up in the box for any political argument Indigenous Aus. arrived 18 + years ago, Europeans 200+years, all waves of migrants since ➞ a fusion nation, so one National Id./character = impossible Aus. = wonderful, 19 , rich amalgam Each group of migrants brought different impact, added to the 20 culture & identity Contradiction: welcoming, tolerant, 21 society, yet historically deeply resistant to the other, coming to our shores, who don’t 22 like what we perceive Aus. has done great work to welcome new comers, but you are sometimes reminded of differences no matter what contributions, sacrifice, you can never be Australian 6’02” ➞ 8’04” No 23 documents needed to define National Id.; constitution = framework of government, no statement of national values / Id., how government & state institutions operate no need for legal document but complex sense of what it is to be Aus.; no need to be fully articulate, to see each other as 24 citizens may be sufficient Aus. history = European enclave in Asian Pacific from late 18th c., management of this tension both original indigenous population + who wants to come here celebrated today, nationhood celebrated as Australia Day = another imagined falsehood, 25 26th Jan; = celebration of occupation of collective 26 = an insult, the date needs to change Are we invested in the date itself? Another day for a country for all of us? To use the date to acknowledge the 27 . not every body’s come along on the same journey of achievement. To move forward together, but not in treading water in a place of pain, we need politicians, leaders, governments, to take us on a 28 through this to a place of healing.
24
In the News
8’04” ➞ What children are taught 29 the desire about who we wanna be; shifting curriculum to Asia, perspective ➞ starting to recognise a different place in the world for ourselves. Sections of society still claim Aus. for white people = neo fascists. An ideology remains = what it means to be Australian is to be white. People ask why don’t aborigenes 31 these things; why doesn’t non-aboriginal Aus. get over it? To do the things they can do is acknowledge us and help us all move on together. I think it’s important to celebrate together. To put everything else aside and celebrate together. The shish kebab is becoming as much a part of the Australian 32 as a barbecue on a VB. My children’s children will look back, and say what were you so worried about, what was the angst over? Why were you so 33 about some of these issues? We sorted it out 30 or 40 years ago and that just seems like it’s part of the natural composition of Aus. now. We’ll think the debate is incredibly 34 , foolish, misaligned, or misunderstanding what people are asking for. One day we will advance Aus.’s fate, we’re not quite there yet. That’s why the Australian Id. is such a moving thing and it should be the 35 of us being willing to start anew, be willing to think about the new decisions we should make and the way we can shape ourselves. If you spend too long thinking this is who we were and we should be that always, then you are crushing the union spirit . 36 30
The English-Speaking World
25
REVISION THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD Fill in the sentences with one of the choices given.
1
The language spoken with relatives, at home and before going to school is your language. mother native official natural
2
The UK used to be an empire before its colonies peacefully. struggled freed from looked at sought
3
The EU does not intend to states.
their independence, more or less
of English as it still is the official language of some member
keep using delete suppress get rid
4
English has become the bodies. language lingua linguist tongue
franca in many transnational companies and international
5
Using English for trade and diplomacy has made communal constant large pragmatic
6
What may link many English-speaking nations is more than just a linguistic bond tied knot thread
7
The Irish suffered a major in the mid 19th century, so they know what deprivation means. starvations hungry shortage food famine
8
The Amerindians were organised in model. grouping crowds tribes categories
9
When you are helped in some difficult times, you hope that one day you can return react renew reciprocate
q
If you , you are able to feel for someone and their suffering. empathise sympathise emphasize despise
w
As some languages are spoken in Africa by millions, it is strange to call these languages regional
sense for long. .
before the white colonisers disrupted their social
.
substandard variety pidgin dialects
26
e
The Latin alphabet is made of pronunciation. vowels sounds words syllables
and consonants allowing a rather consistent
r
Language is a tool shaped almost individually and naturally to reflect the experience. lack burden plenty full
t
Many African nations share an unifying extended eloquent ambivalent
y
The history of many African nations is full of narratives of vernacular enslavement politics colonies
of one’s
relationship with English. , rarely studied in English schools.
In the News
u
The Commonwealth heads meet regularly and decisions are made during these hights reunion summits agendas
i
In the post-Brexit era, Britain regards the Commonwealth as an aspiration unique cause organisation asset
o
The Commonwealth Secretariat is headed by a Secretaryterms. Central General Leader Head
p
The Commonwealth operates at its best when a deals agreement negotiation consensus
a
At times, the UK failed to
because it needs these partners. , appointed for one or two four-year
is reached.
a representative to some some Commonwealth meetings.
dispatch appoint allocate bring
s
Countries celebrating their nationhood state country status
d
Call them or indigenous populations, they surely were the first settlers in a given land. origin living model aboriginal
f
Some former empires need to make do acknowledge trust process
g
The of these coastal communities all came by boat to these shores. ancestor forefathers ancient member
h
Any form of deprives you of your self-esteem and true identity. colonialism individualism neologism multiculturalism
j
Language policies should quench foster thrive put out
k
The beauty of languages is their ability to constantly make utter coin drive
l
Language can be due to a variety of factors, not just vocabulary and grammar. barriers hurdles shortages misunderstand
;
The art of is not just to replace one word for another, from one language to the other. poetry translator rephrasing translation
z
In the , English is the official language spoken by a majority of the population. anglosphere Americas blogosphere Eurosphere
The English-Speaking World
usually highlight their culture, identity and history.
their colonial past in a way which does respect all their citizens.
diversity and the respect of regional cultures. new phrases.
27
Fill in the gaps with the words provided for texts 1 and 2, without clues for text 3. When necessary, conjugate verbs. In text 2, there are more words than needed. Text 1 British Identity What will British identity mean in 2050? The leap is so immense, and the perils of this particular age so vast, that it feels both (1) and dangerous to even conceive of the nation 30 years hence, let alone predict the notions binding the people within it. The (2) threat to the flag-waving arm of British identity is that its raison d’être, the (3) family, probably won’t maintain its current position. 30 years from now they will voluntarily have become more like the Belgian or (4) royals, largely freed from public duty, photographed only when one of them is surprisingly (5) looking. They survived a huge amount of falling from pedestals, but will also have to change. 25 years ago, the anxiety of the future was all about an (6) populations, individualism, consumerism, society reduced to the social life, morality reduced to manners, community reduced to the family, families reduced to the nucleus, institutions drained of relevance. We may overestimate the pace of change in the future, when things change so (7) from week to week. But a national crisis, whether political, social, environmental, economic, or all of them at once, also underlines the necessity of (8) change, and cracks open the possibility that it might be radically for the better. ageing / audacious / fast / good / main / radical / royal / Spanish
Text 2
English: present and future tenses
In the ongoing state of modern globalization, language is a major stake. At a point in recent history, some (1) that Chinese might become the language of the future, but today China (2) as the world’s largest speaking population. English communication is thriving with some of the world’s largest companies based in English-speaking countries, so it is no surprise that international communication highly (3) on English being a common ground, the mere definition of a lingua franca. But if it is official, English is here to stay, that doesn’t mean we will be able to recognize it 100 years from now. A language is a dynamic organism that (4) transformation, and continues to do so in time. As English becomes universal, it will adapt to better suit its role as an international language. It will be enriched and a lot more diversified, borrowing from the languages it is (5) to replace and growing like a tree, spreading throughout the world so many branches. to believe / to depend / to exist / to make / to suppose / to take over / trust / to undergo
Text 3 Non English-speaking America Based on Census Bureau data, the Center for Immigration Studies found that 67.3 million residents in the United States now speak a language other than English at home, a number equal to the entire (1) of France. The number has nearly tripled since 1980, and more than doubled since 1990. Among the findings, one can note more precisely that in nine (2), more than one in four residents now speaks a language other than English at home. These nine States account for two-thirds of all foreign-language speakers. Top of the (3) of these States are California (45%), Texas (36%) and New Mexico (34%). Languages spoken at home by more than two million people are Spanish (41.5 m), Chinese (3.5 m). Tagalog, Vietnamese, Arabic, French and Korean are all (4) by more than one million speakers. So there are now more people who speak Spanish at home in the US than in any country in Latin America with the exception of Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina. Of those who speak a (5) language at home, 25.6 million (38%) admit that they speak English less than very well and 45% were born in the United States. Topics for debate — Some say that soon Chinese will replace English as the international business language. Do you think so? — In some countries made of many linguistic groups such as India, a common language is a unifying factor, to some extent. Discuss. — Why would some international companies decide to work through English even in branches or teams where a majority of speakers share one other language? — There is no difficult language to learn, only motivation matters, what you need and want to use the language for. — All languages are equal, but some are more equal than others (Orwell revisited). Discuss.
28
In the News
VOCABULARY THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD Aborigène Aboriginal Adhésion Adherence Affaires intales International Relations Affiliation, adhésion Membership Age d’or, apogée Heyday Alliances, alliés Alliance, allies Ambassadeur Ambassador Ancêtre Forebear Standard English Anglais standard Anglicisation Anglicisation To anglicise Angliciser Apatride Stateless Appropriation Appropriation Ascendance Ancestry Ascension sociale Upward mobility Asservissement Enslavement Asujettissement Subjugation Bilingue Bilingual Cercle extérieur / intérieur Outer / inner circle Jingoism, chauvinism Chauvinisme Colonie, colonialisme Colony, colonialism Colons Settlers Commonwealth Commonwealth Communauté Community Compatriote, concitoyen Fellow citizen To coerce Contraindre Contrepartie Counterpart Contrepoids Counterweight Couronne Crown Creole, pidgin Créole Croyance Belief Décolonialisation Decolonisation Devise (monnaie) Currency National motto Devise nationale Dialecte Dialect Diplomatie Diplomacy Dirigeant Ruler Discourse, rhetoric Discours Empire, impérial Empire, imperial Esprit britannique Britishness Essentiel Core État membre Member-state Étranger Foreign Eurocentrisme Eurocentrism Eurosceptique Eurosceptic Évolutif Norm-developing Extraction Stock, extraction Hégémonie, dominance Hegemony Héritage Legacy Identité Identity Impérialisme Imperialism Indigène, natif, autochtone Indigenous, native Langue Language Langue franque Lingua franca Langue maternelle Mother tongue Lien, attache Bond, tie Linguicide Linguicide Locuteur Speaker Locution, expression Phrase
The English-Speaking World
Identity marker Marqueur identitaire Mépris, non respect Disregard Métis Mestizo, half-breed Blending, mixing, Métissage interbreeding Militant, activiste Campaigner Monolinguisme Monoligualism Mot / lexique emprunté Loanword Multiculturalisme Multiculturalism Mœurs, traditions Customs Nationalisme Nationalism Naturalisation Naturalization Néocolonialisme Neocolonialism Normatif Norm-providing Occidental Western Origine Background, descent, lineage, stock Outremer, international Overseas Parenté, filiation Kinship Parler couramment To be fluent Partisan du Brexit Brexiteer Patrie Fatherland, motherland Patrimoine Heritage Paysans Countryfolk Pilier Pillar Pionnier Pioneer Plurilinguisme Multilingualism Post-colonial Post-colonial Pratiques, méthodes Practices Précédent, premier Former Primitive, primeval Primitif Partisan, défenseur Proponent To racialize Racialiser Réciproque Reciprocal Relations Relations Récit, discours Narrative Far flung Reculé, lointain Répartition Spread Patterns of acquisition Schémas d’aquisition Seconde / deuxième langue Second-language Sous-catégorie Subset Sous-continent Subcontinent Soutien Support Souveraineté Sovereignty Sphère anglophone Anglosphere Statut Status Super-État Superstate Territoire Dominion, territory Transmettre To transmit Transnationalisme Transnationalism Valeurs Values Vernaculaire Vernacular BAME = Black Asian and Minority Ethnic CANZUK = Canada/Australia/New Zeland/United Kingdom EFL = English as a Foreign Language
29
2 h c e T h g Hi The usual controversies one hears about technology no longer hinge upon their use and potential benefits, but rather upon the extent of their overuse and the threats and dependence they create. At home, at school or in the workplace, in the streets, in your local shop and maybe more than you might imagine, in your private life, high tech is now ubiquitous. Does this make it harmful or, on the contrary, genuinely useful and indispensable? Should we necessarily rejoice over its consistent and undeniable reliability? Is it really encouraging us to focus on what is most essential, freeing us from life’s dreary and time-consuming tasks? To explore some of these issues, this chapter focuses on the opinions of specialists, on smartphone use and Artificial Intelligence (AI) programming and on the impact high tech may have on the labour market and on privacy. It also considers today’s ordinary screen time, as well as tomorrow’s automated means of transport. Society at large thrives in the realm of high tech, programmers and users need to reflect on and learn how to live with it.
CONTENTS TXT 1 Apple whistleblower goes public over “lack of action” B1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 TXT 2 Screen time minutes are the new calories, and it’s high time I went on a diet B2 ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 34 TXT 3 AI and me: friendship chatbots are on the rise, but is there a gendered design flaw? B1+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 TXT 4 Universities beware: shifting classes online so quickly is a double-edged sword B1+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 TXT 5 For all its sophistication, AI isn’t fit to make life-or-death decisions B2 . . . . . . . . . . 46 INTERNET DOC. A Are we on the brink of a jobless future? 9’13” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 INTERNET DOC. B The ethical dilemma of self-driving cars 4’15”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 INTERNET DOC. C Your phone is trying to control your life 8’43” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 REVISION: Multiple choice questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Gap-filling texts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Texting etiquette. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Topics for debate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
VOCABULARY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 TEXTING ALPHABET SOUP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
APPLE WHISTLEBLOWER GOES PUBLIC OVER “LACK OF ACTION”
TEXT 1
Thomas le Bonniec says firm violating rights and continues massive collection of data
A former Apple contractor who helped blow the whistle on the company’s programme to listen to users’ Siri recordings has decided to go public, in protest at the lack of action taken as a result of the disclosures. In a letter announcing his decision, sent to all European data protection regulators, Thomas le Bonniec said: “It is worrying that Apple (and undoubtedly not just Apple) keeps ignoring and violating fundamental rights and continues their massive collection of data. “I am extremely concerned that big tech companies are basically wiretapping entire populations despite European citizens being told the EU has one of the strongest data protection laws in the world. Passing a law is not good enough: it needs to be enforced upon privacy offenders.” Le Bonniec, 25, worked as a subcontractor for Apple in its Cork offices, transcribing user requests in English and French, until he quit in the summer of 2019 due to ethical concerns with the work. “They do operate on a moral and legal grey area,” he told the Guardian at the time, “and they have been doing this for years on a massive scale. They should be called out in every possible way.” Following the revelations of Le Bonniec and his colleagues, Apple promised sweeping changes to its “grading” program, which involved thousands of contractors listening to recordings made, both accidentally and deliberately, using Siri. The company apologised, brought the work in-house, and promised that it would only grade recordings from users who had explicitly opted-in to the practice. “We realise we have not been fully living up to our high ideals,” the company said in a statement in August. It eventu-
ally released a software update in late October that allowed users to opt-in or out of their voice recordings being used to “improve Siri dictation”, and to choose to delete the recordings that Apple had stored. The company also emphasised that, unlike its competition, Siri recordings are never linked to a specific Apple account. But, Le Bonniec argues, the company never really faced the consequences for its yearslong programme in the first place. “I listened to hundreds of recordings every day, from various Apple devices (eg. iPhones, Apple Watches, or iPads). These recordings were often taken outside of any activation of Siri, eg in the context of an actual intention from the user to activate it for a request. These processings were made without users being aware of it, and were gathered into datasets to correct the transcription of the recording made by the device,” he said. “The recordings were not limited to the users of Apple devices, but also involved relatives, children, friends, colleagues, and whoever could be recorded by the device. The system recorded everything: names, addresses, messages, searches, arguments, background noises, films, and conversations. I heard people talking about their cancer, referring to dead relatives, religion, sexuality, pornography, politics, school, relationships, or drugs with no intention to activate Siri whatsoever. “These practices are clearly at odds with the company’s “privacy-driven” policies and should be urgently investigated by data protection authorities and Privacy watchdogs. With the current statement, I want to bring this issue to your attention, and also offer my cooperation to provide any element substantiating these facts. Although this case has already gone public, Apple has not been subject to any kind of investigation to the best of my knowledge.” Alex Hern, The Guardian, May 20, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
32
In the News
1 Before reading the article, match a verb and a noun it matches best with, then read the article to check your answers, as all are mentioned in the article.
to substantiate to blow to violate to live up to opt-in to release to bring something to pass to go to collect
• • • • • • • • • •
2 In the article, find seven expressions all using TO BE and synonymous with these:
to be connected with / to be worried about / to disagree, to differ / to come under scrutiny / to know about something / to be submitted to / to be challenged to explain or justify something
3 The article focuses on Thomas le Bonniec, who is described as a whistleblower and an Apple contractor. -er and -or endings (suffixes) express the noun of a person doing a job, an action.
In the article, find one other noun for each ending -er and -or, referring to other people involved in the situation described. There are other endings to describe someone’s position or job. For example, Thomas le Bonniec is probably also a data scientist and was an Apple employee. Can you think of other suffixes for jobs? Find the name of someone who assists others, studies, works in politics, sells something in a shop, is an expert in statistics, works iron, offers legal advice. In the world of high tech, there are many jobs; match each job with their field of expertise: Jobs: administrator / advisor / analyst / coordinator / designer / developer / engineer / manager / operator / regulator / technician Fields: computer hardware / content / data / data base / data coding / data protection / IT / risk / software / support / web
4 Replace the section underlined with a synonym from the article in the list below.
There are more words than necessary and you may need to change the word order or make other adjustments.
• an update • data • a law • public • to someone’s attention • rights • to one’s ideals • the whistle • to a practice • the facts According to an IT specialist 1 who worked in the past for Apple and his 2 co-workers, there is a 3 major problem in the way big IT companies handle 4 private facts and data. The example of how parts of conversations can be 5 electronically monitored when people use ordinary 6 tools as a tablet or their smartphone requires the intervention of 7 surveillance specialists who should better define how a 8 collection of data can be used. The public 9 revelation of such practices underlines an unclearly defined border between what people 10 willingly allow and what IT companies think they 11 exploit without asking permission. colleagues / datasets / deleted / deliberately / devices / disclosure / former / grey area / massive / opt-in / privacy / recording / specific / watchdogs / whistle blower / wiretapped /
5 Comprehension questions — Why has Thomas le Bonniec become a whistle blower? — What does he hope to change in doing so? — What is ethically wrong with the practices he denounces?
6 Research work and debate topic — Do you know other whistleblowers? Research what they stood or still stand for or against. Is there a risk for them? What motivates their acts? — Find five good reasons to prevent big IT companies from collecting private data, five (good) reasons for these companies to do so. Organise a debate between those in favour of unrestricted private data collection versus those who want to protect their privacy.
Ex: co-workers -> colleagues
High Tech
33
SCREEN TIME MINUTES ARE THE NEW CALORIES, AND IT’S HIGH TIME I WENT ON A DIET
TEXT 2
My relationship with my phone has moved through denial and despair. I am now a functioning addict.
There is a particular time of the week I have come to dread more than any exercise class or dental appointment: Sunday morning, when my weekly screen report flashes up on my phone. This tells me how long, on average, I have spent looking at it every day – or, to put it another way, how many grains of sand of my life I have allowed to fall into the tiny screen that I keep so close to hand I expect one day my flesh will fuse with it, a self-induced Darwinian evolution. We all have our self-imposed limits and, when it comes to screen time, mine has become an unjustifiable three hours a day. Imagine if I exercised, or saw friends, or wrote books, or read books for three hours a day! Such a thought is laughably unlikely now. But staring at my phone for three hours has come to feel laudably restrained, and when my screen report tells me I’ve stuck to this I feel like a master of modernity: look at me, truly a titan of technology. I enjoy my phone but I am not controlled by it. Anything above three hours and I am filled with despair. Here I am, blessed with life and health, and what am I doing with it? Chucking it away down my bloody phone. Not since my teens, when I obsessively counted calories, has one simple activity – eating then, looking at my phone now – had the power to provoke such wildly divergent feelings in me, from pride to self-loathing. And in many ways, screen time minutes are the new calories: overanxious parents limit their children’s screen time the same way they restrict their sugar intake. Self-appointed wellness gurus advise taking a break from one’s phone as keenly as they counsel intermittent fasting. Looking at my phone as soon as I get on the bus has become as instinctive as tucking into a pudding after a meal once was. But my attempts at tech dieting lack nutritional balance: I now hardly look at the educational apps I pay for – newspapers, magazines – for fear of wasting too many minutes, and binge instead on social media. This is like trying to lose weight by giving up regular meals and eating only chocolate. All this is to assume that being on one’s phone is somehow bad. Leaving to one side parents’ safeguarding concerns, or unforgivable breaches of phone etiquette, such as looking at one’s mobile when having supper with a friend, for a long time I argued that the badness of phones was overstated. We’re not staring at a blank screen, I’d huff. We’re reading instructive articles, keeping in touch with friends, shopping for essentials. And sure, we do that, some of the time.
But as an experiment, yesterday I walked the length of a train carriage and sneaked looks at people’s phones (and yes, everyone was on one; there was not a newspaper or book in sight). This is what people were looking at: two were on Candy Crush, one on an unidentifiable (to me) computer game, two on Instagram, one on Facebook, one on Gmail, plus one noble Guardian reader. When I’m unhappy or anxious, I spend more time on my phone, escaping an overwhelming reality by leaping into the screen, into an alternate world that often makes me feel angrier (social media) or more anxious (the news). It’s true that on long weekends, when I’m stuck at home with three small children, glancing at my phone can feel like mental salvation. But it is also true that when one of my kids wants to “play Mummy”, he does so by picking up my phone. Mother Of The Year trophy to the usual address, please. Not long ago, such easy access to the internet seemed as miraculous as easy calories did to our ancestors. Now we limit – desperately, self-righteously – our intake of both, and that is because we live in an age of super abundance, with unlimited phone contracts and 14-step beauty routines. We fetishise minimalism and make a celebrity out of Marie Kondo just because she tells us to throw stuff out. When you have too much, having nothing becomes an aspirational statement: famously, tech gurus refuse to let their children look at screens, and some – such as political adviser-turned-Silicon Valley talking head Steve Hilton – refuse to carry one. Staring at a screen no longer makes you look important; it makes you look like an antisocial zombie, gulled by tech billionaires who are using your money to build their kids a £50,000 tree house. Asceticism has always struck me as being as unsustainable as over-abundance, so I’m not giving up my phone entirely. My relationship with it has moved through denial to despair, and is now at the acceptance stage: I am, I tell myself, a functioning addict. And yet the truth is, my screen time continues to creep up, as the real world feels increasingly scary, and I console myself by shopping for more junk, and then hate myself for having so much junk. When the new year rang in this month, there were many references to “the roaring 20s”. But already this decade has less of an elegantly tragic F Scott Fitzgerald feel and more of a frantic, confused, decadent Weimar Republic aura. I’d look up how that ended first time round, but I don’t want to jack up my screen time. Hadley Freeman, The Guardian, Jan. 11, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
34
In the News
1 The journalist refers to some notions and their opposite. Find the antonyms in the article to: over-abundance ≠
denial ≠
pride ≠
2 Some of the verbs in the article are meaningful with their particles: at / away / into / out / up / Write them and make sure you understand what they mean. Ex: to look at or to look up.
to flash to leap to jack
to chuck to glance to tuck
to stare to throw to pick
to give to creep to fall
3 Comprehension questions a What is usually associated with Sunday morning? Why is it a painful experience for the journalist and what does she compare it to? b What could she have done to avoid feeling she wasted time every day? c What positive uses of a mobile phone does she mention? Can you think of more? What do most people use their phone for when commuting in public transport? d What makes the excessive use of the phone so easy? Why is it so attractive? e What does the journalist compare the use of a mobile phone to? Quote several sentences where she develops the comparison. f The article is written as a seemingly casual account of what an ordinary person does, wants to avoid and thinks. Explain the different narrative techniques the journalist uses to convey this particular tone to the article. Quote examples in relation to vocabulary, narrative point of view, language register, similes and even irony. What is the purpose of this writing strategy? What is the effect on the reader? g The article mentions several cultural references. Check on the internet if you are not sure what a Darwinian evolution is, what The Roaring Twenties were; what the Weimar Republic is reminiscent of, who Mary Kondo and Steve Hilton are and who the tech gurus who refuse to let their children overuse screens or who intend to gull others are.
4 Adjective formation There are several types of adjectives in the article. Read it again and underline or highlight all the adjectives you come across, you should find over 40. Write two adjectives from the text in each column of the following table according to their end suffixes: –y ex: easy
– able
– ing
– (i)ous
– ive
– al
(other) ex: new
How can an adjective express the negation of an existing adjective? How can an adjective express the idea of excess? How can an adjective express something people do by themselves? Nouns can also be used as adjectives in English as in the article you can read about the screen report, the sugar intake or the train carriage. In this case the first noun acts as an adjective to define a subcategory of the second noun. This is usually the case when no existing adjective exists or when the two nouns form a compound, a strong unit of meaning. Two adjectives in the text are used in a comparative form. Which? Why two forms? Adjectives can be modified by adverbs, there are a few in the article such as “weekly”. Find four more in the article.
High Tech
35
5 Expressing a wish and stating your opinion — The headline of the article refers to something which should change soon: It’s high time I went on a diet. Can you explain the use of the preterit I went? How would you express the same idea in your mother tongue? Write five sentences about yourself using this structure: It’s high time I + (Verb Preterit), about things you would like to do and things which should change in your life. Ex: It’s high time I bought a good grammar book! — Write a letter to the editor of The Guardian to either strongly disagree or fully agree with the journalist’s view.
6 Debate topics — Do you agree wit the journalist when she says that: staring at a screen no longer makes you look important? — Do you consider yourself as a functioning addict? Do you know some smartphone addicts? Game addicts? — Is the era of an Augmented Human, i.e. someone whose flesh fuses with a high tech device (a phone / microchip) approaching?
36
In the News
NOTES �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
High Tech
37
TEXT 3
AI AND ME: FRIENDSHIP CHATBOTS ARE ON THE RISE, BUT IS THERE A GENDERED DESIGN FLAW? Most chatbots are designed by men and tend to replicate gender stereotypes. But as the few women involved in the industry can testify, getting AI to emote requires input from all genders
Ever wanted a friend who is always there for you? Someone infinitely patient? Someone who will perk you up when you’re in the dumps or hear you out when you’re enraged? Well, meet Replika. Only, she isn’t called Replika. She’s called whatever you like; Diana; Daphne; Delectable Doris of the Deep. She isn’t even a “she”, in fact. Gender, voice, appearance: all are up for grabs. The product of a San Francisco-based startup, Replika is one of a growing number of bots using artificial intelligence (AI) to meet our need for companionship. In these lockdown days, with anxiety and loneliness on the rise, millions are turning to such “AI friends” for solace. Replika, which has 7 million users, says it has seen a 35% increase in traffic. As AI developers begin to explore – and exploit – the realm of human emotions, it brings a host of gender-related issues to the fore. Many centre on unconscious bias. The rise of racist robots is already well-documented. Is there a danger our AI pals could emerge to become loutish, sexist pigs? Eugenia Kuyda, Replika’s co-founder and chief executive, is hyper-alive to such a possibility. Given the tech sector’s gender imbalance (women occupy only around one in four jobs in Silicon Valley and 16% of UK tech roles), most AI products are “created by men with a female stereotype in their heads”, she accepts. In contrast, the majority of those who helped create Replika were women, a fact that Kuyda credits with being crucial to the “innately” empathetic nature of its conversational responses. “For AIs that are going to be your friends… the main qualities that will draw in audiences are inherently feminine, [so] it’s really important to have women creating these products,” she says. In addition to curated content, however, most AI companions learn from a combination of existing conversational datasets (film and TV scripts are popular) and user-generated content. Both present risks of gender stereotyping. Lauren Kunze, chief executive of California-based AI developer Pandorabots, says publicly available datasets should only ever be used in conjunction with rigorous filters. “You simply can’t use unsupervised machine-learning for adult conversational AI, because systems that are trained on datasets such as Twitter and Reddit all turn into Hitler-loving sex robots,” she warns. The same, regrettably, is true for inputs from users. For example, nearly one-third of all the content shared by men with Mitsuku, Pandorabots’ award-winning chatbot, is either verbally abusive, sexually explicit, or romantic in nature. “Wanna make out”, “You are my bitch”, and “You did
38
not just friendzone me!” are just some of the choicer snippets shared by Kunze in a recent TEDx talk. With more than 3 million male users, an unchecked Mitsuku presents a truly ghastly prospect. Appearances matter as well, says Kunze. Pandorabots recently ran a test to rid Mitsuku’s avatar of all gender clues, resulting in a drop of abuse levels of 20 percentage points. Even now, Kunze finds herself having to repeat the same feedback – “less cleavage” – to the company’s predominantly male design contractor. The risk of gender prejudices affecting real-world attitudes should not be underestimated either, says Kunze. She gives the example of school children barking orders at girls called Alexa after Amazon launched its home assistant with the same name. “The way that these AI systems condition us to behave in regard to gender very much spills over into how people end up interacting with other humans, which is why we make design choices to reinforce good human behaviour,” says Kunze. Pandorabots has experimented with banning abusive teen users, for example, with readmission conditional on them writing a full apology to Mitsuku via email. Alexa (the AI), meanwhile, now comes with a politeness feature. While emotion AI products such as Replika and Mitsuku aim to act as surrogate friends, others are more akin to virtual doctors. Here, gender issues play out slightly differently, with the challenge shifting from vetting male speech to eliciting it. Alison Darcy is co-founder of Woebot, a therapy chatbot which, in a randomized controlled trial at Stanford University, was found to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. Woebot’s internal research also sampled a group of young adults, and asked if there was anything they would never tell someone else. Approximately 40% of the female participants said “‘yes’”, compared with more than 90% of their male counterparts. For men, the instinct to bottle things up is “self-evident”, Darcy observes: “So part of our endeavour was to make whatever we created so emotionally accessible that people who wouldn’t normally talk about things would feel safe enough to do so.” To an extent, this has meant stripping out overly feminised language and images. Research by Woebot shows that men don’t generally respond well to “excessive empathy”, for instance. A simple “I’m sorry” usually does the trick. The same with emojis: women typically like lots; men prefer a “wellchosen” one or two. On the flipside, maximising Woebot’s capacity for empathy is vital to its efficacy as a clinical tool, says Darcy. With traits such as active listening, validation and compassion shown to be strongest among women, Woebot’s writing team is consequently an all-female affair.
In the News
“I joke that Woebot is the Oscar Wilde of the chatbot world because it’s warm and empathetic, as well as pretty funny and quirky,” Darcy says. Important as gender is, it is only one of many human factors that influence AI’s capacity to emote. If AI applications are ultimately just a “vehicle” for experience, then it makes sense that the more diverse that experience the better. So argues Zakie Twainy, chief marketing officer for AI developer, Instabot. “Essential” as female involvement is, she says, “it’s important to have diversity across the board – including different ethnicities, backgrounds, and belief systems.” Nor is gender a differentiator when it comes to arguably the most worrying aspect of emotive AI: ie confusing
programmed bots for real, human buddies. Users with disabilities or mental health issues are at particular risk here, says Kristina Barrick, head of digital influencing at the disability charity Scope. As she spells out: “It would be unethical to lead consumers to think their AI was a real human, so companies must make sure there is clarity for any potential user.” Replika, at least, seems in no doubt when asked. Answer: “I’m not human” (followed, it should be added, by an upside-down smiley emoji). As for her / his / its gender? Easy. “Tick the box”. Oliver Balch, The Guardian, May 7, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
1 Before reading the article, define the qualities best friends are associated to. Read the first paragraph and compare your expectations to the journalist’s. Two casual ways to refer to friends are mentioned, find them.
2 Read the article and fill in the table in order to summarise the main information about chatbots. Chatbots name
Maker / Founder
Duties
Features
X
3 Answer the following questions in your own words. a b c d e
Why is there gender imbalance among chatbot designers? Why is there a risk to see AI systems react with gender stereotyping? What will be the most sophisticated chatbots soon capable of? What are the risks if chatbot contents are unchecked? What should companies selling chatbots make very clear to their customers?
4 Match the expressions taken from the article with their meanings. in the dumps • • if nothing else at least • • as to, with reference to conditional on • • excessively up for grabs • • together with in regard to • • to be sufficient to an extent • • unhappy, discouraged on the flip side • • applying to all to do the trick • • available overly • • if, depending on in conjunction w/ • • a large number across the board • • similar to to the fore • • considered differently akin to • • in a way a host of • • in a leading position
High Tech
39
5 Write a simple definition of the following nouns taken from the article. Use three of these nouns to say what strikes you most in this article. Ex: apology: something you say or write as a form of excuse, to express regret
behaviour; bias; challenge; charity; cleavage; counterparts; empathy; endeavour; loneliness; realm; snippets; solace
6 Link one sentence to the verb with the same meaning as the section underlined. All are phrasal verbs extracted from the article.
Ex: She listened and waited patiently, without interrupting, and then was able to decide.➞ to hear someone out
to bottle up to draw in
• • The light rain changed to a heavy downpour within minutes. • • The impact of the crisis affected many more sectors than just agriculture. to perk up SO • • He suddenly came to life with a smile and much attention when her name was mentioned. to play out • • Such an attractive shop window caused a number of customers to enter and have a try. to spell out • • They kept their feelings to themselves after the accident, unable to share their grief. to spill over • • To remove the superfluous entirely is a challenging task for the ordinary consumer. to strip out • • You just have to wait and see how things develop. to turn into • • Everything concerning the product is clearly explained and made plain. You may need to research the meaning of other verbs from the article such as “to vet”, “to elicit” or “to emote”.
7 There are two cultural references in the article.
Research on the internet and be prepared to explain who Delectable Doris and Oscar Wilde were.
40
In the News
NOTES �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
High Tech
41
UNIVERSITIES BEWARE: SHIFTING CLASSES ONLINE SO QUICKLY IS A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD
TEXT 4
Universities have done well to adapt to lockdown, but there are questions over privacy, equipment and teaching methods
When lockdown began, universities had to shut up shop like any other non-essential service. But something extraordinary happened: universities around the world went online almost overnight, showing remarkable determination to continue providing their students with lectures, seminars and tutorials. But can this rapid shift to online teaching and learning actually work in the long term? Several problems have already emerged. Online teaching needs more than just the basics. Lecturers need access to a computer that supports teaching software and a reliable internet connection. Meanwhile, for students, even basic hardware and software are far from guaranteed in many homes, as families share equipment and internet providers struggle with increased traffic. There are also structural issues with internet privacy and security. Online teaching potentially exposes students to unreliable data protection laws in many countries. Neither freedom of speech nor privacy can be guaranteed for students’ ideas and personal data. This is no small matter for universities, given they are meant to be sites of free academic discussion and debate. Online universities can hardly be free when the internet itself is unfree. The problem is exacerbated when universities rely on large corporates like Microsoft for online platforms such as Teams. Universities have little control over how online platforms are run and priced. In the overnight dash to online teaching, they have also shown little caution in both contributing to profit-making of corporates and compromising data on servers universities themselves do not control. Imagine students agreeing to give up their ideas and information to be stored at an unknown location and with little control over how they are used in years to come. Knowingly or unknowingly, universities may be contributing to surveillance capitalism. The hardware and software for online teaching are not insurmountable issues, but they do require some deep reflection and open conversation. Should universities invest in home-
grown open-source software? Can they provide foolproof platforms which do not compromise the security of students? Unfortunately, this conversation has been sidelined, even halted, by the rush to go online. But if online teaching is to continue beyond this pandemic, this conversation should be had. There are also important questions to be answered about the best way to teach online. We need to question the assumed value in simply going “live” on camera. Recorded lectures simply replicate the passive learning environment of classrooms, and online seminars and tutorials fail to elicit meaningful student interaction. Instead, let’s reimagine online teaching. For this, we may have to get away from the concept of contact hours in lectures, seminars and tutorials. Instead, there should be longerterm engagement from students through discussion forums or weblogs which allow sustained, freewheeling conversation. On my own human rights course, we allow students to develop arguments in turn, like chain novelists, over the course of several days. Tutors act as moderators and respond to students outside of class hours, in a way that gives them greater control of their own schedule and priorities. More time does not necessarily contribute to more screen time. This gives students more freedom to reflect and respond with deeper thinking and more sophisticated arguments than is possible in a classroom setting. In fact, the greatest value of online learning can be in building a community. More importantly, it can diversify the student community by reaching out to learners who aren’t able to be part of a residential university environment, both locally and internationally. This includes mature students returning to university to learn new skills, people with disabilities, or those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Open and free higher education will be particularly important as we rebuild our society post-coronavirus pandemic. Cultivating healthy and curious minds may be no small contribution in a public health crisis. Let’s hope the shift to online gives universities a renewed sense of public purpose. Shreya Atrey, The Guardian, May 20, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
42
In the News
1 The photo on The Guardian website shows a student sitting on a bed in a small bedroom, working with his laptop. The caption goes: Students will need more than just the basics for online learning to thrive. What does this mean and illustrate? Could it be you?
2 Create pairs of synonyms (=) or antonyms (≠) with the following words, all are taken from the article. Example from the article: quickly ≠ in the long term or discussion = interaction
basic / beware / caution / to compromise / to dash / essential / to expose / freedom of speech / to halt / to continue / overnight / to protect / rapidly / to reimagine / replicate / rush / security / sidelined / sophisticated / surveillance
3 Fill in the gaps with some words from the two vocabulary lists of words from the article. Education: academic / classroom / contact hours / course / learner / learning / lecturer / lecture / higher education / mature student / passive learning / schedule / seminar / student / teaching / tutorial / tutors Computers: connection / data / forum / hardware / moderator / online / open-source / personal data / platform / provider / server / software / to store / weblog a My home internet improved. b
answers.
is too slow, I will have to see with my
how this can be
can be useful but anyone commenting on anything may not be the best way to find specific
c Getting students to sit in front of a screen and watch is not interactive, it is just
.
d This
is worth four credits and represents a total of 15
e This
software is designed so that users can improve some functions to suit their needs.
f The major shifts occurring now in
for the semester.
have already taken place in businesses.
g There is a difference in status between a fewer hours.
and a
, the second one teaches
h Workers with experience and a desire to update their knowledge have to register in universities as i Libraries have extended their j Our sociology
.
so that students can work later and at the weekends. is on once a month for half a day; you’d better make sure you attend it.
4 Connect words from the three lists to write sentences to say what is or is not required, needed, n ecessary, advisable if online studying is to be generalised.
Ex: It is necessary for teachers to have access to computers.
teacher to access to a computer computer to support software & internet connection family to share equipment provider to struggle with increased traffic online teaching to expose students to unreliable data protection law platform to compromise the security of students recorded lecture to fail to elicit interaction student to develop arguments traditional teaching to reach out to other learners open, free higher education to rebuild our society
5 The article uses some passive verb forms. Can you explain how they are formed with these e xamples? Questions are asked. Privacy cannot be guaranteed. This conversation should be had but has been sidelined, even halted.
High Tech
43
Write these sentences using passive verb forms. You can use modal verbs as above. a Universities like all non-essential services. (to shut down) b Students
free access to the internet. (to give)
c Students
to unreliable data protection. (to expose)
d Computer equipment e Information f Foolproof platforms
often in families. (to share) by large corporates. (to control) (to set up)
g Replacing teaching by simply going “live” h The student community i Little control j Rich student interaction k Better responses l Post-pandemic society
(to question) thanks to online courses. (to diversify)
over online content. (to use) by traditional teaching. (not to elicit) when students have more time to think. (to provide) thanks to new thinking. (to rebuild)
6 What are the three areas which may cause online studying to be difficult? What should new teaching methods promote? What challenges does online teaching poses to academics and IT corporates?
7 Topics for debates: — — — — — —
44
Teaching can be considered as any other non-essential service. Universities are meant to be sites of free academic debate. Online learning should build a community spirit. Universities should not contribute to surveillance capitalism. Universities should help cultivating healthy and curious minds. Universities should be given a renewed sense of public purpose.
In the News
NOTES �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
High Tech
45
FOR ALL ITS SOPHISTICATION, AI ISN’T FIT TO MAKE LIFE-OR-DEATH DECISIONS
TEXT 5
“Following the science” is a disingenuous policy because mathematical reckoning and human judgments are very different things
Artificial intelligence is searching for the drugs to combat Covid-19. It enabled the pandemic to be tracked and information about it to be synthesised. It is diagnosing patients, triaging them, and identifying those in need of intensive care before their condition deteriorates. There is much hype about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to combat coronavirus. Some of it is justified. Its ability to sift through vast amounts of data and to recognise patterns has been of great value. Some of the hype is flannel. AI did not, as some claim, predict the pandemic before humans recognised it. Inflated claims, for instance for the accuracy of AI in diagnosing Covid-19, should be cause for suspicion, not celebration. Some of it is cause for concern – such as the use of AI for mass surveillance. And some aspects of the pandemic have exposed the limitations of AI. Algorithms, such as those used by online retailers, trained on normal human behaviour, now find that people’s behaviour has completely changed when it comes to shopping or travel, and they are often flummoxed. All this suggests a need to be clearer about what machines are good at and what humans are good at. The computer scientist and philosopher Brian Cantwell Smith distils that difference into the distinction between what he calls “reckoning” and “judgment”. Reckoning is essentially calculation: the ability to manipulate data and recognise patterns. Judgment, on the other hand, refers to a form of “deliberative thought, grounded in ethical commitment and responsible action, appropriate to the situation in which it is deployed”. Judgment, Smith observes, is not simply a way of thinking about the world, but emerges from a particular relationship to the world that humans have and machines do not. Humans are both embodied and embedded in the world. We are able to recognise the world as real and as unified but also to break it down into distinct objects and phenomena. We can represent the world but also appreciate the distinction between representation and reality. And, most importantly, humans possess an ethical commitment to the real over the representation. What is morally important is not the image or mental representation I have of you, but the fact that you
exist in the world. A system with judgment must, Smith insists, not simply be able to think but also to “care about what it is thinking about”. It must “give a damn”. Humans do. Machines don’t. No machine has an ethical commitment to patients the way doctors and nurses do. AI may be able to triage patients because of its ability to recognise patterns that humans may miss, but no machine has an ethical commitment to patients in the way doctors and nurses do, for whom it’s not just the facts or patterns that matter. It is also that patients possess worth and dignity which need protecting. Human judgments are not necessarily good, nor do humans always act with judgment. But all have the capacity to do so. That is why we hold humans, but not machines, as morally accountable for their acts. The distinction between reckoning and judgment is important in assessing not just machines but humans, too. In this pandemic, one of the key responses from government minsters, when faced with difficult political questions, has been to suggest that they are merely “following the science”. Not only is there not a single “science” to follow, and that much of what we know about coronavirus is laced with uncertainty, but even if the science were clear, we still could not abjure judgment. Take the debate about the reopening of schools. Suppose we knew for certain how likely it was for children to become infected, and to infect others, and what exactly the R number was in any part of the country. The decision on whether to reopen would still rest on making political and moral judgments about how to balance the risk of increased infection with the risk of children losing education and of the disadvantaged being further disadvantaged. The best public policy rests on facts but it also requires us to choose between competing demands, and to decide how these fit into various ethical and political commitments. There can be good or bad judgment, but there can be no pretence that there is no judgment. The “we’re following the science” line suggests that policymaking is a matter merely of reckoning – of making calculations from the given data – rather than also of judgment. It suggests, too, that a computer, rather than a human, would be best placed to lead the fight against Covid-19. Machines cannot think like humans. Humans should not act like machines. Even politicians. Kenan Malik, The Guardian, May 16, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
46
In the News
1 Choose from this list what the main point of the article is and justify your choice with one sentence from the article.
to promote the use of machines / to warn people about the danger of AI / to establish how different humans and machines are / to deny science any value in politics / to identify patterns in behaviours
2 Identify what machines and humans are good at filling in this table with a verb for each action. Most verbs can be found in the article. Machines can...
Humans can... the pandemic
the world as real and unified
information and
the world into smaller parts patients
thoughts with ethics and responsibility
patients who require intensive care
a relationship to the world
and
representation and reality
a lot of data
patterns
about the impact of their thinking
Fill in the sentences with ideas from the article about what machines and humans cannot do, or are not good at. Machines could not
the pandemic, neither
humans.
Algorithms fail to...................... customer’s behaviours in unusual periods. Humans may AI
concern in relation to mass surveillance. Humans should
patterns. ethical values.
Machines don’t a dam whereas doctors and nurses for their patients. Summarise what machines and humans can do. What are the two verbs the philosopher opposes?
3 The
article deals with abstract notions. Match pairs of ideas, either complementary or opposite in meaning. calculation / celebration / claim / concern / death / ethical / judgments / life / object / phenomena / pretence / reality / reckoning / representation / responsible / thought / value / worth
What match, synonym or antonym, would you suggest for: care, commitment, dignity? Can you explain? — Not only is there not... (why is there a question structure in a sentence which is not a question?) — … and even if the science were clear (Why is it not: If the science was clear?) — Why is the noun science used with the article The in this article?
4 Comment
upon the sub-headline to summarise the content of the article. What message does the journalist send to politicians?
5 Essay topics: The article states: Humans are both embodied and embedded in the world. How do you understand this statement? Give examples to explain it and maybe also to contradict it. The end of the article concludes: Machines cannot think like humans. Humans should not act like machines. Discuss and illustrate this with examples. Can one day so-called augmented human beings manage to retain the best part of machines and humans? Could humanoid machines retain the best part of humans?
High Tech
47
INTERNET DOC. A ARE WE ON THE BRINK OF A JOBLESS FUTURE? PBS NewsHour, 2017, 9’13”
This document can be studied as a whole or into smaller sections and for each you can test your comprehension with the following True / False statements. For each statement explain why. You can then answer the comprehension questions dealing with several sections. Section 1: 00” ➞ 24” Introduction 1
The name of the weekly series is Making Senses.
2 The way the series’ name is written indicates what the series is about. 3 This programme is broadcast just after the release of the US monthly employment figures. 4 The documentary deals with how automation has impacted the labour market. 5 What is shown in the background is an Amazon warehouse. Section 2: 25” ➞ 2’38” Vivek Wadhwa 6 You see Wadhwa’s car drive itself into the garage. 7 Wadhwa’s car is a fully automated electric car. 8 Wadhwa reduced his energy bill by 50%. 9 His HealthCube provides free tests and instant results. 10 Wadhwa compares the number of Amazon and Walmart’s workers to prove that jobs will be fewer. Section 3: 2’40” ➞ 4’07” Michael Osborne + Vivek Wadhwa 11 The commentator says “jobs are toast”, meaning informally: they are suppressed. 12 Cashiers are mentioned among the workers likely to lose their jobs. 13 People who can predict the future are futurists. 14 The synonym for “referees” mentioned in the document is “empires”. 15 Wadhwa sees job replacements coming after about ten years. Section 4: 4’07” ➞ 5’40” Joshua Browder 16 Browder is a student in literature working on Shakespeare. 17 Browder accumulated many fines he could not pay for bad parking in the UK. 18 The app Do Not Pay covers issues as maternity, tenant and consumer rights. 19 The app Do Not Pay will cover reducing a property tax and judging a divorce case. 20 The service Browder provides charges a very low fee respecting his great-grandfather’s ideas. Section 5: 5’40” ➞ 6’33” Vivek Wadhwa & Carl Frey 21 Wadhwa believes Browder cannot succeed with no qualification in AI and in legal matters. 22 Productivity is defined as more output per unit of labour. 23 Frey published a book on the impact of automation on politics. 24 Populism is said to be linked with the degree of unhappiness workers feel about automation. 25 Populist politicians see automation as a threat to the labour market.
48
In the News
Section 6: 6’34” ➞ 9’ Gerry Kaplan & Michael Osborne 26 Kaplan believes that increased productivity leads to increased economic opportunity. 27 Fights attendants, hospital workers, masseuses, yoga teachers, advisors will be more numerous. 28 The jobs remaining are only the technical ones. 29 More non-tech jobs help middle-range pay rise. 30 Specialists and authors are not sure whether the future will be dark or bright.
Comprehension questions 1. In the documentary, Wadhwa states that there is unlimited energy, unlimited food and we can provide education and clean water for everyone. Do you agree with this statement? 2. Wadhwa would prefer to trust an AI doctor over a human one; would you? Can you think of other professions where the choice between AI or the real professionals may be debatable? 3. What do you make of the quote: Humanity is at a tipping point, we’re basically sitting there, watching it all happen? 4. Why is the initial question Are we on the brink of a jobless future? a difficult question to answer, even once you have watched the TV programme? 5. The journalist claims at one point: A human-free future isn’t here just yet. Justify this statement with examples from the document and others from what you see in your daily activities and what you believe may happen in the future.
High Tech
49
INTERNET DOC. B THE ETHICAL DILEMMA OF SELF-DRIVING CARS Patrick Lin, YouTube by TED-Ed, 2017, 4’15”
A Before viewing the document, draw a list of the advantages of using self-driving cars in the future. Safer? Why? Time and energy-saving? Why? More comfortable? Why? Some people oppose the use of self-driving cars, can you imagine their reasons?
B
Can you imagine the sort of issues self-driving cars will or already do bring about? Legal matters? Control over the car? Other
C Now watch the document and write down all the car-related vocabulary you can hear. Find synonyms for “self-driving cars”. D Draw a car and link this vocabulary to your drawing. blinker or turn signal bodywork bonnet or hood brake lights bumper door / front or back door headlights mirror plate / licence or number plate roof steering wheel tank, gas or petrol tank tire or tyre trunk or boot wheels window windshield or windscreen wipers Guess work: explain the meaning of this extra-vocabulary: roof rack / all wheel drive / safety belt / driver’s seat / fuel gauge / gear shift / horn / sunroof / pedal / unleaded petrol / exhaust pipe / dashboard Describe the features of what you consider to be the ideal car. Do you think you will own such a car one day? Why? Why not?
E
Develop your verb power. 1
Match the verbs with one or several objects they are associated with in the document and write sentences to explain what the text suggests. Use modal verbs expressing possibility, probability and ability.
Example: The car could analyse the passengers to know who should be saved.
Verbs: to analyse / to avoid / to decrease / to discriminate / to ease / to favour / to instruct / to manoeuvre / to minimize / to penalize / to prioritize / to reduce / to remove / to sacrifice / to spot / to suffer / to swerve Nouns: a collision / a deliberate decision / certain types of objects / danger to others / fatalities / harm / harmful emissions / human error / responsible motorists / right or left / road congestion / safety / stressful driving-time / the car / the consequences / the moral hairpin turns / the passengers / the roads of technology / traffic accidents / your life
50
In the News
2
F
Match the verbs with the particles they are used with in the the document and find a synonym for each, using a dictionary if necessary. Use five of these to say what self-driving cars should, can, should not or cannot do. to barrel
•
to box (SO)
•
to crash
•
•
against
to discriminate
•
•
beyond
to factor
•
•
down
to fall
•
•
in
to go
•
•
into
to meet
•
•
off
to offer
•
•
out
to open
•
•
straight
to play
•
•
up
to spot
•
to swerve
•
How should self-driving cars improve the driving experience according to the document? What is the priority according to you?
G According to the document, who is responsible for ensuring that these cars will match the ethical requirements? H
I
Describe the means of transport used in your favourite science fiction films? Which are the most futuristic according to you? Do you think they will be operational during your lifetime? ICruising into our brave new future... What other objects, devices, tools may become fully automated in the near future? What sort of ethical dilemma are decision makers likely to face? Can we predetermine all actions and programme them? Is randomness, the lack of predictability, a curse or something to be maintained or even encouraged in our lives? What could be the danger of a society where intuition no longer exists, where all decisions are made thanks to algorithms, where all is logical and rational? You may use some of the vocabulary from the document such as: forethought, malice, morally murky, fault, responsible, justice...
J
Reflect and explain Asimov’s three laws regarding ethics and robotics. 1
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2
A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3 A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
High Tech
51
INTERNET DOC. C YOUR PHONE IS TRYING TO CONTROL YOUR LIFE Tristan Harris, PBS NewsHour, Jan 2017, 8’43”
Here is the transcript of the document you can watch on the internet. You can either refer to it only if, when viewing the video, you find it is too difficult to understand, or after having watched the video once or twice, to make sure you’ve understood everything, or else start with the script, maybe just skimming through and then watch the video without the script. In the script, 20 words are underlined, they may be a challenge for you to pronounce. You can test yourself pronouncing them out loud and paying particular attention to the stress pattern. Then check the pronunciation in the video, when you watch it. One billion of us own a smartphone, and we know how addicting it can be. One former Google employee says: it is no accident. Indeed it is by design. And he became troubled by the relentless efforts of app developers to keep us glued to the gadgets. So Tristan Harris founded an organisation called Time Well Spent. He’s asking the tech industry to bring what he calls “ethical design” to its products. News Hour special correspondent Cat Wise has more, part of our on going collaboration with the Atlantic. TH: I noticed when I was at Standford, there’s a class called “The persuasive technology design class”, there’s a whole lab at Stanford that teaches students how to apply persuasive psychology principles into technology to persuade people to use products in a certain way. So it’s not about giving you all this freedom, it’s about sucking you in to take your time. CW: So the goal’s to keep us on our devices longer. Why? TH: For any company whose business model is advertising, or engagement based advertising, meaning they care about the amount of time someone spends on the product, you know they make more money the more time people spent. So the game becomes “How can I throw different persuasive techniques to get people to stay, to spend as long as possible and to come back tomorrow”. CW: And it’s clearly working. Today wherever we go, we’re inevitably surrounded by fellow citizens staring into their phones, as we usually are too. What do you think about when you’re in public and you see people on their cellphones? TH: You know have you ever been in a moment where you’re sitting there and you just start using your phone to do something proactive. May be you’re in the back of a car, in a taxi, or you’re on public transportation. You know your phone is always giving you a way to spend time that can be more productive, more entertaining or more stimulating than reality. I often say that this puts a new choice on life’s menu that’s sweeter than reality. And so we’re turning to it more and more often, we check our phones about a hundred and fifty times a day. CW: And what are the costs of that sort of constant interaction with technology, both on an individual level and as a society? TH: Well I think you know, each of us has to tune in to our own experience. What does it feel like when we check our phones about a hundred and fifty times a day? What does it feel like if we’ve been scrolling and had our face down and not breathing very much when we’re scrolling for say twenty minutes? I mean, how do we feel on the inside? CW: How do you feel on the inside? TH: I feel that I... don’t feel very good after that. I feel that my anxiety goes up, I feel more concerned about what I’m missing, what I’m missing out on, who I haven’t gone back to. You know people think that I’m bad at getting back to them. All of this sort of psychology emerges all of this because of this one thing in my pocket. And we never had a media device that literally a billion people are kind of being programmed in the same way. We’ve so much influence in the hands of a few technology designers. CW: At Google, Harris was a so-called product philosopher and helped design the Gmail Inbox app. TH: First of all, there is no one in the Gmail team who said: “How can we addict people to Email”; there is no one who said that, that was never a goal. But you did hear conversations like: “Should we make it buzz, your phone, every single time you get an Email”. There’s a design question. But the outcome of that one choice
52
In the News
would be a billion people getting buzzed at diners with their dates and with their friends and their family. All of these bilions of phones, by the part of this one choice, would be affected and interrupted all the time. CW: And that was a conversation that you weren’t having? TH: I was getting a little bit disenchanted with whether or not we were having I thought the bigger conversation about when Email or any product that we make actually makes a positive impact on people’s lives. And I made a kind of a slide deck, a manifesto, it basically said: never before in history have fifty, mostly male twenty to thirty five year old designers living in California, working at three tech companies, influenced how a billion people spend their time. CW: This is Coffee Bar in San Francisco, a popular hang out for high powered techies like Harris, the ones whose choices can influence so many. This idea of missing something, I think, that drives a lot of risks. TH: Tony Robins, who said, a great quote, he says: “I run eight companies and I’ve thousands of employees, what do you think the chances are that at any given moment, if I check my Emails, something’s gone wrong”. CW: With his organisation, Time Well Spent, Harris is urging peers in the tech world to have new conversations about the best interests of consumers. TH: We need to change the incentive, I mean, I think so long as the business model of technology companies is advertising, we’re gonna have a problem. And that’s what, you know, we’re trying to do with Time Well Spent, is to change the conversation from being about maximising engagement in time to being about maximising net positive improvements to people’s lives. CW: What are some examples of, you know, apps that people use on a pretty regular basis in ways that these companies are driving us in? TH: Have you ever noticed if you ever log into Twitter, as an example. So there’s an extra delay that you don’t know how long it’s gonna take, it’s between two and three seconds, without the number of new notifications on Twitter you have. So why is that there? Well it makes that into what’s called a variable schedule world. It’s like a slot machine. So you’re playing the slot machine, and there’s a time delay, and in that time delay, your anticipation’s building and then you get to see how many notifications I get. And so you become more addicted to checking it again the next time. CW: It sounds like there’s just a lot of trickery going on here. TH: I call it the race to the bottom of the brain stem to, you know, get people’s attention at all cost. You know. Let’s say I’m YouTube and I’ve got a certain amount of people’s attention. You know what’s YouTube’s biggest competitor? Probably Facebook. Or take the CEO of Netflix recently said that the biggest competitor to Netflix are probably YouTube, Facebook and sleep, meaning... CW: Sleep? TH: Sleep, because at the end of the day, there’s a final amount of time people have and if you’re not getting people’s time, someone else, some other app, or some other part of someone’s life is gonna get it. So these services are in competition with where we would wanna spend our time, whether that’s our sleep, or with our friends. There’s this war going on to get as much attention as possible. CW: Tristan, tell me about how you use your phone. TH: Well... I mean... I try to use it as consciously as I can. One thing for example is I set it up so that I just have my in and out tools and my aspirational ways I wanna spend my time on my own things… CW: What do you mean by in and out tools? What does that mean? TH: The tool is something you use and you never use it longer or more than you wanted to. For example, Google Maps, if I need directions, I don’t end up scrolling through Google Maps for half an hour randomly. I just go in and find where to go and go out. CW: And these are things that really don’t drive you in for a long period of time. TH: There’s nothing on my home screen that is explicitly makes money from, or wants to maximize how much time I spend. And I put all those other things inside of folders that are hidden. CW: Are people still texting you or are, are your friends and colleagues, may be they’re not texting you or trying to, you know, reach out in a way that would distract you so often? TH: At the end of the day, the thing that dictates what, how someone reaches out to you, and what they use, Facebook
High Tech
53
Messenger or Whatsapp or Imessage isn’t because they’re thinking deeply about it. It’s because it’s just the fastest and the easiest thing to reach for. And so I think we have to recognise that, as human beings, there’s just a certain set of things we’re vulnerable to, that do influence us. If it buzzes right now, I would, probably without thinking about it, with you here, check it. And so if I don’t want that to happen, I just have to put it away. In fact, my phone just buzzed right now. Then I just look, there you go. CW: Even knowing what you know, you still picked it up. TH: And this is the thing that even the people in the world of persuasion we’re talking about earlier, you know all about these tricks and how they get people to use products, you use the slot machine dynamic or whatever it is, they’ll tell you that they, themselves, are no less vulnerable than the regular person because these techniques work on everybody. It’s just part of being human. Follow up work: Read the text related to this topic in this chapter (Text 2: Screen time minutes are the new calories…) and assess how long you spend on your phone, whether or not you feel “tricked” into using it longer and more often, or if you can live without it.
54
In the News
REVISION HIGH TECH Fill in the sentences with one of the choices given.
1
All my connected keep me informed, wherever I am. I can no longer say: I don’t know. appliances gadget devices machines
2
Smart phones have become so frequent useless actual ubiquitous
3
Data programming requires a certain mindset framework concept behaviour
4
Someone who exposes any fraud or wrongdoing for the benefit of all is a politician whistleblower spy discoverer
5
The situation was so uncomfortable that she felt easygoing at best randomly at odds with
6
I can only provide information in good faith and to the best of my will my skill my wish my knowledge
7
Pressure at work is often for Silicon Valley nerds who overvalue performance. self-induced inflicted feared self-control
8
The programmers’ priority pride premium privacy
9
When my phone rings, my frantic deep total physical
q
In the digital , you are led to believe that almost anything is possible. loyalty stand realm circumstance
w
Whether I am for or against AI does not matter, my own point critic state bias
e
Creating a fully operational robot is a major endeavour achieving result tasks
in itself.
r
Even with the best experts, companies often resist fight dispute struggle
to counter cyberattacks.
t
Some programmes were very vulnerable to malware, their production has been boosted halt sidelined reduce
y
A plan to resist competition is necessary if you want to protect your IT service. autonomous foolproof effective operational
u
The big surrounding the release of the new VR game delights its designers. fashions infatuation fads hype
i
The quest for an ever more sophisticated technology is embedded part contingent left
High Tech
that not having one can make you look so uncool. many people do not want to acquire. .
anyone she talked to. .
was noticeable when they got their award for Best Project. search to find it is usually vain.
is not relevant.
.
in our crafty human nature.
55
o
All makers of IT products have to be aware responsible relieved of accountable for
their ethical content.
p
Any use of your private data should be reported within 24 hours. fraudulent disloyal lawful unauthorize
a
Cybercrime has no limit, from data hacking to money scheme stalking extortion charges
s
Mimicking official websites to obtain sensitive personal data is called counterfeit malware phishing cybercrimes
d
Soccer games oppose two teams, and a arbitrator referee rules middleman
f
When you are sending an email, check the address is the right one. ready about almost on the brink of
g
Automation is very likely to suppress delete vanish erase
h
When driving, if you brake suddenly or move on turn swerve drive on
j
In some cities traffic is notoriously bad; road congestion jam trip block
k
AI should help in many ways to reduce car accident fatalities mischance mishap
l
If my text message ends with MYOB FYI NVM LMK
;
, i.e. on-line fraud should be more severely punished. filibustering cybercrime fishing finishing
z
Though the state must ensure internet ethics, it should not constrain impose cut back curtail
, including online harassment. .
makes sure rules are respected.
more positions in industries and services. , this is potentially very dangerous. is often the main problem. , thus save lives. , I mean “Keep me informed”.
freedom of expression.
Fill in the gaps with the words provided for texts 1 and 2, without clues in text 3. When necessary, conjugate verbs. In text 2, there are more words than needed. Text 1 Augmented Reality Augmented reality (1) become an easily accessible interactive experience overlaying a real-world environment on images or animations imagined by graphic designers or even computer-generated. Most of us will soon be able (2) this technology in our daily life through mobile devices like smart glasses for example. It (3) extend well beyond what it is today and offer not just gamers, tourists and scientists but any ordinary citizen with average computer literacy a whole new scope of sensual experiences. Will our senses learn how (4) reality from virtuality, and thus still retain some control and judgement over what we see? Or will augmented reality become so generalised that the mere question of our perceptions will no longer (5) as long as it serves a purpose? Then maybe the question will be what purpose can it serve? to avail of / to be about to / to be relevant / to be said to / to tell
56
In the News
Text 2 3D printing 3D printing sounded almost like magic, and possibly sci-fi (1) , a few decades ago, at least for Jane or John Doe. It has now become within arm’s reach, almost. Yes, at home you can now make, create, process, even manufacture, a three dimensional solid object from a digital file. Yes, there are a few (2) , but nothing likely to stop the most curious yet ordinary computer users. The 3D printer itself lays down successive layers of material until the (3) it copies is reached in this additive process. Yet, before you see the end result, you will need to go through a number of steps such as getting your 3D modelling (4) (some to start with are open source) and prepare the file for your 3D printer. This is called “slicing”, that is to say dividing your model into thousands of horizontal (5) so that the printer is fed with shapes and dimensions. The magic can then operate and out of what today looks like a small microwave oven or a model guillotine, your object can materialize. However, for the time being, only solid objects are 3D (6) , so if you fancy the same woolen hat your grand-mother knit for you years ago, you may need to resort to a DIY online-course in creative knitting, for your printer will not be able to deliver the (7) woolen hat your granny lovingly knit for you. advantages / constraints / copied / identical / layers / printable / shape / software / source / witchcraft
Text 3 Chatbots If jobs in manufacturing and transportation are very soon to be replaced by “automated assistants”, the future of customer service (1) still remain rather uncertain. Explaining on the phone the complex situation you may find yourself in when ringing your insurance or some customer support service and having the vague feeling that this person sounds somehow distant, a little awkward or unusually slow to (2) , will become an increasingly frequent experience. Even though the outcome of the conversation may not be fully satisfying, you will have spent long minutes going through sometimes useless details about your (3) , asking your complex questions to be, in the end, simply referred by this "conversational agent" to some other means of identifying the best course of action to your problem. This nightmarish situation will occasionally occur in the near (4) as chatbots are invited to take over and replace real person’s interactions for the sake of productivity. If they can indeed answer calls anytime of the day or night, 7 days a (5) and never get overworked or unpleasant, their generalised use is raising some problems. This high tech process should not underestimate the customer’s desire to be not just heard but also considered as a complex and perplexed human being and most of all, efficiency will have to enter the equation.
Texting etiquette. Here’s a list of dos and don’ts related to communication at work. Put the words in the right order and discuss them. — — — — — — —
a / concern / matters / quick / requiring / response. / should / Texting Avoid / business / except / hours / in case / messages / of emergency. / outside / sending company’s / confidential / information, / intranet. / Never / text / use / your Do / in a row / messages / not / one-sentence / on the same / send / several / topic. are / assume / Do / knows / not / referring to. / the reader / what / you abbreviation / ambiguous / Don’t / or / overuse / phrases. and / Don’t / double-check / forget / message / recipient. / the / to proofread / your
Topics for debate — The augmented human beings will reach perfection. Is this something to look forward to? — Dependent on high tech? We all are, for better and for worse. — Is an autonomous Artificial Intelligence a far-fetched scientist’s dream? — Technology heals but does not solve problems. — Any independent thinker needs to keep technology at bay.
High Tech
57
VOCABULARY HIGH TECH Accéder, avoir accès To access, have access to Accessible / disponible Available Administrateur de site Webmaster Afficher To display Améliorer To enhance / upgrade Appareil Device, appliance At-sign Arobase Assisté par ordinateur Computer-aided Conference call Audioconférence Automatisation Automation Avancée Breakthrough Bloquer des contenus Bureautique
To block material Office automation
Calomnie Caméra intégrée Cartouche d’encre Censure Chronophage Clavier Clé USB Coder Commerce en ligne Compresser Compte Connaissances informatiques Connecter (se), déconnecter Convivial Copier-coller Corriger (un texte) Courriel indésirable Crack en informatique Crypter Cybercriminalité
Defamation, slander Webcam Ink cartridge Censorship Time-consuming Keyboard USB Key, memory stick To code, to programme E-commerce To zip Account Computer literacy
Démodé Dépendance Dernier cri Diaporama Didacticiel Diffamation Diffamatoire Diffusion multimédia Disque dur Données Drogué du net Droits d’auteur
Outdated Addiction State-of-the-art Slide show Courseware Defamation, libel, slander Slanderous, defamatory Streaming Hard disk Data Webaholic Copyright
Ecoutes Écran Émettre, diffuser Empreinte digitale Endommager Engouement Ère numérique Éthique, déontologie
Wiretapping Screen, monitor To broadcast Digital fingerprint To damage Fad Digital era / age Ethics
Faire défiler Faire payer Filtre Forcer, s’introduire
To scroll up / down To charge Filter To break into
58
To log in, log out User-friendly To copy and paste To edit (a text) Spam, unsolicited / junk mail Computer nerd / geek To encode, to encrypt Cybercrime
Fournisseur d’accès Frais (fixes) Fuite, fuiter
Access / service provider Fee Leak, to leak
Gadget informatique Graver, graveur
widget To burn, a burner
Hameçonnage Haute technologie Héberger
Phishing High tech / technology To host
Identification Login Imprimer / imprimante To print / a printer Initié en informatique Computer literate AI =Artificial Intelligence Intelligence artificielle Webuser, internet user Internaute Liseuse E-reader Software Logiciel Logiciel à partager Shareware Spyware Logiciel espion Logiciel gratuit Freeware Malware, malicious Logiciel nuisible software Hardware Matériel Mémoire tampon Buffer To update Mettre à jour Mettre en ligne To upload Modélisation des données Data modeling Mot de passe Password Search engine Moteur de recherche Mouchard Cookie Navigateur Numérique, numériser
Browser Digital, to digitise
Omniprésent Onglet Opérateur de saisie Outil
Ubiquitous Tab Data keyer Tool
Online payment Paiement en ligne Pare-feu Firewall File-sharing Partage de fichiers Pavé numérique Number pad Peripheral Périphérique Pièce jointe Attached file, Email attachment Piratage informatique Digital piracy Pirater To hack (into a system) Point d’accès, borne Hotspot Police de caractère Font Portable (ordinateur) Laptop Portable (téléphone) Mobile / Cell phone, smartphone Programmer To code Propriété intellectuelle Intellectual property Puce électronique Chip, micro-chip Qui a pignon sur rue
Brick-and-mortar
Raccourci clavier Rançongiciel Récupérer Réduire les libertés Renforcer (les règles)
Hot key Ransomware To retrieve To curtail freedom To tighten (the rules)
In the News
Réseau Révéler (au public) Robotique, domotique
Network To expose, uncover, debunk Robotics, domotics
S’inscrire Sans fil Sans risque Sécurité Sensibiliser (le public) SMS Sortir, publier Sources sûres Supprimer Surfer sur, naviguer Surveillance Surveiller
To register Wireless, Wi-Fi Harmless, secure Safety To sensitize public opinion Text message To release / launch Reliable sources To delete / remove To browse Surveillance To monitor
Tablette Tableur Technologie de l’information Télécharger Temps réel Toile Traitement de texte Traiter, traitement
Tablet Spreadsheet IT = Information technology
Utilisateur à utilisateur
P2P = peer to peer
Verrouiller Violer (une règle)
To lock (up) to breach, to infringe
To download Real time World Wide Web Word-processor To process, processing
Webinaire webinar
TEXTING ALPHABET SOUP SAMPLES OF TEXTSPEAK / SMS LANGUAGE ABBREVIATIONS AFAIK As far as I know Away from keyboard AFK ASAP As soon as possible At the moment ATM b / w Between B4 Before B4N Bye for now Be back later BBL BRB Be right back By the way BTW CUL8R / CYL See you later Check your E-mail CYE dl Download Do the right thing DTRT ETA Estimated time of arrival For your information FYI GR8 Great Got to go GTG HAND Have a nice day Hope this helps HTH In any case IAC IC I see IMO In my opinion JK Just kidding
High Tech
K Ok Let me know LMK LOL Lots of love or Laugh out loud MMB Message me back More to follow MTF MYOB Mind your own business No comment NC NM Not much No problem NP NVM Never mind Oh my goodness OMG OMW On my way PLZ / pls Please Sry Sorry Take care TC THX / TX / TY Thanks / thank you Totally not cool TNC UR You’re w / e Whatever Y Why YNt Why not YOLO You only live once You’re welcome YW
59
3 e d a r T l Globa To say that the world we live in has been thriving on an economic model in which commerce has almost become its raison d’être is a truism and very few citizens today could claim that they are not consumers. Producing, selling and buying have shaped societies for centuries yet the planet-size dimension of today’s trade is relatively recent, hence the rise of the most powerful giant producers of goods and services, multinationals offering internationally millions of products all over the world, tapping markets and fighting commercial wars, not always within the limits of ethical practices. Profit-making is the single market-rule, only too often leading to a plutocratic exploitation and domination. Consumerism reigns the world over with varying degrees of destructiveness, not necessarily creating happiness but unmistakably to the detriment of some citizens at the bottom of the pecking order. The 21st century may see new business practices emerge and pave the way for a society where the consumer will be a citizen fully aware of what the act of consuming entails. This chapter questions consumerism, overconsumption, its human and environmental impacts as well as the strategies of producers and countries to maintain or expand their markets.
CONTENTS TXT 1 Indians call for boycott of Chinese goods after fatal border clashes B2 . . . . . . . . . 62 TXT 2 Capital and Ideology by Thomas Piketty – if inequality is illegitimate, why not reduce it? C2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 TXT 3 Have a heart, KitKat & Shark Finning & Deliver disaster B1+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 TXT 4 Fast fashion creates misery – and that’s always a bad look B2+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 INTERNET DOC. A The Strategy of international business (12’30”). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 INTERNET DOC. B Does microfinance empower or impoverish? (4’10”). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 INTERNET DOC. C R.D. Wolff On the root of consumerism (6’07”) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 REVISION
Multiple choice questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Gap-filling texts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Topics for debate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
VOCABULARY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
INDIANS CALL FOR BOYCOTT OF CHINESE GOODS AFTER FATAL BORDER CLASHES
TEXT 1
Indians have called for a boycott on Chinese goods and the Indian government has pledged to block investment and increase tariffs for China in the aftermath of the deadly border clash in the Himalayas that left 20 Indian soldiers dead and 76 injured. The fighting on Monday night on a steep precipice along the disputed border in the mountainous region of Ladakh was the worst violence between Indian and Chinese forces in 45 years. China has still not disclosed if it suffered any casualties.
Indian government officials say they plan to impose higher trade barriers and raise import duties on around 300 products from China. India currently has a $59.3bn trade deficit with China, with 11% of India’s imports coming from China. The Indian Telecom Ministry ordered government telecom providers and other private companies to ban all future Chinese deals and equipment upgrades. Chinese companies will also be banned from participating in tenders for future projects, which is likely to include plans to upgrade 4G services in India. Calls for a boycott of Chinese goods, technology and investment have been growing in India since early May, when Chinese troops began to build up in disputed territory in Ladakh, and violent skirmishes and stand-offs occurred between troops on the ground. An Indian-built program that helps users identify and delete Chinese apps on their phones was downloaded more than 5m times in May before it was blocked by Google. An Indian butter company briefly had its Twitter account blocked in early June after it posted adverts captioned with the thinly veiled anti-China message “exit the dragon?”. However, the boycott campaign quickly gathered momentum on both local and government levels across India after news emerged of the violence in the Galwan Valley, where soldiers fought in hand-to-hand conflict, with stones and clubs wrapped in barbed wire used as weapons. On Friday an Indian government official claimed that Chinese forces had dammed mountain streams near the site of the skirmish, waited for Indian troops to approach, then released torrents of water that knocked several of the soldiers off balance. “The strong gush of water made the men lose balance. The Chinese charged, pushed the army personnel and many fell into the Galwan river,” the Hindu paper quoted the official saying. “The patrolling team walked into an ambush… The men were outnumbered by the Chinese.” Sonam Wangchuk, a pioneering Indian engineer who lives and works in Ladakh, has been at the forefront of calls for a boycott on China, in response to what he described as China’s “bullying” behaviour over recent years, where land used by local herdsman to graze goats in Ladakh has slowly been encroached on by Chinese forces.
“If we just meet them with military force, that’s what China are looking for,” said Wangchuk. “We should do what they fear more, which is economic damage. India sends so much money… but we need to get ourselves out of this trap and call out China for what they are: a wolf, a rogue nation.” Wangchuk said the campaign had already been more successful than he had ever anticipated. “Citizens can make a huge difference,” he said. “The same wallets that built China in the last 30 years can also bring them down.” Since Monday, anti-China protests have broken out all over India, with effigies of the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, set alight. In Gujarat there was footage of people throwing their Chinese-made televisions over their balconies. In Delhi, the Residents Welfare Association of Defence Colony, an affluent neighbourhood of south Delhi, declared “war” on China through a boycott of goods. Retired army major Ranjit Singh, who is president of the RWA, said in a video message to residents: “I declare Defence Colony is at war. Unfortunately we cannot take up guns and bullets but definitely there are other means. We can break China’s backbone economically.” Both sides have blamed the other for the conflict, with India alleging that China carried out a “premeditated” attack on its forces, while China claims that Indian forces entered their terri tory on three occasions. Satellite footage confirms there had been a significant build up of Chinese troops in areas they were previously absent over the past month. The situation remains tense. While both India and China agreed to continue the process of de-escalation, discussions on Wednesday between Chinese and Indian army generals remained “inconclusive”. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which represents over 60 million Indian traders, stated it would be stepping up its anti-China boycott to include 450 broad categories of commo dities, which cover over 3,000 Chinese products ranging from cosmetics to handbags and furniture. Pressure was also building to cancel the lucrative contract recently given to a Chinese construction company to build an underground stretch of a new rapid rail project in Delhi. General secretary of the opposition Congress party, Priyanka Gandhi, accused the government of adopting a “a weak strategy of kneeling down” before China and handing them the project. There is a sense that China is concerned about the Indian calls for a boycott. A piece in the Global Times, the newspaper which is a mouthpiece for the Communist party, called for India to curb “illogical boycott-China voices” after the border clash, adding: “It is unrealistic and self-destructive for Asia’s third-largest economy to launch frictions with the largest economy in the region.” Hannah Ellis-Petersen, The Guardian, Jun. 18, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
62
In the News
1 In the article, a number of verbs are followed by their object in different ways. Identify and classify them in the table.
(V = verb; prep = preposition; ST = something; SO = someone) V + ST ex: to break ST – – – – – – – – – – – –
V + prep. ST ex: to participate in ST – – – – –
V + to V ST ex: to pledge to do ST – – –
V + SO + prep + ST ex: to blame SO for ST –
V + SO / ST (+to) V ST ex: to help SO to do ST – – –
Use the right verb and structure to write sentences using these nouns explaining the situation. (an) ambush / (an) attack / backbone / balance / boycott / casualties / guns / momentum / pressure / tariffs / war
2 The article refers to many terms related to war. Some definitions are given in parenthesis, replace them with the terms corresponding in the article.
The so-called (unofficial, small scale fighting) that erupted between China and India seems close to a guerilla warfare judging by reports of (close, physical) fighting and the use of homemade (arms). What is worrying is that not only these (violent confrontations) have caused (people injured or dead) but the presence of (official human forces) deployed close to the border and what seems like (planned) attacks make what some call (disagreements) looking more like an unofficial war than a trade war. Now do the same with vocabulary related to commerce. Putting (persuasion or intimidation) on countries by (stopping buying or using to express disapproval) some products is clearly (to starting / setting in motion) a war-like (an organised set of actions) which is likely to hurt both countries. (Customs duties) can become a means to regulate the amount of (commercial exchange) one can have with a partner but India is not in a comfortable position as its trade (negative balance) especially when it comes to (raw material or goods regularly exchanged between countries) it massively buys from China is not favourable at all. Any existing or future (contract) and (offer) is (forbidden) until authorities reach a de-escalation process.
3 Revise the basic rules concerning reported speech and then fill in the verbs in the right verb tense. China has still not disclosed if it any casualties. (to suffer) Indian officials say they to impose higher trade barriers. (to plan) An Indian official claimed that Chinese forces mountain streams before the attack. (to dam) He said they torrents of water onto soldiers. (to release) The Hindu paper reported that soldiers into the Galwan river. (to be pushed) Wangchuk believes that if they them with military force, China will respond. (to meet) He laments that China so much money to China through trade. (to send) He said that boycotting more successful than he . (to be; to anticipate) He felt that citizens make a huge difference. (can) He said that the wallets that China also bring it down. (build; can) He declared that Defence Colony at war. (to be) He regretted they take up guns and bullets. (cannot) He was adamant that they break China’s backbone economically. (can) China claims that Indian forces their territory. (to enter) Indian traders confirmed they an anti-China boycott. (will step up) The Global Times declared it illogical to call for a boycott. (to be) It added it it unrealistic and self-destructive for Asia’s third-largest economy. (to find)
Global Trade
63
4 Comprehension questions Who are the different forces and parties at play in this unofficial conflict? Outline the principle of a boycott and what it aims at. Is an embargo the same? Why? Can a local crisis lead to a domestic one and an international one too? Think of events in history. How can ordinary citizens show their support for a cause? Destructively or more constructively?
5 Debate topic Some countries are said to be “bullying others”. What does it really mean? Who can interfere to establish fair neighbouring relationship? What happens when neighbouring countries strongly disagree? Refer to some past or present European cases.
64
In the News
NOTES �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
Global Trade
65
TEXT 2
CAPITAL AND IDEOLOGY BY THOMAS PIKETTY – IF INEQUALITY IS ILLEGITIMATE, WHY NOT REDUCE IT? It is a journalistic convention that any author who writes a doorstopper of a book with the word “capital” in the title must be the heir to Karl Marx, while any economist whose books sell in the hundreds of thousands is a “rock star”. Thomas Piketty’s 600-page, multi-million selling Capital in the Twenty-First Century won him both accolades, but both were wide of the mark. There is nothing Marxist about Piketty’s politics, which are those of a liberal reformer, while his concept of capital is closer to an accounting category (a proxy for “wealth”) than the exploitative force that Marx saw it as. And despite his unexpected celebrity, Piketty makes for an implausible rock star. Piketty is fixated on statistics, mines them from unlikely sources, such as 18th-century tax records and he is clearly fasci nated by the mechanics of how data came to be collected in the first place. Piketty is a brilliant and relentless anorak.
Capital and Ideology is an even more ambitious book. The new book offers a history of almost everything. The chronology begins with a sweeping overview of feudal and other premodern economies, and ends with the dilemmas posed by the gilets jaunes. The geographic range is global, adding Brazil, Russia, India and China to his previous analyses of Europe and the US. Slavery and colonialism are covered at length. It is certainly the case that most authors who have taken on a historical task of this scale have been either Marxists or shysters. Marxists have the benefit of a clear theory of histo rical change, which helps knit copious quantities of evidence together. French Marxism (surely an inspiration for Piketty, if only in scholarly ambition) seeks historical patterns that are several centuries in the making. As for the shysters, if there isn’t already a TED talk on “what your brain tells us about 1,000 years of inequality”, then someone’s missed a trick. The point is that in order to find a thread through so much history, it helps to have a theory. But Piketty’s theoretical innocence has always been part of his charm, and no doubt contributes to his mass-market appeal. The closest he’s ever come to an overarching historical mechanism is the formula R>G (return is greater than growth) and how wealth grows faster than income, and why inequality therefore increases over time. Yet even this, he was keen to point out, was simply an observation of available data and not to be interpreted as a “law” of any kind. His premise in Capital and Ideology is a moral one: inequality is illegitimate, and therefore requires ideologies in order to be justified and moderated. “All history shows that the search for a distribution of wealth acceptable to the majority of people is a recurrent theme in all periods and all cultures,” he reports boldly. As societies distribute income, wealth and education more widely, so they become more prosperous. For the bulk of this vast book Piketty maps the dominant “inequality regimes” of the past millennium. “Ternary soci-
eties” (such as feudalism) were divided into clerical, military and working classes. “Ownership societies” developed over the 18th century, becoming dominant by the end of the 19th, concentrating income and wealth in the hands of landowning families and the new bourgeoisie. “Slave societies” offered the most extreme model of inequality (Haiti circa 1780 is revealed as the most unequal society on record). “Colonial societies” had various combinations of military power, bourgeois ownership and slavery. Communist and post-communist societies provide a tragic overture in the book, in which the utopian ideal of complete equality produces poverty, stagnation and then the rampant inequality of contemporary oligarchical Russia. His insistence on looking beyond the perimeter of the liberal west – and confronting some of its worst historical crimes – is admirable, even if it does inevitably involve some broad brushstrokes. Capital and Ideology serves as an intervention in policy debates that are unmistakably European. It is also a reminder to the current occupant of the Élysée Palace that the French Revolution wasn’t fought for liberté and fraternité alone. Piketty’s account of the past 40 years is less a story of capital being unleashed than of progressive ideologies running out of steam. The failure of communism played a crucial role in this, producing a new fatalism about the capacity of politics to deliver equality. Globalisation eroded national borders, while “hypercapitalism” delivered concentrations of wealth not witnessed since 1914. Piketty concludes with a tentative policy programme which includes some bold ideas (such as an equal education budget for every citizen, to be invested as they choose), but mostly rests on ideas of participatory governance, progressive taxation, democratisation of the EU and income guarantees that have been circulating on the radical liberal left for decades. Suffice to say that naming such policies is considerably easier than executing them. He might be right that, given the climate crisis among other factors, current levels of inequality cannot long be maintained and new policies will be introduced: he prefers to take an optimistic position, based on the assumption that “inequality regimes” never last for ever. Capital and Ideology is an astonishing experiment in social science, one that defies easy comparison. It alternates between sweeping generalities about the nature of justice and the kind of wonkery that one might expect from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, often in the same paragraph. It is occasionally naive but in a provocative fashion, as if to say: if inequality isn’t justified, why not change it? Amid the distraction and perpetual outrage of our dysfunctional public sphere, this enlightenment confidence in empirics feels beamed in from another age. It also makes for a unique scholarly edifice, which will be impossible to ignore. William Davies, The Guardian, Feb. 19, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
66
In the News
Exercises 1 to 4 allow a progressive reading of the review paragraph by paragraph. Exercise 5 is general.
1 Read the first paragraph and, using a dictionary, clear up the vocabulary which stops you from understanding the main ideas. Then try to answer the following vocabulary quiz. “A doorstopper of a book” is a book which is: a not for every reader b heavy c shaped like a door “To win accolades” means: a to get friends’ smiles b to win a game c to earn awards or respect “To be an anorak” means: a you study in depth unfashionable topics b you are in a cold place c you are an Eskimo “Sweeping” overview” is: a changing, fluctuating view b detailed and partial view c general and inclusive view “A shyster” is someone who is: a unethical b demanding with others c very shy Cross out what this first paragraph is NOT about: 1 Piketty’s Marxist ideology 2 The main content of Piketty’s latest book 3 Piketty’s Innovative TedTalk 4 Piketty’s extended historical and socio-economic analysis 5 Piketty’s sources and celebrity
2 Read the second paragraph and find synonyms for the terms underlined in these sentences. Piketty is an economist who attracts the attention of a large audience. In his latest book, he states how enthusiastic he is to refer to and compare so many examples in different countries and periods. Yet the idea common to all the examples of the book rests bravely upon the thesis that you can have an all-embracing view which does not rely on an existing theory. Discuss the final sentence of the paragraph with examples in Europe or other parts of the world.
3 In the types of societies Piketty describes, there are eight categories of players, find them. They unequally
share income, wealth and land. Define these three key terms in relation to power and domination. The end of the paragraph concludes with this statement: “Globalisation eroded national borders”. Discuss it with examples to support this idea and other examples to oppose it. Fill in the gaps of this short text on the article. Different models of society are m in Piketty’s book which opens on a study of the r inequalities found in contemporary Russia. Though capital has recently been u , the economist does not believe this is the main cause for today’s concentration of wealth. He explains that forward thinking is r out of s , maintaining the inequalities the liberal west does not fight enough. A u ideal is still to be invented for real improvement to materialise.
4 Read the final paragraph of the article and match Piketty’s vision of the problems and ideas with the adjectives they are associated with. Match these adjectives with their explanations. Policy programme Education budget Governance Taxation The EU Income Position Experiment Public sphere Confidence
Global Trade
• • • • • • • • • •
• astonishing • • optimistic • • dysfunctional • • progressive • • democratised • • equal • • guaranteed • • enlightened • • participatory • • tentative •
• shared • the same in quantity, size, value • formally assured • uncertain, not final • rational and well-informed • gradual • which does not work • very surprising • secured • made available to all citizens, often by vote
67
Essay topics: “Inequality regimes” never last for ever or The idea of a “liberal left” is a contradiction in terms. Use some of the notions from the table above to discuss one of these topics.
5 Quote words from the review which indicate if the journalist recommends or not the book he reviews. What words express best this opinion? Find out more about contemporary economists’ views, such as Joseph Stiglitz, Amartya Sen and Barbara Bergmann, and write a short article for students who do not know much about economics and would like to know more about the stakes of different economic models.
68
In the News
NOTES �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
Global Trade
69
HAVE A HEART, KITKAT, DON’T BREAK WITH FAIRTRADE
TEXT 3
Here’s a quiz question: how many KitKats are produced in the Nestlé factory in York each year? A hundred million? Keep going. The plant makes a billion of the UK’s bestselling chocolate bars annually. That volume is one reason that the company’s shameful decision to end the brand’s Fairtrade certification will have such a devastating effect on cocoa farmers.
I visited some of the Fairtrade-certified cocoa farms in Ivory Coast last year. Seeing the difference that a measure of financial security can make to some of the poorest villages on earth is a lasting lesson in the mechanics of hope. In thrall to pisteurs – sharkish local agents – many of the fami lies working the Ivorian cocoa plantations subsist on less than the price of a KitKat per day. In the farms that live up to
Fairtrade standards – outlawing child labour, creating stable cooperatives – the guaranteed minimum price removes a bit of that uncertainty from their lives. The 10% premium not only allows the communities to invest in schools and sanitation; it gives them the unfamiliar sense of progress. The market remains stacked against those farmers. Cocoa producers receive about 6% of the value of a chocolate bar. Nestlé made a profit of £8bn last year. York, one of 600 pioneering Fairtrade towns and cities in Britain, is leading a campaign against Nestlé’s miserable decision. If you care about the best of “global Britain” sign its petition – and have a break from buying KitKats until the policy is reversed. Tim Adams, The Guardian, Jul. 5, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
SHARK FINNING: WHY THE OCEAN’S MOST BARBARIC PRACTICE CONTINUES TO BOOM In the narrow streets of the centre of Hong Kong’s dried seafood trade, most window displays give pride of place to a particular item: shark fins. Perched on shelves, stuffed in jars and stacked in bags, shark fins are offered in all shapes and sizes. Several shops even include “shark fin” in their name. Fins are lucrative, fetching as much as £715 per catty (604.8g), and the trade is big business. Hong Kong is the largest shark fin importer in the world, and responsible for about half of the global trade. The fins sold there come from more than 100 countries and 76 different species of sharks and rays, a third of which are endangered.
In May, customs officials made the biggest shark fin seizure in Hong Kong history: 26 tonnes of fins, contained in two shipping containers from Ecuador, cut from the bodies of 38,500 endangered sharks. The fins are often removed from the animals while still alive. The wounded sharks are then usually thrown back into the sea where, unable to swim, they
sink and die of blood loss or are eaten by other predators. The practice is banned by many countries and some international agreements. But the sale and consumption of shark fin remains legal in Hong Kong, although products from endangered sharks must be accompanied by a permit. Illegal trading is punishable by up to 10 years in jail and a HK$10m fine, but prosecutions are rare. Viewed as a delicacy and status symbol, shark fin is typically eaten shredded in a jelly-like soup at weddings and family banquets. “The shark fins themselves don’t taste of anything,” says executive director of HK Shark Foundation, a local NGO. “The taste comes only from the soup broth. It’s the texture of the shark fin that people like and the fact that it is a luxury item. It’s conspicuous consumption. It’s about showing wealth and status by ordering the best or most expensive item.” Matthew Keegan, The Guardian, Jul. 6, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
70
In the News
DELIVERY DISASTER: THE HIDDEN ENVIRONMENTAL COST OF YOUR ONLINE SHOPPING There’s still something magical about the idea of browsing a world of goods online, choosing what you want and having it delivered to your door, sometimes within hours. You may give a fleeting thought to the environmental impact when you are drowning in excess packaging but it’s easy to ignore the rest of it. Such as the fact that Amazon emits nearly as much carbon dioxide as a small country. We are buying more online than ever – and younger age groups are less likely to shop locally than people over 55. Our rapidly growing delivery culture is a challenge as it’s easy to go online and buy things cheaply. They might have been shipped from far off countries, manufactured from raw materials and they arrive at our homes at little or no cost, according to Tim Anderson, head of transport at the Energy Saving Trust.
In an ideal world, online shopping could be a better option than making individual trips to the store; large weekly grocery deliveries can be the better choice, as long as we don’t make additional supermarket trips ourselves. We do not live in an ideal world, however, but one in which profit
and consumerism are rampant. We don’t behave – and online retailers don’t encourage us to behave – in a sensible way. Once, we were prepared to wait, but now we want same-day delivery. We have vehicles shooting all over the place making single deliveries. We have the concept of “free” delivery, which is a selling point for retailers, but it’s not really free in the sense of what it costs them and what it costs in environmental terms. People also buy things, parti cularly clothes, with the intention of returning much of the order, resulting in more carriage and mileage. They are not being penalised financially for doing so. The growth in hotfood delivery services has been enormous. Bicycles would help in terms of pollution, but the trend has been to move away from bikes as these firms expand their networks, and it’s not viable. So what should we do? Shop locally, [especially] if you can use sustainable transport. We should be more patient and consolidate orders into one delivery at a time. Choose to pick them up at a nearby collection point. Work it into your daily commute. Emine Saner, The Guardian, Feb. 17, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
1 Have a heart… a The headline of the article refers to the KitKat slogan. Explain how. b In the article, what are the four advantages fair trade offers? List them and check the website Fairtrade International for their precise meaning (Home>About>How Fairtrade works: What is Fair trade?) (https://www.fairtrade.net/about/how-fairtrade-works). Watch the video. Can you think of other advantages? c What does the journalist suggest consumers should do at the end of the article? d Are you a fair trade consumer? Why? Why not? What criticism can be made about fair trade? You can refer to Wikipedia’s Fair trade debate for ideas. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_trade_debate).
2 Shark Finning… a b c d
Why are shark fins so expensive? Why is it surprising? Why do animal rights activists oppose this trade? What seems inconsistent in such a market? The journalist refers to conspicuous consumption at the end of the article. Explain what is meant by this in your own words? Give other examples. Are you at times a conspicuous consumer? What motivates and influence your choice when buying?
Global Trade
71
3 Delivery disaster… a What advantages are there to having goods delivered to your door? b Why does the journalist claim that “online shopping could be a better option”? Are there reasons why it can be argued that it is not the case? c Why is free delivery not a reality? Why and how are customers led to believe so? d How could deliveries become more sustainable?
Quoting from the three articles, explain how the journalists get involved in the story they report and involve their readers?
4 Vocabulary: Fill in the table with either a definition or a word matching a definition from the three texts. Word
Definition
agreement production site value business, usually large, with international partners profit trademark NGO to earn just about enough to survive, to get by raw material buyers of products abroad selling them on a domestic market sharkish wrappers, protection around goods shelves to transport by boat lucrative someone representing someone else, an in-between retailer in a shop, where goods are seen from outside to manufacture financially sustainable
5 Grammar: In the article “Delivery Disaster...”, six modal verbs are used. Underline them and make sure you can explain the difference between each.
What can modal verbs express? What are their grammatical common points? For each line, order the words to form a sentence. You can discuss the statements afterwards. — — — — — —
72
all the economic problems / but / Fairtrade / it / many / may have / some advantages / producers face. / will not solve / a chance / a decent living. / can be given / its / local producers / Nestlé / must change / policy / so that / to earn / and / ecological disasters / fewer / Hong Kongers / should change / their habits / would occur. / anymore / be better / can / not be sold / protected. / Shark fins / should / so that / these animals / a significant impact. / but / have / may / may not / reduce / Some customers / their deliveries / this / a chance. / Anyone / be given / deliveries / linked to / ought to / may / seriously / so that / take / the Earth / the problems /
In the News
NOTES �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
Global Trade
73
FAST FASHION CREATES MISERY – AND THAT’S ALWAYS A BAD LOOK
TEXT 4
During lockdown, everyone’s id has been allowed to float untethered. Obsessions, manias, strange desires and perverse fantasies have risen to the surface as the conventions of normal life melted into a free-floating miasma of Netflix and pasta bakes. Judging by the spike in sales of fast fashion, many people across the nation are buying outfits for an alternative fantasy life rather than their homebound realities. In their imagined Sliding Doors timeline they’re having brunch cocktails on a hotel balcony in Ibiza or dancing the night away in “the club”. And so they logged on to cheap clothing sites and bought a polyester playsuit, some bold separates and a nylon dress in a snappy print that will fall apart after three wears.
Consumers might be seduced by hanger appeal, but at what cost? Boohoo’s share price has tanked as alarm grows around the treatment of the workers in one of its suppliers’ Leicester factories. Allegations include unfit working conditions, staff forced to work through lockdown, an absence of sanitiser or protective equipment and long-term employees paid between £3.50 and £5 an hour – less than half the national living wage. Boohoo said it is investigating the claims and will cut ties with any supplier that breaches its code of conduct. None of this is really a shock. Awareness of the exploitative and unequal production conditions of fast fashion – which UK consumers hoover up like so much junk food – has been growing for the past few years. Fashion has a long supply chain that makes placing the blame and divining who is truly responsible for exploitation difficult. Fashion industry activism extends well beyond the Leicester garment district to address sweatshop labour, factory conditions, child exploi tation and the ecological cost of the entire international cycle of clothing manufacture. But lockdown has forced simmering issues up to the boil, so they are now impossible to ignore. Nobody who buys fast fashion regularly is in danger of actually having nothing to wear. Consumers are buying a fantasy, an image in their own minds. The retail cost is low,
but the true price is paid by the workers. Young women buy these clothes for a bit of cheap, disposable fun, but the female factory workers who sew them are seen as even more cheap and disposable, by purchasers and fashion-brand bosses. We pay more or less for the clothes depending on each brand’s marketing spin, but the workers are paid a pittance and treated like dirt. The division of labour is gendered: women toil at machines in factories, men work in warehouses and as delivery drivers. The wider inequality is also heavily racialised. During the “urban vigilante” phase of lockdown, when we were all dobbing and snitching on our neighbours, I used to ragewatch as delivery drivers had to go up and down the street with their soft grey plastic packages of crappy beachwear. All the drivers were black or brown. They all looked knackered. None seemed to have gloves or a mask or bleach spray or hand sanitiser. They were having to touch dozens of parcels and doorbells and porch-fronts a day. Some might argue that the human sacrifice of black and brown workers is needed to keep the economy going, because otherwise it will tilt into a full depression, with mass unemployment. But Boohoo chief executive Mahmud Kamani is a millionaire. Sorry – my mistake – he’s actually a billionaire. And he is also the biggest shareholder in Boohoo group, which also owns Pretty Little Thing and Nasty Gal. Oh, and Coast, Karen Millen, Oasis and Warehouse. Cheap and mid-range clothes are often made in the same factories by the same people, with the same cost price. But all too often this is how big businesses in the mainstream fashion industry work. We pay more or less for the clothes depending on each brand’s marketing spin, but the workers are paid a pittance and treated like dirt. Once you really start looking at the fashion industry, its outer allure soon appears as flimsy and transparent as poor-quality dress fabric. Bidisha, The Guardian, Jul. 7, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
74
In the News
1 In each paragraph of the article, find either a synonym (=) or an antonym (≠). §1 freely moving in the air = chronology of events and dates graphically presented = §2 strong attraction to something = to associate, to link with ≠ §3 to consume with desire = to reach a temperature just below boiling point = §4 adjective for something everlasting, that you keep for a long time ≠ a large, generous amount of money ≠ §5 to work very hard and for long periods = informing, telling on someone’s activities = §6 marginal, unlike the rest ≠ mysterious attraction or fascination = Now explain what they mean in the text.
2 Find the words matching the following definitions. All are terms related to commerce and in alphabetical order.
Ex: Someone who owns and runs and / or manages a company (2 words) ➞ boss (or chief executive)
For the final three rows in the table, only key words are given. For each, write the definition and find the word. WORD
DEFINITION Name of a company making a product (or a range of products), often associated with an image, trademark Company involved in trading goods / services; also someone’s regular occupation Someone who buys something (2 words) Amount of money the makers need to pay to produce goods Building(s) where products are made or assembled Non-specific name for a piece of clothing Work, especially physical work; also collective name for workers as a social or political class The making of articles on a large scale Favourable presentation of a product to attract the attention of potential buyers For a product, average in price, quality and size Amount of money to be paid by the buyer Date by when a perishable product should be consumed (Investor / company / owns part of it) (Sequence / processes / making / or distribution / a product) (Workplace / workers / very low pay / very long hours of work)
Global Trade
75
3 (Comprehension) Answer the following questions. Each corresponds to one paragraph of the article. a b c d e f
How can inexpensive clothes be available on the market? What unsatisfactory working conditions were Boohoo employees accusing their employer of? Why is it so complicated to measure worker’s rights in the clothing industry? How is most of the fast fashion industry structured? What is its pricing policy? What is the impact of the unusual circumstances of the lockdown on consumers’ choices? Who are the fast fashion industry workers? Why were they more exposed than other workers during lockdown?
4 Identify the tone of the article (technical, casual, literary, light, ironic, humorous, etc.) and the point of
view of the journalist. To help you, here are a few expressions from the article, look for their meaning if necessary and find out what hey have in common in terms of register. to tank / to hoover up / to rage-watch Explain the final sentence of the article in your own words.
5 The sub-headline states: Cheap, throwaway clothing was past its sell-by date… Brands need to change their act – and so do consumers Are there other products you consume, throwaway or cheap, which should be removed from your shopping list? Choose one or two and explain how anyone can change their habits, choosing more virtuous products for example.
6 Creative writing As a member of a militant group, write a leaflet to hand out to customers walking in and out of the trendy fast fashion outlets of your town. Try to make them aware of the social and environmental impact of their purchase and reflect on the necessity to take part so regularly or enthusiastically to the consumer society. You need to be emphatic and convincing. Think carefully of what your message is, what you support and advocate.
7 Would you ever consider working for the fast fashion industry? What could attract you to it? What would
you find difficult to handle? What would you ideally like to change? How could you try to implement these changes?
76
In the News
INTERNET DOC. A THE STRATEGY OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS Get It? ESL, 2021, 12’30” / total 22’25”
A Watch the document once without pausing or taking notes. Then fill in the following text with words from the document. Watch again to check your answers. 0 ➞ 1’25”
Multinationals, corporations, transnational companies, conglomerates, consortiums… So many companies today operate worldwide, having developed from a local or domestic market to an international one. These companies figured out the real for the business to venture abroad. The managers’ strategy for is three-fold: they need to know why they want to internationally, where to go and how to do so. 1’26” ➞ 5’10”
One of the best reasons for developing operations abroad is to across national borders, so that your market and more importantly your customer base get bigger. The aim is to increase . Yet, because of of foreignness, selling more does not automatically imply making higher . There must also be clear strategic objectives in order to deliver value. What also certainly generates more profit is a cost strategy and a strategic move abroad can allow this, if for example labour is cheaper, even when you add the cost of and communication. You can also spread your Research and costs, lowering the unit cost thus benefiting from the economy of principle. If several markets are tapped, being present in one and another is giving the company more revenues and stability because of less dependence on one market only and better opportunities to losses in one country with profits from another. Operational gains are yet again another good reason to expand internationally, in case of a strike or a natural somewhere, production can be compensated somewhere else. Finally, innovation benefits from competing on several markets, products need to be adapted to new customers, leading to new for the same product. 5’11” ➞ 8’35
Again customer oriented strategies can lead you to choose where to go global but this will certainly require adapting, at least in terms of lifestyle and language. So the best is to measure not only distance, but cultural, administrative and economic distances too. Being close to potential foreign markets helps as is fast and cheap and products may not need much tailoring. But when it comes to tastes in food or habits, selling abroad gets more complex. Products also need to comply with national , government policies and legal systems. China is known to have a heavy control on what goods enter its territory for example. Finally, having a new customer base means to take into account the new consumers’ power. You cannot sell many luxury goods where a fridge is affordable to only a small minority or people live with less than $2 a day. 8’40” ➞ 12’05”
Knowing how to enter a new market also requires much thinking. The three strategies, , global and arbitrage, are decisions to be made early in the process of internationalisation. When choosing a multidomestic approach, time and energy are spent to design products with special features matching the national . The key value is very obviously . And opposite to this is the global approach. No matter where you are, you are getting the same product from the same company. This allows economies of scale to its full potential, the customer is supposed to be satisfied with the exact same product. But even in a global strategy, you may find some adaptation to local tastes and preferences. Finally, arbitrage taps on the skills and uniqueness you can exploit somewhere, often in areas of designing or research and development. arbitrage consists in selling the uniqueness of the product as a clearly identified foreign product, betting on the quality consumers associate with it. 12’08” ➞ 12’30”
There is no ideal recipe for a safe and successful internationalisation, each country is different, each product unique, tastes and customers’ desires may also be unpredictable. But when the is right, when you also successfully face global and local , it is well worth the effort.
Global Trade
77
B
Can you think of examples of products which are sold in different countries by a multinational? Are they the same or are they adapted to a given market? (You may research Pocky / Mikado biscuits or Burger King / Hungry Jack’s; Links / Axe; Dannon / Danone or Mars / Milky Way / 3 musketeers)
C When the marketing strategy is not solid, tapping a foreign market is more risky and even for the biggest companies, failures cannot be avoided. Research such cases on the internet and identify where, in the process, something went wrong. You may check these: 10 International Marketing Campaigns that failed to translate: https://www.meldium.com/10-international-marketing-campaigns-that-failed-to-translate/ Lost in Translation: 10 International Marketing Fails: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5241-international-marketing-fails.html
78
In the News
INTERNET DOC. B DOES MICROFINANCE EMPOWER OR IMPOVERISH? TRT World, 2017, 26’42” The exercises below only cover the documentary (Breaking the cycle of poverty, 4’10”)
A Before watching the document, research microcredit and fill in the following table. You can use the Wikipedia entry (only focusing on Introduction, History and Principles). MODERN MICROCREDIT Definition: Main principles: Where it developed first: Year:
Name of the first bank:
Founder:
Who most of the recipients are: Purpose of the loans: Criticism:
B
Watch the document, and section by section or after viewing it all, answer the questions. 18” ➞ 30” After the presentation of the topic, describe why what you see is supposed to illustrate
globalisation.
31” ➞ 45” What is the contradiction the TV programme intends to address? 47” ➞ 53” Describe the opening scene of the documentary Breaking the Cycle of Poverty. 54” ➞ 1’28” What is the main question the documentary opens on? Do the two persons stating their opinion
agree?
1’36” ➞ 2’23” What historical background is presented to reflect the evolution of microfinance? Did credit
to the poor exist before microfinance developed? Explain how microfinance has become institutionalised.
2’25” ➞ 2’57” Why is microcredit often misused? What do economists criticize it for? 2’58” ➞ 3’23” What does Jason Hickel explain to justify that microcredit does not reduce poverty? 3’25” ➞ 3’47” What are the two changes which international reports advocate to avoid the desperate situations
some find themselves in?
3’50” ➞ end Has M. Yunus’ promise been kept? So finally, does microfinance empower or impoverish?
C Find the expressions used in the documentary synonymous with what is underlined in each sentence. The Nobel Peace Prize winner wanted to make poverty disappear within a generation. Microcredit means to grant an amount of money to be paid back. Finance on a small scale provides a range of banking services to the poorest. The aim of such services was to lift the poorest out of poverty and to make them gain more independence. Microcredit should reach those on the margins of society, i.e. at the bottom of the income scale. Most of the poor are trapped in a cycle of debt.
Global Trade
79
When microcredit started to develop many economists thought it would reduce poverty. These relatively small amounts of money are intended to help entrepreneurs get their business going. The procedures that allow institutions to be paid back are not so well defined. Sometimes, even with the best intentions, people’s budget gets out of control. In developing countries, it is rare to escape poverty. When people consider suicide because of their debt, mercy and forgiveness should be considered by the lender. I am sure none really chooses not to pay one’s borrowing. There are a few really wonderful happy experiences in the history of microcredit. For some, microfinance could be the ideal solution, for those who are real entrepreneurs. Choose 5 of these sentences and write another sentence following each starting with: Yet or However... to explain why the reality is often different.
D Listen to the following document about microcredit to get a different view about its shortcomings. What is the structural flaw Richard Wolff is drawing attention to? His view being even more critical of the whole economic structure, what does he recommend? Richard Wolff on Microcredit and Microfinance, 2018, 8’07” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj5IioPwd6M) Key concepts: risk, demand and supply, supply-side economics, trickle-down economics, lobbies,
80
In the News
INTERNET DOC. C RICHARD WOLFF ON THE ROOT OF CONSUMERISM Get It? ESL, 2021, 6’07”
A Before listening to the document, define the two key terms: consumerism and labour. Identify what they are usually associated with in terms of types of society and human experience.
B
Listen to the document and answer the following questions: 0” ➞ 1’05” What major confusion should not be made regarding consumerism? Who usually reminds people
of the non-materialistic values in life? What is the question the economist is trying to answer in this document? What economic arrangement of society supports consumerism?
1’ ➞ 2’30”
What is the problem between the worker and his/her labour?
2’33” ➞ 3’
What is the usual compensation for labour? What does this reward allow?
3’02” ➞ 4’
What is associated to labour? Quote at least four adjectives.
4’ ➞ 5’11”
What duality has a capitalist society set in the values associated to the two key notions?
6’11” ➞ end What should and does sometimes labour provide?
What conclusion does the economist reach?
C Using the main ideas in this document, draft a list of questions applicants to a job should have in mind when selecting their job offers. What are your priorities? D Finish this session with a very short document related to American consumption. Watch:
Adbusters UnCommercial - The Consumer pig, 2012, 33”
Are you surprised? What makes you react most? This document was made in 2012, do you think trends have changed since then? Do you live in a consumer society? Identify several products you buy that you could choose not to buy, ie non-necessary items. Do you think you are a reasonable consumer? Why? Why not? Is the consumer society the only one that could be sustainable? Is it sustainable? Explain and justify your opinion on this with simple examples. Research the event promoted at the end of the video. You may watch: Adbusters - Kalle Lasn on CNN for Buy Nothing Day or Adbusters - Kalle Lasn on CBC - Reflections on Occupy on YouTube for an interview of the founder of this movement. Describe its logo. Would you engage in such an event? Why? Why not? What are the motivations of those who promote it? Can it change mass consumption?
Global Trade
81
REVISION GLOBAL TRADE Fill in the sentences with one of the choices given.
1
Domestic markets are often protected with custom duties import tax tariffs income
imposed by the State.
2
Some countries do not respect the most basic commercial practices; they are rough rife rogue rude
3
Many countries rely too heavily on tourism and foreign commodity external trade
4
The of this country is more than its GDP, it includes its population, territory and traditions. growth wealth product deficit
5
This liberal economic policy politic regimes manage
6
Some economists intend to address not at all. disagreement inequality issue poor
7
In the poorest countries, the gains total income budget
8
Any production standard requires adequate law regulatory certification voucher
9
The and consumption of luxury goods should be more heavily taxed. selling buy sell power
states.
exports.
favours profit-making agents and reduces public spending. either theoretically or very practically, but often
allocated to culture is almost non-existent. before it can be launched.
q Many affluent and impatient consumers are now ready to pay an extra fee to get deliveries. same-time save same-price same-day
w Fast
fashion has a complex countries. credit supply demand labour
chain involving many sub-contractors in far away
e A low
price strategy usually fuels mass consumption and over consumption. retail producer commercial customer
r
want to see the value of their investment increase rapidly, so that they get richer. Brand Shareholders CEO The State
t For most national companies,
profits. forwarding being trending going
global means reaching bigger markets and increasing
y Marketers need to assess their consumer-base product. buy purchasing spending consumer
u
82
Globalisation has triggered a certain norms modelisation universal standardisation
power for them to set a price for a
of products and customer expectations.
In the News
i
These multinationals intend to tap top build grow
Asian markets to strengthen their economic domination.
o
Capitalism leads us to believe that spend shopping spree spending incomes
p
Workers rarely see the profit benefit outlook values
a
Economic austerity can even further the weakest in society. support constraint downgrade impoverish
s
Banks sometimes support their clients who need a loan lending trust back up
is the reward for hard work.
of their work and its direct impact in society.
to start their business.
d Poverty
is not the priority of businesses, the state needs to deal with this. lightening reduce alleviation transaction
f
If you debt, the interest costs can soar very quickly and your debt gets out of control. get in drag run into get out of
g
may create jobs abroad but they also destroy some at home. Locations Relocations Source out Outsource
h
Fair trade higher incomes to producers and more awareness among consumers. ensures assure certifies checks
j
partners usually commit to one another in the long term. Trades Traders Trade deal Trading
k This
used to produce 2,000 units a day; now, because of competition, it’s about to close down. fabric warehouse factories plant
l
Non materialistic values can be considered to be the opposite of comsume consumerism consumer choice underconsumption
;
Marketing turns almost anyone into a potential buyer in this consumption consuming consume consumer
z Buy Nothing Day was meant to counter Black Friday’s mad shopping
. society. .
sprees out mall fee
Fill in the gaps with a verb conjugated in text 1, with an adjective in text 2, more words than needed are given. In text 3, the same preposition can only be used once. Text 1 The WTO The World Trade Organization was created in 1995 to (1) greater global cooperation between members, now 164 of them, to help (2) multilateral trade deals, to settle cross-border commercial disputes and (3) trade flows. It recently tried to unite leaders of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in an effort to put aside their differences in order to support economic growth. The organisation, which has come under sustained attack from free market supporters, especially in the US, still intends to maintain good business practices and keep trade away from a world where the law of the jungle (4) . Yet, it has not come up with any major international agreements on trade since 2015. Both its attempts to (5) subsidies for fishing to allow a revival of depleted fish stocks and its negotiations over the terms of e-commerce across borders have failed. The recent tit-for-tat battle between the US
Global Trade
83
and China over customs duties has (6) it from adjudicating trade disputes. However, a recent academic study concluded that the US, China and Germany had (7) most from joining the WTO. The total increase in prosperity (8) to $855bn a year for all its 164 members worldwide or 4.5% of GDP per member country, the study found. to amount / to benefit / to cut / to forge / to monitor / to negotiate / to prevail / to prevent
Text 2 Post-Covid NYSE What does a financial trading floor look like? A large room full of stout blokes (mainly) with worryingly (1) blood pressure who shout and wave against a backdrop of (2) electronic numbers. In reality the (3) majority of trades are now done by computers away from the floor, but that scene remains the enduring image of stock markets. After the 9/11 attacks, the exchanges closed down completely, but the markets were (4) to reopen before, predictably, slumping. In 2020, the (5) floor in the US, but not the electronic market, was closed in March, as part of the coronavirus lockdown, and reopened in May, with only a quarter of the (6) numbers of brokers back. Did this really make a big difference? Do we need these veteran floor traders? Are they not marketing ploy, (7) only as a backdrop for the network’s financial news bulletins because the viewers expect a trading floor. If an investor wants to buy a stock at $10, the computer will quickly find a seller and make that trade. But a human on the exchange floor would talk to (8) traders and might discover lots of (9) sellers milling around, and use their judgment to decide whether it is worth waiting to see if the price falls. Anyone returning to work on the trading floor will need a pen for signing the (10) document indemnifying the NYSE against potential lawsuits. amazing / economic / flashing / high / inevitable / low / major / normal / other / physical / potential / swift / useful / vast
Text 3 Tax the super-rich
A group of 83 of the world’s richest people have called (1) governments to permanently, imme diately and substantially increase taxes on them and other members of the wealthy elite to help pay for the economic recovery (2) the Covid-19 crisis. The super-rich members, including Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield and Disney heir Abigail Disney wrote in a letter: “Millionaires like us have a critical role to play in healing our world”. The group warned that the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic will “last for decades” and could “push half a poverty”. They added: “We owe a huge debt to the people working on the billion more people (3) frontlines of this global battle. Most essential workers are grossly underpaid (4) the burden they carry.”
the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors The group released the letter ahead (5) meeting. They called on politicians to “address global inequality and acknowledge that tax increases on the wealthy and greater international tax transparency are essential for a viable long-term solution”. The number of super-rich people continues to grow despite the poor economic outlook. There are more than 500,000 people in the world classed as “ultra-wealthy” (6) fortunes of more than $30m. That means there are more ultra-wealthy people (7) the world than the populations of Iceland, Malta or Belize. In the the UK, the Labour party has called on the government to consider introducing a wealth tax (8) richest members of society to help fund the recovery.
Topics for debates Put the words in the right order and discuss the statements. — does not / justify / most westerners / of / of single use, / The busy lifestyle / their choice / throwaway products. — contradicts / the current / or limited / social mobility. / the self-made-man / The US myth of / wealth inequality — are / didn’t happen / Economists / experts / know tomorrow / they predicted / today. / what / who / why / will / yesterday — believe / human life. / including / is at war / of life, / our economy / Some activists / that / with many forms — and benefit / cannot / claims. / be reconciled / despite / for society / Profitability / what Social Responsibility — a potential competitor, / it up. / of business / or swallow / spot / squeeze it out / the biggest TNCs / they / Whenever — automated plants / If / large quantities / of standardized items, / produce / robots will / to buy them? / want
84
In the News
VOCABULARY GLOBAL TRADE Actionnaire Affaire (bonne) Altermondialiste Appliquer des sanctions Avantage sur concurrents
Shareholder Bargain Anti-globalisation activist To enforce sanctions Competitive edge
Balance commerciale Barrière non tarifaire Barrières douanières Blanchiment d’argent Bloc économique Bourse
Balance of trade Non-tariff barrier Tariff barriers Money-laundering Trading bloc Stock exchange
Client Customer, client Commerce équitable Fair trade Overseas trade Commerce extérieur Commerce dirigé Managed trade World trade Commerce mondial Concurrence Competition Unfair competition Concurrence déloyale Concurrent Competitor Consumer Consommateur Contribuable Taxpayer Credit crunch Crise du crédit Crise immobilière Housing crisis Délocalisation Délocaliser Dérèglementation Détaillant Douane Douanier
Relocation To relocate Deregulation Retailer Customs Customs officer
Économies d’échelle Économie de marché Économie parallèle Économie planifiée Effrénée (concurrence) Effondrement économique (s’) Effondrer Embargo (lever / imposer) Envoi par bateau Étatisé État membre État nation Étranger (adj.) Étranger (à l’) Exporter Externaliser
Economies of scale Market economy Black economy Planned economy Unfettered Economic meltdown / downturn To slump, collapse Embargo (to lift / impose) Shipment State-run Member-state Nation-state Foreign, overseas Abroad, overseas To export To outsource
Fabriquer en série Facturer Fléchissement (éco.) Fermeture (d’usine) Filiale Fournir Fraude fiscale Fuite des capitaux
To mass-produce To invoice Downturn (plant) Closure Subsidiary To supply Tax evasion Flight of capital
Gamme (de produits) Grossiste
Range (of products) Wholesaler
Image de marque
Brand image
Global Trade
Importer Industrie nationale Industrie traditionnelle Intervenir
To import Domestic industry Smokestack industry To interfere, intervene
Libre concurrence Libre échange Libre entreprise Livrer, livraison
Free competition Free trade Free entreprise To deliver, delivery
Marchand Marge bénéficiaire Modalités d’échange Mondialisation Monnaie, devise
Tradesman Profit margin Trade terms Globalisation / -zation Currency
(l’)Offre et la demande Organisme régulateur
Supply and demand Regulatory agency
Paradis fiscal Partenaire commercial Passer (des produits) en fraude Pays émergent Pays industrialisé Pays les moins avancés
Tax-haven Trading partner To smuggle
Prospérer
To thrive, flourish
Quota
Quota
Racheter, reprendre Réaliser des bénéfices Récession Rendement
To buy out, take over To make profits Recession, slump Output, yield
Emerging country Industrialized country LDCs = Least Developed Countries Part de marché Market share Trading partner Partenaire commercial Pénétrer un marché To tap (into) a market Stimulus plan Plan de relance Plan social Redundancy plan To plan Planifier Pourparlers Talks, discussions Outlet Point de vente Politique d’austérité Austerity policy Purchasing power Pouvoir d’achat Privatiser To privatize Duty-free goods Produits détaxés Produit dérivé By-product Gross Domestic Product Produit intérieur brut Produit national brut Gross National Product To churn out, Produire en quantité mass-produce Protectionnisme Protectionism / managed trade
Saisie Foreclosure Se mondialiser To go global Secteur privé / public Private / public sector Siège social Head office, headquarters Société de consommation Consumer society Sous-traiter To contract out, subcontract Stimuler la croissance To boost growth Subventionné State-supported
85
Taux de change Traiter une demande Transférer (production)
86
Exchange rate To process an order To shift (production)
Uniformisation Standardisation Vendeur / -euse Salesperson
In the News
NOTES �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
Global Trade
87
4 g n i k r o W s n o i t i d Con Defining working conditions as the environment and the demands leading to workers’ satisfaction is, to some extent, looking at the tip of the iceberg. The workplace environment in itself not only encompasses hygiene, health and safety factors, but it is also the place where hierarchy rules, even in the most horizontal structures, where professional and social interactions occur, where responsibilities, schedules, expected behaviours are outlined and also where many spend the best part of their adult life. Workers’ satisfaction derives from a sense of belonging, of contributing, of security, of accountability and of being rewarded and, ideally, proud of one’s work. But ours is not an ideal world and for many, the reality is dire. From whitecollar stress, burnout or new dress codes and teleworking to factory workers’ excruciating workload and pressure, the workplace is not always the best setting for anyone who is looking for the achievement of their full potential. This chapter offers a glimpse into varied situations everyone should be aware of and concerned with.
CONTENTS TXT 1 Parosha Chandran: “Modern slavery in the UK is not confined to one place in the Midlands” B2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 TXT 2 Covid will force us to reimagine the office. Let’s get it right this time B2 . . . . . . . . . 94 TXT 3 “The Zoom shirt” & Virgin Atlantic’s sexism B1+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 TXT 4 Farewell workplace burnout: will coronavirus slow the manic pace
of our modern lives? B2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
INTERNET DOC. A Jeffrey Pfeffer: Is your workplace killing you? 6’11”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 INTERNET DOC. B The women fighting sexual abuse in the factories
where your jeans are made 27’37”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
INTERNET DOC. C Amazon doesn’t report its warehouse injury rates 9’14”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 REVISION
Multiple choice questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Gap-filling texts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Topics for debate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
VOCABULARY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
TEXT 1
PAROSHA CHANDRAN: “MODERN SLAVERY IN THE UK IS NOT CONFINED TO ONE PLACE IN THE MIDLANDS” As a human rights barrister and world-leading expert on human trafficking, Parosha Chandran knows the depths and darkness of abuse that can occur, especially when freedoms are taken away. So she is not surprised that a study this month calculated there are 100,000 victims of modern slavery in Britain. “The thing about slavery is that it’s a vastly hidden crime,” she says. “There are control mechanisms that are used very effectively by enslavers and traffickers to keep people quiet and to make victims fear going forward to the authorities to ask for help.”
Garment and food factories in Leicester, where as many as 10,000 mostly immigrant workers are reportedly paid as little as £3 an hour in some cases and have been forced to work with no protective equipment, have contributed to a spike in Covid-19 cases and the second lockdown in the city. Chandran hopes this serves as a wake-up call. “If that’s the estimate of what’s happening in Leicester, then what’s happening in Birmingham? Or Nottinghamshire? Or Manchester? Or London? [Modern slavery] is not just confined to one place in the Midlands. It’s going on everywhere, therefore there needs to be a robust response to it. “Whenever we learn about cases where extremely low wages have been paid during Covid-19, one needs to investigate what the power relationship was between the employer and the employee and whether or not the workers were forced to come into work, regardless of the risks and their safety during lockdown.” She says victims are often made to wrongly believe they had a hand in their own fate. “In legal terms, consent is irrelevant where a person was deceived, forced, threatened or coerced, but of course victims don’t know that, so it’s really critical that there are trained officials who are able to identify victims, wherever they may be found.” That could be an immigration raid, a workplace inspection, detection by the police or even cases where a GP has a patient who they suspect might be a victim of exploitation. Despite it being a criminal offence to use someone for forced labour, “the police have not been mobilised quickly enough in these cases,” Chandran says. “By the time inspectors go in – if there’s a lapse of time – all of the workers will have been threatened not to say anything to anyone coming in. What needs to happen is a swift response.” Chandran worries that the pandemic has provided more opportunities to abuse or exploit children. “It’s really creating a perfect storm of conditions.” A recent report by the National Youth Agency said drug gangs were using lockdown as cover for a “recruitment drive” for children. “You’ve got
cases of children who are just going out and ending up being exploited because they’re identifiable as being isolated,” says Chandran. “They’ve left a home – family or residential – and so then they can be targeted easily by traffickers and exploiters.” Chandran, 50, has worked tirelessly to ensure that both the law and police understand the vulnerability of exploited individuals who are sometimes forced to commit crimes. A landmark case that she won at the court of appeal in England in 2013 established that children and adults forced into cultivating cannabis in the UK should be recognised as victims of modern slavery rather than be prosecuted as criminals. It’s a lesson she believes is highly applicable to county lines. She’s spent the last week finishing a draft of a new antislavery bill for Uganda, in her role as senior legal adviser for the British parliament’s modern slavery project, directed at assisting Commonwealth states. Uganda has “the first modern slavery bill in the world that directly criminalises labour recruitment companies for human trafficking and forced labour,” she says. In comparison, she says, the Modern Slavery Act 2015 in the UK was written with an eye on criminalising the acts not of companies or corporations but rather individuals. Lockdown and restrictions put in place due to Covid-19 also give Chandran great concern for victims of domestic servitude around the world, a crime she says is notoriously difficult to identify. “I’ve done cases where people have been hidden for years.” She believes the public can be a catalyst for change. “Social awareness plays a massive part,” she says. She points to car washes where customers were seeing people who may have been maltreated or abused and turning a blind eye to it because they wouldn’t know what to do. “But as soon as light was shone on the prospect that their cars might have been cleaned by people who are enslaved and that there was a helpline number that they could ring, the public took it into their own hands to mobilise themselves.” Public reporting led to numerous investigations, which uncovered a vast number of car washes that used enslaved or trafficked workers, she adds. Chandran believes the Black Lives Matter movement offers an important opportunity to educate young people about modern slavery in Britain, and she wants to create a programme on modern slavery for schools that can highlight the dangers and increase social awareness. Amy Sedghi, The Guardian, July, 22, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
90
In the News
1 Match the following adjectives and nouns with the noun you think each can be associated with in the article. There may be several possible choices. Check your answers reading the article. control • domestic • drug • exploited • forced • helpline • hidden • human • immigration • legal •
• adviser • awareness • crime • expert • gangs • home • individuals • labour • mechanism • number
• raid • relationship • reporting • response • rights • servitude • slavery • terms
legal modern power public residential robust social swift world-leading
• • • • • • • • •
2 Replace the words underlined with a synonymous expression below, make possible adjustments. All the expressions are found in the article.
Most people witnessing exploitation do not want to 1ignore what they see but they often cannot imagine the 2profound immorality of exploitation. What usually operates as 3an alert is when they realise that they can 4act on the situation and that their actions will 5create a reaction leading to change. The 6chaotic circumstances denounced by officials, when they are revealed to the public, are sometimes 7examples which eventually help the cause of anyone suffering abuse or exploitation. catalyst for change / the depths and darkness / a landmark case / storm of conditions / to take into one’s own hand / to turn a blind eye to / a wake-up call How would you react if you were a witness of exploitation? What can motivate people to speak out or on the contrary make them believe that this is none of their business? How could society be more protective of its vulnerable citizens?
3 Write the following sentences into passive voice; check your answers in the article. ex: Traffickers take freedoms away. ➞ Freedoms are taken away (by traffickers) Some use mechanisms to set up slavery ➞ Traffickers pay workers poorly and they force them to work ➞ Some want the victims to believe that they deserved the way their exploiters treated them ➞ Before an inspection, employers threaten their workers ➞ Traffickers target children and exploit them ➞ Employers hide the people who work in domestic services ➞ Any state should recognise forced labour ➞ Traffickers may maltreat vulnerable workers ➞ Some employers enslave their maids ➞ BLM can educate young people about modern slavery ➞
Working Conditions
91
4 Comprehension questions: — — — —
Who are the people who should identify the cases of modern slavery because it is part of their job? Why is it often difficult for the victims to come forward and free themselves? How could ordinary citizens become more involved in the fight against modern slavery? In what legal and illegal activities is modern slavery particularly present?
5 There
are two references to contemporary British and American societies in the article. Explain what “County lines” are and what “Black Lives Matter” refers to.
92
In the News
NOTES �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
Working Conditions
93
COVID WILL FORCE US TO REIMAGINE THE OFFICE. LET’S GET IT RIGHT THIS TIME
TEXT 2
When offices in the UK closed in mid-March and companies instructed their staff to work from home – without access to their usual materials and tools, their physical workspace or to many of their colleagues – people already sensed that this was an unprecedented experiment. No one was prepared for this, not even the banks, with their elaborate business-continuity plans focused on terrorist attacks but not on completely avoiding human contact. Against all odds, working from home was more successful than anyone would have predicted, with many people reporting their productivity had increased during the first two months of lockdown.
Months later, most office workers have not returned to their shared workplaces, and those that have come back are finding themselves catapulted into a strange new world of plastic dividers, distancing, mask-wearing and hand sanitising. Amid the turbulence of second waves and local lockdowns, the best that employers can do right now is offer a phased and flexible return to the office, closely evaluating risks as they go. The much more interesting debate is about what kind of office we would like to return to. Now is exactly the right time to think ahead, and understanding history is instructive. Two particularly pioneering ideas of the past on the spatial organisation of workplaces offer valuable lessons. In 1968, designer Robert Propst carried out studies of people’s working processes and came to the conclusion that the typical office “saps vitality, blocks talent (and) frustrates accomplishment”. On this basis, he developed his ideas of the “action office”, a modular furniture system allowing flexible configurations and changes in the degree of privacy and community, mainly through movable partitions. Almost two decades later, the architect Robert Luchetti defined a series of different locations that office workers could use for various activities, thus creating the foundation for what later became known as “activity-based working”. Both of these concepts were human-centric and idealistic, aiming to improve office work for people. They also suffered a similar fate of becoming distorted and misunderstood over time. Propst’s action office was meant to liberate office work, but soon it got reduced to the idea of partitioning, and thus the cubicle was born, creating dense, almost factory-like, conditions. Workers battled with the worst of all worlds: being distracted by endless noise while being denied the community-building aspects of seeing and being seen. In fact, cubicles turned into the worst-rated setting in workplace satisfaction surveys. Activity-based working did not fare much better: it became synonymous with the dreaded hotdesking, a cost-
saving exercise whereby office workers shared desks but did not benefit from alternative work settings being provided. What can we learn from these two episodes for the post-pandemic office? That space is not neutral. Spatial design always has consequences. It gives rise to a pattern of opportunities: how often we see others, who we see on the way in and out, where we bump into people, how easy it is to strike up conversations with colleagues from different departments – all of these occurrences emerge from workplace design. Whether an office makes people lonely or inspires solidarity and a sense of togetherness, is often due to a combination of spatial structures and organisational cultures. Moreover, space is not neutral because it doesn’t just happen – it is human-made, based on purposeful decisions. In the same way that the ideas of Propst and Luchetti ended up in workplace miseries, we might experience a cost-driven crush on offices when we emerge out of the pandemic, exactly at a point when everyone is vaccinated and eager to meet again in person. The tech giants seem to be leading the way. Having built massive cathedrals of innovation before the pandemic, they seem to have made a strategic U-turn, with physical workspaces declared unnecessary overnight, so that everyone is asked to work from home for longer. This is even more puzzling because their previous approach which celebrated co-presence with fancy office design, from slides to beanbags, pingpong tables and ice cream chefs on site, does at least side with academic research on the importance of encounters for creativity and innovation. Research suggests that unplanned faceto-face interactions are important drivers of new ideas, an effect often known as the “strength of weak ties”. In fact, research has shown that weak-tie interactions have suffered disproportionately during the working-from-home period. Therefore, we should not give up on the idea of a shared workspace for everyone in the future. Not only is it impractical to suggest working from home as a standard response during a housing crisis, where many may lack the opportunity to set up a permanent and adequately equipped workstation. Being together and sharing experiences is fundamental for both individual and organisational health and wellbeing. In the long term, getting rid of the office completely may even harm an organisation’s bottom line, as good ideas dry up, onboarding of new staff becomes tricky and teams begin disintegrating. We can surely make it through more months or years until we have a Covid vaccine, but we should not sacrifice the idea that we will all meet again regularly in a space, a space that provides the best design possible for people to share a sense of togetherness and purpose. Kerstin Sailer, The Guardian, Aug. 4, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
94
In the News
1 Identify for each sentence below what paragraph of the article it summarises. Then replace each verb underlined with a synonym from the paragraph of the article.
( ) After years of innovation to bring workers together, high tech companies suddenly change their minds and encourage extended home working and this is surprising when we know that social interaction at work was impacted during lockdown. ( ) Before, designers and architects accomplished research to improve the workplace experience. ( ) But with cubicles, workers fought against isolation and a constant hum and later, hot desking succeeded just as poorly. ( ) During lockdown, workers felt that their situation was entirely new, that they were thrown into a strange workplace environment. ( ) Past experiments triggered the necessity to plan spatial and cultural office planning because space is meaningful, it does not simply occur. ( ) Though the pandemic has shown workers can get by, a shared work place is necessary to retain the idea of a common space where co-workers do not renounce collective efforts.
2 Find adjectives in the article matching the following definitions. : related to higher education, traditional : other, offering a choice : determined by the value of : frightening, much feared : full of details, made with care : impressive, extravagant, not ordinary : unworkable, useless : carrying a lesson, enlightening : original, never seen before : groundbreaking, opening new ways : with an aim, an objective : intriguing, difficult to understand : resulting from a plan : deceptive, complex : ordinary, customary Use these adjectives to explain who does what in a traditional workplace.
3 Answer the questions in your own words a b c d e f g
What is the traditional, dated view of office-work regarding spatial organisation, relationship and productivity? How has post-Covid office work changed both necessary equipment and schedule? Research Robert Propst’s “Action office” and describe its modular system. Why does it look dated now? What is hot-desking? Research this practice on the internet and assess its pros and cons. What do Propst’s and Luchetti’s innovations have in common? What can be the effect of office spatial organisation on workers and their performance? What contradiction is highlighted in some companies’ decision to promote home working? What could be the destructive effects of long-term home working? h Explain the theory related to the “strength of weak ties”. In what field is it particularly meaningful? i Do you think the spatial organisation of your classroom / workplace has been carefully thought of? How could it be improved? j Do you agree with the statement in relation to your work environment: space is not neutral? Support your view with examples. Describe your ideal workplace.
Working Conditions
95
“THE ZOOM SHIRT”: HOW THE PANDEMIC CHANGED WORK DRESS CODES
TEXT 3
Work dress codes have radically altered during the pandemic. According to a poll, only 10% of people get dressed for working from home at the start of the day and then change into comfortable clothes later. With virtual video conferencing as the only contact with our colleagues, one item of clothing that has become essential is the so-called “Zoom shirt”. According to Urban Dictionary this is the “shirt or blouse that’s kept on the back of your desk chair to quickly be presentable for video conferences”. A recent poll by LinkedIn found that 42% of camera ready home workers owned one.
“It allows you to retain an image of professionalism on camera without having to get kitted out in full office attire, when you’re sitting at your kitchen table all day,” says director of Debrett’s. “Dressing in a formal manner helps you look and feel more polished. It conveys respect to others. A study actually found that employees were more productive when casual dress was permitted. The “Zoom shirt” supports this idea.” Founder of a social media strategy company, Spencer Smith, says that currently his work outfit consists of shorts, “more often than not” no shoes and a Zoom shirt. “It’s a long sleeve button up in medium blue and shows up well on camera,” he says. “I really enjoy these shirts and they dress up or down well. They’re not cheap but definitely worth it.”
The pandemic has shifted people’s ideas about what to wear, with a focus on simplicity and pared down wardrobes. “Outfit of the day” culture is no longer relevant in this new normal. Last year Goldman Sachs relaxed their dress code, while a 2018 poll found that only one in 10 people still wore suits to work. Another factor is the rise of shared office spaces, where companies share hot desk areas. This means that attitudes to the workplace and workwear are becoming more casual. Smith says he will continue to wear his shirt as we return to normal working practices. But there’s a chance our work dress code will be permanently altered. “Lots of people will opt to continue working from home so the nature of workplaces and dress codes will become even more fluid than it was before lockdown,” experts say. “There’s a new commute too: people are cycling (or scooting or running) into work more often, too, so the rigours of that will have an effect on how people dress as well.” By the time we go back to offices, these factors and consumers’ increased awareness of the environmental impacts of the fashion industry could lead to the biggest change we’ve seen. “I think the pandemic has caused many consumers to rethink how they consume and get dressed each day,” says Ashley Ricketts, Luxe manager. “The reality is consumers still want variety and fun from their wardrobes without the waste to their wallet or the planet.” Priya Elan, The Guardian, Jul. 20, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
VIRGIN ATLANTIC’S SEXISM GOES DEEPER THAN TELLING WOMEN WHAT TO WEAR I never imagined it was compulsory for female cabin crew at Virgin Atlantic to wear makeup and tight skirts when they were serving meals, dealing with sick children or – in the worst possible scenario – guiding terrified passengers through emergency exits on to inflatable slides. On Monday, in a sudden lurch into the 21st century, the company relaxed its strict dress rules, announcing that female cabin crew would no longer be obliged to work wearing full slap. It also decreed that trousers would be available as a standard item in the Virgin Atlantic uniform, instead of female flight attendants having to make a special request. I mean, how modern is that? Whatever progressive message the company was intending to send out was immediately contradicted by a boastful tweet
96
showing Virgin Atlantic’s newest cabin crew apprentices: 18 women, identically dressed in tight, above-the-knee skirts and red lipstick – and just three men. Until now, I had no idea that such discriminatory dress codes still existed, let alone that they complied with the law. I had a vague memory of a woman being sent home from a new job two or three years ago for refusing to wear high heels, but assumed that such sexist requirements had long since been outlawed. How wrong can you be? Three years ago, cabin staff at British Airways successfully challenged a requirement that new female recruits had to wear skirts unless they were exempt on – wait for it – medical or religious grounds. Budget airlines such as easyJet
In the News
are more relaxed about female employees wearing trousers, but Ryanair only stopped publishing a calendar featuring female cabin crew in bikinis in 2015. All of this is risible, especially in an industry that relies on some of the world’s most advanced engineering technology. But women who work on board complain that having to wear a stereotypically feminine uniform sends subliminal messages to passengers, encouraging them to treat female cabin staff as little more than handmaidens. It also appears to send a nega-
tive message to their employers when it comes to setting salary levels. Virgin Atlantic has a significant gender pay gap, according to figures published last year. Its median hourly rate for women is 30% below that of men, something that means that women earn 70p for every £1 that men earn. Clearly, this habit of sex discrimination is very hard to break. It starts with dress codes and ends with salaries. One minute you’re telling women what colour lipstick to wear, the next you’re paying them less as well. How on earth does that happen? Joan Smith, The Guardian, March 5, 2019 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
Test your reading comprehension with the following questions
1 How does dressing for work impact workers? (txt 1 & txt 2)
2 What adjectives are associated with work dress code? (txt 1 & txt 2)
3 How does dress code impact efficiency? (txt 1 & txt 2)
4 What trends are associated with the pandemic? (txt 1)
5 What new work practices impact the workwear? Explain each. (txt 1)
6 What else may impact workers’ fashion choices? (txt 1)
7 What female items of clothing or accessories are still part of some work outfits? (txt 2)
8 What makes txt 1 formal and txt 2 more casual and ironical?
9 List
the vocabulary from both texts related to codes, rules and the absence of choice. Explain what you would like to wear in an ideal workplace.
Working Conditions
q How can you explain that “employees
are more productive when casual dress is permitted” and that “sex discrimination is still hard to break”? Think of other examples reinforcing stereotypes.
w Identify the dress codes of the jobs mentioned in
the two articles (office workers and air hostesses) and research more vocabulary related to clothing to describe other workers’ outfit. ➞ Police officers, doctors / nurses, firefighters, builders, waiters / waitresses, mechanics, lifeguards, astronauts, Here is a vocabulary list to help you: apron, belt, bomber jacket, boots, cap, dungarees, fire-proof pants, gloves, helmet, jacket, lab coat, mask, overalls, shirt, shorts, spacesuit, swimwear, trousers, zip coverall Can you guess what a bib apron, a hi-vis toolvest, safety googles, ear defenders or holster pocket pants are? Who do you associate the following accessories with? ➞ handcuffs, stethoscope, hammer, oxygen cylinder, wrench, whistle, buoy, syringe, badge, corkscrew
e What
justifies the specific workwear you have identified for each job? Why can dress code be taken as a sign of how you value workers? Food for thought: Reflect on the following proverbs and statement: — The gown does not make the friar or The cowl does not make the monk or Do not judge a book by its cover — School uniforms promote equality and a sense of belonging.
97
FAREWELL WORKPLACE BURNOUT: WILL CORONAVIRUS SLOW THE MANIC PACE OF OUR MODERN LIVES?
TEXT 4
Many of us aren’t sleeping properly, are drinking too much, and can hardly remember what our life was like pre-lockdown. We wake each morning in the new normal to check our notifications with a roiling unease, peeking at our phones through parted fingers. What now? What else? Yet amid the fear and anxiety a clarifying mood has emerged. Now that everything is upended we are forced to evaluate what and who we love, what brings us joy and what drains the absolute life from us. We are in this thing for a long time, and we are analysing the makeup of our days like never before.
Which brings me to work. Dial back the news cycle six months and experts were wringing their hands over the problem of workplace burnout. Sure the economy was sluggish even then, but our worker bee engines were in overdrive: we were “multitasking”, “actioning emails” and “reverting back” en masse. We were busy – so busy – and when we weren’t busy being busy, we were busy worried about the emotional and societal impact of so much busyness. The World Health Organisation even went so far as to classify burnout as an “occupational phenomenon”. Now we exist in the Covid-19 time zone and things have shifted. While there are doubtless cohorts of employees working harder than ever – for example frontline health workers, journalists covering breaking news, supermarket staff – those of us fortunate to still be in paid work are facing manageable inboxes for the first time in decades. A number of experts I have interviewed over the past few weeks for various stories have expressed a deep, almost guilty, relief at the forced simplicity of work life despite the many complications of working from home. There is no plane to catch to an industry conference hosted by a peak body that no one has heard of, or pointless stand-up meetings to be roped into while wondering how many missed netball matches make you a bad parent. There is messiness now for sure: kids, partners, dogs underfoot, but that is the stuff of life, and for once our work is elbowing its way into our days rather than the other way around. Let me never hear the phrase “eat, sleep, work, repeat” again or chance upon those inspirational hustle quotes on
Instagram. Now that the chief executive’s emails from every business in the nation have dropped off, I am left with an inbox reminiscent of the early years of Microsoft Outlook: a few Nigerian scams, a couple from my parents’ joint Hotmail account, and a small number of important work ones. This is not to suggest that the way we work now is ideal – what with our cats, dogs, partners and children popping up in our Zoom calls – but that the collapse of work life as we know it may mark the start of a new approach, a rethink. And at the risk of sounding like a PowerPoint presentation, it gives us an opportunity to reshape our relationship to work and its inflexible clock-in, clock-out model and ethos of hyper-productivity. Perhaps one of the insights from the abrupt rise in unemployment over the past few weeks has been that we need jobs rather than careers now more than ever. That when it comes down to it, people need stable work and real flexibility to survive challenging times, rather than corporate leadership camps or roving global thought leaders to give us pep talks about the entrepreneurial mindset. By changing how we work, we change how we relate to each other and ourselves. Now that we can no longer direct our ambition towards the next big thing on our iCal, we have the time to ask ourselves: what is truly worth pursuing? Startup culture, in particular, suggested that if we toiled relentlessly, woke at 4am and networked 24 / 7, we could conquer the world. If that clearly doesn’t matter now, what else is worth working hard for? At the very least, here is hoping the pandemic spells the end of the developed world’s myopic focus on getting ahead, of growth for growth’s sake. Let it mark the death of our deification of work, of checking emails at 11pm, of Silicon Valley garble and its slavish obsession with disruption. Let me never hear the phrase “eat, sleep, work, repeat” again or chance upon those inspirational hustle quotes on Instagram imploring women to “lean in” and connect with their #girlboss. Now that we are all working from home in our pyjamas let’s drop the soul-destroying pretence of robotic efficiency and find the humanity in what we do. Johanna Leggatt, The Guardian, Apr. 19, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
98
In the News
1 Read the article once and then look for nouns and adjectives corresponding to the definitions in the article. They are ordered alphabetically. Nouns
Adjectives the state of having much to do
lucky
large numbers
sorry, remorseful
confusing, misleading message
helping to be creative
ability to see clearly a situation
that you can control
the way things look
frantically busy, hectic
state of confusion
related to work
speed at which you do something
without good reason
expression, several words together
without pause, break
reconsideration, new approach
reminding one of something
purpose, reason to do something
annoying, irritating
fraudulent activity
related to a slave
lack of comfort
slow moving
2 The journalist uses many collocations, words which often come together, match them before or after having read the article. Make sure you understand them all and use them.
challenging • corporate • deep • entrepreneurial • industry • inspirational • peak • pep • robotic • stand-up • startup • worker •
• bee • body • culture • conference • efficiency • leadership • meetings • mindset • quotes • talk • times • relief
3 Fill in the gap in each sentence with one of the verbs below from the article. There are more verbs than needed. Make sure you use the right form of the verb.
to chance / to drain / to drop off / to emerge / to lean in / to peek / to pursue / to reshape / to revert / to rove / to spell / to toil / to upend / to wonder a Manual workers often
long hours for a ridiculously low wage.
b Interest in newly released films often c He could not help
after a few weeks. at the next chapter to see what was to happen next.
d Worker’s daily tasks have somehow been e These women have often had to f You could g She intends h They love
Working Conditions
because of new technologies. to reach executive positions.
upon a vintage recording of this concerto in this pile of vinyl records. a career as a microbiologist. the Lancashire countryside on Sundays.
99
4 The journalist uses several idiomatic expressions. Can you explain them? Here’s hoping To drain the life from someone To wring one’s hands over something To be roped into something To elbow one’s way To come down to something
5 Identify the writing techniques the journalist used to give a casual, an informal tone to the article. 6 Discuss one of the following essay topics. — What is worth pursuing: a career, a work / life balance or a fulfilling personal life? — Are we witnessing the end of the clock-in, clock-out model? — What do you think is meant when the journalist concludes: “(we need to) find the humanity in what we do”?
100
In the News
INTERNET DOC. A JEFFREY PFEFFER: IS YOUR WORKPLACE KILLING YOU? Stanford Graduate School of Business, 2015, 6’11”
A Listen to the whole document once and answer the questions in your own words. (Section: How is the workplace killing us?) Q1 What four main factors explain stress at work? Q2 Why does the study focus on physiological and mental health? (Section: what is the effect of this stress?) Q3 What four exposures to harmful workplace conditions are mentioned? (Section: What is the worst workplace stressor?) Q4 What is making chronic stressors more costly than the death of a worker? (Section: How much is out of our control?) Q5 Why are all the causes for stress not just “an inconvenience”? Q6 What can workers do to minimize their effects? Why is it not always the case? Q7 What are the US employers’ main concerns in relation to stress reducing policies? (Section: Can we change?) Q8 What is the new form of pollution Pfeffer describes? How should companies act to acknowledge this pollution? Q9 What new exposure is added to the list and how does it materialise in the workplace? Q10 What changes does Pfeffer advocate in relation to human pollution?
B
True or false? Justify your choice. There is one main explanation why work impacts workers’ health. One possible effect of stress at work is high blood pressure. Stress is a physical condition. The study carried out is based on new research. The study covers the effect of stress on workers and society. In the US, stressful working conditions costs over $200 billion. Death is not costly for a company. The number one stressor for Americans is the absence of access to healthcare. Employers can have an impact on the workplace environment. Employers cannot impact the individual’s wellbeing.
Working Conditions
101
Pfeffer advocates a strong State regulation. Better economic decisions come when the costs of stress are externalized. Pfeffer claims companies make society pay for their lack of concern for workers’ wellbeing. Pfeffer states that environmental pollution should not make polluters pay. Pfeffer believes employers can make progress if they have to pay for the cost of stress.
C General comprehension questions and research on the topic. Q11 In what way is one major cause for stress mentioned in the document typical of the American system and not relevant in most European countries? Q12 What is the expression meaning that basic social rights from birth to death are guaranteed? When was such a policy implemented and where? Q13 Can you think of other basic social rights related to work and the workplace not mentioned in the document but part of most Europeans’ social protection policy? Q14 Can you think of events mentioned in the news that show how sometimes employees can feel their working conditions is threatening their health or even their life? Q15 What would be your priorities when applying for a job in relation to all the issues mentioned in the field of working conditions?
102
In the News
INTERNET DOC. B THE WOMEN FIGHTING SEXUAL ABUSE IN THE FACTORIES WHERE YOUR JEANS ARE MADE The Guardian, Today in focus, Part of the Fashion’s Dirty Secrets series, Sept. 2020, 27’37”
A Listen to the document and answer the questions. 1
What do you learn about Lesotho’s garment / jean industry?
2
What made Levi’s jeans so famous?
3 What usual issues was the WCR report supposed to cover? 4 What other main issues emerged from the interviews? 5 What changed after the scandal was revealed thanks to the Lesotho Agreement? 6 What did brands implement to address the issues? 7 Why do problems remain? 8 What should consumers not confuse and why? 9 What was the impact of Covid-19 on the garment industry at the time the report was broadcast, in Lesotho and in Leicester? 10 Why is there a need for such journalist’s investigation and union report?
B
In the document, The Rana Plaza disaster is mentioned. Research the event itself and what it changed in the textile industry, in the country where it happened and more generally for consumers. Summarise this information in your own words in about ten lines.
C Why is the clothing industry so often in the news in relation to poor working conditions? Write a half-page leaflet with visual elements to make wealthy countries’ consumers aware of what they should do to help improve the working conditions of these workers.
Working Conditions
103
INTERNET DOC. C AMAZON DOESN’T REPORT ITS WAREHOUSE INJURY RATES PBS NewsHour, Nov. 2019, 9’14”
A Answer the following questions is your own words. 00 ➞ 1’27”
1 2
Why was this report on Amazon broadcast at that particular time in 2019? Why is it difficult to assess the situation of workplace injuries in Amazon? Is it the only company to make it difficult in the US? 3 Amazon is proud of two things which are at the heart of its business model. Which ones? 4 How has efficiency at Amazon been reached? 1’28” ➞ 2’42”
5 What do stowers do at Amazon? 6 What usually happens when a worker gets injured at work, as is the case for Dixon? 2’43” ➞ 5’37”
7 8 9 10
What does it mean to be a “safety-centric” company? How does Amazon prove it is? What is making the reporter’s job difficult when investigating Amazon? Describe the reporter’s findings with the bar chart at 3’36”-3’40”. What sort of injuries are recorded in Amazon’s reports and how long does one third of the workers spend on leave to recover? 11 What explanation is given by the former safety manager? 5’38” ➞ 7’12”
12 What did not seem to meet safety standards in January 2018 when a gas leak was reported? 13 Why were workers not feeling they were valuable? 14 What does the Amazon report claim? 7’13” ➞ 8’50”
15 What two official benefits does the implementation of automation provide? Why can it be doubted?
B
Watch the document again looking for specific vocabulary and expressions to fill in the table. an important quality or feature, a basis
the c
the total number of victims, casualties
the t
information to be taken seriously
s
harsh, fierce, painful
b
emotionnally (too) strong
o
to prepare, get ready
to g
to begin, to get going
to k
to disregard, dismiss
to w
to talk with excessive pride
to
to record working time
to p
f
; to t
C Amazon is known for using very positive vocabulary to describe its organisation. What are “fulfilment centers” and “associates” in its jargon? What does it say about the company?
104
In the News
REVISION WORKING CONDITIONS Fill in the sentences with one of the choices given.
1
Illegal workers can never be confident going their status. in forward after for
2
Assembly line work used to drive drift drag drain
3
to the authorities for help because of
the life out of factory workers in the early 20th century.
No employee can claim (s)he will never experience a
.
burn-down burnout burn-up burn-off
4
It is often said that female workers are much better at functioning all-daying multitasking risk
5
Occupational mental. hazards chance posts life
6
Can a work-life ever be found when some blue-collar workers toil up to 10 hours a day? strike balance point break up
7
There should be no doubt that safeguard certainty immunity safety
8
When you are programming. taken up fired hired on
9
In order to your staff’s output, given them the best working conditions. rise maximize extend turn up
q
is above all a question of avoiding waste, of time, energy and money. Application Ease Ethics Efficiency
w
Many in our staff dislike as they lose all sense of belonging and comfort. desktop remoteness hot-desking temp
e
There are no recipe to create a solid teamspirit essence mind grouping
r
No state, no matter how poor, should turn a dark blind distant closed
t
Workers who for over an hour in public transport are really exhausted. travel take a trip journey commute
y
When practices are duly recorded, a labour court can build a strong case. discrimination discriminatory discriminate disregarding
u
Even with labour laws to make it illegal, the gender pay difference dip interval gap
Working Conditions
than men.
experienced at work can severely impact workers’ health, physical and
at work has to be the top priority for any employer.
in this company you first attend a training course in computer
, but after-hours socialising helps. eye on child labour.
remains, no matter what.
105
i
This company is known to treat exploit use up lay off
migrant farm workers of Asian nationalities.
o
This night job her of her vitality and good health. destroyed sapped undermined disabled
p
Trade unionists have been ordered obliged excluded coerced
a
This multinational in the food industry has a working labour workers’ staff
s
Any company has its dress code regulation fashion contract
d
Sick and maternity are guaranteed to all workers in developed countries. leaves breaks stoppages pauses
f
He decided to semi-retire thus reducing his weekly workforce workload work-times worksheet
g
Many politicians have tried and failed to roll back the 35-hour week schedule rules rest
h
The ILO can policymakers with practical information and research-based advice. offer provide involve foresee
j
Workers’ health and at work directly impact to the quality of the tasks performed. well-being stressless good state harassment
k
The right of people with disabilities to access decent work is too often granted offered reduced denied
l
Can you doubt that apprenticeship trusts offer empowers attains
;
The entertainment sector announced lay offs hitting over 3,000 partly half-time high skill part-time
z
More employers support in-door in and out in-house intern
into signing their resignation. force of over 10,000. , no matter how formal or casual.
by two thirds. .
.
young workers to enter the labour market? workers.
training courses as they prove to be much more effective.
Fill in the gaps with the words provided for texts 1 and 2, without clues in text 3. When necessary, conjugate verbs. In text 2, there are more words than needed. Text 1 Traders’ long hours The London Stock Exchange is to consider lopping 90 minutes of the trading day in a bid to improve mental health and attract more women and working parents to a high-pressure (1) known for gruelling hours. The LSE made the (2) after City lobby groups sent a letter to nine exchanges urging them to adopt the proposal. They said that the 8.5 hour European trading day was one of the (3) in the world but did not deliver clear “material benefits”. In Asia, the trading day is usually 6 hours, and in the US it is 6.5 hours. The lobby groups expect (4) hours would improve market structure and have “a significant (5) impact on individual employees and… our industry’s ability to attract a more diverse talent”. It is estimated that the average trader works around 60 hours a week, as extra time is
106
In the News
put in before and after the trading day to prepare and then finalise trades. The (6) of commuting time only exacerbates this problem. Anyone with family commitments is less likely to be willing or able to spend such long hours in the office. Hence the low 13% of female traders in the LSE. addition / announcement / environment / longest / positive / shorter
Text 2 Trade Unions in Europe How far does social class position influence the likelihood that employees will be members of a trade union? Social class has traditionally been seen closely related to trade union membership as it is often seen as a means by which the working class has been able to (1) its position in society in general and in the workplace. In contrast, the middle and upper classes have been seen as less dependent on unions because they are able to (2) their interests in the labour market through their special qualifications. Their market position has been based on individual competencies and resources, whereas the market position of the manual working class has been (3) on and strengthened by collective organization. Is the working class still the dominant group in the trade union movement in European countries? Pragmatic and empirical analysis (4) that the overall economic and political context impact very directly the evolution of trade union membership. The proportion of middle class and of professional workers in the labour market has (5), while the proportion of working-class employees has fallen. This can be seen as an explanation as to why unions have lost members. Part of the working class having been (6) into a disposable and even more vulnerable workforce, union membership is falling. Middle- and upper class employees have become more likely to be members of a union, especially in the public sector. This is very likely to change the makeup of whom unions represent and what they stand for? (from “Trade unionism in Europe: Are the working class still members?” Jensen, in The European Journal of Industrial Relations) to base / to deny / to increase / to mock / to return / to risk / to safeguard / to strengthen / to suggest / to turn
Text 3 Ethics in the workplace A solid ethics policy should, among many other things, clearly outline the procedure employees should follow if they need to take time off, leave early or start (1). If you don’t spell out these procedures, employees might be tempted to handle these matters on their own. They might claim to be meeting a client at the end of the (2) when instead they are leaving early to catch a soccer game on TV. They might claim to be at a workshop for the first half of the day when instead they are sneaking in some extra sleep. Make sure your policy contains a provision telling your (3) how they can request time off even for personal matters. Open communication is a far better alternative. Another key area in workplace ethics is discrimination. Any effective ethics (4) forbids abusive behaviour at work. Because it is the law, many employers don’t think about adding abusive behaviour to company ethics rules. This kind of (5) can take many forms. Employees might engage in sexual harassment, bully other workers, tell inappropriate or offensive jokes, display offensive visuals on their computer screens or steal from co-workers or the company. Your ethics policy must (6) state that all such actions are forbidden at work. It also needs to spell out the punishments or repercussions of such actions. Topics for debate — Happy workers perform better, but can all workers be happy at work? — Working conditions have never been so good. Discuss. — Workers’ rights should be internationally enforced, no matter what. — Child labour and modern slavery cannot be accepted any longer. Action is needed. — The lowest levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs are too rarely guaranteed for workers in poor countries.
Working Conditions
107
VOCABULARY WORKING CONDITIONS Accident du travail Industrial injury Allocataire Claimant Allocation Allowance Allocation chômage Unemployment benefit, dole Ancienneté Seniority To advertise a vacancy Annoncer une place vacante Arrêt de travail / débrayage Work stoppage Augmentation de salaire Wage / pay rise (B) / raise (US) Automation Automatisation Avantage numéraire Cash incentive Avantage non numéraire Perk, benefits in kind Fringe benefits Avantages en nature Avantages sociaux Welfare benefits To be eligible for Avoir droit à Avoir une journée de congé To have a day off Bourreau de travail Briseur de grève Bureautique
Workaholic Scab Office automation
Cadre (personne) Executive Pension fund Caisse de retraite Carrière Career Workload Charge de travail Chef d’atelier Supervisor To look for a job Chercher un travail Chômage Unemployment, joblessness Long-term unemployment Chômage de longue durée Chômeurs (les) The unemployed / jobless Compression de personnel Downsizing, trimming, streamlining Conflits sociaux Social unrest, industrial action Congé maladie Sick leave Congé de maternité Maternity leave Holiday with pay Congé payé Congé sans solde Unpaid leave Labour court Conseil de prud’hommes Contrat à durée déterminée Fixed-term contract Permanent contract Contrat à durée indéterminée Convention collective Collective bargaining Social welfare Couverture sociale Décréter une grève Délégué syndical
To call a strike Shop steward / union representative Délocaliser To relocate Demande d’emploi Job application Démission Resignation Démissionner To resign from / to quit one’s job Directeur d’usine Plant manager Donner un préavis To give one’s notice Droit du travail Labour law Écart de salaire Effectifs ouvriers Effectifs salariés Efficacité
108
Pay gap Labour force Payroll Efficiency
Emploi, poste, place Employment, position Emploi de bureau Clerical work Employé Employee Burnout Épuisement professionnel Équipe de nuit Night shift Slavery Esclavage Être au chômage To be unemployed, on the dole To outsource (production) Externaliser (la production) Flexibilité des horaires Former
Flexitime To train
Gagner sa vie Gel des salaires
To make / earn a living Wage freeze
Harceler Heure de fermeture Heures de bureau Heures supplémentaires
To harass, bully, mob Closing time Office hours Overtime, extra-time
Impasse Indemniser Installer des piquets de grève Intérim (faire de l’) Invalidité
Deadlock To compensate To picket a workplace Temping (to temp) Disability
The rank and file La base (des employés) Lettre de licenciement Notice of dismissal, pink slip Licenciements Lay offs, dismissals, redundancies Licenciement collectif Mass dismissal Licencier, renvoyer To dismiss, to lay off, to make redundant Licencier sans préavis To discharge without notice Workplace Lieu de travail Main-d’œuvre Maladie du travail Marché du travail Métier
Manpower Occupational disease Labour / job market Occupation, trade
Office de placement Ouvrier d’usine Ouvrier non qualifié Ouvrier qualifié
Employment agency Factory worker Unskilled worker Skilled worker
PDG CEO = Chief Executive Officer Pension de vieillesse Période d’essai Persécuter Personnel Plafond de verre Plan social Pointer Polyvalence Population active Pourvoir un poste Précarité Prendre sa retraite, retraité Prime Prime de licenciement Promouvoir
Old age pension Probation / trial period To victimise Staff, personnel Glass ceiling Redundancy plan To clock in / out Versatility, multitasking Working population To fill a vacancy Precariousness To retire, retiree Bonus Severance / package pay To promote (≠ to demote)
In the News
Recherche d’emploi Job seeking, hunting Réduire les effectifs To cut the payroll / jobs Industrial relations Relations (partenaires sociaux) Remplir les conditions To qualify for a job d’un poste Reprendre le travail To resume work Responsables syndicaux Union officials To shortlist an applicant Retenir un candidat Retraite anticipée Early retirement Claim, grievance Revendication Revenus Earnings / income / revenue Gross wage(s) Salaire brut Salaire horaire Hourly wage Daily wage Salaire journalier Salaire de misère Pittance / to work for peanuts Salaire net Net wage Salaried worker, wage Salarié earner Jobless Sans emploi Savoir-faire Expertise / know-how To screen applicants Sélectionner les candidats Se mettre en grève To go on strike
Working Conditions
Se porter candidat à un To apply for a job poste Semaine des 35-heures 35-hour week Se syndiquer To join a trade union SMIC Minimum wage Subcontracting Sous-traitance Stage de formation Training period To shed / cut jobs Supprimer des emplois Syndicat, syndiqué Labour / Trade union, unionised Télétravailler To telework Toucher un salaire To draw wages Travail à la chaîne Assembly line work Travail au noir Illicit work, moonlighting Travail d’équipe Team work Labour Travail, main d’œuvre Travailleur manuel Blue-collar worker Travailleur à temps partiel Part-time worker Full-time worker Travailleur à temps plein Travailleur, salarié Worker, employee, wage-earner Virer (un employé)
To fire, sack
109
5 g n i p o l Deve s e i r t n u Co When economists define countries into clear-cut categories and identify the multiple obstacles to growth and development in the poorest of them, when HDI rankings indicate extremely low levels in life expectancy, education as well as GDP and when yet another natural disaster hits some remote region causing hundreds of deaths, the realities of life as seen from the point of view of the world’s underdogs are probably incomprehensible to most Westerners. A world map of the poorest countries conspicuously highlights nations still scarred by their not-so-distant colonial past, all suffering from a lack of infrastructures and political, demographic, public health and of course economic development. Yet, many of the poorest countries were and still are wealthy, not just culturally. This chapter reminds readers what the reality of developing countries consists of, the major food and environmental crises they have to face and how their vulnerability challenges our view of the world in the 21st century.
CONTENTS TXT 1 World faces worst food crisis for at least 50 years B2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 TXT 2 Will Europe’s museums rise to the challenge of decolonisation? B2- . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 TXT 3 A third of my country was just underwater. The world must act on climate B2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 TXT 4 Petrol sold to Nigeria from Europe “dirtier” than black market “bush” fuel B2- . . . 120 INTERNET DOC. A The UN Least Developed Country Category, 2’54”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122 INTERNET DOC. B A Counterintuitive Solution to Poverty: Stop Trying to Eradicate It, 9’25”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 INTERNET DOC. C The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020, 3’18” . . . 123 REVISION
Multiple choice questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Gap-filling texts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Topics for debate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
VOCABULARY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
WORLD FACES WORST FOOD CRISIS FOR AT LEAST 50 YEARS
TEXT 1
The world stands on the brink of a food crisis worse than any seen for at least 50 years, the UN has warned as it urged governments to act swiftly to avoid disaster. Better social protections for poor people are urgently needed as the looming recession following the coronavirus pandemic may put basic nutrition beyond their reach, UN secretary general António Guterres said.
“Unless immediate action is taken, it is increasingly clear that there is an impending global food emergency that could have long-term impacts on hundreds of millions of children and adults,” he said. “We need to act now to avoid the worst impacts of our efforts to control the pandemic.” Although harvests of staple crops are holding up, and the export bans and protectionism that experts feared have so far been largely avoided, the worst of the impacts of the pandemic and ensuing recession are yet to be felt. Even in countries with abundant food, the risks of disruption in the food supply chain are high. About 50 million people risk falling into extreme poverty this year owing to the pandemic, but the long-term effects will be even worse, as poor nutrition in childhood causes lifelong suffering. Already, one in five children around the world are stunted in their growth by the age of five, and millions more are likely to suffer the same fate if poverty rates soar. Guterres laid out a three-point plan to repair the world’s ailing food systems and prevent further harm. These are: to focus aid on the worst-stricken regions to stave off immediate disaster, and for governments to prioritise food supply chains; to strengthen social protections so that young children, pregnant and breastfeeding women and other at-risk groups – including children who are not receiving school meals in lockdown – receive adequate nutrition; and to invest in the future, by building a global recovery from the pandemic that prioritises healthy and environmentally sustainable food systems. The chief economist of the UN FAO reckons the world’s food systems were under threat as never before in recent times, as the pandemic and lockdowns hampered people’s ability to harvest and buy and sell food. This is a very different food crisis than the ones seen before.
Harvests are healthy and supplies of staple foods such as grains are “robust”, according to the latest UN report on the impact of Covid-19 on food security and nutrition. But most people get their food from local markets, which are vul nerable to disruption from lockdowns. Increasing unemployment and the loss of income associated with lockdowns are also putting food out of reach for many struggling people. Though global markets have remained steady, the price of basic foods has begun to rise in some countries. Lockdowns are slowing harvests, while millions of seasonal labourers are unable to work. Food waste has reached damaging levels, with farmers forced to dump perishable produce as the result of supply chain problems, and in the meat industry plants have been forced to close in some countries. Even before the lockdowns, the global food system was failing in many areas, according to the UN. The report pointed to conflict, natural disasters, the climate crisis, and the arrival of pests and plant and animal plagues as existing problems. East Africa, for instance, is facing the worst swarms of locusts for decades, while heavy rain is hampering relief efforts. The additional impact of the coronavirus crisis and lockdowns, and the resulting recession, would compound the damage and tip millions into dire hunger, experts warned. The Covid-19 crisis has exposed dangerous deficiencies in food systems and actively threatens the lives and livelihoods of people around the world, especially the more than 1 billion people who have employment in the various industries in food systems. Latin America and the Caribbean, where a third of the population already live in a precarious state of food insecurity, and where Brazil is fast becoming a hotspot for coronavirus cases. Across the region, the pandemic has weakened economies and disrupted supply chains, leading to food price hikes. The pandemic risks reversing the progress that has been made in recent decades on lifting people out of poverty and improving their access to healthy food. Any remedies must also target the climate emergency, which is strongly linked to the world’s food systems. Solutions need to be science-based and coordinated across sectors to provide immediate response and assistance for those most in need, ongoing and inclusive support in recovery and – perhaps most importantly – future resilience to all shocks, including climate extremes. Fiona Harvey, The Guardian, Jun. 9, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
112
In the News
1 Read the article once and find... a adjectives with opposite meanings to the ones below. healthy, weak, improbable, unpredicted, previous, best-preserved, unsafe, prosperous, harmless, safe / non-hazardous b expressions made of two words (noun-noun or adjective-noun) matching the definitions. Weather related crisis Extreme need for food Squandering of nutriment International trading places Wholesome nutriment Commodity you cannot keep long Increase in the amount to pay Lunch served in a place where you study Finding / result proved efficient by science Manual worker hired for a short period Main / basic agricultural products Series of steps to meet the demand With some of this vocabulary and above, summarise the world food situation according to the article.
2 Replace the words which are underlined with expressions from the article while retaining the same meaning. You can discuss this opinion.
When people who are poor are on the edge of falling into indigence, some organisation must get them out of poverty. When what you earn to live is lost because of circumstances you cannot control and if any means to survive is impossible to get hold of, there are no cures: solidarity is the only way.
3 Circle the right meaning for these verbs from the article. to compound (into) = to intensify, to disjoin, to link to stave off = to hit, to die of hunger, to repel to tip (SO into) = to pull, to incline, to fool to stunt = to risk, to impoverish, to slow (growth) to dump = to darken, to provoke, to throw away to soar = to shout, to expand, to drop to urge = to prompt, to discuss, to hurry to hamper = to obstruct, to approve, to cheat Use some of these verbs to explain what should be done to reduce food insecurity.
4 Comprehension questions a What is meant by “better social protection” at the beginning of the article? Give examples and explain how it is possible to provide this. b Why is it so important to ensure adequate nutrition to children?
c What can usually disrupt the food supply in poor countries? d What are the three priorities the UN report would like to see implemented?
5 Since this article was published, the UN has continued its efforts. Place the verbs in the right place in the right form to find out where and how it has helped the poorest.
to be to / to create / to deal / to deem / to distribute / to earmark / to face / to occur The UN has (1) £75m in emergency funding for seven countries (2) at risk of famine, warning that without immediate action the world could see “huge numbers of children dying”. The climate crisis, Covid-19, conflict and economic decline (3) an acute crisis in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, the Demo cratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen, where millions of people (4) emergency levels of food insecurity. Ethiopia, where drought is exacerbating a growing conflict, (5) receive $20m of the money. The UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) will (6) the money through a cash and voucher programme aimed at the most vulnerable, particularly women and girls, and people with disabilities. This is not enough money to (7) with the situation at hand, but the UN is sending a signal to the world that if the wealthiest countries are not careful, within a year more famines will (8) across the globe.
Developing Countries
113
WILL EUROPE’S MUSEUMS RISE TO THE CHALLENGE OF DECOLONISATION?
TEXT 2
Anthropology and archaeology were among the most important of the colonial disciplines. They derived their power from the trick of collapsing time and space. It was as if the further the colonial explorer travelled from the metropolis, the further back in time they went, until they found themselves, whether in Africa, Tasmania, or Tierra del Fuego, no longer in the present, but in the Stone Age.
Anthropology museums, which hold “world culture” collections, first developed in Europe, especially Germany and Britain, in the late 19th century. They were designed to realise these exoticising time-warps. In these places, the racist ideologies that sought to justify and naturalise European imperialism were institutionalised, helping create the idea of a distinction between “primitive art” and “civilisation”. Today the colonial mindset of European anthropology museums is being questioned and rethought and we should all be paying attention. In the quiet Brussels suburb of Tervuren, the Royal Museum for Central Africa reopened in December 2018 after a five-year renovation. Originally built in 1897 to showcase the personal collection of King Leopold II from his private colony Congo Free State, the museum displays stuffed animals and geological specimens alongside African art. Its gardens once housed a short-lived “human zoo” of more than 260 Congolese people. New museum texts attempt to communicate Belgian colonial history and the circumstances in which objects were taken. But this “decolonised” redisplay is both a failure and a cautionary tale. No matter how fully and honestly the story of the Belgian Congo, in which millions of people were killed, is told, the very presence of these objects and the building does what it was designed to do: to extend racist ideology and colonial violence through the objectification of Africans. Europe’s museums, as Sumaya Kassim puts it, “will not be decolonised”. The contrast with Senegal’s new $35m Museum of Black Civilisations, which opened to the public in the same month as Tervuren, is stark. As its director, Hamady Bokoum, has explained, the museum is not about ethnology or the past conjured by a European model of museums, but about duration, the future, youth and Africa “looking at itself”, not gazed at by Europeans. An American colleague recently back from Dakar complained that some of the gallery displays seemed “sparse” and “unfinished”. She was not wrong. Across Africa, from Dakar to the new Royal Museum in Benin City in Nigeria, which David Adjaye has been commissioned to design, modern spaces for the display and care for African art and cultural heritage are being constructed hand-in-hand with renewed calls for the return of plundered objects. Last year, the 15 nations of the Economic Community of West African States agreed an action plan for the return of African cultural property, and in February 2020 13 African heads
of state convened as part of a new strategic group to champion 2021 as a Year of Culture for Africa, and “to speed up the return of cultural assets”. African institutions are reimagining museums not as an endpoint but as an ongoing, living process. This new African thinking challenges Europe to look at itself through its own “unfinished” anthropology museums. Foremost is the question of cultural restitution and the return of sacred, royal and culturally iconic artworks and material culture taken under colonialism. In Britain, our tired and familiar national narrative conflates returning the Parthenon marbles, Easter Island statues, the Rosetta Stone, the Benin Bronzes and even the Lewis chessmen into one intractable issue. By contrast, the French report on restitution calls for us to distinguish between the different circumstances of “acquisition” – from violent looting to colonial collecting, archaeological fieldwork and even purchase – in which questions of “consent” and “duress” are relevant. This report is now leading to action. Last November, the sabre of Omar Saidou Tall, seized as a trophy of war in 1893, was returned from Paris to Dakar. New legislation to make this return permanent, along with the return to Benin of 26 statues looted by Col Alfred Dodds during the sacking of the royal palace of Abomey in 1892, is expected soon. In Germany too, returns of human remains and cultural property – including the Stone Cross of Cape Cross and the Witbooi Bible taken during the Ovaherero and Nama genocide of 1904-8, when some 100,000 people were slaughtered – are taking place from Berlin and Stuttgart to Namibia. And the inauguration of a new national museum of the Democratic Republic of Congo in Kinshasa last November is even raising the question of restitutions from Tervuren. New restitution procedures are being developed across Europe from the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen in the Netherlands to Arts Council England. Times are changing for Europe’s “world culture” museums. How can they participate in this global present, rather than just representing some old colonial vision? We must let go of our old obsessions with cultural ownership and the spectre of “empty galleries” (a common refrain from those who defend the status quo and envisage western museums stripped of their collections if restitution requests are granted). It is time to reimagine museums as sites of conscience – unique public spaces for understanding, remembering and addressing the legacies of empire and enduring cultural infrastructure of “race science” – for the restitution of knowledge and memory as well as of property. Far from just places for retelling the history of empire through world culture collections, in the old contemplative mode, museums are unfinished projects, and crucial resources to be rethought and repurposed for the wider, urgent European task of understanding and facing up to the violence and loss wrought by colonialism. Dan Hicks, The Guardian, Mar. 7, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
114
In the News
1 Before reading the article, define its key terms in your own words: Archaeology, Anthropology, Imperialism, Decolonisation.
Answer these questions based on your experience: What is a museum? Who visits it and why? What is displayed in a museum, according to what expectations and to what purpose? Use this vocabulary: to institutionalise / a mindset / to showcase / to gaze at / cultural heritage
2 Read the article and fill in the following fact sheets. Surf the web to add a few more details and especially for the final two museums mentioned.
The Royal Museum for Central Africa Location: Created in: Reopened after renovation in: Artefacts: Visitor’s impressions: The Museum of Black Civilisations Created in: Artefacts: Official mission:
Location:
, Senegal
Visitor’s impressions:
Location: Royal Museum in Benin City Created in: Architect: Artefacts:
, Nigeria
New National Museum Created in: Artefacts: Expected development:
, DRC
Location:
The national Museum van Wereldculturen Location: Created in: Artefacts: Do you know any of these or other Primitive Art museums? Why do you think Europeans enjoy visiting them? Would you?
3 According to the article, what is the nature of the artefacts found in European “primitive civilisation”
museums? What words are used to explain how the European museums acquired most of their artefacts? According to you, why can it be said that even “colonial collecting” or “purchase” may not have been the fairest practice?
4 How do European museums compare to the non-European ones mentioned in the article? What is the journalist suggesting? Explain what you understand when the article refers to “the objectification of Africans”. Research the reference to Sumaya Kassim and watch the video essay The Museum Will Never Be Decolonised.
5 What should European states and museums do more systematically with their counterparts in former colonies, developing and emerging countries? What does the headline of the article suggest?
6 Choose one of the artefacts mentioned in the article, research and explain where it comes from, the circumstances in which it was brought to Europe and the value it had in its country of origin.
Developing Countries
115
7 How have some African countries joined their efforts to protect their heritage? Research the 2021 Year of Culture for Africa? How can it impact how Europe may change its post-colonial views?
8 If you want to enjoy the largest collections of ancient Egypt’s art, Roman and Greek artefacts, where
would you go in Europe? For an extensive African, Near Eastern, Asian and Oceanian art visit? And if you want to see the best parts of the Parthenon? As a member of a group of militants called “Return Stolen Art”, write a letter of support to one of the newly opened museums in Africa expressing your solidarity with their efforts to retrieve part of their heritage and suggesting some actions in European museums. Use expressions / quotes from the article such as: Foremost is the question / Times are changing for Europe’s “world culture” museums / to let go of cultural ownership / the colonial mindset / to question and to rethink / to reimagine museums / to repurpose collections
116
In the News
NOTES �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
Developing Countries
117
A THIRD OF MY COUNTRY WAS JUST UNDERWATER. THE WORLD MUST ACT ON CLIMATE
TEXT 3
One-third of my country was underwater last month. The heaviest rains in almost a decade began and have still not abated. More than 1.5 million Bangladeshis are displaced; tens of thousands of hectares of paddy fields have been washed away. Millions of my compatriots will need food aid this year. Calamities, alas, never strike alone. The floods, which come in the wake of widespread destruction caused by Cyclone Amphan in May, are making it more difficult to contain the coronavirus. More than 2.4 million people had already been moved from the destructive path of the storm without delivering them into the even greater danger of Covid-19. Yet while the infection and death rates have been contained, concerns remain until a foolproof safeguard is acquired. Economic lockdowns have hit our textile industry and exports and forced hundreds of thousands of our international migrant workers to return home, with the vast majority remaining unemployed.
Like many other climate-vulnerable nations across the globe, Bangladesh is trying to save lives, shore up healthcare systems, and cushion the economic shock for millions of people, all while avoiding fiscal collapse. But this is not a cry for help; it is a warning. For while other countries may be less exposed to the climate crisis, they will not be able to escape its destructive force for long. Countries more fortunate than mine should take a long, hard look at what we are battling. Recent research suggests rising sea levels will force hundreds of millions of people to abandon low-lying coastal cities worldwide by mid-century. Will the global community act in time to avert this catastrophe? Our climate emergency and Covid-19 are global threats. Both were predictable, and we could have – should have – done much more to minimize the risks. But now that they are upon us, the best way to respond, surely, is through concerted international action. Both the climate crisis and the pandemic are complex problems with many ramifications. They will either be solved collectively, or not at all. It will be futile to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to secure a Covid-19 vaccine for one nation alone, if the pandemic is allowed to rage elsewhere. And it will be similarly pointless for a majority of nations to rein in their emissions and build more sustainable economies if the world’s largest emitters do not do the same. The G20 countries are responsible for about 80% of total global emissions, while the bottom 100 countries only
account for 3.5%. The world cannot successfully tackle the climate challenge without significant action from everyone. The 2015 Paris agreement is still our best chance to contain global warming and limit its most pernicious effects. To date, 189 countries have ratified a treaty that commits them to collectively cut emissions to stop global temperatures from rising by more than 2C above pre-industrial levels, and to try to limit the rise to 1.5C if possible. That last, more ambitious goal was proposed by the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), which I chair – a group of 48 countries disproportionately affected by a warming planet, Bangladesh among them. CVF nations have been at the forefront of climate adaptation as well as climate change, promoting initiatives such as building stronger shelters against cyclones and replanting mangrove forests to protect coastal communities from sea surges. In acknowledgment of this important work, the Global Center on Adaptation will open an office in Dhaka this month to extend these best practices across South Asia. The world’s poorest, most vulnerable countries to climate change have kept our side of the bargain. According to the Sustainable Development Report 2020, 43 countries in Africa and many more across Asia and Latin America have achieved our climate action goals. The rich world has not. International funding for climate adaptation is still far short of what is needed. Furthermore, new, more ambitious climate initiatives are unlikely to succeed without greater leadership and world-class technology and pioneering climate research that have delivered so many ground-breaking solutions to date. If we don’t increase our ambition, we will all lose out. As many countries and companies can attest, finding low-carbon solutions and minimizing climate risks are the best ways of building more resilient, more efficient and more competitive economies. We all benefit from thriving trading partners in a low-carbon resilient world. Surely no one is in favor of the alternative – a fractured global order in which even rich countries are impoverished by the destructive force of global warming. The climate crisis, Covid-19 and its economic fallout are crying out for international leadership and cooperation. No country should turn its back on the rest of the world at this time. At the next UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties, countries must commit to enhancing their nationally determined contributions and ultimately give us hope for tackling all the other problems that afflict our collective existence. Sheikh Hasina, The Guardian, Sep. 22, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
118
In the News
1 Locate Bangladesh and find out more about this country in order to fill in this fact sheet. Official Name: Date of independence:
Flag:
Area:
Population:
Capital:
Language:
Population density:
Political system: GDP / capita:
HDI ranking:
Climate: Borders with: Member of Internal organisations:
What indicators in this profile can potentially be a cause for concern for the Bangladeshi government?
2 Identify
the problems Bangladesh was faced with in the autumn 2020.
You can check the Climate-Vulnerable Forum Wikipedia page to find out more on the topic.
3 Quote the article for details about agricultural
7 In the article, find a verb or an idiomatic expres-
and industrial productions and landscapes.
4 Why does the Prime Minister of Bangladesh believe
that she needs to address rich and poor nations?
5 What data does she refer to in order to show that
the richest nations need to act because they have not done enough?
6 According to you, what do “climate-vulnerable nations” have in common? Can you name other nations in this category?
sion with a verb to fill in the gaps with the same meaning as the synonym in parenthesis. For each statement, decide if it is true or false. a All climate-vulnerable countries need to (examine closely) how international policies are implemented. b All countries in the world try to (limit / control) their gas emissions with varying degrees of success. c Not all countries which denounce the lack of collective action do so to (request assistance). d All the G20 countries have so far (been true to their word). e Some powerful nations (refuse to pay attention to) the plea of the most vulnerable ones.
8 Find a term in the article matching the synonyms on the right and write your answer to find out the mysterious vertical word at the heart of any eco-friendly policy. _________ _______ _______ _______ _______ __________ _______________ __________ ______
capable of resisting and recovering to mitigate, soften the effect to support, to help to limit, control long term effect, consequences project, scheme, action recognition, awareness disaster, catastrophe to fight, to combat
________
prosperous, doing very well
_________
reliable, error free
____________ ______ __________
Developing Countries
made very poor to engage, get involved out of work
119
PETROL SOLD TO NIGERIA FROM EUROPE “DIRTIER” THAN BLACK MARKET “BUSH” FUEL
TEXT 4
Black market fuel made from stolen oil in rudimentary “bush” refineries hidden deep in the creeks and swamps of the Niger delta is less polluting than the highly toxic diesel and petrol that Europe exports to Nigeria, new laboratory analysis has found. Shell, Exxon, Chevron and other major oil companies extract and export up to 2m barrels a day of high quality, low sulphur “Bonny Light” crude from the Niger delta. But very little of this oil is refined in the country because its four stateowned refineries are dysfunctional or have closed. Instead, international dealers export to Nigeria around 900,000 tonnes a year of low-grade, “dirty” fuel, made in Dutch, Belgian and other European refineries, and hundreds of small-scale artisanal refineries produce large quantities of illegal fuel from oil stolen from the network of oil pipelines that criss-cross the Niger delta.
The net result, says international resource watchdog group Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN) in a new report, is that Nigeria has some of the worst air pollution in the world, with dense clouds of choking soot hanging over gridlocked cities leading to a rise in serious health conditions as well as damaged vehicles. The extreme toxicity of the “official” fuel exported from Europe surprised researchers who took samples of diesel sold in government-licensed filling stations in Port Harcourt and Lagos. They found that on average the fuel exceeded EU pollution limits by as much as 204 times, and by 43 times the level for gasoline. Laboratory analysis also showed that the black market fuel was highly polluting but of a higher quality than the imported diesel and gasoline. The average “unofficial” diesel tested exceeded the level of EU sulphur standards 152 times, and 40 times the level for gasoline. With more than 11m, mostly old, cars imported from Europe and Japan on the roads, and hundreds of thousands of inefficient generators used by households and businesses for electricity, Nigeria ranks fourth in the world for deaths caused by air pollution. It has been estimated that 114,000 people die prematurely from air pollution each year. The air quality in cities like Port Harcourt, Aba, Onitsha and Kaduna has reached crisis levels of pollution in recent years, and there is mounting evidence of rising asthma, lung, heart and respiratory diseases. More than half of developing countries, mainly in Africa and Latin America, still use high-sulphur fuels which have long been illegal to burn in western countries. In Nigeria the practice is encouraged by an opaque fuel subsidy system that keeps prices relatively low at the pumps, but is widely
thought to fuel corruption. Refineries in Europe are allowed to make the fuel if countries agree to accept it. The SDN report calculates that around half the air pollution in Port Harcourt, a city of more than 3 million people, comes from the burning of official and unofficial fuel. The rest comes from nearby gas flaring, other industries, and the burning of rubbish. Levels of particulate matter in Port Harcourt and Lagos are 20% worse than Delhi in India, the most polluted capital city in the world, where emergency levels of photochemical smogs are common. In 2016, the River Niger port city of Onitsha was said by the WHO to be the world’s most polluted city, the concentration of soot particles was recorded at 594 micrograms per cubic metre; compared with the WHO safe limit of 66. According to industry sources which track legal and illegal oil, cargo movements around 80% of Nigeria’s petroleum products come from the Netherlands and Belgium. The two countries have some of Europe’s largest refineries. The report substantiates allegations made in a 2016 Public Eye investigation and a 2018 Dutch government report that European refineries and commodity brokers were blending crude oil with benzene and other carcinogenic chemicals to create fuels hundreds of times over European pollution limits for the weakly-regulated African market. This was said to be causing significant particulate pollution, damage to vehicles and adverse health impacts for local populations. Nigeria, along with Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Benin promised in 2017 to stop the imports of “Africa quality” oil products as part of a UN environment programme initiative. But while Ghana has acted, reducing sulphur from 3,000 to 50 parts per million, Nigeria has argued that it needs more time to adapt. Illegal artisanal refineries are said to grow fast in number and scale, now producing 5-20% of all the gasoline and diesel consumed in Nigeria from the estimated 175,000 barrels of crude oil stolen each year. The bush refineries are highly dangerous and frequently explode, adding to air, water and soil pollution in the mangrove swamps. But they are an important source of income for communities. If Nigeria insisted on diesel imports that complied with the country’s intended fuel sulphur standards, particulate emissions could be reduced by 500%, greatly improving pollution and reducing health costs. The report recommends that Nigeria enforces its proposed sulphur standards as soon as possible and considers engaging with artisanal oil refiners in future. John Vidal, The Guardian, July 1, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
120
In the News
1 The
responsibility for pollution in Nigeria is shared between the Nigerian government, illegal refinery owners and European oil companies. Explain how each takes part in this environmental disaster.
2 Explain what seems illogical when the data of the different fuel producers is compared.
3 What
does this situation show in the relationship between wealthy and poor countries? Two points related to air pollution support this view.
4 What other contributors to air pollution are mentioned in the article?
5 How
does Nigeria rank in worldwide pollution rates? Who suffers most?
6 Why is the oil-related pollution not only impacting Nigeria’s air quality?
7 To fully understand the article, you may need to research the meaning of these technical terms:
crude / soot / sulphur / particulate matter / benzene / carcinogenic / photochemical smogs / Usual two-word combinations, also called colocations, are numerous in the article. Can you find some with their definitions? illegal trade / urban centres saturated with too much traffic jams / place where you buy petrol for your car / accumulating proof / category of the poorest nations / rates that call for immediate action / black substance resulting from partial combustion / data collected from where the activity is carried out /
8 Read the article and say if the following statements are true or false or if you cannot say and explain why. a Major international companies export over 2m barrels a day to Nigeria. b State-owned Nigerian refineries cannot deal with any of the crude oil produced nationally. c The European oil dealers in Nigeria have a monopoly on the whole domestic demand. d “Bush” refineries largely operate with crude stolen
Developing Countries
from the Niger delta. e Some Nigerians use fuel to generate electricity for their homes. f Air pollution seems to be linked to heart diseases. g The chemicals present in low quality fuel induce nervous-system degeneration. h High-sulphur fuels are becoming rare in the poorest part of the world. i Air pollution in Nigerian cities combines several factors. j 80% of the trade into Nigeria originates from the Netherlands and Belgium. k Cars gain on efficiency when they use low-quality fuel. l Few Nigerians own a car. m Africa-quality oil standards do not meet the European standards. n Some African countries have managed to reduce their air pollution. o Illegal refineries cannot provide a source of revenue for some Nigerians.
9 Here is a selection of words to be used to write a
summary. Each group of words makes one sentence.
— which is more polluting / European / the one locally produced / legally supply / with very poor-quality fuels / oil companies / than / in illegal refineries. / the Nigerian market / — result from / and highly polluting / Alarming levels / the toxic fuel / and in electricity generators / industrial activities. / of air pollution / used in old cars / — oil trade, / Due to / this lethal European / unlike / Nigeria still / implement eco-friendly policies / neighbouring countries. / struggles to / little regulation and /
q Write a letter to the EU Commissioner for Health,
or its secretariat for Product Safety, and forcefully denounce the practices the article describes: European oil companies and refineries producing dirty and harmful fuels for the African market.
Use expressive, emotional vocabulary such as: an outrage, a shame, a crime, double-standard, scandalous, shoddy, irresponsible, greedy, to blame, to condemn, to kill by proxy, to ban
121
INTERNET DOC. A THE UN LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRY CATEGORY
Tij.video, March 2019, 2’54”
A Watch the document fully once and then work through the various tasks below. Check your answers with a second viewing. 0 ➞ 0’13” The following sentences describe what you can see, yet all three statements are false. Explain why.
Kids are playing in a playground. Teenage girls are dancing in traditional clothes. Women are doing their washing by the river. A group of women are dancing in a circle. A woman is weaving at home. A man is digging a water hole. 0’14” ➞ 0’25” Give a definition of LDCs with these words: vulnerable / shocks / human assets / 0’25” ➞ 0’27” Locate the LDCs and name some of the countries you can spot on the map. 0’28” ➞ 0’40” The category was created to...
The visual support focuses on a) medical care b) trade c) education and a) industries b) cocoa harvesting c) rice fields. 0’41” ➞ 0’54” The CDP It makes recommendations on
and
.
meets every
0’55” ➞ 1’14” The committee uses three criteria: human , economic and nerability and income per . The review set the latest
. vulthreshold at $1230.
1’15” ➞ 1’38” The visual shows a man looking after cattle and then cattle heads been
A country needs two of these criteria to be considered for graduation, or have an income over $2460 at two a) independent b) different c) consecutive reviews of the CDP. 1’39” ➞ 1’50” What meaning can you infer from the act of “graduating” in this context?
Only five countries had graduated when the documentary was made. (true or false?) Some countries were about to graduate when the documentary was made. (true or false?) All the countries which graduated were located in Africa. (true or false?) 1’52” ➞ 2’26” What are the advantages given by the status of LDC?
How do LDCs also take part in international commitments? 2’27” ➞ 2’40” All these measures provided to these
central part of the international effort to leave no one opment goals.
B
vulnerable and poor countries are a in the push for the sustainable devel-
What do the scenes and visual support in the documentary intend to make potential donors or at least wealthy people think? Is this effective? Do you think the documentary is produced to appeal for donations? Why?
C Learn more about the UN’s sustainable goals at sdgs.un.org, the 17 Goals, sustainable Development, April 2018 (1’25”) and pick 5 of these goals. For the one you have chosen, justify and explain why they are considered as priorities for the near future. In what way do they impact you and your lifestyle?
122
In the News
INTERNET DOC. B A COUNTERINTUITIVE SOLUTION TO POVERTY: STOP TRYING TO ERADICATE IT Efosa Ojomo, TEDx Talks, May 2019, 9’25”
A Watch the document and work through the different parts below. 0 ➞ 3’32” The initial mistake
True or false? 1
The speaker, Efosa Okomo, comes from a poor village in Nigeria.
2 The picture shows women and children having to walk several miles to wash their clothes. 3 Building a well allowed all in the village to have access to water. 4 Giving access to clean water was at first an unrewarding experience. 5 The first time he heard the well was broken, he lost hope. 6 The organisation he had created specialised in fixing wells. 7 He felt access to clean water is part of what he must provide to the population of his country. 8 The problem of broken equipment in very poor communities is a common one. Explain the notion of “Push development strategy”. What is the usual definition of poverty? Development organisations are designed and make it their priority to provide what is missing. What is the problem with this way of thinking? 3’33” ➞ 3’58” The new approach
What verb is opposed to “Push” ? How does it explain the opposite of a Push Development strategy? 4’ ➞ 4’56”
Fill in the fact sheet on Nigeria with the details given Nigeria: State of the country: Life expectancy:
Political system: years
Share of the population who live under $2 / day:
%
State of infrastructure: What was the target of the Aswani brothers? What was their aim? 5’ ➞ 7’20”
Year of introduction of the product on the Nigerian market: Requirement to produce: Requirement to market: Requirements to distribute: What is the effect of providing a job? Explain in your own words the impact of a packet of instant noodles in Nigeria. Explain why the conclusion of this talk could be: trade not aid.
Developing Countries
123
B
Critical analysis of the document: 1
What should have been done to make sure that the well in the village was going to be a tool towards development?
2
What conditions made the case the Aswani brothers possible?
3 How should this business model be measured to call it a success story? 4 If you look at Nigeria’s HDI ranking in the UN website*, what problems can you identify? 5 What are the usual problems LDCs face that often turn off potential investors or undermine local efforts? * http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/latest-human-development-index-ranking, To find out more on this case study, you can read The Secret to Startup Business in Africa, Harvard Business Review, Feb 2017, (https://www.wamda.com/2017/02/africas-new-innovators)
124
In the News
INTERNET DOC. C THE STATE OF FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION IN THE WORLD 2020 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 13 July 2020, 3’18”
A Either read the text first and try to replace the words underlined with a synonym and check your answers listening to the document then. Or listen to the document once and then go over the transcript below to replace the words underlined with what you may remember. We are facing a global battle to meet the biggest challenges of our time. Five years after promising to eradicate hunger, we’re not on track to reach our objectives by 2030. Chronic hunger is up by 10 million people in one year and up by almost 60 million in five years. Almost 690 million people went hungry in 2019 with numbers highest in Asia and rising fastest in Africa. If these trends continue, more than 840 million people will be hungry by 2030 with Africa overtaking Asia as the region impacted most. The Covid-19 pandemic may add over a hundred million people to this distressing toll. Defeating hunger is just one part of the problem. Two billion people do not have regular access to safe, nutritious and enough food. In 2019, 144 million children under the age of five withstand it while 47 million were affected by wasting, we’re not on our way to meet our 2030 targets for child stunting, low birth weight and exclusive breastfeeding. Countries are also facing the increasing burden of obesity linked to poor quality diets with 676 millions of adults obese. Around the world many people are suffering from hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition because they cannot pay for healthy diets. Even the cheapest healthy diets are out of reach for more than three billion people in the world. In sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia, around 57% of the population cannot afford nutritious food. Our current dietary models are also taking a heavy toll in terms of health costs and the environment. By 2030 diet-related health costs linked to mortality and non communicable diseases could be more than 1.3 trillion US dollars a year while the diet-related costs of greenhouse gas emanations could be more than 1.7 trillion US dollars a year. As the world fights Covid-19, we cannot allow the pandemic to stop the global fight on hunger and malnutrition. To achieve a world fee from hunger and malnutrition by 2030, countries must change food systems and increase the affordability of healthy diets. Shifting to healthy diets could reduce direct and indirect health costs by up to 97% while reducing the social costs of greenhouse gas emissions by up to 74%. We must guarantee the cost of nutritious food comes down. If the world shifts towards a healthy diet we have a real chance of ending hunger and malnutrition forever. We must act now to build back better and make a difference in lives and communities everywhere. Use the word in bold letters to write a brief summary of the document.
B
Watch the document again and draw a list of what you see, and for each shot, identify what is illustrated and what the viewer’s reaction or understanding of the visual should be. Ex: Fields ploughed by tractors ➞ food production from agriculture, large fields, regular lines, big harvest ➞ wealth Discuss then how effectively the running commentary matches what the viewer is exposed to and may feel. Do all the same views trigger the same reactions? Discuss one particular example.
C What are the several problems associated to food in the world? D Explain why better diets are likely to reduce poverty, as the documentary suggests.
Developing Countries
125
E
126
The document explains broadly what should be done to reduce food related-poverty but not how change can be implemented. Can you think of initiatives either to be set up in the near future or already in place to end hunger or malnutrition? Develop ideas involving charities, exchange programmes, celebrities endorsing awareness programs, local actions, or all sorts of projects likely to help the situation. Could you be involved, by providing your expertise or professional skills or simply good will?
In the News
REVISION DEVELOPING COUNTRIES Fill in the sentences with one of the choices given.
1
Every year, large populations are replaced located displaced placed
2
causes drylands, often exacerbated by human activities, and can lead to desertification. Drought Water shortages Dehydration Dehumidification
3
Rice-farming culture with its typical arable land basin floods paddy fields
4
When hurricanes or tornadoes to shelter. range blow rage wind
5
In the midst of a political or social crisis, plunder and policing looting frauding sneaking
6
Many former colonies still suffer from the devastating legacy heritage gifts footprint
7
Even the most advanced economies can find themselves clear entrapped verging on the brink
8
The EU is committed to furthering international debt relief aid cancel exclusion
9
The lack of nutrients, as protein, carbohydrates, fat, vitamins or minerals, triggers severe malnutrition diet loss healthy issues
q
Reforming this health system is only possible with state support and international aid. dire part-time collapse ailing
w
Staple are plants grown to be consumed in large quantities so as to form the basis of a diet. shoots seeds crops grains
e
Rescue efforts have been left hampered halt reinforcing
r
The UN’s mission not to leave anyone after above away behind
t
A malaria campaign could be successfully implemented in remote areas within two years. suppress eradication deleting removal
y
The recession is about to impact LDCs much more than any other country. ongoing today’s actual presently
o
Access to clean water often entails digging a tap fountain well spring
Developing Countries
because of unpredictable natural disasters.
originates from the Neolithic age in China. , staying indoors is the safest, if you have somewhere
happen all too frequently. of colonialism. of recession. efforts for African countries. .
by high winds and torrential rain. is a challenging one.
which is an expensive task.
127
i
Beyond the outskirts of the capital city, sparsely thin lightly lonely
populated villages dot an extended desert area.
o
When delivering food aid, NGOs need to check control ensure rein
p
All agricultural are detrimental to the survival of the poorest farming communities. commodities good product input
a
Doctors in Mali urge the government to apply shore up fill in deny
s
Anticorruption activists claimed that they had to sign the confession under duress force tension compel
d
The task of alleviating poverty comes with many external factors. intractable frightened careless challenged
f
It may seem , but fighting food shortages by donating food is sometimes not the best solution. irresponsible surprises oddly counterintuitive
g
The of migrants is just impossible to conceive for those born into affluence. vulnerability weaknesses apathy wisedom
h
Child marriages and human trafficking plague spread endure enslave
j
More than good intentions, what they need is the mean wayward resources trust
k
The government is trying to borrow buy out recover take
l
Bangladesh is decades. drive plunged hit sunk
;
Low-lying cities will have to be rebuilt or abandoned due to the risk of floods. shore sea-line beach coastal
z
Experts have shown that international findings funding resourceful donation
in tightly every step of the process.
UN-funded vaccination programmes. .
the remote parts of the poorest countries. to act against poverty.
the lands away from the tribes in the name of afforestation. into a humanitarian crisis as it undergoes the worst monsoon flooding in
for climate adaptation is still short of what is needed.
Fill in the gaps with the words provided for texts 1 and 2, without clues in text 3, except that all the words you need are prepositions. In text 1, there are more words than needed. Text 1 Extreme poverty An additional 150 million people could be pushed into extreme poverty by the end of next year as conflict, climate change and the pandemic combine to end two (1) of progress in raising the living standards of those on the lowest incomes, according to the World Bank estimates. The Washington-based organisation said the proportion of the world’s (2) living on less than $1.90 a day was expected to rise from 9.1% to 9.4% during 2020, with the increase concentrated in countries with already high (3) rates. In the absence of the outbreak of coronavirus, the Bank said it would have expected the poverty rate to fall below 8% during 2020. A (4) of eliminating extreme poverty by 2030 has been set by the United Nations as one of its sustainable development goals but the World Bank, which lends to developing countries, said there was no chance of
128
In the News
this being achieved without swift and significant (5) could still be living on less than $1.90 a day, it added.
. In 10 years’ time, 7% of the world’s population
The World Bank’s president believes that in order to reverse this serious (6) to development progress and poverty reduction, countries will need to prepare for a different economy post-Covid, by allowing capital, labour, skills, and innovation to move into new businesses and sectors. action / decades / people / population / poverty / setback / strategies / slow / target / year
Text 2 Cities in sub-saharan Africa Young people migrate to cities the world over looking for opportunity. Lagos in Nigeria, a sprawling lagoon city of some 21m people, is no exception. In dense traffic jams, young (1) weave through the cars selling plastic pouches of drinking water and tissues. On street corners they run generators and will charge your phone or photocopy a (2) . But most people never get much further than where they start: working extra ordinarily hard for very little. Migrants to African cities are not worse off than they were in the (3) . If that were the case, they would move back. But urbanisation in Africa does not provide nearly as good a ladder out of poverty as it does elsewhere. Africa is the world’s fastest urbanising (4) . In 1950, sub-Saharan Africa had no cities with populations of more than 1m. Today, it has around 50. By 2030, over half of the continent’s population will live in cities, up from around a third now. The fastest growing (5) , such as Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, are expanding at rates of more than 4% per year. That is almost twice as fast as Houston, America’s fastest-growing metropolis. In most parts of the world, crowding (6) together allows businesses that wouldn’t otherwise exist to thrive. In Africa this process seems not to work as well. Africa is the only region where urbanisation is not correlated with (7) reduction. The African cities are not economically dense, connected, and liveable. Instead, they are crowded, disconnected, and costly. Not all African cities are the same, of course. Kigali, Rwanda’s (8) , is amazingly clean—the result of having a stern disciplinarian as a president. South Africa’s big cities somewhat resemble American ones, only with shanty (9) at the edges. What ties them together, and sets them apart from cities elsewhere in the world is that urbanisation has not been driven by increasing agricultural productivity or by industrialisation. Instead, African cities are centres of consumption, where the rents extracted from natural resources are spent by the rich. This means that they have grown while failing to install the (10) that makes cities elsewhere work. capital / continent / countryside / document / infrastructure / men / metropolises / people / poverty / towns
Text 3 Trade not Aid policy The trade-not-aid strategy is based (1) the idea that if developing countries were able to trade more freely (2) wealthy countries, they would have more reliable incomes and they would be much less dependent (3) external aid to carry (4) development projects. International trade would raise incomes and living standards as poor countries would be able to export their way to economic development (5) selling their products to rich countries eager to buy their goods. In this sense, the “trade-not-aid” theory aligns (6) the poverty reduction theory, in that both perspectives emphasize the importance (7) creating export sectors to increase development. Unfortunately, most wealthy countries have higher tariffs on goods that developing countries export, such as clothes, than (8) manufactured goods that other developed countries produce. This means that (9) order to sell their goods in developed countries, exporters in developing countries must pay high taxes, which are ultimately reflected in higher prices of their products once they hit the market. Developed countries also subsidize their own industries to keep prices of domestically produced goods low, thereby keeping (10) competition from poorer countries. Topics for debate — Developing countries are still denied opportunities despite their wealth. How can this still be the case? — Corruption plagues many of the poorest countries, but is it a disease or just a symptom of an ailing system? — Poverty is the worst form of violence. (Gandhi) — Pouring aid money into LDCs has not helped much so far, they remain so desperately in need. What is needed then? — Only debt relief and cooperation programmes can ever improve the fate of the poorest countries.
Developing Countries
129
VOCABULARY DEVELOPING COUNTRIES Accord commercial Trade agreement Accorder (une aide) To grant Affranchir To enfranchise, free Aggraver To worsen Agriculture vivrière Subsistence farming Aide alimentaire d’urgence Emergency food aid International aid Aide internationale Aide humanitaire Humanitarian aid Debt relief Allègement de la dette Alphabétisation Literacy Alterglobalisation Altermondialisme Analphabétisme Illiteracy Annulation de dette Debt cancellation / forgiveness Approvisionnement Procurement, supply Asylum (seeker) Asile (demandeur) Atelier d’exploitation Sweatshop Comparative advantage Avantage comparé (the) World Bank (la) Banque mondiale Barrières douanières Bénévolat Bénévole
Tariffs Volunteer work Volunteer
Cheptel Livestock Debt-ridden Criblé de dette Cultures de rente / rapport Cash crops To face, address Confronter (problème) Croissance d’exportations Export-led growth Growth (rate) Croissance (taux de) Cultures génétiquement Genetically-modified crops (GM) modifiées Cultures de rente Cash crops Subsistence crops Cultures vivrières Décroissance Denrée (alimentaire) Denrée de base Développement durable
Uneconomic growth Foodstuffs Staple food Sustainable development
Ébauche d’accord Économie intégrée Économies d’échelle Endettement Entreprises nationales Espérance de vie Explosion démographique Exportation
Draft deal Integrated economy Economies of scale Indebtedness State-owned companies Life expectancy Population explosion, boom Exports
Faim Hunger Famélique Famished Fardeau Burden Flux de capitaux Capital flow Flux migratoires Cross-border / migration flows IMF = Internal Monetary Fund FMI Fossé riches / pauvres Poverty gap Fuir, échapper To flee, escape Fuite des capitaux Capital flight Fuite des cerveaux Brain drain Importations / l’importation Industrie agroalimentaire
130
Imports, importing Agribusiness
Ingérence de l’État Insuffisance alimentaire
State interference Food insecurity
Lever des fonds Libéralisation du commerce Libre-échange
To raise funds Trade liberalisation Free trade
Main d’œuvre immigrée Main d’œuvre infantile Moratoire sur la dette Mourir de faim
Migrant labour Child labour Debt moratorium To starve
Niveau de vie
Standard of living
Org. mondiale du travail International Labour Organisation = ILO ONG Non Governmental Organisations = NGOs Pays émergents Middle-income / emerging countries Pays en voie Developing countries de développement Pays les moins avancés Least Developed Countries (PMA) = LDCs Over-indebted countries Pays surendettés Pays riches Wealthy / affluent countries Scarcity, shortage Pénurie Politique commerciale Trade policy Purchasing power Pouvoir d’achat PIB Gross Domestic Product = GDP PNB G ross National Product = GNP Stimulus package Programme de relance Trade protection Protections commerciales Récolter (agri.) Réduction de la pauvreté Réduire Rééchelonnement de dette Réforme agraire Réfugié Relance économique Remboursement de la dette Renverser la tendance Retenir Responsabiliser, autonomiser Revenu national / habitant
To harvest Poverty alleviation To lower, cut back Debt rescheduling Land reform Refugee Economic recovery Debt service To buck the trend To detain To empower Per capita national income
Drought Sécheresse Sévir To be rampant, hit SIDA AIDS Soulager To relieve Sous-alimenté Underfed Sous-développement Underdevelopment Stimuler (développement) To spur / boost development Subventionner To subsidise Subventions Subsidies Surpeuplé Overcrowded Taux de fécondité Taux de mortalité infantile Tiers-monde
Fertility rate Infant death rate Third World
In the News
NOTES �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
Developing Countries
131
6 n a e p o r The Eu n o i n U If one considers that the European Union results from a brave and continuous effort to imagine countries sharing more than borders, one must admit that it can take pride in itself for having some of the highest standards of living in the world, effective social and labour protections, strict environmental rules as well as an unconditional respect for democracy and Human Rights. More pragmatically, the EU has become the third largest population, after China and India, and its economic input can no longer be ignored worldwide. Yet, its common but at times conflict-ridden past has not always served as the necessary cement it needs now to unite its territory. As some of the texts in this chapter remind us, its unity can come under strain in times of crisis. Brexit, now definitively over, with its painful and long farewell was one of them; large-scale migrations or a threatening sanitary situation, or again the limits of its inclusive policy, can also undermine its ability to speak with one voice. The Union was an ambitious project, and it should remain so when facing adversity and in its future development and commitments to the rest of the world.
CONTENTS TXT 1 Europeans of colour are finding their voice – it’s time “Brussels so white” listened C1+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 TXT 2 The coronavirus crisis has exposed the truth about the EU: it’s not a real union C1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 TXT 3 To save the EU, its leaders must first focus on saving the planet C1- . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 TXT 4 I was one of the millions opposed to Brexit. I’ve seen nothing here to change my mind B2+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
INTERNET DOC. A Europe Explained 10’04”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 INTERNET DOC. B Is The European Union Worth It Or Should We End It? 7’42”. . . . . . . . . . 149 INTERNET DOC. C Why Europe Doesn’t build Skyscrapers 7’10”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 REVISION
Multiple choice questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Gap-filling texts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Topics for debate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
VOCABULARY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
TEXT 1
EUROPEANS OF COLOUR ARE FINDING THEIR VOICE – IT’S TIME “BRUSSELS SO WHITE” LISTENED Black Lives Matter protests across Europe are exposing the continent’s dismal record of race-based violence, discrimination and harassment. The German chancellor and the Dutch prime minister have acknowledged their countries’ struggle with systemic racism. But EU institutions admit no such failing or promise any change. EU condemnations of George Floyd’s brutal killing have been stilted, confused and confusing – including complacent claims that it could never happen in Europe. The EU’s foreign policy chief recognized the impact of the BLM movement but only several days after indignant minority ethnic Europeans were protesting in the streets warning that “in Europe, we also can’t breathe”. The EU Commission vice-president in charge of migration and the European way of life (that is in his job description) declared that police brutality of the kind witnessed in America is “unlikely” in Europe. Making a dubious distinction between European nationals and other black people, the EU Commissioner for equality announced: “Black Europeans are European citizens and should be treated equally and fairly, free from all manifestations of racism, xenophobia and intolerance.” EU officials’ clumsy dive into Europe’s troubled waters on race should come as no surprise. With few black or brown staff members, EU institutions, whether they loom large like the Commission, the Council and the Parliament or in its specialised agencies, which work in semi-oblivion, are among the world’s last-remaining all-white bastions of power.
Most inhabitants of the “Brussels so white” bubble have little or limited interaction with Europe’s ethnic communities, its EU-labelled “second or third-generation migrants”. Black or brown people seen in EU corridors or attending EU meetings are usually Asian or African diplomats. As a new Green MEP found on his first day as an elected UK member of the EU Parliament, minority ethnic Europeans are so rare in EU circles that they can be treated as unwanted intruders, or repeatedly expected to answer the question: “Where do you really come from?”. Conversations on race, colour, religion and ethnicity, as a result, are excruciatingly uncomfortable in and around EU institutions. Officials have become adept at brushing off questions on racial inclusion and diversity by insisting that EU recruitment policies are “colour blind”. The EU’s lack of attention to complaints of harassment, ethnic profiling and violence against Europe’s ethnic minority citizens, stands in contrast to its much-respected defence of human rights activists and beleaguered minorities abroad. Poland and Hungary have been singled out for rule-of-law violations, attacks on judicial independence and clampdowns on media freedoms. Yet implementation of an EU race equality direc-
tive adopted two decades ago and instructing governments to eliminate racial and ethnic discrimination in policy and practice remains patchy. The already difficult EU conversation on colour and race is complicated further by the toxic xenophobic rhetoric of the far right, and the more subtle but equally damaging ways in which that populist narrative has seeped into mainstream poli tics and institutions. Lack of data is another challenge. Nongovernmental sources say an estimated 50 million people of a racial or ethnic minority background live in the EU, representing 10% of the bloc’s population. But neither the EU nor national governments keep statistics on race or ethnicity. Still, the tide may be turning. Although only 29 MEPs, 3% of the total, are people of colour – the number has gone down since Brexit and the departure of several British Asian parliamentarians – those elected to the EU assembly in 2019 are self-confident and in no mood to be silenced. Spearheaded by three MEPs who also happen to be women of colour, 120 members of the EU assembly have written to the Commission President demanding that she stop turning a blind eye “as racism flourishes within our societies and police brutality is inflicted upon black and brown people with near-impunity”. If the EU is to have any credibility, at home or globally, it must practise what it preaches on inclusion and equality. This means putting a stop to the policy of being “colour blind” and a change in the way in which the EU recruits, thinks and acts. Inclusive policies, such as training on unconscious bias, are necessary. Instead of sitting back and waiting for them to come, the EU institutions must consciously reach out to ethnic minority communities, encourage them to sit for EU job recruitment tests and, more generally, take part in the EU conversation. Political parties could insist on diversity in selecting candidates in the next EU elections, and, since they work outside strict recruitment rules, European Commissioners and MEPs could recruit Europeans of colour to join their cabinets and teams. Last but not least, the Commission and the Parliament must make clear that their plans to convene a conference on the future of Europe must include the voices of people of colour. It can be done, and as demonstrated by the angry protests in Europe’s streets, it must be done. The EU cannot continue to avoid uncomfortable conversations on race, colour and religion. It’s simple: the EU’s management machine no longer represents the reality of the continent’s increasingly vibrant, diverse, multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multiracial societies. To truly connect with all European citizens and to inspire and motivate them, EU institutions must look like the societies they represent. Shada Islam, The Guardian, Jun. 9, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
134
In the News
1 Define in your own words the key concepts of the article: discrimination / racism / xenophobia / intolerance / harassment / inclusion / ethnic profiling / rule-of-law violation / impunity / clampdown Can you explain the difference between equality and fairness?
2 Match each noun with the noun or adjective it is often associated with to form a colocation. There may be several choices. Check your answers in the article.
bastions • bias • claims • communities •
• mainstream • non-governmental • unconscious • race-based
directive • • limited interaction • • dismal migrants • • ethnic intruders • • recruitment narrative • • all-white policies • • unwanted politics • • third generation records • • populist rhetoric • • complacent sources • • equality violence • • toxic Use some of these terms to describe the situation denounced by the journalist.
3 Match the adjectives with their meaning. Who are these adjectives attributed to in the article?
beleaguered • clumsy • damaging • dubious • excruciating • indignant • patchy • self-confident • stilted • systemic •
• assertive, self-assured • fragmentary, bitty, insufficient • stuck, blocked • in a difficult situation, besieged • causing harm or injury • intensely painful • awkward, without grace • relating to a system • discontented • doubtful, uncertain
4 Guess the meaning of the verbal phrases from the article; use the article to guide your choice. 1. to dive in troubled waters 2. to loom large 3. to brush off a question 4. to be colour blind
a. to be flooded a. to seem dark a. to reject a question a. to be racist
5. to turn a blind eye 6. to seep into 7. to practice what you preach 8. to spearhead action
a. to avoid considering b. to see imperfectly a. to drink slowly b. to infiltrate, drip in a. to do what you want b. to give a lecture a. to lead action b. to think about an action
The European Union
b. to handle trouble b. to have a major influence b. to ask a question b. to see in black & white
c. to face a difficult situation c. to be foolish c. to consider an issue c. to refuse to consider skin colour c. to look closely c. to spring out c. to do what you recommend c. to delay action
135
5 Why are minorities in the EU so poorly represented? 6 What actions should be implemented to encourage the EU institutions to be more “colour-friendly”? According to you, why does it take so long to change mindsets among politicians?
7 Write a junior minister speech to the EU Parliament to encourage more MEPs to stand for a fairer repre sentation of minorities. To articulate your ideas and forcefully ask for change, use several times the structure: It is time... V-ed… as in the headline of the article. You should also include vocabulary from exercises 1 to 4.
esearch the 8 Do you know when the next MEP elections are and who your current representative is? R topics they deal with and how they may impact you.
136
In the News
NOTES �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
The European Union
137
TEXT 2
THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS HAS EXPOSED THE TRUTH ABOUT THE EU: IT’S NOT A REAL UNION The European Union has scraped through its latest crisis by the skin of its teeth. The past week has been a disgrace. When ministerial talks collapsed over the plan for a “coronabond”, the reaction seemed terminal. Germans and Dutch insulted Italians and Spaniards. Italy’s prime minister said his country faced an “economic and social emergency”, and the EU appeared not to care. The Danes spoke of “a financial crisis on steroids”. The Commission’s vice-president predicted “the EU as we know it will not survive this”.
Yet as Britain showed at the time of Maastricht and since, Europe lacks that shared identity. It lacks accountable leader ship to make consent effective. In 2008, Europe dragged itself behind emergency actions taken by Barack Obama in Washington and Gordon Brown in London. When the ECB was galvanised into action, it did indeed “print money” through quantitative easing; but the easing was directed chiefly at underpinning German bank loans to Greece and others. It was banks that were rescued.
Finally a last-minute package was agreed, for €500bn of emergency loan finance. This was little more than an extension of the existing European stability mechanism, designed to help individual countries in short-term emergencies. Even then, it was a mere third of what the European Central Bank had said was needed, €1.5tn euros. What was specifically not agreed was any sharing of the economic burden of the pandemic across European treasuries in general. It was mostly more loans.
This week it has been abundantly clear that many European governments simply do not trust the Italians and the Spanish to find a way out of the pandemic crisis responsibly. Italy is certainly in economic meltdown. Its system for getting cash into the pockets of poor Italians appears to have broken down. For the first time in 75 years, large numbers of Europeans are simply unable to buy food. Their erstwhile employers face bankruptcy, and their banks face collapse. Britain, outside the eurozone, can print money and hand it to employers – apparently £40bn if need be. That is classical monetarism, I assume to be tested to near destruction. It is sensible, and there is little likelihood of the cash dissipating into inflation. That option is not open to Italy. It has delegated it under treaty to the EU and its bank. It can only borrow, and Italy is already crippled with debt.
The reason was glaringly obvious, and as old as the EU itself. The northern European nations within the eurozone still do not trust the hard-pressed southern ones to spend money wisely and pay back their debts. It was the same reticence that governed the slow reaction to the 2008 financial crisis. In other words, the EU is not a true political union, like the United States or Russia or even the United Kingdom. When one EU country hits trouble, as Greece and Italy have done over Mediterranean migrants since 2015, the EU itself is silent. It turns its back and hopes trouble will go away. Political unions are specific things – a marriage of regions, provinces, states in one national unit – based on a sufficiency of shared identity and shared responsibility. When the US was created, it agreed to joint liability for federal bonds. When New Orleans flooded in 2005, Washington did not tell Louisiana it was on its own. Nor did Britain say that to Northern Ireland when the province collapsed into bloodshed in the 1970s. It has been pouring in money ever since. The Maastricht treaty of 1992 was based on an ambition to drive Europe towards just such a goal. That, and the subsequent Lisbon treaty of 2007, produced much bureaucratic infrastructure, ever wider “competences”, an executive presidency and an enhanced parliament – which, it was hoped, would convey consent to central authority. Crises like the present one are precisely what such a body should be able to handle.
Any hope of a truly concerted European response to coronavirus is implausible. The EU has so far been inert. Nation states have been forced back on their own science, and their own health resources. Borders have closed and suppressions varied, from total lockdown to none at all. (...) The head of the International Monetary Fund says the world is facing “the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s”. This surely is a time for the EU to show a capacity for leadership. It should use the opportunity to show its electo rates, Europe-wide, that it can rise to the occasion and share responsibility across the board. Did the founder of the EU, Jean Monnet, not say that a new Europe “will be forged in crises”? Daily reports indicate that citizens across Europe are showing a collective concern and care for each other. The pandemic has revived a faith in local community, and in a shared sense of nationhood. Yet the reaction of key European governments to this financial emergency has been like that of the British people in 2016. They don’t trust the EU with their money. What you don’t trust with your money is not a union. Simon Jenkins, The Guardian, Apr. 10, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
138
In the News
1 For each statement, say if it is true or false. Quote the article to justify your choice. a b c d e f g h i j
The EU rescue package was difficult to agree upon. The journalist compares the EU to the UK and the USA to show that they are all political u nions. The lack of trust between EU members explains its failures. The European migrant crisis in 2015 proved the limits of support to its members. The journalist believes there is a divide between northern and southern EU states. The journalist implies that the UK did not help Northern Ireland much. The journalist believes the aims of the Maastricht and the Lisbon Treaties were good. Not being in the eurozone, the UK can choose its own monetary policies. The journalist underlines the lack of coordinated effort during the Covid-19 pandemic. To the journalist, Europeans are supportive of one another, even financially.
2 Research the Maastricht Treaty and the Lisbon Treaty, then test your knowledge of the two treaties filling in the two paragraphs. You can use the EU website (www.europa.eu) for official data.
The Maastricht Treaty was signed in February 1 by the 12 countries forming the union then and was ratified in the 2 of each country, in some cases after a referendum vote. It created a European 3 allowing any EU citizen to reside and move freely between member states. It facilitated between police and the judiciary so that criminality could be reduced. It paved the way for 4 the creation of the single European 5 , the euro, and established the ECB whose main concern is to maintain 6 stability. It set rules, called the Maastricht criteria or criteria, to ensure that the level of inflation, public debt, interest and exchange rates in countries to join after the treaty would be stable. The Lisbon Treaty entered into force in December 2009 and gave the EU a full legal personality. It created the posi, elected by the parliament for a five-year term. It set out a formal protion of a European Union 8 cedure to be followed if and when EU states wished to 9 from the union, referred to as article 50. The treaty also commits all member states to provide 10 if another EU State is under attack. Several environmental, intellectual property and civil protection cooperation principles have also been introduced in EU law.
3 Here are some some sentences form the article with adverbs used with different elements in the sentence. Can you identify them and explain how adverbs can be used?
Finally the package was agreed / It was mostly more loans / the reason was glaringly obvious / it was abundantly clear / a truly concerted European response to coronavirus is implausible
4 The following vocabulary from the article is usual EU jargon. Make sure you can define each term. plan package loan finance stability mechanism economic burden
treasuries eurozone joint liability bureaucratic infrastructure
executive presidency parliament central authority body quantitative easing
meltdown monetarism borders
5 In the article, find expressions meaning: applying to all / causing very difficult problems because of money owed / exaggerated to ignore, to reject / just about, by a narrow margin (2) / to perform better due to special circumstances / stimulated to act Use some of them to describe today’s political situation in the EU
6 Discuss Jean Monnet’s opinion that a new Europe “will be forged in crises”. Can this be a more general approach, at work or in your private life concerning change / improvement?
Use some of these links: compared to / unlike / similarly to / under different circumstances / what is more / otherwise
The European Union
139
7 Choose one of the statements extracted from the article and develop a contradictory point of view with examples taken from the recent European history.
The EU is not a true political union or The EU has so far been inert or The EU lacks accountable leadership
8 European citizenship: Carry out a survey over ten respondents in your close circle of friends or family to find out how European each individual feels. Choose three questions to ask them, two with “yes / no / don’t know” answers and one either suggesting a list of preferences or ranking priorities. What does this small sample seem to show? Is this matching or contradicting your personal view?
140
In the News
NOTES �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
The European Union
141
TO SAVE THE EU, ITS LEADERS MUST FIRST FOCUS ON SAVING THE PLANET
TEXT 3
The future of Europe depends on climate action. This is the resounding message that young Europeans have delivered to their leaders over the past two years. To be sure, the wave of young climate activists across the continent, from Fridays for Future to Extinction Rebellion, is part of a global response to the climate crisis. But for the EU in particular, it is also a warning from a new generation of Europeans to their leaders: our European identity hinges on your climate policies. For our parents’ generation, the EU defined itself as a protector of peace, a fortress against fascism and a society of (relative) social security. For our generation – we are in our mid-20s – this narrative does not resonate. We came of age in a Europe of crises: a financial collapse, a panic over migration, a surge of populism. These formative moments gave the lie to the notion of a united European identity. To many of us, the EU appeared less a project of democracy, diversity or solidarity than one of bureaucracy, xenophobia and fracture. What is more, Europe’s responses to these crises were hardly material for a new common narrative. Just the opposite: the responses were the crises.
But the climate crisis is different. For one, young Europeans see it not just as a threat, but also a genuine opportunity to build a better world (and a better Europe). An Eupinions poll last year found that 47% of 16- to 25-year-olds believe the environment should be the EU’s top policy priority, nearly 10% more than those in older age groups. Poll after poll – including one conducted by our Europe’s Stories research team, earlier this year – finds young Europeans overwhelmingly supportive of eliminating the EU’s carbon emissions by 2030. EU leaders, mired in years of failed top-down projects to find “a new narrative for Europe”, have finally taken note. In December 2019, Ursula von der Leyen’s European commission made headlines with its European Green Deal, which aims to turn Europe into the world’s first carbon neutral continent by 2050. While finally bringing its fossil-fuel exit underway, Germany declared climate change one of the key policy priorities for its current council presidency. And European leaders have just negotiated the conditions of a recovery plan, earmarking 30% of both the EU budget and the new recovery fund for climate protection. Yet so far, Europe has failed to match deeds to words. Negotiations about target dates for carbon neutrality across the continent have been sluggish. Worse, “carbon neutrality” has itself come to serve as a cover for outsourcing emissions to developing countries and investing in “alternative” fuels, such as biomass, that sound green but are really anything but. And despite all the talk, from the outset, the commission’s recovery strategy was set to prop up high-carbon industries
once again. Consider one particularly egregious example: airline bailouts. Rescue packages for Lufthansa, Air France and their fellow crisis-hit airlines, amounting to €34.4bn, all came without binding environmental conditions. In the latest budget deal, the safeguards used to guarantee that funds go to green technologies instead of polluting industries remain unclear. In this light, the EU’s grand declarations of climate action could still amount to greenwashing, pure and simple – a narrative without substance. Hollow narratives cannot endure; they undermine themselves. If EU leaders and national governments continue to soft-pedal and greenwash, they will forfeit the already fragile faith of our generation. This loss of faith has already begun: our generation has not failed to notice the discrepancy between EU leaders’ exemplary commitment to climate action on paper and their delays and obfuscations in practice. Our polling for Europe’s Stories suggests that just over half of young Europeans think autho ritarian states are better equipped to tackle the climate crisis than democracies – a worrisome but perhaps unsurprising trend that speaks to how urgently young Europeans want climate action, and to the failure of European democracies to meet the moment. There is a better way forward. And, with governments opening their coffers to save their eco nomies, it’s now or never. Here are a few specific proposals. Instead of asking for minimal (or no) climate commitments from failing airlines and auto manufacturers, the EU could institute a ban on short-haul flights – a policy that 62% of Europeans support – and accelerate the switch to electric vehicles. Instead of bowing to polluting industries on the sly, the EU could exclude emissions-intensive industries and practices, such as the fossil-fuel industry, chemical manufacturers or motorway expansions, from receiving recovery funds – no exceptions – and channel that money into a green public works programme. Instead of sticking with the loophole-ridden target of “carbon neutrality” by 2050, the EU could set a more appropriately ambitious target that includes strict trade regulations that pressure other emissions giants – such as China and the US – to speed up their own energy transitions. Oh, and stop cosying up to fossil-fuel lobbyists. These measures would set Europe on a path to a just transition: from the third-largest polluter in the world to a genuine climate leader. They would also help to craft a new and durable European identity for a new generation of Europeans. It is up to Europe’s leaders to recognise, before it is too late, that the latter cannot succeed without the former. To save Europe, they will have to save the planet.
Daniel Judt, Reja Wyss and Antonia Zimmermann, The Guardian, Jul. 27, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
142
In the News
1 Give each paragraph of the article a title from
the following list. There are three unnecessary titles. A new challenge / Effective solutions / European confusion / Europe divided by three / Eco-leadership / Possible change or greenwashing? / Young Europe
2 Answer words.
the following questions in your own
§1 Q1 What were the three motivations for a united Europe for former generations? Why? Q2 What three problems have today’s young European adults grown up with? Q3 What have the three initial goals of a united Europe turned to for the youngest generation? §2 Q4 What is the dual vision of the climate crisis for young Europeans? §3 Q5 What have institutions set up to indicate their consideration for a climate policy? Q6 Why are there reasons to doubt that a quick change in policy will occur? Q7 What political decision is entirely contradicting the EU’s environmental concerns? Q8 What definition of greenwashing is given in the article? Explain what is meant. §4 Q9 What are the solutions the EU could implement? Q10 What double impact could these measures have?
3 Match the verbs from the article (a.) to their synonyms (b.).
a. to cosy up / to bring underway / to earmark / to endure / to forfeit / to hinge / to be mired / to outsource / to prop up / to resonate / to soft pedal / to undermine b. to allocate, attribute / to confiscate, to lose because of a error / to depend on / to last, to continue / to provide from outside / to reduce the effect / to remind someone of something / to set in motion / to stop from falling, to provide support / to be stuck / to try be become friend with / to slowly weaken
4 Complete the sentences with idiomatic expressions found in the article.
He is not supposed to use his parents’ computer but he does so when they are at work.
When politicians talk, you can always wonder if they will at some stage . Scientific research on toxicity what common knowledge held as the truth. Journalists love to sensational piece of news.
to
out of the most
5 Choose
the right word so that the sentences make sense. The vocabulary is extracted from the article. The EU is often compared to a a) channel b) fortress c) narrative When a country’s economy a) surges b) recovers c) collapses, it needs the help of other member sates. A a) sluggish b) top-down c) genuine approach is too disconnected from the problems citizens have to face. One expects members of the same union to be a) resounding b) formative c) supportive. The EU history provides a) egregious b) binding c) global proof of how difficult it is to make the best choices. All countries have funds kept in their a) safeguard b) coffers c) packages for all sorts of emergency cases.
6 Write a speech to be delivered at the next European Youth Parliament session. Take this quote from the article to articulate and develop your ideas: Our common European identity is no longer one of democracy, diversity or solidarity but one of bureaucracy, xenophobia and fracture. Include this vocabulary from the article: recovery fund / carbon neutral / loophole-ridden lobbyist / rescue packages / target / discrepancy / bailout / worrisome
7 Write a short article for your university’s Student
Newspaper to describe the type of European Union students dream of. It should include climate concerns but not only. Topics such as educational mobility, programme contents or social justice should also be part of your vision of the future.
Anyone should become responsible, autonomous and ready to make good decisions.
The European Union
143
I WAS ONE OF THE MILLIONS OPPOSED TO BREXIT. I’VE SEEN NOTHING HERE TO CHANGE MY MIND
TEXT 4
The dream is over. On New Year’s Day, the curtain comes down on Britain’s long engagement with Europe’s noblest and greatest effort at collaboration and liberty. Our freedoms are to be slashed and an immense bureaucracy imposed on us. Next Friday Britons will lose the freedom to live, work, and trade in goods and services as they choose throughout the EU. Once natural rights are to be torched.
Our goods exporters, previously able to treat Europe as their home market, will have their goods painstakingly checked and controlled at EU borders, and VAT and excise duties paid immediately. More than 200m customs declarations will have to be filled in as lorries wait in new vast holding pens disfiguring our land. To sell into the EU a business will have to ensure it complies with that country’s laws. Services, our banks, insurance companies and investment house – great economic strengths – will have to go cap in hand asking permission to trade where once they were welcomed. We will need visas to stay in the EU beyond three months. Fifteen thousand British students a year will lose the right to study with no fees in European universities under the Erasmus programme. Britain is out of the European Investment Bank, which lent billions to the depressed parts of the UK; also out of Euratom, Europol and Eurojust. We are out of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, crucial in the fight against climate change and fundamental to the economics of wind farms and new nuclear power stations alike. We are to lose all automatic access to EU databases. The economic cost will be huge. To limit trade to this degree is to put a ball and chain around British business. Worse, the capacity of the British government to turn British regulations into EU regulations and, via the EU’s heft, then global regulations, as it has done so cleverly, for example, over specialist chemicals and mobile phone networks, has disappeared. No British company will be able to follow Vodafone to global pre-eminence. Inward investment, which boomed under EU membership, and which has already fallen by four fifths since the referendum, will remain depressed. On top, our horizons shrink, along with our influence. Cooperation with the EU over defence, foreign policy and external security is to cease at the request of the UK government. The trade and cooperation agreement with the EU, hailed so triumphantly by our clownish booster-in-chief, Prince Boris Johnson of the English nationalist party, is thus an exercise in limiting the damage – and, as was inevitable, almost completely on the EU’s terms. The EU has kept the UK in its orbit with a newly established partnership council to govern the agreement, ensuring that it has the firepower to launch crucifying trade sanctions if the UK dares to under-
mine the single market and customs union or depart from its regulatory standards. We are to be a rule taker. In fairness, the booster-in-chief has rescued some scraps from the wreckage. As was certain, given the starting point of complete regulatory and trade alignment, this is a trade agreement with no quotas and no tariffs, winning the right for British exporters to self-certify that they comply with EU regulations; also there is no automatic obligation for the UK to follow any EU regulatory changes. All of which goes significantly beyond WTO terms. Even the EU concedes that this is unprecedented, if very much in its interests, enjoying a £97 billion annual surplus in its goods exports to the UK. What’s more, both sides have made pragmatic compromises to keep flowing the preponderance of EU goods exported to the UK. Customs formalities will be a little lighter, with both sides recognising that traders can win the right to be trusted to complete the required customs forms rather than everyone being stopped and checked. Road haulage schedules will be free within limits. But on services, where UK exporters earn a vital £18 billion surplus with the EU, the EU has made almost no compromises at all. Britain’s overall trading position will thus be further weakened. The UK will win some new autonomies. It will be able to approve the use of hi-tech products – from drones to new medicines – faster, which, if used cleverly, will benefit those fast-growing industries. There will be a baby trade deal with the US. But, in the biggest irony of all, if this is to benefit British capitalism it will require a makeover – to become more high investment and stakeholder-oriented, working closely with government. It will have to look… more European. It is the paradox of Brexit. Britain will not love becoming Europe’s “nice little fellow”, with a stagnating economy and a mendicant relationship with its EU “partner” – so the obvious future to become more European. The narrow majority in the working population who voted 51% to 49% to remain in the EU in 2016 will grow year by year over the 2020s – so that when the incoming Labour government of 2029, led by one of the MPs who saw the future and voted against the treaty this week, holds its promised referendum on EU membership, the elderly Europhobe voters will this time be outvoted. Nigel Farage was wrong when he said the war was over – and the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, right when she said, quoting TS Eliot, that in every end there is a beginning. Brexit is to be a staging post in Britain’s eventually becoming a full-hearted member of the EU, so regaining our lost rights and freedoms – and ending, as Johnson rightly remarked, our hitherto vexed relationship with Europe. His historic mission will be to have finally settled the issue – but in a way wholly opposite to the one he now imagines. Will Hutton, The Guardian, Dec. 27, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
144
In the News
1 For the different parties impacted by Brexit, identify their gains and losses filling in this table. UK government
Losses Influence over EU Influence in diplomacy, EIB loans to
UK Exporters UK companies
, security
Gains Autonomy to product norms
regions
Support from Emissions Duty-free circulation of
, Europol, Eurojust, Scheme & services No quotas, no US Trade Deal Control free circulation; Transport to EU-wide market
US Trade Deal; No EU
compliance
Investors to the UK Attractiveness; Britons Ease to stay, settle, Students exchanges
Choose two gains and two losses and explain what has changed after Brexit. Can you think of other losses or gains which were not mentioned in the article?
2 The journalist creates several images to describe the post-Brexit situation. One refers to the end of a
show, another to being imprisoned, another again to a boat sinking and the idea of begging is referred to twice. Find where in the article these are suggested. What is common to all these images?
3 The article conveys ideas of violence and loss.
4 The journalist calls the Brexit deal “an exercise
Violence: to cut off / to set fire / the strength, vigour / to destroy cruelly, torment / a coercive measure
5 Explain the sub-headline: “Once the scale of our
Find the terms in the article matching these definitions.
Loss: to establish by authority / to examine and verify / to conform, submit / to enter, to be able to use someone who is given orders / to lose one’s beauty
Place the different units in the right order to form a sentence; each contains a word (underlined) to be replaced by a synonym from the list you have found above. have been imposed / from this uncompromising deal. / Businessmen, / suffer / they have gained Brexit terms, / who / more than the paperwork / it is / to mainland Europe. / how / for British businesses / will tell / needed to export / Only time / difficult / to respect the UK’s economic model / an opportunity / a penalty / to be / What / to change in the long run. / seemed like / may prove
The European Union
in limiting the damage”. What does this mean? In what sector of trade is the damage hardly reduced? Is this a win-win deal?
loss sinks in, the UK might appreciate the European project”, in reference to the end of the article. How can the journalist hope for a return to the EU for the UK?
6 When the Brexit deal was finally clinched, Scot-
land voiced its dissatisfaction over the terms of the agreement and the fact that it never voted in favour of leaving the EU. It claimed it could independently (re)join the EU, as a majority of Scots supported this choice in the 2016 referendum. How has the situation evolved since?
145
INTERNET DOC. A EUROPE EXPLAINED World101, April 2020, 10’03”
Fill in the gaps in the following transcript of the document, either as a reading exercise before listening to the document or after having watched it once. Watch the document to check your answers. The list of words missing is given at the end of the transcript if you need it. Guidelines for a critical approach to the documents are also suggested for an ideological analysis of its contents. 0” ➞ 1’18” This is Europe, jetting out onto the Atlantic Ocean, the region is sandwiched between the Arctic to its north and the Mediterranean Sea to its south. It is home to a wide array of bustling cities, rich with history, and also, just plain rich. Europe has the largest average incomes and highest standards of 1 of any region in the world. In fact, its combined GDP accounts for more than a quarter of the entire world’s economic output. For centuries, influential human achievements flowed from the region, from great works of art during the Renaissance to new scientific and political ideas during the Enlightenment. Most countries in Europe are 2 , they grant their citizens extensive political freedoms and generally protect their human rights. But for centuries, Europe was consumed by fierce competition and vicious wars. It was partly these bitter rivalries that spurred European countries to spread outside the region. And as they competed for colonies and power around the world, the scope of their conflicts expanded, culminating in the two 3 wars during the first half of the twentieth century, which killed tens of millions of people and led to trillions of dollars of damage in Europe and around the world. 1’19” ➞ 3’06” In the aftermath of so much loss and suffering, European leaders and their allies sought to prevent such widespread devastation from reoccurring. One approach they took was to tie their economies closer together. In 1952, France, West Germany and four other European countries united their coal and steel industries into a 4 market. This gave them all access to those economically vital resources and eliminated a major source of competition. And it worked. None of these countries has fought a war against each other since. Over the years, this initial cooperation expanded and grew to include more European and other economic and political spheres, tying historical rivals together in a peaceful 5 community. In 1993, this integration was consolidated with the formation of the European Union which has grown since its founding to nearly thirty members today. The EU is a unique organisation. It has an executive branch and legislator in Brussels and a judicial branch based in Luxembourg. It may seem similar to the three-branch structure of the US 6 government but the EU has considerably less power over its member countries than the US federal government does over its States. The US was founded on a single document, the Constitution, which created a relatively strong federal government. The EU, on the other hand, was founded on a series of 7 which give the EU varying degrees of power over different policy issues. On many policy issues, the EU does not have full power and instead shares power with member countries. Often times, the leaders of those member countries clash with EU officials over who holds the authority on a certain issue. 3’06” ➞ 4’20” However, one area that the EU has clear authority over is trade between its members. All EU member countries and a few neighbouring ones are part of the European Single Market which allows the movement and exchange of goods, capital, services and labour. That means a person 8 in Germany can buy shoes from Portugal without having to pay any tariffs and they are also able to move to Portugal to work at a shoe factory. They can even build their own factory in Portugal. A person from Portugal can do the 9 things in Germany or in any other country that’s part of the Single Market. All EU members enter international trade deals as a single bloc and they coordinate their defence and security policies even though each country directs its own foreign policy. There are other elements of the EU that some members opt out of. For example, most but all members, signed on to the Schengen Agreement, removing their 10 controls so EU citizens can move freely between countries without having to show their passports. And in 2002, most, but not all, EU countries started using a single currency: the euro, making commerce much easier throughout Europe.
146
In the News
4’20” ➞ 5’20” Even with all this integration, there are still heated disagreements between European officials on a wide array of issues, from taxation to farm subsidies to energy policy to immigration. Many European citizens have become disillusioned 11 the European Union, feeling the bureaucrats in some far away country are making huge decisions about their lives without any of their input. Disillusionment with the EU has led people to support radical populist movements and political candidates which typically oppose further European . This trend has made clashes between member country leaders and EU officials in Brussels more 12 frequent and harder to resolve. And that’s problematic because the EU often needs broad consensus to address important issues like 13 to provide defence and security for its members. The shift towards populism is one of several major challenges threatening to chip away at the European Union and turn its political cracks into canyons. 5’20” ➞ 7’05” Slow economic growth has weighed down the region; an ageing population creates a less productive workforce and regulations limiting how much employees can work exacerbates this problem. Some European invest relatively little in research and development, a key factor in long term economic growth 14 and they prioritize generous welfare States sometimes without being able to fund them through taxes. At the same time, the euro complicates some countries’ poor financial decisions. By adopting the same , countries also adopted the same monetary policy which tends to cater mostly to the preferences 15 of EU’s northern, export-heavy economies, even though they each have economies growing at different speeds, with different levels of unemployment. That means that while some governments might prefer to have higher interest rates and others might prefer lower ones, they are all stuck with the same rate that is set by the European Central Bank, which manages the euro. Each country does control its own fiscal policies, determining how much to tax and spend. However, by adopting the same 16 policy, each country signed on to certain rules about how large their debt can be and how fast they can grow. This is a problem for some countries with widespread youth unemployment and large debts that want to take on even more debt in order to boost spending on things that may help their economies. But they can’t because they are stuck with a monetary policy that limits their (17) . The economic problems worsened by these constraints spur many EU citizens to support populist parties which may threaten to stop using the euro or vow to ignore the EU’s financial rules furthering the tension felt between member states and Brussels. 7’05” ➞ 8’02” Meanwhile, many people in richer countries fear that workers from poorer countries will come and take their jobs. And they fear that their presence will somehow weaken their national identity and culture. This fear has grown since 2015 when a wave of refugees escaping violence in North Africa and the Middle East started pouring into Europe. Worries about mass migration pushed many EU citizens to 18 right-wing populist parties, which are often illiberal, trying to chip away at their government’s checks and balances and undermine democratic norms. Some anti-migrants parties also criticize the Schengen Agreement and call for ending the free movement of people, a cornerstone of the EU. The rise of right and leftwing populism across the region pauses a real threat to the European Union. However, not all of the EU’s problems are internal. 8’02” ➞ 10’04” Among the handful of European countries that have not joined the EU, Russia pauses a growing challenge to the security and stability of the region. For most of the twentieth century, Russia anchored the communist Soviet Union and during the Cold War, Europe was divided between Soviet-aligned countries in the east and US-aligned countries in the west, many of which are part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO is a US-led military alliance formed to deter Soviet expansion into Western Europe. But after the Cold War ended in 1989 and the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, NATO not only continued to exist, it expanded. Many Eastern European countries wanted to join NATO and were able to by the late 2000s; many had the EU as well. Russian leaders viewed this eastward expansion as humiliating and a threat. So 19 in recent years, Russia has been pushing back by attempting to weaken NATO and the EU. Russia supports anti-EU political groups within EU member countries and Russia tries to intimidate and stop Eastern European countries from joining the EU. In 2014 Russia even invaded Ukraine, in part to stop it from joining the EU and NATO. It then annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea. This use of military 20 interrupted decades of relative peace among the major countries within the region. Russian antagonism is one of several problems NATO faces. In recent years, the US has seemed like a less dependable partner, as multiple American leaders, and president Donald Trump in particular, insist that Europeans spend more on their own Defences and rely less on the US military for protection. Europe is facing down several serious challenges and it is unclear whether they can be dealt with or whether they will deal a major blow to the region’s decades of peace, prosperity and integration.
The European Union
147
Words missing: border / countries / currency / debt / democracies / federal / force / free / governments / how / integration / joined / living / monetary / same / single / support / treaties / with / world To go further: – The history of Europe before the 20th century is barely referred to in this document. What is mentioned in the document in reference to this pre-20th century period? What could be added according to you for this period? What other events, emblematic figures or ideas in earlier history testify that Europe was and still is one continent? – The document, though rather factual, provides some biased explanations and views about the EU. Who may account for a different interpretation of facts? Why?
148
In the News
INTERNET DOC. B IS THE EUROPEAN UNION WORTH IT OR SHOULD WE END IT? Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell, 2017, 7’42”
A Before watching the document, test your European Union knowledge filling in this fact sheet. THE EU Number of member-States: million inhabitants Population: world trading block ranking: GDP world ranking: Initial reason for the creation of the EU: 2015 crisis: , , Current challenges:
B
world rank
Before viewing the document, decide if each of these statements is true or false. 1
The UK is no longer part of the “Club” all the other European countries have joined.
2
France and Germany were often at war in the past.
3 Germany created the word Erbfeindschaft to express anti-French feelings. 4 With interconnected economies, wars have become unthinkable and impossible. 5 The EU stands strong in front of multinationals’ malpractices. 6 The EU accounts for a large scientific output in relation to its population. 7 The EU institutions need more transparency and reliability. 8 Migrations represent a challenge most EU countries agree on. 9 NATO has provided military protection to the EU for a long time. 10 The EU’s diversity in social policy and economic development is an advantage. 11 Labour wages are standardised throughout the EU. 12 All EU members equally developed their industrial activities and tourism. Refer to the document to complete your answers for sections A and B.
C Watch the document again and write complete answers to these questions in your own words: 1
Why does the document refer to the EU as a sort-of country?
2
What countries have a bigger population than the EU?
3 What do EU citizens benefit from individually? 4 On what ground does the EU challenge the biggest technology companies? 5 What has made the EU a science hub? 6 Why does Brussels seem complex to some? 7 What is the impact of Brussels’ complexity? 8 What is presented as a recent major EU crisis? 9 What caused division in 2015 over this issue? 10 What makes the EU an attractive destination for migrants?
The European Union
149
11 What are the two contrary views on the integration of non-EU populations? 12 How would a military cooperation strengthen the European Union? 13 What does the single market allow? 14 What have been the positive consequences of the single market? 15 In what areas is the EU’s unity proving to be difficult? 16 What is making the EU’s monetary policy almost impossible to manage? 17 What possible solutions are considered at the end of the document? 18 Who are the EU’s economic competitors?
D Some vocabulary to go further. The document contains some verbs, nouns and adjectives you should pay attention to and use. Do you know the meaning of: to brew / to crave / to enhance / to praise? Find the verb used with these nouns: conflicts / a fight / a balance Explain: the outreach / a recipe for disaster / (an election) turnout / asylum seekers If something is ever-shrinking, unregulated, flawed, shifting or toxic, can you explain what is meant?
150
In the News
INTERNET DOC. C WHY EUROPE DOESN’T BUILD SKYSCRAPERS
The B1M, 2019, 7’10”
A Replace the sections underlined and in bold characters in this summary of the document in order to mean exactly the same. The initial letter of the word used in the document is indicated to guide you. You can check your answers or test your listening comprehension with the document. 0” ➞ 2’12” Europe is the most developed and d / highly populated and economically p / booming continent. It has f / not a lot of skyscrapers compared to Asia and North America because some major European cities have refused to e / adopt skyscrapers. Yet these s / buildings provide large inner-urban office or living space. Many European cities had some h / old buildings so there was l / not much room for skyscrapers. Some cities did not have a high d / need for floor space in their d / quarters. Some ideological r / competition developed between the US and Europe as to what culture society wants to promote. Europe’s society seemed o / old-fashioned to Americans and Europeans thought the US culture e / weakened traditions. Each continent was w / cautious not to support the social model of the other. The opposition reflected the vision of a new a / era against the p / conservation of heritage. However, this opposition cannot explain why now Europe has h b / been reluctant since. 2’08” Post-war Rebuild Post WWII, Europe could have r / copied the northern American tall buildings but as many cities lost their l / typical buildings, an o / irrepressible desire pushed for restoration rather than modernisation. The relatively low population size in the European major cities also contributed to the building of m / low-key structures when the old ones could not be saved. Post-Soviet Eastern Europe chose mid-rise r / identical and successive structures to house its large population. Yet it is in the Soviet Union that the first European skyscraper was built to prove its power and i / leadership. 3’15” Brusselization The new mid-sized buildings which replaced old ones in the 1960s in the Belgian capital were not architecturally outstanding and this i / non-selective redevelopment was called Brussellization. Architects then l / to put pressure to impose for strict planning rules, like keeping some f / fronts, which meant to protect the cultural f / make-up of the capital. From then on, in Europe, modern architecture was seen as b / dull and soulless, and therefore restricted to some districts aside from the city centres. 4’30” The Urban Age The ever-more globalized 21st century welcomed more uniquely-designed structures and, to respond to the need for commercial space, major European cities have allowed skyscrapers to r / to grow vertically. Smaller European cities have turned their f / attention to the environment and better living standards, some of them in Northern and Central Europe, successfully combining sustainability, h / contentment and well-being to economic g / expansion. In Asia and North America, r / housing skyscrapers are now more numerous. Migration to big cities increases as rural activities are more a / using technology, and Europe tries to keep up with China and the US’s p / advance. But as many European urban centres are protected as historically s / valuable, they will have to mix the continent’s architectural past with the desires of the future.
The European Union
151
B
After viewing the document, decide if these statements are true or false. 1
Two thirds of Europe’s skyscrapers are found in five European capital cities.
2
Skyscrapers provide suburbs with adequate space.
3 The first skyscrapers were built in New York in the late 19th century. 4 The drive for skyscrapers is closely linked to the need for office space. 5 European society values and lifestyle seemed more traditional in the early 20th century. 6 Skyscrapers were too expensive to build in the re-built period. 7 Russia needed and chose skyscrapers to house its large population. 8 The development of Brussels in the 1960s helped the building of skyscrapers in western Europe. 9 60% of the global population now lives in urban areas. 10 Europe will certainly experience a skyscraper boom soon.
C Can you identify some of the cities you see in the document? Which? Choose two cityscapes you see, refer to them with the timing, and describe the scene. What do you like or don’t like about these urban scenes? Choose two of the skyscrapers you see in the document and explain why you like or don’t like them. You may research their architect and what landmarks or monuments they are close to.
152
In the News
REVISION THE EUROPEAN UNION Fill in the sentences with one of the choices given.
1
Crises like the current one should be deal with answered handled asked
2
There is little likelihood that a bigger Union would be a democratically manageable handy at ease implemented
3
Some continental European nations were already struck crippled paralyzing filled
4
The of such a guideline would require extra funding no state can afford presently. practice planning carry out implementation
5
These politicians’ clumsy attempt to delete deny disrupt break up
6
The EU has often been described as “a empire castle hold fortress
7
The latest opinion in the EU. poles polls survey question
8
The Northern European states differ deter compare argue
9
The 2007 Lisbon Treaty produced much office bureaucratic red tapes duties
q
To boast that the European countries optimistic. rally empower share trigger
w
Brussels is a very city where second or third-generation migrants can feel at home. multifactor multifacet multicultural multifocal
e
European have not agreed to share the burden of the environmental crises. treasuries treasures treasurer treasuress
r
Migration in the EU have been a cause for division among many states and for many years. floods circulation movement flows
t
Ethnic minorities in Europe protested against rampant movement. unrest discrimination racists threat
y
No institution should be allowed not to match deeds to lies speech acts words
u
Britons will now need visas to remain in continental Europe before longer beyond for
The European Union
and solved collectively. one.
with debt before the crisis.
the parliamentary session soon came to an end. against fascism”.
all revealed the extent to which minorities are discriminated against
quite a lot in their mindsets on social protection. infrastructure to facilitate decision making. a common European identity may be a little
in the wake to the BLM
when lives are at stake. three months.
153
i
Their trading was further weakened by their not being in the eurozone. position posture standing partners
o
Europe’s highest living standard in the world is partly due to the commitments situation endurance wealth
p
Goods, capital, benefit help use services
a
The EU Parliament too often needs a majority broadest long lasting
s
Some argue that a military operations coup unified cooperation
d
Few ordinary citizens can imagine what asylum seekers go along with for through
f
To craft a strong European unity requests reacts requires reforms
g
EU food standards are among the world’s most stringent strictest close narrow
h
Equal is theoretically the rule regarding gender, culture, disability, sexual orientation or religion. dealing treating trading treatment
j
Two cities are chosen every year as Europe’s cultural capitals to assets. drive boost unleashed blend
k
In foreign policy, the EU’s ultimate decision-making partner ally associate body
l
The EU’s strategic agenda 2019-2024 makes up enforces sets out straightens
;
The EU promotes peace, stability, democracy and human duties laws reforms rights
z
Protecting and consumers are not the easiest tasks the EU has set for itself. satisfied empowering pleased spending
of its social partners.
and labour can circulate freely within the Union. consensus to address and solve important issues. between member states would strengthen its international position. to reach these wealthy shores.
deeply rooted changes not all are ready for. , in terms of quality and safety.
their artistic and cultural
is the European Council. its priorities deriving from a long consultation process. , at home and abroad.
Fill in the gaps with the words provided for texts 1 and 2, without clues in text 3. In text 2, there are more words than needed. Text 1 Europe’s undocumented children We don’t know how many undocumented children are living in Europe. We don’t even know how many children are currently locked up in 1 because of their own or their parents’ immigration status. While the European Union requires precise data collection in 2 sectors, dairy cows for example, the lack of data and visibility of undocumented children seems a political, rather than a technical, void. Being born in Europe is not enough to prevent a child from becoming 3 , if they are born to undocumented parents. No European country grants 4 solely based on birth in the national territory. Others moved to Europe as kids and have spent most of their lives here. For them, Europe is home. But policy hasn’t caught up with this reality.
154
In the News
But the lack of interest in or attention to this group combined with the political treatment of irregular migrants in daily violations of children’s rights. In 6 EU countries, undocumented children 5 cannot register with a family doctor or access preventative or specialist health 7 . More than two decades of common EU migration policies have been led by a hardline policing approach to irregular migration, focusing on border controls, detention and deportation, at the expense of children’s rights. Migrant children who accompany their parents are often treated by authorities like their parents’ luggage, or a footnote in their immigration files. Despite being 8 in all senses but on paper, these young people are pushed to the margins of society, with often heavy consequences on their mental health. citizenship / detention / European / many / numerous / result / services / undocumented
Text 2 European forests shrinking Europe has lost a vastly increased area of forest to harvesting in recent years, reducing the continent’s carbon absorption capacity and possibly indicating wider problems with the EU’s attempts to combat the climate 1 . Many of the EU’s forests – which account for about 38% of its land surface area – are managed for timber production, and thus harvested 2 . But the loss of biomass increased by 69% from 2016 to 2018, compared with the 2011-2015 period, according to satellite data. This indicates that much more harvesting has occurred in a 3 period, even accounting for natural cycles and the impact of events such as forest fires and heavy snows. Other 4 are also likely to be at play, they could include increased demand for wood as a fuel and 5 markets for timber and other wood products. The satellite data could therefore be an early indicator of unsustainable demands being placed on the EU’s 6 . However, a decline in the area of the EU that is forested overall is unlikely as most of the harvested forests will be regenerated. But the carbon absorption 7 of the EU’s forests in the short term is disrupted and until the carbon stock in harvested areas returns to previous levels, which takes several decades, depending on the type of forest, an increase in harvest is therefore 8 to an increase in carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere. Forests offset today about 10% of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions and this is a vital input in the fight against global warming. bigger / capacity / change / crisis / different / equivalent / factors / finally / forests / limit / regularly / short
Text 3 An Erasmus experience In 1989, I was one of the earliest British students to participate in the scheme, which had begun two years . Confusingly, I spent my autumn term in the University in Rotterdam. Erasmus allowed for a depth 1 of engagement with other countries that no amount of carefree backpacking can equal. It was fitting that the Berlin fell while I was in Rotterdam. Erasmus was a symbol of the erosion of walls, the freer movement 2 not only of goods and services but of 3 and ideas. This was always what mattered most about the European project. The Britain that we know today did not become what it is by seeking isolation. The idea that the European Economic Community (EEC), as it was then, was originally sold to us as nothing more 4 a trading bloc is a myth. When we joined the EEC, we joined far more than a common market. It was a community in the true sense of that 5 , concerned with social issues, environmental questions, working conditions, consumer protection, aid to development areas and vocational training. I believed that continuing our membership of the EU was in our best economic interests, but that is not 6 I voted to remain. For me, keeping the rights to trade and travel does not compensate for diminishing the privilege to engage and learn. In future we’ll 7 less quality time with our European neighbours. The walls are going up again and no amount of trade windows can compensate for that. (adapted from: “I was an early Erasmus scholar, and I grieve for what British students have lost”, Julian Baggini, The Guardian, Dec. 2020)
The European Union
155
Topics for debate — European non-EU countries enjoy the best of both worlds: being European but not EU member states. Discuss with examples. — The complexity of European identity does not mean that it does not exist. Discuss. — The challenges the EU will now face may come form outside its borders. — The European population is very diverse. Justify this statement with examples. — Political union in the EU is entirely utopian, for better and for worse.
156
In the News
VOCABULARY THE EUROPEAN UNION Accord Agreement Acte unique européen Single European Act Adhérer à l’UE To join the EU Agence spatiale ESA = European Space européenne Agency Agriculteurs Farmers Aid Aide Arbitrer To arbitrate Political asylum Asile politique Association européenne EFTA = European Free Trade Association de libre échange Balance commerciale Banque centrale européenne Barème Barrières douanières Bouc émissaire Budget Bureaucrate
Balance of trade ECB = European Central Bank Rate-scale Tariff barriers Scapegoat Budget Bureaucrat
Framework Cadre Head of state Chef d’État Citoyen Citizen Citizenship Citoyenneté Commerce équitable Fair trade European commissioner Commissaire européen Compétitivité Competitiveness Conflit Conflict Conforme à In keeping with European Council Conseil de l’Europe Consulter To consult To impose quotas Contingenter Cote de confiance Approval rating Cour européenne de Justice European Court of Justice Critères de convergence Convergence criteria Déficit budgétaire Discours raciste Délocalisation Demandeur d’asile Dépensier Député européen Déséquilibre Directive Droit de veto Droits de douane
Budget deficit Hate speech Relocation Asylum seeker Profligate Euro-MP, MEP Imbalance Guideline Right of veto Customs duties
Élargissement Enlargement Élu Elected Engagement Commitment Entrée dans l’UE Entry Entrer dans l’UE To enter / join the EU Ériger barrières douanières To erect tariff barriers État membre Member state Foreigner / alien / Étranger non-national Europhile Euroenthusiast Eurosceptique Eurosceptic Exécutoire Binding Fixer Fonds de cohésion Frontière
The European Union
Set Cohesion fund Border (frontier)
Gagner du terrain Glissement vers la droite
To gain ground Rightward shift
Harmoniser
Harmonise
Impasse (politique) Immigration clandestine Importer / importateur Insolvabilité
Gridlock Illegal immigration To import / an importer Insolvency
Libre-échange
Free trade
Marché unique Médiateur européen Mettre en œuvre Monnaie unique Montants compensatoires Mouvement indépendantiste
Single Market European Ombudsman To implement Single currency Compensatory payments Separatist movement
Nommer Norme
To appoint Norm, standard
OCDE OECD = Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Ordre du jour Agenda Stability and Growth Pact Pacte de stabilité Paperasserie administrative Red tape Tax haven Paradis fiscal Parlement européen European Parliament Trading partner Partenaire commercial Plan Scheme To bow to centralism (se) Plier (au centralisme) Politique agricole CAP = Common Agricultural Policy commune Politique (la) Politics Policy Politique (une) Politique (adj.) Political Politique (homme / femme) Politician Politique budgétaire Spending policy Foreign policy Politique étrangère Pourparlers Talks Power Pouvoir Prendre de l’ampleur To gain momentum Préserver sa souveraineté To safeguard one’s sovereignty Présider To chair Produit détaxé Duty-free goods Proposition Proposal Protectionnisme Protectionism Rapporteur Règlement Respecter des critères Ressortissant Réunifier Réunion au sommet
Rapporteur Regulation To meet criteria A national To reunify Summit meeting
Sanctions Scène internationale Sommet Sondage d’opinion Souveraineté nationale Subsidiarité
Sanctions, penalties World stage Summit Opinion poll National sovereignty Subsidiarity
157
Subvention Subsidy Suffrage universel Universal suffrage ESM = European Monetary Système monétaire européen System Taux de change Taux d’inflation Taux d’intérêt Traité Transnational
158
Exchange rate Inflation rate Interest rates Treaty Cross-border, transnational
Troïka TVA
Troika (EC, ECB, IMF) VAT = Value Added Tax
Unification Unification, integration Unifié Unified, united, integrated, consolidated Economic and Monetary Union économique et monétaire Union = EMU Vague de popularité
Tide of popularity
Xénophobie Xenophobia
In the News
NOTES �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
The European Union
159
7 t n e m n o r i v n E e Th Now that the detrimental impact of human activity on the planet is acknow ledged, its scale is assessed and our options deemed very limited, the time to raise awareness, to warn those accountable and those in charge has passed. It is, simply, time to act. This chapter discusses instances where reducing waste, learning form the past and supporting the most vulnerable humans, fauna and flora, are the utmost urgency. It is time to switch to renewable energies, regardless of the cost, to really recycle, to upcycle, to impose new standards on manufacturers, to reduce consumption and carefully reconsider our needs. It is time to re-imagine a new economy and a social order wherein money no longer makes the world go round. It is time to implement effective measures to protect our complex eco-systems for the survival of the planet. This is no small challenge at an individual and collective level. Shall we all seize it?
CONTENTS TXT 1 Littering epidemic in England B1+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 TXT 2 $10bn of precious metals dumped each year in electronic waste C1 . . . . . . . . . . .164 TXT 3 Pompeii ruins show that the Romans invented recycling C1+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 TXT 4 One billion people will live in insufferable heat within 50 years C1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 TXT 5 Women shouldering the burden of climate crisis need action, not speeches C1- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 INTERNET DOC. A Can 100% renewable energy power the world? ±3x5’. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 INTERNET DOC. B What really happens to the plastic you throw away? 4’06” . . . . . . . . . . 174 INTERNET DOC. C What is a green economy? 4’07”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 INTERNET DOC. D Greenwashing: A Fiji Water Story 5’17”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 REVISION: Multiple choice questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Gap-filling texts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Topics for debate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
VOCABULARY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
LITTERING EPIDEMIC IN ENGLAND
TEXT 1
An unprecedented rise in litter, damaging fires and “flycamping” across the English countryside is partly a result of the government spending less than £2,000 a year over the past decade on promoting the Countryside Code, campaigners say. The code, a set of simple guidelines to help rural visitors respect wildlife, local people and landscapes, was relaunched in England in 2004 after the new “right to roam” law increased access to the countryside. But after a brief flurry of advertising, successive governments since 2010 spent just £2,000 every 18 months reprinting the code for distribution until recent months. In comparison, the government spent £46m on last year’s “Get ready for Brexit” campaign.
A survey of visitors to the Lake District this summer found that while 70% had stocked up on alcohol for the trip and 25% were bringing barbecues, only 13% said they were aware before their visit that they should follow the Countryside Code. 20% were visiting the area for the first time. Rural landowners have reported unprecedented problems as millions holiday in the UK during the coronavirus pandemic. There has been widespread littering, numerous dry heathlands catching fire because of disposable barbecues, and many incidents of dogs worrying livestock and wildlife. Guy Shrubsole, the author of Who Owns England?, who uncovered the figures, said: “Access to nature is vital for everyone’s mental and physical health, and it’s brilliant to see more people visiting the countryside this year – the vast majority of whom treat it with respect. But the government shares some responsibility for the awful recent instances of littering and vandalism through their consistent failure to promote the Countryside Code. In other European countries, greater freedom to access nature comes hand-in-hand with a culture of “leave no trace”. The government ought to be fostering that here, by extending our existing right to roam alongside a properly funded public information campaign on responsible access.” In 2004, the Labour government spent £721,000 on promoting the code with a campaign using characters created
by Aardman animations. But since an in-house refresh by Natural England in 2010-12, the only expenditure until after lockdown was to reprint the code every 18 months at a cost of £2,000. Scotland has a different Outdoor Access Code, while Wales promotes its own Countryside Code similar to England’s. As lockdown was eased, the government produced a Covid-19 version of the code stressing the need for social distancing and giving way on narrow footpaths, as well as the traditional advice about taking litter home and not lighting fires. During July and August the government ran a “Respect the Outdoors” campaign. A spokesperson from the Department for environment, food and rural affairs said: “The Countryside Code is there to protect people, property and habitats – and we urge people to follow the guidance and respect the communities and environment that make up this iconic part of our country. We are committed to ensuring the code remains comprehensive and up to date, which is why it was recently revised to respond to issues raised during lockdown – and we launched our “Respect the Outdoors” campaign which urges visitors to respect the code and our wonderful countryside.” Jeff Knott, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds’ director for central England, said: “Across the country we are seeing people rediscovering nature and wanting to explore the countryside. The end of lockdown and good weather has inspired large numbers of people to visit their local nature reserve and learn more about the UK’s wildlife. This is great news – overwhelmingly people are interested and respectful. However, for many this is a new experience. The Countryside Code is a practical set of guidelines about how we can all enjoy our natural world without harming it. We would welcome any move to help promote the code to more people so we can all continue to enjoy our countryside and the wildlife we share it with today, tomorrow and in the future.” Patrick Barkham, The Guardian, Aug. 26, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
162
In the News
1 Identify the potential problems visitors to rural areas can cause. What is the best way to avoid these problems?
2 Read the article in two steps. A a b c d e
In the first three paragraphs of the article, look for words corresponding to these definitions or synonyms. Regular, continuously steady: Excessive number of: Together, in close association: Cases: To ramble, to wander:
f g h i j
Several items taken as a whole: To encourage, to promote: To take a vacation: Animals raised in a farm: Never seen before:
Summarise this part of the article with some of this vocabulary. B In reference to the final three paragraphs of the article, decide if the following statements are true or false. a The United Kingdom has agreed on one Countryside Code for its three nations. b Covid-related pieces of advice have replaced the usual eco-friendly guidelines. c The UK wants to promote a Countryside Code adapted to the sanitary situation.
3 For both parts of the article, write one sentence to express the main idea developed.
Here is some vocabulary to help you: to promote / government spending / guidelines / to litter / landscape / unaware / to respect / campaigners / protection / outdoors Combine your two sentences into one, with ideas logi cally articulated. You should not mention Brexit, quote figures or refer to people’s names but you should use a link such as whereas, since, as, therefore, because…
4 Answer the following questions related to the article and research one scenic region of England.
a Why did the British countryside welcome more new visitors than usually in the summer 2020? b What is the English government criticized for in this article? c What is the majority of Britons’ behaviour when visiting the countryside? d Why is the preservation of the countryside considered as a priority for some? e Locate the Lake District on a map of England and imagine what one can see and experience in such a region.
d Some paths were forbidden to visitors because of the pandemic. e Most of the tourists had already visited rural areas before.
5 Dos
& Don’ts. Write what you consider should be the five most important articles of the Countryside Code. As it exists, it is centered on three verbs: Respect, Protect, Enjoy. You may want to coin another slogan.
To compare with the existing code of conduct, refer to the website https://www.gov.uk/government/publi cations/the-countryside-code or watch the Aardman Studios Country Code advertisement referred to in the article at: https://www.aardman.com/work/countryside-code/ What is creating humour despite the seriousness of the message?
6 A
large part of the population in developed countries being made of urban dwellers, write a Town and City Code so that life in this environment is also more respectful of communities and heritage. You may use this vocabulary: degradation / public parks / to tag / historical buildings / architecture / collective responsibility / rundown / traffic / pedestrian areas / nuisance / urban planning / vandalism / citizens’ initiatives
7 Discuss one of these topics in relation to the article and other examples:
— Nature is vital for everyone’s mental and physical health. — Could the culture of "leave no trace" be extended to all sorts of tourist activity? — Could urban life be one day fully eco-friendly? How?
The Environment
163
$10BN OF PRECIOUS METALS DUMPED EACH YEAR IN ELECTRONIC WASTE
TEXT 2
At least $10bn worth of gold, platinum and other precious metals are dumped every year in the growing mountain of electronic waste that is polluting the planet, according to the new UN’s Global E-Waste Monitor report. A record 54m tonnes of “e-waste” was generated worldwide in 2019, up 21% in five years, the report found. The 2019 figure is equivalent to 7.3kg for every man, woman and child on Earth, though use is concentrated in richer nations. The amount of e-waste is rising three times faster than the world’s population, and only 17% of it was recycled in 2019. Electronic and electrical goods, from phones and computers to refrigerators and kettles, have become indispensable in modern societies and enhance lives. But they often contain toxic chemicals. Soaring production and waste damage human health and the environment and fuel the climate crisis.
The report blames lack of regulation and the short lifespan of products that are hard or impossible to repair. People in northern Europe produced the most e-waste – 22.4kg per person in 2019. The amount was half as much in eastern Europe. Australians and New Zealanders disposed of 21.3kg per person, while in the US and Canada the figure was 20.9kg. Averages across Asia and Africa were much lower, at 5.6kg and 2.5kg per person respectively. E-waste contains materials including copper, iron, gold, silver and platinum, which the report gives a conservative value of $57bn. But most are dumped or burned rather than being collected for recycling. Precious metals in waste are estimated to be worth $14bn, but only $4bn-worth is recovered at the moment. Europe had the highest recycling rate in 2019, at 42%, with Asia second at 12%. But across North and South America, and Oceania, the rate was 9% and in Africa it was 0.9%. In low- and middle-income countries, some e-waste is recycled but usually by unsafe practices, such as burning circuit boards to recover copper. This releases highly toxic metals such as mercury, lead and cadmium, “causing severe health effects to workers as well as to the children who often live and play near e-waste activities”, the report said. It estimated that 50 tonnes of mercury from monitors, energy-saving light bulbs and other e-waste is dumped
each year. Furthermore, gases released from discarded fridges and air-conditioning units were equivalent to 98m tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide in 2019, close to the national emissions of Belgium. “E-waste is growing and the level of recycling is just not keeping up pace,” said Kees Baldé, one of the authors of the report. “It’s important to put a price on pollution – at the moment it is simply free to pollute.” “The biggest problem is that, in many countries, there are no collection systems,” said Mijke Hertoghs, another contributor. “The companies that bring the equipment on the market are not being held accountable for the end-of-life disposal.” But Hertoghs said the value of the metals being dumped presented an opportunity. Baldé agreed: “If [collection and recycling] were better organised, the economies of scale would go up and I think there are opportunities for creating a new economy and new jobs. There would be a huge income for many people.” Recycling would also cut the environmental impact of mining for new metal: “One gram of gold has a massive footprint.” “Improper e-waste recycling is a major emerging hazard, silently affecting our health and that of future generations,” said Maria Neira at the WHO. She said one in four childhood deaths resulted from pollution, including e-waste. In 2018, the target of increasing e-waste recycling from 17% to 30% by 2023 was set. But, as things stand, Hertoghs thinks it’s totally unrealistic to achieve that goal. Since 2014, the number of countries with national e-waste policies or laws in place has only increased from 61 to 78, out of a total of 193 UN member states. Libby Peake from the thinktank Green Alliance said: “The ever-growing mountain of e-waste documented in this report represents a wholly preventable global scandal. It doesn’t have to be this way,” she said. “Products could be designed to last, to be repaired and, just as crucially, to be upgraded. Ensuring the system keeps electronic products in circulation would create hundreds of thousands of jobs… There’s no excuse for leaving this scandal unaddressed.” Damian Carrington, The Guardian, Jul. 2, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
164
In the News
1 Why is the expression “precious metals” a little ironical? The article contains a number of adjectives / nouns used as adjectives and nouns which often come together. Match these. There may be several possible combinations. collection • • chemicals electronic • • countries energy-saving • • effects health • • hazard low-income • • light bulbs major • • rate member • • societies modern • • states recycling • • systems toxic • • waste Other environmental collocations are very common: climate change, carbon footprint, natural resources, household waste, weather patterns, renewable energy, greenhouse gas, endangered species, pollutant particles, waste processing Use some of these to explain what environmental issues need to be urgently addressed according to you.
2 With some of these verbs from the article, fill in the sentences. to dump / to collect / to recover / to pollute / to generate / to recycle / to damage / to fuel / to concentrate / to dispose (of) / to discard / to repair / to cause / to release / to cut Industrial production has into the air, massively When you pollution in soil. To them a second life.
much greenhouse gas for decades, water tables and land.
fine particles
of your dishwasher, you should make sure it cannot be develops when there is not enough waste management facility; it a virtuous economy, all ideas are welcome to
. Illegal long term
all recyclable items and give
All consumers in developed countries should only the devices they know they will never us again and their efforts on learning to buy fewer useless gadgets.
3 What appliances and devices, electric and electronic, are mentioned in the article in relation to recycling? Could other items be recycled? What have you ever recycled? What do you buy second-hand? How can citizens be encouraged to recycle more?
4 Explain how product manufacturing needs to change. Explain the difference between to recycle and to upcycle. What sector of activity should manufacturers develop to make this transition efficient?
5 Why can it be said that “it is free to pollute”? Research the pros and cons of the “Polluter pays principle.” 6 Do you notice e-waste around you? Other types of waste? What is the most worrying according to you when it comes to “the growing mountain of waste”?
7 Write a poster to be displayed in your town hall aiming at informing people as to what to do with their waste. Identify solutions adapted to different types of waste: household, organic, e-waste,.
You can use these verbs: to donate, to leave, to conserve, to check, to re-use, to sort, to drop off, to upcycle...
The Environment
165
POMPEII RUINS SHOW THAT THE ROMANS INVENTED RECYCLING
TEXT 3
They were expert engineers, way ahead of the curve on underfloor heating, aqueducts and the use of concrete as a building material. Now it turns out that the Romans were also masters at recycling their rubbish. Researchers at Pompeii, the city buried under a thick carpet of volcanic ash when Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, have found that huge mounds of refuse apparently dumped outside the city walls were in fact “staging grounds for cycles of use and reuse”. Professor Allison Emmerson, an American academic who is part of a large team working at Pompeii, said rubbish was piled up along almost the entire external wall on the city’s northern side, among other sites. Some of the mounds were several metres high and included bits of ceramic and plaster, which could be repurposed as construction materials. These mounds were previously thought to have been formed when an earthquake struck the city about 17 years before the volcano erupted. Most were cleared in the mid-20th century, but some are still being discovered.
Scientific analysis has now traced some of the refuse from city sites to suburban deposits equivalent to modern landfills, and back to the city, where the material was incorporated into buildings, such as earth floors. With fellow archaeologists, Emmerson has studied how the ancient city was constructed. “We found that part of the city was built out of trash. The piles outside the walls weren’t material that’s been dumped to get rid of it. They’re outside the walls being collected and sorted to be resold inside the walls.” Pompeii was a city of elegant villas and handsome public buildings, open squares, artisan shops, taverns, brothels and bathhouses. It included an amphitheatre that hosted gladiatorial games for audiences of up to 20,000. When volcanic dust from Vesuvius “poured across the land” – as one witness wrote – enveloping the city in darkness, at least 2,000 people died. In 1748, a group of explorers discovered the almost perfectly preserved city under a hardened carpet of ash and pumice. Even a loaf of bread was found preserved by later archaeologists. Pompeii is now a Unesco world heritage site and – in normal times – attracts 2.5 million visitors each year.
Emmerson and her colleagues used soil samples to trace the movement of rubbish across the city. “The soil that we excavate differs based on where the garbage was left originally,” she said. “Garbage dumped in places like latrines or cesspits leaves behind a rich, organic soil”. In contrast, waste that accumulated over time on the streets or in mounds outside the city results in a much sandier soil. “The difference in soil allows us to see whether the garbage had been generated in the place where it was found, or gathered from elsewhere to be reused and recycled.” Some walls, for example, included reused materials such as pieces of tile and broken amphorae, and lumps of mortar and plaster. “Almost all such walls received a final layer of plaster, hiding the mess of materials within,” she said. “The idea has been that all this garbage resulted from that earthquake – consisting of rubble that had been cleared out of the city and dumped outside the wall to remove it from daily life. As I was working outside Pompeii, I saw that the city extended into developed neighbourhoods outside the walls... So it didn’t make sense to me that these suburbs were also being used as landfills.” Modern approaches to waste management focus on removing rubbish from our daily lives, she added. “For the most part, we don’t care what happens to our trash, as long as it’s taken away. What I’ve found in Pompeii is an entirely different priority, that waste was being collected and sorted for recycling. The Pompeians lived much closer to their garbage than most of us would find acceptable, not because the city lacked infrastructure and they didn’t bother to manage trash but because their systems of urban management were organised around different principles. This point has relevance for the modern garbage crisis. The countries that most effectively manage their waste have applied a version of the ancient model, prioritising commodification rather than simple removal.” Dalya Alberge, The Guardian, Apr. 26, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
166
In the News
1 Choose the right preposition for each sentence. Pompeii was buried / under / above / below / volcanic ash. It turns out / up / above / that the Romans were masters / for / in / at / recycling. They left rubbish piled / up / on / above / along the city walls. Used material accumulated / throughout / out / over / time was incorporated into / among / within / new buildings. Rubbish was reused / across / through / from / the city. Pompeii’s partial destruction resulted / in / out / from / an earthquake. In our modern cities, municipalities take / out / up / away / rubbish. Pompeii organised its waste management / across / with / around / recycling.
2 Write the sentences in the past and then rewrite them using a passive voice.
Before the volcanic eruption, an earthquake (to strike) Pompeii. Volcanic ash (to cover) Pompeii since 79 ad when archeologists (to discover) the ancient city in the 18th century. Winds (to spread) very quickly the volcanic ash cloud onto the city as the testimony of a witness (to account) for. The eruption (to kill) up to 2,000 Pompeiians but (to leave) most of the city intact. For decades, archeologists (to dig up) the city from the thick layer of ash and pumice. What they (to find) under this thick layer was an extraordinary site revealing the wealth of the Roman civilisation. More recently, scientists (to analyse) the soil outside the northern city walls. Unlike what previous researchers (to think), Pompeiians (not to throw away) their rubbish to landfills. They (to pile up) and (to stock) rubbish outside the city walls long before the eruption. These moulds of trash (to hide) the eco-friendly practices of the Pompeiians for a long time. Romans occasionally (to break) tiles and amphoraes but (not to get rid) of this material. They (to repurpose) and (to resell) this trash material made of ceramic, tiles or plaster and (to rebuild) part of their city. The American researchers (to lead) their excavations into the suburbs of the city and (to seek) proof of recycling practices.
The Environment
They (to spend) much time sampling and analysing soil composition. Their conclusions are clear: the Romans (to deal) with rubbish efficiently. Thanks to this text we (to learn) much from the recycling of building material but (not to put) into practice enough so far.
3 Write a summary by removing unnecessary elements from this text. You should finally have one sentence combining only the most relevant facts and ideas using less than 30 words.
A team of American archeologists recently carried out excavations in the ancient city of Pompeii. The famous Roman site which had been covered with volcanic ash for several centuries now reveals the environmental practices of its inhabitants. What was long considered as moulds of rubbish left just outside the city walls was in fact material meant to be repurposed. This material, made of fragments of tiles, amphorae, ceramic and plaster, was indeed collected, sorted and resold and it allowed builders to avail of material for new buildings. Some of this rubble was found not only in the city but also in its suburbs.
4 What are ancient civilisations showing us? Lessons in sustainability from ancient civilisations.
Water management in Mesopotamia was fully developed by 3000 bc with extensive networks of irrigation canals. Many primitive communities collected rainfall when spring water was sparse, on islands for example. To complete this topic, you can watch the video from the University of Idaho (at https://www.webpages. uidaho.edu/sustainability/ Chapter 1 The Origins of Sustainability, part 1) where a professor explains the interaction between ancient civilisations and nature. His view is different from the article, but can you explain why it is not contradictory?
5 The end of the article opposes commodification
to removal as a way to reduce waste. Discuss and identify how such a process can operate. Can you think of other items today considered as waste which could one day re-enter an economic virtuous cycle?
Research the topic on the internet. Here are a few other examples: mushroom grown on coffee grounds, plastic bottles reshaped into playground equipment, medication collection through chemists, bones or horns carved into artefacts or jewellery, more recently, soda cans turned into metal accessories etc...
167
ONE BILLION PEOPLE WILL LIVE IN INSUFFERABLE HEAT WITHIN 50 YEARS
TEXT 4
The human cost of the climate crisis will hit harder, wider and sooner than previously believed, according to a study that shows a billion people will either be displaced or forced to endure insufferable heat for every additional 1C rise in the global temperature.
In a worst-case scenario of accelerating emissions, areas currently home to a third of the world’s population will be as hot as the hottest parts of the Sahara within 50 years, the paper warns. Even in the most optimistic outlook, 1.2 billion people will fall outside the comfortable “climate niche” in which humans have thriven for at least 6,000 years. The authors of the study said they were “floored” and “blown away” by the findings because they had not expected our species to be so vulnerable. “The numbers are flabbergasting. I literally did a double take when I first saw them,” Tim Lenton said. “I’ve previously studied climate tipping points, which are usually considered apocalyptic. But this hit home harder. This puts the threat in very human terms.” Instead of looking at climate change as a problem of physics or economics, the paper examines how it affects the human habitat. The vast majority of humanity has always lived in regions where the average annual temperatures are around 6C to 28C, which is ideal for human health and food production. But this sweet spot is shifting and shrinking as a result of manmade global heating, which drops more people into what the authors describe as “near unliveable” extremes. Humanity is particularly sensitive because we are concentrated on land – which is warming faster than the oceans – and because most future population growth will be in already hot regions of Africa and Asia. As a result of these demographic factors, the average human will experience a temperature increase of
7.5C when global temperatures reach 3C, which is forecast towards the end of this century. At that level, about 30% of the world’s population would live in extreme heat – defined as an average temperature of 29C. These conditions are extremely rare outside the most scorched parts of the Sahara, but with global heating of 3C they are projected to envelop 1.2 billion people in India, 485 million in Nigeria and more than 100 million in each of Pakistan, Indonesia and Sudan. This would add enormously to migration pressures and pose challenges to food production systems. “I think it is fair to say that average temperatures over 29C are unliveable. You’d have to move or adapt. But there are limits to adaptation. If you have enough money and energy, you can use air conditioning and fly in food and then you might be OK. But that is not the case for most people,” said one of the lead authors of the study, Prof Marten Scheffer. An ecologist by training, he said the study started as a thought-experiment. He had previously studied the climate distribution of rain forests and savanna and wondered what the result would be if he applied the same methodology to humans. “We know that most creatures” habitats are limited by temperature. For example, penguins are only found in cold water and corals only in warm water. But we did not expect humans to be so sensitive. We think of ourselves as very adaptable because we use clothes, heating and air conditioning. But, in fact, the vast majority of people live – and have always lived – inside a climate niche that is now moving as never before.” The authors said their findings should spur policymakers to accelerate emission cuts and work together to cope with migration because each degree of warming that can be avoided will save a billion people from falling out of humanity’s climate niche. Jonathan Watts, The Guardian, May 5, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
168
In the News
1 In the article, several comparative forms are used: the one-syllable adjective comparative structures (+ / -)
(harder, wider, sooner); the equal comparative noun or adjectives structures (=) (as a result, as very adaptable); the superlative comparative (- - or ++) (the worst-case scenario, the hottest parts, the most optimistic outlook). Complete the following sentences with comparative structures. Humans will not be able to endure (hot+) temperatures because (=) other creatures on earth, they cannot bear excessive heat. The (high++) average living temperature for humans is an average well below 29°C. The study shows that for our species (slight- -) increase of 1°C will trigger large population displacements and the (comfortable++) climate niche is already threatened. The study shows that even if humans believe they are the (smart++) of animals, they will not avoid the suffering linked to (bad-) living conditions. Not only air conditioning is not the (eco-friendly++) means to deal with heat, but it is simply not something anyone can afford. A (low-) food production due to more aridity is also going to create the (bad++) social inequality ever seen. It seems the (far++) humans develop, the (low--) their chances of survival are.
2 To pronounce multisyllabic words, you need to stress, that is to pronounce with an emphasis, one syllable
of the word. When the word has one or several suffixes, remember that the suffix cannot bear the stress. In the article, there are several adjectives with suffixes. Read them out loud to stress the right syllable. Example: comfortable ➞ from COMfort, is pronounced COMfortable and so is unCOMfortable
Use the same rule for the adjectives from the article: insufferable / unliveable / adaptable / additional... and other adjectives: manageable, debatable, fashionable, reliable, unbelievable, unaccountable, immeasurable, unnoticeable. Note: for the adjective VULnerable, there is no word without a suffix corresponding. For adjectives ending in -ic, the stress is most of the time on the syllable just before the final syllable. Example from the article: demoGRAphic Indicate the stress in: optimistic, apocalyptic found in the article, but also: geographic, barbaric, endemic, academic, uneconomic, pathetic, energetic, systematic...
3 Answer the following comprehension questions in your own words. a b c d e
What is a climate niche? Why is human habitat more at risk? Why do humans believe that they are very adaptable to temperature change? What will be the direct impacts of a 3°C increase in average temperatures? Why is this study worrying? Write a comprehensive answer using some of this vocabulary: human focused / acceleration / manmade overheating / unequal / short term /
4 What problems related to climate change are not mentioned in this article because they are not the focus of the study?
5 To describe their surprise, the authors of the study use two idiomatic expressions and one unusual adjec-
tive. Use them to write a short piece on one environmental concern of your choice which makes you react in such a strong way.
The Environment
169
WOMEN SHOULDERING THE BURDEN OF CLIMATE CRISIS NEED ACTION, NOT SPEECHES
TEXT 5
Milikini Failautusi, 30, lives on the Pacific island of Tuvalu. She has become virtually a nomad in her own country after rising tides forced her to leave her ancestral atoll and move to the main island, Funafuti. She is now a climate activist. She can no longer visit her home island, yet remains committed to her country with a burning desire to prevent her own children from inheriting an underwater ghost town. This is not just Milikini’s story. While climate change threatens livelihoods and security around the world, it is women who are bearing the brunt. Women predominate in the workforces of many sectors that are most vulnerable to climate change such as agriculture, livestock and fishing. To make things worse, inequalities mean women are more likely to suffer dislocation to their lives as a result of flooding and drought. According to the UN, about 80% of people displaced by climate change are women. More than 70% of those displaced by the 2010 flooding in Pakistan were women and children. Among those who lost their lives in India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka as a result of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, three times more women died than men. But why? Rigid gender roles in the region meant men in the region were more likely to be able to swim than women. Furthermore, women were more likely to be caring for children and family members during the critical evacuation time. Women who do survive such disasters often end up in unclean evacuation centres where they can be exposed to gender-based violence and cannot access health services. Research by the International Union for Conservation of Nature found climate change and environmental impacts are increasing violence against women and girls including domestic abuse, child marriage and sexual assault. In many societies, encouraging progress is being made towards gender equality, but climate change can stop or even reverse this progress. If business-as-usual climate action continues, there are dangers that the gains of gender equality will be lost. There is a risk that as climate change accelerates, gender roles could become more entrenched. More men may be forced to move in search of better job opportunities, while women are left behind to care for members of their extended families and bear the burden of household responsibilities. Those who have to remain in more disaster-prone or vulnerable locations as a result are then likely to experience greater poverty,
have their livelihoods destroyed and suffer increasing health issues. We know that any attempts to restore environmental degradation and lower the risks posed by global heating are likely to fail if they do not take into account gender inequality. We know, from a report published last week by WaterAid, that climate finance is still not reaching the poorest and most vulnerable people, who are likely to be most affected by climate change. – about half of all countries receive less than £3.86 a year for each person. In 2016, a UN report found that only 0.01% of all worldwide funding went towards projects addressing both climate change and gender, despite specific provisions in the 2015 Paris agreement for women’s empowerment. Such statistics are sobering, but there are some encouraging signs of progress. Developed countries have pledged $100bn a year in climate finance by 2020 to help developing nations cut emissions and adapt to problems such as worsening droughts, flooding and sea-level rise. The Green Climate Fund, the main channel through which climate finance is dispersed, stipulates that all grants must treat women’s needs as a priority. The Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub, based in Mauritius, is already making impressive progress in unlocking much-needed resources for countries and communities that would not otherwise have the capacity to lodge successful applications for funding already pledged. At the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Rwanda in June, we can expect leaders to consider further innovative approaches to tackle environmental priorities, including the strategy proposed by women’s affairs ministers, which focuses on gender and climate change. The strategy is designed to encourage countries to collect and analyse data disaggregated according to criteria such as sex and age in order to devise improved climate solutions and to target them more accurately. Women like Milikini need more than speeches, however sincere. They need urgent collective action to tackle all aspects and impacts of the global climate crisis. Women on the frontline must be on an equal footing at all levels so that they, their families, their communities and the nations in which they live and work can survive and thrive. In the Commonwealth, we are working towards just that. Patricia Scotland, The Guardian, March 13, 2020 © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2021
170
In the News
1 After having read the article, you can complete the sentences below:
Milikini used to live She wants to and hopes that
She is now
Coastal areas are at risk of The excess or lack of rainfall causes Natural
disasters
such
as
a
tsunami
can
4 Find the right verb(s) from the list to match the
noun and form an expression. With each, write a sentence to say who does what and why in the situations described in the article. the burden (to take, to shoulder, to weigh up, to bear) the brunt (to bear, to live, to take, to act) on an equal footing (to have, to face, to be, to span) resources (to undo, to unfasten, to unlock, to unleash)
because
to the article, what are the actions required to make the situation of women in a climate change environment better? Imagine other ways to help, at local, regional and national level.
The factors making the situation worse for women are
6 To illustrate possible ways to empower women
More generally, climate change impacts more women when security Climate
crisis
weakens
livelihoods
2 Who
is the author of this article? Her plea for women is motivated by what she has seen. Quote the events she refers to. Why does she believe climate change impacts more women? How does she support her opinion? What does this indicate for the development of gender equality?
3 What
are disaster-prone locations? Choose words from the list to fill in the gaps. There are more words suggested than needed.
Regions particularly at 1 of being hit by a disaster are called disaster areas, or disaster-prone locations. In these regions, a disaster is meant as a natural 2 (an earthquake, a tsunami, a volcano eruption, a drought, floods etc…) and it causes extensive human and structural damage. Disasters sometimes occur one after the other and the 3 hazards are also combined. Access to clean water, basic sanitation, food and energy supply is consequently disrupted leading to epidemics, famines, migration and more generally 4 of livelihood and increased vulnerability for the communities. Poverty, slum housing, denied access to medical care and education, corruption and weak law enforcement often 5 areas hit by disasters. characterize / dangerous / events / feature / lose / loss / phenomenon / play / resulting / risk
The Environment
5 According
in relation to climate change, watch the video Empowering women on the frontlines of climate change, UNEP, Mar. 8 2019, and add a running commentary over the story you watch.
Here is some vocabulary you may need: smoke / open-fire / solar-panels / neighbourhood, manure / energy generating system / water-pump knowledge / to thrive What do you think of the slogan at the end of the video? Today’s Environmental challenges need all of us, not half of us. Empower Women. Solve different. To complete this article, you can also refer to the video Introduction to Gender and Climate Change, UNFCCC, Mar 7 2013, helping you better understand how change can be implemented.
171
INTERNET DOC. A1 CAN 100% RENEWABLE ENERGY POWER THE WORLD? TED-Ed, Dec. 2017, 5’54”
INTERNET DOC. A2 FOSSIL FUELS VS RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES Milind Amritkar, March 2015, 5’05”
INTERNET DOC. A3 300 YEARS OF FOSSIL FUELS HISTORY IN 5 MINUTES scientificamerican.com, postcarboninstitute, 2011, 5’39”
A Look around you at home, at work, at university, in the streets, in your supermarkets, libraries, cinemas. Where is energy used? For what devices, appliances, engines and systems is energy needed? What energy is mainly used? Do you know how it can be generated?
B
List different ways to produce energy and for each, what its pros and cons are. Discuss then the following statements: All renewable energies are eco-friendly. New energy sources have yet to be found When energy production is ecologically satisfactory, the planet will be saved.
C Check some of your answers watching documents 1 and 2 and answer in your own words the following questions. 1
Can you define fossil fuels and renewables in your own words?
2
Can you explain the importance of oil consumption, its impact on the environment and the future of this fuel.
3 How big is the renewable fuel consumption? Does its future depend on three factors? 4 Why is solar energy a major potential source but a difficult one to master? 5 What are the problems associated to wind farms, dams or solar plants? 6 What improvements still need to be found to develop fully these clean energies? 7 Why does electricity play such a limited part in transport so far?
172
In the News
D In the EU, the energy consumed originates from different sources: in 2018, 21% of the energy consumed is electricity; 40% of it is generated in power stations burning fossil fuels, 30% comes from renewable energy sources and 26% from nuclear power plants. The figures vary a lot from country to country, for example in France 71% of the electricity produced is nuclear-generated and 60% of Austria’s electricity comes from hydro power plants. (See the website ec.europa.eu, Where does our energy come from? European Commission) What does such a contrasted situation imply in terms of common energy policy and environmental one? Can the energy transition be a way to address climate change as a common goal for the EU?
E
Watch document 3 and answer the following questions. 1
Who are the main scientists associated to energy development?
2
Why is one technique leading to another?
3 Are you ready to learn the four lessons mentioned at the end of the document (3’50”)? 4 Why are the problems linked to energy production global ones?
F
Essay topic: How has energy production been both a curse and a blessing in the recent history of mankind? Use some of the documents’ examples but also others to expose the complexity of the topic.
The Environment
173
INTERNET DOC. B WHAT REALLY HAPPENS TO THE PLASTIC YOU THROW AWAY? TED-Ed, April 2015, 4’06”
A Before watching the document, insert the visual description listed below where it is suitable. This is the story of three plastic bottles, empty and discarded. (A) Their journeys are about to diverge (B) with outcomes that impact nothing less than the fate of the planet (C) but they weren’t always this way. To understand where these bottles end up, we must first explore their origins. (D) The heroes of our story were conceived in this oil refinery. The plastic in their bodies was formed by chemically bonding oil and gas molecules together. (E) to make monomers. In turn, these monomers were bonded into long polymer chains to make plastic in the form of millions of pellets. (F) Those were melted at manufacturing plants and reformed in molds. (G) to create the resilient material that makes up the triplet’s bodies. Machines filled the bottles with sweet bubbly liquid (H) and they were then wrapped, shipped, bought, opened, onsumed and unceremoniously discarded. (I) And now here they lie, poised at the edge of the unknown. c 1’08” Bottle 1, like hundreds of millions of tons of his plastic brethren ends up in a landfill. This huge dump expands each day as more trash comes in and continues to take up space. As plastic sits there being compressed among layers of other junk, rainwater flows through the waste (J) and absorbs the water-soluble compounds it contains and some of those are highly toxic. (K) Together they create a harmful stew, called leachate, which can move into groundwater, soil and streams, poisoning echo systems and harming wildlife. (L) It can take bottle 1 an agonizing 1,000 years to decompose. 1’53” Bottle 2’s journey is stranger but, unfortunately, no happier. He floats on a trickle that reaches a stream, a stream that flows into a river (M) and a river that reaches the ocean. After months lost at sea, he’s slowly drawn into a massive vortex, where trash accumulates, a place known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. (N). Here the ocean’s currents have trapped millions of pieces of plastic debris. This is one of five plastic-filled gyres in the world’s seas (O). Places where the pollutants turn the water into a cloudy plastic soup. Some animals like seabirds, get entangled in the mass. (P) They and others mistake the brightly coloured plastic bits for food. Plastic makes them feel full when they’re not, so they starve to death (Q) and pass the toxins from the plastic up the food chain. For example, it’s eaten by a lanternfish, the lanternfish are eaten by squid, the squid are eaten by tuna and the tuna are eaten by us. And most plastic don’t biodegrade which means they’re destined to break down into smaller and smaller pieces called micro plastics which might rotate in the sea eternally. (R) 3’13” But bottle 3 is spared the cruel purgatories of his brothers. (S). A truck brings him to a plant where he and his companions are squeezed flat and compressed into a block. Ok this sounds pretty bad too but hang in here. It gets better. (T) The blocks are shredded into tiny pieces, which are washed and melted, so they become the raw materials that can be used again. As if by magic, bottle 3 is now ready to be reborn as something completely new. (U) For this bit of plastic with such humble origin, suddenly the sky is the limit. (V) animal dying / automated assembly line filling the bottles and packaging them / block of plastic bottles compressed / bottle breaking up in smaller and smaller pieces / chains of circular patterns of different sizes / circular pattern ➞ reminding one of recycling / consumer sorting trash / crushed bottles / final view with kite flying over polluted land and water floating island of rubbish / gull trying to free itself from plastic gyre / Industrial site / landfill filling up with water / map of the world showing gyres / orange & yellow background to suggest heat / ordinary consumer / overflowing bin / planet Earth, blue, rotation again / rainfall from a cloud / several items made of recycled plastic / shaping machines / turtle dying / winding waterway /
174
In the News
B
This document is narrated like a fairy tale. What contributes to this effect in the script? What should be the final “moral of the story”?
C Analyse the document critically and add a final paragraph to it, questioning why recycling only concerns one bottle in three, and cannot be carried out forever, the price of the operation and its energy consumption as well as the future of the plastic consumption of other objects and their impossible recycling. You can watch another document to fuel your analysis: Is your plastic actually being recycled? NYT Opinion, Dec. 2019, 5’19”
D Break up! Watch this fun video to change your habits #CleanSeas Break-Up PSA: “It’s not me, it’s you”, Nations Unies, Feb. 2018, 1’57” Imagine another dialogue or monologue concerning an item you should get rid of or reduce the constant use of.
The Environment
175
INTERNET DOC. C WHAT IS A GREEN ECONOMY? Greenpeace UK, Jul. 2020, 4’07”
A Before or after watching the document, replace the words underlined by synonyms. 0” ➞ 0’45” You possibly have heard the word “Green recovery” or “Green economy”. Imagine life after Coronavirus, the government is putting into place plans to rebuild the country. What is decided now will influence us for decades. The Coronavirus has shown us what we don’t want to return to... how unequal our society is, how vulnerable we are, how our planet is devoting great efforts. A green economy allows to rebuild the country taking all this into consideration. So what does it really mean? 0’45” ➞ 1’45” A green economy prioritizes the health of anyone and the planet and sees things as interconnected. It means solar and wind power, not coal, oil or gas; improved public transport and electric vehicles, not petrol and diesel ones; energy efficient homes, not cold and drafty ones and protecting nature and having a circular economy not a(n) only one use, throwaway culture. It would mean massive investment in renewables, housing and transport and rolling out training programmes to skill people up for new jobs in these fields. This wouldn’t just be good for the Earth, it would be good for the economy as well. A major investment like this could result in hundreds of thousands of jobs. And with the oil and gas industries all in deep trouble, renewables being the cheapest way to produce electricity. Switching to solar and wind power would be a win-win situation providing jobs and non-polluting energy. 1’47” ➞ 2’20” So some might say that to recover from the Coronavirus crisis, what the government needs to do is to tighten its belt financially and introduce reductions to its spending. That isn’t true. That’s what they tried to do in 2010, when they introduced austerity policies and slashed state sector spending. Not only was it a disaster for the most vulnerable people, our environment, vital services such as the NHS, it was also a disaster economically. The best way for the government to rebuild the nation is the Green Recovery Plan that creates hundreds of thousands of jobs. 2’20” ➞ 3’17”
Not convinced yet? There are considerable advantages for public health and wellbeing. Better insulated homes are warmer and cut energy bills as well as gas discharge. Better public transport will mean less commuting time. Cleaner air will help save lives. Coronavirus has shown us that to look after ourselves, we need to start looking after the planet. Because without a major change, we can fully expect to see many more crises like this one, and not just pandemics. The weather emergency is already having devastating consequences for life on Earth, in particular for the most vulnerable and those that have contributed the least to it. To ignore this would be disastrous and unfair. We have to act now to limit catastrophic climate change and to protect ourselves and the planet we live on. 3’19” ➞ end The government is talking a big talk about a green recovery, but we have to make sure these aren’t meaningless words. The government’s been really starting to talk the talk on the green recovery, which is great, but unfortunately they’ve already started to bail out billions of pounds of loans to companies with no strings attached at all, and that is a very big missed opportunity. They do have a big chance to set us on the right path to a green and fair recovery, so let’s hope they turn their warm words into action. The government needs to make sure that they put people and the planet first and put us on course for a resourceful green economy because now is the time to build a better future. Greenpeace, sign the petition.
B
The speaker says that the government “has bailed out some companies with no strings attached”. What does this mean? What else should or could have been done? Give some precise examples.
C Choose three different frames / views / slides in the document noting their exact time code, describe what you see and explain how they illustrate what is being said at that moment.
176
In the News
INTERNET DOC. D GREENWASHING: A FIJI WATER STORY
Our Changing Climate, 28 July 2017, 5’17”
A Here is a simple definition of brainwashing: Forcible indoctrination aimed at destroying a person’s basic conviction. Used in marketing or advertising to manipulate consumers. Q1- Can you guess what greenwashing is about? Write your own definition.
B
Watch the document from the beginning to 1’52” and answer the questions in your own words. Q2- Why could greenwashing be good in a way? Q3- What is bad about greenwashing? Q4- Name all the products you see and explain how they can be part of a greenwashing strategy. Q5- What is the best way to positively impact the environment as a consumer?
C The Fiji Water case (1’52” ➞ 4’14”) Q6- Explain how the Fiji Water advert can be analysed with these cues: colours: screen spatial use: message delivery: message contents: visual, images: Q7- Describe the product and the problems associated with it. product problems: distribution: problems: Q8- Why could it be argued that Fiji water should not be exported? Q9- Who can be the target of such an ad? Q10- Why can the claims in relation to pollution be considered as misleading blurb?
D Consumer’s approach to greenwashing Q11- What is a “critical deconstruction” of a product? What questions should it ask? Q12- What general pieces of advice are given? Are they likely to be feasible?
E
Replace the vocabulary underlined in these sentences with expressions from the document. Luxury goods are decorated with graceful visuals. Many advertising strategies are deceitful. There are few non environmentally harmful companies. To condense the essence of the problem, only consider the facts. Some brands deliberately cover their real carbon footprint. Marketers should give their opinion to react to this unilateral story. Packaging encourages consumers to feel reassured.
The Environment
177
The ad voiceover secures the idea of serenity. Some industrial practices continue to cause destruction around the world. These products are falsely identified as sugar free. The smartest CEOs have been good at building a brand image. Consumers can also guide companies toward better practices.
F
Close-up on your consumer behaviour. 1
Take a product you buy regularly, look at its packaging and assess how the consumer is made to believe it is a good product. Can you spot any environmental claims?
2
What do you consider to be an environmentally friendly product? Have you ever come across products you could consider to be environmentally nonsensical or pure consumerism brainwashing?
3 When shopping, can you identify what products you are attracted to and why? What are the main considerations in your decision to purchase a product? Is your behaviour different when buying groceries or clothes? 4 Would you consider reducing your consumption as a way to positively impact the environment? How can you do so?
178
In the News
REVISION THE ENVIRONMENT Fill in the sentences with one of the choices given.
1
streets reveal how some urban dwellers live, consume and disrespect their environment. Rubbish Littered Filth Tidy
2
The recipe says you must peel and throw mix up rejecting discard
3
To awareness, scandals about company waste management are more efficient than experts’ reports. rise arise raise risk
4
The oil company was urged to take the necessary measures to salvage the tanker and avoid an . leak oil slick oil rig environmental flaw
5
goes further than conservation as it means protecting the environment from harmful human activities. Preserve Biodiversity Preservation Ecosystems
6
Wetlands improve water quality, minimize flooding and wildlife. erosion corrosion wear and tear decrease
7
The panda was removed form the endangered category class species family
8
Few human activities are not somehow threatened hurting damaged harmful
9
The oil and gas industries have long been the worst emitters of innocuous noxious destructing unfriendly
q
We know that climate change is caused by human activity, but who really is to bear blame held liable charge
the remaining skin from the fruit.
and provide a shelter for
list to be reclassified as vulnerable. for the fauna and flora of our planet. substances in the air. for it?
Waste w
on the roadside is still a common eyesore, impacting our habitat and threatening wildlife. binned throw dumped discharge
e
The government has been urged request saying argued
to abolish its fuel tax exemption to the airline industry.
r
Did you know that what you get rid of is either recycled, or burned or again disposed of in landfills dump site sewage
?
is the initial step to an efficient recycling process, which remains a challenge, especially for plastics. Clearing Sorting Stocking Separating
t
Old cars pollute more as they y
more unburned hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide.
release diffuse let fume
u
To upcycle is to transform creatively by-products or unattended unsold unwanted unaffected
i
Anyone should be for their efforts to shift to a green economy. accountable answered appealed attracted
The Environment
products into higher quality ones.
179
o
Many poor countries shoulder the weight waste brink burden
of their post-colonial past.
p
Politicians used not to address environmental concerns issue consider eco-friendly
a
Many of the nuclear accidents were easygoing undue foreseen preventable
s
Fertilizers need not be chemical, there are some organic manufactured robust reliable
d
Remote work has travel emissions thus contributing to better air quality. worsened improve made lessened
f
As a -prone location, Haiti has suffered repeatedly form earthquakes and hurricanes. despair disaster suffering tropical
g
The Earth’s sea level rise raise dawn upward
h
Technology now allows us to emit gather unlock loosen
j
Most of the ecological the planet has faced so far were man made disasters. outcomes crisis turning points crises
k
The first nuclear power plant works mill yard
l
For every 1°C rise in temperature, a billion people will endure unconditional unsufferable swagering insufficient
;
can only be reached if we find how the biosphere and mankind can live together. Endurance Fortitude Sustainability Continuity
z
Living organisms with their physical environment in ways we still need to better understand. interact interplay cooperate support
as a top priority during their campaigns. with enough resources and wisdom. ones, made from plant or animal compounds.
can be said to have begun at the start of the 20th century. renewable energy in order to reduce our environmental impact.
started operations in the Soviet Union in 1954. heat.
Fill in the gaps with the words provided for texts 1 and 2, without clues in text 3. When necessary, conjugate verbs. In text 2, there are more words than needed. Text 1 Shrinking tropical rainforests The amount of pristine tropical rainforest lost across the globe increased last year, as the equivalent of a football pitch disappeared every six seconds, a satellite-based analysis found. Nearly 12m hectares of tree cover was lost across the tropics, including nearly 4m hectares of dense, old 1 that held significant stores of carbon and had been home to a vast array of 2 . The loss of trees in the tropics was the third worst recorded since data was first collected in 2002, trailing behind only 2016 and 2017. The heaviest reduction continues to be in Brazil, which accounted for more than a third of all humid 3 forest loss but the biggest surge in forest loss was in Bolivia where fires led to an 80% greater reduction in tree cover than in any previous year on record. Many of the 4 were probably deliberately lit to clear farming land for planting and spread into forests due to strong winds and drought exacerbated by the climate crisis. The Bolivian government is making regulatory changes to encourage the expansion of agriculture. There was a slight decrease in forest loss in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but it was still the third highest year on record, largely due to cyclical agricultural operations, and there is evidence that commercial logging, 5 and clearing for plantations also had an impact. Beyond the tropics, Australia’s devastating bushfires led to a six-fold increase in tree cover 6
180
across
In the News
the continent in 2019 compared with the previous year. While Australia’s eucalyptus trees are generally well adapted to respond to fire, the 2020 blazes burned more intensely after a severe drought, and spread rapidly due to high winds. The fires killed hundreds of millions of animals. fires / loss / mining / rainforest / tropical / wildlife
Text 2 Spanish lagoon’s ecological crisis The Mar Menor is one of the largest seawater lagoons in Europe. It may look idyllic, with flamingos, great cormorants and grey herons flocking to the waters around the volcanic islands off the coast, 1 from the Mediterranean by a 13-mile stretch of sand. But the wind tells a different story. It has a putrid smell that reveals what the Murcia government 2 as a “grave ecological unbalance”, and what activists are calling “ecocide”: a crime against an ecosystem and the species – including humans – that live within it. In 2016, a massive growth of algae 3 by a discharge of nutrients, mainly from agriculture, turned the water here green and killed 85% of the seagrass. Thousands of fish were beached on the shore, unable to breathe because of a lack of oxygen 4 from the degradation of excessive algae and changes to salinity. Experts point the finger at the agriculture industry – exporting mostly vegetables to European countries – as the main polluter. The problem is nitrates from the intensive irrigation of crops, as well as poor sewage systems in towns surrounding the lagoon, which have 5 dramatically since the 1960s, and discharge from mining activities. More than two decades of lax regulations have not helped. to describe / to cause / to grow / to issue / to raise / to result / to say / to separate
Text 3 The Galápagos marine life under threat Ecuador’s navy discovered a huge fishing fleet of mostly Chinese-flagged vessels 200 miles from the Galápagos Islands, the archipelago which inspired Darwin’s theory of evolution. About 260 1 were in international waters just outside a 188-mile wide exclusive economic zone around the island and their presence has already raised the prospect of serious damage to the delicate marine ecosystem. Chinese fishing vessels come every year to the 2 around the Galápagos, which were declared a Unesco world heritage site in 1978, but this year’s fleet is one of the largest seen in recent years. Diplomatic efforts are made to request the withdrawal of the Chinese fishing fleet as these unchecked Chinese fishermen on the edge of the protected zone are very likely to ruin Ecuador’s efforts to 3 marine life. Efforts to enforce international agreements that protect migratory species have been ongoing. The Galápagos Marine Reserve has one of the world’s greatest concentrations of shark 4 . Ecuador is also trying to establish a corridor of marine reserves between Pacific-facing neighbours Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia which would seal off important areas of marine diversity as the archipelago as one of the richest fishing areas and a seedbed of life for the entire planet. The Galápagos are renowned for their unique plants and wildlife, described museum and a showcase for evolution”.
5
Unesco as a “living
The Ecuadorean navy has been monitoring the fishing fleet since it was spotted, conducting surveillance, patrolling to avoid an incident such as 6 happened in 2017 when the Ecuadorean navy captured a Chinese vessel within the Galápagos Marine Reserve, part of an even larger fleet than the current one and found to be carrying 300 tonnes of marine wildlife, mostly sharks. Topics for debate — Our short-term profit-making and growth-based economies are the surest way to utterly destroy the planet. — Sustainability is about thinking several generations ahead, it also requires thinking outside the box. — No one is too small to make a difference… but the big ones should make the biggest efforts. — The supply of natural resources is finite, so why do our economic structures pretend it is not? — Consumers can impose planet-saving change if they are educated and empowered to reject the most damaging easy options they are tempted with.
The Environment
181
VOCABULARY THE ENVIRONMENT Abusif Improper (s’)Amenuiser To dwindle Aridité, aride Barrenness, barren Assécher To pump up, drain Bio Organic Biocarburant Bio-fuel, green fuel Biodégradable Biodegradable Braconnage Poaching Awareness campaign Campagne de sensibilisation Catastrophe naturelle Natural disaster Centrale nucléaire Nuclear plant Circulation alternée Alternative traffic Climate sceptic Climato-sceptique Collecte (déchets) (waste) Collection Fossil fuel Combustible fossile Conformité Compliance To comply with Conformité (être en) To return Consigner, rapporter (water) Usage, comsumption Consommation (d’eau) Contaminer To contaminate Ozone layer Couche d’ozone Covoiturage Car-pooling Criterion (pl. criteria) Critère Dangereux, nuisible Hazardous Deforestation / logging Déboisement Défense de l’environnement Conservation Décharge Rubbish / garbage dump, landfill, tip Garbage, trash, refuse, Déchets r ubbish Industrial waste Déchets industriels Déchets ménagers Household waste / litter Nuclear waste Déchets nucléaires Détériorer, détérioration To spoil, spoilage Défrichage Land-clearing Désertification Desertification Sustainable development Développement durable Déverser To discharge, spill, dump Disparu Extinct Durable Sustainable Eaux usées Waste water, sewage Écoblanchiment Greenwashing Écologique Eco-friendly Écologiste Conservationist / environmentalist Économe (en eau) (water) Wise Économe en énergie Energy-saving / efficient Économiser l’énergie To conserve, save energy Écosystème Ecosystem Green / environmental tax Écotaxe Effet de serre Greenhouse effect Effets néfastes Harmful effects Égouts Sewage system, sewer Élimination des déchets Disposal of waste Émanations Emissions Émission Emission Empreinte carbone Carbon footprint
182
Énergie éolienne Wind power Énergie solaire Solar energy / power Engrais Fertilizer The environment Environnement Épuiser (réserves) To deplete, exhaust Espèce (animales) Species Érosion Erosion, soil depletion To be at stake Être en jeu Expansion urbaine Urban sprawl Faire prendre conscience Faune / flore Fonds marins Fonte (des glaciers) Forêt tropicale Fuir, se répandre
To raise awareness Fauna and flora, wildlife Ocean bed (glacier) Melting Rain forest To leak, spill
Gaspiller Gaz carbonique Gaz à effet de serre Gaz nocif / d’échappement
To waste, Carbon dioxyde Greenhouse gases Noxious / exhaust fumes
Incompétence Mismanagement Chemical industries Industries chimiques Inondation Flood, flooding To seep, permeate Infiltrer (s’) Jetable Disposable To dispose of / throw away Jeter Malsain Unhealthy Oil spill, slick Marée noire (en) Manque (in) Short supply Water shortage / scarcity Manque d’eau Mécanisme incitatif Incentive scheme Menacé Endangered Militantisme écologique Green activism Montée du niveau de la mer Rising sea level Nappes phréatiques Water tables / groundwater Norme Standard Nuage toxique Poison cloud OGM GMO = Genetically Modified Organism ONG NGO = Non Governmental Organisation Parc éolien (en mer) (offshore) Wind farm Particule Particle Pénurie Shortage, scarcity Péril (mettre en) Jeopardy, to jeopardize Pluie acide Acid rain Polluant, pollueur Pollutant, polluter Préservation, conservation Conservation Principe pollueur-payeur Polluter-pays principle Produits chimiques toxiques Toxic chemicals Produit vert Eco / green product Protection Conservation Pulvérisation de pesticides Crop-spraying Ravage (faire des) Rayons ultraviolets Raz de marée Réchauffement de la planète Recyclage, recycler
Havoc, to wreak havoc Ultraviolet rays Tidal wave Global warming Recycling, to recycle
In the News
Réduire To curb Renouvelable Renewable Retombée Fallout Retraitement Reprocessing Risque sanitaire Health hazard Sécheresse Drought Sensibiliser à To raise awareness Société du gaspillage Throwaway society To sully, foul Souiller
The Environment
Source de revenu Livelihood (en) Suspension Airborne Surveiller To monitor Toxique, nuisible Transgénique Trier (déchets) Troquer (Les) Verts
Toxic, Harmful Genetically Modified (GM) To sort To swap, barter The Greens / Green party
183
NOTES �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
184
In the News
CLUES CHAPTER 1 THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD Text 1 Will Brexit spell the end of English as an official EU language? 1
procedural and treaty languages
2
to spell = to mean, to imply You should remember that… bear in mind If languages don’t move… stand still The EU is right when… has (got) a point When speakers of rare languages stop speaking… cease to speak Latin was very naturally made to disappear over…. phased out None intends to criticize ancient texts… seeks It seems English was chosen by many countries… nominated Some national policies intended to do away with dialects… get rid of Taking for granted that one language…. Assuming Some languages have come safely through decades of…. weathered
4 -a- F native speakers b-T settings c-F straightforward d-T hub e-T fortunes 5 Esperanto 6 Countries where freedom of the press is restricted (Turkey, China, Russia, North Korea…), where internet access is limited, where censorship ensures there is no political opposition, Text 2 Africa’s colonisation of the English language continues apace 1
a pace = rapidly // ongoing = continuous // legacy = inheritance // unlikely = improbable // lingo = tongue // canons = models // forge = establish // sigh = moan // stamina = endurance // gems = treasures
2
Negative vocabulary: wanting / patronising / downgraded / discourage / failed / atrocities / racial arrogance / prejudice / by force / deference / to beat so / violence / brutality / grievance
3 to fall on deaf ears / to shift one’s centre of gravity / to bear the burden 4 She grew up close to older relatives / she is a twi speaker / she is African / she was a Booker prize judge / 7 It means that the empire is so extensively spread throughout the world that literally, at any time, one part of the empire is in daylight. It is a way to boast the global nature of the empire and the fact that it never rests.
Text 2 Irish support for Native American Covid-19 relief highlights historic bond 1 Definition (verb form) to provide help to someone to make an urgent and heartfelt request to stand by in order to help to establish a link between people based on feelings to give (money or other) for a good cause
Clues
Nouns aid an appeal assistance a bond a donation
Verbs
to donate
185
Definition (verb form) to suffer pain patiently to understand and share the feelings of someone to raise or supply money for a specific purpose to give someone pleasure or satisfaction to give one’s word, to pledge to do something to give and take mutually to remove something painful or oppressive to have in common, to partake of something to experience something painful to make available, to provide 2
Nouns
Verbs to endure to empathise
the fund to gratify to promise to reciprocate a relief sharing suffering supply
a-?; b- F (and elsewhere); c- T; d- T; e- T; f- F (six weeks after); g- T; h- F (Navajo & Hopi); i- F (president + PM); j- (F they were glad and unsurprised)
Text 4 Lady Scotland to stay on as Commonwealth secretary general 1
t o remain in post // to sow doubts // to tender an offer // to convene a meeting // to respond to a crisis // to dispatch an envoy // to receive support // to operate through consensus // to operate a veto // to stand in the way // to prevent reappointment // to set up a new office
2 t he normal competitive tendering process // most other comparable multilateral organisations // its common legal and parliamentary assumptions // the controversial Commonwealth secretary general 3 in post / report / chair in office / process / reappointment / formal written contract / meeting / internal audit / to tender an offer / term / to convene / summit / secretariat / competitive / to call a meeting / to discuss / notice / to respond / organisation / consultation / to dispatch SO / envoy / senior representative / disapproval / support / consensus / probation / requirement / timing / agenda / to oust SO / asset / professional networks / leverage power / re-examination 4
a. accusation of profligacy & irregular tendering process; no consensus on reappointment, not enough representation, no official representation of all the countries; short notice for unofficial meeting; no clear policy if elections cannot be held + possibly political hidden agenda as Ly Scotland is a Labour peer, timing colliding with renewal of procedure reforms of the Commonwealth b. only an extension of her existing term; election to be held at next CHOGM in 2021 c. not enough clearly set rules for representation of countries / majority votes needed or not / d. When the Queen dies as she is still the Head of the Commonwealth for some countries e. a divide between the English former colonies and the smaller states where English may not be an official language, or which are not economically powerful
Internet Doc. A Will technology end the English language’s global domination? 1
(the earth-> a worldwide dimension, signs in English, a 3D view of the brain, a cityscape, many small screens with different views in 3D)
2 (colour range: blue, black, no natural lights, neon lights; movement: rotation of the Earth, vertical and 3 dimensional spacing & perspective effect; layers and stackings of screens and keyboards) (lines of 0 or 1 falling like rain) 3 (technological dominance / colonial past / cultural domination with film industry / military and economic power after WWII, Chaplin / GIs freeing Europe) 4 (no accent on words, so it is simpler on typewriters, few conjugaisons, simple sentences structured closely to other roman languages) 5 (Chinese is difficult to learn because of its 6,500 characters, so it could ease learning Chinese. But in Chinese the intonation matters much, for the same sound can mean very different things with a different intonation, so how do you indicate this in Pinyin?) 6 (As coding is in English, only speakers of English or people with enough English can develop internet structures and tools. So Chinese-centric tools are being developed. Same stacks and architectures will require Chinese literate to interact with it) (1998, 85% of internet content was in English, 2018 20%, expected to be as low as 10%)
186
In the News
7 (No because users explore the net within their linguistic microcosmos, not being really exposed to other linguistic spheres, there is a polarization effect in content, all is viewed from the angle of those who write the content from their cultural / linguistic point of view) 8 (There is a need to differentiate themselves with language, within the same linguistic practice to create groups.) 9 (To create an identity within a large group of common language speakers, not to be understood by everyone, teenagers’ codes) 10 (Its different levels of interpretation, idiomatic expressions, figurative figures of speech, cultural references) 11 (Because the tools must be created to represent what the human mind can instantly imagine) 12 (Because it is fun and it is an intellectually demanding task like playing an instrument, playing chess, + because machine translators are not fully reliable yet) B) … most spoken language … now via voice input … are still threatened; … can confuse translation software
the Latin alphabet is used… … the advance of translation technology … the world’s 6,000+ languages. … stop people learning new languages?
C) a take on / parochial view / to bottom out / the scaffolding / an echo chamber / microcosmos / to incentivise / inherent / to crack / time lag
Internet Doc. B Samir Puri discusses “The Great imperial Hangover” A 1. Historic docks, London, Tree Sisters galleon in the background 2. June 2020, the statue of Cecil Rhodes thrown into Bristol’s harbour 3. Men pulling a heavy cart, white man with colonial hat carried by several slaves and servants 4. Tower Bridge, Tobacco docks, London 5. Soldiers marching in British Boer War uniforms 6. Lord Mounbatten, last Viceroy of India & Lady Mountbatten 7. Dec. 26, 1991, Red flag lowered 8. Military vessels cruising 9. Removing General Lee monument in Virginia, USA 10. Signing of Treaty of Rome, 1957 11. View of Tiananmen Square with Mao Zedong’s portrait, Beijing 12. View of Hagia Sophia, Istanbul B 1. to launch a new book, inform potential readers for them to know what it is about 2. the topic of post-colonialism is much debated between historians and his book offers a broad analysis of its impact. 3. the book studies several empires throughout the world and at different eras so that a more universal analysis is enriching. 4. they can either live in one of the countries of the “empire builders” and want to understand its background history, or live in a formerly colonised country and want a different view on its history. According to Samir Puri, the imperial legacy of a country can explain its present situation. It is also worth reading because, he claims, the 21st century is the first century with no empires.
Internet Doc. C The Australian Identity Debate – A Different Lens 1 disillusioned 2 buy a house 3 fixed 4 imagined 5 truth 6 lie 7 becoming 8 incorporated
Clues
9 decisions 10 accommodate 11 saluted 12 gesturing 13 virtues 14 citizenship 15 tough 16 empty
17 anything 18 60,000 19 complex 20 combined 21 generous 22 look 23 legal 24 fellow
25 Symbols 26 territories 27 struggle 28 journey 29 reflects 30 indigenous
31 get over 32 fabric 33 worried 34 shallow 35 product 36 frankly
187
Revision English-speaking world 1
2
MCQ 1) native 2) sought 3) get rid of 4) lingua 5) pragmatic 6) bond 7) Famine 8) Tribes 9) reciprocate 10) empathise 11) dialects 12) vowels 13) burden 14) ambivalent 15) enslavement 16) summits 17) asset 18) General 19) consensus 20) dispatch 21) nationhood 22) aboriginal 23) acknowledge 24) forefathers 25) colonialism 26) foster 27) coin 28) barriers 29) translation 30) anglosphere Txt 1 (1) audacious (2) main (3) royal (4) Spanish (5) good (6) ageing (7) fast (8) radical Txt 2 believed // exists // depends // undergoes // supposed Txt 3 1) population 2) States 3) list 4) spoken 5) foreign
CHAPTER 2 HIGH TECH Text 1 Apple whistleblower goes public over “lack of action” 1
to blow the whistle // to violate rights // to collect data // to go public // to pass a law // to opt-in to a practice // to release an update // to live up to SO’s ideals // to substantiate the facts // to bring ST to SO’s attention
2 t o be linked with / to be concerned with / to be at odds w / to be investigated / to be aware of / to be subject to / to be called out / 3 offender / regulator assistant; student; politician; salesman / woman; statistician, blacksmith, lawyer or solicitor or barrister or attorney content manager / software developer / risk analyst / support advisor / data base administrator / IT technician / web designer / data coordinator / data coding operator / data protection regulator / computer hardware engineer / 4 1 ) former 3) massive 4) privacy 5) wiretapped 6) devices 7) watchdogs 8) datasets 9) disclosure 10) grey area 11) deliberately 5 H e has witnessed what he considers malpractices and was expecting the company he worked for to put an end to these. His personal ethical values differ from his company’s. He expects the company will review its malpractices and that the users will be aware of these. Users’ privacy is not respected, data on their private life is used without their knowing.
Text 2 Screen time minutes are the new calories, and it’s high time I went on a diet 1
ascetism / acceptance / self-loathing
2 to flash up to leap into to jack up
to chuck ST away to glance at to tuck into ST
to stare at to throw out to pick up
to give up to creep up to fall into
3 a with staying in bed / sleeping in, having peaceful breakfast / a brunch, practicing sports or spending time with children / her phone accounts average time spent daily, compared with exercising or dental appointment comparison with an unhealthy habit b exercise: read books see friends; write a book c positive use of the phone: reading instructive articles; keeping in touch w/friends; shopping for essentials; games; social media; communication; 1 newspaper reader only d unlimited contracts / 14 step beauty routines, trying to make users spend a long time supposedly to make them feel good // master of modernity = titan of technology e image of the hourglass; of eating disorder (intermittent fasting) tech dieting, nutritional balance / to binge (trying to lose weight by giving up regular meals and eating only chocolate.) internet access =± calories: intake f personal account (1st person narrative, my teens, social position: mother of 3) directness: confession / sure we do that repetitions as if she was just talking to the reader (junk, junk) register: to throw stuff out / Sure we do / shopping for more junk, to jack up -> spoken register yet the truth is: talking to readers, irony (trophy of the year) + empathy, closeness, identification with reader
188
In the News
4 Adjectives -y -able -ing -(i)ous -ive -al tiny unforgivable overwhelming anxious instinctive mental easy unjustifiable safeguarding miraculous instructive political unidentifiable talking dental bloody unhappy unsustainable functioning nutritional educational social usual aspirational
(other) divergent / noble simple / alternate long / super intermittent regular / small / bad / three / decadent blank / true / high important / frantic unlikely / confused
Negation of some: anti- social, // un- justifiable, happy, sustainable, identifiable, limited, likely, laudably Excess of: over- stated, anxious By themselves: self-, appointed, induced, imposed comparative form: angrier: more anxious Adverbs: widely, hardly self-righteously, desperately / laughably
Text 3 AI and me: friendship chatbots are on the rise, but is there a gendered design flaw? 1
compassion, understanding,
Pals / buddies
2 Chatbots name Replika Mitsuku Woebot Instabot
Maker / Founder SF Startup: E. Kuyda Pandorabots: L. Kunze A. Darcy Z. Twainy
Duties surrogate friends surrogate friends therapy aid experience
Features conversation conversation empathy XXXXXXX
3 a- because the industry is male dominated, in the US and in the UK; male contractors b- stereotypes because imagined by men and their image of women, help and support provided by female friends, also because datasets reflect this gender prejudices found in real-world attitudes c- active listening / validation / compassion / d- 1/3 abusive, explicit or romantic male content + risk of a vehicle for more prejudices, much abuse, bias in terms of gender but also beliefs, background e- they should make very clear that they are not real friends / human beings 4 in the dumps = unhappy, discouraged; up for grabs = available; a host of = a large number; to an extent = in a way; on the flip side = considered differently; to do the trick = to be sufficient; overly = excessively; across the board = applying to all; at least = if nothing else; akin to = similar to; conditional on = if, depending on; in conjunction with = together with; to the fore = in a leading position; in regard to = as to, with reference to 6 to bottle up = kept their feelings to themselves to draw in = caused a large number of customers to enter to perk up SO = came to life to play out = develop to spell out = clearly explained to spill over = affected many more to strip out = To remove the superfluous entirely to turn into = changed to
Clues
189
Text 4 Universities beware: shifting classes online so quickly is a double-edged sword 1
E-learning has developed over the past 10 years, With MOOCs for example and during lockdowns.
2 overnight = rapidly halt ≠ to continue security ≠ compromise sophisticated ≠ basic surveillance ≠ freedom of speech caution = beware 3
5
the rush / to dash to expose ≠ to protect
a) connection / provider b) forums c) passive learning d) course, contact hours e) open-source
f) higher education g) tutors / lecturers h) mature students i) schedule j) seminar
a) needed to be shut down b) were given c) may be exposed d) could be shared e) can be controlled f) must be set up
g) must be questioned h) has been diversified i) has been used j) was not elicited k) were provided l) must be rebuilt
essential ≠ sidelined replicate ≠ reimagine
6 (Privacy + security / equipment / teaching methods) more student engagement; freewheeling conversation to reimagine teaching methods
Text 5 For all its sophistication, AI isn’t fit to make life-or-death decisions 1
to establish how different humans and machines are “All this suggests a need to be clearer about what machines are good at and what humans are good at”
2 Machines can: track / synthesize / diagnose & triage / identify & sift through or manipulate / recognise / Humans can: recognise / break down / ground / have (or establish)/appreciate / care predict & did / identify & miss / cause & possess (have) / give & care Two verbs opposed: to reckon and to judge 3 life / death; reckoning / judgments; calculation / thought; representation / reality; object / phenomena; celebration / concern; claim / pretence; value / worth; ethical / responsible
Internet Doc. A Are we on the brink of a jobless future? Section 1 1
F Making sense = to mean
2 T written $-> money matters 3 F just before “tomorrow, when it comes out” 4 F Not in the past, but for the future’ of the workforce” 5 T See the sign: “Amazon fulfilment” (center) Section 2 6 F It drives itself out of the garage 7 F Once on the road, it “takes over” but he can also control it.
190
In the News
8 F From $1000/month to $500/year -> reduction of about 96%. 9 F Each costs 10-15 cents. 10 T “jobs will be wiped out”, Amazon will soon reduce its staff, drone delivery, self-driving trucks robots putting deliveries into a box. Section 3 11 T informal English 12 T also called “Tellers” in banks. 13 F futurologists. 14 F umpires. 15 F within a decade = before the end of the decade. Section 4 16 F A Shakespearian ambition to “kill all the lawyers”. 17 T “in the UK where he’d amassed dozens and could not afford the tab”. 18 T All are mentioned on the screen. 19 F “filing for a divorce case”, not judging it. 20 F “no fee = free of charge”, as the communist ancestor may have been proud of Section 5 21 F he sees Browder can change a lot without any qualification in these fields. 22 T, higher yield per workers’ input. 23 F a paper / article he co-wrote with two other researchers. 24 T they fear it will take away their jobs. 25 T Trump’s view Section 6 26 T because there’s never been so many people employed. 27 F not fight & hospital but flight & hospitality workers. 28 F hospitality workers & Zumba teachers, need for human contact. 29 F “wages remain relatively stagnant”. 30 T “It could go either way”. Questions 1
M ay be theoretically, as costs reduce as demand increases, but it is very easy to say when you can afford solar panels, buy food in well stocked stores or produce it with maximum yield (probably with GMOs), pay for equipment to filter rain water etc...
2 N otions of reliability, records over long periods, analysis of similar cases but no intuition, lateral thinking, linguistic strategies, even creativity. Other AI vs human challenge: any speech analysis-based jobs (psychotherapists, psycho logists), all artistic production. 3 T he “Tipping point” is a reference to The Tipping Point, How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell, (2000), where the idea of threshold is pushed to its limits, "Ideas and products and messages and behaviours spread like viruses do". When technology takes over, some large-scale development, algorithms patterns, who can stop it? one knows for sure, specialists do not agree, figures can prove one thing or its contrary, future predicting is impossible. 4 N
Clues
191
5 T he questions the journalist asks are asked to human beings, not to machines! AI analyses can only occur when data is fed into systems with programs, we still need programmers, politicians and research directors to tell them what to do, what is acceptable and what is not. Decision-making is still entirely left to humans, good or bad, basic human activities need machines (agriculture) but humans to decide when to sow and when to harvest.
Internet Doc. B The Ethical dilemma of self-driving cars A (+) when driver is drunk or too tired to drive / more reliable than humans who may lose concentration, be tired, not respect the rules / run longer distances / use for old, young, disabled passengers, adults with no licence / allow passengers to do something (sleep, play, work)/ less traffic jams (-) tech not good enough / pleasure of driving / older people may panic as pedestrians: already some deaths / relying on internet connection / danger of being hacked / checking on people’s whereabouts B Issues of responsibility in case of accident / someone can hack your car, take control over your car / your kids can use it when they are not supposed to C SUV / truck / biker / motorcycle / safety / driver / passenger / motorist / accidents / highway collision / passenger Synonyms: robot cars (in the document) also driverless cars, autonomous cars, unmanned vehicles, self-drive car E 1) to swerve right or left / prioritize safety / to instruct the car / reduce traffic accidents & fatalities / to remove human error / to ease road congestion / to minimize danger to others minimize harm / minimize stressful driving time / suffer the consequences / decrease harmful emissions / to favour certain types of objects / to discriminate certain types of objects to favour a deliberate decision / penalizing responsible motorists / to avoid the collision to analyse the passengers of the cars / to spot the moral hairpin turns / to manoeuvre the roads of technology / to sacrifice your life / to instruct the car.
2) barrel down / to be boxed in / to swerve into / falls off / go straight / to crash into / to spot out / to factor in / to offer up / to go beyond / to meet out / to discriminate against / to open up / to play out
F removing human error / eased road congestion / decrease harmful emissions / minimize unproductive and stressful driving time G programmers / companies / drivers / government / policy makers /
Revision High Tech 1
2
MCQ 1 devices; 2 ubiquitous; 3 mindset; 4 whistleblower; 5 at odds with; 6 my knowledge; 7 self-induced; 8 pride; 9 frantic; 10 realm; 11 bias; 12 endeavour; 13 struggle; 14 sidelined; 15 foolproof; 16 hype; 17 embedded; 18 accountable for; 19 fraudulent; 20 extortion; 21 phishing; 22 referee; 23 on the brink of; 24 suppress; 25 swerving 26 congestion; 27 fatalities; 28 LMK let me know; 29 cybercrime; 30 curtail Text 1 1) is about to 2) to avail of 3) is said to 4) to tell 5) be relevant Text 2 1) witchcraft 2) constraints 3) shape 4) software 5) layers 6) printable 7) identical Text 3 1) positions / jobs 2) respond / answer / talk 3) case / situation / query 4) future 5) week Texting dos & don’ts – Texting should concern matters requiring a quick response. – Avoid sending messages outside business hours except in case of emergency. – Never text confidential information, use your company’s intranet. – Do not send several one-sentence messages in a row on the same topic. – Do not assume the reader knows what you are referring to. – Don’t overuse abbreviation or ambiguous phrases. – Don’t forget to proofread your message and double-check the recipient.
192
In the News
CHAPTER 3 GLOBAL TRADE Text 1 Indians call for boycott of Chinese goods after fatal border clashes 1
r aise ST / to identify ST / to delete ST / to post ST / to cancel ST / to launch ST / to impose ST / to step up ST / to handle SO / to release ST / to knock ST / to push SO / to fear ST / to throw ST / to cancel / to build / to launch to participate in ST; to encroach on ST / to walk into ST / to carry out ST / to kneel down before SO to plan to do ST / to begin to do ST / to agree to do ST to accuse SO of ST (of V-infinitive ST) / to ban SO from / of Ving ST / to call out SO for ST to order SO to do ST / to make SO do ST to call for a boycott / to gather momentum / to suffer casualties / to impose tariffs / to knock off balance / to walk into an ambush / to declare war on SO / to carry out an attack / to build pressure to do ST / to break SO’s backbone
2 skirmishes / hand-to-hand / weapons / clash / casualties / troops / premeditated attack / friction pressure / boycotting / launching / campaign / Tariffs / trade / deficit / commodities / deal / tender / banned 3 s uffered / plan, are planning / had dammed / had released / had been pushed / meet / sent / was, anticipated / could / were built, could / was / could not / could / has entered / would set up / was / found 4 Chinese and Indian governments: private companies (either suffering from Chinese bans or encouraging them)
Text 2 Capital and Ideology by Thomas Piketty – if inequality is illegitimate, why not reduce it? 1
b / c / a / c / a
1, 3, 5 are not valid
2 appeal / keen / thread / boldly / premise / overarching 3 clergy / landowners / bourgeois / military / working classes / slaves / communists / oligarchs mentioned / rampant / unleashed / running out of steam / utopian 4 Policy programme Education budget Governance Taxation The EU Income Position Experiment Public sphere Confidence
—› tentative —› equal —› participatory —› progressive —› democratised —› guaranteed —› optimistic —› astonishing —› dysfunctional —› enlightened
—› uncertain, not final —› the same in quantity, size, value —› shared —› gradual —› made available to all —› secured —› formally assured —› very surprising —› which does not work —› rational and well-informed
5 p ositive assessment: brilliant and relentless anorak; ambitious (comprehensive) book, boldly, looking beyond (scope), admirable, bold ideas, astonishing experiment, provocative naive (quality), unique scholarly edifice
Text 3 Have a heart, KitKat…/ Shark Finning…/ Delivery disaster… 1
2
a) Have a break, have a KitKat. Use of same words have a..., break = away from ≠ pause b) to outlaw child labour / to create cooperatives / to ensure a minimum price / to pay a 10% premium workers’ empowerment / customers’ supportive action c) sign the petition + boycott if the brand does nothing a) enjoy a reputation of delicacy, reserved for special meals: yet little taste, endangered species b) barbaric practice to get the fins; c) animals protected, yet found on the market; Products seized yet retailers and consumers can avail of the products
Clues
193
3
a) no commuting time wasted / fast / low cost / goods are cheaper because only available as internet purchases b) limiting pollution regarding commuting to shops yet difficult to have one delivery for all products+ end of bricks &mortar shops, city centres, shop assistant advice etc... c) carriage and mileage have a cost, logistic, human; the cost is sometimes included in the price d) sustainable transport (bikes) grouping purchases / collecting shopping from collection point / shop locally
4 (Words): factory or plant / firm / brand / to subsist / importer / packaging / to ship / agents / window display / viable 5 – Fair trade may have some advantages but it will not solve all the economic problems many producers face. – Nestlé must change its policy so that local producers can be given a chance to earn a decent living. – Hong Kongers should change their habits and fewer ecological disasters would occur. – Shark fins should not be sold anymore so that these animals can be better protected. – Some customers may reduce their deliveries but this may not have a significant impact. – Anyone ought to take the problems linked to deliveries seriously so that the Earth may be given a chance.
Text 4 Fast fashion creates misery – and that’s always a bad look 1
(free-floating, timeline) (appeal, to cut tie) (hoover up, simmering) ( disposable, pittance) (to toil, dobbing and snitching) (mainstream, allure)
2 Commerce Vocab brand / businesses / consumers (purchasers) / cost price / factories / garment / labour / manufacture / marketing spin / mid-range / retail cost / sell-by date / shareholder / supply chain / sweatshop labour / 3 a) (female in factories, males in warehouses and delivery / non-white ethnic groups, more exposed because no teleworking, factories & warehouses -> close to one another, delivery -> much contact, no equipment) b) (wages and lockdown measures not respected, freedom to accept dangerous work) c) (several intermediaries, different types of workers) d) (no reason, need, right to go out -> fantasy world, internet life -> fantasy id / life -> clothes what seems, not necessarily is) What type of consumption benefited? (clothes, online) How is lower quality suggested? (poor fabrics, all artificial, not lasting few wears) e) (few own brands or are shareholders in many brands, clothes are made in the same place, price vary according to marketing strategies) f) (very low paid labour -> female workers)
Internet Doc. A The Strategy of International business (benefits; going global; expand) (compete; sales; liability; profits; unique; cutting; transport, Development; scale; earnings; offset, disaster; features) (geographic; transport; regulations; purchasing) (multidomestic; demand; differentiation; standardisation, Cultural) (match; competitors)
Internet Doc. B Does microfinance empower or impoverish? A credit in the form of loans granted to people deprived of banking facilities, unbankable, illiterate small sums, group lending, solidarity circles, to support an entrepreneurial project, Bangladesh, Grameen, 1983, Muhammad Yunus women, rural communities, villagers, small scale businesses to set up or develop a business, help basic logistic investments started as non profit, became a corporate; model followed by many other commercial banks, leads to more indebtedness sometimes, does not alleviate poverty in the long term B
18” (London Eye, visually identifying London at dusk = the City with data / figures, like a map of the sky; clouds reflected in a glass facade of a building where cranes are reflected and a bar chart / infographic is overlaid; split image of an ancient dome with letters raining down, mixture of technology and ancient civilisation; container cargos in a harbour,
194
In the News
sea as on a screen with dotted lines, weight of freight indicated and kilometres going up; cityscape drone view of skyscrapers with perspective of data) 31” (Contradiction: Microcredit was supposed to lend money to those who want to build the business and help a struggling economy get on its feet, but the reality of microfinancing, for some anyway, has been very different, as people struggle with debt, they can’t pay back.) 47” (developing Co, slums, people living in overcrowded areas, by the train tracks, barefoot, crowded narrow alleys, shops made of material, man & woman carrying coal in a basket on their heads, overview of urban scene) 54” (Q = Have the promises of microcredit materialised? (lift billions out of poverty / to empower women / help those on the margins of society) What has been the real impact of microfinance? According to Yunus credit is a human right but its impact in developing countries seems to be null.) 1’36” (godfather =Yunus, original aim = to have a world without poverty, yes loan sharks existed offering very high rates to their poor customers, an illegal activity. The World bank has an investment portfolio of microfinance institutions, over 15 years, 130 M clients have used microcredit.) 2’25” (misuse of credit = to feed people, it does not fuel any business activity; it is making the poor even more indebted) 2’58” (not dealing with the root cause, deeper structural causes linked to IMF voting power imbalances, imbalances in the trade system preventing poor countries’ development) 3’25” (more regulation, more leniency for those who default) 3’50” (His promise has not been kept, even if some progress has been made, opinions are split on the issue) C e radicate / loan / microfinance / empower / ladder / caught up / take off / on its feet / clear cut / spirals / break out of / leniency / to default on / success stories / silver bullet
Internet Doc. C Richard Wolff On the Root of Consumerism B
0”- consumerism should not be the aim, the objective, but a way to sustain life ministers, rabbis, priests = religious guides Q = what economic arrangement supports Consumerism = the over valuing of consuming goods / services? Consumerism is the reward for labour. 1’ - workers do not own their production, they are deprived of it; 2’33”- money for labour; money allows one to choose what you want to buy (purchasing power) 3’02”- labour = pain, disutility, effort, (unpleasant, dread, burden, loss of time, loss of energy) 4’ - Happiness comes once work is over, disconnected from work. 6’11” - satisfaction, relationship, spiritual life, not just bread on the table Conclusion: Work should be as satisfactory as the payment it deserves.
Revision Global Trade 1
2
MCQ 1) tariffs 2) rogue 3) commodity 4) wealth 5) policy 6) inequality 7) budget 8) certification 9) selling 10) same-day 11) supply 12) retail 13) Shareholders 14) going 15) purchasing 16) standardisation 17) tap 18) spending 19) benefit 20) impoverish 21) loan 22) alleviation 23) run into 24) Relocations 25) ensures 26) Trading 27) plant 28) consumerism 29) consumer 30) sprees Text 1 1) forge 2) negotiate 3) monitor 4) prevails 5) cut 6) prevented 7) benefited 8) amounted Text 2 1) high 2) flashing 3) vast 4) swift 5) physical 6) normal 7) useful 8) other 9) potential 10) inevitable Text 3 1) on 2) from / after 3) into 4) by / for 5) of 6) with 7) around / in 8) on
3 – The busy lifestyle of most Westerners does not justify their choice of single use, throwaway products. – The US myth of the self-made-man contradicts the current wealth inequality or limited social mobility. – Economists are experts who will know tomorrow why what they predicted yesterday didn’t happen today. – Some activists believe that our economy is at war with many forms of life, including human life. – Profitability and benefit for society cannot be reconciled despite what Social Responsibility claims.
Clues
195
– Whenever the biggest TNCs spot a potential competitor, they squeeze it out of business or swallow it up. – If automated plants produce large quantities of standardized items, will robots want to buy them?
CHAPTER 4 WORKING CONDITIONS Text 1 Modern slavery in the UK is not confined to one place in the Midlands 1
h uman rights / modern slavery / control mechanism / hidden crime / robust response / power relationship / legal terms / immigration raid / forced labour / swift response / drug gangs / residential home / legal adviser / domestic servitude / helpline number / public reporting / social awareness / world-leading expert / exploited individuals
2 1 ) to turn a blind eye to / the depths and darkness / a wake-up call / to take into one’s own hand / catalyst for change / storm of conditions / a landmark case 3 Mechanisms are used to set up slavery. Workers are paid poorly and forced to work by traffickers. The victims are made to believe that they deserve… The workers are threatened before an inspection. Children are targeted and exploited by traffickers. The people who work in domestic services are hidden by their employers. Forced labour should be recognised in any state. Vulnerable workers may be maltreated by traffickers. Some maids are enslaved by their employers. Young people can be educated about modern slavery thanks to BLM.
Text 2 Covid will force us to reimagine the office. Let’s get it right this time 1
(1) During lockdown, workers sensed that their situation was entirely new and that they were catapulted into a strange workplace environment. (2) Before, designers and architects carried out research to improve the workplace experience. (3) But with cubicles, workers battled against isolation and a constant hum and later, hotdesking fared just as poorly. (4) Past experiments gave rise to the necessity to plan spatial and cultural office planning because space is meaningful, it does not simply happen. (5) After years of innovation to bring workers together, high tech companies make a U-turn and encourage extended home working and this is surprising when we know that social interaction at work suffered during lockdown. (6) Though the pandemic has shown workers can make it through, a shared work place is necessary to retain the idea of a common space where co-workers do not sacrifice collective efforts.
2 academic / alternative / cost-driven / dreaded / elaborate / fancy impractical / instructive / unprecedented / pioneering / purposeful puzzling / strategic / tricky / usual 3
a- the typical office “saps vitality, blocks talent (and) frustrates accomplishment b- plastic dividers, distancing, mask-wearing, hand sanitising, phased and flexible return to office c- partitioning, creating dense, almost factory-like, conditions. endless tiring noise and denied the community-building aspects of seeing and being seen d- cost-saving organisation to have workers to share desks, partly work from somewhere not provided by the employer e- human centric, meant to improve office work, misunderstood and leading to worse working environments f- can create loneliness or solidarity, impacts productivity
196
In the News
g- they previously promoted togetherness in fancy settings and stressed co-presence h- limited interaction leading to less creativity / innovation, no team-spirit, difficult integration of new staff members
Text 3 “The Zoom shirt”: how the pandemic changed work dress codes + Virgin Atlantic’s sexism goes deeper than telling women what to wear 1 txt 1 Makes them look and feel more professional / imposes respect text 2 sends an image associated with the position (handmaid / sexy / gender marked) 2 txt 1 presentable / professional / formal / polished / casual txt 2 strict / discriminatory / stereotyped 3 txt 1 higher productivity when more casual dress code txt 2 possibly restricting efficiency in emergency situation. making hostesses look like handmaidens 4 txt 1 simplicity / comfort / fewer suits for men 5 txt 1 home working / office sharing / hot desking / 6 txt 1 the impact of the fashion industry on the environment, cost, therefore reduction in number of items (pared down wardrobe) 7 txt 2 above-the-knee, tight skirt, lipstick, makeup, high heels 8 txt 1 ref. to studies, polls, experts’ opinions, no presence of the journalist txt 2 direct journalist comments, questioning facts, irony, personal view, casual vocabulary 9 to be presentable / to get kitted out / full office attire / to permit / to relax rules / to decree / to comply with / to feature / to outlaw / to be obliged to / compulsory / special request / requirements / to refuse / to outlaw / to exempt / requirements 10 It is assumed that the most comfortable the employee is the better (s)he will perform. So not only office and leisure facilities and perks can motivate workers to join a company but also freedom to dress casually. The T-shirt, jeans and sneakers “uniforms” of computer designers or tech moguls dressing like teenagers embody similar ideas. With images of attractive (naked) women used in advertising (or on company calendars) up to recently, the tradition for women to wear makeup or sexy clothes to appeal to all is creating a divide between male and female appearances. 11 handcuffs (police officer), stethoscope (doctor), hammer (builder), oxygen cylinder (astronaut), wrench (mechanic), whistle (police officer, lifeguard), buoy (lifeguard), syringe (doctor, nurse), badge (police officer), corkscrew (waiter / tress) 12 efficiency / image / protection / respect / safety / identification Female under-representation in the case of Virgin Atlantic shown in gender discrimination. Reflect: The proverbs warn against the deceptiveness of appearances School uniforms should remove the social / economic class belonging clothes reveal. They reinforce belonging to a school, community but also do not allow pupils to express their identity through their choices of clothes.
Text 4 Farewell workplace burnout: will coronavirus slow the manic pace of our modern lives? 1
Nouns busyness / cohorts / garble / insight / makeup / messiness pace / phrase / rethink / sake / scam / unease Adjectives fortunate / guilty / inspirational / manageable / manic / occupational / pointless relentless / reminiscent / roiling / slavish / sluggish
2
worker bee / deep relief / industry conference / peak body / stand-up meetings / inspirational quotes / corporate leadership
Clues
197
entrepreneurial mindset / pep talk / challenging times / start-up culture robotic efficiency 3 a- toil b- drops off c- peeking d- upended e- lean in f- chance g- to pursue h- roving 5 direct address to the reader + Introduction of ideas with expressions used when talking (let me never hear.../Which bring me to.../What now? What else / etc...) + casual expressions: “the stuff of life’/ dogs underfoot.
Internet Doc. A Jeffrey Pfeffer: Is your workplace killing you? A Listen to the whole document once and then answer the questions in your own words. Q1 (Too many hours / absence of job control, work / family conflict, job insecurity) Q2 (stress is a mental disorder which has a physiological impact) Q3 (eco insecurity, absence of health insurance, shift work, work / family conflicts) Q4 (no more health insurance to pay sick leaves / lack of efficiency due to depressed / stressed out workers; but only true when it is not proven that the workplace has directly been the cause of death) Q5 (deep, profound effect on the wellbeing of workers -> their physical health too) Q6 (use these factors as priorities to determine if they accept or not a job) (only possible when you have a choice of a job) Q7 (focus on individual or broad policies, not enough on the worker’s environment) Q8 (social pollution, they should pay for the costs of this social pollution, incur the costs, provide for what they have not wanted to see so far) Q9 (justice and fairness: no discrimination, favouritism, unequal treatment based on gender, ethnic group, etc) Q 10 (the more the companies are aware of the costs, the more changes they will implement in the workplace to avoid a stressful situation, eventually to improve everyone’s efficiency) B
C
There is one main explanation why work impacts workers’ health. F One possible effect of stress at work is high blood pressure. T Stress is a physical condition. F The study carried out is based on new research. F The study covers the effect of stress on workers and society. T In the US, stressful working conditions costs over $200b. F Death is not costly for a company. T The number one stressor for Americans is the absence of access to healthcare. T Employers can have an impact on the workplace environment. T Employers cannot impact the individual’s wellbeing. F Pfeffer advocates a strong State regulation. F Better economic decisions come when the costs of stress is externalized. F Pfeffer claims companies make society pay for their lack of concern for workers’ wellbeing. T Pfeffer states that environmental pollution should not make polluters pay. F Pfeffer believes employers can make progress if they have to pay for the cost of stress. T Q 11 (health insurance comes with the job; if you lose your job, your access to healthcare may then become entirely at your expense) + Laying off workers for economic reasons is very simple. Q12 (the Welfare State ensures basic social rights from “cradle to grave”, post WWII in the UK) Q13 (sick leaves, unemployment benefits, maternity benefits, parental leaves etc...) Q14 (people exposed to dangerous products, asbestos for example, to discrimination, to excessive pressure leading to suicide (France Telecom), lack of protective equipment for medical staff during Covid-19 pandemic)
Internet Doc. B The women fighting sexual abuse in the factories where your jeans are made 1
a ll centred in the capital’s suburb, owned by Taiwanese companies, one factory filling 7 containers / day, started in the 1990s when the Lesotho government gave incentives for foreign companies to invest; 80% are female workforce;
198
In the News
from Lesotho to South Africa, to the EU or the US; 46,000 employees, biggest employer, bigger than the public sector, low pay, low skilled workers; 26 million pairs of jeans / year; 1 worker has to produce 33 pairs / day, pay =£60/month 2
esigned since 1873 for (gold)miners in California, cowboys, very resistant, rivet to make them last; since 1927: red tab d to guarantee quality / authenticity
3 Health and Safety, Discrimination, Contract terms written in a language workers know and can understand; wages, 4 H arassment, pressure on output with threats to be dismissed, sexual and verbal assaults, unequal hiring processes, unfair dismissals, union membership not welcome 5 A n independent body was set up; safe reporting; women supervisors appointed, counselling opportunities; the agreement is helping factory owners to establish a policy concerning hiring after the Covid crisis 6 c ode of conduct, no child labour, decent pay / minimum wage, health and safety measures; social audits, factory inspections 7 n o persecution or supervisors punished; inspections are fake, all is cleared (hazardous substances, illegal practices / workers etc) before the inspection, staff to be interviewed are picked by the factory managers, gender based violence is still taboo 8 Sustainable and ethical products, respect of Human Rights what is good for the environment (use of organic cotton / less water for jeans making) does not address workers’ concerns, respect and wellbeing. ollapse of demand, exports, canceled orders, high street slump, orders left in ships in EU or US harbours, not paid 9 c for, payments due, union leaders targeted, 2 million workers in Bangladesh losing their jobs, risk of homelessness and famines 10 long term change is possible, big brands cannot say they were not aware, the Lesotho agreement could become a model. It should help re-employment after the crisis
Internet Doc. C Amazon doesn’t report its warehouse injury rates A
1) Black Friday, extensive 5-day shopping period -> intensive work for Amazon, the company offers a special 1-day delivery to Prime members+ announcement hiring 200,000 extra workers 2) Amazon does not make its workplace injury figures public, “like many others” 3) speed and safety 4) with automation, conveyor belts, automated scanning and labelling of packages 5) load products into storage bins, pace tracked by computer 6) They get a compensation settlement —› a financial agreement but also lose their job in some cases 7) focused on safety “n°1 priority”; Amazon claims it reports any injury, hence the high numbers 8) no public records of injuries, refuse to give access or comment, has to get data from employees who have access, no union to keep records 10) strains and sprains, lacerations, concussions, over a month 11) speed accounts for the excessive rate of injuries. 12) employees called emergency services, were told to carry on working, not evacuated, had to take personal time off if they wanted to leave the premises 13) were sick because of workplace conditions, initially lost pay for protecting their health, felt pace keeping was more important than them 14) the whole site was evacuated / shut down 15) faster and safer work but the warehouses were most accidents occurred are highly automated;
B T he cornerstone, the toll, sobering findings, blistering, overwhelming, to gear up, to kick off, to write up, to boast / to tout, to punch in / out C fulfilment centers = warehouses / associates = workers
Clues
199
Revision Working conditions 1
2
MCQ 1) forward 2) drain 3) burnout 4) multitasking 5) hazards 6) balance 7) safety 8) hired 9) maximize 10) Efficiency 11) hotdesking 12) spirit 13) blind 14) commute 15) discriminatory 16) gap 17) exploit 18) sapped 19) coerced 20) labour 21) code 22) leaves 23) workload 24) week 25) provide 26) well-being 27) denied 28) empowers 29) part-time 30) in-house Text 1 1) environment 2) announcement 3) longest 4) shorter 5) positive 6) addition Text 2 1) strengthen 2) safeguard 3) based 4) suggests 5) increased 6) turned Text 3 1) late 2) (work)day 3) employees / workers / staff 4) policy 5) behaviour 6) explicitly / clearly
CHAPTER 5 DEVELOPING COUNTRIES Text 1 World faces worst food crisis for at least 50 years ahealthy (ailing), weak (robust), improbable (looming), unpredicted (impending), previous (ensuing), best-preserved (worst-stricken), unsafe (vulnerable), prosperous (struggling), harmless (damaging), safe / non-hazardous (precarious) bclimate emergency // dire hunger // food waste // global markets // healthy food // perishable produce // price hikes // school meal // science-based solution // seasonal labourer // staple crops // supply chain 2
ho are poor (in dire poverty / in need); the edge (the brink); destituteness (extreme poverty); get (lift); what you earn to w live (your livelihood); because of (owing to); impossible to get hold of (out of reach); cures (remedies).
3 to compound = to link to tip = to incline to dump = to throw away to urge = to prompt
to stave off = to repel to stunt = to slow to soar = to expand to hamper = to obstruct
4 a- medical care, unemployment benefits, maternity care, system based on solidarity b- children need nutriment and when deprived of it, long term effects will be felt for their whole life c- conflict, natural disasters, the climate crisis, and the arrival of pests and plant and animal plagues d- to provide immediate response and assistance for those most in need, ongoing and inclusive support in recovery and – perhaps most importantly – future resilience to all shocks 5 1) earmarked; 2) deemed; 3) have created; 4) are facing; 5) is to; 6) distribute; 7) deal; 8) occur
Text 2 Will Europe’s museums rise to the challenge of decolonisation? 2 The Royal Museum for Central Africa Location: Tervuren, Brussels; Belgium Created in: 1897 Reopened after renovation in: December 1998 Artefacts: stuffed animals, geological specimens, African Art Visitor’s impressions: dated views on primitive art / civilisation, European Other museum: Musée du quai Branly, Paris 3 (“sacred, royal, culturally iconic artworks”) (objects were taken / plundered objects / looting / sacking) (the dominant position of the coloniser did not allow the countries to retain their pieces of art, negotiate them at a fair price if their wanted to sell them, given as presents in exchange for favours) 4 d ated, old colonial vision; racist European view on post-colonialism wherein today’s independent nations are still not in a position to display their own heritage. 5 (some oppose fearing some European museums will be emptied) (restitution, return, collaboration) (the headline suggests it is an opportunity not to be missed)
200
In the News
6 Collective action plan to retrieve art pieces, 15 nations unite their efforts 7 the Louvre (Paris) the Pergamon Museum (Berlin) Quay Branly Museum (Paris) the British Museum (London)
Text 3 A third of my country was just underwater. The world must act on climate 1
People’s Republic of Bangladesh / 1971 from Pakistan / red circle on a green background 148,760 km2/161 Million inhab. / 1,106 inhab / km2/ / parliamentary republic / Dhaka / bengali (language) / $1,187 (2020) / 135th / 189 in 2018 / 6 seasons: grismo (summer), barsha (rainy season), sharat (autumn), hemanto (cool season), sheet (winter), and bashonto (spring)) / India, Myanmar, Maldives, Sri Lanka / Commonwealth, UN, WTO, SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation)
2
floods -> displaced population + Covid-19 pandemic, destruction left by Cyclone
3 paddy fields -> rice textile industry workers, coastal areas + mangrove andemics and climate change need global solutions, if one nation makes efforts and not others, the result is nil, all 4 P low coastal areas impacted by rising sea levels 5 G20 -> 80% of global emissions; climate action goals achieved by the poorest countries not the richest 6 E xposure to extreme weather conditions (cyclones, tsunamis, drought, floods) or natural disasters (volcanoes, earth quakes) high density population, lack of infrastructure, primary-sector dominated economies 7 a) to take a long hard look at (T) b) to rein in (F) c) to cry for help (T) d) to keep one’s side of the bargain (F) e) to turn your back on (T) 8 S resilient U cushion S shore up T contain A fallout I initiative N acknowledgement A calamities B battle I thriving L fool proof I impoverished T commit Y unemployed
Text 4 Petrol sold to Nigeria from Europe “dirtier” than black market “bush” fuel 1
(no control of illegal refinery activities / dysfunctional or closed state-owned refineries: no norm to define the quality of fuel, non-respect of UN environment programme initiative / subsidies to keep price of fuel low) (illegal refineries operate without any control, environmental rules and safety standards, fuel from dubious origin -stolen- may also trigger more pollution) (to sell to Nigeria fuel too polluting for European standards from good quality Nigerian crude)
2 (black market fuel produced in Nigeria is less polluting than European imported fuel + crude oil extracted in Nigeria is high quality = low sulfur oil) 3 (wealthy European countries continue exploiting poor countries oil resources to produce two standards of fuel from Nigerian good quality crude: highly polluting for Nigeria, less polluting for the European market; old and probably more polluting cars are sold to Nigeria, again not meeting European environmental regulation; addition of highly polluting chemicals in fuels destined to Africa) 4 (gas flaring industries, rubbish burning, old cars, electricity produced from fuel generators)
Clues
201
5 ( 4th by air-pollution related death; estimated 114 000 air-pollution premature deaths / year; asthma, heart and respiratory diseases; particulate matter levels 20% higher than in Delhi, the most populated city in the world) 6 (When “bush” refineries face problems, they can pollute rivers, swamps or even explode, causing casualties and extraheat, destroying the landscape around, water and soil pollution) 7 b lack market / gridlocked cities / filling stations / mounting evidence / developing countries / emergency levels / soot particles / industry sources 8 a- (F / up to = a maximum of) b- (F, little is dealt with) c- (F, small illegal refineries 5-20%) d- (T) e- (T) f- (T) g- (?) h- (F, 1/2 still use them) i- (T, fuel flaring and other industries, rubbish burning) j- (F, petroleum products) k- (F, they are damaged) l- (?) m- (T, poorest quality) n- (T) o- (F, it is part of the economy) 9 (European oil companies legally supply the Nigerian market with a very poor-quality fuel which is more polluting than the one locally produced in illegal refineries.) (Alarming levels of air pollution result from the toxic fuel used in old cars and in electricity generators and highly polluting industrial activities.) (Due to little regulation and this lethal European oil trade, Nigeria still struggles to implement eco-friendly policies unlike neighbouring countries.)
Internet Doc. A The UN Least Developed Country Category 1
(not a playground, a car park?/ not in traditional clothes, school uniforms / only one woman does her washing / men are dancing / woman weaving in a factory, several looms, man digging up) category created (to give these countries exclusive access to certain international support measures) and / or (to support development assistance and trade) focus on c) education and b) cocoa harvesting CDP = Committee for Development Policy, every 3 years, on inclusion and graduation Human assets, economic and environmental vulnerability income per capita latest income threshold cattle heads being traded / sold c) consecutive reviews that is to say to leave the LDC category, which is a clear sign of progress. True, five countries had graduated, and true five more were about to graduate. False, Vanuatu, Bhutan and the Solomon Islands are not in Africa duty and quota free access to most developed country’s makets + major developing countries WTO special treatment (reduced contribution to WTO + UN budgets), official donor’s allocations, through climate change financing?, grants to travel to international meetings highly / behind
Internet Doc. B A Counterintuitive Solution to Poverty: Stop Trying to Eradicate It A 1- F: visited one at 25 2- T 3- T 4- F: it was very satisfactory 5- F: he was “undeterred” 6- F: it was meant to help 7- T 8- T
202
In the News
Push development strategy. (you see a problem, you find an immediate solution, here water, let’s build a well) Poverty = lack of basic needs: (water) (food) (clothing) (schools) Problem: You do not get to the root of the problem, you treat the symptoms opposed to “Push”? To pull in resources through organisations which create wealth Nigeria: State of the country: poor Political system: military rule Life expectancy: 46 years Share of the population who live under $2/day: 80% State of infrastructure: severe deficiency in education, transportation, electricity The Aswani brothers wanted to target hunger Their aim was to feed a large part of the population with easy to prepare, cheap nutritious meal Year of introduction of the product on the Nigerian market: 1988 Requirement to produce: manufacturing plant -> needing an electricity generating plant + a water treatment facility + waste management system, warehouses, Requirement to market: no retail stores, supermarkets existed, so they created retail outlets, storing other products and creating jobs. Requirements to distribute: investments in trucks, drivers a job? It provides dignity, reduces crime in poor communities, is a means to deal with issues. Trade not aid: pulling factors create an economy, a pushing factor, a need, aid makes people used to not being in charge of their actions, trade can make them actors of their development, empowerment, can turn them into being decision makers, choosing their priority and ways to deal with their problems B
1- To empower the villagers with the use, maintenance and fixing of the well. 2- Authorisation to build the plants, stability in the country not to risk losing such large-scale investment because of a natural or human-induced disaster. 3- The impact on the poorest should be measured. Is it just the case of providing cheaper food? The poorest still cannot afford it if they are not included in the virtuous circle of job creation. Training, school building is part of the social impact of sustainable businesses. 4- In 2019, Nigeria ranked 161/189 countries. rather high Gross National Income per capita but relatively low life expectancy (though much progress since the early 1990s). The case studied addressed hunger, but medical care, access to sanitation, clean water are still problems in this very large and fast-growing population. Security and corruption are still often disrupting many efforts. 5- Natural disasters (tsunami, earthquake, flood, drought...), small scattered population, not potentially turning into a big market, difficult geography (mountains, deserts) making infrastructures like roads or airports too expensive to build; terrorism is a major risk factor; corruption can also deter investors.
Internet Doc. C The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020 A battle (fight) // to meet (address) B promising (committing) // objectives (goals) // almost (nearly) // impacted (affected) // may (could) // Defeating (Overcoming) enough (sufficient) food // our way (track) // increasing (growing) burden // pay for (afford) // models (patterns) // greenhouse gas emanations (emissions) // change (transform) // guarantee (ensure) // forever (once and for all). C N ot enough food quantity for everyone or uneven share of the wealth, not enough intake regularly by the poorest, quality of food, nutritious quality of staple food, excess of junk food (with high fat / sugar content) leading to obesity (and heart diseases) D M alnutrition leads to rampant diseases, costly when medical care is provided. Premature death form hunger or malnutrition deprives countries from a solid workforce. Lack of food leads some to turn to crime for survival. E e x: Food donation in local supermarkets; exchange programmes in agricultural techniques & management by international organisations etc.
Clues
203
Revision Developing Countries 1
2
MCQ 1) displaced 2) Drought 3) paddy fields 4) rage 5) looting 6) legacy 7) on the brink 8) relief 9) malnutrition 10) ailing 11) crops 12) hampered 13) behind 14) eradication 15) ongoing 16) well 17) sparsely 18) rein 19) commodities 20) shore up 21) duress 22) intractable 23) counterintuitive 24) vulnerability 25) plague 26) resources 27) take 28) plunged 29) coastal 30) funding Text 1 1) decades 2) population 3) poverty 4) target 5) action 6) setback Text 2 1) men 2) document 3) countryside 4) continent 5) metropolises 6) people 7) poverty 8) capital 9) towns 10) infrastructure Text 3 1) on 2) with 3) on 4) out 5) by 6) with 7) of 8) on 9) in 10) out / away
CHAPTER 6 THE EUROPEAN UNION text 1 Europeans of colour are finding their voice – it’s time “Brussels so white” listened 2 all-white bastions / unconscious bias / complacent claims / ethnic communities equality directive / limited interaction / third generation migrants / unwanted intruders populist narrative / recruitment policies / mainstream politics / dismal records / toxic rhetoric non-governmental sources / raced-based violence 3 beleaguered clumsy damaging dubious excruciating indignant patchy self-confident stilted systemic
in a difficult situation, besieged awkward, without grace causing harm or injury doubtful, uncertain intensely painful discontented fragmentary, bitty, insufficient assertive, self-assured stuck, blocked relating to a system
4 1) c; 2) b; 3) a; 4) c; 5) a; 6) b; 7) c; 8) a 5 No recognition of the existing discrimination, no or too little representation in the EU institutions. No data collection on minorities -> no special representation 6 T he article suggests some quotas for ethnic groups for some votes. Change is very long for lack of awareness of the problems. People who do not experience discrimination do not know how it can daily impact those who suffer from it.
Text 2 The coronavirus crisis has exposed the truth about the EU: it’s not a real union 1
a- T; b- F; c- T; d- T; e- T; f- F; g- T; h- T; i- T; j- F
2 (1) 1992 (2) parliaments (3) citizenship (4) cooperation / collaboration (5) currency (6) price / monetary (7) convergence (8) president (9) withdraw (10) help inally, the package was agreed. // It was mostly more loans // the reason was glaringly obvious // it was abundantly 3 F clear // a truly concerted European response to coronavirus is implausible 5
to turn one’s back to ST -> to ignore or reject ST on steroids -> exaggerated to scrape through & by the skin of its teeth -> just about, by a narrow margin crippled (with debt) -> causing very difficult problems because of money owed
204
In the News
to rise to the occasion -> perform better because of special circumstances across the board -> applying to all galvanised into action -> stimulated to act
Text 3 To save the EU, its leaders must first focus on saving the planet 1
§1 Europe divided by 3 // §2 The new challenge // §3 Possible change or greenwashing? // §4 Effective solutions
2 Q1 post WWII experience: peace, democracy, social security Q2 financial crisis, migration, populism Q3 democracy, diversity or solidarity -> bureaucracy, xenophobia and fracture Q4 threat & opportunity Q5 commission’ Green Deal, German Council’s key policy priority Q6 no carbon neutrality deadline, sourcing carbon emission, unclear bio-fuel alternatives Q7 unconditional bail-out of airline companies, unclear funding support to green tech companies Q8 narrative without substance, hollow promises Q9 ban on short-distance flights / more electric vehicles / no funds for polluting industry; money to green projects / pressure on major polluting countries Q10 EU-> from 3rd polluter to eco leader, sense of identity for young generations 3 to be mired -> to be stuck to earmark -> to allocate, attribute to hinge -> to depend on to cosy up -> to try be become friend with to soft pedal -> to reduce the effect to forfeit -> to lose because of an error, to confiscate to undermine -> to slowly weaken to endure -> to last, to continue to prop up -> to stop from falling, to provide support to resonate -> to remind someone of something to bring underway -> to set in motion to outsource -> to provide from outside 4 on the sly
to come of age
to match deeds to words
to give the lie to
to make headlines
5 b) fortress / c) collapses / b) top-down / c) supportive / a) egregious / b) coffers
Text 4 I was one of the millions opposed to Brexit. I’ve seen nothing here to change my mind 1 Losses Influence over EU members Influence in diplomacy, defence, security EIB loans to poor regions Support from Euratom, Europol, Eurojust, Emissions Trading Scheme UK Exporters Duty-free circulation of goods & services Control free circulation; Transport fluidity UK companies Access to EU-wide market Investors to the UK Attractiveness Britons Ease to stay, settle, work Students Erasmus exchanges
UK government
Clues
Gains Autonomy to certify product norms
No quotas, no tariffs; US Trade Deal US Trade Deal; no EU standard compliance
205
2 over, curtain comes down, -> the show is finished; to go cap in hand / mendicant-> begging ball & chain -> prisoner some scraps from the wreckage -> sinking boat common idea of no return, end of an era 3 Violence: to slash / to torch / the fire power / to crucify / a sanction Loss: to impose / to check / control / comply / to access / a rule taker / to disfigure Businessmen, who have been imposed Brexit terms, suffer more than they have gained from this uncompromising deal. Only time will tell how difficult it is for British businesses to respect the paperwork needed to export to mainland Europe. What seemed like a penalty may prove to be an opportunity to change the UK’s economic model in the long run. ot a no deal, but limited compromise, with services losing out, whereas EU imports to the UK are a little facilitated. A 4 N win-win strategy is an ideal situation were both parties compromise to the same extent and get something in return. Here the journalist implies that the UK has granted much for very little in return. 5 T ime will show the extent of the losses (to sink in) and when Brexiters are outnumbered - because they tended to be older / rural voters in England and Wales, and a minority in Scotland and Northern Ireland - a new referendum in the UK, supported by a Labour Prime Minister, may give a return to the EU a chance.
Internet Doc. A Europe Explained A 1 ) living 2) democracies 3) world 4) single 5) countries 6) federal 7) treaties 8) free 9) same 10) border 11) with 12) integration 13) how 14) governments 15) currency 16) monetary 17) debt 18) support 19) joined 20) force – already mentioned: Renaissance / Enlightenment, wealth, democracies What pre-existed: a unique and expanding territory with Napoleon’s vision (through territorial conquest) Pandemic knew no borders (Black Death in the Middle Ages), knowledge and fashion circulated, marriages of princes and princesses to form political alliances, well-known philosophers & explorers travelled Europe and were hired in royal courts for their fame (Marco Polo, Vasco de Gama, Leonardo da Vinci, Erasmus) – Populist supporters / party leaders may deny that their rising power is due to the EU’s downsides. Russia may view the western encroachment of its former satellite nations as capitalist corruption and a threat to its ideology.
Internet Doc. B Is the European Union Worth It Or Should We End It? A THE EU Number of member-States: 27 Population: 450 millions 3rd world rank GDP world ranking: 2nd world ranking of single market: 1st Initial reason for the creation of the EU: peace 2015 crisis: refugee / migrants Current challenges: military force, monetary union, social policies B
1- F (not all countries) 2- T 3- F (not just against the French) 4- F (impractical) 5- T 6- T (25% input to 5% world population) 7- F (Transparency + accountability) 8- F (controversial) 9- T 10- F 11- F (from 4 to 20 euros) 12- F
C 1) (Union of countries, more like a federation) 2) (China & India) 3) (Individual freedoms: easy travel, cheap telecommunications, variety of goods and services, strong health an safety standards). 4) (competition, tax evasion, data protection) 5) (collaboration, easy travel, funds)
206
In the News
6) (far away, untransparent technocratic, hard to understand) 7) (low voter turnout) 8) (2015 migrant crisis) 9) (some countries accepting many refugees, others not, isolated and overwhelmed borders) 10) (wealth, freedom, job opportunities, personal freedom, healthcare) 11) (too many migrants -> impossible ≠ racism+ discrimination -> impossible) 12) (safeguard, better to protect borders, better cultural understanding) 13) (free trade, no customs duties, no borders) 14) (boost to economies, job creation, increase of about 12% GDP, eco investments, infrastructure & social development) 15) (economies, labour, tax, social security legislation, wages) 16) (not all countries in the eurozone, no common policy) 17) (more unity, monetary and economic, suppressing “weak” States, common policies on tax and healthcare and social security) 18) (the US; China) D to be embroiled in conflicts / to pick a fight / to strike a balance
Internet Doc. C Why Europe Doesn’t build Skyscrapers A
B
densely / highly // prosperous / booming // few / not a lot of // to embrace / adopt // structures / buildings // historic / old // little / not much // demand / need // districts / quarters. rivalry / competition // outdated / old-fashioned // eroded / weakened // wary / cautious // age / era // preservation / conservation // held back / been reluctant replicated / copied // landmarks / typical buildings // overwhelming / irrepressible // modest / low-key // repetitive / identical and successive // influence / leadership. indiscriminate / non-selective // lobbied / to put pressure to impose // facades / fronts // fabric / make-up // bland / dull to rise / to grow vertically // focus / attention // happiness / contentment // growth / expansion // residential / housing automated / using technology // progress / advance // significant / valuable, 1- F (Frankfurt, Moscow, Istanbul) 2- T (inner-urban space for offices or residence) 3- F (Chicago) 4- T 5- T 6- F 7- F (to show it could) 8- F( slowed down the process with regulation) 9- F (not now but by 2030) 10- F (it may if past & present are combined)
Revision The European Union 1
2
MCQ 1) handled 2) manageable 3) crippled 4) implementation 5) disrupt 6) fortress 7) polls 8) differ 9) bureaucratic 10) share 11) multicultural 12) treasuries 13) flows 14) discrimination 15) acts 16) beyond 17) position 18) commitments 19) services 20) majority 21) cooperation 22) through 23) requires 24) stringent 25) treatment 26) boost 27) body 28) sets out 29) rights 30) empowering Text 1 1) detention 2) numerous 3) undocumented 4) citizenship 5) result 6) many 7) services 8) European Text 2 1) crisis 2) regularly 3) short 4) factors 5) bigger 6) forests 7) capacity 8) equivalent Text 3 1) earlier 2) Wall 3) people 4) than 5) term 6) why 7) spend
CHAPTER 7 THE ENVIRONMENT Text 1 Littering epidemic in England 1
to litter the countryside and to disturb wildlife + risk of fires
Clues
207
People should be informed: enforce regulations: encourage people to be eco-friendly by rewarding the best initiatives / citizens 2
A a- consistent b- flurry c- hand-in-hand d- instances e- to roam f- set g- to foster h- to holiday i- livestock j- unprecedented
2
B a). F b) F c) T d) F e) F
4 a) because with Covid19, holidays abroad were not possible b) for not having spent enough on awareness c) respect and interest d) heritage, nature for next generations, ecosystems, e) in the Lake District, you can go hillwalking, swimming in lakes, fishing, etc… 5 T he ad is funny because the animals are behaving exactly like humans, in their body gestures and facial expressions but also in their speech. It is very typical of the every day conversations of an ordinary person. In each scene, an animal is misbehaving, the sheep and the gull, and the animals interviewed pretend not to notice.
Text 2 $10bn of precious metals dumped each year in electronic waste 1
collection systems // electronic waste // energy-saving light bulbs // health effects // low-income countries major hazard // member states // modern societies // recycling rate // toxic chemicals
2 (generated / releasing / polluting) (dispose of / repaired) (dumping, causes) (fuel / collect) (discard / concentrate) 3 phones, computers, refrigerators, kettles, fridges, air-conditioning units, Incentives to recycle (discounts with brands already exist if you return your disused device), subsidies, local or national, better collecting systems 4 (to last / be repaired, be upgraded); repairing department, spare parts production; marketing upgrading possibilities, more barter or give-for-free platforms. 5 T hose who pay, multinationals, can afford to pay, therefore to continue polluting. That is reducing pollution, only making it legal, charged onto the consumer, as an eco-tax.
Text 3 Pompeii ruins show that the Romans invented recycling 1
under / out / at / up / over / into / across / from / away / around
2 a n earthquake struck; Pompeii was struck / It had covered; Pompeii had been covered; they discovered; the ancient city was discovered / They spread; the volcanic ash was quickly spread / the testimony of a witness accounted for; it was accounted for thanks to the testimony of a witness / it killed; up to 2,000 Pompeiians were killed / it left; most of the city was left / archaeologists have dug up; the city has been dug up / they found; an extraordinary... was found / scientists analysed; the soil was analysed / researchers thought; what was thought by previous researchers / Pompeiians did not throw away; their rubbish was not thrown away / they piled up and stocked; rubbish was piled up and stocked / these moulds of trash have hidden; The eco-friendly practices of the Pompeiians were hidden / Romans occasionally broke; tiles and amphorae were occasionally broken / did not get rid; this material was not gotten rid of / they repurposed and resold; this trash material was repurposed and resold / rebuilt; part of their city was rebuilt / researchers led / their excavations were led / sought; proof of recycling practices were sought / they spent; much time was spent / the Romans dealt; rubbish was efficiently dealt with / have learnt; much has been learnt / have not put; not enough has been put into practice 3 E xcavations in Pompeii recently revealed early recycling as the trash left outside its walls was collected, sorted and resold, to build new parts of the city and suburb. (28 words)
Text 4 One billion people will live in insufferable heat within 50 years 1 3
hottest / as / highest / slightest / most comfortable / smartest / worse / most ecofriendly / lower / worst / further / lowest a- (temperature amplitude within which life is possible for any species)
208
In the News
b- (land warms faster than oceans, overpopulation in smaller liveable areas of the planet) c- (clothes, heating / cooling tech) d- (migrations from areas where there is a high population growth, food production, shrinking living area) e- (looking at the human impact of climate change: massive migrations, unequal access to climate niche and to tech making hot weather sufferable, disruption of food production + the time scale of the change, within decades) 4 T he environmental impact (more desertification, deforestation, water shortages, food competition, etc…) + the economic impact (control / ban on economic migration, wealthy regions (not too hot) vs new deserts, rising price of commodities) even more disparities 5 to be floored / blown away / flabbergasting
Text 5 Women shouldering the burden of climate crisis need action, not speeches 1
(in an atoll in the Pacific, an activist, protect her native island, her children will get to know it) (sea-rising levels) (flooding, drought) (kill many people and destroy the livelihoods of others) (they are at risk when food, health security is not guaranteed) (it forces people away from their home, workplace, family) (rigid gender roles, child and family minding duties, temporary accommodation, husbands away to work) (lack of security in vulnerable locations, economic risk (agriculture, livestock farming, fishing), (dislocation, displacement, risk of attacks when displaced, health risk, increased poverty)
2 2010 flooding in Pakistan // India, Indonesia Sri Lanka hit by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami Women are more impacted because they need to care for others, lose their livelihood, are displaced and become more at risk, Gender equality is not addressed as a priority when disasters occur; climate change accelerates disasters and reduces the middle and long-term changes concerning gender. 3 1) risk 2) phenomenon 3) resulting 4) loss 5) characterize 4 to shoulder the burden / to bear the brunt / to be on an equal footing / to unleash resources 5 p ractical support, financial commitments, access to data, collected according to sex and generations to target more efficiently the populations which usually never get any help for not knowing how to apply: The Green Climate Fund stipulates that all grants must treat women’s needs as a priority. The Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub is already making impressive progress
Internet Doc. A1 Can 100% renewable energy power the world? Internet Doc. A2 Fossil Fuels vs Renewable Energy Sources Internet Doc. A3 300 years of fossil fuels history C 2 - For over two centuries now, human activity has relied on 35 billion barrels of oil massive scale fossil fuel dependence -> pollution, limited stock / 40% of world’s oil reserves -> 50 years before oil stocks are exhausted, fumes when burnt, extraction+ transport -> risk of disaster at sea, on land 3- 13% of our needs = renewable challenge policy makers / scientists / engineers 4- Sun radiates 173 quadrillion watts of solar energy ± almost 10,000 times our needs / several 100,000 km2 enough to power humanity 5- maximize energy, solar plants, in deserts-> far from energy demanding, densely populated regions; powerlines expensive and not energy tight 6- hydro-electric, geothermal biomasses, pb availability and location, disruption to wildlife, better capturing and transporting of energy (Energy loss due to resistance) the longer the distance, the more the losses, superconductors need cooling, new superconducting material yet to be found 7- oil-derived challenge storing into transportable form; lithium ion battery (light + high-E density); 2.5 megajoules / kilo = 20 times less than gasoline; 1,000 ton battery for a jet across the Atlantic; new tech required with better storage / higher energy density
Clues
209
Internet Doc. 2 What really happens to the plastic you throw away? A A crushed bottles / B circular pattern-> reminding one of recycling / C planet Earth, blue, rotation again / D Industrial site / E orange & yellow background to suggest heat / F chains of circular patterns of different sizes / G shaping machines / H automated assembly line filling the bottles and packaging them / I ordinary consumer / overflowing bin / J rainfall from a cloud / K landfill filling up with water / L animal dying / M winding waterway / N floating island of rubbish / O map of the world showing gyres / P gull trying to free itself from plastic gyre / Q turtle dying / R bottle breaking up in smaller and smaller pieces / S consumer sorting trash / T block of plastic bottles compressed / U several items made of recycled plastic / V final view with kite flying over polluted land and water B T ale of Three heroes / victims? (like the little pigs) sort of magic transformation, back to the origin of the fate / destiny, personification, empathy “unceremoniously discarded”, fear “poised at the edge of the unknown” Moral: don’t throw away / buy / use plastic bottles? Why are we not banning plastic? Is recycling the future? he kite flying over wasteland is emblematic of what the document shows: a partial limit to plastic waste, and much C T pollution still left. The time spent collecting, sorting and reprocessing plastic when it is possible is energy and time consuming, polluting and to little avail as it concerns only 1 in 3 items, at best. The rest (2/3) still pollutes fatally and long-lastingly. So the conclusion of the document should be: if too little is worth recycling when reprocessing is involved, therefore it is the production and consumption of plastic which should be halted.
Internet Doc. C What is the green economy? A p ossibly (may) // word (term) // after (beyond) // putting into place (setting up) // influence (impact) // return (go back to) // devoting great efforts (struggling) // really (actually) // anyone (people) // improved (better) // only one (single) // fields (areas) // Earth (planet) // as well (too) // result in (create) // produce (generate) // non-polluting (clean) // reductions (cuts) // state (public) // such as (like) // nation (country) // considerable (major) // gas discharge (emissions) // weather (climate) // unfair (unjust) // meaningless (empty) // very big (huge) // path (track) // resourceful (smart)
Internet Doc. D Greenwhashing: A Fiji Water Story B
Q2- Because it encourages consumers to be eco-friendly, it makes them aware of how consumerism may become virtuous by promoting organic and sustainable products, it may help to reduce industrial and carbon footprint. Q3- It is insidious, plays on a consumer’s desire to consume green products, pretends to offer green products whereas the aim of the company is still the basic consumption of products not always meeting eco-friendly standards. Q4- free range eggs, shampoo, washing liquid, fruit and vegetables, airline company, oil company, nappies, chicken wings Q5- to reduce consumption, look for companies really committed to the environment and question our needs Q6- colours. green / blue vs grey, contrast bright / dull screen spatial use: split, product at the centre message delivery: girl’s voice over music, message contents: nature / civilisation, unmanned, untouched visual, images: contrast nature / city Q7- product: water in plastic bottle -> problem: 450+ years to break into pieces creating soil + water pollution distribution: intensive shipment -> problem: air / water pollution Q8- 47% of Fijians don’t have access to clean drinking water Q9- Environmentally-minded customers with a moral conscience, wealthy customers who look for exotic & wholesome products Q10- The advert blurb claims buying is helping reducing pollution when it fuels it. Q11- Checking that the product’s environmental claims are true, asking where it comes from, what it is made of, how it was produced, its overall impact on the environment. Q12- Shop with intention, be aware of what you buy and of your power as a consumer. It is difficult to implement because the consumer society is based on possessing and most consumers are sensitive to a material comfort.
210
In the News
E decorated adorned // deceitful insidious // harmful detrimental // To condense encapsulate // cover shroud // unilateral one-sided // encourages entices // secures anchors // to cause destruction wreck havoc // identified labelled // building constructing // guide steer //
Revision The Environment 1
2
MCQ 1) Littered 2) discard 3) raise 4) oil slick 5) Preservation 6) erosion 7) species 8) harmful 9) noxious10) blame 11) dumped 12) urged 13) landfills 14) Sorting 15) release 16) unwanted 17) accountable 18) burden 19) concerns 20) preventable 21) organic 22) lessened 23) disaster 24) rise 25) unlock 26) crises 27) plant 28) unsufferable 29) Sustainability 30) interact Text 1 1) rainforest 2) wildlife 3) tropical 4) fires 5) mining 6) loss Text 2 1) separated 2) described 3) caused 4) resulting 5) grown Text 3 1) ships / boats 2) seas / area 3) protect 4) species 5) by 6) what
Clues
211
NOTES �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
212
In the News
APPENDIX ENGLISH/FRENCH FALSE FRIENDS (v = verb n = noun) ENGLISH
FRENCH
abuse (v) maltraiter accommodation logement achieve (v) atteindre (but), parvenir à actually en fait, en réalité advance (v) progresser affair liaison amoureuse, scandale richesse, opulence affluence alter (v) changer assister à attend (v) ancient antique apology excuses application candidature argument dispute bachelor célibataire bail caution balance équilibre, solde scrutin, vote ballot barracks caserne avantage, aide benefit bribe, to bribe pot-de vin, soudoyer capacity contenance caution prudence chance hasard change monnaie (rendue), changement character personnage faire payer charge (v) charity association caritative, la charité chase (v) poursuivre, courir après chat (n), (v) conversation, bavardage, bavarder chef cuisinier claim (v) prétendre clerical, clerk de bureau, employé de bureau pièce de monnaie coin comfort (v) réconforter, consoler commercial (n) publicité télévisée commodity marchandise, denrée, produit compass boussole complete (v) achever, terminer comprehensive complet, détaillé, exhaustif concern souci concrete béton conductor chef d’orchestre confection friandise confidence confiance conjure (v) faire apparaître, évoquer
Appendix
consistent cohérent contemplate (v) envisager convene (v) organiser ou diriger une réunion corpse cadavre critic personne qui écrit une critique current actuel decade décennie deceive (v) tromper, duper defendant inculpé delay retard, empêchement, contretemps deliver (v) livrer demand (n), (v) exigence, exiger caution, verser une caution deposit (n), (v) deputy suppléant, adjoint péjoratif, dépréciatif derogatory destitute démuni, indigent deter (v) dissuader, décourager qq’un devise (v) concevoir, imaginer, échafauder diet régime alimentaire, régime délabré, en ruine dilapidated discharge (v) renvoyer, licencier jetable, à usage unique disposable dispose (v) se débarrasser, jeter conflit, litige dispute domestic national, interne, intérieur dramatic spectaculaire edit (v) corriger, modifier (un texte) rédacteur (publication) editor effective opérationnel emergence apparition, avènement engaged fiancé, occupé envy jalousie, convoitise etiquette protocole, bonnes manières eventually finalement, en fin de compte evidence indice, preuve, témoignage excuse (n) prétexte executive cadre dirigeant exhibition exposition, présentation extra supplémentaire extravagant dépensier, trop coûteux fabric tissu, structure fabrication simulacre facility équipements, infrastructures, installations fantasy fantasme, genre fantastique
213
fatality victimes, morts (dans un accident) défaut, faute fault figures chiffres file fichier, lime (outil) fix (v) réparer, régler (un problème) formidable effrayant, redoutable fortunate chanceux émanations, fumées fumes furniture meubles, mobilier futile inutile gallant, gallantry courageux, bravoure regard fixe gaze gentle aimable, doux grade (v) donner un rang, une lettre, un niveau grand magnifique, grandiose grave tombe grief chagrin gross grossier, impoli, brut (somme, salaire) habit habitude hazard risque, danger ignore (v) ne pas tenir compte de, délaisser improvable qui peut être amélioré incense (v) rendre furieux mal pratique, inopportun inconvenient (a) infant nourrisson information renseignement injury blessure insane fou intelligence les services d’espionnage interval entracte intoxicate (v) saouler, enivrer isolation isolement issue problème, question joyeux, agréable, enjoué jolly journey trajet, voyage, périple, parcours large grand lecture conférence, cours magistral, leçon de morale library bibliothèque licence permis location lieu, emplacement fou, aliéné lunatic luxury luxe malice méchanceté, malveillance march (v) défiler match (v) correspondre, faire correspondre, corréler material tissu mechanic mécanicien mercy pitié, miséricorde fouillis, désordre mess miser avare misery souffrance, détresse mitten moufle mundane ordinaire, banal nomination présélection
214
notice préavis, notorious de mauvaise renommée novel roman occupation métier, profession pénible, lourd à supporter onerous ostensible apparent pain douleur parking le stationnement partition séparation, cloison particulars caractéristiques, coordonnées pass (v) réussir (un examen) pitoyable, minable pathetic patron client, mécène, bienfaiteur pest animal nuisible, personne insupportable petrol essence irritable, irascible, acariâtre petulant phrase expression (ling.) docteur, médecin physician plant usine, plante platform quai, estrade, programme (politique) prejudice préjugé premises locaux (commerce ou industrie) ordonnance (médicale) prescription preservative additif, conservateur alimentaire press (v) repasser, appuyer, faire avancer pretend (v) feindre, simuler, faire semblant prevent (v) empêcher proper convenable, adéquat élaguer, pruneau prune (v), (n) raffle loterie, tombola incontrôlé, endémique rampant range gamme, variété recipient destinataire, récipiendaire, lauréat regard (v) considérer relief soulagement ne pas supporter, en vouloir à resent (v) resignation démission rest (v) se reposer, laisser reposer, prendre appui resume (v) reprendre une activité résumé curriculum vitae (US) prendre sa retraite, se retirer retire (v) reunion retrouvailles route itinéraire rude grossier sanguine optimiste, couleur sang scholar élève, érudit, savant sensible raisonnable sensitive sensible sequel suite (film, récit) solid massif (matière, densité), unanime sort (n) trier, clarifier, assortir stationery fourniture de bureau store magasin (US) supply (v) approvisionner surname nom de famille sympathetic compatissant
In the News
syndicate
consortium, agence, mafia
tablet comprimé affreux, effrayant terrible timid craintif tissue mouchoir en papier, tissu (anatomie) tour circuit, visite organisée traduce (v) diffamer, calomnier, violer un principe train (v) entraîner, s’entraîner, dresser trespass (v) entrer sans permission, empiéter trivial insignifiant, frivole truant élève absent sans autorisation
utility entreprise de service public, utilitaire vent (n), (v) aérateur, passer (sa colère) venture entreprise risquée venue lieu de réunion, spectacle verge (n), to verge bord, point (à atteindre), friser, frôler vexed mécontent, épineux (problème) villain traître volunteer (n), (v) bénévole, se porter volontaire voyage périple en mer, long voyage wagon chariot
ACRONYMS & ABBREVIATIONS ad/bc
Anno Domini/before Christ Annual General Meeting AGM AI Artificial Intelligence AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome = SIDA a.m./p.m. Ante Meridiem, Post Meridiem AMEX American Stock Exchange As Soon As Possible ASAP BBC British Broadcasting Corporation Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa BRICS CAP Common Agricultural Policy CEO Chief Executive Officer = PDG CNN Cable News Network COD Cash On Delivery Do It Yourself = bricolage DIY DNA Deoxyribonucleic Acid = ADN DOD Department Of Defence = Ministère des armées EFL English as a Foreign Language EFTA European Free Trade Agreement European Monetary System EMS EMU European Monetary Union ER Emergency room = les urgences FAQ Frequently Asked Questions = Foire Aux Questions FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation FDA Food and Drug Administration Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 index FTSE 100 GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade Great Britain≠the UK, United Kingdom GB GCSE General Certificate of Secondary Education Greenwich Mean Time GMT GOP Grand Old Party, Republican Party GP General Practitioner GPS Global Positioning Satellite System HIV Human Immunodeficiency Virus = VIH HMS His/Her Majesty’s Ship HQ Headquarters ICTs Information and Communication Technologies IMF International Monetary Fund = FMI
Appendix
Irish Republican Army IRA KKK Ku Klux Klan LA/NYPD Los Angeles/New York Police Department Missing In Action MAI MC Master of Ceremonies MI5/MI6 Military Intelligence 5/6 MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology MLitt/Phil/Sc. Master of Literature, Pilosophy, Science Member of Parliament MP NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization = OTAN NBA National Basketball Association National Health Service NHS OAP Old Age Pensioner OXFAM Oxford Committee for Famine Relief PA Personal Assistant Pay as You Earn PAYE PR Public Relation PTO Please turn over R&D Research and Development Rest in Peace (latin Requiescat in pace) RIP SOS Save our souls SUV Sports Utility Vehicle TUC Trade Union Congress UCLA University of California Los Angeles UFO Unidentified Flying Object UN United Nations = ONU UNESCO UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation UNICEF UN International Children’s Emergency Fund VAT Value Added Tax = TVA VIP Very Important Person VP Vice President VR Virtual Reality WASP White Anglo-Saxon Protestant WHO World Health Organisation = OMS WTO World Trade Organisation = OMC WWF World Wildlife Fund YMCA Young Men’s Christian Association
215
ABBREVIATIONS aka also known as BBQ barbecue Bros. brother c/o care of Dem. democrat e.g. (latin exempli gratia) for example Ft foot/feet = 30,48 cm Inc. Incorporated i.e. (latin id est) that is to say Jr junior oz ounce = 28,35 g
p.a. per annum Rep. republican Sen. senator Sgt sergeant s/o standing order Sr senior yd. yard Xing crossing Xmas Christmas PhD doctorate Plc Public limited company
BRITISH ENGLISH & AMERICAN ENGLISH The two main varieties of English have long been set in stone in dictionaries and what follows below is only giving you a hint of what to recognise / recognize or pay particular attention to in terms of pronunciation, spelling and vocabulary. It is not a comprehensive account of these differences. In a more globalised / globalized world, many more varieties have developed to match cultural independence from a norm or set standards. For a less academic and may be more pleasurable approach to these types of English, you can listen to the Fred Astaire / Ginger Rogers or the Ella Fitzgerald / Louis Armstrong’s version of the song Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off.
Pronunciation
The main differences concern some sounds, for example vowels such as O and A, consonants such as R and T. Refer to the International Phonetics Alphabet to allow a proper reading or else click onto online dictionaries as most of them offer both pronunciations. apricot banana cotton duty missile neither patronize privacy schedule tomato Tuesday water
216
BrEnglish/AmEnglish ‘eɪprɪkɒt/‘eɪprɪkɑ:t bə‘nɑ:nə/bə‘nænə ‘kɒtn/‘kɑ:(t)n ‘dju:tɪ:/‘du:tɪ: ‘mɪsaɪl/‘mɪsl ‘naɪðə(r)/ ‘nɪ:ðə ‘pætrənaɪz/‘peitrənaɪz ‘prɪvəsɪ/‘praɪvsɪ ‘ʃedʒu:l/‘skedʒʊl tə‘mɑ:toʊ/tə‘meɪtoʊ ‘tju:zdeɪ/‘tu:zdeɪ ‘wɔ:tə(r)/ ‘wɑ:tə
Remarques (≠ vowel O sound) (≠ vowel A sound) (≠ vowel O sound + ≠ consonant T sounds) (no/j/sound in AmEnglish) (≠ vowel I sound) (≠ vowel EI sound) (≠ vowel A sound) (≠ vowel I sound) (≠ consonant SCH sound) (≠ vowel A sound) (no/j/sound in AmEnglish) (≠ vowel A sound)
In the News
Spelling
Here is a sample of some of the spelling differences between the two varieties of English. Canadian and Australian English tend to remain closer to the British spelling, American English favours/favors simplification. BrEngl/AmEngl -ce/-se -e/-ey/-ay -gue/-g -ll-/-l-lity/-lty -our/-or -s/-z-re/-er
Examples defence(se); offence(se); licence(se); practice(se); axe(-), judge(-)ment, jewel(l)e(-)ry grey(ay) catalogue(g); monologue(g), analogue(g) enrol(l)ment; jewel(l)er, label(l)ed, travel(l)er, model(l)ing, fuel(l)ing, dial(l)ed speciality(lty); behaviour(or); colour(or); honour(or); flavour(or), labour(or); rumour(or) neighbour(or) analyse(ze); criticise(ze); recognise(ze), memorise(ze); globalisa(za)tion centre(er); fibre(er); manoeuvre(maneuver); theatre(er), metre(er), cos(z)y
Simplification: cypher / cipher; draught / draft; doughtnut / donut; liquorice / licorice; mould / mold; plough / plow, programme / program; sulphate / sulfate Use of hyphens: non-smoking / nonsmoking
BrEnglish/AmEnglish Glossary advert / commercial aluminium / aluminum aubergine / eggplant autumn / fall barman / bartender barrister / attorney bill / check bin / trash can biscuits / cookies braces / suspenders cab / taxi car park / parking lot caravan / trailer caretaker / janitor chemist / drugstore cheque / check chips / French fries city centre / downtown cling film / saran wrap cooker / stove corn / maize courgette / zucchini crisps / potato chips cupboard / closet curriculum vitae, CV / résumé dinner jacket / tuxedo draughts / checkers dressing gown / robe dummy / pacifier estate agent / realtor film / movie flat / apartment
football / soccer full stop / period groundfloor / first floor headmaster / principal holiday / vacation injection / shot jumper / sweater knickers / panties label / tag ladybird / ladybug lift / elevator lorry / truck mobile phone / cell phone motorway / highway, freeway moustache / mustache mummy / mommy nappy / diaper normal / regular off-licence / liquor store pal / buddy parcel / package pavement / sidewalk petrol / gas pitch / field plaster / band-aid pocket money / allowance post / mail post code / zip code pram / baby carriage primary school / elementary school pub / bar pushchair / stroller
pyjamas / pajamas queue / line railroad / railway reception / front desk return / round-trip rubber / eraser rubbish / garbage (trash) secondary school / high school shop / store staff room / teachers’ lounge sweet / candy take away / take out tap / faucet tights / pantyhose timetable / schedule tin / can toilets / restroom, bathroom torch / flashlight trainers / sneakers trolley / cart trousers / pants tube / subway underground / subway underwear / pants vest / undershirt waistcoat / vest wardrobe / closet wellington boots / rain boots zebra crossing / crosswalk zip / zipper
see online doc: https://www.oxfordonlineenglish.com/british-american-pronunciation
Appendix
217
PHRASAL VERBS to ask out inviter (à un rdv) inviter (chez soi) to ask over to back down se désengager to back up soutenir, renforcer to be about to être sur le point de to be out for rechercher to blow up (faire) exploser to break down tomber en panne to break in entrer par effraction to break off/up se séparer, rompre (relation) to break out s’évader provoquer, entraîner to bring about to bring along apporter ramener (chez soi) to bring over rappeler (téléphone) to call back exiger to call for to call off annuler continuer to carry on to carry out effectuer, exécuter à la lettre to carry through mener à bien to check in s’enregistrer (hôtel/aéroport) vérifier (des détails) to check into to check on surveiller régler pour partir to check out to check something up vérifier (se) réjouir to cheer up to come along with aller avec provenir de to come from to come down to se résumer à, se terminer par to come out r évéler qq chose sur soi-même to come off s e détacher, descendre, faire effet, réussir to come up with inventer, trouver qq chose économiser sur to cut back on to cut down couper, abattre réduire (budget), couper to cut off to cut through couper de part en part to dress up faire un effort vestimentaire to drop by passer rendre visite rendre visite to drop in to drop off déposer to fall down tomber diminuer to fall off to fall through échouer, être annulé to figure out décrypter, comprendre to fill in remplir un document rempir (un récipient) to fill up to find out découvrir qq chose to get about circuler to get across faire comprendre to get ahead réussir to get at a tteindre, vouloir dire, énerver, critiquer to get away s’enfuir, s’échapper échapper à to get away with to get by se débrouiller, s’en sortir to get down to en venir au plus important to get on s ’entendre, progresser, continuer to get over se remettre de qq chose
218
to get up se lever to give up renoncer to give out distribuer, s’affaiblir, annoncer to go over être perçu, récapituler, reprendre traverser, examiner, exécuter to go through to hand out distribuer (document) attendre, patienter to hang on to hang out sortir, déambuler raccrocher (au téléphone) to hang up to hold back endiguer, retenir to hold on tenir le coup, patienter to hold on to se retenir à braquer to hold up to keep away (se) tenir à l’écart continuer à to keep on to keep up poursuivre (effort) to keep up with se maintenir à la même allure to leave out omettre, laisser de côté décevoir, abandonner to let down to let in faire entrer to let out divulguer to look at regarder chercher to look for to look forward to se réjouir à l’avance to look into faire des recherches to look out faire attention chercher à to look to to look up to respecter, estimer s’en sortir to make out to make up se maquiller, inventer une histoire to make up for compenser to pay back rembourser to pay off rembourser (ses dettes) s’évanouir, mourir to pass out to pass away mourir to put down d époser, rabaisser qq’un, tuer un animal to put off reporter, écœurer to put out éteindre (feu/cigarette) to put up with tolérer, supporter retirer, doubler, être en tête to pull away to run away s’enfuir être candidat (élection) to run for to run into rencontrer par hasard partir précipitamment to run off to set off déclencher, contraster, équilibrer, partir en voyage to show off attirer l’attention, crâner to show up se montrer, apparaître to stand by être en attente, soutenir to stand down retirer sa candidature to stand for représenter to stand up to résister à to take away emporter to take down écrire, rabaisser, défaire to take on recruter, engager to take over prendre le contrôle to take off décoller (avion)
In the News
to think over
considérer, réfléchir pour se décider to turn down refuser, décliner une offre se transformer to turn into to turn on allumer, activer, exciter éteindre, révulser, to turn off désintéresser, renvoyer, changer de cap
to turn up arriver sans être attendu to walk out partir précipitamment to work out trouver une solution, calculer, faire du sport to work up préparer, énerver
LIST OF IRREGULAR VERBS abide
abode*
abode*
se conformer
drive
drove
driven
conduire
arise
arose
arisen
s’élever, survenir
dwell
dwelt
dwelt
habiter
awake
awoke
awoken
(se) réveiller
eat
ate
eaten
manger
bear
bore
born(e)
supporter
fall
fell
fallen
tomber
beat
beat
beaten
battre
feed
fed
fed
nourrir
become
became
become
devenir
feel
felt
felt
sentir, éprouver
begin
began
begun
commencer
fight
fought
fought
combattre
bend
bent
bent
(se) courber
find
found
found
trouver
beseech
besought*
besought*
implorer
flee
fled
fled
s’enfuir
bet
bet
bet
parier
fling
flung
flung
jeter violemment
bid
bid
bid
offrir (un prix)
fly
flew
flown
voler
bind
bound
bound
lier, relier
forbid
forbade
forbidden
interdire
bite
bit
bitten
mordre
forget
forgot
forgotten
oublier
bleed
bled
bled
saigner
forgive
forgave
forgiven
pardonner
blow
blew
blown
souffler
forsake
forsook
forsaken
abandonner, déserter
break
broke
broken
casser
freeze
froze
frozen
geler
breed
bred
bred
élever (animaux)
get
got
got
obtenir
bring
brought
brought
apporter
give
gave
given
donner
build
built
built
construire
go
went
gone
aller
burn
burnt*
burnt*
brûler
grind
ground
ground
moudre
burst
burst
burst
éclater
grow
grew
grown
grandir
buy
bought
bought
acheter
hang
hung*
hung*
pendre, accrocher
cast
cast
cast
jeter, atttribuer
have
had
had
avoir
catch
caught
caught
attraper
hear
heard
heard
entendre
choose
chose
chosen
choisir
hide
hid
hidden
(se) cacher
cling
clung
clung
s’accrocher
hit
hit
hit
frapper, atteindre
come
came
come
venir
hold
held
held
tenir
cost
cost
cost
coûter
hurt
hurt
hurt
blesser
creep
crept
crept
ramper
keep
kept
kept
garder
cut
cut
cut
couper
kneel
knelt*
knelt*
s’agenouiller
deal
dealt
dealt
distribuer
know
knew
known
savoir, connaître
dig
dug
dug
creuser
lade
laded
laden
charger
do
did
done
faire
lay
laid
laid
poser à plat
draw
drew
drawn
dessiner
lead
led
led
mener
dream
dreamt*
dreamt*
rêver
lean
leant*
leant*
s’appuyer
drink
drank
drunk
boire
leap
leapt
leapt
sauter
Appendix
219
learn
learnt*
learnt*
apprendre
smite
smote
smitten
frapper
leave
left
left
laisser, quitter
sow
sowed
sown
semer
lend
lent
lent
prêter
speak
spoke
spoken
parler
let
let
let
permettre, louer
speed
sped
sped
aller à toute vitesse
lie
lay
lain
être étendu
spell
spelt*
spelt*
épeler
light
lit
lit
allumer
spend
spent
spent
dépenser
lose
lost
lost
perdre
spill
spilt*
spilt*
renverser un liquide
make
made
made
faire, fabriquer
spit
spat
spat
cracher
mean
meant
meant
signifier
split
split
split
fendre, séparer
meet
met
met
(se) rencontrer
spoil
spoilt*
spoilt*
gâcher, gâter
mow
mowed
mown*
tondre
spread
spread
spread
répandre
overcome
overcame
overcome
surmonter, vaincre
spring
sprang
sprung
jaillir, bondir
pay
paid
paid
payer
stand
stood
stood
être debout
put
put
put
mettre
steal
stole
stolen
voler, dérober
quit
quit
quit
cesser, quitter (poste)
stick
stuck
stuck
coller
read
read
read
lire
sting
stung
stung
piquer
rid
rid*
rid*
débarrasser
stink
stank
stunk
puer
ride
rode
ridden
chevaucher
stride
strode
stridden
marcher à grands pas
ring
rang
rung
sonner
strike
struck
struck
frapper
rise
rose
risen
s’élever, se lever
string
strung
strung
enfiler, corder
run
ran
run
courir
strive
strove
striven
s’efforcer
saw
sawed
sawn
scier
swear
swore
sworn
jurer
say
said
said
dire
sweep
swept
swept
balayer
see
saw
seen
voir
swell
swelled
swollen
enfler
seek
sought
sought
chercher
swim
swam
swum
nager
sell
sold
sold
vendre
swing
swung
swung
se balancer
send
sent
sent
envoyer
take
took
taken
prendre
set
set
set
fixer
teach
taught
taught
enseigner
sew
sewed
sewn
coudre
tear
tore
torn
déchirer
shake
shook
shaken
secouer
tell
told
told
dire, raconter
shear
shore*
shorn*
tondre, cisailler
think
thought
thought
penser
shed
shed
shed
verser, supprimer
thrive
throve*
thiven*
prospérer
shine
shone
shone
briller
throw
threw
thrown
jeter
shoe
shod
shod
ferrer, chausser
thrust
thrust
thrust
enfoncer
shoot
shot
shot
tirer
tread
trod
trodden
faire un pas, piétiner
show
showed
shown
montrer
undergo
underwent
undergone
subir
shrink
shrank
shrunk
rétrécir
understand understood understood comprendre
shut
shut
shut
fermer
upset
upset
upset
bouleverser
sing
sang
sung
chanter
wake
woke
woken
(se) réveiller
sink
sank
sunk
couler
wear
wore
worn
se vêtir, user
sit
sat
sat
être assis
weave
wove
woven
tisser
slay
slew
slain
massacrer
weep
wept
wept
pleurer
sleep
slept
slept
dormir
win
won
won
gagner
slide
slid
slid
glisser
wind
wound
wound
enrouler
sling
slung
slung
lancer, jeter
withdraw
withdrew
withdrawn
(se) retirer
slink
slunk
slunk
aller furtivement
wring
wrung
wrung
tordre
slit
slit
slit
fendre, inciser
write
wrote
written
écrire
smell
smelt*
smelt*
sentir (odeur)
220
(*also regular)
In the News