In most paragraphs there is a topic sentence that summarizes the con­tent of the whole paragraph. The topic sentence is often, but not always, the first sentence.

1 Look back at the first sentence of each paragraph in the text. Discuss with a partner whether or not each sentence is a topic sentence. Give your reasons.

The topic sentences of the following paragraphs are missing. Read each paragraph and choose the correct sentence (a, b, or с below) to write in the blank.

a You are continually moving between crowds.

b Street actions occur spontaneously when two or more people gather to witness

a common event, с Another type of crowd is the blocked crowd.

This could be, for example, a street fight, a car accident, or an arrest. What happens after people stop to watch depends on the nature of the event, the time available to the group members to stay and watch, and the excitement of the event (for example, the person being arrested fights the arresting police officer).

In these types of crowds, the members are prevented from achieving their goal. One example is being stopped on a highway because of road repairs. Members share a common feeling. They are irritated and want to get to where they are going. The members may complain to each other about the delay, but otherwise they do not interact much at all.

On your way to school, you may have walked or driven in a casual crowd. This weekend you may see a movie and be part of a conventional crowd. Or you may attend an end-of-the-week party and become a member of an expressive crowd. However, you may forgo the parties and just go about the business of life - grocery shopping, for example. If there is a particularly long line at the checkout, you will be in a blocked crowd. It is unlikely that you will be involved in an action crowd unless you are protesting some event in your community.

Task 3 building vocabulary:

using grammar to work out unknown words

An important part of figuring out the meaning of a new word is recog­nizing it as a noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb, or another part of speech. This can help you narrow down possible meanings for the new word and understand any context clues.

1 Work with a partner. Find these words in the text and decide whether thev are nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs. Then try to guess what they mean.

Word	Part of speech	Possible meaning
assortment (par. 1)	noun	variety
relatively (par. 2)
spontaneous (par. 2)
masses (par. 2)
temporarily (par. 3)
traits (par. 4)
emerges (par. 5)
rioters (par. 5)
primitive (par. 7)
irrational (par. 7)

2 Compare your answers with another pair of students.

Preparing to read

personalizing the topic

Below are five situations that most people would find frightening. Rank them in order of how frightening you would find them. (Put 1 for the most frightening situation, and 5 for the least frightening.)

a You are locked inside a large building with a few other people after a power

failure that has affected all telephone and power lines.

b You are alone at home and hear on the radio that a hurricane is

approaching your area.

с You are in a crowded elevator in a tall skyscraper when it gets stuck and

the lights go out.

d You are shopping in a large shopping mall when an announcement is made

that you must leave the building because of a fire.

e You are in a crowded football stadium when an announcement is made that

a bomb has been found.

2 Compare your answers in a small group. Tell the others which situations you would find the most frightening and why.

Discuss the rankings with the class:

1. Was there one situation that most people rated the most frightening? the least frightening?

2. Was there one factor that people found more frightening than others?

Now read

Now read the text "Panic!" When you finish, turn to the tasks on page 47.

Ш FIRE ALARM		У
рвам В	? Prli
«ШвЕ	I
К	it
> PULL	HOOK	\
DOWN	ONCE	1

Q PANIC!

On a December afternoon in 1903, a fire broke out in Chicago's Iro- 1 quois Theater. According to an eyewitness:

Somebody had yelled "Fire!" . . . The horror in the theater was beyond till description. . . . There were not enough fire-escape ladders, and many people fell or jumped to death on the street below. But it was inside the house that the greatest loss of life occurred, especially on the stairways. (Schultz 1964)

The theater did not burn down. Firefighters arrived quickly after 2 the alarm and put out the flames so fast that no more than the seat coverings were burned. However, 602 people died, and many more were injured. Panic, not the fire itself, caused the tragedy.

A similar disaster occurred on a July morning in 1990 in the holy 3 city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Thousands of Muslim pilgrims were walk­ing through a 600-yard-long tunnel when the lights accidentally went out. Panic started a stampede of people pushing their way through the tunnel and 1,426 people were killed.

The people in the Iroquois Theater and the Mecca tunnel behaved 4 as people often do when faced with unexpected and dangerous situa­tions such as fires, earthquakes, and floods: they panicked. Panic is one of the more extreme types of collective behavior. It is a useless response to a serious threat or danger. It generally involves flight, but it is a spe­cial kind of flight. In many situations, flight is a rational response: it is perfectly sensible to run away from a burning house or an approach­ing car. In panic behavior, however, the flight is irrational and unhelp­ful. It follows a loss of self-control, and it increases, rather than reduces, danger to oneself and others.

Just because there is a crowd and a threat does not mean that there will be a panic. There are several conditions that can lead to the devel­opment of a panic. First, the people must really believe that there is a serious danger. Second, there must be intense fear of the danger. This fear is made worse if the people involved think they will be trapped or unable to escape. Third, there must be some individuals who have a natural tendency to panic. Typically, these are people whose desire to save themselves makes them ignore the fate of others and of the dan­gerous consequences of their panic. Fourth, the people in the crowd must increase each others terror by their words and actions. Finally, there must be a lack of cooperation among people.

Panic sometimes takes the form of mass hysteria. This is when numerous people engage in wild or frenzied activity without checking the source of their fear. One famous case occurred in 1938 when Orson Welles' radio play War of the Worlds was broadcast. People heard an announcement that creatures from the planet Mars had invaded Earth, and even before the broadcast had ended, at least a million of the 6 million listeners had panicked. Many prayed, cried, or ran from their homes, frantic to escape death from the Martians. Some hid in cellars beneath their homes. Young men tried to rescue girlfriends. Parents woke their sleeping children. People telephoned friends to say goodbye. Not everyone panicked, though. Some people found the broadcast just too fantastic to believe. Some recognized that the broadcast was prob­ably a dramatic performance or looked up radio program guides to check what it was they were listening to.

After you read

Task 1 scanning

Scanning is looking quickly through a text to find a specific word or piece of information. When you scan, you do not read every word. Your eyes pass over the text, stopping only when you find the word or infor­mation you are looking for. You will often need to do this when study­ing for a test, when preparing to write an assignment, or when select­ing books in a library.

Scan the text quickly to find:

1. a definition of "panic"

2. two of the conditions needed for panic to develop in a crowd

3. a definition of "mass hysteria"

Task 2 understanding complex sentences

Textbooks often contain complex sentences. To read efficiently, you need to learn to see the structure of these sentences quickly. One part of this skill is seeing which words belong together as a meaningful group or sense unit. A sense unit could be, for example, a sentence sub­ject, an adjective-noun group, a verb group (perhaps with an adverb), or a prepositional phrase of time or place.

Look at how this sentence from the text has been divided up into sense units.

Firefighters I arrived quickly / after the alarm / and put out the flames / so fast / that no more than / the seat coverings / were burned.

I Divide the following sentences from the text in the same way. There is more than one way to do this.

1. The people in the Iroquois Theater and the Mecca tunnel behaved as people often do when faced with unexpected and dangerous situations such as fires, earthquakes, and floods: they panicked, (par. 4)

2. This fear is made worse if the people involved think they will be trapped or unable to escape, (par. 5)

3. Typically, these are people whose desire to save themselves makes them ignore the fate of others and of the dangerous consequences of their panic, (par. 5)

4. This is when numerous people engage in wild or frenzied activity without checking the source of their fear. (par. 6)

Read your sentences out loud to a partner. Compare your answers and discuss why you divided the sentences the way you did.

Task 3 building vocabulary:

word maps for remembering new vocabulary

It is important to develop ways to remember the new words you meet in your reading. One good way is to make a "word map." This means that instead of simply writing words in a list, you write words organ­ized by topic and subtopic on a \isual "map."

1 The text contains many words related to the topic panic - the situations that might lead people to panic, the feelings people have when they panic, their states of mind, the actions they might take, and what might result from a panic situation.

Look back at the text and find words that you could place on the word map for panic, below. Add any other words you know.

burning building horror

2 Work with a partner and compare word maps. Add some of your partners words to your map.

Task 4 writing a listing paragraph

Understanding how paragraphs are organized can help you read more effectively. The most basic type of paragraph organization is a listing paragraph. A listing paragraph usually starts with a general statement followed by a list. Typically, the general statement indicates how many reasons/factors/characteristics/kinds there are, with either a specific num­ber (four, five, etc.) or a term such as a variety of a or a range of. The rest of the paragraph then gives some or all of these reasons/factors, etc.

1 Look back at the text and decide which paragraph is a listing paragraph. Take brief notes from that paragraph in the following way: