Тема 2.9. Общественная жизнь (повседневное поведение, профессиональные навыки и умения)

Задание 1. Прочитайте и повторите слова и словосочетания, изученные вами.

Living in a society: living by the rules – жизнь по правилам; community – сообщество; scientific study/research – научное исследование; examine the behaviour – изучать поведение; the lack of rules – недостаток правил; result in disorder – приводит к нарушению нормального течения жизни, к беспорядкам, расстройству; cheating or antisocial behaviour – ложь или асоциальное поведение; enforcing - укрепление; dictate acceptable behaviour – диктовать приемлемое поведение; follow the rules – следовать правилам; be treated unfairly – испытывать несправедливое отношение к себе; lead to feelings of comfort and even happiness – приводить к чувству комфорта и, даже, счастья; unfairness - бесчестность; negative feelings – негативные чувства; the influences in our culture – влияние в нашей культуре; self-interest – собственный интерес; people almost always need to compromise – людям практически всегда необходимо искать компромисс; to arrive at the compromise – приходить к/ достигать компромиссу/ -//-са; conflicting interests – разные, противоречащие интересы; internal or external control – внутренний или внешний “тормоз”, контроль; to come from within – происходить изнутри; implemented by an authority – навязанный властью; rewards and punishments – награды или наказания; job promotions – продвижение по службе; awards and praise – награды и похвала; to be designed to encourage people – быть созданным для того, чтобы воодушевлять людей; act in the interest of the whole community – действовать в интересах целого сообщества; public embarrassment – публичный позор; fines - штрафы; imprisonment – заключение под стражу; prevent people from – ограждает людей от; regardless of their values – невзирая на их ценности; to function smoothly – функционировать без происшествий; behave in orderly, fair, and predictable ways – вести себя в соответствии с правилами и нормами, честно и предсказуемо; to interact positively – взаимодействовать в положительном ключе; a minority – меньшинство; serious consequences – серьезные последствия; generation gap – конфликт поколений; hierarchy – иерархия; subordination/ chain of command – субординация.

Задание 2. Составьте монолог по теме «Жизнь в обществе». Перед началом работы изучите Раздел 2 в Приложении данных методических рекомендаций на стр. 52. При возникновении любого рода вопросов и затруднений проконсультируйтесь со своим преподавателем. Используйте некоторые из представленных слов и выражений по теме. При составлении монолога можно использовать приведенный ниже план.

PLAN

Topic: Living in a society

Introduction

I’d like to give you my own vision of living in a community/society. I’ll cover formal social, working relationships, and private life. I’ll compare Russian specific features and character to the mentality of foreigners.

Main Body

Point 1

I’ll start with relationships people have to maintain at work…

Point 2

Keeping private relationships is different…

Point 3

My personal experience of communicating with foreigners/living abroad allows me to say that……

Point 4

……………………………………………………….

Point 5

……………………………………………………….

Conclusion

To sum up, I … /I think that …

В качестве опоры перед составлением своего монолога, можете воспользоваться приведенным ниже текстом. Помните, что вашей задачей является составить свой монолог, поэтому постарайтесь не копировать текст.

Living by the rules

What would life be without rules? A recent study by Turner, Szell and Sinatra (2012) examined the behaviour of avatars in an online world with no rules and found, perhaps, surprisingly, that the lack of rules did not result in disorder. There was very little cheating or antisocial behaviour. People organized themselves into groups and traded, communicated and moved around much like people in the real world.

However, almost every community in the real world has some form of rules and some way of enforcing them. A community is a group of people who are united by a number of factors, including geography, language, and values that dictate acceptable behaviour. So why do we have rules, and what makes us follow them? Studies have suggested that the reason we don’t like cheating and rule-breaking is because fairness is programmed into our brains. Tricomi et al (2010) have found that the brain reacts in a particular way when we feel we are being treated unfairly. The study identified a reaction in a specific part of the brain when test subjects were given less money than others. A fair situation makes our brains respond in ways that lead to feelings of comfort and even happiness, but unfairness causes our brains to respond with negative feelings such as anger and pain. The study found that this also happened when subjects saw other people being treated unfairly. They concluded that fairness is a basic human need along with food and social contact.

Our sense of fairness depends on the influences in our culture, the immediate situation we are in, and our own self-interest. Arriving at a feeling of fairness means considering different, often conflicting points of view. Regardless of the disagreement, people almost always need to compromise. But it can be difficult to arrive at the compromise when there are conflicting interests. This is why communities have rules that everyone must follow.

Social controls are an important factor in setting and following rules. They influence the way we behave, and can be internal or external. Internal controls come from within and are based on our values and fears. Most of us do not steal, for example, because we believe that theft is unfair and wrong. We also don’t want to disappoint our family and friends. In other words, our internal controls keep us from behaving in ways that cause conflict.

External controls include rewards and punishments. They do not come from within but are implemented by an authority – this could be the national or local government, the police, a manager, a teacher or parents, depending on the situation. Rewards, such as job promotions, awards, and praise, are designed to encourage people to behave and act in the interest of the whole community. Punishments, such as public embarrassment, fines, and even imprisonment can prevent people from acting against the community’s best interests, regardless of their values.

People need their communities to function smoothly. Because of this, humans most often behave in orderly, fair, and predictable ways. If there were no rules, the majority of people would probably continue to interact positively, like the subjects in the online avatar study. However, there would always be a minority who would not, with serious consequences. This is why a society without rules is unlikely to become a reality any time soon – at least not in the real world.