Topical Issues учебно-методическое пособие на английском языке

Федеральное агентство железнодорожного транспорта Федеральное государственное бюджетное образовательное учреждение

высшего профессионального образования

«ПЕТЕРБУРГСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ ПУТЕЙ СООБЩЕНИЯ»

Кафедра «Иностранные языки»

TOPICAL ISSUES

Учебно-методическое пособие на английском языке

Санкт-Петербург ПГУПС

2013

I. MASS MEDIA

Exercise 1. Read the text about newspapers in the UK.

Journalists write stories, but the editor controls the contents of the newspaper. He/she decides which stories should go on the front page. Editors also write the headlines for the main stories. The Sunday papers have more sections than the daily papers, for example they have a sports section with reports of different sporting events, a financial section with articles about money and a review section. This often has interviews with celebrities like film stars and singers. Newspapers are cheap in the UK and they make lots of money by including advertisements. Online news is one of the fastest growing areas of the media.

Discuss:

1)Is the system of newspapers different in your country? How?

2)Do you read a daily newspaper? What is your favourite section?

3)Do you believe everything you read in the news?

4)Are some newspapers more believable than others? Which ones?

5)Would you like to be a journalist or an editor? Why?

Exercise 2. On which newspaper pages can you find the collocations in the

Sports pages, arts section, business section, science section, gossip, general home or international news and current affairs

Write the name of a famous person who:

has had a plastic surgery

won a race

developed an important idea

performs songs on TV

went on strike

committed a crime

came into lots of money

causes trouble regularly

has broken a record

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What sections are they likely to appear in?

Exercise 3. Read or listen to an interview with a journalist. Is the journalist talking about: a) types of journalists? b) types of stories? c) types of newspapers?

Number the topics which the journalist talks about in the order they are mentioned:

Writing about people’s private lives _____

Celebrities who need publicity____

Newspapers which write only about celebrities_____

Famous people who do something wrong____

(the text is on p. 15)

Exercise 4. Read the following statements. Decide if you agree or disagree with them. Why?

1) I think political news is boring. 2) In my opinion, newspapers should be free. 3) I think there’s too much sport on television. 4) I don’t think the Internet has changed the world. 5) Journalists shouldn’t write about people’s private lives.

Exercise 5. Do the quiz in pairs.

1)What is the world’s most popular reality show?

2)Which country makes the most films?

3)Which search engine is the most popular?

4)Which film is often voted the greatest ever?

5)Which quiz show is the most popular?

6)Which country watches most TV?

7)Which newspaper sells the most copies in the world?

Exercise 6. Read the text to check your answers.

ON TOP OF THE MEDIA

You may or may not agree with psychologist David Yandell, but most people agree that the media has one key characteristic: it keeps growing and growing. These days, few people can remember life before television. And most of us have been influenced by the constant flow of words and images from screens or newspapers. Some of it is “complete rubbish” and some of it is wonderful. Here are some “firsts” and “bests” of the media world. Some “bests”…

The № 1 reality TV show: Big Brother. Like it or not, Big Brother is the most popular show of its kind. It was first shown in Holland in 1999 and it has been broadcast in over 20 countries.

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The №1 film industry: the Indian film industry (nicknamed Bollywood). More films are made in India than any other country.

The №1 search engine: Google. Lots of information can be found by searching Google. In fact, it is used for over 250 million searches in 182 languages every day. It was named Googol, which is the number represented by one + one hundred zeros.

The № 1 film: Citizen Kane. In lists of great films it usually comes first. It was made by Orson Welles in 1941 and tells the story of a media tycoon.

The № 1 quiz show of recent years: Who wants to be a millionaire? It started in the UK in 1998 but has now been broadcast all over the world.

The № 1 TV addicts: the US has 805 televisions per 1000 people, the world’s highest number, and in the USA they watch TV the most. By the age of 65 the average US citizen has spent nine years in front of the TV.

The № 1 selling newspaper: Yomiuri Shimbun. It sells ten million copies a day in Japan.

And some “firsts”…

–The TV was invented by John Logie Baird. He gave the first public demonstration in 1926.

–Ten years later there were still only 100 TV sets in the world.

–The first TV “ad” was a clock, in New-York in 1941. They paid nine dollars for the ad.

–The first video recorder (1956) was 11 meters high and weighed 665 kilograms, as much as a small car.

Exercise 7. Which statements are true and false according to the text?

1)Most people think that the media contains a lot of rubbish.

2)People in Holland didn’t like Big Brother.

3)Googol is a number.

4)Orson Welles was a media tycoon.

5)Who wants to be a millionaire? is the most popular quiz show in

history.

6)Americans watch more TV than any other nationality.

7)Yomiuri Shimbun is a daily newspaper.

8)The first ever TV ad was very successful.

Say, which information you already knew, which information surprised you.

Exercise 8. In what order were the things in the list invented?

TV, NEWSPAPERS, THE INTERNET, RADIO, VIDEO, BOOK

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Which of them have been the most important for: – the world?

– your country?

– you personally?

II. THE INTERNET

Exercise 1. Tick the words you know.

Exercise 2. a) Work in pairs. Fill in the gaps with these verbs.

1.You can save, copy, print or delete a file or a document.

2.You can create, open or ________ a folder.

3.You can get, send, forward or _________ an e-mail.

4.You should _________ a back-up copy of your important documents.

5.You can ________ by entering your password.

6.You can _________ an icon, an attachment, a website address or a link on web page.

7.You can _________ online and _________ software, pictures or music from the Internet.

8.If you _________ broadband, you can _________ for something on the Internet very quickly.

b)Work in pairs. Which of the things in 2a) did you do in the last seven

days?

Exercise 3. Do the questionnaire. Then work in pairs and compare your answers.

How many are the same? What can you do that your partner can’t?

HOW COMPUTER LITERATE ARE YOU?

1)How old were you when you first used a computer?

a)over 20

b)between 10 and 19

c)under 10

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2) How long did it take you to learn how to save, copy, print and delete a

file?

a)I was able to learn this very quickly.

b)I’m still useless at doing these things.

c)I could do these things after I read the instructions.

3)How good are you at searching for information on the Internet?

a)I haven’t got a clue how to do this.

b)I usually manage to find what I want, but not always.

c)I’m quite good at doing this and I can always find what I want.

4)Do you know how to download software or music from the Internet?

a)I have no idea how to do this.

b)I find this quite easy to do.

c)I think I know how to do this, but I haven’t done it for a while.

5)How good are you at using new computer equipment or software?

a)I’m able to use most new stuff after a very short time.

b)I find it difficult to use anything new unless someone shows me.

c)I’m no good at using new stuff, with or without help.

Exercise 4. Discuss in groups. Do you use the Internet? What for? Do you know any facts from the history of the Internet?

Exercise 5. You are going to listen / to read the radio documentary on the history of the Internet. First, do the quiz below. Then listen to see if you are correct. (A teacher can read the text).

THE HISTORY OF THE INTERNET

a) In which year did Leonard Kleinrock connect the first two computers?

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Exercise 6. Complete the article with the following verbs in the Past Simple.

become send invent become call reach want begin crash watch mark

THE BIRTH OF THE INTERNET

In 1965, the Advanced Research Projects Agency under the US Department of Defense worked on a system to connect computers. They (b)______the project ARPANET.

On September 2nd, 1969, Professor Leonard Kleinrock connected the first two machines. Twenty people (c) in a laboratory at the University of

California as meaningless data flowed between two computers along a 15 foot grey cable. For many people, that day (d) the birth of today's Internet.

The next month they sent the first message on the Net to a computer at Stanford

same year it also went international, connecting hosts in England and Norway. In 1974 Bob Kahn and Vincent Cerf (h) a software that allowed

ARPANET to connect to other networks using different operating systems. The software, called TCP/IP, (i) the universal language of the Internet on

January 1st, 1983. Some people say that this was the true birth of the Net.

By the early 1990s the World Wide Web was the most popular way of browsing the web, and the network was accessible to anyone in the world with a

browser of the type we all use today. The growth rate of the Internet was an incredible 341% and by 1998 there were over 30,000,000 hosts.

Exercise 7. In pairs, ask and answer questions about the history of the

Internet using the prompts.

a)When / Professor Kleinrock / connect / first two computers?

b)Where / send / first message?

с) What / Ray Tomlinson / send / 1973?

d) Why / the software/ Bob Khan and Vincent Cerf / important?

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e)When / TCP/IP / become / official language?

f)How much / the Internet / grow / 1993?

THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNET

The Internet is changing so fast that the things we talk about today are outdated by tomorrow. We need to anticipate how these changes will affect society and commerce. There are advantages to making a lot of predictions - some of them at least will come true. Here are ten. Which ones do you think we will see in the future?

1. Access will be thousands of times faster. Laser (a) will replace copper and fibre optic lines. What now takes ten hours to download at fast ADSL access speeds will take about ten seconds.

2. There will be a lot more multimedia. We will use the Internet in the same way as we use the (b) now.

3. Videoconferencing will finally replace most face- to-face business meetings. Most (c)____________ will disappear as a result. Videoconferencing is not new but doesn't really work at the moment because of the slow speeds. As the Internet gets faster it will be a real alternative to the hassle of air travel.

4. The Internet will be as easy to use as the (d) is now. It will be

something we take for granted and use to order products, get new information and communicate in general.

5. The Internet will be more international. At the moment about 75% of online content is in English. By 2015 (e) will be the top language.

6. Governments will be less powerful and we will participate more in making decisions. (f) will be online and we will vote on more issues.

7. People will get tired of the Internet and will reject it. There will be an anti-

8. Online shopping will replace high-street stores. We will stop going (h)______

won't want to browse on their mobile phones. They won't want to pay for these services.

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Exercise 9. Complete the gaps in the following dialogues using “will” or “won’t”. Practise the dialogues.

Exercise 10. Work with a partner. Talk about the other predictions in the text. Use the phrases below.

Yes. I agree with number two. I think the Internet will replace television. I don't think people will get tired of the Internet.

No, I don't agree with that. Governments won't be less powerful because of the Internet.

III. ECOLOGY AND HEALTH

Exercise 1. Match the adjectives and nouns and use them in sentences to describe ecology and health problems.

Exercise 2. Work in groups. What do you think an “ecological footprint” is? Make a list of different ways people could reduce their ecological footprints.

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Exercise 3. Read the text and say what ecological problems exist in our life.

How big is your ecological footprint?

to pollute – загрязнять

acid rains – кислотные дожди overpopulation – перенаселение to consume – потреблять

to become extinct – исчезнуть, вымирать waste – отходы

These days we’re all becoming more and more concerned about the effect our lifestyle is having on the environment. For example, there is a lot of traffic in cities. The roads are narrow, and the lorries and cars cannot move. The air is full of traffic fumes. People get ill. The fumes from the traffic pollute the countryside. They affect the fields where farmers grow crops. Many species of animals, plants and insects may soon become extinct.

Oceans are also in danger. They are filled with pollution: industrial and nuclear waste, chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

Today our planet is in serious danger. Acid rain, global warming, air and water pollution and overpopulation are the problems that threaten people’s lives on Earth. Nowadays factories emit many harmful chemicals. They are the main reason for the greenhouse effect and acid rain. And furthermore nuclear power stations are even greater threats to us.

Our ecological footprint tells us how much land and water is needed to support the way we live. It takes into account things like the food we buy, the amount of travelling we do, the amount of rubbish we throw away and how much energy we consume. Our lifestyle is not sustainable. If everyone in the world had a lifestyle like many people from developed countries, we’d need 2.3 planets to survive.

What can be done to improve this situation? One can recycle newspapers, try to save energy by turning off the TV at night. Some ecologists consider it to be much better to buy food locally, thus avoiding excess packaging. The food industry produces too much rubbish nowadays.

Another way to reduce our ecological footprint is to become vegetarian. Farming animals is so wasteful and uses too much energy. For example, one hectare of land can produce enough soya beans to feed 600 people, but only enough beef to feed 20 people. And you need 100 times more water to produce a kilo of beef than a kilo of wheat. It’s just ridiculous and completely unjustifiable. So, meat production is very damaging to the environment. And it’s up to us to change things.

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