Listening to BBC. Учебное пособие по аудированию для студентов неязыковых факультетов

Feeling good about your country

a true privilege — a special opportunity to do something that makes you proud

to be assigned to something — to be required to do a particular task diverse — different from each other; made up of people or things that are

different from each other

1.Recall the situations in which the words and word combinations from the list are used in the programme. Use them in sentences of your own.

2.Complete the following sentences using words and word combinations from the programme. Some of them are used more than once.

1.There are students of different ages and races in the group.

2.He is proud of his work.

3.I like my new gob very much.

4.We are very happy and pleased because we have accomplished a very difficult task.

5.If you want to participate in the programme, you must be more active.

6.Students are required to read three books in English by the end of the term.

7.It was a great honour for me to be here with you tonight.

8.I am very pleased to meet you.

3. Listen to the programme again and answer the following questions.

1. What was the nationality of the first astronauts to live in the 2. International Space Station back in the year 2000?

3. What mission was Commander Tim Peake assigned to? How does he feel about that?

4. What are Rob and Finn particularly proud of?

5. What makes other people participating in the programme proud about their country?

4. What do you think?

Read the article written by Michael Wong who has a different view of the concept of national pride. Discuss it with your partner. Do you agree with the author of the article? Why or why not? What are the things or the people that make you feel good about your country? What makes you patriotic?

National Pride

Posted on May 23, 2008 by Michael Wong

“I think I finally figured out what bugs me about people who talk about being proud of their countries. I feel like I can’t disagree with them because to do

31

Part I. Different people. Different places

so means I’m ashamed of my country, and that’s not the way I feel. But pride is something that I associate with personal accomplishments, not the place where I happened to be born. Shouldn’t you only be able to take pride in something you’ve earned or accomplished by yourself? Or at least assisted in?

This is what bugs me about people who take pride in (for example) the D–Day landings. If you were there, then by all means, let your chest swell with pride. You deserve it. But if you’re like me and you only read about it in history books, then what business do you have being proud of it? The fact that you happened to be born in the same country as the guys who were there?

So what do I feel about these sources of what people call “national pride”? I think I figured out what I feel about things like this: I feel gratitude, not pride. I cannot honestly take pride in the accomplishments of others, but I can be grateful to them for what they did. And I can be grateful that I was born in a country where I have human rights and material prosperity.

“National pride” bugs me because I think it gets in the way of constructive change; one is not allowed to criticize one’s country because you’re supposed to be proud of it, and being proud of it means not admitting its faults. But if we can replace this idea with the idea of gratitude to one’s nation, I think it’s a bit easier to be grateful to someone or something while still acknowledging its faults”.

A cultural journey1

“People from different cultures have different definitions for beauty. Isn’t that sad to judge others with our standards… rather than appreciate them?”

Mizuki Nomura

How can you comment on the quotation above? What is culture? How does it affect us? What happens when people from different cultural backgrounds meet and communicate? What causes the most difficulties when it comes to communication with people from other cultures? Do you know any stories relating to cross-cultural surprises and misunderstanding? Listen to the programme to find out more about intercultural communication and to get some advice on how to make the process of exploring different cultures exciting, successful and beneficial. Before you listen, check you understand the following words and word combinations.

1 See Appendix Transcript 1.10 A cultural journey. P. 132. URL: http://www.bbc. co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/webcast/tae_whoonearth_archive.shtml.

32

A cultural journey

Vocabulary

invisible — impossible to see

to experience something — to do or see something or have something happen to you

to influence — to affect or change someone or something in an indirect but usually important way; to have an influence on someone or something

distinction –a noticeable difference between things or people uncertainty — the quality or state of being uncertain: doubt first and foremost — at the most basic level

to judge — to form an opinion about something or someone after careful thought

judgemental — tending to judge people too quickly and critically

a window on something — something that makes it possible to see or understand something clearly

self-awareness — knowledge and awareness of your own personality or character

to get/be frustrated — to be very angry, discouraged, or upset because of being unable to do or complete something

to lose one’s temper — to get angry

to be aware of something — to know that something exists

sensitive — 1. easily upset by the things that people think or say about you; 2. aware of and understanding the feelings of other people

offensive — causing someone to feel hurt, angry, or upset; rude or insulting to put oneself into smb’s shoes — try to imagine oneself in smb’s situation sociable — liking to be with and talk to other people

to live up to something –1. to do what is required by something 2. to be good enough for something

peculiar — not usual or normal; strange

to blind oneself to something –to be unable to think clearly or to act reasonably

to be wary of something/somebody — not having or showing complete trust in someone or something that could be dangerous or cause trouble

homogenous — made up of the same kind of people or things expatriate — a person who lives in a foreign country

host culture — the culture of the country you are visiting

to admire — to feel respect or approval for someone /something to fit in — to belong in a particular situation, place, or group

to confide in somebody –to tell personal and private things to someone

33

Part I. Different people. Different places

open-minded — willing to consider different ideas or opinions (opposite: closed-minded

tolerant — willing to accept feelings, habits, or beliefs that are different from your own

through thick and thin — through many difficult times over a long period to acculturate — to assimilate culturally

rewarding — giving you a good feeling that you have done something valuable, important

inevitable — sure to happen

1.Recall the situations in which the words and word combinations from the list are used in the programme. Use them in sentences of your own.

2.Paraphrase the following using words and word combinations from the list above.

1.Culture shock is an unavoidable thing when you move to another country.

2.Teaching is a very satisfying career.

3.She shares all her secrets with me.

4.I appreciated the way you handled this crisis.

5.Money is the only thing they care and think about.

6.Their holiday wasn’t as good as they expected it to be.

7.They are very friendly people and they enjoy having parties.

8.His behaviour seems very rude to other people.

9.She understands other people’s feelings and is always ready to help.

10.It is often difficult for parents not to get angry with their naughty children.

11.He failed his exams and felt really upset and discouraged.

12.Do you fully realize all the consequences of your decision?

13.I would not like to be in his position right now.

14.Parents must teach their children not to trust strangers.

15.The book helps the reader understand the essence of war.

3. Complete the following sentences using words and word combinations from the programme.

1.We have been friends for 20 years__________.

2.She tried really hard, but she could not ________ with the group.

3.You should try to avoid being so _________ and accept people the way they are.

4.There are a lot of Chinese _________ living in the USA.

5.The people in the community are _________ of each other’s differences.

34

A cultural journey

6.Try to be _________ about the changes. They are all to the good.

7.There are people of different backgrounds in our group. So it is not

______.

8.She had a very ________ expression on her face when she saw him.

9.You should not _________ people by their appearance.

10.That was one of the worst days he had ever _________.

4. Listen to the programme again and answer the following questions.

1.What is the difference between verbal and non-verbal cultures? Can you think of examples of these two types?

2.What are the barriers to successful intercultural communication according to Rebecca Fong?

3.How do you understand the concept of culture shock? Have you ever experienced one?

4.How can you prepare before you go to another country?

5.What does Rebecca Fong advise people to do when they get to a different country?

6.What are the situations you should avoid being in another country?

7.What changes can you expect as soon as you change your external behaviour and your habits to match the culture you are in?

8.What did people participating in the programme learn from being abroad?

9.What is the by-product of exploring other cultures?

10.What do you know about the different ways people from different cultures use body-language, touch and gesture?

11.What personal characteristics make the process of inter-cultural communication easier?

5. Explain and expand on the following.

1.The nature of the culture we grow up in is invisible to us.

2.Different languages represent both the different ways people experience the world, and influence the way the people of a culture think and behave.

3.Focus on the idea of cultural relativism. We shouldn’t use our own standards to judge other cultures with.

4.Culture is not only about what we believe, it’s about the way that we behave.

5.Be wary of stereotypes.

6.An unexpected by-product of studying other cultures will be learning more about the way that our own cultures operate.

7.There’s no such thing as a monolithic culture.

35

Part I. Different people. Different places

6. Here is a list of quotations about culture. Discuss them with your partner to find out what they all have in common.

1.“Living in different cultures helped me work out who I was going to be, separate from where I came from.” — Jacinda Barrett

2.“If you take different mythologies from different cultures, the names may change and the story lines may vary but there is always something in common.” — Maynard James Keenan

3.“Different members of different cultures will think that some things are beautiful.” — Jock Sturges

4.“I don’t think you lose culture because you act different cultures.” — Jean Reno

5.“It’s different cultures that make the world go ‘round at the end of the day.” — Samantha Fox

6.“To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.” — Aldous Huxley

7.“No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive.” — Mahatma Gandhi

8.“We seldom realize, for example that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own. For we think in terms of languages and images which we did not invent, but which were given to us by our society.” — Alan Wilson Watts.

7. Here is a list of top travel tips from Paulo Coelho, who claims that travelling is the best way of learning for him. Discuss them with your partner. Add some more tips of your own if you can.

1.Avoid museums. This might seem to be absurd advice, but let’s just think about it a little: if you are in a foreign city, isn’t it far more interesting to go in search of the present than of the past? It’s just that people feel obliged to go to museums because they learned as children that travelling was about seeking out that kind of culture. Obviously museums are important, but they require time and objectivity — you need to know what you want to see there, otherwise you will leave with a sense of having seen a few really fundamental things, except that you can’t remember what they were.

2.Hang out in bars. Bars are the places where life in the city reveals itself, not in museums. By bars I don’t mean nightclubs, but the places where ordinary people go, have a drink, ponder the weather, and are always ready for a chat. Buy a newspaper and enjoy the ebb and flow of people. If someone strikes up a conversation, however silly, join in: you cannot judge the beauty of a particular path just by looking at the gate.

36

A cultural journey

3.Be open. The best tour guide is someone who lives in the place, knows everything about it, is proud of his or her city, but does not work for any agency. Go out into the street, choose the person you want to talk to, and ask them something (Where is the cathedral? Where is the post office?). If nothing comes of it, try someone else — I guarantee that at the end of the day you will have found yourself an excellent companion.

4.Try to travel alone or — if you are married — with your spouse. It will be harder work, no one will be there taking care of you, but only in this way can you truly leave your own country behind. Travelling with a group is a way of being in a foreign country while speaking your mother tongue, doing whatever the leader of the flock tells you to do, and taking more interest in group gossip than in the place you are visiting.

5.Don’t compare. Don’t compare anything — prices, standards of hygiene, quality of life, means of transport, nothing! You are not travelling in order to prove that you have a better life than other people — your aim is to find out how other people live, what they can teach you, how they deal with reality and with the extraordinary.

6.Understand that everyone understands you. Even if you don’t speak the language, don’t be afraid: I’ve been in lots of places where I could not communicate with words at all, and I always found support, guidance, useful advice, and even girlfriends. Some people think that if they travel alone, they will set off down the street and be lost for ever. Just make sure you have the hotel card in your pocket and — if the worst comes to the worst — flag down a taxi and show the card to the driver.

7.Don’t buy too much. Spend your money on things you won’t need to carry: tickets to a good play, restaurants, trips. Nowadays, with the global economy and the Internet, you can buy anything you want without having to pay excess baggage.

8.Don’t try to see the world in a month. It is far better to stay in a city for four or five days than to visit five cities in a week. A city is like a capricious woman: she takes time to be seduced and to reveal herself completely.

9.A journey is an adventure. Henry Miller used to say that it is far more important to discover a church that no one else has ever heard of than to go to Rome and feel obliged to visit the Sistine Chapel with two hundred thousand other tourists bellowing in your ear. By all means go to the Sistine Chapel, but wander the streets too, explore alleyways, experience the freedom of looking for something — quite what you don’t know — but which, if you find it, will — you can be sure — change your life.

8. Give a brief summary of the programme.

Part II

Talks on politics and law

6 Minute English. Smokers to face one more ban1

Smoking in cars with children is likely to be banned in England this year, under new laws put forward by the government. You are going to listen to a story about this new proposal restricting where people are allowed to smoke and the reaction to it among smokers. Before you listen, check you understand the following words and word combinations.

Vocabulary you can use to talk about this topic

habit — something you do frequently without even thinking and that is difficult to give up

controversy — disagreement expressed in a heated and public way campaigning — working in an organized and active way to achieve an

objective

second-hand smoke — the smoke from other people’s cigarettes

asthma — an illness about which you hear a lot about when people discuss the effects of tobacco smoke and pollution on people’s lungs. People with asthma sometimes have difficulty to breathe.

fine — the money you pay as a punishment for having breached the law vulnerable — someone exposed to harm who can’t defend themselves personal space — the area around a person’s body which if invaded makes

them feel uncomfortable

1.Recall the situations in which this vocabulary is used in the story. Use them in sentences of your own.

2.Complete the following sentences using this vocabulary in proper forms.

1.We usually talk about smoking as a …

2.He has an annoying … of biting his nails.

3.This ban is going to cause ….

4.The proposals to reduce the strength of the army have been the subject of much …

1 See Appendix Transcript 2.1 Smokers to face one more ban. P. 137. URL: https://www. bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6 minute-english/ep-190815, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdEyku5WSzo&list=WL&index=22&t=214s.

38

6 Minute English. Smokers to face one more ban

5.The World Health Organisation is … to discourage people from smoking.

6.Those children who are exposed to … smoke in cars are more likely to end up going to their doctors with respiratory infections.

7.Those children who are exposed to second-hand smoke in cars are much more likely to get a wheeze or actually have … through their childhood.

8.People with … sometimes find it difficult to breathe.

9.The proposal under discussion here in England includes a … of up to £50 — that’s about $ 80 — imposed on the driver of the car if there’s somebody smoking when there’s a child passenger.

10.There’s a heavy … for driving drunk.

11.Children are especially ….

12.She looked very…standing there on her own.

13.Hayley feels that her car is her … and she should be able to choose if she wants to smoke in it.

3. Listen to the story again and decide if the following statements are true or false.

1.Traditionally, June is the month in which people try to make their New Year’s resolutions work.

2.Some want to get fat, others swear they will drink more alcohol and there are those who want to start taking drugs.

3.Many people might wish to stop smoking here in England.

4.Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have managed to implement the ban on smoking in cars with child passengers.

5.Smokers are trying hard to stop smoking.

6.Crown Prosecution Service is campaigning to encourage people to take up gambling.

7.Asthma is an illness you hear a lot about when people discuss the effects of drug abuse.

8.People with asthma sometimes find it difficult to drink water.

9.When Rob was a kid his sister, who was much older than he, used to smoke in the car.

10.The proposal under discussion here in England includes a fine of up to £50 — that’s about $ 130 — imposed on the people smoking in the car when there’s a child passenger.

11.It’s easy to find anyone who doesn’t defend a child’s right to be healthy.

12.In the last few years in many countries, smokers aren’t allowed to smoke in closed public places like bars anymore.

13.Cigarette packages show optimistic pictures of lungs.

39

Part II. Talks on politics and law

14. Hayley feels that her car is her personal space and she doesn’t want to smoke in it.

4. Answer the following questions.

1. Where do bans on smoking in private cars with children on board already exist?

2. What new ban are smokers in England facing?

3. What point of the ban under discussion will cause a conflict?

4. Why will enforcing this ban be a bit of a challenge for the authorities? 5. What point of the new ban is Hayley, one of the smokers, suspicious of?

5. Should smoking be banned in public places?

Here is a list of main advantages and disadvantages of prohibiting smoking in public areas. Read them and add your own pros and cons of smoking bans. Discuss them and answer the following questions.

1.Should smoking be banned in public places?

2.What about in outdoor areas?

3.Should smoking be illegal?

4.Do you feel it would benefit your health?

5.Or does it infringe on the rights of the individual to smoke?

Pros and cons of smoking bans

Pros of banning smoking in public places:

yHealth and rights of passive smokers: those who do not smoke will not have to inhale the smoke from the cigarettes of smokers. Passive smoking is an important health issue that has caused the death of millions of people worldwide.

ySmell: tobacco smell displeases most people. Banning smoking in public spaces would contribute to reduce tobacco odour.

ySet a good example for children: smokers have been historically driven

to the habit by imitation of other people. The less children see other people smoking, the less prone they will be to smoke.

yReduce tobacco consumption: the benefits of stopping smoking are evident. If smokers cannot smoke cigarettes in public spaces they will likely smoke less. This will be good for their health and for their finances. Tobacco has become very expensive in many countries.

yReduce public spending: the prohibition of smoking in public places

would help governments save a large amount of money in healthcare. With a ban, air quality would improve and public health systems would spend less

40