Unit 2 animal liberation animal welfare in china

PRE-LISTENING SECTION

Exercise 1. Discuss the following issues.

• What do you know about eating habits in different cultures?

• What main eating trends can you distinguish?

• What eating habits appear weird and shocking to you?

Exercise 2. Match these words and collocations to their definitions or synonyms. Translate them into your native language.

1	Captivate	a	Greedy, hungry
2	Cause an uproar	b	Privilege
2	yuang (yuan renminbi)	c	extremely painful
3	excruciatingly	d	Chinese monetary unit
4	dangle	e	hypocrisy
5	den	f	attract
6	Priority	g	Bring to troubles
7	gory	h	Omnipresent
8	ravenous	i	lair
9	Wretchedness	j	Increasing need
10	ubiquitous	k	Loud-voiced
11	Soaring demand	l	carry along
12	Feline	m	despair
13	vociferous	n	bloody
14	prissiness	o	catlike

Exercise 3. Explain the meaning of the expression A ONE-DOG POLICY. Translate it into your native language.

Be guided by the following information.

The one-dog policy is a policy implemented in 2006, restricting residents of Beijing, China to one dog per family. It also prohibits families from raising large (over 14 in or 35.5 cm tall) or ferocious dogs. The one-dog policy was implemented in 2006, when it became apparent that rabies was the infectious disease killing the most people in that year. Xinhua News Agency, the official news agency, said that rabies had killed 318 people in September 2006 and 2,651 people in 2004, the latest year for which data is available. Only 3% of dogs in China are vaccinated, while 69,000 people sought treatment for rabies in 2005 in Beijing alone. The policy sets a legal limit for dog height at 14 inches (35.5 cm) and restricts every family to one dog as a maximum.

LISTENING SECTION

Exercise 1. Listen to the recording and decide if the following statements are true or false.

1. The Communist Party persuaded the Congress not to ban the eating of dog- and cat-meat.

2. In China animal welfare has always been a priority.

3. A proposed animal-rights law creates conflict with ancient national eating habits.

4. Dogs and cats are a popular dish in many parts of China.

5. For each household Beijing still has a one-dog policy and decrees that they must not be taller than 75cm.

6. The proposed law would make the “illegal consumption or sale” of dog- or cat-meat punishable by a fine of up to $130) or imprisonment for up to 15 years.

7. Dog-eating is a time-honoured tradition and China is not yet ready for Western-style prissiness about consuming such animals.

8. The word “illegal” could be taken to mean that there might still be a legal way of killing cats and dogs for the table.

Exercise 2. Listen again and comment on the following statements used in the recording.

1. The Communist Party decides what laws to draft and when they get passed.

2. A fast-growing middle class, despite enjoying gory outings, is also fond of pet dogs and cats.

3. Dogs were once banned in many urban areas, but in recent years the government has caved in to soaring demand.

DISCUSSION SECTION

Exercise 1. Answer the following questions.

1. Do you support the idea of preventing cruelty to animals expressed in the recording?

2. Should ancient ethnic eating habits be taken into consideration in the process of lawmaking or should laws be universal?

Exercise 2. Comment on the statements below.

1. My favorite animal is steak. ~Fran Lebowitz

2. Anybody who believes that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach flunked geography. ~Robert Byrne

3. What is patriotism but the love of the food one ate as a child? ~Lin Yutang

4. The whole of nature, as has been said, is a conjugation of the verb to eat, in the active and in the passive. ~William Ralph Inge

5. If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man. ~Mark Twain

6. I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals. ~Sir Winston Churchill

TRANSLATION SECTION

Exercise 1. Make the transcript of the recording; translate it into your native language.

Exercise 2. Present a translation-oriented analysis of the text.

Exercise 3. Roleplay the dialogue between

A haunter of a dog (cat) restaurant and an activist from the animal advocacy movement discussing animal rights.

Exercise 4. Practice consecutive / simultaneous interpretation of the dialogue.

Exercise 5. Translate the information below into Ukrainian and analyze the basic transformations.