Writing practice

Task 1. Write an essay in which you discuss those freedoms that are being limited in today’s society.

Task 2. Do you believe life-support systems, respirators and feeding tubes, are devices that sustain life or prolong dying? Write an essay in which you express your opinion.

Task 3. React to the following statement in an essay: “Censorship cannot eliminate evil – it can only kill freedom”.

Task 4. Write an essay: Freedom: mirage or reality?

Achievement test

I. Give appropriate terms to the following definition.

1. the right or power to do as one wishes;

2. a minor change or addition to a document etc.;

3. breaking a law, rule, principle, rights;

4. painless killing of people who are terminally ill;

5. a reason for not accepting or not agreeing to;

6. trying to change what sb else is doing.

II. Match the synonymous pairs.

1.	alleviate	a)	necessary
2.	guidelines	b)	voluntary
3.	reduce	c)	recommendations
4.	comply with	d)	ease
5.	willing	e)	abide by, obey
6.	indispensable	f)	shrink

III. Choose the most suitable word to complete the sentence.

1. Who should decide what everyone is … to see, read, talk or write about.

1. said b) let c) allowed d) made

2. But censorship is only … with sex and violence

a) related b) worried c) anxious d) concerned

3. Freedom of … is the right of people to say what they believe.

a) press b) speech c) expression d) religion

4. The UN Convention defines the right and needs of children and the duties and … of governments and other adults to children.

a) obligations b) responsibilities c) requests d) promises

5. Voting is the biggest … of a democracy.

a) ability b) profit c) benefit d)opportunity

6. Society must … human rights.

a) defend b) defeat c) prevent d) protect

IV. Fill in the blanks with the proper words given below.

Recent medical advances mean that, with special (1)… women of almost any age can give birth. In most countries, this is only (2)… for women up to about 50, but in Italy until recently there were no laws to limit this, with the (3)… that several women in their sixties have given birth. Some experts remain (4)… that women of this age have the same (5)… to have children as women in their forties, provided they are mentally and (6)… fit.

Treatment, physically, right, allowed, result, convinced

Unit III law and order social problems

Successful societies are those

which focus on people...

Social problems, as the words imply, are problems which concern not only society as a whole but also each of us individually. It has been possible for a man to succeed in landing on the moon and yet he has so far failed to solve the problems of poverty, hunger, unemployment, racism, terrorism etc.

Crime, violence, drugs... what are the forms of young people’s reaction to all these problems?

To encourage you to speak, start with one-minute talk, choosing any of the points below:

• what I know about social problems

• the most serious social problems my country faces

• TV programs on social problems I watch

• what I read in the newspapers about social problems.