Post-reading Activity

Task 1. State the topic and the main idea of each part according to the made outline.

Task 2. Answer the following questions.

1. Why are the notions of democracy and freedom often used interchangeably?

2. What is the difference between

1. direct and representative democracy;

2. democracy and authoritarian society?

3. How can citizens participate in the work of the government bodies?

4. Is there any need in controlling, monitoring or reporting of one's actions in a really democratic society?

5. Do you think that Abraham Lincoln's understanding of democracy still encompasses the essence of this notion?

Task 3. Speculate on the essence of the 11 pillars of democracy. Support your ideas by the facts of history or nowadays situation.

• Sovereignty of people.

• Government based upon consent of the governed.

• Majority rule.

• Minority rights.

• Guarantee of basic human rights.

• Free and fair elections.

• Equality before the law.

• Due process of law.

• Constitutional limits on government.

• Social, economic and political pluralism.

• Values of tolerance, pragmatism, cooperation and compromise.

T E X T 3

Pre-reading Activity

1. What does a word “community” mean?

2. Recall some films, books, newspaper articles, TV reports about the way the communities live within a society.

3. What do you think characterizes a community in the best way?

Reading Activity

Scan the text. State what kind of community the Amish people are and the reasons of their arrival in the USA.

Amish folk

The AMISH are called “Plain People” because their clothes are so simple and undecorated.

The Amish began coming from Switzerland and Germany into Pennsylvania near the beginning of the 1700’s. They came seeking freedom to worship as they pleased, and to preserve their own ways of life. Many of them are still living much as their forefathers did 250 years ago.

The Amish do not have telephones in their homes. “Electricity is not in the Bible”, they say; though they will use those in other people’s homes, or public ones, in emergencies. Cars and tractors have also long been resisted by the conservative Amish. They say “A tractor gets the work done more quickly, but horses and the love of hard work keep us nearer to God”.

It is customary among the Amish to intermarry to keep the sect together. Weddings take place in November, when there is less work on the farms. Barn-raising is another old Amish custom. When a farmer’s barn burns or becomes too small or old, all his neighbours help him build a new one. A hundred men or more turn up. They can build a barn in a day.

In the barnyard are usually three cows. “They give us enough milk for our family, and enough left over to make cheese.” The families are almost self-sufficient. They raise pigs, kill them, smoke some of the meat, and sell the rest or trade it with neighbours. They also grow their own vegetables.

Unless it is absolutely necessary, many Amish folk will not obey the laws that violate their beliefs. Many refuse to pay for Social Security, saying they can take care of themselves – they do not need the State.

The Amish prefer to teach their children at home.

They say: “The training our children get at home is training for the lives they will lead. When we give them gifts, we give housework things to the girls, and tools, harness and so on to the boys”.

Keeping the sect together is still uppermost in the minds of the Amish folk. Nevertheless their numbers have increased since 1900 from 10,000 to almost 50,000 today.

(Abridged from “Northern Indiana Amish Country”

tourist guide of the Elkhart County Convention and Visitors Bureau, 2000)