CELEBRATING DARWIN
Background information
- Charles Robert Darwin (1809 – 1882) was a British
biologist, who proved that all species of life have evolved
from common ancestors through the process of natural
selection. Darwin’s scientific discovery remains the
foundation of biology, as it gives a logical explanation for
the diversity of life.
- Darwin developed his interest in natural history while
studying medicine at Edinburgh University, then theology
at Cambridge. His five-year voyage on the Beagle
established him as an eminent geologist whose
observations and theories supported Charles Lyell’s
uniformitarian ideas, and the publication of his journal of
the voyage made him famous as a popular author.
Puzzled by the geographical distribution of wildlife and
fossils he had collected on his voyage, Darwin investigated the transmutation of species
and conceived his theory of natural selection in 1838. Although he discussed his ideas
with several naturalists, he needed time for extensive research and his geological work
had priority. He was writing up his theory in 1858 when Alfred Russel Wallace sent him
an essay which described the same idea, prompting immediate joint publication of both
of their theories.
- Charles Robert Darwin was born in Shrewsbury,
Shropshire, England in 1809. He was the fifth of six children
of a wealthy society doctor and financier, Robert Darwin. He
was the grandson of Josiah Wedgwood on his mother’s side.
When Charles was eight years old, his mother died.
- Darwin spent the summer of 1825 as an apprentice doctor,
helping his father treat the Shropshire poor. He went to the
University of Edinburgh to study medicine, but was revolted
by the brutality of surgery and neglected his medical
studies. He learned taxidermy from John Edmonstone, a
freed black slave who told him exciting tales of the South
American rainforest. This experience gave him evidence that
“Negroes and Europeans” were closely related, despite
superficial differences in appearance. The failure to pursue
medical studies annoyed his father, who enrolled him in a
Bachelor of Arts course at Christ’s College, Cambridge to
qualify as a clergyman in order to get a good income as an
Anglican parson.
After his studies, his tutor, Dr Henslow, recommended Darwin as a suitable naturalist for
the unpaid position of gentleman’s companion to Robert FitzRoy, the captain of HMS
Beagle, which was to leave on an expedition to chart the coastline of South America. His
father objected to the planned two-year voyage, seeing it as a waste of time, but was
persuaded by his brother-in-law, Josiah Wedgwood, to agree to his son’s participation.
- The voyage lasted almost five years but Darwin spent most of that time on land,
investigating geology and making natural history collections, while the Beagle surveyed
and charted coasts. He kept careful notes of his observations and theoretical
speculations, and at intervals during the voyage his specimens were sent to Cambridge,
together with letters including a copy of his journal for his family. On their first stop
ashore at St Jago, Darwin found that a white band high in the volcanic rock cliffs included
seashells. FitzRoy had given him the first volume of Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology,
which set out uniformitarian concepts of land slowly rising or falling over immense
periods, and Darwin saw things Lyell's way, theorising and thinking of writing a book on
geology. In Brazil, Darwin was delighted by the tropical forest but detested the sight of
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slavery. On the Galápagos Islands Darwin noted that mockingbirds differed, depending
on which island they came from. He also heard that local Spaniards could tell from their
appearance from which island tortoises originated.
- When the Beagle returned on 2 October 1836, Darwin was a celebrity in scientific
circles. His health suffered from the pressure and he continued to suffer from stomach
aches for the rest of his life. He returned to Shrewsbury and wrote down notes on animal
breeding, on his own career and on his prospects of marriage. Darwin wrote a rather
funny list on two scraps of paper, one headed “Marry” and the other one “Not Marry”.
Advantages of marriage included “constant companion and a friend in old age ... better
than a dog anyhow”, against points such as “less money for books” and “terrible loss of
time.” Eventually he decided to marry his cousin Emma Wedgwood and the young family
settled at Down House, close to London. The Darwins had ten children: two died in
infancy, and Annie's death at the age of ten had a devastating effect on her parents.
Charles was a devoted father and uncommonly attentive to his children.
- Darwin’s book was half way when, on 18 June 1858, he received a paper from Wallace
describing natural selection. Shocked that he had been forestalled, Darwin sent it on to
Lyell, as requested, and, though Wallace had not asked for publication, he suggested he
would send it to any journal that Wallace chose. There was little immediate attention to
the announcement of the theory at first. His On the Origin of Species by Means of
Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life was
published in 1859. He put a strong case for common descent, but avoided the then
controversial term evolution. As "Darwinism" became widely accepted in the 1870s,
amusing caricatures of him with an ape or monkey body symbolised evolution. The
Church of England scientific establishment, including Darwin’s old Cambridge tutors
Sedgwick and Henslow, reacted against the book, though it was well received by liberal
clergymen who interpreted natural selection as an instrument of God's design, with the
cleric Charles Kingsley seeing it as "just as noble a conception of Deity". The most
famous confrontation took place at the public 1860 Oxford evolution debate during a
meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Professor John
William Draper delivered a long lecture about Darwin and social progress. The Bishop of
Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce, who was not opposed to transmutation, then argued against
Darwin's explanation. In the ensuing debate Joseph Hooker argued strongly for Darwin
and Thomas Huxley established himself as “Darwin’s bulldog” – the fiercest defender of
evolutionary theory on the Victorian stage.
- Darwin was interested by Francis Galton's argument that statistical analysis of
heredity showed that moral and mental human traits could be inherited, and principles of
animal breeding could apply to humans (Eugenics). In The Descent of Man Darwin noted
that aiding the weak to survive and have families was against good breeding practice,
but cautioned that withholding such aid would endanger the instinct of sympathy, "the
noblest part of our nature", and factors such as education could be more important.
When Galton suggested that publishing research could encourage intermarriage within a
"caste" of "those who are naturally gifted", Darwin foresaw practical difficulties, and
thought it "the sole feasible, yet I fear utopian, plan of procedure in improving the
human race", preferring to simply publicise the importance of inheritance and leave
decisions to individuals.
- The ideas of Thomas Malthus and Herbert Spencer which applied ideas of evolution and
“survival of the fittest” to societies, nations and businesses became popular in the late
19th and early 20th century, and were used to defend various, sometimes contradictory,
ideological perspectives including laissez-faire economics, colonialism, racism and
imperialism. The term “Social Darwinism” originated around the 1890s, but became
popular as a derogatory term in the 1940s with Richard Hofstadter’s critique of laissezfaire conservatism.
- Note that Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's 18th-century theory (Philosophie zoologique,
1809) explained the adaptation of the species to their natural habitat in a different way
than Darwin did. Lamarck believed that a change in the environment brings about
change in "needs" (besoins), resulting in change in behaviour, bringing change in organ
usage and development, bringing change in form over time — and thus the gradual
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transmutation of the species. Examples of what is traditionally called "Lamarckism"
typically include: giraffes stretching their necks to reach leaves high in trees, strengthen
and gradually lengthen their necks. These giraffes have offspring with slightly longer
necks, which is known as soft inheritance. A blacksmith, through his work, strengthens
the muscles in his arms. His sons will have similar muscular development when they
mature. With Darwin, the species do not adapt to their environment. Those species that
happen to be best adapted to their habitat survive and continue to breed.
- Incidentally tell your students that Darwin had difficulties in spelling English words and
would be called dyslectic today.
Pre-reading
-
Tell your neighbour what you know about Charles
Darwin.
Look up the meaning of the words creationism,
Darwinism, social Darwinism and Eugenics.
Also look up what George Bush and Sarah Palin said
about creationism or intelligent design.
Look up what happened in the Kansas education
board concerning creationism.
Discuss this poster. What does it say about
Darwinism? What does it say about the cartoon's
author?
Reading comprehension/Speaking: visuals
-
Find the cartoons in your Student's Booklet.
Do the cartoons express an opinion? (The cartoons are against creationism
and say that creationist ideas are stupid.)
How do the cartoons express that opinion? Which emotions do they express? (The
first cartoon speculates on the U.S. citizen's fear of being outwitted by
the Chinese by suggesting that religious groups in the States make
scientific development and progress impossible, unlike in China; the
second cartoon shows an ugly Kansas farmer who can't spell
(edukashen). There is an ironic reference to Michelangelo's creation of
man painting from the Sistine Chapel in Rome; the third cartoon shows
some dystopic world in which mankind devolves back to medieval times
where the earth was flat, sex education was non-existent, witches were
burnt and leeches were used as a medical treatment; the fourth cartoon
suggests that children easily believe spectacular quack theories such as
alchemy, phrenology, magic and astrology. These disciplines belong to
the world of fantasy or some (medieval) past).
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Reading comprehension
-
Find the text The Theory of Evolution in your Student's Booklet.
-
What type of text is this? (an article from a newspaper, an article from an
encyclopaedia, a story, a comment on a forum … ?) (an article from an
encyclopaedia)
What does this article say about Darwin's theory of evolution? (It defines and
denounces the theory)
What are the main arguments against the validity of the theory of evolution
according to this text? (The theory was invented by atheists and many
people in the US and in Britain believe creationism)
Have you paid attention to the source? Identify the authors of this article.
(Conservapedia is an encyclopaedia with a politically conservative
viewpoint, friendly to creationism and Christianity, and massively hostile
to Liberals, homosexuals, and people who believe in the theory of
evolution. The site was started in November 2006 by Andrew Schlafly and
a group of homeschooled children to provide an alternative to the
perceived anti-Christian, anti-anti-Evolution, anti-American and anticonservative bias of Wikipedia. This is how Conservapedia defines itself).
-
Speaking
What is your own opinion?
-
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Should creationism be taught in your school along with the theory of evolution?
Do you believe there is enough scientific evidence supporting the theory of
evolution? Discuss this with your science teachers.
Is this an important discussion in your opinion? Or is it of little concern? Why
(not)?
Listening strategy: Webquest
Strategies and attitudes
It is important that our students learn strategies and know how to do communication
tasks. We have offered IT-supported methods of vocabulary acquisition, reading and
writing strategies in recent years and now focuses on various ways of listening along a
listening strategy, advocated by our national curricula.
 We try to bring variation in listening tasks (global, scanning, skimming, contextual
guessing, anticipating, visual representation in mind map or structural
organiser…);
 We introduce socio-cultural aspects and register (formal, informal);
 We try to start with a pre-listening exercise and round off with a post-listening
communicative exercise;
 We believe critical appraisal is essential within the language acquisition process.
Our students are expected to assess their (Internet) sources. They should develop
a critical attitude while working with listening materials, see through arguments
and express their opinion.
Visuals
Visual materials such as cartoons, images and video clips are types of text that add
variation to your teaching practice and enhance motivation. Moreover non-verbal aspects
of communication can be discussed in your class while watching the video clips. Evidently
the clips will be projected in your class and you need a beamer and a PC for that, with
sound amplifier and loudspeakers. Alternatively students can download the clips and
listen to them individually, which yields better visual results, but often may lead to
problems of downloading capacity within your school's network. Video clips can be
captured from sites such as Youtube or How Stuff Works. The clips used in this lesson
were taken from Youtube.
Skills and Content/Knowledge
Recent guidelines in didactics stress the fact that content or knowledge should be
integrated in the skills exercises. How can this be done? One method that we propose
here is to add an explicit description of which grammar structures and vocabulary the
student needs to use when he/she does a skills task.
e.g.
Business English writing on Sales techniques (8)
(I can write about a sales meeting. Use pep talk vocabulary of PR and sales and use the future simple
and/or the future of intention. Style? Enthusiastic and motivating)
You are a sales representative for Mary Kay. Write a memorandum for your
personal assistants in which you talk about a planned meeting with prospective
employees of Mary Kay, cosmetics. The meeting will take place in a hotel lobby
tomorrow. (Full text, half a page, 8)
e.g.
Writing – vocabulary - Death penalty (8)
(I can write about death penalty, express my opinion and formulate arguments. I can use these words
or expressions in my text: capital punishment, execution, executioner, life sentence, … Use at least
three different ways of expressing your opinion, which you learned in the writing project on
immigration)
Write a letter for or against death penalty to be published in a local paper. (nearly
half a page, 8, use the words above)
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Video clip 1
Find the full video clip on http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=zafcXI55QAo. Video clip 1 is 2'
13" long.
Pre-listening
-
Video clip 1 is about Victorian thinking, which is referring to the 19th century
when Queen Victoria ruled the country. First highlight in the list of word pairs
below which word, in your opinion, defines Victorian thinking best.
industrial - rural
static - dynamic
liberal - social
war - peace
America - South Africa
God - no God
Listening/Watching: global listening
-
Watch the video clip.
Is Victorian society static or dynamic according to the speakers? (Static)
Why would pre-Darwinian Victorians be opposed to change? (Change would
threaten the existing social order, which was wanted by God)
Which species of animals are mentioned? (primates, rodents, mammals)
How are creatures categorized? Which metaphors were used here? (in a
hierarchy as strains in the Creator's mind, as a ladder, as a chain: the
great Chain of Being)
Post-listening
-
Check your pre-reading list of highlights. Did you make the right choices?
Video clip 2
This video clip is 1' 45" long. Go to:
Pre-listening
-
You know what Darwinism means in biology, in nature. Discuss with your
neighbour what could be the effects of that theory if you applied it to the living
together of men, to politics and social order.
Listening/Watching: listening for words
-
Listen and do the exercise in your Student's Booklet.
(1. extraordinary 2. infinitesimal 3. seize 4. cannibalised 5. legitimised 6.
privileged)
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Listening/Speaking
-
What is social Darwinism? (a social theory in which the principle of the
survival of the fittest is observed (or even recommended) among social
classes. The rich are best adapted to society and survive)
The speakers say that politicians of Darwin's time used the new theories for their
own purposes. Would these be politicians of
1) the Conservative Party (Tories)
2) the Labour Party
3) The Liberals (Whigs)?
(The Liberals, because this party represented a new class of rising
industrialists who took over power from the landed gentry in the
19th century. They rose to power pretty much like the fittest or the
most adapted species in the animal world)
Video clip 3
This clip is 2' 35" long.
Background information
The Fabian Society is a British intellectual socialist movement,
starting action at the end of the 19th century and continuing up to
World War I. The society laid many of the foundations of the Labour
Party and advocated the policies of decolonisation of the British
Empire, especially India. Today, the society is a vanguard "think
tank" of the centre-left New Labour movement. Eminent members of
the Fabian Society were George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, Virginia
Woolf and Emmeline Pankhurst. Even Bertrand Russell later became
a member. At the core of the Fabian Society were Sidney and
Beatrice Webb (see photo). Together, they wrote numerous studies
on industrial Britain, including alternative co-operative economics
that applied to ownership of capital as well as land.
Pre-listening
-
Think of the word 'eugenics'. Analyse it and try to find out what it could mean.
Compare with other words having the prefix –eu or with 'genics'.
(euphony, genetics, eucharist, Eugène, Genesis, gen. Eu in Greek means 'good'.
Genos is the Greek word for 'race, offspring'; fonein is the Greek word for 'to
sound'; kharis means grace, thankfulness)
Listening/Watching: global listening
-
Explain what the theory of Eugenics says. (Selective breeding will lead to a
stronger race of men. Mankind will be improved when the weaker
elements will be weeded out)
Who 'invented' the theory of eugenics? (Francis Galton, Darwin's cousin)
Who supported this theory? (Julian Huxley, the Webbs, founders of the
Fabian Society)
Was the theory of eugenics popular at the beginning of the 20th century? (Yes, it
was widespread in America and Europe)
Who, in Galton's opinion, were the weaker elements of society? (prisoners)
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-
What is the link with Darwin's theory? And what is the difference with Darwinism?
(The idea of 'survival of the fittest'. Only with eugenics, the fittest are not
selected by blind laws of nature but are decided by men. Darwin did not
say the weaker elements needed to be weeded out)
Post-listening/Speaking
-
What, in your opinion, is the
dangerous or even inhuman
part of the theory? (The
question is: who decides
who is 'weak' and needs
to be eliminated? Even
more important is the
ethical imperative of
helping the weak instead
of killing them. Nazi
Germany under Adolf
Hitler was infamous for
eugenics programmes
which attempted to
maintain a "pure"
German race through a
series of programs that
ran under the banner of
"racial hygiene". Among
other activities, the Nazis
performed extensive
experimentation on live
human beings to test
their genetic theories,
ranging from simple
measurement of physical
characteristics to the
experiments carried out by Josef Mengele for Otmar von Verschuer on
twins in the concentration camps. Eugenics were popular in the 1920ies1930ies in many countries such as Australia (on Aborigines), Canada,
Japan, the US (with Theodore Roosevelt) with sterilisation programmes)
Language study
-
Listen and do the exercise in your Student's Booklet.
(1. widespread 2. proponents 3. militant 4. selective breeding 5. respectable)
Video clip 4
This video clip is 1' 18" long. Find its full version on
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=BCpT88Jw-f4
Listening/Watching: global listening
-
Listen and do the multiple choice exercise in your Student's Booklet.
(1b 2c 3b 4a 5b)
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Post-listening/Writing
-
Write two paragraphs in which you expound 1° what creationism believes 2° what
the advantages would be of that belief.
Video clip 5 (no sound)
This video clip is 0' 21" long.
Background information
The Creation Museum is a 70,000 square foot (6300 m2)
theme park in the United States, designed to promote young
Earth creationism. The museum presents an account of the
origins of the universe, life, mankind, and man's early history
according to a literal reading of the book of Genesis. Its
exhibits reject evolution and assert that the Earth and all of
its life forms were created 6,000 years ago over a six-day
period, and that man and dinosaurs once coexisted. A poll taken in 1987 shows that
these views disagree with 99.85% of the scientists surveyed who are in relevant fields.
Also, the museum exhibits are at odds with the vast majority of scientists who accept
that the Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old, and that the dinosaurs became
extinct 65.5 million years before human beings arose. The museum, which is said to
have cost $27 million, is privately-funded through donations and opened its doors to the
public on May 28, 2007. Visitor attendance exceeded first year expectations only 5
months and 5 days after opening, with a total of 250,000 visitors on November 2, 2007.
The museum is located in Petersburg, Kentucky, not accidentally situated in the Bible
Belt.
- In addition to large movie screens showing a young-Earth history of the world, the
museum also features a 78-seat planetarium depicting creationist cosmologies and a
200-seat special-effects theatre with seats that vibrate and jets that can spray the
audience with mist. Many of the displays were designed by someone from Universal
Studios designing attractions such as Jaws and King Kong before becoming a born-again
Christian and young Earth creationist. Among its exhibits, the museum features life-size
dinosaur models, over 80 of them animatronic (animated and motion-sensitive). Model
dinosaurs are depicted in the Garden of Eden, many of them side-by-side with human
figures. A major portion of the displays relates to the Great Flood as described in Genesis
6-9. The message is that the world prior to the flood was significantly and fundamentally
different from the world we know today. The Flood is presented as literally real, a global
catastrophe which fundamentally altered the landscape of the Earth, and was the event
that produced most of the geologic features (fossils, sedimentary strata, canyons,
continents) we observe today.
- To help the museum's mission to evangelize, a chaplain is on staff for visitors in need
of spiritual guidance. Each permanent employee must sign a statement of faith indicating
that he or she believes in young Earth creationism and the other teachings of Answers in
Genesis.
- The Creation Museum has been the subject of controversy ever since it was proposed,
because the exhibits are based on a young Earth creationist view of the origins of the
universe and life. Local opposition caused the construction approval process to take
several years.
The introduction to a Good Morning America report on the museum shown on Friday, May
25, stated that according to an ABC news poll, 60% of Americans believe that "God
created the world in six days." The report stated that the Creation Museum was aimed at
convincing visitors that evolution is wrong, and that the Biblical story of life on earth
from Adam and Eve to Noah's ark is scientifically verifiable. In a March 2007 Newsweek
poll conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, 48% of
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respondents agreed with the statement "God created humans pretty much in the present
form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so."
Pre-listening: anticipating
-
Watch the short video clip and say what the creationist museum will be all about.
Your teacher will tell you more about this weird museum.
Video clip 6 (sound)
Warning: the visual quality of this video is poor. Find the video on
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=TME30pPBw58. This clip is 3' 7" long.
Listening/Watching: critical appraisal
-
While watching this BBC movie, try to find out what the reporter thinks about the
museum. Determine his attitude or feelings concerning this museum.
Highlight the appropriate words
critical – sceptical – ironical – believing – neutral - unbelieving – admiring –
puzzled – objective.
(There is a tinge of irony in 'a new species of museum has evolved' but
on the whole the reporter remains objective and does not express his
opinion)
-
Now note down words that the reporter uses in order to render the opinions of
both advocates and opponents of the creationist theory.
(it's highly controversial, what's controversial, the claim that it's backed
by science, according to the museum co-founder, appear to have made
their minds up already, if it's true …)
-
The interview with a visiting family reminds us of a
family from The Simpsons. Which one? What does
the woman say?
(The Flanders family. We take more faith
than belief in evolution. Lots more. There is a
lot less facts (?) Interpretation: We have
faith and find there are less facts in evolution theories)
Post-listening
Language study: expressing certainty and doubt
-
10
-
If it's true, scientists have got it very badly wrong indeed.
Whether it's fact or fiction, creationists have made themselves much harder for
the secular world to ignore.
They could have been …
-
It may/can/could/ might have been correct.
It can't be true.
It must be true.
Use one of these constructions to express certainty or doubt in these sentences:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The world was created by God 6,000 years ago.
Dinosaurs lived together with men.
The Grand Canyon was made by a great flood.
The Creation Museum is educational.
The Great Flood destroyed almost the whole world.
Video clip 7
This video clip is 2' 15" long. Go to:
Simply enjoy this. I wonder if you have any more theories yourself! Have a try! Convince
the other students in your class.
pp. 10-11: HISTORICALLY SPEAKING: CELEBRATING DARWIN
Reading comprehension/Speaking
READ THE ARTICLE ON PP. 10-11. WORK IN PAIRS. TELL YOUR NEIGHBOUR AS MUCH
AS YOU CAN REMEMBER FROM THE ARTICLE ABOUT YOUR THREE IMAGES. USE THE KEY
WORDS FROM THE ARTICLE: vicar, archipelago, tortoise, ornithologist, species, offspring,
mammals, creationist, biodiversity, trait, controversy, specimen, finches.
Reading comprehension/Speaking: visuals
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12
Reading comprehension
READ THE FOLLOWING TEXT AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS.
The theory of evolution is a naturalistic theory of the history of life on earth (this refers to the theory
of evolution which employs methodological naturalism and is taught in schools and universities).
Merriam-Webster's dictionary gives the following definition of evolution: "a theory that the various
types of animals and plants have their origin in other preexisting types and that the distinguishable
differences are due to modifications in successive generations." Since World War II a majority of the
most prominent and vocal defenders of the theory of evolution which employs methodological
naturalism have been atheists. Although the defenders of the theory of evolution contend there is
evidence that supports the theory of evolution, there is a multitude of serious problems with the theory
of evolution which will be discussed shortly.
As far as public support for the evolutionary viewpoint, an article by CBS News begins with the
observation that, "Americans do not believe that humans evolved, and the vast majority says that even
if they evolved, God guided the process. Just 13 percent say that God was not involved." A 2005 poll
by the Louis Finkelstein Institute for Social and Religious Research found that 60% of American
medical doctors reject Darwinism, stating that they do not believe humans evolved through natural
processes alone. Thirty-eight percent of the American medical doctors polled agreed with the
statement that "Humans evolved naturally with no supernatural involvement." The study also reported
that 1/3 of all medical doctors favor the theory of intelligent design over evolution. In addition, there is
evidence to suggest that the evolutionary position is gradually losing public support in the United
States. The prestigious science journal Science reported the following in 2006 concerning the United
States: "The percentage of people in the country who accept the idea of evolution has declined from 45
in 1985 to 40 in 2005. Meanwhile the fraction of Americans unsure about evolution has soared from 7
per cent in 1985 to 21 per cent last year." In January 2006, the BBC reported the following in respect
to Britain: Just under half of Britons accept the theory of evolution as the best description for the
development of life, according to an opinion poll. Furthermore, more than 40% of those questioned
believe that creationism or intelligent design (ID) should be taught in school science lessons.
(source: http://www.conservapedia.com/Main_Page)
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Listening strategy: Webquest
Video clip 1
FIND THE FULL VIDEO CLIP ON http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=zafcxi55qao.
Pre-listening
HIGHLIGHT IN THE LIST OF WORD PAIRS BELOW WHICH WORD, IN YOUR OPINION,
DEFINES VICTORIAN THINKING BEST.
industrial - rural
static - dynamic
liberal - social
war - peace
America - South Africa
God - no God
Video clip 2
Listening/Watching: listening for words
LISTEN AND COMPLETE THESE SENTENCES.
-
Darwin was radical. His dynamic view was … (1) Nothing had ever been seen like it.
… (2) changes, all the time competing.
Political thinkers of every kind were quick to … (3) upon it.
What, of course, happened was that they … (4) what they wanted from Darwinism.
The reformers loved it. It … (5) their political demands for change.
The Anglican ruling class disliked it because it upset their … (6) position in society.
1
2
3
4
5
6
Video clip 3
Language study
FILL IN THE MISSING WORDS.
Eugenics was very … (believed everywhere, 1) and had many … (advocates, 2), such as
Julian Huxley. Even the founders of the Fabian Society were … (very convinced,
propagating, 3) eugenists. Mankind could benefit from … … (weeding out the weak
genes, 4). Eugenics became a … (socially recognized, 5) movement.
1
2
3
4
Video clip 4
FIND THE CLIP ON http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=bcpt88jw-f4
Listening/Watching: global listening
Multiple choice. Only one option is correct:
1
14
a. This video clip answers the question: where do we come from?
5
b. This video clip says that there are two theories concerning the question where
we come from.
c. This video clip explains the two theories concerning the question where we
come from.
2
a. The speaker is a creationist.
b. The speaker is against creationism.
c. The speaker is ironical about creationism.
3
a. The speaker says creationists are stupid.
b. The speaker says Adam and Eve were stupid.
c. The speaker says all theories about the origin of life are stupid.
4
a. The speaker says that creationism gives us a status and a communication
platform with God.
b. The speaker says that creationism makes us grub around in the dirt for insects.
c. The speaker believes creationism makes us feel tragic.
5
a. The speaker says that the book Genesis was never written.
b. He says that we should write that book if it hadn't been written.
c. He says Genesis has been written but we should write it again.
1
2
3
4
5
Video clip 6 (sound)
FIND THE VIDEO ON http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=tme30ppbw58.
Listening/Watching: critical appraisal
FIND OUT WHAT THE REPORTER THINKS ABOUT THE MUSEUM. DETERMINE HIS
ATTITUDE OR FEELINGS CONCERNING THIS MUSEUM. HIGHLIGHT THE APPROPRIATE
WORDS
critical – sceptical – ironical – believing – neutral - unbelieving –
admiring – puzzled – objective
Post-listening
LANGUAGE STUDY: EXPRESSING CERTAINTY AND DOUBT
-
If it's true, scientists have got it very badly wrong indeed.
Whether it's fact or fiction, creationists have made themselves much harder for the
secular world to ignore.
They could have been …
It may/can/could/ might have been correct.
It can't be true.
It must be true.
USE ONE OF THESE CONSTRUCTIONS TO EXPRESS CERTAINTY OR DOUBT IN THESE
SENTENCES:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The world was created by God 6,000 years ago.
Dinosaurs lived together with men.
The Grand Canyon was made by a great flood.
The Creation Museum is educational.
The Great Flood destroyed almost the whole world.
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