the spite girls
C. Scanning for information
For instance:
The article is about the movie Mean Girls. This movie discusses bullying and being an outsider.
Several experts give their opinions on teenage bullying and they stress the complexity of the problem.
Bullying isn’t just about physical bullying, but often, especially among girls, it takes much more
devious forms through gossip and isolation. Unlike ‘Thirteen’, another pretty dramatic and serious
movie on teenage girls, this movie is a comedy. The director hopes that it will give people –including
the teenagers themselves- a clear view of their problems, and how the bullying mechanisms work.
D. Explanation of the title
‘The Spite Girls’ is of course a pun on ‘The Spice Girls’. The article mentions that the Spice Girls
have started the idea of girl power and empowerment, but that many girls have interpreted the girl
power idea as a permit to act cruel to people they dislike for some –or no- reason. ‘Spite’ refers to a
desire to harm or annoy someone, often in a small way.
E. Vocabulary
b.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
c.
1.
2.
3.
4.
rocky – onstuimig, hobbelig
anxious - ongerust
wicked – bijtende, duivelse
subtle -subtiel
savage – primitief, ruw
mindset – manier van denken, denkpatroon
the white knight in shining armour – de prins op het witte paard; dat wil zeggen, het idee van de
ideale jongeman die het meisje komt redden
a wake-up call – alarmsignaal; iets dat mensen wakker schudt en met de neus op de feiten drukt.
with teeth – met tanden; dat wil zeggen dat het een wat agressievere, pakkendere versie is van iets
some sugar to help the medicine go down – min of meer: de pil vergulden; dat wil zeggen,
aangenamer maken; iets dat een misschien niet zo aangename boodschap wat makkelijker te
accepteren maakt, of wat makkelijker aan laat komen bij de doelgroep.
F. Memory – True/false
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
True; maybe not in a very harsh or rough way, but she remembers the small pricks and teases and
how much they hurt her (lines 1-7).
False; ‘Mean Girls’ is an example of mainstream cinema adopting an indie theme, i.e. outsiders and
bullying (lines 8-18).
False; the movie is based on a non-fiction book, a self-help guide for parents with teenage daughters
(lines 32-38).
True; his name is Mark Waters (line 40).
True; since the movie was released, talk shows and other TV programmes have been very eager to
dive into the subject and have teenage girls on their shows (lines 54-57).
False; the director clearly suggests that the girls make up their ways of bullying other girls themselves
7.
8.
9.
10.
and are very creative in this (lines 62-73)
False; it’s exactly the other way around (lines 79-88).
True; he claims that the complexity of adolescence is represented in a rather simplistic way in most
movies (lines 103-110).
False; the article suggests that they think it’s impossible to change your identity, but that the movie
can serve as a mind opener to the fact that changes are possible (lines 112-119).
True; the movie is contrasted to ‘Thirteen’, which deals with adolescence in a serious way. Waters
presents the fact that ‘Mean Girls’ is a comedy as one of its strong points, because it is much more
accessible (lines 119-128).
G. Organising information
[diagram 2b]
H. Descriptive language
blockbuster, mainstream, antidote to ‘Thirteen’, a phenomenon, ‘Clueless’ with teeth, feminist
undercurrent, comedy, very funny.
I. Compare
[diagram 3b]
J. In depth – Multiple choice
1c.
2d.
3a.
In line 14, you can read that, though indie cinema receives a lot of praise, the movies don’t make a lot
of money because not many people go and watch it.
Not a. The text claims that a reason for the fact that indie directors like making movies about
outsiders might be that they felt outsiders themselves while growing up (line 11). The text doesn’t
claim they still feel very alienated; probably by now they have collected a lot of friends who feel
similarly around them in the indie cinema world.
Not b. The text doesn’t claim that indie movies attract a huge audience just because they are dealing
with a popular subject, it just suggests that ‘Mean Girls’ had adopted an indie cinema theme and
adapted it to fit the needs and wishes of the mainstream cinema audience; ‘Mean Girls’ isn’t an indie
movie itself.
Not d. The text doesn’t suggest that indie cinema has gained popularity or become lucrative all of a
sudden, it just states that it is possible to take an indie cinema theme and present it in such a way that
it becomes popular with the majority.
Andrew Mellor says in lines 22-24 that kids are bullied most often by their friends or people they’d
like to be friends with.
Not a. Mellor doesn’t mention anything about how teenagers perceive bullying, but it’s not likely
from the story that people aren’t affected by it.
Not b.It’s not the teenagers that don’t know who’s bullying them, it’s just the outside world who
assume that bullies are more or less strangers, and that the victims certainly don’t want anything to do
with them.
Not c.Mellor suggests that teenagers are or would like to be friends with the bullies, not out of fear for
an even worse treatment, but genuinely because they are attracted to them, because they are friends.
He says that the victims often feel that their bullies are their friends, he doesn’t suggest it is because
they are scared of their bullies, it probably has to do with not being an outsider anymore.
Lines 25-31 suggest that adults who were outsiders in their youth want to see the movie to find out
‘where it all went wrong’, i.e. to find out the mechanisms behind bullying, why people bully or are
being bullied.
Not b.The text suggests clearly that the movie is attractive to adults, even, or especially so to those
4c.
5a.
6c.
7c.
8b.
9c.
who have had a ‘rocky adolescence’.
Not c. The paragraph doesn’t suggest the former outsiders simply come to have a laugh, it claims that
these adults probably want to see it to go back in time and see for themselves how bullying works.
Not d.Lines 29-31 suggest that the movie does especially appeal to teenagers, using their language
and culture, but that it doesn’t exclude adults, that they are reminded of what high school was like as
well.
It is clear from the text that both movies deal with teenage girls, but while ‘Thirteen’ is repeatedly
called a ‘wake up call’ for parents and a ‘shocking’ movie, ‘Mean Girls’ is a funny movie and also
appealing to teenage girls themselves.
Not a. There is no indication that the critics disliked ‘Thirteen’; it is called ‘masterly’ and it clearly
had a lot of impact.
Not b.It is true that ‘Thirteen’ has a more serious approach to the theme than ‘Mean Girls’, but while
the latter is a comedy, it doesn’t ridicule adolescence, it just shows bullying and teenage girls’
behaviour in a more or less funny way.
Not d. ‘Mean Girls’ is highly appreciated, but it is not true that ‘Thirteen’ didn’t have a lot of impact;
it caused ‘a furore’ (line 46) last year and served as a ‘wake up call’ according to the text, which
makes it very clear that it did have a lot of influence.
Cady thinks she’ll fit in perfectly and knows all about survival ‘having grown up in Africa’; the place
she grew up in makes her think she can manage high school.
Not b. She doesn’t suggest that the other girls will look up to her because of her upbringing, she just
guesses she’ll manage, having managed growing up in Africa as well.
Not c. The survival element clearly refers to her background in Africa, not to the characteristics she
shares with her peers.
Not d. The paragraph doesn’t mention any differences or similarities or reasons for exclusion because
of Cady’s intellectual achievements.
Waters suggests that teenage girls use many sly and devious ways of spiting their peers; they don’t
openly fight other girls, but subtly plot against girls they dislike while appearing to the outside world
to be perfectly nice and sweet.
Not a. The ‘Machiavellian’ part doesn’t refer to old-fashioned behaviour, but to the observations this
thinker made in the Italian court (see background information).
Not b. Waters doesn’t suggest that the girls have any morals and values, he calls them more
calculating and manipulative than most politicians.
Not d. Waters doesn’t suggest that teenage girls use their skills against adult politicians, he just
suggests that adult politicians – who are generally known to manipulate and scheme- could learn a lot
from the way teenage girls appear to be one (nice) person while being totally different (and not so
nice).
The Spice Girls are mentioned because they have promoted assertiveness; standing up for your rights,
not letting people treat you badly but knowing who you are and what you want and expressing that to
the world. However, the text suggests that many girls seem to think that assertiveness and aggression
is the same thing, and use the concept of girl power to get everything their way and treat others badly.
Not a. The text doesn’t mention anything about how the Spice Girls used to treat each other.
Not b. The Spice Girls didn’t promote aggression, but assertiveness and girl power.
Not d. The text doesn’t mention anything about what the Spice Girls were like as high school
students.
The text claims that girls’ friendships are more about one-on-one relationships; their relationships are
more complex and intense than boys relationships.
Not a. Friendships among boys aren’t as intense as girls’ relationships; they are less focussed on one
particular ‘best friend’. Their relationships function among much the same principles as war and
sports. The text doesn’t say, however, that boys’ friendships are based on sports preferences, but on
the mechanisms that regulate sports as well.
Not c. Even though this may be true, it’s not what this paragraph is about; the text focuses in this part
on the differences between the way boys and girls commit themselves to relationships in puberty.
Not d. The text doesn’t mention anything about the importance teenagers give to relationships,
thought the text seems to suggest that for girls, relationships (friendships) are much more important
than for boys; in their friendships, they seem to practise for later.
The line about the ‘feminist undercurrent’ refers to the empowerment of the girls by their teacher. The
girls aren’t told to stop calling each other names, but they are made to think what the consequences
are for calling each other names, and how this will affect not only their victims, but all of them.
Not a. Even though the movie is clearly about girls, this doesn’t necessarily give the movie a
‘feminist undercurrent’.
Not b. The text doesn’t suggest that the girls are being bullied by the boys, it just says that the boys
might consider it normal to refer to the girls as ‘whores’ if that’s what the girls call each other.
Not d. The text doesn’t say that the teacher encourages the girls to unite and fight their male peers
instead of each other, she just tries to make them think about what they say and do.
10a. The text doesn’t say one movie is better than the other; it just suggests that they deal with the same
problem in a different way. Whereas ‘Thirteen’ has chosen for the more serious approach and it has served
to shock parents into teenagers’ reality, ‘Mean Girls’ might have more or less the same effect on teenage
girls, by showing them in a funny way what’s happening around them, what the consequences might be
and how they can change if they want to.
Not b. The text doesn’t prefer one movie to the other, it makes a clear distinction between the two movies;
they both have different ways of getting the message across.
Not c. Waters doesn’t suggest that ‘Thirteen’ is moralistic or simplistic, he seems to like the movie a lot, he
just thinks that his approach –with comedy- might make the theme more accessible.
Not d. Neither Waters nor Elliot suggest that the films need each other; the movies have a different
approach and they seem to aim at a different kind of viewer.
when girls get nasty
C. Scanning for information
This article is similar to the previous one; it gives some information (from experts) on bullying and it
also mentions the movie ‘Mean Girls’. However, this article merely mentions the movie and doesn’t
discuss it further on. New information that is given in this article is the part about how new media are
used by bullies. This article also gives some life accounts of teenage girls about bullying, to illustrate
how the mechanisms work.
D. Vocabulary
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
glint (line 2) – spark (normally, ‘twinkle’ is possible as well, but ‘twinkle’ has a distinctly positive
meaning)
bunch (line 3) – group
puts on the map – makes generally known
slightly (line 18) – faintly
corridors (line 36) – hallways
sneaky (line 48) – sly
E. Organising information
[diagram 4b]
F. In depth – True / False
1.
2.
3.
False; the text suggests she is a bully, just like the ‘big boy’ (line 1) waiting to beat up the weaker kid, and
that she only looks angelic and sweet.
True; the movie has put the subject of girls’ bullying ‘on the map’; it has made it generally known, not only
to those directly involved, but also to people who aren’t in high school anymore.
False; Chloe does feel guilty, but not really about bullying other girls, but about not doing anything to stop
the bullies from bullying their victims. The text suggests that Chloe doesn’t actively bully other girls, but
that she does join in when girls are treated badly or excluded from the group, for fear of being excluded
4.
5.
herself.
True; Victoria usually reasons that the other girl gang is being pathetic and she can’t be bothered, but that’s
only when she is with other girls of her group; when she is on her own, their jeers do seem to affect her;
she can ‘feel the tears pricking’ in her eyes on those occasions.
True; she claims that the girls’ way of putting each other down is a way to work out power mechanisms
and that it’s a kind of ‘initiation into the adult world’, a way of growing up.
caught in the midle
C. Scanning for information
-Who are the main persons in the article? The main persons are three teenage girls from Baghdad;
Sali, Yosor and Beatrice.
-What is the subject of the article? The article discusses what impact the invasion of and war in Iraq
has had for teenage girls in Baghdad.
-Where do the events take place? In Baghdad, Iraq.
-When do the events take place? Now, summer 2004, and the past year.
-Why has the article been written? Probably to show that the war and the defeat of Saddam Hussein
haven’t meant more freedom for everybody, and to show that the situation in Iraq is still far from
peaceful.
D. Comparing; organising information and speaking.
a.
b.
[diagram 9b] [diagram 9c] [diagram 9d]
Questions you could ask are, for instance:
-What does the girl you think of do all day?
-How does she feel about the situation she is in?
-How do her parents feel about letting her leave home?
-Why does (or doesn’t) she go out?
-What are her plans after the summer holidays?
E. Memory
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
False
False
False
True
True
False
False
True
F. Vocabulary
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
pinstriped (line 4) – decorated with thin lines
blankly (line 8) – emptily, without taking in anything
streaks (line 13) - stripes
profound (line 46) – deep, intense
compliance (line 51) - obedience
barely (line 76) - hardly
anxiety (line 92) – worry, unease
gorgeous (line 103) –very beautiful
G. Organising information; before and after
[diagram 10b]
H. Grammar – Plurals
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
party - parties
tomato - tomatoes
DVD - DVDs
chief - chiefs
milkman - milkmen
photo - photos
German - Germans
sheep - sheep
tooth - teeth
donkey - donkeys
I. In depth – Multiple choice
1d.
2c.
3a.
The three girls come from different backgrounds, but they all suffer from the increased violence and
lawlessness on the streets, as well as from the religious conservatism that forces them to cover
themselves up. Even though the daughter from the factory worker (Sali) and the soldier’s daughter
(Beatrice) suffer from poverty as well as from the threat of violence, relatively rich girls are affected
as well. We know that Yosor is one of those ‘rich girls’ because her room has air-conditioning, she
apparently has the money to buy trendy pants, and she is used to going to parties and visiting
restaurants.
Not a. Though it is clear that girls from a poor background suffer even more from the present
situation, the idea behind the article is not to compare the three girls, but to show ‘the perils and
pressures bearing on the lives of teenage girls here’ (lines 17-18). The article clearly wants to make
these pressures and perils visible to the outside world by showing three clear examples of girls from
different backgrounds, who are each affected differently by the situation, but who all suffer in a way.
Not b. The article doesn’t put any emphasis on the age of the girls; as is said under ‘not a.’, the aim is
to show the outside world what it’s like to be a teenage girl in Baghdad these days; whether the girls
are fourteen or sixteen isn’t important, it’s just that they are all forced to make sacrifices and give up
their dreams and freedom.
Not c. There is no evidence in the text that any of the girls’ families were suppressed and poorer, or
privileged and rich, under Saddam’s regime; none of the girls mention any radical change for the
better.
In this case, the ‘snapshot[s]’ represent the current situation and ‘changes affecting Iraq’ (line 18),
meaning they reflect what’s happening on a larger scale in Iraq. The ‘creeping conservatism,
lawlessness and economic uncertainty’ is all present in these girls’ stories.
Not a. Internet and satellite TV are mentioned in this paragraph to show that the residents of Baghdad
are now able to take a look at the outside world; they aren’t mentioned as a way of showing the
outside world what life is like in Baghdad.
Not b. Although this may be the case, there isn’t much evidence that this is a realistic hope. There is
no sign mentioned in the text that anything is changing for the better or that the religious
conservatism is diminishing; both only seem to be increasing.
Not d. The writer has clearly selected these three to show how the situation the girls are in reflects the
current social and political climate in Baghdad. The writer has used the examples (the ‘snapshots’) of
the girls to show that Baghdad is far from being a safe place.
The paragraph mentions that girls who were accustomed (line 26) to go to the pool, piano lessons or
other outings, are now stuck at home (‘locked up’; line 27) since their parents don’t allow them to
leave the house because it’s too dangerous.
Not b. The girls were ‘accustomed’ to leave the house, in other words, they were used to going out in
4d.
5c.
6a.
7d.
summer, but aren’t anymore.
Not c. This answer suggests that in previous summers, they couldn’t go to the pool because of the
political situation, and that they had hoped that they would be able to do so now. However, the word
‘accustomed’ suggests that they took going out in summer for granted, but that this has changed now.
Not d. There is no evidence that the girls are allowed to leave the house when a member of the family
accompanies them.
The writer describes the young men as ‘claiming to represent new religious groups’. The fact she uses
the word ‘claiming’ instead of simply writing that they represented religious groups, suggests that she
is rather sceptical about their real conviction; she isn’t sure if they really represent the ‘new religious
groups’. It’s also clear from lines 34-35 that girls have obeyed these men’s demands partly out of
conviction, but also out of fear.
Not a. By using the word ‘claiming’, the writer lets a bit of her opinion on the men’s conviction seep
through.
Not b. She isn’t convinced these men are sincere followers; otherwise she wouldn’t have used the
word ‘claiming’.
Not c. She doesn’t think that the girls who have obeyed the men’s demands have turned into sincere
followers; she claims that they obeyed them just as much out of fear as of conviction.
The article gives the impression that religion, though present, only started playing an important role
recently, since the police state collapsed, and that Iraq had a lot of ‘educated, professional women’
(line 42), which suggests that women were free to study and pursue a professional career. The fact
that girls were accustomed to wearing more or less what they liked and were not forced to wear long
sleeves and scarves, and that parties, picnics and visits to restaurants were considered normal
pastimes suggest that they had rather a lot of freedom.
Not a. Iraq used to be a police state, but the strict Islamic law is something new; the new religious
conservatism only started after the collapse of the police state.
Not b. The text doesn’t mention anything about dress codes before the collapse of Saddam’s Iraq, nor
does it mention that women were inferior to men then.
Not d. The text suggests that Iraq was an orderly state with, for an Arab state, an extraordinarily high
number of well-educated women, but the text doesn’t mention anything about Iraq’s riches.
Sali has chosen to stay home herself; because of all the stories of kidnappings and the increasing
poverty of the family, she has decided to quit school. There is no evidence that the family pressured
her into this decision, though the text mentions that it would have been very difficult for her family to
pay for her studies.
Not b. Sali is scared of leaving the house herself. Her mother doesn’t have to force her, Sali was ‘so
shaken’ (line 65) by the kidnapping of a girl in the neighbourhood ‘that she seldom leaves her
family’s two-room apartment’ (lines 65-66).
Not c. There is no evidence in the text that Sali was forced to leave school; she decided to quit school
herself. Her family ‘confessed’ (line 71) that this decision was a relief, but they clearly see this as
something shameful to admit, otherwise they wouldn’t have used the word ‘confessed’; Sali’s mom
had actually wanted her to obtain her high school diploma.
Not d. The reason Sali doesn’t leave the house is fear; she is scared of leaving her home. She doesn’t
say that she would leave the house if there were any nice places to go to or if she would be able to
afford it.
According to the text, Beatrice’s father discussed the family situation with his daughter, even though
this was a very ‘shameful’ (lines 79-80) conversation; he had to admit to his daughter that he was out
of work (and probably wouldn’t find any soon, being an ex-soldier). He also had to tell her that she
was to spend her summer working in a hair salon, and that there probably still wouldn’t be any money
left to send her to school after summer.
Not a. This answer suggests that the writer thinks that Beatrice’s father hasn’t been honest with her,
whereas the text suggests that he has been completely honest with her, but that he just had to make a
decision, and that the financial family situation had become so desperate that he had to send his
daughter off to work.
Not b. From the words ‘from his point of view – a shamefully sad talk’ (lines 79-80) can be read that
Beatrice’s father isn’t happy with the situation at all; he doesn’t force his daughter to work because he
doesn’t want to work himself, but because the family situation has become desperate, financially
speaking.
8c.
9b.
Not c. The conversation is described as an ‘honest and […] shamefully sad talk’, which suggests that
he told his daughter the truth, and that she realises this as well.
Yosor’s mother doesn’t seem to make any objections to Yosor’s dress sense, but she doesn’t want her
daughter to wear the clothes because she realises it’s dangerous. She doesn’t like the situation, she
says ‘This is not a holiday’ and ‘You have to keep her in the house. Because she’s a girl’ (lines 118120). Yosor is clearly not used to her mother fussing over what she wears, she complains about it; this
suggests that in the past, her mother didn’t worry too much about what she wore.
Not a. The only reason the article gives for Yosor’s mother’s attitude is that she is afraid Yosor will
attract too much attention and might get kidnapped or raped, or become the victim of violence
otherwise. There is no evidence in the text that Yosor’s mother disapproves of her clothes for
religious reasons.
Not b. Her mother doesn’t seem to like the situation either, but knows that she has no choice; ‘you
have to keep her in the house’, she says, because it’s too dangerous outside.
Not d. There is no evidence that Yosor’s mother really dislikes the clothes; the only reason given in
the text for the fact that she tries to convince her daughter to dress otherwise is that she is scared what
might happen to her if she insists on wearing tight or provocative clothes outside.
On the positive side, the girls –and other Iraqis- now have the opportunity to find out about the rest of
the world. However, the text doesn’t offer many other advantages of the present situation for the girls;
they all experience the lawlessness and the increasing religious conservatism, and on top of that,
many also see their freedom limited because of their family’s poverty.
Not a. The text doesn’t claim that the girls didn’t gain anything from the changes; it mentions the
‘window to the world’ (lines 18-21) and the end of the police state (line 49) and isn’t as negative as
the first answer suggests.
Not c. Though it may be surprising, none of the girls suggest anywhere in the article that they were
better off before the collapse of the police state, despite their limited freedom.
Not d. The text doesn’t suggest that the girls think that the situation is only temporary; Yosor
expresses the hope that the situation will change soon, but the other girls don’t mention any
predictions for the future.
your next computer
C. Scanning for information
[diagram 6b]
D. Vocabulary – Matching
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
jarringly - b. unpleasantly
grind j. move slowly and difficultly
sleeker - g. thinner
hinge - c. axis
comprises - i. forms
furiously - f. wildly
expand - a. boost
shrink - k. get smaller
devices - d. appliances
emits - e. produces, sends out
prophecy - l. prediction
frontier - h. border
E. Memory
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
a
b
b
a
d
c
c
d
F. Organising information - Comparison
[diagram 7b]
G. In depth – True/False
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
False. It’s a slow revolution because the first mobile phone was developed almost 30 years ago, but
didn’t instantly change the world; it took a relatively long time to make it as indispensable and normal
as it is today.
False. The ‘one sense’ refers to the fact that modern phones have the same amount of processing
power as most computers in the mid-90s had.
True. The text calls them ‘fully featured computer-like phones’.
False. The text claims that smartphones get adapted to fit the WiFi networks, which makes it clear
that the technology wasn’t developed specifically to match the phones.
True. The paragraph makes it clear that the market for smartphones in the USA and in Asia is
completely different; in the USA they are bought by business people, whereas teenagers buy
smartphones in Asia.The fact that Asian manufacturers adapt the new technology they develop for the
smartphones to the people buying the phones, suggests that the market definitely (and naturally) has
influence on the kind of gadgets on phones.
True. He claims that ‘mobile bills will shrink to only a few dollars’ in the next few decades.
False. Maloney, one of Intel’s executives, thinks that people need a big screen and keyboard, but he
doesn’t say that people will replace their PC for a smartphone. Intel probably thinks the two will
continue to co-exist; that’s probably why Intel also invested in Wi-Fi networks (for laptops and
phones) and mobile-phone technology.
True. The text suggests that speech recognition should cover for the lack of a proper keyboard with a
mobile phone. This becomes even clearer from the phrase ‘Other innovators are working on
improving the keyboard instead of scrapping it altogether’ (lines 108-109); this suggests that the
people working on speech recognition did give up the keyboard.
False. Although the petfrog doesn’t exist yet, the text claims that it is feasible, i.e. it should be
possible to develop the petfrog with the existing technology.
Orlando boom
C. Scanning for information
a.
-Who is the text about? – The text is about Orlando Bloom, the actor who gained fame as Legolas in
‘Lord of the Rings’.
-What kind of text is it? – It contains information from interviews the writer had with Orlando and
b.
background information on Orlando’s life.
-When was the text written? – The text was written shortly after the second interview, which took
place somewhere in 2004, while Bloom was on a break from shooting ‘Kingdom of Heaven’.
-Why was the text written? – Probably because the author wanted to give her readers more
information on the person Orlando Bloom, what his life is like and especially what has changed since
he became famous.
Why do you think the text was called ‘Orlando Boom’? – It’s clearly a pun on Orlando’s last name,
Bloom. A ‘boom’ also refers to a ‘rapid growth’. In this case it refers to the rapid grow of Orlando’s
popularity and fame.
D. Organising information – Timeline
[diagram 21b]
E. Vocabulary - Matching
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
bustling - g. busily being active – druk in de weer zijn met
glance - k. look at superficially – een blik werpen op
hushed - b. (peacefully) quiet - verstilde
peak - h. top, perfect – top, perfecte
had set his heart on - d. wanted very much (and expected to happen) – had zijn zinnen gezet op
landed - j. caught, succeeded in getting – haalde binnen, sleepte in de wacht
major - a. very important or serious – ernstige, grote
fright - i. scare, feeling of fear – schok, schrik
whipped - e. forced into a certain state - opzwepen
to pin their hopes and dreams on - l. to depend on someone for happiness – om hun hoop en dromen
op te vestigen
extent - c. degree - niveau
opportunities - f. chances – kansen, mogelijkheden
F. Connections – writing
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
A.
B.
C.
D.
Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp are both actors, and Depp has advised Bloom on how to handle
teenage fans.
Orlando Bloom is currently in a movie that’s directed by Ridley Scott. He describes Scott as a
surrogate father.
Samantha is Orlando’s sister. She is an actress too.
Sonia is Orlando’s mother.
Colin Stone is a close friend of the family and he became Orlando’s legal guardian after Harry
Bloom’s death; Orlando heard later on, when he was thirteen, that Stone was his real father.
Harry Bloom was Orlando’s father. He lived in South Africa and died there when Orlando was four
years old. When Orlando was thirteen, his mother told him that Harry wasn’t his real father after all.
This circle contains two of Orlando’s colleagues from the movie world.
This circle contains Orlando’s family.
This circle contains Orlando’s father figures.
This circle contains Orlando’s closest family, the ones he has lived with all his life.
G. Memory – Speaking practice
1.
2.
For instance:
Where did Orlando live at the time of the first interview?
b. He lived in a house in Canterbury with his mother and sister.
What race does Legolas from the movie ‘Lord of the Rings’ belong to?
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
b. He’s an elf.
What does Orlando Bloom look like?
a. He has dark hair and dark eyes.
What’s the topic of the movie ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ and what’s Orlando’s role in it?
b. It’s a movie about the Crusades and Orlando plays the lead.
How did Orlando look by the time of the second interview?
a. The writer thinks he looks very fit and healthy.
How can you describe Orlando’s mother’s attitude towards his career?
b. She has always encouraged him.
What present was given to Orlando while he was in hospital?
a. His mother brought him a puppy.
What does Orlando think of modern technology?
b. He seems to dislike all modern technology and doesn’t know how to handle it.
Who is Colin Stone?
b. Colin Stone became Orlando’s legal guardian after his father died, and turned out to be his
biological father.
What age was Orlando at the time of the second interview?
a. He was 27 years old.
H. Comparing (changes in Orlando’s life)
[diagram 23b]
I. In depth – True / False
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
True: At the time of the first interview, ‘just over three years ago’ (line 1), Bloom was ‘an as yet
unknown’ actor (line 3-4); he only became famous shortly afterwards, when the first instalment of the
Lord of the Rings trilogy was released.
True: She writes that she met with Bloom for the first time in Canterbury (line 3), where he lived with
his mother and sister, and that the second interview took place at ‘Blake’s Hotel in South Kensington’
(lines 29-30) which is in London, as the text suggests in line 31.
False: The phrase ‘the ultimate fame barometer’ says something about the subject of the main
sentence it’s part of; ‘teenage girls’ (line 24). It’s the teenage girls who are seen as the fame
barometer, as the reference to ‘teenage screams’ in line 28 confirms.
True: The writer doesn’t describe Bloom as less enthusiastic; she writes that he is very enthusiastic
(line 52) and that no one could ever call him anything but enthusiastic. She also calls him ‘eager’ and
‘wide-eyed’ (both line 55), words that all indicate enthusiasm.
False: The words ‘has been’ suggest an action that’s still happening or which is still relevant. Bloom
is simply amazed by how fast he has gained fame and how bright the future is looking for him.
False: ‘Against all the medical odds’ means that no one (of the medical staff) had expected Bloom to
recover so fast; not that they didn’t want him to leave, or that they considered it insensible to return
home.
False: When Orlando says ‘I love to spoil my girlfriends’ (line 98), he uses the word ‘spoil’ in the
meaning of treating someone very well. He doesn’t suggest that he’s making his girlfriends selfish; it
is clear he means it positively, as one of his good characteristics and part of his romantic soul.
True: He says about the sometimes rather hysterical girls that ‘It’s not like the person they’re excited
about is really me’ (lines 114-115) and ‘It’s the characters I play that they are responding to’ (lines
116-117). He thinks that his fans are fans mainly of the characters he’s acting out, such as Legolas in
‘Lord of the Rings’, not that they’re fancying him personally.
False: The writer suggests that Bloom might feel a ‘void’ (line 136) when it comes to father figures,
Bloom himself claims, when asked about the subject, that he’s been ‘very lucky to have two dads’
(lines 145-146) which doesn’t really suggest that he’s felt a void really.
When asked about the subject of happiness, Bloom doesn’t say that he is happy; he calls it ‘my great
goal’ (line 148), and goes on to explain that he’s still ‘figuring it all out’ (lines 149-150) which
suggests that he isn’t there yet. He also explains that in order to be really happy, you first need to be
happy with who you are, that that’s the most important thing, though being happy in love, or being
happy with your work, also helps.
Greece lightning
B. Pre-reading activity
[diagram 17b]
C. Scanning the text
-What is the aim of this article? The writer wants to show us how much our culture is shaped by
ancient Greek culture.
-How has the writer tried to achieve this aim? The writer has used several examples from different
fields (beauty, health, sexuality, politics, literature) to show how big and diverse ancient Greece’s
influence is.
-What linking words (words to connect one paragraph to another) does the writer use? The writer
uses words such as ‘Of course’, ‘But’, ‘While’, ‘Also’ and ‘Unfortunately’.
-What technique has the writer used to give the article a proper ending? In the final paragraph, the
writer has established a connection to the first paragraph, by referring to the movie ‘Troy’ again. This
way, the circle is closed.
D. Ordering information
[diagram 18b]
E. Vocabulary
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
profound – deep, fundamental
richness - abundance
hunched - bent
smoothly – slickly; even and without difficulties
regulated – controlled, dictated
ancient – very old, of times long ago
narratives - stories
crucial – very important, essential
might – strength, power
F. Memory – True/False
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
False
True
False
False
True
False
False
False
True
True
G. Organising information - What the Greeks did for us
[diagram 19b]
H. In depth – Multiple choice
1d.
2c.
3d.
4c.
5a.
The main reason isn’t that it’ll show the viewer Brad Pitt’s naked chest again or that people like to
watch more amazing adventures and special effects, but the clash between Western and Eastern
culture, and the West conquering the East. Because of the recent American involvement in Iraq, the
writer suggests that the average American can do with some moral support.
Not a. Although the writer mentions these two reasons, the link to Bush’s America is made only
through the third reason, the victory of West over East.
Not b. This may be true, but the writer suggests that the main reason is that the movies of Alexander
conquering what’s currently Iraq and Iran gives the Americans some moral support.
Not c. The text doesn’t mention, or focus on, the Greek roots of American citizens.
The text suggests that in our current society, people have adopted the Greek ideal of beauty, but that
this started with the Victorian artists looking back at the way the Greeks represented their people.
Not a. It hasn’t been adopted by all generations; the text doesn’t suggest that medieval men had an
ideal of beauty similar to that of the ancient Greeks. In medieval times, the text suggests, men were
either shown as peasants, or as monks, or as knights.
Not b. The text suggests that in medieval times, man was depicted the way he was; as a monk, a
peasant or a knight, for instance; there is no evidence that there was some higher ideal of beauty, or
that artists sought for some ideal.
Not d. The text claims that our current ideal of beauty is perfectly depicted by Michelangelo’s David,
and that this statue still represents what many men would like to look like.
The word ‘lesbian’ is derived from the Greek island Lesbos, the text tells us. On this island, the poet
Sapphos lived; she was a woman who loved women, and Victorian doctors who had read her works
named the ‘abnormality’ of female love after the island she came from.
Not a. The text tells us that the word wasn’t invented by any Greek, but by Victorian doctors (line
68).
Not b. Though the first part is true, there is no evidence in the text to suggest that Lesbos was
populated by lesbian women; the reason the name ‘Lesbos’ was picked was because the lesbian poet
Sappho came from the island.
Not c. The island gave its name to the adjective, not the other way around, and the text doesn’t
suggest that ‘lesbian’ has a special meaning in Greek.
The word ‘democracy’ was invented by the Greeks as a political system that represented the voice of
the people. However, in ancient Greece, ‘the people’ didn’t include all people, they didn’t allow
women and slaves to vote. So, despite the fact that both the current English system and the old Greek
system are both called ‘democracies’, they aren’t exactly the same.
Not a. The Greek democracy was the first democracy; even though people today may not think it
very democratic to exclude certain groups, the ancient Greeks were the ones who invented the system,
so it would be rather strange not to call their political system a democracy. It is true though that there
are differences between the two systems.
Not b. The writer doesn’t think that many people are excluded in the English democratic system, or at
least doesn’t suggest so.
Not d. That’s not the point the writer wants to make; the writer merely wants to explain that our
current views on what’s democratic are different from the ancient Greeks’ ideas; not that the system is
less valuable because women and slaves weren’t allowed to vote thousands of year ago.
The word ‘haunting’ in this respect refers to the ‘thousands of retellings’ (line 94) there are of ancient
Greek myths; the themes and subjects of myths have reappeared in stories ever since first appearing
in Greek mythology.
Not b. The reason myths are still around is that they were written down by Homer, among others. The
way they reappeared and retold by ‘every generation’ is in other stories; for instance the theme of the
warrior returning home from war is a theme that has reappeared in many forms after its original
6a.
7b.
appearance in the Odyssey.
Not c. ‘Haunted’ isn’t connected to scaring people in this respect; it refers to appearing and
reappearing long after the Greek civilisation had collapsed.
Not d. ‘Haunted’ doesn’t refer to ghost stories or other unpleasant tales either.
The text literally says: “But for most generations since the Renaissance, ancient Greece summed up
what a great culture could be” (line 127-128). The writer suggests that artists, thinkers, philosophers
and others always have the ancient Greeks in mind as an example.
Not b. The thing that’s admired is the perfection and excellence of the culture and the people who
lived in the culture; the popularity and fame are only a result of this excellence, the writer doesn’t
suggest these are the real aims.
Not c. The text doesn’t suggest that all ancient Greeks mentioned were celebrated scientists,
sportsmen, writers and philosophers in one; just that they excelled in their own disciplines and created
an example for generations to follow.
Not d. This was the ideal for some dictators, not the kind of thing for all of the Western civilisation to
strive for.
The writer considers it pretty ironic that we need an American movie with American actors to get to
know our historic, ancient Greek roots, while American society clearly doesn’t have much of the
perfection the ancient Greek civilisation had in the eyes of the author.
Not a. The ‘ironic’ clearly refers to the second part of the sentence, the part about Hollywood and
Brad Pitt.
Not c. There is no irony in this statement, nor does the author suggest that this is ironic; it’s simply
what’s stated in the first lines of this last paragraph.
Not d. The writer doesn’t suggest that the movie ‘Troy’ doesn’t represent the facts of ancient Greek
life accurately.
I. Internet – Greek words and terms in contemporary
language
[diagram 20b]
out of Africa
B. Pre-reading activity
For instance:
[diagram 11b]
C. Scanning for information
For instance:
[diagram 12b]
D. Vocabulary
a.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
timely (line 6) – happening at just the right time
domain (line 21) - area
squeeze (line 47) – to fit by force
curvy (line 51) - rounded
slimmer (line 70) - thinner
6.
7.
8.
b.
engaged (line 78) – spent time
unruly (line 109) - disorderly
rumble (line 120) – a loud, crashing sound
lines 1-34
1.
downfall – collapse (line 11) – ineenstorting, uiteenvallen
2.
seemed – appeared (line 25) – scheen, leek
lines 35-65
3.
collection, group, series – set (line 35) - cluster, set, reeks, serie
4.
undergoing – experiencing (line 43) – ervaren, ondergaan
5.
thought to be – considered (line 58) – wordt gezien, beschouwd
6.
weighing machine – scales (line 63) - weegschaal
lines 66-99
7.
make a great effort – strive (line 81) – streven naar
8.
get fatter – put on weight (line 91) - aankomen
lines 100-130
9. nervous, worried – anxious (112) - bezorgd
10. at the same moment – in the same breath (line 122) – in één adem
E. Grammar – passive and active
[diagram 13b]
G. In depth – Open questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
The connection between South African girls today and American women in the 1920s is that both groups
have undergone a process of emancipation; the American women were officially recognized in 1920 and
could all of a sudden be what they wanted to be, and the same thing happened to black South Africans –and
especially the girls and women- after the downfall of the apartheid system. But, despite this apparent
emancipation, both groups also found that men still judged them on their looks.
However, the two groups aren’t fully comparable. Whereas the urge to look good was one of the traditional
values of the American women, the article suggests that working on your looks is one of the modern values
for South African girls. The people around them (parents, prospective husbands) expect them to fulfil both
the traditional and the modern values, and they end up in a limbo because of these expectations. The article
suggests that the American men of the 20s weren’t so eager for their women to adapt to the ‘modern’
values, and that they preferred the old arrangement, in which women just had to be pretty; they didn’t
much value the modern, emancipated woman.
By using the phrase ‘theoretically, at least’, the writer makes it clear that she doubts that the emancipation
really made it possible for black women to become whatever they wanted to be; it suggests that a system
can be changed overnight, but it takes much more time for people to adapt to the new system.
Mainly young black girls in urban areas are affected by the new urge to look slim and lose weight because
they are the ones who are most exposed to the new role models on TV, Internet and other media. The text
suggests that it’s mainly the Western media that influence the girls and give them –and the people around
them- the idea that in order to be successful, they have to be good-looking, meaning thin. In rural areas,
Western culture doesn’t play such an important role yet.
According to professor Szabo, when people acquire more power in society, their self-image, their identity,
becomes proportionally weaker. The moment South African women theoretically gained more power in
society, they seemed to lose confidence in who they were, and if they were able to live up to the
expectations connected to this new position. The reason this happens is probably that the moment people
achieve a different position they are not familiar with, they start looking for role models who have already
achieved that position for a long time, and try to adapt to those role models. In the case of the South
African girls, they take western models they see on TV as their role model and decide that in order to be
5.
6.
7.
8.
successful, they need to look like them.
The writer of the article seems to think that being overweight isn’t very much of a health problem, or at
least not in Africa; she suggests that there aren’t any health problems in societies where it is considered
normal –and healthy- for women to be fat, but that the moment a society starts saying that being fat is a
medical problem, health problems start; dieters quickly become depressed as their attempts don’t succeed,
and anorexia becomes a common disease.
Parents, according to the article, encourage girls to lose weight, make fun of their daughters if they eat too
much, in their opinion and in general put a lot of pressure on their daughters to eat less and look thin. They
are so anxious for their daughters to look thin, because being thin is associated with being successful. The
article suggests that in urban South Africa, it’s not considered possible to be fat and successful at the same
time. The reason they want their daughters to succeed is that their generation has fought for the changes
that enables the girls to be whatever they want to be now, and they don’t want their daughters to blow their
chances by being fat.
It is rather ironic that in a country where, according to a survey, about one third of all South African teens
are undernourished because their family can’t afford to feed them sufficiently, a great part of the two-third
who do have sufficient food, choose not to eat and more or less starve themselves voluntarily.
South Africa could be called a new country because the changes that took place in the last decades have
changed the country radically. However, the article also proves that the old cultural values haven’t changed
fully; the boy mentioned in line 117 expects his wife to be the best of both the old and the new South
Africa and doesn’t seem to think this is a strange, if not impossible thing to ask. Furthermore, the
emancipation that has given the girls more possibilities than ever has also restricted their freedom to be
who they are; partly because they force themselves to be someone they are not, and partly because that is
expected of them.
eat, eat, eat
C. Scanning for information
-Who is the main person in the article? Arit Asuquo Ibok, a 35-year-old woman who has joined a
fattening room in order to gain considerable weight and, that way, become more desirable for men.
-What is the topic of the article? Fattening rooms; what happens in them and how people value
fattening rooms in contemporary Nigeria.
-When do the events take place? The article must be quite recent; it refers to the Spice Girls and Girl
Power.
-Where do the events take place? Calabar, a port town in the south of Nigeria.
-Why has the article been written? The writer of the article probably wanted to show the Western
world that our beauty ideal isn’t shared all over the world, and that beauty ideals are influenced by
tradition and history.
-What do we know of the writer of the article? She is clearly Western, with Western values, and
doesn’t seem very impressed by the idea of fattening. She clearly disapproves of the tradition of
circumcision.
D. Vocabulary
a.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
properly – appropriately, as it should be
intrigued - fascinated
rare – uncommon, not usual
enabling – making it possible for
tucked into – started to eat rather enthusiastically
temper – bad mood
sinister - threatening, intending evil or unpleasant things
soak – make wet through and through
thriving – to develop well and be successful
elaborate - detailed, carefully worked out
b.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Het betekent een verblijf in de zogenaamde aankom-kamers (or whatever other word you came up
with) waar vrouwen niets anders doen dan eten (‘it means going to so-called fattening rooms where
women do nothing but eat’ (lines 16-17);
Ik zal een goede (begeerlijke) bruid zijn. (‘I will make a good bride’
Het is nogal vermoeiend om de hele tijd te eten (‘It is a bit tiring eating all the time’)
Waar het de gewoonte was om duizenden levens te verhandelen voor sterke drank of buskruit.
(‘where […] thousands of lives used to be bartered for gin or gunpowder’)
Ze worden ook gebruikt om jonge meisjes voor te bereiden op hun besnijdenis, of genitale
verminking zoals er gewoonlijk naar verwezen wordt in de Westerse wereld. (‘They are also used to
prepare young girls for circumcision or genital mutilation as it is more commonly referred to in the
West’)
Ik voel me er goed bij (‘I feel comfortable about it’)
Dit maakt het de vrouwen mogelijk om maar door te blijven eten (‘this allows the women to keep on
eating’)
E. Descriptive language
large (line 1), round and squashy (lines 2-3), fat (line 18), thickening (line 19), corpulent (line 25),
obese (line 27), rounded (line 42), heaviest (line 58), pile on the pounds (lines 58-59), enormous
potential (lines 83-84), plump (line 120), fattened (line 134).
F. Comparing articles
[diagram 15b]
H. Spelling – tricky words
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
I advise you to stop smoking.
Everybody accepted the new situation.
I don’t know where you are going exactly, but I’d like to come too.
If you choose that diet, I’m not sure whether you will really lose a lot of weight.
I wonder if he’s really going to their wedding.
The children were badly affected by the war.
He is quite a lot smarter than you might guess at first sight.
His life is filled with trouble.
They’re not going to Greece after all.
The building site was off limits for the schoolchildren.
Don’t pay attention to him; you know he’s only joking.
I don’t think it’s a good example.
He likes to wander through the fields when he’s got an afternoon off.
If you were to choose a holiday destination, where would you like to go to?
The dog scratched its back to get rid of the fleas.
He took their advice and left early.
He prefers loose fitting clothing to tight outfits.
Except for the mayor, everybody left the town.
She knew that he was right back then, but didn’t want to admit it.
I. In depth – True / False
1.
False: ‘The West’ mentioned in line 14 isn’t the west of Nigeria, but the Western world; the rest of
the article suggests that being fat is still more or less a beauty ideal in the whole African world as
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
opposed to the Western world. The author mentions the West because the people she is writing her
article for live there; she repeatedly makes references to the West and Western morals and values
when she mentions about Belgian chocolates and cream buns, and when she speaks disapprovingly
about circumcision; she has written the article from a Western point of view, and explains all African
values to her readers. Usually, when the word ‘west’ is capitalised, it refers to ‘the Western world’,
meaning Europe and the USA.
False: The article mentioned that it is situated ‘in the steamy jungle port of Calabar in southern
Nigeria, in other words, it’s a town located in the jungle, but also near the sea; otherwise it couldn’t
be a harbour.
True: Madam Eyo claims that in her opinion, Christina Lamb is ‘underfed’, whereas Christina herself
admits that she thinks she her hips have become too fat since having her first baby.
True: Lamb suggests that Madame Eyo’s offer to spend some months in the fattening room would
have been much more attractive if it had meant stuffing herself with chocolates and cakes instead of
the diet that’s part of a stay in the fattening rooms.
False: ‘ground’ in this case is the past tense of ‘grind’; the powder that is used in the fattening rooms
is bark from a tree that has been crushed (ground) and pulverised.
True: Although ‘peculiar’ usually means ‘weird’ or ‘strange’, in this case it means ‘belonging only’.
This is clear from the fact that the practice is contrasted to what’s normal everywhere in Nigeria; it’s
common all over the country to prefer fat women to thin ones, but it’s only in the southern part that
they’ve got fattening rooms.
False: The GPI refer to the slave trade because they see the obedience lessons the women receive in
the fattening rooms as a kind of preparation to slavery; not slavery of blacks to whites, but of women
to men. They don’t see it as an insult to blacks, but to women, because, in their opinion, the women
are being trained to act as slaves to their husbands.
True: She calls the practice of circumcision ‘even more sinister’ (line 82) than the previous practices,
the obedience training and the fattening.
True: Glory clearly values the old traditions; she doesn’t give the impression that she is forced to
undergo circumcision, and she clearly expresses her desire to be fat like Arit when she is older.
However, at the same time she plans to go to college and become a lawyer, which is part of the new
empowerment of black girls and represents the modern values.
False: The market, according to the writer, shows that ‘the desire to be large remains common’ (lines
105-106); she describes numerous stalls where all kinds of fattening substances and accessories are
sold.
the brothers Kalashnikov
B. Own research
but chances are you come up with:
[diagram 43b]
C. Scanning for information
-What is the article about? – The article gives us information about the Spetsnaz, the Russian Special
Forces.
-Who is the writer of the article? – The writer is a Western journalist, who was present at the
storming of the Dubrovka theatre in Moscow in 2002.
-Who is he interviewing? - He focuses on the commander of the unit he’s visiting, ‘Ded’, and the
lieutenant, ‘Mokry’, but he also talks to some of the conscripts.
-Why is he interviewing them? – After witnessing the storming of the theatre, he had become
interested in the Special Forces that were responsible for neutralising the hostage-takers.
-Where do the events described take place? – The storming of the theatre took place in Moscow, but
the interview takes place in the Spetsnaz headquarters just outside Grozny, the capital of Chechnya.
-Why does the interviewing take place at that spot? – Because at least Spetsnaz units are always
present in Chechnya since the Russian invasion in 1994.
-When do the events described take place? – The storming of the theatre took place in October 2002.
After that, it took the journalist ‘months of negotiation’ to get permission to interview and visit a
Spetsnaz unit. The text also mentions it’s ‘nearly a decade after the war began’, so it’s probably late
2003 or early 2004 when the journalist visits the unit.
D. Descriptive language – vocabulary
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
stormed: ran quickly to, assaulted, swiftly attacked (D)
suicide bombers: people with explosives who blow themselves up believing this will further the cause
they are fighting for (D)
blow apart: ruin something by letting it explode (D)
finished off: kill, execute (E)
ruthless efficiency: they do what they have to do quickly and well without any thought of the moral
consequences (can be both)
sharp end of the action: where all the fighting is (E)
knocking out: destroying, putting out of action (D)
magic wand: (here) we make problems go away as if by magic, actually it means the Spesnatz will do
the dirty work other troops cannot or will not do. (E)
neutralise: kill (E)
not healthy: we will beat you up or otherwise damage you (E)
on high alert: ready for trouble, ready to go into action (D)
fallen comrades: those soldiers from their unit who have died (E)
E. Organising information
There is room for choices here. Your descriptions could resemble these:
Lines 1 to 35: The author sees the Spesnatz in action for the first time when they efficiently end the
hostage situation at the Dubrovka theatre.
Lines 35 to 50: Spetsnaz shun publicity because they are a secret force but also because there are
some nasty rumours about them.
Lines 51 to 55: Spetsnaz rehabilitated under Poetin
Lines 56 to 86: Getting assigned to a Spetsnaz unit in action in Chechnya is difficult as there is a lot
of suspicion towards the press.
Lines 87 to 93: Selection of recruits
Lines 94 to 130: Ded, the Spetsnaz commander, putsd the writer to a test and decides to accept him
Lines 130 to 140: Ded is exemplary of the elite soldiers.
Lines 141 to 173: The story of Spetsnaz in Chechnya, illustrated by the story of twice-wounded
soldier Mokry.
Lines 174 to 194: the daily routine of Spetsnaz units is broken by maybe one major raid a month
Lines 195 to 203: Careers of former Spetsnaz soldiers
Lines 204 to 213: dark rumours about the Spetsnaz
Lines 214 to end: They pay respect to their (many) dead.
F. Descriptive language - Comparing
[diagram 44b]
G. In depth – Open questions
1.
Because Chechen fighters and suicide bombers kept the players and the audience hostage there, and
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
negotiations had not brought a solution.
Probably partly because widows in those regions dress in black, but more because of the connotation ‘
black widow’ has witht the deadly spider species of that name, these women mean to kill as well.
Firstly, they are special troops whose work is better done when their enemies know little about them.
Secondly there are a lot of nasty rumours about corruption, slovenly behaviour and also misconduct
and undue violence connected with their name.
Because the Spetsnaz are at the forefront (the sharp end) of fighting in Chechnya, and Grozny is that
country’s capital
Ded is not only a volunteer in an army mostly made up of conscripts, but he is also a Maroon Beret,
one of the elite of the elite when it comes to special army forces.
Because they get him drunk to see if he will give away his a negative attitude towards the Spetsnaz
when he is off guard
First of all, it is ‘ old news’ as the fighting has already lasted ten years. Next, other wars, such as the
war in Iraq have caught the headlines instead. Finally, as becomes clear from a number of passages in
the text, the fighting in Chechnya is very ‘ dirty’, atrocities and war crimes are commited and it is in
the interest of the armed forces to hush them up.
Mokry, though young, has been through a lot already and is probably rather exemplary for a Spetsnaz
sub-commander.
They seem to become either bodyguards or criminals
The rumours are that they rape, torture and kill people without giving them a chance to surrender or
go to trial. Proff from the text maybe that the reporter is met with shrugs (line 211) instead of denials,
the very strong suspicion, marked by months-long negotiations before he could join the unit, the
suspicions of the commander, Ded, and the admission they ‘ neutralise’ (line 104) Chechen field
commanders
H. Nationalities
[diagram 45b]
the school that joined the army
C. Scanning for information
For instance:
Four years ago, Carver Military Academy was a normal high school. Or not truly normal; it was about
to be closed because of the unstoppable violence and crime that infested the grounds. In order to
prevent closure, the school asked the army to help control its students. Now, the school grounds are
supervised by teachers as well as military personnel, military drills are a normal sight, discipline is an
obvious part of the curriculum and academic scores are rising, though not fast enough yet to escape
probation. Find out what it’s like to go to a military academy in this article.
D. Organising information
Individual work
20 minutes
[diagram 16b]
E. Vocabulary
b.
1.
hint, a very small amount of something; trace (line 6)
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
coming off in small pieces; peeling (line 13)
hung carelessly; slung (line 50)
unavoidably, predictably; inevitably (line 61)
clear, noticeable; obvious (line 79)
abandoned, empty; deserted (line 90)
coloured; dyed (line 127)
stern, severe; fierce (line 150)
risen, gone up; climbed (line 169)
openly present, evident; overt (line 179)
F. Memory
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Personal. You could mention for instance the military drills, the discipline and the school uniforms,
the military personnel that is present in the school when defending the title; on the other hand, the
school hasn’t joined the army really; it cooperates with the army and it offers students a possibility to
a career in the army, but not everybody joins the army after graduation.
William Pearson clearly takes school very seriously; he joins the early morning drills even though
they aren’t obligatory, and takes very good care of his uniform; he seems very disciplined.
The school decided to become a Military Academy as a last resort. Crime and lawlessness had
affected the school badly, and the school didn’t even come close to the official standards. They
decided to ask the military for help in controlling their students, and the school and the army teamed
up to regenerate the school.
The school is a rather ugly building made of redbrick and metal; in a way it fits the landscape since
the surrounding area isn’t very impressive either.
Mayor Hayes thinks that great parts of the neighbourhood and the housing next to the school are
particularly dangerous; he wouldn’t enter there himself if he didn’t have to, even though quite a lot of
students live in the derelict houses in these streets.
The class is described by the author as a bit noisy, but the students are willing to work nevertheless.
At the time, students were working on a persuasive essay, and one of the girls was defending the
subject of having day care centres in schools.
Pregnant students or students with babies are treated in the same way as the other students. The
school doesn’t send students away for this reason, though teachers and military staff do their best to
discourage girls from having babies so young.
In a way, Carver Military Academy is a success, academically speaking; more students graduate, the
truancy rate has dropped and general academic achievement has increased. However, according to
state standards, the school isn’t successful yet; they are still on probation and the future of the school
is still uncertain because the academic results fail to meet the standards.
G. Grammar - Relative clauses
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
The car which/that was stolen yesterday, belonged to the principal.
The school has great teachers who/that will never let you down.
Fernando Fuentes, about whom I was talking earlier, graduated last summer.
Do you remember the contents of the article which/that/-(nothing) you read today?
The boy whose father was in jail, looked up to the officers.
William Pearson, who is a very tall lad, doesn’t like to walk to school.
I don’t know what you’re talking about.
This is the place where all the crime took place.
The house in which Major Hayes lives is actually quite cosy.
I vividly remember the day when this happened.
The building which/that/- (nothing) we stay in is derelict and dirty.
The 2002 yearbook, which costs only 5 dollars, contains many nice anecdotes.
H. In depth – True / False
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
True. William Pearson claims that ‘lately it hasn’t been that bad’ (line 22) since everybody (all the
people who are involved in crime) was locked up. He fears that this won’t last though, since most of
them were to leave prison shortly after the interview took place.
False. Students aren’t expected to be there, but students come out of their own accord. There is no
evidence in the text that anyone expects them to be there, the text just mentions that ‘many of the
students are so dedicated’ (lines 27-28) that they choose to go there.
False. Fuentes doesn’t say that he’s enjoying it, he just mentions that it’s necessary ‘to act real mean’
(line 40); the word ‘act’ suggests that it’s merely a show he puts on, a necessary feature to make the
students learn, not something he particularly enjoys or only does for fun.
True. The text claims that ‘the school is flooded with applications from all over Chicago’ (line 64),
i.e. there are lots of parents and students in Chicago who would like (their son or daughter) to attend
the Academy.
False. Most people in Chicago ‘would not dream of setting foot in’ (line 70) Altgeld Gardens; this
means that they wouldn’t enter the housing project under any circumstance, clearly because it’s such
a dangerous place.
True. He says he ‘wouldn’t doubt it’ (line 86); he suggests that even if it’s not completely true, it’s
certainly true that 40% of the males aren’t around anymore by the time they’re 21; if they aren’t dead,
they’re in jail, he thinks.
False. He is a 21-year veteran (line 98); this doesn’t mean he’s 21 years old, but that he has been a
soldier for 21 years. It would be highly unlikely for the man to be only 21 years old with all the
military experience he’s obviously got.
False. Michael Harlan lives in the neighbourhood; he lives in Altgeld Gardens (line 118), the housing
that’s nearest to the school (and the most dangerous) (lines 67-71). Kyle Klein however isn’t from the
neighbourhood; he mentions that ‘If I was at my area high school, I’d probably be going off track’
(line 114-115). This suggests that Kyle Klein doesn’t live in the area of Carver Military Academy, but
in another area, closer to another school which he would normally have attended.
False. He tells the girls ‘to square themselves away’, meaning that they should tidy themselves up.
Even if you didn’t know the meaning of the phrasal verb ‘to square away’, you could have guessed
this from the fact that the text specifically mentions that Hayes tells this to ‘a group of girls whose
shirts are hanging out’ (line 145). The previous lines have shown that Hayes thinks that discipline and
proper behaviour are very important for keeping order in the school.
False. Line 150 says that ‘these officers look out for the students’; ‘look out’ in this case doesn’t
mean ‘to take care (to avoid something unpleasant or undesirable)’, but ‘to take care of and pay
attention to’. The officers are strict, but they also care about the students and help them when that’s
needed.
True. ‘The school is on probation’ (line162), meaning that it could be closed in future if the academic
results don’t improve even more. Even though the results have improved impressively, the school still
doesn’t meet the official standards.
True. The stairwell is the place ‘where all crime took place’ before the school turned military (line
179-180). It is characterised now by graffiti and broken concrete, and a ghostly silence; the stairwell
is what the school used to be like, and has been abandoned with everything it stood for.
is your computer on?
C. Scanning for information
For instance:
[diagram 24b]
D. Organising information
[diagram 25b]
E. Vocabulary
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
to commit (line 7) – to carry out (something illegal)
swiftly (line 8) – quickly
earning (line 22) – getting (by working)
traced (line 26) – found
launch (line 29) – start
collapsed (line 41) – broke down
tended (line 64) - were likely
clever (line 78) – smart
tiny (line 97) – very small
F. Memory – Multiple choice
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
d
c
b
d
b
a
c
a
G. Grammar – prepositions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
The worst computer plague of all time (line 9).
In the run up to the 2004 Cheltenham Gold Cup (line 16).
Hundreds of millions of obscene emails (lines 30-31).
Viruses are the perfect tool for criminals (line 33).
The ability of viruses to cause chaos (line 37).
There are several distinct groups competing for control of the networks (line 57-58).
Most just download virus-making kits off dodgy websites (lines 85-86).
They can be programmed to destroy files and send themselves on to dozens of other users (lines 92-94).
H. In depth – Open questions
1.
2.
The main difference is that the ‘next generation viruses’ such as Bagle, Mydoom and Netsky not only
create chaos, but also open up a backdoor in each computer they’ve infected, which can be used again later
on to enslave the computer to the virus releaser’s network. These viruses are therefore very interesting for
criminals, since this way, they have disposal of thousands of computers that can do the dirty work for them,
without being traced back to them. This ‘dirty work’ usually means overloading a network so it collapses at
a crucial time.
The old kind of viruses usually ‘only’ created chaos because they (temporarily) blocked mailboxes, deleted
files or wiped hard disks.
Other differences are that these new kinds of viruses are created by highly trained and professional
programmers, who manage to keep the virus incredibly short so it’s hard to detect. Until recently, viruses
were spread almost always by young men or teenagers.
Bookmakers and online banks are being blackmailed by criminals who have taken control of many
computers of innocent private users whose PCs have been infected by viruses. The criminals demand
money or information from the bookmakers and threaten to make their system collapse if they don’t fulfil
these demands. The criminals can make the system collapse by ordering all enslaved PCs to demand
information from the bookmaker’s site at exactly the same time, in that way overloading its system.
3.
4.
5.
There haven’t been many convictions for virus releasing or creating because it’s terribly difficult to trace
viruses; because hackers can ‘enslave’ other computers, they can turn innocent people into their
accomplices (medeplichtigen). It’s very hard to prove who are and often they aren’t aware of a virus being
spread through their computers.
The ‘Trojan horse’ virus used by the American secret services didn’t use any other computers to make the
system collapse; it had a piece of code in it that overruled some of the Soviet software that was supposed to
control the gas pipeline, and which caused the pipeline to explode. The new viruses don’t work that
directly; they use thousands of computers of innocent individuals that can be controlled by them because
they’ve been infected by a virus. Individually, these computers wouldn’t be able to do much harm, but
because all of them are instructed to call or demand information from the victim’s website at the same
time, the system becomes overloaded and collapses.
[diagram 26b]
hard times
D. Organising information
[diagram 47b]
E. Vocabulary
b.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
profound –deep, intense
key – most important
slump – crash, period of bad business conditions and unemployment
stay afloat – to stay out of debt, to remain healthy
booming – quickly expanding, flourishing
prosper – to do well
modest – not very extensive, small
disparate - unequal
maintained – continued to have, kept
imposed - put into effect, enforced
H. Comprehension In depth – Multiple choice
1c.
2a.
The pictures are taken by photographers who worked for the federal government and who were
supposed to create a pictorial record of the hard times, but the photos were also used for distribution
to newspapers and magazines ‘to build support for the New Deal’s rural programmes’ (lines 11-14).
Not a. The pictures were meant for contemporary viewers (mentioned in line 15) not exclusively for
future generations. It is true that if you set out to create a ‘pictorial record’ (line 7) you probably
expect future generations to look at your pictures as well, but at that time the federal government used
them for more direct purposes, such as finding support for government policy (lines 13 and 14).
Not b. The text says the pictures were used to build support for the New Deal’s rural programs, but
not that they influenced that policy.
Not d. Although it is stated that today, they are the basis of our visual understanding of the Great
depression (lines 18 and 19) but at the time their function was to record what was happening and to
influence the press.
In lines 32 to 37 the writer states that the main cause for the Depression was the combination of
unequal distribution of wealth, meaning there are a few very rich and a lot of fairly poor people, and
extensive stock market speculation, that this speculation was wild and irresponsible is made clear
much further on in the text, in lines 205 to 224 when ‘trading on margin’ is discussed.
Not b . First, lots of relatively poor people bought on credit and secondly the goods from the luxury
boom that in radios and cars, mentioned in lines 68 and 69.
3d.
4b.
5a.
6d.
7d.
Not c. Although in itself it is true that the majority of American spent all their salary, it was not
exclusively on luxury goods, but also on clothes and food, which we do not necessarily term ‘luxury’.
Then, they did not so much borrow money but rather buy on credit. The main reasons were that the
most wealthy consumer group did not consume enough nor did it plough back its profits into the
economy, and lots of risks were taken in speculating.
Not d. Although it is true that the rich did not consume in proportion and also did not invest, it is not
true that they did not raise the wages of their workers. In fact, they did but not as much as the output
per worker would have justified. Finally, and most importantly, the writer does not see these as the
main factors, rather as parts of the two main factors (the unequal division of wealth and the
speculation) that he proceeds to describe in more detail in the most of the text.
The writer states that instalment credit created an ‘artificial demand for products people could not
ordinarily afford (lines 75 to 77), demand being one of the things that keeps an economy going. But
they ended up using all their money to pay off their instalments and that made the downfall (line 79)
i.e. the moment when the system collapsed even worse.
Not a. They enjoyed some luxuries until the crisis came, not after it had arrived, then they lost
everything as the companies tried to recoup some of their losses.
Not b. It says nowhere one could renew credit all the time, instead it says clearly that people ended up
using all their wages to pay for what they had bought on instalment credit.
Not c. People used instalment credit to consume, not to invest. What kept the market going was the
‘artificial demand’ (line 76).
‘Driving force’ here means that the production of the car industry set other things in motion, was the
power behind more and more developments such as construction and development.
Not a. Although it was a very important industry that produced goods (i.e. cars) that lots of people
wanted to buy, it was not the only industry to do so. The radio industry is very specifically mentioned
as another industry with the same kind of impact.
Not c. ‘Driving’ here has nothing to do with driving a car, it is a synonym of ‘the power behind’.
Not d. This may or may not have been true for a while, but when the crash came it came for all
industries. More importantly, it is not stated anywhere in the text that the automotive industry was a
safe investment, most investments discussed are not seen in the light of what one invested in, but how
people invested, namely on margin, which was dangerous.
It is specifically mentioned as another industry that ‘also prospered’ (line 118) just like the car
industry, and that other companies ‘needed the radio to survive’ (lines 119 and 120).
Not b. Radio is only mentioned as ‘also prospering’, we don’t get to see a comparison between the
output of the auto industry and the radio industry respectively.
Not c. Although the radio industry did make money through related business such as advertising, the
text also clearly mentions the ‘constant growth’ of the radio market itself (lines 121 and 122).
Not d. The text suggests that a lot of other industries depended on the radio, and that the radio
industry went through a ‘constant growth’, which indicates that the business was booming.
The real problem was that the US produced more goods than were consumed in America itself so to
avoid crisis it would need to export. But the relative poverty of Europe combined with the high tariffs
made a favourable trade balance impossible (lines 186 to 196)
Not a. This in itself is true, but it was just part of the reason. The other part was that US goods were
artificially highly priced (tariffs) and the Europeans were supposed to pay interest on huge US loans
(line 194).
Not b. Although for a while the European infrastructure was simply incapable of cheap production, it
is specifically stated that the high tariffs that hampered European exports to the United States
(lines180 to 185)
Not c. Although again in part true (the Europeans had trouble keeping up with their interest
payments), it is not stated anywhere that the US wanted the whole loan back at any given time. It is
also made clear that the trouble arose from a combination of factors, including tariffs and lack of
purchasing power on behalf of the Europeans.
The text says that by putting up $ 10 of your own money you could make something like $ 341. It
also says ‘one could buy stocks without the money to purchase them’ (lines 204 and 205)
Not a. It was exactly the huge profits that were irresistible to investors. Profits could run into
percentages of 1000%s!
Not b. The text indicates that more people than just the rich speculated, it says that ‘speculators
8c.
flocked to the market’ (line 227), indicating large numbers, it talks of ‘mass speculation (line 197)
and the example takes John Doe, the pseudonym for the average, anonymous American.
Not c. It is the other way around, one did not look at what a company actually made but just at what
one might expect its stock to do (lines 203 and 204: company earnings became of little interest.)
The text, which mentions a whole sequence of events, in which the collapse of the stock market is the
‘trigger to an already unstable industry (line 244) Consumer and investor confidence were
undermined (line 245) which caused another chain reaction of stores closing and people losing jobs.
Not a. Black Tuesday was the day the stock market fell for the second time, and although it triggered
the Depression, that only started after a while when many businesses had folded.
Not b. Monday, October 21st was the first stock market crash, which was followed by Black Tuesday
when the bottom finally fell out of the market. See also the comments under A.
Not d. The falling apart of these industries had a great impact, but it was rather the general loss of
confidence, and, as the deathblow, the loss of exports, that turned a crisis into the Great Depression.
I. The Depression and the farmers:
Open questions / Internet assignment
1-4 The government had subsidised the farmers because the production of food had fallen sharply in
Europe because of the war, so more food had to be produced (and of course the US benefited from
this trade in food to a Europe that had to be fed (line 138)
First of all they had put the money they earned in those years in more farmland and new equipment,
the government had urged them to do so.
They had had absurdly good prices for their produce (line 133) so when this money fountain dried up
they found themselves overextended. On top of that, of course European production would start up
again after the war had ended (that’s not mentioned in the text, though).
They had already fallen into debt in the 1920s, so many must have already been really poor (line141)
Farmers had already found that they overproduced. Now, with many people becoming jobless
consumption of everything, including farm products would only go down even more. Also they had
run into debt. When banks started collapsing, too, that meant that they tried to get their money back
where they had lent it as much as possible. In the case of the farmer, this meant they were left with
absolutely nothing at all.
5.
This is up to you, but questions you could ask your audience are:
-What is the mighty nation mentioned in line 4?
-What kind of ‘dreadful track’ would the storm have left?
-What were the reasons these dust storms started blowing?
-Why was it a particularly ill-suited decade for the farmers to have to contend with the dust storms?
-What is meant by the words ‘judgment’ and ‘doom’ in line 8? What did the farmers presumably
associate the dust storms with?
-Indicate on a map the area in which the song says the dust storms raged.
-Look up the meaning of ‘Boot Hill’. Who would be the comrades sleeping there?
-What do the farmers decide to do when they see the damage the storm has wrought?
star-crossed lovers
C. Scanning for information
-Who is the article about? – Bonnie and Clyde, two outlaws in the 1930s in the USA.
-What is the article about? – Their background and especially the final weeks of their lives.
-When do the events described in the article take place? – In the 1930s, during the Depression and the
Prohibition.
-Where do the events take place? – In the USA, especially in the central states of the Midwest (Texas,
Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri and Iowa)
D. Organising information
[diagram 41b]
E. Vocabulary
a.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
it was second nature – it was very normal for them
recorded – documented
promptly –directly, instantly
reached its peak – hit the highest point, reached the top
tucked away – located in a safe place
caught up - arrested
rushed - hurried
intended - planned
clutched – held very tightly
fugitive – someone who is on the run
b.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
lead her to her death – caused her to die
put his foot down – drove away very fast
brought down – shot
cooling his heels – being forced to wait (because he’s in prison)
relieve (someone) of (something) – (euphemistic) steal, rob
claimed the lives of – (euphemistic) were killed
nearing its final showdown – was about to end
squeeze the trigger – fire (with a gun)
laid to rest – (euphemistic) buried
F. Explanation of the title
‘Star-crossed lovers’ are unfortunate lovers, or unlucky lovers who are unable to be together because
of particular events or situations. Bonnie and Clyde are probably called ‘star-crossed lovers’ because
their relationship is doomed to end unhappily; they are both on the run and face death. They are
together in life, but, in death, they are separated and can’t be together anymore. Other examples of
star-crossed lovers are, for instance, Romeo and Juliet, and Orpheus and Eurydice.
G. Memory
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
d
c
a
c
b
a
d
b
H. Timeline
[diagram 42b]
I. In depth – True / False
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
True. The article doesn’t say so directly, but you can conclude this from the phrase ‘organised crime
lost no time in satisfying the demand’ (lines 5-6); ‘the demand’ is the demand for alcohol, after it was
prohibited in 1920. These phrases suggest that people still wanted to buy and drink alcohol, and,
because it was illegal, had to buy it through gangsters.
False. The ‘wild west’ is mentioned because the catching of thieves and robbers in Texas in the 1920
resembled the Wild West way of chasing outlaws, because communication between towns and police
forces was still limited. It doesn’t have to do with lawlessness; the article makes it clear that police
definitely tried to put a stop to Bonnie and Clyde’s criminal acts from the beginning.
False. Though Clyde was a good driver, the problem was that Clyde, who drove eight-cylinder Fords
–if he could get his hands on one- was always faster than the police, who drove in another, slower
type of car.
False. The Barrow family didn’t live ‘comfortably’ from selling metal scraps; they ’scratched a
living’ (line 42), i.e. they managed with difficulty to collect enough money to stay alive.
True. When they stayed in Joplin, Buck did an attempt to make Clyde relinquish his life of crime, but
Clyde knew that since he had killed several people already, he would be sentenced to death if they
caught him.
False. The Barrow gang had at least one more member; according to the article, the one who tipped
the police off was Henry Methvin, a Barrow gang member according to the text (lines134-135).
(Actually, it was Henry’s father who tipped off the police, not Henry himself.)
True. The text calls this robbery ‘their undoing’ (line 102); the car they used was spotted and matched
one of their cars, their apartment was sought and Bonnie and Clyde were on the run again after a gun
battle with the police. Almost two months later, the police finally caught and killed Bonnie and
Clyde.
True. ‘They intended to lie up for the summer until the heat died down’ (lines 127-128); i.e. their plan
was to stay hidden and wait for things to cool down a little before hitting the road again.
False. The text claims that ‘they knew their violent career must be nearing its final showdown’,
meaning that they knew they would be caught –killed- soon. They didn’t intend to quit their life of
crime, but expected the law to end it for them.
True. The police were ‘tipped off’, in other words, they were betrayed.
False. The text mentions that Clyde reached for his weapon, and that he had the weapon in his hand
when they found him; he just didn’t have the time to fire any shot, because he got killed directly.
True. She says that ‘someday they’ll go down together’ meaning that she expects to get killed at the
same moment as Clyde.
burned alive
C. Scanning for information
-Who is the article about? – Souad, a woman from a village on the West Bank
-What is the article about? – Honour killings and the attempt at Souad’s life after shaming the family
name.
-When do the events described in the article take place? – The attempt to murder Souad took place 30
years ago, but the writer suggests that honour killings still happen.
-Where do the events take place? – Mainly in a village on the West Bank, but the author suggests that
honour killings happen all over the world, also in the UK.
-Why was the article written? – Because Souad has written her story down in a book, ‘Burned Alive’
which has probably recently been released.
D. Organising information
[diagram 39b]
E. Vocabulary
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
young, inexperienced – tender (line 1)
brief, very short – fleeting (line 16)
fit, rush – frenzy (line 19)
meet the terms, obey – comply with (lines 45-46)
take care of, look after – tend (line 51)
wander away – stray (line 56)
lover, someone who wishes to marry a certain woman – suitor (line 65)
Europe, excluding the British Isles – the Continent (line 79)
F. Discussion
a..
b.
1.
2.
3.
4.
c.
[diagram 40b]
The Muslim community is mentioned because honour killings are often associated with Islam, and
many honour killings happen in Islamic societies. However, the article stresses that British Muslims
don’t condone honour killings, and that Islam doesn’t allow people to kill their daughters or sisters.
On the other hand, the representative for the Muslim society mentions that the tension between
Islamic morals and values and the Western world sometimes causes problems, but that most children
follow the rules they’ve been brought up with. The article doesn’t elaborate on what happens when
children choose not to follow those rules, but it does clearly state that honour killings are definitely
not an option.
Mr. Bunglawala mentions the fact that Heshu’s father came to the UK only recently to indicate that
Muslims who arrived in the UK relatively recently often have more problems handling the tension
between the two cultures.
Mr Gidoomal stresses the fact that honour killings happen everywhere and for various reasons, and
that many go unreported. He therefore strongly recommended all religious institutions to preach to its
followers that honour killings are not acceptable behaviour and that they clash with any religion. He
suggested to involve schools and social services as well to handle this problem.
The police suggest several ways of prevention. Police officers should be informed better on the
importance of honour in some cultures, and take people who are worried about threats to their lives
concerned with honour more seriously. Commander Andy Baker stresses that many policemen have
very little knowledge of other cultures, and that this should change if they really want to prevent
honour killings and investigate the murders. He wants to send out the message that honour killings
will not be tolerated.
Own opinion, just make sure your arguments are founded and that you’ve used your own words and
not copied someone else’s opinion literally.
G. In depth – Open questions
1.
2.
3.
Souad’s brother-in-law’s concept of ‘taking care’ of Souad meant that he wanted to put a definite end
to her problems – and the family’s shame – by killing her. If Souad were killed, the family honour
would be saved and their name would be cleansed again in the village.
Lines 31-38 are other examples of honour killings; the writer inserts them here to illustrate that
honour killings are not just something that happened in remote villages decades ago, but that they also
happen in the UK, and nowadays, which might increase the impact the article has on people.
It is only logical that Souad blames her family for attempting to kill her, and the murder attempt can’t
4.
5.
6.
7.
be justified, but she doesn’t solely blame her family. In a way, she claims in her book, her family is a
victim of the ancient social rules that determine life in the village she’s from as well. If they hadn’t
taken action when she got pregnant, the whole family would have turned into outsiders, which
probably is a very difficult position to be in when your whole world consists of that village only. Of
course this can’t be an excuse for murder, certainly not such a brutal one, but it makes it marginally
more understandable.
If Souad and the boy she used to love had married properly, Souad’s life would have been completely
different: in the society she lived in, married women had more freedom than single girls, and were
allowed many more things. So, in a way, marriage would have served as an escape route out of the
dreary existence she had as a daughter, not being allowed anything except for work and servitude, and
since she had never left the village and didn’t seem to have any idea of what was going on in the rest
of the world, it was the only escape route she knew of.
The nurses in the hospital clearly thought along the lines of the rules put on girls and women in
Souad’s village. They didn’t see her as a victim of violence, but as a criminal who had betrayed her
family by falling pregnant.
The author calls Souad’s book ‘brave’ because it must have taken a lot of courage and strength to
write about the things she has gone through; writing about it must have made her think about it a lot.
Another reason why Souad’s book could be called ‘brave’ is that there aren’t many women who have
survived an honour killing who dared to protest in this way; probably most of the women are too
scared of revenge –Souad fears that as well, she doesn’t dare give her real name nor the country she
lives in – or, maybe, because they aren’t sure that they didn’t deserve it, just as the nurses in the
hospital made Souad feel that she wasn’t the one to be pitied, but that her parents were.
Own opinion. You can be pretty sure though that he hasn’t been punished; he lost interest in her the
moment he had had sex with her, and refused to have anything to do with her further on. It’s very
improbable that she married him in the end; probably for everyone in the village, she is dead.
the OC gets the OK
C. Scanning for information
-What is the text about? – The text is about ‘The OC’, an American series about people living in
Orange County, California.
-Who is the text about? – Not especially about one person, but the person who gets quoted most is the
British-Irish actress Mischa Barton, who plays one of the leading roles in the series.
-Where do the events take place? – The events in the series take place in Orange County, most of the
events described in the article take place in the USA in general.
-When do the events take place? – The article doesn’t mention any dates, but we can safely assume
that it’s a quite recent article. If you do a bit of background info, you’ll find that ‘The OC’ is a
relatively new series.
-Why has the article been written? – The main point of interest for the (British) writer is Mischa
Barton, the British-Irish actress who plays a leading part in the series. She is probably the reason a
British paper writes about a show that has only just started to gain popularity in the UK. Also, ‘The
OC’ seems to be the up-and-coming series that caters to the needs of audiences for fashion pointers
and desired (even if unattainable) lifestyles.
D. Organising information
[diagram 32b]
E. Vocabulary
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
sun-drenched; very warm and sunny
priciest; most expensive
none too; really not
go weak at the knees; feel faint, esp. because of seeing or meeting someone or something you’re
attracted to
spawned; generated, set off
surrogate; substitute, what one will take instead of the real thing
accurate; exact, precise
pass out; become unconscious
frank; open, honest
capture; catch
fleeting; passing; brief or quick
keen; eager, wanting very much
F. Memory – True / False
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
True
False
False
True
True
False
True
G. Homographs
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Not all meanings of the words are given; check a dictionary to find all meanings.
‘lead’; 1) to lead; to take (a person) in a particular direction or to a particular place. 2) the main actor
in a film or play. 3) (different pronunciation) a kind of metal
interest; 1) subject (person, in this case) one is attracted to. 2) money that you earn from keeping
money on a savings account in a bank.
start; 1) beginning. 2) sudden shock
star; 1) a famous performer. 2) a very large ball of burning gas in space that can be seen in the sky at
night when it’s clear, or a symbol of it.
space; 1) an interval, period. 2) the universe.
cast; 1) a group of actors. 2) to throw.
fit; 1) to match. 2) healthy, in good condition.
room; 1) space. 2) an area in a house
lives; 1) plural of ‘life’; 2) 3rd person singular of ‘to live’. Different pronunciation.
looks; 1) seems; 3rd person singular of ‘to look’. 2) appearance.
H. Note taking - Speaking practice
a.
b.
c.
You can find the website by using the keywords ‘OC’ or ‘The O.C.’. The address is:
www.fox.com/oc/home.htm. You can find the descriptions of the cast by clicking ‘bios’ in the menu
and clicking ‘cast’.
Question sentences that might be useful:
-Is the character originally from Orange County?
-Is the character male?
-Is the character an adult?
[diagram 33b]
1: Jimmy is Marissa’s father; Marissa sticks with him even after he has been found out.
2: Jimmy and July are married; Jimmy married July after she got pregnant from Marissa
3: July is Marissa’s mother.
4: Marissa and Luke start off as a couple.
5: Marissa and Summer are best friends
6: Seth secretly admires Summer, but it takes a long time before she notices him.
7: Sandy and Kirsten are married, and spend the first years of their marriage backpacking and living a
bohemian lifestyle
8: Sandy is Seth’s father.
9: Kirsten is Seth’s mother.
10: Sandy is Ryan’s lawyer and decides all Ryan needs is a chance, and invites him to move in with him
and his family.
11: Ryan becomes more or less a part of the Cohen family.
12: The Cooper family and the Cohen family are neighbours.
13. Jimmy and Kirsten used to go out at high school.
14. Anna went to the Debutante Ball with Seth, and the website suggests that the moment Summer starts
to show an interest in Seth, she is determined to disturb this relationship.
A: The collection of all people who are not originally from Orange County.
B: The Cooper family
C: The Cohen family
D: The collection of all people living in Orange County.
I. Multiple choice / Open questions
a.
Multiple choice
1c.
The author makes it clear in lines 27-30 that the show intrigues him because it makes an improbable
lifestyle seem perfectly possible and they manage to get away with it. He doesn’t claim to like the
show especially anywhere though.
Not a. The author doesn’t say he enjoys the show especially; Mischa Barton is the one who claims
the show has been such a success because it has everything in it.
Not b. The author seems more or less surprised by the luxury displayed and repeatedly wonders how
realistic this life style is. Actually, the author seems to mock the series and the problems displayed a
bit; though it can’t be proven, the sentence ‘The OC isn’t all about fashion. It is full of dramatic, dark
secrets, too’ seems to mock the seriousness of the ‘problems’ displayed – and definitely mocks the
characters’ obsession with looks and clothes.
Not d. The author rather cynically suggests that what really makes many people ‘go weak at the
knees’ is not the superb quality or stroke of genius in the series, but the girls who are cast for the
show. He doesn’t suggest that he is very attracted to them himself.
Ryan comes from ‘the wrong side of the tracks’, meaning the wrong part of town; the poorer and
more dangerous part.
Not a. Ryan is from ‘the wrong side of the tracks’, meaning the wrong part of town, so not from
Newport Beach, where every house seems to cost a fortune.
Not b. Ryan makes clear in line 72 that he can’t get used to ‘his new, wealthy surroundings’ which
suggests that he didn’t grow up in a rich family.
Not c. Beverly Hills only gets mentioned because that’s what Orange County gets called as well;
‘Beverly Hills by the sea’. Both Beverly Hills and Orange County are rich neighbourhoods, not a
place where someone from ‘the wrong side of the tracks’ grows up in.
The author writes about Barton that she ‘is already feeling the pressure of a media obsessed with her
looks and clothes’ (lines 46-47). She hopes to ‘escape the media attention’ by ‘fleeing across the
Atlantic’, back to the UK.
Not a. Barton does worry about being in a long running series and being typecast as a teen queen, but
that’s not the reason she’d like a break from the States; she simply wants to escape the media
attention.
Not b. She would like to spend time with her sister again, but the reason she’d go back would be to
be out of the media’s clutches for some time. ‘Excuse’ in this sentence means ‘reason’, not a pretext.
Not c. Though she isn’t planning on making teen movies, she doesn’t intend to flee the States
2d.
3d.
4b.
5a.
because of this; she is merely waiting for ‘the right project’, but doesn’t imply that this ‘right project’
can’t be in the States.
This paragraph illustrates that TV series really influence the viewers’ fashion purchases; the moment
a popular actor or actress starts wearing some hardly known brand, the brand instantly becomes
amazingly popular. This demonstrates the claim made in the previous paragraph, the ‘The OC is
having a major influence on its viewers’ wardrobes.
Not a. Though without the media attention to the OC babes’ clothing and looks the brands might not
have become so popular, the paragraph illustrates what was said in lines 53-54; that viewers -fansmake the fashion worn by the characters in the series instantly popular, with or without the media’s
help.
Not c. Though this may be the case, lines 59-68 solely discuss the situation in the States and don’t
suggest that viewers in the UK might be likewise influenced.
Not d. Though implicitly it also shows that the show is amazingly popular –otherwise the fashion
wouldn’t become such a success- what the lines really prove is that fashion worn by the OC babes
gets accepted as the new fashion right away.
Barton says in lines 100-101 that the OC’s success is that it’s ‘all things to all people’ and that the
relationship between parents and their children isn’t idealised. Many other series fall into these traps,
making them untrustworthy.
Not b. She doesn’t suggest that the truthful way of portraying life of the rich is the one and only
secret of OC; actually she doesn’t mention the rather luxurious lifestyle of the characters in the show
at all.
Not c. Though the writer mentions that ‘the frank attitude The OC’ displays towards sex’ separates
the series from other teen dramas, this is not what Barton mentions as the big difference.
Not d. Barton never claims that problems get oversimplified in other series.
b.
Open questions
6.
The writer openly wonders how realistic the characters’ lifestyle is; though there may be people living
in Orange County who live similar lives, the author doubts they can get away with it; he thinks it’s
rather strange that despite the fact that none of the teenagers ever seem to spend time on their
homework, they never get into any problems at school.
However, one of the realistic parts is exactly this lifestyle and how it affects the characters’ way of
thinking; that they seem to be completely unemotional about certain things, that they are selfish and
focus on instant gratification.
Sandy claims that no one fits in the neighbourhood of Orange County because the area has an
atmosphere of carelessness, happiness and luxury around it. At first sight, it seems like the people
living in the neighbourhood are just like their neighbourhood; rich and carefree; but it turns out that
everybody has secrets and dark sides.
The author says jokingly that ‘it’s a miracle they have room left to hang their racks of designer
clothes’ because their cupboards are filled with skeletons; i.e. they have many secrets that no one
knows about. He makes a joke by interpreting a figure of speech literally.
a. The show’s writer claims that the show is so successful because he has managed to capture what
youth is all about, whereas the writer of the article suggests that people like to watch the show
because it’s so utterly different from their normal lives that it’s the ideal way of escaping daily life for
a moment. In other words, both claim that the show is successful because of the way youth is
portrayed, but the writer of the show thinks people will recognize their own youth in it, whereas the
writer of the article thinks people will enjoy it to escape reality.
Own opinion.
7.
8.
9.
b.
worlds apart part one
C. Scanning for information
-Who is the article about? – Charlotte Brown, a 16-year-old girl who had an abortion when she was
14.
-What is the article about? - About teenage pregnancy, and why some girls decide on an abortion and
some don’t.
-When do the events described in the article take place? – No dates or years are given, but the article
was probably written quite recently.
-Where do the events take place? – The events take place in the UK; Charlotte herself is from Eden
Valley District in Cumbria, a county in the northwest of England.
-Why was the article written? – Because researchers have found that there are a lot of teenage
pregnancies ending in abortions in the Eden Valley District, whereas pregnant teenagers in nearby
Derwentside usually decide to keep their babies.
D. Vocabulary
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
be in favour of (line 17) - prefer, support
content to (line 18) – satisfied with
sound (line 23) – thorough, complete
termination (line 33) - abortion
crude (line 34) – lacking grace or refinement
a gulf of (line 43) – a huge gap, an area of separation
bombarded (line 64) – showered, flooded
shrugs (line 83) – raises her shoulders (because there is something she doesn’t know)
instance (line 84) - case
consult (line 106) – talk to, seek advice from
to act (line 117) – to work
cautious (line 130) – careful
E. Memory
Charlotte is the daughter of a businessman and the youngest of four children. She grew up in a
wealthy neighbourhood and had the prospects of a bright future. Initially, she planned on becoming a
vet, but later on, she considered business school. However, at fourteen, she became pregnant after
getting drunk on a party. The boy she slept with was several years older than her, and she didn’t know
him from before the party, nor has she seen him since. They failed to use condoms, despite the sex
education lessons Charlotte –and the boy, probably- had had. When she missed her period and started
to feel sick, she confided in her sister who took her to the doctor. There she found out she was
pregnant, and arranged for an abortion. She never told her parents she was pregnant, she was sure
they wouldn’t understand. Her future, however, seems shattered; since the abortion, Charlotte has
become less confident in relations and though she finished secondary school, she isn’t planning on
going to university. Instead, sheworking in a café now, and hopes that in ten years’ time, she’ll be
married, though she can’t imagine having children.
F. Phrasal verbs
a.
grew up (line 11) (to grow up) - opgroeien
look forward to (line 23) (to look forward to) – uitkijken naar
come down to (line 34) – neerkomen op
tracked down (line 37) (to track down) – opspeuren
ended up (line 44) (to end up) – eindigen met
given up (line 72) (to give up) – opofferen, opgeven
breaking up (line 74) (to break up) – het uitmaken met
slept with (line 75) (to sleep with) – slapen met, seks hebben met
went into (shock) (line 90) – terechtkomen in (een bepaalde toestand)
to go ahead (line 102) – van start gaan met
to go out (line 110) – uitgaan
to look ahead (line 138) – vooruit kijken
b.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
After she had drunkenly slept with the boy just once, she fell pregnant. (slapen met, seks hebben met)
My mom always gets carried away when there are guests and makes way too much food. (laat zich
meeslepen)
I had planned on baking pancakes, but we had run out of milk. (niet meer hebben)
She grew up in a very nice neighbourhood and her present home is equally nice. (opgroeien)
Initially he wasn’t in favour, but in the end he went along with our plans. (meegaan met, het eens zijn
met)
She broke up with him before she found out she was pregnant. (het uitmaken met)
The teacher lined up the children before sending them into the school. (op een rijtje zetten)
Susan feels she missed out on a lot because she wasn’t allowed to watch TV as a kid. (missen,
mislopen)
The government tried to play down the seriousness of the accusations. (afzwakken, bagatelliseren)
His partner pulled out of the deal at the last moment. (zich terugtrekken)
G. Descriptive language – Worlds apart
middle-class (line 6)
well-to-do (line 6)
affluent (line 22)
sound education (line 23)
good jobs (line 23)
comfortable (line 50)
loving home (51-52)
very strict (line 94)
H. In depth – True / False
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
False. The reason she almost smiles is because she has just found out that she has become one of the
statistics. It’s a ‘self-conscious’ smile; she is very aware of what she has done, but the text doesn’t
suggest anywhere that she is proud of it, she feels guilty about her abortion.
False. The Eden Valley district has the highest percentage of teenage pregnancies ending in
abortions; other districts may have more abortions absolutely, but as they also have more teenage
pregnancies, the percentage of teenage pregnancies is lower. It becomes clear that the researchers
have studied the percentage of teenage pregnancies resulting in abortions from the sentences about the
district ‘at the very opposite end of the spectrum’ (lines 14-15).
True. Charlotte says in lines 110-112 that a baby would ruin her life and that she wouldn’t be able to
go out, or find a job, i.e. that she wouldn’t be able to realise her ambitions if she had the baby. At that
time, she didn’t know that she wouldn’t realise these ambitions without a baby either.
True. The writer suggests a link between the bombardment of ‘sexual imagery’ and Charlotte
becoming sexually active at the age of 14.
True. The comment ‘So much for sex education lessons’ means that the writer is disappointed and
annoyed about the effectiveness of the sex education lessons; Charlotte clearly hasn’t learned from it
(or temporarily ‘forgot’ because of the alcohol and excitement) that you can also get pregnant from
having unprotected sex only once.
False. The fact that surprises the writer is that Charlotte was able to go along with the abortion
procedure without her parents’ permission or knowledge. The word ‘astonishingly’ refers to the
second part of the phrase that follows it, ‘without her parents being informed’.
False. She feels guilty about the abortion, and she regularly wonders what the baby would have been
like, but she isn’t sorry about what she did; ‘she doesn’t regret her decision’ (line 113). She decided
herself she didn’t want the baby; the phrase that she is ‘very sorry’ to have ‘lost’ her baby seems to
suggest that she is sad about losing her baby in some kind of accident, not through a firm decision
made by herself.
worlds apart - text two
C. Scanning for information
-What are the three parts the article is divided in? How can you recognize these three parts and why
are these separated?
-Why would the author have chosen to write about Charlotte and Jennifer?
-What kind of girl is Jennifer?
-What’s the writer’s aim with this article?
D. Memory
For instance:
Jennifer Morley was born when her mother was just 16 and single. Though her parents married later
on and had three more children, they separated again later and Jennifer grew up in two –equally poorhouseholds. She hardly ever attended school and didn’t have any plans for the future anyway, except
for having kids. She sought comfort and love from boys and men, and, at fourteen, fell pregnant of a
much older man, who didn’t take any responsibility for the child. Nevertheless, Jennifer decided to
keep the baby and looked forward to mothering her child.
When the baby was born she got into a relationship with another boy who turned out to be very
violent. They were soon evicted from the council house they lived in and Jennifer was on her own
again. Social services were concerned about the baby’s welfare and threatened to take him away, but
luckily Jennifer’s mother offered to be the baby’s legal guardian and raise him. For Jennifer this
meant that she lost the care of her firstborn.
At eighteen, she has moved into a new council house with another boyfriend of whom she is pregnant
now and both of them live off social security benefits.
E. Descriptive language
-careworn
-blighted (line 16)
-demise (line 17)
-struggled (line 17)
-unemployment (line 18)
-air of deprivation (line 18)
-barely attended school (line 21)
-local authority housing (line 58)
-uneducated (line 71)
-council house (line 75)
-benefits (line 76)
F. Vocabulary
1.
2.
3.
4.
careworn (line 13) – worried and tired
blank (line 23) – not showing emotion
barely (line 25) – hardly
expectant (line 50) – pregnant
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
applied (line 58) – requested
fond of (line 79) – caring, loving
cut short (line 86) – brought to an end suddenly
pinpointed (line 93) - identified
beset (line 96) - overwhelmed
potential (line 97) – capability
G. Comparing articles
[diagram 30b]
H. Irregular verbs
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Yesterday, she said she felt sick, so I’m not surprised she stayed home today.
He has laid the papers on my desk, but now I can’t find them anymore.
The child wept because he thought his mother had left him behind.
She bought a packet of hair dye and dyed her hair purple
He fled and stayed hidden for two weeks.
Although the spy had lain low for weeks, he was caught by the secret service anyway.
Once she had got / had gotten (mainly American English) into the car, she wound the window down.
The sorceress cast a spell on him and he shrunk/shrank to half his normal size.
I. In depth - True / False
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
True; the text says that Jennifer’s story is the ‘embodiment’ of Charlotte’s fears, i.e. it’s exactly what
Charlotte had expected teenage motherhood to be like.
True; the text calls it ‘a smattering of former pit villages’, i.e. a small number of towns that used to be
into steel mining before the mines were closed.
True; Jennifer thought that having a baby would mean that she would always have something to love,
and that this something would love her back as well; she though it would be the ‘key to future
happiness’ and wasn’t worried really about becoming a mother.
False; the text says that Jennifer hardly attended school in the year before she got pregnant, in other
words, she can’t have been bullied about her teenage pregnancy.
False; Jennifer was happy to be pregnant (line 44) and she looked forward to being a mother;
according to the writer, she had ‘a rosy view of motherhood’ (line 53). The only thing she worried
about was being in labour; she was afraid it would be very painful.
False; although this move prevented Craig being taken away from her for good, Jennifer still couldn’t
keep Craig; her mother takes care of him at her home, while Jennifer moved on to another council
house.
True; the writer points out that Charlotte didn’t want to keep the baby because she considered it
impossible to be a mother and fulfil her ambitions, but after the abortion, she has become so lacking
in confidence that she hasn’t made any attempt to work on her former ambitions either.
True; she suggests that it’s all ‘bravado’, a show of bravery they don’t really mean, and claims they
contradict this claim when they earnestly advise against having sex at an early age. (Probably the
author and the girls refer to different actions when talking about ‘having no regrets’; the girls
probably honestly don’t regret their decision to have an abortion or to keep their baby, whereas the
author suggests they don’t regret any of their actions, such as having sex at fourteen.)
cruising and racing
D. Vocabulary
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
the sharp end of – the top, the most expensive segment
insists – claims forcefully
was in full swing – had reached a very active stage
visors - screens
sequel – a book, film or play which continues an action, or features the same characters as a previous
one.
pours – spills out, streams
to do (people) for – to take someone’s name and address, or to give a fine
emerges – appears, gets out
gasps – pants; to take in air suddenly and in a way that can be heard
stock up – to provide oneself with goods
stretched – used up; have gone as far as their limit
rag (the bollocks) – here: force (the most) out of your car
F. Memory
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
d
b
d
c
a
d
b
G. Grammar – Adverbs
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
The traffic was virtually brought to a standstill. (adverb)
Probably, Nicki drives so carefully in order not to damage her car. (adverb-adverb)
The A130 is an unofficial test and race track. (adjective)
The screeching sound of a ‘burn out’ was awful to listen to. (adjective)
Legs is highly suspicious of the journalist. (adverb-adjective)
He humbly remarked that ‘Fast Car’, which appeared monthly, was rather popular. (adverb-adverb)
Legs seemed perfectly innocent and claimed to know nothing about racing. (adverb-adjective)
David likes driving fast, but claims he never behaves irresponsibly. (adverb-adverb)
He had painted his car very artistically, but the paint washed off easily. (adverb-adverb)
He arrived late, but seemed to be perfectly calm nevertheless. (adverb-adverb-adjective)
Fortunately, no one was hurt in the horrific accident. (adverb-adjective)
The cruisers, who met on a weekly basis, got along wonderfully well. (adjective–adverb-adverb)
H. In depth – Open questions
1.
2.
3.
The name ‘modders’ probably comes from ‘modifying’; people who modify their cars. ‘Modders’ is
another name for ‘cruisers’; people who have modified their cars in order to make them look more
stylish, or to make them faster.
The cruisers don’t do anything illegal really; they meet each other and socialise, so there’s nothing the
police can do against them. Only when they park in the wrong places, or double-park, the police can
fine them. The reason the police dislikes the crowds of cruisers is that some of the cruisers are also
involved in illegal racing, and that is illegal and can be highly dangerous, both for the racers and for
the other people on the road. The text suggests that sometimes, racers (illegally) block off pieces of
road, but the example the text begins with also shows that drivers race each other on the normal high
way, causing very dangerous situations.
It’s not particularly strange that women are interested in cruising, but it always used to be a men’s
pastime; the best-known racing magazines usually portray women as sex objects, and the writer of the
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
article suggests that the videos cruisers watch in their cars are either (legal or illegal) racing videos or
hard core porn, which doesn’t really sound like a woman’s kind of thing to watch.
The journalist says that he’s been told that Nicki’s car can reach 180mph theoretically because Nicki
claims she doesn’t race herself. She probably never reached this maximum speed (comparable to 290
km/hour) because she is, or claims to be, ‘a careful driver’; she likes the idea of having a very fast car,
but isn’t really into racing herself, though she sometimes likes to watch people racing.
The ‘traffic’ that’s brought to a standstill by the cruisers is the regular traffic, excluding the cruisers;
the text suggests that they keep on driving up and down the promenade. Logically, this ‘cruising’ and
the amount of cars involved hinders the regular traffic in the town.
The journalist suspects that Legs is into racing, but he also knows that the organisers of illegal races
usually try not to attract attention because they are perfectly aware that it’s illegal. Legs wears an SEC
jacket, and the SEC allegedly organises illegal races in South East England. When he speaks to Legs,
he denies the existence of street races all together, but he is exposed when one of his friends –who
isn’t aware that the author is a journalist- shows up and invites Legs to come to his car and watch a
video of him racing. This example doesn’t prove that Legs is into organising races himself, but it does
prove that there are races, and that Legs knows that races are being organised.
The reason why many cruisers are opposed to racing is twofold. On the one hand, they don’t want to
get involved in racing themselves because they have modified their cars, either to look good or to be
fast; the car has cost them a lot of money, and they don’t feel like risking that in a race. Even the ones
who have modified their cars to increase their speed, like Nicki, don’t always feel like racing
themselves; they are proud of their cars and don’t want to risk crashing them. The other reason is that
racing gives the cruisers a bad name. People and the police aren’t necessarily against cruisers, but
illegal racers are less popular. So when cruisers start racing, people might get to think that all cruisers
are racers as well, and most of them don’t want such a bad image.
The two women who came to watch the racing in Basildon claim that they’ll leave the moment the
police come. However, this doesn’t mean that they will leave for home; they suggest they’ll ‘move on
somewhere else’, so they’ll just all leave and regroup somewhere else to continue the racing.
born to be wild
Ratty facts
*
Last year the number of rats in Britain overtook the number of humans, with the rodent population
put at well over 60 million.
A rat’s temperature is regulated through its tail.
The collective noun for a group of rats is a pack, a rabble or a mischief.
In central London, you are never more than 10ft away from a rat.
Norwegian rats can swim half a mile in open water.
One pair of rats can shed more than a million body hairs every year.
Because they lived in the hold and gnawed on the wood, rats would indeed have been the first to
leave a sinking ship.
Rats only require a half-inch hole to get into a building.
The 27-minute film can be seen on www.ratlife.org
*
·
*
*
*
*
*
*
B. Pre-reading activity
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
b
d
d
c
a
6.
7.
8.
d
d
a
C. Scanning for information
For instance: Rats are ‘born to be wild’. An experiment established recently has shown that rats that
are bred in captivity still know how to survive outside their cages. Rats were moved from their cages
into a large enclosure simulating ‘wild’ conditions, to see how they would manage. It was generally
expected that there would be chaos and violence in the small rat community; the rats had never
learned to survive in the wild. However, the rats quickly adapted to their new surroundings and
showed the same behaviour as rats in the wild, although these survival techniques concerning mating,
creating a hierarchy and finding and testing food had never been necessary in the cages. This
experiment is extremely important because it shows that our instincts remain active even if they
haven’t been used for a long time and that this way, mammals are able to adapt to new situations and
organise themselves in order to survive instead of ending up fighting each other and letting anarchy
rule.
D. Comparing
[diagram 34b]
E. Vocabulary
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
implications – consequences; the effect that an action (an experiment) has on something else in the
future
threw light on – explain, make clear
released – liberated, freed
to favour – to give more chances to
pellets – small bits
enclosure – a fenced-off area
to fend for themselves – to take care of and provide for by yourself, without other people’s help
massive (line 81) - enormous
tends to be (line 84) – is inclined to be, generally is like
shed (ratty facts) – to have fall out
F. Ratty research
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
He is wet through and through, mostly because he’s been out in the rain. The Dutch equivalent is;
‘eruit zien als een verzopen kat’.
A ratbag is an unpleasant or worthless person.
You are not loyal to someone; because you fail to do what you said you would do, or by giving away
secret information about someone.
You guess that something wrong or dishonest is happening.
For instance: when it seems likely that a company is going bankrupt, employees might leave the
company for another job ‘like rats deserting a sinking ship’.
It’s an expression that shows annoyance or slight anger.
It means that your house is dirty and old and in a very bad condition
For instance: ‘Despite the good income, he decided to turn his back on the rat race in the city and
moved to the country to work on a farm.’ The rat race is the endless competition to succeed,
especially in business.
A rat run is a small road which is used by a lot of drivers in order to avoid traffic on a larger road; the
Dutch equivalent is ‘een sluiproute’.
10.
A ratty person is someone who is irritable; easily annoyed.
G. In depth – Multiple choice
1a.
2b.
3d.
4a.
5c.
6a.
In lines 17-19, the writer tries to express what people had expected to happen the moment people or
animals who are used to being provided for end up in a situation where they have to fend for themselves;
the scientists had expected some sort of anarchy, in which established rules are ignored and it’s every man
for himself.
Not b. The text claims that ‘all trappings of civilisation could be easily discarded’, i.e. all notions and
symbols of the civilisation as it used to be would become useless and be ignored.
Not c. They had expected chaos and ‘a violent, cruel society’ (line 21) as can be found in ‘Lord of the
Flies’.
Not d. Neither the writer nor the scientists mention any blessings of society and its organisation and ranks.
Lines 29 to 32 are a quote from the researcher which elaborates on the notion given in line 27, that the
experiment shows ‘how our innate instincts work’; namely, that these instincts survive despite the fact that
they haven’t been needed for years.
Not a. The caged rats didn’t show any ‘wild’ behaviour, or at least this isn’t mentioned in the text, and
there is no indication that they tried to dig holes in their cages or perform mating rituals as they did in the
enclosure.
Not c. Selective breeding is mentioned as one of the factors that might have weakened the instincts even
further, not something that was done to enforce them.
Not d. The text suggests that the rats were pretty docile when caged, but that their instincts surface the
moment the rat is released.
The text mentions that ‘the rats formed more of a hierarchical order based on age, showing respect for the
older animals and better organisational skills’; i.e. the rats managed to organise themselves thanks to their
instincts that surfaced the moment they were released in the enclosure.
Not a. The sentence ‘the lights went out when the sun set’ means that the enclosure was simply outside, so
naturally, it grew dark after the sun had set. The author has used this way of describing it to contrast it with
the conditions in the laboratory, where everything is minutely regulated.
Not b. The snail and the apple were mentioned to show that the rats quickly regained the ability to find out
what’s edible and what isn’t, despite having been used to eating dried rat food all their lives.
Not c. Though it’s true rats only need a very small hole to find their way out of or into a place, the
researcher doesn’t mention that any of his rats were missing within hours after the experiment had started.
What’s important for the research is that the rats’ instinct can’t have been triggered because previous
generations still needed it; the rats used in the experiment have been completely assimilated to life in a
cage, under fully protected circumstances, and one might expect that their instincts wouldn’t be present
anymore.
Not b. Whether or not the rats are docile doesn’t have much to do with the research, it’s just a factor that
makes it even more improbable that the rat keeps its instincts.
Not c. The problem isn’t that they are too wild to be examined, but that the researchers wanted to see what
would happen if a creature that has completely stopped using or relying on its instincts would have to fend
for itself again. Of a 2nd generation rat it might still be expected that its instinct is still naturally present.
Not d. The researcher doesn’t express any fears about diseases that might spread, he just wants to use rats
that haven’t had to use their instincts for generations.
Berdoy claims that ‘Domestic rats are now not the same as wild rats’, but he suggests that some remnant
stays present.
Not a. Berdoy claims you can’t take ‘all the wild from the animal’.
Not b. There is no indication that rats fool the researchers into believing they are docile, whereas they are
actually still wild creatures. Rats aren’t mentioned as being the greatest actors of all animals.
Not d. The text clearly states that domestic rats aren’t the same animals as wild rats (line 55).
Primarily, because we share 95% of our genes with rats and mice, so they are wonderful research material;
humans are likely to resemble rats and mice in a way. But also because rats and mice, like humans, are
‘social omnivores’; they easily adapt socially speaking. And of course, they’re easy to keep (lines 63-64).
Not b. The research has shown exactly the opposite; that the rat hasn’t lost all of its instincts.
Not c. That’s only a small part of the reason why they are so popular; their social resemblance to humans
is a much more important reason.
Not d. They are called ‘social omnivores’, which doesn’t refer to their eating habits but to their group
behaviour.
7c.
He says that humans ‘could organise themselves into a useful society within hours’ (lines 79-80) and that
this society would generally be ‘more functional than our ordinary civilised life tends to be’ (lines 83-84).
In other words, people would create a fully functioning society of their own that easily matches our present
civilisation.
Not a. The society created will be organised differently – and better – than our present society.
Not b. Thompson suggests that it might be a better and more efficient organisation than our present
civilisation.
Not d. That’s the doom scenario people had expected, but both Berdoy’s findings and Thompson’s theory
contradict this idea.
Arthur rides in
B. Pre-reading activity
[diagram 28b]
The legend of King Arthur tells us about Arthur, who became King of England when he pulled out
the sword in the stone (Excalibur) which no one except king could do. His court at Camelot was
famous for bravery, chivalry, romantic love and magic, which was practised especially by the
magician Merlin and the sorceress Morgan le Fay. Here, at a round table – so no one would feel more
important than someone else- sat the bravest and most noble knights in the land: Sir Galahad, Sir
Lancelot, Sir Bevidere and others. England and Arthur’s power began to fail when he discovered the
love between his wife, Guinevere, and his best friend, Lancelot. Then began the long search for the
Holy Grail, which was finally found and brought back by Sir Galahad. Arthur’s strength returned and
he went into battle to save England from Mordred whom he killed, but Arthur himself was very
seriously wounded. He gave Excalibur to Bevidere and ordered him to throw I into a lake. The hand
of the Lady of the Lake came out of the water, caught the sword and took it under, and then three
women arrived on a boat and took Arthur to his final resting place at Avalon. It is said that Arthur
will return if England is ever in danger again.
Arthur and the Arthurian Legend appeared in myths and stories in several forms since approximately
AD 500, but gained popularity and fame halfway the 15th century, when Thomas Malory wrote ‘Le
Morte d’Arthur’.
C. Scanning for information
What kind of article is this? – It’s a kind of review; it contains information on the new Arthur movie
by Jerry Bruckheimer, but it reflects the scholars’ views on the movie as well.
What is the topic of the article? – The new King Arthur movie, and whether or not it’s historically
accurate.
Why was the article written? – It was written because the movie has been released recently, and it met
with a lot of criticism.
Where do the events described in the article take place? – The events take place in the USA; the
academics asked to reflect on the movie are from American universities.
D. Connections
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Jerry Bruckheimer is the director of both ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ and ‘King Arthur’.
Keira Knightley, besides playing in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, also plays an important role in ‘King
Arthur’.
King Arthur is married to Genevieve.
The role of King Arthur in Bruckheimer’s King Arthur is played by Clive Owen.
Keira Knightley is Genevieve in the movie ‘King Arthur’.
E. Memory – Open questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Jerry Bruckheimer is ‘responsible’ for the movie; he is the producer.
He comes from the region that’s nowadays known as Russia, and that was part of the Roman Empire
as well. He was recruited by the Romans to defend the Roman Empire in England because, the text
suggests, they couldn’t be bothered to sort things out themselves.
The American scolars are very critical about it; they think Bruckheimer can’t claim it to be ‘the most
historically accurate version’ and some say there are some plain historical failures in the movie.
Bruckheimer calls his movie ‘the most historically accurate’.
The author doesn’t openly support one opinion or the other; he just mentions that there are different
theories on Arthur’s existence.
F. Vocabulary
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
researchers – scholars (line 1)
correct, truthful – accurate (line 9)
previous, in an earlier time – former (line 16)
stay, continue to be – remain (line 30)
completely – entirely (line 35)
intruders, people who come in and attack in order to take control – invaders (line 38)
referred to – mentioned (line 45)
depiction, interpretation – portrayal (line 52)
stop annoying or criticizing someone – give a break (lines 71-72)
G. Listening – Question Design
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
a
b
c
c
a
H. Comprehension
a.
1.
2.
3.
Open questions
John Boucher claims he ‘loves’ the pictures of Guinevere in a leather bikini, but it’s very clear from
the words ‘give Arthur a break!’ (lines 70-71) that he doesn’t take them seriously and certainly
wouldn’t call them ‘historically accurate’.
Boudicca (also known as ‘Boadicea’) was the queen of the Iceni people of Eastern England. When
her husband died in about AD 60, his property was divided between his daughters and Rome, since
England was part of the Roman Empire then. But the Roman warriors in England didn’t accept
Boudicca as queen and when she insisted on recognition of her rights and those of her people, the
Romans flogged her and raped her daughters. This insult angered the Iceni people and they waged a
war against the Roman invaders, led by Boudicca. The Iceni, helped by a neighbouring tribe, were
unexpectantly triumphant and came as far as London, which was still a rather small town then. After
this victory their luck ended; the rebellion had angered the Roman emperor and the Iceni were
defeated. Boudicca had seen this defeat coming and, rather than dying through a Roman sword, she
committed suicide by drinking poison.
The rest of the answer is your own opinion, but you might write something such as:
This example shows that in Roman Britain, women weren’t always peaceful and romantic persons,
but that they could be fierce warriors as well. This suggests that Guinevere –although she lived four
centuries later- may have been a warrior, as Bruckheimer proposes. However, the ‘leather bikini’ part
doesn’t sound very trustworthy; it isn’t likely that warriors would engage in battle only scarcely clad.
John Boucher claims that Bruckheimer’s movie suggests that King Arthur defends Hadrian’s Wall
from the Saxons rather than the Scots, and he considers that ‘plain strange’. He says so because
4.
b.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Hadrian’s Wall (see background information) was built by the Romans to point out the borders of the
Roman Empire in Britain and to defend the British part of the Roman Empire against attacks of the
Scots. It doesn’t make sense to defend Hadrian’s Wall from the Saxons, since the Saxons didn’t come
from the North, but from the Continent; it’s not likely that any of the clashes between Arthur and the
Saxon invaders took place anywhere near Hadrian’s Wall.
[own opinion]. What you could suggest is that many scholars seem to have criticised Bruckheimer’s
claim that his movie is ‘the most historically accurate’ Arthur movie ever. Based on the –rather
scarce- information given in the article, you might doubt if they really make fun of the movie.
True / False questions.
False. The movie ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ was based on the Disney theme park ride, not the other
way around. Bruckheimer turned it into a blockbuster, says the text (line 6-8).
False. Most of the American scholars mentioned in the article call the movie ‘weird’ and don’t agree
with Bruckheimer’s claim of historical correctness, but they don’t show any sign of feeling insulted.
They do suggest that the British people, and the Welsh in particular, might feel insulted because of it
(line 67-68).
True. The article claims that ‘a source close to Bruckheimer’ has said that Arhur comes from ‘beyond
Germania’, and that this region is ‘known today as Russia’ (line 25).
True. The article claims that Michael Wood thinks that ‘he [King Arthur] is entirely mythical’ (lines
34-35), meaning that Arthur never existed, except in stories.
False. Lupack suggests that Bruckheimer can’t know for sure if his version is the most ‘historically
accurate’ since there is no evidence whatsoever where Arthur came from or what his background was.
This is the part that annoys him most; that he calls something ‘historically accurate’ while he doesn’t
have any reason for saying so.
True. Boucher says that the Welsh ‘always claim Arthur’, meaning that they consider Arthur as a
Welshman, one of them.
Wrap-up tests
the spite girls / when girls get nasty
1.
2.
a.
b.
c.
d.
3.
a.
b.
The two texts make a distinction between three different types of bullying that happens a lot in
schools. Name the three different types and categorise the following examples of bullying by placing
them in the right rectangle in the diagram.
[wrap up diagram 10a]
-People send you nasty SMS messages on your phone.
-You are being called names on a website.
-Friends ‘forget’ to save you a place for lunch
-No one picks you for games
-You always get kicked ‘accidentally’ during sports
-People in class have all signed a petition saying you’re a slut.
-You get beaten up every day after school
-When having to work in pairs, you always end up alone
-Your former best friend spreads the rumour you smell.
“They win critical applause but rarely make much money”; what’s meant by this quote from the text?
People who fight against injustice are often praised, but hardly ever supported financially.
Movies such as ‘Mean Girls’ are highly appreciated by social workers, but never become
blockbusters.
Indie-movies about outsiders are well-received by critics, but don’t attract much people.
Kids who stand up against bullies are praised by their teachers and parents, but often don’t profit from
it themselves.
How is ‘Mean Girls’ related to literature?
It has been based on a novel about high school bullying.
A novel about high school bullying has been based on it.
c.
d.
4.
a.
b.
c.
d.
5.
a.
b.
c.
d.
6.
a.
b.
c.
d.
7.
a.
b.
c.
d.
8.
a.
b.
c.
d.
9.
a.
b.
c.
d.
A comic book aimed at empowering adolescents to stand up against bullying has been based on it.
It has been based on a self-help guide for parents about high school bullying.
“The game playing of teen girls could put many adult politicians to shame”; what’s meant by this
statement?
That politicians may play nasty games, but that teenage girls are even better at it.
That teenage girls would make great politicians.
That many politicians ought to be ashamed that teenage girls beat them at politics.
That many politicians are outraged by the girls’ game playing and call it a shame.
What might have been a cause for bullying in the past decade?
The pressure on girls to achieve has increased spectacularly.
Role models such as Britney Spears and the Spice Girls who have made bullying and gossiping
accepted behaviour.
The girls’ empowerment: many girls have confused assertiveness with aggressiveness
Schools have become bigger and control on bullying has become less intensive.
What does the text say about male and female concepts of friendship?
Girls’ friendships are mainly based on appearance, whereas boys base their friendships on mutual
interests.
Girls have ‘best friends’ with whom they have very intense relationships, boys’ friendships usually
aren’t that focused on one person.
Girls tend to change friends regularly, whereas boys stick to the same group of friends for a long
time.
Girls tend to move in groups all the time, whereas boys only meet up with friends if it has a purpose;
to go somewhere or to play games.
What has the movie Thirteen done for the awareness of bullying and behaviour of teenage girls?
It has alerted parents that their daughters may be different from what they’d like them to be.
It has dealt with the problem of bullying in a funny and comical way.
It has served as a warning for young girls what the consequences of bullying may be.
It has served to empower young girls to stand up against boys who are trying to intimidate them.
What do the makers hope to achieve with the movie ‘Mean Girls’?
They hope they’ll make parents realise what’s going on in the minds of teenage girls.
They hope they’ll be able to give girls who are being bullied some moral support and to show them
how they can defend themselves.
They want to show their viewers that bullying doesn’t have to be mean and nasty, but that it can be
funny and comical as well.
They show girls the mechanics behind bullying in a funny way and hope they’ll start to question their
own behaviour.
How come girls are better at being nasty than boys?
Girls are always taught to be nice, so they don’t dare act nasty, but instead pretend to be nice while
actually being horrible.
Girls are better at communication in general, so they are better at saying both nice and comforting
things as nasty and hurtful things.
Girls react to changes in their environment more directly, and they say hurtful things without really
meaning them.
Girls go through a difficult emotional period when growing up and react to this by being nasty to each
other.
caught in the middle
Read the following excerpt from the article ‘No carefree summers for Iraq’s idle youth’:
“[…]
He said religious groups object to discos. Several years ago there were discos in the Sheraton and
Meridian hotels, but they were eventually barred by Saddam Hussein. Now, the hotels are occupied
by foreigners and guarded by coalition troops. He said he has no idea if the discos have returned, but
even if they have, these places are no longer accessible for him and his friends.
Abbas said the present situation in Baghdad is bad. The constant violence that has Iraqis on edge
extends to the city’s youth as well. Any minute, Abbas said, a car might explode or gunfire will break
out.
“Now, we don’t feel relaxed. No security; there are explosions. We feel an explosion might take place
anywhere. You can’t go out of your house. We cannot go out and stay out longer than 11 o’clock [in
the evening]. Before, we used to stay out until three or four o’clock in the morning,” he said.
Those days of the past were secure, Abbas said, but they were no more interesting than now. Saddam
Hussein did little to make life in Iraq pleasurable for his citizens, particularly the young people.
“During Saddam’s rule, there were no terrorists with bombs. The security was good, nobody was able
to put a bomb anywhere. But I can tell you, [Hussein] only succeeded in security. In all other issues
he has destroyed Iraq,” Abbas said.
Abbas said that young Iraqis, thanks to Hussein, are now afraid to live. The only thing left in life, he
said, is going to the mosque and praying. “People go to pray. My life might end any time, and there is
nothing better to do than to pray. It is our religion, what can we do? We have nothing more than that,”
he said.”
[From: : http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/07/c057f8a9-1f68-4088-9e22-a6f1cf1471a0.html]]
1.
Complete the following two-in-a-row diagram to compare the article you’ve just read to ‘Caught in
the Middle’
[wrap up diagram 5a]
2.
What new points of view / information does this article offer?
3.
Why is it especially girls who are kept indoors and can’t go out?
4.
The article ‘caught in the middle’ gives us information about Yosor (the girl with the pinkstriped
pants), Sali (who has left school) and Beatriz (who works in the hair salon) three girls in Baghdad.
Why has the writer chosen these three girls to represent girls in Baghdad, and how are they all
different?
[wrap up diagram 6a]
your next computer
1.
2.
Suppose you get caught in a discussion about whether mobile phones will soon replace computers;
what would you –using the information you remember from the article- reply to the following
statements of respectively PC supporters and phone supporters?
[wrap up diagram 7a]
Insert the right words from the list in the gaps left in the following text:
“Technology revolutions come in two flavours: jarringly fast, like … (1) that instantly change the
cultural landscape, and slower ones, like the emergence of … (2). Many phones nowadays have
computer-like features; they are called … (3) and, according to the phone industry, have the potential
to replace the PC. It is expected that coming … (4) will solve the … (5) of the phone. At the moment,
these more advanced phones are mainly bought by … (6) in the USA, and by …(7) in Japan. Experts
claim the PC will disappear to the background because people prefer …(8) and want equipment that
doesn’t have to boot up. However, defenders of the PC claim that that’s where …(9) come in,
especially now it’s possible to connect to the Internet everywhere thanks to the …(10). Their … (11)
are that people don’t want to replace their keyboard and screen by miniature versions of both.
However, …(12) are working on methods to solve that problem currently, and hope to come up with
the answer to the PC very soon.”
Words:
Wi-Fi networks / businessmen / limitations / portability / laptops / music-sharing sites on the Net /
predictions / smart phones / innovations / mobile phones / youngsters / scientists
Orlando boom
1.
What do you remember of Orlando’s life, as described in the article? Put the following events in the
right order.
-Orlando gets a role in Troy
-The first interview takes place
-Orlando falls of a roof and breaks his back
-Orlando enrolls on a three-year-course at the Guildhall School of Speech and Drama
-The second interview takes place
-Orlando gets the role of Legolas in Lord of the Rings
-Orlando is excited about the premiere of Lord of the Rings
-Orlando joins the National Youth Theatre
-Orlando gets three A-levels in religious studies, photography and art
-Orlando gets his first film role
-Orlando’s father dies
2.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Why is Orlando less enthusiastic about premieres these days?
There’s nothing new about it anymore.
People always expect you to look like the character you’ve played.
He feels uncomfortable with the (female) attention.
He doesn’t like the artificial atmosphere and the fake smiles that always seem to be part of it.
3.
a.
b.
c.
d.
What was the main difference between the first and the second interview?
During the first, Orlando had plenty of time; during the second, he was quite rushed.
Orlando appeared to be much fitter and healthier during the first interview.
At the time of the first interview, Orlando was less self-confident and more eager.
At the time of the first interview, Orlando wasn’t famous yet.
4.
a.
b.
c.
d.
What do the roles Orlando has played so far have in common?
They’re always active roles that involve a lot of physicality.
He’s always the romantic hero that doesn’t seem to have any flaws.
He’s always the guy who means well, but messes up.
All roles are slightly humorous; yet he’s always been the hero or one of the heroes.
5.
a.
The writer thinks there’s something ‘rather old-fashioned’ about Orlando. Why?
His dress-sense and musical preferences are very sixties; he likes to wear and listen to hopelessly
outdated hippy-stuff.
He isn’t into new technology and he is hopelessly romantic when it comes to girlfriends.
He is very conservative, both in political ideology and in deeds.
He only plays in movies that are set in the past, or in a world that seems old-fashioned compared to
ours.
b.
c.
d.
6.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Bloom is called ‘accident-prone’. What’s meant by that?
Bloom gets into many accidents, but is never very seriously hurt.
Bloom very often has accidents.
Bloom always recovers from accidents very fast.
Bloom doesn’t let accidents stop him.
7.
a.
b.
c.
d.
How many fathers could you say Bloom has?
1; Bloom considers director Ridley Scott to be his ‘surrogate father’.
2; Ridley Scott and his biological father, who died when he was four.
2; Colin Stone and his biological father, who lives in South Africa.
3; Ridley Scott, his biological father Colin Stone and Harry Bloom.
8.
a.
b.
How could you summarise Bloom’s answer to the question whether he’s happy or not?
He is very happy and grateful for all the help he has received in his life, especially from his family.
He has always been happy, and considers himself incredibly lucky because he knows many people
aren’t.
His aim is to be happy, and he’s very grateful for all chances he’s had, but he is still figuring it all out.
He is very happy with his work, but in order to be truly happy, he wants to be happy in love as well.
c.
d.
Greece lightning
1.
a.
b.
c.
2.
3.
4.
Explain in full sentences how the following sequences of words are related to each other:
War in Iraq – Alexander the Great – USA - movies
Victorians – Sappho – Lesbos
Hitler – Sparta – military
Select two of the following topics and explain in full sentences how ancient Greek civilisation
influenced today’s way of experiencing these subjects:
-The ideal body and looks
-Training and sports
-Politics
-Literature
-Language
“Greece has provided an ideal to strive for”; which ideal is meant? Explain in your own words why
the writer thinks Greece has set an example and what example this is.
Take a look at the following names and terms. Some of them are part of ancient Greece, others were
invented later. Indicate whether or not each word is part of ancient Greek civilisation, and explain
briefly who of what is meant by it.
[table 3a]
out of Africa – eat, eat, eat
1.
Compare the women in the two texts using a Venn diagram. Focus on:
-what their beauty ideal is
-how they achieve this
-why they strive for this ideal of beauty
-where they come from
-whether it’s an old or a new ideal
-what the consequences of the ideal are.
[wrap up diagram 4a]
Text one: Out of Africa
Explain for each statement why you think it’s true or false.
2.
Anorexia was relatively unknown among black girls in South Africa till 1994 most blacks were
underfed and lived in poverty.
3.
Black women who used to be confident have started to doubt themselves when they were given more
rights.
4.
According to the article, the ideal of being fat in African society was much healthier than the ideal of
being thin.
5.
The text suggests that dieters are often depressed because diets generally speaking don’t work in the
6.
7.
8.
9.
long run.
In rural South Africa, the ideal of being slim has started to catch on as well.
Many parents who want their daughters to succeed, urge the girls to lose weight.
In South Africa, unlike the rest of Africa, undernourishment because of poverty hardly exists
anymore.
Boys, according to the article, also expect girls to be successful in their careers and to be thin and
good-looking.
Text two: Eat, eat, eat – if you want to be loved
Explain for each statement why you think it’s true or false.
10. Where Arit comes from, it’s important to be fat because it shows your family is rich.
11. Arit initially didn’t want to gain weight, but she was forced to by her family.
12. The writer of the article isn’t tempted by the food that’s on offer in the fattening room.
13. Fattening rooms have become controversial lately.
14. Girl Power Initiative is opposed to fattening rooms because they don’t agree with the contents of the
lessons taught to the women.
15. The article mentions slavery because fattening originates from slave trading times.
16. Glory, Arit’s roommate, is the opposite of Arit, both in appearance and mind.
17. A visit to the market shows that old tradition – the urge to be fat – and new ideals – being slim – are
clashing, for the market sells both fattening and diet products.
the brothers Kalashnikov
1.
Order the following events chronologically and explain why you’ve chosen for this arrangement.
-Storming of the Dubrovka theatre
-Invasion of Chechnya
-Collapse of Communism
-Mokry joins Spetsnaz
-Spetsnaz is founded
-The author interviews Unit 8
-Ded is born
-The author sees a Spetsnaz unit up close for the first time
Determine whether the following statements are true or false. Clearly explain your answer.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
The Spetsnaz unit that storms the theatre is the same as the unit the writer visits later on.
The Spetsnaz, just like their Western counterparts, try to avoid all publicity.
Despite the fact that more than 130 hostages died, the Dubrovka Theatre raid was considered a
success.
The writer had to resort to all sorts of official and unofficial ways to get permission to visit a Spetsnaz
unit.
Initially, Ded is suspicious, cool and distant and acts rather rude towards the journalist.
Spetsnaz only accepts people who don’t have a criminal background.
Ded is married.
A ‘banya’ is a traditional visit to a bath or sauna combined with a meal and lots of alcohol, enjoyed
regularly by the Spetsnaz soldiers.
Only Spetsnaz soldiers qualify for a Maroon Beret.
Mokry would prefer to leave Chechnya.
Quite a few former Spetsnaz soldiers have turned to crime in order to make more money.
the school that joined the army
1.
a.
b.
Why was Carver Military Academy founded?
To offer young people with fewer opportunities a possibility to have a career in the army.
To increase the popularity of the army with young people.
c.
d.
2.
a.
b.
c.
d.
3.
a.
b.
c.
d.
4.
a.
b.
c.
d.
5.
a.
b.
c.
d.
6.
a.
b.
c.
d.
7.
a.
b.
c.
d.
8.
a.
b.
c.
d.
9.
a.
b.
c.
d.
10.
11.
To increase the number of US Army soldiers because of the growing terrorist threat in the world.
To restore discipline and order in the school the Academy used to be.
What does the example of the beating up of the school football team illustrate?
That the streets in Chicago’s Far South Side aren’t safe for anyone.
That no one bothers to call the police anymore.
That football players aren’t popular in Chicago’s Far South Side.
That the neighbourhood used to be dangerous before the Military Academy was established.
Why does Pearson go to school so early?
Because lessons start very early.
Because if he leaves early, he can avoid the criminals and gangs that populate the streets.
Because the voluntary morning military drills start early.
Because he has been punished for disorderly behaviour and has to join the drills that morning.
Fernando Fuentes is about to join a boot camp. A boot camp is:
A summer camp for young people from poor families who don’t have the money to pay for a regular
summer camp.
A training camp for people who have just joined the US Navy, Army or Marine force.
A camp organised by the military to give young people who are interested an idea what the army is
like.
An army-style summer camp in which young people are taught survival techniques and work on their
fitness.
What kind of housing is Altgeld Gardens?
It’s a much desired place to live by many South-Chicagoans, but most can’t afford it.
It’s currently in use to house the military personnel and some of the students of Carver Military
Academy.
It’s the nearest housing to the school and a lot of students live there.
It used to be a very dangerous place, but nowadays it’s still desolate and derelict, but safe.
Mayor Hayes considers his work:
Fairly easy, after having had to deal with soldiers for ages.
Not as easy as he had expected, but doable.
Pretty hard, but luckily the students have been really motivated from the beginning.
very hard work, harder than any job he’s ever had.
What can be said about the school’s popularity?
The number of applicants for the school has been stable for the past four years.
The school has received an increasing number of applicants, also from other parts of Chicago.
The school has received an increasing number of applicants, but isn’t very popular with most
students.
The school used to be very popular, but has lost its appeal because of the disappointing graduation
figures.
What’s the school’s attitude towards teenage pregnancy?
They have a day care centre in the school premises because so many students have babies.
They don’t accept students who are having babies, but the ones who get pregnant while already at
school aren’t expelled.
They teach students about contraceptives and teach them how to take care of babies properly.
They discourage their students from having babies so young, but pregnant students aren’t thrown out
or barred from enrolling.
What did the Military Academy achieve in the past four years?
Misconduct has been down, and academic achievement has been up.
The school has finally managed to meet the state standards.
Though misconduct is still common, academic achievement has improved.
Though discipline now rules the school, academic achievement is still rather low.
Describe in which way the school ‘has joined the army’. Use full sentences.
“It’s part of a teacher’s job to keep order; the military shouldn’t have to be asked for that task”.
Comment on this statement, using the information the article has provided about the Chicago Far
South Side and Carver Military Academy.
is your computer on?
1.
2.
3.
a.
b.
c.
d.
4.
a.
b.
c.
d.
5.
a.
b.
c.
d.
6.
a.
b.
c.
d.
The article mentions several kinds of viruses. Take a look at the following diagram. In the first
column you will find descriptions of viruses; tick the box(es) (basic virus / malware / next generation
viruses) that it refers to.
[wrap up diagram 12a]
Explain in full sentences how you can use a virus to blackmail (for instance) an online bookmaker.
Use the following words as a guideline: blackmail – criminals – crash - zombie PCs – wire-transfer
service
“Is your computer connected to the Internet right now? If so, it might be sending pornographic spam
emails”. The article you’ve studied starts with this message. Why might your computer ‘be sending
pornographic spam email’?
Because research has shown that many parents haven’t got the faintest idea what their kids are up to
when they are connected to the Internet.
Because many free providers have deals with companies sending spam that people using the
provider’s services automatically serve as a spam-sending computer as well.
Because many computers are delivered with a virus present in its system even before you’ve turned it
on for the first time.
Because many computers are infected with viruses that send spam-mails without the PC owners
knowing it.
What’s striking about viruses and the punishment for spreading them?
Most people spreading and creating viruses are teenagers, so they are never punished very severely.
Even though viruses can do a lot of harm, it’s still allowed to spread them on the Internet.
Hardly anyone ever gets punished because most viruses are created and spread by people who don’t
know it’s illegal.
It’s very difficult to trace a virus, so not many people get convicted for spreading viruses.
Why would Next Generation virus gangs fight each other?
Because that’s the normal thing to do between gangs; they want to show off and display their
strength.
Because some gangs are ‘good’ and others ‘evil’ and the ‘good’ ones produce counter-viruses to
neutralise the ‘evil’ viruses.
Because they all aim at the same business and none of the gangs want competitors.
For fun; they are just playing games, and they don’t mean any harm really.
Why are computer viruses compared with biological viruses?
Because it’s difficult to protect yourself against both viruses, they spread really fast and they tend to
reappear in slightly changed forms.
Because they cause very much damage, they are difficult to spot and they destroy your computer /
your body in the long run.
Because it’s possible to protect yourself against both, by vaccinating yourself or your computer with
some sort of substance/code that neutralises the virus.
Because it’s impossible to defend yourself against virus attacks, you just have to wait and see, and
repair the damage afterwards.
hard times
1.
Cause and effect.
Many facts in this article are linked as cause and effect. First select the facts / events that belong together
best as a pair, then put them in two columns marked C and E to show how they are linked as cause and
effect.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
A quick drop in stock prices
Awkward distribution of wealth between US and Europe
Buying stocks on margin
Car and radio industries reach the limit of their expansion
Car industry booms
Construction industry booms
Consumer and investor confidence undermined
Food prices fall
Foreign countries can’t sell products o the US
Gradually a surplus of goods builds up
Growing gap between rich and poor
Increased output per worker
Mass speculation
Optimism replaced by fear
People buy on instalment credit
Poor cannot and rich will not buy products
Stock market crash
The crisis is delayed and thus made worse
The whole economy starts to slow down
US exports drop by 30%
US tariff policy maintained
World war one ends
B.
True or false
1.
Most pictures in the book this article refers to are about the stock market crash and the beginning of the
Great Depression.
The Great Depression started in the United States but spread over the entire world.
In the 1920s productivity rose much faster than workman’s wages.
The growth of the radio market was created and pushed by the advertising industry.
US economy grew too reliant on only two branches of industry.
Europeans did not want their markets to be flooded by cheap American products and so put all kinds of
restrictions on US imports.
Buying on margin made huge profits possible.
On Black Thursday stocks fell so much that at times there were no buyers at any price.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
star-crossed lovers
1.
Read the following review of the movie that was made about Bonnie and Clyde in 1967:
“The film starts at the beginning – or at least the beginning of when the names Bonnie and Clyde
became linked. One lazy day in the midst of the Great Depression in a dead-end Texas town, a young,
frustrated woman, Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway), gazes out of her bedroom window to see a man
covertly preparing to steal her mother’s car. She confronts the charming stranger, Clyde Barrow
(Warren Beatty), and, within minutes of their first meeting – before they have even exchanged names
– she has challenged him to perform an armed robbery, and he has accepted the dare. Soon, they’re on
the run, with bigger crimes yet to come. Their first attempt at a bank robbery is hilariously
disappointing – the bank is out of business and there’s no money to steal – but that doesn’t stop them.
Soon, with the help of an aimless gas station attendant, C.W. Moss (Michael J. Pollard), who
becomes their getaway driver, they are not only wanted for robbery, but for murder as well. With the
addition of Clyde’s brother, Buck (Gene Hackman), and Buck’s high-strung wife, Blanche (Estelle
Parsons), the Barrow Gang is complete. For a while, these five people become celebrity criminals,
with nearly every bank robbery across the country being attributed to them, until the forces of the law
band together and hunt them down, one-by-one.
Bonnie and Clyde has a traditional three-act structure. In the first, we meet the principals and watch
the group gel. The second act covers the heyday of the Barrow Gang, as they rob banks, bicker
amongst themselves, elude the police and pay a visit to Bonnie’s mother. The third act recounts the
fall of the Barrow Gang – Buck’s death, Blanche’s imprisonment, C.W.’s reluctant betrayal, and the
ambush that ended Bonnie and Clyde’s crime spree. The film presents this as a choreographed
massacre, with the protagonists being unaware of their danger.”
[source: : http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/movies/b/bonnie_clyde.html]
Name three events described in the movie review that also happened in reality, according to the
article, three events that are described in the movie review but didn’t happen in reality and three new
events that haven’t been mentioned in the article (and may be either true or false)
2.
Take a look at the following lyrics (by Woody Guthrie) and the full text of Bonnie’s poem.
Pretty Boy Floyd (Woody Guthrie)
If you’ll gather ‘round me children
A story I will tell
Of Pretty Boy Floyd an outlaw
Oklahoma knew him well.
It was in the town of Shawnee
It was Saturday afternoon
His wife beside him in his wagon
As into town they rode.
There a deputy sheriff approached him
In a manner rather rude
Using vulgar words of language
And his wife she overheard.
Pretty Boy grabbed a log chain
And the deputy grabbed a gun
And in the fight that followed
He laid that deputy down.
He took to the trees and timbers
And he lived a life of shame
Every crime in Oklahoma was added to his name
Yes, he took to the trees and timbers
On that Canadian River’s shore
And Pretty Boy found a welcome
At a many a farmer’s door.
There’s a many a starving farmer
The same old story told
How this outlaw paid their mortgage
And saved their little home.
Others tell you ‘bout a stranger
That come to beg a meal
And underneath his napkin
Left a thousand dollar bill.
It was in Oklahoma City
It was on a Christmas Day
There come a whole car load of groceries
With a letter that did say:
You say that I’m an outlaw
You say that I’m a thief
Here’s a Christmas dinner
For the families on relief.
Now as through this world I ramble
I see lots of funny men
Some will rob you with a Six gun
And some with a fountain pen.
But as through your life you travel
As through your life you roam
You won’t never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home.
***
The Story of Bonnie and Clyde (Bonnie Parker)
You’ve read the story of Jesse James—Of how he lived and died;
If you’re still in need
Of something to read
Here’s the story of Bonnie and Clyde.
Now Bonnie and Clyde are the Barrow gang.
I’m sure you all have read
How they rob and steal
And those who squeal
Are usually found dying or dead.
There’s lots of untruths to these write-ups;
They’re not so ruthless as that;
Their nature is raw;
They hate the law—The stool pigeons, spotters, and rats.
They call them cold-blooded killers;
They say they are heartless and mean;
But I say this with pride,
That I once knew Clyde
When he was honest and upright and clean.
But the laws fooled around,
Kept taking him down
And locking him up in a cell,
Till he said to me,
“I’ll never be free,
So I’ll meet a few of them in hell.”
The road was so dimly lighted;
There were no highway signs to guide;
But they made up their minds
If all roads were blind,
They wouldn’t give up till they died.
The road gets dimmer and dimmer;
Sometimes you can hardly see;
But it’s fight, man to man,
And do all you can,
For they know they can never be free.
>From heart-break some people have suffered;
>From weariness some people have died;
But take it all in all,
Our troubles are small
Till we get like Bonnie and Clyde.
If a policeman is killed in Dallas,
And they have no clue or guide;
If they can’t find a fiend,
They just wipe their slate clean
And hang it on Bonnie and Clyde.
There’s two crimes committed in America
Not accredited to the Barrow mob;
They had no hand
In the kidnap demand,
Nor the Kansas City Depot job.
A newsboy once said to his buddy:
“I wish old Clyde would get jumped;
In these awful hard times
We’d make a few dimes
If five or six cops would get bumped.”
The police haven’t got the report yet,
But Clyde called me up today;
He said, “Don’t start any fights—We aren’t working nights—We’re joining the NRA.”
>From Irving to West Dallas viaduct
Is known as the Great Divide,
Where the women are kin,
And the men are men,
And they won’t “stool” on Bonnie and Clyde.
If they try to act like citizens
And rent them a nice little flat,
About the third night
They’re invited to fight
By a sub-gun’s rat-tat-tat.
They don’t think they’re too smart or desperate,
They know that the law always wins;
They’ve been shot at before,
But they do not ignore
That death is the wages of sin.
Some day they’ll go down together;
They’ll bury them side by side;
To few it’ll be grief—To the law a relief—But it’s death for Bonnie and Clyde.
a.
Compare the mood of the two texts in the following diagram:
[wrap up diagram 8a]
b.
Both texts caught the prevailing mood in America during the Depression. Both texts are about
basically upright and honest citizens turning bad because of the circumstances. Why do you think the
American people in the ‘30s tended to support the outlaws? How was it possible that killers and
robbers became popular heroes, despite their immoral behaviour? Use the information you’ve found
in both the article on Bonnie and Clyde, the background information and the lyrics and poem you’ve
just read when answering.
3.
The song about Pretty Boy Floyd isn’t the only song about an outlaw who has been forced into crime
because of the economic or social situation in the American 20s and 30s. The balladeers clearly
thought that these people probably weren’t as bad as the law claimed they were. What do you think?
Do you agree with the balladeers, or with the law? Explain your answer.
burned alive
Read the following article which has been published by the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian
affairs. Don’t worry if you don’t understand all words, just try to understand the general meaning:
ISLAMABAD, 9 Jan 2003 (IRIN) - Jamila Khan, (not her real name) was confident when she described
her narrow escape from an honour killing in Pakistan’s Punjab Province. “Women were always hated in
my household. My mother hated having girls,” the 25-year-old told IRIN in the Pakistani capital,
Islamabad.
From early on, Khan said she was stopped from progressing in every aspect of life. “I had to fight to go to
school. I was tied up with rope and beaten on many occasions, and the bones in my hands have been
broken so many times,” she said.
Describing her treatment as worse than that meted out to animals, she said she had finally fled her home
after her brother accused her of having premarital sex, ordered her to stay indoors, removed all the doorlocks in the house to prevent her from hiding, and then threatened to electrocute her. Had she not fled, “I
would be dead now”, she asserted.
Khan escaped what could well have been a brutal honour killing (when a male family member kills a
female relative to protect the family’s honour) and has been living in a safe house in Islamabad since May
2002. She was lucky, but hundreds - possibly thousands - of other women in this South Asian country are
not.
[www.irinnews.org]
1.
2.
3.
4.
b.
5.
In the following two-in-a-row diagram, compare Jamila to Souad. Name at least three similarities and four
differences.
[wrap up diagram 1a]
How does Souad make her story known to the public, and what else does she speak about?
In what way, according to the article, are people responsible for honour killings victims themselves?
A quote from the text is: ‘“Honour killing” is becoming part of our daily lexicon too’. Explain why the
writer would have put the word “Honour killing” between quotation marks and what ‘honour killing’
means.
Explain what’s meant by the remark.
Write down briefly what your opinion on honour killings is. Explain your answer and use about 100 words.
cruising and racing
1.
Compare Legs and Nicki, two of the people interviewed rather extensively in the article. What
characteristics do they share, and in what ways are they different? Use a Venn-diagram for comparing
the two.
[wrap up diagram 13a]
True/False
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
The police dislike cruisers because of the parking violations they commit.
Cruising isn’t illegal.
Car racing magazines tend to see women merely as sex objects, not as racers.
Cruisers like to show off the modifications they’ve added to their cars.
Most cruisers won’t race because they know it’s illegal.
Racers usually use main roads, not specifically designed racing circuits.
The people watching the racing aren’t aware of the fact it’s illegal
Questions
9.
Name four illegal actions or situations that are connected with racing and cruising.
10.
Owners of a moped know that it’s illegal to ‘tweak’ your moped’s engine so it’ll go faster; if the
police catches you with a tuned up moped, you run the risk of losing it. However, it seems to be
allowed to tune up your car so it can go faster than itever be allowed on a public road. What’s the use
of having a car that’s able to run twice as fast at it’s allowed on the highway? Do you think it should
be forbidden to ‘tweak’ car engines, just as you aren’t allowed to tune up your moped? Write down
your opinion in about 75 words.
the OC gets the OK
1.
‘The OC’ “has tried to capture the ‘fleeting beauty’ of today’s youth”, yet you may doubt the series
really represent the average young person. In the following diagram, list at least three characteristics
that the characters in The OC have in common with the average youngster, and three characteristics
that most young people aren’t likely to have.
[wrap up diagram 9a]
Multiple choice
2.
3.
4.
Why would Ryan, the juvenile delinquent, be presented as the centre of the series?
a. Because he is the person most Americans identify with, since all the others are too rich and too
self-centred.
b. Because by moving into Sandy’s house in Newport Beach, he affects everybody who lives there.
c. Because Ryan, despite being a petty criminal, is the only honest person in the series.
d. Because Ryan is the most active character in the series; he is the one who takes initiative and
clashes or makes friends with other people.
What’s one of Mischa Barton’s (the actress who plays Marissa) greatest problems with starring in the
series?
a. Her homesickness; she is longing to spend some time in London with her sister, but hasn’t got
enough time between recording the shows.
b. The tabloid press, who are only interested in who she is currently dating and what secret
addictions she might have.
c. The fact that people don’t readily take to her because she’s half-English, half-Irish and speaks
with an accent.
d. The media, which only seem interested in her looks and the clothes she wears.
What’s said about the influence the series have on what’s fashionable?
a. The series have encouraged viewers to stop buying brand-name clothing and to just wear any
clothes they like.
b. Many of the viewers want to wear exactly the same clothes as the characters in the series, which
is a unique phenomenon.
c. A big sports clothing brand sponsors the series and has seen its profits multiply in the past year.
d. Just like ‘Sex and the City’, the brands –even the small ones- worn by the major characters very
5.
6.
7.
quickly gain popularity with the viewers as well.
What can be said about the characters in the show?
a. They all have some sort of secret they’re trying to hide from the outside world.
b. There are clearly two groups that keep secrets from each other; the adults and the teenagers.
c. There are clearly two groups that keep secrets from each other; the rich folks and the poor ones.
d. They don’t have any real problems, but manage to turn trivial problems into massive dilemmas.
What’s the writer’s opinion of the series?
a. He thinks it’s a good example of a series that shows adolescents that money doesn’t necessarily
mean happiness.
b. He thinks the series gives a realistic view of what today’s youth is up to.
c. He thinks the series appears to be a very nice way of escaping reality.
d. He thinks the series’ strong point is the depiction of the relationship between parents and their
children.
What are Mischa Barton’s future plans?
a. She would like to continue playing in the series, but it is not sure Fox wants a second season.
b. She wants to keep on acting, but she isn’t sure if she’d like to stay in the series.
c. She wants to continue playing in ‘The OC’, but has rejected offers to do teen movies.
d. She will continue playing in ‘The OC’, but wants to be in a teen movie soon too.
worlds apart text one and two
For this wrap up test, you are asked to make part of a folder that can be used for a safe sex campaign.
The folder is meant for secondary school students and contains information on sex, safe sex and
contraceptives.
Your task is to deliver two so-called ‘case studies’. These case studies should show students that
despite all information offered, things can still go wrong because people ignore the information given
to them.
One case study will be about Charlotte, the other about Jennifer. Explain what went wrong in both
cases and why, and what the consequences were. Each case study should be about 200 words and
contain information on:
-the girl’s background.
-the girl’s age when getting pregnant
-what contraceptives she normally used
-why she got pregnant
-what happened after she had got pregnant.
Be creative but clear.
born to be wild
1.
The article describes an experiment that involved rats. Your task for this wrap up test is to write a
report on this experiment, using the following worksheet:
[wrap up diagram 11a]
2.
Rats have always been connected with bad things; all proverbs and expressions with the word ‘rat’ in
them have a negative meaning. If it’s true that rats and mice share 95 percent of the same genes with
humans, we must be pretty alike. So why would rats be associated with bad things? Give your opinion
on this question.
Arthur rides in
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Explain in your own words whether or not this text is a review.
Explain why Bruckheimer’s Arthur movie is being criticised by scholars.
Explain in full sentences what ‘Hadrian’s wall’ is and why Arthur might be defending it in the movie.
“They would not waste one of their own aristocrats to solve the British problem” is a quote from the
article. Write down who said this, who ‘they’ are, what ‘the British problem’ is and who was sent by
‘them’ to solve ‘the problem’.
Make logical combinations between the words of the first row and the words of the second row, and
explain for each pair why you think they belong together
[diagram 2a]
Answers to the wrap-up tests
the spite girls / when girls get nasty
1.
[wrap up diagram 10b]
2c.
This quote is about most movies that deal with the theme of outsiders. These movies tend to be indiemovies, which don’t attract a large audience, but aim at the more ‘alternative’ audience. The
statement contrasts most movies about outsiders with ‘Mean Girls’, which deals with bullying and
being an outsider, but still attracts enormous crowds.
One of the women who plays a teacher in the movie read the self-help guide and considered it great
stuff to base a movie on, and managed to convince others of that as well.
The paragraphs that this statement comes from and refers to are all about the ability of teenage girls to
bully each other with psychological mind games and machiavellian plotting; it means that these girls
are better at plotting and scheming than most politicians.
The text suggests that many girls have translated the Spice Girls’ message of assertiveness and Girl
Power incorrectly; they have explained it as a permit to harass anyone who might be in their way, not
as an advice to stand up for yourself in case you’re being harassed.
The text suggests that in friendships with other girls, girls practise for the sort of relationship they
might have with a sexual partner later on. They have a very intense relationship with one ‘best friend’
and the breaking up can be just as painful and emotional as a real divorce.
‘Thirteen’ is a rather serious movie about girls going bad; it has served as a wake-up call for parents
who may not always be aware of the things their daughters are up to. The text suggests that it’s aimed
at parents and adults mainly; it’s certainly not a comedy.
Different from ‘Thirteen’, ‘Mean Girls’ is aimed at teenage girls; it’s a comedy and hopes that, by
using humour, it will get the message across more easily. It wants to show girls how bullying works
and what it can lead to.
One of the experts suggests that girls are better in communication and therefore are better in all verbal
actions, whether it’s comforting, advising or bullying people. The texts don’t support the idea that
girls blurt out things without meaning them really; their bullying is described as strategically plotted,
which doesn’t fit in with any impulsive action. Both girls and boys are going through a difficult
period when growing up, so that doesn’t serve as an explanation for being nasty.
3d.
4a.
5c.
6b.
7a.
8d.
9b.
caught in the middle
1.
[wrap up diagram 5b – Caught in the middle]
2.
3.
4.
The new information offered in the second article is that religion has never been absent from the lives
of the Iraqi people; the article ‘caught in the middle’ doesn’t elaborate on life before the invasion, but
it suggests that the society was pretty worldly; the interview with the boy suggests that it wasn’t
exactly worldly, but that religion is something that’s taken for granted; it’s simply there, it’s part of
life. ‘Caught in the middle’ doesn’t mention this, maybe because it’s such a natural part of life, it only
mentions the religious conservatism that has gained power lately.
Another new piece of information is clearly that life in Baghdad under Saddam Hussein wasn’t
perfect or fun either; although it may have been safer, there weren’t many places to go to, and Abbas
also mentions that, despite the security, Saddam ‘has destroyed Iraq’. ‘Caught in the middle’ doesn’t
even mention the dictator and the article is definitely not negative about the past.
It’s dangerous out on the streets for girls; not only because of terrorism – which affects everybody –
but because of the lawlessness. The article claims that girls in Baghdad run the risk of getting raped or
kidnapped, and that this has happened to many girls already. Another threat that looms outside is that
of conservative religious groups; if a girl isn’t dressed appropriately –i.e. doesn’t have her arms and
head covered- she might provoke the anger of these groups.
The writer has probably chosen Yosor, Sali and Beatriz to represent ‘Girls from Baghdad’ because
they are from different types of families and they’ve ended up in different situations.
[wrap up diagram 6b]
your next computer
1.
2.
[wrap up diagram 7b]
“Technology revolutions come in two flavours: jarringly fast, like music-sharing sites on the Net that
instantly change the cultural landscape, and slower ones, like the emergence of mobile phones. Many
phones nowadays have computer-like features; they are called smart phones and, according to the
phone industry, have the potential to replace the PC. It is expected that coming innovations will solve
the limitations of the phone. At the moment, these more advanced phones are mainly bought by
businessmen in the USA, and by youngsters in Japan. Experts claim the PC will disappear to the
background because people prefer portability and want equipment that doesn’t have to boot up.
However, defenders of the PC claim that that’s where laptops come in, especially now it’s possible to
connect to the Internet everywhere thanks to the Wi-Fi networks. Their predictions are that people
don’t want to replace their keyboard and screen by miniature versions of both. However, scientists are
working on methods to solve that problem currently, and hope to come up with the answer to the PC
very soon.”
Orlando boom
1.
-Orlando’s father dies
-Orlando joins the National Youth Theatre
-Orlando gets three A-levels in religious studies, photography and art
-Orlando gets his first film role
-Orlando enrolls on a three-year-course at the Guildhall School of Speech and Drama
-Orlando falls of a roof and breaks his back
-Orlando gets the role of Legolas in Lord of the Rings
-The first interview takes place
-Orlando is excited about the premiere of Lord of the Rings
-Orlando gets a role in Troy
-The second interview takes place
2c.
Orlando was looking forward to the premiere of ‘Lord of the Rings’ part one during the first
interview. However, during the second interview, three years later, it turns out that he has begun to
feel uncomfortable about all the teenage girls that seem to adore him, and he has started to dread these
kinds of public performances.
Orlando didn’t become famous till the first instalment of ‘Lord of the Rings’ was released; then
3c.
4a.
5b.
6b.
7d.
8c.
everybody started to wonder who this actor who played Legolas was. Three years and several movies
later, Orlando Bloom has gained fame all over the world, and can’t simply go to the corner shop for a
pizza anymore, as he and the interviewer did during the first interview. According to the interviewer,
Bloom looked surprisingly fit during the second interview, and hasn’t become less eager or
enthusiastic. Though she mentions that his time has become precious, there is no indication that
Bloom is rushing the interview.
The writer mentions that Bloom looks very fit and healthy, and Bloom explains this by saying that
he’s very careful about his diet, but also that all his roles so far have involved a lot of activity; sword
fighting, horse-riding, archery; anything. So he must be quite fit, otherwise he wouldn’t have been
able to act in the movies.
The reason the writer calls him old-fashioned has to do with Orlando’s state of mind. He describes
himself as a romantic who loves to spoil his girlfriends, and he is the kind of person who’d probably
serenade his girlfriend and send her red roses instead of sending her emails and text messages.
The author explains the word ‘accident-prone’ by listing all the accidents Bloom has had in his life.
The word was also in the vocabulary list.
You’ll have to include the fathers Bloom grew up with in this list: his biological father and guardian
Colin Stone, and the father who he thought was his real father, Harry Bloom. You could call Ridley
Scott his father too, because Bloom calls him his ‘surrogate father’.
Bloom doesn’t give a very straightforward answer to this question. He sees being happy as something
that you might achieve in the end, not a condition you can be in at his age already; he supposes that,
at 27, he still needs to work it all out. Being happy is an aim; he is still on the road to that aim, but
certainly going in the right direction.
Greece lightning
1.
a.
b.
c.
2.
The increased popularity in the USA of movies based on ancient Greek heroes can be explained by
looking at the current political situation in world politics. Alexander the Great, about whom two
movies are currently being produced, was a representative of Western civilisation who conquered the
Persian Empire, i.e. contemporary Iran and Iraq. With the American involvement in the war in Iraq,
the movies depict a victory for the Western civilisation which many Americans are longing for in
Iraq.
Sappho was a female Greek poet and homosexual. Victorian doctors therefore used the name of the
island she was from, Lesbos, to create a word that referred to female homosexuals; ‘lesbian’.
Dictators such as Hitler and Stalin were also inspired by ancient Greek civilisation. They were
especially intrigued by the military society of Sparta, where order and military might reigned, and
which was willing to sacrifice its weaker citizens in order to gain and keep control.
-The ideal body and looks: Our current ideal of beauty is similar to the ancient Greek ideal, even
more for men than for women. The ideal of having a muscular body was very popular with the
ancient Greeks, and they regularly went to exercise in order to get a perfect body. The idea of going
to a fitness centre therefore isn’t new; the ancient Greeks already went to the gym regularly. The ideal
for women to have a smooth skin also originates in ancient Greek society.
-Training and sports: In order to get the perfect body, people went to the gym. At the gym, men
exercised in order to train their muscles and get their bodies in shape. The gym also provided manuals
(diaita) in which was written what to eat and drink, how and how much to exercise and how much
one should sleep in order to perform and look best. These manuals were written by experts who were
also present in the gym and helped the men train. Ancient Greek society was highly focused on sports
and sports achievements; the Olympic Games were invented by the Greeks.
-Politics: Democracy was invented by the ancient Greeks. Although their democracy didn’t include
all citizens –women and slaves were excluded from voting- the basic principle that’s in use today,
was based on the old Greek idea of ruling a country.
-Literature: The Greek stories and mythology have proven to be a source for literature ever since. The
themes used in Greek myths are still used regularly in contemporary literature, and recently, the
movie industry has rediscovered the potential of Greek mythology as well.
3.
-Language: Modern English has a lot of words that were originally Greek or derived from Greek
words or mythology. Many expressions are based on Greek myths. Examples are the word
‘democracy’ which was originally Greek, words like ‘harpy’, ‘siren’, and ‘Adonis’, which come from
Greek mythology, and expressions such as ‘Oedipus complex’, also from Greek mythology.
The writer thinks the most important thing Greek civilisation did for us is that it provided an ideal. By
this he meant that Greek society has produced many great men and ideas; it has established the
standards for what’s perfect in many fields of human enterprise: philosophy, politics, art, poetry and
literature, etcetera. The writer thinks so because ancient Greece has been an inspiration to many
different people in different times.
4.
[wrap up diagram 3b]
out of Africa / eat, eat, eat
1.
[wrap up diagram 4b]
Text one: Out of Africa
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
False. It’s true that anorexia was largely unknown, but this was because the pressure on girls and
women was much less. Since race discrimination and alternately gender discrimination have –
officially- ended, women have the chance to become whatever they want to be, and that always puts a
lot of pressure on people. Because of this pressure, the girls and women start looking for role models;
women who are successful, and copy their looks and behaviour in the hope that this will make them
successful as well. In the case of the South African girls, they relate to (Western) models and
actresses, who are all beautiful and thin, and want to be like them, even if they have to starve
themselves for it.
True. Empowerment – and the expectations that are connected to it – causes people to look critically
at themselves. Were it possible before to blame external factors for failure to achieve, now that
success has come within reach for everybody, it’s your own fault when you don’t achieve, they think.
So the women have started to take a closer look at themselves, and started comparing themselves to
successful women they knew from TV, and found themselves lacking.
True. The writer claims that there weren’t any health problems in African society where being fat was
the beauty ideal, but that the Western ideal of being slim has made many victims; dieters get
depressed, and ‘successful’ dieters run the risk of turning anorectic.
True. The author suggests that people who try to lose weight are often frustrated and depressed
because even though they might lose weight for a short period of time, it hardly ever ‘sticks’ and
they’re back to their old weight in no time.
False. The text makes a distinction between the rural and the urban areas, and suggests that in rural
areas, being fat is still the most common ideal. Slimming is something that’s mainly popular in the
cities, where people have access to (foreign) media and the pressure to succeed and pursue a career is
higher.
True. The article claims that it’s not only the girls themselves who want to lose weight and be
successful, but that they’re also pressured by their parents, teachers and boyfriends. Many parents
want their daughters to live the life they were never able to have because of the political
circumstances and stimulate / force their daughters to look good.
False. The text mentions this fact to stress the irony of South African teens starving themselves
voluntarily. One third of South African teens are undernourished because their families can’t afford to
feed them properly.
False. The boys expect the girls to be the best of both the old tradition and the new ideals. The girls
are supposed to look good and be thin, but should be ‘good wives’ at the same time, meaning,
obedient and being able to work hard.
Text two: Eat, eat, eat – if you want to be loved
10.
True. Arit’s chances of marrying someone will rise considerably now that she’s fat; being fat shows
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
your family is rich and that they can afford to feed you properly, or more than properly, which makes
the bride a good match. The text suggests that people feel sorry for a man who marries a thin bride.
False. It is true that Arit was sent to the fattening room by her family, but there is no sign that she
isn’t happy with it or that she was forced to go there; she clearly looks forward to returning to her
village looking fatter and being more attractive and healthier.
True. The writer is Western, probably European (British) and not really into the kinds of food that are
offered in the fattening room. (She might have been tempted by more ‘western’ types of food, such as
Belgian chocolates and cream buns.)
True. Since research has linked fattening to diabetes, people have started to doubt the healthiness of
fattening. Other reasons why they are controversial is because of what’s been taught to women in the
fattening rooms (see statement 14) and that the fattening rooms also perform other old rituals, such as
female circumcision, which is frowned upon in the Western world and lately has become
controversial for many Africans as well.
True. This is only one of the reasons, but it’s the one mentioned in the article. GPI opposes the
obedience lessons taught to women in the fattening rooms because they make women inferior to men;
women are taught how to be good brides, which basically means that the husband is always right, and
should be obeyed and humoured in all circumstances.
False. The slave trading days are mentioned because GPI thinks that in fattening rooms, women are
being taught to be slaves to their own husbands.
False. A part of Glory represents the ‘new world’; she is slim, she plans to go to university and she
wants to become a lawyer. However, she sticks to the old traditions as well, just like Arit; she is about
to be circumcised, which is an ancient ritual, and before she gets married, she wants to return to the
fattening rooms because she wants to become just as fat as Arit.
False. The market shows that the most common ideal is still to be fat. Many of the market stalls sell
products that are connected to fattening, not to losing weight.
the brothers Kalashnikov
1.
-Spetsnaz is founded
-Ded is born
-Collapse of Communism
-Invasion of Chechnya
-Mokry joins Spetsnaz
-Storming of the Dubrovka theatre
-The author sees a Spetsnaz unit up close for the first time
-The author interviews Unit 8
The article doesn’t give an exact date when the Spetsnaz first came into action, but it can be
concluded from the text that they’ve existed for quite a long time already and that they used to be
active during the Cold War, the political struggle between the Soviet Union and the USA (or the East
and the West) after World War II. The article doesn’t mention Ded’s age, but they do mention that he
was born during the era of Leonid Brezhnev, which was, as you have read in the background
information, from 1965 till 1982. The collapse of Communism is usually dated around 1990, when
the Soviet Union began to fall apart. Chechnya was invaded in 1994. Mokry joined Spetsnaz six years
before the interview took place, so around 1997/1998. The Dubrovka Theatre raid took place in
October 2002; that’s also when the author first sees a Spetsnaz unit up close, and decides he wants to
know more about them and interview them, which finally happens about a year or a year-and-a-half
later.
2.
False. The soldiers in the Spetsnaz unit visited by the writer are rather sorry they weren’t present at
the raid; they were probably in Chechnya at the time.
True. the writer claims they are ‘just as publicity-shy’, be it for more reasons than just security.
True. The authorities and the Spetsnaz are truly proud of the raid, despite the high number of people
getting killed.
True. He mentions that the negotiations took him months, and that permission had to be obtained
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
through both official and unofficial channels.
False. The author mentions that he’s polite, even though he’s highly suspicious.
False. They prefer people without a criminal background, but ‘don’t ask too many questions’.
True. he mentions his wife and kid back home.
False. Though the description more or less fits the occasion, the text also mentions that the banya
night the interviewer ‘enjoys’ with Ded is an exception; most of the soldiers don’t even drink alcohol,
or only very little.
True. You have to be a Spetsnaz soldier to qualify for the Maroon Beret, but even for Spetsnaz
soldiers it’s difficult to obtain one.
False. Mokry doesn’t really talk about what he’d like to do; he just mentions that he always went back
to Chechnya and his unit, despite losing friends in the war and getting injured.
True. The salary of a Spetsnaz soldier isn’t very high, compared to what they can make in the private
sector or in crime, so many former soldiers use their abilities to make money in a less legal way.
the school that joined the army
1d.
2a.
3c.
4b.
5c.
6d.
7b.
8d.
9a.
10.
11.
Carver Military Academy was founded when the school that used to be located in the building was
threatened with closure due to the constant gang warfare and crime in the school. The staff invited the
military to help out, but the school doesn’t force its pupils to join the army after school; it just wants
to offer the students a place to learn in peace and do something with their lives.
The example tells us about the school football team that was beaten up two months earlier; usually,
football players are pretty strong and impressive looking and won’t let themselves getting beaten up if
the enemy isn’t particularly strong and mean. The example shows that it’s not very strange that
William Pearson doesn’t want to walk to school; despite his length, everybody runs the risk of getting
mugged or beaten up.
Pearson leaves for school very early every morning to join the military drills. Not because he has to,
but because he wants to. Officially, lessons start at eight o’clock.
The word ‘boot camp’ has been explained in the vocabulary list you studied.
A lot of students mentioned in the articles live in Altgeld Gardens. It’s been described as closest to
the school, and most dangerous; Major Hayes doesn’t think it’s a good idea to enter it.
Mayor Hayes thinks his work is the toughest job he’s ever had, and he seems to have had quite a few
difficult tasks in his life. Especially in the beginning, when students weren’t used to the discipline yet,
and life in the school was pretty lawless, it must have been quite difficult, also because the main
motivation of most students to attend school was the fact that the building was heated and that it
provided food.
The article mentions that the school receives applications from all over Chicago, and also interviews
one boy who’s definitely from another neighbourhood, but who has grown to like and understand the
necessity of the military discipline.
In one of the classes, the students discuss whether schools should provide day care for students who
have babies; from the discussion can be derived, however, that the Military Academy doesn’t have
one. They do mention that they discourage students from having babies too early, but also mention
that they won’t refuse a student who is pregnant or has a baby.
The school has become a safer place, and the achievements of students have improved, according to
the text. Unfortunately, the school doesn’t meet the official standards yet, so it’s still on probation,
but it’s definitely improving.
Carver Military Academy hasn’t literally ‘joined the army’; the students aren’t turned into soldiers,
nor are they expected to take service the moment they leave school. The Academy has joined the
army by joining forces with the army; teachers and military personnel cooperate to keep order and
teach, and to offer young people a chance to learn in a peaceful environment.
[own opinion]
is your computer on?
1.
[wrap up diagram 12b]
2.
Criminals can use viruses to blackmail – for instance – on-line bookmakers by threatening them to
crash their websites at a crucial point, when they are making the most money, unless they pay a
certain amount of money through a wire-transfer service. The criminals are actually able to execute
this threat because they have hundreds of zombie PCs at their disposal; PCs that are infected with a
virus that has been created and spread by the criminals and can be commanded by the them to go to
the bookmaker’s website. Because of the sheer number of calls, it will crash the website
3d.
The article suggests that modern viruses don’t do direct harm (only) to your computer, but remain
active and can be responsible for spam and other undesirable actions for which the PC owner hasn’t
given any order.
4d.
The article suggests that the profile of people creating viruses has changed lately, so it’s not just
teenagers anymore. Besides, being young or not being aware that you’re doing something illegal
doesn’t mean you can’t be punished. It’s certainly not allowed to consciously spread harmful viruses.
The problem is, the text suggests, that viruses are almost impossible to trace, since they’re getting
more complicated and smarter all the time.
5c.
The gangs behind viruses such as Netsky, Bagle and Mydoom are all involved in criminal activities.
You can’t claim that one virus is ‘good’ and the other ‘evil’; they just all aim – more or less- at the
same business – distributing spam, enslaving some people’s computers and blackmailing online
businesses. It’s not just ‘showing off’, though that must be part of it as well; it’s all about cash, and
getting the highest profits as well.
6a.
Computer viruses and biological viruses share a lot of characteristics. The article mentions the
difficulty to protect yourself against them (that it isn’t possible to protect yourself against all viruses,
though virusscanners might stop some of them), the little time needed for a virus to spread itself to
other people/PCs and the fact they keep changing.
hard times
A:
Cause and Effect
C
E
Growing gap between rich and poor
Poor cannot and rich will not buy products
People buy on instalment credit
Car industry booms
World war one ends
US tariff policy maintained
Europe
Buying stocks on margin
A quick drop in stock prices
Stock market crash
Car and radio industries reach the limit
of their expansion
Foreign countries can’t sell products
to the US
increased output per worker
gradually a surplus of goods builds up
the crisis is delayed and thus made worse
Construction industry booms
Food prices fall
Awkward distribution of wealth between US and
B:
True or false
Mass speculation
Optimism replaced by fear
Consumer and investor confidence undermined
The whole economy starts to slow down
US exports drop by 30%
1
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
False
True
True
False
True
False
True
True
star-crossed lovers
1.
Events that have been described in the article as well:
-Bonnie and Clyde meet in Texas, during the Depression.
-Buck, Clyde’s brother, and his wife, Blanche, are members of the Barrow gang as well.
-Bonnie and Clyde visit Bonnie’s mother.
-Bonnie and Clyde were betrayed by a gang member.
-Bonnie and Clyde were killed in an ambush.
-Several police forces cooperated to finally deal with the Barrow gang.
Events that don’t match the information given in the article:
-The article claims Bonnie met Clyde while staying with a girlfriend, not that they met while she was
staring out of her window and watching him trying to steal her mother’s car.
-The film suggests that Bonnie challenged Clyde to perform an armed robbery first thing after they
met; according to the article, Clyde was locked up shortly after they first met for a robbery he had
performed before having met Bonnie.
-The film suggests that Bonnie and Clyde were unaware of the danger, while the article suggests that
they were constantly vigilant and armed – they were still in hiding at the time they were killed.
-The article mentions another gang member betraying Bonnie and Clyde, not C.W. Moss (the article
mentions Henry Methvin).
New information:
-The Barrow gang consists of five people.
-The Barrow gang is also held responsible for crimes they didn’t perform.
-Buck gets killed by the police before Clyde, and Blanche is arrested.
-The gang doesn’t always agree with each other; they argue among themselves.
2.
a.
b.
[wrap up diagram 8b]
During the Depression, many people in the USA lost their jobs. Before the Depression, as you have
read in the background information, the gap between rich and poor was extremely big, but in order to
keep the economy ‘healthy’ (at least short term), also the ones who didn’t have any money were
encouraged to buy luxury goods on a buy-now-pay-later basis. Naturally, this system couldn’t keep
up very long; soon the poorer people found that a large part of their salary had to be used to pay off
their debts, and that hardly any money remained for living on. At the same time, people were also
encouraged to invest money in shares. Since most people didn’t have any money, they borrowed
money from brokers; if the shares went up, this wasn’t any problem of course, and people made huge
profits, but in 1929, things went wrong; the market crashed, people and industries went broke, and
millions of people lost their jobs.
Many of these people felt that they had been betrayed by the rich top layer of the population; they had
encouraged them to borrow money but they had never been told what the risks involved were. The
top layer was affected by the crash and the depression that followed it as well, but not nearly as much
as the ‘normal’ people, who had lost their jobs and were left with debts.
So, the majority of these ‘normal’ people were quite sceptical about the government and the people in
charge, since they were the ones who should have warned them, or at least should provide some help.
For the farmers, as you can read elsewhere (in the article “Hard Times”), things were particularly
grim. They felt betrayed by both the banks and the government. They started to identify themselves
with people who fought the law and the ruling order, such as ‘Pretty Boy Floyd’ and Bonnie and
Clyde, who were, in the eyes of many people, basically honest people who were forced into crime
because of poverty or arrogance of the law. They were heroes of their time, independent of the fact if
they were really ‘basically good people’ and many Robin Hood-like characteristics were attributed to
them, even if these weren’t justified.
3.
[own opinion]
burned alive
1.
[wrap up diagram 1b]
2.
Souad makes her story public property by writing a book about what she went through. In the book,
she tries to capture the difficulties girls have to face in repressive societies, and the pressure that’s on
the societies to keep up the old rules.
3.
Souad’s family are, according to the text, also victims. Souad makes clear in her book that people in
the village are more or less forced to carry out the old rules, because otherwise, they will become
outsiders as well. This doesn’t make them less responsible for the murder attempt on Souad though;
there is no suggestion in the text that her family regretted or disliked what they did. They clearly
supported the old rules themselves as well, as the harsh treatment Souad and her sisters received just
for being female, clearly illustrated.
4.
a.
b.
5.
‘“Honour killing” is becoming part of our daily lexicon too’. The writer has probably added quotation
marks not because she quoted the word from Souad –it wouldn’t make much sense to quote a single
word without any context- but because she has her doubts about the correctness of the word. She
thinks that there’s clearly nothing ‘honourable’ about killing your daughter, sister or wife and that
hence, the word doesn’t cover the meaning. The murders are called ‘honour killings’ because the girls
or women get killed for ‘bringing shame on the honour of the family’. This ‘shaming’ can be just
about anything that doesn’t fully comply with the community’s rules, from looking at a man to
‘provoking a rape’, and from dating the ‘wrong’ boy to having sex before marriage.
The remark refers to the fact that honour killings aren’t limited to small communities on the West
Bank, but that they appear worldwide, and in the UK as well. The writer than continues to give some
examples of honour killings in the UK.
[own opinion]
cruising and racing
A:
Cause and Effect
C
E
Growing gap between rich and poor
increased output per worker
Poor cannot and rich will not buy products
gradually a surplus of goods builds up
People buy on instalment credit
the crisis is delayed and thus made worse
Car industry booms
construction industry booms
World war one ends
food prices fall
US tariff policy maintained
awkward distribution of wealth between US and Europe
Buying stocks on margin
Mass speculation
A quick drop in stock prices
optimism replaced by fear
Stock market crash
consumer and investor confidence undermined
Car and radio industries reach the limit of their expansion
the whole economy starts to slow down
Foreign countries can’t sell products to the US
US exports drop by 30%
B:
True or false
1
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
False
True
True
False
True
False
True
True
the OC gets the OK
1.
[wrap up diagram 9a]
2b.
The moment Ryan enters Newport Beach, everybody’s life begins to change; it seems like he’s set off
a chain of events that can’t be stopped anymore. There is no evidence that he’s the only honest
person, nor that all persons except Ryan are self-centred.
Barton complains about the media’s constant interest in what she wears and how she looks, and she is
growing very tired of this. She would like to escape it by fleeing to London; not because she’s
homesick, but simply because she is tired of being examined and judged by the media all the time.
The text gives the example of a rather unknown clothes brand that boomed all of a sudden after OC
characters had started wearing their clothing in the show. More or less the same thing happened to
brands worn by ‘Sex and the City’ characters.
The writer says that all of them have ‘big, dark secrets’, and that they try to keep these secrets to
themselves. Although there might be different groups that oppose each other at times, the text
suggests that most characters keep their problems to themselves.
The writer refers to the series as ‘pure escapism’; he doesn’t think the series are realistic, or at least
not for most young people. He doesn’t mention any moral that might be in the story, nor does he
focus on the relationship between parents and their children: Barton emphasises this though.
She claims she’s waiting for a big offer, the ‘right project’, and she isn’t sure whether she wants to
keep on acting in series or movies where she has to play a confused, self-centred teenager.
3d.
4d.
5a.
6c.
7b.
born to be wild
1.
[wrap up diagram 11b]
2.
[own opinion]
Arthur rides in
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
[Own opinion]. Things that might be mentioned are:
Yes, this text is a review because it contains a synopsis of the film ‘King Arthur’ by Jerry
Bruckheimer, and it makes you curious about the film.
No, this article isn’t a review. The text doesn’t really discuss the movie, but discusses the commotion
it has caused among scholars and King Arthur experts. It only refers to parts of the movie to show
that the movie isn’t, as claimed by Bruckheimer, ‘historically accurate’.
The point that seems to bother most scientists most about the King Arthur movie, is that Bruckheimer
claims it’s historically authentic. Most scholars who have studied the King Arthur legend either claim
that King Arthur didn’t exist, or make clear that there is no evidence for one version of truth rather
than the other. They consider some parts of Bruckheimer’s script pretty ridiculous and founded on
nothing but presumptions, and the text suggests that some things that happen in the movie are
historically incorrect, rather than accurate. They have doubts especially about the origins of Arthur
(Russia, in the movie), whether or not he was paid by the Romans, the attire in which Guinevere goes
to battle and the fact that Arthur seems to be defending Hadrian’s Wall from the Saxons.
Hadrian’s Wall is the name of the wall that functioned as a border of the Roman Empire in Britain.
The wall was built on the orders of Emperor Hadrianus, hence the name. The main purpose of the
wall was, on the one hand, to show the strength and size of the Roman Empire, but also to keep the
Scots out of the Empire. The Wall had been built when the Roman Empire was still going strong, but
a few centuries later, the Empire started to crumble, the Romans retreated back to the Continent and
Britain was left to fend for themselves whilst being attacked on all sides. In the movie, the most
logical people that might want to cross Hadrian’s Wall and attack Britain were the Scots; all other
peoples came from Denmark (Jutes) and the Continent (Angles, Saxons).
“They would not waste one of their own aristocrats to solve the British problem”. This quote is from
‘a source close to Bruckheimer’, but Bruckheimer as an answer will do. The ‘they’ mentioned are
‘The Romans’. As you could have concluded from the text, or otherwise have read in the background
information, the Roman Empire was falling apart at the end of the fifth century, and the borders of the
Empire were threatened everywhere. Instead of securing Britain, the Romans decided to give priority
to their Empire on the Continent; ‘their own aristocrats’ stayed in Rome and surroundings to solve the
problems there. Instead, according to Bruckheimer’s movie, they send Arthur, a commander in the
pay of the Romans, who originally came from the region beyond Germania, from what is now called
Russia, to sort things out. The British problem was the different peoples that threatened to invade
Britain the moment the Roman Empire lost strength, especially the Saxons.
Pair one: Camelot and Tintagel. From the text you could have concluded that Camelot is the castle
(both in the movie and in the legend) where Arthur held his court. Tintagel is mentioned later on in
the article as another Arthurian site. They are connected because these are both places that are
connected with King Arthur.
Pair two: Roman Empire – Hadrian’s Wall. Hadrian’s Wall was built when Britain was part of the
Roman Empire on the orders of Emperor Hadrian, to indicate the borders of the Roman Empire in
Britain and to keep the Scots at bay.
Pair three: Guinevere and Keira Knightley. Keira Knightley is the actress who plays Guinevere in the
movie King Arthur.
Pair four: Geoffrey of Monmouth and Cretien de Troyes. The article mentions their names as the first
medieval authors to use the Arthurian Legend in their poems and stories.
Pair five: Bruckheimer’s Arthur and Russia. According to Bruckheimer and his movie, Arthur could
be called ‘Russian’; he’s from ‘beyond Germania’. Many scholars doubt this, or mention that there is
no evidence whatsoever to prove this.
Pair six: Walt Disney Theme park and Pirates of the Caribbean. The movie ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’
was originally based on a ride in one of Walt Disney’s theme parks.
[diagram 2b]