Handout, class 04
Mar 13th
1. How do you understand the following sayings:
a. Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.
(proverb)
b. The welfare state is a cow that needs to be milked carefully so as not to milk it to death.
c. If you don't help yourself nobody will. (proverb)
d. God helps those who help themselves. (proverb)
e. Control is the highest form of trust. (J. Stalin)
f. Tolerance is about accommodating oneself (=dopasować się) to everybody without
deforming oneself.
2. Solve the "nine dots" puzzle. The goal is to link all 9 dots using four straight lines or fewer,
without lifting the pen and without tracing the same line more than once.
3. As you read, fill in the table below with meanings of bolded words and phrases.
The meaning of "society" is susceptible to changes in place and time. In Britain, during the Second World War, there
was a feeling of community because civilians helped one another out. When the war ended, the Welfare State was
founded. People were provided with free eye-tests, glasses, medicines and dental check-ups. There was a sense of
the strong helping the weak. By the end of the 1950s, many people were purchasing washing machines and
televisions. Some were even buying their own houses. The consumer society was under way. Politicians told us that
we'd never had it so good.
During the 1960s, in both Britain and America, the conventional view of society was challenged by a youth
movement whose opinions were articulated through pop and folk music and student politics. Songs such as "Little
Boxes" ridiculed the idealized picture of the two parent family whose children went through both summer school
and university to become perfect products of society. The little boxes of many different colours, but which all looked
just the same, were the suburban dwellings of the American middle class. Other songs such as "What did you learn
in school, today?" questioned the image of the good citizen who never doubts the teacher's word, regards the police
as friends, supports the death penalty and is eager to fight for his country. The attack on the uniformity of the family
developed into a protest against the Vietnam War. By the early 1970s, criticism turned to the corruption inherent in
the Nixon administration.
Today, people show greater tolerance towards different family structures such as single parent families and
there is a wider acceptance of different races and sexual orientations. However, trust is in short supply, judging by
the number of security alarms fitted to our houses and cars and the emergence of neighbourhood watch schemes as
the social institutions of the 1990s.
4. Match words with meanings by filling in the second column with appropriate letters.
1. welfare state
a. a house, apartment etc. where people live
2. to be susceptible to sth
b. a plan under which members of a community agree
together to take responsibility for keeping an eye on each
other's property, as a way of preventing crime
3. to help sb out
c. People just don't have enough faith in each other.
4. to found (town, club, family, school, hospital(
d. social security
5. to provide sb with sth
e. the quality of being or looking the same as others
6. to have a dental check-up
f. Things have never looked better.
7. to be under way
g. to be a natural part of it and cannot be separated from it
8. We’ve never had it so good.
h. to be easily influenced/attracted by sb/sth
9. to articulate
i. to be very keen and excited about doing sth
10. to ridicule
j. to establish sth
11. a dwelling
k. to give sb sth / to give sth to sb
12. to regard sb/sth as sth
l. to have a dentist examine your teeth/gums
13. to be eager to do sth
m. to have started to {happen / be done}
14. uniformity
n. to help sb
15. be inherent in sth
o. to laugh at a person, idea etc. and say that they are
stupid
16. Trust is in short supply.
p. to look at someone or something, in a particular way
17. emergence
q. when something begins to be known or noticed
18. neighbourhood watch (scheme)
r. to pronounce/express
5. Discuss the following with your partner
a. What was the influence of the war on the emergence of welfare state in Western Europe?
b. Do you think the rebellious young people of the 1960s were ungrateful?
c. Many despise (=gardzić) the consumer society (in which the buying and selling of mass-produced goods is
promoted through mass media and is the dominant economic activity). Do you?
d. What are the advantages and disadvantages of mass-production, standardisation and uniformity?
e. Do you have a vision of a better society? What changes would you make?
f. What do you think are the characteristics of a good member of society?
g. Do you think genetic engineering should be used to create good citizens?
h. What is the future of cities?
i. What does ‘thinking out of a box’ mean?
6. Listen to these songs (verses put into boxes not accidental)
Little Boxes by Malvina Reynolds 1960
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
And the boys go into business
And marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned that policemen are my friends.
I learned that justice never ends.
I learned that murderers die for their
crimes
Even if we make a mistake sometimes.
And the people in the houses
All went to the university,
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same,
And there's doctors and lawyers,
And business executives,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
What Did You Learn In School Today?
by Pete Seeger 1963
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned our Government must be
strong;
It's always right and never wrong;
Our leaders are the finest men
And we elect them again and again.
And they all play on the golf course
And drink their martinis dry,
And they all have pretty children
And the children go to school,
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university,
Where they are put in boxes
And they come out all the same.
I learned that Washington never told a
lie.
I learned that soldiers seldom die.
I learned that everybody's free,
And that's what the teacher said to me.
Chorus
That's what I learned in school today,
That's what I learned in school.
a.
b.
c.
d.
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned that war is not so bad;
I learned about the great ones we have
had;
We fought in Germany and in France
And someday I might get my chance.
Reynolds invented the term ticky tacky. What do you think it means?
Are there any similarities between the two songs?
Does education kill creative thinking?
Is it possible for someone to be extremely intelligent and creative in a certain field and at the same time,
in other respects, to be simple minded?
e. Do patriotism and pacifism exclude each other?
7. Thinking outside the box (also thinking out of the box, or thinking beyond the box) is a metaphor that means to
think differently, unconventionally, or from a new perspective. This phrase often refers to novel or creative
thinking. The term is thought to derive from management consultants in the 1970s and 1980s challenging their
clients to solve the "nine dots" puzzle, whose solution requires some lateral thinking. The catchphrase, or cliché,
has become widely used in business environments, especially by management consultants and executive
coaches, and has been referenced in a number of advertising slogans. To think outside the box is to look further
and to try not thinking of the obvious things, but to try thinking beyond them.