Exercise 3. Check your knowledge giving a term to the description, the figure in the brackets means the number of the letters in the word.
1. Name for the North Star (7)
2. A pollution-mixed fog (4)
3. Famous physicist who developed theory of relativity (8)
4. Computer device; rodent (5)
5. Precious metal, chemical symbol Ag (6)
6. The programmes used by a computer (8)
7. The vehicle providing power for a train (10)
8. Smallest unit of a chemical element (4)
9. Instrument to make very small objects appear larger (10)
10. The scientific institute looking for intelligent life in the universe (acronym) (4)
MODULE 5. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROBLEMS
OF MODERN SOCIETY. CHALLENGES OF YOUNG PEOPLE
PART 1. PRACTICE YOUR READING
AND CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS
Text 1
Exercise 1. Read and translate the text using a dictionary if needed.
The police have a duty to every householder
Matthew's 21 and has been living in a "bash" for six months. His parents don't know where he is. His girlfriend, Nicky, is younger and three months pregnant. The "bash" is built from planks and crates, roofed with old rugs and plastic sheeting and raised off the ground with wooden pallets. The nearest running water is in a nearby church hall. There's no electricity. Matthew and Nicky don't go hungry. A mobile kitchen brings soup and rolls every night. Students from King's College, across the river, regularly bring food. On the face of it – a brave face – they wouldn't give up this life for anything. They don't bother with the dole. Matthew candidly says that it's a waste of time when they can make do by begging in the West End. It's this that brings them into conflict with us. Matthew talks about Paul and Charlie, both officers at nearby Kennington Road Police Station. "Paul's caught me begging once, he gave me a warning", Matthew says. "But if he catches me again he'll do me". Paul puts the other point of view. "Some people think the Vagrancy Act is obsolete and should be scrapped. But while it's there, we have to enforce it. And we have to think of the nuisance to other people". Indeed, most commuters find the beggars and their dogs frightening. Many think the police should evict the vagrants and clear away the "bashes". But the fact is that we owe a duty to these citizens too. Our real work with the "bashdwellers" is not the cat and mouse game of trying to catch them with their palms out. It's the work the public never see: helping to get someone a hospital bed. Encouraging those who need to visit drug and alcohol rehabilitation centres. Directing newly homeless people to hostels and free kitchens. Putting our heads together with social workers, housing officers, welfare and benefits offices and voluntary organisations. It's spending hours talking to homeless people finding out about their lives and their problems. Where they've come from. If their families know where they are. And persuading the young ones to return home. "We'll try to give them the respect that every Londoner is entitled to", Paul says. Partly as a result of his help, Nicky and Matthew have reached the end of their life on the road. They're moving to a flat before their baby is born. Reading this you may be in local government, a social worker, architect, counselor, teacher, or anyone with an interest in the plight of the homeless. If you would like to know more about how we can work together to ease the problems of homelessness, please call the Metropolitan Police 0800 662244.
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Exercise 2. Discuss the following.
1. Are there many homeless people in your country?
2. How do the poor survive?
3. Why do people become homeless, do you think?
4. What do you feel when you see someone begging? Do you feel sad or angry?
5. Do you give them money or walk on by?
6. Are you frightened by beggars?
7. Should begging be banned?
8. What can we do to make the situation better for homeless people?
Text 2
Exercise 1. Read and translate the text using a dictionary if needed.
The coffee shop situation
In 1976, Holland decided that the crime around selling drugs was a greater threat than the health problem caused to the drug user. So to separate marijuana from the underworld, they decriminalized it and cannabis became tolerated – but not technically legalized – by the government. Respectable coffee-shop owners cheered this approach and welcomed the stability and security of being legitimate, even if it meant paying more taxes.
The Paroot, Amsterdam's leading newspaper, asked the mayor how much a gram of marijuana costs in his city. "fl5 a gram", he answered. In other countries people would be surprised the mayor knows how much a bag of weed is, but in Holland, the man shaping an intelligent drug policy knows the facts. Meanwhile, the rest of the world continues its unending "war on drugs". French President Jacques Chirac blamed Holland for its drug troubles, even though, according to Time magazine, Holland has fewer addicts per thousand than France and supplies fewer drugs to France than Spain, Pakistan and Morocco. This year it was the U.S. drug-czar Barry McCaffery who came to celebrate America's successful drug policy. Although one may have expected him to be curious about coffee shops here, he found no need to visit one because it was a "bad photo opportunity". He went further, calling Holland's progressive drug policy "an unmitigated disaster", citing higher crime in Holland as proof. Huh? I don't know what he smokes, but this country is safe, and there is no place in the western world with more violence than America. But I guess when you're fighting a "war", the truth sometimes has to be suppressed. So in a bow to foreign pressure, the government reduced the amount of soft drugs an individual can possess from 30 grams to five. But maybe Holland should go further. If they recriminalize drugs, maybe they can wipe them out altogether, just like France and America. While we're at it, maybe France can give us some advice on how to end strikes and reduce unemployment, and the U.S. about stopping violence in schools. No matter what happens in the long run, you can still go into any "coffee shop", proudly march up to the bartender, and announce in a loud voice: "want to buy some hashish, and then I'm going to smoke it". Most places will even have rolling papers and filter tips on the bar. There are several types of hash and pot, which have been bred to produce different highs. Each coffee shop has its own name for its weed, even if it comes from the same place. Just don't let the big menu scare you. (Yes, they'll have a menu.) Hash comes in two basic varieties: blond and black. The black hash hits a little harder and knocks you out a little more. Locals smoke the lighter stuff. Any place that calls itself a "coffee shop" is saying three things: 1) I have pot and hash for you to buy. 2) For the price of a coffee or beer, you may sit here and smoke your own as well. 3) You may also smoke on my outdoor terrace, even in front of the police.
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