Answer the following questions using information from the text. Try to put the answers in your own words.
1 Why does Patricia Poiccard recommend The Stranger and The Plague?
2 What two things are mentioned as being strong influences on his writing?
3 According to Patricia Poiccard, which is the best known of Camus’ books?
4 What is the reason given for Meursault killing the man on the beach?
5 In The Plague, Camus uses a number of different characters. Why?
UNIT 6: STUDY SKILLS
Improving reading and listening skills
Reading and listening are both receptive skills because you are receiving, processing and comprehending language, not producing it yourself. You can improve both your reading and listening skills by:
learning to make predictions based on your knowledge
guessing the meaning of words which are new to you
guessing the (meaning of) words you did not hear clearly or could not read.
The extract below is from a well-known travel blog called ‘Our Man in Hanoi’ (www.ourmaninhanoi.com). The blog is written by Steve Jackson, a former journalist who worked as a volunteer for a charity in Vietnam. Read it and do the exercises to practise your reading skills. Alternatively, read the text out loud and record it or ask a friend or colleague to read it for you to practise your listening skills. For Exercise 2, read xxxxx as a beep!
One extract from the blog gives advice to people who are thinking of travelling to Vietnam and in particular the city of Hanoi. Steve Jackson covers around 12 topics in this particular blog entry. How many can you predict correctly? Make a list.
2 In the short extract below, guess the meaning of the words in italics and predict what the missing word is where you see xxxxxx.
“Befriend a local and they will spend their last few xxxxx 1 on a meal for you. They will refuse to take anything towards the cost (and you probably shouldn’t offer) and they will be genuinely honoured to eat with you. You can make a friend for life in seconds. At the same time, if someone collapses in the street, people will walk by. Or worse, stop to stare 2 but do nothing.
As a foreigner the police will leave you alone. They know you bring money into this country. But that works both ways too. They may not help you when you need them either.
Everywhere is manic with activity yet strangely serene 3. Eventually your ears will filter out the noise and you’ll fall in step with the traffic. You’ll wonder why it seemed so scary when you first arrived.
I understand that when you think of Vietnam the chances are your first thought is of the American War (that’s what it’s called in these parts – and what else would they call it if you think about it for a second?). By all means go to the museums, the tunnels and the rest if that is your thing. But Vietnam is much much more than that.
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Seventy percent of the population were born after the war. And the American war was a blip in amongst centuries of other wars. In my experience Vietnamese tend to look xxxxxxx4 rather than back – understand the horrors of that war. Put it in context and move on. Vietnam has.
And yes, the opening up to commerce has helped Vietnam prosper. But don’t forget this is on the back of a rare 30 years of peace. I would guess that this is the most significant factor in the upswing 5.
Don’t worry about your personal safety, or at least don’t panic about it. Vietnam is probably the safest place you will visit. But don’t be xxxxxx 6. Hanoi isn’t too bad but by all accounts bag snatching is on the rise in Saigon. Just keep things close to you. Honestly money belts are not needed. Stick your wallet in your pocket, like you do at home.
People will rip you off sometimes. They need the money. But that doesn’t mean that people will ALWAYS rip you off. Sometimes the price they say is THE price. There is no need for haggling 7. Other times you can haggle and haggle to get a couple of cents knocked off. Why bother?
Find out what things cost. Don’t accept the rip off price but accept the reasonable price. And while we’re at it, westerners don’t always pay more than xxxxxx 8 (transport aside). That’s a myth.
Learn a couple of words of Vietnamese. Hello and thank-you will do it. It’ll make people smile at the very least. Smiling is important here.”
Used with permissions from Steve Jackson
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